KO Magazine, Winter 2010

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KO magazine

making a difference Alumni offer help, hope throughout the world

KingswoodOxford ko WINTER 2010

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

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letter from the head of school

letter from the head of school

13 mike fryer retires

2 making a difference

14 varsity spring sports

8 new faces

16 advancement

10 3 named to ko board

26 class notes

11 school unveils new logo, drops hyphen

39 in memoriam

12 2 appointed trustees emeriti

40 support the ko fund

I marvel at the tremendous successes and profound impact of our alumni, whether they reside locally, across the United States or on all continents. As a college preparatory school, we feel that achievement on the educational journey beyond KO is significant. We believe that we, along with parents, are in the “business” of lifelong learning and sound habit and difference making, along the way planting seeds, life lessons and core values; shaping sharp, critical minds; pushing individuals to the edge of what they know and think is possible; and helping bring to the surface talent, potential, courage and self-confidence.

on the cover 1982 Kingswood Oxford graduate Tony Banbury talks of his experiences working for the United Nations.

contact information

Kingswood Oxford School, 170 Kingswood Road, West Hartford, CT 06119; 860-233-9631 Please address general comments to Sonya Adams, ext. 2815, e-mail adams.s@k-o.org. Send information for Class Notes to Meghan Kurtich, ext. 5013, e-mail kurtich.m@k-o.org. Send address changes to Patricia Laros, ext. 5016, e-mail laros.p@k-o.org.

Editor: Sonya Adams | Class Notes Editors: Meghan Kurtich, Rob Kyff | Copy Editor: Rob Kyff | Graphic Design: Ford Folios Inc. Photography Credits: Richard Bergen Photography, Nicole Kimball, Clay Miles, Karen Piazza, Chris Troianello

Personal victories are wonderful. Yet achieving grander successes altruistically by elevating others, bringing hope where despair resides and placing oneself in harm’s way for justice and peace are truly remarkable. The importance of

Notice of Nondiscriminatory Policy As to Students Kingswood Oxford School admits students of any race, color, or national and ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the School.

It does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, or national and ethnic origin in the administration of its educational policies, admission policies, scholarship and loan programs, and athletic and other school-administered programs.

KO Magazine is published by Kingswood Oxford School. © 2010 by Kingswood Oxford School Inc. All rights reserved.

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ethical citizenry, of being part of something larger than oneself and of the conviction that one individual indeed can make a difference is embedded in all that KO represents. KO alumni put their marks on the global stage as individuals who believe in their own creativity, problem-solving skills and ability to deal with complexities.

The alumni featured in this magazine, as well as many others, say they caught the humanitarian, “I can make a difference” spirit at Oxford, Kingswood and Kingswood Oxford from passionate teachers, from early exposure to differences, from lessons about humanity and from venturing outside their comfort zones to explore other worlds. KO alumni find their unique voices, express their beliefs and values through action and make us proud as a school that witnessed their first steps as emerging leaders and agents of change.

Dennis Bisgaard Head of School 1

making a difference Alumni offer help, hope throughout the world

As United Nations assistant secretary-general for field support, Tony Banbury ’82 coordinates the U.N.’s peacekeeping and relief efforts around the world.

He’s one of many Oxford, Kingswood and Kingswood Oxford graduates who have devoted their lives to international diplomacy, justice and humanitarian support. From Lebanon to Indonesia, from Darfur to Finland, they have advanced the interests of the United States, assisted those devastated by war, political oppression and natural disasters, and worked tirelessly for global understanding and peace.

Tony Banbury ’82 speaks at the 2010 Opening Assembly in Roberts Theater.

Banbury's work with U.N. touches countless lives When Tony Banbury ’82 arrived in Haiti last Jan. 17, five days after a massive earthquake had devastated that nation, he knew he had to act fast.

More than 230,000 people had already been killed, including 102 members of the U.N. mission there. Thousands of people were still trapped alive under collapsed buildings, most of the survivors had no food, water or shelter, and the airport was still inoperable, preventing the delivery of relief supplies.

Two days earlier, Banbury, the United Nations assistant secretary-general for field support, had been appointed as the deputy head of the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Haiti.

“I’ve had to work in a lot of natural disasters,” Banbury said, “but they were nothing like the situation in Haiti when I arrived. To be

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in a context where there are colleagues and friends who are trapped and possibly dying, it’s hard to even eat or sleep. So much needed to be done at the same time: search and rescue, delivery of food and water, setting up medical teams, reconstruction of the U.N. mission.

The traumatized survivors needed a lot of attention and care. We had to be functioning at 110 percent.”

Normally, a U.N. relief or peacekeeping mission evolves over many months through set stages – assessment, planning, deployment and operation.

“We had to do that all at once,” Banbury said.

Banbury’s key task was to coordinate the efforts of three separate groups with very different cultures: the U.S. military, humanitarian relief agencies and his own U.N. peacekeepers.

“I was able to help bring the three different worlds together,” he said, “by explaining one

to the other. I was able to help get everyone moving forward together in the same direction in a coordinated manner. It was far from perfect, but I think I was able to make a difference.”

Banbury has been making a difference in places like Haiti since he first began working for the United Nations 24 years ago.

After graduating from Tufts, he worked as a U.N. human rights officer in refugee camps in Thailand for Cambodians fleeing the oppression of the Khmer Rouge regime. Realizing that he wanted to pursue international relations as a career, he earned an M.A. from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts and a diploma of higher studies from the Graduate Institute of International Studies at the University of Geneva.

Returning to Southeast Asia, he served as a human rights officer for a U.N. peacekeeping mission in Cambodia, where he worked to stop the abuse and torture of political prisoners.

During the brutal war in Bosnia-Herzegovina in the early 1990s, he lived in Sarajevo, where he advised the head of the U.N. peacekeeping operation on political negotiations and worked with former U.S. President Jimmy Carter to broker a Christmas cease-fire in 1994.

Banbury returned to the United States in 1995 to work in the office of the secretary general and the department of humanitarian affairs at U.N. headquarters in New York. In 1997 he became a senior policy advisor on Balkans issues for the Department of Defense. Two years later he joined the National Security Council at the White House, where he specialized in democracy, human rights and international operations.

The writing skills he honed at KO came in handy, he said, when he had to write two-page recommendations on international policy for Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.

“These were complex and tough issues with many hard trade-offs,” he said. “Being able to convey the essence of an issue and what’s ko WINTER 2010

behind it and write a recommendation, all in a two-page memo, is very hard. The key element of good writing is how to structure an argument in a convincing way. I learned that at KO.”

Banbury said he respected both of the presidents he worked for. He described Clinton as “extremely smart, very results oriented. He likes to boil down the issue quickly.” Bush, he said, is also smart, “but tended not to see shades of gray; it was more black and white.”

Banbury left the White House in 2003 to become the Asia Regional Director for the U.N.’s World Food Programme (WFP). He led a staff of 2,700 who distributed more than $1.5 billion in food annually to 24 million people in 14 Asian nations, largely through school feeding programs and emergency relief operations.

“The long-term strategy to alleviating hunger is education,” Banbury said, “especially for females. If a girl in 3rd grade can get through 6th grade, she’ll get married later, have better birth spacing and better health and nutrition, and her kids in turn will be healthier and better educated. In some places, girls are married off in a financial transaction and have three kids by the age of 18.”

He also helped organize several major international relief efforts, including those in countries impacted by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and in Myanmar after Cyclone Nargis in 2008.

In his role as U.N. assistant secretary-general for field support, Banbury oversees the day-to-day operations of U.N. relief programs and peacekeeping missions and formulates overall policies and strategies to support those efforts.

“We have over 100,000 peacekeepers – military, police and civilian – in trouble spots such as Darfur, Chad and the Eastern Congo,” he said.

“In Eastern Congo, two rebel groups moved

more alums making a difference

Mary Carlson Morton ‘65 speaking the language After graduating from Hood College, Mary Morton worked for Mexican government officials in Mexico City, using the languages she had learned at Oxford and Hood. She then returned to the United States to take a position with the CIA’s Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS), where she provided language services to several U.S. government agencies. During her time at FBIS, she worked as a desk officer on Africa, Spain, Argentina and Mexico.

Her duties took her to Argentina, Panama, Paraguay and Spain. Her last two years of her government service were spent as an editor at the FBIS bureau in Tel Aviv, Israel, where she was attached to the U.S. Embassy. KO

Tony Banbury ’82 tours KO’s new Chase · Tallwood Science Math Technology Center with Head of School Dennis Bisgaard.

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into a village and raped 274 women and children. There are some really nasty and bad places to live in this world. In some places, the U.N. blue helmets – the peacekeepers – are the only thing standing between the people and the trouble and violence.”

As with his previous assignments, Banbury’s job will require extensive international travel. For instance, on the night after his Sept. 3 visit to KO as the guest speaker at the 2010 Opening Assembly, he flew to Switzerland to attend a U.N. conference and two days later flew to Uganda to oversee the opening of a major new peacekeeping operations base. Later he was traveling to The Hague to testify in a Bosnia war crimes tribunal.

Banbury’s travel schedule necessitates long absences from his family. He and his wife, Wendy, live in Wesport, Conn., with their four children: Sara, 14; James, 12; Sawyer, 10; and Eliza, 8.

But throughout his career, Banbury has made a special effort to explain his work to his children and, when possible, to involve them in it. In Asia, for instance, he took his children with him to feeding stations in rural Cambodia and Nepal.

“They could see firsthand how so many kids their age lived,” he said. “I talked to them about the situation of those kids.

more alums making a difference

Dorothy Church Zaring ’'28 understanding western europe In 1941, Dorothy Church Zaring joined the U.S. Army intelligence group that would later evolve into the CIA. A Vassar graduate, she spent nearly 40 years on the CIA’s Western European desk writing daily briefs based on her analysis of European newspapers, media broadcasts and reports from CIA field agents.

She also traveled frequently to Europe for 4

It’s had a big impact on who they are.

Over time, they’ve come to understand the value of the work I do.”

He especially appreciates the support of Wendy, a Glastonbury native and Tufts graduate who gave up a career in nongovernmental organizations to stay home and take care of the children.

“She’s made a huge sacrifice,” he said, “and carried the biggest burden.”

And he’s also grateful to KO. Though he said he never thought about a career in international relief work and peacekeeping while a student, he said his KO experience shaped his values.

“It was the content of the classroom,” he said, “books, discussions, Doc Serow’s classes on the nature of society, the roles of governments and citizens and, in English classes, human traits and experiences. I didn’t think in high school that I wanted to go off and change the world, but I was developing those values in an unconscious way.”

Banbury said the United Nations and other international relief agencies are very effective at responding to natural disasters but are having a harder time with ongoing efforts in long-term development of health care, education and peacekeeping.

firsthand observations. During the Cold War, she focused on the complex power struggle between the socialists and communists in Italy.

At the time, many analysts saw no distinction between these two Italian political parties and viewed the socialists as a serious menace.

But Zaring saw them as very different groups and believed the socialists would eventually dominate the communists. Disagreement on the issue among analysts and policy-makers worldwide led, she said, to “big and bitter arguments. We talked all over the place and

Peck got ‘message across' in Middle East

“The record is very mixed,” he said.

“Great things have been accomplished in education and health care. We’ve almost eradicated polio, for instance. But for peacekeepers, it’s more difficult. For every success story, there’s one of abuse.”

When Julie Peck ’59 was a student at Oxford, she never dreamed she’d end up representing the United States abroad and working to resolve the complicated problems in the Middle East.

In human rights, he says, the situation is even worse. “There’s so little regard now by state entities,” he said, “for the principles of human rights – freedoms of speech and religion, democracy, political protections. Human rights are brazenly and wantonly abused around the world.”

Asked how the many horrific scenes he has witnessed firsthand around the world have affected him, he said, “I’ve seen a lot of trauma – brutal murders and rapes, bodies, the effects of the tsunami, cyclone and earthquake. But a U.N. psychologist told me that the best way to guard against the negative impact of trauma is to feel like you’re helping.”

Julie Peck ’59, who spent much of her time in the Foreign Service working to achieve peace in the Middle East, now divides her time between homes in Maine and Florida.

Banbury said he’s proud of the work he’s accomplished and looks forward to the challenges his job brings. “I’ve tried to live,” he said, “by the core values of Kingswood Oxford: being able to make some difference, no matter how small, in the world and having my children see that. No monetary reward or corner office or accolades from peers can match the satisfaction of knowing you’ve made a difference in someone’s life.” KO

people got mad at other people.” In the long run, Zaring’s position proved right, and the socialists split with the Italian communist party and eventually joined the government.

Zaring credits much of her career success to Oxford. “I loved and adored Oxford,” she said. “The teachers were wonderful and so were my classmates.” I particularly remember Corinne Alsop, who skipped the 6th grade with me and told stories about ‘Great Uncle Ted’ – Roosevelt, that is.” Zaring celebrated her 100th birthday on Oct. 24, United Nations Day. KO

After graduating from Smith College with a major in psychology, she worked with juvenile delinquents in Boston, taught school in Australia and later programmed computers.

But she would periodically quit her programming jobs to take trips abroad. “As I traveled, I became more and more interested in issues of international concern,” she said. After earning a master’s degree at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, she joined the U.S. State Department in 1985.

In her first posting as a vice consul in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, Peck became a forceful advocate for U.S. prisoners there, haranguing Saudi officials until they installed air conditioners in the prison.

Two years later she moved to the U.S. Embassy in Madrid, where she presented U.S. policy positions on United Nations and military/armscontrol issues and engaged with foreign ministry officials and others on Spain’s new membership in NATO.

After studying Arabic in Tunisia for two years, Peck served as chief of the political section at the U.S. Embassy in Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.). She represented the embassy on a U.S. joint State Department and Defense Department team that negotiated a defense cooperation agreement with the U.A.E.

She took what the State Department calls a “danger posting” in 1994 and 1995 when she served as a political officer at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut in the aftermath of Lebanon’s civil war.

“There were questions regarding Lebanon’s ability to maintain its independence and

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integrity in a dangerous neighborhood,” she said, “and so we talked endlessly with government officials, politicians, members of Parliament, businesspeople and assorted old warlords and rogues to be able to report to Washington an accurate assessment of the situation.”

In the mid-1990s, Peck was called to State Department headquarters in Washington, where she worked for the political-military bureau dealing with Middle East issues. She loved the city, she said, “but after you’ve been out in the field as a diplomat, it’s difficult to come back and be a bureaucrat.”

Peck looks back on her State Department service with pride. “I always felt good about putting the best foot forward for the U.S.,” she said. “I wanted people to respect us and like us, and I wanted to be the face of that, and I think I succeeded most of the time. I think I got our message across.”

Her Oxford education, she said, helped her to communicate that message. “Being able to write clearly and concisely was invaluable to me,” she said.

She added, “I loved being a Foreign Service officer. It’s very rewarding. When you’re out in the field, you have a lot of responsibility, and you have to think on your feet and make what you hope are good judgments. A liberal arts education is the best background for Foreign Service, and Oxford was the basis for that.”

Having lived for years among Arabs and Muslims, Peck said she is appalled by the recent wave of Islamophobia in the United States. “It’s very unfortunate that Arabs and Muslims are stereotyped the way they are,” she said. She said she’s pleased, however, with the current administration’s Middle East policy and is heartened by recent U.S. efforts to achieve a peace agreement between Israel and Palestine. KO 5

Keller played key roles in State Department dealings

Peter Keller ’57, now retired from a 45-year career with the State Department, including 26 years as a Foreign Service officer, lives with his wife, Minerva, in Chevy Chase, Md. They have two grown children.

Peter Keller ’57 weighed only 137 pounds at Kingswood, but, because the Wyverns had no wrestler for the 147-pound class, he had to wrestle at the higher level.

“Just don’t get pinned,” Coach John O’Connor would tell Keller before each match, because his getting pinned in the 147-pound weight class would cost the team 5 points (the same as a forfeit), whereas his loss by decision would cost the team only 3.

Keller won only one match, but he never got pinned, helping to propel Kingswood’s 1957 varsity wrestling team to an undefeated season.

His wrestling stamina further validated his nickname, “Bull,” a moniker he had acquired earlier in his Kingswood career.

Keller showed the same tenacity and wiliness in his 26-year career with the U.S. State Department as he had on the mats in Soby Gym. Facing elusive, wary opponents in a variety of roles and places, he probed, parlayed and parried, seeking any leverage he could.

Keller was a senior at Brown University and planning to be a high school history teacher when a course in international relations sparked a fire. He enrolled in summer language courses at Middlebury College, earned a master’s degree from American University’s School of International Service in 1964 and passed the Foreign Service exam.

After State Department postings at embassies and consulates in Mexico and Germany, Keller served in Washington as an analyst in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR), specializing in Latin America, particularly Mexico and Panama.

As an economics officer, he served in Geneva as liaison officer to the World Intellectual Property Organization and was then posted to

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Brussels, where he mainly dealt with nuclear nonproliferation and economic defense issues.

There he worked to deter Belgium’s proposed sale of a Pegard computer-controlled machine tool to the U.S.S.R. Another case involved the supply of fiber-optic telecommunications equipment to China, a controversial sale that was ultimately approved.

Later, serving in a State Department office that dealt with the Coordinating Committee for Multilateral Export Controls (COCOM), he played a major role in another high-stakes export drama.

When in 1987 it was announced Finland was selling the U.S.S.R. a submersible capable of diving to 6,000 meters, the United States feared the Soviets could clear the ocean floor of U.S. deep-sea listening equipment. “The Defense Department went bonkers,” Keller said. “They started denying export licenses of strategic goods to Finland.”

After initial negotiations between Finland and United States resulted in a letter pledging Finnish cooperation that neither the Defense nor Commerce departments deemed adequate, Keller was directed to form a committee and solve the problem – fast – because negotiations with a Finnish team were under way at the State Department.

“I worked up the agreement on a Wang computer,” Keller said, “with committee members from Commerce and Defense looking over my shoulder, and then ran it to the meeting room for reaction from the Finns.”

When an agreement was finally reached, the Finnish and American officials went to lunch at a club, while Keller frantically put the whole thing in final form. Then he dashed to the club for their signatures, arriving out of breath but in time for the members of the Finnish

delegation to catch their plane. The State Department recognized this diplomatic achievement by giving Keller its Meritorious Honor Award.

Keller retired from the Foreign Service in 1989 but has continued to work part time for the State Department. After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Keller was one of the original members of what is now known as the Political-Military Action Team (PMAT). Staffed mainly with military and FSO retirees, PMAT operates 24/7 as the State Department’s link to the Defense Department on issues such as troop deployment orders.

Keller believes the State Department does not get the consideration it deserves in the budget process because it is lumped in with agencies such as the Commerce Department. “It should be considered a national security agency,” he said. KO

more alums making a difference

Geoffrey Odlum ’'85 preparing for Afghanistan Geoff Odlum joined the U.S. Foreign Service in July 1989, shortly after graduating from Georgetown University. In his 21-year career, he has served as a political officer overseas at the U.S. embassies in London and Algiers, at the U.S. Mission to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in Vienna, and most recently at the U.S. Consulate in Istanbul. He has also served a number of domestic tours at the State Department in Washington, including positions in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, the Office of Counterterrorism Policy and the Bureau of International Security Affairs, where he specialized in policy issues related to Iran and Iran’s nuclear program. In addition, Odlum has served temporary duty assignments at the National Security Council in Washington and at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. He is currently taking full-time Dari language classes at the State Department’s language school ko WINTER 2010

in preparation for his next assignment as the deputy political counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, starting in July 2011.

He gives a vigorous nod of credit to KO history teacher Ann Serow and the KO International Relations Club for sparking his interest in international relations.

John Cope ’'60 seeking security in the americas Col. John “Jay” Cope retired from government service in 1994 after 30 years of service that included command of infantry units from platoons to battalion (mostly in the 101st Airborne Division), two combat tours in South Vietnam, several assignments in the field of strategic plans and policy, tours in senior staff positions at U.S. Southern Command in Panama and an assignment as military assistant to the assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs.

He earned an advanced degree in history at Duke University, taught at West Point and the U.S. Army War College, and served as a military research fellow, starting an Americas program at the National Defense University’s Institute for National Strategic Studies (INSS).

Since retirement, Cope has continued to serve at INSS as the senior research fellow with the Western Hemisphere portfolio. In this capacity, he is charged with assessing the emerging security environment in the Americas, developing new strategic concepts and integrated strategies to manage complex challenges in this region, and advancing strategic thinking generally for the secretary of defense, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and other components of the broader U.S. security community.

Maura Allaire ’'02 providing a basic necessity Maura Allaire’s passionate interest in international water resources began while she was on a Fulbright Scholarship to Ghana, where she evaluated improved planning and management techniques for multipurpose reservoirs. A graduate of Tufts University, she’s currently pursuing her Ph.D. at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and

is focusing on water management and policy in the developing world. Before graduate school, she worked as a research assistant at Resources for the Future, an environmental think tank in Washington, D.C., and consulted as a hydrologist for a UNESCO World Heritage site in Gambia. She credits KO Spanish teacher Ronald Garcia for actively involving KO students with Team Tobatí, the program that first exposed her to the great need for basic necessities in many parts of the world.

Amanda Chiarappa Candy ‘96 shining a light on refugees Amanda Chiarappa Candy’s first foray into politics began at the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York City, where she managed press logistics for the 15,000plus media covering the event. Afterward, she joined first lady Laura Bush’s press advance team and traveled the country planning logistics and press movements for the first lady’s campaign events. After the 2004 presidential election, Candy joined the Executive Office of the President, where she served as the deputy associate director of press advance at the White House. There she worked daily with the White House press corps and traveled internationally in support of presidential visits. She now works at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as the senior communications specialist for its Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), which provides newly arrived refugees with benefits and services to help them integrate into American society. Candy works to increase public awareness about the plight of refugees and their many contributions to the United States. In addition to overseeing internal and external communications at ORR, she recently received her master’s degree in communication, with a concentration in public and media relations, from Johns Hopkins University. She credits much of her interest in politics and the media to history teacher Ann Serow’s political science classes and the journalistic tutelage she received from KO News faculty advisor Rob Kyff while serving as the news editor for the paper. KO

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new faces in the KO community

Photos left to right: Joan Edwards Ryan McGrath Jim Michaud Emory Mort

Joan Edwards returns to KO as the senior associate director of admission and the diversity, inclusion and cultural competency advisor. In her latter role, she is responsible for helping facilitate professional development opportunities for faculty and staff. Edwards received her B.A. in French and government from Connecticut College and her M.A. in Francophone literature from Middlebury College. She began her first stint at KO in 1987 as a teaching fellow, teaching French and coaching soccer, basketball, and track and field. After leaving and spending a short time at an investment firm, she returned to the Office of Admission, where she eventually was named director, and to teaching French.

Before leaving KO, she was named the director of multicultural affairs. Most recently, she was the director of student diversity programs at Greenwich Academy.

of property management experience, coupled with 23 years of management experience in the industrial environment.

Photos left to right: Alison O’Donnell Jeffrey Perlis Gillian Struthers

A graduate of Cornell University with a B.S. in biological and environmental engineering, Emory Mort comes to KO after working at Mercersburg Academy, where he taught upper school chemistry and math, coached winter and spring track as well as tennis and was a dorm head. After an exemplary running career at Cornell, Mort served as an assistant coach on his alma mater’s cross-country and track-and-field teams and currently is both an editor and writer for LetsRun.com, the world’s second largest Web site on running. Mort teaches chemistry and physics and serves as an assistant coach on the boys’ cross-country team and the track-andfield team.

Photos left to right (at bottom): Jim Weeks Kathleen Wiggenhauser

Ryan McGrath came to KO in March 2010 and continues his work as an assistant athletic trainer. McGrath graduated with a B.S. in athletic training from Central Connecticut State University. Prior to joining the KO community, he completed athletic training internships with the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars and with The Taft School.

Alison O’Donnell is a familiar face on the KO campus, having taught here from 2004-2006, and then again from 2007-2009. She returns to the Middle School, where she teaches Upper Prep Geography. O’Donnell received her B.A. in history from Middlebury College and her M.A. from Columbia Teachers College in teaching social studies. Before her time at KO, O’Donnell was the middle school history department chair at St. Stephen’s and St. Agnes School in Alexandria, Va.

Jim Michaud joins KO as the director of facilities. He most recently served for six years as the property manager of the Cromwell Hills Condominium Association Inc. He has 20 years 8

Jeffrey Perlis, a graduate of Williams College with a B.A. in mathematics and computer science, teaches Algebra 2 Advanced, Engineering and Robotics, and the Introductory and AP Computer Science courses. An accomplished runner at Williams on both its cross-country and track-and-field teams, Perlis serves as the assistant coach for the girls’ J.V. soccer team and as an assistant coach for the track-and-field team.

A graduate of the College of the Holy Cross with a B.A. in mathematics, Gillian Struthers is back for a second stint here teaching math in the Upper School. This time Struthers teaches Geometry Advanced and Precalculus. An experienced independent school math teacher, Struthers has taught at several area independent schools besides KO, including Williston Northampton, Loomis and Miss Porter’s.

served as a dean for three summers in Oxbridge Academic Programs’ The Cambridge Tradition at Jesus College of Cambridge University in England. At KO, Weeks teaches Empires and Republics, Modern World History and U.S. History.

With both a B.A. in English and an M.A. in liberal studies from Dartmouth College, Kathleen Wiggenhauser fills in for Heidi Hojnicki for the year teaching Upper School English and creative writing as well as assisting Kathy Lynch with Forensic Union. Wiggenhauser previously taught and coached at the Middlesex School, where, during her seven-year stint there, she taught 9th grade English, was the head girls’ varsity hockey coach, the assistant girls’ varsity lacrosse coach, a dorm head, an associate in the admissions office and the associate athletic director. KO

Jim Weeks, who graduated from Bowdoin College with a B.A. in government and legal studies, has five years of experience at Brewster Academy in New Hampshire, where he taught upper school history and coached various levels of soccer, basketball and intramurals. Last summer, he taught U.S. history and communications to the Royal Thai Scholars at Brewster. He also

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3 named to KO board

School unveils new logo, drops hyphen from name she took on a different leadership role in Aetna’s Retirement Services Division, responsible for the development and management of all life and investment products, the division’s profit centers, and its retirement planning services. In 1997, Estes left Aetna and did consulting work and invested in small start-up businesses.

Photos left to right: Pamela Jane Dowling ’78, P ’08 Laura Estes P ’98 Francis P. Pandolfi ’61

Pamela Jane Dowling ’78, P ’08 graduated from KO in 1978 and is married to Jim Healey Jr., also KO Class of 1978. They are the parents of James Dowling-Healey, KO Class of 2008. Dowling’s father, Kevin V. Dowling, M.D., served on the KO board of trustees for 15 years.

Dowling received her B.A. from Georgetown University and her J.D. from the University of Connecticut School of Law. She has previously sat on the boards of the Junior League of Hartford and the Friends of the Mark Twain House & Museum.

Dowling enjoys playing tennis and was president of the Hartford Tennis Club in 2004-2005.

Laura Estes P ’98, who earned an M.B.A. from the University of Connecticut’s School of Business, began her professional career in 1972 when she joined Aetna as an assistant securities analyst in the Bond Investment Department.

After seven years doing private placements, she initiated Aetna’s entry into the Eurodollar bond market and managed most of Aetna’s offshore portfolios. In 1983, she was promoted to assistant vice president. Five years later she was named vice president of the Business Development Department in Aetna’s Investment Management Group, where she assumed responsibility for Aetna’s investment management and investment banking group. In 1991, Estes was made head of the Pension’s Strategic Business Unit of Aetna Life Insurance and Annuity Co. Early in 1996,

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She has been active in various organizations and has held the following positions: chair of the YMCA of Greater Hartford and of its recent capital campaign; trustee of Williams College, Williamstown, Mass.; director of the Hartford Golf Club; chair, Hartford Hospital and the Institute of Living and director of Hartford Health Care; chair of Hartford Education Foundation; and director of the Connecticut Center for Science & Exploration, Hartford. Estes is an emeritus member of the UConn Foundation board of directors, having served on the board from 1992 to September 2001. She served as chair of the board from 2000 to 2001. She also served as chair of the UConn R&D Corp. board of directors from 2002 to September 2006.

Her husband, Geo ’67, is a former chair of the board of trustees (1996-2003) and a current trustee emeritus at KO and serves as chairman of Sparta Insurance Holding Inc. Their son, Derrick, graduated from KO in 1998.

Francis P. Pandolfi ’61 is a partner in the consulting firm Social Enterprise Strategies Group LLC, which assists NGOs in improving their focus and efficiency. In 1997, Pandolfi was designated as the first-ever chief operating officer for the USDA Forest Service in Washington, D.C. Previously he was the president and CEO of Times Mirror Magazines. The company’s magazines included Golf, Yachting, Field & Stream, Outdoor Life and many others. Pandolfi was also with CBS Publications as vice president, group publisher of the Special Interest Magazine Group, including Road & Track, World Tennis,

Audio and more than 40 newsstand periodicals and annuals.

He received his B.S.E. degree in chemical engineering from Princeton University and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

Pandolfi is on the board of the New London County Mutual Insurance Co. and the Hingham Mutual Fire Insurance Co., is an honorary trustee of the National Environmental Education and Training Foundation and a trustee and officer of The National Recreation Foundation. He has also served as a trustee of the National Audubon Society, Trout Unlimited, The Aldo Leopold Foundation and the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology and as a member of the National Council of the World Wildlife Fund, and he was on the Advisory Council of the American Museum of Natural History’s Center for Biodiversity and Conservation.

He was also on the board of trustees of the Recreation Roundtable, the Direct Marketing Association, the Magazine Publishers of America and the Advertising Council.

In 1993, Pandolfi received the Chevron Conservation Award, the nation’s oldest and most prestigious conservation award. He also received the annual Distinguished Service Award of New York’s South Street Seaport Museum and the 1993 Colorado Ski Country President’s Award recognizing his leadership in the environmental arena. In 1999 he was honored by the National Ski Areas Association for his work in conservation.

Kingswood Oxford School unveiled a new logo and essentially a new name at the 2010 All-School Opening Assembly on Sept. 3. The entire school community witnessed the presentation of the new logo, which drops the hyphen that had been in place since the merger of Kingswood and Oxford schools in 1969.

The new logo is the core of a rebranding effort that includes a redesign of all of the School’s major publications, including this magazine. With a slightly changed title, the new KO Magazine (formerly Kingswood-Oxford Magazine) reflects a move toward consistency in image and design in all school communications projects.

Head of School Dennis Bisgaard said the new logo is significant. “Although it may seem like a tiny change, omitting the hyphen between Kingswood and Oxford symbolizes the rebirth and final and complete merging into one of two established and important West Hartford schools,” he said.

Bisgaard also noted the key timing of the new logo – which comes with the tagline “Honoring the Past. Shaping the Future.” – as KO finishes its Centennial Celebration year. “We will continue to honor our important past yet are poised to shape a powerful future as Kingswood Oxford School enters its second century of excellence,” he said.

“Our new logo signals a new beginning, a deep commitment to an engaging 21st century education, and a dynamic and innovative future.”

The new logo was designed by graphic design studio Ford Folios Inc. of Colchester.

Owner Barry Ford said his firm wanted to create a fresh, contemporary logo without losing KO’s traditional roots. “The community at large and prospective students can expect a refreshing, visionary new look for KO, one that is reflective of the School’s vision for the 21st century,” he said. KO

KingswoodOxford Honoring the past. Shaping the future.

He and his wife, Joyce, have three sons: Jonathan, Nicholas and Christopher. KO

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2 appointed trustees emeriti

Mike Fryer, the go-to guy”for 44 years, retires

By Frederick “Fritz” Goodman

Thomas J. Collamore ’77 served as a dedicated member of the KO board of trustees from 19912000 and again from 2001-2009. He also was an active member of several board committees: Academic Standards, Enrollment and Marketing; Campus Planning; Committee on Trustees; Development; Executive; and Investment.

Currently he is senior vice president of Communications and Strategy and counselor to the president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. He is responsible for all Chamber communications, including media outreach, Web strategy, paid media, publications, member interface and branding. He also advises senior management on long-term strategy and political engagement.

Photos top to bottom: Thomas J. Collamore ’77 Agnes S. Peelle P ’01, ’03

Immediately before joining the Chamber in October 2007, Collamore served as chief operating officer of the Friends for Fred Thompson Committee. Before that, he spent 14 years with Altria Group Inc. as vice president of Corporate Public Affairs.

Collamore previously served as chief of staff and assistant secretary of Commerce in the George H.W. Bush administration. He was also a member of the President’s Council on Management Improvement and served as chairman of the council’s Committee on Government Operations.

Collamore served in the White House on former Vice President Bush’s senior staff from 1985 to 1989. From 1987 to 1989, he was assistant to the vice president for Operations. He also served as liaison to the transition offices of the presidentelect and the vice president-elect from 1988 to 1989. He was deputy assistant to the vice president and staff secretary from 1985 to 1987.

During that time, Collamore traveled with Bush, visiting more than 30 countries and all 50 states, and served as a senior traveling aide throughout the campaign for president, culminating in Bush’s 1988 election.

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Collamore was special assistant to Secretary of Commerce Malcolm Baldrige from 1981 to 1985.

He received the Commerce Gold Medal Award for Distinguished Achievement in the Federal Service in 1985.

Collamore is chairman of the board of the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Washington, D.C., and chairman of the board of trustees of the Foundation for the Benedictine School for Exceptional Children in Ridgely, Md. He is on the board of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s National Chamber Foundation and the Advisory Board of the George Bush Presidential Library in College Station, Texas.

A native of Connecticut, Collamore graduated magna cum laude from Drew University, where he previously served on the board of trustees and currently serves on the board of visitors. He lives in Chevy Chase, Md., with his wife, Jacqueline, and their four children.

Agnes S. Peelle P ’01, ’03 became a trustee in 1998 and was highly involved as a member of the Executive Committee, Facilities and Real Estate Committee, Development Committee and Diversity Committee. She served as board chair from 2003-2009. She was an integral part of the Parent Association and an active contributor to the School’s community life.

She has served on the board of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra, the Stroud Water Research Center, the Science Center of Connecticut, Connecticut Children’s Medical Center Foundation and Shelter for Women and as an incorporator of Hartford Hospital. She owned the Willowdale Country Store from 1974-1996.

In the fall of 2005, she started a new business, Gayley Gardens.

She holds a B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College and an M.B.A. from the Wharton School of Finance. She and her husband, William, live in West Hartford and are the parents of Billy ’01 and Sam ’03. KO

The 360-degree global revolution that was June 30, 2010, passed quietly in our corner of West Hartford, as the campus had recently been emptied of its newly minted alumni and grass was, once again, allowed to begin reclaiming the Green. A time normally reserved for a period of restoration and repair was marked by a milestone at KO with the announcement that, after 44 years, Mike Fryer was retiring as head of the buildings and grounds department. None of the longtime members of the community would have been surprised had they been informed that the Earth’s orbit had been temporarily altered by the seismic nature of this event. Such is the magnitude of the legacy he leaves at 170 Kingswood Road.

Having grown up in West Hartford, Mike began his tenure on Sept. 1, 1966, at Kingswood School after working for the John Hayes Real Estate company. During those years he received valuable training in the construction business, and it would be difficult to measure the benefits KO has accrued from his interest and experience in this field. At one time, he personally knew all of the contractors, inspectors, fire marshals and major vendors in the town. Every building on the campus has been constructed or somehow renovated under the guardianship of Mike Fryer!

He knows where every piece of conduit and fossilized dinosaur footprint is buried.

In the fall of 2007, Mike was spotted stretching a long tape measure across the area outside the Hewett Gym entrance at 10:30 in the evening. His goal: convincing any remaining skeptics that the new math, science and technology building could be constructed in this space. As he would later recount while

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sitting in the lobby of his magnum opus, “I know numbers.”

In truth, Mike knows much more about facilitating the operational reality of schools than functions relating to arithmetic. Richard Caley, recently retired from the science department and a 1962 Kingswood alumnus, has characterized Mike as a “hidden essential.” For more than four decades, Mike saw to the detailed needs of the School in thousands of permutations and solved numerous crises without most people ever knowing there was a problem.

In the scope of his role at KO, from assisting the development of master plans to impromptu requests from parents for help with prom decorations, he has been the go-to guy for families, employees and all of the heads of school since the term of Nelson P. Farquhar. His self-effacing manner informed his management style, and people knew that he would take all requests seriously, saying “yes” whenever possible.

In every sense of the phrase, Mike has happily been “on call” 24 hours a day.

One of the secrets to his oversight of construction projects was the habit of taking a walk through the buildings, alone, at 5 a.m. every day. These journeys allowed him to provide the construction manager with a list of all the items that needed to be fixed, replaced or modified before the project could proceed. From the early days, Mike has lived on campus, first in an apartment in the Seaverns Building (which required a daily trip to the gym for a shower) and then the familiar house on Outlook Avenue in 1972. He has described the experience as analogous to living in a park. In return for

Mike Fryer

this privilege, Mike has been committed to an uncommon degree of accessibility.

People knew that they could knock on his door at any time of day or night – and they did.

When asked about his time at KO, Mike simply noted that it was a fabulous place to work and raise a family. He and his wife, Pauline, always felt welcomed and embraced as members of the community.

In a town known for serving the needs of many influential and prosperous families, the Fryers perceived the community situated above Trout Brook as devoid of class structure. The head of buildings and grounds and the head of school collaborated on a common mission within an atmosphere of mutual trust, friendship and respect. In return, Mike became a loyal trustee to the KO community, devoting more than half of his life to the institution. His retirement brings more than an end to 44 years of service.

The role of prep school steward, once a common model in New England, has also come to an end. They are all gone. KO

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varsity spring SPORTS 14

baseball

boys' lacrosse

boys' track and field

boys' tennis

Coaches: Steve Cannata, Andy Carr Captains: Ben McKay ’10, Mike Coscarelli ’11 Seniors: Peter Barry, Pat Dowling-Logue, Brett Greenfield, McKay, Bill Pratt, Ed Rowley, Malcolm Williams Record: 5-13 Robert O’Brien Award for Baseball: Mike Humphreys ’11 M.I.P.: Pratt Captains next season: Coscarelli, Kevin DeVivo ’11, Humphreys

Coaches: John Gormley, David Hild ’80, Brian Damboise ’05 Captains: Dylan Florian ’11, Max Hoberman ’10, Erik Scalzi ’10 Seniors: Brandon Batory, Hoberman, Scalzi, Richard “Trey” Smith Record: 10-8 Connecticut Valley Lacrosse Club Award: Florian M.I.P.: Jordan Barlow ’12, Tyler Blake ’11 Captains next season: James Barlow ’11, Florian, Alex Gitlin ’11, Steve Hild ’11, Chris Toppi ’11

Coaches: Andrew Krugman ’86, Christian Hyde ’02 Captain: Shravan Rao ’10 Seniors: Rao, Steven Sorosky, Sam Washburn Record: 8-8 Boys’ Tennis Award: Rao M.I.P.: Jacob Appleton ’15 Captains next season: Hunter Morgan ’12, Aaron Paley ’11, Mark Toubman ’13

softball

girls' lacrosse

Coaches: Aubrey Kurtzman, Cathy Schieffelin, Jen Weeks Captains: Caroline Adams ’10, Liz Dietz ’11, Jenny Gobin ’10 Seniors: Adams, Katrina Earl, Gail Engmann, Chelsea Gelman, Gobin Record: 1-12 Girls’ Softball Award: Earl M.I.P.: Savannah Berger ’11 Captain next season: T.B.A.

Coaches: Marley Aloe, Casey McCullion Captains: Nicole Barlow ’11, Isabelle Lisi ’10, Jess Sikora ’10 Seniors: Jess Craig, Lisi, Sikora, Taylor Stoudt Record: 5-13 Girls’ Lacrosse Award: Kristen Barry ’11 M.I.P.: Chloe Glover ’11 Captains next season: Barlow, Barry, Jenn Townsend ’11

Coaches: Alex Kraus, David Baker ’04, Kata Franczyk, Fritz Goodman, Ben Hildebrand, Joe Johnson, Elizabeth Tredeau Captains: Mike Coulom ’10, Adrian Mahoney ’10, Stephan Schneider ’10 Seniors: Kenton Adeyemi, Myles Alderman, Coulom, Ryan Harger, Derek Lessard, Mahoney, Zach McKeown, Justin Murray, Chibu Ndibe, Schneider, LaMarte Williams Record: 10-2; New England Prep School Track Association Division III team champion Boys’ Track and Field Award: Murray, Schneider M.I.P.: Lessard Coaches Award: Alderman Captain next season: T.B.A.

girls'’track and field Coaches: Alex Kraus, David Baker ’04, Kata Franczyk, Fritz Goodman, Ben Hildebrand, Joe Johnson, Elizabeth Tredeau Captains: Arissa Fram ’10, Christine Gowdy ’10 Seniors: Taylor Amato, Fram, Gowdy, Liz Guerrera, Emily Luskind Record: 11-1; New England Prep School Track Association Division III team runner-up Girls’ Track and Field Award: Jade Brown ’11, Victoria Stoj ’11 M.I.P.: Carolyn Marcello ’11 Coaches Award: Guerrera Captain next season: T.B.A.

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girls' tennis Coach: Ronald Garcia Captains: Lavinia Cristescu ’10, Becky Silvers ’10 Seniors: Steph Adamidis, Cristescu, Karen Norris, B. Silvers Record: 10-2; de Villafranca Tournament champions (unofficial Western New England title) M.V.P.: Cristescu, Dayna Lord ’13, Melissa Lord ’15, B. Silvers M.I.P.: Zarah Mohamed ’12, Claudia Silvers ’11 Captains next season: C. Silvers, D. Lord, Emily Gottlieb ’11

golf Coach: Scott Dunbar Captain: John Jackopsic ’11 Record: 11-13; Keyes Plate winner Mark Dixon Golf Award: Jackopsic Captain next season: Jackopsic

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reunion brings campus alive!

A rainy day did not deter the more than 350 graduates and guests who returned to KO to reconnect at Reunion 2010. On June 12, classes ending in 0 and 5 celebrating reunions

spanning 70 years descended upon the campus.

They brought with them their school spirit and cherished memories. Thank you to everyone who attended and made the day special. KO

head's advisory council

Jessica Hild Collins ’91, President John J. Alissi ’89 Terri Alpert P ’10 Jeffrey Azia ’89 Eric D. Batchelder ’89 William C. Bigler ’80, P ’05, ’09, ’13 Jay M. Botwick ’76, P ’04 Brewster B. Boyd ’63 John M. Budds ’56 Andrew M. Chapman ’73 Lynn Mather Charette ’82, P ’14 James W. Eatherton ’79, P ’11, ’14 Eric D. Eddy ’93 Robert M. Elliott II ’91 Scott C. Farrell ’91 Lee A. Gold ’90 James Goldberg ’76 Gregory A. Hayes ’80 Charna Bortman Kaufman ’85, P ’14, ’17 Gilbert E. Keegan III ’88 Tyler B. Polk ’99 Ann Coolidge Randall ’73, P ’13 Mary Pallotti Russell ’73, P ’06, ’09 Robert S. Sarkisian ’84 Andrew G. Satell ’79 Glenn M. Shafer ’85 Stacey L. Silver ’91 Saeed O. Singletary ’92 Harold A. Smullen Jr. P ’10 William J. Stack Jr. ’72, P ’07, ’11, ’12 Faith McGauley Whitman ’86 Keith J. Wolff ’91 Carla Do Nascimento Zahner ’97

The lacrosse teams after the boys’ alumni lacrosse game

ADVANCEMENT

Head of School Dennis Bisgaard P ’16 honors this year’s class of Distinguished Alumni at the Morning Assembly.

Photos left to right: Carolyn Wolfe Gitlin ’85, P ’11, ’13, ’17 Marc Shafer ’75, P ’08, ’15, ’17 and Laura Jones Shafer ’75, P ’08, ’15, ’17 Laurence R. Smith ’45, GP ’08, ’10, ’12, ’15

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KO-KO joining in the Reunion fun at lunch

Jo-anne Alissi Cosgriff ’90 with daughter Elena, son Charlie and mom, faculty emerita Jo-anne Alissi P ’85, ’89, ’90

Former KO lacrosse coaches Stew Lindsay P ’80, ’82, Larry Roberts and Bob Stiehler P ’87, ’91

Kingswood 1960 classmates before the recorded discussion begins

John B. Wilson ’60, Robert W. Marshall ’60 and David M. Flynn ’60 with their Black and Crimson yearbook

Jay Cope ’60, Baker Salsbury ’60 and Jon Harlow ’60

“The Kingswood Class of ’60 Makes History” with Deane S. Berson leading his classmates in a recorded discussion of their days at Kingswood for the archives in “Saturday Afternoon Live” ko WINTER 2010

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ADVANCEMENT

A group before dinner in Alumni Hall

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Daniel N. Baram ’00, Emily Marziali Shea ’00 and Amanda Marikar ’00

Alumni together in front of the Mead Dining Hall

Mary Stumpf DellaRusso ’85, Karen Gunning Birnbaum ’85, Carolyn Wolfe Gitlin ’85, P ’11, ’13, ’17 and Jennifer White Pennoyer ’85, P ’14, ’17

LaCora Madden ’00, Syeita Rhey ’00 and Sheronda Smith ’00 Steve Kraus ’95, Sarah Tudryn, and David ’80 and Susan Hild P ’07, ’11

Mary Beth Cosgrove ’76 with Gerard Barrieau ’75 and Joan McGovern Barrieau ’77

Anthony Michalak ’85, Lud Baldwin P ’00, ’02, ’05 and Ken Byer ’82 Emily Naftzger, Ken Byer ’82, Anthony Michalak ’85 and J. Christopher Naftzger ’85

Carolyn Wolfe Gitlin ’85, P ’11, ’13, ’17, Michael Redden ’85, Karen Gunning Birnbaum ’85, Andrew Lefkowitz and Gwen Fine Lefkowitz ’85

John E. Fisher ’70 and Carol and Tim Shepard ’60 ko WINTER 2010

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Karen Gunning Birnbaum ’85, Mark Mandell ’85 and Beth M. Hirschfeld ’85

Friends at their Reunion Dinner

ADVANCEMENT

A view of the soggy 18th fairway at Gillette Ridge Golf Club in Bloomfield

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Alexa T. Millinger ’05, Jennifer V. Vowles ’05 and Peter Jones

Rain and high winds kept KO Classic golfers from the course but not from having a good time. Players gathered at Gillette Ridge on Sept. 30 for a great lunch, raffle and remarks by Head of School Dennis Bisgaard. This year’s tournament was presented by FIP, with lunch sponsored by Hoffman Auto Group and a reception sponsored by Data-Mail Inc. KO

Melissa and Bill Perkins ’90 and Nabil Foster ’90

SAVE THE DATE for Reunion 2011 Celebrating the 1s and 6s June 11, 2011 Caitlin Clarke ’05 and Paul Glover ’05 ko WINTER 2010

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a conversation with… Curtis S. Shaw ’66 Where did you go after Kingswood Oxford School? I attended Trinity College in Hartford and graduated in 1970. I received a B.A., majoring in economics.

ADVANCEMENT

Curtis S. Shaw ’66

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What did you do after college, and what are you currently doing? After college, I attended Columbia University School of Law in New York City and received a J.D. degree in 1973. After that, I practiced law in two New York law firms.

In 1980, I moved in-house and continued to practice law, concentrating in mergers and acquisitions, securities, corporate finance and antitrust law. In 1997, I became senior vice president, general counsel and secretary of Charter Communications Inc. in St. Louis and was promoted to executive vice president, general counsel and secretary at Charter in 2003. In 2005, I was recruited by Celanese Corp. in Dallas, Texas, where I served as executive vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary. I am currently executive vice president and general counsel of Styron LLC. Styron is owned by Bain Capital, a leading private equity firm. We will be moving our offices to the Philadelphia area in early 2011.

What’s the last book you read? As I do quite a bit of traveling, I am constantly reading on airplanes and hotels. My choices cover a broad range of novels and historical subjects; last book – “Pursuit of Honor” by Vince Flynn.

What is one piece of advice you’d give to current KO students? Enjoy this moment and this opportunity. You will never be able to repeat these years. You will develop characteristics and knowledge here that will enhance your lives. Many things may seem trivial and routine now, but they will guide your future.

What was the most satisfying moment in your professional life? Helping others to succeed. Leading legal departments in three major corporations. Guiding those corporations through good times and challenging times.

What was the most satisfying moment in your personal life? Enjoying family and friends. To pick one single moment would be impossible. It is all good.

What is your next goal in life? Build an industryleading legal department at Styron. Guide the company through a successful IPO, and make it a leader in all it does.

How have you changed since graduation? I have grown a lot. Things that seemed important years ago do not seem so now. Learn to deal with adversity, never give up and lead by example.

What is the most important lesson in life? To be true to your values, help others to succeed and maintain a positive attitude.

What is your favorite song, or who is your favorite artist right now? George Strait

Who influenced you the most? Parents and family

What’s your favorite KO memory? Hanging out on the Green and baseball games

What is your favorite spot on campus?

The Green

Who were the KO teachers who had the greatest influence on you? Joel Lorden and Frosty Francis

Who would you want to play you in a film version of your life? Clint Eastwood

What message do you have for the KO community? Continue to prepare students for diverse opportunities. Stress leadership qualities.

Be fearless in the face of adversity.

What do you look forward to most in life?

Getting up in the morning and doing it all over again. If I am lucky, seeing the Red Sox win another World Series. KO

campus welcomes alumni and their chips”

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(1) John A. Line ’79 and (2) Keenan J. Line ’14 (3) Jennifer White Pennoyer ’85, P ’14, ’17, (4) Nina W. Pennoyer ’17 and (5) Sophie M. Pennoyer ’14 (6) Carolyn Wolfe Gitlin ’85, P ’11, ’13, ’17, (7) Jeff Gitlin ’85, P ’11, ’13, ’17 and (8) William L. Gitlin ’17 (9) Joseph M. Gitlin ’17 (David L. Gitlin ’87, P ’15, ’17, not pictured) (10) Peter F. LeBlanc ’81, P ’12, ’13, ’17 and (11) Abigail M. LeBlanc ’17 (12) Hy J. Schwartz ’88, P ’17 and (13) Madeline D. Schwartz ’17 (Remy Trager Schwartz ’91, P ’17 and Merle Trager ’58, P ’89, ’91, GP ’17 not pictured) (14) Mary Jeanne Jones ’52, P ’75, ’78, ’80, GP ’08, ’15, ’17 and (15) Marc Shafer ’75, P ’08, ’15, ’17 (Jane M. Shafer ’17 and Laura Jones Shafer ’75, P ’08, ’15, ’17, not pictured)

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The steps of Alumni Hall were once again trod upon by familiar feet on Sept. 14 as alumni with children and grandchildren entering Kingswood Oxford School for the first time gathered for the annual Chips off the Block breakfast reception. The tradition has welcomed back alumni to campus for more than 20 years and highlights the wonderful legacy of a KO education. KO

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(16) Grace R. Amell ’17 and (17) Mary S. Martin ’77, P ’17 (18) Benjamin I. Waldman ’17 and (19) Keith J. Waldman ’75, P ’12, ’14, ’17 (20) Nicholas J. Ravalese ’17 and (21) Joseph Ravalese Jr. ’51, P ’79, ’80, GP ’14, ’15, ’16, ’17 (Joseph Ravalese III ’79, P ’15, ’17, not pictured) (22) Daniel S. Dunham ’14 and (23) John S. Dunham ’82, P ’07, ’14 (24) David L. Helsley ’81, P ’16 and (25) Lauren A. Helsley ’16 (26) Catherine C. Flaherty ’14 and (27) Patrick J. Flaherty ’51, P ’82, ’86, ’14 (28) Isabel G. Kaufman ’17 and (29) John M. Kaufman ’85, P ’14, ’17 (Charna Bortman Kaufman ’85, P ’14, ’17, not pictured) (Also not pictured, Steven Brown ’83, P ’15, ’17 and Jacob Brown ’17, and Carole Bobruff ’53, GP ’15, ’17, Emily Bobruff ’15 and Joshua Bobruff ’17)

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supporting KO

grandparents galore!

Diana Fiske P ’09, ’11 When calling upon fellow parents to join her in supporting the School’s KO Fund, Diana Fiske’s pitch is simple, yet powerful. It goes something like this: “If you think KO is a great school, with a generous gift, we can make it an even better school!”

As a donor and volunteer, Fiske has been helping to make KO “an even better school” since joining the community eight years ago when her daughter Sarah ’09 entered the Middle School.

ADVANCEMENT

Heeding the advice of her parent mentor, Lydia Chiappetti P ’07, ’09, who suggested Fiske “feel out” the community before diving in, Fiske spent her first year as a KO parent observing the myriad volunteer opportunities in an attempt to find the right fit for her. Though, as is often the case with active and ambitious parents, the more she did, the more she was asked to do.

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During the past eight years, she has worn several volunteer hats, including serving on the Admission Committee, which she headed for four years. She also served as the parent representative on the KO Mission Statement Review Committee and assisted the Middle School and J.V. tennis coaches for four seasons.

She currently volunteers as a driver for the Middle School community service program and serves as a Form 6 co-chair.

The Kingswood Oxford campus was filled with the smiling faces of grandmothers, grandfathers and special friends during KO’s Middle School Grandparents’ and Special Friends’ Day. Held on Wednesday, Oct. 13, the event offered a glimpse into “a day in the life” of their KO student.

The KO Fund was an appropriate addition to her volunteer resume. In addition to being generous with her time, Fiske and her husband, Will, have supported the School philanthropically, regularly donating to the KO Fund at a leadership level and investing in the newly constructed Chase · Tallwood Science Math Technology Center.

The entire Middle School community and the special guests attended Morning Assembly, where

they were welcomed by Head of School Dennis Bisgaard, newly elected Middle School President Rob Root ’15 and Director of the Middle School Jane Repp and enjoyed the sounds of the Middle School Jazz Band and Upper Prep Choraliers.

Then they headed to the Estes Family Building to attend classes. The day officially concluded with lunch in Mead Dining Hall and the hopes that everyone would attend the afternoon sporting events and visit campus again soon. KO

Ray and Lorraine Corsini with granddaughter Emily Brantner ’17

Fiske cites her father as being a major influence with regard to giving. His simple creed was: “Never go into debt, but give back what you can,” Fiske said.

Fiske recognizes that her daughters have been lucky to attend KO, and she’s grateful for the education they have received.

“I think about how my daughters have the confidence to reach out to their teachers to discuss their performance and solicit from them ways in which they can improve,” Fiske said.

“That self-assuredness and sophistication will put them at a significant advantage not just in college but in the professional world when and if they ever have a particularly challenging supervisor. KO taught them how to interact with adults and how to speak up for themselves.”

KO is grateful for Fiske’s service and the Fiskes’ generosity, and we look forward to hearing about Sarah’s and Hannah’s future successes as KO alums. And though next year she’ll no longer be a KO current parent, we hope Diana Fiske will continue to help KO as we march into our second century. KO

The Upper Prep Choraliers, directed by Marcos Carreras

The Middle School Jazz Band with director Tom Keidel

Special guests in a Middle School classroom

Students sharing computer know-how in the Middle School Research Center

And beginning last year, Fiske signed on to fundraise with the Office of Institutional Advancement on behalf of the KO Fund.

Charles Marmelstein GP ’15, ’17, William L. Gitlin ’17, Joseph M. Gitlin ’17, Ann Marmelstein GP ’15, ’17 and Jack E. Gitlin ’15

Clockwise from bottom: Diana Fiske with Sarah ’09, husband William and Hannah ’11

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OXFORD 1938

Members of the Oxford Class of 1945 at their 65th reunion

KINGSWOOD 1948 Raymond E. Petersen, who died on Aug. 21, was on the KO campus twice in May, once to attend the senior voice recital of his granddaughter Sarah Petersen ’10 and once to attend her graduation. At his funeral, Sarah sang “Kingswood for Aye.”

As I am now class secretary (for the second time), I request everyone to e-mail news to me at jovanness@aol.com. I am also on Facebook, so please “friend” me.

– Joan Duffield Van Ness

OXFORD 1950

Sallie Barr Palmer Class Correspondent

CLASS NOTES

Joan Duffield Van Ness Class Correspondent

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husband of 58 years, Ralph; Isabelle Cox English of Noank, Conn., and her husband, Jim; Mifi Phelps Day of Gunnison, Colo., and her daughter, Margot Reene; and Joan Duffield Van Ness of Rochester, N.Y., and her husband of 31 years, Paul. We dined on chicken tetrazzini and laughed at how little we’ve changed. After cocktails, the men adjourned to dinner at the Hartford Golf Club.

A KO representative arrived with two bottles of special centennial wine.

Fourteen members of our class celebrated our 60th reunion by meeting for dinner at the West Hartford home of Betsy Stedman Russell and her husband of 54 years, Peter. Guests were Connie Wiley Cross of Hinsdale, Mass.; Mary Barter Armstrong of Pleasant Hill, Calif., and her brother, John Barter ’52; Cinny Brewster Clifford, Louise Galt Pease and Esther Spafard of West Hartford, Conn.; Elsie Heyman Swirsky of Longmeadow, Mass., and her son, Michael; Franny Vail Russell of New Britain, Conn.; Bobbie Wood Mowry of Beaufort, S.C.; Betsy Long Strout of South Hamilton, Mass.; Ruthie Kaufman Shulansky of Bloomfield, Conn., and her

They also visited Cambridge and Cardiff, Wales. Another highlight this year was a visit from Rich and Pam Kingan Lillquist, en route to Stockholm to see their son and grandson. The Lillquists and the Hansens got together for a couple of dinners and a visit to Elsinore.

Cookie Stout Johnson and her family were heading for a trip to the Canadian Rockies in September. She hopes to make our 60th reunion.

Maud “Sunny” Cary Schultz’s two granddaughters start college this year. Both have won athletic awards and scholarships. Sunny’s brother Charles, a Kingswood grad, died last year. Sunny sends “good wishes to all wherever you are.”

OXFORD 1951 60th reunion

Next year will be our 60th Oxford reunion. Any suggestions as to where we might hold a reunion dinner?

Vivian Hathaway Crouse urges that we make a major effort to set up this reunion, trying to ensure that as many class members as possible attend. She volunteers her services in helping to put the reunion together. More volunteers and suggestions needed! Vivian also applauds Frannie Steane Baldwin’s successful efforts to raise the standard of our class giving.

Annzie Bartholemew Hansen and husband, Munk, were in England earlier this year when her sister Judy sang in Bath with her Concord, Mass, choral group.

Yet another change of address for Anne Carter Peck Zadig: “a lovely 1840s house” at 270 Main St., Oxford, MA 01540.

The Palmers enjoyed a six-week trip to the U.K. in the spring, where Peter carried his American Korean Veterans chapter banner at the Tower of London on Easter Sunday, parading with his fellow British Korean War veterans. In June we flew to Massachusetts for my Mount Holyoke reunion and then to the Washington, D.C., area where we visited a number of friends, among them Dick and Dinny Duffield Whiting in Williamsburg, Va. A great time was had by all!

OXFORD 1952 Mary Jeanne Jones Class Correspondent

Good morning, fellow KO’ers, friends and families. At long last, the Oxford Class of 1952 wishes to announce that it is alive and well (mostly). After many years of faithful service, Janice Wasserman has resigned as our class correspondent, and I have taken over. Janice is a hard act to follow, and to her we owe our many thanks.

I am grateful to those of you who have sent me news. Please, the rest of you, do the same, adding your e-mail address if I don’t have it.

Here are a few statistics to refresh our memories: 25 of us graduated in 1952. Ten others were with us in class at one time or another but did not graduate from Oxford. Of those who graduated or were with us only for a short while, as far as I know, seven have died. In 2012 we shall celebrate our 60th reunion.

In first-name alphabetical order here is what I know:

Ann Tillinghast Herbruck: Ann is still traveling, most recently to Chautauqua for a week of lectures and then to Niagaraon-the-Lake in Canada. While at home she had her swimming pool removed and is landscaping its remains. She also is researching early immigration law and the Chinese in California for a talk she will deliver in November.

Bettina Pierce Romaine: After 20 moves, Bettina is now very much settled in the house she and Bill built in 1988. She wrote this, not I: “I like controlling what I do and making my own ko WINTER 2010

decisions!” Her grands range from 20-32. Bett sends her love and hugs to all the Prospect Avenue Oxfordites.

Cathe Larrabee Carpenter: Cathy is now Cathe; this is not just a spelling mistake on my part. Cathe’s life has been complex, to say the least. Husband Victor is minister emeritus at the Belmont, Mass., Unitarian Universalist Church, but they have lived in Maine, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, South Africa, Boston, San Francisco and finally Belmont. Her daughter, Gracia, died in 2005, and Cathe’s brother, Jack, whom we all knew, died about a year ago. Cathe retired from teaching and training two years ago, but pinch-hits one or two times a week in the infant-toddler program at the Perkins School for the Blind. Associated with this, she has worked in South Africa and in China. In her “spare” time” she sits on four state boards/ committees and the board of a law center that deals with family, legal and state disability regulations/policies. She says their lives have been rewarding, but that they, like so many, are feeling the effects of the recession.

Cynny Korper Porter: Cynny was most helpful in pointing out two deceased members of our class, Judy Way and Diane Rankin Barnard, but has yet to send a note with any of her own news.

Diane Davis Nixon: Just in the nick of time, Diane sent an e-mail. Here is another busy lady with several volunteer

jobs, particularly the Transplant Houses, where patients recuperate for a week or so following operations. She also serves at the library and is much involved in the symphony. Her son and family live nearby and travel together, frequently to New York; their next trip is to Denver.

She writes, “It is a fabulous life” having social fun with special friends.

Helen Vosburgh Dixon: Helen and Bruce are in Greenwich, active in the volunteer world and in exercising by playing tennis, biking and being walked by their large Labrador. Helen volunteers at family centers, their church, a therapeutic riding program and a garden club, enough to keep the most energetic on the run.

Together she and Bruce have 12 grands. Her daughter, Carrie Brown, and son-in-law, John Brown, are both professors at Sweetbriar College and writers of some most interesting novels, which you all might enjoy. Son Timothy has been involved with worldwide disaster relief for years.

Janie Adams Chute: Janie wrote the sad news that Mort, her husband of 53 years, died this past April. She is in the process of adjusting to her new life. She sees her daughters and eight grands (seven boys, one girl) as much as possible and is playing tennis and paddle tennis. Thanks for your note, Janie. You certainly have our love and sympathy.

Mary Sage Stewart: Thanks to Ann we have news of Mary, whom we last knew as a classmate in 1948. Mary

lives with husband Bill in Chesterfield, Mo.

Norma Scafarello Hattings: Norma called just in time to meet my deadline. She is part of the Hartford ’52ers (Gail, Gilda, Janice, Norm, Joanie, Helen – Greenwich isn’t that far away – me); we all get together fairly often. For quite a few years now she has been taking ballroom dancing lessons, competing against the best. She plays bridge and is enjoying retirement, especially keeping track of her seven grands.

Photos top to bottom: Kingswood graduates Laurence R. Smith ’45, GP ’08, ’10, ’12, ’15 and George M. Smith ’45 at their 65th reunion Ray Petersen ’48 with granddaughter Sarah Petersen ’10 at Sarah’s KO graduation in May

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Swan, to Leslie Solomon Aron on July 17, 2010, in Hurley, N.Y.”

OXFORD 1957 Phyllis Fenander Class Correspondent

Photos left to right: Members of the Oxford Class of 1950 meet at the home of Betsy and Peter Russell last spring for their 60th reunion. Front row: Louise Galt Pease, Cinny Brewster Clifford; second row: Betsy Long Strout, Mary Barter Armstrong, Elsie Heyman Swirsky, Bobbie Wood Mowry, Esther Spafard, Franny Vail Russell; back row: Joan Duffield Van Ness, Betsy Stedman Russell, Mifi Phelps Day, Ruth Kaufman Shulansky, Isabel Cox English, Connie Wiley Cross

CLASS NOTES

Oxford graduates Betsy Stedman Russell ’50, P ’77, ’80, ’82, Betsy Long Strout ’50, Bobbie Wood Mowry ’50 and Mifi Phelps Day ’50 at their 60th reunion

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Me: I am still here on Prattling Pond Road after 37 years and have no intentions of moving elsewhere. At the moment, all three of my children-families live nearby (except the four grands who are in college). Two of my grands are at KO; Janie, the youngest, I believe is the 28th in the family to have had some Oxford, Kingswood or KO days.

I continue to have the travel bug; this year it was three months around the world with Semester at Sea, which was an incredible experience on the oceans, on a great ship, with college-level classes while at sea, field trips in port and wonderful fellow travelers. Shortly I shall be off to a course with St. George’s College, Jerusalem. It exists primarily for continuing education of Anglican and Episcopal priests, but occasionally they let a few others like me attend. We will start in Jerusalem, fly to Cairo, then travel to St. Catherine’s Monastery in the Sinai, to Petra and back to Jerusalem. Between these trips, I went to Cambridge, England, as the proud mother of Laura (Laura Jones Shafer ’75), who was delivering a paper at Cambridge.

At home I play hard and sit on boards at the Connecticut Historical Society, Asylum Hill

Congregational Church and Cedar Hill Cemetery. Life is great as I hope it is with all of you.

– Mary Jeanne

OXFORD 1954 Art historian Priscilla Cunningham continues her work on the estates of artists Peter Todd Mitchell and Sally Austin.

Priscilla organized a show of Mitchell’s work at a gallery in North Haven, Maine, in 2007 and published an article about Mitchell and his mother, the playwright Fanny Todd Mitchell, for the summer 2010 issue of the magazine Social Register Observer. Last year, she also helped to arrange an exhibition of shadow boxes by Austin at the New Britain Museum of American Art. Priscilla’s husband, Jay, has been busy with financial activities and watercolor classes.

Priscilla takes two advanced Italian literature and conversation classes. In 2008 both she and Jay enjoyed their 50th college reunions at St. Bonaventure University and Smith College, respectively.

KINGSWOOD 1955 Fred Swan writes, “Pat and I enjoyed a tour of Israel and Jordan March 20-31, 2010. We are looking forward to the marriage of our elder son, Peter Robbins

Elizabeth “Betty” Abel Lane reports that her fourth grandchild, Nadia Rose, was born June 28 to son Geoff and daughter-in-law Beth; Nadia joins her 2½-year-old brother Aidan. Betty writes, “They are in nearby Pleasanton, so we do get to see them frequently. Barton and I look forward to our annual retreat ‘Back East’ to our cottage in Block Island, R.I., for two weeks after Labor Day. I’ll catch up on novels and attempt some watercolor painting.

First, we’ll visit our eldest son, Barton, and family outside of Baltimore. Granddaughters are Charlotte, 6, who will be starting first grade in September, and Delaney, 4. In July, we visited our daughter, Suzanne, for the retirement ceremony at Camp Pendleton of son-in-law Alan Franklin from the Marines after a 28-year career. They plan to live in San Diego, having completed their three-year stint in Germany (Stuttgart). We certainly enjoyed visiting their home in Germany and touring around, but are glad to have them back. Journeys this year took us to Eastern Europe with a dermatology group that travels internationally every year. We were privileged to visit dermatology faculty in universities in Bucharest, Sofia and Zagreb.

We enjoyed a side trip to Dubrovnik and a day in Slovenia.

I look forward to hearing news of the other people from our class.”

Juliette Anthony writes, “I am hard at work trying to help shape the renewable energy programs for the three major utilities here in California and working on local campaigns here in Marin County. I just lucked out, having started in the renewable energy arena 20 years ago, and I am now in the ‘right place at the right time,’ which is proving challenging and a lot of fun. I keep hoping to get away to visit Anne Batterson, but work has interfered the past few years with all the renewable energy ramp-up, and my vacation time is in November and December, and I have headed for the warm waters of the Caribbean or Mexico rather than hit New England in the late fall or early winter. Maybe next spring I will see my way clear. I am always open for visitors who come to the San Francisco Bay Area. I am in the Marin County phone book – just give me a call. All best wishes to everyone.” Editor’s Note: Juliette Anthony’s note in the Summer 2010 issue mistakenly ran with the Class of 1956. We regret the error.

Becky Banfield Jordan has moved to Topsham, Maine, and sees Linda Myers Boucher on Linda’s visits to Portland and through Portland to see her daughter in Rhode Island. Becky and Perry are glad to be close to her daughter and grandchildren nearby, and are getting used to not seeing Kristen as much since she has moved to North Carolina. Having visits from grandchildren and children is a good part of life!

ko WINTER 2010

Phyllis Chapman Fenander writes, “Just back from a journey to meet Elliot’s Finnish cousins; we were guided through Helsinki, national archives and environs of southern Finland, swimming at dawn, boating, establishing ties with extended family. Then on to Scarborough, England, to visit Elliot’s oldest daughter and her family, treated to puppet shows by her three talented and bright sons and learned more of her life there. Our last week was in Paris with his next oldest daughter who owns and runs a Mexican restaurant, ‘Fajitas,’ just steps away from Pont Neuf on Rue Dauphine. We visited Versailles, saw Woody Allen directing ‘Midnight in Paris’ due in 2011, filmed in the park below our hotel window, dined at Jim Haynes, climbed towers at Chateau de Vincennes, and of course, mainly, happily visited with his daughter, who led us through so many adventures. Home to Lincoln now to weed and recuperate. My younger daughter just graduated from Oregon Health and Science University and is in residency in Salt Lake City as an OB/GYN; she loves being close to skiing as well as the city. My older daughter continues as director of the Austin Rowing Club and owner/manager of Flywheel Fitness, an indoor rowing and spinning studio. Hope all are well in your neck of the woods and beyond.”

Nancy Middlebrook Baay writes, “We are at Squam.

Happily covered up with grandchildren for the month of August!”

Linda Myers Boucher reports that the weather this summer has been wonderful, and she spends most of the time in the remote wilderness of Northern Maine; she went home to Presque Isle for a brief period.

In April, Dede Stearns Hoffman took a wonderful two-week cruise around Italy and up the Dalmatian Coast to Venice; they had terrific weather, almost no rain except a quick shower in Corfu. In May, they replaced the Giant Schnauzer lost in December with a miniature Goldendoodle, a totally different personality – very friendly, much smaller and manageable. They went to Las Vegas in September to celebrate her birthday. They still like Austin despite the heat, with lakes full again. “Stay in touch,” Dede writes.

As Dede says, stay in touch. You can send notes to KO or to me, phyllisfenander@aol.com.

editing and comments that it appears everyone under 50 was either not taught proper English grammar (I’m carefully checking mine!) or didn’t pay attention.

I don’t know about the rest of you, but two of my many pet peeves are someone who “went missing” and someone who is “waiting on a report/the results of something.” What would our wonderful Oxford English teachers do if they heard such phrases? Anyway, I digress. Toni attends weekly book-author luncheons, works one day a week in a friend’s pet boutique and also likes to travel on two- or three-day trips to places such as bug-filled Daufuskie Island (had to check my map) off Hilton Head and Pinckney Island, a national wildlife refuge. Toni goes to Charleston at least once a month to work with the historical society and works as well at one near where she lives. Harry and Toni are both doing well.

OXFORD 1958 Sue Mather Dabanian Class Correspondent As I wrote this in September and was thinking of our class members on the East Coast, I wondered how they had fared with much-touted Hurricane Earl. Apparently, for those who responded, it was a pretty much a nonevent, as predicted by Cape Cod weather prognosticator extraordinaire, Tom Carney, Kingswood ’61.

Toni Carvalho Slifer remarked about the unusually hot weather in South Carolina this summer.

She is still doing freelance

Oxford Class of 1950 members Mary Barter Armstrong, Bobbie Wood Mowry and Joan Duffield Van Ness gather over cake at their 60th reunion.

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Blair Smyth Lang enjoyed visiting the New York City Botanical Gardens in late spring and spending a week with her daughter, Ingrid, in Tampa in June. In addition to times with the grandkids, ages 7 and 4, she spent time in the school where Ingrid teaches kindergarten. It is on an Air Force base, the children being those of military parents. They could find Iraq and Afghanistan on a map but not our Connecticut!

Photos left to right: Members of the Oxford Class of 1960 come together for their 50th reunion.

Front row: Scotty Dwyer Benson, Susan Matorin, Mary Lew Stearns Kelly, Jane Keller Herzig; second row: Christina Wilcox McIntyre, Jane Anderson Innerd, Carolyn Goodrich; back row: Ann Faude Newbury, Nancy Sunderland Brown, Barbara Ruud Chatfield, Prilla Smith Brackett, Gay Wilcox Squire, Susan Lowe Redfield

CLASS NOTES

Kingswood graduates Gerold E. Dehm ’55 and James J. Dorsey ’55 at their 55th reunion

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Liz Sexton Sgro spent a fairy tale Christmas in Torino with her two boys, and then John flew in from Italy in January to surprise her on her 70th. The office also surprised her with a great party, and the last one was this summer at the beach club in Calabria, Italy, where Liz spent the month of August – hot and sunny every day. She had a fun visit with Ellie Haggard Baldwin in West Hartford in July.

Penny Hoffman McConnel writes that she went to France last February to see her little grandson. She hates having her grandchildren so far away.

Summer was hot but wonderful for her beautiful garden. She still enjoys working at the bookstore two or three days a week (remember when I surprised you there a few years ago, Pen?) and also sings a lot, mainly with a group that sings at the bedsides of dying people. She finds it very rewarding and wonderful. She spent a week on Plum Island in Newburyport, Mass., this summer, four days of which included a nor’easter.

It was nice to hear from Lisa Shaffer Anderson, who reported

that she spent some time with sister Trina Shaffer ’56 on Cape Cod in June and also a visit to a cousin on Cushing’s Island in Casco Bay (near our Carol McCrann Proom I wonder?). Lisa and Dudley celebrated July Fourth and her big birthday (I’m beginning to dislike those big birthdays that end a “zero” – the next one will be especially dislikable). They went to the Statue of Liberty and their first Yankees game (Dudley is the fan). They met up with Lisa’s 4th-grade teacher, whom she reconnected with on a fiberarts tour of Poland. The teacher has since become a good friend.

This was well before her parents had any thoughts of moving to West Hartford. This summer the Andersons took a course in learning how to make glass beads over a burner; spending more than 10 hours a day in a glass studio was not a good way to deal with North Carolina’s heat spell! They are both involved in the arts and are working on a project to have 29 massive whirligigs, created by a 91-year-old folk artist, installed in a park in Wilson (her hometown). Lisa says that she has been looking over old photos and finding pictures of fun times.

Anne Proctor, thank you so much for replying to my plea for news. Annie has been president of her co-op board for the past 10 years, but after that length of time she says it’s not as rewarding as it once was and she thinks it’s definitely time for a change.

Let’s see now, we’ve been out of Oxford for more than 50 years and I’ve been class secretary for a good part of those. Rewarding, yes, but only when I hear from people. How about the rest of you? BJ, Nancy Neidlinger, Bev, Jerri in Canada, Sue Shattuck Barry, Sherri – do you gals have e-mail?

I called Gay Moore Nelson one weekend; she was not expecting that! I tried calling a few others but no answer or wrong numbers.

Now that Gay has retired from the library, she loves spending time in her garden and has taken up painting again – watercolors.

Daughter Olivia is with Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and does surgery and anesthesiology. Loch and his wife are in the filming business and recently returned to Brooklyn from a year in Buenos Aires. Daughters Christy and Beatrice live on

Martha’s Vineyard. Ben and his wife live in San Francisco; Ben works at Cisco Systems, and his wife is a lawyer. Gay has seven grandkids.

Sarah Duffield is excited with her new iPad and being able to communicate more easily. Since Sarah is right near the beach, Craig bought snorkeling stuff for Audrey and Julian, and they had fun this summer trying it out as well as crabbing (reminds me of my summers on the Connecticut shore before we discovered the Cape). Sarah, Emily and Audrey all got manicures, which was a lot of fun. Daughter Emily is teaching art at the kids’ school and will have grades K-8. Some school districts have eliminated art and music as a cost-cutting measure, so I’m happy to hear of one area where they’re not.

Henrietta is still at Columbia Presbyterian and involved with City Green, a community gardening project, which is now in three cities. Caitlin is in Ghana, employed by the University of London’s school of public health, and loving it. Too far away, as Sarah says. Sarah is joining the Cohasset garden club this year, which is very involved in community and school education programs.

As for your secretary, nothing much to report. No trips since my 70th in Vegas. Greg and I took in a Red Sox-Oakland A’s game this summer and were surrounded by a group of fun Sox fans. Sox lost, but we had a blast. And Greg sat next to a gal from West Hartford!

We took part in the huge Belmont Greek Festival over Labor Day. I stuffed myself full of all that ko WINTER 2010

good Greek food and enjoyed having two of our teenaged granddaughters helping us. Off to the Cape again in a week or so (no hurricanes, please) and my fill of lobster, clams, family and friends. E-mail me anytime at sdabanian@gmail.com. Hope you’re all doing well at our “advanced” age. – Smather

OXFORD 1959 Zélie Tourais Class Correspondent

Debbie Mahoney Swenson writes that she and Jack “are on our way to a Baltic Waterways cruise with National Geographic/ Lindblad to celebrate our 40th anniversary – will visit eight countries from Denmark to Russia, doing interesting things like kayaking in the Swedish archipelago and hearing lectures from Lech Walesa and Mikhail Gorbachev. We still live in Boston with weekends and summer in Chatham, and a break from winter in Boca Grande. I serve on several boards and committees, and Jack is still working in his investment counsel business.

Still run every day, play tennis, do lots of biking and started a fivecouple biking club (Sensational Seaside Spinners) with whom we bike all over the Cape. Chatham is a huge migratory shore bird stopover, so we do lots of birding, and, as you may have heard, have lived through the excitement of great white sharks here this summer. Grateful for our good health. Hope our country can turn around.”

Beth Wiesel Rougas reports, “It’s been a healthy and happy summer in Hawaii, for which I’m

most grateful. There are rumors that both my sons, my daughterin-law and three grandkids will be here by Christmas! Can’t wait. It’s a challenge rounding up everyone at the same time, but I welcome it. Best to all.”

Polly Merritt O’Leary “had a wonderful summer. It was hot and we could have used more rain, but all in all I can’t complain. … I am going to Los Angeles over Labor Day for my nephew’s wedding. Should be fun. Otherwise I am enjoying retirement and spending time with my grandchildren. It is amazing what a treat they are.”

Susan McClure Harris is busy traveling. “Again, another busy year for the Harrises. Spent the winter in New Zealand and decided to sell our townhouse after 11 years of traveling to another hemisphere to escape the cold New England winters. We are going to Boca Grande, Fla., next winter. We had a great trip to Egypt in May, including a lovely six-day cruise

on the Nile. Busy summer at our yacht club here in Duxbury, including tennis and golf. Our grandsons are playing each sport (and swimming) competitively, and we are proud spectators.

We are playing bridge and had a lovely trip to Boothbay with our bridge group, where one of our group has a summer home. Sarah, Dave and two granddaughters came in August, and Tony’s oldest son was here in July escaping the summer in Saudi Arabia, where he is teaching. We are on the move in late September for a month, traveling west to Colorado for a month. Neither of us has ever been there, so we are looking forward to some sightseeing and a rest after the busy summer. Back here through the holidays and perhaps a small trip to Bermuda sometime before we head south. All is well!”

Patrick and I took a wonderful trip to Nova Scotia. On the way back, we stayed two nights with Julie Peck at her house in Orland, Maine.

Members of the Kingswood Class of 1960 at their 50th reunion 31

Photos left to right: Members of the Oxford Class of 1960 at their 50th reunion

CLASS NOTES

Members of the Kingswood and Oxford Classes of 1970 celebrate their 40th reunion. Front row: Andy “Hat” Thomsen, Gray Perrin; second row: John Fisher, Martha Burman Molloy ’71, Mallory Andrews ’71, Robin Breckenridge Stiner ’71, Betsy Rockwell Booth, Martha Spaunburg Church, Wendy Sorenson Pearson, Wendy Brown Lincoln, Bruce Kenney; back row: Candace Green Krause, Brooke Breckenridge Morton, Priscilla Wilcox, Joe Wall, Deborah Beebe, Nancy Wood (peeking) and Nan Putnam

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OXFORD 1960 Jane Anderson Innerd Class Correspondent Thirteen classmates attended our 50th reunion on June 12. We enjoyed lunch on the campus under a huge tent during a colossal downpour. It was an opportunity to meet, greet and delight in the company of classmates, some of whom we had not seen for 50 years. Dinner was at the home of Ann Faude Newbury in Wethersfield where we (and five husbands who also attended) dined and talked till late. A wonderful time was had by all. At the end of the evening I asked everyone for a brief comment about the reunion.

Tina Wilcox McIntyre, just back from a trip to Turkey, said that she was “very happy to be here and glad to catch up.” “I can’t believe it has been half a century,” observed Barbara Ruud Chatfield. Prilla Smith Brackett said that “everyone looks good and we are an interesting bunch of women.” Sue Lowe Redfield, who provided some wonderful hors d’oeuvres, told me that she “can’t believe how well we have all aged.” Carolyn Goodrich was “amazed by what an interesting

and nice group we are.” For Gay Wilcox Squire this was “my first reunion but hopefully not my last. I was glad that I was contacted and glad that I came.” Jane Keller Herzig, who made a wonderful cheesecake for the occasion, said that she wants to keep in touch and is “raring to go for 55.”

Mary Lew Stearns Kelly humorously reported that “it was great seeing everybody, and I’m still in the front row!” Scotty Dwyer Benson drove 10 hours to get to the reunion. “It was really great to see people I haven’t seen for 50 years,” she said. Our hostess, Ann Faude Newbury, was “thrilled to have everyone here.” Sue Matorin was “very moved to be reconnected” because, she said, “these women are wonderful and have held their center.” Nancy Sunderland Brown “just loved it. I was tentative about coming but glad that I recognized everyone and loved talking as if time had not passed.”

During the reunion Prilla was asked about our Turkish classmate, Pitircik Acar (who was the first foreign exchange student at Oxford). Prilla said that she had given up trying to find her in the early 1980s after attempts

to reach her at three addresses (hers, her mother’s, her cousin’s) had failed numerous times.

Someone at the reunion suggested that she search the Internet, and so she did. Prilla reports, “Well, I found both her and [her husband], Yildirim, listed as law faculty at Near East University in Nicosia, Cyprus! After many efforts to reach someone by phone, via Skype, finally this a.m., I got a woman who doesn’t speak English, but gave me their home phone. Then George and I talked with Pitircik for 15 minutes! Amazing! She was sorry for causing me such worry – conditions were politically dicey for them the last time we were in communication. It was wonderful to hear her voice after all these years (40!) and to catch up a little bit. Unfortunately, neither of them do computers and e-mail, so communication will have to be by mail and by us phoning them. I feel so happy that they are well. She urged us to visit.

Maybe one day we can. Yildirim and Pitircik moved to Cyprus (the Turkish part) 11 years ago when he was offered the position of dean in the law department at Near East University. She teaches law, too, and is in the process of retiring. They’ve lived in a variety of places throughout the years.

They [now] live in Girne on the coast, near the town’s small harbor. On Google we looked at photos of the town, the coast and the church near their apartment.

It’s a lovely, small, quiet town – very Mediterranean in look.

Their daughter, Asli, is in Geneva where she has a career in a bank.

She has two sons. Pitircik and Yildirim only see them about once a year. Pitircik’s mother died in Istanbul about a year ago.”

Pitircik’s address is Canbolat Sok #29/D1, Girne, North Cyprus, Turkey.

My thanks to all who keep in touch.

OXFORD 1961 50th reunion Lois Arnold Class Correspondent It was really good to hear from so many classmates. More than a quarter of the class responded to my request for news, and I think we are a very interesting and creative group – no bias here! If you went to see the film “The Last Airbender,” directed

by M. Night Shyamalan, I hope you paid attention to the part of the grandmother, played by Katharine Grant Houghton.

Katharine writes that, were it not for filming on location in Greenland, she never would have thought of visiting the island, but now wouldn’t have missed the experience of traveling there.

Others of you have been active in the arts as well. Suzanne Miller Levine has just published her first poetry collection, “Haberdasher’s Daughter” (Antrim House). She co-teaches a course in memoir writing at the ko WINTER 2010

Mark Twain House in Hartford and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, a prestigious literary prize honoring the best American poetry, short fiction, etc. Check out her Web site: www.suzannelevine.net.

And while you’re checking things out on the Internet, go to www.TiaSmithStudio.com and check out Tia Streeter Smith’s watercolors. Tia writes that she went to the WoodenBoat School in Brooklin, Maine, to learn about diesel engines. She and her husband, Seymour, have bought a new boat with “headroom and a real bathroom and shower” so that they can “boat into their late 80s.” In September of 2009 they spent time cruising from Istanbul to Athens through the Greek Isles on a four-masted schooner. She says Istanbul was “fabulous,” but that Athens was not.

Whitney Andrews Gettinger also experienced the Greek Isles this past summer on a cruise from Venice to Istanbul and in 2009 traveled to Egypt with the Metropolitan Museum of Art, an organization she highly recommends for traveling.

Whitney writes that she and her husband, Peter, have retired to downtown Miami after 45 years in New York City, where Whitney was vice president of Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate for the last 13 years. They are now living on a key with “incredible views of the bay, ocean, South Beach and the rest of Miami Beach.” They are enjoying the easy living in Miami.

Jane Anderson Lentz writes that her husband, Perry, retired in

2009 after 40 years of teaching at Kenyon College and they have also been traveling, with Rome and Hawaii on the agenda in the last year. Jane is busy with hospice volunteering, pastoral visiting for her church and shorter trips to visit daughters and grandchildren.

Sue Stamm has retired to the village of Freedom, N.H., (winter population 1,400-plus) and lives within a 15-mile radius of her two daughters and a “fearless” 4-year old grandson who skis and swims. She writes that she is an avid and active gardener and knitter who also does a lot of walking with her rescue dog.

Sue recently talked to Janet Beardsley-Blanco, who is happily and busily raising and showing cats and horses in New London, N.H.

Retirement seems to be a theme for some of us. Sue Calano Watson writes that she has been long retired as a nonprofit executive, but now her husband, Keith, is also retired, even though he still goes to the office and works on volunteer projects. They recently purchased a townhouse in the middle of Washington, D.C., which they love. Mid-June to September they are at their summer house in Westport.

Others of us are still actively working. This past September brought the start of Joan Morgan Bring’s 16th year teaching at the Assets School in Honolulu. It is an independent school for dyslexic, gifted, gifted dyslexic and ADHD students. This year she will be totally computerized for her classes, with a SMART Board,

Photos top to bottom: Members of the KO Class of 1975 at their 35th reunion Juliana Boyd Kim ’65, Jane Morton Fetter ’65, Lynne A. Lumsden ’65, P ’07 and Mary Esther Carlson Morton ’65 at their 45th reunion

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The Newport Art Museum in Newport, R.I., will feature works by artist Mimo Gordon Riley and two other artists in an exhibition titled “The Abstract in Realism.”

More information about the exhibit, which will run through Jan. 2, 2011, may be obtained at www.newportartmuseum.org.

Thanks to all of you who responded to my request for news and apologies for editing some of you down. More news from those of you who didn’t respond this time would be most welcome. And don’t forget our 50th coming up!

OXFORD 1963 Photos left to right: Members of the KO Class of 1980 at their 30th reunion

CLASS NOTES

Grace Goldberg, Lisa Berelson ’81 and Debbie Lamson Goldberg ’81 vacation at Linnell Landing in Brewster on Cape Cod last summer.

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software programs that will post student assignments, forum discussions, blogs, flash cards and PowerSchool, which will computerize her grade book and attendance and convert text to speech and speech to text, and Bookshare for students who need audio books. She is amazed by how different things are from learning at Oxford or college. Joan says she caught up with Sharon Conley-Edwards at their 45th Hollins College reunion this past spring. Joan is also a member of the Commission on Diversity for the Episcopal Diocese of Hawaii.

Virginia Swain Baratta lives in Worcester, Mass., with her husband, Joseph Baratta, a history and political science professor at Worcester State College. Together they founded the Center for Global Community and World Law (www. centerglobalcommunitylaw.org).

Virginia loves spending time with her son, Tad, his wife, Karen, and her grandchildren, Alex, 7, and Isabelle, 4, in Rochester, N.Y. Tad is an economics professor at SUNY Brockport, and Karen does research in the psychiatry department of the University of Rochester. Her mother, Joan, is doing well at 87. Virginia is still working as an executive coach, career and life directions and

organizational consultant and counselor in Worcester. She developed certificate programs in Reconciliation Leadership and Leading from Your Life’s Passion, which she offers as private tutorials for people all over the world through the Institute for Global Leadership she founded and directs (www.global-leader. org). Virginia leads one-day trips to the United Nations for groups from New England on global issues, such as human rights, climate change, peace and security (http://www.globalleader.org/gl_untours.html).

Her blog is http://virginiaswain. blogspot.com and her TV show is at http://wccatv.com/imagine.

Helen Krieble is another classmate who is still putting in 60-hour work weeks. She runs The Colorado Horse Park in Parker, Colo., a living museum, and works hard on public policy – see www.krieble.org or www.redcardsolution.com.

Retirement, says Helen, is “a blissful dream,” but she loves the stimulation provided by being involved in her many interests. All three children are happily married, and she has six grandchildren.

I am still working and traveling for work. I seem to be away from home at least half the year.

Needless to say, some of the work gets interspersed with interesting side trips – a 26-glacier cruise in Prince William Sound (Alaska) with loads of sea otters and seals and bald eagles (as well as glaciers) and a car trip through the southern portion of Theodore Roosevelt National Park (the Badlands) in North Dakota. I have undergraduate students through the Union Institute & University’s distance-learning bachelor’s program in maternal and child health (MCH), where I teach a foundations course in MCH, a course in biomedical ethics and another on nutrition and care of preterm infants. In this course, I use a textbook that I authored, “Human Milk in the NICU: Policy into Practice,” which was published by Jones and Bartlett in October 2009 – a birth in itself!

This past year I sold my oceanside condo in Harwich, Mass., and bought, gutted, renovated and moved into a small nondescript Cape Cod-style house on one level in Dennis, Mass. Daughter Katy (Katherine Williams-O’Donnell ’96) is now living in the United States again after three years in Germany with active-duty husband and grandson, also fearless at age 2.

Susan Powell Snow Class Correspondent

Mary Jane Vineburgh is one busy lady: catering in both New York City and the Hamptons (MJ & Co.) and running estate and tag sales in both places as well. The estate sale business, BIG DOT, is named in memory of her mother, who passed away in February 2010. Should you want to get in touch with MJ regarding either business, call her at 917-757-7016.

Susie Bates Margraf and her husband, Jimmy, spent the summer in Maine with visits from friends and family. Leslie Carvalho Barlow and her husband, Cotty, were among the visitors. Susie is now the proud grandparent of five, ages 4 and under! When not in Maine, Susie is still working for the Upward Bound Program at Keene State College, helping poor students not only get into college but also finding the funds for them to attend. Quite the challenge!

I am delighted to report that my son Zach celebrated two years in remission at the end of July! He is doing so well! Ben is engaged to a wonderful woman, Paige!

Their wedding will take place in June 2011! I am thrilled. Still hard at work at the same job that I have had for 13-plus years; it continues to be a daily creative challenge, something that I love.

Betsy Cadbury is thrilled that her daughter, Cate, is engaged to a wonderful man, Karim EchChajid, a Canadian transplant who emigrated from France. A July 2011 wedding is planned.

Betsy and her husband, Art, had a bumper crop in their gardens this summer. They either canned or froze most of the produce for future meals. All set for the months ahead! Betsy has also discovered yoga and meditation and walking. She said she feels younger than 65 most of the time! Her next project is going to be salsa lessons with Art so that they can dance at her daughter’s wedding in 2011!

OXFORD 1967

Hope that all is well with the Class of 1963 and that I receive more news for the next issue.

Kate Trafford Smith reports that she is newly retired and living in Bloomfield, Conn.

KINGSWOOD 1969 With important editorial input from Nan Putnam ’70, I report with great sadness the untimely death of our classmate and friend Allyn R. (Terry) Marsh III. Terry died Sept. 7, 2010, at his home in Lakeville, Minn., after being ill a short time.

While at Kingswood, Terry excelled both academically and on the athletic field, participating in varsity golf (co-captain), football and wrestling. With his friends he loved to ski and hike as well. He served as editor-in-chief of The Kingswood News, was senior prefect and was awarded the Primus Medal at graduation as the outstanding member of our class.

Terry earned chemical engineering degrees from Princeton and UC Berkeley and had a distinguished 35-year engineering career with Dow Chemical, specializing in reverse osmosis. Married to Susan for 35 years, they had two children, Chris and Jennifer, and a granddaughter, Johannah, born

just weeks before Terry’s passing.

Terry was a devoted family man, and all were active in their church, including mission trips in the Appalachians. On the lakes of Minnesota, Terry refined his expertise as a sailor, earning the nickname “Captain Dad.” Terry’s father, Allyn R. Marsh II, passed away in 1984. Terry is survived by his wife, Susan, son Chris, daughter Jennifer Rhudy, granddaughter Johannah Rhudy, mother Peggy Smith Marsh Powell ’43, sister Cathy Andersen, brother Jamie Marsh ’76, stepfather Lew Powell ’37 and by a host of friends from all over.

We will sorely miss Terry’s pursuit of excellence, his unflappable good humor and devotion to his family and friends.

(And, just so you know after all these years, the nickname “Terry” came from “tertius,” Latin for “third,” as in A.R. Marsh III.)

OXFORD 1970 Betsy Booth Class Correspondent

Photos left to right: Members of the Oxford Class of 1970 – Wendy Brown Lincoln, Nan Putnam, Deborah Beebe, Brooke Breckenridge Morton, Candace Green Krause, Priscilla Wilcox, Merry Davidson Bush, Betsy Rockwell Booth, Martha Spaunburg Church and Nancy Wood – come together for a meal during Reunion.

Chris Mersereau ’87, Pam Mersereau Dickinson ’82 and Marshall Dorr ’86 hold a mini-reunion at Chris’ horse farm in Concord, Mass.

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KO 1978 Jim Healey won the Hartford Golf Club senior club championship last summer.

KO 1981 30th reunion

Photos left to right: Members of the KO Class of 1985 at their 25th reunion Members of the KO Class of 1990 at their 20th reunion

CLASS NOTES

Tim Brennan ’00, right, meets up with Jared Jordan ’03 in Germany.

Tim was touring last winter with his band Dropkick Murphys, and Jared was playing professional basketball in Bonn.

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June brought our 40th reunion and lots of familiar faces back to town. On Friday night, Wendy Brown Lincoln and I, along with Joe Wall and John Fisher from Kingswood Class of 1970, put together a casual evening at City Steam Brewery Café in Hartford. In attendance were Brooke Breckenridge Morton, Nancy Wood, Deborah Beebe, Nan Putnam, Priscilla Wilcox, Martha Spaunburg Church, Candace Green Krause and Wendy Sorenson Pearson. We were joined by Mallory Andrews ’71, Robin Breckenridge Stiner ’71 and Martha Burman Molloy ’71 as well as Andy “Hat” Thomsen, Gray Perrin, Bruce Kenney and Gib Walker from the Kingswood Class of 1970. As you can see from the picture on page 32, a good time was had by all.

On Saturday, the Oxford Class of 1970 gathered again for lunch minus Wendy Sorenson Pearson but with Merry Davidson Bush, and we continued reminiscing. A group of us headed to the Kingswood Oxford campus for a very brief and wet tour, a glimpse of Oxford Hall and a trip down memory lane with the memorabilia displayed in Seaverns Hall.

It was wonderful to see everyone.

To those of you who couldn’t make it, we missed you and hope you will join us for the next one.

Have a good fall and winter, and please keep in touch.

KO 1974 A feature story in the newspaper West Hartford Life described the recent collaboration of old KO friends Bob Dinucci and Tim Scull ’75. Bob owns Lane & Lenge Florists, a business started by his grandfather in 1912. Tim, an artist, owns Canton Clay Works, a pottery and ceramic school offering pottery classes, workshops and studio memberships. When Bob saw a Hartford Courant article featuring Tim’s large-scale, clay-fired vases and plates, he decided they would be perfect for the windows of Lane & Lenge’s store on Park Road in West Hartford. Tim’s vessels will be displayed there through the holiday season. “I saw the story, and then I thought ‘I’m going to call him,’” Bob said. “I thought they were great. I gave him a call.

It’s impressive the way they look in the window.”

To fashion the works, Tim used a technique called “saggar,” which employs an ancient Chinese

and Korean form of glaze. After graduating from Connecticut College, Tim was a performance artist and trained vocalist. “I was on track to be a performer, but my life took a different path, and I wound up being a high-end nightclub event publicist in New York City, very high profile, for 15 years. I found I needed a mental release in the midst of all of that, so I took a ceramics class and I never went back.”

KO 1977 PR Week magazine, a trade publication covering the public relations field, has named Tom Collamore as one of the nation’s top 25 communications power players. Tom was included on the magazine’s “PR Power List 2010,” a listing of the top 25 leaders in the public relations industry.

Tom is senior vice president of communications and counselor to the president for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. He is responsible for overseeing all Chamber communications, including media outreach, Web strategy, paid media, advertising, editorial publications and branding. He also recently was named a trustee emeritus at KO.

Lisa Berelson visited Debbie Lamson Goldberg and Debbie’s daughter, Grace, for a week on Cape Cod this summer. Debbie writes, “Nothing more beautiful than summer on Cape Cod! Even though it was during July’s heat wave, we managed to keep cool at the local beaches and ponds.

Looking through old photos and taking new ones was a ‘blast’!

Gracie found her match in ‘Auntie Lisa.’”

KO 1988 Laura Flynn Baldini has been sworn in as a Connecticut superior court judge. She was appointed by Gov. Jodi Rell.

Will be in West Hartford for Halloween with Hillary Creedon Lyons and families!”

KO 1990 Michelle Epstein Hollander, who lives in West Hartford, writes, “Hi Everyone! Happy fall!

I just wanted to send a quick note to remind everyone I am in real estate! I would love to help you or anyone you know with their real estate needs!”

Nancy Lublin writes, “Promoting my new book ‘Zilch: The Power of Zero in Business’ and still loving my job at DoSomething.org and my family.

Andy Doyle writes, “My wife, Betsy, and I recently moved to Santa Monica, Calif. I’m working at Activision Blizzard, a video game company.”

KO 1993

KO 1995

Melissa Morse received a juris doctor degree from New England Law Boston on May 28. A 1997 graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University, Melissa was the recipient of a CALI (Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction) Excellence for the Future Award for Labor Law.

John McAlenney and Athena Lentini ’97 were married in Essex, Conn., on June 12, 2010. Several alumni were in attendance for the wedding weekend, including Edward McAlenney ’58, Dorothy Mooney McAlenney ’60, Morgan McAlenney ’88, Peter McAlenney ’89, Ian Hoffberg ’95, Phil Herman ’95, Jason Borawski ’95, Jeremy Rosen ’97 and Todd Roth (Middle School ’91). John is a vice president at Lloyds Banking Group in New York City, and Athena is an assistant

KO 1994 KO 1989

was named a 2010 New England Rising Star, a peer-nominated distinction limited to 2.5 percent of young lawyers practicing in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine.

Fletch Thomson is enjoying practicing law in Hartford. In May, he won a $50.5-million trade secrets judgment, the largest jury verdict in Connecticut history. More recently, Fletch

professor at St. John’s University in Queens, N.Y. The couple lives in Greenwich.

Alex Nguyen writes, “After KO I graduated from Harvard University in 1999 and, after completing a writing fellowship in journalism, I graduated from Yale Law School in 2003. I am now a federal prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Philadelphia and am currently assigned as a counsel and ethics advisor in the Office of the White House Counsel in D.C. I was recently in West Hartford visiting Peter Haberlandt and Doc Serow. My sister Caroline Nguyen ’96 and I recently saw the new campus and were really impressed. We miss our teachers and classmates. Look us up when you’re in D.C. or Philadelphia.”

KO 1997 Athena Lentini and John McAlenney ’95 were married in Essex, Conn., on June 12, 2010.

(Please see Class of 1995 news.)

Photos left to right: Members of the KO Class of 2000 at their 10th reunion John McAlenney ’95 and Athena Lentini ’97, center, were married in Essex, Conn., on June 12, 2010. Pictured with them are John’s parents, Edward McAlenney ’58 and Dorothy Mooney McAlenney ’60, and John’s brothers, Morgan McAlenney ’88 and Peter McAlenney ’89, and their families. (Photo by Iris Photography, West Hartford)

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KO 2004 Nina Musumeci recently won a 2011 Ford Focus and a treadmill on the TV game show “The Price Is Right.” A model and beauty pageant star, Nina gathered with friends and relatives at Damon’s Tavern in Hartford to watch the broadcast of the show, which had been taped several weeks earlier.

“I still can’t believe I got on and won,” Nina told The Hartford Courant. “I have to sell the treadmill to pay for the insurance on the new car.”

CLASS NOTES

Members of the KO Class of 2005 at their 5th reunion

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KO 1999 Virginia Griffen reports that her son, Silas Griffen-Sullivan, started kindergarten this fall and that her daughter, Zara Vera GriffenSullivan, turned 2 in August.

Kristina Sadlak writes, “I became engaged in March 2010 to Christopher Del Vecchio, originally of Vernon, Conn. We both live in Washington, D.C. I am currently an attorney practicing antitrust law at Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP. Chris works in patent law and is currently working on his M.S. in biotechnology at Georgetown University. We’re planning our wedding for August 2011 in Connecticut.”

Alex Kasprak writes, “I will be entering a Ph.D. program in geological sciences at Brown University this fall. Since graduating from Skidmore College in 2008, I have spent two years living as a ski bum in Jackson, Wyo., worked for a study abroad program in Madagascar and biked through Eastern Europe from Budapest to Rome.”

KO 2008 Sam Pratt worked for Connecticut’s Department of Environmental Protection as a graphic designer and gallery curator.

IN MEMORIAM

J.T. Lederman graduated from the Wolcott Fire Academy in 2009 and now works for the Town of Canton Fire Department as well as the Canton Police Department as a full-time dispatcher.

Robbins W. Barstow Jr. ’36 Nov. 7, 2010

Hannah Loeb, a junior at Yale University, was recently awarded Yale’s Gordon Barber Memorial Prize, by vote of the English department, for poetry.

Rosemary Perry Budlong May 1, 2010 Mother of Hilary Budlong Allen ’88 Dorothy G. Christensen Nov. 14, 2009 Mother of Lisa Christensen Petersen ’74, father-in-law of Raymond E. Petersen Jr. ’74, grandfather of Sarah Petersen ’10

KO 2009 Trisha Murphy is a member of the student a cappella group at Dartmouth College, where she is a sophomore.

Lucy Whitney Clark Sept. 2, 2010 Mother of Sarah Clark Gerrett ’68 and Douglas W. Clark ’70, grandmother of Whitney S. Clark 2006

Ainsley Rossitto, a sophomore at Susquehanna University, has been selected as one of the university’s presidential fellows.

Her selection was based on academic performance, cocurricular involvement, leadership potential and recommendations from teachers, administrators and students. As a presidential fellow, Ainsley will participate with 20 other sophomores in a variety of cultural, literary and social activities during the 2010-2011 academic year.

Anne Hatheway Clarke ’34 Jan. 26, 2010 Sister of David M. Hatheway ’33 Victor James Dowling Sept. 15, 2010 Father of Victor J. Dowling Jr. ’75 Phyllis Zeller Goldberg Sept. 12, 2010 Mother of James Goldberg ’76 and David Goldberg ’81, mother-in-law of Deborah Lamson Goldberg ’81

KO 2003 Tom Wood has been promoted to senior associate at the Hartford-based accounting firm of Whittlesey & Hadley. He has been a member of the audit department in the firm since May 2008.

Jared Jordan has signed to play professional basketball for a team in Rhodes, Greece.

Please note: Class Notes submissions for

Barbara K. Hauss ’48 Sept. 14, 2010 Mother of Devorah J. Hauss ’70 and Neale K. Hauss ’74

the Summer 2011 issue are due by March 28, 2011. Please e-mail your information to kurtich.m@k-o.org or mail to Meghan Kurtich,

Robert S. House ’38 May 14, 2010 Husband of Ella Deming House ’45, father of Robert S. House Jr. ’72, Elizabeth House ’74 and Marcia House ’78

Kingswood Oxford School, 170 Kingswood Road, West Hartford, CT 06119.

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Roger W. Manternach ’30 May 31, 2010 Brother of Bruce W. Manternach ’33, father of Roger H. Manternach ’60 Allyn R. “Terry” Marsh III ’69 Sept. 7, 2010 Son of Peggy Smith Powell ’43, stepson of Llewellyn Powell ’37, brother of James Marsh ’76 Lisa Anderson Musumeci Nov. 29, 2009 Mother of Michael Musumeci ’01 and Nina Musumeci ’04 Alvin Paige Oct. 8, 2010 Grandfather of Nicolas Bisgaard ’16

W. Stephen Randall ’74 June 2, 2010 Brother of Christine Randall Collins ’89 George Joseph Ritter July 18, 2010 Grandfather of Jessica L. Ritter ’97, Matthew D. Ritter ’00, Gillian H. Ritter ’05, Kevin P. Dowling-Logue ’08 and Patrick Dowling-Logue ’10 Milton Schwartz April 28, 2010 Father of Gary R. Schwartz ’76, grandfather of Jesse M. Lazowski ’08 and Jonah M. Lazowski ’12 Marcia Porter Sherer April 29, 2010 Wife of Thomas E. Sherer ’46

Carole K. Papermaster May 27, 2010 Grandmother of Molly Papermaster ’14

C. Robin Turner ’51 March 13, 2010

Raymond E. Petersen ’48 Aug. 21, 2010 Father of Raymond E. Petersen Jr. ’74 and Cynthia Petersen Geiger ’82, father-in-law of Lisa Christensen Petersen ’74, grandfather of Sarah Petersen ’10, uncle of Nancy Petersen Cain ’69 and Allen C. Petersen ’73

Correction/Clarification In the Summer 2010 issue’s In Memoriam section, Lisa Anderson Musumeci’s name was listed incorrectly. Also, Dorothy G. Christensen’s listing was incomplete. Both entries have been published correctly in this issue.

Mary Laporte Quish Sept. 6, 2010 Grandmother of Sarah Quish ’02, Amanda Quish ’04, Stephen Quish Jr. ’06, Thomas Quish ’08, Jeffrey Smullen ’10 and William Smullen ’14

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board of trustees

show your support for the KO fund

Katherine Keegan Antle ’96 Dennis Bisgaard P ’16, Head of School Brett Browchuk P ’15 Jessica Hild Collins ’91, Head’s Advisory Council President Pamela J. Dowling ’78, P ’08 Laura Estes P ’98 Frederick S. Farquhar ’59, P ’83, ’86 Christopher G. Gent P ’03, ’08 Carolyn Wolfe Gitlin ’85, P ’11, ’13, ’17, Parent Association President Marilyn Glover P ’05, ’07, ’11, Secretary Cheryl Grisé P ’99, ’02 Stephen B. Hazard P ’89, ’92 I. Bradley Hoffman ’78 Timothy A. Holt P ’99, ’02, ’07 Baxter H. Maffett ’68, P ’02, ’06 Bruce A. Mandell ’82 Didier Michaud-Daniel P ’10 Mark Paley P ’07, ’09, ’11, ’14 Francis P. Pandolfi ’61 Michael J. Reilly P ’04, ’08 Avery Rockefeller III P ’00, ’02, Vice Chair Paul F. Romano P ’06, ’08, ’11 Les R. Tager P ’00, ’03, Chair Alden Y. Warner III ’76, Treasurer R. Ashley Washburn P ’08, ’10, ’12, ’15 Paula Whitney P ’02, ’04, ’06, ’07

Reminder: Please make your gift to the KO Fund before the end of the calendar/tax year!

As the end of the calendar/tax year quickly approaches, we hope you will consider supporting Kingswood Oxford School with a gift to the 2010-2011 KO Fund. Gifts to the KO Fund support the most important priorities of the School, including faculty recruitment and retention, financial aid, teaching initiatives, athletics, arts, library and computer resources, and facilities maintenance. By making a generous gift, you will help our deserving students embrace their intellectual curiosity in a learning environment filled with passion and perseverance, ensuring a successful and prosperous future this coming year and ultimately far beyond.

If you have any questions, please contact Kim O’Brien Green at by phone at 860-727-5015 or by e-mail at green.k@k-o.org. Thank you for your generosity toward Kingswood Oxford School!

Should you wish to make your gift by credit card or by stock transfer, please follow the instructions below:

trustees emeriti Sherry Banks-Cohn ’54, P ’78, ’82 Thomas J. Collamore ’77 Allen V. Collins P ’75, ’79, ’82, ’88 Richard S. Cuda P ’79, ’80 George L. Estes III ’67, P ’98 Karen K. Gifford ’62 Richard C. Hastings Jr. ’40, P ’78, GP ’09, ’12 J. Gregory Hickey Sr. ’47, P ’73, ’75, GP ’04 Lance L. Knox ’62 Eileen S. Kraus P ’84, ’95 Thomas D. Lips P ’93 James B. Lyon, Esq. ’48 E. Merritt McDonough ’51, P ’79, ’81 Louise Galt Pease ’50 Agnes S. Peelle P ’01, ’03 Anne Rudder P ’68 Peter G. Russell ’44, P ’77, ’80, ’82 Frederick D. Watkins P ’71, ’72 John A.T. Wilson ’56, P ’84, ’86 Martin Wolman P ’80, ’82, ’84, ’88

Stock gifts: Gifts of stock may be made directly to KO by following the School’s transfer instructions: Merrill Lynch, DTC No. 5198, Acct. No. 6JA-02096, 29 S. Main St., Suite 221, West Hartford, CT 06107. For more information, please contact Jennifer Hachey of Merrill Lynch toll free at 877-541-7788.

Credit card gifts: To make a gift by Visa or MasterCard, go to www.kingswoodoxford.org/giving.

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KO Magazine 170 Kingswood Road, West Hartford, CT 06119-1430 Change Service Requested

a lasting effect U.N. official Tony Banbury ’82, right, and Head of School Dennis Bisgaard join Ann “Doc” Serow, history department chair and senior faculty, in her class during Banbury’s visit to KO at the beginning of the 2010 school year. “It was the content of the classroom,” he said, “books, discussions, Doc Serow’s classes on the nature of society, the roles of governments and citizens and, in English classes, human traits and experiences. I didn’t think in high school that I wanted to go off and change the world, but I was developing those values in an unconscious way.”

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