Former Faculty Notes

Steve Bailey, former com- “What I did not know was the fact that John reached out to Steve puter teacher, wrote: “This ’72 and Evan ’73 Bash as well as Giaff ’72, Cam ’73 and Grayson ’74 year has been one like no Ferrante, plus Gary Salup ’74—all of whom played on the PDS varsity other for all of us. Heather soccer team when I was the coach. and I are very lucky to be spending the pandemic in Vermont, one of the less densely populated states in the US. We were able “Each of them sent a note to me that I got to read during my week in the hospital, and I cannot tell you how meaningful it was to hear from young men I knew way back in their teens in the 1970s who are now mid-life gentlemen! Vibes from old friends are the very best medicine… to go outdoors most days. “To everyone connected with PDS, please stay safe and healthy!” Fortunately, our explorations Kay Haartz Cortelyou, former math teacher, wrote: “I have tried to of the woods and mountains think of new news that might be different from last year’s news. But Melissa ’00, Heather and Steve Bailey exploring in Vermont surrounding us has provided us with locations where we find very few people. We we all know that 2020 was a year most of us did little, except try to avoid others, wear our masks, and stay COVID-19 free. We have been fortunate to be so close to our son, Chris, and granddaughters that have gotten to know our local area far better than we ever did before. they qualify as part of our family unit. The granddaughters were not in

We did lots of hiking and swimming in the summer, and we are doing school for seven months, so we spent a lot of time with them. Our son lots of cross-country skiing and hiking in the winter. Our big news is had his home office in our home and worked out of that office five days that our daughter Melissa ’00 has moved to Vermont and lives only an a week. Most horse shows were canceled. Kip was the most productive hour away. We are enjoying including her in some of our outings. and least affected because he has two large gardens which he cares for

“Our volunteering at the local food pantry has been curtailed due to our himself—and he continues to do that. We have been in Spring, TX age. We have been replaced by college and high school-aged workers, for 15 months; we have eaten something from his gardens every day though I still am on the board of the food pantry. We are scheduled to during that time. Last week during the record cold, he did have a few get our vaccinations on March 3, and we hope to resume some of our crops freeze; but today it is 70, and he will replant. We have had our previous activities. In the meantime, we are trying to stay safe and enjoy COVID-19 vaccinations. We have hopes for a better 2021, as everyone the outdoors.” does. As always, I love to hear from my students and appreciate those

Helen Bodel, former Middle School teacher, wrote: “It seems a complicated—and exciting—start to 2021 for all of us, especially with increased hope that a COVID-19 vaccine will be available within months. I thrill at seeing a compassionate new president in office—one with ideas about who already have reconnected with me because of this column. We live north of Houston. In time, maybe when this issue has been mailed, we would enjoy visits, real, virtual or email. Thank you for continuing to publish this column.” re-energizing the affordable health care act; about immigrant families’ Laurie Curtis, former Lower School teacher wrote: “All is well in Marion, road to citizenship; about fair taxes for the middle class; and about all MA. Hal and I continue to love living near the ocean and not far from sorts of help and support for those in need of housing, medicine and Boston. I continue to love my work in admissions and as a reading tutor work. I rejoice, in seeing a remarkable woman in the vice presidency, at Our Sisters School in New Bedford. The highlight of our COVIDespecially one from the Bay Area, my home for 30 years! In mid- 19 quarantine was being able to have a tiny wedding for our son, Parker

December, I left Vermont and flew to Kona, HI, where I spent my fifth Curtis ’02, and his bride, Mary Sisson Curtis. We absolutely adore Mary; grade year back in 1955... and where you might correctly imagine that she is a former PDS English teacher. They both teach in Boston, though the coastal dirt road leading past our home on the lava shore and into at separate schools.” the village is now three lanes wide; and that large (gorgeous) condomini- Betsy Davis, former Registrar, wrote: “I have been involved with ums have replaced lava fields and cottages! The massive root-hung ban- two start-up companies—one selling real estate in the Maldives and yan trees I remember scattered along the road to town remain so; and Sri Lanka, and the other is selling snowmobile tours in Wyoming— the tall plumeria still give off their sweet smell to us passers-by. With Yellowstone and Jackson Hole. Between the two, it’s kept me quite busy. the UC Moss Landing Marine Labs shut, Annie B. ’03 is here with me, snorkeling on the reef most days, hanging with old Berkeley friends, and working on her new thesis topic. Me, I eat papaya and pineapple, drink “I was also able to go on a 10-day horse packing trip into the Wind River Range in Wyoming last August—the perfect COVID-19 vacation.

Kona coffee, and gaze at the sea, just as retired as I’ve been since 2011— “My kids (Megan ’10 and Grahame ’13) are both doing well. Megan but with tan lines!” lived with me for a bit this year but is back East now—and studying

Peter Buttenheim, former Middle School teacher/coach, wrote: “Hi from Northampton, MA where Frances and I have been living with our older daughter, Jennifer, and her family since last May when we sold our Delaware condo. The countryside in The Pioneer Valley has been the to be a nurse. Grahame is also back East and, unfortunately, due to COVID-19 I’ve only seen him once in the last year. I even sold my NJ house in July and never went back for the closing. What a weird world we live in.” perfect place for us to sequester during the COVID-19 crisis. Steve Hancock, former Head of the Middle School, and Stephanie

“Frances and I had planned to move to Kendal, a CCRC in Kennett Square, PA, but Kendal was closed as of last spring to any new residents because of the pandemic. We expect to move there in March 2021. Hancock, former MS music teacher, wrote: “We relocated to Milwaukee, WI in July of 2020 as Steve became the Head of School at University School of Milwaukee, a thriving independent school of 1,100 students on the north side of Milwaukee. We are truly enjoying our new home,

“I had to have major surgery for bladder cancer on December 14 at even in the midst of the pandemic, and this also brings us ‘back home’

Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, NH. John Gordon as Steve grew up in Wisconsin and Stephanie in Illinois. Stephanie is ’72 knew about the surgery, and he wrote cheerful and uplifting emails teaching in the USM band program, assisting with the Middle School to me ahead of time from Vermont. bands. Emily ’17 will graduate from Oberlin Conservatory in the spring

of 2021 with a degree in clarinet performance and hopes to begin graduate study in the fall of 2021. Clay ’20 is in his first year at New England Conservatory in Boston majoring in violin performance and pursuing a variety of musical interests. We continue to cherish the memories of our time at Princeton Day School and the many faculty, students and friends we hold dear at PDS!” Eileen Hohmuth-Lemonick, former Upper School photography teacher, reported that she is doing her own work and has a show scheduled at the Arts Council of Princeton for February 2022. Exciting! Holly Fewkes Kemp, former assistant to the Athletic Director, wrote: “Wow, it’s been 14 years since I left PDS. I am the Associate Athletic Director at Nichols School in Buffalo, NY and have enjoyed moving to/living in western New York! At Nichols, I have coached a variety of sports including varsity softball, JV girls soccer, 7/8 girls soccer and varsity girls golf. I manage our program of 23 varsity sports with 60 total teams from 5th-12th grade. I am currently planning a celebration for National Girls & Women in Sports Day to spread awareness and acknowledgement of our successful girls teams! “My husband, Gordon, and I enjoy traveling, playing badminton and attending Sabres and Bills games. We purchased a new home (same neighborhood) as COVID-19 began, so our free time was and will continue to be spent on house projects. I’m still an avid Mets fan even from afar! My quest to visit the 30 MLB parks is almost complete with only one (Phoenix) left on the list. A few cities have new stadiums I need to get to as well. At the time of this submission, we are cheering on our Buffalo Bills as they make a run fr the AFC championship then hopefully the Super Bowl! (Editor’s Note: Better luck next year!) “I enjoy volunteering at the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and Kenmore United Methodist Church. We return to NJ often to visit my family down the shore and in Union County. I am still in touch with John Levandowski, Ted Harrington and Carol Koiro, our awesome athletic department in the years I was at PDS!” Lila Lohr h’00, former Head of School, wrote: “I think of you all so often and love hearing the PDS news. I’m doing my 10th interim headship this year at St. Catherine’s (a K-12, all-girls) in Richmond, VA. Bobby and I have loved being in so many schools all across the country, making new friends and learning new ways of doing things. Always love running into or catching up with PDS friends!” Louise (Topp) McClure, former music teacher, wrote; “I’m still teaching strings and still becoming a better teacher. Like everyone, I had to pivot to teaching both individual and group classes online last spring. Previously, all I could do with the computer was email and simple Word stuff. Now, I have explored several online platforms built expressly for teaching music, and, of course, Zoom. I’ve made practice videos for each teaching point in each piece of both violin and viola book one. They have made a huge difference in the speed and quality of my students’ learning. “This year’s beginners worked in the backyard or on the front porch with the heater going, all the way into January. The Pre-Twinklers loved having group class in the backyard—my neighbor filmed them running gleefully all over the yard for one game. “We took the NJ Suzuki Workshop entirely online last summer (one of very few in the country), ending up with 75 students from all over the country, and 75 teacher trainees from the U.S. and from Singapore, Switzerland and Spain! Our first ever WinterFest one-day workshop on Presidents Day attracted 50 students from around the U.S., and drew faculty from CT, GA, MT and Lima, Peru, as well as the NJ faculty. There IS something to be said for the versatility of virtual instruction. But all of us long to be back in three dimensions, with real-time sound. “In November, we realized my husband’s lifelong dream of owning a summer home in the mountains—the Adirondacks, actually. Since we’ll be up there in the summer, I had to find a replacement to direct the summer Hopewell Orchestra. After a year and a half of searching, the perfect person finally turned up. Now we’ll see if it’s possible to get people together to play this summer—most likely, it’ll be outside. “I feel for the classroom teachers who now have double or triple their normal workload, as well as for the kids who have been so isolated. We all know that a lot of screen time is dangerous for developing brains, but here we are.” Judy Michaels, former Upper School English teacher, wrote: “I feel as though life lately has been nothing but snow shoveling and Zoom. I wish one could just Zoom the snow shoveling. But I’ve been grateful to be able to do my socializing, volunteer work, medical check-ups and shopping mostly from my desk, not to mention enjoying poetry workshops and readings, dance programs and concerts from the comfort of my living room. A wonderful PDS connection occurred a few weeks ago when I ‘attended’ a workshop by Susan Stein and Kate Winton on Amanda Gorman’s inaugural poem performance. It was part of a series presented by Susan and co-written with Kate that looks at Black history through Black literature with, I think, a focus on the struggle for social justice. Another moment of connection occurred just this morning, when I’d opened a poetry collection in preparation for watching a session on poetry with Rita Dove, via the Library of Congress, and out from between the pages fell a little clipping about Dove’s admiration of the late W. S. Merwin. I recognized it right away as part of a lovely packet of poetry articles sent me maybe a couple years ago by the late Jane Grigger. How many of us must be finding these mementoes of Jane’s caring and curating! Tom Pears, former math and computer teacher, wrote: “Hope you are surviving the year of COVID-19. I spend my days in a man-cave that is really most like the back room of a historical society. Lots of computer tools. No TV or refrigerator. I ride a road bicycle for exercise. Since we live in NH, I can’t do much riding in the winter, so I have been going in January to Cancun, Mexico, February to LA, CA and March to Lagos, Portugal, each for two weeks. I report on the trips on tompears.com (not this year). “I especially noted Tom Pears with his family (left to right): grandthe passing of the son, Thomas; son-in-law, Kevin; Tom; daughformer head of the ter, Elizabeth; wife, Kim and daughter, EmilyPDS Lower School Steve Gilbert. The summer of 1969, Steve and a friend programmed a computer to do the school schedule. Most nights they just slept in the faculty room to be available to program the next steps. Before he was Head of the Lower School, Steve started the computer program at PDS and hired me. I did not see much of Steve after leaving PDS in 1979, but I hope some of you were able to cross paths with him. “I do not get back very often but did one morning in 2016. With security and all, I knew I could not just wander around as I would want to do. A young coach (?) in the admission office was giving a prospective

student a tour and volunteered to take me along. It was wonderful to see the school. A real challenge to try to remember how this or that area had looked 40 years ago. I was fairly well-behaved and did not offer too many comments, but at one point I was prompted to share this: PDS did, and I am sure it does now, have a lot of very smart, driven students. The same young men and women would turn up as the head of sports, class, academics, etc. We came up with a great way to spread the honors instead of having them concentrated in a small group: we just kept adding activities. One could only do so many things: shop, architecture, computers, astronomy, drama, music, etc. Gave some other students the chance to be really proud of their special accomplishments.” Kathryn Rosko, former Director of Communications, wrote: “What a year! Fortunately, we are all doing well here in Pennington. My family has stayed healthy through the pandemic, and we have been able to continue with hybrid school and remote work. I am still working with Rutgers Global, heading up their marketing and communications, and really enjoying it, despite the disruptions of the past year. The big news for me is that I’ve just started my coursework to get my master’s degree in digital marketing through the Rutgers Business School. It’s been, ahem, a few years since I’ve been a student, so I am adjusting to the transition, but really enjoying it! My hope is to complete the degree in the next two years. It will be busy with full-time work, family, etc., etc., but I’m really excited about it. I’ve also been playing piano again, as I realize it’s one of the few things I can do that doesn’t involve a screen!” Maria Shepard, former US Spanish teacher and Dave Freedholm, current PDS US history/religion teacher, welcomed their first grandchild, Leo Oliver Rosenbaum, on November 3, 2020. Leo’s parents are Becca Freedholm ’06 and Greg Rosenbaum, who live in Austin, TX. Jane Spencer, former US English teacher, wrote: “Walking, gardening, reading, making masks, trying new recipes have all been fun during retirement. Keeping active while avoiding COVID-19 has been a difficult challenge, but we also have had a really exciting and rewarding challenge taking care of a litter of Old English sheepdog puppies born to our four-year-old Phillie in our kitchen on December 20th. Happy 2021 to all, and I hope that everyone is well.” “Between the pandemic, and teaching next fall maybe back in UC Berkeley proper, I don’t expect to resume my RV rambles till spring 2022. “My children are pursuing their careers in LA. Lumin does statistical analysis and gaming and is the US national champion in the board game “Agricola.” Mason does online entertainment; his one-take, multi-accent comedy covers of popular songs have earned >100,000,000 clicks.” Bunny Webb, former librarian, wrote: “I am approaching 90 this summer and living safe, well-fed and cared for and mostly locked down in Canterbury Woods Continuing Care Community in Buffalo, NY. My family, daughter, son-in-law and grandsons, Arthur, a materials engineering grad at the University of Toronto, and Willis, living a gap year, are in Hamilton, Ontario. Canada sees U.S. as a hotbed of virus, so the border has been locked since early spring. We spend time on the internet and phone. “We have a nice library here and I am still being a librarian. Please tell Elaine Howard ’77 she does not imagine the senior prank web in the upper library. Yarn collected from mothers and grandmothers was woven from balcony to floor. It was lovely and I remember it well. After it was cut and pulled down, at least one mother wanted her yarn back.”

Jane Spencer’s Old English sheepdog with new puppies

Norm Sperling, former science teacher, reported that he is “still in good health, mostly sheltering in place. Teaching over Zoom was a hassle but not catastrophic. I continue editing and writing: * The COVID-19 special issue of The Journal of Irreproducible Results, the science humor magazine, just went to the printer. * Astronomy.com published my opinion column: “The Case for Selling Off Pieces of Arecibo Observatory” https://astronomy.com/ news/2021/02/opinion-the-case-for-selling-off-pieces-of-arecibo Judy and Charlie Williams kayaking in Maine last summer

Judy Williams, former Lower School teacher, reported: “Not much news for 2020! My husband and I stayed in Bridgehampton for most of the year. We took long walks every day and the beaches were open all summer. We rented a cottage near Camden, ME for the month of August where we enjoyed the beautiful lakes in our new kayaks. We both have received two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, so we are starting to think about traveling again. We would like to see our daughters and our grandchildren!”

Former Athletic Director Jan Baker celebrated with members of the Class of 1973 at their 25th reunion: (L-R) Beth Sanford, Ellen Fisher, Jan, Glenna Weisberg Anderson and Martha Sullivan Sword