READERS’ VOICE
Recalling Traditions
but looks suspiciously like an elm in the photo — was cut down in 1960, and a horse hitching ring was found deep within it. Counting tree rings backwards led to a date of 1760 for the hitching ring, and perhaps for the original structure.
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enjoyed your recent story about graduation traditions and the Senior Path in the summer Loomis Chaffee. While at LoomisChaffee (sic), my dormmates and I on Warham II were very much aware of the traditions associated with the Senior Path and wished to do something special for our graduation. We began collecting bottle caps in the beginning of our senior year and, under the cover of darkness in the wee hours of our graduation day, arranged them in a “78” as shown in the photo. To our surprise, school officials allowed them to remain for the graduation processional, but [they] were removed soon thereafter. Note from the photo that only the Class of 1977 is bricked in at the time. James A. Hewitt ’78
Phelps House figures large in my just-published autobiography, My Life As I Lived It. The book includes a reproduction of my father’s excellent painting of Phelps House, done in 1940 from an angle similar to the photographer’s. I’ll be donating this painting to the Katharine Brush Library, which stands on the very spot that Phelps House did. Robert B. “Jib” Fowles ’58
Legendary Teams, Legendary Masters
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HAT a wonderful [summer] issue of the Loomis Chaffee Magazine. Congratulations on your story “Following a Path of Traditions.” I am so aware of all the time and effort it took to collect all that information. I thoroughly enjoyed reading every bit of it. Fantastic! … There is one minor mistake in the excellent article about reunion. … One name is incorrect in the description of the Chaffee Class of 1950 Class Scrapbooks that we gave to the Archives. … It says that “after graduation, senior class president Sarah Schaffer Martin ’50 maintained the book.” Actually the class president was Sara Shaffer King! Who would have ever thought there could be two Sarah (Sara) Schaffers (Shaffers) in our small class of only 17 girls? … Also, later in the same article when Penny Chittenden is quoted, it again mentions “Sarah Schaffer’s ‘Senior Door Speech.’” … often Chaffee people have confused their names since 1946! F. Evelyn Smith ’50
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really enjoyed reading the summer issue of the Loomis Chaffee Magazine but believe there is a misidentified photo. The class en route to graduation on page 24 is my class, 1954, not 1955. If I am right, Roberta Englund and Peggy Hood are the first in the line. Babs Kleiman Armour ’54
Home Sweet Home
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HAT a great, great pleasure to see Karen Parsons’ article and an early picture of my beloved boyhood home, Phelps House, in the winter 2011 issue of Loomis Chaffee. The Fowles family (Lou
Photo: Jerome LeBlond ’78
and Jane, then children Jib, Cap, and Jinnet) lived in the back portion from 1940 until the house was razed in 1968. The bay window on the right in the 1902 photograph was our living room window. Right above it was a bedroom belonging to the front-side residence where occasionally a boarding student was billeted; Ben Sonnenberg ’54 (who I see has recently died) used to throw his soda cans out that window onto our lawn. The window visible on the third floor was to my brother’s attic bedroom; out that window he — mad at Dave Haller’s math homework — once threw his desk chair. … The tree closest to the front door — which in memory was a maple,
read with great pleasure, the article by Bob Howe ’80, in the winter issue of Loomis Chaffee, regarding the 1960 undefeated football team. As the article stated, the entire school was energized by the prospect of an undefeated team. And, the entire school was rightfully proud of that accomplishment. Not to detract from the football team, and not of the same significance, but nevertheless worthy of mention, was that in the same school year, the 1961 track and field team also produced an undefeated season. Don Joffray was our coach and a lasting inspiration to us all. (And, if memory serves me correctly, Pete Cummings ’61 set a couple of school records that season.) William P. Thompson ’61
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was very much moved by your most your recent edition. First, I was knocked out once again by the layout and overall graphic presentation. It is first-rate design and production (this, coming from someone who has spent his career(s) in the communications business). It is remarkably sophis-