Loomis Chaffee Alumni Magazine Winter 2016

Winter 2016 VOLUME 78 |

NO. 1

Music Maker Senior Joseph Lee stands outside Carnegie Hall, where he performed on the double bass in November. As one of the top prize winners last spring in the American Fine Arts Festivals’ Romantic Music International Competition — Golden Era of Romantic Music, Joseph was invited to perform at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall.

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26 | Bright Ideas in Action

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DEPARTMENTS

Loomis Chaffee teachers are trying new and newly refined learning strategies based on emerging research about how the brain learns best and remembers most deeply.

36 | At the Barn

A photo essay offers views of the school's flourishing equestrian program at the height of the fall season.

48 | Purpose Lived

2 | HEADLINES | Navigating a Deluge of Information 3 | AROUND THE QUADS

12 | THE BIG PICTURE

21 | OF NOTE | FACULTY & STAFF

22 | ATHLETICS 54 | OBJECT LESSONS | Memorial to Gwendolen 56 | ALUMNI NEWS 63 | IN MEMORIAM 72 | THE LAST WORD | Admiration

Results of the school's brand project provide insight into the promise of a Loomis Chaffee education and how best to communicate what makes the school special.

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Loomis Chaffee Magazine, Winter 2016

ON THE COVER | Senior India Carpenter, a member of the Loomis Chaffee equestrian team, gives a show horse a good luck kiss before entering the ring. Photo: John Groo DIRECTOR OF STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS & MARKETING | Lynn A. Petrillo ’86 MANAGING EDITOR | Becky Purdy DESIGNER | Patricia J. Cousins CLASS NOTES | Madison Neal OBITUARIES | Christine Coyle CONTRIBUTORS | Christine Coyle, Cara Woods, Alexandra Muchura, Katherine Langmaid, Timothy Struthers ’85, Lisa Salinetti Ross, Fred J. Kuo, and Karen Parsons

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SUBMISSIONS/STORIES AND NEWS Alumni may contribute items of interest to: Loomis Chaffee Editors The Loomis Chaffee School 4 Batchelder Road, Windsor CT 06095 860 687 6811 / magazine@loomis.org

Visit Loomis Chaffee online at www.loomischaffee.org for the latest school news, sports scores, and galleries of recent photos. You also will find direct links to all of our social networking communities. For an online version of the magazine, go to www.loomischaffee.org/ magazine.

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HEADLINES | BY SHEILA CULBERT

Navigating a Deluge of Information No man is an island, Entire of itself, Every man is a piece of the continent, A part of the main.

If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less.

As well as if a promontory were.

As well as if a manor of thy friend’s Or of thine own were: Any man’s death diminishes me, Because I am involved in mankind, And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee.

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have always liked this meditation by Elizabethan cleric John Donne; it is simple yet universal and wise and, of course, particularly apt for the Loomis campus because we do at times literally become an island. Even when we are not surrounded by flood waters, however, it is all too easy for students and faculty to feel cut off from the world. Yet it is so important that we encourage our students to be not only of the world but also in the world. The purpose of a liberal arts education—the kind of education provided by Loomis Chaffee—is to nurture and produce engaged citizens committed to being their best selves and to supporting the common good.

With all this in mind we set out this year to have a conversation about the changing world of journalism. In many ways, technology has made it easier than ever to stay informed; we are now awash in information, although not all of it—indeed, perhaps very little of it—qualifies as journalism.

So we wanted to explore this new world of information, to talk about the changes that we are seeing, as well as to provide our students with advice and guidance on how to navigate the deluge of information that they receive. We also wanted to encourage civil discourse about a range of difficult topics about which it is broadly understood that reasonable people can disagree.

We started over the summer by requiring all students to listen to the podcast Serial. Over 12 episodes the podcast tells the story of the 2 |

Head of School Sheila Culbert and Student Council president Samantha Roy. Photo: John Groo

2000 conviction of then Baltimore teenager Adnan Syed for the murder of his former girlfriend, Hai Min Lee. The podcast won a Peabody Award for the depth of its journalism and has become the most downloaded podcast in history. (As of this writing, it has been downloaded over 68 million times.)

Serial provided students with a taste of long-story journalism that was built up over several weeks with few clear answers as to what actually happened. Along the way, listeners learn how stories are made, how questions get asked and sometimes answered, about dead-ends and false starts, about sources and their reliability—or not.

It’s a fascinating journey.

Where Serial provided a great example of a deep dive into one story, The Rooney Report provides a brief, daily digest of six or seven of the top news stories. Brian Rooney ’70, a longtime print and broadcast journalist, started the Report a few years back when his daughter went off to college. She had a hard time keeping up with the news, so DELUGE | continued 4

“

We encourage our students to be not only of the world but also in the world.

”

AROUND THE QUADS 

SCHOOL THEME FOR 2015–16 

THE CHANGING NATURE OF JOURNALISM

The Positive Power of Social Media

“S

OCIAL MEDIA can be a force for good — if we use it in that way," political commentator Sally Kohn told students at a convocation on December 3 in the Olcott Center. "We have the power to use social media to help create the world we want to live in."

A leading progressive voice in America today, Ms. Kohn is a commentator for CNN, a columnist for The Daily Beast, and an advocate for social justice. She previously worked as a Fox News contributor, and her writing has appeared in The Washington Post, The New York Times, New York Magazine, USA Today, and many other media outlets.

In keeping with this year’s school theme, "The Changing Nature of Journalism," Ms. Kohn shared some personal experiences from her long media career, revealing her intelligent, dry wit and self-deprecating style.

Sharing that she was subject to bullying in her school years, Ms. Kohn earned nods of agreement from audience members when she advised that “it gets better” with maturity. Her sexual orientation and career choice, however, make her a target for bullying even today, she said, and she shared several unflattering and aggressive communications she recently received via social media.

Inflammatory rhetoric has created a toxic environment so pervasive in the world that we have become immune to its effects on our thinking and beliefs, Ms. Kohn said. She likened this societal naïveté to “drinking the Kool Aid.” (Ms. Kohn first gave context to this analogy for her teenage audience: She explained that, in the 1970s, cult leader Jim Jones coerced his followers KOHN | continued next page

Sally Kohn outside Palmer Hall Photo: Patricia Cousins

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There’s Kool Aid in the idea that Americans, and your generation in particular, are too checked-out, too passive, and too cynical to care. … Refuse to drink the Kool Aid.

KOHN | continued from 2

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— Sally Kohn

in Jonestown, Guyana, first into complacency then into committing mass murder/suicide by drinking Kool Aid laced with poison.)

"There’s Kool Aid flowing all around us,” Ms. Kohn said, warning that people must not become complacent about it.

“There’s Kool Aid,” she contended, in the idea that Islam is not an inherently peaceful religion; in the belief that poor people deserve to be poor and the rich achieved their status solely on merit; in the concept that American foreign policy doesn’t fuel terrorism and terrorists simply hate our freedom; in the implication that no one sees racism any more except black activ-

DELUGE | continued from 2

Brian, good journalist and news junkie that he is, wanted to provide her with a quick and easy way to stay abreast of the key stories. The Report arrives each day in subscribers’ email in-boxes and covers anywhere from six to 10 major news items with the occasional fun piece added for good measure. It’s serious news, wellwritten, often with wit and dry humor.

Occasionally, Brian treats us to a page 2—a longer opinion piece on a range of topics, including most recently speech on college campuses, the suspension of Brian Williams, and Tom Brady and deflategate. I get the feeling that we get a

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ists bent on being divisive; and in the idea that perpetual violence is unavoidable and unpreventable. There is Kool Aid, she said, “oozing” from every political candidate’s mouth and from every smartphone screen.

“There’s Kool Aid,” she continued, “in the idea that Americans, and your generation in particular, are too checked-out, too passive, and too cynical to care.”

“Refuse to drink the Kool Aid,” Ms. Kohn insisted, urging her listerners to stay active, alert, and vigilant in everyday interactions.

She asked the audience to constantly question and resist the natural tendency to tune out negative rhetoric. She challenged the students to

page 2 when Brian gets worked up about a particular issue and lets it rip; he is always thoughtful and, most importantly for our students, thought-provoking. The Rooney Report costs just $10 a year and comes every day; you too can sign up for it by going to http://therooneyreport.com.

We also wanted to encourage students to read other reputable news sources, so we have provided digital access to the New York Times. I don’t mind what quality newspaper our students read so long as they are reading something. We have students representing 44 different countries as well as from across the United States, and one of the wonders of the internet is that those students can, more often than

remain continually, freshly, and deeply outraged when the tone of discourse becomes negative.

Working together, a group can create positive change by putting pressure on the status quo, by promoting civility, by leading by example, by taking responsibility for what they share, and by being active and effective bystanders, she said.

Ms. Kohn’s visit included a talk the previous evening that was open to the public. She also met with students in a combined Freshman Seminar in the Common Good and met with student leaders of The Log, PRISM, and Spectrum. Her visit was part of this year's Hubbard Speakers Series, made possible by a gift from Robert P. Hubbard ’47.

not, access a hometown newspaper or one of the several really excellent national newspapers.

Our emphasis this year on the news media has encouraged a range of conversations in the classroom, through the Norton Family Center for the Common Good, in the dormitories, over meals, and generally around campus. Our students are better informed than many of them were in the past, and they are becoming more sophisticated consumers of the information flow that inundates them on a daily basis. This experience will, I know, stand them in good stead when they move on from this Island, “a piece of the continent, A part of the main.” ©



SCHOOL THEME FOR 2015–16 

THE CHANGING NATURE OF JOURNALISM

The Evolution of News Media, the Enduring Craft of Journalism

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RIAN ROONEY ’70, an Emmy award-winning veteran of print and television news, spoke at an all-school convocation in the Olcott Center in September about “The Changing Nature of Journalism,” this year’s school theme.

Brian shared experiences from his profession and observations about the evolution of media in his lifetime, infused with humorous anecdotes from his years at Loomis and beyond.

Brian had brought his 1921 Underwood mechanical typewriter on stage with him. Feeding a sheet of paper into it, he joked, “Here’s how you open a document.” Brian used the typewriter to compose papers while at Loomis and in the early part of his career, but he said he has been a part of “new media” all his life: What was new media when he started — television news — is old media now, and the online news digest he now writes falls into the category of today’s new media.

“I was attracted to journalism because my father [Andy Rooney] was a journalist,” said Brian. He was drawn further to the profession when his work on his undergraduate newspaper led to significant change at the college. He began his career as a newspaper reporter in New York City and worked at a number of publications until it became clear that newspapers were losing ground to television.

Brian moved to Los Angeles and spent 23 years as an ABC News correspondent. He also worked at a number of other news organizations, including CBS News, Al Jazeera English, and Al Jazeera America, covering stories from around the world.

His current projects include The Rooney Report, a daily online news digest that began as emails to his daughter to keep her abreast of current events while she was in college. Entertaining and with a slightly edgy style, Brian’s missives became popular among his daughter’s friends, and he decided to take on the project as a business venture.

“The craft of professional journalism has not changed — just the delivery method,” Brian said.

Brian Rooney ’70 with his vintage typewriter Photo: Patricia Cousins

“

The craft of professional journalism has not changed — just the delivery method.

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Pointing to the old typewriter, he said, “There’s no thought or story that I still couldn’t [produce] on this today.”

After the convocation, Brian visited sophomore and freshman English classes and met with staff members of The Log. His visit to the Island was part of this year’s Hubbard Speakers Series, made possible by a gift from Robert P. Hubbard ’47.

— Brian Rooney ’70 loomischaffee.org | 5

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AROUND THE QUADS

I am grateful for this scholarship, for the consequent privilege of receiving a stimulating and meaningful education, but most of all for the hope that I have taken from it. I believe these to be among the most profound gifts that one can ever receive. I am deeply thankful to you.

”

— Excerpt from a letter to Bruce from the first recipient of the Alexander Family Scholarship, Cameron Nelson ’14, who is now a member of the Yale University Class of 2018. be grateful. Finally, I wanted to memorialize Loomis faculty Allan Lundie Wise of the English Department and Nickerson Rogers of the Science Department from my time at the school. Both were great teachers and great people.

Bruce Alexander ’61 with current and former scholarship recipients sophomore Emily Dias, junior Brendan Nelson, and Cameron Nelson ’14 Photo: Patricia Cousins

The Alexander Family Scholarships support students with the potential for service to society and leadership roles in their community, all qualities that these four people possessed.

Q&A: Donor Describes Inspirations for Alexander Family Scholarships

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N the occasion of his 50th Reunion, Trustee Bruce Alexander ’61 determined that he wanted to support financial aid at Loomis Chaffee, so he decided to establish four Alexander Family Scholarships within the Loomis Chaffee endowment to honor four important people in his life. When Bruce was on campus for the Board of Trustees meeting in October, Cara Woods, associate director of development, interviewed him about his decision to establish the scholarships, as well as his involvement at Loomis Chaffee today.

Why did you decide to direct your giving to creating these scholarships?

I like to direct a good portion of

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my philanthropy to the education of young people. Without doubt the nation needs well-educated, socially-conscious citizens, and schools such as Loomis Chaffee provide a disproportionate share of those leaders. In fact, our elite educational institutions also are increasingly educating international students who will need to provide global leadership on critical issues such as climate change and peaceful coexistence.

What is the significance of the four people whom the scholarships honor?

I established the Alexander Family Scholarships to honor four people, all now deceased, who affected my life. First, my wife Christine Alexander was greatly involved

in education and influenced our whole family. She created one of the largest literacy programs in Connecticut. One of our sons founded and runs an inner-city high school, and the other is the chief investment officer at MIT. I myself chaired the board of Goucher College when I was a real estate developer based in Baltimore, and then was lured out of retirement to teach and be vice president for New Haven & State Affairs & Campus Development at Yale University.

We are all involved in education or educational institutes.

The second scholarship honors my sister Mary Jane Alexander Purtell, who helped put me through Loomis, and for that I will always

How have you stayed connected to Loomis Chaffee, and what are your thoughts on today’s school?

When we moved back to Connecticut, I was invited to join the Loomis Chaffee Board of Trustees, and while I was out of touch for many years while living elsewhere, I was delighted to find the same rigorous academic standards from my era and, just as importantly, a culture where students, faculty, and staff all look after each other.

There is a supporting and caring environment on campus, and I hope some of my five young grandchildren will be amongst future students at Loomis Chaffee.

Thomas Pipoli poses with a Battle of Waterloo re-enactment participant. Isso Shimamoto takes an up-close look at the Bahamas underwater environment. A Chinese businessman talks with senior Eagle Wang and Mike Murphy near Eagle's hometown of Beijing.

Teachers’ Travel on Kelly Grants

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ATH teacher Isso Shimamoto participated in a conference about place-based learning at The Island School in Eleuthera, Bahamas. History teacher Thomas Pipoli visited historical battlefields in Europe and attended the European Conference for Environmental History. History and social sciences teacher Michael Murphy traveled in China, where he delved into the challenges of balancing economic growth and environmental sustainability.

As the first recipients of grants from the Jonathan M. Kelly ’81 Faculty Fund for Global Studies, the three teachers engaged in professional development and cultural experiences last summer that informed and enriched their teaching when they returned to campus this fall.

“When teachers have the opportunity to directly interact with people, environments, and cultures that are different than their own, they are able to share that broader experience with students in the context of their classes and other campus interactions, promoting the global education we offer at Loomis,” says Alexander McCandless, director of

the Alvord Center for Global and Environmental Studies.

Isso attended a week-long teacher’s conference about The Island School's approach to place-based learning through immersion in the natural and cultural environment of the Bahamas. The program modeled the school’s sustainable and intentional community. In addition to traditional classroom discussions, The Island School incorporates the local ocean environment into its lessons and programs. Isso describes her week in Eleuthera as “transformative” and says the conference bolstered her commitment to cultivating the supportive learning community at Loomis.

Through his Kelly Grant, Thomas spent three weeks in Europe continuing to develop the history

curriculum that he teaches. His itinerary featured visits to historical battlefields, including the bicentennial re-enactment of the Battle of Waterloo in present-day Belgium, and sites of importance during the World Wars in Germany, France, and Belgium. (Along the way, he ran into Head of School Sheila Culbert and her husband, Richard Wright, participating in summer battlefield tourism of their own.) Thomas also deepened his knowledge of Iberian history and culture in Spain and attended the biennial European Conference for Environmental History in Versailles, France, where he gained ideas for considering environmental issues in a historical context. Thomas shared his experiences through a travel blog: www. tpipineurope.tumblr.com.

Mike teaches economics, international relations, and U.S. History, and his two-week trip to China aimed to “develop a better understanding of the prospects for sustainable growth in China.” Combining a Kelly Grant and a Gilchrist Environmental Fellowship to fund the trip, Mike sought the perspectives of a range of knowledgeable people on the Chinese economy, government, and environment. His

itinerary focused on Beijing and Shanghai, where he met with journalists covering China for western publications; executives working in technology, manufacturing, and finance industries; an entrepreneur; a government economist; and an environmental consultant.

Observing the physical environment in both cities also helped him better understand the nuanced connections between growth and sustainability. Mike says he gained insight into the challenge faced by the Chinese government in balancing economic growth against the costs of environmental regulation.

Mike now can add his first-hand perspectives to ongoing discussions in Loomis classrooms about these global issues.

Faculty support, such as the professional development opportunities offered by the Kelly Faculty Fund and Gilchrist Environmental Fellowships, is a key objective of Our Time Is Now: The Centennial Campaign for Loomis Chaffee.

To learn more about Our Time Is Now: The Centennial Campaign for Loomis Chaffee, visit www.loomischaffee.org/campaign.

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NEO Stages Tale of Cyrano

Cyrano and the villagers Photos: Wayne Dombkowski

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N a set evoking 17th-century Paris, a student cast and crew produced the tragic love story Cyrano this fall at the Norris Ely Orchard Theater.

The play, Frank Langella’s adaptation of Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand, tells the tale of a quick-witted, master swordsman with a famously large nose. The title character’s insecurity about his appearance keeps him from pursuing the love of beautiful and intelligent Roxane. Roxane falls instead for Cyrano’s protégé, the attractive but inarticulate Christian. Privy to Roxane’s desires, Cyrano conspires to help Christian woo Roxane, telling him just what to say to solidify Roxane’s devotion.

The truth is revealed only after Christian dies in battle and, 14 years later, Cyrano Christian (senior Andrey Vdovenko) and Ragueneau (junior himself lies in Roxane’s arms Preethi Kannan) near death: It was Cyrano — and the thoughts that came from his heart — that Roxane truly loved.

Senior Derek Martinez, in a hand-crafted latex nose extension, portrayed the lovelorn Cyrano. Senior Kirsten Mossberg and sophomore Sarah Gyurina both assumed the role of Roxane in alternating rotation. Also double cast was the role of heartthrob Christian, played alternately by senior Andrey Vdovenko and junior Brendan Nelson. Junior Preethi Kannan and senior Ethan Twombly portrayed Raganeau and Le Bret, respectively. Stage action featured sword battles, romantic scenes, and colorful street gatherings in

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Roxane (sophomore Sarah Gyurina) and Cyrano (senior Derek Martinez) meet at the convent, where Roxane is cared for by the nun Marguerite (junior Sydney Steward).

A villager wears a mask that comments on the subject that no one can discuss out loud: Cyrano's nose.

which the entire cast worked as an ensemble.

Along with the cast, a talented student technical crew, supported by a team of theater professionals, produced the play under the direction of Loomis theater faculty member David McCamish.

The intended takeaway for students and audiences, according to David, was a reminder that one’s individual worth stems not from physical appearance, but rather from what is contained in the heart and soul and reflected in deeds.

To read the Playbill and to view a gallery of photographs from the production, visit www.loomischaffee.org/magazine.

Cyrano (senior Derek Martinez) and Vicomte de Valvert (junior Ben Kallus) engage in a sword fight.

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Members of the Helfrich family and the boys varsity soccer captains gather in front of the new Helfrich Family Field plaque: Christopher “Crick” Helfrich ’99 with son Grey, senior John Willett, senior T.K. Murphy, senior Liam O'Brien, Tim Helfrich ’96, Brian Helfrich ’03 with daughter Bay, Mary Sue and Tom Helfrich, and Tyler Helfrich (Brian’s wife) with son Silas.

Photo: John Groo

Boys Varsity Soccer Field Dedicated to Helfrich Family

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LL five brothers in the Helfrich family — Dan ’94, Tim ’96, Crick ’99, Brian ’03, and Spencer ’03 — played varsity soccer at Loomis, and their parents, Tom and Mary Sue, were mainstays on the campus during the 1990s and early 2000s. Now the soccer field on which the brothers played bears the family’s name.

Helfrich Field was dedicated on October 17, part of a spirited day of Loomis Chaffee soccer that included an alumni game in the morning and a luncheon, the dedication ceremony, and victorious varsity boys and girls soccer matches in the afternoon.

“No other family in the history of the school has ever had five brothers play on the varsity soccer team, so it goes without saying that the Helfrich family legacy at Loomis is quite impressive,” said Head of School Sheila Culbert at

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cheering for Loomis in at least 120 games.”

It is only fitting that we dedicate the boys soccer field in honor of the Helfrich family and in honor of their love of Loomis soccer.

Brian Helfrich spoke for the family, sharing a heartfelt message about how he learned to be a good teammate in his time at Loomis. He said he has carried that lesson with him in all areas of his life — whether on the sports field, in the classroom, at work, or with his family.

— Sheila Culbert

At the conclusion of the ceremony, the Helfrich family joined Sheila and Director of Athletics Bob Howe ’80 in unveiling the plaque, which sits beneath the new Helfrich Field scoreboard.

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the ceremony. “It is only fitting that we dedicate the boys soccer field in honor of the Helfrich family and in honor of their love of Loomis soccer.”

Members of the Helfrich family traveled from North Carolina, South Carolina, and California for the occasion. Going out of their way for Loomis soccer is nothing new for this family. Boys head coach Charlie

Bour, who spoke at the dedication on behalf of the Loomis boys soccer program, tried to quantify the family’s dedication. “During the Helfrich years, Dan, Tim, Crick, Brian, and Spencer logged, by my estimate, a combined 1,200 hours on this field.

Now that is impressive,” Charlie said. “Perhaps even more impressive is that their parents, Tom and Mary Sue, stood on the sidelines

“I cannot think of a better place to coach or simply take in a soccer match than at Helfrich Field right here in the Meadows,” Coach Bour said.

To see a gallery of photos from the dedication and alumni game, go to www.loomischaffee.org/magazine.

Students Help Frame Discussions About Relationships

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TUDENT leaders took responsibility

groups gave consideration to four ques-

for initiating and moderating discus-

tions designed to promote discussion, such

sions on campus about sex, intimacy,

as, “How do we define respect for self and

respect, and healthy relationships this fall.

Longstanding issues of concern about consent and date rape on college and school campuses and recent media atten-

tion to these issues prompted the school community to re-examine how to have the sometimes uncomfortable, but necessary, discussions.

“Fishbowl” discussions, born of grassroots student initiatives, took place this fall among peer students with support from the Norton Family Center for the Common Good and the Dean of Students Office.

Student leaders recognized that casual conversations about sex happen frequently among friends, classmates, and teammates, but the concerned group looked to adult leadership to create a forum for a more structured conversation, said Dean of Stu-

for others?” Participants also were invited to write down questions they had relating to sex and relationships, some of which were read out loud by facilitators while other participants offered responses. The senior boys’ fishbowl format was slightly different because the male student leaders expressed a greater comfort level with a respected adult male leading the discussion.

“Responsible decision-making concerning relationships has always been a part of regular conversations we have with students,” notes Mary. “Our renewed focus on these issues this fall, and the new format for these discussions, was driven by the students themselves. I was very impressed by our students’ mature and thoughtful approach to communicating in a safe, respectful, and supportive way.”

directly affect their Loomis experience.”

In addition to the fishbowl sessions, 25 peer counselors hosted an open meeting later in the term for students interested in continuing the conversations. The peer counselors, a selected group of upper class mentors who support younger students in the transition to life at Loomis, performed brief skits about sexual decision-making then broke into small groups for questions and dialog.

Counselor Anna Hess Barresi ’97, advisor to the peer counselors, says the open meeting was designed to help students feel comfortable speaking up about uncomfortable topics. The larger goal, she says, is to contribute to the respectful culture at Loomis, enabling students to feel safe expressing their genuine feelings and opinions in any personal interactions.

Another student initiative intended to be a conversation starter was the presentation

dent Life Mary Liscinsky and Eric LaForest,

Sophomore Liam Scott referenced the

director of the Norton Center. The students

fishbowl conversations in his article, “Let’s

suggested that the conversations take

Talk about Sex, LC,” in the October 30,

place among peer groups — with upper

2015, issue of The Log. The format created a

class members driving the discussion and

forum that allowed students to reflect upon

with adults present, but only as observers

their actions and words to ensure they

“I think it’s really important for the student

and moderators. This approach, students

remain true to “Loomis’s call to being our

body to hear other students in the commu-

felt, would be a good way to bring every-

best selves,” he wrote.

nity talk about these topics,” notes Anita,

one to the table and promote intelligent discussion and fact sharing in a comfortable and safe environment.

Senior Hannah McCarthy Potter, a leader of an upper class girls’ fishbowl discussion, describes the discussions as valuable and

The fishbowl format involved a small group

important. “The [interactions] were honest

of student leaders having a conversation

and real. Students spoke their opinions

while students in the audience watched.

and shared their true experiences,” she

Students were segregated by class year

says. “Although not all students [agreed]

and gender to form eight separate fish-

with the fishbowl leaders’ opinions, at

bowl discussions, facilitated by trained

least students were having productive and

upperclassmen of the same gender. The

intellectual conversations about topics that

of a short film, “Respect and Consent,” produced by senior Anita Richmond. The wellreceived film was screened at an all-school convocation in November.

who also served as a fishbowl discussion facilitator. “When students start the conversation about healthy relationships and affirmative consent, I think other students will be more inclined to not only listen, but also to contribute to and participate in the conversation.”

loomischaffee.org | 11

AROUND THE QUADS | THE BIG PICTURE

Starting Line Runners toe the line for the boys JV race at the Founders League Cross Country Championships, hosted by Loomis Chaffee on November 7. All of the Loomis teams ran great races. The JV boys were second and the JV girls were first in their races, and the varsity boys and girls squads won team championship titles.

Photo: GKess Films

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AROUND THE QUADS

Performing Arts Students Learn from Broadway Professional

Andrew Lippa engages his student audience in the Hubbard Performance Hall. Photo: Mary Forrester

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WARD-WINNING composer, lyricist, writer, and producer Andrew Lippa visited the Island this fall to share his experiences in the world of professional musical theater with students in Loomis Chaffee’s theater, dance, and music programs.

His witty, sometimes raucous, and candid discussion included life lessons garnered from his years of experience in the entertainment business.

“It’s an uphill battle to make of piece of art,” noted Mr. Lippa in his conversation with students gathered on the stage of the Hubbard

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Performance Hall. “You have to be the motor … keep going!” Encouraging students to do what matters to them, he also pointed out that everyone stumbles along the way.

“Failure is only a stepping stone to success,” he said.

Mr. Lippa is perhaps best known for writing the music and lyrics for the hit Broadway musical The Addams Family, which was nominated in 2010 for the Best Original Score Tony Award. The Addams Family has toured extensively in the United States and abroad and has been translated into nine languages.

Recent projects include his 2014

theatrical oratorio I Am Harvey Milk, which premiered at Lincoln Center with stage legend Kristin Chenoweth. The video for his song “Evil Like Me,” written for the Disney Channel original movie The Descendants, has 25 million YouTube views.

Mr. Lippa is working on a musical adaptation of Jules Feiffer’s book The Man in the Ceiling.

After his discussion in Hubbard, Mr. Lippa shared lunch with advanced students in the arts and faculty members of the Theater & Dance and Music departments.

Mr. Lippa’s visit was made possible

through the generosity of Barbara and Emery Olcott, parents of three alumni, and through Barbara's service as a director of the Dramatists Guild Fund in New York City. Mr. Lippa is president of the fund, the public charity arm of the Dramatists Guild of America, in support of nonprofit theatrical organizations producing works by American writers. Its outreach program, Traveling Masters, introduces communities to the work of prominent dramatists through workshops, master classes, talkbacks, and other public events.

brilliant!  Advanced debaters junior Gaurang Goel, junior Yuri Kovshov, senior Alexandre Zilkha, and senior Laurie Zielinski had a fine showing (4-2) at the Phillips Exeter Invitational Debate Tournament on November 8.

They defeated teams from St. Paul’s, Exeter, Roxbury Latin, and Belmont Hill and finished the day in sixth place out of 22 teams. Gaurang also placed sixth out of 88 speakers in the advanced division.  Senior Joseph Lee was chosen this fall as a regional semifinalist in the Siemens Foundation Competition in Math, Science & Technology for his math research paper titled “On the Smallest Quadrilateral Containing a Convex Disc.”  Senior Chang Vivatsethachai took first place in the individual competition of Worcester Polytechnic Institute’s 28th Annual Invitational Math Meet in October. The Loomis team, including Chang, senior Joseph Lee, junior Gaurang Goel, and sophomore Louisa Gao, placed fourth among the 85 competing schools.  Freshman Julia Deitelbaum, who has played the harp for eight years and this fall joined the Loomis Chamber Music program, performed with the West Hartford Symphony Orchestra in October and December.  Junior Ilya Yudkovsky, who plays violin in the Loomis Chaffee Orchestra and Chamber Music program, was accepted this fall to the Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra. An allscholarship, professional-level group of musicians aged 21 or younger, the orchestra performs in Boston’s Symphony Hall and Sanders Theater.

The youth orchestra also will tour in Brazil next summer.

Learn more about these brilliant accomplishments at www.loomischaffee.org/magazine

When a Hero Falls from Grace

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ASON HALL’S namesake, Captain John Mason, was a local hero in the 17th century, when Loomis family patriarch Joseph Loomis settled in Windsor on land that now is the Loomis Chaffee campus. Mason was acclaimed as a military leader, a town founder, and a prominent figure in Connecticut. One of the school’s Founders, John Mason Loomis, was named after him. But Captain Mason’s heroic reputation has not endured the test of time.

Historians now consider John Mason to have been a war criminal for his role in the Pequot War. Under his command, the Pequot fort near the Mystic River was burned to the ground, killing 500 Pequot men, women, and children in what is known as the Mystic massacre. Survivors were sold into slavery.

Each year Loomis freshmen learn about John Mason in World History class, and they often wonder why the school keeps his name on one of its oldest dormitories. A Dialogue in the Common Good took up this thorny question one evening this fall.

Sixteen students, many of them underclassmen, and five faculty members gathered in the Nee Room to discuss Captain Mason’s legacy and the question of whether Mason Hall should continue to bear his name. The discussion, sponsored by the Norton Family Center for the Common Good, explored issues of historical legacy, changes in moral standards across the centuries, and the merits of preserving historical memories of both laudable and detestable actions.

The group weighed the importance of a building’s name as a reflection of community values versus the need to keep historical memories alive, even if only to educate people about what happened to the Pequots. Would changing the name of the dorm be seen as “glossing over” an ugly past to make ourselves look better, one student asked. But, countered another, shouldn’t our building names reflect the school’s mission of inclusion and acceptance of people from all backgrounds?

Several students expressed interest in changing the name of the dormitory to honor some other important person in the school’s history.

There are many other prominent figures and school benefactors, they said, whose legacies are more commendable.

Dialogues in the Common Good, organized by the Norton Center, promote discussion of a variety of topics throughout the school year, often taking cues from current events or issues brought forward by students. All Loomis students and faculty are invited to participate.

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AROUND THE QUADS

Freshmen Experience One-Man Play Exploring Race and Identity

Scenes from the one-man play. Photos: Courtesy of Michael Fosberg

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ICHAEL FOSBERG presented his critically acclaimed one-man play, Incognito, to the freshman class in November. The show in the Hubbard Performance Hall, which followed a class dinner, touched on issues of personal identity and race, among other topics, and served as a capstone for the fall term of Freshman Seminars in the Common Good.

In introducing the play, Eric LaForest, director of the Norton Family Center for the Common Good, encouraged the students to engage in conversations about identity, race, and diversity — subjects raised not only by Incognito, but also by a number of recent events, including raciallycharged protests on the campuses of University of Missouri and Yale.

Mr. Fosberg was raised in a working-class white family in a Chicago suburb by an ArmenianAmerican mother and adoptive stepfather. He began a search for his biological father at the age of 34. Speaking for the first time to his long-absent biological father on the phone, Mr. Fosberg learned that his father was a light-skinned black man.

That revelation was life-changing, according to Mr. Fosberg, and the relationship he developed with his newly found paternal family uncovered a “rich, black heritage” that led to his becoming more comfortable with his own sense of identity.

Further, he began to question how race is perceived in America, which inspired him to write Incognito in 2001.

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“ ”

I’m more than a label. I’m more than a race.

I’m a kid with two dads and three heritages.

— Michael Fosberg

“Incognito is the story of my journey to uncover and discover myself, my roots, my family, and the difficult history behind the tragic American complexity of race,” says Mr. Fosberg.

On a minimal stage, Mr. Fosberg re-enacted key scenes of his surprising discovery; his subsequent reunion with the grandparents and father he never knew; a series of uncomfortable conversations with his mother about his heritage and her decision to hide this information from him for decades; and a number of, often humorous, conversations with friends after he found out he was half black.

Portraying moments of his confusion and uncertainty — culminating with his looking at his hands and wondering if he is black or white — Mr. Fosberg pondered whether being raised white and, thus, not experiencing the discrimination and difficulties of navigating a white-dominated

society as a black boy, makes him any less black.

He asked himself what box he should check under “race.”

“The box doesn’t tell you who I am. I’m more than a label. I’m more than a race. I’m a kid with two dads and three heritages,” he said.

After the performance, Mr. Fosberg took questions from the audience. One student asked how conversations about race can happen productively at Loomis. First, Mr. Fosberg said, “We need to adopt being comfortable being uncomfortable.” Then, he continued, conversations can begin with people talking about their experiences with race, and everyone involved can develop an understanding of the variety of experiences that shape us.

Being Men of Color: Alumni Panelists Connect with Students

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LUMNI, students, and faculty who are men of color gathered on the Island in October for an evening sponsored by the Pelican Peer Support Network, an organization that provides cultural, social, and academic support to students in their transition to Loomis.

The gathering, including an alumni panel discussion, helped to establish connections among the affinity group and enabled students of color to interact with mentors who can relate to their situations and offer advice. Representing a 40-year span of classes, the alumni shared their experiences as men of color at Loomis and at other educational institutions as well as in their professional and personal lives. The

panel was moderated by faculty member Elliot Dial.

Panelist and Trustee Eric Cliette ’84 said coming to Loomis was a defining moment in his life, and he encouraged the young men in attendance not to make light of the opportunities that the Loomis experience offers.

Other panelists urged students to step out of their comfort zones and try something — an activity, sport, or class — that is different or challenging so as not to miss the chance for a rewarding experience.

The alumni also discussed their lives as men of color after graduating from Loomis. “Even today there are times I’m the

only person of color in the room or at the table,” offered Lawrence Davis ’84. “Don’t be afraid to be that only person.”

Along with Eric and Lawrence, panelists included Sajed Kamal ’65, Aaron Jubrey ’95, Michael Jordan ’96, and faculty member Neil Chaudhary ’05.

Pelican Peer Support Network assistant director and teaching fellow George Ramirez says the evening was empowering for the students, alumni, and faculty in attendance. “It was clear that [the attendees] are excited to contribute in a unique way to the school,” he notes.

Alumni, faculty, and students of color posed for a photo in the Nee Room: Neil Chaudhary ’05, Lawrence Davis ’84, Aaron Jubrey ’95, faculty member George Ramirez, senior Cobey Adekanbi, junior Chris Cortazar, Michael Jordan ’96, Eric Cliette ’84, sophomore Brener De Souza, sophomore Sincere Tuitt, junior Luis Guererro, sophomore Aaron “Deuce” Ford, faculty member Elliot Dial, Sajed Kamal ’65, senior Marcus Witherspoon, junior Derrick Garcia, and junior Isaac Guzman.

Photo: Fred Kuo

loomischaffee.org | 17

AROUND THE QUADS

Avner Sher Photo: Patricia Cousins

Lyell Castonguay Photo: Patricia Cousins

Transforming Art: Birds as Beasts, Destruction as Creation

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ROFESSIONAL artists Avner Sher and Lyell Castonguay each spent time working with students on campus this fall as part of the Visiting Artist Program.

Mr. Sher, an accomplished architect and artist from Israel, explores construction and deconstruction in his art work. He creates his dramatic drawings through a process of destruction — scratching, marring, and staining — on a thin sheet of cork surface. The forms and shapes that develop tell the artist’s point of view. In his own words, Mr. Sher’s work is “an expression of hope in the face of chaos.”

A collection of his works was exhibited in

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the Sue and Eugene Mercy, Jr. Gallery in the Richmond Art Center from September 22 through October 21, and Mr. Sher spent time on the Island during the first week of December as a Visiting Artist. During his stay, he spoke to advanced art students and student candidates for the Alvord Center for Global & Environmental Studies certificate program.

More information about Mr. Sher’s work is available at www.sher-art.com.

Mr. Castonguay, a printmaker who creates narrative wood cuts, visited campus during the second week of December, coinciding with the final week of his show, “Feathery Devils,” in the Mercy Gallery. The artist's col-

lection of woodblock prints started with familiar images of birds, inspired by the animal depictions of artists Leonard Baskin, Antonio Frasconi, and John James Audubon, and distorted them into portrayals of “allegorical beasts,” as the artist describes them.

During his time on campus, Mr. Castonguay worked with and among art students and faculty. More information about Mr. Castonguay’s work can be found at www.lyellcastonguay.com.

For a calendar of Mercy Gallery exhibits, visit www.loomischaffee.org/mercygallery.

Above, Low Strung Photo: Courtesy of Yale.

At left, Coleen Casey-Nelson Photo: Keller Glass; Jane Rothfield ’76 Photo: Keller Glass; Tanya Anisimova and Pi-Hsun Shih Photo: Patricia Cousins; and Liana Barron ’14 and Loomis Choral Director Susan Chrzanowski Photo: Christine Coyle

Musical Notes from a Harmonious Fall

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APANESE drumming, a cappella singing, bluegrass and old-time music, cello rock, and classical chamber music were among the melodious sounds emanating from the instruments of visiting musicians this fall.

In addition to performing for the community, several guest musicians also worked with music students in masterclass workshops.

In September, world music educator and Loomis parent Colleen Casey-Nelson welcomed students on stage for a Japanese “taiko” drumming presentation and workshop in the Hubbard Music Center. In Japan, “taiko” represents an ancient tradition in contemporary form. Colleen described what is known as “kumi daiko” — the sound that all the drummers make in unison, the musical and philosophical goal of the exercise.

The students embraced the concept, and when they played together, the sound reverberated through the Hubbard Performance Hall.

November brought Jane Rothfield ’76 and her daughter Shona Carr for a three-day visit during the pair’s New England tour performing traditional old-time music with their group, Little Missy.

Jane and Shona performed on fiddle, guitar, and clawhammer banjo, combined with their distinct blend of vocal harmonies, during several performances and masterclass workshops. When Jane was a Loomis student, she performed bluegrass and old-time music on the Grubbs Quadrangle with Mint Julep, a student band that she helped found.

Later in November, cellist Tanya Anisimova and pianist Pi-Hsun Shih, performing as the chamber music duo farela, appeared on the Hubbard stage and conducted masterclass workshops with music students. In their performance, the duo played classical music by Beethoven and Shubert as well as some modern, avant-garde, and folkfusion pieces, including original compositions by Ms. Anisimova. The pair explained that the name farela derives from the musical pitches “fa,” “re,” and “la.”

The guest musicians’ visits were made possible with support from the Stookins Lecture Fund.

Two college groups also performed on campus during the fall.

Liana Barron ’14, a sophomore at Middlebury College in Vermont, returned to the Island in October to perform with her school’s a cappella group, The Middlebury College Bobolinks, in Founders Chapel. Members of the community, including many of Liana’s former teachers and classmates, turned out in force to hear the group’s upbeat, contemporary harmonies.

Low Strung, an all-cello, all-rock ensemble from Yale University, played classic hits in the chapel on a Friday evening in November. The group of classically trained cellists played rock standards that included The Who’s “Baba O’Reilly,” The Eagles’ “Hotel California,” and Bon Jovi’s “Livin’ On A Prayer.”

loomischaffee.org | 19

In Support of the Common Good

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ROM fund-raising efforts to volunteer work for local organizations, the many service-related activities organized this fall by student groups, teams, and school departments reflected the Loomis community’s widespread commitment to the common good.

Here’s a sampling from the fall: A “Color Run” orchestrated by the student-led Pelican Service Organization raised $1,700 for the National Breast Cancer Foundation. On a sunny afternoon, participants paid to traverse a one-mile course on campus while volunteers sprayed them with colorful (non-toxic) paint.

The freshman class volunteered at schools, libraries, food banks, senior centers, animal shelters, and public parks in the area as part of the school’s annual Freshman Service Day. Students in the school’s Community Service program partnered with Caring Connection, the town of Windsor’s day health center for adults who need assistance with daily activities or are socially isolated. During weekly visits to the center, the students and supervising faculty engaged

A group of freshmen and Community Service Coordinator Roseanne Lombardo gather before their Freshman Service Day project. Pictured: Maya Guyton, Lucas Scheuer, James Wang, Chris Lucero, Marleigh Giliberto, Melissa Scanlon, Carter Hutchinson, Roseanne, Navreet Kaur, Stacy Park, Kaitlin Donovan, and Willis Clayton-Stankowski. Photo: Christine Coyle

with the mostly elderly clients in craft projects, food preparation, and musical performances.

The service program also welcomed many of the clients to the Island for a student recital in the Hubbard Performance Hall in November.

The girls field hockey and volleyball teams took to the field and gym dressed in creative pink attire during October games in support of breast cancer research and awareness while their friends, family, and community members cheered their efforts and contributed to the cause.

The varsity boys soccer team raised more than $1,000 in a benefit game for Nothing But Nets, a United Nations Foundation that provides mosquito netting to people in Africa at risk for malaria and other mosquito-borne diseases. The foundation's director is former varsity soccer player Chris "Crick" Helfrich ’99.

More than three dozen members of the boys and girls cross country teams and their coaches participated in the Run for the Fallen in Middletown, Connecticut, paying tribute to the 65 Connecticut residents who died in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Jennifer McCandless’s Ceramics II class participated in the Empty Bowls Project, an international grassroots awareness and fundraising effort to fight hunger. The students created and glazed ceramic bowls then donated them to a local Empty Bowls event that supported Foodshare, a regional food bank.

Thirty-two pints of blood were donated to the American Red Cross through a campus blood drive organized by the Student Council. Each pint of donated blood could save up to three lives.

A Park? A Piazza? It’s Rock Quad!

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OCKEFELLER Quadrangle, or “Rock Quad,” as many students call it, has a new, park-like feel. The quad located between Katharine Brush Library, the Wilbur Dining Hall, and the Clark Center for Science & Mathematics received a face lift early this fall, including new seating areas with Adirondack-style chairs and tables, stone walkways, more natural light, and new shrubs and plantings.

Overgrown trees and shrubs were removed to open up the space and let in more sunlight, and the quad’s asphalt walkways were replaced by a natural stone surface. The welcoming environs and the Adirondack chairs and tables outside the library and throughout the quad prompt frequent use by students relaxing, socializing, and studying, even on mild November days.

Photo: Patricia Cousins

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AROUND THE QUADS | OF NOTE | FACULTY & STAFF

Kalena Bovell Photo: John Groo

 Loomis Chaffee Orchestra Director Kalena Bovell was selected as one of two year-long conducting fellows with the Chicago Sinfonietta. Dedicated to promoting diversity, the Chicago Sinfonietta and its Project Inclusion mentoring program, works to break down the barriers of ethnicity, race, and socio-economic status as a means of attracting diverse populations into professional classical music.

Kalena will attend four weekend immersion sessions in Chicago to serve as an assistant conductor and for experience with a professional orchestra. Kalena also was awarded third place in the competition for The American Prize for Conducting in the orchestra (college/university) division.  Works by Jennifer McCandless, head of the Visual Arts Department and director of the Sue and Eugene Mercy, Jr. Gallery, were featured in several exhibitions this fall.

Jennifer had a solo exhibit at The Underground Gallery in Collinsville, Connecticut, October 2–18. Her work was included in the Northeast Ceramics Sculpture Exhibition November 7–December 5 at Art Centro in Poughkeepsie, New York.

The juried exhibition featured the

"Studio Interior with Blue Ball," oil on panel, by Mark Zunino

work of 23 artists with connections to the Northeast. In addition, Jennifer’s sculptural work was included in exhibitions by ArtShape Mammoth called "X Contemporary" and "Fridge" at Art Basel in Miami Beach, Florida — part of the annual Miami Art Week in December. Art Basel stages premier art shows of modern and contemporary works in Basel, Switzerland; Miami Beach; and Hong Kong. Jennifer’s work also was included in “InVision: 2D & 3D Landscape,” an exhibit at the Davis Art Gallery in Worcester, Massachusetts, September 10, 2015, through January 8, 2016.

 A poem by faculty member Stanford Forrester was published in the anthology Rabbit Ears, released by NYQ Books in December 2015. The anthology features poems about television by 131 poets. Stan’s poem is a senryu, a Japanese form of poetry similar in some ways to haiku that focuses particularly on human nature. Billy Collins, a former U.S. poet laureate and the 2013 Loomis Chaffee English Colloquium speaker, wrote the book’s introduction and one of the poems in the anthology.

 “Bird’s Eye Views,” an exhibit of works in oil, watercolor, and monotype by art teacher Chet Kempczynski, appeared at the Town and County Club in Hartford this fall.  An exhibition of paintings, prints, and drawings by art teacher Mark Zunino ran from November 2 through December 11 at the Thoreau Art Gallery at Franklin Pierce University in Rindge, New Hampshire.  Fourteen new faculty members joined the Loomis Chaffee community this fall. They are Kalena Bovell in the Music Department; Frederique “Freddi” Dupre in College Guidance; Latin and French teacher Jackson Fleming; Rashaa Fletcher, a Penn Fellow teaching psychology; Jessica Hsieh ’08, English teacher and advisor to The Log, of which she was an editor during her student days; Fred Kuo, director of experiential learning and associate director of alumni & parent relations; science teacher Kuo Yu “Melody” Lee; Lynn Magovern in College Guidance; John Morrell, English teacher and head of the English Department; Jim O’Donnell, director of the Loomis Chaffee Summer Program and admissions interviewer; George Ramirez, a

Penn Fellow teaching physics and history; science and math teacher James Sainz; Joe Sapphire, photography, film, and digital animation teacher in the Visual Arts Department; and Sarah Weinstein, web content editor in the Office of Strategic Communications & Marketing.

 Spanish teacher and soccer coach Charles Bour and his wife, Mary Alindato, welcomed a son, Julian Santiago Bour Alindato, on October 25. He joins big sister Lila.  Faculty members Rachel Nisselson, who teaches French and Spanish, and Adnan Rubai, who teaches math, welcomed a daughter, Anika “Ani” Hila Rubai, on September 28.

She joins big brother Rafi.  Former admissions associate Elizabeth “Bessie” Spears is the new head of school at Tower Hill School in Wilmington, Delaware.

She previously served for eight years as head of school at The Ethel Walker School in Simsbury, Connecticut.  Former faculty member Robert “Rennie” McQuilkin was named Connecticut’s poet laureate for 2015–2020.

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AROUNDTHE THEQUADS QUADS | | ATHLETICS ATHLETICS | | BY BYBOB BOBHOWE HOWE’80 ’80 AROUND

20 Years and Counting for Coaching Duo

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F you have stopped by Hedges Pool on any fall practice day for the last 20 years, you’ve found coaches Fred Seebeck and Ed Pond leaning over at the edge of the pool giving instructions to their charges on the boys varsity and JV water polo teams.

Ed and Fred have been coaching the sport together at Loomis Chaffee for two decades, and together they create a supportive and inclusive team culture while also keeping current with the demands on today’s student athletes. Being a varsity coach in any sport for two decades is itself a rare commodity these days, but to do this with the same coaching partner is extraordinary. Few programs anywhere in any sport can lay claim to such a milestone.

Good coaching and having the right teachers in the right coaching positions is a key element to successful sports continued page 24

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Ed Pond and Fred Seebeck in their natural environment, Hedges Pool.

Photo: John Groo

loomischaffee.org | 23

Senior David Chen

COACHES | continued from 22

programs, and Loomis Chaffee athletics, with 62 interscholastic teams, has a rich history of excellent teacher-coaches. From my years as a Loomis student playing under Jim Wilson and Chuck Vernon, I experienced first hand the excellent teaching that our coaches give to our student athletes.

Today our coaches are just as committed to teaching the lessons learned from competition as my Loomis coaches were nearly 35 years ago. The duo of Fred and Ed is a prime example.

Fred arrived at Loomis in 1983 and began working with longtime swimming and water polo coach Bob Hartman. From 1983 to 1995 Fred was head coach of both boys swimming and water polo. Ed arrived on the scene in the fall of 1996 and joined Fred right away in Hedges, with Ed as head coach of boys water polo and Fred as his assistant. Even though Ed had not coached water polo before, the team was talented and wound up winning a New England championship that season.

When they first met, Fred was already a dean, a dorm head, a teacher, and a varsity coach. He was a terrific role model. Fred fondly reflects on that first season and remembers the added value Ed quickly brought to the program even though he had little experience. “What Ed brought to the program was a real gamesmanship,” Fred says. “He sees things about the game that I don’t see. He possesses a savvy game sense, and he is able to teach them more about the overview of the game.”

Ed, who himself is a dorm head, teacher, mentor, and varsity coach, says his experience coaching alongside Fred has been one of the highlights of his long-tenured Loomis career so far. “Both of us have the same outlook on how valuable an athletic experience can be; cultivating work ethic, being a part of a team and growing into unselfish adults,” he comments.

Ed and Fred’s combination of experience and passion for the game means that development of swimmers as athletes is almost inevitable. Often in their years together they have taken kids new to the sport and sent them off as college-bound water polo players.

In the winters for many years, this duo reversed roles, with Fred as the head swim coach and Ed as his assistant. “Ed was al24 |

ways willing to work with the guppies, and it was very satisfying for me to see just how many of these young and inexperienced swimmers developed into contributors at the varsity level,” Fred says.

Fred offers these statistics as a snapshot of what these two coaches have shared in their 20 years and counting with our boys aquatics teams. They have: Coached more than 400 water polo matches side by side and another 190 swim meets; Conducted more than 1,450 practices; Spent more than 3,000 hours together at the pool; Spent 125 days together when you total up all the hours they have spent coaching and traveling to games and meets; Coached more than 350 athletes, many of whom competed in both water polo and swimming; Traveled more than 13,500 miles to other schools for competitions; Watched more than 72 million meters swum by athletes on their teams.

Senior Jeremy Conn, freshman Michael Suski, and senior Joe Hinton

For more than 20 years Fred and Ed have shared the same passion for the sports of which they are a part. Along the way they have developed a friendship that extends well beyond the coaching box they share.

Their similarities are numerous as they go about their “triple threat” duties all over campus.

I measure success in multiple ways, and at the top of that list is the manner in which we treat one another, represent our school, and teach the ideals of sportsmanship. For all these years our students have received a healthy dose of these lessons in a consistent manner. Being like-minded has been one of the keys to this longstanding coaching duo.

On many occasions I have looked into the pool to observe the patience and respect Fred and Ed have for each other. It’s no wonder the athletes in the pool get a strong message of TEAM. © Bob Howe ’80 is director of athletics.

Senior Abagail Sotomayor

Sophomore Brener De Souza

Junior Kelly White, senior Nancy Coulverson, and senior Amanda Gallop Photos: Tom Honan

Senior Lars Schuster

VARSITY SCOREBOARD SPORT

Senior Mallory Kievman, senior Sara Boe, junior Sophie Elgamal, sophomore Juliet Rhodes, junior Sophie Christiano, senior Paige Capistran, and senior Erin Jones

RECORD ACCOLADES

Boys cross country 7-1 * Founders League Champion

* Division I New Englands, 2nd place Girls Cross Country 8-0 * Founders League Champion

* Division I New Englands, 3rd place Field Hockey 7-8-1 Football 2-7 Boys Soccer 9-8-2 Girls Soccer 12-5-1 * Keith Johnson Team Award for Sportsmanship

* Founders League Champion

* New England Class A Tournament quarterfinalist Volleyball 20-2 * Founders League Champion

* New England Class A Tournament finalist Water Polo 14-8 * New England Tournament semifinalist

loomischaffee.org | 25

NEW RESEARCH ON LEARNING STRATEGIES FEEDS SPIRIT OF INNOVATION AMONG LOOMIS TEACHERS

BRIGHT iDeAs in Action STORY BY BECKY PURDY PHOTOGRAPHS BY JOHN GROO

In

the Clark Center for Science & Mathematics, Elizabeth Bucceri ’07 hands out portable white boards and dry-erase markers to her biology students at the beginning of class. “Write down everything you remember from last night’s reading,” she tells them. After a few minutes, she instructs the students to read through their notes and, with a different-colored marker, add to their whiteboards the information they had forgotten or misremembered.

Over in Chaffee Hall, English teacher Fred Seebeck opens his Satire class by asking his students to turn to a blank page in their notebooks and, for three minutes, write down everything they remember from last night’s assigned reading. Then the BRIGHT | continued page 29

26 |

Freshman Maalik McPherson

loomischaffee.org | 27

Sophomore Ian Mann uses Kahoot to review for his chemistry exam.

Students in Kurt Winkler's Geometry class answer questions about congruent shapes using the Kahoot quizzing program.

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Correct! Freshman Eli Baker pumps his fist in excitement during a Kahoot Wars session.

A "Kahoot Wars" review session helps freshman Alhasan Barrie and other biology students prepare, enthusiastically, for their fall term exam.

BRIGHT | continued from 26

class moves on to the discussion for the day. At the end of the class period, the students turn to another blank sheet and jot down the important points and themes they recall from the discussion they just concluded. Fred calls these exercises “memory floggers.”

Liz and Fred both started these practices this fall after hearing about the effectiveness of what’s technically called “blank-page review,” a form of the learning strategy known as retrieval practice. Memory flogger, blank-page review, or retrieval practice — the terminology doesn’t matter. What matters is that students summon from their own memory banks the information they processed in readings and discussions. The seemingly simple action of recalling the information and writing it down is like spreading glue on facts and attaching them to the brain’s “wall.”

Over the last two years, as scientists have made new discoveries about how the brain learns best and remembers most deeply, Loomis Chaffee teachers have increasingly begun to try new or newly refined learning strategies in their lessons, supported by their own curiosity and eagerness to hone their craft, their colleagues’ collab-

Freshman Jimmy Aube and a teammate get the answer right.

orative support, and the work of the Henry R. Kravis ’63 Center for Excellence in Teaching. “The feedback I hear has been overwhelmingly positive,” comments Loomis’ learning and the brain expert Scott MacClintic ’82, director of the Kravis Center. “Teachers are finding that some of the strategies are quite easy to deploy and yield positive results quite quickly. The affirmation for individual teachers that comes from understanding why a long-standing practice works or can be explained using current knowledge about how the brain and learning work can also be quite powerful.”

Although the concept of retrieval practice was by no means foreign to Loomis teachers, many had not heard the term before this fall, when Scott defined retrieval practice and shared research data that shows the long-term effectiveness of the strategy. Here’s the gist of what Scott shared: Retrieval practice is the act of recalling information. Students who frequently are quizzed — whether for a grade or not — on readings, lessons, and other material remember the material more fully and for longer than those who aren’t. And quizzes that require students to recall cumulative material, such as the whole vocabulary list rather than just this week’s definitions, ingrain the material in students’ minds much more effectively — loomischaffee.org | 29

Above: Scott MacClintic ’82, director of the Kravis Center for Excellence in Teaching, presents his talk "Study Smarter, Not Harder" for an all-school convocation.

Right: New faculty discuss approaches to teaching during a cohort meeting in the Kravis Center with Scott MacClintic and Associate Dean of Faculty Andrew Matlack.

regardless of how well students score on the quizzes. Whether a student remembers 95 or just 10 of the 100 definitions on any given quiz, he or she will better remember the whole list of words over the coming weeks and months because simply grappling with the definitions reinforces them. The stakes of the quizzes need not be high.

In fact, retrieval practice that takes the form of self-quizzing, ungraded quizzing exercises, and quizzes that count for just a small fraction of a student’s grade keep pressure and anxiety at bay and, thus, can improve learning more than high-stakes quizzes or tests, which still are valuable for other reasons.

Versions of retrieval practice are not new to the field of education, but as the science and research behind the strategy’s effectiveness comes into focus, Loomis teachers are using it in more fine-tuned and intentional ways. A few weeks after that initial faculty meeting, a number of teachers shared the ways they had tried using retrieval practice in their classes 30 |

and reported on whether or not they found the experiments successful. The faculty discussion crackled with collaborative energy, professional curiosity, and outside-of-the-box thinking, and Loomis teachers say they feel a growing atmosphere of excitement on campus about these new ideas.

“I feel unbelievably supported right now as a teacher,” says math teacher Stuart Remensnyder. It feels “safe,” he says, to try new approaches to the craft of teaching, learn from the experiences, adjust, and try again.

“One of the things that’s really nice right now is that there’s somewhere to go,” he says, referring to the Kravis Center.

The center’s work, access to other resources, encouragement from the Dean of Faculty’s Office and other administrators, and availability of funding for professional development combine to foster the atmosphere of innovation and collaborative thinking, teachers say.

This atmosphere extends to lunch table interactions and casual conversations among

individual teachers, affirms longtime psychology teacher and former Director of Studies Ruth Duell. “There is a whole culture of support of teaching among other teachers,” she says.

Scott believes the momentum began to build two years ago after he and fellow science teacher Naomi Appel attended a summer program with Judy Willis, an expert on the science of learning and the brain, and shared their experience with the full faculty. “That seemed to be the initial catalyst to the growing desire to incorporate some of these new ideas,” Scott says. “There has certainly been an increase in the requests for help in the past few years,” he says of the Kravis Center’s work with teachers trying innovative approaches in their classrooms.

Targeted programs for new faculty also have contributed to the teaching culture, he adds.

THE TOOLBOX Loomis teachers have experimented with a variety of electronic quizzing tools as they

seek to incorporate low-stakes quizzing more regularly into their lesson plans. The faculty have found that tools such as student response systems, or “clickers,” and online programs such as Socrative, Quizlet, and Kahoot have the added learning benefit of providing immediate feedback. And, compared to the traditional pencil-and-paper quiz, the electronic quizzing tools add an element of fun.

Kahoot is especially popular among students. On a recent morning, Kurt Winkler’s firstperiod Geometry class is wide awake and on the edges of their seats. All eyes are on the projection screen, where two triangles appear with points and sides labeled, followed by two questions: “Are the triangles congruent? If so, by what postulate?”

The students stab at the screens of their smartphones, selecting one of the four multiple-choice answers. Cheery music rises and quickens as the 30-second timer ticked down.

When everyone has answered BRIGHT | continued page 32

Above: New faculty members John Morrell, James Sainz, Jessica Hsieh ’08, and Kuo Yu "Melody" Lee participate in a discussion about teaching strategies in the Kravis Center.

Left: Scott MacClintic leads one of many Kravis Center workshops about learning and the brain.

“

A few weeks after that initial faculty meeting, a number of teachers shared the ways they had tried using retrieval practice in their classes and reported on whether or not they found the experiments successful. The faculty discussion crackled with collaborative energy, professional curiosity, and outside-of-the-box thinking, and Loomis teachers say they feel a growing atmosphere of excitement on campus about these new ideas.

”

loomischaffee.org | 31

English teacher Fred Seebeck

Liz Bucceri ’07 teaches biology in the Clark Center for Science & Mathematics, with freshmen Alhasan Barrie, Jimmy Aube, and Maalik McPherson.

BRIGHT | continued from 30

ahead of the timer, the correct answer shows up on the projection screen along with a bar graph showing how many of the students selected each multiple-choice answer. The class emits a couple of groans and several “yes!” exclamations. Kurt and the students talk through the problem for a few seconds until everyone understands the correct answer — confirmed by “Ohhhhhh” from the doubtersturned-believers.

“Kahoot is a wonderful retrieval practice tool,” Scott says. “The ability to recall basic information easily frees up working memory capacity to be able to think more deeply about new material. The more ‘automated’ basic content is to the learner, the less likely that you will run into cognitive load issues when encountering new material.” In other words, frequent quizzing on the fundamentals of a subject makes room in a student’s brain for learning new material.

Scott adds that Kahoot and similar online programs also give teachers valuable, immediate feedback about how well their students understand a topic and whether it’s time to reinforce or move on.

Researchers have found that this immediate feedback is a key to maximizing learning during retrieval practice.

Clickers are another effective tool in the retrieval practice toolbox.

Math and science teacher James Sainz brings out clickers with his 32 |

Above: Oh well! Kahoot Wars "players" sophomores Mairin Moylan, Amaiya Parker, Sarah Bennett, Robert Allen, and Ian Mann don't seem to mind getting one incorrect. At left: Classroom focus is reflected on the faces of freshmen Danny Cecere, Lauren Smida, and Jimmy Aube.

physics and astronomy classes about once a week for a few minutes at a time to review and to check his students’ mastery of important concepts.

With his physics class, for instance, he might pose this question: “If I decrease the mass of an object by a factor of four while keeping the force constant, what is the new acceleration?” Multiple choice answers appear on the projection screen.

His students each hold small remote controls, thus the “clicker” name, which they use to register their answers electronically.

Their responses are recorded through software on James’s computer, which displays the results anonymously in a graph.

Instantaneous results show each student immediately whether his or her answer was right or wrong, and what the correct answer is. And the group data, with percentages of correct and incorrect answers, gives James a quick sense of how well his class understands the concept of the effect of a change in mass on acceleration.

James says clickers offer an easy

way of opening discussion of a concept with which students are struggling. (James also teaches Advanced Placement Calculus BC but does not find clickers helpful in calculus because the problems require more in-depth discussions.) The low stakes — the clicker sessions are ungraded — and low pressure — responses are anonymous — reduce the anxiety of those students who tend not to participate in class discussions, so James can better read how well the entire class, rather than just the vocal students, understands the concepts.

James first learned about clickers when he was an undergraduate studying physics at University of San Francisco, and he used them when he taught labs and courses at University of Massachusetts. For the same reasons that the clickers worked well in teaching undergraduate college students, James incorporated clicker sessions into his lesson plans when he started teaching at Loomis this year, and he found plenty of support for their use among his new colleagues.

The team of biology teach-

ers several years ago launched Clicker Wars, an optional but popular event during the few days before exams. Participating students were divided into two teams in Gilchrist Auditorium, and they used clickers to answer multiple-choice questions projected on a screen. After every 10 questions, the scoreboard revealed which team was in the lead, and the excitement built. At the same time, the students were reviewing important information for their upcoming exams.

“Biology is a vocabulary-heavy subject where high-level conceptual work depends on having first mastered the basic terminology,” says Neil Chaudhary ’05, one of the teachers who started the Clicker Wars.

“Clicker Wars were conceived as a fun way for students to practice their vocabulary and other detail-oriented bits of learning prior to exams in a fun, competitive atmosphere.”

Retrieval practice helps students commit vocabulary and similar information to their long-term memories. Making retrieval practice fun, through loomischaffee.org | 33

Clicker Wars or this fall’s iteration, Kahoot Wars, turns what could be drudgery into a game. As a result, students are more engaged in their learning, which makes it more effective. And importantly, the mini discussions that arise after each answer appears in Kahoot or Clicker Wars reinforce the learning. As Scott emphasizes, manipulating information in one’s mind makes it stickier.

SEEING THE SCAFFOLDING Retrieval practice is just one of the learning strategies on the rise at Loomis as emerging research continues to shed light on the most and least effective approaches. And as Loomis teachers continue to experiment with and refine these approaches, the strategies are gaining familiarity among Loomis students as well.

Top: Science teacher Naomi Appel works at the board last year with then-seniors Melanie Wang and Erica Zhao. Above: Senior Charles Holley listens to an explanation from math teacher Stuart Remensnyder.

Colorful, hand-made posters hang along the top of the board in Naomi’s classroom in the Clark Center. One shows an analog clock with all the numbers piled up at the bottom of the clock face. “Is this how you cram your study time?” the poster asks then advocates for “spacing,” studying material over several days rather than all at once. Each of the posters depicts a learning strategy detailed in Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning by Peter C. Brown, Henry L. Roediger III, and Mark A. McDaniel. The acclaimed book, published in 2014, applies recent research in brain science, cognitive psychology, and several other fields to look scientifically at the learning process and pinpoint strategies that work best and why.

Naomi assigned pairs of students to read packets of information about specific strategies, illustrate the ideas on posters, and explain

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Science teacher Neil Chaudhary ’05 helps sophomores Mahekpreet Pannu and Cara Keogh in the lab.

retakes, why students have been assigned this or that homework, or what the purpose of this case study is in the learning of the unit,” Neil says. “Students appreciate being involved in the planning process.”

But now there is scientific data to reinforce the value of these explanations to the learning process itself.

the strategies to their classmates. She refers to the strategies as they come up in class.

“Why should you review for the test over several nights?” she asks. “Spacing.”

Talking about the learning strategies is its own effective learning strategy for students, the research has found. Intentional discussion of what helps students learn, known as “metacognition,” enables the students to see the scaffolding underneath the learning process in which they are engaged, and they more readily buy into the approach, which also improves learning.

As with some of the other strategies, many Loomis teachers long ago discovered the effectiveness of explaining to their students why they are taking a particular approach. “We are always very careful to explain why classes are structured the way they are, the nature of test

“Study Smarter, Not Harder” is the title of Scott’s popular presentation on learning and the brain and the research’s practical applications for high schoolers. He offered versions of this constructive advice to freshmen preparing for exams last year, to faculty during the opening days of school this year, and to the entire student body in a convocation in September.

After the convocation, Naomi says several of her chemistry students told her, “All the things he talked about — that’s what we do in class.” Bingo.

CONTROLLED CONFUSION Stuart Remensnyder draws a river on the whiteboard in the front of his math classroom.

The term “integral” sits on one bank. “Derivative” sits on the opposite bank. With his students, he discusses what integral and derivative mean and how to differentiate between these two concepts.

Then, importantly, they discuss how integral and derivative are interrelated, and they draw bridges across the river, linking the two ideas. “It’s the genius of the fundamental theorems of calculus,” Stu explains.

Traditionally, calculus instruction teaches the integral and the derivative separately. It may seem unwise and confusing to study them together, but by commingling the two concepts and defining their boundaries and relationships with each other, the bigger calculus picture can come into clearer focus than by isolating them from each other. The learning strategy at work is called “interleaving.”

Instead of teaching one skill or concept at a time, interleaving involves mixing together instruction on several related skills or concepts. While mastery of any one of the skills will take longer with interleaving, mastery of all of the skills or concepts will be more successful and long-lasting, according to the research. So, in an example Scott likes to use, a baseball player will improve at hitting fastballs if all the pitches in batting practice are fastballs.

Then if the player turns his attention to learning to hit curve balls and all the practice pitches are curve balls, he will get better at hitting curve balls. But when he comes to the plate in a game, he won’t know what pitch will be thrown. On the other hand, if the types of pitches are mixed up, or interleaved, in batting practice, the player may take longer to master each kind of pitch, but he will be much more adept at hitting whatever crosses the plate in a game because he has worked on the pitches interchangeably, analyzing their direction and speed and discerning their similarities and differences. The same is true, interleaving proponents explain, for a math student

determining the volumes of spheres versus cylinders versus pyramids, or a philosophy student learning about ancient Greek, Roman, and Chinese schools of thought.

Interleaving remains one of the less understood learning strategies, Scott says. “What can be best interleaved? How much time on each topic is best?

How does interleaving impact the design of curriculum?” are among the questions with still-inexact answers. Further research and more experiments using interleaving — and other learning strategies — in classroom environments will help to flesh out the approach and turn theory into everyday practice, he says.

Neil is considering restructuring his chemistry class with an interleaved curriculum. “This is interleaving in a more formal way, organizing the class so that units repeat in multiple iterations, each one going a bit more into detail, rather than going unit by unit,” he notes. “Interleaving in a less formal way — ‘Hey, remember this? It totally applies to this new thing too.

Let’s see how.’ — is already part of the traditional repertoire.”

Neil is still in the pondering stage of the change, but the fact that he’s thinking about an interleaved curriculum and how and whether it could further improve his students’ mastery of chemistry reflects the innovative atmosphere among the Loomis faculty as the emerging research gives shape to new ideas about learning. ©

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Freshman Liam Scott, a member of the Loomis Chaffee equestrian team, competes at a show at Windcrest Farms in Hebron, Connecticut, this fall.

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AT THE BARN In the Crisp Fall Air, Loomis Chaffee’s Equestrian Program Flourishes Photographs by Patricia Cousins & John Groo

T

he light and colors of fall make it an enchanting season to watch the riders in Loomis Chaffee’s equestrian program put the horses through their paces at ABF Equine Farm in Coventry, Connecticut, about a half-hour’s drive from campus.

Loomis’ all-season equestrian program is flourishing, due in part to increased interest among prospective students.

“Our equestrian team has nearly doubled in size from nine to 17 students this fall,” notes Harrison Shure, equestrian head coach and history teacher. “My goal for the team this year is to step up our competitive edge. We are at a point when we can really be in the running for individual and team achievements.”

The team, composed of both girls and boys, includes riders across a wide range of experience levels who participate in both individual and team competitions. The team practices five or six days per week at the barn, which is owned and operated by Brooke and Tim Farr.

As a member of the Interscholastic Equestrian Association (IEA), the Loomis team competes in shows against other schools or against teams from other organizations with high school-aged riders. The IEA show concept promotes a level field for all riders, Harrison says. The school or organization that hosts the show provides all the horses for that day’s events. Each rider is assigned a horse by a lottery, requiring riders to be versatile and develop skills for communicating with different horses.

“Although riding is very much an individual sport,” notes Harrison, “we really emphasize the team aspect of our program. Riders are expected to maintain a good work ethic and to encourage and support their fellow team members.”

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PREPARING TO RIDE

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efore the day’s practice, students ready the horses at ABF Equine Farm in Conventry, Connecticut. At left: Freshman Lucia Giannamore puts boots on the horse she will ride.

At right: Junior Kelly Titus tacks up.

Below: Freshman Sofia Asher walks a horse to the practice ring.

loomischaffee.org | 39

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IN THE SADDLE

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nce they are warmed up, the studenthorse pairs work on technique under the focused watch of head coach Harrison Shure. Opposite page: Kelly Titus canters Necco. This page, clockwise from top left: Sophomore Jette Elbualy looks to turn inside. Harrison coaches in the ring.

Freshman Abby Huang jumps Demacho.

Hooves stir the dust in the ring. Freshman Dagny Mactaggart flats Dolly.

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COACHING

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arrison instructs each individual rider according to his or her level of experience. Above: Freshman Liam Scott canters without his stirrups to strengthen his lower legs. Near right: Harrison emphasizes the importance of keeping one’s shoulders back when riding. Far right: Harrison teaches junior Sarah Mendelsohn how to hold a block while riding to help her carry her hand up off the horse’s neck and keep a bend in her elbow. Opposite page: Senior India Carpenter and Liam cool off their horses on a walk.

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COOL DOWN

loomischaffee.org | 43

COMPETITION

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tudents put their practice to the test in competitions, all-day events at barns throughout the region. This page, clockwise from right: Lucia guides her horse around a course. Senior Abigail Wade canters her horse to a fence. Sofia and Lucia learn the course before the competition begins. Liam receives some final tips from Harrison before entering the show ring. Opposite page: Kelly gets in “the zone� before showing.

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Assistant coach Marilyn Bennett and head coach Harrison Shure take a break with Harrison’s canine assistant, Bruiser.

TEAM & COACHES

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oth Harrison Shure and Marilyn Bennett are longtime competitive riders. Growing up in Virginia, Harrison rode in the hunter and equitation divisions of the sport. As a member of the University of Virginia intercollegiate team and after college, Harrison competed in the jumper ring in the Amateur and small Grand Prix divisions. He has won a number of classes along the East Coast, at Winter Equestrian Festival in Wellington, Florida, and at Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, Kentucky, as well as international classes at Hickstead and Windsor in England. He has worked with some of the top trainers in the sport. In addition to coaching at Loomis, Harrison teaches history and is a dorm resident faculty member in Warham Hall. Marilyn, who joined the Loomis equestrian program this fall, continues to show hunters and jumpers in New England and Florida and has competed at the Marshall & Sterling national finals, among many other shows. She captained UConn’s intercollegiate equestrian team, and she turned professional after graduating in 2010. She has coached riders to ribbons at top horse shows, including the IEA nationals. ©

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Team members: (1) freshman Dagny Mactaggart, (2) freshman Liam Scott, (3) senior India Carpenter, (4) junior Molly Berinato, (5) freshman Lucia Giannamore, (6) junior Andrew MacLean, (7) junior Kelly Titus, (8) junior Sarah Mendelsohn, (9) freshman Sofia Asher, (10) senior Abigail Wade, (11) freshman Ann Marie Hannoush, (12) senior Emilie Szemraj, (13) sophomore Avery Lena, (14) sophomore Jette Elbualy, (15) freshman Abby Huang

loomischaffee.org | 47

English teacher Jeffrey Scanlon ’79 leads discussion in an Advanced Placement Senior Seminar in Literature. Photo: John Groo

PURPOSE LIVED

Articulating the Promise of a Loomis Chaffee Education

At

BY LYNN PETRILLO ’86

Loomis Chaffee we often talk about the school’s “special sauce” — that combination of features, ingredients if you will, that make Loomis Chaffee ... Loomis Chaffee, and distinguishes us among our peer schools. Of course, the special sauce is what Robert A. Sevier, a well-regarded expert in the field of higher education planning, marketing, and research, defines as "brand" — a “valued and differentiating promise that a college, university, or school makes to its most important stakeholders to meet a need or fulfill an expectation.”

So what is the promise of a Loomis Chaffee education? Is it a valued and differentiating promise? Does the school deliver on what it promises? These were the questions the

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SCHOOL CHOICE FACTORS Asked to identify the qualities most important to them when considering an independent school, prospective parents noted the eight primary choice factors illustrated below.

P

Qu ali

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velopme er de nt act an r a h

Q

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he y of t campus fet a S

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com munit y li y of t i l fe ua

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es Oppo rtu nit

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The results of the survey of current students and parents, faculty, and alumni showed that their perceptions of, and regard for, Loomis are consistent, results that matched the feedback collected during the on-campus focus groups. There was strong

putation o f th ic re m e de

d

The results of the survey of external constituencies revealed that Loomis performs at or above expectations among parents of admitted and prospective students on the characteristics and qualities most important to them when selecting a school for their children. These include quality of faculty as teachers and mentors, preparing students for college, academic reputation of the school, safety of campus, focus on character development and citizenship, quality of community life, quality of academic facilities, and opportunities to try new activities and new experiences. In addition, the research showed that Loomis has a solid reputation for these same characteristics when compared to our independent day and boarding school competitor groups.

students fo ring r co a p ll re

ol ho sc

Our work with Stamats began in earnest in January 2014 with research, namely focus groups with students and faculty, followed by online surveys of external constituencies (parents of accepted students and parents of prospective students) and internal constituencies (current students, parents, faculty, staff, and alumni).

ors ent

school set out to address starting in 2012–13 when we formed a committee to develop clear strategies to clarify and strengthen, if needed, the school’s brand. The group’s internal research and discussions served as a foundation for a first attempt at a brand promise statement. But what should have been a succinct one to two sentences spilled out over two pages. Feedback from the Board of Trustees and its encouragement to take the time needed to get it right proved pivotal in our efforts. Recognizing that the task might be better served with some outside perspective and expertise, we hired Stamats, an integrated marketing firm that specializes in work with educational institutions, to help guide us through the process.

m nd

culty as teache rs f fa o a ty

loomischaffee.org | 49

consensus from the more than 1,100 respondents around Loomis’ strengths, including the atmosphere on campus (the welcoming environment, a strong sense of community, and an openness to people of all backgrounds) and the strength of the academic program, while noted weaknesses were limited and inconsistent. Most importantly, our students, parents, faculty, and alumni reported that Loomis delivers well, and often very well, on exactly those qualities, characteristics, and decision factors of greatest importance to prospective families.

This alignment of what Loomis does well with what prospective families value most was very good news. It was clear we have a strong brand; our challenge was to communicate it in succinct, consistent, and compelling ways. Armed with this knowledge and the detailed research results, we returned to the task of writing a one-sentence brand promise statement to use as an internal guide when developing our communications about the school. This time we were successful: Loomis Chaffee offers an academically challenging and welcoming experience, guided by exceptional faculty mentors, to talented and hard-working students who learn to challenge themselves intellectually, embrace their individuality, and inspire positive change in the world.

Next we identified four brand attributes, a small handful of overarching, distinctive strengths that Loomis can strive to “own” in the marketplace.

These brand attributes will serve as the pillars in our storytelling about the school and are widely featured on our website and in our admission materials.

1) W elcoming the Challenge: Loomis Chaffee students welcome the challenges that the very best education offers, and do so as members of a strong and friendly community of students and faculty, open to people from all backgrounds and possessing a wide range of perspectives.

2) A Community Where Individuality Thrives: At Loomis, you don’t have to fit any type of mold. We want you to be your best self. Curious mathematicians, fearless scientists, future philosophers, thought-provoking writers, elite athletes, talented artists, emerging entrepreneurs, and environmental and political activists all find a home at Loomis, a school community 50 |

that values the interests and passions of each individual student.

3) I nspiring Positive Change: At Loomis, students and faculty believe that learning, leading, and living must be done with purpose and a commitment to inspire and effect positive change in their own lives and the lives of others.

Imagining the Brand Attributes Large photos dominate the top of Loomis Chaffee's newly designed website. These photos illustrate each brand attribute and link to stories or videos that demonstrate the attributes in action.

then focused on developing a creative campaign for the brand. Throughout our research and discussions about the promise of a Loomis Chaffee education, we kept returning to the idea that at Loomis there is a genuine, heightened belief that learning, living, and leading should always be done with intent and purpose. But what was most important was the fact that we don’t just talk about purpose; we live it every day, inspired by the intentional efforts of the founding Loomis siblings to build an academically rigorous and democratic institution and brought to life today through the work of the Norton Family Center for the Common Good, the Alvord Center for Global & Environmental Studies, the Kravis Center for Excellence in Teaching, the initiatives and actions of students and faculty leading the sustainability efforts, and the school’s commitment to keep Loomis Chaffee accessible to a socio-economically diverse student body, just to name a few examples.

From this discussion was born the brand campaign: Purpose Lived.

We introduce the Purpose Lived theme on the admission webpage and in admission publications with the following statement: Purpose comes from within. It compels you to open your mind; question, answer, and then question again; form your own opinions; create solutions; and take action.

To find your purpose you need a place that has been bringing purpose to life for more than a century.

Where excellence in teaching and learning is shaped by the why, as much as the what, and every member of the community shares a commitment to the best self and the common good.

That’s the difference.

That’s Loomis Chaffee.

4) C onfident, Civic-Minded Leaders: We are committed to helping each student develop the confidence to know his/her mind, to consider perspectives different from his/her own, and to take meaningful action as a citizen-leader on campus, at college, and in the wider world.

Certain that we had the right brand attributes, we

The voice and tone of the Purpose Lived creative campaign is down-to-earth, conversational, and genuine. The real-life stories of students, faculty, and alumni defining and living their purpose form the heart of the messages shared and demonstrate the brand attributes in action. You will see this on the website, in our social media posts, and in admission publications and videos. In addition, this year’s Annual Fund theme — A Time of Purpose — combines Purpose Lived with the Centennial Campaign theme, Our Time Is Now. loomischaffee.org | 51

PURPOSE | continued from 51

The brand work of the past few years has helped bring into focus and reaffirm Loomis Chaffee’s core values. We are confident in the strength of the brand because it is authentic and true to the experiences of our many constituencies, respects the history of our school, and reflects a shared vision for our future, crucial elements outlined by Stamats. We are excited about our messages and the continued rollout of the Purpose Lived campaign, with the goal of sharing the secrets to our “special sauce” with this next generation of students and parents. © Lynn Petrillo ’86 is director of strategic communications and marketing.

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A Classic, Fresh Wordmark While we did not enter the brand project with the goal of redesigning our wordmark, we determined that the presentation of the school name would benefit from a font with more character and greater weight, giving Loomis Chaffee a more distinctive and rich dimension. Our new wordmark uses the typeface Constantia — a clean, classic yet modern serif font. We believe it conveys a sense of tradition and purpose, and the classic design reflects the rich history of the school and our place among the finest boarding schools in New England.

Implementing the brand A student holds our new admission viewbook and wears a branded T-shirt distributed by the Office of Admission to newly accepted students. Overlay is screen grab image of the Alumni Excellence page on the website.

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Photo: Matthew Septimus

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OBJECT LESSONS | BY KAREN PARSONS

A Memorial to Gwendolen Batchelder

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N September 18, 1919, The Loomis School dedicated the Gwendolen Sedgwick Batchelder Memorial and Gwendolen Hall, the original home of the memorial and the school’s first infirmary. A ceremony held in Founders Chapel featured an address by Nathaniel Horton Batchelder, Gwendolen’s widower and the school’s first headmaster. His words told of her joyful engagement with the young school, and he added, “We come not to mourn a spirit, but to … unveil a portrait the surpassing loveliness of which shall serve to keep alive for all time a gracious and inspiring personality.”

A more intimate dedication took place the same day at the infirmary. The four recipients of the Gwendolen Sedgwick Batchelder Prize for Industry, Loyalty, and Manliness (renamed the Nathaniel Horton Batchelder Prize in the 1950s) removed a curtain to reveal the elegant marble bas relief profile portrait of Mrs. Batchelder. A seraph’s face appeared below her image, perhaps denoting the school’s grief over Gwendolen’s unexpected passing in February 1917, just two weeks after the birth of her first child.

The bas relief was installed in a graceful vaulted alcove, designed by Murphy and Dana, the school’s original architects. The alcove walls, painted white, provided a feeling of respite and subtle contrast with the marble’s smooth gray surface. Festoons, cast from marble dust and plaster set onto the walls and painted white, flanked the memorial and decorated the facing wall.

Mr. Batchelder referred to this as “our little sacred spot.”

A series of letters written by Mr. Batchelder and the memorial’s artist, Evelyn Longman, offer a rare glimpse into the process of designing a work of art. Begun in May 1918, the letters span a year and are, at times, business correspondence and, at others, more a conversation about art, architecture, and memorialization. Longman’s friends and colleagues; architect Henry Bacon, known for his work on the Lincoln Memorial; and marble carvers from the highly regarded Picirilli family consulted on the project and are mentioned in the letters.

Mr. Batchelder began by sending Longman photos of the school, noting that the chapel, the garden, and Memorial Hall in Founders “were very particularly Mrs. Batchelder’s creation. … I think you will feel [her] personality, and know what to do.”

As Longman and the headmaster forged plans for the details of the memorial, the artist worked up pencil sketches, a plaster maquette, and a large scale model. John E. Barss, in whose Lakeville, Connecticut,

“

We come not to mourn a spirit, but to … unveil a portrait the surpassing loveliness of which shall serve to keep alive for all time a gracious and inspiring personality.

”

— Nathaniel Horton Batchelder

living room Nathaniel and Gwendolen had courted, submitted two suggested inscriptions. Mr. B was satisfied with neither, saying “Th[ese words are] all true, and it is said in choice language, but it is not at all Mrs. Batchelder. Her gift was a buoyant and overflowing spirit, and this language is notable only for its care and restraint.” In the end, the memorial bears only Gwendolen’s name. A studio photograph of Gwendolen served as inspiration for the portrait with Longman adding a lily and the seraph to the composition.

The school’s Trustees approved one of Longman’s more restrained designs and agreed to spend $3,900 on the memorial (an amount equivalent to more than $61,000 in today’s money). This expenditure was not without discussion. Mr. B wrote to Longman, “I wish I could go into it without regard for expense; I’d mortgage my soul to have it just right, but … in this time of insistent calls from the Red Cross and other war charities, I can’t possibly justify such an expenditure as [the more] complete treatment would necessitate.”

Over the course of their letters, Batchelder and Longman accomplished what they set out to do in designing the memorial. But they also discovered a shared fondness that transcended their project. Mr. B wrote to Evelyn on May 1, 1919 (the final letter in the series): “There! — I haven’t taken a deep breath all day. It’s near midnight and I’m still surrounded by litter, with a gorged waste basket spilling over onto the floor, but I’m going to have a quiet moment with you about the tablet. I’m glad you feel that the effect is improved by the slight changes I suggested. Most critics would have considered it already perfect.” Batchelder and Longman exchanged wedding vows in June of 1920, forging a creative, productive marriage of two successful careers. The memorial was the first of many collaborative design projects that grace the campus today.

In April 2015, art conservator Adam Jenkins and a team of art handlers removed the memorial from its original alcove in preparation for the demolition of Gwendolen Hall. After cleaning the object in his Philadelphia studio, Mr. Jenkins and the team returned in August to reinstall the memorial in the new Gwendolen Health Center, located on the lower level of Richmond Hall. © Karen Parsons is archivist and teaches history.

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R EUNIO N

ALUMNI NEWS | EDITED BY MADISON NEAL

1944

June 10–12,

2016

CLASSES ENDING IN 1s AND 6s!

Come home and celebrate with classmates, friends, and faculty at Reunion 2016. Enjoy alumni presentations, live music and dancing, poetry, food, wine, and much more.

Look for your invitation in the spring.

Be sure to receive electronic updates by sharing your email address with the school.

Update your information and find out more about the weekend at www.loomischaffee.org/reunion or call 860.687.6815.

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John Barbe and his late wife, Jane, were honored in September 2015 at the 37th Annual Georgia Music Hall of Fame Awards. John is a celebrated clarinetist and musical composer, and Jane was a renowned voice actress and singer. Among the inductees were Gregg Allman of The Allman Brothers Band and Sam Moore of the famed duo Sam and Dave. John and Jane moved to Roswell, Ga., in 1962 and collaborated together for decades, producing music for radio, television commercials, and films. John continues to compose music and remains an active member of the Southern Winds Concert Band in Roswell.

1945

Jim Bulmer writes that he was sorry to have missed his 70th Reunion. In April 2015, Jim and his wife, Phyllis, celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary. They enjoyed a week-long cruise to Alaska in July 2015 with their children Blair and Jeb in celebration. Jim continues to enjoy retirement and life in Vermont and encourages his classmates to keep in touch via email: uppermowing@gmail.com. He writes, “Best to all and congratulations to Sheila Culbert and her staff for the brilliant 100th.”

1946

Margot Green Torrey reports that she is “glad to be here still in the lively community of Putney, Vermont, and enjoying mostly in New England [her] four children and their families, 10 interesting grandchildren and three great grandchildren.

Much gratitude!”

1948

Ron Daniel writes, “Not much new. My grandson Will is a new member of Loomis Class of 2018 — 70 years after I graduated!” Ron is still working full time at McKinsey & Company, which makes 58 years. He is also involved in work out-

side of McKinsey & Company, including for Rockefeller University, the Peterson Foundation, the Bloomberg Foundation, Weizmann Institute, Library of America, and the National Gallery in London.

1951

John F. Foster was appointed as a national poetry judge in 2014. He writes that he is delighted to be on the Reunion Weekend agenda in June 2016 with a presentation that offers a discussion of humorous poetry using examples from his work.

1956

George Smith this fall received the honor of the 2015 Business Person of the Year by the Southern Berkshire Chamber of Commerce. The 2014 honoree, Richard Cantele Jr., president and CEO of Salisbury Bancorp, passed the honor to George. Regarding George’s accomplishments, Richard told a reporter for The Berkshire Edge newspaper, “There are 2.5 million people named Smith in the United States but, for a guy with a pretty common name, there is only one George T. Smith who has done so much for our community.”

1957

John Hurlburt is proud of his work with Sustainable Rim Country Inc., a nonprofit organization “dedicated to communityadopted activities that enhance the economic and environmental sustainability of our region, earth, and human life.”

John and the members of Sustainable Rim Country aim to create efforts that sustain the natural resources of Rim Country, Ariz., “in order to conserve the beauty and resources of the region for continued enjoyment and for future generations.”

Marilyn Sharp Davidson recognized classmate Ted Lorraine in an article written about him in San Jose Mercury News newspaper. The article, titled “Heeding the ‘Call of Lorraine,’” acknowledged Ted for his longtime position as the artistic director of the San Jose Chamber Music Society, whose first concert of the

2015–16 season took place in late October 2015 at the Trianon Theater. This is the society’s 30th season. Ted has been the artistic director since 1977.

Alex Kuo’s most recent novel, shanghai.shanghai.shanghai, was published in November 2015. The novel is about the culture writer and closet novelist Ge and his encounters with a variety of characters, including a Bogotá pickpocket, a defiant Uighur woman, a German naval attaché, American evangelicals, and many more.

The main themes of the novel address the thin line distinguishing state censorship from self-censorship, and corroboration in China’s war of infinite resistance.

1963

Tom Engel along with partner Katherine Thornburgh and counsel Jim McCarney announced in September 2015 the reconstitution of Engel & McCarney, which practiced law in New York from 1984 to 2006. The successor firm, Engel Thornburgh & McCarney LLP, “will continue to represent clients in federal and state courts, in arbitration and mediation, and in a variety of grand jury and regulatory matters.”

1964

Christopher Judson Gager reports, “I’m in the middle of John S. Wilbur Jr.’s book Split/ Vision and highly recommend it to anyone, but especially to the many Loomis Vietnam vets out there.” John Wilbur ’60 has since died.

1965

Phil Rose reports that he is starting a new career of building inspection as well as fine art. He encourages his classmates to “come visit Maine!”

1974

John Ritter writes that he was recently re-elected to a second three-year term as a trustee on the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Board.

He also serves on the UConn Law School Foundation Board and was elected emeritus on the UConn Foundation Board after serving as a trustee for 10 years.

1977

Pamela Slater Gilman was recently named to Best Lawyers in America 2016, which is based solely on “an exhaustive peerreview survey in which almost 50,000 leading attorneys cast nearly five million votes on the legal abilities of other lawyers in their practice areas.” The list has been published since 1983.

This year is the fifth consecutive year that Pamela has received this prestigious national honor.

Pamela is a partner at the firm Barton Gilman LLP, located in Boston, Mass.

1980

After viewing the early stages of the construction of Cutler Hall via Facebook, Jim Rice commented: “I marvel at how much Loomis has ‘grown up’ since the mid to late ’70s, when I was a student. After having been back to campus for our 35th-year reunion this past spring and on another occasion last winter, it dawned on me how lucky I was

Chaffee Graduates Provide Endowment Support

T

HIS past year Loomis Chaffee was the beneficiary of two wonderful planned gifts from Chaffee graduates:

Frances B. Woods ’44. A lifelong resident of West Hartford and librarian at Yale Law School, Frances was a regular attendee of the Chaffee Book Club. She established an annuity through Hartford Life, of which Loomis Chaffee was designated as a beneficiary. Her legacy gift generously supports the school’s unrestricted endowment.

Mary Brewster Bamber ’40.

Mary too was a librarian, in addition to being a U.S. Navy veteran. Though she predeceased her husband William, the two had included Loomis Chaffee as beneficiaries of their IRA account. When William passed away in January 2015, the school benefitted through their kind donation to support the school’s unrestricted endowment.

Frances’s and Mary’s generosity will provide helpful income to the school this year and for years to come, in perpetuity, creating a lasting and meaningful legacy for these Chaffee alumnae.

For more information about how you can join Frances and Mary as members of the John Metcalf Taylor Society, our planned gift society, please contact Chief Philanthropic Officer Tim Struthers ’85 (860.687.6221, tim_struthers@ loomis.org) or Associate Director of Development Katherine Langmaid (860.687.6822, katherine_langmaid@loomis.org).

loomischaffee.org | 57

The Loomis Chaffee Alumni App

CHAFFEE BOOK CLUB

SAVE THE DATE Wednesday, February 10 6 p.m. Dinner followed by discussion Burton Room, Athletics Complex The Calculus of Friendship by Steven Strogatz ’76 Discussion leader: Andrew Matlack, math teacher and associate dean of faculty

Introducing EverTrue, a Loomis Chaffee exclusive alumni mobile app!

The app features:

• Searchable alumni directory tool to search by • Nearby

location and view the results on a map

• Integration with LinkedIn • LC news and events on Facebook, Twitter, and the LC website

to make your gift to • Ability

Loomis Chaffee using our secure giving page

Access all this on your Apple or Android smartphone by downloading the free Evertrue app from the App Store or Google Play store today!

58 |

The fall gathering of the Chaffee Book Club was hosted by Head of School Sheila Culbert in the Head’s House on October 7, 2015. Sheila led the group in a conversation about Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See. Attendees were: (front) Mims Brooks Butterworth ’36, Lynn Hayden Wadhams ’61, Katie Cox Reynolds ’45 (befriended by Sheila’s dog Zoe), Gretchen Schafer Skelley ’45, and Jenefer Carey Berall ’59; and (back) Kate Butterworth de Valdez ’67, Betsy Mallory MacDermid ’66, Jane Dewitt Torrey ’67, Sally Crowther Pearse ’58, Anne Schneider McNulty ’72, Becca Huston ’69, Head of School Sheila Culbert, Priscilla Ransom Marks ’66, and Suzanne Nolan ’69.

to attend and how the school shaped me, academically and personally. Today’s LC students are so much more sophisticated, and it’s so nice to see the school evolve over time. In thinking back to my time on the Island, in some ways time does stand still, but it’s refreshing to see the changes new buildings and new faculty bring.”

In addition to her other pursuits and travels to the Far East, Corinna M. Arnold keeps busy with her animals, from dogs and hens to sheep, on her beau-

tiful place in Gloucestershire, United Kingdom.

1983

Todd Schwebel writes, “My son Zeno, who is in his second year at Loomis, just started a surfing club with Max Katz, son of Jim Katz. How fun is that!”

1986

Debbie Savitt First ’59 was happy to share that her son Richard First’s POMG (Peace of Mind Guaranteed) Bike

Tours of Vermont was featured on the award-winning television show Chronicle in November 2015. The Chronicle crew spent two days with POMG in early October on the Champlain Valley, Middlebury, and Adirondacks Tour.

1987

Betsy Kalin recently finished her documentary East LA Interchange, which screened in Los Angeles in September and October 2015 and in New Haven, Conn., in November 2015. She

expects to continue traveling to film festivals across the United States. Featuring Richard Wright, professor of geography and public affairs at Dartmouth College and husband of Head of School Sheila Culbert, East LA Interchange follows the evolution of the working-class, immigrant neighborhood Boyle Heights and documents how the area managed to survive the construction of the largest and busiest freeway interchange in the nation. The film includes narration by Danny Trejo of the Machete film franchise; an original song by Raul Pacheco of the band Ozomatli; and interviews with will.i.am of The Black Eyed Peas, Father Greg Boyle of Homeboy Industries, and Josefina López, playwright of Real Women Have Curves.

Matthew Henshon was the legal representative for the National Association of Basketball Coaches who filed a “friend of the court” brief to the U.S. Supreme Court in November 2015 in support of preserving affirmative action. Signatories of the brief included 285 current and former college head basketball coaches, including 11 members of the Basketball Hall of Fame.

A few recognizable names in the brief are UConn’s Geno Ariemma, Duke’s Mike Kryzewski, Penn State’s Coquese Washington, former Georgetown coach John Thompson, and ESPN’s Dick Vitale.

1989

In June 2015 Sue Henshon received a fellowship sponsored by the Oxford Study Abroad Program to attend a faculty seminar at Oxford University. Sue writes, “while at Oxford, I had the

opportunity to visit many of the sites from Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, which I studied in Jane Bronk’s freshman English class at LC. Once again, my Loomis education was invaluable.”

1998

Daniel Marchetti was recently named the new head of school at Hebron Academy in Hebron, Maine. Dan will complete the school year as the head of school at The Grammar School in Putney, Vt., and start his new position in July. The appointment was made after a comprehensive six-month national search.

Katherine Waterston portrayed Chrisann Brennan in Steve Jobs, a biographical film based on the life of the Apple cofounder. The film was released in October 2015.

2006

John Harris graduated in 2012 with a bachelor’s of science in pharmacy studies and a business administration minor, and in 2013 he received his doctorate in pharmacy from Northeastern University in Boston, Mass.

John is a senior analyst at EMD Serono Inc. in Rockland, Mass.

2007

Sarah Bashaw recently graduated from the Commonwealth Medical College in Scranton, Pa. She is a first-year general surgery resident at Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, Pa.

2009

Sam Kelly began working on a master’s degree in computer

WHAT IS ExCEL? The ExCEL network helps students to explore their passions and interests through experiential learning opportunities.

Alumni and parents make it happen.

Here’s how:  P rovide an internship or shadowing opportunity at your place of work  Be a guest speaker for a class  Participate in a career panel  T alk one to one with a student in person or via Skype to discuss your career

WHY PARTICIPATE IN EXCEL? For alumni, ExCEL is a great way to get involved and give back by sharing your professional expertise with today’s Loomis Chaffee students. For parents, ExCEL is another opportunity to be engaged in your student’s Loomis Chaffee experience.

For more information, contact Fred J. Kuo Director of Experiential Learning fred_kuo@loomis.org or 860.687.6091 www.loomischaffee.org/excel

ALUMNI NEWS | continued page 62 loomischaffee.org | 59

“We are all 90!” writes Dorothy “Dot” Schoenfuss Howell ’43, photographed with classmates Mary Jane Halsey Small and Janice Falkin. The three friends, all Chaffee graduates, reunited recently to celebrate Dot’s birthday. More than 125 people attended the festivities. During the celebration, the ladies reminisced about the times they shared in high school from 1939 through 1943.

Dot exclaims, “One of us was a Pelican, one a Greyhound! Good memories!” (Editor's Note: At press time we received the sad news that Dot died on November 13, 2015.)

’43

Bruce Blackwell ’69 is the managing partner and president at Career Strategies Group in New York.

In September 2015, he made a presentation for the National Constitution Center on “Alternative Legal Career Issues.” His talk preceded a presentation by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer. Bruce also spoke in September before the Connecticut Bar Association.

’69

’69

’85 Members of the Class of 1985 enjoyed a mini-reunion at the season-opener New England Patriots vs. Pittsburg Steelers football game on September 10, 2015. From left to right: Milton Gooding, David Walsh, Eric Jansen, Stephen Paul, Pieter Boelhouwer, Tim Struthers, and Adam Perl.

’91

Matt Henderson Ellis ’87 translated Hungarian writer Sándor Jászberényi’s short story collection The Devil is a Black Dog (New Europe Books in the United States; Scribe Publications in the United Kingdom; and Laughing Tiger Books in India). The transcribed collection was released and nominated for numerous awards, including PEN Best Translation and the Kirkus Fiction Award.

Andrew Vernon ’91 looks forward to seeing his classmates at his upcoming 25th Reunion.

He recently reconnected with Jeff Barber ’91 and Matt Whitney ’91 on consecutive nights in Seattle. Both Jeff and Matt were in town for business. Jeff and Andrew (pictured) made plans to reunite and then ran into Matt at the gym of the hotel where both visitors were staying. Matt and Andrew then reconnected the following day at the same hotel. Andrew writes, “What a hilarious coincidence!”

60 |

Richard Adams Carey ’69 writes that his fourth book of narrative nonfiction, In the Evil Day: Violence Comes to One Small Town, was published in September 2015 by the University of New England Press.

He cites Booklist for its positive review: “Carey’s tension-filled report of a small town’s terror is portrayed with surprising love, bittersweetness, and hope resulting in a beautifully written and enthralling true-crime tale.”

’87

Kimberly Girardin Rogers ’98 reports, “Isaac, Chase (big brother, age 4), and I welcomed our daughter, Samantha Quinn Rogers, into the world on June 20, 2014. I have taken a hiatus from counseling work, and I am enjoying life as a full-time mom.”

’98

Cara Bock ’03 and her husband, Michael, welcomed baby girl Morgan Lily to their family in March 2015.

She writes that Morgan “has been an incredible blessing.”

Zoe Mindell Abrams ’04 married David Abrams on June 7, 2015, in Philadelphia, Pa. Zoe and David live in Paris, France, where she is developing her antiquarian book business, Zoe Abrams Rare Books.

’04

An August wedding in Millbrook reunited Associate Head for External Relations Nat Follansbee with a group of alumni attendees. From left to right: Nat, Tim Richards ’04, Leannah van der Geest ’05, Cornelia van der Geest ’07, and Christopher “Critter” Tamm ’06.

’03

’04

’08

’06 Lee Bloom ’06 married Melissa Gorenkoff on June 6, 2015, at Pine Hollow Country Club in Woodbury, N.Y. Zak Sigal ’06 and Michael Shulansky ’06 attended as groomsmen. Lee and Melissa graduated from Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass, and Lee graduated from Northeast Ohio State Medical School in 2015 and has begun a five-year orthopedic residency program at Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, N.Y. Melissa works for Cook Medical.

The bride and groom live in Brooklyn.

In November 2015, Katie Earle ’08 traveled to Dharamshala, Northern India, where she coordinated an American Enterprise Institute conference with the Dalai Lama.

’14

Liana Barron ’14, a sophomore at Middlebury College in Vermont, returned to the Loomis campus on October 23 to perform with the Middlebury College Bobolinks a capella group. Members of the Loomis community, including choral director and Music Department head Susan Chrzanowski, came out to listen to the music and catch up with Liana.

loomischaffee.org | 61

ALUMNI GAT

HERIN GS

Head’s Holiday

02.04.2016 Gather with fellow Pelicans in celebration of your favorite Loomis Chaffee winter break!

Boston. Hartford. New York. Washington, D.C. For location information and to register, visit www.loomischaffee.org/alumni 62 |

PHILANTHROPY DAY 02.29.2016 ALUMNI NEWS | continued from 59

science at Brown University this fall.

Carolyn Balk reports that she and Caroline Russell are both involved in the Peace Corps in Yap State, Micronesia. Carolyn is located in Asor, a small island in the Ulithi Atoll.

62 |

2011

Darren Ting continues to enjoy his position as the director of operations of Everykey, a company that creates devices designed to unlock smartphones, doors, and cars. Everykey will be releasing a wristband that allows users to automatically unlock their smartphones, computers, and almost all of their Internet accounts when it gets in close enough range.

Connect!

Please send your news to us!

Email Alumni Newsnotes Editor Madison Neal at magazine@loomis.org to share news with classmates and friends. High-resolution photographs are welcome; please clearly identify all people.

Susannah Williamson graduated in May from Brown University and is pursuing a master’s degree at Columbia University.

2012

Haverford College senior Alexander Lafrance spent the summer working as a member of the research team in the laboratory of molecular microbiologist Vanessa Sperandio. The recipient of a research fellowship at the Uni-

versity of Texas-Southwestern Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences in Dallas, Alex investigated the relationship between food type and virulence gene expression in enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacteria. Using E. coli knockout mutant strains, Alex assessed the bacteria’s preference for the different food types it might encounter in vivo under a variety of growth conditions, and the influence that food type and growth condition have on virulence gene expression.

IN MEMORIAM | BY CHRISTINE COYLE

1936 John F. Doran, on May 12, 2015, at Bellamy Fields in Dover, N.H., where he had resided for the past several years. A three-year student from Glenbrook, Conn., Jack, as he was known, served as president of the Press Club and vice president of the Darwin Club. He was involved in Le Cercle Français and the Chess Club, and was active in Ludlow soccer, club hockey, and club tennis. After Loomis, Jack attended Yale Univer-

sity, where he was involved in the Outing Club and the U.S. Navy ROTC program, graduating in 1940. Jack served in the U.S. Navy during World War II in several capacities: as an instructor of midshipmen in New York; as a commander of a landing ship, the LSM-166, which landed in Okinawa, Japan; and as operator of the harbor of Yokohama, Japan, after the Japanese surrender. Following his years of military service, Jack embarked on a long and successful career as an

industrial engineer, with positions at Naugatuck Footwear Company, Naugatuck, Conn.; Chase Brass and Copper in Waterbury, Conn.; Carborundum Company in Niagara Falls, N.Y.; American Optical in Southbridge, Mass.; J.W. Greer in Wilmington, Mass.: and Raytheon Corporation in Andover and Lexington, Mass. After retirement, Jack was active in the Service Corps of Retired Executives and the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts, where his extensive contributions

spanned 19 years of service, and he received recognition for his achievements and commitment. In 2000, Jack was presented an award at a convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts by M. Thomas Shaw and Barbara Harris, with the commendation that he was a “beloved, devoted, indefatigable and preeminent volunteer member of the diocesan staff.”

Predeceased by his first wife, Ann Weidig Doran, Jack is survived by his wife Eleanor Appleby-Doran of Harwich

Photo: Patricia Cousins loomischaffee.org

| 63

Port, Mass.; his son Kenneth; his daughter Susan and her spouse; his two grandchildren; and his six great-grandchildren.

A funeral service was held on May 20, 2015, at Christ Church, Andover, Mass., with burial in Woodland Cemetery in Stamford, Conn.

1938 Chester B. Derr II, on August 15, 2015, peacefully and surrounded by his loving family. A one-year student from Daytona Beach, Fla., Chet, as he was known, was involved with the Darwin Club, Aviation Club, and Mason Dormitory Committee.

He was active in Allyn hockey, baseball, and tennis. Chet went on to earn a bachelor’s degree from the University of Delaware and served his country as a B-24 bomber pilot during World War II. He married the love of his life, Jane Collingswood Derr, in Northfield, Vt. One half of Chet’s 50-year career in the chemical and plastic industries was spent working as a polymer chemist at American Optical, where he was granted a number of patents for improvements to the manufacturing process. A master craftsman and inventor, Chet worked tirelessly, often late into the night, to restore his 200-year old home in South Woodstock, Vt. His favorite pastimes also included gardening and collecting stamps and coins.

For 10 years, Chet lived with his daughter Jane, who cared for him with love and compassion.

Chet dearly loved his family, and they will remember him as kind, gentle, well-mannered, and quick with a smile. Preceded in death by his wife, Jane; his sister Barbara Chenoweth; 64 |

his brother John Derr; and his grandson Douglas McGrath, Chet is survived by his children Linda McGrath, Jane Monahon, and Chet Derr III ’70 and their spouses; his eight grandchildren, including Catherine Monahon ’08; and his two great-grandchildren. In August 2015, a celebration of Chet’s life was held in Brewster, N.Y., and a graveside service was held at his final resting place at the Vine Hill Cemetery in Plymouth, Mass.

Virginia Carey Stewart, peacefully, on September 15, 2015. Originally from West Hartford, Conn., Virginia was the assistant editor of Chaffee’s yearbook, Epilogue. She was active in soccer and softball and served on the 1934–35 Athletic Council. She earned a bachelor’s degree from Smith College in 1942 and earned a master’s degree in education while her children were young. She taught at Renbrook School in West Hartford and in Rocky Hill and volunteered in West Hartford schools after retirement. Virginia remained active through her membership in the Town and County Club of Hartford, by attending symphony and theater performances, and by participating in reading groups.

Virginia was also a member of the Thursday Club, a group of women who researched and presented papers on such topics as space exploration. She enjoyed summers at her lake house swimming, kayaking, and visiting with friends and relatives. Predeceased by her brother, John, and her husband, Richard, Virginia is survived by her children, Anne Stewart

Macpherson ’64, Rick Stewart, and Allan Stewart ’70; her eight grandchildren; and her three great-grandchildren. A memorial service was held in October at St. John’s Episcopal Church in West Hartford.

Ruth C. Tuller, on March 15, 2015. Ruth was a Chaffee School student and a longtime West Hartford, Conn., resident and teacher. Ruth most recently lived in Vernon, Conn. She is survived by her nephews John S. Tuller and James E. Tuller and their spouses; her nieces Barbara T. Cameron and Emily T. Worth and their spouses; and several grand- and great-grandnieces and -nephews. Ruth is pre-deceased by her brother A. Edmund Tuller and his wife, Grace; and her cousin Allen Anderson ’28. A memorial service was held on April 27, 2015, at St. James Episcopal Church in West Hartford.

1939 Elizabeth Carter Chamberlain, on September 21, 2015, at home surrounded by her loving family. Originally from New Britain, Conn., Betty, as she was known, was a photographer for Epilogue. After Chaffee, she graduated from Vassar College and earned a graduate degree in education from Central Connecticut State University. In addition to New Britain, Betty resided in Lyme and Old Lyme, Conn.; and New Hope, Pa. An active community volunteer, Betty was involved with the American Red Cross, St. Mark’s Church in New Britain, and the Old Lyme Congregational Church. She was also devoted

to supporting the New Britain Museum of American Art and the Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme. Betty had many interests and talents. She enjoyed cooking, playing bridge, doing needlecrafts, playing tennis, and doing crossword puzzles from The New York Times. She was preceded in death by her husband, Valentine B. Chamberlain III, with whom she enjoyed travel and spending time with friends and family.

Betty leaves her four children, Chris Chamberlain Puffer ’64, V.B. Chamberlain IV, Polly Chamberlain, and Michael Chamberlain, and their spouses; her six grandchildren and their spouses; and her five greatgrandchildren. She also leaves her sister, Jean Bradley, and many extended family members and friends.

1941 Frederick David Malkinson, on Sept. 7, 2015. A four-year student from West Hartford, Conn., Fred was involved in Debating Council, Handbook Committee, Grounds Committee, the Loomiscellany Board, and Band, and he was a tutor in Study Club. He was active in Allyn soccer, Allyn basketball, and Allyn tennis. Fred graduated from Harvard University School of Dentistry and Harvard Medical School, followed by a dermatology residency at University of Chicago, where he became a faculty member. There, he pioneered the use of radiation for a variety of skin diseases. In 1968, Fred founded the Department of Dermatology at Rush University Medical School, which he chaired for more than 20 years until his retirement. During his

50-year career, Fred was deeply committed to medical research and education. He authored more than 130 dermatology articles, clinical studies, and book chapters and was chief editor of Yearbook of Dermatology and American Medical Association Archives of Dermatology.

He held leadership positions in the American Academy of Dermatology, the Society for Investigative Dermatology, the Dermatology Foundation, and the Chicago Dermatological Society. Fred traveled the world as a speaker and instructor on research and treatment of dermatologic disorders. For 30 years, he pioneered the creation of dermatological audiovisual teaching aids for medical students and residents, for which he was awarded the Dermatology Foundation’s Lifetime Career Educator Award. He established the National Residency Matching Program for Dermatology in 1982, the first for any specialty of medicine in the United States, and supervised it for 20 years.

Fred served for 24 years in the U.S. Navy, including on active duty during the Korean War, and retired with the rank of captain. Active in many professional and civic organizations, Fred served as president of the Chicago Literary Club, Art Encounter (Evanston), and the Evanston Public Library during the design and construction of its current facility. He enjoyed hiking, American history, the arts, musical theater, and travel.

Fred will be remembered for his good sense of humor and for being a modest, thoughtful, liberal-minded person dedicated to bringing out the best in those around him. Fred was devoted to his family. He is

survived by his wife of 36 years, Una; his children, Philip, Carol, and John, and their spouses; his stepchildren, Bill and Paul Weiss; and his two grandchildren.

1942 Arthur James Crawford III, on September 6, 2015. A twoyear student from Bridgeport, Conn., Jim served as chairmantreasurer of the Dormitory Committee and on the Dining Hall Committee. He was involved in theater productions of H.M.S. Pinafore, You Can’t Take It with You, and Ticket Of Leave Man. He also participated in the Glee Club, Music Club, and Choir. Jim was active in varsity and junior varsity soccer and varsity track, and he was captain of the varsity hockey team. A Log entry from June 13, 1942, reads, “Jim Crawford broke both the Loomis and Mt. Hermon meet records with his hammer heave of 163 feet, 6 inches. Crawford missed the record in the Choate-Taft meet by two inches, but this time he smashed it by more than four feet.” His college years were interrupted by military service from 1943 to 1946 during World War II. Jim served in the 407th Infantry Regiment of the 102nd Infantry Division on a rifle squad from the border of Germany and the Netherlands to the Elbe River. After V-E Day, he transferred from the Army of Occupation to the Criminal Investigation Division in Paris and, subsequently, Marseille, France, where he served as a desk sergeant for three CID detachments. In 1948, he received a commission in military intelligence and served in the

Counter Intelligence Corps Reserves until resigning as a 1st Lieutenant in 1954. He received a bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth College and a master’s in business administration from Dartmouth’s Amos Tuck School in 1949. Jim worked for several companies in the Bridgeport, Conn., and New York metro areas, including Colgate-Palmolive. There, he spent time as corporate manager in the areas of data processing, management information systems, European systems, and international electronic data processing auditing before his retirement in 1988.

A resident of Fairfield, Conn., for more than 75 years, Jim was a member of the Fairfield Representative Town Meeting, the Zoning Board of Appeals, and the Conservation Commission. He was active in recreational sports and especially enjoyed skiing, rowing, biking, and sailing. Proud of his longstanding hammer throw record at Loomis, Jim regularly ranked first or second nationally in both the hammer throw and weight throw for his age group into his 80’s, and held a national age group record in each event.

He is survived by his wife of 65 years, Jean MacKinnon Crawford; his brother Phillip I. Crawford; three children; four grandchildren; and two greatgrandchildren.

Stanley Waycott Dimock, on May 13, 2015. A four-year student from West Hartford, Stan served as secretary and treasurer of the Political Club and was involved with the Union Settlement Group, Grounds Committee, and Chess Team. He was active in Ludlow junior basketball and Ludlow

club tennis, and he served as manager of the football team.

Stan won the Andrew DeWolf Barss Prize as a student, and remained connected to Loomis after graduation as a member of the Common Good Society.

After his first semester at the University of Pennsylvania, Stan temporarily set aside his studies for three years to serve in the U.S. Army during World War II. He returned to Penn and graduated from the Wharton School in 1948. Afterwards, he graduated from the University of Connecticut School of Law and was admitted to the Connecticut Bar. Stan served as secretary of his family’s business, Allen Manufacturing Company, which was sold in 1956 to the Chicago Pneumatic Tool Company. He then joined the Aetna Life Insurance Company, where he was an attorney until his retirement in 1980. His civic contributions included his longtime membership in the Civitan organization, for which he served a term as president of the West Hartford club. He was also a member of the Newcomen Society and the West Hartford Old Guard. Stan enjoyed playing chess and his visits to Maine. Predeceased by his wife, Ann Gardiner Dimock, and his brother, Edwin, he leaves his son, Stanley G. Dimock, and daughter, Pamela G. Dimock; his sister, Priscilla Andrews; and two nieces.

1943 Robert Erskine Badger, peacefully at home surrounded by family, on October 10, 2015.

A three-year student from Auburndale, Mass., Bob was active in the Nautical Club, Glee loomischaffee.org | 65

Club, Rifle Club, Nominating Committee, Reception Committee, and Military Drill. He was active in Wolcott track and lettered in both Wolcott senior football and Wolcott senior hockey. After graduating from Loomis, Bob served in the U.S. Navy in the Pacific during World War II. Upon his return, he attended Bowdoin College, where he received a bachelor’s degree in 1949. Bob met his wife, Lois, known as “Bussie,” in first grade, and they remained friends throughout their years at school. They married in 1947 when Bussie graduated from Middlebury College, and they would have celebrated their 68th anniversary on October 25, 2015. The couple settled in Kennebunkport, Maine, where they lived for many years and raised their three children.

There, Bob and Bussie sailed on their sloop, Sea Badger, and shared their love of the sea with their children and grandchildren. Bob was a founder of the Arundel Yacht Club and an avid sportsman. In 1972, after several moves, Bob and his family settled in Jackson, N.H., and purchased the Joe Jones Ski Shop in North Conway with Bob’s brother, Richard. After retirement, Bob and Bussie returned to Kennebunkport, where they remained active in neighborhood and community activities. Bob was a member of the Old Goats, Arundel Yacht Club, Arundel Cemetery Committee, and his Breakfast Club.

According to his family, Bob never met a person that didn’t become a fast friend, and he enjoyed learning the personal stories of the many people he encountered. Predeceased by his brother Joseph Badger, Bob 66 |

is survived by his wife, Bussie; his brother Richard Badger; his sister, Holly English; his three children, Jeffrey Badger, Dana Badger, and Pamela Davis, and their spouses; eight grandchildren; and two greatgrandchildren. At Bob’s request, a celebration of his life was held at the Arundel Yacht Club. A private burial was to take place in the Arundel Cemetery, in Arundel, Maine.

1945 George Chapman Jr., on August 8, 2015. A four-year student from Windsor, Conn., George was involved with the Work Program, Glee Club, Octet, Jazz Club, Drama Productions, Athletic Council, and Gymnasium Committee, and he was an aircraft spotter. He lettered in football and served as team manager, and he lettered on the rifle team, for which he also served as team captain. A veteran of World War II, George was recalled at the rank of captain by the U.S. Army during the construction of the Berlin Wall. He was an alumnus of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business.

George enjoyed a long career in the textile industry working for Chicopee Mills, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, and retiring as executive vice president of merchandise/marketing.

Following his career with J&J, George became senior career placement counselor with RFP and Associates, where he mentored corporate executives in managing their careers.

Active in his local community of Ridgewood, N.J., George assumed a number of roles and took part in many activities at

the Ridgewood Board of Education, the United Way, and the Ridgewood Baseball Association. He served as consistory and deacon at the Upper Ridgewood Community Church and was a volunteer with Hobbyists Unlimited at Valley Hospital.

George is survived by his wife of 61 years, Nancy; their four children, Kim DiNardo, John Chapman, Sandy Chapman, and Ann Chapman-Cantero, and their spouses; and their four grandchildren.

1946 William Edward Bunyan, on June 18, 2015. A four-year Honor Roll student from Highland Park, N.J., Bill was involved in many extracurricular activities at Loomis. He served as treasurer of the Chess Club and the Bridge Club; was elected vice president of the Senior Class; was a feature editor of The Log; served on the Senior Advisory and Commencement committees; and was on Student Council. He was active in Ludlow junior basketball and Ludlow second tennis, and he lettered in varsity wrestling and soccer and served as manager of the wrestling team. In 1950, after attending Cornell University, Bill relocated to California, where he obtained his Certified Public Accountant license and opened his office. He was a partner in several accounting firms throughout his long career until his retirement in 1998.

He lived the majority of his life in the Los Angeles, Calif., area and moved with his wife to Sunrise Senior Living at Playa Vista, Calif., in 2010. Preceded in death by his sister, Mary, Bill is survived by Marge, his wife

of 36 years; his children, Sue and John, and John’s spouse; his stepchildren, Roseanne and Tom, and their spouses; two grandchildren; and four step-grandchildren. Bill loved the ocean, sailing, scotch, chess, puzzles, puns, and limericks.

Bill’s daughter Sue wrote, “… our Dad spoke fondly of Loomis over the years and was so thrilled to go to his 60th Reunion several years back.” She also shared the following: There once was a fine fellow named Bill Who, at Sunrise, showed leadership skill He liked being in charge He loved living with Marge His place will be so hard to fill.

Ronald Gatty, on December 28, 2014, peacefully in his home in Wainadoi, Fiji. A three-year student from Suva, Fiji, Ronald was involved in drama productions and in the Fire Fighting Squad, Jazz Club, Debating Club, Le Cercle Français, Political Club, Darwin Club, and Senior Chapel Committee. He earned letters in varsity soccer and track. Ronald earned a master’s degree in 1952 and a doctorate in agricultural economics in 1957, both from Cornell University. Ronald met his wife, Janette Gatty, while at Cornell. An article by Emily Sanders Hopkins that appeared on the Cornell University website noted that Ronald was the “son of Harold Gatty, navigator on the first airplane flight to circumnavigate the globe.” The article noted that Ronald was drafted and served as an American soldier in the Korean War

Photo: Patricia Cousins

and, after earning his doctorate, worked for the next 50 years “as a plant explorer stationed in Papua New Guinea for Johnson & Johnson, a college professor, a spice farmer and trader, a philanthropist, and a lexicographer. He is the author of the first and only English-Fijian language dictionary, in fact the only Fijian language dictionary of any kind.” According to The Fiji Times, Ronald was a philanthropist, author, sailor, and explorer and was known as “Fiji’s Father of Spice.” He wrote an opinion column in the newspaper titled “Spices from Wainadoi.” Ronald was predeceased by his brother, Harold Lindsay Gatty ’45. He is survived by his wife, Janette.

Frank Harlow Handy Jr., on May 26, 2015, peacefully with his family by his side. A four-year student from Windsor, Conn., Skip, as he was known, was involved with the Student Council, Senior Gymnasium Committee, Chess Club, Ski Club, Nautical Club, and Rifle Club, and he served as treasurer of the Stamp Club. He was active in varsity baseball and lettered in both varsity football and varsity ice hockey. He was named to the Honor Roll in 1943–44. After Loomis, Skip attended the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, N.Y., through which he traveled the world and met lifelong friends, including his wife of 62 years, Joan Ann Bumpus. After graduating from Kings Point, Skip earned a law

degree from Boston University and joined the law offices of Kneeland & Splane of Boston, Mass. He practiced maritime law for many years there and became a named partner in the firm. After retirement from law practice, Skip enjoyed working at the Scituate Yacht Club until health concerns necessitated his departure. A witness to the original 1960s ground-breaking of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Scituate, Skip was a dedicated member of the parish and a member of the Satuit Masonic Lodge in Scituate. Spending many summers at family homes in Cotuit and South Dennis on Cape Cod, he enjoyed sailing, swimming, walking on the beach, and observing the water from his favorite chair on the porch. He had a keen eye for

finding treasures on the beach and was known to bring home armsful of driftwood kindling for fires. Skip especially enjoyed sailing trips up and down the East Coast with Jim Beal, and he and his wife often traveled on the Cunard’s Queen Elizabeth ships to visit Joan’s family in England. He will be long remembered for his great sense of humor and clever wit.

In addition to his wife, Skip is survived by his children, Marilynn McGeoch, Ted Handy ’73, Susan Horn, and Cathy Welkom; his sister, Anne Handy Church ’52; eight grandchildren; two great-grandchildren; three nephews; and one niece.

A memorial celebration was planned for fall 2015.

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Nancy Furnival Howe, on August 17, 2015, at Connecticut Hospice in Branford. Originally from West Hartford, Conn., Nancy was involved with the Student Council, serving as treasurer in 1944–45 and secretary in 1945–46. A note in Epilogue, the Chaffee School yearbook, identifies Nancy as “Chaffee’s prize goalie.” She went on to earn a bachelor’s degree from Mount Holyoke College. Residing in New Britain since 1953, Nancy was active in numerous community organizations. A member of First Church of Christ Congregational in New Britain, she served as a deacon and moderator. Nancy was a board member and founder of Mooreland Hill School, a member and chairperson of Pathways/Senderos Center, and a longtime member of the New Britain Junior League.

Predeceased by her brother, William Furnival, and her husband, Ralph “Ted” Howe Jr., Nancy is survived by her three children, Jonathan Howe, Timothy Howe, and Elizabeth Bradley, and their spouses; her six grandchildren; her sister-inlaw, Patricia Furnival; and several nieces and nephews. Burial was in Fairview Cemetery in West Hartford.

1949 John E. Pickett, on February 28, 2015, in Avon, Conn. A twoyear student from Canajoharie, N.Y., John was involved in the Special Projects Group, Traffic Squad, K.P., the Log Business Board, and Student Federalists, and he was a library supervisor.

He was active in Ludlow soccer, fencing, and Ludlow tennis.

John remained connected to 68 |

Loomis Chaffee through the years, often bringing as many as 11 guests to his reunions.

He was a veteran of the U.S. Army and worked for Trans World Airlines in New York City for many years. Active in the Boy Scouts of America and many other community organizations, John enjoyed model railroads, photography, painting, and gardening. A kind, compassionate man, John will be remembered for devotion to his family, and for being a friend to all. Predeceased by his wife, Grace Snyder Pickett, John is survived by his three children, David Pickett, Susan Fayerweather, and Mark Pickett, and their spouses, Julia, Jim, and Meredith, respectively; and seven grandchildren. A service to celebrate his life was held on March 14, 2015, at St. Luke’s Lutheran Church, Valatie, N.Y. Philip Gorton Pratt, peacefully on October 5, 2015, in Chatham, Mass. A four-year student from Windsor, Conn., Phil was the son of faculty member, athletic coach, and Dean of Students Charles A. Pratt Jr. ’23, for whom Pratt Field is named.

As a student at Loomis, Phil was involved with the United World Federalists, Senior Library Committee, Scholarship Committee, Jazz Club, Bridge Club, Foreign Policy Association, Radio Club, and Stagehands Union. He served as Stamp Club president and Handbook editor and was involved in a number of stage productions. He was active in Ludlow senior soccer and lettered in both varsity basketball and varsity track. Phil was named to the Honor Roll for two consecutive school years.

After graduating from Harvard

University in 1953, Phil followed his father’s career path, serving as a math teacher, swim coach, and later as director of admissions at independent schools in Hawaii, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. Phil was married to Cynthia Nichols from 1957 until her death in 1992. In 1994, he married Carrie Van Vleck, who passed away unexpectedly only two years later. After his retirement in 1992, Phil moved to Chatham, Mass., where he served as president of the Chatham Beach and Tennis Club. He most enjoyed spending time with his family in addition to swimming, playing tennis, challenging his family with math problems, and walking his dog, Misty, through town. Phil will be remembered for his dry sense of humor. Predeceased by his father, Charles A. Pratt, Jr. ’23, and his uncle, William P. Pratt ’24, Phil leaves behind his three children, Elizabeth Armory, Susan Clark, and Philip Pratt Jr.; and nine grandchildren.

Jack William Simpkin, on July 3, 2015, at home. A four-year student from Windsor, Conn., Jack was involved in the Barbell Club, Glee Club, Christmas Choir, Founders Committee, and Special Committee. He served as circulation supervisor for The Log and as K.P. supervisor, and he was in the chorus of Iolanthe. He was active on first team soccer, Wolcott junior football, Wolcott junior basketball, and Wolcott junior baseball. After graduation, Jack attended Bryant University before joining the family’s Chrysler automobile dealership in Windsor. After serving in the U.S. Army with the 70th

Armored Artillery Battalion in Nuremberg, Germany, he rejoined the family business until its later sale. In 1960, he moved to Boston, Mass., and earned a bachelor’s degree from Babson College. He graduated with highest distinction and received the college’s Lewis W. Mustard Award for academic excellence in business research. A member of Smith College’s Twenty-Five Year Club, Jack enjoyed a long career in various business officer positions until his retirement as director emeritus of the Personnel Service Department in 1991. He was proud of his long tenure at Smith, especially in his leadership of the new department. Committed to serving the community of Greater Northampton, Mass., Jack spent 37 years as a director of the Northampton Cooperative Bank. He was also a director of the Hampshire United Way, which he served as president for two years; the UMass Five College Federal Credit Union; the Hampshire Housing Development Corporation; and the Northampton Visiting Nurse Association. He was a member of the City of Northampton Personnel Board; the Hampshire County Personnel Advisory Committee; the Cooley Dickinson Hospital Development Committee; and the Western Massachusetts Health Planning Council. He was chairman of the Salvation Army’s Northampton Advisory Board.

He also served as director and, later, director emeritus of the Lathrop Community. Preceded in death by his wife Helen Nash Simpkin, Jack is survived by his wife Judith Hayes Simpkin; son Steven W. Simpkin and his wife; three grandchildren; and three

great-grandchildren. He is also survived by his former wife, Marianne Morrell-Schumann ’50. Burial was to take place at Spring Grove Cemetery in Florence, Mass., at the convenience of the family.

1951 Richard MacLaren Colwell, on April 9, 2015, after a courageous battle with progressive heart failure. Dick was a two-year student from Pelham Manor, N.Y. After Loomis, he attended Colgate University.

Dick married his high school sweetheart, Jean Colwell, and settled in Redding, Conn., where the couple restored an antique home and raised their family. In the late 1950s, Dick served in the U.S. Navy in the Mediterranean, and his long career as an international marketing executive took him to many foreign countries. In his 32-year career with BristolMyers Squibb, Dick researched and developed markets for major brands in consumer health, beauty, and personal care. At the time of his retirement, he was director of marketing services in the international consumer products group.

Also at that time, he resided in University Park, Fla., and spent summers in Rockport, Maine. Dick enjoyed camping, gardening, music, golf, traveling, volunteering, and spending time with family and friends.

He was preceded in death by his sister, Susan Tritsch; his first wife, Jean Colwell; and his second wife, Tufts Davis. Dick is survived by his three sons, Peter, Steven, and Chris, and their spouses, Paloma, Yumi, and Susan, respectively; his

brother, Howard; his brotherin-law, Robert Tritsch; his two stepdaughters, Harriet Whelihan and Fayelle Dimaggio; his friend and companion Peggy Chitty; his two grandchildren; and many extended family members and friends.

1953 Carolyn Weeks Barter, on Wednesday October 7, 2015. A four-year student from West Hartford, Conn., Carolyn was involved in the Student Council, Glee Club, and Chiel reportorial and business staffs. She was active as a Senior Athletic Association representative.

After graduation, Carolyn attended Skidmore College. She remained in touch with Loomis Chaffee through the years, volunteering as a class agent and for the Challenge Fund, and participating in the Chaffee Book Club. Carolyn especially enjoyed sailing and a capella singing. For more than 35 years, she was a member of the Sweet Adelines International, women’s barbershop harmony singers, and appeared many times on stage. Finding inspiration and relaxation near the shoreline, Carolyn enjoyed living in Old Saybrook, Conn., since 1984, in her home overlooking the Connecticut River and North Cove. There, as a member of the North Cove Yacht Club, she started the Junior Sailing Program, in existence since 1985, to encourage young people to become involved with the sport.

Carolyn also enjoyed kayaking, racing her small dinghy on the cove, and racing her radio-controlled sailboat, which she aptly named “Windsong,” combining her two great passions. A

longtime volunteer at Mystic Aquarium, Carolyn remained close to the environment she loved. Carolyn was predeceased by her partner and soulmate, Henry Bakewell. She leaves her brother, Kenneth Weeks ’51; her two children, Linda C.B. Hatch and Jeffrey W. Barter; her five grandchildren; and several extended family members.

A celebration of her life was held at North Cove Yacht Club on October 17, 2015.

1960 Oliver J. Thrall III, on August 1, 2015. A three-year student from Windsor, Conn., Oliver was a lifelong Windsor resident and prominent shade tobacco grower. He received a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University and successfully carried on the family business as owner of O. J. Thrall Inc. and Homestead Farm. Predeceased by his parents, Joseph B. Thrall ’28 and Miriam Gilman Thrall ’34, Oliver is survived by his wife of 52 years, Judith Hicks Thrall; his four children, Laura Kaufman, Joseph Thrall, Amy Flynn, and Spencer Thrall, and their spouses; his two sisters, Priscilla Thrall Eatherton ’55 and Cynthia Thrall DiFabio ’57; and his 13 grandchildren.

A funeral service was held on August 7, 2015, at Grace Episcopal Church, followed by burial in Palisado Cemetery, both in Windsor.

1962 John Henry Goodell, on August 20, 2015, of liver cancer, while in the care of friends and family. A two-year student from Melbourne, Australia, Johnny

was involved in the Photo Club, Ski Club, Library Committee, Senior Scholarship Committee, and 5:10 Club. He served as a dorm prefect and was in the cast of Billy Budd. Johnny was active in Allyn tennis, Allyn basketball, Allyn soccer, and Allyn track. He was an Honor Roll student and graduated with distinction. After Loomis, Johnny attended Syracuse University and Old Dominion University and served in the U.S. Army at Fort Story. He settled in the Tidewater area of Virginia and worked as a skilled carpenter in a shipyard that specialized in sailboat and powerboat construction. Johnny was known for his creativity in gardening, art, design, photography, music, and the making and selling of classical guitars. Preceded in death by his brother William Valentine, Johnny is survived by his mother, Grace Elinor Goodell, and his brother Stephen. A celebration of his life was held on October 18, 2015, at his Virginia home.

1966 Douglas Wilson Graham Sr., on July 31, 2015. A four-year student from West Hartford, Conn., Doug was involved with the Student Council and the Stagehands Union, and he was chairman of the Religious Life Committee. He was active in the Loomis Athletic Association and the Intramural Athletic Council, and he lettered in varsity cross country and varsity wrestling, for which he also served as captain. Doug earned a bachelor’s degree from Oberlin College and a master’s degree from Vanderbilt University. He married Lou Ellen loomischaffee.org | 69

IN MEMORIAM | BY XXX

Photo: Patricia Cousins

Heinze Graham in 1974, and they divorced in 2008. Active in both the U.S. Army and Army Reserves, Doug attained the rank of lieutenant colonel and graduated with honors from the Command and General Staff College. He was employed as senior vice president and director of human resources for Regions Financial from 1988 until his retirement in 2001. Earning the rank of Eagle Scout at an early age with the Boy Scouts of America, Doug remained an active member of Troop 21 in Bluff Park, Ala., and spent much of his free time contributing in numerous ways to the organi70 |

zation. Throughout his life, he retained his commitment to live each day to the fullest by helping others. Doug is survived by his two children, Douglas Wilson Graham Jr. ’05 and Kathryn Elizabeth “Betsey” Graham Davenport; his brother, Gerry Allen Graham; and his grandson, Jay Davenport. A memorial service was held at the Bluff Park United Methodist Church in Hoover, Ala., in August 2015. Burial was set for a later date in Fairview Cemetery, West Hartford, Conn.

1973 Sarah Louise Russell, on May 20, 2015, in Niantic, Conn.

Sarah was a four-year student from Kensington, Conn. After Loomis, Sarah attended Tufts University, where she majored in occupational therapy and graduated with honors. She subsequently earned a juris doctorate from Yale Law School. During her successful legal career, Sarah worked for Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett; Brenner, Saltzman, Wallman & Goldman; Pepe & Hazard; and Fleet Bank. Later, she found joy in pro bono legal work as

well as in volunteering with Care & Share, providing food to the needy. Sarah was an avid skier in her youth and, more recently, enjoyed spending time visiting loved ones, boating, reading, and relaxing on the beach. Predeceased by her father, Donald G. Russell ’45, Sarah is survived by her husband, Robert Mahoney; her sons, Samuel Mahoney, John Beers, and Theodore Beers; her stepdaughters, Casey and Sarah Mahoney; and many extended family members. A memorial service was held in Niantic in May 2015.

Faculty Francis J. Aniello Jr., beloved husband of Debra Bourette Aniello, Loomis Chaffee’s director of health services and dorm head of Palmer Hall, on October 18, 2015, at home. “Frannie,” as he was known to his friends, was born in Hartford, Conn., and moved to Windsor Locks at a young age. Fran excelled in athletics and was the centerfielder for the 1965 Windsor Locks Little League World Champions. He lettered in varsity soccer, basketball, and baseball while at Windsor Locks High School from 1967 to 1970. Fran graduated from Springfield College, where he played basketball, most notably against Julius “Dr. J” Irving.

Fran earned a master’s degree from St. Joseph’s College and, shortly after graduation in 1976, took a teaching job at Suffield High School. There, Fran taught physical education and life education and was a member of the Student Assistance Team. Serving as athletic director for many years, Fran also coached girls soccer; baseball; boys varsity golf for more than 20 years; and boys varsity basketball for more than 33 years. He was named Connecticut High School Coach of the Year in 2002. Fran led the Wildcats to two Class S state titles and 13 league titles, and when he retired from coaching in 2006, his record of 360 wins made him Suffield’s “most winning” coach. At Loomis,

Fran resided in Palmer, where Deb was dorm head, from 1997 through 2006. There, he was a guiding figure, mentor, and valued friend to the girls living in the dorm through the years. Fran and Deb returned to Palmer in 2010, and Fran served as a dorm affiliate until his passing. He continued to share his many years of experience in athletics and the college application process through mentoring of students, especially in advising post-graduate girls. An unassuming man who never wanted the spotlight or accolades, Fran most wanted to make sure that people around him were happy. Fran was very proud of his children, Kelly and Danny, and of the wonderful, kind, successful adults they grew to be. He will be remembered for his quick Irish wit and his nurturing Italian way.

Fran is survived by his wife of 39 years, Deb; his two children, Kelly Ross and her husband, Michael, and Daniel Francis Aniello and his husband, Stefan Miller; his grandson, Jackson; his brother, William Aniello, and William’s family; and his many good friends and extended family members. Fran had a huge influence on the Loomis Chaffee community, and he will be greatly missed.

Former Staff Dolores Patricia Bouley Taylor, in October 2015. Originally from Waterbury, Conn., “Do” as she was known, moved with her family to Bloomfield, Conn., where she graduated from Bloomfield High School in 1941 and met her future husband, Edwin J. Taylor. The two married in 1942 and raised three children. Do worked in several offices before raising her family then volunteered for numerous organizations, including Hartford Hospital.

At Loomis Chaffee, she worked in the Development Office for 10 years during the 1970s. After Edwin passed away in 1982, her longtime friend, Carl J. Regini, provided support, and a special relationship evolved, lasting 29 years until his death in 2012.

“Grammy Do,” as she came to be known, and Carl lived in Manchester and traveled the world with friends. They loved golfing and other sports, especially the New York Yankees baseball team and NASCAR racing. They treasured spending time with family and welcoming new grandchildren. Do will be remembered for her zest for life and loving family along with her famous rice pudding, strawberry shortcake, and cream puffs. Predeceased by her two sons, Jowill Edwin and James; her grandson, Jake Taylor; and her brother, Bill Bouley, and sister-in-law, Hilda Koenigsberg, Do leaves her cherished daughter and son-in law, Dori Taylor and Neil Sullivan; her two daughters-in-law, Sally Keyes Taylor and Cheryl Nunes Taylor; her 11 grandchildren and their spouses; her 14

great-grandchildren; and many extended family members and friends. A funeral service was held on October 14, 2015, at the Carmon Windsor Funeral Home in Windsor. Burial followed at the Windsor Veterans Memorial Cemetery.

More News The Alumni Office has learned of the passing of James McConnell Clark ’40 on October 24, 2015; Douglas Freese Dorchester ’42 on November 1, 2015; Donald H. Kaplan ’47 on October 31, 2015; John Randall Knox ’48 on October 18, 2015; William George Horton ’52 on April 3, 2015; Myra Yellin Outwater ’60 on November 2, 2015; William P. Thompson ’61 in June 2015; and former faculty member Marilyn Brett Shaughnessy Davis on October 2, 2015. More information, as available, will be printed in future issues.

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THE LAST WORD | BY EDITH SURREY BJORNSON ’40

Admiration

“

Edith Surrey Bjornson ’40 Photo: 1940 Epilogue

Mildred Finley seemed … so different from women in our families and neighborhoods.

How we marveled at her wit and watched for the flashes of enthusiasm and humor that broke through the selfcontained, sophisticated exterior. … [She] was not alone in caring about our minds; all the teachers did.

”

—E dith Surrey Bjornson ’40 From “Alumni Remembrances,” Loomis Chaffee Magazine, Spring 1990

72 |

Mildred Finley, Chaffee School faculty member, 1933–1944 and 1947–1970, at the 1939 Chaffee Athletic Association Picnic

Photo: Loomis Chaffee Archives

The Loomis Chaffee School 4 Batchelder Road Windsor, Connecticut 06095

Nonprofit Organization U.S. Postage Paid Loomis Chaffee School

CHANGE SERVICE REQUESTED

A Time of Purpose At Loomis Chaffee our promise to students is to provide them with the best education. It’s an endeavor we cherish and proudly share with our generous alumni, parents, and friends who help open a world of opportunities to our students.

Please join our Annual Fund efforts this year. Make your gift today at www.loomischaffee.org/giving

“

At Loomis I study music, play football, and serve as a peer counselor and resident assistant, all while exploring my growing interest in economics and so many other subjects. Those opportunities have helped me become the person I am today.

”

— Marcus Witherspoon, senior