Voices

A Look Back

Two historically focused stories from the spring issue caught the attention of our readers. Joe Kahn ’67’s “Looking Back on WPAA, Andover’s Radio Revolution” sparked several letters and alums writing in to help identify the young man in the photo at right. Additionally, the “Saving Abbot” cover story elicited appreciative feedback for shining a light on this previously untold story.

Thank you for the story on WPAA. It runs deep in my family. My brother, Ben Barker ’65, was mentioned in your story and was key to the technical pieces.

A little more on the First-Class Commercial Radiotelephone Operator License: Ben and I were interested in electronics as young kids and decided that the ultimate credential was a first-class radio license. We studied extensively and, when we felt prepared, took the train to New York, as I recall, to take the license test. They were a little taken aback at two young kids who thought they were knowledgeable enough to take the top professional license test, but we passed with ease. Thanks for the memories.

—JIM BARKER ’61

“I was a DJ from 1989-1992 with Vanessa Hill, coming to you from the basement of Evans Hall. We played mostly new wave/indie music, but occasionally threw in something like C+C Music Factory's "Everybody Dance Now." If you were a teenager during that time, you loved that song...or at least had it stuck in your head half the day.”

@HRIVKACOOPER

Via Instagram

The “mystery student” pictured in the WPAA studio on page 92 of our spring issue has been identified as Thornton Bigelow “Tony” Roby ’67. Thank you to the many alumni who sent us his name. One sleuth, Andy Cunningham ’67, said that “all the credit goes to old technology—my 1966 and 1967 Pot Pourris!”

A First-Class Commercial Radiotelephone Operator License was the ultimate FCC license that authorized the holder to build and/or operate any U.S. commercial radio or TV station. It was the ultimate professional credential in the field, the pride of the seasoned technical staff at a commercial station, and unheard of for high school kids.

My brother, Jim, decided that he would get one over the summer. I tagged along and, as a result, arrived at Andover with a first-class commercial license. It meant enough to me that I still recall it was license #P1-2-16447. It was a good thing that I had it because it was what allowed me to be responsible for the installation and operation of WPAA’s FM transmitter at a time when nobody else on campus held such a license.

I was also president of the amateur radio club W1SW, which had a history going back to the early 20th century. I rebuilt the ancient and abandoned transmitter and started having contacts around the world. I recall a joint project with the chess club, which put on a chess match with Exeter conducted over shortwave radio.

I believe that the WPAA experience was an enormously important part of what I and so many others learned at Andover. From a variety of perspectives, including technical, artistic, production, and professional, it was a unique chance at hands-on learning.

—BEN BARKER ’65

Given our wireless world, it would have been worth surveying Andover’s part in operating radio stations de novo. The earliest reference I can find online is 1916. Robert A.

Domingue ’54 notes in his history of Phillips Academy that members of the “Wireless Club” inhabited a basement room in Graves Hall. This was in keeping with the activities of many boys and young men, as well as a few females, in the late 1800s/early 1910s.

During the 1920s broadcast boom, students ran a licensed amateur station from 1925 into the 1930s, which communicated by code and voice with amateurs on most continents. A photo of the Phillips Academy Radio Club station was featured in the Bulletin in 1925; more research might reveal some continuity with the 1916 initiative, if not the location of that shack and antenna. John M. Murray ’29 wrote an extensive article about his four-year presidency of the club for 73 Magazine in 1976.

Whether PA was the first high/prep school to have a license is moot; as a historian, I’m very reluctant to make flat claims for firsts without solid documentation and definition of terms. More research would enhance this outline, perhaps to the degree of unearthing the administration’s reasons for forbidding radios or wireless equipment in dorm rooms into the 1950s, and tracing the fate of Andover’s amateur station license, “ham shack,” and radio club before the revolutionary shift to a broadcast license in 1965.

—ALEX MAGOUN ’77, FORMER EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, DAVID SARNOFF LIBRARY

the BIG question

Send us your responses and we will consider them for publication in an upcoming issue. Please email

magazine@andover.

edu or airish@

andover.edu.

Andover will celebrate 50 years of coeducation in 2023. How do you think coeducation has impacted the Academy?

“The strongest parts of my character were nurtured in my two years at Abbot. I'm incredibly grateful to Frankie and Oscar Tang, Ms. Finbury, and incidentally, still enormously grateful to her mother, the late Marion Finbury, who steered my life so well with her college recommendations.”

NANCY LINDQUIST O’NEAL

Via Facebook

It was a pleasure to read “Saving Abbot,” with its recognition of the many people whose commitment, perseverance, and philanthropy protected Abbot’s legacy for the future. One of these major leaders deserves further recognition: Donna Brace Ogilvie ’30, Fuess Award winner in 1997 and a significant benefactor of both Abbot Academy and Phillips Academy.

When the Sacred Circle was preserved in the mid-’90s, Donna led the fundraising campaign to renew Abbot Hall. One of her gifts was her visionary leadership to establish the Brace Center for Gender Studies, in honor of her father, Donald C. Brace, founder of the publishing company Harcourt, Brace & Howe. Mr. Brace was instrumental in Donna’s enrollment at Abbot, having sought the guidance of his friend, Headmaster Claude Moore Fuess, who highly recommended Abbot as just the school for his daughter.

—DON ABBOTT, FACULTY EMERITUS

Andover magazine welcomes letters addressing topics related to the Phillips Academy and/or Abbot Academy community. Letters will be edited for clarity, space, and civility. Opinions expressed in the Voices section do not necessarily represent the viewpoints of the magazine editorial staff, or of Phillips Academy.

How wonderful that you’ve written such a terrific article about Frankie Tang. She was in my Abbot class and a good friend. All she did to save the Abbot campus was remarkable. Somehow the merger with Andover was rough and the Abbot campus was more or less forgotten. Frankie brought it back to light!

—LOUISA LEHMANN BIRCH ’57

I want to applaud Andover magazine and everyone involved for the brilliant “Saving Abbot” article in the spring 2022 edition.

The author manages to beautifully combine the history of Abbot and why it was so worth saving along with the stories of three Abbot women who were integral in preserving the campus—Ms. Finbury, Ms. Timken, and Ms. Tang. And of course, Oscar Tang.

—SARA INGRAM ’71

I was a little surprised to read who in “the world” came to speak at Andover last winter (spring 2022 issue, p. 9). With one exception (a pianist and respected educator), the visitors all appear to be activists of various stripes: • An intersectional health educator who gave a talk on

“Decentering Beauty and Success from Whiteness” • A Stanford undergraduate and environmentalist who founded a volunteer organization that translates climate information into other languages • An author who speaks and writes about “religion and civic engagement, spiritual care and chaplaincy, Islamic intellectual history, and women’s studies” • A Black woman playwright and screenwriter who writes about workers’ rights in postindustrial America • The chair of Princeton’s Department of African

American Studies, who spoke at the 2022 MLK Day program While I’m sure all these people shared interesting and important perspectives, I think Andover could attract a more intellectually diverse group of accomplished speakers to address students.

—DAVID G. ANDERSON ’67

ERRATA

Our apologies for mixing up members of the Sarnoff family on page 92 of the spring 2022 issue. Robert ’35, Edward ’38, and Tom ’43 all attended Phillips Academy. Tom helped to fund Andover’s WPAA radio station. Their father was David Sarnoff, a pioneer in radio and television. Due to a reporting error, the architects for Draper Hall were incorrectly named in the “Saving Abbot” story. The building was designed by the prominent, late 19th-century Boston architectural firm Hartwell & Richardson.

“I am glad to see that the Peabody has today come into its own and maybe now is a cool place to visit!”

I was delighted to learn that the Peabody Institute is thriving. When I entered Andover as an upper in 1957, my father, who had attended PA for one year (1919-1920), said I should definitely visit the archaeology museum. Having lived in Egypt from 1953 to 1954 and having visited the Cairo Museum at least 14 times, I knew I'd like it—and I did! But in 1957 I noticed that I was always the only student there.

I soon found out why: going to the Peabody was not “cool.” My friends and I also went to the Addison Gallery— that was also un-cool. And we enjoyed walks through the Cochran bird sanctuary—very un-cool. I am glad to see that the Peabody has today come into its own and maybe now, 55 years later, is a cool place to visit!

TORY WESNOFSKE

Loyce LaShawndra Pace ’95 was recently elected to the Board of Trustees along with three other alumni: Drew Guff ‘79, Allison Picott ‘88, and Aisha Jorge Massengill ‘88. See page 11.

“Congrats all- you continue to keep Andover great and inspire our future leaders!!! Shout out especially to classmate LaShawndra! Go ’95!!!!!”

—MIMI CRUME STERLING

Via Facebook Students pose during Promenade 2022

“Okay the fashion game has been UPPED since 2010 trips to the Burlington mall!”

@SARAMARGARITAA

Via Instagram

Craig Thorn, a beloved English instructor, began collecting and distributing a summer reading list with suggestions from faculty and staff in 1990.

“Mr. Thorn was my freshman history teacher, my college counselor, and he appeared on my radio show on WPAA. He was kind and had anecdotes of a previous era of Andover life that were enthralling. He guided me to a liberal arts school where I flourished…He was a great teacher and a great man for Andover.”

@YBTHR

Via Instagram

All School

PLAY BALL!

Big Blue legend and inaugural Andover Athletics Hall of Honor inductee Dick Phelps ’46, P’73, ’89, GP’14, stopped by to visit the baseball team this spring. Phelps (front row, white cap) played baseball, hockey, and football at Andover and has funded the Richard J. Phelps Scholarship for Athletes for more than 30 years. PA’s baseball field, Phelps Park, is named in his honor.