Pomfret Magazine — Winter 2015-2016

POMFRET Magazine WINTER 2015-2016

Peter Bergen 2016 Schwartz Visiting Fellow

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“Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.�

- Plutarch

YOU ARE CORDIALLY INVITED TO

Pomfret School’s

m m o e n C c e m 2 ent 2 1 nd

Sunday, May 29, 2016

2:00 PM

Clark Memorial Chapel Lawn 2016 Commencement Speaker Mr. Jonathan T.M. Reckford CEO, Habitat for Humanity International Please contact Assistant to the Head of School Diana Brennan if you have questions concerning this special event 860.963.6113 dbrennan@pomfretschool.org

CRATIA DEI MECUM

We Want to Hear from You Really, we do. These are your stories and this is your magazine.

If we’ve inspired or challenged you, please tell us about it.

— Submit To — Melissa Bellanceau |

Editor | mbellanceau@pomfretschool.org

FEATURES

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Pomfret School 398 Pomfret Street • PO Box 128 Pomfret, CT 06258-0128 860-963-6100 www.pomfretschool.org

The Man Who Met bin Laden

Editor Melissa Perkins Bellanceau mbellanceau@pomfretschool.org Head Writer Garry Dow Designer Jordan Kempain

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Words of Wisdom

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Life on the Hilltop

CONNECTIONS

HILLTOP

Contributing Writers Brian Rice Caroline Sloat P ’86, ’95 Chip Lamb P ’09, ’11 Chloe Saad ’16 Harrison Flax ’17 Jamie Feild Baker Josh Lake Julie Kremer P ’14, ’17 Melissa Perkins Bellanceau Rich Dempsey Tim Richards P ’15 Class Notes & Gatherings Editor Deb Thurston dthurston@pomfretschool.org

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The Power of Neighborhood

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Chapel Talk: Doug Braff ’16

Brain Teaser

Iconography: The Victory Bell

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New Faculty

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Real Learning

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Class Notes

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Why APs Don’t Fit at Pomfret

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In Memoriam

Pomfret Magazine is published by Pomfret’s Communications Office © 2016

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Freshman Fundamentals

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Class Agents & Secretaries

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The Global Classroom

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Gatherings

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The Problem with Math

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The Greatness in All of Us

We welcome letters from readers on subjects related to the School. We also welcome letters to the editor and suggestions for future articles.

Submissions may be edited or shortened for publication. Please email submissions to: mbellanceau@pomfretschool.org.

Alumni Profile: Ring Bailey ’63

Arts Athletics

Pomfret School does not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, handicap, gender, sexual orientation, age, or national origin in the administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, financial aid, or other programs administered by the School.

Contributing Photographers Deb Thurston Jamie Davis Jim Gipe (Pivot Media) Lindsay Lehmann

Our Mission: Pomfret School cultivates a healthy interdependence of mind, body, and spirit in its students as it prepares them for college and to lead and learn in a diverse and increasingly interconnected society.

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The Power of Neighborhood

By Tim Richards P ’15, Head of School

L

ike many middle aged folks, I am prone to nostalgic musings.

I have crystal clear memories from my childhood, memories of which I am deeply fond. When I think back on those days, I think mostly of my friends: Razz, Doug, Scott, Maha, John, Stefan, Jothie, and Geoff. We were inseparable. We fought like cats and dogs. We challenged each other in every sport imaginable. We hunted frogs. We built tree forts.

We played Manhunt. On weekends and in the summer, we would leave home after breakfast, rush home for lunch, play until dinner, and then head back out until dark. Our parents rarely knew where we were, nor did they seem to mind. We were happy and free.

In most ways, we were no different from other children growing up in the sixties and seventies. Our neighborhood was like many across the country: a community of open doors and watchful eyes, a whole network of families looking out for us, keeping us safe and healthy and grounded as we navigated the journey from childhood to young adulthood.

Of course, my neighborhood was unique. Membership came with distinct advantages. Even as a middle schooler, I was acutely aware of this reality.

We had almost unlimited access to an astonishing array of complimentary amenities. Our neighborhood had a movie theater and a performing arts center. It had a skating rink and tennis courts. It had an enormous gymnasium with climbing ropes. It had a fitness center, basketball courts, and a swimming pool. It had a rec hall with free popcorn and ten-cent pinball machines. It had a sixty-five-acre wildlife sanctuary and a cool art museum and row upon row of playing fields. It was an extraordinary environment in which to grow up.

When the time came, I went to high school in that same neighborhood.

There, under the watchful eye of Headmaster Ted Sizer (Pomfret class of 1949) and an incredible assemblage of talented educators and eager peers, I witnessed firsthand the true power of a neighborhood education.

Surrounded by caring teachers, coaches, dorm parents, and classmates from across the country and the world, this school and the neighborhood it created provided opportunities for learning unlike any other. It was a school that demanded face-to-face accountability and engagement.

Equally important, it provided a safe environment in which I could try, fail, try again, and succeed.

Some thirty-one years ago, I made a conscious decision to devote my career to boarding schools. Some might argue I live in a bubble. Fair enough.

There is some truth in that. But I have also made a conscious effort to transcend that bubble whenever I get the chance. I have eaten scorpions and turtle brains, run class IV rapids, hiked the Presidential Range in the dead of winter, and spent three uncomfortable days in North Korea.

Now in my fifty-third year, I keep coming back to the protected environs of the boarding school world. Why? Not because I lack imagination or experience, but because no other educational neighborhood compares.

In a 2006 paper published by the Aspen Institute, co-authors Amie Schuck and Dennis Rosenbuam defined the word neighborhood this way: “a spatial unit in which face-to-face social interactions occur — the personal settings and situations where residents seek to realize common values, socialize youth, and maintain effective social control.”

By this definition, the boarding school community is a true exemplar of the ideal neighborhood. Unfortunately, our modern world poses an existential threat to the very idea of the neighborhood. Dramatic and disruptive increases in technology have created new opportunities to connect, but they have also left us — paradoxically — more isolated and alone than ever before.

On a recent sunny and unusually warm Sunday, I took a walk with my wife and my mom near her home in New Hampshire. As we were strolling through the local neighborhood, my mom suddenly stopped and asked “Where are all the kids?” In a community home to dozens of youngsters, on a glorious afternoon with fresh snow, not one kid was out. It was eerie, and my mom, who had spent much of her adult life living on a boarding school campus, was both saddened and concerned about what the absence of kids playing meant. Her comment jogged something loose in my mind: feedback I hear a lot from new parents and students. “Pomfret feels different,” they say, “even from other boarding schools.”

I feel it, too.

Pomfret was meant to be different. We were innovators from the outset; a school unafraid to cut across the grain; a school defined by countercultural tendencies and beliefs. Here on the Hilltop, we enjoy a bond rarely found in schools today — informed by deep trust, steeped in shared values, and refined by common purpose. We enforce (as we must) the rules and standards that will prepare our students for college, but we also encourage the young adults in our care to take risks and make mistakes. If we never let them fall, how on Earth will they ever learn to pick themselves up again?

I see the Pomfret difference every day. I see it when an independent study in the dining room goes well beyond the scheduled one-hour session. I see it when students politely and thoughtfully challenge an administrator on a matter of policy during a Saturday morning Q.U.E.S.T. I see it when a husband and wife invite an entire dorm into their home for cupcakes, pizza bites, brownies, and hot chocolate. I see it when a teacher sits with her student for extra help at the kitchen table after a long day. I see it when students are exposed to the ideas and values of classmates from nineteen different countries. This is the power of a neighborhood education.

As I reflect back on my childhood, I acknowledge that I do so through rose-colored glasses. But as I write this piece on a late winter afternoon, is it mere coincidence that a sublime rose-colored sunset is blanketing the Pomfret campus? I suspect not. As long as Pomfret and its educational values persist, the neighborhood lives. And as long as the neighborhood lives, I will live in it.

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BRAIN TEASER

E

nrico Fermi was an Italian physicist who contributed to the development of quantum theory and nuclear physics in the 1930s. He was famous for creating Fermi Questions, a kind of “back of the envelope” estimation about large or small quantities in the world.

RANK THESE FERMI-LIKE QUANTITIES FROM SMALLEST TO LARGEST. THE ANSWER MAY SURPRISE YOU! A. The total number of humans who ever existed on Earth.

B. The number of possible ways to order a normal deck of 52 cards.

C. The number of stars visible in the night sky to the naked eye.

D. The number of molecules in a drop of water.

E. The number of miles you can see on a clear day.

— Josh Lake, Science Department Chair, Director Olmsted Observatory

Answer on Page 15.

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Welcome to the Hilltop THIS WINTER WE WELCOMED TWO NEW FACULTY MEMBERS

BRENDA BULLIED P ’17 Director of Facilities

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renda is the new Director of Facilities. She has a background in interior planning and master planning. Before coming to Pomfret, she worked as the Director of Facilities Innovation and Planning at Lawrence and Memorial Hospital in New London, Connecticut. Brenda graduated from Wentworth Institute of Technology where she earned a B.S. in interior design. She currently lives in Pomfret with her husband Steven, and her daughters, Rebecca ’17, Grace, and Maya.

“I’m excited for the opportunity to lead the Facilities Department,” Brenda said.

KEITH BUEHLER Science Intern

K

eith is our newest intern. “I am very excited to start this new journey at Pomfret,” he recently told us. With science teacher Annie O’Sullivan, Keith teaches nutrition and public health. Originally from Skaneateles, New York, he is a graduate of Wesleyan University where he studied neuroscience and behavior, and was the captain of the hockey team. After college, he played professional hockey for the Elmira Jackals in the East Coast Hockey League. Keith currently coaches hockey and lacrosse, and lives in Pyne Dormitory.

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Real Learning

The competitive advantage for our students will not be in a storehouse of knowledge pounded into them as they work their way through a factory-like assemblage of facts and information. Their advantage will come from their ability to forge constructive relationships with diverse groups of people and rigorously learn, communicate, and contribute in relevant and meaningful ways to solve complex, real-world problems.

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nstead of starting with a view of how we want the world to be and then jamming that view into place, we start more reasonably with a picture of how the world is,” begins Joshua Cooper Ramo in his book The Age of the Unthinkable. Pomfret faces a similar challenge. Looking back over its historic success and well-worn traditions honed for another era, it is tempting to forge ahead as if the world were the same. Instead, Pomfret has been engaged in a multi-year process to reasonably align its academic program to how the world is.

Real learning is different. Its rigor comes from a level of demonstrated thinking and struggling with high level concepts and ideas. The goal is deep, nuanced, and connected thinking. The atmosphere is social and collaborative. The intensity comes not from the struggle to hold more information in one’s head, but from actively engaging with the process of learning and grappling to figure things out for oneself. Teachers show students how to think, not tell them what to think. Good performance is self-evident in the quality of product the student renders. Real learning lasts beyond the test because it becomes, through meaningful engagement and participation, part of the student’s deep memory structure. Real It is hardly disputable that the world is fast. Technological learning translates into being good at learning, collaborating, and advances and innovations seem to appear and acquire millions producing in school and in life. of users overnight. Growing complexity and uncertainty weigh on us daily. Our knowing for certain is constantly being eroded At Pomfret, teaching and learning are moving away from the by an unceasing newness that demands we are always learning traditional lecture wherein students passively listen and take notes. and adapting. The competitive advantage for our students will The goal, instead, is for students to read, research, discuss, question, not be in a storehouse of knowledge pounded into them as they and spend most of their time actively practicing higher order levels work their way through a factory-like assemblage of facts and of thinking like comparison, synthesis, evaluation, and construction information. Their advantage will come from their ability to of meaning for themselves. We want students working on solving forge constructive relationships with diverse groups of people problems and thinking about their process of thinking. We want and rigorously learn, communicate, and contribute in relevant our students to learn the core content knowledge of subjects and to and meaningful ways to solve complex, real-world problems. At be practitioners in that field. We see this happening when history Pomfret, we must guide our students in mastering these skills of students engage in historical thinking to attack Document Based relating, learning, and leading.

Questions (DBQs) on a test and when they are asked to act as the historian witnessing and chronicling the unraveling of Syria There is a big difference between doing school and real learning. today. We see students reading great works of literature as well Doing school refers to strategically and stressfully playing the as participating in blog forums discussing what of today’s literary game of school, collecting AP classes to pad the transcript, fiction will be considered great and submitting book reviews to the and accumulating extracurriculars to fill one’s resume. Doing local paper. We don’t want Pomfret students to ask: Why are we school is consumed with teachers determining and transmitting learning this? When will we ever use this? They will know those the information a student needs to know. Students are passive. answers about relevance on the front end. They will know and want The atmosphere is competitive. Collaboration is considered to learn the content and master the skills to prepare themselves to cheating. Good performance means the most right answers; lead and learn post-Pomfret. there is only one acceptable right answer. Doing school — Jamie Feild Baker, Director of the Grauer Institute translates into being good at doing school.

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Learning is relevant and meaningful to students.

Students grapple and struggle to make meaning instead of being told what to think.

Students understand why what they are learning is valuable.

Students are challenged to apply what they know to the real-world.

Students make connections between disciplines and to the world.

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Students focus on developing curiosty, creativity, and high-level thinking skills.

Why APs Don’t Fit at Pomfret APs don’t allow for creative teaching and they constrain rigorous exploration of ideas outside of the AP curriculum. I think a school like Pomfret risks nothing by dropping APs. Admission officers will trust that the Pomfret courses will continue to be as - or more rigorous than - AP courses.

— Deb Shaver, Dean of Admission at Smith College

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n the fall of 2014, Pomfret made the decision to no longer participate in the College Board’s Advanced Placement (AP) program. Beginning with the 2016-2017 school year, Pomfret will offer both advanced and honors-level courses designed by Pomfret faculty members. We believe our new courses will be more rigorous and relevant than the swift march through content that AP courses have become.

The AP program was piloted in 1952 and covered eleven disciplines. Good exam performance based on a standardized college level course could result in college credit. The original pilot was a collaboration between Lawrenceville School, Phillips Academy, Phillips Exeter Academy, Harvard, Princeton, and Yale. Today Andover teaches APs in a few disciplines. Exeter and Lawrenceville do not teach AP courses. At Pomfret the question we asked eventually was not should we drop APs, but why should we keep them? »» AP courses are not unique, nor flexible. At Pomfret we intend to serve each student’s learning in a more personal and customized way than AP courses allow. »» APs focus on breadth of low level discipline-specific content and not on application and skill development. »» APs are formulaic and do not foster thinking skills that transfer beyond the subject area.

»» Students complain that AP teachers won’t allow them to ask questions about topics and tangents that interest them because there is no time. Not having time for student curiosity is bad for learning.

»» APs add unnecessary stress and old-fashioned rigor (“harsh inflexibility, severity, strictness, cruelty,” according to Merriam Webster dictionary) to already stressed and anxious students.

»» AP courses are not re-designed as fast as knowledge is changing in subject areas. Teaching outdated or incorrect material is not good practice. »» AP courses hamper the teacher’s creativity.

»» Harvard conducted a study which showed that students who are allowed to skip introductory courses because they have scored high on the AP do worse in subsequent courses than students who took the introductory courses at Harvard.

»» Colleges do not require APs on the high school transcript.

They are interested in seeing that a student has taken the most rigorous courses their school offers. Many schools have never offered APs and their students go to fine colleges. »» Studies at Dartmouth showed that 90 percent of freshmen who earned a 5 on the psychology AP in May failed a condensed version of the AP test administered in September upon arriving at college. Furthermore, their studies showed that high-scoring students who took Introductory Psychology at Dartmouth performed the same as students without AP test scores. In 2014 Dartmouth decided to no longer accept AP scores.

»» AP scores today are more often used for placement in a college-level course than for allowing students to “place out” of a course. The economic pressures that colleges are facing are certainly a disincentive for them to allow students to place out of their required courses.

Beginning next year, our new courses will be more rigorous and more relevant, investigating topics more deeply and developing those higher level thinking skills that transfer. Any Pomfret student who wishes to take an AP test will be able to do so.

Pomfret will no longer, however, gear its teaching toward taking an AP test.

— Jamie Feild Baker, Director of the Grauer Institute

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Freshman Fundamentals F

rom the time we are born, we begin learning. We are always becoming. We grow and change all the time. We are actively evolving. Like Buckminster Fuller, we are verb-like.

At boarding school, students come to us during one of the most active and tumultuous periods of their lives — their adolescent years, which mark the transition from childhood to adulthood.

Erik Eriksen, a developmental psychologist who mapped the eight stages of psychosocial development from birth to death, explained that the major work of an adolescent is to re-examine the childhood identity to develop a sense of self, purpose, and belonging that will be the beginning of the adult he or she will become.

Physical, social, emotional, and cognitive changes abound for young adolescents, and their overall normal disposition is of insecurity, confusion, and sensitivity. Students who attend boarding school are also contending with separation and social anxieties. Conversations at the beginning of this year, as Pomfret lived into its new block schedule, centered on how we can help our youngest students — our freshmen — become highly successful, competent, confident, and happy learners and valued members of our school community. We asked what can we do to give our freshmen the fundamentals for success at Pomfret? Our answer became “Plenty!” and we are delighted to share the overview of intentional fundamentals we will be offering freshman next year.

INTEGRATED ARTS: THE ARTIST WITHIN To develop their imagination as a necessary life-long resource to problem-solving, the freshman class will participate in a new experiential learning course that integrates all programs in the arts. Designed as a full immersion into creativity in multiple disciplines, freshmen will engage in a yearlong experience that emphasizes the skills of collaboration, reflection, and communication, leading to a greater understanding of themselves as creators and independent thinkers.

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PHYSICS: STRATEGIC LEARNING AND RESILIENCE To develop keen awareness of themselves as learners and develop good academic mindsets, behaviors, and strategic learning habits, the freshman physics course will amplify the core curriculum with a student-centered investigation of the science of learning. Freshmen will learn the fundamentals of physics and the neurocognitive aspects of learning and stress, anxiety, sleep, exercise, and nutrition. This enhanced physics course will develop motivated, curious students with the ability to persist and excel in future science courses at Pomfret.

ENGLISH: WRITING ACROSS THE DISCIPLINES To develop fundamental, versatile, and expansive writing skills, the freshmen English course will focus on the broad writing needs of freshmen. The primary goal is to help students confidently excel at Pomfret throughout their careers. The freshmen course will help students develop the skills of writing to understand what they think and give them practice in writing for history, science, research papers, essays, journalistic articles, opinion pieces, oral presentation, and even math. Freshmen will also develop the skills of the analysis of all forms of literature and practice expository writing based on what they are reading.

MODERN WORLD HISTORY To stimulate an awareness of current events and their grounding in history, foster strong analytical skills, and engage students as historians, the freshman modern world history course will spend the first third of the year in explicit skill development, helping freshmen learn to research, understand point of view, work with source material, validate information, and synthesize a reasoned view of current and historical events. The next two terms will be anchored in the study of historical themes that impact our modern world. Teachers will incrementally scaffold and extend skill acquisition by making assignments more complex and challenging. Additional writing development will occur as the English course coordinates readings and writing

At Pomfret, with our intentional focus on freshmen and the fundamental aspects of their future success, we know that as a school we will have done our best in helping each student become what they are capable of becoming at Pomfret and beyond. skills with modern world content. Students will end the year with the fundamental writing, research, critical thinking, and interpretation skills they will need for future history courses.

LEARNING SUPPORT: RESPONSIBLE SELF-MANAGEMENT To create awareness and support the many skills of motivation, learning, and self-management, Pomfret’s Learning Support Center will offer numerous freshman workshops in all aspects of executive function, stress management, and study skills.

Executive function and self-management skills are the mental processes students use to get up on time, organize, care for and find their belongings, plan, focus attention, remember instructions, and juggle multiple tasks successfully. Adolescents struggle with executive function in varying degrees until their early twenties, and being in a boarding school setting gives them additional challenges. These workshops will truly help freshmen develop fundamental and life-long skills for success.

E. You might have estimated a few dozen or hundreds of miles, but we can actually see 93 million miles on a clear day — to the surface of the sun!

A. In the 1970s, it was a popular thought that there are more people alive now (around 7 billion) than ever existed before us total. However, by estimating lifespans and population growth rates, the Population Reference Bureau estimates the real total number to be about 108 billion over the course of history. Our current population is about 6.5 percent of that.

D. You can solve this one by looking up or doing some basic chemistry. Assuming an average raindrop is about 3 mm in diameter, you can calculate the volume of a sphere of water to be about 0.01414 mL. The density of water is 1 g/mL, so it also has a mass of 0.01414 g. You can look up the molecular weight (molar mass) of H2O and find that 18 grams of

The famed coach John Wooden said, “Success comes from knowing that you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming.” At Pomfret, with our intentional focus on freshman and the fundamental aspects of their future success, we know that as a school we will have done our best in helping each student become what they are capable of becoming at Pomfret and beyond.

— Jamie Feild Baker, Director of the Grauer Institute

ANSWER From smallest to largest:

C. The number of stars visible to the naked eye is surprisingly low, about 10,000 for the entire Earth. For a single night of viewing at one location on Earth, the maximum would be about 5,000 with the most realistic number being around 3,000.

THE POMFRET PORTFOLIO: A RECORD OF BECOMING Through the freshmen year, students’ work in process, writing, and a sampling of final products will be curated in their Pomfret Portfolio. The portfolio will become a great storehouse of each student’s work and reinforce their ability to monitor and assess their progress and development while at Pomfret.

water has a huge number of molecules, the famous Avogadro’s number: 6.022 x 10^23, or 602,200,00 0,000,000,000,000,000. Dividing, you come up with about 4.5 x 10^21 molecules. This of course depends on the size of the drop, the density of the water, and the temperature, but it’s clear that it’s far bigger than the billions of people who have ever lived on Earth.

Molecules are very small!

B. Surprisingly, the possible combinations of a simple deck of cards dwarfs all of the other quantities by a tremendous factor. In fact, if you’ve ever shuffled a deck of cards, the odds are incredibly high that you were the first person ever in the history of the Universe to shuffle them in the exact order, and probably the last. The exact number is called 52 factorial, written as (52!), and it is simply 52 x 51 x 50 … all the way down to 1. Written out, the number is beyond human comprehension: 806581751709438785716606368564037669752895 05440883277824000000000000.

Fermi quantities have a way of revealing that our human minds simply can’t handle large numbers because they’re just not tangible.

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La Fortuna

Monteverde Playa Grande

Costa Rica

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The Global Classroom Cultivating an international perspective

J

ust past midnight, twelve Pomfret sophomores stood in a small semicircle on a thin ribbon of sand in Playa Grande.

In front of them, a female Pacific Leatherback turtle was scratching a hole above the high tideline, deep enough to hold the sixty-eight eggs she was about to lay.

Led by science teacher Annie O’ Sullivan and history teacher Patrick Burke, the group had traveled more than 4,000 miles for a moment just like this. Reading about sea turtles is one thing; being there is quite another. “Seeing that turtle lay her eggs,” recalled Chase Zimmerman ’18, “was the most majestic thing I’ve ever experienced.”

Zimmerman’s majestic experience heralds the launch of a new travel abroad initiative that will catalyze future global learning experiences for Pomfret students.

“I made a similar trip to Europe as a Pomfret student back in the 1960s,” said Jim Seymour ’65, who helped make the Costa Rica trip possible. “I wanted to reinvigorate the travel abroad program at Pomfret because the perspective I gained as a result of my own international travel experience was life changing.”

Lessons in Sustainability Today Costa Rica is a world leader in conservation, ecotourism, and sustainability. During the sixteen-day trip, the group of twelve students covered an impressive amount of ground, traveling from the beaches of Playa Grande to the markets of San Jose and from the hot springs of La Fortuna to the cloud forest of Monteverde. Along the way, the group also visited an organic coffee farm high in the mountains, a biological research station deep in the rainforest, and an active volcano at the heart of Rincón de La Vieja National Park.

If You Go

Heading to Costa Rica? Here are five must-see destinations for your bucket list:

“Our trip to Costa Rica was the best educational experience I’ve had in my ten years of teaching,” said history teacher Patrick Burke. “It stretched the limits of teaching and learning. It was an outstanding experience.”

In recent years, Costa Rica has bet heavily on renewable energy to power its economy. Solar arrays, wind farms, hydroelectric dams, and geothermal plants are scattered throughout the landscape.

In 2015, Costa Rica generated 99 percent of its electricity from renewable energy sources, primarily hydropower, thanks to a large river system and an abundance of rain. Over the same period of time, Costa Ricans saw the cost of energy fall by 12 percent. The Costa Rican government projects the country will become carbon neutral by the year 2021.

“I’ve taught Pomfret students about renewable energy for the past three years, but this experience was the first time I’ve seen students directly understand what wind, solar, geothermal, and hydroelectric actually look like,” said science teacher Annie O’Sullivan. “It was incredibly powerful to step onto a field filled with wind turbines and feel the wind whipping our hair.”

Following the trip, students returned to Pomfret inspired by what they had seen and eager to apply what they had learned. Several student-driven sustainability projects on the Hilltop are currently in the works, including a competition to reduce energy consumption, a plan to install solar panels, and a campaign to eliminate singleuse plastic bags, among others.

“This experience changed my life,” said Samantha Caffrey ’18. “It gave me an entirely new perspective on the world.”

— Garry Dow Associate Director of Communications

1. The Leatherback Trust in Playa Grande 2. Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve 3. San Jose Fruit Market 4. Le Selva Biological Station 5. Rincón De La Vieja National Park

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The Problem with Math CHALLENGING THE STATUS QUO WITH A NEW APPROACH

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he majority of today’s secondary school math teachers entered the field of education when the world of work and the expectations of graduates were far different than those facing today’s students. Despite this truth, today’s teachers continue to teach yesterday’s mathematics curriculum, targeting the same mathematical techniques and skills that match the needs of the prior generation but poorly prepare the current one. Math teachers see mathematics as a collection of concepts and related skills to be learned through teacher and textbook explanations; it is the way they were taught, and thus the way they teach.

In this outdated but pervasive approach, foundational math skills are first demonstrated by the teacher, then mimicked by the students, and later practiced as homework. An extended visit to a math class reveals that lessons typically begin with

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student-generated questions connected to the previous night’s homework. In this sense, teachers spend a significant amount of time re-teaching yesterday’s lessons. Lost in this approach is the relevance and utility of the math itself. Only when students are asked to solve real-world problems do they begin to understand real-world math.

In a modern math classroom, word problems play a foundational role. They serve as written descriptions of situations, and they are the springboard that launches investigation, decoding, translation, and problem solving. Students must first unpack and decode the meaning of word problems before translating the written statements into one or more mathematical equations.

Once appropriately framed as a mathematics problem, students are then asked to use new math skills to solve that problem.

PROBLEM-BASED MATH Colleges today want students who can attack problems, and work to define and solve them. To serve students and really support them, we must design a new approach that better targets the tangible, marketable, and worldly skills they will need. Students need time to wrestle with a particular problem and an opportunity to learn, through various means, the relevant math that can be harnessed to solve it. Important questions like: Does this answer make sense?

Did my solution answer the problem? These are important steps that call on students to reflect and internalize their work.

This new approach lies in sharp contrast to current teaching methods.

In the traditional model, students accumulate skills in a mathematics “tool box” with the hope that students will eventually identify and correctly use the appropriate skills to solve messy, real-world problems. Students often dread assignments that call for application problems, but in the modern workplace students (now employees) will constantly be confronted by problems that are chaotic and require research just to understand and frame the question.

The majority of class time in problem-based math classrooms involves students working in groups to make sense of real-world problems. The students collaborate, decode, and dissect, discussing the context of the problem and identifying the mathematical knowledge needed to solve it. Working together, students attempt to find a method that will lead to a successful solution.

Going forward we must devote far more time to understanding math concepts, and far less time to mimicking traditionally taught math skills. We must begin with a familiar context (money, time, distance, sports, space) and build the capacity and habits that will permit students to address more complex and unfamiliar situations that require advanced math. The ideal approach will present problems that connect to the math what a student already knows while presenting opportunities to extend the application through curiosity and creativity.

ROLE OF THE TEACHER The role of the teacher in a problem-based classroom differs from that of the traditional classroom model. The traditional teacher serves as the disseminator and controller of information, and is the only one who can tap the breaks, hit the accelerator, or turn to take a new path. In contrast, leaders in a problem-based classroom are coaches and sources of motivation to students, while students take the wheel. In problem-based classrooms, the teacher does not solve the problem for an individual student or for the class; instead, the teacher offers feedback and provides additional questions that help students examine the validity of each answer.

The teacher assigns problems and provides the leadership required for effective classroom learning, identifying the core mathematics students are to learn as well as the problems that will facilitate

this learning. They clarify problems that students misinterpret.

They respond to student questions and help students to attack misunderstandings. In this way, the teacher creates an intentional learning environment, closely monitors each student’s progress in the computer-based learning system, and provides encouragement and timely intervention when a student’s progress falls below expectation.

In a collaborative and reflective environment, where students share the responsibility for growth and learning, it is the teacher who continually expresses a belief that each student can improve and encourages each student to work toward his or her potential.

MEASURES OF MASTERY Picture a classroom with multiple pockets of collaborating students — generating meaning, authoring solutions. Students in this classroom report their findings by presenting proposed solutions to the class. Perhaps multiple methods and solutions are correct, or perhaps only one approach and solution is valid.

Each student in the class must decide and be ready to defend his or her conclusion, engaging his or her classmates and teacher in rich conversations about math.

In a problem-based math classroom, students learn to represent problems symbolically using correct mathematical notation, and they come to understand why specific mathematical tools are appropriate for the task. Students confront problems that introduce new vocabulary and concepts. These problems require research and exploration, so students must employ various resources, especially Internet resources, to help them understand unfamiliar concepts and identify the specific math skills needed to solve each problem.

Meeting the needs of each learner is the hallmark of a problembased teaching model, and in a successful problem-based classroom, reflection and documentation are critical. Each student keeps, in digital form, a written journal that chronicles how he or she approached and solved every problem. These journals provide details of solution methods, and they capture annotations and corrections. In this way, the journal becomes a history of each student’s progress.

In addition to classroom sessions where students discuss and solve problems, each student in a problem-based math classroom uses a computer-based learning system that offers lessons and demonstrations, and builds assessments to measure student progress, thus permitting the student to determine the pace of learning. The curriculum demands that students use computer technology to acquire and communicate solutions, and it stresses the need for students to compose written, context-rich descriptions that articulate how these solutions satisfy the problem.

“Teaching is giving opportunity to the students to discover things by themselves,” said Hungarian mathematician George Polya. “If they truly wish to learn it, they have to discover it.”

— By Brian Rice, Mathematics Department Chair

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The Greatness in All of Us

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n January 18, Pomfret celebrated the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

“This is a day on, not a day off,” said Steve Davis, Director of Diversity and Community Relations. “Lean into this moment. Have fun today. But also remember what this day is about.”

During the event, students attended a keynote address, formed breakout sessions to develop personal action plans, participated in a school-wide speak out, and watched the film Selma.

Gianna Gonzalez ’16 and Aidan McGannon ’16 kicked off the day with a poignant rendition of the John Lennon classic Imagine.

Later in the day, McGannon returned to the stage and brought down the house with a knock-your-socks-off cover of Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On. The most deeply resonant message of the day came from keynote speaker Dr. Omékongo Dibinga. A poet, rapper, talk show host, CNN contributor, motivational speaker, and professor at American University, Dibinga challenged Pomfret students to stand up for the downtrodden.

“By doing nothing,” he said, “you are doing something.”

Dibinga was born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts, at the height of the crack cocaine epidemic. The son of Congolese immigrants, he was bullied and beaten. Going to school was like going to war, Dibinga remembered. “I grew up in a hostile environment; I never felt like I belonged.” Drugs, violence, poverty, abuse, racism, sexism, anti-Semitism, xenophobia — they tore at the fabric of Dabinga’s Boston community, leaving him vulnerable and depressed.

It got so bad Dibinga seriously contemplated suicide, but he eventually realized that “suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem,” and thus began his near-miraculous trajectory from the depths of despair to the rarefied atmosphere of hope.

“There is greatness in all of us,” Dibinga often says. This overarching sensibility — this uncommon and powerful sense of inclusivity — is perhaps his greatest motivational asset. “Why settle for outstanding,” Dibinga asked the Pomfret crowd, “when you can be upstanding?”

— Garry Dow Associate Director of Communications

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HILLTOP | Arts

Winter

Musical

A cult ural phe nom e non com e s t o t he Hi l l t op 22

POMFRET Magazine

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his winter Pomfret Theater staged a production of The Addams Family: A New Musical Comedy. The four-show run premiered on Friday, February 19 in Hard Auditorium to rave reviews. An original story, the musical follows Wednesday Addams, who has grown up and fallen in love with a sweet, smart young man from a respectable family. Unfortunately, all bets are off when the young man and his parents show up for a dinner party at the Addams house.

If the most reliable criterion of a cultural phenomenon is longevity, then surely The Addams Family qualifies as an iconic American cultural phenomenon. Charles Addams, the celebrated cartoonist for The New Yorker magazine first introduced the characters we have come to know so well back in 1938, almost 80 years ago! In the intervening decades, we have seen Gomez, Morticia, Fester, Wednesday, Pugsley, Lurch, and others in television shows (both live action and animated), movies, video games and, now, theater.

Why are we so drawn to these people and this world?

Without draining all the fun and comedy out of The Addams Family, I would suggest that the attraction we feel is rather profound. What we see and hear in these fictional characters is something that we all aspire to, even envy. They laugh at pain and suffering. They find death hilarious. In their topsy-turvy world, our greatest fears are their biggest belly laughs. What power they have!

Theater is, at its essence, a collaborative art. It is remarkable to see how the genius of Charles Addams has inspired a composer, lyricist, and playwright to create this marvelous, if creepy, musical. Their objective (and ours) is certainly entertainment. But I also encourage you to look toward the shadows between the lines and laughs. You might find something quite surprising waiting for you! — Chip Lamb, Arts Department Chair and Theater Director

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HILLTOP | Arts

VISIT POMFRET’S OFF-CAMPUS ART GALLERY Silver Circle Art Center Putnam, Connecticut

FOR SCHEDULE & PAST EXHIBITS www.pomfretschool.org/PSArt

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Empty Bowls

ANNUAL SUPPER CELEBRATES TENTH ANNIVERSARY

T

his year the Empty Bowls fundraiser celebrated its tenth anniversary at Pomfret.

Since its inception, the purpose of the supper has been to raise money to support local food banks.

Held in conjunction with the winter musical, this year’s supper served up a record twenty-six donated soups in an assortment of homemade ceramic bowls.

Bowls were crafted by a group of Pomfret students who shaped, glazed, and fired each piece by hand.

“You get to sample a variety of soups,” said ceramics and sculpture teacher Kathi Yokum P ’04, who coordinates the event. “And, of course, you get to take your purchased bowl home at the end of the supper. But I think the real benefit is knowing you are helping others who are less fortunate.”

Through service projects like Empty Bowls, Pomfret students get the chance to engage with local issues at the ground level, one person, one neighborhood, one community at a time. In the process, they develop the empathy, experience, and skills necessary to become active citizens and engaged leaders in their own communities as young adults.

The Empty Bowls concept was the brainchild of Lisa Blackburn and John Hartom. In 1990, they joined forces to raise charitable funds for the people in their Michigan community who had so little to fill their bowls.

— Garry Dow Associate Director of Communications

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HILLTOP | Athletics

NEWS

ALUMNI ATHLETIC Jaimie Leonoff ’11 is a goaltender for the National Women’s Hockey League’s Connecticut Whale. She was selected for the inaugural NWHL All-Star Game which took place on January 24, 2016.

Emma Dunn ’13, co-captain on the Bates College women’s squash team, helped the team to a 5-4 victory over Amherst College in the nationals on February 21, 2016, securing the Walker Cup. The win marked the team’s first Walker Cup (C Division) title in program history and their first division title of any kind since 2006.

Jaimie Leonoff ’11

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Makenna Newkirk ’15, a freshman on the Boston College women’s hockey team, was a unanimous selection to the 2015-16 Hockey East Pro Ambitions All-Rookie Team on March 2, 2016. Makenna led the league with four Pro Ambitions Rookie of the Week honors this season, and was the February Rookie of the Month. Overall, she has posted 45 points (21 goals, 24 assists), and leads the nation in freshman goal scoring and is second in freshman scoring by four points. On March 4, Makenna was also voted the 2016 Pro Ambitions Rookie of the Year.

Emma Dunn ’13

Makenna Newkirk ’15

During Winter 2015-2016 Season

’15 ’14 ’13 ’12

BRANDON CAFFREY ’15 WRESTLING AT GETTYSBURG COLLEGE AMANDA KEWER ’15 ICE HOCKEY AT COLLEGE OF THE HOLY CROSS JULIETTE LAWLESS ’15 BASKETBALL AT MOUNT SAINT MARY’S COLLEGE MAKENNA NEWKIRK ’15 ICE HOCKEY AT BOSTON COLLEGE KYRA SMITH ’15 ICE HOCKEY AT THE UNIVERISTY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE JACK WESTON ‘15 SQUASH AT ST. LAWRENCE UNIVERSITY KRISTY BROWN ’14 ICE HOCKEY AT UNIVERSITY OF PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND JEFFREY IYALEKHUE ’14 BASKETBALL AT CONNECTICUT COLLEGE CJ JOHNSON ’14 ICE HOCKEY AT ST. MICHAEL’S COLLEGE CANDY LU ’14 ICE HOCKEY AT WILLIAMS COLLEGE KELLI MACKEY ’14 ICE HOCKEY AT UNION COLLEGE HOLLIS MCLOUGHLIN ’14 SQUASH AT TRINITY COLLEGE MARY REDMOND ’14 BASKETBALL AT SAINT LEO UNIVERSITY BARAK SWARTTZ ’14 BASKETBALL AT ELMIRA COLLEGE ASHLEY ANCTIL ’13 ICE HOCKEY AT CONNECTICUT COLLEGE EMMA DUNN ’13 SQUASH AT BATES COLLEGE (CAPT.) NICK ELLIS ’13 ICE HOCKEY AT PROVIDENCE COLLEGE PAT HOUGHTON ’13 ICE HOCKEY AT ST. MICHAEL’S COLLEGE ALEX JOYCE ’13 ICE HOCKEY AT BOSTON COLLEGE JORDAN LIPSON ’13 ICE HOCKEY AT SUNY PLATTSBURGH MORGAN OLANDER ’13 BASKETBALL AT BRYANT UNIVERSITY IZZY REGINE ’13 ICE HOCKEY AT LAKE FOREST COLLEGE LUKE RIVERA ’13 ICE HOCKEY AT SUNY FREDONIA BRANDON CUNNINGHAM ’12 BASKETBALL AT BARD COLLEGE MEGAN GAUDREAU ’12 BASKETBALL AT ST. MICHAEL’S COLLEGE (CAPT.) JAY KOURKOULIS ’12 ICE HOCKEY AT BOWDOIN COLLEGE RJ LABEEF ’12 WRESTLING AT CLEVELAND STATE UNIVERSITY (CAPT.) TAYLOR MCVEY ’12 BASKETBALL AT UNIVERSITY OF TAMPA

Nick Mazzarella ’16

Rhone O’Hara ’16

Cris Rovero ’16

Jack Bacon ’16

T

he traditional red and black banner was draped across a heavy wooden table, and four letters were laid in a row, a pen beside each. This was the scene as four exemplary Pomfret athletes took the next big step in their athletic careers.

In front of a standing room-only crowd, seniors Nick Mazzarella, Rhone O’Hara, Cris Rovero, and Jack Bacon each signed a National Letter of Intent to play college sports next year.

Mazzarella will play soccer for Centre College, O’Hara will play soccer for Sacred Heart University, Rovero will play football for Merrimack College, and Bacon will play soccer for Boston College.

More than fifty parents, friends, coaches, and teammates turned out for the signing event, which took place on Wednesday, February 10, in Parsons Lodge on the Pomfret campus.

“This is a great day for Pomfret sports,” said Athletic Director Jon Sheehan. “Congratulations to each of you. You’ve worked hard to get here, and we are so proud of you. Well done.”

FOUR POMFRET ATHLETES SIGN NATIONAL LETTER OF INTENT

ALUMNI PLAYING COLLEGE ATHLETICS

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HILLTOP | Athletics

ATHLETICS

GIRLS HOCKEY 1-15-2 Head Coach: Erin Davey Assistant Coach: Katherine Duglin ’01 Captains: Lauren Ferraiuolo ’16, Alexandra Wallin ’16, Remy Wells ’16

BOYS HOCKEY 9-17 Head Coach: Matthew Goethals Assistant Coach: Gregory Osborne ’03 Captains: David Altman ’16, Raphael Guillebon ’16, Andrew Shields ’16

Semi-finalists

Quarter-finalists

GIRLS BASKETBALL 15-9

BOYS BASKETBALL 16-7

Head Coach: Rebecca Brooks Assistant Coach: Patrick Burke Captains: Alyzae Davis ’16 and Deja Ross ’17

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Head Coach: Joseph Kremer P ’14, ’17 Assistant Coach: Douglas MacLeod Captains: Gerald Blount ’16, Cameron Winston ’16

Chuck Luciano ’81 Hockey Award: DAVID S. ALTMAN ’16 Mimi Ashmead ’82 Hockey Award: ELISABETH M. BERARD ’16 Jess Wade Feldman ’91 Boys’ Squash Award: MICHAEL RODRIGUEZ ’16 Adrienne Taylor Biggert ’92 Squash Award: PHOEBE PLIAKAS-SMITH ’16 R. Duane Daentl Basketball Trophy: GERALD R. BLOUNT ’16 CAMERON W. WINSTON ’16 Girls Basketball Award: ALYZAE A. DAVIS ’16 Louis DiNatale ’68 Wrestling Cup: JUN BEOM LEE ’16

WRESTLING 11-10

WINTER SPORTS AWARDS

This winter Breana Lohbusch ’16 qualified for the New England tournament, where she placed sixth. This marks the second time Breana has placed at the New England tournament — the only girl to accomplish that feat. Breana is also the first and only female wrestler from New England to qualify to wrestle in the National Prep Tournament.

Head Coach: Arthur Horst P ’14, ’15, ’18 Assistant Coach: Patrick Andren Captains: Breana Lohbusch ’16, Aiden McGannon ’16, Samuel Skinner ’16

BOYS SQUASH 6-9 Head Coach: Tad Chase P ’13, ’15, ’17 Captains: Davis Chase ’17, Michael Rodriguez ’16

8-5 GIRLS SQUASH Head Coach: Gregory Rossolimo Captains: Sirui Cheng ’16, Sofia Melian-Morse ’16, Phoebe Pliakas-Smith ’16

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FEATURE

The Man Who Met bin Laden Peter Bergen is one of the world's leading terrorism experts, and one of the few western journalists to have met Osama bin Laden. In January he visited the Hilltop as the 2016 Schwartz Visiting Fellow.

By Garry Dow, Associate Director of Communications

T

he way Peter Bergen tells it, things could have turned out very differently. Like history itself, his is a story of chance and opportunity, colluding and colliding with the thrumming undercurrent of world events.

One of the world’s leading terrorism experts, Bergen is a CNN national security analyst, a vice president at New America, and the author of five books on terrorism, including, The Longest War, Manhunt, and Holy War, Inc. In 2013 Bergen won an Emmy for the HBO documentary Manhunt, based on the book.

In addition to his work as an author and producer, Bergen has written about national security and foreign affairs for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, The Atlantic, Rolling Stone, TIME, and Vanity Fair.

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In his latest book, The United States of Jihad, Bergen explores the rise of homegrown Islamist terrorism, a tome that former Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano called “the best one-volume treatment available on the current state of jihad in America.”

To write the book, Bergen assembled a crack team of researchers to gather data on the roughly three hundred jihadists indicted or convicted in the U.S. for terror crimes since 9/11. Crimes ranged from financial support to murder. Surprisingly, the average age was twenty-nine, and more than a third were married, many with children. American jihadists are “on average, as well educated and emotionally stable as the typical citizen,” Bergen writes.

“They are ordinary Americans.”

Schwartz Visiting Fellow

S

ince 1989, prominent experts have visited Pomfret under the auspices of the Schwartz Visiting Fellow Program. Made possible through the generous support of brothers Michael L. Schwartz ’66 and Eric A. Schwartz ’69, the Schwartz fellow is a prominent figure in the world of art, literature, science, or politics.

“The Schwartz program brings world-renowned experts to our doorstep,” said English department chair John Becker.

“Our fellows spend a lot of time with faculty and students.

They attend classes, share meals, offer advice. They are very approachable people, but at the same time, they are incredibly aspirational figures.”

Past fellows included the writer Joyce Carol Oats, marine archaeologist Robert Ballard, author Frank McCourt, paleoanthropologist Donald Johanson, and historian David McCullough, among many others.

This Means War At 53, Bergen has a slight build, with a shock of dark brown hair, and a somewhat regal demeanor.

At the lectern or in the classroom, he looks every bit the scholar. He lives in Washington D.C. with his wife, the documentary filmmaker Tresha Mabile, and his two children. Surprisingly reserved for a public person, Bergen has a wonderful, dry sense of humor, which he uses to great effect.

Bergen was born in Minneapolis, but grew up in London. He attended Ampleforth College, an independent boarding school in North Yorkshire, England, and eventually graduated from New College, Oxford with a Master of Arts in Modern History.

While still a student at Oxford, he traveled to Pakistan to make a short film with a couple of friends. “We thought it would be fun,” Bergen told me. “We were young.” It was a fortuitous decision that ignited a lifelong passion for two things: journalism and the Middle East. Working as a producer for CNN a decade later, Bergen returned to the Middle East, this time to meet a reclusive 41-year-old Saudi billionaire hiding out in the mountains of Afghanistan. The year was 1997.

“We declare a jihad, a holy war, against the United States government,” the al-Qaeda leader proclaimed. Just steps away, Bergen could see the eyes of the man who would soon become the most wanted person on the planet, catapulting the journalist to stardom as a highly soughtafter terrorism expert in the wake of 9/11.

“It was a fairly normal interview,” Bergen remembers, “aside from the men holding automatic weapons.”

As the 2016 Schwartz Visiting Fellow, Bergen spent the bulk of his time discussing national security, foreign policy, and terrorism with students and faculty. His informative — and at times riveting — lectures touched on a number of important and timely topics, including the hunt for Osama bin Laden, the rise of ISIS, the tragedy at San Bernardino, the Syrian refugee crisis, the success of the U.S. drone program, the importance of cultivating an international perspective, and the inevitability of bias in the media.

During his time on the Hilltop, Bergen also met with classes, visiting with David Brush’s Contemporary U.S. History class and Patrick Burke’s AP Comparative Government class, where he got the chance to engage students one-on-one.

“Since 9/11, we have been phenomenally successful in how we deal with terrorism,” Bergen told one group of students. “An American living inside the United States is five thousand times more likely to be killed by a fellow citizen armed with a gun than by a terrorist.

You’re more likely to be killed by your neighbor’s dog than a terrorist. Terrorism is a persistent, but low-level threat.”

As Bergen likes to point out, no foreign terror group has launched a successful terrorist attack against the United States since 9/11. In large part, he credits the Transportation Security Administration, the Department of Homeland Security, and the National Counterterrorism Center, along with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Central Intelligence Agency, for systematically disrupting and dismantling al-Qaeda’s terror networks.

“As a student of history, the one thing I can tell you is this,” Bergen said. “There is a limit to what we can control. The future is unpredictable. Whatever you think it will be, it will almost certainly be something different.”

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FEATURE

2016 CA REER EX P O

Words of Wisdom

CAREER ADV ICE FROM SUCCESSF UL POMFRET ALUMNI

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n February, thirty-six alumni presenters and two hundred students gathered for the fifth annual Career Expo. Sponsored by the Pomfret Alumni Association Executive Committee, this annual event gives juniors and seniors the opportunity to hear firsthand from notable alumni who have achieved success in their chosen fields. Career Expo is part of the Pomfret Alumni Career Exploration Series, which brings students and alumni together throughout the year.

Strengths And Weaknesses

Christina Galanti Dickson ’02 Deputy Director of Global Pharmacovigilance at Bayer Pharmaceuticals Some people might tell you to strengthen your weaknesses. I say strengthen your strengths. The most successful people I know found something they were good at and stuck with it.

The Importance Of Networking

Laura Keeler Pierce ’03 Associate Director of Development at The Rectory School Use the Pomfret network. The hardest part of getting the job is getting noticed. Pomfret alums share an unusually strong bond. We are an extended family, and like a family, we help each other out.

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Choosing A Career Paul Fowler ’64 Former Director of Marketing & Sales at Pepsi-Cola Co.

Do something that excites you Something that makes you want to jump out of bed in the morning. I’m still trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up. Have fun, whatever you do.

By The Numbers

200 STUDENTS

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The Value Of Failure Lalan Shrikam ’93 Founder and CEO of Malabar Bay, LLC President and CEO of Jayes Studio

Don’t be afraid to fail. It is the quickest way to succeed.

SESSIONS

36 PRESENTERS

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PRESENTATIONS

1

Your Personal Brand

Toby Metcalf ’89 Community and Online Projects Manager at PTC The Internet does not have a delete button.

Cultivate an image that represents your values, something you’ll be proud of. Once you put something out there, you can’t take it back.

GREAT WEEKEND WINTER 2016

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FEATURE

Y

ou hear it all the time. One of the things that makes Pomfret unique is the quality of its residential life program. But what does that really mean? At Pomfret we believe residential life is about more than trips to the movies or cookouts on the quad. Those things are important, but they do not speak to the values that guide us; nor do they speak to the connection that binds us. Pomfret is a family and this campus is our home. What follows are four essays about life on the Hilltop — told by the students and faculty who live here.

Harrison Flax ’17

W

hen I began the boarding school search, I was interested in a few different schools. Pomfret was one of those schools, but it was not my top choice. Every school I applied to had great academics, strong athletics, and fancy facilities, but Pomfret felt different. The minute I stepped foot on the Hilltop for Revisit Day, I knew this was the school for me.

My favorite thing about Pomfret is the people. Everyone here is unusually open and kind. My freshman year I lived in a small dorm where I became incredibly close with the boys in my house. To this day I consider them among my closest friends. My last three years at Pomfret have been filled with wonderful experiences. On the weekends, the faculty and staff plan great activities. This winter I went skiing, visited New York City, and attended the Valentine’s Day Dance.

One of the best things about our school is Project: Pomfret, a two week, project-based learning experience. It has given me

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the chance to learn about things I would never have learned about otherwise. This year my project was called “99 Problems,” and it was all about rap music. We learned about the history of rap, and then wrote our own songs. I ended up preforming my songs in front of the entire school. This would never have happened had I not come to Pomfret. It was an amazing two weeks and I am already looking forward to next year’s project.

At Pomfret there are also lots of ways to get involved with the community. Currently, I am the head of student activities and a prefect in freshman circle. In addition, I serve on both the student and house council, act as a tour guide, and serve as a member of the activities group for my grade. I also play football, squash, and lacrosse.

The teachers at Pomfret are great. They are always available for extra help, and they really want me to succeed. Of course, Pomfret teachers do more than teach. They are also my coaches and dorm parents, and I have gotten to know some of them very well. One time I was talking with a dorm parent and he made a comment that has stuck with me. “What makes Pomfret great,” he said, “is that we can sit down and have a conversation about anything.” I totally agree.

Chloe Saad ’16

M

y middle school sends a lot of students to boarding schools, so when I told my boarding school counselor that I was looking for a smaller school where I could form lasting relationships with teachers, he immediately suggested that I look at Pomfret.

Pomfret also has a really great community. I love when the whole school receives an email from the student council around 9:30 p.m. announcing that there is going to be a surprise cookout in the front circle at 10:00 p.m. These kinds of events really lift my spirits. I also look forward to important basketball or volleyball games, as hundreds of Pomfret students will pack into our gym dressed head-to-toe in Pomfret gear and cheer on the team that is playing.

One of the things that makes Pomfret special is its schedule.

This year, Pomfret implemented a new schedule that somewhat simulates a college schedule.

Rather than seven or eight 45-minute periods a day with one 70-minute “double block,” we now have three 80-minute periods a day. While classes are much longer than in the past, the new schedule slows down the pace of learning and gives you more time to absorb and comprehend the information. I find the new schedule to be incredibly effective, especially in my chemistry class. In past science classes, we conducted a lab one day, finished it the next day, then performed the calculations the third day.

With the new schedule, we can fit all of that into one class.

At Pomfret I am a prefect, tour guide, co-head of Relay for Life, headwaiter, co-head of the Pomfret Page Turners, cohead of the Gay-Straight Alliance, and an executive editor of the Pontefract student newspaper. A lot of my extracurricular work goes without a title, though; right now, I’m working with another student to organize Casino Night, a really fun all-school weekend activity that is a fundraiser for the Class of 2016.

As a senior, I am taking really challenging courses this year. If it weren’t for my freshman year math teacher spending an extra hour after class with me working on practice geometry problems, or my sophomore year chemistry teacher making sure I fully understood the logic behind balancing chemical equations before moving on, I would not be where I am today. The individualized help and support that teachers offer students at Pomfret is unmatched.

After spending four years at Pomfret, I constantly find myself appreciating how uniquely caring the teachers and students are in this community compared to those at other boarding schools that my friends attend. Next year I am headed to my first choice school, the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences at George Washington University, where I will major in political science. Given how things have turned out, I would choose Pomfret School without hesitation.

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FEATURE

Rich Dempsey, Dorm Parent and Assistant Head of School for Student Life

I

t’s close to study hall time in Hale House. Following some after-dinner fun, the dorm residents, consisting mostly of third form boys, have begun to settle down for the evening. Sitting under the glow of their desk lights, the boys begin their nightly work.

However, on this night, like many before it, the boys are about to experience an interruption. No, it’s nothing worrisome. On the contrary, the distraction is one they really seem to enjoy — and not because it keeps them from their work at hand. Without warning, the door to our Hale apartment crashes open. This racket is then followed by a half-squeal, halfgiggle sound that reverberates down the dorm hallway. The boys rise from their desks and spill out into the hallway to greet the source of the commotion: none other than my three-year-old son, Teddy.

On most nights, Teddy begins his bedtime routine by walking around the dorm, going from room to room, and saying good night to the boys.

Greeted with high-fives, fist bumps, and occasional hugs from the fellas, this is the perfect end to his day. When I watch this exchange, it is clear to me that the boys in my dorm are just as happy to see Teddy as Teddy is to see them. My three-year-old is not just a faculty child to them; he is their little brother. Pomfret is a family, you see, and this dorm is a home.

Although many times overlooked during the admission process, the strength of a school’s residential life program has a significant and direct impact on the overall student experience. After all, students spend half of each day in a residential space. The warmth, comfort, and support offered within the dormitories provide students with a safe and healthy environment in which to work, live, and play.

At Pomfret, the very structure of our dormitories catalyzes this experience for our students, especially for our younger ones. In their lower form years, students are housed according to their grade. Third formers live in adjacent house dorms comprising what is referred to as the Freshman Circle, and fourth formers are housed together on the same hallways. This structure allows closer proximity to others with whom they have more in common. They tend to take the same classes, play on the same sport teams, have similar interests, and be the same years of age. As a result, these students — both boys and girls — tend to form tight friendships with each other within a short amount of time.

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It is here, in the early years, that the roots of a family begin to grow. And as they continue their Pomfret journey together, their roots grow deeper and stronger. A third form student recently described his dorm as “a place where people are connected to each other, are willing to help and care for each other, and are invested in each other.” Without a doubt, building relationships and making thoughtful connections are at the heart of our student life experience.

The manner in which our students and faculty interact is an equally important reagent toward producing a successful and healthy school culture. While on campus duty, I have the pleasure of walking through the dormitories on a regular basis during the evening hours. In doing so, I am always amazed by what I see — teachers meeting with students for extra help; an entire dorm gathering to celebrate a birthday; students and adults talking about important, worldly topics; and students laughing, sharing, and sometimes, dancing together.

One of my dorm prefects shares that “as close-knit communities, our dorm spaces provide students with the comfort and safety to be themselves. As a result, students have confidence in themselves and each other, which leads to a willingness to try new things.”

Upon hearing his words, I am reminded of his performance a few years ago when he was a third former in AirBands, which is an all-school, lip sync competition between dorm and day groups. Wearing a wig and just one white glove, he led his dorm group on stage dancing — moon walk and all — to a Michael Jackson song. Despite being a younger and somewhat shy kid, Nathan got up on stage and absolutely stole the show!

I remember feeling the shock and awe that Nathan did it. Even though this situation presented him with some social risks and possible vulnerabilities, he had enough confidence in himself and felt enough comfort amongst his peers to perform his goofy routine in front of the entire school community. Equally impressive to me was the manner in which his performance was received by others.

Dorms are certainly places for studying and sleeping, but they also provide healthy backdrops for having fun and fostering personal growth. Through their relationships and connections, both in good times and in bad, students learn about themselves, and they gain a better understanding of and an appreciation for others.

So, as I watch Teddy run down the Hale House hallway looking to connect with students, like Nathan, I am reminded of the power, uniqueness, and importance of our residential program.

It is an extension of the school itself — and a testament to the strength and quality of the relationships we forge as students, faculty, and ultimately, family.

Julie Kremer P ’14, ’17 Advisor, Assistant Dean, and English Teacher

I

was on a weekly shopping trip when my cell phone rang. “So how do you feel about taking on an advisee group?” asked Dolph Clinton ’92, our Dean of Students. It took me less than a second to agree. I would be getting four girls: two freshmen, one sophomore, and a postgraduate.

As an advisor, I would serve as a liaison between the School and their parents. We would meet twice a week during dinner and advising blocks, and touch base as issues came up. Eventually, we named ourselves the 369 Posse, a mix of our street address and my husband Joe’s love of old school rap. For the most part it was smooth sailing.

The next year, I picked up two more girls. To even things out, Joe was assigned six boys. At first Joe and I kept our groups separate because well… the girls didn’t want anything to do with the boys. We ate separate meals in separate rooms — no easy task with one vegetarian, one kosher, and one gluten-free student. We helped our advisees choose classes separately.

We talked to them about grades separately. We navigated social issues separately. Quite honestly, the boys (a.k.a. the 369 Mafia) annoyed the girls who, although very different, had become good friends in those years together. They were very protective of our space and our time. Eventually we all found ourselves together in the dining room; still we kept our distance, eating at separate tables.

Sometimes it is the hard moments that bring us together. In December of our second year, one of our advisees lost a father to cancer. It was the first time many of the kids in our advisee group had dealt with the death of a loved one and we weren’t exactly sure of the road map. We did know that our kids needed attention, needed to be heard, needed to know they could share anything with us. Though Pomfret offers each student the opportunity to gain independence, it is still a home to children — children who need “parents” to guide and mentor them through easy and difficult times — which is what Joe and I did.

In the end, spring saved us. Soon we moved outside for casual games of lacrosse and basketball. We made s’mores — lots of s’mores — and grilled out. We finished the year with a lobster bake. Strangely enough, it was the thing that seemed to truly bring us together.

In September 2014, we settled back into a great routine of Thursday night advisee dinners, cookie study-breaks on Sundays, birthday celebrations with ridiculous gifts and party hats, and of course, music and dancing whenever we gathered. We morphed into the 369 Flock because we finally felt like one group. At this point we really liked each other, and our kids started gathering outside of advisee group to hang out. They also started coming earlier and staying later. I used to joke that the kids came for dinner, but stayed for breakfast because it was just so much fun.

Except when it wasn’t.

In October of the same year, we experienced a moment that should not come more than once, a moment when the world stops spinning. Our advisee, Joe Robichaud P ’15, was killed in a car accident. Two months later, our group suffered another catastrophic loss when an advisee’s mother died suddenly from cancer. As a parent, it is hard enough to explain abstract concepts like death to my two biological kids. How could I possibly help my twelve other kids deal with so much sorrow when I could hardly bear it myself ? As cliché as it might seem, we adopted the mantra “one day at a time.” Slowly, inexorably, the days turned to weeks and the weeks turned to months. Then, this past spring, Joe and I sat down and wrote the following words to the parents of our advisory group: “The Kremer Advisory, or the 369 Flock, had one tough year.

We dealt with loss firsthand. We learned to stop asking why.

Instead, we gathered those closest to us and moved forward.

In the process of this very long year, we hope that each kid, as part of a community, of a family, our family, learned that being there for each other, while challenging and confusing, is something that comes before all else; a burden for one is a burden for all. In the end, we were more than the grief that consumed us for so much of the year. We were singers, leaders, athletes, runners, dancers, graduates, and devourers of lobsters and s’mores. We learned to hug and cry together and laugh. We were The Flock, and there will never be another group like this one. Through these changes, one thing remained clear to us — our kids are amazing. Grades and athletic accomplishments aside, their maturity and social growth this year inspired and motivated us; it was these moments that made us appreciate the work we get to do here and, perhaps more importantly, the opportunity to work with children like yours.”

Each year is different with an advisee group, but for us, the expectation is always the same: it should feel like home. Our door is always open when kids want to hang out or sleep on the couch because they are sick or play with our dogs because they miss their own. The trade off is that we will push our advisees (some times harder than others) to reach their potential. We graduated half of our group last May. I wouldn’t say it was an easy task to add eight more kids to the remaining seven. The rebuilding years are hard, but they are worth it, too, because we get to start over.

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CONNECTIONS | Chapel Talk

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POMFRET Magazine

CHAPEL TALK

Standing out from the Crowd

By Doug Braff ’16

Doug is a senior from Locust Valley, New York.

Delivered: Monday, November 16, 2015

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hen I was little, I was a real work in progress. I stuttered.

Had no self-confidence. No control over my ADD and hyperactivity.

I was awkward. I didn’t know how to interact with people. I found it hard to express my ideas, feelings, and opinions, or to ask questions.

classes at institutions such as the New York Film Academy and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, where I learned different ways to deliver a true performance. This required me to search through my memories, emotions, fears, hopes, weaknesses, and insecurities. It was not easy to dig through these things — to recall vivid moments that had made me laugh, yawn, cheer, vomit, swoon, cringe, yell, and cry. It was not easy to relive these raw, human experiences.

By the time I arrived at Pomfret as a freshman, I craved acceptance. I wanted be cool, or even just normal. I had just left a place where — for the past four years — I had felt cast aside because I was different, and I wanted to do everything within my power to keep that from happening again. So, I restrained myself and tried not to be goofy, silly, or immature. I wanted to fit in with my peers, but the problem was, I really didn’t know how to fit in. In the spring of my freshman year, despite my best efforts, I finally fell apart.

It was the lowest of lows, and I really needed help. I am forever indebted to my awesome family, and Dr. Mandanis, who reached in and pulled me out of the hole.

By the time I returned to Pomfret for my sophomore year, I was already making new friends, and I have been making new ones ever since. With each successive performance, I have grown as an actor, and as a result, I have been rewarded with better and better roles.

That summer I went to a performing arts camp in the Catskills called Stagedoor Manor. I was insecure and had my defenses up when I arrived. I was ready to hate the place, but when my mom and I pulled into the entrance, we were warmly greeted by counselors dressed as Broadway characters from The Phantom of the Opera, West Side Story, and The Book of Mormon. They were singing show tunes.

“Welcome home!” they cried.

That summer I met actual theater kids for the first time: people who had dedicated their lives to performing, who were kind, who took pride in being different, and who stayed true to themselves.

They were weird, geeky, goofy, quirky, compassionate, and far from normal. Not only that, they always gave others the benefit of the doubt, and rarely made petty judgments. They also knew how to give themselves, physically and emotionally, to a performance.

With them, I felt the magic and wonder and freedom of childhood again. At Stagedoor, I was free to explore my personality, my quirks, and my natural state of being. I took risks, found comfort in the uncomfortable, became open to new ideas, and tasted life.

I had always wanted to become a better actor, but it was Stagedoor that gave me the drive to chase my new goal. I started by taking

Surprisingly, I almost didn’t return to Stagedoor this past summer. I was very ambitious, and only wanted to do intensive theater conservatories and college programs. Fortunately, at the last moment, my mother convinced me, and I agreed to go. And honestly, it was the best summer I’ve ever had.

During every three-week session, campers at Stagedoor get the opportunity to perform short plays written by fellow campers. The plays can only be five to ten minutes long and use no more than five actors. Among the roughly forty plays that are submitted, only five are chosen. I was pushed by a fellow camper to sign up for the title character of a play she wrote called When Harvey Wore a Blue Tie. I ultimately got the part, and I devoted hours to it every day. Then the day finally came.

When the play was over, everyone flooded the stage to congratulate the playwrights and the actors. In the sea of people, I saw my playwright friend, and she saw me, and we weaved our way through the crowd. We hugged. Then she looked me in the eyes and said that no one else could’ve done what I had done. I had brought Harvey to life. Of all the compliments I have ever received, this one meant the most to me.

These days, it is difficult to describe how happy I am. Things have turned out great. And my advice to you? Do what makes you happy — and don’t ever be afraid to stand out from the crowd.

Before they graduate, all sixth form students are required to deliver a chapel talk in front of the assembled Pomfret community. Students decide what they want to say and how they want to say it. Every student is encouraged to speak with honesty, clarity, and specificity, but there is really only one requirement: Say something you mean.

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CONNECTIONS | Iconography

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under a tree, near the old Pyne dormitory, but was relocated to just outside the gym when the Centennial building was constructed. When the gym underwent a significant renovation, it was moved to its current home on the edge of the quad.

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POMFRET Magazine

When struck, the Victory Bell rings in the

KEY OF D That’s the same key as U2’s With or Without You and Taylor’s Swift’s Love Story, in case you were curious.

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CONNECTIONS

Lost and Found Rediscovering a Pomfret Alumnus.

By Caroline Sloat

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in 1967 and followed his father into employment at Electric Boat. Ring, however, was an avid reader and gifted writer, two attributes that — as it would turn out — distinguished his military service in Vietnam.

As the only child of a military family, Ring knew that he could not evade the draft (as many did in the midsixties) and as becoming a soldier was inevitable, he enlisted and was inducted in June 1968. Letters to Maris Carlson, whom he married on Christmas 1968 before going overseas; Rik Carlson, her brother, with whom he shared many interests, including cars; and other contemporaries, as well as Ring’s parents who Former Pomfret CFO Arthur Diaz ’78 alluded to this lived in Stonington, Connecticut, chronicle nearly two reality in a speech he delivered to an assembly of years in Vietnam. students and faculty on Veterans Day in 2011.

An insightful and eloquent observer, Ring soon “Arthur was known for making the community aware observed that a soldier manages because he “knocks of current and historical events,” says Arts department the system, his commanding officer, his assignment chair Chip Lamb, for whom the remarks held special just because he cannot really talk about the one thing significance. Chip’s nephew (his sister’s only son) had that’s keeping him going — his plans for what he’ll do when he gets out, all the things he can reasonably just been deployed to Iraq. love.” As a member of the Americal Division he was As Chip was musing and the buzz of lunchtime assigned to Landing Zone (LZ) Liz, just above Duc conversations resumed, he realized how distant the Pho. From there he wrote about patrols and other world of war had become. He wondered what role horrific situations, sometimes turning them into the arts might play in bridging this gap between home amusing stories. He told the story of a long, messy, and the Middle East, and thought about the plaques in and dangerous slog through rugged mountain terrain Clark Chapel. He observed that there were so many and helicopter evacuations through a duckling he had names of Pomfret students who had served in the First rescued from a unit member’s machete cutting a path and Second World Wars, but only two for Vietnam. for the team. “[Duckly] grooves on cubes of freezeThese reflections set off a remarkable chain of events. dried potatoes softened in reconstituted milk. That’s a taste I can’t develop.” After several adventures Central is the figure of Ring Bailey, and it turns out that together, Ring let the duck go “on a rice paddy dike…

Chip was one of a group drawn to his life and words I figured he was safe from machetes and he’s still too at that moment. Ring graduated from Trinity College small to be a Vietnamese dinner… He didn’t look back.

Maybe his ears still hurt from the helicopter rides.” e view the names of the memorialized dead — carved in wood or chiseled in marble — from a respectful distance. For their friends and families who knew them best, the pain and grief never go away; but for the rest of us, who might never know such a loss, these war dead are just names. The harrowing experiences of distant wars are poorly understood and those who gave their lives largely forgotten. The rediscovery of Pomfret’s Loring M. “Ring” Bailey, Jr. ’63 is a reminder of a life tragically cut short.

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POMFRET Magazine

For each of his correspondents, he cultivated a unique voice to highlight different kinds of experiences. Rik Carlson recalls that “when Ring was killed [in March 1970] it didn’t take long for his parents, wife and brother-in-law to realize the value of his letters to each of them.” For a couple of years after he died they met every two or three weeks to read and edit the letters.

“It wasn’t easy,” he recalls. “There were arguments.”

Maris “did much of the work including the laborious typing of five copies using carbon paper.” Their efforts to find a publisher were unsuccessful and the manuscript was “shelved.”

Fast forward to 2011 when a Google search led Chip Lamb to individuals with connections to Ring and gradually the story that became a play called 70lbs of Books emerged. Conversation with Peter Sørenson, who had met Ring at Fort Belvoir, led to an introduction to his son, Søren, who wrote, produced, and directed My Father’s Vietnam, a film that includes his father and Ring’s stories. Søren screened raw footage of interviews with people he had already tracked down for Chip, and soon afterwards a package of letters arrived in the mail. By chance, Peter had met Ring’s elderly parents in 2000, and that led to the discovery that Ring’s letters had survived. But, barely. When Peter helped the Baileys close up their Stonington home, his mother gave him a cardboard box marked DESTROY from the attic to carry to the dumpster.

Then she changed her mind. “You take this,” she said. It was filled with mementos of their son. Having shared the letters, Peter urged Chip to contact Rik Carlson and from there the play began to take shape.

reunion. We wanted to get as many of us as possible to come. Ring was not well known in the class, but when we heard this story we felt that it was remarkable.”

Chip took part in a conference call arranged by the alumni office and the group agreed to sponsor the production of the play during their reunion. “Lugging his books around, writing back, and giving such a good idea of what his life was like in that terrible place; …short as his life turned out to be, we had to do something for him,” recalled Fates. “The plaque in the chapel is okay, but hardly seems enough.”

Chip’s theater piece, 70lbs of Books, sponsored by the Class of 1963, was produced and performed by students and members of the school community in May 2013. Then, at a family gathering over Memorial Day in 2015, Maris finally told Rik that he should “go ahead and publish the book.” His own (and only) son, by now an Iraq War veteran who served as a Marine in Falluja and Ramadi, and who now coordinates veterans services for the University of Vermont, was with him that day, making the moment an especially poignant one.

In his Foreword to the new book, Lamb writes: “Though Calm Frenzy is the extraordinary legacy of one young soldier, Bailey’s work honors the countless men and women who have stepped into harm’s way to keep us safe. This book is dedicated to all veterans, past, present and future. They all have stories to tell.

Are we listening?”

Caroline Sloat came to Pomfret School as a faculty wife during the Vietnam War era. In addition to her Enter the Class of 1963. Dick Fates recalls working as own career as a historian, she edited the former part of a team “looking for ideas as we organized our Pomfret Bulletin for many years.

FALL 2015

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Winter

CLASS NOTES

1935-2015

1935 | 1936 | 1937 | 1938 | 1939 | 1940 | 1941| 1942 | 1943 | 1944 | 1945 | 1946 | 1947 | 1948 | 1949 | 1950 | 1951 | 1952 1953 | 1954 | 1955 | 1956 | 1957 | 1958 | 1959 | 1960 | 1961 | 1962 | 1963 | 1964 | 1965 | 1966 | 1967 | 1968 | 1969 1970 | 1971 | 1972 | 1973 | 1974 | 1975 | 1976 | 1977 | 1978 | 1979 | 1980 | 1981 | 1982 | 1983 | 1984 | 1985 | 1986 1987 | 1988 1989 | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | Reunion Years

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POMFRET Magazine

1949

’49

Several members of the Class of 1949 celebrated their birthdays in the past few months: Bruce Lee celebrated his birthday in December and Steve Davenport in January; Stuart Bracken, Ed Lowry, and Sonny Staniford celebrated their birthdays in February; and March saw Lyman Allen, Morgan Gilbert, Dick Kennedy, and John Prosser pass another year. Best wishes to all of you!

Bruce Lee and his wife Janetta traveled back to England in December 2015, where Janetta owns a house, to spend some time there.

Bindy Banker is a managing director of Deutsche Bank.

Recently the bank made an offer to Bindy that he may stay in his position until he retires or passes away.

1955

’55

Ferruccio Turek wrote, “In the long-established tradition of not letting grass grow under our feet Jean and I have bid good-bye to Florida and are now busy setting up our twenty-first home (in 35 years) in Parede, Portugal, an outer suburb of Lisboa (Lisbon), next to Cascais on the Atlantic shore. Why Portugal? Well.... plenty of attractions: climate, culture affinity, wonderful food, reasonable cost of living but the clincher was in the form of a 10-year income tax exemption on foreign income with the additional benefit of socialized medicine for EU citizens ... doesn’t it sound enough? There are – inevitably – other sides to the coin ... learning another language – there is plenty of English and French spoken but it does get a bit hairy when dealing with officialdom – and adding another truculent and unforgiving bureaucracy to the three or four we have already left behind but still demand occasional worshipping, yet the pluses are winning. I am not going to share the gory details of moving (by container ship) or importing a vehicle, let alone dealing with the usual set of treacherous real estate characters, but we’ll be happy to impart them on any classmates choosing to make a stop-over with us on their way to (or from) the rest of Europe and discover this lovely place in the sun.”

1956

’56

Bill Huffer wrote, “My wife and I are very much looking forward to attending my 60th reunion in May – see you then!”

1963

’63

John Griswold wrote, “After 23+ years on the job I’m finally slowing down from full-time work running the Commonfund Institute. I’m still on the payroll as Founder and Senior Advisor and will be doing some speaking and consulting for nonprofit boards and investment committees. Our oldest son, Sloane, and his wife, Kelly, gave us our first grandson in June 2015, so my spouse Chichi and I hope to get out to see them in San Francisco more often. My best to all my classmates of ’63!”

John is also being honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award

by The Boys and Girls Club on March 24, 2016 at the Palace Theatre in Stamford, CT. This award is being presented for his outstanding and longtime support of The Boys & Girls Club, on whose board he has served for almost 30 years. John has also been a National Trustee of the Boys and Girls Clubs of America since 1980.

1964

’64

Mark Simon wrote, “I am pleased that we have completed the campus core master plan working in collaboration with [Head of School] Tim Richards and the administration, [Director of the Grauer Institute] Jamie Baker, and the Trustees’ Building Committee including schoolmates Dave Woodrow, Buzz Yudell ’65, and Paul Fowler. It will prepare Pomfret for a new 21st century education, promoting cross-discipline and tech studies, project-based learning, and team work, as well as oldfashioned lectures and discussion. Pomfret is so very different from our time, but all the more exciting. We expect that it will lead to new and compelling buildings and renovations.”

Class notes featured in this issue were received prior to February 15, 2016. Notes received after this date will be published in the spring 2016 issue. Class notes are appreciated and may be submitted via your Class Agent or by e-mail to: Debby Thurston, Class Notes Editor, at: dthurston@pomfretschool.org.

We encourage and welcome appropriate news items and photographs from all alumni and friends. Please note that not all submissions are guaranteed to appear based upon subject matter, photo reproduction quality, and space availability. Also, we reserve the right to edit for consistency and style but we will give every consideration to each author’s individual writing style.

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CONNECTIONS | Class Notes

1964 continued Mark Constantian announced, “On December 18, 2015 I received the Key to the City of Nashua, NH from Mayor Donallee Lozeau. The citation recognized me for ‘leadership and numerous honors… and for bringing worldwide recognition to our city.’ Mayor Lozeau is Nashua’s first woman mayor, and this was the 12th key that she had presented since she took office in 2008. Obviously I was stunned by this surprise presentation.

Actually, I told the mayor, getting the key to the city had been a joke around the house. As I have written so many papers and done so much teaching over the years, my name is always associated with Nashua, New Hampshire. I remember being at a meeting in Brazil a few years ago and meeting a surgeon from Peru who said to me, ‘Oh, I know you; you’re from Nashua.’ I thought this was very funny because he told me that he had never been to New York City, much less Nashua. When those kinds of things happened, I used to tell my wife that they should give me the key to the city because I had brought it so much attention. We both used to laugh; I never thought it would actually happen. This city has been very good to me, and I prefer to think of the key as a symbol that memorializes what Nashua city has done for me more than what I have done for it. Certainly recognition from the area I have served for more than 37 years is most meaningful, and I was very honored.”

Larry Lanpher was portrayed in the movie Truth, which came out in late 2015. He had a major role on the legal team that conducted CBS’ internal investigation of the “60 Minutes” story about George W. Bush’s Air National Guard Service, which this movie detailed. The movie focuses on Mary Mapes, the producer of the “60 Minutes” segment (portrayed by Kate Blanchett), and Dan Rather (played by Robert Redford), who was the CBS Evening News anchor at the time. Dan Rather resigned subsequent to the investigation, and Mary Mapes was fired by CBS. Peter Corbin wrote, “I am delighted to announce my current exhibition at the National Sporting Library & Museum (NSLM) in Middleburg, VA entitled Line Dance – The Art of Fly Fishing, on view from January 30 through July 3, 2016. The NSLM’s George L. Ohrstrom, Jr. Curator of Art, Claudia Pfeiffer, has selected a number of my fly fishing paintings from the last 37 years for a one-man exhibition at the Museum. She has written a wonderful exhibition catalog. Included in the exhibition is a media component, a video I created and produced with Emery Ruger of Ledgerock Studio. The video presents my philosophy on painting and the progression of my 2014 painting, Line Dance. For more information about the exhibition, and to view the exhibition video slide show go to www.NationalSporting.org.”

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POMFRET Magazine

’64 Mark Constantian ’64 and Mayor Donnalee Lozeau Photo courtesy of The Cabinet Press

Dan Church has completed every conceivable improvement to the five houses currently in his inventory (four built prior to 1880), and has been reduced recently to building a teak toilet seat. Worse, he can no longer justify purchasing additional tools.

Vip van Voorhees wrote, “David Manesian was already an accomplished organist while at Pomfret. He treated the school community to several performances in Clark Chapel. Most memorable for me was when he played Widor’s Toccata. When I told Dave how much I missed hearing him play, he sent me a CD of him playing that piece on the Clark Chapel organ. He wrote me that, ‘Ned Goodhue ’63 recorded this [performance] as well as performance(s) by the Griffenpoofs on his Roberts tape recorder, some or all of which was played on our little radio program, “Pomfret Presents” aired weekly for a while by the Putnam radio station.’ I am now happy to report that Dave has located that recording and contributed it to the Pomfret archives!”

1969 continued

1965

’65

Barry Bobrick wrote, “My two books on Russian history (Fearful Majesty and East of the Sun) have both been reissued, each with a new Foreword. Thanks to the kindness of the Muses, almost all of my books remain in print. At our 50th [reunion], I was delighted to see so many classmates again. It has been gratifying, too, to keep up with several since: Murph Henkel, Mark Hildebrand, Jim Seymour, Bill Whipple, John Irick, as well as Jay Milnor – all great souls! In October, my wife and I spent a day with Hagop and Aggie Merjian, whom we adore, and as always the occasion was embellished with bold etymological excursions and a Middle Eastern feast. Hagop promised to send me some of his translations from the Greek poet Constantine Cavafy; I sent him my triptych of epigrams on Art that were recently anthologized.

From time to time, Peter Murkett and I get together (as we have for years) for a good dinner and even better talk. My memoir, Returning From Afar: Twelve Apologues In Time (to be published in 2018), is near its midpoint – when I was poetry editor of Ais Eiri (the magazine of the Irish Arts Center), and began work on my first book, Labyrinths of Iron, while making a living as a concert manager and graphic artist in New York.

It was then that I came to know the great, elderly storyteller, P.L. Travers – the friend of Yeats, A.E. and other members of the Irish Renaissance – who took me under her wing. In the patterned odyssey of my unlikely life, a paradigmatic moment – a turning point.”

Gary Tharler wrote, “My late life art career keeps moving forward. I had two pieces accepted for a juried show at a prestigious small local gallery. I saw in the recent Pomfret Magazine that Chick Cole’s family had a retrospective Cole family exhibit. He was one of my early mentors [and] I feel Chick was part of my foundation.”

1970

’70

Benny Bensen wrote, “At the risk of being proven utterly wrong, the Class of 1970 seems to have behaved itself, at least since last Spring’s reunion. Char Miller was praying for rain at the time, and now knows what ‘be careful what you ask for’ truly entails. Tom Boyd is promoting the latest revival of Billy Elliott, Gil Judson is back from Singapore, and various individuals do Facebook, if mostly in binges. Some of us have even retired (but not me, not yet, not now anyhow). But news? I leave that to John Bogardus, with all of our congratulations for his engagement as well as his not-yet-scheduled nuptials. Go Boges!”

And John Bogardus added, “I am delighted to report that Lourdes Vargas accepted my marriage proposal via flash mob in Sonoma, CA. Since it was videoed, you can see it on YouTube by searching ‘John’s Sonoma Flash Mob Proposal.’ I greatly enhanced my chance for Lourdes’s acceptance by making sure it was the 60+ participants who appeared dancing, while I was only required to saunter in and take a knee!”

’69 1969 John Adams wrote, “In the last year I have had client assignments in Laos, Vanuatu, Trinidad, Macedonia, Ethiopia, and Liberia, all on telecoms and internet law and regulation projects. Lots of interesting places and challenging work, but when my wife and I vacation, we see the USA. We were on Sanibel, Florida in March 2015 for golf and the Red Sox; number one son was married in August in San Francisco; and we were in New Orleans [in October].”

’70 John Bogardus ’70 and his fiancée Lourdes Vargas

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CONNECTIONS | Class Notes

1971

’71

Otis Read reported, “I [attended] a concert in Lisbon, CT at the Newent Congregational Church on November 14, 2015 where the Norumbega Harmony Choir presented a concert of early American hymns, including some written by my ancestor Daniel Read (1757-1836). Two of his hymns – ‘Lisbon’ and the world-premiere of the unpublished ‘Newent’ – were included in this concert.”

Charles Campbell wrote, “For the past 5 1/2 years I have lived and worked at the Mountain Of Attention Sanctuary in northern California, a meditation and retreat center begun by my spiritual teacher, Adi Da. This past summer, that area of California (specifically Lake County) was the scene of three huge forest fires. The first two fires darkened the skies near us for weeks, but stayed at least 10 miles away. The third, named the Valley Fire, began just a few miles up the mountain from us, and within hours it was roaring down the hillside, through valleys and canyons, and creating smoke so thick that it was nearly suffocating. Early in the morning of the second day of the fire I joined a team of other residents to do what we could to save as much of our center as possible. For eight hours that Sunday morning we tried to keep the flames away from our most important temples and meditation halls. Altogether our land encompasses 1200 acres, and it was inevitable that much of it would burn, but that it was also possible to keep the destruction of buildings to a minimum. I had to leave after a certain point, overcome by exhaustion and smoke, but several friends of mine stayed and fought the fire for days, as it would circle around and re-approach from different directions. We were lucky enough to only lose two cabins, a small retreat center, two barns, and the wooden roofs of a couple of stone structures. Our herd of 18 camels also survived, calm and strong, as the grass around them burned. I have never seen anything as terrifying and powerful as the Valley Fire. Watching it consume entire hillsides in minutes was beyond frightening. The little neighborhood across the street from us, where many of my friends lived, lost 44 of the 50 houses that were there. It was humorous to see the reactions of the six county sheriffs when we told them we were refusing their ‘mandatory’ evacuation orders, because we were determined to save a place that was not only important to us, but sacred.”

Ridley Pearson has three novels publishing in 2016: The Return, Book 2: Legacy Of Secrets continues his follow-up to the wildly popular Kingdom Keepers series; White Bone is a novel resulting from two years of research and multiple drafts exploring the poaching of elephant and rhino in Kenya; and Lock & Key: The Initiation is the first in a trilogy about the early days of Sherlock Holmes’s nemesis, James Moriarty. He stays in regular touch with Jacques Bailhé and other band members from the music

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1971 continued group they formed at Pomfret, and enjoys the success and work of fellow ’71-er, documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney.

Stewart Casper wrote, “I get nervous when people start talking about retirement. Slow down – yes. Retire – no. I’m having a blast trying significant injury cases to juries – mostly in Fairfield County, CT. In the last two years, for the most part, the hard work has paid off with really nice verdicts. In 2015 I was inducted into the Connecticut Law Tribune’s Personal Injury Hall of Fame in two separate categories for verdicts in different cases.

I’m best known for expertise in traumatic brain injury litigation.

I went to my first brain injury seminar in 1979 and have enjoyed learning more and more as the science has advanced. Free advice: don’t let your children or grandchildren play football. My wife, Victoria de Toledo, and I moved to Pound Ridge, NY about three years ago. Our home is located in an idyllic setting on a hill overlooking a lake. It’s a stone’s throw from the Connecticut border. Our children are in New York City (2), Oakland, CA and Stamford, CT. Only one is married. No grandchildren yet.

Hope to make it to our 45th Reunion.”

1986

’86

Bomber Bryan reported, “I was just inducted into the Denison University Varsity D Association Hall of Fame for lacrosse. My wife, Amy, and I are still living in Jackson Hole, Wyoming with one child (Sydney, 18) heading to college in the fall, and our twins (Thomas and Sutton, 16) are juniors and one year away from having college on their doorstep. I’m an owner of Jackson Hole Real Estate Associates, the largest real estate brokerage in the region, and we’re an affiliate of Christie’s International Real Estate.”

1989

’89

Liz Scribner Repetto wrote, “Whenever I receive the invitation to send in an alumni update to Pomfret, it invokes the same thought process every time. It does not entail marriage, children, foreign travels or big business deals. It involves a simple thankfulness starting back at Pomfret. Pomfret was an incredible experience that got me to where I am today. I still love working with a team. I still love sitting at round tables discussing topics and debating outcomes to community issues. Competition? Do I still like competition like on the fields at Pomfret you ask? Well, I prefer my competition on ice, like most things nowadays, but I will say my love of hockey (2-3 games a week) still brings back

1989 continued my Pomfret years. I am thankful for my art room that I attempt to spend time in monthly, just like at Pomfret – a space that allows risk taking and thinking outside the box. As I ramble on as a content alumna living in Alaska, with Pomfret memories always at reach, I still celebrate what Pomfret had to offer and where it invited me to go intellectually and athletically.”

’93 1993

’92

1992

Winston Miller announced, “I was married to Kara Thayer on July 25, 2015 at my family home in Greenport, NY. We subsequently moved to Indianapolis, IN where Kara works in marketing at Eli Lilly and I have begun my practice as an independent educational consultant, helping high school students navigate the college search and application process.

Wishing the Class of ’92 all the best!”

Bonnie Watson Underwood is living and working in Milan, Italy with her husband, Julian, and their three sons Willy (11), James (9), and Taylor (6).

1994

’94

The children of Jenny Rodriguez ’94 and Besenia Rodriguez ’96 on Christmas morning 2015 in New York.

’92 Winston Miller ’92 and Kara Thayer

’94

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CONNECTIONS | Class Notes

’95

1995

Former faculty members Ginny P ’91 and Marshall Eaton ’70 had lunch with Dale Chase ’95 and his mother, Arlene, at The Oxford Exchange restaurant in Tampa, FL on December 29, 2015. They had a great time!

1998

Congratulations to Christopher and Angela Hill Tabb, who became the proud parents of Patrick Lawrence Tabb on September 3, 2015.

2000

’00

David and Maura Puliafico Drake welcomed a baby girl, Josephine Puliafico Drake, on November 14, 2015. Big brother Nathaniel (5) and sister Luciana (3) absolutely adore her!

Congratulations to Jenna and Will Keyser, who were married at the NYYC Harbour Court in Newport, RI on September 26, 2015. Family and friends were in attendance, including their pup, Sequoia, who was one of the flower girls. The couple is living in the Boston area.

’95 (l-r): Arlene, Dale, Ginny, Marshall

’98 ’00 Nathaniel, Luciana, and baby Josephine Drake

’98 Patrick Lawrence Tabb

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POMFRET Magazine

2002

’02

Eddie Otocka and Molly Shuster ’03 were married on September 12, 2015 after reconnecting at Molly’s 10-year Pomfret reunion in 2013. Pomfret guests in attendance included Molly’s parents, Steven and Martha Shuster, Eddie’s parents, Rosemary and Drew Otocka ’63, Molly’s advisor, Margaux (D’Auteuil) Peabody, Eddie’s advisors James and Diane Rees P ’98, ’01, and friends Kevin Rees ’01, Mark Latter ’03, Laura (Keeler) Pierce ’03, Chelsea (Weiss) Baum ’03, and Robert Weintraub ’03. Molly and Eddie recently moved to Riverside, CT with their two dogs, Penelope and Shiloh. Eddie continues to work in continues on next page

’00 Jenna and Will Keyser

’01

2001

’02 Molly Shuster ’03 & Eddie Otocka ’02

Gaby Grinblat Rifkin announced, “My husband Brad and I welcomed Elena Sophia Rifkin into the family on January 18, 2016.

She is a happy, healthy baby and we are enjoying her immensely.

I am finishing medical school at the University of Pennsylvania in May [2016] and going on to do a residency in ophthalmology at the University of Rochester in New York.”

’02

’01

(l-r): Steven & Martha Shuster P ’03, Laura (Keeler) Pierce ’03, faculty Jim & Diane Rees P ’98, ’01, Kevin Rees ’01, Drew Otocka ’63, Molly & Eddie, Rob Weintraub ’03, Chelsea (Weiss) Baum ’03, and Mark Latter ’03. Missing from photo: former faculty member Margaux (D’Auteuil) Peabody

Elena Sophia Rifkin WINTER 2016

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CONNECTIONS | Class Notes

2002 continued commercial real estate as a Vice President with Marcus & Millichap in New York, while Molly is a freelance food writer and stylist, with her first cookbook slated to be published in 2017 by Hachette Livre.

Congratulations to Jo Anna Galanti Fellon, who was the 2016 recipient of the Master Rainmaker Award.

The Master Rainmaker is the top award given to an individual who has distinguished him/herself with outstanding personal and professional results within the field of accounting. Jo Anna was recognized by her peers and program facilitators as an exceptional individual who displayed superior results consistently throughout the two years of The Rainmaker Academy.

Congratulations Jo Anna on this outstanding accomplishment!

’03 Andie McNeil Spadaccini

’03 2003 Congratulations to Mallory Tosches, who was married to John Ciempa on October 10, 2015 at their home in Haverhill, MA. Pomfret alumni in attendance were Laura Fox, bridesmaid Casey Bezamat Gernander ’97, Amanda Gill-David and Melissa Wigmore.

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POMFRET Magazine

’03 (l-r): Laura Fox ’03, Casey Bezamat Gernander ’97, Mallory Tosches ’03, Amanda Gill-David ’03 and Melissa Wigmore ’03

’06

2006

Elisabeth Brubaker reported, “In the past year I have created a company called Joy of Life Project. It is a concierge and personal assistant service for life’s big events – from weddings and funerals to birthdays, anniversaries and more. It’s been a gift to honor the life of my grandmothers who both passed away in 2015 and to bring joy to others by removing the stress from itinerary planning of big events. Since its inception I’ve been able to help Michelle Gilmore Castiglione celebrate her pregnancy and others celebrate their engagements and big trips! I also got to catch up with Hillary Ross Charalambous, her husband Alec, Eddie Ross ’09 and John Ross ’15 in New York City over the Thanksgiving holiday. Stop by Marta if you’re ever in New York!”

Rachel Rapoza ’06 and Ashley Almon were married on November 14, 2015 at the Spring Valley Country Club in Sharon, MA.

2008

’08

Alex Crean wrote, “In May [2015] I graduated from the University of Connecticut School of Law. I sat for the Connecticut and Massachusetts Bar Examinations in July, and passed both on my first attempt. I relocated to Boston, and I now work as an associate at a boutique estate planning and administration firm in Downtown Crossing. I look forward to reconnecting with all my Pomfret classmates who live here.”

2011

’11

Jaimie Leonoff, a goaltender for the National Women’s Hockey League’s Connecticut Whale was selected for the inaugural NWHL All-Star Game which took place on January 24, 2016.

2015

’06

’15

Makenna Newkirk, a freshman on the Boston College women’s hockey team, won Hockey East Pro Ambitions Rookie of the Week on February 15, 2016. This is Makenna’s third Hockey East Pro Ambitions Rookie of the Week award this season, having amassed 39 points (18 goals, 21 assists). She is the nation’s leading freshman goal-scorer and is second in points overall among freshmen.

Rachel Rapoza ’06 (right) and Ashley Almon

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CONNECTIONS | Class Notes

FACULTY/STAFF NEWS Former headmaster Jay Milnor welcomed a greatgrandson, Nathan Gregory Blakesley, on December 18, 2015. The baby is also the nephew of Susette Milnor ’74.

Congratulations to Jim Power [English/Academic Dean 1986-1993] who was named the 13th Head of Schools of Culver Academies, effective July 1, 2016.

Culver Academies is a college preparatory boarding high school in northern Indiana comprised of Culver Military Academy and Culver Girls Academy. Jim has been the principal of Upper Canada College in Toronto since 2004.

Faculty members Katie Watkins [History, 2014-present] and Tie Watkins [Academic Technology, 2015-present] welcomed twins Vivian June (left) and Cecelia Anne on January 25, 2016.

Small but mighty, they were named after their grandmothers and great-grandmothers.

Vivian June (left) and Cecelia Anne

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POMFRET Magazine

In Memoriam Visit our website at pomfretschool.org/obituaries for full detail alumni obituaries.

To request a printed copy, call the Advancement Office at 860-963-6129.

’33

’48

Frederick M. Schall, Jr. ’33 January 11, 2016

G. Stuart Livingston, Jr. ’48 November 17, 2015

’66 Ernest L. Bayer ’66 October 11, 2015

’56 Drummond B. Hadley ’56 November 26, 2015

Douglas R. Tompkins ’61 December 8, 2015

We were saddened to learn that Elodie “Ellie” Semmelrock passed away on January 31, 2016. She was the school nurse for many years through the late 1970’s and 80’s. Our sincere condolences go out to her son, Mark Semmelrock ’76, and the entire Semmelrock family.

’13 Kress A. Goldstein ’13 December 21, 2015

’61

Elodie “Ellie” Semmelrock January 31, 2016

CONNECTIONS | Class Notes

CLASS AGENTS & SECRETARIES Classes not listed do not have a class agent at present.

If interested in volunteering, contact Beth Dow, Associate Director of the Pomfret Fund at 860.963.5993 or bdow@pomfretschool.org.

1937

CLASS AGENTS:

Seth B. French, Jr.

1939

CLASS AGENTS:

William P. Rowland

1941

CLASS AGENTS:

Francis O. Lathrop, Jr. Paul F. Perkins

1946

1957

1969

1981

Danforth P. Fales Horace H. Work

Richard G. Levin

Eric L. Foster

CLASS AGENT:

1958

1949

1959

1971

Jeb N. Embree

Jacques P. Bailhé

CLASS AGENT:

1972

Benjamin A. Fairbank

James M. Bergantz Milton L. Butts, Jr.

1961

CLASS AGENT:

George M. Walker

Stuart J. Bracken Winslow M. Cady

1962

CLASS SECRETARY:

I. Howell Mallory

1950

CLASS AGENT:

William O. Sumner

1951

CLASS AGENT:

CLASS SECRETARY:

Toby Condliffe

1963

CLASS AGENTS:

Charles W. Fleischmann Anthony C. Lame

CLASS AGENT:

Rolfe Floyd III

1952

CLASS AGENT:

Charles V. Henry III

1953

CLASS AGENTS:

Frederick K. Gaston III Edward K. McCagg

1954

CLASS AGENTS:

Chester K. Lasell, William H. O’Brien III

1955

CLASS SECRETARY:

Charles W. Fleischmann

1964

CLASS AGENTS:

Peter W. Clement John A. Dix Charles W. Findlay III Paul D. Fowler

1965

CLASS AGENT:

William A. Hastings

1967

CLASS AGENT:

Michael S. Petty

CLASS AGENTS:

John J. Huss, William A.W. Stewart III

1968

CLASS SECRETARY:

Gregory W. Melville Robert R. Rich

E. Brooks Robbins

CLASS AGENTS:

CLASS SECRETARY:

Sarah Armstrong Scheide

1982

CLASS AGENTS:

Luis Cruz Johanna M. Moffitt

CLASS AGENT:

1960

CLASS AGENT:

CLASS AGENT:

CLASS AGENTS:

Richard A. Bensen Gilbert H. Judson

CLASS AGENTS:

Tony LaPalme

1970

Galen N. Griffin

CLASS AGENT:

CLASS AGENT:

Robert A. Brunker

CLASS AGENT:

CLASS AGENTS:

1973

1983

CLASS AGENTS:

Wendy Reeder Enelow Timothy T. Robinson

1984

CLASS AGENTS:

CLASS AGENT:

David A. Rosen

Jeffrey P. Curran Alexis Rosenthal Proceller Nathaniel S. Reeder

1974

1985

David D. Dixon

Heather Julian

CLASS AGENT:

CLASS AGENT:

1975

1986

Andre B. Burgess Timothy S. Matthews

Jeffrey H. Connor David R. Salomon

CLASS AGENTS:

CLASS AGENTS:

1976

1987

Richard S. Cody Michael R. Nelson

Katharine B. Cowperthwait Jonathan L. Hart

CLASS AGENTS:

CLASS AGENTS:

1977

1988

John B. Leeming II Elwood E. Leonard III

Elizabeth Tilt Weiner

CLASS AGENTS:

1978

CLASS AGENT:

Mark S. Breen

1979

CLASS AGENT:

Robert K. Mullarkey CLASS SECRETARY:

Bradley R. Painter

1980

CLASS AGENT:

Linnea Corwin Elrington CLASS SECRETARY:

Martha K. Murphy

CLASS AGENT:

1989

CLASS AGENTS:

Nathaniel M. Peirce K. Kelsey Hubbard Rollinson Catherine Moriarty Whittier

1990

CLASS AGENTS:

Marcus W. Acheson Rachel Baime Laura H. Cowperthwait Jonathan G. Gengras

1991

CLASS AGENTS:

Laurence N. Hale Abigail Gardiner Silk CLASS SECRETARY:

Caroline E. Waterlow

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POMFRET Magazine

1992

2000

Diana Heide Fredericks David Wyatt Wartels

Hilary Gerson Axtmayer Susannah Miragliuolo

CLASS AGENTS:

1993

CLASS AGENTS:

Michael G. Farina Sarah M. Flournoy

1994

CLASS AGENTS:

2001

CLASS AGENTS:

Alexandra T. Arguimbau Andrew C. Brown Caitlin Rogers Connelly Wendell Smith Scarisbrick

CLASS AGENTS:

Karrie M. Amsler Daniel B. Levin Edward W. Wartels Timothy L. Whipple

1995

CLASS AGENTS:

Carson T. Baker Whitney A. Cook Nicholas D. Mettler Allison Glasmann Reiner Robert E. Thebault Daniel J. Thompson

2002

CLASS AGENTS:

Christina Galanti Dickson Jo Anna Galanti Fellon Michael J. Krents John P. Lindsey William E. Walker II Christopher J. Watkins William R. Wentworth

2003

CLASS AGENTS:

M. Anderson Bottomy Hillary Lewis Fryer Michael A. Newton Rebecca Holt Squires

Muhammed-Saleem R. Ahmed Chelsea Weiss Baum Edward D. Kunhardt Peyton A. Ladt Laura Keeler Pierce Christopher G. Pike MacLean Pilsbury Spadaccini Suparatch Watchara-Amphaiwan

1997

2004

Miriam Jamron Baskies Joanna Kontoudakis Lindsay R. Larsen Hadley Weiss Rosen

Sung Min Choo Christian T. Ford Robert M. Saunders Etienne J. Vazquez

1996

CLASS AGENTS:

CLASS AGENTS:

CLASS SECRETARIES:

Wheeler Simmons Griffith Maurice P. Kane Kyle V. Ritchie

1998

CLASS AGENTS:

John E. Evans III Christopher R. Hale Olutoyin D. Moses Stacy Durbin Nieuwoudt Livia Skelly-Dorn Roustan Sarah L. Welch Thayer P. Whipple

1999

CLASS AGENTS:

Lindsey Boardman Duerr Timothy A. Patrick Alysa Hill Paul Katrin I. Urban Kelly L. Wentworth

CLASS AGENTS:

2005

CLASS AGENTS:

Davinia G. Buckley Timothy J. Deary Laura F. Dunn Alysia LaBonte-Campbell Joshua W. Rich Hyun-Yi Yoo

2006

CLASS AGENTS:

Michelle Gilmore Castiglione Hillary Ross Charalambous Caroline McLoughlin Davis Olivia T. Gray Young Hoon Hahn Maryam A. Hayatu-Deen Gregory E. Jones Katherine Winogradow Munno Caitlin M. Neiduski

Kathryn S. Nelson James E. Pinkham Erin A. Wolchesky

2007

CLASS AGENTS:

Emily H. Detmer Julia D. Field Meredith E. Gagnon Christopher P. Golden Holly A. Lorms Shawn P. McCloud Nathaniel H. Proctor Else S. Ross Darren A. Small Melissa A. Stuart

2012

CLASS AGENTS:

Elizabeth A. Bohan Ian J. Crouse Helen E. Day Sean P. Fitzpatrick Caroline N. Hayssen Margaret Juna Kim Moira M. MacArthur Jack W. Nicholson Georgia W. Paige Sagar A. Patel Sorrel M. Perka Biying Zhang

2013

CLASS AGENTS:

2008

CLASS AGENTS:

Alexandra D’Agostino Joanna A. Gaube Steven A. Harkey Georgina L. Heasman Emily F. Johnson Nicole A. Shirley Charles H. Sullivan Sophia G. Welch

2009

CLASS AGENTS:

Thomas M. Atwood Molly K. Downey Zachary J. Golden Kathryn M. Kramer Haley A. Mitchell Edward T. Ross Rebecca M. Smith Samantha L. St. Lawrence

2010

CLASS AGENTS:

Gabriella W. Bucci Mackenzie C. Deary Maura J. Hall Ryan C. Johnson Kathryn G. Sheehan Samantha A. Slotnick Ryan C. Wainwright

Alexandra R. Adams Lindsay M. Barber Roxane J. Barbera Alyson J. Chase Hayden M. Clarkin Jordan P. Ginsberg Alexis Gulino Daniel D. Kellaway Maximillian P. King William F. Mackie Dylan G. O’Hara Izabel M. Tropnasse

2014

CLASS AGENTS:

Bridget D. Bohan Gabriella M. Criscuolo Isaiah Henderson Ryan S. Jackson Hallie L. Leo Meghan J. MacArthur Annie J. E. Zalon Elise M. Zender

2015

CLASS AGENTS:

Kailey A. Cox Nickolas F. Fulchino Rachel K. Godfrey Keith C. O’Hara Thomas D. Wheatley

2011

CLASS AGENTS:

Muhammed-Jamil R. Ahmed Matthew D. Bourdeau Carlos H. Ferre Lilah T. Fones Czarina N. Hutchins Hannah P. Leo Aidan P. McGloine Hamilton G. Morley Daniel R. Palumbo Margaret H. Thompson Raymond R. Zeek III

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CONNECTIONS | Class Notes

WINTER

GATHERINGS 1

2

3

4

Boston Holiday Reception & Presentation — December 2, 2015 — 1 (l-r): Alex Crean ’08, Sarah Annicelli ’08, Sarah Evans ’08, Else Ross ’07, Brady Griffin ’06 2 (l-r): Angela Malerba ’04, Caroline Donahue ’04, Dana Halsey-McGuire ’10, faculty member Louisa Jones P ’04, Emily Hardej ’04 3 (l-r): Brooks Robbins ’55, Stuart Bracken ’49, Barbara Bracken, Fletcher Street ’59, Meg Robbins 4 (l-r): Ryan Joyce ’06, Sean Driscoll ’06, Andrew McGloine ’05

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POMFRET Magazine

1

2

3

4

5

6

New York Holiday Reception & Presentation — December 8, 2015 — 1 Head of School Tim Richards P ’15 directed a presentation on Pomfret’s master campus plan to guests prior to the holiday reception. 2 (l-r): Derek Pratt ’90, Samantha Jones O’Brien ’91, Deacon Webster ’91, Courtney Hallock McGinnis ’91 3 (l-r): Lisa Charles-Jordan P ’18, Melissa Spooner ’01, Isabel Tamarez P ’16 4 (l-r): Vip van Voorhees ’64, Naomi Boak, Steve Cook ’64, P ’06, Paul Fowler ’64, trustee Dave Woodrow ’64 5 (l-r): Andrew Sereysky ’67, former faculty member Sam Brookfield, Ann Hinchman P ’81, ’83, former faculty member Walt Hinchman P ’81, ’83, Robert Shasha ’69, Leonard Klein ’69, Jeff Purvin ’69 6 (l-r): Elisabeth Brubaker ’06, Mac Bayly ’99, Peyton Ladt ’03 WINTER 2016

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CONNECTIONS | Class Notes

1

2

Squash at the New York Athletic Club – January 24, 2016 — 1 Tim Hotchner ’90, Laura Dunn ’05, Louis Cona, Marjorie Mayrock ’07, David Still ’05, Pete D’Agostino ’07, Jeff Oppenheim ’67, Charlie Edwards, Louisa Jones P ’04, Reed Edwards, Kipp Sylvester P ’16 (host).

Missing from photo: Mark Pepe ’08 Woodruff Winter Benefit — January 30, 2016 — 2 Front row, (l-r): Steve Cargill ’08, Melissa Wigmore ’03, John Fiske ’53, Greg Osborne ’03, Rob Lemelin ’02, Brad Woodruff, Steve Woodruff ’77, Chris Heidelberger ’79, Ray Zeek ’11, Kaitlin Zeek ’07, Danny Palumbo ’11, Andrea Hunter ’06, John Cunningham ’13, Ethan Ufland ’13; back row, (l-r): Will Porter ’80, faculty Matt Goethals, Mike Albert ’05, Matt Rafuse ’03, Bryan Kelly ’08, John Healy ’03, Scott Brady ’02, Jesse Walker ’02, Adam Ladd ’03, Ben Woodruff, Peter Fairchild ’88, Peter Alworth ’80, Johnny Lorenz ’99, Johnny Feliciano ’00, Matt Goldblatt ’00, Stay Collins ’03, Head of School Tim Richards P ’15, Amanda Gill-David ’03 60

POMFRET Magazine

3

4

5

6

7

3 The Woodruff family (l-r): Ben Woodruff, Gretchen Woodruff, Steve Woodruff ’77, Denise Woodruff, Brad Woodruff, and Meggie Woodruff 4 (l-r): Ben Woodruff; Steve Woodruff ’77, Gretchen Woodruff, Head of School Tim Richards P ‘15, Brad Woodruff 5 (l-r): Stacy Collins ’03, Melissa Wigmore ’03, Amanda Gill-David ’03, Jonathan David, Johnny Feliciano ’00, Arin Feliciano, Matt Goldblatt ’00 6 (l-r): James Benner, Kim (Carlson) Benner ’80, Martha Murphy ’80, Bruce Mikolajczak ’79, Susan McKechnie ’79, Holly Sullivan P ’05, ’11, Sean Sullivan ’80 P ’05, ’11, Molly Anderwald Aerial Yoga in Putnam, CT — February 3, 2016 — 7 Hut Beall P ’19, Cat Dunning P ’19, Karen Marshall P ’19, Tammie LaBonte P ’05, Beth Foley P ’16, Margaret Talcott P ’16, Robin Youngman P ’16

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Weekend REUNION SAVE THE DATE May 13-15, 2016

We look forward to welcoming all alumni back to the Pomfret Hilltop to celebrate great memories; connect with classmates, faculty, and current students; and participate in the many activities throughout the weekend.

Special celebrations are being planned by the following classes celebrating milestone reunions this year:

1941, 1946, 1951, 1956, 1961, 1966, 1971, 1976, 1981, 1986, 1991, 1996, 2001, 2006, 2011

62

For more details and to register online, go to pomfretschool.org/alumnireunion To volunteer to rally your classmates, please contact Tammie LaBonte P ’05, Director of Reunion Engagement at tlabonte@pomfretschool.org or by phone at 860.963.6131.

POMFRET Magazine

POMFRET SCHOOL THEATER PRESENTS

Thursday, May 12, 7:00 PM Friday, May 13, 8:00 PM The wildly theatrical play based on the 2004 novel by Dave Barry and Pomfret’s own Ridley Pearson ’71.

A special production for alumni will be held on Friday, May 13, as part of Alumni Reunion Weekend!

The Pomfret College Network A resource for prospective undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral candidates. This online directory connects current students and recent graduates with fellow alumni and their alma maters. www.PomfretSchool.org/CollegeNetwork

70 SCHOOLS

76 ALUMNI

Tammie LaBonte Director of Reunion Engagement and Career Committee Liaison Email: tlabonte@pomfretschool.org Phone: (860) 963-6131

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398 Pomfret Street PO Box 128 Pomfret CT 06258- 0128 www.pomfretschool.org

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