Alumni Council News

GREETINGS FROM THE Alumni Council

2020-21 Alumni Council

Michael T. Bracken ’98

Alumni Council President

John L. Griffith III ’99

Vice President Taylor Hwong ’88

Secretary Christopher Bonnaig ’11 Joanna Bowen ’03 Zaneta Shannon Chambers ’95 Marc A. Collins ’88 Brian Crowell ’11 Paris McLean ’00 Lisa Warren ’71

Kaylie Keesling Director of Alumni Programs & Giving Fellow Alumni,

Spring has come to The Great Road and for the 122nd time our School will send forth a new cohort of students destined to make their mark on our world. Well prepared by the richness of the Princeton Day School experience, they will apply the skills and ethos that they’ve acquired to rigorously explore and vigorously debate issues, confront and overcome challenges and ultimately arrive at their own truths and beliefs.

Their achievements will contribute to the tremendous value of our 6,000+ alumni network and we look forward to watching them freely pursue their dreams and maximize their endowed gifts, skills and attributes.

To better unlock the value of our considerable alumni network, your Alumni Representatives and Princeton Day School have made a series of changes that make it easier than ever for alumni to get involved. Our new Alumni Council (formerly the Alumni Board) is open to all alumni who wish to join and serve on one of its committees. We’ve streamlined the onboarding process and provided greater flexibility in terms of the requisite scope and scale of one’s commitment. Whether you can contribute an hour a month or ten, we welcome all alumni who want to be involved. You will receive an invitation each fall and I hope that you will consider joining us.

As mentioned in my last letter, though I look forward to a time when we can convene in person, this year’s Alumni Weekend will once again be virtual, taking place from May 11 to May 15. For more about this year’s Alumni Weekend events, go to https://www.pds.org/alumni/alumni-weekend.

Sincerely,

Mike

We love hearing from you.

Please send your news to your class correspondent, or, if no correspondent, please send your news to classnotes@pds.org or you may submit them via pds.searchwavelength.com. If your class is without a correspondent, and you would like to volunteer, please contact Ann Wiley ’70, editor of Class Notes at classnotes@pds.org . Please know that the Journal, including Class Notes, also appears online in the digital archives of the Journal at pds.org.

MISS FINE’S SCHOOL

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Phyllis Vandewater Clement 2375 Range Avenue, #157 Santa Rosa, CA 95403 (707) 823-0925 (home) pvanclement@gmail.com Ann Tomlinson Reed died in December, having outlived most of her class. In the middle of 1929 when I was put in the Miss Fine’s School first grade class with her, I knew from the start that she was the alpha member of the class; pretty, accomplished and very popular. Everybody liked her, and even when she left for boarding school, we still considered her one of ours. As I read her obituary, published in Town Topics the last week of December 2020, I saw that she continued to be successfully involved in all sorts of things that interested her. It was a pleasure to catch up with her at one of our infrequent class reunions. I shall miss chatting with her when preparing this column. Peggy Munro Griffin is still living in her house on Cape Cod, and keeps up with family more than most people do, as three of her four children are temporarily living in her home with her, the fourth lives fairly near and she sees her grandchildren often. 2020 hasn’t been my best year; my husband of more than 73 years died in July and shortly thereafter I had mandibular surgery for squamous cell cancer. The children and their spouses have been wonderfully helpful, and I am now back in fighting trim!

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Lucy Law Webster 19 Church Street Cooperstown, NY 13326 (607) 437-0887 (home) lucylawwebster@gmail.com

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Donata Coletti Mechem 49 Marcela Avenue San Francisco, CA 94116-1471 (510) 851-1123 (cell) doe@mechem.org I only have contact with two other classmates beside myself although I know others exist, who for their own reasons, don’t want to participate. Wendy McAneny Bradburn is recovering from a knee replacement surgery. She and her husband, Norman, are hunkered down in their retirement community in Arlington, VA as am I, in our house in San Francisco with my husband, Kirke, and Jean Milholland Shriver, in Palos Verdes Estates, CA without husband, whom she lost a couple of years ago. Wendy is in touch with Gordon McAllen Baker ’51, who moved from New Hampshire to Virginia a couple of years ago.

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Marcia Goetze Nappi 251 Gardenside Lane Shelburne, VT 05482-6541 (802) 985-3070 (home) marciagn@aol.com

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Joan E. Kennan 3143 O Street, NW Washington, DC 20007-3117 (202) 342-2118 (home) joankennan@gmail.com To start first with sad news: Louise Mason’s husband, Joseph Bachelder, died of prostate cancer just before Christmas of last year. They had been married for an impressive 65 years! Joe still had been practicing law at age 88. Louise continues to live in their Princeton home of 47 years. One of her granddaughters, namesake Louise, worked for CBS in DC but has moved to California where her husband will be going to law school. Kathie Webster wrote about an incident that happened to her daughter Katie last August, escaping wildfires on three sides of her Sonoma, CA property. Katie and her partner have a small animal sanctuary farm; they were ordered to evacuate. They were not about to abandon their animals (cows, pigs, goats, two visiting sheep, chickens, pet dog and cats), and so with the help of friends who had vans, they sped in the middle of the night to a safe farm where they stayed for about a month. This all occurred in 100-degree temperatures and Katie said that it was the most terrifying experience of her life. She said that if cows and pigs don’t want to get into a van, it’s hard to persuade them to do so, resulting in several of them being tackled by Katie, who fortunately is athletic. In the end, they were all saved for which, in large measure, Katie credits the firefighters. Kathie also informed me that she had heard from Anna Rosenblad recently, and that Anna had bemoaned the fact that her “siblings and three sons were not able to visit this year because of COVID-19.” As for your correspondent, I have gotten through this past pandemic year as well as one could hope for. No traveling, no indoor dining or social gatherings, but no illness either, and plenty of walks in neighboring parks with my dog, Maeve. As more and more people are getting vaccinated, we are looking forward to a brighter 2021!

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L. Chloe King 865 Central Avenue, Unit I-209 Needham, MA 02492 (781) 898-8312 (cell) lchloek@comcast.net Merriol Baring-Gould Almond reported: “We have four kids and nine grandkids, and most of what’s interesting in our lives relates to their doings. Fortunately, they stay in reasonably close touch. Two are on the East Coast and two are in California. We started isolating in mid-March when we’d actually planned to visit friends and family in England, but canceled just in time to avoid real difficulties and risks in getting back. This would have been a great time to do significant sorting and downsizing, but actually I’ve loafed and read and accomplished very little. I had my hip replaced a year ago last December, and that has worked out well, although it took a little over a year to feel completely normal hip-wise again. Isn’t it seriously weird to be in our 80s????” Jo Cornforth Coke wrote: “Like many others, I elect to spend the cold months in Florida. I am fortunate that my sister Julia ’61 has a condo on the 14th floor overlooking the Intracoastal Waterway in West Palm Beach. Big news is that she is producing a play in London(!), and has invited me to go with her for a year. I am to be an unpaid P.A., and we are really excited. Puts the lie to my wanting to avoid bad weather, however. At 83, life does seem to be getting better......” Jeanie Crawford wrote: “I have been doing a lot of Zoom (about too much) with virtual church, virtual book group and virtual ‘listening sessions,’ but have been discussing neat books on racial justice, such as we didn’t study in school. One of the authors is Eddie Glaude from Princeton.” Mary “Ty” Tyson Goodridge Lund reported: “No COVID-19 in my family. One grandchild moved to Europe, another mountain climbing in Mexico, and I am in California directing traffic. Am working with a hypnosis MD. Working out four times a week and am on carnivore diet—beef, fat, salt and water. Being watched by two doctors from Hungary. So, I am active. Think about all of you.” Lucy Busselle Myers wrote: “It’s hard to have news in the pandemic! Life seems to roll by,

pds.org

and my most important activity has been to stay healthy. Lots of walks and swimming, many Zooms. I’ve facilitated several writing groups and my class at the pre-release facility north of us. When my house on the Vineyard hasn’t been rented, I’ve spent time there visiting in a socially distant fashion with my sons and grandchildren. I feel blessed to live in two beautiful places.” Alice Marie Nelson reported: “No real news as the virus has circumscribed our lives here in Manhattan to an extraordinary degree. We are no longer able to enjoy any of the theatrical or musical events to which we so looked forward. Our forays outside the apartment are pretty much limited to food shopping and an occasional outside dining. Books, films and TV watching take up most of our time. We’ve also enjoyed the series of virtual concerts the Metropolitan Opera has created.” Laura Travers Pardee wrote: “No news is good news. Right now we are thrilled that we have had both Pfizer shots! We are looking forward to the day we can travel again and see family and friends. Meanwhile, we are able to ‘attend’ the Sarasota ballet, lots of lectures, book club meetings and film discussion and review meetings. Here’s to everyone’s good health!” Barbara Kohlsaat von Oehsen reported that she just had her first COVID-19 vaccine shot. To get it, she had to drive miles to a very large, boarded-up Lord and Taylor in South Jersey. The experience was very pleasant, dealing with lovely people, quick and easy. She had just talked with her primary care doc via phone (no more office visits) to get sinus medicine. She also Zoomed with her book group today. Then she was off to PT, which she does three times a week. Her church, book group and even visits with her boys have been virtual. No complaints! She loves her home and being with her dogs. Life is good! She has a great family! Chloe King: my focus here has been on preparing to move at the end of March! We are missing our Florida stay this winter, but the snowfalls here have been beautiful! It will be strange to meet new people all wearing masks at North Hill. Wonder if we will recognize anyone when we are all unmasked? I miss live Boston Symphony Orchestra performances in Symphony Hall but have enjoyed their special programs on the ’net. Saturday afternoon Met rebroadcasts have been superb! We are looking forward to the time when life is somewhat normal again. Love to everyone!

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Charlotte Harding Cook, Ph.D. 1133 55th Street Sacramento, CA 95819-3911 (916) 739-8918 (home) ccook@csus.edu

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Rosalind Webster Perry 1009 N. Ontare Road Santa Barbara, CA 93105 (805) 682-3664 (home) rosperry@impulse.net With great sadness, I learned from Alissa Kramer Sutphin that our dear classmate, Mary Strunsky Wisnovsky, died from lung cancer on November 8, 2020. Alissa especially remembers Mary’s tremendous personal charisma and her delight in seeing her friends. Alissa praised Mary’s intelligence, her extraordinary ability to enlist support for a variety of important local charities and her flexibility to see different sides of an issue. My memory of Mary is of someone who was an exceptionally friendly, generous and outgoing person, always with a big smile and ready to offer a helping hand whenever needed. I remember that she loved to sing in Madrigals and our musical shows; she had such a beautiful singing voice. Her death is a terrible loss for her family, whom she adored, and for her many friends and the Princeton community she loved so much. On behalf of our class, we send heartfelt condolences to her husband, Joe, to her sons, Robert Strunsky ’82 and Peter Strunsky ’85, their families and her sisters, Martha Strunsky Ilic ’59 and Jane Strunsky Wiseman ’65. Susie Smith Baldwin sent me several photos of Mary, as well as this tribute from the Princeton Public Library: “The Mary Wisnovsky Fund for Acquisitions at Princeton Public Library has been established in memory of long-time library supporter Mary S. Wisnovsky. Mary and the library were inseparable. Her enthusiasm, expertise, exquisite taste and sheer love of the Library were essential to making it into the beloved and viable institution it is today. No matter the season, she was in and out of its doors several times a week stopping to pick up the mountains of books she’d read voraciously or heading upstairs to the Friends office to help organize its many fundraisers. The Fund will be used for the purchase of additions to the Library’s print and digital book collections to benefit its ever growing diverse and often underserved audience.” Susie commented: “What a magnificent and fitting tribute to Mary from the Princeton Public Library, her favorite nonprofit. Some of Mary’s closest friends were those sharing the same passion for nonprofits that Mary loved so fully. She was loved and appreciated for her warmth and enthusiasm, her people skills and her natural ability to connect with others. When I arrived as a new student in seventh grade, Mary’s welcoming nature meant so much to me. What a warm and exuberant friend, so gregarious and so comfortable with people. No surprise that Mary loved her work with nonprofits and served the Library with boundless time, energy and passion. Back in seventh grade our passions overlapped enjoyably. We loved to chase PCD boys. I could always count on Mary’s networking skills to help me feel more comfortable with the boys. In fact, she made me feel so comfortable that I would even share ‘secret feelings’ I hadn’t shared with anyone else. One of her sacred rituals was talking with her sister, Martha, in Paris every Sunday morning. Mary is cherished and missed by so many. My heart goes out to her dear husband, Joe, their sons and their whole family. Joe said he and Mary welcomed their first great-grandchild, Arthur

Mary Strunsky Wisnovsky ’57 smiling her warm, enthusiastic smile, October 15, 2020

MFS ’57 classmates at an impromptu gathering in Princeton, when Bonnie Campbell Perkins was visiting from Colorado, c. 1990: (left to right) Alissa Kramer Sutphin, Susie Smith Baldwin, Tina Burbidge Hummerstone, Sue Barclay Walcott, Helen Wilmerding, Bonnie Campbell Perkins and Mary Strunsky Wisnovsky Mary Strunsky Wisnovsky ’57 (left) enjoying her favorite fundraising Arthur Wisnovsky, the event, the Princeton Public Library great-grandson of Mary Friends annual benefit, with her Strunsky Wisnovsky ’57 good friend, Jill Guthrie, in 2018.

Wisnovsky, on Facetime. Joe has been eager to get his COVID-19 vaccination so he can hop on a plane to California to great-grandfather in person.” Molly Menand Jacobs wrote: “Mary was one of a kind. She was someone many went to for advice, going back to when she was still in school. It’s hard to believe that Mary is no longer among us. I think she stood out in our class and was someone with a lot of enthusiasm.” Molly said she is weathering the long months of being stuck at home by editing several books she wrote, and by reading a lot of books and streaming films. Her four granddaughters now range in age from 10 to 21. The oldest, Megan, is a junior at Boston University and hopes to work with special needs children in the public school system. The twins are 17 and juniors in high school, while the youngest, Parker, is at home fulltime, being virtually educated. Nancy Miller sent an update on her move to Pennswood Village: “I am well settled in and I don’t think that there is any place that could have friendlier people. I think that it’s the Quaker influence. We are still a closed campus for visitors although we in independent living are able to come and go. I don’t know when that will change but, luckily when I moved in, we were able to have visitors. That enabled my niece Ann Miller Paiva ’86 to come out for the week after Labor Day so we could clean out Cricket Cottage.” Bonnie Campbell Perkins emailed that due to the pandemic she wasn’t able to go downhill skiing or even cross-country skiing or snowshoeing with her sister, Sally Campbell Haas ’63, during the winter. “This year it is just too complicated,” she said. However, they were able to spend six weeks on the Cape in the fall. “It was a nice change of pace and full of lots of yard work,” she added. Bonnie is still busy volunteering during tax preparation season through an AARP program. Now that our lives are starting to return to normal after more than a year of pandemic restrictions, please phone or drop me a postcard or email telling of your renewed activities, trips and family events. Personally, I’m really looking forward to a lot of great hugs from my daughters and grandkids!

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Nancy Hudler Keuffel 1329 West Indian Mound Bloomfield Hills, MI 48301 (248) 540-8024 (home) (586) 481-7043 (cell) acornnhk@aol.com As I write this, we all are wearing masks, social distancing and hoping to get a vaccine. Sue Frank Hilton emailed that she was fortunate to complete an Israel Holy Land Pilgrimage and Tour right before COVID-19 shut down travel. When back in Naples (FL) she has been playing golf in a Ladies League three of four times a week—great exercise, fresh air and wonderful women camaraderie. In July, she was elected to a three-year term to the Friends of Arts-Naples Board of Directors, but committee work is on hold due to COVID-19. She continues her 15-year run as a docent at the Baker Museum of Art, which is still able to offer tours. Emily Vanderstucken Spencer is nestled in at her Maine home. She would love to chat with classmates and other MFSer’s, so email me and I will give you her phone number. Her daughter has developed a raging internet business selling house plants in darling decorated pots. It keeps her busy 24/7. Anne Prather Tirana is looking forward to exhibiting some of her paintings at the Rockefeller Foundation Center in Pleasantville, NY. By the time this column goes to press the show will have closed, but you can see her work on her website: annebellpaintings.com. Anne is on the Exhibition Committee at the Century Club in New York and was delighted to be one of the members to do a hanging of the current exhibit. Genealogy has also captured her interest and she has traced some of her relatives to England and Wales in the 900s as well as found Viking connections! Amazingly, she and her husband both have relatives who were in the Indiana State Legislature at the same time back in “olden days.” Gerd’s and my year started off with structural problems. He had a heart valve repaired and then we moved on to having the foundation of our house repaired. Fortunately, both procedures went well. Classmates, please call, write, phone and send news! Thank you!

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Ann Kinczel Clapp 5 Farview Road Baltimore, MD 21212 (410) 464-9471 (home) AnnClapp@hotmail.com Class of ’59 is beginning to celebrate our 80s but we were still able to hold a Zoom call on December 2. We had 11 participants and were “hosted” by Susie Stevenson Badder. Much fun to reconnect and to actually SEE and HEAR each other for the first time in ages. The most interesting topic was Tinka Grondahl’s Scandinavian Trilogy—three books of fiction; she has written (and is now rewriting) the first two. The following classmates joined our Zoom call: Dana Conroy Amand, Marion Dean Hall, Tinka Grondahl, Lucy James, Ann Kinczel Clapp, Nan Nicholes Goodrich, Abby Pollak, Sasha Robbins, Jean Schettino Conlon, Susie Stevenson Badder, Cecilia Aall Mathews. We also have had a few chain emails with several of the class participating. Jennifer Dunning, Abby Pollak and Tinka Grondahl have shared some snippets of their writing with each other. No traveling to report, just the usual reading, streaming and closet cleaning! I have two heaters on my screened in porch, so I am able to entertain one or two friends OUTSIDE safely. We even play bridge in 42-degree weather!

Sue Frank Hilton ’58 at The Wailing Wall (or The Western Wall) on Friday evening February 14, 2020 (Sabbath) in Jerusalem, Israel

Ann Kinczel Clapp ’59, Peggy Wilber ’61, and Susan Stevenson Badder ’59 enjoying lunch together outdoors last fall in Baltimore

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Penelope Hart Bragonier, Ph.D. 68 Beacon Street Boston, MA 02108 (617) 742-0093 (home) (617) 823-1150 (cell) Pbragon@gmail.com

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Mahala Busselle Bishop 145 Goody Hallett Drive Eastham, MA 02642 (207) 266-9066 (home) mahalabishop@gmail.com Julia Cornforth Holofcener Placido Mar #1406 5200 North Flagler Drive West Palm Beach, FL 33407-2768 (908) 217-0327 (cell) holofcenerltd@comcast.net Fiona Morgan Fein: “Harvey and I have been spending most of our time in NW NJ where human contact is easy to manage. He has his wood turning shop and I hang out in ‘my room’ where I’m still practicing guitar daily and tending to my responsibilities as a member of Wells College’s Board. We had a successful

first semester on the banks of Lake Cayuga. Students are returning for the second semester right now and classes began February 8. Small colleges have been disadvantaged in some respects over the years, but right now our size is a distinct advantage. “As for most people I know, evening streaming of entertainment has become a ritual. But I long for the return of live musical performances which were so much a part of my life in the City. We will get our second vaccine doses mid-February, which eases some of our most pervasive anxieties. I look forward to seeing classmates on Zoom in the coming months.” Sheila Long: “COVID-19 has not changed my life much, except that I have more social contact with friends and family via Zoom and phone. After our chaplain’s death in October, I gradually began working on transforming his hermitage into a third guest space. A Paolo from New Jersey was the first guest to stay there, over Christmas, and it has been inhabited ever since. Eight quilted bedspreads in a variety of bright colors arrived recently from a friend in Atlanta who is downsizing, so the guest bedrooms are all looking cheery and spruced up. “I recently listened to audio versions of two very good books: Caste by Isabel Wilkerson and White Trash by Nancy Isenberg. I have now moved on to another ‘take’ on life in the U.S.: American Note by Charles Dickens.” Polly Busselle Bishop: “I’m happily ensconced in Maine with Don. Our lovely home sits high on a hill replete with blueberries. My little pottery studio is closed ’til summer and I’m taking on several volunteer opportunities and studying Buddhism. It’s peaceful and fun here despite the COVID-19 restrictions. My goal this winter is to re-write my play of last year— a big job, since no one at MFS taught us how to do it!” Tibby Chase Dennis: “Like many of us, I’m sure, a lot of my time recently has been occupied with trying to schedule an appointment to get my first COVID-19 vaccine shot, and I’m happy to report that on the evening of February 8, I finally was able to get it at a nearby clinic. Long lines, but not as long, I’m sure, as at the ‘mass sites’ in malls! To distract me from the anxiety surrounding this whole process, I’ve been listening to Marilynne Robinson’s novel, Home. Her moving and beautiful imaginative world makes quite a contrast with the horrors detailed in Trump’s impeachment trial, which I’ve also often had on in the background these last few days while doing my ten thousand steps up and down the hall, and in and out of rooms, in my little ranch house!” Cynthia Weinrich: “There really hasn’t been much change since my last submission. I occasionally play church services, but thank God for Federal Pandemic Assistance, a godsend for us gig workers and those in the entertainment industry. And it’s great to feel we’re finally coming out of the nightmare. I think the thing my body has missed the most is senior exercise classes two or three times a week, and access to my gym. I believe the gyms are open here, but it still seems too risky to me. I try to exercise on my own, and periodically dance around to Sousa marches and 1920s jazz, but it’s not enough. I do my writing group and family check-ins on Zoom (where would we be without Zoom!), and I am continuing to write, which is great.” Nancy Smoyer: “I describe my COVID-19 year as busy but boring as all the fun events in Fairbanks were canceled, as were many trips. I’ve had three major projects for the busy part. 1. During the summer I cleaned up the woods around my house—good exercise; 2. I’ve been going through 50 years of saved correspondence, which is daunting but fun to revisit my life through those letters and; 3. In October, out of desperation, I started going to the gym—four to five times a week! I’ve never had any desire to do that before, and I can’t say I love it, but I don’t hate it either. I got my second vaccine on Feb. 12, and then a few days later went to Key West for a short winter break…. finally.” Julia Fulper Hardt: “We’re still ‘sequestering’ at 22 Alta Vista Drive and dealing (reasonably well) with some significant health concerns that make the illusive inoculations all the more imperative. On the positive side, the protocols for dealing with the pandemic took away any remaining excuses I had for not completing a Christmas memoir, which I’ve been anxious to put together for my grandchildren. Needless to say, wreath making, Candlelight Service and subsequent holiday parties (and, of course, what I borrowed from sisters to wear) were featured, and all classmates remained at the very front of my mind throughout the process. It translated into a nice little book of memories, menus and recipes, which afforded me an escape into those sweet and, occasionally, emotionally fraught days. A heartfelt note of gratitude to all of you for making those particular ‘moments in time’ so precious and vivid.” Kasa Lowndes Cotugno: “I’m living the COVID-19 ground hog’s day existence, reading, cooking and looking out the window. I think it will resonate with everyone who reads this.” Alice Artzt: “We are dealing with a multitude of issues, and I am still teaching as much as I can on Skype—going nuts. So far not sick— and also so far, no vaccines for either of us.” Lucia Norton Woodruff: “48 hours no power, as of now (2/17), many still have no power in Austin and all Texas except smart El Paso, on the national grid unlike the rest of Texas. The challenge of the camping and camaraderie of neighbors has been fun as well as the beauty! But so many are suffering. We are fine with gas stove and wood heating stove, but many are not. Today icy, sleet, gray, but it was delightful outside Monday and Tuesday watching dogs, children, adults walk or sled by in wonder at the bright world. Should be warmer by Sunday.” Joan Yeaton Seamon: “We’ve gotten our two vaccine shots, an advantage of living in a retirement community. Have read so many books during this pandemic, the latest Destiny and Power, a George H. W. Bush bio by Jon Meacham. I worked for that president and Barbara and love how Meacham writes. A wonderful experience with exceptional people. Just ordered tickets for Athens, Greece for our Irish nephew Stuart’s and Greek fiancée Nikolina’s wedding there in June. They are both doctors in London. So, hopefully, Greece will open up by then! Family well, but those in Austin having a hard time right now. VERY MUCH looking forward to seeing and hugging four grandsons and two greatgrandsons in 2021.” Julia Cornforth Holofcener: In spite of the pandemic and the political turmoil of the past year, my life has been fairly normal here in West Palm. The play I’m co-producing in England has progressed to the point where I’ve decided to move to London for a year, accompanied by my sister Jo ’55. We have a new website, www.alliance-the play.com, and Simon Callow has indicated great interest in playing Churchill. It’s all very exciting! Larry and I spent over 12 years in England and I really miss it, and my friends. My company, Island Partners, created in 1995 the first website for the Isle of Wight, where we lived, and I produced a number of events for Island charities over the years. In addition, I’m working with an English organization to create a Terra Carta. There was a Magna Carta in 1215, and I feel strongly that the Earth needs its own ‘carta’. I know I’m 78 in May, but I still feel that I have a lot more to contribute.”

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Susan Shea McPherson P.O. Box 506 41 Hawthorne Avenue Hyannis Port, MA 02647 (508) 775-1368 (home) suebear3@gmail.com Gail Cotton wrote that she “was deeply saddened to hear Missy (Tomlinson) had died. I was in touch with her until a few years ago. I can’t recall why we sort of drifted apart. Thanks for getting us the information, Kathy. “Thanks to Paige, Wendy, Kathy and Kate for writing. I also liked Pat’s suggestion that we share what we’d do once COVID-19 was less of a threat. The first thing I would do would be to organize a family gathering. We have not seen several members of our family for over a year. Traditionally, we bring our calendars for the coming year to our Christmas celebration and plan our gatherings for the coming year. Needless to say, those plans never came to fruition. “Dennis and I received our second vaccination day before yesterday. Thankfully, we did not have any after-effects. I will continue to comply with the public health recommendations and hope that the development of the vaccines was

not too rushed. I view it as kind of a damned if you do and damned if you don’t! “I wish you good health.” Pat Holcombe sent: “Hugs to all!” The first thing she will do once the restrictions are safely lifted “will be hugs for family and friends. And also have the freedom and confidence to roam anywhere without fear.”

Susan Mathews Heard ’62 and her husband, Bill, the night they moved into their senior residence in January 2017

Susan Mathews Heard wrote: “Happy February! Bruce and I moved into our senior residence at Villa Gardens at the end of January four years ago. We’d moved from the condo we owned since 1992. We’ve made many wonderful friends and appreciate the caring and helpful executives and staff. “On the night of my birthday last March, COVID-19 hit us, forcing the closure of our dining rooms. They likely will remain closed for the foreseeable future. COVID-19 has been extreme here in Pasadena, the rest of Los Angeles County and much of California. Fortunately, we will have our second vaccination on Tuesday, which gives us hope that we may soon be able to gather in small groups, leave the building and feel almost normal again. It’s been a long haul. “Even when things open up, we won’t be doing any travel, as much as we’d like to. Bruce’s degenerative muscle disease now keeps us close to home. Fortunately, we traveled extensively while we could, and visited all seven continents. “I have undertaken several ‘jobs’ here to help the staff and keep myself busy. I work with our Executive Director on her COVID-19 update letters three times a week. Bruce and I continue to co-chair the Dining Services Committee, which has a more challenging responsibility since all meals are served in our apartments. And I also co-chair the Fitness Committee. “What are the first things I’d like to do when this is all behind us? Read more. Relax. Spend more time with our friends. . . . More than one thing, so take your pick! “I send my warmest wishes to you all!” I, Susie Shea McPherson, had a wonderful conversation with Dede Shipway, who has been coaching squash at PDS for quite a while. There are now four new courts; one of them was named for Dede as a special honor, given by her former squash players led by Chris Sheldon ’92. What a proud moment for her. As Gail and Katherine mention, Missy Tomlinson died recently in Vero Beach; I wasn’t able to find any additional information. Life on Cape Cod remains quiet, but more people escaped here during COVID-19. I did have a knee replacement in October; it was easy and very successful. I still haven’t crossed the bridge but, referring to Pat’s request, my hope is that our family can go to a dude ranch in Colorado this June for a week. Wishing you all good health and hope that our country will return to a new normal soon.

1963

Virginia Elmer Stafford 9836 Steamboat Island Road NW Olympia, WA 98502 (505) 307-8837 (cell) vesalb@aol.com Andy Updike Burt reported from the Maine woods that she continues to be inspired by her work with young climate activists through her Down to Earth Storytelling organization. She is also co-leading an initiative to pass an environmental rights amendment to the Maine constitution—currently only PA and Montana have one. To cope with the pandemic restrictions she has enrolled in an online art class about painting with pastels and says her first assignment, a self-portrait, is a work in progress. She invites anyone to visit. Ellen Levy invited anyone interested to check out her artwork at missellenruthlevy.nyc. I can attest that her “Jump for Joy” card is much more beautiful than the website shows. Kathryn Kilgore lives between Monterey, CA and Key West, FL, and is writing a long story in a series of poems—“and I really like them”— so hopefully we can all read them soon. She is, unfortunately, battling breast cancer for the second time. Polly Miller just made a big decision to donate her wonderful pony to a non-profit organization off island. This, she says, is a firsthand example of “where getting older is NOT for sissies.” She hopes to host a retired horse, so Nick gets his garden manure, and they both have someone else to care for and worry over. Turid Helland reported she is still living in her red wooden house with husband, Kaare, by the sea in Bergen. She tries to keep up with her year-round ocean bathing, but admits it is increasingly cold. She reported that Norway is doing rather well during the pandemic and enjoys her “four wonderful grandchildren” and having her daughter next to them, with son, in Oslo. Pamela Sidford Schaeffer feels like every day in the pandemic is “Slursday” as everything blurs together. They continue to “camp” out in the new home they are building and had a COVID-19 scare when their daughter and family got mild cases, but they have been symptom-free and by now should have gotten two doses of the vaccine. She is a proud mother watching Marvel’s WandaVision, written by their daughter, Jan Schaeffer. Laura Rodgers feels very fortunate to have gotten the vaccine but regrets that the pandemic has caused them to postpone some international travel “just when retirement years afford the time to get out and go.” She tries to keep fit and is thinking about buying her first horse since MFS years. She remarked that Moyne and Mrs. Shepherd would be glad to know that she is rereading some of the classics, though she admits some age better than others! Kleia Raubitschek Luckner shared that although she misses her Toledo friends and activities with the BAR there, she is glad to have moved to McLean to be near her children and three grandkids. She reflects on the challenge of going to law school in her mid 50s but was always interested in the intersection of law and medicine. She misses the plans she and late husband, Kurt, had for retirement, and is recovering from a total hip replacement, which further confines her from exploring DC. Kathy Sittig Dunlop sent along her COVID-19 thoughts:

Care for others—wear a mask, stay safe.

Open your eyes to your many blessings.

Vary your daily activities.

Imagine new possibilities for your life.

Decide to make a difference in your life and the lives of others. 19 — list 19 other things you are going to do—and then do them! She reflected on how a stroke at the end of 2019 has changed her life as she lost her left, peripheral vision and regrets that the pandemic has limited her travel, but enjoys local adventures and picture taking. She has since dedicated herself to making others aware of the first signs of a stroke as she wonders if a quicker response to her stroke may have made a difference. She encourages everyone to explore these signs. She is also enjoying a weekly Zoom meeting with old Hollins College friends, and wonders if any of us would like to start this. Sally Campbell Haas wrote that her biggest news is getting her second vaccine. She also has been dealing with the very cold weather sent to so many of us by the polar vortex. Sharon Stevenson Griffin reported that her most exciting news is getting the second vaccine, which allows Sharon and Chuck to head to their home in Florida. Several of her friends have had COVID-19, but, gratefully, they are all doing well. She is relieved to see “some light at the end of the tunnel.” I, Virginia Elmer Stafford, have just moved into a lovely little house in Olympia, WA where I am enjoying spectacular views of the Puget Sound. I have decided to continue to work with counseling clients via telehealth at

least through the pandemic as there is such a high demand for mental health support, but it is all made easier doing it from my living room watching the ever changing moods of the Sound. I am also enjoying Sunday hikes with my grandson, and with his inspiration I am becoming a pretty good vegan cook. Hoping you all stay safe and well so that we can meet again at our next big reunion.

1964

Barbara Rose 33 Calhoun Street, Suite 218 Charleston, SC 29401 (609) 937-1700 (cell) barbarabrose@me.com

1965

Margaret Woodbridge Dennis 11115 Fawsett Road Potomac, MD 20854-1723 (301) 983-9738 (home) hotyakker@gmail.com 2020 was too awful for words, and COVID-19 has life shut down. We spend our days gardening, cooking, searching on the internet for COVID vaccination openings, and trying to Marie Kondo-ize our overstuffed shelves and closets. It’s a great excuse, however, to call old friends and catch up. Ellen Aronis Heard said: “I refuse to allow the previous administration to take up one single moment in my mind. I learned how to turn off the news and I must say, I am healthier for it. “This pandemic has brought many challenges to all of us, and I have decided, due to a lot of changes in my field, that I am going to make this year my last as a therapeutic/educational consultant. It has been a wonderful experience and I have enjoyed many fulfilling years, but the acuity of the clientele is going up and unfortunately, the placement options available are not adapting to their needs. “Of late, I have been very involved in practicing Qigong, which is a bit like Tai Chi but more directed towards health issues. The idea is to move the qi, or life force, through your body to unleash blockages and stay healthy. I am starting to realize why the Dalai Lama always has a smile on his face. I read that he meditates many hours a day, which brings him into a state of grace and calm. It is that smile that I am striving to develop. At this stage in my life, finding balance and joy has become a goal; the health benefit is simply a bi-product. “I am looking forward to getting the pandemic in the rear-view mirror and traveling to visit my family in California. Somehow Zoom art lessons with my grandson do not allow me to hug him and that I sorely miss. I hope all are rounding the corner and getting vaccinated and we can look forward to a healthier and happier 2021.” Phoebe Russell MacAdams Ozuna wrote: “Things here in Pasadena are pretty quiet. My husband, Ron Ozuna, and I are healthy, thank heavens, and are still mostly staying at home except for walks and trips to the grocery store, which we now do double masked. Ron is continuing to go on his bird photography expeditions. I am on Zoom a lot going to poetry readings and doing workshops. We are reading a lot—I have managed to be part of three reading groups! “Both Ron and I are continuing our parttime retirement jobs mentoring teachers for the Loyola Marymount University education program. I am very glad not to be teaching at this point and I have a lot of respect for our teachers who are learning a whole new way of instructing and mastering a huge variety of online platforms. I can barely remember all of their names, much less how to use them! “The big news for us is that we finally got appointments for our COVID-19 vaccinations. It took a lot of patience to negotiate the LA County website and to finally find open slots. We had our first shots a few weeks ago and are scheduled for our second ones on Saturday—a big step forward!! We will probably continue our lives the way they are until more people get vaccinated, but it is a great relief to be somewhat protected! “Stay SAFE, one and all.”

PRINCETON COUNTRY DAY SCHOOL

1943

Peter E. B. Erdman 700 Hollinshead Spring Road, Apt. D100 Skillman, NJ 08558-2038 PErdman700@comcast.net

1944

Markley Roberts graduated from PCD in 1944, Exeter in 1947 and Princeton in 1951. After one year with the CIA, he spent five years with the Washington (DC) Star newspaper, four years with Senator Hubert Humphrey, and finally, 34 years with AFL-CIO labor union federation, retiring in 1995. He is the son of Frances Markley Roberts, who was a teacher at Miss Fine’s School and PDS. He is now age 90, and is a writer for the Chevy Chase, MD retirement building newsletter, member of the board of Friends of the Chevy Chase Library and member of the Committee on the Future of the Chevy Chase Library.

1947

David C.D. Rogers 1602 Tuckers Lane Hingham, MA 02043 (781) 749-9229 (home) (413) 575-8575 (cell) drassoc53@comcast.net

1948

John D. Wallace 90 Audubon Lane Princeton, NJ 08540 (609) 921-2257 (home) njnb1@aol.com James Donnelly submitted: “My wife, Sarah, and I are in a retirement community after years in education. I think back to my PCD years in Princeton fondly. Congratulations for all that the School has done to grow and broaden its educational opportunities.”

1949

Bevis Longstreth submitted: “I have completed a historical novel, Chains Across the River, available for pre-orders where books are sold, prior to release date of 4/2/21. See my website, bevislongstreth.com, for information about this novel of the American Revolution.”

1950

Michael P. Erdman 20 Pond Lane Bryn Mawr, PA 19010 (610) 528-5148 (home) (610) 608-8665 (cell) mperdman57@gmail.com

1951

Edwin H. Metcalf 900 Hollinshead Spring Road, Apt. J100 Montgomery, NJ 08858 (609) 921-2386 (home) ehmet@comcast.net Douglas Levick submitted: “It’s been many years since I have written a note, perhaps, I regret, because I was lazy. We spent the first half of our life in the East between NYC, Greenwich, CT, Paris, France and Boston. We have been in California for 40 years, first in Atherton, and most recently in Palo Alto in a fabulous senior living place on the edge of the Stanford campus. Through these years I was with several information technology companies, followed the last 20 years by major roles in several non-profit organizations. During these years we were well—occupied by three children and five grandchildren. Age has taken a few tolls, but, in general, all is well. We continue to be active and stimulated by the endless educational and cultural opportunities at Stanford and in the San Francisco Bay Area. I regret that I have not been back to PDS, except for the time I was inducted into the Athletic Hall of Fame about 20 years ago. From all that I read, it has become a fabulous school.”

1952

Philip Kopper 4610 DeRussey Parkway Chevy Chase, MD 20815-5332 (301) 652-2383 (home) PosPress@AOL.com Heaven forfend that we should still be in “Total Lockdown” by the time this note is

ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT

Doria Roberts ’89

Visionary Restaurateur and Artist

Doria Roberts ’89 is on a road less traveled, and it has made all the difference. Born and raised in Trenton, she moved to Philadelphia to attend the University of Pennsylvania after graduating from Princeton Day School and remained there until 1996. At Penn, she focused on East Asian Studies with a concentration in Japanese, which covered language, literature, culture and business. “My goal was to be the first black woman to run a Japanese kaisha (corporation), but classes in my senior year that were meant to be dual credits for my master’s degree forced me to see the world in a different light,” Doria recalls. The classes introduced Doria to classical eastern philosophies like Taoism and Buddhism; she also studied themes ranging from death in Japanese poetry to feminism in Japanese literature. With graduation looming, and “a radically changing world view,” Doria didn’t know what she wanted, but she knew she wanted something impactful. “Playing guitar happened to be a Taoist meditation that I picked up as a distraction while I sorted things out,” Doria shared, but it led to a whole new direction. The organizer of the UPENN annual “Spring Fling” event overhead her playing in her dorm room and booked her for a 20 minute spot, she recalled, “despite having a setlist consisting of only one original song and the rest Indigo Girls covers!” A DJ from WXPN heard Doria and asked her to come on their “local’s only” show, which led to the booking agent from the Last Drop Coffee House in Center City offering her the feature spot for their open mic nights. “I truly believe in a type of beginner’s luck, and I had plenty of it to push me towards being a singer/songwriter, even though I had absolutely no experience,” Doria shared. “The road just opened up before me and I couldn’t help but to follow it. I was curious and I figured I’d learn the business for a few years and then hope to get signed to a major label,” she continued. After releasing her first CD in 1995, she moved to Atlanta in 1996, “which helped exponentially,” she said. “The scene was vibrant and young and I was suddenly part of the new crop of up and coming artists. I was doing shows with John Mayer, India Arie and members of what would become Sugarland when no one outside of Georgia knew who we were,” Doria recounted.

A Crossroads

In 1999, Doria self-released her third project and performed at Lilith Fair’s stop in Atlanta sharing the stage with Sarah McLachlan, Sheryl Crow, Sinead O’Connor, and some of the biggest names in music at the time. Record labels came calling, but two big factors kept her from pursuing that route. “One was the ‘work for hire’ copyright law that was passed by Congress and made it so artist copyrights would be held by a record label in perpetuity instead of reverting back to the artist, even if the works were created before being signed to the label,” Doria said. “This was so devastating that Sheryl Crow and Don Henley of the Eagles went to Capitol Hill to advocate for its removal. I was concerned because I already had over 100 songs and felt I wouldn’t have the leverage to negotiate with labels as a new artist and would lose ownership of my intellectual property,” she continued. “The second issue is that I was repeatedly asked to ‘stay in the closet’ and not reveal my LGBTQ status as a condition of being signed, and it was something I could not do. So, I opted to stay independent, hoping the industry, and the world, would catch up. But, I never pursued a relationship with a major label after that,” Doria shared. In 2008, when the country was heading into what is now known as the Great Recession and independent musicians were facing multiple challenges, Doria decided to take a hiatus and help her wife, Chef Calavino Donati, run her restaurants. “I figured I would get back to full-time music when the economy recovered. It did finally recover, but our restaurant at the time, Urban Cannibals Bodega + Bites, had been featured on the Food Network, we were asked to cater and speak at a TedX event, and we were finalists in a “Start Small, Go Big” contest sponsored by CitiBank, all within two years of opening. Things were a little too hectic to leave for the road so I officially semi-retired from music,” Doria said. In 2015, they opened three more restaurants and went on to cater for Richard Branson of Virgin Atlantic, were chosen by VISA to represent their “She’s Next” global initiative, and their tea shop was ranked third in the country for afternoon tea service by Travel + Leisure.

Another Turn Along the Way

Last year, Doria’s mother suffered a stroke and the couple decided to move back to New Jersey to help with her care. “The original plan was to bring the tea shop to a Nassau Street location where we had signed a letter of intent, but COVID shutdowns started right when we were planning to start building out in Princeton,” Doria said. “Luckily, we hadn’t signed a lease, but we also found ourselves without a restaurant and source of income. It became clear that restaurants were going to be huge casualties, so when we got the opportunity to open something, we knew we had to completely reimagine what it meant to have a restaurant,” she continued. In July, Doria and Calavino opened their “omnivore-through-vegan BBQ and southern fare pop-up,” The Pig + The Pit, in a former bakery in Pennington. “Our current business model is a 100% online contactless ‘ghost kitchen’ that is designed to survive future shutdowns. We converted the entire space into cold storage and work prep space so food is picked up by customers outside at the front door. We’re looking into doing more spaces like this as the country recovers. There is a lot of research and analysis involved as we work toward positioning ourselves as a model for the future survival of our industry,” Doria explains. In addition to learning how to bake (her chocolate chip cookies have become a popular menu item), Doria also loves the creative process of building menus with Calavino, who has been in the restaurant industry for over 25 years. Though she focuses primarily on work in the restaurant, Doria exercises her seemingly boundless creativity on the side continued on next page

ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT

Doria Roberts Spotlight continued

as well. “Listening to dialogue all day at the restaurants, I have pivoted from writing songs, which I have definitely missed, to playwriting. I started turning incidents into little stories that I posted on my Facebook page for fun. Then I got a few ideas about plays, and realized my brain was looking for a more visceral creative outlet for my writing, so I started taking it seriously and dove in,” she said.

PDS: A Place Where You Don’t Have to Be Like Anyone Else

In recounting her journey for this Alumni Spotlight, Doria reflected on her time as a student at Princeton Day School where she learned many of the foundational skills that have guided her since. As a product of the Trenton public and Catholic school systems, Doria was used to a more restrictive academic setting. Princeton Day School’s academic structure, which included established free periods and blocks for extracurricular activities, was a revelation to Doria. “That free time also helped me bond with my classmates. At my other schools, I would only see my friends at lunch and recess. I’m still good friends with several members of my graduating class as well as the classes above and below mine, and I credit those free periods with that. I didn’t realize it at the time, but it really prepared me for college and life. There are lessons you learn in class, but I really learned the most being able to casually interact with teachers and students. It felt like a real community,” she said. Managing the rigors of Princeton Day School academics, after-school extracurricular activities and an hour commute each night helped teach Doria the important skills of time management and effective multitasking, she explained. “Those skills have proven particularly important in managing the variety of culinary projects we’ve run over the years and as we plan for the future,” she added. Doria recalled a favorite memory with former Upper School English teacher Judy Michaels, who taught Doria during her freshman and senior years and whom Doria credits for instilling in her a lifelong love of literature and poetry. “I cringe when I think about it, but the first book report I handed in from the summer before I started 9th Grade was on V.C Andrews’ Flowers in the Attic! She didn’t shame me about my book choice. She saw that I was already an avid reader, took what she saw as an interest, and gently guided me to the classics without judgement. She never required that I abandon those books and simply encouraged me to read everything I could get my hands on. We laughed about it my senior year and I thanked her for her guidance all those years,” Doria remarked. Doria credited Mrs. Michaels’ approach with making her a more well-rounded person because it helped her realize that all life experiences had value. “To be honest, I felt a little out of place at PDS at first. I felt like I never had the ‘right’ shoes or clothes, didn’t come from the ‘right’ family, but I slowly learned that I didn’t have to be like anyone else. I just needed to find people who were willing to share their perspectives with me and vice versa. I now have lifelong friends, and some of the best memories from my childhood are attached to PDS. It set me up to be flexible, curious and open to life experiences and I use those skills often.” She recalled that perhaps the most meaningful experience from her time at PDS was her Senior Project—and still relevant today in her present pursuits: she produced and acted in a play and presented it to the school. “My goal was to learn every aspect of something simply because I wanted to do it, not because of a desire to go into theater as a profession. I was responsible for the play’s casting, directing, light and stage design, the program design, ticketing, marketing,” she explained. “It was incredibly difficult, but I remember my thesis was about leadership and, specifically, what is now known as ‘leading from behind.’ In order to do that, I felt I had to understand every level of your organization and the work and workers that made your organization possible. No job or person was too small or insignificant,” Doria reflected. Doria concluded with this advice to seniors: “Whatever your project is next spring, make it something that you want to do and that you will enjoy—even if it’s something completely out of your wheelhouse. It’s like asking yourself a really tough question that you get to answer creatively. Use it as an opportunity to learn about yourself and the people around you that you may not have had much interaction with in your four years. It’s a rare opportunity to start shaping the world you want to live in,” she observed.

Note: The Alumni Spotlights in this issue of the Journal were first published on the pds.org news feed during the 2020-2021 school year.

published, but at its writing we are quarantining and have become unspeakably tired of our own company. So with one classmate’s help, I’ll reprise my last contribution to the Journal and offer diversions for solitary confinement: What’s worth reading and watching! See below. In mid-February, my faithful correspondent John Wellemeyer reported an impressive reading list for the preceding months. Consuming books had become his and wife Louise’s vocation-in-limbo, and more power to them. Here are some of the titles he recommends: The Pioneers by David McCullough. The master historical narrator explores the “Old Northwest,” the first major territory to be occupied by white settlers in the decades after the Revolution. John’s cloak-and-dagger spree embraced The Spymasters by Chris Whipple, The Moscow Rules by Antonio and Jonna Mendez and The President’s Dossier by James A. Scott —all examine spookery through fictional and historical lenses. He entertained an equestrian phase with The Greatest Gambling Story Ever Told (Mark Paul) and Blood Lines (Melissa Del Bosque) to learn about horse racing, betting, skullduggery and Mexican drug cartels. He ventured into the world(s) of politics via John Bolton’s The Room Where It Happened, Bob Woodward’s The Rage, Michael Cohen’s Disloyal, and Madeleine Albright’s Hell and Other Destinations. Read on! For myself, after days of reading critically as an editor or critic, I found diversion on the small screen with a variety of entertaining thrillers in serial form that took me to places I’d love to visit unvirtually again. (May mini-series go on for as long as the pandemic itself.) A French Village brings WWII to a provincial town. Heist sees a bizarre genius masterminding a cabal of misfits to storm and seize the Spanish mint, gin up the presses and escape with a fortune in new Euros. Ozark finds an apple-pie American family waging felonious mayhem in Missouri. Lupin celebrates revenge and

counter-sleuthing in Paris. Wanted finds two innocent (sort of) Australian women caught Down Under between savvy crooks and cloddish cops—and outwitting both... The rest of our dwindling class stayed undercover, despite my pleas for news... So it goes, during the pandemic... Be well, wear masks, shun conspiracies.

1953

Kenneth C. Scasserra The Court at Palm Aire 2701 N. Course Drive, Apt. #509 Pompano Beach, FL 33069 (609) 598-1776 (home) kscas@hotmail.com

1954

Fred M. Blaicher, Jr. 710 Manatee Cove Vero Beach, FL 32963-3728 (772) 231-0046 (home) fritzblaicher@yahoo.com

1955

Needs Correspondent

1956

Robert E. Dorf 1063 Vail View Drive, Unit 26 Vail, CO 81657 (970) 471-1067 (home) (cell) dorfb@outlook.com

1957

James Carey, Jr. 245 A Chestnut Avenue, Unit 2 Jamaica Plain, MA 02130 (781) 801-2490 (cell) tim_carey@nobles.edu I am not sure if the contributions I get from my classmates are a result of my incessant dunning, but what I receive is heartening to say the least. We old guys, as a group, are more than alive and kicking, the only way to go in these pandemic times. Walking, getting vaccines, playing tennis, paddle and golf, reading, volunteering and generally being active are the keys at this stage of our lives. So, I guess we deserve a pat on the back, and you can bet that this class correspondent is a happy and grateful man. I begin with a note about Morgan Shipway from whom I received a card just yesterday. He wrote that his sister Dede ’62 had dropped off a box full of ‘stuff’ that Morgan was told he could go through if he wished. One of the items he found was a letter that my father had written on January 19, 1982 to his stepmother after the death of his father, Charlie. I immediately had an image of Mr. Shipway in his tennis whites, craftily moving about the court, smiling slyly, complimenting opponents on a good shot and inevitably winning his match. But it also jolted me in such a lovely way, seeing my father’s handwriting as if he had written the note last week. And now here we are, the same age as our fathers and dealing more often with sad moments, but also moments of joy. Thanks, Morgan, for a wonderful gift. Morgan also reminded me of the times we would watch Dick Clark’s Philadelphia Bandstand at my house and swoon over Justine Corelli! Pony Fraker wrote: “Got my second vaccine last Tuesday, February 16 and feel relieved and eager to go see friends and family as soon as Molly gets hers. In the meantime, I built four raised garden beds for herbs and veggies, the fruits of which Molly and I enjoy almost every day. I am still playing tennis and working on my golf with the ‘winning spirit of the boys at Princeton Country Day.’ Also, I have hooked up with a close friend who has me skippering his sailboat in a racing series at the Sausalito Yacht Club; Stafford K may be interested. If we win on Sunday, March 7, we will win the winter series. I never thought my Flying Dutchman racing experience in Nantucket in the late ’50s would lead to anything in my late seventies. But as Billy Morse has said, we were and always will be the ‘boys of Princeton Country Day.’ And we remain as privileged as ever!” Staff Keegin: “Back from getting #2 and all is well! Thinking back over the year, I recall it was a year ago when I was at a CCA meeting in NYC and had just become a little more aware of the virus. So, home I went, and I’ve been pretty much quarantined ever since. Sounds bad, but really it has not been. The replacement house in Sonoma, replacing the one that burned down in the 2017 fires, was just finished, so moving in up there was actually quite nice. It’s complicated but our youngest daughter, who used to be in the intelligence community at the Obama WH, is now working in SF for Blaine Consulting and considering the hours she puts in, it was easier for her to quarantine in Sausalito than her home in Alameda. So out we moved and in she moved, pregnant with number one! Our middle daughter is living in Berkeley with her daughter and musician husband and could settle in (quarantine-wise) with no problem. Our oldest daughter, husband and two sons live in France, so they have a whole different regime to follow. Of course, summer came and went: no Maine, no sailing and no fog to play in. I’m actually increasingly concerned about next summer. I like to go off sailing by myself. At 77, I could still do the necessary to get under way, and, importantly, get back. At 79, I’m not so sure. I think I would find the anchor a challenge. “I’m still lawyering, but from home, which I quite like. I was initially worried about not working in the office, but on closer analysis, I couldn’t really recall meeting any clients in my office for many years, so it appears everything will be OK if I just continue at home. Susan’s had a good year painting. It seems that people quarantined at home and staring at the wall go shopping for new art. That keeps her busy.” Joe Wright: “We came to Nantucket from Toronto by car on December 10, the easiest place to get our family together after nine negative COVID-19 tests. Our daughter lives and works here for a mental health and addiction counseling organization. Our actor son, his wife and our grandchild drove up for two weeks over Christmas and New Year’s. On the day of this writing, February 4, we are still here and plan to stay until March 20. We got our first shot Wednesday and are scheduled for the second on February 24. It is a safe and easy place for us to hide out for a while. Our vaccines here were administered by a joint effort of the Nantucket Town and our local hospital, affiliated with Mass General. It was a wonderfully organized effort, but it took computer skills and access, which might be difficult for the groups most affected by this awful disease. The only other classmates with whom I am in touch are Staffy (now that he has grown up, he goes by Stafford) Keegan and Pony (when he grew up, he became Harrison) Fraker. To the best of my knowledge, they are both alive and well in California, dodging the virus and wildfires! Please stay safe and well and keep the snow and foul weather west of the Cape for those of us in Nantucket!” Adam Hochschild: “I have nothing terribly newsy to report, except that a) I’m breathing easier since January 20, and b) my wife and I have gotten our first vaccine shots. I’ve never been happier to have a slightly sore arm!” Rob Kuser: “All is well with the Kuser clan. Mary Kay and I got our first vaccination and will get the second shortly. We have been isolated due to COVID-19, but now I am taking the risk of a distant vacation in late July, a trip to Olympic National Park with our daughter and her family for a week. We had plans to do this in 2020 but got foiled by the pandemic. Fortunately, I was able to roll all the reservations forward one year, and we are ready to go.” Hugh Wise: “Nothing new to report. We can’t get south to the Carib because of the bug, which I now understand is scientifically not really a bug. I have a recommendation for reading: Adam Hochschild’s latest, Rebel Cinderella; it is a work of art. His power of description is phenomenal. He transports one to turn-of-thecentury (not the latest turn, but the one before) New York. My parents saved all the Junior Journals from our days at PCD, and I found Adam’s first published piece in the March 1952 edition, entitled ‘The Greatest Scare I Ever Had.’ William Smith also had a piece of that same title in the same edition and Morgan Shipway had one entitled ‘The Pirate.’ Bill Morse: “Some folks consider us geezers, but the truth is, we PCD boys are just boys who deny our age and resist growing up. Boys will be boys. I’m playing paddle tennis almost daily, in several Fairfield County leagues.

Opponents are usually 20 to 30 years younger. But I do my best to team up with a ringer who runs down the drop shots, while I send up lobs. It’s a great sport that I got into 10 years ago. Of course, we play outside, in the cold. No socializing after the matches. So far, it’s been safe. I got my second Pfizer shot this week, and Cece, her first. We can’t wait to travel once the world opens up. Visiting a granddaughter in Florida is first on our list, then Easter Island, Budapest, Ireland (I play Irish trad, daily... wooden flute). My local group of volunteer musicians is suspended during the pandemic. Alas, this virus closed us down last year, just before St. Patrick’s month (March). A dozen gigs canceled (nursing homes, assisted living, schools, private parties, etc.). We raise funds to support the real Irish musicians. They are hurting these days. Cece, an archaeologist, and I, an educational consultant, are not quite retired, though I’ve scaled way down. We’re on Zoom and Skype all the time. I enjoy hearing news of PCD classmates. For the most part we had an idyllic, fairytale childhood in Princeton. But of course, eventually, we had to grow up.” Bob Smythe wrote: “I continue to miss the elementary school sub teaching I was doing in Princeton, as well as my GrandPal and Memoir writing programs. I also had to give up having breakfast at a local diner with my good friend, a 95-year-old WWII vet who was a B-17 navigator in the Pacific Theater. He was a driving force in the GrandPals program (it was he who recruited me) and was instrumental in setting up Zoom sessions. So now I have three Zooms, plus a recent Pen Pals program with a couple of kindergartners. The coordinator asked if I would be interested in doing a mini-Zoom with my two pen pals, to which I said, ‘Bring it on!’ So, Zoom has somewhat come to my rescue by giving me a chance to reconnect with the people and kids I worked with in those programs. As far as COVID-19 goes, in spite of my Herculean and time-consuming efforts, I have yet to get my first vaccination. Ah, well, as a backup, I have an appointment on May 16. I look forward (even more so) to my annual trek up north to the Adirondack Mountains on Lake Champlain this summer.”

1958

Toby Knox 122 Fairway Drive South Burlington, VT 05403 (802) 985-3191 (home) toby@tobyknox.com In mid-February, Sandy Kirkpatrick reported from Florida that he had both vaccine shots (Moderna). Jeanie is in a queue and should get her first in about seven days. They are hoping to resume travel with trips to Asheville, NC in the spring and Steamboat Springs in the fall. They’re grateful for their good health. I, Toby Knox, am equally thankful for my, and all my family members’, good health. 2021, in so many ways, will be better than 2020. Kathryn and I feel fortunate we live in Vermont where the effects of the pandemic have been less than in many states across the country. We had a wonderful family Christmas with our son, Andrew, and his family from Los Angeles, who were able to spend a month in Vermont, and our daughter Amanda’s family just down the road. We are looking forward to spring, golf and the freedom to be with friends. All good wishes to classmates.

1959

Stephen S. Cook 928 Mill Creek Drive Palm Beach Gardens, FL 33410 (561) 660-7890 (home) (908) 227-4391 (cell) stevecook566@gmail.com

1960

Karl D. Pettit, III 6079 Pidcock Creek Road New Hope, PA 18938 karl.pettit@comcast.net 267-566-1499 How nuts has this past year been?! Nevertheless, in spite of the pandemic, I was able to visit with two dear friends this past September. The first being Davy Davis, and the second being Bloxy Baker’s sister Trudy Baker ‘65 who is the wife of my prep school and Princeton U. roommate Jim Millar. Davy and wife Tink celebrated Thanksgiving this year with two of their son’s families. Davy was careful to explain that strict social distancing was followed by setting up their dining tables in their spacious tractor barn and deep-frying their turkey immediately outside. Davy and Tink are blessed to have nine grandchildren—three granddaughters and six grandsons. My visit with Davy was at their farm in Essex, MA. I visited Trudy and Jim Millar at their vacation cottage on Nantucket. Our conversations were rich with news, and the weather beautiful.

1960 classmates Karl ‘Pepper’ Pettit and Davy Davis (left) on Singing Beach

Karl ‘Pepper’ Pettit ’60 and Trudy Baker ’65 on Nantucket Percy Hoxie Wood ’60 in his Olive Branch, MS garden

Davy and I have had frequent conversations with Percy Hoxie Wood who has retired from his position at FedEx, and is living the bachelor’s life in Olive Branch, MS. Pete is an accomplished gardener; he takes great pride in cultivating his collection of perennial hybrid lilies. Pete’s son, Kyle, has been teaching English in South Korea and Thailand for six years, and he is looking forward to Kyle and his wife, Bim, coming stateside in a year to visit with him. Pete’s Venezuelan daughter, Marlene, and her boyfriend are still living in Caracas, which must be difficult given the political unrest and rampant pandemic there. Jonathan Howland wrote to say that all is well on his end. After almost 40 years of teaching and research at Boston University, Harvard University and Linnaeus University in Sweden, he is aiming to finally retire this summer. He and his wife, Liz, live by the sea in Marion, MA. They are blessed to have their grown twins, Jonathan and Rachael, and granddaughters, Coco and Tavie, living nearby. They have also been fortunate to have beaches and forests nearby for between-Zoom walks and fresh air during the pandemic (an appreciation sharpened by Jonny’s daily interactions with clinical colleagues and others on the frontline at the medical school). His years in Scandinavia definitely taught him a lot about how to cope with New England winters with the deployment of candles, evening fires in their wood stove, and, weather permitting, alfresco dinners on their deck in winter. Alex Patton wrote that he and his wife, Pog, have been hiding out in Vermont since last March. They have recently suffered the loss of two very good friends, which, they write, certainly puts their own situation into perspective. Murad Sayen wrote to say that he and his wife are dealing with COVID-19 as best as possible in South Paris, ME. They are very fortunate

that their son, Sam, and his wife, Jenn, live just two hours away and are in contact daily. Sam and Jenn had a baby girl named Blair in late October and Murad is quick to say that Blair “is just full of light and love.” An incredibly accomplished artist, Murad has not been able to teach art or painting during the pandemic. His art students are all at least 60 years old, and have assorted medical conditions that render them high-risk, so classes just aren’t possible until everybody is vaccinated. One of his best students (Merle) is a renowned sailor in offshore racing circles on the East Coast and the Bahamas. He will be 93 in April and Murad would be devastated if anything happened to him. Regardless of the politics of the day, Murad said that he never would have imagined a mob rampaging through the halls of Congress, which is a distant perversion of the great country that he was willing to die for. He can only imagine what our fathers would have thought of it all. Davy, Alex, Jonny, Murad and I all decided via emails that it was a must for us to make a plan to get together this year—somehow, somewhere. I’ll report on that aspiration in the fall Class Notes. Finally, as for what I’ve been doing this past year, I’m still the Director, Capital Planning, Design & Construction at William Paterson University, which I enjoy very much. I am also the Co-Chair of Princeton University Cap & Gown Club House Committee with Michael P. Erdman ’50; and, as such, was the Project Manager for the Club’s recent $2.6 million Cox Wing addition. And finally, I’m on the Board of Princeton University’s Princeton Prospect Foundation, in which capacity I’m leading a petition to save the historic Court Club on Prospect Avenue from planned demolition as part of the University’s proposed 650,000 gsf SEAS/Environmental development that will run from Washington Road to Fitzrandolph Road. What was once the humble surrounds of our beloved PCD is being consumed by a city of new construction.

1961

Peter H. Raymond 547 East Street Dedham, MA 02026-3060 (617) 365-0236 (cell) peterh.raymond@protonmail.com This edition of PCD 1961, presented in order of response to my panic-struck plea for news, features expositions on Joe CowCow but begins with Father John Sheehan (who answers so quickly, I think he waits for the Journal). He says Fort Wayne, IN is sensible—vote for being sensible!—with vaccination making headway, restaurants and schools opening and no one making masks an issue. As the University of St. Francis chaplain, John also ministers to the football team, even during the polar vortex aberration when “practice on snowy ground in 18° is a kick.” The team’s coach, Kevin Donley, the sixth-winningest college coach in history, has the best record of any current college coach. Of his PCD years, Father John is grateful for schooling that does not much exist today; “PCD,” he wrote, “was a school of another age—I still use today things I learned then.” In closing, he offers an invitation “to all who find themselves around Fort Wayne. We have a beautiful campus, nice people and a chaplain who would love to welcome you.” Richard Longstreth is a “retired” professor of American civilization at George Washington University, seems as busy as Father John, sitting on four non-profit boards and three advisory committees, and is reviewing manuscripts for various publishers while trying “to make headway on what will probably be my last book (No. 13).” He also continues to mentor his last Ph.D. student. Such activity is the benefit, apparently, of expertise in American architecture and historic preservation. Expecting to be fully vaccinated soon, Richard and his wife look forward to visiting friends in person and returning to their Adirondacks summer house. Of the larger world, he wrote: “I hope the political chasm will begin to heal as steps are taken to bring the plague under control, restore jobs, return to schools and undertake constructive projects such as public works. So, I am staying optimistic.” John Becker emailed: “Boi-yoing… plunking my magic twanger here. Glad you got me to drop everything I wasn’t doing!” He states that he is “staying healthy and dodging this weird pandemic. Just had vaccine shot #1, still working a bit and liking it, also spending a lot of fair-weather time sailing around in my little Beetle Cat.” He closed by asking: “I halfremember a student named Robby Mueller. Was he Robert Mueller of FBI fame, etc.?” Indeed, he was and is, as reported in earlier editions of this column. Randy Hobler, who served in the Peace Corps in Libya 1968-1969 after attending Princeton University, announced that he released a much-acclaimed book in November, 101 Arabian Tales: How We All Persevered in Peace Corps Libya (Amazon). The book is unique in that, unlike the 1,000+ individual Peace Corps memoirs out there, his is a collective memoir, in which he interviewed 101 of his fellow volunteers, embroidering their wonderful stories into the tapestry of the larger Libyan narrative. His website: www.101arabiantales.com. The book has received 95% five-star ratings from Amazon and Goodreads. Asked to reflect on our school years, de facto 1961 historian Hobler wrote that “[John] Becker decided he and I (perhaps others) would be part of ‘The Mess-Up Gang’ and went to the trouble of creating membership cards—I still have one. The gang’s sole activity was to race down the front steps of Broadmoor at recess time, shouting, ‘We’re the Mess-up Gang!’ (We never actually messed anything up.)” With his memory machine cranked up, Randy continued, “Becker had an elaborate chemistry set that I coveted, so I nagged my parents to get me one.” He bought ingredients to create gunpowder , which he would “ignite on the basement floor—it would go off like a long fuse” or he’d put the gunpowder into his own version of caps to “smack with a hammer. Such a satisfying bang!” Wait! There’s more! “Two other highlights,” he remembered, “of my career with Becker: one day he experimented on his hair with his chemistry set’s hydrogen peroxide and showed up at school a redhead, and on a sleepover, we were both so enamored of the Elvis song ‘Hound Dog’ that we played it on his 45-rpm record player over and over all night long.” And yet still more: Randy also discovered that our ‘missing’ classmate Tom Regan is son of Donald Regan, Chairman and CEO of Merrill Lynch and then Secretary of the Treasury under Reagan as well as President Reagan’s Chief of Staff! Little did we know!” Randy also reported research regarding Roddy Pratt who was with us for the 1957-1958 year, after which he moved to Illinois. “Turns out his father worked at the Institute for Advanced

Father John Sheehan ’61

Richard Longstreth ’61 The membership card of the PCD 1961 Mess-Up Gang

Study.” From Roddy: “I truly enjoyed [PCD]. I well remember the warm welcome from Mr. Griggs, the rest of the faculty and all the guys, and I remember the boomerang and yo-yo fads that kept us out on the fields before school.” Geologist Richard Reynolds refused to send news because he “has already taken up too much space and would rather hear from others.” (I thought taking up space is what guys are supposed to do). Anyway, he veered offcourse to offer advice on iRoq, a boulder excavated from my street and planted in my yard. Because it was called an “erratic” by the U.S. Geological Survey, my wife, Laurie, and I erected a fence to prevent wandering. “Your rock,” Richard estimatiRoq, the boulder ed, “is probably Dedham Granite, having as its cousin the slightly better-known Plymouth Rock. Don’t tell anyone lest tourists flock to your front yard.” For those also excited by stone, Richard offers this URL: https:// blogs.scientificamerican.com/rosetta-stones/ the-real-story-of-plymouth-rock/ The qualifications for class correspondent position are stricter than I imagined: Regan Kerney fizzed, “If you learn to spell my name right, I might come up with something; meanwhile, I am waiting on Pfizer shot number two.” And now to Joe Cow-Cow, a cartoonish fellow of interest from our years. With this drawing:

Peter Raymond ’61’s drawing of Joe Cow-Cow

I asked classmates about JC-C; Hank Tomlinson responded with, “Talk about delving into the past! The resurrection of an important historical figure! I think he was the creation of Rob Carrick ’59, then adopted by John Becker and our class. [JC-C’s] legs appeared to be on backwards, and you couldn’t tell if the third circle was his nose or a backpack. He was clever because he didn’t make sense—a ‘camp’ creation for us. By the way, I don’t remember how his arms were.” two blobs with a larger blob on its back. He would multiply—I thought it was hilarious when John drew a line of Joe Cow-Cows running off a cliff like lemmings.” JC-C made such an impression on me that he evolved into a Rockman, then served as a handy blackboard figure that students thought was a duck. A duck?! I swear, students today...

Despite the credits above, John Becker wrote, “Kudos to you for remembering the name Joe C-C! I do remember the drawing, but I don’t know where he came from. Maybe Mad magazine or out of my head. Love your drawing, though it’s more sophisticated than the one I still scribble on the margins of my granddaughter’s artwork.” Wonderful that a silly thing arising in the 1950s lingers in varied ways. Peter Kirkpatrick reported in from Ashland, OR where he has joined the ranks of the retired. He stays in touch with former business friends by seeking corporate sponsorship for the International Skiing History Association (skiinghistory.org). And he’s on schedule to be fully vaccinated by the end of March when he hopes to be “Olly, olly oxen free from this blasted COVID-19.” Peter remembers our PCD years as “a brief period between WWII and the Vietnam War when the whole US was pulling together, and we PCDers had it really good. I remember playing soccer for Mr. Mac on a halfback line with Billy Smoyer ’60 and Johnny Odden ’60. Jobe Stevens ’58 taught me how to kick a soccer ball. And I remember that Regan Kerney would sneak the rest of us dummies into the Princeton University’s 25th reunion tent—at 13 years old you’d be trading beers and naughty jokes with a table of 40-year-old Princeton grads! And I remember riding my bike over to Princeton soccer practice with Hank Tomlinson, and that we had Wednesday afternoons off—that is, you guys had those afternoons off, but I always wound up with three pinks slips. And the Blue/White games, and the skating races—Tom Chubet (a Blue) won all those. And I remember learning to skate on neighbor Biddum Leizner’s pond—he counted my falls: 60! And Dave Petito and I caddied at Springdale for Princeton grown-ups who taught us some new words. And then, suddenly, I was off to South Kent. “I do remember pitching for South Kent against Salisbury when Pepper Pettit ’60 came up to bat. We ‘game-faced’ each other until I couldn’t hold back a smile—then Pepper smiled and we laughed. We just couldn’t help ourselves. So, my catcher, our captain, came up to the mound and told me to get my act together. It ended badly when Pepper tripled off me—and then smiled at me again, this time from third base. Those were great years! So, hello to anyone who might remember me.” On hearing Peter K’s comments, Pepper replied: “I definitely remember playing against Peter when Salisbury played South Kent… and laughing at each other when I came up to bat! We must have played against each other four times in two seasons. However, I am flattered that he recalls that I hit a triple because I recall Peter had a killer curve ball, and striking out more times than getting a hit. During our prep school summers while we were hanging out in Princeton, Peter and I would often meet at Marquand Park to punt the football—we loved to punt the ball and send it off with a perfect spiral with its nose turning down at the top of its trajectory for maximum distance. I must say that Peter was a better punter than I and became the varsity punter on the Middlebury varsity football team. He may have even punted in the pros, but Peter will have to confirm that fact!” Well, time to end. 2020 has thrown enormous challenges for 2021, not the least of which is staying healthy. May chance, wise practices and U.S. medical technology usher us all safely to the fall 2021 Journal. Speaking of which, get a leg up now and start writing. And Miss Fine’s—why not send messages to PCD 1961? Surely, the favor will be returned.

1962

John F. McCarthy III 25 Brearly Road Princeton, NJ 08540 (609) 924-3926 (home) (609) 731-1287 (cell) jack@mccarthyllc.com John Gaston was kind enough to write these Class Notes after a recent Zoom among the following five PCD ’62ers. John wrote as follows: Rod Myers is doing well despite the travel restrictions that have limited the world adventures Pat and he have achieved since Rod’s retirement. The commercial lending industry is still reeling from Rod’s departure. Pat and he take long walks every day, while having literally everything—including wine—delivered to their Dupont Circle townhouse. Rod remains the only PCD alum to maintain his stubbornly brunette hair while the rest of us are losing what gray is left. Rick Delano is finally retired from the Ford Motor Company Fund and deeply into the real estate industry in the Hamptons. He walks at least 10,000 steps a day, often double that, and can be found on the golf course whenever weather permits. One of PCD’s great hockey goalies, Rick played at Millbrook (we actually played against each other in those days), then went on to play in college and only put up the pads a year ago.

Hank Tomlinson ’61’s drawing of Joe Cow-Cow “from memory”

Randy Hobler pitched in: “Thanks for bringing a flood of remembrances about John Becker, who in fifth grade came up with Joe Cow-Cow. Your rendering is in the right general area, but that character didn’t have a nose or eyes, just PCD 1961 “Rockman”

Jack McCarthy, one of the few who stayed in Princeton, is being observed by many law students who are trying to figure out how not to get caught in the big law firm thing and to live a successful, no-commute hometown life. He has provided legal services to the community and is now a New Jersey State judge. Jack was an academic leader in our class so it’s no surprise that he continues to lead in Princeton. Rick Eckels spent most of his working life in Memphis and is retired from a successful career in the brokerage business. Rick was always a dedicated tennis player and after an incredibly active life, he and Laila spend their time between Memphis and Ponta Vedra, FL. Paul Vogel spent most of his working life in New Jersey and is retired from Merck & Co. He decided, with his very talented wife, that their home was really too small, so rather than move, they bought the house next door and joined the two. Voila. Paul always sought the most practical solutions. I have spent my career in project management and am still working as a project management consultant on jobs in Manhattan and Boston. I now live in Portland, ME with my wife, Linda. We are avid ocean sailors but now do mostly coastal sailing. Classmates are welcome to join our Zoom calls. Rick Delano is our Zoom master. You can reach him at rdelano@fordngl.com. Just hearing Paul Vogel describe his (short) time at Andover, Lawrenceville and Dartmouth is worth joining the call.

1963

John A. Ritchie 6776 Southern Oak Court Naples, FL 34109 (301) 564-1227 (cell) jhnritchie@yahoo.com

1964

William E. Ring 149A Avenida Majorca Laguna Woods, CA 92637 (310) 600-2015 (home) mwmaverick@gmail.com Donald E. Woodbridge 64 Depot Hill Road Amenia, NY 12501-5817 (845) 373-7035 (home) maderacito@yahoo.com Steve Lane submitted: “It has been a crazy time during the pandemic! I am working long hours with Masy BioServices and we have hundreds of pharmaceutical and biotech companies as customers. One of our five services is storing products at all temperatures, including -75C. COVID-19 made all pharma companies aware that their supply chains were not robust enough and their storage needs have exploded. Otherwise, we are not seeing enough of our three granddaughters, ages six, nine and 13, due to the crisis.”

1965

Nathaniel Hutner submitted: “After PCD, I attended Phillips Exeter Academy and Harvard where I majored in Classics (Latin). I then did graduate work at the University of Goettingen, Germany and Oxford University. I completed my studies and went to work for my father on Wall Street as an investment manager where I spent the next twenty years. I spent the following twenty years writing poetry in Brooklyn. I have since retired to Middlebury, VT where I am working on the publication of all my work. My book is called The Complete Poems of Nathaniel Hutner and can be ordered on amazon.com. I have also written seven plays, which will become available from Onion River Press in the next few months. I invite my classmates to get in touch with me or to visit me in Middlebury. I can be reached by phone at 802-989-7395. My email address is nathaniel.hutner@verizon.net.”

PRINCETON DAY SCHOOL

1966

Deborah V. Hobler 1342 Rialto Lane Santa Barbara, CA 93105 (805) 682-4896 (home) (805) 314-8490 (cell) dvhobler@cox.net Socially distancing, masking, Zooming, vaccinating, FaceTiming, binge watching, hibernating, walking, baking, writing, tossing, consuming… these are some of the more common activities of my 2020. So far this year, 2021, nothing much has changed. One of the stranger side effects of the pandemic lockdowns for me is that the less social activity I have had, the less likely it seems that I reach out to contact others. It feels like even talking to someone on the phone isn’t safe. It will be interesting to see what happens when my social life can be revived. In the meantime, I’ve continued working through 90 years of family scrapbooks (I started last March) then tossing or scanning, and continuing to research and write for my book on the illustrated letters of artist Frederick Stuart Church. It’s labor-intensive work either way, and boredom is not my companion. Although sadly, I did lose my beloved 16-year-old Maine coon cat, Baxter, in September, and miss his companionship dearly. I’m now in line to adopt two Maine coon kittens in the summer. I’ve been lucky to find continued good company with my siblings with our weekly Zoom meetings. And if I am lucky, I will get my first vaccine shot tomorrow, which is a step towards finally being able to see my family—it’s been 14 months! We were all very proud of my brother Randy Hobler ’61’s newly published and well-reviewed book on the experience of Peace Corps volunteers in Libya, including his own, in the late 1960s. It’s entitled 101 Arabic Tales: How We Persevered in Peace Corps Libya. You can buy it on Amazon; tell them his sister highly recommends it!

Sally Harries Gauldie ’66 and family in Mexico in December 2019

Sally Harries Gauldie reported that she and Jack had planned a wonderful travel schedule for 2020. The end of December 2019, the whole Gauldie family shared a wonderful Christmas holiday in Mexico. Then in mid-February 2020, they happily flew off to the United Kingdom for family gatherings and business meetings for Jack. Arriving home in Canada on February 23, they had no idea that within a few weeks the pandemic and lockdown would limit other planned trips for the year. Jack spent most of his time in his attic office on Zoom and WebEx calls, and was so busy he postponed his retirement from June to December. Golfing was the savior activity for both Sally and Jack until the fall, and then walking became the preferred way to keep sane. A week was spent in a cottage on Georgia Bay during the summer, and then the Gauldies, celebrating their 50th anniversary (Congratulations!), spent a few nights in a small hotel in Prince Edward County on Lake Ontario. Sally reported that it had been a year since the Mexico trip that she had seen son Steve, Sam and the grandkids in person, but they were grateful for Zoom and FaceTime meetings. During the “in between” lockdown times they were able to visit with Dave, Sandra and their kids. Like many classmates who wrote to me, 2020 proved to be a true roller coaster ride for everyone. Andrea Hicks wrote that her son Zack is continuing to do interesting photography work and getting involved with local politics. And her much beloved 93-year-old mom, Joanie Hicks, is thriving at Stonebridge and was much relieved that her vote in her 19th presidential election both counted AND was successful. I think many of us felt that way. Susan Bonthron wrote of her joy of spending Christmas with her grandkids in Vermont, and then she and Gilbert packed up for two months in Fernandina Beach in Florida in a condo with “no shared space or access.”

Hoping for a better 2021, Susan reported that at least the planet benefited from less commuter traffic greenhouse gas during the pandemic. Kirsty Pollard Lieberman has been working from home since March 2020. Her only trips have been to the grocery store and the vet. Her beloved basset hound Deuce passed at age 13 in November, and the loss has been very hard to weather. Kirsty had a beautiful memorial urn made for Deuce; written on it a touching poem, “Those we love don’t go away. They walk beside us every day. Unseen, unheard but always near, still loved, still missed and very dear.” It’s so hard to lose our devoted family companions. Barbara Sullivan participated in the Moderna trial in Wilmington and had a strong reaction after the second shot. I have heard that is a common side effect. I’m glad she was vaccinated so early! This month, she and Michael are in San Diego visiting with their grandson, Henry. Landmark Seminars at night and enrolled in “Breakthroughs in Effectiveness” and is creating a project around wellness. As if that wasn’t enough to distract her from the pandemic, she is also in the middle of a complete kitchen renovation, acting as her own contractor. I hate to tell her that that is “homework,” too! I will report back on her energy levels in the fall of 2021. I am sad to report that Lesley Loser Johnston passed away at Penn Medicine Princeton Medical Center on December 22, 2020. She grew up in Yardley, PA and after PDS graduation attended Wheaton College (MA), graduating in 1970. After working as a social worker at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Carrier Clinic in Belle Mead, and marrying Todd Johnston, she turned to full-time parenting with sons Tim and Chris. Lesley also was active with PDS Alumni Council, including I think, being president. The Johnston family spent many summers on Nantucket, visited Italy often, but New York City captured Lesley’s heart the most. Lesley is survived by Todd, her husband of 50 years; sons Tim and Chris; and three grandchildren. We offer our deepest sympathies to the Johnston family. We all have wonderful memories of our time with Leslie at Miss Fine’s and PDS. I am sad to report that Sally Lane’s brother, Henry W. Lane ’74, who attended PDS and Princeton, died from pancreatic cancer on December 12, 2020 in Bay Head, NJ at the family home. Henry was an incredibly talented athlete, a dedicated son, father, brother, active community volunteer, and a well-respected business colleague. After working a few years on the East Coast, he took a position as CEO of Dioptics Medical Products in San Luis Obispo, where he and his family lived for 19 years, until he returned to the East Coast in 2015. We extend our sincere condolences to Sally, Henry’s sons, his six brothers and sisters, and his large extended family. It has been a difficult year of loss for the Lane family, as Sally’s mother, Sally Kuser Lane ’42, died just last June.

1967

Susan Fritsch Hunter 49 Boatwrights Loop Plymouth, MA 02360 (774) 773-9627 (home) (203) 206-6402 (cell) ares543@comcast.net I hope the pandemic has eased up by the time the Journal reaches your mailboxes. This column includes our pandemic experiences and a few silver linings, as well as the joys and sorrows that have gone on despite the everpresent virus. Bill and I hunkered down once more this fall and winter, but we’re very lucky to be just 20 minutes away from Lauren, Ryan and our grandkids. We pick little Ellie up a few days a week from her daycare (all in masks) and see Cam as often as possible. I got my first vaccine this past week, and Bill gets his shot today, so things are looking up. Disappointments include a canceled in-person college 50th reunion. Silver linings: walking in pine forests, seeing some really good TV series, enjoying and taking nature photographs. Francoise Fussier wrote: “We continue to have this curfew at 6 pm, and it will become more and more unbearable with the days getting longer and the weather getting better. What was acceptable when it was dark and it rained all the time, will be tough in better conditions. We’re all waiting for restaurants, bars, museums and cinemas to reopen—let alone travel plans to make! We can travel within France though and I’m going to Brittany on Monday to spend a week at my daughter Peggy’s house. No one around me, or my friends, has been affected by this COVID-19. We seem safe from it in the west of France. I’ve continued my activities on Zoom and, of course, walking around. We have plenty of nice walks around the pine forests and beaches.”

Snow Friends, the newest book by Margery Cuyler ’66

Margery Cuyler

happily announced the publication of her latest book, Snow Friends, in October. Margery said the pandemic had been good for something: writing a four-book series for Simon and Schuster about a first grade math whiz Addy McBean, for the Aladdin QUIX program. She wrote about the difficulty of losing her brother Gren ’53 a year ago, and said the family still had yet to have a memorial service for him. The pandemic has locked down so many meaningful rituals for all of us. Our class sends you and your family our deep condolences. Husband Jan also has a new book being published. It’s a psychological examination of the medieval myth of Tristan and Isolde, and provides life lessons for our contemporary era. Her sons, both living in Brooklyn, are working remotely from their homes, but no visits for the family until everyone is vaccinated. Again, weekly Zoom meetings have saved the day to see our loved ones. In late December, Margery had a letter published in the New York Times in response to a David Brooks op-ed piece about the evangelical church and political opinions. She wrote about her concerns about what happened to “love your neighbors as yourself.” Katherine Becker, thankfully having recovered from COVID-19 last spring, reported that she was taking a Zoom Italian 102 class—five days a week—with HOMEWORK every night. “However, my French Miss Fine’s School studies from grades 4-12 keep rising to the top and getting in the way and blocks my processing this new language.” She is also taking Ellie and Cameron Collier, grandchildren of Susan Fritsch Hunter ’67, relax at home.

Lesley Loser Johnston ’66 Bright yellow blooms of a mimosa tree “in high season” taken by Francoise Foassier ’67

Julia Lockwood wrote: “Rachel has settled into her new job at the College of Idaho as assistant professor of American history, teaching online and in person this term. She likes her department and her students and is getting used to life in the West. She’s been too busy recently to do much outdoor activity, but hopes to do some hiking as the weather gets warmer. Hopefully, she’ll return to Maine for the sum-

ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT

Dr. Sapna Thottathil ’00

Focused on Sustainability

Sapna E. Thottathil, Ph.D., is a first generation Indian American whose education and career since PDS has been dedicated to seeking solutions to global health and environmental problems. “I feel passionately about protecting the environment for our health, for future generations and for the planet. Through my work, I’ve toured industrialized farm agricultural operations here—in the U.S., small scale rice paddy fields in India, and factories that package food for export and for public schools,” she notes. Dr. Thottathil earned her B.A. from the University of Chicago, where she was awarded the Udall Scholarship for environmental leadership. From there, she went on to receive a M.Sc. from Oxford University and a Ph.D. in Geography from the University of California at Berkeley where she was the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship. Through the Fulbright Fellowship, she notes, she was able to “spend a year in India with farmers and government leaders to understand Indian agricultural policies and environmental politics, which has been a highlight of my career thus far.” Her published book about organic farming in India, India’s Organic Farming Revolution: What it Means for Our Global Food System, reflects this experience. She has worked to help develop environmental policy and sustainable food supply chains with organizations including the Environmental Protection Agency and Health Care Without Harm. Her reports on sustainable procurement have been featured in publications including Civil Eats and the American Journal of Public Health. She currently sits on the boards of Pesticide Action Network and My Green Lab, and serves as a Sustainability Advisor to the Plant Based Foods Association. She is also editor of Institutions as Conscious Food Consumers: Leveraging Purchasing Power to Drive Systems Change. Currently an Associate Director of Sustainability for the University of California’s Office of the President, Dr. Thottathil is responsible for managing large-scale sustainability projects across their 10 campuses and five health systems. “We have very ambitious environmental goals, including achieving carbon neutrality by 2025. My work touches upon multiple subjects, from water conservation to sustainable food procurement to promoting equitable and healthy working environments,” she explains.

Critical Thinking Skills Honed at PDS

When asked about her time at Princeton Day School, she recalled the School’s focus on enhancing students’ critical thinking: “There are several classes that stand out in my mind that I took at PDS that helped me hone my critical thinking—an essential skill in these times. One of them includes a class on the Bible with Mr. Stoltzfus. We read that book from front to back, which most people never do, and studied the context in which parts of it were written, and by whom. I approach all of my reading with such a lens these days—from newspapers to blog posts, I always ask myself: Who wrote this? What was the author’s background and intention for writing this? “Another class that instilled similar critical thinking skills was Government with Mr. Sanderson. Our field trip to Washington, D.C. was so influential in directing me to work on policy and in public service. The trip instilled in me the value of protecting our public institutions,” Dr. Thottathil continued. She particularly valued extracurricular activities that helped develop skills that would become essential later in her career. “The Spokesman was my life (and that’s no hyperbole!), especially during my senior year, when I was the Co-Editor-in-Chief. In retrospect, spending the wee hours of the morning editing articles in the computer lab once a month was a good premonition of things to come in my life—I have spent a lot of time writing and editing after PDS, which has led to several published books and reports,” she notes. Of Liz Cutler, the School’s longtime Sustainability Coordinator and US English teacher (on sabbatical this year), Dr. Thottathil recalls, “She was a mentor to me and supported my interest in environmental issues. We continued to stay in touch after I left PDS—that’s how supportive she was!”

A Life-Changing Senior Project

Dr. Thottathil believes that her Senior Project, a signature PDS independent study experience for 12th graders, was instrumental in setting her on her current path by allowing her to immerse herself in her passions and discover what motivated her. “I feel so privileged to have been given several months to dive deeply into a senior project during senior year. For my senior project, I volunteered for the Stony Brook Millstone Watershed Association in Pennington, which gave birth to my love for bird-watching and identifying wildflowers, a side hobby of mine here in California. But this appreciation for nature also led me to pursue a career in environmental sustainability, beginning with an undergraduate degree in Environmental Studies at the University of Chicago, which led to my first job out of college with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in Washington, DC. My peregrination through the environmental world finally brought me to California, where I studied food and environmental politics in a Ph.D. program at UC-Berkeley, and here I’ve stayed for the past 14 years.”

Note: The Alumni Spotlights in this issue of the Journal were first published on the pds.org news feed during the 2020-2021 school year.

mer. Priyanka is finishing out the last semester of college with all online classes and just learned that her graduation, unfortunately, will be online. She’s looking into teaching or counseling positions for next year. Shradha continues as quality manager at Pineland Farms Meats. I have her dog Valli every day, and we enjoy wintry woods walks, which is good for both of us! Marc and I continue to read, attend Zoom classes and meetings, watch movies and endless news on TV. I go for my second COVID-19 shot this Thursday and feel very lucky to have that opportunity. Maine is finally getting organized around the vaccine rollout under the direction of Maine Health. We feel for those children still out of school, people out of work and all the people adversely affected by this pandemic.” Pam Erickson MacConnell wrote: “We’re all familiar with the difficulties, especially the limited contact with family and friends. Eleven months of being housebound with my husband has certainly pushed some buttons on our 43 years of marriage! He’s a very social animal so this has been very difficult for him. Thank goodness our son lives in town, has built an English pub in his car barn and is an excellent brewer of beer. That has given John a safe place to be, and he has finally unpacked and displayed his 900+ beer can collection! I’m happy that he is keeping somewhat busy!” Pam said she’s found a number of silver linings during the pandemic, including reading more than 225 books in 2020, binge watching all seasons of the Great British Bake Off, organizing the china cabinet, buffet and linen drawers, polishing all the silver and discovering her mother’s crystal pattern. “Now I need some dinner guests!” Pam said. “I had become the repository for all of my parents’ photos, albums and slides, and I’ve digitized over 2,000 slides and have been working to scan thousands of photos. I’ve made some quilts but not as many as I planned. Now that so many things are cleaned out, I can play in my quilting studio without guilt! “I realize that my greatest silver lining is contentment with my life, my family, our home and being able to do the things that bring me joy. I wish everyone a similar feeling.” Marta Nussbaum Steele wrote that her second granddaughter was born on February 12, weighing in at eight pounds four ounces. Marta describes her as “a brown-eyed beauty.” Mary Woodbridge Lott wrote: “The best news for me is that my daughter Sara ’96, gave birth to my second granddaughter Harriet during a February 1 blizzard. “I’m staying safe so far. I hope to sign up for the vaccine after my upcoming visit to see the baby and her three-year-old sister Comley.” Mary has some sad news to report. Her late husband Gary Lott’s son Carl passed away unexpectedly last spring and “is missed by his son Corey, his sister Sara and friends.” The class extends its sympathy to Mary, Sara and family.

1968

Sophia Godfrey Bauer 50 Hopedale Drive North Kingston, RI 02852 (860) 707-5649 (cell) sbauer2086@gmail.com Mary Hobler Hyson 1067 Wolf Hill Road Cheshire, CT 06410-1732 (203) 272-1294 (home) (475) 434-7773 (cell) bassett7750@cox.net First of all, I would be remiss if I did not comment on our stellar classmate, Andy Fishmann. He was featured in an Alumni Spotlight in the last Journal with accolades galore for his myriad contributions made to the field of medicine. How proud we are for his dedication on the front medical lines and beyond. We knew Andy would turn out just fine! And then there is one of our class authors who continues to write short stories and has a blog, Anne Fulper. Several of her pieces have been published in The Journal of the American Art Association since 2016. It’s a delightful collection called “SHARDS.” Want more info? I guarantee that you will be entertained and enlightened with Anne’s adventures. Try the link: https//AnneFulper.com/ Another classmate, Susan Koch LaTulippe, when she is not tending to her flock of grandchildren (11!), is a voracious reader. I gave her a copy of my brother’s book 101 Arabian Tales: How We All Persevered in Peace Corps Libya (Randy ’61). She called me to say how impressed she was with his masterfully written non-fiction tome laced with so many funny stories. “I love it! I love it!! I love it!!! I love it!!!!...” and you will love it, too!!!! I got a Christmas card from Connie Sayen Ban saying, “We wish you all joy (big and little). All is well here, and I am most grateful to say I hope the same is true for you!” A Christmas card arrived with a mixed bag of news. Punky Brewster Rutledge’s mother passed away this past summer (2020). “It’s been a tough year in so many ways. Mom was ready, but it was difficult. Thankfully, I could be with her just about every day for her last four months and that was a blessing. Another blessing is that Kerry and I and our kids and grandson have all been healthy. We are able to see them about once a week and have been able to safely maintain our ‘pod.’ So, my heart is full of gratitude. And I’m hoping you and your family are safe and well. And that you have a happy Christmas and a healthier and saner New Year! Who knows?” News from your scribe, Mary Hobler Hyson: June 5, 2021 marks 50... yes, I said 50 years of wedded bliss! (I think I was the first classmate to get married?) For any of you who know my husband, Eric, you know he is a gem. We met on a blind date (September 6, 1969) that Susan Koch arranged! And she married Eric’s roommate a week later! I am grateful for having such a gentle soul at my side. May you all be healthy and safe.

Maybe we’ll be able to have a PDS reunion in 2021. Punky, our thoughts and prayers go to you during this difficult time. Faron Daub Fahy reached out to me on the phone, and we gabbed for an hour! Easy to do. We miss our mini-reunions in Maine, but hopefully, by 2022, we’ll have the all clear for COVID-19. She continues to ski (she lives in Carrabassett), sell real estate, and watch various members of the family build a house from a kit so they will soon be neighbors.

Faron Daub Fahy ’68 went flying with her son in his yellow Supercub. One granddaughter is named for Avery Peak, the mountain in the photo

(above) Mary Hobler Hyson and newlywed husband Eric Hyson, June 1971. (right) and Mary and Eric in June 2021.

1969

Susan Denise Harris 801 Ocean Boulevard Isle of Palms, SC 29451 (203) 517-7656 (cell) susandeniseharris@gmail.com Doug Rieck wrote: “I write a column and articles for a magazine. The mail took forever getting it delivered this winter. Crazy times. Even crazier when I think back to English class at PDS and never imagined then I would be writing articles for a publication. I got a vaccine appointment in three weeks and consider myself lucky. Magical Long Beach Island has really shut down this COVID-19 winter, tightest winter shutdown ever, but it makes sense. In my business, car washing, it’s very slow. Consumers are poor and nervous; they were more optimistic last March/April. My family is staying safe and my kids still complain about hybrid learning. My daughter’s school has started back with seniors five days a week. The plan is to keep adding classes if it goes well. My daughter was admitted to Penn State, but is waiting on her first choice. Life is good.” The rollout of vaccines in South Carolina has been moving along quite well. The good news of being in the elderly category is we are all eligible. Bob Rathauser and his wife Debra came to visit in October following their son, Daniel ’06’s, wedding to Erin. Bob has now returned to Israel and hopes travel will open up soon so he can welcome us on a tour. Bob is a wonderful house guest. He always cleans before he leaves. My best to everyone.

Bob Rathauser ’69 is a great houseguest! Sue Denise Harris ’69 and Bob Rathauser ’69 had a great visit this past fall Bill ’69 and Karen Chalverus with their new granddaughter, Lola Simone

Bill “Chevy” Chalverus submitted online: “Greetings to tribe of ’69 from New Mexico. I’m at the mercy of the vaccine rollout, which hopefully will have been completed by summer. This experience, combined with retirement and turning 70, along with other vagaries, has made life more interesting than anticipated. A good time for self-examination! “Introducing Lola Simone, our third grandchild, born to Emma and Brendan Naper of Phoenix. Another happy event; looking forward to the June wedding of our daughter, Claire, to Matt Shmigelsky in Carbondale, CO. Perhaps it’s time to get an RV and figure out how to work around the edges of COVID-19. “Karen (recently retired) and I send best wishes and prayers for health and good fortune to all of my classmates. Would be happy to hear from any and all.”

1970

Ann M. Wiley 124 Traditions Way Lawrenceville, NJ 08648 (609) 902-8132 (cell) awileyemail@gmail.com Jon Paynter wrote: “…retired from 39 years with the National Park Service, the last 20 at Denali NP in interior Alaska, five years ago. We then moved to the San Juan Islands in the far northwest corner of Washington State, which turns out to be a pretty good place to ride out a pandemic. Surrounded by a moat called the Salish Sea, I’ve been off the island three times in the last year, once to take the dog to the vet and twice for doctor appointments. The yard has never looked better and the domestic to do list never shorter. We try to support the island farmers and bakers as much as possible and do take-out often to help keep the restaurants going. Daily walks to the water Chia Ballantine ’69 (left) Alexander, (right) Francis, grand- for duck and seal watching children of Chia Ballantine ’69 keep the legs in shape. And

then there’s WaZoom . . . I just won the vaccine lottery and will be getting my first dose in a few days. Woo Hoo! Things were moving glacially but now they’re sending in the National Guard. Hope to see some light in the tunnel soon, and not from an oncoming train.” Lew Bowers has been “enjoying the Road Scholar virtual courses as an alternative to physical travel. I have done the history of London, Croatia and am signed up for a comparative religion course in March.” Judi Migliori Ward wrote: “I was skiing last March in Sun Valley and McCall, ID with family when the news unfolded about COVID-19. My last plane flight was that one to Idaho where I got on the plane early and sanitized the whole row like a madwoman. It turned out Sun Valley was one of the hardest hit towns in the US due to all the tourists bringing it there. Imagine a gondola with sweaty skiers breathing hard. UGH. Luckily, none of us ever got COVID-19. I am writing this on February 13, post my second shot yesterday. Sore arm and some chills, not so bad. Worth the immunity for sure. My trip to Spain, Portugal and Morocco was canceled this year as well as one to Russia and the Baltics. If you have ever applied for a Russian visa, you know my lament at that waste of time and money. But this is a first-world problem. Hope most of us have escaped the pandemic successfully to date. Life is pretty normal in Florida. I can play tennis with a mask on.” Cintra Huber McGauley wrote: “Well, the moment I moved to Charleston SC to be with my daughter and son-in-law, COVID-19 hit... so I have redecorated my house at least three times in the last year. Now I am buying a townhouse because there is no other way to redecorate my current surroundings. If the vaccine doesn’t work, I am going to go broke... Love to you all! P.S. Pray for the Spoleto Festival in May. We need some opera and ballet to soothe the soul.” Fred Erdman wrote: “Not much to report from Vermont. Loving retirement despite not doing much. Enjoying multiple weekly Zoom fitness workouts. My brother, Carl, and his wife have joined our local crew for those workouts. It has been great to stay so connected with them, since they live outside of Philly. Hoping Vermont will allow old men’s hockey to resume soon. My three kids and families are all out West, so the weekly Zoom calls have been a nice way to see them. I am doing lots of quilting, puzzling and almost daily long walks with our dogs. Yes, we are also dying for our favorite restaurant to reopen indoor dining so we can resume our weekly dining out with our best friends. My wife got her second shot due to her job and I am hopeful that Vermont will start vaccinating the under-70 crowd in a week or two.” Joan Williams reported: “It’s been a busy year, given my focus on mothers in the workforce.

We are facing a generational wipeout of mothers’ careers, and how we have been working hard to try to make sure others are not pushed out of the workforce by remote schooling and closed childcare.” Bob Peck reported that he got COVID-19 in January, and for three to four weeks it was awful; a month later he was much better but still inflamed. He thinks he got it at work from a county facility, but is unsure. “Don’t get it!” Marjorie Shaw wrote: “We are hunkered down at home, but still busy. I teach a gross anatomy course for the Uniformed Services School of Graduate Nursing, a basic anatomy course for seniors through OLLI (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute), write questions for the national medical boards, participate in five book clubs and knit obsessively. I work out a little each day but have still gained the dreaded COVID-19 pounds. No vaccine as of yet, but no disease either, so we’re good. Can’t wait to travel again!” Tom Berger reported: “The COVID-19 lockdowns in the UK and Europe are pretty tough. A window opened up in December to travel from our home in London, so my wife and I spent a week in Switzerland skiing and walking in the snow. And, just before Xmas, we flew to our house in the south of France for the holidays—and have been there ever since. There are no flights available, travel restrictions of all sorts and curfews in France every night starting at 6pm —we will be here for a while. The good news is the very sunny and warm French winter weather that allows Tom Berger ’70 “stuck” in the south of France daily walks in the nearby vineyards and mountains.” Louise Hutner reported: “I’m still living in Princeton and find so much to appreciate here. At the same time, I often think of moving to Vermont (family had a second home since my childhood) or Montana (my daughter has called it home for close to 20 years). My three sons are scattered, from Princeton to Brooklyn to Oakland, and none seem wedded to their location. None are married... My two stepdaughters are also thriving, one in Massachusetts with her husband and three young children, and the other in the Chicago area. “After some decades working as an editor/ copyeditor, I switched gears several years ago and trained for three years to be an Eden Energy Medicine practitioner. It’s an amazing healing system and I absolutely love it. A few years later, I added EFT tapping to my repertoire, and now I’m training in Reiki (just finished level 1). I have my own practice and, until COVID-19 shut things down last March, I worked with clients in a beautiful little building shared with a few other practitioners, in Kingston. In the almost-one-year since, I’ve been doing remote sessions with clients; and for those who can get their head around that, it works! “Husband Bill Flemer ’71 continues to work with the D&R Greenway Land Trust (since 2010) as manager of their over-400-acre preserved property in Hopewell, NJ called St. Michaels Farm Preserve. There is a network of trails that are well-used daily by walkers, skiers, and, I think, horseback riders, and of course, dogs. Bill is a wonderful ambassador who makes all welcome, and he’ll happily teach those interested a thing or two about trees and invasive plants. “Times are challenging these days with various family health issues, but with alternative modalities along with traditional medicine we’re hopeful! I did get my first COVID-19 vaccine by sheer luck and persistence, and will have gotten the second one at the end of February. I don’t know what ‘normal’ means anymore, but it will be good to spend more time with friends and family outside of my (much-loved) cocoon.” I (Ann Wiley) am thankful for those who responsed to my begging for news. This is probably one of the best columns we’ve ever had but where are the rest of you???? We want to hear from you. By the end of February, I had received my second vaccine shot; it sure was a full-time job to secure appointments. Looking forward to a healthier country/world!

1971

Blythe Anne Kropf 4343 East Soliere Avenue, Apt. 2097 Flagstaff, AZ 86004 (917) 763-4923 (cell) blythekropf5@gmail.com Thomas C. Worthington 4355 Brook Avenue South Saint Louis Park, MN 55424-1011 (952) 927-9828 (home) worthington_tom@yahoo.com From Tom: Sasha Silverstein has “been living in Brooklyn now over 30 years. Married a wonderful man with a fantastic daughter 12 years ago. Retired from teaching over two years ago for fulltime art making. Travel whenever possible to Mexico and Brazil to study their languages. Hope you are all very well and safe in these ever so strange times. www.sashasilverstein.com.” Kip Herrick O’Brien ’75 enjoyed some Christmas spirit with Dede Pickering with her “amazing Christmas tree... every single ornament features an English Spring Spaniel!! She’s been collecting them for years...even the ‘angel’ on the top is a dog!!!” Dede Pickering ’71 with her English Springer Spaniel Christmas tree

Lisa Warren wrote: “I am trying to spend my retirement time productively despite the COVID-19 challenges. This year, pretty much everything has been virtual. I co-coached the PDS mock trial team, which zoomed to victory in the counties, only to be defeated by a worthy adversary in the semifinal regional competition. In addition to being on our class 50th reunion committee, I am co-chair (along with Brian Crowell ’11) of the PDS 2021 reunion committee. We are teaching ourselves how to throw a virtual reunion party. “I continue to do volunteer work for SAVE, our local animal shelter; Visions and Pathways, providing shelter and services to at-risk youth in several NJ counties; and NJLEEP, providing college access and success for disadvantaged youth in Newark. I am hoping to get back to some travel when the veil lifts! “Looking forward to connecting with everyone at this year’s virtual reunion and sincerely hoping we can all be together for a belated 50th celebration in 2022.” Bill Flemer reported: “I’ve been working these last ten years for the D&R Greenway Land Trust, managing their St. Michaels Farm Preserve in Hopewell. In response to the COVID-19 restrictions, we created a large community garden on the property last spring, which attracted an enthusiastic coterie of Hopewell residents. In addition to their individual plots, the gardeners grew vegetables for a local nonprofit that distributes food to needy families in and around Hopewell. “For spring 2021, we are expanding the charity-donation portion of the garden. I was about to clear and till that area when the snow put it all on hold. So, for now, I putter around in my (primitive) wood shop making things for the Greenway’s various preserved properties. “My daughter, Emma, and her husband, Jake, are happily settled on the campus of the Northfield Mount Hermon prep school in north central Massachusetts. Emma works on the grounds crew (she runs the Zamboni on

their rink!) and Jake is the school farmer. He works with teams of oxen and horses, growing food for the school, and making maple syrup and cider in season. Their three kids play on the farm and attend a good, small local school: an ideal mix. “Daughter Nell is waiting out the winter in Illinois, looking forward to next summer’s skydiving season. That has been her passion for a number of years; whenever she can tear herself away from that activity, she will attend the University of Wisconsin in Madison (my alma mater) to study biochemistry. She wants to develop a non-petroleum replacement for Jet-A, so the skydiving can continue in a cleaner world! “Son Will is in Brooklyn, working at a custom picture frame shop. He continues to develop his skills and ambition to be a professional woodworker.” “My wife, Louise Hutner ’70, has continued to provide Energy Medicine therapy to her clients despite the COVID-19 restrictions—it turns out that healing modality works, even remotely, with Skype sessions.” Natalie Huston Wiles wrote: “What a year 2020 was. Ellis and I are doing well here in Virginia where we are both retired. The year started off for us with a plumbing disaster, which required us to move out while restoration and, heck, why not do some renovations, also. As luck would have it, we moved to a hotel at the end of February just before the lockdown took hold. We got back to the house in mid-March as everything was shutting down. Both our sons were living and working in the area at the time, and we had been contributing limited childcare to both. It was heartbreaking to us to cease that help. Geoffrey and wife Kathryn live in Fairfax and were expecting their second child in May. Kathryn is an RN and had just changed jobs out of the hospital. Nathaniel, with Maureen and son Thomas, was finishing language school in preparation for his assignment to Africa with the State Department and getting ready to leave in April. We all spent anxious months waiting for the baby to be born and Nathaniel to be allowed to go. In May, William Aubrey Wiles made his uneventful and joyful appearance. In June, Nathaniel headed out to Mauritania. In July, Maureen and Thomas followed. The rest of the year was pretty quiet after that. We saw the grandchildren now and then, staying socially distant. Mary will soon turn three and William one. Thomas will turn two over in Africa. We are mastering the Zoom and GoogleMeet technologies! “Ellis and I try to keep active with walking for me and running for him. Next chore is cleaning out closets. I am going to take a remote drawing class soon. I stay in touch with Jean Schluter Yoder and saw Diane Jass Ketelhut this year—also right before lockdown. I miss seeing my siblings, Aubrey ’64 and Marion ’73, and their families. We are hoping to get up to Lake Champlain this year together. We look forward to spring! “Hope to see many of our classmates online for our reunion in May! Best to all!” Laurie Bryant Young wrote: “Update from Arlington, VA. COVID-19 has certainly affected us this past year, but in some unexpected ways. In addition to winter outdoor dining (which is easier in Virginia than in Maine, but is still cold), COVID-19 gave us a very special opportunity. My son lives in California, and he and his wife work long lawyer hours. When daycare centers and schools closed, they needed more backup than they could find at home. So, they packed up and came (very carefully) to Virginia and rented a house for three months. My husband and I provided full-time granny care for his three children, ages one, four and six, while they worked remotely. I oversaw the oldest as she did her remote kindergarten lessons, and we entertained and were entertained by them all. They’ve returned to California now, but fortunately I have some other grandchildren nearby. “Looking forward to seeing ’71 classmates whenever this stupid epidemic makes it possible. Stay safe.” Lastly, from your Class Correspondent, Tom Worthington: Melissa and I remain healthy and hunkered down in Minnesota. We are lucky to have a granddaughter here in town and are looking forward to when we can get back to Washington, DC to visit our other two granddaughters.

1972

John L. Moore III 6 Ridge Farms Road Norwalk, CT 06850 (310) 357-9158 (cell) johnlmoore3@gmail.com As I get “older” and as this pandemic affects and changes people’s priorities, I’ve been thinking a lot about perspective. When we look through the eyepiece of a telescope, what is distant suddenly zooms closer. But if we look through the wrong end of the telescope, things shrink away from us. Which end of the telescope are you looking through? I enjoy this job because I get to connect with all of you and share your news, so please email me any time with anything you might like to share! Just as I completed my column today, I received a thoughtful and jarring email from one of my favorite classmates. It made me pause and consider my news as quite trivial by comparison. Then I got to thinking about perspective again, and I’m keeping my news in here. Because my news is joyful, and it’s grateful. And our puppy brings us simple pleasure and unconditional love. Something that we all need more of these days. Despite my classmate sharing some really crappy news, his perspective also celebrates some silver linings in his life. My wife and I had been thinking about bringing a dog into our lives for the past decade and, ironically, decided to proceed right in the middle of the pandemic. Whilst technically not a pandemic puppy, we did acquire a puppy during the pandemic. A week before we were to pick up our puppy in upstate New York, the breeders called to report a potential physical issue discovered in our seven-week-old Goldendoodle. I immediately thought of, and reached out to, the most qualified and trusted veterinarian I know, Andy Scassera. Andy was generous and wonderful in her assessment and helped me/us understand the issue and ultimately move forward with the adoption. Thank goodness we did, as our puppy, Hope, is one of the best things that has happened in our lives. Andy’s advice was spot on, as Hope grew out of her issue and is a thriving, healthy five-month-old. The bonus to connecting with Andy was all her good news, which I will summarize here since her email was to me, not Class Notes. Andy also adopted a new puppy (in August), in Kenosha, WI. As she said, “Yup, I flew to Chicago, rented a car and drove to Kenosha in COVID-19 season, just before the s**t hit the fan in Kenosha. I picked up Mik, short for Mikhail Baryshnikov, and we drove back to Maine. The name was inspired by watching his aerial maneuvers out in the yard, and he is Russian, so it seemed to fit. He is a Borzoi, or Russian Wolfhound as they are also known, and he is, I think, the best and easiest puppy I have ever had.” Sadly, Andy recently lost one dog but also has an older Newfoundland as part of her pup family. Andy keeps up with her best friends Cici Morgan Pastuhov and

John Moore ’72 with his new puppy, Hope Natalie Huston Wiles ’71’s grandchildren, (left) Mary and William and (right) Thomas.

Ginny Myer Kester. Cici and husband Stefan had a great weekend with Andy at her family camp on Kezar Lake. Andy continues to work at the Animal Welfare Society where she provides the much-needed service of spay/neutering. We were talking about human health related to the COVID-19 challenge and I’m happy to share that Andy is very healthy and is much fitter than women half her age, which she attributes to many years as a vet “schlepping around 60-to-70-pound dogs.” Today I heard from Tom Reynolds: “SO… my 2020 started out like the rest—day work, night gigs, tending to various real estate interests. Then COVID-19. I played my last gig March 9. Since I put together my first little garage band when I was 13, I have NEVER gone anywhere near this long without a gig! With everything shut down and the rhythm of my life upended (I had two resident gigs per week, plus the others that came in), I changed the way I looked at things and, taking a chapter from Princeton days, I went on a sort of sabbatical. Lots of reading that had been building up for too long. Great! My playing has suffered a bit, but good for the head. “I broke my leg at the ranch in late May—lucky in that it was above the ankle and clean. No heavy metal required! Late September, I went back to the Mayo Clinic for a scan and to stay with my daughter, Dr. Grace, who is a fourthyear resident in orthopedic surgery. The scan showed my prostate cancer had advanced some in my spine and left hip, so I requested chemo right then. Four days later, I began receiving an especially rear-end kicking cocktail, consisting of two chemo drugs. It was a wipeout for me, but I could still read. The local scan shows good results. I will follow up at Mayo later. I feel like I have bought a few more years. At the end of all that, maybe because my immune system was shot, I got COVID-19, thankfully a mild case. The good part about that was that Dr. Grace was home for a week at Christmas and it turned into three weeks! We had a great time and I got to spend more time with her than ever in her adult life! “Our recent weather has been all over the news. I have heard from friends in England! It has passed now, and we did fine with plenty of firewood, groceries, wine and gas heat.” “I contacted Sally Rogers Smith, who moved to Dallas two years ago this spring to be with her youngest, Trenny, and her family. We have had lunch just once but have communicated along the way. She loves Dallas! Who would have thunk? She looks great and is the same, upbeat gal we all remember. I look forward to seeing her when we can. She just loves being with her daughter and grands. “Andy Scassera and Cici Morgan Pastuhov have checked in at times and they all seem in really good shape. I need to go to Maine! That’s enough for now.” (From John: My wife and I are hopefully retiring to coastal Maine in the next couple of years. Tom, if you visit Andy and Cici, please know that our new home will also be open to you when you decide to get up there!) Let me finish by wishing each classmate good health, completion of the COVID-19 vaccination series and perhaps a new perspective in the days and years ahead.” Hank Bristol submitted to PDS online: “I

Paintings by Hank Bristol ’72

retired from PDS (Middle School history) just in time to have two grandchildren. Ordained in 2012 as Deacon, I continue to serve at St. David’s Episcopal Church in Cranbury, NJ. I am an avid sailor and oil and watercolor painter.”

1973

Cassandra (Sandy) L. Oxley 171 Pine Hill Road Boxborough, MA 01719-1915 (978) 264-4938 (home) (978) 270-1057 (cell) cassandra.oxley@gmail.com Hello to you all from Sandy! Anne Macleod Weeks wrote: “Much has stayed the same here in Nova Scotia. Minimal COVID-19 cases, though we are all still cautious. We continue to stay within our small social bubbles, even while things begin to open up more. I have gone back to Pilates class because there is so much room in the facility to steer clear of each other, and though pickle ball is back at it, I have not returned to that— too much sweat and close contact. I continue to hike every day, keep up with my writing group and book club and am taking a beginner abstract painting class. My art shows were all Murphie and Anne Macleod canceled, but I am Weeks ’73 on the beach in sure they will be up Nova Scotia and running again by the end of 2021. My husband, Jim, is completing a screenplay. Our son, Jed, got married in November in Baltimore, where he works for the nonprofit he founded called Bikemore; his wife is a pediatric nurse practitioner. They chose to marry at the courthouse and plan to have a party when everyone Anne Macleod Weeks is able to travel safely ’73’s son, Jed Weeks, and again. We haven’t seen his bride, Wynn Englehim in a year and a half, Pratt, after their courtbut we also are under- house wedding ceremony standing of the border (to which they biked) in being closed. I continue to do part-time conBaltimore sulting with an education company in China, and I am the admin for a growing FB group (three thousand+ members) that focuses on non-monetary exchanges and borrowing. Life is certainly full.” We are a little short on the news this time around; here is my (Sandy Oxley) news: Life continues here just west of Boston, MA. In addition to my usual workweek, which has fortunately continued, I have been reading several pandemic-themed novels, with more lined up. Not sure that’s the best way to go but... And I am in a local birdwatching group. We have been doing a lot of meeting and planning on Zoom, we even started playing a bird-related Trivial Pursuit-type game. We also did the annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count, though this year we did it by masking up, social distancing and not carpooling. Our best bird would be perhaps the common redpoll… We’ve been keeping up a lively texting relationship with my sister Alyssa ’76 (who lives in Vermont) and her daughters, Maddie and Eliza (who are in Brooklyn and San Diego, respectively), which has been lovely. Haven’t seen them in over a year now but... hopefully, we will as we get further into 2021. Looking forward to getting vaxxed… as I imagine we all are… that can’t happen soon enough! Hope you all are doing well. Hang in there. We are getting through this. Take good care.

1974

Polly Hunter White 2224 Carlow Drive Darien, IL 60561-8458 (630) 234-1691 (cell) pwhite2224@gmail.com Trina Waters wrote: “I retired early from teaching last fall and have been clicking my heels ever since. Our 45th reunion was both meaningful and fun, so putting in a plug now for our 50th. Consider that we will be almost 70, what?” First, please note that Cole Harrop and his wife will be moving permanently to France this summer. With the wonders of technology, we can all stay in touch and visits will be a longer trip. Cole Harrop reported: “This past year has been trying, indeed. While my wife, Jenna, and I feel fortunate to be healthy, have jobs, and to be able to look forward to better times, we can’t pretend that the past year with COVID-19, and with our country’s horrific politics, has not taken a toll on our emotional health. There are bright spots in the offing. I will be retiring from Riverdale Country School this June after 21 years of teaching French, Latin and Integrated Liberal Studies, and Jenna and I will be moving permanently to our home in the bucolic countryside of Normandy, France. I maintain my deep and fraternal friendship with Ted Dowey and Sab Russo. We’ve all three just returned from our third trip together in the past nine months, this time to Ted’s wonderful farmhouse in the Berkshires where we spent a day snowshoeing in two feet of fresh snow and freezing temperatures. Two weeks ago, I joined Ted, in celebration of his 65th birthday, on a 28-mile bicycle ride from the Columbia neighborhood of Manhattan to Queens, Brooklyn and back up the Hudson River Park to our old apartment. Again, the temps were frigid, but the thrill of riding together after 50 years kept us warm. Life is good, and my friendships from PDS remain my most enduring. From time to time, I am in touch with Amy Stanley,

Camilla Carpenter, Trip Jennings. Trina

Waters and her husband, Mike, and John Boyd. I am friends on Facebook with many other friends from PDS, and I really enjoy seeing pictures of John Gordon’s life in the country and Francesca Ferrante’s nurturing care of rescue dogs and pups. Diana Roberts reported: “I am now the grandmother of seven grandchildren, one of the benefits of having a blended family. They range in age from 12 to a few weeks, and all are boys except for lovely Scarlett, age 10. Two of the grandchildren are my son Ben’s kids, who live near us, so I get to see them more often than the others, who are off-base due to COVID19. Big sigh! But we are healthy and counting our blessings, comfortably retired and not worried about jobs, income, home schooling, child-care, as so many others are. Big PHEW. There is something to be said for living on an island in Maine, where we have had only one asymptomatic case, and being at our age and stage in life.”

Walter Poole ’74 and his family

Walter Poole submitted: “After PDS, I graduated from Bucknell with a degree in geography. Soon after, my intended career took a shift in a different direction—preparing to be a pastor. I received training and practical experience in an Asian community, in the Uptown section of Chicago over a period of 15 years. In 2003, my family and I moved to Phnom Penh, Cambodia where we are to this day. Our church members are mainly Cambodian, with a healthy sprinkling of other nationalities. My wife is from Andhra Pradesh, India. Due to this, we have traveled there on numerous occasions, where my children have a very close relationship with their cousins, aunts and uncles.” Polly Hunter White: I follow some of you on Facebook and I am grateful to have that connection and the opportunity to be current about your lives. Since only three classmates responded with updates for this year’s spring Journal, I can only guess that the year 2020 and now 2021 have been trying times. I attribute our low response rate for Class Notes to be a reflection of COVID-19 and all else in the news and elsewhere that can make communication a challenge. My family has been healthy, employed and our sons are engaged in on-line college learning, which they both hate, but, oh well. We miss seeing our friends and seeing people in person and, like all of you, are praying for brighter future. We miss our vacations and trips to see family and friends but know that, in the future, we can once again do so. Some of our classmates have had a difficult time this past year and I hope that you will think about them, reach out and hope that their future will be brighter.

1975

Yuki Moore Laurenti 464 Hamilton Avenue Trenton, NJ 08609 (609) 394-1065 (home) ymlaurenti@gmail.com Mary Sword McDonough 111 North Main Street Pennington, NJ 08534-2206 (609) 737-8435 (home) (609) 468-5437 (cell) mollyswordmcdonough@yahoo.com From Yuki: For an entire year, we have had plenty of time to talk—to ourselves, maybe to our family or, if we’re lucky, to a small circle of friends. So many plans have been rescheduled or canceled, including our 45th reunion. In lieu of seeing each other up close and personal, a few of our classmates have caught us up on what they have been doing or thinking. Bill McClellan shared the sad news that his mother, Mary Elizabeth McClellan, passed away at the age of 97 in February. “She was in control right up until the end! For those of you who knew her, I know you have stories. She was a formidable, amazing woman.” Our condolences to Bill, and to all our classmates who have lost parents, family and friends during the past year. Delighted to receive a note from Amy Ahrens, her first submission ever to our Class Notes. “I feel a large sense of gratitude for the education I received at PDS. I like to think I did succeed in teaching my daughter, who has a M.A. in Education, the joys of learning. I have two young granddaughters, too. I am still an artist and have focused on Scandinavian folk art, and botanical illustrations and landscapes in oil. I am in Wisconsin and have been here for about 37 years. My partner, Todd, was a second and third grade teacher for many years, teaching at an alternative K-8 school. Todd and I love to watch the History Channel where we have seen Jim Meigs through the years. So cool.”

pds.org

Amy Ahrens ’75 with her daughter and granddaughter Amy Ahrens ’95’s granddaughters

ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT

Sarah Elmaleh ’02

Video Game Voiceover Artist and Ambassador

Sarah Elmaleh ’02 is best known for her voiceover roles in video games, such as the critically acclaimed indie games Gone Home and Pyre, and high-profile AAA titles like Gears 5, For Honor and Anthem. She has been an organizing force in games spaces and institutions for many years, often driven by her desire to foster stronger collaboration within games and across creative communities. After serving as Director of Game Maker Relations for IndieCade, she now serves as director and co-host of the IndieCade Awards. To tackle the cultural, financial and language barriers in the industry, she co-founded gamedev.world, a free, online games conference featuring talks by developers from around the world, offered and translated in eight languages. As a speaker at events such as the Game Developers Conference and the Tribeca Film Festival, Sarah has addressed topics ranging from game narrative and characterization, community diversity and inclusivity, and voice performance as craft, contract and career. Sarah has also co-taught game voice direction at USC. “I have taken all of these things with me: the community feeling, the high standards and the emotional risk are all things that I learned at PDS.” Elmaleh’s appreciation of the arts developed at Princeton Day School, where she was actively involved in the Performing Arts Program and served as its co-chair during her senior year. “The Theater program at PDS was life-changing for me. As a very sensitive kid who didn’t know what to do with my emotions, the performing arts at PDS helped me understand that there was no reward without real emotional risk, not just in acting, but in all aspects of life. The performing arts at PDS gave me the opportunity to feel seen and make other people feel seen. Through acting you give people the permission to feel things authentically,” she reflected. In addition to providing Elmaleh with a safe environment to explore emotion and relationships, the high-caliber arts program instilled high standards that she continues to rely on today. “Thanks to the quality directing of Ross Hindley and Jim T. Ruttman, PDS built perfectionism into my professional standards. I developed a deep appreciation at PDS that it takes a community of people doing their best to pull off a production and that you have to put yourself out there to produce anything of worth,” she declared. She believes the success of the performing arts program at PDS is due in part to the culture of inclusivity it created. “At PDS, it didn’t matter what else you did or how you identified, as long as you showed up to rehearsals and were ready to give it everything. I think the reason it worked is because it felt like another team sport. The feeling that they were able to inspire in the kids is that of people pulling together,” she explained. Throughout her career in acting, consulting and union work, Elmaleh has never forgotten the lessons that she learned in McAneny Theater. “I have taken all of these things with me: the community feeling, the high standards and the emotional risk are all things that I learned at PDS.”

A Diverse Route

After graduating from PDS in 2002, Elmaleh took a year off before attending Wesleyan University to explore some of her passions, including sailing on tall ships, which are large, traditionally-rigged sailing vessels, and traveling throughout southeast Asia. Her time at Wesleyan was self-directed and multidisciplinary. While she was involved with theater programs, as well as radio dramas on the college radio station, she chose to major in East-Asian Studies because it allowed her to study all kinds of subjects under one umbrella. According to Elmaleh, she became interested in this region during an East-Asian history course at PDS.“I have always craved a mixture of things. I am enriched emotionally, intellectually, creatively and personally, by seeking out more—more cultures, more disciplines, more aesthetics, more kinds of media,” she observed Throughout all of her career moves, she has never stopped seeking out diverse disciplines and mindsets. After graduating from Wesleyan, Elmaleh moved to New York for about seven years. During this time she first began exploring voiceover, working mostly in independent games and commercials. When she decided to focus on video games, she had to make the move to Los Angeles, the hub of the game voiceover industry. “Games themselves are made of so many disciplines. You have architecture, writing, music, sound design, experience design, and more to come together to make a game. You need so many different skills and so many different people. I find this never-ending learning experience really enriching,” she explains.

The Appeal of Voiceover

Elmaleh has always loved video games and played them throughout her life. However, there were two key moments that awakened her to voiceover and the potential career path that awaited her. The first was hearing Mark Hamill, who is best known for his role as Luke Skywalker in Star Wars, in a LucasArts adventure game called Full Throttle. In the game he plays a villain; Elmaleh was blown away by the voice he created. “His voice was so rich and silky and mean and I couldn’t believe this was Luke Skywalker.” She was particularly attracted to “the fact that he had this other calling, this other side of his expressive kit that would never really be showcased in on-camera work because he doesn’t look like that character at all. He would never be cast as this villain in the movie version. I was suddenly aware of the possibility in voiceover for doing things that you don’t look anything like.” In her work, Elmaleh often gets cast for tough soldier types and aggressive women, like Vikings, which is a sharp contrast to her slender frame and pixie hair cut. For her, this is the draw of voiceover, “I get cast for things I don’t look like all the time and it is so fun.” The second epiphany came when she was playing a BioWare game called Knights of the Old Republic and heard a particular performance from Jennifer Hale. She began thinking about what the job would entail and “daydreaming about what it would be like to go into a booth, make silly noises, talk for a while and then be part of a game.” Elmaleh was drawn to the lifestyle and culture that accompanied voice acting. “Most of the voice actors I know are not competitive, they are very down to earth and friendly. As a lifestyle it’s pretty easy going. I found it appealing that it is just about the work and it doesn’t matter what you look like.” While

Sarah Elmaleh continued

she loves theater and on-camera acting, she started to make decisions about her career based on what her day was going to look like. “Auditioning is my job, so I had to decide what auditions, in what volume, felt good. Voiceover was pretty appealing for that.” It was a series of decisions, but in the end “it all circled back to the fact that I loved games, and I wanted to be a part of them.” For Elmaleh, “the value in doing voiceover is that, whatever I can emotionally and vocally express, I can do. I am free of my image.” However, she particularly likes the emotional reward of acting in video games. “I still feel my own connection to games. Games have taken care of me in times of crisis and I feel very close to the characters that I have interacted with.” While she is now on the other side of the screen, she still values that relationship. “I think the fact that games include interaction creates a deeper connection from a player than one would normally get from a viewer. I always feel blessed and excited to be a part of that experience for somebody. It feels like a very direct and intimate way to connect with people.”

Career Leads to Activism

“I’m finally working on properties that I have loved my whole life and for companies that I have loved my whole life, like Star Wars and Naughty Dog,” Elmaleh explains. For example, she recently had the opportunity to work on the new Star Wars flight simulation game, Squadrons. She was cast to do a voice similar to bounty hunter Jango Fett, which she described as a “tough cowboy in space.” She had the opportunity to work with the director who directed Temuera Morrison (the actor who played Jango Fett), who has been directing for LucasArts and the Star Wars franchise for decades. Elmaleh notes, “That was a big ‘bucket list’ moment for me.” Another career highlight for Elmaleh was being cast as the female player character in BioWare’s game Anthem. For this role, Elmaleh did performance capture, which is when the actor’s gestures and voice are recorded at the same time, which are translated into the movement and voice for the character in-game. “I loved BioWare games growing up and played them in high school at PDS. It was a dream come true really getting to know my cast mates and spending many, many hours developing my character and working with the great writers and directors,” she said. In 2020, Elmaleh worked on The Last of Us Part II, which is Naughty Dog’s zombie apocalypse game. When she first discovered Naughty Dog years ago, “I found that the work they were doing in their games was some of the most subtle, exhilarating, nuanced work for performers that I had seen in any medium,” she recalled. Elmaleh found playing a zombie, “surprisingly emotionally rich. It was very cinematic and intense but provided really wonderful opportunities for performers. It’s a big, beautiful, ambitious game,” she reflected. While Elmaleh has enjoyed working with these major franchises she has admired for years, she maintains a strong connection to independent games. “I still love doing indies. I believe in indies. There is a rich ecosystem of developers who are working outside of the major companies with beautiful, creative visions,” she noted. In order to stay on top of this vast video game industry and the creations that emerge, Elmaleh co-hosts and directs the IndieCade Awards every year. Her extensive experience in the gaming industry inspired Elmaleh to focus on helping cultivate meaningful exchange between game developers and the actor’s union SAG-AFTRA resulting in the union’s first contract for indie games. “I think it does come back to my time at PDS, working in the Performing Arts Program. There was initially a culture divide between the tech crew and the actors in PAP, which is not uncommon and is similar to community isolation between actors and game developers. During my time there, we learned that if we are divided we are weaker, both in product and in standards of treatment, and we worked to create a more unified community. That kind of community-minded spirit has translated into my labor work,” she explained. For Elmaleh, there is always a way to come to a just agreement. “The way I personally approach labor work is not enemies fighting over things. I believe a win-win solution can be found if you both express interest and respect for the other side of things,” she concluded.

Note: The Alumni Spotlights in this issue of the Journal were first published on the pds.org news feed during the 2020-2021 school year.

Davis Sherman wrote: “I have no specific news to report—just a little surprised by how many big changes seem to come together at this point in our lives. We are losing our parents fast. Some of us are gaining grandchildren. Many of us are ending our careers. My twoyear-old grandson, Theodore, gives me great joy. His younger brother is due in April. What will these new persons be like? What kind of a relationship will they have with each other, with their parents and with their grandparents? My 88-year-old mother is leaving Princeton for a retirement community in Maryland nearer to me and my brother. How can we help her now with the burdens of her age? My work is tapering off, which gives me time to be a little more helpful to the rest of the family. Anita is still teaching full-time (virtually this past year). We look forward to being able to travel freely and see people again.” Carl Briscoe is seizing the moment, now that he has retired from Novartis Finance Corporation after 18 years. “During the pandemic, my wife, Lisa, and I have been traveling in our 25-foot motor home and playing golf at our club when staying local. We stay active hiking and biking; ‘offset’ by my cooking. We’ll be hanging out at various campgrounds on the East Coast of Florida until spring. We keep in close touch with Jack Bonini, and occasionally I have seen Shawn Ellsworth. Enjoy following everyone else on Facebook!” Picking up on Carl’s wanderlust, Susi Vaughn Meade hopes to travel again when things settle. “We are thinking of doing what Carl Briscoe has done and get a camping trailer and head out to tour the National Parks.” Her lament that “not too much has been happening in my house during the past year” seems at odds with the rest of Susi’s report: Her oldest daughter, Gillian, has just blessed the family with a grandson, Eloren James Kelly, born on 2/16/21. Her middle daughter, Cassie, got engaged last March and bought a house in Stevensville, MD (on an island in the Chesapeake); an October wedding is planned, assuming COVID-19 is under control. The youngest daughter, Kallie, has been living with Susi and her husband, Jim, since last April, after her graduate school suspended clinicals. Kallie was able to do a short clinical over the summer, then returned to study for her boards in physical therapy, which she passed in January, and now is seeking employment. Jim retired in August, and Susi has been busy creating “Honey Do” lists for him. By the time this entry is read, Jim will probably be out on the golf course. Susi is still working as office manager of a small church and its preschool in

Newtown. “Other than those big milestones, we are just home-bodies because we can’t do much traveling. We do like to try to explore the surrounding Bucks County countryside (covered bridge tours in convertibles are a fun day), hiking in the state parks, and we even got a few days of skiing in.” To our classmates, Susi wrote: “Hope all is well with the rest of the class. I was looking forward to seeing everyone at our 45th reunion, but I guess we will have to wait until our 50th! Yikes. How can that be, we haven’t gotten any older!!” From the West Coast, Eric Dunn reported that “in addition to COVID-19, we were plagued with wildfires in California in 2020.”

Eric Dunn ’75 took this photo not far from his house. “The orange line was the boundary of a neighbor’s property. The fire remained a few miles away from us ... but close enough for us to be quite anxious.”

As for me, I still marvel at the abruptness with which the rhythms of life changed in an instant—at precisely the close of business on March 13, 2020. From a busy floor in the advancement office at Princeton University I have been relocated to home seemingly 24/7, with endless Zoom calls my main contact with the outside world. Not all those calls are for work (and a shout-out here to Kathy Burks Hackett, whose environmental institute donors I steward). I juggle trustee meetings of the Open Space Institute, which is now midwifing an exciting new rail trail from Montclair to Jersey City; commissioner meetings of the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission, where we’re adding a bicycle lane to the new Scudder Falls I-295 bridge and debating toll ‘adjustments;’ and officer meetings of the Friends of the Institute for Advanced Study. I did a wee bit on the ground to help ‘turn Pennsylvania blue’ in the fall, re-living (but to better effect) my canvassing as a high schooler in 1972. My husband and I are itching to travel again, even as we wait stoically for our turn at the vaccine. Here’s hoping we can soon settle into our “new normal.” Kip Herrick O’Brien sent a note to the Alumni Office that she enjoyed some Christmas spirit with Dede Pickering ’71. See Class of 1971 notes to see Dede and her “amazing Christmas tree.”

1976

Katharine G. Kehoe 2060 Cumberland Trail Plano, TX 75023-3225 (972) 398-850 (home) (972) 897-6609 (cell) kgkath@verizon.net Hello fellow survivors! My fervent wish is that this edition finds you and yours having navigated the pandemic unscathed. I am happy to report that, aside from a little weather-related infrastructure debacle here in Texas that you might have heard about, all is good on my end. My business has thrived despite the pandemic, which is such a blessing, and I have been quite busy throughout because of it. To date, none of my family has contracted the virus, and we live a fairly quiet life as we continue the long wait for vaccine eligibility. I wonder if I am alone in feeling as I mark time that at 63-ish, our age is frustratingly in between? We’re old but not quite old enough—kind of like being 17 again, lol. Anyhoo, I’ve enjoyed seeing FB posts from some of you and have really appreciated social media during these interesting times for what it does best: helping us stay connected, which is a clumsy segue to my regular pitch to join us on our private FB group “PDS ’76 Classmates.” Jonathan Stein, I think, summed up nicely how most of us are feeling as the pandemic winds on when he offered: “I don’t really have much to tell you. I’ve not been in touch with Tim or Carl, and I’ve had no travel. “We’re eager to be able to travel again, but until we have vaccinations, that’s unlikely. I’m hoping to judge at the Amelia Island Concours in May and to attend the Goodwood Revival in the UK if the Smithsonian Journeys trip, for which I’m supposed to be the study leader, actually happens. “Beki and I also want to look around the Southeast and see if we find a place where we’d like to move once we slow down in three years.” Bill von Oehsen shared: “We spent most of last year living in our vacation home in the Green Mountains of Vermont. The house is off-grid, and our closest neighbors are black bear, deer and moose—a perfect place to be during a pandemic. We returned there earlier this year, but the generator malfunctioned, the hot water heater froze, and our car spun out on the icy road. We’re back in Chevy Chase where we’ll likely stay until warmer weather.“ He was also eager to let us all know that Steve Baiker has accomplished something remarkable: “I just had a Zoom call with Steve Baicker-McKee and learned that he is the U.S. national squash champion for the over-60 age bracket. Pretty cool.” Wow and congrats, Steve! “A rainy hello from Oregon!” wrote Gwyneth Hamel Iredale. “We’re lucky to have a lower pandemic impact than many other states, perhaps because we fill our craving for community with outdoor club activities. I’ve been exploring all that Oregon offers—mountains, coast, high desert plateau bounded by fish-filled rivers, ancient volcanoes and lava fields. Visitors welcome! “Posts about teachers on the active Facebook group—I Grew Up in Princeton—remind me of how thankful I am for PDS. Architecture, photography, art, Spanish, we were so lucky to have talented teachers that inspired us to be creative and learn. I’ve applied this experience in my career at creative companies in a business role. Currently, I’m a digital marketing and software advisor to a real estate technology startup (transactions using blockchain!). “Daughter Chase is a high school senior and most likely will finish up at the U of O (Ducks) or OSU (Beavers —rival state universities). Son Colton is in Napa working for his dad while crafting the launch of his drone viticulture inspection business.” I was pleased to receive an image of Carol Bundy’s holiday card as I think we all enjoy seeing one another and our kiddos. And although she didn’t have any updates per se, a picture is worth a thousand words, right? “As for my news, I don’t have a lot to say, but here is my Christmas card from this past year. We are all surviving this crazy time and hoping for better things to come.”

Carol Bundy ’76’s 2020 Christmas card

Proud grandpa Phil Thompson gushed: “New grandchild (fourth) arrived this week. Can’t believe I am old enough to have grandchildren! Entire family lives nearby (NJ shore area) so it’s fun to get together often. My software business, family and role as an EMS captain keeps me busy: still looking for vacation soon!” He also shared that his company is the largest online adult education provider in the U.S., which is pretty cool!

“This has been a year of changes for many people, thanks to COVID-19,” wrote Sally Lincoln Jeffery. “It caused my son and his pregnant wife to move back to Georgia, which I was thrilled about, despite their difficulties. I now have a new two-month-old granddaughter, Eleanor, that I can see often! I survived COVID-19 with 20 days in isolation and a trip to the ER. Very grateful to be okay now. My younger daughter has recently been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, which has been devastating. My brother Allen Lincoln ’87 recently moved to Maryland where he is the Chaplain at Buckingham’s Choice-Acts Retirement Community. He often sends me a link to his Sunday homilies, which I love. I am in touch with Emily Rothrock-Kastler, who lives in Maryland. She has been teaching English as a second language to immigrants.”

Sally Lincoln Jeffery ’76 with her two-yearold giant schnauzer pup

From E.J. Barnes: “What’s up? Uh, not much... A political cartoon of mine that was published last summer in Funny Times was also featured in a group art show of political art in Boston. A science-fiction convention I usually am on the program for every January had to be held on Zoom, with predictable technical glitches. No Harvard ’80 reunion, no New York Comic Con. I was really looking forward to our PDS reunion this year, but I don’t expect that will be in person, either. My partner, Brian Bixby (Harvard ’80) and I have managed to stay safe, so far, as we wait our turn for the COVID-19 vaccine. We’ve acquired a cat again after a nine-year gap without one. Still working on the graphic novel about Cagliostro. When I’m not worried about the Republic, that is. “Wish I had more to say. I really do. 2020 was supposed to be a year in which, after many years’ hiatus, I had plans to attend concerts... Dead Can Dance and Einstürzende Neubauten were both scheduled to tour the U.S., and, of course, didn’t. Brian got his passport as an Irish citizen (by dint of descent), so we were going to travel to Ireland, and, of course, didn’t. I could go on, but I won’t.” So, what’s up with YOU? If you’ve been a lurker, your time has come. Shoot me an email so that I can add your news to the next Journal. Folks, at some point we will be having our big class reunion and I want to see all of you there. How better to share our stories of resilience than in person? Heaven knows we will all have some pent-up wanderlust to spend, so make a plan to show up where we grew up!

1977

Sandra Benson Cress 3215 Southeast Salmon Street Portland, OR 97214 (503) 388-2686 sbcress@aol.com Hello, one and all, in the strangest of years.

Harold Tanner

wrote that he continues to be absurdly busy constructing distance learning courses so that he doesn’t have to risk his life going into an actual classroom. Happily, his daughter is working as an economist for USDA and his son as a programmer for Amazon; Harold enjoys the reduction in his responsibilities. He thinks he looks cooler now than he did back in high school, but admits that in this regard, he’s all style, no substance! Anne Denison Fleming shared that all is good in Duxbury, MA. She and husband Steve are experimenting with some time in Florida to be able to do more fun things in the winter. They still ski but like the warm! They are both mostly retired, keeping their hands in a few things they like to do—Steve in wine and Anne in the nutrition world. COVID-19 has been a challenge, but the silver lining is they got to see more of their kids and extended family. Christy Black has continued to catch up periodically with Fifi Laughlin and Julia Penick Garry. Jenn Weiss wrote: “It’s been a challenging year for everyone, and we feel grateful to be safe and secure. We lost my mom last March and that was very difficult. Our son graduated from law school and is practicing in DC, following a stint doing voter protection in western North Carolina. Our daughter is pursuing a Ph.D. in

Barbara Russell Flight ’77 with Curt Flight visiting Babette Mills Henagan ’77 Claire Treves Brezel ’77 at Brays Island, SC on their harvesting olives at her way to Florida olive farm in Italy Class of 1977 Fourth Grade Christmas play —thanks, Babette! Angels: Ann Walcott Harold Tanner ’77 and Babette Mills Henagan. Ted Stabler covers up for COVID-19 and Barbara Russell Flight are the beatific Mary and Joseph; directed by the incomparable Mrs. Gilbert.

1977 Classmates Christy Black, Julia Penick Garry, and Fifi Laughlin met up at the Jersey Shore. Jenn Weiss ’77 and family on the day her daughter became engaged

counseling psychology in Boston. We had the good fortune to be able to gather with them over the summer and at Thanksgiving. Both are engaged to lovely people and we are looking forward to their weddings in safer times. Bruce and I are sheltering at home in Cary, NC. We were both very active doing voter protection leading up to the 2020 election. Bruce is practicing law virtually and I am volunteering at a local public school and serving on the Board of Directors of Cary Academy, where I serve on the Equity and Inclusion subcommittee. We love walking/hiking the trails nearby. Wishing everyone good health and peace. Celia Schultz is living with her brother on the Cape. Clooie Sherman shared: “I just spent the month of January quarantining in DC for a week, then driving up to Princeton with my brothers to help pack up my mum’s house in anticipation of her move to a CCRC in Rockville, MD. This will put all my family in Maryland, making visits much easier and giving Deborah and me more of an opportunity to explore DC when we are able to travel freely again. “Speaking of traveling freely, while Deborah and I are fine and happy in Seattle, the travel itch is strong, and we are champing at the bit to get away and explore new and old haunts. Biden, get that vaccine out there!!! All the best to everyone. Stay safe!” Quinn McCord added: “My wonderful wife, Mary Eileen, and I have just begun grandparenthood as Patrick and Autumn Renshaw brought home Keaton James McCord on February 7. Seven pounds three ounces and 20 inches of absolute joy! We will really enjoy mentoring him through life with his parents! “Been in touch with Michael Patterson a few times! He enjoys Martha’s Vineyard as always and is enduring a tough year, but we hope we can get together up there this year! COVID-19 sucks and really takes a lot out of us just listening to endless news reports and phone blurbs. What a lovely surprise to have Tim Brush resurface! Here’s his latest: “We moved into a new house near Gunnison, CO in December 2019 after selling our house of seven years in nearby Crested Butte. Just recently, we sold our house of 28 years in increasingly overcrowded Breckenridge. I work part-time seasonally at Flatiron Sports at the base of Crested Butte ski area, tuning and repairing skis and snowboards, and installing, adjusting and testing ski bindings. It’s hectic at times, but the location is hard to top, as I get two to three hours of ski time on workdays, then all I want on days off. This ski season had a slow start due to a thin snowpack, but lately it’s fattening up nicely with lots of new snow. Rafting season begins in earnest for us in May with a five-day trip on a stretch of the Green River called the Gates of Lodore, through Dinosaur National Monument. And, with the Gunnison River about a hundred feet from our back door, we’ll do lots of day floats in the raft and inflatable kayaks. We also applied for permits on the Yampa River (which joins the Green in DNM) and the San Juan River in southeastern Utah. Fingers are crossed for these hard-to-get permits. Wish us luck!” George Zoukee shared that he sold his house in Las Vegas with the idea of moving back to Fort Lauderdale, but instead ended up moving to Farragut, TN, a suburb of Knoxville. East Tennessee is beautiful with mountains, lakes and rivers and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park is very close, he says. Eventually he would like to return to northern New England, he adds, but this will be home for a while. Anthony Knott is working with New York City Health and Hospitals as a family doc. As for me, as I write, I am driving cross-country through COVID-19 and the heartland, back to Portland (OR)… packing and unpacking… I keep swearing this will be the LAST time… or I just keep on swearing. I enjoy writing emails to my PDS classmates, so that they can laugh at the very last person in the U.S. with an AOL email address… Luddite that I am. A strange year to have been in DC—we missed not being able to indulge in the rich culture and restaurant scene, although we managed to visit the amazing National Museum of African American History and Culture. Then again, we were able to join the BLM protests, and pay our respects to Ruth Bader Ginsberg in person at the Supreme Court. I got to use my Spanish, working as an enumerator for the census, and daughter Lauren and I volunteered at the DC polls in November. Keep those notes coming, and we hope to see you all “In Real Life” for our 45th reunion next year!

1978

Nora Cuesta Wimberg 5240 Oakwood Court Egg Harbor City, NJ 08215 (609) 418-0190 (cell) nlazz@mac.com Nora Cuesta Wimberg wrote: “We had a wonderful trip in September to Myrtle Beach, SC and were able to spend some time with Lucy Englander Bristol and her husband, Peter. We met for breakfast at a quaint bistro and then were invited to their lovely home. So wonderful seeing them and spending quality time catching up on ‘life,’ especially as it is today with COVID-19. “I still volunteer for the Red Cross and the Food Pantry. It is very gratifying and I look forward to it each month. My husband Charlie still works from home. The ‘return to the office’ date keeps getting pushed back and now it is not until September! We were fortunate to visit his three sisters in Florida. We drove down and spent a few days at each of their homes. We cooked, played games and watched movies, which got us out of our home’s four walls. “I had a wonderful conversation with Sanford Bing! We speak once a year, at Christmastime, and it warms my heart to know that he is out there and still remembers me and my wonderful parents. (I cannot call him ‘Sandy’—he will always be ‘Mr. Bing’ to me!)” Rob Whitlock wrote: “Since March 15, Roby and I have been working from what we previously thought of as our ‘weekend house’ two hours north of NYC, rather than from our small apartment in Manhattan. Work has been robust and working remotely is now a fact of life and I’m pleased that it is more seamless than I had imagined. It has been wonderful for Roby and me to spend more time together, and I’m pleased for the respite from flying around the globe to attend to projects. Our grandsons and their parents visited over the 4th of July holiday and I built a ‘Ninja’ obstacle course in the backyard for them, generating long-lost memories of junior year when I helped Rob McClellan ’77 build a ropes course out in the woods behind the playing fields. Roby and I made our first excursion out of Columbia County last weekend to sneak into New Jersey for a surprise visit to Bob Cottone and his wife, Lauren, on Long Beach Island. Other than the houses seemingly having taken steroids, the rhythm of life there still feels as I remember it from 1977. And the ocean, sublime. For the rest, I rely on Facebook posts—Jay Itzkowitz’s photos of the new Islanders arena going up at Belmont, Wells Coalfleet and his wife Julie’s intrepid adventures on wheels, and most recently Liz Westergaard’s beautiful photos benefitting the North Country Camps, Lucky Pine’s adventures and photos of Tom Gates and wife Tracey’s grandson. I do look forward to a time when we can all reassemble.” Melanie Thompson Fauchet wrote: “I have four kids at home. Eden is 15, Elizabeth is 13, Abiy is 10 and Xavier is eight. Life is busy homeschooling.” Melanie is now doing social work with refugees, which she finds very rewarding. Sue Fineman Keitelman wrote: “Not much news to report. My grandson Ezra turned one. I haven’t been ‘allowed’ to hold him since he was two months old because of COVID-19.

Charlie and Nora Cuesta Wimberg ’78 visited with Peter and Lucy Englander Bristol ’78 this past fall.

Ezra, grandson of Sue Fineman Keitelman ’78, on his first birthday in December

When we visit, it is always outdoors, and he is in an ‘enclosed’ space (a play-gate surrounds him and one or both parents) and we have to wear masks and sit six feet away. It sucks. I’ve nicknamed him “my little bubbalah” (a good Yiddish word)!

Brad Clippinger

’78’s son and daughter, Jack and McKenzie, taken this past Christmas. They are 28 and 24 and live and work in Stamford, CT. McKenzie is on her way to live and work in Chicago this spring. Brad is still in Houston, TX.

Jeff Swisher sent the following update In February on COVID-19: “The two vaccines that have been approved for use are the Moderna and the Pfizer vaccine. They are a new type of vaccine that use a molecule called messenger RNA (mRNA), which is a coded instruction to make your own body produce the antigen. Essentially, you are being injected with cellular blueprints, or you can think of it as a ‘recipe,’ that your cells use to make the spike protein of the virus, to which you develop an immune response. Does that make sense? It is an ingenious way to design a vaccine and has other potential uses, such as anti-cancer therapy, as well.” Patricia Metzger wrote: “All is the same here! Groundhog Day is an appropriate description of my life. My gang was home for Thanksgiving, and we had a family COVID-19 turkey trot. A fun way to be together and still stay apart and outside. Usually, we all run in a local event, but because of COVID-19 we did not want to participate in an organized run— so we ordered our own t-shirts, put on masks and all the kids—Jeff’s and mine—joined us for a 3.1-mile race in our community. “This week I return to the classroom to work in a hybrid model of instruction—all set with my masks, microphone, two screens and an iPad! This is our school’s third attempt to get the students back and it looks like it will finally happen.” Greg Morea wrote: “Our year started off relatively normal. We had a lovely New Year’s Eve with our friends. Greg celebrated a milestone birthday about a month later, the big 60, and Barbara took him to New Hampshire so that he could have his fill of snow since we weren’t getting much in Connecticut. We went to see Ice Castles, an award-winning frozen attraction built using hundreds of thousands of icicles hand-placed by professional ice artists. The castles include breathtaking LED-lit sculptures, frozen thrones, ice-carved tunnels, slides, fountains and much more. We had an amazing time; a great way to celebrate a special birthday. This was to be the highlight of our year. “This year was one of losses for both of us. In February, Barbara’s father, Manny, passed away, and just a couple of weeks ago, Greg’s father, William, also passed on. Both will be missed. Our family dog whisperer, Rebecca, however, figured out an amazing antidote for Barbara. She went on a massive search on the internet to find a companion for her mom. When Barbara took one look at the picture of the little girl with beautiful brown eyes and enormous ‘bat’ ears, she fell madly in love. We had to race against time to get approval and paperwork completed so that we could get this adorable sweetheart brought up to Connecticut from Louisiana. We were lucky; they were able to get her out on the last transport truck before the company had to shut down. And so, Karana joined us! “As to the rest of the year, we have been doing our best to keep our spirits up. Greg and Barbara are both working from home and haven’t killed one another yet. Greg has found that he quite likes relaxing around the house, but he was terribly disappointed when he had to cancel the Lenten Fish Fry after only two weeks.” Barbara Vaughn wrote: “This has been a challenging time with unexpected highs (family time, brisk artwork sales), and difficult lows (losing my mom, condition of our country), but slowing down and sheltering in place was a positive change that filled me with newfound gratitude for so many simple things. I unearthed some old photos, including our eighth grade play, ninth grade hijinks in the Upper School library, and spring break with Barbie Griffin Cole in 1977. More recently, Barbie and I enjoyed a fun afternoon on her family’s frozen Barbie Griffin Cole ’78 and Barbara Vaughn ’78 pond just before it was blanketed by the early February snowstorm. I hope everyone has found some silver linings in the clouds of the past year, and that you all stay safe and healthy!” Allison Iams wrote: “Thanks so much for keeping us connected! I am sure you hear from everyone ‘there’s not much news,’ but when I pause and think about it, there has been so much news: a pandemic, a coming vaccine, a new administration. I have never felt more at the mercy of global forces. This year has had its share of blessings, many weeks spent with

(left) Tracey and Tom Gates ’78, Will Kain ’78 and Kathy Kain spent some time together in early October on Long Lake, ME.

Patricia Metzger ’78’s family ready to run their own Turkey Trot (left) Jeff Ritter ’78 found this photo from his first year of college. He wonders, “Where are Barry Smith, David Hamel, Lee Lichtenstein and Jon Fabian?”

(right) Chip Bristol ’78 published a book, Spiritual Java. It is a 365day meditation book based on ordinary moments in life.

grown children, lots of time outside, a dog well walked, etc. I feel so much gratitude that I am not juggling young children and WFH. We were able to ride out the quarantine quietly. We are looking very much forward to meeting our first grandchild in April. A boy. Oh boy. Love to all ’78ers!” Claire (Hughie) Jacobus Hildick-Smith wrote: “In December 2019, my brother Bill Jacobus ’79 died and then in January 2021 my brother John Jacobus ’82 died, so my parents and sisters and family have had a hard time recently. But on a happier note, my husband, Andrew Hildick-Smith ’77, and I are fortunate to have become grandparents this past September, with the birth of Sophie, who is the daughter of our eldest son, Gordon, and his wife, Alice. Gordon finished his residency in internal medicine as the COVID-19 pandemic was hitting Boston and is now a hospitalist part time and also is doing research. Actually, he is currently on Sophie Hildick-Smith, paternity leave, being at five months, full-time dad and the granddaughter living only twenty of Claire (Hughie) minutes from us! Our Jacobus Hildick-Smith son, Seth, is working ’78 and Andrew remotely at Apple in artificial intelligence, Hildick-Smith ’77 currently living in La Jolla, CA. Our son, Neil, is living in NYC and working as an electrical engineer at Crestron Electronics in NJ. “Andrew retired from the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority in September after 30 years and now is consulting on cyber security. Although I still have an active medical license, I’m not working in the field at present but remain interested in public health and marginalized communities.” Sarah Jane Nelson sent greetings: “My husband and I have been hunkered down in Waltham, MA. Andre, a scientist, has been able to work from home and I have been

Sarah Jane Nelson ’78 with a “glimpse of my life as a folkie; singing my way through an Ozark version of ‘The Nightingale’”

alternating between the middle school (where I do writing intervention) and home-based writing work. The good news is that—sans a social life or music gigs—I’ve had ample time to complete my book on Ozark song catcher Max Hunter, which is slated for publication at a university press later this year (details to come later on). I’ve also been producing Crankie (folk art) stories—it is my dream gig to do this back at PDS one of these days! “My daughter, Emma, is in grad school in Hawaii (ouch) and intent upon saving endangered languages, and my son, Samuel, is suddenly back home and looking for his next journalism job. We are all well, if psychologically weary. It was nice to hear from Jeff Ritter a few months back, and Sue Fineman—if you still have that green dress, I’ll happily take it!” Alice Lee Groton submitted online: “I felt grateful a lot this year for the simple things; for walks, the sunsets, the ocean nearby, but especially for the fact that my younger daughter, Sophie, and her fiancé moved from Brooklyn in March to live just a mile away from us in Stonington, CT. Though their wedding had been canceled, they moved forward anyway and, in August, Sophie and Thomas were married with family, a handful of friends, my husband officiating, all of us barefoot on a sandy beach. My older daughter, Sara, and her fiancé were able to be here from San Francisco with enough time to quarantine before the wedding. It was incredible! We now have our fingers crossed that Sara and Ben will be able to have their wedding this coming August. For the last three years I’ve been working toward a certificate in graphic design from RISD and have continued with online classes, though find this very challenging! Turning 60 (as I guess the rest of you now have!) and John and I celebrating our 35th wedding anniversary were other milestones of the year. Today we took my

Alice Lee Groton ’78 with her two daughters, Sophie and Sara, at Sophie’s wedding in August.

98-year-old aunt, who has been living with us since early December, to get her second vaccination. Definitely cause for celebration.”

1979

Catherine White Mertz 67 Rybury Hillway Needham, MA 02492 (781) 449-4993 (home) (339) 225-0835 (cell) cathywhitemertz@gmail.com

Evan R. Press 2707 Lakefield Way Sugar Land, TX 77479 (479) 283-8246 (cell) EvanRPress@gmail.com From Cathy: As we emerge from a very long 2020 and a long winter, it’s nice to see so much good news from our classmates! Martha Hicks reported that she is “alive and well in beautiful Bucks County, PA enjoying another day of snowfall from the little stone house on Chapel Road. As I suspect with many of you, I’ve spent much of 2020 and 2021 in anxious isolation, trying to stay out of the way of those on the front lines who have had to sacrifice and deal with trouble on a daily basis. While it has been very difficult to be apart from my loved ones, it has taught me much about my ability to adapt and amuse myself. Fortunately, there were some bright spots through the year. The low numbers in the summer afforded some visits and adventures, among them a nice Cape Cod visit with our editor-in-chief, Cathy White Mertz. I also managed to sanitize my kids and a couple of their friends enough to pull off a really fun Thanksgiving/60th birthday weekend. Somewhere in here, I got roped into an endless chat with some other classmates—Evan R. Press, Joe Lapsley, Laura Farina, Cathy White Mertz, and Evan’s friend (now our friend), Bobby. This proved to be a crucial support system for navigating the series of disasters, natural and unnatural, as well as the upsets and anxieties that came with the less-than-smooth political transition. It has been really interesting getting to know them all again. Though it’s been a trying year, I’ve been very grateful for the many connections forged early in my life on The Great Road—PDS has turned out to be the unexpected gift that keeps giving. My deepest condolences go out to all of you who have lost loved ones this year. You are in my thoughts always.” Evan R. “Full Court” Press “has yet to fully recover from our 40th Reunion. He did, however, rebound well from the hideous February power outages in Texas, thanks to great concern and humanitarian efforts from fellow classmates across the country (namely, Martha Hicks, Joe Lapsley, Laura Farina and Cathy White Mertz).”

This fall and winter, those paying attention to the news may have seen Ned Foley on TV in his role as an NBC Election Law Analyst, read him quoted in the national press, heard his voice on the radio, or read his columns in the Washington Post. Ned, in his 30th year on the law faculty at Ohio State, is, as his wife Miranda Cox reported: a “prominent election law scholar.” Miranda wrote that “this year was when many Americans became students of election law, and the national media reached out to Ned to explain it all to us. Even though his living room is no longer doubling as a TV studio, Ned is still focused on ways to improve our election system and will be adding a chapter on 2020 to Ballot Battles, his history of disputed elections in the United States. You say you want to change the way the electoral college works? He’s got a book on that, too: Presidential Elections and Majority Rule.” Harriette Brainard has “relocated from NYC/ Princeton and Denver back to Burlington, VT to be close to family. Thankfully, I have been living with some of my children over the last year. I am thankful to still be working in climate risk education/literacy with C-Change

Harriette Brainard ’79 with her two daughters and youngest son, and her mother, Harriette

Two of Harriette Brainard ’79’s grandchildren, Myuna and Enoah

Conversations (Princeton-based) and the GCA national conservation team, working toward better environmental outcomes around the risks of a warming climate. The leadership these women consistently exhibit continually impresses me. I am humbled to have been asked to join two different global teams working on identifying larger tipping points for global/local outcomes; it is inspiring to work with such incredible people, and it motivates me every day, as do my children and now three grandchildren. I am also working with a global grassroots foundation supporting and accelerating localized efforts around Regen Ag, ocean regeneration and food security. This summer my eldest, Samantha, was married with just close family on my brother’s farm in Vermont, and I juggled making a wedding cake, flowers, setting up and performing the ceremony. So happy that my 96-year-old mother could be The cover of Joe Lapsley ’79’s new album, Part of the New Sensitivity there! This has been a horrific time for so many new album on iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, people; I am saddened by the loss of so many Apple Music or SoundCloud. friends, relatives and everyone else, along with the insecurity of large populations both here and abroad. The challenges for leadership now and for the next generations are vast, and I hope we all continue to do our part in working for a better world for them.” As for me, Cathy, I’ve been enjoying having the three of us home this past year, missing friends, and developing COVID-19 skills: hairstyling (FYI, there is a learning curve); purging and organizing; rediscovering our vinyl collection; Zooming; enjoying connecting with old Christopher “Woods Hole” Price shared: friends in new ways; embracing the adventure “Wife Mibs and I moved to Pennington in of mid-winter outdoor fire pit entertaining; October and are loving it. We are five houses in finding creative ways of spending time with our from the center of town.” families. In October, my family gathered on the Chris “Alvin” Horan said: “News? I got nothing.” Cape for a celebration, complete with a tent, We have learned that Nicolas “I Eat My Young” Donath still enjoys living in Las Vegas, going on almost 27 years, despite the City Council asking him, on a yearly basis, to leave. Esquire Nick anticipates becoming the Mayor multiple fire pits and a couple of beachside hotel rooms. On Christmas Eve, we Zoomcaroled with Oscar’s extended family from New England to the West Coast—I played, they sang and it all sounded joyfully awful. of Las Vegas in the next 40 or 50 years. We extend our deepest condolences to Doug From Laura Farina: “I’m grateful that my family and friends have made it through the Fein and his family on the death of Doug’s father, Art Fein, on January 17 at age 89. past year, and also saddened by the number Our heartfelt condolences also go out to the of people lost to this virus, including a few family of Bill Jacobus on the death of Bill’s parents of friends. I don’t think I would have brother, John Jacobus ’82 this past December. made it through the year without Zoom and To echo Martha’s sentiment: To those of you text threads. I am pleased to be in touch with who have been deeply affected by the pandemso many friends, including many classmates ic, our hearts go out to you. Here’s to a happier from PDS. They have all kept my spirits up, and healthier year for all. and we’ve had some belly laughs and have shared a lot of music and jokes. A special thanks to the CathyMartha-Evan-Joe thread. I thank my nieces and nephews for participating in the Pandemic Boom—I now have seven great-nieces and great-nephews. Looking forward to future travel and reunions!!” From Joe Lapsley: “PortmanteauZone’s album, Part of the New Sensitivity, came out on all platforms January 1, 2021. Chicago Power Trio is my second real band after Neighborhood Texture Jam. I sing, play guitar, Cathy White Mertz ’79 with her husband, Oscar, and write the tunes.” Check out Joe’s son, Noah (26), on the Cape this past October

ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT

Anu Shah ’05

Cybersecurity Expert

As headlines continue to buzz about nation state-backed hacks and misinformation campaigns, Anand (Anu) Shah ’05, a PDS ‘Lifer’, has focused his legal career on cybersecurity and privacy. Shah has worked in both government and the private-sector to help organizations respond to security incidents, navigate digital risks, and advise on data protection practices. He currently serves as Assistant General Counsel at KPMG LLP in Washington, DC. After majoring in International Affairs and Economics at George Washington University, Shah pursued his legal studies at Emory University as part of a joint-program with Georgia Tech, interested in the intersection of international law and technology. While in law school, he had the opportunity to assist a NATO group in Estonia in establishing cyber warfare rules—codified in the Tallinn Manual. “After having the chance to deepdive into this unfamiliar realm with leading legal minds and tech experts, ‘cyber’ soon morphed from a research interest to the focus of my career,” Shah noted. “In 2009, cybersecurity was hardly considered newsworthy and most incidents were either highly classified or reserved for IT teams to deal with.” Shah recalls his career counselor “thinking I was crazy for pursuing this path because it really didn’t exist beyond a hobby.” After law school, he persisted with his interest and went on to prosecute cyber crimes at the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office before going into private practice. Reflecting on how his studies sharpened his perspective, he explains, “PDS allowed me to immerse myself in new subject areas with curiosity and focus. For instance, my 10th grade research project on the famines in Ethiopia opened my eyes to globalization trends.” This exploration, in turn, encouraged Shah to participate in Model UN and later study abroad in China while in college. “So many of my Middle School and Upper School teachers, especially in the English and History Departments, helped me develop a voice and analytical mindset. My experiences at PDS were formative, because practicing in an emerging area you need to be able to connect the dots.” Shah’s advice to current PDS students and recent graduates: “Sometimes it is good to be a little stubborn when mapping out your career. Start with something that you are passionate about. While you can adapt and find different ways to approach that passion, you shouldn’t lose sight of it. My time at PDS showed me how to take risks in my academic pursuits even when I wasn’t sure where they would take me.”

Note: The Alumni Spotlights in this issue of the Journal were first published on the pds.org news feed during the 2020-2021 school year.

1980

Suzanne Albahary DAmato 16 Maiden Lane Bedford, NH 03110 suzannemndamato@yahoo.com Karen Kelly 43 White Pine Lane Princeton, NJ 08540 k2pk@comcast.net Hope everyone is managing as well as possible through this difficult pandemic. I (Suzanne) am focusing on a bright light of hope at the end of this long, dark tunnel. Keep your news and updates rolling in to us. It’s always great to hear what our classmates have been up to

1981

Camie Carrington Levy 2212 Weymouth Street Moscow, ID 83843-9618 (208) 301-0203 (cell) camie@palousetravel.com Kirsten Elmore Meister 312 Ootsima Lane Loudon TN 37774 443-716-8477 (cell) kmeister5@yahoo.com

1982

Lorraine M. Herr 9S021 Skylane Drive Naperville, IL 60564 (847) 525-3576 (cell) LHerr@herr-design.com Lindsay Suter wrote with an update on the fish ladder at his mill. “It is complete and functional but closed for the winter.” He promises to send a photo for the next Journal publication. Laura Stifel Murphy and Leslie Pell helped secure emails for classmates whose contact info I lacked. I appreciate the support.

throughout the years. Besides using e-mail, you also can submit news and photos to us through the Princeton Day School Class of 1980 Facebook page. We extend our heartfelt condolences to our classmate, Karen Kelly, her husband Paul, and their children Skylar, Jillian and Colton on the death of Karen’s beloved father, Art Fein, on January 17 at age 89. We also extend our sympathies to Karen’s mother, Harriet Fein, and Karen’s brothers, Rick Fein ’74 and Doug Fein ’79, and their families. Dr. Fein was a vibrant member of the Princeton community, having lived and worked in the area for most of his adult life. He will be dearly missed by those who knew and loved him. We were also very sorry to learn of the death of Jim Laughlin’s father, James B. Laughlin ’43 in late February and extend our sympathy to Jim and his family, many of whom attended PCD, MFS and PDS. Tim Murdoch sent the following news to the Alumni Office in December: “I am sad to report that my father, Bill Murdoch, died at 87 in 2018, and my mother, Mary Murdoch, died in 2019 at 86, after losing battles with dementia. After losing both parents, I decided to take a one-year break to spend extra time with my family and to travel with my wife, Pascale. In 2020, our son, Maxime, graduated from McGill University and our daughter, Liliane, enrolled at McGill as a freshman. Between January to March 2020, Pascale and I spent over two months touring New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, Vietnam and Cambodia when the COVID-19 pandemic struck. All that matters to me these days is that my family and I stay healthy, happy and safe. I am sad that I was unable to join my 1980 classmates to celebrate our 40th PDS Reunion in May 2020.”

Tim Murdoch ’80

Lorraine Herr ’82 and her father taking in the afternoon sun on the front deck of his New Jersey home, wrapped in wool blankets and pretending to be at Chamonix

Leslie Pell ’82 with her son, Gibson ’21, signing his intent to enroll and play lacrosse at Providence College in the fall

What’s new with Lorraine Herr? I spent some time away from work in April and dove into polishing up the piano version of “Rhapsody in Blue.” The piece remains a challenge! My beehives are well insulated for the winter, so I am hopeful for a successful 2021 season. I’m looking forward to a honey harvest, surrounded by family and friends (assuming the COVID-19 vaccines are widely distributed by the fall). Sadly, I am reporting John Jacobus passed away last month. I remember John as a leader on the student judiciary body, working alongside my good friend Anne Metcalf. I regret not knowing him better. After reading John’s obituary, I recall Winston Churchill’s words, “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” John gave a lot. Leslie Pell submitted online: “Hard to believe that our son, Gibson, is graduating from PDS this year! Next year he is heading to Providence College to play lacrosse for the Friars—exciting times for all. Signing day at PDS definitely pulled at my heart strings.”

Donald DeCandia also submitted online: “Greetings classmates! I sure enjoy seeing your updates, and realized I never write. I have a very charmed life in Santa Fe, NM where I live with my wife, Julia, also a lawyer, and two amazing stepkids. In July of 2019, I left my former firm after 30 years to help a Texasbased firm open Albuquerque and Santa Fe offices. We have grown really quickly, so seldom a dull moment for me. I have come across both Bill Brennan and the late John Jacobus in practice, but Bill is the only classmate I have seen since 1981. Julia and I love to travel, and I hope we can sneak to campus for a reunion sometime. I certainly think of my PDS days with fondness and frequency. Best to you all and please look me up if you are ever in New Mexico!”

1983

Noelle Damico 325 Main Street, Apt. 3B White Plains, NY 10601 revdamico@gmail.com Rena A. Whitehouse 5217 Idylwild Trail Boulder, CO 80301 (770) 845-1577 (cell) renawhitehouse@hotmail.com From Rena: My husband and I just recently moved to Boulder, CO. And, while Omaha was a nice place to live for five years, Boulder is certainly a lot more scenic and we are enjoying the mild(er) winter and getting out on the trails as much as possible. For work, I’m currently doing some executive coaching, which has been rewarding. Andy Hawkes and his wife, Janet, live here and have been a great resource to us! Ditto for Amy Brewer, who lives just south of here in Golden, CO. I also was happy to meet up with David Haynes ’85 for a business networking hike at Chautauqua Park at the base of the beautiful Flatirons. PDS is well represented here in Colorado! Please be sure to reach out if you’re in the area. I would love to connect with you. Thanks to those of you who submitted some news—some of whom have not shared in a long time—it’s great to hear from you! Hope you are all staying safe as we manage through these difficult and challenging times. Craig Phares shared that his family, wife Katharine and three kids, Didier, Charlie and Keene, escaped New York City in March 2020 to the Adirondacks, and ended up staying there full-time until September. While there they lived through cold weather, mud season and summer and this winter they skied, snowshoed, mountain biked and hiked their way through the thick of COVID-19. While they did not see many people during their selfisolation, they did see Geordie McLaughlin and his family briefly in Princeton (socially distanced of course). Geordie has relocated to the Dominican Republic during this time. Craig also caught up with Joe Pagano, who left South Africa prematurely and has since taken up residence in Newfoundland. Oh Canada! “Looking forward to a return to normalcy in The Big Apple,” Craig says. I had asked our classmates to share whether they had picked up a new hobby during COVID-19, and Sandy Danielson Quirinale responded that she had! Thanks to her son, Branden, who is graduating high school this year, Sandy became interested in her local fire station and is now a New Jersey State Certified Fire Fighter. It is an extremely rewarding volunteer job—although not easy! Branden is an EMT with plans to get his nursing degree. Her son, Eric Quirinale ’19, is still in touch with his PDS friends and is so fortunate that he was able to have a great experience at PDS before COVID. The family had hoped to go to Myanmar this summer but that’s not looking too promising, unfortunately, with the military coup. From Jon Firester: “My wife, Ruth, and I live in NYC. I work for Ernst & Young doing management consulting for banks. My sons, Ari and Benjy, are 18 and 21, respectively, and my daughter, Kalia, is 23. Ari is a rising college freshman, and Benjy is a junior majoring in mathematics. Both are taking a gap year during the pandemic. Kalia is doing a master’s program in animation in Ireland. In my spare time, I still enjoy math puzzles and a bit of woodworking. Best wishes to all of our classmates!” Phil Berger wrote: “My noteworthy news is that I had a case that went to the United States Supreme Court that required me to become admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court. I filed a brief objecting to further review or hearings by the United States Supreme Court, as I had won the case at the Pennsylvania Superior Court (who overturned the trial court), and then had the Superior Court’s opinion affirmed by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. The Justices of the United States Supreme Court agreed with our position, and the opinions of the Pennsylvania Superior Court and Pennsylvania Supreme Court and declined to take the case. Thus, I am one for one at the United States Supreme Court!” Stewart Von Oehsen hosted a PDS guys weekend at his farm in Vermont this past fall attended by Steve Schluter, Erik Ott, Ebe Metcalf, Jon Erdman and Mac McDougald. Sounds like it was a fun gathering! Kelly Lambert Walker shared the following note for all: “Things I miss are being able to visit my family and friends in person, whether that means on a train or plane. I miss my athletes having the chance to have a competitive sports season. I am incredibly thankful for having my job and the opportunity to have worked from home last spring, and to not have to risk the health of others or myself is privilege, in a nutshell. For these things, I am focusing on gratitude in 2021! I have a son in NorCal who is coaching boys’ high school rowing, a daughter about to become a resident anesthesiologist somewhere (TBA in March), and a daughter who is about to begin a year with AmeriCorps. Thankful, grateful, however you slice it. Lastly, I

Sandy Danielson Quirinale 83’s sons, Erik ’19 and Branden

Rena Whitehouse ’83 and her husband, Ted Baskin, enjoying the Flatirons in Boulder, CO

1983 Classmates (left to right): Ebe Metcalf, Stewart von Oehsen, Erik Ott, Mac McDougald, Jon Erdman and Steve Schluter enjoyed a weekend together.

hope that I am able to head to Princeton in the next few months and see my dad and stepmom in person and not via Zoom/FaceTime. It’s been a long year and that has been the hardest of all. I send my well wishes to all and hope that everyone is safe and healthy.”

1984

Edward J. Willard 214 Lynchburg Road Pilot Mountain, NC 27041 (336) 401-6360 (cell) tcwillard@mac.com Dan Zuckerman stated, during a game of Words with Friends, that he’s been “hunkered down avoiding COVID-19 in Teaneck NJ… two daughters at Penn State, one graduating this May, the other one in the Class of ’23. Amazing stepkids in college, college-bound and middle school… also recently celebrated my 28th anniversary of working at ETS!” I have truly enjoyed serving as Class Secretary since we graduated in ’84, although I’ve realized that because of the internet we can submit our updates directly to the Alumni Office, or through me. In the 37 years since graduation, I believe we’ve never heard from the following classmates, or it’s been many years. Could the following people write in for our next issue? Ivette Abud Desai, Maria Amgasu, Hilly Beaver, Sarah Benioff, Greg Bevensee, Lynne Bowers, David Carpenter, Debbie Edelman, Mike Giuli, Hilary Grant, Kambiz Hadavi, Jean Hagerhorst, Karen Hamel Simas, Stephen Kreisler, Lisa Lariche, Frank Little, Naomi May, John Nicolai, Pete Ross, Paul Schmidt, Jason Shaplen, David Supple, Rudolph Van Houten, Liza Wakefield Peck and Julie Yoo. I also ask, if you haven’t already and you are on FB, could you sign up for our Princeton Day School Class of 1984 Homepage? Currently, we have 44 members. I’d love to see more, so we can communicate more. Stay safe! I wanted to let everyone know if you weren’t aware, the only online directory for our class is through the following site: https://pds. searchwavelength.com. Currently, we have 82 of 99 graduates? Please check out your listing and update, if possible. If you are not already included in the database and would like to be, please let Kaylie Keesling know at kkeesling@ pds.org. Thanks! Jasper, a new puppy for Lynch Hunt ’85 and his wife, Sharon

1985

Lynch W. Hunt, Jr. 771 Mayflower Avenue Lawrenceville, NJ 08648 (609) 851-5521 (cell) lynchhunt@alumni.upenn.edu Marisa Petrella 40 Oval Turn Lane Levittown, PA 19055 (609) 462-3101 (home) (609) 462-3101 (cell) sales4metoo@msn.com In February, Lynch Hunt welcomed a new member to his family. “We are overjoyed to welcome home Jasper! Thank you, Trenton Animals Rock, for a seamless process for this little boy’s transition to our home! Jasper, a Shih-Tzu, replaced our previous dog, Molly, a Cockapoo, who passed away in July 2020.” Melissa Kohn Rosen wrote: “My husband, John, and I are empty nesters with our son having recently graduated college and living and working in NYC. Our younger daughter lives in Tel Aviv and works as an educator and social worker. Our oldest lives in Maryland with her family. As of this month, we now have two beautiful grandsons!” Marisa Petrella wrote: “The Class of ’85 had a Zoom reunion over Thanksgiving break and about seven of us had a chance to reconnect virtually. It was great checking in with everyone.”

Marisa Petrella ’85 and her family welcomed Massimo, a 12-week-old tuxedo kitten, to their home this past January. “He has filled our home with joy.”

1986

Mollie D. Roth 1666 East Cindy Street Chandler, AZ 85225 (202) 280-5887 (cell) mollie.roth@pgxconsulting.com

1987

Sofia D. Xethalis 1953 Shore Oak Drive Decatur, IL 62521 (217) 422-5648 (home) (217) 454-3345 (cell) sxethalis@yahoo.com.au

1988

Mike Lingle 498 NE 55th Terrace Miami, FL 33137 (917) 882-8397 (cell) mlingletonic@yahoo.com Julia Herr Smith sent: “Greetings classmates! Hoping everyone has remained healthy. We’ve been riding out the pandemic mostly in NYC where I am general counsel at a large singlefamily office and Scott continues to helm Biscuits & Bath, including helping new clients with their pandemic puppies. We miss entertaining, but have enjoyed socially distanced gatherings in Central Park, including with Andrea Hall Elish. Hoping to see more people in person in the coming months!” Collins Roth said: “Cold enough in Germany that the big Alster Lake froze in the middle of town and people were out wandering on it with baby carriages, bikes and dogs or, in my son, Liam’s, case, eating cookie dough (the mind of a 14-year-old boy!). The Roth family is locked in and hunkered down in Hamburg, which is getting old. No more than one guest allowed in the house at any time, school remote, etc. My eldest, Bella, is a freshman at Vanderbilt, where Nashville seems to be taking COVID-19 a lot less seriously. My second, Charlotte, will head to University of Chicago in the fall. With them out of the house, Jess and I are going to move with my two boys to Singapore this summer, because, why not?” Janie Hwang wrote: “It’s been great to connect with so many of you on FB. I’ve been in NYC ever since graduating from Barnard College. I spent donkey years working at investment banks in fixed income trading, structured finance and investment banking. Along the way I met my husband, who is from Dublin, Ireland. We have three kids (boy/girl twins who are in fifth grade and an older son in seventh grade). We live in Greenwich Village. For any of you who took Mrs. Skvir’s Russian class—it has continuously come in handy in NYC. If you are ever in the neighborhood, look me up on FB, PM me.” Dawn Feldman Fukuda reported: “Well, if nothing else it has been an extraordinary year in public health. In addition to our continued HIV and viral hepatitis efforts at DPH, I joined our Massachusetts COVID-19 response and Vaccine Equity teams, alongside an amazing group of colleagues from state and local government. Grateful for the reinvigorated attention to emergency preparedness and infectious disease prevention but wish it didn’t take a global pandemic to get us there. In other news, after having our kids mostly home completing their studies remotely, our oldest returned to finish her junior year at Haverford, and our youngest heads to American University in the fall. I cannot believe that in a few short months we will officially be empty nesters. Didn’t we all just graduate from high school? Sigh. Take care, everyone, and hopefully we can have our 35th reunion in person.” Holly Greenberg LeCrann wrote: “Hello! All’s well in pre-fire-season California. I completed my Ph.D. in Depth Psychology in December and feel a weight has been lifted. After many years, I am leaving the Red Cross Mental Health disaster team and moving toward volunteering for big-animal rescue during the fires. Disaster work is the most fulfilling work I know, and I love it. Other than that, workwise I am seeing patients in private practice and working part-time for a large consulting firm as their on-site shrink—interesting and challenging work for sure. Growing food and paddling several times a week on the bay with my dog keeps me sane. Cheers!” Paul Robertson said: “I turned 50 and we’re suddenly empty nesters, with one daughter at Western Washington University in Bellingham and her sister at the Outdoor Academy in North Carolina. After opening Sage Lodge in Pray, MT, I hung up my GM hat to be the President of Romeo Bravo Software. Been quite the year! Cheers to all!” Mike Lingle: “We all managed to turn 50! I guess that means we have a lot of accumulated wisdom now.”

1989

Doria Roberts P.O. Box 1396 Princeton, NJ 08542 (404) 874-3779 (home) doriaroberts@yahoo.com

1990

Deborah Bushell Gans 103 Bilboa Drive Jupiter, FL 33458 (561) 799-2463 (home) (561) 252-4501 (cell) gansdebby@gmail.com Erik Oliver wrote: “During shelter in place, I found myself still practicing law, but also with lots of time, previously spent with friends, on my hands. By late March, I found myself making masks for local charities (1,100+). When that need passed locally, I moved on to quilting in September—10 quilts in 2020! Finally, in December, I moved on to bag making. I’m excited to realize I’ve got a retirement hobby, but I am hoping late 2021 means more time to hang with friends in person and less time sewing.”

1991

Aly Cohen 1 Big Barn Road Cranbury, NJ 08512 (917) 273-4573 (home) (917) 273-4573 (cell) alycohen@yahoo.com Michael Yacht reported: “2021 is off to a breakneck start for us. After nearly 17 years with Benefit Vision as their technology leader, I’ve changed jobs in the middle of January to be the Vice President of Software Development for Mosaic Learning, an eLearning technology company based in Columbia, MD. I am bringing my nearly three decades of software engineering experience, combined with 20 years of managerial experience to the company as they mature their Combobulate eLearning and Virtual Conference platform. “In addition, we are moving to a new home in Ellicott City, MD at the end of February. We hope that this will be our ‘forever home.’

Erik Oliver ’90’s sewing creations

It took five months of house hunting in an incredibly challenging real estate market, but the stars aligned, and a perfect house was found. The house backs up to woods, complete with a branch of the Little Patuxent River and our twin four-year-old boys (Noah and Ethan) could not be more excited for the new home and all the wildlife they’ll be able to see right outside of their bedroom windows. Shana and I hope everyone is staying healthy during the pandemic and are looking forward to more and more social media pictures of people with their vaccine cards.” Aly Cohen: After a busy fall launching my consumer book, Non-Toxic Guide to Living Healthy in a Chemical World, published by Oxford University Press, I continue to teach environmental health education to medical colleagues, high school and college students. Recently, I launched The Smart Human podcast, an environmental health and wellness podcast. It’s been great fun to interview some of the sharpest and most interesting physicians, researchers, lawyers and health advocates in the environmental health and disease prevention arena! On another note, I’ve recently reconnected with classmate Erika Vereen on Facebook!

Erika Vereen ’91 with her daughter, Alima

1992

Judson R. Henderson 5073 Province Line Road Princeton, NJ 08540 (609) 924-6446 (home) (609) 651-2226 (cell) jhenderson@callawayhenderson.com Alison Cho wrote: “I have started my new role as an HR manager at Sun Pharmaceuticals a few months ago and enjoy it. It’s nice to get back into the pharma field, having started my career in that space a long time ago. What’s nice about this role is that it takes me back into the Princeton area, which I love. In addition, I’m looking forward to my younger brother’s wedding after the pandemic is over. Ed Cho ‘96 has found Lyly Chang, an incredible woman that we are privileged to have in our family. We love her and better yet, my boys adore her, too. We cannot wait to put this pandemic behind us.”

1993

Darcey Carlson Leonard 5405 Windy Ridge Drive Midlothian, VA 23112 (757) 634-4432 (home) darceyva@gmail.com

1994

Cynthia Shafto 9948 Robbins Drive Beverly Hills, CA 90212 (310) 498-1064 (home) Cynthia.678@icloud.com

Beckett and Charlie, the sons of Cynthia “Cy” Shafto ‘94, ready for the Panther Prowl this past fall

1995

Melissa Woodruff Mccormick 257 South State Street Newtown, PA 18940 (215) 550-6596 (home) mwoodruf99@yahoo.com

1996

Stephen J. Nanfara 1023 Clinton Street, 5A Hoboken, NJ 07030 (908) 310-9724 (home) (908) 310-9724 (cell) nanfara@yahoo.com Dana DeCore Falconi submitted: “My husband, Kyle, and I will celebrate our 15th anniversary this year. We have three beautiful daughters ages 14, 12 and 10. My oldest, Ryan, also became a Panther, joining the Class of 2025. As I watch her meeting new friends and building relationships with faculty, I am reminded on a daily basis of how special PDS has always been. For me, those lifelong friendships are found in classmates like Jess D’Altrui Davidson, Jen Walsh Thurlow and Rachel Glat Friedman. We missed our annual dinner with our husbands this year because of COVID-19, but plan to regroup in the spring. “I’ve enjoyed listening to Danielle Warren Silverstein’s hilarious podcast Marriage and Martinis. If you haven’t yet, tune-in. Danny, can you do a high school rehash episode and if you do, can you please include the time that you ran through my parent’s pond? “I saw Mark Chatham and one of his adorable sons while on a run in Stone Harbor this summer. So great to catch up! As an aside, I am nominating him for ‘Best Hair’ this reunion. He hasn’t shed a single strand. “And yes, I unapologetically chose this photo from the summer of Jen and me because we’re tan and our sunglasses cover the crow’s feet. “Look forward to ‘seeing’ everyone this spring!”

1996 Classmates Dana DeCore Falconi and Jen Walsh Thurlow enjoyed some warm weather this past summer

Justin Krebs wrote that he “is running for New York City Council in the June election to represent the 39th District in Brooklyn.” He’s blending his years of experience running MoveOn’s national campaigns team, his work on culture, parks and progressive advocacy in the City, and his recent role as a parent leader and food pantry organizer into an energized local campaign. Learn more at justin2021.org and tell folks in Brooklyn to check it out!

1997

Ellyn Rajfer Herkins 6 Anvil Court Marlboro, NJ 07746 (732) 970-8122 (home) ellynrajfer@gmail.com Mandy Rabinowitz Plonsky 9 Kittansett Court Skillman, NJ 08558 (609) 937-6348 (cell) mandyplonsky@gmail.com

1998

Giovanna Gray Lockhart 15 Willow Street Brooklyn, NY 11201 (917) 545-2575 (cell) gray.giovanna@gmail.com Liz Gordon Hall “is currently Chief People Officer at Splash (https://splashthat.com/) and leads their recruiting, L&D, employee engagement, ‘Total Rewards’, DEI, performance man-

Liz Gordon Hall ’98 with husband, Chris and sons, Charlie (12) and James (7)

Katie Babick ’02 and Ben Brickner ’00 with their daughter, Abigail

agement, culture, and HR functions. Splash is always looking for great talent so check out the careers page! Lives in Astoria, NY during ‘normal’ times and in North Cape May, NJ during global pandemics.”

1999

Joanna Woodruff Rominger 836 South Broad Street Lansdale, PA 19446 jbw1980@gmail.com

2000

Natasha Jacques Nolan 35 Pine Street Roswell, GA 30075-4819 (609) 647-6982 (cell) nnolan@gigisplayhouse.org Sapna E.G. Thottathil 4127 Bayo Street Oakland, CA 94619 (510) 604-2357 (cell) sapna.thottathil@gmail.com Katie Babick ’02 and Ben Brickner “were delighted to celebrate our daughter, Abigail’s, first birthday in January. We have missed sharing this special time with friends and family in person but are thankful to be in Vermont where we can be outside every day. Abby spent much of her first year keeping us company in

ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT

Ben Cohen ’11

Harnessing Technology to Aid Vaccine Scheduling

As millions throughout the country are having difficulty securing appointments to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, Princeton Day School alumnus Ben Cohen ’11 took matters into his own hands to find a solution. Cohen created a website, covidvaccinetexts.com, that tracks available vaccine appointments at CVS, Rite Aid and Walgreens pharmacies across the U.S. His efforts were recently covered by CBS News in Austin, TX and word is spreading to other news outlets. Cohen, who works as a software programmer in Massachusetts, initially created the site after struggling to find an appointment for his mother, who is in a high-risk group. He decided to make his work available to the public in hopes of helping others. “I realized if I could keep track where people were looking, and keep track of where the spots were opening up, I could play matchmaker and send them a notification,” Cohen shared in the CBS News report. By simply signing up with a name, phone number and choosing a proximity to a zip code, the site sends text message alerts when appointments become available at pharmacy locations within the established parameters. “My hope for the site was to reduce stress for anyone searching for appointments, either for themselves or for a loved one,” Ben noted. “I chose to use text messages for the site because texting has become normalized across generations and I wanted it to be as easy as possible for anyone to use,” he added. Cohen credited his PDS experience for teaching him to view the ways in which he can apply what he does to the broader community. “I enjoy the interdisciplinary aspect of thinking how different subjects connect to each other as opposed to living in isolation. Steve Bailey helped me to understand that during my time at PDS,” he said. (Steve is a former Upper School math teacher and Technology Coordinator.) “My day job is writing software for advanced software people, so it can be easy to stay in that proverbial box. It is helpful for me to have the perspective of how what I do ties into adjacent subjects in the community around me,” Cohen continued. According to the CBS News report, more than 8,000 people have secured appointments with help from Ben’s website since it went live last Tuesday. Just Ben and two close friends manage the site at the moment, though he is considering enlisting more help as the site continues to grow and demand continues to soar.

Note: The Alumni Spotlights in this issue of the Journal were first published on the pds.org news feed during the 2020-2021 school year.

the garden, hiking on the Appalachian Trail and endearing herself to our dog by dropping Cheerios under the table. We can’t wait for you all to meet her at the next in-person reunion!”

2001

Carolyn Yarian Morgan 430 E. 57th Street, Apt. 4C New York, NY 10022 (609) 638-7249 (cell) carolyn.morgan2012@gmail.com Wilson H. Weed 707 10th Avenue, Unit 817 San Diego, CA 92101-6586 (808) 859-1629 (cell) wweed1@gmail.com

2002

Aviva Perlman Fintz 275 W. 96th Street, Apt. 5D New York, NY 10025 (609) 617-3754 (cell) aperlman26@gmail.com Katie Babick and Ben Brickner ’00 live in Vermont and celebrated their daughter’s first birthday in January. (See the note they submitted under Ben Brickner ’00.) Ari Paul wrote: “I continue building a cryptocurrency-focused asset management firm, BlockTower Capital. In 2020, we launched a second investment vehicle and reached $300M in managed capital. I spent much of

the pandemic as a rural nomad living in New Hampshire, Vermont, rural Pennsylvania, and Costa Rica. I’m currently exploring a move to Miami or Puerto Rico.”

2003

Allison Marshall 317 NW 89th Seattle, WA 98117 (202) 375-9559 (cell) amarshall220@aol.com Greetings class of 2003! I hope everyone and their families are doing well; wishing you all health and happiness this year. My husband, John, my 1.5-year-old daughter, Isla, and I are still hunkered down safely in Seattle; looking forward to seeing family and friends in-person again at larger gatherings.

Landon and Jonathan Urey, twin sons of Alexandra Warren Urey ’02

Alexandra Warren Urey wrote: “On December 9, my husband and I welcomed our twin boys into the world. Landon and Jonathan have been an incredible addition to our family, a bright light during a challenging year. Despite the pandemic, they have already been able to meet their uncle Andrew Warren ’99. Thanks to Zoom, they have also been able to meet their great-aunt Lisa Warren ’71 and cousin Rachel Cantlay ’13. We are looking forward to watching them grow and, once the pandemic is over, meet all of our family and friends.” Brian Smith wrote: “Longtime listener, firsttime caller. Hope everyone is hanging in there during this long pandemic year. In the past 12 months, I finished law school at UCLA, took (and passed!) the California bar exam and started a new job as a lawyer with Paul Hastings in Los Angeles, working with a stellar group of entertainment and media attorneys— from the comfort and endless monotony of my own home. My first movie as writer and producer, Perception, came out in 2019 and is available through Amazon Prime. Very happy to be out of school again and back to work... but I do miss running into [UCLA professor] Graeme Blair ’02 on the quad.” Christopher Campbell submitted: “The Campbell family is moving again! The Air Force is sending us back to Edwards Air Force Base in California this summer. I will take command of the 461st Flight Test Squadron, which performs test and evaluation on all variants of the F-35 for the United States and our allies. Our stay in DC felt too short. We spent far more time stuck inside our little townhome than we initially expected but, thankfully, the whole family has stayed healthy. There’s so much we missed... I suppose our best option is to try and move back sometime in the future. Fingers crossed that the Air Force concurs.” Nicholas Perold submitted: “After five years in Detroit, our family recently moved back to the PDS area, buying a home in Hopewell… loving the experience of rediscovering the region and wasted no time in reconnecting with former teachers and mentors such as Bill Stoltzfus, Tom Quigley and Liz Cutler. If you’re local or passing through drop a line; would love to say hello!”

2004

Katherine Chimacoff Dickens PSC 561 Box 3133 FPO, AP 96310 (925) 998-8191 (cell) Mrskatedickens@gmail.com Scott E. Rosenberg 111 S. 15th Street, Apt. 2204 Philadelphia, PA 19102 (609) 462-2526 (cell) rosenbergse@gmail.com Mallory Sosinski Bryson submitted online: “We are enjoying life here in Cheyenne so far! It snowed right after Labor Day weekend, which we certainly weren’t ready for, though we’ve been assured that the snow doesn’t usually start quite that early. We’ve had several big storms since then, and our little Ben has learned to love playing outside in the snow and even went sledding for the first time recently! Bobby is doing well in his new officer career and I am enjoying being back in the classroom and working with kids. We hope everyone is safe and healthy!” Kate Chimacoff Dickens wrote: “We moved to Iwakuni, Japan last year (March 2020)!

Parker Curtis ’02 with his bride, Mary Sisson Curtis, former PDS teacher

My husband is forward deployed on the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier as a pilot with VFA 195, the world famous Dambusters! It’s a wild two-year tour with the ongoing pandemic. We will be in Princeton this summer and then back to Japan until May 2022.” Scott Rosenberg and his wife, Jenn, welcomed Brielle Devon Rosenberg on 2/19/21. “The new family of three is healthy and happy!”

Scott Rosenberg ’04 with his wife and baby Brielle, born February 19, 2021

2005

Hilary Richards Conger 295 Washington Avenue, #5A Brooklyn, NY 11205 (609) 915-6651 (cell) hilary.conger@gmail.com Harrison Epstein said: “I started a new job virtually during the pandemic helping launch a new venture debt fund for Aon, and in January my girlfriend, Emma, and I moved out of our apartments, put our lives into storage and hit the road. Drove first to Chicago (after hitting a deer two hours into the trip; we’re fine though!) then on to Breckenridge, CO for two weeks, Park City, UT for another couple of weeks, then to Sun Valley, ID and Montana, then seeing where life takes us. COVID-19 has allowed us to work remotely so we’re taking advantage of it before getting called back to NYC.”

Harrison Epstein ’05 and his girlfriend, Emma, hitting the slopes

Ryelle Aria Wilson was born to Jackie Pisaturo Wilson ’05 and Trevin Wilson on November 18, 2020

Jessica Burns Caravella ’05 with her husband, Chris, and children, Harrison and Rose

Ryelle Aria Wilson was born on November 18, 2020. Weighing seven pounds, six ounces and 20 inches long, she was born in Las Vegas, NV to Jackie Pisaturo Wilson and Trevin Wilson. Jackie said, “We are so in love already and excited to welcome her to the world!” Jessica Burns Caravella wrote: “Our silver lining of 2020 was welcoming our baby daughter Rose. We are all grateful for this time together, especially with her big brother, Harrison.” Ian McCue, a scholar of nanostructured materials, wrote with “some big updates in the McCue household.” Ian elaborated: “My wife, Jessica, and I are expecting our first child (a boy!) March 14. We are also moving out to Chicago over the summer because I accepted a tenure-track assistant professor position in the materials science and engineering department at Northwestern.”

2007

Nina Crouse ninacrouse@gmail.com Vishal Gupta 58 East Springfield Street, Unit 3 Boston, MA 02118 (609) 658-4768 (home) vishgupta2@gmail.com Alexandra Hiller Rorick 205 East 85th Street, Apt. 14F New York, NY 10028 (609) 658-2961 (cell) ali.rorick@gmail.com Jameson Cumsky received his M.D. from Case Western University School of Medicine in 2019 and is in the second year of his radiology residency at the Mayo Clinic. Jameson is married to Dr. Helen Liang Cumsky, who is a second-year dermatology resident at the Mayo Clinic. Nicole Auerbach was named the 2020 National Sports Writer of the Year by the National Sports Media Association, becoming the organization’s youngest-ever national winner and first female writer to win such an honor. Nina Crouse wrote: “After almost 14 years in Boston, I moved to Denver, CO and finally live in the same city again as my sister (Allie Crouse)! I am very grateful to have been able to make this move and prioritize hiking almost every weekend. Once it is safe, we will be making frequent trips to Maine to visit our sister (Carly Crouse Nicholas ’05), brother-in-law, niece and nephew. We can’t wait to fulfill our ‘aunt’ duties in person and eventually meet Ali Hiller Rorick’s baby girl!” Aniella Perold and her husband welcomed their second son, Kai Hussein Perold, on September 1, 2020. Now living in Verona, NJ, Ani is excited to be starting her clinical psychology predoctoral internship at Audrey Hepburn Children’s House in July... “and to finally be done with graduate school in May 2022. Pandemic times have been hard, but a silver lining has been older brother Nick Perold ’03 and his family recently moving back to the Princeton area from Michigan.” Alexandra Hiller Rorick wrote: “My husband and I welcomed our first baby, Ellery Anne Rorick, on October 28, 2020! The three of us are healthy and happy and enjoying new parenthood. Ellery is also lucky to have Jenna Dodds as her godmother!”

2008

Tessica Glancey Crampton 301 E. 63rd Street, Apt. 6J New York, NY 10065 (202) 603-1979 (cell) tessicaglancey@gmail.com Kalla Gervasio will finish her last year of ophthalmology residency in June 2021 at Wills Eye Hospital where she served as the Chief Resident. She is staying at Wills Eye for a fellowship in neuro-ophthalmology next year. Hannah Epstein wrapped up her ninth season at NFL Films by working as Director of Photography for the Super Bowl coin toss video with Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman. Introducing the honorary captains of the game, Amanda Gorman’s poem highlighted three amazing essential workers, which Hannah also filmed for the accompanying video. Working through the COVID-19 NFL season meant games without fans, new creative solutions and abiding by rigorous work and travel restrictions to stay healthy while capturing football across the country.

2006

Jacob M. Fisch 696 Elm Place, Apt. 308 Highland Park, IL 60035 (609) 731-2540 (cell) mendyman@gmail.com This Journal entry, I open with the very sad news that Courtney Leopold passed away in December. Courtney is remembered as a cheerful and generous member of our class. An avid dancer in high school, Courtney last wrote to Class Notes in 2013 when she had just completed her master’s in counseling and certification as a yoga therapist. Her goal was to use yoga therapy to “work one-on-one with individuals who are dealing with long-term illness or rehabilitation,” bringing that therapy from Los Angeles back to New Jersey. Courtney accomplished just that, teaching yoga across New Jersey, becoming a licensed counselor and an adjunct professor at The College of New Jersey. Courtney will be missed. An obituary appeared in the Trenton Times on December 13, 2020. If you have memories of Courtney, please write to Class Notes ahead of the next Journal deadline in September. Nina Crouse ’07 and Allie Crouse ’07 hiking in Colorado together Hannah Epstein ’08 was Director of Photography for the Super Bowl coin toss video with Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman.

pds.org

Greg Francfort gave up his NYC apartment in 2020 and has turned into a New Jersey nomad, including growing out his hair to look more like Tom Hanks in Castaway. He still works for Bank of America covering the restaurant sector. Alexa Maher Hove wrote: “Erik and I are excited to welcome our first child in August! To share this joy with our family and because of the way COVID-19 and the February 1 coup in Myanmar have affected our lives, we are planning on returning to work in the United States for the upcoming academic year. This past year has found us teaching through the night to reach our students in Myanmar from our families’ homes in the United States. We were unable to return for the 2020-2021 school year due to a ban on all foreign arrivals to Myanmar during the pandemic.” Tessica Glancey Crampton and husband Rob are thrilled to share the news that “our family is growing by one! We are expecting our first child in August and couldn’t be happier.” Nicholas Vik, Emmalee Carr, Sarah Matthes, Franklin Howard and Juan Carlos MelendezTorres.

2010

Anna D. Otis 84 Dutchtown-Harlingen Road Belle Mead, NJ 08502 (908) 418-6102 (cell) annaotis92@gmail.com Alexandra W. Feuer Portale 21 Sheridan Road Doylestown, PA 18901 (609) 240-1706 (cell) awfeuer@gmail.com Sheridan Gates wrote: “I recently launched a masterclass for theatre and music students called ‘It’s OK to Be a Renegade’ designed to help students realize the accessibility of pursuing a career in the arts from the ground level. The goal is to foster a discussion that demystifies breaking into the entertainment industry and leave

Celebrating the wedding of Brielle Manley Greek ’09 and David Greek ’09 are (left to right): Nicholas Vik ’09, Emmalee Carr ’09, Matthew Greek ’08, Alexa Manley Motter ’11, David, Brielle, Sarah Matthes ’09, Franklin Howard III ’09 and Juan Carlos MelendezTorres ’09.

2009

Ashley Smoots 1339 Westchester Ridge Northeast Atlanta, GA 30329-2483 (267) 987-9448 (cell) asmoots@gmail.com Vinay Trivedi 325 Ridge Avenue Newtown, PA 18940 (267) 229-2425 (cell) vt1090@gmail.com Brielle Manley Greek and David Greek got married in a small outdoor ceremony on September 19, 2020 (which was also Dave’s 30th birthday!). They were joined by siblings Alexa Manley Motter ’11 and Matthew Greek ’08, as well as classmates and close friends Clio Sage Maudlin ’10’s new dog, Spooks Elizabeth Yellin ’10’s puppy, Moose Alex Feuer Portale ’10’s pup, Clover

the students with resources, practical tips and a community where they feel heard and supported. So naturally, I started at PDS and had the best time speaking virtually to the Upper School choir students! Any teachers that could use a break, I’d love to speak to your students!” Anna Otis has been working remotely since last March and has been spending her free time with her boyfriend and their two dogs. They just returned from a cross-country road trip to Nevada, stopping along the way to visit (safely) with friends in Cincinnati and Denver. Alex (Raquel) Phillips reported that she was officially hired to be the Vice President of Television for JJ Abrams’s production company, Bad Robot Productions! Alexandra Feuer Portale: I’m working at The Crefeld School in Philadelphia as an Emotional Support Counselor. Joe and I live in Doylestown, PA with our dog, Clover.

2011

Evan D. Seto 18 Lynn Court North Brunswick, NJ 08902 (732) 710-0020 (cell) eseto17@gmail.com Schuyler Samse submitted: “I recently moved to Chicago to pursue my MBA at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management. If you’re ever in the Windy City, let’s meet for a drink!”

2012

Rachel Maddox 58 Fieldcrest Avenue Skillman, NJ 08558 (908) 829-4230 (home) (609) 571-7998 (cell) Rachel.Maddox@conncoll.edu

Annie Nyce 9 Brookside Avenue Pennington, NJ 08534 (609) 558-2453 (cell) annienyce@gmail.com Peter F. Powers 143 W 69th Street, #2A New York, NY 10023 (609) 658-8799 (cell) peterfpowers@gmail.com Dallas Derr submitted: “In my second year as assistant coach of Montgomery Bell Academy varsity ice hockey in Nashville. This year, we captured the school’s first ever state title in ice hockey. Hoping this can help build a connection between such a prestigious southern prep school like MBA and PDS.”

Dallas Derr ’12 holding the ice hockey state championship trophy for Montgomery Bell Academy where he is an assistant varsity ice hockey coach

2013

Leah G. Falcon 10985 Bluffside Drive, Apt. 5218 Studio City, CA 91604 (609) 279-9774 (home) (609) 558-3887 (cell) lgfalcon04917@gmail.com Robert S. Madani 2662 Oregon Avenue St. Louis, MO 63118 (609) 771-0912 (home) (609) 240-9420 (cell) robert.s.madani@gmail.com

2014

Rory E. Finnegan 154 East 29th Street, Apt. #13G New York, NY 10016 (908) 391-9303 (cell) ref8af@virginia.edu Mary G. Travers 433 Whitney Avenue, #B4 New Haven, CT 06511 (609) 216-3244 (cell) mary.travers@yale.edu

2015

Grace Lee 67 Bridle Path Belle Mead, NJ 08502 (908) 280-0006 (home) (847) 387-9129 (cell) gracelee6666@gmail.com Caroline R. Lippman 13 Aqua Terrace Pennington, NJ 08534 (609) 737-3235 (home) (609) 651-0771 (cell) crlippman@gmail.com

2016

Kathryn T. Cammarano 6 Hunters Ridge Drive Pennington, NJ 08534 (609) 610-4340 (cell) camm1217@aol.com

Helen Healey 25 Springdale Road Princeton, NJ 08540 (609) 613-3983 (cell) helen.healey97@gmail.com Peter W. Klein 1234 North Eddy Street, Apt. 218 South Bend, IN 46117 (609) 218-1350 (cell) pklein@nd.edu Sophia Bernardi wrote: “After graduating from Villanova in May 2020, I spent the fall interning in the events department of Autumn Communications, a public relations and marketing firm with offices in New York and Los Angeles. Because in-person events are currently on hold, I helped plan virtual experiences and mailers for agency clients such as Amazon. I recently accepted a full-time position as account coordinator in Autumn’s NYC office.”

2017

Abigail Atkeson 17 Hart Avenue Hopewell, NJ 08525 (609) 213-7427 (cell) abigail.atkeson@gmail.com Tyler A. Birch 10 Moselem Springs Court Skillman, NJ 08558 (609) 619-1727 (cell) tbflyers@gmail.com

2018

Hallie B. Hoffman 63 Grist Mill Drive Belle Mead, NJ 08502 (609) 480-4240 (cell) halliebryn@gmail.com This past year has been a wild ride. While being enrolled in the figurative “Zoom University” while at home with my family, I had the opportunity to start an exciting venture. I recently launched a start-up called BingeRoom, a site that lets you see what movies and shows your friends are watching, share personal recommendations, discuss in public and private groups and more! As a huge binge-watcher, I love connecting with people over our shared love of movies and shows, but I could never find a site dedicated to this. That’s why I created BingeRoom.com. It’s been an amazing adventure so far as I’ve worked to get the site from concept to beta, and I have many more plans for the future. I’ve always loved television—in fact, my very first article published in the Spokesman was a review of superhero television shows! But I could never have imagined then what it would be like to start a business based on this passion. Devon Wenzel wrote: “After my father chastised me for having a ‘comedic’ entry into this most prestigious PDS Journal, I have decided to submit a very serious and professional entry on what I’ve been up to in the past year. The short answer is ‘not much’ but that is the correct answer to have because we are in the middle of a panoramic! To all those still doing unnecessary travel during the pandemic, please ask yourselves why you think your livelihood is more important than literally anyone else’s and take a good hard look in the mirror and realize that it isn’t! Silly, silly people spreading a plague, this is not the 1400s anymore. Tsk tsk, check yourself please. “I’m currently in the process of trying to find a summer internship, which is hard for a humanities person like myself—if you are reading this and are in the television industry, please hire me. I’m extremely funny and will make you really good cups of coffee, which is a big plus for you, in my humble opinion. I’ve been buying the same plant from Trader Joe’s about once a week and I plan to have an entire brigade of Kalanchoe, provided I don’t accidentally kill them due to lack of sunlight. “I’ve had many kitchen disasters in the past week or so, but I’ve come out on top! Take that, burnt oatmeal and pasta that I set on fire! Until next time: Xoxo, gossip girl”

2019

Amon M. DeVane 287 Bunker Hill Road Princeton, NJ 08540 (908) 202-1402 (cell) amond1234567@gmail.com Raina Kasera 20 Nostrand Road Cranbury, NJ 08512 (609) 716-7551 (cell) raina.kasera@gmail.com Helen Mehreteab wrote: “As a college sophomore, I currently serve as the Academics Co-Director for Women in Computer Science (WiCS) and also worked as a course assistant for Harvard’s introductory computer science course last fall. I’m looking forward to the next two years and continuing to share my passion for tech!”

(Far right) Helen Mehreteab ’19 and fellow Women in Computer Science members enjoy a meal at Zinneken’s Belgian Waffles.

2020

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