Park School Bulletin Spring 2017

The Park School S PR ING BU LLE TIN 2017

BOARD OF TRUSTEES 2016 – 17

ALUMNI COMMITTEE 2016 – 17

Spring Bulletin 2017

Officers Vincent Chiang, Chair Polly Crozier, Vice Chair Peter Riehl, Vice Chair Stanley Shaw, Secretary Sam Wilderman, Treasurer

Greg Kadetsky ’96, Co-Chair Joanie Amick Kelly ’83, Co-Chair

Editor Kate LaPine

Martina Albright ’83 David Ball ’85 Laura Barkan Peter Barkan ’86 Seth Brennan Denise Jefferson Casper Carlos Castillo ’97 Vincent Chiang Sara Leventhal Fleiss ’95 Heeten Kalan Conan Laughlin Jessica Lutzker Todd MacLean Amy Lloyd McCarthy ’86 Katie McWeeny Nikki Nudelman Kate Olmsted Neela Pal Shadé Solomon Kerry Swords Christina W. Vest Edward “EJ” Whelan Mary Witkowski Emily Lubin Woods Ex Officio Cynthia A. Harmon Head of School Kimberly Boyd Assistant Head for Finance & Operations Board Chairs Emeriti Kennett F. Burnes David D. Croll Charles C. Cunningham, Jr. George P. Denny III David G. Fubini M. Dozier Gardner John L. Hall II Kevin J. Maroni J. Michael Maynard Anne Worthington Prescott Suzie Tapson Deborah Jackson Weiss

John Barkan ’85 Peter Barkan ’86 Kathrene Tiffany Bell ’96 Bob Bray ’53 Aldel Brown ’04 Astrid Levis-Thorne Burns ’98 Emily Potts Callejas ’89 Carlos Castillo ’97 Greg Cope ’71 Lilla Curran ’95 Melissa Deland ’95 Sara Leventhal Fleiss ’95 David Glynn ’91 Abigail Ross Goodman ’91 Anne Collins Goodyear ’84 Jennifer Segal Herman ’82 Julia Lloyd Johannsen ’93 Bob Kenerson ’53 Amy Lampert ’63 Abbott Lawrence ’85 Eve Wadsworth Lehrman ’95 Nia Lutch ’97 Chip Pierce ’81 Miriam Posner ’03 Eliza Drachman-Jones Quincy ’98 Kate Gormley Saeli ’02 Katharine Burrage Schmitt ’95 Alyssa Burrage Scott ’92 Jordan Scott ’89 Rebecca Lewin Scott ’89 Sarah Shoukimas Ryan ’97 Garrett Solomon ’86 Diana Walcott ’85 Laura Church Wilmerding ’84 Rebecca Wilsker ’00

Design Robert Beerman, Onward Upward Photography Coffee Pond Photography Flo Farrell Tom Kates ’84 Kate LaPine John Rich Printing Puritan Capital

The Bulletin is published twice yearly for the alumni, parents, and friends of The Park School.

We welcome your comments and ideas.

The Park School 171 Goddard Avenue Brookline, Massachusetts 02445 To contact the Bulletin: Kate LaPine Director of Communications 617-274-6009 lapinek@parkschool.org To report alumni news: Rena LaRusso ’04 Director of Alumni Relations 617-274-6022 alumni@parkschool.org To make a gift to Park: Beatrix Sanders Director of Development 617-274-6020 sandersb@parkschool.org To report address changes: Jamie Byron Development Associate 617-274-6018 development@parkschool.org The Park School admits qualified students without regard to race, color, religion, national or ethnic origin, ancestry, sex, disabilities, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, or family composition to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the School. Park does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, national or ethnic origin, ancestry, sex, disabilities, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, or family composition or any other status protected by applicable law in the administration of its educational, admissions, financial aid, athletic and other policies and programs.

Headmaster Emeritus Robert S. Hurlbut, Jr. Head of School Emeritus Jerrold I. Katz

Cover artwork Crazy Creature paper collages, Grade I Cover: Maura Glynn, Hugh Gilbane, Sly Sutton, Mikito Matsuzaka, Olivia Miranda Back Cover: Austin Jeyes, Sydney Tregoning, Jamesy Benenson, Cora Loomis

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Around Park A Message from Cynthia Harmon Hour of Code Athletics Drama

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Food & Farming Park’s Kitchen Goes Green!

Q&A with Anthony Marco The Park School Outdoor Learning Garden Lee Lawrence Albright ’54 Rob Hurlbut ’79 Andrew Taylor ’96 Severine Fleming ’97 Nathan Henderson ’98 Alex Whisnant ’98 Mira Mehta ’99 Oliver English ’05 Belle English ’08

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Alumni Notes Alumni Achievement Award: Peter Wetherbee ’53

F FA OOD RM & IN G

The Park School

Spring Bulletin 2017

around park

Dear Park School Community,

W

hat is in today’s recipe for an excellent education? It used to be that the 3Rs (reading, writing and ’rithmetic) were the basic ingredients. While those remain staples of the school experience, the preparation and serving up of a robust 21st century education involves so much more. As a school community, Park prides itself on being reflective as well as proactive. In order to be responsive to our students’ needs while simultaneously preparing them for future, our faculty is always trying to improve by exploring best practices. As educators, this is our calling; this is our work.

At Park, we have been examining what it means to challenge and support our students as they learn, zeroing in on the ways in which good teaching continues to evolve. Inherent in that reflection and refinement is a sense of continual momentum towards growth. As a faculty, we are delving into the concept of applied learning, which means using learned skills to represent what we know. According to the National Education Association, there are four essential skills that must be at the heart of how we think about and deliver an excellent education today. These “Four Cs”: critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity, are as essential as providing the 3Rs. In addition to providing the “basic” content ingredients (knowledge), these skills must be intentionally planned for and taught. This new emphasis on the Four Cs requires teachers to revise some of the ways they have approached lesson planning and think about how students can use the skills that they have been taught to show what they know.

When knowledge and skills are woven together, deep and meaningful learning occurs.

Our pursuit of educational excellence compels us to set a course that addresses what lies ahead for the children we educate. Park has a history of “learning by doing” and of equipping our faculty with the necessary tools to lead that effort. As we look ahead to the remainder of the year and plan for summer, we are actively engaged in conversations about providing professional development that explores, expands, and deepens our efforts to provide a program where critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity are embedded in each Park student’s experience.

Cynthia A. Harmon Head of School

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Hour of Code For one hour in December, all 550 Park School students spent 60 minutes programming! Now a global movement reaching tens of millions of students in 180 countries, the Hour of Code was started as a one-hour introduction to computer science, designed to demystify code, to show that anyone can learn the basics, and to broaden participation in the field of computer science.

At Park, Pre-K and Kindergarten classes spent their Hour of Code programming BeeBot and Kibo Robots with simple commands. Grades I and II students used the iPad app Scratch, Jr. to animate word problems they had written for a math assignment. Students in Grades III-VIII spent time using Scratch (an online programming environment developed by the MIT Media Lab), with each grade and homeroom tailoring their lesson. For example, Grade V created interactive greeting cards for an ill classmate.

Bringing the Hour of Code to Park required careful coordination between classroom teachers and a handful of “experts” from within the faculty and staff. Many thanks to Elaine Hamilton, Katie Reardon, Megan Haddadi, Jorge Vega, Tory Lane, Kimberly Formisano, Katrina Mills, and Elyse Seltzer for making our Hour of Code a big success!

HOUR OF CODE, BY THE NUMBERS

28 STUDENTS

51 STUDENTS

28 HOURS

51 HOURS

109 STUDENTS

359 STUDENTS

109 HOURS

359 HOURS

PROGRAMMED BEEBOT ROBOTS

ANIMATED MATH PROBLEMS USING SCRATCH JR.

PROGRAMMED KIBO ROBOTS

PROGRAMMED IN SCRATCH

547 HOURS TOTAL spring 2017

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Athletics This fall, Park hosted 350 runners from 16 schools at the Larz Anderson Invitational Cross Country Meet. This year, Park’s boys team placed third and our girls team finished sixth out of the 16 teams! Thanks to Park’s longstanding rivalry with Shady Hill, our varsity soccer and field hockey teams welcomed competitors from across the river at the annual Park-Shady Hill Game Day. This year’s games took place on October 28, a miserably cold and rainy day, and unfortunately, the home teams all suffered losses to the visitors.

Wins, losses and weather aside, it was a great day to celebrate competition.

After Winter Break, Park’s athletes were back at it again playing basketball and ice hockey. The whole School turned out for a winter pep rally on January 20th, to send the varsity basketball teams off to the first-ever Friday Night Hoops event at Meadowbrook. Park’s ice hockey team continued its winning tradition with big wins over Nobles and Milton and did so without a permanent goalkeeper. The winter season ended on February 28 with the varsity basketball teams playing in the 19th Annual Hoop Fest basketball tournament and the sixth grade teams playing in the Meadowbrook Tournament.

Don’t miss fun posts and information about all of Park’s athletic endeavors on the Park Athletics Twitter feed: @GoParkSchool.

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Drama Twelve talented Grade VIII actors performed an abridged, musical, and tragically funny performance of the Tempest in November. In case you need to brush up on your Shakespeare, the play begins with a real tempest, full of rain and thunder, as magician and sorceress Prospera lures her enemies to a remote island to get revenge and teach them a lesson. She has been exiled and wants to set things right...but she has not planned for the figurative storm that will occur when she brings all sorts of unlikely characters together. Lovely Miranda meets the love of her life when she lays eyes on Ferdinand and proposes marriage! Ariel, Prospera’s faithful sprite, plays tricks and wrecks havoc. The bumbling clowns, Stephano and Trinculo, run into trouble when they find the conniving and angry Caliban plotting to take back his island through revenge. And speaking of revenge, thanks to an idea from Antonio, Sebastian is at the ready to kill for his chance to be king—and King Alonso has no clue. All these plots get tangled as they play out on Prospera’s island, and it’s up to her to sort it out and put things right.

In March, nearly 40 (!) students in Grades VI through VIII put on a rollicking rendition of Norton Juster’s The Phantom Tollbooth. Park’s theater was transformed into the lands beyond when Milo travels through a genuine turnpike tollbooth. Milo and his friends, Tock the Watchdog, the Spelling Bee, and the Humbug undertake a perilous adventure to save the princesses, Rhyme and Reason. Along the way, they meet the not-so-wicked Which, the snoozy lethargarians, and the dueling rulers, the Mathemagician and King Azaz. Chroma the Great appears, Alec Bings talks down to Milo, and the Sound Keeper tells her life story. This year’s winter musical was made possible by the impressive collaboration of director Kyra Fries and musical director Sadiemarie Mayes. Brava!

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FOOD & FARMING

“School lunch”

may not evoke

images of scrumptious food provided by sustainable and local sources, but Park is working to change that.

This year, Park’s Dining Services team, and our food service provider, Flik Hospitality Group, became a Certified Green Restaurant. This certification is the result of a one-month long process, which was overseen

by Park’s Executive Chef, Anthony Marco. In this issue, we ask Chef Marco about the process and what he’s cooking up next.

Over spring vacation, construction began on a new Outdoor Learning Garden that promises to enhance the curriculum for all of Park’s students and faculty.

The Garden, which is located at 133 Goddard Avenue, is visible from the carpool line. This new outdoor “classroom” will include raised vegetable beds, a pollinator garden, and a small year-round greenhouse where plants can be incubated in the winter in order to be ready for planting as early as possible in the spring.

It may be a while before Chef Marco will be able to

PARK’S KITCHEN GOES GREEN!

T

his winter, Park’s Dining Services team, and our food service provider, Flik Hospitality Group, became a Certified Green Restaurant. This certification is the result of a one-month long process, which was overseen by Park’s Executive Chef, Anthony Marco.

With this certification, Park joins thousands of restaurants in the Green Restaurant Association (GRA) that are committed to increasing environmental sustainability in the food industry. In order for Park to become a Certified Green Restaurant, our kitchen and

gather ingredients from the Garden but he’s ready!

With thoughts of food and farming, we put out the call to Park alumni involved in this exciting and growing industry. In the following pages, we feature nine alums—from Brookline to the Bay Area—whose lives are intertwined with gardening and gastronome, and asked them to share a favorite recipe with us!

Best wishes for the spring, Kate LaPine Editor

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Requirements No Polystyrene Foam Recycling Composting* Annual Education Continual Change

Level 1

2 Star

√ √ √ √

√ √ √ √

5 GreenPoints™ every 3 years

3 Star √ √ √ √

4 Star √ √ √ √

SustainaBuild™ √ √ √ √

By the end of Year 3, restaurant must have 130 GreenPoints™ By the end of Year 6, restaurant must have 160 GreenPoints™

GreenPoints™ Energy Water Waste Disposables Chemicals Food Building Total

10 10 10 10 each in 3 10 categories 10 10 80/62*

100

10 10 10 10 10 10 NA 175

10 10 10 10 10 10 300

90 30 12.5 10 30 10 20 205

* Composting and Total of 80 GreenPoints™ are Required in In Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Washington DC, New York City, Philadelphia, Portland OR, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, & St. Louis.

For all other cities, 62 Total GreenPoints™ are required and composting is not required.

PARK HAS DONE A WONDERFUL JOB OF PUTTING SUSTAINABILITY AT THE FOREFRONT OF ITS THOUGHTS AND PLANS ARE IN PLACE TO CONTINUE OUR PROGRESS.

Anthony Marco

dining services had to meet strict requirements in seven categories: water efficiency, waste reduction & recycling, sustainable furnishings & building materials, sustainable food, energy, disposables, and chemical and pollution reduction.

According to the Green Restaurant Association, “GRA certification is made up of over 500 environmental standards, including 40 from external science, environmental, and governmental organizations Each standard earns a restaurant a certain number of GreenPoints™ towards becoming a Certified Green Restaurant®. The GRA has assessed the relative environmental impacts of each step to determine the number of GreenPoints™ each step earns.”

“The restaurant industry comprises about 10 percent of the American economy and consumes about half of the average person’s food budget. If it were a country, the restaurant industry’s economic impact would be equivalent to the 11th largest economy. With that in mind, the GRA Certification standards provide a sustainable model for the 11th largest economy in the world.”

C

hef Marco trained at the New England Culinary Institute and brings more than ten years of professional cooking and kitchen management experience to Park. Over the years, the number of events on campus has grown significantly—from breakfast meetings, classroom gatherings, snacks for traveling athletes, and dinners for parents, trustees, and faculty & staff. Chef Marco works closely with Dining Services Manager Sean Callahan in leading the School’s dining services.

For the past five years, he worked for the Compass Group (Restaurant Associates/Wolfgang Puck Catering). “Catering really has lousy hours,” he explains. “We have two little children (Ben age 4.5 and Gaby age 3) and my wife pleaded with me to find a Monday–Friday job. Since we live in West Roxbury, I jumped at the chance to work at Park.” Most recently, Anthony served as the executive chef at the Institute of Contemporary Art and Google in Cambridge.

As the executive sous chef at Harvard Business School, he earned his chops working in a large institutional kitchen, managing a staff of 38 employees, and controlling costs to stay within budget limits. Having planned seasonal menus at Upstairs at the Square in Cambridge and at Lineage in Brookline, Anthony has a deep knowledge of working with local farmers and locally-sourced ingredients.

Q&A with Anthony Marco, Executive Chef Q. Did you oversee the certification process?

Yes, although we can’t take all the credit. Some work, completed by Jennifer Mullin and the Facilities Team, has made the whole certification process run very smoothly. We’ve made several physical changes to the Dining Room and Kitchen such as: 1) balancing the airflow on the kitchen hoods and exhaust systems. This adjustment decreases the air fan speeds when little or no cooking is occurring, which can save up to 80% on our energy needs. They also changed out and continues, next page

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balanced the fans in all our walk ins and adjusted temperature settings to be energy efficient; 2) upgrading all the lighting in the dining room and kitchen to ThinkLite LED T5’s and T8’s; 3) cleaning the Dining Room floors with an environmentally-friendly product called Linpol Gloss by Genesan; 4) reducing the ambient temperature on winter nights to 65 and 71 during the summer.

Q. How many of Flik’s school dining services have this certification?

Local Flik schools like Nobles, Meadowbrook, Milton Academy, and The Winsor School are all Green Restaurant Certified. Overall Flik has 39 different units Green Restaurant Certified.

Q. What was involved in getting certified? How long was the process?

The process stretched out over one month. The first steps were to show the kitchen and equipment to the Green Restaurant Association and then, based upon their recommendations and guidance, we were able to ensure we were ready to be certified.

Q. What did you have to change about Park’s kitchen and Dining Room?

What was the easiest? The hardest?

Because sustainability was already a priority for the School, no major changes were necessary. The process involved solidifying procedures already in place and developing training opportunities for the staff.

Q. Please talk a bit about how you source the food that you serve in the Dining Room.

All of our fresh produce comes from Baldor Specialty Foods, a company based out of Chelsea, Massachusetts. Our agreement with them specifies that products will be sourced locally when available. So we get local greens and New England apples when they’re in season. Our menu reflects seasonal availability, meaning that because asparagus is only available from South America in December, it won’t be on our menu at that time.

Q. What level of certification do we have?

We are a Level 1 certified Green Restaurant.

There are three levels and we are working toward our goal of becoming a Level 3.

Q. Have you been able to get students involved?

Yes, we are excited to be working with students and their teachers to develop

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systems for composting the in the new Learning Garden. A composting program is a requirement to be a certified green restaurant in the Boston area. We currently use Bootstrap Composting in Brookline, but in the future we have hopes of being able to retain most of that material for use in the Learning Garden.

Q. Will you be able to use produce from the new Learning Garden? What types of crops will we be eating in the Dining Room at lunch?

We would love to be able to utilize food grown in the Learning Garden in the future.

The feasibility of this depends on the timing of planting and harvesting, however. If possible, this would be a major benefit of the Learning Garden, as students would likely be invested in consuming items that they have had a hand in growing themselves.

Q. In order for Park to become a Certified Green Restaurant, we had to meet strict requirements in seven categories: water efficiency, waste reduction & recycling, sustainable furnishings & building materials, sustainable food, energy, disposables, and chemical and pollution reduction. How did we do? What level Green Restaurant is Park?

The Park School has reached our initial goal of becoming a Level 1 Certified Green Restaurant. That means we have met the requirements that stipulate all of our equipment be highly rated for efficiency, recycling, eco-friendly cleaning supplies, and forbid the use of styrofoam. Park has done a wonderful job of putting sustainability at the forefront of its thoughts and plans are in place to continue our progress.

Q. In addition to the environmental benefits, have you noticed any cost savings or other positive outcomes?

Since implementing this program, we have seen an increase in guest satisfaction as evidenced by a higher food consumption rate. We constantly work within our budget to create a memorable food experience that includes a nutritious and healthy snack and lunch program.

Q. What are your sustainability goals for the future?

Our goals mirror those of The Park School: We continue to strive to improve everyday and to promote the necessity of preserving our natural resources.

INTRODUCING...THE PARK SCHOOL OUTDOOR LEARNING GARDEN

T

hanks to a very generous gift by an anonymous donor, Park will be building a new Outdoor Learning Garden to enhance the curriculum for all of Park’s students and faculty. Construction began over March vacation and will continue throughout the spring.

The Garden will provide Park’s faculty with an interactive, experiential classroom in which they can incorporate more of the outdoors and natural world into their curricular explorations. Students in Pre-K through Grade VIII will explore and take advantage of the space during the academic year just as campers at Summer at Park will during the summer.

Earlier this year, the donor began conversations with the School about funding the construction and on-going maintenance of an outdoor learning garden to be built through a partnership between Park and Green City Growers. Green City Growers is a non-profit organization in Boston that plans, builds, and maintains urban gardens all over the city. Green City Growers provides the plan and construction of these gardens as well as the year-round maintenance. Faculty in the Science Department are working now with curriculum coordinators at Green City Growers to develop plans for using this space in support

of our current curriculum. Already, we can imagine multiple ways that existing activities and programs (e.g. nature walks, Kindergarten planting, Grade V’s study of the role of plants in our ecosystem, Green Club activities, etc.) can immediately take advantage of this new outdoor learning space. While all the details of the Outdoor Learning Garden have not yet been finalized, the opportunities it creates for our curriculum and program are very exciting.

Together with Green City Growers, we have determined that the Outdoor Learning Garden will be located on the land at 133 Goddard Avenue (purchased through Park21).

The garden will immediately abut the carpool lane behind the School on the left and will incorporate the existing shed as an outdoor classroom space. This outdoor “classroom” will include raised vegetable beds, a pollinator garden, rain gutters and rain barrels, mushroom logs, a berry garden, fruit trees, a wildflower meadow, an outdoor classroom in the round, and a small year-round greenhouse where plants can be incubated in the winter in order to be ready for planting as early as possible in the spring.

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F FA OOD RM & IN G

Lee Lawrence Albright ’54 ONE OF THE FAMILY OWNERS OF ALLANDALE FARM AND FOUNDER OF THE APPLE ORCHARD SCHOOL

BROOKLINE, MA

In our modern, transient world, Lee Lawrence Albright bucks the trend. She is the fifth generation to live and work on her family’s 135-acres: a bucolic property with woodlands, hills, and ponds, and 34 vegetable fields, which happens to be the last working farm in Boston and Brookline. Lee and her brothers Edward ’56, James ’51, and Robert ’65 grew up on the farm, which is less than a mile away from Park’s Goddard Avenue campus. Lee and her siblings attended school on Kennard Road, where Lee entered as a member of the 3-year-old class, staying at Park through Grade IV so that she could begin Winsor in fifth grade. She studied English literature at Radcliffe, spent a year abroad in Paris, completed the Graduate Apprentice Program at Shady Hill School, and then joined her husband, Nile, in New York City for six years while he earned his medical degree. On their return to Boston, Lee created a program for three to six year olds upon settling again at the farm in 1971. She renovated an old cow barn where the farm, animals, trees, and fields became the central subjects. Since then, young children at The Apple Orchard School have been happily sharing their campus with Allandale Farm.

photo by Lin Simrell

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Whenever I hear Allandale Farm described as a treasure, I know we made the right decision. This land is one of just a few Boston landscapes that have never been developed and our family is committed to preserving this pastoral aspect in perpetuity.

The fact is, in the 1960s, when my brothers and I found ourselves as the new owners of this property, real estate developers would have welcomed subdividing the land. However, the four of us felt strongly the land should remain intact.

As Edward says, “We were lucky enough to inherit this land. It is a trust. The opportunity to keep it open is more important than benefitting economically from it.”

The land that is now known as Allandale Farm was part of a larger tract of land owned by my mother’s ancestors, the Weld family, for many generations. The first Weld to move to this area was Captain Joseph Weld who was granted land in the 1640s (including what is now the Arnold Arboretum) for services rendered to the Colony. The Farm itself, together with land now known as Larz Anderson Park and Hellenic College, were acquired by my greatgreat grandfather, William Fletcher Weld, in the mid 19th century. Upon his death, my

grandmother, Mary Brandegee, inherited the Farm and her cousins, Isabel Anderson and Charles Goddard Weld, the other two properties.

When we were children, my grandmother was still running the farm.

The farm produced food that was grown, harvested, and stored for year-round consumption by our extended family.

Chickens were raised for their eggs and pigs for their meat, and milk came from seven cows milked daily. Orchards provided apples, pears, and plums. We had three enormous Belgian workhorses who would plow the fields and draw ice cutters across the ponds in the winter, cutting huge blocks of ice that were packed in sawdust in the ice houses to last through the next season.

In the mid-1960s, my mother and my uncle died in their fifties and all of a sudden the responsibility for this land fell on our shoulders. We, the younger generation, wanted to keep the farm in the family, but recognized we would need to take a new approach. We decided we would have to generate more income but we needed to learn more about farming. So Nile and I moved back, and along with Edward, we started with a patch of beans and tomatoes, some plants in the greenhouse, and a field of corn. Edward and Nile would come home from work and head to the fields to harvest the corn for the next day. We’d put the corn out in a roadside stand on Newton Street

four of us had to put money into the farm, but there was nothing profitable about it. I think if we’d been older we might have said ‘this is nice, but it’s just too much work.’ But there’s a plus to being young and extremely committed!

Then, in 1973, we found a solution to keeping the farm! The Massachusetts legislature passed Chapter 61A, a law that taxed farms as agricultural land anywhere in Massachusetts, rather than the higher rate charged for residential property. This was a significant benefit to farmers and for keeping family farms intact. With the 61A law, we formally established and officially named Allandale Farm. Intermittent farmers assisted us for a period of ten years.

We recognized we needed to hire a fulltime farm manager.

Ultimately, we found John Lee, who ended up managing the farm for 30 years. Under John’s leadership, Allandale embraced new agricultural methods and organic farming practices. We focus on 34 annual crops, particularly our own tomatoes, lettuces, beans, peas, and squash. The farm has a big crew of enthusiastic workers.

During the summer there are 55 employees out in the fields and running the farm stand!

As the farm was expanding in the 70s, I started the Apple Orchard School. With my background in early childhood, I obtained state licensing and began a preschool with 14 children. We have 95 children now, ages three to six. While the school has grown in size, our goals and values remain the same.

At the heart of the school is a belief that

DURING THE SUMMER THERE ARE 55 EMPLOYEES OUT IN THE FIELDS AND RUNNING THE FARM STAND! and our customers would leave their money in a tin can—all on the honor system.

At one time we had eleven steers and they would break out constantly and roam around Brookline. I used to call my brother and my husband at work practically in tears saying ‘the cattle are out again!’ I was definitely, far and away, the best cattle chaser around! I’d have my three small children (Martina ’83, Tara ’84, and Lars ’90) with me and they’d hold up a stick and the steer would charge and then stop. We spent a lot of time chasing animals around the farm and the neighborhood.

Simultaneously to our working the farm, property taxes increased significantly, and we felt pressure to sell the land. All

children need to be engaged in playbased learning while immersed in nature.

We spend a substantial amount of time outside running in fields, feeding the ducks in the pond, walking our goats, building with rocks and branches, sledding, and stomping in puddles. We balance our nature-based learning experiences with our indoor curriculum: learning about letters and numbers. After 45 years of directing the preschool, I handed the reins over to my daughter, Martina Albright, Ph.D., who has been running the school since last year. With a degree in clinical developmental psychology, she brings 15 years experience of working with parents, children, and families to her role as director.

Planning for the future of the farm is a little more complex because the property is located in both Brookline and Boston and we have a big family. Thirty acres in Boston are protected by a perpetual Agricultural Preservation Restriction (APR) through the Trustees of Reservations.

But the remaining acres in Brookline are held in a trust for the grandchildren of the four owners. With multiple potential beneficiaries in the future with varying degrees of connection to the Farm, we are challenged to find ways that will be fair and equitable to all and at the same time preserve this unique piece of land for the family and the community for generations to come.

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F FA OOD RM & IN G

Rob Hurlbut ’79 PRINCIPAL, AGRICULTURE CAPITAL

SAN FRANCISCO, CA

After graduating from Park, Rob attended Brookline High School, then crossed the river to pursue an AB in psychology and social relations from Harvard College. Since moving to California in 1986, Rob has been working at the intersection of food and finance. Rob remembers that as a student at Park, he was always encouraged to get his hands into a project in the wood shop, or science, or even helping out Chef Howie with running the dishwasher in the kitchen.

“At Agriculture Capital,” Rob says, “we are fully involved in the operations as well. Delivering healthy, sustainably-produced crops just feels right.” He now lives in San Francisco with his wife, Amy and children Byron (18), and Lucy (14).

Food to me used to be just a number on a screen. Right out of college I was took a job trading coffee futures for Dean Witter.

I became curious and wanted to know more about the coffee I was buying as a commodity. I went to work for Nestlé— buying coffee and managing commodity risk—a job that took me to all the coffeegrowing regions on this planet. Visiting Brazil and Central America, for example, it’s impossible not to notice the impact that food can have on the planet, people, and economy.

As the world’s largest food company, we would have global meetings that would bring together all the country directors.

At one meeting in Barcelona, we were all seated around a giant round table, discussing the supply and demand perspectives. My job at Nestlé was to manage risk, purchase commodities, and manage a strategic business, but I was keenly aware of the tension between the demands of the origin and consuming countries. That was the moment that sparked my passion for food, nutrition, and both environmental and physical health.

BY GROWING CROPS THAT IMPROVE THE LAND, WE CREATE HEALTHY FOODS THAT NOURISH THE BODY AND DELIVER LONG-TERM FINANCIAL REWARDS.

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While at Nestlé, I took on a marketing role as manager of the non-dairy creamer business (Coffeemate). This was also formative for me, as I learned first hand the power that brands have in driving consumer behavior. Frequently, there is an inverse relationship between the food company’s profits and consumer health.

In 1996, I had the opportunity to grow a brand by de-commodifying a commodity.

I joined the then-niche company, Niman Ranch, which had been selling ten responsibly-raised, antibiotic-free beef cows per week in the San Francisco area.

We were focussed on raising the finest tasting meat and saw an opportunity to include hog farmers as well. We scaled up, but managed to maintain the same high standards and premier products.

We ensured common quality and animal husbandry protocols by all of our farmers and supplied exceptional pork, beef, and lamb to restaurants and grocery stores in a vertical supply chain. By the time we had grown to a network of 600 farmers, we decided to sell the company to a better capitalized firm, and today the company is owned by Perdue, one of the country’s largest poultry producers. The New York Times* explained that the “acquisition is another step in Perdue’s transformation into one of the largest suppliers of premium meats. Restaurants and food companies are clamoring for such meats, as consumers increasingly demand less reliance on pharmaceuticals and better animal welfare.” Perdue then announced that it would be removing antibiotics from all of its products. It is inspiring to be part of the solution that will allow natural products to prevail.

Really, the only thing that is preventing Big Food from going more natural and organic is the lack of ingredients available to them. Walmart did a study that determined that 92% of shoppers would prefer to buy organic if

it were the same price as conventional.

Organic practices can have hugely positive environmental and health impacts, but they do take a more complex farming approach.

By applying good management practices we believe we can make it financially appealing as well.

My current work at Agriculture Capital aims to do just that. This fund is working with large organic farmers to scale up the operations of blueberries, citrus, and hazelnuts. We now have 10,000 acres under production in California, Oregon, and Australia. During harvest times, we are employing nearly 3,000 workers! And, these transparent, vertical supply chains increase food quality and food safety for consumers.

The mix of crops helps leverage the risk and the growing seasons. Blueberries are very profitable right now but are riskier to ship. Navel oranges are steadier and we have farms in both California and Australia, including Sumo Citrus, an easy-peeling mandarin orange. There is also a significant opportunity for growth in hazelnuts in the US market. Believe it or not, Nutella currently accounts for 25 percent of the world’s hazelnut consumption!

In 1976, Park published a school cookbook with contributions from I believe that food is inherently the entire Upper School. My sister, Angie (Class of ’76) contributed her banana bread recip a triple bottom line business, and e that has become such a staple in our hou se that you can hardly even read the 3x5 recipe card success in the industry must be any longer. Accordingly, I thought it was worth reprinting here! measured across all three: Financial, Environmental, and Social. By INGREDIENTS growing crops that improve the land, 2–3 bananas 1/4 cup melted butter we create healthy foods that nourish 1 cup sugar 1 egg the body and deliver long-term 1 1/2 cups flour 1/4 cup any nut meats you wou 1/4 tsp salt ld financial rewards. like to add (coconut is also grea 1 tsp baking soda t)

RO B AN D AN GIE HU RL BU T’S BA NA NA BR EA D RE CIP E

*“Perdue Buys Niman Ranch, as It Expands in Specialty Meat Business,” Stephanie Strom, 9/8/2015

DIRECTIONS

Combine ingredients. Pour into greased loaf pan.

Bake at 350 for 45 minutes.

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F FA OOD RM & IN G

Andrew Taylor ’96 CHEF, EVENTIDE OYSTER CO., HUGO’S, AND THE HONEY PAW

PORTLAND, ME

Andrew’s friends from Park might find it hard to believe that the kid whose diet consisted of hamburgers, hotdogs, and ketchup in elementary school is now an award-winning chef, but it’s true! Andrew has made a name in the culinary world as the chef/owner of three restaurants in Maine. For the third year in a row, Andrew and his partner Mike Wiley of Eventide Oyster have been nominated as semifinalists for the prestigious James Beard Awards. And, Andrew is poised to open Eventide Fenway in Boston this summer. He lives outside of Portland with his wife, Rachel, and their three children, Lincoln (5), Oliver (3) and Julian (1).

My journey to become a professional chef might have been hard to predict. As a youngster, while I enjoyed being around the kitchen, my reputation was not for my culinary acumen but more for my strict adherence to a diet of junk food. The only hints of my future career could be found in my fondness for activities related to the procurement of food—fishing, clamming, berry-picking—even if I refused eat the results. My palate began to develop in high school at BB&N where I was in closer proximity to the city and met peers with more adventurous culinary interests. Later, as a ‘student’ at Bates College, I spent more time watching the Food Network and cooking for my roommates than I did at the library. Summer income was spent finding the best BBQ in the city or splurging on epic meals at some of Boston’s finest restaurants. I had certainly found my passion—and it wasn’t the SocioEconomic Structure of Pre-War Japan!

While ‘pursuing’ my degree in economics at Bates, it had seemed preordained that I would follow in my father’s footsteps (and those of his father before him) and settle into a life as an attorney.

But during a conversation about my future, I mentioned to my father that I would likely

EVENTIDE IS OUR VERSION OF THE SMALL LITTLE LOBSTER OR CLAM SHACK THAT DOT THE NEW ENGLAND COASTLINE...WITH A LITTLE BIT MORE CULINARY AMBITION.

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apply to law school to which he replied, “No. Don’t do that; you should be working with your hands.” And despite the fact that I think he probably had surgery or sports medicine in mind, I realized that any expectations about my future were selfimposed and I had received the endorsement to follow my passions. So after a year in Boston, I took a cross country road trip with my future wife, Rachel. We headed west without an itinerary or any jobs at the other end.

Within 24 hours of settling in Seattle, I was enrolled in a cooking classes at The Art Institute of Seattle learning the basics: stocks, soups, and sauces. Not interested in a full course-load, I cherry-picked a few classes like ‘American Regional Cuisine’ and

‘International Cuisine,’ which really helped me become familiar with varied cooking techniques and the vernacular of working in kitchens. Within days I also had my first kitchen job as a prep cook/dishwasher at a steakhouse, and moved up quickly in that establishment. A fortuitous introduction to Thierry Rautereau at Rover’s—one of the best French restaurants in the city—allowed me to start showing up on my days off to work for free and pick dungeness crab, chop parsley, or peel shallots. My work was rewarded with a permanent position at Rover’s where my real education occurred

in the three years I spent there. Upon returning to Boston, I worked with Ken Oringer at Clio for a year before Rachel and I headed north, in 2009, to work for Rob Evans at Hugo’s in Portland.

At Hugo’s, I teamed up with Arlin Smith and Mike Wiley, and in a few years’ time, we purchased the restaurant from Rob while simultaneously opening Eventide Oyster Co. in the adjoining space to Hugo’s. Eventide is our version of the small little lobster or clam shack that dot the New England coastline...with a little bit more culinary ambition. Expectations for Eventide were pretty modest as we thought it would be a nice little oyster bar that fulfilled a niche in Portland. Much to our surprise, Eventide exploded. It—and our signature Eventide Brown Butter Lobster Roll—has since garnered significant national attention while continuing to grow year upon year.

The growth of Eventide necessitated additional kitchen space, so in 2015, we assumed the leases to the neighboring retail units and expanded our kitchen while opening our third place, The Honey Paw, a Southeast Asian noodle concept restaurant. The three restaurants share one kitchen, allowing for certain efficiencies resulting from buying bulk products, more in-house production, cross-utilizing inventory, constant managerial oversight, etc.— perhaps the economics degree did sink in!

As it turns out, I really love the small business portion of owning a restaurant. While I still enjoy spending time in the kitchen, most of my time these days is spent working on the back end of the business, writing business plans, securing financing, overseeing budgets and managing construction schedules, like the one for our first restaurant in Boston, Eventide Fenway, which is slated to open this summer. A more focused, counter service version of the Eventide that resides in Portland, Eventide Fenway will be the spot in the Fenway area to grab a lobster roll and beer before the game, snag a fish sandwich on lunch break, or bring the family for an evening and slurp down a dozen oysters and enjoy some fine crudos and bubbly. I am excited for my journey to come full circle, opening a restaurant only a few miles from Goddard Ave.!

ANDRE W TAYLO R & MIKE WILEY ’S NEW ENGLA ND CLAM CHOWD ER Much ink has been spilled on the topic of New England clam chowder. There is no need to further discuss the significance or origin of this regional delicacy or how it differs from its Rhode Island or Manhattan counterpart – except to say it’s the best type of chowder there is. The following recipe is about as classic as it gets and is what we’ve always envisioned Little Sal and Jane eating after their action-packed morning of digging clams in the quintessential Robert McCloskey children’s book One Morning in Maine.

INGREDIENTS

5lb Chowder Clams – washed and open clams discarded.

2lb Steamer Clams – washed and soaked in salted water.

1 2” x 3” Sheet of Kombu (edible kelp) 3 Tbsp butter 1/2 lb Salt Pork or Bacon – slab ideally but sliced is ok

1 Sweet Onion – small dice 2 Medium Starch Potatoes – Kennebec, Bintje or Yukon Gold – medium dice 2 Cups High Fat Cream-line Milk – scalded (or 1 1/2 Cup conventional milk and 1/2 Cup Heavy Cream) 4 Sprigs Thyme – leaves picked and placed in milk as it scalds

Note: Make sure the clams are really high quality and were harvested within a day or two.

This is literally the most important step to the whole process. Nasty, old clams will yield nasty, old chowder.

DIRECTIONS

In a pot large enough to hold the clams, put the chowder clams in with 2” of water and the Kombu.

Cover pot and steam clams until they open. Once open, turn off and pull the clams out of the pot leaving the liquid. Discard any clams that are too stubborn to open. Let the clams cool.

Put steamer clams in same pot and bring back to boil, covered, until clams are cooked.

Steamers cook much quicker, about 2 minutes after the boil. Pull the clams out and let cool.

Strain the cooking liquid through several layers of cheesecloth. This liquid is the heart and soul of your chowder. It should taste like the essence of clams. Clean, salty and delicious.

You should end up with about 2 – 2.5 quarts.

Chop salt pork or bacon into lardons and fry over medium heat in the butter until lightly browned. Remove with slotted spoon and reserve. About 3 minutes.

Add diced onion to the butter and fry until just turning golden on the edges.

About 3 minutes.

Add the diced potato and fry with onion until exterior is softened, but not cooked through.

About 3 minutes.

Pour the strained liquid over the potatoes and onions and bring to simmer.

Cook until potatoes are completely tender. A medium diced potato should take about 10 – 15 minutes to cook through, but this can vary depending on size of dice.

While potatoes are cooking, remove hard shell clams from shells (easy). Remove soft shell clams from shells and sheath—the fibrous membrane wrapping the siphon (much more difficult).

Once the clams are shelled and the sheaths are removed, rinse exceptionally well and chop finely with a sharp knife. You could leave a few of the steamers whole—as they provide a selfcongratulatory visual reminder that you didn’t just open cans of chopped clams and clam juice.

Add the scalded milk, the clams and the lardons to the base liquid.

Bring back to scalding temperature and turn off heat. DO NOT BOIL. The milk can curdle. Set on the back of your stove for an hour before serving. The chowder will improve as the flavors integrate.

Enjoy with Oyster crackers, saltines, or biscuits.

Makes approximately 3 quarts

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F FA OOD RM & IN G

Severine Fleming ’97 FARMING ADVOCATE, THE GREENHORNS

ESSEX, NY

Severine attended Park from fifth to ninth grade, winning the John Spicer Award for Unique Service to the School Community at her own graduation in 1997. She credits science teacher Prabha (Papali) Nambiar’s greenhouse at Park for her passion for plants. “I just rediscovered a drawing and proposal I made about putting in a little garden at the carpool area, so that kids waiting for their moms could be tending flowers!” At Park, Severine ran cross-country and loved the pudding stone formations on the school grounds and Larz Anderson Park across the street. Serverine acknowledges her time at Park as being powerfully formative in terms of her discovering community service and science. Serverine had come to Park after several unsuccessful years at other schools due to attention deficit and learning disabilities, but left with a great sense of accomplishment and confidence for getting into so many boarding schools! She attended St. Paul’s, Pomona College and University of California, Berkeley where she graduated with a BS in conservation and agroecology. After campus activism and volunteering and interning on many organic farms, and in addition to launching a series of agricultural startups and farming organizations, Severine started her own organic market garden called Smithereen Farm.

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A new generation of organic farmers is bursting onto the scene and into businesses on the land. They are a critical force in reclaiming regional food sovereignty, fresh local foods, and land stewardship.

In celebration of this movement, and to provide social support for those seeking a career in sustainable agriculture, in 2008, I founded an organization called The Greenhorns. We made a feature documentary (also called The Greenhorns), run a weekly radio show, and have published four books and many guidebooks and other media and events for and about the young farmers movement. This was followed by the National Young Farmers Coalition, which now has 28 state coalitions and just put the “ Young Farmer Success Act” in front of Congress. The bill seeks student loan debt forgiveness for those who choose agriculture as a career. Farm Hack is now four years old, providing open source farm technology meetups across the US as well as Europe and New Zealand. It’s a “social purpose platform” with a website like wikipedia where people share their source farm tool designs, software, and technology.

Anyone can post, and anyone can go look up instructions on how to make an electric tractor or a vacuum seeder, or how to make a greenhouse temperature monitor that can talk to their smartphone.

The latest startup is called Agrarian Trust, whose purpose (along with advocacy) is to hold farmland in perpetual trust (from gift or cooperative purchase) to make it available, accessible, and affordable by working agrarians who are producing food for the local market. This has already been done in France with more than 112 farms in trust, with an average investment of only 5,000 Euros. This latest and youngest organization is quite a bold and exciting project in land reform—and quite timely as more than 400 million acres of farmland will change hands in the next 20 years

SEV ERI NE FLE MIN G’S SAL AD DRE SSIN G with 50 percent of the total farmland in the next ten years. Agrarian Trust also puts on national symposia on “the Land issue” to raise awareness about land transfer issues, history of land reform movements, to resource and to build public support around land succession strategies. I would love to hear from any Park alumni and families who own farmland and are considering a conservation/estate strategy on keeping that land in production. There are many landowner and land-seeker resources on our website.

At the same time I started the Greenhorns, I also started a farm in New York’s Champlain Valley that I still run as a part time venture selling herbal teas, seaweeds, and pastured animal products (some years more than others!). It’s difficult to keep the farm running full time when I’m constantly on the road organizing—lately to New Zealand where we are hosting a Farm Hack later this year. But now that I’ve spent ten years working to support the movement in various ways I hope slow down a bit and to increase my own farming soon!

The next generation of young farmer leadership is strong, and if you are reading this and have a young farmer or someone in your life who is passionate about agriculture, I hope you will encourage them! Our future depends on it.

To learn more about Severine’s work, visit: thegreenhorns.net youngfarmers.org farmhack.org agrariantrust.org

INGREDIENTS

Fresh herbs, chopped Capers, chopped Garlic, peeled and chopped Shallot, peeled and chopped

Vinegar Mustard Extra virgin olive oil Salt & pepper d vegetables!

Mix it up and dress things, including cooke

A NEW GENERATION OF ORGANIC FARMERS IS A CRITICAL FORCE IN RECLAIMING REGIONAL FOOD SOVEREIGNTY, FRESH LOCAL FOODS, AND LAND STEWARDSHIP.

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Nathan Henderson ’98 FARMER, REBER ROCK FARM

Nathan explains that his route to farming was an “organic” process. After eight years at Park, Nathan went to Concord Academy, took a gap year in Spain, and then matriculated at Earlham College, where he majored in geology and Spanish literature. Upon graduating from Earlham, he moved to San Francisco to work as a geologist at a geotechnical consulting firm. That job took him back to Spain, but only after catching the farming bug in northern California. Nathan had a one-year stint in Spain, then he moved to Ontario to work on a 100-acre mixed livestock and vegetable farm. After honing his skills in Canada, he moved to the town of Essex, New York, where he met his future wife, Racey Bingham.

They live at Reber Rock Farm with their son, Lewis.

New York’s Essex County has an ever growing number of young farmers and farms including and partially thanks to Mark and Kristin Kimball (author of the Dirty Life), who founded Essex Farm.

My wife Racey and I met while working at Essex Farm, and knew we had to figure out a way to become part of the community here.

When Racey and I first discovered it in 2012, Reber Rock Farm had been idle since the 1980s. We fell in love with that initial 88-acre parcel. The farm is now 120 acres, since we acquired another piece of land across the road. We started Reber Rock Farm with our friends and business partners, Gwen Jamison and Chad Vogel. Our hope is that by splitting the management and labor between four people, we will be able to stay healthy and happy for many years to come.

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ESSEX, NY

So as not to compete with Essex Farm, which offers shares in a full diet, 52-week community supported agriculture (CSA), we set up Reber Rock Farm on a different model. Using a combination of draft horses and diesel power, we produce a diversity of grassfed and pasture raised meats, small grains, vegetables, herbs, fruits, maple syrup, draft wood (which combines horse powered logging and restorative forestry practices), shiitake mushrooms, and Suffolk Punch Draft horses. Our goal is to provide delicious, healthy, affordable food for the Essex foodscape and beyond. We work with draft horses because we believe their presence on the farm is good for the land, the air, and our souls.

I knew that farming was physically demanding. I had expected that. Our biggest learning curve has been on the business end of things; running a small farm means running a small business. We have had to learn to be accountants, bookkeepers, marketing experts, as well as farmers.

We’ve had our share of complications as well. Last February, Reber Rock Farm’s newly-raised barn caught fire and burned to the ground. In the fire, we lost a newborn calf, our laying hens, tools, equipment, hay, and grain. And our livestock guardian dog, Piggles, was injured, but he now enjoys being a very large house dog.

In addition to our main products of meat, wood, and draft horses, our farm store is open 365 days of the year from 8am to 9pm rain or shine including Christmas and the 4th of July! We carry our own products from Reber Rock Farm (maple syrup, maple cream, maple granulated sugar, sunflower oil, tallow candles, tinctures, salves, soaps, whole roaster chickens, pickles, sauces. And will add flowers in the 2017 season!), as well as products from other producers, artisans, and herbalists.

MA ’S BR OW N SU GA R ME AT LO AF INGREDIENTS

3 tbsp packed brown sugar 1/2 cup ketchup (or BBQ sauce) 1 lb Reber Rock ground beef 1 lb Reber Rock bourbon fennel sausage 3/4 cup low-fat milk 2 eggs 1 1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp ground black pepper 1 small onion, chopped 1/4 tsp ground ginger 3/4 cup bread crumbs 1/4 cup chopped parsley 1 package Reber Rock bacon

DIRECTIONS

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees . Lightly grease a broiler pan.

• Press brown sugar in the bott om of prepared pan and spread ketchup/BBQ sauce over sugar.

• Mix ground beef, sausage, milk , eggs, salt, ground pepper, onio n, ginger, bread crumbs, and parsley thoroughly in mixi ng bowl with your hands. Shap e into a loaf and place on top of ketchup/BBQ sauce. Cover the loaf with Reber Rock bacon.

• Bake in preheated oven unti l no longer pink in center, about 1 hour.

Note: I put cubed red potatoes around the loaf for the last hou r of cooking and increased the temperature to 400 for the last 10-15 minutes.

Serves 6 to 8.

Our primary marketing model for our meat business is direct sales. We sell our beef, pork, chicken, and turkey directly to customers. We sell “freezer meats,” which is to say pork and beef by the whole, half, and quarter. Racey and I are both from the Boston area and have established a customer base for our meats both locally and in our hometown. We deliver meat orders to Boston around Thanksgiving: for more information check out our website www.reberrockfarm.com.

WE HAVE HAD TO LEARN TO BE ACCOUNTANTS, BOOKKEEPERS, MARKETING EXPERTS, AS WELL AS FARMERS.

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F FA OOD RM & IN G

Alex Whisnant ’98 SOMERVILLE, MA

CHOCOLATIER, GÂTÉ COMME DES FILLES

ALE X WH ISN AN T’S RA SPB ERR Y CHO COL AT E GA NA CHE of Make in the summertime at the peak

raspberry season!

INGREDIENTS

about 6 oz (175 g) raspberry purée (from es) 12 oz (320 g) fresh organic raspberri ) taste to st (adju r suga g) 0 4-5 tbl (60-7

8 oz (225-255 g) dark chocolate n a pinch of salt, a squeeze of lemo

DIRECTIONS

te or two until they get a metal pot on the stove for a minu Gently heat whole raspberries in the seeds. Weigh 175 out n strai and der blen n an immersio juicy and warm. Purée them with water, so that the ering simm place over a pot of almost g of the juice into a metal bowl and with a whisk until stir and r suga the Add r. wate with the bottom of the bowl is in full contact the sugar fully dissolves. . When each handful stirring in pieces of your chocolate Once the sugar is dissolved, begin thicken. Too high ly slow will e, add the next. The mixture of chocolate is melted into the puré add the last bits of so t,” “spli or rate sepa to che e the gana of a chocolate:water ratio will caus starts to slip away from ting your ganache. If your ganache chocolate very slowly to avoid split h of raspberry purée, splas a Add ting. split is your ganache the sides of the bowl, that means so that it clings to the n agai ther to bring the ganache toge cream, lemon juice, or even water, still sticking to the but ic, elast and y, shin , thick is slightly sides of the bowl. Once the ganache heat. sides of the bowl, remove from the the water droplets squeeze of lemon juice to taste. Wipe a and salt of h pinc a in k Whis into a shallow tely edia imm a cloth, and pour the ganache from the bottom of the bowl with surface of the the onto tly direc wrap ic plast ly press more pan lined with plastic wrap. Gent m high. Let the ganache thick in your pan, about .5inch/1c ganache to make it flat and evenly e for a few hours fridg the in chill then t, re overnigh cool undisturbed at room temperatu before serving. has set, dust with ll squares with a hot knife once it Slice the raspberry ganache into sma dip the ganache and olate choc y and temper some dark cocoa powder, and serve. Or get fanc s. olate choc 40 t Makes abou to create hand-dipped chocolates.

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Alex came to Park in Grade I and stayed through Grade VIII, with the exception of the fourth grade, which she spent in Minneapolis. After graduating from St. Paul’s School, she majored in physics and minored in visual arts at Duke University. When she was in the sixth grade at Park, Alex and classmate Daphne Johnson set up a candy and temporary tattoo booth at Springfest. That turned out to be Alex’s first taste of chocolate retail! Since then, she studied pâtisserie at Le Cordon Bleu and earned an MBA from Cornell, and now owns gâté comme des filles (spoiled like the girls), which sells fresh, hand-dipped chocolates highlighting local and seasonal ingredients.

While I was at Duke studying physics, a French teacher who wore cat eye makeup inspired me to drop everything and move to Paris to become fluent in French. So I took a semester off and rented an apartment on the Île de la Cité, overlooking Notre Dame.

To ensure that I didn’t spend the whole time drinking wine at cafés and smoking Gauloises, I signed up for pastry school at Le Cordon Bleu. In the process of improving my French I discovered that I loved all things pâtisserie!

Pastry allowed me to combine my scientific and artistic sides, and the kitchen excited me a lot more than the physics lab.

I returned to Duke for my senior year (with shorter hair ala Sabrina), to finish my degree. After the Duke graduation, I jetted back to Paris to complete the final course of pastry school, the one where you learn to temper chocolate and make ganache, among other things. I then started my dream internship at Ladurée, the famed Parisian macaron maker.

Following my internship, I moved to the Bay Area to live near my sister Maia (Park Class of ’85) and began an intensive four-month internship at Alice Waters’ Chez Panisse Restaurant in Berkeley. Chez Panisse is grad school for cooks. The most important thing I learned was how to taste. Each dessert had different layers of taste that would crescendo and fade at their own pace. We learned how to change the pacing of the tastes and how to highlight different facets of flavor. I also learned that the most important part of making a transcendent dessert is sourcing the most delicious ingredients you possibly can.

The Chez Panisse pastry chefs hired me full time, and I started making chocolates to serve at the end of the meal. I loved incorporating local, seasonal berries, herbs, and citrus

into the ganaches. One day I made a raspberry bonbon that I was particularly proud of. One of the savory chefs tasted it and said that it was the best raspberry chocolate she had ever tasted! The pastry chef wasn’t in the kitchen that day, but when she tasted it a couple of days later, she found it so be just so-so. We all re-tasted it and discovered that in those two days, the magical raspberry flavor had faded significantly. It was then that I realized the potential of fresh ganache. With my chef’s encouragement, I decided to start my own chocolate business that would sell only fresh chocolates, to bring people the experience of eating a ganache at its most vibrant flavor.

I thought it would be wise to learn something about business first, so after two years at Chez Panisse I went to Cornell in 2009 to get my MBA. After graduation and working briefly as a management consultant for Bain & Company in Paris, I launched my own chocolate brand called gâté comme des filles (spoiled like the girls). For the first year I sold my chocolates at pop-ups in Paris. In 2013, I moved to San Francisco and partnered with Bi-Rite Market, who proclaimed my chocolates to be the best they have ever tasted. In 2015, I realized I missed the snow and the changing seasons and I relocated my business to Boston.

I now make my chocolates inside of Aeronaut Brewery in Somerville and sell them at Formaggio Kitchen in Cambridge and Boston and in my online shop.

When we were in the sixth grade, Daphne Johnson and I set up our own little candy and temporary tattoo booth at Springfest. It was also just one moment among countless moments throughout the school year where we went all-out with the festivities to celebrate life, the arrival of a season, and our community.

Festivals such as Yule Festival and May Day were my favorite times at Park. Every December I can still hear Mr. Hurlbut belting out “The Boar’s Head” in my mind, and this joyful energy carries through into my chocolates, and into my customers’ homes where they are celebrating the season in their own way. Each batch of chocolates I make is a small celebration of a special moment in the year. I have Park to thank for my love of celebrating the seasons and the holidays.

PASTRY ALLOWED ME TO COMBINE MY SCIENTIFIC AND ARTISTIC SIDES, AND THE KITCHEN EXCITED ME A LOT MORE THAN THE PHYSICS LAB.

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F FA OOD RM & IN G

Mira Mehta ’99 FOUNDER & CEO, TOMATO JOS

PANDA, NIGERIA

How did a young woman of Indian and Finnish heritage come to launch a tomato paste company in northern Nigeria? In 2008, Mira was attending to HIV-related projects for the Clinton Foundation. Through her work, she travelled all over the country, which is slightly larger than twice the size of California. That winter, she encountered her first tomato market glut—thousands of tomatoes lining the roads—placed there by farmers who were trying to dry and preserve them before they rotted. That image troubled Mira for years until she was able to build a company to address the problem. As a coxswain on the rowing team at Winsor and later on at Brown, Mira relished setting the pace and encouraging the rest of her teammates in her boat. She likens that experience to how she leads her company: “I am driven to build a team, to get everyone to see the vision, and to motivate and share my passion with others.” Mira now lives full time in Nigeria, returning to Boston approximately once a quarter.

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Although I studied community health at Brown, after graduation, I ended up working in finance at Blackrock Asset Management after I graduated. After visiting an HIV orphanage during a vacation in Kenya in 2009, I started to think twice about my job, and I felt I should be doing something more proactive for society. I applied for a job at the Clinton Health Access Initiative, and agreed to let them send me anywhere, which is how I ended up in Nigeria in 2008. While I had two Park School classmates who were of Nigerian descent, Grace Faturoti and Ijeoma Uzoma, I didn’t really know anything about the country.

Soon after my arrival in Nigeria, I started learning a lot as my work required me to travel extensively within the country.

Though my job was focused on HIV/AIDS, I took an interest in nearly everything I saw.

Why were there thousands of tomatoes lining the sides of the road at certain times of year? I discovered that these were surplus fruits: when prices dropped too low, farmers would try to dry and preserve their goods. I dug further and learned that Nigeria was the world’s 14th largest tomato producer (Nigerian farmers account for 65 percent of the tomatoes grown in West Africa), but paradoxically, the country is also the largest importer of tomato paste in the world. It just didn’t make any sense— why import all that paste when Nigeria already grew so many tomatoes? This was clearly a huge problem, but with Nigeria’s population of 180 million and an emerging middle class, it also seemed like a huge opportunity.

Although I’ve lived in Nigeria off and on since 2008, I have never grown comfortable with the levels of poverty and inequality that exist here. Over time, I became increasingly frustrated with the NGO approach to solving problems; it seemed highly dependent on what the donors cared about, and I saw programs “finish” when grant funding ran out, even though the problems hadn’t yet been

TOMATO JOS HELPS SMALLHOLDER FARMERS GROW EXCELLENT TOMATOES AND PROVIDES DELICIOUS, LOCAL TOMATO PASTE TO NIGERIAN CONSUMERS. solved. I started to feel like I would be able to make a more meaningful and sustainable impact by personally running my own company than by continuing to work for a non-profit. Since I didn’t feel I had the skill set to start doing my own thing right away, I applied to business schools and in 2012, returned home to Cambridge to attend Harvard Business School. At HBS, I took a break from both health care and development work while I figured out what I wanted to do next. It was a great opportunity to try new things, including an internship at a high-tech startup that made drone sailboats. While I didn’t care too much about the boats, I did love the feeling of the startup and being in the midst of entrepreneurs.

During my second year at school, I began to seriously re-consider the Nigerian tomato problem that I’d first encountered five years earlier, and in my final semester I put together a business plan for Tomato Jos: a for-profit social enterprise that would produce high quality tomato paste for the West African market, sourcing raw material from smallholder farmers. The company’s integrated business model adds value at both ends of the spectrum. We add value to farmers by giving them the tools and the incentive to grow tomatoes at much higher yields, sell a greater proportion of their harvest, and access consistent, fair prices. And we add value to consumers by providing them access to high quality, local Nigerian tomato paste at prices that match lowerquality imports.

Tomato Jos weathered more than a few storms during the first growing season, battling everything from tomato viruses to water shortages to a virtual shutdown of operations during the 2015 presidential election. But as the saying goes: what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger! Our first step was to really understand the tomato crop. They are difficult to grow, are only viable as a fresh product during the dry season, and they are highly susceptible to disease. With that as our baseline,

our goal was to increase our farmers’ yields by four or five times. In addition to supplying chemical fertilizers and pesticides, we encourage farmers to use sustainable methods such turning residual crops under instead of burning them in the fields and applying chicken or cattle manure to add more fertility to the soil.

We started the business with a $25,000 grant from Harvard and two employees; three years later, the company has raised over $2 million to expand operations, and has grown the team to 30 employees. Our model hasn’t changed—we still help smallholder farmers to grow excellent tomatoes, and this spring we will use those tomatoes to make high-quality tomato paste. The farmers who partner with us receive support during the growing season, and are guaranteed a fair, consistent price when their crops are ready for harvest. And once our product hits the market this spring, the consumers will get to eat fresh, delicious tomato paste while supporting a proudly Nigerian economy.

OI N TO M A TO JO S M OI N M INGREDIEN

TS

mato Jos brand, sp tomato paste (To Tb 2 a pe ed ey ck Bean flour OR Bla of course) 1 lb. Nigerian Brown s, online, or grind od Fo ole Wh at le 1/3 cup of milk flour (availab le oil 1/3 cup of vegetab n!) ow your ely chopped fin s, ion g on eg w ge llo 1 lar nal) 2 medium ye , quartered (optio finely chopped 3 hard boiled eggs 1 red bell pepper, le stock salt to taste 3/4 cup of vegetab tional) ter (not boiling) wa t ho of banana leaves (op ps cu 4 3 1/ DIRECTION

S

s) get rid of any clump smooth. o a large bowl (to int ur water mixture until d flo an an ur be flo the the isk 1. Sift wh y ntl ge d hot water an ulsifies.

2. Add 2 cups of the x until the batter em lk, egg and oil. Mi mi the d ad y wl time. If you 3. Slo ter a little bit at a d pepper remaining hot wa d an ste pa 4. Add the onion an ato re at this time. vegetable stock, tom rred into the mixtu about the size 5. Gently stir in the y should also be sti the , in Moin should be gs Mo eg d ch ile Ea l. bo foi or ins ek ram are using hardor ves, d. re into banana lea off on the other en 6. Spoon the mixtu e end and tapering on on ed nd rou ll, of a tennis ba nutes.

7. Steam for 35 mi 8. Enjoy!

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F FA OOD RM & IN G

Oliver English ’05 CO-FOUNDER, PRODUCER, DIRECTOR FEEDING TOMORROW FILMS

MY TRUE PASSION COMES AT THE INTERSECTION OF FOOD, POLICY, HEALTH, AND THE ENVIRONMENT.

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NEW YORK, NY

Oliver English is a producer, environmentalist, restaurant developer, explorer, and photographer. He and his sister Belle (see page 28) and brother Simon grew up in the family’s restaurant business. Oliver attended Park from Kindergarten to Grade VIII, went to Brookline High School, and graduated from the Cornell School of Hotel Administration. For the past several years, Oliver has led the Todd English Group’s operations and international development, where he oversaw opening restaurants in the Bahamas, Abu Dhabi, and Manila. Through these experiences, particularly overseas, Oliver witnessed firsthand the positive and negative effects of globalization, industrialization, and climate change on the world’s food system, which instilled in him a fierce desire to highlight these issues and inspire real change in the world.

I grew up on our family’s restaurant banquette, and have been immersed in the world of food hospitality ever since.

I always loved being with people, hosting, cooking, and designing spaces and experiences. Our family’s business, which began with Olives and Figs in Boston, now has 22 restaurants around the world. I’ve been involved with the overall business development and led the opening of three of the international locations. It was these experiences that really opened my eyes to the need to increase awareness about the issue and work towards creating a more sustainable path for our humanity. In our family’s restaurants, I’ve been working to make some changes. As a first step, we are actively trying to improve local sourcing for all of the restaurants and are offering more plant-based options on our menus. Instead of just telling people to eat less meat (by

far the most detrimental to environmental and human health), and by providing a delicious vegetarian alternative, hopefully our customers will make that choice on their own. We’ve been trying to bring the culture of health and sustainability into all of our restaurants.

My true passion comes at the intersection of food, policy, health, and the environment. I’ve come to realize that food is connected to every aspect of life, human and environmental health being the most important. Food is our most intimate connection with the natural world. Food—how we grow it, distribute it, and waste it—is inextricably linked to our health, our environment, our economy, and our societies at large. In the last 40 years, our Western habits and our animal-centric diet has been destroying the planet while it is gaining popularity across the world. By the year 2050, the world population is expected to grow above 9 billion people. In that time, demand for meat is expected to increase by 75 percent while arable and habitable land will decrease and continue to be affected My grandmother sent me a vegan version of her classic chocolate chip cookies. In my opi by climate change. Clearly, nion, anything from my grandmother’s kitchen is a winner! our current behavior is not sustainable.

The recent election INGREDIENTS 2/3 cup coconut oil me inspired my brother Simon lted 1 tsp baking powder 2/3 cup coconut brown and me to create a film that sugar 1 tsp baking soda 2/3 cup vegan white sug will bring a greater awareness ar 1 1/2 tsp salt 2/2 cup vanilla almond to and address this growing milk 2 1/2 cup flour 1 tsp vanilla problem (Simon, who is the 10 oz vegan chocolate chips film’s co-director, editor, and

cinematographer, graduated from the New York Film Academy.) While we don’t expect the new administration to address this issue, we cannot afford to continue to stay the course. Our film, Feeding Tomorrow, will be a feature-length documentary that explores our humanities’ need to create a fully sustainable global food system. We are showcasing innovators on the front lines—those creating positive change in our food system today—farmers, educators, chefs, entrepreneurs, scientists, nutrition & wellness experts.

We explore the intersection of food, water, health, education, politics, culture, technology, and the environment. We delve into the societal implications of food choice on our planet and our health.

What steps do we take to be more favorable for all people? How do we promote growth and distribution that takes the health of the planet into consideration in a more profound way?

OL IV ER EN GL IS VE GA N CH OC OL AT E CH IPH’ S CO OK IE S

DIRECTIONS

Mix sugars and wet ing redients. Add dry ingred ients and chips.

Bake for 14 minutes at 350 degrees. For a var iation, omit the chip and add oats and raisins. spring 2017

The Park School Bulletin 27

F FA OOD RM & IN G

Belle English ’08 TEST KITCHEN COOK, WILLIAMS SONOMA

SAN FRANCISCO, CA

A Park School lifer, Isabelle English entered as a Nursery (PreKindergarten) student and graduated with the Class of 2008. At Park, Belle spent as much time in the art studio as possible. She did her Grade IX work study project with a photographer, a precursor perhaps to her work as a food stylist and the ubiquitous food photos on social media.

“Without a photo, it’s like it never existed.”

As a senior at Beaver Country Day School, Belle founded, designed, opened and operated CurlyCakes, a cupcake shop on Charles Street.

She managed both school and baking for four years, spending time in the store every day during high school and coming home almost every weekend during college—until her decision to study abroad in London finally caused her to close the doors. “It was so fun. In retrospect, I realize I had this sense of ignorant bliss, I wasn’t afraid of failure. I think now I would be more hesitant to just open a bakery and dedicate my life to it.” Following graduation from Beaver, Belle headed to New York City to attend The Gallatin School of Individualized Study of New York University, where she created her own major: “Understanding Beauty Through Art and Food.” In her studies, she applied her love of visual art and writing to her other love: food. Since then, Belle has been honing in on her true passion—creating and integrating beauty, food, and balance into our lives.

I’ve always considered myself a baker first.

My Park friends will probably remember that I was always creating something new in the kitchen and bringing in baked goods for bake sales and games. But growing up in a chef’s family, cooking was at the forefront.

As I have grown up and created my own food story, I have really come into cooking in my own way—I think of my style as a combination of both my parents’ cooking styles, creative and sophisticated like my mom, spontaneous and vibrant like my dad.

Now, I’m lucky enough that my job is basically a 50/50 split between baking and cooking. A big part of my work as a cook in the test kitchen is running food development projects—this means to create and manage recipes that will become food products sold in Williams Sonoma stores across the world. This includes baking mixes, braising sauces, turkey brines—the list goes on and on. It is really a fascinating process.

We begin the process by either developing a recipe, an idea, or working with a chef/partner on a concept. Then, we work with food scientists (who will take the recipe and convert it into a shelf-stable product) and food vendors (who will mass produce the product).

We also write about 6 – 8 cookbooks a year, ranging in topics from cookies to pressure cookers.

This is where I can let my creativity shine through a bit. So far, I’ve already been part of five in my ten months on the job!

We develop the recipes and test them out—sometimes we get them perfect on the first try, other times they require considerable tweaking. Once, I had to re-test falafel about 15 times. I don’t think I will ever eat one again!

Williams Sonoma is actually my second stint at a test kitchen. After college, I took

THERE IS NO BETTER FEELING THAN SOMEONE ENJOYING YOUR FOOD. I PUT SO MUCH TIME AND LOVE INTO IT. IT’S AMAZING TO GET THAT SAME LOVE BACK.

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spring 2017

a five-month internship at America’s Test Kitchen (ATK) in Boston. That was my first introduction to this very scientific and meticulous approach to cooking. Then, I worked as a food stylist for ATK and ran my own catering company, The Belle Jar, where I’d put on dinner parties for 2-30 people. I love elegant, rustic, real food— food that makes you feel good. I also love to cook for people—which catering allowed me to do over and over again.

There is no better feeling than someone enjoying your food. I put so much time and love into it. It’s amazing to get that same love back.

On a whim, I went out to San Francisco to “hang out” at Williams Sonoma’s Test Kitchen. Fortuitously, while I was there, one of the cooks gave notice and suddenly I found myself packing up my bags and moving across the country.

I’ve learned so much in such a short amount of time. My previous experience with food and baking had a different, more personal focus. I didn’t go to culinary school and learned how to cook at home, so my food was exactly that, homey. Now, at Williams Sonoma, I’m using my skills in the kitchen to create products for a large corporation, which gives me a sense of universality. I think the trick is to be able to combine the two—to create recipes or food products that have both components of comfort and newness.

I’m so incredibly fortunate that I’m doing what I love. I don’t know where my passion for food will bring me, but so far I have been able to share it with many people. To me, food is about so many things. It’s about cooking with my parents and my nona, making my brothers, Oliver and Simon, their favorite caccio e pepe (which they claim is “better” than my dad’s…but I know they’re just being nice!) It’s about creating recipes and sharing recipes. It’s about culture and environment and growth and nutrition. It’s the one piece of our lives that everybody—no matter what race, religion, culture, gender, or background you stem from—can relate to. And I think that’s pretty magical. In its utmost simplest terms, food makes people happy. And being able to be a part of that happiness is what keeps me going.

BELL E ENG LISH ’S MIN ESTR ONE WITH SAUS AGE AND KALE (From the Williams-Sonoma Test Kitchen) INGREDIENTS

5 Tbs. olive oil 1/2 lb. (250 g) mild Italian sausage, casings removed 1 yellow onion, diced 2 carrots, peeled and coarsely diced 1 celery stalk, diced 2 garlic cloves, minced 2 cans (each 14 oz./440 g) cannellini beans, drained and rinsed

4 cups (32 fl. oz./1 l) chicken broth 1 cup (4 oz./125 g) grated Parmesan cheese 2 fresh rosemary sprigs Juice of 1/2 lemon 1 small baguette, cut on the diagonal into 1/2-inch (12-mm) slices Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper 2 bunches kale, stems removed, leaves chopped

DIRECTIONS

the olive oil. Add the sausage and sauté, breaking In a Dutch oven over medium heat, warm 3 Tbs. of about 7 minutes. Add the onion, carrots, celery and it into pieces with a wooden spoon, until browned, bles are tender, about 5 minutes. Add the beans vegeta the until garlic and sauté, stirring occasionally, heat to a simmer and add 1/2 cup (2 oz./60 g) of the and chicken broth and bring to a boil. Reduce the the pot and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 30 Cover juice. lemon Parmesan, the rosemary sprigs and minutes. the baguette slices on both sides with the Meanwhile, preheat an oven to 375°F (190°C). Brush Arrange on a baking sheet in a single layer. Bake, remaining 2 Tbs. olive oil and season lightly with salt. brown and toasted, about 10 minutes. Remove golden is bread the turning once halfway through, until from the oven and let cool slightly. sprigs from the soup. Add the kale and cook, While the crostini are cooling, remove the rosemary but still bright green, about 5 minutes. Taste the stirring occasionally, until the kale is wilted and tender r. soup and season with salt and peppe serve with the crostini and the remaining 1/2 To serve, ladle the soup into individual bowls and 4. to 2 cup Parmesan alongside. Serves

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The Park School Bulletin 29

alumni notes Buzz Gagnebin ’55 remembers an old fashioned miter saw from his Park days. Today, he explores Cambridge on his tricycle.

1953 CLASS REPRESENTATIVE

Bob Bray

1955 1938

1945

CLASS REPRESENTATIVE

CLASS REPRESENTATIVE

Putty McDowell

Natalie Park Shutz

1942

Class Rep Natalie Park Shutz reminisced about her time at Park: “I went to Park School only one year. I entered as a kindergartener and left the next June having completed Grade Two. Of course the school was a small building then in a different location. My maiden name is Park; my great-aunt Julia Ballantine Park ran the school. This picture includes me at age barely 6 in the center of the next-to-top row, with scarf. I was moved to 2nd grade before Christmas, so this must be the K-1 class from before my promotion. I loved my one little year!”

Gregg Bemis reports, “one wife, 6 kids, 11 grand kids and one greatgrand kid. Living in Santa Fe and would be happy to reunite with anyone who gets out this far.”

1948

Natalie Park Schutz ’45 and Kindergarten and first grade classmates in 1937 – 1938.

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Renny Little shared some exciting news with us: “my granddaughter Caroline (Athletic Director Bob Little’s daughter) followed her father to Denison University where she is on the field hockey team.

Erin is following closely behind her big sisters in playing field hockey and lacrosse.”

spring 2017

the old Park because a teammate of the 1962 Harvard Football team that I was the manager for grew up there.

Got the name it seems from Irish Immigrants in the nineteenth century. It’s a pretty classy area now.”

CLASS REPRESENTATIVE NEEDED!

1958

Charles (Buzz) Gagnebin wrote in with a Park memory and a current update: “I remember one afternoon when we weren’t out playing, a classmate and I were alone in the shop. There was an old fashioned miter saw that had posts the saw ran through and that moved up and down to accommodate wood to be sawed of different heights. My classmate and I had fun rocking the saw up and down making the posts pop up and down, making a toy out of the saw. I am sure we should not have been doing that and even should not have been allowed in there alone. But Park was a great school. My wife even taught there in 1970. From Park I went to Dexter, Noble and Greenough, Harvard, MIT and Michigan ( JD). We now live in Cambridge and enjoy tricycling through the neighborhood seeing the sights and chatting with neighbors. After 48 years of practicing IP law, mainly patents, it’s a fun place to live. Just sold an away house in Charlottesville to relieve the pressure of keeping up two place so far away.

We still love Virginia, it’s kind of a southern New England with so many northern people there. And, oh yes, I became aware of the name Whiskey Point for the area of

CLASS REPRESENTATIVE NEEDED!

Congratulations to Julia ‘Judy’ Tobey!

She says, “I recently had a book published: my stepfather’s WW2 memoir, which I edited.

The book is Captain McCrea’s War: The World War II Memoir of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Naval Aide and USS Iowa’s First Commanding Officer, by Vice Admiral John L. McCrea. After retiring from the navy, McCrea lived in Chestnut Hill and married my mother in 1965. He was a gifted and amusing raconteur with the memory of an elephant and an insightful understanding of people. After 20 years’ toil on this project, I am thrilled with the memoir’s reception by historians and general readers alike.”

Paul Ayoub ’70 and Lizzie Ayoub ’09 with their book, Inspire Me!

1963

1968

CLASS REPRESENTATIVE

CLASS REPRESENTATIVE

Amy Lampert

Vicky Hall Kehlenbeck

1966

1970

CLASS REPRESENTATIVE

CLASS REPRESENTATIVE

Wigs Frank

Anne Singer

1967

RE U N ION YEAR!

CLASS REPRESENTATIVE

Davis Rowley Georgia Brown Pollak writes, “in the 50 years since Park, I got educated (Milton, U of Penn BA, Columbia MBA) and worked in marketing/communications for 35 years both in corporate and educational institutions. Also was a playwright, due diligence consultant, volunteer, and board member in a number of areas but especially music and my temple. Happily still married to patient Bill, supportive for 41 years. We raised a son and daughter who each produced three boys—yes, six grandsons! I am retired in NYC and despite Multiple Sclerosis, having a great time doing the things I missed when working.

Like many of us, coping with hard stuff too: my health, my mom’s dementia, and the Trump era. But such is life. A bunch of us are trying to get a good turnout at our 50th Park School reunion. Hope to see many of us there to reminisce about our amazing experience at Park that still nourishes me. Please email me, especially if you’re in NYC.” Georgia.Pollak@gmail.com

Congratulations to Paul Ayoub and daughter Lizzie Ayoub ’09 who have published a book! Inspire Me!—A father-daughter book of quotations to motivate, teach and inspire, includes quotations both widely known and never-before published from all walks of life. All profits of this book will be donated to St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital. Alison Burr recently spoke with Lauranne Dayton Oliveau and writes: “The call brought back memories of my childhood. Laurie was my nearest Park neighbor and my first best friend. We used to walk home from Park to my house, stop to have snacks, play and visit with my mother, and then we’d walk up the hill to her house where we’d have more snacks, more playtime and a visit with HER mother.

One day we spent the entire afternoon walking each other back and forth to each other’s houses, talking and laughing. Aaahhh! Simpler times!” Aaron Fink remarks, “In these times of change and chaos, one starts to think of those things that have real meaning in your life.

For me, Art is the answer, as this a human’s most profound reflection on the world in which we all exist; but what would that be without

Alumni Achievement Award Peter Wetherbee ’53

T

he 2015-16 Alumni Achievement Award was presented to Winthrop (Peter) Wetherbee ’53 on Friday, December 2, 2016. During Morning Meeting, Peter accepted the award and spoke to students about his work with the Cornell Prison Education Program (CPEP). Peter, the former chair of Cornell’s English Department, helped start CPEP more than a decade ago when a group of Cornell professors began teaching courses to the prisoners at the Auburn Correctional Facility, a maximum security level prison in Auburn, New York.

Peter spent the morning at Park and engaged in animated discussions with students and faculty about his experiences teaching literature to inmates through CPEP. It was an inspirational morning, and we were thrilled to honor Peter with the Alumni Achievement Award!

Peter poses with Greg Cope ’71 and Rena LaRusso ’04 after his presentation in the Theater.

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The Park School Bulletin 31

1

2

Alumni spanning 50 years of Park School classes reconnected at the 8th annual February Fete on Thursday, February 2nd. Following remarks by Cynthia Harmon and Amy Lloyd McCarthy ’86, co-chair of the Head of School Search Committee, alumni guests reminisced with some favorite teachers including Sally Baker, Dean Conway, Comfort and Greg Cope ’71, David Lawton, Bob Little, Alice Perera Lucey ’77, Curt Miller, and Lucy Robb. Mark your calendars—the Alumni Office is already looking forward to next year’s event!

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4

5

8

9

11

12

13

14

spring 2017

3

ƒebruary ƒete

E IG HTH AN N UAL

6

7

10

1 Eliza Drachman-Jones Quincy ’98, Sam Plimpton ’98, and Alexandra Whisnant ’98 2 Comfort Halsey Cope, Cynthia A. Harmon, Emily Callejas ’89, and Alice Perera Lucey ’77 3 Trustee and Co-Chair of Head Search Committee Amy Lloyd McCarthy ’86 addressing the crowd 4 Former faculty Lucy Robb, Comfort Halsey Cope, and Sally Baker 5 Samantha Bendetson McCourt ’02 and Katherine Gormley Saeli ’02 6 Cynthia A. Harmon, Nashan Vassall ’95, and his guest Kizzy Maitland 7 Bob Hurlbut and Sam Plimpton ’98 8 Director of Alumni Relations Rena LaRusso ’04 addresses the crowd 9 Elizabeth Wilsker ’04, Rebecca Wilsker ’00, and Bob Little 10 Phoebe Gallagher Winder ’84, Julia Lloyd Johannsen ’93, David Glynn ’91, and Betsy Glynn 11 Sam Dimond ’98 and Director of Annual Giving Sharra Owens-Schwartz 12 Lucy Robb and Amy Lloyd McCarthy ’86 13 Jacob Barkan ’85, Diana Walcott ’85, and Abbott Lawrence ’85 14 Curt Miller and David Lawton

alumni notes those fundamentals in life, such as family, friends, and the human network we all live in. So to that point I am writing this class note to say that I have managed to sustain a career as a painter, while raising a family with three children, two of which live to this day. My oldest, Nathaniel, got a BFA in photography from MICA in Baltimore, took five years working various positions, including a stint at Boomerangs, then went back to school at Tufts and received a MA in urban planning and environmental design. He was hired out of school

by Toole Design Group, specializing in implementing bicycling and clean transportation into urban environments. Abigail graduated two and a half years ago from Ithaca College with a degree in psychology and is currently working at the Children’s Franciscan Hospital in the psychiatric ward, where she finds the situation challenging, but highly experiential. As for me, the time in the studio becomes ever more precious, and I would say the same is true of my wife, Anne, who is a ceramic artist.”

1972

Rob Twyman ’79 was doing some house cleaning and came upon a box of old photos and memorabilia amongst which three Park photos were found, “including this one of our eighth grade selves!”

RE U N ION YEAR!

CLASS REPRESENTATIVE NEEDED!

We’ve lost touch! Please help us reconnect with these alums! If you have information about any of these Park alumni, please visit www.parkschool.org/alumni and click on the tab called “Stay In Touch.” Thank you!

Joseph Brown Robert Brown Joseph Burke Nancy Richardson Carlson Christopher G. Cutler Bruce Egdahl Frederick T. Ernst Jr. Jessika Frykstedt Joshua Goldberg Rachel Grossman Deborah Hubbell Steven Kenner Timothy Poole Lay Philip Bird Lloyd Stuart S. Randall Lise Ann Reichard Norinda Rodney Kay M. Rosenberg Margaret Rutenbeck Hannah Sargent William Scheft Jr. Mark Sidel

Lauren Shuman Simonelli Sarah L. Smith Ellen L. Stout David C. Sturdy Amy Elizabeth Usen Claude A. Villee III William S. Woodson

1973 CLASS REPRESENTATIVE

Rick Berenson

1974 CLASS REPRESENTATIVES

Margaret Smith Bell Rodger Cohen

1975 CLASS REPRESENTATIVES

Colin McNay Bill Sullivan

1976 CLASS REPRESENTATIVE

Tenney Mead Cover

1977

RE U N ION YEAR!

1979

CLASS REPRESENTATIVE

CLASS REPRESENTATIVES

Sam Solomon

Lalla Carothers Sally Solomon

We’ve lost touch! Please help us reconnect with these alums! If you have information about any of these Park alumni, please visit www.parkschool.org/alumni and click on the tab called “Stay In Touch.” Thank you!

Sarah Doyle Boulet-Gercourt Denise Burgess Allyn B. Burrows Steven Donovan Dominic Ellison Rhys Lilla Gardiner Edward Hall Ward Hart Sheila Anne Kincade Dawn McMahan Gregory Nemrow Carolyn Robbins Christopher V. Rowland Christopher F. Schenck Eric Sonnabend Stephen Thomas Charlotte Sonnenblick Van Doren

Lalla Carothers reports: “The Park School Class of 1979 Facebook page has been pretty active lately.

If you’re on FB and haven’t already signed up, check it out. There’s a lot of fun old pictures out there…

I went down to Boston in late February to catch Margie Talcott’s son Peter Scharer in a Nobles production of Shrek, a funny, heartwarming, and entertaining musical. While visiting Brookline, I ran into Olivia Fischer Fox, who was walking with her husband and dog in the neighborhood Saturday morning. It was great to catch up on her news and reminded me how much fun our reunions have been.

Boston mini-reunion, anyone?”

1980 CLASS REPRESENTATIVES

Andres Hurwitz Susan Schorr

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alumni notes

This fall, photographer Tom Kates ’84 reconnected with his former teacher Phil Gambone while on a photo shoot at Boston University Academy, where Phil now teaches.

Diana Birkett Rakow ’92 and Jackson Holtz ’84, at the Group Health Gala in October 2016. Diana is the President of the Group Health Foundation and Executive Vice President of Marketing, Public Affairs and Foundation, and Jackson is on Diana’s team managing media relations. Together, Diana and Jackson are working towards a healthier community, and they share fond memories of Park School days.

1981 CLASS REPRESENTATIVES

Matt Carothers Alex Mehlman

1982

RE U N ION YEAR!

CLASS REPRESENTATIVE

Allison Nash Mael We’ve lost touch! Please help us reconnect with these alums! If you have information about any of these Park alumni, please visit www.parkschool.org/alumni and click on the tab called “Stay In Touch.” Thank you!

Tetsuo Iguchi William Craig Kauffmann Karl H. R. Klaussen Sarah Pitkin Ann Poskanzer Jennifer Rainin David Randell David Robinson M. David Schore Nicole T. Hassman Sinclair Tracy Slater Andrew P. Stubblefield Cristina Vaughn Michael Wall Charles Wardell

1983 CLASS REPRESENTATIVES

Douglas Allen Hugh Ames Dana Berenson Evan G. Dando Nicole Y. Dokton Dunn Kristin Eisenstadt Edwin G. Fischer Jr. Benjamin Green Edgar Howe

Lisa Livens Freeman Elise Mott

1984 CLASS REPRESENTATIVE

Anne Collins Goodyear

STAY CONNECTED WITH PARK ONLINE Facebook

www.facebook.com/ParkSchoolAlums

Instagram

ParkSchoolBrookline

LinkedIn Twitter

Request to join our group “Park School Alums” @TheParkSchoolMA

FOLLOW US AND STAY CONNECTED WITH PARK! 34

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spring 2017

1985 CLASS REPRESENTATIVES

Melissa Daniels Madden Rachel Levine Foley

1986 CLASS REPRESENTATIVES

Mark Epker Jay Livens

1987

RE U N ION YEAR!

CLASS REPRESENTATIVES

Mary Sarah Baker Fairweather Geoffrey Glick Kate Miliken Vaughey shares this update: “For the past three years, I have been working on MyCounterpane.com, a startup I created out of my own experience of being diagnosed with MS. We give patients and caregivers dealing with chronic illness a way to lay out their experiences based on how they feel. By doing so, they break their stories into moments that become emotional data points that create a library of easily searchable moments of what it’s actually like to live with a chronic illness. I am proud to announce that, as of February 20th, we have launched a completely new 2.0 platform that is absolutely magnificent. On it we will be supporting MS, mental health, Lyme disease, epilepsy and chronic pain (to start). My requests of you, glorious classmates, are the following. #1: Please register to MyCounterpane.com. You can be a supporter in any of these conditions if you do not deal with one directly. By doing so, you can take a look at what we’ve built (and give us even more traffic). #2: If you know anyone who is managing MS, a mental health issue, epilepsy, chronic pain or lyme, please refer

them to my site. #3: If you know anyone who is dealing with an individual journey where they need to update their family and friends on their progress (a la Caringbridge.org), please email me at kate@mycounterpane.com, because we’ve built a way to track an individual journey that’s multi dynamic and powerful. Finally, if any of you know any angel or seed investors who might be interested in emotional measurement in the healthcare space, let me know. We’re working to finish a fundraiser and it would be the best story EVER if a Park classmate was able to connect me with someone who cared.” Spike Anderson and his wife, Marita, are living in Atlanta, “where I am a rabbi at an amazing congregation. Marita splits time between hospital chaplaincy and writing. We have a busy house with our three kids Maccabee, Moses, and Hallelujah (Mac, Mo, Lulu). I’m most in touch with Nick Tarlov ’88 and would love to see any Park folks anytime.” Jennifer Bluestein is a deputy director at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, working on US advocacy and communications. “In my spare time I work raising money for and supporting women candidates and progressive advocacy organizations. I live in Old Town, Alexandria, with my history professor partner Tom and two aging spaniels. One of the happiest things about this year was reconnecting with Lizzie Sullivan, reminiscing about time together reading in the library, and sharing laughs about life now!”

Christina McGinnes McCormick reports: “doing well with kids in 4th grade (Finlay age 10) and 2nd grade (Leyton age 8) enjoying school and various activities around town. Here’s a fun fact—I just read Jane Langton’s Diamond in the Window to Finlay—a great memory for those of us who had Mr. Cope in 5th! We’ve been in Wellesley for 12 years and it looks like

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Alumni Clambake 2016

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Clark Freifeld ’93, Dean Conway, & Katrina Newbury ’85 Director of Development/giant corn on the cob, Bea Sanders Head of School, Cynthia A. Harmon and Sally Baker 2016 classmates Asa Hamot, George Rowe, JJ DeMarco, Sujay Jain, Alex Tesson, and Ben Wilmerding with Head of School Cynthia A. Harmon Kyla Wright ’16 and Head of the Upper Division, Alice Perera Lucey ’77 Matthew Krepps & Stephanie Stamatos ’85 Clambake guests enjoying the lobster feast!

Ayana Keitt, niece of Elizabeth Mitchell ’94 Friends from the Class of 2016 reconnect: Sophia Lowry, Khyle Smith, Katy Severin, Mikayla Paquette, Camila Salcedo, Karina Kilburn, Breanna Durand, Charlotte Ketterson, and Shelstie Dastinot Talia Smith ’16, Molly Potter ’16, and Caroline Bonnevie ’16 Maya Freifeld ’22, avid donut eater Development Coordinator Jamie Byron plays with alumni children on the Faulkner Field

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On a gorgeous day in September, Park alumni celebrated the end of summer with a lobster feast complete with clam chowder, corn-onthe-cob, and more. Alumni enjoyed catching up with present and former faculty members including Janice Allen, Sally Baker, Dean Conway, Cynthia Harmon, and Alice Perera Lucey ’77. Our youngest guests participated in a donut-eating contest and lots of fun games on the fields. We hope to see you there next year!

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Benjamin Norian, son of Elizabeth Sandman Norian ’92 Alison Ross ’93 and her Facing History teacher, Greg Cope ’71, got together for “Dejeuner a Paris! Avec du vin, ou sans”

Christina McGinnes McCormick ’87 and husband John, with children Finlay and Leyton.

we’re planning on staying a little longer as we are about to embark on a house renovation—eek! I’ve been working as the enrichment coordinator for the kids’ school for the last six years, researching and planning both on- and off-site programming in addition to serving on the Friends of the Wellesley Free Library board raising money for programming. I see Park folk now and then but am looking forward to having a critical mass in May at Reunion!”

We’ve lost touch! Please help us reconnect with these alums! If you have information about any of these Park alumni, please visit www.parkschool.org/alumni and click on the tab called “Stay In Touch.” Thank you!

Anna L. Boysen Sarah Clark Matthew Cooney Sophie T. Cramer Joshua E. Dunsky Michael C. Gatti Gregory V. Goldmakher Christina A. Udelson Knopp Elaine Lee Craig A. McGrath Brian E. McNeil Christopher Milliken M. Taylor Monacelli Sean K. Murphy A. Sekou Neblett Gabrielle Farkes Oglesby Justin R. Rodriguez Tania Y. Rodriguez Andrew H. A. Rutherfurd Juliet J. Suri Morgan Terigi Mark D. Walsh Christina Wiellette

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The Park School Bulletin

1988 CLASS REPRESENTATIVE

Liza Cohen Gates

1989 CLASS REPRESENTATIVES

Dahlia Aronson Ian Glick Rebecca Lewin Scott

1990 CLASS REPRESENTATIVES

Zachary Cherry Alexander Rabinsky

1992

RE U N ION YEAR!

CLASS REPRESENTATIVE NEEDED!

2016 was a big year for Diana Birkett Rakow. She writes, “My husband Jeff and I welcomed our second child, Eleanor Vashti, on December 21, 2016, named after my grandmother. Everyone, including big brother Gus (3) is well. We also moved (still in Seattle), and are close to completing what has been a huge focus of mine: the acquisition of Group Health by Kaiser Permanente.” Elizabeth Sandman Norian says, “I’m enjoying being a mom to my son Ben (born September 29, 2015) with my husband, Mark.

I continue to work in primary care the VA in West Roxbury and teach at BU Medical School. Life is pretty busy between working and Ben but I occasionally get to visit my oldest friend, Laura Dahmen Merriman and her family in Virginia.

On another front, my sister Joanna Sandman ’95 recently got engaged in is getting married this summer.”

spring 2017

We’ve lost touch! Please help us reconnect with these alums! If you have information about any of these Park alumni, please visit www.parkschool.org/alumni and click on the tab called “Stay In Touch.” Thank you!

Thomas Anderson Elizabeth Beardslee Eliza Block Lindsay Cameron Church Kate Clemens Kate Wharton Cury Luke Dobromirski Melissa Otis Gray Tilsley Hagen Jared Hall-Dugas Andrea Islas Nicole Langelier Nicholas Lewin Brian Edward McEvoy Rene Merced Sarah Cameron Moriarty William Murphy Jeffrey Nisbet David Oktay Charles Rounds Marc Scheff Christopher Vila Sarah Miller Wendel

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1995 CLASS REPRESENTATIVE

Lilla Curran Matthew Stahl

1996 CLASS REPRESENTATIVES

Kathrene Tiffany Bell Nick Brescia Merrill Hawkins Katayoun Shahroki Melissa Goldman shared, “After a decade living far from Boston, I moved from NYC to Jamaica Plain with my spouse. We’re surprisingly close to Park! I’m embracing the adventure of rediscovering the city.

This past year, I’ve worked on an exhilarating project—founding The Village Works, a neighborhood coworking space in Brookline Village. It’s a shared workspace designed for work/life harmony, helping small businesses, independent + remote workers, and startups, while supporting the vibrant neighborhood. I’d love to share the excitement and show Park friends (old and new) around the space!

You can reach me at melissa@ thevillageworks.com.”

CLASS REPRESENTATIVES

Jessica Ko Beck Jaime Quiros Alison Ross Jaime Quiros and his wife, Cynthia, welcomed Isabel Melisa Quiros on Aug 22, 2016. Jaime’s clan, including older brother Daniel, have lived in Maryland for the last six years.

1994 CLASS REPRESENTATIVES

Alan Bern Aba Taylor

1997

RE U N ION YEAR!

CLASS REPRESENTATIVES

Sarah Conway Suzy McManmon Sarah Robbat We’ve lost touch! Please help us reconnect with these alums! If you have information about any of these Park alumni, please visit www.parkschool.org/alumni and click on the tab called “Stay In Touch.” Thank you!

Bree Boulware Andrew Chen W. Reid Diamond

alumni notes Amy Kathryn Dorrien Chiamaka Ezepue Joseph J. Follayttar Alyssa Leigh Frankel Kathryn Sarles Garvey Nadia Hemady Elizabeth Hughes Tamara Lam-Plattes Helen Isabel Larkin Logan Miller Leighton Phillips Jonathan Ross Paul A. Schmid

1998 CLASS REPRESENTATIVES

Lydia Hawkins Meg Lloyd Sarah Swettberg

Left to right: Eliza Cope ’04 making the best of the snow in Wyoming; Bennett Wilson ’04 and Kimberly Catlin on their wedding day at Tower Hill Botanic Garden; Georgina Winthrop ’06 and Robert Stevenson with Augusta Winthrop ’09, who was the maid of honor

1999 CLASS REPRESENTATIVES

Colin Arnold Susanna Whitaker Waters Elizabeth Weyman Susanna Whitaker Waters is enjoying her new role as academic dean at Brooks School. She, her husband Willie, daughter Ainsley, and dog Neely look forward to welcoming a baby brother in March!

In a year that provided a lot of travel for work and weddings, a babymoon in Spain and Portugal was a special highlight.

2000 CLASS REPRESENTATIVE

Jessica Whitman Seney

2001 Class Representative Ben Bullitt

2002

RE U N ION YEAR!

CLASS REPRESENTATIVES

Alejandro Alvarado Alexander Lebow

We’ve lost touch! Please help us reconnect with these alums! If you have information about any of these Park alumni, please visit www.parkschool.org/alumni and click on the tab called “Stay In Touch.” Thank you!

Jesse Coburn Farrell M. Frankel Jonah Gorski Alexander G.L. Hunter Daniel Read Miller Katherine Shepherd Courtney Stock Matthew J. Weinberg

is studying place-based education (PBE). PBE emphasizes connections to the local area and community and curriculum is often project-based.

She spent the fall in the field, teaching student groups from all over the country and is teaching 4th grade math and literacy at an independent school operated by TSS this winter.

She graduates in July and after finishing the second year of her master’s, hopes to be an elementary school science teacher. Congratulations to Bennett Wilson who married Kim Catlin Wilson (a former Park apprentice!) at the Tower Hill Botanic Garden in September 2016.

2005 CLASS REPRESENTATIVE

Become a Class Representative

2003

Lily Bullitt

CLASS REPRESENTATIVE

Classes of 1960, 1961, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1969, 1971, 1972, 1978, 1980, 1985, 1991, 1992, 2002

2004

Congratulations to Tucker Halpern for being nominated for a Grammy!

Tucker and Sophie Hawley-Weld make up the duo ‘Sofi Tukker’ and their single ‘Drinkee’ was nominated in the Best Dance Recording category. Go Tucker!

á Stay in touch with friends! á Gather class news for the Bulletin! á Help plan your reunion!

After a year and half of covering the 2016 presidential election, Kylie Atwood is now the CBS News State Department reporter.

“I will be traveling with Secretary Tillerson and covering all-things foreign policy for the network. This job brings me back to DC where I am thrilled to be close to my sister, Chapin Atwood ’11, who is now a sophomore at UVA.” Eliza Cope is a first year graduate student at Teton Science Schools (TSS), in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where she

Want to learn more?

Please contact Rena LaRusso ’04, Director of Alumni Relations, at 617-274-6022 or alumni@parkschool.org

Diana Rutherford

CLASS REPRESENTATIVE

Steven Fox Molly Lebow

2006 CLASS REPRESENTATIVE

McCall Cruz Congratulations to Georgina Winthrop, who married Robert Stevenson on September 17, 2016 in Northeast Harbor, Maine. Augusta Winthrop ’09 was the maid of honor, and alums David Fuller ’06, Camilla de Braganca ’06, Annabel de Braganca ’04, and Miguel de Braganca ’01 were also in attendance.

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Young Alumni Bagel Breakfast

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Alumni from the classes of 20122016 returned to Park for the annual Young Alumni Bagel Breakfast before Yule Festival, an event that has become a tradition for Park’s most recent graduates.

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Shelstie Dastinot ’16, Karina Kilburn ’16, and Curt Miller Max Ewald ’17, Clare Wibiralske ’16, Cynthia A. Harmon Zane Bookbinder ’16, David Shaw ’16, Katie Conn ’16, Karen Manning, and Sadie Golen ’16 Karina Kilburn ’16, Karen Manning, and Julie Holton ’14 Ben Wilmerding ’16, Sujay Jain ’16, and Scotty Fries

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A group of young alumni checking out Park’s Instagram! Follow us @parkschoolbrookline Eli and Oscar Burnes ’14 with Dean Laabs and Steve Kellogg Kenitra Daly, Kata Khakali, and Caroline Keating, all Class of 2017 Will Adam, Ben Wilmerding ’16, Cynthia A. Harmon, Kung-Yi Chang, Sujay Jain ’16, Henry Ngo ’16, Alison Connolly, Alice Perera Lucey ’77 Kung-Yi Chang and Clare Wibiralske ’16

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The Park School Bulletin

spring 2017

Before Jacob Aduama ’07 left for his two-year stint as an engineer at Volvo in Gothenberg, Sweden, he had a mini reunion with Park friends and their moms! L-R: Grant Jones, Brenda Jones, Audrey Aduama, Jacob Aduama, Ann Thomsen and Chris Thomsen.

Sascha Bercovitch Christopher Cecchin Lily Morris Halpern Olamide Olatunji Moriah Grace Palmer

for his specialty at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina for an additional four months. Staley Louise Smith is working in Washington, DC for a think tank focusing on the Middle East. Staley, who graduated from Johns Hopkins in 2016, lived in Amman, Jordan and in Haifa, Israel for a year. She speaks fluent Arabic which allows her a front row seat at the table when discussing stability in the region. Lizzie Ayoub and her father Paul Ayoub ’70 have published a book! Inspire Me!—A father-daughter book of quotations to motivate, teach and inspire, includes quotations from all walks of life. All profits of this book will be donated to St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital. Congratulations!

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2010

CLASS REPRESENTATIVES

CLASS REPRESENTATIVES

Manizeh Afridi Marielle Rabins

Annie Goodridge Gilad Seckler Michela Thomsen

2007

RE U N ION YEAR!

CLASS REPRESENTATIVES

Thomas Cope Benjamin Schwartz Mollie Cunningham Young We’ve lost touch! Please help us reconnect with these alums! If you have information about any of these Park alumni, please visit www.parkschool.org/alumni and click on the tab called “Stay In Touch.” Thank you!

2009 CLASS REPRESENTATIVES

Mercedes Garcia-Orozco Cary Williams Camden Smith graduated from Trinity College in May of 2016 and was commissioned in the US Marine Corps as a lieutenant. He finished The Basic School (located in Quantico, Virginia) in March 2017 and received his first choice MOS (specialty) of Combat Engineer, which is a front line combat position. He will continue to train

A small group from the Class of 2011, all juniors in college, got together over the winter break at the Boston Winter Christmas market in City Hall Plaza! L-R Lilah Lutes (USC), Jenna Isaacson (Colby), Miranda Hunter (Franklin & Marshall), Noa Sklar (Tulane), Elizabeth Koris (Trinity), and Sylvie Florman (Oberlin).

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2015

CLASS REPRESENTATIVES

CLASS REPRESENTATIVES

Maddie Hurley Katherine Mitchell

Caroline Beecher Jonathan DeJesus

Katherine Mitchell reports that she will be graduating from Tabor Academy this spring, and will attend the University of Richmond next fall. We also heard that Benjamin Thompson Hall is attending the University of Rhode Island.

Congratulations!

2016

2014 CLASS REPRESENTATIVES

Ellie Formisano Olivia Mills

CLASS REPRESENTATIVES

John Joseph DeMarco Charlotte Ketterson Gage McWeeny River Studley Congratulations to Ian Emery who is one of two recipients of the Alex Cohn Grant at Beaver Country Day School. The grant “is designed to support other Beaver students who would like to explore their interest in an extracurricular activity that will have a meaningful impact on their life journey.” Ian will build a professional-grade rowing vessel!

News from Former Faculty & Staff

2011 CLASS REPRESENTATIVES

Grace Donnell-Kilmer Eliza Thomas

2012 CLASS REPRESENTATIVES

Enya Meade Jaleel Williams James Bell is a freshman at Trinity College.

Former colleagues Greg Cope ’71, Steve Kellogg, Bob Hurlbut, and Dean Conway attended a Harvard hockey game in February.

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alumni notes Arrivals Clockwise: Christopher Ellis ’98 with wife Rachel Williams Ellis and daughter Charlotte Pierce Ellis; Isabel Melisa Quiros with older brother Daniel Quiros, children of Jaime Quiros ’93; Eleanor Vashti and older brother Gus, children of Diana Birkett Rakow ’92; Caitlin Connolly ’98 with daughters Sophie and Lillian; Avery Williams-Vafai ’01 with husband Scott and daughter Madelyn Williams-Vafai

1998 Caitlin Connolly and Kate Koles Lillian Connolly Koles February 23, 2017 Christopher Rand Ellis and Rachel Williams Ellis Charlotte Pierce Ellis November 11, 2016 1999 Susanna Whitaker-Waters and William Waters Callum Rahilly Waters March 15, 2017 2001 Avery Williams-Vafai and Scott Williams-Vafai Madelyn LeBoff Vafai October 20, 2016 1992 Diana Birkett Rakow and Jeff Rakow Eleanor Vashti Rakow December 21, 2016

Caroline Hoppin March 10, 2017

1993 Jaime Quiros and Cynthia Quiros Isabel Melisa Quiros August 22, 2016

In memoriam Sherman Clough ’42 November 12, 2016 Brother of Galen Clough ’50 Ruby Druss January 8, 2017 Stepmother of Rena LaRusso ’04 Caroline Hoppin March 10, 2017 Director of Admission (1977–2001), Trustee (1973–1977); Mother of Polly Hoppin ’74, Alison Hoppin Murchison ’76, and Andrew Hoppin ’86; grandmother of Gabe Murchison ’07, John Murchison ’09, Emma Thomas ’06, and Eliza Thomas ’11.

Jean Messex ’49 January 24, 2016 Peter Wadsworth ’94 December 2, 2016 Brother of Nathaniel Wadsworth ’96

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O

ver the course of her 24 years as Director of Admission, Caroline Hoppin had a profound impact on The Park School. Not only did she play a central role in introducing the School to prospective families, she also helped shape and define Park as a more inclusive, metropolitan school. Jerry Katz, Head of School Emeritus recalled, “She always made it clear that she believed that Park needed to become more welcoming to families of color and to those who were eligible for need-based financial aid not only because it was the right thing to do, but also because it would make Park a healthier place for all of the children lucky enough to be growing up there. Furthermore, Caroline understood that, in embracing diversity, Park also needed to continue to be a community where more traditional independent school families, including our own alumni families, could feel valued. For many years, diversity worked at Park, because of Caroline’s appreciation of what it took to sustain a truly inclusive school community.”

Caroline and her husband, Fred, joined the Park family in 1965. They logged 21 years as parents while their children Polly Hoppin ’74, Alison Hoppin Murchison ’76, and Andrew Hoppin ’86 attended the School. Caroline served as treasurer of the Parents’ Association, class rep, editor of the Park Parent, and an admission tour guide. She was a trustee from 1973-77, serving as the chair of the Educational Policy Committee. Caroline served as Park’s Director of Admission from 1977–2001. During her tenure, Caroline always found a way to convey real insights about each prospective student and to express abiding respect for the aspirations of their parents. She literally wrote the book, Elementary School Admissions for NAIS, setting a very high bar for her colleagues around the country. Caroline understood her profession well: “The job of admission is an art, not a science. It is heavily intuitive. Our most important goal is to see that everyone ends up feeling positive about the process. We are to be of service at a time that is often stressful.”

There will be a memorial service for Caroline on Saturday, May 20 at 11 a.m. at the First Parish Church in Sherborn, MA. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Brookline Community Foundation in her memory.

Park teachers are known for their kindness, support, passion, and dedication to teaching students to be lifelong learners. Faculty care for children not only as students, but as individuals and as citizens of the community. A close personal relationship between teacher and student is the center of the learning process at Park, and that is why we celebrate Faculty & Staff Appreciation Day on Friday, May 5th.

Every day, Park teachers make a difference. So can you.

Your gift to the Annual Fund in honor of our outstanding faculty & staff will continue Park’s legacy of excellence in education. A gift to the Annual Fund demonstrates your belief in Park’s mission, and expresses your gratitude to all of the faculty and staff who made a difference in your life and who continue to make a difference in the lives of Park’s current students.

To make a gift in honor of Park’s Faculty & Staff, please visit www.parkschool.org/give, or call the Development Office, at 617-274-6018.

Who are the Park teachers who have made a difference in your life?

The Park School 171 Goddard Avenue Brookline, Massachusetts 02445 Change service requested Parents of Alumni, If this publication is addressed to your son or daughter who no longer maintains a permanent residence at your home, please notify the Alumni Office of the new mailing address. 617.274.6022 or alumni@parkschool.org. Thank you!

Alumni, you can update your information on our website: www.parkschool.org/alumni, then click on the tab called “Stay In Touch.�

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