GCS News Spring/Summer 2013

C R H U H S C C H E O C O A R L G NEWS Spring/Summer 2013, No. 49

New York, NY

SPOTLIGHT ON CURRICULUM

Drama Verbal agility, quick thinking, productive collaboration and confident public speaking are valuable life skills, and only some of the myriad benefits of drama training.

Drama at Grace goes beyond theatricals, touching every student both on stage and in the classroom. Teachers use drama to fuel the curriculum, as a catalyst to mastering a subject and to prepare students for learning as they progress through the divisions. The formal drama curriculum not only trains students in the art of acting, but also delves into theater history and technical skills, like set design, lighting and costumes.

LAB DAY PRESENTS…

Drama is involved even when performing in front of an audience is not the point. Drama teachers Susan Sterman-Jones (JK-8) and Sabrina Jacob (HS), teach from the approach that children absorb a subject when they are immersed in it, essentially being part of the subject matter.

Classroom teachers embrace the idea in ways continued on page 4

Ninth grade students spent a day in January presenting works and projects that came out of their fall lab day electives—Economics, Global Politics and Urban Studies. The results covered areas as wide-ranging as rooftop gardens and sustainable urban farming; New York food trucks and their role in city life; promoting peace and justice through public art; deforestation and global warming; the Arab Spring and developments in the Middle East; continued on page 13

ALUMNI PROFILE HALE BRADT ’›∞ A Life Looking Up Page ¤8

a MESSAGE from the HEAD CONTENTS

WHY HISTORY?

2 Message from George Davison 8 2013 Auction 10 Grace International Exchange Program

I

n the public debate about what schools must teach, you hear a great deal of talk about science, technology, engineering and mathematics, four pillars that represent 80 percent of what is nationally defined as the “core curriculum.” Having said that, I add my disclaimer that I believe that both the arts and athletics should be considered in the core. However, for the purpose of this article, I have to recognize the reality that there are five major subjects in schools around the globe; science, math, foreign language, native language (English) and history.

You rarely see a school criticized for not teaching enough history, so why do we devote 20 percent of our core teaching time to it? Would we not be better off adding a second foreign language or more science and math time? I went to our local history experts: Dr. Dillon (Grade 9) and Mr. Weinsier (Grades 7 and 8) and asked, “Why History?” This is what they said:

14 News Around School 26 Faculty and Staff News 28 Alumni Profile: Hale Bradt ’45 34 Alumni News

GCS NEWS Spring/Summer 2013 No. 49 Director of Development

Joyce Kuh Associate Director of Development

Tia Biasi Communications Director

Kate Marcus Database Manager

■ History gives people a sense of their place in the world

Robert K. Brown

and their own society. What is the story behind the conditions of my life? How did where I am now come into being? Without history humans would constantly have to reinvent the social order of their lives, which would make human progress next to impossible.

Development Assistant

Ryann Supple Photography

Tia Biasi Rich Carroll Kim Chaloner Olivia Douglas Sophie Frances Xueyang Gong Francesca Goodwin Laura Holt Scott Jones Cheryl Kelly Joyce Kuh Woody Loverude Kate Marcus Chris Panczner Dan Rufer Eric Schneider Schuyler Semlear Ryann Supple Rick White John Zacarro

■ Cultural literacy is a natural progression from under-

standing place. Because I know where things came from I can use that common knowledge to communicate with others who hold that same knowledge.

Because I am conversant in other cultures I am better placed to work across cultures—ones that I have studied and ones that are novel.

■ History teaches us how to sift through data. Data

and those who use data to influence behavior and decision-making bombard us. History allows us to practice data analysis, using multiple sources and an understanding of the bias of the reporter.

Teaching history to children begins at home almost as soon as they acquire language. Family stories are told at the dinner table, in the car and at Grandma and Grandpa’s house. The child learns a huge amount about his or her identity through these casual conversations. Television and other media teach the narrative too, but media may distort history for its own purposes, adding elements for effect or to make the story easier for the young to understand. But this is nothing new; we think of cherry

Design

The Blank Page New York, NY GCS News is published for students, parents, alumni and friends of the school.

We welcome comments from our readers.

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pie on Presidents Day because Rev. Weems invented the George Washington-cherry tree story at the beginning of the 19th century. The narrative that the child picks up through family and popular culture is inconsistent and insufficient, for the most part lacking context, accuracy and causality. Consider the story, “The pilgrims came to North America for religious freedom. The Indians helped and everyone lived happily ever after.” That is not enough, which is why schools must have a role.

The first job of schools in teaching history is to build the basic narrative of our own people. The narrative has to be generally accepted, clear and simple. Elementary school students want to know what happened. They want a consistent set of answers. They are beginning to form allegiances to groups, whether they are sports teams, religions or political parties. They trust the adults who provide them information. When Ms. Kim and Mr. Fasano asked their fourth graders why we teach them about Ancient Egyptians, Mesopotamians and Greeks, there were two responses: “Was anyone else alive?” and “They are the important ones.” They want to know what is going on. What we are doing is transferring essential and agreed upon cultural knowledge, which provides them with a platform that is essential for the identity development that will follow.

Middle school presents a different set of challenges and opportunities. When children arrive at early adolescence they go through dramatic physical and cognitive changes. In most pre-modern societies, the age of 13 was the beginning of adulthood. The job of history in the education of the individual goes through a transformation at this moment too. Up to this moment history had been about what happened and how things worked. For middle school, history adds the question, “What caused this to happen?” The brain is capable of handling the concept of unknowns in adolescence, though most adolescents are not always happy about it. Humans do not really enjoy ambiguity, but they have to learn how to be comfortable with it and middle school history is a safe place to start.

Early adolescence is a time when humans develop a sense of identity, separate from their parents, siblings and distinct in the context of their peers. It is during this time that they confront inconsisten-

George P. Davison

cies in their belief system and the basic narrative. It is both liberating and terrifying. It is why teenagers are such “fun” to live with. As Mark Weinsier said “What makes the difference for our students is relevance…If students see how the events, concepts, and themes they are exploring can help them to better understand the events unfolding around us today, the study of the past becomes not only rewarding, but positively thrilling.” In teaching seventh grade Social Institutions for two decades, I could see the students’ eyes light up when they came up with the answers. Nothing is more exciting for a teacher than that.

Older students use history to develop not only knowledge but also essential skills. Effective data analysis is a requisite skill for adults in post-industrial societies. Nate Silver, the author of the 538 blog, has written an excellent book called “The Signal and the Noise.” In the book he posits that the amount of data available is exploding. The brain can store three terabytes of information, which is quite amazing, but is only one one-millionth of the information that IBM says is produced around the world each day. We want to make decisions based on accurate information. As Silver says in his book, “unless we work actively to become aware of the biases we introduce, the returns to additional information may be minimal.”

Teenagers inhabit a world where they want to be heard, understood and respected for their point of view.

History acknowledges the existence of bias in all of us. The notion that there is no right answer, but only an answer that can be built based on solid data and an understanding of bias is an important step on the road to functioning independently in the adult world and being able to divine, as Silver says, the signal in the noise.

Without history we are doomed to repeat it; with too little history we are doomed to misread it. History allows us to learn from beyond our times and communities. I just finished reading William Manchester’s final and posthumous volume, his biography of Winston Churchill, “The Last Lion.” What comes through very clearly is how Churchill was combating a generation who had learned the lesson of WWI too well. The basic narrative of the 1930s is that Nazi Germany was the same as Wilhelmine Germany. The conventional wisdom was that August 1914 did not need to happen and that WWI itself was far worse than any spoils of winning it or any damage that would

have resulted from losing it. There is a solid case to be made that with a little great power diplomacy, it could have been avoided entirely. What Churchill saw, that few did at the time, was that Nazi Germany more accurately replicated Napoleonic France than Wilhelmine Germany and so conflict was inevitable.

We made the same mistake when we saw North Vietnamese as North Koreans or Chileans as Cubans.

History provides ample room for practice. Like anything else it takes multiple repetitions to attain mastery. Life only goes around once; history is as they say eternal, so we can practice.

What then should our students study? To quote Dr. Dillon, “The question of what history we should study is extraordinarily complex. History is almost unmanageably vast, and all history instruction involves privileging certain data over others. What history we choose to teach our youth usually reflects what concerns us at the present moment. History is not the past, but what we say about the past. And what we say about the past reflects what we’re worried about today.

Therefore, there will never be a final word on what history anyone should know.” What is important is that our students’ experience be broad and increasingly nuanced as they mature. What they learn must be relevant and useful. When the information is closer to your life it should be deeper. There must also be elements that may well be quite alien and therefore thinner. The goal should be to develop adults, who, when they encounter cultures and histories with which they have limited experience, can both ask questions and understand the answers.

I agree with Dr. Dillon that the “what” of history will never be settled. But I like to split it into three parts that need to accomplish. First, we need to study about right here. If you live in New York, that means the United States and the Americas. If you live in Paris, that means France and Europe. If you live in Beijing, that means China and Asia. You also have to study about there; some places that are different and out of the experience of our students. Finally, they should study where we think that they and the world may be going.

History is made every day and will continue to be an essential part of their lives and our lives as we live it.

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SPOTLIGHT ON CURRICULUM

Drama

both simple and complex: first graders simulate climbing Mt. Everest by hiking up to the sixth floor; in the second grade, students benefit from NYU Educational Theatre students who come to the classroom and implement dramatically-oriented lessons to enhance learning. Mock Ellis Island, a highlight of third grade, is an elaborate staging of the early immigration experience where students assume the identity of an immigrant and, with the help of parents playing a variety of officials, improvise the role from the moment they land at Ellis Island to a successful immigration.

As students move up through the grades, early training paves the way for more sophisticated work. Fourth graders debate in character as Athenians and Spartans setting the stage for the more in-depth debating in high school. In the upper grades, off-stage drama continues. Students develop presentations in a variety of subjects, standing up in front of their peers and teachers to speak. They hone skills as debaters and members of student government. High school students give tours during admissions season. They gain interviewing skills, which will serve them well in the classroom and beyond as they pursue internships and embark on the college process. According to Sabrina Jacob, “Drama is not about being in the limelight, it’s about gaining the tools that you need for anything in life.”

Opportunities to be in the limelight, however, are abundant.

Students are immersed in a range of dramatic activity throughout the years from pretend play on the playground to avant-garde experimental theater. continued from page 1

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Formal courses in drama begin in fifth grade, but Junior Kindergartners are introduced to the stage when they begin rehearsing for the JK Variety Show. This year’s thespians performed admirably, exuding confidence while singing, dancing, and acting—triple threats all around. According to Cheryl Kelly, Head of Early Childhood and the Arts Department, “Performing in the JK Variety Show builds selfesteem. These young children get up in front of a packed room and perform, something that most adults are not willing to do.”

The fourth grade Mythical Musical combines “Glee” and ancient Greece, resulting in a highly entertaining and educational experience that dovetails with the curriculum and brings history to life. With rewritten lyrics to music by The Beatles, Marvin Gaye, Bobby “Boris” Pickett, and Rodgers and Hammerstein, the Mythical Musical is a chance for fourth graders to belt, strut, and learn about the history of ancient Greece while getting a taste of musical theater.

Required drama courses begin in Upper School with a year-long musical theater class in fifth grade. Students write their own musical, rehearse and perform the show for parents and other students. Sixth graders continue to develop skills, especially how to support each other in a show. They work on writing scenes based on stories, participate in theatrical exercises, and study Kabuki Theater. Seventh graders develop their comedic side through improvisation and work on character development. They create scenes using improvisational techniques, exploring current events and human rights issues. Eighth graders study Shakespeare and may take an elective in the History of American Theatre.

Two dedicated funds provide ongoing support for the performing arts at GCS. Roberta Curry Minthorne and Jones Family Fund for the Performing Arts Established in 1995 by Barton and Debby Jones, and named jointly in memory of Barton’s great aunt, their son Philip ’93, and Barton’s mother, Peggy, whose lives were enriched by performances at Grace Church School.

The Kim Walker Memorial “Shining Star” Drama Fund Ruth and Christopher ’78 Walker, mother and brother of Kim Walker ’82, established this fund in her memory. The fund helps underwrite productions and provides an annual award, recognizing a student who shows passion for and promise in the performing arts.

In 2012, commemorating the 10th anniversary of the Shining Star Award, recipients reflected on what the drama program at GCS meant to them.

Two major upper school productions play a significant role in the drama program.

Sixth, seventh and eighth graders who are interested in performing, audition for roles in these polished productions. This year, students portrayed early 19th century ladies and gentlemen in “Pride and Prejudice” and cabaret performers in the Musical Revue. Those more interested in being behind the scenes learn about stagecraft, setting the mood with lighting, sound and scenery. Susan Sterman-Jones remarks, “The beauty of our Upper School productions is consistently astounding. The sets, costumes, lighting design and overall professional quality of middle school theater at GCS is unique and impressive.

But watching the students learn to work in a deeply collaborative way is what really moves me. Developing strategies to work with others respectfully and artistically at such a young age is a privilege and a gift.”

The drama curriculum in the High School Division expands in depth and breadth. In addition to academic classes in drama, high school students act, direct, write, run tech and stage manage productions of plays and musicals. The goal is for students interested in the drama world to see themselves as artists, whether as an actor or playwright, and to develop a personal artistic voice.

In the first production of the High School, “A Midsummer’s Night Dream,” players and audience moved around the building as scenes shifted. The audience had the sense of dropping in on a moment. Ms. Jacob explained, “My background is in experimental theater. I’m interested in site specific work so this didn’t feel unusual to me. I was looking for spaces in the school that felt natural for the play.” As the school year finished, performers in the High School Division were back on stage in a musical featuring selections from “Rent” and “Urinetown.”

Drama is a critical component of teaching at Grace and touches every student, providing opportunities to explore academic subjects, and themselves, more deeply.

“Being recognized for something I held as dear to my heart as acting gave me the confidence and concentration to pursue all areas of study with as much vigor as I had acting…Though I’ve since lost the hunger I had for acting, it awakened a love of words I’ve been fortunate enough to turn into a professional career.”

—Noah Wunsch ’03 “So much of my sense of self is based on the internalization of my experience in theater.

The [Award] has always stood as a warm reminder of the elemental support that I had access to at GCS. Those early years of acting and singing were opportunities to get my feet wet and gain the confidence to propel myself into myriad opportunities.”

—Elizabeth Kipp-Giusti ’04 “[drama] provided the impetus for continued improvement and reminded me of the value of constantly engaging in the things that interest me.”

—Kieran Coyne ’08

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A Tribute to Board Chair

DOUG EVANS September ⁄··⁄ Douglas H. Evans, Esq. opens the door at 86 Fourth Avenue. Did he have any idea of what would follow? ⁄··› Joins The New Century Campaign Committee ⁄··‡ Joins the Long Range Planning Committee ⁄··· Becomes Chair of Development Committee ¤‚‚‚ Chair, Board of Trustees ¤‚‚∞ GCS receives 501 (c) (3) incorporated separately from Grace Church ¤‚‚‡ NEW GYM and renovated Tuttle Hall, Kindergartens, Music Room ¤‚‚8 Absolute Charter from New York Board of Regents ¤‚⁄¤ High School Division opens

Some Statistics of Importance

ENDOWMENT 2001 2013

$6.5 million 0

5

10

$27.3 million 15

20

25

ENROLLMENT 2001 2013

395 0

100

200

300

488 400

500

PHYSICAL PLANT 2001 2013

54,000 sq ft 0

20

40

117,700 sq ft 60

80

100

120

HOT DOGS More than 5,000 sold

Since

2001

488

Boundless thanks for nearly two decades of care and stewardship, vision and leadership, hot dogs and celebrations.

Best wishes for all that lies ahead. from all of us at Grace Church School 6

Grade Deans for Classes of ¤‚⁄‡ and ¤‚⁄8 Appointed

MiChelle Carpenter, Dean of the Class of 2016, flanked by Daniel Rufer, Dean of the Class of 2018 and W. Alan Brown, Dean of the Class of 2017

Daniel Rufer

begins in September of 2013 as Dean of the Class of 2018, next year’s eighth grade. Mr. Rufer has taught mathematics at Grace Church School since January 2011.

At Grace he also teaches introductory robotics in Grades 4 through 8, serves as a homeroom teacher and is assistant coach of the baseball team. A graduate of New York’s Trinity School, Mr. Rufer is a Village child who grew up in zip code 10003.

Before coming to Grace, Mr. Rufer taught mathematics at the Horace Mann School, where he also coached baseball and supervised high school students as they ran programs for younger children at a local community center. He has been a member of the Compensation and Benefits committees at both Grace and Horace Mann.

His background in education is widely varied, having worked in a public school in Harlem (Roberto Clemente School), a Greek parochial school on the Upper East Side (The Cathedral School), and a largely immigrant school in Chinatown (Dr. Sun Yat Sen School). He belongs to the University Council for Education Administration, a consortium of higher education institutions committed to the preparation of education leaders and the American Education Research Association as well as the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.

Mr. Rufer holds a B.A. degree in Economics from Vassar College, where he played on the baseball team. His M.S. degree in Mathematics Education is from City College. He holds a M.S. degree in Educational Leadership from New York University where he is also a doctoral candidate in Educational Leadership.

W. Alan Brown

will come to GCS in September as Dean of the Class of 2017, joining the entering ninth grade and moving up with that class as they progress through the High School Division.

Mr. Brown is currently Dean of Student Life at the DwightEnglewood School in Englewood, NJ, where he served as a dean for a class of 107 students. At Dwight-Englewood, he has been an instructor in humanities, thesis advisor and advisor for a twelfth-grade research seminar recognized as an NAIS Leading Edge Program in Curricular Innovation. He also organized and taught summer sessions in art, architecture and history in Italy for Dwight-Englewood.

His earlier teaching experience was at East Brunswick High School, where he was an instructor in humanities and film.

He has spent summers at the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth, at Skidmore College and at Lafayette College teaching writing.

As a Fulbright Fellow in 2002–03, Mr. Brown conducted research on the cultural policy of Fascist Italy. He is a trustee of the Princeton Center for Arts & Education and The American Boychoir School in Princeton. He is also a yoga trainer and a curriculum consultant and trainer for GLSEN in New York.

Mr. Brown is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Johns Hopkins University where he earned a B.A. in Film/Media Studies and Music with a minor in Italian. He holds a M.A. in Humanities from the University of Chicago.

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’8‚s RE-MIX Stop. Rewind. Play. From the cool to the bedazzled, over 600 guests entered a time warp at the 2013 Scholarship Benefit Auction, with the Robert Palmer girls ushering them back to the 1980s. Thanks to co-chairs Melissa Berger and Anne Zaccaro and the scores of volunteers, the auction raised over $579,000 for the scholarship fund.

George Davison

Susie Gilbert and Olivia Douglas

David Godbout, Chris D'Amelio, Andy Arons

Co-chairs Melissa Berger and Anne Zaccaro

Gina Marinelli, Richard Erwine, Veronica Maginnis, Kenneth Marinelli

Chantal Gut, David Older, Maggie Towles Christen Governale and Shellyann Bainlardi Julie McAskin, Cassie Glover 8

Julie Boyd, Jacqui Kennedy, Rachel Robison, Monica Tettamanzi

Azadeh and Kermit Westergaard

Lisa Marks, Miyoung Lee, Russell Steinert

Dana Tang, Courtney Potts and Laura Burkhart

Michael and Jill Abitbol

Mandy and Sunshine Gola

Natalie Tagher, Brooke Shields, Nick Tagher ’‚¤ and Alexandra Kule ’‚›

Patrick McElhone ’·∞, Meaghan and Andrew Cheung

Mr. P Robert Palmer girls

Sophie Sutton, Vicky Hurley

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GRACE INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGE PROGRAM Students in seventh, eighth and ninth grades, accompanied by GCS chaperones, traveled to China over spring break on a Grace International Exchange Program trip, our seventh exchange with Southwest Weiyu School in Shanghai.

Students were well-prepared to make the most of their time in China. As a prerequisite for the trip, the travelers took an elective course introducing them to Chinese culture ensuring a top-notch experience halfway around the world and ninth grade Mandarin students got some real world practice.

Follow them on their journey in excerpts from their travel blog.

CHINA

BLOG FROM CHINA

DAY ›: We spent a day at Zhou Zhuang (literally means “The village of the Zhou family”), a beautiful

DAY ⁄: We had a great half day tour of Shanghai this ancient city next to Shanghai. Students liked the pretmorning. We walked around the Pudong area and students took a LOT of pictures. They were VERY excited. We then visited two parks to see what the local life is like in Shanghai. Lunch was delicious and fun. Students met their host families who are very friendly and nice.

DAY ¤: This morning we were warmly welcomed by Southwest Weiyu Middle School. They broadcast the welcoming ceremony to the whole school. Then we had a school tour, and the students enjoyed playing in the roof-top garden. Then we observed classes and the students took part in the activities, doing an amazing job.

In the afternoon, we went to the Pudong area and students hung out on Bin Jiang Walking Avenue for a while. They took pictures, ran around, and played games. We walked around the high line circle next to the Pearl Television Tower and saw all these unbelievable and gorgeous skyscrapers.

DAY ‹: Students made a presentation to our host school and received a round of applause from the audience. They invited audience members to the stage and played games with them. Then the host students performed for us. It was a great day!

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ty arch-like bridges, the gorgeous temple with several Buddhas, and enjoyed the walk on the banks of the river. We had lunch at a traditional restaurant inside Zhou Zhuang that is famous for dishes of the south part of China. It was a little chilly so we took students to a local bubble tea place and bought them Chinesestyle hot chocolate and milk tea. They LOVED it.

Tonight the chaperones took some of the host school’s administrators and faculty members out for dinner. We thanked our hosts for this fantastic opportunity for our students to visit them and learn from the host students. We talked about the past years of the exchange program and how our mutual understanding has been enhanced and our friendship strengthened.

We appreciated the long-term support from Principal Zhang and Mr. Davison, so that the cooperation between Southwest Weiyu Middle School and Grace Church School continues to grow stronger. We were excited to talk about our new high school, the new Mandarin program and the big progress that students who are taking Mandarin have made. It was a great night and we had a wonderful time.

DAY ∞: Today we visited the elementary school and kindergarten that have a close relationship with our host school. We observed a fifth-grade music class, played the Chinese yo yo and tried the bamboo jump

dance with the students there.

In the afternoon, we visited the Shanghai Museum and students learned a lot about Chinese art. We had a farewell dinner with all the host families, some school administrators and school faculty.

We are leaving the host families and Shanghai tomorrow morning. The past five days with our host school have been wonderful, great, and unforgettable.

We really appreciated our host school’s hospitality and we look forward to hosting a delegation from Southwest Weiyu next year.

DAY ‡: (Hangzhou) This morning we got up early to attend Tai Chi and Kung Fu classes by West Lake.

After breakfast, we jumped back on the bus and went to the biggest tea plantation in Hangzhou, where we saw HUGE tea fields, had a good 40-minute hike and tried the fresh tea drink at a local farmer’s house. We had dinner at a famous local restaurant and tried out some different dishes. We’ve had quite a full day today!

DAY 8: (Suzhou) We saw how the silkworm was picked and silk was made into cloth. We also watched a short fashion show. Then we went to the Humble Administrator’s garden and saw spectacular gardens and rock formations.

DAY ⁄‚: (Beijing) Today we went to the Tian’anmen Square and Forbidden City. Tian’anmen Square is closely monitored by the police. We saw six cameras on one light pole. We took a picture in front of Mao Zedong’s portrait hanging on the front of the Forbidden City. Lunch was at an amazing Taiwanese restaurant called Jin Tai Fung which serves the best soup dumplings in town. Then we went to the panda zoo where we saw a lovely and adorable panda.

After the zoo, we chilled out a little at the hotel and then headed to a restaurant in an eclectic neighborhood similar to Williamsburg in Brooklyn. The restaurant is run by a German, Australian and Brooklynite. We had fresh pasta for the main course with cheese cake, carrot cake, and apple cake for dessert, a nice change from the Eastern cuisine. We also watched a fantastic movie called Mao’s Last Dancer. It was a great timing to see this movie after we visited Tian’anmen Square and saw Mao’s portrait.

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GRACE INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGE PROGRAM

DAY ⁄⁄: Today we headed to the Great Wall. It was THE LAST DAY: We went to the Summer Palace, a such a beautiful day though it was a little windy. Our guide told us that the wind clears up the pollution. We saw gorgeous blue sky! The students were super excited—we took cable cars up to the top and on the wall, climbed up and down the stairs and passed four towers. The Great Wall is just so spectacular that we couldn’t take enough pictures. Then we stood in line to wait for the toboggan ride to go back down. There were a lot of screaming, shouting and yelling and everyone was thrilled.

In the afternoon, we went to the Olympic Stadium.

We saw the Bird’s Nest and went into the Water Cube.

Students were excited about the water playground next to the swimming pool, which is open to the public. They also fed (from a bottle!) the “milk goldfish” inside the Water Cube. Dinner was at a famous Peking duck restaurant where they cut out the duck meat in front of you. The waitress demonstrated how to wrap the Chinese duck meat and other toppings in a pancake.

The walk back to our hotel was relaxing. We passed some shops and it was funny to see students stopping by a supermarket and clean out the Snickers bars.

huge and pretty summer residence for the Qing Dynasty emperors. We saw the Kunming Lake and visited the Tower of Buddhist Incense. We ran into a group of singers rehearsing in the park and they sounded beautiful. Inside the Tower of Buddhist Incense, we saw the Thousand-hand Guanyin Buddha, cast in bronze and gilded with gold. Lunch was at a restaurant next to the Summer Palace, and we had northwestern-style food such as lamb skewers, buckwheat noodles and fried buns with minced pork.

After lunch we headed to the Temple of Heaven, where the emperors used to pray for their nation and people. It was a gorgeous day. Our guide told us we were so lucky to have this kind of clear and sunny day this time of year. We went back to the students’ favorite restaurant Din Tai and enjoyed more soup dumplings, noodles, fried rice, vegetables and bubbletea shaved ice with rice cakes for dessert.

The trip was a beautiful experience, eye-opening and inspiring. We had a fantastic time and students learned a lot. We are happy to share these stories and pictures with you.

Chaperones and Bloggers: Xueyang Gong, Mandarin teacher; Margery Stone, Admissions Director JK-8; Matt Fasano, fourth grade teacher.

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LAB DAY PRESENTS… continued from page 1 the history of money; socio-economic class in American society; and the function of stock markets in the economy.

Along with the elective projects, academic classes displayed some of their work, such as video narratives from Spanish and Mandarin language classes, imaginary author biographies from the Writing Center, Homeric Odyssey and epic poetry audiovisual essays from World Literature and conceptual models of infinity from the Geometry classes. Students also performed in instrumental and vocal ensembles, gave a dance performance, a literary reading, and a preview of the winter drama, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”

One of the hallmarks of the high school program is to provide opportunities for students to think critically about the world in which they live. Wednesday lab days give students a forum and structure within which to do this kind of active, research-based study. Student questions drive the curriculum, while teachers provide guidance and coach students as they pursue a line of inquiry and tackle the problems they have articulated.

Too often high school goes by without students having had enough time and space in the curriculum to study and understand the key issues and central challenges of their time. Lab electives give ninth graders the opportunity to do just that early in their high school lives, so that they can go forward with a better understanding of how society works and the complexity of global realities. In this way, Project Exhibition Day allows students to learn from each other in a day-long celebration of scholarship and creativity, as students spend the day in workshops and presentations hearing from each other and discussing important issues and questions.

The ninth grade Lab Studies program also helps set the stage for the tenth grade Independent Project Program (March Madness) that fosters deeper inquiry through the completion of individual projects during the school year in areas of special interest to students. The aim is to make the experience of high school more meaningful to students, as they study and complete a substantial project in an area of passion for them. As with the Project Exhibition Days that come at the end of each semester, the tenth grade Independent Project Program also culminates in a community-wide presentation of student projects in the month of April.

What was clear from the first Project Exhibition Day at the high school, showcasing a range of student projects from their lab electives and academic classes, is that Grace high school students want to be taken seriously as researchers, thinkers, and creators. Project Exhibition Day provides students with just this opportunity and forum.

—Hugo Mahabir, Head of the High School Division

Making Plans, Finding Help Ninth graders are beginning to formulate plans for next year’s independent project. While some consider the universe of possibilities (Start a school radio station? Study the stock market?) Others, like Mateo Amezcua, are already sharply focused. Mateo, an avid science student, hopes that his project for this spring’s Science Symposium will provide the launching pad for his March Madness pursuit. Experimenting with a process to genetically transform bacteria to express Green Fluorescent Protein from jellyfish, Mateo hopes to enable the bacteria to break down pollutants such as occur in oil spills. Mateo aims to be a doctor and selected this experiment from his interest in the emerging practice of gene therapy to treat illness.

It takes a village, of course. Discovering GCS resources for students is becoming increasingly important. Alumni mentors can do much to support our students. Below are excerpts from an exchange between Mateo and Dr. Marco Seandel ’86, a cancer researcher and one of our growing group of alumni mentors. For more about becoming a mentor, see page 31.

Dear Dr. Seandel, Thank you for taking an interest in my science project….. While I was doing the initial background research, I became very interested in dendritic cells and their various capabilities with immunity…. I know that you have information that would be very useful for my project next year, and I am eager to listen. I understand that to begin the project, lab experience is imperative; and the only way to gain this experience is to work in a research lab.

Thank you for your interest, Mateo Amezcua Dear Mateo, I was very impressed by your ambition and level of sophistication in the goals that you described on the phone…I would tell [the labs you contact] that you are committed to learning research techniques and would like to visit simply as an observer if nothing more in depth is available to students at your level…This way you can begin to learn what is going on.

At the same time, I think it would be valuable if you can find a summer course for high school students at a research institution.

By “shadowing” researchers in a lab, you will learn the language a bit and get the technical context of the work that you would ultimately like to be doing yourself. While this may not be as exciting as actually doing experiments yourself, it is a really good way to start. There is a surprising amount of training in order to becoming proficient at growing cells, as one example. It may be worthwhile getting a sense of the general environment in which such research takes place before diving in head first yourself.

Please don’t hesitate to contact me with questions or further advice...

Good luck!

Best regards, Marco Marco Seandel, MD, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology Department of Surgery Weill Cornell Medical College

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NEWS AROUND SCHOOL

UNPLUG TO

CONNECT In a school-wide experiment, GCS unplugged on April 24. Realizing our dependence on digital technology, students, faculty, staff and administrators were challenged to spend the school day without computers, Smartboards, iPads, cell phones and even copy machines.

We picked up pencils and paper, books, and engaged in face-to-face conversation; the GCS community connected and reflected throughout the day.

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NEWS AROUND SCHOOL

EXPLORER DISCOVERS THE HIGH SCHOOL DIVISION “Everyone is a born explorer,” began Erling Kagge as he recounted his 58-day trek to the North Pole, his solo expedition (51 days) to the South Pole, his ascent of Mt. Everest, and perhaps most extraordinary of all—his slog through the tunnels and sewers across New York City. Speaking to seventh, eighth and ninth graders, Mr. Kagge, a lawyer, publisher and native of Norway, explained that even a five-year-old is curious about what is behind the next wall.

Mr. Kagge narrated as he clicked through spectacular photographs of his exploits.

■

Facing a hungry polar bear near the North Pole: “Either he would eat us or….We had a few steaks.”

■

“The South Pole is the coldest, windiest, driest, sunniest place in the world. The toughest thing… is to get up at the same time every day.”

■

Climbing Mt. Everest from March 20, reaching the summit on May 8: “This was my dream.”

■

Crossing New York City underground, Kagge met people who lived in the bowels of the city. The most memorable was a woman named, “Brooklyn,” who had lived underground since the 80’s and declared that she was happy there. Upon learning that she was soon to have a birthday, he returned to present her with a cake.

Advice to students:

“Find your own South Pole and go.”

Author visits Stokes Library

Adam Gidwitz, author of “A Tale Dark and Grimm” and “In a Glass Grimmly,” captivated sixth and seventh grade students with retellings of fairy tales in March. Mr. Gidwitz writes books based on fairy tales by the Grimm brothers, Hans Christian Andersen and others, for middle-school students.

He declared that the fairy tales collected by the Grimms are “the darkest, the funniest and the bloodiest,” and that his students’ reactions to the stories guide his writing. Mr. Gidwitz, a teacher at St. Ann’s School in Brooklyn, told students that he writes for about three hours every day and that he had to make 267 revisions to his second book.

When asked what his favorite tale was, he mentioned “The Juniper Tree.” Mr. Gidwitz is currently working on his third book, called “The Grimm Conclusion.”

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NEWS AROUND SCHOOL

STUDENT TEACHERS Electra Petrakis ’⁄· Seventh grader Electra Petrakis called upon her experience as a sightseer in Turkey to paint a picture of Istanbul for fifth graders who are studying that part of the world. She guided students virtually to the mosques, bazaars, restaurants, and cityscape of the only city in the world that straddles Europe and Asia. After her presentation, Electra assessed the fifth graders’comprehension with a quiz she designed that measured how well they listened. (The enthusiastic fifth graders performed better than this writer.)

Tim Doner ’⁄‚ Tim Doner came back to GCS to speak to the Model UN Club about his experience as a member of Dalton’s Model UN and to help them prepare for their upcoming conference.

GCS students represented Trinidad, Tobago and the Maldives at the International Model UN.

PARENT TEACHERS

HEAD FOR A DAY

Oncologist Speaks to Seventh Grade Dr. Maura Dickler, an academic physician at Memorial Sloane Kettering Cancer Center, and mother of two seventh graders, generously shared her experiences and knowledge about cancer detection and prevention with the seventh grade science class.

Dateline April 26… Liya Yaniv won the auction raffle for GCS Head for a Day. Ms. Yaniv met with Mr. Davison, who heads the school 364 days a year. Liya requested a no homework day in fourth and seventh grades.

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NEWS AROUND SCHOOL

WHALE BEACHED IN JK The intrepid youngsters knew what to do when the whale showed up. They surrounded it, pinned it down and painted it! JK students embark on a whale study, learning developmentally appropriate research skills.

Their reward was a trip to the Museum of Natural History in the spring.

FATHERS LEARNING TO KNOW BEST (

)

Continuing last year’s school-wide conversation on bringing up boys, the Parents’ Association invited modern dad John Badalament, author of “The Modern Dads Dilemma,” to GCS to help families maximize father and father figure relationships with their children.

Using humor and poignant anecdotes, he talked about how dads can shape their fathering legacies by taking what was positive from their own father-son relationships and being mindful about changing what hadn’t worked in the past. He tested fathers’ and kids’ knowledge of the details of each other’s everyday lives and encouraged dads to develop regular one-on-one ritual time with their kids to expand that knowledge.

Mr. Badalament has been helping the PA to create successful Dads events at school, the first of which— the GCS Dads’ Olympics—was held in late April.

CAREGIVERS NIGHT OUT Caregivers celebrated and were celebrated at GCS with a festive dinner following tours of 86 Fourth Avenue.

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NEWS AROUND SCHOOL

Robotics Team Competes Eighteen students in Grades 5, 6 and 7 participated in the 9th Annual Robo-Expo at UNIS on Saturday, April 27. In this friendly robotics gathering, teams exhibit their projects and attempt to complete several challenges: making a robot follow a course, having a robot sense the edge of a table to avoid falling, and “collect the cup” challenge whereby robots face off in a two-minute round to see which robot could grab the most coffee cups. All students were able to complete at least one of the three challenges.

TAKE ACTION through

FASHION

▲

The Upper School Student Council raised over $8‚‚ for the New York City Coalition Against Hunger on Valentine’s Day. Students, in the pink, contributed to participate in the games carnival and bake sale.

Whether it was bought and paid for at the cost of one dollar or grown from scratch, students, faculty and staff sported moustaches for a day organized by Grade 8R, raising about $›∞‚ for Movember, which supports men’s health issues.

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▲

To benefit The Make-a-Wish Foundation of Metro NY, students, faculty and staff donated between $⁄ and $∞ to wear blue jeans in JK-8 or a hat in Grade 9, raising $¤,¤‚‚ on Jeans/Hats for Wishes Day.

NEWS AROUND SCHOOL

THE SCRIBBLER: Past, Present And Future A tribute to The Scribbler and an exploration of its history was on display in the Alumni Display Case this spring.

GCS started spreading the news in 1935 with small publications containing articles written by the boys and the occasional original poem. Iterations came and went until the format of The Quarterly came into being in 1941. For five years, boys reported on current events and school sports, contributed stories and poems, relayed news of alumni—many of whom had gone off to war—and painted a picture of a school for choirboys transforming into a full elementary and high school. Among the highlights in these rich pages is the play between lighthearted schoolboy submissions and the somber news and essays, reflecting the life of boys, the school and the country during wartime.

By 1951, the school was admitting girls and had capped off at eighth grade, and the student publication, maintaining much of the spirit of its predecessor, re-emerged as The Scribbler.

Still grounded in tradition, The Scribbler continues to evolve. Its current format focuses only on works of fiction and poetry; a contest determines student artwork for the cover. The students’ desire to be more environmentally conscious fostered a movement leading to the next milestone. In 2013–14, the school will produce the first iBook version of the publication. The success of the Scribbler Cover Contest has fomented the consideration of including photography and digital artwork in future publications.

You can find The Scribbler archives at: gcschool.org/scribbler

Record numbers of alumni, former and current parents, faculty and friends turned out for a laugh-out-loud good time at After Hours, the annual alumni entertainment in Tuttle Hall. Jason Hackett ’84 presided (wonderfully, ridiculously!) over the event and Pierce Jackson’99 provided the music.

& Show & Tellers included: Tyler Maroney ’87 Andrea Marpillero-Colomina’99 Lars Kry ’80 Roxy Kratt ’03 Jasmin Stanley ’03 Chris Collet ’84 Conni Walsh ’79 Isabel Duke ’00 Marco Seandel ’86 Nicole Luedemann ’99 Cecilia Estreich ’99 Alumni Parents Dana & Sherman Foote GCS Faculty & Staff Gary Gurreri,Cheryl Kelly, Joyce Kuh, Eric Schneider

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NEWS AROUND SCHOOL

LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, TRANSSEXUAL (LGBT) ISSUES IN SCHOOLS Responding to highly charged discussions in the news, locally and nationally, Grace and other schools are examining practices regarding LGBT inclusion: welcoming families headed by same-sex couples, protecting children from homophobic bullying, creating an open atmosphere where these issues can be comfortably explored and maintaining safe spaces for all. Springing from an LGBT educators group at GCS last fall, the faculty continued the conversation though thought-provoking workshops and conferences all year.

In April, 14 representatives from GCS— trustees, teachers, administrators, parents, high school students, alumni, and diversity coordinators—joined an inter-school conference, “From Diversity to Community,” at the Dalton School. In her keynote speech, mayoral candidate Christine At the high school Buffy Marathon; along with raising awareness of LGBT issues Quinn reinforced the importance of the conference and raising $300 for the Ali Forney Center, new Buffy fans have emerged. topic, “Shaping and Sustaining Safe Schools for the important strides forward in creating and sustaining a supportive enviLGBTQ Community.”

Andrea Marpillero-Colomina ’99 who attended the conference said, ronment for all its students and community members.”

Thanks to being honored by GLSEN by a former student as some“It was wonderful to have the opportunity to brainstorm and discuss new ideas for how to makes GCS an even more supportive place for one who created a safe space in her classroom, Susan Sterman-Jones LGBTQ students, faculty, and parents. As an alumna, I have long been brought the Safe Space Program to GCS. Stickers around GCS proud of the school’s progressive and open-mindedness in dealing declare each and every classroom a safe space, a where students can with potentially contentious or fraught realities and situations. I look expect to the adult in charge to speak out against anti-gay language forward to continuing to work closely with GCS as the school makes and stand up for all students.

SPEAKING WOLOF AT GCS Students got a short lesson in the West African language of Wolof and a workout of African Dance. Exclaiming “wow wow!” (yes yes!), they leapt and limboed to the accompaniment of some fast drumming.

Year of the

SNAKE 20

2013 marks the Year of the Snake in the Chinese Zodiac, heralded in by Xueyang Gong, GCS Mandarin teacher and guzheng virtuoso, in a Tuttle Hall recital for Junior K and Kindergarten students.

Resplendent in a red gown for the Chinese New Year, she talked about the symbolism of the color red and the traditional fireworks as ways to frighten away a mythical monster. The real treat came when Ms. Gong began to stroke the guzheng, and the rich sounds of the instrument filled Tuttle Hall.

NEWS AROUND SCHOOL

MLK DAY

The newest puppet, Aung San Suu Kyi, a leader of the democracy movement in Myanmar.

The school day began with a silent march to Union Square in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Holding high puppets crafted in art teacher Beverly O’Mara’s Puppet Elective, Upper and High School students walked up Fourth Avenue, where passersby took a break from their morning routines to listen to a moving rendition of “We Shall Overcome.” The younger students marched around the Grace Church School block clutching handmade banners promoting peace and tolerance, ideals so eloquently expressed by Dr. King. The GCS community convened at chapel and ended the day in an all school assembly.

The first puppet representing Martin Luther King, Jr. was created in 2008, followed by Rosa Parks and Gandhi in 2010, Wangari Maathai in 2011, Bayard Rustin in 2012 and the most recent member of the puppet pantheon, Aung San Suu Kyi, in 2013.

Ms. O’Mara explained, “The criterion for selecting a peace puppet is “a leader who creates positive change in the world through nonviolent tactics. The MLK committee, a group of teachers and administrators, selects someone who is relevant for the students to learn about. The students who make the puppet decide on symbolic objects, or rather tools of peace, for the puppets to hold in their hands.”

Read more about the MLK Day puppets in “Who are the Puppets” online at gcschool.org/puppets

Fifth Annual MLK Service Event

BLOOD DRIVE MLK Service Night is part of a national effort to make MLK Day a day on instead of a day off, bringing together communities to serve others. This year, fifth and seventh graders participated in “Little Doctors,” the New York Blood Bank program that teaches children about the biology of blood and the importance of blood donation. Students helped the blood drive to garner 34 viable donations. Language teachers and students, as well as multilingual teachers and students, helped volunteers create signs for blood drives around the city in Korean, Hindi, Ukrainian, Spanish, French, Mandarin, and Russian.

TRADITION! Why is this day different from all others?

The annual GCS Passover Seder with parents assisting is a highlight for Grades 3 and 4.

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NEWS AROUND SCHOOL

FAMILY COMMUNITY SERVICE DAY The Grace Cares team of families returned to the East River Park, dug into good clean dirt, working with the Lower East Side Ecology Center to help beautify the park this spring.

GREEN GREMLINS Team News The Green Gremlins Team attended the Green Schools Alliance “Ban the Bag� conference at the Hewitt School on March 2. Students heard proposals about how New York City might implement a plastic bag ban similar to those in cities including San Francisco, Delhi, Mexico City, and Portland. They learned some surprising facts. Each month, two million pounds of trash that could be recycled ends up in our landfills, shipped to Oklahoma, North Carolina, and Delaware.

Much of this is food-related, and plastic bags are a big part of the problem. While taking hundreds of years to decompose, they bio-accumulate in ocean food chains, ultimately harming humans. At subsequent Green Team meetings, students discussed getting involved in the Ban the Bag campaign. Check the Green Gremlins website for more updates! www.greengremlins.org.

EARTH DAY DINNER On Earth Day, April 22, the Green Team and the Sustainability Task Force heralded the spring season at a potluck dinner with fresh foods and a sustainable table. The third annual celebration featured local, sustainable bounty, activities, games, slide shows and a panel discussion about the transformative power of food with GCS chef Jude Sheehan, Rick Bishop from Mountain Berry Farms, and Jeanne Hodesch from GrowNYC.

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NEWS AROUND SCHOOL

JCS VISITS GCS

XIN NIAN KUAI LE Mandarin students celebrated Chinese New Year with a week of festivities; indulging in a feast at Amazing 66 in Chinatown; visiting the Museum of Chinese in America; practicing calligraphy, the art of paper cutting and the hacky sack, which has cultural origins in China.

GCS and Japanese Children’s Society students spend a day together.

VASANT VALLEY VISITORS Students and faculty from Vasant Valley, our exchange school in India, visited in April, the eighth exchange with that school. GCS families hosted the students, giving them a taste of life in New York City. Before leaving, our guests arranged an assembly featuring traditional Indian dance.

HIGH SCHOOL ALUMNI SUPPORT GCS NINTH GRADE The Class of 2016 got a peek into high school life beyond their freshman year last November when a group of Grace alumni, high school sophomores through seniors, met with ninth grade in small groups. They offered support, wisdom, guidance, and advice on topics suggested by the freshmen.

23

GREMLINS SPORTS

Go Gremlins!

With the addition of several sports to the roster of winter and spring choices, students embraced more opportunities to rake, dig, and bury jumpers. While one team was boasting, another celebrated an undefeated season.

FALL/WINTER Squash practice at New York Health and Racquet Club

Fencing at Fencer's Club

‥-8 Girls Volleyball, led by coach Lisa Quirk, had another undefeated season, their third in four years.

Basketball in the GCS gym

24

GREMLINS SPORTS

SPRING Softball in Central Park

Baseball at the East River Fields

Tennis at East River Park courts

Track & Field at Icahn Stadium 25

FACULTY AND STAFF NEWS

EXHIBITING ARTISTS

NEW BABIES

Steven Montgomery ceramics teacher ZERO SUM GAME at Jerome Zodo Contemporary, PULSE Miami December 6–9, 2012

Athletic Director, Illi Armijos, and Bethany Stallings are the proud parents of Bryson Alexander Stallings Armijos, born on November 29, 2012, 8 pounds 12 ounces.

School Counselor Ilana Matz and Michael Matz announce the birth on their daughter Evelyn Mia, born on March 7, 2013, 7 pounds 12 ounces.

Gary Gurreri, physical education teacher, announces his newest family member (drumroll)... Bas Gurreri!

WEDDINGS

Justin Hawkins art teacher @Pie Winter 2012– Spring 2013

Chaplain Sarah Wood married Kirk Duncan on November 29, 2012 in Grace Church.

Assistant teacher Maria-Teresa Capelle-Burny and Nicolas Martí married on October 7, 2012 in Brooklyn.

Latin teacher Elsa Crowley and Olivier Hepner married on March 23, 2013 in Spartanburg, SC.

Wendy Small nurse and high school ceramics teacher THE MODEST SUBLIME at Art Helix Gallery, Brooklyn April 12–May 20, 2013

Tell Zelda

DOCTORATE Learning Specialist Katherine Cheung received her Ph.D. in School Psychology from New York University in May.

Send news to zpwarner@earthlink.net

FORMER FACULTY AND STAFF NEWS Hugh Bases, who taught science at Grace immediately following his graduation from Vassar, is now Hugh Bases, M.D., a pediatrician specializing in Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics. He has special expertise in the areas of Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and 26

Autism. He is also a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the NYU Langone Medical Center—just a mile away but a very long distance from Room 601.

ALUMNI PARENT NEWS

Toast of the Times GCS FAMILIES

The April 11 New York Times ran an ad listing the 2013 Guggenheim fellows. Kathy Franklin, mother of Lisa ’06 and Max ’99, wrote to fellow Class of ’06 parents: “I was reading the Times today, and saw the list of 2013 Guggenheim fellows. So pleased and proud to see Elena Sisto, Clara’s mom, on the list, for Fine Arts! Then kept reading, and found Bruce Gilden, Nina’s dad, there, too, for photography! Very impressive.

“For those of you unfamiliar with the extremely prestigious John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, they award annual fellowships to ‘distinguished artists, scholars, and scientists...on the basis of impressive achievement in the past and exceptional promise for future accomplishment.’

“Also noted with awe that Jennifer Arlen, Michael Hotz’ mom, was a

Connections keep crackling in other Alumni Parent news: Director Susan Seidelman (mother of Oscar Brett ’‚›) has directed “The Hot Flashes,” a feature film starring current GCS mom, Brooke Shields.

finalist for Dean of NYU Law School. That was in last week’s news.

So which of you can we expect to be in the paper next week?

“I just thought you were all a bunch of really nice, talented parents—and exceptionally good cooks—but had no idea you were this awesome. Well, okay, I knew, but still, the national recognition is cool.”

Look what started at Grace and is still going on.

Kathy didn’t know that there was another GCS Connection: Poet Anne Waldman ’58 was also on the list.

And there’s more: The next day she added, “In another amazing coincidence, Ellen Jorgensen, Annalise Lockhart's mom, is a director of a wonderful not-for-profit, KIND— Kids in Need of Defense—that provides legal services for unaccompanied, undocumented immigrant children. There was a terrific Op Ed piece about KIND in the same section of the Times that same day!”

BFFs: Class of ’84 mothers Vera Wells, Myrle Wall and Ruth Hackett

GROWING OPPORTUNITY

HIGH SCHOOL INTERNSHIPS The GCS High School is in the process of developing internship and summer enrichment opportunities for students. We aim for all students to complete at least one internship before the end of their senior year. Finding meaningful learning experiences during the summer months helps students evolve and mature with a greater understanding of their passions and interests before attending college.

If you would like to add your business or organization to our growing list of enrichment opportunities, please contact Hugo Mahabir, High School Division Head hmahabir@gcschool.org or Ilana Laurence, Dean of Student Life ilaurence@gcschool.org.

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ALUMNI PROFILE A RETROSPECTIVE BY

HALE BRADT ’›∞

A LIFE LOOKING UP

What Grace Church School meant to me, and more I attended Grace Church School for two years in the middle of World War II. My mother, my sister, and I were in NYC because of the war. I was born in Washington State where my Dad was a professor of chemistry. In 1936, when I was five, we moved to Maine where he was at the University of Maine. He was in the National Guard and went on active duty when his unit was called up in February 1941. That is when we moved to New York.

GCS became my home away from home and it provided quality schooling for me (5th and 6th grades, 1941–43); we had Latin in both years and I remember well the woodshop on the roof. I was able to attend because I auditioned for the Grace Church choir, which led to free tuition at the school. I even earned a salary of a few dollars as week as a choirboy. I am now 82 and I still sing. My chorus in Salem, MA, is doing Haydn’s “The Seasons” in a few weeks. I have to get busy learning better the bass part. I picked up the violin again about five years ago and play, not well, with a couple of small groups.

The year after my two years at Grace, I went to a less academically advanced boarding school and was immediately jumped a grade (to 8th). GCS was good! I remember my first day there when I responded to a teacher’s request (it was all men and boys at that time) with a “Yeah,” and was promptly informed that at GCS it was “Yes Sir” and “No Sir,” not “Yeah.”

I have kept in touch with classmates Gerry Iannelli and George Miller who are both recently deceased and also with Peter Blaxill.

28

My life after GCS After that boarding school year, we went back to Maine for one year and then to Washington, D.C. for my high school years. My Dad came home from the war (three years overseas and lots of combat) and killed himself six weeks later. I am working on a book about my family in World War II, based partly on the many highly literate letters he sent home. It is now my big project. It is a rich human story as well as a war story. Previously in my retirement I wrote and published two textbooks on Astrophysics.

(In 2011, the American Astronomical Society awarded one of Hale’s textbooks, Astrophysics Processes: The Physics of Astronomical Phenomena [Cambridge University Press, 2008] The Chambliss Astronomical Writing Award for an academic book.)

After high school, I went to Princeton (Class of 1952) where I majored in music, but took some physics courses. After two years in the Navy in the Korean War, I returned to Princeton to take physics and to work in a laboratory (cosmic rays) because I had decided to move ahead in physics. This gave me the credentials to enter graduate school at MIT, where I got the Ph.D. in 1961.

What changed my mind about my future career?

I began to understand that others in music had greater intrinsic aptitude for music than did I. On the other hand, in Navy courses I took to become an officer the summer between my junior and senior years, I discovered that on quantitative topics, like navigation, I was much more facile than my fellow students.

I could picture vector diagrams and gun mechanisms easily. (Moral: one’s natural aptitudes are a good guide to a possible career.)

I did my Ph.D. thesis at MIT on cosmic rays which are charged particles raining down on us. I took my measuring equipment to a cave in New York State. It was an old cement mine, then used for mushroom growing and now is a storage location for document safe keeping. (I was married by then and my father-inlaw told my wife, “not everyone can be married to a cave man.”) Cosmic rays originate from very energetic protons and some heavier nuclei that enter our atmosphere from interstellar space. They interact with the nuclei in the atmosphere (oxygen and nitrogen), and the products (other particles) propagate through the atmosphere to sea level where they can penetrate our bodies. I was studying the ones that had enough energy to get through the 30 feet of overhead rock to my instruments.

Pictured here, Hale and three colleagues with a replica of the “All Sky Monitor” that he (at MIT) built and flew on the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer. Learn more about this extraordinary project at xte.mit.edu.

“Work is a source of great satisfaction in our lives.

One can only relax and smell the roses… only so long without getting awfully bored.”

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Shortly after receiving my Ph.D., I joined the faculty of the Department of Physics as a professor and served in that role for 40 years. Our group began to study x-rays that come from different “stars” in our Milky Way Galaxy; we call it x-ray astronomy. This was a brand new field. Our research was all done from rockets, balloons, and satellites; it was an exciting field to be in. I was deeply involved in x-ray astronomy experiments with sounding rockets launched from White Sands Missile Range and then with the NASA satellite experiments, SAS-3 (launched 1975), HEAO-1 (1979), and RXTE (1995).

We provided instruments and did science with the data that was telemetered to the ground. The latter mission (The Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer) returned data to world-wide observers for 16 years, from 1996 to 2012.

The Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer project took Hale and his colleagues nearly 20 years to bring to fruition.

The extraordinary amount of data it collected led to a 1999 award, the Rossi Prize, presented by the High Energy Astrophysics Division of the American Astronomical Society; three subsequent years of the same prize were given for research that used his RXT Explorer.

Hale at his 60th reunion at Princeton with the bell clapper he stole from the tower of Nassau Hall as a freshman in 1948.

30

I have been retired from MIT for almost 12 years now, but I do attend seminars there and serve as academic advisor to some MIT freshman women each year. My wife and I also get to quite a few concerts of chamber music groups, opera, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Our travels often are to attend astronomy conferences, and for many years we visited the Observatory of Rome in Italy for several weeks each year. We developed many friends there. We had a sabbatical leave there in 1997. My previous sabbaticals were in Chile and Japan. I learned enough of each language to get along on the street, but not to converse socially with comfort and understanding, and have now forgotten most of what I knew (except Italian).

On the domestic side, I will have been married to my bride for 55 years this July. Our two daughters are each married to a “Bart” (be assured that they are two different wonderful guys). The older daughter is 53 (I cannot believe it!) and is a veterinarian who has her own practice in our town of Salem, Massachusetts.

We never let her have pets as a child, which surely intensified her love of animals. Now she has dogs and cats at home, and we have learned to love them. Her two children are in or just out of college. The other daughter works in Portland, Maine for a health organization. She is close enough so we see her every month or two.

This past June, after driving to my Princeton reunion, from Massachusetts, I drove on to visit siblings, cousins and step relatives in Maryland, Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin, and New York. It took 29 days and 4700 miles and took me through 21states. I met 71 relatives. I did all this solo.

It was a memorable trip that reconnected me to family and to our wonderful country.

I am quite healthy and mobile at this time but was quite fortunate to come through a bout of life threatening lymphoma in 1976 at age 45. I went through chemotherapy and radiation treatments and it went away. Later in 1995, I had coronary bypass surgery and that is holding up so far. Most people my age have similar stories, but not all are so fortunate. I did learn something from the lymphoma episode, namely that one’s work is a source of great satisfaction in our lives. One can only relax and smell the roses (as some advised me at the time) only so long without getting awfully bored.

All in all, Dottie and I feel fortunate that we are still both around to keep each other company and to enjoy the accomplishments of our children and grandchildren as well as those of the many other younger persons we meet at conferences and elsewhere.

Meet Jason Hackett New Alumni Board Chair

MENTORING and MORE Callie Siegel ’96, outgoing Alumni Board Chair, reflects on how GCS alums define our past and inform our present.

Every day, more alumni find ways to come back to Grace Church School.

Some of us share an interest Tim Doner ’10 talked to our Model UN club (page 16) about an upcoming conference.

Some of us dedicate time and expertise The Alumni Board and committees meet throughout the year to find new ways to keep us connected to the school to each other.

Some of us fill the gaps Alumni Board Chair Callie Siegel will step down in June, completing her term as Alumni Board Chair.

Jason Hackett ’84, will take over as Alumni Board Chair beginning on July 1. Jason has been an active member of the Alumni Board, including serving on the Events Committee and chair of the Communications Committee.

For the last two years he has hosted the annual Alumni Event After Hours to great acclaim. Jason is the Chief Marketing Officer of New York Cruise Lines and he and his wife, Mandy, live in the Village with their daughters, GCS students Kiera (2nd grade) and Miranda (Junior Kindergarten).

Reminder:

ADMISSION PREFERENCE FOR ALUMNI IS GIVEN IN JUNIOR KINDERGARTEN ONLY

Alumni ranging from tenth graders to new college grads make time for new ninth graders to serve as remote ‘upper classmen’ and advisors and to help lead community service projects. (page 23)

Some of us share mementos A basketball jersey from Martha Bailey ’75, representing one girl’s determination to compete in all-boys’ athletics, shines light on transformative moments in our shared history. It became a feature in the display case.

Some of us change the conversation Andrea Marpillero-Colomina ’99 joined GCS faculty, administrators, students, parents, and trustees at the 2013 Dalton School Conference: From Diversity to Community “LGBTQ: Shaping and Sustaining Safe Schools.” (page 20)

Many of us support the Annual Fund One way to help make sure that the next generation of GCS students benefit from an exceptional GCS education.

BECOME a MENTOR

And now you can become a mentor. Add your name to a list of alumni mentors for students in our growing high school, like Marco Seandel ’86 (page 13), stoking the passions of a budding researcher.

There is something here for all of us. GET INVOLVED—it’s a great way to give back to Grace.

To find out more about how you can support the school as a mentor, volunteer or Annual Fund supporter, contact the Alumni Office. GCSToday@gcschool.org

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Class of ’8‹

ALUMNI REUNION ¤‚⁄‹ Milestone classes from 1958–2003 celebrated at the annual reunion cocktail party in Stokes Library on May 3.

Alumni toured 86th Fourth Avenue with 7th grade guides and the new high school building with George Davsion.

Class of ’∞°

Class of ’‡‹

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Class of ’‚‹

Class of ’∞‹ John Tauranac and Jan Beyea

Jamie Blank Crowell and Alex Edlich '88

Kim Gilchrest and Richard Lane ’68

Class of ’·‹

Katie Kamen and Katherine Kaplan Degn '78

Jennifer-jo Flusser Moyer '78 and Doug McNair appearing on phone 33

ALUMNI NEWS From a recent letter from Jon Lewis Allen: Although I attended GCS for only one year, I’ve always had a wonderful feeling about the school.

I arrived in New York from wartime England in 1940 at age nine; GCS was welcoming and sympathetic in helping me adjust to the New World. Although more than 70 years have passed, that’s why I continue to send a modest contribution annually...I remember one classmate, Peter Farrell. He lived on the southeast corner of Gramercy Park (a fine place for little boys to play). Best wishes for a successful May reunion.

1944

Don Crane writes: After Grace, my parents moved to Chatham, NJ, in summer of 1949. I attended Chatham High School, graduated June, 1953; Haverford College, AB ’57; University of Chicago, SM ’62. Various positions with federal and state governments and the private sector, culminating in 16 years in the Washington, D.C. office of W.R. Grace & Co. The last stint at Grace actually completed the circle from the start in NYC, where during the war, I used to view the black and red stacks of Grace steamships loading and taking machinery to the west coast of S.A. and returning with bulk cargo. After retiring from Grace, we moved to Steamboat Springs, CO, where for the previous decades we had summered and my wife, Diane White-Crane had written hiking guide books and children’s books on llamas.

1949

Robley Sailer is coach of Danbury Lego Robotics team, which advanced to the Connecticut finals at Central Connecticut State University. He is also a Senior Solutions advsior to the elderly.

1951

Jan Campbell cruachan@bellsouth.net

From Norm Hall: We have returned to Novato after living in Sonoma county for about four years. We are still very active in theater. I directed a production of “Steel Magnolias” with Shirley featured in the role of Ouiser, previously done by Shirley Maclaine in the movie. Happy to report we were sold out for our performances. Previous to that I portrayed King Pellinore in “Camelot.” I was recently highly noted in a book called “To Sell is Human” by Daniel Pink, published

by Penguin. Look for me in chapters 1 and 5. Two weeks ago we became great grandparents to a lovely baby boy named Theo. In a couple of weeks we will spend a week in New York City catching up on theater, friends, and some good restaurants. Love to all my classmates.

34

Tom Reese writes: I went to Germany and Poland with my daughter and grandson in June of 2012 and we had a wonderful time. Here we are in Freising Germany, grandson on the fabled “bear of Freising.”

And Class Agent Jan Campbell adds: I am still putzing along with minor yard work, watching a pair of hawks who have taken up residence nearby, taking my turn as lector and/or intercessor at church, having fun with an old friend twice a week (old lady’s day out), and looking forward (?) to back surgery near the end of May.

Ralph “Nick” Bonacker found Grace Church School again. In a recent call he described his interesting life: he started at GCS around 1947; he has lived in Tennessee, Vermont, Switzerland, Mexico; he has worked in films, theater, youth work, market research. He’s occassionally in touch with Bill Minifie ’63.

1954

Abigail Calkin writes: My most recent book to come out is “The Night Orion Fell,” available at Amazon and on the Kindle.

Working on the next ones.

1955

Ivan Light lectured in St. Petersburg, Russia, last November under the auspices of the U.S. Consulate there.

1956

Pamela Soden pasoden@aol.com

Sandy Younger found classmate Nadine Carter Russell while in New Orleans on business—they went to a reception for Peter Shire at the LSU Museum of Art together.

1957

ALUMNI NEWS

1958 Formerly lost alumnus Robert “Robin” Monahan appeared at the door at 86 Fourth Avenue in March for his first visit since 1957. He and his wife, Becky, made a trip to NYC from their home in Minnesota to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary and spent time visiting Robin’s old neighborhood and GCS. After a tour of the school and the church (and a peek at the new high school), Robin offered some details on the last 50 years. After GCS, he went on to high school at the Solebury School in Pennsylvania. His family moved again to Minnesota where Robin finished high school.

He enlisted in the navy, served in Viet Nam, and worked in Navy hospital as a surgical tech. Upon his return, he went to nursing school and on to a career as a nurse. He has recently retired. Robin and Becky share a love for adventure and the outdoors—they each have over 10,000 canoe miles under their belts.

They’ve taken two canoe trips to Hudson Bay; canoed the Porcupine/Yukon River system, and even canoed 350 miles on Lake Superior.

They’ve kayaked off the coast of Alaska (where they lived for two years) and have led wilderness trips. Robin remembers Curtis Deyrup, Andy Platt and Toby Thornton from his time at Grace, notably their time together in the choir.

He and Becky ran into another fellow choirboy, Douglas Sheer, and his wife (pictured left of Robin below) on Palm Sunday, where choirmaster Patrick Allen gave them a tour of the church and the newly restored organ. Robin and Becky spent their week taking in the sights, visiting Robin’s old teenage haunts and “enjoying the kindness of perfect strangers” around New York. He would love to hear from classmates.

DeeGee Godfrey durellgodfrey@optonline.net

Nora Howard pictured with one of her paintings.

Southernmost alumni: John Gottfried (r.) on a visit to Fred Covan in Key West.

Tina Russell Green to DeeGee, from Boston after the bombing of the Marathon: We are still shaking off the sadness and shock. Everyone gets affected by such terrible tragedies, but it seems the closer you get to them, the longer it takes. We are fine. We were nearby on Beacon street at the time of the bombings, but were only affected by the stunning realization of what was happening, the zombie like behavior of everyone in that moment and the kids madly texting us to get out of the city. They knew more than we initially. Very sad times we live in....I remember being scared of the Mad Bomber in the city when I was a kid, but it wasn’t anything like this, nor like Newtown and the other random craziness. The world seems more run amok somehow today.

I wish I could get down to the city this spring...was last there just before Sandy, and that was hard to hear about too. Hope you are well and life is good.

From Anne Waldman: Just spent two weeks reading and lecturing in Mumbai and Delhi and visited the Ellora Caves with impressive Buddhist-Hindu-Jainart spanning 2nd Cent C.E. to the 12th century.

In April, Anne was awarded a fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.

35

ALUMNI NEWS

Kathryn Manness: Hello former classmates. At age 68 I am writing my memoirs. My life has been rich and interesting and continues to be so. I have one son who is about to enter law school after a long break from the academic world. His wife is also in school, and with today’s economy, they are now living with me. Lucky me. Growing up all I knew for sure was that my father was American Indian (Huron) on his father’s side. I didn’t know until my late teens that my mother was Jewish. My family had contact with only one family member of my mother. Being American Indian meant a great deal to me, so when I moved to California I became involved in the urban Indian community. When I got my master’s in social welfare, I worked in the Indian community. I provided mental health services and also was a fervent community organizer. I started the first mental health program ever for American Indians in Los Angeles County, was responsible for the first Indian child welfare program in L.A., started (with five others) a state-wide grass roots Indian child welfare organization...and the list goes on.

I was the head of mental health, substance abuse and social welfare programs at various times for different Indian tribal and urban Indian organizations. After serving on the Board of Directors for the National Indian Child Welfare Association, I joined the staff and provided technical assistance to tribes setting up mental health systems of care for their seriously mentally ill children. I was co-author of two monographs, did special mental health studies for the Bureau of Indian Affairs and then provided medication and negotiation services to Indian tribes. All this believing I was Indian.

I found out three years ago that my father lied. He was born and raised in the Azores and didn’t come to the U.S. until he was eight years old. He didn’t become a citizen until 1943. Two of my three brothers and I reacted with humor to the news. How interesting life is. If I had not believed I was part Indian, I would never had made the contributions I did to Indian tribes and urban communities. It has been an enriching and fun experience. Now I am working in a maximum security prison in California with the most seriously mentally ill who are the most violent. The inmates are in a prison within the prison because of serious crimes they committed while committed.

My personal life is full with family, friends and son and daughter-in-law and cats. I heard from Kathy Wellpot Perry a couple of years ago. Then lost touch.

Would like to get back in touch. And if anyone knows where Michelle Garden is, I would like to say hello to Michelle. Again, thank you Durell for all you have done for us throughout the years.

This spring, Mary Elliott Woodrow paid GCS a visit with her husband Terry.

Touring the school with Mr. Davison, Mary recalled many childhood moments—she loved chapel, but remembers hating the “honor” of lighting candles.

She managed to name everyone in her class photo, and recalled a tough moment as editor of the Scribbler, when Larry Thornton’s painstakingly-drawn crossword depended on a misspelled word. She also remembered fondly Deke Simon and Ted Chaloner. Mary was emphatic about one thing, “Grace Church School taught me how to write, and how to get up in front of people.”

1959

36

1961

Diane Falk dianemfalk@yahoo.com

Diane Falk (center) in front of the building for the Family Federation for World Peace in Washington, D.C. last year at an event to commemorate 9/11. Diane wrote: “Every hour, we rang a commemorative bell, visible in this photo, and sang with a choir. Passersby joined us with prayers and other contributions.” Diane is an Ambassador for Peace with the United Peace Federation.

Diane added some thoughts for the GCS Community: “When accomplished graduates tell me that they will never give financial support to their school, here is something important to remember: No one has ever chosen their own family or place of birth, they were ‘selected’ for us. With long-time traditions of our societies, we live our lives with a sense of gratitude, respect and care for our loved ones, family, friends, communities, and nations. Why not our schools? We should, and can, offer appropriate support and respect for our educational institutions. Please give to this wonderful Grace Church School that is a part of our foundation of education and life. And please ‘stay-intouch’ with the inspiration that we all can feel together! Best Always, Diane M. Falk, Class Agent (1961)

1962

Alan Bernheimer abernhei@yahoo.com

Alan Bernheimer retired at the end of March from a career in corporate communications, working mostly for San Francisco Bay Area high tech companies, but the past five years for companies building utility-scale solar power plants. He says, “I’m looking forward to a lot more time for reading and writing, and am currently working on translating a book of biographical essays from French, which I started learning in third grade at Grace. Unfortunately, I’ve been unlearning it for the past 40 years!”

Abe Caceres released a book and CD of original choral music this spring. “All Are Welcome! Feel the Spirit!: Eight World Music Choral Anthems for Youth, Adults and Congregation” is an eclectic collection intended for intergenerational singing. See Abe and hear his music www.worldhousemusic.org.

Madelaine Rockstein Doyle ’62: I am retiring at the end of May after fulfilling an extremely rewarding career, most recently as Director of Marketing for The Waterford, a not for profit Life Care retirement com-

ALUMNI NEWS munity in Juno Beach, FL. For years prior to finding my passion in this industry, I enjoyed many years in the travel industry and was an executive with a small ship cruise line and traveled extensively. Upon retiring, I plan on enjoying our new home near the beach, boating and fishing, playing golf, and traveling again.

Most importantly, I will be able to spend lots of time with my wonderful husband, Dave, and our four children and their spouses, and 12 grandchildren, ranging in age from one year to 20 years of age.

Class Agents want to hear from you!

Patty Eldred writes: Living in beautiful Colorado again, “semi-retired,” working part-time and happy to be close to my two wonderful children, Megan and Ben.

1971

1963

Cathy Guyler clguyler@att.net

1965

David Ratner dratner@hurrlaw.com

1966

Jill Brandon Wilson Evitt brandonathome@alum.conncoll.edu Patricia Butler Whitehill whitehillt@carnegiemuseums.org

1967

Verne Deffner Uvezian vleven1953@yahoo.com

1968

Paul Rittenberg paul.rittenberg@foxnews.com

1969

Rodney Hobbs Rodney.hobbs@aya.yale.edu

1970

David Siesel dsiesel@gmail.com

Mary-Paula Bailey Allegaert mpallegaert@gmail.com

Mary-Paula Bailey Allegaert reports: I am starting the new year off with a new job, joining atelier-lb (a boutique division of Leo Burnett) as an SVP/Creative Director. I’ve spent the last ten months there working on the launch of the Vidal Sassoon haircare campaign.

Watch for our spots on a TV near you!

1973

Elizabeth Bailey ebailey@nyc.rr.com

1975

Martha Bailey baileymart@gmail.com Thomas Bain bain@acm.org Valerie Paley VRPaley@aol.com

Peter Michelson: Under the category of unbelievable, nine of the 30 graduating members of the Class of 1975 got together on Jan 7th at the Hi Life in NYC to finally say hello to one another after 38 years or so.

The stories and memories have stood the test of time and it was just a great time all around with people bringing photos and reveling in the great time we really had at Grace ‘back in the day.’Attendees were Dede Acosta Wilson, Doug Barone, Tom Bain, Martha Bailey, Chris Kohn, Keith McAllister, Peter Michelson, Phil Rose and Valerie Ritter Paley. We remembered so much about so many, even those who were only around for a few years, it was quite a good time! We’d love to see more of the class so perhaps this will get a few more of you to get on board as our 40th approaches! Get in touch, people!

Valerie Ritter Paley reports further on the gathering: As 2012 came to a close, the year 1975 (or thereabouts) clearly was on Peter Michelson’s mind. His all-points bulletin to his GCS Class of 1975 kin resonated for at least some of us. Peter opened a floodgate of memories from, among (the group mentioned above) in a thread of emails spanning well over 75 messages. When we finally assembled face-to-face only a couple of weeks later in early January (with some spouses in tow), there were more stories, continued fellowship, and great mirth. Dede even came all the way from Massachusetts. We remembered our antics and the corresponding flavor of Greenwich Village circa the early 1970s. We recalled adolescent lives and loves, the teachers we tormented, and the famous (alleged?) stink-bombing of Julius. We asked after each other’s parents and learned of paths postGrace. What was clear, however, forty-odd years later, was how well we knew, respected, and remembered each other, and how much we relished our time together at GCS. It was, in everyone’s post-party words, “amazing.” Dede summed it up: “You share a part of my life that is truly unparalleled.”

37

ALUMNI NEWS

1976

Ethan Silverman emanproductions@nyc.rr.com

Chris Korda returned to GCS for the first time since 1976. Walking through familiar spaces, he thought of GCS in the 70s and how well it reflected the time: Hippie teachers, students with abundant afros, culturally diverse. After a long career in music as a composer, Chris now works as a computer programmer and lives in Massachussets.

1977

Nancy Weigner Shapiro Toddlers2@aol.com

1978

Michele Minters Queen mich7@knology.net

1979

Conni Walsh Langan dl@gcgames.com

1980

Paul Jelinek paul_jelinek@yahoo.com

1981

Lisa Kellar lisa.kellar@yahoo.com

Cindy Eustis: See Paul Jelinek’s report in class of ’80.

1982

Chris Collet crcollet@aol.com

1983

Lori Wasserman littlelor7@aol.com

1984

Jason Hackett kieran.jason.hackett@gmail.com

Class Agent Paul Jelinek reports: Ivory Johnson, now a financial management guru living in D.C., wanted me to remind GCS that he is ready, willing and able to assist with silent auctions/fundraising. Thanks, Ivory!

I recently reconnected with fellow Alum and New Yorker Bici Novobaczky. Bici lives downtown with her husband, Steve Abramowitz, and their nine-yearold son, Luke, a fourth grader at GCS. Professionally, Bici is now a full-fledged entrepreneur—after spending many years running marketing for well known fashion/design brands (David Yurman, Elie Tahari) she has struck out on her own doing interior design.

So if you are doing a renovation, give Bici a call!

And what a treat it was for me to find an email shortly after the last newsletter came out from Cindy Eustice ’81 now Cindy Eustice LaPier. Cindy was one of my earliest childhood friends (we both grew up on Washington Square Park) and she was friends with many people in our class (Lars, Grady, Bici, to name a few). Cindy now lives in the Berkshires with her her husband and her five-year-old daughter Hannah.

Cindy is a psychotherapist with a special focus on women transitioning into motherhood.

And the big change for me (as I am sure it will be for some time) continues to be the growth of my almost two-year-old daughter Stella. Now speaking in almost full sentences in both Russian and English, Stella continues to delight my wife and me. And if you have not connected with me and want to, please email me any time. I would love to hear from all our classmates.

38

For a month in April, Will Ryman’s enormous Bird perched in front of the Flatiron building. The raven, loosely inspired by the Poe poem, was made entirely of pre-made and fabricated nails.

1985

Evan Silverman emsnba@yahoo.com

ALUMNI NEWS

1986

Charles Buice charlesbuice@hotmail.com Alexandra Strubing AlexStrubingParadise@yahoo.com

Alex Strubing Paradise reports: Jennifer Azapian writes: I’m living in San Francisco, and I’ve been working as an organizational strategy consultant for startups, which I love. I’ve also kept up with painting and am still taking fine arts classes at Stanford. I’m back in NYC a few times a year, I hope I can make it to the next reunion or get together! If anyone from our class is in the Bay Area, they should drop me a line on FB or email.

Take a look at David Baker and his adorable son Sam on a visit to Australia where his beautiful wife, Sally Rigg, hails from!

And our very own Diahann Billings-Burford, New York’s Chief Service Officer, was named by Mayor Bloomberg to serve as the Queens Borough Director for the Mayor’s Office after Superstorm Sandy. Here she is with President Clinton overseeing the massive relief efforts. She recently had lunch with Louisa Barrett (mother of Alex and John Barrett) after about 20 years and says Louisa looks phenomenal!

Mark Clarke-Milton is living in NYC and works as a highway construction inspector. He recently worked on the Alexander Hamilton Bridge Project. His son is attending college and his daughter will be 13 this year.

Michael Kuh has been promoted to counsel at the law firm of Latham & Watkins LLP. He recently was lead outside counsel creating the new National Women’s Soccer League.

Maggie Howell Wilhelm writes: I’m now the Executive Director of the Wolf Conservation Center and although news re wolf recovery in the US remains grim, the WCC and its 25 wolves are doing well. We sure have our work cut out for us. Wolves have long been vilified in our culture, but as politicized as they’ve become, little progress is occurring on their

behalf or on behalf of the wild lands they and so many other species require. Hopefully our new ambassador of education wolf pup arriving this spring will enhance our existing Ambassador pack (Atka, Zephyr and Alawa) in improving our efforts diffuse fear of this misunderstood predator, successfully restore endangered wolves to their ancestral homes in the wild, and encourage a philosophy of respect for all living things. Nature is essential for the physical and emotional health of children and adults, I believe our wolves help forge that connection.

My daughter Eleanor will be 6 years old this summer and it appears that being raised by wolves has had an impact. She thrived among bison, grizzlies, and wolves on the Yellowstone landscape last fall and we’re looking forward to camping in Arizona this summer within the recovery area of the critically endangered lobo. Spencer and I are lucky that she took the predator route over princess!

1987

Kate Baker katebaker6666@gmail.com Tyler Maroney tylermaroney@gmail.com

Jody Kuh’s Q & A Productions once again put together the elaborate Ideas City, sponsored by the New Museum. This third annual event presents represents a major collaboration between hundreds of arts, education and community organizations. The festival showcased ideas and innovation like a woodburning mobile sauna and even a trailer park (a park inside a trailer!)

Thousands attended, moving through booths on the Bowery and around—a great nearby addition to May Fair Saturday.

1988

Alex Edlich alexander_edlich@mckinsey.com

Liz Campbell Kelly writes: After spending the summer in Montauk, I moved back to Brooklyn with my husband, Seth, and our son, Eli. I am currently editing a book on the architecture firm FXFOWLE due out in the fall of 2013.

39

Tyler’s Angels? A mini reunion with Cara Wall ’84, Tyler Maroney ’87, Kate Baker ’87, and Jody Kuh ’87 at Kate's mom's apartment.

ALUMNI NEWS

1991

Marc Goldwyn mistogold@mac.com

1992

Isca Greenfield-Sanders studio@iscags.com Gwyn M. Welles gwynwelles@yahoo.com

1993

James Benenson james@jamesbenenson.com

Rebecca Naomi Jones starred in a new musical, “Murder Ballad,” last fall at Manhattan Theater Club.

Ben Brantley of The Times described her as “a louche-looking gal with the throbbing voice” in a stellar review of the show. In March, Time Out New York named Rebecca one of the Future legends of New York theater!

Claude Kelly was nominated for two GRAMMY Awards this year. AGAIN!

1996 Katherine de Vos katherine.devos@alumni.duke.edu Amy Sonnenborn amysonnenborn@gmail.com Ed McShane and James Benenson at the May 3 Reunion.

1994

Sophie Rosenblum SophieRosenblum@yahoo.com

Class Agent Sophie Rosenblum reports: From Lee Jones: “I’m living in San Francisco with my wife, Eliza, (whom I met at Middlebury College), and my son, Lee (not technically a junior due to separate middle names. Lee was born in September of 2012 and was recently baptized at Grace Church which was exciting for us. I’m working at Google in the San Francisco office under the Bay Bridge and loving the west coast. Every time I visit NYC I try to walk by Grace Church School—so many fond memories.”

From Rebecca Smith: I am about to celebrate four years of marriage to Matthew Kondratowicz. I am also pregnant with our first child and am having a boy! I am due at the end of July. I am in my 5th year of my Ph.D. program in Clinical Psychology— presently working on my dissertation, investigating perceptions/attitudes toward money. Life is wonderfully full!

And from Sophie: This May, Eric and I will celebrate two years of marriage with a trip to the United Arab Emirates. These days we live in Tallahassee, FL, where I am in my second year as a Ph.D. candidate in Creative Writing at Florida State University. I’d love to be in touch with any GCS friends. If you’re ever in Tallahassee, please let me know!

1995

Rachel Friedman zabarkes@post.harvard.edu Brian Platzer brianplatzer@gmail.com

40

Callie Siegel calliesiegel@gmail.com

In 2011, Barney Kulok was granted permission to create photographs at the construction site of Louis I. Kahn’s Four Freedoms Park on Roosevelt Island, the last design Kahn completed before his death in 1974. Widely regarded as one of the great unbuilt masterpieces of twentiethcentury architecture, it was completed in 2012. The resulting book of photographs is “Building” (Aperture, 2012). As architect Steven Holl writes, “Kulok’s photographs free the subject matter from a literal interpretation of the site.

They stand as ‘Equivalents’ to the words about material, light and shadow that Louis Kahn often spoke.”

Barney’s work appeared in shows this year in New York, Berlin and Soeul.

Allison Moore recently got engaged to another native New Yorker (but from rival Horace Mann). She lives in Brooklyn Heights down the block from Ben Homrighausen with whom she grew up, being neighbors for their whole GCS careers. Allison works as an Account Director at JWT New York advertising agency.

Whitney Mancino Phend and Nick Phend welcomed Ruby Catherine Phend on December 20, 2011. Whitney is now back working full time as an attorney for the U.S. Department of Transportation in Washington, D.C., and is enjoying living in the same city as her sister, Jenny Mancino ’01.

1997

Lucy E. Horton lucy.horton@me.com Eric Raicovich eric.raicovich@gmail.com

ALUMNI NEWS

1998

Melissa A. Paige mapaige@gmail.com

1999

Pierce Jackson piercej@papermag.com Andrea Marpillero-Colomina andrea.vm.colomina@gmail.com

From Class Agents, Pierce Jackson and Andrea Marpillero-Colomina: For the past few years we have been working hard to reconnect our class; we welcome all of you (and the parents and siblings reading this!) to get in touch with us. Despite busy schedules, we try to attend the alumni events and occasionally get together to socialize. Many of us live in New York and everyone we have spoken to and seen is eager to reconnect with fellow locals. Send us your news and updated email address! We hope to see all of you at our 15-year reunion in Spring 2014.

As you can see, a number of us have crossed the river to Brooklyn, where we are pursuing our wide range of ambitions: Cecilia Estreich is continuing her successful career in the food industry, working as a sales representative for Solex Fine Foods, a purveyor of premium and sought-after food products. Last spring she became a homeowner in Crown Heights. She continues her reign as most fabulously accessorized of the class of 1999.

Misko Lencek-Inagaki is the production manager for Freeman’s Sporting Club, an innovative menswear designer. In April 2013, he assisted with the opening of their newest flagship store in Tokyo. He lives in Prospect-Lefferts Gardens, where he is the proud owner of a gold bunkbed.

Eric Lockhart is working as a Leadership Gifts Associate at the International Rescue Committee (IRC) where he works on private fundraising with a focus on the IRC’s Board and Overseers. He is also is the Executive Director of the New York branch of Young Professionals in Foreign Policy. He lives in Harlem. Yes, he is still handsome and good at math.

Nicole Luedemann is a registered nurse working in the Pediatric Oncology/Hematology Department at Montefiore Medical Center. She also occasionally substitutes for Nurse Wendy at GCS, where she continues to rule the hallways. She lives in Greenpoint with her boyfriend (best known as the Internet meme “ridiculously photogenic guy”) and her adorable dog.

Andrea Marpillero-Colomina is an Isador Lubin Fellow in the Ph.D. Program in Public and Urban Policy at The New School, where her research focuses on transportation networks and neighborhood-level conflict surrounding issues of mobility. She does her best to match her nail polish to the jackets of the books she is reading. In September 2012 she became a homeowner in Carroll Gardens.

2000

Courtney Allen callen@mail.widener.edu

2001

Cecilia Magnusson cimagnet@gmail.com

Nicole Luedemann ’99, Melissa Paige ’98, Andrea Marpillero-Colomina ’99, Eric Lockhart ’99, Isabel Duke ’00, Cecilia Estreich ’99. Together again for GCS After Hours

Tilden Marbit marbit.tilden@gmail.com Tilden Marbit will back in New York City this summer. He plans to return to the Mannes College for Music in the fall.

2002

Samantha McCoy smccoy@gmail.com

2003

Will Horton willhhorton@gmail.com Jasmin Stanley JasminStanley@gmail.com

Robert Hand and Dan Newman tour the art room at the alumni reunion.

Roxie Kratt and Aset Griffith

41

ALUMNI NEWS

2004

Roma Chatham Sarah.Chatham@gmail.com Maurice Crawford dropped in for a visit in April. He’s finishing up at Kingsboro Community College this spring and headed for City Tech to study graphic design in the fall. He’s starting a business to launch a mobile app—stay tuned for details!

Elizabeth Kipp-Giusti has been serving a ten-month term in the National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC), an AmeriCorps program.

Based out of the AmeriCorps regional campus in Sacramento, Calif., Elizabeth worked on a series of six- to eight-week-long service projects as part of a ten to twelve-person team. AmeriCorps NCCC is a residential national service program that supports disaster relief, the environment, infrastructure improvement, energy conservation, and urban and rural development. Elizabeth received her B.A. degree in Religion with a Special Concentration in Human Rights from Columbia College, Columbia University.

2005

Marketa Ort marketaort@gmail.com

Mia Falzarano is heading to Turkey thanks to a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship she was awarded in May. Mia is psychology major at Hamilton College; she studied in Greece through Arcadia University during the 2011 fall semester.

Amanda Kreuter received the J. Rogers Musselman Award at Gettysburg College for achieving excellence in the study of mathematics during the third year of enrollment.

2006

IN MEMORIAM

Peter Shapiro poshapiro@gmail.com

Michael Hotz writes: I am studying political science at Brown. This year I am on leave interning for [Rhode Island] Congressman David Cicilline.

2007

Cecilia Smith cecill237@gmail.com

2008

Chris Pelz cpelz@bates.edu

Chris Pelz reports that Matthew Marani is treasurer of a political thought group at Skidmore College called the Franklin Forum. Jon Pelz joined the Bates ballroom team and earned fifth in tango and was a finalist in the foxtrot. Chris adds, “Every year the best students in the Japanese 102 class at Bates College are chosen to meet with the Japanese consul in Boston.

This year Jon and I were chosen to meet the consul and will have lunch with him and our professor on May 5th.”

Ben Smith continues to be a master politician. After being elected a Babson class “senator” (representative) in the fall, he was re-elected senator this spring.

He is also on the executive management team for the Babson a capella group, and has been admitted into leadership housing for his sophomore year. Ben will be in New York most of the summer and hopes to see all his old GCS friends.

OOPS! Allegra Sussman attends Tisch School of the Arts at NYU, not Barnard as reported in the last issue of GCS News.

2009

Elenore Simotas elenore.simotas.18@gmail.com

2010

Lizzie Evans lizzie.evans96@gmail.com

Tim Doner came back to inspire upper schoolers in the Model UN Elective. See page 16.

2011

Cora Browner corabrowner@yahoo.com

Marsha Edlich (Nicky), mother of Alexander ’88, January 31, 2013

William Scharffenberger, father of Elizabeth ’71, December 12, 2012

Peter J. Johnson, grandfather of Veronica ’09 and Blanche ’07, December 2012

Marc Sloane, father of Rachel ’05, December 2012

Pearl Kellar, mother of Lisa ’81, Maria ’79 and Ilka ’78, and the GCS school nurse from 1973 to 1987, December 6, 2012 Don Jun Park (DJ), wife of Justin Hawkins, art teacher, April 18, 2013 Elizabeth Richards, former teacher, March 14, 2013 42

Stokley Towles, grandfather of Esme ’23 and Stokley ’20, February 14, 2013 Edna Trubin, mother of Andrew ’67 and Priscilla ’63, November 26, 2012 Eric Martin Wunsch, grandfather of Eric ’99 and Noah ’03, March 20, 2013

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CHANGE SERVICE REQUESTED

Parents of Alumni: If your children no longer live at home, please notify the Alumni Office of their current addresses. Thank you! gcstoday@gcschool.org 212.475.5609

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LET’S KEEP IN TOUCH

NEWS FOR GCS NEWS:

MAIDEN CLASS ADDRESS

Let your classmates know what you are doing—marriages, births, moves, jobs.

PHONE (H) PHONE (W) E-MAIL

VISIT THE GCS ALUMNI PAGES www.gcschool.org

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SUPPORT THE ANNUAL FUND

ALUMNI OFFICE, GRACE CHURCH SCHOOL 86 Fourth Avenue New York, NY 10003 gcstoday@gcschool.org

Enclosed is my gift of $___________ for the Grace Church School Annual Fund.

Please make checks payable to Grace Church School, or go to www.gcschool.org to donate online.