The
Final Motion TWO THOUSAN D TW ELVE BY RONALD L. MARCHETTI
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PHOTOS BY JOHN GROO
Editors’ Note: Over the years, the service of departing faculty members has often been acknowledged at the last faculty meeting of the year. This informal tradition eventually evolved into a formal tradition called “The Final Motion.” Written and presented by the senior member of the faculty, the expression of appreciation becomes a permanent part of the school’s history in the faculty meeting minutes. Ronald Marchetti presented this year’s Final Motion on May 24.
Retiring Mathematics Teacher Frank Merrill
“I Senior faculty member Ronald L. Marchetti, 42 years of service
I
T is an honor to follow in the tradition of Lou Fowles, Joe Stookins, Don Joffray, and Jim Wilson to make the final motion of the year.
As part of this tradition, it is customary to share some reflections on the nature of the Loomis Chaffee community as a preface to offering a formal farewell to those members of the faculty who are leaving the school at the end of the academic year. Recently, an alumnus asked me whether Loomis Chaffee was seeking to become a clone of schools like Andover and Exeter. Citing increasingly stringent admission standards, the proliferation of AP enrollments, and the impressive college list, he projected a community of Stepford uniformity, anodyne students studying cookie-cutter curricula and scrabbling for placement at the most prestigious universiTHE FINAL MOTION | continued on next page
always liked math, and I had some great teachers that inspired me,” says Frank Merrill after 38 years as a math teacher at Loomis Chaffee.
Euclid and geometry sit atop his list of favorite mathematical subject matter. Frank taught advanced geometry from his first year at Loomis through his last, and he also enjoyed teaching calculus and its many uses. His early training at the University of Maine, where he earned his master’s degree, and at the University of Connecticut, where he worked toward a doctorate, focused on abstract math. When he arrived at Loomis in 1974 and worked with Donald Joffray, who was head of the Math Department, Frank also saw the merits of teaching the application of mathematical concepts, a Joffray emphasis. During his tenure, Frank served as department head for nine years, worked as director of studies for five years, coached a variety of club sports as well as varsity riflery and JV baseball, and lived in five different campus houses before he and his wife, Alice, bought a house in town and moved off campus several years ago. The Student Council named Frank as Teacher of the Year in 2008. UConn honored him as an outstanding teacher in the 1980s, and ever-humble Frank initially believed the award was a prank. “I thought it was a joke when I first got the letter,” he recalls. “I said, ‘Did everyone get one of these?’” He bought his first computer with the award’s stipend. Frank and Alice spend their summers in Maine, where Frank grew up and where the couple owns three summer cottages on the coast that they rent out and maintain. In their joint retirement — Alice retired in 2006 after teaching French at Loomis for 22 years. They plan to continue living in Windsor during the rest of the year. Their more flexible schedule, however, will enable them to make more frequent visits to see their son, Christopher ’95, and his young family in California. loomischaffee.org | 21