class of 1974
Jack Asher
Thinking back to the spring of 1973 when I left RL to complete my senior year at Newton North High School, I certainly wouldn’t have predicted that the class of ’74 would become such an important part of my life. In the years since, I have attended every reunion and Bay Area alumni event, a memorable 50th.
Birthday Alta ski trip, and enjoyed ongoing valued friendships with many RL classmates and their spouses. I am looking forward to our significant reunion this year.
My memories of interactions with Dick Mayo-Smith are few beyond his brief comments on report cards. I felt he deserved credit for navigating the school through unavoidably challenging changes related to the turbulent events of the sixties without sacrificing the core values. His greatest impact on me derived from hiring some irreverent, iconoclastic, and inspiring teachers like Chandler Steiner who opened up the curriculum, encouraged honest selfassessment, and brought great energy and new content to the classroom. Now, a quick 50 year look back:
After Newton North, I attended Brown where my priority was to take full advantage of all that college life could offer. I was pretty sure I wanted to go to medical school, but took full advantage of the open curriculum at Brown to create a multi-disciplinary independent concentration in the history of Jewish ideas, studying under the mentorship of a demanding religious studies professor whose Socratic methods were reminiscent of Mr. Whitney. By far the most valuable part of Brown occurred in the spring of senior year when I met Nancy, my wife now of 40 and counting wonderful years.
Medical school at Boston University followed. When the clinical rotations began in year 3, my excitement about becoming a surgeon grew and eventually I chose to specialize as an Otolaryngologist.
Without intending to leave the east coast, I was accepted to a residency at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). That led to our relocation and eventual adoption of the Bay Area as our home. Married right before moving west, Nancy and I had a fantastic five-year experience during my training, loving the SF ambiance, weather, and vibrant social scene. Before the tech boom, SF was much more affordable and we were able to enjoy life on our two modest salaries. Our oldest daughter Sophie was born in SF right before an ill-fated career decision to join a practice back east in Worcester where my dad had grown up. However, the adage appears true that you can’t go home again, particularly after 5 years in the Bay Area, no matter how wonderful your New England upbringing had been. When I realized that the practice I had joined was not what I wanted and that we missed our SF friends and lifestyle, we decided to move back west after two years.
Returning this time to Silicon Valley, I joined Kaiser Permanente in 1991 as a Head and Neck Surgeon. There, I completed what I now refer to as my first career, working full time as a clinician applying my surgical skills to a mix of adult and pediatric patients. The life changing event in retrospect was unexpectedly getting elected to the medical group’s board of directors. My term there opened my eyes to the world of medical group operations, health policy, and the business of healthcare as an alternative career path. Our second daughter Maggie was born then. After 15 years of surgical practice, I realized that I no longer enjoyed the repetitive stresses of being a surgeon and decided to make a major career change and leave clinical practice. I eventually landed a position as a physician executive, focused on driving business success in the health insurance industry through better clinical care and outcomes. I spent the next 15 years of my professional life in this second career, immersed in the complex California commercial health insurance market, where I sought to add clinical value to the dysfunctional and excessively opaque employer based health system. In June of 2022, I concluded that the industry was
utterly resistant to my best efforts at meaningful reform and innovation and elected to step back and try retirement.
I have found the transition easier than expected, blessed by good health, a wonderful partner and family, and a strong group of friends. I am currently focused on my tennis game, skiing, vegetable gardening, some medical student mentoring, and health policy work while still open to other adventures. I am fortunate to be in regular contact with the Steigmans, Crowes, and Dowds as we age gracefully and keep our connection to West Roxbury alive.
First things first: Laura and I were married the week after our first RLS reunion. We have a son, who is a technology executive who did dangerous duty in Afghanistan, and a daughter, who is in the 0.01% of Teach for America participants who stayed on mission, in her case in the Nashville inner city schools. We have four grandchildren between the ages of two and four. The most recent arrival is a namesake grandson, although “Little Mikey” looks like a likely mid-round pick as a lineman in the 2045 NFL Draft.
I planned on going to graduate school in English, but in my senior year a haughty Yale bureaucrat called me into her office and took away my Danforth Fellowship because “people with your politics shouldn’t be in academia.” Plan B was going to work on Capitol Hill for both of us, but I got derailed quickly when my senator unexpectedly announced his retirement. I then worked as a program evaluator for The National Council of Senior Citizens and the Legal Services Corporation. I also started ghostwriting for the
John Anderson presidential campaign and took time off to run his Connecticut primary campaign.
After a mind-numbing three years at Harvard Law School along with more campaign work, I had a fun year clerking for a wonderful federal district court judge, but then went back to mind-numbing as a litigator at Boston’s largest law firm. In 1985 I got an unexpected break and accepted a subcabinet position at HHS. Unbeknownst to me, Secretary Heckler was losing White House support, and in 1986 I went out to Baltimore to work for the Commissioner of Social Security. In 1988 I got my second big break and became Associate Counsel to the President for President Reagan, a position I continued to hold for six months under President Bush.
The White House was more fun than anyone should legally be allowed to have despite a few dark days. I had brief stints as White House Ethics Officer and the lead lawyer for the late stages of Iran-Contra. I wrote the first operations plan for the 25th Amendment and Arnold Schwarzenegger became a client. The White House then “revoked my parole” and sent me back to HHS as General Counsel. There I served on a board that issued most of the first Americans with Disabilities Act regulations, successfully tried the first HIV discrimination enforcement case, successfully argued the first patient dumping enforcement case, and with my college friend David McIntosh devised and pushed through the first FDA accelerated approval regulation. If people close to you has suffered from cancer or a rare disease, they have probably benefited from that regulation.
At the end of the Administration we came home, and I was briefly a partner in a big Boston law firm, but soon I went across the river and became general counsel at Biogen, where with the launch of our multiple sclerosis drug we started moving from 300 employees to the behemoth it is today. I later turned around the troubled Transkaryotic Therapies (now Takeda Rare Diseases on Route 2) and did interim CEO gigs at two other troubled biotechs.
In 2007 I went back to Baltimore as Commissioner of Social Security. A long-term climb in backlogged disability cases was front-page news, and I reduced that backlog by about a third. We were down to one fraying 1980’s
Mike Astruecomputer center that ran on COBOL and was running out of capacity, so even with tight budgets I found ways to build two interchangeable web-based centers. I also came up with a way to move disability cases for people with the worst orphan diseases from several years to about a week, sometimes just a few hours, which led to some nice awards and honorary degrees. We came back home in 2013 after completing a six-year term because I was fighting a severe case of rheumatoid arthritis and celiac disease, although the celiac disease was misdiagnosed until 2021.
The obnoxious Yale bureaucrat did not permanently suppress my literary ambitions, so in 1993 I started publishing poetry, translations and literary criticism under the name of A.M. Juster (an anagram of my initials and last name) in Poetry, The Paris Review and other journals. My twelfth and thirteenth books are due next year. Paul Dry Books will publish my first children’s book, Girlatee, and W.W. Norton will publish my complete translation of Petrarch’s Canzoniere.
I squeezed in some unexpectedly fun things. I was a guest of Dennis Kratz at the University of Texas-Dallas. Due to Secret Service blunders, I got stuck in a line once with Al Franken, who was very hiarious. The Social Security communications people had a meltdown trying to write humor for our public service ads with Patty Duke, so I ended up writing her scripts and getting to know her pretty well; she was a riot too.
Shockingly for most of you, I became a much better basketball player after RL and was part of a five-man team that beat 33 other teams in the Red Auerbach Foundation charity shootout. The finals were at halftime of a Celtics game with the Cavaliers. I was 41, just off a plane from Germany, and it was surreal and wonderful.
Robert BargarWhen we graduated from Roxbury Latin in 1974, Richard Nixon stood on the brink of impeachment. The following September after Nixon resigned in disgrace, Gerald Ford pardoned him to heal the nation. As we gather to celebrate our 50-year reunion, the numerously indicted Donald Trump is desperately trying to regain the presidency so that he can
pardon himself and defile the constitution. My, how we have progressed as a nation!
On a more personal note, my brother Rick had preceded me at RL, so I had heard enough about the legendary faculty
intimidators - Bridges, Whitney, Rehder, Yarborough - and those more supportive folks - Chauncey, Jorgensen, Dilworth and Kratz - to feel like I was prepared (and as I write this I just had a flashback to the phrase “Are you prepared?” that I remember hearing on many occasions in Latin class). But presumably (thank you, Gerhard), in reality, there was no
way to be prepared for what the next six years would bringsocial unrest over the Vietnam War and societal inequities, the protracted (and in hindsight largely pointless) discussions about co-education, the tumultuous firing of the headmaster, and Watergate to mention just a few. But I will forever be grateful that I spent those years in an environment where the expression of differing perspectives was encouraged and formed the basis for the adult I would become. I will always embrace the values of doing the utmost possible with modest resources that prevailed at RL then (but sadly no longer). For me that ethos has been foundational.
And although I went on to college at Harvard, medical school at Tufts and more education at Harvard School of Public Health, what I learned at RL - as much from you, my classmates, as from the faculty - was the most valuable education of my life. For my professional career I have worked in clinical software development, as a consultant in the Managed Care/Health Insurance Industry and as a Principal Investigator for clinical trials. And of course there was my extremely enjoyable (if only somewhat remunerative) visit to the “Hot Seat” on Who Wants to be a Millionaire in 2000!
I consider myself extremely fortunate to have found a loving and supportive life partner in my wife, Ellie Nelson, with whom I share triplet sons Alex, Avery and Cliff conceived in 1989 through the miracle of IVF (and the support of the Massachusetts law mandating health insurance coverage for that technique). We raised our kids in Newton mostly at a time before it became the unaffordable affluent enclave it is today.
We had long envisioned escaping the irksome New England winters and finally accomplished that during the pandemic, moving to Laguna Niguel, CA in August, 2020. While the meteorologic climate is mostly very favorable, the political climate is somewhat less so but shows signs of improvement. We miss a great deal about the Greater Boston area, especially friends, educational opportunities, and other social connections, but return for regular visits, the frequency of which will doubtless increase as our son Alex and his wife, Sandy - Cambridge residents - are expecting their first child in September. We also visit New York City periodically as our son Avery lives in Manhattan. And we have one west coast son, Cliff, who resides in San Francisco with his fiancée, Angela.
Lastly, on an occasion such as this I can’t help but think about our classmates who are no longer with us and wish I had been more proactive in maintaining relationships with them while that was still possible. I will try to take a lesson from this as we progress toward our 75-year reunion in 2049 - hope to see you all then!
Kenneth Bloch
Kenneth D. Bloch, the William T.G. Morton Professor of Anesthesia and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, died on September 13, 2014 at the age of 58. He is remembered for his seminal
contributions in the fields of cardiovascular cell biology and molecular cardiology, his lifetime commitment to the Massachusetts General Hospital, his leadership of the American Heart Association, and for his role as a trusted colleague and friend.
Ken had a rare gift of fostering collaborations among investigators and a magical ability to make people around him happier and more productive. He was known both locally and nationally for his commitment to training and mentoring young investigators.
Ken spent his happiest hours in the laboratory, frequently whistling while he worked at the lab bench. He was a private person, devoting his infrequent interludes of free time to his tight-knit family and close friends. He is survived by his parents, Kurt and Margot Bloch, his brother and sister-inlaw, Donald and Lisa Bloch and by his nephew and niece, Sam and Emily.
John CallebautAfter graduating from Roxbury Latin, John earned a B.S. in Languages from the School of Languages and Linguistics at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C, with a double major in Chinese and French. He spent his junior academic year abroad in Taiwan and France, and became fluent in Mandarin Chinese and French.
John then attended Columbia University, and earned a Master’s Degree from its School of International Affairs, before settling in the Washington, D.C. area because of the many opportunities in foreign enterprise available there.
Soon after relocating, John accepted a position with the Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE), a non-profit affiliate of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and remained there for almost 40 years. As their Regional Program Director for Asia, his job responsibilities required extensive travel throughout the region, particularly East Asia, in order to implement strategies directly related to CIPE’s objectives.
vacationing on Cape Cod. He was also an avid golfer and Red Sox fan.
Jeff Crowe
50 years is a long time.
When I stop and think about it, I have been pretty lucky along the way, from RL until today.
He was a keynote speaker at many of their international symposia on topics such as corporate governance, and transparency and ethics in business operations. He also authored many timely articles in publications such as “Economic Reform Today”.
John’s 19-year-old son, Ryan, lives in Arlington, VA, and is currently a freshman Engineering and Physics student at North Carolina State University in Raleigh.
In his leisure time, John enjoyed guitar, songwriting, and
Starting with… .I was fortunate just to go to RL, even if I didn’t always think so at the time. RL prepared me academically in a way that set me up to do well throughout college, grad school and life. And, although it took me a long time, I ultimately recovered from the social deprivation of spending six years with the same 40 guys. To this day, some of my closest friends come from those years together at RL.
Then I was lucky to land at Dartmouth. Little known fact: during senior year at RL, my first choice of colleges was Amherst, or so I thought until I didn’t get in. That was perhaps the most fortuitous rejection of my life. I loved my time at Dartmouth and also have close friends from there. I have stayed heavily involved at Dartmouth over the years and am a Trustee there today.
After working at Bank of Boston for a couple years, I headed west to go to business school at Stanford. More luck, as Stanford actually rejected me twice, and I only got in after appealing the second rejection. Like RL and Dartmouth, I really enjoyed my time at Stanford.
Being in the Bay Area led to me pivoting from finance to the world of technology, even though I had been a history major at Dartmouth and knew essentially nothing about tech. For the first eight years after business school, from 1982-90, I worked at a publicly held tech company by the name of ROLM, in a start-up group within ROLM that built one of the world’s first voicemail systems. (Remember when people actually used voicemail?)
At this point, I’ll weave in the family side of the story. The gods were smiling upon me once again when I convinced Amy Bassell that hanging out for a long time together would be a good idea. Our wedding came one year after some uncharacteristic and significant bad luck – Amy and I were hit head on by a drunk driver while driving in NH in the summer of 1981. The accident nearly killed Amy, and she has surgically inserted rods and plates holding together an arm and a leg to this day.
But what doesn’t kill you just makes you stronger. Amy survived, and we got married in the summer of 1982. In the ensuing years, Amy got her PhD in Clinical Psychology and became a practicing psychologist in the Bay Area while we had three amazing daughters – Laura (38), Katherine (35) and Molly (31). More on the girls later.
Bitten by the Silicon Valley start-up bug, I joined up with eight other colleagues from ROLM in 1990, and we raised venture capital to start an enterprise software company Edify. It was quite a roller coaster ride for me as CEO over the next nine years – both exhilarating and nausea inducing -- as we scaled the company up to $80M in revenue and 400 employees. We went public in 1996 and were fortunate enough to sell the business at the peak of the stock market in 1999. BTW, 1999 marked our 25th reunion. Another 25 years to go...
After one other short operating gig that did NOT end well (sometimes the luck can fall short), I pulled a career pivot once again. I had always thought about venture capital, and in
2001 I decided to try to join a vc firm. However, no vc firms were bringing on people during the tech bust at that time. I struck out repeatedly with vc firms (felt like my dating history circa 1975), until Norwest Venture Partners let me come in as an operating executive to help with their struggling portfolio companies. Two years later, in 2004, I became an investing partner at Norwest.
I have been at Norwest in Palo Alto/Menlo Park for the last 20 years – one of the managing partners since 2013. I will be forever grateful for having the opportunity to join Norwest those many years ago. Today we have over 25 partners and $15B under management. I have had the privilege to invest in some outstanding entrepreneurs along the way and have had some truly talented partners who themselves have invested well. That said, early stage venture investing is the ultimate representation of luck –you never know which companies are going to be hits, if any, and you are wrong more than you are right.
In fact, I have been wrong so many times as a venture investor that I can just picture Mr. Yerburgh saying, “F for the day, Mr. Crowe. F for the day.”
Back on the family front: all three girls ended up going to Dartmouth. With a master’s from Stanford, Laura has been in education as a teacher, vice principal and principal for a family of charter schools. She now runs all fundraising and communications for the charter school system, while being married to Pierre and parenting two and a half year old Julia. They live 20 minutes from us – and the BEST thing in the world is being a grandparent. Had I known what a kick it was going to be, I would have gone straight to being a grandfather. All fun, no diapers.
Like her mom, Katherine got her PhD in Clinical Psychology from Fordham. Married to Tammer, Katherine lives in Philly and last month gave birth to their first daughter Amelia. More grandparent entertainment.
Molly graduated from medical school at Penn a year ago and is now a first-year resident in the emergency room at Temple University Hospital in Philly. Being a first year in the ER, there are many days when she does not feel so lucky. Molly is engaged to be married to AJ next year.
Some of you knew my folks back in the day, Joan and John. I had the exceptional fortune to have both my parents with us until Dad passed away last September at age 91. Mom is still hanging in there, and even though she battles pretty severe dementia, every conversation with her remains a gift. So that was 50 years. Sometimes it is overwhelming to think about it all.
We’ll see while lies ahead for me professionally. I know that I’ll be full time at Norwest for the foreseeable future as we just announced our latest venture fund. I like the team and the work – I still enjoy being in the game, I like having an impact, and I still have the energy for it. At some point, not sure when, that will change. Maybe when the siren call of spending more time with grandkids becomes irresistible or when I want to get more involved with various non-profits or when Amy says it is time for the two of us to take on new adventures. Or all of the above.
I look forward to seeing everyone at the reunion.
Toby Dilworth
Dear Class of 1974—I am sorry to miss the reunion, but Sarah and I will be travelling in England that week.
I left RLS after our sophomore year, when my father took a job at Groton. I objected to the change, as I enjoyed my time and friends at RLS so much. But I was lucky to stay in touch with RLS and many of you, and I had a wonderful experience and made lifelong friends at Groton, too. I went to Yale, living across the hall from Wayne one year. Bill Chauncey’s brother, Sam, was my advisor. I kept interrupting college to work on campaigns – Paul Tsongas’ Senate campaign, Ted Kennedy’s presidential campaign, and Byron Dorgan’s Congressional campaign in North Dakota. After (finally)
finishing college, I worked on Tsongas’ Senate staff for three years. (RLS alumnus and board member Dennis Kanin was chief of staff). When Paul decided not to run for re-election, I had no idea what I wanted to do – so I went to law school. B.C. Law School turned out to be a tremendous experience. As an added benefit, Brad Perham hired me as an assistant coach on the RLS football team with Frank Guerra and Ken Conn. I liked coaching the kids and it was a great way to spend fall afternoons in my second and third years of law school. And I got to catch up with Kunjo every so often.
Sarah and I got married in 1986 (Scotty was the best man). We have three children: Molly is the director of curriculum and assessment for the Kennebunk School District, Joe is a brand manager at Conagra in Chicago, and Kate (Heidi is her godmother) is a manager at Education First in Boston. Molly and her husband live about 15 minutes away so we get to see our two grandchildren a couple of times a week. We also like to visit Joe and his wife in Chicago; Kate is marrying a boy from Medfield in our backyard in August.
We moved to Portland in 1987 as I had a clerkship with US District Judge Gene Carter. Scott and Heidi’s presence here was an added benefit. I then started practicing at Drummond Woodsum before joining the U.S. Attorney’s Office, where I prosecuted narcotics cases, violent crime cases, and white collar cases for 14 years. I also taught Trial Practice at the Maine Law School before returning to Drummond Woodsum. For the past 19 years, my practice has been a mix between white collar defense and civil commercial litigation. I have really enjoyed the practice and I like my colleagues. For the past two years, I served as the managing director of the firm, which now has 105 lawyers and offices in three states.
I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease five years ago. It does not affect my daily living yet; like Mr. Bridges, the doctors refer to me as a “slow progressor.” I am getting excellent care and participating in an experimental drug trial through my doctor at MGH, but we want to take time to do things while I still can. I stepped down as managing director in March, and I’m in the process of winding up my practice. I am still relatively busy. Last November, the Governor appointed me to serve on the Independent
Commission on the Lewiston Shootings, and that will demand much of my time for the next several months. I expect to be fully retired by year’s end.
I really regret missing the reunion, but I’d love to catch up with any of you inclined to call or email. Have a great weekend together!
Chris Dowd
I’m pleased to join my classmates for our 50th Roxbury Latin Reunion. RL has remained an integral influence in my life. I count my friendships with my classmates among my richest associations.
After RL, I went to Harvard, where I was a premed evolutionary biology major, played varsity football, was an artist for the Harvard Lampoon, and was elected Class Marshal. I attended medical school at the University of Virginia. After an internship at NewtonWellesley Hospital, I headed west for a radiology residency at UC San Diego. I followed this with two fellowships at UC San Francisco, first in neuroradiology and then in interventional neuroradiology, the field in which I’ve spent my career. I remained at UCSF, rising though the academic
ranks, and I am now an Emeritus Professor working part-time. It has been an extremely busy, challenging, and fulfilling career. Interventional neuroradiology is a procedure-based mix of radiology, neurology, and neurosurgery. In lay terms, it might be best described as “brain surgery though the blood vessels”. Many of my cases are emergencies, such as acute strokes or ruptured brain aneurysms, necessitating 24/7 availability. I also cofounded a center for vascular birthmarks which I still run, was named a Fellow of the Society of Neuro-Interventional Surgery, and was awarded a gold medal by the Western Neuroradiological Society.
Possibly as a direct consequence of all my medical hours, I started a family relatively late in life. I met my wife Dawn, a Vermonter, Dartmouth alumna, and former IBM-er, at a wedding. We have raised our two great kids in San Francisco. Our son CJ was a high school track star, went to Harvard where he sang in the Glee Club and won a fellowship to attend Cambridge (UK) for a year. He is now a Ph.D. candidate in pure mathematics at UC Berkeley. Our daughter Maddie was a two-sport captain in high school, took a fulfilling gap year before college, and is now a junior at Harvard where she is on the literary board of the Harvard Lampoon and is the co-writer of the 2024 Hasty Pudding Show. Dawn and I remain in San Francisco. In my semiretirement, I look forward to more travel, golf, skiing, and self-care time.
RLS founder John Eliot’s vision nearly four centuries ago “…to fit [students] for public service both in church and commonwealth…” sounds archaic, but in reviewing my life’s work as a physician, I am sure that my RL upbringing did exactly that. Though my many RL experiences in the classroom, on the playing fields, during performances, and with my classmates and teachers, I learned responsibility, preparation, vigilance, resilience, and effort. These qualities prepared me well for my life as a doctor, husband, and father. Our RL years were tumultuous, but I am grateful for the entire experience. At the risk of omitting important names, I appreciate the old guard “masters” (Bridgess, Whitney, Yerbrough, Rehder); the “new guys” (Jorgensen, Davey, Chauncey, Dilworth); and the “real new guys” (Ryan, Speca, Steiner, Conn) among many others. We withstood the upheaval during the Mayo-Smith ouster and
allowed ourselves to have a brilliant senior year under Bill Chauncey’s able and understated guidance. I have given speeches to high school coaches about the importance of their ongoing relationships with their student-athletes, and I have used my lifelong associations with Chaunce and Ryan as examples of positive impact. I was pleased to have remained involved in RL life as a Trustee.
I’m looking forward to seeing everyone at our 50th, let’s keep the party rolling!
Dan Driscoll
classes with our mind-expanding English teachers Dill, Mergendoller and Steiner. I ended up at Colby which was great…it was fully coed; I was able to play lacrosse and I ended up at Tufts for medical school. I loved every part of medical school and was a lab partner with Phil McCarthy RL’72 and was a classmate of Alvin’s. I had a National Health Service Corps scholarship like many at that time and needed to start my career in Primary Care. I started residency at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville for 2 years but transferred to Beth Israel in Boston after getting engaged to Elaine who was working as a foreign exchange trader at State Street in Boston.
Looking forward to seeing many of my classmates in person this May. I’ve had a great run over the last 50 years and am trying to find ways to pump on the brakes a bit.
I started RL in the 8th grade after telling my parents that I wanted to apply to this place called Roxbury Latin that a good friend from St Mary of the Hills was talking about. They were not sure about a private school but relented after I was accepted.
I had a sense I wanted to be a physician and knew it after Biology with Mr. Ryan… extremely engaging and a lot of fun. I was drawn to the sciences but enjoyed my
Since then, I’ve been working as an internist and medical director. First at South Boston Community Health Center for a decade, then with a practice in Hyde Park (2.8 miles from RL)/ East Milton and for the last 12 years with a Tufts Medical Center affiliated community practice in Quincy. I’ve added board certification in Geriatrics and Clinical Informatics along the way and have been Chairman of the Board of our physician network. I feel grateful that I am still having fun in a busy practice. Most of my patients have been with me for well over 20 years and I am fortunate to work with large extended families and to stay involved with teaching medical residents. I also have been very involved since 2010 with the St Rock Haiti Foundation and have made 10 trips to Haiti to help support our Centre de Sante in the foothills above Carrefour. I returned from my first trip three days before the “tremblement de terre” earthquake in January 2010.. I have been a trip leader, but we are currently unable to travel due to security issues in Haiti. We are continuing our work despite the current crisis with our amazing Haitian staff.
On the home front, Elaine and I have four children Matt RL ‘06, Alicia, Danny RL ‘10 and Johnny RL ’14. We spent a lot of time at Rl for the boys’ games and events. The campus has evolved from the original core and I think my sons had a similar rigorous academic experience though no Mr. Whitney! (Remember F=ma button). Elaine retired a year ago after an 11 year run as the Assistant to the Headmaster at RL… she was recruited to the position much to the chagrin of Johnny who was still at the school. We have two grandchildren from Matt and his wife Lindley. Through remote work they have been able to live in Woodstock ,
Vermont. We have been in Milton for 39 years and now have a condo in Quechee, Vermont, just five miles from the grandchildren. Elaine and I love our time in Vt, and I set a new personal record for ski days this year. We look forward to renewing acquaintances this May… and send me a message if you are near Quechee.
Carl Farkas
As you know, I really haven’t made any attempt to stay in touch with any of my RLS classmates. Perhaps my longest exchange after 50 years was with you! Just never felt quite at home there, which was probably more a function of where my head was at during those years rather than anything that the school or the classmates did. No hard feelings! Having said that, I think that the idea of a doing a yearbook+50 is intriguing, so I’m happy to contribute my lines. It’s a bit last minute! Hope this is suitable…
RLS actually got me going with computers, which was key in my life. I seem to recall that RLS had one of the earliest school connections into a computer time-sharing system where I was able to write programs online in BASIC. I seem to recall that I actually wrote a program that emulated the Battleship game! After RLS, I went on to Vassar College. Vassar had a surprisingly strong computer department, no doubt in part because of its location, Poughkeepsie, NY, which was the heart of the IBM kingdom in the 1970’s. Many of the Vassar teachers were IBM professionals, and IBM was the undisputed leader in computer technology in the commercial world at that time. So Vassar really nurtured my love of computer science, and I found a subject that I loved, and I excelled in. I graduated from
Vassar Summa Cum Laude majoring in Mathematics with a concentration in Computer Science.
I worked several part time jobs doing software development while at Vassar, and I was hired into IBM in the corporate headquarters in White Plains NY straight out of college. Many were surprised that IBM took me as I sported a beard during that period, and often wore an earring, not exactly the standard IBM attire. I worked as a Systems Programmer for three years, responsible for installing and maintaining software in the headquarters. I loved my work, and truly looked forward to Monday mornings in those years as it was impossible to work with the computers during the weekend!
In 1981, IBM asked me to go to Paris, France to do similar work for their European Headquarters located in Paris. At 25 years old, it was a golden opportunity to explore the world. I think that Monsieur Saintdon (?), our RLS French teacher, would roll over in his grave to hear this news. I was a miserable French student at RLS, and quite honestly, one of my main reasons for choosing Vassar in 1974 was the fact that Vassar, unlike most of the better schools, did not have a foreign language requirement. I hated foreign languages, and found them totally useless.
But living in Paris suited me. Again, I loved the work, and I fell in love with the city. I was on assignment to IBM Europe from 1981 to 1985. I enjoyed it so much that I decided in 1985 to not return to the US, but to accept a permanent job with IBM France, based in Paris. I remained in Paris until 2018, for 37 years. I married in Paris, and raised my son in Paris. I had numerous jobs within IBM France, all very technical, as well as
leading several European teams. I travelled extensively for consulting work with most of the major companies in Europe, teaching technical classes, speaking at conferences. Oh, j’ai appris le français aussi enfin! And I became a French citizen (dual nationality).
I finally retired from IBM France in 2018. At my wife’s suggestion, we decided to leave Paris temporarily. Paris remains my permanent home, and what I consider my “final destination”. My wife, a Japanese national herself, felt that I needed a new challenge to keep my mind active after retirement, so she proposed that we move to Thailand and learn to speak Thai. We’ve been living in Bangkok for five years, and ผ (yes, I speak, read and write Thai today). I’ve also tried to keep my body relatively active with quite a bit of swimming and biking. I actually began my road biking career with Billy Hennessy from RLS. I remember that we rode down to Cape Cod over a weekend, when we were perhaps 16 years old? I picked up the biking again in 2000, doing quite a bit of bike touring throughout Europe with friends. Now that I’m retired, I decided to take my bike touring hobby to a slightly higher level, usually riding a few hundred kilometers per week. I clocked about 8000 kms in 2023, crossing Korea in May, and I finished the year with a 10day bike trip from Bangkok down to Malaysia. Great way to discover a country.
So that’s my summary. I’m not quite sure where I stored my RLS senior yearbook, but I recall that I was given a sort of comic award for being the “mystery man”(?) as my schoolmates felt that they rarely saw me at school. Perhaps this fills in the blank page for Carl Farkas. I’m also attaching a recent photo.
I do hope, Dan, that this e-mail finds you well, and have a wonderful reunion.
Dean JorgensonSo here we are 50 years on and with that comes the requirement to look back. For the sake of brevity, I’ll highlight the seven people and four institutions that, combined, have made me the man I am today, for better
or worse. The seven people are my family: Mom and Dad, my wife Aileen, my son William and daughterin-law Olivia, and my two grandchildren, Ira and Harlow. The four institutions are RL, the University of Leicester, the Oadby Wyggestonian Rugby Football Club, and the Great Meeting Unitarian Chapel. My mom and dad didn’t want me to attend RL
because they thought it would be unfair on me to attend the school where my father taught. I’m grateful beyond words that they changed their mind halfway through my (first) 7th grade year at Westwood Junior High. I’m doubly thankful that by repeating the 7th grade I landed with the Class of ’74, a remarkable Band of Brothers in so many ways.
Life is a series of happenstances. I happened to attend Brown on the counsel of former RL Latin master Bill Bivens and pursue a degree in civil engineering on the advice of my dad’s brother. During my junior year at Brown, I studied under a visiting professor from the University in Leicester in England who encouraged me to spend my senior year at his institution. Through some finagling and chicanery, I was able to complete my Brown degree at Leicester, but instead of returning home after nine months, I found myself staying on to pursue a PhD in aeronautical engineering. My five years in Leicester transformed me. I discovered rugby,
became deeply engaged with my church, developed a keen appreciation for English ale and Scottish malt, and found the love of my life. And while I’ve had my fill of best bitter and scotch, I am still passionate about my rugby and my wife!
Interspersed with rugby and family, I’ve managed to enjoy a fulfilling engineering career. My graduate work was in the field of parachute aerodynamics of all things. Following my four years of research funded by Britain’s Royal Aircraft Establishment, my new English bride and I moved to North Reading to take up a position with Textron in Wilmington, where I contributed to the development of highperformance parachute systems for a variety of so-called smart munitions. With our young son in tow, we moved to Connecticut in 1996 where I assumed a senior management position with Pioneer Parachute Company. My career took me all over the world working with allied forces throughout Europe, Asia, and South America. The highlight of my career was the nine years spent with a tech startup called Vertigo, where we took our knowledge of the high-performance textiles used in parachutes and created a new way for the military to house its troops and equipment. Vertigo’s AirBeam shelters are now the US military’s standard for rapidly deployable shelters, housing everything from small platoons of soldiers to fighter aircraft.
Rugby has remained a constant throughout. My introduction to the Oadby Wyggestonians, a very good local Leicester club, was inauspicious enough (I was sure after my first game that I would never walk again) but it led to five memorable years and many, many friendships that have survived both time and distance. Back in the States, I enjoyed another 37 years of good sport and fraternity with the Boston Rugby Club and the Connecticut Grey Rugby Club, which inducted me into their Hall of Fame in 2020. I picked up the referee’s whistle toward the end of my playing career and still enjoy chasing kids a third of my age around the pitch nearly every Saturday afternoon in the fall and spring.
My son William is my greatest pride. A veteran of the Iraq War, William took himself off to college after discharge from the Air Force to earn his FAA certificate with an Airframe and Powerplant rating. Now, thirteen years on, he is enjoying a burgeoning career at Delta Air Lines Technical Operations. And because he is based in Atlanta
and father to my only grandchildren, it was an easy call for Aileen and me to migrate south following my retirement last November. Aileen and I are now well established in our “retirement cottage” in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, where I am able to spoil my grandkids whenever and however I choose.
Mom and Dad are now at the Wingate community in Needham, across the street from the old Muzi Ford at the intersection of 128 and Highland Ave. I get up to see them every couple of months or so and often use my visits as an excuse to drive out to school. I look forward to seeing all of you soon and catching up on all your joys.
Paul LeBlanc
The last couple of years have been busy. I retired and we moved from the Boston area to Charlotte, North Carolina. We spent 30 years in Lexington and raised our family there. We chose Charlotte for the warmer weather and to be close to my oldest son’s family that includes three of my seven grandchildren. We will continue to spend summers at our home Nantucket as we have for the past 25 years. In Charlotte we live in a >55 community and we are very happy here. Betsy and I are working to improve our golf and pickleball skills and have many new friends. We return to the Boston area frequently to see friends and family. Betsy and I will celebrate our 45th anniversary this year. She is the love of my life and I am blessed to have her as my partner and best friend. Our family has grown a lot over the past 10 years. My daughter Sarah (42) lives in Ridgefield, Connecticut with her husband Brad and her sons Brendan (11) and Curran (9). My son Paul (39) lives in the Charlotte area with his wife Maddy, daughters Jane (8) and Anne (6)
and son Beau (4).
My youngest son Christopher (34) lives in Acton, Massachusetts with his wife Maria and their sons Andrew (5) and Timothy (2).
My brothers Michael (RLS class of 1973), Steve and Chip are all doing well and live in the Boston area. My father died in 2015 after a tough battle with Alzheimer’s disease. My mother is 91 and doing well. She lives in an assisted living facility in Duxbury, Massachusetts.
Roxbury Latin was a great experience for me. I was fortunate to have the opportunities the school gave me. I don’t see my classmates as often as I would like but I have fond memories of our time together in the classroom, on the athletic fields, in the gym and at other school activities.
My teachers and coaches at RLS were outstanding. The two that had the most influence on my life were Bob Ryan who was my wrestling and football coach (and Science teacher) and John Davey my lacrosse coach (and Latin teacher). Bob Ryan encouraged me and taught me the values of hard work and perseverance. John Davey taught me how to play lacrosse and thanks to him I went on to play lacrosse in college and spent many years involved with my children as a youth lacrosse coach.
I moved on to Colgate University after RLS. I enjoyed my four years at Colgate. I have great memories of the classroom, my fraternity and the lacrosse team. The skills I learned at RLS served me well in the classroom. I met Betsy during my senior year at Colgate while she was in nursing school and we were married a year later.
I went to work in finance for General Electric in Plainville, Connecticut after graduating from Colgate. After three years with General Electric I moved on to Digital Equipment
Corporation (DEC) in Maynard, Massachusetts. We stayed in the Boston area for the next 42 years, except for a short assignment in Washington, D.C.
I worked at DEC for 10 years in a variety of financial management positions. While working at DEC I earned my MBA from Babson College. After DEC I worked for several companies in senior financial management positions. These companies were all focused on manufacturing and service in a variety of industries. During my career I completed many successful M&A transactions. I also had the opportunity to travel extensively. My last job from which I just retired, was as CFO for a large privately held manufacturing company. I am looking forward catching up with my RL friends at the reunion!
Richard Morrissey
After RLS I spent 4 years as Bobo’s roommate in college. In the grand tradition of RLS i did a double major in Greek and English which was far more successful than my aborted athletic career in football and rugby which both ended with injuries… After college I got an LLM and JD from Cambridge University and U of Michigan law schools. I went to work at
Sullivan and Cromwell in NYC and learned to love the chaos of NYC and hate the practice of law at a big firm. My career was saved when I was asked to go to London for 2 years and stayed for 30. I was never good with numbers..
I was a deal lawyer and eventually lead our European M+A practice and started our global private equity practice and ended up as managing partner there. My practice took me all over Western Europe and I loved it. In london I married Judith and we raised our children Olivia, Luke and Matt. The kids all went to college in D.C. so I decided to retire early to re locate to D.C. I thought this would give me 20 years to make up for the sin of being a lawyer for 30.
I taught at Georgetown business school , joined the board of a think tank as well as various non profits. I am also frequently in NYC where I am on the board of a telco infrastructure company and in London where I chair a small financial tech firm. I split time between DC, NYC, Chatham and london (with a 6 week winter break in Boca Grande). To my astonishment I have golf courses in each place having become an avid golfer, mostly for the social aspects.
RLS remains the best school i went to but I will leave all questions about philosophy and the meaning of life to our conversations after a few glasses of wine. I very much look forward to seeing my old classmates.
Bob Murphy
most daytime hours of our formative years together, sharing good times, bad times, joys and sometimes misery. In other words, life. What was best about RL?
You! Plus a few great teachers
and mentors, especially, for me, Bob Ryan, Fred Dill, Kevin Sharkey and Toby’s dad, the Warden. They all treated me with respect. Each of them made me feel worth something, and they always encouraged me to make the best of myself (not always successfully!). As for my fellow classmates, I give a special thank you to Scott Schnapp. Scotty knows I’m a bit of a loner. He’s been doggedly kind through the years in reaching out regularly to pull me from my sometimes hermit-like existence.
So, whatever became of Bobby Murphy after RL and MassBay Community College? I ended up at UMASS in Amherst. Yes – Zoo Mass. I almost flunked out my first semester there, and so I took the spring of and spent a hazy but glorious 6 weeks traveling cross country in a VW Squareback with Scotty, Wayne, and Toby. Much fun ensued.
Hi, my dear RL Class of ’74 friends! I so look forward to reconnecting with my brothers-inarms. Think about it – our little group of “miserable wretches” (thank you Mr. Dilworth) spent
Following our magical mystery tour I returned to the Zoo. I majored in economics, with a concentration in Marxian economics (UMASS was world-renowned for that at the time). I loved it. Graduated Phi Beta Kappa— not bragging, just still surprised. Not knowing what the heck to do with a Marxian economics degree, I decided to figure out how to somehow finagle myself into the business world. I had no guidance and no idea what I was doing. I had never taken a business course. So, I went and got a master’s degree in accounting. I became a CPA. I hated it! I was the world’s worst CPA.
After spending the next 5 years as a VP in the finance department at Children’s Medical Center, I finally came to the realization that I am unemployable. I do not like
following orders (as my RL teachers would all attest). So, I started a real estate development company specializing in medical and life-science facilities. I discovered that I am a horrible manager, but a great strategist and deal junkie. We have been reasonably successful, developing several billion dollars’ worth of projects. I’ve been attempting to retire for the past 2 years, trying like hell to extricate myself from our final, dificult project – a proton cancer center in NYC. Hopefully I’ll achieve that by the time you read this.
The joys of my life are my sons Max and Harry, their wives, Kenya and Mimi, and my first grandchild, the beautiful and brilliant Evelyn, who made her appearance last summer. Family is what gives my life meaning. Max and Harry are my pride and joy. They are outstanding, intelligent, and, most importantly, good men.
My partner in life for the past 4 years has been the lovely Alexandra Tsoutsas. I’m so fortunate to have her in my life. She is wonderful. We share many interests - we golf, ski, boat on the lake, and ride motorcycles (Alex is hell on wheels!). I also enjoy puttering around the yard. My personal goal is to climb out of my shell and share more time with my friends.
On my yearbook page I included a passage from The Wizard of Oz, ending with the Woodsman saying: “once I had brains and a heart also; having tried them both, I should much rather have a heart.” I still stand by that.
Alvin Powell
coursework was challenging, and the social and cultural experiences at RL in West Roxbury as an 11-year-old were consuming. Public transportation via bus, elevated T train, and another bus to school for 50 to
60 minutes daily, each way, was just a way of life. We grew friendships enroute. In a strange way, the “townies” on St. Teresa’s Avenue occasionally reminded us what a special place RL was.
After RL I attended Columbia, Tufts Medical School, Duke Medical Center for Internal Medicine, and subspecialty training in nephrology at Emory. After marriage to Tracey, a physical therapist who I met at Duke, we spent three years in Ft. Pierce Florida where I treated migrant farmworkers at a Community Health Center (to pay back school loans) and she worked at a local hospital. I practiced nephrology in Greensboro NC at Carolina Kidney Associates for 30 years and one year in sunny North Myrtle Beach in SC.
Entering
Roxbury Latin 56 years ago as a student from Roxbury formerly educated within the underperforming Boston Public School System was life-changing for me. Initial
While a member of the medical staff at Moses Cone hospital in Greensboro I served in multiple hospital leadership capacities, and was elected as President of the Medical and Dental Staff. I joined the administrative staff within the Cone Health System as a Chief Medical Officer and Chief Health Equity Officer, and have been a regular visiting lecturer at the Disparities Leadership Program at Massachusetts General Hospital speaking on issues of health inequalities.
I am currently managing partner at KidneyCare-NC, volunteer Medical Director of a Free Clinic in rural North Carolina, and have participated in several medical mission trips to Haiti and Honduras. I have served as a Big Brother with the Big Brother and Big Sister Program for the last 8 years, and as Vice Chair of the Board of a local nonprofit serving under-resourced middle and high school
students. Tracey and I have three adult children and two grandchildren. We have been married 40 years.
RL impacted my life in numerous ways. I am grateful for the journey, challenges, and growth. I received hope from many faculty and staff including but not limited to: the late Mr. Phil Bridges (entertaining) and Mr. Rod MacKillop (appreciative); Mr. Bob Jorgenson (encouraging); Dennis Kratz (foundational), and Coach Ryan (nurturing). The smiles of Mrs. Kay Hubbard and Mr. Kuncho Palsang were a source of joy. Happy 50th!
A brief synopsis of my career includes my being a real estate developer, entrepreneur, consultant, and attorney with over 40 years of real estate investment experience. I currently serve as the founder, Chairman and Manager of JWR Advisors, LLC and GlenLakes Golf and Country Club in Spring Hill, Florida.
Roxbury Latin gave me fundamentals that I was able to use to further my education and then follow in the steps of so many other alumni who have mixed their business careers with community involvement.
I have developed several major real estate projects over the last thirty-five plus years. In the 1980’s, I bought several projects in Hawaii and successfully marketed, repositioned, and later sold them. The most important aspect of my years in Hawaii was meeting and then marrying my wife, Cecelia, bringing her back to Boston. I ran the day-to-day operations of Charles River Park for many years and oversaw the sale of the assets of one of
Boston’s iconic developments over a ten year period of time. We recently sold the last asset, the land under the Wyndham Boston hotel next to Mass General, ending our family’s 60 year involvement in this historic asset. In addition, I have been Chair of several Homeowners and Owners Associations representing more than 3,000 units and several hundred thousand square feet of office and commercial space. I currently serve as the Chairman and President of the GlenLakes Golf and Country Club HOA, which has 1,100 homes, and will increase to 2,000 homes, when my partner and I finish building out the development.
I have been involved in many other businesses over the years, some successful and some not so successful. Our New Boston Funds had a twenty-five year run, where I finished serving as Executive Chairman of New Boston Fund, Inc. for seven years, as the company completed the liquidation of its remaining $1 billion in real estate assets on behalf of its fund’s investors.
Other interesting involvements over the years include managing our registered Holstein dairy farm in Vermont, founding a bull proving operation outside Chicago, a transit advertising company in Boston, a company that built silent computers (back when they produced 6080 decibels, we dropped the decibels to under 20!), an LTACH company, and many others.
I have been and am actively involved in numerous civic and charitable organizations, including serving in a number of leadership positions for Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, Combined Jewish Philanthropies, Jewish Vocational Service of Boston, Jewish Community
Jim RappaportRelations Council, Social Planning and Allocations Committee of Combined Jewish Philanthropies, and Boston Children’s Hospital. I was a founding Director and serve as Vice Chairman of the Jerome and Phyllis Rappaport Charitable Foundation, which oversees over $150 million in endowments. I have also enjoyed being a major fund-raiser for numerous charitable and scholastic organizations. I have had a long-time interest in and involvement with politics, ranging from being a statewide candidate, state chairman and finance chair for a Presidential Campaign to raising money and working phone banks. That involvement started when I was at RL and worked in Mayor Kevin White’s campaign as a computer geek, developing a program that did a regression analysis on the Mayor’s previous elections which were used by the campaign chair to design where to use resources in the campaign. Too many other involvements to list. I know enjoy my status as an eminent gris (means old grey-haired veteran.)
I was a member of both the Massachusetts and Vermont Bar and earned a BS from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a JD from the Boston University School of Law. All of those so long ago!
Cecelia and I (and our two-year-old Bernedoodle, Tucker – Taquito when we are in SMA) live in St. Augustine, Florida and San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. I now have a 43 year old son (he lives in Burlington and is at McKinsey), 40 year old daughter in Los Angeles (the valley) and is a dual diagnosis therapist (she recently returned to school to earn her NP degree so that she can use her license to reduce the overmedications of her clients), and 32 year old RLS 2010 grad who has his feature film coming out shortly (he wrote, co-produced and directed the film.) Our four grandchildren are 15, 12, 5 and 3.
Milton Roye50 years out from Schola Latina Roxburiensis—I think of that name often, and the impact it has had and continues to have on me. Six years of riding the “T”, through Eggleston and Dudley stations which no longer exist, and the inevitability of change. Of our classmate Jose Barbosa,
and vowing to never again make people feel so unwelcome.
Of the RL and Beaver Country Day Glee Clubs flying into Russia, and our Jewish friends going to Temple, and the worshippers begging them to tell their families that they were still alive; of leaving wrestling practice late and walking down to Centre Street with our commuter rail classmates and us all watching for townies so we would not get jumped; and recognizing that the fight goes on, always and everywhere.
I remember Kay Hubbard, in her role as our college advisor, suggesting to me / no, instructing me to apply to MIT; and I remember the joy of being accepted and how that never-forgotten woman (and Richmond Mayo-Smith, who she supported) changed the entire course of my life— through many jobs, volunteer opportunities, and stillcurrent friendships. I (and Jimmy, Alvin and Skip) lived in black neighborhoods, but there was no race for us at RL; there was only hard work and success (and sometimes failure but always getting up and trying again), and joy, friendships and acceptance. I remember football and wrestling, lacrosse and Glee Club, math and physics, and Messrs. Whitney, Bridgess and Ryan. My RL experience taught me about people, and what I am, and what I value.
After 39 years of marriage Gloria has still not gotten rid of me; we have 3 of our 4 parents and with help they still live in their own homes, although they have outlived most of their generation. Our daughter Katherine did the legal marriage last year and will do the religious one the week after RL Reunion – to an accountant! Gloria and I are not near retirement yet, with me still doing executive recruiting and placement, and Gloria still running mission-oriented non-profits. With Gloria serving as Chair of the State of Michigan Civil Rights Commission, me very involved with the Michigan Environment & Voting Rights, and both of us with the Michigan Episcopal Church, the RL tradition of service seems to have kept its hold on both of us.
Finally, as time marches on, we are getting more intentional about strengthening old and building deep new friendships. Like our connection with RL, friends are family, and are with you… always.
Scott Schnapp
Hard to believe a half century has passed since we left the hallowed halls of RLS, but the calendar does not lie. All the same, this milestone does provide a great opportunity for reflection on our journeys since June of 1974 and the impact our RLS years had on our lives, so here goes.
My next stop after RLS was at Colgate University, a lovely spot in upstate New York where I had the good fortune of meeting my wife of over 40 years and many lifelong friends. My Colgate years were far more impactful developmentally than academically, but they did provide me with opportunities to get involved in community activities like serving as a volunteer Big Brother and
coaching youth soccer, which planted the seeds for a lifelong career in nonprofit work. Through a bit of serendipity my professional career began as a caseworker for the Big Brother Assn of Boston, closely followed
by an opportunity to become Executive Director of Big Brother-Big Sister of Lowell, MA at the tender age of 25. Those experiences and some opportunities to serve on nonprofit boards helped build the skillsets and confidence to convince me that a career in nonprofit management was possible and that I could impact the communities I lived in a positive manner. Leadership positions at the Portland Museum of Art, North Yarmouth Academy, Camp Sunshine, Maine Businesses for Social Responsibility followed, and I concluded full time work in 2016 after leading the development of a comprehensive management support center to help nonprofits do their work more effectively at the Maine Assn of Nonprofits. I’ve also had the opportunity to serve on several local and statewide nonprofit boards and have continued my community service in semi-retirement by providing leadership coaching to organizational leaders.
On a personal note, I’ve been very fortunate to have spent the past 47 years with my lovely wife Heidi, whose shared sense of values, fun and adventure have allowed us to raise wonderful children and explore the world extensively. Our kids, Benjamin, an emergency room physician in Madison, WI, and Alison, a producer in Los Angeles, both benefitted greatly from being raised in a state that values community and the environment, and our move to Maine in 1986 remains one of our best life decisions. We are also now blessed with 3 grandchildren, aged 7, 5 and 3, and try to see them as often as possible and share life adventures with them.
As I think back on my Roxbury Latin years, I am struck by how important those 5 years were in shaping the person I ultimately became. The values espoused by the school’s leadership, the community I was welcomed into, and the role models I was exposed to, all played critical roles in my personal and academic development. I feel lucky to have attended RLS during a time of significant societal change with wonderful mentors guiding both academic and athletic pursuits, and to have shared it all with a group of smart, multi-talented and fun classmates from diverse backgrounds. RL’s immersive experience provided me with a community that encouraged individuality and a group of lifelong friends that have always felt like extended family, for which I remain extremely grateful.
I discovered in RMS someone, even as a Sixie, as someone who espoused tolerance and “giving people an additional chance” even when the standard academic path became a bit rocky. He opened the door to teachers like Ryan, Dilworth, Sharkey, Steiner, Mergendoller, MacKillop. And those teachers opened doors for us, in varying individual ways. Thank heavens!
When I was at Dartmouth I took advantage of as many overseas programs as I could. One of these programs occurred in the fall of 1976, in Romania at the University of Bucharest, a quirky short-lived program. Difficult country in those days, hard to visit as a tourist, not so comfortable. Perfect for me! That experience became the beginning of a cycle of encounters with Romania that brought me back a number of times, in different ways.
No doubt Richmond Mayo Smith had a complex challenge ahead of him as headmaster at the time: charged with transforming an “old school”, with a lot of “old school methods and old school teachers”, into a modern institution that could prepare boys for a rapidly changing world. Early/ mid-seventies. Moreover, changing boys thinking along the way too.
Romania in the late seventies was a tough place. Food shortages; poor living conditions for many outside the ruling Communist Party, general deprivation. This first experience of life behind the iron curtain in the autumn of 1976 taught me a lot about survival. Trading things; bartering something for something else. Understanding relative worth, what people wanted and how to get it. Survival in a continuously changing environment. Protecting oneself and those close to you. I loved the daily challenge, and thrived in it.
After graduation, I went back to Romania for two years on a Fulbright Scholarship, and deepened my understanding of business dynamics inside Romania and surrounding bloc countries. I worked inside the Institute of World Economy in Romania’s Foreign Trade Ministry. This was followed by a year at a private bank in Brussels Belgium, and then, through the local Pan Am rep I had known in Bucharest, a job with Pan Am in Bahrain for several years. All the time I was layering new experiences in different domains and different countries, whether finance, aviation, or whatever, nothing was excluded as long as the challenge remained exciting!
In 1983 I returned to the States for two years to attend Wharton Business School at University of Pennsylvania, in order to create some sort of formal framework out of all the various disparate experiences I had had until
Peter Taggethen. In 1985, with a new wife and new daughter in tow, we moved to New York where I began a long career in commodity trading, my true calling as it turned out!
I started first with the very conservative Philipp Brothers (Phibro), an amazingly pressurized but close knit group of commodity traders. The best “trading school” in the world! Starting on the “cocoa desk” I transitioned quickly to “sugar” and became a specialist in this commodity for the next 15 years, spending time in London, Bucharest (again, late 80’s)] and finally ending up in Hong Kong for several years. When I joined the large private trading firm EDF Man in London in 1991, east Europe and the former Soviet Union were in upheaval and price/value disparities were the norm. The wild east, it was called back then, a fitting description - nonetheless, a trader’s paradise!
The next ten years meant more time in East Europe, Ukraine, and Central Asia (all the ‘stans’…), with EDF Man moving aggressively into industrial asset purchases (mainly agriculture processing factories) all over the former Soviet bloc and further afield.
Along came two new members of the Tagge family, another girl and boy, who remained in the UK while I moved around the globe doing deals.
By the end of 2000 the family structure had come apart and I moved out of the UK , taking a very big leap in a new direction, moved up to the forests of northern Romania on the Ukrainian border to run a logging operation and build a sawmill. It was an area I had visited many times before and I had some good contacts and friends to start this new phase of my life.
It was also during this period that I met my future new wife, Camelia, the most amazing and important lucky occurrence in my life. Within several years, she engineered successfully my exit from the timber business, and set me on a new and permanent path of stability and happiness.
In 2003 I had another stroke of luck by meeting a person who worked for a private Swiss investment group (we had crossed paths many times in the so-called “privatization agency” in Bucharest in the mid 90’s). I
was then buying heavily undervalued sugar factories from the Romanian government for EDF Man and he was buying oilseed crushing companies at the same time from the same “office”. He offered me a job to become General Manager of a company called Expur, Romania’s preeminent oilseed processing company and recently taken over by the Swiss company.
This then started a 13-year career managing the Romania oilseed crushing operation, which evolved over time into the largest oilseeds processor, vegetable oil refinery and biodiesel company in East Europe, as it is today. The Swiss exited in 2010 selling to a French conglomerate called Sofiproteol, and I remained inside the French group. I have been with them (they are now called simply “AVRIL”) ever since, up to now, with the last 5 years spent in Algeria managing a major business and a factory operation for the Lesieur subsidiary and launching some new agribusiness projects regionally in North Africa.
Camelia and I have a son, David (15 years old), who attends the International School of Boston (Lycee Francais de Boston), and we divide our time between central Transylvania in the Carpathian foothills (where Camelia’s family is from) and the US. I am happy to say that our small farming operation is growing steadily in Romania.
My other son Nick is a math professor at Choate and parents with Jess , to Charlie in late December ‘23, so I am a new grandpa!!! Daughters Kate is in London (working in marketing for international pharma) and Annie in Los Angeles (working in the film industry).
I started the retrospective look-back with some comments about RMS and his “new wave” group that he brought into RLS at the time. I am very certain that my desire to seek new challenges and risks, came from his vision of school governance. It was loose and free…people could do what they liked; what they were good at...be it academic activities, art or sports, sometimes all!
I do believe that somehow this shaped me and my outlook on life to try things, to be willing to embrace the unknown, to help others and be compassionate. It all soaked in somehow over a six-year period at RLS, and I
am very grateful to have been at the school when RMS was there. That was also some luck for me, and I am sure for many of my classmates too!
Wayne Van Orman
To my Roxbury Latin community. I am a proud graduate of RL. I was so nervous upon entering RL: the dress code, an all boys school, all these new people, how was I going to fit in.
I realized things were going to be okay when I got partnered with Bob Bargar in Mr. Ryan’s Science class. That was a clear sign from the gods. We had to do a class presentation, OMG-my worst nightmare. However, Bob did all the talking, he got an A and Mr. Ryan took pity on me and gave me an A minus. Thank you, Bob.
Later, I was invited to Bob’s bar mitzvah by his gracious mother, where I was introduced to Jewish girls. I’ve been married to one for forty-one years with two wonderful children. Thanks again, Bob.
Although being one of the top students at the Oakdale School in Dedham, the academic standards of RL were
nothing that I was used to. My first four years at RL were the most academically challenging in my life.
Looking back, I found my RL teachers and coaches to be incredible supportive and caring, who served as positive male role models. I’m thankful for Mr. Dilworth teaching me the basics of writing and learning how to study. My homework would be covered with red marks, but I kept at it and improved, but most importantly was never treated like I was dumb.
As someone who can barely put in a light bulb, I remember Mr. Jorgensen ‘s kindness in doing most of the work in making a beautiful chess board, which I had for most of my life.
I looked up to Mr. Ryan as my football coach and an educator. I took a brief course with Mr. Ryan in either junior or senior year concerning values clarification. Based upon my values, one on my career paths was psychology. I’ve been in the mental health field since graduating from college.
Along the way, I earned my master’s from BC and a doctorate at BU. While at BU, I was married, had two kids, was working full time, and taking a full case load. I had seven years to graduate and I’m proud to say I graduated with six days to spare. My dissertation was the size of a comic book, but I graduated.
I’ve has past jobs as a counselor, individual therapist, family therapist, and school psychologist in Malden for fifteen years. I am now working independently administering neuropsychological evaluations to clints ranging from 3-60. I am extremely fortunate that in my professional career, I had two wonderful mentors who supported, guided, and inspired me just like my RL teachers; although this time they were women.
I had a special fondness for Mr. Chauncey and Mr. Daveythey were kind, gentle, and I think we were allowed to be boys in their classes and act up a little bit.
I was able to have some contact with teachers after graduation, Mr. Rehder, Mr. Sharkey, and Mr. Ryan come to mind. In a different context, but still supportive and caring. Who knew that teachers were real people.
I remember painting Mr. Ryan’s apartment on Comm. Ave and helping shingle his house in Newton. Unfortunately, for me and him, his Newton house had as very steep pitch and I’m afraid of heights. Hard to do any shingling when you have one arm with a death grip on the roof. Thankfully, Mrs. Ryan took pity on me and I helped her out in the kitchen.
I’m incredibly thankful for my classmates. Everyone was bright and talented in so many areas. I really looked up to all of you and am proud of all your accomplishments. I have many positive RL memories, but here are a just a few-having fierce squash matches with Tom Smithy, cheering on the wrestling team-Phil, Alvin, Jim, Paul, Milton, and others (the toughest athletes), playing half-court basketball with faculty members, watching Jim performing Blue Suede Shoes, and witnessing one of the most exciting sporting events in my life, Chris wrestling that Nobles wrestler. I can hear the chants, Bo, Bo, Bo.
My last five-six years have centered on caring for my parents, who have been diagnosed with dementia. They are finally in a memory care unit in Burlington and have long lost their ability to remember or have a conversation. They loved RL and established a scholarship in the name of my brother, Matthew (Class of 1984), who was killed in car accident in 1986. The scholarship in Mr. Mayo-Smith’s name is a wonderful legacy for our class.
I’m currently working full time with a long waiting list of clients, so my days are quite busy, but I have a strong passion for my work. I work primarily with an underserved population from Lowell and Lawrence from ages three to sixty, who are dealing with a myriad of issues. My clients certainly never had the foundation and opportunity of a RL community in their lives. I’ve been given so much, so I’m blessed to be able to give back.
I’m still working full time for many reasons: it gives me meaning and purpose, a distraction from my parents’ plight, and my need to keep my mind sharp to ward off dementia.
Although I try not to be away from my parents for too long, I have the luxury to take time off as needed. Mim and I love to visit national parks, go on cruises, and play pickleball, but not together due to a recent judge’s order.
Most importantly, I was blessed with a grandson three years ago. I’m so happy being “papa” and being silly (finally someone gets my sense of humor). I am trying to stay healthy so I can be a part of his life as long as possible. So while my parent’s situation is quite challenging and depressing, my wife, children, daughter in law, grandson, and clients keep me optimistic and focused on the present and future.
To sum up, my Roxbury Latin classmates and teachers have had a profound effect on my life and I am truly grateful for our time together and the wonderful memories I still have.
Thanks for letting me share my story.
Dick Sears
Brief bio—skied a shitload, dynamited trails, built chairlifts, saw the world, windsurfed a shitload, raced bikes, tested snowboards, got a wife, made babies, drove them everywhere and watched them play soccer a shitload. And worked a real job the biggest shitload. Still doing it, done for good EOY. Period. See you all soon.
In Memoriam
Classmates
Kenneth “Skip” Hill
John J. Callebaut
Kenneth Bloch
John Coffey
Jonathan Sandman
Faculty and Staff
John Davey
Kenny Conn
Roderick MacKillop
Fred Dill
Dick Whitney
M. Philbrick Bridges
Gerard Rehder
E. Robert M. Yerbrough
Kay Hubbard
Richmond Mayo-Smith
Ambrose Saindon
Ralph Farris
Wm Tally
