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MILLBROOK’S MISSION Millbrook School educates its students to succeed and serve in college and beyond. In a community where everyone is known and needed, our curriculum instills • curiosity and a commitment to academic excellence; • respect for oneself and for others; • a moral framework based on personal integrity; • a commitment to serve as stewards of the natural world; • a readiness to use one’s knowledge and skills in service to others. We promote the intellectual, emotional, spiritual, creative, and physical growth that will lead to a life satisfying to the individual and valuable to the greater good.
a magazine for alumni, parents and friends of millbrook school
SPRING 2019
Living the Tradition of Non Sibi Sed Cunctis UP FRONT 3 Introduction from Headmaster Drew Casertano
4 Millbrook Moments
MILLBROOK MATTERS
PAGE
50
FEATURES
50 Millbrook Voices: The Power of Community Reflections on Respect, Diversity, Tradition, and Gratitude Three members of the Millbrook family share their thoughts on the value and significance of community.
52 The Path Forward | by Dr. Thomas Lovejoy ’59 54 L essons from Around the World | by Olly Cohen ’16 58 T radition: Chapel Talks | by The Reverend Cam Hardy
60 Connections and Community: Built On a Foundation of Respect
16 Academics 20 New Academic Courses 24 Quotables 28 Athletics 32 Arts 40 Student Life 48 Faculty in New Roles
ALUMNI 75 Millbrook Alumni Gatherings
84 Class Notes 102 In Memoriam ON THE COVER
Meet Millbrook alumni whose personal and professional journeys have been determined or informed by their desire to connect to others.
61 64 70 72 73
Mark Smith ’68, MD, MBA Mario Chiappetti ’74 Margot (Perera) Phelps ’94 Kinley McCracken ’04 Melissa Rome ’11
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After a 50-20 win over The Gunnery in the final game of the season, Head Football Coach Colin Brown congratulates Mike Nassif ’20, who contributed two TDs and two extra points to the score. Photo by Kandice Zakarian.
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Associate Director of Development & Alumni Affairs
a m ag a z i n e fo r a l u m n i , pa r e n t s and friends of millbrook school
Colleen McAllister
Honorary Trustees: Farnham F. Collins ’53 (GP ’17) William L. Crossman ’74 (P ’09)
Events Coordinator & Class Notes Editor
Lucy P. Cutting (P ’77)
Betty Siegenthaler
William R. Hettinger ’77 (P ’01, ’04)
Gift Entry Manager & Administrative Assistant
David D. Holbrook ’56 (P ’82, ’83, GP ’11, ’12, ’14)
Michelle Blayney DESIGN
Melissa Pastre
Thomas E. Lovejoy ’59 (P ’86)
Proof Design
Administrative Assistant & Database Manager
EDITOR
Bonnie Lodevole
CONTRIBUTORS
Bruce B. Huber ’47 William B. McNamara ’75 Bradford Mills ’44 (GP ’03, ’17) Oakleigh B. Thorne (P ’95)
Michelle Blayney, Olly Cohen ’16, The Reverend Cam Hardy, Dr. Thomas Lovejoy ’59, Alex Pearson, Trish Rexhouse
Administrative Assistant
Director of Communications
NON DISCRIMINATION
PHOTO CONTRIBUTORS
Michelle Blayney
Millbrook School adheres to a long-standing policy of admitting students of any race, color, creed, religion, sexual orientation, national or ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the school. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, creed, religion, sexual orientation, national or ethnic origin in the administration of its education policies, admission policies, financial aid program, or other school-administered programs.
Michelle Blayney, Dan Cohen ’86, Henry Frankenbach ’19, Michael George, Ava Goodale ’01, Samantha Goodwin, Sarah MacWright, Alex Pearson, Trish Rexhouse, Ana Spinella ’06, Nancy Stahl, Alan Tousignant, Bob Vanecek, Dave Whiting, Kandice Zakarian MILLBROOK is published by the Communications Office and Alumni & Development Office of Millbrook School for alumni, parents, and friends of the school. Contents may be reproduced
Elizabeth Lowe ’13
Assistant Directors of Communication
Trish Rexhouse and Alex Pearson Photography and Sports Information Coordinator
Kandice Zakarian
BOARD OF TRUSTEES Chairman
William L. Menard ’78 (P ’09, ’12, ’12)
or reprinted only by permission of the editor.
Vice Chairman
Opinions expressed do not reflect the official
Paul M. Solomon ’61 (P ’98)
position of Millbrook School.
Secretary
Peter R. Chapman (P ’11, ’12)
Millbrook School 131 Millbrook School Road Millbrook, NY 12545
Treasurer
Richard A. Stuckey (P ’00, ’03, ’09)
Phone: 845-677-8261 Website: www.millbrook.org
Headmaster
Drew J. Casertano
ENVIRONMENTAL STATEMENT Millbrook magazine is printed on Finch Fine Bright White Ultra Smooth 100 lb. cover and 80 lb. text. This paper is manufactured with 10% postconsumer fiber using on-site renewable power. It is FSC certified.
Francisco L. Borges ’70 Follow Millbrook at your favorite social media sites: Facebook
Stephen M. Clement, III Kelly Coles ’86 (P ’19) Trevor L. Colhoun ’95 Morgan C. Conrad ’99
Linked in
YouTube
Kathleen A. Dill ‘85 Nicole Sheetz Frith (P ’18) Christopher C. Holbrook ’82 (P ‘11, ‘12, ‘14) Theodore S. Karatz ’96
13 trees preserved for the future 21,009 gal wastewater flow saved 5,380 lbs net greenhouse gases prevented
ALUMNI & DEVELOPMENT OFFICE
Robert S. Koenigsberger (P ’13, ’16)
Director of Advancement
Sean McManus (P ’18)
22,000,000 BTUs energy
Nancy Stahl
Gordon S. Pennoyer ’99
not consumed
Assistant to the Headmaster for External Affairs
Robert Anthony ‘65
Gilbert P. Schafer III ’80 Lisa P. Selz (P ’12, ’17) Paul Simons ’83 (P ’17, ’19)
Director of Parent Programs
Barbara Gatski
Paul Stafford (P ’16, ’19) Charlotte Carroll Tracy ’88
Director of the Annual Fund
Deborah Vanecek
2
For this issue we reduce our carbon footprint the equivalent of...
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Caroline A. Wamsler, PhD ‘87 Jing Wang (P ’21, ’23)
PLEASE RECYCLE THIS MAGAZINE
Introduction from
Headmaster Drew Casertano: We strive continually to create the brightest future for Millbrook, to sustain the best of what we do, our most meaningful practices and traditions, while always looking to improve what we do, the ways we teach and promote learning and growth with our students. That is exactly as it should be in a school founded to be “conservatively progressive.” That process always begins with this question, “What makes Millbrook, Millbrook?”
based on shared values where every student will be known and
With a student body that has grown to 320 and a faculty that numbers 80, with campus facilities that have more than doubled in size, and with a program that is rich and complex, the answer we hear over and over from students, parents, and alumni is our powerful sense of community. Even visitors, after just a brief time on campus, describe a palpable feeling of community because they are acknowledged and welcomed.
the expression of our mission and of the ways we create and sustain
All this is built on our mission, which reads, “In a community where every student is known and needed, Millbrook prepares its graduates for college and lives of meaning and consequence by instilling the values of respect, integrity, stewardship, service and curiosity.” We state our purpose clearly and make explicit that the means to our worthy ends is by creating a community
needed. Our mission is both our foundation and our inspiration. This issue of our magazine is dedicated to sharing examples of a healthy and inclusive school community—one that encourages feelings of belonging and ownership, one that inspires personal growth and a sense of responsibility for the greater good, and one that lives and breathes Non Sibi Sed Cunctis. I hope you find as much inspiration in these stories as I do. What a privilege. Onward!
Drew Casertano Headmaster
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Millbrook Moments
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The presence of the Flagler Memorial Chapel as a centerpiece of the Millbrook School campus is evident from near and far. Whether in moments on the bricks, on the throne, or in a favorite pew, the chapel and the Flagler Quadrangle are shared symbols of the Millbrook experience for past and future generations.
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Millbrook Moments
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Led by Science Department Chair Ava Goodale ’01, Millbrook students engage in experiential learning on a global scale. Hands-on learning in the Amazon has Millbrook roots going back many decades and makes environmental stewardship tangible. These future leaders returned to Millbrook inspired to share their unique experience and rally their classmates to create positive change within the community and beyond.
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Millbrook Moments
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Mister Millbrook Bob Anthony ’65 said it best, “January means two things at Millbrook: a new winter term has begun, and it is time for Winter Weekend!” Though it is a dorm competition, the event is really a celebration of student pride for their school. Koenigsberger Hall took top prize this year with their creativity, teamwork, and enthusiasm.
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Millbrook Moments
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Prefects, dorm leaders, and faculty members usher in Millbrook’s newest community members during Opening Days activities—their first opportunity to get acquainted with Millbrook’s motto, Non Sibi Sed Cunctis!
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Millbrook Moments
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In its second season, 8-man football is steadily growing into a signature athletic program. In a battle of grit and glory, the team played under the lights, in the mud, to win definitively in front of a roaring crowd of Mustang fans.
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Millbrook Moments
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Headmaster Drew Casertano is the embodiment of community at Millbrook. For nearly 30 years he has lived the school’s mission by ensuring each student is known and needed.
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Millbrook Matters ACADEMICS, ATHLETICS, ARTS, STUDENT LIFE, AND FACULT Y
ACADEMICS Our primary focus continues to be nurturing the spirit of inquiry in our students. Within the Warner Gallery, the canopy walkway, the Trevor Zoo, and our more traditional academic classrooms, students have the opportunity to explore interdisciplinary studies in direct and meaningful ways.
Environmental Stewardship: Practical Applications in the Curriculum Protecting Threatened Wood Turtles: Tracking and Data Mapping “ You have to expose kids to conservation so they might develop a passion for it and pursue conservation work,” says Director of the Trevor Zoo Dr. Alan Tousignant. That is precisely what he has been doing by way of his collaborative, hands-on work researching wood turtles with students since 2016. Millbrook’s 800-acre campus has a unique diversity of habitats for scientific study, including its wetlands, which are where wood turtles dwell. Wetlands in the northeastern region of the United States currently face multiple threats but are important habitats for many species and serve vital roles in our ecosystem. “Wetlands are buffers, and, simply put, we need them and need to protect them,” says Dr. Tousignant. Independent Science Research student Si Wei ’17 first approached Dr. Tousignant in 2016 with an interest in studying the threatened wood turtle within our wetlands. She ultimately spent tens of hours surveying this turtle population on campus and reporting on a population of five females and five males.
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MILLBROOK MATTERS
Academics The following year, a group of curious zoo curators and students enrolled in Dr. Tousignant’s Animal Behavior course decided to pick up where Si had left off. Using modern radio tracking technology, students were now able to tag and track a subset of the population. There were days when they would spend hours searching but find nothing; nonetheless, the radio trackers benefited the group. Once they were able to track some turtles, those that were tagged began to lead them to others. Students were utilizing current methodology, and they were able to discern patterns of behavior within the species via mapping of collected data points.
Diligence has paid off, and 34 turtles were identified as of November 2018. The data points collected thus far shed light on turtle behaviors tied to their conservation. For example, the maps indicate that the female population is roaming far away from the males and trying to nest too closely to School Road. Traffic in this location puts both the females and their eggs in danger. The maps also indicate that the males and females are gravitating towards different wetland areas on campus, complicating plans to protect the species in our wetlands. The wood turtle research has also fostered a beneficial working relationship between local scientists, conservation organizations, and Millbrook students and faculty. Biologist and local turtle expert Jason Tesauro has a long interest in the project and has visited campus multiple times to work in the wetlands with science students. Tesauro has illustrated to our students how the work that they are doing on campus is a part of something much bigger and is relevant to all wood turtle populations and to other endangered species that are closely related, such as bog turtles. Tesauro has been especially helpful
in teaching students how to define a wetland habitat and sustain it. His recommendation to remove some encroaching red maple trees from the wetlands is now helping to make that habitat more hospitable for bog turtles. There are multiple layers to this meaningful work, one of which is its connection to the school’s core value of environmental stewardship. It is no surprise that students have been eager to continue efforts to study the wood turtle population year after year. “People often talk about conservation in relation to wellknown and exotic species, like sea turtles and pandas,” says Dr. Tousignant, “but we are fortunate to be the only high school with a zoo and to have a vast campus landscape with such diversity in its habitats, which gives us the opportunity to work with all sorts of endangered animals.” The work that Dr. Tousignant and his students are doing with the wood turtles reminds us that we have threatened species in our backyard and that conservation work matters at all levels. Whether it’s studying wood turtles in the wetlands or caring for red pandas in their Trevor Zoo exhibit, the work is equally as important and relevant, and the opportunities to learn and make a lasting impact are plentiful.
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First Environmental Summit Draws Great Interest Director of Environmental Stewardship and Sustainability Leigh Schmitt worked with members of Millbrook’s SCAPE club (Students Concerned About Planet Earth) to organize and host our first ever Environmental Summit. “What was exciting about this event for me was how eager our students were to take the reigns in terms of preparing and executing it,” says Mr. Schmitt. On February 16th eight schools and organizations, including The Ashokan Center, Berkshire School, Canterbury School, Darrow School, Dutchess Day School, Indian Mountain School, Salisbury School, and Washington Montessori School, came together on Millbrook’s campus to discuss environmental issues. The event began at 9:00 a.m. with ice breakers and introductions before Science Department Chair Ava Goodale presented a keynote address on her recent conservation work in Peru. Student presentations on their independent research in environmental science and biology followed in smaller groups, and then participants toured the Trevor Zoo. The group gathered just before noon to debrief and discuss next steps.
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“One of the outcomes of our conversations was a commitment to continued information sharing and collaboration between schools and organizations,” says Drew Moriarty ’19, who helped organize the event. “I think this is important, and I look forward to planning future interscholastic events and activities to help raise awareness about environmental issues.”
MILLBROOK MATTERS
Academics
Teaming Up to Test Campus Water Chemistry instructor Davida LaCosse’s advanced chemistry class focuses on real-life, applicationbased chemistry. Each unit asks a question about how to use chemistry to understand the world. In the first semester Mrs. LaCosse and her students brainstormed potential answers to the following question: Why does some water on campus taste strange? As they began to search for answers, they teamed up with students on Millbrook’s Environmental Council (EC). Under the leadership of faculty member Leigh Schmitt, the EC is focused on a wide variety of sustainability initiatives including campus water, how to make it better and more enjoyable, and how to ensure consistent quality throughout Millbrook’s campus. Continuing to implement strategic initiatives to reduce disposable bottled water consumption within the school community, they were eager to collaborate when learning that Mrs. LaCosse and her class were performing a chemical analysis of the water on campus. Advanced chemistry students split into three groups for water collection and testing in faculty housing, in dormitories, and in main campus buildings. They collected water three times daily from whatever sources were available in the assigned area (e.g., water fountains, sinks) and tested it using titration assays. Their goal: to determine the amounts of calcium, chlorine, pH, crystalizing dissolved solids, and more, in the water. Simultaneously, the EC organized and facilitated a campuswide taste test event that provided qualitative information around what water sources were preferred on campus. Once data from the titrations was available, students could understand why different water sources provided better tasting water. Most of the water deemed as poor tasting contained large amounts of dissolved solids, such as calcium, which confirmed that some locations on campus have very hard water. With this data the EC can influence infrastructure improvements and help determine the best locations for installing additional water-filling stations on campus. Additionally, in the fall a new group of advanced chemistry students can use this data to decide if they will research further or if they might change methods to learn something new. This collaboration perfectly exemplifies the ongoing, community-wide conversations and opportunities to support Millbrook’s core values of curiosity and environmental stewardship.
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WHAT’S NEW:
Courses, Curriculum & Programming Millbrook’s academic committee is constantly evaluating how well our program supports our mission and our students’ preparation for college while simultaneously matching our faculty’s interests and strengths to current or potentially new academic offerings.
Botany Given Millbrook’s campus location and expanding farm, Botany was a natural addition to Millbrook’s scientific course offerings. This semester-long course is taught by the newest member of the Science Department, Leigh Schmitt, who has taught environmental science and biology for 20 years and has degrees in plant and soil sciences and conservation biology. The class, an introduction to the scientific study of plants through a project-based curriculum, kicked off via a co-curricular collaboration with the Arts Department as students helped prepare terrariums for the Super Natural exhibition in the Warner Gallery in September. A study on “woody plant” taxonomy followed, and students learned to classify various plants on campus while creating visuals including maps, artwork, short documentaries, and models.
The second half of the semester was dedicated to studying cover crops on Millbrook’s farm. Farm Program Director Lyuda Pope shared background on the types of cover crops that have been planted on campus over the years, their significance, and their important role in sustainable agricultural. Millbrook’s cover crops protect and enrich the soil while also yielding food—such as legumes and radishes—that are served and enjoyed in the dining hall. The class planted both old and new varieties of cover crops in a dedicated section of the farm greenhouse to evaluate the efficacy of these plants by studying root growth, shoot growth, and germination. This study allowed the class to be embedded in the farm environment and learn about agricultural systems. As a result, they made thoughtful, research-based suggestions for cover crop planning and planting moving forward, dedicating a larger area to cover crop production. Botany will be taught again in the fall of 2019 and will present opportunities to literally dig deeper into topics including agriculture, forest ecology, plant-based diets, and more.
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MILLBROOK MATTERS
Academics
VIth Form English Electives Seven new electives replaced Millbrook’s traditional VIth form English offerings this year, allowing students to enroll in two semesterlong electives or a yearlong AP English course. Millbrook students mature in their roles as scholars by the time they begin their VIth form year, and while the yearlong VIth form English course was challenging and engaging for many of them, it was not necessarily serving the intellectual curiosity of the entire group. Thus, the English Department re-created the VIth form English curriculum to better serve students and challenge them most effectively. New VIth form English electives are based on faculty member’s own keen interests.
LITERATURE & INCARCERATION considers literary and cultural expression centered on the experience of being incarcerated. Students pursuing this course discuss incarceration and explore questions about democracy, freedom, citizenship, and humanity by reading and examining poems, novels, and other stories of corrections, criminal justice, and prisons in several countries. In November the class traveled to Philadelphia to tour the Eastern State Penitentiary (ESP) to experience prison life firsthand. ESP, which closed in 1971, allowed solitary confinement of all its prisoners, all the time, and held some of America’s most well-known criminals, including “Slick Willie” Sutton and “Scarface” Al Capone. Students toured the facility and participated in an interactive exhibit exploring topics such as criminal justice, the death penalty, patterns in American incarceration (e.g., race, economic status, gender, and age of those
incarcerated), and mass incarceration in the United States and other countries. This trip allowed students to see prison conditions, understand more deeply the personal experiences of prisoners, consider the evolving understanding of mental health in prisons, and put real faces and places to the stories read in class.
REPRESENTATIONS OF BEAUTY IN LITERATURE explores how Western beauty has evolved over the last two hundred years through both fiction and non-fiction. English Instructor Sara Krauss ’95 developed a curriculum that focuses on the evolution of aesthetic preference and the pitfalls of assigning too much importance to human beauty. Examination of novels such as Frankenstein and The Picture of Dorian Gray helps students broaden their understanding of beauty around non-Western versus Western ideals and gender fluidity. Collaboration with the Art Department in the fall brought students into the Warner Gallery and visiting artist Lissa Rivera’s photography exhibition, which included artworks inspired by sexuality
and gender. Students were tasked with writing the didactics for Rivera’s work, and the project inspired thoughtful and passionate classroom discussions. Students’ interests guided culminating projects that illustrated their opinions on how beauty will be defined in the next 50 years. Each student developed, researched, and supported a thesis and created a physical representation to support his/her position.
LITERATURE OF THE OCEAN introduces students to modern and contemporary works of fiction and poetry, while focusing on developing creative practice as an analytical tool. This takes shape in the “un-essay”—a non-traditional analysis of a text—that students produce by the end of the term. The idea for this course came out of collaborative work that teacher Lewis Feuer was doing with his partner, writer Rachel Miller. With an interest in coastal landscape, its constant change and variation, and its ambiguous characteristic, Mr. Feuer believed this tension around land and sea would provide an excellent opportunity for creative expression about spaces that are everchanging.
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Academics The class began their work with Jesmyn Ward’s Salvage the Bones, which takes place along the Mississippi Gulf Coast in the days just before and during Hurricane Katrina, before shifting to poetry by Charles Olson, Tracy K. Smith, and Jorie Graham. The final and most challenging text, Virginia Woolf ’s experimental novel The Waves, pushed students to appreciate the intensity of a challenging reading experience and make connections to the course’s themes.
GLOBAL DETECTIVE FICTION offers insight into cultural norms, widespread fears, and historical complexities of the countries from which they originate. Students taking this course read detective stories and novels from different countries to explore these and other unique lessons within this genre. Students work their way around the globe through the lens of detection narratives and detective fiction, a genre sometimes mistaken for pop literature. The class also discusses broader geographical, historical, and
socio-political concerns. For example, they look beyond the murder in a novel by Walter Mosley to examine lingering racial tensions after the Watts Riots in the 1960s, and they use Australian writer Arthur Upfield’s main character, Detective Napolean Bonaparte, to better understand white-aboriginal relations in Western Australia. Teacher Samantha Goodwin’s goal for her students is to understand the broader themes underlying the stories and to think twice before dismissing any mode of storytelling as less valuable.
CREATIVE WRITING was designed as a creative writing workshop, allowing students to produce original work, including poetry and short fiction, to compile into a portfolio as a culminating project. Students discuss contemporary criticism, perform critical research, and explore audio archives at Harvard’s Woodberry Poetry Room and the Poetry Foundation, all while considering how creative writing can be a radical art form.
MEMOIR AND THE PERSONAL ESSAY allows students to explore their inner peccadillos, reflect on their own life experiences, and then write about them. Sara Krauss ’95 developed this course as a natural extension of the English curriculum. Millbrook students read one memoir each year: The Glass Castle in English III, Persepolis in English IV, and Fun Home in English V. These three books are among our students’ favorites, and now VIth form students can concentrate on this genre for an entire semester. Stories and topics chosen to broaden the students’ perspectives include Elie Wiesel’s powerful personal narrative, Night, a contemporary graphic memoir, Rosalie Lightning, that documents a couple’s experience losing a young child to SIDS, and a graphic memoir, Tomboy. The class finishes the semester with an epistolary memoir, Between the World and Me, and Jesmyn Ward’s The Men We Reaped.
YALE PHYSICS OLYMPICS
The competition is designed to get students excited about
Eight Millbrook students traveled to Yale University on Saturday,
experimental design, and to build on other areas related to
October 13th, to participate in the Yale Physics Olympics.
physics. As Yale shared only the Fermi quiz questions in advance
Millbrook sent two teams, Absolute Zero and Quasar, and put
of the event, students were able to dedicate time to practicing
their physics skills to work, earning victory on multiple fronts.
these but had to rely on their experiences from their science
They placed first in the Fermi quiz, second in the measurement
courses to prepare for the other events.
event, and sixth place overall among 50 teams.
The study of physics is offered through two courses (Physics
physics, to test their skills in estimation, measurements and
and Advanced Physics-Honors), and students have the option of
ABSOLUTE ZERO
QUASAR
joining Millbrook’s engineering team, an athletic alternative during
Kevin Wang ’20 (team captain)
Anastasia Strulistova ’20 (team captain)
the winter months. Whether on the team or in class, students
Chris Wedd ’19
Justin DeFour ’21
Hanji Xu ’21
Owen Miller ’20
Kevin Yu ’19
Andy Qiu ’21
gain valuable insights through group and project-based learning or in various STEM competitions such as Team America Rocketry Challenge or VEX Robotics. Astronomy, a yearlong science elective, also exposes students to areas of physics including optics, celestial mechanics, and nuclear physics.
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MILLBROOK MATTERS
Academics
Circus Arts A number of students have asked throughout the years to formalize a circus arts course, and after training formally in circus arts last summer, Director of Dance Leighann Kowalsky was excited to craft the curriculum for this newest art offering. We are fortunate to have the capability to support such a course in our dance studio and on the stage in the Chelsea Morrison Theater, and with the acquisition and installation of some necessary apparatus, students this fall began studying and practicing various forms of circus arts including aerial fabric, trapeze, lyra, rope, tight rope, German wheel, and more. With each new topic students observe and discuss the historical and social factors that inform the practice today. Another touchpoint within the curriculum is the stress on sustainability as an athlete; thus, Ms. Kowalsky teaches on the topics of injury prevention, care, and overall health as well. Given that so many circus arts movements are body-weight based, they require the performer to develop and maintain overall physical strength and to use that strength strategically. Students practice how to be expressive and master technique and also how to use methods that support sustained dance and movement throughout their lifetime. Ms. Kowalsky is already planning for a level two continuation course for the 2019-2020 academic year, and both levels will provide another access point to dance and the performing arts for all students, especially those who are not necessarily musical or dance-focused.
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Academics
QUOTABLES
Visiting Speakers Millbrook welcomed a variety of guest speakers to campus to engage in thoughtful discussion and reflection. Speakers provided insights into a wide range of topics: curiosity and entrepreneurship, bias and the experience of black males in America, global citizenship, and more.
Forums Millbrook welcomed SLAM poet champion and author Elizabeth Acevedo, poet, author, and humanist Christopher Abani and mental health activist Hakeem Rahim to campus in September. Through deeply personal stories and poems, they shared their perspectives on the value of respect.
Words sung right can save us. – Christopher Abani
Abani talked about respect in the context of masculinity and problematic societal definitions of masculinity. He also spoke about how exposure to different people, cultures, and ideas brings people together and builds mutual respect.
We need to learn the language to talk about what we are dealing with and feeling. Help can feel like it’s miles away when, in fact, it can be from a prefect, a trusted faculty member, or a friend. We need to talk to one another. – Hakeem Rahim
I know I pushed you today. I brought in a lot of notions of gender, of race, of culture, and of ethnicity. Part of respect is showing up today as my full self. – Elizabeth Acevedo
Acevedo presented her poetry to the campus community in the fall; her words were not only creative, deeply meaningful, and personal but also shed light on how dangerous assumptions can be because they do not support an environment where respect can flourish.
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Mr. Rahim dubs himself an Acceptance Ambassador. A graduate of Harvard University (undergraduate degree) and Columbia University (two master’s degrees), he was a member of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) before launching his school-based program, Breaking Through Stigma: The Highs and Lows of Mental Health. He shared with our students his journey and struggles with mental health and stressed the importance of communication, seeking help, and always retaining hope.
MILLBROOK MATTERS
Academics
What do students, faculty, and young alumni say most distinguishes Millbrook from other schools?
OUR COMMUNITY. Millbrook offers a plethora of outstanding, unique courses and programs like Animal Behavior, in a one-of-a-kind living laboratory at the Trevor Zoo, and Independent Science Research, with unmatched resources and connections to professors and scientists at local colleges, universities, and research facilities. Millbrook is located on 800 acres with bountiful natural resources and distinct facilities like our canopy walkway and marsh boardwalk. We were sustainable long before sustainability became cool. We breed endangered species, and our students are involved in their daily care.
Chloe Robinson ’19
None of these signature programs and places on campus would have come to be or can continue without the people who strive every day to make this school a better place for all to live and learn. Here we share thoughts from current students, faculty, and young alumni on the power of the Millbrook community.
growing pains, I have been there—I can tell them exactly what to
You have to be a caterpillar first. You can’t come into a new place expecting to be fully formed and the best you’re going to be. While not being the best is really frustrating, you have to trust the process and the people who are here to support you. I had a lot of growing pains, but it’s been so worthwhile. Now this year, living with the IIIrd form girls and watching them go through their
do and how really hard it’s going to be. If you just let yourself grow, then the best things are going to come. This is the Millbrook lesson that will guide me for the rest of my life.
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Academics Helen Boone ’19
Sam Besca ’18
The Millbrook community is all about having a say in what your contribution to the school is going to be. Whatever that is that you want to contribute, you can make it a reality and then, over time, it grows and gets even better. You have every opportunity to leave a piece of yourself at Millbrook.
I hadn’t been in an environment where so many people were
Tito Crichton-Stewart ’19 Mrs. Krauss is my VIth form English teacher and leads the Diversity Club at Millbrook. She doesn’t say it in so many words, but she leads by example, giving off the energy that we all need to love and respect everybody for who they are.
genuinely invested in who I was rather than what I was going to do. Millbrook showed me that there are people who want you to become the best version of yourself and that they are here to help you achieve that. That means the world to me—it completely changed my life.
Erin Downs Associate Director of College Counseling I’m a teacher, counselor, and coach, but I’m also a parent of three young children. Seeing how Millbrook students want (and love!) to endear themselves to my family has been incredibly
Griffin Mandelbaum ’21
special. Watching students play games with faculty kids on the sidelines, accepting offers from students to babysit, and engaging
When I was going through a rough spot, I went to a friend that took the time to listen to me. Then he told me his story. This process taught me that you have to take the time to listen when others are willing to share because their stories are filled with growth and gratitude.
extensive family. There’s depth to the Millbrook community; it’s
Charlotte Meigs ’19
Bonnie Lodevole
No matter the community—whether it’s your dorm or your class or the school as a whole or your town or even the entire world—there are universally applicable values. And respect is the most important value when you’re in a space that you live in and work in and play in. You’re always part of something bigger than yourself.
Database Manager, Alumni and Development
Alyssa McLeod ’19 Community is built into the fabric of Millbrook School—that desire to know more about other people and to know more about the world around you and to create a well-rounded personality and a realm of knowledge for yourself. Millbrook wants students to thrive in society and become citizens who are well educated and well rounded.
with students on every campus pathway – we are all part of an broad and inclusive.
Everyone works together at Millbrook—students, faculty, staff, parents, alumni, and friends—gratefully and gracefully. In this way, learning and progress flourish here within this beautiful campus environment.
Bill Hardy Art Instructor Millbrook is that communal space—a fellowship of place—where the common good is valued and respected.
Gina Fuller Ilayda Koenigsberger ’16
Business Office Manager
It’s not easy to find the kind of close-knit community that is Millbrook, and it’s something that carried me through my four years. So, I look at it as my responsibility to pay it forward and create community now wherever I go in life.
When you go through something tragic, like when my husband, Michael, died, you really understand how Millbrook is a family. At the deepest, darkest place in my life, I saw beauty—beauty in the souls here who care for each other, who cared for me and my children. There were so many times that the outreach and love
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Ben Berg ’17
was stronger than the grief. That lifted us up, and our roots here
Millbrook stood out to me from the beginning as a kinder, better place, like nothing else that I’ve been a part of. I am always going to hold Millbrook’s community as the gold standard.
grew ever deeper. Millbrook’s focus is certainly on our students,
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but what makes Millbrook, Millbrook is how much we truly care for each other.
S TA Y C O N N E C T E D with Millbrook You’re only ever a click away from current events, news highlights, thousands of photos and hundreds of videos. Reconnect with old friends, or share what’s new in your life!
www.millbrook.org www.millbrook.org/keepintouch to update contact information or write a class note
www.millbrook.org/alumni to read current news and learn about upcoming events
www.millbrook.org/app to login to the alumni directory
Alumni App download from Apple’s App Store or Google Play
www.facebook.com/millbrookschool www.twitter.com/millbrookschool www.instagram.com/millbrookschool www.linkedin.com - search Millbrook School www.youtube.com/millbrookschoolny SPRING 2019 •
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ATHLETICS: A NEPSAC Championship, all-school records broken, and commitments to play at the Division I & II levels - these exceptional accomplishments and more gave Mustangs and their fans a lot to cheer about.
WINS & RECORDS Boys Varsity Soccer Named NEPSAC Class C Champions The Mustangs had an outstanding season with an overall record of 15-4, allowing them a second consecutive trip to the championship game. With a final score of 5-1, boys varsity soccer earned a definitive win against #2 seed Pingree School on Sunday, November 18th, at Worcester Academy, making them NEPSAC Class C champions. “Our signatures all season long—a stingy defense, hard work in the midfield, and a potent offense—proved to be the difference,” said Head Boys Varsity Soccer Coach John Siegenthaler. “The Mustangs
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experienced both the joy of victory and the satisfaction that comes from achieving a common goal.” This victory was truly a team effort. While Pingree proved to be a worthy opponent and created numerous chances of their own, they were unable to score more than one goal as Millbrook’s back four—Hugo Darmon ’19, Sean Colman ’19, Peter Conte ’19,
MILLBROOK MATTERS
Athletics and Will Simons ’19—played magnificent defense in the face of relentless pressure from their skilled opponents. Jacob Domber ’20, Robbie Roberts ’20, and Collin Tardio ’19 were steady in the midfield, channeling the opposition away from the Mustang net while also launching counters. Ben Sosnow ’19 and Joseph Grossman ’19 were also tireless in their pursuit of the ball, each repeatedly driving into the Pingree zone to launch dangerous crosses into the box. Ousseni Bouda ’19 opened the scoring in
the fifth minute of the game, and he was a true offensive force throughout, scoring all five of Millbrook’s goals, bringing his total to 10 goals in his final two games. His skill, speed, and determination were insurmountable. “Looking at the body of work this team put together, it is hard not to be amazed,” said Athletic Director Brian Krauss. “From the captains on down, it was clear that everyone was on the same page, working toward the same goal. Well done all around!”
Boys Varsity Hockey Wins Brooks-Pingree Tournament After double overtime and a 22-man shootout, the Mustangs won the Brooks-Pingree Tournament with a 4-3 victory over New Hampton in December. The Mustangs controlled the first period, taking a 2-0 lead. In the second period penalties were a problem for the Mustangs, and New Hampton capitalized with three second-period goals. Millbrook tied the game at three goals in the final seconds of the second
period, and the game remained tied through the third and two overtime sessions. Millbrook finally claimed the title in a shootout. “It was an epic win,” said Head Boys Varsity Hockey Coach Vinnie Sorriento ’96.
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Girls Varsity Hockey Brings Home Ed Allen Cup Played annually in honor of Millbrook’s former Girls Varsity Hockey Coach and Athletic Director Ed Allen, who passed away in 2015, this game is always deeply emotional and meaningful. This February our girls played their hearts out, earning the victory with a final score of 3-0 and taking the Ed Allen Cup from The Gunnery. Nikki Bessinger ’21 and Carolyn Whitney ’19 scored points (2 and 1 respectively); goalie Catherine Champagne ’21 was an absolute wall in the net to secure the shutout. “The Mustangs played with true conquest and character,” said Head Girls Varsity Hockey Coach Erica Shapey. “It was a privilege to watch them play in Ed Allen’s honor, and we are proud to now have the cup at home in the Bontecou Rink.”
Attacking the Hoop Boys Varsity Basketball Boys varsity basketball had an outstanding season, boasting 16 wins and 7 losses overall (6-2 against Class A and AA teams and 10-5 against Class B teams). They defeated #1 seeded Class B Canterbury and #3 seeded Class A Hotchkiss and racked up wins against multiple local and longtime rivals including Berkshire, Salisbury, and Kent. Individual athletes also earned personal bests. Colby Martins ’20 scored his 1,000th career high school point, and Jayden Reaves ’19 finished the season with 1,027 points, earning him third place on Millbrook’s all-time points scored list. Reaves also earned Class B All-NEPSAC honors, and AJ Morales ’19, Colby Martins ’20, M. Spencer Curto ’19, and Brian Kenyon ’19 all earned Class B All-NEPSAC Honorable Mention. “We had a tremendous year full of team and individual successes,” said Head Varsity Boys Basketball Coach Billy Thom. “I’m so pleased with the way this group of young men carried themselves on and off the court.”
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Athletics
#STANGSINCOLLEGE On November 14th three Mustangs signed letters of intent to play athletics at the collegiate level: Ousseni Bouda ’19, Suwaibatu Mohammed ’19, and Henry Attias ’19. •O usseni Bouda ’19 will be joining the Division I men’s soccer team at Stanford University. Bouda has had an incredible career at Millbrook and owns Millbrook’s career scoring record for goals scored (153). He is a two-time prep school All-Star, 2017-2018 Gatorade National Player of the Year, and two-time State Player of the Year. He led the Mustangs to two New England Prep School Athletic Council Class C finals, scoring all five of the goals in the last game of their 2018 season, which resulted in a championship title. During the 2017 season he scored 49 goals and passed for 4 assists, tallying 80-percent of the total Mustang goals.
• S uwaibatu Mohammed ’19 will join the Division I women’s soccer team at James Madison University. “In coaching the girls varsity soccer team at Millbrook for over 35 years, I have never coached a player who has had the offensive impact that Suwaibatu has had,” said Head Girls Varsity Soccer Coach Gordie MacKenzie. Mohammed holds Millbrook’s all-time scoring record for girls soccer with 49 goals and 27 assists—a total of 76 points scored during her four-year Millbrook career. Adding to this distinction, Mohammed was named a WNEPSSA All-Star twice and a NEPSAC Junior All-Star in 2017. Coach MacKenzie also noted Mohammed’s superb leadership in strategy, skill, and character.
•H enry Attias ’19 will join the Division I men’s lacrosse team at the University of Hartford. “Henry’s thoughtful and mature journey to playing Division I lacrosse is inspiring,” said Head Boys Varsity Lacrosse Coach Michael Williams. “His work ethic is relentless, and his attitude is humble, yet fierce. I am so proud of Henry, and I look forward to all of his success at Hartford.”
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Arts: Impressive performances, award-winning works,
Art Accolades Millbrook student artwork by Ellie Stewart ’19, Pam Nguyen ’20, and Claire Harpel ’19 was
inspirational adventures, and one-on-one experiences
recognized and awarded at the
with professional artists has made for an incredible year
2019 Scholastic Art & Writing
in the arts. The passion and creativity of our students and faculty has never been more evident.
Competition. Pam and Claire both earned silver medals—Pam for her double-exposed photograph titled Hands, and Claire for her painting titled Rudimentary. Ellie won a gold medal for her ceramic bust sculptures, Crumbling People. All of these pieces won gold keys at the regional level and were entered into the national competition. In addition to her regional gold medal, Ellie earned a special honor, “American Visions,” a designation given to the single strongest piece of artwork in the Hudson Valley region. “Ellie, Pam, and Claire are committed to the arts at Millbrook. All three of them aspire to excellence in their work and take every opportunity to give back, help others, and contribute to community projects whenever they can,” says Arts Department Chair Sarah MacWright. “While being awarded in art competitions has no impact on any student’s grade, we see it as a great opportunity for them to practice being artists in the world.” Only 1% of Scholastic entries win national medals, meaning our Mustangs have joined an elite group of studentartists by way of their accomplishments in the competition.
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Arts
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Arts
John Berkey Class of 1991 Visiting Artists Series Millbrook welcomed four artists to campus this year as part of the John Berkey Class of 1991 Visiting Artists Series: Vaughn Bell, Lissa Rivera, Dennis Hilton Reid, and Highline Vocal Jazz. Bringing to campus artists who foster collaboration, both inside and outside of the Holbrook Arts Center, continues to be the primary focus in this program. Vaughn Bell’s Super Natural exhibition in the Warner Gallery certainly met this objective, bringing together students, faculty, artists, and physical plant staff to create an exhibit that represented science, prose, gardening, and art. Featured works from Vaughn Bell, Emma Steinkrauss, Ari Weinkle, and Millbrook students included cinematographic typography, photography, mixed media, and ecological artwork.
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Arts At the start of the winter term, actor, director, and educator Dennis Hilton-Reid took to the stage with students in the Chelsea Morrison Theater to host a performance portfolio workshop followed by a Q&A session that was open to everyone on campus. Students who worked with Mr. Hilton-Reid had the opportunity to work with him on stage and to discuss topics related to his profession: what makes a dynamic performance and what are potential careers in the arts.
Students from various classes and disciplines also combined efforts to prepare for Lissa Rivera’s gallery exhibition, Beautiful Boy, and her visit to campus. Photography students researched her work before helping to install the gallery, while VIth formers in Mrs. Krauss’ Beauty in Literature course explored philosophies around how beauty is defined and evolves, applying what they learned by drafting didactics for the exhibition. Performing arts students also used Rivera’s photographs for inspiration, writing imagined dialogues for the different roles that the exhibit’s subject, BJ Lillis, portrays. Lissa Rivera is a photographer based in Brooklyn, NY. She combines her interest in the social history of photography with ideas surrounding sexuality and gender, and Beautiful Boy features photographs that explore identity in art. “The images show a genderqueer individual in feminine clothing surrounded by beautiful colors and tones,” wrote Claire Reid ’19 in her gallery introduction. “The work suggests that binary gender is not an essential component of beauty.”
The series concluded in April with a surprise visit from Highline Vocal Jazz, who joined students at the Golden Lips competition to perform. Highline Vocal Jazz is an a cappella group from New York City committed to continuing the vocal jazz tradition. The group delighted the audience with their perfect pitch, harmonies, and overall vocal abilities.
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Arts
FACULTY ART IN THE WARNER GALLERY Confluence Millbrook’s arts faculty use the summer months to rest, work on curriculum, and visit friends and family; they also spend their time making art. “We make art that comes out of curiosities sparked in our classrooms during the year,” said Arts Department Chair Sarah MacWright. “We build skills that were already special talents or build up skills that were weaknesses, and we use the time to think through an idea or to investigate a question.” The culmination of their creative summer efforts is Millbrook’s Confluence exhibition. Held annually in the Warner Gallery, this year’s exhibition opened on August 29th and featured art by Lauren Duffy, Bill Hardy, Shannon Harris, Leighann Kowalsky, and Sarah MacWright.
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Arts
Life at the Trevor Zoo in Pictures Millbrook’s Trevor Zoo is featured in the recently released book Life at the Zoo by National
Geographic photographer Michael George. The project took 2.5 years to conceive, photograph, write, and design, and throughout that process, Michael traveled to eight different zoos, aquariums, and conservation centers around the United States and abroad, including Millbrook’s Trevor Zoo. The book features 40 photographs, including nine photos of our animals and Millbrook “zooies,” and it gives readers a behind-the-scenes look at what happens at zoos. “When I first worked with a zoo for a travel shoot in 2015, I realized how many misconceptions and worries people have about how they work and what they do. This book explores conservation, breeding, research, and rescue programs,” says Michael who connected with Zoo Director Dr. Alan Tousignant in the fall of 2017. He focused on unique aspects of individual zoos and included Millbrook’s Trevor Zoo as the only one where high schools students are involved in the daily care of the animals. He captured images of our zooies caring for the alpacas, red pandas, muntjacs, and more.
Michael visited Millbrook on November 11th for a book signing and presentation and visited with three Advanced Honors Photography classes the following day. As he talked with students, he shared the story of the last decade of his photo journey including his thought process as a junior and senior in high school and how he made the decision to apply to and attend New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts for photography. He also explained the importance of making connections and finding mentors as a young graduate, and today it’s clear that he has made it. He is well-known in the industry. His presentation was punctuated with homemade memes, breathtaking imagery from his travels, and behind the scenes stories. He also discussed the importance of balancing personal and commercial work and his walk along El Camino de Santiago. Photos from that walk were published by National Geographic— it was his “big break.” We were proud to be a part of a project that supports stewardship of the natural world, and we are thankful to Mr. George for sharing his professional expertise.
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A CLASS ACT Fall Play & Spring Musical Millbrook’s thespians put on two spectacular shows this year: All in the Timing and Time Flies: Seven One-Act Comedies, by David Ives, and Godspell. All in the Timing and Time Flies pushed student-actors to adopt multiple mini storylines and characters throughout the performance. The series of wacky comedies included the tale of two mayflies on a date who realize that they have just 24-hours to live, a washing machine repairman who falls in love with the perfect washer, and more. The thought-provoking and often hilarious acts brought the theater alive with laughter, and our student actors had a good deal of fun in preparing for and presenting this unique and fast-paced theater production. After the winter recess students turned their attention to preparing for Millbrook’s winter musical, Godspell, a musical retelling of the Gospel of Matthew using song and dance to spread Christ’s message of love and tolerance. The show brought together a range of musical styles while challenging the cast to experiment with improvisational methods to communicate character and story. An on-stage band,
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Arts At the show’s conclusion, some audience members joined the cast and crew for a discussion around the production’s themes and ideas. In true Non Sibi Sed Cunctis fashion, students also organized an intermission bake sale, and they donated proceeds to Grace Immigrant Outreach and the Food Pantry in Amenia.
Golden Lips Millbrook welcomed Kent, Berkshire, and Cheshire Academy, to the Chelsea Morrison Theater in April for the second annual Golden Lips competition. The event, created by Vocal Music Director Joe Raciti, has become a much-anticipated campus event since its exciting and successful launch last year. which featured three student musicians and Millbrook faculty in the mix, accompanied the performers, and Director of Dance Leighann Kowalsky worked with Lexi Wierdsma ’20 to choreograph multiple dance numbers. In addition, the production was a first-time effort to work in-the-round, as the audience had perspective from all four sides of the action. Under the leadership of Technical Director Lauren Duffy, a group of students created intentionally simple and effective staging, an impressive lighting plot, and a series of star-drop effects to enhance the design. By combining historical and modern aesthetics, their stage design focused on a more contemporary representation of Jesus.
“I wanted to create an event that felt like it was designed for the students,” says Mr. Raciti. “The goal was to bring different schools together to give our vocal performers an opportunity to perform for their peers in a fun, theatrical environment, while also participating in a friendly competition.” The Millbrook Singers learned two tunes and accompanying choreography for the competition. They used wireless microphones for this year’s event, which gave them the opportunity to hone their skills using professional equipment and more freedom to be creative and engage in movement.
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Student Life OWNING THE CULTURE Whether by writing for The Silo or suggesting new community service offerings, when students recognize the need for conversation, improvement, or change, they take initiative. Students shape the culture of our school, and this year, the most significant efforts related to student culture involved spirited sportsmanship and curated conversations on romantic relationships and dress code.
Milly Hype Squad: Wrangling the Mustang Pride “Milly Hype Squad’s goal is to encourage people to attend Millbrook sports games and get hyped,” says Sean Colman ’19, who founded the club with Sam Seaver ’19. The idea came about during the boys’ Vth form year when they attended the majority of Millbrook’s hockey and basketball games and realized that the school could benefit from more formal efforts to improve attendance at games and bring more positive energy to the stands. Sean and Sam rallied their peers and other members of the campus community to join the squad by making announcements at assemblies in the early fall. They coordinated a game-viewing schedule to ensure that the squad supported various athletics teams and sent out reminders to encourage strong attendance at games. While the primary goal of the group is to get people together and excited about sporting events in a fun and organized way, Sean and Sam saw this an opportunity to lead by example as respectful spectators amid the singing, shouting, and chanting in support of their favorite teams. With custom apparel, a variety of noisemakers, pre-determined chants, and an abundance of Mustang pride, the Milly Hype Squad successfully elevated the spectator experience, unified students through school spirit, and had a consistent presence at games throughout the year.
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Student Life Dress Code & Relationships: Student Organized Discussions for Change “When we organized our first student-only discussion on the topic of student relationships on campus, we weren’t sure who would show up,” says Jack Bloom ’20, “but over 120 students—more than one-third of the student body—joined us. This desire to participate demonstrated that our community is active and engaged, a takeaway almost as important as the discussions themselves. Along with Jack, Alyssa McLeod ’19, Kevin Foley ’20, Chloe Robinson ’19, and Annabel Weil ’20 kicked off the student relationships discussion with a recorded TEDx talk in which a Masters School student touched on issues around “hooking up” including feminism, respect, and campus culture. Next, they invited students in the audience to the stage to participate in a fishbowl exercise—a small group initiated conversation that allows for other audience members to listen and chime in.
“While there were many takeaways, two stood out including the fact that students need to be reminded to communicate with each other thoughtfully and respectfully throughout the course of a romantic relationship. The other was that we felt that the dress code should be more gender neutral,” said Chloe. Students agreed that there should be actionable next steps, and smaller groups organized to get things done. One group created dorm posters to promote healthier romantic relationships on campus, while another group created and presented to Headmaster Casertano a proposal for dress code revisions that will be implemented in the 2019-2020 school year.
Traditions Based on Respect An essential part of what makes Millbrook, Millbrook is tradition, and many of our long-standing and meaningful traditions resonate perfectly with this year’s spotlight on our core value of respect. Our faculty are always thinking about how to best introduce our IIIrd form students to the traditions that bring the Millbrook ethos to life. Thus, they have designed hands-on experiences that allow our newest students to begin to internalize respect for place, the environment, and our planet. This starts with marsh mucking, as the entire IIIrd form class, chest-deep in the murky water, collects specimens from the marsh to evaluate later in science classes. A tour up Ski Hill, through the forest, and across the cross-country trail, gives them an appreciation of the beauty and resources of Millbrook’s 800-acre campus and its diverse natural habitats, while a star-gazing adventure at night reminds them that we are part of an infinitely larger community.
All agree that the exercise felt a bit awkward at first, but soon participants became invested in the discussion and the resulting thoughtful dialogue. Most important to the students leading the charge was that they were able to validate Millbrook’s culture of safe communication and healthy relationship building. “Safe communication means living in a community where you can feel comfortable communicating about all sorts of topics, even the uncomfortable ones,” says Kevin. The next discussion, around the school’s dress code, continued to generate strong attendance and engage students in meaningful discussion. Jack and his co-organizers prepared themselves with a variety of activities to focus the group quickly and to guide them through meaningful conversation and an outline for next steps.
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Student Life First and Last Night services further affirm a deep respect for each other and the power of community, as faculty welcome all new students at First Night and bid farewell to VIth formers at Last Night. These services include speeches, songs, and reflections on community and ways our students create their best selves while serving the common good. Headmaster Casertano reminds students “to leave [your school] better than you found it.” Candlelight Service, which occurs each year on the eve of departure for the winter holidays, reminds students about the importance of respect for spirituality and individual beliefs. One of Millbrook’s oldest traditions, Candlelight is an opportunity for inclusive reflection of the traditions and talents of our community, and the program includes readings, reflections, and music.
Additionally, our weekly Friday assemblies offer substantial opportunities to demonstrate how respect is the building block of our other values—integrity, service, stewardship, and curiosity. Faculty and students gather for 30 minutes to make important announcements, to share community concerns and recommendations, to offer stories from which everyone can benefit, and to offer appreciations to peers and colleagues. In another long-standing tradition, Headmaster Casertano addresses the school at Convocation in September. This year, he spoke to respect as the most important building block of Millbrook’s community. “Respect is synonymous with love, which begins with love for oneself. Respect is a love that helps us to become our best selves. It is a love that helps us to help others to become their best selves. It is a love that connects us to each other, that is essential for healthy relationships, and necessary for us to become a community; one that will support us, all of us, through good and bad.” Respect as the foundation of our community—this is truly what makes Millbrook, Millbrook.
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Student Life
WEEKEND WARRIORS
Millbrook students are BUSY with full schedules from 8:00 each morning through the end of study hall at 10:00 each night. Assembly, five class periods, community service, college counseling, extra help, and advisory meetings pack the first 7 hours. Athletic practices and games consume another 2-3 hours in the afternoon, and a 2-hour study hall wraps up six out of seven days. Yet, many students have passion projects and interests and readily commit to weaving these extra enrichments into their daily lives.
THESE BRIEF PROFILES ARE REPRESENTATIVE OF THE WIDE VARIETY OF MILLBROOK STUDENTS’ INTERESTS AND IMPRESSIVE SKILLS.
IZZY FINEMORE ’21 COURSES AND ACTIVITIES: English IV Chemistry Algebra II 20th Century World History French II Millbrook Singers Millbrook Voices Winter Musical Varsity Eventing
Izzy has been on a horse since she was a toddler, following in her parents’ footsteps (her father played polo, and her mother rode often). When she was old enough and realized the sport provided opportunities to compete with—and to beat—her older brother and sister, she enjoyed it that much more. Today at the age of fifteen, Izzy is riding six to seven days every week in the fall and spring (only slightly less, four days/week in the winter) and recognizes that this sport has become an integral part of who she is.
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Student Life Weekend Warriors Izzy has been riding competitively, eventing, since she was 10-years-old. Eventing competitions, often described as the triathlon of the equestrian world, test the agility, speed, and endurance of a horse and its rider across three phases: dressage, cross country, and showjumping. There are two major associations—the United States Eventing Association (USEA) and the Fédération Equestre Internationale (FEI)—that run shows and major competitions in the United States and Europe. Izzy competes in as many as 20 competitions a year in both the juniors and adult divisions on multiple horses. “It can feel challenging to compete with adults, but I think it’s harder to ride in the junior division. Kids are a bit more out for blood. Professionals want to win too, but they’re also training a horse or working on other goals. Juniors who want to ride on a competitive team are all about the win.” The USEA and FEI both assign a rider to a particular level according to his or her age, competition points won, and the horse’s classification. Izzy has worked her way up to an intermediate level in both associations and hopes to continue her progress up the ladder this year. To do that, she practices—a lot! Cross country
comes most naturally for horses, so Izzy puts the majority of her attention on dressage, which ultimately helps you win or moves you down the rankings, and then show jumping. Footwork is not taxing for her horses, but jumps are getting bigger and more difficult, and practice takes a lot of out them. Izzy is all about creating a practice schedule with a good balance of safety and work. Izzy rides three different horses, each very different from the other. Rutherglen,
RIDING GLOSSARY: DRESSAGE, summarily ballet for horses, includes trotting, cantering and walking circles at the novice level plus cantering and tight movements forward, backward, side-to-side and in circles. CROSS COUNTRY is a test of speed, endurance, and jumping ability on a miles-long course. The horse and rider must navigate solid obstacles and varied terrain while galloping, but also be able to slow down quickly to make very technical turns with agility. SHOW JUMPING is a timed event that follows cross country and tests how a horse can perform over 10-12 movable jumps with rails. A rider needs to carefully control the horse’s stride and angle of approach to each jump because penalty marks are assessed every time a rail falls and if the time limit is exceeded.
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a gelding that competed in the 2012 Olympics, is often chosen to ride at competitions because of his size, his strength, and his abilities. Her pony, Craig Mor Tom, is young and far less experienced, and the same is true of Señor Dehere, a thoroughbred that Izzy recently rode in competition in South Carolina. Izzy will graduate from Millbrook in 2021, and she already has her sights set on riding in college while potentially pursuing a degree in business that would allow her to run her own equine training business (hopefully, after earning five-stars with the FEI and becoming a professional rider). In true Millbrook fashion, while Izzy is a terrific rider, she is also well-rounded and recognizes opportunities to get involved on campus. She’s a stellar student and performer, singing with Millbrook’s very select a capella group and performing in seasonal arts nights. If you’re heading across Rt. 44 from the village towards school, you might just catch her singing to her horses down the road at Kildare Stables.
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Student Life
IAN CRARY ’20 COURSES AND ACTIVITIES: English V Biology Algebra II US History Spanish III Honors Studio: Ceramics Study Hall Proctor Racquet Rec, Squash, Tennis
Since he was young, Ian has been fascinated by the idea of flying airplanes and jets, and by the time he entered middle school, he had set a goal to attend the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, CO, to study aerospace engineering. After taking an accelerated independent study course in this subject during 8th grade, Ian planned his path to the academy, beginning with a commitment to the Civil Air Patrol—the official auxiliary of the United States Air Force. In February of his eighth grade year, Ian signed up with his local squadron, Phoenix, operating out of the 69th regiment Armory in lower Manhattan, joining a legion of cadets 60,000 strong.
The Civil Air Patrol runs close to 90% of inland disaster relief and search and rescue missions for the Air Force. An all-volunteer organization, they operate these missions at just a fraction of what it would cost for the Air Force to lead the operation. With the largest fleet of single-engine aircraft in the world, they send airplanes up to assist with missing persons cases and amber alerts, perform aerial photography before and after a severe weather event to capture images that assess damage and inform Congress (and FEMA spending), and recover aircraft after a crash using emergency locator transmitters (ELTs). Cadets participate in training missions, practice direction finding, learn how to triangulate locations via radio frequencies, and get certified in first aid. Over the past three years, Ian developed a particular interest in the cadet program. Now, as the cadet commander for his squadron, he reports directly to the Deputy Commander for Cadets (a retired member of the Air Force Reserves) and educates and trains new cadets in his unit. During weekly Tuesday meetings (some of which he attends, some which he manages from campus), he runs training activities
and aerospace education, which have included building and launching model rockets under the guidance of a former lead engineer on the F-20 fighter jet. He will sit in on a review or promotion board or plan a character development course with the chaplin, and his responsibilities as commander extend to scheduling and logistics, too. He can delegate to his flight staff (two cadets reporting to Ian) whenever he needs assistance. His time commitment is lengthier during the summer months when he spends ten days at a military base leading exercises in their version of basic training. For the past two years, he has gone as a staff member/ flight commander to Stratton Air National Guard Base in Albany to work with new cadets. Their training begins to qualify them as a ground team member (GTM), mission radio operator (MRO), mission staff assistant (MSA), or urban develop and find member (UDF). Ian is qualified as a trainee flight line marshal, mission radio operator, urban direction-finding team member, mission staff assistant, and ground team three. With an older brother at West Point and a twin intent on joining the Navy, Ian will be in good (but competitive) company when he lands at the Air Force Academy in the fall of 2020.
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Student Life Weekend Warriors
ELIZA LINDSAY ’20 COURSES AND ACTIVITIES: English V Biology Pre-calculus US History Spanish III Alternative Processes Study Hall Proctor Dance Winter Musical
local breeder and traveling with them to shows. Upon turning nine, Eliza showed her first dog, an English springer spaniel. The breeder worked with her on all that showmanship involves, while Eliza also attended handling classes close to home. Today, after years of practice and many, many competitions with many different breeds, Eliza and her six-year-old English cocker spaniel, CJ, are quite the successful pair. By the end of last August, Eliza was named the Number One Junior Handler by the National English Cocker Spaniel Club (for the fourth year in a row), and she and CJ qualified for and competed in the national Juniors Showmanship event in December. Junior handlers are judged on a variety of qualifiers: how well they “stack” the dog (the way the feet must be aligned), how well they show off the dog, and how well they move at the correct pace. Judges also evaluate the dog’s coat and grooming. Last summer, Eliza showed CJ every weekend, which meant weekly baths and plenty of blow drying and brushing to make him look his best.
photo by Jordan Isom
Eliza has studied dance at Millbrook since her IIIrd form year, and perhaps her gracefulness on the floor earns her bonus points at AKC Junior Showmanship competitions. Showmanship, also known as “handling,” is about basic handling abilities in the juniors division—learning how to care for and present different breeds in a competition. While juniors are judged by an official AKC Judge, it’s the quality of their presentation that is judged, not the dog. Eliza began in Junior Showmanship at the youngest age allowed - nine. Dog shows on TV mesmerized her, and Eliza’s interest was further piqued when her mom took her to a few local dog shows. She was just eight-years-old when she began helping a
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While Eliza has been most focused on Junior Showmanship with CJ, she has also entered a plethora of other AKC events including the Owner-Handler Series, open to amateurs who own and handle their dog. She and CJ worked hard this year to stay in the top 10 and qualify for nationals. CJ has also done well with other handlers in breed competitions, which he started several years ago. As a top 20 in his breed in the country, he competed in Best of Breed and earned and the title of Bronze Grand Champion. “CJ loves showing. When we’re packing the car to go to a show, and he’s still inside, he’ll start crying because he doesn’t want us to forget him. When he is in the ring, he puts his chin up and strides about proudly.” She has won hundreds of ribbons, rosettes, cool prizes, engraved picture frames, and trophies too. The rosettes and the bigger ribbons hang around the perimeter of her
photo by Adam Myers
room like a circle of bright flowers, and many that won’t fit on the walls spill over into a colorful pile on her desk. Photos with the judges take up another wall, all arranged by which dog she was showing. These many tokens of her success are also a very visual reminder of the time and energy Eliza has invested in her passion. Through middle school she sacrificed recreational activities and time with her friends on the weekends in order to travel to dog shows in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, Florida, and Wisconsin. At Millbrook, Eliza took time away from school some Fridays and Saturdays early on, but boarding school requires a commitment to be an active part of the community, and she has traveled less as a Vth former. Knowing a handler’s lifestyle, and not wanting to be on the road constantly, she plans to become a teacher, working with younger elementary school students. Age is dictating a new course for both Eliza and CJ, as her juniors eligibility ended this spring, upon her 18th birthday, and CJ’s upcoming seventh birthday will require him to move into the veterans category. A veteran’s Best in Show is not out of the question, as CJ certainly has lots of competitive spirit remaining. In between shows CJ will be bred one last time, and Eliza hopes to raise one of his puppies. Quite ironically, she’ll have to convince her dad on the puppy front because he does not like dogs!
MILLBROOK MATTERS
Student Life State Championships his past December he hit 402 in squats and 451 in deadlift, an increase of 102% and 58% respectively. His greatest success, however, has been in bench press. Harrison has moved from his first lift of 115 lbs. to 303 lbs. at the South Carolina championships—a 163% increase—that, when combined with his other scores, earned him a first-place finish.
HARRISON ROSENFELD ’19 COURSES AND ACTIVITIES: English VI Advanced Physics Honors AP Calculus AB Economics Post AP French Civilization, Literature and Cinema Holbrook Tech Hockey Lacrosse Weight Training
The summer after his IVth form year, Harrison discovered powerlifting. After watching other powerlifters on YouTube and researching the sport online, he began working out regularly, adding weight, and getting stronger. Now, he spends 90 minutes – 3 hours in the gym, 5-6 days per week, practicing techniques and lifting as much as he can in the squat, bench press, and deadlift. While being fit is certainly a great benefit derived from his workouts, Harrison expends this significant amount of energy and time so that he can compete and climb the rankings in the USA Powerlifting Federation, which he does two or three times a year in all three events. In the fall Harrison earned first place in his home
state of South Carolina and third place at the southeast regional to qualify for nationals in the 183-pound weight class (83 kilograms). In 2018 he was ranked 16th in the US in his weight class in his federation. USA Powerlifting is the US affiliate for the International Powerlifting Federation, part of the Olympic network, and Harrison chose to join this federation for several reasons. His research showed that the USAPL is the largest and most competitive group, that drug-testing is mandatory, and that while judging is quite strict, it’s also the most consistent. “It’s not just about lifting the most poundage—you have to lift it within the rules. For example, when you squat, you have to go to a certain depth, and your hip has to be below your knee. You must also follow commands - the judge tells you when to walk out, when to squat, when to stand, and when to rack it. Being consistent with the rules earns you points.” Harrison has come a long way in the sport since he first began in 2016. His best first squat was just over 200 lbs., and his first deadlift was 300 lbs. At the South Carolina
The up to 18 hours per week that Harrison puts into training is not spent simply lifting and dropping weights. He practices many variations of each lift and particular movements to improve his performance. Working in the gym is a big part of the preparation, but his efforts outside the gym also contribute to his overall strength and physical development for competitions. Diet is one of the most important factors, and Harrison eats a lot of protein, red meat, and chicken. Following Stan “Rhino” Efferding’s vertical diet that focuses on the quality of calories an athlete consumes, his goal is to improve digestive efficiency so his body can best use the nutrients in his daily diet. Maximizing nutrient partitioning allows a powerlifter to perform better and recover faster. After graduation in May, Harrison will likely compete in the next regional USAPFL meet that takes place in August. It will be off to school at the University of South Carolina then, where he hopes to move up a weight class. He’ll work out with their core weightlifting group that is run by Dan Austin, the all time worldrecord holder for deadlift in the 148 lb. class. After that? “We’ll see. It would be great to compete in the collegiate competition in Ohio next April.” His progress and success so far can be attributed to his self-motivation and diligence. With his continuing efforts we can predict that by this time next year, Harrison will be that much closer to his goal of bench pressing 500 lbs.
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MILLBROOK MATTERS
Faculty
Faculty in New Roles It is exciting whenever Millbrook faculty take on new or larger roles within the community. As the school’s programs and needs continually evolve, Millbrook looks towards its talented faculty to lead the way forward.
JEFFREY SMITH
goal in mind: to make Millbrook inevitable. The school is very
Chief Operating Officer
Millbrook’s endowment to $1 million per student, along with
When Bob and Ginny Connolly decided to step into retirement, a hiring committee was organized to fill Bob’s role as Chief Operating Officer. After a nationwide search, the committee found the perfect candidate sitting two doors down from the Headmaster’s Office. From the pool of highly qualified candidates, Jeff Smith, Millbrook’s then legal counsel and
financially fit, but there is always work to be done. Increasing additions and upgrades to athletic facilities, dorms, faculty housing, and classrooms, will go a long way to ensuring our school remains among the top boarding schools in the country. A more substantial endowment will also allow us to attract and retain talented faculty and provide more accessibility and financial aid to qualified applicants.
academic dean for the IIIrd and IVth forms, came out on top
Looking to the future, Jeff will continue to guide the school using
and eagerly transitioned into the role of COO. While he hasn’t
well-tested strategic principles. As the school continues to move
had a professional focus in accounting and finance, Jeff brings
along its upward trajectory, the operating budget, endowment,
to the job years of legal expertise, practical experience in a
and physical plant will require an increased level of attention
school setting, and a love for Millbrook.
and care, but Jeff is ready for the challenges that lie ahead.
An avid chess player, Jeff has a great interest in the strategy of fiscal responsibility. Analyzing the threads that make up the Millbrook fabric from a top-level view, Jeff works with a robust team, backed by the administration and the board, and has one
EVE WHITEHOUSE Academic Deans’ Office Eve Whitehouse is in her stride on a well-traveled boarding school path. She began at Millbrook in 2013 as a French instructor, coach, and dorm parent, and meaningful connections and interactions with her students and colleagues inspired her. She wanted to be more involved. In 2014 Eve moved eagerly into the role of co-chair of the World Language Department before guiding the department on her own for three years. When the search began for an academic dean, Eve put her name in the running because she wanted to be able to help students in an even broader sense. Now, as academic dean for the IIIrd and IVth forms, she is energized as she sees students from so many different angles and approaches each student’s academic experience holistically. Eve brings new ideas and a fresh perspective to the Academic Deans’ Office as she identifies one policy or procedure at a time that might be improved to inform a positive culture shift. Her focus thus far has been on refining Millbrook’s absence policy, working diligently to make sure expectations and consequences around absences are crystal clear. She is building into the
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MILLBROOK MATTERS
Faculty
Joining Millbrook’s English Department and being back in the classroom has rejuvenated Nancy. Although the curriculum has changed, students still love talking about books, the ideas within those books, and how they relate to their own lives, and Nancy still loves to explore the concept of choice. From the words to the punctuation they use, their choices convey a prescribed feeling or idea, and daily she encourages students to explore the many choices they have in their writing. In her classroom a successful English student will read, write, and communicate ideas with depth, context, and evidence, and Nancy inspires students to control language through very specific choices and create work that is meaningful to them.
policy steps for students to reflect and engage in conversation, ensuring that absences, and the situations causing them, are addressed individually. Her goal is to give students the best chance for success in the classroom. Eve has approached her new role with a listen first, react later attitude. She had been eager to jump in and offer guidance to her students, players, and dorm residents, but she now sees considerable benefits in exercising patience. After considering a student’s experience from every angle, she works with him or her on a personal basis, providing that individual attention and personal development plan Millbrook does best.
NANCY KELLER-COFFEY English Department When Nancy Keller-Coffey came to Millbrook to work in the College Counseling Office, she felt it was inevitable that she would end up back in the classroom as a teacher. Nancy taught for 19 years at Oakwood Friends School in Poughkeepsie before arriving at Millbrook to pursue a new challenge and join her close friend and former colleague, Liz (Duhoski) Morrison, in the college
Interacting with and helping students discover their best selves
office in 2005. After leading Millbrook’s College Counseling Office
has been Nancy’s motivation, and now literary exploration is
as its director from 2010-2018, she found that she most enjoyed
the vehicle she employs with our IIIrd and Vth formers. She
those interactions with students that also happen in a classroom
sees it as a symbiotic relationship—the inspiration goes both
setting—helping with essays, creating lists of priorities, and
ways. Nancy is delighted to be in back in the classroom and to
helping them to better understand themselves. When the
continue her life’s work in education at a boarding school that
opportunity arose to step back into the classroom, Nancy knew it
offers so many opportunities to reach kids on a personal level.
was time for a new, yet familiar challenge.
She has a deep passion for what she does, and it shows.
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Millbrook
VOICES The Power of Community:
Reflections on Respect, Diversity, Tradition, and Gratitude As the entire school focuses this year on the first of our five core values, respect, three members of the Millbrook family share reflections on the value and significance of community and how respect, diversity, tradition, and gratitude have informed their experiences of community here at Millbrook and in the world. Dr. Thomas Lovejoy ’59 is a conservation biologist and professor at George Mason University, Olly Cohen ’16 is a student at Washington University in St. Louis, and Reverend Cam Hardy P ’87, ’09, ’13 is a longtime Millbrook faculty member and current chaplain.
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THE PATH
FORWARD:
community, respect, diversity, service
by Dr. Thomas Lovejoy ’59 photo by Ricardo Stanoss, DVM
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MILLBROOK VOICES
IT
was the fall of 1955, and I was plucked from a mid-Manhattan existence and dropped into the new third form at Millbrook School. Attracted by the zoo, I had an easy time writing the first assigned essay on why I had chosen Millbrook.
Science had no particular hold on me then; indeed, I had announced to my parents that I would take biology the first year and get it over with. Janet Trevor told Frank that either I was really stupid, or I was “casing the joint.” She was correct—happily about the latter. The Trevors took us on a march through the Plant Kingdom and then the Animal Kingdom, and our classroom went well beyond the four walls of our biology lab, out through the expanse of fields, wetlands, streams, and forests that make up Millbrook’s campus. Before I was 15, I understood the outline of life on Earth. In retrospect, I was so entranced that it is almost unsurprising that one day I would coin the term biological diversity and follow a path to study and protect it. But that was not all that was going on during this deeply and rapidly formative experience. I was adjusting to a completely new set of classmates from different places and backgrounds, coming to appreciate the countryside, and learning to be part of a community. A new film, Beyond the Classroom, told the story of community service, and there were multiple ways in which we could participate. While we felt a part of a community with a collective sense of service, inherent in all of this was also an appreciation of difference. We were more privileged than any of us realized, but we were conscious that we were part of something larger and carried that with us as we emerged from our Dutchess County chrysalis. Millbrook had ignited something in us. Ed Pulling
expected that we would contribute to the world, each in our own particular way, and he followed our trajectories with delight. A life of scientific adventures lay ahead for me: to Nubia in 1962 before the new high dam at Aswan flooded a large part of the Nile Valley, and to the Amazon in 1965 when it was only 3% deforested and essentially a biologist’s dream. In my sophomore year at Yale, I had lunch with the world’s most famous birdwatcher, Roger Tory Peterson, at his home in Lyme, Connecticut. I felt like I had died and gone to heaven. But the early signs of environmental challenges were appearing (Silent Spring was serialized in the New Yorker while I was still at Millbrook), and two years after earning my Ph.D., I became employee number 13 for the World Wildlife Fund-US. I stayed 14 years, instead of the intended two, and applied my science skills, and learned others, to advance conservation. Climate change became hard to ignore, and the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 brought together the largest ever meeting of heads of state. At that moment humanity witnessed a sense of global community with a common desire to move toward a better future for everyone. Yet, there was
less traction than most of us assumed; progress was sluggish because of differing perceptions, of communities that were not sufficiently included, and a global system that failed to deliver necessary resources to advance sustainable development at an appropriate rate and scale. Today, humanity is rapidly pushing beyond the planetary conditions that nurtured the rise of human civilization. The time to get it together is now or never. Populist, internally-focused governments in some countries are successful in temporarily distracting public attention away from the great planetary challenges of biodiversity loss, climate change, and local issues. It is important to respect and listen, to understand what drives populist votes and how they might be encouraged to embrace the larger sustainability agenda. Happily, public opinion about a sustainable future writ large is actually widespread in those countries. We need to listen to young voices like that of thirteen-year-old Greta Thunberg, who has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize because of her climate activism. We now understand the Earth works as a linked planetary physical and biological system. Respecting diversity biologically through the restoration of destroyed and degraded ecosystems is a powerful way to increase local sustainability and extract heat-trapping carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. To work at scale, it must work locally. The way forward—locally, nationally, and globally—rests on the very values that every student learns at Millbrook: a sense of community, which simultaneously respects and engages with the diversity of people and viewpoints, and service that scales from local to global. Non Sibi Sed Cunctis.
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LESSONS from around the world by Olly Cohen ’16
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MILLBROOK VOICES
A
fter graduating from Millbrook in 2016 and
DON’T WASTE TIME ON PERFECT
enrolling at Washington University in St. Louis
One of my first stops was at the Solar Garden, an environmental education center and garden, where I completed a work-stay, volunteering in exchange for room and board. Here, I had my first wake-up call that the crazy year ahead of me wasn’t going to be all fun and games. I originally dreamed of being Wesley in the Princess Bride, but on this farm, I realized I’d be lucky if my story followed the plot of the Karate Kid.
for the fall of 2017, I began to plan a gap year that included travels around the world to nine different countries: Israel, Jordan, Thailand,
Vietnam, Singapore, New Zealand, Chile, Bolivia, and Peru. My year was defined by the people I met in each country and the lessons they taught me. I experienced rich diversity across cultures, and I remain most strongly impressed by the universal principles of virtuosity that transcended culture. Here I share a bit of what I learned from some of the wise people I met along the way.
“No! O-leee-vare, stop! You’re doing it wrong. You’re trying too hard. Everything in life is easy. If it’s hard, you’re doing it wrong,” Tom Dome yelled at me as I attempted to drill in a screw. I’d been trying to screw two wooden boards together for several minutes but kept misaligning the drill and ruining the screws. Tom, the garden manager and resident Jack of all trades, took the drill from my hands and, in seconds, effortlessly screwed the two boards together. “You see… use your head. If it’s not working, you’re doing something wrong. You must keep the drill straight!” If I couldn’t even drill a screw on my own, how was I supposed to travel around the world? No matter how small the task at the Solar Garden, I always seemed to find a way to do it wrong. Tom seemed to notice right away and would immediately pack a life lesson into his criticism. I grew frustrated every time Tom exposed a new weakness in me. In the mornings before we began work, he taught yoga, which I had never done before. I tried to touch my toes in the warm-up stretch but felt a shooting pain when I stretched my hamstrings; I struggled against it. “When we bend to touch our toes, it is not difficult because we are not pushing, we are just emptying everything from our rib cage.” I sucked it up and tried to imagine it was easy but felt rather pathetic for
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MILLBROOK VOICES
lagging behind 50-year-olds in a physical activity. I’d always thought of myself as athletic. Eventually, Tom spared me some sympathy, “Eighteen is a very stiff age. Your muscles are very tight.” Despite struggling to complete the simplest tasks, after a week on the farm, I realized that I was lucky to have Tom. Most people never get one-on-one life coaching from a cantankerous man with unlimited life wisdom. One day as we were building a small roof, I got a nail stuck in the wood. I toiled with it with the claw of my hammer for about five minutes until Tom came over. “Why are you spending all this time trying to take the nail out? Time is the most important resource we have. We can’t afford to waste it on little things like this!” Then he took the hammer out of my hand, whacked the nail against the wood in one smooth stroke, and hammered a new nail in next to it.
My life thus far had been dedicated to pursuing perfection, but Tom’s words were seared into my brain—don’t waste time on “perfect.” Tom and I became close friends by the end of my stay on the farm, and, looking back, I can see that he had been hard on me because he knew I had the capacity to learn. He had faith in me. This humbled me and made me aware of the infinitude of things I didn’t know.
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HELPING HANDS IN NEW ZEALAND When I booked my plane tickets to New Zealand, I had zero plans for when I landed. What I did have was one thread tying me to my next adventure. My dad had sent me the email address of a woman, Tania, he met during a five-day vacation to New Zealand a few years back and told me to reach out to her. I was skeptical about how much help this woman would be willing to give to the son of an American she met three years ago, but I contacted her anyway. To my surprise, Tania responded the same day, congratulating me on my impending trip and offering to reach out to her friends across the country to host me and help me find work. Why was this woman so helpful? I flew to New Zealand with Millbrook classmate Jackson Lee ’16. Tania left work early, scooped up her daughter, Samara, and headed to the airport to pick us up. That night she took us out for fish n’ chips and showed us around Auckland. Afterward, she sat down with us over a map and helped us plan the road trip we’d be taking across both islands, encouraging us to stop and stay with her Uncle and
Aunt in Tauranga and her mom in the Wairarapa. With her help, we orchestrated a two-month road trip from scratch in three days! The following day, her Uncle Barry, who buys and sells used cars as a side business, took us to a car fair. We picked out a 2001 Subaru Legacy, perfect for our road trip, and Barry helped us negotiate the price in our favor. We now had a car and a plan, and after Tania took us to New Zealand’s version of Walmart, we were well stocked with supplies including cookware, camping gear, and a sim card for our cell phones. The next day, we were off. Our first stop was Tauranga, a city built on Mount Maunganui, a beautiful volcano overlooking a long coastline of white sand beach. We stayed with Tania’s aunt and uncle, who told us stories of his days working as a lumberjack in New Zealand with the native Maori. His good friend from those days now owns a sheep station on a stunning rural section of the coast, and he called him up to ask if we might work on the station. He said, “Yes!” Is everyone in New Zealand this enormously helpful?
The sheep station was in the most rural area I’ve ever been to, and it was also one of the most beautiful. The completely Arcadian coast had no paved roads or cell reception for tens of miles in any direction. The beach was gorgeous, and we had it to ourselves for as far as the eye could see. Tania’s generosity and support led the way, and for the remainder of our two-month road trip, Jackson and I continued to experience unchecked kindness and incredible helpfulness from the people we met. Our experience would have been wholly different were it not for the New Zealanders who welcomed us with open arms into their communities, into their families.
GRATITUDE IN THE FACE OF DISASTER As I traveled through South America, and my trip came closer to its inevitable conclusion, I focused on how I might be able to pay forward the incredible generosity I had experienced from others. So many people who had no incentive to support me had done so nonetheless—I felt indebted to humanity.
I was in Peru, the final country I would visit before going home, and they had just suffered the worst flooding in decades, courtesy of rains powered by El Niño. In the mindset of giving back and out of curiosity, I googled “Peru floods volunteer.” The very first result linked to an American non-profit, All Hands (now All Hands and Hearts). They were looking for disaster response volunteers who could get to Huarmey, Peru, a rural town on the coast almost 300 km north of Lima and far beyond the range of sites receiving aid from sizable organizations like the American Red Cross. Within a week, I was on my way to Huarmey, excited for the opportunity to assist wherever I was needed. When I arrived, my expectations were immediately turned on their head, as the locals showered me with good deeds. Local townspeople, who had been approached by All Hands, provided rooms for us, did our laundry by hand, and cooked three meals a day. We worked quickly, shoveling like mad to clean up the tons of mud deposited in homes during the flooding. Homeowners were so grateful and eager to thank us, many insisted on cooking huge lunches of ceviche for volunteer crews of up to 10
people. The fact that their homes and kitchens had been ravaged by water, mud, and debris did not curb their desire to show their gratitude. They worked alongside us—they set the tone and the pace. In one house, a 20-something-year-old man named Alejandro and his 96-year-old grandfather were both determined to take on the brunt of the burden. The grandfather, completely hunched over, shoveled with all his might. His grandson moved about the same amount of mud as our volunteer crew combined, and he never stopped for breaks. We couldn’t believe how strong he was. By the end, he was doing all the shoveling. We made a line of three wheelbarrows, let him fill them up with mud, then ran them out of the house to dump them. We could barely keep up with his pace. I had every intention to conclude my trip by doing what I could to make a place better than I found it. I went to Huarmey believing that I’d pay off some of my debt to the world, but I received more thanks and support here than anywhere else. Lesson learned: the more you give, the more you will receive. I’ll be paying off my debt to the world for the rest of my life.
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TRADITION:
CHAPEL TALKS building respect in a school community by The Reverend Cam Hardy
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MILLBROOK VOICES
AT
admission receptions and parent and alumni events, you will often hear the phrase “Every Millbrook student is known and needed.” Though the phrase has been borrowed recently by several peer schools to describe institutional
culture and values, the practice of knowing and needing every
overcoming and dealing with learning differences, our students share their stories knowing that they will be heard and beheld with thoughtfulness and sensitivity. Conversations often ensue at the seated dinner table following Chapel Talk or later that night in dorms.
student originated at Millbrook and has been a part of the school’s culture from the very beginning. Founding Headmaster Edward Pulling was a visionary practitioner who created opportunities for each of his students to engage their hearts and their minds in daily life at school. Our community service program is emblematic of how students build a sense of purpose and responsibility, deep empathy, and empowerment in the context of their chosen service. They learn to know and respect themselves and others within this moral and, dare I say, spiritual framework. Ask any student, past or present, who has had the responsibility of feeding the ring-tailed lemurs or helped prepare and manage the athletic equipment and fields for each season or peer counseled a homesick IIIrd former, “Did you build deeper respect for others and for yourself?” I am convinced you will hear a resounding “Yes!” from each and every one. The Flagler Memorial Chapel is a primary space in which the community learns to know and deeply respect one another. At its founding, Millbrook was non-denominational—weekly required chapel services did not follow a specific Christian pattern of worship. There were responsive readings taken from the Old and New Testaments, hymns, prayers, and a sermon or a message delivered by a radically diverse selection of speakers including Eleanor Roosevelt, Yale University Chaplain, and theologian William Sloan Coffin, Rabbi Zimet, and many others.
Mr. Pulling intended to make the chapel as much a learning environment as any classroom, laboratory, or studio, by exposing students and faculty to different perspectives and practices, all morally grounded and transcending mundane reality. Instead of “forcing religion down the boys’ throats,” as Mr. Pulling once said, allschool gatherings in the chapel were meant to inspire independent thought and expose students to a variety of sacred experiences in our world. Although Millbrook’s chapel services have a different format and purpose today, as a community, we still hold sacred the tradition of gathering intentionally to share stories. The Chapel Talk program, created in 1996, aims to create space and time to focus on the moral core of our students— their hearts, their minds, their struggles— and provide opportunity to engage with outside speakers on a variety of topics presented in a broad context. Through this program Millbrook honors the challenges and the beauty of the human experience. It says much about the honor of participating in the Chapel Talk program that so many students have the courage and the commitment to share deeply personal and wide-ranging experiences with the community. From self-discovery on a mountain top to mental health challenges, to strength found in caring for ailing family members, to the joy of
There is such a demand for giving talks amongst our community members that we have a wait list every year. A partial solution to this issue is the renewal of the tradition of giving talks at seated lunch. Formerly a graduation requirement of every student, it is now a voluntary opportunity to share a brief but beneficial story. The inaugural “Tuesday Talk” was given in January by Bob Anthony ’65. Other speakers include Assistant Headmaster Jon Downs ’98 on unconditional love, his 7-year-old, Atticus’ runaway attempt, and the importance of listening to our children; faculty member Leigh Schmitt on being a passionate sustainability nerd; and Lillie Marcos ’19 on surfing the Rock, stoicism, and the love and respect given to her by her grandfather. Expanding a program like this could have been met with resistance, with the perception that it is another “add-on” to an already busy life. Instead, it has been met with such enthusiasm that it took very little time to fill the schedule for the spring. It is an affirmation that spending time together intentionally and opening our ears and minds to our life journeys is a natural extension of who we are: a community of people known, needed, and mutually respected.
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ALUMNI/AE
COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS
Built On a Foundation of Respect Founding Headmaster Edward Pulling’s vision of Millbrook was a community of learners who would become productive citizens of the world. He founded Millbrook with a service ethic intentionally built into the student experience, so that all students had real responsibility connected to each other and to the school. The school’s motto—Non Sibi Sed Cunctis (not for oneself, but for all)— was a representation of this ethos and his conviction that “a sense of responsibility is an essential objective of secondary education.” Service created opportunity to build a community in which all students shared responsibility for each other’s success.
convoluted mission to create a cohesive and targeted mission
This service ethic and our motto remain an important part of a Millbrook education today, and both are anchored now by a clear and abiding mission. When Millbrook undertook its first ever strategic planning process in 1991, Headmaster Casertano and members of the board, chaired by Lucy Pulling Cutting and Kristen Reid ’74, re-wrote what was then a very lengthy and
community purposefully designed to value the individual while
It’s this journey of connection that powers lifelong learning, and here, WE INVITE YOU
TO MEET SIX MILLBROOK ALUMNI whose personal and professional journeys have been determined or informed by their desire to connect to others, to respect differences, to be a responsible part of a community, and to use their gifts to make others’ lives better.
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statement that would inform all education policy and programs moving forward with clarity, consensus, and commitment to a common purpose. At the heart of this, they articulated five core values, RIS2C—respect, integrity, service, stewardship, and curiosity. Respect leads the five core values stated in our mission because respect provides the framework for teaching essential lessons and for realizing the promise of our mission, all in a supporting the whole community. Students and faculty build on the power of “we” rather than “me,” and when graduates move on, they bring with them that power of connection and respect—for both people and place—and a sense of responsibility for the greater good.
ALUMNI/AE
CONNECTIONS AND COMMUNITY
Mark Smith ’68, MD, MBA
Social and Economic Activism in Healthcare A board-certified physician, university professor, and nationally recognized health policy expert, Mark Smith’s lifetime of work has been fueled by his passion to support social equality. This has been his goal since leaving Harvard after two years, first moving to Mississippi, and then to Washington, DC to run the first African Liberation Day demonstration; soon after he would begin to organize a union for a textile mill in Greensboro, North Carolina. His motives for going back to Harvard and then to medical school at the University of North Carolina were partly professional, but he recognized this path would also provide more leverage to initiate social change. So, he immersed himself as a caregiver in the AIDS epidemic, earned his MBA at Wharton, and, eventually, led an independent healthcare foundation in making $650 million in charitable grants. He’s come a long way from the classrooms at Millbrook, the place where that fire within him was kindled. Albert Boothby, a longtime history teacher and director of admission at Millbrook, was a supporter of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund for which Mark’s father was a chief development officer, and he was the first to suggest that Mark apply to Millbrook School. After a successful tour of campus on a spring day in 1964, Mark’s father asked him to make the decision—attend Stuyvesant High School in New York City or go to Millbrook.
“Although boarding school was a new notion to me, in some ways Millbrook was more like Brooklyn Friends, where I was coming from. Stuyvesant, a school with 1,000 kids per grade, was a bit intimidating, and Millbrook was a beautiful place with soccer fields, an observatory, and a hockey rink with a Zamboni. It promised a level of personal attention and intimacy that was really attractive.” With a bit of trepidation, Mark decided on Millbrook, and entering school that fall, he and classmate Vernon Manley became Millbrook’s first African American students. There was a transition for Mark, as there was for any boy who was going away to boarding school for the first time. The school delivered on its promise of personal attention, and he adjusted quickly. “We didn’t get up and head out for the weekend, and you couldn’t go anywhere as a third former. You might not leave [campus], except maybe to go to another school for a soccer game, and making phone calls at the payphone booth was expensive. It was a very all-enveloping place. In some ways that was part of the existential rationale for boarding schools—we were in an environment that was largely constructed and isolated and separate from the rest of the world.” Mark felt his experience with his fellow students and with Millbrook’s faculty was overall positive, and he was elected president of his class and eventually president of school. “I built respect and friendships there, some of those kids with whom I still have relationships today. We came from very different backgrounds, and our paths certainly diverged socially. We didn’t necessarily have much in common before we got there and didn’t have much in common after we left. But there are those with whom I’ve remained friends since I was 16.”
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The anti-war movement and the black power movement were underway, and the tumult and change that was happening in society was being played out on TV. But Millbrook boys watched news coverage from the Milk Bar for only an hour on Sunday nights, or they read in the newspaper brief accounts about events. Looking back, Mark felt he was observing things unfolding through an isolated lens while beginning to feel pressure to conform with a “preppy” student culture. “When I got to Harvard, I rather exploded with all of the suppressed passions and identity that had been locked away for four years.” By the time Mark matriculated at Harvard, he was fully invested in social movements and activism. He played a role in a series of student strikes and takeovers, marching with others to demand that students would be allowed to participate in setting up curricula for black studies and hiring tenured faculty. Harvard listened. In the spring of his freshman year, the university agreed to establish the Department of Afro-American Studies, and Mark was selected to a committee of students and faculty to undertake this task. He spent the summer of 1969 traveling to other colleges and universities where similar programs were already established. His efforts translated into concrete progress, but Mark needed to continue to drive change. Leaving Harvard behind, he headed south. From North Carolina to Jackson, Mississippi, and then to Washington DC, he ran demonstrations and tried to organize unions, including one at a textile mill in Greensboro, North Carolina, where he worked for several years. But he grew tired of
“the volatility and the whimsicality of leftist politics” and decided the best way to address social, economic, and political issues in the long term would be to continue his education. After applying successfully for re-admission to Harvard, Mark declared his major in Afro-American Studies, the program he helped to build during this second year, while also taking pre-med requirements. It took him four years to complete his undergraduate degree at Harvard—11 calendar years altogether. It was 1979 when Mark applied to medical schools. He was accepted at Harvard, the University of California at San Francisco, and the University of North Carolina and others; as he was contemplating his choice, he received notice that he was a finalist for a John Motley Morehead Fellowship at UNC. He interviewed and was selected, becoming the first black Morehead Fellow in Medicine, an honor that provided a full scholarship through med school. Mark completed his residency program in primary care at San Francisco General Hospital. He arrived there in 1983 at the very beginning of the AIDS epidemic. “My first nights on call I saw several young men with these bizarre infections that nobody had ever seen. For the next three years I was immersed in learning what this disease was, what caused it, how to take care of people at first with the consequences and secondary infections and cancers, and then, eventually, how to treat the virus itself.” While he continued pursuing HIV clinical work, he also actively explored the social and political issues that initially drew him to medicine and became interested in policies associated with the disease. Enrolling at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania as a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar, he was able to earn his MBA while focusing on HIV policy and running the Philadelphia Commission on AIDS for The Pew Charitable Trusts, which developed a broad-based consensus among community leaders and institutions on how to approach the problem of AIDS.
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He was well on his way to becoming a leader in the policy and business of healthcare for AIDS patients and others. The opportunity to practice medical management in a clinical setting came to Mark upon finishing his MBA, as he was recruited to the faculty of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine to manage their AIDS clinic. In 1993, just two years into this work, a personal and professional connection, who was newly named the president of the Kaiser Family Foundation in Menlo Park, California, asked Mark to join him at KFF. Although foundation work was then typically the path that more senior people took towards a “graceful retirement,“ a capstone position, Mark saw it as an opportunity to work on a bigger stage and make a more substantial impact. He took the plunge and moved to California to serve first as a vice president for the Kaiser Family Foundation and then as executive vice president. In 1996, Blue Cross of California was converting from not-forprofit to profit status and created a new company, Wellpoint Health Networks. As part of that transaction, the company agreed to create two foundations. The smaller one, the California HealthCare Foundation, had the job monetizing the stock and transferring 80% of the proceeds to the principal foundation, the California Endowment. “As an MD with an MBA and experience in a wellrespected foundation, they believed I was qualified to do this job. By the time we had finished the monetization two years later, we had sold the stock for two and a half billion dollars, and our 20% was $500 million.” As the founding president of the California HealthCare Foundation, Mark led his team in making grants over 17
“The notion of community service was both a philosophical commitment and a practical need, and I have come to appreciate it much more in later years than I did at the time. Without being heavy handed, it built a sense of Non Sibi Sed Cunctis—everybody has a job, and everybody contributes to the community’s needs. There wasn’t a whole lot of preaching about it, but it was clearly part of the foundation of the school and helped instill a sense of community that has animated me since I left.”
years, spearheading delivery system innovation, public reporting of care quality, and applications of new technology in health care. During his extensive career, Mark has served on several review boards and advisory committees (including for the FDA and CDC), published over 50 articles in peer-reviewed journals and 25 book chapters and monographs, and consulted for governments around the world. Today, he serves on several not-for-profit and corporate boards and remains a professor of Clinical Medicine at the University of California at San Francisco, a visiting professor at the School of Public Health at the University of California at Berkeley, and an attending physician at the Positive Health Program for AIDS care at San Francisco General Hospital. As care for HIV patients has evolved from hospice and end-of-life care to managing a chronic disease, he has gone back to his roots as a general internist, treating AIDS patients often for heart disease, respiratory diseases, and other more typical health problems. “It’s always been both gratifying and rewarding for me to keep seeing patients, and professionally it’s a valuable perspective to have. It looks different when you sit across the desk from a patient versus testifying in Congress or writing a check for a grant.” While Mark’s focus shifted rather early on from a more confrontational form of activism, marching and protesting, to policy development and financial support of social programs and healthcare systems and direct, hands-on patient care, his goal of bringing real change to individuals and communities has driven him all along. From the east coast to the west coast, he has brought about change, and so many, especially those living with HIV, have benefited from his dedication, expertise, and service.
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CONNECTIONS AND COMMUNITY
Mario Chiappetti ’74
A Commitment to High Achievement, A Duty to Serve Beginning in the late 1960s, Project Broad Jump, a New York-based summer education program for some 600 youngsters in the third through tenth grades, brought kids from urban areas to boarding schools in New York City and the surrounding areas. A non-profit corporation, Project Broad Jump offered educational enrichment to disadvantaged children who were identified as having tremendous intellectual curiosity and a commitment to high achievement. In its very first summer program in 1968, one of those students fortunate enough to be a part of this program at Millbrook was Mario Chiappetti, an eager 7th grade Italian boy from Manhattan. At the completion of the program, then Headmaster Buell told Mario that if he was ever interested in attending Millbrook, he would gladly be accepted. Although the idea of leaving his large family and all that he had been accustomed to in Greenwich Village was nerve-racking, Mario believed it was an opportunity too good to pass up. He applied that fall and was accepted into the IIIrd form class for 1969-70. Millbrook was a complete social and cultural shift for Mario, but a welcome challenge and one he embraced wholly. “I had to adjust initially, figure out how I fit in, and work through terrible homesickness. But I jumped into the experience and was a class officer my IIIrd form year.”
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Mario continued to get involved in a variety of activities and leadership roles, culminating in his VIth form year when he was head prefect and a tri-varsity captain (football, basketball, and track). He didn’t bring a superstar talent or height advantage to his teams; he knew his contributions could best be measured through his dedication to working hard and supporting his teammates. He believed deeply in Millbrook’s culture of community, leadership, and service, and this he carried through in every part of his Millbrook experience. As head prefect of the school, he put his beliefs into practice when taking part in a disciplinary action involving a classmate. He struggled endlessly with how to handle the situation. “I had to make some very unpopular choices, especially as head of the discipline committee when I voted to expel members of our class for breaking a school rule shortly before graduation. It was really a
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trying time, and I decided to hold a class meeting. When I walked into the room, you could hear a pin drop. I read a statement about why I did what I did, and while many did not agree with me, they thanked me for being so transparent. I had to do what I knew was right, even at the expense of friendships. Coverage of this made The Silo, published just before we graduated.” Mario credits Millbrook as the gateway to so many opportunities in his life. He had the confidence to attend Williams College, a school he knew very little about, and to accept the challenge, at age 25, of opening a new division for his employer, Chubb, a large insurance company, in Brussels, a place he had never visited. In fact, he had never flown on a plane before this, but he crisscrossed Europe for four and a half years as he managed Chubb’s kidnapping/ ransom insurance division, spending the last two years building a new office in London, England, before moving back to the U.S. After spending years in the insurance industry, Mario was looking for more opportunities that would play into his desire to help others, and his natural ability to listen, connect people, and
put the right pieces in place to help businesses strategically. Mario took his talent to the non-profit world, through Encore Hartford, helping towns, schools, and police agencies work together and grow communities in safe and efficient ways. Building on his desire to help others, Mario also worked briefly for Junior Achievement, a non-profit that inspires students’ success by fostering a belief in themselves. Most recently Mario has taken a step out of the corporate world until his next big role presents itself. “I am trying to figure out what comes next. I think about Mary Oliver’s poem, The Summer Day, ‘what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?’ I want to do something more in my community, but I haven’t decided yet what that might be. Sometimes I just have to listen and wait, and good things will happen. I really believe we have a duty to serve. I believe in compassion and needing to walk in others’ shoes. I have been given a lot; I have been blessed to have opportunities, to come to a beautiful place like Millbrook. So, how can I pay it forward? How can I make the world a better place?”
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CONNECTIONS AND COMMUNITY
Margot (Perera) Phelps ’94
Empowering and Mentoring Young Women of Boston When Margot entered Millbrook in the early 90s, she was impressed by the absolute focus on community and stewardship of the environment. Reflecting on how privileged she felt to be a student at Millbrook, she also realized that while her peers came from so many different backgrounds, there was social fluidity. “Working with teenagers is difficult – it’s a calling. Millbrook teachers made each of us feel known and valued for what we brought to the community. We all had deep relationships with people we might not have interacted with otherwise in the “real world.” Yes, it was a bit of a bubble, almost a utopia. After Millbrook I began to realize the inequalities in the world all around me.” Margot was drawn to a larger experience after graduation and attended The George Washington University in Washington, D.C. She had taken psychology as a history elective during her senior year at Millbrook, and her interest was piqued. She explored a psychology major in college and, interested in the criminology side, what makes people commit crimes and how elements within their environment contribute, she graduated with a degree in criminal justice. Immediately out of college she found an opportunity to join Planned Parenthood as a clinic assistant, and she remained there for over four years. “I was drawn especially to the preventive side of their business, working with women on how to make healthy decisions. I was also impressed by the social workers at Planned Parenthood—they really made an impression and inspired me to get my graduate degree in social work.” Margot dove into graduate studies at Simmons College in 2003 and graduated with her master’s degree in social work in 2005.
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Within a year she landed at Big Sister Association of Greater Boston, and she has been there since. With approximately 2,700 girls served in the Boston area, they are the only standalone gender-specific affiliate of Big Brothers Big Sisters, and they offer two main programs: site-based mentoring and community-based
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mentoring. “My work has, in great part, continued to focus on prevention. Working with Big Sister in this capacity was really the perfect match because of the tie to girls and women and helping these groups.” Starting off as a match support specialist, Margot worked within the community-based program, a more traditional mentoring program for girls, many from under-resourced communities. She was responsible for matching 100 girls to 100 mentors and then following their relationship closely, ensuring that the match was compatible and that both the girl and the mentor were doing their part. She typically followed a mentor-mentee match over two and a half years. Some might lose interest over time, but more often than not, the girls would age out when they turned 20, often prepared to become mentors themselves to younger girls. Girls typically come to the program via word of mouth and school referrals, and, due to its popularity, they often start on a waiting list. Match support specialists actively recruit volunteers, most of whom are in their mid-twenties to mid-thirties. They rigorously screen all volunteers, complete background and criminal checks, and invite each prospective mentor to an interview. Once approved, each volunteer is required to attend a six-hour training session that covers how to build a relationship with the mentee, how to align themselves with the girls’ families and communities, and how to develop cultural sensitivity. They stress that a mentor’s motivation should be about supporting the girls, not saving them. Once a match is made, for the first three months the mentor and mentee meet once per week for 3-4 hours. After the first year, they might continue to meet every other week or as little as once per month, but they maintain communication in other ways—a phone call, a text, a video chat. It is a substantial commitment of time and energy for the volunteers. Margot worked through the highs and lows as she monitored these relationships. If a girl was unable to articulate her feelings, the most common problem in the mentor-mentee relationships, Margot worked closely with her on communication skills—how to interact respectfully and honestly, to share feelings and thoughts, particularly when something has upset her. But more often than not Margot heard about the benefits of a really good match. “I loved hearing from a girl about how her mentor has made a significant impact on her life. Even better was when we heard from a mentor about what she has learned from the young girl whom she is mentoring.” In 2010 Margot transitioned into a management position at Big Sister as manager of Impact Services. Her first initiative was to develop an enrichment program, bringing groups of girls together
• Margot with her husband, Chris, and two children, Elizabeth and William
to discuss finding their identity, setting goals and working to achieve them, puberty and sexual health, and much more. “I designed this program for matches to attend together so that tough conversations around these topics can be a bit easier, as the goal of this program was to establish safe and supportive channels of communication.” After taking some time off to raise two children with her husband, Chris, Margot returned to Big Sister on a part-time basis in 2016, supervising 5-6 social work interns who are completing their advanced degrees either at a local college or university or within an online program that has ties to Boston-area organizations like Big Sister. The interns work mostly in the High School Mentoring program, meeting weekly with girls from Boston Latin Academy who become mentors to girls attending a local elementary school. “I really love supporting these interns in terms of helping them apply what they are seeing in our mentoring programs, how that ties into what they are learning in their studies, and how they might apply this real experience in the classroom.” Margot’s future has unlimited opportunity, and the Big Sister Association of Greater Boston will surely benefit from her dedication. She will continue to work with marginalized communities on educational programs and mentorship, and she remains committed to opening doors for young girls and women and doing whatever she can to promote social justice.
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CONNECTIONS AND COMMUNITY
Kinley McCracken ’04
Conviction & Compassion: No Limits It didn’t take long for Kinley McCracken ‘04 to settle into life at Millbrook when she arrived as a IIIrd former. “I remember staying in Guest House on my first overnight and already feeling a part of the community. We were individuals, each with our own story, and we felt supported. I loved how small it was. All of the freshman girls were together, and that was the foundation of our community.” Kinley realized that she could be a part of any subset in the student community, that nothing prevented her from belonging— the artsy kids, the athletes, and the student leaders. A dorm leader for the IIIrd form girls in Guest House for two years, she took her role very seriously, fostering a sense of community for the youngest on campus. When she graduated in 2004, she knew that she was prepared to build community wherever she went, and she would use compassion and her readiness to serve others as her foundation. Kinley went on to Northeastern University, where she worked toward a degree in physical therapy. In her free time she would make trips to visit her close friend and former Millbrook classmate Devin Resler ’02. Devin had suffered a debilitating spinal cord injury, but Kinley would make trips back to Millbrook from Boston to take him to watch lacrosse games. Devin became the inspiration for Kinley to focus her studies on neurological therapy for patients with spinal cord injuries. After working at a hospital in San Diego and then volunteering at a non-profit clinic in Uganda to help with preventative medicine education, Kinley settled in the Bay Area in Oakland, California. Something that became evident when working with injured patients was the discrepancy between resources available to patients and necessary time to make progress with patients. Insurance companies are looking for short term results, when successful therapy for some patients can take years. This led Kinley to co-found a non-profit organization, No Limits Collaborative, that works with patients who might otherwise not have access to proper treatment.
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Kinley works closely with patients to design a step by step plan tailored to their individual goals, and she is willing to work toward those goals no matter how hard it might be or how long it takes. One unique approach to therapy with No Limits is to get patients to compete in team triathlons. The idea is to keep patients within the same active group of friends or family that they had before an injury, instead of isolating them in their treatment. Seeing patients put in the hard work to train and compete, and sometimes place, against able bodied athletes is inspirational. Kinley looks to future possibilities with hope and optimism. The current goal is to expand No Limit’s triathlon program to the northeast and eventually nationwide. But Kinley has developed a real passion for a specific subset of the disabled community. “I see myself always working within the disability community. I see myself working with women, moms, and moms-to-be. Exactly where that takes me, I am not sure.” The path isn’t fully defined yet, but wherever it leads Kinley she is sure to do it with full conviction and compassion.
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CONNECTIONS AND COMMUNITY
Melissa Rome ’11
Building, Serving, and Protecting Community “Millbrook is where my foundation in respect and community service was built.” Melissa Rome arrived at Millbrook in the fall of 2008 eager to play hockey and excited about the potential to learn and grow. Her Vth and VIth form teammates made an absolute impression on her that first year. Many were dorm leaders, and Melissa looked up to them as they built community not only on the ice and in the locker room, but in the dorms and other places on campus as well. A resident of Clark Hall during each of her three years at Millbrook, she was selected as a dorm leader her VIth form year, and, working with three other student dorm leaders, she set the tone in Clark and led by example. Whether by providing assistance with homework, helping to manage time during study hall, or being a good listener, Melissa simply wanted to make a difference and help others as she felt she had been supported. Wanting to continue her education at an institution with community at its heart, she enrolled at Norwich University, the oldest private military college in the U.S. and the birthplace of ROTC. Two-thirds of their diverse student body join the Corps of Cadets to pursue their degree in a very structured environment. The camaraderie that develops between students is much like a sacred brotherhood or sisterhood, as they complete their studies while training and fulfilling their military requirements. As first year “rooks,” the experience was very much like boot camp. “The first six months were really tough. You’re up at 5:30 a.m. and busy until 10 p.m. You’ve got to be very focused, and you learn to take orders from someone without questioning why.”
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whatever they can to help in life and death situations.” She is now in her third year with the fire department and is committed for the long term. In the late winter of 2018, Melissa completed an interview with the chief of police in Hartford, CT, and shortly thereafter got the call inviting her to join the force. She started the 30-week police academy just one week later and graduated on October 12, 2018, top of her class. For the next 12 weeks, she completed additional training with a field training officer (FTO), shadowing him and then slowly taking on more and more responsibility. By January of this year, she was driving her own squad car to a variety of calls and crime scenes. “The great thing about working in a city is that you go on all sorts of calls—physical fights, people who are sick or injured, car accidents, and a lot of noise complaints. The majority of what we do has more to do with helping people, explaining things, rather than truly enforcing a law. That’s where my community service experience comes into play. I like working in Hartford because it’s so active, there’s always something going on, and there are so many people with different backgrounds, from different countries. It’s a melting pot, which makes it cool.” While Melissa progressed through her coursework, she concurrently moved through the ranks, becoming a corporal her sophomore year, a sergeant first class her junior year, and a major in her final year; she earned promotions by means of good grades, performance on physical fitness tests and in interviews, and contributions to the school community. As a sophomore, she led a group of freshmen recruits, advising them on academics and student life during weekly meetings, and her junior year she helped plan major events on campus, including two military balls. She led that same service group her senior year, managing more than 20 other students. She volunteered in the community as well, shoveling sidewalks for the elderly, packing boxes at Food Share, and working with younger kids at the Girls and Boys Club, all while completing her studies and playing varsity softball and club ice hockey. At the end of her junior year, she made the decision to pursue a career in criminal justice and join civilian life after graduation. By the summer of 2015, Melissa was back home in Enfield, CT, and beginning her applications with police departments, a process that can take 1-2 years to complete. While waiting, she worked various security jobs and joined the local fire department in Enfield as a volunteer. “When I came home, I knew it was something I could do to help the community. There is a very similar camaraderie here within a group of people who see some really serious things, who jump out of bed when their beeper goes off at 5 a.m., who will do
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Melissa appreciates that as a police officer in Hartford, her back up is just minutes—or even seconds—away. As is the case with all officers in this city, she drives one-man car and patrols a different area of the city every day. Of course, she thinks of this in terms of advantages—she is getting to know every facet of the city and cannot get complacent or comfortable. She’ll be on her toes, and the residents and workers in Hartford will be glad they have her when the call for help goes out over the radio.
“I knew that the values I learned at Millbrook and then at Norwich—time management, respect, working hard, and being community-oriented— would be useful to me in the future, regardless of my ultimate career path.”
ALUMNI/AE MILLBROOK ALUMNI GATHERINGS
ALUMNI LEGACIES The great number of Millbrook legacies - parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and siblings of current students - is a testament to the strength of our community. This photo, taken during Fall Parents Weekend, includes our current student legacies and their alumni parents. From left to right: Stephen Peschel, III ’22, Stephen Peschel, II ’73, Morgan Reed ’22, Kelly (Macaluso) Coles ’86, Jessie (Zirinsky) Reed ’91, Issy Coles ’19, Ryan Barnello ’22, Peter Rosse ’84, Eliza Thorne ’95, Maarten Rosse ’21, Will Simons ’19, Paul Simons ’83, Chris Randolph ’19, Allen Randolph ’83, Will Randolph ’21, Eduardo Coles-Vollmer ’21, and Andres Coles ’90 Not pictured: Samantha Webster-Sheldon ‘92 and Jay Harris ‘19
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ALUMNI WINTER DAY 3
1. A lumni return to campus in February for Alumni Winter Day, an annual event that includes friendly competition on the ice and an opportunity to reconnect with friends, former classmates, and faculty. 2. Margaret Payne and sons Ben and John drop the puck, and Gordie MacKenzie ’79 and Bruce Herdman ’78 face off in honor of John Payne ’60, who loved attending Alumni Winter Day festivities and sadly passed away in November. This annual hockey game is now named the MacKenziePayne Alumni Game in honor of John Payne ’60 and John MacKenzie ’46. 3. F ormer teammates Tim Cooney and Tommy Nolan, both class of 2011, enjoy competition on the ice. 4. Atticus Downs joins dad Jon Downs ’98 on the ice.
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NEW YORK CITY 1. A large contingent from the class of 2013 gather at the New York City reception. 2. J oining Headmaster Casertano are Elizabeth Sednaoui ’09, Emily Hottensen ’06, and Mimi Anthony Cushing ’08. 3. C aroline Whalen ’14, Bria Horsley ’14, and Eleanor Sednaoui ’13 with Linda Casertano
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4. Miles Messinger ’14, Reagan Brown ’13, and Chaplain Cam Hardy 5. G ood friends look forward to connecting at the Racquet and Tennis Club each fall 6. Paul Ratner ’53 with Vernon Manley ’68 7. Hallie Bates ’08 and Zoe Townsend ’08 with Robert Anthony ’65
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SAN FRANCISC0 1. Seth Williams ’84 and Geoff James, husband of Sandy Holbrook James ’86 2. F red Lowell ’67 and Mark Cartland ’81 with Headmaster Casertano 3. Mansell Ambrose ’14 with mom Jessica 4. Jerry Hume ’56 with Linda Casertano
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CHICAGO 1. T aylor Nelson ’10 and guest Joe Thomas with Director of Parent Programs Barbara Gatski 2. N ick Williams ’07, Andrew Cochran ’06, and Alyssa Cochran
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3. C ochran brothers Andrew ’06 and Chase ’10 with Headmaster Casertano 4. M illbrook’s proud group of Chicago-area current parents 5. H ost Diane Reilly P ’17 with Sara Swift P ’21, and Director of Admission Meg Grover 6. Host Paul Reilly P ’17 with Kevin Burke P ’19
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HEADMASTER’S CHALLENGE
NEW YORK CITY
1. A nother strong turnout for members of the class of 2013: Andy Tolston, Rob Austrian, Eleanor Sednaoui, Eva Kudenholdt, Elizabeth Lowe, Storey Schifter, Grace Hilliard, Maddie Schmalz, Amelia Woods, and Olivia Dolan.
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2. H osts Loukas Zoumas ’97, Katrina Cox ’04, and Eliza Glaister ’04 with Headmaster Casertano and Robert Anthony ’65 3. C had Oliver ’04, Alex Barrow ’03, Katrina Cox ’04, Eliza Glaister ’04, Nick Imbelli ’03, Michael Reinoso ’03, and Wayne Charles ’03 4. Carrie Merrill ’11 and Sarah Mulberry ’11 with a hug hello 5. Allie Cavanaugh ’08 with Robert Anthony ’65 6. Gavin Bennett ’06, Alex Wilson ’06, and Chris Bennett ’08 7. A lex Barrow ’03, Mimi Anthony Cushing ’08, Emily Hottensen ’06, and Morgan Whitridge ’11 with Headmaster Casertano 6 1
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HEADMASTER’S CHALLENGE
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1. M illbrook’s significant alumni coalition gathered in Boston in mid-February for an event hosted by Colin Kingsbury ’94. Classmates from across decades loved catching up! 2. From 1965: Robert Anthony and Ken Brown 3. From 2004: Christian Brett and Andrew Marsallo 4. From 1991: Sarah Calabrese and Jessie (Zirinsky) Reed 5. From 2018: Gabriel Diaz and Ava McCoy 6. Griffin Everts ’13 with Robert Anthony ’65
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WOMENS EVENT:
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Longtime Millbrook Head Nurse Eileen Jeffreys spoke to a group of alumnae who gathered in New York City in February for an annual event hosted by Caroline A. Wamsler, PhD ’87, Vanessa (Cutler) McGarry ’87, Anna Martucci ’92, and Katrina Cox ’04. EJ, as she is very fondly known, spoke on the topic of respect and, particularly, self-respect. She reflected on lessons learned and offered nearly a dozen specific thoughts on how women can support their inner
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mentor and silence their inner critic. 1. Alumnae gather to celebrate Eileen Jeffreys and appreciate her wise counsel. 2. Events Coordinator Betty Siegenthaler P ’06 and Chaplain Cam Hardy P ’92, ’09, ’13 3. D aisy Glazebrook ’07, Rachel Carey ’07, Jung Eun Kim ’07, and Margaret Pennoyer ’06 with Dean of Faculty Kathy Havard 4. Nellie (Perera) DeAngelis ’88 with Karen Murray ’87 5. Director of Advancement Nancy Stahl with host Caroline A. Wamsler, PhD ’87 6. Class of 1992 friends: Host Anna Martucci, Jessie (Goichman) Eisenberg, and Patricia Sykes 7. Speaker Eileen Jeffreys with Anne Putnam ’95
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CIRCLING BACK
A Community Tradition Headmaster George Buell gathers with the student body for chapel services in 1965. While chapel gatherings look a bit different today - a few more rows have been added, and students take to the pulpit more often than faculty - this tradition remains an important one in the life of the school, twice-weekly.
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Class Notes Class of 1947
Class of 1958
Oakleigh Thorne II turned 90 in October, and his non-profit, Thorne Nature Experience, celebrated with a big fundraiser, Natural Night Out, which raised scholarships for underserved kids.
Charles Evans, Jr. underwent major back surgery and two wrist surgeries, and he doesn’t ever want to see another doctor with a knife! He continues to be a senior advisor to Governor Hogan, who was re-elected to a second term, only the second Republican
Class of 1952 Ted Briggs has abandoned the “Icebox of Connecticut” (Norfolk) and moved to Hilton Head Island, SC, where he completed and published a couple of books: Ambassador’s Apprentice, a Foreign Service Memoir and Honor to State - Reflections of a ReaganBush Era Ambassador. So far, he has gotten a few positive reviews (via Amazon). Otherwise, he is enjoying the Lowcountry and its many delights, and classmates are invited to drop by.
to ever do so in Maryland. Charlie says it is worth noting that Hogan is now recognized as the most liked governor in the country and urges that Hogan should be watched over the next two years as he may be a possible candidate for president. His life is good,
kids and grand-kids are doing well, and he appreciates his Millbrook experience more and more as he gets older and wiser.
Class of 1959 60th Reunion Dr. Thomas Lovejoy returned to campus for Millbrook’s Conservation Leaders of Tomorrow 2.0 dinner in April 2018. This event brought together leaders in conservation from the Cary Institute, Vassar College, and the SmithsonianMason School of Conservation with President & CEO of the National Association of Zoos & Aquariums Daniel Ashe. These influential leaders toured the Trevor Zoo, met with science students, and toured south campus, including the canopy walkway, marshes, and eco-hut. Tom is currently a professor of conservation and biology at George Mason University.
Class of 1954 65th Reunion Denny Haight is enjoying retirement living in Little River, SC, thirty minutes north of Myrtle Beach and ten minutes from the ocean. He is looking forward to attending his class reunion in June.
Class of 1956 Webster “Dan” Todd, Jr. hung up his crash helmet and quit racing as the cockpit heat became too much. He also retired from active firefighting after a 56-year run. (Note: He started as a hose man at Millbrook.) Dan is still flying and farming.
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Class of 1960 James Currie resumed flight training at the KTUS Airport in Tucson, AZ, after a 60-year lapse.
Class of 1969
50th Reunion Scott Wallace ran for Congress against a freshman Republican in the Philadelphia suburbs, where he just missed winning. Scott is delighted to have succeeded in his fundamental goal of flipping the House. He has now returned to his much more enjoyable and productive foundation work with the Wallace Global Fund, currently in South Africa and Zimbabwe. He has “not a single grandchild.” He is looking forward to his 50th reunion in June.
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Class Notes Class of 1971 Captain James M. Cannon IV, USN and his wife, Lucy, enjoyed golf, hiking, sailing, and snorkeling in Oahu and Waikiki in Hawaii in 2018. They are back in Silver Spring and Bumpass nowadays. His foot has healed from a surfing accident – “Ouch!” “Go Mustangs and Non Sibi Sed Cunctis.”
Class of 1973 Stephen Peschel II is proud to note that his son, Stephen, has joined the class of 2022 at Millbrook. Ernesto Viteri Arriola spent Christmas with his children, Carlos Ernesto ’02, José Javier ’03, Maria Inés ’07, and Juan Pablo Viteri Yaquian ’10, and his six grandchildren in Memphis, TN, where Carlos Ernesto is completing his medical specialization in pulmonary medicine and intensive care. It was then on to the Dominican Republic to celebrate the New Year with his wife, Maria. Neto is glad to report that everyone is doing fine.
Class of 1975 Ernest Ashley is still ridding the world of methyl-ethyl-bad-stuff after 30+ years as a hydrogeologist/environmental consultant. He is living near Boston, MA. With Lucy at Makapu Lighthouse overlooking Rabbit Island off Makapu Beach
Class of 1976 Life is good and moving fast for Liz Corrigan Vaughan. Her son is in his freshman year at RIT majoring in cybersecurity. Her daughter is about to turn 16, starting to drive, and beginning college tours. She wishes the class of ’76 a big hello!
Class of 1977
On 13th Hole, Klipper Golf Course, Marine Corps Base Kaneohe, Hawaii (Oahu)
Gurdon Hornor has made a very big move to the West Coast and has settled into North County, San Diego. Walter is a freshman at Del Norte High School, and Amelia is in 5th grade, which he feels likely makes him the guy with the youngest kids in his class. Gurdon finds life to be wonderful between the shore, the mountains, and the desert. Please let him know if you come to SoCal and make plans to connect.
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Class Notes Caroline “Kitty” Kittredge moved back to beautiful Sunapee, NH, last July after living at the New Hampshire seacoast for two years. She is now working as a one-on-one educational assistant at Sunapee Middle High School. Her oldest daughter recently got her first job out of college at a nonprofit in Boston, and her youngest daughter is a thriving junior at her alma mater, ColbySawyer College, in nearby New London, NH. “I’ve never lived and worked in the same town before, and it is a real treat to have only a mile and a half commute! I live on Lake Sunapee and am so thankful to be back here again. As they say, ‘It’s God’s country!’ Best wishes to all my Millbrook old friends.” After nearly ten years of dividing time between Skopje, Macedonia, and Miami Beach, FL, Nicholas Thaw and his wife, artist Irena Gapkovska, decided to move to Perpignan, France. Perpignan is 19 miles north of the Spanish border, eight miles from the Mediterranean coastline, and about an hour away from excellent skiing. It is where some of the most important artists of the 20th century, including Picasso, Matisse, and Dufy, lived for a time because of the light and the ambiance. Salvador Dalí even proclaimed the Perpignan Railway Station to be the “center of the universe” after experiencing a “vision of cosmogonic ecstasy” here in 1963. Nick and Irena have a lovely old apartment in the heart of the
17th-century pedestrian district, and Irena continues her teaching in Skopje while establishing a similar atelier in Perpignan (www.ngoartstudio.org). Nick remains chairman of the International Music and Art Foundation (www.imaf.li), established in Liechtenstein in 1988 with the belief that, after all, the greatest legacy to future generations is the improvement and dissemination of the visual and performing arts as well as the study and preservation of art and culture from the past.
Class of 1980 Zerline Goodman is currently the president of Skillman Associates—The Yale Squash alumni group. She also serves on the College Squash Association (CSA) Board as the chair of the Rules and Regulations Committee. Zerline started her squash career at Millbrook and went on to be a four-year All-American. She was the #1 player at Yale her entire time there, leading the team to a national championship her junior year. She played on the professional tour for a year after law school, though it was softball, not the hardball game she played at Millbrook and in college. She made it to #29 in the world professional rankings and met her husband on a squash court. All three of her children play squash. Her oldest daughter was the captain of the
Trinity College team, her son is currently on the team at Bates, and her youngest is on the girls varsity team at Poly Prep. Zerline says she has Millbrook to thank for all of these blessings in her life. “If I hadn’t been required to play three sports a year, and too short for basketball, I might never have picked up a racquet! I am such a proud Millbrook graduate! I look back fondly upon my days there.” Gil Schafer has been honored as one of the nation’s leading practitioners of contemporary classical architecture. The Institute of Classical Architecture & Art (ICAA) recently named Gil as the winner of the 2019 Arthur Ross Awards for Excellence in the Classical Tradition, and he was honored at a dinner in New York City on May 6th. Gil’s work has been widely recognized and awarded—he has been named to Architectural Digest’s AD100 and earned Veranda’s “Art of Design Award.” His work has also been featured in numerous national and international publications including Architectural Digest, Elle Décor, Veranda, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, British House & Garden, and The Financial Times. Gil is a member of the Yale School of Architecture Dean’s Council and a trustee of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation; he served as president and then chairman of the ICAA for over a decade.
Class of 1981 Class of 1978 Bruce Herdman is especially proud to share news about his exceptional wife, Sarah, pictured left. After 28 years with Hospice Calgary, the last 14 as its executive director, she has just retired, and her 35-year career of service to those in need is a perfect example of Non Sibi Sed Cunctis. She has had a long career in palliative care on a team at McMaster University Medical Center in Canada and as president and past-president of the Canadian Hospice and Palliative Care Association. Bruce and Sarah took a hockey and pleasure trip to Slovenia in the fall of 2017, and that is where this photo was snapped.
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Charlie (Chuck) Greeff lives with his daughter, Beth (age 17), and wife, Eva, in West Linn, OR. Beth attends college at American University in Washington, DC. Chuck is busy with his law practice and still runs long-distance almost daily.
Class of 1986 Trevor Zoo Director of Media Daniel Cohen hosted an evening event at the renovated Mill at the Trevor Zoo last June. He shared the
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Class Notes unfolding story of Millbrook School, uniquely built on a mission of community service. The Mill is one of the last vestiges of the original farm, purchased by Edward Pulling in 1931. During the event anthropologist John Garbellano (son of Millbrook employees Marie and John Garbellano) spoke of the Native American presence in the Millbrook area.
Class of 1989 30th Reunion Ret Talbot, an award-winning journalist, continues to pen articles for national publications on the intersection of science and sustainability. National Geographic and Yale Environment 360 published his most recent articles that headlined ‘Holy Grail’ Test for Illegal Cyanide-Caught Aquarium Fish May Be Fatally Flawed and As Disease Ravages Coral Reefs, Scientists Scramble for Solutions.
Class of 1991 Christa Rose, John Goodell, and Dr. Thomas Lovejoy ’59 shared some quality time in February at a joint meeting of the Oregon and Washington Wildlife Society chapters. John coordinated the meeting and recruited Dr. Lovejoy as keynote speaker. Christa had just concluded the implementation and coordination of a substantial fisher (Pekania pennanti) project expansion for Oregon’s Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Class of 1988 Karla Held lives in Central Texas (on Lake Travis near Austin) and guides kayaking and SUP river trips for those passing through and wanting to learn from a local about the cool spots to hit in Central Texas. She teaches whitewater kayaking for the beginner, including techniques and safety measures, and focuses on teaching youth, women, minorities/those whose native language isn’t English, and an ‘older’ crowd. She has also helped out on river trips in Mexico and Texas that take veterans out on the water through the national Team River Runner program. Karla continues to enjoy producing articles about paddling in Texas for various newspapers and magazines and working as a freelance photographer. Karla is excited to participate in Texas’ first “Women Who Wander” festival in March 2019 and to document some of its finer moments through her camera lens.
Class of 1999 Gordon Pennoyer continues his work as the director of external communications for Chesapeake Energy Corporation in Oklahoma City, OK. He and his wife, Andrea, keep very busy with twins Alexandra and Brooks.
Class of 1998 Elizabeth Druback Celaya is one of the people leading the charge for the Hudson River Housing project at the Poughkeepsie Underwear Factory (PUF). The restored factory building now provides an art space, a communal kitchen, a coffee roaster, and reasonably priced rental apartments. The project is one of the efforts of Hudson River Housing to revitalize downtown Poughkeepsie.
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Class Notes Alumni Profile
ANDREW HERNANDEZ ’87 A quick study and a versatile athlete,
Andrew grew up in a mostly Spanishspeaking household in the Bronx as the third of five children, following in his older brother’s footsteps to qualify for a scholarship program through the ABC (A Better Chance) program. While his brother elected to attend Concord Academy, Andrew applied
Twelve years later, Andrew remains with New York Life, working in the home office and reporting to Vice President Michael Lackey as chief of staff of the Field Development, Prospecting, and Retention area. Working with all agents across the country, Andrew and his team provide training and develop programs including a proprietary mobile platform for customer relationship development and marketing, a comprehensive database where agents can access and enter client information, appointments, notes, contracts, underwriting information, and more. The insurance industry struggles to retain sales people—NY Life eventually loses nearly 80% of the salesforce they train. It’s such a critical issue that the company was willing to invest $20 million in this new technology, and Andrew has helped with its development. “If we can retain just 5% more of the sales people we are losing by helping them be better at what they do, we’ll be able to save $50 million.” Quite the return on investment.
and was accepted to several other boarding schools and ultimately
Andrew, his wife, Diane, and their two children live in Bronxville, NY,
chose Millbrook because of its proximity to home. Ironically, he rarely
and Malia and Marco currently attend The Chapel School, a small
traveled home as his activities at Millbrook—as a three-season athlete,
independent school affiliated with the Village Lutheran Church.
dorm proctor, and prefect—kept him fully involved on campus.
Andrew volunteers at the school and the church whenever possible
Matriculating to Colgate University in Hamilton, NY, Andrew immersed himself fully in student life, playing football for one year, joining a fraternity, and playing a wide variety of intramural sports. He had a true liberal arts academic experience at Colgate and graduated with a major in Latin American Studies and a minor in international relations.
as a chaperone, preparing backdrops for performances, or working at events. When he’s not playing softball himself, he is coaching his son’s and daughter’s teams including baseball, football, basketball, and softball. At the end of busy days at the office, he is off to a practice or a game or a Cub Scout den meeting or a den leaders’ meeting.
A summer internship in media planning at TBWA (now TBWA/Chiat Day) brought him back to New York City, and a job offer from the company in 1992 kickstarted a career in media. He remained at TBWA for five years before moving to Ogilvy & Mathers and then to Cliff Freeman & Partners, a division of Saatchi & Saatchi, for four years before landing at Zenith Media as a planner and buyer for both national and local market campaigns including Little Caesars, Hollywood Video, and Sauza Tequila. As he considered potential next steps on his career path, his goals diverged. If he were to become a media director, he would be on the road for days at a time. Andrew and his fiancé were beginning to plan a family, and he had every intention of spending time at home with his family. “Growing up, I had always wished that my dad would have been around more often. He did what he had to do, working two jobs—he had five kids and had to put food on the table and clothes on our back. I don’t begrudge him for any of that. But I wanted to be in a place professionally where I had the flexibility to make those choices and, hopefully, be able to have a career and be home for my kids.”
softball tournament for my daughter. Sometimes it’s back to back double-headers with my son and then running off to do something else at the school, at the church, or what have you. But it’s a very small
Hoping to parlay his negotiation skills from his media buying days
window, and I’m already starting to see it close. I’ve been involved in
into a lucrative career close to home, he took a sales position with an
everything, and in a few years it will be the beginning of a different
Audi dealership in Connecticut for a year before trying his hand as a
phase.”
recruiter helping match others to suitable jobs. Serendipitously, New York Life was one of their clients, and Andrew was a terrific fit for an opening in their Sleepy Hollow office.
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“It’s all good—I love it! Sometimes it’s five hours or six hours at a
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Andrew makes it all work—time with his family, volunteering, coaching, playing, and building his career—and proves that you can, indeed, have it all.
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Class Notes Class of 2001 Tereek Frazier has circled back to working in film festivals after a hiatus to pursue his passion for writing screenplays. Of the three screenplays he has written, two have already sold and are awaiting production. Prior to his writing stint, Tereek worked at film festivals across the country, including Tribeca, Sundance, and LA. He hopes all is well at Millbrook and says he misses the quad.
Class of 2004 15th Reunion
Class of 2000 Garrett Meigs is still living the Oregon dream with his wife, Cassie, and three-year-old son, Felix. When not immersed in forest fire research in the Pacific Northwest, he stays busy gardening and chasing Felix throughout the natural world.
Stratton Hatfield has been studying for a master’s of science degree in Sustainability, Entrepreneurship and Design at Brunel University in London where he was the recipient of the distinguished Chevening Scholarship. Upon completing his MSc, Stratton plans to return to Bermuda to continue to help grow BE Solar and improve the renewable energy industry. He intends to use his skill set to help develop and implement more sustainable environmental, social, and economic practices and policies in Bermuda. Over 61,000 applicants applied for the Chevening Scholarship this year, and Stratton was one of 1,500 worldwide awarded the scholarship. (https://www.gov.bm/articles/ bermudian-chevening-scholar-celebrated)
Class of 2006 Lindsey Ronis is in her eighth year at Atlanta’s Georgia Aquarium working as an animal trainer. She is thrilled to be working with puffins, Asian small-clawed otters, and Southern sea otters, and she is always happy to show visitors around.
Class of 2008 Class of 2001 Bob Anthony ’65 and his wife, Ann, enjoyed meeting recently with Adrienne Smith Lowe ’01 and her husband, Ian, in New York City. The Lowes are living in Bermuda.
From Peter Bromer, father of Sabrina Julemiste, “Sabrina is doing great and lives in LA. She is working in the entertaining/ modeling business and is very happy.”
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Class Notes Class of 2009
Class of 2009 Sean Spero and his wife, Samantha, currently live in Raleigh, NC. Sean is working in corporate development for Syneos Health, a pharmaceutical services company located in Research Triangle Park. His team focuses on all activities related to mergers, acquisitions, strategic partnerships, and other similar investments.
10th Reunion Byron Lynn is in Houston completing a master of architecture program at Rice University. Tyler Mauri received dual bachelor’s degrees in architectural studies and studio art from Hobart and William Smith College. He earned his master’s degree in architecture in 2018 at The University of Virginia and now lives in New York City, working there for SO - IL Architects.
Class of 2010 James Matson is enrolled in the graduate program at the Cooperstown Graduate Program.
Class of 2012 Walter Ross attends the Sandra Day O’Connor School of Law in Phoenix, AZ.
Class of 2013 In the past year Reagae Brown worked for the photographer Nan Goldin, assisted photographer Aleya Lehmann Bench, and was teaching assistant to photographer Natan Dvir at the International Center of Photography. Currently, she is working as a freelance photographer in NYC photographing restaurants and food for Crave Social and shooting events for the Handmade in Brooklyn Collective. In her spare time she is a freelance writer for a new online platform, ART SHE SAYS, that gives a voice to women doing amazing things in the art industry. Caleb King graduated from Wesleyan University in 2017 and is currently a secondyear student at Columbia Law School. There he joined the Black Law Students Association
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Class of 2010 Taylor Nelson has been living just off the Magnificent Mile in Chicago since she graduated from the University of New Hampshire in 2014 with a double major in eco-gastronomy and communications. She is a food enthusiast, an avid food photographer, has a growing following on Instagram (@ alwaysbeeating), and enjoys planning food adventures with her boyfriend, Joe, in cities around the globe including Berlin, Monaco, and Amsterdam. Taylor currently works with the CEO of Amylu Foods, a producer of high-quality, all-natural sausage products since 1924. She is often back home in New York to visit family and friends, to attend music concerts and events, and, of course, to check various NYC restaurants off her bucket list.
Class of 2012 Kevin Altidor graduated from Saint Michael’s College in Colchester, VT, in 2016 and decided to continue with his hockey career. He has been living in Tours, France, since August 2016 and playing hockey for Les Remparts de Tours.
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Class Notes (BLSA) and helped found the Rikers Book Club, and he was recently awarded the Davis Polk Leadership Fellowship for his collaboration with inmates at New York City’s notorious Rikers Island prison complex. He is expanding the program by engaging more Columbia Law students and adding book groups in Rikers’ transgender and protective custody units. Larger goals are to address the lack of rehabilitative services and to advocate for systemic change. Caleb has said this of the book club: “The aim is to increase literacy rates and form a supportive community. Individuals have an opportunity to read various literature and write poetry, providing a positive outlet of expression. Through the fellowship, we will determine additional innovative ways to assist incarcerated people as well as seek to facilitate an environment that encourages a civil discourse regarding criminal justice reform going forward.” Caleb would love to engage with the Millbrook community further on the importance of addressing these critical issues and its impact on different communities.
Connor Nelson graduated from Johnson and Wales University in Providence, RI, in 2017 with a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice. He moved to Ogden, UT, just north of Salt Lake City, at the end of 2018, and lives with his girlfriend, Sam, and their puppy, Otis. He is working as a Weber County deputy sheriff and enjoying vast opportunities to explore the great outdoors, hiking extensively through national parks.
Class of 2014 Katja Galli is diligently matriculating through medical school in Argentina. John Norfleet graduated with a degree in molecular biology from Connecticut College and applied successfully to dental school at UPenn and Columbia. He has committed to attending UPenn and will matriculate there in the fall. Christopher M. Saar is enrolled in a master’s in public administration program at the College at Brockport, State University of
Class of 2012 Royce Paris graduated from Skidmore College with a bachelor’s degree in sociology and a minor in business. While at Skidmore, he played on the men’s basketball team and helped them win two back-to-back Liberty League Conference Championships. He also earned All-Tournament Team and All-Academic Team honors and was co-captain of Skidmore’s team his senior year. After working and coaching for one year at the Athenian School in Danville, California, Royce headed to Ireland to begin work on his master’s degree in entrepreneurship and marketing at Dundalk Institute of Technology as a Victory Scholar with the Sports Changes Life foundation. Royce continues to play basketball, both on a club basketball team, Eanna, that follows a competitive schedule country-wide and on Dundalk’s college team.
New York. As a research and data analytics fellow at the Breakthrough Leadership Group, he is working with non-profits such as the Continuum of Care in Rochester to help battle homelessness and perform research into proficiency rates of local charter schools.
Class of 2015 Catherine Luchars is a senior at Colorado College—she is loving it and doing well. She owes her interest in Spanish speaking peoples to Mrs. Gatski and intends to be in touch with Millbrook faculty and friends. Cate MacKenzie was inducted into St. Lawrence University’s Chi Alpha Sigma honorary society. Students are nominated to this society by their head coaches for their contributions to their team, for their moral character, and for having achieved a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.4 or higher. She is a member of the class of 2019, is majoring in government and Francophone studies, and plays on the field hockey team.
Class of 2014 Since graduating from Suffolk University in May, Eleni Katavolos spent two weeks of the summer on a road trip through 18 states. Her first book, Lost It, was published in December of 2018. She is currently training to become a certified Montessori elementary teacher and will be teaching in New York at Hawk Meadow Montessori School in the fall of 2019.
Class of 2014 Chloe Naese fell in love with Denmark when she spent four months studying in Copenhagen in the fall of 2018. She is now an expert at hygge! This May she will graduate from Montana State University with a bachelor of arts degree in Environmental Design. She plans to work in a big city for a few years before pursuing a master’s degree.
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Class Notes Edward Opoku had an incredible MLS debut in July 2018, helping his team, Columbus Crew SC, secure a victory in his first game. He scored five goals during his first season with Columbus Crew SC and will be returning to the field with them this fall.
is studying psychology at Wooster College and has been a leader on his collegiate crosscountry team since his freshman year.
Will Rayman has been a force on the court with the Division I Colgate men’s basketball team since 2015, and he joined the 1,000-point club in a Raider’s win over Nazareth on November 14, 2018. He has also been recognized for his outstanding leadership and attitude as a co-captain of the team in a video produced by Patriot League TV this past fall. “He’s always going to be the guy that picks you up,” his teammate says about him in the video. Rayman attributes the development of these characteristics to his IVth form year at Millbrook when his parents and coaches encouraged him to stay positive despite challenges that he experienced as an athlete. He has learned firsthand that “attitude is everything.”
Alexander Wattles is now a junior at Dickinson College, majoring in environmental science, and captaining the men’s squash team.
David Westcott earned All-Ohio Honors in cross country this past fall, finishing fourth in his division with a time of 24:55:3. David
Class of 2016
Class of 2017 Taddeo Galli finished his freshman year at Southern Methodist University, and his family anticipates he will end his sophomore year with academic honors.
Class of 2018 Katie Bishop-Manning had an impressive first season with the Norwich Cadets women’s soccer team this past fall. She made 46 saves and ended the season with an overall save percentage of .793. Greg Koutsomitis committed to play with the Division I Dartmouth men’s hockey team
and will join them in the rink this fall. He has been playing for the Jersey Hitmen in the USPHL NCDC since his graduation from Millbrook, and his hard work has paid off, as he averaged nearly one point per game through his first several contests. Gabrielle Sartori is off to a great start at UCONN Stamford. After having completed a very successful first semester, she has joined the Alpha Lambda Delta Honor Society. This is by invitation only for students with outstanding academic achievement who have achieved a GPA of 3.5 or better during their first term. She continues to challenge herself not only academically but on the soccer pitch. She played fall soccer with a traveling, very competitive women’s group out of Stamford and was the youngest on the team, while also holding down a part-time job at J. Crew. To wrap up an exciting first year, she and former Millbrook classmate, Kaitlyn Pike, were off to Spain for spring break. After having traveled together with Millbrook School to Texas and then Ghana their sixth form year doing service work, they have remained close friends and travel companions.
Class of 2016 Class of 2014 Brett Supinski was a leading scorer on the Union College hockey team last season. A Millbrook contingent of Bob and Deb Vanecek PP ’13,’14,’16,’18 and Bill Mitchell PP ’14 traveled to Schenectady to cheer him on.
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Gavin Schneible is finishing up CFI flight training and hopes to be an instructor soon, teaching other fledgling pilots before graduating next year. Gavin’s school badges attest to his accreditation thus far —private pilot, instrument, and commercial pilot (single engine).
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Class Notes
Paul Solomon ’61 joined Dr. Tom Lovejoy ’59 at the 2019 Lemur Conservation Foundation Gala this spring.
The Holbrook family gathered at the Greenbriar in Virginia in September 2018 to celebrate David Holbrook’s 80th birthday. Pictured are (back row) Parker ’14, Cameron ’11, Chris ’82, (front row) Ali ’12, David ’56, Peter ’65, and Alice ’82. Not pictured — Sandy Holbrook James ’86.
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Class Notes
Megan Butts ’09 and Maria Macaya ’10 met for dinner in Costa Rica in the late spring of 2018. Megan was working at the IVTC (International Veterinary Training Center) with VIDA (Volunteers for International Definitive Adventures), to spay and neuter cats and dogs. She moved back to the states from St. Kitts in August 2018 and started her veterinary clinical year at Purdue University in September. Megan will graduate in May 2019 from Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine and plans to pursue large animal or mixed animal practice.
Jacqueline Morrison ’94 (top) joined fellow alumni Eliza Glaister ’04 and Nick Pandolfi ’04 (bottom) at a Special Chef Day in Millbrook’s dining hall last April. The culinary collaboration included special menu items served in the dining hall as well as discussion of their work in the culinary arts and the importance of sustainable cooking using local and seasonal ingredients. Jacqueline has had a long career as a private chef, sommelier, and event producer and has received awards for her local, seasonal, and organic food. Eliza runs a catering company, Egg LLC, and Nick is the general manager at Jono Pandolfi USA, a ceramic dishware company, founded by his brother, Jono ’95.
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Zack Hollander ’17, Henry Rosenberg ’17, and Alex Wattles ’16 and reunited this past November at the U.S. Naval Academy where they were playing squash for their respective colleges. Alex and Zack play for Dickinson, and Henry plays for Denison. They were once Millbrook squash teammates, and now they are competing in the college squash association!
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Class Notes Multi Classes Dario D’Andrea ’00 and fellow alum Steven Levac ’99 launched their 100% natural and sugar-free relaxing beverage Relax Downlow last June. It is a calming infusion drink to help rest, relax, and overcome stress and anxiety. Visit their website at www.relaxdownlow.com.
Former Faculty Rachel Asher Hyland finished 4th in the April 2018 Boston Marathon with a time of 2:44:29. It wasn’t school vacation for her, so she was back in her Spanish classroom at Andover the next day.
Meegan Rourke ’07 and Stoddard Horn ’07 are engaged to be married on August 3, 2019.
Emily Morrison ’09 is engaged to marry Connor Quigley on August 17, 2019, in Sharon, CT.
Lindsey Menard ’09 is engaged to marry Scott Weiss on September 13, 2019, in Asheville, NC.
Laurel Greenfield ’10 is engaged to marry Jeff Botwick on July 3, 2020, in Newport, RI.
Engagements Brett Serrell ’06 was engaged to Samantha Sorbo in May 2018. Stuyve Pierrepont IV ’07 is engaged to marry Dana Hagar on September 28, 2019. Lt. Zachary Fuller ’09 is engaged to marry Emily Hordesky on June 1, 2019, in Scranton, PA.
MARRIAGES Forrest Mas ’07 married Mackenzie Kersen on June 9, 2018, at the Spruce Point Inn Resort and Spa in Boothbay Harbor, ME. Kyle Mills ’08 married Melissa Folk on June 17, 2017, in Lawrenceville, NJ.
Hannah Hill ’15 is engaged to Matt Gorton. A wedding date has not yet been set.
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Class Notes Marriages
Nellie Perera ’88 married Tony DeAngelis on August 18, 2018, in Yarmouthport, MA.
Bridget Meigs ’96 married Jim Lawrence in Woods Hole, MA, on September 29, 2018.
Hannah Petri ‘97, married John Phillips on August 12, 2018, in Door County, WI. Hannah aand John are pictured with her parents, Jay and Alison Petri, her brother, Sam ’99, and her sister, Carrie (Petri) Meatto, former faculty member. (Right) Millbrook friends Courtney Hatfield ’98, Chip Stone ’97, and Erica DeTraglia ’97 joined in the celebration.
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Class Notes Marriages
Nick Imbelli ’03 married Elise Gray on June 16, 2018, in New Orleans, LA.
Lily Granville ’04 married Colin Flood on June 30, 2018, in Chicago, IL. Pictured with the bride and groom are Emily Katz ’04, Alexander Cox ’07, Katrina Cox ’04, Thomas Cox ’62, Lily’s father Charles Granville ’58, and her uncle Richard Granville ’60.
Henry Cadwalader ’05 married Ashley Owen on July 1, 2017, at Spring Creek Ranch in Jackson, WY.
Jon Silver ’06 married Faye Ross on August 5, 2018, in Montreal, Canada.
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Class Notes Marriages
Kealin Maloney ’08 married Ted Civetti on September 8, 2018, in Nantucket, MA. Millbrook wedding guests included Hallie Bates ’08, Allie Cavanaugh ’08, Oliva Farrell ’10, Mimi Anthony Cushing ’08, and Nick Farrell ’08.
Marcia Wyre ’08 married Jose Caraballo, Jr. on May 5, 2018, in Antigua, West Indies. Diarra Aguirre ’08 was Marcia’s maid of honor.
Elizabeth Morris ’11 and Charlie Merrill ’09 (front) were married September 15, 2018, at the Ausable Club in St. Huberts, NY. Millbrook friends and family in attendance included (back row) Tracy Merrill and Joe Merrill P ‘09, ‘11, ‘13, Linda Casertano, Ali Holbrook ‘12, Campbell Moffat ‘10, Liz Morrison P ’10, ’14, Tom Morrison, Caroline Merrill ‘11, Drew Casertano, Tyler Mauri ‘09, Karen Morris P ‘11, (middle row) Brigitte Tousignant ‘11, Emma Merrill ‘13 and Victoria Gray ‘11.
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Class Notes Births
Born to Ed Miller ’89 and his wife, Sonia Sekhar, a girl, Bhumi Noël Miller, just before Christmas 2018. Born to Jack Schur ’96 and his wife, Kerrie, a daughter, Addelyn Elizabeth Schur, October 7, 2018. Addie weighed 6 lbs., 5 oz. and measured 20.5” long.
Born to Keshav Lewis ’95 and his wife, Natasha, a daughter, Beau Serena Lewis, June 9, 2018. Beau weighed 8 lbs., 4 oz. and measured 20” long.
Born to Jack Choate ’97 and his wife, Caitlin, a son, William Reddick Choate, born March 26, 2019.
Born to Matt Marsallo ’98 and his wife, Courtney, a daughter, Margaret “Maggie” Rose Marsallo, October 19, 2018. Maggie weighed 8 lbs., 4 oz.
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Class Notes Births
Born to Emily Bergeron ’02 and her husband, Taylor, a son, Hunter James Bergeron, January 18, 2019. Hunter weighed 7 lbs., 13 oz. and was 20.5” long.
Born to Richard Leahy ’03 and his wife, Stephanie, a son, Landon Morrison Leahy, February 4, 2019.
Born to Molly Dyson-Schwery ’99 and her husband, Benjamin, a son, Samuel Christopher Schwery, August 24, 2018.
Born to Teddy Kunhardt ’04 and his wife, Sarah, a son, Henry Meserve Kunhardt, July 27, 2018.
Born to Jordan Vexler Shannon ’99 and her husband, Albert, a girl, Sylvia Bell Shannon, September 4, 2018.
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Born to George Kunhardt ’05 and his wife, Jackie, a son, George Trowbridge Kunhardt, Jr., April 21, 2018. George weighed 6 lbs., 13 oz. and measured 19.5” long.
Born to Andrew Marsallo ’04 and wife Samantha, a son, Christopher “Cal” Edward Marsallo. Cal weighed 4 lbs., 12 oz.
Born to Henry Cadwalader ’05 and his wife, Ashley, a son, Jack Owen Cadwalader, November 6, 2018. Jack weighed 7 lbs., 5 oz. and measured 23.75” long.
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Class Notes Births
Faculty Births
Born to Anton Knapp ’07 and his wife, Carolyn, a son, Baker Whittemore Knapp, January 23, 2018. Baker weighed 7 lbs., 10 oz., and measured 20.5” long.
Born to former faculty member Susan Beattie and her husband, Scot, a daughter, Tessa Charlotte Beattie, April 23, 2018.
Born to Jin Soo Han ’08 and his wife, Hyun-Jin, a daughter, Ruhee Claire Han, November 16, 2018. Ruhee Claire joins brother Philip Sangjune.
Born to Kyleen Depew and her husband, Chase, a daughter, Evelyn Frances Depew, January 25, 2019. Evelyn weighed 8 lbs., 4 oz.
Born to Rachel Ahdut ’11 and her husband, Efrayim, a daughter, Naomi Chaya Ahdut, December 3, 2018. Naomi weighed 9 lbs., 4 oz.
Born to Dan Skoglund and his wife, Elizabeth, a son, William Patrick Skoglund, July 1, 2018.
Born to Nicole Schermann and her husband, Joe, a son, Felix William Schermann, January 22, 2019.
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Class Notes
In Memoriam We offer our most heartfelt condolences to the families of all Millbrook alumni, parents, past parents, faculty and friends who have passed away recently.
1940 George W. Buck passed away on August 15, 2018, after a brief illness and hospitalization. He lived a full life, and he was surrounded by friends and family. Harold “Sammy” Sampson passed away in Colorado Springs, CO, on August 7, 2018. Sammy attended Utah State University before entering the U.S. Army, 10th Mountain Division. Sammy trained at Camp Hale, and, employing his love of the outdoors, he became a technical climbing instructor. He was deployed first to the Aleutian Islands, then to the Italian Apennines where he was wounded and subsequently awarded the Purple Heart. Sammy became president, CEO, and majority stockholder at Wilkerson Corporation, a manufacturer of compressed air products, which he sold in 1989 after 38 years. In the early 60s he was one of the first investors in Vail, building one of the early homes there. Sammy was predeceased by his wife, Rosemary, and is survived by five children, 19 grandchildren, and 12 great-grandchildren.
1945 Clinton Edward Lawrence MD died on July 27, 2018, in Saratoga Springs, NY, from complications following a stroke. After Millbrook, Ed served in the U.S. Army as an electronics technician during WWII. Subsequently, he graduated from Princeton and New York Medical College Flower & Fifth Avenue Hospital. He was the first board-certified family physician in Warren County, enjoying a solo practice
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for 20 years. He is remembered for making house calls with care and good humor. Ed founded the Warrensburg Health Center (currently Hudson Headwaters) and was county coroner for 18 years. In 1989 he retired from his 13-year position as deputy director for medical services at Wilton Developmental Center. Ed is survived by his wife of 60 years, Millie, three children, two grandchildren, and American Field Services exchange “daughter” Yvette. Donald “Pete” Luke, Jr., a former Millbrook trustee, died on July 6, 2018, in Redding, CT. Following Millbrook, Pete was drafted into the Army and subsequently attended Princeton. He spent most of his business career in the sugar industry providing technical services and proprietary products to the global sugar refining industry. Pete was president of Suchar Engineering and Sales Company, and when the company was acquired by Bangor Punta Corporation, he transitioned to become president of management services. In 1969 Pete became editor of Sugar y Azúcar, a bilingual trade journal. He was very active in New Canaan, CT, where he lived for 58 years. Pete is survived by his wife of 65 years, Joy, three children, and five grandchildren.
1946 John Barnum died on July 23, 2018, in Waquoit, MA. He attended Yale and Yale Law School and then in 1957 took a position at Cravath, Swain & Moore in New York, working there until 1971. He transitioned to public service and served in the Nixon and Ford administrations as general counsel and deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation. His proudest achievement was converting six bankrupt railroads into Conrail. Following his stint in government, John returned to the private sector in banking and law, living for a time in Brussels and Kazakhstan. In recent years he was involved in a number
of non-profit arts organizations. John is survived by his wife of 60 years, Nancy, three children, and four grandchildren.
1951 Thomas Jones III passed away on March 4, 2018, in Johnson City, TN. He was a retired senior partner with Booz, Allen and Hamilton and was an avid sailor, scuba diver, and woodworker. Thomas is survived by his wife of 27 years, Pamela, and five children including TJ, Millbrook class of ’84. Monte Manee died on March 21, 2018. He graduated from Columbia University and became vice president and secretary at Trainer, Wortham and Company Investment Counselors in New York City. His wife, Barbara, two daughters, and six grandchildren survive him.
1954 Philip V. Rogers, Jr., of Rockport, ME, died suddenly on February 15, 2019. He was 83. A loving soul, he was the beloved headmaster of the Kew Forest School, Forest Hills, N.Y., former head of the Guild of New York Schools, former head of the Middle States Association, and chairman of the American International Accreditation Association. He was a world traveler, inveterate Red Sox fan, opera aficionado, enthusiastic hiker, and every dog’s best friend. He leaves his loving wife, Claudia, his children, Jennifer, Philip, and Alexander, and grandchildren, Sofia, Sigo, and Sasha. He is also survived by his sister Lissa van Dyke.
1957 George Kravis II, a broadcasting executive and prominent collector of graphic and industrial design, passed away in February 2018. George was a life-long collector of vernacular objects, starting at age 12
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Class Notes when he purchased an RCA Victor 45-RPM record changer. His collection of nearly 4,000 items was housed at the Kravis Design Center in his home city of Tulsa. He intended that these artifacts be used as a study collection, and many were featured in prominent design books and museums such as the MoMA, the Cooper Hewitt, and the Smithsonian Design Museum.
Caitlin Murphy Nash ’01 Caitlin Murphy Nash passed away on September 30th, 2018. Caitlin was a natural born caregiver. While growing up in Millbrook as the youngest of her adoring siblings (Ryan, Sarah, and Matt) and beloved daughter to Nancy and Mike Murphy, she developed an enormous capacity for love and understanding. She found her cherished husband, Paul Nash, who continues to be every bit the partner he promised when they read their wedding vows on the summit of Mt. Tabor in Portland, OR, in 2016. Caitlin poured her entire self into her people and passions. After graduating from Millbrook in 2001, she earned her undergraduate and graduate degrees in psychology and counseling from Lewis & Clark College in Portland, OR. Determined to help and to serve, Caitlin chose to remain in Portland to pursue a career as a social worker, counseling children and their families throughout some of life’s most complicated, delicate,
1960 John Anderson Payne of Shelburne, MA, died on November 16, 2018. After his graduation from Millbrook, John completed a post-graduate year at Deerfield Academy. He studied at St. Lawrence University and earned his MBA from New York University in 1968. Following his formal education, John enrolled in the Peace Corps and served in India where he met his wife, Margaret Gatter. John fulfilled a long tenure at JP Morgan, occupying a number of positions leading to a vice-presidency and special assignment to oversee the development of gender and racial diversity within the firm. In addition, he was the founder/director of IKON, a merchant bank established in partnership with Baring Brothers of London. John had a passion for ice hockey. He continued to play in his retirement and faithfully returned to Millbrook each winter to play in the alumni hockey game, which heretofore is named the MacKenziePayne Alumni Hockey Game in honor of John MacKenzie ’46 and John Payne ’60. John is survived by his wife, Margaret, four children, and five grandchildren.
and often painful experiences. As an inherently gifted healer, she had clearly found her calling. Caitlin set an enlightened standard of openness and vulnerability within her own life, inspiring others to confide in her, constantly sharing their own highs, lows, losses, and loves. She cared deeply for these intimate glimpses into the lives of others, always making the time to hear and hold carefully whatever needed sharing. Upon receiving her devastating pancreatic cancer diagnosis last spring, she turned to her family and said, “I’m so sorry,” in anticipation not of her own imminent pain, fear, and suffering, but that of those closest to her. Caitlin passed away surrounded by family in her home in Portland, enveloped in as much love as she gave. She displayed the same grace and wisdom with which she lived her life as she said goodbye, all while generously comforting others and teaching us why we live and how to love. (This obituary was written by Caitlin’s close friend and Millbrook classmate, Trevor McWilliams ’01.)
1970 Octa Leigh of Centennial, CO, died on May 14, 2018. Octa graduated from Boston University and worked in the book store and publishing business. He worked for Random House and spent many years as a trade store manager/buyer at the University of Arizona Student Book Store.
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Class Notes 1972
1989
William (Bill) Craig died on April 11, 2018, in Charlotte, NC. Bill graduated from Middlebury and earned a Doctor of Jurisprudence from the University of West Virginia. He enjoyed playing fretless bass guitar, working with electronics and computers, reading, and his beloved Samoyeds. Bill is survived by his wife of 24 years, Alice.
Daniel Eardley died on July 22, 2018, due to an undetected heart condition. Dan attended the Culinary Institute of America where he graduated with honors in 1996. He worked in restaurants, first in the Napa Valley and then in New York City. His interest in the farm-totable movement led to the opening of his Michelin-recommended restaurant, Chestnut, in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn. When not cooking, Dan could be found on the slopes, racing alpine snowboards. His adventuresome spirit took him to 45 of our 50 states, where he delighted in meeting new people. Dan is survived by his mother, sister, and his partner, Angela.
1974 Brewster Carroll died on October 22, 2018, after a year-long battle with kidney cancer. Brewster graduated from North Carolina State University and Columbia Business School, making his career in venture capital and options and futures trading. Brewster grew up in New York City, spent summers since childhood on Great Island, MA, and resided in Tiburon, CA, since 2008. Brewster was a quintessential gentleman; he effortlessly put all those around him at ease with his warmth and quick wit. He will be lovingly remembered as an endlessly patient husband, a devoted father, a tireless parttime coach, and a beautiful tennis player. He is survived by his wife of 20 years, Minnie, and two sons, Wyatt Bermingham Carroll and Charlie Millard Carroll.
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Class of 2003 Rodney James Francis Smyth died on April 25, 2018, leaving behind the vast and unending love of his mother, Maureen Smyth, his sister, Chloe Watlington, and several adoring aunts, uncles, and cousins. Rodney was predeceased by his grandmother, Anne Marie Smyth, a former Millbrook School nurse, and his father, William Watlington. Rodney leaves behind friends from Millbrook, UVM, and Ali Baba’s, a catering company out
of Burlington, VT. After college, Rodney toured the country as a traveling chef for bands such as the Disco Biscuits, Dead and Company with John Mayer, and U2. He was a figurehead in the national festival circuit and was known by thousands. His specialty was vegetarian cuisine—an ethos he held his whole life. In the offseason from touring, Rodney worked as a landscaper in and around Boulder, Colorado. Rodney will be remembered for his laughter, his love of music, his creative spirit, love of color and light, and his ability always to lift a heart with his beautiful smile.
Class of 2009 Matthew Edward Fuller passed away on July 5, 2018. Matt was born in Louisville, KY, and attended Culver Military Academy before coming to Millbrook. After graduating from Millbrook, Matt attended Western Kentucky University where he was a member of the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity. Matt loved people and enjoyed sports, especially ice hockey, lacrosse, and UK basketball. He is survived by his parents, Debra and Larry Fuller, brother Grant Fuller, and numerous aunts, uncles, and cousins.
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