Food Depot launches diaper distribution service for families in need Local, A-6
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
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S.F. Prep reaches golden milestone
SYRIA
Santa Fe native Diana MacArthur is planning and funding a school for children in Pakistan’s remote Hunza Valley. An artist’s rendering of the proposed building, right, shows the school surrounded by the peaks of the Himalayas. COURTESY DESIGN MATRIX
School celebrates 50th anniversary with Founders’ Day event By Robert Nott
A world away, a school for Leeza
The New Mexican
History and algebra instructor Bill Thompson still recalls his initial visit to the old Santa Fe Preparatory School campus on Upper Canyon Road 50 years ago. “I came up the hill in a rainstorm to this beautiful place,” he said. “The building looked like an abandoned adobe structure. We were told it was an old factory, but I had no idea what they made there.” When Prep opened in the fall of 1963, it was on the site of the old Breese Burner Factory on Upper Canyon Road — where the Red Sky Studios complex stands today. According to the school’s current head, Jim Leonard, Prep leased the site for $3,000 a year for 10 years from Nelson Jay, but Jay made an annual $3,000 donation to the school in return, so it all evened out. “We knew exactly where we wanted to go with the school,” recalled Thompson of the direction he and founding head of the school Francis Bloodgood had in mind that first year. “We wanted to lead a traditional New England prepara-
Santa Fe woman funds project in Pakistan to honor daughter who taught there
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Obama steps up efforts to win support By Kathleen Hennessey and Paul Richter
Tribune Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON — The White House appealed Monday to two of Congress’ most powerful interests — protecting Israel and challenging Iran — as President Barack Obama and his aides scrambled to win lawmakers’ support for a resolution authorizing punitive missile strikes in Syria. Obama led the full-throttle Labor Day lobbying campaign by dialing up congressional leaders and huddling for an hour with two Republican hawks, Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who now may prove pivotal to the president’s aims. McCain later gave a qualified endorsement, which cheered the White House. The president is staking his credibility, and arguably his legacy, on the battle that will play out in Congress over the next two weeks. Before he leaves Tuesday night on a four-day trip to Sweden and Russia for an economic summit, he will meet with the leaders and ranking members of the key national security panels,
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Assad warns of ‘chaos’ if U.S. strikes By Sylvie Corbet
The Associated Press
Santa Fe Preparatory School has been an east-side institution for 50 years, first located on Upper Canyon Road, and now on Camino de Cruz Blanca. COURTESY PHOTO Diana MacArthur is funding construction of a school in a remote region of Pakistan to honor her late daughter who taught there. KATHARINE EGLI/FOR THE NEW MEXICAN
Today An afternoon shower or storm. High 84, low 57. PAGe A-12
Obituaries Norman P. Seagrave, 97, Santa Fe, Aug. 24 PAGe A-8
Pasapick www.pasatiempomagazine.com
George Johnson The local author signs copies of The Cancer Chronicles: Unlocking Medicine’s Deepest Mystery, 6 p.m., Collected Works Bookstore, 202 Galisteo St., 988-4226. More events in Calendar, A-2 and Fridays in Pasatiempo
Index
Calendar A-2
Classifieds B-6
BY ROBIN MARTIN THE NEW MEXICAN
A
t age 80, when most people are at home relaxing, Santa Fe native Diana MacArthur is planning a three-week trip to northern Pakistan, where she is building a school.
Her goal is to complete construction on a 23,000-square-foot building for students in nursery school through eighth grade by the end of 2015. MacArthur and her friends and family have donated half of the funds for the $5 million project. The school in the village of Murtaza Abad in the Hunza Valley is being built in memory of MacArthur’s daughter, Elizabeth “Leeza” Tschursin. MacArthur said people ask why she is building a school so far away. Her answer is that her daughter chose the site. Tschursin, who was born in 1955, was MacArthur’s oldest child. She lived in Washington, D.C., but spent much time in Santa Fe, staying with family and hiking in the Pecos Wilderness. She received her bachelor’s degree from the College
Comics B-12
Lotteries A-2
of Santa Fe, a master’s degree in biology from Georgetown University and a doctorate in microbiology from George Washington University. As a graduation present, Tschursin’s mother gave her a trip to climb in the Alps, on Mount Kilimanjaro and in the Himalayas. Because of political turmoil, Tschursin was not able to enter Nepal, so she went to Pakistan, where she ended up in the country’s northernmost territory, Gilgit-Baltistan. As she traveled on the Karakoram Highway, she passed through a village and saw a small school, the Al-Murtaza Academy, which taught children up to sixth grade. She fell in love with the place, stayed with the principal’s mother and taught science. Tschursin made many friends
Opinions A-10
Police notes A-8
Editor: Ray Rivera, 986-3033, rrivera@sfnewmexican.com Design and headlines: Kristina Dunham, kdunham@sfnewmexican.com
Sports B-1
in the Hunza Valley, and when her visa ran out, she was invited to come back to teach. But she became ill and died in Washington, D.C., in 1994 before she was able to return. MacArthur wants to turn the small school into an academic center for excellence. It also will be a state-of-the-art building. Pakistani architects have been hired to make the new school the safest building in an area that has severe earthquakes. The project also has backup architects and engineers based in Albuquerque. Today, the school is a shack with no insulation, lights or ventilation. The new building will have central heating, insulated walls and windows, and energy-saving light fixtures. Power will come from the local electric grid, and diesel and methane gas from animal waste will fuel boilers to heat the building. Solar and wind power generation is impossible in the valley because tall mountains block both the sun and the wind. The school will eventually serve
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Time Out A-9
Local Business C-1
Main office: 983-3303 Late paper: 986-3010
PARIS — France released an intelligence report on Monday alleging chemical weapons use by Syria’s regime that dovetailed with similar U.S. claims, as President Bashar Assad warned that any military strike against his country would spark an uncontrollable regional war and spread “chaos and extremism.” The verbal crossfire, including a rejection of the Western allegations by longtime Syrian ally Russia, was part of frenzied efforts on both sides to court international public opinion after President Barack Obama said he would seek authorization from Congress before launching any military action against Assad’s regime. In an interview with French newspaper Le Figaro, Assad was quoted as saying that Syria has challenged the U.S. and France to provide proof
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Fabrics with flair The owner of Clusiau Designs offers “interesting, eclectic things for the home.” LOCAL BUSINeSS, C-1
Three sections, 28 pages 164th year, No. 246 Publication No. 596-440