Brian Parker on the Risks of Energy Drinks and Supplements
On October 23, Roxbury Latin welcomed Brian Parker of the Taylor Hooton Foundation. Mr. Parker spoke with boys about performance enhancing drugs, energy drinks, and the risks—and appropriate use—of dietary supplements. He explained how the supplement industry is largely unregulated, and the lack of oversight has created a multi-billion dollar industry that capitalizes on consumer zeal and clever marketing and advertising, targeted largely toward young men.
The Taylor Hooton Foundation was formed in 2004 in memory of Taylor Hooton, a 17-year-old high school student from Plano, Texas, who took his own life in 2003 as a result of using anabolic steroids. Mr. Parker visited RL as part of the school’s Health and Wellness program. //
Akhilsai Damera ’24 Applies Principles of Diwali and Dharma to Everyday Life
“It is tradition to pray to Lord Ganesha, Remover of Obstacles, before significant undertakings,” began Akhilsai Damera (I) as he opened Hall on November 15. “With this sentiment in mind, please join me as I pray. Believe me, I definitely do not want to find obstacles in my path this morning.”
After finishing his prayer, Akhilsai spoke about the Hindu celebration of Diwali—its cultural and religious significance, the principles of Diwali applied to our daily lives, and his personal reflections on the holiday.
Akhilsai brought students and faculty on a journey through the mythological and ideological traditions of the holiday, explaining first the story of Diwali from Southern India—where Krishna, an avatar of Vishnu, kills the demon Narakasura—and from Northern India—where Rama returns from a 14-year exile to defeat the demon king Ravana. Connecting both stories, Lord Vishnu—in the earthly forms of Krishna and Rama—promotes Dharma and restores the world from evil.
“Although Dharma has no direct translation in English,” said Akhilsai, “we can think of it as religion, virtue, and moral duty.”
“Diwali is all about finding self-improvement,” continued Akhilsai. “We look to apply the principle of good overtaking evil in our own lives as a symbolic interpretation of lighting the lamp. By striving to replace our vices with virtues and conquer our inner demons, we find peace and contentment. The ultimate goal is to fulfill our obligation to live under a high moral standard. Even if we’re not perfect in acheiving this goal, we can still reap the benefits of making an honest effort.”
Akhilsai concluded by reminding us that Diwali is not just a personal celebration, and that we should join together with family, friends, and our community to celebrate our efforts and our victories. //
Akhilsai Damera (I) calls audience to prayer during Diwali Hall
Captain James Joyce ’14 Delivers
Veterans Day Hall Remarks
On November 13, RL welcomed Captain James Joyce ’14 as the year’s Veterans Day Hall Speaker. Including a nod to many of his former teachers, James recounted his journey from RL to Harvard and eventually to becoming a commissioned officer in the United States Marine Corps.
It’s an honor to speak to you this morning. RL is a special place. It gave me a world-class education, opened many doors, and instilled values in me that have shaped my character and worldview. I made lifelong friends, like Duncan Finigan, up there in the balcony, whom I’ve always looked up to. Duncan’s been there for me through some of the best, and worst, times in my life. I grew under the mentorship of dedicated and caring teachers and coaches. In my 18 years as a student and trainee, M. Diop is the best teacher I’ve ever had, and one of the coolest people I know. Along with Mme. White, he instilled in me a lifelong love of French language and culture for which I’m very grateful. Vous avez décidé d’être admirable en tout, pour tout. Je vous remercie.
I was commissioned as an officer in the Marine Corps five years ago. It was Mr. Ed Ellison, my math teacher and fifthie-year advisor here at RL, and a former Marine Officer himself, who administered my Oath of Office. Those of you who know Mr. Ellison won’t be surprised to hear that, decades after leaving active service, he could still fit into his dress blue uniform, which is pretty
remarkable since it’s basically a form-fitting wool suit. I’m only a couple of years out, and I don’t know if I could fit into mine.
Mr. Ellison actually delivered this Veterans Day address 20 years ago in 2003, in his second year at the school and Headmaster Jarvis’s last. Coincidentally, sitting in the balcony that morning was a young man named Kerry Brennan, because he was interviewing to succeed Mr. Jarvis as headmaster.
After my commissioning ceremony, Mr. Ellison gave me one of the most meaningful gifts I’ve ever received: a pair of cufflinks, engraved with the Eagle, Globe, and Anchor of the Marine Corps. Mr. Ellison had received them from his father, also a Marine Officer, at his own commissioning 35 years prior. And then he gave them to me, and I’m wearing them now. Thank you, Mr. Ellison, for your example and your mentorship, and for flying in to be here today.
That’s all to say that RL is a truly special place, where I forged some of the most meaningful relationships of my life. As a 28-year-old grad student who hasn’t accomplished much of anything, I feel underqualified to speak to you today. But on the other hand, it wasn’t too long ago that I sat in your seats, stressing about a physics test, or looking forward to beating up on Seb’s in our next football game. And maybe, occasionally, thinking ahead to my future. So, hopefully, what I lack in wisdom and experience, I can make up for with recent perspective.
Early on in my life, I knew that I was really lucky. I knew that most kids didn’t get to come to a school like this, or go on exchange trips to France and Australia, or tackle sixies that ran on my Senior Grass. Sure, I worked really hard to get into RL, and worked even harder once I was here; but most kids never even had a chance. Some poor souls are even forced to attend a school like Belmont Hill. Seriously though, I was incredibly fortunate. If it were a race, I trained really hard, and ran really fast, and finished toward the front—but I also had a 10-mile head start, and most other kids in the world didn’t even get a chance to compete. So, I wanted to do something meaningful to give back for the advantages I had received. “From those to whom much has been given, much will be expected.” I had been interested in the military since I was a little kid, and as I got older, I began to see the substantive benefits of military service. First and foremost, the Marine Corps would empower me to make a meaningful impact at a young age. As a new officer, you’re put in charge of people and entrusted with significant responsibility right after completing training, not long after graduating from college. Most organizations don’t do that—not that I blame them. Who on earth would trust a 23-year-old with anything?
Second, I felt that being thrown in the deep end would be an exciting challenge that would help me grow and improve, particularly in my weaker areas. And lastly, I wanted an adventure. Working so hard to get through RL and college, and then just settling into a corporate career for the next 40 years, seemed like it’d be a bit anticlimactic. A missed opportunity to do something meaningful and exciting while I was young.
So, while I was in college, I applied for Officer Candidates School to pursue a commission in the Marine Corps. OCS took place over the summers after my sophomore and junior years in Quantico, Virginia. This was great because I didn’t have any military obligations during the school year, so I could just be a normal, degenerate college kid. OCS was an intensive training and screening program, kind of like the officer version of bootcamp, with the added wrinkle of being a tryout that you could quit or get cut from. The drill instructors created a miserable, high-intensity environment to evaluate how we performed under stress. We’d be tired, hungry, and wet, and we’d then be thrust into leadership positions and expected to perform.
In hindsight, some of their tactics were actually pretty funny. We weren’t allowed to speak in the first-person; we had to
Alessandro Ferzoco ’14, Duncan Finigan ’14, James Joyce ’14, Robert Shaw ’14, Kerry Brennan
refer to ourselves as “this candidate.” My head instructor once yelled at me for supposedly mispronouncing my own last name, so I had to stand there screaming “Joyce” until he was satisfied with the pronunciation. OCS certainly wasn’t pleasant, and not everyone makes it through, but it’s doable if you stay committed to your end goal.
After that first summer of training, during my junior year of college, some doubt and fear crept in, as I watched the results of the 2016 presidential election. Like many people, I was shocked and frightened by the outcome. We elected to the most powerful office in the world a manifestly immoral and inept person. He showed unabashed contempt for the rule of law, for American values, and for service members. He had suggested that, as commander-in-chief, he would order the military to commit what would amount to war crimes. I worried for the future of my country. And for the first time, I had doubts about my decision to join the military. I wondered what I was getting myself into, what I might be ordered to do, and whether we as a country really were the good guys.
But we’ve never been purely good or bad. No country is monolithic, or static, or even close to it. We as citizens choose the extent to which we’re the good guys, and we continually fall short of our ideals. But we have to keep trying. Especially those of us from elite schools and privileged backgrounds; we have particular agency and responsibility for the way our nation’s institutions conduct themselves, at home and abroad.
As I was watching the news that night in November 2016, I remembered a key characteristic of the Oath of Office. Officers don’t swear obedience to any person; we swear allegiance to the Constitution. That’s no accident. Officers aren’t just empowered to disobey unlawful orders—we’re required to. I came to realize that despite my trepidation, the election results only increased the imperative to serve. In times of crisis, when our values are threatened, conscientious officers would be all the more crucial, even at junior levels.
After graduating from college and commissioning, all new Marine Officers go back to Virginia for six more months of leadership training. While those summers in college had mostly been intended to weed out people who weren’t cut out for the job, these next six months were more focused on
actually teaching us to lead. One of our case studies was about the My Lai Massacre, an infamous mass murder of hundreds of Vietnamese civilians perpetrated by a U.S. Army unit during the Vietnam War. The soldiers acted under the direction of their platoon leader, a young Army officer named William Calley. The details are horrific. This was one of the darkest chapters in the history of the U.S. military, and one of its starkest failures of wartime leadership.
But the courageous intervention of another Army officer, Hugh Thompson, saved the lives of dozens of civilians. When he witnessed the ongoing slaughter, he landed his helicopter between a group of civilians and approaching American troops. He put himself in the line of fire as he rescued the survivors, and even ordered his crew to fire at the advancing American soldiers if they attempted further violence. Thompson flew the survivors to safety and reported the massacre. The perpetrating unit was ordered to stand down, preventing further killings. His report contradicted the unit’s false account of the incident and prevented a cover-up.
Junior officers have no influence over whether our nation goes to war, but we can influence how it’s conducted. In other words, we have more power over jus in bello (the ethical and moral conduct of war) than we do over jus ad bellum (the justness of the decision to go to war). See Mr. Reid, despite my C+ in your freshman Latin class, I do remember the difference between the accusative and the ablative. (Just kidding, I definitely had to Google that.)
As my country entered an uncertain new chapter, I wanted to do what I could, control what I could, to ensure that its ideals were preserved. Ultimately, despite damage to our institutions and our standing in the world in the years following 2016, the worst didn’t come to pass. We avoided catastrophe not through some inherent strength of our institutions, but due to the actions of principled individuals in senior national security roles. But we’re not out of the woods. Our constitutional system will be continually tested, and we will always need good officers to safeguard American values.
Looking back, joining the Marine Corps is the best decision I ever made. My primary motivation for doing so was service— giving back, making an impact, helping others. And I’m glad that I was able to do so in some small ways.
But as I’ve been reflecting on my experience, I’m struck most by all that the Marine Corps gave me. After finishing artillery training in beautiful Lawton, Oklahoma, I was stationed in Hawaii, which was pretty sweet. But more importantly, I’m grateful for the dedicated professionals whom I served under and alongside. I’m particularly grateful for the enlisted Marines whom I had the privilege of leading. Something from officer training that really stuck with me is the concept of servant leadership—that it is an officer’s sacred responsibility to serve and care for those under his command. My enlisted Marines came from every corner of our country, from every walk of life. But all of them, as teenagers, had made the decision to raise their right hands and write blank checks to the Marine Corps, knowing full well the risks and sacrifices that entailed. Through their idealism, their fidelity, their selflessness, their ingenuity, they sustained me when things got hard, and inspired me to do right by them. And yes, as young men, their occasional lapses in judgment frustrated me. But getting to lead them, serve them, bond with them, and foster their growth was a special privilege and the honor of a lifetime. I’ll probably never have a better job than platoon commander; career-wise, I peaked at age 26, and I’m okay with that.
I’m also grateful for the lifelong friends I made in the Marines, a couple of whom are here today. As you guys have probably experienced going through the ringer of RL together, there’s a special bond and depth of friendship that comes through a bit of shared suffering. And there’s plenty of that in the Marines. I discovered whole new dimensions of discomfort and exhaustion. I didn’t know I could get so cold, or so hot, or so tired. But I probably did know that crawling through a swamp of stagnant water could lead to pinkeye. But hey, at least I got some great friends out of it.
Those guys were there for me when I needed them most. Just two and a half weeks into active duty, while we were beating each other senseless in the martial arts pits, I came back to my barracks room to learn that my dad had died suddenly. Despite having just recently met me, my friends were more supportive than I ever could have hoped. They helped sustain me through a very challenging period. Even seemingly small gestures meant a lot to me. They sent flowers and a card with a beautiful inscription. When I returned to base late on the night of the
“Recognizing our privilege and celebrating our accomplishments are not mutually exclusive. I urge you to use the opportunities that this school has provided you, the values that it has instilled in you, to serve your community.”
funeral, Casey, up there in the balcony, had already loaded my gear for me for a hike early the next morning.
A few months later, Matt, also up there in the cheap seats, was the first person in the Marines that I came out to. He was completely accepting and supportive. I came out to Casey shortly thereafter... and again shortly after that... and finally I came out to him a third time after that. He kept thinking I was joking. But he, too, was completely supportive. And it was a privilege to serve as best man at his and Sarah’s wedding last year.
Through my experience in the Marines, I certainly grew as a person, professional, and leader. I never had any epiphany about the secret of leadership, but I learned a thing or two along the way. I didn’t transform into an entirely new person and shed all of my shortcomings; I still have anxiety, and selfdoubt, and, as my Mom frequently reminds me, a tendency to dramatically overanalyze.
But I definitely got a lot better at managing those traits and working through them, and sometimes even using them to my advantage. Through RL and college, I was a perfectionist, leading to a lot of late nights and some late assignments. A few years ago, the prospect of writing and delivering this speech would’ve been daunting.
But in the Marines, I didn’t have time for that. When I was a platoon commander, I led the convoy every time our artillery unit displaced to a new firing position. Displacement was a significant logistical undertaking—over 100 personnel, dozens of vehicles, and the six cannons themselves. And the convoy brief that I’d deliver was accordingly long and detailed, usually 15 to 20 pages. Which was all well and good when I had hours or days to prepare it, but I usually didn’t. Often I’d only have 10 or 15 minutes advance notice of a displacement, and I’d have to write and deliver the brief within that time. It was stressful and frustrating, but also instructive. It forced me to triage and focus on only the parts of the brief that were absolutely essential. It also helped me realize that good enough was usually good enough, especially when it had to be.
You guys are going to come out of here with great friends and mentors, and with an outstanding education that will set you up for success in college and beyond. You’ll attend good schools and land good jobs. You will have “won the race.” But, like me, you will have won a race with a 10-mile head start, in a contest where most people weren’t even able to compete. That’s not meant to diminish your accomplishments, or the significant effort that you’ve expended making it through RL. You’re all smart, hardworking, good guys, or you wouldn’t be here; you would be at Belmont Hill. And when you get those acceptance letters and job offers, you will have earned them, and you should be proud. Recognizing our privilege and celebrating our accomplishments are not mutually exclusive— far from it. I urge you to use the opportunities that this school has provided you, the values that it has instilled in you, to serve your community. Whether it’s through military service or otherwise, find a cause you believe in and pursue it. Cynicism is easy, and fashionable, and oftentimes understandable. But it’s a cop-out. It’s fear masquerading as pragmatism. And it’s a bleak way to go through life. There’s nothing wrong with pursuing lucrative career paths—it’s what I’m doing now. But you don’t have to sell out right away. Trust me guys, you have
your whole life to sit behind a computer making rich people marginally richer. There’s no rush, and I promise it’s not that fun. Be idealistic and be adventurous, at least for a few years while you’re young. There’s no better time to do so.
Regardless of what career path you choose, I ask you all to be engaged and informed citizens. The U.S. military acts in our name and on our behalf as Americans, whether we’re directly involved or not. As privileged sons of this republic, we have a duty to influence what we can, to do what we can, to ensure the just conduct of our nation’s military. And that starts with understanding it. I frequently meet intelligent, educated Americans who know shockingly little about the military. To be so insulated and oblivious is a luxury that has been available to very few people in history. And it’s dangerous. A citizenry that does not understand its military cannot truly support its veterans, nor can it effectively oversee the defense establishment or hold it accountable. Ignorance leaves us susceptible to manipulation, and prevents us from asking the questions that might prevent budget-busting weapons programs, or endless wars with no clearly defined goal. Be inquisitive, skeptical, informed citizens. Don’t just reflexively thank veterans for their service—ask them what they did, and why they did it. Don’t be afraid to look dumb. I appreciate when people ask me questions about the military, no matter how basic, because I know that for every one person who asks, ten others don’t bother.
Before I close, I’d be remiss if I didn’t say this: Don’t let fear guide your actions. Don’t let fear of rejection or exclusion stop you from doing what you want to do in life. You don’t have to fit the mold; in fact, maybe you shouldn’t—molds are limiting, and boring. You don’t have to choose between different parts of your identity. If you’re gay or bi or whatever, there’s nothing you can’t do. I’m not straight, and I did just fine in a very heteronormative organization. Decide what you want to do, do it well, and don’t let anything stop you. What matters more than the opportunities we’ve been given, is what we do with them. And I encourage you to consider public service in some form. “From those to whom much has been given, much will be expected”—and you all have so much to give. Thank you. //
Thanksgiving Round in the
In an unexpected but communal turn, Roxbury Latin held its annual Thanksgiving Exercises this fall not in Rousmaniere Hall, but rather in the McNay Palaistra. With wrestling mats already down in anticipation of the winter season, students, faculty, and staff removed their shoes and sat on the floor in a large circle—a symbol of connection that’s difficult to achieve in more traditional spaces. Headmaster Brennan began with opening remarks, and then invited several friends—students and faculty—to share their own words of gratitude:
When we are little, our parents often suggest what we should say or do in specific situations. One of the most common instructions we receive is to say, “Please.” The most important one of these lessons that I often received from my parents, however, was to say, “Thank you.” Initially (as with many things we receive early in life) the words are meant to be said, and in routine fashion, in all sorts of situations. As you might imagine, I was a very good little boy, and a mostly compliant one. I, like you, wanted to please my parents, and so I learned to say “Thank you.” And I said it a lot. Saying something and feeling something, however, are two different things. Throughout our lives—thanks to our schooling and the rote rituals through which we go—we are often encountering ideas and situations that we ourselves have not experienced. In a somewhat clinical way, we deal with examples of courage, and leadership, and love (think Romeo and Juliet) as abstractions, ideas about each of these emotions or values. It will likely not be until later that we come to appreciate what these vague ideas actually mean. We finally (and I would submit only) come to know these ideas, to value them, to feel them later when we have lived life, encountered a range of people and situations, and seized opportunities to make sense of the world and to reflect on who we are in it. Saying “thank you” was likely one of the first expressions we learned because from the time we were born we surely had reasons to be grateful. And even if we did not appreciate why we should be grateful or even what gratitude was, there was ample reason for us to express it.
Today, we gather together to celebrate gratitude. Yes, certainly our official gathering recognizes Thanksgiving as a uniquely American holiday, but I am mainly glad that we join to acknowledge our manifold gifts, that we bother to count our
blessings, and we figure out ways to thank people in our lives who make such a positive difference. My mother always admonished my brother and me not to forget to thank people for the little things, things that though little made a difference in our lives, who we were able to be, or our basic happiness. And especially we were taught to value all people—the garbage man, the toll collector, the flower lady, the bakery clerk, and on and on we can go. People who might be taken for granted, misunderstood even, and who make a positive difference in our lives. In many of these cases, people do jobs that are unsavory, that require toil and sweat, and aren’t ones we would personally hope to do now or ever. Of course, the first people in our lives who deserve thanks are our family members—our parents, our brothers and sisters, our grandparents, our aunts and uncles, our cousins. I hope you can visualize your own family members now. Some are still with us and some have passed on. In all cases, it was they who first introduced us to this world, fed us, clothed us, managed our bodily functions, gave us shelter, and, most important, loved us. It was they who modeled for us what it meant to be grateful, to not take things or people for granted, and to cherish relationships. I
daresay we can never say thank you enough to those who gave us life and made life worth living.
As we get older, we experience other people and other situations and other gifts given us freely and lovingly. We encounter these people in novel places, but consistently and selflessly here in school, our close-in community, our family away from home. Today, we will pause to acknowledge some of our friends in this community who are largely unsung, who contribute lavishly but without applause to our purpose and our joy. While these special people deserve our gratitude always, we often forget to express it, so we will try to make up for that in part by saying thank you today.
Finally today, I want to suggest that all of us become more gratitude-giving people. We are old enough now both to know that we should give thanks and to feel it. Some of us will still somewhat robotically simply offer thanks to someone who has done something kind or important. I actually don’t mind someone just saying thanks—as all of us should every day when our indomitable kitchen staff offers up food in the serving line. I am a special fan of people who write their thanks—in intentional messages of appreciation and, especially, thank you notes. I can’t tell you how moved I am by someone who bothers to put pen to paper and say thank you for something that I may not have even known meant a lot to that person. But what I especially beg you to consider today is how we can more deeply feel gratitude. There is so much that is transactional these days. Your generation has even been accused of only dealing in transactions—if you do that, I’ll do this. In what one could hope would be a spirit of reciprocity, of collaboration, or fruitful exchange is unfortunately seen as an obligation to give somebody something in equal proportion to what we’ve gotten. Relationships are not meant to be equal. In a relationship, each person gives to another what he or she can knowing that what is offered is appropriate, and life-giving to another. Sometimes people talk glibly of having an attitude of gratitude. I like that. It suggests humility. It suggests
that we have no expectation of something from another—or from this life, or from this community, or from this country. We concede that we don’t deserve any of the talents we possess, of the circumstances in which we find ourselves, or of the friendships offered—all of which make life worth living. Frankly, gratitude can’t stand alone. It is always linked to generosity and kindness. It has to do with loving and being loved. Today, then, on the brink of our declared, national day of Thanksgiving, let’s be sure to connect the dots. We ought to be a thankful people. We ought to recognize our many blessings, undeserved benefactions that make us who we are and make life worth living. And we should strive, too, to offer the generosity and the kindness that may inspire others to be grateful for each of us, not as our motivation to be generous or kind, but as a thoughtful, reassuring byproduct of our doing the right thing. Of course, when in doubt, doing the right thing, the generous thing, the kind thing is always the best policy.
For me, on this Thanksgiving, I offer my profound thanks for all you have given me—for the opportunity to learn and grow by your side, to share in the vitality and humanity of this community. And, I hope, in what is not intended to be a presumptuous lifting of someone else’s admonition, that you continue to love each other as I have loved you. //
Sean Spellman ’08
Thank you, Mr. Reggie Brun
I’m humbled to have the opportunity this morning to acknowledge and express our collective appreciation for an individual who embodies the essence of professional dedication, versatility, and genuine warmth. Mr. Reggie Brun, with a smile and approachable persona, has touched the lives of RL students, families, faculty, and staff alike since the year 2000.
As a student, I found solace in his lighthearted quips and acknowledgements on a given school day, serving as a needed momentary pause of perspective, interrupting the too often haste of the race that we run. To his colleagues, his dynamic expertise and the ability to confront any task set him apart as a true jack of all trades. The unseen is often overlooked and underappreciated, but the efforts that Mr. Brun and the B&G team provide daily are a bedrock. And on days like these, they are the catalyst for our operation.
I can think of few more endearing qualities than serving as a stoic presence when adversity strikes. Mr. Brun is the person we call when something goes wrong. And personally, beyond the professional confines, his experience of raising a family on these grounds has been an invaluable source of insight. In a community that values the generalist, Mr. Brun is an exemplar. Although steeped in history, our ethos, character, and values live and breathe through our community. We are that community. Mr. Brun is that community.
Addressing an adult with a title, Mr. or Mrs., is a timehonored tradition, a sign of respect, but within these walls, since my school days, Mr. Brun’s single first name has resonated with a warmth and familiarity that speaks volumes. It is a sign of endearment, a testament to the fact that at Roxbury Latin, he is not merely known but loved. Thank you, Reggie. //
Isaac Frehywot, Class II
Thank you, Kitchen Staff
Good morning. I’m here today to express our appreciation for the under-acknowledged heroes of this school: our dedicated and hardworking kitchen staff. These individuals contribute tirelessly to our school, ensuring that every student is nourished not just with food, but also with care and warmth. In the hustle and bustle of our daily lives, it’s easy to overlook the incredible efforts that go into providing us with wholesome meals. Today, let’s pause and reflect on the faces behind the scenes, the chefs, cooks, cleaners, and everyone who plays a role in making our Refectory experience more than just a pit stop between classes. Without fail, our kitchen staff cooks, serves, refills, and cleans all amidst our Refectory’s daily chaos. Their dedication to providing us with nutritious and delicious meals is truly amazing.
Beyond the food itself are the warm smiles, friendly greetings, and genuine care that our kitchen staff extends to each and every one of us that makes our high school experience truly special. In the midst of busy schedules and academic pressures, they create an environment in which we can sit comfortably in each other’s company. It’s not just a cafeteria, it’s a place where friendships are formed, where students feel a sense of community and brotherhood.
To the kitchen staff: You are the unsung heroes who ensure that our high school experience is not only academically enriching, but also physically and emotionally nourishing. Your hard work does not go unnoticed, and we are truly grateful for the love and dedication you pour into every meal. As we express our gratitude today, let us also commit to showing appreciation not just on special occasions, but every day. A simple thank you, or perhaps even a note, can go
a long way in acknowledging the efforts of these individuals who work tirelessly to enhance our RL experience.
Now, a quick round of applause for Cali, Kyle, Sam, Troy, Xavier, and Chef Jay for all that they do to keep us going every day. Your contributions do not go unnoticed, and we are forever grateful for the meals that you all work so hard to provide. Thank you. //
Billy Quirk ’04
Thank you, Mrs. Karen Dinon
Some years back, perhaps on this very occasion of a Thanksgiving Hall, Mr. Brennan invited Dr. Melvoin to speak to this community. Dr. Melvoin has since retired, but he was for 25 years the head of school at Belmont Hill. He is a very good man, and smart, and as it happens, a dear friend to many in this room. He said something during his remarks that has
stuck with me since, not just for the wisdom it offered, but for the unapologetic nature of his assertion. He said, “Gratitude unexpressed is not gratitude at all.” I like that. It cuts through the noise of our being busy or distracted. It minimizes what we may intend or mean to say or even feel deep in our hearts, and it signals that what matters is what we make the time to say and to do. Sometimes intentions matter and sometimes, often even, they are not enough. That is true even if it makes us uncomfortable.
I have tried to adopt Dr. Melvoin’s words into the way that I live my life, and too often I fall short, excusing myself for what I don’t do because of what I at least had intended. Today, I mean to offer my gratitude, and if you’ll allow me to act on your behalf, I mean to offer our collective gratitude to one who deserves it very much. Many of you know that there is a house along Quail Street. Some of you who know that may even know that there are two. Yes, there is the headmaster’s home and its peculiar tenant. There is another one, closer still to the Flea Patch, which houses the offices of several Roxbury Latin employees. These men and women, Mr. Stanton, Mr. doCurral, Mrs. Walsh, Mrs. Dinon, work very hard on behalf of all of us. Their work is difficult and essential. So much of it happens away from us, and for that reason, the effort of these fine people runs the risk of going unrecognized and underappreciated.
During my years working in the admission office, I had the privilege to work closely with Mrs. Dinon, who serves as Roxbury Latin’s director of financial aid. It is she who works directly with your parents to understand your family’s financial circumstances. It is she who looks at all the numbers, who weighs expenses, who takes account of the number of mouths to feed, the home to warm, the car to fuel. It is Mrs. Dinon who then puts RL dollars to work to subsidize the tuition for so many of you so that you can sit in this room and learn a bit and find your own gratitude and give it voice. Please do so.
I have immense respect for the care that Mrs. Dinon pours into her work. In an occupation that could be merely the
punctilious business of accounting and balancing ledgers, Mrs. Dinon finds the stories, your stories, and does everything in her power to support those stories here. So if you see a woman in fashionable leopard print and very nice shoes, clutching 10 red folders under her arm and walking 200 steps a minute to her next meeting, all a flutter, please say hello to Mrs. Dinon and thank her for helping you to be here, partaking in all that you do. From a friend, Karen, thank you for your partnership, your expertise, and your support. //
Matthew Bastardi, Class I
Thank you, Mrs. Misty Beardsley
When Ms. Berg asked me to speak, I began to think about all the memories I’ve made in Misty’s room: When I was a 4’11”, barely 100-pound sixie, rehabbing my foot by spending an hour every day picking up marbles with my toes, or sophomore year when I had a headache, so I asked Misty for an Advil and she forced me to take a concussion test (which I failed); or the countless times I wasn’t even injured, just hanging out in her room. Misty always welcomes students and does whatever she can to help them— taping an ankle before a big football game, giving daily rehab exercises to ensure quick recovery, or just being there to talk. No matter what it is, no matter what’s needed, Misty is there to help.
Most days, the craziest thing Misty encounters is seeing Jake Popeo shirtless in the whirlpool. But some days she deals with more outlandish situations, like having to treat a certain member of the senior class for the third-degree burns he got on May Day after refusing to wear sunscreen. (Yes, I’m talking about you, Angus.) Misty accepts every challenge we throw at her with a smile on her face, never complaining about how difficult we make her job or how annoying we can be. She always stays calm while treating an injury on the sideline, even if it’s something she has never dealt with before, which doesn’t often happen.
I’ve spent my fair share of time rehabbing various injuries with Misty. Three weeks into my Sixie year, I fractured my right foot at a practice for my club lacrosse team. My parents told me it was just a bruise, so I continued to play soccer even though I couldn’t kick the ball with my right foot. I could barely do that when I was healthy, but the injury made it noticeably worse.
After two days of hobbling through practice, Mr. Diop told me I should have Misty check out my foot. I had only been at the school for a few weeks, so I was a little intimidated going to Misty’s room. But right as I walked in the door, Misty greeted me with a smile and asked what was bothering me. After evaluating my foot, she told me it was probably fractured and recommended I get an X-ray, which confirmed her diagnosis. I spent the next eight weeks rehabbing my foot with Misty. She checked in with me every day, asked how I was doing, and adapted my rehab program as I progressed. She made sure I was on track. Everyone I’ve spoken to has had the same great experience rehabbing with Misty.
But my best memories with Misty are when I’m healthy. Her door is always open, and I’ve spent countless hours hanging out in her room before practices and games, or after practice waiting for rides. No matter what time it is or how long I’m there, Misty is there, ready to talk about anything from fantasy football to chemistry tests. I just want to say how lucky the RL community is to have someone like Misty. Sometimes we take for granted all that she does for us. From professional wrist wrapper, to sideline medic, to overall friend, Misty is the best. //
James Gibbons, Class III
Grateful for a family Thanksgiving celebration
For the second year in a row, my family and I will be hosting both my father’s side and mother’s side for Thanksgiving dinner. Having both sides of my family all in one place is a very rare occasion, which prior to last year’s Thanksgiving had never happened before. Growing up, my family had never hosted Thanksgiving, usually having dinner at either one of my grandparents’ houses, alternating by the year. As the years went on, all four of my grandparents had been hinting at the idea of retiring from being the “host house.” Knowing that the grandparents were stepping down from the task, last year my parents offered to host both sides at home in Milton.
A week after the idea was proposed, my mom had sent out all the invites. Before I knew it, we were hosting 40-plus family members. I wondered what type of atmosphere we would have with both sides of my family all in one place celebrating what they’re thankful for. From my oldest cousin Jack on mom’s side returning from college, to my twin cousins, Brian and Kevin, who are midway through their first year of middle school, I’m grateful to be able to catch up and share Thanksgiving Day with these people who mean so much to me. As we found out that first year, the blend of both families created a day that was full of good food, football, and—most memorable—a day of many laughs.
As we now prepare to host for the second year, I look forward to gathering everyone back at Milton. This is the one day of the year where I’m able to spend time with my 16 cousins, my aunts, uncles, great aunts, great uncles, and all four of my grandparents in one place. It seems likely that hosting my family will become an annual tradition. I’ll never take for granted how fortunate I am to have all my family members come together on one day to celebrate thanks for one another. //
and helps me work through the challenges life throws my way. When I was having doubts about whether I should stay at home last summer or go on a trip I wasn’t entirely excited for, she helped me map out the pros and cons and convinced me to go on the trip. That trip was the best I’ve ever been on and was the highlight of my summer, thanks to her understanding and aid. Having someone you can rely on—all the time for anything —gives you the confidence to do whatever you can, because the safety net below you is devoted, helpful, smart, and caring. Thank you. //
Benji Macharia, Class II
Thank you, Ms. Dromgoole
Teachers usually receive thank you cards from their students at Christmas, the end of the year, and sometimes during Teacher Appreciation Week, but the amount of work that they do behind the scenes isn’t always evident. RL even adds the extra responsibility for teachers of being advisors to boys. Our advisory program is something unique to RL, which we take pride in. I would like to extend a personal thanks to my advisor, Ms. Dromgoole, for all that she does for me.
I am a person who needs someone to keep me on track, and from seventh grade as my history teacher, she has been that person. She’s someone who I have felt understands me
Jackie Salas
Thank you, Zulema Flores
My thank-you is quite different from the ones we’ve just heard, and it is for an experience that occurred in 2013 when I was a junior in college, and from a stranger who became a friend. Zulema Flores, whom I had the opportunity of meeting in Villa El Salvador, quite literally saved my life. For those of you who surf, you know rip currents are difficult to recover from if you’re in them. Zulema, who had only known me for a week, was accompanying our group and she quite literally pulled me out of the water. That experience and that person transformed who I am today, and I am forever grateful because of three things:
Number one, Zulema taught me through her actions that kindness is not exclusive, that kindness from a stranger quite literally can save a life. Number two, perspective—angry, frustrated College Jackie was stressing about exams and about what she was going to do with the rest of her life. This changed my perspective. Not the what I was doing, but the why. And third, this experience allowed me to see that I had a duty to extend that same kindness that was offered to me. It has forever changed who I am to everybody, whether to friends, to strangers— whoever they are and whatever they are to me, this has taught me to reflect on how and who I want to be, and I am forever grateful for the woman who taught me that life lesson that I can share with you all today. //
Ethan Budreau, Class VI
Grateful for the support of family, friends, and faculty
a way for me to express myself, make friends, and just have something fun to do. Lastly, I’m grateful for the opportunity to be a student at RL. I’m especially grateful for the teachers who really care about us, are there for extra help, and make learning fun. Thank you. //
Greg Sokol
Grateful for his career and colleagues
One of the very many things for which I am grateful is the sense of purpose in my life, the why, as Ms. Salas put it. As long as I can remember, it has been important to me to use my life and my work to contribute to the world in a positive way. I know that I would be very unhappy simply clocking in 40 hours somewhere in order to make enough money to pay my bills, or just to do the things I like to do after work or on the weekends.
I’m thankful for the people that are around me and the people in my life who support and care about me. Some of these people include my mom, my dad, my brother, my friends out of school, kids from my basketball team, and my new friends at RL. I just met my RL classmates a few months ago, but many of us have already become very close. This makes me look forward to spending the next six years with them. I’m also thankful for sports, specifically basketball. Sports are
Before I went into teaching, this was my life. It didn’t take me very long to realize how incongruous this was with my own value system, and to figure out that teaching was my path. I’m grateful to have found a career that allows me a purpose, a career in which I work to make my community and the world better, and to make meaning of it all. My career allows me to support young people, to help them grow into young men of
character, and, ultimately, for them to add some measure of good into the world. I’m fortunate to work for an institution with goals and a mission that align with my own, an institution that, while certainly imperfect, strives to be the best it can be at what it does.
I’m fortunate to do this work alongside colleagues who inspire me. We are a diverse group with varied interests and goals and styles, but I can always trust that my colleagues will do their best and contribute to the community and its collective ideas. I’m also fortunate to make a living in a place that supports who I am as a person, that welcomes my family, that enables me to have autonomy, a place that allows me to play soccer in the fall, to go hiking, to play music, to read Latin, to make jokes about math, to have big conversations with advisees—and somehow all of that counts as work. My work is challenging, but it is a gift to make a life in a place like Roxbury Latin. I’m grateful for it every day. //
Eric Archerman, Class IV
Thank you, Mr. Opdycke, Grandma Fern, and family
Good morning, everyone. First of all, I’d like to express my sincere gratitude for this opportunity to do some sharing on this special occasion. On Friday, December 16, 2022, a younger,
anxious me sat in Rousmaniere Hall, feeling nervous but ready to sing the first part of Pompeii by Bastille. As I took to the stage with the rest of the Junior Chorus, I started my solo. The first line was perfect. After that, however, the following words started to slip my mind, so I stood there for about five seconds, literally panicking as Mr. Opdycke fed me the next few words.
I took a deep breath and was able to get back on track. Immediately after my first solo (or lack thereof), I sprinted off the stage with a really red face, worried that others would laugh at me. As I walked toward the back of Rousmaniere however, I was surprised by all the support. Some kids highfived me, others reminded me that everything would be all right. Although I didn’t really feel that way. I felt like I had let Mr. Opdycke and the Junior Chorus down, but everyone’s outpouring of support helped me stay positive.
During dinner, Mr. O came up to me encouraging me to sing loud and proud in the second concert. Hearing these words, I truly felt that everyone at RL wanted to see me succeed, and that missing a mark is just as welcome as not. Needless to say, I read through the lyrics of Pompeii that night until they were seared into my brain. I’m proud to say that in the 2022 winter concert I was able to deliver a whopping 1.5 solos of Pompeii.
For all the rainbows and sunshine that RL is, it’s hard not to notice the world around us. There are many people who do not have access to a secondary school experience with such fun and rigor. My Grandma Fern was deprived of a secondary school education because of the cultural issue in China. It may sound unbelievable today, but during that era, anyone who owned a certain amount of property was labeled as the “bad class,” facing prison. Unfortunately, her dad, my great-grandpa, was a landlord and was imprisoned, so grandma was denied access to secondary education even though she was the top of her class throughout primary school. However, she understood the transformative power of knowledge, so she worked tremendously hard to provide my father with educational opportunities, and that has also come down to me.
I’m deeply grateful for the educational opportunities I have, and to my grandma who did not give up. I want to end with the people I’m grateful for. I’m grateful to my parents who give me unconditional love, to my siblings who are my companions
and inspiration, to my teachers and advisor for support and courage, and to my friends who motivate me to do my best every day, whether that be at practice or in the classroom.
Finally, I’m grateful to be part of the RL community. Outside my soloing attempts, I can think of countless other experiences where all of you have been super supportive and provided many great opportunities for things I cherish now. Cross country, tennis, robotics, and theater, just to name a few. For all that we do around here, I think it’s important to reflect and look back every once in a while, so thank you all for that opportunity. Have a great Thanksgiving. //
of acceptance and respect, but also with the assumption that every boy is doing the best he can.
Growing up is full of challenges. Being at RL is hard, and adopting an unconditional positive regard toward our students can help them know that there’s nothing wrong with them when they struggle. It can help them trust that we as faculty have their best interest at heart, and that we love them no matter what. I’m grateful that I’ve worked closely with a man who modeled this unconditional positive regard, not only with the boys he taught, and coached, but with everyone he encountered.
Steve Ward taught history and coached wrestling and baseball at Roxbury Latin from 1976 to 2014. I first met Steve in 1998 when I joined the faculty, but I did not work closely with him until 2005 when we started coaching varsity baseball together. For six spring seasons, I had the up-close chance to see Steve treat every boy he coached with respect, firmness, humor, and positivity. The boys he worked with, in and out of the classroom, responded to him because they knew he cared about them. They knew this because he showed them unconditional positive regard in countless ways, including supporting them when things were not going well, calling them out when they were not their best selves, and bringing humor and lightness to his interactions. I am sure my colleagues who worked with Steve or were taught and coached by him can recall countless such interactions.
John Lieb
Thank you, Steve Ward
“Unconditional positive regard.” I first recall hearing this phrase about 10 years ago at a faculty meeting, when the psychologist Michael Thompson was suggesting that we should interact with our students not only with an attitude
I know that how I interact with students now has been shaped by being around Steve for so many years. I feel blessed to have had the chance to work with him closely and to enjoy his humor and to benefit from his guidance. Mr. Ward passed away in January of 2022, and the program from his memorial service— held in this very room in which his name is on a plaque by the entrance—hangs above my desk at home. It serves to remind me how I want to go about my days, with unconditional positive regard for everyone in this community. //
Dror Ko, Class I
Gratitude for family, and compassion
When my dad stopped me in a hurry out the door last Saturday, I knew something was wrong. As is too often the case these days, school and college stress drove my impatience. I had to get to the library and I needed to start my homework. I didn’t have time to dilly-dally, I thought. But the hoarse whisper of his voice and the red pain in his eyes shocked me. I set my backpack, textbooks, and homework aside. Sitting together on the couch, he emotionally described his pain, and I did my best to gently comfort him.
My Jewish family, along with so many others, has been deeply shaken by the horrors on both sides of the Israel-Hamas war. While I was reluctant to discuss the war’s contentious politics, I knew immediately that was not why my dad called me over. There was nothing political about his hurt, only the desire for his emotional troubles to be seen and cared for. Locked in a hug for several silent minutes, we cried tears of gratitude—not happy, but somber, sorrowful, acknowledging of the unjust gift that we, of all people, could safely hold in our arms the most important thing to us in the whole world.
This Thanksgiving, as you sit at the table bracing yourself for this inevitably explosive conversation, I encourage you to lead with compassion. You don’t have to be an expert on the conflicts to know and care that people on both sides are hurting. And when that uncle drops the most outrageous take to ever exist, consider your love and deep gratitude for the privilege of family in your response. Thank you. //
Sam Ruscito, Class V
Gratitude for family——at home and at RL
These last few days made me sit down and reflect about the important things in life. I realize that my most precious gift is my family. In a world filled with complexities and uncertainties, they are the constants on which I lean. Family, to me, represents a sanctuary, a safe haven where I can be myself, free from judgment. I’m especially fortunate to have this in my home as well as my school.
At home we have many traditions, with the most cherished being family dinners. Although it’s the food that gathers us around the table, it’s the stories we really share. In my family, many of our stories originate from when my grandparents immigrated to America. My cousins and I especially enjoy and appreciate learning about their dream and their early years in America as they planted roots and embraced new experiences. These tales are filled with youthful antics and, most notably, sacrifice. In listening to these stories, I’m reminded of how fortunate we are and thankful for the opportunities they’ve given us.
Within my RL family, one of the most significant gifts I was given is a profound sense of belonging. Whether it’s our teachers cheering us on from the sidelines, or support from our advisors, RL’s culture is one to be thankful for. From my first year here at RL, I began to build lasting relationships with classmates as well as teachers and faculty. I’m particularly appreciative of the clubs, teams, and coaches that are selflessly provided for us. I’m honored and grateful to be part of this community. Thank you, Mr. Brennan, not only for the time you have dedicated to RL and countless lives you’ve changed, but also for offering me this opportunity to share my gratitude with you all. I wish you all a happy Thanksgiving. //
Smith Scholar Dr. Brandon Terry Explores Manhood Through the Eyes of Frederick Douglass
On November 28, Dr. Brandon Terry, this year’s Smith Scholar, delivered his first Hall of the year to RL students and faculty.
“During the year,” began Dr. Terry, “I’ll deliver three lectures, composed especially for you, this audience, that revisit the most influential black male political intellectuals of the 19th and 20th centuries: Frederick Douglass, W. E. B. Du Bois, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X.”
Dr. Terry acknowledged the importance of understanding these great men, but also that he would use his three Halls not just as an exploration of their lives and philosophies, but also to discuss the issue of manhood in political and ethical life.
“Roxbury Latin,” said Dr. Terry, “perhaps the country’s most prestigious all-boys’ high school, seems an extraordinary place to begin this conversation. You are part of a centuries-long tradition of theorizing and practicing the education and cultivation of young men, all of which has to include questions about what manhood might mean for you and for the world you inhabit, the world you will collide with as you leave these gates. I also think your generation lives in a vastly different ecosystem than the one that most academics and your teachers are comfortable with.”
The social definition of manhood is evolving, claims Dr. Terry. Pundits and social media influencers are battling for our perception of manhood—its demands and responsibilities.
And it will be boys like our RL students who will determine the outcome, for themselves and their country.
“Whenever we talk about group identity,” says Dr. Terry, “man, woman, Buddhist, Christian, black, Roman, Mayan, we are dealing not only with questions of a description—How do I identify a member of this category? How do I point out the category you belong to?—we’re dealing with problems of significance in identification, as well. Identities matter to us because they can give you a sense of how you fit into the social world.”
Dr. Terry shared the story of Frederick Douglass’s 1883 fight with reputed slave-breaker Edward Covey. Douglass frequently told the story of his abuse at the hands of Covey, and the transformation he experienced after fighting back.
“Well, my dear reader,” writes Douglass in My Bondage and My Freedom, “this battle with Mr. Covey, undignified as it was, and as I fear my narration of it is, was the turning point in my life as a slave... It brought up my Baltimore dreams and revived a sense of my own manhood. I was a changed being after that fight. I was nothing before. I was a man now.”
Delving into the details of Douglass’s story, Dr. Terry explored the relationship between freedom and manhood,
asking students how fighting his enslaver could change Douglass into a man.
Douglass reflected on his battle with Covey, saying, “A man without force is without the essential dignity of humanity.” But Dr. Terry cautioned against establishing such a simple relationship between manhood and violence.
“There’s something distressingly familiar in our violent world about this claim that a man without the capacity for force lacks dignity,” says Dr. Terry. “Douglass speaks of the powers that might express human dignity, and it is an open question, whether these powers are limited to the capacity for violence.”
Violence, even according to Douglass, says Dr. Terry, is hardly the only path to dignity and freedom. Nor is it the only way to risk one’s life in defense of those ideas. Escapees and abolitionists risked their lives, and so did the slaves who chose not to intervene on Covey’s behalf during Douglass’s fight. “We were all in open rebellion that day,” wrote Douglass.
“Manhood,” suggests Dr. Terry, “might be the modality in which injury is lived. It might be how we first experience insult, oppression, and degradation. But what Douglass teaches, maybe even despite himself, is that manhood might be a window to understanding the broader phenomenon of domination. And distilling that desire for self-respect and dignity into policies can shape a new world free of injustice.”
Dr. Terry is the John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Social Sciences at Harvard University and co-director of the Institute on Policing, Incarceration, and Public Safety at the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research. He is one of the country’s leading scholars on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his legacy. He is co-editor of the book To Shape a New World: Essays on the Political Philosophy of Martin Luther King, Jr. and editor of Fifty Years Since MLK. His published work has been included in dozens of esteemed publications, from The New York Review of Books to Best American Essays. Dr. Terry also played a key role in the development and installation of the sculpture “The Embrace” unveiled in January 2023 on Boston Common, honoring the love and work of both Dr. King and Coretta Scott King. //
Seventeen years ago, the late Robert Smith—RL Class of 1958—and his wife, Salua, established the Robert P. Smith International Fellowship so that Roxbury Latin could bring visiting scholars to campus each year, enhancing our curricula with their insightful perspectives on our increasingly complex world. Over the years, these scholars have educated us on such topics as economic globalization in Africa; modernization in China, India, and the Middle East; Latin American literature; the legacy of World War I; climate change and its farreaching effects; borders, both physical and philosophical; the intersection of race and gender; and, most recently, the social power of poetry. We are grateful to Mr. and Mrs. Smith for their generosity and for enabling our greater understanding of these critical global issues. //
Robert P. Smith ’58
On December 5, Roxbury Latin welcomed Boston-based muralist Silvia López Chavez to share her creative journey and insights in Hall, offering students a glimpse into her process of mural making and the importance of community-driven art.
“I like painting big,” says Ms. Chavez, “because painting big allows me physical space to focus on details. I can go into hair, I can go into seaweed, water, details of whales and shells... Once you get to the place of seeing the entire picture, you can then more fully understand the context of the work.
“My piece Rise, in East Boston, brings awareness to the importance of caring for our oceans. Sometimes my work helps bring awareness to the environment and climate. Those issues are close to my heart. Growing up in the Dominican Republic, I’m very much an island girl.”
Ms. Chavez, known for her vibrant public murals in and around Boston, has completed works for institutions from Northeastern University to Fenway Park, from Google to Twitter. Her art is deeply influenced by her experience as an Afro-Caribbean woman living and working in the city.
“Ultimately, this work is about human connection for me,” she says. “It means engaging with people who are interested in learning more about the work, wanting to be part of that community, and connecting through the art in a way that they wouldn’t otherwise. It breaks down barriers.” //
Artist Silvia López Chavez puts Community, Culture, and Connection into Public Murals
On
Amateurism
Kerry Brennan Delivers the Opening of Winter Term Address, with Reflections from RL students, faculty, and staff
More than once in my young life, I remember my father characterizing someone as an amateur. When an athlete failed to make an easy play, he was an amateur. When a person treated someone unfairly, usually by demeaning through language, he was an amateur. When someone failed to live up to a promised task—say by a plumber or an electrician or a guy hired to cut down some trees—he was an amateur. I have a colleague who uses the term loosely when he describes the frightening revelry on New Year’s Eve made up of people who don’t usually go out to celebrate as “amateur hour.” He, therefore, doesn’t care to consort with that crowd—usually incompatible, often unsafe. When I was young there was a weekly TV show called the Ted Mack Amateur Hour. Like America’s Got Talent today, this show aimed to present unlikely people doing unlikely things and usually very well. You can imagine what it was like: a middle-aged woman from Ohio who yodeled; a kid from New Jersey who could recite all the states backwards; an exuberant, elderly immigrant from California who would talk to his parrot in Spanish and the bird would answer in English. Because none of these people
could earn a living doing what he or she did, I considered that that was the test of amateurism—doing something that was interesting but not valuable enough to warrant compensation.
Those of you who are sports fans know well the way in which amateur status is contrasted with pro athletes who earn exorbitant sums for doing what they do and signing contracts with various concerns that market their name, their accomplishments, their talent. Often there is an uncomfortable tension between professional athletes and the possibility of competing for one’s country in the Olympics, supposedly the ultimate showcase for a country’s best athletic talent. What had been very strict policies, however, have been relaxed in certain cases so, for example, LeBron James can play on a United States Olympic basketball team. Currently, there is a transition occurring in order that premier college athletes can indeed earn money for the revenue they contribute to on behalf of their colleges. Are they now professional athletes or something else again?
Certainly, we have a view of the amateur that would suggest someone who is lesser than, someone less invested in
and less reliant on the thing he or she does. Certainly, the common definition would add that the amateur is less good at something than the professional.
Today I would like to alter your thinking about the amateur. In fact, the more classic definition of “amateur” has nothing to do with contrasting it with the professional. To be an amateur meant engaging with something for the pleasure of it. In fact, the word “amateur” derives from the ancient French word “love of.” This is what I am talking about: a pursuit that endures because we love it. The late public intellectual Edward Said asserted that amateurism suggests a willingness “to be moved not by profit or reward, but by love for and unquenchable interest in the larger picture, in making connections across lines and barriers, in refusing to be tied down to a specialty, in caring for ideas and values in spite of the restrictions of a profession.” He continued, “To be an amateur is to be a person who engages for the pleasure of it. In many instances, amateurs are more competent than professionals, because they’re more intimately connected to what they do. What they do is who they are.”
When you applied to this school, we were eager to note hints of the spirit of the amateur in each of you. This had to do with how you lived your life outside of and beyond school. Of course, we wanted to be sure that you could thrive in the heady academic climate of this place, that you loved learning and had the skills and the training to complement a scholarly appetite. But we also wanted to be sure that you would thrive in a culture that we have been pleased to tout over the years as a generalist culture, one in which each of us was encouraged, even required, to sample liberally from all of the offerings curricular and, especially, extracurricular.
We celebrate the generalist; the adults in the community model this themselves by doing what they do in school—by teaching different levels of a certain subject, or by teaching different subjects, or by coaching different sports, or by leading extracurricular activities far in nature and scope from whatever one’s academic focus might be. We insist on an academic program that exposes you to different ways of thinking, to content in various disciplines that helps explain the world. Best of all we hope that achieving academic breadth but also digging deep in certain areas will
“In essence, what you do here around the edges might indeed become the heart of your lives— and by that, I mean what animates you, what gives you pleasure, what joins you with other likeminded souls—the heart of who you are.”
suggest the interconnectedness of things, the way in which our complex universe—real and imagined—is made up of compelling conversations among perspectives and beliefs. We hope you’ll develop passions. And we hope you’ll sample similarly broadly from many of our extracurricular offerings.
When I was a boy, we talked more regularly about hobbies.
I don’t know that I’ve heard that term mentioned at all over the past several years. A hobby was something someone loved to do, and it had nothing to do with his or her job or the responsibilities one had related to school. It had to do with amateurism as I have previously described it: doing something for the love of it. Yes, hobbyists often were keen on getting good at whatever it was, but competition was rarely a part of what motivated one to pursue a hobby. And certainly, one was never motivated by compensation. At times in my young life, I was a stamp collector keeping books of stamps representative of the far-flung and exotic countries around the world. Then, for a time, I collected coins, always in pursuit of the Liberty head quarters or the Kennedy half-
dollars. Some of my friends were Boy Scouts, and they were challenged within that pursuit to accomplish lots of other pursuits—a mini-incubator for lots of hobbies and esoteric skills (fire building and knot tying and shelter making). Some of my friends were bird watchers, eager to spot the anomalous species on a nearby tree. Some built things like birdhouses or step stools or forts or tree houses. Others tinkered with cars or electric motors. For a time, I made potholders—a marvel of weaving and design—perfect as cheap gifts. And, of course, for me music was always an important companion. As you would understand, it’s music I will use as the best example of an avocation that grew into a sometimes vocation and, again, an avocation. What began early on with singing around the house, and then piano lessons, has been a beloved force in my life. I discussed the idea of hobbies with a female friend of my age, and she reminded me that largely girls were into all kinds of things, too, like sewing and dressmaking and knitting and cooking. I risk the possibility of sounding sexist in this report, but that was the way it was. Of course, many people had sports as a hobby. In one way or another, sports can also accompany you most of your life—for a time as a participant, and then as a coach or fan or referee.
My main point is not to take a trip down memory lane (while that is a common journey of mine), but, rather to sing the praises of amateurism—something one does for the pleasure
of it. Frankly, it’s unlikely that later in life you will be doing much academic math or much academic Latin, but it’s quite possible you’ll still be playing the sax or singing in a choir or fixing things around the house or collecting this or that or writing poetry or critiquing arts events or playing golf or keeping a garden or volunteering for a worthy cause. In essence, what you do here around the edges might indeed become the heart of your lives—and by that, I mean what animates you, what gives you pleasure, what joins you with other like-minded souls—the heart of who you are.
My colleagues, slightly older than you students, are amateurs. Thankfully not in their teaching at which they are expert. But in countless ways beyond that, they find purpose and pleasure in their lives. I am grateful for their willingness to share some of their amateur pursuits with us today.
As you will see from these stories, our friends love what they do. It gives their lives meaning and gives them pleasure. As you think of your own lives—of what’s important to you now and will be important to you in the future—think about the amateur spirit. We hope to help you discover and develop passions that will accompany and define you for the rest of your lives. May this goal like the days ahead shine bright and with compelling promise. (Oh, and at some point, in addition to all that, get a job!) //
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Alessandro Ferzoco’14: Genealogy
Director of the Annual Fund
“I inherited my unusual name from my grandfather’s father, and as a result I developed an intense interest in family history at a young age. I often wondered: Why is my name unique? Why do people want to abbreviate my name? Where do I come from? My maternal grandmother lived with us in the house where my mother grew up, and my paternal grandparents lived nine houses away, so as a child I was the beneficiary of lots of storytelling. My interest in genealogy stems from an interest in exploring the lives of ordinary people and considering the ways that they, too, affected the course of human events. I find it humbling to explore the complicated lives of our ‘ordinary’ ancestors. The Great Man Theory of historical study leaves so many questions unanswered about our place in the world. While studying history in college, I found social history a fascinating complement to the more traditional intellectual, political, economic, and military history that enamored most of my classmates. Although Faulkner’s line, ‘The past is never dead. It’s not even past,’ may sound trite these days, the sentiment rings eternally true for me.”
Ryan Peterson: Beekeeping
Class I
“You may be wondering how one becomes a beekeeper, and I honestly don’t know any normal path to the hobby. When I was nine, my grandfather bought a beehive from a friend of his. I eagerly volunteered to help without any knowledge of the work. Lacking both the expertise and the strength required, I began learning how to care for bees under my grandfather’s friend. When I put on my beekeeping suit for the first time, I felt tremendous awe. The bees captivated me as I watched my mentor methodically work through the hive. The past years have gone by in a flash as I watched the bees grow and produce hundreds of pounds of honey. Today, I have three hives of my own in my backyard. While I doubt that any of you will be inspired to become a beekeeper, my journey through beekeeping can be replicated in any passion you may have. The key is to not let a lack of knowledge stop you from seizing opportunities. If I had not blindly volunteered to care for my first hive, I would never have learned how to care for bees, nor learned how much I love beekeeping. The learning comes after you take that first step.”
Kristen Gibbons: Floral Arrangements
Assistant to the Headmaster
“My love of flowers and gardening began at an early age. My gift, however, happens once the flower has grown and been cut, or resides in a small seasonal container. I love imagining a color combination, or a monochromatic burst of textures to please the eye and the senses, and creating an arrangement or installation with that in mind. Flowers and plants bring people joy in happy times and comfort through their struggles, and I feel lucky to be a part of that. My work has evolved and changed as I have, and I love trying new things and learning new techniques. If there are things that you enjoy, share your talents with others—you’ll be amazed at the warmth with which you’ll be received, and you could turn a hobby into a career, or build relationships with people who share your interests.”
John Lieb: Crossword Puzzles
Chair of the Mathematics Department
“I have always enjoyed games and puzzles, but it was not until the fall of 2010, when I got my first iPhone, that I discovered the online community of crossword solvers and constructors. Also that fall, a new math teacher named David Quarfoot, who was also an oft-published crossword constructor, started teaching across the hall from me. Through talking puzzles with David and trying my own first constructions, I slowly improved and eventually started getting some crosswords published. I enjoy all the parts of the construction process—coming up with a theme, laying out the grid, writing the clues—as they each engage a different creative muscle.”
Jeff Ott: Ornithology
Science and History Faculty
“I was homeschooled until sixth grade. I had a childhood in which my mother believed that ‘the world was our school.’ I took that to heart and started jotting down observations of nesting House Wrens, and hummingbird visits to flowers. I was curious about the boundaries of nature. I was fascinated by each and every part of birds’ life histories. I started volunteering at a banding station when I was five years old, helping birds return to the wild after collecting data from each one. Birds allow me to be present in a way that is challenging in our frenetic world. They slow things down for me and allow me to be curious about the here and now. I regularly get texts from friends around the world: ‘I saw this bird, can you tell me what it is? Also, hi! How are you?!’ It’s now one of the best ways that I keep in touch with people from the past and stay curious about the present and future.”
Founder’s Day: A Life of Service
On November 2, Roxbury Latin celebrated its annual Founder’s Day, honoring the very beginning of the school, founded in 1645 under King Charles I by “the good apostle” John Eliot. In its 379th year, the school focused on John Eliot’s life of service.
“At Roxbury Latin,” said Headmaster Kerry Brennan, “our mission is rooted in developing young men who go on to lead and serve, an effort that is alive and well. In countless other ways throughout the year, we freely share our gifts in serving those in need, the lonely, the sick, the hopeless, the hungry, the homeless, and the destitute. In doing so, we acknowledge our own undeserved privilege. And in our efforts now we lay the groundwork and practice the habits that will inspire us to serve others in ways big and small throughout our lives. >>
" The Founder’s Day address was delivered by Father John Unni, Pastor of Saint Cecilia Parish serving Boston’s Back Bay, Fenway, and South End.
“As I come into Roxbury Latin this morning,” began Father Unni, “I remember teaching and how much I loved it and miss it. I look at the teachers here, who are so committed to shaping, forming, and guiding you through these years. And there’s just a good feeling here. There’s a feeling and a spirit of excellence, and I hope you stay as true to that as you can throughout life. The world needs it. The country needs it. We need it as human beings, with one another. So thanks for inviting me and having me be a part of this special morning.
“It’s a heavy world right now. These are some dark times. I have a morning routine—I hit that alarm, get up, and I immediately go to the paper. I didn’t do it this morning. I didn’t want it to taint me before I came in here today. I feel lighter from not having read the paper or gone on my phone to find out how awful things are in Gaza and Israel, Mass and Cass, Ukraine, who was killed, who was this-ed, >>
Service
"
who was that-ed. I just kind of fasted from that for a few minutes. I’ll check things out later on. That allowed me to come here this morning with a lightness. And it’s a spectacularly beautiful day. The light’s streaming in here. I know you guys are going to go out for a picture later on. It’s a beautiful, quintessential New England fall day.”
Father Unni went on to suggest that the way out of our dark times—as a world, as a country, and personally— is to look beyond ourselves and our troubles, and to help others. >>
“It sounds counterintuitive,” he said, “but when you and I help another person, something happens within us. That’s when our spirits lift, they brighten, they even shine when we care for, help, or advocate for somebody else, when we stand up for somebody and selflessly serve.”
Drawing from various examples, including Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King, Jr., Oscar Romero, and even Roxbury Latin graduate Lou Manzo ’03, Father Unni underscored the significance of service from ordinary people, who undertook extraordinary deeds, to serve others.
“Being a light bearer, being a preserver and an enhancer is not easy,” said Father Unni. “But you and I can illuminate a dark time in somebody else’s life, in this country, in our world, or in our own lives, just by being authentically who we are—concerned, smart, generous, and loving people.” >>
At the conclusion of Hall, all 309 boys, along with the faculty and staff, assembled on risers on the Senior Grass for the annual all-school picture. Then, after donuts and a quick change of clothes, the entire school gathered on O’Keeffe Field for the day’s service activity: building 83 beds to be donated to children in need. This activity was in partnership with A Bed for Every Child, a program of the Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless. The organization works with public schools and community organizations throughout Massachusetts to provide access to free, new, twin beds for children in need.
RL has partnered with A Bed for Every Child since 2019, but this year’s event was the organization’s largest-ever bed build. Finally the day concluded with a barbeque lunch on the Flea Patch followed by a rousing Kahoot! trivia competition, expertly emceed by Mr. Piper, in the Smith Theater. //
Commemorating Martin Luther King, Jr.: Dr. Brandon Terry Examines Education, Sacrifice, and W. E. B. Du Bois
On January 16, Smith Scholar Dr. Brandon Terry delivered the address at RL’s annual MLK Commemoration Hall.
After a reading of Micah 6 by Matteo Santagata (I) and excerpts from MLK’s Letter From a Birmingham Jail read by Aydin Hodjat (I), along with the singing of Wake Now My Senses and Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing, Dr. Terry began:
“I want to take you back to February 23, 1968, when the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. took to the stage in New York City, at Carnegie Hall, in front of a sold-out audience. King was the keynote speaker that evening, of a centennial celebration of W. E. B. Du Bois’s life... What King hoped to do that night with his address at Carnegie Hall was rescue Du Bois from being ignored by what he called a pathetically ignorant America.”
Dr. Terry recounted Du Bois’s remarkable journey, from being the first African American to earn a Ph.D. at Harvard University to becoming a revolutionary historian, cultural critic, and a key figure in the founding of the NAACP and the Pan-African Congress. But despite his accolades, Du Bois faced adversity— he was arrested in 1951, falsely charged as an agent of the Soviet Union, and effectively blacklisted even after his charges were dropped for lack of evidence. Du Bois was eventually stripped of his passport while working in Ghana, effectively exiling him. Du Bois’s death, on the eve of the 1963 March on Washington, denied him the chance to witness King’s renowned articulation of his dream.
“But crucially for King,” said Dr. Terry, “honoring Du Bois did not mean agreeing with his every utterance or idea. It is unfortunately a too frequent problem of our contemporary moment that people confuse serious and sympathetic criticism with disrespect. King thought that part of showing genuine respect for your fellows, especially those of us engaged in intellectual work, is to offer honest critique and engagement with our ideas.”
In MLK’s 1963 book, Why We Can’t Wait, King challenged Du Bois’s concept of The Talented Tenth—an elite group of leaders Du Bois believed should guide the political struggle and discipline collective life.
“Du Bois argued provocatively that the Negro race, like all races, is going to be saved by its exceptional men,” said Dr. Terry, “the men who set the ideals of the community where they live, direct its thoughts and head its social movements. Investment in those men is of the utmost importance.”
King criticized Du Bois’s philosophy as elitist and antidemocratic. King believed in the power of all individuals, not just an elite few, to actively participate in the fight for civil rights. This tension within the intellectual community underscored the importance of respectful critique and engagement with differing ideas.
Dr. Terry’s address then delved into Du Bois’s evolving defense of a conservative, philosophical view of liberal arts education, which Du Bois believed was essential for developing analytical discipline, judgment, and talent for self-expression. True education, in his eyes, produced individuals capable of critical thinking about the values governing their lives.
Du Bois first defended the idea of the Talented Tenth in a well-known 1903 essay, but 45 years later—during a 1948 speech at the national conference of The Boule, an elite black fraternity—he revisited the idea and his perception of liberal arts education.
“I think that in our age of controversy,” said Dr. Terry, “we can learn from Du Bois’s own self-criticism to start to plot a path forward. In 1948 Du Bois claimed that while his earlier essay talked a great deal about scientific study and modern knowledge, he neglected to emphasize virtue—especially the virtue of sacrifice. ‘I assumed,’ Du Bois says, ‘that with knowledge, sacrifice would automatically follow. In my youth, in my idealism, I did not realize that selfishness is even more natural than sacrifice.’”
Du Bois would go on to write that humanity’s predisposition to selfishness had been accelerated by economic inequality and competition, leading people to seek resources and status at the expense of others. A critical challenge remained—how to cultivate a spirit of sacrifice and service in groups whose elite education allowed the ability to hoard opportunity. Dr. Terry challenged students to consider parallels between Du Bois’s ideals, their own education, and Roxbury Latin’s mission.
“It’s no secret that ideas like the Talented Tenth have fallen on hard times,” said Dr. Terry. “All around the world, political parties are sorting into opposing camps, those with college degrees or educations like yours versus those without. The
populace, including those who’ve attended schools like this, has turned around and publicly scorned the very idea of a leadership class forged in elite liberal arts universities. Universities across the world are being targeted by well-funded campaigns to stifle independent descent to forcibly take over college administration and attack the very credibility of liberal arts education itself. The university you will attend will, in all likelihood, be more embattled and less open in dialogue than the one that I attended as an undergraduate.”
Dr. Terry urged a reevaluation of admissions policies, hiring practices, and decision-making processes to break away from extreme meritocracy and cultivate humility among elites.
“Du Bois in 1948 was not especially hopeful that such pleas would change the hearts and minds of his audience. The allure of status and wealth were great then and are today greater still. But what he said then is even more true now: this is a time of crisis. For Du Bois, this was about fraternity and black solidarity, but for me, this is about civic life itself and higher education as a project. We cannot simply proceed in the higher education space as if political distrust and cynicism, and the reduction of learning to moneymaking, may not destroy much of what the modern university has achieved.
“If the object of the world, as Du Bois argues, is not profit but service and happiness, we will need more than moral exhortation to realize it. We need a more expansive conception of freedom of inquiry on campus. We need to hold our students and faculty to high standards of ethical and academic excellence. We need a commitment to public service and experimental problem-solving that guides what we do in the classroom.
“The goal—against the machinations of billionaires and propagandists,” concluded Dr. Terry, “is to defend, at all costs, the classroom, where the widest swath of our countrymen and visitors from around the world can find respect for what Du Bois calls, rightly, ‘The rich and better depth of our experience, the unknown treasures of our inner life, the strange renderings of nature people have seen that may give the world new points of view and make their loving, living, and doing precious to all human hearts.’” //
Dr. Po-Shen Loh Combines AI, Education, and Art
On January 23, Roxbury Latin welcomed Dr. Po-Shen Loh—a mathematician, educator, and tech entrepreneur—to the Smith Theater to discuss the growing role of artificial intelligence in education and AI’s impact on the world.
A mathematics professor at Carnegie Mellon University, Dr. Loh has made a significant mark on math, education, and healthcare, from winning a silver medal in the 1999 International Mathematical Olympiad and coaching top-ranked university and national math teams, to founding educational websites and developing contact-tracing apps. Addressing the rise of AI, Dr. Loh engaged with ChatGPT on stage.
With the help of students, Dr. Loh prompted ChatGPT with a question about integrals. And the AI went above and beyond in its answer. But while AI can provide information, teachers will continue to play a crucial role in sparking human interest, fostering curiosity, and instilling the qualities that make us uniquely human.
“A teacher’s job is not just to dump methods into your brain,” Dr. Loh said. “If you want methods in your brain, there’s the internet, there are books. But the job of a teacher is to channel human interest. The things that I became good at were because I saw a real person who had some of those skills, and I said, ‘When I grow up, I want to be just like him.’ You need a human for that. Because no one’s going to say, ‘When I grow up I want to be ChatGPT.’”
To address that challenge—that there are neither enough teachers nor enough mathematically literate students to meet the demands of the AI Age—Dr. Loh created a program for middle school students aiming to equip them with essential skills for an AI-driven future. The program involves high school students proficient in math partnering with professional actors to create an engaging and innovative learning experience. Live-streamed classes on Twitch, resembling popular online formats, make math education more accessible, particularly in under-resourced areas.
The inclusion of professional actors in each class also provides feedback for the high school student-teachers, enhancing their communication skills and creating a winwin opportunity for students at all educational levels. The novel approach has proven highly effective in making math education more impactful, captivating, and accessible to a diverse range of students.
Dr. Loh’s vision extends beyond mathematics, emphasizing the development of both IQ and EQ (emotional intelligence), in all fields, for success in a world where AI is increasingly influential.
After speaking in Hall, Dr. Loh visited with RL teachers, with Class III Physics students, and with the Parents’ Auxiliary to discuss AI in the classroom, college, and beyond. //
King’s Return Takes the Stage as This Year’s
Berman Artists-in-Residence
In February, Roxbury Latin welcomed the 2024 Berman Visiting Artists, King’s Return, to the Smith Theater stage.
A four-man a cappella group from Dallas, Texas, King’s Return first joined RL’s parents, faculty, and friends for an evening performance on February 10 to kick off the Parents’ Auxiliary February Flurry. They provided a useful master class with The Latonics on Sunday, and they then performed in Hall the following Monday morning for students.
The group’s sound has earned comparisons to iconic acts like Take 6 and Boyz II Men, but King’s Return’s wide-ranging repertoire, from Stevie Wonder’s Supertition to Schubert’s Ave Maria, sets it apart from fellow vocal groups.
The quartet—tenor Vaughn Faison, bass Gabe Kunda, tenor JE McKissic, and baritone Jamall Williams—rose to fame after a video of their a cappella rendition of God Bless America went viral in 2020. Since then, the group has released a holiday album and a debut LP, Rove, from which their cover of Bee Gees’ How Deep is Your Love earned a Grammy nomination for best arrangement instrumental or a cappella.
In 2005, Ethan Berman ’79 and his wife, Fiona Hollands, established—in honor of Ethan’s mother—the Claire Berman Artist in Residence Fund. This endowed fund brings to the school annually a distinguished figure or figures in the arts. Since 2006, the school has been honored to welcome actors—such as Christopher Lloyd in Death of a Salesman, Tovah Feldshuh, and the troupe of The American Shakespeare Center; as well as poet laureate Billy Collins; jazz artist John Pizzarelli; the rock-and-roll performers of Beatlemania Now; singer/songwriter Livingston Taylor; renowned jazz singer Jane Monheit; and Nashville’s French Family Band, among other talented entertainers. //
Maya Roman Shares Perspective on IsraelPalestine Conflict
On January 25, Roxbury Latin welcomed Maya Roman to the Rousmaniere Hall stage. Ms. Roman’s cousin, Yarden Roman, was kidnapped by Hamas on October 7, 2023, and released after 54 days. Yarden’s sister-in-law, Carmel Gat, has yet to return home from the hands of the terrorist group.
Ms. Roman is a social activist, entrepreneur, academic, and the founder and publisher of Politically Corret [sic], Israel’s only feminist news organization, and an important part of the Israeli Me Too movement. Ms. Roman is also a scholar, finishing her PhD focusing on the role of social interactions in shaping science.
During Hall, Ms. Roman shared her stories of the Hamas attacks and her ongoing efforts to secure the safe return of all hostages, and discussed the challenging conflict in Gaza with students and faculty. //
THE PLAY THAT GOES
Senior Play Goes Wrong, on Purpose
On November 9 and 11, this year’s Senior Play, The Play that Goes Wrong, by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer, and Henry Shields, brought together more than 60 cast and crew for a hilarious production of a play within a play: The Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society puts on a performance of a classic mystery, The Murder at Haversham Manor. But despite their best efforts, the clumsy and ill-prepared troupe bungles its way through the production to gut-busting effect. Despite all appearances, it took considerable effort and coordination from the ensemble and directors to make a show fail with such exquisite comedic timing. This was new Director of Dramatics Matt Phillips’s first RL production. //
The Latonics Flex Their Golden Pipes
The 2023–2024 Roxbury Latin Latonics took to the Rousmaniere stage for the first time this year on October 26. The group’s set began with an arrangement of the Scottish folksong Loch Lomond by Ralph Vaughan Williams with soloist Eric Zhu (I) followed by Michael Jackson’s Rock With You with soloist Fin Reichard (III) and ending with The Foundations’ classic Build Me Up Buttercup with soloists Xavier Martin (II), Ryan Miller (II), Fin Reichard (III), and Thomas Silva (I). //
RL Hosts Men’s Choral Festival
On November 8, Rousmaniere Hall was filled with the sound of more than 100 male voices singing in harmony at the Festival of Men’s Choruses. This year the Roxbury Latin Glee Club and Latonics welcomed Catholic Memorial’s Chorale and Belmont Hill’s B-Flats. //
Instrumentalists Take the Stage
On November 30, RL’s upperclassmen showcased their instrumental talents during a Recital Hall. The program began with a string ensemble—Marco Suri (III) on violin; Nathan Zhang (II) on cello; and Dennis Jin (I) on piano—performing Piano Trio No. 4 in E Minor, Op. 90, B. 166 “Dumky” by Antonín Dvořák. Pianist Darian Estrada (II) performed Étude in C minor “Revolutionary,” Op. 10 No. 12. by Frédéric Chopin; Justin Yamaguchi (I) performed Sonata No. 6 in E Major by Eugene Ysayëon on violin; and Bruno Kim (II) perfomed Beethoven’s piano Sonata in C Minor Op. 10 No. 1. The final ensemble of the morning—Justin Yamaguchi on violin, Eric Zhu (I) on viola and Darian Estrada on piano—performed Robert Fuchs’s Piano Trio No. 3 Op. 115, I. Allegro Molto Moderato. //
Top photo: Dennis Jin, Nathan Zhang, Marco Suri, Bruno Kim, Darian Estrada, Justin Yamaguchi, Eric Zhu.
"
Holiday Concert Double Feature
On December 18, Roxbury Latin’s vocal ensembles—Glee Club, Junior Chorus, and the Latonics—performed back-to-back shows at the annual RL Holiday Concert. //
Justin Yamaguchi (I) Named YoungArts Winner
Justin Yamaguchi (I) was named a 2024 National YoungArts Winner in classical music violin. The award recognizes exceptional technique, a strong sense of artistry, and a depth of performance that exceeds the level of peers at this stage //
A Valentine’s Debut for Jazz Combo and Guitar Ensemble
On February 14, the RL Jazz Combo and Guitar Ensemble made debut Hall performances. Jazz Combo, featuring Lucas Vander Elst (I) on piano, Fin Richard (III) on alto saxophone, Theo Coben (I) on bass, Ryan Miller (II) on guitar and trumpet, and Joseph Wang (I) on drums, performed Have You Met Miss Jones? by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, and Footprints by Wayne Shorter. Guitar Ensemble, featuring Lucas Vander Elst, Ryan Peterson (I), Oliver Colbert (III), Leo Venanzi (VI), and Christopher Yeh (VI), opened with Something Just Like This by The Chainsmokers and Coldplay and finished with Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit. //
Winter Recital Hall Showcases RL’s Young Talent
On February 1, a Winter Recital Hall provided an opportunity for RL’s younger instrumentalists to take the Rousmaniere stage alongside their older classmates. Teddy Fortuin (IV) kicked off the performances with Bach’s Partita No. 3 in E Major on violin. Max Kesselheim (III) followed with his own violin piece—Mozart’s Sonata No. 25 in G Major, accompanied on piano by Sid Chalamalasetty (IV). Alex Archerman (VI), Nick Makura (II), Simba Makura (III), and Rowan Bush (VI) contributed Georg Telemann’s Concerto for Four Violins in G Major; and a quintet—Teddy Fortuin and Alvin Li (IV) on violin; Casey Chiang (IV) on viola; Nathaniel Kelly (V) on cello, and Marco Suri (III) on piano—performed Dmitri Shostakovich’s Quintet in G Minor. The morning’s ultimate performance was Brahms’s Violin Sonata No. 2 in A Major, featuring Justin Yamaguchi (I) on violin and Darian Estrada (II) on piano. //
Top photo: (front row) Alvin Li, Rowan Bush, Alex Archerman, Max Kesselheim; (back row) Teddy Fortuin, Justin Yamaguchi, Darian Estrada, Sid Chalamalasetty, Nick Makura, Simba Makura, Marco Suri, Casey Chiang, Nathaniel Kelly.
service
On October 23, Sixies made their annual caretaking pilgrimage to the Eliot Burying Ground with rakes, trowels, and trash bags to beautify a corner of the city and to honor Founder John Eliot, who was laid to rest there 334 years ago. The cleanup was one part of two community service efforts shared between RL’s youngest students—Classes V and VI. Class V boys visited Hale Reservation in Westwood for grounds maintenance and trail work. //
On January 27, students from Classes I through III took part in a new service opportunity with the Prison Book Program in Quincy— boys read letters from incarcerated people with book requests, and fulfilled their requests using PBP’s stock of donated books. In the same month, RL boys also volunteered at the Women’s Lunch Place in the Back Bay, helping prepare meals and wash dishes.
RL’s ongoing class-wide service projects—at Perkins School for the Blind, the Deutsches Altenheim, Community Servings, St. Theresa of Avila School, and the Dedham Food Pantry—continue to make a positive impact within our community and beyond. //
On December 16, 22 boys from Class I through Class III joined faculty in laying wreaths on the graves of indigent men and women in the City Poor Lot of Fairview Cemetery in Hyde Park. Many of the men and women had died homeless and had been living on the streets. Since all were without family, Class I boys had served as pallbearers at their burials through our Ave Atque Vale service initiative over the past eight years. Paul and Andra Mattaliano P’27 donated all 100 wreaths. //
Prison Book Program
Tech Tutoring
Women’s Lunch Place
Deutsches Altenheim
Joan Regan Remembers Tim Bilodeau ’68 in Winter Service Kickoff
On January 9, Mike Pojman and Joan Regan P’96, ’00 returned to campus to speak to boys during a Hall on service. From Mrs. Regan’s arrival at RL in 2001 as Assistant to the Headmaster to her retirement in 2011, she directed RL’s service initiatives, including tutoring at Boston Trinity and other schools, partnering with Deutsches Altenheim to entertain and support elderly residents, engaging fifthies and sixies to plant bulbs and clean forest preserves, founding the Connected Living project, establishing RL’s Habitat for Humanity chapter, tech tutoring, and multiple foreign service trips. Mrs. Regan’s legacy of service runs so deep in the fabric of Roxbury Latin that each spring an RL boy receives the Joan Regan Service Award for his year of outstanding record of service.
Mrs. Regan shared the story of Tim Bilodeau ’68, who after RL matriculated at Harvard, then Stanford Business School, and went on to a successful business career before a friend invited him to Ecuador, where he met a local mother who, forced with the impossible choice to spend her meager income on medicine for her sick child or food for her other hungry children, watched as her son died from an infection whose cure was available for pennies in the United States.
For Tim—himself a father of three boys—the encounter changed his life. Millions of children in remote rural areas around the world were dying needlessly from preventable disease. In 1997 Tim founded the organization Medicines for
Humanity, and it wasn’t long after that when Tim came to RL to share his story in Hall.
“At the end of that school day,” said Mrs. Regan, “Michael ObelOmia, then a beloved English teacher at RL, came to my office carrying a bag full of cash and coins. He explained that in his sixie English class, which immediately followed the Hall, he asked his students to empty their pockets and determine how many lives they could save with 20-cent doses of medication. Their approximately 32 collective dollars were donated to Medicines for Humanity, and that was the beginning of RL’s support of MFH.”
Tim passed away three years ago to the day of Mrs. Regan’s Hall, but his mission and the mission of MFH—to save the lives of children and expectant mothers in areas with high infant mortality—lives on. Mrs. Regan closed with a quotation from Tim during a 2016 visit to RL:
“When I started MFH it was pretty lonely on what I would call my ‘road not taken.’ But I am not alone anymore, and I want to thank you for your commitment and generosity to bring healthcare to the world’s most vulnerable children.”
This year’s Community Service Hall continued with Peter DeVito (I), who spoke about Shot For Life (ASFL), a sports-based cancer
Service Drive by the Numbers
Before the conclusion of Hall, Mr. Pojman asked the boys, faculty, and staff to repeat after him a simple oath for the coming month: “I will give of myself generously,” and our boys answered the call with a record-breaking month-long effort.
166 Pairs of Shoes
research organization that, since its founding in 2011, has raised more than $1 million for MGH cancer research.
“I’m excited to bring ASFL into our gym on Winter Family Night," said Peter. “We will be giving away exclusive RL-ASFL shirts for the basketball game against Nobles. I hope everyone can stay, make a donation, and stick around for a memorable halftime show in support of ASFL.”
Evan Zhang (I), RL’s Service Corps president, then spoke about the RL Service Corps’ upcoming initiatives, including a four-week service drive to collect donations of toys, clothing, and food.
“This year,” said Evan, “our goal is to achieve the same success we had last year, with 100 percent participation. Each of the upcoming four weeks will include collections of five types of items and three fundraisers to support meaningful causes and organizations, including the Dedham Food Pantry, the Thrift Shop of Boston, the Home for Little Wanderers, Boston Public Schools, City Year, Gifts to Give, Giving Soles Africa, MFH, AFSL, and Maru-A-Pula.”
“As students at RL,” added Evan, “we have been provided with countless resources to explore and pursue our own interests. In the midst of all these advantages we are afforded, we must help those in more unfortunate circumstances. With every item donated to our homeroom collection boxes, I hope you feel that same gratifying feeling I have from my personal experiences helping others.” //
1,463 Food Items
551 Toys
233 Coats
1,920 Items of Clothing
4,333
Total Donations
(compared to 3,640 last year)
$1,500 Raised for ASFL
$5,500 Raised for MFH and Maru-A-Pula
Sixies Make Winter Walk for Homelessness
On February 5, RL’s sixies did their part to fight homelessness in Boston and beyond—with a twomile Winter Walk through West Roxbury, a new annual tradition for RL’s youngest students.
Winter Walk is a non-profit organization striving to end homelessness in our communities. It centers on two-mile walks in NYC and Greater Boston in February, the coldest month of the year. //
Latin, Robots, and Public Speaking (Oh
The weekend of February 6 was a busy one for RL students in Classics, robotics, and public speaking extracurriculars.
RL’s Classics Club competed at Boston Latin School’s Annual Certamen: The Advanced Team placed first out of 10 teams; the Intermediate Team placed third out of 7 teams; the Novice Team placed second out of 13 teams.
The same afternoon, RL’s Middle School VEX Robotics teams competed in the final MS VEX Robotics competition of the regular season. Four RL teams qualified for the Southern New England Middle School Regional Championship.
To cap off an already successful weekend, RL students returned from the Kingswood-Oxford Public Speaking Tournament with hardware, including Third Overall School:
Lucas Connors (II): Third place Overall Speaker
Jayden Phan (I): First place Ethical Dilemma, Second place After Dinner
Ryan Peterson (I): Second place Ethical Dilemma, Third place After Dinner. //
RL Makes First Appearance on GBH’s High School Quiz Show
In November, Roxbury Latin qualified for the 15th season of GBH’s High School Quiz Show. RL earned a spot on the bracket as a Top-17 team out of 58 who participated in qualifying.
The team—Akhilsai Damera (I), Theo Coben (I), Lucas Connors (II), Ezra Liebowitz (I), Dennis Jin (I), James Kerr (IV), and Mr. Tim Kelly—filmed its preliminary match against last season’s runners up, Mansfield High School, at the GBH’s Allston studio on January 20. The episode aired on February 29. Unfortunately RL came up short, but the team made a valiant effort against a seasoned opponent. //
Jaden Barrack-Anidi (II) Presents at Framingham MLK Celebration
On January 15, Jaden Barrack-Anidi (II) was the youth presenter at the Greater Framingham Community Church’s 37th annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration.
“I believe that difference makers in this world lead by their actions as well as their words,” Jaden said. “It is not enough to simply point out the inequalities that still exist around us. But as a collective, we need to act and create change as our forefathers did before us.” //
Photo: Metro West Daily News, Wicked Local
Varsity Cross Country Wins
New England Championship
On November 11, the Varsity Cross Country team, coached by Bryan Dunn and Chris Heaton, earned its fourth New England Championship in six years, capturing the title at the New England Division II race at Roxbury Latin. RL scored 61 points to place first, ahead of Tabor (88) and Nobles (93). The win capped a 14–1 regular season and added to the team’s second-place ISL finish on November 4.
Both James Kerr (IV) and Ezra Klauber (II) finished in the top ten, placing second and fourth place respectively. Eric Diop (I) placed 14th and Richard Federico (III) placed 16th. James, Ezra, Eric, and Richard earned All-New England distinction by finishing in the top 20.
James Kerr (IV), Ezra Klauber (II), and Liam Walsh (IV) were named All-ISL runners for their impressive seasons, and Richie Federico and Eric Diop earned Honorable Mentions.
The JV team also ran a strong season, finishing with a 13–2 record that promises a bright future for the Cross Country program. The JV squad earned perfect scores of 15 in 10 of 14 races this season, and earned a first-place finish at the New England Championships, with seven runners finishing in the top 20. RL was led by Lincoln Hyatt (III) who won the race and Eric Archerman (IV) who placed second. Eric Zhu (I) and Akhilsai Damera (I) also finished in the top 10, placing fifth and seventh, respectively.
Roxbury Latin’s Junior team also had an extraordinary season, finishing 9–2 overall, earning first place in the Larz Anderson Invitational meet on October 18 and second place in the Roxbury Latin Junior Jamboree on November 1. //
Wrestlers Place Second at Graves-Kelsey, Small School New England Champs
On February 11, Roxbury Latin’s wrestlers headed to BB&N in Cambridge to compete in the Graves-Kelsey Tournament—the Independent School League wrestling championships, named for long-time and legendary coaches Bert Kelsey of Roxbury Latin, and Gibby Graves of Buckingham Browne & Nichols.
Earning an impressive second-place finish overall in a field of 13 teams (falling only to nationally-ranked Belmont Hill School), Roxbury Latin’s wrestlers exhibited dedication and toughness in a collective effort, with the following wrestlers placing in their respective weight classes:
1st place: Justin Lim (I) (Tournament Outstanding Wrestler), Declan Bligh (III), Aydin Hodjat (I); 2nd place: Noah Abdur Rahim (II), Nick Consigli (I); 3rd place: Sam Ruscito (V), Charlie Holt (IV), Zach Lim (V); 4th place: David Comander (IV), Auden Duda (III), Michael DiLallo (III); 5th place: Casey Chiang (IV); 6th place: Ryan Miller (II), Reid Spence (I)
At the New England Championships, on February 16 at Choate Rosemary Hall, Varsity Wrestling won the Small School Championship and placed fourth overall, with impressive individual performances:
Varsity Wrestling — Front row: Alvin Li, Rahsaan Mustafa-Coentro, Michael DiLallo, Teddy Fortuin, Hayden Cody, Ryan Miller, Aydin Hodjat (Captain), Nick Consigli (Captain), Dovany Estimphile (Captain), Charlie Holt, Noah Abdur Rahim, Teddy Smith, Ameer Hasan, Luke Kern, Zach Lim, Sam Ruscito. Back row: Jeff Ott (Coach), Eric Tran (Coach), Casey Chiang, Aiden Theodore, Caleb Ganthier, Logan McLaughlin, Jaden Barrack-Anidi, Akhilsai Damera, Flynn Hall, Justin Lim, Declan Bligh, Reid Spence, Auden Duda, David Comander, Brayden Gillespie, Art Beauregard (Head Coach), Paul Sugg (Coach).
Hockey — Front row: Sam DiFiore, Nicholas Galdo, Will Archibald, Ryan Conneely, Jake Popeo (Assistant Captain), Brendan St. Peter (Assistant Captain), Evan Zhang (Assistant Captain), Jake Novak (Captain), Benjamin Dearden, Thomas Pender, Christopher Lovett, Cole Gustie, Mark McGuire. Back row: Mo Randall (Coach), Dylan Pan, Luke Campanella, Thomas Mitchell, Nathan Rooney, Ryan Malloy, Cole Oberg, Tanner Oberg, Thomas Thornton, Thomas Stanton, Shane McGoldrick, Mitchell Flynn, Thomas Mattera, Dave Cataruzolo (Head Coach).
Varsity
Varsity Basketball — Front row: Dominic Landry, Matthew Golden, Sean Perri (Captain), James Henshon (Captain), Andrew Cerullo (Captain), Angus Leary, Hunter Lane. Back row: Sean Spellman (Head Coach), Jeff Spellman (Coach), Jackson Perri, Finnegan Leary, Ben McVane, Shane Bernazzani, Jack Hynes, Matthew Taglieri, Andre DeSilva, Thomas Quinlan, Ayan Shekhar (Manager), Tony Teixeira (Coach).
A Clean Sweep
RL teams competing on Winter Family Night on January 26 went undefeated for a second straight year as Varsity Hockey (3–1 over Groton), Varsity Basketball (64–60 over Nobles), and Varsity Wrestling (46-33 over Nobles) earned hard-fought victories, no doubt propelled by a raucous student section—The Fox Den—that fervently migrated among Hennessy Rink, the Gordon Fieldhouse, and the McNay Palaistra to cheer on schoolmates. Boys wore shirts signaling their support of our teams and the organization A Shot for Life.
Class Notes
1958
Peter Schwartz has completed a seven-year appointment as chair of the American Medical Association’s Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs: “Lynne and I continue two-week annual trips to Ethiopia, where I teach medical ethics as a member of the Ethiopian Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and she brings 200 pounds of clothes to the quite poor and primitive Omo Valley.”
1977 and 2008
The classes of 1977 and 2008 had a mini-reunion of sorts at the RLBerwick Academy hockey game at RL in January. John Campanella ’77, his wife, Ruth, and son Tom Campanella ’08 reconnected with Jack O’Loughlin ’77, his son John O’Laughlin ’08 and grandson, Theodore, to attend the game and cheer on the Foxes! Luke Campanella ’26, John’s nephew and Tom’s cousin, is a member of the RL Varsity Hockey Team.
1979
Bill Palmer ’82 enthusiastically shares, “Roxbury Latin schoolmate and fellow
attorney Peter Choharis ’79 has thrown his hat in the ring of politics, as Peter is running to secure the Democratic party’s nomination for the House of Representatives seat for the Sixth District of Maryland.”
1985
1 Allen Downey’s book, Probably Overthinking It, was published by the University of Chicago Press on December 6, 2023. “It is my first book for a general, well-educated audience,” says Allen.
1992
After suffering a traumatic brain injury just over eight years ago, Sean McCabe ran the 128th Boston Marathon in April, raising funds to support Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, where he received the treatment that brought him back to health. “My recovery has been miraculous, thanks in large part to the tremendous care that I received from Spaulding’s outstanding doctors, nurses, and therapists,” says Sean.
1997–2001
2 Pete Mahoney ’98, Jerry Murphy ’01, and John Meagher ’97 reunited in Hingham this fall.
2001
3 On January 7, Zach Kanin won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Short Form Comedy, Drama Or Variety Series for I Think You Should Leave With Tim Robinson, a series he co-created with Tim Robinson.
2006
4 Jeff Kirchick published his second book, How Boys Learn, in February. The book is a set of short stories featuring male protagonists who learn valuable life lessons. The last story in the book, “A Boys’ School,” is about Roxbury Latin. The book is available for purchase on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
2009
5 Sam August is pursuing his fulltime music career and is on tour as lead guitarist with country recording artist Joe Nichols. Sunny and 75 and Brokenheartsville are two of the band’s big hits. Sam took the job as Nichols’s
2011
6 In December 2023, Nelson Tamayo completed his tour at U.S. Mission Angola & Sao Tome and Principe, where he served as Vice Consul.
During his two years in Angola, Nelson adjudicated over 11,000 immigrant and non-immigrant visa cases, provided emergency consular assistance to U.S. citizens in distress, and served as site officer during the visits of Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, and State Department Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer, Ambassador Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley. In February 2024 he began his second overseas assignment with the U.S. Department of State as Consul at U.S. Embassy Mexico City.
2017
Henry Lin-David is newly engaged to his fiancée, Kate, with wedding festivities tentatively planned for May 2025. Living in Charlottesville, Henry has a new job in marketing with UVA’s radiology department—paying the bills as he “chases the dopamine rush that comes with seeing one’s name as a byline,” such as his and Kate’s professional crossword debut as co-creators (featured in the LA Times) and what he describes as “an admittedly strange short story.”
2019
7 Trey Sullivan was one of six Harvard students, among 51 students nationwide, to be named to the Marshall Scholarship Class of 2024. The recipients will head to the U.K. next year for two years of graduate studies at the college or university of their choice. Trey, a
history and literature major, has been studying the organization of labor and distribution of land in the French Caribbean after France abolished slavery in its colonies in 1848, as well as how 19th-century ideologies shaped the way Black labor laws and land rights were legislated. After Harvard, he plans to pursue a Ph.D. in history at the University of Cambridge, where he’ll do a comparative study between the French
Caribbean, the British Caribbean, and the American South in the years directly following the emancipation of enslaved residents.
2021
8 Sam Stone celebrated as a member of the D3 Club National Championship Hockey team at the University of Miami.
Founder’s Day Pub Night
November 2: Trillium Brewery, Seaport
Alumni Hockey Game
December 26: Hennessy Rink
Young Professionals Social
November 24: SPIN, Boston
NYC Reception
November 9: Metropolitan Club of New York
Young Alumni Holiday Party
December 17: Headmaster’s House
In Memoriam
James K. Rumrill ’50 died on December 15, 2023, at the age of 91. After graduating from Roxbury Latin, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy and served as a cryptologic technician in Washington, D.C. and in London until 1957. He then moved to reserve status and enrolled in the University of Florida. After completing his undergraduate studies, he taught history at the Gaud School in Charleston, South Carolina.
While working as a staff reporter for the News & Courier in Charleston during the summer of 1961, he met Barbara Poole, and they married on Labor Day weekend, beginning a partnership that lasted 62 years. After receiving an honorable discharge from his reserve enlisted service, he accepted a direct commission as Ensign in the Navy Readiness Reserves as well as a full fellowship from the University of Florida to complete a master’s degree in international relations and Russian
studies. Jim and Barbara returned to Charleston in 1962 where he began his career in education as the Department Head for Social Studies at the Gaud School, where he also coached soccer.
Jim continued in the same capacity after the school merged with Porter Military Academy in 1965. He initiated and directed the summer school program from 1966 through 1969. In 1969, he was named Upper School Principal of Porter-Gaud School. In 1974, he assumed the role of Assistant Headmaster, and between 1977 and 1997 he served as headmaster of three schools: The Catawba School (Rock Hill, South Carolina), Asheville Country Day School (Asheville, North Carolina), and Christ Church Episcopal School (Greenville, South Carolina). He was a founding member of the Palmetto Association of Independent Schools in 1978, and he served as its Executive Director for a number of years after his retirement in 1997.
Jim was an extraordinary educator—a leader and a mentor to many—and his ultimate motivation was to help every student and colleague realize their potential. Throughout his career Jim maintained a connection to RL, corresponding with Headmaster Jarvis; in his correspondence he regularly commended RL’s work and expressed his gratitude for having attended.
Reflecting on the role of educators, Jim wrote the following: “One of the special privileges of teaching is to see the ‘end product’ of your work years later as an adult. Working with children in a school setting is not work, per
se. It is dedication, a commitment. Our profession is not concerned just with college preparation—we are preparing youngsters for a lifetime. Such preparation involves far more than academics, sports, and extracurriculars, important though they are to the maturing process. Education focuses on the human condition in terms of caring and concern for others, a willingness to serve one’s community, the essence of leadership (and followership), the strength to stand firm in one’s beliefs despite all that swirls about us, and a commitment to truth and fairness. The opportunities to address these qualities and standards are many throughout a school day. What teachers, coaches, and administrators do and say is absorbed by our students, whether they or we are aware or not. As role models, our actions and reactions, our words, and our lifestyles have profound influence on the many children who pass through our lives on their way to becoming adults.”
Jim applied the same commitment and dedication in service to our country through his work as a reserve officer in Navy intelligence from 1961 until 1992, achieving the rank of captain in 1983. Jim’s active-duty training tours included the Naval War College, the National Security Agency, the Pentagon, and Chief of Naval Reserve Headquarters. In 1989, he received the Meritorious Service Medal for his work as Special Assistant for Cryptology. He retired from the Navy in 1992.
Jim was active in every community he called home through organizations such as the Optimist Club of Charleston, the Disability Boards of Charleston and York
counties, Rotary Clubs of Rock Hill and Greenville, The United Way of Asheville, Junior Achievement of Western NC, Greenville Symphony Endowment Board, and Greenville Literacy Association. Raised in the Unitarian tradition, he found a spiritual home in The Episcopal Church later in life, where he took an active role in the churches that he attended.
In the last years of his life, Jim was challenged by difficulty with his shortterm memory, a fact that he recognized and accepted with grace and humor. He enjoyed excellent physical health until shortly before his passing. Jim is survived by his wife, Barbara; two children, Keith Rumrill (Crystal) and Alyson Gray (Brian), and four grandchildren.
Henry Phillip “Phil” Garrity, Jr. ’51 of Needham died on November 23, 2023, at the age of 89. Phil was born on February 24, 1934, to the late H.P. Garrity and Gertrude Garrity of West Roxbury. Phil attended Georgetown University, where
he was captain of the swim team. He was commissioned in the U.S. Navy from 1955 to 1959 and served in the Pacific and Mediterranean fleet. Phil married Carolyn Doyle of West Roxbury in 1955, and they shared three children: Phillip ’74, Lauren, and Stephen Garrity.
Phil entered the insurance business in 1960 and retired in 1994 as Executive Vice President of Deland, Gibson Insurance Associates of Wellesley. He also took pride in serving the Town of Needham, first on its Finance Committee and later as Selectman for 25 years, including eight terms as Chairman of the Board. He was a member of the Republican State Committee, the Board of Directors for Newton South Co-op Bank, and the Needham Exchange Club. He also served as a trustee of Roxbury Latin from 1974 to 1979. He was honored as Newton-Needham Chamber of Commerce Man of the Year in 1990.
Phil and Carolyn enjoyed an eventful retirement, splitting time between their homes in Pocasset on Cape Cod and Naples, Florida. Phil was an avid golfer, tennis player, and swimmer. He was instrumental in the lives of his grandchildren, who treasure their memories with him, including spending every summer together on Cape Cod.
Phil was predeceased by his youngest son, Stephen Garrity. Those left to cherish his memory include his wife of 68 years, Carolyn Garrity; his daughter, Lauren (Garrity) Schwindt, and her husband Christopher Schwindt; and his grandchildren, Christopher Schwindt Jr., Jordan Schwindt, and Katie Schwindt. Phil is also survived by his eldest son,
Phillip Garrity III, and his wife Carol Garrity; his grandchildren, Michael Garrity and Thomas Garrity; and his two great grandchildren, Maisie Garrity and Pearl Garrity.
Dr. John Edward Fortunato ’65 was born in Philadelphia and raised in Boston. Following Roxbury Latin, he plowed through seven institutions of higher education until a kindly older friend told him he was “dying by degrees.” Thereafter, he settled for reading a lot.
John served three years in the U.S. Army, from 1967 to 1970, two at Fort Knox and one in Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam. He was awarded a Bronze Star and an Army Commendation Medal. During his life, he worked in private practice as a clinical psychologist, as a forensic psychologist at Cook County Jail, and as an Episcopal Chaplain at Rush University Medical Center and Cook County Hospital, Chicago. He was one of the first HIV/AIDS chaplains in the city of Chicago, and then served
as chaplain to the Neonatal Intensive Care Units at Rush University Medical Center, Cook County Hospital, and the University of Illinois Hospital. Lastly, he served more than a decade with the U.S. Army, was appointed Chief of Behavioral Health at William Beaumont Army Medical Center, and created a prototype treatment center for soldiers with PTSD. He was awarded the Superior Civilian Service Award and was honored with 48 coins by commanders Army-wide. He also accepted two overseas tours, one to Iwakuni, Japan, and then to Vilseck, Germany.
John became a devout Episcopalian in 1974, taking leadership roles in parishes over the ensuing 50 years. He recently served as Administrator, Bishop’s Warden, and Pastoral Leader at St. Francis on the Hill Episcopal Church and as Pastoral Assistant and Administrator of St. Alban’s Episcopal Church, both in El Paso. Earlier in his life, between academic pursuits, he lived in religious communities, principally St. Gregory’s Abbey (Episcopal Benedictine) in Three Rivers, Michigan, and Mepkin Abbey (Trappist) in Moncks Corner, South Carolina. With his wife, Linda Christine Lewis, John co-founded St. Andrew’s House, an Episcopal Benedictine in Chicago. He observed his monastic vows for the rest of his life.
John’s actions demonstrate a life of virtue that began at an early age and was especially apparent in his time at RL. Headmaster Weed, in a college letter of recommendation, commended John on his full participation in school life with the following: “In all other areas of worth outside of the classroom, John is
superlatively good. I cannot say that he has a monopoly on the Christian virtues, but in my experience of over thirty years, he more closely follows the golden rule of ‘Do unto others’ than any previous student I have known. He is quick to smile, most friendly to all, fair-minded, and he radiates a happiness that refreshes teachers and cheers his associates.”
John was an avid cat father. His household consisted of Teddy and Freddy (adopted siblings from Japan) and Lizzy, an adorable guttersnipe from an El Paso alley. They ended their days together at White Acres Retirement Community, from which the three felines found new homes through the kindness of fellow St. Francis parishioners. John was grateful for the good care and friendships he had at White Acres.
John is survived by a “sister,” Zara Galindo, who cared for him through a bilateral lung transplant and through his time in hospice care until his death. He is also survived by a niece, Amy Fortunato, of Gold Hill, Colorado; a cousin, Jeffrey Marshall, of Wilmington Delaware; a cousin, Maria (Tippy) Cicchini of Ekton, Pennsylvania; and many friends around the world whose companionship he cherished.
Edward T. “Ted” O’Connor ’88 of Cohasset died on January 31, 2024. Loving father of Scout Pippy O’Connor (12) and Campbell Ruth O’Connor (10) of Scituate, he is survived by his daughters; by his brother, Robert J. O’Connor, Jr. ’85; and by Kristin Scott, mother of Scout and Campbell.
Born to Robert and Theodora, and raised in Wellesley, Ted joined the ranks of RL’s
Class of 1988 in Class III as a transfer from Nobles and immediately embraced his RL pride. In a thank you note for his acceptance to Headmaster Jarvis, Ted wrote, “I guarantee that I will throw away all of my blue and white clothing and start filling up my closets with maroon and black items.” At RL he made an immediate impact, and in his first letter home, Headmaster Jarvis described Ted as making a remarkable transition, giving Ted the high praise of “seeming like a kid who had been here since Class IV.” Ted maintained this level of character throughout his time at RL, and in a college letter of recommendation Headmaster Jarvis described him as “a strong, steady, honest kid—one of the most likable and reliable I have ever worked with—a real gem!”
After Roxbury Latin, Ted went on to Trinity College. A lifelong athlete— kicker for Roxbury Latin and Trinity College varsity football teams—Ted also loved fishing, Bruce Springsteen, and, most of all, spending time with his girls. //
The Roxbury Latin School
101 St. Theresa Avenue
West Roxbury, MA 02132-3496
www.roxburylatin.org
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Sixies in sunglasses: Everett Bluman (VI) (left) and Solon Estes (VI) trumpet in style under the bright lights of the Smith Theater during the Roxbury Latin Jazz Band’s Hall performance on March 12, 2024.
