Roxbury Latin Newsletter: Spring 2020 by Marcus Miller

T HE N EWS LET TER

SPR ING 2020

What can we learn from this?

headmaster

Kerry P. Brennan assistant headmaster

Michael T. Pojman director of external relations

Erin E. Berg director of development

Thomas R. Guden ’96 photography

Gretchen Ertl, John Gillooly, Mike Pojman, Adam Richins, Evan Scales, John Werner editorial & design

Erin E. Berg, Marcus C. Miller the newsletter

The Roxbury Latin School publishes The Newsletter quarterly for alumni, current and former parents, and friends of the school. contact information

The Roxbury Latin School 101 St. Theresa Avenue West Roxbury, MA 02132 Phone: 617-325-4920 change of address?

Send updated information to julie.garvey@roxburylatin.org. alumni news

Send notes and correspondence to alumni@roxburylatin.org. covers

Front: photo by Gretchen Ertl Back: photo by John Gillooly

Spring 2020

The Newsletter SPRING 2020 | VOLUME 93 | NUMBER 3

RL fans turned out in a big way to cheer on the home teams during Winter Family Night on January

Features

31. All four teams competing that evening—the three varsity teams and JV Basketball—took home the W for a clean sweep. Photo by Evan Scales

RL Hosts Graves-Kelsey Wrestling Tournament

Exelauno Day Honors the Classics

Bowdoin Bound: A Learning Experience—for Faculty—in Brunswick, Maine

A Lesson in Connected Histories: Dr. Zine Magubane on RL graduate William Baldwin, Booker T. Washington, and Tuskegee

Digging Deeply Into Race and Gender: Dr. Zine Magubane is this year’s Smith Visiting Scholar | Interview by MEREDITH REYNOLDS

What Can We Learn from This? Headmaster Brennan opens an unusual Spring Term, delivering Roxbury Latin’s first ever virtual Hall.

375th Anniversary Highlights

>> Art of the Men of RL >> Frantz Alphonse ’90 Delivers MLK Hall >> Bo Menkiti ’95 is Wyner Lecturer

Kate Walsh and Bill Walczak Redefine

Health for Underserved Populations

Everything You’ve Ever Wanted to Know About The Tripod in Three Easy Answers | by MIKE POJMAN

Faculty Flashback: Steve Ward

Departments 4

RL News

Class Notes & In Memoriam

Ramblings from the Archives

Andrew Zhang and Chris Zhu

Two Seniors Named Top Scholars in National Science Talent Search Two members of Class I—Andrew Zhang and Chris Zhu—were named among the country’s top 300 scholars in the 79th Regeneron Science Talent Search (STS), the nation’s oldest and most prestigious science and math competition for high school seniors. Chris and Andrew were selected from a pool of nearly 2,000 students from 659 high schools across 49 states. Regeneron STS selects these 300 scholars based on their “exceptional research skills, commitment to academics, innovative thinking, and promise as scientists.” Each of these 300 scholars receives $2,000 for this recognition, and their schools also receive $2,000 in funding for STEM-related activities.

Chris’s project is titled Enumerating Permutations and Rim Hooks Characterized by Double Descent Sets. His project was inspired by a joint paper published in 2017 by five American researchers, which presented recursions and algebraic properties of descent polynomials. Chris’s work extended this research into a new pattern of descents and proposed a recursion, as well as several new theorems for this new pattern by classifying number sequences as geometric diagrams. Prior to his Regeneron STS recognition, Chris was awarded a top prize in the Global Final competition of S.T. Yau High School Science Awards at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China.

Both Chris and Andrew developed their research as part of MIT PRIMES, MIT’s selective after-school research program for high school students. Andrew’s project, titled An Explainable Machine Learning Platform for Antimicrobial Resistance Prediction and Resistance Gene Identification, uses deep learning and whole genome sequence data to create a framework to predict Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR). A global health crisis, AMR—or the ability of bacteria to resist antibiotics—kills millions of people each year. Andrew’s model is able to predict AMR in less than a second with 98% accuracy. Last spring, his project won first place at the Massachusetts Science and Engineering Fair.

Since its founding, the Regeneron STS boasts alumni who have gone on to receive 11 National Medals of Science, five Breakthrough Prizes, 21 MacArthur Foundation Fellowships, two Fields Medals, and 13 Nobel Prizes. Maya Ajmera, president and CEO of the organization that hosts the competition, had this to say about the young minds involved in STS: “We are inspired by the incredible energy and passion of every scholar who is using research to make the world a better place… These young students will be the key to unlocking solutions to many of our world’s most pressing challenges.” //

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Juniors Help Newly Housed Boston Residents, In Collaboration With Pine Street Inn On February 9, juniors from Roxbury Latin and The Winsor School teamed up for a joint service initiative, in collaboration with the Pine Street Inn, which has been assisting Boston’s homeless population for more than 50 years. Class II boys hosted their Winsor counterparts for an evening on campus, which began with a presentation by Luke Cronin, Manager of Volunteer Programs at Pine Street Inn, in the Evans Choral Room. After the presentation and Q&A session, students were divided among eight rooms in the Perry Building to assemble welcome baskets, which would be given to newly-housed residents placed through the Pine Street Inn program. Event organizers set up a “store” in the McNay Palaistra where students could “shop” for goods to include in their baskets—items generously donated in the weeks leading up to the service event: bedding and cleaning supplies, toiletries and cooking utensils, ironing boards and shower curtains, bath towels and coffee mugs—all things that residents could use to set up their new apartments and feel at home. The students assembled more than 20 baskets, and also donated additional towels, sheets, and other essential household items. Students created cards and posters welcoming residents to their new homes. The evening concluded with dinner and dessert in the Bernstein Tea Room. The Pine Street Inn is the largest resource for homeless men and women in New England. Today, Pine Street is increasingly focused on providing permanent, supportive housing for homeless people, and has placed more than 1,200 individuals into homes to date. This approach is one of the fastest-growing solutions to homelessness in Boston and across the country. Roxbury Latin has long been a service partner with Pine Street Inn, and students and faculty volunteer in various capacities in connection with the organization throughout the school year. //

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BlueWave Solar’s Eric Graber-Lopez P’20 Visits Environmental Science Students On January 30, seniors in Elizabeth Carroll’s Environmental Science class were visited by Eric Graber-Lopez P’20, the president and co-founder of BlueWave Solar, a certified B Corporation with the goal of bringing clean solar power to every community. As president of the company, Mr. Graber-Lopez is involved in all aspects of BlueWave’s development activity and project financing, with great success: Between 2015 and 2018, BlueWave was named to Boston Business Journal’s list of the top 50 fastest-growing private companies in Massachusetts, reaching the top spot in 2019 after reporting 923 percent revenue growth. But revenue isn’t BlueWave’s only goal. “We put our money where our mouth is,” says Mr. GraberLopez. “You can make very easy decisions if all you’re thinking about is money. But money isn’t everything—we add two additional lenses. The second lens is social impact: ‘What is it that we’re doing every day as a business, as members of our community, to actually help make things better?’… The third

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and most important consideration, and the reason you’re taking this class, is environmental… thinking about our impact on the world and what we’re leaving behind.” After his presentation, Mr. Graber-Lopez answered questions about advancements in solar technology, the economics of solar energy, and (for soon-to-be college students) what it takes to work at a company like BlueWave. “We talk about ourselves as the BlueWave family,” says Mr. Graber-Lopez. “We struggle, fight, and succeed together, so what we look for are people who have the same principles and who want to learn… we have people who are environmentalists… we have people who have studied environmental science, urban planning, or public policy… I was a history major in undergrad, and I earned an MBA, so I straddle both worlds… Find something that you’re passionate about and pursue it. In this industry what matters is creativity and a willingness to work hard.” //

Roxbury Latin Earns the Googins Cup for the Fifth Consecutive Year On February 9, four Roxbury Latin students traveled to West Hartford, Connecticut, to compete in the Kingswood Oxford School’s annual public speaking competition. For the fifth year in a row, RL’s contingent returned with the Googins Cup, awarded to the team that places first overall in four categories of competition: Persuasive Speaking, After Dinner Speaking, Impromptu Speaking, and Ethical Dilemmas. The four RL boys contributing to the team’s success were Ethan Phan (II), Edozie Umunna (II), Colson Ganthier (II), and David Sullivan (III). Each competed in two different events, with two boys achieving individual recognition. Edozie not only

placed third in Impromptu Speaking, but he also placed third overall in the competition, which included 55 students from ten schools. David also earned a third place finish, in After Dinner Speaking. Combined, the team’s performance earned them the coveted first place honors once again. “Winning the Best School Award for the fifth consecutive year demonstrates a deep commitment,” says faculty advisor Stewart Thomsen, who accompanied the boys to Kingswood Oxford. “That includes not only the commitment of our boys, but also of the many adults in the program who train our boys from year to year and nurture their talents. This is a victory for all of us.” //

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Chris Herren Advocates Stopping Addiction Before it Starts On January 9, Massachusetts basketball legend Chris Herren shared his story of addiction and recovery with RL students and faculty during the new year’s first Health and Wellness Hall. Mr. Herren’s battle with substance use disorder transformed his promising basketball career—first at Durfee High School in Fall River, and subsequently at Boston College, Fresno State, and the NBA—into a lifelong struggle with drug and alcohol addiction. “I do these presentations for many reasons,” said Mr. Herren. “Just like some of you, I wanted to skip this assembly in high school. Just like some of you, I tried to convince my mom the night before to let me sleep in because I didn’t need this talk. And just like some of you, I walked into this talk with the attitude, ‘All I do is drink and smoke—drug assemblies, man. They’re a joke. I’ll never turn into that guy.’ “That attitude comes from what I believe is the way we’ve irresponsibly presented drug addiction and alcoholism to kids over the years: I think we put way too much focus on the worst day and we forget the first day. We show you pictures of drug addicts, we have you watch their 30 for 30, read their books and say, ‘Look at how horrible life was for them in the

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end,’ instead of sitting you down, looking you in the eye, and asking you right now, ‘Why in the world are you taking a chance by letting it begin?’” Over the past decade, Mr. Herren has spoken with millions of students across the country, sparking honest discussions about addiction and providing children, parents, and teachers with the tools to help understand and prevent substance use disorder—especially at this early stage of physical and psychological development when drugs and alcohol are most addictive. Mr. Herren has been sober since August 1, 2008. His recovery journey has been documented in the bestselling memoir, Basketball Junkie; the ESPN Films documentary, Unguarded; and in countless news outlets, including The New York Times, The Boston Globe and Sports Illustrated. In 2011, Mr. Herren founded the Herren Project, which empowers schools and communities to make healthy choices and guides families through recovery. In 2018, he founded Herren Wellness, a residential program that helps guests lead healthy, substance-free lives. //

Dr. Joan Salge Blake Talks Balance and Nutrition On February 20, students and faculty welcomed Dr. Joan Salge Blake to the Smith Theater for a presentation on nutrition. Part of Roxbury Latin’s continuing Health and Wellness series, Dr. Salge Blake—a clinical professor of nutrition at Boston University’s Department of Health Sciences—spoke about the importance of developing healthy eating habits early in life. Her primary objective: balance. Most Americans consume the majority of their daily calories from mid-afternoon into the evening. “My goal,” said Dr. Salge Blake, “is that you’ll never have to be in my office as an adult—so you can stop this kind of crazy eating at your age to better fuel your mind and your body.” Dr. Salge Blake asked students to reflect on their typical daily diets, and offered healthy, balanced alternatives for meals and snacks that would provide consistent energy, focus, and strength throughout the day. She shared data on how much of the American diet consists of sugary beverages—energy drinks, juice, sodas, and coffee drinks; how many different terms there are for added sugar, when it

comes to reading nutrition labels; and how beginning the day with a nutritional and balanced breakfast can help set a tone for healthier eating throughout the day. Dr. Salge Blake earned her bachelor’s degree in food and nutrition at Montclair State University, and her master’s in clinical nutrition and doctorate of education at Boston University, where she also received the prestigious Whitney Powers Excellence in Teaching Award. Her expert advice has been solicited in more than 1,500 media interviews, and her research and insight cited in dozens of national and international publications, from The New York Times to Consumer Reports to Sports Illustrated to Health Magazine. Named by Good Housekeeping as “the expert to follow on Twitter for healthy eating,” Dr. Salge Blake also hosts the popular health podcast Spot On! and has written several books on the science of nutrition and healthy eating habits. A sought-after speaker, she has won numerous awards for her work, including Outstanding Dietetic Educator from the Massachusetts Dietetic Association. //

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From this side of the fire

by REID CORLESS, Class I

Each year, the Alliance for Young Artists and Writers, along with more than 100 visual and literary arts organizations across the country, accepts submissions from teens in grades 7-12 for their Scholastic Art and Writing Awards. Hundreds of thousands of writing submissions across 11 categories are judged based on originality, technical skill, and the emergence of a personal voice. Regional winners receive a Gold Key and move on to the national competition. Roxbury Latin senior Reid Corless—after earning a Gold Key in the regional competition—went on to win a Silver Key at the national level for his writing submission. (Reid’s award-winning piece is included below, in full.) Three other RL students found success in this year’s Scholastic Regional competition: Andrew Zhang (I) earned two Silver Keys for his writing and two Honorable Mentions for his art; Ethan Phan (II) won a Silver Key in Writing; and Daniel Berk (II) earned an Honorable Mention for his writing, as well. While several talented Roxbury Latin students earn regional honors for their art and writing in the Scholastic competition each year, Reid’s National Silver Key represents the highest award an RL student has won in the competition in recent history.

IN A SANDY PARKING LOT A FEW YARDS FROM THE ATLANTIC SITS THE BEACHCOMBER , the popular restaurant bar where I, along with a collection of college kids trying to save up some beer money, work in the kitchen. The days are long, hot, and soul crushing; working perilously close to the fryers and open grill makes the August

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heat exponentially worse. I often forget to put a burger on the grill while trying to catch the eyes of a beautiful group of girls wearing bridesmaid attire. Coming to the Beachcomber would be fun for a bachelorette party, they all thought, not anticipating the unsettling stare-down from the desperate grill guy. We don’t come back every year for the twelve hour days, the never ending shrieking of the ticket machine, or even the delusional hope of a personal relationship with a bachelorette. We come back for Saturday nights. On Saturdays the restaurant closes early to get the day drunks out so that the band can set up for the night. This means that we get off early, to set up for our night. After I finish scrubbing the solidified grease off the grill, I am free to go. I walk out of the back door, and head to the backhouse: a shack in the middle of the sandy parking lot that my best friends call home for the summer. Chris, Brian, and Paul knew each other from high school, and the college kids decided to rekindle their friendship through tireless work and shared sleeping quarters. I don’t think they anticipated befriending an innocent seventeen year old along the way. Without knocking, I push the old door open. It is simple living in the backhouse. There is one main room with a Craigslist leather couch and a TV propped up by two stools. I spend more nights sleeping on that coach than at home. There’s a stained fridge that contains spoiled milk and Busch Light from the local liquor store. The floor is always sandy and covered in unclaimed flip flops and t-shirts. There’s a bathroom where the toilet rocks from side to side like a boat on the open sea and a sink that hasn’t worked in years. There are two bedrooms for the three of them with doors that never stay closed. I’ve become a regular at the backhouse, like your bachelor uncle that sleeps in the guest room. When you spend all your time with the same people, you start to notice the little things. The sink is always scattered with squeezed lime quarters; Chris thinks lime juice gives his orange hair a hint of blonde. If you hear The Band’s Greatest Hits echoing through the parking lot, Brian is taking an outdoor shower underneath the summer stars. Paul is clean shaven every Saturday night; he thinks it gives him the boost of confidence he needs. I’m sure they notice the little things I do, but it’s not really something you talk about.

I borrow Chris’s towel and go to take an outdoor shower. The smell of fried fish and grease can serve me no good now. The sand eroded wooden shower closes with a hook and eye latch. There are about ten different shampoo bottles along a wooden shelf, all half empty, but no soap. As I wait for the water to heat up, I can hear the murmurings of a family packing up the car from across the fence that acts as a border between home and parking lot. I can hear a man, a woman, and two little children. Their voices have the slight aggravation that people get from being in the sun all day. The cheap metal of beach chairs clank together as they are thrown into the back of the car. I like to imagine that they are husband and wife who love each other, quietly—not the same passionate fire that burned before the kids and the mortgage. The father works a couple extra shifts to save up for a week-long beach vacation for his family. The kids will not know the sacrifices their parents made for them until dad can’t make it down to the beach anymore. A mind likes to wander in rare moments of solitude, like a stint in an outdoor shower. In front of the backhouse there are wooden pallets stacked up like cans of preservatives in a bomb shelter. When a US Foods delivery truck comes, the lot boys ask for the wooden pallets on the truck used to transfer the food. The truck drivers don’t care why we want them, as long as they don’t have to worry about the now useless pallets in their trucks. The pallets are saved all week inside the fence of the backhouse for this fateful night. The four of us carry them over our shoulders to the edge of the parking lot, beyond which lays the beach. The pallets look like children cartwheeling as they roll down the sandy dunes towards the beach. Sometimes yours doesn’t make it all the way to the bottom—you have to slide

down the dune on your stomach to your failed attempt, and push it the rest of the way down. When you climb back up you can see your friends laughing at your expense from the top of the dune. We get the bonfire started, and it does not take long for some curious bar-goers to make their way down the dune to investigate. Soon the guys and girls from work make their way to the beach after going home to clean up. The crowd is always a mix of drunk locals, drunk tourists, and people from work. It’s hard to imagine a place where this group would gather otherwise; everyone likes fires. The tourists are always so enthralled by the simplicity and the beauty of the beaches of Cape Cod. It’s funny to think that our regular Saturday bonfires might be the high points of countless vacations, perhaps a novelty, a good story to tell the folks back home. The missed orders, dropped plates, or intra-kitchen feuds don’t seem to matter as much when flaming pallets warm you from the chill of night ocean breeze. But sometimes a thought creeps into my mind that is hard to push away. The day when I will look back on these nights, with eyes a little sadder and memory a little more foggy, is coming faster than I’d like. These nights will become distant stories, and we will be somebody’s mom or dad, loading beach chairs into the back of the car. That day is not today, however. Today, I am sitting next to my best friends with sandy jeans and empty pockets. Today, I am looking across the fire, and I can see her eyes through the flickering of the flames and see a sly smile across her face. Today, I get up and walk to the other side of the fire. //

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RL Delivers with Production of Newsies On February 28 and 29, Roxbury Latin staged this year’s winter musical, Newsies. Based on the 1992 Disney movie, the stage production tells a wild story inspired by the real-life, 1899 newsboy strike against papers owned by Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst. The popular musical features a Tony Award-winning score with music by Academy Award-winner Alan Menken and lyrics by Jack Feldman, as well as a book by Tony Awardwinner Harvey Fierstein.

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The show follows its restless hero, Jack Kelly, and his close friend, Crutchie, who lead a band of orphan newsboys on a two-week-long strike for better working conditions and pay. Jack and his friends eventually print their own paper with an abandoned printing press in the cellar of Pulitzer’s own office, then widely distribute copies, including one sent to Governor Theodore Roosevelt, who makes an appearance in support of the newsies. // Production photos by Mike Pojman

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Art Immersion in New York: A Packed, Two-Day Trek in an Encyclopedic City Last summer, Dr. Sue McCrory—teacher of AP Art History— traveled to New York City for a sort of scouting mission. For several years she had been interested in taking her students on a field trip to the City so that they might study directly many of the works they are required to know for the annual AP exam. The Metropolitan Museum (Met), for instance, is an encyclopedic museum, holding in its permanent collections an impressively broad range of objects of exceptionally high quality, many of which comprise the AP canon. New York City is itself, in fact, an encyclopedic city of art, home to the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the Guggenheim and Frick Museums to name but a few, not to mention the City’s extraordinary examples of architecture. Even the Seagram Building—“that relatively unassuming but historically-charged skyscraper in Midtown designed by Mies van der Rohe in the 1950s,” describes Dr. McCrory—is an important architectural monument the boys study each year.

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The scouting trip was a great success, and the result of that effort was an overnight art trek to New York City that brought into stark relief for RL’s AP Art History students so many of the works that, prior to the trip, they had only experienced in books and online. The trip, which included five students, Dr. McCrory, and Mr. Alessandro Ferzoco ’14, took place over two jampacked, but thankfully snow-free, days. The group left Boston the morning of Sunday, January 26, and returned the evening of Monday, January 27. While in New York the group made two separate visits to the Met. Alighting there early afternoon on Sunday, they sought out several non-Western galleries to view works from the museum’s African and Pacific collections. There the boys encountered numerous masks, cast brass plaques from Benin, a Kongo power figure, and a stunning rebbelib, or navigational chart, from the Marshall Islands made of shells and fiber. The boys also spent time with Dr. McCrory and Mr. Ferzoco in the ancient

“One of the highlights of the trip was seeing those galleries under construction at the Met. Led by Dr. Burchard, who was so generous with his time, we walked into an area that read Do Not Enter, and behind this door was a just a den of activity.” Roman art galleries, where they viewed a series of 1st century B.C.E. frescoes before translating the Latin on commemorative sculpture and identifying motifs on carved marble sarcophagi. The group’s second visit to the Met proved entirely different. On Monday afternoon Associate Curator Wolf Burchard led them on a behind-the-scenes tour of the Met’s British Galleries, which were then undergoing the final touches of a many-year renovation for which Dr. Burchard had assumed responsibility. (The British Galleries formally opened to the public in early March.) As a result of this special appointment, RL’s art history students not only came face-to-face with extraordinary objects of the period, but they also got a rare view onto the inner workings of a museum and the professionals who make it hum. “Meeting with a curator was a highly privileged opportunity,” Dr. McCrory acknowledges, “and it was an eye-opening, exciting, and different experience for all of us.”

She further recalled, “One of the highlights of the trip was seeing those galleries under construction at the Met. Led by Dr. Burchard, who was so generous with his time, we walked into an area that read Do Not Enter, and behind this door was a just a den of activity. There were people on ladders installing the lighting, and there were glass cases—finished products—with figurines and items already in them. There were items hanging on the wall covered in cardboard with the words Art Underneath written across. That was an incredible experience, because it’s one that no member of the public has at a museum—to see how an exhibit actually comes to exist. It also gave the boys insight into the many different kinds of people who work in museums. You could be an ace carpenter, for instance. Do you know how valuable a skilled carpenter is to the exhibition crew and curators? These are people who create stands and podiums and fasteners, and all the ways in which works of art need to be secured in place for proper viewing. There are painters, masons, carpenters, lighting experts, and the curatorial staff. We saw multi-room galleries in various states of finished and unfinished. It was very exciting.” In between those two fruitful visits to the Met, the group took a brisk walk over to the Guggenheim Museum, whose organic forms and relatively smaller scale offered a welcome respite from the Met's traditional and sprawling spaces. Observing the modern art museum from the outside and ground floor lobby, the boys gained first-hand experience of the design elements of Frank Lloyd Wright’s celebrated structure later co-opted by Frank Gehry for his design of the Guggenheim Bilbao, Spain (another AP object!). But there were more immediate comparisons to be made. “Having also viewed the Seagram Building from below and within its spare portico,” Dr. McCrory said, “the curved, enveloping spaces of the Guggenheim provided the boys with an excellent contrast in form and function to that sober office building, even though relatively few decades separate their high-profile designs and construction.” Albeit brief, visits to those two 20th-century sites prepared the students for their Monday morning visit to the MoMA, where they were generously led on a private tour by the museum’s Deputy Director, Peter Reed. Dr. Reed recounted the founding of the museum in the 1920s by three visionary women and then guided the group to the upper galleries. While there they discussed Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d'Avignon and

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Jacob Lawrence’s Migration Series in terms of their (sizable) significance to history. But Dr. Reed further connected those works to other works of art hung nearby, in this way encouraging the boys to consider curatorial decisions and the telling of history. By all accounts, it was a fantastic encounter with modern and contemporary art. Punctuating this first-ever art-focused trip was dinner on Sunday evening, for which the group was joined by Myles Garbarini, Class of 2013. Myles, who lives in New York City, studied art history as an undergraduate at Yale and now works in the forensic department at Sotheby's. Looking back on RL’s New York art trek, Dr. McCrory explained, “The trip actually changed from a more academic approach—here's what we've studied together, let's talk about it—to a more experiential focus: ‘We’re going to New York to

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see as much as we can by way of rich, deep collections of art. And you'll get to talk to museum professionals. What do they do? How do they approach their work? What do they see in a day? How did they get here?’ The mission of the trip became much more expansive and life enriching than I had initially envisioned. It was an instance of ‘Don’t let school get in the way of your education, right?’ “My time in New York proved again—to this veteran of the discipline and unapologetic museum-goer,” concluded Dr. McCrory, “that there is nothing like seeing a work of art in person. It still gives me goose-bumps.” Special thanks to RL alumnus Paul Provost ’83 who, having spent many years in the commercial art sector in New York City, generously connected Dr. McCrory to both Dr. Reed and Dr. Burchard at the MoMA and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, respectively. //

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Roxbury Latin Hosts This Year’s Graves-Kelsey ISL Wrestling Tournament On February 8, Roxbury Latin’s campus buzzed with the energy that 13 schools’ worth of wrestlers, coaches, and fans can generate. RL played host to this year’s Graves-Kelsey Tournament—the Independent School League wrestling championships, named for long-time and legendary coaches Bert Kelsey of Roxbury Latin, and Gibby Graves of Buckingham Browne & Nichols. Earning a competitive fourth place finish overall in a field of 13 teams, Roxbury Latin’s wrestlers exhibited dedication and toughness in a collective effort, with 7 of 12 wrestlers placing. “Each wrestler worked his hardest and showed a lot of grit,” said head coach Josh Wildes. Seniors Javi Rios and Evan Kisselev placed first in their weight classes. Keaton Sahin (II) earned a second place finish, and Mat Cefail (I), Pete Levangie (I), and Justin Shaw (IV) placed third in their respective weight classes. Coming in sixth place in his weight class was Miguel Rincon (II). Rounding out the RL team were tournament representatives Nick Consigli (V), Aidan Gibbons (IV), Richard Impert (I), Kayden Miller (III), and Thomas Savage (IV). Justin Shaw put up a particularly valiant effort, emerging victorious in a dramatic triple-overtime,

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sudden-death win to capture third place. The team winning overall first place in the tournament was from Belmont Hill. The Graves-Kelsey Tournament was named in honor of Gibby Graves and Bert Kelsey in 1966. Bert was Roxbury Latin’s wrestling coach from 1937 to 1966, earning 24 winning seasons and numerous individual championships. A master of English and debate, Bert’s energy and good nature endeared him to hundreds of students. Roxbury Latin’s Kelsey Faculty Room is named in his honor, given by Bob Henzler ’51. Gibby Graves was a long-time coach at Buckingham Browne & Nichols and was a pioneer in developing the league tournament. Roxbury Latin has earned the title of Graves-Kelsey Champion 20 times since 1966. Upon competing in the League tournament, several members of RL’s wrestling team continued on to the New England Championships, including Justin Shaw, Keaton Sahin, Mat Cefail, Evan Kisselev, Pete Levangie, and Javi Rios. Senior Evan Kisselev earned a first place finish at the New England tournament, and senior Javi Rios earned a third-place finish, both securing the right to compete at the National level. //

Junior Wrestling Results RL’s Junior Wrestling team had a strong finish to their season, earning a second-place finish at this year’s Fessenden tournament. Out of the twelve wrestlers competing, nine individually placed. “The boys showed tremendous growth throughout the season, and I know they are all proud of their accomplishments at this end of season tournament,” said Coach Josh Wildes. Junior wrestlers’ individual results at the tournament are as follows: Alejandro Rincon (V) 1st place Dovany Estimphile (V) 2nd place Aydin Hodjat (V) 2nd place Sean Patrick DiLallo (V) 2nd place Joseph Wang (V) 3rd place Arjun Bose (IV) 3rd place Will Hutter (IV) 3rd place Benji Macharia (VI) 4th place Matteo Santagata (V) 4th place

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March Forth

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<< On March 4, Roxbury Latin students and masters celebrated Exelauno Day, a distinctly RL tradition that dates back more than 130 years, to when Classics master Clarence Willard Gleason (1889-1905, 1912-1932) inaugurated a celebration of the Classics, in which Greek students would be exempted from homework. Today the event allows for the singular annual pleasure of hearing from boys of every age and level of exposure to Latin and Greek. Gleason chose March 4 as a play on Xenophon’s Anabasis and its use of “exelauno,” meaning “to march forth.”

Throughout the morning, boys in Class VI through Class I competed in this year’s David Taggart Clark Competition in Greek and Latin Declamation—reciting the stirring words of Homer and Cicero, performing the slapstick comedy of Plautus, and bringing to life the words of Xenophon himself. This year’s winners were Daniel Stepanyan of Class VI (Lower School Latin), John Wilkinson of Class II (Upper School Latin), and David LaFond of Class I (Greek). <<

<< Classics Department Chair Jamie Morris-Kliment served as master of ceremonies, and the judges, to whom RL extends its heartfelt gratitude, were Professor Kendra Eshleman, Chair of Classics at Boston College; Sally Morris, teacher of Classics at Phillips Exeter Academy; and Scott Giampetruzzi, teacher of Classics at the Groton School.

Kendra Eshleman, Scott Giampetruzzi, Daniel Stepanyan (VI), John Wilkinson (II), David LaFond (I), Sally Morris, and Jamie

Morris-Kliment. (Opposite graphic, clockwise from top: Daniel Stepanyan (VI), John Wilkinson (II), Eric Zhu (V), Bryan Anderson (II), Owen Butler (IV), Edgar Torres (V), David LaFond (I), Center: Clarence Willard Gleason. The school is deeply grateful to the family of Dr. Eugene McDonough Jr. ’48 for their support of the study of the Classics and the celebration of Exelauno Day.

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Bowdoin Bound

A Learning Experience—fo in Brunswick, Mai 22

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or Faculty— ine

his winter, for the first time, the entire Roxbury Latin faculty embarked on a professional development experience that immersed them in the college culture of today. The group trekked north to Brunswick, Maine, where they spent two days on the campus of Bowdoin College, meeting with students, faculty, and administrators; taking tours; and joining classes. RL has a notable number of Bowdoin alumni on the faculty and staff (seven in all) and a robust number of graduates who are now students at Bowdoin (totaling nine). The purpose of the trip was to gain a deeper appreciation for the college experience that our students enter after graduation and to consider how this reality might inform our work with boys here at RL. This expedition follows in the tradition of previous faculty fact-finding missions both to elementary schools that send boys to RL, and to excellent secondary schools, like Deerfield and Hopkins. On February 17, after a tour of the campus led by Bowdoin students, the group met with Dean of Admissions & Student Aid, Whitney Soule, who described recent changes in the College’s approach to admissions; the mechanics of decision making; the yielding process; the relevance of teacher recommendations; and the importance of studies correlating academic rating assessments with first-year performance. At a reception that evening—which included RL alumni currently at Bowdoin—faculty learned from two of those students that though they had been lower-level math students at RL, they felt much better prepared than their peers to be successful in math at college; one had even become a mathematics major. Another of the young RL alums noted his pleasure in engaging with issues of race, gender, and religion in humanities classes, which further encourages RL teachers interested in exploring these topics within our own curriculum. President Clayton Rose offered his warm welcome and noted his long-standing admiration for RL. Before dinner that evening, the group heard from Janet Lohmann, Dean of Student Affairs, who created some context for how the College both supports its students and challenges them in their development. Specifically, Ms. Lohmann contextualized the world that college students step into when they arrive on campus today, and how she and her colleagues deal with some of the challenges in regard to students’ mental health, Title IX,

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and social life generally. Ms. Lohmann’s remarks covered a wide range of issues. She opened by stating that for some students a college campus is the most diverse community they have ever encountered, and for others the least diverse. Within their campus community, she noted a paradox marked by a fairly broad commitment to social justice on the one hand, and a “cancel culture” on the other. She described cancel culture as the response of some students to say: “If I feel harmed by you in any way, I will write you off.” One challenge, therefore, is helping students to “get comfortable with the uncomfortable” and find ways to broaden conversations that would otherwise result in unsatisfying or unproductive dead ends. On the subject of mental health, Ms. Lohmann described the pervasiveness of perfectionism and the companion feeling many students have that “any mistake is high stakes.” Helping students develop coping skills is more important than ever. While students are increasingly good at self-advocacy, more of them than ever before arrive on campus having never held a job. As a result, they typically have much to learn about taking responsibility for themselves and for others. The College often has to push back against a “get-rich-quick” mentality in an effort to focus students instead on developing a “pursue your passions” mentality. RL advisors can learn from this and counsel our students and their families to focus on a growth mindset, help boys to find their passions, and imagine ways in which those passions can find a home in the wider world.

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Faculty also learned from Ms. Lohmann that Title IX issues can be particularly thorny—creating tension, and leaving one side or the other unhappy. She reminded everyone that students need to be educated on these issues, and the College has programming designed to do the best it can to keep students safe and expand awareness and understanding of attendant realities. After dinner, faculty heard from Katie Byrnes, Director of the Baldwin Program for Academic Development in Bowdoin’s Center for Learning and Teaching. Ms. Byrnes shared what college faculty are seeing academically—what students can do, and struggle to do—and the message was clear that students have changed. They need more scaffolding, and more communication on explicit academic expectations. The days of the “just figure it out” mentality are gone. The old model was that students needed to adjust; the new model is that teachers need to model how to get where they want their students to go. Professional development opportunities for Bowdoin faculty—on creating learning goals, building successful assessment tools, and reaching all students—mean Bowdoin professors are being challenged to be more attuned to what students come in with and to adjust accordingly. When professors are asked what they hope their students will remember in 20 years, the answer tends not to be contentspecific. Thus, better learning is premised on discerning the essence of one’s discipline. In the shift from being a “student” toward becoming a “scholar,” students also need to learn

“A common theme from the visit was that getting a college education these days extends well beyond what students learn in the classroom. A liberal arts education at Bowdoin means, first and foremost, having a faculty that is trained to engender critical thinking and provide a holistic, and often interdisciplinary, education.”

Several RL alumni who are currently students at Bowdoin joined the faculty—including the pictured Bowdoin grads who teach at RL—for a reception before dinner on Monday evening. (See page 64.)

how to enter a scholarly conversation and have something to say about it. Ms. Byrnes also spoke about the benefits of mindfulness practices, used by some faculty. At the beginning of class, mindfulness is about being prepared to learn. She noted that technology tends to take one away from the present moment, creating an ongoing challenge in this regard. On Tuesday morning, faculty sat in on classes within their own disciplines and learned much that is translatable to the RL classroom. For example, math teachers learned how clear expectations for assignments can be designed for inclusivity; modern language teachers were reminded of the value of discussing race and religion in humanities classes; art teachers were immersed in an interdisciplinary approach taken in a course on Art, Science, and the Environment; classics teachers observed Latin classes that affirmed the high degree of preparation our boys have for college-level study of ancient languages; science teachers experienced lab-based courses that provided insight into some differences between college-level and high-school approaches; and athletic coaches learned that the opinions of high school coaches are still very much valued, and that coaches—even at the college level—encourage their athletes to be involved in other areas of school life. During lunch, RL department chairs met with Bowdoin faculty to better understand skills and strengths that Bowdoin faculty value—and seek to develop—in students within their respective disciplines. Department heads were also there to learn about new academic trends and new curricular initiatives in their fields at the college level. A common theme from the visit was that getting a college education these days extends well beyond what students learn in the classroom. A liberal arts education at Bowdoin means, first and foremost, having a faculty that is trained to engender critical thinking and provide a holistic, and often interdisciplinary, education. The College wants students to be involved in school life beyond the classroom, and a great deal of student programming is specifically designed to enhance a student’s education. These ideas resonate with the kind of education that RL seeks to provide its students—in teaching critical thinking, and in perpetuating a generalist culture that aims to educate the whole boy, ensuring a well-rounded educational experience. // by ERIN BERG and STEWART THOMSEN

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oday, I want to talk a little bit about history. It’s a big year for us at Roxbury Latin—375 years. When you have a big birthday like this, it causes you to pause and reflect. What I want to do today is think about and reflect upon the complications of a school that has had so many graduates, over so many years, and has witnessed some of the greatest events in the history of the modern world. Let’s take a minute to think about some of the things that Roxbury Latin is older than: It’s older than the signing of the Treaty of Westphalia and the Westphalian state system. Theirs is 1648, we’re 1645. It’s older than the American, French, and Haitian revolutions. Older than the Declaration of Independence and the Emancipation Proclamation. It has witnessed all kinds of incredible historical events, from the signing of the Civil Rights Act to the ending of apartheid. When your history is that long, you’re going to have a very complicated relationship to history. One way I would like to think about the history of RL is in connecting it with something that I like to call Afromodernity, or black modernity. If we think about RL as tracking with the history of the modern world, and we also think about African people or people of African descent as having played a major part in the making of the modern world—as not having just been spectators, but as having been active participants—it stands to reason that the history of this school and the history of the making of the modern world and black modernity would be intertwined. I’m going to talk today about one of your graduates, a man named William Henry Baldwin. What’s interesting about Mr. Baldwin is that his history—he graduated from this school in 1881—is entwined with the history of one of the most important and controversial figures in black history, a man named Booker T. Washington, who started a school called Tuskegee Institute in 1881, the same year that William Baldwin graduated from RL. I want to take you on a journey of the intertwined histories of these two men and the intertwined history of Roxbury Latin in the making of Afro-modernity. William Henry Baldwin graduates in 1881. His own autobiography describes him as a somewhat indifferent student. He said he enjoyed sports and music more than anything in the

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A Lesson in

n Connected Histories Smith Scholar in Residence Zine Magubane discusses the interwoven histories of RL graduate William Baldwin and Booker T. Washington, one of the most important and controversial figures in black history.

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classroom, but he did manage to get himself together enough to deliver an address at graduation. And he also made his way to Harvard. So that’s him in 1881. We’ll put a little pin in him there. Booker T. Washington could not have been more different in his history than William Baldwin. Washington was born a slave in Virginia, and when he was about 15-years-old, he made his way to a school called Hampton Institute. Hampton Institute had been started by the Freedmen’s Bureau, and its objective was to educate the recently emancipated. But at that particular point in time, education was a very complicated thing tied up with the ending of slavery. We tend to think of education as a great thing, right? What else could the recently enslaved want now that they were free other than education? But education in the post-slavery world was complicated. Certainly the former slaves wanted education. They could have been beaten or suffered many sanctions just for trying to learn to read. Nevertheless, education was complicated in the post-slave South and in the North, because education was part of resettling a social system that was not just about people who’d had different types of civic equality, but about people who were owned suddenly having the ability to be fellow citizens along with the people who had owned them. This nation had been highly segregated. All those were problems, of course. But education had yet another problem it had to solve: the slave system was not just a system of racialized social control, it was an economic system—an economic system at the center of the world economy. Were there no Southern slaves and Southern cotton, there would be no British industry. Economists from Adam Smith to Karl Marx said that without the slaves and the American

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plantations, there would be no cotton. No cotton, no Manchester, which was the center of the British industrial revolution. Many industries were built on the back of slavery. Everything from insurance companies like Aetna to a well-known case: We all know that 200 slaves were sold to finance the continuation of Georgetown University. A wonderful book titled Ebony and Ivy tells this story. Slaves were at the center of the economic system, and their emancipation meant a massive shakeup in the economic architecture of not just the United States but of the entire Western world. So education at that time had a unique, dual function: It was not only to provide people with skills that they had been denied, but it was also seen by many abolitionists as a form of social control. In other words, if people had the choice—if they had the freedom to decide what they were going to do—they would be guaranteed not to want to return to the plantations. But the industry still needed the cotton. They would be guaranteed not to want to work in the Southern timber industry, in the coal mines, on the fields picking cotton, running on the railroads, and on and on and on. But the formerly enslaved, when they were enslaved, were the backbone of the working class, and the industrialists wanted that to continue. So where does education come in? Hampton Institute, where Booker T. Washington enrolled, was a school established in order to accommodate, or encourage, and sometimes force African-Americans into a particular kind of work, into industrial work. They had the idea of building maybe a very small black elite, but in large part it was to accommodate people to the new economic order. And that was very much in opposition to what many of the formerly enslaved people wanted. Most African Americans wanted economic independence, and economic

“Booker T. Washington goes to Hampton Institute and excels as a student. He is approached by his mentor, Samuel Armstrong, who had started the school and told him that he must also start a school, Tuskegee, and it will be just like Hampton Institute, except it will be run entirely by black people, all black teachers, and that Washington would be the head.” independence did not mean going to work for someone else. It was defined as 40 acres and a mule—40 acres of your own land and a mule to work it. Nobody wanted a boss. Indeed at that time, black and white, economic independence meant you owned your own means of production, your mule,

and you had land to work it. So education was designed also to move people, to break them from this thing that they actually wanted, which is a particular type of economic independence. Booker T. Washington goes to Hampton Institute and excels as a student. He is approached by his mentor, Samuel Armstrong, who had started the school and told him that he must also start a school, Tuskegee, and it will be just like Hampton Institute, except it will be run entirely by black people, all black teachers, and that Washington would be the head. And the school would not only create a new class of industrial and agricultural workers, but it would also create what they called a small Negro elite. So, in 1881, Booker T. Washington goes to start the school. Let’s pivot back to William Baldwin. Baldwin goes to Harvard after he graduates. He has immense success in the railroad system, becomes head of the Long Island Railroad and eventually CEO of the Southern Railway. As he wrote in his own memoir, “I had deep interest in the Negro problem and indeed it kept me up at night.” What William Baldwin knew was that the railroads would depend a great deal upon black labor. He also recognized then that education had a dual function to play. Baldwin was interested in creating a controlled black working class, but he also—for his time—was a progressive thinker, in that he recognized the old system of man owning his fellow man was outdated—outdated from a human rights standpoint and from an economic standpoint. He wished to create a modern and progressive industrial economy, and he recognized that the United States was not going to send blacks to Liberia as the American Colonization Society had said. They were not going to be kept in permanent subjugation in the South. He recognized that you had to have a society that was integrated in some ways, at least economically. Therefore, his notion was to create a system in which there would be what he called a black elite and a white elite, who together would work to sort out and accommodate and control all the rest. So, we can see here a complicated type of guy. In some ways he was far more progressive than the old planters, but he was still a man of his time. He was highly interested in this school of industrial education that Booker T. Washington had started. In particular, he was very interested in an address that Booker T. Washington gave in 1895. It was a speech before the

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International Atlanta Cotton and States Exposition. It basically brought together all the cotton barons to talk about the future of the industrial economy, the future of the world economy, and the place of cotton in it. There, Booker T. Washington delivers a famous address, which came to be known as the Atlanta Compromise speech—probably the most famous address that he ever delivered. This address was complicated and controversial because in it he put forth a vision of a social order using a really unique analogy: He said when it came to blacks and whites in the United States, that they should be unified as a hand in all things economic—in the future economic progress of society—but socially they should be separate as the fingers on that hand. In other words, he said he imagined a society that would somehow be integrated economically but separated racially, separated socially. He also put forth an idea about education and politics. He said that black people should have a very particular kind of education for the masses, and that would be to accommodate to industrial labor, but that there also should be that very small group of elites. He also had a very interesting perspective on politics, saying you should seek to integrate yourself economically at first, and become economically useful, and leave politics aside for a moment, and then possibly work on political matters later. Basically, he was imagining a world in which black people retreated very much from politics—especially from mass politics. After he gave this speech—for which I’m quite certain William Baldwin would have been in the audience, because at that time he was a major trustee of Tuskegee—Baldwin and Washington exchanged hundreds of letters talking about black education, talking about the economic future of the country and the world, and talking about politics. Another person who heard the speech was another Boston son—W.E.B. Du Bois from Great Barrington, Massachusetts, also a graduate of Harvard. And Du Bois had a mixed reaction. He felt that much of what was said about economic progress was great, but he also chafed against this idea not only that politics should be left aside, but that politics and economics were fundamentally separated. He instead rather thought there is no way to revolutionize and bring people to equality and have economic progress without also having a strong mass political movement.

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“Much of American history has been narrated from the point of view of a very small number of people. Not only has it been narrated from a very narrow point of view, but it has also been as though only one group of people in the world has been active— that they have been forward thinking, that they’ve had dynamism, that they’ve contributed to the making of the modern world.” Here we have the intertwined histories of these three men. We have the school, Tuskegee Institute, that Booker T. Washington started and that William Baldwin was such a great supporter of—he was on the board, raised tons of money for them, he believed deeply in the mission. This school—with this strange legacy of being both very forward thinking, but also very regressive in some ways—was of deep

interest to people on the African continent for a number of reasons. One of the reasons was that when slavery collapsed in the United States, all sorts of countries around Europe began to think, Can we move in? Can we take the Americans’ place as the kings of cotton? As you know, in Europe there’s not a lot of space to grow cotton. But they did have their eye on the African continent, and they had this idea that they could possibly establish colonies on the African continent and force Africans to grow cotton. So, Baldwin graduates in 1881. Tuskegee is established in 1881. The scramble for Africa happens in 1885, which divides the African continent amongst the European powers. Many of the prime ministers of the European powers were also in the audience in Atlanta, with this idea that they might use their colonies and blacks in their colonies to grow cotton. Of course they had the problem that these were independent African polities that had to be conquered, and an immense amount of violence—both economic and social—happened on the African continent. And Tuskegee played a really interesting role therein. Booker T. Washington believed that a way in which to make this process not as brutal, not as violent, was for Tuskegee graduates to go to the African continent and to, in their words, teach the African natives to grow cotton. In 1904, Tuskegee sent a group of African-American teachers to the colony of Togo, a German colony, to teach the so-called Togo natives to grow cotton. They had plans to build a Tuskegee in Liberia, and another one where I’m from in South Africa. Again, it might look like Tuskegee had a totally backward message, but history doesn’t always work like that. Booker T. Washington intended for Tuskegee to have a presence in Liberia, in South Africa, in the Congo, with the basic intention of moving African people to grow cotton. But the people who received the message and heard about Tuskegee had a very different response. John Langalibalele Dube—who later became president of the first African National Congress, the huge resistance organization that Nelson Mandela eventually led, which became the first black run government of Africa—heard about Tuskegee and also began writing to Booker T. Washington. Across the African

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continent, Tuskegee Institute became a symbol, not just of black oppression, or only being educated to do one thing, but as a symbol of what a black run educational institution might look like. So African nationalists in South Africa, Liberia, and Togo, Marcus Garvey in Jamaica, all of them saw Tuskegee and imagined what it could possibly be, out of a very different image and point of view. Fast forward to the present, and places like Tuskegee and Hampton are the inaugural sites of the historically black colleges and universities, which have played a massive role in educating many African Americans, and many people of African descent around the world. They’ve produced the most black doctors, engineers, pharmacists, librarians. Even though the originating thought for those schools was to accommodate people to a certain form of subjugation, history played out rather differently. Those schools became, on the African continent, a beacon of hope and aspiration. Even in America, they very quickly stopped playing that role that both Booker T. Washington and William Baldwin might have imagined that they would. To conclude: I like to think about history as something that sociologists call connected histories. Much of American history has been narrated from the point of view of a very small number of people. Not only has it been narrated from a very narrow

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point of view, but it has also been as though only one group of people in the world has been active—that they have been forward thinking, that they’ve had dynamism, that they’ve contributed to the making of the modern world. When we stop thinking about history in that way, and start thinking about connected histories—as I’ve tried to do with William Baldwin—we actually see that the histories of everyone are intertwined. There’s no real Western civilization. There’s just the history of civilizations. If we look hard enough, we can see that in telling even the story of one school—one gender, and largely one race of people—that school is intertwined with the makings of lots of other histories. I would love to take a look someday at William Baldwin’s letters, because he most certainly met John Dube, probably met many of the Liberian students that came through Tuskegee, certainly knew about the expedition to Togo, which happened one year before he died. I would love to learn how one of RL’s own graduates saw this unfolding history of American modernity and African modernity and African-American modernity. // This address was delivered to students and faculty in Rousmaniere Hall by Dr. Zine Magubane on February 25, 2020. Nota bene: Ralph Parkhurst Bridgman, RL Class of 1914, was president of Hampton Institute from 1944 to 1948.

Digging Deeply Into Race and Gender Dr. Zine Magubane is this year’s Smith Visiting Scholar Interview by Meredith H. Reynolds

Twelve years ago, Robert and Salua Smith established the Robert P. Smith ’58 International Fellowship so that Roxbury Latin could bring visiting scholars to campus each year, enhancing our curricula with their insightful perspectives on our increasingly complex world. Over the years, these scholars have educated us on such topics as economic globalization in Africa, the political and economic effects of climate change, the modern Middle East, Latin American literature, and the legacy of World War I. Last year, Dr. Evan McCormick’s experience at the Department of Homeland Security and research on U.S. foreign policy informed his semester of teaching RL’s Contemporary Global Issues course on borders, of all kinds. This year, Roxbury Latin was honored to welcome Dr. Zine Magubane, Associate Professor of Sociology at Boston College, whose research focuses on the intersections of gender, sexuality, race, and post-colonial studies in the U.S. and Southern Africa. As Smith Scholar, Dr. Magubane taught the spring senior elective titled Race and Gender. Dr. Magubane is also the parent of Kieran McCabe, Class III, and wife of Patrick McCabe ’87. We sat down with Dr. Magubane to discuss her research and the many ways in which she is challenging RL boys to think differently about classifications of race and gender.

What is the topic of your scholarly research? I’m a sociologist by training. I started my work doing research on apartheid in South Africa, which was embedded in the logic of racial classification—assigning everyone to a race. And I noticed that many of the ideas about assigning people to categories that were used by the South African government were actually borrowed from the United States. The system whereby they put Africans into separate areas, for example, was borrowed from the system used to put Native Americans on reservations. That was my initial interest. And then as a sociologist I just became interested in the specific role of sociology as a discipline, in helping to popularize ideas about classification of persons, as well as providing what I like to call in sociology speak, epistemological logic. In other words, we tell ourselves: “classification by race doesn’t come from politics, it comes from nature,” even though it comes from politics. The book that I’m writing now is about the history of the idea of race in sociology. You presented two wonderful Halls to our entire community this semester. Can you describe the topics you covered in these Halls? My first Hall focused on how I came to be interested in my area of research. My parents were born in South Africa in

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the 30s, and apartheid was only formalized in 1948. Over the course of their lives—and again when we came to the United States—their racial classification changed. I described how political race was in South Africa, through the lens of my own family and my own life. The second Hall was about a Roxbury Latin graduate, William Baldwin, who was director of the Southern Railroad right after reconstruction. Baldwin developed this very complicated relationship with Booker T. Washington. The two of them did some things really well; they believed that slavery should be ended for sure, and they believed in a free market system. But Booker T. Washington still held very strongly to the idea that everybody must have a race, and that the society should still be hierarchically organized on the basis of race. William Baldwin had a very complicated relationship to that particular piece of history.

I wanted to underscore that the history of this school also follows along the history of the idea of race. Roxbury Latin is older than the Westphalian state system, and the nation of Haiti, and the Declaration of Independence. What an interesting way to think about the history of your school as unfolding with the history of this idea. At RL, you are teaching seniors in a course titled Race and Gender. What topics are you covering with your students, and what texts are you incorporating into the course? In the course we discuss how people become assigned to racial categories, and also categories like male and female. America is unique in the way that race and gender historically came together to produce the category “black,” and it had to do with the category “enslaved.” Historically, the way in which people became classified first as “enslaved” and then later as “black” was transmitted through the mom. This followed what

ROXBURY LATIN HAS HOSTED 21 INTERNATIONAL SMITH FELLOWS SINCE 2007.

2007

2008

GUILAIN DENOEUX

2013

GARY URTON

2013

DAVID CARRASCO

HISPANIC SERIES

2015

MICHAEL NEIBERG

2009

DIANE MOORE

2016

ILAN STAVANS

MOMAR DIENG

2013

MARIA VICTORIA MURILLO

2017

MICHAEL MCELROY

2010

ALEXANDER AKIN

2013

ROBERTO GOIZUETA

2013

JUNOT DÍAZ

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ANDREW BACEVICH

2014

JAY SAMONS

2014

ANDREW GOLDMAN

CLASSICS SERIES

2017

ANTHONY LEISEROWITZ

2017

GINA MCCARTHY

GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE SERIES

2012

2011

AVINASH SINGH

2017

MARIA IVANOVA

2018

EVAN MCCORMICK

was called the “womb law.” If your mother was classified as a slave, you were classified as a slave. This was because so many people had fathers who were not only free but also English. In English common law, your status followed your dad, so all of those people who were classified as black and were enslaved would have been free in England. In fact, they were free in England, and in France, and in the French colonies. We also discuss how people become classified as men and women. In colonial times, we had to classify men and women so that you could know who the men were, because that was how you determined who would inherit property. So this course investigates history to ask the question: Why do we need to classify people? We look at other societies in which gender is not the most important classification. In many African societies, age hierarchies are much more important. In fact, persons can be socially reassigned to do “male” things even though we would classify them as women. So that’s how race and gender come together in the course. We look at both of these not as categories from nature, but assignments that come from politics; we ask How do we develop not only the categories, but also our ways of understanding them? I had the students read one of my favorite books in the world: Racecraft, by Barbara Fields. But we also read a lot of popular press, like The New York Times, for example. We read a wonderful article by the biologist Anne FaustoSterling about what she called the “seven layers of gender.” Increasingly, though, as the students developed their knowledge, we read articles from the Times to show how even learned people fall into some of the traps in categorization. For example, there are many appeals for blood donors in the Times that rely on a racist logic not supported by science, that people need to donate blood to people of their own race. So we read pieces of press with a critical eye as well. What have you enjoyed about teaching at Roxbury Latin? The boys have been so open-minded. They’re willing to roll with it, and they have really engaged with questions about what all-boys’ schools would do if there really was “no there there” when it comes to gender. We discussed many other real-time things, including a local case of a student who wanted to have no gender classification on

their Massachusetts driver’s license. In fact, the boys were always bringing things to me. They’d say: This thing just happened. What do you think about it? Sometimes we would just deviate in class and talk about what was going on the world. When Dwayne Wade and Gabrielle Union’s child changed her pronouns to she/her/hers, we were in the middle of the semester, so we just shifted and talked about that one day. The students have been really open-minded in all of these conversations. I also enjoy their senses of humor. They’re incredibly funny. We laughed all the time. I think it’s because they’ve known each other for so long. They tease each other and they’re not afraid to make mistakes in front of each other, which made it a refreshing environment. In my other life I teach college and PhD students. By the time people get into a PhD program, they’re so afraid of looking stupid in front of other people that sometimes class discussion is so boring. My RL students were not afraid to say wrong things, and it was very refreshing. What do you hope the boys take away from this course? Their final assignment has been really fun. I told them: “Given all you’ve learned, what interests you in the world, and how will you work on it?” They are all very interested in popular culture, and so many of them are looking at popular music, popular movies, TikTok… and these are the places where ideas about race and gender are made. They’re first made by sociologists, but they become hegemonic—meaning people come to unthinkingly believe in them—within the context of popular culture. Long after this course, the students are going to forget most of what I told them, but I hope they remember two important things: First, I hope that every single time they read the newspaper they will spot what I call “racecraft,” which is kind of like witchcraft. How are pseudo-scientific and false ideas worming their way in there? Second, I hope that instead of using the word “race” they will remember to use the words “census category.” Because that’s what it is— race is not a thing from nature. If the students remember to do those two things, my work is done! //

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What can we learn from this? Headmaster Brennan opens an unusual Spring Term, delivering Roxbury Latin’s first ever virtual Hall.

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hen I woke up this morning, my first instinct was to do an inventory of my physical well-being. Was the little cough I had “wet” enough? Did I have a headache? Was my throat sore? Was I able to take full, deep breaths? I expect that many of you did the same thing. And that people waking up all over the world enacted a similar routine. Depending on our cohort, we are either reassured or alarmed by the reports that older people and people with weakened immune systems or chronic ailments fare worse under the assault of the viral infection, and that others would likely suffer no more than one would with a common cold or the flu. Whatever the anticipation and analysis, we are all affected by the threat of this pernicious illness—as individuals, and on behalf of loved ones, but also as members of various communities— our school, our neighborhood, our city, our country, the world. Today, I want to share some thoughts on what is happening to us and how we should be thinking of that, but also, importantly, how we should think of us and our lives going forward. (And I use that term advisedly. In the past I resisted using that as a synonym for “in the future,” but here “going forward” seems more apt. It indicates agency, resolve, and positive motion.) My maternal grandmother used to say, “There’s a reason for everything.” She was acknowledging that stuff happens—that our lives are often turned upside down by surprises, failed expectations, and disappointments. She was asking us, “What can we learn from this? How will we behave, think, and imagine as a result of what we have experienced?” I intend to go there today. Over the past few weeks, commentators have been eager to remind us of other cataclysmic events that have challenged Americans, and sometimes citizens of the whole world. The Great Bubonic Plague was a prolonged, devastating scourge in Europe of the Middle Ages. This went on for more than 300 years and, in sum, took the lives of 25 million Europeans. You can imagine that the awful hygiene and primitive medical responses of the time contributed mightily to this plague’s impact. But, so, too, did the paralyzingly slow systems of communication; often a written letter would have to be carried by horseback across great land masses or by boat across seas. I grew up hearing of the Spanish Flu of 1918. My grandmother almost died during that epidemic.

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But she battled through it even to deliver her first child in January of 1919. Six hundred thousand Americans died from the Spanish Flu. We have recently heard plenty about WWI given the 100th anniversary of that devastating conflict in which more than eight million Europeans and Americans were killed. On Veterans’ Day every year we commemorate the service of Roxbury Latin boys and the supreme sacrifice by scores of them. WWII brought a different set of challenges; coming on the heels of the Great Depression (a widespread economic and social calamity), WWII required a country-wide effort to fight off the enemies in two theatres—European and Pacific. Seventy million Americans, Europeans, and Japanese died in that war. In my own time, we have lived through the devastating epidemic of HIV/AIDS, which claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of Americans in the ’80s and ’90s. Because it was a virus affecting initially and principally the gay community, there was ambivalence and bigotry associated with the slow response to eradicating this illness. Blessedly, in the early ’90s retrovirals were developed that saved infected people’s lives. This scourge was personal for me, as many men I know died of AIDS, including my best friend. On September 11, 2001, terrorists commandeered planes to crash into the World Trade Center towers in New York City, as well as the Pentagon in Washington and a site in Pennsylvania. This is the most recent event to frighten the Nation broadly and to offer stunning reminders of our vulnerability. In New York

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City, where I lived at the time, I was consistently inspired by the sense of solidarity and common victimization, even if it was simply fear and uncertainty that bound us together. On September 11, and each day for about a month following the attacks, people came together: We joined hands and hearts; churches were filled; shrines and prayer cells sprang up on street corners. We were reminded of what drew us together and what held us together: a simple human need to be cared for, to care for others, to feel included, to be loved. In that situation, strangers offered those reassuring feelings, and strangers asked for them, without regard for the person’s age, gender, social status, sexual orientation, race, religion. The binding characteristic was that of humanity—humanity with all its idiosyncrasies, with all its individual needs and biases, stripped down and simple in its affirmation that we are all the same. That when it comes to surviving on this planet, we are in it together. Whatever there is to say about these awful tragedies and demanding challenges throughout history, they are not quite like what we are experiencing. This Coronavirus is our epochal tragedy, and our unusual opportunity. I have, like you perhaps, been transfixed by the Coronavirus for about the past three weeks. I have watched too much TV—mainly MSNBC and CNN, and occasionally even a little FOX; I have scoured the newspapers; I have

“I return to my grandmother’s observation that ‘everything happens for a reason.’ As a teacher I would extend that thought to pose the question, ‘What can we learn from this?’ One thing we have learned is that we have stockpiles of physical and emotional sustenance that we may not have known we had. People have been asked to do things they are not used to doing. ” sent and received countless messages from friends and family—checking in on how people are doing, but also wondering what this was all about, how it would end, when we would return to normal. The running tally of reported cases offers a grim reminder that misery is visiting a growing number of people, and that our medical

community and civic authorities are struggling to keep up, to test, to offer encouragement, to save lives. Alongside that ominous ticker typically stands another one, monitoring the stock markets—all sobering reminders not just of the impact the virus has had on our economy, but the extent to which some are more concerned about the Dow Jones and S&P than the most recent deaths in Massachusetts. Our economic health, our ability to live the lives we have gotten used to living, even the ability of a school like ours to throw open our doors, is indeed dependent on that stock ticker. But in times like these, we have to be reminded of what matters most of all: the well-being of our fellow citizens, here and around the world. At times like these, when answers are elusive, we are inclined to look to other events in the world’s history that represent similar characteristics of widespread challenges, potential despair, communal enterprise. I had the pleasure over the break of reading The Splendid and the Vile, written by Erik Larson and edited by Amanda Cook, Aidan and Oliver’s mother. This book beautifully chronicles Winston Churchill’s response to the Blitz, the most intense bombing campaign by the Nazis against the British, and, specifically, Londoners during WWII. One of the things I noted to my school community in New York in the wake of 9-11 is that as a Nation we are not used to being attacked on our own soil the way Europeans have been. Thanks to 9-11, we were reminded of our vulnerability. This is a good, if not welcome, reminder. As fairly talented, responsible people we usually feel as if we have it all together. We have the confidence that we can endure—even benefit from and contribute to—the exigencies of the world, eager both to do our part, but also expecting we will derive benefits from that. We’ve been told over and over that we were bound to be successful people, and the certitude of how our lives would play out was informed by that feedback. Occasionally, my reminders from the lectern in Rousmaniere Hall have focused on those values, characteristics, skills, and ways of looking at the world that contribute to our own satisfaction, productivity, and happiness as individuals. Living, working, and playing in close company here, we also come to appreciate the special satisfaction (and occasional challenges) that result from working on teams of all kinds—academic, athletic, artistic, service projects, friendship groups. There are so

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many ways in which one’s skill as a team player comes into play. In this pandemic, our experience as a team player is stretched to imagine us a part of our Boston community, our region, our Nation and the world. Truth be told, we talk a good game about our place in the “web of human experience,” but rarely are we challenged to acknowledge that we are the beneficiaries and sometimes the victims of that interconnectedness. Citizens of London knew what that meant. During hundreds of bombings (and on 57 consecutive nights) in one year, they faithfully, and without complaint, evacuated to safer places— sometimes in the middle of the night as families in pajamas left their homes for air raid shelters located underground in Tube (subway) stations. Though their motivations were mixed and included the instinct to save one’s own life, there was a selflessness in the way Londoners went about looking out for the other guy. There was an acknowledgement that sometimes number one ought to be the group, the community, and not you alone. Unlike us Americans, they endured a war that was in their backyards —their shops and streets, even living rooms—living always on the knife’s edge of being hurt or killed themselves. For the Brits there was a period of preparation and expectation for their dangerous situation. In our own predicament, we did not have the luxury of time to prepare, to get medically and civically and psychologically ready for a scourge that would challenge us in so many ways. And yet here we are. We have had no choice but to heed the advice we have been given about how to prevent being harmed individually. Perhaps more important, and a greater challenge to our ego-driven selves, is what all this has asked for us in community—community writ large, the largest of teams. We have been admonished to stay in our homes, to quarantine, to isolate, in order to break the back of this infectious epidemic, and not to contribute to the infection of others, some of whom, like the elderly, are far more vulnerable to it. We are reminded, more poignantly than ever, that whatever freedom we have is inextricably tied to responsibility—a concept and a covenant our nation’s founders knew all too well.

Grit I return to my Grandmother’s observation that “everything happens for a reason.” As a teacher I would extend that thought to pose the question, “What can we learn from this?”

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“Hope allows us to imagine that brighter days are ahead, that eventually we will lick this enemy and return to the kind of life we have come to value and count on. Throughout this ordeal, we have seen countless, heartening stories of people who have stepped up, who have exhibited optimism, and who inspire others as a result.” One thing we have learned is that we have stockpiles of physical and emotional sustenance that we may not have known we had. People have been asked to do things they are not used to doing. They are asked to live without some of the comforts and diversions that marked our daily fare. Individually we are having to limit our mobility; we have curbed our independence; we have curtailed choice. Many of us are not used to hearing “No” in our lives. And while

those rare instances of being denied our wishes are usually personal and private, the big “No” we are experiencing now is public and common and material. No you may not gather at sporting events or concerts or plays or in shopping malls or at parties. No you may not go to school. No you may not have contact with a loved one if that person or you are infected. No you may not hang out in person with your pals. No you may not go to work. No you may not go on vacation. No you may not travel on planes. No you may not participate in a sports season to which you have looked forward all year. No you may not be able to enjoy the typical celebrations that mark the springtime and end of the school year.

yourself to school each day despite the hardship of getting here and the urgent concerns at home. Often grit is exhibited when we don’t get what we want and we forge ahead anyway. Sometimes grit is present when our hearts are broken by the death of someone we love, or as the result of a ruptured relationship, or a dream deferred. We dig deep and discover a wellspring of courage, resilience, and positivity deep within us that not only allows us to go on, but to do so with determination, effectiveness, optimism, and good will. This Coronavirus pandemic has demanded grit.

How do we manage disappointment? How do we endure sacrifice? How do we accommodate the solitariness that is implicit in much of this? To a certain degree, as in all things, we can learn from the model of others—people we love and admire who show us ways in which responsible, loving, caring, mature people face adversity. From all of us, however, these times require grit. You all have demonstrated grit in countless other situations: You may have ventured beyond your comfort zone; or sacrificed your reputation or physical well-being on behalf of a greater cause; or perhaps you’ve simply persisted, having been greatly disappointed. Sometimes you show grit by risking ridicule and extending friendship to an unpopular schoolmate. Sometimes you show grit simply by getting

I have spoken before about Grace as a gift from God. Grace is a gift that’s unearned, a benefit we receive that comes to us sometimes despite our unworthiness. In these times, we experience plenty of grace—in the form of good things that might not have been present to us were it not for this global and personal emergency. Today, however, I want mostly to emphasize another kind of grace—the grace that we show when we are kind, and cooperative and generous and empathic and neighborly and understanding to and of others. This is the instinct, sometimes deeply hidden, that propels us to do the right thing. Usually as was the case with 9-11, the right thing has to do with coming together, gathering as a sign of our common values, our commitment to a greater good and to each other. Because

Grace

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the current pandemic demands that we in fact guard against gathering in traditional ways, we are challenged to imagine how we can be grace-full people. Online and in our virtual support of people and worthy causes we are exhibiting grace. Grace causes us to be more selfless, more forgiving, more other-oriented. Grace is when in our families—despite challenges and discomfort, despite perhaps having had enough of our siblings in those close quarters—we nonetheless demonstrate cooperation, patience, affirmation, joy, and love. Grace is when we extend ourselves on behalf of worthy people or causes and expect no recognition. Grace is present in our humility. Grace is present when we show both class and caring. This Corinavirus pandemic requires grace.

Gratitude Finally the Coronavirus pandemic has inspired gratitude. I have often, especially during the Thanksgiving Hall, spoken about how gratitude is a particularly difficult characteristic to cultivate. But an attitude of gratitude makes sense—both because we owe our thanks to certain important people and as a result of countless blessings we enjoy, but also because expressing gratitude is healthier for us in mind, body, and spirit. Perhaps closest and most urgently we ought to be grateful for what health we do enjoy. While the spectre of the

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disease looms ominously, we, nonetheless—thanks to where we have happened to be or with whom—has not directly affected most of us. We owe thanks especially to the medical community for turning out in force and with generosity and courage—often exhibiting a willingness to put themselves in harm’s way, and given shortages of critical supplies and equipment, to improvise. Especially here in Boston we are blessed with a medical community and a hospital system that represents state of the art medicine, and a diversity of health care options that seem to be serving our sick neighbors well. But look, too, at health care professionals in hot spots around the country, especially in New York City where thousands of sick people are needing care, hospital beds, and equipment that can save their lives. I marvel at and am grateful for those health care professionals, some of whom are RL graduates. I am grateful, too, for others in our community who continue to work despite potential danger to their well-being: grocery store workers, restaurant owners, convenience store and gas station operators, mail carriers, public transportation operators, utility workers, and first responders—police, firefighters, emergency medical workers. We should also be grateful for what is available to us online. Even 19 years ago, during the shock of 9-11, we did not have what we have today. Email, texting, social media, the Internet have generally allowed us to be in communication with each other and to hear from helpful sources, sometimes from

around the world. Because we can be online, we’re able to keep school. To be able to call up virtually any movie or series on our television or computer is a great blessing, and a welcome diversion. Thank God for Netflix and Amazon and Hulu, among others. In my own sheltering-in-place, I’m grateful for music—for a piano and recordings— for my beloved pet, Rascal (who insists on practicing canine distancing!), and for aspects of daily life that work— electricity and plumbing—as well as books and newspapers delivered to our computers or our doorsteps. I have watched a lot of television news over the break, and I am grateful for those news people and commentators who keep us up-to-date and help us to imagine how all this will play out. Given worldwide coverage it also keeps us apprised of how others are doing around the globe, and what patterns seen in other countries may foreshadow or advise about our own futures. If there was any question in a climate of rabid nationalism about the global family, this pandemic underscores our connection to and dependence on each other around the world, for better or worse. We should be grateful for families and friends whose company we are experiencing in new, intense ways and the way they love us. Finally, I am grateful to my colleagues who teach and offer their goodwill and talent on behalf of the boys of this school. It has not been easy to make the transition to an online learning platform (some of us are old dogs, and it’s not easy to teach us new tricks), and yet given your teachers’ professionalism, their creativity and adaptability, and mostly their commitment to all of you, they have worked hard to modify what it is that they do. I am convinced that this will be an adaptation born of ingenuity and innovation that will serve us well, even as in time we return to a more normal rhythm of life. I am grateful, too, for our tech team—so versatile and helpful. And I am grateful within our school and our community to those who have offered leadership; they have suffered countless sacrifices, in some cases vacations with their families, in order to ensure that we were in good shape as we face this brave new world. Leadership in our state and nation is more variable, but when it is present and effective we both know it and benefit from it.

will bear repetition and elaboration at another time. But, for now, be grateful for hope. Hope allows us to imagine that brighter days are ahead, that eventually we will lick this enemy and return to the kind of life we have come to value and count on. Throughout this ordeal, we have seen countless, heartening stories of people who have stepped up, who have exhibited optimism, and who inspire others as a result. Walking through the campus last week I believe that I have never seen it looking more beautiful. Poignantly our fields are ready to go—begging for balls and boys and cries of joy. This is a time of year that bursts with hope—as winter turns to spring and birds and trees and flowers return tuneful, bright, bursting with blossoms and promise. It’s vexing to imagine that nature is responsible for the plague that is battering us, and that nature is also the source of so much beauty, so much promise, so much life. This challenge reminds us that we are bound together with millions of people the world o’er, joined to us by the environment that depends on our care, and by philosophy and faith that strive to explain our presence on this planet, and especially joined by the shared commitment to family and relationships and life. As we have launched this new approach to teaching and learning, I’m especially happy that together— though apart—we can continue to support and inspire each other. To you boys goes my gratitude for your willingness to swallow your disappointment (even as you understandably may feel the seeming unfairness of being robbed of celebratory events that mark this time of year in our school), and instead consider counting your many blessings, and helping where you can. Of all the forces that give us hope, the greatest source of energy and optimism and can-do spirit, for me, is all of you. You know intuitively that we cannot guarantee a perfect world, that neither school nor the world in which we live is a lumpless pudding, and all of us have a responsibility, an opportunity, to make our times and our challenging futures and our relationships better. Do that with a bright spirit and remember that we are all in this together. //

Finally, I am grateful for hope. Hope was going to be the topic of my whole talk before this peril visited us, and it

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Art of the Men of RL

As part of Roxbury Latin’s 375th anniversary celebration, four alumni—whose art is known the world over—visited campus for a full day on January 23, to kick off this year’s winter art exhibition titled, Art of the Men of RL. One focus of this special year has been welcoming back to campus an illustrious parade of alumni—sons of Roxbury Latin who represent diverse professional and personal paths, all examples of excellence, leadership, or service. These professional artists gathered for a panel presentation in Hall, which was moderated by Headmaster Brennan. They answered questions about their paths and their processes, about the great joys and many challenges of being a professional artist. Their answers ranged from the hilarious to the poignant, from the insightful to the absurd. (There may have also been more than one swear word uttered into the microphone, for emphasis only!)

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After Hall, these gentlemen spent the entire day on campus, meeting with students and former teachers, lunching with one another and former classmates, and attending classes— as master teachers—throughout the day, in courses ranging from Class V English, Engineering, and Creative Writing, to art classes across all grades. That evening, these alumni were honored guests at an opening reception of the anniversary exhibit in the Great Hall, where they were celebrated by nearly 200 friends, faculty, family members, students, and alumni. The exhibit included a great range of media— painting, sculpture, furniture design, photography, cartoon, film animation—and certainly represented remarkable skill. Art of the Men of RL ran from January 15 to February 19, during which the exhibit was enjoyed by countless visitors.

>> JOHN SEMPER, JR., CLASS OF 1970 John was one of Roxbury Latin’s first African American graduates. At RL, John was involved in many regards, but his primary interests were photography and filmmaking. John was so adept at his craft that he acted as unofficial consultant to the faculty on all aspects of cinema and ran a popular course for younger boys before heading off to Harvard. For more than 35 years, he has been developing, writing, and producing television and film, with a special emphasis on children’s television and animation. His credits include episodes of classic animated shows such as Scooby-Doo, The Smurfs, The Jetsons, Duck Tales, and Alvin and the Chipmunks. He produced, story-edited, and wrote the Fraggle Rock series for Jim Henson Productions, and he is probably best known for his work as producer and head writer on Spider-Man: The Animated Series. His many accolades include an Emmy nomination for his work as story-editor.

>> CHRIS PAYNE, CLASS OF 1986 Even as a young person, Chris had an eye for urban architecture, studied obscure buildings, and explored almost every inch of the Boston subway system. He earned degrees in architecture from both Columbia and UPenn. Today Chris specializes in architectural photography and the large format documentation of America’s industrial heritage. His training as an architect led to his fascination with design, assembly, and the built form. Chris’s recent work documents New York City substations, abandoned mental hospitals, and the making of Steinway pianos. His photography celebrates the craftsmanship and small-scale manufacturing that perseveres in the face of global competition and evolutions in industrial processes. Chris has been awarded grants from the Graham Foundation, the New York State Council on the Arts, and the New York Foundation for the Arts. His work has been featured in publications around the world and several times in special presentations by The New York Times Magazine.

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>> ANDREW MCNAY, CLASS OF 2002 Regarded as one of the top students, and top artists, in his class at RL, Andrew has pursued his artistic talent—first majoring in painting at Yale and then earning his MFA at Hunter College—and today as a metal craftsman, artist, and designer living and working in Brooklyn, New York. In addition to making furniture and art, Andrew is an owner at En.Zo Metal, a metal fabrication studio that builds, ships, and installs fine architectural metalwork throughout the United States and Europe, combining high-end custom design and fabrication. He has studied computer science, chemistry, and a range of fine art techniques and has extensive experience managing every step of a project—from creating CAD drawings to hands-on fabrication, finishing, and on-site installation.

>> WINSTON CHMIELINSKI, CLASS OF 2006 Known by his classmates and teachers as a brilliant and talented musician and artist, Winston won prizes at a number of local and regional art competitions, and—as a highschooler—had his paintings exhibited in Berlin as part of a well-known arts festival. Winston went on to study philosophy and creative writing at NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study; modern and contemporary Chinese literature at Peking University; and French literature and contemporary art at L’Institut Catholique in Paris. He has exhibited his work throughout Europe and the U.S., and has been the recipient of a number of awards and residencies. For four consecutive years, Winston served as a judge for the National Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, determining with the other judges the regional Gold Key winners who would progress to the National level.

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>> ZACH KANIN, CLASS OF 2001* Zach is sometimes jokingly described as The Harvard Lampoon’s shortest president ever. Zach published The Short Book: Tall Stories, Freakish Facts, and the Long and the Short of Being Small, in which he humorously explored the pros and cons of “being small in a great big world.” Zach has been creating cartoons for The New Yorker for more than a decade. He became involved in film and TV as an award-winning writer for Saturday Night Live. Zach worked as executive producer, co-creator, and writer for Comedy Central’s Detroiters and is currently receiving high praise for his Netflix hit sketch comedy series, I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson.

>> PHILIP LESLIE HALE, CLASS OF 1883* Hale was an influential art teacher, writer, and art critic. He studied at the Boston Museum School and then at the Art Students League in New York City. After years living and traveling abroad, he settled in Boston, becoming an instructor of antique drawing at the Museum School. Hale spent several summers in the artists’ colony in Giverny, in rural Normandy. Under the influence of the village’s most famous resident, Claude Monet, Hale adopted the bright light and broken brushwork of Impressionism, but he eventually developed an individual interpretation in his delicate, ethereal paintings. He published the first American text on Vermeer, a lengthy study on the life and work of an artist much admired by Boston painters. He won many prizes and awards, continuing to show his works nationwide, and remained an active figure on the Boston art scene throughout the 1920s. //

*Neither Philip Leslie Hale (for obvious reasons) nor Zach Kanin was able to be on campus for the Hall, day of classes, and exhibit opening. However their highly regarded work was included and celebrated as part of the alumni art exhibit. N e w s l e t t e r o f Th e R o x b u r y L at i n S c h o o l

Frantz Alphonse ’90 Delivers This Year’s MLK Hall Talk “We are all… tied into a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. …before you finish eating breakfast in the morning, you’ve depended on more than half of the world. We aren’t going to have peace on earth until we recognize this basic fact of the interrelated structure of all reality.” — The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. On January 21, Roxbury Latin welcomed back Frantz Alphonse, Class of 1990, who delivered the address at the school’s annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Hall. Frantz is co-founder and senior managing director of AP Capital Holdings (APCH) and co-founder of AP Capital Partners. In his role with APCH, he advises individuals in some of the world’s largest corporations so they can influence wide-scale positive change. His book, Total Inclusion Capitalism, which outlines his corporate problem-solving model, Simultaneous Outcome Thinking, is due out in 2021. The above quotation from Martin Luther King, Frantz shared in Hall, is the sum total of his life’s work. Now more than ever, Frantz asserted, the world is in desperate need of selfless leadership. “I am convinced that how our corporate sector approaches three emerging challenges—climate and sustainability; technology and the third industrial revolution; and equal access and wealth inequality—will be critical to the well-being of us all,” he said. Frantz’s corporate strategy allows companies to address all three challenges simultaneously. The third challenge, he says, is the nearest and dearest to his heart. While wealth inequality isn’t only an issue of race, Frantz did share two startling facts: According

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to the Institute for Policy Studies, the average African-American household has lost 75 percent of its wealth in the last 30 years. The average Latino household has lost 50 percent of its wealth in the same time period. It is critical, Frantz said, for our powerful corporate entities to tackle the human rights challenges of our time and to, as he put it, “commit to a larger vision of ourselves.” Frantz expressed gratitude to his RL masters for teaching him how to do this kind of thinking. Finding one elegant solution that can address a number of problems at the same time is a passion and a skill that began for him in the classrooms of the Perry Building, in Mr. Buckley’s art classroom, and in Rousmaniere Hall, where he stood. He encouraged every boy in the Hall to remain dedicated to a life of service, to acting for something larger than himself. “It is a heroic act to serve,” he stated. Frantz continued the year’s 375th anniversary series of alumni— “Men of RL”—returning to campus to share their experiences and perspectives—personal and professional—intended to inform and inspire today’s students and offer a window into what’s possible. //

neighborhood?’ And that’s the genesis of this company I have the opportunity to run today.” Mr. Menkiti started by selling several nearby houses to friends, and reinvesting his commissions in the community. Today The Menkiti Group and KWCP are among the fastest-growing private companies in the country, and two of the fastest growing inner-city businesses in America. Mr. Menkiti is now able to reinvest far more than commission checks into communities.

Bo Menkiti ’95 Delivers the Wyner Lecture On February 4, alumnus Obiora “Bo” Menkiti spoke to Roxbury Latin students and faculty about the experiences that have taken him from homeschool, to RL, to Harvard, to where he is now: the founder and CEO of both The Menkiti Group and Keller Williams Capital Properties (KWCP)—companies dedicated to transforming communities through real estate in urban markets. “Thoreau said, ‘In the long run men hit only what they aim at,’” said Mr. Menkiti. “So the question becomes, what are you aiming at? For us that vision, early on, was a vision of an America where all communities are thriving, diverse, and economically vibrant places to live. In a country that’s increasingly separated, with increasing wealth disparity, and increasing issues around housing, affordable housing, and homelessness—this was a vision that drew us forward.” Before working in real estate, Mr. Menkiti worked at College Summit, a non-profit that took him around the country to help high school students apply for college. He returned home from one of these trips to find that his neighbor and friend, an elderly woman next door, had died during the weeks he was away. “I thought I was out there changing the broad world,” said Mr. Menkiti, “and I realized that I wasn’t present for the person right on the other side of the row house wall from me, where I slept every night. And it got me thinking, ‘What could I do to make a difference right here, where I am right now, in my

“If you can take capital and reinvest into the infrastructure of neighborhoods that have been underinvested in, you can support small businesses to move there and thrive, and you start to create activity, and that activity draws people—people who are there have a better quality of life, and new people come into those communities… it creates pride, it brings in arts and culture, it starts to change educational, health, and safety outcomes.” The Menkiti Group focuses its investments on cities with strong macro demographic and economic fundamentals and neighborhoods where there is a perception that prevents people from seeing its real value. “I think that’s the thing that I’ve been most passionate about,” says Mr. Menkiti. “This idea that in life there are people… there are communities that have value, and that the ability to reach down inside and highlight that value—to give that value and talent an opportunity to shine—is one of the most important things you can do. In many ways it’s what Roxbury Latin did for me.” The Wyner Lecture—established in 1985 by Jerry Wyner, Class of 1943, and his sister, Elizabeth Wyner Mark—is a living memorial to their father, Rudolph Wyner, Class of 1912. Past speakers in the lecture series include historian and author Doris Kearns Goodwin; Schindler’s List Holocaust survivor Rena Finder; Billy Shore, founder of Share Our Strength and the No Kid Hungry campaign; Mark Edwards, founder of Opportunity Nation; John Werner P’21 of Link Ventures and Cogo Labs; and, in 2019, Dr. Iqbal Dhaliwal of MIT’s Jameel Poverty Action Lab. RL is grateful to continue shedding light on important social issues through the Wyner Lecture. //

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Kate Walsh and Bill Walczak Broaden the Definition of Health for Underserved Populations On February 13, Kate Walsh and Bill Walczak—two prominent members of the Boston health care community— spoke to students and faculty in Hall, as the third part of a series focused on the challenges, and potential solutions, related to homelessness and poverty. Both Ms. Walsh and Mr. Walczak have directed their considerable talents over many decades to focusing on the healthcare needs of those who, because of their circumstances, find themselves without the resources to avail themselves of quality healthcare. Kate Walsh is president and CEO of the Boston Medical Center (BMC) health system. Boston Medical Center—which has had a role in caring for City residents since 1855—is today a 514-bed academic medical center and full-service hospital; 80% of BMC patients are publicly insured, making BMC New England’s largest safety net hospital. Bill Walczak—regarded as a pioneer in healthcare and community activism in Boston—is co-founder of the Codman Square Health Center, a multi-service center, which, since its founding in the 1970s, has served more than 20,000

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individuals, providing quality medical services in one of Boston’s most deprived communities. “One of the things I want you to reflect on this morning is the definition of health,” Mr. Walczak began. “We have a confusing way of thinking about health in the United States, and how it’s reflected creates a fundamental problem for actually achieving health.” Mr. Walczak founded the Codman Square Health Center when he was 20 years old. At the time, Codman Square in Dorchester was a collapsing neighborhood—rife with violence, arson, and a sense of hopelessness. Never having been trained as a healthcare provider, Mr. Walczak had a very different attitude about what was needed in the community and how to make it happen. “The big issue wasn’t really healthcare, it was the poverty that the community was facing. We were trying to achieve health, but in reality we were trying to redevelop the community and offer opportunity for people living there, most of whom were very, very poor.”

As the leader of a health center, Mr. Walczak knew he also had to address the rampant issues of violence, drugs, crime, poor educational attainment, and lack of opportunity in general. “If you don’t do something about the root issues, you’re really not doing anything about health,” he asserted. While Codman Square Health had physicians, dentists, social workers, and psychiatrists, they committed to focusing also on community development, economic development, opportunity, and education. Forty years later, Codman Square Health Center offers medical and dental care, nutrition resources, public health education, tax and credit clinics, a fitness center, and a nonprofit grocery store selling only healthy food. Realizing that the best way to help lift people out of poverty was through education, Codman Square Health Center also participated in the founding of two schools in Boston: the Edward Kennedy Health Careers Academy and Codman Academy. “One of the most important elements of a community is hope,” concluded Mr. Walczak. “If people don’t have hope, they don’t do anything to improve their lives or their communities. One of the most important things that we can do is work on issues that make a difference in people’s lives.” Ms. Walsh continued with her presentation expanding upon the same theme: “To improve healthcare outcomes across this country, we need to create a more equitable society. Many hospital executives talk about great cures to diseases, or better outcomes in cancer care—which are all very important—but at BMC, much like at Codman Square Health Center, we are attacking the disease that is poverty. It’s very hard to care about your hypertension if you’re living in your car, or sleeping under a bridge, or worried about paying your rent. “And we know we can’t do this ourselves. Part of my job is developing partnerships within the community to get the results we all want. Doctors can help fix your ear infection, or diaper rash, or congestive heart failure, but most hospitals don’t ask patients about food, heat, school,

finances, housing, money. We need to develop and maintain partnerships within our community and really listen to the people we’re trying to serve. Lots of times, big complicated organizations—especially hospitals, loaded with experts— don’t listen to patients as carefully as we need to.” BMC has developed many community partnerships, including with a group called Community Farms, which has delivered more than 5,000 pounds of food for the hospital’s food pantry and for patient and employee meals. Street Cred is a program running four nights a week during tax season in BMC’s pediatric clinics, helping patients’ families complete their taxes. BMC is also directly investing in housing development in struggling City neighborhoods. “Rather than looking away from the problem, our organizations are trying to tackle it, head on,” concluded Ms. Walsh. “I encourage you, as you think about your future, to be part of an organization that says, ‘Yeah, I’m going to try to tackle that.’ Because the hardest problems are the ones that actually need to be solved.” Ms. Walsh’s and Mr. Walczak’s presentation was the third in a series focused on homelessness and poverty, instituted as part of Roxbury Latin’s 375th anniversary celebration. Honoring a mission characterized by concern for others—a mission fundamental to Roxbury Latin since its founding— students and faculty commit their time, talent, and treasure each year to organizations or efforts that aim to ease the burdens of others. The first two speakers in this series—Matt Desmond, author of Evicted, and Tina Baptista, with whom students built beds to donate to children in need—offered moving insight into the experiences of the hundreds of thousands of people in our country without a reliable and safe place to lay their heads at night. Mr. Desmond—and also Mr. Bo Menkiti, Class of 1995 and founder and CEO of the Menkiti Group, as the year’s Wyner Lecturer—reminded students that access to healthcare is a critical element in any thriving community. //

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Everything You’ve Ever Wanted to Know About

In Three Easy Answers by MIKE POJMAN

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hen we published the first issue of our esteemed school newspaper during this anniversary year last fall, the first question everyone asked me was, “If Tripod [or more accurately, The Tripod, its formal name, though rarely used] was founded in the spring of 1889, why is this only Volume 120, Number 1, rather than Volume 131, Number 1?” Actually, nobody asked me that question, but just in case someone—anyone—is inclined to wonder, here is the answer: Like a case of chronic athlete’s foot that goes unexpectedly into remission, only to return with a familiar itch sometime later, The Tripod, having enjoyed a long and virtually uninterrupted run since its founding in 1889, was published somewhat irregularly during the late ’60s and throughout the turbulent ’70s—to come back full-blown in the fall of 1980. And it has continued unabated ever since. When Tony Jarvis offered me a position on the faculty for the 1980-1981 school year, he was quick to remind me, “I didn’t hire you because you taught chemistry. I’ve interviewed plenty of qualified chemistry teachers. I hired you to bring back The Tripod”—and by extension, I assume, (although he didn’t say so) to drive a stake through the heart of Juba. Juba, as some of you may recall, was an underground, student-run rag with appallingly low production values, renegade overtones, and decidedly strong adolescent appeal. (I’m already anticipating the vitriolic push back from alumni of that era who so loved it.) At any rate, I answered Tony’s call-to-arms, and I have continued to do so for the past 40 years—and taught a bit of chemistry, too. The revival of The Tripod brought with it a dramatic change of format—from the 8½ x 11-inch perfect-bound magazine first adopted in the 1880s to the now-familiar 11 x 17-inch tabloid that more closely resembles a standard newspaper. Those early Tripods were a quirky mix of news, opinion, and commentary, with a smattering of creative writing thrown in. (The collection of poems, creative essays, and short stories have since been spun off as our literary magazine, Forum.) Traditionally, the

final issue of each year served as a scaled-down yearbook, with biographies of each senior and lots of inside jokes and references written by and directed to the graduating class. Sometime in the late ’40s or early ’50s, that graduation issue morphed into a stand-alone, hardbound Yearbook similar to those now produced by the First Class each year. A more pressing question, perhaps—and one that actually does get asked—is why The Tripod is called The Tripod. Truth be told, the name is rooted in the Classics, a reference to the ancient Greek oracles, clairvoyant purveyors of wisdom and knowledge. They sat before an incense urn mounted on a tripod. Our Tripod recalls that tripod, and it has been incorporated in both the paper’s name and its masthead (off and on) since its founding. It may be a little more than presumption to consider Tripod to be “the channel through which the gods speak directly to the people,” as the oracles were thought to be. And, more often than not, our editors are less wise than they are wise guys. But we continue to deliver the truth as we perceive it, with a tinge of irony and a bit of fun. The boys have always endeavored to tease and taunt the faculty with all due respect and affection. Tripod aims to be silly and substantial all at once, accessible to the school community but peppered with inside jokes intended to baffle those on the outside who are not in-the-know. Articles can be trivial and sophomoric, but never hurtful or vulgar, generally well-written and always held to a reasonable standard of journalistic good taste. The editors spend hours and hours

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“The Tripod is a different kind of school newspaper—very Roxbury Latin, very homegrown—and it has always been that way. Regular features with cryptic titles like The Observer (published anonymously), Delphic Echoes, Pythian Pleasantries, Smintheus’ Scissors, and Matters of Fact appeared throughout the early 20th century, and they provided an outlet for commentary and softball student demands.” writing articles, reviewing submissions, and laying out pages. (It is considered a badge of honor to produce an issue that is “typo-free”—a goal not yet achieved.) And there is never a hint of malice beneath the parody and purple prose. The lively spirit of The Tripod mirrors the joyful energy of the school itself, I think, where, within reason, it is still OK to be a little irreverent, perhaps a bit bawdy, and determinedly un-PC. A parent once complimented me (at least I took it as a compliment) by saying, “You give those boys a rather long leash, but they don’t seem to choke themselves with it.” I have never felt more validated than when a judge of a Columbia Scholastic Press Journalism Contest said of us: “At last, a quality paper that doesn’t take itself too seriously.” I daresay there is no other high school newspaper quite like ours, though, sadly, in this electronic age there are damn few of them left. The Tripod is a different kind of school newspaper—very Roxbury Latin, very homegrown—and it has always been that way. Regular features with cryptic titles like The Observer (published anonymously), Delphic Echoes, Pythian Pleasantries, Smintheus’ Scissors, and Matters of Fact appeared throughout the early 20th century, and they provided an outlet for commentary and softball student demands. One Matter of Fact read simply, “R.L.S. wants a gymnasium.” A Smintheus’

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Scissor from June of 1889 may well have been as impenetrable then as it is now, although the pun is faintly obvious: “‘Papa, is Queen Victoria in the soup?’ ‘Not exactly, [son]. She is in the Irish Stew’ – Vindex.” But the paper has always had a serious bent, too, with columns titled Frumentia Scientiae or Esperanto Corner appearing frequently. One can only imagine, however, that a feature on the “financial report of the R.L. theatricals” or the “constitution of the R.L. athletic association” or even “the complete menu of the alumni dinner” in the April issue of 1912 would command much of a following today. Much more popular—and justly so—are They Said It and RL by the Numbers and This Issue’s Sign of the Apocalypse that draw today’s reader to our “Humour” page. The third—and most often asked—question put to me is why we don’t publish the paper online. I am happy, and even proud, to say that our circulation remains robust—400 free subscriptions!—and that the boys still reach for a copy when each new issue is delivered to homerooms “hot off the presses” by our crack circulation staff. So far I have resisted the pressure to publish an online version, not only because I am an unapologetic traditionalist, but also because, well, in my view it just wouldn’t be a newspaper if it were not printed on real paper. An online version would have its merits, certainly, but I would miss the opportunity to teach each new generation of editors how to put out a traditional newspaper in the timehonored way—and that, I think, would be a loss. The boys enjoy producing each edition, and they like holding the finished product in their hands. So there you have it: everything you’ve ever wanted to know about The Tripod in three easy answers. My sincere hope is that we will continue to publish our little tabloid in the oldfashioned way—until such time as you are reading my obituary (online)—and that 100 years from now the readers of The Tripod will appreciate its eccentric qualities as much as its loyal followers do today, in whatever format they consume it. //

Mike Pojman is celebrating his 40th year as Tripod advisor.

Everything You’ve Ever Wanted to Know About Belmont Printing by MIKE POJMAN

Reprinted, and updated, from the January 2013 Newsletter

Every bit the “mom and pop” print shop, Belmont Printing, founded in 1914, has been owned and operated by Stanley Garfield and his family since 1962. Stanley is now retired, although he still comes in to help out “when they call me,” he says. His daughter, Linda, does the scheduling and bookkeeping, and his son, Rich—a high schooler when we first starting trekking over to Belmont to lay out The Tripod in 1981—now manages the day-to-day operations with his brother-in-law, Linda’s husband, Brian.

to the rapid changes in the printing world. These days The Tripod is laid out on computers at school using Adobe’s InDesign; only the actual page printing is done at Belmont. Through the ’80s and early ’90s, however, we would “paste up” each issue on site, with the presses whirring in the background. Stan was unique among local printers for welcoming schools to lay out their papers in the basement work-room—often two or three schools at the same time. It was bedlam, but it was fun.

Their mother, Diane, has been the compositor since the days when copy was set on mechanical “Linotype” machines in molten lead slugs. Rich’s son, Cameron, was the first of the third generation to join the family business and learn the craft from the inside out. Belmont Printing has remained competitive all these years through the shrewd business sense of patriarch Stanley (daughter, son, grandson, brother-in-law—everyone calls him “Stan”). He has stayed ahead of the competition by keeping overhead low and by anticipating and adapting

Stan regularly pulled “all-nighters” in order to get print jobs out the door on time, but on those rare Friday evenings when he was able to leave “early”—at 11:30 or so—he would hand us the key to the shop. “Stay as long as you like,” he would say. “Just lock the door on your way out.” In the heyday of printed papers, Belmont published a dozen or so local school newspapers. That number is considerably lower now, alas, although demand for Belmont Printing’s other services—stationery, newsletters, four-color brochures—continues unabated. //

Photo: Standing in front of the actual press that runs The Tripod, holding the paper, is Belmont Printing’s patriarch Stanley Garfield. From left: Fred the pressman, Stan’s daughter Linda, grandson Cameron, John the typesetter, and Stan’s son Rich.

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FACULTY FLASHBACK Steve Ward

2014

After 38 years as history teacher, wrestling coach, and Dean of Students, Steve Ward retires.

“Faculties are built on the likes of Mr. Ward.” This year, RL hosted the Graves-Kelsey Tournament, named for legendary RL teacher-coach Albert Kelsey. During Saturday's matches, another legendary—now retired— teacher-coach was warmly recognized. Mr. Steve Ward taught at Roxbury Latin from 1976 to 2014. Second holder of the A. Kenneth Scribner Professorship of History, Mr. Ward—like the bards of old—found stories to be the best way to teach any important ideas or values. An inveterate storyteller, Mr. Ward made his history classes meaningful and memorable; they were never about names, places, and dates, but rather the forces that shaped the events, and the patterns of institutions, governments, and people. Mr. Ward’s classes were popular for all the right reasons, and his students, like his athletes, always felt he was rooting for them. For 13 years, Mr. Ward served as Dean of Students. Outside the classroom, however, Mr. Ward’s most famous contributions to the life of the school were as a coach— most famously, as varsity head wrestling coach for 36 years. The second-winningest coach among the New England

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Independent School Wrestling Association coaches, Mr. Ward had 393 career victories. (In one 12-year span, RL was 132-7-1.) His teams won twelve Graves-Kelsey Tournaments and ten ISL titles. A remarkable motivator, Mr. Ward was impressively able to make what is by nature an individual sport a team sport. The loyalty he engendered among his wrestlers, one for another, was a logical extension of the values and attitudes he, himself, modeled. In recognition of Mr. Ward’s impact, former students and their families established the Steven E. Ward Chair in History, currently occupied by Erin Dromgoole.

The Top Things My Wrestling Coach Used to Say by JEFF KIRCHICK ’06

One of my most respected mentors, coaches, and friends is my high school wrestling coach, Steve Ward. The sentiment was

shared by many of his former students and athletes, as well as those in the larger wrestling community, as he was inducted into the Massachusetts Wrestling Hall of Fame toward the end of his 36-year career at Roxbury Latin. Mr. Ward was my advisor, and I always appreciated his calming influence and perspective on situations that were stressful to me in the moment, but ultimately not such a big deal in the grand scheme of things. All of us have surely had role models we look up to and respect, and for many years, that was what Mr. Ward was for me. Those who know him would say they appreciate his sense of humor and the calm way he had with his wrestlers. He could most often be seen with his hands in the air as if to say, “I dunno who did it,” and it is those mannerisms and witticisms that have stuck with many of us for a long time. A lot of things Mr. Ward used to say stuck with me all these years as general life lessons, so I want to share some of the top mantras: Your Decision to Be Here Means That You Are Tough In the team meeting for athletes interested in being on the wrestling team, which directly preceded each and every season, Mr. Ward made it clear to everyone in the room that his decision simply to participate in the sport of wrestling made him tougher than anyone else who was not in the room. There were other options, he would say, like playing basketball or hockey, or doing nothing at all. Whether you were good or bad, the mere decision to participate in a very demanding sport made you tough. Knowing that they were respected by Mr. Ward made even the weakest wrestlers motivated to do their best. Lead, Follow, or Get Out of the Way This was one of Mr. Ward’s favorite things to say in wrestling practice. Coaching at a school with very cerebral students, there were varying levels of skill and interest from those who participated on the wrestling team. Mr. Ward recognized that some would want extra credit, some would want to follow those leaders, and that the rest need not hinder either of the two. Whether you were a leader or a follower, there were no judgments. But if you were sucking up space without being involved in a meaningful way, he made it clear that you were hurting the rest of the team.

Be an Athlete Another problem for cerebral kids is that they think too much. In Mr. Ward’s efforts to remove pressure from difficult situations, he would utter this phrase to remind his athletes that there was an element to wrestling that required very little thought at all: being an athlete meant doing what is instinctive, lest you forget the moves you had been practicing. This was a simple reminder, in so many words, to do your best. This is a Bag of Sticks Match This is perhaps my favorite thing that Mr. Ward used to say. It was his belief that when being smothered by a snake, a person should have a bag of sticks with them to break. Why? Because breaking the sticks would make the snake think it was breaking bones, and it might loosen its grip. A bag of sticks match was Mr. Ward’s nice way of telling someone that they had zero chance of winning against a far superior opponent. While this might seem cruel, it helped soften the blow and put humor into situations that otherwise might have felt overly serious.

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four different awards: the Cookie, the Terminator, the Guts, and the Goomba. The Cookie went to the wrestler who had the best performance. Interestingly enough, the winning wrestler received a real cookie…to be doled out after the season, when cutting weight was no longer necessary. The Terminator went to the wrestler who had the fastest pin. Nota bene: Sometimes the Terminator and the Cookie went to the same person, but more often than not, Terminators were just fortunate to have very weak opponents whereas a Cookie winner might have won a match against someone pretty solid.

Go For Broke Sometimes an opponent might not be a “Bag of Sticks” match, but may still be a very tough or favored opponent. In these situations, Mr. Ward often asked us to “go for broke.” Over-thinkers can be tight and unwilling to let loose, and our coach did not want to see a situation in which we regretted not bringing everything to the mat. There were moments when Mr. Ward encouraged me to go for broke that resulted in me hitting big moves and sometimes pinning an opponent. There were other times when going for broke backfired against me. Either way, I never regretted going for broke. The Toughest Kid Wins Third Place Mr. Ward loved having champions, but he had a soft spot in his heart for toughness. Roxbury Latin was a place that was really about building character, and I know Mr. Ward cared more about building better people than he cared about building better wrestlers (although, I’m sure he loved to do both). While all the praise might go to someone for winning first place, Mr. Ward was clear that the third-place finisher in a tournament was tougher than the first-place finisher, because the third-place finisher lost a match somewhere along the way, and then had to motivate himself to win the rest of his matches. Various Awards After every match or tournament, Mr. Ward would give out

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I have to imagine that the Guts was Mr. Ward’s favorite award. This went to the gutsiest performance. I would guess that most Guts winners had lost their match, but it had to be close to a 50/50 split. Mr. Ward was keen on rewarding people for being tough and dealing with adversity. That was ultimately my biggest takeaway from the sport of wrestling. Finally, anyone who has wrestled before knows that there is always something strange that happens at a meet, or someone who does strange things. Mr. Ward rewarded these strange events with an award called the Goomba. My favorite Goomba moment was when we wrestled Milton Academy one year. A Milton wrestler noticed that he had blood on his shoulder, so he licked it off. The ref informed him immediately thereafter that the blood was coming from his Roxbury Latin opponent. This gives you a feel for what the Goomba was like. You’re Ready In the practice before every match, the team played out a special ritual, followed by an address from the team’s captains. This all would happen without Mr. Ward in the room. At the end of each address, Mr. Ward would walk in and say two words: “You’re ready.” It was a simple reassurance of all the hard work that we poured into wrestling practices leading up to the big moments on the mat. Sometimes all it took was something that simple to remind ourselves of our preparation. //

Men of Roxbury Tony Jarvis’s Final Book Available for Purchase

Printed in conjunction with Roxbury Latin’s 375th Anniversary celebration, Tony Jarvis’s fifth and final book, Men of Roxbury, includes profiles of 28 of the school’s distinguished alumni, as Reverend Jarvis writes, “whose lives of public service seem to incarnate all that Eliot hoped for in his students.” The lives and careers of General Joseph Warren, Arthur Vining Davis, Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., and James Bryant Conant, among many others, are brought to life with extended and amusing detail. Published by Boston book publisher David Godine, RL Class of 1962, the book is available to purchase through the school for $35. Please email men_of_roxbury@roxburylatin. org for further details.

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Exelauno Day Pub Night March 5: Central Wharf, Boston

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Annual Fund Reminder Thank you to all who have already made a commitment to Roxbury Latin’s 2019–2020 Annual Fund. If you have not yet contributed, please consider supporting Roxbury Latin. Every gift helps RL maintain tuition that averages $16,800 less than that of other local independent schools. Every gift helps bridge the $26,350 gap between the cost of tuition and the actual cost of an RL education. Every gift supports the admission and enrollment of qualified boys, regardless of their family’s ability to pay, and every gift helps retain and attract a faculty that is second to none With deep respect for the fact that every family is feeling the effects of COVID-19 and of the uncertainty that lies ahead, we are asking you for your continued support. Roxbury Latin's costs will not diminish as a result of this crisis, but will likely increase as we anticipate providing additional financial aid and care for struggling families. If your family has been hit hard by this pandemic, please know that we are thinking of you and are here to support you however we can. If you are able to continue to affirm RL’s mission by making a gift this spring, we invite your participation in our critical work. //

Thank you to those who joined us at recent alumni events: EAST COMES WEST! JANUARY 16, WAYFARE TAVERN, SAN FRANCISCO EXELAUNO DAY PUB NIGHT MARCH 5, CENTRAL WHARF, BOSTON INVESTORS NETWORKING GROUP MARCH 6, GOLDMAN SACHS, BOSTON COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE ROUNDTABLE APRIL 16, VIRTUAL MEETING

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class notes

1961

Phil Ferrara and his wife, Linda, took a March trip from Annapolis to the Carolinas, and made a point to rendezvous with Lauchlan McKay and his wife, Dianne, in Myrtle Beach. They enjoyed a long and news-filled breakfast at one of the McKays’ favorite local restaurants. Lauchlan and Dianne are doing well and are in the process of downsizing, planning to remain in the Myrtle Beach area. They plan to travel and visit family in Rockport, Massachusetts, and are enjoying retirement.

1982

Jefferey Weaver was recently named one of 2020’s Most Influential Black Executives in Corporate America by Savoy Magazine. This is the fourth time Jeff has earned this honor, having been named in 2010, 2012, and 2018, as well. Jeff is an Executive Vice President and Director of Qualitative Risk Assessment at KeyCorp. In this role, he is responsible for ongoing quantification of non-financial risk appetite and risk assessment of the qualitative processes used to measure and control risk.

1983

Stephen Gerritson’s second book, The Melting Pot Murder, was published in October 2019.

Saul Weiner’s latest book, On Becoming a Healer: The Journey from Patient Care to Caring about Your Patients, was published in April 2020 by Johns Hopkins University Press.

1969

1985

1964

Dr. Douglas B. Quine was accidentally omitted from the class donor list in the 2018–2019 Annual Report. We thank him for his support and apologize for the error.

1977

Michael Price reports that the Class of 1977 has had two Zoom virtual hangouts and that many classmates have found the medium to be a great way to connect.

1981

The television series Defending Jacob, based on the bestselling novel by Bill Landay, starring Chris Evans, premiered on Apple TV+ on April 24. The series was filmed in nearly 30 towns and cities throughout Massachusetts.

Patrick Philbin serves as Deputy Counsel to the President and Deputy Assistant to the President in the Office of White House Counsel in the Donald J. Trump administration. He previously served as a political appointee in the Department of Justice during the George W. Bush administration. Pat argued in the Senate chamber in January as part of the president’s impeachment trial.

1985 & 1995

Matt Petherick ’95 and Paul Cannata ’85 met up with Mo Randall prior to the RL vs. Milton Academy hockey game at Milton on February 7, 2020. Both Matt and Paul played for Mr. Randall while in high school. Currently, Matt is the head baseball coach and

Paul is the head hockey coach at Milton. Regardless, still Foxes at heart!

1999

Fr. Eric Cadin was featured by The Boston Globe in an article on March 26, 2020. Father Cadin, of the Archdiocese of Boston, has been ministering remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic.

2000

Amit Paley married Jonathan Naymark in November in New York City. Several Roxbury Latin classmates from the Class of 2000 were at the wedding to celebrate, including Wyatt Lipman, Oliver Harper, Matt Lueders, Alex Schemmer, and Greg Elinson. In late March, Amit spoke on MSNBC about the unique challenges facing LGBTQ youth during the COVID-19 crisis.

2003

Lou Manzo received an “Exceptional Service Award” from the Department of Justice for his work fighting the opioid crisis. As part of the Appalachian Region Prescription Opioid Surge Takedown, he was a member of a team that arrested 73 medical professionals who illegally prescribed opioids in what was described as “a groundbreaking achievement in the Department’s fight against the opioid crisis.” Lou was honored in a ceremony at the Great Hall of the Robert F. Kennedy Main Justice Department Building.

2004

Mary and Billy Quirk welcomed their second child, Theodore “Teddy” David Quirk, on the evening of March 15, 2020. “Big sister Stella just wonders why this eight-pound, 10-ounce See photo on opposite page.

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Clockwise from top: Phil Ferrara and his wife, Linda, with Lauchlan McKay and his wife, Dianne, in Myrtle Beach; Matt Petherick and Paul Cannata with Mo Randall; cover of Defending Jacob by Bill Landay; Lou Manzo with family after receiving his Exceptional Service Award from the Department of Justice; Billy Quirk holds newborn son Theodore David; Patrick Philbin answers a question during the impeachment trial against President Trump.

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creature can’t yet talk, and when he’ll be ready to play,” says Billy.

2009

Alex Cherenfant, Jr. has adopted the pen name of “Cherry Brice, Jr.” Cherry was featured in April on the Millennium Film Workshop’s Isolated Experiments showcase, a weekly series of experimental films accompanied by interviews with the artists.

2011

Former faculty member Sally Stevens enjoyed catching up over dinner with Stephen Kuenstner and Thato Ungwang.

2013

Alex Adames, an alumnus of Nativity Prep and now serving as the school’s Assistant Director of Graduate Support, was invited, along with some of his Nativity schoolmates and colleagues, to speak at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. They shared stories of attending and teaching at Nativity with 40 graduate students from around the world, discussing “teacher quality” and the power of brotherhood, love, and commitment to a school community.

pitching debut from Will Greer in a 5-3 win over Central Michigan. Will pitched five innings, allowing two hits and striking out seven batters in the win.

march 6

Nearly two dozen RL alumni gathered at Goldman Sachs with Gita Gopinath P’21, the Chief Economist for the International Monetary Fund. The Investors Group discussed the IMF’s global outlook and the potential impacts of COVID-19.

april 16

RL Commercial Real Estate Group gathered virtually via Zoom to discuss implications of COVID-19. RL faculty and staff visited Bowdoin College for a professional development trip this winter. Bowdoin is alma mater for a considerable RL cohort, including those pictured on page 24: Rary Delaney, Tom Walsh ’79, Dave Cataruzolo, Jimmy Duffy ’18, Darian Reid ’05, Tom Guden ’96, Tony Teixeira ’93, Max Ginsberg ’16, Chris Brown, Grady Hayes ’18, and Ahmed Abdelrahman ’18. //

Myles Garbarini met Class I and Class II AP Art History students for dinner in Manhattan on January 26, during the students’ New York City “art trek" (story on page 14). Myles is working as a Technical Art Historian & Research Coordinator for Sotheby’s Scientific Research Department. Myles told students that he was about to start analyzing a purported Botticelli.

2019

On March 11, the Bucknell University baseball team took a 4-0 lead and never looked back behind a solid starting

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Photos from top: Sally Stevens with Thato Ungwang and Stephen Kuenstner; Alex Adames (at right) speaking at the Harvard Graduate School of Education; Will Greer pitching a win for Bucknell University; RL alumni at Goldman Sachs with Gita Gopinath P’21; RL Commercial Real Estate Group on Zoom.

More than $394,000, from 920 gifts, in 24 hours. Thank you. Thank you for helping to make Roxbury Latin’s second annual Giving Day a resounding success. With your help, we raised more than $394,000 for the Annual Fund—including $75,000 in challenge money from trustee donors—with 920 gifts, in 24 hours. Your generosity more than doubled our goal and exceeded all of our expectations. More importantly, your gifts will preserve the school’s core values, while ensuring that students are equipped to lead and serve, taught by a talented, passionate, and dedicated faculty, who are committed to the boys in their care. For your excitement, for your generosity—for your love of, and belief in, this school—we are deeply grateful. On this year’s Exelauno Day, thank you for marching forth with us.

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in memoriam

“We are here to add what we can to, not to get what we can from, life.” – Paul Francis Beatty’s 1952 yearbook quote Albert Van Boskerck “Kerck” Kelsey ’51 died at his home in Falmouth, Maine, on March 26, 2020. Born on February 12, 1933, to Ruth and Albert “Bert” Kelsey—beloved Roxbury Latin master from 1937 to 1966—Kerck grew up in Dedham. Although Kerck left Roxbury Latin for Lawrenceville his sophomore year, the faculty and his peers held him in high regard, and he remained an active member of the Roxbury Latin community throughout his life. Kerck earned stellar marks for his fidelity and neatness as a Roxbury Latin student. Headmaster Weed wrote Kerck in the spring of 1951 to relay “how very pleased” the faculty were to learn of his acceptance to Princeton, and to remind Kerck that his teachers “still consider[ed] [him] a part of the Roxbury Latin family,” and offered him their “very best wishes and congratulations.” Kerck recalled his days at Roxbury Latin fondly; an undefeated football season in 1946 remained a favorite lifelong memory. Kerck earned his AB in English at Princeton; after completing his

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undergraduate work, he served in the U.S. Army from 1955 to 1957. In 1958, Kerck married Susan Harris; the couple shared more than sixty years together. Kerck began a professional career in publications working at WGBH. He later joined Houghton Mifflin Company, where he made a career in marketing and sales for more than twenty years. In 1979 he left the publishing world and worked for Bank of Boston for a decade, before returning to publishing sales with Thomas Todd Company. Ultimately, Kerck served as president of Harris Electronics Inc. until his retirement. In his later years, Kerck earned a master’s in history at Harvard. He published three books, was a longtime Rotarian, an avid traveler, and an adventurer.

Kerck was a member of the Thomas Bell Society. He left a bequest to Roxbury Latin in memory of his father’s service to the school and in appreciation for his own education.

Jamaica Plain. Paul’s classmate and lifelong friend Fred Reis ’52 reflected: “Early in Class Six it was evident that, as the class yearbook later observed, ‘Paul was a natural leader, ranked among the top in the class in studies, athletics, and in popularity.’ He was elected (at various points) class president, student council member, and Good Government Day representative. Paul also wrote the “Observer” column in Tripod, and was a stalwart on the debating team, in school plays, and in the Glee Club. He was an athletic leader in all six years in football, baseball, hockey, and track, playing first-string on the varsity football team from his sophomore year. In his senior year, Paul was student council president, debating team president, and football captain. At graduation, he was named a John Eliot Scholar and was awarded the Henry Cunningham Award for Outstanding Character and Scholastic Ability; the Fowler Essay Prize; the Harvard Book Prize; and the English Detur. His classmates voted Paul ‘Most Likely to Succeed.’” Paul made diligent use of his talents at Roxbury Latin and was broadly involved in the life of the school. In his college letter, Headmaster Weed wrote, “Beatty is one of our leading students… he has a pleasing personality and a happy disposition. It is a pleasure to recommend him most highly.” He matriculated at Harvard on an NROTC scholarship.

Paul Francis Beatty ’52 died on January 5, 2020. He was born on August 14, 1934, to Jeannette Doyle and Patrick Beatty, and grew up in

As a college freshman, Paul wrote to Headmaster Weed: “I am beginning to really appreciate how good that preparation [at Roxbury Latin] was…

Kerck was happiest enjoying the company and laughter of friends and family at home, at the South Freeport Congregational Church, at Washburn-Norlands Living History Center, and on his boat, sharing stories and a Maine sunset. He is survived by his three sons, his grandchildren, great-grandchildren, his brother, and their families. He was predeceased by his wife.

the difficult freshman math course… covered nothing that Mr. Bridgess did not cover last year. Mr. Houser’s chemistry course helped me a great deal in Chem. 2, the advanced course. My Latin and Greek have been a great help in my humanities courses, and the Roxbury Latin English courses have been an asset in all of my essays and short papers. My French and history courses have also been of use… Our preparation at Roxbury Latin has given us a long head-start.” Paul earned his AB from Harvard in Applied Science; upon his graduation, he was commissioned an Ensign in the U.S. Navy, and he served in that role until 1959. Fred Reis noted that Paul “long considered his leadership responsibilities and broad exposure in the Navy to be among the top learning experiences in his life.” Upon his discharge, Paul married his high school sweetheart, Cathy Connolly, with whom he shared sixty years of marriage. He took over the family pharmacy, Beatty Bros. Inc, and served as its president until 1965. Paul went on to earn a BS in Pharmacy from New England College of Pharmacy in 1962 and an LLB from Boston College School of Law in 1966. He began working for Sullivan and Worcester, which numbered only twenty-two lawyers at that time. He was made partner in 1971. Paul served as counsel for Sullivan and Worcester and general counsel for HP Hood Inc. beginning in 2000. Paul also served a term as chairman of the RLS Alumni Fund under Headmaster Mayo-Smith.

After 33 years in Sudbury, Paul moved his family to Beacon Hill. During those years, Paul embraced city life in every way—from frequenting the symphony to the Somerset and Harvard Clubs, from marathons to regattas, and every Championship parade. In 2019, Paul and Cathy moved to Fox Hill Village in Westwood. Over his 85 years, Paul remained intellectually curious, but always understated about his accomplishments. His friends and family remember him as loving, generous, practical, intelligent, steady, strong, and honorable. He is survived by his wife, three daughters, grandchildren, a sister, and their families. Peter Weston Coogan ’62 of Newton Centre died of COVID-19 on April 9, 2020, at the age of 76. He was born February 21, 1944, to Barbara and Peter Coogan. Classmates noted in the Yearbook that Peter was “a boy that one [couldn’t] help but admire… he proved himself one of our best students.” Peter participated in debate and served on the student council while at Roxbury Latin. He was also on the business staff for the School Play. He served as the school representative to the Boston Junior Red Cross and managed the baseball and football teams. Headmaster Weed wrote that Peter was “reliable, conscientious, sincere, and likeable,” and a “‘johnny-on-the-spot’ when there is work to be done, and he stays there until the job is finished.” Peter Coogan matriculated at Harvard, where he earned his AB in

government. Thereafter, he earned his JD magna cum laude from Harvard Law School. From 1969 to 1970, Peter worked as a law clerk for the Honorable J. Skelly Wright of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. From 1970-1973, he was Assistant Chief Counsel for the United States Senate Subcommittee on Constitutional Amendments and a Legislative Assistant. While with the Senate Subcommittee on Constitutional Amendments, Peter was instrumental in the introduction and ratification of the 26th Constitutional Amendment which permits voting by citizens who are 18 years and older. Peter also worked on passage of the Equal Rights Amendment which sought to guarantee equal legal rights for all American citizens regardless of sex. That Constitutional amendment was submitted to states for ratification but did not receive the requisite state approvals by the ratification deadline. In 1973, Peter joined the Boston law firm of Foley Hoag LLP. Testament to his legal acumen, Peter became a full equity partner of the firm in less than two years. From 1989 to 1994, Peter was a managing partner of the firm. Peter specialized in the legal areas of banking, corporate finance and securities, intellectual property, technology transfer and licensing, life sciences, mergers and acquisitions, and venture capital and emerging companies. His legal advice was always smart, insightful, and practical, and he was a well-liked mentor to young lawyers. His former partner reflected: “What [Peter]

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taught me, about law and service and life and how to treat people, cannot be measured.” When Peter joined Foley Hoag in 1973, his future wife Deborah Willard was then an associate at the firm. They were married in May 1975, and they spent 45 years together. Peter and Debbie spent virtually every weekend and vacation for more than 40 years at their Vermont farm, and Peter especially enjoyed mowing the fields and maintaining the 200-acre property. When Peter retired from Foley Hoag in 2010, he and Debbie purchased a winter home in Tucson, Arizona, where they enjoyed classical music concerts at the Fred Fox School of Music at the University of Arizona. Peter is survived by his wife, daughter, son, two grandsons, sister, brother, and their families. Robert “Bob” Allen Dangel ’66 died on September 23, 2019. He was born on October 28, 1948, to Sarah Levenson and Phoenix Dangel and followed in the footsteps of his older brothers Philip ’60 and Stephen ’61 by attending Roxbury Latin. From his early adolescence, Bob Dangel loved the outdoors. The Yearbook noted that Bob had the “distinction of being the only member of our class to ride his bicycle to school every morning.” Bob’s classmates admired him as a “very capable and avid scientist” who took biology, physics, and chemistry, even though just one science course was required for graduation at that time. As a high school student, he was an

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active member of the Appalachian Mountain Club, president of an Explorer post, and an enthusiastic skier. Bob also excelled in soccer, played lacrosse, wrestled, and participated in the Senior Play. Bob’s extracurricular interests extended far beyond school, as he also earned the rank of Eagle Scout. His college advisor, Mr. Dilworth, wrote that Bob “had a strong, independent outlook,” and that he was “not afraid to voice his opinion.” The environmental consciousness and a devotion to the natural world that characterized Bob’s youth influenced his work for the rest of his life. Bob matriculated at MIT, where he earned his BS in chemistry in 1970. After an additional year of academic work, he earned his MS in chemical engineering from MIT in 1971. Bob then joined the U.S. Public Health Service, where he worked for the Environmental Protection Agency for nearly a decade. In that role, he developed a method now widely used to identify the corrosion damage and metals pick-up in potable water systems. He also provided control assistance to municipal drinking water and wastewater treatment plants. Beginning in 1980, Bob worked at the industrial environmental engineering group at Camp Dresser & McKee Inc., where he consulted on water and air pollution control and contaminated site clean-up. He was an expert in industrial manufacturing processes, and worked with manufacturers to avoid treatment costs through process improvements and material

substitutions, preventative measures that benefited both manufacturers and the environment. In the early 2000s Bob fulfilled a long-term goal of riding his bicycle 4,000 miles across the United States. He quipped: “I always found relaxation in physical fatigue… How else could one survive the load at RL?” He was a loyal and lifelong supporter of Roxbury Latin. Bob is survived by his beloved wife Harriet J. Cohen, his brothers, and extended family. Richard “Cal” Callanan ’73 died on February 27, 2020 at the age of 64, surrounded by his loving family, after a battle with non-Hodgkin’s T-cell Lymphoma. Cal was born on June 22, 1955, to Marie and John Callanan. As an RL student, Cal played football, soccer, and lacrosse. He served on the Yearbook Committee his senior year. His RL classmate Chris Buckley reminisced that “Cal was a ‘local kid’ growing up just up the street [from RL] on Brier Road” who excelled in Greek and Latin. The school praised Cal in his college letter as “a fine person; bright, amusing, and honest,” who “besides his other talents, has real leadership.” Cal had “the great ability to get to the heart of any matter,” with an unassuming, “quiet good humor.” Cal matriculated at Amherst College, where he roomed with Chris Buckley and fellow Roxbury Latin alumnus Willie Walker. He graduated from Amherst in 1977 with a BA in political science. Cal worked in

medical equipment sales, first as a sales representative and later as a Senior Account Executive. In 1983 he married Paula Rice, with whom he shared 36 years of marriage. Beginning in 1988 he made his career at Kinetic Concepts Inc., a San Antonio-based manufacturer of wound care products and surfaces, covering the Greater Boston area, Rhode Island, and eastern Connecticut. Cal was an avid golfer and a member of the Needham Country Club. He shared his love of the Classics and gold with his children. Classmates recall that Cal was a great friend who will be sorely missed. He is survived by his mother, his beloved wife, daughter, son, sisters, their families, and an extended family of cherished nieces and nephews.

Former Roxbury Latin French master, Hugh David Campbell—retired educator, headmaster, and financial planner—died peacefully on October 1, 2019, in Northfield, Vermont, surrounded by his wife and children. Born on February 20, 1930, in Providence, Rhode Island, Hugh was the son of Wallace and Mary Bushnell Hazard Campbell. Hugh graduated from Milton Academy in 1947 and from Yale University in 1951. He earned his MA in French from Middlebury College and served two years in the Connecticut Air National Guard (1951-1953) which was activated and sent to Camp Edwards, Falmouth, Massachusetts.

thirds, developed a full afternoon program, and became a more recognized part of the independent school scene in Rhode Island.

Hugh taught French and coached at Canterbury School in Connecticut from 1953 to 1957. Hugh married Eleonore “Lorli” Trapp at the Trapp Family Music Camp Chapel in Moscow, Vermont, on June 13, 1954. In those years immediately following, they had three daughters: Elizabeth, Peggy and Jeanie. The family moved to Walpole, Massachusetts, where they lived for ten years and where Polly, Erika, Hope, and Martina were born. At Roxbury Latin, from 1957 to 1967, Hugh taught French, coached, and worked in college placement. During that decade, Hugh built one of the first language labs in the country to help his students master French. He co-authored a series of four French readers that were published by Houghton Mifflin. He also taught the teaching of French for three summers at the Harvard-Newton program.

The family moved permanently in 1975 to their vacation home in Waitsfield, Vermont. There Hugh became a financial planner with IDS Financial Services in 1977 and continued in that role until he retired in 1996. Hugh served on the Waitsfield Board of Selectmen for five years, serving as chairman the last two of those years. He cherished his friendship with God and was an active church member and community leader. Hugh is survived by his wife, Lorli, of 65 years, and by his daughters, Elizabeth, Peggy, Jeanie, Polly, Erika, Hope, and Martina, as well as by his 18 grandchildren (including Nathaniel Peters ’03); three greatgrandsons; and 27 nieces and nephews. A grandson, Timothy David Price; his brother, Wallace Campbell III; and sisters Peggy Staley and Jane Smith predeceased him. Contributions to Roxbury Latin may be designated in memory of any deceased alumnus or faculty member. //

Hugh served as headmaster of Rocky Hill School in East Greenwich, Rhode Island, from 1967 to 1975. During those years the school grew by two-

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A Simple Gift, a Lasting Impact A gift to Roxbury Latin through a will or trust is an easy way to ensure that the school continues to have a lasting impact on the lives and education of boys. Remembering Roxbury Latin in your estate planning:

• directly supports the boys and teachers of RL in perpetuity; • is simple; • doesn’t affect your current financial situation; • allows you to remain flexible if your circumstances change; • and may help you lessen or avoid estate taxes. Through a bequest you can easily give a specific dollar amount, a particular asset, a set percentage of your estate, or the residual amount of your estate. Additionally, you can name RL a beneficiary if one or more of your specific bequests cannot be fulfilled, or you can direct your gift to the school to be used for a particular purpose.

As is always the case when seeking legal and financial advice, we recommend that you speak with your attorney or estate planner to learn about the many benefits and possibilities of philanthropic estate planning. More information is also available at roxburylatin.plannedgiving.org. There you can also learn about other ways to make a gift to Roxbury Latin that will cost you nothing during your lifetime and that will provide crucial support for the school for years to come. If you have already made provisions for Roxbury Latin in your will or estate, or if you have questions about making a planned gift to Roxbury Latin, please contact Dave Cataruzolo, Director of Alumni Affairs and Planned Giving, at david.cataruzolo@roxburylatin.org or 617-477-6314. We would like to show our appreciation for your commitment and welcome you into the Thomas Bell Society. //

from the archives

“The Forced Vacation” by MARCUS MILLER and CHRIS HEATON

scourge, depending on your perspective) of Zoom sessions, RL’s doors are closed less tightly—though more indefinitely—than they were for three weeks during September and October of 1918, when the school temporarily shut to stop the spread of the flu in the Commonwealth.

The title of “oldest school in continuous existence in North America” comes with it a solemn charge: Stay open. Records indicate that Roxbury Latin took only a “half-day holiday” in 1775 when the British marched to Lexington and Concord (in case the British Army returned via Roxbury en route to Boston). After that, the school remained open throughout the Revolution. Resilience, it seems, is in our blood. Today our responsibility to remain open is manifest most frequently on days of inclement winter weather. Students longing for snow days may believe Roxbury Latin’s reluctance to shut down is born of spite, or some cruel indifference to the morning routines of teenagers. But like so many things we do year after year at RL, being open is tradition, as much as Exelauno Day, or May Day, or Work Squad. This year, however, the irresistible force of tradition has met its match, more than 100 years after a similar pandemic forced the school to temporarily close its doors. Roxbury Latin has been witness to a host of outbreaks, both of war and disease, in its 375 years, but neither battlefield action nor the likes of smallpox, cholera, polio, or measles had forced Roxbury Latin to suspend operation before the arrival of the “Spanish Flu” in 1918. Now the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) has closed Roxbury Latin’s literal doors once again—but not its ability to hold school. With the advent of the Internet and its deep well of social resources, from simple e-mails to the miracle (or

–From The Tripod, 1918 According to the minutes of the meeting of The Roxbury Latin School Trustees on September 25, 1918—among other matters of newly admitted students and establishing Physical Director Hubert Colton as an official member of the faculty—it was voted that, “because of the present epidemic of influenza, the school be closed till one week from next Monday, October 7, 1918, and that the President and Dr. Broughton have power to extend the time beyond the limit heretofore set, if they shall deem it wise to do so.” The closure was eventually extended, but not for long, and students and faculty were soon back in class, even coming in on Saturdays to make up for lost time, an important effort, The Tripod noted, to preserve spring vacation. (That the time lost was made up indicates to our archivist that the descriptor “in continuous existence” still holds!) As this current physical shutdown of campus stretches on, Roxbury Latin’s resilience is again on display in the determination of its leadership, the fortitude of its faculty and staff, and the incredible ability of its students. One hundred years on, however long this pandemic lasts and however it is remembered—perhaps only in the footnotes of meeting minutes—we can all take pride in the fact that we can add our names to the long list of those men and women who have kept our school open for centuries, even while our doors were closed. //

The Roxbury Latin School 101 St. Theresa Avenue West Roxbury, MA 02132-3496 www.roxburylatin.org Change Service Requested

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Roxbury Latin Newsletter: Spring 2020

Articles inside

Ramblings from the Archives

Class Notes & In Memoriam

Faculty Flashback: Steve Ward

Bowdoin Bound: A Learning Experience—for Faculty—in Brunswick, Maine

375th Anniversary Highlights >> Art of the Men of RL

A Lesson in Connected Histories: Dr. Zine

What Can We Learn from This? Headmaster

Everything You’ve Ever Wanted to Know About The Tripod in Three Easy Answers | by MIKE

Digging Deeply Into Race and Gender: Dr. Zine

Exelauno Day Honors the Classics

RL Hosts Graves-Kelsey Wrestling Tournament