FACULTY NOTES
18
Former Faculty News
Steve Bailey, former Upper School math teacher and technology coordinator, vacationed in Florida and visited with former math teacher, Harvey Lee, and former assistant to the Head of School, Wendy Varga.
Heather and Steve Bailey, Harvey Lee and John and Wendy Varga
Steve and Heather Bailey visiting Harvey Lee in Florida
John Baldwin, former Upper School math teacher, and Kate Winton, former Upper School English teacher, wrote, “After three years teaching at the Northwest School in Seattle, we have decided to follow our long-time dream of teaching overseas and will be moving to Taiwan come July for jobs at the Taipei American School! The plan is to stay for two years then return to the States, but who knows? Both girls are thriving and my father’s health is great, so this seems our moment. Erin (Burns) ’08 moved to Seattle last year and is exploring the wild world of startups, and Kelsey (Burns) ’10 is in her final year at NYU Gallatin, concentrating in theatre and dance. The hope is to lure them to Xmas 2015 in Thailand!” JOURNAL
Gabe Behringer, former Upper School English teacher, wrote, “My oldest son Luke (4 1/2) became a big brother when his identical twin brothers, Daniel and Jonathan, were born last May! My wife Lynn and I are busy raising the boys in Ridgewood, NJ; she works in NYC, and I still enjoy teaching English at The Fieldston School in the Bronx.”
Daniel, Luke, and Jonathan Behringer, sons of former Upper School English teacher, Gabe Behringer
Helen Bodel wrote, “Having retired from PDS’s Department of Classical and Modern Languages, I moved to wonderful Asheville, where in 2009, I had bought a teensy Art Deco bungalow, just a few blocks from that city’s beautiful center. I found it a terrific place both for retirement and for staying in touch: on one hand, it is a hip, artsy place with an interesting and liberal community, on the other, Asheville’s history and architecture draw thousands of visitors each year, among whom have been my own friends and relatives. I note that not only did each of my family visit, but also Jerry Hirniak, Jenny Mischner, and Susan Stein, who had booked her one woman play, Etty, into several North Carolina theaters. How great it was to be lounging about on my sunny porch, hearing tales of PDS colleagues and alumni! Plus, flying was an easy endeavor, whether it was north to my family house in Belle Mead, into LaGuardia for a weekend with Michael Bodel ’99 and family, or out West to Marin County to visit Annie Bodel ’03. To tell the truth, I’d still be there, feet up on the porch rail, had Michael and his wife Alex not moved to Putney, Vermont—a tough place to get to from Asheville. After a year or so of multi-legged flights, car rentals, and too-long drives, came the decision to return to my family’s log house and farm in Harlingen, where I am now happily ensconced among friends and family amid the snow fields of a New Jersey February. And so happy to be here, too, substituting a bit at PDS, looking for help on our preserved farmland and drinking long coffees at Small World!