Summer 2010 Connections

Connections Stories of extraordinary lives from Kentucky Country Day School

Summer 2010

Expanding Horizons

KCD’s new fine arts center is set to open this fall

Connections Summer 2010

Features expanding horizons .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

When KCD’s new theatre and assembly hall is completed this fall, it will open a new horizon of possibilities for the arts at KCD.

Kentucky Country Day School head of school

Bradley E. Lyman editor

Jeff Topham jeff.topham@kcd.org director of alumni relations

Elizabeth Sherrard alumni@kcd.org alumni board

Pai Charasika ’94 President John Davis ’87 Vice President Omar Amin ’98 Allen Bahe ’01 Gary Bockhorst ’87 Nancye Oehrle Buckner KHS ’67 Lee Garlove ’86 Alex Gift ’00 Tommy Gift ’97 Amy Spears Lavin ’90 Ted Mitzlaff ’86 Beth Monohan KHS ’59 Stu Pollard ’85 Jordan Sucher ’00 Betsy Johnson Touma ’89 Gail Burke Tway ’86 Darran Winslow ’92

atlas of unknowns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Atlas of Unknowns, the debut novel by Tania James ’99, was met with praise from critics and readers. In this interview, Tania talks about the pleasures and perils of writing her first novel.

departments From the Alumni Association President .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 From the Head of School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Morning Announcements .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Alumni Updates .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Alumni Events .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Upcoming Reunions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

on the cover: Construction workers install drywall on the interior of the rotunda

inside the lobby of the new theatre building. The lobby will provide gallery space to display student artwork as well as a space to host events.

4100 Springdale Road Louisville, KY 40241 www.kcd.org phone: (502) 423-0440 fax: (502) 423-0445 alumni@kcd.org

connections is a magazine for and about alumni of Kentucky Country Day School, Louisville Country Day School, The Kentucky Home School for Girls, The Kentucky Military Institute, and Aquinas Preparatory. Connections is published twice each year by the Communications Office of Kentucky Country Day School. Free subscriptions are available to all alumni, parents of students, and other friends of KCD. KCD firmly supports the principle that the admission of students, the employment of staff, the operations of the program, and the governance of the school be open to all who are qualified, regardless of race, gender, creed, color, or national origin.

From the Alumni Association President Dear KCD Alumni, Parents, and Friends, Welcome to the summer issue of Connections! As you can see by flipping through these pages, it has been an eventful year at KCD. The school continues to thrive, boasting a record enrollment, outstanding athletics and fine arts programs, and alumni that continue to be involved in the life of the school. As you will see within these pages, our alumni continue to distinguish themselves in many different ways: through business, science, and the arts.

Perhaps the most important new development at the school is featured on the cover of this magazine. This fantastic new building is only possible because of the support of the KCD community, and I am proud to say that alumni have played a part in making this building a reality. The school is planning a grand opening for the new theatre this fall, and more details on this celebration will be coming soon.

With the support of new Alumni Director Elizabeth Sherrard (see page 10 if you have not had a chance to meet Elizabeth), the Alumni Association is ready to build on the strong foundation left behind in recent years by past Alumni Director Mollie Mulloy Creason ’01 and my predecessor as president of the Alumni Board, Susan Dabney Lavin ’80.

Over the next year, the Alumni Board will concentrate on the following initiatives: • Strengthening the KCD Reconnect Alumni Internship Program, which helps connect KCD alumni with internship opportunities in a number of different professional fields.

• Extending the existing class chair program, in which individual class members serve as liaisons between KCD and the rest of their class. Class chairs are listed by year in the Alumni Updates section.

• Planning events that keep alumni involved and up-to-date with what’s happening at KCD. We currently have a strong reunion program as well as a number of successful annual events, and we would like to continue to build on that foundation.

As a 1994 graduate of KCD, I have felt that my KCD education has provided an excellent preparation for the requirements of college and professional life. Getting involved at KCD is a great way to help provide that same preparation for the students there today. I encourage all of our alumni, whether of KCD or any of our predecessor schools, to find a way to get involved with the life of the school. Alumni are involved at KCD in many different ways: as coaches, volunteers, and guest speakers in the classroom. Alumni are even welcome just to drop by to say hello!

I am happy to serve as Alumni Association President this year, and I am looking forward to helping keep our alumni connected with this outstanding school. Please do no hesitate to reach out to me if you have any ideas, inquiries, or suggestions!

Sincerely, Pai Charasika ’94 Alumni Association President

From the Head of School Dear Alumni, Parents, and Friends of KCD, The 2009 – 2010 school year was special in many ways, from the construction of the fine arts center and a state championship in girls’ lacrosse to national merit scholar recipients and trips to Ghana and Argentina. There was a palpable sense of accomplishment and school pride as we gathered to celebrate the graduation of the class of 2010 on June 3.

During his commencement speech, KCD parent and alumnus Dr. Dan Jones ’79 shared his conviction that creativity must play a central role in facing the challenges posed by a rapidly changing world. As he spoke, I found myself reflecting that the qualities of creativity and imagination are necessary components of an exemplary college preparatory experience. Along with critical reasoning, logical analysis, technical acumen, and community service, the arts are essential to an exceptional education.

At KCD, we have always recognized that education means more than the mere accumulation of information. We have become a world powered by Google, in which we have information at our fingertips and facts are just a mouse click away. As has often been noted, however, “It is possible to store the mind with a million facts and still be entirely uneducated.” The true leaders of tomorrow will not be those who simply store up information, but those who are able to analyze that information insightfully and put it to use with imagination and creativity. As I have often said, “change is inevitable, growth is optional.”

By training our students in these enduring “habits of mind,” they will be able to succeed at jobs that we have yet to imagine. The pace of change is accelerating, and KCD graduates are ready for the challenge.

These qualities are fostered at KCD by a strong arts program that requires students to explore their creativity through drama, visual art, and music. The essential role that the arts play in education has been established by a growing body of research that suggests that teaching the arts is directly and positively correlated with academic achievement. Education specialists such as Eric Jensen, author of Arts with the Brain in Mind, and Dan Pink, author of A Whole New Mind and Drive, suggest that a truly exceptional education must be conceptual, creative, empathetic, and collaborative — qualities uniquely fostered by the arts.

I am very proud that KCD has always had a tradition of a strong commitment to the arts, one that goes far back into our school’s history. This fall, that commitment will be realized in a very concrete way with the opening of our new fine arts center and auditorium. This is a transformational moment in our school’s history! As you can see in the pages of this magazine, it is a project that will truly change the educational experience of our students and our community. For our faculty, the opening of this fine arts center and auditorium will be the fulfillment of a dream that has been deferred often. Now, thanks to the historic level of support of KCD trustees, alumni, parents, teachers, and friends, that dream will come true when we cut the ribbon on the new building in late September.

In his remarks, Dr. Jones outlined the complex global challenges facing future generations of graduates. He also expressed his hope that those challenges would be met with creativity, innovation, and imagination. At KCD, we remain committed to inspiring our students to explore those aspects of learning that extend beyond the mere acquisition of information. As we pursue a truly exceptional education for all of our students, we will continue to fire their imaginations, inspire their creativity, and expand their horizons.

Sincerely yours,

Bradley E. Lyman Head of School

Morning Announcements Girls’ lacrosse team captures state championship!

This spring, the varsity girls’ lacrosse team defeated rival Collegiate to capture its second state championship by a final margin of 5-2. The hotly contested game was truly a tale of two halves, as the Bearcats fought back from a 2-0 halftime deficit to shut out the Amazons in the second half behind two goals from senior All-American Michelle Worthington.

The first half saw the normally high scoring Bearcats continually stymied by the Collegiate defense, which was strategically packed back in a tightly configured zone. It was the first time in three years that KCD had been shut out in a half. Instead of panicking, however, the Bearcats dug in their heels and found a way to get the offense moving.

According to senior defender Lauren Adams, “We played a really sloppy first half and knew that if we didn’t play smarter, we were not going to get the job done. In the second half, we started playing together and doing what our coaches wanted and we turned it around.”

Worthington finally got the Bearcats on the board about nine minutes into the half, with additional goals coming from Ellen Esterhay, Caroline Flowers, Mimi Magruder, and a second goal from Worthington. In the second half, the

Bearcats dominated possession and put on a defensive clinic led by senior goalie Laura “Soupy” Campbell, who was named Tournament MVP after posting seven saves and giving up the fewest goals in the history of a championship game.

It was a fitting ending to a storybook season for the Bearcats, who finished with a program-best mark of 21-3, with all three losses to out-of-state teams by one-goal margins. KCD entered the tournament as the top seed, not having lost a regular season league game since April of 2006 while going 45-0-2 over that time.

The team was led by a remarkable group of fifteen seniors, a few of whom have been on the varsity team since middle school. These seniors are the group most responsible for putting KCD girls’ lacrosse on the map, leading the Bearcats to an incredible streak of five consecutive championship games.

Seniors Ellen Esterhay and Michelle Worthington were named to the 2010 U. S. Lacrosse All-American Team. Both had previously earned All-American honors — Ellen in 2008 and 2009 and Michelle in 2009.

Congratulations to Coach Pat McAnulty and the team on their state championship!

All American Michelle Worthington ’10 moves toward the Collegiate goal.

Jessica Crawford ’10 moves the ball past the defense during the state championship game.

Morning Announcements Mr. Fothergill retires after forty-one years of service to KCD It’s hard to imagine KCD without Charlie Fothergill. Mr. Fothergill began his teaching career at Louisville Country Day in 1969 and has been a vital part of our community through the present day.

Mr. Fothergill’s name is a recurring theme when former students think back on high school teachers who influenced them. As a teacher who encouraged his students to love literature and pursue its

study with critical intelligence and a sense of humor, Mr. Fothergill has been a profound influence on generations of graduates. His presence on our campus will be sorely missed.

Mr. Fothergill, we thank you for your forty-one years of service and wish you the best as you begin your well-earned retirement. We hope you will continue to visit us here on campus!

1992

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1986 1970

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2010

Morning Announcements Dunbar family honored at Chair’s Reception

KCD’s Chair’s Reception was held this October at Standard Country Club. The event, which was hosted by Board Chair Scott Ferguson and his wife Janie, provides an opportunity to thank our major volunteers and donors who have contributed $1000 or more to the school during the previous year.

The Dunbar family and Dunbar Foundation received the Exceptional Service Award at this year’s Chair’s Reception. The Exceptional Service Award was established in 2004 to recognize an individual or family that has demonstrated ongoing development, advancement, and quality improvement at Kentucky Country Day School. This award is presented when an individual or family has represented the school’s motto of Citizen, Scholar, Steward with the highest distinction.

Spanning two generations and nearly forty years, the Dunbar family has been involved virtually every step of the way in Kentucky Country Day’s emergence as one of the premiere independent schools in the region. Wallace H. Dunbar Sr. and his wife, Ellen Thomas Dunbar, were well known and respected community leaders.

They sent all six of their children to KCD: Wallace Jr. (known as Bill to his friends) graduated in 1973, Tom in 1975, Martha in 1977, Laura in 1980, Sarah in 1983, and their late brother Jon in 1986. The Dunbars were active participants in the merger of Louisville Country Day, Kentucky Military Institute, Kentucky Home School, and Aquinas Preparatory School into what is now Kentucky Country Day. Over the years, the Dunbar family have been more than active participants — they were, and have remained, leaders.

Cox family endows professional development fund

Thanks to the generosity of Russ and Kathy Cox, we are pleased to announce the Cox Family Teacher Development Fund. This endowed fund will support teachers in the

Above, from left to right: Board Chair Scott Ferguson, Tom Dunbar ‘75, Martha Dunbar ‘77, Bill Dunbar ‘73, Laura Dunbar ‘80, and Head of School Brad Lyman. Sarah Dunbar ‘83 could not attend.

development of innovative teaching methods and was awarded for the first time this spring to middle school social studies teacher Matt Evans.

Dan Jones ’79 inducted into Alumni Hall of Fame

As the guiding force behind Louisville’s 21st Century Parks, Dr. Dan Jones ’79 is spearheading one of the largest urban parks initiatives in the United States. Under Dr. Jones’ leadership, 21st Century Parks has acquired 3,000 acres in eastern and southern Louisville along Floyd’s Fork Creek.

The land will provide a home to a worldclass public park system that will include over twenty miles of hiking trails.

During his remarks, Dr. Jones outlined the challenges facing our graduates in the future and encouraged them to face those challenges with optimism and determination.

In recognition of his dedication to improving the quality of life in the Louisville community, Alumni Association President Pai Charasika ’94 inducted Dr. Jones into the Alumni Association Hall of Fame.

Dr. Dan Jones ’79 was inducted into the Alumni Association Hall of Fame during Commencement ceremonies on June 3.

Morning Announcements John Crockett ‘82 is 2010 O’Brien speaker

The speaker at this year’s Matthew P. O’Brien Annual Senior Lecture was John Crockett ’82, parent of KCD students Sam Crockett ’11, Henry Crockett ’13, and Thomas Crockett ’16.

In his remarks, Mr. Crockett challenged seniors to work hard, appreciate what they have been given, and make the most of their lives as they embark on the new opportunities of college and living independently.

The O’Brien Lecture is held in honor of Matt O’Brien, a 1983 KCD graduate who passed away shortly after graduation.

His family, friends, and classmates have established this lectureship in memory of his achievements, ideals of friendship, scholarship, and citizenship. Thanks to their efforts, the O’Brien Lecture continues to provide inspiration and insight to seniors as they embark on a life beyond KCD.

Dan Ceaser named middle school director

This fall, Head of School Brad Lyman announced that Dan Ceaser will assume the position of middle school director on July 1, 2010. Mr. Ceaser is currently the principal

and executive director of the KIPP Tech Valley Charter School in Albany, New York. The school is Albany’s top college preparatory academy and serves 320 students in grades 5 – 8.

Mr. Lyman introduced Mr. Ceaser as “a nationally known educator who has founded his own charter school, where he has served as principal for the last seven years. The fact that we are able to attract and hire top-level talent is a testament to the excellent school that has emerged from our collective efforts. Kentucky Country Day School has earned a national reputation as a school of excellence.”

Mr. Ceaser is a graduate of the Harvard University Graduate School of Education as well as the Fisher School Leadership Institute at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.

In 2002, Mr. Ceaser was one of twelve teachers selected to serve on the inaugural Teacher Advisory Team for The Washington Post’s Newspaper in Education Program. As a teacher, he taught eighth grade American History at Paul Independent Public Charter School, was awarded New Teacher of the Year at Bruce-Monroe Elementary School, and

David Bayersdorfer ’83, Dr. John O’Brien, O’Brien Speaker John Crockett ’82, Ms. Jean O’Brien, and KCD Head of School Brad Lyman.

implemented after-school college essay writing programs at Eastern and Coolidge High Schools. He has also consulted on curriculum design for high performing public schools nationwide.

Mr. Ceaser, his wife Katherine, and their two children — Caroline (4) and Natalie (3) —moved to Louisville this summer and are looking forward to joining the KCD community.

KCD Fund supports online language program

Thanks to donations to the KCD Fund, this year the World Languages department offered greatly expanded access to its Rosetta Stone language software. Rosetta Stone is a leader in online language instruction, and the department has been using the software for a number of years. Until this year, however, usage was confined to specific computers running local versions of the software, which meant that students could only use the program at school, and only when teachers had scheduled time in the computer lab.

With the help of the KCD Fund, however, this year the department was able to expand its Rosetta Stone license so that teachers and students now have on-demand access to a web-based version of the software. With the new program, students can use KCD’s account to access the program at any time from any computer with an Internet connection.

According to World Languages Chair Jean Amick, Rosetta Stone offers the ability to diagnose individual learners’ needs and to “design a course of study to cover areas in which a student may have had problems.”

Student response to the program’s expanded opportunities has been extremely positive, and many students are taking advantage of the ability to practice their listening, writing, reading, and speaking skills. “Rosetta Stone is not only an effective way of learning, but it also is really fun,” commented junior Lauren Benz. “I think it has really helped me with my speaking and reading.”

Morning Announcements This year’s alumni legacies include Neale Bennett ‘79 and Chase Bennett ’11; Mark Blieden ‘78 and Joanna Blieden ’11; John Crockett ‘82 and Sam Crockett ’11; Margaret Johnson Dry ‘83 and Meagan Dry ’11; Lisa Brendel Ewen ‘82 and Katie Ewen ’11; Rudy Gernert ‘76 and Lyle Gernert ‘11, Carson Gernert ’11, and Layne Gernert ’11; James Giesel ‘78 and Margaret Giesel ’11 and David Giesel ’11; Albert Leggett ‘77 and Russell Leggett ’11; Carrie Birkhead Scharf ‘82 and Gillian Scharf ’11; Anne Tway Smith ‘79 and Will Smith ’11 and David Smith ’11; Tony Weber ‘77 and Samantha Weber ’11; and Patty Dabney West ‘74 and Caroline West ’11.

In addition to student accounts, nearly fifty teachers and thirteen staff members have begun to use the program to explore languages such as Arabic, Mandarin Chinese, Dutch, Hebrew, Russian, Swedish, and many more.

Ms. Amick is excited that the program represents a huge stride toward the World Languages Department’s goal of creating a community of language learners. “Thanks to this new resource, adults and students alike are studying a variety of languages,” she remarked. “Rosetta Stone truly opens the doors to a global community!”

Tommy Gift ’97 speaks at Junior Breakfast

1997 KCD graduate Tommy Gift was this year’s alumni speaker at the annual Junior Breakfast.

Mr. Gift challenged the class of 2011 not to sit on the sidelines, but to take the lead in making a difference in their community. Other alumni guests at the breakfast included Alex Gift ’00, Jackson Andrews ’00, and Cordt Huneke ’01, who were recently recognized, along with Mr. Gift and Charlie Farnsley ’00, as Louisville’s Young Philanthropists of the Year (see page 20).

The Junior Breakfast also provides an opportunity to recognize our alumni legacies: alumni who are parents of members of the junior class.

This year’s alumni legacies are pictured above.

Six new members inducted into Bearcat Athletic Hall of Fame

Five alumni and one former coach were inducted into the Bearcat Athletic Hall of Fame on Friday, February 19 (see biographies on the following pages). Athletic Hall of Fame inductees are recognized for bringing honor and distinction to their particular sport and to the athletic program at Kentucky Country Day School.

The athlete or coach must have brought measurable success to a particular sport, including outstanding recognition from conference, local, regional, or state level competition. The induction ceremony took place at halftime of the boys’ basketball game vs. Collegiate.

This year, the inductees were Dale Bryant ’72 (swimming); Lydia Plamp Brownlow ’82 (swimming); David Oclander ’85 (boys’ soccer); Hollis Rodgers ’87 (field Cont’d on page 10

MorningAthletic Bearcat Announcements Hall of Fame Dale Bryant LCD ’72 is recognized as the most decorated swimmer in the history of the former Louisville Country Day. His leadership led LCD to a fourthplace Class AA state championship team finish during his junior season and a fifth-place finish for senior season. Mr. Bryant was able to place or score points in the state swimming championships nine different times from his freshman to senior season. Dale achieved two individual state championship swimming titles, winning the 100-meter freestyle as a junior and the 100-meter breaststroke as a senior. He was also involved in one state runner-up relay finish along with three individual state runner-up finishes. He continued his swimming career at Brown University. Today, Mr. Bryant is married with two children. He lives in New Salisbury, Indiana, where he works as an owner of a blueberry farm and as a part-time accountant.

Lydia Plamp Brownlow KCD ’82 was Kentucky State Champion in the 200meter freestyle. She was also an integral member of the greatest swim quartet in Country Day swim team history: Lydia provided a very strong 100 freestyle leg in 1979 for the 400 freestyle relay, which gave the Bearcat swimmers their first relay state championship. That relay time and Ms. Plamp’s individual time in the 200 freestyle both remain school records three decades later. In addition, she was the 1980 state individual runner-up in the 500 freestyle. During her KCD swimming career, Ms. Plamp qualified to compete in nine events for the high school state swimming championships. Ms. Plamp, now married as Mrs. Brownlow, lives in Louisville and continues her love for both Kentucky Country Day and swimming. She is a full-time English faculty member at KCD and has served as an assistant swim coach. Lydia’s older son is a 2009 KCD graduate; her younger son is a member of the KCD class of 2015.

David Oclander KCD ’85 was a named a High School All-American boys’ soccer player while competing for Kentucky Country Day. His All-American’s talents were preceded by All-South and All-State honors as a goalkeeper. His 204 season goalie saves in 1984 continue to be a KCD school record for boys’ soccer goalies. Lt. Col. Oclander was also awarded the 1984 Michael Award, which is the highest award presented to a boys’ soccer player. He continued his soccer career in college as a goalie for the United States Military Academy. After deployments to seven different regions of conflict, Lt. Col. Oclander currently commands the First Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division. The two-time Bronze Medal recipient is married and is currently deployed in Southern Afghanistan.

Bearcat Morning Athletic Announcements Hall of Fame Valerie Dawson Vertrees served as head field hockey coach from 1986 – 2000 and is noted for having the longest tenure and the most victories as a head coach for the KCD field hockey program. Her fifteen seasons as a head coach brought two state championship titles in 1988 and 1989, two state runner-up finishes in 1987 and 1996, and four Apple Tournament Championship trophies. Ms. Vertrees secured a school record 236 victories and won 76 percent of her field hockey contests. In 1996, she was named the Voice-Tribune Field Hockey Coach of the Year. Her fifteen years of service witnessed 15 straight winning seasons, including four straight seasons of 20 victories or more (1987 to 1990). Today, Ms. Vertrees has retired from field hockey coaching. She has two children living in the Louisville area and continues her service to KCD today as physical education instructor.

Hollis Rodgers KCD ’87 is well remembered for being the first high school All-American field hockey player in Kentucky Country Day history. She was able to score a career total of 27 goals. In her senior season of 1986, she scored an impressive 18 goals and provided 16 assists to lead the Bearcats to a 19-win season. She was also named to the All-State Tournament team in 1986. Ms. Rodgers was also a major contributor to the KCD girls’ track program, where she established multiple school records. She continued using her field hockey talents by competing for the Miami of Ohio Redskins. Today, Ms. Rodgers is an attorney with two children. She lives in Southern California, where she still plays with the International Field Hockey Club of San Diego.

Jennifer Roos KCD ’89 is considered one of the best defensive field hockey players in KCD history. Her talents led to numerous honors, such as being named a regional finalist High School All- American, All-County team (1988). She was also placed on the All-State Tournament Team twice (1987 and 1988). She was a versatile field hockey athlete at County Day and also participated in three other sports: basketball, golf and softball. Ms. Roos was also named the 1989 Beam Senior Athlete of the Year. Amazingly, she continued to play field hockey and two other sports for Davidson College. In 2005, Ms. Roos was named to the Davidson College Athletic Hall of Fame. Today, she lives in Bowling Green, Ohio, where she serves as the Associate Head Women’s Basketball Coach at Bowling Green State University.

Morning Announcements Cont’d from page 7 hockey); Jennifer Roos ’89 (field hockey); and Coach Valerie Dawson Vertrees (field hockey).

Mr. Jorge Oclander (former KCD soccer coach) represented his son David, who is stationed in Afghanistan. Ms. Sue Evans represented her daughter Hollis Rodgers, who had a business conflict in San Diego.

For biographies of previous honorees, visit www.kcd.org/athletic-honors.

Elizabeth Sherrard is KCD’s new Alumni Director

Elizabeth Sherrard joined KCD in 2009 as director of alumni relations.

We are pleased to announce that Elizabeth Sherrard has joined KCD as Director of Alumni Relations. Ms. Sherrard says that she is excited to work with alumni on fostering strong connections with the school.

“I believe that a strong alumni association is very important to the success of an independent school,” she said. “I feel that it is my job to provide the opportunities for KCD alumni to stay connected and involved in the life of the school. Through social events, internship assistance, and helping plan class reunions, I hope to encourage alumni to stay involved in the KCD community and to support the school that helped shape who they are today.”

Head of School Brad Lyman with Bill Beam Jr. ’76. This winter, the William T. Beam Jr. Hall of Fame Hallway was named in honor of Mr. Beam.

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Bill Beam Jr. ’76 receives athletics honor

On Friday, February 19, KCD officially named the athletics hallway the William T. Beam Jr. Hall of Fame Hallway.

Known around KCD simply as “Bill,” Mr. Beam has made major contributions to KCD athletics throughout the years. A 1976 KCD graduate, Mr. Beam heads the Bearcat Hall of Fame and the Royal Bearcat Society, which honor outstanding athletes from KCD and its predecessor schools. He is also the creator of The Bearcat Shield, a comprehensive archive of KCD Bearcat athletics established in 2005. The Shield provides detailed records and information on every sport at KCD. Visit the Shield online at www.kcd.org/bearcat-shield.

Director of Athletics Dr. Tim Green says that Mr. Beam has been invaluable to KCD athletics. “Bill has been an integral part of the development of our athletic history and archives. His dedication and love for KCD is evident in the hard work, time, and finances that he has put into The Bearcat Shield and all of his efforts to recognize and honor the work of our student-athletes and coaches. He is very deserving of such an honor.”

Mr. Beam is also the namesake of the senior athlete of the year award, which is presented each year to the most outstanding male and female athlete.

In addition to his work for athletics, Mr. Beam has also researched and recognized the National Merit Scholars from KCD and its predecessor schools, dating back to 1973. You can check out this information online at www.kcd.org/national-merit-scholars.

In addition, each year Mr. Beam shares his professional experience in state politics and government with Kevin Sullivan’s U. S. Government and Economics class. The class is taught in the Beam-Tway History Room, which features a fascinating collection of political memorabilia.

Thanks to Mr. Beam for all of his hard work on behalf of the Kentucky Country Day School community!

Morning Announcements Lowry Watkins Jr. AQ ’64 endows library fund

Thanks to the generosity of Aquinas Preparatory alumnus Lowry Watkins Jr. ’64, the Robertson Library is now the beneficiary of the Lowry and Marshall Watkins Library Fund. The fund will allow the library to purchase new books for students in all three divisions. Books purchased through the fund will be identified by a special bookplate.

Mr. Watkins has been a longtime benefactor of the school whose support has touched many different areas of school life.

In addition to his support of the baseball program and the library, Mr. Watkins also recently made a pledge to establish the Lowry Watkins Jr. Scholarship, which will provide a full tuition scholarship to a student in any grade from 7 – 12. More information will soon be available about the scholarship and application process.

Thanks to Mr. Watkins for his continuing support of our school community!

KCD funds construction of additional Tamale water systems

This winter, the KCD community received the good news that last year’s Tamale Water Project had resulted in the construction of two rainwater harvesting facilities for our sister schools in Tamale, Ghana. According to Mr. Kaleem Jehanfo, past president of Sister Cities and KCD’s liaison for the Water Project, the two catchment systems were completed in December, 2009. “These [catchment sys-

Head of School Brad Lyman with Aquinas alumnus Lowry Watkins Jr. ’64. The Lowry and Marshall Watkins Library Fund will allow the Robertson Library to purchase new books.

tems] will certainly go a long way to improve their water situation,” Mr. Jehanfo reported.

We are pleased to announce that KCD is once again this year able to fund the construction of two new rainwater harvesting systems at schools in our Sister City of Tamale, Ghana. This May, nearly $9,000 was transferred to Sister Cities of Tamale who, under the supervision of Mr. Jehanfo, have already begun construction of the two systems.

This year, one system will go to KCD sister school TISSEC for the boys’ dormitory, and the other will go to Vitting Secondary School, a nearby boarding high

Above and right: The rainwater catchment cistern completed this December at Tamale Islamic Secondary School.

school in great need of supplementary water supply.

When the KCD student delegation traveled to Tamale in February of this year, the water supply for the city of Tamale was severed, and the two systems installed last year (one at TISSEC’s girls’ dormitory and one at Dahin Sheli), were the reason that female students and women on the faculty did not have to miss class or endure long walks in search of water for their campuses.

Girls’ Volleyball Award named for Joe Sorrell

This fall, a new team award was introduced to the KCD community when the highest award for the girls’ volleyball team was named for former middle school science teacher Joe Sorrell.

The award, which will now be known as the Sorrell Volleyball Award through the generosity of the Carucci family, is named in recognition of Mr. Sorrell’s forty years of service to LCD and KCD. Mr. Sorrell retired in 2009, and the naming of the Sorrell Volleyball Award serves as a thank-you for his devoted service to KCD.

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Expanding

Horizons KCD’s

drama directors Kate Scinta and Trudy Wheeler have be-

come experts in overcoming obstacles. Anyone who has seen one of our middle or upper school plays recently can vouch for the quality of the productions. From musicals such as Oklahoma! (2008) to comedies such as Twelfth Night (2006) to thought-provoking dramas such as Radium Girls (2008), the polish and professionalism in these productions have always been obvious. The obstacles behind the scenes, however, have sometimes been more difficult for the audience to see.

When KCD’s fine arts wing opened in January of 1985, it was a huge step forward for the school’s arts program, but the expansion did not include a separate performing arts facility.

Instead, plays and musical programs were staged in the same room as the cafeteria — a space that was later infamously dubbed the cafetorium.

In the twenty-five years since the dedication of that fine arts wing, KCD’s arts program has continued to grow, as has the number of students taking arts classes. By the early 2000s, it was obvious to even the most casual observer that the quality of KCD’s performing arts program was being challenged by the lack of an adequate performance space.

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“We had fine teachers and extremely talented students,” Fine Arts Chair Kate Scinta reflected. “What we lacked was a facility that measured up to the same standards.”

The fine arts faculty was not alone in recognizing that KCD needed a new performing arts facility in order to maintain the school’s standards of excellence. In 2007, the board of trustees began a research and strategic planning process that culminated in May of 2009 with the official groundbreaking for the theatre and the public launch of the Expanding Horizons: Building Upon Excellence capital campaign. The $7.5 million campaign is funding the construction of a new theatre and assembly hall as well as the addition of seven new classrooms, which will help meet the needs of a growing student population.

Overcoming Obstacles

Staging a music concert or dramatic production on the cafeteria stage has often meant overcoming numerous obstacles. To the performing arts faculty, in fact, overcoming obstacles has sometimes seemed like a fine art in itself!

Acoustically, the cafeteria presented major obstacles for directors. The room’s poor acoustics were particularly unsuited for choral or instrumental music performances. They also posed a real liability for drama productions, and finding ways to work around the poor sound quality became a major distraction.

Then there was the size of the stage itself, which often left large casts bumping elbows with each other, or simply prevented large groups of performers from appearing on stage at the same time. This limitation was particularly detrimental for musical productions, which usually involve large numbers of performers. The musicals were popular with student performers and audience members alike, but in recent years Ms. Wheeler and Ms. Scinta began staging these productions off campus in order to find a venue that could accommodate the larger casts.

The productions that were staged at KCD faced numerous other challenges. Behind the scenes, performers and technical crew alike often found themselves working without many of the fundamentals necessary to a working theater, such as a scene shop or wing space.

Although rehearsals and performances often provided impromptu lessons in patience, ingenuity, and creative problem solving, the talent of the cast and crew always shone through. On top of the challenges facing her as a director, however, Ms. Wheeler often found herself frustrated by the way that the facility affected her as a teacher. “We had no wing space, no costuming area, no dressing rooms,” she recalled. “The facility really put limits on our ability to teach our students about all of these aspects of production — all the things that go into a theatrical production. We were

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not adequately preparing students who wanted to go on to collegelevel work in theatre.”

For Kate Scinta, the poor facility meant that the school ran the risk of losing students who were passionate about the performing arts. “I think that students who were interested in the performing arts were disappointed when they came to tour and saw the facility we offered. The theatre space is the most visible part of any fine arts program, and ours did not make a positive impression.

When you see it, you don’t see how outstanding our teachers are or the high quality of our performing groups. All you saw was an amateur-looking facility.”

The New Theatre and Assembly Hall

All of that will change in the fall of 2010 with the completion of the new theatre building. The new facility will be the largest addition to KCD’s campus since the completion of the Frazier Upper School Building in 2000. The building is over 25,000 square feet, with a central auditorium seating about 400. In addition to an orchestra pit, ample wing space, new lighting and sound systems, and a two-story fly space behind the stage, the facility also features a large scene shop adjacent to the stage. The building is also home to seven large new classrooms, which will provide new spaces for fine arts and other classes.

As you can see in the artist’s rendering at left, the facility will also serve as a focal point and “front door” for the campus.

Visitors will enter the building through a large and airy lobby, which will serve as a gallery for student artwork as well as host campus receptions and other events.

Building Community

Although it will serve as the new home of the KCD fine arts department, the impact of the new building will be felt far beyond the arts program. Although many of our alumni have continued to be involved in the performing arts both in college and beyond, both Ms. Scinta and Ms. Wheeler recognize that a first-class experience in the performing arts is essential for all students.

“A top-notch drama program is important,” Ms. Wheeler states, “because many of our students go on to be doctors, lawyers, and other professionals. Performance and self-confidence will be important aspects of their jobs. Participating in drama helps prepare them for that. In addition, we are training future patrons of the arts. By demonstrating to students that the arts are important, we are developing citizens who will go on to support the arts in their communities.”

The new theatre will also be used regularly by all students at KCD — not just those in the arts. Each of KCD’s three divisions

hold regular assemblies, but these assemblies are usually held in the cafeteria, which is the only space large enough to accommodate them. Not only does this mean that assembly times are limited by the cafeteria schedule, but also that the setup and breakdown of chairs and tables has placed a constant strain on KCD’s busy maintenance staff. From the very beginning of the planning process for the new theatre building, one of the school’s primary goals has been to provide a space large enough to allow an entire division to meet together as a community on a regular basis.

The theatre will also provide a venue for the many guest speakers who come to KCD each year. Over the past few years, KCD has hosted a number of nationally recognized speakers such as poet Simon Ortiz, author Mark Mathabane, and author and child psychologist Dan Kindlon. These speakers have drawn large numbers of people to our campus, many of them from outside our own school community. With a new auditorium, we will at last be able to provide an appropriate venue for these speakers.

In addition, Head of School Brad Lyman hopes that the new theatre and auditorium can serve as a resource for both the KCD community and for the Louisville community as well. By serving as what Mr. Lyman calls “the East End Center for the Arts,” this new facility will provide yet another way that KCD can engage with performing groups and other organizations in the broader community.

A Challenge to the KCD Community

When KCD’s new theatre building opens this fall, it will be the realization of a dream that has been a long time in coming. It is a project that is literally transforming the KCD’s campus. That the opening is now just months away from reality is a tribute to the support of the KCD community as well as to the leadership of Head of School Brad Lyman, outgoing Board Chair Scott Ferguson, and Campaign Co-Chairs Dick Clay and Gary Smith.

According to Vice President for Development Jamey Elliott, at the time this magazine goes to press in June of 2010, $7 million of the $7.5 million goal has been raised. As we approach the fundraising finish line, an anonymous group of donors has stepped forward to offer what we have named the Casting Call Challenge. The guidelines of the Challenge are simple but exciting: between now and October 1, 2010, these donors will match any contribution to the Expanding Horizons campaign up to a total of $250,000. This is a terrific opportunity to double your contribution to the campaign and to help KCD complete its fundraising. For more information on the Casting Call Challenge as well as opportunities to name a brick or seat in the new theatre building, see page 41. To make a gift or to learn more about the campaign, visit the Expanding Horizons website at www.expanding.kcd.org.

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Alumni Updates About the class chair program

Class chairs play an integral part in the life of alumni and development affairs at KCD. They represent a connection between KCD and each graduating class, and their single most important mission is to maintain close, personal ties among classmates. Although KCD will help with reunion plans, each class chair serves as the lead organizer for class reunions.

The current class chairs are listed below for each class; those interested in serving should contact Elizabeth Sherrard at alumni@kcd.org. There can be more than one class chair per class.

1961

1967

Peter Cleaves is CEO of the Emirates Foundation located in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, which has grants and projects in youth development, knowledge creation, and national society and heritage.

Previously, Peter was with the Zurich-based AVINA Foundation for Latin America, the Ford Foundation, the First National Bank of Chicago, and the University of Texas as Director of Latin American Studies.

He says, “Establishing a first-class foundation in a unique cultural and historical milieu has been a fascinating challenge — mixing best philanthropic practices from Europe and the United States with Islamic and Bedouin traditions. Abu Dhabi has been a convenient platform for visits to places that previously seemed far away, such as Iran, Egypt, Oman, Lebanon, India, Korea, and Vietnam. I very much enjoyed returning to Louisville in February and speaking with 1961 classmates Mike Platt, Joe Durham, and Mike Lewis and having dinner with Harold Helm and Jim Stone.”

Rick Dissell ’67: “After Cathy [Cook Dissell ’68] and I sold our restaurant, Rick’s, in February of 2008, we were lucky enough to find our new spot in Prospect, which we named The Blackstone Grille.

We opened in June of 2008 and have been going strong! Cathy had her fortyyear KHS reunion dinner here a week after we opened. A good time was had by all!”

1962 George Joseph has assumed the directorship of the African Literature Association Headquarters, now housed at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, where he is a professor of French and Francophone Studies.

1963 Sharon Receveur: “I married Byron D. Felker on July 4, 2008. I kept my maiden name. My sister Robin passed away on August 10, 2008.”

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1972 Craig Grant has been hired as President of PNC South Florida.

Alex Rankin has been elected to serve on the Churchill Downs Board of Directors.

1973 class chair: Barry Barlow barry_barlow@ml.com

1974 class chair: Patty Dabney West pdwest1@bellsouth.net

1975 class chair: Mary Eitel EITELCO@aol.com

1976 class chair: Dan Huneke dancor2000@aol.com

1977 class chair: Tony Weber baweber@veredus.com

Alumni Updates 1978 class chair: Linda Baker Rosenburg baker@wakefieldreutlinger.com Glen Schorr has been named executive director of The United States Orienteering Federation (USOF). In this position, Glen will have ultimate responsibility for strategic planning, day-to-day operations, overall financial health of the organization, staff management, education programs, and public relations. He will lead the organization’s relationships with sponsors, supporters, and key government agencies.

Glen is formerly a managing director for U. S. Lacrosse.

1979 class chair: Steffi Sachs Sparks steffi_sparks@hotmail.com On November 15, 2009, Betty Baird Kregor was inducted into Metro Area Athletic Directors’ Hall of Fame. The award recognizes Ms. Kregor’s athletic accomplishments, which include three individual regional tennis championships at KCD (1977 – 1979), an individual state championship in 1979, and her status as a three-time All-American. Betty has also been named to the Kentucky High School Athletic Association Hall of Fame and the Kentucky High School Metro Louisville Hall of Fame.

Jim Thaler was elected and installed as president of the St. Petersburg Bar Association for 2009 – 2010. Jim is a lawyer with the Thaler Law Firm, P. A., and practices in the areas of business law, estate planning, and real estate. He is also the associate director of graduate business programs, a visiting professor and director of the JD/MBA Dual Degree Program at Stetson University School of Business Administration. Jim, his wife Kelly, and their daughter Elizabeth live in St. Petersburg, Florida.

1980 class chair: Jana Clanton Dowds jdowds@insightbb.com

1981 class chair: Mary Scott Herrington msherrington@insightbb.com

1982 class chair: Mary Williams Nuss mary.nuss@ge.com Jan Stuart Dickstein continues to live in ‘Our Fair City’ of Cambridge, Cont’d on page 18

Mark Eakin ‘76 receives silver medal for coral reef research

Dr. Mark Eakin ’76 has been specializing in the study of coral reefs for a long time. He has published on various topics in coral reef ecology, especially the impact of climate change and other disturbances on coral reefs, and has briefed and testified before the U. S. Congress on the impact of climate change.

As the director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Coral Reef Watch in Silver Spring, Maryland, Dr. Eakin has been instrumental in developing methods of monitoring how coral reef ecosystems change as the climate does.

This November, Dr. Eakin was awarded the Silver Medal by the U. S. Department of Commerce for Scientific/Engineering Achievement. The award recognizes exceptional performance and superlative contributions that have a lasting impact on the Department.

Dr. Eakin is the leader of the team that was honored for their work developing satellite and model-based technologies to assist coral reef managers in responding to the impact of climate change on coral reef ecosystems.

From L– R: Dennis Hightower, Deputy Secretary of Commerce; Rik Wanninkhof of NOAA in Miami; Dr. Mary Cécile Penland de Garcia of NOAA in Boulder; Gary Locke, Secretary of Commerce; Dr. Mark Eakin ’77; Lauri MacLaughlin of NOAA in Key Largo; and Dr. Jane Lubchenco, Undersecretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere.

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Alumni Updates William Cork ’77 honored for biomedical research

William Cork ’77 spends his time working with things that are too small to see. At Nanosphere, Inc., Mr. Cork has been instrumental in developing a nanotechnology-based molecular diagnostics platform. In recognition of that work at Nanosphere, as well as for his development of a blood separation system at Baxter Healthcare, recently Mr. Cork was inducted into the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering’s (AIMBE) prestigious College of Fellows. The award was presented at the Institute’s annual event at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D. C., on February 12, 2009.

Mr. Cork joins 900 other distinguished scientists and leaders in the development of biomedical devices, the treatment of diseases, and public policy related to all aspects of medical and biological engineering.

Mr. Cork currently serves as vice president of research and development and chief technology officer at Nanosphere, Inc.

Cont’d from page 17 Massachusetts, where he and his wife Nancy Shapiro are busy with their three boys: Zev (7), Gefen (4), and Yona (1).

1983 class chair: Wendy Burke Brown wendy.brown@appl.ge.com After fourteen years teaching at the State University of New York (Binghamton), Nancy Henry has taken a new position as Professor of Victorian Literature at the University of Tennessee (Knoxville). Her most recent books include The Cambridge Introduction to George Eliot (2008) and an edited collection, Victorian Investments: New Perspectives on Finance and Culture (2009).

1984 class chair: Tom Beck tbeck@flra.gov class chair: Angie Rogers Nuttall adr72@aol.com Tom Crockett was promoted following the PNC-National City merger.

1985 class chair: Stu Pollard stu@pollardfilm.com class chair: O’Bryan Broecker Worley obryan@obryan.com Jeffrey Hatcher: “I have two beautiful kids, a great wife, and a good job. I enjoy cycling a lot and white water kayaking some.”

Katrina Hood was elected to the board of directors of the State Volunteer Mutual Insurance Company in May of 2009 — a medical malpractice insurance company for physicians in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Arkansas.

Gregg Raus: “I am now working at Jones Lang LaSalle doing corporate real estate acquisitions and dispositions.”

Last fall, Eric Jones had a visit from Suzy Hatcher ’89 and her mother, former KCD librarian Nancy Hatcher. The group had dinner together in Moscow, where Eric runs his own graphic design business.

From L– R: AIMBE president Dr. John Watson, William Cork ’77, and Dr. Cato T. Laurencin.

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Toni Redmon Rose : “I resigned from Progressive Insurance Company in 2008 in order to devote more time to Barren Heights Retreat. Barren Heights is a

Alumni Updates camp ministry that my husband Joe and I founded in 2005 to provide free weekend retreats for families who have children with disabilities. I was recently honored as a recipient of the prestigious Louisville Bell Award given by the WLKY Spirit of Louisville Foundation. The program recognizes individuals who have demonstrated the true ‘spirit of Louisville’ through selfless volunteer service in our community. It was a very special evening for our family.”

1990 class chair: Matt Black matthew.black@national-city.com

1991 class chair: Jordan Karp jdkarp@aol.com Chris Bennett ’91 and Geody Vaughn Bennett ’93 welcomed their second boy, Theodore “Theo” Gabriel Bennett, on March 13.

1992 class chair: Darran Winslow dwinslow@lcgandm.com

1986 class chair: Lee Garlove LGarlove@MiddReut.com

1987 class chair: John Davis jdavis@hogandev.com class chair: Gary Bockhorst gbockhorst@hillard.com

1988 class chair: Carter Payne cbp1@aol.com

1989

Elizabeth Brohm Hanrahan has worked in professional theater for the last ten plus years out in Los Angeles. During that time, she has she has worked with Steve Martin, Joan Rivers, Jason Alexander, Rita Wilson, and many others. She also served as stage manager for many shows at the Geffen Theater.

Mary Nancy Hubbard was recently married.

1993 class chair: Emmett Ogden emmettogden@hotmail.com

1994 class chair: Pete Ward pward@veredus.com Amy and Pai Charasika had their second boy, Nashe Marchell, on April 5, 2009. Pai graduated from Leadership Louisville’s Ignite Louisville program in April, which is a program dedicated to cultivating community leadership amongst Louisville’s young professionals.

An exhibition of artwork by Gibbs Rounsavall, Unearth the Divine, was shown in Louisville this winter in two downtown galleries: The Green Building Gallery and the adjacent 720 E. Market.

1995 class chair: Stephanie Harkess Robertson steph.robertson@gmail.com class chair: Tom Pilon thomasapilon@yahoo.com Matt Strauss and Erica Johnson Strauss ’96: “Our son Carter Patterson Strauss was born on January 20, 2009 (just in time for Obama’s inauguration). We are enjoying watching him grow up in San Diego.”

Stefan and Jennifer Triplett Weiler are happy to announce the birth of Maya Gabriella. Maya joins big sister Gabriella (2).

class chair: Betsy Touma betsy.touma@gmail.com Daniel Dickstein: “My family and I currently live in Rhode Island, where I’m a child psychiatrist and pediatrician doing both research and clinical work. My wife Liz is an emergency medicine physician at the local children’s hospital. Mostly, we run around after Jake (2), Hannah (6 mos.), and our eldest dog-ter, Sophie (6 in human years).”

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Alumni Updates 1996 class chair: Erica Johnson Strauss eejohnson30@hotmail.com class chair: Allison Erk Edwards allisonerk@hotmail.com Allison Aboud Holzer recently partnered with Louisville company Yardbirds to coauthor and illustrate a children’s picture book about recycling called Jenny Makes a Junkyard Friend. The book is available in fine art and craft galleries and children’s museums across the country. In addition, she is the coaching program coordinator for the Health, Emotion, and Behavior

Lab at Yale University, which promotes the emotional intelligence skill development of teachers and students. Her husband Paul will be completing his MBA at Yale this spring, and they are hoping to stay in or nearby New Haven, Connecticut.

Allison Erk Edwards and Jonathan Edwards welcomed a baby girl on September 29, 2008. Hadley Cooley Edwards, born in West Hartford, Connecticut, weighed 6 lbs., 8 oz. and was 20" long. Allison has enjoyed spending time at home with her this year and will resume teaching in the fall.

Alumni recognized as Young Philanthropists of the Year In 2007, a group of young Louisvillians began noticing that many of the nonprofits doing amazing work in the Louisville community were somehow flying under the radar. They also noticed that the work these groups were doing had a multigenerational impact and could best be addressed by bringing together multiple generations of Louisvillians in order to benefit the community.

Four of the alumni founders of Old Louisville Meets New Louisville: Cordt Huneke ’01, Tommy Gift ’97, Jackson Andrews ’00, and Alex Gift ’00. (Not pictured: Charlie Farnsley ’00.)

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The result of these observations was the creation of the nonprofit Old Louisville Meets New Louisville, which works to support local nonprofits and to promote cross generational collaboration.

The group was started by a core of seven friends, five of whom are KCD alumni: Jackson Andrews ’00, Charlie Farnsley ’00, Alex Gift ’00, Tommy Gift ’97, and Cordt Huneke ’01.

This January, Louisville Magazine named the founders of Old Louisville Meets New Louisville as Young Philanthropists of the Year. So far, the group has organized successful fundraisers for the Blue Apple Players and the National Foundation to Support Cell Transplant Research. Visit them online at www.olmnl.com.

Alumni Updates 1997 class chair: Sarah Long Lashford sarahm_long@yahoo.com Courtney Reiss Kempf: “I recently moved back to Louisville from St. Louis with my husband and daughter, Lily. Jason took a job working at Brown Forman, and I am an art director at Doe Anderson. On May 13, our family welcomed our son, Jackson Steven Kempf.”

1998 class chair: Elizabeth Barnett elizabethabarnett@hotmail.com class chair: Pat Mulloy patrick.mulloy@kcd.org Adam Arrington: “I just completed my MBA with a concentration in International Business from Loyola University Chicago.

I was also given the honor of being the student commencement speaker for both the undergraduate and graduate School of Business Administration. Currently, I am pursuing a second master’s degree in Integrated Marketing Communications, also from Loyola University.”

Austin Sumner Nelson and Christopher Nelson had a girl, Katherine Ross Nelson, on February 10, 2009.

Pennsylvania. Becky Morris Zahradnik ’99 and Stephanie Adamkin ’99 served as bridesmaids. Gretchan is currently working as a Spanish teacher at Mercersburg Academy, a private boarding school in Pennsylvania. She is in her fourth season as the head field hockey coach.

2000 class chair: Helen Killarney Vice hvice@humana.com

2001 class chair: Lee Heffner lee.whitty.heffner@gmail.com Mollie Mulloy Creason married Scott Creason in Sea Island, Georgia, on June 13, 2009. KCD connections at the wedding included Alice Zoller ’01, Grace Barlow ’01, Blair Robertson ’01, Mandy Kazee Mulloy, Nicole Touma ’01, Megan Jacob ’01, Polly Brown Williams KHS ’70, Elizabeth Cooper Spears ’99, Helen Killarney Vice ’00, Ashley Campbell ’01, Jim Martin LCD ’69, Lyman Martin LCD ’69, George Spears ’98, Bobby Vice ’98, Patrick Mulloy ’98, Sam Booker ’74, Mac Barlow ’07, Barry Barlow ’73, Tiffany Barlow Rogers ’00, and Lee Heffner ’01.

1999 class chair: Emmy Hubbard Baker emmy.baker@gmail.com

2002 class chair: Vishal Amin VishalRAmin@gmail.com

2003 Gretchan Frederick Chace recently married Logan Chace (a ’01 graduate of Mercersburg and a ’05 graduate of Hartwick College) in Mercersburg,

class chair: Katelyn Heil McKinney katelynmckinney@gmail.com MacLeod Andrews continues to perform Off-Broadway. Last summer, he performed

in the New York premiere of Slipping at Rattlestick Theater. MacLeod says, “This is by far one of my favorite theaters in New York. It’s a fantastic and powerful play.”

MacLeod also has been busy recording audiobooks, and one of his most recent, Tim Tharpe’s The Spectacular Now, was recognized by Audiophile Magazine with an Earphone Award, which recognizes truly exceptional presentations in narrative voice and vocal characterization. Thanks to MacLeod, his recording of Joseph Helgerson’s young adult novel Crows & Cards now has a home in KCD’s Robertson Library.

Last February, Preston Copley starred in A Beggars Group production of The Expatriates, a play exploring the life of F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Andrew Gould is in his third year of law school at Vanderbilt University Law School, where he serves as the executive editor of the Vanderbilt Law Review. Following graduation, he will spend one year serving as a law clerk to the Honorable Raymond M. Kethledge, United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, in Ann Arbor, Michigan. After his clerkship, he plans to enter private practice in Washington, D. C.

2004 class chair: Andrew Howerton andrew.p.howerton@gmail.com class chair: Mollie Ronald mollie.ronald@gmail.com Tyler Bird and Lora Veale of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, were married at the Muhammad Cont’d on page 22

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Got news for Connections?

Post your update online in the alumni section of www.kcd.org or send it to us at alumni@kcd.org. You can also mail your update to KCD Alumni Office 4100 Springdale Road Louisville, KY 40241

Cont’d from page 21 Ali Center on Saturday, March 14, 2009.

Attendants included Alex Harcourt ’04 and Danny Davies ’05. The couple took a honeymoon cruise to the Caribbean and now reside in Connecticut. Tyler is a graduate of Middle Tennessee State University and is employed as an audio engineer with a recording studio in Trumbull, Connecticut.

Lora will finish her nursing studies in New York City.

2005 class chair: Kate Dobbins kdobbins25@aol.com class chair: Kavir Patel co9kavir.patel@usafa.edu Kate Dobbins has graduated from DePauw University with a degree in communications. Kate was one of nineteen DePauw student journalists honored with “Best of the Best in Indiana” awards from the Society of Professional Journalists. The awards, which are for work that was published, posted, or aired in 2009, were presented during an annual banquet at the Indianapolis Marriott North. Kate, along with Elizabeth Connor, was awarded first place for Best Public Affairs, Documentary or Series Programming Suzanne Lenz graduated from Davidson College last spring with a B. A. in theatre. Her last performance in a Davidson production was in Steven Sondheim’s Company.

Adam Schwartzman: “I am studying law at the University of Toledo this fall and will graduate in 2012.”

Alex Sweet completed his college eligibility swimming at the University of Louisville while also attending medical school. He was on a relay that won the Big East championship and broke a conference record.

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Daniel Dorsey has graduated from DePauw University with a degree in history.

Fielding Jezreel, a graduate of Grinnell College, has been awarded a Fulbright U. S. Student scholarship to Turkey in Teaching English as a Foreign Language. She is one of over 1,500 U. S. citizens who traveled abroad for the 2009 –2010 academic year through the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board.

Katie Maclin has graduated from DePauw University with a degree in English Writing.

2007 class chair: Sarah Kleban sarah.kleban@gmail.com class chair: Maddie Gmelin cowgal210@aol.com class chair: Brad Zoppoth bzoppoth07@insightbb.com class chair: Chandler Jobson chanopi@hotmail.com Courtney Plaster-Strange was selected for the National Senior Field Hockey Game this fall. The Northwestern Athletics website notes that Courtney “has been a catalyst for Northwestern’s offense all season in posting a career-best 10 goals.”

Colin Garner recently completed his junior year at Denison University, where he is majoring in East Asian studies and economics. Last summer, Colin studied in Shanghai, China, through Denison’s offcampus study program. He took an intensive Chinese language course at Shanghai’s

Alumni Updates Fudan University and spent the fall semester at Shanghai University of Finance and Economics.

merger of Kentucky Home with three other schools to form Kentucky Country Day School. Students remember her as a caring, passionate, and exacting teacher of English and Humanities who endeavored to bring out the best in each of them. She was also a college counselor at KCD for many years. Cynthia earned her master’s degree in teaching from the University of Louisville. She retired from teaching in 1986 but continued to counsel college applicants. Her boundless love of learning inspired her students as well as her children.

She found great satisfaction in information, ideas, art, and music of all types.

Ann Marie Yates passed away on January 1, 2010. She served as an art teacher at KCD for fifteen years before retiring.

2008 class chair: Angelo Ciliberti aac980@hotmail.com class chair: Maggie Bade maggie.bade@gmail.com class chair: Mac Davis fmdavis77@aol.com class chair: Austin Giesel giesel@insightbb.com class chair: Dallas Selvy dallas.selvy@center.edu class chair: Natalie Accardo tubachica@gmail.com class chair: Grace Wessel wesselm@muohio.edu

2009 class chair: TBD

2010 class chair: Geoffrey Jeyasigham sensationalcubs@yahoo.com class chair: Angelique Ciliberti a.ciliberti@hotmail.com

In Memoriam Cynthia Sortwell Castleman died on February 21, 2010. Cynthia began her twenty-plus year teaching career in 1966 at the Kentucky Home School for Girls.

In the early 70s, she was a representative of that school during the shaping of the

Fayette McDowell Willett KHS ’39 passed away June 5, 2009, at St. Matthews Manor.

Joan Brown Schuler KHS ’59 passed away on March 3, 2010, at her home in Prospect.

Her classmates remember her as someone who valued her connections with her KHS classmates. She was always the first to keep in touch with classmates or to organize a dinner or lunch.

Peyton Wells LCD ’62 died December 27, 2009. After graduating from Louisville Country Day, Mr. Wells attended the University of Kentucky and graduated from Parsons College in Iowa. He was the cofounder of the Louisville restaurant W. W. Cousins.

Bill Butler LCD ’67 passed away on June 8, 2009. At Louisville Country Day, Bill played varsity basketball and tennis and was a member of Chevalier Literary Society.

Bill was both an author and publisher as well as a lifelong sports fan.

Susan Cook ’85 died November 24, 2009.

She was a trade specialist for The Kentucky World Trade Center and a member of Southeast Christian Church, where she participated in the Easter pageant.

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Atlas of Unknow It started with the image of a firecracker exploding in a young girl’s hand. After a year and a half of work, that image had been shaped into the first novel by Tania James ’99. Atlas of Unknowns was published in hardcover by Knopf publishers last spring, and the paperback edition is just out from Vintage.

Atlas of Unknowns centers around two sisters, Linno and Anju, who live with their father in Kerala, India, following their mother’s mysterious death. The novel follows Anju to America, where she is awarded a scholarship to a prestigious boarding school under circumstances that put a serious strain on her relationship with her sister. Linno, meanwhile, finds herself unexpectedly blossoming back home, until Anju’s sudden disappearance leaves Linno scrambling for a way to get to the U. S. to find her missing sister.

Tania is no stranger to sisterhood. She is the middle of three sisters, all of whom graduated from KCD (Neena in 1997 and Christy in 2003). “There are aspects of my family that permeate my writing,” Tania admits, “but no one-to-one correlation.”

The book was met with praise from readers and critics alike. The New York Times called Atlas a “delightful first novel” and noted that the author “writes with poise, sly humor, and an acuity both cultural and sensuous.” Tania’s hometown paper, the Courier-Journal, called the novel “as spectacular a debut as any author could hope for.” Atlas also garnered recommendations from authors such as Nathan Englander and Pulitzer Prize-winner Junot Diaz. “Wise and hilarious, [Tania’s] Atlas is an astonishment of a debut,” Mr. Diaz enthused, “so radiant with life, with love, with good old human struggle that I had trouble detaching myself from its pages.”

Tania visited KCD last spring, shortly after the novel’s launch. Her visit was part of a book tour that included stops in New York City, Boston, Richmond, and a packed reading at Louisville favorite Carmichael’s Bookstore. Although it was a very busy time for Tania, she was gracious enough to do readings for a number of upper school English classes and to answer some questions for Connections.

wns

Photo by Joanne Chan

Jeff Topham: What is your work day like as a writer? Do you work regular hours, or do you just write when you feel like it?

me, but they really do make me a much happier person when I can achieve that on any given day.

Tania James ’99: I like to have the same hours every day, if I can. I start working first thing in the morning, take a break at noon for lunch, then get back to it. It’s more about the number of hours I put in rather than having an output goal. It certainly puts me in a much better mood to have a full page at the end of it, which is actually not that common. [Laughs]

Jeff: A big part of the novel is set in Kerala. Did you know this setting well, or was it something you had to research?

Jeff: Do you have your plot and characters defined in advance, or do you figure it out as you go?

Tania: The writing was much more a process of discovering who these characters were and where the story would take them. I knew, for example, that the younger sister would do something to put a stress on the relationship with her older sister, but I didn’t know exactly what that was.

When I realized what it was, I felt like it was going to be real challenge to keep her as a sympathetic character, not as the horrible person that someone might perceive her to be if all they knew about her was that single act.

The more I redrafted the pages, the better I understood who the characters were, but I never quite understood everything about them. If you think you know everything about a character, then they won’t do things that are unpredictable or surprising, and it’s those things that are the interesting points of plot, when people act differently than you might expect.

Jeff: What’s the most difficult part of writing for you?

Tania: The most difficult part for me is the very beginning of the process, when you have that blank page facing you. Even when I have a couple of paragraphs or a first scene, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s going to turn into anything. I’m always waiting for some clue that there’s real potential here, and oftentimes there isn’t.

In that early stage I’m trying to figure out the voice of the narration.

Once I figure that out, I can keep going, because it feels somehow natural. It fits the story.

Jeff: What’s the most pleasurable part?

Tania: I can’t remember who said it, but there’s a writer who talked about dreaming on the page, where somehow the story almost feels as if it’s writing itself, and time almost collapses a bit. Things are just kind of flowing. I feel like those moments are very few for

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Tania: My Mom and Dad were both born in Kerala. I’ve always felt a strong connection to Kerala because we have family there that we are very close to. We only visit every few years, but the emotional bond to the home and the place and the people there is very strong. There is also a community of people here who share a culture and language and food that’s been maintained. I didn’t really have a strong current understanding of Kerala, though. I had no idea about politics, for example, and it was the process of writing the book that made me feel that I had a different kind of closeness to the place.

Jeff: You have an undergraduate degree in filmmaking from Harvard. What prompted you to switch gears and become a writer?

Tania: I was taking writing workshops in college at the same time that I was taking film classes, and I just felt freer in that realm. If I want it to rain in a scene, it can rain, but there are just so many uncontrollable variables in filmmaking. It’s also a very collaborative process. Even if you’ve written the script yourself and are directing it, there are actors who might interpret it differently than you intended.

I guess I’m just more of a control freak when it comes to storytelling. [Laughs] Jeff: What are you working on now?

Tania: I’m still writing and revising for a short story collection. I wrote some of these stories before the novel, and it’s been nice to have a long time away, so I can look at them with a more critical eye. I’m also writing some new ones, which are very different content-wise. I feel that in the last two years, the territory that I usually write about has changed. It will be interesting to have these new stories sitting alongside the old ones!

Jeff: What are your goals as a writer? What’s most important for you to communicate to the reader?

Tania: The best literature entertains you, but it also makes you look at the world a little bit differently, if only for a couple of hours after you’ve finished reading it. That’s true of all my favorite books. If I can accomplish that for the people who read my book, I’ll be very happy!

An excerpt from

Atlas of Unknowns

by Tania James ’99

The day begins wrong. Melvin feels it upon waking, as though he has

slipped his right foot into his left shoe and must shuffle along with a wrong-footed feeling all day. That today is Christmas Eve brings no comfort at all.

It is not the first morning to begin this way. Throughout his forty-five years, Melvin Vallara has periodically awakened to a nuisance in his stomach, an inner itch of ill portent that could bode anything from a bee sting to a gruesome bull-onbus accident. Both events occurred on his seventh birthday, and he still has not forgotten that bull, how it bounced on its back before landing on its side.

This is what the Bible says: I tell you the truth . . . no prophet is accepted in his hometown. Nor, Melvin would add, in his own family. His mother believes that the inner itch has more to do with gas than foresight, and like her mother before her, Ammachi calls upon an arsenal of unwritten remedies. She prepares a murky white goo from the boiled grounds of a medicinal root, while her granddaughter Linno watches from the doorway of the kitchen.

“Which root?” Linno asks.

“The name, I don’t remember. A multipurpose root,” Ammachi decides, borrowing an English phrase she heard in a Stain-Off! commercial, one in which a cartoon soap sud possessed eyes and a smile.

Linno delivers the bowl of multipurpose root goo to her father, who is draped across his bed, an arm over his eyes. When he sees the bowl, he responds by turning away, onto his side. He is a man of few words, but clearly he and the goo have met before.

Linno believes. She is thirteen and dutiful, convinced that part of her duty is to champion her father’s prophecies, even though he lacks the frothy beard and brooding of biblical prophets and his name falls short of the weight and might of an Elijah or a Mohammed. In fact, he more closely resembles the icon of a gloomyeyed saint: slight, balding, his forehead growing longer by the year. Linno tries to make up for the little attention he gets by bestowing as much as she can, so she supports his decision to stay home from morning Mass. She also hopes that Ammachi might let her support him from home.

It is not to be. In the end, Linno leaves along with the rest of the family and returns from church to find Melvin still asleep, his hands in fists by his face, as if to pummel ill fortune away.

But then, there is the Entertainment to consider.

Melvin forgot to purchase the Entertainment from the Fancy Shoppe the day before, and now here they are — Linno and her younger sister, Anju — home from morning Mass with less than sixteen hours until midnight Mass, and no Entertainment? Unacceptable. Unfair. The Entertainment is tradition, a promise upon waking, a beautiful, blinding answer to the holy punishments of morning. Without the Entertainment, there is only the looming threat of carolers who travel from house to house, proud as roosters in their red mufflers, belting melodies and collecting church donations all through the night.

Late afternoon breezes swell the sun-gilded trees that lift and sigh, sifting the light between their branches. There is still time left in the day to visit the Fancy Shoppe, if Melvin can be persuaded. Ammachi refuses to go back out once she has unpinned the Christmas brooch from her shoulder, a brass dove that she nests in its velvet-lined case, where it will remain until next Christmas Eve. She removes the embroidered shawl draped over her shoulder and goes about the house in the white chatta and mundu that all Syrian Christian women used to wear, so few now still starching their blouses and pleating their wraps despite the patterned profusion of saris surrounding them.

Her brow still furrowed from the severity of her worship, she sits in a plastic chair, her eyes closed, her swollen, lotioned ankles perched on the daybed across from her as Linno reads aloud from the newspaper.

Ammachi takes pleasure in knowing the happenings of district politics, lambasting corrupt politicians as if they are standing before her, a row of sulking children. But lately, largescale developments have been attracting her rebuke, particularly new plans for the construction of a national highway, a network of roads and bridges, three to six lanes thick, that will send vehicles speeding from Kashmir to Bangalore, and west to east in a third of the usual time. “With double the waste,” Ammachi warns. Examining the map, the dark passages splayed across the country, she rejects its unpronounceable given name — the Golden Quadrilateral — and coins it instead “the Golden Colon.”

During Ammachi’s indictments, Linno sketches her grandmother along the margins of the newspaper, paying special attention to her bun, a silver-gray swirl that maintains its integrity without help from a single hairpin. These sketches interest Melvin more than the news itself, so much so that he neatly tears out and saves his favorites. Gracie, his wife, used to tease that he would turn anything, even a bottle cap, into a souvenir.

He is sure that had Gracie lived to see these sketches, she would have saved them as well. They seem to belong to the hand of someone much older, who understands not only the anatomy of the face but the way muscles hold emotion, the way eyes possess life. He keeps the drawings in a faded cigarillo box that bears the face of a mustached white man on the lid.

While Linno draws Ammachi, Anju follows her father

through the bedroom, the sitting room, and even hovers around the outhouse, reciting in English from the Book of Isaiah as he does his business.

At nine years old, Anju is a valiant Bible Bowler, her brain an unbeatable vault of Scripture that she draws upon to give herself authority, even when faced with a sighing audience.

Unlike Linno, Anju will not accept defeat; at least five times a day, she pulls on the tip of her nose, believing that her efforts will somehow win her a straighter one.

With similar persistence, she follows her father into the sitting room, translating and interpreting the text as verses of fortitude and godly reliance, closing her case with the reminder that he never got her a birthday gift.

When logic fails, Anju’s argument devolves. She whimpers, tugging at the hem of her T-shirt (“Eddi, stop stretching it!” Ammachi warns), and threatens to run away, which is a predictable threat, as she is always running away and Linno is always sent to fetch her. The only mystery lies in which neighbor’s house Anju might choose as her sanctuary. Usually Linno finds her sitting on someone ’s front step, bleakly toeing patterns in the dirt until she spots Linno in the yard. Anju always comes away quietly, gradually softening beneath the weight of her sister’s hand on her shoulder. Sometimes, after a silence, Anju will ask, “What took you so long?”

Melvin retires to the daybed with his arm over his eyes while Ammachi lectures, while Linno draws, while Anju continues to flit around him with her runaway threats, until at last he says, “Enough.”

Melvin sits up and rubs his eyes with his fists, muttering that it is better to disappoint God than to disappoint daughters. “At least God forgives.”

Linno accompanies her father to the Fancy Shoppe,

riding sidesaddle on the back of his bicycle, her heels held away from the spokes. They cut through mingled smells of dung, earth, freshwater, pesticides. They bump along between paddy fields that, in stillness, reflect the sky’s blue with such clarity that grass seems to spring from liquid sky. At the water’s edge, a medley of palms bends low, each falling in love with its likeness, while webs of light spangle the dark undersides of the leaves. Whenever a bus appears on the horizon, Melvin pulls over to the side and waits for it to groan past, spewing dust and diesel in its wake, before he plunges his foot down onto the pedal. Her view of the road is blocked by his shoulders, dark and tense all the way down to the unsettling clutch of his fingers around the handlebars.

Linno wonders what kind of gut feeling struck Melvin on the day her mother died. Perhaps he had seen her funeral face in dreams, with skin so spackled over with paint that she seemed a porcelain replica of the person she had been. Here was her lineless forehead, every wrinkle erased like a past swept clean. Here was her tiny smile, as though amused by a secret.

After the funeral, the albums were all packed away in trunks, but a single photo of Gracie remains within reach: the newlywed photograph, a black-and-white double portrait that every couple took in those days, tucked in a back pocket of

Ammachi’s Bible. Gracie appears vaguely pretty but in a sharp, plain way, considerably shorter than Melvin, and cheerless.

Husband and wife stand next to each other, shoulders touching, gazing sternly up into the camera as if being summoned into battle.

...

The entertainment comes in a paper bag, folded

down and stapled shut. Linno and Anju spend the evening dutifully guarding the bag from interference, though no one wants to interfere more than they do. Fixated on the bag, they shove wads of chapati into their mouths. They argue over who should hold the bag and how. Anju tries to educate Linno about a rarely read passage in the Bible, which suggests that younger sisters should always get their way. Anju is a strange little sieve of general knowledge, continually dribbling answers to questions that no one has asked. This one Linno knows not to believe, just as she didn’t believe it that last time with her Cadbury Fruit & Nut. After dinner, the girls have no choice but to wait on the front step, swatting at mosquitoes, the Entertainment placed equidistant between them. Theirs is a small brick and stucco house with a thatched ola roof, humbly crouched among the slanting coconut trees that are charming by day yet spindly, looming and long-armed by night. Two lanky tree trunks span the brook in front, making a shaky footpath that the girls race across, testing their balance and bravery, light as birds on a branch.

As the night softens with fog, the family collects on the front steps. Dragging a plastic chair behind her, Ammachi mutters that this is a show she has seen before, and what it has to do with Yesu’s birth she does not know. For the first time in history, Melvin allows Linno to assist him, while Anju is told to sit on the steps. In mute protest, Anju takes a pose beyond her nine years, legs crossed, head tilted, fingers laced around her knee, like a woman in a magazine.

From the paper bag, Melvin lifts a parcel whose label displays two words in red block letters: rainbow thunder.

Out of the parcel, plastic crackling, Melvin pulls a bundle of sparklers.

These Linno lights as reverently as if she were lighting candles at church. All else around her dissolves into shadow and there is only the single captive star, its spitfire warmth belonging, however briefly, to her alone. Even Ammachi accepts a sparkler and, equally transfixed, begins circling hers in figure eights, watching the wild spray of orange light, frowning a little when it dies to a glowing ember.

And then, what fire! One aerial miracle follows the next.

There is the Volcano — a small cone that splutters before erupting into a great geiser of liquid flame, rising, rising, borne on a splendid gushing noise. The Mouse, which Melvin lights from the throat of an empty toddy bottle, a faint sizzle before the white-pink bullet shoots into the trees and spirals over the branches. And finally, the Necklace, a length of tiny dynamite that Melvin ties to a low branch of the jackfruit tree. When he lights the fuse, everyone plugs their ears against the sound, a violent rifle crack, mercilessly loud as it pop-pop-pops all the way up to the branch.

A silky smoke roams over the ground as Ammachi murmurs, grudgingly, that firecrackers are not so bad. “But if it were me, I would buy a nice set of mugs over these light tricks any day.” In a rare embrace of Western custom, she cites the examples of other countries where the father gives Christmas gifts to the entire family. Even his mother.

Melvin points out that his sister, Jilu, is American. “When was the last time she gave us anything?”

“Hah, Jilu was American! Now she is in Canada. And what do you mean anything?” Ammachi rattles off a list of items: “Soap, socks, a fitted sheet, Tang . . .”

“Those socks were used. And that fitted sheet fit only half a bed.”

While Ammachi and Melvin argue over Jilu’s largesse, Linno begins untying what is left of the Necklace from its branch. Several links remain on the blown fuse.

Anju calls out, “Eh, Linno, we already lit that one.”

Linno is studying the remnants of the Necklace when she looks up at Anju, then at her father. She is pinned, suddenly, by the look of fear in a grown man’s face.

“Drop that —” Melvin says, or begins to say, she cannot tell.

Because from this point, everything happens with a slow grace, in the space of seconds. Linno feels nothing and sees everything, in all its strange clarity. The links exploding in her palm, fire flowering and blazing above the watch that she wears facing in so she can check the time discreetly when she is at school. The face of the watch, splashed with light, now a flickering gold coin and above it, her hand held captive by a star, the shifting folds of flame and heat giving way to that time when her mother slit her finger while scaling a fish, how astonishing it was, the scarlet simplicity of what dripped from her, wet petals on the edge of the sink.

And then Linno realizes that what she thought was the screaming of wind is a sound that only a girl can make, a girl on fire.

Excerpt © Tania James. Reprinted by permission of the author and Knopf Publishers.

Alumni Events Class of ’79 holds reunion at Churchill Downs The class of ’79 celebrated their thirtyyear reunion last November with a day at Churchill Downs.

Alumni kicked off their reunion with a cocktail party at the home of Billy Collis, where they were entertained with a video prepared by Anne West Butler and Carole Douglas Christian that brought back wonderful memories of their time at KCD! The class of ’78 held their own party nearby at the home of Bob Maddox, and there was much commingling between the classes — just as there was in high school!

The class of ’79 (along with some guests from the class of ’78) met the next day on the Fourth Floor Skye Terrace at Millionaire’s Row. It was a perfect day at the track!

Above: Carole Douglas Christian ’79, Steva Sidway Austill ’79, Dr. David Fairleigh ’79, and Lisa Sullivan Zaring ’79.

Right: Jamie Dooley ’79 and Dr. Alan Mullins ’79.

Far right: Class of ’78 members Greg Braun, Frank Grant, Matt McCarty, James Geisel, Ben Grumbles, Frank Lee, and Bob Maddox.

Above: Ginger Vogt Thompson ’79 and Steffi Sachs Sparks ’79.

Left: KCD alumni at Churchill Downs.

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Alumni Events Class of ’79 throws Derby party The class of ’79 held a mini-reunion on

May 4 at Mitchell’s Restaurant. The event was organized by Becky Coomer Bales and was held to welcome classmate Tim Edsell back to town. Tim, who lives in Florida, was visiting Louisville to attend the Derby.

Above: Alumni of the class of ’79 at Mitchell’s Restaurant.

Above left: Anne West Butler, Tim Edsell, and Spencer Martin.

Above: Betty Baird Kregor, Elise Norman Whitman, Jay O’Brien, and Carole Douglas Christian.

Top right: Scott Neff, Lisa Sullivan Zaring, and David Gibbs.

Right: Michelle Rutledge Costel and Becky Coomer Bales.

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Alumni Events KCD hosts Chicago-area reunion Right: Blair Robertson ’01 and Jurgen Hooper.

Below right: Kate Ferguson ’02, Megan Jacob ’01, Nicole Touma ’01, and Bru Peter ’01.

Far right: Megan Jacob ’01, Mollie Mulloy ’01, and Nicole Touma ’01.

Below: Back row, L– R: Upper School Director Marché Harris, Mollie Mulloy ’01, Assistant Admissions Director Mandy Mulloy, Greg Bauernfeind ’94, Jenny Bauernfeind, Head of School Brad Lyman, Bru Peter ’01, Megan Jacob ’01, and Kate Ferguson ’02.

Seated, L– R: Blair Robertson ’01, Jurgen Hooper, and Nicole Touma ’01.

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Alumni in the Chicago area gathered for a KCD reunion at Fado Irish Pub on Thursday, February 26.

In addition to the alumni guests, the event was attended by Head of School Brad Lyman, Upper School Director Marché Harris, and Assistant Alumni Director Mandy Mulloy.

Alumni Events KHS class of 1959 celebrates first full reunion When the khs class of 1959 held their

fifty-year reunion over June 13 and 14, 2009, some of these class members had not seen each other for fifty years!

Out of thirteen surviving members of the class, ten attended the reunion, with some traveling from as far away as California, New York, and Wisconsin.

Depite the fifty years since their graduation, classmates found it wonderfully easy to pick up where they left off.

The reunion began with a dinner at Club Grotto on Saturday evening, then continued on Sunday with a lunch at the Brown Hotel.

The class of 1959 would like to dedicate this event to their classmate Joan Brown Schuler, who passed away this spring.

Above: Seated: Joan Brown Schuler and Dr. Frances Anderson. Standing: Sally Houston McDougall, Judy Jennings Earley, Honey Bessire Morris, Mizzie Viohl Diamond, Courtney Lawson Sjostrom, Ann Berry Edwards, Beth Monohan, Monica Ambrosius Orr, and Dr. Julia Fahey Rice.

Far left: Sharon Receveur ’63 and Nancy Comstock ’60.

Above left: Dr. Frances Anderson, Honey Bessire Morris, Beth Monohan, Mizzy Viohl Diamond, and Anne Farnsley ’58.

Above: Monica Ambrosius Orr, Mizzy Viohl Diamond, and Honey Bessire Morris.

Left: Anne Farnsley, Judy Jennings Earley, Courtney Lawson Sjostrom, Mollie Whitelaw ’63, Sally Houston McDougall, and Joan Brown Schuler.

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Alumni Events KHS alumnae attend spring luncheon On May 18, 2010, KCD hosted the an-

nual Kentucky Home School Luncheon in the Wilder Room of the Frazier Upper School.

Alumnae had a great time catching up with old friends and browsing through KCD’s collection of KHS memorabilia, including photos, yearbooks, scrapbooks, and more.

Everyone had a great time, and it’s always a pleasure to welcome these ladies back to campus!

Above: Flip Hendrick Thorpe ’48, Joyce Franz Newhall ’48, Elizabeth Cooley Smith ’48, and Laura Bullitt Burgiss ’48.

Right: Vice President of Development Jamey Elliott prepares to take Anne Jennings Driskill ’46 and Nancy Comstock ’60 on a tour of KCD’s new theatre building.

Far right: Mary Moss Scholtz ’47 and Emily Nichols Thomas ’46.

Right: Betty Evans Duke ’48, Neen Schlegel Williams ’46, and Susan Harris Wilburn ’44.

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Alumni Events KCD holds alumni bowling tournament Last December, KCD hosted an

alumni bowling tournament at Louisville’s Ten-Pin Lanes. Eight teams participated in the tournament, with bragging rights going to winners “The Po Boys:” Leland Ferris ’05, David Jennings ’05, and Adam Grafchik ’05. Congratulations to the winning team!

Above left: Leland Ferris ’05, David Jennings ’05, Adam Grafchik ’05, Chris Herrick ’05, Yaruk Chowhan ’05, and Chris Radford ’04.

Above: Omar Amin ’98 and Bobby Vice ’98.

Far left: Allen Bahe ’01.

Left: Allen Bahe ’01 and Alex Gift ’00.

Class of 2004 holds Thanksgiving reunion The class of 2004 was one of the classes that held its reunion last fall. 2004 alumni held their reunion at Molly Malone’s in Louisville over Thanksgiving weekend.

Above: Mollie Ronald, Julie Stevens, Jenny Mueller, Sarah Burger, and Fay Kleban.

Left: Back row, L – R: Taylor Teague, Bennett Glassman, and Alex Sweet. Front row, L– R: Fay Kleban, Matt Adamkin, Jenny Mueller, Julie Stevens, Mollie Ronald, Sarah Burger, Ryan Goode, Josh Minnic, Celeste Hollensead, Joanie Musselman, and Ranjit Raju.

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Alumni Events KCD Golf Scramble beats the heat Temperatures in the 90s couldn’t keep

alumni off the links for the annual KCD Golf Scramble on June 14, 2010. This year’s event was held at Standard Country Club.

Congratulations to this year’s winning team of Charlie Farnsley ’00, Alex Gift ’00, Allen Bahe ’01, and John Jennings ’00.

Other prizes were awarded to Jeff Holbrook (most accurate drive), Michael Belman ’06 (longest putt), and Tom Page (closest to the pin).

Thanks to our sponsors: Atteberry + Smith; Bluegrass Brewing Company; Bahe Cook Cantley & Jones, PLC; Culver’s Distinct Images; Stock Yards Bank & Trust; and The Underwriters Group.

Thanks to Bill Collis ’79 and Mike Best’s Meat Market for the delicious BBQ dinner.

Above: Bennett Semple ’10, Tim Rice, Patrick Mulloy ’98, Campbell Brewer ’08, and Kent Martin.

Right: The parent team of John Anzalone, Jason Behnke, Dan Cimba, and Joe Burns.

Far right: John Bahe and Pai Charasika from the class of ’94.

Above: Golfers enjoy a BBQ dinner after playing eighteen holes.

Left: Adam Grafchik ’05, Alex Gift ’00, Charlie Farnsley ’00, John Jennings ’00, David Jennings ’05, Curtis Lewman ’00, and Leland Ferris ’05.

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Alumni Events The class of 1960 celebrates 40 years!

On June 3 – 4, the Louisville Country Day and Kentucky Home School classes of 1960 celebrated their forty-year reunion in Louisville.

On Friday night, LCD ’60 alumni gathered at the home of classmate Jay Norman for dinner. There are currently twenty-eight members of the class, more than half of whom attended the reunion.

Many alumni traveled from out of state, including as far away as Virginia, Texas, California, Michigan, New York, and Massachusetts.

The reunion also included several classmates who attended LCD but did not graduate.

Alumni were able to catch up on what everyone has been doing since graduation thanks to Hank Ackermann, who compiled biographies from each class member!

The following day, LCD alumni joined the 1960 classes of Kentucky Home School and Louisville Collegiate for a dinner at the River Valley Club.

The Louisville Country Day class of 1960. Front row, L– R: Mike Castleman, Larry Crutcher, Bill Hurley, Allan Atherton, Hank Ackerman, Jay Norman, John Kane, Bill Chandler, Embry Rucker, Fred Jacobs, Frank Shipman, David Owen, and Corky Short.

Back row, L– R: Dale Carlberg, Carl Ray, and Lew Seiler.

The Kentucky Home School class of 1960.

From L– R: Ann Pedigo Martin, Jane Helm Baker, Catherine Luckett Reed, Marilyn Burdorf Smith, Caroline Taylor Davis, Annalee Griswold Nix, and Harriett Gilmore Northcutt.

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Alumni Events Class of 1969 holds 40-year reunion The class of 1969, held their forty-year

reunion last fall, over September 18 – 19, 2009.

Above left: Cecy Glenn and Mimi Osborn.

Above: Janey Newton, Cecy Glenn, Alice Frentz ’69, Cecily Childs Harmon ’69, Sissy Brock, Mimi Osborn, Laurie Medalie Hatfield ’69, Chesney Turner, and Jane Thompson Birckhead ’69.

Top left: Steve Gault ’69 and Carrie Davis Stites ’86.

Top right: Chesney Turner and Whitney Babcock ’70.

Above: Alice Frentz ’69, Cecily Childs Harmon ’69, and Cecy Glenn.

Above right: Grant Embry ’69, Cary Martin, and Lee Anne Embry.

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Alumni Events Alumni field hockey game Last summer, KCD field hockey alumni

came back to campus for the annual Alumni Field Hockey Game. During this event, field hockey alumni play a scrimmage against members of the KCD varsity field hockey team.

Back row, L– R: Sydney White, Katherine Roberts, Courtney Tobe, Gray Robinson, Sarah Anderson, Mollie Mulloy Creason, Itayi Charasika, and Grace Barlow.

Front row, L– R: Megan McCall, Maggie Flowers, and Kelly Beam.

KCD Vineyard Vines neck ties and bow ties for sale!

The color is a beautiful royal blue and features the school’s crest. $65 for the neck tie and $45 for the bow tie. All proceeds go to the KCD Alumni Association.

Please order through Elizabeth Sherrard (alumni@kcd.org).

class reunions

Upcoming Reunions Class of 1970 40-Year Reunion

October 1– 3, 2010 Contact Jim Hill (jlh5752@aol.com).

Class of 1975 35-Year Reunion

Date TBD Contact Mary Eitel (EITELCO@aol.com).

Class of 1980 30-Year Reunion

Date TBD Contact Jana Clanton Dowds (jdowds@insightbb.com).

Class of 1985 25-Year Reunion

Thanksgiving Weekend Contact O’Bryan Worley (obryan@obryan.com ) or Stu Pollard (stu@pollardfilm.com).

Class of 1990 20-Year Reunion

Date TBD Contact Matt Black (matthew.black@pnc.com).

Class of 1995 15-Year Reunion

Thanksgiving weekend Contact Stephanie Harkess Robertson (steph.robertson@gmail.com).

Class of 2000 10-Year Reunion

Thanksgiving weekend Contact Helen Killarney Vice (hvice@humana.com).

Class of 2005 5-Year Reunion

Thanksgiving weekend Contact Kate Dobbins (dobbinskm@gmail.com).

The Casting Call Challenge

Join the KCD cast and crew of donors and double your donation!

A group of KCD community leaders and donors has created a “challenge pool” of $250,000. As long as we raise an additional $250,000 by October 1, those contributions will be matched dollar for dollar, ensuring that we’ll raise the $7,500,000 we need to complete this project that will transform KCD’s campus.

A New Naming Opportunity with the Casting Call Challenge Be a visible and permanent part of KCD’s path to the future by naming a brick along the path to the new theatre and assembly hall.

• An 8 × 8-inch brick will cost $1,000 (payable over

any period up to five years) and will allow for six lines of twenty characters per line (including spacing and punctuation).

• A 4 × 8-inch brick will cost $500 (payable

over five years) and allow for three lines of twenty characters per line.

More Naming Opportunities There are many other naming opportunities available, including:

• $5,000 − name a seat in the upper level of the

new theatre.

• $10,000 − name a seat in the lower level of the new theatre.

• $50,000 − name a classroom in the new theatre and assembly hall.

To Buy a Brick or Other Naming Opportunity Complete and return the enclosed envelope, visit the Expanding Horizons campaign website at www. expanding.kcd.org (which includes information on how to make a gift of stock), or contact Jamey Elliott, Vice President of Development, at 502.814.4339 or jamey.elliott@kcd.org.

Kentucky Country Day School 4100 Springdale Road Louisville, KY 40241

Non-Profit Org. U.S. Postage PAID Louisville, KY Permit No. 376