Spring 2025 Deerfield Magazine

Greetings from Deerfield.

As I sit in my office in the Koch Center—one of several buildings constructed during Headmaster Dr. Eric Widmer’s tenure— I can’t help but reflect on the past and Eric’s enduring legacy here on campus. From dormitories (including John Louis, Louis Marx, and Harold Smith) to the Dance Studio, the boathouse, and Jim Smith Football Field, to adding the study of Chinese and Arabic to the Language Department, to having a bagpiper lead the senior class down Albany Road at Commencement—to name just a few initiatives—Eric’s accomplishments are alive and well.

Eric was my first head of school, and for a time, my office was across the hall from his and his assistant’s in the Main School Building. (His assistant was Sandy Ramsay, whose son Chuck many of you may know as Deerfield’s current Chief Advancement Officer, but that’s a story for another day.) Eric was a presence both calm and warm, and he was deeply engaged with the life of the Academy and the lives of the people within it. He really did know every student’s and every employee’s name. He always had time for conversation, no matter how full his schedule, and he was genuinely interested in what others had to say, listening with patience and curiosity.

He was also on occasion—again, thanks to the location of his office—an impromptu babysitter for me. I remember Eric appearing at my door with my daughter, who—now a Deerfield graduate herself and soon to graduate from college—would wander into his office every now and then when she was little. Each time she was met with kindness and patience, a reflection of Eric’s gracious spirit.

Eric also unknowingly redirected the course of my career when he hired one of my mentors and dearest friends, Lee Wicks, in effect simultaneously introducing us and launching the Communications Office at Deerfield. His decision shaped my professional and personal life in ways I could never have imagined at the time, and for that, I am forever grateful.

This issue of Deerfield Magazine includes highlights from the recently-concluded Winter Term, an overview of the Academy’s Campus Master Plan, a celebration of our summer program for middle-school students—The Experimentory—on its tenth anniversary, and a glimpse into history teacher Joe Lyons’s classroom; all activities of which I dare say Eric would heartily approve.

I am honored to include Eric’s voice as well. First, in a reflection he wrote on the occasion of his 50th Deerfield Reunion (see page 4) and before that when he announced his decision to step down from his role as Headmaster (see page 80). His wit, wisdom, and perspective shine through and ring as true now as they did then. His impact on the Academy and on so many of us endures, woven into the fabric of this community we cherish. Thank you, Eric. //

Jessica Day Director of Communications/Editor-in-Chief

Jim Gipe

Dr. Eric Widmer ’57 H’54’06

EDUCATOR, AUTHOR, AND HEAD OF SCHOOLS

Past Head of School Eric Widmer, a distinguished educator whose leadership and vision transformed both Deerfield and King’s Academy in Jordan, passed away peacefully on January 18, 2025, at the age of 85.

Born in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1940, Eric’s life was marked by a deep commitment to education, cross-cultural understanding, and academic excellence.

A proud alumnus, Eric’s early experiences at the Academy sparked a lifelong passion for learning and teaching. He continued his academic journey at Williams College, graduating in 1961 with a degree in history, and later earned a PhD in history and Far Eastern languages from Harvard University in 1969.

Eric dedicated 25 years of his career to Brown University, where he served as a professor of Chinese and Central Asian history, Dean of Student Life, and Dean of Admission and Financial Aid. His tenure at Brown was characterized by his dedication to fostering intellectual curiosity and supporting student development.

In 1994, Eric returned to Deerfield as Headmaster, a role he held until 2006. Under his leadership, the Academy flourished, embracing both tradition and innovation to ensure the highest standards of education. For his service and dedication to the school, Eric was presented with the Deerfield Medal upon his retirement in 2006, and with the Academy’s Heritage Award in 2011. His Deerfield Medal citation read in part: For the past twelve years, as Deerfield’s first alumnus to serve as Headmaster, you have effected great accomplishments quietly and modestly. Appearing effortless in style, you construct everything which is you with purpose, reflection, and thought. Whether exploring new global learning opportunities or pursuing the latest in classroom technology, you make it clear that we are all stewards of the history and heritage of this special place. Although buildings may be your most visible accomplishment, your real legacy is that of your relationship with 12 years of Deerfield students. Your vision of your role as their headmaster, your expectation of excellence, from the students and for the students, models a man you simply called Mr. Boyden.

Eric’s passion for global education then led him to the Middle East, where he became the founding Headmaster of King’s Academy in Madaba, Jordan, at the request of His Majesty King Abdullah II, Deerfield Class of 1980. Beginning its first academic year in the fall of 2007, King’s Academy stands as a testament to Eric’s belief in the transformative power of education. He envisioned a school that would blend rigorous academics with a deep appreciation for cultural diversity, and his work there continues to inspire faculty and students alike.

A polyglot who spoke six languages, including French and Chinese, Eric embodied the ideals of global citizenship. He was deeply committed to bridging cultural divides and fostering mutual understanding among people from diverse backgrounds.

Eric is survived by his wife, Dr. Meera Viswanathan, an esteemed scholar in East Asian studies and comparative literature and the current Head of School at the Ethel Walker School in Simsbury, CT; together, they shared a love for education and a commitment to shaping future leaders. Eric is also survived by his brother Michael and his wife, his sons, Ted and Matt, a grandchild and their spouse, and by his former wife, Dr. Ellen Widmer.

Eric’s legacy lives on in the countless students, colleagues, and communities he touched during his extraordinary life. His vision, dedication, and kindness will be deeply missed but never forgotten.

The Academy community will celebrate Eric’s life at a service on June 8, 2025 at 1:30 pm at the First Church of Deerfield (the Brick Church). Those interested in attending should call 413-774-1483 to RSVP.

IN HIS OWN WORDS:

A 50 TH REUNION REFLECTION

Early in 2007, Eric wrote the following reflection for his class’s 50th Reunion Yearbook. A master of quiet wit and irony who didn’t mind poking fun at himself, he often shared the story of his first trip to Deerfield as a freshman in the fall of 1953. Here, along with some additional thoughts, he shares it one last time.

Given that my great-grandfather (Cyrus Hamlin) founded Robert College in Istanbul, and that my mother established the collegiate school of nursing at the American University of Beirut, it might seem like predestination that I am here in Jordan as the founding headmaster of King’s Academy. But I don’t look at it that way. My life—it seems to me—has been a linear sequence of historical accidents, most of them fortuitous, and it is only by coincidence that I find myself, 66 years later, near Beirut, the place of my birth.

Given Deerfield’s strong association with the Middle East in general, and Beirut in particular, one might think that my enrollment in the fall of 1953 was also predestined; but no, neither was that the case. My mother was driving me back from an unproductive visit to Mt. Hermon, and just on impulse she turned our old Studebaker onto the main street of Old Deerfield. Mr. Boyden granted me an interview on the spot. I suddenly knew that I had found the only place I would leave home for (since I came from a corner of Connecticut where no one, to my knowledge, had ever gone away to school). The question was: Had Deerfield found me? Initially the answer was a hedge. I was placed on the waiting list. Then, early in the summer, came my next stroke of luck— the arrival in the mail of my admission letter. But how could we possibly afford the tuition? Even I knew that I required a significant scholarship, not that Mr. Boyden would ever tell me, believing in the democracy and equality of opportunity, a tradition we uphold to this day. So, my mother drove me back to Deerfield and asked Mr. Boyden for his advice. “Pay what you can,” he said to her, as he had said to countless other profoundly grateful mothers and fathers during those 66 years of his sway.

(When I returned to Deerfield in 1994 is it any wonder that financial aid for our students was a priority?)

As the summer of ’53 began to subside, the joy of being admitted to Deerfield gave way to a worry that I was getting into something over my head. And when the day of departure arrived, the worry had turned to terror. With every passing mile of the two-hour drive from eastern Connecticut my mood darkened. Finally, I asked my mother to pull the car over, I had to vomit up the hamburger that she had gotten for me in Stafford Springs. As I finished, I looked up and noticed the road sign: “Entering Belchertown, Mass.”

At every Deerfield opening day from 1994 to 2005, after we had dined on chicken pot pie for as many years as anyone could remember, I told that story. I think it helped alleviate the suffering that so often accompanies the joy of knowing that one’s Deerfield experience has at last begun. At any rate, I then conclude by saying that well before I had begun to read Virgil with Mr. Dicklow I was aware of the humor of the moment, looking at that sign in Belchertown. And when I discovered that famous line in the Aeneid: Forsans et haec olim meminisse iuvabit (perhaps, someday, even on this will we look back and smile) I knew that Virgil himself must have had a comparably silly experience when he was a boy.

And Deerfield was indeed a struggle, often enough. Only afterwards did I fully understand the importance of that time in my life, or how it was that so much of what was put into me was so slow to come back out. But that was who I was. I can never adequately thank the faculty for their devotion to the task of getting to know me, for I could not have made it easy. It’s why, years later, I always told the Deerfield faculty that each one of them, without any doubt, would be the person onto whom a Deerfield boy or girl would latch. For me it was Mr. Dicklow, and Mr. Merriam, Mr. Poland, Mr. McGlynn, Mr. McKinney, and Mr. Binswanger.

In college, accordingly, I became less nerdy, with my Deerfield pedigree. The only thing was a continuingly risk-averse strategy against developing too quickly, so that by the time I graduated I had succeeded in putting off any thought of what to do next. In that situation the only answer was graduate school. Why not Chinese history? There was an MA program at Harvard.

Great. Two years later, the same question. Suddenly a letter arrived in the spring of 1963 admitting me into the PhD program in history and Far Eastern languages. I hadn’t remembered applying, but that didn’t matter—the next six years of my life were now spoken for. And then, of course, with the PhD in hand, there is little that one is competent of, except joining equally under-socialized colleagues in university teaching and research. So I began to teach Chinese and Central Asian history at Brown.

The significance of that assignment lay in the opportunity it gave me, now that I was earning a small salary, to start thinking about what I really wanted to do. Twenty-five years later, with some zigs and zags at Brown along the way, I came upon my answer, with the chance to come back to Deerfield, the first Deerfield graduate in the history of the school to return as headmaster, and lead the school through its Bicentennial celebrations, the centenaries of Mr. and Mrs. Boyden, and into the 21st century. And twelve years after that, only after I had announced my decision to step down, did the unexpected opportunity present itself of founding King’s Academy. As I recapitulate my life, therefore, it is the theme of opportunity that returns again and again, even when I am far from ready for it. Finally I was. And finally, it has been my hope, at Deerfield and now at King’s, to make opportunity available to as many people as I can. It is the one thing—opportunity itself—that gives the world hope.

As I awake on the King’s Academy campus to the familiar sounds of braying camels and the muezzins up and down the valley calling the early morning prayers, I know I have a lot of work still ahead of me. HMK Abdullah (Deerfield ’80) has called the founding of this school “utterly progressive, utterly idealistic, utterly optimistic . . . and utterly necessary.” And it will be done; but I know that before too much longer I will yearn to be with Meera at our old 17th century farmhouse in southern Rhode Island, listening instead to the fog horns and the lapping of the ocean on the New England shore. //

Kiss Your Brain! Remarks to the Deerfield Cum Laude Society

/// by Megan Hayes-Golding ///

Good evening and welcome to the Cum Laude Dinner! Students, congratulations on getting here. Faculty, thank you for being here to share this moment of joy with these great young people. Thank you to the Cum Laude Society for asking me to speak tonight; I’m honored.

My mom’s best friend—who’s also my favorite kindergarten teacher—used to say “Kiss your brain!” whenever her students had a breakthrough. It’s age-appropriate for five-year-olds, maybe a little silly for big kids like y’all. Nonetheless, in my ninth-grade classes, students metaphorically “kiss their brains” after they struggle with confusing ideas—like how to describe the changing rate of change for an object that’s speeding up. They’re learning how to handle their own confusion. Of course, social pressures make it tough to be wrong, school “counts” now, expectations are higher than at their last school—whatever the reason, your teachers realize it’s tough and vital to lean-in on confusion. Watching you enjoy the dopamine hit from accomplishing something difficult is absolutely my second best repayment for being your teacher (nothing beats Swedish Fish).

What I remember from every project worth my effort is feeling like I’d never figure it out, right up until I did (figure it out).

Welcome to The Emotional Journey of Creating Anything Great! This graphic (see right) helps me stay grounded when working on difficult projects. I like to remind myself that the rollercoaster of emotions I’m going

through is totally normal and typical. New projects start with enthusiasm, “This is the best idea ever!!” Once I get rolling, I quickly move from “This will be fun” to “This is harder than I thought.” My enthusiasm is waning and is replaced by confusion. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know how to solve this problem. I’m a dummy. I’ve arrived to the pit of despair. (Gen X’ers, is it just me or does this sound like The Neverending Story’s Swamp of Sadness?)

How’d I get stuck? Well, I think it’s because worthy projects take way more effort than I ever predict, many of our first ideas won’t pan out, and I’ve stopped seeing progress. Also, I’m confused because the task is a bit too challenging. In your case, next time you work on a tough project, you might use some skills you picked up right here at Deerfield to pull yourself through. Maybe you’ve taken a computer science course where you learned problem decomposition: breaking big problems into smaller ones. Or a history class that taught you how a rough first draft can get you past writer’s block. Maybe there was an art class that taught you how to practice iteration. But when you think about it, isn’t each of these a way to make sense out of confusion? I tell my ninth-graders that if they’re not confused, they’re not learning. Think about it: Grinding out a bunch of work without too much effort is busy work. You’re not learning anything from the experience. It’s the stuff you’re confused about, that you have to think about, that really gives you new insight.

Back to the Emotional Journey; one insight leads to another. Finally! There’s progress. I’m coming up out of the pit. “Hmmm” turns to “Hey!” turns to “Wow. Holy cow, I made it!” “Kiss your brain!” Whenever I’m mired in a project, this picture pops into my head. It’s my signal to pause and figure out where I am on the journey. Then I ask what I need to move to the next step. Because I know there’s always a next step.

By the way; you’ll notice I’ve called projects worthy. A worthy project is one that hits me with the right balance of difficulty and skill level. If you can find work with just the right amount of difficulty to match your skill level, you will feel engaged. In the zone. You’ve entered the flow state.

What is flow and how can it make you happy, though? Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi sought the source of happiness and concluded it’s an internal state we can cultivate. He interviewed athletes, artists, and scientists who consistently said they were their most creative, productive, and happy when they were in a state of flow. I first heard of flow from his 2004 TED Talk, which I wholeheartedly recommend. He asked us to place our skills and the challenge of a task on two axes. Then, he plotted emotional zones on the graph. Here, where skills are low and challenge is high, for instance, what might that make you feel like? How about where skills are moderate but challenge is low? Here’s the whole graph Csiksentmihalyi created (see above).

There are eight zones of emotional state located at the intersection of skills and challenge. I recommend using this chart to help find your way into flow. Feeling anxious or worried? That’s a signal that you’re in the red zone—time to increase your skills. Maybe that’s a consultation with a peer, a visit to extra help, or expanding your reading. Are you feeling bored? You’re in the blue zone. You need a more challenging task. Side note: I’m not saying that all tasks deserve flow-state levels of concentration. Sometimes you just gotta grind through the math homework, know what I mean? I’ve noticed that I tend to enter flow from here: Excitement. This is the high side of the

challenge axis, meaning I’m probably feeling confused, because my skills are just a tiny bit too low. From here, though, I can slide in to flow. I get “locked-in” on a worthy task, losing my sense of time and am fully focused on the task. And that, my friends, is how it gets to be 1 am after you “just” sat down at 7:30 pm to start.

Now, flow is really interesting. First, when you’re in it, you have complete focus. Time dilates and the work feels effortless even though it’s also challenging. Second, flow comes when you’re working on a task of just the right difficulty and your skills are relatively high.

Researchers are just beginning to understand what happens in the brain during flow. They’ve discovered that brains in flow block irrelevant activity, which seems to free up more brainpower for the task. This inhibition, as it’s called, actually prevents you from feeling distracting sensations or thoughts. It explains, for example, why when you’re totally locked in you might not feel fatigued or hungry. We know also that getting into flow takes practice. And that being knocked out of flow makes it tough to find your way back.

So, next time you’re working on a challenging problem, I hope you’ll use feelings to find your way to flow, use confusion to up your skill, and recognize that all great creations require an emotional journey. When you do, you’ll be able to “kiss your brain!” just like Ms. Shattuck, my favorite kindergarten teacher, taught me. //

FIRST-EVER SCANDLING AWARD PRESENTED

BATTLE VICTORY

In February, Deerfield’s Robotics Team— Big Green—collaborated with the Wilmington (MA) High School Wired WildCats to make history and set the state high score, winning the FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) state championship Battle of Lexington—Deerfield’s first-ever win! Team Deerfield also took home the Second Runner-Up Inspire Award in recognition of their hard work designing and building a robot.

Reagan Warren ’27

They CAN Handle the Truth: Why Children Should Know About Their Disability

Kat Timpson Sparrow

The Art of Strategic Quitting: Redefining Quitting as a Strategy for Success

Rowan Diaz ’27

The Butterfly Effect of Teaching Inclusion

Brigitte Cutshall

How Curiosity and Humor Could Redefine the Patient Experience

Tene Ouedraogo ’25

Creating the Breeze

Kate Doerge

How to Find Your Purpose and Affect People’s

Lives in The Most Wonderful and Surprising Ways

Organized by senior Avery Zakowich ’25 and team, this year marked the tenth anniversary of TEDx at Deerfield. The butterfly effect theme, which is a concept from chaos theory and describes how small, seemingly insignificant events can have large, cascading, and unpredictable consequences, was embraced by student and adult speakers alike. //

Chelsea Shen ’27

Why the Personality Dichotomy Shouldn’t Exist

Myles Mzyece ’25

Migration Currents: To Drain or to Circulate

Barren Celli ’25

FIRST Robotics is modeled on athletic competitions in that teams compete in timed matches, complete with referees, vying to score the most points. The big difference in this competition is that matches are played by alliances of two teams and their robots.

“Imagine if soccer was played with half your team being from another school,” said Robotics team Advisor Megan Hayes-Golding. “Every team builds their best robot but no team wins alone. Big Green built cooperation right into our game strategy, building a specialized position player—a robot that did one task better than any other in the state.” //

On Sunday, March 9, the dream became a reality as the #2 Deerfield girls varsity hockey team shut out #5 Tabor Academy to secure their place as 2025 NEPSAC Large School Champions! After taking down #6 Kent in a tight 3-2 game that had extended into overtime, Deerfield advanced to face Tabor on neutral ice at Taft. Tabor had bested #1 seed Thayer just a day earlier.

ON THE HEAD’S MIND

Head of School Dr. John Austin and the Framework for Schools received a good deal of attention in the local and national media in recent months, and this winter his interviews, podcasts, and remarks were released on a new Head of School website. The site also includes Dr. Austin’s collected Family Weekend remarks, his October 21, 2024 remarks in New York City, and his virtual bookshelf of recommended reading: deerfield.edu/head-of-school

It was a thrilling battle of the goalies. Big Green senior co-captain Campbell Krotee met Seawolves senior Avery Olson. Both goaltenders were exceptional, making impressive clutch saves throughout the game. After a scoreless first period, Deerfield senior defender and co-captain Allie Corrieri capitalized on a power play, receiving a pass from Keira Austen ’26 and sending the puck to the back of the net to give Deerfield a 1-0 lead with 16 minutes left in the second period.

The intensity remained high as both teams applied pressure. The beginning of the third period posed a challenge for Big Green who found themselves down 3-on-5 for almost two minutes due to a pair of penalties. Deerfield showed remarkable skill and determination, successfully fending off Tabor until their teammates could rejoin the action. Krotee was outstanding in goal, stopping every shot and displaying astonishing poise under pressure. Her ability to attack the puck and make huge saves was a key factor in preserving the shutout. With less than ten seconds left in the game, Chloe Cleaves ’26 gathered the puck in the neutral zone and sent it straight into the empty Tabor net for a final goal to seal the victory.

This win marked the program’s first championship in over 20 years. While they have come close, the girls’ last championship was back in 2001. In spite of the fact that key players graduated in 2024, including leading goal scorer Annie Dinges, the returning team dug deep, trusting each other and their ability to secure the title. Congratulations, Deerfield girls varsity hockey on becoming the 2025 NEPSAC Girls Ice Hockey Tournament Champions! //

Brent Hale

Eurydice and more on biggreen.photos

UNDER (world) WEAR

Eurydice Costume Design / Stones from the River Styx

“Ruby and Hazel created their own version of the stone costumes based on my original designs and research; the concept behind the costumes is that they’re familiar yet vague, reflective of distant memories, and somewhat undiscernible.”

Deerfield costumer: Karen St.Pierre Students: Ruby Remillard ’26 and Hazel Secker ’26

Dr. Keisha Blain Professor of Africana Studies and History at Brown University

MLK DAY

The Academy community celebrated Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day with a keynote address by Dr. Keisha Blain, Professor of Africana Studies and History at Brown University. Dr. Blain spoke on the life and legacy of civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer. The day also included a Q&A session, workshops, a book signing, discussions, and a concert featuring student arts performances. //

Brent Hale

“ROLL DOORS ” A shiny new “Green (and White!) Machine” rolled in from Oklahoma to join the Deerfield fleet—OK-ee-D-okee! //

ALBANY ROAD

TRADITIONAL CURRICULUM

Chinese 5 Honors students explored the intricate and symbolic practice of Chinese paper-cutting, a traditional folk art deeply rooted in cultural values and history. This centuries-old craft is used to celebrate significant events such as the Lunar New Year, and as a means to pass down traditions through generations.

As part of their project, each student selected a design to recreate, carefully transferring it onto red paper before using small scissors to cut out intricate patterns. They practiced techniques such as folding the paper for symmetrical designs and mastering delicate cuts to ensure accuracy and elegance in their work.

Once completed, students presented their creations to the class, discussing the artistic features, cultural significance, and emotions their designs are meant to convey. They reflected on the traditions their pieces honor and the creative process behind the work.

This hands-on experience allowed students to gain a deeper appreciation for traditional Chinese arts, helping them to understand how these practices not only preserve cultural heritage but also encourage personal artistic expression. //

behind the window

Jacob Lacasse and Kevin Fay

Behind the scenes, Stockroom Coordinators Jacob Lacasse and Kevin Fay manage all the moving parts that go into making practices and games at Deerfield run smoothly: They ensure that uniforms are cleaned and organized, that coaches have the necessary props, that equipment is in good condition, nets are ready for games, game clocks are working, visiting teams have assigned locker rooms, students are set to get on their buses, and more. From Monday through Saturday, either Kevin or Jake can be found in the stockroom bringing their “good Deerfield vibes,” ready to support cocurricular activities—not just teams—lending out ice skates in the winter and t-shirts, shorts, crewneck sweaters, and sweatpants to all students throughout the year. “We get to help the kids out with their sports gear, and we’re helping them out with some life skills as well, setting expectations and responsibilities,” says Lacasse. “Uniforms are expensive, and when we hand them out, we expect them to come back. And there are repercussions if they aren’t returned on time.”

/// by Daniella Vollinger ///

Spencer Kruse-Melfi

Bro. Jacob and Kevin are the BEST.

Having been on similar life trajectories, Kevin and Jake, now in their mid-twenties, landed at Deerfield soon after graduating from their respective colleges. Both were high school and college athletes who realized that their boyhood dreams of playing professional sports were not realistic, so they opted to train for careers that would still keep them tied into athletics. “The stockroom coordinator position was kind of like the first open door for a college graduate, and I was looking for any opportunity in prep school athletics,” says Fay, who spent his younger years on Cushing Academy’s campus where his mother worked and where he later attended as a multi-sport athlete. There is even a photo of him tackling a Deerfield student during a football game. Jake, a self-described sports equipment geek, heeded his mother’s early advice regarding his future. “In eighth grade, I started researching what colleges offered sports management, and basically from then on, I kind of had a plan for where I wanted to go,” he recalls.

The team’s positive energy and can-do attitude is appreciated by colleagues and students alike. “When you arrive at the stockroom window with questions, one always gets an answer and it’s delivered with a smile and enthusiam,” observes Director of Athletics and Cocurricular Program Bob Howe. Varsity football Coach Brian Barbato agrees. “Kevin and Jake bring a welcoming smile and great energy to the window of the stockroom; they interact with our students and teams every day,” he adds, noting their dedication to evaluating best practices and their ability to meet ever-changing demands. “It has been great to see them deliver for the DA athletic community.”

Kevin and Jake also see themselves as role models and sounding boards, offering a space where students can have easy conversations. “We try to be positive mentors for the kids because, being away from their families, they can never have enough of those. So, we try to connect with them, and relate to things they’re talking about. I always ask them how their college applications are going—what they’re thinking about for college. Just simple small talk: How was your school day? How were your classes? What’s your homework looking like tonight? They really appreciate that, and you can tell just by how their faces light up sometimes when you just talk to them about that stuff,” says Lacasse, remembering how he valued the mentors he was fortunate enough to have during high school—especially those who made it a point to check in on him regularly. “I don’t necessarily think that it’s our [younger] age. I think just by us not being teachers or coaches, the kids feel like they can talk with us and there’s no expectation besides returning their jerseys and whatnots,” adds Fay.

Last fall, Jake received a birthday surprise: two huge poster boards signed by nearly 80 students. “They all signed it and wrote sweet notes. That was one of the happiest moments I have had here,” he says. Hidden under a hat on Kevin’s desk is a stack of thank you cards from students and teams that catch his eye from time to time. “When you’re having a tough day, it just makes things a whole lot better and puts into perspective that you are contributing to something really meaningful,” says Fay. “At the end of the day, we’re just doing our jobs so they can do theirs. But, you know, when you get that kind of recognition, it gives you the feeling that you belong.” //

CROSS-CURRICULAR

As part of a “cross-curricular” lesson, Dr. Austin joined French IV students on a visit to the von Auersperg Gallery to explore Everything but the Kitchen Sink, an exhibition by artist Procheta Muserjee Olson.

Olson’s current work explores the complex terrain of parenting in the modern age. “While the challenges of raising children are arguably timeless and universal, contemporary life has intensified parental expectations and urgency while simultaneously choking the natural patterns of work, rest, and play in solitude as well as in community,” she said. “However, even these struggles are inarguably transcended by the transformative grace of faith, hope, and love that daily play out in the theater of this relationship.” //

Assignment:

The students were tasked with drawing connections between one artwork from the exhibit and French author Jean Giono’s The Man Who Planted Trees

The hypothesis being that Olson’s use of layered textures and reimagined everyday objects echoes the transformative themes in Giono’s story.

ALBANY ROAD / IN

ARTIST STATEMENT / VAUNE TRACHTMAN

Currently on display in the gallery: NOW IS ALWAYS and new work by Trachtman. “In this series, I’m exploring the handwriting of my parents, who both died when I was young. I’m dyslexic, and the marks they made in letters and notebooks remind me of the tension one feels when one recognizes language but struggles to comprehend it. Memory can work the same way—try as we may to reach into the past, we can never grasp it. This is a feeling I think we all share when recalling a first love, a first loss, the first sense of ourselves aging, and the first awareness that ultimately, we are the marks we leave behind.” //

NEXT UP:

Deerfield Student Art Exhibition

March 31 – April 25

Opening reception: Sunday, April 6, 5-7:30

Fitzhugh Karol ’00 May 4 – June 16

Opening reception: Sunday, May 4, 5-7:30

HIGHLIGHTS:

1 Love for Cooking

This is an important book to me, and it has quite a provenance. The author, Uta Hagen, created a method actors use to deepen their understanding of characters, and it is the central technique I encourage my students to employ. The book was originally given to an artistic director in Scotland, who passed it to another director I knew and admired. Eventually, she gave it to my mentor, the former head of acting at my drama school in Edinburgh. Lynne Bains, originally from the States, gave me my first break after I finished my training as a theater director, and she gave me this book just last summer whilst we were in performing at the Edinburgh Fringe. Full circle!

2 Berlin Wall Fragments

I happened to be in Germany, visiting my parents, when the Berlin Wall came down in 1989. My parents had lived in Berlin in the late 50s, and they immediately drove back to the city to witness this significant moment in history. While there, they picked up a few chunks of the wall for me.

3 Tennessee Williams Photo and Laurence Olivier letter

Tennessee Williams was one of the greatest American playwrights, in my humble opinion. I adore his plays! One of my former students gifted this to me, and I was thrilled. If you look closely, the frame below encloses a letter from Laurence Olivier, arguably the greatest British actor. In it, he writes about his wife, Vivien Leigh, another Hollywood star.

4 Dom Sessa ’22

This is one of my favorite moments from the show Rumors by Neil Simon. Dominic is a fearless, wonderfully mischievous actor, and I clearly remember directing this very moment—he didn’t hesitate to try it out and it bought the house down! I love the expressions of the actors behind him.

5 Posters and Playbills

Obviously I love seeing theater, and although I don’t avidly collect playbills, these are a few from productions I was lucky enough to see on Broadway last summer, such as Appropriate and Enemy of the People. Both were my kind of theater!

6 Jar of plastic flies from Dalí

The play You Can’t Take It With You called for a terrarium, so the flies may have come from that, or they are left over from a visit to the Dalí Museum in Florida. Dalí was obsessed with flies, and I may have picked up a handful from the gift shop to prank folks.

7 Family

Family and travel are two of the most important things in my life, and my office is sprinkled with snapshots of both. You might not be able to quite make out these photos, but one of them was taken 26 years ago in Thailand. Mr. Hynds and I backpacked throughout Asia for three months and he could never resist squeezing the chunky babies from country to country. This cutie we named Baby Pebbles because of the way her hair was tied, à la The Flintstones.

8 Medea ship

We set one of my first productions at Deerfield, Medea, in tons of sand and I thought it would be fun to have Jason’s sons play with a replica of his ship, the Argo, in that sand. Note that it also bears Medea’s symbol, the sun, on the sail. Medea was the granddaughter of the sun god, Helios. As to the giant mouse on board, everyone knows I am very frightened of mice, and I keep one on my desk to out prank the pranksters!

GO BIG “GREENS”

Supporting the Food Bank of Western Mass

In partnership with the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, Deerfield’s Growing Green service cocurricular program grew kale and spinach in the campus greenhouse and donated over 150 pounds of organic produce to Stone Soup Café, which offers pay-what-you-can community meals in nearby Greenfield. Students in the Food Security service cocurricular volunteer at Stone Soup each week throughout the winter, and at the Food Bank’s farm in Hadley (MA) in the fall and spring.

More than 30 student volunteers work in the greenhouse with additional support from teams completing their season’s service projects. In addition to growing produce, the greenhouse propagates and donates houseplants to patrons of the Tilton Library in South Deerfield, and has a worm compost bin, aquaponics tank, and hydroponics system. Students have also completed independent projects, including growing wasabi microgreens for the dining hall and testing varieties of casava. At the end of each day, students are asked to reflect on their experience in the greenhouse. The most common themes are that they feel grateful, fulfilled, and more aware of their connection to food systems.

Spencer Kruse-Melfi

150+lbs. D-ONATED!

Thoughts from the greenhouse:

I am a gardener, I am a plant identifier, I am excited, I am a kale farmer, I am a tomato savior, I am zen, I am harvesting, I am tired, I am dirty, I am calm, I am innovating, I am gathering, I am a carpenter, I am a scientist, I am sad for my chamomile, I am a planner, I am nourished, I am content, I am learning something new, I am fulfilled, I am not stressed, I am knowledgeable, I am a maintainer, I am achieving, I am present, I am growing, I am leading, I am inspired, I am helping, I am celebrating, I am lucky, I am proud.

“DISH

CREW” by Holly Lynton P’21,’24

Guest photographer and Deerfield parent Holly Lynton—mother of Madeline Poole ’21 and Toler Poole ’24, recently photographed the contruction professionals working on the dining hall project. Her book, Bare Handed, was published in 2022 by L’Artiere Edizioni. // hollylynton.com

If you have visited Deerfield’s campus lately, you could not have missed the new, enlarged “bubbles” taking shape on the north and south sides of the dining hall. As Head of School

John Austin often says, the dining hall is the “heart and soul” of the campus; it’s therefore not surprising that a complete renovation and modernization of the dining hall would be the centerpiece of Deerfield’s current campus master plan.

FIRMLY GROUNDED

The Academy’s Campus Master Plan

<<<<< by

Julia Elliott

>>>>>

KEY FEATURES

• New pathways and expanded stairways connecting upper and lower campus

• Enhanced landscaping and solar array

The need for a new master plan crystalized during Covid, when the school’s operations team tackled the immense challenge of reconfiguring the campus to meet health guidelines while still, as Austin puts it, “seeking ways to intentionally build community and connect kids with one another.” Recognizing the student experience as the number one priority that should drive all campus projects, in 2022, Chief Financial Officer Matt Sheehy, Director of Operations Jeff Galli, Project Manager Andrew DeMado, and Associate Head of School for Student Life Amie Creagh began to draw up a new master plan. The group met regularly with the Academy’s leadership; with trustees, specifically Ben Clark and Dana Tang, Chair and Vice Chair of the Building and Grounds Committee; and with architectural design consultants.

“We looked at everything across the board.” says Galli. “It wasn’t just buildings; it was a landscape masterplan, an infrastructure master plan, a heating and cooling master plan.” Sheehy acknowledges that wastewater, parking spaces, or the electrical network may be “unsexy” items to consider, but “all these pieces are so important.” Figuring how everything fits together, however, can be like doing a puzzle or playing dominos, and having a campus master plan is a way to manage and minimize disruptions. “[It] is helping us be efficient and think about next steps,” says Sheehy, “recognizing this cascade of projects over the next decade.” In addition to considering everything underpinning building projects, “Jeff and Matt are always thinking about energy sustainability and environmental sustainability and also how to minimize expense lines,” says Austin.

“Recognizing the student experience as the number one priority that should drive all campus projects.”

—Chief Financial Officer Matt Sheehy, Director of Operations Jeff Galli, Project Manager Andrew DeMado, and Associate Head of School for Student Life Amie Creagh began to draw up a new master plan

The resulting campus master plan lays out a ten-year vision that keeps top-ofmind the Academy’s unique location in Historic Deerfield and its agricultural and natural surroundings. It prioritizes fiscal responsibility as well as preserving and enhancing traditions. Most importantly, the plan ensures that every future project undertaken furthers the mission and core values of the Academy. “The ten-year plan is not simply about buildings,” says Austin. “Buildings are a vehicle to greater ends, and for us, those ends are always creating a powerful sense of inclusion and a powerful learning experience for kids.”

COMMUNITY & CONNECTION

Most of the Academy’s peer schools have done away with the tradition of sit-down, family-style meals, but at Deerfield, students and faculty still gather at least seven times a week at assigned tables. The meals are, says Austin, “a symbol of

“The dining hall renovation is a once in a hundred-years project because it enhances the student experience in all kinds of important ways... in many ways, the dining hall is our greatest classroom.”

—John Austin

what we are trying to do more broadly at the school, and that’s connect students with one another across grade levels, connect students to faculty, and build trust and thick relationships. That in turn builds a great foundation for community and for learning.”

The dining hall opened in 1948 with seats for 481 people. Today, the school serves between 900 and 1,000 lunches every day to students and employees. In the old dining hall, this meant that nearly a third of students were eating in the Parker Room on the lower level. The renovated 12,000 square foot dining room—named in honor of the Class of 2024 thanks to the generosity of that class’s families—will allow for the entire student body to finally gather together for every sit-down meal. “The dining hall renovation is a once in a hundred-years project because it enhances the student experience in all kinds of important ways,” says Austin. “And in many ways, the dining hall is our greatest classroom.”

12,000 sq. ft. Class of 2024 Dining Room 28 ft.

ACOUSTIC MODELING

Architectural acoustic modeling is a process that uses 3D modeling and calculations to predict how sound will behave in a space. It’s used to design spaces with better acoustics.

HOW IT WORKS

• Create a virtual representation of the space, including its materials, geometry, and sound sources.

• Simulate how sound waves interact with surfaces, reflect, refract, and disperse.

• Use the model to predict how sound will behave in the space.

As of winter 2025, the project is one-third of the way finished. On the main level, all the structural steel is complete, and the concrete flooring has been poured. Twenty-eight feet above the main dining area, duct work has been installed and framing has started for a state-of-the art acoustical ceiling that will vastly improve sound quality in the room. In the lobby, the ceiling has been removed to make way for a coffered ceiling and improved lighting.

On the lower level, where all the “back of house” operations have been relocated, everything is framed out; the mechanical, electrical, and plumbing have been roughed in; and drywall is being installed. Off to the right of a main hallway, which Galli calls “the central artery,” are food coolers, freezers, and storage; to the left are the bakery and kitchen. The lower level also houses the salad bar, dining staff offices, the employee dining hall, and bathrooms. “Everything is very well

planned out,” says Galli. “Mike McCarthy and Brad Woodward, Director and Assistant Director of Food Services, have been instrumental in the design of all the spaces.”

Previously, the kitchen was on the main level and also functioned as the servery. DeMado describes how “at sit-down meals, all of our student waiters were funneled into this tiny area, and everyone was crisscrossing and on top of each other—it was chaos.” For walk-through meals, Galli recalls “a lot of moving tables and setting up buffet lines” in the main dining hall. The former kitchen will now be a large, dedicated servery, vastly improving the flow of traffic and maximizing space in the dining room proper.

Next steps in the project timeline include completing the exterior framing, installing windows in the bubbles, and beginning masonry work to the façade. DeMado is looking forward to getting the building weather-tight so that finishing work can start.

• The “Cook-Chill” system. This allows meals to be prepped three days in advance, blast frozen, and then cooked in their serving dishes before being sent up to the servery. The system minimalizes the need for food handling, maximizes efficiency, and tastes, according to DeMado, “like you just made it.”

the lower level aka the central artery

The design palette for the walls, floors, tiles, and furniture incorporates greys, greens, charcoals, and whites with brass accent fixtures. The trickiest project will be installing the custom terrazzo floor, which is mixed and poured onsite, a time-consuming process that locks out any construction in the immediate area (“it’s the 800-pound gorilla,” says DeMado). The finished product will be well worth it, however: “That floor will last probably 100 years before we have to polish it,” he says. Galli is most proud that the finishes emphasize “keeping the old with the new.” The lobby and main dining hall will preserve their wood paneling, moldings, wallpaper, and even the original pendant light fixtures will be restored and reinstalled.

On the lower level, the next milestone will be installing all new storage and cooking equipment that uses the “Cook-Chill” system. This allows meals to be prepped three days in advance, blast frozen, and then cooked in their serving dishes before being sent up to the servery. The system minimalizes the need for food handling, maximizes efficiency, and tastes, according to DeMado, “like you just made it.”

Once the ground thaws, attention also will turn to the exterior of the building. The grounds crew will coordinate putting in thousands of plantings, as well as constructing walkways using hand-molded brick pavers, another laborious task. Upon completion, both inside and out, the dining hall will meet or exceed ADA (the Americans With Disabilities Act) mandates, and much improve everyone’s experience with the building.

The new dining hall will be renamed “The Brick” after recent graduate Brick Johnson ’24, whose family made a transformative gift in support of the renovation and expansion. The Johnson family’s leadership commitment brings the Academy significantly closer to fundraising goals for the project.

the servery (formerly the kitchen)

servery progress / February 2025 bubbles!

West Campus Dorm >>>

38 student single rooms, four faculty apartments, and a common room on each floor. Construction will begin in the summer of 2026 and will finish in the summer of 2027.

The upper-level campus loop will be united: passing in front of Barton, the West Dorm, around the back of Headmaster’s Field to the front of the Koch Center. A new staircase will welcome pedestrian traffic from the upper level to the track and turf fields.

The most challenging aspect of the entire project may have been the construction of a temporary dining hall. Located in the outfield of the baseball field, the temporary space includes 26 modules that comprise the kitchen, loading dock and storage spaces; a tent-like structure, similar to that deployed by the US Military, for the actual dining hall; and infrastructure, mechanical systems, bathrooms, lighting, etc. installed by Deerfield—think 1,000-piece puzzle. Even in the temporary dining hall, however, sit-down meals have continued without skipping a beat.

If everything continues to plan, over the December 2025 holiday break, the dining staff will move over to the newly-renovated building. DeMado can’t wait to see the look on their faces. “Part of my role,” he says, “is to come up with a way to give them everything they dreamed about—and I’m pretty sure we’re going to do that.” Soon after the first day of classes in January 2026, the entire student body will gather for sit-down lunch in The Brick. And by the time graduation rolls around in May, Galli plans for the baseball field to be returned to green grass.

RESILIENCY & SUSTAINABILITY

Before the existing field was commandeered, the facilities team needed to construct a new field for baseball. Recent major floods to the Lower Level further motivated the need for additional fields to be built above the flood zone as a crucial way to ensure Deerfield’s athletic program’s resiliency and sustainability. The new Williams Farm Athletics Fields is a five-acre synthetic complex just south of campus that includes space for both baseball in the spring and soccer in the fall. Sheehy was initially worried that players might balk at playing on a synthetic surface, but the response has been nothing but enthusiastic. “For the first time, the baseball coach told me, we did not miss a day of practice or a game. We never had to cancel for anything weather-related,” says Sheehy. Note also that Deerfield baseball won the 2024 New England Prep School Championship.

Ninth-Grade Village >>>

The proposed Ninth-Grade Village, with 120 beds, will increase admission capacity for that cohort while the overall size of the student body will hold steady at 650, and further encourage community-building among ninth graders through a dedicated quad, double rooms, and ample space for students to simply “hang out” together. Design for the project will begin shortly; based on the plan, construction could begin in the summer of 2027; with the hope of new students moving in during the fall of 2029.

RESIDENTIAL INCLUSIVITY & ENGAGEMENT

Under the ten-year campus master plan, the next big project will be the construction of the West Campus dorm, which will sit along the edge of the baseball field as a “twin” to Barton dorm. It is being designed to include at least 38 student single rooms, four faculty apartments, and a common room on each floor. Construction is projected to start in the summer of 2026 and will finish in the summer of 2027. Now think back to a set of dominos: The West Campus Dorm enables the next residential project, which is the renovation of John Louis Dormitory into a purpose-built NinthGrade Village. Having that West Campus Dorm ensures space for students to live during that renovation. “By having a plan,” says Sheehy, “we can be efficient and manage those disruptions.” The current Ninth-Grade Village in Johnson-Doubleday has 98 beds, constraining the number of first-year students Deerfield can accept. The proposed Ninth-Grade Village, with 120 beds, will increase admission capacity for that cohort while the overall size of the student body will hold steady at 650, and further encourage community-building among ninth graders through a dedicated quad, double rooms, and ample space for students to simply “hang out” together. Design for the project will begin shortly; based on the plan, construction could begin in the summer of 2027; with the hope of new students to moving in during the fall of 2029.

The addition of two new dorms increases the number of faculty apartments on campus from 48 to 60 and improves the student-to-faculty ratio in dorms from 18:1 to an ideal 10:1. Creating space for more faculty to live at the core of campus is key to furthering residential engagement, says Austin: “We are bringing more faculty central to the experience of the kids.”

ACADEMIC & LEARNING SPACES

Deerfield is, of course, first and foremost a place of learning. Initially, no academic spaces were included under the ten-year plan; due to a generous anonymous gift, however, renovations to the Main School Building are now slated to begin in 2030. The project includes updating infrastructure and returning spaces currently used for administrative functions to classrooms and other student uses. To enable that project, Ephraim Williams House will be renovated as a new home for the Admission Office. Work on the Main School Building will be complete just in time to celebrate its 100th anniversary.

NEW STUDENT-TO-FACULTY RATIO IN DORMS:

10:1

“We are bringing more faculty central to the experience of the kids.”

—John Austin

Renovations

to

the Main School Building are

now slated to begin in 2030. The project includes updating infrastructure and returning spaces currently used for administrative functions to classrooms and other student uses.

LOOKING AHEAD—25-YEARS AHEAD

Deerfield’s campus master plan also looks ahead to the next 25 years, when potential projects include further infrastructure updates to academic buildings; replacing JohnsonDoubleday with a new dorm; constructing additional playing fields outside the floodplain; and creating a new system of roads on the perimeter of campus, thereby opening Albany Road to be more pedestrian-friendly.

“We want to ensure that the evolution of Deerfield’s campus is intentional, that it maintains its culture and aesthetic,” says Sheehy. “By having a campus master plan, it allows us to be efficient with donor and Academy resources. It ensures we maintain historic buildings while being thoughtful about the program in the future. It gives us a guide to ensure our investments are strategic and aligned with the mission of the institution.”

Ultimately, of course, the campus master plan is about maximizing the Deerfield student experience, especially by building community and connection. “That,” says Austin, “grounds everything we do.” //

Lyons Den

Every weekday, under the skylights of his classroom on the third floor of the Main School Building, history and social science teacher Joe Lyons challenges his students to voice their opinions and stake their claims—all while citing the evidence, and backing up their impassioned viewpoints with research.

It’s an approach central to who Lyons is as a dedicated and thoughtful history teacher, and an approach central to Deerfield as an intellectually diverse school deepening its longstanding commitment to open-minded discourse and academic inquiry. “I love to explore big important questions about the world with bright, curious, hardworking young people,” Lyons says.

Lyons, who joined the Deerfield faculty in 2008, is the Mary and Robert Merriam ’43 Distinguished Chair in American Studies. He currently teaches War, Ideology and Revolution (WIR), American Studies, Moot Court: U.S. Constitution, and a new one-term senior elective titled Documentary Filmmaking. A Harvard graduate, Lyons— who hails from a family of teachers—first taught at Phillips Exeter Academy before earning a JD from the University of Pennsylvania. He practiced law in Boston for five years and served as a law clerk before he felt compelled to return to the classroom.

<<< by Megan Tady >>>

<<< photographs by Brent Hale >>>

His law background has proved instrumental to his teaching. “If history is an argument about the past, then the skills of weighing and analyzing evidence to develop and articulate claims in a logical and clear way are vital,” Lyons says. “Good history is an end in and of itself, one without winners and losers, one that will hopefully increase our understanding while fostering a little more awareness of perspective and a little more empathy.”

Lyons’s classes are beloved for their electric exchange of ideas, and for his expert curation in a wide array of source materials. American Studies offers a “multi-dimensional picture of the United States,” while WIR explores the forces that “control the destinies of nations and people,” examining the challenges to liberal democracy in the 20th and 21st centuries, primarily in Europe. In Moot Court, students read and discuss relevant court precedents, assuming the role of lawyers and justices to write briefs and opinions as part of moot courts. And students in the Documentary Filmmaking elective choose a topic, conduct research, and write heavily footnoted scripts to create a short film.

Throughout his courses, it’s Lyons’s intention that students develop the ability to read and comprehend both primary and secondary materials in an analytical manner, practice presenting —both orally and in writing—cogent and clear arguments, learn how to synthesize information and make connections across time, and develop the skills for productive discussions and collaboration.

“Good history is an end in and of itself, one without winners and losers, one that will hopefully increase our understanding while fostering a little more awareness of perspective and a little more empathy.”

“It sounds trite, but it is critical, no matter one’s [teaching] style, that students are thinking in class,” Lyons explains. “I spend the majority of my time in class holding discussions with students, one in which they are engaging in the material and each other’s ideas by building on, modifying, and disagreeing with the understandings and interpretations of their classmates. While I often am the one posing the questions, when such classes work best, the students are also posing questions—whether those are clarifying or interpretive.”

English teacher Emma Hodge, who has co-taught American Studies with Lyons for the last four years, says he encourages students to think beyond the superficial, and that his excitement in the classroom is palpable. “Joe combines the expertise of someone who is extremely knowledgeable in their field and who has been teaching for a long time, with the enthusiasm of someone who is trying something new and has just realized they love it,” she notes. “He is also extremely collaborative, always open to trying new things and listening to others, whether that be students or colleagues.”

Lyons builds creative opportunities for students to deeply invest in consolidating and creating their own arguments, insisting on self-articulation. One impactful exercise for Theo Schulhof ’25 was one that Lyons and his history colleagues often use; initially developed by fellow history teacher Conrad Pitcher, students are asked to simulate an 1845 Massachusetts legislative committee that held hearings on whether to establish a 10-hour workday.  While his classmates represented the female workers of the Lowell mill girl protests of the 1830s, Schulhof was assigned to argue in favor of the mills keeping 13-hour workdays.

“I was forced to consider my own original take when I saw there was an argument to be made on behalf of the mills,” Schulhof says. “Mr. Lyons letting us act out these characters, some of whom could be deemed controversial or messy at first, while not prescribing to a specific set of opinions, allowed deeper discovery in ourselves and in others.”

Sunshine Chen ’24, now studying history and statistics at Harvard University, was also deeply inspired by Lyons’s classes. “Mr. Lyons’s War, Ideology and Revolution course might still be one of my favorite classes, even after three semesters at Harvard,” she observes. “I don’t think I’ve honestly found another course that profoundly shaped the way I think as much as that course. And I’m still searching for courses that do.”

Learning how to conduct discussions about challenging topics is a skill that serves students well beyond the classroom—and one that Chen even wrote about for the Harvard Crimson last fall when she analyzed whether it was possible to talk about Israel and Palestine at Harvard. Chen herself practiced the delicate art of civil discourse when journalist Jonathan Rauch visited Lyons’s class following his presentation at the inaugural Deerfield Forum, an ongoing event at the Academy that stages conversations among a diverse array of scholars and civic leaders.

“I didn’t particularly agree with all of Jonathan Rauch’s ideas, but we had a debate back and forth,” she recalls. “It was a really good

“Joe combines the expertise of someone who is extremely knowledgeable in their field and who has been teaching for a long time, with the enthusiasm of someone who is trying something new and has just realized they love it.”

English teacher Emma Hodge, who has co-taught American Studies

moment that modeled civil discourse. I think especially right now with this polarized political environment, it’s more critical to have these conversations. Ignoring certain political views doesn’t make them go away.”

Vivian Wan ’25 said Lyons taught her to think more critically about the concept of truth. She had a light-bulb moment in American Studies as she was undertaking a mini documentary about Billie Holiday’s song “Strange Fruit.” These mini documentaries inspired Lyons to dedicate an entire course to the medium this academic year.

“It hit me as I played the role of historian how many primary sources there were to sort through in an attempt to piece together some form of truth,” Wan says. “Yes, as Mr. Lyons always told us, ‘history is a set of stories we choose to tell about the world, but some histories are better than others because they are rooted in the evidence and reasoned analysis.’ History also contains half-truths that may not be an accurate reflection of the past. I question more of what I read and know, thanks to our close analysis of many primary sources.”

Dean of Academic Affairs Anne Bruder said Lyons’s courses reflect the distinction that Deerfield classrooms are spaces of student inquiry as opposed to faculty lectures. “Watching Joe teach, you’ll see his nimble guidance,” she says. “But you’ll mostly see students interrogating their

own and other people’s thinking. That’s the luxury of small classes, and the fact that Deerfield gets to produce courses centered on the voices and the perspectives of students, as opposed to instruction coming from on high.”

Indeed, baked into Lyons’s teaching approach is Deerfield’s Framework, an initiative led by Head of School John Austin to articulate the school’s commitment to fostering “distinct thinking individuals, skilled in the habits of independent thought, conversant with the norms of disciplined inquiry, and empowered to discover, develop, and courageously express their own political and civic commitments.”

Built on three pillars—expressive freedom, disciplined nonpartisanship, and intellectual diversity—the Framework reaffirms Deerfield’s enduring belief that schools are places of inquiry. “John Austin wants to ensure that Deerfield produces students who become leaders that are both intellectually and emotionally generous, who assume the good faith of their interlocutors, and who are open to solutions that probably transect different political ideologies,” Bruder explains. What’s more, Bruder says the overall goal of the Framework is to “ensure that students flourish, and that they are happy, emotionally stable, and joyful in their lives because they have these skills.”

When Lyons reflects on the importance of the Framework to students’ growth and development, he calls to mind a quote from scholar Bruno Bettelheim, whose work he teaches in War, Ideology and Revolution:

“To be able to make one’s own observations and to draw pertinent conclusions from them is where independent existence begins.”

“Whether it comes to avoiding the temptations of A.I. or more simply articulating an idea or interpretation based on one’s own reading of material, I hope to create an atmosphere where disagreement is welcome because it fosters a deeper understanding and perhaps allows others to reconsider their own certainties and viewpoints,” Lyons says. “We all, I hope, see the danger of unexamined certainties.”

Schulhof, too, sees the Framework reflected in Lyons’s teaching, and appreciates the environment of intellectual risk-taking.

“Sometimes teachers tell you that you can have a discussion, but as students you can see the end goal, and we know the teacher wants us to get there,” he says.

“But I have no understanding of Mr. Lyons’s own beliefs, political or otherwise, and I think that’s really important for building a classroom of trust. Because there’s mutual respect between all the people involved, we actually get somewhere— whether that’s a conclusion about a historical topic or an opinion about a primary source. Our conversations are lively and intense and rooted in evidence.”

Lyons believes that giving students a high level of agency breeds trust, creating a more effective learning environment.

“If students feel respected, they will push themselves and be open and see more fruits from their efforts,” he explains. “But the opposite is the case if they feel like they need to figure out how to control what they say in order to navigate a class or conform to an expected point of view. And I think it’s pretty universal among teenagers that they don’t want to be told what to think.”

Golf photo by Risley Sports Photography

“ Deerfield is a terrific academic institution with extraordinary resources. I have tremendous colleagues who are committed to all parts of the job. It’s been a beautiful setting in which to raise a family. The alumni body is extremely loyal and supportive of the school. And I get to teach very committed, hardworking, engaged students.”

Beyond teaching, Lyons has served as a dorm parent, advisor, and as interim academic dean in 2016 and as department chair from 2011 to 2016. Additionally, he coaches boys JV hockey and co-ed JV golf. Lyons is married to Deerfield history teacher Julia Rivellino-Lyons, and they have two children: Thomas ’21 and Luca ’26.

Lyons expressed his gratitude for holding the Mary and Robert Merriam ’43 Distinguished Chair in American Studies, saying it was “an honor” to uphold the legacy of Bob Merriam ’43 P ’77, who was a member of the Deerfield faculty from 1948 to 1970. Merriam taught English, served as dean of students, and coached soccer, among other roles. He left Deerfield to become headmaster of the Stoneleigh-Burnham School in Greenfield, MA, from 1970 to 1975. Afterward, he was assistant to the president of Greenfield Community College from 1975 to 1989.

“Deerfield is a terrific academic institution with extraordinary resources,” Lyons says. “I have tremendous colleagues who are committed to all parts of the job. It’s been a beautiful setting in which to raise a family. The alumni body is extremely loyal and supportive of the school. And I get to teach very committed, hardworking, engaged students.”

As Lyons continues to adapt his courses to the changing times and needs of students, he remains steadfast in his mission to foster a culture of empathy and consideration. “Ultimately, I hope my students are going to regard the world that they live in with a little more interest and understanding,” he says. “Curiosity can be life-sustaining.” //

EXPER 1MENT ORY YEARS

A DECADE OF DISCOVERY: EXPERIMENTORY TURNS TEN BY

JULIA ELLIOTT

If you were to visit Deerfield’s campus in mid-July, you might run into a group of middle schoolers taking measurements of the temporary dining hall to estimate the number of ping pong balls it would take to fill the space; creating sculptural objects out of sheets of architectural model-building material; constructing replicas of human bones, designing sustainable gardens, drawing comics, directing movies, cooking, dissecting, debating, and playing all manner of games in the field house and on the lawn. This is The Experimentory, Deerfield’s three-week summer program for sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-graders, and this summer marks its tenth anniversary.

SEVERAL OF THE EXPERIMENTORS IN THE PHOTO ON THE LEFT HAVE OR ARE ABOUT TO GRADUATE FROM DEERFIELD: L TO R: OCEAN FENG ’24, HENRY GRIFFIN ’24, ALLISON KOSTIUK ’25, THAYER NEWTON ’24, EVIE MOKAROW ’24, AND LEILA HAWKINS ’25

The

core idea

is to do some really awesome, project-based, collaborative, interdisciplinary academics. It’s learning for the sake of learning.

Many summer academic programs offer standard, for-credit courses or traditional classroom settings, but Experimentory classes are not-for-credit and cover a wide range of topics designed to meet middle school students’ interests. Last summer, students could choose from “Digital Images, Voices, and Sounds,” “Rocket Science,” “Exploring the Art of Video Game Design,” “Proof, Persuasion, and the Art of Debate,” “The Anatomy of Movement,” “Our Changing Planet,” “Performance on the Stage,” “Creative Writing,” and “Explorations in Mathematics.” The courses are designed to teach students skills they will use in high school, such as collaboration, problem-solving, presentation, and communication. For Director of Summer Programs Jordan Brown, The Experimentory is perfect for kids who are “interested in asking big questions and taking a deeper dive into subjects they are passionate about. The core idea is to do some really awesome, project-based, collaborative, interdisciplinary academics. It’s learning for the sake of learning.”

Nosa Idehen ’27, a current Deerfield student, attended The Experimentory as a seventh-grader, and liked “that the classes were hands-on.” Alumna Maddalena Honablue ’23 chose The Experimentory as a sixth-grader (and returned for a second year) because the program “was not focused on academic success in a traditional way,” and Erriel Simon ’24, who attended as a sixthgrader, says that with “the pressure of working for a grade gone, you can just be open and try new things.”

The Experimentory is also unique in that it “really aims to give kids a sense of the traditions, the life, and the community at Deerfield,” says Associate Director Gen Pitt. Experimentory classes are taught exclusively by Deerfield faculty, and the program is run entirely by Deerfield staff and recent graduates, who work as “Activities Assistants” (AAs). The faculty have a huge impact on students. Simon remembers her architecture teacher David Payne telling Experimentory students about the parallels between their work and what he was teaching during the academic year. “I was like, ‘oh, I’m doing high school-level architecture!’ Just knowing you were being taught by actual Deerfield teachers was special.” David Peirce ’25, who is set to graduate from the Academy this spring, took architecture with Payne and Big History with Conrad Pitcher when he attended The Experimentory after sixth grade. “Obviously,” he says, “Deerfield teachers are great educators, but they also are uniquely encouraging. I felt like I could achieve anything in my classes.” Peirce is currently taking architecture with Payne again as a senior.

“Deerfield teachers are great educators, but they also are uniquely encouraging. I felt like I could achieve anything in my classes.”

The Experimentory schedule closely resembles a typical Deerfield day: students take one ninety-minute class in the morning and another in the afternoon, followed by cocurriculars, which at The Experimentory include swimming, field games, racket sports, craft-making, canoeing, dance, and other activities.

The Experimentory schedule closely resembles a typical Deerfield day: students take one ninety-minute class in the morning and another in the afternoon, followed by cocurriculars, which at The Experimentory include swimming, field games, racket sports, craft-making, canoeing, dance, and other activities. Students live together in the dorms and eat sit-down lunch with faculty in the dining hall. They participate in clubs, like baking, comic book making, or board games. In the evenings, they attend leadership trainings or advisory time to continue working on their academic projects. “The fact that it’s designed to feel like being at Deerfield as a student is a really unique approach,” says mathematics teacher Sam Leitermann-Long. “It puts kids in appropriately challenging situations and shows them what it might mean to be here.” On the weekends, kids take field trips. The program offers what Peirce—and many other students—say is “the right balance of fun and learning. That’s what makes it unique.”

Students come to The Experimentory from across the United States and around the world. Brown has built relationships with public and charter schools in states not widely represented at Deerfield, such as Texas or California, thereby reaching kids and families who might not otherwise consider boarding school or even know about Deerfield. For many students, it is their first time away from home—and their first time separated from their phones, which is a key program policy. Students can feel awkward and homesick at first but quickly start having fun. Thomas Lu ’23,

“The fact that it’s designed to feel like being at Deerfield as a student is a really unique approach,”

says mathematics teacher Sam Leitermann-Long. “It puts kids in appropriately challenging situations and shows them what it might mean to be here.”

who worked as an AA for two summers and is considering a third, sees students start off “very rambunctious, but by the end there’s a sense of family and cohesion, a sense of Deerfield community that comes out of it.” Ella Hynds ’23, who has also worked as an AA for two years, describes the joy of seeing kids from Shanghai and Brooklyn bond over the similarities between their cultures and cities.

Brown believes much success can be attributed to the program’s size, which is small compared to others. “Having 95 kids is pretty special,” says Pitt. “We can

do many things as a full group, and that all-in feeling with the teachers, staff, and students makes the relationships so much richer. It’s totally mission- aligned with Deerfield’s core values and the focus on shared experiences and face-to-face interactions.”

Fundamental to The Experimentory is creating an environment where kids feel comfortable stretching beyond their comfort zones. “No one is going to make you do something you are uncomfortable with,” says Leitermann-Long, “but the ethos is, ‘Why don’t we try something

LEARNING TAKES PLACE INSIDE (AND OUTSIDE) OF CLASSROOMS WITH DEERFIELD TEACHERS DAVID PAYNE (ABOVE) AND HEIDI VALK (LEFT)

that is scary for us today?’” Students mention any number of firsts—from the first time zip-lining to the first time delivering a monologue in front of the entire group to the first time making friends from different countries. Idehen remembers feeling nervous on the first day, but after the introductory meeting where students were explicitly encouraged to take risks, he pushed himself to start talking with other campers. “I learned how to interact with people from different backgrounds,” he says, and is still in touch with the friend he made from Abu Dhabi.

For faculty, The Experimentory affords the time and space to explore new teaching techniques, try out subject material, and gain leadership experience. “One of the worst things [as a teacher] is to become stagnant,” says Payne. “I always try to think of new assignments and different ways to teach them, and The Experimentory helps with that process.” Seeing how valuable it was for Experimentory students to build sculptures in his 3-D design course, Payne decided to emphasize hands-on work during the academic year. “When students are building models, they are walking around, saying, ‘Hey, can I borrow that glue? What are you doing over here?

Oh, that looks really cool.’ It ends up being much more of a collaborative environment.” Leitermann-Long runs four Leadership and Community sessions for Experimentory students, allowing him to hone his own leadership-training skills and think about the progression from middle schooler to twelfth grader. “If I can get thirty kids to go into high school saying, ‘I am a mathematician, a leader, a good friend,’ that is meaningful,” he says. “How cool are those kids going to be when they are seniors?”

The Experimentory hires between fourteen and sixteen recent graduates to work as Activities Assistants. The AAs take on what Brown describes as a “camp counselor” role and are with the students every moment when they are not in class. They accompany them to meals, run their cocurricular and club activities, chaperone field trips, and live with them in the dorms. “It’s pretty nonstop!” says Hynds. “They are dealing with homesickness, crushes, all the awkward social aspects,” says Payne. “It’s exhausting, but many come back year after year.”

Leitermann-Long runs four Leadership and Community sessions for Experimentory students, allowing him to hone his own leadership training skills and think about the progression from middle schooler to twelfth grader.

“If I can get thirty kids to go into high school saying, ‘I am a mathematician, a leader, a good friend,’ that is meaningful,” How cool are those kids going to be when they are seniors?”

Almost universally, AAs report the experience as incredibly rewarding. They are well compensated (Lu notes that his Experimentory salary finances his grocery spending at college for the year), they bond with fellow alums, and they gain useful skills— the most commonly noted being patience. Hynds describes the rewarding feeling when she and her fellow AAs are finally on dorm duty at the end of the day. “It’s nice to hang out with my twenty kids, asking each other questions, playing Uno, making friendship bracelets or doing brain teasers. It is so fun to work together and feel part of the team, and it’s wonderful to see the students come together.”

And AAs are excellent ambassadors for Deerfield. As a faculty kid (her mother is Theater Director Catriona Hynds, and her father, Peter, works in Admission), Hynds knows all the ins-and-outs of Deerfield’s campus. “For a bunch of 11-to-14-year-olds trying to figure out if boarding school is the right place for them,” she says, “I think it’s valuable to have a person like me to help them figure that out.” Lu agrees: “We can be like ‘Oh, this is where I spent my Thursday afternoons studying’ or ‘This is where I played my varsity matches.’” As an admission officer, Pitt often reads essays from Experimentory alumni describing how much their AAs impacted them. “Those young alums do just a fabulous job of connecting with the kids.” Peirce often thinks back to his AAs, now that he is a senior proctor for Doubleday II. “The AAs at the Experimentory were what I try to be for my ninth-graders now,” he says.

ASSISTANT DEAN OF RESIDENTIAL LIFE TREVON BRYANT

Retention rates of young alumni staff are high at The Experimentory. Simon, who attended the Experimentory as a student and is “absolutely returning” for her second year as an AA, started inquiring about the job when she was a ninth-grader at Deerfield. She had to wait four years before she could apply, but “knowing how the Experimentory helped shape me and changed the trajectory of my high school experience, I wanted to do that for another round of middle school kids.” Honablue, like Simon, also took the job because she “wanted to have a full-circle moment” of Experimentory student, Deerfield student, and Experimentory AA. For Hynds, working at The Experimentory is a way to give back to Deerfield, but also, “It’s fun to see the kids fall in love with this place. I fall back in love, too. It gave me new appreciation for our impressive faculty, our facilities, and our grounds crew.”

Nearly thirty Experimentory alumni are currently attending Deerfield. Pitt says that, while The Experimentory is not a threeweek interview for prospective students, the program “is incredibly valuable because it is a great way to get these really smart, curious kids on campus and falling in love with the faculty, location, and alums. When they are applying, they have a strong sense of our school values, culture, community, and facilities. They really get what Deerfield is about.” For Peirce, boarding school wasn’t on his radar, but The Experimentory changed that: “I liked living with my classmates and having such a positive experience learning stuff. That was definitely the reason I ended up applying to and ultimately attending Deerfield.” Spending two summers at the Experimentory sealed the deal when it came time for Honablue to choose a high school. “I remember coming back for admitted students’ day and it felt like I was coming home. If I hadn’t done The Experimentory, I don’t think I would have ended up at Deerfield, so I’m grateful for the experience.”

At the end of the three weeks, parents arrive to pick up their kids; but first, they are treated to a showcase. Through posters, interactive exhibits, presentations and performances, students show off what they learned in classes, cocurriculars, and clubs. Those final outcomes are an important part of the program but so are all the intangible skills students gain. “They definitely know more math, or they made a video game;” says Leitermann-Long, “but more so than that, I watch students turn into vivacious, confident kids.” Brown sees them grow in their academic skills, their ability to communicate, collaborate, present their ideas and, most importantly, “to step outside of their comfort zone and try new things.” Every AA has stories of students who gained responsibility, independence, and the ability to make friends. Honablue remembers one student who was so shy at first that she rarely left her room to socialize, but was, by the end, constantly in the common room in the evenings, playing Exploding Kittens and other card games with competitive zeal. “She’s just one example of how transformed students become— and they express that to you, how much they grew from the program.” Reflecting on the changes he sees in students every summer, Lu says, “It makes me want to do all the work I just did over again, even though I’m super tired!” Reunited with their phones, students run around getting each other’s contact information, vowing to stay in touch.

For the last two years, 100 percent of parents and students attending The Experimentory have said they would recommend the program to a friend. Ultimately, the success of the program rests on the fact that is powered by great people. Senior Associate Director of Admission Dana Emerson, Science Teacher Toby Emerson, and Assistant Dean of Residential Life Trevon Bryant join Brown and Pitt in making up the leadership team. “Everyone takes ownership of a different

piece,” says Pitt. “Jordan is incredibly organized and thoughtful and has a wonderful background in terms of programming and management.” For his part, Brown is in awe of the energy that faculty, staff, and young alums put into developing classes and activities and working with middle schoolers. “It says a lot about their commitment and passion for Deerfield,” he says. “It shows an incredible level of generosity of spirit to want to share what we have with this younger audience who may be the next class of students coming in.” What motivates Leitermann-Long to put his all into The Experimentory is his Deerfield colleagues. “I live in a place and work with other faculty who I know are pushing boundaries; they are doing interesting things, and that is incredibly motivating. You hire the right people, build an ethos, and then there’s this self-generating thing that happens: You’re surrounded by a community that cares.” //

A Day of Giving Deerfield

2025 DAY OF GIVING RESULTS

During Deerfield’s eighth annual Day of Giving, a total of 1,277 alumni, parents, grandparents, friends, and employees rallied for the Green and White. Combined, our community raised more than $1 million for the Academy.

“It was another incredible Day of Giving—the greatest number of dollars and second-highest number of donors ever,” said Director of the Deerfield Fund Kellie Houston. “Our giving days showcase the outstanding generosity of the Deerfield community. We’re so grateful for everyone’s Big Green spirit!”

Congratulations to the members of the Class of 1997 who captured this year’s championship title and, for the second year in a row, boasted 101 donors. Thank you to everyone who participated!

Total donors: 1,277

Second highest ever! (1,039 alumni, 266 parents, 24 grandparents, 45 employees, 10 friends)

Total dollars: $1 million+

Number of gifts between $5-$100: 870

First-time donors: 86

Alumni donor class range: 1944-2024

Top-ten classes by dollars:

Top-ten classes by donors: 1995, 1985, 1980, 1975, 1976, 1994, 1997, 1990, 1999, 1991

Number of matching donors: 21

1997, 1979, 1994, 1995, 1998, 1980, 1985, 1991, 1988, 1965

the Common Room

Brent Hale

1946

The Rev. Frank Allard Brooks ’46 passed away at the age of 96 on January 8, 2025. He was born in Boston, MA, to Edwin Miller Brooks (1878-1929) and Beatrice Allard Brooks (1893-1977). Edwin Miller Brooks was an attorney at law in Boston. The family resided in Wellesley, MA, until, after the death of his father in 1929, the family moved to Oxford, OH, where his mother became Professor of History and Literature of Religions at Western College for Women. He attended the McGuffey School in Oxford through the tenth grade and completed his high school work at Deerfield Academy. From 1946 to 1950, he was a student at Amherst College in Amherst, MA, graduating magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. From 1950 to 1953, he prepared for the ministry at Hartford Seminary Foundation in Hartford, CT, taking his second year of seminary at Tübingen University in Germany as a World Council of Churches Exchange Student. After receiving his Master of Divinity degree in 1953, he also spent a year in the study of Philosophical Theology at the Yale University Divinity School.

Ordained a Presbyterian minister at Memorial Presbyterian Church in Oxford, he was active in the ministry of what is now the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) for almost 40 years. In Texas, he served as pastor of the Presbyterian churches in Celina (1954-1956), Plano (1956-1962), Lampasas and Adamsville (both 1962-1968) and Brownfield (1968-1972). From 1972-1975, he simultaneously served as pastor of three churches in Missouri: Ebenezer Presbyterian Church and Greenfield United Methodist Church in Greenfield and Stockton Presbyterian Church in Stockton. Returning to Texas, he was pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Breckenridge until 1981. His final pastorate was the First Presbyterian Church in Frederick, OK, from which he retired as Pastor Emeritus.

He married Margaret Ellen Karlen, the love of his life. Their marriage lasted almost 63 years, until her death in 2019. To their union were born his son, Charles Edwin Brooks, and his daughter, Marietta Ada Brooks.

After his 1993 retirement to Carrollton, TX, he served as an English as a Second Language instructor and as a Parish Associate and Parish Visitor for a couple of churches. He was always very active in the Presbyteries in which he worked, serving for five years as National Missions Chair of Alamo Presbytery, as well as Moderator of Alamo Presbytery. He was a Commissioner to the General Assembly at Portland, OR, in 1967, and also was a Commissioner to the 200th General Assembly at St. Louis, MO, in 1988.

He is survived by his two children and their spouses, three grandchildren, and one great-grandchild.

“Sadly, I share the news that we have lost Woody Anderson, our classmate and enthusiastic class agent. Woody brought us the popular Zoom calls, which continue to grow as more of us join in. I will miss his cheerful voice and love for Deerfield.

Our kindest thoughts and sympathies go out to Kathleen, his wife, and three children.”—John Bell ’51

Sherwood L. Anderson III, 90, died peacefully at his home in Burlington, CT, on February 7, 2025, after a short illness. He was born July 17, 1934, in Allentown, PA to Sherwood L. Anderson Jr. and Elizabeth Jennings Anderson. After attending Allentown schools and Deerfield Academy, he went to Yale University, graduating with an A.B. in English in 1955. He then went to Columbia Law School, receiving his LL.B. in 1958. In 1957, Sherwood married Kathleen Tildsley Griffiths, “Kate,” of Riverdale, the Bronx. They were married for over 67 years, had three children, and moved to Bristol, CT, in 1958, then to Burlington in 1972. He worked for the Bristol law firm Beach, Calder and Barnes, which later became Anderson, Alden, Hayes and Ziogas. Becoming a partner in 1963, he stayed at the firm in general practice for 39 years. After retiring, Sherwood attended Wesleyan University and received a master’s degree in Liberal Studies, concentrating on literature. He was an aficionado of The New York Review of Books and an avid reader of fiction, poetry, history, letters, and diaries. He belonged to several book groups with Kate. Sherwood volunteered extensively in his communities. In his early days in Bristol, he joined the Charter Revision Committee, the Rotary Club, and the Bristol Board of Education, eventually becoming chair of the latter. Later, he helped found the Main Street Community Foundation, the Burlington Land Trust, and the Barnes Nature Center and served on their boards. Over the years, injustice increasingly concerned Sherwood. He was a long-serving member of the Connecticut Bar Association Human Rights Section. He advocated for racial equality as well as women’s, LGBTQ, and end-of-life rights. He volunteered in legal aid programs and worked to end the death penalty in Connecticut. He and Kate participated in the Hartford/Ocotal Sister City Project activities and traveled to Nicaragua with this group to promote friendship between the people of the two cities.

A hiker, skier, and nature lover, he delighted in studying the weather and in sighting birds, bears, deer, and snapping turtles. At home, he appreciated the goats, cats, ducks, geese, guinea pigs, iguana, and rooster. For almost 70 years, he spent time each summer on Little Deer Isle, ME, where he enjoyed sailing, climbing the hill on Butter Island, motorboat picnics, classical concerts, lobster dinners on the front porch, and being with the people of Little Deer and Deer Isle.

Sherwood was kind, compassionate, level-headed, and generous. He had a ready sense of humor. He was a devoted letter writer, eager to stay in touch with his friends, children, and extended family. He will be terribly missed.

Surviving Sherwood are his wife; three children: Laura Martineau (Tyler), Sarah Anderson-Krengel, and Winslow Anderson; five grandchildren: Genevieve Anderson -Krengel, Eliza Mendus (Patrick), Jim Martineau (Casey), Elaina Martineau, and Sherwood Martineau; and two sisters: Hilda Jennings and Rachel Thompson.

He wanted his body to be donated for medical education and research after his death. It has been given to the Anatomical Gift Program at the medical school of Quinnipiac University. Donations in Sherwood’s memory may be made to the Sherwood L. Anderson Charitable Fund, Main Street Community Foundation, P.O. Box 2702, Bristol, CT 06011-2702.

Excepted from the March 2, 2025 issue of Hartford Courant.

EDUCATOR /// by Lori

Ferguson ///

Nothing delights Jack Cooley ’84 more than seeing children simultaneously learning and having fun. He is particularly enthusiastic about witnessing young women discover the joys of STEM, a mission he pursues as co-founder and executive director of The Community Bots, a program whose mission is to support learning in STEM robotics for young women and their teachers in underserved communities around the world.

Currently head of the science and engineering department at the Allen-Stevenson School, a private, all-boys K-8 school in New York City, Cooley previously taught at the independent, all-girls Chapin School, where his determination to stimulate young women’s interests in STEM was born.

Shortly after arriving at Chapin, explains Cooley, he was asked to lead a new robotics program. Upon enrolling in a teacher training program at Tufts, he was surprised to discover his classmates were all male.

“I remember one person telling me, ‘Girls just aren’t going to be into this,’ a statement which surprised me.”

Around the same time, he continues, he attended a Chapin faculty presentation on gender equity in pay given by MIT Biology Professor Nancy Hopkins. “She told us, ‘The push for equality must start with middle and high school faculty like you. Unconscious biases are planted in minds at an early age, so you need to start encouraging these girls to seek equity now.’” For Cooley, the message, coupled with his training experience, was inspirational. “It gave me the internal push I needed to start advocating for girls in STEM,” he says.

After launching Chapin’s robotics program and guiding it to immense success, Cooley realized he was on to something.

“I really enjoyed orchestrating educational experiences for my students that involved a lot of agency and creativity,” he explains.

“I saw the girls having fun without realizing they were also learning. Seeing them brainstorming, collaborating, and interacting was incredible, and I realized I wanted to do more to breach the gender gap in STEM.”

So, in 2014, he and fellow STEM educator Ana Agón co-founded The Community Bots. Launched in New York, the program now serves eight sites in five countries: Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Nicaragua, and the United States, and continues to expand. “We did a one-off program in Spain, and we hope to launch a program in Costa Rica with the help of a corporate sponsor,” Cooley enthuses. “I would also like to scale up here in New York.”

The premise of The Community Bots is simple: provide academic and socio-economic support to young women interested in engineering so that they can pursue higher education and careers in STEM fields. The organization works together with host schools and/or nonprofit partners to create STEM robotics programs in local communities. Asked how partner commu-

Jack Cooley

Courtesy of Jack Cooley

nities in other countries are identified, Cooley says that it’s largely word of mouth. “Our countries chose us . . . someone familiar with our program knows someone in the country and the conversations begin.”

Programs are developed in stages over a series of years.

Once a partner is identified, facilitators and key administrators participate in a virtual training program and co-lead a student course. Training continues remotely over several years, in preparation for in-person training subsequently administered by The Community Bots trainers at the partner site. These trainers also deliver donated equipment, laptops, and curriculum materials to the partner site and ensure that local teachers have the training and resources to enroll their students in a robotics competition within one year.

As students progress through their education, The Community Bots continues to supply remote support and assist the partner site in creating a STEM-robotics center where secondary school students can continue their education, prepare for college, seek STEM-related internships, and work with women mentors from the academic and private sectors. “In many respects, we’re consultants,” observes Cooley. “We’re not on the ground in our partner countries full time, at least not yet, so we always try to partner with nonprofits who have established relationships with schools or after-school programs.”

Although delighted by the program’s growth, Cooley admits much work remains. “It took a while, but we’ve managed to create a wonderful board that’s representative of what we do,” he observes. “Now we’re working to bolster our cadre of women mentors because research shows that STEM experience, when coupled with strong mentorship, has real effects.”

Fellow Deerfield graduate David Kinsley ’84 is among those who serve on The Community Bots Advisory Board. As the president of Kinsley Group, an energy solutions company based in the Northeast, he has seen firsthand the need for more women in STEM. “There’s a dearth of females in our industry,” says Kinsley. “It’s starting to change, but there’s much to be done. The Community Bots is a beautiful, brilliant way to break down the gender barriers that currently exist in STEM professions.“Learning is best through experience, and seeing these young women having fun and realizing victories in the tech realm is so encouraging,” continues Kinsley. “And there’s no substitute for having these experiences at an early age.”

Inspired by his affiliation with The Community Bots, Kinsley says he would love to see more fellow Deerfield graduates involved with the organization. “What The Community Bots needs most is engaged supporters, people who can help Jack leverage his vision and passion for this work,” Kinsley asserts. “I would encourage alums from

Deerfield to get involved, whether through work or wealth, particularly those working in STEM fields. The research shows that more young women pursue careers in STEM when they have positive role models, particularly at an early age.” Cooley concurs. “I would love to hear from members of the Deerfield community who would like to get involved with The Community Bots. There’s room for all sorts of commitments, from working with our junior or advisory boards to mentoring or sitting on our board of directors. Enthusiasm and excitement displayed by the girls as they build robots, enter competitions, and meet with success are infectious. Jack and I both have daughters, and we’re committed to supporting equalization of opportunities in this sector—the more diversity, the better.” //

’56

Honoring a Coaching Legend: The Ed Reade Financial Aid Fund

Deerfield’s tennis and squash legacy has a new tribute, thanks to the generosity of Ted Simmons ’56 and his wife, Jane. In 2024, they established The Ed Reade Financial Aid Fund, honoring the memory of Deerfield’s longtime coach, Ed Reade, who led the varsity squash and tennis programs from 1946 to 1984.

The endowed fund will support students with financial need, with a preference for those passionate about athletics—especially tennis and squash. Simmons, a standout player himself, remembers Reade not only as a coach but as a mentor who instilled discipline, sportsmanship, and a competitive spirit in generations of Deerfield athletes, particularly those from the Midwest.

As a member of the 1956 undefeated tennis team, Simmons fondly recalls Coach Reade’s leadership and shared a rare, non-traditional team photo that captures the camaraderie and confidence of the era. He and Dick Ogden ’56 also made history that year by winning the U.S. National Interscholastic Doubles Tournament—marking the first such victory for Deerfield, a feat that future teams would go on to replicate.

Coach Reade’s legacy already lives on at Deerfield in multiple ways: a squash court named in his honor, a large photograph in the athletics complex, and another image of him coaching Rudi Wachsman ’53, displayed near the 1953 Gym. Now, through this new financial aid fund, his influence will extend even further, helping student-athletes pursue their passions just as he inspired so many before them.

Reade’s three children have expressed their deep appreciation for this tribute, and personally reached out to thank Simmons. Their father’s impact on Deerfield’s courts—and in the lives of his players—remains undeniable, and this fund ensures that his mentorship and spirit will continue to shape future generations.

1967

On September 26, 2024, Peter Dessauer was recognized in Traditional Building magazine as “ one of the 25 leaders who have made a difference in the world of traditional design and historic preservation.”

1969

The sad news of John Lacey’s passing was shared. He loved his time at Deerfield and talked about it often over the years. His obituary can be found online.

1975

ESPN released The Buddy Way, a feature-length documentary celebrating the life and career of Coach Eugene F. “Buddy” Teevens III ’75, on January 29, 2025. Directed by Rory Karpf and executive produced by Peyton Manning, the film aired on ESPN2 and is available for streaming on ESPN+.

The documentary chronicles Teevens’ extraordinary journey— from his early years in Pembroke, MA, to his four-decade coaching career, including his groundbreaking innovations in football. A champion for player safety and diversity, he was the first college coach to hire female assistants and pioneered safer tackling techniques now widely adopted across the sport.

Featuring never-before-seen footage and interviews with family, former players, and football greats, The Buddy Way highlights his profound impact on and off the field. The film also captures two poignant 2024 events: Dartmouth’s celebration of life for Teevens in May and the renaming of Dartmouth’s football stadium in his honor.

Buddy Teevens’ legacy extends far beyond football—he was a mentor, innovator, and leader who changed the game and the lives of those he touched.

’69

Coach Reade’s legacy already lives on at Deerfield in multiple ways: a squash court named in his honor, a large photograph in the athletics complex, and another image of him coaching Rudi Wachsman ’53, displayed near the 1953 Gym. Now, through this new financial aid fund, his influence will extend even further, helping student-athletes pursue their passions just as he inspired so many before them.

Reade’s three children have expressed their deep appreciation for this tribute, and personally reached out to thank Simmons. Their father’s impact on Deerfield’s courts—and in the lives of his players—remains undeniable, and this fund ensures that his mentorship and spirit will continue to shape future generations.

1967

On September 26, 2024, Peter Dessauer was recognized in Traditional Building magazine as “ one of the 25 leaders who have made a difference in the world of traditional design and historic preservation.”

1969

The sad news of John Lacey’s passing was shared. He loved his time at Deerfield and talked about it often over the years. His obituary can be found online.

1975

ESPN released The Buddy Way, a feature-length documentary celebrating the life and career of Coach Eugene F. “Buddy” Teevens III ’75, on January 29, 2025. Directed by Rory Karpf and executive produced by Peyton Manning, the film aired on ESPN2 and is available for streaming on ESPN+.

The documentary chronicles Teevens’ extraordinary journey— from his early years in Pembroke, MA, to his four-decade coaching career, including his groundbreaking innovations in football. A champion for player safety and diversity, he was the first college coach to hire female assistants and pioneered safer tackling techniques now widely adopted across the sport.

Featuring never-before-seen footage and interviews with family, former players, and football greats, The Buddy Way highlights his profound impact on and off the field. The film also captures two poignant 2024 events: Dartmouth’s celebration of life for Teevens in May and the renaming of Dartmouth’s football stadium in his honor.

Buddy Teevens’ legacy extends far beyond football—he was a mentor, innovator, and leader who changed the game and the lives of those he touched.

’69

t to b:

1. David Ho and Euiduk Han

2. Chaz Gagne and Hardie Jackson

3. Chuck Ramsay, Michael Scherotter, Geoff Karren, and Ed Harvey at the Deerfield San Francisco Reception on March 4, 2025

“It was great to see Tim Martin, Gene Pride, and Oscar Anderson at the NYC DA event at Cipriani 42nd Street in January. Let’s get a bigger group together next year!”

—Chuck Ramsay

1983

David Ho and Euiduk Han (left) reminisced over a few glasses of wine about Wells during a recent visit in Hong Kong! Thanks to Euiduk for sharing the photo!

“Chaz Gagne was in Georgia for a meeting in Augusta and came back through Atlanta where we were able to catch up over dinner. What a blast! Cherish these moments! Realized our friendship is still going strong after 44 years! All the best!! —Hardie Jackson

1986

Larry Biondo retired from the NYPD and is now head hockey coach and English teacher at Wilbraham & Monson Academy.

2003

“I was delighted to be featured in the New York Times recently. An article titled: The Challenge: Building a Passive House on a Greek Island recounted the process my husband, architect George Kontaroudis, and I went through to renovate a run-down old house on the island of Skopelos and convert it to passive. The article also showcased my ceramic work. I have fond memories of long hours spent in the Deerfield ceramics studio, and my work in the medium continues to this day.”(left) —Meg Metzger

Joseph Fernando founded Stronger Together, Inc. (“Stronger Together”) with the vision to empower individuals and enhance community health. Read more in Joe’s Spotlight on page 70!

Elisa Manrique and Noe Gil Merino celebrated their wedding in Chicago, IL, on September 28, 2024. The festivities were attended by 16 Deerfield alumni from the Classes of 1974, 2008, 2010, and 2011, along with special guest Kate Parker.

On Saturday, June 29, 2024, friends and family gathered to celebrate Melia Summers marriage to Max Walker! Anna Harvey was honored to be a bridesmaid for her Deerfield friend and classmate and is excited for this next chapter of Melia’s life! Also in attendance were Annabelle Mauri and David Thiel ’91. Congratulations, Melia and Max!

,

Bottom, left: Sarah Alvarez ’04 shared this photo from her recent wedding! ; Bottom, right: Hillary Hoyt ’09 and Cyrus Wittig ’10 were married at the Coral Beach Club in Bermuda in July 2024 with fellow Deerfield alumni in attendance. From left to right: Eloise McEniry ’10, Andrew Siderides ’10, Caroline Siderides ’10, Christina Proctor ’09, Bea Tufo ’09, Elizabeth Liao ’09, Cyrus Wittig ’10, Hillary Hoyt ’09

Davis Wittig ’07, Rose Wittig ’09, Annabel Prouty ’09, Parker Bordeaux ’10, Selby Jenkins ’09, Bill Jenkins ’75

Merisa Sherman’s life changed on a weekend trip to Killington, VT. She was in graduate school at Fordham University. “My dad worked as a ski instructor at Killington on the weekends,” she says, and she decided to join him.

By the end of the first day, she knew she’d never want to leave. On the mountain, Sherman realized that being a historian was not her path. “I dropped out of grad school,” she says. “I moved up here full time. I knew I could make it work.” That was in 2002.

Today, Sherman is doing much more than simply making it work. She’s a real estate broker. She bartends. She writes a weekly newspaper column. She’s an elected official. She’s a ski coach for five-year-olds. She hosts parties for all 1400 residents of her town. She even designed a best-selling ski. Its name: Female Ski Bum.

Sherman skis. A lot—as in 200 days a year. She does all this because she finds so much meaning in the snow and the small town that is a magnet for those who feel the same. “Killington is a ski town, not a town that happens to have a ski resort in it,” Sherman says. “Skiing is our lifeblood and how we heal our souls.”

Growing up, Sherman spent weekends at Killington with her family, driving up from Tuxedo Park, NY. At Deerfield, she skied, played field hockey and softball, but her favorite part of boarding school was being immersed in learning all day, every day. Fun meant gathering with Deerfield friends around a table in the library, with books open, talking, and studying together.

Afterward, she says, “I tried to find Deerfield again.” That is, she sought another community where everyone says hello, spends time doing what they love, and shares a profound respect for everyone else. She found it when she moved to Killington.

In her first year as a self-described ski bum, Sherman maxed out her credit card, taught skiing, and bartended. She met her longtime boyfriend, and they skied together into early June when the last slushy patches of white melted away.

Merisa Sherman BROKER, WRITER, SKIER +

Sheeven designeda best-sellingski.Itsname:FemaleSkiBum.

Courtesy of Marisa Sherman

She teaches them that a caution sign can mean fun. In the process, she teaches them what it means to be part of a skiing community.

Why does she love skiing so much? “I’ve been trying to answer that question for almost 25 years,” Sherman says. “I love that skiing can be whatever you need it to be that day.” It can be playful or athletic. It can be an outlet for creativity or a way to process grief. “Repetitive motion lets the brain wander and be free,” she says. “The movement of your body guides your mind. You dance, you float. Skiing makes people happy, period. To be surrounded by happy people is an amazing thing.”

“Living the Dream,” her 800-word column for the Killington newspaper The Mountain Times, provides a weekly opportunity for Sherman to explore this question. She covers the technical (her ski’s angle as it moves through the snow), the practical (uphill skiing through the woods on a six-degree day), and the emotional (how skiing brings up memories of her dad, who died in 2013). Sherman also writes about the trails she skis. “I don’t have a favorite trail, as the conditions are always changing,” she says. “I like the challenge—the trails where ski patrol has marked caution or thin cover , the trails where someone reported that it was awful, a trail where we might have to ski a little grass.”

Sherman skis daily during the season, but that’s not all she does. She is the managing broker of the Killington office of Four Seasons Sotheby’s International Realty. She was also recently elected as one of three town listers. In this role, she assesses the fair market value of the real estate in Killington to help determine property tax bills. After being elected, Sherman spent three months learning everything she could about the reappraisal process.

For this, she credits Deerfield for teaching her to approach any new situation with a clear view of what she does not know and the certainty that she can attain the knowledge needed to succeed.

Merisa credits Deerfield for teaching her to approach any new situation with a clear view of what she does not know and the certainty that she can attain the knowledge needed to succeed.

That same lesson proved invaluable when Parlor Skis, noticing a gap in the market, asked Sherman to design an East Coast ski for women in their 40s and 50s. “I ski fairly well,” she says. “How can I put it? I’m more comfortable skiing than walking.” But she’d never designed a ski. As a first step, Sherman thought deeply about why she’s never been fully satisfied with any ski. And so was born the Female Ski Bum Pro Model, made with one sheet of metal instead of the usual two, resulting in less stiffness. It’s one of Parlor’s best-sellers, and not only for women—men are buying it too. Now, she’s working with Parlor on a backcountry model.

Sherman is a ski coach, too, for five- and six-year-olds at Killington Mountain School, where she’s known as Coach PomPom. “We don’t just care about making sure we’re skiing the correct way,” she says. “I teach them to love skiing. We ski on grass, dirt, rocks, and in the woods.” She teaches them that a caution sign can mean fun. In the process, she teaches them what it means to be part of a skiing community.

For Sherman and her boyfriend, being part of a skiing community means inviting the entire town of Killington to their 11-acre property twice a year for a potluck. “This is a party bequeathed to us by the event’s founders as they were passing on,” Sherman explains. “We take the honor very seriously.”

The party brings together an entire town of people who share a common love for the outdoors. Indeed, life in Killington reminds Sherman of a line from Antoine de Saint-Exupery that she wrote down in a notebook while at Deerfield: “Love does not consist of gazing at each other, but in looking outward together in the same direction.”

When she decided to leave grad school all those years ago, Sherman turned and looked outward—and what she saw was a mountain. “I got up enough courage to be my unapologetic self,” she says. “And in being myself, I have found my true version of greatness.” //

“We strongly believe in and respect Deerfield’s approach to experiential and cocurricular learning, and we feel very privileged to be able to support it. With three generations of alumni in our family, we are forever grateful for the ways Deerfield’s highly engaged faculty, inclusive community, and foundational academics have influenced our lives. It’s an honor to be able to give back.”

Jane Mendillo and Ralph Earle funded a Deferred Payment Gift Annuity, which will provide them with guaranteed lifetime payments at a fixed rate of 7.3%, beginning in 2029. The rate is based on their ages and their choice to defer the start date of their payments. After their deaths the residual of the gift will support Deerfield’s Center for Service & Global Citizenship— a hub for experiential and cocurricular learning.

For more information

deerfield.giftplans.org or call 413-774-1584 to speak with a friendly staff member.

— Ralph Earle ’75 & Jane Mendillo

Pictured with their children Elizabeth ’10 and Thomas ’12

Liza (Cowan) Garonzik

/// by Lori Ferguson ///

EDUCATOR / R.E.A.L.®

Studies show that the average Gen Z student has an attention span of eight seconds; a goldfish clocks in at nine. Not surprisingly, this inability to focus makes it incredibly hard for today’s kids to listen actively and engage deeply in sustained conversation: a skill gap Liza Garonzik ’07 experienced firsthand as a teacher and school administrator.

Faced with a classroom of kids who were more comfortable texting than talking, Garonzik decided to teach her students how to talk—and actually listen—to each other. She began creating a program to break down the deeply human components of great conversation into teachable, assessable skills—a method designed to empower today’s students to participate in nuanced, face-to-face conversations, be they academic or social. And with that, R.E.A.L.® Discussion was born.

An educator at heart—Garonzik holds a BA in history and literature from Harvard College and an MSEd in Education Entrepreneurship from the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education—she grounded R.E.A.L.® in evidence-based research leavened with a healthy dose of practical experience. Driven by the belief that conversation skills are teachable but in today’s world they must be taught, she and her team crafted the first researchbased approach to teaching discussion skills.

“I began building the program for my own classroom in 2013,” says Garonzik, “made my first conference presentation on the system in 2015, and, in 2021, left teaching and administrative work and began doing R.E.A.L.® full-time.”

Garonzik remains fully immersed in this important work, and the community has risen to meet her. “Since 2021, we’ve partnered with over 70 schools, 11,000 students, and more than 700 teachers both in the US and abroad,” she notes The program currently serves teachers and students in grades two through 10, but the curriculum is steadily growing.

Courtesy of Liza (Cowan) Garonzik

We teach that in high school, discussion is a team sport—different people will contribute differently and that is the point. The goal is not to ‘win’ as an individual, but to contribute to something bigger than yourself. Success is not just talking the most or having the most popular opinion.

Garonzik points out that R.E.A.L.® Discussion techniques also solve for longstanding pedagogical challenges for educators. “Typically, when discussions take place, teachers find themselves in one of two positions,” she observes. “They’re either trying to be a player on the field, saying ‘my idea is equal to yours,’ (which is impossible, as Dr. Austin’s Framework makes clear!) or acting as a referee, watching from the sidelines and calling ‘fouls.’ In R.E.A.L.®, we think of teachers as coaches. We give them methods to teach students discussion skills, then show them how structure practice and drill specific skills, and then how to lead debriefs where everyone reflects upon the conversation. Our framework helps teachers clearly define their role in an interaction that is, of necessity, student-led.”

No matter the age, however, Garonzik makes one thing clear: the ability to engage in meaningful discussion is an art built on learnable skills. “R.E.A.L.® Discussion is based on four foundational communication skills: Relate, Excerpt, Ask, and Listen,” Garonzik explains. “These form the basis of a great discussion whether you’re eight or 18 or 80!”

“The R.E.A.L. system approaches teaching conversation like teaching a sport,” Garonzik continues. In elementary school, the focus is on discrete skills: just as in elementary school kids in PE might learn the basics of dribbling, shooting, and passing, with R.E.A.L. Basics, they learn conversational moves such as relating, asking, and listening. “We help the kids with what to say when there’s a disagreement, for example, ‘I hear what you are saying— is that what you mean?’” In middle school, the focus shifts to the scrimmage; in other words, helping kids learn the rules of the game, and how to participate effectively. “Now the kids are increasing in self-awareness and ready to think about dynamics like ‘Is it my turn to talk? What move do I make? How does what I say or do impact the trajectory of the conversation? Do I speak, or should I pass to someone else?” Finally, in high school, students know the rules and possess the necessary skills, so they’re ready to play. “At this point, discussions are student-led, and teachers slide into the role of coaches: giving skills-based feedback and leading debriefs,” says Garonzik. “We teach that in high school, discussion is a team sport—different people will contribute differently and that is the point. The goal is not to ‘win’ as an individual, but to contribute to something bigger than yourself. Success is not just talking the most or having the most popular opinion.”

Queried as to the origins of her fascination and facility with effective communication, Garonzik doesn’t hesitate. “Being a Deerfield student exposed me to many great classroom discussions in and beyond the classroom,” she recalls. “I still recall conversations in history classes with Mr. Pitcher and Mr. Heise, and in French classes with Madame Moorhead . . . but also at sit-down tables, in the dorm, and on long away-game bus rides. Those experiences showed me how conversation is the mechanics of community.”

Garonzik acknowledges that the academic training she received at Deerfield was also incredibly important, but what lingers most prominently in her mind is the school’s ethos: a sense of community underpinned by an institutional commitment to clear, respectful, and productive communication.

That commitment is reflected in the considerable number of Deerfield alumni and former faculty who have helped in the development of R.E.A.L.® Discussion, observes Garonzik as she begins to tick off names. “Catherine Dragone ’14 is our program and partnerships manager; Avery Carpenter Forrey ’07 wrote our first website copy; former Deerfield faculty Katherine Burd, Maggie Blake Bailey, Peter Nilsson, and Margarita Curtis were all early advisors; Abby Cacho ’13 and Teddy Romyne ’13 piloted early versions of the program; Mike Hauge ’08 and Lucy Stonehill ’06 have offered sound strategic advice; and Amanda Lombardo ’93, English Department chair at Bullis School, and Alyssa Walker ’20, History Department chair at Pomfret School, both currently use the program in their departments. My husband, Ethan Garonzik ’03, and my Dad, Rory Cowan ’71, also deserve footnotes for having many discussions about discussion over the years!

“As a world, we are in a ‘conversation crisis,’ and the stakes are high,” concludes Garonzik. “Discussions are how relationships get built, work gets done, and democracy happens. In aggregate, discussions define history. Amidst AI, they can define humanity. But the good news is that our work over the last decade has shown that discussion skills are teachable! At R.E.A.L., we are proud to equip K-12 teachers to effectively teach them in today’s world.” //

Garonzik acknowledges that the academic training she received at Deerfield was also incredibly important, but what lingers most prominently in her mind is the school’s ethos: a sense of community underpinned by an institutional commitment to clear, respectful, and productive communication.

THE ANATOMY OF A TURNAROUND

PAUL KUSSEROW ’80

McGraw Hill, 2023

THE COMING HEALTHCARE REVOLUTION: 10 FORCES THAT WILL CURE AMERICA’S HEALTH CRISIS

DAVID W. JOHNSON AND PAUL KUSSEROW ’80

John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2025

Paul Kusserow revitalized Amedisys, a struggling home healthcare company, by focusing on two core principles: reaffirming its commitment to patient care, and adopting a “Golden Rule” managerial philosophy that prioritized employee well-being. These strategies improved care quality, staff retention, and financial performance, leading to a tenfold increase in market capitalization. In The Anatomy of a Turnaround, Kusserow presents a framework for business recovery. By stabilizing operations, investing in human capital, and fostering sustainable growth, organizations can achieve lasting success. He emphasizes that unlocking human potential within a company provides the highest return on investment. Recommitting to patient care established a clear mission that streamlined decision-making and enhanced service delivery. Simultaneously, the Golden Rule approach empowered employees, fostering engagement and operational efficiency.

Kusserow offers insights for leaders navigating organizational challenges. His framework applies beyond healthcare, serving as a strategic guide for revitalizing struggling enterprises. By prioritizing ethical leadership and employee engagement, businesses can recover and redefine industry standards, much like Amedisys did under his leadership.

In The Coming Healthcare Revolution, David Johnson and Paul Kusserow analyze the forces reshaping US healthcare, presenting five macro and five market-driven changes. Macro forces— demographic shifts, funding fatigue, chronic pandemics, technological imperatives, and market reforms—are restructuring the system externally. Meanwhile, market forces such as whole health, care redesign, care migration, aggregators’ advantage, and empowered caregivers are transforming healthcare from within.

The authors show how these trends are making healthcare more affordable, efficient, and balanced between prevention and treatment. They argue that care will become more accessible while strengthening the roles of frontline caregivers and consumers. The Coming Healthcare Revolution offers essential insights for industry leaders. This book is a key resource for professionals and policymakers navigating rapid change. Understanding these forces is crucial to shaping a future where healthcare is more effective, equitable, and consumer-driven.

AFTER THE WAR

H. CAMP GORDINIER ’59

HCG Press, 2024

His first novel, After the War is based on Camp Gordinier’s experiences while serving with the US Army Security Agency in northern Germany from 1965 to 1967. During his service, he befriended several young German women and men, learned to speak the language “fairly well,” and had many conversations with them about their struggles and aspirations in post-World War II Germany.

After the War is the story of the Bruggermann family as they grapple with their legacy and an uncertain future. Against the backdrop of post-war Germany, each family member faces unique challenges: Sybille yearns for love in a world turned upside down, while Renate fights tenaciously to preserve their ancestral farm. Throughout their struggles, the sinister presence of neo-Nazi groups looms, serving as a stark reminder that democracy’s survival depends on its citizens’ constant vigilance.

After the War is available in print and as an audio book at afterthewarhcg.com.

DUSTY MONEY

GROVE N. MOWER ’76

Snafu Publications, 2024

Dusty Money, Grove Mower’s third novel, is the first in a planned trilogy, and follows his proven formula for “fun, fast fiction.” The plot is this: Clare Reynolds is an ambitious South Side (Chicago) girl struggling to climb the ladder of a downtown bank. Margaret Carlson, a high-powered, quick-tempered technology lawyer whose life is turned upside down and inside out when her hot college flame shows up and she is forced to sleuth out why he is in Chicago while not falling back in love. A once-in-a-century storm provides the backdrop for these two strong-willed women who are both wrestling with love and money, and who both need to succeed.

In a review by Classic Chicago Magazine’s Judy Carmack Bross, Mower noted that he considers the planned trilogy his “love note to Chicago,” and will set the subsequent novels—Amos and Ike and A Christmas Storm—in Lake Forest and Winnetka respectively; they will be released this year and in 2026.

Mower, who is a managing partner at Hummer Mower Associates, also explained why he chose the title Dusty Money: “The phrase ‘dusty money’ first came to me from my grandmother’s mouth as she described another family to my mother: ‘Dear, they’re dusty money,’ meaning old wealth. I thought the phrase amusing, enlightening, and descriptive. Ironically, I ended up being a financial advisor in a firm where we manage old family wealth. After writing my first two novels, I thought it would be fun to write a Chicago story that incorporated my background in finance. So, I did, producing what I call fun, fast fiction that is meant to entertain and have you turn the page.”

Dusty Money and Mower’s previous books: Forty Rod Road and Hope, are available in print and as audio books at snafupublications.com

Joe Fernando ATHLETE,

ENTREPRENEUR, AND EDUCATOR

For Joe Fernando, fitness doesn’t just fill his days, it informs his life. A personal trainer and former professional athlete, Fernando’s lived experience has shown him that a healthy body goes hand in hand with a healthy, resilient mindset. He’s now sharing this philosophy with kids from his Brooklyn, NY, neighborhood through Stronger Together NYC, the organization he founded to “empower the community through bodyweight training.”

The work is deeply personal. Fernando learned long ago that achieving goals through discipline and resilience is a winning formula. After losing his brother in the spring of ninth grade at Deerfield, Fernando returned the next year but ultimately decided to leave the Academy, seeking the comfort of home and those who had known his brother. However, he still felt a connection to Deerfield, and returned for a postgraduate year after completing high school in New York City. That PG year proved invaluable, allowing Fernando to graduate with the Class of 2015 and significantly expand his college baseball opportunities. He went on to become a standout player at Bethune-Cookman University, earning 1 st Team All-Conference honors and the prestigious “Iron Cat” award in recognition of his athletic prowess across all sports.

After earning a degree in health and exercise science, Fernando signed free-agent contracts with the San Diego Padres and the Atlanta Braves. Then, in 2021, his son arrived, and he decided to hang up his cleats and move back to his hometown.

“I loved sports, but I wanted to spend as much time with my son as possible,” he says.

Inset: Joe and his son, Johnny

/// by Lori Ferguson ///

Courtesy of Joe Fernando

The decision proved auspicious. Leveraging his education and experience, Fernando worked as a personal trainer, helping clients achieve their fitness goals through calisthenic workouts in public parks. In 2023, he and close friend Omar Longi decided to take the concept to the next level and opened Limitless NYC, a first-ofits-kind, exclusively calisthenics gym in SOHO. The model took off, and the two soon realized they wanted to do more. “Omar and I got the idea to train people from the neighborhoods we came from who couldn’t afford personal trainers and professional gyms,” Fernando explains. So, in July of 2024, the pair opened Stronger Together NYC, a nonprofit dedicated to using calisthenics to educate school children of all ages on exercise’s physical and mental benefits.

“We want to reach kids as early as possible; when it comes to introducing them to the benefits of getting fit, there’s no age limit,” Fernando enthuses. He regularly sees children as young as five struggling with obesity, and he’s adamant that things can be different. “It’s not their fault—with all the hyper-processed foods in the American diet and the upsurge in technology, kids aren’t getting the exercise they need to stay mentally and physically sharp, but we can change that. It just takes a commitment.”

And Fernando is committed. Together with his four training partners, he offers group classes to children from his old haunt, the Boys Club of New York, as well as from 360 Academic Sports Academy, and a handful of public and charter schools in the city. In the long term, he envisions forming additional Stronger Together academies in other cities. “I know trainers all across the country, and I’d love to build on this concept,” he says.

For now, Fernando is focused reaching as many kids and people all over the city including the Bronx, Queens, and Manhattan. “My primary goal is to get kids active and knowledgeable about the power of exercise,” he explains. “We need to get them outside moving their bodies.” And calisthenics offers an ideal vehicle, he asserts. “This type of training doesn’t require special equipment or a pricey gym membership—you can get in the best shape of your life by simply using your body weight and eating healthy food. It’s extremely empowering.”

Fernando believes the benefits extend well beyond simple aesthetics. Remain dedicated to the work, and you’ll develop a beautiful body, he admits, but that’s just a pleasing by-product. The real payoff is the mental and physical returns that practitioners realize. “This work not only helps kids become healthier and more physically fit but also teaches them patience, discipline, and respect for themselves and for others,” asserts Fernando.

“I want to teach these kids resilience and help them learn to cope with whatever life brings their way. I want to show them that exercise pays dividends over decades, and I’m trying to lead by example.”

Fernando says his Deerfield connections have played a critical role in helping him realize these ambitious goals. “My good friend Rich Caputo ’14 and his family helped me launch Limitless, and Academy friends have been incredibly supportive,” he observes.

“I’m very grateful.”

In July of 2024, the pair opened Stronger Together NYC, a nonprofit dedicated to using calisthenics to educate school children of all ages on exercise’s physical and mental benefits.

When you commit yourself to what you love, doors just open

We want to reach kids as early as possible; when it comes to introducing them to the benefits of getting fit, there’s no age limit.

And while building a business is demanding, Fernando sees only good things in the future. “When you commit yourself to what you love, doors just open,” he observes. “If you’re doing good work, remaining consistent, and treating people with respect, things fall into place. I’m blessed.

“It’s amazing how it’s all come full circle,” he concludes. “As a young man, I was a member of the Boys Club of New York, where Bill Mitchell was the director and a mentor to me. Then I went to Deerfield, attended college, and ultimately returned to New York, where I founded Limitless and launched Stronger Together to help kids from the same neighborhood where I grew up. Now I’m working with Bill again, this time through 360 Academic Sports Academy. It’s incredible. I’m a guy from Brooklyn who went to Deerfield and then came back to New York to help the kind of kids that I was. I’m incredibly grateful.” //

You can check out Stronger Together’s website here: strongertogethernyc.org

A selection of highlights of Deerfield alumni competing collegiately curated from their respective school websites. This issue includes those competing in the fall 2024 season. We welcome all alumni to share any news about your collegiate careers. cbarbato@deerfield.edu

FIELD HOCKEY

Ella Davies ’24 – Bowdoin College

• Appeared in 14 games for the Polar Bears

• Scored two goals in the 2024 season

Kate MacKenzie ’24 – Tufts University

• In her rookie season, appeared in 21 games and made 18 starts for the Jumbos in her rookie season

• Played in every minute of NCAA Tournament action, including the NCAA Finals

• Tufts finished the season as NCAA Runners-up, NESCAC Champions and a 19-3 record

Lauren O’Donald ’22 – Bowdoin College

• Played in 15 games for the Polar Bears

• NESCAC All-Academic Team 2024

Sage Piekarski ’23 – Harvard University

• NFHCA Northeast All-Region Second Team honoree

• Garnered All-Ivy League Second Team status

• Appeared in every match during the 2024 campaign, ranked second on the team in goals (9) and points (20), received Ivy League Offensive Player of the Week honors twice

• Ivy League Champion and NCAA DI Championship Tournament Quarterfinalist

Eleanor Wenners ’21 – Wellesley College

• 2x NEWMAC Second Team All-Conference (2023, 2024)

• 3x NEWMAC Academic All-Conference (2022, 2023, 2024)

• As a senior, started in all 20 games

Maddy Zavalick ’22 – Yale University

• NFHCA National Academic Squad selection for the second time

• Appeared in 15 games, starting 12

FOOTBALL

Xavier Aviles ’24 – Hobart College

• Appeared in nine games for the Statesmen during his first season

Elic Ayomanor ’22 – Stanford University

• Second Team All-ACC

• Military Bowl STEM Scholar-Athlete

• Received the Tommy Vardell Award and Deswarte-Eller Award; was a finalist for the John Cornish Trophy

• Started and appeared in all 12 games; led Stanford receivers with 63 receptions for 831 yards; recorded six receiving TDs while completing three 100-yard receiving games.

• Was the Cardinal’s leading receiver in seven of the 2024 season’s 12 games

• Totaled three of his touchdown receptions in a three-game stretch to begin ACC play, becoming the first Cardinal to record receiving touchdowns in three straight games since Brycen Tremayne in 2021

• Finished seventh in the ACC in receptions (63) and tied for ninth in receiving touchdowns (6), while ranking third in pass-blocking (72.7, per Pro Football Focus)

• Named the team’s Tommy Vardell Award winner, awarded to an academic junior or senior player who best epitomizes excellence in both academics and athletics and Stanford’s Deswarte-Eller Award winner, awarded to the team’s most outstanding sophomore player

Sam Carlson ’20 – University of Pennsylvania

• Appeared in all 10 games for UPenn

• Made 17 solo tackles and 17 assists

Cortland Dicks ’21 – Brown University

• In his senior campaign, appeared in all 10 games on special teams

James Fealey ’24 – Columbia University

• Earned a share the Ivy League Championship with win over Cornell

Donnie Gray ’21 – Northwestern University

• Appeared in six games in 2024

• Earned Academic All-Big Ten honors 2024

Alex Haight ’22 – University of Pennsylvania

• Appeared in eight games in 2024

Owen Haight ’24 – Colby College

• In his rookie season, played in seven games for the Mules

Geoffrey Jamiel ’22 – Lehigh University

• Appeared in 13 games this season; recorded eight receiving TDs and 768 receiving yards for 60 receptions including; the game-winning TD in the opening round of the FCS Championship first-round game vs. Richmond

• Patriot League Champion

• Named to Second Team All- Patriot League

Caleb Kirkpatrick ’24 – Kenyon College

• In his rookie campaign, participated in all 10 games

Joe Lochiatto ’22 – Bentley University

• All-NE10 First Team for second consecutive season

• Started all 10 games and helped a line that allowed only 12 sacks all season

Joe Metzger ’22 – College of the Holy Cross

• Participated in eight games for the Crusaders

• Helped the Crusaders capture the 6th straight Patriot League Title

Liam O’Brien ’22 – University of Pennsylvania

• Appeared in eight games for the Quakers

• Averaged 127 passing yards per game and earning 13 passing TDs

Chigozie Oge-Evans ’23 – Georgetown University

• Played in 10 games for the Hoyas

• Made eight solo tackles and nine assists

Nick Peltekian ’22 – Lehigh University

• Appeared in all 13 games this season; made 34 solo tackles and 40 assists

• Named to First Team All-Patriot League for the second straight year

• Patriot League Champion

Casey Reynolds ’21 – ARMY WEST POINT

• Competed in 14 games in the 2024 season; made 20 reception for 457 yards and three touchdowns

• Helped the Black Knights win the Independence Bowl; becoming the first 12-win team in school history

• Won the American Athletic Conference Championship by defeating Tulane; marking the Black Knights first conference title in the program’s history

MEN’S SOCCER

Kai Darrell ’24 – Williams College

• Back-up fellow Deerfield alum in goal

• Appeared in two games in the 2024 season

Ben Diffley ’20 – Williams College

• Captain goalkeeper started in 20 games in the 2024 season, posting a record of 12-4-4, allowed only 12 goals, recorded 98 saves, 0.875 save percentage, registered seven solo shutouts and two combined shutouts

• Named USC All Region I First Team and 4th team USC All American

• NESCAC Championship Tournament Semifinalists and NCAA DIII Championship Tournament third round

• NESCAC Fall 2024 All-Academic Team

Alexander Grosse ’22 – Carleton College

• Started in all 20 games in the 2024 season and scoring three goals

Derek Zhang ’22 – Haverford College

• Named to the Centennial Conference Fall Academic Honor Roll

• Made eight appearances for the Fords in his junior season, primarily playing in the midfield.

MEN’S CROSS-COUNTRY

Quinn Hampson ’22 – Tufts University

• Placed in 29th at the NESCAC Championships

• Finished in 18th at the NCAA Division III East Region Cross Country Championships with a 25:30.3

• Received honors as USTFCCCA All-Academic Athlete

WOMEN’S CROSS-COUNTRY

Abby Fernald ’22 – Connecticut College

• Qualified for the NCAA DIII Championship and finished 120th overall out of almost 300 runners in 2024 NCAA Division III Men’s and Women’s Cross Country Championships

WOMEN’S VOLLEYBALL

Sabina Frosk ’24 – Babson College

• Appeared in 30 games in the 2024 season; played in 103 sets, recording 217 digs and 13 aces

• NEWMAC Championship Tournament Semifinalist

Daphne Gavros ’22 – MIT

• Appeared in all 34 matches in the 2024 season; played in 110 sets, recording 90 digs, 22 aces and 3 kills

• Received NEWMAC Academic All-Conference 2024 and named to the NEWMAC Fall Sportsmanship Team

• NCAA DIII Championship Tournament Regional Finalist

Zoe Gavros ’23 – Carnegie Mellon

• Appeared in all 32 games in the 2024 season; played in 111 sets, recording 244 digs and 11 aces

• Name to the UAA All-Academic Team

• NCAA DIII Championship Tournament Second Round

Cate Shanahan ’23 – Santa Clara University

• Played in eight matches and 26 sets

• Had 62 kills, 47 digs, and nine blocks

• Was named to the UT Arlington Classic All-Tournament Team 2024

IN MEMORIAM

IN MEMORIAM

Robert M. Dewey Jr. ’49 P ’77 G ’11,’12,’14,’17,’20

Bob was regarded as a true gentleman in a business that was not known for grace. His colleagues admired him for constancy, hard work, and integrity. One of the best mentors on Wall Street, Bob took great pride in following his mentees’ successes. He saw people as individuals, worthy of love, attention, and respect on their merits alone.

A king of sharp wit, Bob’s colleagues considered him one of the best speechmakers on the planet, often referring to his fondness of second marriages, second homes, and family time. His pencils were also always sharp—and short—reflecting his practical nature.

Bob had an unshakable belief that life’s greatest purpose is found in family and connection. Time with his loved ones was sacred—whether lobster dinners on Martha’s Vineyard or cheering grandchildren on from the sidelines. His generosity knew no limits: He gave not just his time and resources but also his steadfast presence. Bob’s love wasn’t defined by grand gestures alone—it was felt in his unwavering commitment to always showing up.

Bob is survived by his beloved wife of 43 years, Harriet Blees Dewey, a constant and deeply valued partner throughout these adventures and achievements. Together, they grew the large, loving family that Bob leaves behind, including his children Robert, Grant, and Brad Dewey; Parke, Ashley, and Andy Logan; their spouses; fifteen grandchildren; three great-grandchildren; and his elder sister, Jeanne Dewey Hart. Bob leaves a legacy of love, resilience, and belonging that shapes the lives of everyone fortunate enough to have known him. //

Robert M. “Bob” Dewey, Jr. passed away on January 7, 2025, at the age of 93, surrounded by his loving family. Bob cherished time with family, and the growth and education of his children and grandchildren were his top priorities. He was a constant presence on the sidelines as their number one fan.

Bob graduated from Deerfield in 1949. The culture of the Academy shaped his sense of community and laid the foundation for his life. He went on to serve on, eventually as President, on the Academy’s Board of Trustees (1990-2000). One of his proudest achievements was being a part of Eric Widmer’s tenure as Headmaster, the beginning of their lifelong friendship. Upon his retirement from the Board, it was noted that Bob had served the Academy for a decade with “fondness, loyalty, and unrelentingly generous spirit; (he) faithfully and wisely guided the Academy for five years as its President of the Board, strengthening its purposes, shaping the school’s Bicentennial celebrations and campaigns, and building for the future.”

Bob graduated from Yale in 1953 with a BA in history. He excelled at squash, playing number one in his senior year, and earning national rankings after college. He began his career in 1954 at Citicorp, and joined Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette in 1974. He oversaw the firm’s rise from a research boutique to a leading equities powerhouse. He became a leading institutional salesman and was appointed Head of Equities and Derivatives in 1982. During his tenure, industry rankings for sales, research, and trading steadily increased and profitability soared.

Excerpted from the obituary originally published in The Ridgefield Press & New Canaan Advertiser.

1944

James S. Rockefeller Jr.

January 8, 2025

1946

Frank Allard Brooks

January 8, 2025

1947

Rankine P. Van Anda *

December 30, 2024

1948

J. Halisey Kennedy

November 5, 2024

Elwood H. Schneider Jr.

September 25, 2024

1949

John Staige Davis IV

December 20, 2024

Robert M. Dewey Jr. *

January 7, 2025

George W. Rapp Jr.

December 20, 2024

Douglas M. Shumway

October 11, 2023

Karl H. Velde Jr.

October 2, 2024

Spofford Woodruff

November 14, 2021

1951

Robert E. Gable

November 29, 2024

James E. McKinney

November 17, 2024

1952

David L. Grumman *

January 3, 2025

August U. Pabst

October 9, 2024

David M. Whiteford

November 15, 2024

1953

Anthony Atwell *

December 17, 2024

1954

Orme Lewis Jr. *

November 22, 2024

1955

Edison W. Dick *

December 11, 2024

1956

Jerald D. Fessenden *

December 28, 2024

Peter S. Ness *

October 1, 2024

1957

Hiromitsu Kaneda

July 31, 2024

Eric Widmer *

January 18, 2025

1958

Richard H. Page

October 10, 2024

Peter M. Sieglaff

December 3, 2024

1959

Frederick C. Ferry III

Unknown Date

1960

Jacques L. Galef II

December 30, 2022

1961

Paul H. Lapointe

January 6, 2025

Robert E. Spiel Jr.

October 25, 2024

Daniel B. Thomases

March 2, 2020

1962

Charles D. Lefler

November 12, 2024

Kenneth R. Neal

July 4, 2020

1963

John E. Devine

October 29, 2024

Jonathan A. Merrill January 5, 2024

David D. Sicher * January 1, 2025

1965

Richard W. Hines May 11, 2021

1966

David H. Bradley Jr. * November 12, 2024

1967

Jeffery C. Garvey * September 2024

1968

Eugene Garrett Bewkes III

November 18, 2024

1969

John F. Lacey

January 9, 2025

1971

Richard T. Craven

June 10, 2024

1977

Edward D. Tompkins

October 14, 2024

1984

Charles L. Allard

January 19, 2025

1986

James P. Walsh Jr. April 9, 2024

1992

Jon L. Kines

Unknown Date

2001

Katherine Elizabeth Rutledge May 21, 2020 * Boyden Society Member

In Memoriam as of January 19, 2025. Please go to: deerfield.edu/edu/commonroom for the most up-to-date information on classmates, including obituaries.

OBJECT LESSON / The Weather Vane on Harold Smith Dormitory

A frog jumps Into the old pond Kerplunk.

The story behind this “Object Lesson” begins with the letter Eric Widmer wrote to the Academy community in 2004, in which he announced his intent to step down as Headmaster in June of 2006.

He wrote (in part):

When I told the Board of Trustees, and then our faculty and staff, I wanted to de-mystify the process of succession by declaring my intent long in advance. But I’m afraid that a more extensive announcement has been deemed appropriate, even as I try to understate its significance.

Of all the improbable places to begin, I think I will choose that poem of the Japanese poet, Matsuo Basho (1644-1694), that is known so well in Japan and so often finds itself translated in Western anthologies of Japanese literature. It is in the form of a haiku:

A frog jumps Into the old pond Kerplunk.

When Mr. Boyden accepted his dubious assignment as headmaster of Deerfield in 1902, Ephraim Williams was (according to Mrs. Boyden) supposed to have said to his fellow board members, “Let’s see how far the little frog will jump”—a comment that Mrs. Boyden reminded us of at their retirement dinner 66 years later.

Now Deerfield has reached a point in its modern history where in all the ways that one could possibly measure the strength of a school, we are enviably strong. But our invisible strength remains the mightiest part of Deerfield: the excellence of our faculty and staff, the quality of our students, our diversity (however that is measured), our traditions and spirit, our sportsmanship as well as our scholarship, our work ethic, our idealism, our loyalty. As Mr. Boyden once enjoined, so do we still “study and work, play and sing, and pause to look up to the hills.”

So I very much hope that the entire Deerfield family—who may all lay claim to the success of the school because it does indeed belong to all of us—will enjoy the next two years with Meera and me, a busy time ahead, to be sure . . . as we attend to that agenda you can imagine that one old frog, remembering another old frog, will be getting ready to leave the jumping to someone else. Then, when students cry “Go Big Green!” that’s exactly what I will do.

This memorable imagery was thenDirector of Stewardship Sandy Lively’s inspiration when she was asked to come up with some ideas for a gift from the Board of Trustees to Eric—and his wife Meera—in recognition of his retirement.

“I already knew of Marian Ives, an artisan who lives in the hills of Hawley (MA), who made beautiful metal sculptures, and I’d seen a spectacular weather vane of hers, so I contacted her to see if we could commission her to craft a vane; Marian said she’d be quite interested in pursuing this with me, and she was excited it might be a frog! So, Marian and I worked on cost, timeframe, design, size, etc., for a copper vane: A frog with a lovely lily pad nearby to signify Eric and Meera, always side by side, two parts balancing, complementing, and completing the other—whimsical for Eric, and a little touch of beauty for Meera.

When the vane was presented to them, Eric was beyond tickled and touched. The Phys Plant team—Stanley Stokarski and John Downie in particular—installed it soon after on the roof of the Harold Smith Dormitory common room. By now, it should have a nice little patina.” //