The Exeter Bulletin, summer 2018

The Exeter Bulletin SUMMER 2018

Thank you Amadou Talla

Modern Languages Instructor

Hannah Brown

Class of 2019

Ivy Tran

Class of 2018

On behalf of the entire Exeter community, we would like to thank you for a successful year of fundraising. Because of you, the Academy is able to sustain a diverse student body, unmatched campus facilities, and an inspired and dedicated faculty. Every day, Exeter wakes up with the opportunity to open our minds, ask precise questions, and work together in search of answers. Thank you for making that possible.

THE EXETER FUND exeter.edu/give

SUMMER

The Exeter Bulletin

Interim Principal Bill Rawson ’71; P’08 Editor Karen Ingraham Associate Editor Genny Beckman Moriarty Contributing Editor Patrick Garrity Class Notes Editor Cathy Webber Creative Director/Design David Nelson, Nelson Design Communications Advisory Committee Daniel G. Brown ’82, Robert C. Burtman ’74, Dorinda Elliott ’76, Alison Freeland ’72, Keith Johnson ’52, Yvonne M. Lopez ’93 Trustees President John A. Downer ’75 Vice President Wole C. Coaxum ’88 Suzi Kwon Cohen ’88, Marc C. de La Bruyere ’77, Walter C. Donovan ’81, Mark A. Edwards ’78, Claudine Gay ’88, Peter A. Georgescu ’57, Jennifer P. Holleran ’86, Sally J. Michaels ’82, Deidre O’Byrne ’84, Bill Rawson ’71, Dr. Nina D. Russell ’82, Peter M. Scocimara ’82, Serena Wille Sides ’89, J. Douglas Smith ’83, Morgan C. Sze ’83, Kristyn M. Van Ostern ’96 and Nancy H. Wilder ’75 The Exeter Bulletin (ISSN No. 0195-0207) is published four times each year: fall, winter, spring and summer,

by Phillips Exeter Academy 20 Main Street, Exeter NH 03833-2460 Telephone 603-772-4311 Periodicals postage paid at Exeter, NH, and at additional mailing offices. Printed in the USA by Cummings Printing.

The Exeter Bulletin is printed on recycled paper and sent free of charge to alumni, parents, grandparents, friends and educational institutions by Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter, NH. Communications may be addressed to the editor; email bulletin@exeter.edu.

Postmasters: Send address changes to: Phillips Exeter Academy Records Office 20 Main Street Exeter, NH 03833-2460

CHERYL SENTER

Copyright 2018 by the Trustees of Phillips Exeter Academy.

ISSN-0195-0207

CHERYL SENTER

“THE CLASS OF 2018 IS A COLLECTION OF … PEOPLE WHO HAVE ALREADY STARTED MOLDING THE FUTURE.” —page 26

2 • T H E

E X E T E R

B U L L E T I N

SU M M E R

20 1 8

IN THIS ISSUE

Volume CXXII, Issue no. 4

Features

26 Commencement 2018

A new class ventures forth

34 The Seeds She Planted

How Principal Lisa MacFarlane has shaped Exeter

By Karen Ingraham

38 Gone Fishin’

Two Exonian entrepreneurs wade into the seafood industry

By Jennifer Wagner

Departments 34 38

6

Around the Table: Letters to the Editor, Heard at Assembly, Exeter Deconstructed and more

16

Table Talk with David Eddy ’59

23 Inside the Writing Life: Katherine Reynolds Lewis ’90 and Joseph Reid ’91 42

Sports: Bringing Home the Gold with Bill Becklean ’54. Plus, Spring Sports Roundup.

46

Connections: News and Notes from the Alumni Community

48

Profiles: Meridith Hankenson ’77 and Forrest Barker ’13

50

Giving Back: Brooks Tingle ’83 and Megan Bird ’99

112

Finis Origine Pendet: Scott Russell Sanders, former George Bennett Fellow —Cover photo by Mary Schwalm

SU M M E R

20 1 8

T H E

E X E T E R

B U L L E T I N • 3

Exeter Summer students and faculty gather on the Academy Lawn to commemorate the program’s 100th summer. —Photograph by Christian Harrison

T H E

V I E W

F RO M

H E R E

A RO U N D

T H E

TA B L E

AROUND THE TABLE

What’s new and notable at the Academy

F

O

C

U

S

Forward Thinking

By Interim Principal Bill Rawson ’71; P’08

T

he legendary Hammy Bissell ’29; P’58 said to

me many years ago, “Exeter isn’t what it used to be, and thank God it never was.” Hammy was quoting an alum who had said the same to him many years before. Apparently, we have been reminding ourselves for quite some time that Exeter’s future does not lie in the past, that Exeter has never stayed strong by staying the same.

Lewis Perry, toward the end of his astonishing 32-year tenure as principal, stated, “There is no fundamental incongruity between tradition and development.”

Principal William Saltonstall ’24; P’55, P’59 used a rowing metaphor to describe Dr. Perry’s administration as a “bright beacon,” a stern by which the school might keep a “steady course” while “we bend our oars toward the future.” In a speech given at Andover, he stated, “Faculty and students at Andover and Exeter must, it seems to me, be constantly re-examining what we are about.”

This effort to re-examine constantly “what we are about” will continue in the coming academic year.

Through the New England Association of Schools and Colleges reaccreditation process and our own strategic planning, we will examine critical issues such as our pursuit of academic excellence; the quality of experiences we provide to students outside the classroom; our financial aid practices and policies; our commitment to building and supporting a diverse, equitable and inclusive community; our progress addressing student wellness and support; and our responsibilities as strong environmental stewards.

These are weighty subjects, and every member of the

6 • T H E

E X E T E R

B U L L E T I N

community has a role to play. The focus will be on the school as a whole and directed always toward the best interests of our students. We will ask hard questions and embrace the challenge inherent in our aspiration to live up to the Deed of Gift. We will value our historic strengths and explore new ideas and new approaches that build on those strengths. In the spirit of a Harkness discussion, we will come to the table keenly interested in hearing what others have to say. Through discussion and collaboration, we will produce collectively the best thinking of our community.

That is where the readers of this column will come in.

As our thinking coalesces around specific proposals that we believe will advance the mission of the school, we will share our thinking with you, and ask for your best thoughts in return. And as the need arises, we will ask for your support.

The Deed of Gift states at the end of the first paragraph, “[T]he time of youth is the important period, on the improvement or neglect of which depend the most weighty consequences, to individuals themselves and the community.” At Exeter, we act on that belief every day.

I would like to conclude by expressing on behalf of my family our deep gratitude for the support we have received from the Exeter community since the death of my beloved wife, Mary Rawson, on June 14, 2018. Mary knew Exeter well and believed in the mission of the school. My family and I have been moved by the notes and letters that have recognized Mary’s remarkable qualities and the role she played in the lives of so many. E

SU M M E R

20 1 8

Bill Rawson ’71 Chosen As Interim Principal

B

ill Rawson ’71; P’08 and a former trustee will serve as the Academy’s interim

principal for a two-year term that began on July 1, 2018. Rawson was chosen by the Trustees after a comprehensive search process that began in January when Principal Lisa MacFarlane ’66 (Hon.); P’09, P’13 announced she would be stepping down.

“When our search for the interim principal began, Bill was immediately identified as someone who would excel at leading Exeter,” says President of the Trustees Tony Downer ’75; P’06, P’06, P’07. “It’s clear that this community believes Bill has the right character, intellect and leadership skills for this job — and that his deep understanding of Exeter will be a tremendous asset.”

Rawson returns to Exeter after a successful law career and a lifetime of volunteerism.

He earned a bachelor’s in American studies from Amherst College before working as an admissions officer at PEA from 1976-78. He lived in Wentworth Hall, advised students and coached lacrosse. He and his late wife, Mary, spent their first six weeks of marriage on the Exeter campus: She taught in the Summer School, and he finished his term in Admissions.

He later earned a law degree from Stanford University and embarked on a law career with an expertise in environmental law and litigation. He is a retired partner at Latham & Watkins in Washington, D.C. Rawson served as a trustee from 2004-16, working on nearly every committee and chairing or co-chairing the Institutional Advancement and Education and Appointments committees and the Institutional Risk Management Task Force. He has been a trustee of the E.L. Haynes Public Charter School since 2012, including chairing the board through a transition from a founding head to an interim head to a successor head. He has been a member of the board of directors for the Environmental Law Institute since 2010, and he was a member of the Stanford Law School Board of Visitors from 2005-11. E

SU M M E R

20 1 8

T H E

E X E T E R

B U L L E T I N • 7

A RO U N D

T H E

TA B L E

Letters to the Editor CENTURY CLUB

I just received the spring Bulletin and noticed that the old photograph on pages 18-19 (“Century Club: Exeter Summer Celebrates Its 100th Year”) is captioned as “a summer class from the 1930s.” I could swear I recognize my grandfather Diego Sada, class of 1922, in the second row, first from the right, in the bow tie. I don’t know if he attended a summer session, but it seems likely that he would have stayed over the summer, given the distance and difficulty of travel in those days between Exeter and Monterrey, Mexico. Or perhaps he arrived in the summer to brush up on his English before starting the regular academic year.

I am attaching the football team photo from his Exeter years, and you can judge for yourself.

Paola Sada ’87

Editor’s note: Mr. Sada, if that’s not your grandfather, it’s his doppelgänger. Thank you for your keen eye and sharp readership. We’ve updated our records with confidence to identify the class shot as “from the 1920s.”

Diego Sada ’22

LEAP YEAR

I have been looking at the winter 2018 Bulletin for several weeks, thinking about the “review” article, which considers the year 1968. It is true that anyone who lived through that period of history will vividly remember the social turmoil and change that was in the air. I believe the article misses a key transition at Exeter, as we changed from an insular, largely white-male student and faculty body to an increasingly aware community grappling with race in America.

The Exeter education of 1968-70 exposed me to my own racial bias and ignorance of poverty in our inner cities. Your article neglects to mention the service of a young temporary faculty member named Earl Belton, who exposed our very small, mixed-race history class to the works of James Baldwin, Marcus Garvey and Frederick Douglass. Earl Belton was a young, Southern black teacher with seemingly very little connection with other faculty. He drew close to his students and shared with us black intellectual thought, including jazz and blues. He seemed to have been recruited to teach us and the institution “Black History,” and it was in that rather intense environment that I discovered the cultural racism of my family and times.

Time passed, we graduated and Earl Belton [moved on,] and race in America continues to be unsettled, at times racked by violence and wrapped

8 • T H E

E X E T E R

B U L L E T I N

SU M M E R

20 1 8

in turmoil. Yet all is not lost and every election presents new possibilities. On cold January days we continue to march in honor of Martin Luther King and hope that the arc of history does indeed bend toward justice.

Harold Thomas ’70

THE ART OF CIVIL DISCOURSE

You have probably heard from many folks by now, but that is not Mamie Eisenhower in your photo on page 28 of the spring Bulletin, it’s Kathy Saltonstall!

Mrs. Saltonstall was a considerable presence at the Academy for many years. She was a delightful person and a formidable tennis player!

Leonard Johnson ’56

Editor’s note: We humbly take the failing grade on the photo caption, which a few readers brought to our attention.

To President Eisenhower’s right is none other than Mrs. Saltonstall, who, in receiving the 1981 Founder’s Day Award, was described thusly: “Mother of five, friend and counselor to the Academy family, wife of a Principal and a lady for all seasons, Katharyn Watson Saltonstall brought humanity, warmth, wisdom and grace to the life of Phillips Exeter and the Town of Exeter.”

THANK YOU, FISHER THEATER

I enjoyed your article about the history of the Fisher Theater in the last Bulletin. It is the sort of PEA history that I love to read in the Bulletin. While Rod Marriott and Don Schultz are both mentioned several times, deservedly so, it is unfortunate that the role played

by Tom Hinkle ’72 (Hon.) was not mentioned. Tom was an English instructor from 1963 to 1972 and was recently inducted into our ’72 class as an “H” [honorary class member]at our last reunion. He was brought to PEA in large part to develop Dramat and was central to the genesis of productions at PEA during that period.

I hope in some way the historical record on this subject in the Bulletin can be revisited to reflect Tom’s role.

Bruce E. Bernstein ’72

SU M M E R

20 1 8

T H E

E X E T E R

B U L L E T I N • 9

A RO U N D

T H E

TA B L E

A Composer Comes Home G R E G O R Y B R O W N ’ 9 3 D E B U T S T W O O R I G I N A L W O R K S AT E X E T E R

By Nicole Pellaton

G

not of joy, not of faith.” The music, instead, expressed “a regory Brown ’93 turns to a visitor after hearing certain anger and confusion.” his vocal piece “Te Deum” rehearsed by The “I hated it. I put it in the drawer,” Brown says of his Skylark Vocal Ensemble on a day in late January. first try. Three years later, he opened the drawer and “You hear that it’s not happy music,” he says. made some major changes: “I removed things. I added Wearing worn blue jeans and a gray sweater, he sits on things. It made more sense.” Still, he wasn’t happy. “The a couch in the Forrestal-Bowld Music Center’s library, a material didn’t support the structure,” Brown now sees. space where his mother, Connie Brown, then the Music “I was trying to build a skyscraper out of mud. I had to go Department secretary, used to work. “A giant tuba sat back and rethink what the shape of the building was.” on that ledge or near here somewhere,” Brown says, Years later, he picked it up again, this time with success. gesturing, as his face displays a mix of joy and incredulity.

“I used to blow it and it made a horrible, huge noise. That was something I was allowed to do when I WHY ARE THE was 3 or 4 years old.”

ANGELS CRYING? As music faculty enter the library “There’s something very visceral, very seeking scores and CDs, each teacher elemental about people coming together to banters with Brown, who is widely sing,” says Brown, who composes instrumenrecognized; he grew up on campus, the tal and vocal music and is interim director of son of revered Exeter Math Instructor choral activities at Amherst College. He sees Richard “Dick” Brown. Between greetpower and value not only in trained choral ings, the composer describes the genesis performances, but also in the combined of “Te Deum” and its companion piece, voices at an English soccer match. (“It’s “Sepulchrum Mutum” (Silent Tomb). rowdy and raucous and it’s 20,000 to 30,000 Both are scheduled to premiere that night people singing.”) in The Bowld, Exeter’s state-of-the-art “What’s great about vocal music is that music performance space, and to be the music and the text can sometimes be performed the following day as a meditaworking together and sometimes working tion in Phillips Church. against each other, and the tensions create The genesis for “Te Deum” reaches something that is new,” Brown says. back to Brown’s childhood — at about the tuba-blasting In “Te Deum,” he builds on some of his childhood age — when he accompanied his family to a christening interpretations of the hymn’s meaning. “The line breaks in Phillips Church. “That is one of my first memories, in the window are unusual because they have to fit into a being there,” says the composer, who remembers lookcircle,” he says, referencing the stained glass design. “‘To | ing up at the colorful stained glass, which incorporates thee all | angels cry,’ for example. As a kid, I misunderstood excerpts from the traditional “Te Deum” hymn of praise, it. Why are the angels crying? Why are they sad? That’s and discovering in the window’s design both power and something that I work to illustrate in this music, something mystery. Several decades later, he found himself looking idiosyncratic not only to me but to this window.” at that stained glass again during the memorial service for “It’s been cathartic,” Brown says of the day’s rehearsal, a close friend, the boy whose christening he had attended which marked the first time he heard “Te Deum” years earlier. performed. “There’s something about creating music over Soon after, searching for a way to respond to this unex- 10 years that only you can hear, and then having it made pected death, Brown attempted a score, using the words real by other people — it’s a great experience. You get to of the “Te Deum” from the Phillips Church window. see what risks worked — you’re always taking risks — and Although the text is typically “a very joyous, reverent actConnect whichwith ones didn’t quite out as planned.”

Exeter atwork www.exeter.edu/exchange. of faith to proclaim,” Brown says, “for me, for a variety And the experience of listening, when you’re no longer of reasons, it was not that. My associations with it were in control of the music, can open the composer’s eyes, ears

“There’s something very visceral, very elemental about people coming together to sing.”

1 0 • T H E

E X E T E R

B U L L E T I N

SU M M E R

20 1 8

DIEGO MELENDEZ

Composer Gregory Brown ‘93

and heart to what he has created, Brown explains. “Very good musicians can show you things about your score that you don’t know are there — that are subconscious, or maybe you forgot why you did them a certain way. It becomes a real moment of sharing, of illumination, as they come to understand what you have done. And in a way you come to understand what you have done.”

MEETING SKYLARK

When Brown first heard The Skylark Vocal Ensemble, a Boston-based a cappella group that performs widely in New England and recently completed a London tour with some of the world’s top choral ensembles, he knew he wanted them to premiere one of his pieces.

Matthew Guard, the director of Skylark, was excited

by Brown’s “Te Deum” but felt it needed a companion piece. “It was too open-ended, too unsettled,” Brown says. “I started looking at texts and found a piece by Catullus. It’s the voice of someone who isn’t quite sure about the afterlife — maybe not believing in it, but believing that comforting his friend is absolutely important.”

Brown completed “Sepulchrum Mutum” in under a week, a far different experience from the decadelong “pulling of teeth” for the “Te Deum.” The new score allowed for a form of resolution, both musical and emotional, for the audience and the composer. “That’s the pairing you have: confusion, anger, discomfort, discord, despite that text of the ‘Te Deum,’ and then

SU M M E R

20 1 8

something that it takes a Watch video of the pieces while to figure out — to performed in Phillips Church at get to that moment of www.exeter.edu/gregorybrown. comfort, of intimacy between people who are struggling to work through something,” the composer says. With its “open, embracing” ending, “Sepulchrum Mutum” seemed “the perfect answer to the first piece.”

HOME TO THE WINDOW

“The emotions are overwhelming,” Brown says, as he considers the next day’s meditation in Phillips Church, the culminating event of his four-day visit. “When I started writing ‘Te Deum,’ I knew that I wanted it performed in Phillips Church. It is music for this space.

Music of this space.”

Emotions flit across his face as Brown remarks that these two pieces are among his most revealing. “I’ve written some very personal piano music, but there’s a level of abstraction when there’s no text — it doesn’t necessarily have to be about anything specific. When you incorporate a text into the composition, there are conversations that you can’t escape having with your audience.”

Flashing a recovering smile, he concludes: “I’m just happy to be here. I consider this home.”

With that, Brown stands up to ready himself for “American Voices,” the evening concert that will bring his two new compositions to the world. E

T H E

E X E T E R

B U L L E T I N • 11

A RO U N D

T H E

TA B L E

CAMPUS LIFE AT A GLANCE

ICE CREAM SOCIAL: Kate Denny ’19 (right) digs into the toppings offered during an ice cream social on the Academy Lawn. The Parent Giving team surprised the students with the sweet treat after a successful giving campaign raised $140,000 in a single day.

SENIOR INDUCTIONS: Seniors Daisy Tichenor and Ruby DiCarlo chat with Paul Zevnik ’68 during the 2018 Alumni Induction Ceremony.

PHOTOS THIS PAGE, CLOCKWISE FROM T O P : P AT R I C K G A R R I T Y, D A N C O U R T E R , CHRISTIAN HARRISON FACING JOANNE JOANNE CHRISTI

1 2 • T H E

E X E T E R

PAGE, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: LEMBO, CHRISTIAN HARRISON, LEMBO, CHRISTIAN HARRISON, AN HARRISON

B U L L E T I N

PROM: Adrian Venzon ’19 and Maria Heeter ’18 pose for photos on the library lawn ahead of prom.

SU M M E R

20 1 8

PUZZLE HUNT: Emma Cohen ’19 and Evan Saltman ’18 compete in the third annual Puzzle Hunt.

PRINCIPAL’S DAY: Thomas Matheos ’20 and Alex Mangiapane ’19 duel in a spirited game of Spikeball.

SPRING MAINSTAGE: Anzi DeBenedetto ’18 performs in Much Ado About Nothing.

SENIOR TIME CAPSULES: Hans Fotta ’18 and Noah Asch ’18 share a laugh looking at mementos from prep year.

SU M M E R

20 1 8

SENIOR NIGHT: Matthew Alburn ’18 and Lucas Schroeder ’18 fight for the prize during Senior Night.

T H E

E X E T E R

B U L L E T I N • 1 3

A RO U N D

T H E

TA B L E

N OVA M A K I N G N O RT H A M E R I CA

“THE NEXT HUNDRED YEARS IS SURELY THE MOST IMPORTANT CENTURY IN ALL OF HUMAN HISTORY. What happens next,

whether its geopolitics or global warming or amazing technological advances — the good, the bad and the ugly — it’s going to be the century for humanity. And I want museums to be a part of that story, to lead that story.”

—Kirk Johnson, director of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

Heard in Assembly Hall S O U N D B I T E S F RO M T H I S S P R I N G’S S P E A K E R S E R I E S “As a black woman in America, I often feel that my very existence is political. If I am to wear my hair a certain way in corporate America, it becomes an issue of office politics. If I speak up and say that my life matters, I am suddenly making a political statement. … For many of us, especially nowadays, if we dare speak out on issues, if we dare speak up for ourselves and against our oppression or our oppressors, somebody will call us a snowflake. …

But here’s what I want to remind you of: An avalanche is essentially caused by a bunch of snowflakes banding together. There’s power in a snowflake.”

—Angie Thomas, author of The Hate U Give

14 • T H E

E X E T E R

B U L L E T I N

“There has been a perversion of our climate reality to manufacture doubt, which is not only ill-founded but intended to confuse and disinform. Is it inevitable that we will have to contend with aggressive, well-resourced attacks on science as a regular mode of operation for corporations that perceive not just an existential threat to their future, but even just a mild deceleration in profits? … My answer is yes.”

—John Fernandez, MIT environmental scientist

SU M M E R

20 1 8

“This could be a civic Sputnik moment, harkening back to the era 60 years ago when the Russian launch of an earth-orbiting satellite was a public wake-up call to strengthen STEM education at all levels throughout the country.

Similarly, the current [political]crisis has the potential to focus our attention on the reality that democracy is not a spectator sport. It requires the thoughtful involvement of its participants. And one critical path to overcoming polarization and fostering a healthy democracy is to do a better job of preparing students at every level to be involved, engaged citizens — guiding them to a productive discourse rather than ugly rancor.”

—Tom Ehrlich ’52, former president of Indiana University and author “My 6-year-old still draws a better stick figure than I do. Art was never something I felt I was good at.

But in college I started a tie-dye business. I made, like, 20,000 tie-dyes over a fouryear period. I got really pretty good at it. The

whole concept of the growth mind-set is that we can continue to learn. A fixed mind-set says, ‘I’m talented and that is why I’m successful.’ The growth mind-set says, ‘I can work hard and that leads to success.’ This idea of continuous improvement is so important in a world where people, frankly, stop evolving.”

—Paddy Spence ’85, CEO of Zevia “Donald Trump views the world from a different lens than traditional diplomacy.

He is our president, but ultimately, the presidency is a transitory position.

The president is only there for four years; diplomacy works over longer cycles. The world is changing and the president of the United States can’t control events. He is responsible for the most powerful country in the world, but our system, Twitter aside, keeps him constrained about what he can actually do. I don’t go to sleep without worrying a little bit at night, but we have a system that works, and has proven for hundreds of years that it works.”

—Craig Stapleton ’63, former ambassador to France and the Czech Republic

To watch videos of these assemblies, go to exeter. edu/exeterlive.

“I THINK ABOUT THE WAYS THE FINGERPRINTS OF THE PAST ARE EVER PRESENT IN OUR CONTEMPORARY AFFAIRS AND CURRENT EVENTS. It’s an important

dynamic to recall that these elements that we think of as interred deeply in the soil of history, things that are in the distant past, are really close to the surface. They are perhaps buried, but in a very shallow grave. And what I mean by that is that segregation exists within one person’s lifespan. … Talking to my white colleagues and mentioning that both of my parents went to segregated schools in the South, even though we were all historians, it was still notable to them.”

—Jelani Cobb, historian, journalist, and staff writer at The New Yorker

SU M M E R

20 1 8

T H E

E X E T E R

B U L L E T I N • 1 5

A RO U N D

T

A

B

T H E

L

E

TA B L E

T

A

L

K

Taking the Guesswork Out of Medicine D AV I D E D D Y ’ 5 9 T U R N E D A M AT H E M AT I C A L E Y E T O H E A LT H C A R E

By Genny Beckman Moriarty

B

y his own admission, David Eddy ’59 — referenced by many as a

1 6 • T H E

E X E T E R

B U L L E T I N

SU M M E R

SARAH JONES

father of evidence-based medicine — was a mediocre student who struggled to scrape by with C’s. Although the diagnosis did not exist back then, Eddy feels certain he had attention deficit disorder.

“My mind could not stay put on anything,” he says. “When the assignment was something like [John Galsworthy’s] The Forsyte Saga, I would start at the top of the first page, but before I could get to the bottom my mind would go out the window. Although my eyes would zigzag down the page, nothing on that page went into my brain. In four years at Exeter I was unable to complete a single reading assignment.”

To survive, Eddy had to develop other skills – primarily critical listening and questioning. By paying close attention to his classmates’ comments and asking questions to stealthily fill in the gaps, he became able to reverse engineer virtually any text. He got so he could do this sufficiently well to join the discussions, write essays, pass tests, and survive the “eyeball-to-eyeball contact” of the Harkness method. These skills, along with a naturally inquisitive and disruptive spirit, would eventually lead Eddy to instigate a seismic shift in how medical decisions are made, and to pioneer the use of mathematical models of diseases and treatments.

After Exeter, Eddy went to Stanford. (“I only got in on the strength of Exeter’s name,” he quips.)

There, the ADD continued to limit his ability to study, which wasn’t helped by his choice of history as a major. Eddy decided on medical school next — for no better reason, he says, than his father, grandfather and great-grandfather were physicians. After a “thoroughly unremarkable” performance at the University of Virginia, Eddy earned his MD. Then, “by some failure in the selection process” he secured a prestigious internship and post-doctoral fellowship in cardiovascular surgery back at Stanford. It was during that period that his passion and talents finally began to take shape.

Ever curious, Eddy began to ask about the evidence that underpinned what he was being taught. He was startled to discover there was little if any good evidence behind many of the tests and treatments that were widely accepted by physicians. Instead, he found oversimplifications, overreliance on anecdotes and a propensity to believe that if something had been done in the past, it should be done in the future.

20 1 8

“It was astounding,” he recalls. “Some of the most time-honored maxims, like ‘Once a C-section, always a C-section,’ had absolutely no research to back them up.”

Eddy bristled at the thought of doing something simply because it was considered “standard and accepted” practice, and he was beginning to realize he had to get out of clinical medicine. Then luck struck.

By a fluke, Eddy walked in on some engineering students who were working out a math problem on a chalkboard. The mathematical symbols excited him, so he purchased Quick Calculus, a self-guided textbook, from the campus bookstore. “With incredible naiveté I thought, ‘That looks interesting. I think I’ll learn some math,’ ” he recalls. The same student who had struggled to get through his books at Exeter devoured the text in two days. From there, he churned through a five-volume set — typically taught over two years — in the span of one month. Eddy believes his hyper-focus and interest in the subject area overrode his other learning disabilities. But he also makes a nod to maturity: “I still had ADD, but by then I had the mental machinery to focus it better.”

Convinced mathematics could help improve health care decision-making (“although I didn’t yet know how”), Eddy dropped out of his fellowship and “begged” his way into Stanford’s engineering graduate school. While working toward his doctorate in a subset of engineering mathematics, Eddy continued to comb through medical journals like an investigative reporter. He wanted to know exactly which procedures had been proved to be effective, under what circumstances, and for whom. He also began to build mathematical models to help answer those questions.

Eddy received his doctorate in 1978. Two years later, his thesis, published in book form as Screening for Cancer: Theory, Analysis and Design, won the Frederick W. Lanchester Prize, the top international honor in the field of operations research. Tenure and a full professorship in engineering at Stanford, with a joint appointment in surgery, promptly followed.

Luck struck again when Eddy’s work on a mathematical theory of screening came to the attention of the American Cancer Society, and they asked him to help write guidelines for cancer screening. Released in 1980, the ACS’s new recommendations were the first guidelines by a major national organization to be rigorously based on evidence and mathematical analysis. They were also quite controversial, because they overturned common beliefs about such things as the ideal frequency for cervical and colon cancer screenings, the best age to begin mammograms, and the effectiveness of chest X-rays in screening for lung cancer.

Not surprisingly, the guidelines angered a lot of radiologists and physicians, who believed that early detection saves lives. “But those concerns were easy to counter

SU M M E R

20 1 8

because of the strong evidentiary basis for the new recommendations,” Eddy says. This wouldn’t be the last time Eddy’s work courted controversy, but he doesn’t see himself as taking sides. As he views it, evidence-based medicine is neutral; it simply lets the evidence determine the policy. “All I was proposing,” he says, “is that we apply to clinical medicine the principles of the scientific method that were introduced back in the 1600s.”

While Eddy was pushing the need for high-quality research to support guidelines, coverage policies and performance measures, he also had to come to grips with the limitations of clinical trials: “They are expensive, can take decades to complete, and the technologies being evaluated can change while the trial is underway. It is not possible to answer all the important questions with clinical trials.”

True to form, Eddy didn’t let those limitations stop him. With the belief that mathematical models could answer questions much more sophisticated than the human mind could broach, in the 1990s he moved beyond disease-specific models. Eddy began to build a large-scale, clinically realistic model that spanned multiple diseases and included pertinent aspects of physiology, populations and health care systems. The work eventually culminated in a groundbreaking model called Archimedes, which he developed in collaboration with particle physicist Leonard Schlesinger and a team of mathematicians and physicists. Archimedes proved capable of simulating long-term clinical trials and performing prospective, blinded predictions of their results with startling accuracy. Supported by Kaiser Permanente, Eddy and Schlesinger founded a health care modeling company to make the model available to clinicians.

It’s been 25 years since Eddy began work on Archimedes and nearly 40 since he first helped write the ACS screening guidelines. Today there are entire departments devoted to evidence-based medicine. And while Eddy believes there is still progress to be made in how it’s practiced, he is gratified to see such a widespread commitment to its principles.

Reflecting on his own contributions to the field, Eddy traces a direct line back to his struggles in Exeter’s classroom — and he offers some advice to parents of children with ADD. “Take heart,” he says. “When you have a learning disability, you have to develop survival skills that go beyond anything that can be taught in a classroom.

You become a listener, a questioner, a scrambler. You take risks. You try things that might not work. Later, when your brain catches up, you are likely to be more creative, more willing to take on disruptive challenges. Think of your child as learning non-traditional skills that will prove invaluable later in life.”

So said the man who helped start a revolution in medical decision-making. E

T H E

E X E T E R

B U L L E T I N • 1 7

A RO U N D

W

H

A

T H E

T

W

TA B L E

E

’

R

E

R

E

A

D

I

N

G

Making Their Marks

S E N I O R B O O K M A R KS O F F E R R E C O M M E N DAT I O N S F O R G O O D R E A D S

O

ne of our favorite end-of-year traditions is the annual advent of Senior Bookmarks at the Class of 1945 Library. Celebrating its 25th year, the program enables interested seniors to contribute a short list of books they’d recommend others to read. Seniors list everything from favorite childhood stories to guilty pleasures, and the assortment is always rich and revealing.

We asked Wendi Yan ’18 to share some thoughts about her list, which includes books she read throughout her four years at PEA: I read Hermann Hesse’s The Glass Bead Game in senior fall. I woke up at 6 a.m. to do the homework due that day, because I wanted to save the nights just for reading this book. The Glass Bead Game dealt with a key question I had been exploring: [How do you] balance the contemplative life and the active life. The main character studied in a setting like PEA and saw the institution’s limits, similar to what we often call the “Exeter bubble.” The book,

1 8 • T H E

E X E T E R

B U L L E T I N

through its own beautiful and philosophical reflections, engaged me in thinking how contemplative or active I wanted my life to be, as well as what I wanted to do with the elite education I’ve been lucky enough to have.

Mitch Albom’s Tuesdays with Morrie, which I read back to back with William Deresiewicz’s Excellent Sheep and Paul Kalanithi’s When Breath Becomes Air, really reminded me of the importance of building genuine, caring connections. It was after reading these books in my prep and lower years that I started to give more and more time to conversing with my peers, faculty or people in the town, whether we had known each other well or not. I’ve gained many deeply inspiring or even healing moments in the last two years or so as a result. I also used my favorite quote from When Breath Becomes Air as my senior page quote: “Human knowledge is never contained in one person. It grows from the relationships we create between each other and the world, and still it is never complete.” E Wendi Yan of Beijing will attend Princeton University in the fall.

SU M M E R

20 1 8

Service with a Smile L I N D A L U C A H O N O R E D W I T H F O U N D E R ’ S D AY A WA R D

By Genny Beckman Moriarty

F

dance program and elevating the arts at Exeter, long-time instructor Linda Luca was awarded the 2018 Founder’s Day Award at a special assembly in May. An Adelphia University graduate and talented dancer who had fallen in love with teaching, Luca was invited in 1972 to work with Exeter’s newly-arrived female students, as a part-time instructor in the Physical Education Department. She leapt at the chance, and for the next 40 years, Luca’s love for the arts and teaching enriched the Academy community.

What began as a couple of classes meant “to give the girls something to do,” now boasts 16 extracurricular dance clubs, an advanced-level dance company and four levels of instruction. Working tirelessly and with good humor for four decades, Luca built the now-thriving program from the ground up — often in makeshift spaces and on a shoestring budget. But whether holding classes in a converted closet or dancing around giant support beams in the basement of the old Thompson Gym, Luca adapted to the challenges with humility, inventiveness, and a sparkling wit. In doing so, she taught generations of young people to appreciate the joy of movement.

Inclusivity was a hallmark of Linda’s program: She wanted everyone who had an interest in dance to be able to participate, so she opened her classes to dancers of all genders, body types and experience levels. Seeking to expand the curriculum beyond the traditional walls of ballet, she brought in guest instructors and choreographers to teach West African, Indian, hip-hop and a variety of other genres. Embracing the egalitarian nature of the Harkness classroom, she stayed open to her dancers’ ideas and interests and allowed them to choreograph their own pieces. In recognition of her exceptional teaching, she was awarded the Rupert Radford ’56 Faculty Fellowship in 2000. Upon her retirement 12 years later, former students wrote to express their gratitude for her unwavering support and for teaching them to be comfortable in their own skin.

“I never heard words of doubt,” one student wrote. “Your studio was a refuge for me,” wrote another.

While retaining her roots in physical education, Luca honed her love for the arts, partnering with members of Exeter’s drama department to stage shows in Fisher Theater. In 2006 she helped establish the Department of Theater and Dance. Longtime friend and colleague Rob Richards, chair of the department, says it was Luca’s

SU M M E R

20 1 8

DAN COURTER

or her extraordinary efforts at expanding the

Linda Luca (left), on stage with Principal Lisa MacFarlane, is recognized for her development of PEA’s dance program.

“inspiration and deep understanding of goodness and collaboration” that helped bring their programs together.

Luca successfully straddled the two departments, and in 2010, as she was nearing the end of her tenure, she and her dancers found a fitting space to call home — the lovingly converted Davis Dance Studio on the second floor of the old Academy Library.

Delivering a citation in Luca’s honor at the Founder’s Day Assembly, Wole C. Coaxum ’88 read: “As we anticipate the opening of the new David E. and Stacey L. Goel Center for Theater and Dance — heralding the next phase of the performing arts at Exeter — we are grateful for the indelible imprint you left on the Academy.”

Coaxum, president of the General Alumni Association and vice president of the Board of Trustees, continued: “Linda, in honor of your joyful heart and innovative spirit, and in commemoration of your efforts to enhance the arts and expand the Exeter experience, it is our great pleasure and privilege to present to you the 2018 Founder’s Day Award.” E

T H E

E X E T E R

B U L L E T I N • 19

A RO U N D

T H E

TA B L E

Excellence Through Inclusion A C O N V E R S AT I O N W I T H S T E P H A N I E B R A M L E T T, D I R E C T O R O F EQUITY AND INCLUSION

By Jennifer Wagner

S

tephanie Bramlett views the world from many perspectives — and often while hanging upside down. The Academy’s first director of equity and inclusion is a master aerialist who performs high-flying tricks on silks, trapeze and lyra hoops. But that’s just what she does for fun.

Her substantial academic CV includes degrees in communications, political science, political philosophy and sociology. She developed a “Vision for Inclusive Excellence” during her tenure at St. Luke’s, an independent school in Connecticut, and worked closely with historically-underrepresented students adjusting to their first year of college at the University of New Hampshire. She joins Exeter this fall to help guide and build the school’s policies and practices of inclusion. We spoke with her about her new role, just as she and her husband — along with their 11-year-old Jack Russell terrier — were preparing to move to campus.

Q: This is a completely new position for PEA — you could almost write your own job description.

Bramlett: Even though this is an inaugural position, this work has been going on at Exeter for decades. Exeter is a place that in every fiber of the institution there has been a commitment to diversity. That is so compelling for me.

Q: You came from a similar job at St. Luke’s. Are these positions common at independent schools?

Bramlett: Back in the early 2000s, there were positions like the director of diversity. Then it shifted to director of multiculturalism. Now we’re seeing the shift from thinking about diversity to thinking about inclusion. And not just thinking about inclusion, but equity. Does every person have what they need in order to be successful on campus? The inclusion and equity conversation actually starts with the individual. It starts with personal reflection and thinking, “What do I contribute?” And then, “Am I making space for others to be able to fully contribute as well?”

20 • T H E

E X E T E R

B U L L E T I N

Q: Just that wording change makes an emotional change.

Bramlett: It does. And there is a tie between inclusivity

and excellence in a very, very specific way. You cannot be an excellent institution unless every single person is able to be their authentic self and is fully able to participate.

Q: How do you ensure that?

Bramlett: I think it’s an institutional question. What are we providing for students so that they can fully participate? Those conversations happen about everything. If the gold standard in a world language department is for students to have a travel-abroad experience, for example, that experience is tied to a $6,000 price tag.

If there’s not financial aid or help for students to go, then that’s an issue of inequity that we need to address.

Q: The question of inequity can be even more elemental, like the ability to afford an ice cream in town with friends.

Bramlett: Yes, and as we, the adults in the community, notice these aspects, we need to say: What do we do with that? Those are the questions that I don’t have answers to right now. But those are the conversations that I look forward to having in the community. Let’s notice those elements of inequity that come up — and they are natural elements of inequity — and let’s think about what we can do to make a more equitable space.

Q: Did you have personal experiences where you felt you did or didn’t belong?

Bramlett: I grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and I went to Cascia Hall. It’s a 6-through-12 independent school. I went to an independent school, but I received full financial aid and did so as well at Merrimack College. I noticed that there were a lot of people who looked like me, who shared my same demographics — same race, same class, family composition — but who didn’t graduate from college.

I started to question that. I really started to wonder why. How did I make it and so many others didn’t? That became a many years’ question that turned into a decade’s question and could be a lifelong point of inquiry for me. E

SU M M E R

20 1 8

S

C

E

N

E

&

H

E

A

R

D

Poetic Promise T H E L A M O N T YO U N G E R P O E T S P R I Z E P R O G R A M E X PA N D S T H E E X E T E R T R A D I T I O N O F E XC E L L E N C E I N W R I T I N G.

T

he poet, seated across from three long-haired girls at a small wooden table, observes that one has paused in her writing. “Don’t stop and think or cross anything out!” the poet says. “Write the same word over and over and over if you get stuck.” The girl who stopped looks at the poet, shrugs with a hesitant smile and picks up her pencil to continue.

On this Wednesday afternoon in early May, these girls have come to the Elting Room to learn from Jill McDonough, visiting Lamont Poet and author of many books, including Habeas Corpus and Reaper. McDonough asks the girls if they know how to write in iambic pentameter. “No,” they say dubiously. You will be surprised, McDonough explains, you already speak it; you will see.

She instructs them to write about their surroundings for five minutes without stopping. When the girls read their work out loud, it is, in fact, largely in iambic pentameter.

They lean in to learn more from the poet.

EVENING READING

Later that same day, out of earshot, we watch as the four students who have received the Lamont Younger Poets Prize talk to McDonough in the Academy Library.

Postures say it all. She is giving them support: You will be great! Loose limbs give way to intensity and poise.

Anne Brandes ’21 strides to the podium in a gray dress.

Tall and straight, hair in a ponytail, she is framed by the massive wooden card catalog behind her and, at her sides, two glass cases that each hold a three-masted ship model. The early-evening light in Rockefeller Hall gives everything a honeyed glow. “Mother Nature” is dedicated to her mom, Brandes explains as she begins to read, eyes reaching out every few lines to the audience of friends and curious strangers.

Mai Hoang ’20, clad in a green blouse and a voluminous scarf, embraces us with smiles as she reads “Ghazal: A Confession.” Humor flows with each end-of-couplet repetition of the word “drama” — Don’t overdramatize | psychoanalyze.” — until the last stanza. when she turns it on its head: Declaring everlasting love.

O my! Trauma drama drum-a drum-a drum-a.

Ginny Little ’20, quietly composed in bright coral red, explains that her villanelle, “Body Language,” was inspired by this year’s MLK Day:

SU M M E R

20 1 8

NICOLE PELLATON

By Nicole Pellaton

Lamont Poet Jill McDonough (center) with Lamont Younger Poets Blane Zhu ’20, Anne Brandes ’21, Ginny Little ’20 and Mai Hoang ’20.

A kindly word just can’t get through; Entrenched opinions form a wall.

And still, I struggle to reach you.

And Blane Zhu ’20, rounding out the alphabet in glasses and shorts, explains matter-of-factly that this is the first poem he has ever written. We shift in our seats, surprised.

His English teacher challenged him to write in the style of Gregory Pardlo, the Lamont Poet who visited campus a few months earlier, this new poet explains. The resulting “Man, Foreign,” a 12-stanza poem, ends forcefully: City Boi, I can tell ya apart at first glance.

Next, McDonough steps to the podium and commends the students on their craft. “You’re way ahead of me,” she says to the four. She is tall, a strong presence, oval face regarding us. As she reads, her eyes seek connection with us frequently, but her hands, arms, legs remain calm.

Between poems, when she tells us stories about teaching prisoners, writing about military technology, it is the opposite: arms akimbo, hands gesturing, vocabulary colorful.

Reading finished, we applaud, and stand as the four young award winners glide magnetlike back to McDonough. They bask in her praise, once again out of earshot: You did good work; you gave brave readings!

Their bodies transform from self-consciousness to the natural springiness of teenagers. They are ready for the desserts awaiting them at a side table. E

T H E

E X E T E R

B U L L E T I N • 21

EXETER DECONSTRUCTED T H E S C H O O L W E L O V E I N D E TA I L

By Patrick Garrity

THE LONG-LOST AMERICAN ELM More than a thousand trees line the quads, paths and streets of campus under the care of Facilities Management.

Two require particular TLC. They are Ulmus americana, American elms, and they are among the last of their kind.

American elms were ubiquitous in towns across the eastern half of the United States at the turn of the 20th century. They grew relatively quickly and, when planted in rows, their vase shape created a continuous canopy. Towering elms were common in Exeter, and a leafy tunnel shaded the section of Front Street that bisects campus (below right).

But that popularity helped speed their demise. In 1928, a stowaway insect was discovered in a shipment of logs from The Netherlands destined for an Ohio furniture maker. The stowaway, the elm bark beetle, was known to be the main purveyor of a fungus that was devastating elms in Europe.

Held in check for a decade by strict quarantine measures, the beetle and the deadly fungus proliferated in the 1940s as war demands loosened restrictions. Dutch elm disease, as it came to be known, devoured millions of trees over the next three decades.

The infestation reached Exeter in the 1950s. A 1956 headline in The Exonian declared “Dutch Elm Disease on Rampage, as 30 Exeter Trees Fall Before Killer.” Dozens of trees were lost annually. New varieties of elms were introduced, but they, too, succumbed to the disease.

“Elms were considered the perfect street tree and they were overplanted, creating a monoculture,” says Ron Johnson, Exeter’s senior manager for grounds and athletics. “So, when DED was introduced, it quickly spread.”

Today, American elms are as rare as phone booths. Only two century-old giants remain in Johnson’s care, one on the library lawn (above right) and another on lower Main Street in front of Yocum House. They are closely monitored for signs of the fungus.

2 2 • T H E

E X E T E R

B U L L E T I N

SU M M E R

20 1 8

I N S I D E

T H E

W R I T I N G

L I F E

Pursuing Publication T WO ’90S ALUMNI DISCUSS THEIR RECENT B OOKS

By Katherine Reynolds Lewis ’90 and Joe Reid ’91

I

f you’ve ever thought

about writing a book — and surveys suggest upward of 80 percent of the public has — but didn’t know exactly where to start, how to finish or what would happen next if you did, you are certainly not alone. Katherine “Kakki” Reynolds Lewis ’90 and Joseph Reid ’91 have stared down such questions, and both had books published this year.

Lewis is an award-winning independent journalist, author, and speaker based in the Washington, D.C., area, where she and her husband, Brian, have three children. Her book, The Good News about Bad Behavior: Why Kids Are Less Disciplined than Ever — and What to Do about It, explains why children today are often so undisciplined and tells the stories of innovators who are working to change that. It was published by PublicAffairs in April.

Reid is a partner at the international law firm Perkins Coie, where he practices intellectual property law. Based in San Diego, he’s married with two children, and his debut novel, a thriller titled Takeoff, was published by Thomas & Mercer in July.

In the following conversation, they discuss how they each approached this new frontier, and what they found when they got there.

Reid: How did you get started? Did you always want to be a writer?

Lewis: I think Exeter shaped me as a writer in a lot of ways. Not only did I fall in love with books and literature through the classes and teachers, I also

SU M M E R

20 1 8

wrote so regularly that I couldn’t help but get good at it. I actually majored in physics at Harvard, but when I graduated, I drifted back to writing via business journalism, covering Wall Street for the Bond Buyer and then moving to Washington, D.C., to write about financial and media policy for Bloomberg News.

Those in-class blue book essays really prepared me for a career in daily journalism and the hustle of freelance writing.

Reid: I totally agree with you about Exeter’s influence: I just taught a writing seminar to young attorneys a few weeks ago, and I mentioned the kind of daily writing exercises we had to do at the Academy, and how that really pushed us to understand how to formulate an argument.

Lewis: That’s persuasive writing. Did you always secretly want to be a novelist?

Reid: I guess I did subconsciously. I took the Academy’s creative writing class and really enjoyed it. But I never really pursued it past that until recently. And even then, it seemed like an incredibly tumultuous time to dive into publishing. Given the waves of changes that have rolled through journalism since you started, what’s been your experience at ground zero?

Lewis: Well, I thought I had the perfect career trajectory when I landed my dream job as a national correspondent writing about money, work and family for the Newhouse News Service. That only lasted a few years until the company closed the D.C. bureau in 2008. Then I took the leap and became an independent journalist. I figured it was more stable getting paid by multiple journalism organizations than just a single one.

T H E

E X E T E R

B U L L E T I N • 2 3

I N S I D E

T H E

W R I T I N G

L I F E

Reid: That sounds a lot like my experience in

science.

Lewis: That’s right, you were a science major, too.

How did you go from biology to writing?

Reid: After starting my Ph.D., I realized the dearth of jobs in marine biology, so I ended up becoming a lawyer. But then two things happened. First, one of my classmates mentioned that another one had written a novel — a torrid romance. For some reason, that really struck me. And then when my wife and I were on a trip just before my first child was born, I had the idea for my first novel.

Lewis: Is that the one that’s being published?

Reid: Absolutely not! They say everyone has at least 100,000 words of bad fiction in them, and it’s totally true, so that book may never see the light of day. I just wasn’t ready. So, I came up with another, simpler idea, and I wrote that one for “practice.” Then I wrote the international book. And then most recently I wrote a third novel — it’s that third one that’s getting published.

Lewis: Is this one also a thriller?

Reid: Yes. I aim to keep the pages turning. Takeoff opens with a young pop star getting attacked in a huge firefight at the Los Angeles airport. The hero, an air marshal who’s been assigned to protect her, then has to take her on the run, trying to keep her safe while attempting to determine who’s trying to kill her.

Lewis: Where do you get your ideas?

Reid: My books typically include a mix of technology and travel, both of which I’m exposed to extensively in my day job. So, it’s really a process of creative extrapolation — I read an article or see something weird and then start asking what if that thing happened to a particular character. Have you ever wanted to write fiction?

Lewis: When I was at Exeter, I thought I would love being a fiction writer. It was my favorite genre to

24 • T H E

E X E T E R

B U L L E T I N

read. But I find that I prefer telling true stories, to try to make sense of the world and explain it to readers.

Reid: That’s so interesting to me. While I purposely try to make the details in my books as true to life as possible, I do find the creative license liberating — especially compared to my day job, where everything has to be 100 percent correct. How much research goes into one of your articles?

Lewis: A quick feature story might take just a day or two. But a longer-form, narrative piece could require hundreds of hours of reporting and writing.

Reid: And your book started as an article, right? Isn’t it the mostread article ever published by Mother Jones magazine?

Lewis: That’s right. I wrote about the pioneering work of Ross Greene, a Maine psychologist whose collaborative model of disciplining children cut juvenile justice recidivism in half, eliminated the need for restraints in youth psychiatric wards and reduced school discipline issues by 80 percent or more. The article clearly struck a chord, given the millions of times it was read and shared on social media. I started reporting further and discovered that out-of-control, dysregulated children weren’t just an anomaly: 1 in 2 kids will have a mood or behavioral disorder or a substance addiction by age 18, according to the National Institute of Mental Health.

Reid: How do you manage to juggle the time commitments of being a mom with your business?

Lewis: I’m rigorous about planning and tracking my time and I hold myself accountable to my goals.

I couldn’t do it without the support of my husband and my parents, who live with us and handle a lot of the driving and child care. How do you balance writing with your full-time job as a lawyer?

Reid: Something else the Academy taught us — I just don’t sleep all that much. I wake up around 4 every morning and then do my fiction writing until the kids have to get ready for school.

Lewis: Is your book self-published?

Reid: No, pursuing traditional publication

SU M M E R

20 1 8

I N S I DEEX T OH N EI AWN RS I TI N I N RGE L V II FE EW

seemed like something I needed to see all the way through. So, I kept banging on the door until eventually I managed to get an agent in New York and a deal with Thomas & Mercer. How did you find securing an agent?

I know the considerations are a lot different on the nonfiction side — you have to demonstrate an existing platform, for example.

Lewis: Well, once my Mother Jones story went viral, every agent I approached was willing to meet with me.

I feel very fortunate to have been able to sit with so many smart publishing industry experts and talk through my book ideas with them.

I relied on advice and help from Exeter classmates as well!

Reid: Where does this all take you from here?

Lewis: It will depend on what the reception to the book is like. I hope to have a “long tail” where I get to share the compelling research and personal stories I uncovered with many people for many years, to help them raise and educate children who will thrive. What’s next on your end?

Reid: I have a two-book deal, so I’m already hard at work on the next entry in my Seth Walker series.

Hopefully, people will love the first one and then be on the lookout for the sequel. E Katherine Reynolds Lewis and Joseph Reid can be found on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and at their websites, http://www.katherinerlewis. com and http://josephreidbooks.com.

SU M M E R

20 1 8

Alumni are encouraged to advise the Bulletin editor (bulletin@exeter.edu) of their own publications, recordings, films, etc., in any field, and those of classmates, for inclusion in future Exonians in Review columns. Please send a review copy of your published work to the editor to be considered for an extended profile or review in future issues. Works can be sent to: Bulletin Editor, Phillips Exeter Academy, 20 Main Street, Exeter, NH 03833-2460.

ALUMNI 1948—Jefferson F. Vander Wolk. The Workplace Where Everyone Wins. (Christian Faith Publishing, 2018)

1962—Dean Clark, with Enders A. Robinson. Basic Geophysics. (Society of Exploration Geophysicists, 2017) 1995—Sarah Pruitt Maldonado. Breaking History: Vanished! America’s Most Mysterious Kidnappings, Castaways, and the Forever Lost. (Lyons Press, 2017)

1952—Karl Ludvigsen. Reid Railton: Man of Speed. (Evro Publishing Limited, 2018)

1962—Ben Emory. Sailor for the Wild: On Maine, Conservation and Boats.

(Seapoint Books, 2018) 1971—Bradley H. Bagshaw.

Georges Bank. (Clyde Hill Publishing, 2018) 1975—Melanie DuPuis [editor, with Matt Garcia]. Food Across Borders. (Rutgers University Press, 2017)

1952—David W. Beer. A Grand Affair: An Architect’s Lifelong Passion for Hotels, Simple and Splendid.

(Lexington Avenue Books, 2017) 1956—Edwin Locke. The Illusion of Determinism: Why Free Will is Real and Causal. (Self-published, 2018)

1976—Frank Daykin. What Cannot Be Erased (New Poems: 2016/2017). (Selfpublished, 2018) 1986—Steve Yi. A Chromatic Odyssey: A Tale of Colors. (Self-published, 2017) 1991—Joseph Reid. Takeoff.

(Thomas and Mercer, 2018)

1959—Donald W. Burnes.

Ending Homelessness: Why We Haven’t, How We Can. (Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2016)

T H E

1998—Nancy Ross [editor, Sara K.S. Hanks].

Where We Must Stand: Ten Years of Feminist Mormon Housewives. (Selfpublished, 2018) 2013—Hannah E. Dineen [with L. Sandy Maisel].

Trumping Ethical Norms: Teachers, Preachers, Pollsters, and the Media Respond to Donald Trump.

(Routledge, 2018) FAC U LT Y Erica Plouffe Lazure. “How I Learned to Sew” [flash fiction]. IN K’IN, https:// kinliteraryjournal.com/newpage-5. (May 2018) Matt W. Miller.

The Wounded for the Water.

(Salmon Press, 2018) Sue Repko.

“Standoff” [essay]. IN Aquifer, The Florida Review Online, https://floridareview.cah. ucf.edu/article/standoff/. (vol. 41 no. 2, spring 2018)

E X E T E R

B U L L E T I N • 2 5

COMMENCEMENT2018

CHERYL SENTER

Three hundred sixteen

students formally joined the ranks of Exeter alumni in early June, celebrating commencement as the Academy’s 237th graduating class on a sun-splashed Sunday morning. In her welcome to the thousands gathered on the Academy lawn, Athena Stenor ’18 hailed her classmates’ role as “changemakers” and praised her new alma mater as “one that embraces tradition but is not bound to it. Ours is a community that seeks progress.” Stenor closed her remarks by declaring, “As I look ahead to my own future, I know that the school will always be a past that I’m glad to call my own.” Principal Lisa MacFarlane ’66 (Hon.); P’09, P’13, presiding over her final commencement ceremony, predicted that the class of 2018 “will come to be seen as a headwater for Exeter’s next great ‘Yes,’ the next step in the school’s journey.” MacFarlane bid the graduates farewell with a parting wish: “When you return, you will find that the seeds you planted, from your best selves, have grown to shape this place.”

26 • T H E

E X E T E R

B U L L E T I N

SU M M E R

20 1 8

PATRICK GARRIT Y MARY SCHWALM MARY SCHWALM

“I AM GRATEFUL TO BE PART OF A COMMUNITY LIKE OURS: ONE THAT EMBRACES TRADITION BUT IS NOT BOUND TO IT. OURS IS A COMMUNITY THAT SEEKS PROGRESS.” —ATHENA STENOR

CHERYL SENTER

MARY SCHWALM

Facing page: Athena Stenor delivers her remarks. This page, clockwise from top left: Marie Leighton McCall’s classmates cheer her on as she recieves the Perry Cup; Cedric Blaise waves hello; Sam Stone gets a warm greeting from a friend; Wyatt Foster strides triumphantly off-stage; and Lara Galligani, Harry Fitzgerald and Jacqui Byrne check out the annual commencement issue of The Exonian.

SU M M E R

20 1 8

T H E

E X E T E R

B U L L E T I N • 27

CHERYL SENTER (4)

“EXETER IS A LITTLE BRAVER, A LITTLE MORE RUGGED, A LITTLE MORE CREATIVE, A LITTLE MORE OPEN TO THE WORLD NOW THAN IT WAS, BECAUSE OF YOU.” —PRINCIPAL LISA MACFARLANE

28 • T H E

E X E T E R

B U L L E T I N

SU M M E R

20 1 8

PATRICK GARRIT Y

CHERYL SENTER

SU M M E R

20 1 8

T H E

Clockwise from top left: Eleanor Mallett savors the moment; new graduate Winslow MacDonald receives a heartelt hug; Michael Bamah gathers with his family after the ceremony; Kalel Lopez and his happy parents smile for the camera; a beaming Kaleigh Conte makes her family proud; and Josh Velazquez celebrates his accomplishments surrounded by loved ones.

E X E T E R

B U L L E T I N • 2 9

JOANNE LEMBO

“AT THE END OF THE DAY … WHAT MATTERS IS THAT YOU WILL HAVE HAD LOVING RELATIONSHIPS; THAT YOU WILL HAVE DONE WORK IN THE WORLD THAT IS MEANINGFUL; AND THAT YOU ARE THE PERSON YOUR COMMUNITY TURNS TO BECAUSE YOU ARE WISE AND KIND.” —PRINCIPAL LISA MACFARLANE

MARY SCHWALM CHERYL SENTER

Clockwise from top: The look on Cody Nunn’s face says it all; Billy O’Handley gets some love from his cheering section; Olivia Petersen and Chase Ryan-Embry share a moment; Clara Lee and friends wait for the ceremony to begin; Williams Cup recipient Lucas Schroeder; Abigail Clyde with diploma in hand; and classical scholar Alice Little accepts her diploma.

30 • T H E

E X E T E R

B U L L E T I N

SU M M E R

20 1 8

CHERYL SENTER (4)

GRADUATION PRIZES The Yale Cup, awarded each year by the Aurelian Honor Society of Yale University to the member of the senior class who best combines the highest standards of character and leadership with excellence in his studies and athletics: Adedolapo Adedokun, East Brunswick, New Jersey The Ruth and Paul Sadler ’23 Cup, awarded each year to that member of the senior class who best combines the highest standards of character and leadership with excellence in her studies and athletics: Lauren Arkell, Brentwood, New Hampshire The Perry Cup, established by the class of 1945 in honor of Dr. Lewis Perry, eighth principal of the Academy, and given annually to a senior who has shown outstanding qualities of leadership and school spirit: Chidiebele Ikpeazu, Parkland, Florida, and Marie Leighton McCall, Wake Forest, North Carolina The Williams Cup, established in memory of George Lynde Richardson Jr. ’37, and given annually to a student who, having been in the Academy four years, has, by personal qualities, brought distinction to Phillips Exeter: Lucas Schroeder, Durham, New Hampshire The Eskie Clark Award, given annually to that scholarship student in the graduating class who, through hard work and perseverance, has excelled in both athletics and scholarship in a manner exemplified by Eskie Clark of the class of 1919: Robert T. Murray, Yarmouth, Maine The Thomas H. Cornell Award, based on a vote by the senior class, is awarded annually at graduation to that member of the graduating class who best exemplifies the Exeter spirit: Anna C. Clark, Herndon, Virginia The Cox Medals, given by Oscar S. Cox Esq., in memory of his father, Jacob Cox, are awarded each year to the five members of the graduating class who, having been two or more years in the Academy, have attained the highest scholastic rank: Ian Johnson, Austin, Texas Maria Lee, Irvine, California George Bourkoff Matheos, Hingham, Massachusetts Athena Stenor, Brooklyn, New York Vinjai Vale, Exeter, New Hampshire The Faculty Prize for Academic Excellence, given to that member of the graduating class who, having been two or more years in the Academy, is recognized on the basis of scholarship as holding the first rank: Vinjai Vale, Exeter, New Hampshire

SU M M E R

20 1 8

T H E

E X E T E R

B U L L E T I N • 31

MARY SCHWALM

CHERYL SENTER CHERYL SENTER

3 2 • T H E

E X E T E R

B U L L E T I N

CHERYL SENTER

“THE CLASS OF 2018 IS A COLLECTION OF CHANGEMAKERS, PEOPLE WHO HAVE ALREADY STARTED MOLDING THE FUTURE. THAT IS WHO WE ARE, AND THAT IS WHO WE WILL BECOME.” —ATHENA STENOR

SU M M E R

20 1 8

CHERYL SENTER (2)

SU M M E R

20 1 8

T H E

Clockwise from top left: Vinjai Vale, winner of a Cox Medal and The Faculty Prize for Academic Excellence; Principal Lisa MacFarlane before her farewell address; Religion Instructor Russell Weatherspoon congratulates Cameron Najafi; an inside view from the Academy Building; Elly Lee appears carefree and confident; and Class Marshall Charlotte Polk in a congratulatory hug.

E X E T E R

B U L L E T I N • 33

CHRISTIAN HARRISON

The Seeds She Planted H OW P R I N C I PA L

L I SA M AC FA R L A N E HAS SHAPED EXETER

By Karen Ingraham

I

t was an overcast Sunday morning when students

rolled out of their beds, shuffled from their dorms, and headed for d-hall. Some, thumbing through their feeds, may have seen the school’s Instagram post before stumbling upon its inspiration. Overnight, 80 red Adirondack chairs had been placed in small clusters around campus. Bright beacons of repose during the final sprint of a busy spring term.

Principal Lisa MacFarlane ’66 (Hon.); P’09, P’13 chose the chairs to herald her first Principal’s Day — a tradition of canceling a day of classes begun by Principal William G. Saltonstall ’24. MacFarlane’s surprise day off fell on that Monday, May 16, 2016, providing students and faculty with a welcome reprieve from a weekend with Saturday classes.

In an interview with The Exonian student newspaper, MacFarlane likened the chairs to functional outdoor art installations, describing them as “big, bright, changing patterns of color scattered across the green lawns.” More critically, she believes they are opportunities to foster community and create a sense of warmth and belonging, “a great outdoor living room.”

The chairs in many ways symbolize MacFarlane’s vision for Exeter: a diverse, inclusive school, where Harkness is lived and learned. Where we honor our foundation as we innovate upon it — encouraging the community to ask, “What if?”

MacFarlane departs Exeter having posed that question in myriad ways during her tenure, as she sought to sow new ground for the school while honoring its roots and accounting for some of its history.

34 • T H E

E X E T E R

B U L L E T I N

UNFORESEEN CHALLENGES

Before her first Principal’s Day and five months into her new role, MacFarlane and then President of the Trustees Eunice “Nicie” Panetta ’84 sent a letter on March 30 to the Exeter community, confirming two cases of sexual misconduct by former faculty member Rick Schubart that had occurred in the 1970s and 1980s. In the ensuing months, allegations surfaced against other faculty members, compelling PEA to reckon with its past; review current student support structures; begin its atonement with survivors; and determine how to move forward.

Ron Kim P’18, P’20, then assistant principal, describes MacFarlane as being unafraid to tackle the issues head on.

“She believed that she could be a fresh voice and make some difficult decisions,” he says. “At no point did I get a sense from her that she was going to minimize or deflect where this might go. I think she felt that she had the responsibility and opportunity to not perpetuate whatever had happened in the past. … She led with a conviction that we had to do the right thing.”

That critical work is ongoing, but MacFarlane believes Exeter “has turned a corner” — emerging from a place of deficit in its abilities to adequately address issues regarding sexual misconduct to a position of leadership among its peers when it comes to the resources in place to support students and survivors.

“We are the first among our peer schools to establish a director of student well-being, a position held by Christina Palmer,” MacFarlane noted in a letter to the community announcing her decision to leave Exeter.

SU M M E R

20 1 8

“Our work with Prevention Innovations Research Center is a model for other institutions. … [And] we continue to refine our practices: I am proud that we now have a residential student body living a more inclusive dormitory life. In this swiftly changing landscape, we gain new insight every day in how to support our students, fairly and fully.”

On Sept. 19, 2017, PEA and the Exeter Police Department signed an enhanced Memorandum of Understanding, in collaboration with the County Attorney and the New Hampshire Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence. The memorandum outlines explicit reporting protocols for adults; annual training for employees; and an agreement with HAVEN, a regional crisis center, to provide counseling and support services to survivors.

In the coalition’s statement regarding the MOU, Director of Public Affairs Amanda Grady Sexton said, “PEA has left no stone unturned in their effort to keep their students safe and has deferred to the appropriate experts to ensure students and faculty have every resource at their disposal. The emphasis placed on evidence-based prevention programming and clearly outlined standards for reporting to DCYF [Division of Children, Youth and Families] and law enforcement is consistent with national best practices.”

MacFarlane, Assistant Principal Karen Lassey P’14, P’16 and Director of Student Well-Being Christina Palmer P’21 have also have also been working directly with some survivors. In May, they released a joint letter with members of PATH (Phillips Exeter Alumni for Truth and Healing) outlining “three agreed upon areas of concern: meaningful repairs, the ongoing investigations, and the importance of accountability.

“It is a collaborative effort,” the letter reads, “that rests on taking risks in a spirit of mutual trust.” The full letter, and details of the Academy’s well-being initiatives during MacFarlane’s tenure, can be found at www.exeter. edu/wellbeing. The restorative work is ongoing, as is the vigilance necessary to ensure the mechanisms to protect Exeter students remain relevant and effective.

AN INNOVATIVE SPIRIT

Last October, a group of four students in a pilot course entitled the Green Umbrella Learning Lab, or GULL, stood at the front of the Elting Room in Phillips Hall. Together, they pitched their sustainability-driven project to a small audience of faculty and staff sitting in the wooden chairs before them. MacFarlane was in the audience, a notepad on her lap, listening intently as they announced their goal: to establish cardboard break-down stations in the Academy mailroom. The students hoped to help mailroom staff with recycling efforts and demonstrate the environmental impact of online shopping.

SU M M E R

20 1 8

The students were participating in a class structured on design-thinking principles co-taught by English Instructor Jason BreMiller and Jill Robinson, the Academy’s senior manager of sustainability and natural resources. The two conceived of the course after the school announced a new “experimental space” for curriculum development. Informally dubbed “the sandbox,” Exeter Innovations launched, with MacFarlane’s advocacy, in late 2016. The aim: encourage more cross-disciplinary collaboration among faculty members and enable greater nimbleness in experimenting with the curriculum — through transdisciplinary courses; service and experiential learning opportunities; and project-based models that incorporate technology in new and exciting ways.

That spirit of innovation has been evident since the very beginning of MacFarlane’s tenure as principal. Not long after she arrived on campus in the fall of 2015, she sent an email to Liz Reyes, director of service learning.

Would Reyes know of any students who might be interested in competing in the University of New Hampshire’s Social Venture Innovation Challenge (SVIC)? Three teams of eager students quickly formed — their proposals designed to address urgent social and environmental challenges. Competing against adults in the track for New Hampshire citizens, rather than the college track, Exeter’s Team RAD (Rural Area Diagnostics) Health earned an impressive fourth-place finish.

MacFarlane’s seed had taken root. The PEA teams’ participation prompted UNH to pilot a high school track the following year. It also prompted Exeter to formalize a course dedicated to social innovation and taught by Reyes.

Her first class of students during the fall of 2016 competed in the SVIC’s new high school track, against teams from two other schools. A group of four PEA seniors took first place for “The Lucky Stop,” a nonprofit food truck that would serve almost-expired or “ugly” food and use its profits to provide free meals to homeless people.

In describing MacFarlane’s vision for the school, Ron Kim says she had a clear sense of how social innovation and other initiatives would benefit students. “She could see beyond our immediate experience,” he adds, “but remain rooted in who we are fundamentally. … She had ideas that fit really well with modernizing goodness and knowledge — [initiatives] that applied learning with having an impact. She knew what that looked like in higher education.”

A VISION FOR THE ARTS

On a warm evening this spring, several members of the senior acting ensemble were spotted moving benches, costumes and other theater props into the Thompson Field House. Their class’s alumni induction ceremony was later that evening in Love Gym, but they had a show to put on first.

T H E

E X E T E R

B U L L E T I N • 3 5

CHERYL SENTER

collaboration. More broadly, what does it mean for Harkness to be a field of play or a stage — not only a stable space to promote thoughtful discussion, but also a dynamic platform from which to launch an idea?

“The performing arts challenge individual artists to become companies, casts, and orchestras; to communicate through sound and movement; to rehearse and perform stories that both provoke and soothe,” MacFarlane continues. “A center for theater and dance welcomes performers and audiences to enter ‘imaginary gardens with real toads in them.’ … And the spaces in between — the fields, pathways, lawns, places to relax and to welcome visitors — knit together both physically and symbolically the many ways Exonians celebrate their collaborations and their aspirations through their actions, not just their words.”

MacFarlane’s desire to synthesize “head, heart and hand,” stems from her Their mainstage production of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About “SHE LED WITH origins as an educator, which Ream cites a driving influence in her own creation Nothing, would open the following A CONVICTION as of a new course last year, Theater for Social week in Fisher Theater, but the senior THAT WE HAD Justice. Described in the course catalog as actors — with the help of their director a unifier of “citizen artists exploring one or Sarah Ream ’75; P’09, P’11 — wanted TO DO THE social issues,” the class aims to spark to deliver a special performance at a RIGHT THING.” more student interest in both drama and social Trustees dinner honoring MacFarlane. justice through the development and pro“Everybody was incredibly excited to duction of an original work of theater. do it for her, as a way of saying, ‘Thank you,’” Ream says. “[Lisa] really took the initiative when we were talking “Principal MacFarlane is a great advocate for the arts. We about curriculum,” Ream says. “She first asked where always felt that, and she manifested it in lots of different my interests were, and I told her that I wanted to find ways. When she would speak with alumni, her focus on an intersection with the social justice energy on campus the arts was an integral part of the vision. What she was and theater,” Ream says. “There is a kind of relevance presenting was the idea of an Exonian who is well-versed to theater that I wanted people to understand. She really in the arts and could be conversant about it — whether encouraged the class. … I probably would not have done it they wanted to do it professionally or as an avocation. [It without her support.” was] an important part of an Exeter education.”

As MacFarlane departs Exeter, construction crews on the South Campus finish their work on the new David E. LIVING HARKNESS and Stacey L. Goel Center for Theater and Dance, which In her 2016 Opening of School address, MacFarlane asked: sits near the new Thompson Field House and across How do we understand, bridge, celebrate [our] from Love Gymnasium. “If the Academic Quad engages differences, that bringing together of ‘youth from Exeter’s head,” MacFarlane has said, “the South Campus every quarter’? Exeter has since its founding reached engages its hands and heart.” With the construction of for a more perfect union. How to place in a creative, the theater and dance center in such close proximity to dynamic, and productive tension, the rights of the athletic buildings, she saw the potential for the area to individuals and the needs of communities; the free become a more formal hub for students to learn through pursuit of individual happiness with that which is alternate modes of engagement and expression. best for the polity; the pursuit of reason held in check Rob Shapiro ’68 once asked MacFarlane, “What if by respect and compassion.

Harkness were a door, not a table?” For her, “That simple question is quintessentially Harkness in its understated She posed those questions during an increasingly intelligence, its opening of possibility, and its invitation to tumultuous time in our country, and in our community.

36 • T H E

E X E T E R

B U L L E T I N

SU M M E R

20 1 8

The school was grappling with issues of sexual misconduct, alongside several other independent schools. Mass shootings, ongoing racial tensions and a growing political divisiveness were headline mainstays. MacFarlane stressed that Exeter is not a “bubble,” not immune from the national dialogue; rather, it is a microcosm of those very issues and debates. There is an opportunity, she said, for Exeter “to react and adapt to outside forces, while also preserving its highest aspirations and the best of who it has been.”

In her speech, MacFarlane outlined how critical the rules, regulations and policies are that “ostensibly structure human relationships.” For Exeter “to come to life,” she added, “we need the values of the heart as well as the regulation of the mind. … How do we do that, in an age which is divided, hurt, filled with anguish and anger and distrust?”

Her answer: “the spirit of Harkness, lived not just in the classroom, but as a practice in every aspect of our daily lives.”

The practice of Harkness has, of course, extended beyond the classroom in many ways since its inception during the 1930s, through athletics, student clubs and other extracurricular activities. Alumni often cite how they have applied the skills learned from Harkness in the boardroom, in the operating room, or even during social gatherings. But MacFarlane’s vision for Harkness creates greater intentionality and purpose in how we incorporate it into everyday life on campus — how students learn to become empathic citizens within our democracy, and within the world. In defining how she views Harkness, MacFarlane says, “It constitutes a set of principles for community life, for how we treat one another, how we listen, reach for empathy and understanding, bring those who are quiet or who draw less attention to themselves into community.” She calls Harkness “an epistemology of humility,” where knowledge is formed only through engagement with others — when ideas are tested, challenged, abandoned or reshaped into something entirely new. And MacFarlane calls it a “pedagogy of liberation … an ability to know our own minds and find our own voices.” Harkness, she continues, “sits at precisely the pivot between … individual insight and respect for community values. This way of thinking … is at the center of the Deed, and it is crucial to democracy.”

This vision became a touchstone for Exeter’s strategic thinking about the student experience, a process that MacFarlane launched a month after arriving at the Academy. Reigniting a process that had begun under Principal Tom Hassan ’56, ’66, ’70, ’06 (Hon.); P’11, MacFarlane sought to be inclusive of both faculty and staff members — forming working groups and a steering committee comprising people from academic and administrative departments. What has emerged from the course of that work during her tenure is a set of strategic

SU M M E R

20 1 8

directions, endorsed by the Trustees, reflective of the community’s ideals and aspirations, and grounded in Harkness and the Deed of Gift. Those directions encompass a renewal of Exeter’s commitment to a diverse and inclusive campus — one that continues to welcome and support intellectually ambitious and talented students from any background. The work also reflects an aspiration that a student of any means or origin can feel equally at home at Exeter alongside their peers and a desire to address climate change in a meaningful and systemic way — operationally, educationally and culturally.

While the community’s strategic initiatives will continue under Interim Principal Bill Rawson ’71; P’08, some of the work has already begun under MacFarlane. In the spring, she hired Stephanie Bramlett, the Academy’s first director of equity and inclusion (see a Q&A with Bramlett on page 18 of this issue). In early 2018, MacFarlane charged a committee of faculty members with developing a vision for a possible Harkness center for teaching and learning on campus, one that she envisions would serve not only as a resource to support the learning of every student but also the professional development of every teacher. Additionally, it would be a place of research — into Harkness itself as well as other modes of teaching and learning — and a place of discovery for those external educators who seek to incorporate Harkness into their own classrooms. “[The center] is a door to all the great things that are being done outside of Exeter as we learn more about cognition and the science of learning, and the relationship between optimal cognition and healthy bodies and psyches,” MacFarlane explains. “It is both a way to extend and reinterpret Harkness but also a way to discover where Harkness may have limits and how we can learn from others.

“Exeter has so much,” she continues. “It’s our responsibility to be involved in a broader conversation about how to share what we know with other schools and other educators, and to learn from them.”

On the morning before Principal’s Day this spring, students woke up to oversized, wrapped objects in their dorm common areas, delivered during the early morning hours.

They opened their unexpected gifts to find lawn games, including giant checkers, Jenga, and Connect Four, with a note from MacFarlane to enjoy the break from classes the following day.

Like the Adirondack chairs, these games, are “symbols for [Lisa’s] aspirations for Exeter,” says Dean of Faculty Ellen Wolff. “It’s about balance; it’s about community.”

This fall, MacFarlane returns to a teaching role in the English Department at the University of New Hampshire. At the last faculty meeting of the academic year, Karen Lassey said to MacFarlane, “You have inspired us, students and adults. We have felt your love for and belief in Exeter and it matters. We are in a better place because of you.” E

T H E

E X E T E R

B U L L E T I N • 37

GONE

P E T E R S T E I N ’0 0 A N D J I M T S E L I K I S ’0 3 R E T U R N TO THEIR SEASIDE ROOTS TO EMBARK ON NEW B U S I N E S S E S O N T H E O P E N WAT E R S .

FISHIN’

By Jennifer Wagner

While you won’t find a specific class on entrepreneurship in the Academy’s

Courses of Instruction, Exeter instills in its students that often elusive mix of COURTESY OF PETER STEIN

traits found in all innovators: compassion, intellectual curiosity and good old-fashioned grit. We caught up with two alums who have taken their lessons to heart. Peter Stein ’00 followed his passions out to sea, trading his office cubicle for an oyster barge, and Jim Tselikis ’03 translated a love of lobster rolls into a multimillion-dollar food truck business. These Exonians

walked the proverbial plank, jumped into nontraditional business ventures wearing little more than floaties and made quite a splash.

PETER STEIN ’00, PEEKO OYSTERS

Most days, when the sun rises over New York’s Little Peconic Bay, Peter Stein is at the dock to greet it. From the deck of his 37-foot barge, La Perla, he can look out over the bay’s tidal estuary, fed by inflows from the Atlantic Ocean, and see the links of Shinnecock Hills or the sandy shores of Shelter Island. Stein’s family settled just 20 miles from this spot some 45 years ago. He grew up and learned to fish in these waters. And it’s now where Stein is dropping his lifelines. With no formal training in aquaculture, he purchased acres of muddy bay bottom and opened an oyster farm, naming it Peeko Oysters.

Sounds romantic. But that’s a meme the 37-year-old is quick to dispel. “Most people picture the beautiful bay, the calm water, and think the job is like a Billy Joel song,” he says. “And it’s just

3 8 • T H E

E X E T E R

B U L L E T I N

SU M M E R

20 1 8

COURTESY OF PETER STEIN

not like that.” Stein found out the hard way just how tough farming can be. During his first season in 2016, a nor’easter blew through and Stein’s only boat sank.

“I didn’t prepare correctly,” he says, “which was a little embarrassing.”

Later that year, Stein put hundreds of thousands of baby oysters into the water, secured his gear for the winter and walked away. When he returned in early spring, 90 percent of his oysters and gear were gone. He had used the wrong gear, weighed it down wrong, secured it on the wrong type of line, in the wrong depth of water … and the list goes on.

“Mother Nature is going to let you know you screwed up. …

She is a relentless and wonderful teacher,” Stein says. After such a devastating setback, many would have given up. Stein rolled with it: “You have to battle back from it and find silver linings and persevere.”

In many ways, oyster farming was an unlikely career choice for Stein. “It’s funny,” he says, “my background is not farming, it’s business development and sales.” After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania with an English degree, Stein spent three years at Accenture doing management consulting. From there, he moved to academics and landed a position teaching sixth grade.

After that, he hooked up with the sales divisions of a few startups in the education software technology space.

From job to job, nothing really clicked, and eventually fate took over.

When Stein returned from his honeymoon in 2015, his

SU M M E R

20 1 8

boss greeted him with some bad news — he was laid off. “I was a bit bitter about that,” he says. “But it gave me headspace to just think.” Stein became fascinated with the local-food movement and especially the idea of producing food without chemicals.

“I learned about all these cool new things happening in the world of aquaculture and aquaponics and aeroponics,” he says. “And then I started to contact some of the people in my home community to find out if anyone was doing any farming like this, and if so, how I could get involved.”

Stein walked the wharves of eastern Long Island chatting up as many people as he could who were farming in the local waters. “The Harkness table does not necessarily an oyster farmer make,” he says. “But it did teach me to be unabashed about asking elementary questions of anyone who could provide me with sound and wise advice and empirical knowledge that I just simply didn’t have.”

He also reached out to Exeter friends like Sam Bradford ’98, who runs Mac’s Seafood on Cape Cod. Stein shadowed Bradford for the better part of a day to soak up all he could about how to run a successful seafood company. That visit was a turning point. “Sam really gave me the validation and reassurance that what I was venturing into could have some success,” Stein says. “I remember him saying, ‘It won’t be easy, but just go do it.’”

When he met a bayman looking to retire and sell his Peter Stein aboard his oyster barge, La Perla.

T H E

E X E T E R

B U L L E T I N • 3 9

IN F PETER STE COURTESY O

oyster business, Stein took the bait: Stein, age 10, “Without hesitation or really any holding a bluefish sort of cognizance of what was haphe caught with his pening, I said, ‘Yeah, I’m in.’” Now father, Ken. instead of working with people with MBAs and Ph.D.s, he’s hanging with folks who earned their degrees on the water, by his own accounts a “salty” crew.

In 2017, Stein brought just 25,000 oysters to market.

This year, he is expecting to bring 250,000. That jump is partially due to the life cycle of an oyster. They take a while to grow. An oyster that is served at a restaurant, for example, is typically 2 to 3 years old. The oysters Stein is putting in the water this year won’t be ready to harvest until 2020.

Stein and his two-man team cultivate, harvest and then deliver oysters to some of the toniest restaurants in New York City, where celebrity chefs such as Tom Colicchio dish them up to well-heeled patrons. Stein also works the private party circuit, bringing his delicacies on the road for special occasions and running oyster-tasting cruises out on the bay. Most recently, he shucked for golfers like Jack Nicklaus at the U.S. Open’s player hospitality tent. But he doesn’t farm oysters just to hobnob with the rich and famous. He’s serious about making a positive impact on the planet. “Even if you despise shellfish as a consumer,” he says, “you should be a big fan of it from a preserve-the-earth perspective.”

4 0 • T H E

E X E T E R

B U L L E T I N

A single adult oyster can purify up to 50 gallons of water each day. As the water passes through the bivalve, harmful pollutants are filtered out. Oysters are like vacuum cleaners, mitigating against environmental hazards, Stein says. Aquaculture is also extremely efficient: Farmers produce lots of protein in a small amount of space — all while providing a net benefit to the environment.

“In a small corner of my mind,” Stein says, “I think that the more oysters I grow, the more benefit I am having on our environment and, in particular, the specific estuary in which my farm exists and that I love, and that I grew up in.”

JIM TSELIKIS ’03, COUSINS MAINE LOBSTER

Careers often follow a standard, linear path. An entrylevel position leads to a promotion, and so on, in a predictable, forward progression up the corporate ladder.

That wasn’t the case for Jim Tselikis. His path was more like a right angle.

The abrupt turn in Tselikis’ professional life occurred in April 2012. He was driving south down the 405 along California’s coast with his cousin Sabin Lomac riding shotgun. They were heading to a nondescript parking lot in Los Angeles — the predetermined site for the grand opening of their fledgling food-truck operation, Cousins Maine Lobster. The idea was to sell the kind of Down East Maine lobster rolls they grew up with to the uninitiated Hollywood set. It was a business plan dreamed up while playing rounds of NHL ’94 on Super Nintendo. “I didn’t expect much of it,” Tselikis remembers. “It was really nothing more than a passion project at the time.”

Their entire prelaunch marketing campaign consisted of a single grainy photo posted to Twitter.

Things got real soon after they rolled up to the location. “Before we even opened our windows there were 75 people in line,” Tselikis says. “We had nine people in our food truck, but no one had training, nobody had ever buttered a bun,” he says. “We didn’t even have a cash register. We forgot it.” The motley crew held it together for five hours and the lobster rolls garnered rave reviews.

“We closed the window that night and said, for lack of a better phrase, ‘Holy shit, this could be something big.’”

They were right. Within days of opening, the cousins were offered a spot on ABC’s “Shark Tank,” a reality television show where budding entrepreneurs pitch their ideas to established business titans in the hopes of walking away with valuable partners and seed cash. While the opportunity was tempting, the cousins demurred. They wanted to establish their model before trying to sell it on national TV. By October, the cousins had made their 52-minute televised plea and landed a $55,000 investment, plus a partnership deal with real estate mogul

SU M M E R

20 1 8

MAINE COUSINS LOBSTER (2)

summers working on boats and going to lobster bakes on the beach with family and friends. “It is a different way of life,” Tselikis says.

“Down East Maine is very laid back.

You take care of people. … There’s an informal love and appreciation for each other.”

Tselikis describes himself as a “fish out of water” when he started as an upper at Exeter. “My town had no diversity and maybe 5,000 people,” he says. “I remember my first math class at Exeter. I was one of three out of 11 kids who were from the United States and I was like, ‘Oh my God, this is cool and different.’”

He spent his first few months focused on academics and the hockey team. When his parents got his first Grill bill for just $1.75, they urged him to “get out more.”

Barbara Corcoran. Almost overAbove: Cousins and businight Tselikis was booking spots ness partners Sabin Lomac on mainstream media outlets and Jim Tselikis ’03. Right: such as “Good Morning America,” A Cousins Maine Lobster the “Today” show and “Master food truck parked on the Chef.” With national exposure, an San Diego waterfront. expanded budget and a new influential partner, Cousins Maine Lobster prospered. Tselikis officially quit his day job of four years as a medical device sales associate at Stryker Orthopaedics, and his career’s right turn was complete.

The company is now valued at $20 million and counts 32 food trucks in 16 cities throughout the country. The owners franchise their business model and have opened six brickand-mortar restaurants domestically and one in Taiwan.

Through all the changes, the 34-year-old Tselikis has remained grounded by his connection to people. “I Tselikis signed up for ceramics, joined clubs and always go back to Maine, the industry, our lobstermen,” began embracing the school’s Harkness philosophy. “At he says. “They are the reason we have product. Not a lot Exeter, I asked a million questions and I never felt bad of people realize how hard their job is.” The amount of about doing so because I didn’t want to miss the boat,” lobster that lands along the coast of Maine each year can he says. He also built lasting relationships with facvary from 60 million pounds to 130 million pounds, and ulty members and especially boys varsity hockey coach who gets access to those lobsters is a matter of trust. “It’s Dana Barbin, with whom he still stays in contact. During not just the one who comes and waves the million-dollar his two seasons on the ice for Big Red, Tselikis netted check that people do business with,” Tselikis says. “It’s 25 goals and 67 assists. Lessons learned at the rink still a relationship built on loyalty, on who you are, who your apply. To this day, Tselikis uses Coach Barbin’s signature kids were growing up.” quote with his employees: “If you’re prepared, you have Tselikis grew up in the heart of lobster country, in nothing to worry about.” E the coastal town of Cape Elizabeth, Maine. He spent

SU M M E R

20 1 8

T H E

E X E T E R

B U L L E T I N • 41

S P O RTS

Bringing Home the Gold BILL BECKLEAN ’54 HONORS EXETER WITH H I S O LY M P I C R O W I N G M E D A L

By Patrick Garrity

O

megaphone.

Becklean, 82, has great in May, as a crowd tales about his days coxing gathered behind at Exeter and Yale and about Saltonstall Boathouse winning the gold. But he and the Squamscott River was purposely led his remarks on the rise, Director of Athletics to the assembled audiShane LaPointe sidled up to a ence with a story about H. bystander.

Hamilton “Hammy” Bissell “Want to see something ’29; P ’58. Becklean credcool?” she asked, reaching into its the legendary teacher, her coat pocket and fishing out a coach, mentor and admistimeworn leather clamshell. sions officer for leading him She pried open the box to to Exeter and introducing reveal its treasure: a gleaming him to the sport of rowing.

Olympic gold medal.

“Hammy Bissell changed The story of how a lot of lives, none more a gold medal from than mine,” Becklean said the 1956 Melbourne through tears. “This gold Games found its medal wouldn’t be mine way into LaPointe’s without Hammy Bissell.” pocket is actually Becklean’s presence Bill Becklean’s story, at Exeter was the product coming full circle that of Bissell’s travels morning on the banks across the Midwest to of the Squamscott. find boys “from every This was the place quarter” to broaden the Academy’s ranks.

Becklean ’54 came of A fortuitous recommendation by a former age six decades earlier boss of Becklean’s mother in Kansas City led as a small boy from the Plains who Bill Becklean ’54 with crew him to an interview with Bissell. After some found mentorship and brotherhood coach Sally Morris. Inset: tests, some uneasy questions and a piano on the river. Becklean connects his The gold medal. performance that Becklean remembers as “a time at Exeter and his experience disaster,” he figured his chances were sunk. But Bissell as coxswain in Big Red crews with so much success that suggested the two take a walk. followed for him — Yale, Harvard, a career in investment It was on that walk that Bissell first told Becklean of his banking and, of course, that Olympic gold. days as a former coxswain for Exeter and then Harvard.

So, Becklean was back on the river on that spring “He said I might like crew at Exeter, and I was immedimorning to present the Academy with a very special gift. ately intrigued,” Becklean recalls.

The coxswain of the 1956 Olympic champion eight-man His first outing on the Squamscott hooked him. crew was back to deliver his gold to Exeter.

“I didn’t want it to end up in somebody’s sock drawer,” “Coxing a rowing shell was like nothing I’d ever experienced, and I was eager to learn all I could about it,” Becklean told the crowd. Instead, the medal will be Becklean wrote in his essay, “A Lifetime on the River.” placed on permanent display at Thompson Field House As a lower, he coxed the varsity boat that won the New along with his Exeter and U.S. Olympic jerseys and his ne crisp morning

CHERYL SENTER (2)

42 • T H E

E X E T E R

B U L L E T I N

SU M M E R

20 1 8

broadcast of the race, and if I ever want to get my heart rate up, all I have to do is play that recording.”

Four members of the team remain: Becklean, Morey, Thomas Charlton and Caldwell Esselstyn. Of the 1956 Melbourne crew, only one, Rusty Wailes, went on to compete in another Olympics, winning a second gold medal in 1960.

But Becklean’s love for the sport never waned. He continues to race both as a rower and a coxswain and he coaches the Becklean (front) and boys novice team at Cambridge Rindge and England title, and he pursued his his gold medal-winning Latin School near his Massachusetts home. newfound passion after moving on to American teammates.

He also has never forgotten how he wound Yale in 1954. There, as the cox of the up in a rowing shell. He donated a boat to a Boston rowing varsity eight that included fellow Exonians Dave Wight club with one stipulation: that it be christened the Hammy ’52 and Bob Morey ’54, Becklean guided the Yale boat to Bissell. On the day he graciously gave Exeter his gold victory in the Olympic trials and the right to represent the medal, the Academy dedicated a new four-person shell, United States at the 1956 Melbourne Games. the Hammy Bissell, to Becklean’s delight.

A disappointing heat required the Americans to “The sport has given me many hours of pleasure, taught scramble through the repechage, a “losers bracket” me many lessons in life and established an irreplaceable contest in which the top two finishers earn a place in the network of friends around the world,” Becklean wrote. “It final. Following a hard-fought but psychologically crucial has, in a sense, been the mainstream of my life.” win against Australia in the semifinal, the American boat As he presented his gold medal to LaPointe and crew edged the Canadians and Australians for the gold in a coaches Albert Leger and Sally Morris, Becklean closed frantic race to the tape. his poignant remarks with a simple salute.

Wight, who died late last year, told the New Haven “Thank you, Hammy. Thank you, Exeter.” E Register in 2016, “I have a recording of the radio

A BOAT FOR HAMMY

A walk among the rowing shells hanging idle in Saltonstall Boathouse is a stroll through Academy history.

There’s a boat called Salty, for none other than the boathouse’s namesake, former Principal William G. Saltonstall ’24.

Swifty is named after longtime rowing coach Charlie Swift ‘24; P ‘55, P ‘59. E. Arthur Gilcreast bears the name of another legendary coach and one of the program’s most loyal benefactors. Anja honors the late beloved math teacher and visionary, Anja Greer.

Now, a new shell hangs among the hallowed. Hammy Bissell, a speedy, four-seat racer, took up residency last fall. The sleek black Resolute Z4 is named for H. Hamilton Bissell ’29, who spent a lifetime at PEA as a teacher, coach and director of scholarships.

The shell, made possible by the E.A. Gilcreast Fund, was bought with one prestigious race in mind: the Head of the Charles regatta in Boston. Exeter’s interscholastic crew season is in the spring, but two years ago, the school decided to enter the Head of the Charles as Phillips Exeter Academy, even though that competition occurs in the fall, when crew is generally an intramural endeavor. PEA strictly races eight-person crews in the spring, so it was decided that procuring a four-seater offered the best chance to field a competitive entry in the October event.

Competitive, indeed. A crew of Evan Saltman ’18 (cox),

SU M M E R

20 1 8

CHERYL SENTER

Head of the Charles shell named for Exeter icon

Lucas Stevens ’18 (stroke), Jacques von Steuben ’18 (threeseat), Will Kalikman ’19 (two-seat) and Francis Baviera Maloney ’18 (bow seat) powered the Hammy Bissell to an eighth-place finish among 86 entries at the 53rd regatta.

The shell was formally dedicated May 13, with the Head of the Charles crew dousing the bow with sparkling cider, then taking the Hammy for a ceremonial spin. The boat sliced the black water of the Squamscott River, straight and swift.

T H E

E X E T E R

B U L L E T I N • 4 3

SPRING SPORTS BASEBALL RECORD: 17-9

Head Coach: Dana Barbin Assistant Coaches: Nat Hawkins, Tim Mitropoulos ’10 Captain: Sam Stone ’18 MVPs: Michael Doyle ’18, Sen Kenneally ’18

BOYS CREW TEAM CHAMPIONS AT NEW ENGLAND INTERSCHOLASTIC ROWING ASSOCIATION CHAMPIONSHIPS

BOYS TENNIS RECORD: 3-8

Head Coach: Fred Brussel Captain: Pedro Repsold De Sanson ’18 MVP: Ryan Nguy ’18

Head Coach: Albert Leger Assistant Coaches: Greg Spainer, Townley Chisholm, Avery Reavill ’13 Captains: Francisco Baviera Maloney ’18, Lucas Stevens ’18 MVP: Evan Saltman ’18

GIRLS WATER POLO RECORD: 13-1, SECOND PLACE AT NEW ENGLAND CHAMPIONSHIPS

Head Coach: Andrew McTammany ’04 Assistant Coach: Melissa Pacific Captains: Sam Gove ’19, Issy Wise ’19 MVP: Maddie Shapiro ’18

BOYS TRACK & FIELD RECORD: 3-0, FIFTH PLACE AT NEW ENGLAND INTERSCHOLASTIC CHAMPIONSHIPS

Head Coach: Hilary Hall Assistant Coaches: Toyin Ikwuakor, John Mosely, Mark Hiza, Brandon Newbould, Steve Holmes, Hilary Holmes, Ron Edmiston, Levi Strickland, Jill Lyon Captains: Dolapo Adedokun ’18, Cedric Blaise ’18, Gregory Zhu ’18 MVP: Abel Ngala ’18

CYCLING SECOND PLACE AT NEW ENGLAND ROAD CYCLING CHAMPIONSHIPS

Head Coach: Don Mills Assistant Coaches: Vicki Baggia, Patty Burke-Hickey, Tim Whittemore Captains: Nikita Ivanov ’18, Sarah Shepley ’18 MVP: Bryce Morales ’19

4 4 • T H E

E X E T E R

B U L L E T I N

BOYS VOLLEYBALL RECORD: 11-0, NEW ENGLAND CHAMPIONS

Head Coach: Bruce Shang Assistant Coach: Susan Rowe Captains: Noah Asch ’18, Emilio Karakey ’18 MVP: Noah Asch

S P R I N G

20 1 5

BOYS LACROSSE RECORD: 16-3

Head Coach: Bill Glennon Assistant Coach: David Huoppi Captains: AJ Bravo ’18, Kevin Lyskawa ’18, Tanner McGowan ’18, Jack Pimental ’18 MVP: Jake Calnan ’18

SOFTBALL RECORD: 11-5

Head Coach: Nancy Thompson Assistant Coach: Liz Hurley Captains: Menat Bahnasy ’18, Kaleigh Conte ’18, Ella Johnson ’18 MVPs: Ella Johnson, Mairead O’Sullivan ’18

GIRLS CREW TEAM CHAMPIONS AT NEW ENGLAND INTERCHOLASTIC ROWING ASSOCIATION CHAMPIONSHIPS

Head Coach: Sally Morris Assistant Coaches: Becky Moore, Allison Hobbie, Avery Reavill Captains: Marie Leighton McCall ’18, Oluwadara Okeremi ’18 MVP: Erica Hogan ’18

GIRLS TRACK & FIELD RECORD: 2-1, SECOND PLACE AT NEW ENGLAND INTERSCHOLASTIC CHAMPIONSHIPS

Head Coach: Hilary Hall Assistant Coaches: Toyin Ikwuakor, John Mosely, Mark Hiza, Brandon Newbould, Steve Holmes, Hilary Holmes, Ron Edmiston, Levi Strickland, Jill Lyon Captains: Anna Clark ’18, Chi-Chi Ikpeazu ’18, Claire Melvin ’18 MVP: Margaret Hock ’19

GOLF RECORD: 6-1

Head Coach: Bob Bailey Assistant Coach: Ian Willikens Captain: Maria Lee ’18 MVPs: Maria Lee, Harry Saunders ’18

GIRLS TENNIS RECORD: 4-5

Head Coach: Jean Farnum Captains: Gabriella Gabel ’18, Katie Lee ’18 MVP: Gabriella Gabel

GIRLS LACROSSE RECORD: 7-10-1

Head Coach: Christina Breen Assistant Coach: Porter Hayes Captains: Lauren Arkell ’18, Michaella McCarthy ’18, Anna Reaman ’18, Molly Seibel ’18 MVP: Anna Reaman ’18 CREDITS BOYS AND GIRLS CREW: SPORTSGRAPHICS.COM BASEBALL, SOFTBALL, TRACK & FIELD, LACROSSE PHOTOS: MARY SCHWALM GIRLS WATER POLO, BOYS VOLLEYBALL, CYCLING, TENNIS AND GOLF: BRIAN MULDOON

“THERE ARE ...

TWO ASPECTS OF THE EXETER CAREER: THERE’S YOUR STUDENT LIFE, AND THEN...

EVERYTHING AFTERWARD.”

CHERYL SENTER

CONNECTIONS

News and notes from the alumni community

Embracing the Second Act

O

By Susannah Clark ’84, president of the New England Alumni Association ne of the biggest disappointments of my life

is the feeling that I missed out when I was at Exeter.

I was a shy day student when I first stepped onto campus, and I lacked the gumption to make my presence known; in my three years I never joined any clubs, didn’t attend events I wasn’t required to, didn’t make any friends whom I could call up today just to say hello.

I didn’t realize what a loss this was until after college, when I found that the kind of intellectual respect and debate that I was trained to take for granted at Exeter didn’t exist anywhere near that ubiquitously in the real world I was living in. So, I went back to the Academy for my 10th reunion and found exactly what I was looking for: I could walk up to anyone and have an interesting, lively conversation of ideas and mutual respect, regardless of whether I even remembered their name (and while I was sure not many would remember mine, more did than I expected). What I found at my reunion made me see that there are, in fact, two aspects of an Exeter career: There’s your student life, and then there’s everything afterward.

There is certainly some agency required to be a successful Exeter student, but some of us are less capable of that at 15. The post-campus Exeter experience is nothing but agency: You have to step up to what you want, actively seek out a role for yourself in the life of your class after graduation — and please understand that your class, your school, does have a large and rewarding life that not only continues but evolves after graduation. I may have missed out during my student years, but there are decades in the second act in which I can play a role as

SU M M E R

20 1 8

large as I want, swim for a bit in that rare pool of curiosity and strive for the greatness of thought and action that is the Exeter ideal.

I volunteered to become our class correspondent, which is a job that filled my need to build connections, most for the first time, with my classmates. I’ve been doing it for 18 years now, and I continue to appreciate the opportunity to keep people connected, one email at a time.

More than ever, I need to be involved with something bigger than ordinary, something good and thoughtful that makes the world a better place for us all. Being a part of Exeter now helps me resolve the deficiencies of my youth. This is the thing I wish I could convince other Exonians who, like myself, find that their time on campus was less than what they wish it had been: There’s so much more to Exeter than the time you spent in New Hampshire. You can still make your Exeter experience as satisfying as you want it to be, if you just reach out and ask for it. E

T H E

E X E T E R

B U L L E T I N • 47

C O N N ECT I O N S

P

R

O

F

I

L

E

MERIDITH HANKENSON ALEXANDER ’77

Finding Joy in Adversity

A

By Katie Fiermonti s Meridith Hankenson Alexander’s plane

4 8 • T H E

E X E T E R

B U L L E T I N

worldwide fascination and media attention, including coverage in the December 2017 issue of Prevention magazine.

As Alexander dedicates herself to helping her now 25-year-old daughter relearn how to stand, walk and talk, the Citrus Park, Florida, resident and mother of three has channeled her energies into helping others cope with loss and challenges too. Since the accident, she has become certified in neurolinguistic programming; she now speaks internationally about the power of a positive mindset and trains clients around the world in self-empowerment strategies. Alexander also contributes to #Bossbabe, an online publication for young female entrepreneurs, and she runs a thriving boutique agency for the performing arts — but Schuyler remains her first priority.

“Doctors project that people with a severe traumatic brain injury take seven to eight years to come back from it. We’re just two years into that,” Alexander says. “But we’re both positive people. There is never a depressed day, rarely a frustrated statement. We live in the moment, in the present. We find the joy. Not to be cliché, but this is what it is. The only other option is to be miserable throughout it. And that is not an acceptable option for us.”

Alexander continues to inspire thousands with her message of hope, which she believes has been a key part of her daughter’s recovery. In addition to hosting motivational seminars and retreats, she will soon launch an online course called Emboulden, designed to teach others to embrace their own personal boulders as gifts. “It’s not in spite of our boulders that we succeed,” she says. “It’s in thanks to them that we can overcome and soar.” E CEDRIC ANGELES

flew steadily southward one horrible night in February 2016, she was struck by the decision she had to make. Hours earlier, she’d received word that her daughter, Schuyler Arakawa, had been brutally crushed by a falling boulder as she swam with friends in a grotto during a whitewater rafting expedition in a remote area of Colombia.

“That was it — boom.

Instant world change,” Alexander says. “They thought she was dead. The neurosurgeon told me it defied logic and imagination that she made it to the hospital. They told me they were going to try to keep her alive long enough for me to get down there,” she adds.

Before she got off the plane, Alexander had decided she would do everything in her power to help her daugther have a miraculous outcome.

“Inch by inch, I got myself mentally to the place that God or the universe had us covered,” she says.

Schuyler suffered catastrophic injuries, including facial and skull fractures, crushed lungs, a broken scapula and leg, a shattered ankle, and a spinal fracture.

The promising Yale graduate went from a world traveler and entrepreneur with a megawatt smile to a hospital patient clinging to life. Her mother’s determined and deliberate mindset that she would survive set the tone for what has now become a joy-filled recovery, chronicled in Alexander’s 2017 bestseller The Sky Is the Limit. The book, which ranked as the No. 1 new release in Amazon’s motivational category, is framed around the uplifting messages Alexander posted on the Facebook page she created to keep family and friends informed following Schuyler’s accident. Those messages quickly garnered

SU M M E R

20 1 8

P

R

O

F

I

L

E

FORREST BARKER ’13

Deeply Rooted

F

By Debbie Kane

CHRISTIAN HARRISON

orrest Barker ’13 grew up playing hide-and-seek in the fields and woods of her family’s 101-yearold farm in Stratham, New Hampshire, little more than 5 miles from the Academy Building.

Those powerful childhood memories, and her family’s dedication to sustainable farming, drew her back to Barker’s Farm in 2017, after she graduated from Cornell University with a bachelor’s degree in agricultural sciences.

At 23, she’s the fifth generation of Barkers to work the farm, which she manages alongside her mother, Edie.

“I’ve known since high school that this is what I wanted to do,” she says.

Barker’s connections to the place run deep. Her great-great-grandparents established the farm, which now encompasses 90 acres, in 1917. But it was her father, Gordon, who grew up there, who inspired her love of the land. Together with Edie, Gordon Barker expanded the farm’s operations in the early 1980s, building a roadside farm stand and selling produce at farmers markets on the New Hampshire seacoast.

A land conservationist and avid cyclist who was very involved in the Stratham community, Gordon was also a dedicated father. “He always made time for me,” Barker says. “We’d go on walks in the woods and he’d show me streams he’d found as a kid. We raced each other up a trail in the woods or he’d follow me as I picked strawberries. He was always showing me something.”

Recognizing his daughter’s academic talent, Gordon encouraged her to apply to Exeter. Then, just two weeks before Forrest was to start her prep year at the Academy, Gordon Barker died suddenly after suffering a heart attack at the farm. He was only 51 years old.

Barker’s transition to Exeter was initially difficult. “I

SU M M E R

20 1 8

was already a quiet person, but it took me a while to open up,” she says. “I did a lot of listening.” Eventually, she discovered subjects such as astronomy and ornithology that inspired new passions, like bird-watching. She also rowed crew all four years at Exeter, a sport her father had enjoyed as a University of New Hampshire student.

Her horizon continued to expand at Cornell, where she learned more about the theories behind sustainable farming practices used on the farm, such as crop rotation and pest control. A summer spent at an organic farm in Oregon generated new farming ideas, from how to trellis tomatoes differently to setting up a visitor-friendly booth at farmers markets. “It was great to see a different perspective,” she says.

“There were plenty of ideas I could take and try at home.”

Barker’s Farm sits along a busy road, its greenhouse and farm stand abutting a small parking lot that’s crowded with visitors on summer and fall days. Fields unfurl on the hill behind the greenhouse. The Barkers grow green beans, tomatoes, peppers, lettuce and a variety of other salad greens, sweet corn, potatoes, squash, pumpkins and more. While the farm isn’t organic, the family employs sustainable practices, rotating crops in the fields to enrich the soil and planting cover crops in the off-season to preserve the soil’s nutrients and keep it from washing away in rain and snow. “We’ve been able to farm here for more than 100 years because we take care of the soil,” Barker says.

She has no immediate plans for that to change. “My dad passed on his love of the farm to me,” Barker says.

“I love the community here and the people who work here, and I love that we’re able to provide quality, fresh vegetables and fruit to customers. The dream is definitely to stay here.” E

T H E

E X E T E R

B U L L E T I N • 4 9

C O N N ECT I O N S

G

I

V

I

N

G

B

A

C

K

Social Justice Superheroes M E G A N B I R D ’ 9 9 A N D B R O O K S T I N G L E ’ 8 3 E D U C AT E O U T S I D E T H E B O X A N D TA K E L E A R N I N G F R O M T H E C L A S S R O O M T O T H E EXECUTIVE SUITE

By Jennifer Wagner

W

my mom in my first conversation with them, but insurance really did make my life possible.” the John Hancock offices in Boston’s While the two perhaps may not have gravitated to the Back Bay, she was, admittedly, a tad same circles in prep school — Bird is a self-proclaimed nervous. The 34-year-old was fairly new introvert and nerd, Tingle a gregarious athlete — they to her position as executive director of Citizen Schools Massachusetts and had never led an orientation session for a new board member. She was confident she could capture the attention of middle-schoolers — but the president and chief executive officer of one of the largest insurance companies in the country? “I was a little intimidated,” Bird recalls.

“Then I thought of the Harkness table, and how someone once said it’s like the boardroom table when you grow up, and I thought, bonded over their shared belief ‘I can do this.’”

“The Harkness in service and the transformative Bird need not have worried. The power of education. “I think it is accomplished CEO she was schooling was table ... [is] like the incumbent upon those of us who a fellow Exonian, Brooks Tingle ’83. Their boardroom table have had the privilege of a worldExeter connection came quickly to light when Tingle asked Bird a simple question when you grow up.” class education like at Exeter,” Tingle says, “to make sure that to break the ice: “You have insurance, Megan, right?” As is often the case, that — Megan Bird ’99 all young people have exposure to learning opportunities beyond the simple question required much more than basic school curriculum.” Bird is a simple answer. During Bird’s lower year driven by her mother’s example. “My mom was a family at Exeter, her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. doctor and served low-income communities,” she says.

“My mother passed away when I was 19, and I was able to “She also worked in teaching hospitals, and I think that’s finish going to Exeter and pay for college because of that why I chose to do mission-driven work and was really insurance,” Bird says. “I don’t usually tell people about hen Megan Bird ’99 first arrived at

50 • T H E

E X E T E R

B U L L E T I N

SU M M E R

20 1 8

attracted to education.”

That heartfelt conversation back in 2016 grew into what is now a two-year collaboration between the alums and Citizen Schools, a nonprofit that offers middle school-aged kids from lower-income communities hands-on learning experiences.

Under Tingle’s direction, John Hancock employees have tutored 66 Citizen Schools students to date.

Most recently, eight members of his team ran a 10-week apprenticeship program, “The Healthy Body, Healthy Mind,” with sixth-graders from mentoring as well, often traveling to Trotter Innovation School. Each “You see that spark underserved neighborhoods to reach week the students traveled from Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood with certain kids, and students in need. He remembers grabbing a cab in downtown Boston to John Hancock’s HQ to learn about you just know that the early on to go meet with a group of mindfulness, healthy eating and high school mentees. “When I told other self-care behaviors that they idea of healthy living the driver where I wanted to go, he might not otherwise be exposed to. said, ‘You don’t want to go there.’”

“In the beginning, the kids were is going to stay with But Tingle went there. In fact, he wondering why they signed up for them.” still keeps in touch with one man he an after-school class to breathe in — Brooks Tingle ’83 began mentoring some 20 years ago and breathe out,” Tingle jokes. “But as a boy. “These one-on-one relayou see that spark with certain kids, tionships are powerful and deep, but and you just know that the idea of healthy living is going to stay with them and be with them they aren’t usually scalable,” says Tingle. “With Citizen Schools, it’s an opportunity to engage a whole classroom for their life.” and expose students to paths that they may want to The John Hancock apprenticeship is just one of many pursue as a career. It’s terribly rewarding.” that Bird helps organize across Massachusetts, and in a Linking corporations with schools is the type of broad range of fields — from finance and law to website education reform Bird believes can make the strongest design and sports management. In each, professionals impression on students today. “I think these groups — work directly with students, imparting real-world skills, K-12 schools, higher education and employers of the practical knowledge and out-of-the-box aspirations. “In world — are set up to function in really siloed and isolated traditional classes, a student may be really shy or having ways,” Bird says. “We need to get those three systems to a hard time,” Bird says. “With the apprenticeship, work together in a healthier and coordinated way to make they are able to shine in a way that they don’t usually sure that, in each stage in a young person’s development, … Parents are often shocked to see their children so they are prepared and ready for the next stage.” Those excited and so engaged.” are big, system-level changes she is suggesting and ones, The most lasting takeway from an apprenticeship perhaps, her daughter and Tingle’s son — both starting at program is the relationship formed between the student the Academy as preps this fall — might consider tackling. and the volunteer “citizen teacher.” Bird, who began her Meanwhile, she’ll continue to prove the concept on a career in education teaching English in Chile, has mainsmall scale every day with Citizen Schools. E tained her connection with one particular middle-school student for more than three years. Tingle has a history of

SU M M E R

20 1 8

T H E

E X E T E R

B U L L E T I N • 51

C O N N ECT I O N S

FROM EVERY QUARTER E XO N I A N S M A K E C O N N E C T I O N S AT H O M E A N D A R O U N D T H E WO R L D Please note, all photos are identified left to right unless otherwise indicated.

COAST TO COAST Exonians met up at regional events across the country.

MINI-REUNION Members of the class of 1993 warmed up for the big event at a prereunion gathering in New York with special guests Religion Instructor Russell Weatherspoon and his wife, Jackie.

Pictured here are Elizabeth (Eakeley) Arnall, Christine Shim, Nick Psaris and Kate Lehman.

HARKNESS HOUSE During an event hosted by the Exeter Association of Greater New York, curator Paul Wentworth Engel led tours of philanthropist Edward S. Harkness’ home, designed by James Gamble Rogers.

NOBLE ACADEMY The Exeter Association of Illinois and Noble Academy hosted an evening of Harkness in April.

PEA has collaborated with Noble Academy, an urban school in downtown Chicago, to implement the Harkness method into its classrooms. Alumni and parents enjoyed a demonstration with Noble Academy students and their teacher, Aida Conroy ’09. Pictured here: David Anderson ’70, Noble Academy students Elijah and Dominic, and Katherine Aanensen ’12.

LIVING HISTORY New York-area Exonians got an inside look at the historic Harkness House.

NEW JERSEY Hosts Adrienne and David Wang P’20 invited Exeter parents to their home for a meet-and-greet dinner. Front row: Adrienne Wang, Director of Parent Giving Laura Schwartz ’82; P’20, P’22, and Vicky Lee P’21. Back row: Shrikant Nistane P’19, P’22, David Wang, Associate Director of Parent Giving Jen Fogel and Judy Ye P’19.

See more event photos at www.exeter.edu/receptions.

52 • T H E

E X E T E R

B U L L E T I N

SU M M E R

20 1 8

Student participants in the Washington Intern Program joined alumni, parents and friends for the annual reception, hosted by the Exeter Associations of Washington, D.C., and Maryland.

Zach Iscol ’97 and Connie Trimble ’80

WASHINGTON, D.C. Exonians from around the Beltway enjoyed several events this spring, including a reception at the Mayflower Hotel with John Phillips Award recipient Zach Iscol ’97.

Lori Lincoln ’86, Exeter Association of Washington, D.C., vice president, and James Figetakis ’79

Mika Devonshire ’08, Lawrence Young ’96, and Kira Tokarz ’14

RENWICK GALLERY The Exeter Association hosted a guided tour of the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Renwick Gallery this spring.

Musem director Stephanie Stebich ’84 (front row, second from left) led the tour.

SU M M E R

20 1 8

Sarah Veale ’77, Chris Graves ’77 and Francesca Grifo ’77

Classmates from 2014 catch up at the reception: Jelena Pesa, Shannon Hou, Nate Moulton and guest Jason Hsiao.

HAPPY HOUR The Exeter Association of Washington, D.C., Mentoring Committee hosted an “Ask an Alum” panel discussion followed by a social networking event. Here, Whitney Gardiner ’96 takes a turn addressing the mentoring group.

T H E

E X E T E R

B U L L E T I N • 53

C O N N ECT I O N S

TEXAS: DALLAS Jun Il Kwun ’86 hosted a reception for alumni and parents in the Pecan Room at Old Parkland.

LB PHOTOGRAPHY

John Tatum ’68 and Bryan Rigg ’91

John and Nicole Weeldreyer ’90; P’21 with daughter Nina Weeldreyer ’21

Derek and Lynn Dickinson P’17, P’19 with son Patrick Dickinson ’17 David Dini, headmaster at St. Mark’s School of Texas, with host Jun Il Kwun ’86, Claire and Phil Newman ’84 and Andy Kaplinsky ’86.

TEXAS: HOUSTON The Briar Club in Houston was the venue for a reception sponsored by Sally Brown Russ ’81.

Lila Ontiveros ’02 and her parents, Nancy and Gilbert Ontiveros P’02.

Dave Pedini ’88, Chris Artzer ’89, Bryan Contreras ’91 and his daughter, Sofia Contreras.

54 • T H E

E X E T E R

B U L L E T I N

SU M M E R

20 1 8

KERRI CLARK DESIGNS

Sally Brown Russ ’81; P’13, P’16, P’16 (center) with Carol and Cliff Pearson ’78.

BOSTON

DAMIAN STROHMEYER

Science Instructor Rich Aaronian ’76, ’78, ’97 (Hon.); P’94, P’97 addresses the audience.

The New England Aquarium was the perfect location for a spring reception. Exeter’s Harlan Page Amen Professor in Science Rich Aaronian offered remarks.

Carly Kirsch ’20 with her mother, Karin Kirsch P’16, P’17, P’20, and brother Max Kirsch ’16

Carl Lindemann III ’79, Paul Therrien ’80 and John Snow ’79

Here’s to the leaders of Exeter’s New England Regional Association! Outgoing president Sarah (Lowell) Harmon ’00 with incoming president Susannah Clark ’84.

Lisa Koplik ’09 and Rebecca Snelling ’08

Joe Platt ’15, Julian Drury ’14, Nick Storozynski ’13, Karla Beltran ’13 and Catherine Moore ’13 enjoy the spring evening at the Aquarium.

See more event photos at www.exeter.edu/receptions.

SU M M E R

20 1 8

T H E

E X E T E R

B U L L E T I N • 55

C O N N ECT I O N S

INTERNATIONAL Alumni and parents found opportunities to socialize overseas and around Canada this spring.

LONDON Exonians gathered in the Covent Garden area after a happy hour at The Escapologist.

MONTREAL PEA’s Canadian Foundation hosted a reception at Chez Alexandre in Montreal. Pictured here: Noah Cowper ’17, Ryan Vaupshas ’06 and Jeanne Olivier ’15.

MONTREAL Valerie Dorion ’93 and McShane Jones ’88; P’09, P’14, with John Hutchins, director of admissions and financial aid

EXETER LEADERSHIP WEEKEND Sept. 21- 22, 2018 If you are a current Exeter volunteer — or interested in helping to plan your 2019 reunion (classes ending in 4 and 9) — please join us on campus.

Highlights include: • Remarks by Interim Principal Bill Rawson ’71; P’08

TORONTO In May, Evan Sequeira ’10, Warren Cooney ’83, Robbie Campbell ’04, Chris Javornik ’89 and Denny Creighton ’73 met up with other alumni at Red’s Wine Tavern for a happy hour.

• Important news and updates from campus • Breakout sessions with volunteers to plan for reunion and nonreunion activities • Dinner with the class of 2019 and awarding of the 2018 President’s Award

56 • T H E

E X E T E R

B U L L E T I N

See more event photos at www.exeter.edu/receptions.

SU M M E R

20 1 8

2019 REUNION DATES

If your graduation year ends in 4 or 9, mark your calendar for reunions in May 2019! Join your classmates back on campus to reconnect with old friends and discover new ones.

May 3-5, 2019 40th Reunion | Class of 1979 35th Reunion | Class of 1984 30th Reunion | Class of 1989 25th Reunion | Class of 1994 20th Reunion | Class of 1999 15th Reunion | Class of 2004

ASIA In June, Trustee President Tony Downer ’75 and his wife, Amy ’75, were welcomed by alumni and parents at events in Seoul, Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Singapore.

May 16-19, 2019 50th Reunion | Class of 1969

BEIJING Exeter gathered in Beijing on Saturday evening, June 2.

May 17-19, 2019 60th Reunion | Class of 1959 55th Reunion | Class of 1964 45th Reunion | Class of 1974 10th Reunion | Class of 2009 5th Reunion | Class of 2014 May 21-23, 2019 75th Reunion | Class of 1944 70th Reunion | Class of 1949 65th Reunion | Class of 1954

SINGAPORE On June 5, Exeter gathered at the home of Christina Ong and Eric Oey ’72 for dinner and conversation.

HONG KONG Smiles abound at the Hong Kong Golf Club during the Exeter reception on June 7.

SHANGHAI Surrounded by lush flora at the Villa Lebec, members of the Exeter family enjoyed time together on June 3.

www.facebook.com/phillipsexeter SU M M E R

20 1 8

www.twitter.com/phillipsexeter T H E

E X E T E R

B U L L E T I N • 57

Exeter REUNIONS

2018

1958: A Dixieland band led the class through campus

For more photos, visit www.exeter.edu/2018reunion.

Reunion photos by Dan Courter, Christian Harrison, Cheryl Senter, Maxine Weed

1943: Family and friends celebrate the class’s 75th reunion 1968: Bill Bennett, Rob Stucky, Bruce McKay

1953: Dick Lee, Pete Palmer 1948: Luncheon presentation

A morning row on the river 1978: Saturday night reception

5 8 • T H E

E X E T E R

B U L L E T I N

SU M M E R

20 1 8

1973: Welcome reception in the gym 2003: Class volunteers gathered on the Davis Center steps

2008: Sergio BarrazaIngstrom, Kavan McEachern Saturday morning bird-watching

2013: Austin Crouse, Cory Johnson, Candice Love, Mia Hagerty 1983: Saturday evening reception

1993: Yon Sung, Joe Ngai, Derek Law, Eileen Chen Ng, John Angwin 1998: Neil Corcoran, Z Cai, Alex Kaufman

1988: China Forbes sings on piano, accompanied by Jason Frangos and John Longwell 1963: Reception at the Thompson Field House

SU M M E R

2 0 1 8 Columns were . submitted on April 1 (nonreunion classes) and June 1 (reunion classes).

T H E

E X E T E R

B U L L E T I N • 59

F I N I S

O R I G I N E

P E N D E T

Imagining Bigfoot In Exeter

By Scott Russell Sanders, 1974 Bennett Fellow

O

n a sweltering August day in 1974, my wife,

11 2 • T H E

E X E T E R

B U L L E T I N

took form, first in my head, then on sheets of paper dimpled by the worn keys of my typewriter, the peddler grew smaller and crueler, the Iron Man grew larger and stranger, and the tales stirred up by their passage through the Ohio frontier became ever more fabulous.

Ruth looked after our daughter in the mornings while I wrote, then I took Eva for walks in the afternoon. Our favorite destination was the bridge on High Street overlooking a waterfall in the Exeter River. Eva and I would often stay there for half an hour at a time, listening to the falls, feeling the spray on our faces, while she told me fanciful stories, made up songs or danced. I suspect it was these outings with my daughter that inspired me to add to the novel a young Shawnee woman, who acquired Eva’s grace and whimsy and defiant spirit.

At the invitation of teachers, I visited classes to read aloud newly completed chapters.

Before one such class, a boy asked me, “Mr. Sanders, are you going to read us literature or something you wrote yourself?”

“Something I wrote myself,” I admitted.

After hearing early episodes, students would halt me on campus to ask what happened next, and I would tell them that I didn’t know, that I would find out only by writing my way to the end.

By spring I had completed a draft of the novel, but had not found a title. Then one evening, while Ruth gave Eva a bath, I sat on the edge of the tub playing my guitar, balancing an anthology of American folksongs on my knee.

The book lay open to an editor’s note explaining that songs about colorful outlaws such as Jesse James and Billy the Kid were called “bad man ballads.” And so I had my title.

Among the 20 books of mine housed today in the Academy Library’s Special Collections is a novel called Bad Man Ballad. I might not have gone on to publish that book, or perhaps any others, without the affirmation and support provided by the Bennett Fellowship. Our sojourn at Exeter confirmed my vocation as a writer. Ruth joins me in sending deep thanks for our year in that welcoming community. E

ALLAN BURCH

Ruth, and I, along with our 18-month-old daughter, Eva, arrived in Exeter after a thousand-mile drive from our home in Indiana.

On leave from my position as an assistant professor of English at Indiana University, I had come to spend the year as writer-in-residence at the Academy, supported by a George Bennett Fellowship. I was the seventh in a series of aspiring young writers blessed with this award, a series that has now continued for half a century.

Ruth and I moved our baggage and baby gear into the second floor of Anderson House, on Williams Court, behind the Exeter Bookstore.

My highest hope for the year was to write a novel that might one day find a place on a shelf in that bookstore and in the Academy Library. At the time, I had published a dozen stories in magazines, but no books of fiction, so Charlie Pratt and his colleagues on the Bennett Fellowship Committee showed remarkable faith in my promise by granting me a year’s freedom to write. In addition to lodging, we were provided with a stipend, meals in the dining hall, and warm hospitality from faculty members and their families.

The apartment was furnished with antiques. Ivy curled at the windows. Mice scratched in the walls. Floorboards creaked underfoot. Now and then bats emerged from the fireplace and flitted through the room I used as a study. It was the ideal setting in which to write a mythic story.

The one I had in mind was based on a bizarre murder case from the Ohio county where I had grown up. In the fall of 1813, while America was at war with Great Britain, an ironworker passing through the county robbed and murdered a peddler; he was then pursued by two volunteers, brought back for trial and convicted. The Iron Man, as he came to be known, was powerfully built, towering over everyone in the village. He claimed to be mute, but children said he joked with them through the bars of his cell.

After breaking out of jail several times, and being recaptured, he was hanged in the main street and buried at the foot of the scaffold. His body was dug up twice, first by doctors wishing to dissect him, then by a religious group wishing to claim him, and each time he was reburied.

The Iron Man loomed so large in my imagination that he began to resemble Bigfoot, the hairy, shambling, elusive creature sometimes called Sasquatch. As the novel

Editor’s note: The George Bennett Fellowship celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. Established by Elias B.M. Kulukundis ’55 in honor of PEA English Instructor George Bennett, the yearlong fellowship provides writers “of outstanding promise” with support they need to pursue their craft. To commemorate the anniversary, we have featured a Bennett Fellow in each Bulletin issue during the 2017-18 academic year.

SU M M E R

20 1 8

EXETER FAMILY WEEKEND 2018 Save the Date!

CHERYL SENTER (6)

OCTOBER 19-22, 2018 Family members of current students are warmly invited to spend an autumn weekend on campus and experience the richness and variety of life at Exeter.

• Visit your student’s Harkness classes • Attend Interim Principal Bill Rawson’s address • Take in sports team practices and music ensemble rehearsals • Hear from the College Counseling Office • Tour the campus • Get to know other Exeter families from around the world

Watch your email for more information.

A program of events and travel information will be available closer to the date at www.exeter.edu/familyweekend.

PHILLIPS EXETER ACADEMY 20 Main Street Exeter, NH 03833-2460 Parents of Alumni: If this magazine is addressed to an Exonian who no longer maintains a permanent address at your home, please email us (records@exeter.edu) with their new address. Thank you.

HONORING EXTRAORDINARY SERVICE Each year, Exeter recognizes two individuals whose

We invite you to nominate those members within our

selfless work and generosity of spirit reflect the ideals

community whose accomplishments are most deserving

of goodness and knowledge united.

of special recognition. Nominations are accepted

The John Phillips Award is bestowed upon an alumnus or alumna for outstanding contribution to

year-round. To be considered for the 2019 awards, submissions must be received by October 1, 2018.

the welfare of community, country and humanity.

The Founder’s Day Award is presented to an alumnus or alumna, a retired faculty or staff member, a parent, or a friend of Exeter, in recognition of exceptional service to the Academy.

Email awards@exeter.edu for more information or to submit a nomination.