Stephanie Vithoulkas Hackett ’91 & Jason C. Hackett ‘88 Stephanie attended PCDS in eighth and ninth grade, then went to boarding school at Andover. Jason attended PCDS from fifth grade through high school and graduated in 1988. Steph recalls that she was a freshman when Jason was a senior, so “we knew of each other but didn’t hang out. I thought he was ‘hot’, but he had a serious girlfriend and would never have dated a puny freshman!” Jason shared that “Steph was a varsity cheerleader, and though she doesn’t believe me, I remember seeing her at the top of the pyramid when she cheered at basketball games thinking she was ‘cute,’ albeit very young looking. I lucked out. She’s still young-looking.” Years after we left PCDS, we officially met at a party when we were both home for Thanksgiving in 1993. Our mutual friends, Rick Daley and Hugh Daley, introduced us at a party thrown by their brother Tim Daley (the Daley Bridge was named in their mother’s honor), Jason’s brother Ian Hackett and their buddy Bennett Dorrance. Although Steph attended Wellesley College, she was spending her junior year on exchange at Williams College, and Jason happened to be living in Albany, New York, just an hour away. They started dating in Williamstown, Massachusetts in January 1994, and were married in March 2001. Steph and Jason have four children, three of whom are at PCDS: Emme Kate (13) is in seventh grade, Kather (11) is in fifth grade and Rainey (9) is in third grade. “Our threeyear-old daughter, Thea, looks forward to attending PCDS with her older brother and sisters. She is already well known around campus and seems to be a mascot among the Lower and Middle Schools, even appearing as a tiny eaglet at big games!” Steph and Jason both have treasured memories from their times as PCDS students. Steph recalled, “I remember my mom pulling up in front of Burch Hall on my first day at PCDS and the head of Middle School, Mr. Baker, greeted me at the car and introduced me to my first friend at PCDS and still-dear friend, Danielle Gordon Schlichter. That day, I made another lifelong friend, Courtney Cooper Mathy, and now our children are good friends. I remember being such a young girl who never would have imagined that her future husband was sitting right there in the Upper School quad, and that we would have four children who would one day be walking these same paths. For us, PCDS is more than an education for life; it has shaped our lives in ways we never dreamed.”
Emme Kate, Stephanie, Thea, Kather, Rainey, and Jason
“ For us, PCDS is more than an education for life; it has shaped our lives in ways we never dreamed.” Stephanie Hackett
Jason “remember[s] the growing bond of four families—the Hacketts, the Daleys, the Dorrances and the Torreys—a motley crew of varying ages that spanned Lower, Middle and Upper Schools, who still remain close to this day. I remember ‘La Pluma Roja’, Señor Bruning’s infamous red pen. When he pulled it from his pocket, someone was in trouble. I remember Mr. Raymond’s ease at explaining geometry. To this day, I have never had to solve a geometry problem, but I could if I needed to. I remember getting a harsh lesson on the finer points of abstract expressionism when I dared to tell Mr. Cook that a Jackson Pollock painting reminded me of something a mere child could do. I remember sitting in the new gym, which is now the old gym, rooting for our high school basketball team (and noticing a certain cheerleader) in what would become the very same spot I now root for my daughter’s basketball team. I remember our championship Eagles soccer team, tough and talented, and bound by brotherhood—Morris and David Friedman, Kris and Dino Stathakis, Hugh and Tim Daley, my brother Ian and me. Like hell if we were getting beat. I remember the quad bustling with laughter and pranks and optimism, and also an underlying nervousness of what lay beyond the safe walls of PCDS. Only later did I realize that I never left PCDS; PCDS came with me and remains with me to this day.”
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