ALUMNI
During the summer of 2015, JACK ASSAF ’13 traveled to Adaklu Helekpe in the Volta region of Ghana through Notre Dame’s International Summer Service Learning Program. While there he taught physics and mechanics. He also worked with the Adaklu Youth Education Committee, an organization that provides access to education and vocational training, to design projects and initiatives that are sustainable and profitable for their group. “It was an incredible opportunity!” Jack reports. “The trip provided valuable experience in both teaching and serving—with the added twist of being on the other side of the world.”
BIRTHS MOLLY HAINING SCOTT ’93 and her husband, John, welcomed their third child, Mary Eleanor, on April 17, 2015. Mary joins sister Julia, 6, and brother Henry, 3. The family lives in Atlanta’s Morningside neighborhood, and Molly works part-time at the Georgia Justice Project as the legal volunteer coordinator and staff attorney. April and STEWART GRACE ’98 welcomed daughter Cora Elizabeth on Oct. 11, 2015. Stewart has been an IT project manager at Randstad for four years. Evan and ERICA PETROSKY DELANEY ’01 welcomed son Connor Michael on Oct. 19, 2015, at Atlanta’s Northside Hospital. Connor was 7 pounds, 3 ounces and 21 inches long. Erica is a physician assistant in emergency medicine at Saint Joseph’s Hospital in Atlanta, while Evan is the managing member of Fish Hook LLC, which builds mobile apps for midsized companies nationwide. The family lives in Atlanta’s Brookhaven neighborhood. ALEXIS SCHULZE GRACE ’01 and her husband, Lukus, had a son, August James, on Sept. 1, 2015. August joins sister Salem, 3. The family recently returned to Atlanta, where Lukus serves as the St. Regis Atlanta’s food and beverage director. Alexis is the
Spot li on ght
RICHARD HAINING ’97 “Early on, my folks taught me that if I didn’t like what I was given, I should learn to make it better,” RICHARD HAINING ’97 says. Haining, a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, has taken that advice to heart. The Brooklyn-based “maker” crafts chairs, tables and wooden vessels that counter the pervasive buy-it-cheap, use-it-briefly, throw-itaway-and-repeat attitude. “I create pieces that I’d want to live with,” Haining says, “[They’re] handcrafted with a modern sensibility.” For nearly eight years, Haining worked as a producer for Readyset Inc., designing and building sets for studio photography projects, film and video events, retail and showroom displays and galleries. He went out on his own in March 2015. “My current body of works is strongly influenced by the over-abundance of
scrap material being thrown out in the shops I worked in,” Haining says. “This perfectly good material becomes the building blocks for my ‘vessels.’” Haining approaches his work with what he calls a “snout-to-tail” attitude. He takes the scraps and mills them down, cuts them to size, stacks, glues and positions them to create the vessel’s approximate form. Then, entirely by hand, he shapes the exterior of the vessel, finessing the surface until it’s perfect. “Each piece I create begins and ends in my hands, and the single most important tool I use in this process is an unyielding attention to detail,” Haining says. “All in all, I strive to maintain a balance between form and function to create elegant utilitarian pieces. I want you to kick your feet up on my table and stay a while.” See Haining’s work at richardhaining.com.
KnightTimes | Winter 2016
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