Winter 2017 Deerfield Magazine

DE E RF I E LD M A G A Z I N E WINTER 2017

N E W A D / 9 TH G R A D E V I L L A G E / J O E L B A C H ’ 8 7 / T H E B A R N

v o l u m e 74 / 2

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Snow day?

No way!

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ALBANY ROAD

YEARS OF LIVING DANGEROUSLY

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18 FLEDGLING VILLAGE

deerfield.edu/pulse

VARSITY ROOKIE

Physics teacher Rich Calhoun demonstrates propulsion.

What a blast!

See the video at:

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THE BARN REDUX IN MEMORIAM

FIRST PERSON: ASHLEY PROUT M C AVEY ’92

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THE COMMON ROOM

ABOUT THE BARN

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We Need a Bigger Barn //

I was living in Field Dormitory my junior year when I first heard the hockey rink referred to as “the Barn.” Hailing from rural New England, IJessica knew quite Day well what a barn looked like, and squinting out the frosted window of Room Managing Editor206, I thought to myself, I guess that makes sense.

The low, grey-blue building that houses the ice rink is vertically boarded in wood, its paint cracked and wrinkled from age and exposure. A wooden eagle swoops just above the main entrance—like those that perch on mid-century door frames across the country. The single peak of its roof certainly resembles a barn, as does its frosty emptiness. Just like a barn, it only comes alive when the sun sets and the “animals” come in for the night, squawking and braying, happy to share togetherness and warmth.

If you remember the raucous din of the hockey rink—cheering at a random Friday night interscholastic game, or accompanying the barnyard-like amateur action of the IHL—you know what I mean.

Even today, the whole school shows up—mittened and cloaked, screaming and cheering, clapping and stomping—filled with the spirit and togetherness of Deerfield. The Barn was, and is, the place to be on a winter Friday night.

Through the years, the Barn has served other purposes as well. It’s a labyrinthine indoor track on rainy days. It’s an impromptu batting cage in the cold, early days spring. It’s a slick concrete tennis court when the Lower Level has flooded. It’s even gotten all dressed up for antique shows and tag sales. Like any good barn, it has adapted to every purpose and every season.

The versatility of the Barn, and the way it welcomes all comers and all purposes, is at the core of the Deerfield Experience. It’s a place where we have all been sent or drawn or brought at one time or another. It’s served its purpose well.

But since the Barn was built a half century ago, the school has grown, our programs have expanded, and the outside world has encroached on the Deerfield Experience with increasing tenacity.

(Those dang iPhones!) More than ever, it’s important that we invest in those places that bring our special community together. Put simply: we need a bigger Barn.

Read all about our plans for a new Barn beginning on page 40.

The athletics complex will include a field house, numerous exercise rooms, and, of course, a new hockey rink. It will stand in the footprint of the old Barn, and its exterior décor even features barn board! I’m sure that future students will find their own reasons and purposes for visiting, but I know that when I travel to the chilly hockey rink to clap and stomp and cheer from the stands, one observation will bring a smile to my face: It’s impossible to use an iPhone over the din of the crowd. //

David Thiel Director of Communications

Managing Editor

Production Coordinator

Multimedia Specialist

Art Director

Archivist

Director of Communications

Jessica Day

Cara Cusson

JR Delaney

Brent M. Hale

Anne Lozier

David Thiel

Editorial Office: Deerfield Academy, Deerfield, MA 01342. Telephone: 413-774-1860 communications@deerfield.edu Publication Office: Cummings Printing, Hooksett, NH. Third class postage paid at Deerfield, Massachusetts, and additional mailing office.

Deerfield Magazine is published in the fall, winter, and spring.

Deerfield Academy does not discriminate against any individual on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, transgender status, marital status, national origin, ancestry, genetic information, age, disability, status as a veteran or being a member of the Reserves or National Guard, or any other classification protected under state or federal law. Copyright © The Trustees of Deerfield Academy (all rights reserved)

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Cover + inside spread: Brent M. Hale

COMMENTS:

We asked for some help in identifying the year and the young men in an Archival photo on page 88 of the Fall ’16 issue of Deerfield Magazine, and received many (and varied!) responses—thank you! Who knew there would be such disparity? After comparing theories and cross-referencing that photo with numerous yearbook photos, we have come to the conclusion that it was taken sometime between 1979 and 1981, and that the gentlemen front and center are Chris Toll ’81 and his classmate Will Mann ’81. Thanks again for the enthusiastic response, and if you don’t agree with our final analysis, please do let us know!

I just wanted to add my voice to the chorus of praise for Deerfield Magazine. I get two college/university magazines that I barely look at, but I find myself looking at your magazine again and again. Keep up the good work!

Regarding that photo on page 88 of the fall issue of Deerfield, I can narrow the years.

It was definitely after 1956. Bobby Merriam would have sent those long-haired boys to the barber.

Lon Hill ’67 Corpus Christi, Texas

We receive your wonderful magazine as a past parent and a continuing small contributor annually. We think it is very well done and we compare to others we receive— Choate (yes, I was a Choatie and class agent there for 50 years), Belmont Hill, Middlesex, BB&N, Wheelock, Westminster, Harvard, and a few others. Having just finished reading your last outstanding issue, I have one cosmetic comment. While my eyesight is fine, I do find it difficult reading articles with dark print on dark colors—see pages 16 and 87 as examples. I hope you take this comment not as negative criticism but as a possible suggestion to make a great product even greater. Keep up the good work.

Jim Dwinell P ’85 Weston, Massachusetts

Merrill L. Magowan ’56 Hillsborough, California

Although we, the day students, ate downstairs, I believe the photo was in either '68 or '69 as I recognize Phelps McIlvane, Bruce Van Dusen, and Scott Johnson in the photo—all from my Class of '71.

Steven Kramer ’71 Mashpee, Massachusetts

I think I'm in the white jacket with green tie in the photo. To the right is Robert Magee ’72 and to my left is Geoffrey Griffin ’72.

Now my hair is thinning and "silvering." To all of us Deerfield Academy graduates, let your hair fly in your youth. Dare your hair and engage in your political activity! Now we are lucky to have any hair at all after the last US presidential election; as the saying goes, "politics = poly tricks." Love, peace, and unity—best regards, James Adams Babson, ’72 South Hadley, Massachusetts

PS If you are a "Tea Partier," I recommend green tea.

Photo looks like a Sunday lunch (tie and jacket required) and the person in tan jacket is Bayard Dodge, a fellow soccer player and classmate ’73 of mine.

Paul Austin ’73 Darien, Connecticut

Regarding, Vol 74, No. 1, the picture on page 88, “From The Archives,” of the Dining Hall: I believe it is from my years there. I recognize most people in it, so 1972 or 1973.

Roger Donenfeld MD ’73 Los Angeles, California

This is probably one of them rhetorical fishing traps, but I would say ’72 or ’73.

Look at the senior pictures in the ’73 yearbook.

Joseph T. Lamb III ’73 Kitty Hawk, North Carolina

I stumbled across the Archives photo on page 88 and believe it was taken during the 1974-75 school year. The lad with the big hair in the foreground and the fellow to his left I believe are Class of ’77 or ’76 (don’t remember their names without looking them up in a Pocumtuck). They look like I remember they looked like during my senior year. I expect you will get more definitive confirmation from others.

I think the pic on page 88 is from around 1974 or 1975. Coach Hanlon, my coach, is over on the right side. The guy with the short hair up front I believe is Rick Moore, who is from the Class of 1976. The teacher with the glasses, more or less in the middle, was a teacher in the mid-1970s. There ya go.

David Bennett ’76 Marana, Arizona

I may be mistaken, but I don't think I am...

Pretty sure that's me (Will Mann '81) with the blonde hair on the right, and Chris Toll '81 to my right with the crazy hair.

So that picture was taken sometime between ’79 to ’81. I was there sophomore through senior year. Fun stuff!

William Mann ’81 Malvern, Pennsylvania

Alex Stege ’75 Chandler, Arizona

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ALUMNI HOCKEY INVITATIONAL / JANUARY 21, 2017 PHOTOS: STEPHANIE CRAIG / MORE AT: FLICKR.COM/PHOTOS/DEERFIELDALUMNI

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BY NATHANIEL READE

VARSITY ROOKIE WHEN BOB HOWE, DEERFIELD’S NEW ATHLETIC DIRECTOR, CONCLUDED HIS 12-VARSITY-LETTER CAREER

Lacrosse and hockey courtesy of Loomis Archives; portrait: Brent Hale

at Loomis Chaffee in 1979 and headed off to Hamilton College, he planned to make the varsity squads his freshman year in soccer, hockey, and lacrosse. Soccer, check; he played center-mid for the varsity. When the team went to the playoffs, however, he lost two weeks of potential ice time. He tried out for varsity hockey but was rusty, and he got cut.

The way Howe reacted to this setback augurs well for the future of DA athletics.

“I was so mad about it,” Howe says, “that I didn’t go home for Thanksgiving break. I stayed at Hamilton, worked out, played JV all of December, showed the coaches what I could #12 LAX days do, and got called up in January to the varsity (opposite) and team. I was instantly put on the second line, #21 hockey and I think I scored 12 goals that season.” He at Loomis; in the AD went on to a total of 12 varsity letters and Office at Deerfield became captain of Hamilton’s soccer, hockey, and lacrosse teams his junior and senior years.

“I liked the sport so much that I didn’t stop, I worked really hard to prove myself, and I got the opportunity,” Howe says. “It’s a great reminder that you should never fold your tent.”

Howe was a faculty kid at Loomis. His mother started out as the librarian and became the head girls’ dean when the school went co-ed.

Mr. Howe in his office.

His father ran both the physical plant and the admissions office before becoming associate head of school. Both of his parents worked there for 39 years.

Howe loved studying American history, and, of course, playing sports. “Throughout high school,” he says, “I remember how good the Deerfield teams were. We hadn’t beaten Deerfield in lacrosse in many, many years.”

Don’t hold it against him, but he says that “one of the highlights of my high school career came on the lacrosse field near the end of my senior year:” Loomis beat Deerfield seven to six in overtime, and Howe scored five of those goals.

All three of Howe’s siblings graduated from college and became prep-school teachers. “I swore I would never do that,” he says. “I was the outlier of the family.” So he took a summer job in Putney, Vermont, banging nails for a house-builder. He liked it so much that in 1987 he started his own company, Howe Builders.

“I loved the learning,” Howe says, “and I loved being outdoors, working with people, and planning things so perfectly that, for instance, the materials arrived at the right time. At that period in my life it was great.”

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8 | VARSITY ROOKIE

Howe’s accidental path back to boarding schools began when he built a home for Drew Casertano, head of the Millbrook School, in Millbrook, NY, who had been a history teacher and lacrosse coach at Loomis. In 1992 Millbrook was about to construct a $10 million athletic complex, and Casertano asked Howe to oversee the project. Attracted to the challenge, Howe agreed, and served as Millbrook’s head of physical plant and varsity hockey coach until 2004. He then applied to be athletic director at Loomis, and served in that role until he, his wife, and their four daughters moved to Deerfield in the summer of 2016.

“There are two important things I learned along the way,” Howe says. “One, you’re only as good as the team you surround yourself with. We have great talent at Deerfield. The second thing is, never underestimate people skills. If we can manage people and treat them right, we can do anything we want. I enjoy working with people, and my transition from house builder to physical plant director to athletic director had a lot to do with that love of management. I love working with coaches the same way I loved working with plumbers and electricians. People need to know that you’ll roll up your sleeves and work with them, and not just give them directions. It’s listening to them, figuring out how to make their life easier, understanding the floor plan and the finished product, and working together towards common goals. It’s all part of being a good team.”

Chip Davis, Howe’s predecessor at DA, also taught history and economics, but Howe will be a full-time athletic director supported by a new Sports Information Director (see page 10).

“My goal,” Howe says, “is to move the program forward but not change the school. There’s great potential and desire here to be better. So combined with the support we’re getting from the administration, there’s no reason why we can’t improve.”

Howe’s plan begins with requiring that coaches bring more prospective athletes to admissions. “Being a head varsity coach has changed dramatically in the last ten years,” he says. “Your success now depends heavily on your ability to get out, meet people, and get kids to look at your school. Recruiting shouldn’t be a dirty word, especially if you’re finding student-athletes who really fit Deerfield.” To meet this requirement, Howe expects his varsity coaches to network more with premier club teams and alumni. “We need to widen our margins and targets of who we talk to,” he says, “and get more kids interested in coming here.”

He also wants to improve Deerfield’s effort at the other end of an athlete’s experience: college placement. “Parents want to know where their kids will go after they play at Deerfield,” Howe says. “In today’s changing landscape, to be a varsity coach you have to have connections with college coaches. Our coaches talk to a lot of college coaches now on behalf of our students, and our coaches and our college office work well together.”

Deerfield Academy: Brent Hale

Above: Sports Information Director Carly Barbato (see page 10) and Bob Howe strategize the game plan.

Right: Taking in the Choate Day bonfire.

My goal is to move the program forward but not change the school.

There’s great potential and desire here to be better. So combined with the support we’re getting from the administration, there’s no reason why we can’t improve.

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Prospective students can now go to a team page and learn a lot about it: really get a sense of the team, the team culture, the current players, and the coaches.

They can also watch a little bit of the team in action via the videos we’ve posted.

It’ll give them a snapshot of what being a Deerfield athlete is all about.

deerfield.edu/athletics

Carly Barbato /

Sports Information Director More sports information means more sports community Carly Barbato, Deerfield’s new sports information director, moved here last summer with her husband, Brian, the new varsity football coach. Her job focuses on sharing scores and news about the teams with students, parents, alumni, and prospective applicants.

Improving the quality and quantity of DA’s sports information, she says, will help strengthen Deerfield’s athletics community.

Barbato grew up in Ottawa, Ontario, played goalie for the Saint Lawrence University varsity soccer team, and then coached soccer at Loyola Maryland and University of New Hampshire, where she also provided support to student athletes.

The key to her work at Deerfield, she says, is an expanded website (deerfield.edu/ athletics). Besides posting scores, Barbato solicits a game report from each coach and posts it to the site. She has also instituted a new feature that highlights an “Athlete of the Week” for each team, from fourths to varsity. “This isn’t necessarily the MVP,” Barbato says. “Maybe it’s an unsung hero who’s doing the right thing and doing it well, or doing the small things that contribute to their team. It’s a great way to recognize our players, and the athletes really appreciate it.”

The website also has expanded coverage of alumni athletes and more information about each team. This allows students, faculty, and alumni to stay involved, and it also potentially improves the program by enticing would-be applicants. “Suppose, for instance,” Barbato says, “prospective students are interested in our girls hockey team.

They can now go to the team page and learn a lot about it: really get a sense of the team, the team culture, the current players, and the coaches. They can also watch a little bit of the team in action via the videos we’ve posted. It’ll give them a snapshot of what being a Deerfield athlete is all about.”

10 | VARSITY ROOKIE

Another addition to the site that has proved popular with those unable to attend games in person is the live-streaming. “This fall we broadcast six varsity contests live from the website,” Barbato says. “You can be on your couch at home, watching your team compete.

We had great viewership of those events, so we’re going to continue that into the winter sports as well, and offer a live-stream event for each of our varsity sports.” Live-streaming is accessible through a tab on each team’s athletic schedule, via a direct link.

The expanded website, the live-streaming, and the increased sports information, Barbato says, all adds up to an enhanced program that “makes it easier for all our community members to feel as though they are part of the action.” //

Some of Deerfield’s peer schools have responded to the increased level of challenge in varsity sports by hiring outside coaches who are specialized in one sport. “We hope not to go there,” Howe says. “Outside coaches are less likely to understand the ethos and culture of the school, and the rhythm of the term.

I love the triple-threat model. It’s the essence of our school. To have a teacher who is a coach who is involved in dorm life is really important to the experience of kids who come to Deerfield. Teachers who are coaches understand which weeks are tough here and which ones aren’t so bad. They understand the discipline system here, and the Dining Hall hours.

It’s all integrated.”

Because he is asking more of varsity coaches, Howe wants to “really look at how we take care of our triple-threat people. How can the Athletic Department relieve coaches of the responsibilities that surround their sport so they can do more coaching? If they’re putting in long hours in the evening talking to college coaches or planning a spring trip to a tournament, how can we alleviate some other part of their schedule? Can we relieve the hockey coach of a fourth class in the winter? Or help the football coach by taking them off weekend duties? To have sports that are competitive, we’re going to need coaches to put in those hours.

But then we need to help them in other ways.”

Another hurdle Deerfield faces with its athletics program, Howe says, is its “rural” location. Athletes at Loomis, for instance, have lots of off-season opportunities to play club hockey or fall baseball, thanks to the greater population of the Hartford area. He is therefore already reaching out to area club teams not only for recruitment purposes but to create more opportunities for Deerfield students to get the off-season sports opportunities they may crave.

Howe is also a fan of the multi-sport athlete, in large part because he learned so much from that experience. “Specialization is part of our culture nowadays,” he says, “and for some kids it does make sense. But for the majority, playing multiple sports actually makes them better in their primary sports.

Below: Bob Howe and Gordie Howe (no relation), “Mr. Hockey”—at the Loomis rink dedication, 1978.

And it’s good to play a non-primary sport for fun, or to experience the different roles.

Sometimes you learn as much on the end of the bench as you do being a superstar.

“I had to learn how to adapt, playing different roles on three different teams,” Howe says, “and I think that taught me the skills I needed to persist when I didn’t make the cut at first for varsity hockey in college.”

Howe also believes that Deerfield athletics will get a huge boost from the new facility that is in the works. (see page 40) Built on the footprint of the current hockey rink, it will have a turf field and an elevated running track above a new rink, a tank room so crew teams will be able to row in water, a golf simulating room, and multiple exercise spaces.

“It shows commitment to athletics, which parents want to see,” Howe says, “and it allows us greater capacity to have indoor, year-round practice space for out-of-season sports. The new indoor spaces will help kids who want to practice baseball batting, lacrosse, kicking a soccer ball in the winter. It’ll give our spring teams a viable practice space in bad weather. Right now we might have 36 kids packed into our fitness center during practices. This will double the space for weight training and fitness workouts. Overall, this allows us the space to do better work with our students, and more work, and allows them to practice more on their own time. It’s going to be a game-changer.”

Ramping up Deerfield’s athletics, Howe says, “is going to be a team effort. The administration is on board. The coaches are raising their level. We’re going to work really hard to get more high-profile athletes into our admission pool. It’ll be step by step, with little things adding up to a lot. Instead of setting our goal on championships to start, for instance, we’re setting our goals on really positive team culture. That’s first and foremost. When you start with that, the wins will start stacking up.”

Does this mean we can expect that from now on DA will crush his two-time alma mater, Loomis, in all matters athletic?

“Give us a couple years,” Howe says, chuckling. “But yeah. That’s the plan.” //

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SHOW YOUR WORK

THE STUDENTS: LULU FANJUL ’18 + LILY LOUIS ’18

THE ADVISOR: MERCEDES TAYLOR

THE ASSIGNMENT: Curate an exhibition drawn from the permanent collection of the University of Massachusetts (Amherst) Museum of Contemporary Art

Juniors Lulu and Lily joke that they’ve grown up with the von Auersperg Gallery. It opened when they were ninth-graders, and from serving as tour guides to now curating an entire exhibit, the duo really has been a part of “team gallery” since day one.

l: Lulu and Lily in the gallery with Mercedes Taylor.

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This winter Lily and Lulu put together Art & Activism thanks to the Academy’s partnership with the University of Massachusetts. Drawing on a large portion of the University’s permanent collection, the girls selected key pieces and organized them into a circular narrative: healing; the individual; government and power; community; and healing. “The idea,” Lily says, “is that you enter—that you’re welcomed by a bold statement—a Jenny Holzer photograph: ‘Whatever you say reverberates, whatever you don’t say speaks for itself. So either way you’re talking politics,’ projected on City Hall, London. Then you go through the exhibit, which is meant to be a type of healing and a study of humanity, and conclude with a peaceful, softer piece, “Prayer”

by Richard Yarde. The idea is that you bring healing and that you leave with healing.”

One of the center pieces of Art & Activism, pictured right, is “Chevis II” by Dawoud Bey. Inspired by protests around the 1969 Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibit “Harlem on My Mind” and the photography of James VanDerZee, Bey began making photographs at the age of 16. Beginning in the early 1990s, he used a rare 250-pound 20x24 Polaroid camera to produce a series of portraits in a grid formation. “Including this piece speaks to making the invisible visible and dignifying people through art,” Lulu explains.

Additional pieces in the exhibit include work by the South African photographer David Goldblatt, known for his portrayal of the country during apartheid; Hans Haacke’s “Tiffany Cares;” and Yun Fei-Ji’s classical Chinese landscapes featuring contemporary issues, among others.

Lily and Lulu placed Ann Messner’s “Du Bois: the FBI Files”—a 530 page scroll—in the center of the gallery. A powerful physical reminder of how Du Bois was classified as an “enemy of the state” in his 80s, the heavily redacted files are now returned to the community as art. “We placed them right in the middle of ‘community,’ says Lily, “a reminder of the individual in power and the power of returning this information about the individual to the community.” Or as Messner described the piece: “. . . removal of the removal, the cutting out to cancel, to void the space of redaction, perhaps an act of futility, nevertheless stands as a small gesture, a nod in recognition of what we lose when we do not allow the space for dissent, when we condemn to silence what is different.”//

t: MLK Day workshop in the gallery m: Discussing "Chevis II" b: Ann Messner’s “Du Bois: the FBI Files”

ART & ACTIVISM runs through February 27. More information at: deerfield.edu/gallery Upcoming in the gallery: Deerfield student exhibition (April 2 – May 1, 2017) / Digital Prints by Peter Kemble (May 9 – June 12, 2017)

2016 HERITAGE AWARD

ARTHUR "ARCHIE" ROBERTS ’61

Recipient

Arthur “Archie” Roberts ’61, MD, was welcomed back to campus in late November as the 2016 Heritage Award recipient. During his School Meeting presentation, he shared with students, faculty, and staff an anecdote about the moment when he realized that Deerfield was a truly special place: it came during a varsity baseball practice, when Headmaster Frank Boyden, at that time an octogenarian, insisted on teaching the boys how to bunt.

“It showed me how much he cared,” Roberts said. Adding that the unspoken yet clear message was: “This is a special place, a special man, a special school.”

An outstanding student and athlete, Roberts was a one-year senior from Holyoke, MA, who told students that he expects them to “do what he did” but in their own way. He said that they will find their own “channels and energy and enthusiasm,” and with the help and direction they receive at Deerfield, they are sure to be successful.

The Heritage Award has been presented annually since 1983 to an alumnus whose professional and personal achievements have contributed to the betterment of society. A video of Roberts’ presentation may be watched here: vimeo.com/193754094 and his Heritage Award citation reads as follows: You entered Deerfield as a senior and quickly made your mark, playing varsity football, basketball, and baseball. The 1961 Pocumtuck, characterizing your Deerfield days, observed: “His athletic prowess and academic alertness were exceeded only by his modesty.”

At Columbia University, you were a pre-med student and a three-letter athlete. As a quarterback—among “the best I’ve ever seen,” said your coach, Buff Donelli—you lit up the gridiron, setting 17 school and 14 Ivy League records. Voted first-team All-Ivy three times, you also played full-time on defense and served as the team’s punter.

You excelled as a baseball player as well, earning All-American shortstop honors in your senior year, batting .386 and leading the nation in runs batted in. Offers from professional clubs soon followed.

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Your success was astonishing and your potential seemingly limitless, but what most impressed your fans and teammates were not statistics or victories, but your humility, hard work, and generosity of spirit. The values by which you were raised—values reinforced at Deerfield—guided you both on and off of the field.

In 1965 you received the Nils V. “Swede” Nelson Award for Sportsmanship at a ceremony in Boston attended by Mr. Boyden, who followed your career with enthusiasm. “We all take great pride in his achievements,” the Headmaster said. “As a student here, he represented the highest standards of the Academy.”

After Columbia, you spent two seasons with the Cleveland Browns, while also attending medical school, and played briefly for the Miami Dolphins.

Having fulfilled a childhood dream of becoming an NFL quarterback, you then pursued, in earnest, a career in medicine.

As a renowned cardiac surgeon, you performed more than 5000 open heart surgeries, published over 120 peer-reviewed articles, and wrote five books. You have trained and mentored thousands of young physicians and held posts at leading institutions, including Boston University, where you were Professor and Chairman of Cardiothoracic Surgery.

Among other honors, you received the National Football Foundation Distinguished American Award in 2011, and the American Heart Association Humanitarian Award in 2012.

The founder of the Living Heart Foundation, you now travel the country, working with physicians, hospitals, NFL players, and the public to combat cardiovascular disease and obesity. The Foundation was recognized for its efforts to evaluate the health of Ground Zero rescue workers shortly after 9/11.

In a life defined by integrity, accomplishment, and devotion to others, you exemplify the Academy’s motto, BE WORTHY OF YOUR HERITAGE. Deerfield is proud to count you among its alumni and honored to present you with the Heritage Award. //

Deerfield Academy Archives; Brent M. Hale

Heart & Soul

Long-term Investments A REPORT BY ASSOCIATE HEAD OF SCHOOL FOR OPERATIONS AND CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER KEITH FINAN With the successful conclusion of the Imagine Deerfield campaign in June of 2015, one would think the campus would have seen a slower, calmer pace in 2016. However, that was not the case, as many areas of the Academy were implementing new or improved program initiatives thanks to the funding provided by Imagine Deerfield donors. It was an exciting and productive year.

Among other initiatives, there is now a full-time coordinator of the Innovation Lab who works with students, primarily, as well as faculty on a wide range of projects—including educational (and fun!) events such as this February’s snowball catapult design competition. Athletic coaches have more time and resources to identify and attract young scholar athletes, so the Admission process is buzzing. And while the Boyden Library renovation was completed in time for the return of students and faculty in January last year, the on-going reinvestment in the physical plant on campus continued; for instance, addressing a growing interest in sustainable agriculture, a second greenhouse was constructed on campus, and now we regularly eat produce that students have helped to grow for the Dining Hall!

For quite some time we have recognized the fact that one of the structures on campus in greatest need of modernization is the hockey rink, and last spring efforts were focused on the planning and design of a new Athletics Complex to replace “the Barn” and add a muchneeded field house to campus. That initial work—creating an affordable design, acquiring permits, and completing the underground infrastructure—will allow us to prepare for building the complex after our ice hockey season ends in March. For more details on the Athletics Complex, see page 40.

It is a delicate balance between responsible investment and reinvestment in the campus physical plant and the long-term financial stability of the Academy; it is also critical to provide the spaces and programs needed to allow our students to thrive in all areas of their academic, social, and athletic development, and to maintain those spaces in a safe and up-to-date condition. Through the generosity of many donors, the Academy is in a position to address these needs with an on-going systematic and financially cautious approach.

The performance of the financial markets in our fiscal 2015/16 year was a sobering reminder of how vigilant the Academy must remain in using its resources wisely; while Imagine Deerfield enhanced the financial well-being of the Academy to keep our programs up-to-date and excellent, the returns in the financial markets reminded us of the necessity to be efficient with our resources. Operating Budget

expenditures in 2015/16 were $52.8 million (net of financial aid), a 6.2 percent increase from the prior year. This increase was the planned expansion to the Academy’s programs resulting from campaign initiatives and funding. Spending on instruction, student support (excluding financial aid), and reinvestment in the physical plant , with increases of 11.6 percent, 8.1 percent, and 5.9 percent respectively drove the overall increase—as intended by our campaign goals and donors.

Growth in expenditures on general administration and institutional grew by 2.1 percent. Happily, even with the 6.2 percent rate of increase in Operating Budget, an outstanding year of strong support for the Annual Fund (including an impressive 52 percent rate of participation among alumni) resulted in less endowment support for Operations than was budgeted. Returning unused endowment allocations to the investment pool is critical to the long-term success of the Academy.

On a per student basis, Deerfield trails its closest competitors, Exeter (by $266,000), Andover (by $72,000), and St. Paul’s (by $229,000).

Each $100,000 of endowment per student equates to $4,000 of available funds per student to support operations.

Total assets of the Academy, as of June 30, 2016, were $799 million down from $838.7 million at June 30, 2015. Net assets declined by $39.7 million to $729.2 million as of June 30, 2016. This loss came about as a result of the challenges in the financial markets last year.

Despite the careful guidance of the Endowment Committee, led by Brian Simmons P’12,’14, the Academy’s investment pool suffered a 3.97 percent loss for the year. This was a hair better than the blended benchmark. Over the last three years the return on the investment pool has exceed the benchmark by two percent and over the last five and seven years by more than three percent with the seven year return averaging 9.5 percent while maintaining a conservative risk profile. Investments and perpetual trusts ended the year with a market value of $502.7 million, a decrease of $29.5 million from 2014/15.

Despite the setback in the financial markets last year, the underlying financial condition of the Academy is still strong and envied by most of our peers. This strength is a result of the decades of support by alumni, parents, and friends of the Academy. To each of these donors we owe both our gratitude and our commitment to be judicious and prudent with the resources they have entrusted to us to provide an exceptional education for our students for generations to come. We take this responsibility seriously, and thank you for your gifts and your support. //

NEXT: Statement of Activities & Statement of Financial Position

15

Trustees of Deerfield Academy

Statement of Financial Position Assets Cash and cash equivalents Restricted cash Receivables: Student loans and accounts receivable, net of allowance of $487,500 in 2016 and $448,300 in 2015 Investment interest and dividends Due from brokers Other receivables Contributions receivable, net Charitable remainder unitrusts and other deferred gifts Inventories Prepaid expenses Investments Beneficial interest in perpetual trust Land, buildings and equipment, net Deferred expenses Total Assets

FOR THE YEAR ENDED JUNE 30, 2016; WITH COMPARATIVE TOTALS FOR THE YEAR ENDED JUNE 30, 2015

2016

2015

$22,147,156 659,203

$27,152,792 674,513

570,686 127,618 2,618,263 367,904 63,360,596 4,335,431 405,156 1,097,429 485,251,230 17,484,393 199,994,376 556,786

405,930 129,424 39,645 373,196 81,876,586 5,284,071 387,763 992,334 513,627,142 18,616,452 188,509,202 584,398

$798,976,227

$838,653,448

$5,046,805 2,680,408 3,743,291 54,318,017 494,300 3,464,975 69,747,796

$5,960,616 152,440 3,841,146 55,926,878 476,887 3,413,246 69,771,213

283,179,493 246,592,452 199,456,486 729,228,431

279,719,035 280,666,579 208,496,621 768,882,235

$798,976,227

$838,653,448

Liabilities and Net Assets Liabilities Accounts payable and accrued liabilities Due to brokers Life income obligations Bonds payable Bond interest payable Deferred income Total Liabilities Net Assets Unrestricted Temporarily restricted Permanently restricted Total Net Assets Total Liabilities and Net Assets

16 | ALBANY ROAD

Trustees of Deerfield Academy

Statement of Activities Revenues, Gains, and Other Support

FOR THE YEAR ENDED JUNE 30, 2016; WITH COMPARATIVE TOTALS FOR THE YEAR ENDED JUNE 30, 2015

2016

2015

$34,674,930 (9,583,230) 25,091,700 1,081,512 26,173,212 1,923,234 (21,761,938) 1,514,104 5,324,098 13,172,710

$32,760,987 (8,591,623) 24,169,364 1,037,294 25,206,658 1,821,536 29,921,605 1,246,867 62,989,926 121,186,592

12,593,609 5,906,694 474,996 8,116,496 11,900,508 7,539,229 6,294,982 52,826,514

11,280,512 5,462,864 511,193 7,662,222 12,215,292 6,811,231 5,721,700 49,665,014

Change in Net Assets

(39,653,804)

71,521,578

Net Assets – Beginning of Year

768,882,235

697,360,657

$729,228,431

$768,882,235

Student income: Tuition and fees Less financial aid Net tuition and fees School stores Net student income Interest and dividends Net realized and unrealized gains (losses) Other income Gifts and bequests Total revenues, gains, and other support

Expenditures Instruction Student support Summer programs Operation and maintenance of physical plant General administration General institutional Depreciation and amortization Total expenditures

Net Assets – End of Year

17

Bailey Cheetham ’19 is a sweetheart. Students and faculty alike say so. A bubbly, easygoing tenth-grader, she’s got such an approachable attitude you’d assume that she’d never worry about making friends, but when she arrived on campus in the fall of 2015, even Bailey was a little nervous. After all, the first year of boarding school can be daunting. But what she didn’t realize was that things were going to be quite different this year than in years past. Bailey was going to live in the “Ninth-Grade Village”—aka Johnson and Doubleday—two dorms slightly off the beaten track from the rest of campus that are connected to each other by a large common room, the Crow. She was going to live there with all the other first-year students—boys and girls. And only the first-year students.

This was going to be an adventure.

fledge fledged; fledging of a young bird intransitive verb : to acquire the feathers necessary for flight or independent activity; also : to leave the nest after acquiring such feathers

18

BY NAOM I SHUL MAN

Fledgling Village

19

FJ Gaylor Photography

“Healthier gender relations across campus was really the impetus,” Sherburne says. Part of this dynamic, she points out, is intrinsic to boarding schools: It can be harder for boys and girls to form natural friendships due to a lack of access.

This may seem counterintuitive—after all, they’re around each other 24-hours a day, right? Well, not exactly. “You’re on teams with the same sex, you’re in dorms with the same sex; there wasn’t so much opportunity for boys and girls to establish friendships in an easy way,” Sherburne points out. “It was something that kept coming up over and over again.” Putting the ninth-graders together made sense, but only if it could be done in a way that allowed them a common area, which is why the only place that felt right was Johnson -Doubleday, with the Crow as connecting glue.

As part of a self-study for reaccreditation goals back in 2012, it became increasingly clear that some aspects of the “old boys” school culture were hanging on—and not necessarily for the better. “Just vestiges,” says Head of School Margarita Curtis, “but there were certain areas where the girls felt like second-class citizens.” A broader topic was a discussion of the dominant culture, the sense that perhaps not all students were equally affirmed or were developing the same sense of belonging. “So we thought about some mechanisms we could put in place to shift the culture incrementally in ways that didn’t feel artificial—that were organic,” says Dr. Curtis.

“Getting the ninth-graders to interact with each other and develop bonds between boys and girls would be a good way to develop greater bonds going up through the grades.”

20 | FLEDGLING VILLAGE

Given the opportunity to hang out in the Crow together, ninth-graders did indeed gather, Bailey among them—and sure enough, she made friends. “Living in the Village helped tremendously in fostering friendships of all kinds,” she says, “between boys and girls, but also girls and girls and boys and boys. When we were spread out on campus, it was hard to get to know who were ninth-graders and who weren’t. In the Village we became really tightly knit as a class.” She’s not certain if she met Mikey Holland and Ned Lynch in the Crow—it may have been in physics, or it might have been during a freshman feed. She doesn’t really remember anymore. But she is certain that they became close buds hanging out in the Crow. “Mikey had a lot of energy and was very crazy, and always funny, and Ned was also very funny and outgoing,” she recalls. “Neither of the friendships started instantly, but grew over time. We saw each other every day, talked every day about classes, practice, sit-down dinner, how much homework we have, everything like that.” She pauses. “I can’t imagine having friendships with boys like that in an all-girls dorm.” Which is precisely the point.

Amie Creagh, assistant head of school for student life, adds that the ninth-graders aren’t the only beneficiaries of the Village. It affects everyone else on campus, too—deliberately.

“New tenth-graders could sometimes find it difficult to integrate with returning sophomores, so we decided to house sophomores all together so they, too, would have the opportunity to cohere,” Creagh explains. Meanwhile, “for older students, offering them far more singles would allow them the time and space and location to have focused study in single rooms, as opposed to doubles.” Now, in all grades, boys and girls live across from each other—not in quite as connected a configuration as the Village, but in close enough proximity that as the grades move up, friendships formed as ninth-graders can continue to thrive through the years.

David A. Thiel

It wasn’t just an adventure for the students. It was a bit of one for the school, too. “There was a fair amount of pushback when we first announced the change,” admits Rebecca Sherburne, assistant dean of students and faculty resident in Johnson. “For one thing, it was the most desirable housing for junior and senior boys. Everyone wanted to live there!

So rising junior and senior boys were not for it, and there was a lot of scrutiny.” It was a radical change; feelings were going to run high, but it was also an idea whose time, many on campus felt, had come.

The point of the Village was not to upend junior and senior boys, but rather to nurture the incoming ninth-grade boys—and girls.

Johnson-Doubleday’s secret weapon is a shared common space that connects the two dorms—the Crow Commons—aka “the Crow.” A bright space with a huge TV and a (loud!) stereo system, the Crow is nearly unique; the only other places students can easily congregate after hours are the Greer or the Louis Cafe in the Koch Center. Certainly no other dorm on campus has a set-up like this, and since last fall, it’s dedicated to ninth-graders—and to them alone.

We thought about some mechanisms we could put in place to shift the culture incrementally in ways that

didn’t feel artificial_that were organic.

Getting the ninth-graders to interact with each other and develop bonds between boys and girls would be a good way to develop greater bonds going up through the grades. _Dr. Curtis

“It was a painstaking, long process with foresight and committee meetings and a careful rollout,” Creagh says. Two advisory groups— one comprised of adults and one of students— were involved. Prior to that stage, though, the administration wanted to see how peer schools were coping with similar gender and inclusivity issues. “We talked to other schools about what worked and what didn’t,” says Creagh. “Andover has a similar model to ours, and more and more schools are going this way. Our counseling staff also helped us with where kids are developmentally—how best to meet them where they are to usher the process through,” she adds.

Now, almost 18 months later, it is apparent that something’s shifted on campus, and Creagh sees it most clearly in the current ninth-graders and the tenth-graders. “Members of other classes notice it too,” she says. “They’re close, and that’s always been a hallmark of the Deerfield Experience—close friendships—but now it’s expanded to include friendships between boys and girls—that’s relatively new.”

Tenth-grader Mikey Holland—that boy who Bailey described as “very crazy”—says his close friendships are split “about half and half” between the genders, and he thinks that’s different from how it used to be, in years past.

“The cool thing is, you don’t have to look for a relationship when you’re all in the same boat,” he says. “If you meet a girl going through the same social, academic, and athletic pressures, you can bond across genders as easily as you can with the same gender,” he points out.

“You’re not separated from them, because you can talk in the Crow or the cafe or walking in the quad and it’s not weird. Before, a boy and

21

Kids get to define what Deerfield means to them as a class rather than having older kids define it for them.

22 | FLEDGLING VILLAGE

top + right: David A. Thiel; bottom left: FJ Gaylor Photography

girl walking together would usually mean they’re dating; that social pressure is revoked—in a good way.”

Another important shift in social norms has less to do with dating and more to do with inter-class pressure, says Ivory Hills, a faculty resident in Doubleday both before and after the Village.

“I was going to continue to be a resident as it transitioned, so I was part of the team that got together to think hard about how that would be different for us,” he says. “Especially since some of us hadn’t lived with younger students before—myself being one of them.”

Hills notes that while the Village is definitely allowing for more natural cross-gender friendships to form, it’s opening up room for other kinds of social development, too.

“Gender relations is part of it, but an equally strong element is inclusion. We want every student at Deerfield, no matter where they come from, whatever dream or aspiration they have—we want them to be able to execute that,” he says. What he’s talking about, at bottom, is confidence—a key ingredient to build in any high school setting, but perhaps especially in a high-achieving environment like Deerfield. “One way to foster confidence is to allow students to feel comfortable; when a ninth-grader comes ‘home’ after a long day and is sitting next to a tenth-grader, are they relaxed? Or are they trying to impress?

Or after performing in class, are they now performing in their dorm?”

These may seem like small, imperceptible changes—a boy and girl hanging out comfortably during lunch, two ninth-graders letting their hair down more freely after class. But it’s these sorts of things that can have a major, long-term impact. “It will change the culture of the school if every student feels good about themselves,” Hills says. He’s seeing concrete examples. “A couple of ninth-graders tried out for the MellowDs, a male a cappella group.

They were so excited to try out; they were willing to jump in. I think they encouraged each other to try out in an obtuse way—one boy asked another boy, The tryout’s tonight, what to do you think? Oh, that’s cool, will you try out? Maybe. Okay, go for it!” Sounds normal enough, right? But this was actually the first time in years that any ninth-grade boys

had auditioned. There had been an unspoken rule that freshmen never got in—so they never tried. The Village protected these boys from that somewhat stifling “rule.” What if a tenth-grader had overheard the ninth-grade boys discussing the audition? “I can imagine a tenth-grader saying, Oh, you know, they only allow upperclassmen in the MellowDs. That would have terminated the conversation. It’s not like the tenth-grader would be trying to squash hopes and dreams—it’s just insider information. Just being cool. But it’s not true!

Anybody can try out.” And this year, three ninth-graders did.

Sam Savage, also a resident in Doubleday, knows exactly what Hills is talking about.

“Time will tell if sequestering the class is positive—but I think it is,” he says. “It’s letting them create an identity as individuals and as a class apart from the kind of thinking that is, ‘Hey, this is how we do things here.’ There’s a positive and a negative to that, and I think the positive outweighs the negative,” Savage says.

“Kids get to define what Deerfield means to them as a class rather than having older kids define it for them. Sure, there’s practical knowledge that’s helpful for older students to hand down, and sometimes where they’re out of line in legitimate ways it’s good to be told by a peer whom they respect that something’s not cool. But on the other hand, there can be an idea of it not being cool to extend yourself.

It can be disruptive to a kid’s identity when they’re told, implicitly or explicitly, this is how you should behave in this community.

Having the space to figure that out can be healthy. I’d rather have students be more confident than less confident.”

Still, peer-to-peer education is crucial, which is where proctor relationships come in.

“I think our proctors, our seniors who live with the ninth-graders, are such great role models and help fill in all those questions that kids have,” Sherburne says.

“Well, the ninth-graders are happy,” adds Maddie Blake ‘17, a proctor in Johnson. “The Village is a really great space, and really conducive to friendships between boys and girls.

That was a big issue my first year; there was a notorious gender divide—boys and girls weren’t friends, really. But in the Village, with the Crow, the entire grade is together all the time.”

Mikey backs up that assertion. “I know for previous classes it was awkward the first few months to have a relationship with someone of the opposite gender—just getting to be friends. It’s so much easier with the Crow,” he says. “You’re not stuck in your dorm—stuck with just boys.”

On the other hand, Blake admits that being one of a couple older students in the dorm puts more of an onus on her than it might have in years past. Her first year, she might have turned to a tenth-grader with questions on this or that. “We proctors do have more weight on us. The sophomores aren’t there to lean on,” she says. “Proctees who have a question about anything Deerfield-related—they come to me or my co-proctor, so that’s a pretty big change.” But a friendlier, more accepting environment where everyone has greater opportunity to feel welcome is worth it to her.

“Take last Saturday night,” Blake says. “Here was a huge portion of the ninth-grade class sitting together and laughing together. Little spontaneous moments of fun are happening.

I wish I’d had what they have for my freshman year,” Blake reflects. “A huge, spontaneous movie night the kids had set up? That would never have happened when we were scattered in different dorms in separate buildings.”

As for Bailey Cheetham, now a tenth-grader, those comfortable, impromptu gatherings aren’t happening as much as they used to, and she has to admit she kind of misses it. Sophomore year is going great, don’t get her wrong.

But still, sometimes Bailey thinks back to how easy socializing was in the Village. “If I were bored in my dorm, people would be like, Hey, let’s go to the Crow, and there’d be just anyone there, and we’d stay and hang out,” she muses.

She thinks back to that first day, when she was still feeling jitters. “At home it had been so easy to make friends, and I’d been pretty worried at the thought of not being able to make new friends at Deerfield. Before stepping onto campus, I wasn’t sure how easy it was going to be, but the transition was so much easier than I thought it was going to be because I was surrounded by both girls and boys who were all in the same position as me.”//

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Caroline Stedman / Varsity Basketball BEHIND THE BENCH

b y B o b Yo r k

24 | ALBANY ROAD

Alissa Rothman, managing news editor of Amherst College’s newspaper, The Amherst Student, wrote a feature about Caroline Stedman during the spring of her senior (2012) year. The very first word of that story gives the reader a sneak peek of what they are about to learn about Stedman. That first word? Overachiever.

As the winner of the college’s Psi Upsilon Award, which is presented annually to the senior “considered preeminent in scholarship, leadership, athletics and character,” Stedman carried a double major in economics and Spanish. In addition, she served as a research assistant in Amherst’s economics department and volunteered at the college’s Center of Community Engagement, which took her to Costa Rica the summer prior to her junior year to help promote literacy throughout the country.

As for athletics, which she somehow found time for, Stedman helped take the Amherst women’s basketball team to four straight Division III Final Four berths, including a National Championship her junior year and an overall four-year record of 124-8. Individual laurels were also numerous, and included three All-New England Small College Athletic Conference selections, being named NESCAC Player of the Year twice, a Final Four MVP pick the year Amherst won the national title as well as being named Player of the Year that same season by the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association.

“In my mind, there are three key factors you need to know in order to be a successful coach...First, you need to know the game. Second, you need to know what it takes to make your team as successful as possible, and third, you need to know how much you can realistically ask of your players to do.”

Brent M. Hale; J. Anthony Roberts, Masslive

Stedman, who finished fifth on the school’s all-time scoring charts with 1256 points and fourth in steals with 188, pushed the reset button following graduation, however. She’s still holding court, but as a coach, no longer as a player. This winter marks the fourth year she has been tutoring the Deerfield Academy girls varsity basketball team. The first two seasons as an assistant coach, the last two as head coach.

“I’m really excited about being a part of this program,” said Stedman. “We have a good core of players here who are focused and committed to the program and from a coach’s standpoint, you can’t ask for any more than that.”

Through her four years of tutoring Big Green girls basketball, Stedman admits to frequently reflecting on her experiences as a player in order to help her become a better coach.

“In my mind, there are three key factors you need to know in order to be a successful coach,” said Stedman. “First, you need to know the game. Second, you need to know what it takes to make your team as successful as possible, and third, you need to know how much you can realistically ask of your players to do.”

“I think many of the assets Caroline had as a player will serve her equally as well as a coach,” said G.P. Gromacki, Stedman’s mentor at Amherst.

“Whenever she stepped onto the court she was always a tremendous competitor as well as an outstanding leader. She wasn’t a rah-rah type of leader, either . . . she always led by example.”

Gromacki, who categorized Stedman as “one of the best women’s basketball players to ever play at Amherst College,” pointed out that prior to her senior season, “Caroline was unanimously voted team captain and the vote certainly came as no surprise . . . everyone on the team looked up to her.”

Although Stedman admits that basketball is the game she has always been the most passionate about, it’s not the only game she has made her mark in.

“I was originally planning on playing two sports when I got to Amherst— basketball, plus either soccer or lacrosse,” said Stedman, who was a fouryear starter in basketball as well as soccer and lacrosse at Walpole (MA) High School. “The problem was that at Amherst, the sports seasons overlapped and playing basketball during the winter season would have made it difficult to compete in soccer during the fall or lacrosse during the spring.

“I missed participating in three sports for the first time in my entire life,” added Stedman, “but the move did have a really positive effect on me because it marked the first time that I was really able to concentrate on a single sport for an entire year. Looking back, I’m happy I made that decision. I was able to play on some great teams, made some tremendous life-long friendships, and we all enjoyed incredible success.“ During her high school days at Walpole, which is a member of the highly competitive Bay State League, Stedman helped lead the Rebels to four straight tournament berths in basketball, where they earned a berth in the state finals her freshman year. She was voted captain of all three sports during her senior year and earned Bay State League All-Star honors in all three sports as well.

“This is kind of a special year for me here at Deerfield,” acknowledged Stedman. “I came here four years ago when this year’s group of seniors were freshmen; I’ve been able to watch them mature over the past three years as student-athletes. It’s my first opportunity, as a coach, to have worked with one class throughout a four-year span and I’m anxious to see how they finish the final chapter.”//

"STED-FAST" ACHIEVEMENTS PSI UPSILON AWARD WINNER which is presented annually to the senior “considered preeminent in scholarship, leadership, athletics and character” DOUBLE MAJOR in economics and Spanish THREE ALL-NEW ENGLAND Small College Athletic Conference selections NESCAC PLAYER OF THE YEAR twice MVP pick the year Amherst won the national title (2011) 2011 PLAYER OF THE YEAR Women's Basketball Coaches Association 1256 POINTS (5th on Amherst's all-time scoring charts) 188 STEALS (4th on Amherst's all-time scoring charts)

25

Tim McVaugh / Varsity Hockey BEHIND THE BENCH

Brent M. Hale

b y B o b Yo r k

26 | ALBANY ROAD

In order to get better collectively, you have to get better individually, and by that I mean you need to get to know your players on a one-on-one basis . . . learn what makes them tick . . . learn how to get the most out of every one of them.

“Excitement . . . Humility . . . Good fortune,” were the feelings Tim McVaugh remembers kicking in last spring when a Deerfield Academy search committee informed him that he was the last man standing in its quest to find the school’s next boys varsity hockey coach.

There must’ve been a sense of accomplishment as well. After all, for anyone who has ever joined the coaching club, the opportunity to become a head coach is a dream come true. For McVaugh, who spent the past seven years as an assistant coach, whose day job at Deerfield entails teaching US History and Global Environmental History, and whose nights are spent as a faculty resident in Johnson-Doubleday, a bit of anxiety still managed to mix with all the excitement. “I just hope when the Deerfield community thinks of me, it thinks of me as more than just being about hockey,” McVaugh says.

Well, no worries there, Tim. Deerfield’s search committee held McVaugh’s numerous contributions to the school in high esteem during their consultations, and in the end, they played an important role in making him a finalist for the position.

“Tim’s the consummate school person,” said Dean of Faculty John Taylor, who served on the search committee. “He’s always been willing to go the extra mile, whether it be in the classroom, the dorm or the hockey rink. He loves Deerfield Academy, he loves the kids, and he always wants what’s best for the school and its student-athletes.

“The only thing that gave us pause was that Tim lacked experience as a head coach, but he was a very strong candidate nonetheless, and we felt he deserved a shot at the job,” added Taylor. “He’s a confident and competitive young man with a great deal of youthful vitality who wants to be successful. He wanted an opportunity to prove himself and had a detailed plan to improve the program and attract more talent. He made it an easy decision for us.”

McVaugh’s philosophy on building a successful program is “in order to get better collectively, you have to get better individually, and by that I mean you need to get to know your players on a one-on-one basis . . . learn what makes them tick . . . learn how to get the most out of every one of them.

“Brendan had a great way of assessing the kids individually . . . what their strong points were and what they need to work on” added McVaugh of former head coach Brendan Creagh, who stepped down last spring

S C O R E S / S TAT S / S T O R I E S

after joining the Big Green hockey staff in 1997. “And I’m planning on going about our practices the same way.”

McVaugh did admit, though, that getting to know his players this year hasn’t been as time consuming as in previous seasons.

“We have a great group of 12 seniors,” said McVaugh, “so heading in, we already had a good idea as to what their strengths and weaknesses were.

“Plus,” he added, “with that many seniors on the team, we’ll have plenty of experience and leadership, and as a coaching staff, that should make our jobs a lot easier.”

Prior to moving behind the Deerfield bench, McVaugh enjoyed an outstanding four-year career at Bowdoin College. As a senior captain he wrapped up his final campaign by leading the Polar Bears in scoring with 22 points on nine goals and 13 assists and was later voted the team’s Most Valuable Player. Overall, McVaugh, a 6’3”, 225-pounder, was a versatile enough skater to play both forward and defense.

“We often played a system at Bowdoin that featured two forwards and three defensemen,” explained McVaugh, who played a year of professional hockey in Germany before coming to Deerfield, “and under such a system, I was allowed to become a very offensive-minded defenseman and often moved up to became a third forward much of the time.”

It might sound a bit awkward, but the move not only paid dividends for McVaugh, it proved quite profitable for the Polar Bears, too. Individually, McVaugh closed out his career with 53 points in 65 games on 22 goals and 31 assists. As for the program, during McVaugh’s career at Bowdoin it chalked up a record of 66-28-9. More impressively, however, it earned postseason berths all four of his years there, the last three of which saw Bowdoin fall to Middlebury College in the New England Small College Athletic Conference Tournament finals.

As head coach, McVaugh is not only working closely with his players, but with his assistant coaches—Jan Flaska and Drew Philie ’09—as well.

“Brendan was always very supportive of me,” said McVaugh. “He included his assistant coaches in any discussions and decisions that concerned the team. I like that method . . . I think it’s important, game in and game out, that everyone be on the same page.”

So far, McVaugh’s game plan seems to be working quite well, if a 6-3 record and a 2016 Flood-Marr Tournament Championship (as of press time) are any indication.

Looking for additional stories and the latest Deerfield Athletics schedules and stats?

Visit the new and improved deerfield.edu/athletics for all these and more!

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Photograph courtesy of Joel Bach

Veteran television producer Joel Bach ’87 is not often caught off-guard by a story. When it comes to reporting on climate change, however, even the creator and executive producer of an epic documentary series on the subject can be shocked.

YEARS OF LIVING DANGEROUSLY

BY J U L I A E L L I OT T

Joel Bach (center) with actress Olivia Munn (far right) and the Years crew in Seattle.

29

For example: In “The Sixth Extinction,” a story from Years’ second season, comedian and former Daily Show “correspondent” Aasif Mandvi travels to Kenya, where he learns from Fiesta Warinwa, Kenya Director of the African Wildlife Foundation, that within ten to fifteen years, African elephants could be extinct as a result of climate change. And that’s not all: ecologist Doug McCauley tells Mandvi that the extinction of large mammals like elephants will lead to a population explosion among rodents and the insects they host, such as ticks and fleas, which are in turn vectors for diseases that are easily transmittable—and often deadly—to humans. “It’s unbelievable,” says a shocked Mandvi.

“It’s just unfathomable to me,” agrees Bach, describing his own surprise upon learning the full story. “We say, ‘Oh, how sad we would be to lose the elephants, the rhinos, and the hippos.’ But what actually may happen is that we may threaten our own existence. It doesn’t get any more terrifying or important than that. We’re in a race against time where the bad news is getting worse.”

A race against time became the organizing theme for the second season of Years of Living Dangerously, which aired in the fall of 2016.

In each episode, celebrity correspondents cross the globe, interviewing scientists, politicians, activists, and everyday citizens whose lives have been impacted by climate change. Supermodel Gisele Bündchen goes deep into the Amazonian rainforest in Brazil to document the destruction of “the lungs of the planet.” Former The Late Show host David Letterman visits India to report on how that country is confronting its inadequate energy grid. Saturday Night Live cast member Cecily Strong investigates what’s blocking the growth of solar energy in the U.S. Action hero Arnold Schwarzenegger travels to Kuwait to explore how the military perceives climate change. These are just a few of the stories told in Years of Living Dangerously. Shot in a sweeping cinematic style with a heavy dose of star-power, the series brings entertaining television to a devastatingly heavy topic.

30 | YEARS OF LIVING DANGEROUSLY

Weintraub started calling.

“He’d say, ‘Hey. It’s Jerry.

You’ve got Clooney.’ I’d say, ‘What do you mean we’ve got Clooney?’ He’d say, ‘I just had dinner with George Clooney in London and he wants to do it.’

He’d call a few days later.

‘You’ve got Cheadle. He’s in now.’

L: Joel Bach in California with actor Don Cheadle, who investigated how Governor Jerry Brown's administration is fighting the worst drought in CA in 1200 years while also fighting climate change.

R: Bach and action hero, politician, climate crusader, and Years' Executive Producer Arnold Schwarzenegger in Kuwait for the episode "National Insecurity."

Bach’s journey to creating the series began at age nine, when his father, a former CIA “case officer” was interviewed for an hourlong NBC News documentary, “Spying for Uncle Sam,” about his unhappy career as a spy—or, in his words, a professional liar and manipulator. Bach, who was born in Bolivia and lived for a time in Mexico before his father quit the CIA, remembers how “for weeks and weeks we had these NBC news crews in our house. I thought it was such a great way to make a living. I’ve gravitated towards journalism, filmmaking, and TV storytelling ever since.”

Photographs courtesy of Joel Bach

Louisiana native, environmental activist, and actor Ian Somerhalder (third from left) has been a Years' correspondent for seasons one and two. In addition to launching the Ian Somerhalder Foundation, which aims to empower, educate, and collaborate with people and projects to positively impact Earth and its creatures, Somerhalder serves on the advisory board of RYOT.org and co-founded Go Green Mobile Power.

After Mexico, Bach’s family moved to Carbondale, Colorado. Hiking, skiing, kayaking and other mountain sports were a part of daily life. He remembers that during the summers, he and his friends would look up at Mt. Sopris rising above their town and remark that there seemed to be less snow on the mountain every year. “It felt eerie,” Bach describes. “Who knows if it was climate change and the warming planet, but it just felt like something was wrong.” After ten years in the mountains of Colorado, the family moved again: this time to Deerfield, when Bach's father accepted a teaching position at the Academy. Bach’s deep respect for the environment was sealed during his junior and senior years at Deerfield, where the campus and the outdoors were an integral part of his experience.

Bach graduated from Brown University, where he studied modern culture and media.

His first internship after college was at NBC, working for a producer who happened to have been part of the crew of “Spying for Uncle Sam.” Bach also worked at ABC, and

directed commercials, music videos, and short films in Los Angeles and San Francisco.

He landed at 60 Minutes, where for seven years he produced stories for reporters such as Ed Bradley, Steve Kroft, and Leslie Stahl, won three Emmys, and covered a variety of issues. After producing several stories on climate change, such as the increasing frequency of wildfires and the fallacy of “clean coal,” however, Bach began to feel that this was “the ultimate story.” He started submitting story proposal after story proposal on climate change.

“It involves the most powerful business sectors on our planet,” he explains. “It is going to dramatically affect poor people around the world—it is going affect everyone on the planet to some degree. It is an issue mired in politics that is dividing and will continue to divide our country. Scientists know the climate is changing and that we are responsible, but they are still trying to understand how quickly it is happening and how bad it’s going to get. So, this is a story that continues to present new challenges,

and new research, and new understandings every year. As a storyteller and a journalist, there is nothing bigger.”

But Bach’s climate story proposals kept getting turned down. His higher-ups reminded him that no producer at 60 Minutes had a single beat; he needed to be nimble and cover a wide range of topics.

Thus began a series of lunch meetings between Bach and his colleague David Gelber.

“I learned everything I know about good storytelling and good reporting from him,” Bach says of Gelber, who had been a producer at 60 Minutes for twenty-five years. At a Greek restaurant around the corner from 60 Minutes, the two fantasized about creating a follow-up film to Al Gore’s 2006 climate change film An Inconvenient Truth. By combining Gelber’s journalism chops with Bach’s aesthetic, they knew they brought a strong partnership to the project, but in order to “get eyeballs on the issue,” they needed to come up with a creative approach to what some might see as a dry topic.

For years, Bach had wanted to translate

31

1 what he knew about working with 60 Minutes reporters into working with celebrities as correspondents. Celebrities are charismatic and already comfortable on camera, and, Bach reasoned, are sometimes more relatable than journalists. A celebrity could feel more like a proxy for the viewer. “They are going to ask the kind of questions you would if you were there,” explains Bach. “You’re there along for the ride with them. You’re rooting for Matt Damon or Harrison Ford as he tries to understand climate change.”

The only problem was that neither Bach nor Gelber knew any celebrities. Then, through a connection made by a college friend, they spent a decadent weekend at the Palm Springs estate of legendary Hollywood producer Jerry Weintraub. They ate hot dogs on his vast outdoor patio, watched movies in his private screening room, slept in the “Brad Pitt Suite,” and finally, after Weintraub canceled a golf game with Bruce Willis, presented their pitch. Bach and Gelber suggested ways they hoped Weintraub might be involved with the project. “Executive Producer—that sounds good. Put me down for that,” Bach remembers him saying. They left for the airport stunned and elated.

Weintraub’s final piece of advice that meeting was to go big. “If you want eyeballs, don’t make a movie,” he said, reasoning that no one would go to a theater to watch a movie on climate change, but they might tune in for a television series. Rethinking their film as a lengthier project allowed Bach and Gelber to consider collaborating with many more celebrities and climate change experts, and to telling many more stories. “It was critical,” says Bach, “because the bigger we went, the more people wanted to be involved, which seems obvious now but at the time it wasn’t.”

After Weintraub signed on, climate blogger Dr. Joseph Romm put Bach and Gelber in touch with director James Cameron of Terminator, Titanic, and Avatar fame. Cameron, who had also been toying with creating a climate series, signed on as an executive producer as well. With two Hollywood names attached, Gelber and Bach were able to start approaching investors. “At that point,” says Bach, “I went to my wife and said, ‘I have Jerry Weintraub, James Cameron, and a million bucks. Now can I leave 60 Minutes?’ And she said, ‘Yes, you can leave 60 Minutes.’”

32 | YEARS OF LIVING DANGEROUSLY

2

3

4

1

THE ROAD AHEAD WITH TY BURRELL

2 SAFE PASSAGE WITH BRADLEY WHITFORD

3 THE BATTLE

IN THE FOREST WITH GISELE BÜNDCHEN

4 ELEPHANT

IN THE ROOM WITH SIGOURNEY WEAVER

The next challenge the duo faced was finding a broadcast deal.

Then, as Bach tells it, Weintraub started calling. “He’d say, ‘Hey. It’s Jerry. You’ve got Clooney.’ I’d say, ‘What do you mean we’ve got Clooney?’ He’d say, ‘I just had dinner with George Clooney in London and he wants to do it.’ He’d call a few days later. ‘You’ve got Cheadle.

He’s in now.’ Every couple of weeks, Jerry would call and he would have someone else.” (Clooney eventually had to drop out due to scheduling conflicts.) With so many celebrities on board, the project quickly picked up steam, Showtime signed on, and season one of Years of Living Dangerously was underway.

Airing in 2014, the first season covered a huge range of issues: climate change deniers, Superstorm Sandy, droughts in the U.S., rising sea levels, human migration, and global warming in the Arctic.

It featured actors such as Harrison Ford, Don Cheadle, America Ferrera, Matt Damon, and Jessica Alba as well as journalists such as Thomas Friedman and Leslie Stahl and columnist Mark Bittman. The Guardian called Years “perhaps the most important climate change

Photographs courtesy of Joel Bach

multimedia communication endeavor in history,” and the series won the 2014 Primetime Emmy for “Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series.”

Bach and Gelber were ready to begin work on a second season, but Showtime had seen the project as a one-time broadcast. Then National Geographic stepped in and signed a deal to broadcast season two, which aired in the fall of 2016. It was a great fit for Years, both in terms of the channel’s focus on adventure, education, and science, and because it reached a larger cable audience.

Producing Years has given Bach access to some of the top names in climate change science. “We get to go out into the field and talk to the very best scientists doing the most cutting edge work,” he says of those who worked both on-screen and as advisors.

With exciting new scientific developments constantly coming on line, the Years team had two experts on staff to vet each and every story, and National Geographic had a rigorous review process to ensure accuracy.

While keeping on top of the science reporting for Years was “a ton of work,” that wasn’t the toughest hurdle. After the daunting task of scheduling A-list celebrities, the biggest challenge for Bach was making exciting TV. “You can throw a lot of scary and horrifying facts and figures at people,” he says, “but that doesn’t make for a very compelling viewing experience. In fact, it turns people off.” Drawing on their experience at 60 Minutes, Bach and Gelber knew they

needed good stories to hook their audience.

“If you want to get people to remember something, you don’t give them a fact or a figure. You tell them a narrative.”

In “Collapse of the Oceans,” over a bowl of rice and canned fish, a fisherman in the Philippines breaks down crying as he tells actor Joshua Jackson that he can no longer reliably feed his family and that his son will have to move away to find work due to the scarcity of fish. It’s a powerful illustration of a fact that shocked Jackson just moments earlier in the show: By mid-century, CO2 emissions will have warmed the oceans and caused so much acidification that coral reefs will cease to exist, leaving 500 million people around the world without a source of food or income.

Another way Years hooked viewers was by injecting humor into what could have been a totally depressing viewing experience, as when, in “Saving Miami,” actor Jack Black jokes with climate scientist Keren Bolter and geologist Harold Wanless about acting in the megaflop, Waterworld. The film portrays a future where global warming and polar ice melt have caused near complete flooding of the planet. The critics may have hated it, Black concedes, “but now we can see that we were right.”

The story the Years team fretted over the most was the movement to put a price on carbon pollution. It’s a story with the potential to “put most people to sleep,” admits Bach.

The producing team for “The Price on Carbon”

In his first television project since retiring as host of CBS’s The Late Show, David Letterman (below, right) travels to India to find out how this country— soon to be the world’s most populous—will power all its people.

created instant drama by situating their story in Lubbock, Texas, fossil fuel “enemy territory,” and following Jordan Vogel, a young activist from a conservative family who was trying to build a campus carbon pricing movement. The show culminates at Jordan’s dinner table as his tearful family rallies around their son. Through compelling characters and emotional scenes, “a seemingly boring as all hell topic suddenly turned into great TV,” says Bach.

Balancing the bad news with hopeful stories, such as Jordan’s, was one of Bach and Gelber’s goals for their second season.

In addition, the Years project provides viewers with plenty of concrete actions to take. Millennials especially are encouraged to join the #PutAPriceOnIt campaign to raise awareness for carbon pricing—what the Years team sees as the most effective solution to climate change. The series website links visitors to petitions to sign and other ways to take action, such as “Buy Less Stuff,” “Eat Less Meat,” or “Join Citizens Climate Lobby,” a group reaching out to Congress to find bipartisan solutions.

Bach hopes that National Geographic will sign on for a third season of Years. Citing polls done by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication that show that, even among Democrats, climate change is only sixth on people’s list of political priorities, Bach says the issue “still just doesn’t rise high enough on our priority list.” He’s already got over a hundred new stories on file, waiting to be told—“good for storytelling,” he concedes, “but bad for the planet.”

Indeed, following his dream to report in depth on climate change has reinforced for Bach how urgent the problem really is; it has also introduced him to thousands of people determined to solve it. The most rewarding experience of working on Years, says Bach, is being “part of this movement to do something good for our future. The students we followed for the carbon pricing story feel like their work will contribute to something truly profound. The people that I hear from on a daily basis, whether it’s through emails, in person, or on Facebook, are determined more than ever to fight for a solution.

That’s pretty rewarding to be a part of.

More rewarding than I could have imagined.” //

33

Deerfield Academy Archives

ABOUT THE B AA R RN N B 34 | ABOUT THE BARN

NOW, AS STUDENT-ATHLETES, COACHES, AND ALUMNI PREPARE TO BID THE BARN ADIEU, MEMORIES ABOUND—BUILT OVER SIX DECADES ON THE ICE SHEET AS GENERATIONS BATTLED TO DISCOVER THE THRILL OF VICTORY, THE AGONY OF DEFEAT, AND THE UNFULFILLING FEELING OF THOSE SPORADIC TIES. / STORY BY BOB YORK /

35

Given Antone’s history with the building, however, odds are he’ll need more than one box of tissues before the wrecking ball completes its mission.

Antone, who retired back in 2013 following a 39-year stint as the rink’s manager, recently acknowledged his affection for the 60-yearold structure known simply as “the Barn:” “I loved that building; I ran it as though I owned it. I was happy to have Deerfield pay the bills, though,” he quipped. “I spent so much time in there it was like a second home to me, and I’m going to miss it.”

It is time for a change, however—even Antone will admit to that.

Just as it was time for a change when the facility opened on January 27, 1957, thanks to major benefactor Charles Merrill, senior partner of the New York brokerage firm of Merrill, Lynch, Pierce, Fenner and Beane, and grandfather to Merrill Magowan ’56 (see page 58 for the story behind the story). Charles Merrill was also a close friend of Frank Boyden, and he admired Mr. Boyden’s school; the Class of 1955 was so appreciative of Mr. Merrill’s donation that they made him an honorary member of the class.

1957: Frank Boyden (left) and Jim De Young ’61 at the rink dedication

36 | ABOUT THE BARN

Back then, the Barn rescued Deerfield skaters from the school’s (mostly) frigid outdoor rink, which was situated where the Hunt Track is located today. The late Bob Merriam ’43, hockey coach and rink director at the time, attested to that fact when the rink was dedicated: “The new facility will allow Deerfield to have at least a four-month period of skating . . . with the outdoor rink, due to weather conditions, we’d often be lucky to get in 30 days of skating.”

At the moment Deerfield’s hockey rink is now not only among the oldest in the Eight Schools Association—the league Deerfield teams compete in—but it is also one of the most antiquated independent school ice houses in all of New England.

Plans also include the construction of a field house (see page 40), which will be located immediately above the rink. This facility will provide much-needed indoor practice space for multiple teams during the winter months, and both the rink and field house are expected to be open for business by the fall of 2018.

“It’s certainly an exciting time here at Deerfield,” says Athletic Director Bob Howe of the $68 million undertaking. “A new rink and the addition of a field house are projects the school has been looking forward to for quite some time now. The construction will disrupt the schedules of our four hockey teams next season but I think everyone will admit it will be worth the trouble.”

To compensate for the yearlong loss of the rink, Howe is learning what it means to have friends in high places—such as up the hill at Eaglebrook School. Plans are underway to use that school’s rink for some 2017-18 home games and practice sessions as well as rinks in nearby Greenfield and at UMass Amherst.

The current rink never bore Charles Merrill’s name, but even if it had, in all likelihood it would still have been known as “the Barn.” Not even Antone, however, can pinpoint the origin of the affectionate title.

Deerfield Academy Archives; top, Stephanie Craig

A LIFEGUARD’S CHAIR AND A BOX OF KLEENEX ARE ALL JIM ANTONE SAYS HE’LL NEED TO WATCH THIS SPRING’S SCHEDULED DEMOLITION OF THE DEERFIELD ACADEMY SKATING RINK.

1949: The outdoor rink, situated where the Hunt Track is today. / 2017: Alumni Hockey Invitational

“I can’t say that it was anyone in particular who came up with the name, nor can I point to any particular time-frame when it became popular,” he says. “It seems to me it may have been around the mid-80s when I first recall the rink being called ‘the Barn.’

“As to why, well, just look around,” adds Antone. “There are plenty of barns in the Valley, and with the wooden siding on the outside and the wooden trusses inside, it looks just like one.”

Now, as student-athletes, coaches, and alumni prepare to bid the Barn adieu, memories abound—built over six decades on the ice sheet as generations battled to discover the thrill of victory, the agony of defeat, and the unfulfilling feeling of those sporadic ties. Banners that hang on the wall behind the team benches inform all that this was the home of three New England championship teams: the 1984 and 2003 boys Class A champs as well as the 2001 girls Class A titleholder.

Interestingly, Dave Hagerman ’64 and Jim Lindsay ’70, who coached the boys’ championship teams—enjoyed the rare opportunity of participating in Deerfield hockey on three different levels over the years: as student-athletes at the Academy, as coaches, and as directors of athletics.

“I came to Deerfield for a PG year after attending Holderness School for four years,” said Hagerman. “They had an outdoor rink up there, so you can just imagine how I felt when I got here and I was able to walk out of our locker room . . . up the ramp . . . and onto the rink without having to go outside.

I felt like I’d died and gone to heaven.”

Another highlight of Hagerman’s postgraduate year “was the opportunity to play for a pair of legendary coaches—Bob Merriam (hockey) and Jim Smith (football). I can’t begin to tell you how much those two men influenced my life.”

As both a coach and athletic director, Hagerman found himself remembering people—rather than events—as the ice house’s defining factor.

“Jim Antone was a huge presence at that rink,” says Hagerman. “You knew Jim was invested in the facility; he loved the rink; he loved the kids. He took care of everyone and made sure everything was running perfectly and if it wasn’t, he’d fix it.

“I feel blessed to have worked with such outstanding student-athletes as those who have attended Deerfield Academy throughout the years,” adds Hagerman. “To me, it was a privilege to have had the opportunity to coach such fine young men such as Tim Hanley ’84 (whose overtime goal in the finals beat Kent School), Doug Weiss ’84, Brian Fusonie ’84, and Sonny Neumann ’84, who were part of that championship team.”

By the time Jim Lindsay entered Deerfield, he had become accustomed to playing on indoor rinks, “but I still remember we had wire mesh surrounding the rink rather than glass,” he says. He also recalls the intimacy of the rink. “It seemed as though the crowd was on top of the game . . . on top of you, for that matter. They were so close, in fact, that I can still see their fingers sticking through mesh.”

top: Bob Merriam ’43 explains the game plan. / bottom: 1984: l to r: Assistant Coach Wyffels, Assistant Captain Tim Hanley, Captain Doug Weiss, Assistant Captain Finnerty, and Coach Hagerman ’64

37

A LACK OF FACILITIES WASN’T THE ONLY SHORTAGE CUMMING FACED THAT FIRST YEAR, HOWEVER.

WE STARTED WITH ONLY 16 SKATERS AND NO GOALIE.

THANKFULLY, WE FOUND SOMEONE WILLING TO GIVE IT A TRY, THOUGH.

left, Deerfield Academy Archives; right, Stephanie Craig

top left clockwise: 2001: Girls NE Championship Team / 1991: Varsity teammates Virginia (Douglas) DiGuglielmo ’93 and Christa (Calagione) Donnellan ’93 / 1994: Coach Jim Lindsay ’70 and the boys / 1990: The puck from the first goal scored by Deerfield Girls Varsity Ice Hockey— December 8, 1990

38 | ABOUT THE BARN

Lindsay, who came close to hanging three more pennants on the rink’s wall, but lost to Cushing, 1-0, in the 1998 finals, then fell to Exeter and Avon the next two years in overtime, remembers the final game he coached in the Barn quite vividly.

“It was the quarterfinal-round game of our championship season,” says Lindsay, who posted a 119-20-7 record from 1997-98 through 2002-03. “We were down 2-0 to Salisbury with just four minutes remaining.

That’s when John Sales ’03 and Bryan Ciborowski ’03 scored less than two minutes apart to send the game into overtime. Then, Dan Travis ’03, who would go on to net the OT goal in the championship game against St. Sebastian’s, tallied in the extra frame for a 3-2 victory.”

Lindsay also pays tribute to his former bench buddy Jay Morsman ’55, who tutored the varsity back in the mid-80s. “I’d be hard pressed to name you another New England prep school hockey coach who spent more time behind the bench than Jay did,” he says.

“Jay was coaching JV hockey when I came here as a student in the late 60s, and he

retired just a few years ago . . . that’s about 50 years worth of coaching hockey.”

Like Lindsay, Bill Cumming, who coached the girls’ program through its first 12 years, spent his final game behind the Deerfield bench watching his charges capture a New England pennant as a Kat Sweet ’01 goal bested Hotchkiss, 1-0. Katy Guay ’01 tallied to oust Berkshire, 1-0, in the semifinals, while a Zoe Baldwin ’02 goal beat Milton in overtime, 4-3. Goaltender Emily Vitt ’03 was named tourney MVP. What Cumming remembers most about the Barn, though, was simply getting to the home games and practices.

“Our original changing area was located at the eastern end of the locker room facilities,” says Cumming, “so we had a bit of a trek to make it to the rink. They revamped the facilities about four or five years later and moved our locker room closer to the rink, so that made our access much easier.”

A lack of facilities wasn’t the only shortage Cumming faced that first year, however.

“We started with only 16 skaters and no goalie. Thankfully, we found someone

willing to give it a try, though. We were also fortunate to have Christa Calagione ’93 come aboard,” says Cumming. “She was playing for the Greenfield (MA) High School boys team; she turned out to be our primary scorer as well as our team leader.”

The Big Green girls produced a 7-5-2 record that initial season, their first win coming in just their second game—their home opener—over soon-to-be arch-rival Northfield Mount Hermon. One year later they received their first of numerous tourney invites.

This year, on January 21, nearly 70 alumni varsity hockey players—ranging from the Class of 1959 to the Class of 2016—returned to campus for a final friendly competition in the Barn. One member of the Class of 2003 even flew in from China specifically for the event. Two alumni games were punctuated by a luncheon and a special surprise for none other than Jim Antone: When “the Barn redux” opens its doors for the 2018-19 season, it will feature a little something called “Jim Antone’s Alumni Skate Room.”

Get your tissues ready, Jim. //

39

TENNIS FACILITY

GROUP EXERCISE ROOMS NEW LOCKER ROOMS

PROJECT TEAM

Architectural Firm: Sasaki Associates (Watertown, MA) Construction Manager: Skanska USA Building (Boston, MA)

FIELD HOUSE

ELEVATED TRACK HOCKEY RINK

THE BARN REDUX Construction of Deerfield’s new athletics complex will officially begin in March—immediately

after the conclusion of the 2016-17 ice hockey season. And while the first step will be the PROJECT BUDGET

$68 million includes infrastructure, construction, and soft cost

demolition of the Academy’s much-loved “Barn,” (see page 34) the new athletics complex will not only include a state-of-the-art hockey rink but also a crew tank, updated locker rooms, and a highly-anticipated field house, among other improvements. In addition to renovating 6000 square feet of existing space, an additional 130,000 square feet of facilities will be added along

PROJECT SCHEDULE

Design and Planning: May 2015-August 2016 Bid, Procurement, Submittals: September 2016-February 2017 Construction: March 2017-September 2018

with a new “central spine” for easier access to facilities throughout the gymnasium complex.

“In game and practice, in public victory and private effort, for generations of Deerfield students, athletics have provided timeless lessons in character and leadership,” said Head of School Margarita Curtis. “Deerfield stands for the virtues learned in athletics: discipline, teamwork, and fair play. With this new facility, we will be able to offer students abundant resources that foster strength, skill, health, and wellness for decades to come.”

The complex is expected to be completed and ready for use beginning in the fall of 2018.

40 | THE BARN REDUX

Architectural renderings courtesy of Sasaki Associates

NEW CONSTRUCTION

=130,000

SQ FT

PREP: EXCAVATION OF SOIL

RENOVATION

=6,000

STEEL TONNAGE

= 36,000 CUBIC YDS

= 7,000 TONS

SUPPORT OF EARTH MATERIALS

PLATE GIRDERS

· 27 STEEL PILES 60’ LONG · 31 STEEL PILES 44’ LONG · 10,000 SQ FT OF WOOD LAGGING · 50 SEACANT SHAFTS (SUPPORT WEST GYM) · 90 CUBIC YDS OF UNDERPINNING (SUPPORTS SQUASH COURTS)

SQ FT

125’LONG AND 5’DEPTH

TO SUPPORT THE FIELD HOUSE FLOOR; THEY WILL BE DELIVERED TO THE PROJECT SITE PIECE BY PIECE

CRANES

225 TON + 90 TON TO ERECT STEEL

41

TENNIS

/ EVENTS PAVILION

GROUP EXERCISE

UPPER LEVEL AXON

UPPER LEVEL LOBBY

FIELD HOUSE

Athletics is an integral part of the Deerfield Experience, as are the friendships and bonds that are built on the field, in the classroom, and in the dorm. Like the Hess Center for the Arts—home to both visual and performing arts students and the community as a whole—the hope is that Deerfield’s new athletics complex will become a gathering space for all athletes and every student.

CREW TANKS

2 FOUR-PERSON BOATS

42 | THE BARN REDUX

TENNIS / EVENTS PAVILION

MEETING ROOM + LOUNGE + GROUP EXERCISE ROOM

43

HOCKEY RINK 466 SEATS

Home to defending crowds, the rink provides a platform for the entire school to gather in support of heart-stopping play. Player support extends beyond the ice, with dedicated spaces for the Zamboni, taping, skate sharpening (in Jim Antone’s Alumni Skate Room!), and puck shooting practice room.

+ STANDING AREA MOSAIC D

LOCKER ROOMS

RINK

LOWER LEVEL AXON

ACCESS TO LOWER FIELDS

44 | THE BARN REDUX

COOL FEATURE

SYNTHETIC ICE

in the puck shooting room

45

ELEVATED TRACK AXON ELEVATED TRACK

STRAIGHT AWAY TRACK 2 LANES / 43 M LONG

46 | THE BARN REDUX

ELEVATED RUNNING TRACK 2 LANES / 537 FT OR 163.5 M / 9.84 LAPS = 1 MI

SYNTHETIC TURF SIZE IN FIELD HOUSE 20,800 SF / 60 YDS LONG X 37 YDS WIDE

HIT FEATURE

2 RETRACTABLE BATTING CAGES

47

FROM THE ARCHIVES

1965

5 195 954 1 3 195 977 52 76 1 1 19 9 5 1 9 0 1 1975 195 999 1 9 74 98 1 949 3 1 9 7 1 8 9 94 97 2 1 47 1 197 6 19 rs 199 971 6 19 1 4 5 9 9 Ye a 0 197 on 45 1 4 19 i 9 9 9 1 n 9 6 44 3 1 Reu 8 19 199 3 19 6 * 196 194 201 67 992 2 1 9 5 4 1 1 1 19 20 99 66 941 014 90 1 5 19 196 40 1 13 2 9 19 9 0 8 4 1 2 9 6 9 2 39 8 1 63 1 201 198 8 19 87 2 19 011 193 9 2 6 7 1 9 0 3 1 86 1 1 19 9 20 196 5 19 936 200 198 960 8 35 1 1 4 0 9 8 9 1 0 2 4 95 3 19 07 193 58 1 198 6 20 7 19 82 0 5 9 0 1 9 2 5 81 6 1 200 195 0 19 198 004 2 9 7 3 19 00 2 2 1978 200 1 0 0 20 200

e mon h T om C

48 | THE COMMON ROOM

om o R

49

RECENTLY PUBLISHED:

A Sunday In Purgatory

AUTHOR : AUTHOR :

Henry Morgenthau III ’35

REVIEWED BY:

Jessica Day

Passenger Books / 2016

Henry Morgenthau, who reached “the three digits line” on January 11, 2017, when he celebrated his 100th birthday, released his first book of poetry this past fall. Describing it as a “delayed vocation,” Mr. Morgenthau’s sharply focused prose is at turns critical and humorous but never maudlin, and A Sunday in Purgatory is a fascinating glimpse into what Mr. Morgenthau has called his “long and privileged life.”

As a producer and writer for WGBH in Boston (a PBS member television station) for over twenty years, Mr. Morgenthau received many awards for his pioneering documentaries and talk shows. He also produced the series Eleanor Roosevelt: Prospect of Mankind, which she hosted during the last three years of her life. His memoir, Mostly Morgenthaus: A Family History, won a Jewish Book Council prize for autobiography/memoir; it focused on several patriarchs in the Morgenthau family, including Mr. Morgenthau’s father, Henry Jr., who served as Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Secretary of the Treasury.

During Mr. Morgenthau’s childhood, it was not unusual for FDR to visit the Morgenthau home, and, as Jonathan Shorr, director of Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of Baltimore noted, the poems in A Sunday in Purgatory combine memoir (his father “steadying the trembling hand [of FDR] as he mixed Old Fashioneds and nibbled caviar, a gift from the Soviet ambassador,” to reflections on aging (“Anticipation of death is like looking for a new job . . . ), as well as wrestling with the tension that exists between being part of a famous American family and yet recognizing or yearning to establish one’s individuality.

50 | THE COMMON ROOM

Mr. Morgenthau also adeptly (and at times mercilessly) approaches the subjects of affluence, Judaism, and death. David Keplinger, who first met Mr. Morgenthau when he signed up for a community poetry workshop that Keplinger was teaching, noted that in writing poetry, Mr. Morgenthau found a space in which to approach subjects that were untouchable in his earlier work as a documentarian and author of memoir. “What draws me to Morgenthau’s poetry is the tough-minded treatment of his subject matter, which is highly diverse,” wrote Keplinger. “. . . the poet is writing a personal and national history that goes beyond dates and people and places, and which begins to map a topography of the soul.”

And yet, in spite of Mr. Morgenthau’s often weighty subject matter, it would be unfair to imply that A Sunday in Purgatory is a morbid collection; Adam Hochschild, author of King Leopold’s Ghost and founder of Mother Jones, rightly commented: “It was a delight to read these poems, heartfelt, wry and sparely eloquent. Some made me laugh out loud; other broadened my literary horizons and sense of what poetry takes on . . .”

Both in an Author’s Note and during a recent NPR “Weekend Edition Saturday” interview, Mr. Morgenthau also emphasized the joyful, freeing nature of his work: “Writing poetry for me is a celebration of the evening of a long life, a coda, a strikingly new expression of my inner being that surprises me as much as those who know me. Now as death kindly waits for me, I am enlivened with thoughts I can’t take with me.”

And fortunately for us, Mr. Morgenthau has taken the time to write those thoughts down. //

YOU’LL CATCH YOUR DEATH “You’ll catch your death of cold,” Mother would say if I went outside without my jacket, cap and mittens.

When I was older, plagued with an infected tooth, the dentist numbed my nerve with Laughing Gas. I felt the pain from his drilling but laughed as if

it were hurting someone else, not me.

Then, at Deerfield, my best friend swallowed a corrosive base in chemistry lab to end his life, but recovered to graduate. Next year at Dartmouth, he lay down across the tracks to wait for the train.

Now death has begun to catch up with me.

I’ve lived too long. Merely standing up and breathing in and out is a serious challenge.

At Ingleside, our retirement home, we progress from canes, to walkers, to wheelchairs.

In vain we try to push back looming shadows VISIT DEERFIELD.EDU/PULSE TO LISTEN TO MR. MORGENTHAU’S “WEEKEND EDITION” INTERVIEW IN ITS ENTIRETY.

as frequent announcements of memorial services are posted where they can’t be missed: advertisements luring us to that final vacation.

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1953 “I have been named a recipient of the 2016 Walter Reed Distinguished Achievement Award, the highest honor bestowed by the alumni association of my medical school alma mater, the University of Virginia, and the University of Virginia Medical School Foundation. I am currently a distinguished service professor, and served as director of Johns Hopkins’ Department of Otolaryngology—head and neck surgery—from 1991 to 2003, chief of staff for the Johns Hopkins Hospital from 1997 to 1999, interim director of orthopaedics from 2011 to 2013, and executive medical director/vice president of Johns Hopkins Medical International. I remain on the board of directors of Johns Hopkins Medicine.”—Charles Cummings

1955

Deerfield faculty taught me the value of perseverance, balance, and hard work. I’m saying thank you with an estate gift honoring my favorite teachers: Andy Harcourt and Claudia Lyons.

Amy Sodha Harsch ’97 / Managing Director, American Securities LLC / Mom of Tate

LEARN MORE:

413-774-1872

deerfield.edu/go/ boyden 52 | THE COMMON ROOM

“Our esteemed classmate, Ambassador Joseph V. Reed Jr, passed away at age 78 on September 29, 2016. He was a longtime resident of Greenwich, CT, and truly a global emissary. In the words of David Rockefeller, ‘He was a man of elegance, grace, wit, flamboyance and razor sharp intellect, a diplomat’s diplomat. As my closest associate for three decades at the Chase Bank, together we traveled the world, experienced unforgettable adventures and met thousands of people, from kings and presidents to hotel clerks and elevator operators. Joseph cherished and charmed every one of them.’ He served as Ambassador to Morocco from 1981 to 1985, and was appointed Chief of Protocol of the United States by President George H.W. Bush from 1989 to 1991. The former president stated: ‘He was by my side during some of the most critical moments of my presidency, the quiet mastermind who literally helped set the stage for the diplomatic progress we made during a historic period of global change.’ Joseph subsequently was appointed as Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations in 2005. Reed received many governmental awards including France’s Legion of Honor. An impeccable dresser, Joseph ranked eighth as one of the 10 best-dressed men in the world. Since their boyhood years, Mike Grant relates that ‘Reed was a longtime friend, as you can see from the photo (page 53). He was a unique character, formal and elegant (he was always the best dresser at Deerfield) yet hardly a snob. His career in banking and diplomacy was marked by unusually close relationships among the leaders in finance and later in Africa, and he was a devoted servant of the United Nations. The Reed family has been a generous and loyal supporter of Deerfield for ages. Joseph was the last of four brothers to matriculate there. When his father, Joseph Sr., used to visit, Mr. Boyden put him up at the Manse, and I remember Mr. Reed cooking for us, and then regaling us with stories. He was a fascinating man, and his sons inherited that charm and ability to enthrall a group.

Mr. Reed donated a rare Double Elephant folio of Audubon’s Birds of America to Deerfield, and subsequently the family agreed to Deerfield’s decision to sell that artifact which funded the building of the Reed Arts Center. If not for the Reeds, I probably would never have come to Deerfield. Joseph’s mother convinced my family that it was the place for me. Once there, I lived with him in the old infirmary

He was a man of elegance, grace, wit, flamboyance and razor sharp intellect—a diplomat’s diplomat.

—David Rockefeller about Joseph V. Reed Jr

’55

sophomore year, across the hall from him in the Old Dorm as a junior, and finally on Crow’s East One corridor in the New Dorm, which nobody knew as Plunkett Hall. Terry Blanchard, Calvin Fentress, Eddie Dick, Arthur Diedrick and myself were regular companions, and we often spent time together on vacations. Joseph was athletic as well, having been the varsity right wing on Merriam’s soccer team, and in his later years he loved to play tennis. His real interests, however, were more directed to social and political history. Joseph’s home base was Denbigh Farm in Greenwich where he grew up. It was a beautiful estate, developed by his father, and we loved to be invited there for games and evenings of conversation. It stood next to the Audubon Center, which was created by his family. Sadly, his lovely wife Mimi died a year ago, and he deteriorated from Parkinson’s swiftly after that.’ Terry Fuller adds: ‘Michael, what wonderful history on you and Joseph. It brings back some wonderful memories and I particularly enjoyed being left wing on the varsity soccer team directly opposite Joseph on the right wing. Coach Merriam would help us set strategies for crossing the ball across into the goal area which was our major “wing” assignment. And particularly important were the corner kicks that Joseph excelled at.’ As Joseph frequently ended his phone calls, we bid him farewell with a resounding ‘Aloha.’”—Tom L’Esperance More Class Notes and Photos: deerfield.edu/commonroom

l: Joseph V. Reed Jr. ’55 at home; photo

by Bob Luckey in a Greenwich Time article. top r: Submitted by Terry Fuller ’55: “A recent picture of Joseph with a young curator from the New York Botanical Garden. I took this in June (2016) when Joseph invited Sharon and me to join him for a private showing of the roses at their peak.

It was a wonderful outing and a beautiful day.” bottom: Submitted by Mike Grant ’55: “The attached photo was taken around 1948 in Hobe Sound, FL. It celebrated Adrian’s victory over an alligator he’d hooked while fishing, and which subsequently chased him into a nearby building. l to r (including six Deerfield future graduates) are: Tim Grant ’59, Joseph Reed ’55, Nathaniel Reed ’51, Ted Hamm, Mike Grant ’55, Adrian Reed ’49, and Terry Blanchard ’55.”

53

After Shack Hill

BY NICHOLAS HOWE ’52

Originally published in the December 2, 2016 issue of The Conway (NH) Daily Sun and reprinted here with the Sun’s permission.

The approach of a new ski season always brings a study of the boot market, and last week, I looked through the increasingly strange colors and the increasing number of metal parts that boot makers think are essential.

I didn’t even slow down for that, I was looking for the new Strolz boots, and there weren’t even any old Strolz boots in second hand, so I went home feeling abandoned because Strolz boots changed my life. Not only that, but I grew up before all those junior programs getting children started the right way, so I was doomed to whatever I could do that would work until it stopped working, then I’d try something else.

That was on Shack Hill, which rose, but only slightly, above my home in Deerfield, MA. I could get a little more vertical by backing up into an open place in the trees, which meant that my first turn would be to the right. I got to be a pretty good beginner, but the promise of this advance was limited by the need for right turns, and very few ski areas have nothing but right turns. Probably none.

Then I went to Deerfield Academy and got to know Augie Pabst and Frank Punderson, and I’d hear them talking about places they called Stowe and Bromley. Research showed they were in Vermont, but I’d probably never go there because no one else in my family skied, and we didn’t have a car. Then on the last weekend of the winter term the school ran a trip to a ski area just over the line in Vermont and there was a rope tow and a cafeteria.

54 | THE COMMON ROOM

This amazed me, I never expected to go skiing in a place with a place to eat and a way to get up the hill without climbing it. I’d hit the big time on my first try.

The other formative moment came when I was skiing for the company photographer in Aspen and I fell out of a left turn and landed on my elbow. This had happened so many times that I’d gotten used to it, but this time it hurt more than the other times had, and when I wanted to do basic left-side maneuvers like flexing my fingers, I couldn’t.

Then it began to hurt a lot more than I thought it should and an X-ray showed many small pieces of bone where one large piece was provided in my original equipment.

Medical specialists will know that it was the humerus bone, and it was repaired with a 10-inch Rush rod made of titanium, which is an impressive name for a type of steel that I am incompetent to describe further, and it wasn’t long before I forgot about it except for the times when I was going through the bomb detector in the airport in Zurich, Switzerland, and the alarm went off.

The war in Korea was the major news story. It was going badly, and boys knew they’d be drafted into the Army as soon as they got out of high school. This seemed to be in the natural order of things, because my father and his brother were in the Army for the war that ended in 1918 and my brother and a cousin were in the Army for this one.

My Army induction exam came eight months after I graduated from Deerfield Academy. A sergeant asked if there was anything that wasn’t on the forms and I showed him the doctors’ Rush rod report with an X-ray and he showed me the door.

That moment led to work in 173 ski resorts and 17 winters on the staff of the American ski team on the season-long World Cup racing circuit with time out for two World Championships and two Olympics, but I never worry about falling on my left elbow because the Rush rod is still there and it will never break. I doubt if it will even bend, so I should go back to Shack Hill and see if I can make a good left turn this time.

Nicholas Howe is a writer from Jackson. He is author of Not Without Peril. //

RECENTLY PUBLISHED:

AUTHOR : AUTHOR :

Sharpshooter

David L. Hoof ’64

Quiller Press / 2016 REVIEWED BY:

Jessica Day

Following in the footsteps of award-winning author Tony Hillerman, best known for his Navajo Tribal Police mystery novels, David Hoof recently published Sharpshooter—a modern Western thriller set in the dying rural town of Sanctuary, Montana. Written in lyrical, evocative language with a larger-than-life yet relatable hero, Redfawn Kravitz, Sharpshooter is a classic page-turner from the first chapter to the last.

Set in 2001, Sharpshooter pits Kravitz, the town’s lawman, against the killer of US Senate candidate Jeb Holloway, a powerful man with lots of enemies. Working alongside Kravitz is his best friend, Standing Bear Hatcher, a legendary former All-Pro linebacker, Northern Cheyenne Indian, and owner of The Elk—“the only bar in fifty miles.” The murder weapon is a Sharps buffalo rifle, and the lethal slug seems to have come through time—as if the murderer stepped out of the past, then melted back into it. It doesn’t help matters when both suspects and witnesses begin “dropping like flies” as the investigation proceeds. At the same time, Kravitz (who is described as “half Jew, half Crow”) is increasingly haunted by the echoes of long-dead Indian warriors, trying to warn him about unrealized dangers; it seems that the Native Americans who considered Sanctuary’s Bearpaw Mountain sacred want Kravitz and Standing Bear Hatcher to take a stand against investors who want to transform the mountain into a ski resort.

Sharpshooter has been described as modern in the sense of being set in present-day, but very much “Old West” in terms of ruggedness and perspective. Historian and author Thomas B. Allen commented: “In Sharpshooter, David Hoof successfully blends modern forensics and Old West lore to tell a story of murder, greed, and treachery. Deputy Redfawn Kravitz draws from his Indian heritage to track down a killer roaming a frontier prowled by wild men and wild women.” //

EXCERPT: As dusk snaps into night, Kravitz reaches the Mountainview Shooters Gallery of Helena. Floodlights have already popped on, illuminating downrange targets. After casting glances around like a fly fisherman’s line, he spots Leonard Jarnow shooting prone with a Sharps buffalo rifle, its muzzle braced on a fancy tripod. One eyelid shut, Jarnow sights with a caliper on a traditional Creedmoor vernier. Shaped like a guillotine, it is snapped vertical from the metal butt plate behind the breech, aligning with a cylindrical tube front sight. Facing him downrange is an iron bison that rings like a metal bell when hit.

Kravitz watches him take a bead on the silhouette, then place a round just below the ear.

When the deputy starts to advance, a big man in a pricey black suit lowers an arm, drop-gate style. “And you are?”

Red produces his badge. “I need to talk to Mr. Jarnow about Jeb Halloway.”

“You wait here,” a voice says behind him. The man catches Jarnow before a reload, points back toward Red and takes a single nod from his boss. The massive bodyguard gets as far as, “He says he’ll . . .” before Red sweeps past him as he finishes, “ . . . see you now,” punctuated by an ear-ringing explosion of black powder.

From the prone position, Leonard Jarnow looks up at the deputy. Even stretched out on the ground, it’s easy to tell that the surviving Republican candidate for US Senator is tall, a raw-boned man as lean and harsh as a Montana winter. His face is a moonscape of pockmark valleys separated by sharp ridges, the salt-and-pepper hair drawn straight back from his forehead and slicked in glossy sheets separated by grooves. Odds are none of his advisers has dared to tell him that he looks like an old raven after a good soak.

55

’55

Merry and I completed a Bucket List trip to our 49th state in early September.

Alaska truly is the Eighth Wonder of the World!

“Merry and I completed a Bucket List trip to our 49th state in early September. Alaska truly is the Eighth Wonder of the World! We combined air, land, and sea excursions during our memorable two weeks in which we got to stare in wonderment at primeval forests and the vastness of the land. Alaska is three times the size of Texas and stretches 2680 miles from the Aleutian Islands to the Canadian border.

The USA is just 120 miles wider from coast to coast. The state claims two of our nation’s largest preserves: Denali National Park with over six million acres, and the Tongass National Forest in Southeast Alaska, which is the largest national forest in the United States at 17 million acres! Yet, its population is just around 740,272 and one third of the state’s residents live in the vicinity of Anchorage. There’s plenty of room left for hardy survivalists, such as our classmate, Mark Rowland, who like elbow room and may experience temps as low as -70 F in the wintertime. As you’ll recall, Mark described living in Alaska ‘is rather like falling in love with an absolutely gorgeous woman who’s seriously mean about half the time! It’s quite a place. The winters get long and sometimes I wonder why I stayed but I’m here for the duration.’

Juneau, the state’s capital, is accessible only by air or sea. There are no highways leading into the city. We were indeed fortunate to be among the one-percenters who have seen Denali, formerly Mt. McKinley, on a clear day! Much of the majestic mountain of 20,310 feet (the highest in North America ) is shrouded in clouds and is just 45 percent visible during most days. We’ll definitely place a visit to the Alaska wilderness on our Wish List a second time.”—Tom L’Esperance

56 | THE COMMON ROOM

clockwise from top l: 1. A glacier at the aptly named Glacier Bay National Park; our skilled Danish captain was able to position our large ship breathtakingly close to the immense glacier. 2. Heading toward Vancouver at 19 knots on our way home to San Diego; one of my favorite shots.

3. Picturesque vastness at Denali State Park. 4. Our proud flag.

5. A backyard glacier at Taku Lodge. 6. Majestic Denali, 20,310 feet high, formerly Mt. McKinley. 7. Tom ’55 and Merry L’Esperance in Alaska

57

1956

Ray Wolejko ’67 Hosted a Class of ’67 “mini-reunion” at Nashoba Valley Winery in Bolton, MA. L to r: Doug Allen ’67, Steve Muther ’67, Marie-Louise Fulweiler, Ray Wolejko ’67, Gail Wolejko, and Jeff Jensen ’67.

“Here’s a story of the origins of Deerfield’s first indoor hockey rink, recorded by Merrill Magowan: “I was there for the ‘solicitation.’ It was March 1956, spring vacation. As always, Mr. and Mrs. Boyden went to Florida; they always stayed two nights with my grandfather in Palm Beach, following some time with Mrs. Reed in Hobe Sound.

Mrs. Boyden always came down the stairs before the Head, if only to consume her only alcoholic drink of the year, a daiquiri prepared by my grandfather’s faithful servant of 40 years, Leroy. He would ask her if she wanted her ‘usual’ and then swiftly do her bidding. Shortly thereafter, the Head would come down, shoot a curious look at his wife, and order his usual Coke. On that fateful March evening, my grandfather asked the Head, ‘How did the winter term go?’ and the Head responded, ‘We had a great winter, the boys are getting into the colleges of their choice, and the squash team where Merrill played almost went undefeated. However, the poor hockey team, they could not practice because we had a warm winter, and could not make any ice, and they played against Exeter, Andover, and Choate, and all those schools have artificial hockey rinks, and they did not stand a chance.’ ‘So,’ my grandfather then asked, ‘How much does it cost for a new hockey rink?’ And that is how the rink came to be. My grandfather later told me that Mr. Boyden had never asked him directly for a gift.

It was always the indirect method. He died seven months later, but not before writing the check.””—Joe Twichell

1964 ’65

“In scanning the spring edition of Deerfield Magazine, what to my surprise did I read but a review of David Mather’s new book, Crescent Beach. Surprised, because I spend most of my summer at Crescent Beach, although not the one in Florida. No, my home is at Crescent Beach, Fort Erie, Ontario, in a house built by my late wife’s grandfather in 1904. At one point, we even tried to gift it to Deerfield, but the Academy was unable to figure out how to accept property located in a foreign country. If any of my smart classmates know how this transfer could be arranged, I’d love to hear from you.”—John Baumann

“We were not able to get to my daughter Katie’s in New Hampshire for Thanksgiving, since the birth of her daughter came rather unexpectedly two weeks early and little Charlotte Rose was only 3 lbs. 12 oz. Therefore, she was in the NICU for about a week before they would let her come home.

She is now over 5 lbs. and is doing very well. Obviously our planned side trip to Deerfield could not take place, but I still hope to get there in the near future. It’s probably a good thing we did not go as planned since we would have been driving home in the snow storm of November 20.

We received 30 inches in that storm here in Jamesville! Just thought you might enjoy seeing a few photos of Charlotte Rose, born November 7.

The third photo is of Mike, Audrey (age two years, eight months), Katie, and Charlotte.”—Dave Beisler ’65

58 | THE COMMON ROOM

’55

Tim Day ’55, his family, and friends,

were hosted by Col. Robert B. Sofge, selected for promotion to Brigadier General, and BGen Kevin J. Killea at the 2016 Miramar Air Show in September. The Blue Angels were featured at the San Diego event along with flights displaying the awesome capabilities of other military aircraft including a demonstration of the new F-35B Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter.

The annual event is the largest military air show in the United States with a three day estimated attendance of 700,000. It includes aircraft from all branches of the armed services as well as civilian and historic aircraft. t to b: The Blue Angels; Tim Day (left) and Col. Bob Sofge; An MV-22 Osprey.

More Class Notes and Photos: deerfield.edu/commonroom

59

RECENTLY PUBLISHED:

The Gatekeepers How the White House Chiefs of Staff Define Every Presidency AUTHOR :

Chris Whipple ’71

Crown / 2017

REVIEWED BY:

Jessica Day

EXCERPT: Rahm Emanuel was so cold he could see his breath as he crossed the White House parking lot and entered the West Wing lobby. It was December 5, 2008, an unusually frigid morning in Washington, DC. But it wasn’t the weather that sent a chill through Emanuel; it wasthe unbelievably daunting challenge that lay ahead.

In just six weeks Emanuel would become White House chief of staff to Barack Obama, the forty-fourth president of the United States. But for more than a month, he had watched in astonishment as the world they were about to inherit was turned upside down. The US economy was teetering on the edge of another Great Depression. Credit—the lifeblood of the world economy— was frozen. The entire auto industry was on the brink of collapse. Two bloody wars were mired in stalemate. There was more than a little truth, Emanuel thought, to the headline in The Onion: “Black Man Given Nation’s Worst Job.” The stiletto-tongued infighter, former senior adviser to Bill Clinton, and congressman from Illinois felt apprehensive. “I brought my pillow and my blankie,” he would later joke, looking back at that dark morning when the fate of the new administration seemed to hang in the balance. The truth was, Rahm Emanuel was scared.

The unannounced gathering at the White House that morning looked like a Cold War-era national security crisis. Black sedans and SUVs rolled up; men in dark suits clambered into the Executive Mansion. Emanuel thought about the elite fraternity that was assembling here: Donald Rumsfeld.

Dick Cheney. Leon Panetta. Howard Baker Jr. Jack Watson. Ken Duberstein. John Sununu. Sam Skinner. Mack McLarty. John Podesta. Andrew Card. Joshua Bolten. They were among Washington’s most powerful figures of the last half century: secretaries of defense, OMB directors, governor, CIA director, majority leader, and vice president. But they had one thing above all in common.

It was a special bond, a shared trial by fire that transcended their political differences: Every one of them had served as White House chief of staff.

60 | THE COMMON ROOM

Since George Washington, presidents have depended on the advice of key confidants. But it wasn’t until the 20th century that the White House chief of staff became the second most powerful job in government. Unelected and unconfirmed, the chief serves at the whim of the president, hired and fired by him (or her) alone. He is the president’s closest adviser and the person he depends on to turn his agenda into reality.

The Gatekeepers, available nationwide beginning on April 4, is being billed as the first in-depth, behind-the-scenes look at how the American Presidency has hinged on the effectiveness of the White House chiefs of staff—those confidants who often make the difference between success and failure. It is a book years in the making, starting when Chris Whipple began to conduct research for his acclaimed 2013 documentary film The Presidents’ Gatekeepers; it is the result of dozens of interviews with all seventeen living chiefs of staff and two former presidents—Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush—as well as cabinet officers, congressmen, staffers, historians, fellow journalists, and others.

Whipple, a filmmaker, writer, journalist, and speaker who won multiple Peabody and Emmy Awards as a producer at CBS’ 60 Minutes and ABC’s Primetime, was most recently executive producer and writer of Showtime’s The Spymasters: CIA in the Crosshairs; an interview in the Fall ’16 issue of Deerfield Magazine focused on The Spymasters.

Now, at the start of a new administration, all eyes are on the men and women in President Trump’s inner circle, including White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus. While Priebus’ legacy obviously has yet to unfold, Whipple has effectively and intriguingly pulled back the curtain on this unique fraternity (currently all chiefs of staff have been men), providing the reader with a unique perspective, shrewd analysis of events and decisions, and singular details of the last eight administrations. For instance: Richard Nixon’s infamous chief, H.R. Haldeman, often blamed for Watergate, actually tempered Nixon’s self-destructive instincts and wrote the template for the modern White House chief of staff; two ambitious chiefs, Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney, brought Gerald Ford back from political disaster to the brink of victory over Jimmy Carter (and forged a political alliance that would take them to the pinnacle of power decades later); Leon Panetta, along with his deputies Erskine Bowles and John Podesta and with strong input from First Lady Hillary Clinton, resurrected Bill Clinton’s crippled presidency, fixing a dysfunctional White House and setting the stage for his reelection, and more . . .

A granular, compelling story that is rich in details and points of historical fact yet entirely accessible and appealing to a broad spectrum of readers, The Gatekeepers may just have the power to revise our understanding of presidential history and the men who shaped it. As historian Richard Norton Smith said: “Every president reveals himself by the presidential portraits he hangs in the Roosevelt Room, and by the person he picks as his chief of staff;” The Gatekeepers reveals the chiefs of staff. //

1967 “Almost 50 years after graduating in 1967 finds me still close to Deerfield Academy. I have lived in West Deerfield, operating Clarkdale Fruit Farms first with my father Fred ’29, and now with my son Ben ’96. Three years ago I moved to another house on the farm, and can now view Mt. Pocumtuck out of my kitchen window. I have enjoyed many friendships with faculty, staff, and students, and now my children continue the warm relationships. My daughter Betsey ’94 continues doing a great job as Director of the Annual Fund. Ben’s wife Lori teaches dance and was the choreographer for last spring’s performance of Cabaret. And now Ben is on the Board of Trustees (see page 76)—probably the first time in almost 100 years that there’s been a farmer on the Board. I hope to see all of my old friends in the five-year Class of 1967 at this year’s Reunion!”—Tom Clark

1978 “Before leaving office, President Obama awarded me the Presidential Rank of Meritorious Executive, the most prestigious award in the Federal career civil service. Its recipients are proven leaders and professionals who have achieved extraordinary mission results and have consistently demonstrated a commitment to excellence in public service. I am currently director of Legislative Affairs for the National Security Agency, and I was cited for my work with the Congressional Intelligence and Appropriations Committees and my earlier role as the Agency’s deputy chief of staff. My wife and I live in Ellicott City, MD.”—Trum Soule

Craig Pattee ’83 Spends most of his time in Washington, DC, and Jackson Hole, WY, but when in NYC, he connects with former

’80

Six members of the Great Class of 1980 enjoyed a relaxing weekend on Nantucket in September. From left: Carr Davis, Sam Tingley, Ed Schmults, Michael Falcone, John Mattes, and host Scott La Shelle. They ran into classmates Gus Field and Mark Mead on the island that same weekend.

John Knight ’83 Reports that four classmates— Hardie, Dave, Taylor, and John— enjoyed each other’s company and some fresh air in Sun Valley, ID.

Ashley dorm mate and classmate Doug Cruikshank.

More Class Notes and Photos: deerfield.edu/commonroom

61

CRAIG JANNEY ’85

/ b y B o b Yo r k

62 | THE COMMON ROOM

Jim Lindsay ’70 can now tell his grandchildren, or anyone else for that matter, that he skated on the same line as a hall of famer. The former Deerfield hockey coach might not mention the fact that these ice capades were limited to practice, however.

Lindsay, Big Green varsity hockey head coach from 1988 to 2003, was an assistant under Jay Morsman ’55 during the 1984-85 season when one of the players on that team was a post-graduate from Enfield, CT, named Craig Janney. Despite having helped lead Enfield High School to back-to-back state championships, Janney’s arrival at Deerfield went pretty much unheralded—until hockey season.

“It only took about two or three shifts into our first practice to realize we had something really special in Craig Janney,” says Lindsay. And by the time Janney had led a 16-0 rout of Vermont Academy in the Big Green’s season opener with a six-goal performance, “everyone else in New England began to take notice that we had something special, too.”

Following a 16-6-1 season in which Janney led Deerfield in scoring with 68 points on 33 goals and 35 assists, he secured his spot as arguably the best hockey player in school history. His one season at the Academy also helped catapult him to the heights of hockey on the collegiate, international, and professional levels. For those achievements, Janney was enshrined in the United States Hockey Hall of Fame this past December as a part of its Class of 2016.

“Craig had outstanding hockey sense . . . an ability to anticipate where everyone was on the ice and get them the puck,” says Morsman.

“Sometimes you’d watch him and swear that he had eyes in the back of his head after watching some of the passes he’d make.”

Lindsay, meanwhile, admits to becoming so fascinated by watching Janney’s maneuverings that whenever one of Janney’s line mates missed practice, “I’d go out and skate on his line. It was fun . . . his ability to pass the puck really kept you on your toes.”

One of those line mates was team Captain Brian Jurek ’85, who credits Janney as being “one of those elite athletes who made everyone around him better,” and that obviously included Jurek, who quite possibly produced the best statistical year of his entire hockey career that winter with 50 points on 25 goals and 25 assists.

“Craig was the most amazing player I’ve ever seen when he had the puck on his stick,” says Jurek, a member of the 1984 Big Green squad that captured the New England prep school crown. “Next to Wayne Gretzky, I don’t think there’s anyone who has had better puck control and passing ability in the game of hockey. Opponents would double and triple-team him in the corners, yet they’d rarely get the puck away from him.

“Our game plan was simple that season,” continues Jurek, “get the puck to Janney in the neutral zone and then head for the goal. That’s where Coach Lindsay was constantly reminding us to keep our heads up, because when you least expected it, you’d find the puck on your stick.”

“I just considered myself a playmaker who was privileged to always have some outstanding scorers around me,” says a modest Janney, who was selected by the Boston Bruins with the 13th overall pick in the 1986 NHL Entry Draft. “It was my job to put the puck on a teammate’s stick and I use to tell them ‘just keep your stick on the ice and I’ll find it.’”

Topps trrading cards used courtesy of The Topps Company, Inc.

The Hall of Famer

Janney also made a habit of finding teammates’ sticks during his 12 years in the NHL, where he amassed nearly a point-per-game average, posting 751 points on 188 goals and 563 assists over 760 games. As for American-born skaters, Janney ranks first in career assists per game (0.741) and fourth in points per game (0.988). Overall, his 563 assists rank 11th in NHL annals.

On the collegiate level, Janney played only two seasons at Boston College before heading off to the 1988 Olympic Games in Calgary, but while at BC he set Hockey East single-season records for points (81) and assists (55). Internationally, Janney represented the United States on six occasions and produced 26 points on 15 goals and 11 assists while wearing a Team USA jersey.

“It was a wonderful honor,” says Janney of his Hall induction. “It came as a complete surprise . . . I thought my time had passed me by. It was particularly sweet to be inducted along with the ’96 World Cup Team because I have a number of good friends on it.”

And although Janney may have thought his Janney says that Deerfield induction time had passed, once elected, he still will always hold a special had to wait a little longer to find out if he was spot in his heart, indeed in: “The committee didn’t have my correct phone number at first,” he explains. “They said they called me three times but received no response. So,” he quips, “I guess there’s somebody out there somewhere with three messages telling them they’re in the US Hockey Hall of Fame . . . I hope they saved them.”

Janney says that Deerfield will always hold a special spot in his heart, “I can’t believe how much I benefited—scholastically and athletically— having spent just one year there,” says Janney.

“As for hockey, it was the last time in my career that I played for fun. After Deerfield, hockey became more of a business than a game.”

One of Janney’s closest friends at Deerfield was classmate Mike Mullowney. The two played hockey together at the Academy and Boston College, where they were roommates. Mullowney, a post-graduate defenseman, who was drafted by the Minnesota North Stars in 1985, had already committed to BC before arriving in Western MA. “I remember right after I got to Deerfield, I got a call from BC assistant Coach Steve Cedorchuk,” says Mullowney. “He asked me to look up Craig Janney, saying he was ‘the best player in the United States.’ I’d just started football, so I began looking for him at practice,” adds Mullowney. “Turns out he played soccer, so that evening, I figured I’d find him in the Dining Hall. I went over to where the soccer players were sitting and asked if someone could point out Craig Janney . . . and they did.

“I see this scrawny, 150-pound guy and I said to myself, ‘There’s no way this guy’s the best hockey player in the United States.’ I called Cedorchuk back that night and told him, ‘You got the wrong guy!’ He said, ‘Nope, I got the right guy.’”

He sure did. //

“I CAN’T BELIEVE HOW MUCH I BENEFITED— SCHOLASTICALLY AND ATHLETICALLY—HAVING SPENT JUST ONE YEAR THERE.”

63

’83

With daughter Brady at King’s Academy, they are officially empty-nesters!

Whoo-hoo!—John Knight ’83 r: Craig Pattee returns to the Valley with his wife Bridget to see their son start at Eaglebrook; t: Attended Parents Weekend with his daughter Brady at King’s Academy in Jordan. “She’s having an incredible experience, making great friends, and enjoying freshman year. Made varsity soccer, too! We couldn’t be more proud, and we highly recommend the school.”

1983

“Congratulations to Jeff Spadafora on the upcoming release of his first book: The Joy Model. You may remember Jeff is director of the Halftime Institute’s Global Coaching Services and Product Development, where he trains and manages the global Halftime coaching staff. Earlier, he was a management consultant for twenty years with a focus on executive education and development for Fortune 500 companies. He lives with his family in Evergreen, CO. Jeff continues to be an amazing person who works hard to live a life led by his values.

Great work Spads!”—John Knight

Tucker Holland ’83

Tim Ehrhart ’83

John Knight ’83

Featured in

Traveled to Nassau this

Hosted classmate

past summer, and was

Doug Schmidt in

able to connect with

Denver; he adds that

Nantucket Magazine.

64 | THE COMMON ROOM

former teammate and

it “looks like Doug

classmate David Morley.

made a friend, too!”

RECENTLY PUBLISHED:

Skating to Vietnam

AUTHOR :

Frank O’Keefe ’77

First Asa Press / 2015 REVIEWED BY:

Bigstockphoto.com

Jessica Day

Four college students meet as freshmen in the fall of 1975—Kate: the reserved, studious daughter of a blue blood family; Bobby, the passionate and talented aspiring writer; Seth, nicknamed “Halves,” who yearns to journey in the heavens as an astronaut; and “Sigmund,” the quartet’s observant narrator. Bound by youth and idealism, the four evolve into a tightly-knit unit, but as their senior year progresses, secrets and pain and loss threaten to unravel not only their friendship but their lives.

First published electronically in 2012, Frank O’Keefe’s short novel, Skating to Vietnam, has been called an “incredibly lovely and touchinglywritten” book. Released as a paperback in 2015, the print version of Skating to Vietnam also includes the short story “Thanksgiving;” both are evocative, thoughtfully written pieces, but it is the title story that truly shines, thanks in large part to the compelling characters O’Keefe has written. As one reader commented, “beginning firmly in the moment of youth when everything is possible and connections are particularly profound (Skating to Vietnam) looks back on what isn’t possible to recognize precisely at an age when we think we know it all, but only realize what we missed when it’s too late.”

Prior to publishing Skating to Vietnam, O’Keefe wrote a column for Hartford Monthly Magazine. He founded and leads Infinitree, LLC, in 2014, a “benefit corporation” that utilizes proprietary technology to concentrate ambient atmospheric CO2 and discharge it within greenhouse environments, enhancing photosynthetic rates and increasing yields. O’Keefe also co-founded Centerpoint—an investment company dedicated to sustainability. //

EXCERPT: I’ve always been viewed as a bit of a dreamer, caught up in some shining hope no matter the day’s events. Distracted, in a way.

This quality exasperated my father, who took great pains to bring me to ground—in his economical way. His one or two sentence way.

He sent me to college with these parting words: “You’ll meet someone one day and she’ll look right at you. Just remember her way of looking will change if you don’t pay the dentist...”

Probably good advice. But to an eighteen-year-old with good teeth, advice I filed for another day.

My friends in college turned out to be dreamers of different sorts.

One dreamed actively and openly of all good things, things in order and right, of common decency and respect and comfort for all. He dreamed of a just world, but what we saw of his hopes for himself he quickly diffused with levity without, in any way, diminishing the object of his hope.

Another was a child of privilege with no faith in dreams. Her parents had been given too much and probably assumed too much and certainly dreamed too much about what was due them. They dreamed of notable lives and did not work to reach their dreams. So for her part, she swore off dreams. Openly. But that wasn’t quite right. When pressed, and I did press one night, she said something more revealing. She said, “You can’t dream more than you work.” And she worked very hard.

The last of my closest friends in college would fly on ships more wondrous than Apollo. His ships would pass our moon and fly beyond— beyond where his heroes had visited. He would fly deep into space to look back in time and, from his distant vantage, seek understanding.

That was his plan, though largely unstated.

65

RECENTLY PUBLISHED:

Cease & Desist

AUTHOR : AUTHOR :

Stephen David Hurley ’79

Riverbrook Books/Strong Girls Press / 2016

REVIEWED BY:

Jessica Day

Middle school teacher, blogger, and author Stephen David Hurley has written a book for young adults—Cease & Desist—that is sure to appeal to a much broader audience than the “YA” crowd alone. Cease & Desist has been described as a dark, contemporary thriller with a supernatural twist; a coming-of-age story that confronts the realities of sexuality, violence as entertainment, and mental illness through sixteen-year-old Cease de Menich’s eyes, “the most seductively unreliable narrator since Gone Girl.”

When we first meet Cease de Menich, she is newly famous, having been cast in a teen reality-drama show as Joan of Arc (Jeanne, as Cease keeps irritably reminding everyone). It seems that her career is truly taking off—that she’s finally going to get everything she’s wished for and worked for—or is it all an illusion? Insecure and suspicious, despite her natural talent for acting, every one of Cease’s performances is haunted by her past, and when parts of it literally start appearing in the show’s scripts, the line between fiction and reality becomes even blurrier.

Cease & Desist definitely leads the reader on a wild ride, and figuring out if Cease is actually a reliable narrator is not an easy task, but it is entertaining!

As one reviewer said: “Cease & Desist has everything—the drama of a novel set in New York City, the glitz and glamour of a Hollywood story, and a spiritual message that will resonate with the heartland of America. What begins as a thriller about a ‘reality-drama’ gone terribly wrong becomes a story about a girl who must survive the battlefield of sex and violence to become a woman.” //

EXCERPT: You’re up to something. My Nina and I are on to you, mister.

I can feel those words well up in my chest like a clenched fist. I figure Francis could’ve been a plausible dictator, fat and mean with an all-knowing smile that hides his sick satisfaction with other people’s suffering; yes—a mean god all young performers prayed to because he held that potion, that secret called fame we’d all tasted and wanted more of.

I stare him down. I was chosen for this role to face my past. Why run from it anymore?

“How did you get the lines my brother wrote in his suicide note?”

“Excuse me?”

“You know what I’m talking about, Francis.” His expression holds a big lie, I think, as if Francis was a clumsy thief I’d caught going through the private files in my head.

66 | THE COMMON ROOM

He shifts in the rickety chair. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Cease—” “My brother committed suicide. You—or at least your writers—put two of the lines from his last letter into my dialogue with Rex.” I can feel a single tear descend my cheekbone, but I pull back. I’m not going to let Francis inside my head.

I level a stare at the mean god. If fatso here wants a wilting fleur-de-lis, he’s found the wrong actress.

“You probably got it from one of Eve’s rich friends on the Upper East Side. Or that stupid therapist my Nina sent my brother to.”

“Cease. You’ve got to believe me. None of the writers got any of that information.”

Was God being nice? He tugs at a sock hanging over his Bean boots. He looks like Humpty Dumpty with those spindly legs and that egg-shaped body. But he’s still got that gravelly voice that comes out all stentorian as he says,

“I was worried when your agent told me there’d been a death in your family, but he assured me that you had something to prove. And when I watched you put on that armor I thought maybe your brother had opened up a space for you.”

He stops, looks at his watch. “I guess I’m not really good at communicating with actors. But so far you’ve been giving me what I need...” his voice trails off and then he props himself up as if he suddenly remembers why he’s come.

“I’m sorry, Cease. My writers have access to all the interviews you gave the casting directors, but they can’t do any research on their own. Not with any of your friends, and certainly not with any therapist your brother was seeing.”

I shake my head, defiant. Where the hell did they get that line?

I close my eyes, see Nina’s face when she said, no one told anyone . . . there are larger things at stake. Her face was solemn, but more than that; she looked scared, too.

What larger things?

’89

A few members of the Class of ’89 gathered in the Tetons for some fly fishing, fun, and friendship this past fall.

L to r: Gus Lipman ’89, Steve Harrick ’89, Andy Hough ’89, Jacques Cattier ’89, Rick Hough ’88, Derek Hutton ’89, and Spalding Hall ’89

1989 “A fall fly fishing gathering in the Tetons! Made even better with the help of the best guide in the West, Derek Hutton! This fun-loaded gathering included evening wrestling challenges against Steve Harrick (still undefeated), Gus Lipman’s first fish on a fly (a monster brown trout from the South Fork of the Snake River ), and wonderful camaraderie below the towering Tetons. At the end of this memorable trip, our ‘Deerfield Alumni Anglers Group’ sent DA a contribution to say thank you for lifelong friendships and also to support Deerfield’s commitment to environmental sustainability, both in the curriculum and in its operational practices on campus.”—Jacques Cattier

Paul Schlickmann ’83 Remains a diehard Red Sox fan along with his daughter.

More Class Notes and Photos: deerfield.edu/commonroom

67

On the Road Again DEHDAN MILLER ’89 / by Lynn Horowitch

Dehdan Miller travels so much that he has two passports—both “fairly fat”—so that he can apply for visas for upcoming trips while he is on the road. As Deputy Director for Strategic Planning and Engagement at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Miller oversees the team that builds the strategy for Co-chairs Bill & Melinda Gates’ engagement in foundation-related activities and manages and coordinates the logistics involved in the co-chairs’ engagements around the world. The goal? “To support the co-chairs in how best to use their time and voice in furtherance of the Foundation’s goals,” Dehdan says.

As the largest private foundation in the world, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has goals that are truly global. With an endowment of roughly $39.6 billion, the Foundation has made billions of dollars in grant payments over the years, helping to improve the health and standing of millions of people with the fewest resources.

Its size is measurable not only in dollars and accomplishments, but also in geographic reach: The Foundation supports grantees in every one of the United States and also operates in more than 100 countries globally.

68 | THE COMMON ROOM

The Foundation’s leaders travel extensively—meeting with everyone from powerful global leaders in urban centers to some of the world’s poorest people in remote locales. Coordinating all of this is no small feat; it has been Miller’s full-time occupation for the past eight years and counting. His is a multi-faceted role, supporting scheduling, speeches, briefings, and correspondence for the co-chairs, as well as reconciliation of their time. Miller’s work can be as routine as making sure they have remarks in advance of a speech, and as strategic as interfacing and negotiating with key people on their behalf.

For about two to three weeks every month, Dehdan is on the road.

When he first took on the job in October 2008, he worked out of the Foundation’s main headquarters in Seattle. In 2014, he moved to Washington, DC, and then last year, he developed a remote work plan and now lives in St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands, where he grew up.

He still spends several days each month in Seattle and another week or two on the road. In just the last quarter of 2016, he was on five different continents, spending time in London and Paris, as well as Iceland, Denmark, India, Chile, and Australia. In addition, he went to Seattle three times.

©Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation/Prashant Panjiar

above: Dehdan Miller ’89 and Bill Gates arrive for a site visit to the Germana Gale Health Post in Silte, Ethiopia.

Dehdan makes time to serve on the board of the Developing Minds Foundation.

That foundation has two main purposes: to start schools in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro and to reintegrate child soldiers back into civil society in Colombia.

Miller says that seeing all the achievements of the Gates Foundation inspires him “to try to do what I can.”

above: Kebbi, Nigeria: children play at a compound wall next to the Gwabangaji Primary Health Post in Kebbi state. Standing with them behind the wall is Dehdan Miller.

Miller describes the path to his current role as “a bouncy one.”

Having grown up spending half of each year in St. Thomas and half in northern California, he experienced culture shock on arriving at Deerfield for his freshman year. He recalls, “Very New England, all-boys, also white, conservative, and just different.” He adjusted, and wound up playing football, basketball, and baseball at the Academy; he also played football as an undergraduate at Harvard, where he majored in Government. Miller says football was “a mixed blessing” at both institutions: “I made lifelong friends, but had a less than illustrious career.”

His football takeaways are relationships that are still intact today, and a few knee, back, and shoulder surgeries, but not “glory on the field.”

During college, Miller took time off in 1992 to work for Massachusetts Senator Paul Tsongas’ presidential bid. After graduating, he worked on Capitol Hill for the delegate from the Virgin Islands and as a budget analyst at the Massachusetts House of Representatives. Miller holds a master’s degree in public administration from the Kennedy School of Government and a law degree from Harvard. He took a year off from graduate school to work as a member of the national advance staff for the Clinton/Gore campaign in 1996 and then continued to do advance work for the Office of Scheduling and Advance in the White House when he went back to complete his graduate studies.

After law school, he went to work on Wall Street, but quickly realized his heart wasn’t in it. He then worked for a couple of different companies

before landing in his current position, when a former colleague from his work with the Clintons was building out the team to support the Gateses.

In addition to his busy job, Dehdan makes time to serve on the board of the Developing Minds Foundation, started by Philippe Houdard, a friend from the Kennedy School. That foundation has two main purposes: to start schools in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro and to reintegrate child soldiers back into civil society in Colombia. Miller says that seeing all the achievements of the Gates Foundation inspires him “to try to do what I can,” and he notes that Developing Minds is unique in the foundation world with very low overhead; approximately 97 percent of donations support programmatic funding.

Dehdan recognizes the fact that his profession is “definitely atypical,” given the global scope of the Gates Foundation. His varied experiences in government, finance, law, politics, and the non-profit world have served as a major advantage. “The Foundation has a few dozen strategic areas of focus,” he says. “And we are working across countries. I routinely collaborate with people from all walks of life, in all corners of the globe, and enjoy having the opportunity to learn more about them and their experiences. My time on the playing field, including my time at Deerfield, taught me the value of teamwork and the importance of working well with others, especially folks with cultural backgrounds different from my own.” //

69

’05

’06

’07

70 | THE COMMON ROOM

t, clockwise: Jules Hulburd ’05 married Mark Koechling in Phoenix, AZ, on November 19, 2016. They were surrounded by amazing family and friends! / Forrest Clifton ’06 and his fiancee Katie were married in Killingworth, CT, on August 27, 2016. Among those in attendance were Frank Zimmerman ’06, Scott Nightingale ’06, and Dr. Sanjai Jalaj ’06. / On August 20, 2016 Dom Viadero ’07 and Sarah Chafe were married in Amherst, MA, at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art. Members of the bridal party included Jason Viadero ’05, Jeremy Goldsher ’07, and Mark McInerney ’08.

’14

Class of ’14 classmates Peter Stobierski, Kevin Fleishman, and Sydney O’Connor took a field trip to the Estrella Damm factory; they were all studying together in Barcelona for a semester, and were part of the same business strategy class.

“Looking forward to graduation this year! Colgate University ’18”

Deerfield Athletics invigorates campus life and instills core values.

As we take aim to create even greater opportunities for our athletes and coaches, thank you for helping to build a championship program with your leadership gift.

—Sydney O’Connor

Aaron Zack ’88

Sarah Panagiotidis ’94

Authored a book about

Welcomed Laertes

American foreign policy:

Michael Panagiotidis

Hegemonic War and Grand

on September 2, 2016 in

Strategy: Ludwig Dehio,

New York City. In addition

World History and the

to his parents, he joins

American Future. He also

big brother Achilles.

contributed an essay to Is the West in Decline?

by Ben Rowland.

71

GAME ON

GRAHAM HARDEN ’87 / by Sarah Zobel

In August, Graham Harden received a diagnosis that’s not for the faint of heart: amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). But after a few days of grieving, the Cincinnati resident and former first-team All American lacrosse defenseman was able to embrace it as his Plan B. “Adversity is just an opportunity disguised as a setback,” says Harden.

ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. As it progresses, it weakens the nerves that control muscles throughout the body, eventually rendering them nonfunctioning. Over time, people with ALS become unable to control their limbs, and ultimately lose their ability to speak, eat, and breathe.

There is no cure—the average lifespan from the time of diagnosis is two to five years, though Stephen Hawking has famously lived with the disease for over half a century. The only FDA-approved treatment extends life six months at most, and brings with it a host of side effects.

72 | THE COMMON ROOM

Deerfield Academy Archives & Harden family

“When you’re diagnosed with ALS, you get the same look from everyone,” says Harden, in contrast to a cancer diagnosis, which elicits questions about treatment and prognosis. “When they think of ALS, most people think of the end.”

Harden was a tri-helmet (lacrosse, football, hockey) captain during his three years at Deerfield. He was so committed to lacrosse that he purportedly woke up his sleeping roommate, Michael Sotirhos ’87, in the middle of the night to try out a ball-stripping move he’d just thought up. (It proved successful in stripping not only the ball, but the opponent’s stick as well, and Harden used it to full advantage on the field.)

At UNC-Chapel Hill, Harden won the Schmeisser Cup as the National Defenseman of the Year and was named ACC Player of the Year in 1991 while helping lead his team to the NCAA Division I national championship. Last year he was inducted into the Connecticut Lacrosse Hall of Fame. He was gifted—a modestly sized player who used speed and stick-handling skills to his advantage in a position that typically relies on size. He was also careful to leave his ego off the field—“For someone who is so accomplished, so capable, he’s very humble,” says former teammate Josh Huffard ’87—though occasionally his confidence shone through, as when he schooled an opponent who trash talked him by stripping the ball from him during a game and then rolling it back, as though offering him a do-over. So it’s perhaps not surprising that he uses sports analogies in discussing his ALS diagnosis.

“It’s like when you’re in a game and the other team scores a goal.

Then what? What do you do from there? Do you prevent them from scoring again? Do you go out and get more aggressive?” he says. “How you react to that adversity is how you live your life. When you get a diagnosis that’s pretty ugly, it’s easy to go south and say, ‘Woe is me,’” he says, pausing with a laugh to correct his grammar: “‘Woe is I.’ It’s how you function. If you see it as bad, it’s going to be bad. But if I can— on some level—help one more person down the road, then this hasn’t been a bad thing.”

It’s a level of resolve his Deerfield classmates say is not new. Sotirhos, Harden’s one-time roommate, mentions his “quiet determination;” whether competing in a championship game, warming up in practice, or wrestling a friend in the dorm, “he’d give it 110 percent.” Peter Fearey ’87, who, along with Harden, was one of three sophomores named to the varsity lacrosse team, says Harden was not fazed by the locker-room taunts of their upperclass teammates.

“He’d say, ‘Oh, really? I can’t wait for practice.’ He had the confidence and he backed it up every time,” says Fearey, calling his teammate Deerfield’s first modern defenseman. “Historically, the game was a bunch of guys who were physical. [Harden’s] position was about hitting guys and body placement, but Graham was so fast with his hand-eye coordination that he could trick people with the stick, and it didn’t need to be physical.”

The GForce page: gforcegameon.org

Since 1991, Harden has devoted countless hours to coaching lacrosse at levels from college (he served as UNC’s defensive coordinator for a period) down to youth programs, even before his own children—Kendall, 21, Lindsey, 18, and Cole, 16—were old enough to hold sticks. He played a significant role in the explosion of interest in the sport in the greater Cincinnati area, helping to develop the Cincy Royals youth program as a program director and coach.

This spring, the Deerfield Boys Varsity Lacrosse Team will dedicate its season to Harden as both a tribute to his time on the field at the Academy and to raise awareness about ALS. Off the field, Harden, who has volunteered as a firefighter and a first responder, is focused on getting a couple of startups off the ground: a medical device and a youth sports–oriented mobile app. Inspired by a handful of professional athletes with ALS—Steve Gleason, O.J. Brigance, and Pete Frates—as well as Paralympian and classmate Chris Waddell ’87 and Mount St. Joseph basketball player Lauren Hill, who died of a rare brain cancer in 2015, he is using his unsolicited moment in the health spotlight to bring attention to ALS. Although there are some 5000 to 6000 new diagnoses in the United States annually, those numbers barely register in comparison to cancer, and as a result, ALS doesn’t receive the kind of research dollars cancer and other major diseases do. Harden gets the math, but he’s understandably frustrated.

Though he can’t necessarily effect change in the scientific community, he hopes to establish an organization that helps children who are indirectly impacted by the so-called “tangle diseases,” including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and ALS. Where well-meaning donors might give to help just the children of one person with a tangle disease, he’d like to see a more communal effort, and is working to establish an organization that helps such kids locate scholarship money to help pay for education.

He’ll have his own expenses to think about. Most insurers don’t cover the costs of the tools that are indispensable to ALS patients, including ventilators and communication technology, or the in-home nursing care that is needed in the disease’s later stages. With annual out-ofpocket care expenses eventually hovering close to $300,000 a year, ALS patients face financial challenges that mirror the physical. But in what Harden, who counts It’s a Wonderful Life among his favorite movies, calls his “George Bailey moment,” many whose lives he has touched have eagerly jumped in to help. A group of locals retrofitted the Hardens’ home, installing a downstairs bathroom and bedroom, with 100 percent of the labor and materials donated. Others are offering to cover the cost of trips and other memory-building adventures for Harden and his wife, Dawn, and their children. His sister Shea and brothers Boyd and Holmes—together with support from Harden’s lacrosse and academic communities (New Canaan High School, Deerfield, UNC [including Kenan-Flagler Business School], Connecticut, and Cincinnati)—an extensive group that is known collectively as “GForce”—are raising money to help cover expenses through a YouCaring page and an assortment of events that to date have included movie screenings, online raffles, and a bocce ball tournament. Ever the competitor, Harden himself is responsible for the GForce tagline: “Game on, ALS!” //

73

OT 74 | THE COMMON ROOM

T

Will Grant ’12 Played and started in 26 games for the Santa Clara Men’s Water Polo Team, for a record of 30 goals and six assists.

Jackson Dayton ’13 Played in 19 games with 18 starts, two goals and one assist as team captain for the University of Vermont Men’s Soccer Team; led the team to the second round of the 2016 NCAA Tournament, and was named to the America East All-Academic Team for the second straight year.

Mettler Growney ’13 Started in all 16 field hockey games this past fall for the Bowdoin Polar Bears at center midfielder; completed three assists and six goals, and was named First Team All-NESCAC, her fourth consecutive year to receive a post-season NESCAC honor.

Julia Hamilton ’14 Started in all 19 field hockey games at Smith College this past fall; Julia was the team scoring leader with 12 goals and two assists. The team was a 2016 NEWMAC Semifinalist.

Reed Horton ’14 Running for Dartmouth, Reed placed 25th at the 2016 Men’s Cross-Country NCAA Championship and 25th at the Dartmouth Invitational.

John Jackson ’14 Played in eight football games at Middlebury in the linebacker position: one interception, 7.5 sacks, 61 total tackles, and two forced fumbles.

Fikayo Ajayi ’15 Played in 17 games this past season as part of the Amherst College men’s soccer team, including the NCAA Tournament Sweet Sixteen.

Scored two goals and two assists.

Allie Hrabchak ’15 Appeared in 18 games, made 16 starts, three goals, and two assists for MIT’s women’s soccer team; one of her goals was a game winner.

Mirjam Keochakian ’15 Played in and started in 19 games, scoring six goals and posting seven assists, for the Mt. Holyoke College field hockey team— 2016 NEWMAC semifinalists.

Lucy Lytle ’15 Led the Boston College Eagles field hockey team in scoring this past season, earning 12 goals, the team’s highest total since 2010. The Eagles were in the 2016 NCAA Tournament first round and #3 seed in the ACC Championship.

Anna Ballou ’16 Started in 18 games for the Mt. Holyoke College field hockey team as a freshman; one goal and three assists.

Elizabeth Growney ’16 Played in all 16 field hockey games at Bowdoin this past fall as a freshman.

More Class Notes and Photos: deerfield.edu/commonroom

75

BEN CLARK ’96 / b y

Lori Shine

At a picnic table overlooking a portion of Clarkdale Fruit Farms with eighty-year-old Macintosh apple trees, Ben Clark recounts a bit of his family’s history with both Deerfield Academy and the orchards.

“We just celebrated 100 years last year,” he says. “I run the farm with my father, Tom ’67; my grandfather Fred was also a Deerfield grad. My sister Betsey Dickson ’94 is Deerfield’s Annual Fund director. And I was Class of ’96.”

For at least 50 years picking up a Clarkdale apple on the way out of the Dining Hall has been a fall tradition for students—the Academy has made it a priority to source locally—but in fact, almost all of Clarkdale’s fruit is sold within a ten-mile radius of the farm.

Tom Clark stops to ask Ben about a starter on one of their tractors and adds, “I went to Deerfield and my brother went to Deerfield. My father and his brothers went to Deerfield. It’s a long relationship.” And it’s one that Ben will further in his role as a newly-elected member of the Board of Trustees. Tom asks, with a note of pride in his voice, “When was the last time there was a farmer trustee from Deerfield?”

“Knowing that the Board has been responsive to the local community made it that much easier to say yes when I was approached to be a trustee,” says Ben. “There hasn’t been a local representative on the Board for a while now, and I’m looking forward to bringing that perspective, and seeing how the school is viewed within the community.”

It’s been ten years now since Ben and his wife Lori (who teaches dance at Deerfield), returned to the family farm. How did a theater tech working in stage productions in Boston and Providence decide to make that career shift?

“I had grown up working on the farm, and it was good to get out and get another perspective,” says Ben, who majored in theater at Wesleyan, something he also loved as a student at Deerfield. And yet, the farm was always a possibility in the back of his mind. “In 2005,” he continues, “my grandfather died. Over time, my father had purchased the farm from him.”

76 | THE COMMON ROOM

Many fond memories, such as taking fruit to farmers’ markets with his grandfather, came flooding back, and Ben sat down with Tom to talk about the future. “Luckily, I get along with my father and the business was (and is) in good shape, and we have a good following in the community, so there were a lot of attractive things,” he says. Stepping into the family business also meant that the farm could continue to hold its place in the community when Tom was ready to retire someday.

“We’re very fortunate that the ‘Buy Local’ movement is so strong in this area, and there is a real connection with consumers and their food.

Farming is a thriving business field in the Valley, and our community of farmers is welcoming. So it felt good to come back.”

Not long afterward, though, the farm faced a new challenge. “Two and a half years ago we were approached by a representative for Kinder Morgan who was looking to put a large-diameter high-pressure natural gas pipeline through Franklin County, specifically through our farm,” Ben explains. He points to the drumlin behind us—a gently sloping glacial mound covered with peach trees—and explains how it has been key to the farm’s popular peach crop.

“The pipeline was going to cut through here and create a hundred-foot swath that had to be kept free of trees. The more we learned about it, the more we realized it wasn’t going to be good for our farm, or the environment, or the community, and it wasn’t going to be benefiting anybody locally.”

Stop the Pipeline signs started sprouting in yards all over Franklin County as the Clarks joined local activists to oppose the project.

“Because there is such a strong following and respect for local farms in the area, several people told me they got on board with opposing the pipeline when they saw that the farms were affected. They really rallied behind us.”

Local organizations rallied, too—including the Academy. “Deerfield came out against the pipeline on the grounds of health and safety,” Ben says, “and when the Board voted to do that, we were very happy. It was the overarching concern for this community for two years, and the planned pipeline was within a half mile of DA’s playing fields; it really was a safety issue, and we were so relieved to know that Deerfield shared our concern.”

Feeling the value of his family’s connection to the land helped Ben to see the long view in other ways as well. He points to the solar panels on the roof of the barn. “Being in the fight led us to install solar on the farm.

We wanted to put our money where our mouth is and make the investment in clean energy.” It was also a natural step for a family whose ethic of community service and volunteerism runs as far back as their apples. “Maybe we can use our position in the community to influence some positive change—as well as growing a healthy product,” Ben says. //

Deerfield Academy: Brent Hale

Apples, Deerfield, and the Clark Family Tree

There hasn’t been a local representative on the Board for a while now, and I’m looking forward to bringing that perspective, and seeing how the school is viewed within the community.

77

tête-à-tête: MOLLY SCHAUS ’06

Two-time Olympian Molly Schaus, who

was drafted second overall by the Boston Blades in the 2011 Canadian Women’s Hockey League Draft, just may have spent more time on the ice than off over the past 25 years. In 2015 she hung up her skates for good . . . more or less. She and Deerfield Magazine’s Julia Elliott recently spoke about the lasting influence of her time at Deerfield, her Olympic experiences, and what her retirement from hockey actually looks like these days.

DM: Tell me about your time at Deerfield; what were some of your best and most formative experiences?

MS: I found myself at Deerfield in the fall of 2003. I had just moved from Chicago and never expected to go to Deerfield or any prep school. It just so happened my family moved out East, and with family circumstances and the reputation that Deerfield had, I was just very fortunate to get in and to have the opportunity to go. I didn’t know what to expect.

I’ll never forget moving into Pocumtuck—and being just 15 years old and saying, “Here we go!”

That first year I ran cross-country in the fall, which was good— running wasn’t my favorite thing but I was injured from hockey, so that was the only sport I was allowed to do. Once hockey started that winter I found my niche; hockey was my passion and the thing I was most confident about in a new setting. Hockey was my way to really connect and feel like I knew who I was on the ice and off the ice.

78 | THE COMMON ROOM

DM: When did you start playing hockey? How did you grow to love it?

MS: I’m stereotypical—grew up in Minnesota with a pond in my backyard. I learned to skate when I learned to walk; I have two older brothers that I was always trying to keep up with. The middle one in particular, Michael, is two-and-a-half years older and he played hockey.

The older I got, I always wanted to tag along with him and his friends— and he wasn’t a big fan of that. But he said if I played goalie, he’d let me do it. So I jumped at that and around second or third grade my parents finally let me go and learn to play hockey. Then, in fourth grade, I joined a girls’ team as a goalie and never looked back.

Courtesy of Molly Shaus and USA Hockey

DM: You clearly showed a lot of dedication and talent, but in terms of mentors and people who had influence on you when you were a kid—who were they?

MS: My brother was a huge influence on me; we spent every summer day out in the driveway or the cul-de-sac playing street hockey.

And that’s where I was allowed to fall in love with the game and try new things and get better without coaches or refs or parents—just free play.

My life changed watching the 1998 Olympics over in Nagano, Japan. It was the first time women’s hockey was included, so I was pretty giddy about that. My parents taped the gold medal game for me because it was in the middle of the night with the time change. I woke up—it was a Thursday morning—and I got to go into school a little late because I watched them win the first-ever gold medal over Canada.

I walked into class—and my friends won’t let me forget it—and I said, “I want to do that someday.”

The captain of that team actually lived one town over, so I wrote her a letter inviting her to come speak at an anti-drug rally at my school and she said “Yes.” I got to meet her, introduce her in front of the whole school, wear her gold medal . . .That opened my eyes to an Olympic dream: It’s not just playing for fun. Obviously, it’s always fun, but there’s an opportunity to do more.

DM: That’s so cool. So after Deerfield you went to Boston College and had a successful career there. Can you tell me a little bit about the highlights of it?

MS: There were a couple of classes ahead of me who really turned Boston College into the Division I powerhouse that it is today. I was fortunate—in my class there’s seven of us who are all very talented, good players—to kind of join that team that was already trending in the right direction. I really wanted, as a goalie, to join a team that I could make a difference on right away.

I would say two of my favorite games in my life happened freshman year of college. At the Bean Pot Tournament... Every February the four Boston schools play in a tournament the first Tuesday and second Tuesday of February.

So it’s Boston College, Boston University, Northeastern, and Harvard. It’s just bragging rights—you get be the best team in Boston that

year and there’s a lot of history and tradition with the tournament on both the men’s and women’s side. My freshman year we were the underdog against Harvard, who had a couple of Olympic players. They were doing well that year and we had to play them in the first round at home at 8:00 pm. Somehow we found ourselves tied three to three going into overtime; I was playing pretty well. Our team was playing very, very well and we ended up winning that game in triple overtime; at about 1:00 am we scored to upset them and it broke the saves record at the time. I made 73 saves—I believe— something like that. And I think the other goalie had 50 or 60 . . . It was a very long game.

DM: So it was about five hours long?

MS: Yes—it was almost two complete games that night. I think we were five minutes away from a fourth overtime. My oldest brother—he was a huge supporter of mine but not a huge hockey guy—he was there because he lived in Boston. I remember looking up at him in like the second overtime and he just tapped his watch as if to say, “Hey, finish this. I need to go to bed.” So that’s definitely one of my favorite games.

DM: You also played for the US Women’s National team...?

MS: So, the Women’s National Team—for eight months leading up to the Olympics, we would live and train together in residency. The other years you were able to play college hockey or professional hockey and train on your own.

Then we had about three or four camps a year we’d go to. I actually first made the National team when I was a sophomore in college; every spring I took a month off to go compete at the World Championships. I also took a leave of absence from BC during what would have been my senior year to live in Minnesota and train for the 2010 games in Vancouver. I ended up graduating a year late because of the first Olympics; I came back and re-enrolled with one of my teammates, so it was nice; we got to play another year of college hockey.

DM: What it’s like to compete in the Olympics?

MS: It’s pretty hard to put into words, to be honest. Sometimes you dream of something and in the end it’s not as great as you thought

it would be . . . it wasn’t like that—it was everything that I wished it would be—except for not winning the gold medal. I remember talking to some of the veterans before the first Olympics I went to and they said, “It’s exactly like the World Championships, except not at all. The hockey part is the same but everything else going on around you is so different and so unique and so emotional and powerful.” It truly is remarkable. I think it finally hit me walking in the opening ceremonies, when we were no longer part of USA Hockey and the twenty of us; we were part of Team USA and the 300 of us representing 300 million. It was that moment when it hit me how big it was, how unique it was, and what a dream come true to walk in the opening ceremonies for the first time! My parents were in the stands and that made it all real. I think that was the moment like, “Wow. This is happening.”

And then obviously playing in that first game was pretty memorable . . . I’ve been playing hockey since I was little, and every rink feels the same or the game is the same—you’re trying to score more goals than the other teams—but all of a sudden you look up and the Olympic rings are hanging everywhere and US flags are waving . . . There’s just such a different atmosphere and a different level of excitement that you could definitely feel.

DM: How did you do during that first Olympics?

MS: In Vancouver we made it to the gold medal game and we lost to Canada—two to nothing— in Canada, in front of 19,000 Canadian fans.

That made it harder but it was pretty neat to see that many people passionate about women’s hockey and to have that much energy in the arena.

DM: Then you played in Sochi, Russia.

What was that experience like?

MS: It was fun kind of knowing what to expect in some ways; we went more with a purpose of winning. I think we were a very young team in Vancouver—we got a little caught up in the excitement and all the things you get to do at the Olympics. In Sochi we said, “All right.

We’ve been here. We’ve done that. Let’s treat it like a hockey tournament and let’s win.” We didn’t actually walk in the opening ceremonies because we had a game at noon the next day,

79

so that would have been tough; we chose to rest up and watch the opening ceremonies on TV. DM: And you took the silver again, losing to Canada.

MS: We did.

DM: That’s so frustrating!

Tell me about that game.

MS: We had won a lot of world championships, but they had won the Olympics ever since 2002; we felt good about where we were coming in— we had been playing them well. We had won four games to three leading up in the pre-Olympic tour, and we were actually winning two to nothing with three-and-a-half minutes left in that game. Then they got a fluky goal, and then they pulled the goalie and scored with like 57 seconds left, and then we lost in overtime. We were less than a minute away from winning.

When we got off the ice, the gold medals were right there ready to come out. So that one hurt in a completely different way than Vancouver, that’s for sure.

We do a STEM-based program on the science of hockey; this year we’re talking about the science of ice and thermodynamics and states of matter and friction.

DM: What else do you remember most about the Olympics?

MS: The Olympic Village itself is pretty incredible.

Every athlete stays there, so you go into the dining hall and you’re in line and you see people wearing their gear from China, Russia, Switzerland, Finland, Australia, Mexico, Chile— you name it—every single country. And you just look around and you know you’re with the best athletes in the world. And just being in that dining hall with some of the NHL players that you look up to and watch on TV, and they’re sitting at the table next to you, so that was pretty incredible.

Also watching the other sports; we went to the hockey games, obviously, to cheer on the USA. But even if you watched from your apartment in the Village, then you’d go to the dining hall and see those athletes you were just watching on TV. And then if you went downtown, the whole city was celebrating the Olympics.

The veterans said, ‘Soak it all up the first couple of days and then focus.’ You don’t want to shut it out completely—you want to appreciate the moment you’re in—but there’s time for that and then there’s the time to go and compete, because that’s why you’re there.

DM: What sparked your decision to retire?

MS: Sochi was a devastating loss. A lot of us took time away and said, ‘I can’t do that again.

I can’t put four years of effort into this to come up short.’ But about six months later, I was talking to my teammates we kind of said, ‘Let’s do it again!’ But I also knew I had to do something else to help prepare me for the next step in my life; if I just did hockey for four more years that wouldn’t really be setting me up for success when I was done.

I took a job with a non-profit that I had been volunteering at while I was training in Boston— Cradles to Crayons in Brighton, MA. I worked there three or four days a week and then trained on my own; I didn’t play on the professional team. I worked with a goalie coach. I went

tête-à-tête: MOLLY SCHAUS ’06 80 | THE COMMON ROOM

to camps. And kind of, in a way, did a little bit of each just to keep balance and see what worked.

Sometime in January that year, it was about 5:00 am, and I was at the gym doing our lift. It was snowing out. Every now and then I’d ask myself: ‘Should I keep doing this?’ And the answer was always ‘Yes,’ and it just felt wrong to be done. But for some reason that morning I thought, ‘I don’t really want to do this anymore.’

And it felt okay to say that finally—I felt at peace with it.

I did keep training. I finished out that year.

I went to the World Championships—in the back of my mind thinking that this might be it.

Soak it up. Enjoy being with your teammates, do what you can to help the team. Fortunately, we won but I still felt the same way. I also really enjoyed my job with the non-profit; I really enjoyed the balance I had with my friends and family and I felt I had lived the dream for eight years, and if I wasn’t willing to commit 100 percent to my teammates and to the process it wasn’t fair to be there anymore.

So, I made the call in April of 2015.

DM: Tell me about what you’re doing now.

MS: I had the opportunity to be an athlete role model at the Youth Olympic Games last year.

I represented hockey in Lillehammer, Norway, for two-and-a-half weeks and was involved with the USOC, (US Olympic Committee) and the International Olympic Committee, and I absolutely loved it. I think there’s nothing better than the power of sport to bring people together, and build confidence, and educate, and all those important values. So when I got back from Norway, I called a former teammate from BC, who works for USA Hockey, and kind of picked her brain on, you know, I want to do something with sport and education; I want to be involved with hockey but do more than just being on the ice coaching every day.

So she said, “Let me think about it. I know there’s some internships.” The next day she got back to me and said, “I found the perfect

fit for you, but it’s in California.” I was like, “I don’t know. That’s pretty far.” But I started reading about this program that the Anaheim Ducks sponsor called Ducks S.C.O.R.E.— Scholastic Curriculum on Recreation and Education. It’s basically what I told her I wanted to do, and that’s using hockey to promote academic excellence, physical fitness, and to grow the love of the game.

I moved to California about nine months ago and I’ve been loving it. Every day I’m doing something different: I’m out in the community talking to students, talking to teachers, writing curriculum, hosting events, and getting to spread the excitement for hockey. It’s pretty incredible to call it a job. And getting to work in the NHL is pretty fun—I get to watch a lot of hockey. I could never turn that down.

DM: Tell me about the kids you work with.

MS: It’s primarily elementary school students, fourth and fifth graders, but also a little bit younger. We host a huge street hockey tournament at the Honda Center and those are coed teams, so 16 boys and girls per school, and we’ll get about 24 to 28 schools out here for a tournament. And we do a STEM-based program on the science of hockey; this year we’re talking about the science of ice and thermodynamics and states of matter and friction.

We partner with 57 schools right now and we provide all the street hockey equipment they need and the curriculum. So if it’s a public school that doesn’t have a PE teacher, we’ll send out our staff to do five days of lessons. If they have a teacher, then we give them the curriculum and the teacher does a unit on street hockey, so all fourth graders will play street hockey and have the opportunity to play in the tournament. In fifth grade we do an inline program.

One of the biggest barriers to playing hockey is expense and ice time. And so we try to remove both of those things by doing street hockey and inline hockey. All you need is a stick

and a ball. Anybody can play. Boys and girls love conversations that I never thought of before; it. Teachers can teach it because they don’t have having teachers push me in different directions— to teach kids to skate. We try to make it as easy, that definitely shaped a lot of my views and beliefs. fun, and safe for the schools as possible.

And then with the US team, you know, we were part of something bigger. Yes, we were DM: I’m sure you’re aware that Deerfield has trying to win a gold medal, but we were also plans to build a new athletics complex that representing the US or we were representing will include a new hockey rink. How do you every kid who dreams of being there. With my think that will influence the program? job now, we’re at an elementary school level, MS: I think any kid who walks on campus—if but we’re representing the Ducks. We’re they haven’t already fallen in love with it—will representing hockey, the NHL, academics, see a brand new rink and facilities and you STEM . . . It keeps you humble—knowing that know, it’s an easy sell. I came back, maybe for there’s always something bigger out there my Fifth Reunion, and I remember seeing the that you’re trying to accomplish. weight room completely transitioned. I was like, “Holy cow, what a difference a couple of DM: Is there anything I haven’t touched on that years makes!” To keep updating and staying you want to mention? with the times is a huge recruiting tool. Obvi- MS: Well, I’m not completely done with USA ously that old rink—I loved it and I’m glad I got Hockey. I recently accepted a position coaching to play there, but I think if you’re a kid and you their Under-18 national team as a goalie coach. see a brand-new rink and you see the Main I’m going to their World Championships in School Building and the science center—I the Czech Republic. Thankfully, my boss is don’t know how you don’t go to Deerfield. supportive and understands the opportunity and the honor. It’s a way to give back. It’s easy DM: You’ve gotten to a place where you have to say I’ve moved on, but to stay involved, an awesome job. It sounds really fulfilling.

I think, is really exciting. I’m looking forward to How do you feel your career as an athlete— talking to those girls and getting on the ice at Deerfield and beyond— prepared you for with the team again—kind of relive those glory where you are now? days a little bit—but also get to be one of those MS: I think maybe it started when I was a kid, veteran leaders and share what I’ve learned. // but Deerfield, especially, and BC and the US team—they really focus on team first. Do your role. Be a good teammate. Take responsibility.

Help each other out. And I think that’s carried me a long way. In our department at work, we’re all there to help each other. We genuinely believe in what we’re doing and we genuinely like each other, and that makes work at any career a lot easier and a lot more fun to show up for in the morning. I can relate it back to Deerfield as being part of something bigger than yourself. Walking onto campus—you know growing up in suburban Minneapolis and Chicago—it was my first time really meeting people from around the world and having

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The Mountain Doctor EMILY SAGALYN BROWN ’96

/ by Lynn Horowitch

Dr. Emily Sagalyn Brown knows the precise moment when she first identified her career path; it was on a ski lift in Chile, taking a break from rotations during her residency at the University of Pennsylvania. “I had a thought,” she recalls. “Maybe I can ski and work!”

For her “day job,” one that often involves working nights and weekends, Emily is a physician in an emergency room in Reno, Nevada. She is also a specialist trained in Wilderness Medicine and a consulting physician at SWS Mountain Guides, a company at which her husband, James Brown, is owner and Chief Marketing Officer. And when the two married last winter, it was at The Couloir—elevation 9600 feet—in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

Sagalyn Brown (who goes by Dr. Sagalyn professionally) holds a diploma in Mountain Medicine and is trained in glacier, high altitude, avalanche, and helicopter rescue. She has provided wilderness medical care in Nepal, treating altitude illnesses at high elevations, and throughout the western ski areas of the United States. She also serves on the Board of the Wilderness Medical Society and conducts wilderness training sessions for EMTs, nurses, MDs, and physicians assistants in the western US. Wilderness medicine is a growing field: When Emily pursued a Master’s of Public Health and a fellowship in Wilderness Medicine and EMS at the University of Utah, there were approximately six such fellowships in the United States. That number has doubled today.

82 | THE COMMON ROOM

Entering our third year of summer adventures:

JULY 9-AUGUST 5, 2017 Learn more now: deerfield.edu/experimentory A native of Northampton, MA, who attended Deerfield as a day student, Emily had long loved downhill skiing. She grew up with family outings to nearby Magic, Bromley, Stratton, and Mt. Snow. While at Deerfield, she didn’t ski that much, instead choosing swimming and softball as her cocurriculars. But during her undergraduate years at Columbia University, where she majored in neuroscience, thanks to a friend who had a ski house in Killington, VT, she picked the sport up again. “It was halfway through college, and I haven’t really stopped since,” she says.

Sagalyn Brown worked as a science teacher at St. Paul’s School and at Governor’s Academy, before enrolling in medical school at the University of Massachusetts, Worcester. Initially she was unsure about what area of medicine to pursue, since she liked a little bit of every field during her major rotations. Then a conversation with a resident sealed her path. “He advised me to take a look at the people in different fields,” she explains. “He said, ‘Which people do you like best? Who are your friends? That’s who you will be.’” Recognizing herself in emergency room doctors, Emily began her residency in Emergency Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

In the emergency room, Sagalyn Brown says she sees “crazy stuff all the time,” including lots of ski trauma. She also has some good advice for those living in wintry climes and hoping to avoid time in an ER: Never put your hand in a snow blower to remove built-up snow and ice. Over her ten-year career, she has seen enough hand injuries to know.

The region around Reno also has issues with drugs. With the rise in synthetic opioids, Emily and her fellow ER doctors are seeing more “impressive narcotic overdoses, as well as a small population of penetrating trauma,” referring to gun and knife injuries. She says, “If you don’t like blood, don’t go into emergency medicine!”

How does one keep cool in emergencies? Part of it is training.

Sagalyn Brown says, “You just go through the approach: Airway, Breathing, Circulation,” referring to the essential steps and checkpoints used by medical professionals to assess and treat patients. She also credits Deerfield with teaching her life lessons that are still relevant today.

“Those years were great,” she says. “Deerfield taught me to be organized and efficient. Deerfield set me up to continue on the path to what I do now.” And now that she has been in the field for more than a decade, she has become a bit inured. “I’ve seen a lot of things and am better able to personally remove myself.”

That said, Sagalyn Brown is still affected by her patients, observing, “You see good things, too.” One patient came in complaining of vague chest pain. While in the emergency room, he went into cardiac arrest.

Thanks to the emergency room team and hospital staff, he was able to walk out of the hospital a few days later. But not every moment or case is so dramatic. “Lots of days are just filled with coughs and colds,” she notes. “It’s not all Grey’s Anatomy!” //

An Active Part of the Culture JANICE COOK ROBERTS P’17,’18

Janice Cook Roberts was worried. Her daughter had just started school at Deerfield, three hours away from their home in Manhattan, navigating brand-new territory, finding friends and choosing activities—and Janice wasn’t sure of the best way to approach giving her advice.

“I met Leslie Koeppel (fellow parent of a student in the Class of 2018 as well as past parent of two others) for only a few minutes at a reception she hosted for new families. I called her and she was so warm. I also reached out to other parents, and they all called me back immediately.” The advice and support made Janice feel connected to a new community, and she wanted to help spread that feeling; her response was to become involved in the Deerfield Parents Network, established to help parents like her navigate the Academy.

Someone who knows Roberts well might not be surprised that her immediate impulse was to participate and give back. It’s a pattern that goes back to her upbringing in Chicago, in a neighborhood with 40 relatives who formed an extended family network. “My kids have grown up with a lot of cousins,” she says, “so they know family and community that way. At the holidays we can be a little overwhelming!” Her sense of community has always been a guiding light.

When she and her husband were looking at boarding schools with their daughter, Roberts says, “We wanted a school that would reinforce our values. My husband and I are very focused on being part of a community—being active, giving back—and we realized that in addition to superb academics, Deerfield very much cares about every aspect of being a student. That means being a good citizen as well.”

Roberts recalls the time her daughter emailed Head of School Margarita Curtis directly with an idea for a forum. “She felt free to do that, and Margarita emailed her right back, and they met to discuss the idea.”

Encouraging and supporting students to participate and be active is part of the culture at Deerfield. And the diversity of offerings at the school means that when Roberts’ son followed her daughter to Deerfield last year, “Even though it’s a small school, its big enough for the both of them. They can each have their own experience.”

In her own work at the investment firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR), Roberts has also found a robust ethic of service. “Similar to Deerfield, the culture at KKR is very strong. It’s about collaboration and teamwork. The leadership of the firm is also focused on everyone contributing to our communities. It is a privilege to work at a company that shares my values.”

A sense of inclusion and openness has always been one of the keys to Roberts’ professional success. “In business, success is so much about building relationships,” she notes. A broad network allows you to tap into the expertise of many others and unravel complex problems.

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The Roberts Family: l to r: Richard, Annie ’17, Janice, and Taylor ’18 “You make the process better by bringing different perspectives to it,” she says. Being open and ready to listen confers other benefits, too: “I think it is important to always be in a job where you’re learning.” Roberts notes. Constantly pushing and stretching for solutions, she works to bring entrepreneurial thinking into large complex companies.

In her new role as a Deerfield trustee, Roberts looks forward to being part of a Board filled with diverse voices. “It is always helpful to have a different perspective —having not gone to boarding school, I hope I can bring new insights,” she says. “Deerfield has been thoughtful about their approach to inclusion and diversity, and they want the Board to reflect that. Having different views helps any firm or organization make better decisions.”

Outside of Deerfield, Roberts has extended that commitment as a member of the board of the Robert Toigo Foundation, which encourages underrepresented talent to attend business school and pursue a career in finance.

As a Deerfield parent, Roberts is happy to have the opportunity to contribute to the school. “My children have had such a wonderful experience (at Deerfield).”

Becoming a trustee was an easy decision, she says, “because I am so grateful that they’ve had a great experience and built wonderful relationships. They’ve blossomed. I would want to do anything I could to be helpful to Deerfield.” So while she brings her expertise in complex problem-solving to her role as a trustee, it’s as a skilled professional and as a thankful parent. “Success to me,” Roberts says, is “making sure my children are happy. You’re only as happy as your children.”//

Photograph courtesy of Janice Cook Roberts

/ by Lori Shine

RECENTLY PUBLISHED:

AUTHOR : AUTHOR :

When the Moon Was Ours

Anna-Marie McLemore ’04

Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Press / 2016

REVIEWED BY:

Jessica Day

Reading a book by Anna-Marie McLemore is as familiar as revisiting your favorite fairy tale and as vaguely disturbing as sinking into the magical realism of a Gabriel Garcia Marquez novel. And in the case of When the Moon was Ours, McLemore’s second novel, those are definitely good things.

“Longlisted” for the 2016 National Book Award’s Literature for Young People, When the Moon was Ours earned praise from Booklist, Kirkus Reviews, and the School Library Journal, among others. “Luxurious language infused with Spanish phrases, Latin lunar geography, and Pakistani traditions is so rich it lingers on the tongue, and the presence of magic is effortlessly woven into a web of prose that languidly unfolds to reveal the complexities of gender, culture, family, and self. Readers will be ensnared in this ethereal narrative long before they even realize the net has been cast,” enthused Kirkus Reviews.

The story is this: To everyone who knows them, best friends Miel and Sam are as strange as they are inseparable. Roses grow out of Miel’s wrist, and rumors say she spilled out of a water tower when she was five. Sam is known for the moons he paints and hangs in the trees and for how little anyone knows about his life before he and his mother moved to town. But as odd as everyone considers Miel and Sam, even they stay away from the Bonner sisters, four beautiful girls rumored to be witches. Now they want the roses that grow from Miel’s skin, convinced that their scent can make anyone fall in love. And they’re willing to use every secret Miel has fought to protect to make sure she gives them up.

Embedded in this love story, Sam faces how to claim his identity as a transgender boy, and Miel and Sam struggle with how to define their love, both to themselves and their community. McLemore approaches these timely issues thoughtfully and with heart, based in part on her own experiences in her relationship with her husband, who is transgender. She told Publisher’s Weekly: “at the heart of this book is my belief that transgender characters, queer characters, characters of color, deserve fairy tales.” When the Moon was Ours achieves this goal, and more.

McLemore’s first novel, The Weight of Feathers, also earned praise for its prose, its imagery, and its modern-day romance—in many ways an homage to Romeo and Juliet. At the time, a review on Cosmopolitan. com read: “McLemore and her bright voice should be with us for a long time.” This reader certainly hopes so. //

EXCERPT: As far as he knew, she had come from the water. But even about that, he couldn’t be sure.

It didn’t matter how many nights they’d met on the untilled land between their houses; the last farm didn’t rotate its crops, and stripped the soil until nothing but wild grasses would grow. It didn’t matter how many stories he and Miel had told each other when they could not sleep, him passing on his mother’s fables of moon bears that aided lost travelers, Miel making up tales about his moon lamps falling in love with stars. Sam didn’t know any more than anyone else did about where she’d come from before he found her in the brush field. She seemed to have been made of water one minute and the next, become a girl.

Someday, he and Miel would be nothing but a fairy tale. When they were gone from this town, no one would remember the exact brown of Miel’s eyes, or the way she spiced recado rojo with cloves, or even that Sam and his mother were Pakistani. At best, they would remember a dark-eyed girl, and a boy whose family had come from somewhere else. They would remember only that Miel and Sam had been called Honey and Moon, a girl and a boy woven into the folklore of this place.

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The Educational Entrepreneur LUCY STONEHILL ’06

/ by Lynn Horowitch

An online search for the number of universities worldwide indicates that there are roughly 26,000, or over 40,000, or only 17,000, depending on the definition of “university.” So while the result is inconclusive, clearly there are many institutions of higher education globally. So how does a student looking to go abroad figure out what are the best choices based on academics and interests, costs, and the not-so-small matter of admission?

Lucy Stonehill can help.

Stonehill is co-founder and CEO of BridgeU, an educational technology service based in London and Hong Kong that helps students identify and gain admission to the best global universities. Marketed to college advisors at secondary schools, BridgeU helps students and counselors manage the whole college admissions process—from evaluating options to sending transcripts to keeping parents and teachers informed. The service uses algorithms and data analytics to help predict where a student might be admitted based on their performance compared to historical applicants from schools around the world.

On a functional level, BridgeU is a multi-year guidance-as-a-service solution within schools, enabling college advisors to adapt the BridgeU program to meet the specific needs of that school. Advisors can assign tasks to both students and faculty alike, and set up the program to focus on “domestic”—35 percent of BridgeU customers are in the UK—or international higher education destinations. Stonehill explains, “All the while BridgeU facilitates smart, personalized checklists for each user whilst maintaining a collaborative space where students, parents, and teachers can support the guidance effort with greater intelligence and ease.”

86 | THE COMMON ROOM

“Our job is to curate best fit higher education opportunities and to help educators manage what may be a stressful and time-intensive process,” she adds.

BridgeU is designed for easy use by students and advisors alike on a variety of platforms from desktops to mobile phones. And unlike traditional college advising software, BridgeU considers educational and professional goals, looking at higher education as a “bridge” to employment. “A lot of times, in educational technology circles, the emphasis is on innovation in learning processes and how to optimize the experience of learning,” says Lucy. “But there is little emphasis on guidance—how you plan next steps, both educational and professional.

We seek to align those goals.”

Stonehill did not have the benefit of a BridgeU when she was working out her own educational and career paths; a British and American citizen, her family moved back and forth from London to New York and ensconced Lucy at Deerfield. She was a self-described “jock”—running cross country, and playing basketball, lacrosse, and tennis. She also sang with the Rhapso-D’s, and led the group as a senior, including on a trip to perform at Disney World in Florida.

When it came time for her college search, she considered universities in both the US and the UK, but found it all “a daunting landscape.” Even with a Deerfield college advisor to help, she says, “The onus fell on me to figure out my path.”

Stonehill ended up at Dartmouth College, majoring in literature and minoring in psychology. After college, she contemplated the idea of becoming a lawyer and took a position as a litigation paralegal at a big firm in New York City. But the pace of that career path didn’t suit her. “I found that it was slow-moving and paper-driven, and it was challenging to see if or how I might enact change,” she says.

Stonehill moved back to the UK and it was there that she formalized what she had been doing casually for years: “I had always provided ad hoc college admissions consulting services to my friends,” she says. She recognized a gap in the global college admissions market and that “the process warranted the intelligence that technology could provide.” So in early 2014, she founded BridgeU in London, together with co-founder Hywel Carver, who serves as chief technology officer. Now between its offices in London and Hong Kong, BridgeU employs almost 30 people and has raised $3 million from a range of venture capital investors in the US, UK, and Hong Kong.

Travels have also led to crossing paths with several members of the Deerfield community, including Wendy Bradley, former dean of Student Life at the Academy, and Malcolm McKenzie, erstwhile Bicentennial Fellow at Deerfield and current Head of School at the Keystone Academy in Beijing. Stonehill also met with headmaster emeritus Eric Widmer ’57 when he was serving as headmaster at King’s Academy in Jordan.

Stonehill’s work has also taken her to technology conferences, including SXSW in Austin, TX, where she ran into Assistant Dean of Faculty and English teacher Peter Nilsson.

Lucy’s current challenge is to scale the business: to hire good people and to market the business globally. She recently spent well over three months in Asia, making multiple trips to China, Indonesia, Thailand, and Kuala Lumpur in a quest to reach new customers and train her employees in Hong Kong. “Exciting, but exhausting!” she says. //

CLASS CAPTAINS & REUNION CHAIRS

1946 1950 1951 1952 1952 1953 1954 1955 1955 1956 1958 1961 1961 1962 1963 1964 1964 1965 1966 1966 1967 1969 1970 1971 1972 1972 1972 1972 1973 1974 1974 1975 1975 1976 1976 1977 1977 1977

Gerald Lauderdale Class Captain R. Warren Breckenridge Class Captain James McKinney Class Secretary John R. Allen Class Secretary Richard F. Boyden Class Captain Hugh Smith Class Captain Philip R. Chase Jr. Class Captain Michael D. Grant Jr. Class Captain Tom L'Esperance Class Secretary Joseph B. Twichell Class Captain Bruce D. Grinnell Class Captain Jon W. Barker Class Captain Thomas M. Poor Class Captain Dwight E. Zeller Jr. Class Captain Peter A. Acly Class Captain Neal S. Garonzik Class Captain Robert S. Lyle II Class Captain Andrew R. Steele Class Captain David H. Bradley Jr. Class Captain Peter P. Drake Class Captain Douglas F. Allen Jr. Reunion Chair John W. Kjorlien Class Captain G. Kent Kahle Class Captain K. C. Ramsay Class Captain Michael C. Perry Class Captain Joseph F. Anderson Jr. Reunion Chair Bradford W. Agry Reunion Chair Robert Dell Vuyosevich Reunion Chair Lawrence C. Jerome Class Captain J. Christopher Callahan III Class Captain Geoffrey A. Gordon Class Captain Dwight R. Hilson Class Captain Peter M. Schulte Class Captain Marshall F. Campbell III Class Captain David R. DeCamp Class Captain James M. Gilbane Reunion Chair James R. Gilmore Reunion Chair Scott S. Halsted Reunion Chair

1977 1977 1977 1978 1978 1979 1980 1980 1981 1982 1982 1983 1983 1984 1984 1984 1984 1985 1986 1986 1987 1987 1988 1989 1989 1990 1991 1992 1992 1992 1992 1992 1993 1993 1993 1993 1993 1993

James P. MacPherson Jr. J. H. Tucker Smith Wayne W. Wall Jr. Paul J. S. Haigney Stephen R. Quazzo Daniel F. Goss John B. Mattes Paul M. Nowak Kurt F. Ostergaard Robert S. Bridges Jr. Frank H. Reichel III John G. Knight J. Douglas Schmidt Gregory R. Greene B. Barrett Hinckley III Christopher S. Miller David A. Rancourt Sydney M. Williams IV Henri R. Cattier Michael W. Chorske John D. Amorosi Andrew P. Bonanno Oscar K. Anderson III Gustave K. Lipman Edward S. Williams Jeb S. Armstrong J. Nathaniel Arata S. Shameem Awan Jeffrey M. McDowell Etienne D. Shanon Raymond L. Walker Hardy G. Watts Kimberly A. Capello Christopher T. DeRosa Michelle M. Greenip Charlotte York Matthews Sarah D. Weihman Jorie Gibbons Widener

Reunion Chair Reunion Chair Reunion Chair Class Captain Class Captain Class Captain Class Captain Class Captain Class Captain Reunion Chair Reunion Chair Class Captain Class Captain Class Captain Class Captain Class Captain Class Captain Class Captain Class Captain Class Captain Reunion Chair Reunion Chair Class Captain Class Captain Class Captain Class Captain Class Captain Reunion Chair Reunion Chair Reunion Chair Reunion Chair Reunion Chair Class Captain Class Captain Class Captain Class Captain Class Captain Class Captain

1994 1995 1995 1996 1997 1997 1998 1999 1999 1999 2000 2000 2001 2002 2002 2002 2003 2003 2004 2004 2005 2005 2005 2006 2007 2007 2007 2008 2009 2009 2010 2010 2010 2011 2012 2014 2015 2016

Daniel B. Garrison Annual Giving National Chair Paula Griffith Edgar Class Captain Daniel D. Meyer Class Captain Leslie W. Yeransian Class Captain Amy S. Harsch Reunion Chair Margot M. Pfohl Reunion Chair Ashley Muldoon Lavin Class Captain Alexander H. Mejia Class Captain Christopher C. Wallace Class Captain Michael P. Weissman Class Captain Lisa Craig Class Captain Emily D. Battle Class Captain Adam J. Sureau Class Captain Terrence P. O'Toole Class Captain Dorothy E. Reifenheiser Class Captain W. Malcolm Dorson Reunion Chair Eric D. Grossman Class Captain Tara A. Tersigni Class Captain Nicholas Zachary Hammerschlag Class Captain Caroline C. Whitton Class Captain H. Jett Fein Class Captain Anne R. Gibbons Class Captain Bentley J. Rubinstein Class Captain Davis A. Rosborough Class Captain Jennifer R. Rowland Class Captain Elizabeth Conover Cowan Reunion Chair Samuel H. Hanson Reunion Chair Robert H. Swindell IV Class Captain Elizabeth U. Schieffelin Class Captain Nicholas W. Squires Class Captain Emily F. Blau Class Captain West D. Hubbard Class Captain Emilie O. Murphy Class Captain Sergio A. Morales Class Captain Carley G. Porter Reunion Chair Alexandra T. Tananbaum Class Captain Heidi B. Hunt Class Captain Charles F. Carpenter Class Captain

87

FROM THE ARCHIVES

2005

88 | THE COMMON ROOM

deerfield.edu/give

or use the envelope in the back of this magazine. Thank you for your support!

BOSTON

REGIONAL & CLUB EVENTS

FEB 22 23 25

Young Alumni College Dinner in Boston Houston Cocktails and Conversation Deerfield Club of New England Winter Play, Pinkalicious

MAR 7 9 11 29

Denver Cocktails and Conversation at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Francisco Cocktails and Conversation at EPIC Steak Deerfield Club of New England at Sugarbush Deerfield Club of New York, Hello Dolly

APR 9

Day of Service

UPCOMING EVENTS: deerfield.edu/alumni/events

ROCKIES

S OCA L

AT L A N TA

FA I R F I E L D , C T

N YC

See even more friendly faces: flickr.com/photos/deerfieldalumni/albums

91

In Memoriam

92 | THE COMMON ROOM

John F. Milne / A service of remembrance was held on September 9, 2016 in memory of longtime Academy physics teacher John Milne, who died at the age of 74 on June 29, 2016.

John was born in 1942 in Washington, DC, and was the son of Francis and Eleanor (Keysar) Milne. He was raised in Barre, VT, with his brothers, Jim and Tom, by his mother after their father died in WWII. He was educated in Barre schools, attended the University of Rochester and earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering. He then taught science at Hardwick Academy, Newton (MA) North High School, and in 1978 he and his family moved to Deerfield, where John taught physics and coached tennis for 29 years. John and his wife, Dorothy, also worked at Lotus Lake Camp in Williamstown, VT, under Dorothy’s parents, Proctor and Helen Martin, and then following Proctor’s death, served as directors from 1968 until 2013, when John was unable to continue due to health reasons.

John retired from Deerfield in 2008.

The Milne family extended special thanks to several people who provided John with loving care in his last days, including Dottie Harris, also an employee of the Academy for many years. He will be remembered by all who knew him as a fiercely independent Scotsman, a punster, and as someone who loved working with his hands.

1933

1954

December 3, 2016

August 16, 2016

Wilson Farnsworth Fowle*

1937

Marshall Chapman Howard

October 20, 2016 1940

Robert Walter Scott

November 18, 2016

Day Lee / Day Lee was born at #2 Gramercy Park, in Manhattan, son of Ronald Currie Lee and Louise Day Putnam. He was the father of David Currie Lee ’71 and grandfather of Rebecca Lee ’00.

Raised in Manhattan and Bedford, NY, Day attended the Buckley, Rippowam Cisqua, and Millbrook Schools, and graduated from Lawrenceville School in 1941. During WWII, Day served in the Naval Air Corps, and graduated from Harvard with an AB in history in 1947. In 1956, he completed a master’s in education at the University of Pennsylvania.

On September 9, 1950, Day married Nancy Arabel Mills of Cleveland, OH. They had two children: Pamela and David Lee. From 1949-1950, Day and Nancy worked for the ECA (Marshall Plan) in Paris, where Day wrote a book on the political unification of Europe. Day then taught history and was assistant headmaster at the Gunnery School in Washington, CT. From 1961-1986, he taught history at Deerfield. During a sabbatical, both he and Nancy taught at the American School in Lugano, Switzerland.

In the early 1970s, Day served as president of the Deerfield Valley Conservation Association. When the Army Corps of Engineers attempted to build a 260-foot dam in the Stillwater section of the Deerfield River, Day, with help from many others, successfully defeated the project. Throughout his life, Day’s four passions were: the Adirondacks, the theater, painting, and music. He was an avid hiker, and attended, at age 43, the Telluride Mountaineering School in CO. Throughout his retirement, Day and Nancy traveled widely. Day was still playing tennis when he was ninety! He died peacefully at his home in Santa Fe, NM, December 30, 2016 at the age of 94.

A memorial service will be held July 1, 2017 at 2:00 pm at the Congregational Church, Keene Valley, NY. Gifts may be made in his memory to the Adirondack Trail Improvement Society (ATIS), Box 565, Keene Valley, NY 12943 atis@atistrail.org or to Deerfield Academy, Box 87, Deerfield, MA 01342.

Michael Albert Dehlendorf

William Henry Nickerson, III December 22, 2016

Nathan Hunt Palmer July 21, 2016

Stuart Marchant Smith

1941

September 4, 2016

December 5, 2016

1956

1942

November 15, 2016

David Wolf Cugell*

Ralph Eliot Smith

Edward George Rundquist, Jr.*

October 15, 2016

Robert Sloane Wickes

1944

April 20, 2016

January 2, 2016

John Wilson Bradford

Stephen Prager William Phelps Rugg

June 5, 2016

Nicholas Ulrich Sommerfeld*

1957

November 10, 2016

Truman Perkins Reed, Jr. February 10, 2015

October 19, 2016

Artemas Bronson Thayer

1948

December 24, 2016

Hamilton Hicks Carson

January 14, 2016

Robert Curtenius McDougal

1964

Robert Allan Adams

May 17, 2016

August 29, 2016

1968

1949

November 20, 2016

March 11, 2016

1990

George Harold Lobley

April 9, 2016

John Alvin Coleman

October 24, 2016 1951

James Blair Cochran, II*

Nicholas Marines Nikitas*

Ian Uppercu Prout

2001

Charles Barker Payne

January 7, 2017

October 10, 2016 1952

Kenneth Harrison Rice, Jr.

October 23, 2016

* Boyden Society Member / In Memoriam as of January 25, 2017.

Please go to deerfield.edu/commonroom for the most up-to-date information on classmates, including obituaries.

93

First Person : For Ian / by Ashley Prout McAvey ’92

On April 9, 2016, my beautiful brother and dearest friend, Ian Uppercu Prout ’90, ended his life. From that point on, my life, and my family’s, was bifurcated into two distinct periods: before April 9 and after April 9.

The pain of that finality, that physical loss, cannot be put into words.

The deeper layer suicide survivors face—the questions—are haunting, particularly when the beautiful soul who perishes expended vast amounts of energy to keep their struggles so well hidden, as was the case with Ian. For us who remained, the questions began relentlessly: When did Ian’s pain begin? When was the first time he thought suicide was an answer? How could we have not seen the degree to which he was hurting? Why didn’t he let us try to help him? How in the world could he think that we would be ok without him?

Ian was two years older than me. My big brother. We shared a room when we were little, and when I was three I was afraid of the dark, so every night I would say to him, “Brudy, turn around and look at me. Keep your eyes open.” I knew if he was watching me, protecting me from the dark, I would have nothing to fear. He dutifully rolled his weary fiveyear-old body toward me and he would watch me until I fell asleep— every night. That was just the beginning. He grew into the most handsome, generous, kind, funny brother in the world. He owned a successful sports car driving business, and he held five track records at the most prominent race car tracks in the country. He had a wonderful girlfriend, amazing friends, an incredible home, a niece and nephew who adored him. And he had me, the proudest sister in the world, and my Mom and Dad, who gave both of us—in equal measure— love, support, and every opportunity imaginable.

94 | THE COMMON ROOM

In spite of all this, Ian’s desire to keep it all together, and perhaps to not burden us with any of his struggles, became too much. His last act was not selfish. It was desperate. Suicide is not selfish. It is desperate.

This revelation changed everything for me, and what happened in the days and weeks following Ian’s death was, for me, the biggest shift in perspective I’ve ever had in my life.

Several years ago, there was a suicide near our family. I distinctly remember talking to Ian about it. Although I was deeply saddened for the family, I also recall repeatedly saying, “But how selfish!” Ian didn’t respond and he didn’t argue with me. He was just quiet, perhaps being careful to keep his own inner struggles to himself. Or maybe he didn’t want to defend this desperate soul because if he did, I might start questioning him. Or maybe his silence acknowledged the often accepted platitude in our society—the fallacy—that suicide is selfish; that it is someone else’s problem; that it is something one does to their loved ones. I now realize that the only selfish one in that conversation was me.

Before April 9, I did think suicide was selfish. I thought it was for “other people”—people with obvious problems that surely their loved ones could have easily picked up on. I thought, “How sad for them.”

I thought, “Thank God that will never be me.”

The questions swirl and swirl, and while immeasurable pain remains, I have achieved some peace in the realization that despite his inner turmoil, Ian knew how deeply he was loved, and we knew how deeply he loved us in return. It is that simple. To quiet the questions, I have found peace in this reality. To do something with my pain, however, I will shine a desperately needed spotlight on suicide awareness and prevention.

Getting the conversation started, without stigma, is critical. Suicide is currently the tenth leading cause of death in the United States. Ninety percent of those who end their lives suffer from a mental health condition, and often, as was the case with Ian, it is undiagnosed. Suicide is the second leading cause of death for people aged 10-24. Just as someone would never be ashamed of battling cancer, we should not be ashamed to battle depression or mental illness.

When Ian made the decision to end his life on Earth, he gave me a clarity about suicide that otherwise I never would have had. And with this gift comes the responsibility to speak and to act and to affect change. I know that we can grace this world with a wave of compassion, research, and advocacy to save others and to spare their families the absolute devastation that we as survivors know all too well. We can do this for our loved ones gone too soon and for ourselves. There is no more beautiful way to honor those we have lost. No more beautiful way to be sure that their suffering was not empty—that it was not meaningless.

Indeed, it is their suffering that fuels us to act.

To anyone who is suffering, I say emphatically that you are not alone.

You are part of the human experience. Perhaps those who end their lives are, as a friend said to me hours after Ian passed, too beautiful for this world, too sensitive for this world. Let us make it perfectly clear that we are looking out for you. Let’s look for signs, known as co-morbidity factors, such as substance abuse, mental illnesses, eating disorders, and addictions. Let us look for these signs, and most of all let us ask the question: Are you ok? And particularly to those who suffer silently: You will never be a burden to me. You are so precious to us. You are not alone. There is no shame in being human. Most of all, let us remind them that in sharing their burden, they will be trusting us to help them, and that is a gift to all of us. //

My family and I are filled with endless gratitude

rides of 25, 50, and 100 miles on both days.

to God for sharing such an incredible person

This is the first ride of its kind to benefit mental

as Ian with us. I shared this sentiment in my

health; proceeds will go to McLean Hospital, a

eulogy for Ian.

Harvard Medical School affiliate, for education,

youtube.com/watch?v=sTf0XL0tjPQ

research, and treatment of mental illnesses

I also spoke in honor of Ian at one of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention’s (afsp.org) 350 Out of the Darkness Walks this

including anxiety, borderline personality disorder, depression, eating disorders, and substance abuse. Please join us! ericsride.org

past October. We raised funds in Ian’s name to

My family has created the Ian Prout

benefit the AFSP, and my family and I joined

Forever Memorial Fund, benefitting the

over 200,000 walkers around the country.

AFSP, which will exist in perpetuity to

Together, beginning by simply talking about

honor Ian and to help others in need.

suicide, it is our mission to end the epidemic that is suicide.

afsp.donordrive.com/ campaign/IanProutForever

I am honored to promote THE Ride for Mental

And finally, here is a vital, toll-free number:

Health 2017—a charity bike ride in the beautiful

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline

Hudson Valley on June 24 and 25, 2017 with

1-800-273-TALK (8255)

Here Near the river, Through the deep woods, I feel your soul, And it is good.

Racing, speeding, A flash through the air, I look for your spirit, And it is there.

A vibrant sun beaming, A single bird in swift flight, These bring your smile In crystal clear sight.

Your beauty, your goodness, Your kindness beyond measure, Now for you, dearest friend, Only peace, only pleasure.

Through billions of years And infinite stars, You walked with us together, How blessed we all are!

Do not have a fear, Please always know, Wherever our hearts wander, You, too, will go.

The love you gave endlessly We return back to you, With profound thanks for a soul, Perfect sky, dazzling blue.

I will walk forward, I will have no fear.

Our love is eternal.

You are right here.

APM for IUP April 16, 2016

95

Find the key words in the jumble below. The remaining letters, read row by row (left to right, starting at the top), will reveal a famous saying. Send the lines to communications@deerfield.edu or to Puzzle, Communications Office, PO Box 87, Deerfield, MA 01342, and you’ll be entered to win a genuine LEGACY BRAND BASEBALL CAP. (The winner will be chosen at random from all correct answers received by March 31, 2017. *Tips: Circle only the key words listed below, and do not circle backwards words.

KEY WORDS

Ever Feel Fine Flag Form Glide Hard

Huge Hurt Icicle Lamb Manage Mold Mood

Mummy Ours People Pollute Rake Rice Solved

Teas Tidal Tidy Vacant View Your Zinc

More gear at: store.deerfield.edu

BY Danaë DiNicola

Added Aged Bear Begin Cards Cold

Creep Dignity Down Dozen Ears Edges Even

Fill in the blanks to reveal the hidden phrase: “ _ _ / _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ / _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ / _ _ / _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ / _ _ / _ _ _ _ _ _ _ / .”

— _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

96 | THE COMMON ROOM

Congratulations to Katie Schaetzel ‘07 whose answer was drawn at random from all the correct answers we received for the Fall’16 puzzle: “Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.”—Albert Camus

Object Lesson M r . B o y d e n’ s P e r s o n a l C h o p

In February of 1964 Mr. Boyden received a letter from Yuan-ling and Yen-Chiu Hsu Pei, mainly wondering about the details of Commencement that year (their son Jack was graduating) but also stating how happy they were that Mr. Boyden had received and was pleased with the “small gift” they had sent him for Christmas.

Pictured here is the outer box for that unique “token of their gratitude”—a Chinese signature stamp, commonly referred to as a “chop”—featuring the characters for Mr. Boyden’s name. A chop is used to officially sign documents, artwork, and other paperwork. Chops have been a part of Chinese culture for thousands of years, and the earliest known seals date from the Shang Dynasty—1600 BC - 1046 BC. The quote on Mr. Boyden’s box, as translated by Academy language teacher Cindy Feng, reads: Teaching and nourishing the most talented individuals from the

Anne Lozier

whole kingdom is delightful.—Mencius Christmas, 1963 Given by Yuanling Pei Mencius, a Chinese philosopher, is considered the most famous Confucian after Confucius himself.

He lived from 372 BC – 289 BC.

97

DE E RF I E LD M A G A Z I N E

Deerfield Academy | PO Box 87 | Deerfield, MA | 01342 Change Service Requested