Milton Magazine Fall 2011

Milton Magazine

Resilience Persisting.

Adapting.

Staying True.

Fall 2011

Milton Magazine 22

fe atures

The Anatomy of a Comeback When a skating accident shattered several of Mike Godwin’s vertebrae, he knew that his hockey season was over—and perhaps his years as an athlete as well.

resilience 6

by Erin E. Hoodlet

A Story of Political, Entrepreneurial and Financial Skill

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Finding the Right Groove

Smooth Transit

Joseph Reynolds learns that a love for action is a great quality for a Milton student, but it can be a drawback when hunkering down and getting serious are necessary.

No cohort of her friends pretested the route Tanya Panicker pursued—attending a college preparatory boarding school in the United States.

The energy in Arthur Ullian’s voice alone signals that the 20 years since his paralyzing bicycle accident have been thrilling. They aso have been groundbreaking.

by Liz Matson

by Cathleen D. Everett

12 Daring, Decade by Decade William Carey’s long career has meant witnessing an immense change in approaches to behavioral pediatrics.

by Cathleen D. Everett

16 The Love of the Game Becomes a Life’s Work Carol Haussermann is an athlete of national stature. She played field hockey, squash and lacrosse, and coached girls for decades.

by Cathleen D. Everett

19 Living at the Nexus of Imagination and Common Sense

Cover: Mike Godwin ’11 hoists the New England Championship trophy after the boys’ victory over Kent School on March 3, 2011.

Photograph by Dave Arnold

Marian Cross’s longest career, 50 years worth, began serendipitously. Hew newest career as an organic farmer had a similar start.

by Erin E. Hoodlet

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by Cathleen D. Everett

depar tment s

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2

46

Across the Quad

Classroom

38

When the rubber meets the road, can I pursue science?

Faculty Perspective

by Isabelle Lelogeais ’11

An exhortation to Cum Laude inductees

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by Carly A. Wade

In•Sight

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60

Head of School

On Centre

My father’s gifts

News and notes from the campus and beyond

by Todd B. Bland

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Why Not? Finding Your Feet “Far from Home”

Fictional Characters Complicate the Lives of Fifth-Graders

Sports

Jenn Katsoulis’s students not only develop analytical skills as they study literature—they grapple with the many ways to live a life.

by Liz Matson

Aylin Feliz’s middle school was warm, predictable and absolutely consistent. She was a step ahead and looking to stretch.

by Erin E. Hoodlet

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A Win-Win Proposition: Alumni athletes are volunteer coaches

69 Class Notes

84 Post Script My “Christmas Carol”

by Jesse Kornbluth ’64

by Erin E. Hoodlet

On Happiness A Class IV Talk

by Emmie Atwood ’14

33 On Making Things A Class IV Talk

by Nate Bresnick ’14 Editor Cathleen Everett Associate Editors Erin Hoodlet Liz Matson

40 Pritzker Science Center Dedication

47 Commencement 2011

52 Graduates’ Weekend 2011

Photography David Arnold, Michael Dwyer, John Gillooly, Erin Hoodlet, Eleftherios Kostans, Joe Moore, Greg White Design Moore & Associates

Milton Magazine is published twice a year by Milton Academy. Editorial and business offices are located at Milton Academy where change-ofaddress notifications should be sent.

As an institution committed to diversity, Milton Academy welcomes the oppor tunity to admit academically qualified students of any gender, race, color, handicapped status, sexual orientation, religion, national or ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs and activities generally available to its students. It does not discriminate on the basis of gender, race, color, handicapped status, sexual orientation, religion, national or ethnic origin in the administration of its educational policies, admission policies, scholarship programs, and athletic or other school-administered activities.

Printed on Recycled Paper

across the quad goings

2011

Class of is attending colleges and universities

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12 of the 85 are public institutions 7 students are matriculating at single-sex colleges 10 students are planning a gap year before college

Top Choices

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Farthest Away University of St. Andrews, Scotland

Closest (by a hair) Boston University

Movies I’m Taking to

Highest Altitude

HELL

U.S. Air Force Academy (2,041 meters) Tulane University (0 meters)

Charade (1963)

Lawrence of Arabia (1962)

Audrey Hepburn, Cary Grant, serious money and Paris. What more could you ask for? Jonathan Demme loves this movie as much as I do and remade it with Thandie Newton and Mark Wahlberg. He was kidding, right?

Of all the “big” pictures, this one remains the most visually stunning, and the music is wonderful, if a bit too thundering. At the end, you won’t know any more about T.E. Lawrence than you did going in, but why did you want to know about him in the first place?

Carole Lombard was never goofier, and William Powell is her perfect match. Both are nearly upstaged by Alice Brady as Lombard’s mother. “The Forgotten Man” theme seems very relevant in today’s economy.

The African Queen (1951) Hepburn and Bogart are at their best working from a script

by James Agee. My favorite moment of screen comedy may be Hepburn’s awkward effort to make breakfast for Bogart the morning after they’ve first made love. When she goes to wake him up, she realizes she doesn’t know his first name. Priceless.

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Lowest Altitude

with Me

My Man Godfrey (1936)

Columbia 5 George Washington University 5 Georgetown 5 Washington University in St. Louis 5 Wesleyan University 5

Harvard 13 Cornell 7 Boston College 6 Tufts 6 Amherst 5

5

Northernmost point in U.S. University of Puget Sound

Southernmost point in U.S. University of Miami

Sunniest site University of California, Davis (Sacramento area, 78% days of the year are sunny)

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Sources: Google Earth and National Climate Data Center

Rear Window (1954) Okay, Vertigo is more interesting, but Kim Novak is so wooden you wish Jimmy Stewart had left her in the bay. Rear Window scared the wits out of me when I was five, and I have never forgotten it. I’ve also never forgotten Grace Kelly. When she leans down to kiss Jimmy Stewart and her face swims into the camera, she looks like nobody else in the world.

Don’t forget Thelma Ritter, Hollywood’s greatest sidekick.

John Charles Smith English Department

landings 1,831,091 visitors came to Milton.edu this year 25% clicked beyond the home page 36% actually typed in our URL 57% found us through Google (In 2007–2008, 86% typed in our URL and 9% found us through Google. Way to go, Google.)

1.7 million home page visitors were from the United States 7,955 were from China, and 1,523 were from Jamaica Visitors from China viewed the most pages per visit, at 4.51

21 comings Upper School

Vitals

New day students

• Applications for 2011–2012:

• • • •

52% male 48% female 28% are sibling or legacy 35% receive need-based financial aid • 18 languages are spoken in their homes • 44% self-define as students of color

• Are from 50 surrounding

1,039 • New students enrolled: 164

K–8 • Applications for 2011–2012: 376 • New students enrolled: 50 Total enrollment: 980 students We are at full capacity.

over • time

1979

towns and cities

New boarding students • Are from 14 countries: Bahamas, Canada, China, France, Hong Kong, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, South Korea, Philippines, Saint Bart’s, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland

• And 21 states: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia

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Boys’ varsity soccer team celebrates a 3–2 win over Nobles.

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4 Milton Magazine

Resilience The capacity to bounce back

The arc of a life demands coping skills. Most of us confront, in due course, the need to start over, or change course, or reassess goals.

This Milton Magazine looks at the unpredictable pathways several alumni have followed. Individuals have told us how they sized up their opportunities, made choices, and ultimately affected a broader community. A person’s full potential and impact often emerge only over many years, maturation and commitment.

Still, students we interview can already tell stories involving perseverance, patience, and faith in themselves. They have already learned to stay the course, even during the short span of high school.

Milton Magazine 5

Arthur Ullian ’57

A Story of Political, Entrepreneurial and Financial Skill “I thought that lobbying to find a cure for Alzheimer’s would be easier than trying to convince people that 300 units of mixed-income housing in their backyard was a good idea. I was wrong.”

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rthur Ullian ’57 tries to compress a sprawling tale into a simple, linear chronology. The energy in his voice alone signals that the 20 years since his paralyzing bicycle accident have been thrilling. They have also been groundbreaking.

Arthur’s helmet didn’t protect him from the spinal cord trauma that caused his paralysis in July 1991, when he flipped over his bike handles. Afterward, Arthur began “checking around” on the state of spinal cord research. “Meeting and talking with people,” as he put it, Arthur discovered the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, launched in 1985 by Barth Green, M.D., and NFL Hall of Fame linebacker Nick Buoniconti, whose son was paralyzed.

From scientists there, and from others, Arthur learned that the biggest barrier to progress was lack of federal research funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

sides of the aisle arrived at this commitment. Winning their support, and countering a research-phobic climate, was Arthur Ullian’s mission.

“I’ve loved it,” Arthur says about his drive to make medical progress. “It’s been fun.”

Arthur set about meeting legislators, reading, thinking, connecting. His friend, Massachusetts congressman Chet Atkins, helped Arthur learn “how you do things” to advance an agenda. The congressman made introductions, and sharpened Arthur’s wellspring of insight and savvy.

Build a bigger tent Early in his quest, Arthur confronted fundamental realities. For instance, Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa pointed toward people in his waiting room and hallway. How could he concentrate on spinal cord injury, he asked Arthur, when the next person would make the case for Parkinson’s disease, or multiple sclerosis, or Alzheimer’s, or a cancer?

Job one, Arthur discerned, was not insignificant. The tent had to grow: He had to convince the patient advocacy groups representing all diseases that “we all stood to lose unless we consolidated and organized our plans to increase the entire NIH funding level,” says Arthur. Yielding particular interests to reach an overarching goal was the only shot at increasing the dollars devoted to biomedical research. Nearly all of the advocacy groups agreed to join in a large coalition.

Photograph by Hayley Fish ’13

He set his sights on increasing the federal investment from NIH on spinal cord research. “I knew how to advocate and lobby,” Arthur says. “That’s what we did all day.” Understatement is an art form for Arthur: He had already built a 30-year career in developing and managing mixed-income housing—a story of political, entrepreneurial and financial skill.

With astute strategy and unflagging persistence, Arthur helped drive a doubling of the federal budget dollars devoted to biomedical research. From 1993, when he entered the high-stakes game, until 2001, the federal government support for medical research on all diseases increased from roughly $5 billion to $30 billion annually. Ultimately, representatives and senators from both 8 Milton Magazine

That he should begin with the senators, rather than the representatives, was another discovery. “Congressmen,” Arthur says, “still think that if they just eat salad, or blueberries, and run, they’ll stay healthy. Senators were generally old enough to have sick family members.” Every senator seemed personally touched by the need to find a cure or an effective therapeutic response to something.

Shake up the worldview For all legislators, Republican or Democrat, increasing funding for medical research was anathema. The prevailing view among health-care economists linked medical advances directly to increased costs. Advances in medical technology, in particular, had demonstrably driven higher health-care costs.

If your eyes are trained on reducing the federal budget, Arthur reasoned, you need evidence that health improvements can lower costs. Further, he wanted to show that federally funded university-based research brings those improved outcomes that are then developed by the biopharmaceutical industry. New therapies could lower costs for future decades.

Labor productivity is a function of improved health. Finally, biotechnology is an important engine of U.S. economic growth.

He began by connecting with Kenneth Manton, director of the Center for Demographic Studies at Duke University, whose work analyzing the National Long-Term Care Survey pointed to key findings. Dr. Manton described health costs not simply as the percentage of elderly in the population, but rather as a function of the percentage of chronically disabled in that group.

The chronically disabled need help to perform basic activities of daily living such as eating, grooming and bathing, as well as preparing meals, shopping and managing money. When chronic disability declines, active life expectancy increases—that is, dependency decreases, as do costs.

Strange bedfellows

“If a public personality, a screen star optimally, were to appear, the media would follow. If the media appear, the senators appear. Simple formula.”

Perhaps most important from Arthur’s point of view, Dr. Manton noted that recent declines in disability rates are consistent with the introduction of new technologies (for example, better drug treatments of osteoporosis, stroke, Parkinson’s disease and congestive heart failure).

Mobilized to look at the relationships between biomedical advances and health-care costs, Dr. Manton and other health-care economists would produce findings over the next several years that changed the context for the debate about funding research.

For instance, they argued that a new medical paradigm could lower costs for many diseases and make invasive surgery, intensive-care units, and long-term nursing home care far less necessary. Treating ischemic stroke with tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA) is a good example of a recent clinical advance linking a new technology with real and potential cost savings.

Better therapies, they argued, applied earlier, could improve function and extend life, and surprisingly, health costs in the last two years of life decline in persons dying at later ages.

Rising health expectations, especially at later ages, can incentivize behavioral changes. A better-educated public, they contended, will choose to alter behavior, based on strategies identified by biomedical research as improving health.

These now-familiar strands of the public debate emerged during the ’90s and demanded airtime in the public forum. They added weight to the conversations Arthur pursued, in every direction.

“You’d be surprised,” Arthur suggested, about building a network of supporters. “It was like six degrees of separation. I got to know lots of senators, Republicans and Democrats. Many people have personal experience with disease.”

When they invited him to fund raisers, Arthur accepted only if they’d agree to meet him first. Senator Bill Cohen from Maine asked, for instance. Arthur knew that Senator Cohen’s sister had Parkinson’s disease. He chaired the Senate Committee on Aging.

“I brought a leading Parkinson’s researcher from Boston with me to meet him,” says Arthur. “The doctor told Senator Cohen that we would ultimately be able to cure Parkinson’s—with research.”

Many of Florida senator Connie Mack’s family members suffered with cancer, Arthur says. Senator Robert Dole’s life was saved with an experimental drug during World War II. San Francisco mayor Joseph Alioto’s daughter had been paralyzed in a fall from a ski lift; the mayor made meetings with Representative Waxman and Senator Harkin possible. “Senator Mark Hatfield, chair of the Appropriations Committee, was a supporter and a great guy,” Arthur says. “There were many great senators then, and they’re all gone now.”

“Congressmen still think that if they just eat salad, or blueberries, and run, they’ll stay healthy. Senators were generally old enough to have sick family members.”

Arthur was now armed with compelling arguments for his conversations with senators. He realized, however, that speaking as an official “voice” would increase his leverage. He began by convincing the National Council on Spinal Cord Injury (NCSI) to appoint him as their legislative representative. A big umbrella group set up by the disabled veterans’ association, the Council monitors all scientific work on spinal cord injury. In 1996, Arthur was appointed to the National Advisory Neurological Disorders and Stroke Council. In 1999, he became a member of the Advisory Committee to the Director of the National Institutes of Health, appointed by Harold Varmus, Nobel laureate and director of NIH. The council included university presidents, research scientists—many of them Nobel laureates—and two Milton Magazine 9

community members, Arthur relates. Not only was it stimulating, participating with the key scientists, but it helped Arthur develop “some ability to talk about disease, especially to the layperson,” he says.

As director, Harold Varmus brought together a small group to see if data could be developed that could support an argument that medical research could have economic benefits. From this meeting, the Task Force on Science, Healthcare and the Economy was formed. Arthur chaired the Task Force, which included luminaries from science and academia. The Task Force members included Charles Vest, president of MIT; Eric Lander, director of the Human Genome Project, at MIT’s Whitehead Institute; and Hebert Pardes, dean of the faculty of medicine at Columbia’s College of Physicians and Surgeons. At a minimum, this group had “convening power,” Arthur remembers Dr. Pardes to have said. “He was right. My calls were always returned, which is half the battle,” Arthur said.

And the group did attract attention. Their studies linked the interdependent strands of scientific research, health-care direction and economic outcomes. They set a new framework; they demonstrated urgency, value and opportunity, in statistical terms.

Senate hearings: national theater In theory, hearings openly explore a critical issue with political implications. In practice, they are information-rich events, artfully and rigorously controlled by the majority political party.

Arthur cultivated bipartisan interest in his issue; he worked hard to earn the unparalleled opportunities that hearings offer.

The keen observer figures out quickly how to maximize the hearing theater. Expanding senators’ and the nation’s knowledge base is the goal. Framing and delivering salient information in the form of quotable findings is crucial. Here, the studies relating medical research to desirable economic statistics were key. If a public personality, a screen star optimally, were to appear, the media would follow. If the media appear, the senators appear.

Simple formula.

Just before one key hearing, actor Christopher Reeve was paralyzed in a Memorial Day fall from his horse. If Reeve and his family were interested, their words and appearance would powerfully support the need for groundbreaking research. Through the owner of the boatyard who cared for both Arthur’s and Christopher Reeve’s boats, Arthur tracked down Reeve’s hospital location. By the next day, the actor’s family had received, at the hospital, an invitation to join the effort and appear in Washington two weeks later. By the following day, Arthur had received a “yes” message from Christopher Reeve’s brother, Ben. Arthur and Dr. Wise Young, a well-known spinal cord researcher who was then at New York University, traveled to New Jersey to meet with Reeve and his family. That was a moving visit, Arthur remembers, recalling an inspirational poster of the astronauts’

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lunar landing on Mr. Reeve’s wall. The astronauts had signed the poster and written at the bottom, “Anything Is Possible.” Close on the heels of a devastating and public accident, Mr. Reeve’s brother’s testifying was compelling to senators.

Senator Mark Hatfield, Appropriations Committee chair, held a similarly powerful hearing with the Joint Economic Committee. A young, handsome Travis Roy, paralyzed by an ice hockey accident as a new recruit and freshman player on the Boston University team, spoke to assembled senators. Travis urged the country to think of spinal cord research as a new Manhattan Project. When he said, “all I want is just to hug my mother,” Travis brought his father to tears. One by one, speaking directly to Travis’s dad, each senator around the horseshoe table recounted a personal story that connected with Mr. Roy’s anguish. The emotion in the room was palpable.

Momentum in the Senate grew steadily. Since Arthur’s immersion in the debate (1993), the NIH budget had crept up to $15 billion from $5 billion. Senator Mack of Florida “had a mind to double this annual investment for NIH research,” Arthur says.

Senator Mack proposed it to the Republican caucus. With evidence on the record that this move could lower health-care costs in the future, the caucus agreed to recommend increasing the budget over five years to $28.5 million annually.

Then came a pivotal meeting with House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia; Arthur’s friendship with the CEO of Delta, which is based in Atlanta, helped secure that chance to talk.

Gingrich met with Peter Lynch, Dr. Folkman and Arthur in the Speaker’s office, and after some discussion agreed to an eightyear timetable for the increase. “We knew we had won then,” Arthur says. In the end, Congress did agree on the five-year timetable for doubling NIH research funding.

“You’d be surprised,” Arthur suggested, about building a network of supporters. “It was like six degrees of separation. I got to know lots of senators, Republicans and Democrats. Many people have personal experience with disease.”

Ted Kennedy and his Health Committee co-chair, Republican Bill Frist of Tennessee—who had graduated from Harvard Medical School, which helped create their nice relationship— would hold forums on the issues of biomedical research. Arthur tapped his role on the Council for Harvard Medicine to bring spokespeople who would flesh out all the angles of the researchfunding question. At Arthur’s request, Peter Lynch, former chair of Fidelity Investment’s Magellan Fund, appeared. Mr. Lynch argued that investing in research creates profitable companies and jobs. Dr. Judah Folkman, sought after by the press for his research on tumors and promising cancer therapies, was first available to the press at a Kennedy-Frist forum, due to Arthur’s intercession.

Increases to the NIH research budget leveled out during the Bush era, but in less than a decade, Arthur had achieved what he set out to do. Already, research based on new knowledge about what happens in spinal cord injury advances the chance of better outcomes. The funding also produced new findings for many disease groups; these will eventually reach the bedside.

Meeting, traveling, talking, learning, listening, motivating and galvanizing the “troops” from his wheelchair, Arthur was indefatigable. In fact, the project energized him. He has moved on.

Today he’s taken on the prospect of securing a more accurate model to predict Medicare costs and the number of years to insolvency. “Since 1970, Medicare cost projections have consistently been overstated, incorrectly predicting that the Trust Fund would become insolvent time and time again. These projections don’t consider, in their assumptions, health improvements that reduce costs,” he stated. Just as the country needs to make solid projections about possible changes, Arthur is ready.

“Some people come up to a closed door and go away,” Arthur muses. How many doors has Arthur opened, already, in his second career?

Cathllen D. Everett Milton Magazine 11

William B. Carey ’45

12 Milton Magazine

Daring, Decade by Decade At 84, Dr. William Carey is still helping ensure happy lives for children

W

illiam B. Carey ’45 is as relaxed and welcoming as a pediatrician should be. “Perhaps you’d be interested in how one person has had the good fortune of being able to create an interesting life for himself, and how he has managed to be active at it, still, at 84 years old,” says Bill. In Bill’s life, a key idea surfaces during his adolescence, and then evolves. Over time, this idea builds momentum and becomes an organizing force.

Bill Carey is a well-known, much-honored developmental and behavioral pediatrician. The fourth edition of his pediatrics textbook—Bill is the lead editor—was published in 2009. Residents in pediatrics at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia encounter Bill as one of their mentors. He helps supervise the care these new doctors give to young patients and their families. Bill teaches them how to interview and counsel parents whose children are experiencing behavioral challenges.

Recounting the milestones in his life, Bill demarcates the formative experiences.

First in his telling are those over which he had no control. Primary among them is the death of his father, when Bill was four and a half years old. When Bill was 15 years old—in Third Class at Milton, and until then, unaware of how his father had died—he inadvertently encountered the confirming information that his father had taken his own life. Confronting that, Bill plumbed the library books at Milton. “What is manic depressive disorder?” Bill looked for answers. “After my reading,” Bill says, “I was left with the impression that serious things like this might be prevented. It seemed that this is the kind of situation you can do something about. I was left without a father because of unfavorable environmental circumstances. The thought stayed with me, although later evidence supported a major role for genetic influences in this particular condition.”

Bill remembers Milton as excellent, academically, and it allowed him to blossom.

“With the surge of pubertal hormones,” he says, “and with Louis Andrews’s help, I went from a meek, flimsy kid to a bigger, stronger athlete. Milton wrestling had been undefeated for four years, at that point, and I, myself, was undefeated for two seasons.”

Howard Abell also deserves accolades from Bill. Mr. Abell’s two-year course in the history of music has been of lifelong value, Bill points out.

“But at that time, Milton did little to help boys develop a sense of who they were, and what they should do with this outstanding education,” Bill says.

In January 1945, Milton graduated several 18-year-old seniors.

Uncle Sam would not tolerate their waiting until a June graduation to go to war.

From the resident master on Forbes House’s third floor, however, Bill had “a unique experience of individual mentoring.” Robin McCoy, a classics faculty member who claimed proficiency in a dozen languages, chatted with everyone on the third floor. A cerebral character, Mr. McCoy “spent lots of time with me, and challenged me and some others to consider our plans for the future.” Having been successful in science and math, Bill had proposed a plan to become an engineer. Mr. McCoy pressed him to keep thinking. He urged Bill to apply the full scope of his abilities, to ask more of himself.

Mr. McCoy’s game-changing strategy turned out to be proffering an essential reading list. “He brought to me a great degree of diversity in my reading with major works of literature. Plato’s Republic was a must-read, as was Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire and some classics of Italian literature.” Later, as Bill set off for the Pacific in May 1945, “Mr. McCoy suggested that I read the basic works of Sigmund Freud,” Bill says. “This reading impressed upon me that people were a lot more interesting than machines.”

In December 1944, Bill’s family received word of his older brother Henry’s death at war. One month later, in January 1945, Milton graduated several 18-year-old seniors. Uncle Sam would not tolerate their waiting until a June graduation to go to war. Bill had to decide how to engage in the war. As they struggled with his brother’s death, Bill and his family weighed options, tried to assess the relative risks and benefits among limited strategies. With the hope of ultimately gaining a Naval commission, Bill entered the Merchant Marine rather than be drafted. Retrospectively, Bill labels this move as “his first major mistake.”

Compared with his drafted classmates, Bill’s national service was longer; he was exposed to more danger; and the GI Bill of Rights did not apply to him. Further, because service in the Merchant Marine “counted for nothing except temporarily fulfilling your duty,” Bill was shipped, 12 years later, to an Army hospital in Arizona for two years after his pediatric residency, as an “obligatory volunteer.”

During his undergraduate years at Yale, various factors merged with Bill’s growing self-awareness, and netted a decision to pursue medicine at Harvard. Foregoing earlier considerations of neurology or psychiatry as specialty areas, Bill chose pediatrics. Three role models, who had all been his personal pediatrician, defined for him the range of possibility in the practice Milton Magazine 13

of pediatrics. Dr. Joseph Stokes chaired the medical department at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and helped lead some of the first effective demonstrations of preventing childhood viral diseases such as measles, hepatitis and paralytic polio.

Dr. Charles Chapple at CHOP developed the Isolette, the first closed incubator for newborns. Finally, Clement Smith, ultimately of Harvard Medical School and Children’s Hospital, Boston, conducted investigations of the physiology of newborns, and became the “grandfather of modern neonatology,” according to Bill.

“Pediatrics, I discovered, would allow me a preventive role, and that’s what pushed me in that direction,” Bill says. After residency and his “obligatory voluntarism” in Arizona, Bill completed a one-year fellowship at CHOP in behavioral pediatrics, the first ever to be conducted in a department of pediatrics. The fellowship introduced him to the concept that became his research passion: differences in temperament—the largely inborn behavioral style variations that affect how we experience and respond to our environments.

A second “major mistake” put Bill off track for a time. He joined a multispecialty group practice in suburban Philadelphia. It was an “uncongenial practice,” Bill says. He was obligated to see as many patients as possible. He left, and began a more satisfying solo practice in the same town. The vision of combining an active clinical practice with valuable research began to define itself.

“The idea that differences in children’s temperaments could affect their behavior, over time, had stayed with me,” Bill says.

During the 1950s, two ”gutsy researchers,” as Bill calls them, had proposed this idea as a research question and began rating infants on nine characteristics of temperament, including such traits as activity,

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adaptability, intensity, mood, distractibility and attention span. Stella Chess and Alex Thomas believed that the behavioral tendencies they were seeing were “born” into children. There had to be something innate that interacts with the environment and mediates the effects or alters the environment, they hypothesized. Their longitudinal study looked for correlations between traits of temperament and how a child fit into school, or made friends, or related at home.

The critics objected to accepting maternal observations of behavior as evidence. These “perceptions” were either “not real,” or “not adequate,” or both.

Bill’s first temperament questionnaire, which sought observations about temperament from parents in his practice, was a “naïve attempt,” he says, “to develop a psychological test instrument.” A talk Bill gave about his work at Temple University Graduate School surfaced a graduate student eager to work with Bill. Psychologist Sean McDevitt’s energy and interest in the subject, along with his skills, complemented Bill’s clinical experience and available test population. The two revised Bill’s original questionnaire and developed four others. Sean and Bill have been consistent research and publishing partners since. At the moment they are involved with preparing what Bill contends is his ninth and

absolutely final book. It’s on behavioral assessment and management for pediatricians in primary care.

At first, this work on temperament drew strong negative reaction from traditional experts. At the time, colleagues in the field reviled the leading researchers and found them “hopelessly 19th century,” according to Bill. “They found me equally so.”

The critics’ objected to accepting maternal observations of behavior as evidence. These “perceptions” were either “not real,” or “not adequate,” or both. “This attitude was a considerable obstacle,” Bill points out.

Reactions gradually became more positive, however, and momentum started to grow when Bill used his practice as a laboratory for child development information. “I was motivated by the idea that if parents could understand their children’s temperament— characteristics that we are all born with— then they could adapt their management of their children. You could figure out a better way of dealing with them and reduce bad mental health outcomes.”

Bill’s work on textbooks and research publications brought invitations from all over the world to speak. He addressed audiences across the United States and from Beijing to Melbourne, from Berlin to Buenos Aires.

Bill was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, “an overwhelming experience for a pediatrician in private practice,” he says. He is also particularly gratified to have received an American Academy of Pediatrics’ Practice Award, signifying excellence in research while in practice; and the Academy’s C. Anderson Aldrich Award. The Aldrich Award recognizes significant contributions in the field of child development.

Precursors to Bill are a prestigious lot, including doctors Benjamin Spock and T. Berry Brazelton.

“The idea that differences in children’s temperaments could affect their behavior, over time, had stayed with me.”

The length of Bill’s career has meant witnessing an immense change in approaches to behavioral pediatrics. “Early on,” Bill relates, “everything you saw was ‘due to the environment.’ During the mainstream of my career, we started to correct that view by looking at temperament interacting with environmental factors. Today, far too many behavioral concerns are called brain disorders, although rarely is evidence established for that. We’ve gone from denial that anything is inborn, to the idea that innate temperament reacts with environmental

realities, to the concept of a ‘defective’ brain.

This latest approach too often takes normal behavior and pathologizes it.”

William B. Carey Understanding Your Child’s Temperament, Revised Edition.

Philadelphia:XLibris.2005.

Throughout the years of his career—and still, as a teacher of young doctors in training—Bill’s driving motivation is the potential to help parents create the most effective family life for their children. His every effort is to help parents in purposeful, informed ways learn to prevent bad outcomes, and ensure robust, happy lives for their children.

Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics: Fourth Edition.

William B. Carey, M.D.; Allen C. Crocker, M.D.; Ellen Roy Elias, M.D.; Heidi M. Feldman, M.D. Ph.D.; William L. Coleman, M.D. (Editors) Philadelphia:Saunders Elsevier.2009

CDE Milton Magazine 15

Carol Haussermann ’43

Carol Haussermann (far left) escorts a 1950s Winsor School girls’ tennis team to Bermuda for competition.

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The Love of the Game Becomes a Life’s Work

C

arol “Haussie” Haussermann ’43 is an athlete of national stature. She played field hockey, squash and lacrosse, and coached girls for decades.

“I simply loved to play field hockey,” Carol says, beginning her story at the beginning. That was the early 1940s at Milton. Carol chose to keep playing.

Well past college, through escalating levels of teams, field hockey represented discovery as well as pleasure. Over time, playing the game allowed her to take risks, define a unique career, and nurture the players who followed. Eventually, lacrosse joined field hockey in her life, and in 1994 she was elected to the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame.

“We were all alike, those of us who lived and went to school together,” Carol says. “Field hockey allowed me to meet completely different people and realize a whole other world outside what I had known.”

Carol tried out for and earned a place on the Boston Field Hockey Association team, then the New England team, and ultimately on the team that represented the United States. She participated in three international tours, playing throughout Scandanavia, western Europe and Africa during the late 1940s and early 1950s.

Players stayed with host families during the tours. Deep friendships developed among teammates, like Carol’s with Maggie Boyd—“one of England’s great players and a pioneer,” Carol explains. The experience of traveling and playing internationally, and being followed by enthusiastic fans, was transformative. “We didn’t take ourselves so very seriously,” Carol says, “but we knew that if we practiced hard enough, we could compete internationally, and we wouldn’t embarrass our country.”

This playing trajectory wrapped Carol into a long, lively tradition of exchange between England and the United States. Skilled female athletes, usually also figures at premier English schools, routinely ran clinics and camps in the northeast United States, developing young players and coaches. The women who managed the well-known camps trained coaches for programs at many of the schools and colleges up and down the East Coast.

“We didn’t take ourselves so very seriously, but we knew that if we practiced hard enough, we could compete internationally, and we wouldn’t embarrass our country.”

In fact, Carol’s work as coach and counselor at Camp Merestead—which describes itself as “the oldest sports camp for girls in the United States”—gave rise to Athletic Director May Fogg’s invitation for Carol to join the Winsor School faculty in 1948. “I give credit to Winsor faculty,” Carol says, “for sharing with me, the baby of the group, their devotion to students’ lives.

Learning from them, hands-on and by osmosis, was a thrilling experience.” Carol taught physical education, geography and spelling before joining the math department. She is still close to her favorite seventh-grade class, now in their 70s. Winsor was also particularly accommodating of Carol’s international tournament invitations.

Milton Magazine 17

Carol took a risk and catapulted into a career as a camp owner by buying Camp Merestead’s rights and equipment when it became available. With Maggie Boyd as her partner, and with the help of another English player, the camp grew. To accommodate the players, Carol moved it to new locations, first in Poland Spring, Maine, and then in Vermont. She located another in Maryland and increased the number of New England camps.

Having learned about running a complex organization by doing it, Carol owned camps that trained 1,500 girls each summer with staff totaling 500. The camps offered one-, two- or three-week programs, built on the model of Carol’s own camping days: topnotch, experienced coaches from the United States and from Europe, and a well-rounded program with educational speakers and music. Carol would serve as “head honcho” at one camp and her associate directors would run the others. In that era, developers of athletes cooperated with one another. Carol and directorowners of other elite sports training camps tried to make their schedules contiguous, which made sharing, cultivating and promoting talented coaches possible.

“We taught by praise and by encouragement. I don’t remember ever losing my temper, nor do I remember anyone losing her temper at me.”

Since Carol knew the top talent in coaching, she was not surprised to receive a call in 1968 from the College of William and Mary in Virginia. The college’s athletic director, seeking candidates for a field hockey coaching position, was surprised to find Carol herself interested. Once Carol was established at William and Mary, the athletic director asked her to start the school’s lacrosse program. Carol’s business partner and teammate Maggie Boyd had written the definitive book about coaching lacrosse, and all Carol’s Boston field hockey teammates also played the sport. Carol’s field hockey team formed the college’s first lacrosse team. “I could teach it better than play it,” Carol says. “It’s a beautiful sport, a game of skill and spaces.”

A coach helps an athlete build a complex set of skills. The best athletes are not only physically adept, but also resourceful and optimistic. They make choices, rebound quickly, and create new chances for success. They understand their dependence on and responsibility toward others. Carol modeled these concepts, but how did she teach them?

“Honestly,” Carol says, “it came naturally. I don’t remember a self-conscious effort. Thirty and 40 years ago, games were free flowing: nonphysical, in the sense that you did not bump or whack another player. I was taught by wonderful women and followed their example. We helped girls mature, get to know one another and themselves. We helped them understand how they were performing. We were not hypercritical. We taught by praise and by encouragement. I don’t remember ever losing my temper, nor do I remember anyone losing her temper at me.”

Following six years as president of the U.S.A. Squash Association and 15 years as first vice president of the U.S.A. Women’s Field Hockey Association, Carol continued to demonstrate her organizational zeal through the other arm of her career. As her citation in the Lacrosse Hall of Fame notes, “[Carol’s] contributions to the administration of the game have been unsurpassed. She was a very active president of the Virginia Women’s Lacrosse Association, which helped it grow. She was president of the United States Women’s Lacrosse Association from 1968 to 1974.

In 1986, she built up the USWLA Home Office, served as the organization’s first executive director until 1990, and was instrumental in initiating USWLA fund-raising programs.”

Title IX, the amendment to the Civil Rights Act that was used to guarantee equal access to sports for girls, was passed in 1972, as Carol closed the coaching chapter of her life. Guarantees of equal playing time, field capacity, equipment, financial support and public focus were not part of her professional life. She notes with irony that as opportunities to become Olympic athletes, or to secure college scholarships, have burgeoned for girls, the drive to achieve these goals has inherently changed the experience of playing. The era of an internationally cooperative, enterprising network of women coaching and providing a system of play—for the love of the game—is almost a memory. “Those of us involved had so many healthy, happy relationships,” Carol says. “We made great lifelong friends, and passed our love of the game to the next generation.”

CDE

18 Milton Magazine

Marian Lapsley Cross ’56

Living at the Nexus of Imagination and Common Sense Disparate careers, common themes

Milton Magazine 19

M

arian Cross’s longest career, 50 years worth, began serendipitously. Her newest career as an organic farmer—now six years old—had a similar start. After all, “most formative, life-altering moments emerge not from carefully laid plans,” as Marian says, “but from being present where you are and doing what is needed.”

When she graduated from Radcliffe College in 1960, Marian was married and pregnant. Fresh from Harvard Law School, her then husband, Fritz Schwarz ’53, responded to an ad for legal work in Africa.

The couple and their eight-month-old son (Eric Schwarz ’79) moved to Muslim northern Nigeria. “Back then, no one asked women what they wanted to do in their careers. Women were not expected to have careers. In northern Nigeria, at that time, the only salaried job women were allowed was to teach school. I had never considered being a teacher, but I wanted to work with the local people.” Marian was accepted as a teacher at the Catholic teachers’ training college in Kaduna—a program for native Ibo women, run by Irish Sacred Heart nuns.

“This was my first real experience with cross-cultural communication,” Marian says. “Trying to understand my students’ perspective enough to teach the very British curriculum—for which they had

20 Milton Magazine

no context at all (think Jane Eyre and Charlotte Bronte)—was daunting and fascinating. I’m glad to say I persuaded the nuns to make some changes, too.”

“Helping people learn about things they’ve never heard of, and really have no context for, was a challenge.”

Back in the States two years later—and after two more babies and a master’s in education—Marian eagerly applied her cross-cultural work to the New York City public school system. She began a sevenyear stint teaching high school in East Harlem. Her Nigerian experience proved invaluable with her inner-city students, many of whom spoke English as a second language and were reading far below their grade level. How do you begin to learn from a teacher of another culture? From a textbook written in another language?

Marian made answering these questions her life’s work.

With thinkers like John Dewey and Paulo Freire as models, Marian broadened educational opportunity as widely as possible.

“I’m for creating settings where people can

learn. I believe in equality in education. So many students, of all ages, are talented and bright and just don’t have the resources.”

Reaching to touch as many of those students as possible, Marian became a literacy consultant to school systems, prison systems, addiction programs, and arts-ineducation programs—all while pursuing a doctorate in anthropology and linguistics at Columbia.

The day she completed her dissertation, she got a call from the New York City mayor’s office. Mayor Ed Koch asked Marian to work on the city’s education initiatives.

Now the new link between the school system and City Hall, Marian learned the “language and math” of municipal budgets and the politics of New York’s neighborhoods. She also learned how to write great speeches and make things happen. Marian launched after-school programs and education programs in prisons. She was a key player in increasing the immunization rate of the city’s students from 20 percent to the highest in the country. On her own, she developed a report on high school illiteracy and gave it to the mayor. The New York Times ran it on the front page. Marian was branded as someone who knew something about literacy.

A fortuitous influx of revenue into the city’s budget prompted Mayor Koch to set up an adult literacy program. Marian

explains, “When people asked what he meant, he replied, ‘Go see Marian Schwarz. Ask her what she needs, and then do what she says.’ The budgeters came to visit me and I told them to come back in the morning—that I’d have something for them then.” By the next day, Marian and her team had outlined a $36 million adult literacy program. The city thereby approved the largest adult literacy program in the country, with Marian at the helm. Only in the most recent budget did the city pull the funding.

For those who want to learn to read, access to help is an obstacle. Waiting lists for the programs were months long. Marian realized that using television as a medium would reach people where they lived their lives. After a year of research, she had the plan that would meet the need. A Ford Foundation grant of $3 million made it happen.

The result was TV411—like Sesame Street in some ways. TV411 teaches reading, writing and math by addressing issues like health, money and family. Produced and distributed by ALMA, the Adult Literacy Media Alliance (which Marian founded), the show still runs on PBS/WGBH, and maintains a robust Web site. Marian earned two Emmys for her work on TV411.

“I’m so proud of that program, but it’s also what almost did me in,” says Marian. She stepped down from her role as ALMA’s

executive director in 2005. She and her husband, Larry Cross, moved to their 1825 farm in Katonah, New York.

The couple wanted to start a modern, organic farm on the property, and one morning, after buying a $6 pint of raspberries, thay realized the fruit could be the core crop of a profitable venture.

“I love starting something from scratch, especially when I don’t know how to do it.”

“I love starting something from scratch, especially when I don’t know how to do it,” Marian says. Armed with her notebook and affinity for research, she began visiting local farms and reading. She interned at a farm for a spring. She and Larry—who has a farming background—began to prepare their land. They plotted crop areas, prepared the soil, built extensive fencing.

Only later did they discover why there are not more raspberry farms in Westchester County. “Raspberries are an extremely delicate fruit with lots of pests, most of which we’ve learned about the hard way,” she says. Nonetheless, their well-ventilat-

ed, north-facing, blooming slope opened to an eager berry-picking public on July 1 this year, marking Amawalk Farm’s sixth season. Theirs is one of only two certified organic farms in Westchester County.

While the public picks the berries, the farm’s garlic, salad greens, tomatoes, eggplant and squash are in demand by restaurants and specialty stores across the area.

“The food movement is powerful right now, and farming is a popular trend. Many young people are studying sustainability and agriculture in high school and college, so they’re eager to be involved, and they make up our workforce.”

Though Marian will always have New York City in her blood, she and Larry enjoy being part of their smaller, quieter community. They host visits from local families, and children at the Mount Kisco Day Care Center. “The children pick things and ask questions. We yak the entire time.

Teaching and learning are constantly happening at the farm.”

Marian continually sharpens her own farming skills, as well: “Now I spend time in the winter attending seminars on things like weed management and plant diseases.

Life is just full of surprises, isn’t it?”

Erin E. Hoodlet

Milton Magazine 21

Mike Godwin ’11

The Anatomy of a Comeback

22 Milton Magazine

M

ike Godwin has worn uniforms three seasons each year—football, hockey and baseball uniforms—for as long as he can remember. Coming to Milton was the right step for him, Mike says. He wanted to take every aspect of his career to the next level.

Ninth-graders who have come to Milton confident, prepared and ready are still surprised. Whatever their middle-school experience, getting used to the workload and classes takes time. As Mike says, “things didn’t seem to happen as easily as they once had. I gave myself some slack and didn’t put too much pressure on myself. I defaulted to that, because I couldn’t think of another way.”

“I have a lot of faith in myself,” Mike says. “I have a strong work ethic, and I was determined to get as far as my situation allowed.”

The ice rink was the place that truly felt familiar. Hockey had been Mike’s passion since he first tied skates on at age two. He was charged up by the speed of the game, the hard work and the camaraderie.

In Class II, during the home opener against St. Sebastian’s, Mike hit the boards at a ruinous angle and shattered several of his vertebrae. Not only was the hockey season out of the question— Mike thought his years as an athlete were, as well.

“That injury was a defining element of my high school career— of my life, really,” Mike says. “All along, I had focused on improving my game, reaching my potential as an athlete, playing at a Division I school. Now I didn’t know where to focus, or even where to look. I was devastated, and so was my family.”

With the support of his parents, friends, teachers and coaches, Mike slowly began to get better. As he healed, and was forced to occupy his time in other ways, he came to realize that sports did not define him. He enjoyed his classes—especially in math and science. He had made many great friends. He loved his music.

(Mike composed songs and played guitar for his senior project.)

He discovered that he had plenty to work on, and to look forward to. His father’s words captured the perspective Mike found. “My dad said to me, ‘Mike, you may not be able to skate again, but you’ll be able to play catch with your kids.’” With a new point of view, Mike dove into the hard work of getting back on his feet, and potentially back on the fields.

“I have a lot of faith in myself,” Mike says. “I have a strong work ethic, and I was determined to get as far as my situation allowed.”

Mike returned to the baseball field later that spring, but he knew the demands of football would be too much for his back, still healing. Therefore, during his senior fall, on the sidelines of Stokinger Field, Mike took on coaching. He volunteered, working with the newer players and teaching them what he knew. Mike’s partnership with varsity head coach Kevin MacDonald was crucial—“the most influential person in my Milton life,” Mike says.

Mike did wear his skates again. No amount of ice time is enough for Mike, but being part of the team that won the 2011 New England Championship, with an overall season record of 26-31, was an extraordinary experience. The team also claimed the Independent School League Keller Division title for the first time since 1967.

“My dad said to me, ‘Mike, you may not be able to skate again, but you’ll be able to play catch with your kids.’”

Mike beams, remembering celebrating with his teammates after the Championship win against Kent. “I didn’t get any awards or accolades for the season, but that didn’t matter,” he says. “I am so proud, and so grateful, to have been part of that team.”

Mike’s ability to stay positive—a trait that he credits to his parents—carried him through. “I firmly believe that having made my way through that accident and recovery, I can get through anything.” At the end of his Milton career, Mike feels ready—for college, and for his life. He will be on the ice this winter, playing hockey for Saint Lawrence University.

EEH

Milton Magazine 23

Joseph Reynolds ’11

Finding the Right Groove

24 Milton Magazine

“Something about my motivation shifted. When I got closer to my teachers, I knew when they were disappointed in me, and I didn’t want to disappoint them.”

W

hether dancing in a piece he’s choreographed or running a play down the football field, Joseph Reynolds likes to move. His energy fills a room. Activity, excitement and vibrancy are magnets that draw him. A love for action is a great quality for a Milton student, but it can be a drawback when hunkering down and getting serious are necessary. Joseph’s first set of Class IV grades threw up a brick wall, and this young man who was moving quickly had to take a step back and reassess.

“It was the idea that there were people smarter than me,” said Joseph. “In the New York City public school system, I was chosen from thousands of sixth-graders to attend an advanced middle school and then chosen for a prestigious prep placement program. I knew how to work hard and get myself to learn, but these students at Milton knew how to absorb the information faster than I could. That was a big challenge.

Grades like this were a new thing for me.”

Joseph brought a strong set of academic skills to Milton. The Prep for Prep program is “rigorous and intense.” He commuted by subway an hour and a half from his home in Brooklyn to Manhattan for classes on weekends and during the summer months.

In fact, Joseph was taking classes at Prep until two weeks before he arrived at Milton and moved into Norris House.

“Coming straight from that program, I thought ‘Time to take a break!’” says Joseph with a laugh. “I lost my gusto for academics. I was so excited to be away from home.

I signed up for activities period every day of the week. I was always getting involved.

I took on big challenges and overextended myself.”

Early on, and despite his first grades, Joseph thought he had the situation under control and didn’t interact much with his teachers. This changed as he learned to cultivate those relationships.

“Something about my motivation shifted.

When I got closer to my teachers, I knew when they were disappointed in me, and I didn’t want to disappoint them. When I talked to them, I could see that they cared deeply about how I did, and that made me want to work harder.”

At the end of his Class III year, Joseph’s grades were improving. He knew, however, that he wasn’t meeting his own potential. A conversation with a former Milton student, who was also Joseph’s advisor from the Prep program, changed the dynamic. His advisor challenged Joseph to reevaluate what “working hard” meant and to remove the word “can’t” from his vocabulary. Joseph really started to think about how he was spending his time. “What activities am I really invested in? What am I getting and learning from each thing I’m doing?”

He still worked at finding the balance of work and play. In his Class II year, Joseph became an advisor for new students in Norris House.

“If I have the responsibility to take care of these new students, I need to take care of myself first. I need to be able to do my homework in order to help them get their homework done. I took on this advising task; I need to keep up my end of the bargain, and I want to do it well.”

Joseph learned a wiser approach to his various commitments and schoolwork. He started breaking his responsibilities down into smaller tasks, setting goals that were realistic. This made tackling the larger projects easier. He refound his groove. Still busy with dance productions, football practice and a heavy course load, he had mastered managing his Milton life. Now Joseph is on the move again. He’s in California attending Pomona College. Maybe he’s sharing what he’s learned for himself with his new peers who have a similar experience just ahead.

Liz Matson Milton Magazine 25

Smooth Transit Choosing boldly works out, sometimes

I

n India, tenth-graders complete what Americans would consider high school. Indian teenagers make life choices at that point, their options framed by scores on the national exams. Choosing to attend college at home is a careerfocused direction that many take. Some choose an International Baccalaureate.

Very few make the choice Tanya Panicker did. No cohort of her friends pretested the route Tanya pursued—attending a college preparatory boarding school in the United States.

“It seemed like a more exciting, more unfamiliar choice that would give me international exposure, too,” Tanya explains. “I liked the option of broad liberal arts courses, extracurriculars, and living at a boarding school, all rolled together. I’m an only child, and the idea of living in a dorm with other students always intrigued me. I applied to Milton on a whim.”

Yes, many things about life at Milton were new and unexpected. The busy, structured schedule was unfamiliar, as were the classes, sports, activities, meals, dorm life and the rules that make everything tick.

26 Milton Magazine

The biggest surprise for Tanya may have been that the culture shock didn’t feel so big. “The people at Milton, and in Robbins House, really made me and the other new girls feel part of something,” Tanya remembers. “I didn’t expect the house to be so welcoming and inclusive. I may not have found that elsewhere; it has a lot to do with Milton students—their openness, their awareness of other cultures. I took great comfort in my friends and the adults here. I will always be a Robbins girl.”

Even during the frightening time of terrorist bombings in Mumbai, Tanya felt tangible support around her. “Not being home during the bombings was scary,” she says.

“But having people around me who aren’t even connected to India feel so much for me really helped. My parents were happy to know I was safe and cared for; they were glad I was away during that time.”

Academically, Milton differed as well, but Tanya was excited rather than daunted.

“Science at Milton, for instance, helped me like studying science much better,” she says. “At home, my classes were more theoretical, so I had the fundamentals. Here, I

No cohort of her friends pretested the route Tanya pursued—attending a college preparatory boarding school in the United States.

got to use them; the focus is on labs, and on applying the content. In history, too, we’re taught to think and to understand the issues. Being able to ask good questions and talk with people around the table was new. I loved it.”

She wasn’t reluctant to dive into activities.

She loved Speech Team, Model U.N. and being an SECS senior (Students Educating

Tanya Panicker ’11

the Community about Sex). What worked so well? Why were the bumps in the road manageable? “I relied on my independence,” Tanya says. “I was a shy child at home. Now I’m able to form my own opinion without worrying about it being different. Every person at Milton is different.

I’m not afraid of that. In this community, having an opinion is valued. I have a better

understanding of people, too. I was stubborn, and now I’m cooperative. I’ve learned how to work in a group.”

As she begins the engineering program at the University of Illinois, UrbanaChampaign this fall, she’ll continue to apply her parents’ most consistent message. The same message may have inspired her Milton choice, and foretold

her success here. “No matter where you go, or what you do, it’s important to try new things,” Tanya relays their words. “When you choose to do something, ask yourself, ‘How is that different from everyone else?

How are you making it your own?’”

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Milton Magazine 27

Why Not? Finding Your Feet “Far from Home” Aylin Feliz ’11

28 Milton Magazine

“I figured out it’s okay to stand in the hallway with someone new and talk for five minutes. So much is going on here; there’s a lot to talk about.”

“But if these years have taught me anything it is this: you can never run away. Not ever. The only way out is in.”

—Junot Díaz, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

A

ylin Feliz has scripted this line from Junot Díaz into her email signature. “There’s something about me that’s ‘Why not?’” Aylin says. “I can put myself out there. I’ve lived that, and I know why it’s worth doing.”

Aylin’s family is Dominican, and she grew up in Roslindale, Massachusetts. In her eighth-grade class at the Rafael Hernandez public school, 20 of her 28 classmates were also Dominican. The environment was warm, predictable and absolutely consistent. Academically, Aylin was a step ahead, and she was looking to stretch.

After two summers on the Milton campus with the Steppingstone Foundation, Aylin knew that she wanted Milton to be her school. “When my acceptance letter came, my middle-school teacher Jennifer Barefoot Smith (Milton Academy Class of 1997) gave me the best advice of my life.

She said, ‘Don’t tell anyone you got in, and make the decision for yourself.’ I like to make everyone happy, so making the decision to go, when none of my friends could understand why, was hard.”

Not only was Milton’s workload more than she expected, but Aylin was straddling two worlds. “Dominican culture tends to be overprotective,” Aylin says. “My mom had a hard time understanding that going to school at Milton meant more than just going to classes. After-school sports and activities were a new concept. My Dominican friends couldn’t understand why I’d want to stay at school until seven o’clock at night. At Milton, I’d talk with my friends at lunch about a book we were reading in class, something I would never have done with my friends from home. I started to drift from my old friends during the school year—we were just on completely different pages. Milton felt so far from home. I tried to imagine how the boarding students must feel. In my neighborhood, I was the only one going ‘so far’ away from home.”

Milton Magazine 29

“At times, I was afraid I had made the wrong decision. My mom didn’t understand Milton completely, but she had worked so hard for me to get here. She believed in me. She said, ‘You’re fine.

You’re staying there and you’re going to be fine.’”

In Spanish class, Aylin’s old self appeared—confident and willing to take risks. Class III was her “breakout” year, she says. She was more comfortable in her classes, and with her new friends.

“I figured out it’s okay to stand in the hallway with someone new and talk for five minutes. So much is going on here; there’s a lot to talk about.”

“I’ve learned that it’s okay to straddle the middle, with a foot in two worlds. You won’t always understand everything, and it’s okay to feel uncomfortable.”

She joined the Latino Association and began to realize she had a lot in common with people who, at first, seemed very different.

“Now, I feel like I’ve built a second family,” says Aylin. “I’m in the dorm all the time. I’ve had so many friends over to my house.

You learn that everybody is going through the same thing you’re going through.”

30 Milton Magazine

Things turned around. The work became manageable. Taking English with J.C. Smith helped her reading and writing skills.

She studied Spanish for four years, through Level 5 AP, which involved reading novels and poetry, and writing challenging essays. “I’ve been bilingual my whole life,” Aylin says, “but that class was hard, and I loved it.”

As head of Milton’s Latino Association for two years, Aylin’s goal was sharing Milton with people from the Latino community.

“My friends from home don’t know anything about independent schools. They could be here too, but it’s hard work. My motivating factor was, ‘Why not?’ I knew that if I left I wouldn’t have this kind of opportunity again. So I worked hard.”

The first in her family to go to college, Aylin started at George Washington University in September. She plans to major in business administration and finance, and minor in international and Latin American studies. She’s excited, and nervous—but, most of all, confident. “Milton shows you that you have the resources,” says Aylin. “You just have to put in the effort to use them.

“This time, I’ll really be far away, not just 20 minutes from home.

But, I won’t start out being shy. I know how to make new friends; I can relate and find out what’s similar. I know how to reach out to teachers, and I’ll ask questions.

“I’ve learned that it’s okay to straddle the middle, with a foot in two worlds. You won’t always understand everything, and it’s okay to feel uncomfortable. But you grow; you accept; you appreciate what you have—and what you will have.”

EEH

Class IV—The Best of the Talks Emmie Atwood ’14

On Happiness

R

ecently, I have been weighed down by adolescence. The mood swings, erratic frustration, and chronic sarcasm were constant reminders of my growing up. I was complaining to my parents, nagging my brother, ranting to my friends.

People say that these years define who we will be as adults: Is this who I will become?

The more I struggled with finding myself, the more nostalgia I felt for my childhood innocence. To sort out my own happiness, I read Gretchen Rubin’s The Happiness Project. In her best-seller, the author pursues happiness through monthly goals.

I chose three: Give hugs, anticipate happy moments, and recall happy memories.

I would like to share with you my recent quest for happiness.

One Monday in December, I tried my first experiment. Rubin said, “Hugging relieves stress, and boosts feelings of closeness.” A University of North Carolina study found that hugs decrease the risk of heart disease by increasing a “bonding” hormone known as oxytocin, and also releasing serotonin and dopamine, two “feel-good” chemicals for your brain. Rubin says that a hug needs six seconds to be effective. I gave as many six-second hugs as possible on Monday and I was genuinely happy all day. I felt protected, within the arms of my friends and family.

Next I tested Rubin’s second theory: Anticipation of a happy event is often happier than the event itself. I tried anticipating happy moments like Christmas. The long

week before winter break meant Modern World tests and Spanish conjugation quizzes. In years past, anticipating Christmas meant holiday activities; baking cookies; eating my mom’s macaroni and cheese; spending time with my friend Ben on Christmas Eve, like always. Ms. Rubin’s words worried me: If I did not feel wild anticipation about Christmas, maybe I would not enjoy Christmas at all. On the way to the market after school, once winter break started, my mom told me I had an orthodontist appointment next Tuesday, Ben and his family were going to Chicago on Wednesday, my fourth cousins had invited us over for Christmas Eve, and they had said no to my mom bringing her macaroni and cheese for dinner. I leaned my cheek against the

Milton Magazine 31

“I struggle with the idea of growing up. I love the thrill of getting older, leaving my parents at home. I want to take the wheel but miss the feeling that somebody else is going to take care of me.”

frosty car window, staring at the gray mist settling over the even grayer East Milton Square. Frantically, I searched for something to stifle the sadness. Pitiful strands of holiday lights had been thrown over the barren trees. The street cut through town; the seven coffee chains and four nail salons clustered together; a frail grandmother tried to cross the road. How could the holidays possibly come when they were buried within this gray world? Gretchen Rubin was wrong. Anticipation doesn’t fuel happiness; it only causes stress. I tilted my head toward the roof of the car, trying to get the tears to fall backward into my eye sockets. In that moment I saw the sky. It stretched across the entire town, hugging the gray center within a colorful embrace. The sky was pink and yellow and orange and blue and red and green. The sun’s light harmonized with the sky’s calm; my drying eyes soaked up the sunset. I had not anticipated that colorful sky. The beauty in the unexpected had dried up the hopelessness.

My last experiment was to “recall happy memories.” Rubin argues that remembering happy moments of the past is a large part of feeling satisfied in the present.

I tried remembering. Remember those long car rides when you’d fall asleep in the

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backseat, and after the car rumbled to a stop in the driveway, your father would scoop you up in his arms and carry you into the house, his heavy footfalls echoing through the night, your chin knocking gently against his shoulder? Sometimes I would pretend I was asleep in the car just so I could have my dad carry me in. I remember listening to my parents’ whispers harmonize with the sounds of the freeway and the lights on the car dashboard. I remember the intense feeling of comfort as I snuggled up against my booster seat with my blanket tucked underneath my chin. I remember the feeling of safety and wonder and trust as I watched my dad drive down the freeway, keeping me warm and secure.

Over winter break, my family left for Vermont the day after the blizzard of 2010.

My dad drove 20 miles per hour on the freeway, and three cars slid off the road in front of us. My mother and sister and I were yelling at my dad to go slower and take the nearest exit. I thought I was going to die. I cannot believe I used to feel safe in that minivan. Recalling my childhood only reminds me of moments I cannot return to. I struggle with the idea of growing up.

I love the thrill of getting older, leaving my parents at home. I want to take the wheel

but miss the feeling that somebody else is going to take care of me. Looking back does make you realize what you need. What you need as a kid is not so different from what you need as an adult. I am still looking for ways to feel that others are taking care of me.

Last summer, at my uncle’s house, a birds’ nest fell out of the electrical box when a repair crew was fi xing the transformer.

They tried putting it back, but it did not quite fit. I guess I have fallen out of the electrical box. I cannot go back now, so why keep trying when I can find a new and different place to feel safe? The birds found a new home in my uncle’s gutter, but they had to fly there first.

I have no answers on happiness except that hugs really do work. Anticipation is not as good as finding beauty in the unexpected.

Memory can only make me happier if it can capture a feeling of the past and apply it to the present. I still do not know what happiness is, but I do know what it is not.

It is not anticipating Friday, or waiting for Christmas, or walking down memory lane.

It is about bringing together the past and the future into the present, making it happen now. We make our own happiness.

Class IV—The Best of the Talks Nate Bresnick ’14

On Making Things

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hen I was trying to figure out my Class IV Talk, one of my friends asked me what I like to do.

After a fairly boring list, I announced that I like to make things, and break things. While I can assure you that breaking things can be a lot less frustrating and more fun than making things, people usually think of it as destructive, although I can’t imagine why. For that reason, my Talk is about making things—some interesting things that I’ve made, some famous inventors who have actually made important things, and what we can learn from them.

What do I mean by “things”? All sorts of things. My inclination to make things goes back a long time. The first really interesting thing I built came to life on a snow day when I was 12. After a long time researching, all the parts lay on my bedroom floor waiting. Once the snow day call came, I began. After about seven hours, I plugged it in and

pressed the power switch. A loud whirring sound started and text came flying across the screen; I had built my first computer.

After building this one, which now resides in my room, and a few others for my friends, I started to get bored. You see, computers are all pretty much the same. Faster or slower, bigger or smaller, they all do the same things with the same basic parts. So I became interested in electronics I could design from the ground up. One of my favorite projects was a robot I worked on last summer. It was small, and couldn’t drive in a very straight line, but I built it from the simplest components possible, and I was proud of it. After a few days’ work, I had a robot that would drive around by itself and would detect and avoid nearby obstacles. Driving aimlessly around my house, making loud noises and sometimes falling apart, it was clueless to the tragic fate that

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awaited it. My little robot wasn’t very smart, and one day, feeling adventurous, it took on the stairs. The stairs won.

The robot was lying in pieces on the floor, every single wire and part strewn about. I wish I could say that I went right back to work, rebuilding. Instead, I put the parts in a box, put it on a shelf, and went to watch TV. Eventually, I did put it back together, but it broke several more times. This is the way many of my projects go. Mistakes like these can be really frustrating, but they aren’t the end of the world.

My current project is a robot that makes sandwiches. If I ever convince it to stop throwing cheese slices and start placing them on the bread, that will be exciting, but not earth-shattering.

This provides perspective about real inventors trying to build something useful or important, like the lightbulb. How much more frustrating is that, and how much more effort and determination is required, to invent a rocket ship or a lightbulb, than to create a sandwich-making robot?

We can learn a lot from famous inventors.

Thomas Edison spent years working on an idea that seemed impossible: the electric lightbulb.

When asked why he failed so many times before stumbling upon the right combination of the carbonized filament, he replied, “I didn’t fail. I found 2,000 ways how not to make a lightbulb.” This kind of dedication makes invention possible. And Edison was dedicated. According to an article on Wired.com, Edison electrocuted a condemned elephant to death in front of 1,500 people to prove a point about the dangers of alternating current. Edison epitomized perseverance. According to Rutgers.edu and the United States Patent and Trademark

Office, Edison was awarded 1,093 patents, the third most in history. He applied for an additional 600 patents, which were rejected, but he didn’t allow that to slow him down.

Edison’s inventions spanned mining to telephones and electricity to sound, and his impact was profound on all of these fields.

Steve Wozniak is a less well known but also significant inventor. You all are certainly familiar with his work: Wozniak helped to invent the personal computer as we know it and then co-founded Apple Inc. An article on Woz.org states that President Ronald Reagan gave Wozniak the National Medal of Technology in 1985, the highest award for American inventors.

Equally important was what Wozniak did with his invention. He believes that everyone deserves equal access to technology, and he sponsored efforts to put computers and Internet access into everyone’s hands so that the world would benefit from what he helped to invent.

Edison’s perseverance and Wozniak’s ideals are examples of how inventors benefit the entire world and provide goals to live by, both for inventors and noninventors.

In no way am I comparing myself to these incredible inventors. Even I’m not that crazy.

I just think it’s really interesting that whether you’re building a robot that likes to drive off of staircases or inventing the lightbulb, you go through the same process of innovation. Without that innovation we would still be sitting in caves hitting sticks together. Without iPods. What a horrible fate.

“My current project is a robot that makes sandwiches. If I ever convince it to stop throwing cheese slices and start placing them on the bread, that will be exciting, but not earth-shattering.”

Nate and Emmie’s Class IV Talks were two of the six “Best of” Talks voted by the Class of 2014.

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Fictional Characters Complicate the Lives of Fifth-Graders Milton’s Fifth Grade Looks at Life Decisions

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rappling with the experience of a fictional character often opens doors for readers. A close range, intimate look at a character’s challenges and decisions can aptly teach about perspective. Jenn Katsoulis’s fifth-graders not only consider writing styles and develop analytical skills as they study literature.

Through the books that she and librarian Joan Eisenberg choose, Jenn aims to help students look at the world from another person’s point of view. “I choose books that force the reader to do that,” Jenn says. Book by book, her fifth-graders increase their sophistication and awareness about the many ways to live a life.

“The students adore this book,” Jenn says.

“Across a cultural divide and generations, the characters restore one another, and come to depend on one another. In class we ask, ‘How would you survive? What would you do in this situation?’”

All of the Above by Shelley Pearsall Based on a true story of inner-city students in Cleveland, four seventh-graders at Washington Middle School decide to put their school on the map by building the world’s largest tetrahedron. They are out to prove that—despite the faded, crumbling façade of their school building—smart, ambitious and capable students are inside.

“The story is told from four points of view, and though the characters are from the same school, and similar situations, my students quickly recognize the four distinct

Joan helps Jenn select contemporary fiction, whose protagonists are the same age as her students, and together they develop curriculum surrounding the stories. They add selections beyond the young adult classics Bridge to Terabithia and Tuck Everlasting.

They include writers whose work highlights worlds, events, and personal challenges that broaden a fifth-grader’s cultural awareness.

The students necessarily witness and come to grips with how young people different from themselves manage their separate challenges.

What are Milton’s fifth-graders reading, and why are these selections effective?

Kensuke’s Kingdom by Michael Morpurgo In this survival story, young Michael is washed up on a Pacific island with his dog, Stella. He struggles to survive on his own— unable to find food and fresh water. When things are at their worst, Michael realizes that he and Stella are not alone. Fellow castaway, Kensuke, has lived on the island since the bombing of his native Nagasaki. Slowly, the two become part of each other’s world— teaching and learning from one another.

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voices and perspectives,” Jenn says. “They then appreciate, even more, the characters’ working together for a common goal.”

How to Steal a Dog by Barbara O’Connor Georgina Hayes and her family have just been evicted from their apartment, and they’re struggling to make ends meet. They find themselves having to live out of their car, although no one at school knows. When Georgina sees a missing-dog poster offering a $500 reward for its safe return, she realizes that “borrowing” the right dog may be the answer to all of her family’s problems.

“The story is about making moral decisions in desperate situations,” Jenn says. “The character is struggling with these decisions, and the students have interesting and thoughtful discussions about her challenge.

The book also enlightens them: they may not know everything about a person’s individual situation.”

Faith, Hope and Ivy June

by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor Ivy June and Catherine are girls from different parts of Kentucky, participating in a seventh-grade exchange program. The girls will stay at each other’s homes, attend school together, and reflect on their experience in their journals. Catherine and her family have a fancy home with plenty of space. Ivy June lives in a small, crowded house, and her grandfather works in the coal mines supporting the family. As the girls get closer, they discover they’re more alike than different.

“This book explores the feelings that go with entering new situations,” says Jenn.

“It’s about family and the assumptions we make about someone. It’s also about innerreflection—both the characters, and my students reading the book, keep journals.”

Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key

by Jack Gantos Joey Pigza can’t sit still. He can’t pay attention, he can’t follow the rules, and he can’t help that—especially when his medication wears off. Joey has been diagnosed with

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ADHD. Although he tries to do the right thing, his actions often have the opposite result. Written from Joey’s perspective, the book helps children understand their peers who live with that diagnosis. It can also help a child with ADHD realize that he or she is not alone.

Jenn’s students delve deeply into Joey’s character, and how the author teaches us about Joey. “We ask, ‘What did that situation look like from Joey’s point of view?

From the other characters’ points of view?

Where do those views intersect?’” As they

After reading All of the Above, Jenn’s students wanted to build a tetrahedron, each side representing one of the main characters. When they finished Kensuke’s Kingdom, they felt compelled to create metaphoric recipes for things like “kindness” and “perseverance.” Since students write many essays over the year, Jenn likes to broaden their creative options when they are reflecting on the books.

In both large and small discussion groups, students talk about the decisions the characters made, what they would have done in those situations, and sometimes about events in their own lives when they’ve felt the way the characters do. “The situations our characters face are very true-to-life.

There isn’t always an obvious answer, or an obvious decision to be made. The students really have to think—they consider the points of view of the characters, or people they know who are in some ways like the characters.

“By fifth grade, the students are good listeners and they’re sophisticated enough to say, ‘I agree with Jack, but I also think…’

They’ll also say, ‘In this book, I learned that you can’t judge a book by its cover.’ The students probably haven’t internalized that idea yet. However, it’s a start. The idea will resonate with them on some level. It’s a way to get their mind starting to think about those things.”

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read, Jenn’s students mark Joey’s thoughts, actions and others’ reactions to him with different-colored notes, recognizing how the author shows us who Joey is.

Esperanza Rising by Pam Muñoz Ryan Esperanza Ortega’s family owns a successful ranch and a beautiful home in Aguascalientes, Mexico. When a tragedy shatters that life, Esperanza and her mother must flee to California and settle in a Mexican farm labor camp. There they confront the challenges of hard work,

acceptance by their own people, and economic difficulties brought on by the Great Depression.

“Through these characters we reflect on their historical context—what was the Great Depression? What did it mean for people’s lives? My students could choose how to present their final project on this book— some composed and performed music, drew illustrations for the book, or wrote a story about what happened in Esperanza’s life five years later.”

Milton Magazine 37

facult y perspec tive An Exhortation to Cum Laude Inductees From Carly Wade, as she enters the stage of the “Forest Dweller”

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’ve been thinking a lot about changes recently. I always think about changes at this time of year. Many of my students will graduate next week. Others will move on to other classes and programs. Are your questions for yourselves anything like mine for my students? What will come next for them? What will they learn that delights them?

That consternates them? What will they take with them from Milton? What will they leave behind? Especially, what do they know about themselves now because they’ve been Milton students?

This year, in particular, as I started to ask myself these questions—in part because I, too, will graduate from Milton next week—I remembered a piece of ancient teaching that I hadn’t thought about for some time. I went back to some readings to see what that teaching had to say to me now. Then I thought that it had something to say to you, as well, because the passage of time and the changes we live through have meaning for our lives. But what meaning?

Here’s what I found: In ancient Hindu belief a human life had to be understood in four stages. Each stage had its essential role to play. No stage was less or more important than any other, because only in living properly within each of the times of life could a person reach the ultimate goal of life on this earth: self-realization.

In the first stage of life, called living with Brahma or the divine, the young person is a Student. She gives her entire attention, energy and devotion to learning from her teachers, absorbing the knowledge and wisdom of the ages. This is a time when the cares and concerns of the larger world remain distant, because they don’t belong to this stage. The Student’s teachers may be many. The wisdom she is thinking through is helping her learn what her life is, what the world is, how the problems of life might be understood. It 38 Milton Magazine

is this part of the pursuit of self-realization that you have done so well during your years at Milton, and that you will continue, with other teachers, in the next four or six or eight or who knows how many years beyond Milton. This is what life is asking of you now.

In the second stage, a person enters into the activities of the world. It is called the time of the Householder. In this time a person will practice his profession, trade or craft. He will participate in the concerns of his family and of the community where he lives. Through these activities in the busyness of every day he will demonstrate the understanding he gained in his Student days. He will plant his garden and raise his children; he will fly airplanes, heal the sick or run for President. He will make his mark in the world.

But there comes a time when that busyness is no longer sufficient, when the growing knowledge of human life in the world begs for reflection. This is the stage of the Forest Dweller. She withdraws from her profession—although she is still available for advice and consultation—she bequeaths to her children the daily management of the world of affairs, and she begins another life of some solitude and contemplation of nature’s world. Now I bring this up because I am about to go dwell in the forest, but I know that for you such a time is far in the distance, and probably looks deeply unappealing just now. My point is that in this ancient teaching, whose certainty is that life on this earth has but one purpose, the third stage that centers on contemplation, on weaving together the threads of study and of engagement in the world, is a stage that must not be missed. I understand that imperative now, as I never have before.

But you, the Students. You’ve made a fine start in your search for understanding. You’ve started to ask many of the essential questions: Who am I? What do I want? What

So my message to you, finally, is this: Live your time as a Student deeply. Study with teachers whose approach to learning is compelling to you. Don’t ever for a moment think that you’ve learned enough.

is true? And beautiful? And good? Of course, what is life?

And what is life for? The answers you will find as you study, and then as you live within the human community, will be many and wonderful and distressing and confusing. But all worth your consideration. So my message to you, finally, is this: Live your time as a Student deeply. Study with teachers whose approach to learning is compelling to you. Don’t ever for a moment think that you’ve learned enough. As I said before, this is the time of your life given for opening yourself to the knowledge that our species has amassed.

Live this time fully. Question, and think, and find some

time for quiet reflection. Value the friends who question and reflect and share their insights with you. There will be time to own a house—metaphorically or otherwise. There will be a time to dwell in the forest—or the mountains, or the desert. Those times will come. If you’ve been counting, you know that I haven’t gotten to the fourth of life’s stages.

That’s right. I have no insight about that one yet. Check back with me in 20 years or so. In the meantime, one step at a time. I do wish you all joy in the journeys that lie before you. Thank you.

May 31, 2011 Milton Magazine 39

Pritzker Science Center Dedication May 6, 2011

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n May 6, 2011, Brad Bloom, president of the board of trustees, welcomed faculty and staff, students, donors and the Pritzker family at the dedication of the Pritzker Science Center.

The ceremony honored those whose dedication and philanthropy made Milton’s exciting new building possible. Milton science students addressed how the building’s design inspires science teaching and learning. J.B. Pritzker ’82 noted that faculty-student relationships are the root of all great discovery at Milton. At a Thank You Celebration that evening, Milton honored those generous individuals whose gifts over the last eight years enabled the School to reach crucial goals directly affecting student and faculty experiences.

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1. Todd and Nancy Bland

8. Jide Zeitlin ’81

2. Brad Bloom, president of the board of trustees

9. Phil Robertson ’56, Lucy Pieh, Mike Robertson ’53, Jean Childs ’54

3. Jackie Bechek P’06, ’07, ’10 4. Mr. Frank Millet and J.B. Pritzker ’82 5. Science on display 6. The unveiling: a dedication ritual 7. A sunny celebration

10. Molly Gilmore ’12, Libby Perold ’12, Nicole Rufus ’12, Titi Odedele ’14, Alexa Vargas ’14 11. Tom Schnoor ’12 12. Tom Gagnon, science faculty, and Lisa Donohue ’83, trustee 13. J.B. and M.K. Pritzker and family 14. In biology class

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he ad of school My father’s gifts

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arrived at Milton in 2009, but Milton was not new to me. My family’s legacy here is a source of pride.

Few heads of school can claim that their existence is attributable to their school.

My parents met and fell in love at Milton during the spring of their Class I year.

Several members of the Class of 1958 claim that I am a gift from them to the Academy (though they may choose a less flattering term).

Onward from that spring, my family’s journey is not a storybook tale. Many remember it more with a sense of sadness rather than joy. In the summer of 1974, my father died unexpectedly. I was six years old; my brothers were one year and nine years; and my mother just 33. My last memory of my father is his following our car on the Maine Turnpike and signaling us to stop, so that he could hand us the life-vests that we’d forgotten. My brothers, Mom and I were headed for a family gathering in Connecticut. We never saw my father again.

My words give many of you pause, I know.

I have faced these silences since I was a child. In fact, few people other than my mother ever mentioned my father’s name.

I have learned that most people do not know what to say in the face of tragedy, and therefore say nothing. I harbor no resentment about this, but I am relieved to finally understand it. Returning to Milton has brought blessings, none more

42 Milton Magazine

meaningful than the outpouring of stories about my dad. I have heard more about my father in the last two years of my life than in the previous 35.

My childhood and adult life have been filled with many blessings, but no life is without moments of misfortune, or failure, or great sadness. Recovering from adversity is a crucial life skill, a skill acquired by way of significant pain.

Recovering from adversity is a crucial life skill, a skill acquired by way of significant pain.

Silver linings do exist, however. Losing a parent has given me perspective, both on my losses and my blessings. I understand each of my disappointments within my own, unique context. That point of view has increased my capacity for gratitude and appreciation. In addition, I am comfortable addressing others’ tragedies, particularly sudden death. Living through an immense sadness, and watching others do the same, has given me faith that we all have the capacity to recover from the darkest of hours.

As head of school I am called upon to help members of our School address disappointment, failure and loss. At these times, I find myself saying to parents: None of us would ever wish this upon you or your child, but approaching this experience appropriately will undoubtedly make your child stronger, and better equipped to confront life’s inevitable tribulations. In fact, the idea of breezing through high school without surmounting any significant reverses concerns me.

Some children have, for various reasons, been protected from the kind of difficulties that can further a child’s development and maturity. How will these young people deal with life’s twists and turns?

How will they respond to a first failing grade? The loss of a job? The death of a loved one?

Modern parenting’s tendency toward overprotection has been a subject of frequent public discussion. Protective instincts come from love and care, but if they’re not moderated, they can handicap a child who must prepare for life beyond his parent’s control. My favorite parenting book is Wendy Mogel’s The Blessing of a Skinned Knee. She has recently followed that book with The Blessing of a B Minus.

In her books, Ms. Mogel demonstrates the importance of allowing children to confront “falls” so that they learn to get up. We need to heed her advice as we encourage young people to live, learn and grow.

Last year, Milton faced the most difficult and unwelcome of School events—the death of one of our students. We are still mourning the death of Jennifer Pham, as we continue to heal. The experience helped us gain strength; it unified us; it demanded our resilience. We comforted and supported one another, gained greater appreciation for those around us, and shared an intimate, transformative experience. Jennifer’s family helped us with this, and we helped them, as well.

We certainly did not seek this event, but responding to it together, with grace, and dignity and care, was valuable.

Every morning at Milton, I wake up two hundred yards from the one place where my father is memorialized—the Apthorp Chapel. I derive a deep and certain strength from this connection. It reminds me, constantly, of all that my father has given to me, both in his living and in his dying.

Todd B. Bland

Milton Magazine 43

sp or t s

A Win-Win Proposition Alumni athletes are volunteer coaches

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thletic coaches at Milton motivate, mentor and challenge their student athletes. They are also masters at multitasking—dealing with schedules, injuries, equipment and travel logistics.

Some teams are getting additional help from alumni athletes who return to campus as volunteers. They assist team coaches in a variety of sports. Word of mouth, chance encounters and individual initiatives have increased the alumni presence in coaching over the past few years.

“They are a nice addition to our athletic program, a bonus. The alumni who do this are really committed,” says Marijke Alsbach, who as athletic director welcomed many of these alumni to the program.

Because of the late-afternoon time commitments, alumni volunteer coaches tend to be college students or young college graduates with flexible schedules.

Andy Mittelman ’04 helped coach skiing during the 2010–2011 season. A varsity skier at Milton, Andy was on the ski patrol at Middlebury College. Having moved back to the Boston area, he contacted Marijke to see if the team needed any help. After meeting with the assistant and head coaches, Andy was onboard.

“I had a great ski team experience as a student. Returning and contributing to a program from which I gained so much was fun,” said Andy. “I enjoyed getting to know the next generation of Milton skiers, to help them in practice, watch them improve over the season and succeed in races. When someone has a great run, you share in his or her success. When someone falls, you feel part of the struggle also.”

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Andy said that the only difficult aspect of coaching is finding the time.

“It’s not quite a full-time job, but it’s definitely more than part-time. To be effective as a coach, you have to be there pretty much every day, for dry-land practices, for on-snow practices and for races. You need to put in at least as much time as your athletes. There’s also a learning curve as far as understanding the dynamics of the team.”

Andy was able to make it work because he was studying for the MCAT exams and working flexible hours in a local emergency department. He hopes to continue coaching in this upcoming season.

Tom Pilla ’02 had just moved back to Massachusetts from Colorado and was out for a run when he bumped into Mike

Mason, a Milton police officer and the defensive coach for the football team. Mike suggested the former football and lacrosse player come back and help out with the football team as an assistant coach.

“It was such a blast to get back out on that football field and work with the students,” says Tom. “I was able to draw on my experience as a player, what I liked and didn’t like, and use that to benefit the new team members. It was also fun just to get dirty again.”

Toward the end of the football season, Tom heard the JV hockey team was looking for help, so he signed on, even though hockey was not his sport.

“With both experiences, I enjoyed realizing the level of effort that goes into coaching,” said Tom. “When you’re in school,

“I really enjoy coaching and sharing the game with new Frisbee players,” says Josh. “I’m so impressed by the people on the team. These students are dedicated. They show up because they want to, and they are devoted.”

you think everyone is on the same page and that the instructions just rain down from the heavens. These coaches are working extremely hard. It’s not just rote or by the book. Every year brings new challenges, with new players and different personalities.”

For Josh Cohen ’00, returning to Milton meant returning to the ultimate disc team he founded in his Class I year. The studentrun team is part of the New England Prep School Ultimate League. While Josh played at Yale University, his sister Molly followed in his footsteps at Milton and became captain of the ultimate team in 2005. She asked him to come back and coach the team full-time.

“I really enjoy coaching and sharing the game with new Frisbee players,” says Josh.

“I’m so impressed by the people on the

team. These students are dedicated. They show up because they want to, and they are devoted.”

smart, eclectic student-athletes with all sorts of interests, hobbies and academic pursuits.”

When Josh’s former teammate and team cofounder Henry Ladd ’00 moved back to the Boston area in 2007, he also helped coach the team. Henry is a project manager for a general contracting company, but flexibility in his schedule allows him to be at Milton some afternoons.

Lamar Reddicks, who became Milton’s athletic director in July, hopes the tradition of alumni participation will continue. Milton’s softball, volleyball and boys’ squash teams have also benefited from alumni volunteer coaches in the past few years.

“Introducing the sport to the next generation feels great. I enjoy the teaching aspect of coaching, and I love interacting with the students,” says Henry.

Josh agrees that interacting with the students is one of the most rewarding parts of coaching.

“These are interesting and fun people, which is how I felt about my classmates when I was at Milton,” said Josh. “It’s great to see the same culture is still alive here:

“These graduates provide our athletes with a unique perspective, based on when they were here as students. Their helping closes a circle, and it shows that the School was important to them. It shows they feel strongly about their experience here.”

Liz Matson

Alumni interested in exploring volunteer coaching opportunities should contact Coach Reddicks at lamar_reddicks@milton.edu.

Milton Magazine 45

cl a ssroom When the rubber meets the road, can I pursue science?

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hen I first stepped onto the Milton Academy campus in the fall of 2007, I thought I knew exactly the trajectory my high school career would take. And just as I had a vivid picture of where I would sit in Forbes, and what I would wear to my first school dance, I entertained romanticized visions of myself in the science lab. Long white coat and gloves, in case whatever extremely dangerous substance I was studying should stray from the test tube in my steady and capable hands.

I thought I knew what it meant to study science, and I knew that was what I wanted to do. Four years later, and almost on the other side of my Milton career, I find that I was only partially correct. I still yearn to study and learn about science. Four years ago, however, I had no idea what that meant.

During my Class III year, I enrolled in an Honors Chemistry class that I was, admittedly, unprepared for. Suffice it to say, and as Ms. Samson can attest, I did not do very well. After my abysmal performance in that class, I was sure that I wasn’t good at science, and that I would never take another high-level science class at Milton. I was wrong. With the support of the department, I somehow found myself sitting in Dr. Eyster’s Honors Biology class on the first day of my Class II year, petrified because I had heard that she was “the toughest grader ever.” I thought I would fail, and potentially drop the class within the first week. I was wrong again. Not only did I not fail, but I learned to succeed. Dr. Eyster managed to cultivate in me a deep passion for biology and the scientific process. She changed the way I think about academics and science; she taught me how to ask hard questions and then work for answers; she brought me to engage in independent thought regardless of what has been previously accepted.

As a result of that biology class and the encouragement I received, I developed a 46 Milton Magazine

deep passion for the study of science, and a genuine interest in the sciences. I have learned the skills I will need to satisfy that interest and apply that passion outside of Milton.

Now, I’m just one voice. This is one student’s experience. But it is telling and, in my opinion, revelatory, about the nature of science at Milton Academy. This is not

Milton is not a place that lectures, dissuades, weeds out or discourages.

a place that sticks to textbooks, or traps its students behind desks. Instead, our teachers like to attach fire extinguishers to go-karts, or dissect formaldehyde-soaked squids to teach their principles. Milton is not a place that feels it is necessary to teach one principle or theory in order to give students the correct answers for an exam.

Instead, we learn that science is multifaceted, and ever-changing, with what is “right” being disproved all the time. Milton is not a place that lectures, dissuades, weeds out or discourages. Instead, it is a place that, four years ago, took a chance on this struggling student, and helped me reach my highest potential.

Isabelle Lelogeais ’11 delivered these remarks to students, faculty, staff, trustees and alumni on May 6, 2011, at the dedication of the Pritzker Science Center. Isabelle pursues her study of science at Rice University this fall.

Commencement 2011 “Keep listening, leave room for the quiet. Take a walk each day and study the curves in the path.”

—Reif Larsen ’98

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ne of the reasons why addressing you on this day of days is such an utter privilege is that I know what a brilliant, diverse, engaged, curious bunch of people you are. I have talked to your teachers. I have talked to some of you.

I have heard the stories. Graduations are so momentous not just because of what has been achieved today but because of the accumulation of what will be achieved in the future. Look around you, seniors. Your classmates will go on to study and unravel the human genome, to write novels and hilarious television shows, to argue cases in front of the Supreme Court, to find new and miraculous ways to keep the kitty litter inside the kitty litter box. We look at you, seniors, and we see a world that will change because of you. (No pressure or anything.)

But you graduate into an increasingly complex world in which you are constantly being bombarded with distractions, each piece of media begging for that last ounce of your precious attention. Over the course of my brief life, I have witnessed the rise of myriad technologies designed to simplify our lives, to entertain us, to bring us closer together. Email was just becoming popular when I first arrived at Milton. No one had a cell phone. Text messaging did not even exist. Now we send almost five billion text messages to each other every single day.

I am not going to stand up here and say, “I remember when we used to write letters and everyone spoke like Abraham Lincoln and soda cost a nickel.” No, I’m not going to do this because soda did not cost a nickel, and this kind of nostalgic hand-wringing gets us nowhere. But what I will say is that Milton has done an amazing job of preparing you for this world of media saturation because it has taught you what I believe to be the single most critical skill one can have in life: the ability to listen. You were lucky enough to have great teachers here,

woods. I try not to bring along my headphones. I reach for them, but then I put them away. This is because I want to leave room for my brain to marinate on what I’ve just written. And as I walk through the woods, I start to make these connections between previously disparate ideas, and I begin to realize what it was I was trying to write in the first place. But this process cannot be rushed. We all know that feeling of sitting down to write a paper and not knowing what it is we’re trying to say. Well, figuring out what you want to say takes time. As our lives fi ll up with business, with texting and twittering and commentary about the commentary, the first things to go are these subtle moments of reflective quiet, because their fruits are often not apparent in the short term. But they are critical. So this is my first piece of advice: Keep listening, leave room for the quiet. Take a walk each day and study the curves in the path.

Reif Larsen, Class of 1998

and great teachers are defined by their ability to listen, react, adjust, respond to their students. Teachers are hero listeners. But in this world, even the ability to listen to others is not enough. Milton has given you something even more important, even more intimate than this: the ability to listen to one’s self.

For example, in my own life, a life in which I attempt to conjure novels about things I know little to nothing about, such as growing up in colonial Cambodia or surviving WWII in arctic Norway, I spend my mornings writing, sitting in my chair for hours.

There are no secrets to writing novels, only time and persistence and a little more time. And while showing up each day is important, I believe the most critical part of my day isn’t even the time I spend in the chair. It is in the afternoon, after I leave my office. Every day I go for a jog or sometimes a walk with my dog through the

The whole “walk a day” thing, however, might prove a little tricky, because your lives are about to change drastically: Many of you are off to college in the fall. Some of you are wisely taking a year off to go find yourself, and some of you are building a high-tech flying suit of metal so as to fight crime and flirt with Gwyneth Paltrow. Hold on…what? Oh, that was the movie I just saw last night... Anyway, I am excited for all of you. Freshman year in college is an amazing, eye-opening, very busy time, a time of realizing the only really important rules are the ones that you set for yourself. Many of you have already made some plans of what you want to study in college. And this is all fine and dandy. We like plans. But don’t plan too hard. Leave room to be surprised.

This is a good rule of thumb.

Excerpted from the speech that author Reif Larsen ’98 delivered to the graduating Class of 2011 at their commencement on June 10, 2011.

Milton Magazine 47

Milton Academy 2011 Awards and Prizes Cum Laude Class I Mariam Agaeva Marco Joseph Barber Grossi Alice Hampe Becker Michael Joshua Berke Angela Stephanie Berkowitz Nikita Bhasin Rachel Lamb Black Emma Rose Isabel Xiangling Borden Katherine Claire Caine Michael Scott Char Sidney Xiande Chiang Elias Ibrahim Dagher Delger Erdenesanaa Jasmine Yumei Gale Kunal Shaan Jasty Naveen Mohan Jasty Samuel Thomas Karlinski Richard Guo Kong Cameron Robert Lamoureux Ariana Gharib Lee Carolyn Jones Lee Yoona Lee Elisabeth Isuyo Makishima *Samantha Hanae Noh Caroline Herrmann Owens Jaclyn Duker Porfi lio Henry Joseph Russell *Daniel Aaron Schwartz Madeline Marie Thayer Satto Tonegawa Victoria Blair Trippe Jackson Lok Tin Tse Farzan Vafa Joycelyn Kay Yip

The Head 0f School Award The Head of School Award is presented each year to honor and celebrate certain members of Class I for their demonstrated spirit of self-sacrifice, community concern, leadership, integrity, fairness, kindliness, and respect for others.

Ashley Elizabeth Bair Rachel Lamb Black Sidney Xiande Chiang Daniel Gibson Merenich Andrew Enyinna Nwachuku Joseph Leonard Reynolds Kaitlyn Carolyn Stazinski Charles Moorfield Storey

The James S. Willis Memorial Award To the Headmonitors Robert Bedetti Katherine Claire Caine

William Bacon Lovering Award To a boy and a girl, chosen by their classmates, who have helped most by their sense of duty to perpetuate the memory of a gallant gentleman and officer.

Doriane Ahia Benjamin Rhodes Hawkins

The Louis Andrews Memorial Scholarship Award

Gina Micaela Starfield

To a student in Class II who has best fulfilled his or her potential in the areas of intelligence, selfdiscipline, physical ability, concern for others and integrity.

*elected to Cum Laude in 2010

Jesse Daniel Francese

Class II

The Frank D. Millet Scholarship Award To a student who demonstrates moral integrity, supports classmates, and has established meaningful relationships with peers and faculty. The Millet scholar, by virtue of character and deeds, is an integral member of his or her class and shows great promise as a leader.

Travis Cody Sheldon

48 Milton Magazine

Sam Shleifer, Class of 2011 speaker

Elisabeth “Yoshi” Makishima, Class of 2011 speaker

The Leo Maza Award

Harrison Otis Apthorp Music Prize

Awarded to a student or students in Classes I–IV, who, in working within one of the culture or identity groups at the School, has made an outstanding contribution to the community by promoting the appreciation of that group throughout the rest of the School.

Jovonna Mara Jones Ainikki-Helena Riikonen

The H. Adams Carter Prize Awarded to the student or students who, in their years at Milton, have shown a dedication to the pursuit of outdoor skills, demonstrated strong leadership, and reached high levels of personal achievement in one or more outdoor activities.

Sarah Rose Kechejian Caroline Herrmann Owens Diana Faith Perry

The A. Howard Abell Prize Established by Dr. and Mrs. Eric Oldberg for students deemed exceptionally proficient or talented in instrumental or vocal music or in composition.

Awarded in recognition of helpful activity in furthering in the School an interest and joy in music.

Jovonna Mara Jones Ariana Gharib Lee

The George Sloan Oldberg Memorial Prize Awarded in memory of George Oldberg ’54, to members of the School who have been a unique influence in the field of music.

Rachelle Elizabeth Alfred Thomas Andrew Beaudoin, Jr.

The Science Prize Awarded to students who have demonstrated genuine enthusiasm, as well as outstanding scientific ability in physics, chemistry and biology.

Naveen Mohan Jasty Samuel Thomas Karlinski Cameron Robert Lamoureux Yoona Lee Diana Faith Perry Satto Tonegawa Victoria Blair Trippe

Elias Ibrahim Dagher Samuel Thomas Karlinski

Milton Magazine 49

The Wales Prize Awarded in honor of Donald Wales, who taught Class IV science for more than 36 years. It recognizes students in Class IV who have consistently demonstrated interest and excitement in science.

Theodore Alastair Bastian Olivia Rose Berman Nathaniel David Bresnick Anna Elizabeth Lachenauer Rubye Peyser Daisy Eliza Walker Victoria Hope Saunders White

The Robert Saltonstall Medal For pre-eminence in physical efficiency and observance of the code of the true sportsman.

Dennis John Clifford

The A.O. Smith Prize Awarded by the English department to students who display unusual talent in non-fiction writing.

John Henry Guest Mitchell

The Critical Essay Prize Awarded by the English department for the best essay about a work or works of literature.

Daniel Aaron Schwartz

The Markham and Pierpont Stackpole Prize

The Donald Cameron Duncan Prize For Mathematics Awarded to students in Class I who have achieved excellence in the study of mathematics while demonstrating the kind of love of the subject and joy in promoting its understanding that will be the lasting legacy of Donald Duncan’s extraordinary contributions to the teaching of mathematics at Milton.

Cameron Robert Lamoureux Samantha Hanae Noh

The Performing Arts Award Presented by the performing arts department for outstanding contributions in production work, acting, speech, audiovisuals, and dance throughout his or her Milton career.

Ashley Elizabeth Bair Julia Celeste Brown Sidney Xiande Chiang N’Dea Michelle Hallett Ian Michael Kernohan Daniel John Lamere Elisabeth Isuyo Makishima John Henry Guest Mitchell Joseph Leonard Reynolds

The Kiki Rice-Gray Prize Awarded for outstanding contributions to Milton performing arts throughout his or her career in both performance and production.

Awarded in honor of two English teachers, father and son, to authors of unusual talent in creative writing.

Rachelle Elizabeth Alfred Zhen Zhen Chen

Lillie Marie LaRochelle Charlotte Alden Malone

To a senior girl who has been a most valuable asset to Milton Academy athletics and to the Milton Academy community—an athlete who has demonstrated exceptional individual skills and teamwork, as well as true sportsmanship.

The Dorothy J. Sullivan Award To senior girls who have demonstrated good sportsmanship, leadership, dedication and commitment to athletics at Milton. Through their spirit, selfl essness and concern for the team, they served as an incentive and a model for others.

Diana Faith Perry

The Priscilla Bailey Award

Kaitlyn Carolyn Stazinski

The Henry Warder Carey Prize To members of the First Class, who, in public speaking and oral interpretation, have shown consistent effort, thoroughness of preparation, and concern for others.

Elisabeth Isuyo Makishima

50 Milton Magazine

The Robert L. Daley Prize Created by his students of 1984 in his memory and honor, this prize in Classics is awarded to the student from Latin 4 or beyond who best exemplifies Mr. Daley’s love of languages.

The Benjamin Fosdick Harding Latin Prizes Awarded on the basis of a separate test at each prize level.

Elias Ibrahim Dagher

Level 5: Edward John Gerard Richardson Level 4: Javon Micah Ryan Level 3: Titania Thanh Nguyen

The Richard Lawrence Derby Memorial Award

The Modern Languages Prizes

To an outstanding student of the Second Class in mathematics, astronomy or physics.

Awarded to those students who, in the opinion of the department, most exhibit the qualities of academic excellence, enthusiastic participation, and support of fellow students, both in and out of class.

Kathryn Margaret Broderick Vincent Churchward Kennedy Juwon Kim Brian Loeber Trippe Keyon Vafa Skyler Zee Williams

The Alfred Elliott Memorial Trophy For self-sacrifice and devotion to the best interests of his teams, regardless of skill.

Michael James Godwin

The Gorham Palfrey Faucon Prize Established in 1911 and awarded to members of Class I for demonstrated interest and outstanding achievement in history and social science.

Thomas Andrew Beaudoin, Jr. Rachel Lamb Black Carolyn Jones Lee Brittany Norrgard Miller Caroline Herrmann Owens

The Milton Academy Art Prizes Awarded for imagination and technical excellence in his or her art and for independent and creative spirit of endeavor.

Rachel Lamb Black Genevieve Searls DeGroot Jovonna Mara Jones Samantha Hanae Noh Gregor Willcox Seidman

Jackson Lok Tin Tse

Milton Magazine 51

Graduates’ Weekend 2011 52 Milton Magazine

1. The walls of Wigg 2. Lawrence Coburn ’61

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3. Future Miltonians 4. Shade next to Straus 5. Paul Schmid ’61 6. Faith Howland ’61

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1. Macy Lawrence Ratliff ’76 and Anne Myers Brandt ’81

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2. Nat Barbour ’61 3. Musical friends 4. Sascha Greatrex Proudlove ’91 and family 5. Schwarz Student Center, transformed 6. Michael Lou, history faculty, leads the discussion 7. Regine Jean-Charles Asare and Ohene Asare—both Class of 1996 8. Down the green, around the hoop…

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Milton Magazine 53

1. Jack Reardon ’56, trustee 2. Sallie Thompson Soule, Beverly Seamans and Martha Farrar—all Class of 1946

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3. Delicious 4. Chukwuka Nwabuzor, Calantha Mansfield, Tomica Burke and Vicky George—all Class of 2001 5. Robin Callery DuBois ’45 6. Rupert Hitzig ’56 7. Mary Crocker Strang, Roberta Hayes Macaya Ortiz and Judith Chute—all Class of 1956

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1. Brittany Owens ’12 2. June night on the Quad

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3. Sara Bakkar, Natalia Welsh, Nelson Fernandez, Alanna Hall, Amanda McCafferty—all Class of 2006 4. Steve Locke and Walter Horak— both Class of 1966 5. Tara Driscoll ’91 6. Have grass, will play

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Milton Magazine 55

1. The starting line-up 2. Return to Nash Field

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3. Milton’s own barbershop quartet 4. Robert Alsop ’41 5. Jovonna Jones, Rebecca Deng and Jaclyn Porfilio—all Class of 2011 6. Meredith Frechette, Marland Hobbs, Natalie Young, Erin Mulvey, Christian Nunez—all Class of 2006

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Tough Advice Was Important Morgan Palmer Class of 1951

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y grades at Milton were acceptable, but I had some challenges with personal relationships.

Mr. Millet approached me one September and suggested that I switch from soccer to football. I allowed that I was no athlete, and that I would probably get pushed around some. Mr. Millet smiled, and didn’t disagree. Nevertheless, he recommended the experience of a contact sport.

After a somewhat unpleasant season, I approached Mr. Millet. I said that, yes, I did get pushed around, really quite a lot.

But I agreed with him that a contact sport was probably a good thing for me to have experienced.

Some things at Milton should be modernized, and the thoroughly exciting Pritzker Science Center is a very good example of an up-to-date approach to science.

But some things should never change.

The importance of relationships between teacher and student, for example, was recorded in ancient Greece over two thousand years ago.

So I remember Mr. Millet’s advice of 60 years ago as an example of Milton’s long history in providing individual attention to its students.

I owe Milton a lot, and am very happy to contribute to its future.

For information on gift planning, contact Suzie Hurd Greenup ’75 at 617-898-2376 or suzie_greenup@milton.edu.

Milton Magazine 57

in • sight

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Milton Magazine 59

on centre At Harvard Now, Yuleissy Ramirez ’11 Is National Squash Champion

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quash standout Yuleissy Ramirez ’11 was the under-19 champion at the National Urban Individual Championships, which took place in June at Williams College.

“It was very exciting,” said Yuleissy, who played for the SquashBusters team. “In the final match, I won the first two games and felt confident. I lost the next two games, and it can be hard to come back after that.

I went back on the court telling myself I wasn’t going to lose.” Yuleissy won that final game 11–4 and captured the championship. Chris Kane, her former squash coach at Milton, isn’t surprised: “She has incredible belief in herself, and she knows how to dig in and work hard. She is a fun player to watch.”

Yuleissy began playing for SquashBusters when she was in sixth grade. Based in Boston and Cambridge, the nonprofit organization was the first urban youth-enrichment program to combine squash, academics and community service. Yuleissy was initially drawn to the social and community service aspects of

the program; when she came to Milton in her Class IV year, her athletic talent was obvious and she played on the varsity team.

“I loved going to practice at Milton. Mr. Kane was always pushing me, and I gained a lot of experience. I learned what my strengths were, what my weaknesses were, and what I needed to work on,” Yuleissy says. By her senior year, she was the team’s captain. At the end of a successful season, she was voted the team’s Most Valuable Player and voted All-League Player by the ISL coaches. She also won the Juniors Sportsmanship award from Massachusetts Squash.

“Yuleissy was an incredible leader both on and off the court,” says Chris. “We had a lot of new players last season, and she was an important presence. She was the anchor and did a nice job of building cohesiveness among the players.”

Yuleissy took her academic and athletic talents to Harvard University this fall. She plans to study pre-med and to stay involved with SquashBusters, the program that kicked off her illustrious squash pursuits.

by the number s 9,000

$193 million

Number of living Milton Academy alumni

Market value of Milton’s endowment (as of May 2011)

60 Milton Magazine

Over

$3.73 million

Annual Fund gifts in 2010–2011

$7.9 million Financial aid budget for 2011–2012

Sabbath Loaf and Transit Stop Passersby Alongside Straus

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wo sculptures surprised and intrigued everyone on campus this spring. They are the works of sculptors from the Class of 1966. Sabbath Loaf, by Murray “Mac” Dewart and Transit, by Walter Horak helped commemorate Mac’s and Walter’s 45th Reunion this year. In the weeks leading up to Graduates’ Weekend, both pieces adorned the green space between Wigglesworth Hall and Straus Library, just off the pathway.

Mac Dewart’s work is represented in several permanent collections, including the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the DeCordova, and

the Rose Art Museum. His work is also represented at several colleges and universities, including Hamilton College, Harvard University, Saint Anselm College and Smith College. After Milton, Mac graduated from Harvard University and the Massachusetts College of Art. He is a co-founder of the Boston Sculptors Gallery. www.dewartsculpture.com

career, including at the Charles River School, Mass College of Art, Storm King School and Milton Academy. After Milton, Walter graduated from Harvard University, Rhode Island School of Design, and University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth. www.walterhorak.com

Milton has welcomed the opportunity to show their art in the past, and both men were pleased to share, once again, their vision and expression with faculty, staff, students and fellow alumni.

Walter has exhibited throughout the United States and has received numerous awards for his art. His work is represented at several galleries across the country, and Walter has included teaching in his sculpting

Steve Lebovitz Joins Board of Trustees

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teve Lebovitz joined the board of trustees in 2011.

He is president and CEO of CBL & Associates Properties, Inc., the fourth-largest mall REIT in the United States, which owns, holds interests in or manages over 130 retail properties. Before joining CBL, Steve worked for Goldman, Sachs & Co. An active Parents’ Fund volunteer for Milton, he and his wife, Lisa, live in Weston, Massachusetts.

Their son Andrew ’10 is a student at Middlebury College; their children Matthew and Abby are members of the Classes of 2012

and 2014, respectively. Steve attended Stanford University, and earned his M.B.A. from Harvard University.

service is popular

400

250

Over

students volunteer weekly or monthly at 39 sites in and around Boston

students (two-thirds of the Upper School) donate their time to annual service events

7,780

26

hours were volunteered by students last year

faculty, staff and parent volunteers drive students to service sites

Milton Magazine 61

messages Russell Weatherspoon

Mark Doty

Russell D. Weatherspoon, dean of residential life and religion teacher at Phillips Exeter Academy, encouraged Milton students to draw on the philosophy of Martin Luther King Jr. as they contemplate their futures. Mr. Weatherspoon was the Martin Luther King speaker and spoke to Classes I–IV at the Onyx Assembly in February.

Poet Mark Doty, the Bingham Visiting Reader, read from his collection of poetry to Class I and II students in March. Mr. Doty’s Fire to Fire: New and Selected Poems won the National Book Award in 2008.

“Think of yourself in 30 or 40 years. Who do you want to be when you get there? What do you want the world to look like when you get there? What are you planning to do to make things happen? Things don’t happen because we think about them. They happen because people join forces to make them happen.

What are you going to get engaged in and who are you going to join forces with?”

Ellen Goodman Pulitzer Prize–winning columnist Ellen Goodman reflected on her journalism career and life lessons learned as the Margo Johnson lecturer in March. The Margo Johnson Lecture, named for the headmistress of Milton Academy’s Girls’ School from 1941 to 1982, brings accomplished women to Milton’s campus.

“Even if newspapers diminish, news is expanding, and the places we can write are also expanding. People need trusted guides to help them understand the speed of change. There is no better way to grow up in our society than as an observer, a chronicler, a writer, someone paying attention and sharing with others what’s going on. There really is no more interesting life than asking questions about your world.”

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Established in 1987, the Bingham Reader series brings accomplished creative writers to share their work on campus.

“If you know what you are going to say ahead of time, you are going to say what you already know. If you don’t know what you are going to say, you are going to discover something. And the discovery process is crucial to poetry, to good writing, because if you learn something, then the reader is going to feel that…the energy of finding out what you have to say makes writing alive.”

Improvised Shakespeare Company Three members of the Improvised Shakespeare Company, based in Chicago, spent a week on campus performing and conducting workshops with students in April. The performers were on campus as part of the Melissa Dilworth Gold Visiting Artist series, which has been bringing notable artists to campus since 1992.

“When you improvise, you give up control. No one person is directing the moment, so you have to be prepared for that. Improv comedy is collaboration. The key is to stop trying to be funny, because it isn’t funny when it looks like you’re trying too hard. You just need to go with the realness of the moment.”

Tina Packer Presents Women of Will in Ruth King Theatre

Hockey Standout Rob O’Gara ’12 Drafted by Boston Bruins

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phelia. Juliet. Lady Macbeth. Actor and director Tina Packer brought her intimate knowledge of these and other female characters from Shakespeare’s oeuvre to campus this spring as the Melissa Dilworth Gold Visiting Artist.

efore his junior year, Long Island native Rob O’Gara ’12 made a decision to transfer to Milton Academy. That decision led him to new academic and athletic opportunities, and for the School’s hockey team, Rob was a great addition. The defenseman helped the team win the NEPSAC Championship this past winter, and this summer Rob was selected 151st in the fifth round of the NHL entry draft by the Boston Bruins. “It’s a surreal experience and I still feel like I’m on cloud nine,” said Rob. “It’s such an honor to be chosen and see all the hard work come to fruition.”

Throughout her four-day visit, Ms. Packer—founding artistic director of Shakespeare & Company—conducted workshops, taught several drama classes, and discussed and performed Othello with two sections of Class IV English.

She also presented Women of Will in the Ruth King Theatre, a performance that includes a range of Shakespeare’s female roles. A groundbreaking exploration of Shakespeare’s canon, the show is a combination of performance, discussion, and a bit of crowd participation. It is a summation of Ms. Packer’s more than 30 years of deep investigation into all things Shakespeare.

Local Milton residents, senior citizen groups, and residents of Brookview House were invited to attend the performance.

At Shakespeare & Company, Ms. Packer has directed—among others—Othello, King Lear, Macbeth, Coriolanus, Richard III, The Merchant of Venice, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Julius Caesar, and the world premieres of several original works. As an actor, she has performed to critical acclaim as Gertrude (Hamlet), Cleopatra (Antony & Cleopatra), Edith Wharton and Shirley Valentine. Trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, she won the Ronson Award for Most

Photo credit: Kevin Sprague

Outstanding Performer. She has also worked for the BBC and ITV television companies, and in fi lm.

Hockey coach Paul Cannata said Rob’s being drafted was anticipated, as a number of teams followed him and indicated their interest in the 6'2" blue-liner during the season. Still, Rob said

that seeing his name appear on the screen, while watching the draft picks online with his father at home in Massapequa, New York, was an exciting moment.

“Rob is one of the steady eddies,” said Coach Cannata. “He is a very good student and a high-caliber athlete. He is consistent day in and day out. He is always reliable, responsible and honest, both on the ice and around campus as a member of the community.”

Ironically, Rob’s former teammate, Patrick McNally ’11, was drafted last year by the Vancouver Canucks. Patrick will play for Harvard University in the fall. Rob has begun his senior year at Milton and will attend Yale University next year. As for the Bruins, Rob attended their development camp in July.

The Melissa Dilworth Gold ’61 Visiting Artist Fund commemorates Melissa’s life and interests by bringing nationally recognized artists to campus each year so that students may benefit from dynamic interaction with inspirational and accomplished professionals.

new and popular courses • • • •

Engineering the Future Religions of the Middle East Installation Art Themes in Contemporary World Literature

• Topics in Hispanic Culture and Literature: Mexico Yesterday and Today • Science in the Modern Age • Design for the Theatre

Milton Magazine 63

Carly Wade Retires Member of the Faculty, 1983–2011

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nce in a blue moon, colleagues have heard Carly Wade describe a student as “nonpareil—without equal.” A rare compliment, indeed. In Carly’s mind, which is leavened with an irrepressible idealism, achieving that distinction requires a serious quest, powered by disciplined thinking and careful expression.

Enticed by that model, hundreds of Milton students lucky enough to spend time in Carly’s classroom have become idea prospectors. “What is the question?” is her mantra. Her students know they must follow with an inquiry and a carefully reasoned synthesis.

Carly arrived at Milton in 1983, having already taught in Vermont, Brooklyn and Spain, kindergarten through adults. She was a seasoned professional with a fresh master’s in American history from Columbia. She soon established herself as a fearless professional who could take on dorm life as head of Hallowell, then Goodwin, as the boys moved from West campus to East. She confronted the old, enduring hazing traditions of that time, and the civil rights, anti-war and environmental movements that were churning up American culture. The latter pushed Carly to fundamentally rethink her own formidable intellectual traditions and social structures; at the same time, she tackled the imminent problems of running a dormitory angling for change.

Many people know that Carly sings like an angel and was the voice of Northfield as a high school chamber singer. The voice that once sang at Carnegie Hall with her Bryn Mawr chorus is not the voice that Milton knows best, however. We know Carly’s teaching voice that she has so finely calibrated during her tenure here. Her mastery of

64 Milton Magazine

the Socratic-Harkness process is legendary, and her students feel embraced and inevitably drawn into the dialogue. On one hand, she has achieved rigorous command of the material and sets the standard. But she also fascinates students by dramatizing theatrical stories from historical facts. Her quoting a Russian general, complete with the requisite accent, to nail the point about Russian/North Korean cooperation in 1951, will long be remembered.

By the way, Carly learned to speak Russian in her early 40s when she took a series of Russian language and history courses at Harvard. Of course, she was adding her Russian to the German, French, Portuguese and Latin she had already mastered. “It’s like riding a bike,” she claims.

Carly has even taught Latin occasionally at Milton, to fi ll a sabbatical vacancy for the classics department.

Classroom pyrotechnics are, however, not the only arrows in Carly’s quiver. In the history department, Carly has been a

leading innovator, modifying and enriching the traditional curriculum. Global crosscurrents from China to Africa and the Americas were important to the development of civilization, Carly discerned, and should balance the old chestnuts like the Renaissance, Enlightenment and French Revolution in our classrooms. Of course, she did not jettison tradition wholesale, but Carly challenged long-held assumptions about such notions as colonialism and Euro-centered world history. The momentum of her inquiry drove the new department course, Modern World History, which now takes its honored place as one of the required department courses. Carly was also the primary motivator in creating the two-year United States in the Modern World course. That course grew from the same integrative instincts. In fact, Carly has had her hand in, and taught, almost every course on the history side of the department from seventh-grade geography to senior electives such as Environmental History and the History of Economic Thought. In

the department, we were thrilled but not surprised that Carly energized these courses with her reliable scholarship, innovative thinking and rigor. Carly has maintained her focus and vigor at this extraordinary level, and we have admired that in her for all these years.

The nerve center of the history and social science department is our gracious library on the second floor of Wigg Hall. As department chair, Carly secured that space after negotiating skillfully about a suitable department office. Persistent, clear and persuasive argument is clearly another of Carly’s skills. And the department’s library is a lasting symbol of Carly’s ardent departmental advocacy, intellectual leadership and standard setting. All department members have benefited from her personal and professional support. We are indebted to the steadiness of her moral compass. As the point person for hiring from 1994 to 2007, Carly led the process that brought dynamic young teachers to the department, set to energize the School for years.

Carly’s teaching excellence earned the Laurence M. Lombard, Class of ’13, Teaching Chair in June 2003, and the Talbot Baker Award in June 2000. Time, Newtonian or otherwise, apparently does not stand still. Our graceful friend has demonstrated over her time here at Milton that she is “nonpareil— without equal.” She has set the standard for all of us to uphold long after she moves on to future intellectual horizons.

Larry Pollans History Department

Ana Colbert Retires Member of the Faculty, 1984–2011

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na Colbert’s contributions to Milton as teacher, advisor, colleague, mentor and trusted friend made her a keystone of the Upper School. Head and heart, life and language, faculty and family: Ana knows these are linked, and for 27 years she has worked to teach us how.

Ana’s teaching was fueled by an inextinguishable passion for her subject, formidable scholarship, unwavering faith in students’ potential, and high standards tempered with humor and patience. Ana created a blueprint for communication, content and continuity in our department, and in doing so, she helped usher in a new era of excitement and éxito around the study of Spanish at Milton.

Never one to permit a closed mind or even a closed door, Ana will leave a singular legacy all around campus. Ana assisted in the admission office for 11 years, reading folders and interviewing students. She was an advocate for Hispanic students from the Boston area and an expert in mining gems for Milton’s classes. She worked for years in Cox Library, where she is primarily responsible for one of the best collections of Spanish and Latin American works of any secondary school.

She was editor of La Voz, our award-winning Spanish language magazine. In 1992, Ana helped Anne Neely organize an exhibit of Latin American painters in the Nesto Gallery. She was a champion and chaperone of the Spanish Exchange and worked countless hours here and in Spain to foster our close relationship with Colegio Nuestra Señora del Pilar.

Students responded unanimously to Ana’s work. Leading by example and always listening, Ana helped her students explore and develop their intellectual, affective and social potential.

Tales of her enthusiasm and passion come back to us constantly.

One recently came from Armeen Poor ’04: “She had an uncanny ability to dare you to see things

from another lens, take another approach, and learn not only more about the topic at hand, but also about yourself as a student.”

Liz Bloom ’08 said, “She exposed me to the richness of Spanish and Latin American literature and film. Even more, she deepened my appreciation of these mediums, no matter the language.” It is not easy for language teachers to find opportunities to insert life lessons into our classes. However, Ana always found a chance to teach her students how to live with respect for the discipline and each other. John Charles Smith shares that “Ana has always been about her students, not herself.

Her distinguished place on our faculty has come from her students’ appreciation of [her] scholarship, her enthusiasm for her discipline, and the high standards to which she holds herself and them.”

Here is an example of where Ana’s scholarship meets her deep interest in students. Ana has a well-earned reputation as a national authority in Spanish language and literature. She has worked for the College Board to create curriculum, lead workshops, and create and correct AP exams. Always more egalitarian than elite, Ana set out with her daughter, María, and former Milton faculty member Marisol Maura to create a student manual for the present AP Spanish Literature course. From that labor the text Azulejo was born. They could have sold it to the highest bidder, but they worked with a local publisher to keep quality high and costs low. Imagine this scene: Ana at Milton’s book rush, chastising bookstore staff for selling books, among them her book, at a price and in a condition that was not optimal for students. In every sense of the expression, Ana wrote the book on teaching Spanish with a student-first approach.

Overall, Ana had an important role in crafting everything we now take for granted about what

it means to study Spanish at Milton. From leading the placement process for new students to awarding prizes to our best and brightest, Ana had a leadership role in all we do. She reworked our curriculum, securing the essential structures of elementary Spanish while creating upper level courses in Latin American Women Writers, Spanish Film and Social Change, and most recently, Mexico: Yesterday and Today. Former faculty member Jim Ryan shared: “She is not simply the lifeblood of the department, but the heart that keeps life pumping throughout.” Bernard Planchon put it this way: “There is no work without love and no love without work for Ana.” In so many ways, head and heart, life and language, faculty and family are inseparable.

We are thankful for the way Ana made Milton part of her family and the way she made her family part of Milton. Her children graduated from Milton and they have always been a part of our extend-

ed family. Ana was always the one who kept our department’s birthday list, passed around cards and got cakes at Roche Brothers.

She was always the first to ask about our families and ask to hold our children when we brought them in. Ana was always attuned to those small, daily acts of kindness and generosity that sustain each individual for the common good.

To be sure, Ana had other dance cards. We know she had chemistry with former colleague Marie-Annick Schram after the famous cancan dance for George Fernald. She had figurative dance cards from everyone from consuls to catedráticos. There are even rumors of a dance in Pamplona many years ago with Ernest Hemingway. Despite these offers, she chose to dance with us. We are grateful—and all the more gracious—for the chance.

Mark Connolly Modern Language Department Chair

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K

aran Sheldon has experienced Milton from many points of view. She lived in Goodwin House and graduated from the Milton Academy Girls’ School in 1973, when Milton had just begun the long trek toward co-education.

Karan became a Milton boarding parent when her daughter Catherine, Class of 2004, joined the girls in Hathaway House.

When her son Martin, Class of 2010, joined Grade 7, Karan lived the life of a Milton day parent— and then once again used the lens of a boarding parent when Martin moved into Norris House.

And she helped us all see Milton from her seat around the table, from the moment she joined the board in 2003.

No wonder Karan’s sense of the School is so palpable.

No wonder Karan’s commitment to the lively, eclectic Milton she knows is so earnest.

No wonder she has been such an effective touch point for everyone and anyone: alumni, parents, faculty, and both the girls and the boys making their way through Milton.

Karan takes Milton’s intellectual spirit seriously. That is, she’s an advocate and a supporter. Karan and her family advocated for excellence in science with focus and philanthropy, before any architect had hatched a single idea. She has served on the Academic Life Committee during all her board years.

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She takes Milton’s living environment seriously. That is, she knows how the character of the School takes shape and affects lives in powerful ways.

A member of the Student Life Committee, and in recent years its chair, Karan fearlessly probed with those “real Milton questions,” as we call them. On these committees, and on the Enrollment Committee, Karan has honestly and intently encouraged the lively, diverse and creative life that distinguishes Milton.

Always responsive and willing, Karan participated on the Sustainability Committee, showing students and faculty in that group that trustees care about sustainability—that the commitment comes from the top.

Karan also served on the Ad Hoc Governance Committee, once again lending her constructive, thoughtful voice to questions about how the board should operate with best practice standards of excellence.

Karan’s loyalty to Milton is exemplary; her attention to maintaining Milton’s tradition, writ large in the 21st century, is inspiring.

She has been a valuable colleague, and a role model. We thank her, wish her well, and feel both confident and hopeful that she will stay close to Milton in the months and years ahead.

Alumni Authors: Recently published works

Karan Sheldon Member of the Board of Trustees, 2003–2011

In Too Deep: BP and the Drilling Race That Took It Down

by Stanley Reed and Alison Fitzgerald ’87 Bloomberg Press, January 2011 In 2005, 15 workers were killed when BP’s Texas City Refinery exploded. In 2006, corroded pipes owned by BP led to an oil spill in Alaska. In 2010, 11 men drilling for BP were killed in the blowout of the Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico.

Is it possible that the implosion of BP’s oil well on April 10, 2010, could have been avoided? In In Too Deep: BP and the Drilling Race That Took It Down, Stanley Reed—a journalist who has covered BP for over a decade—and Bloomberg News investigative reporter Alison Fitzgerald answer not only that question, but also examine why these disasters happen to BP so much more than to other large oil companies. The story of how the Gulf disaster happened, and of the behindthe-scenes management of the company, is an object lesson that the world will be learning from for decades.

The Greatest Game Ever Pitched: Juan Marichal, Warren Spahn, and the Pitching Duel of the Century

The Twisted Thread

by Charlotte Bacon ’83 Voice, June 2011

by Jim Kaplan ’62 Triumph Books, February 2011 Taking the mound at San Francisco’s Candlestick Park in 1963 were 42-year-old Warren Spahn and 25-year-old Juan Marichal, the wunderkind headed for the Hall of Fame. As one scoreless inning followed another en route to a 16th-inning climax, those in attendance sensed that they were watching a pitching duel for the ages. The event surpassed the world of statistics and entered into the realm of magic.

Jim Kaplan, who covered baseball for Sports Illustrated in the ’70s and ’80s, planned to expand a magazine story he’d written about the game into book form.

The more he researched the principals, the more fascinated he became with their biographies. Spahn was one of the most decorated ballplayers to fight in World War II. Marichal narrowly escaped death three times. Despite their obvious differences—Spahn was white, American, and left-handed; Marichal is bronzed, Dominican, and right-handed—Kaplan found extraordinary similarities between the friendly rivals. As a result, The Greatest Game Ever Pitched is a dual biography with an unforgettable game woven through it.

We Go As Captives: The Royalton Raid and the Shadow War on the Revolutionary Frontier

by Neil Goodwin ’58 Vermont Historical Society, October 2010 It was October 16, 1780, in Royalton, Vermont. With no warning and in almost complete silence, a war party of 265 Canadian Mohawks and Abenakis, led by five British and French-Canadian soldiers, materialized from the forest at dawn.

They moved so fast and so quietly there was no time for anyone to escape and spread the alarm.

Prisoners were taken, and the town of Royalton was burned to the ground.

We Go As Captives revolves around the story of Zadock Steele, a young man who was captured in the attack on Royalton and subsequently wrote about his harrowing experience as a prisoner, first of the Mohawks and then of the British. Barefoot, ill-clothed, at the mercy of people whose language, customs, and tendency toward mayhem were utterly incomprehensible to them, Steele and the other captives were hustled north to imprisonment in Canada. After two years, as Steele’s resignation turned to despair, he and a few comrades, unaware that the war was about to end, executed a daring escape from the infamous Prison Island in the St. Lawrence River.

When beautiful but aloof Claire Harkness is found dead in her dorm room one spring morning, prestigious Armitage Academy is shaken to its core. Everyone connected to the school, and to Claire, finds their lives upended, from the local police detective who has a personal history with the academy, to the various faculty and staff whose lives are immersed in the daily rituals associated with it. Everyone wants to know how Claire died, at whose hands, and more importantly, where the baby that she recently gave birth to is—a baby that almost no one, except her small innermost circle, knew she was carrying.

At the center of the investigation is Madeline Christopher, an intern in the English department who is forced to examine the nature of the relationship between the school’s students and the adults meant to guide them. As the case unravels, the dark intricacies of adolescent privilege at a powerful institution are exposed, and both teachers and students emerge as suspects as the novel rushes to its thrilling conclusion.

Guerrilla Marketing for a Bulletproof Career

by Jay Conrad Levinson and Andrew Neitlich ’83 Morgan James Publishing, April 2011 Guerrilla Marketing for a Bulletproof Career is an honest, practical and hard-hitting guide for career success in perpetually uncertain times. It provides a road map to advance your career and prosper without being blindsided by overnight industry collapses, potential layoffs, economic shocks, corporate scandals, international competition or technological disruptions.

The authors provide a new perspective on what it means to be ready in this economy, including how to achieve career goals in creative ways while making more money and spending less time working. Their philosophy marries the timeless practice of guerrilla marketing—being resourceful, doing more with less, thinking like an entrepreneur, and developing street smarts—with the unpredictable realities of today’s career landscape.

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Poetry

A Living Man from Africa: Jan Tzatzoe, Xhosa Chief and Missionary, and the Making of NineteenthCentury South Africa

by Roger S. Levine ’90 Yale University Press, December 2010 Born into a Xhosa royal family around 1792 in the eastern Cape region of South Africa, Jan Tzatzoe was destined to live in an era of profound change—one that witnessed the arrival and entrenchment of European colonialism. As a missionary, chief, and cultural intermediary on the eastern Cape frontier and in Cape Town and a traveler in Great Britain, Tzatzoe helped foster the merging of African and European worlds into a new South African reality.

Yet, by the 1860s, despite his determined resistance, he was an oppressed subject of harsh British colonial rule. In this innovative, richly researched, and splendidly written biography, Roger S. Levine reclaims Tzatzoe’s lost story and analyzes his contributions to, and experiences with, the turbulent colonial world to argue for the crucial role of Africans as agents of cultural and intellectual change.

Rust or Go Missing

by Lily Brown ’99 Cleveland State University Poetry Center, November 2010

How Rocket Learned to Read

by Tad Hills ’81 Schwartz & Wade, July 2010 Rocket is a lovable dog that enjoys chasing leaves, chewing sticks and taking naps. One day, his sleep is interrupted by a bird, who assigns him to be her first student. Rocket wants no part of her lessons, but the bird is determined to teach him to read.

She hangs the letters of the alphabet for Rocket to see, and begins to read a story aloud, sure to pique his interest. Overcome by curiosity, Rocket becomes a willing pupil, and over time learns to spell out the names of the things around him. With practice and persistence, Rocket learns to read.

“Tad Hills’s illustrations, rendered in oil and colored pencil, offer full pages, spreads, and oval vignettes… Adults will love the bird’s enthusiasm, her use of stories, and her ability to associate lessons with Rocket’s everyday life to win over her reluctant pupil. Youngsters will find this addition to Hills’s cast of adorable animal characters simply irresistible.” —Marianne Saccardi, School Library Journal Review Rocket has an App on iTunes!

Ranked a “Top Five Paid Book App” in January 2011, and described as “40 pages of interactive delight” by the New York Times, How Rocket Learned to Read app is available for $4.99 and is designed for children ages 3–7.

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“Lily Brown writes with and against things in poems that are coiled up tight as springs (or snakes). A believer in the power of the line, she writes, ‘I think the plastics / and sink them’ then ‘Where is the sand / man hiding the dirt.’ These terse, biting poems will make you look around and wonder.” —Rae Armantrout Lily Brown holds degrees from Harvard University and Saint Mary’s College of California. She has published poems in Denver Quarterly, Fence, Pleiades, 26, and Tarpaulin Sky. Her chapbooks include Being One (Brave Men Press), The Renaissance Sheet (Octopus Books) and Old with You (Kitchen Press). She lives in Athens, Georgia, where she is a Ph.D. student at the University of Georgia.

Second Skin

by Sally Bliumis-Dunn ’77 Wind Publications, October 2010 “In Sally Bliumis-Dunn’s Second Skin, she explores the DNA of family connections with delicacy touched by a quiet though formidable strength. Bliumis-Dunn is building something mysterious and beautiful, as she talks through the language of things.

There is a fearlessness in the way she allows herself to fall into the vastness of vulnerability. In Second Skin, the wonder and perils of the natural world mirror the emotional terrain we all navigate with those we love. —Frances Richey, The Warrior Sally Bliumis-Dunn teaches Modern Poetry and Creative Writing at Manhattanville College. Her poems have been published in The Paris Review, Prairie Schooner, Poetry London, and the New York Times. In 2002, she was a finalist for the Nimrod/ Hardman Pablo Neruda Prize.

Her first book of poetry, Talking Underwater, was published in 2007.

cl a ss notes 1941 Arthur B. DuBois, M.D., is emeritus director of the John B. Pierce Laboratory and professor of epidemiology at Yale Medical School.

He’s been married for over 60 years to Robin Callery ’45, and is still active in outside lectures on human physiology related to environment and respiratory health.

1943 Sally Gamble Epstein continues her work in international family planning. She has recently traveled to Egypt, Ethiopia, Vietnam and Cambodia to follow the work of Pathfinder International and Population Services International. She and her husband, Donald Collins, are working toward FDA approval of QS, a nonsurgical system that provides an inexpensive permanent contraceptive option for women who do not wish to conceive children.

They hope to offer it around the world at a price all women can afford. Also in 2010, a number of Sally’s Edvard Munch prints were featured in an exhibition at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

1946

Casco Bay to Roque Island in our peapod, where I find places I would rarely see from a normal cruising boat. Our older son, Tom, is a nuclear engineer with GE. Younger son, Taylor, is a master mariner traveling all over the world (when not home in Maine). Katelyn (5) and Megan (3) are, thanks to Tom and Laura, the finest granddaughters in the world—but, living in North Carolina, which is much too far away.”

Terry Crook sends his best to the Class of 1951. He and his wife, Sue, still reside in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Terry is winding down his career in residential real estate and enjoying spending time with family and gardening.

David McKissock and his wife, Diana, are celebrating 55 years of marriage. They still cruise once a year, and enjoy their two children and three grandchildren.

David is still playing tennis and paddle tennis—“now on a senior level, but still going strong,” he

David McKissock ’51 and his wife, Diana, on the Grand Canal in Venice, Italy.

Katharine Little Heigham and her husband, Jim, have relocated from Belmont to Concord, Massachusetts. They live in Newbury Court, surrounded by very nice people and countless activities.

1951 Spencer Apollonio reports, “For 30 years, Annemarie and I have sailed our small gaff-rigged sloop from Casco Bay, Maine, to Grand Manan Island, New Brunswick.

Now I poke into the backwaters along the coast of Maine from Andre Navez ’51 and his wife, Christine, stand before Mt. Etna during a trip to Italy in April 2011.

says. He’s also played a lot of golf along the way. “My very best to you all—my memories are fond indeed.”

Joey Saltonstall DuBois is still living in Marion, where she’s resided year-round since 1956. Very involved musically, she sings in both the Mastersingers by the Sea in Falmouth, Massachusetts, and in the St. Gabriel’s Church Choir, which she’s been involved in since 1956. Joey’s also a trustee of the New Bedford Symphony and on the steering committee of the South Coast Children’s Chorus. She enjoys writing and has completed biographical writeups of numerous people, including members of the Beverly Yacht Club and seniors at the church.

She helped start and remains active in a pastoral care visiting program with St. Gabriel’s. “Life is good!”

Andre Navez reports, “Life has continued on an even keel for me since our 50th Reunion, though I grieve for classmates lost since then. I remain active in various organizations, and our subsistence farm gives me plenty of exercise. My wife, Christine, and I enjoy the opportunities Boston and New England provide throughout the year, taking a couple of long spring and fall trips annually—to the Middle East, East and South Asia, Africa, the Arctic, South America, Europe— birding, sightseeing and eating well. The history of cartography, studying and collecting old maps, has given me much pleasure over the years. My thoughts and best wishes go out to all.”

Morgan Palmer shares, “I’m still single and still living on my country estate. My two caretakers now do all the work. From March to November, I go out and pick something nice for the house or for my friends. In the winter I head south. Much of my property

Milton Magazine 69

Special guest Ann Palmer ’36 seated with her brother, Robert Alsop ’41. Ann returned to Milton for her 75th Reunion, her first time on campus since her graduation.

Class of 1941: Robert Alsop, Corinne Kernan Sevigny, Robin Callery DuBois ’45, Arthur DuBois.

Class of 1946: front row (L to R): Andre Sigourney, Kayo Little Heigham, Rusty Bourne, George Mumford; back row: George Whitney, Harry Guild, Smiley Ruggles, Gerry Livingston.

Class of 1951: front row (L to R): Rebecca Faxon Knowles, Anne Bradley Bourne, Judy Gamble Kahrl, Helen Burgin Hazen; back row: John Howson, Donald Phipps, Andy Ward, David Wise, Walter Cabot, Morgan Palmer, Dean LeBaron, Andre Navez, Bill Porter.

is now under permanent conservation restriction, but I have to do more. Politics is history for me, my interest having shifted to charitable causes, chiefly green space and education. My charitable fund outlives me, and should remain a continuing help to these good nonprofits. Although I certainly could (and maybe should) delegate the effort, I continue to manage the details of my investments. The effort helps to keep me in touch with national and global economic developments. I’m looking forward to our next class reunion!”

Oliver Wadsworth was disappointed to miss her 60th 70 Milton Magazine

Reunion, but she was visiting her eldest daughter in France at the time. “I hope everyone had the happiest weekend of the past 60 years.”

1955 John Parker Damon and Paul Robinson enjoyed getting together with Ellis Waller for lunch recently at Blue Ginger in Wellesley, Massachusetts.

Ellis was away from his home in Madison, Wisconsin, with his wife, Katie. They were here for her 50th Reunion at Smith College. Ellis, a Princeton graduate, is enjoying his retirement by playing his bagpipes, reading and traveling.

1956 Thomas Hoppin and his wife, Prue, are moving out of Washington, D.C., after living there for 45 years. They now live along a river just off the Chesapeake Bay, where they enjoy watching eagles and osprey, and sailing.

1959 Dave Brown and his wife, Jane Covey, have moved to Harpswell, Maine. They participated in the Great Alta 70th Birthday Ski Weekend celebration and the Country Club Mini-Reunion for 1959 this past spring. Dave

is still involved in occasional projects and executive education programs with his colleagues at Harvard’s Hauser Center, but he is increasingly focused on gardens, boats, skiing, tennis and an adolescent standard poodle with lots of energy and serious reservations about obedience.

Phil Kinnicutt and his wife, Annetta, traveled to Cambodia and Vietnam in March. They started in Angkor Wat and cruised down the Mekong River with a stopover in Phnom Penh.

They also visited Saigon and Hanoi during their trip.

Duffy MacNaught Monahon received a 2011 Honor Design

In February, John Reidy ’56 traveled to Israel with Hale Sturges ’56 and Karen Sturges. They visited the West Bank of Palestine. John also had a wonderful trip to Nepal, Tibet and Bhutan, just prior to his 55th Reunion.

At their 50th Milton Reunion, Hale Sturges, Tare Newbury and Josh Lane, all of the Class of 1956, discovered they were all directly related to Harriet Ware (of Ware Hall). Since then, they have celebrated yearly “Ware family reunions” at each other’s homes.

In 1956, just after his Milton graduation, Rupert Hitzig (L) landed a summer job as the lifeguard of the famed Sands Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. There, Rupert watched over Nat King Cole, Mitzi Gaynor, Danny Thomas, Jerry Lewis, Harry Cohn and Dean Martin. Rob Hallowell ’56 (R) stopped by for a visit that summer.

Members of the Girls’ School Class of 1956 gathered in Ware Hall for a luncheon to celebrate their 55th Reunion. In addition to reminiscing, the ladies spoke with Margo Johnson by conference call. From left to right, Mitzi Graves Marsh, Hanna Higgins Bartlett, Vicky Thompson Murphy, Judith Chute and Mary Crocker Strang.

Archivist Diane Pierce-Williams joins members of the Class of 1955 in recognition of their support of the Milton Academy archives.

Members of the Class of 1956 gathered in Boston at the home of Lee and George Sprague ’56 to celebrate their 55th Reunion.

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Class of 1956: front row (L to R): Rupert Hitzig, Henry Robins, Mary Crocker Strang, Roberta Hayes Macaya Ortiz, Judith Chute, Hanna Higgins Bartlett, Helen Palmer Mackay, Hale Sturges; back row (L to R): Phil Robertson, Jack Reardon, Ted Robbins, Ernesto Macaya Ortiz, Josh Lane, John Reidy, Rob Hallowell, Tare Newbury.

Class of 1961: front row (L to R): Kenyon Bolton, Mary Rose Bolton, Gorham Brigham, Charlie Howland, Faith Howland, Lucinda Lee, Antonia Grumbach; second row: Ken Horak, Steve White, Bob Devens, Lawrie Coburn, Jinny Page Mallinson, Molly Perkins Hauck, Candy Reiter Midkiff, Nathaniel Barbour; third row: Michael Eaton, Dan Bergfeld, David Lewis, Paul Harrison, Carol Robinson, Robin Swift Webb; fourth row: Barbara Lawrence, Fannie Knowles, Roger Sullivan, Mary Sheldon Twiss, Kitty Gross Farnham, Jack Grumbach; back row: Joe Knowles, Nancy Fales, Bob Morse, Ralph Pope, Peter Talbot.

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Martha Honeywell ’59 and her husband, J, have moved from Upstate New York to Davidson, North Carolina. They are living in a retirement community called The Pines. Their inuksuk, transported from the Adirondacks, is a welcome marker for friends.

As they did more than 50 years ago, members of the Class of 1959 gathered at the home of Spencer Borden ’59 in Dorset, Vermont, during the winter of 2011.

Classmates met for lunch at the ski cabin of Mike Chace ’59 on Bromley Mountain: Mary Williams, Brin Ford ’59, Beth Borden, Joy Ford, Bay Bancroft, Tim Williams ’59, Margot Churchill, Spencer Borden ’59, Mike Chace ’59, Nick Bancroft ’59 and Fred Churchill ’59.

Rick Howard ’59 and his wife, Jody Emerson Howard ’58, recently spent time in Cuba with their grandson, James, and the Mass Humanities Council. Rick posed for a photo with his new Cuban business partner.

“Aging! The ultimate extreme sport!” Members of the Class of 1959 celebrate their 70th birthdays with a ski trip to Alta, Utah: friends Fred Churchill, Brin Ford, Dave Brown, Spencer Borden, Tom Claflin and Tim Williams.

Jean Farnham French, Mary Penniman Moran and Gioconda Cinelli McMillan—all Class of 1971—enjoyed a boat cruise on the Charles River.

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be happy to hear from the Class of 1971 should they be visiting the South of France.

1974

The Class of 1971 celebrated their 40th Milton Reunion with several events in the Boston area. Classmates gathered for a dinner at Harvard University’s Weld Boathouse in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Award from the New Hampshire Chapter of the American Institute of Architects for the design of her daughter’s house in Taos, New Mexico. Designed in the adobe and Spanish Colonial style, the energy-efficient and sustainably built house received the highest Build Green New Mexico rating (LEED guidelines) and an $11,000 tax credit. You can see the Leeson residence at www.monahonarchitects.com.

Duffy has also renovated the Greg Free Library and the Dublin Lake Club in New Hampshire— “all fabulous buildings, and the chance of a lifetime to work on them.”

Tim Williams shares, “As my 70th birthday approached, I knew I wanted to ski at Alta, Utah, not having been there for a number of years. Fred Churchill and I contacted other classmates, and thanks to class agent Phil Kinnicutt, the idea was extended to all classmates.

Spencer Borden, Dave Brown, Fred Churchill, Tom Claflin, Brin Ford and I made the trip. Mike Chace was there in spirit. We had a birthday party on Saturday night with 50 friends and family members. I made T-shirts for the occasion, which read: “Aging! The ultimate extreme sport!” Having taught skiing for 12 years, I offered a lesson to those interested; nine people participated, bringing a range of skill levels.

I took some spectacular powder 74 Milton Magazine

runs with Fred and Dave—it was so deep we were sucking in snow rather than air as it billowed up in front of us. Those are the runs one remembers for years. My best to everyone.”

1960

Christopher Wilkins was appointed music director of the Boston Landmarks Orchestra. He also serves as music director of both the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra and the Akron Symphony Orchestra, and will continue in those positions. As a guest conductor, Christopher has appeared with many of the leading orchestras of the United States and abroad.

1981 Tom Curran has recently written and produced a documentary for FRONTLINE on PBS. Tom’s work, titled The Silence, reveals a little-known chapter of the Catholic Church sex abuse story: decades of abuse of Native Americans by priests and other church workers in Alaska.

Elise Forbes Tripp has written a new book titled American Veterans on War: Personal Stories from WWII to Afghanistan.

Tad Hills and his wife, Lee Wade, are living in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, New York, with their children Elinor (15) and Charlie (12), and their dog, Rocket. Tad writes and illustrates children’s books, which Lee publishes at Schwartz & Wade, an imprint at Random House. His most recent picture book, How Rocket Learned to Read, came out in July 2011.

Tad reports that his children are healthy, smart and fun to be with. They live across the street from a gourmet cookie store.

Things are good.

1971

1983

Sylvie Peron is living on the French Riviera and has been working in Cannes for the last decade as chief editor of a lifestyle magazine dedicated to business aviation. She just moved into her newly refurbished, olivegrove ancient bastide, which she plans to return to active production soon. Sylvie’s Jack Russell terrier, Sniff, is keen on truffle hunting, so the next decade should see Sylvie and her fiancé farming in the hills of Provence.

Sylvie visits Boston regularly in the autumn each year and would

Charlotte Bacon’s fourth novel, The Twisted Thread, a murder mystery set in a boarding school, was published by Hyperion/Voice in June 2011.

Although Chas Freeman spends most of his time on business overseas, he continues to speak out on a range of public policy issues. You can find the texts of some of his recent speeches at http://www.mepc.org/articlescommentary/speeches-hub. His latest book, America’s Misadventures in the Middle East, came out in 2010.

1986 Lesley Carroll Hauser is living in Charlestown, Massachusetts, with her husband, Jim, and their three children—James (8), Victoria (5) and Caroline (3). She started her own law firm in 2008 and practices immigration law in Boston.

Maureen Flaherty Minicus was recently named Mid-Atlantic Region Coach of the Year by the National Field Hockey Coaches’ Association.

1987 Alison Fitzgerald Kodjak recently co-authored a book with Stanley Reed. In Too Deep: BP and the Drilling Race That Took It Down was published by Bloomberg Press in January 2011.

1991 Maine Today Media recently honored Marc Pitman as one of the top 40 leaders under the age of 40 in their inaugural class of Maine’s Forty Under 40. Marc is the founder of FundraisingCoach.com.

1993 Sadia Shepard married Andreas Burgess (a fellow Wesleyan alum) in July of 2010 in South Dartmouth, Massachusetts.

Milton friend Mary Lisio ’94 was a bridesmaid and, Sadia says, “an integral part of the Bollywood flash mob dance we performed at our rehearsal dinner.” Sadia and Andreas spend most of the year in New York City, where they both work in film; Andreas is a cinematographer shooting a new series for ABC, and Sadia is a documentary producer, most recently for HBO. When not in New York, the couple is generally in Pakistan, where they are working on several fi lm projects and Sadia is researching a new book.

“I thoroughly enjoyed our Milton reunion in 2010 and hope to return to campus before long.”

1994 Kathryn McCarthy Maguire welcomed her son Griffin Matthew Maguire on May 30, 2011.

Ian Zilla and his wife, Tessa, are happy to announce the arrival of their first child, Emery Wynn Zilla. He was born on March 22, 2011, just in time to enjoy his first spring in New York City.

Class of 1976: front row (L to R): Nancy Duncan, Macy Lawrence Ratliff, Serene Charles, Emily Cox Sinagra, Johanna Brassard Lolax, Jeanne Thrower Aguilar, Drew Moseley Kristofik, Julia Simonds, Ann Bisbee Scheffler; second row (L to R): John Morris, Kevin Hern, Henry Carr, Tony Johnson, Lovie Elam, Jonathan Sibley, Elizabeth Stockwell, Julia Talcott, Clay Hutchison; back row (L to R): Jeff Long, Elisha Lee, Joanne Montouris Nikitas, John Kinnealey, David Perry, Paul Levinson.

Class of 1981: front row (L to R): Betsy Dakin, Doug Kliman, John Scott Cameron, Olivier Bustin, Susannah Humpstone Michalson, Alice Greenway Cornwell; back row (L to R): Sierra Bright, Rob Davis, John Sullivan, Ken Goldberg, Andrea Nervi Ward, Diane Luby Flynn, Nick Driver, Josh Bixler, Jon Lupfer, Willie Janeway, Matthew Moore, Ned Jeffries, Stephan Fopeano.

Milton Magazine 75

Class of 1986: front row (L to R): Peter Wilde, Scott Stikeleather, Rebecca Britton Pecore, Reni Doulos Cadigan, Caroline Walsh Sabin, Meredith Zinner, Farah Pandith, Shinjiro Hirose, Ruta Brickus, Steven Bordonaro, Robert Lee; second row: Tav Morgan, Richard Walker, Lee Gilman, Barry Korn, Grace Chan McKibben, Lucy Siegfried Carey, Joseph Vinciguerra, Angela Dirks, Karen Euler, Nick Franklin, Adam Peirce; third row: Jennifer O’Shea, Wendy Millet, James Mooney, Brendan Haley, Lesley Carroll Hauser, Peggy Fluhr Terhune, Michael Gitlitz, Julie Ward Drew, Heather Ewing, Kathleen Lapey Weiss, Peter Kagan, Raymond Gallagher, Susan Carter; fourth row: John Marshall, Ruth Davis Konigsberg, Caitlin Bermingham, Vanessa Rugo Robinson, David Yas, Holly Condit, Chris Dearborn, Dave Yoshida, Laurie Kohn, Robert Ball, Maureen Flaherty Minicus, Cameron Mackey, Allegra Growdon Richdale, Kristin Frederickson, Brian Paul, Larry Donahue, Josh Gillette, Carl Prindle, Matthew Griffin, Daniel O’Brien, Sam Bisbee, John Lewis, Diana Donovan, Kamala Parel-Nuttall.

Class of 1991: front row (L to R): Bruce Stewart, Adam Stein, Jef DuBard, Erika Malm Cooley, Mike Laznik, Matt Pottinger, Meg Foley Burke, Brendan Everett, Aaron Goldberg; second row: Noel Coldiron, Stu Polk, John Corey, Mitch Lucas, Sascha Greatrex Proudlove, Megan Stephan, Liz Kettyle; third row: Susan Meagher, Jono Barrett, Kate Brooks Leness, Mike O’Keefe, Eric Berger, Leonora Zilkha Williamson, Courtney Drohan Monnich, Nick DuBois, Tamsen Caruso Brown, Vy Horwood, Hannah Miller Lerman; fourth row: Bryan Shirley, Penn Lindsay, Henrik Brun, Spencer Hoffman, Cindy Talbot, Noah Bookbinder, Amy Hamill, Adriana McGrath Clancy, Kaci Carr Foster, Erin Sullivan Sheepo, Matt Hennigan, Sarah Millet, Jeff Courey, Adam Lipson; back row: Rob McCloskey, Tom Seigfried, Rob Purcell, Fipp Avlon, Andreas Lazar, Adam Kramer, Debi Cornwall, Toby Gannett, Josh Batchelder, Den Bertarelli-Webb, Matt Williams, Marc Pitman, Maureen Dolan, John Altshul, Sophia Cardenas (behind John), Alex Morse.

76 Milton Magazine

Sadia Shepard ’93 and Andreas Burgess married in July 2010 at the Slocum’s River Reserve in South Dartmouth, Massachusetts.

Sofia Pitman (6) and Anna Pitman (9), daughters of Marc Pitman ’91, sport their Milton Academy pride at a Portland Sea Dogs game at Hadlock Field in Maine.

Dawn Meehan Pologruto ’95 and her husband, Thomas, welcomed John Robert Pologruto, born January 30, 2011, in Huntington, New York.

Stephen Wei ’97 and his wife, Vevi, welcomed their daughter Mia Lynn Wei on April 28, 2011. The Wei family lives in Hong Kong with their Shih Tzu, QQ.

1997

2000

Josh Stolp will be inducted into the University of Massachusetts Boston Athletic Hall of Fame in October 2011.

Naomi Hausman just completed her Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University. She’s doing a post-doc in innovation policy at the National Bureau of Economic Research for one year, and has accepted a tenure-track faculty position in the economics department at Hebrew University of Jerusalem beginning in the summer of 2012.

1998 Nia Jacobs Hays married Liza Hays in the summer of 2009, with Milton classmates Lindsay Haynes Lowder, Lydon Friedrich Vonnegut, Sarah McGinty and Lila Dupree in attendance.

Also celebrating were Nia’s brother Daniel Jacobs ’01 and mother Jeanne Jacobs (of the math department) along with Milton faculty members—past and present—Debbie Simon, Christine Savini, John and Ricky Banderob, Terri HerrNeckar, Elaine Apthorp, Lisa Nussbaum and Peter Parisi. In July, Nia became the assistant director of the Upper School at Dana Hall.

“So far the job is a challenge, but a very exciting one.”

1999 Lily Brown has released a new book of poetry, Rust or Go Missing, published by the Cleveland State University Poetry Center.

Kate Cochrane ’98 and her spouse, Jennifer Koch, welcomed daughter Beatrix Lucy Koch-Cochrane on July 6, 2011. Gusty (3) is thrilled to be a big sister.

Greg Marsh ’98 and his wife, Julie, welcomed their daughter, Alexandra (Lexi) Frances Marsh, on July 8, 2011.

Lexi looks forward to joining the Milton Academy Class of 2030.

Ben McGuinness began study at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth University in the fall of 2011.

Daniel Weisman lives in Beverly Hills, California, where he has been managing multiplatinum singer/songwriter/producer Mike Posner (“Cooler Than Me,” “Please Don’t Go,” “Bow Chicka Wow Wow” featuring Lil Wayne).

Daniel’s work has taken him to Australia, France, Germany, Israel, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Indonesia and most recently to England for the Glastonbury Music Festival. He was recognized in Billboard Magazine’s power issue on their “30 Under 30” list for 2011, and was recently elected to serve on the Grammy Awards’ Board of Governors.

2001 Constance Greer married Daniel Cummins on Labor Day weekend of 2010 at Swan Neck on Martha’s Vineyard. Constance and Daniel live in San Francisco, California.

Milton Magazine 77

New York, May 19, 2011 Young alumni at Papillon Bistro in New York City on May 19.

Milton friends living in New York City gathered for brunch in the West Village in April 2011. In attendance were Carri Chan ’00, Russell Daiber ’02, Peter Smith ’00, Robert Knowles ’01, Lindsey Schwoeri ’03, Caitlin Domke ’03, Edith Eustis ’03, Lucas Wittman ’03, Andrew Rozas ’02, Darnell Nance ’02, Prue Hyman ’00, Joe Posner ’03; pictured here are Tze Chun ’02, Rory Baldini ’03, Fazal Yameen ’02, Sarah Ceglarski ’02, Andrew Dassori ’03 and Julian Madden ’02.

Carri Chan ’00, Matt Ford ’99, Josh Pressman ’00

Alanna Hall ’06, Max Stratouly ’06, Natalia Welsh ’06

Jennifer Doorly Magaziner ’02 and Jonathan Magaziner ’03 were married on July 30, 2010, in Rhode Island. The wedding party included Seth Magaziner ’02, Rachel Doorly ’05, Sarah Magaziner ’06, Matthew Basilico ’03, CJ Hunt ’03 and Jamal Shipman ’03. Jamal and Alex Hannibal ’02 sang Sam Cooke’s “You Send Me” for Jen and Jon’s first dance. Other Milton friends celebrating were John AndersonLynch ’02, Lizzie Pope ’02, Paloma Herman ’02, Laura Gill ’02, Kate Walker ’02, Charlie Bisbee ’02, Caroline Sterne Falzone ’02, Jaz Williams ’10, Landis JaquesCoutzoukis ’03, Christopher Dalton ’02, Alexandra Hannibal ’02, Jay Deshpande ’02 and Alexandra Cooper ’02.

Lieutenant Veda Igbinedion ’03, a recent graduate from William and Mary Law School, stands proudly with his mother, Rita Lewis, and her husband, John Gordon. Lieutenant Igbinedion begins a fellowship with a Washington, D.C., public defender and then moves on to the University of Virginia for Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps training.

Lindsay Golden ’05 and Emily Cunningham ’05

78 Milton Magazine

Class of 1996: front row (L to R): Caitlin Doggart-Bernal, Chris Bonacci, Laura MacNeil, Jessica Robinson Gemm, Regine Jean-Charles, Ohene Asare, Bob Stein, Eric Hudson, Barbara Ladd Targum, Christina Capone Nagler, Sander Cohan; back row (L to R): Peter Huoppi, Clark Freifeld, Hillary Drohan Flynn, Aaron Raphel, Liz Gill Larson, Lisa Spalding, Alexa Gilpin, Cole Dunlavey, Brian Tobin, John Tucker, Alice Burley, Mike Connelly, Mike O’Brien, Sunny Reyna, Alexis Eastman Scott, Adam Forkner.

Class of 2001: front row (L to R): Becky Hurwitz, Victoria George, Molly Greenberg, Stephanie Turchi, Travis Keller, Dan Sibor, Emile Ernandez, Hernan Ortiz, Michael Kennedy; second row: Danae Pauli, Alex Roitman, Hayden Jaques, Gates Sanford, Willis Bruckermann, Robert Knowles; third row: Chukwuka Nwabuzor, Tomica Burke, Peter Fishman, Maggie Kerr, Harry Shillingford, Steve Buckley, Amin Kirdar, Taylor Oatis; fourth row: Alex Cochran, Mike Daley, Meredith Connelly, Sam Cohan, Callie Mansfield, Lindsay Rodman, Keely MacMillan, Dan Sheyner, Sam Taylor; back row: faculty member Tom Gagnon, Kiye Apreala and Meghan O’Toole.

Milton Magazine 79

2002 Jenny Cohen is studying at Columbia University for her master’s in real estate development.

Anne Duggan began study at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth University for her M.B.A. Caitlin Hickey began study at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business for her M.B.A. Evan McNamara married Melissa Gentile on August 5, 2011, at the Popponesset Inn on Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

Sophie Monahon is in the architecture master’s program at the University of Texas at Austin. She was recently in Rio de Janeiro,

Brazil, on a grant to photograph the new architecture being built for the Pan American Games and the Olympic Games, as well as the favelas, where there is an effort to improve the living conditions.

Boston, May 26, 2011 Young alumni at Met Back Bay in Boston 0n May 26.

George P. Sibble, president and chief executive officer of Iridium Development LLC, reports that his company launched their first invention: SmartFuel, an iPhone app that gives consumers up-tothe-minute gasoline prices along their route at over 130,000 gas stations.

2003 David Snider began study at Harvard Business School for his M.B.A.

34th Annual Graduates’ Squash Invitational Tournament, March 5, 2011

Jon Zonis ’83, Tom Clayton ’85, Dan Horan ’84 and Seth Handy ’85.

Andy Giandomenico ’07, Amanda Warren ’07, Shira Pindyck ’07, Alice Bator ’07, Vanderley Cabral ’05, Elsie Kenyon ’07, Trevor Prophet ’07, John Ghublikian ’07 and Kelsey Hudson ’07

Jeff Marr ’04 and Richie Howe ’02

We Want to Include You Alumni events focused on affiliations such as residential houses, athletic teams, activity groups and clubs—to name a few—are on the rise, and Milton plans to host more affinity group events.

Tournament winner Chris Vernick ’06 receives his trophy from Head of School Todd Bland and Frank Millet.

80 Milton Magazine

We’d like to include you in future events whether on campus or around the globe. Please log in to Milton’s Online Alumni Community at www.milton.edu/alumni and update your profile. If you’d like to host a Milton event or have event suggestions, please contact Nick Macke in the Alumni & Development Office at nick_macke@milton.edu.

2004

2006

Albert Hyukjae Kwon married Christine Suehyun Lee ’00 in the summer of 2010. The couple welcomed their first son, Benjamin Hyungbin Kwon, on January 28, 2011. Albert started his third-year clinical rotations at Massachusetts General Hospital in May 2011. He is doing a year of research, between his second and third years of medical school, in the MIT Media Lab. He’s at work engineering a photo-triggered, metabolic pathway with the potential to provide insights on mitochondrial diseases and mitochondria’s role in aging, diabetes, cancer and neurodegenerative diseases.

Sam Minkoff graduated from Boston University with a degree in manufacturing engineering and a minor in business and moved to Seattle. He now manages the Seattle division of LivingSocial Adventures, a version of LivingSocial that runs “fun experiences for fun people” across the world. His job is to dream up fun things for people to do in and around their city.

2007 Northeastern squash captain John Ghublikian won the 4.0 division in the 2011 New England Regional tournament, the 4.0

division in the 2011 National Skills Championship, and most recently the 4.5 division in the 2011 National League Finals Championships as part of the Milton Academy team consisting of Chris Kane, Morgan Poor, Sam Shleifer ’11 and Robert Zindman ’11.

Renata Moniaga received a full scholarship from the Cambridge Overseas Trust to begin a master’s of philosophy in development studies at Cambridge University in England. Her interest began when she cofounded Children for Children at Milton. At Georgetown, she was president of the UNICEF campus chapter, which is one of

the largest and highest fundraising chapters in the nation. She says the interest and knowledge she gained at Milton helped her secure this highly competitive scholarship.

2010 Michael Megnia took a gap year after Milton to play junior hockey in Bridgewater, Massachusetts.

He’s managing a health club in the area and is in charge of everything from payroll to inventory, memberships, hiring and scheduling. Mike is attending Lawrence University in Wisconsin in the fall.

Class of 2006: front row (L to R): Winston Tuggle, Aida Sadr, Laura Gottesdiener, Zoe Jick, Nelson Fernandez, Natalia Welsh, Kristen Rubin, Amanda McCafferty, Stacey Harris, Alex Rodman, Claire Sheldon; second row: Annie Jean-Baptiste, Nate Anschuetz, Mariana Stone, Alanna Hall, Lyman Bullard, Ian Stearns, Natalie Young, Katherine Marr, Jessalyn Gale; third row: Max Stratouly, George Warner, Alexander Mercuri, Jonathan Coravos, Kathryn Evans, Josh Kay, Shellonda Anderson, Meredith FrechetteMoulter, Jessica Yu, Sasha Kamenetska; fourth row: James Frantz, Leo Lester, Jonathan Argov, Mariana Stone, Amanda Brophy, Owen Caine, Kimberly Thorpe, Sara Bakkar, Erin Mulvey, Aidan Hardy, Lee Anne Filosa, HyunJin Kim, Christina Fish; back row: Ian Halpern, Sam Sadler, Carlon McPherson, Christian Nunez, Elisha Lee, Devin Heater, Ross Bloom, Matthew Schoen, James Fee, Sam Gerrity, Keith Nelson, Andrew Tsanotelis, Jon Enright, Nate Danforth.

Milton Magazine 81

Deceased 1929 Francesca Janeway Keeler 1931 Walter C. Humstone 1934 Eleanor Pompeo Anastos 1937 Wallace Campbell III Malcolm Marshall Howard R. Turner 1938 Barbara Pierce Clement William R. Thurston 1939 George S. Richardson Stephen B. Wellington

1945 Ralph E. Cahouet David L. Hackett Cynthia Moller Duncan M. O’Brien Byam Whitney, Jr. 1948 Robert F. Lawson 1949 David Cabot

Find Us www.milton.edu Your source for all things Milton—from School news to the photo of the day. There you’ll also find links to our social networking communities.

1950 George W. Wheelwright IV 1951 Ernest B. Dane, Jr. 1952 David T. Porter

1940 Suzanne Shapleigh Hickman

1956 Read Albright Sally Bowles Polly Platt

1941 Ann Witherby Andrews Jean Hendrie Simonds

1958 Mary Louise Russell John C. Schwarz

1943 Peter B. Emmons George A. Hall Peter G. Robbins

1959 Robert E. Dyson

1944 Edward J. Bennett Malcolm Groves

1965 Edmund A. Steimle, Jr.

1963 Alaric Faulkner

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1967 Jennifer W. Lester 1971 Albert T. Finn

Campus snapshots, big events, and other photo-worthy moments appear on Flickr.

Photostream: Milton Academy

Yes, Milton Academy os of is on Vimeo. Watch videos the Miltones and more!

Channel: Milton Academy my

82 Milton Magazine

Edmund “Chip” Steimle ’65

basis at Sunday-night Chapel, and how he could retain his respect for the church while remaining “one of us.” His trips with Tim Ingraham ’65, out to a favored oak tree to smoke, also reinforced that youthful need to test boundaries.

March 5, 1947 – June 8, 2011

O

n June 9, 2011, the Milton community received the devastating news that Chip Steimle ’65 had died suddenly, while running an errand. Eerily, he and I had just exchanged emails the week before, anticipating catching up in person.

Several classmates attended the moving and packed-to-overflowing service held in Apthorp Chapel. Although many of us hadn’t seen Chip in a while, the memories were vivid of his athleticism—he scored the winning points in our exciting 22–20 victory over Nobles—and his infectious sense of humor. A review of

our yearbook bore both of these traits out. I contacted several classmates from his dorm who couldn’t attend the service, and laughter was a leitmotif of their recollections. What I especially recall is how Chip handled his father’s preaching on an annual

In the moving tribute to their father, his daughters Kim and Erin reinforced that these were lifelong attributes—although he shifted from the gridiron to the golf links. He became a serious gardener, as well. Most impressive was Chip’s devotion to his family—he and his wife Mickey had recently celebrated their 40th anniversary, and family celebrations took on a special air, laced with poems Chip created for the occasion. Through Mickey’s role as a steadfast Milton faculty

Jennifer W. Lester ’67

H. Nichols B. Clark ’65 Class Agent

be among Jenny’s many friends.

Members of the Class of 1967 attending the memorial included John Ballantine, Melodie Bryant, Holly Cheever, Meredith Davis, Gretchen Wagner Feero, Annie Hayes, James Hivnor, Linn Sage Jackson, Camilla Knapp, Wendy Straus Lubin, Jean MacDonald, Jana Palfreyman Porter, Anne Fitzgerald Slichter and Duncan Will.

October 30, 1949 – November 9, 2010

B

orn in New York, Jenny came to Milton in 1965 from Rome, where her family was living at the time. After Milton, she attended Bryn Mawr College and went on to study art in Florence; she spoke four languages. An accomplished dancer and photographer, Jenny performed with the Connecticut Ballet before becoming its photographer in 1980. She was a dance and theater photographer for the Boston and Hartford Ballets and the Hartford Stage.

Later, Jenny took up ballroom dancing, and participated in dance competitions throughout New England. Many of the women in our class fondly remember Jenny for mischievously arranging, at an off-campus gathering a few years ago, the surprise arrival of some fellow dancers—slinky, black-clad men who swept the women off their feet

member for the past 29 years, Chip became much more involved with the School than most of us. Kim and Erin both commented on how he never missed a school event, even— given Mickey’s role as class dean—chaperoning Kim’s prom.

Chip’s newest love was his grandson Nathaniel, and although they only had 15 months together, theirs was already a very close bond. As Rob Brooks, presiding minister and Erin’s father-inlaw, said in his homily, “This is a disaster.” And truer, sadder words were never spoken. The Class of 1965 extends their heartfelt sympathy to Mickey, Kim, Erin, and all of Chip’s family.

with red roses and exotic tango lessons. Jenny was also devoted to animals and had a soft spot in her heart for stray cats, many of whom she took into her home. We will remember her for her elegant beauty and consummate grace; for her passionate devotion to art, photography, dance and cats. Her

family has asked that donations in her memory be given to local animal shelters.

Jenny died of cancer on November 9, 2010; she was 61. A memorial was held on June 12, 2011, at the New Haven Lawn Club in New Haven, Connecticut. It was a very special day, and we felt lucky to

As John said at the memorial, “It is the spirit of joy and grace that lights our hearts as we share a pastiche of images of a person who found happiness in so many places. Jenny did not get bogged down with the details that pull at most of us. She had a magic and beauty clearly of her Renaissance roots—the rust brown, lush green hills of Tuscany and the pulse of the round circled square in Siena. She had lightness, a love of animals, and a joy for life that she shared with so many in her unique, beautiful, graceful way—not totally of our world, yet very much part of it.”

Meredith Davis ’67 John Ballantine ’67 Class Agents

Milton Magazine 83

p os t scrip t My “Christmas Carol”

by Jesse Kornbluth ’64

H

alf a century ago, I left the suburbs of Philadelphia to become a boarding student at Milton.

Philadelphia meant a snoozy day at a suburban junior high school, afternoons watching inner-city kids jitterbugging on “American Bandstand,” evenings doing homework with the radio on loud.

Milton meant suits at dinner, toothpaste inspection, and homework in a communal study hall, where, if you asked the English teacher in charge—in a whisper—“Can I go to the bathroom?” he might bellow, “I don’t know.

Can you go to the bathroom?”

and became headmaster in 1947.

In 1961, when I first encountered him, he was a figure out of time—a tall, thin patrician, wearing three-piece suits, a school tie, and eyeglasses with octagonal lenses and the thinnest of wire frames.

For this reading, the library tables had been cleared, replaced by rows of chairs. Two tall lamps, one on each side of a baronial armchair, were the only lights.

Mr. Perry entered and took his seat.

And then he became Charles Dickens.

As transitions go, it was like going to sleep in your own bed and waking up on the moon.

In those days, Milton was staunchly traditional. Teachers were addressed as “sir.” After football games, there was tea in the gym, served in real china.

Before the year’s two black-tie dances, you rushed to get your “dance cards” signed by your coolest friends, so your dates wouldn’t think you were a social outcast.

But of all the dazzling differences between my old life and Milton, nothing compared with the night before we went home for Christmas, when the headmaster read A Christmas Carol in Straus Library. Arthur Bliss Perry was as Old Boston as it gets. Son of a Harvard professor who discoursed on Emerson and edited the Atlantic Monthly, he came to Milton to teach in 1921

84 Milton Magazine

He read without accent and without drama. He didn’t play up the sentiment. He simply delivered—as he had each December for 14 years and would for two more—the greatest Christmas story since the original one.

I got shivers. Maybe shed a tear. It was that remarkable an experience.

Last December, I decided our almost-nine-year-old daughter was ready for a version of A Christmas Carol not dumbed

down by Disney. I didn’t imagine I could equal Arthur Perry’s performance, but if an audience of adolescent boys counting down the hours until their liberation could listen in rapt silence to Dickens, I certainly thought our tot could make it, over two or three nights, to the end.

She lasted five minutes.

Some parents, at that point, would blame her near-total boredom with Scrooge on computer games and kiddie television and an overly permissive culture.

Not this parent.

Books change over time, and over 170 years, A Christmas Carol has changed more than most. The evocation of Scrooge’s place of business is a slow starter. By our standards, the language is clotted and, at 28,000 words, the piece is seriously overwritten—as I was reading it, I was scanning ahead to see what I could paraphrase or cut.

A few weeks after the non-start with our daughter, I realized that I wanted her to experience A Christmas Carol sooner rather than later. And I got serious—I started to work on the text. My goal wasn’t to rewrite Dickens, just to update the archaic language, trim the dialogue, cut a few extraneous characters—to reduce the book to its essence, which is the story. In the end, I did have to write a bit, but not, I hope, so civilian readers will notice; I think of my words as minor tailoring, like sewing on a missing button or patching a rip at the knee.

My version of A Christmas Carol is half the length of the original.

Like the Paige Peterson illustrations that accompany it, it means to convey the feeling of London in 1843 without the formal diction and Victorian heaviness. It means to be a story that adults can read to their kids right to the end, and that kids can read by themselves with pleasure.

This Christmas, I’ll sit near a glowing fire in our living room and read “Christmas Carol” to our not-quite-ten-year-old daughter. Unlike Arthur Perry, I’ll amp up the drama, the better to keep her interested. Unlike the young Jesse Kornbluth, our child will say the story wasn’t all that interesting. No matter. In a world that can’t kill off traditions fast enough, this is one worth keeping.

Find the Kindle edition of Jesse’s “Christmas Carol” on Amazon.com.

Ebenezer Scrooge illustration by Paige Peterson Post Script is a department that opens windows into the lives and experiences of your fellow Milton alumni. Graduates may author the pieces, or they may react to our interview questions. Opinions, memories, explorations, reactions to political or educational issues are all fair game. We believe you will find your Milton peers informative, provocative and entertaining.

Please email us with your reactions and your ideas at cathy_everett@ milton.edu.

Milton Academy Board of Trustees, 2011–2012 George Alex Cohasset, Massachusetts Robert Azeke ’87 New York, New York Julia W. Bennett ’79 Norwell, Massachusetts Bradley Bloom President Wellesley, Massachusetts Bob Cunha ’83 Milton, Massachusetts Mark Denneen ’84 Boston, Massachusetts Elizabeth Donohue ’83 New York, New York James M. Fitzgibbons ’52 Emeritus Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts John B. Fitzgibbons ’87 Bronxville, New York Catherine Gordan New York, New York Victoria Hall Graham ’81 Vice President New York, New York Margaret Jewett Greer ’47 Emerita Chevy Chase, Maryland Antonia Monroe Grumbach ’61 New York, New York Franklin W. Hobbs IV ’65 Emeritus New York, New York

Ogden M. Hunnewell ’70 Vice President Brookline, Massachusetts Caroline Hyman New York, New York Harold W. Janeway ’54 Emeritus Webster, New Hampshire Lisa A. Jones ’84 Newton, Massachusetts Stephen D. Lebovitz Weston, Massachusetts F. Warren McFarlan ’55 Vice President Belmont, Massachusetts Chris McKown Milton, Massachusetts Erika Mobley ’86 Brisbane, California John P. Reardon ’56 Cohasset, Massachusetts H. Marshall Schwarz ’54 Emeritus New York, New York Frederick G. Sykes ’65 Secretary Rye, New York V-Nee Yeh ’77 Hong Kong Jide J. Zeitlin ’81 Treasurer New York, New York

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