Matt and Steve (in front) in the 1980s.
Steve DeVecchi ‘97:
Steve shared his thoughts with us – in the same format as his senior class yearbook page – about growing up on the Portsmouth Abbey campus and what it was like having his father be a senior administrator at the school he had attended.
AT P O RTS M O U T H A B B EY by Allie ‘05 and Nick ‘04 Micheletti Allie DeSisto Micheletti: People often say that high school is the formative period of your life. I can say with authority that the Abbey left its mark on me when I was a student, and continues every day now that I am a teacher here. I began my Third-Form year in the fall of 2001, shortly after Dr. DeVecchi began his tenure as Headmaster. The only Abbey that I have ever known has been under the guidance of Jim and Deb DeVecchi, and I don’t think my experience would have been quite the same without them. In fact, in their characteristically subtle and comforting way the DeVecchis have been a part of almost every major milestone in my life to date.
The “senior page” for my childhood: Aquidneck Island = God’s country, and the Abbey campus its slice of heaven. Endless dirt roads and corn mazes on which to ride bikes. Amazing hide-and-go-seek spots. “Freeze Tag” in Stillman. Mickey and Big George Hogan. Sledding by the football field. Narragansett Bay. The athletic fields, gyms, and my favorite, the rink. St. Benet’s haunted houses with Uncle Cliff. Building massive pillow forts in Benet’s during Summer School. Father Bede’s go-cart (not his golf cart). Father Andrew’s confections. Here, Matt and I grew up. I saw no fundamental change when my father became head. Yes, my parents have traveled more. But, if measured by involvement and devotion to Portsmouth’s mission, dad has always been head. Current students and alums from recent years may not be aware of his devotion to athletics back in the day. In particular, he loved to coach “middler” basketball. Ending an 18-year run with Matt’s team, he had a 157-87 record. In the winter, Matt and I ran to the old gym after school. We traveled to away games on the bus, and anxiously awaited each end-of-the-season break-up party. We were part of these teams. The old gym and the teams that played there are sacred to the DeVecchi boys, and to my father. What brought my parents to Portsmouth Priory: a passion for the art of mathematics, and the desire to share. They have a palpable intellectual curiosity, appreciation, excitement and sense of humor for math’s paradoxes and completeness.
Steve (left) and Matt as Portsmouth Abbey students.
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Finding a Home
Nick ’04 and Allie ’05 are back living, teaching and coaching at Portsmouth. Their daughter, Betty, was born last year and has joined the Portsmouth Abbey School family.
What kept them here: the School is the people. Both of my parents have a great intellectual curiosity and appreciation for Portsmouth’s variegated constituency. It’s been exciting and humorous. It is complete.
P ORTSM O U T H A BB E Y S C HO OL
Jim was there to reassure our nervous horde of third formers on our very first day of high school, and he was there the following day, September 11, 2001, to reassure the entire School. Deb taught me Geometry and Jim taught me the following year in Algebra II. Their enthusiasm for math was infectious, and they fooled me into thinking I had a future in the discipline until Calculus proved otherwise. Both avid track and field fans, or at least kind enough to brave the often cold and rainy spring weather, Jim and Deb were there to cheer us on as we won a New England Championship. Jim handed me my high school diploma and offered me my first real job after college. Jim and Deb celebrated my marriage to fellow teacher and alum Nick Micheletti ’04, and provided us with our first newlywed home. Though living with 40 adolescent boys wasn’t what I had always imagined married life to be, Jim met with me often to make sure I was surviving and happy. Jim was very supportive when we had our daughter, Betty, last spring, and as Jim and Deb are new grandparents themselves, I’ve appreciated their stories and advice. I am only one of hundreds of students who have graduated under the leadership of Jim, and I am certainly not the only one to call the Abbey home. With all of the time and energy Jim and Deb have put into being present and nurturing to current students and alums alike, they certainly deserve some time to relax and play with their grandson. Thank you Jim and Deb for always being there to make sure things work out! Nick Micheletti: Imagine that there is a yearly convention for all the headmasters, principals, or presidents of the nation’s independent schools and at this convention they have a contest. The game is simple: pictures of the graduates of each head’s school from the previous decade or so are shown, and whoever can properly name the most students wins. I would bet on Jim to win every year.
I would sometimes come to visit the Abbey during my college years and I would see Dr. DeVecchi. I was always surprised that he remembered my name and conversed with me as if he knew more about me than my face. He never taught or coached me, and luckily I never ended up in his office for any kind of disciplinary matter. But I was even more impressed to find out that his memory lasts more than a few years. Now that I work here, I am visited often by some of my fellow graduates from 2004. If we happen to encounter Jim at a sporting event or elsewhere, I am prepared to re-introduce him to my friend. After all, it has been almost ten years since we attended the School. But I never have to because apparently Jim can recognize old faces as well. This happened often enough that I thought maybe it was easy, that you just don’t forget your students. Nope. In my fifth year as a member of the faculty, I can say with some sadness that I would not recognize a good number of the graduates from 2009. So, I have come to two conclusions. One, reading all the names during the graduation ceremony each year magically cements each student into Jim’s brain. Two, Jim cares deeply about the School and its students. Maybe it sounds like a small thing to remember all the names, but when you think about all the responsibilities of his office that actually take him away from the School, I think it’s something quite special. I arrived at the Abbey in 2000, so I have only experienced the School under Jim’s leadership. It was an amazing four years as a student and at the time I don’t think I paused for a moment to think he had anything to do with it. Only now that I have returned as a teacher, and the Abbey is essentially my whole life, can I fully appreciate the ludicrous complexity of the place. Yet it has been a stable and nurturing environment for me for over a decade. I do not believe for a moment that it could be this way if it weren’t for Jim’s dedication and wise decisions. I thank Jim for all his hard work and for providing me and so many others with such a good place to live and learn. And I am positive that we will not forget his name for a long time to come.
WINTER BULLETIN 2013
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