FVS Bulletin – Fall 2016

Discover these stories and more inside!

Where They’re Headed!

Bethany College Brandeis University University of California-San Diego University of California-Santa Barbara University of California-Santa Cruz Case Western Reserve University The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina Colby College Colgate University College for Creative Studies

University of Colorado University of Colorado-Colorado Springs Colorado College Colorado Mountain College Colorado State University Connecticut College University of Connecticut Davidson College University of Denver Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University-Daytona Beach

Frank Phillips College Franklin University Switzerland Georgia Institute of Technology University of Illinois Keio University Lehigh University Lewis & Clark College Macalester College Miami University The University of Montana University of Nebraska New York University

Occidental College University of Portland University of Puget Sound Regis University Saint Mary’s College of California Santa Clara University Seattle University Seton Hall University University of Vermont West Texas A&M University Wheaton College MA University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Table of Contents Departments

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From the Head of School FVS Bulletin Board Dane Sports Wrap Class Notes In Memoriam Why I Give

Features 12

2016 Commencement

16 Reunion 2016: Celebrating FVS’s 86th year

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The Girl Who Dug Up Dinosaurs

34

Message in a Bottle

40

In Search of a Legend

52 FVS Discoveries 53 Chapter One: Freshmen Writing Their First Chapters

Contributors

Class Notes, address changes and other alumni communications should be directed to the FVS Alumni Office at alumni@fvs.edu.

TREASURER Janet M. Refior SECRETARY Jolene A. Lane ’79 LEGAL COUNSEL Scott M. Browning EX OFFICIO William V. Webb Benjamin R. Howe ’89 LIFE TRUSTEES W. Jerome Frautschi ’49 Robert E. Henderson ’44, P ’72 James M. Scott ’68, P ’95, ’99, ’05 CURRENT TRUSTEES Ward Berlin P ’15 Gavin C. Blunt P ’05, ’09 Barry S. Brown ’69 Sarah K. Cannady P ’18 Dean D. Dowson ’91, P ’17 Janet A. Dulin ’77, P ’11 Kelly Eustace P ’14,’17 Kenneth R. Gamblin ’62, P ’91, ’93 Walter L. Harrison Juniper F. Hunter ’93, P ’15, ’16 Hope L. Kapsner P ’17, ’20 Anita M. Lane P ’14, ’16 Jolene A. Lane ’79 Henry P. Morse Jr. ’69 Link Nicoll ’79 Katrina V. Presti P ’13, ’15 Kevin N. Rask P ’16, ’19 Christopher J. Sanchez ’90 James M. Scott ’68, P ’95, ’99, ’05 Gregory L. Thatcher ’84, P ’17 Melinda M. Twomey P ’14, ’15 James G. Webster P ’14 HEAD OF SCHOOL William V. Webb DIRECTOR OF ADVANCEMENT Julia Babson Alling P ’18 CO-DIRECTORS OF COMMUNICATIONS Jeanne Olive P ’08 and Laura Fawcett BULLETIN Jeanne Olive P ’08, Editor DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF ADVANCEMENT Kate Maiurro ’00 ASSISTANT DIRECTOR OF ADVANCEMENT Eric Kronebusch ALUMNI ASSOCIATION PRESIDENT Benjamin R. Howe ’89

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Email: bulletin@fvs.edu Phone: (719) 390-7035 Mail: 6155 Fountain Valley School Road

Colorado Springs, CO 80911

VICE PRESIDENT Katrina V. Presti P ’13, ’15

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The Bulletin is published two times a year. Letters, comments and article submissions are welcome. Contact the FVS Communications Office:

PRESIDENT Henry P. Morse Jr. ’69

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Jeanne Olive Laura Fawcett Eric Kronebusch

Fountain Valley School of Colorado Board of Trustees 2016–17

FROM THE HEAD OF SCHOOL

DEAR FRIENDS, Fountain Valley School invites discovery—of knowledge and intellect, of new pursuits and passions, of self and character, of empathy and compassion, of courage and adventure, of grit and resilience. The endless horizons inspire us daily, reminding us of the boundless opportunities Fountain Valley offers to all who learn, live and play here.

Curiosity, one of the School’s core values, goes handin-hand with discovery, and alumni carry this with them from Fountain Valley. In this issue, you’ll read extraordinary (even jaw-dropping) stories of alumni discoveries.

The school year has begun, and I am looking forward to another year of students discovering themselves as they push their boundaries in a culture that cheers on those who try something new. Fountain Valley takes great pride in being a safe place for students to take healthy risks.

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We persevere in our commitment to growth and innovation in our curriculum. American Studies is one example, a new seminar course co-taught by English faculty Dave Racine and history faculty Jake Emery ’71.

The class takes a rich and holistic approach to American literature and history to give students a multi-layered understanding of U.S. culture. Our deep commitment to the arts is evident in new technology that includes LED lights and a soundboard for the theater, a green screen, and new computers and cameras for film and photography classes, thanks to a generous donor. On the athletic front, our new director Caroline Blaylock P ’20 is a former professional athlete (LPGA) who has already infused her wonderful energy and passion into the afternoon program.

I am excited to share that we’re entering the next chapter at Fountain Valley School, moving from the planning stages into the execution of a campus master plan that addresses critical programmatic and structural needs. Our three years of hard work

Will, Maggie and Sarah Webb

and long hours of planning are poised to turn vision into reality. We are rapidly gaining philanthropic support from the Fountain Valley family, and we encourage all of our community to join in partnering with the School to achieve the goals set forth by the campus master plan.

The future is bright, and filled with energy and enthusiasm here on the prairie. I hope you’ll come and join us for a visit to see for yourself!

Best,

WILLIAM V. WEBB Head of School

Bulletin Board Tony Wang ’17 Earns Accolades With Math Skills Math problems? No problem! Tony Wang ’17 won honors in two math competitions last spring.

On April 22, he participated in the 33rd Colorado Mathematical Olympiad along with 232 other Colorado middle and high school students. He scored among the top 27 students in the state to earn one of 23 first honorable mention awards.

In February, Wang was one of 17 Fountain Valley School students who participated in the American

Math Competition (AMC), and his score on the test placed him fourth in the state of Colorado.

Annually, more than 3,000 Colorado students compete.

His AMC score qualified him for the American Invitational Mathematics Examination (AIME), which he took in March; only the top-scoring students on the AMC tests advance to the AIME.

Another Winning Year in Arts Awards FVS studio arts, ceramics and photography students did it again, earning regional and national awards for their artistry.

- Nine Fountain Valley School of Colorado student artists were chosen this year to participate in the 17th annual Wunderkind Exhibition at the Manitou Art Center: Sam Bermingham ’16 (metalsmithing), Claire Blood-Cheney ’16 (photography), Taylor Furrh ’17 (photography), Honoka Furuya ’16 (photography), Abby Gustke ’16 (ceramics), Siri Khalsa ’16 (photography), Sydney Lane ’16 (metalsmithing), McKenna Monk ’17 (photography) and Samantha Pratt ’16 (painting) were all selected to show their work in the exhibit, which ran for two months this spring. Wunderkind is a juried competition available to any junior or senior art student in the Pikes Peak region.

- Fountain Valley School of Colorado junior Megan Masters collected an honorable mention award in the drawing category for “Prairie Sunset” at the 34th annual 5th Congressional District Art Competition.

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- Six Fountain Valley School of Colorado student artists collected blue ribbons in the 54th annual Pikes Peak Young Peoples Art Exhibition: Mason Cook ’17 for a watercolor titled “Bahamas Seascape,” Greer Hill ’16 for her piece in the nonfunctional ceramics category, and Annika Furman ’17 in the fashion design category. Garrett Pattee ’17 won the Creativity Award for metalsmithing.

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Cuff by Sam Bermingham ’16

Egg Lights by Abby Gustke ’16

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- For the second straight year, Fountain Valley School of Colorado artists swept the 3D category at the Tri-Peaks League Art Exhibition. Owen Bedford ’16, Abby Gustke ’16 and Annika Furman ’17 finished first, second and third, respectively, for their ceramic and metalsmithing pieces. Rome Martignoli ’18 won the People’s Choice Award in 3D for “Chimera” and Greer Hill ’16 earned a Juror’s Choice Award for “Whirlygig.”

BULLETIN BOARD

2016 Dominique Dunne Film Competition Thirty-five young filmmakers submitted entries in the 2016 Dominique Dunne Film Competition from schools across the country including FVS, Harvard-Westlake in California, Denver School of the Arts and Ballard High School in Seattle. The Dominique Dunne Film Competition began at Fountain Valley School in 1967 and was resurrected in 2011 after a seven-year hiatus. Winning films were screened for the Fountain Valley community on Saturday, May 7.

Harvard-Westlake students working with The Righteous Conversations Project of the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust won first and second prizes in the documentary category. First place went to “The Story of Three Rings: A Memoir of Dana Schwartz”

by Dora Schoenberg, Felix Audelo-Ruiz, Juli Freedman, Elly Hong and Carolina Martinez. “Curt Lowens: A Life of Change” won second place and was produced by Justin Binder, Robert Earlson, George Khabbaz, August Blum, Levi Glaser, Kayla Mossanen and Tammy Shine.

“Creepy” was a main theme among the dramatic entries with several submissions falling in the horror or thriller genre that brought the suspense factor in full force. First place went to “Outlier” by Grant Shelpuk of the Denver School of Arts, and second place went to “Who’s Afraid of the Dark?” by Bergen Johnson of Ballard High School.

The award-winning films are sent to members of the competition’s Advisory Board, consisting of internationally known film and television veterans: Griffin Dunne ’74, John Goldwyn ’76, Tony Goldwyn ’78 and Ed Sherin ’48.

FVS Educator Featured in Global Education Book Fountain Valley School of Colorado Library Technology Educator Toni Olivieri-Barton P ’17 is featured in the new book, “The Global Educator: Leveraging Technology for Collaborative Learning and Teaching,” by Julie Lindsay.

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The book was released July 19 by the International Society for Technology in Education, a nonprofit association for teachers focused on educational technology. According to ISTE, the book aims to empower educators with the tools to foster an environment where students experience other cultures and develop skills in a connected world. The book provides resources and case studies from educators throughout the world who are forging connections across the globe.

Who’s a national champion? This guy!

Congratulations to math faculty and cross country/track coach Scott Lebo, who finished first in his age division at the U.S. Track and Field 30K Trail Championships held July 30 in Colorado Springs.

He finished ninth overall, ahead of people half his age!

David Cendon Garcia ’16 Competed at Poetry Out Loud Nationals Fountain Valley School of Colorado senior David Cendon Garcia advanced to the national finals of the 2016 Poetry Out Loud Competition. He and English Department Chair Dave Reynolds P ’13, ’18 traveled last May to George Washington University in Washington, D.C., to compete.

This is the 11th year FVS has participated in Poetry Out Loud and the first time the School has had a national competitor.

Garcia earned the honor by winning the Colorado state competition; he was the top performer among participants from 26 schools in Colorado. Garcia’s three poems

Low Brothers Are Golden in State Badminton Championships

Former Trustee Nominated for Emmy Congrats to former FVS trustee Bonnie Bertram ’82, who has been nominated for a News and Documentary Emmy Award for her Retro Report episode, “Vaccines: An Unhealthy Skepticism.” Bertram is a producer for the Retro Report, which has won many regional and national awards. Check out the episode here: retroreport.org/video/ vaccines-an-unhealthy-skepticism.

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The Lows are from Malaysia, where badminton is the national sport—five of the country’s Olympic medals since 1964 have been in badminton. Jason and Ben began playing when they were both about 7.

“He held it together very well,” Reynolds said. “He really didn’t make a single mistake.”

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Brothers Jason ’17 and Ben Low ’18 competed last spring at the Colorado High School Badminton Championships, collecting three medals between them, including the gold in the boys doubles event.

In the boys singles event, Ben won the silver and Jason won the bronze.

were El Ovido by Judith Ortiz Cofer; A Boat Beneath a Sunny Sky by Lewis Carroll; and Ode by Arthur O’Shaughnessy.

BULLETIN BOARD

Moby Dick Rehearsed Moby Dick meets King Lear in this ambitious, imaginative production written by Orson Welles. A play within a play within another play, Theater Director Hollie Marine brought out the very best in the actors and crew.

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FROM THE

COLLEGE OFFICE Juniors Play College Admission Officers and Gain Valuable Insight into the Process

by Director of College Counseling Doug Badger P ’18 What matters most on a college application: The grades on a transcript? SAT or ACT scores? Athletic talent? A family’s philanthropy? These are some of the many questions that Fountain Valley juniors wrestled with last spring as part of the School’s second College Admissions Case Studies program.

During the event, admission officers from more than 20 colleges and universities (including Dartmouth College, the University of Chicago, Grinnell College, New York University and Whitman College) worked with students in small groups to help them experience the process through which colleges make decisions on applications.

With their admission officer guides, students wrestled with the intricacies of four applications to the fictional Jefferson University.

By reviewing transcripts and test scores, reading essays and recommendations, Fountain Valley students began to learn more about each of the applicants: Kevin Matthews: A solid student from a good high school with a passion for basketball. His athletic ability has caught the eye of the Jefferson University basketball coach who says Kevin may be able to help the team.

Director of College Counseling Doug Badger P ’18 coaching the senior class on their common applications for college.

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Fountain Valley students identified the Case Studies program as a real turning point in their understanding of the admission process, an understanding that they hope will ultimately translate into submitting college applications which better resonate with those who will read and review them.

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Parker Edwards: A strong student with very good test scores from a wealthy family. Parker’s late father is an alumnus of Jefferson University and has been generous to his alma mater. There are indications, however, that Parker may have some less appealing personal qualities.

Consuelo Martinez: A young woman whose parents did not attend college but who worked hard to enroll their daughter in an exceptional private high school. Consuelo struggled at first but has grown into a very strong student and a leader in her school.

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Rachel Siegal: A good, but not exceptional, student from a so-so high school. Rachel is also a dedicated musician.

Debates among students were spirited, sometimes even contentious. But in the end, each mock admission committee was charged with the substantial challenge of choosing at least one applicant to admit, at least one to wait list and at least one to deny.

As the results were compiled, it became clear that there wasn’t a great deal of consensus on the final decisions, but that was part of the lesson of this exercise. Every admission officer reviews an application with his or her own biases, and every admission office has its own challenges, pressures and priorities to address.

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SPORTSWRAP

Climbing

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The climbing teams continue to be one of the most successful programs at FVS as both squads finished second this year at the Colorado High School State Climbing Championships. The boys competition was so fierce that the Danes finished second despite having only one climber—senior Taran Hunter—in the top 10 (seventh). The rest of the boys finished close together to complete the team score with Ian Edison ’18 in 21st, Luka Kimlicko ’17 in 22nd, Casey Allee Jumbo ’16 in 23rd and Forest Carsten ’18 in 25th.

The varsity girls field at state was no less competitive, with nine different schools represented in the top 10 finishers. FVS sophomore Marguerite Pankey led the Danes for the second straight year with a seventh-place finish, and the Danes were just 425 points behind the winning team at the end of the day. The strong girls squad included Isabella Montoya ’17 (T-15th), McKenna Monk ’17 (18th), Azaria Segall ’16 (25th) and Abby Gustke ’16 (29th).

Marguerite Pankey ’18 was the top finisher for the Danes at the girls state climbing championships.

Taran Hunter ’16 was seventh in the boys state climbing championships.

SPORTSWRAP

Boys Basketball It’s been a difficult four years for the boys basketball team playing in the 3A division, especially in a league that routinely produces a state champion. In their last year at this division (FVS moves back down to 2A in 2016-17), the Danes collected two wins, both against schools in 2A. Junior Danny Capp was the top scorer and rebounder for the Danes, and he and his fellow returning players are looking forward to more even competition in 2016-17.

McKenna Monk ’17 scored 20 goals.

Girls Soccer What a ride it was for the girls soccer team, as the Danes breezed through one of their best-ever seasons. They finished 11-3, won the region title and advanced to the second round of the state playoffs. Behind All-State selections Carter Gwinn ’16 (21 goals) and McKenna Monk ’17 (20 goals), the Danes’ only two regular season losses were to playoff-bound CSCS and eventual state champion Kent Denver. After capturing their first regional title in program history, FVS earned the No. 7 seed in the state playoffs and a bye for the first round. Unfortunately, No. 10 Peak to Peak came in with all cylinders firing to score a second-round upset.

LaeOne Jung ’17 brings the ball down the court.

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Lacrosse MVP Caleb Hurwitz ’16

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The Danes, who fielded both varsity and JV squads with nearly the same lineups, doubled their win total from the previous year as the boys continued to develop their skills in the tough 4A division. Senior Caleb Hurwitz led the team in goals and was named MVP. The Young Gun Award went to junior Anthony Archuleta, a hockey player who took on the goalie duties for the lacrosse team despite never having played the game. At times, he was a wizard at the net, facing a barrage of shots from more skilled opponents. The coaches are excited about new players for 2017 and are looking to build off the fantastic momentum from the end of this season.

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Boys Lacrosse

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SPORTSWRAP

Faith Young ’19 with a blue ribbon from IEA Zones Ani Yahzid ’16 earned All-State honors for the second year.

Boys Volleyball

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After a spectacular 2015 campaign, the 2016 season started off slowly for the Danes. Emotionally, the team was still reeling from the loss of defensive stalwart and team leader Tyler Allee Jumbo ’16, who passed away in the summer of 2015.

On the floor, they were also without an experienced setter to serve up the ball to All-State middle blocker Ani Yahzid ’16.

The Danes opened with three straight losses, but they slowly began to jell and win matches. Seemingly out of nowhere, the Danes fought through the latter half of the season to earn a spot at the state championships. As the No. 7 team, FVS fell to No. 2 James Irwin in the first round.

English Riding The English Riding team finished fifth at the 2016 IEA Zone Finals, just six points out of the lead. It was a tight race overall, but the Danes did not qualify as a team for the national championships. In the varsity intermediate division individual events, freshman Faith Young was third over fences and eighth on the flat. Senior Gloria Deignan was fifth in varsity open over fences. The Danes earned four more ribbons in the team competition. In the varsity intermediate division, freshman Faith Young was second over fences and fourth on the flat. Senior Koyo So was seventh over fences and second on the flat in the junior varsity event. Deignan received the IEA Zone 8 Sportsmanship Award.

Girls Tennis In a rebuilding year, the girls tennis team struggled to find a rhythm, winning just one dual match. No. 1 singles Ivy Zhang ’18 was the only returning singles player, and she had a solid season, finishing 5-4 in dual match play. No. 2 singles Abigail Dorsey ’16 and Delaney De Mott ’18 battled hard in all of their contests. The new doubles teams worked on skills and consistency, and combinations changed often throughout the season.

No. 2 singles Abigail Dorsey ’16

SPORTSWRAP

Hockey With the graduation of seven seniors, including five who went on to junior hockey in 2015, the Danes’ 2015-16 season was a rebuilding one. Overall, the team went 6-26-2, but the season was still full of improvement. In the winter season, the Danes picked up victories over the Daytona Racers and San Diego Junior Gulls before heading into the final weekend of Western Prep Hockey League play.

There, the Danes tied eventual WPHL champions JSerra 4-4 and defeated Pilot Mound 3-2 for third place in the tournament.

Nic Jenkins ’17 won the league title in the 1600m

Faith Chambers ’17 in the hurdles

Track and Field In one of the most competitive 3A leagues in the state, the boys track and field team placed seventh at the Tri-Peaks League Championships while the girls, with just seven competitors, were 10th. Maddie Kahl ’18 was fifth in the 100 meters and sixth in the long jump. Milena Strootmann was third in the high jump, and she qualified for the state championships The boys had two individual league champions. Nic Jenkins ’17 won the 1600 meters and Roope Lakaniemi ’16 won the high jump; Lakaniemi also finished third in the 400 meters and qualified for states in both events. Due to a scheduling conflict with commencement, he was only able to run in the preliminaries for the 400 (though his time qualified him for the final).

After graduation, Roope Lakaniemi ’16 signed with Kiekko-Vantaa in U20 SM-Liiga, which is the highest level of junior hockey in Finland.

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400 free relay participants Kaela Gaylord, Eliza Rhee ’19, Skye McCurdy ’18 and Sara Volk ’17 at the FFC Invitational

Rob Gustke’s swimming and diving team finished with a dual meet record of 5-4 and placed fourth at the Tri-Peaks League Championships. Solid performances throughout the year led to state qualifications for freshman Eliza Rhee in the 100 free and the 100 back, while she was also part of the state-qualifying teams in the 200 medley relay and 400 free relay. Rhee and teammates Honoka Furuya ’16, Sara Volk ’17 and Skye McCurdy ’18 twice broke the School record in the 200 medley relay during the season (2:03.67).

McCurdy, Rhee, Volk and India Lovaas ’17 were part of the 400 free relay.

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Swimming and Diving

2016

COMMENCEMENT The look of pure joy on newly minted alumna Abigail Dorsey.

To view the Commencement gallery, go to fountainvalleyschool.smugmug.com.

Board President Henry Morse ’69 and Head of School Will Webb lead the charge up to the Big White Tent.

Head of School William Webb presented the J. Philo Nelson Award for teaching excellence to history faculty, houseparent and hockey coach Mike Payne. As a teacher, Payne’s willingness to push intellectual boundaries in classes such as Islam and the West helps prepare students for the world they’re entering by analyzing today’s events in an academic context. As a coach, he persists in building the hockey program upon character and values.

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David Cendon Garcia and Taran Hunter delivered a piercing senior class speech contrasting the varying personalities in both the Class of 2016 and the faculty with wit and humor.

The laughter was nonstop as the senior class speakers presented.

COMMENCEMENT 2016

AWARDS

Top Honors

Awards Given at Baccalaureate John W. Emery Music Award: Jack Zhang

Creative Writing Award: Samantha Pratt

Photography Award: The School’s highest honor, the Froelicher Award, went to Sierra Caldwell, a boarding student and four-year senior from Carbondale, Colo. Caldwell was lauded by the faculty for the way she encompasses the School’s core values of open-mindedness, curiosity, courage, self-reliance and compassion. She has been a dedicated English rider and violinist in the Strings Ensemble, and she has mentored younger students as a residential assistant for two years.

The Eleanor W. Emery Award is given to the student whose contributions to the FVS community reflect the qualities Mrs. Emery admired most: educational commitment, integrity, sensitivity to the needs of others, warmth, good humor and enthusiasm. This year’s recipient was boarding student Honoka Furuya (Japan). Whether as a residential assistant or swim team captain, she has an authentic interest in the welfare of those around her, consistently putting others’ needs ahead of her own.

Haode “Jack” Zhang, a boarding student from China, received the Sidney S. Bunting Award. The award is given to students in recognition of those qualities Mr. Bunting most admired: scholarship, intellect and culture.

He has been an exceptional mentor to other students at FVS.

Languages Award:

Claire Blood-Cheney

Sierra Caldwell

Honorable Mention Highest Scholastic Honors:

Caleb Hurwitz

Seohyun Jung

Langdon Mathematics Award:

Karen Lawrence

Samantha Pratt

Taran Hunter

Breene Baggett Memorial Acting Award: Haley Brames

Rumbough Award (Performing Arts): Azaria Segall

Anderson Award (Outdoor Education): Seohyun Jung

Top Horseman: Adde Sharp

Riding Director’s Award: Bobbi York

Fisher Howe Exceptional Leadership Award: Abby Gustke

Varsity Awards for Athletics: Abby Gustke and Roope Lakaniemi

Don Kardok Coach’s Award: Byron Dacy (boys and girls soccer)

Global Scholars Claire Blood-Cheney, Jon Ezell, Yanno Fernandez, Honoka Furuya, Chris Greidanus, Elly Gluschke. Caleb Hurwitz, Karen Lawrence, Lucas Lu, Lily Lungren, Jack McCurdy, Erin Newell, Samantha Pratt, Azaria Segall, Eric Wang

Hunter Frost Theatre Arts Award:

Cum Laude Society New Members

David Cendon Garcia

Class of 2016: Seohyun Jung, Samantha Pratt, Eric Wang, Wendy Wu, Jack Zhang

Campbell English Award:

Henry L. Newman Award (athletics):

Claire Blood-Cheney

Adde Sharp

Class of 2017: Andrea Golden-Lasher, LaeOne Jung, Izzy Nuñez, Abby Roubal, Sara Volk, Tony Wang

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F. Martin Brown Science Award:

Robinson Art Award:

Kitson Music Award:

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Seohyun Jung

Penrose History Prize:

Musical Award: McKayla Dedrick

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Highest Scholastic Honors:

Claire Blood-Cheney

COMMENCEMENT 2016 Commencement Speaker Dave Philipps ’96’s Advice to Graduates:

SOMETIMES, IT’S OKAY TO BE A JERK Excerpt from his address Dave Philipps ’96 is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist and author whose work has focused on the human impact of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He won the Pulitzer in 2014 for his series, “Other Than Honorable,” that was published in the Colorado Springs Gazette about the treatment of injured American soldiers being discharged without military benefits. He was also a 2010 Pulitzer Prize finalist for his stories on the spike in violence within a combat brigade returning to Fort Carson after bloody deployments to Iraq, which led to his book, “Lethal Warriors.” Philipps is now the veteran affairs national correspondent for the New York Times. Philipps’ fearless reporting has led to important change such as increased mental health care for soldiers and a federal investigation of the Department of the Interior’s wild horse program.

… Sometimes, it’s okay to be a jerk. It’s okay to be a jerk, as long as you have people who care enough to occasionally give you a dope slap. …At Fountain Valley, when I was busy being a jerk, what I was doing was testing boundaries, sticking my nose in without permission, taking no one’s word for it, finding out if things really were what everyone said. I didn’t know it yet, but I was training to be an investigative journalist.

I use the same skills, to a surprising degree, every day now at the New York Times. I remain unimpressed by power, suspicious of orthodoxy, curious about corners I’m not supposed to be in. The penchant I had for secondguessing Mr. Mariner in science class, I now extend to generals, senators, cabinet members, society itself.

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What I’m saying when I say its okay to be a jerk is that sometimes life is about turning your liabilities into advantages. Journalism can be a little rough. It’s prisons and Ebola outbreaks, shootings and tangled aftermath of war. It’s walking bad neighborhoods after dark armed only with a note pad, or realizing that the authorities you are supposed to trust are lying to your face. You are often unwelcome, unwanted, unprepared, unsure, but still you go try to find the truth and print it. And by the way, it’s a lot fun.

But to want to do that kind of work you have to have some serious character defects. That is why I’m telling you it is okay to be a jerk—at least a little bit of a jerk.

Have enough conviction to do what you want to do, and stick up for who you are. Find out what you are good at. As much as anything, life is about knowing yourself:

pulling open the junk drawer of the soul and seeing what you can build from what’s there—the talents and noble instincts, sure—but also the deficiencies, the screw ups—all of it.

Rummage around. What is in there? And what can you make out of it? If, in the next 10 years or so, you can come up with an answer and get to work on it, I’d say you’re doing pretty good.

But remember, I said it’s good to be a jerk but also, it’s good to get dope-slapped once in a while, and here is what I mean: I would never have gotten to where I am— never had the skill to really tell a story, or the impact to change lives with my work, never broadened the understanding of our world through writing, never won a Pulitzer Prize, if people along the way did not literally and figuratively give me a dope slap and tell me to stop goofing off and rise above my own selfish instincts.

Many people here did this for me. Rob Gilbert, Dave Reynolds, Mark Dillon, among others.

Thank you, gentlemen. Thank you, from me and the thousands of others you have dope-slapped over the years. The world is a better place for it.

But before I get too sappy about this, let me tell you about the dope slap I remember most from Fountain Valley. It was the afternoon I decided I would skip outdoor ed practice, and I was caught in the act by Rob Gustke.

COMMENCEMENT 2016

Before I tell this story, it’s important to remember I’m not talking about the bread-baking, bee-keeping, teddy bear Rob Gustke of today, all teary-eyed and reflective on his daughter’s graduation today. This was the 1990s testosterone machine, I’m-goingto-climb-Mount Everest-or-die-trying Rob Gustke. Him of clenched jaw and pulsing veins. Like me, he was a little bit of a jerk. He liked things old school, bare and unvarnished. While the rest of the world was increasingly frappuccino, he still was black coffee.

I’m glad he is like that. If not for his inner jerk, he probably would have just followed procedure, marked down my absence and sent me to the dean. Instead, he decided what would really benefit a young man like me was a fair measure of pain. So the next day, instead of reporting me to the dean, he walked me out the back door of the gym. He smiled and put his hand on my shoulder. And in that distinctive Gustke monotone, he said, “Dave, there is a stack of 20 bricks at the top of Dillon hill. Those are my bricks, and I want them back.

Run up there and get them for me right now. One at a time. And when you bring each one back, do 20 pushups.”

It was Mr. Gustke’s own special brand of Hallmark card, “When you care enough to make a kid suffer.” I never skipped outdoor ed again.

May we all have people in our lives that care enough to steer us toward higher goals, or if steering isn’t enough, make us do pushups. Fountain Valley surrounded you with these people.

Here is my tip: From now on, you will have to seek these people out. Learn from them.

When I say you need to be a jerk and also get dopeslapped once in a while, I guess what I am really trying to say is that the self depends on others, and others depend on the self. It’s not one or the other. Both only exist only together, in constant tumult, sure. Fighting, loving, shoving, learning…both have to be strong and honest in us if we are going to anywhere.

It’s a hard trick to pull off: How can you be true to yourself at the same time that you try to serve the broader world?

Well, it’s tough. It takes character. I think that is why Fountain Valley is such a special place: it gives us a chance to assemble the ingredients of character— things that were not on syllabus, but stay with us long after we have forgotten the rest of the stuff the school crammed into our brains: curiosity, creativity, simplicity, expectation, honesty, integrity—maybe even some good old-fashioned humility.

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I didn’t know it at the time, but I learned these things here. You learned these things here, and future students will learn these things here. Sometimes the hard way, like I did…

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Now, as a journalist, I should note that’s not a direct Gustke quote. But it’s pretty close. I’m glad he did it. I learned a lot from climbing mountains with him that is

I couldn’t learn any of those things until Rob Gustke let me know in his own jerk way that he was not going to let me slide. Thank god he did it. I love that guy. I respect him. I hope he sees what I have done as the runoff of his example.

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I know that’s funny, but it was important. What he was saying was that yes, you get to be yourself, explore your boundaries and all that, but what self do you really want to be? Will you build something with your life? This is your decision, but to help you make it, I’m going to hurt you.

still useful today. I learned there is no point in trying to fake it. Doing is the only thing that matters. You climb the mountain or you don’t. If you practice, it will probably go better. If it looks too stormy up ahead and you think you should turn back, take a few more steps, maybe it will clear.

Mingling in the Hacienda Courtyard before dinner under the Big White Tent

You wer e here!

Celebrating FVS’s 86th year

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Fountain Valley School of Colorado

Class of 2011. Left to right, Lucia Nuñez, Trace Tomme, Kelly Stoinski, Jose Garcia, Davis Tutt, Avery Schiff, Cody Tyler, Logan Ford, Dempsey Simonis, Bob Bernhart, Nora Dillon, Cannon Grandison, Baylee McIntyre, Ellie Schaack, Sarah Vukelich, TJ Knecht, Jonathan Redmond, Sam Olvera, Steven Owen

Kyle Eichenberger ’12, left, and Trevor Shott ’13

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Former trustee Peter Packard ’66 takes a turn on the dance floor with and Donnie Fanshawe, wife of Paul Fanshawe ’66.

Left to right, Chris Bellios ’89, Ben Howe ’89, Glenn Sugden ’87, Chris Sanchez ’90, Robin Arwood ’88, Chuck Ridgway ’89

Class of 1956. Hugh Knapp, left, and Mike Collins

Class of 1981. Left to right, Lily Osborne, daughter of Greg Osborne; Anne Green P ’04, ’06 and her daughter, arts faculty Addie Green ’06

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B u l l e t i n F a l l 2 0 1 6

Laura Ames ’12 visiting with two of her favorite English teachers, Dr. Susan Carrese P ’12, ’15, left, and former faculty Sheila Griffith, right

Class of 2001. Back row, left to right, Taylor Meyer, Andy Wilz, Andy Dudley, Ariel Sugar. Front, Cynthia Walton, Starr Densford, Caightlain Richmond, Katy VonNostrand

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The biggest turnout to date for the alumni hockey game! Back row: Jaques VanZyl ’19, Paul Graney P ’18, Waltteri Niittula ’16, Garrett Van Wyhe ’15, Trevor Shott ’13, Travis Hinton (co-op ’14), Ryan Harrison ’12, faculty Tommy Manning, Brenden Wood (co-op ’12), Tyler Martin ’15, coach Mike Payne, P.J. Hollenbeck ’96. Front row: Soren Bredeson ’18, William Alling Graney ’18, Derrek Shoup (co-op ’12), Kyle Eichenberger ’12, Logan Ford ’11, Kamren Shoup (co-op ’13), faculty David Racine, Tim Boddington ’68, Mark Seelye ’70

Class of 1976. Left to right, Doug Eberhart, John Moore, Denis DuBois, Jacqueline Rogers P ’13, Jim Kuhns and Al Rogers P ’13

Class of 1991. Justin Mason, left, and Jake Waples

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Fountain Valley School of Colorado

Class of 1971. Former Trustee Neil Albert, left, and Dean of Faculty Jake Emery

Class of 1966. Back row, left to right, Peter Packard, Hugh Karraker, Bill Fraser, Porter Davis, Abdillahi Haji, Mac Buckingham. Front, Peter Hassenstein, Brock Hutchins, Bill Anceney, Paul Fanshawe, Clarke Omdahl

Alumni headed out on Saturday morning for an eco-tour of the prairie, led by ranch manager Tyson Phillips.

Class of 2006. Left to right, Hannah Duff, Addie Green, Brittney Moore Stroh, Stephanie Gardner, Kimberly Murray, Sarah Figgins, Chia-Chi Hsu, Tzu-San Hung, Alan Longhini Class of 1961. Left to right, Bill Norman, Milena Canonero, Bill Andres, Marshall Bell, Bill Griffiths, Shari Griffiths and Tom Price

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Class of 1961, take two: Back row left to right, Bill Griffiths, Bill Norman, Tom Price and Tom Poor. Front row, Mike Moore, Bill Andres and David Street

Class of 1996. Back row, left to right, James Fontenot, Matt Busenhart, Phil Weidner, Rob Matthews, PJ Hollenbeck, Alex Slater, Signe Gabrielson, Jason Friedes, Laurie Peterson. Middle, Josh Boone, Joe Hoverstock, Ryan Stevens, Jacqui Trombly Duba, Ariane Balizet.

Front, Randy Parella, Jason Halprin, Manabu Ishikawa, Melissa Wittwer, Jayson Hopmayer, Collin Coburn, Alden Faust, Sabina Mehta Scott

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AND THE AWARD GOES TO… ALUMNI AWARDS

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Congrats!

Fountain Valley School of Colorado

Brittney Moore Stroh ’06 is the inaugural recipient of the Young Alumni Award. She is executive director and chief operating officer for Atlas Preparatory School in Colorado Springs. The charter school’s goal is to provide economically disadvantaged students with educational opportunities similar to those at private schools. “We want to help take students from survival mode to successful, stable lives,” Stroh says.

Atlas was founded in 2009 and now has 800 students in grades 5-12. Previously, Stroh was a fellow at El Pomar Foundation upon graduating from Colorado College.

This year’s Elizabeth Froelicher Smith Distinguished Service Award honors former trustee Peter Packard ’66 for his support of Fountain Valley that centers on stewardship, conservation and preservation. The School’s land and architecture speak to Packard. His is a hands-on approach, as evidenced by hundreds of hours spent overseeing the renovation of the Mountain Campus. Packard has also worked with the School on an energy audit, and he helped restore the Perry residence halls to their original functionality as passive solar buildings.

The Distinguished Alumni Award recognizes extraordinary professional achievement and community service. Will Nicholson ’46 was one of the most influential figures in golf.

He served as president of the U.S. Golf Association in 198081 after 11 years on the USGA Executive Committee. He played a key role in the Masters Tournament at the Augusta National Golf Club. Nicholson was responsible for setting up the course for the Masters, and was chairman of the Masters rules committee for 17 years. He was inducted into the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame in 2012.

The Lewis Perry Jr. Alumni Award recognizes outstanding leadership by an alumnus in the previous year. Duncan Alexander ’64 identified a need at Fountain Valley School and directed a gift to the Advancement Office. This has helped immensely in Fountain Valley School’s development and communication efforts, giving the School resources that allowed the office to clean up and refine the database, as well as secure the training necessary to use the database to its full potential.

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2016 ARTS GUILD INDUCTEES

2016 ATHLETIC HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES

Left to right, artist-in-residence Mark Dillon P ’08, ’10, ’11, Mark Wong ’86, Mike Collins ’56, Gerald Peters ’66 and Head of School Will Webb.

Left to right, Mike Collins ’56, Abdillahi Haji ’66, Morgan Smith ’56, Bill Fraser ’66 and former faculty Mike Cronk. Collins presented the award to Smith, and Cronk presented to Haji and Fraser.

Mike Collins ’56 has made an indelible imprint on Fountain Valley School, and his significant architecture talents are evident across campus: The Hacienda addition, Art Barn renovation, Lewis Perry Jr. Chapel expansion, Performing Arts Center, Dining Room renovation, Welcome Center and the triplex for faculty housing.

His love of Fountain Valley is obvious in the painstaking job he has done maintaining the architectural integrity of the School. He is also well known for his architectural projects throughout the Pikes Peak Region. His restoration of Colorado College’s Cutler Hall won an award from the Historic Preservation Alliance.

Morgan Smith ’56 competed in five sports while at FVS and was successful in all of them. As a three-year letter winner in hockey, he was an all-league selection as a defenseman and the first recipient of the Doc Romnes Award for hockey MVP. In football, he earned the Dwinnell Award as MVP and collected the Wayne MacVeagh Award for gymkhana. He twice won the annual FVS Ski Race, and his leadership was evident as he was co-captain for football, gymkhana and hockey. He also played soocer.

Gerald Peters ’66 is an art dealer with a worldwide reputation among galleries, museums and collectors. He has art galleries in Santa Fe and New York City. Peters has been involved in the art business for more than 40 years and is known as one of the foremost authorities on American 19th century and early 20th century works, the art of the American West and American modernism. He is also a historic preservationist who has restored four structures in New Mexico that are on the National Historic Register.

Abdillahi Haji ’66, P ’09 amazed the School, and indeed the city, with his stellar soccer skills. He was the leading scorer both years he played and the MVP as a senior. He helped the team to two league championships and one undefeated season, and led the Danes to their first-ever victory over the Air Force Academy.

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Mark Wong ’86 is a renowned ceramicist in the Pikes Peak region whose expertly thrown vessels can be found at many galleries across the Front Range. Wong has developed his own glazes, clays and kilns to experiment and control the various reactions between heat and materials. The thin walls of his vessels radiate the heat more rapidly after firing, which allows him a range of color and luminescence rarely seen in raku.

Wong is generous with his time and talent at FVS, regularly guestteaching in ceramics classes and holding a Clay and Play class on Alumni Weekends.

Bill Fraser ’66 made his mark on four sports–basketball, football, skiing and track. His accomplishments were numerous: leading halfback in rushing as a senior; FVS Ski Race champion, and Colorado state high hurdles champion as a senior (breaking the state record in the process). He was the football team captain and track co-captain, and was selected to the Varsity Club. In his final year, he was given the Varsity Award as the top athlete.

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Reflections of an Athletic Hall of Fame Inductee

by Morgan Smith ’56 I was stunned when my classmate Mike Collins called me several years ago to say that he was going to nominate me for the Fountain Valley Athletic Hall of Fame.

What I had as an athlete was energy and determination but no special skills, no scoring records, no participation on championship teams. Mike persisted, however, and in March of this year, I got word that I was to be inducted.

The drive from Santa Fe on May 27 was bittersweet. Julie, my wife of 50 years, had been astonished at my nomination.

“You were one of the biggest troublemakers in the School’s history. I can’t believe you’re getting this award,” she had said. Sadly, she died suddenly on April 3 so she could not be with me.

Instead, my daughter, Lee, came with me, as well as her two children, Chet and Elke.

My two sons, Jay and Nelson, drove down from Denver.

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Fountain Valley School of Colorado

Lee and I got lost en route and ended up driving in the back way. Just before turning into the back gate, we came up a road that was the site of an adventure with Mike Collins. Our junior year, he had received permission to bring an engine on campus that he could work on; he has always been a genius with cars. Little did the School know, however, that he also brought a car into which he placed the motor. We could slip out of our dorm at night and go cruising around.

One night, however, the car stalled on the dirt roads north of the school. So I got my horse, Moonbeam, tied my rope to the bumper and towed the car to this little hill that has now been paved. The car started rolling down, Mike popped the clutch and roared off. The problem was that my rope

was tied to the saddle horn so I rode after him as fast as I could in the dark, afraid that he would hit the end of the rope and knock Moonbeam and me down.

My years at FVS were full of those little adventures, and arriving on campus after a long absence brought many of them back.

As for the wonderful award ceremony, several thoughts: First, a highlight was seeing the wonderful video about today’s athletics at FVS—the variety of sports available now for both girls and boys, and the success that these various teams have had.

As for my award, which was mostly about hockey, I want first to thank all those who made my athletic days at FVS possible, starting with our long-suffering coaches, Doc Romnes, who went from an outstanding career in the NHL to coaching one of the worst high school teams in hockey history; Bruce Haertl from Dartmouth who was only with us briefly; Lew Palmer who didn’t know much about hockey but remained a good friend for many years after FVS; and to Doug Silverberg, two-time All-American defenseman at Colorado College who coached us our senior year when we finally won four games. Thanks also to my teammates who never gave up despite our many losses.

I want to say three quick things about sports at FVS and how they helped shape my life.

First, the NFL draft has taken place, and we’re seeing many young men receive huge contracts to play a sport. Why these staggering figures? Because so many people are willing to pay so much just to watch them.

Smith’s keepsake program from the 1953-54 hockey season.

What I learned at FVS, however, was very different. The key is not to watch but to participate. What matters is not being a great athlete or a wealthy one, but being a participant.

Second, sports are very often the best way to measure a person. I’ve been involved in politics, government, business and the practice of law, and so often the merits of those I’ve worked with have been blurred by all sorts of other factors—favoritism, luck, special privileges or connections. In sports, it’s much more clear. It is easy to see who is putting in the effort.

Last, my first experience as part of a team occurred at FVS, first in soccer and football, and then, most important, hockey. That was a vitally important life lesson. Our lives and our successes are based on being able to work with others and as part of teams whether, in my case, as a member of the many hockey teams I played on, or mountain climbs I organized, or family Thanksgiving soccer games, or the teams I built in various job experiences, or simply, the team that my wife and I were.

Sports at FVS had an enormous influence on my life. For that, I am deeply grateful.

Elizabeth Sage Hare: Celestial Disturbance Former trustee Sara Ware Howsam P ’06, ’09 was one of the artists included in the All New Women exhibit at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center last summer, showing with John Singer Sargent, Cindy Sherman and Lyle Ashton Harris.

One of her portraits was of Elizabeth Sage Hare who founded Fountain Valley School in 1930. Hare was also one of the founders of the Fine Arts Center. A local newspaper reporter back in the day described her as a “celestial disturbance.” This description informs the Hare portrait.

Also included in Howsam’s exhibit was a portrait titled Debutantes Dreaming, shown here, featuring her daughters Tess ’06, left, and Becky ’09.

Elizabeth Sage Hare: Celestial Disturbance

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Debutantes Dreaming

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Howsam is a Colorado Springsbased artist trained as a fine artist at Tufts University and at the Institute of European Studies in Vienna, Austria. The influence of Viennese artist Gustav Klimt is evident in much of her work, especially in this series of acrylic and mixed media portraits created for the All New Women exhibit.

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DINOSAURS

If you Google “India Wood allosaurus,” the first thing you’ll find is a 1984 article from People Magazine, and it reads like the fantasy of every dinosaur-obsessed kid in the world: A 12-year-old girl single-handedly discovers and begins excavation on one of the bestpreserved allosaurus specimens in the history of paleontology.

The bones will go on display in the Denver Museum of Natural History.* Her future as a paleontologist is guaranteed. She’s off to an Ivy League school. She’s famous.

Born in 1966, India Wood was raised in Colorado Springs. Her parents were local art royalty.

“Both of my parents were crazy artists,” she says. “My father, Myron Wood, was a fairly well known photographer. He photographed Colorado** and New Mexico extensively.”

Myron Wood is best known for his iconic portraits of the artist Georgia O’Keeffe at her home in Abiquiu, New Mexico.

“My mother, Nancy Wood, was a writer. She wrote about 30 different books.*** So I grew up in a house that probably wasn’t very normal, and I think that probably had a lot to do with thinking that digging up a dinosaur was just something you could do.”

Myron and Nancy Wood divorced when India was 3 years old. She remained close with her father but lived mainly with her mom who suffered from manic depression. Nancy Wood’s work took her all over the Southwest.

*** Including Little Wrangler, a children’s book about a young boy growing up on a real cattle

** Including Fountain Valley School ranch in Colorado. The boy was former FVS trustee Kirk Hanna ’71, P ’07, ’09, and the photos are by Myron Wood.

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This is the story of India Wood ’84’s discovery and excavation of a remarkably well-preserved allosaurus skeleton when she was only 12 years old.

* Now the Denver Museum of Nature and Science

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“My mother took us lots of places,” recalls India. “After my father left my mother, we had no money. Mother would look for vacation opportunities at friends’ places, and the ranch up in northwest Colorado was one of those places. It was a free vacation.”

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This story is edited with permission from a broadcast of the Wish We Were Here series on KRCC, Southern Colorado’s National Public Radio station. The show’s creators are Noel Black and Jake Brownell. You can listen to the broadcast at: krcc.org/post/wish-we-werehere-episode-13-girl-who-dug-dinosaurs.

DINOSAURS

Managed by a salt-of-the-earth cowboy couple named Minford and Judy Beard, the ranch epitomized everything Nancy Wood mythologized about the West in her books: a free, spiritual relationship to untamed land, wild horses and radical self-sufficiency. It was situated on almost 20,000 acres of arid land near the borders of Utah and Wyoming.

Beginning at the age of 8, India, her siblings and her mother would regularly make the nearly seven-hour trip from Colorado Springs to the ranch. They’d go up for weeks or even months.

“For me, the ranch that Minford and Judy ran was a refuge for me, it was like this other planet that I could go to,” India says. “It was just this peaceful place, and Minford and Judy lived in a cabin that had been built in the 19th century. It was just a little place, and we’d get there and Minford and Judy would come out there in their matching plaid shirts, give us a big hug, and they both wore

Digging for dinosaur bones at age 12 in Moffat County, Colo.

this musky cologne that to this day, if I ever get wind of it, it just makes me think of them.”

For young India, Judy was a complicated, but intriguing role model.

“On one hand, she was this kind of frontier woman but at the same time, she was an intense observer of nature. She knew the birds, she knew the animals that were around. She had come to know what fossils were out there, and she wasn’t a scientist.

I don’t think she’d ever been to college...she was kind of an amateur paleontologist.”

The only problem was, Judy hated kids. So rather than entertain India and her sister Kate, Judy came up with chores to get them out of the house.

“She can’t figure out what to do with us, so she says, ‘There are 10 tons of rock salt that need unloading, why don’t you go help for

DINOSAURS

two days?’ She carts us out there in the truck, and we help the ranch hand unload 10 tons of rock salt.”

But despite the tension with Judy and the occasional bouts of hard labor, India grew to love it at the ranch. It was big, wild, and judging by the artifacts scattered around Minford and Judy’s cabin, full of natural treasures. There was a chunk of dinosaur bone in their fireplace. It wasn’t long before India started begging Judy to show her how to hunt for dinosaur bones.

Just a stone’s throw from Dinosaur National Monument, the ranch was cut through by a towering hogback of sandstone known as the Morrison Formation, a layer of mostly red sedimentary rock dating back to the late Jurassic period. It’s one of the richest and most accessible deposits of dinosaur bones in North America. Minford and Judy’s ranch couldn’t have been better situated for bone hunting.

Eventually, Judy agreed to take India and her sister out to search for fossils. India was 10 years old, and she was hooked.

The next day, she went back out with a ranch hand to look for more. She’d found a new hobby, and Judy had found a way to get rid of the kids for hours on end.

“I brought it home with the rest of my natural history collection—arrowheads, ammonite and buffalo bones—but the dinosaur thing was really different. None of my friends had dinosaur bones in their bedroom,” she says.

India tried to identify the bone she’d found, but no luck. Nevertheless, she was eager to get back out to the site to see if there was more where that came from. Six months later, she had her chance. After a few days of obligatory ranch work, she convinced one of the ranch hands, Kenny, to take her and Kate back to the spot where she’d found the big bone.

As they ventured out into the craggy terrain, India lagged behind Kate and Kenny, taking time to inspect every interesting rock she saw. Eventually, she looked up and realized she was alone.

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“Kate and Kenny were out of sight, which made me feel kind of anxious because I was just 12 years old in this huge landscape with the wind howling over

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When they weren’t helping out with the backbreaking chores dreamed up by Judy, India and her sister would go out looking for more dinosaur bones. India remembers the day she made her first big find:

With help from Minford and a pickaxe, India pried the bone from the sandstone and in the huge block was a beautiful piece of dinosaur bone about two and a half feet long. India didn’t know what the bone was, but she wanted to find out.

“My pockets got so full of rocks that my jeans would almost be down around my knees. So there I am waddling up this little ravine, and I look up just about shoulder level, and it looks like a little log is sticking out. I backed up to look at it, and it looked like dinosaur bone.”

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After that trip in 1975, India and her family didn’t return to the ranch for a few years.

Her mom was broke. But in 1978, things changed. Her mom remarried a wealthy, Yale-educated rancher who owned land and livestock east of Colorado Springs.

He had a small plane and would fly the family to visit Minford and Judy on breaks.

“As usual, I had my jean pockets full of rocks that I had picked up, but the problem when you’re 12 years old is that your pants fall off,” Wood says. “My pockets got so full of rocks that my jeans would almost be down around my knees.

So there I am waddling up this little ravine, and I look up just about shoulder level, and it looks like a little log is sticking out.

I backed up to look at it, and it looked like dinosaur bone. I probably yelled something like ‘Holy shit.’ Judy confirmed that it was a dinosaur bone.”

DINOSAURS

This was a big dinosaur with lots of bones. But what was it? She had a serious paleontological site on her hands, so she had to get serious about paleontology.

the edge of the hogback because it was March. It was like I’d been abandoned on the moon or something, but I still can’t resist looking for bone. I see this little piece sticking out of the hillside at an odd angle...so I get down on my knees and start digging. I assumed it was just going to be maybe a few inches long, but it kept going back. I think I had a screwdriver or an ice pick that Judy had loaned me, and I kept digging back and the bone just keeps going.”

Kate and Kenny helped her chip away at the dirt and rock, slowly revealing the bone.

“The whole thing is the size of a turkey platter and with these really cool marks on it, almost like the topography of a map, like one of those relief maps of Colorado with the mountains on it. The bone had these funky ridges and bumps on it which I later realized were where the muscles and tendons had attached to the dinosaur’s pelvis.”

Even at 12, India realized she had come across something significant. If nothing else, it was a big and largely intact

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dinosaur bone. And unlike the last bone she’d found, it had been relatively easy to excavate.

Not surprisingly, she wanted to bring it home, but the bone would be too heavy for the small plane. There was nothing she could do but throw a tarp over it and hope that no other fossil hunters would stumble across it. Another anxious six months passed before India could go back.

Now 13, India returned to Minford and Judy’s ranch at the end of the summer of 1979 with her sister Kate. She’d come for the dinosaur bone she’d excavated. Too heavy to move by herself, India enlisted Kate’s help.

“We got this big bone out in big chunks, put it in a backpack—it weighed a ton—and I look over at a rock that I had used as a stool a couple times, and it’s a vertebrae. It’s shaped like a big spool, maybe a little less than a foot in diameter, and so Kate and I dig that out.”

Then they saw another. By the time they went back to Colorado Springs, India had bagged five bones. Her instinct about the dig site had been dead on. This was a big dinosaur with lots of bones. But what was it? She had a serious

Fountain Valley School of Colorado

Wood’s 1986 drawing of the humerus of an early mammal from the Upper Jurassic.

India found the very rare specimen, 1.7 centimeters long, as part of the 1985 excavation.

paleontological site on her hands, so she had to get serious about paleontology.

India went to the library. They had great paleontology reference books, but she couldn’t check them out.

“So I asked my science teacher at North Junior High. He was also a geology and paleontology enthusiast, and he had The Osteology of the Reptiles. He usually never let a book out of his room, but he let one out for me.”

She brought the book back to her bedroom.

“Here I had this bone on my desk that was 30 inches long, and the diagrams in the book were an inch long, so it was really hard to figure it out. Going through the book, I saw this picture of an allosaurus pelvis, and no question it was that bone.”

She immersed herself in research and learned everything she could about the allosaurus and about the era in which the allosaurus lived. Her friend [and FVS classmate] Marjorie Ague Eirif ’84 remembers India during that time.

“She was not the typical student who just depended on teachers to teach her,” Eirif says. “She was teaching herself; she was constantly focusing on a particular topic and doing as much research as she could into that topic. She knew all of the different periods of time, and she could quickly tell someone that these were the animals walking the earth at this point in time, and these were extinct.”

“At age 12, you want the big bones, baby, and any of the little stuff, I’d throw it down the hill. By the time I was about 14, I began to realize, India, you are an idiot. You have been an incompetent fool, and you have tossed a lot of dinosaur down this hill. It was kind of horrifying looking back and to realize that I was really, woefully unqualified, but I resolved I’d get better at this. I became much more meticulous about saving every piece and gluing things together much more carefully using Elmer’s glue.”

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Over the next few years, as she worked her way through middle school, India returned to the ranch every six months or

so. With each visit to her allosaurus site, she grew more confident in her ability to remove and preserve the bones she found, and more aware of the mistakes she’d made during previous trips.

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The ilium bone to be precise. She double checked a few of the other bones she’d found against the diagrams in the book. They all matched up. This was her dinosaur: the allosaurus, 150 million years old. In its day—the late Jurassic period—it was at the top of the food chain, preying on large herbivores like the stegosaurus and sauropod.

Wood digging for Upper Jurassic mammals and reptiles, 1985, age 19. India received grants from Dartmouth College and the Mellon Fund for her 1985 expedition.

DINOSAURS

Meanwhile, her bedroom in Colorado Springs was beginning to overflow with bones. She had bones on her desk and bones in cardboard boxes under her bed.

The allosaurus was taking over. No one in her life seemed to think it was all that peculiar, her mother least of all.

“My mother was an incredibly talented writer and photographer, but she was very laissez-faire in her child rearing practices.

By the time I turned 14, my sister was off to college. My mother would give me $50 every Monday, and she would disappear to Boca Grande to write her books and come back the next Sunday. I was by myself at our house from about age 14 to age 18, and I did whatever I pleased.”

And what she pleased was to keep digging up the dinosaur. She continued to learn new techniques like how to make a plaster jacket in the field so she could more safely transport bones back to Colorado Springs. She got better at reconstructing bone fragments using glue and epoxy. Just 14 years old, she was now presiding over her own private, semiprofessional dig site.

As she spent more and more time with the bones, she grew attached to the 150-million-year-old allosaurus. Though she didn’t know the gender, she named it Alice after the woman in the song “Willin’”

by Little Feat.

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Fountain Valley School of Colorado

But the relationship she developed with Alice also came with loneliness and doubt.

While her friend Marjorie might have thought it was cool, a bedroom full of dinosaur bones didn’t exactly make her popular. She was lonely.

Nevertheless, she kept digging. By the time she was 15, she’d excavated and reconstructed 18 bones from the site. She’d also come to learn that the allosaurus was a relatively common

dinosaur and that allosaurus bones had been found all over the West. While she was still passionate about her find, she was unsure if real paleontologists would be all that interested. That is, until she found the skull.

“I was 15 and a half, I was digging up there by myself, and I come across this bone that looks like a trailer hitch. It had a big ball on the end but it didn’t look like a leg bone or anything; there was all this complicated bone around it.”

The discovery of a dinosaur skull is always significant because they’re much more fragile than other bones and rarely survive the fossilization process. And when they are found, excavation can be precarious.

“The thought strongly occurred to me that I am completely unqualified to be doing what I’ve been doing for three years, and around that same time my mother concluded that a 15-year-old girl’s bedroom should not look like a rock quarry.”

Encouraged by former science faculty Anne Mariner P ’82, ’83, ’88, GP ’14, ’16, India decided it was time to take a shoebox full of Alice’s bones to the Denver Museum of Natural History for an expert opinion. If the bones were good, maybe the museum would take them.

She filled out a form, handed over the box on a Friday afternoon and didn’t expect anything further. On Monday, India returned home from Fountain Valley School at 5:30 after gymkhana riding practice.

“The phone rings, and this guy is on the phone. He sounds like an elf who’s had 10 cups of coffee. He said, ‘This is Don Lindsey calling you from the Denver Museum of Natural History.’ He was beside himself with joy, and he asked where I got the bones. I told him that I found them on a friend’s ranch. He said he’d really like to

“I think being up there was kind of a divine existence in that, here I was on this spot on earth that was so special that the ground had a dinosaur in it that was 145 million years old, and I had stumbled across it.”

see the site because these bones are really unusual in that they are so well preserved.

He asked me who dug them up. I said that I did. He asked if I was a graduate student.

I told him I’m 15.”

Lindsey was the assistant curator of paleontology at the Denver Museum of Natural History. He’d been with the museum for about a decade at the time and had spent time on digs all around Colorado. He was on the lookout for a new site.

They arranged to meet in Denver and drive together to the ranch. India was thrilled. In the last year, her family life had imploded. Her mom and stepdad had separated, meaning India could no longer count on her stepfather for the financial and emotional support that her mother often couldn’t provide. Her father had also split with his wife, whom India adored.

The sacrum (fused pelvic vertebrae) of the allosaurus found by Wood, held by Logan Ivy, collections manager at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. The bone was too big and heavy to include in the museum’s 1995 mount.

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She and Jim did the lion’s share of the digging that summer. They did manage to excavate more than half the site.

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They left in September. India and Jim returned to school. There was still work to be done, but it would have to wait until the following summer. India was again mostly alone at home and to make matters worse, her mom had a falling out with Judy.

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The two of them drove up to the ranch together, and India led Don out to the allosaurus site. He was impressed and told her he’d have a field crew come and dig it up.

But India wasn’t about to simply turn over her dig site. She told him that if he wanted her bones, he had to give her a job. It worked. He hired her as a field assistant alongside his son, Jim, who was her same age. Not only had India gotten what she needed, she had managed to secure a dream job. The dream quickly became reality, however, and the initial excitement didn’t take long to wear off.

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India knew her mom and dad on their own could never afford the Fountain Valley tuition. Suddenly, with Lindsey’s call, came a whole new set of possibilities.

DINOSAURS

That I could be in this place that was so separate from the rest of the world with Jim and Don with whom I shared all these interests in nature, and then with Minford and Judy, it was this microcosm. It was like being inside of a Faberge egg, at least my kind of Faberge egg. There were no jewels and no rich people, but it was this little world.”

Against her mother’s wishes, India decided to go back to the ranch. Though she’d had some reservations about spending another lonely summer in remote northwest Colorado, she figured she’d come too far to give up on her allosaurus.

The second summer picked up where the last had left off. They returned to the site and continued the excavation. They dug further back into the hill, getting to some of the more difficult bones to unearth.

They also began to uncover fossils of small micro-vertebrates and mammals that would prove later to be even more scientifically valuable than the allosaurus.

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As a budding scientist and paleontologist, India had in many ways come into her own.

But at 17 years old, she was a teenager.

India and Jim’s friendship grew into a romance. Everything she’d been working toward and hoping for seemed to converge that summer at the ranch. It was a refuge, a place where she found everything that seemed so elusive in her ordinary life at home: romance, adventure and a sense of belonging in the world.

“I think being up there was kind of a divine existence in that here I was on this spot on earth that was so special that the ground had a dinosaur in it that was 145 million years old, and I had stumbled across it.

As the summer wound down, so did the dig. They’d removed all the most accessible bones and sent them back to the museum in Denver. Don decided that he wouldn’t return to the site for further excavation. Whatever was left of Alice in that hillside would remain there.

The following year, India was written up in People Magazine and was admitted into several Ivy League colleges on the strength of her allosaurus research and her grades. But with the dig over, she also felt like she’d begun to lose her connection with the dinosaur she’d found. During her senior year, she tried to stay involved in the preparation of Alice’s bones back in the lab at the museum.

India asked the museum if she could work there during FVS’s Interim week and went there expecting to work on preparing the allosaurus bones, but Don wouldn’t let her, saying that it was Jim’s job.

Next, the museum’s board of directors lost interest in paleontology and wanted to focus elsewhere, so Don and Jim were let go. It was the end of an era.

India continued on in paleontology for a while. She went to Dartmouth, took science classes, and even got a grant to return to the dig site for another summer after her freshman year. She loved the work, but couldn’t shake the feelings of loneliness in the field. It was clear that she didn’t want to keep living life alone.

In 1986, she went back to visit the Denver Museum of Natural History. She toured the backroom and saw what had become of the paleontology department.

Alice’s bones had been left to gather dust in a backroom of the museum. All of India’s doubts about the profession came to a head.

“I remember seeing it piled in this closet, and I was heartbroken...I thought, I’m done. Alice is never going to go on display, and I need to do something else with my life anyway.”

India closed the book on Alice and moved on. She graduated from college and married Paul, one of her Dartmouth classmates. Ten years passed. India worked for a few years in the publishing industry, traveled extensively, and got an MBA. She and Paul settled down in Boston. And then she got a call out of the blue from Richard Stuckey at the Denver Museum of Natural History who told her that her allosaurus is complete.

Stuckey was hired by the museum in 1989 and charged with revitalizing the paleontology department, which had recently received funding. He planned to build a new fossil hall. When he came across India’s allosaurus scattered around in dusty cabinets he was stunned, saying that the allosaurus was in the top one percent of the best preserved dinosaur specimens that had ever been discovered in terms of how well preserved the bones were.

He wanted to make Alice the centerpiece of the new dinosaur hall, and he wanted India’s story to be a part of it.

He said, “What really stands out in her story is her dedication to finding those specimens, preparing those specimens, and then getting in touch with the museum and working with the museum to get them

DINOSAURS

into the collection...It’s a really rare thing for a person that age to get so engaged with a scientific topic.”

Stucky and his team had been working on putting Alice together for the past several years. When India got the call, Alice’s display was almost complete. They invited her out to see it before the exhibit opened.

Upon seeing it, and despite the surrealness of the moment, she recognized that in a way, the fantasies of her 12-year-old-self were, after all these years, coming to fruition.

“I felt immense pride and joy. It was almost like having a child.”

India thinks she will never outrun the allosaurus. She has written a memoir. The working title is A Girl’s Guide to Excavating Dinosaurs, and she is currently revising the initial draft and seeking a publisher.

India did not become a paleontologist. She majored in English literature at Dartmouth and earned her MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management. She founded a business research firm that produces industry studies.

For India, in the end, digging up Alice wasn’t about becoming a paleontologist; it was about becoming herself.

“It was who I was. I was a very inquisitive, determined, pain in the ass. The dinosaur was a perfect fit for me growing up. I don’t know what I would have done otherwise...I think kids need adventures, everybody needs adventures, and I was lucky enough to hook into one that lasted several years.

But most kids don’t have a mother who drags them off to some godforsaken ranch and says, ‘Oh, go hunt dinosaur bones or whatever. I’ll see you in three days.’ We need to figure out a way for more kids to be dumped off in the middle of nowhere.”

The fully mounted allosaurus, left, at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, which was mounted in 1995 as part of the Prehistoric Journey exhibit

Message in Bottle Discovered on Mountain from 1952: CUPID INVOKED

The message

MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE

Renae Gannon, Cheyenne Mountain State Park History Committee Fountain Valley School of Colorado 3/25/16: I am trying to locate a Henry Ulrich Wise who graduated from FVS in 1953. A group of volunteers from Cheyenne Mountain State Park was atop Cheyenne Mountain working on the new trail and found a love note in a bottle written by Henry [Rick] in 1952. We would love to contact him or a family member to get his story and perhaps include it on signage along the trail.

Email from: Jeanne Olive, FVS co-director of communications To: Rick Wise ’53 Date: 4/13/16

JO

Dear Mr. Wise, Rick Wise ’53

We were contacted by Cheyenne Mountain State Park regarding a bottle found by people who were building a trail on Middle Peak at the top of Cheyenne Mountain. In the bottle was the message: “I name this spot DEEM POINT, on this day Oct.11, 1952, by the powers invested in me

by Cupid. Henry Ulrich Wise, Fountain Valley School.”

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If you are willing, I would love to get the story behind this for the next issue of the Bulletin magazine. In addition, Cheyenne Mountain State Park would like to contact you to add the bottle and your story to their history.

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From: Wise To: Olive

Date: 4/13/16

RW

Dear Jeanne Olive, What an amazing flash to the past! At first I thought your email was some fundraising scam, but there are enough details to make it sound like the story is real. I wish I could tell you that I do remember writing that bottle message. I don’t, though I think it entirely plausible, something I could well have done. I do know that whenever possible, I took part in horseback camping up in the Rockies, led by Fountain Valley’s stoic and generous instructor, Deck Cheney. October 11, 1952, was a Saturday, so a day we could well have been up there in those glorious mountains. We camped out for I think at least a couple of days every time we went. In October, 1952, I was a junior at Fountain Valley, so a bit filled with myself and also hopelessly, romantically solo, since in those days FVS was all male (I’m so glad it is now co-ed). I did have a girlfriend back in New Jersey, but she was far, far away. It’s entirely possible I wrote those words with the flourish of “powers invested in me by Cupid” with all the ardent fervor of any 17-year-old. I am sure I was in love with Love. As to why I chose “DEEM POINT” as the name for that spot, maybe I thought the name was appropriately confusing, a way to reflect my own confusion?

I would love to have a photograph of the bottle and the message if you can send one to me. And of course, you are welcome to use my very short story in your next issue of the Bulletin. Equally, the Cheyenne Mountain State Park is welcome to contact me and use this story if it is of any use to them. Frankly, I think it might invite too many “lost” bottles scattered among the great Rockies. On the other hand, that method is a whole lot better than carving initials into tree trunks.

From: Olive To: Wise

Date: 4/13/16

JO

Yes, I will send you a photo once I get one. What a fun story, even though you don’t remember doing it! Thank you for responding. I see from the yearbook that you did well in gymkhana and performed in operettas. This is my 11th year at FVS, and two of my time-travel wishes would be to meet Deck Cheney and see one of Kitson’s operettas.

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Fountain Valley School of Colorado

From: Wise To: Olive

Date: 4/13/16

I join you in that time-travel wish. Two of my best memories are about riding with Deck Cheney and singing with Kitson. He taught me how to sight-read vocal scores, a skill I later lost from not practicing. He was such a gentle and encouraging mentor to all of us who liked to sing. As was Cheney to those of us who loved to ride horses. I am almost 81 now, and those memories are part of the richness of my life.

PS: I graduated magna cum laude, which was probably NOT in the yearbook. That was a marvelous surprise to me on graduation day. Suddenly, I got a whole lot of more respect from my peers, even from some of the guys who had previously tormented me.

RW

MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE

Date: 4/15/16

From: Wise To: Olive

RW

...While I don’t remember this incident, it has stirred up other memories, including the time I was busted around 11 p.m. climbing in the second floor window in my senior year with a lariat slung around one shoulder. With a couple of fellow students, we had been practicing lassoing calves that were penned down by the horse barn (we used breakaway loops so the calf would pop free with a quick pull from the roper). Trying the next day to justify our actions, I made the critical mistake of claiming I did it because “I was bored.” Mr. Taylor came down hard on that “excuse,” and I was grounded (confined to my room) during evening study hall for some time.

Lots of other memories like being the go-to guy for my history class notes, but that roping one for some reason seems special. Maybe because most of the time, I was Mr. Goody Two-Shoes. For once, the rebel streak broke out.... as it has since then, too.

Date: 4/15/16

From: Gannon To: Wise

RG

I can’t tell you how excited the history committee at Cheyenne Mountain State Park is to make contact with you! Thank you for the wonderful email...The note was found in 2009 by Mr. Jack Busher, a volunteer at the park, who was working on the development of a trail system on Cheyenne Mountain. I am copying him on this email so the two of you can talk about details.

I emailed the history committee this morning in an effort to coordinate our communications with you. While waiting to hear back from them, I thought I would send you the attached copy of the note that you wrote in 1952. Hopefully, it will spark some memories that you could share with us.

We look forward to visiting with you very soon. The bottle is in the office safe so I don’t have access to it. I hope this sparks your memory of the note and you figure out who Deem is. We plan to include the bottle and the note in our display case of historical items, along with a story about the note, in the Visitors Center. If you would like to contribute your thoughts, that would be so wonderful.

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We will be in touch soon.

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MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE

From: Wise To: Gannon

Date: 4/15/16

RW

Thank you for sending me that photo...I must have thought out this little venture in advance since I certainly did not lug a typewriter up into the mountains. All of this has sparked some memories of my years at Fountain Valley School, but alas not of this incident itself, though something in the back of my brain nags at the issue. It is a huge surprise to me for this to surface 64 years later. Thank you so much for passing the information on. I look forward to hearing from Mr. Busher or anyone else at the Park who is interested in this sliver of personal history. I loved my times up in those mountains... I look forward to seeing a photo of the bottle itself. I hope that triggers some memory. I suspect Deem was not a person but rather some idea of mine, but at this point I’m floundering in the dark.

From: Jack Busher To: Wise

Date: 5/7/16

JB

I found the note several years ago. We were scouting a new trail system to be built on the top of Cheyenne Mountain. We were on the west side of the mountain-top. We stopped at a rock-outcropping that looked like a likely place to establish a trail overlook. There was a great view facing west toward Mount Rosa and Pikes Peak. When I climbed down, I saw a prescription-type bottle lodged between two boulders. When I pulled it out, I opened the bottle and shared the info with the other members of the group. Because of the “Cupid” reference, I deemed it to be some kind of love-note. I might have a photo of the area, but so far I can’t locate it. I’ll keep trying.

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Fountain Valley School of Colorado

MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE

Date: 5/7/16

From: Wise To: Busher

RW

Thank you for this added information. In my mind’s eye, that overlook point was off the trail a short distance down a slope and quickly rising to the “Point.” If you can find a photo of it, I’d love to see a copy. Perhaps the Park would like to honor this explorer’s attempt to name this lookout spot and identify it today as I did then, “DEEM Point.”

Date: 5/7/16

From: Busher To: Wise

RW

Busher to Wise, 5/7: I’ve had success in finding the photos. They were taken on Aug. 9, 2010. The two more prominent figures in the photos are Mitch Martin, who is the Park Manager at CMSP, and Linda Overlin, who coincidentally, is married to David Overlin, who is the long-time (though now retired) ranch manager at Fountain Valley School. You might notice what seems to be a stick or pole protruding from the boulders. That may have been where we found the bottle. I’m sure it wasn’t far from there.

Again, I hope these photos may have some meaning for you. They certainly do for me.

Cheyenne Mountain State Park will display the message, bottle and Wise’s story in the Visitor Center.

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IN SEARCH OF A LEGEND

THE REMARKABLE STORY OF TAP RICHARDS ’92 AND HIS SEARCH FOR THE LEGENDARY MOUNTAINEER GEORGE MALLORY ON MOUNT EVEREST

by Rick Gydesen ’77 One of the most striking aspects of Fountain Valley School is how interesting our alumni are, both in terms of their backgrounds and the lives they went on to lead after they graduated. Whether I’m striking up a conversation at Alumni Weekend or reading a profile in the Bulletin, I always come away amazed by the truly remarkable life experiences so many of my fellow alums have had.

Of all the Fountain Valley stories I’ve heard, read or told myself over the past 40 years, none has astonished me more than the story of Tap Richards, a young athlete from New Mexico who went on to make history as a member of the research expedition that discovered the remains of the legendary British mountaineer George Mallory on the face of Mount Everest.

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IN SEARCH OF A LEGEND

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WHEN ASKED BY A NEW YORK TIMES REPORTER WHY HE WANTED TO CLIMB MOUNT EVEREST, MALLORY REPLIED, “BECAUSE IT’S THERE.”

Fountain Valley School of Colorado

The English climber George Leigh Mallory (18861924), one of mountaineering history’s most enduring icons, is credited with coining the phrase that has become part of the lingua franca of all mountain climbers. When asked by a New York Times reporter why he wanted to climb Mount Everest, Mallory replied, “Because it’s there.” But more characteristic of Mallory was his response to another reporter who asked what use there was in climbing. “None,” was the reply. For Mallory and the generations of climbers who followed him, conquering the mightiest peak of the Himalayas was simply gratification, satisfying the indomitable impulse to achieve.

For more than half a century, it has been accepted that Sir Edmund Hillary was the first Westerner to reach the summit of Mount Everest in 1951. But from the beginning, there’s been a devoted contingent of climbers who are convinced that this distinction

IN SEARCH OF A LEGEND

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Even if it could never be proven or disproved that the two reached the summit, finding the bodies of these two legendary pioneers would provide a sense of closure. In 1975, a Chinese climber named Wang Hungbao claimed to have spotted what he referred to as “English dead,” the body of an English climber in the vicinity where Mallory and Irvine were last seen, wearing old clothing that disintegrated when touched.

But no photographic evidence was secured, and Wang was killed in an avalanche before he could provide any more details.

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Whether the pair actually made it to the summit has been the stuff of lore ever since. And for a devoted contingent of mountaineering buffs, the mystery has

been an outright object of obsession. As the German mountaineer Jochem Hemmleb, one of the world’s leading experts on the history of Everest expeditions, puts it: “In the world of exploration and mountaineering, the question of what happened to Mallory and Irvine was the greatest mystery yet to be resolved. So yes, if that is obsession, I plead guilty.”

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may belong to George Mallory, believing that it is highly likely that he and his team of British mountaineers (the British Everest Expedition) reached the summit on their third attempt 27 years earlier in June of 1924.

But something went terribly wrong on that climb, and Mallory and his partner, Andrew (Sandy) Irvine vanished and were never seen again. The evidence was too scant or misleading to reach any conclusion as to whether Mallory and Irvine were lost during the ascent or descent. All that remained was the eyewitness account of a team member who sighted the two climbers at 12:50 p.m. on June 8, 1924, as they ascended an escarpment high on the final summit ridge (known as the Second Step), and then vanished into the mist.

IN SEARCH OF A LEGEND

Sandy Irvine is in the back row, far left, and Mallory is next to him with his foot on the shoulder of the man seated in front of him.

So it was clear that relying on stray clues from random discoveries was not going to solve the mystery. The only way the world would find out once and for all what happened to George Mallory was to mount a specific expedition to go look for him.

Hemmleb had long entertained the same thought, but it took an unsolicited inquiry from a stranger to set the idea in motion.

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Fountain Valley School of Colorado

In 1998, Hemmleb received an email from an American named Larry Johnson, the marketing director for a small independent book publisher, who was likewise obsessed with Mallory. The two hit it off right away and struck up a daily correspondence. When Hemmleb confessed his interest in maybe doing this search himself, Johnson took the bait, and the two men began exploring the possibility of mounting an expedition of their own.

They settled on doing it the following year, which coincided with the 75th anniversary of the 1924 climb. But they needed someone with the experience and funding to pull it off. A chance perusal of

a mountaineering brochure led them to Eric Simonson, a veteran mountain guide whose company, International Mountain Guides (IMG), was advertising a commercial expedition to the north side of Everest the following year, taking the same route that Mallory attempted. Simonson was intrigued, and he agreed to let the two piggyback onto his own expedition. But as the plans unfolded, Simonson decided that a dedicated expedition was required for this project, and thus the Mallory & Irvine Research Expedition was born. They spent the next few months securing underwriting for the climb, and once the British Broadcasting Corporation and WGBH/Boston’s NOVA series signed on as media sponsors, they were ready to assemble the expedition team.

Simonson’s criteria were simple. In “Ghosts of Everest,” the lavish account of the expedition published by Mountaineers Books, author William Nothdurft related

IN SEARCH OF A LEGEND

The 1999 Mallory & Irvine Research Expedition. Richards is second from right.

that Simonson was looking for “seasoned, high-altitude climbers who were even-tempered under pressure and would keep the expedition’s common goals always in mind, and who were trained to look out for the welfare of others, a characteristic critical in Everest’s dangerously unpredictable conditions.” In other words, a climber like Tap Richards.

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One of Richards’ duties on the climb was setting up the various base camps as the expedition ascended the mountain. His father was a contractor, and having worked part time on his dad’s construction jobs for years came in handy when it came to turning 100 yak loads of gear and supplies into Camp III, the expedition’s advanced base camp at 21,200 feet on the North Face of Everest. As Richards reminisced, “My dad told me there’s

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In 1999, Richards had been working for Simonson for several years leading mountain climbing expeditions for IMG in the

The expedition set off for Kathmandu on March 18, 1999, launching an extraordinary journey that would last more than two months. It took almost six weeks of preparation (including the initial climb to the first series of base camps) before they were ready to begin their first task: to find the bodies of Mallory and Irvine.

B u l l e t i n

A professional mountain guide since 1992 and based in Seattle, Richards’ guiding career has taken him to Alaska, South America, Mexico, Europe, Africa, Russia, Australia, Antarctica, Tibet and Nepal. He has made more than 100 successful summit attempts: Mount Rainier (149 times), Mt. McKinley (9), the Orizaba and Iztaccihuatl volcanoes in Mexico (11) and Mt. Whitney.

He summited Everest’s neighboring peaks Cho Oyu and Ama Dablam, both twice, and in 2006 he achieved the greatest summit of all, Everest itself.

Pacific Northwest. Impressed by his leadership skills, character and superb physical fitness, Simonson selected him and his IMG colleague Jake Norton as the Mallory & Irvine expedition’s “youngsters.” They were both 25.

IN SEARCH OF A LEGEND

always something to be done on a job site. If you find yourself standing around with your hands in your pockets, then the house must be done. The same goes with [climbing] expeditions.”

An Everest climb isn’t a long weekend break from work; it requires months of preparation, and once you arrive in Nepal, several more weeks of setup are required before you’re ready to tackle the mountain. The Mallory & Irvine Research Expedition team set off from Kathmandu on March 22, and it wasn’t until the morning of May 1, almost six weeks later, that they finally reached Camp VI and the search area. After a half-hour rest, full of optimism and the thrill of anticipation, the team set out to find Mallory and Irvine.

Barely a half hour into the search, Richards and two colleagues stumbled into a graveyard of mangled, frozen bodies below the famous Yellow Band. It turns out they were all relatively contemporary climbers who had fallen from the Northeast Ridge above and had not been found. Richards recalled, “We found ourselves in a kind of collection zone for fallen climbers.”

He radioed details down to Hemmleb at base camp, and was amazed how the Everest buff could identify a dead climber just by the kind of socks the person was wearing. “I wasn’t eager to get close,” Richards said. “Seeing those first few bodies was eerie, grim and humbling.”

They began their search for Mallory and Irvine in the area believed to be the last place they had been seen. But as their efforts continued to bear no fruit, one of the climbers (Conrad Anker) decided to follow his intuition and look lower. Perhaps the two mountaineers had fallen?

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Fountain Valley School of Colorado

Miraculously, after just an hour and a half into a search on a vast section of the North Face, intuition paid off: at 11:45 a.m. on May 1, 1999, at 26,770 feet above sea level, Anker spotted an odd patch of white on a steep slope, which turned out to be the alabaster-white remains of a Western climber wearing vintage clothing and partially encased in frozen rock and gravel. The rest of the team was radioed and eventually assembled around the body, which was lying face down, fully extended, and partially exposed on the rocky slope. Richards and the team stood or kneeled around the ancient body, speechless.

At first they were convinced it was Andrew Irvine, as it had to be the less experienced of the two who would have fallen (several bones were broken, and the body’s posture clearly indicated a fall from a great height). Richards, who had studied and trained in archaeology, began to carefully clear debris from around the

The last photo ever taken of Mallory and Irvine

embedded body, painstakingly separating layers of clothing.

Turning over a section of shirt collar, there it was: a laundry label that read G. Mallory. More shirt tags were revealed, all bearing the same name. In awe of being in the great man’s presence, it took a while for the reality to sink in.

As Richards’ colleague Jake Norton remembered, “It had always been understood that George Mallory was infallible. He didn’t fall, he couldn’t fall. It was a shock to discover that he was fallible.”

With time ticking away until they had to descend to base camp, the team worked quickly. They removed any surviving artifacts from the body: clothing, an altimeter, Mallory’s sun goggles, pencils, notes and letters wrapped in a handkerchief, scissors, a matchbox, a tube of petroleum jelly, a safety pin and even a small tin of meat lozenges. They were anxious to take everything, especially any evidence confirming whether Mallory and Irvine reached the summit or not, because if something was left behind, “people would keep coming back and disturbing him again.”

They also documented the body photographically, which stirred up quite a controversy later after the photographs were published, from reverent climbers who felt it was disrespectful.

Much of that outrage was probably due to the body being so well preserved. Had they discovered a pile of bones, it would have gone unremarked upon. In a post-expedition interview, Richards explained: “The publishing of the pictures of Mallory has been controversial and even complicated at times. We do have a responsibility to report our discovery accurately and thoroughly.

As this great mystery of Mallory and Irvine is more than just a story or historic event, it’s of utmost importance not to withhold information about our findings. Death is obviously not pleasant, but it is something that we can all count on happening to us, our loved ones and our friends. I believe that our society can only benefit from confronting it, rather than harboring it and not understanding it.”

IN SEARCH OF A LEGEND

After rescuing every artifact they could find, the team gave Mallory a proper burial, carefully covering him with rocks. Andy Politz recited a Church of England committal service. As Norton reminisced, “I don’t think any of us wanted to leave him. He was so impressive to be with, even in death.”

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A few days later, Richards found one of Mallory’s 1924 oxygen bottles near the famous First Step, proving that he and Irvine had been all the way up on the final ridge headed to the summit. Yet, as tantalizing a clue as this was, it still didn’t conclusively answer the question.

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The most important item Richards and the team were hoping to find was the holy grail of this enduring mystery: the collapsible Kodak Vestpocket camera Howard Somervell loaned to Mallory before the climb. Had he and Irvine made the summit, they would have taken pictures, and the film (perfectly preserved by the cold) could have been developed today, providing the answer to the riddle that had plagued so many Everest enthusiasts for three quarters of a century.

But alas, they never found the camera. Nor, in fact, did they find Irvine, who they realized was the Englishman spotted by Wang Hungbao on his own ill-fated climb in 1975. Perhaps Mallory had given the camera to Irvine before they started their descent. Unless a future mountaineer happens to spot something shiny amongst the rocks, and it turns out to be the camera, we’ll never know.

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“ IT HAD ALWAYS BEEN UNDERSTOOD THAT GEORGE MALLORY WAS INFALLIBLE. HE DIDN’T FALL, HE COULDN’T FALL. IT WAS A SHOCK TO DISCOVER THAT HE WAS FALLIBLE.”

IN SEARCH OF A LEGEND

SO ON MAY 12, THE EXPEDITION’S SUMMIT TEAM RETURNED TO THE NORTH FACE TO RETRACE MALLORY AND IRVINE’S STEPS AND REACH THE SUMMIT THEMSELVES.

Richards, front, and Jake Norton on Everest in 1999.

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A week later, the team set out to accomplish the final task of their research: to prove whether it was possible to even reach the summit via the route attempted by the 1924 expedition. So on May 12, the expedition’s Summit Team returned to the North Face to retrace Mallory and Irvine’s steps and reach the summit themselves.

Fountain Valley School of Colorado

Two of the team members, Conrad Anker and Dave Hahn, did reach the top of the world at 2:50 p.m. on May 17, proving that this route was indeed feasible.

But Richards and his mate Jake Norton turned back before the Second Step. One of the leading causes of fatalities on Everest is waiting too late in the day to begin a safe descent, known as “turn around time,” that moment when an Everest climber must abort the climb and descend whether the summit has been reached or not. It’s one of the most agonizing moments in a mountain climber’s life. Richards and

Norton felt strong that day, but years of experience and intuition made them wary of the weather, and aware of the likelihood that their oxygen supply would run out if they climbed any higher.

Plus, Richards still had the memory of those dead climbers from the doomed 1996 climb in mind, who died because they most likely waited too long to descend. As he explained, “The vibes just didn’t feel right. At the age of 25, I was pretty sure I hadn’t done everything in life that I wanted.” As Nothdurft reasons in Ghosts of Everest, it was a remarkably level-headed decision for two young climbers who could have so easily been swept up by summit fever at that point. Simonson told the two climbers they were in good company. Even the great Mallory himself had to make that terrible decision, having been “rebuffed by the mountain several times.”

IN SEARCH OF A LEGEND

“You guys are young; you’ll get another chance,” Simonson consoled.

The team arrived back in Kathmandu on May 23, and the last of the crew flew home on May 27.

So did Mallory and Irvine make the summit or not? As it has been for almost a century now, opinion remains divided.

Extensive forensics on the artifacts Richards and the team brought back cleared up a lot of speculation, but in the end were still inconclusive. For instance, Mallory said he would place a photograph of his wife Ruth on the summit. The photo wasn’t found among the many artifacts on his body, so where is it if not at the summit? No one can say for sure.

But if it’s any consolation, the expedition team’s research did answer one thing definitively: George Mallory and Sandy Irvine may or may not have reached the summit, but they clearly made it farther than anyone else before them. Much higher, in fact.

What does Richards think? In an interview a few years later, he offered his take: “I believe they perished before they reached the summit. I believe Irvine turned around with Mallory making a gallant solo effort near the summit and perhaps falling while climbing the Second Step or trying to skirt around it. From what I know of the Second Step, I don’t think they could have climbed it due to their limited oxygen supply. Also, attempting it as a soloist—it would’ve been more difficult without having someone there to belay.”

So the mystery as to whether Mallory was, in fact, the first person to scale the ultimate summit appears destined to remain lost on the frigid North Slope of Mount Everest.

But perhaps knowing the answer isn’t the point. Nothdurft concludes Ghosts of Everest by suggesting that solving the mystery may not matter anyway.

But once again, fate intervened. Richards and his team encountered an expedition of five imperiled Russian climbers who had been stranded overnight on the North Ridge. Partially blind from cerebral edema, suffering from frostbite and unable to walk, the Russians faced certain death at an altitude where only a handful have survived. Although they were just a few hundred feet before the summit, Richards and his colleagues gave up their own bid to the top in order to save the five Russians. While they administered food, water, drugs and oxygen to the nearcomatose climbers, other mountaineers continued past them on their way to the summit (and into the history books), which must have made their disappointment all the more acute.

In other words, it was another one of those beyond-discouraging (even heartbreaking) “turn around” moments that all Everest mountaineers face. But Richards’ selfless conduct was a testament to that depth of character that impressed faculty years ago at Fountain Valley School.

After the rescue, Richards said he would make the same decision again, but had mixed feelings about returning to Everest. He still wanted to prove he could reach the summit, “because in my heart, I believe I could have.” Richards knew that saving four lives (one Russian perished while descending) was more difficult and dangerous than bagging the summit. But as he ruefully observed, “No one gives you credit when you’re 500 feet short.”

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His boss Eric Simonson begged to differ. “I was super proud of what Dave, Andy, Tap and Jason had accomplished. They put their personal goals on the back burner and saved four out of five people with virtually no assistance. I was also bummed that they didn’t get to make the top, knowing how hard they had worked. I guess that’s just the way it goes; If you don’t like that uncertainty, you shouldn’t be here.”

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As alluring as the myth of Mallory may be, what attracts devoted climbers like Richards to the man is that he is not a myth after all, but rather, “a vivid, almost luminous reality.”

As disappointed as Richards was to not reach the top of Everest himself, he was to have another chance to scale that elusive summit. In May of 2001, the Mallory and Irvine team reconvened and launched a second expedition to Nepal to continue searching the North Face of Everest for more clues, in the hope of solving the ultimate mystery of whether the duo made the summit or not.

The team was also hoping to find the remains of Sandy Irvine, who remained lost [as of this writing, Irvine has still not been found]. Richards was also wishing to make the summit himself.

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“What matters is the scale of Mallory and Irvine’s achievement given the resources available to them, and their astonishing strength and grit. Their level of passion and determination, their fierceness of desire, astonishes us yet today—a purity of purpose, an unwavering commitment and in an odd way, invincibility.”

Return to Everest and More History Made

IN SEARCH OF A LEGEND

The international climbing community was also impressed. In February of 2002, at their 100th anniversary meeting in Snowbird, the American Alpine Club presented its David A. Sowles Memorial Award to Richards, Jason Tanguay, Dave Hahn, Andy Politz, Lobsang Temba Sherpa and Phurba Tashi Sherpa for their unselfish devotion in the heroic rescue of the five imperiled climbers.

Although the 2001 expedition came back emptyhanded as far as any further Mallory discoveries, in the end, the usually pitiless Everest gods must have smiled upon them, because it turns out Richards and his mates made climbing history after all with their selfless act of kindness. Hemmleb, their colleague from the Mallory expedition, explained the significance of the team’s success: “The rescue—the highest ever on the Northeast Ridge—destroyed the established belief that climbers couldn’t be saved at such altitudes unless they could walk on their own. It’s still high risk, and it’s not certain, but it’s possible.”

Only cooperative weather and the presence of a strong, experienced, well-equipped team willing to sacrifice their own ambitions kept tragedy at bay.

Whether George Mallory made history or not we’ll probably never know. But we do know that Richards’ patience, dedication and unwavering determination finally paid off: after five visits to the mountain, Richards entered the mountaineering pantheon himself by reaching the summit of Mount Everest in 2006. But in true mountaineering fashion, he looks back on that remarkable achievement in a more philosophical way.

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“The real success of any mountain climb isn’t just reaching the top of the mountain, but the adventure involved in getting there,” Richards explains. “Especially a place like Mount Everest. We have no business being there, so the real measure of success is simply having the opportunity to visit the spectacular mountain

environments and appreciate the remarkable adventure and all it took to get there. A few constants do exist in the Everest experience—the Richards on Everest summit, 2006 challenge is still tremendous, and the people of Tibet and Nepal are some of the most magnificent on the globe. I’m increasingly grateful for the opportunity to experience the culture of this Everest era. That said, you can’t but help romanticize the high experiential currency of the early pioneer expeditions. They were simply a tougher breed than those of us attempting Everest in the modern era. The fact they made it to the top of the world with nothing but two strong legs, wearing little more than tweed jackets and two layers of silk, was remarkable in itself.”

The 100th anniversary of the 1924 British Everest Expedition is only eight years away. It will be intriguing to see if the ghosts of Everest will lure a new generation of climbers and explorers.

“ WHEN YOU ARE OUT IN THE ELEMENTS, YOU EXPERIENCE THE WORLD DIFFERENTLY. WHEN YOU PUSH YOURSELF PHYSICALLY, YOU STRENGTHEN AND FUEL YOUR MIND. PUT THE TWO TOGETHER AND YOU ENCOUNTER THE SPACE TO LIVE OUT THE PUREST MOMENTS OF YOUR LIFE.”

IN SEARCH OF A LEGEND

Tap Today

Tap @ FVS

Now that Richards has a family, he has “shifted gears,” as he puts it. Two years ago, he left his career as a professional mountain guide behind, moved his family from Seattle to Woodside, Calif., and is now pursuing his other passion, building and woodworking.

A native of New Mexico, Richards attended Fountain Valley School during his junior and senior years. His student file indicates that he was a superb athlete, excelling in hockey, soccer and lacrosse. A gifted photographer, he was the recipient of the School’s Photography Award at graduation. Richards was exceptionally well liked by his peers and teachers, who described him as “a positive and easygoing young man, well-adjusted socially with a large circle of friends.” Perhaps the greatest tribute to his character came from his adviser, Marc Trister, who wrote in May of 1992: “In a day when so many adolescents struggle with moral issues, I have always been impressed with Tap’s sense of justice and his deep sense of honesty.”

“Guiding is an all-consuming experience, and I found being away on long climbs meant I was missing out on the chance to see my daughter grow up,” he says. Although the construction company he started keeps him more than busy, Richards still has a thirst for climbing. “Part of my responsibility in giving back is to provide my daughter with the opportunities for adventure and time in the mountains.”

Reflecting on his mountaineering and the world today, Richards says: “We continue to develop a convenience-based culture, creating an environment where we eschew challenge and instead speed through experiences that have potential to offer rich and compelling experiences. When you are out in the elements, you experience the world differently. When you push yourself physically, you strengthen and fuel your mind. Put the two together and you encounter the space to live out the purest moments of your life.”

But it was Richards’ aptitude for the outdoors that not only set him apart, but launched him on his future life journey. Having grown up with the ski slopes of Taos and Aspen as his backyard, his thirst for the outdoors and adventure had been a defining aspect of his life. So it’s no surprise that when he left Fountain Valley, he chose mountaineering as a profession. He counts Rob Gustke P ’16, ’18, FVS’s veteran science teacher, swim coach and outdoor education guru, as one of the most inspiring influences in his young life. In his evaluation following an Interim trip to Yosemite, Gustke describes Richards as “a marvelously skilled and very fit mountaineer with the potential to be a very strong leader. Tap is a well-rounded lad, strong of limb, well skilled, appreciative of the environment and willing to assume leadership. He was a huge factor in our group’s success.”

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Richards’ native talent for leadership and those strong limbs served him well seven years later when he embarked on the adventure of a lifetime, joining an elite team of seasoned mountaineers on the frigid slopes of Mount Everest to search for the long-lost body of George Mallory.

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Richards reflects on his FVS experience as “a vibrant landscape illuminated by a rich experiential education program and meaningful student/teacher relationships. There was real motivation in being part of a community of unique, courageous individuals with a shared commitment to take on the academic and social challenges.”

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A Young Writer Discovering Her Voice Samantha Pratt ’16 was editor of the Athenaea literary magazine and at Commencement, she won the Creative Writing Award and the Robinson Art Award.

She is the daughter of Sarah Mariner ’83 and the granddaughter of former faculty Jim and Jeanne Mariner P ’82, ’83, ’88, GP ’14, ’16.

A PERFECT D SHARP The ringing in her ears did not stop. It started the day her friend died and did not stop. The ringing blotted out everything, becoming everything—her mother’s voice, the rustling of the leaves, the words spoken at the funeral, the creak of the gate, the groaning of the old heifer in the yard. Instead of speaking, rustling, creaking, or groaning, they all rang in her ears, the same undying tone echoing on forever and ever behind her eyes and above her mouth. It continued to ring until the loaf of bread her mother made—a soft, round shape the color of summer afternoon— tasted like ringing. It smelled like ringing, too. Her cat, curling expectantly around her bare legs, hoping for some cream, did not feel like bird flight as he usually did, but ringing. The cold tile floor of the kitchen, chipped and worn by generations of living, rang up through her toes and into her ears.

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Perhaps she was not as she had been, but instead had become, herself, ringing. The note, a perfect D sharp, was not only ringing in her ears but in her mouth and nose, through her collarbones and into her shoulders, down through her hips and reverberating around her stomach and echoing in her lungs. It was her breath and heartbeat, her skin and hair, the curve of her spine and the freckle on her jaw. It permeated everything, became everything.

The floating, TV-static, light headed, numb feeling that fog feels when rolling over the sea.

The summer afternoon of the bread itself was ringing and so was the bird flight of her cat wrapping his tail around her legs.

The chipped tile floor under her bare feet that had seen so many meals, late night snacks, and women’s gossip over puffs of flour and the tears of cut onions, was also ringing. The D sharp blotted out everything else. She couldn’t see the salt shaker on the counter, just the ringing note. It spread from the shaker and obscured the knives like the ominous approaching darkness of

midnight thunderheads, spilling down into the sink and ringing up across to the summer afternoon of bread.

The ringing obscured the world, covering the scuffed and scarred wooden counter oiled with lemon juice and many mothers’ love, and encircled the partly eaten loaf, lapping at its edges until all that was left was that summer color, a soft, warm brown like the poplar cabinets. Just as everything was about to succumb to the ringing, she reached out and grabbed ahold of the last remaining thing: a single strand of evening sunlight, orange gold, that fell upon the summer loaf.

When her fingers closed around the thread of light, another note sounded. This one blended with the first ringing note and created a round harmony, pushing back the midnight thunderheads of the D sharp. There was the muted marble white of the salt shaker, and when she reached forward and plucked the color from it, a third note joined the others. The grey of her cat curled around her ankles was a light and airy sound like bird flight. The rich mountain purple of the verbenas in the sunlight vase on the windowsill added a soft, low hum, and when she walked— barefoot—out into the garden where the old cow groaned, she plucked the rich blue note of the late-in-the-day sky from the air and began to weave the strands of light together.

The cream of the heifer’s coat and the chipped pale yellow of the creaking gate’s paint. The warm, velvet green of the sweet young grass on the sides of the road that led from her house, and the dark purple evening shadows. All of these she collected and braided together, leaving behind a ribbon of shimmering lights.

The others saw her plucking strands of color from the trees, the sky, the paint of the town drunk’s house as she walked down the road, just a barefoot girl weaving light into a song that spoke of a summer evening and an absent friend.

A special art day is part of Chapter One’s curriculum designed to orient freshmen to Fountain Valley School and unite them as a class.

CHAPTER ONE: Freshmen Writing Their First Chapters While founding headmaster Francis Froelicher told all incoming students that they were in a position to write their own histories, English faculty Jen Buckley has developed a semester-long program—Chapter One—to orient and transition freshmen to Fountain Valley School.

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After this self-assessment, students are then directed to look outward toward developing empathy for others based on FVS’s core values of open-mindedness and compassion. Areas covered are listening with empathy, trying new things, moving from selfreflection to thinking of others, and community service.

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Chapter One builds upon Transitions, the previous freshman orientation program. Working with School Counselor Katherine Keen, Dean of Students John Kelley and former Assistant Dean of Students Josh Doyon, Buckley envisioned a redesigned, semester-intensive program.

“In the framework of our core values of self-reliance, curiosity and courage, they first work to figure out who they are, what about themselves they want to improve upon, how they fit in and what they have to offer,” Buckley says. “They take the Keirsey personality test, discover their learning styles, and learn study strategies and systems of organization. We strive to instill the idea of a growth mindset.”

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The class is built around the School’s core values, giving freshmen a solid base for high school success while familiarizing them with Fountain Valley’s culture and the principles upon which the School was founded.

The goals are for students to identify and discuss their personal strengths, challenges and concerns as they see themselves working and living in Fountain Valley’s unique learning community.

FRESHMAN WRITING

A particular point of pride for Buckley is a system she developed based on the video game model of achievement points. She gives freshmen a wide range and long list of activities with which to earn points, including: »Stop

into Mr. Webb’s office and ask him a personal question about life, books, etc. »Day

students, invite a boarder home for a weekend; boarders, go to a day student’s home for a weekend. »Turn

your cellphone/tablet off for 48 hours and avoid all social media on your computer. »Spend

some free time tutoring another student in a class in which your are strong. »Stop

in the Admission Office and ask Mr. Turner to teach you how to tie a bowtie. »Have

a conversation with one of our alumni faculty about their FVS experience as students. »Help

with barn work during a free period.

Buckley went so far as to create reward stickers for students to place in their Chapter One journals.

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“ Chapter One was a class that really urged me to step beyond my placid sea of safety and venture into new waters. It was the current that swept me gently into the open ocean of the high school social realm… I managed to forge new bonds and create new friends. The most valuable message of Chapter One was that of ‘yet.’ After watching a TED Talk about learning and growth capabilities, the class discussed the power of ‘yet’ and how by continuously believing that you can improve, you will improve. The message that you can improve your learning ability by saying, ‘I don’t understand this yet,’ and by believing that you can change, truly affected the manner in which I viewed some of my more challenging classes.”

Ashby Baker ’19

“ I think that the simple, yet fun exercises that we did as a class were very helpful in bringing our class closer and stronger by making each individual more aware of things such as empathy, compassion, stress and even manners. By learning about ourselves and each other and how we could improve, I believe our class community grew more united and overall, happy.”

Adeline Thames ’19

Outcomes Buckley finds that with the help of Chapter One, the freshmen grew quickly into a close-knit class. “Everyone knows each other.

We put them in small groups a lot to work together. It’s nice to watch American students explain things to our ESL students, and gain empathy and compassion for the difficulties of being an international student.”

She notices a difference in her freshman English classes. “I don’t have to spend time on skills and organizational management because they’ve had Chapter One,” she says. “The kids are more polite and work better together. They’re thinking as a class, looking out for each other.”

Kathleen Czop, international student adviser, has found that Chapter One is helpful in “getting ESL students to know American students and vice versa,” she says. “I like that the point system encourages students to host international students in their homes over breaks.”

Another outcome played out in the dining room at one of the School’s formal dinners. Freshmen had recently received etiquette training as part of Chapter One, which they were applying at the dinner. They couldn’t help but notice that many members of the community would also benefit from an etiquette refresher, which Buckley found both funny and affirming.

Buckley has been invited to present the Chapter One program at The Association of Boarding Schools conference this December in Washington, D.C. “We’re ahead of the curve,” Buckley says. “This has a lot of potential to be a premier program. We will all see distinct benefits to having a program like Chapter One. Freshmen are taking something away to help them succeed at Fountain Valley. I’m interested to see the impact Chapter One has on the School as a whole, three years from now.”

Class Notes 60s WILLIAM NORMAN ’61 sends news: “I attended the 55th Reunion, staying in Penrose and touring my old rooms with former roomie CALE CROWLEY. What fun to share more than five decades of stories with him and the likes of TOM PRICE, MARSHALL BELL, TOM POOR and BILL GRIFFITHS, among the many others who attended. I returned to NorCal where I still practice law full time. The variety and personalities I meet trying civil jury cases never ceases to amaze me, e.g., I just finished one where all of the parties were Iranians and the judge was a former Israeli. You tell me who wins that one! Still running three miles every morning, though I confess my knees are not what they used to be. I’m into mindful meditation, making fruit pies from backyard trees and marveling at the impact, good and bad, that Silicon Valley has wrought—the economic electricity is exciting, but nobody here can afford to buy their own house anymore. I hope to return for the 60th.”

Robert A. Hefner IV ’74 is senior geophysicist with Continental Resources in Oklahoma City.

He sits on numerous boards and civic committees dedicated to the health and welfare of children. He is a real estate and energy investor, political adviser, and food product developer with Galimaro LLC. Along with his wife, Carol, Hefner is the co-founder of the Aliya Hefner Visiting Fellowship at Oklahoma Children’s Hospital in memory of his late daughter. “We have five grown and accomplished children: Robert V, who was recently featured as a recipient of the Forbes ‘30 Under 30’ distinction in energy, daughter Iman who is a top-producing realtor, daughter Alexis who is an executive with Seventy-Seven LLC and daughter Gabrielle, a sophomore at the University of Oklahoma. The joy of our lives are our six active and beautiful grandchildren.

My wife and I travel the globe for business and pleasure, and continue to expose our growing family to world experiences, and encourage service to the community and those in need. I am indeed blessed and graced by God to be surrounded by a large, wonderful family that is healthy and filled with love. The legacy I hope to leave is one of unity and strength through faith in Christ.”

WILLIAM LEE COLEMAN ’77 sends greetings to all from Charleston, S.C.: “I am so looking forward to celebrating with my classmates for our 40th next May. Last month, I retired from the Department of Defense. My last assignment was at the U.S. Army Cyberspace Center of Excellence at Fort Gordon, Ga. To ease into retirement, I took a part-time job with an airline. Can’t wait to start this next chapter. Best wishes to all.”

The Old West meets modern technology at BOBBY NORRIS ’78’s T-Cross Ranches, which have been producing quarter horses for decades. While photos and video taken from the edge of an arena are common in marketing horses, T-Cross is using drone cameras to bring the video experience closer to the saddle experience. It allows prospective buyers from around the world to see a horse’s capabilities and the way it moves.

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From BARBARA BALL TRASK ’79: “We bought a house in Bend, Ore., and are moving out of our home in Carmel Valley.

We hope to have a white Christmas. I look forward to teaching my daughter to ski. It is high mountain desert there and feels a lot like Colorado. We hope to be fully relocated there by the fall. Hope classmates will come visit!”

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JOHN MOORE ’76 sends news: “I have remarried and am helping to raise two girls, ages 11 and 15. I started my own research firm, Chilmark Research, focusing on the adoption of healthcare IT to improve care delivery processes. Other than that, just enjoying the outdoors and the richness of life.”

MARK CHILDS ’77, associate dean at the University of New Mexico, sold his 12th science fiction poem, Even Horizon, to be published in Focus, the magazine of the British Science Fiction Association.

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Mac Buckingham ’66 visited campus with his wife, Carol. They moved back to Denver after 15 years in Las Vegas. Buckingham says that he was the impetus for the first lacrosse team.

Here is the only photo taken of the team.

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CLASS NOTES

PETE BLATCHFORD ’79 appeared in the On The Spot Theatre production of Pieces of Klee this summer. Blatchford’s book, Wicked, Immoral, Utterly Bad: An Illustrated History of Chicago Theatre, is scheduled for release in the fall.

SAMUEL MARQUIS ’79 sends updates on his suspense novelist career: “My fourth thriller, Bodyguard of Deception, book one of a WWII trilogy, is an Amazon Top 25 Bestselling Historical Thriller. Thanks FVS for teaching me to write!”

Trustee Link Nicoll ’79 had the chance to catch up with Tony Goldwyn ’78 at a Washington, D.C., fundraiser for presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

Goldwyn, who plays the president in the popular television show Scandal, was in D.C. with his fellow cast members for the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner. “It was great to see Tony in his element,” Nicoll says. “He was the featured speaker of the event, and he spoke substantively and eloquently about the national and international issues facing our country.

Afterward, we shared some laughs about our time at FVS. He was funny and kind. He is still the same Tony we knew at school.”

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BRIAN EHRMANTRAUT ’81 sends an update: “I totally switched careers since I ‘retired’ in 1999, and now in addition to some public service work and elected positions, I mostly devote myself to structural firefighting, medical first response, wilderness/urban search and rescue, marine search and rescue, technical rescue operations, fireground rapid intervention team, and infectious disease control (Ebola: I’m the guy with the clipboard...).

BRAD SCHWARTZ ’82, professor of urology and director of the Center for Laparoscopy and Endourology at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, received the Teaching Excellence Award along with the permanent title of Distinguished Teacher.

Schwartz is internationally recognized as an innovator in surgical simulation and is a leader in teaching techniques with robotic surgery. Schwartz has two patents for devices and two more pending.

Stephanie Carter ’85, P ’13, ’16, ’19 sent this picture from the Headwear Association dinner in New York City in April. She is on the board of this organization, and they have an annual dinner at the Boat House in Central Park every year. Joey Parr ’84, right, was also in attendance along with Carter’s husband, Michael.

MERCER BORDEN ’87 took a new job on the Foundation and Endowment Specialty Practice at Suntrust and will be moving with his family to Nashville from Connecticut in late summer.

Sarah Fricke-Crossman ’87 is living in Marshfield, Mass., and working as a school social worker for kindergarten through second-grade children. “My son, Jake, just graduated from Marshfield High School and is heading to Bowdoin College. My daughter, Lindsey, will be a senior at Marshfield High School and we are deep in the college tour process. Bobby and I celebrated our 23rd wedding anniversary this summer. Enjoying beach days and friends all summer long...come visit, FVS’ers!”

Steve Lemme ’87 has much news: “I’m married now with two boys, 4 and 2. The 2-year-old vomited on me at 4:30 a.m. today!

Ah...parenthood. Living in Los Angeles.

Cameras roll on Super Troopers 2 in September, just outside of Boston. We’ve already shot a couple of weeks, and we have five more to go.

We’re closing deals on a couple of big actors who I’m dying to tell you about but can’t as of today! I’ve also been touring around the country with another one of my Broken Lizard friends, Kevin Heffernan (Farva from Super Troopers), doing live comedy shows. Thanks to Burt McLucas ’87, who put together a fun event for the Denver shows in May. It was great to see Amy Marasco ’88 and her 50-year-old son Jeff Burton, Pete Mariner ’88, Arnaud Dumont ’87 and family, Chad Harrison ’86, Kathy Sugden ’87, Steve Mason ’87, Danny

CLASS NOTES

Patten ’87 and Caroline Haines ’87. I really hope I didn’t forget anyone. We have shows in Boston, Connecticut, Madison, Phoenix, Calgary, Philly and Portland, Ore., to close out the year. I’d love to see people! Also, I’m putting together an unscripted TV show, and we had a meeting with the president of Matador Content, the company that produces Lip Sync Battle, to pitch him the idea. About two minutes in, we somehow got on the subject of Colorado Springs, and the president said he’d grown up there. I asked where he went to school, and he said, ‘It was called Fountain Valley School.’ I said, ‘That’s where I went!’ Turns out it was Jay Peterson ’91, and we’re now working together!

Small world.”

Trustee Ben Howe ’89 spent July 4th weekend with classmates Trevor Somers, Chuck Ridgway, Blake Harrison and Chris Sanchez ’88 at FVS’s Mountain Campus. It was the first visit there since graduation for Harrison, a Denver prosecutor, and Somers, a software engineer. According to Howe, “The weekend’s activities included strenuous thermal lounging at the Mt. Princeton Hot Springs and rafting on the Arkansas River.” Left to right, Harrison, Howe, Sanchez, Ridgway and Somers

90s “I caught up with fellow classmate [and husband] Dan Patten ’87 at the Patten family ranch over the July 4th weekend,” Caroline Haines writes. “We hiked through fields of wildflowers and basked in the unspoiled beauty of high mountaintops. We look forward to seeing everyone at Alumni Weekend in 2017!

Haines and Patten with their sons Topher and Parker

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Chris Peknik ’90 is shown here with Emma Reynolds ’13 (daughter of English Department Chair Dave Reynolds P ’13, ’18). They are both camp counselors this summer at Cottonwood Gulch in Thoreau, N.M. Peknik is a science teacher in Albuquerque.

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News from ALEX MARSH ’98: “On Dec. 30, 2015, my wife, Jennifer Abbott, and I welcomed into the world our first child, William Abbott Marsh. He was the last baby born in Summit County, Colo., in 2015. I work as an associate attorney and the trials specialist at the law offices of David. A. Helmer in Frisco, and my wife is the director of the advocates of Lake County in Leadville, where we reside. Also, during Leadville’s skijoring competition this

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LAURA PRUDEN ’87’s story, NEST, about her adventures apartment hunting in Harlem, was picked up by the Brick Underground podcast. Episode 4 is available for streaming on their website, http://www.brickunderground.com/ podcast/episode4-nest-laura-pruden, or for download on iTunes and Stitcher.

Amelia Norfleet Dorn ’93 sends news: “Miranda Terry and I met up for a little reunion at the Penny Arcade in Manitou Springs. She has two beautiful kiddos and a wonderful husband, all of whom I really enjoyed meeting.

She says she is very happy in North Carolina.

We both happily reminisced about our times at FVS, especially in the theater. I have spent the past six years building up my nonprofit, IMPACT Personal Safety of Colorado (a self defense organization committed to educating, equipping and empowering Colorado), and I am finally able to hand off most of my administrative duties to my amazing staff and get back to my real love, teaching. My favorite programs are our EMPOWERED Family, which brings children and their caregivers together to create powerful and unified conversations about safety, and equips them with the verbal and physical skills to work as an effective team in a crisis. I also enjoy our programs for incarcerated men and juvenile offenders that give students skills to manage their adrenaline, make more value-driven choices and set healthier and more relationshipbuilding boundaries. I love the work I do! I also love my two girls and husband (who survived prostate cancer this year). I am incredibly blessed! FVS deserves a whole lot of thanks for setting me up with a deep belief in myself and drive to go where my heart sends me.”

CLASS NOTES

March, I bumped into my old FVS adviser, LACHLAN CLARKE. He did not recognize me at first, but was polite enough not to say it was because I am fat. He reports that he is doing well and is working as the riding program director for a camp in the Buena Vista area.”

Joe Sedlak

Will Phelps Chance Carraway

Robert Ferguson

Joseph Sedlak IV ’03, William Phelps ’04, Chance Carraway ’04 and Robert Ferguson ’02 got together in June for a river journey in Montana. Sedlak says, “The Smith River is a 60-mile float with no services and no other boat ramps. We spent five days on the river between Great Falls and White Sulphur Springs in Montana. Go Danes!”

Alison Christofferson ’99 has news: “Fellow alumna Emma Whitehead ’12 and I started working on the same day at the Center for Creative Leadership in Colorado Springs. She is working as a faculty resource associate.

I am a project assistant for the custom project management team. We had lunch together and talked about all the alumni and faculty we both know. Turns out that I did dorm duty in her sister Mara’s dorm.

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LEANNE LILLY ’02, who has been a behavior specialty intern at the University of Pennsylvania, is spending the next three years at Ohio State University in a veterinary behavior medicine residency.

SUZY BARR ’03 sold her house in San Jose and moved to Denver. “I’m starting over but excited for a new chapter in my life! Looking forward to celebrating the weddings of my sister, STEPHANIE BARR, and MOLLY CREEDEN in August.

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Sadie Schurwing ’00 has news: “I am currently living in Chico, Calif., with my 12-year-old son, Asher, after closing my vintage clothing shop, Sadiedeluxe, (pictured) last year in Paradise, Calif. I’m working as the creative project manager at Annapurna Living, a website for women founded by actress Carrie-Anne Moss.

I’m also always working on my own creative projects; I have my own blog and I also run an advice column called The Cabin Diaries, which is hosted at the Bohemian Collective, a site that I’ve blogged at over the past few years. I love living in Northern California, and I am still great friends with Leah Barlow.”

On their European trip, the Duff family connected with two ASSIST students whom they hosted while at Fountain Valley. They met Bori Pataky ’06 in Budapest where she is an emergency medical resident and Nikola Denisova ’07 from Prague, Czech Republic, who is now a geologist at a gold mine in northern Sweden. Left to right: Erin Duff ’08, Nikola Denisova ’07, Hannah Duff ’06 and Clara Duff, former director of annual giving and alumni relations.

Katherine Rowe ’07 spent five months studying at Fort Gordon, Ga., to become a signal captain, and she was promoted to captain in February. “I was able to spend time with Annie Goodwin ’08 and Wrendy Rayhill ’09 when I was in Augusta.

I am now stationed at Fort Hood, Texas, as an armored reconnaissance squadron signal officer in the 1st Cavalry Division.” Shown here with her father, Richard Rowe, Major General U.S. Army (Retired)

IONA MUSGNUNG ’08 was accepted into Lewis and Clark College’s Student Affairs Administration program for grad school. She says, “I’m really excited to be back in Portland after working at Annie Wright School’s boarding program for a few years in Tacoma, Wash.”

CLASS NOTES

DEREK ZUCHOWSKI ’08’s news: “I joined the Army after going back to school for my MBA, finished the Infantry Basic Officer Leaders Course, completed Airborne school, married Emily and had a baby boy.”

Taylor Guzy ’12 graduated from the University of Alabama and is currently working an internship at Disney Resorts. He met with English faculty Jen Buckley during spring break.

Ashley Ban ’09 met English faculty Jen Buckley and math faculty Scott Lebo at a track meet in Elbert, Colo. She is living in Denver, working at Buckley Air Force Base and coaching her little brother in long jump.

Trace Tomme ’11 visited Alexa Junker ’12 and Kim Donaldson ’12, front, at Colby College over spring break. Tomme is finishing a five-year combined bachelor’s and master’s program in engineering physics at Colorado School of Mines.

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EMMA WHITEHEAD ’12 graduated from Colorado College cum laude with a degree in political science. Her senior thesis on language identity and political outcomes gave her the opportunity to conduct research in Switzerland and Belgium, for which she received departmental honors.

She is now a faculty resource associate at the Center for Creative Leadership in Colorado Springs.

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EMMA REYNOLDS ’13 planned Hamilton College’s first on-campus Mindfulness Retreat that was a full day of activities including yoga, meditation, discussion and zen doodling. The idea for the retreat was developed by both Chaplain Jeff McArn and Reynolds, who is the chaplaincy meditation intern.

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Max Burch ’11 graduated from Emory University. He worked for the Vail race department last winter while between projects for the environmental consulting firm he works for in Atlanta. Science faculty Brett Rubenstein met up with Burch on the mountain.

Brandon Barker ’12 hiked two 14’ers—Gray’s and Torrey’s Peaks—sporting an FVS alum t-shirt. He sends these updates: “I just graduated University of Denver with my bachelor’s in business administration with a degree in marketing and statistics. I do graphic design on the side, but I am currently looking for an entry-level job in advertising and/or paid search. While at DU, I worked for the Kempe Foundation, which is a nonprofit that raises money to fight and treat child abuse and neglect. I also worked with a Denver start-up and a local architecture firm. And, having met so many great international students at FVS, I was an active member in AIESEC at DU, which is a local chapter of the largest student-run organization in the world, where I helped send students abroad and brought students from around the world to Denver for work and internship opportunities.”

Central Wyoming College rodeo contestant Piper Naylon ’12 brought home a buckle from the Colorado State University rodeo in April. Naylon won the goat tying event with a time of 7.4 seconds in the long go-round and 7.6 seconds in the short go-round, placing her in 12th for the Central Rocky Mountain Region standings.

CLASS NOTES

JEFF BRABEC ’14 is one of four students at Juniata College named to the new position of senior residential assistant.

The SRAs have greater voice in the school’s Residential Life Office and serve as liaisons between the students and the administration.

Mara Whitehead ’13 writes in: “Every day, I am reminded of how much Fountain Valley gave me and how thankful I am for the experiences and life skills I gained during my time there. I moved from Denver to Los Angeles to pursue my goals to work in the film industry. Since moving, I have worked on some really amazing and high profile projects, and am now production coordinator/ creative assistant for two partnered music video/commercial production companies, The Sword Fight and Ramble West Productions.

Some of the recent clients I’ve worked with include Kanye West, The Weeknd, NBA, Nike, Apple Music and Beats by Dre. In addition, I’m beginning to direct more video projects, and you can see my creative works here: www. marawhitehead.com

PAIGE JESCHKE ’14 volunteers with the National Ability Center in Park City, Utah, to teach children and wounded warriors how to ski.

Former Associate Director of College Counseling Avery McGlenn visited Washington University-St. Louis during a college tour over spring break. She met up with Casey Lane ’14.

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Fountain Valley School of Colorado

Left to right, English Department Chair Dave Reynolds P ’13, ’18, Katie Medved ’08, Jeannie Folan ’08 and Chance Carraway ’04 who together hiked the Seven Bridges loop trail in Cheyenne Canon, Colorado Springs. Medved works at the Denver Museum of Science and Nature flying drones for excitable 6-year-olds.

She also acts in an experimental theater troupe.

Folan is in med school in at Georgetown University. Carraway also lives in Denver and commutes to Boulder to work at OptTek Systems, Inc., a simulation optimization company.

her senior year, where she was introduced to and fell in love with marine biology.”

English faculty JEN BUCKLEY had breakfast with LIDIA CHALOVA ’15 and KAT DAMES ’15. She shares their news: “Lidia and Kat took a road trip together to attend FVS graduation and to catch up with members of their class. Chalova is majoring in psychology/pre-med at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, where she is loving the campus, but not loving being back under the gray skies of the Midwest for the winters. Dames just returned to the states after a year of studying in Paris. While she had some scary moments during the fall terrorist bombings, overall she loved her year overseas. She will attend the University of Southern California in the fall. She told me that she was all set to declare English/prelaw for her college and life plan until she went on the Bahamas Interim the spring of

Lily Harris ’15 began her bachelor’s degree program in mathematics at the University of Adelaide (South Australia) in February, immersing herself in a variety of volunteer and extracurricular activities. She was “drafted” to be the freshman class representative for the Adelaide University Mathematics Society, and she enjoys volunteering at outreach events like pancake breakfasts, “barbies” and quiz nights.

She joined the University of Adelaide chapter of Engineers Without Borders, an organization focused on developing skills, knowledge and engineering solutions to solve problems faced by communities in the developing world. Harris was invited to join a team that traveled to Alice Springs in the heart of the Outback for a week-long outreach event.

Shale Hunter ’15 spent an interesting gap year before heading to Tufts University this fall. He worked first at Lafferty Group, a financial services consulting firm in Westport, Ireland, and then taught English at a school in Chengdu, China. Here, he is finishing an English translation using a big brush with a sponge as the tip to write in water.

CLASS NOTES

Former Faculty

For his excellent play this season, Paiute Morrison ’15 received the Rookie of the Year Award from John Hanson, owner of Southern Oregon Spartans Hockey of the Western States Hockey League.

Former faculty Christopher Lowell gave his three-hour continuous legal education seminar, Ben Franklin on Ethics®, twice for the Pennsylvania Bar and twice for the New Jersey Bar this past June. This nationally accredited CLE is one that Lowell has given to various legal groups around the country, and is always popular with attorneys eager to get their hours of ethical or professional credits in an interesting and unique format.

JOIN

FOUNTAIN VALLEY ON

Former Associate Dean of Students Paula Walter sent in news and this photo of her family who now work, live and reside at Portsmouth Abbey School: “Thought you would appreciate this recent family pic from Thomas’ 8th grade graduation. John Patrick found out that he is a new member of the 10-person a capella student group here at the school! The boy has never had a voice lesson in his life. He is so excited.”

ATHLETIC HALL OF FAME Call for Nominations!

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th of na lass ea t a ion c t n i c u d m No 17 in e. e 20 h t of Fam ll r a fo H ic t S Athle the FV d form riteria an c e th d Fin section at the Alumni of the FVS web site.

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NOMINATE AN ARTIST DESERVING OF RECOGNITION IN THE FVS ARTS GUILD 4FVS.EDU/ARTSGUILD

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Search for Fountain Valley School of Colorado in groups and request to join. We have 361 members—let’s grow our network!

IN MEMORIAM

In Memoriam JOHN C. COBB III ’37 died June 20, 2016, at the age of 96.

He attended Fountain Valley School for just his senior year and made his mark.

The 1937 FVS yearbook states: “His New England zeal… got him into many activities, among which are singing in the Glee Club, cello playing in “Patience,” skiing, mountain climbing, gliding, photography, football, soccer, hurdling for the track team and assistant editorship for the yearbook.” The yearbook went on to describe his interests in writing, speaking, music and photography.

Cobb went on to Harvard, where he was the photography editor of the Harvard Crimson.

Following college, he served in World War II, despite the fact he conscientiously objected to fighting in the war. Instead of fighting, he spent time in Syria, North Africa and Italy as a volunteer ambulance driver for the American Field Service. He took many photos with his 35mm camera and developed them in the back of his ambulance.

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The photos eventually comprised a 2011 book titled “Fragments of Peace in a World at War,” featuring Cobb’s poetry, imagery and perspective.

Fountain Valley School of Colorado

Cobb earned his medical degree from Harvard in 1948 and trained in pediatrics and public health at Johns Hopkins in 1954. His career included work with the Indian Health Service in New Mexico, the Population Council in Pakistan and the World Health Organization in Tunisia, Indonesia and Fiji.

From 1965-85, he was founding chairman and professor of preventive medicine at the University of Colorado Medical School in Denver.

One of his greatest endeavors was his work on the health effects of low-level radiation contamination from Rocky Flats (a former nuclear weapon productions facility near Denver), which closed in 1992. He demonstrated that both workers and people living in the vicinity were being exposed to plutonium.

In addition to his association with golf, he was a successful businessman and banker, and he supported the Denver Boys and Girls Club for more than 50 years.

Cobb is survived by his four children, and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

PETER WYETH HURD ’48 died Jan. 3,

2016 Fountain Valley School Distinguished Alumni Award winner WILLIAM F.

NICHOLSON ’44 died May 28, 2016, at the age of 87.

Nicholson was one of the strongest and most influential figures in golf in Colorado and the United States. He served as president of the United States Golf Association in 1980 and 1981 after 11 years on the USGA Executive Committee. He also played a key role in the Master’s Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club. He was responsible for setting up the course for the Master’s, and was chairman of the Master’s rules committee for 17 years starting in 1989.

Nicholson was inducted into the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame in 2012.

A native of Colorado, Nicholson arrived at FVS as a fourth former in 1943. He was active in all aspects of school life, playing football, basketball, baseball and ice hockey, and participating in both skiing and track. As a member of the 1945 undefeated football team, he is part of the FVS Athletic Hall of Fame. He was also involved in school publications and helped organize school dances; as a senior he was on the Student Council. The 1946 yearbook also called him one of the “brains” of the class.

He is survived by his wife, two children, eight grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

2016, at the age of 85.

Hurd attended FVS for four years, arriving in the fall of 1942 as a first former. Born to the famed Wyeth family of painters, Hurd found his calling in music, and his talents were obvious early at FVS. The 1948 yearbook reminisces about Hurd “biding his time at the piano” as a first former, then returning as a second former with “more boogiewoogie numbers to delight the lovers of that particular brand of music.” Longtime music faculty Ernest Kitson also spoke of his musical talents.

After FVS, he received a bachelor’s degree in music composition from Syracuse University and a master’s degree in music theory from the Manhattan School of Music.

He embarked on a long and distinguished career as a music instructor and composer.

He was an instructor of music at universities in Texas and New Mexico before moving to similar positions in Northern California at Stanford University, Notre Dame de Namur and Holy Names. In his professional life, he concentrated mainly on piano and harpsichord, and worked with many singers.

He also had a special love for chamber music. He composed works for orchestra and cello suite, and one of his most noted works is “Song Cycle of Six Poems of Robert Frost,” which he wrote at the age of 19.

Hurd is survived by his wife.

IN MEMORIAM

RICHARD C. WYDICK ’55 died May 11, 2016, at the age of 78.

A Colorado native, Wydick entered Fountain Valley School as a fifth former.

Despite only spending two years at FVS, he made his mark as president of the Student Council and captain of the gymkhana team.

He also lettered in football, played squash, and worked on the yearbook and the Dane.

The 1955 yearbook states that as student body president, he helped “start the ball rolling on actual chapel construction,” referring to the current Lewis Perry Jr. Chapel. Wydick, Sam Silverstein ’54 and headmaster Henry Poor presided over the groundbreaking ceremony on June 6, 1954.

Wydick graduated from Williams College, where he also headed the Student Council, and then attended Stanford Law School.

After receiving his LLB, he joined the Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps and taught law at the JAG school on the University of Virginia campus.

He is survived by his wife of nearly 55 years, two sons and three grandchildren.

ALBERT C. DUELL ’56 died Jan. 3, 2016.

He was at Fountain Valley for his third former year in 1952-53.

DAVID F. CURRIER ’61 died Oct. 1, 2014.

“Spike,” as he was known most of his life, entered FVS as a fifth former from Connecticut. He was the editor-in-chief of the yearbook and also worked on the Dane and the Literary Review.

Other activities included Glee Club, Trap Club, tennis, squash and gymkhana.

After FVS, he graduated from Yale in 1967 and later earned an MBA from Pace University. He spent the majority of his career working in Connecticut and New York.

He is survived by his wife, five children and three grandchildren.

Born in Missoula, Mont., Vietor was a third generation Montana rancher.

He entered FVS as a third former and participated in pup football, the ski club, ski team and gymkhana all four years. He was a member of the Varsity Club and was a Sage proctor as a senior.

He graduated from Montana State University and then returned to Philipsburg, Mont., to join his parents in running the family-owned Rocking Chair Ranch. Vietor and his brother grew the ranch over several years into the successful operation it is today. The ranch is currently run by his children.

Vietor was a superb horseman and became a professional trainer/instructor and an accomplished National Reined Cow Horse Association judge, judging many of the top NRCHA shows. He won many NRCHA events including Reserve Open Bridle Champion at the 2010 World Show in San Angelo, Texas.

He is survived by his wife, two children and two grandchildren.

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For many years, he also taught evidence and ethics for BarBri, a review course preparing law students to pass the state bar exam. For

He retired in 2003. He was a longtime member of the American Law Institute, and his honors included the Golden Pen Award from the Legal Writing Institute and a Lifetime Achievement Award from Scribes, the American Society of Legal Writers, in recognition of his contributions to legal writing. He was emeritus professor of law at UC Davis.

Nov. 26, 2012, at the age of 66.

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He co-authored many editions of three books on legal ethics. His best-known work, first published in 1979, is “Plain English for Lawyers,” which has sold more than 1 million copies.

Wydick and his family took sabbatical years in New Zealand and London, and while in London, he became a gourmet cook, continuing the hobby for many years.

DAVID C. VIETOR ’64, died

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He and his family then moved to California where he practiced antitrust law for five years before returning to teaching. In 1971, he began teaching at the UC Davis School of Law and for the next 35 years, he taught evidence law, antitrust, legal ethics, intellectual property and legal writing. He was associate dean for two years and acting dean for another two. In 1983, he received the School of Law’s Distinguished Teaching Award.

more than 10 years, he served on a Scribes committee to select the best book in the country published the previous year on a legal subject.

IN MEMORIAM

WILLIAM G. PORTE ’68, died March 8, 2016, at the age of 65.

ANTHONY MILES LYNCH, FVS history

Porte came to FVS as a second former and was active in soccer, tennis and hockey. He was also part of the Glee Club.

faculty and track coach from 1968-70, died June 22, 2016.

He received his bachelor’s degree and MBA from the University of Colorado. After managing the regional offices for Ford Motor Company in New Orleans and New York City, Porte followed his passion for science and moved to Davis, Calif., to study animal medicine. In 1986, he earned his DVM degree from UC Davis. He then joined Sacramento Veterinary Surgical Services, becoming a co-owner in 1988.

In 2004, Veterinary Quarterly named him one of the top veterinarians. He was appointed to the Small Animal Clinic External Advisory Board of the UC Davis Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital in 2002-05. He was the technical reviewer for two books, “Dogs for Dummies” and “Cats for Dummies” (book series) by Gina Spadafori, and he was a consultant for the “Good Morning, America” TV show related to animal stories.

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Former Faculty

Fountain Valley School of Colorado

As an amateur astronomer, Porte was an active member of the Golden State Star Party. He was an avid traveler and loved the outdoors, including hiking, kayaking and birdwatching. A bio provided by his wife, Marsha, stated, “He was a true Renaissance man, with his eyes on the stars, his head in the sciences, and his heart well-grounded in caring for the people and animals he loved.”

Porte is survived by his wife, three children, three stepchildren and many grandchildren.

Lynch was involved in sports his entire life, participating in football, basketball and track in high school. He was a five-time Minnesota state champion in track. His combination of track achievements and academic excellence earned him a scholarship to Harvard. He was an All-American in the 440-yard hurdles in 1964 and 1965, and first-team all-Ivy League in the 440-yard hurdles in 1964, 1965 and 1966, and in the 120-yard hurdles and the one-mile relay in 1965. He earned many other championships at Harvard and was a hurdles alternate for the 1964 Olympic Team.

He is in the Harvard Varsity Hall of Fame.

After graduating, he worked in the Harvard Admission Department and coached track.

He then moved to FVS before heading to Charleston, W.V., where he was employed at the state Department of Education developing an outreach program for lowincome, disadvantaged youth.

He later earned two master’s degrees at Columbia University before returning to West Virginia. Lynch worked for a time in Baltimore before returning to Minnesota to care for his aging parents. He worked for Rainy River Community College, the Falls School District, and was a volunteer coach for the high school track team.

Why I Give 2016 Distinguished Casa Serena Society Award recipient: Anne Adams Green ’81 From the School’s very beginning, there has been a close-knit family who has cared deeply for Fountain Valley and translated their sentiment into bettering the School with their generous financial support. In 1978, that family was formally named the Casa Serena Society, and each year at Alumni Weekend, a member of the society is recognized for leadership support.

Arts faculty Addie Green ’06 offers insight as to why her mother, Anne Adams Green ’81, P’04, ’06 cares so deeply about the School: “Fountain Valley allowed her to grow up true to herself, a self-described ‘punk rocker with a hippie soul.’ She had incredible friends who were strange, smart and artistic, and they understood her. And she considered her teachers as partners in her education.”

“ She feels she owes the School for how well it took care of her and her daughters, and how well it is taking care of me now. That’s why she gives back.”

Anne’s connection with Fountain Valley runs especially deep. Her sister, Catherine, is Class of 1979; her mother, Tucker Adams, was an FVS trustee; and both her daughters are alumnae, Emma, Class of 2004, along with Addie.

Anne is grateful for the School’s impact on her daughters, as well. Addie says, “Emma and I excelled at Fountain Valley. At a public school, I would not have been able to be an academic, an artist and an athlete.

My mom was so happy that Fountain Valley could allow us to be everything. She feels she owes the School for how well it took care of her and her daughters, and how well it is taking care of me now. That’s why she gives back.”

makes it that Fountain Valley School was key to her development.

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In accepting the 2016 Distinguished Casa Serena Society Member Award, Anne acknowledged her gratitude for the School shaping both her and her daughters’ lives.

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Daughters Addie Green ’06, left, and Emma Green ’04

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Her French teacher, former faculty Chris Lowell, says how gratified he is when he sees Anne at reunions and how clear she

Anne Adams Green ’81 accepting the Distinguished Casa Serena Society Award

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6155 Fountain Valley School Road Colorado Springs, CO 80911 fvs.edu ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED

Because

YOU

of

Fountain Valley School happens!

Please join alumni, parents, grandparents, faculty, trustees and friends of the School in meeting our 2016-17 Annual Fund need.

THREE WAYS TO GIVE: - Go to fvs.edu/annualfund - Call Sheila Walker at (719)391-5226 - Mail to: Fountain Valley School of Colorado 6155 Fountain Valley School Rd. Colorado Springs, CO 80911