with dancers, attempt to bring a new perspective to the familiar locations and ruins extending across southern Italy, including those in Rome, Terracina, Sorrento, the Amalfi Coast, Benevento, Taranto, and Brindisi. “In that sense it is a narrative involving an excursion that connects the various locations to each other and reinterprets them through the combined disciplines of dance and photography,” says Jeff, who has been photographing dance in landscape for more than 30 years. He completed the first project in the series, “Dancing the River Highway,” 15 years ago along the Mississippi River, and he hopes to continue the series in other intriguing landscapes of the world such as Provence and China’s Silk Road.
Two new scholarships were established this spring to honor two longtime faculty members: Elizabeth Tomlinson and R. Frederick Seebeck. An anonymous donor created the Elizabeth A. Tomlinson Scholarship Fund in honor of Betsy, who has served the school for 15 years as associate director of admission, dorm head of Harman Hall, and most recently as director of international students and offcampus programs. Current parents Elizabeth and John Seebeck had a double purpose when they created the Seebeck Family Scholarship Fund. They wished to honor Fred, John’s brother, for his 29 years of service to the school as English teacher, associate director of admission, dean of students, dorm head, Student Council advisor, and varsity swimming, water polo, and track coach. Also, they were honoring their son Lyle Seebeck in his senior year at Loomis for his academic, athletic, and residential achievements at the school.
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Current and former members of the Loomis Chaffee Office of Admission gather in Maine for the June wedding of their former colleague, Elizabeth “Betsy” Tomlinson. With the bride are Katherine Nixon, Jeffrey Ross, Nancy Cleary, Thomas Southworth, Gwendolen Pierce, and Christopher Dietrich.
Jeffrey Ross, associate director of admission and head baseball coach, participated in a panel for college-bound student-athletes at the Latino College Expo at New York University in March. The workshop, titled “Student Athletes: Are You Ready?” featured Jeff; Paul Rowe, of Boys’ Hope, Girls’ Hope, who was placed by the Boys’ Club at St. Mark’s School as a youth; and Julius Coles, a Division I college basketball player who has completed his master’s degree at Canisius College and works for one of the New York Nicks’ educational programs as well as volunteering with the Boys’ Club. Mercedes Maskalik, web content editor and social media manager, is becoming known for her expertise in social media. The Ten Schools Admission Organization invited her to give a workshop on the topic at their annual spring meeting at Phillips Exeter Academy in May. She also presented at finalsite’s annual user conference in June. Along with Tim McDonough, client support specialist at finalsite, the school’s web service provider, Mercedes spoke on “Social Media and Your School’s Website.” A week later, Mercedes presented a webinar, titled “The Loomis Chaffee School Playbook: From Facebook to Pinterest,” for EverTrue, specialists in connecting schools with their alumni through mobile and social solutions. On June 29 Mercedes concluded her time at Loomis Chaffee to become the director of Marketing and Communications at Renbrook School in West Hartford.
Athletics trainer Jean Sapula spoke at the 2012 Conference of the Brain Injury Alliance of Connecticut in March. She was part of the panel discussion “Putting Our Heads Together on Concussion Management” along with other health care professionals from schools and health facilities in the state. Art teacher Mark Zunino is a contributing author for the book Printmaking Revolutions, which was published in May. The lead author, Smith College Professor of Art Dwight Pogue, is a colleague of Mark’s. The book is a technical manual that outlines new techniques in printmaking, including lithography, intaglio, and silk screen, that combine digital and traditional techniques. The text also teaches printmakers about new sustainable materials that can make their studios less toxic. Mark wrote the section on intaglio and helped develop some of the materials and techniques for the lithography section. Mark also was the featured artist at “Paintings, Prints and Drawings,” an artist talk and print demonstration at Cheshire Academy in April. Meret Nahas recently joined the Loomis Chaffee Alumni/Development Office as director of Annual Fund Leadership Giving. Meret graduated from the College of Wooster in Ohio, where she helped to oversee her class’ senior class gift and spent a year as a development assistant.
Dana Andrews was hired this spring as the new assistant director of the Physical Plant. Elizabeth Tomlinson, former director of international students and off-campus programs, wed Peter H. Sillin in Yarmouth, Maine, on June 16. Betsy is leaving the Island to live in Maine where her husband is the chairman of the History Department at North Yarmouth Academy. They planned a working honeymoon in Vietnam. English teacher Laura Richards Milligan and her husband, dorm faculty member and coach Christopher Milligan, and their son, Oliver, welcomed the arrival of Oakley Rhodes Milligan on April 24. Associate Head for External Relations Nathan Follansbee is the proud grandfather. Former LC faculty member Barry Bedrick retired in June as headmaster of St. Michael’s Parish Day School in Arizona. Barry taught at Loomis Chaffee from 1968 to 1972, and he went on to head several schools, including the Pine Point School in Stonington, Connecticut.