Class Notes

SOCIETY OF ALUMNI

CLASS NOTES

Rene Coudert

Rene has moved to one of the nicest little waterfront towns on the east coast— Southport, Connecticut. He encourages his classmates to come visit!

1957

Frederick Brigham

Fred notes that he spent time in the Army (two tours in Germany and two in Vietnam) as well as taught ROTC at Davidson College in North Carolina. He is now retired from the restaurant business, purchased a fifth wheel, and has traveled the country. He is a proud father of four sons, and has seven grandsons, two granddaughters, and one great-granddaughter. Fred and his wife reside between Star Valley, Wyoming, and Melbourne, Florida, with stops in Phoenix, Arizona; Fort Collins, Colorado; and Omaha, Nebraska. He thanks all whom he had the pleasure to meet and know during his time at Canterbury.

1958

Robert Birkenstock

In a prayer service at the Cathedral of St. Jude the Apostle on June 21, 2022, Bishop Emeritus Robert N. Lynch presented Bob, among 11 individuals, with a Certificate in Lay Leadership Ministry. To receive the certificate and be commissioned, the participants completed one year of discernment and three years of academic and spiritual preparation. In addition to the time spent in class, participants in the second year of formation spend 20 hours of Apprenticeship observation in a ministry outside of their parish. In the third year, they initiate or enhance that ministry in their home parish as a Practicum.

Antonio Vinals

Antonio (above) recently enjoyed a long weekend in New York City at the Yale Club with his son and his family.

1959

John Duffy

John had a very pleasant and informative meeting with Head of School Rachel StoneP’23,’24 on July 22 in Weekapaug, Rhode Island, where he and his wife Anne live. He comments that Rachel continues to be a terrific asset for Canterbury and she and the school are worthy of any and all support we alumni can send their way. Their two children who both graduated from Canterbury— Hilary’87 and Kevin’91—are doing well, and he notes that Anne is still as pretty as ever!

1965

Read McNamara

Read appreciated hearing from many classmates after the loss of his wife of almost 50 years, Mary, in January. He is looking forward to the Class of 1965 “Halfway to 60th” gathering in Cape Cod in September and sends many thanks to classmates and organizers Robert Lutringer’65 and Daniel LaChance’65.

1966

Christopher Kirkby

Chris and his wife, Terry, celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in August, when their fourth grandchild was due. The couple’s two sons, Chris and Kevin, are a grade school principal and high school math teacher, respectively, and both remain in the New Jersey state high school record books for their career achievements as boys’ basketball coaches. Kevin also won two state championships as the baseball coach at Pascack Hills (NJ) High School. Chris sends his greetings and best wishes to all in the class of 1966!

1967

William Ranger

Bill has been a Red Cross Volunteer at Walter Reed Army Medical Center for the last five years, and received the President’s Gold Level Volunteer

Service Award.

1971

Craig Czarsty

Craig, a co-founder of Health Horizons International (HHI), was recently in the Dominican Republic to dedicate HHI’s new office/clinic. The building was donated and constructed by the Dominican government in recognition of HHI’s efforts to improve the delivery of primary care and the public health.

1975

Lawrence Turkheimer

Larry has been named Head Men’s Lacrosse Coach at UCLA.

Paul Fitzpatrick

Paul and his son, Mark’06, enjoyed reconnecting with current Canterbury faculty member Derek Richardson P ’22, ’26 as Derek perused the showroom floor for his son Aiden’s new Jeep. Paul says he can’t wait to see Aiden driving his new car around campus!

1976

Jonathan Zilli

Jonathan is celebrating getting his last child through college. Mission accomplished! His son Harrison rowed on the UCLA Men’s Crew Team. His Varsity 8 placed second at the ACRA National Collegiate Rowing Championships and was invited to compete at the Henley Royal Regatta in the UK. It was a great way to end his collegiate rowing journey!

Francis Antonelli

While Frank maintains an office in Beverly Hills, California, he recently moved with his family 90 miles south to the Santa Ana mountains above Temecula—southern California’s wine country. He sincerely invites any alumni traveling to the Temecula area to drop him a line and he would be pleased to furnish them with local tips!

Joanna (Martiska) Woodworth

Joanna recently joined Invesco as an Editorial Content Manager. She is managing content for Invesco’s website and LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram accounts. Her office is at Brookfield Place in New York.

Thomas Moore

Tom, an Army veteran who served as an Interrogator for four years and is a 30-year member of The American Legion, was just elected Senior Vice Commander to the Department (State) of Connecticut of the Legion. The one-year term will make him the leading candidate for Department Commander next year. He currently lives in Fairfield, Connecticut, with his wife of 34 years, Nancy.

1979

Neil Boylan

Neil signed on to sell Custom Media Solutions for Scientific American magazine. This includes print, online, audio, and video offerings along with custom articles, branded content, webinars, and more. Neil will work remotely, travel to key accounts, and have regular visits to the SciAm headquarters in New York City.

1983

Grenville “Sean” Emmet

Sean’s photography residency for the month of August was at the JEA Art Gallery in Savannah, Georgia. Jennifer moved to Saugatuck, Michigan, and now is a proud grandmother to Rose Elizabeth.

1984

his “podcast of pop-chart history.” He says fellow late-’80s Cantuarians might especially enjoy the episodes on Bruce Springsteen, The Cure, Cyndi Lauper, Hall & Oates, Whitney Houston, and Run-DMC. “I like to think of the podcast as the audio continuation of my old music column in The Tabard,” Chris says.

Deborah (Smith) Arthur

Debbie is a Professor at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon, in the University Studies Department: interdisciplinary general education. She co-founded and is the Director of Portland State University’s Higher Education in Prison program. The program is starting its fourth year of classes this fall at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility, Oregon’s only prison for women. The Higher Education in Prison program at PSU provides access to rigorous, quality higher education along a degree pathway for people experiencing incarceration and supports students post-release.

1989

Christopher Molanphy

Chris sends best wishes to his classmates and encourages podcast fans to listen to Hit Parade,

1994

Timothy Sheehan

Timothy was on campus with his wife Alexa and daughter Isla to accept a posthumous Athletics Hall of Fame award for father Kevin Sheehan ‘62 (Soccer, Basketball, Baseball). Kevin’s sister Monica’73 and her husband, Michael Bennett, also attended. Their families enjoyed being back on campus for the awards ceremony and a Saints Alumni Weekend.

1994

Crystal Holick

Crystal’s performance last year at the USA Triathlon (USAT) Age Group National Championships Olympic Distance event in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, granted her a prestigious place on USAT Team USA. She will be representing the United States in the 2022 World Triathlon Grand Final Olympic Distance Triathlon in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, this November.

Richard Carter

Rich and Leslie Carter founded the US Virgin Islands Lacrosse Association in the fall of 2019 and Rich currently serves as the Executive Director. The US Virgin Islands Lacrosse Association is a registered 501c3 nonprofit organization and the governing body of lacrosse in the territory. They are recognized members of World Lacrosse and the Pan American Lacrosse Association. Their mission is to promote youth education and character development through the growth of lacrosse on St. Croix, St. John, and St. Thomas. The picture was taken at Men’s National Team tryouts that were held in June 2021 prior to the Pan American Lacrosse Association Qualifier tournament the following month in Medellin, Colombia. Douglas Bergner’10, former Canterbury lacrosse coach, is #84 in the picture. He serves as the USVI Men’s National Team Equipment Manager.

1997

Danielle (Enage) Conkling

Danielle enjoyed celebrating her class’s 25th reunion at Canterbury with her family.

Katherine (Murphy) DeCoff

Kate and daughters Sammy (photographer) and Sydney, pictured, met up with Canterbury English Teacher Bob Potter for a pre-reunion hike in Steep Rock Park. They had a great time catching up and catching crayfish!

2003

Alexandra (Mavelli) Doyon

Ally and her family have recently moved to Virginia, where she has taken the position of Director of Riding for Chatham Hall.

Conor O’Rourke

Conor and his wife Amy got married (after many postponements) on November 7, 2021 at St. Mary’s Church in Newport, Rhode Island, his home parish and the site of John F. Kennedy’s wedding. Due to COVID restrictions, the church was nearly empty except for immediate family and his Associate Best Man, Mark E. Nailor’05. In September 2022, they were finally able to celebrate with their extended family and friends at the Redwood Library in Newport, Rhode Island. Saints in attendance included Christopher

Jeyes’06, Alexander Khaddar’06, Anthony

“AJ” Ferrer’06, Joshua “Cargo” Belfiore’06, and Matthew Holden’07. They were blessed to have Guy and Viv Simonelli P ’89, ’91, ’92, ’99 attend as well. Conor and Amy live in Newport and are always excited to see familiar faces come through the City-by-the-Sea. Conor recently spent his seventh summer working on the stage crew at the Newport Folk Festival. If anyone is ever in Newport to visit or for the Folk Festival, give him a call. Finally, Conor also started a new position at Rocky Hill Country Day School in East Greenwich, Rhode Island, as Director of Development and Alumni Relations. He says he will always credit his time at Canterbury for his career working in small independent schools.

2009

Meaghan (Henn) Spillane

Meaghan and her husband Jake welcomed their first daughter, Maeve Anna, on March 13, 2022.

2010

Elizabeth Dooley

Elizabeth joined American Express in New York City. She serves on the SOA Executive Committee and is President of the Canterbury Club of New York.

2011

Margaret Wiatr

Maggie fueled her creativity at the height of pandemic boredom by composing silly and creative content on social media. Now with more than 100,000 followers on TikTok, she is starting to partner with brands and nonprofits to use her platform for good. Brand partners include Dunkin’, McDonald’s, TD Garden, and others, and she is also teaming up with The Sports Museum-Boston Over Bullies charity foundation, which is actively raising money to help children combat bullying, cyberbullying, and discrimination.

2012

Mikaela Puth

Mikaela married Ian Ford on July 17, 2022 in Chatham, Massachusetts.

2015

Kimberly Debacher

Kim got engaged on February 19, 2022, and welcomed a new fur baby to the family.

2018

William Tanamli

In May 2022, William graduated from Trinity College with a major in Interdisciplinary Computing with Psychology. He has relocated to Atlanta, Georgia, to start a position as a business analyst with Cognizant. He would like to connect with any Canterbury alumni in the Atlanta area.