The Hillside - Summer 2011

The Hillside S o u t h Ke n t S ch o o l M a ga zi n e | Summer 2011

The Hillside Summer 2011 Volume XLVIII Number 2

Editor: Mark Berghold

Director of Communications

The Importance of the College List

Copy Editor: Mary Flemming Brown

Contributors: Leo Fan ’11 Andrew Jansen ‘11

Design: lhfandco@me.com Send address changes to: South Kent School 40 Bulls Bridge Road South Kent, CT 06785-1199 (860) 927-3539 x299 email: advancement@southkentschool.org South Kent School adheres to a long-standing policy of admitting students of any race, color, creed, religion, sexual orientation, and national and ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the school. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, creed, religion, sexual orientation, or national and ethnic origin in the administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, and other school-administered programs.

Mission Statement South Kent School is an independent, college preparatory school for boys. Since its founding, South Kent has maintained ties with the Episcopal Church.

Three principles define the school: Simplicity of Life, Self-Reliance, and Directness of Purpose.

We offer, by living simply, an uncluttered environment for lively and rigorous learning.

We encourage our students to become self-reliant in order to develop competence and self-esteem.

We value directness of purpose: we want each student to welcome the challenge to focus his energies, to set goals, and to work to meet them.

South Kent School fosters these principles in a community, small in numbers, that provides a safe and supportive family structure. We embrace diversity and cherish honesty, courtesy, and compassion. In this energizing atmosphere, we provide leadership opportunities that develop a student’s sense of responsibility and service. We nurture in our students, regardless of belief or religious affiliation, a thoughtful engagement with spirituality.

Visit South Kent School’s website at www.southkentschool.org ...___...

Cover photo of the coastal Nicoya Peninsula tree canopy by Michael Benjamin

Printed on recycled paper

A

s I’ve traveled around the country this year speaking to alumni groups, one thing that continually surprises me is how uninformed most groups are about the strength of South Kent’s college list.

With this in mind, I am devoting my space here to spreading the good word that South Kent’s college list is once again robust.

Although we have been able to significantly improve the number of highly selective institutions on our college list, I want to also be sure that South Kent continues to work to find the perfect school for each of our graduates. We strive to be a school where each student achieves the goal of attending the college or university of his choice, whatever that school may be.

So, for the record, the following is a partial listing of the more widely recognized colleges and universities to which South Kent graduates have been accepted in the last several years: Beloit Boston University Brown Clarkson Colgate Dartmouth DePaul Hobart & William Smith Kenyon Lake Forest Manhattanville MIT Northwestern Pitzer Sewanee Skidmore St. Michael’s Syracuse

Tufts University of Colorado-Boulder University of Georgia University of Hawaii University of Illinois-Champagne University of Kentucky University of Michigan University of Vermont University of Virginia UC-Santa Barbara Union University of Chicago Vassar Villanova Wake Forest Wheaton Williams WPI

As I stated at this year’s Prize Day, South Kent’s mission is to provide the environment in which it is safe and expected that each boy will use his time on our Hillside to find his own Hero Path and summon the inner courage and strength of character to move toward it. The Hero Path represents that calling for which he alone is uniquely suited. This journey of self-discovery is not linear and is often messy, but the journey is as necessary as it is powerful.

Andrew J. Vadnais vadnaisa@southkentschool.org

The Hillside

inside

Volume XLVIII, Number 2 Summer 2011

“I knew that for misbehaving, our studies could be over, our ability to get jobs would be over, that prison was a possibility.” see page 34

8

4 FRONT&CENTER

2 3 4 8 12

12

Doing Things Differently

18

Letters to the School

Whether attending South Kent in the 70s or enlisting in the Navy at a time when few of her female peers would consider doing so, Kathleen Brady Lindenmayer has embraced many ‘firsts’ in her path.

Prize Day 2011 School Notes Off Campus Winter/Spring Athletics

Growing Up South Kent

34

22 ALUMNI

18 34 42 43 54

Alumna Profile Global Citizens Alumni Authors Class Notes In Memoriam

22

Generations of faculty children have shared the Hillside with the School’s alumni. We are grateful that some of these faculty children have shared their memories with The Hillside.

*

To read this issue online, please visit www.southkentschool.org/magazine.

Summer 2011 The Hillside • 1

inbox

Missives

Dear South Kent, My son Andrew started out on a traditional path, applying to colleges at the beginning of his senior year at Canton High School. He consistently made Honors List, did well on his SATs, played trumpet in the band and was a two-time All State Basketball player. So why a PG year at South Kent School?

I believe we all have gifts within us waiting to be revealed. Although he was recruited by several basketball colleges, Andrew chose to attend South Kent for a PG year to play Prep Basketball in one of the most competitive leagues in the country. Throughout the season he played significant minutes in every game

“North Light” pastel, Andrew Crowley ’11

To Reach Us...

Editor’s Note: We welcome any correspondence that you might be willing to share with us. Please email letters to the editor to magazine@southkentschool.org. You can also send mail to Hillside Letters, South Kent School, 40 Bulls Bridge Road, South Kent, CT 06785. All letters may be edited for content. Letters received by The Hillside will be considered for publication unless otherwise stipulated by the sender.

2 • The Hillside Summer 2011

and found ways to contribute to the team’s success. Along the way, Andrew met faculty members who were supportive of him in his transition to living away from home–Ray Pennucci, assistant basketball coach, was particulary influential. Andrew also met peers from all points of the globe with whom he forged strong bonds of friendship.

Andrew did well academically in the first semester. It was during this semester that he met Mrs. Cheryl Moore in her Studio Art class. While I knew that Andrew always loved to draw as a young boy, it was under the guidance and instruction of Mrs. Moore that his talents were more fully expressed. Cheryl helped reveal Andrew’s gift by encouraging him and teaching him techniques.

She provided resources and exposed him to many art mediums. At the end of the term, Andrew was even able to participate in an all-day glass blowing workshop.

This remarkable dedication and thoughtful mentoring of South Kent faculty was not limited to the Art Studio. Andrew tried out for and joined the Varsity Baseball team where his coaches discovered that he had some talent on the baseball field. He ended the regular season with a .421 batting average, and he is playing American Legion Baseball in Simsbury this summer.

Life takes us on many unexpected paths. Andrew’s journey at South Kent certainly led him to many new discoveries about himself. He arrived in the fall to play competitive basketball; he leaves South Kent with a direction and focus on Visual Arts. We are pleased that he has been accepted, based on his work at South Kent, to the School of Visual Arts at Roger Williams. I am most grateful to each of my son’s teachers for the dedication with which they supported him during his time at South Kent.

Sincerely, Jackie Crowley Canton, CT

Andrew, Sean ’11 and Brenda Weir

Dear South Kent, We just wanted to thank the entire South Kent community which has worked so hard with both Sean and Curtis over the past six years. Throughout the years, they have spoken highly about the teachers they have each had, and we know their influence has helped to shape each of them. Their time on the Hillside has meant a lot to our whole family as we have been privileged to experience the wonderful family that South Kent is. It has truly been a great experience for us all, and once again, we thank all of you!

sions to Radio Shack with the group’s advisor Gonzo Garcia where we would find some small, but critical, piece of equipment for the next day’s live broadcast. One of my most vivid memories was when the AMG guys emerged from the gym following a basketball broadcast, to find in the dimly lit, snowcovered parking lot AMG’s first “Mobile Broadcast Unit.” We would spend the next few weeks gutting and reconfiguring, ”Monster Garage” style, this 16-seat GMC “retired” schoolbus which had been donated by a friend of the School. I understand from The Hillside and the School’s website that AMG has continued to make great strides.

I am now continuing my digital exploration at Fairfield University. I am studying New Media Film, Television, and Radio and also work within the state-of-the-art Media Center. The

Sincerely, Andrew and Brenda Weir New Milford, CT

To the Editor: I have been reading the last few issues of The Hillside with much enthusiasm. I am impressed both by the new initiatives that SKS is undertaking and the changes that have occurred in the two short years since I graduated. I have always been fascinated by technology, and I am excited to see how South Kent remains on the cutting edge in so many areas. From the time I entered South Kent in 2006 as a Fourth Former and through my fifth and sixth form years, I was encouraged to explore my interest in technology and given many opportunities to do so.

I am proud to be considered a “founding member” of the Advanced Media Group. I have fond memories of frequent, late night, last-minute excur-

AMG’s first mobile broadcast vehicle and Merrick McQuilling ’08 poised to give it a South Kent make-over

knowledge I obtained and the teaching and guidance at SKS have prepared me for the challenges of college and have provided me with a great trajectory which fits my interests in technology and communication. This summer I will be working–for the second consecutive year–with NBC Sports and the Golf Channel. If I need that missing widget at the last minute, I know what to do!

Merrick McQuilling ’08 Garden City, NY Correction: We regret the omission from our most recent Annual Report of the following memorial gift: Roger White in memory of Elizabeth Woodward.

South Kent’s Class of 2011

Congratulations, Class of 2011!

Prize Day Awards Headmaster’s Cup............................................................................................................................Connor Christian Angelo Greene SSB Cup......................................................................................................................................................... Andrew Cameron Jansen The James S. Johnson Memorial Trophy...........................................................................................................................Qixiang Fan The George and Maggie Bartlett Cup.....................................................................................................Alexander Christian Murray Mary Flemming Brown and Arthur Wood Brown Award................................................................ Hyun Do Im and Haoyun Zhou The Paul and Terese Abbott Cup......................................................................................................................... Shawn Lehan Power The Scott C. Mitchell ’72 Prize...........................................................................................................................Donovan Jesus Velez William P. Gillette ’29 Trophy........................................................................................................Connor Christian Angelo Greene John C. Farr ’58 Trophy................................................................................................................................William Michael Speight The Cum Laude Society....................... Haodong Guo, Andrew Cameron Jansen, Donghwi Jin, Curtis Peter Weir, Haoyun Zhou Academic Leader of the Sixth Form................................................................................................................................Haoyun Zhou Chapel Reading Prize...............................................................................................................................Alexander Christian Murray Bartlett English Prize.................................................................................................................................................Curtis Peter Weir Glennon Creative Writing Prize......................................................................................................................... Vival Tyler Ingraham George D. Knopf Science Prize..................................................................................................................................... Haodong Guo Mathematics Prize.............................................................................................................................................................Donghwi Jin Humanities Prize.............................................................................................................................................................Haoyun Zhou French Prize.................................................................................................................................................... Sotirios Athanasopoulos Spanish Prize........................................................................................................................................................ Vival Tyler Ingraham Music Prize........................................................................................................................................................... Vival Tyler Ingraham Studio Art Prize..................................................................................................................................................................Qixiang Fan Digital Communications Prize....................................................................................................................Benjamin William Welton Scholastic Improvement Award............................................................................................................................Donovan Jesus Velez EFL Prize................................................................................................................................................................................Jia Yu Liu Pigtail Prize......................................................................................................................................................................Haoyun Zhou Summer 2011 The Hillside • 3

inschool

Greatest Hits This spring, Chef Mike Paciello and teachers Anthony Larson and Mike Benjamin accompanied the Advanced Environmental Science Class on a trip to Plankenhorn Farm, a member of the dairy cooperative that provides milk for SKS. Students learned about the environmental and health benefits of small scale, local milk production. Dr. Sam Simon, the former orthopedic surgeon who runs Plankenhorn Farm, explained how his cows’ clean living conditions and daily access to pasture lead to healthy, great tasting milk.

South Kent became a member of the Green Schools Alliance this year. The Green Schools Alliance (GSA) is a global alliance of public, private and independent schools uniting to solve 21st Century environmental problems through sustainable and energy-smart solutions. South Kent took second place in the GSA’s “Green Cup Challenge,” a student-driven event in which schools measure and reduce campus electricity use and related GHG emissions, while supporting campus greening efforts including recycling and water conservation.

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4. He Blinded Me with Science (Thomas Dolby)

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4 4 •• The The Hi Hillside Summer 2011

1. Green Day (Green Day)

2. Black Cow (Steely Dan)

3. Baby Love (Diana Ross)

a/ eric h Am Nort gs for under li cense to Maecenas Recordin

The annual “SKS Fair” was recently hosted in several locations around campus. The event was set up with fairly broad parameters for the student projects. Over the course of six weeks, students were encouraged to find a topic of interest, and examine and answer a question related to that topic.

The final phase of this independent, inquiry-based assignment was the creation of an exhibit by each of the students that both documented their research and illustrated their findings. The wide range of topics explored included the following: the construction of a scale model for a domestic, self-sustaining water purification system, the creation of a small-scale snow-making machine, an examination of the relationship between the Fibonacci sequence and culturallyaccepted standards of beauty, and a detailed diorama of the Alamo. SKS Academic Dean Phil Darrin commented on the Fair: “I was extremely impressed with the range of topics and the execution of the exhibits. Many of the boys went above and beyond my expectations in the depth of their research and their creative expression.”

Side

20 1 1 SKS Reco rds,

Three new faculty children were welcomed into the South Kent community in the last several months. Kealan Enoch Vining joined his big sister Emma-Rose on April 7; Tarquin James Darrin was born on April 1 joining his sisters Kaelyn and Kacie; and Cullen Burke Bonis joined his older brother Odin on November 23.

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Art teacher Cheryl Moore travelled to Gilmore Glassworks where several of her students participated in a day-long workshop on glass blowing. After a brief tour of the workshop, all of the students were introduced to the technique of glassmaking. Their skills improved through the course of the day, and the students left the workshop with several small cups that they had produced.

The workshop was funded through the generosity of SKS Trustee Kai Chin ’67.

Mrs. Moore’s choice of a glass studio was inspired by Head of School Vadnais’ plan for a Glass and Clay Studio as part of the new Infinity Fields Campus.

KS A. e US hour in th e d s, poi a n. M nts or s ome other form of disciplinary actio

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5. Shattered (Rolling Stones) 6. Where the Bands Are (Bruce Springsteen) 7. 13 Months of Sunshine (Ziggy Marley)

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Under the direction of teacher Marcus Cooper ’06, sixteen students introduced the community to the “Cardinal Underground.”

The student group was responsible for scheduling, promoting and directing several “open mic” and other musical events throughout the course of the year. Each student in the CU was able to play an instrument of his choice and was given the opportunity to perform at the events. Several off-campus musicians were booked as guests, and the returning Underground members hope to increase the number of guest performers next year. Mr. Cooper was very pleased with the group’s first year. “It was very rewarding to see our students improve their skills and gain enough confidence to get out in front of a live audience,” he commented. “These guys set the bar, and I am anxious to see how far we can take it in the Cardinal Underground’s second year!”

Three solar panel arrays were installed on campus as part of the School’s commitment to reducing the community’s carbon footprint. Head of School Vadnais commented: “Beginning this fall the School will begin implementing portions of a new curriculum designed to engage, motivate, encourage, and nurture student creativity, entrepreneurship and commitment to stewardship with a focus on applying those skills to the study of science, art, technology and sustainability”.

Third Formers released ovoid payloads from the third floor of the Schoolhouse as part of their “Egg Drop Challenge.” Each Third Former was tasked with creating a device to protect his egg on impact.

Commenting on the exercise, Third Form Dean, Mr. Galusha, said: “Overall, I am very pleased with the boys’ efforts. While some of the devices may not have been much to crow about, it was fun to see how many of the boys met the criteria of the assignment without getting egg on their faces.”

Summer 2011 The Hillside llside •• 5 5

Student Gallery

6 • The Hillside Summer 2011

Since Leo Fan’s arrival on the Hillside, his artwork and photography have graced these pages. While a fixture at most games, Leo did not limit himself to photographing athletics but was often seen–day and night, in fair weather and poor–trying to get the “right” shot. We’re glad he did and are happy to offer this final tribute to Leo as he heads off to Rochester Institute of Technology. We expect to see his work in the pages of Sports Illustrated before long.

Summer 2011 The Hillside • 7

inclass

Tropical Ecology

seeing the forest

for the

trees

by Andrew Jansen ’11

This spring I travelled to Costa Rica on a Tropical Ecology, Sustainability and Community Outreach course. The group of five students, my colleague Anthony Larson, and I visited the Caletas-Ario Nature Reserve, observed the reforestation work in the Bongo Ario Watershed and participated in an organic agriculture workshop. Following a community service activity at a local school, our group spent a day at the Cabo Blanco National Park, the first National Park established in Costa Rica, where we hiked and investigated dry tropical forest ecology. Sixth former Andrew Jansen shares his experience in the following essay. – Michael Benjamin 8 • The Hillside Summer 2011

O

n May 15, 2011, Billy Speight, Donghwi Jin, Tyler Ingraham, Nino Hernandez, and I ventured to Costa Rica with our Environmental Science teacher Mr. Benjamin and intern, Mr. Larson.

Throughout our stay, we engaged in various activities which included horseback riding, hiking, and kayaking— all of which showed us the vitality of ecosystems and the essential part they play in our daily lives.

Our home and our classroom for the week was Ario Ranch, a remote 5000-acre ranch on the Nicoya Peninsula, situated along the Pacific Ocean. This opportunity to live sustainably, off the grid, was a thrilling adventure.

The South Kent group before a buttressed tropical tree in Cabo Blanco National Park.

Arriving at the ranch, we were given helmets for our first activity—horseback riding.

Riding throughout the ranch, we learned that, until fairly recently, the entire ranch was completely a rainforest, home to over 100 different species of trees and countless birds. However in the mid-1900s, to satisfy the ever-increasing demand for beef, cattle farming became extremely popular, and much of the rainforest was sacrificed to provide grazing land for cattle. Although this use proved to be an effective method, it also created a large amount of the pollution in rivers and loss of soil.

For the duration of our stay at Ario Ranch, the ocean became our shower; after early 5:30 runs along the ocean and late hikes in the evenings, a refreshing swim in the ocean was our “green” way of washing ourselves. Despite having work-

Our day started when the Howler Monkeys did that for which they are so aptly named; it ended when the sun went down.

ing showers at the ranch, many of us— after learning that a two-minute shower is the equivalent of five days of drinking water—used the ocean as our primary source for refreshing ourselves; the shower was used only for a quick rinse. What made part of this trip memorable for me was that it was basically a step back in time to 100 years ago.

We had no computers and no iPods. Our day started when the Howler Monkeys did that for which they are so aptly named; it ended when the sun went down. For the first time in a while, my mind was clear and I could breathe.

One of the many highlights of our trip was being able to meet with Luis Iglesias—a biologist who, in an intriguing lecture, explained the extreme effects of agrochemicals and how they have disrupted and affected the ecosystems of Costa Rica. During my three years at South Kent, Mr. Vadnais—in assemblies and chapel talks—has frequently explained how “everything in the world is connected.” Like many, I admit that when I heard him explain this, I would agree with what he said but did not think too hard about it. Now, in an environment where I could see the effects first hand, I was stunned. Who would have thought that the pesticides used in one village for watermelons would seep into the ground, polluting the water of a nearby village and causing blindness to newborn babies whose mothers drank the water? If the chemicals used to protect the fruit are that poisonous, how safe is the fruit itself?

This is but one example of the importance of understanding that the ways in which Summer 2011 The Hillside • 9

Tropical Ecology

A resident of the Caletas-Ario Nature Reserve

we do things—our actions—can and often do have significant consequences.

Mr. Iglesias challenged us to create a compost structure that could be used to transform the food waste from the kitchen, where the nutrients from the leftover food could be broken down into soil, going back into the ground using nothing more than worms and whatever we saw lying around. After an hour of preliminary discussion and planning, we designed a structure that would be easy to use. It was easy to add new material and, once composted through the help of worms, the resulting soil could be removed to spread across the ranch. Employing this model, the Ario Ranch will be using this compost in different areas throughout the ranch.

The following day, we visited both Central America’s first national park— Cabo Blanco—and an estuary. At the southern tip of the Nicoya Peninsula, Cabo Blanco is home to more than 150 species of trees. As we hiked through the forest to the ocean, we learned that despite being only 0.01% of the world’s landmass, Costa Rica contains over 3% of the earth’s biodiversity. Not only could this diversity be seen in the rainforest, it was conspicuous at the mangroves.

Mangroves—several species of trees and 10 • The Hillside Summer 2011

shrubs that mass together in lush and stagnant areas along the coastlines at the equator—are essential ecosystems that are home to many animal species including birds and fish. When storms such as tsunamis and hurricanes occur, they act as a barrier—absorbing most of the water which rushes inward threatening the safety and stability of cities and towns.

Kayaking through the warm, stagnant waters which run through the alleys of mangroves, it was amazing to see how these trees and plants had created such a lush and vibrant environment with nothing more than just water and sediment.

Taking a break from our frequent studying and observing, we stopped at the Quebradas de Nando School to challenge a group of young students to a game of soccer. Not only was this, too, a memorable experience, it also showed the importance of communication. Although we had a wonderful time with the children, I regretted that my limited knowledge of Spanish hampered my ability to socialize with them.

Nino Hernandez ‘12 and Andrew Jansen ‘11 enjoy a cooling swim after visiting Cabo Blanco National Park

E

xperiencing the nature of Costa Rica has been an unforgettable opportunity for me: it has challenged me to re-think the way I view the world and its resources and how I use them. I am excited about the launching of South Kent’s Center for Innovation (CIS), and I hope that the relationship between Ario Ranch and South Kent’s CIS will continue to grow. Students will benefit tremendously

Tyler Ingraham ’11 exploring Ario Ranch

by studying ecosystems and agriculture outside of South Kent and the United States. Through this education and by applying their knowledge and creativity, they may further the School’s and society’s effort to reduce our carbon footprint.

By expanding its education outside the classroom, placing students in stimulating environments and challenging them to solve problems in real life, I believe that South Kent will find its success.

I am very grateful to have had the opportunity with my classmates to represent South Kent in this adventure at Ario Ranch. I look forward to taking the lessons I have learned during my years at South Kent and applying them as I head off to my university studies beyond the Hillside.

Recipient of South Kent’s SSB Cup for service to the South Kent School community, Andrew Jansen will be attending Dalhousie University in his native Canada this fall.

The Center for Innovation at Infinity Fields A. Nut Grove B. Permaculture Orchards C. Organic Vegetables D. Edible Landscaping E. Micro-Grains F. Grape and Kiwi Vineyard G. Wetland Agriculture Research H. Rotational Grazing Pasture I. Edible Native Riparian Zone J. Bio Intensive Gardens K. Mixed Fruit Orchards L. Sustainable Woodland Development M. Nut and Timber Hedgerow

T

he Board of Trustees and the faculty and staff of South Kent wish to formally introduce Phase I construction plans for The Center for Innovation at Infinity Fields (aka the former Arno diary farm property).

Our vision of, and hope for, the Center is that it will serve as a “test kitchen” for curriculum ideas and lesson plans that utilize real world issues—such as land and water reclamation, energy production for a post-peak oil world, regional food production, timber management, and wetlands management—to foster student and faculty creativity and innovation wrapped around themes of environmental sustainability, applied science and technology, and alternative energy.

Phase I construction, slated to begin November 1, 2011, will include the construction of permaculture zones that encompass 130 acres, and the construction of at least

one building—a combination classroom, visitor center, and 300-seat auditorium.

Plans at present call for all buildings at the Center to be “zero carbon” and capable of meeting LEEDS Platinum standards, as well as the standards for The International Living Building Challenge. All electricity will be provided by ground-mounted, grid-tied arrays of photovoltaic panels. Heating and cooling for buildings will be provided by geothermal installations. Demonstration verticalblade wind turbines and a water turbine are also planned.

Beginning in Fall 2012, all South Kent students will have one or more classes scheduled at the Center. Access to the Center from the main campus will be either from South Kent Road or via an unpaved passageway through the hemlock forest along the western shore of Hatch Pond.

Summer 2011 The Hillside • 11

inuniform

Winter & Spring Athletics

Prep Basketball The 2010-2011 Prep Basketball team completed the season with an overall record of 18-14. We were led by Nemanja Djurisic, the team’s only returning player, and nationally ranked Maurice Harkless as we played the most competitive schedule in Class AAA of the New England Prep School Athletic Conference.

Djurisic, who recently committed to the University of Georgia, was the team’s primary post presence. He led the team with 14 rebounds per game and was second in scoring with 22 points per game. Harkless (27ppg,11rpg), who is ranked 45 by Rivals. com, quickly established himself as one of the league’s top players. The Djurisic and Harkless duo combined to average 49 points and 25 rebounds per game.

Fortunately, the duo had help.

Cincinnati-commit Ge’Lawn Guyn and Rutgers-bound Derrick Randall played vital roles on the team. Guyn led the team with nine assists per contest and was the coach and emotional leader on the floor.

His toughness and competitiveness were as important as any point we scored or rebound we grabbed. Randall used his 6’9”, 225 lb. frame to police the middle.

His aggressive style of play helped him to corral a team-leading 14 rebounds per game.

The wonderful thing about this season is that all of our successes came from a total team effort. Jabrille Williams and Andrew Crowley were steady contributors game-to-game. Yukijiro Yashiro earned a reputation as the team’s best defender.

And Connor Greene and Ekin Gulbuken were vital to the achievements made by the 2010-2011 Prep Basketball team.

Coach Kelvin Jefferson

Varsity Basketball This was a very special year for the SKS Varsity Basketball team, with a champion12 • The Hillside Summer 2011

Photo by Leo Fan ’11

ship to end it all.

The start brought a certain amount of optimism for a successful season as we lost only one of our starters from the previous season and returned the core of a very young but talented group of players. Our only loss in the league was to an equally talented Wooster School team whom we would eventually beat in the finals, but the championship was only the culmination of many special events that took place this season.

Two boys became 4-year players on the varsity team: Julien Thevenin and Jason Chen; five JV players advanced to varsity; and two ex-varsity players, Austin Drakes and Cody Benz, volunteered to be assistant coaches.

Winning a championship is a great accomplishment and a testament to hard work and effort by all. Without the desire of all players and coaches, plus the full support of the School, success is extremely difficult to achieve. Everyone’s goal was to get back to the championship game

Photo of Leo Fan ’11

this year with a completely different outcome from the previous two seasons, and we succeeded.

Coach Gary Benz

JV Basketball Our season’s record this year was 7 wins and 5 losses. Our team of 28 energetic players made the most of the sport. We had students from around the world, and it was exciting to see how well everyone blended into a team. This year we had more Chinese speaking players than usual, and we thank Yao Ming for that inspiration.

There were a lot of pick-up games in practice, but certain practices were structured to work on certain skills or plays to be better prepared for a particular game with another school. For every game we had a different team, based on the competition.

Three games were particularly excit-

Photo by Leo Fan ’11

ing. We lost to Wooster School by one point. Against NYMA, we won by one point. Both games came down to the clock. They were nail-biters. The third game was against Salisbury. Even though we lost to Salisbury by 7 points, we played our best game ever. After the warmup, the team sat down and said they felt defeated because Salisbury was so much ‘older, bigger and better’. So the challenge was on … we had to play with ‘fire’ and keep our heads high ALL the way to the end. That is exactly what we did. For most of the game we were leading by a few points, but in the end, with a couple of turnovers and missed shots, we lost by 7. The players were disappointed after the game but pleased they had given it their best shot.

Zongwei (David) Jiang got the Most Valuable Player award. Haofeng Li and Chi-Chen Hsieh got the Most Improved Player awards. Leo Fan received the Coaches Award.

Coach John Funk

Photo by Thomas M. Honan

Prep Hockey The 2010-11 Prep Hockey season started off with the annual pre-season poll—having us picked in the #11 spot.

With true South Kent spirit, this was just the inspiration the boys needed as they came out of the gates eager to silence the critics. Our goal became to finish in the top 10 in New England—something we would accomplish.

Our first opponent was the talented Hill Academy from Toronto who entered Cuyler Rink well into their season with a record of 27-4. With a convincing 5-2 win in our first game, the boys soon believed that they just might be a special bunch and this could be South Kent’s year. The momentum that was built was incredible, and the boys became a family sooner than anyone expected. Every night they took to the ice, they believed they had a chance to win. This attitude carried us to a 9-1 record with an overtime loss to

Ge’Lawn Guyn creating offense; Leo Fan going for two in a drive past an Avon defender; Rong Xin Wang going up for the shot; Union recruit and team Captain Shayne Gostisbehere focusing on a scoring chance

Avon as our only blemish heading into the holiday break.

Upon our arrival back from break, the days were long and the weather was cold.

Our family was quickly challenged to keep our heads above water and battle through adversity. Key injuries, along with a brutally cold January resulting in game cancellations and postponements, put us all to the test. The challenge was met as we were able to play above .500 hockey, regaining our momentum, highlighted by a day of skating on the pond and then a huge win over perennial powerhouse Cushing Academy.

The final push and remaining ten games of the year began at Albany Academy on a Thursday afternoon. A 4-2 win started what could arguably be considered our best hockey of the season. Notable wins over Belmont Hill, Gunnery and Berkshire would propel South Kent into the #7 seed with one game left to play.

We ended the regular season with a 6-4 road win at Winchendon. The boys then Summer 2011 The Hillside • 13

Winter & Spring Athletics

learned a tough life lesson. On the final day of the regular season, a Gunnery loss at Berkshire changed the playoff equation and dropped us to #9 – the top 8 teams would go to the “Big Dance”.

We did achieve our goal of finishing in the top 10 and were very pleased to be the #1 rated small school. A disappointing loss to New Hampton in the small school tournament ended what had been nothing short of a magical season.

I, along with the entire coaching staff, could not be more proud of these boys.

Coach Eric Soltys

Varsity Hockey South Kent varsity hockey ended their 2010-2011 season with a record of 16-5-1, giving up just 52 goals against and scoring 125 goals for. Three of the five season’s losses came early and were all hard fought battles against very formidable opponents. South Kent lost by just one goal 14 • The Hillside Summer 2011

against Ridgefield High School and the Connecticut Chiefs. The team experienced some very dominating victories this season, winning by more than six goals in most games and having five shutout victories. The cooperation, determination and pride of the players led them to a very successful season, being undefeated in the final 12 games.

Coaches Rory DeRocco and Stan Vylet were pleased with the overall tone of the season. All players displayed sportsmanship, a true desire for victory and, most of all, camaraderie when disappointment fell upon them. The growth in each player’s skill and discipline this past season was commendable.

At the winter sports banquet, Michael Visnick was named the best offensive player. Visnick led the team in points this season. Danny Egan received the award for the best defensive player; Egan’s blue line toughness, skill and team leadership helped our outstanding season. Zach Sugar and Bill Speight were awarded the

coaches’ awards for their leadership and hard work; both showed great discipline and team spirit throughout the season.

Coach Stan Vylet ’04

Varsity Lacrosse The South Kent lacrosse team completed a very successful season with a record of 9-4. The team finished fifth out of 29 teams in a tough New England division, its highest ranking in at least seven years. It was a story of two seasons. Early on, South Kent struggled to play together as a team and tallied a 3-3 record. The turning point of the season came against Greens Farms. The team played an away game with no substitutes and rallied to win 10-9. The underclassmen were big contributors, and the boys moved positions back and forth to spell each other. They really relied on each member of the team to come away with the win. From that point on, South Kent

Opening Doors

Billy Speight charging forward on yet another rush; Sixth former Curran Forgue picking up a ground ball and advancing downfield; South Kent Crew with Coach Murphy, Coach Galusha and son, Thomas

Photo by Leo Fan ’11

compiled a 6-1 record, the only loss to top-ranked Millbrook in a very close game. The highlight of the season was a last second goal by Jack Riley in the final game to defeat a strong Hopkins team. It demonstrated just how far they had come together.

MVP honors went to sixth form midfielder Danny Paster and postgrad goalie Sean McVey. Danny led the team in scoring and was a tough defender and faceoff man. Sean was terrific in goal and even scored on a coast-to-coast goal against Hopkins. They were the leaders of the team, both on and off the field.

The Most Improved award was presented to fourth form midfielder Keenan Williams who came off the bench midway through the season and was a strong contributor in every game thereafter.

Mention must be made of the stalwart defense exhibited by postgrads Derek Curr and Jabrille Williams. Sixth former Jack Riley excelled at attack and scored the winning goal against Hopkins.

Postgrad CJ Blaszka, although missing a number of games due to injury, was a critical contributor to the team’s success as well.

Coach J. Scott Farley

Crew The South Kent Spring Crew had a mix of new and returning talent this year.

The first boat included two new additions to the team that helped round out a competitive squad. In the lower boats, there was some new blood as well, most notably from the Third Form.

The crew competed over a short, but very dense, schedule this season. In two short months the boys competed against some of the strongest programs in the crew world. They lined up against New England rowing powerhouses Choate, Taft, Gunnery, and Berkshire. The boys competed well despite the challenging competition and always represented the

Cardinal to the best of their abilities in their races. One of the season’s highlights was the first boat’s battle with E.O. Smith; the boys beat them on Founder’s Day but were later passed by them in the final stretch on their home lake. Another highlight was the second boat’s triumphant performance at the Smith Cup, where the boys recovered from an equipment malfunction to charge past two crews and claim a third place finish. Of course, the season will also be remembered for the fine food dished out at each race, most notably the dozen barbequed chickens served to oarsmen and fans alike on Founder’s Day. The boys were perhaps disappointed that the season did not end the way they were hoping it would, but they should nonetheless be proud of the progress they made both individually and as a team during their two months together. South Kent Crew has undoubtably experienced a mild renaissance in recent years, thanks to the tireless efforts of its senior oarsmen.

The team is in good shape for the future with the several new and younger additions to the squad this season. South Kent will continue to make its name known in the prep school crew world.

Coach Jeff Galusha

Golf Congratulations to the South Kent varsity golf team for winning their sevSummer 2011 The Hillside • 15

Winter & Spring Athletics

enth consecutive Hudson Valley Athletic League championship. Senior captain Andrew Jansen who held the number-one spot throughout the 2010-11 campaign led this year’s team. Other contributing members were Joe Doughty, Shawn Power, Zach Fox, Nick Sadow, Paul Sharpe and John Needham. The spring season is always interesting because you are never quite sure how the team is going to coalesce, or if they will at all. I was very pleased with the efforts of all of these guys; they practiced with purpose and really came together as a team down the stretch. Winning a seventh league championship is significant for the program, but I was equally proud of how we held our own against many of the larger Founders League schools.

One of the highlights of the season was the impressive victory over Forman and Chase Collegiate at Bulls Bridge Golf Club to clinch the HVAL title. In early season blustery conditions, typical of Bulls Bridge, the team fought off a late match charge by Chase Collegiate to card an eleven-stroke victory. Andrew Jansen led the South Kent effort as match medalist. “We knew as a team that this match would go a long way toward deciding the league championship, and we were determined to bring home the medal on our home course. This was a real team effort,” commented the three-year boy.

The season ended with the HVAL individual stroke-play championship at Bulls Bridge Golf Club. Four team members, Shawn Power, Andrew Jansen, Joe Doughty and Zach Fox, represented South Kent. The best result for SKS was from Power who carded a third place 46. “I felt I played well today; but for a couple errant shots on the long par-five sixth hole, I would have scored much better,” commented Power on his effort.

Tournament results for South Kent: (3rd) Power 46, (6th) Doughty 48, (9th) Jansen 49, (12th) Fox 52.

Coach Richard Chavka 16 • The Hillside Summer 2011

Tennis Each game match has nine individual matches. This season, 117 individual matches were played, and each one was a subplot to the season. The South Kent tennis team entered the playoffs as the fifth seed by virtue of winning their head-to-head match against Christian Heritage Academy. Watkinson had beaten us during the regular season, but in the playoffs SKS prevailed 7-2. Next came Forman who had also beaten us during the regular season. The match was a close one. SKS won by a whisker, 5-4, and into the finals we went against Harvey whose number one player is ranked in the top 100 players in his age bracket in the East. Luca Schioppa gave him all he could handle before finally bowing 10-6. Evan Chien won his match, and going into the doubles matches we were behind 2-4. We needed to win all three doubles to secure a victory and the

league championship–a daunting challenge! Luca and Andre Martins won handily at first doubles, as did Chi-Chen Hsieh and Miguel Gonzalez at second doubles.

So the entire season came down to the third doubles, and the fate of the tennis season rested with two hockey players, Dan Egan and Alex Bonito. Dan and Alex were down early, and prospects weren’t looking too good. Then they fought back to 4-all and went up a game.

From then on, the match was a see-saw.

The Harvey fans cheered every point their players won, and the South Kent players and fans cheered every point that Dan and Alex won. It couldn’t have been more fitting that a tie-break resulted when the game score was tied at 8-all.

The tennis gods were smiling on SKS: Dan and Alex took the tie-break 7-2, and South Kent became the Cinderella champion of HVAL tennis, a very improbable and unexpected league championship.

Coach Dave Macomber

Photo by Leo Fan ’11

Baseball The 2011 Cardinals baseball season started with a resemblance to that of the Bad News Bears, with the team losing two out of their first three games.

The pivotal moment in the season came after the Marvelwood win. The Cardinals’ bats seemed to be in hibernation after a long winter. The team decided on the way back to school to take one of these unlucky pieces of lumber and set it free in Hatch Pond where it rightfully belonged.

After selecting the sacrificial bat, the team launched it into the water and anxiously awaited its descent to the bottom of Hatch. Lo and behold, it did not sink.

Instead, it stared at them mockingly as it floated in the water. Had the bat ceremony worked? Only time would tell...

The next game their bats came alive, and the team defeated Wooster Academy 15-1. Highlighting the victory were five homeruns, including two tape measure

shots off the bat of Anthony Florentino.

The team’s winning streak continued, allowing them a place in the HVAL and New England tournaments.

Unfortunately, the tournaments did not go the way the Cardinals wanted. After a muddy win against Christian Heritage in the first round of the HVAL tournament, the Cardinals lost to Chase Collegiate in the championship game. In the New England tournament, the Cardinals did not make it past the first round, losing in a rubber match to the #1 team in the tournament KLHT. The Cardinals’ overall record was 7-4-1 with an HVAL record of 7-2-1.

The team had a number of key players who came through for them in the clutch.

Seniors Shayne Gostisbehere and Andrew Crowley helped the offense by hitting over .400 with 15 or more hits each, earning an on-base percentage of over .400, and providing incredible leadership for the team.

The Cardinals have a lot of talented

Shawn Power, Luca Schioppa and Patrick Magliano

returning players next year. Anthony Florentino is known for his “Big Papilike” power leading the team with 4 homeruns, a 1.136 slugging percentage and a 1.559 OPS. These accomplishments earned him the silver slugger award. MVP Kevin Butler, also returning, is a great offensive hitting catcher and one of the top five in batting average. Shortstop and second base combination Jimmy O’Connor and Zach Sugar will continue to flash the leather on the defensive side of the game and be consistent hitters. The “Ace,”Patrick Magliano, who pitched two gems against KLHT and Greens Farms Academy, both ranked teams, will be returning as well.

Coaches Phil Darrin, Walter Moore and Ben Cohon ’06 Summer 2011 The Hillside • 17

inperson

Alumna Profile

Doing things

differently

K

athleen Brady grew up in Kent, within 40 miles of at least 10 coed or all-girls private schools. And yet she chose to attend South Kent, a school for boys that was, at that time, accepting a few day girls. “I’ve always done things differently,” she says, and adds that her parents didn’t think twice about sending her to a boys school. Later her brother 18 • The Hillside Summer 2011

by Mary Flemming Brown

Kevin and sister Maureen also graduated from South Kent. Her model for a strong woman was probably her mother, the first female First Selectman in the Town of Kent. Kathleen carried her own self-confidence far beyond Kent, beyond Connecticut, beyond the U.S. Whatever the impetus for her enrollment at South Kent, the decision had a

significant impact on her future as a very successful Naval Officer, retiring in May 2010 as a Captain, even as she passed the baton by officially commissioning her younger daughter Anna that same day as a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Army.

What better preparation for a woman entering the military in the early 80s than four years at South Kent, creating her own path as a female in an overwhelmingly male group, developing a strong and persuasive voice amid a collection of deeper voices, and figuring out leadership techniques that compel men to pay attention and go along. She managed all this to such a degree that she set several Navy ‘firsts’ during her 26-year military career.

In September of 1975, Kathleen was one of 7 girls to enter South Kent that year, the largest class of female 3rd Formers that SKS had accepted. For the girls, the classroom was always an even playing field, but the literal playing fields, not so much. In her third form year, Kathleen played on the boys’ 3rds Soccer Team; there was no 2nds—just a varsity team and the 3rds. At the time, she was working part time at a restaurant in town in order to earn money for her books and supplies at South Kent. However, sports at South Kent have practices 6 afternoons a week, and the first time Kathleen had to miss a practice in order to do her job at the restaurant, the coach threw her off the team.

The next year, there were just enough girls at SKS to field a girls’ soccer team, coached by Bob Nielsen—and they played to a remarkable, undefeated season.

In Kathleen’s sixth form year, ViceAdmiral Stockdale, whose sons had attended South Kent, spoke at the School.

He offered to speak to any students who might be interested in serving in the military; Kathleen was the only student to take advantage of this opportunity. “At that time the military services were opening up more opportunities to women, to include the military academies, so I saw it as a challenge. I knew it was going to

be hard, but I was in an all-male environment here, and I ended up fitting in as ‘one of the guys’; I found that in the military as well. The military was very focused, service-oriented and regimented, as was South Kent, so to me it was almost a natural progression: you had to do something to prove yourself. But I felt I was already doing that at South Kent.” Though she didn’t end up attend-

It was the height of the Cold War, so we were out in hot pursuit of Soviet submarines. ing one of the academies, she did earn an ROTC scholarship to the University of Rochester, which she attended after just one year at the University of Connecticut.

Her athletic involvement at South Kent led to her earning a place in the first string of the brand-new, women’s varsity soccer team at UConn in her freshman year. But becoming disillusioned with what she perceived as a lack of academic intensity in her fellow classmates—combined with the fact that UConn did not have Navy ROTC—Kathleen transferred to the University of Rochester the following year. There she “did things differently” again when she decided against a straight engineering program and instead designed her own interdepartmental degree called Architectural Studies, combining mechanical engineering, environmental geology, and fine arts. In the course of earning her degree, she had to do a couple of independent studies, one

of which took the form of an archeological dig in the U.K.; she did architectural drawings for the elevations of Bordesley Abbey, destroyed by Henry VIII during the Dissolution in 1538.

Upon graduation in 1984, Kathleen began her Navy career as an Ocean Systems Watch Officer, tracking undersea activity. “I was doing integrated undersea surveillance systems. It was the height of the Cold War, so we were out in hot pursuit of Soviet submarines.” Although not on the usual intelligence track, she began her naval career in a very focused intelligence discipline. “As a new Intelligence Officer, you begin by learning intelligence at a tactical level. That means you’re actually doing the things that collect­—putting together an intelligence picture for warfighters on the sea, above the sea and under the sea; that means you are working from a forward operating base, frequently outside the continental US. The Intelligence Watch Officers monitored highly sensitive equipment; they had techniques of interpreting and feeding data to someone who could do something with it.

Imagine a half-a-football-field-sized room full of equipment that we would monitor.

This type of equipment today is distilled down to a small box.” Ensign Brady was an Ocean Systems Watch Officer based in remote Centerville Beach, CA, in charge of 25 people; she worked a rotating watch bill, which means that she and her team worked around the clock throughout the year. Here she met and married her husband, then­-Lieutenant Marty Lindenmayer. They were eventually colocated in Adak, Alaska, both continuing forward-based work in the Integrated Undersea Surveillance Systems business.

After giving birth to their first child, Elise, in Alaksa, Kathleen moved into another male-dominated field; in Adak, she became an Assistant Division Chief at the Naval Air Station, assuming responsibility for tactical, operational and strategic weapons. Living on a remote Summer 2011 The Hillside • 19

inperson

Alumna Profile

Above, Lieutenant Commander Lindenmayer at a conference in Stuttgart meeting with other countries’ liaison officers regarding the Joint Task Force Horn of Africa in Djibouti; facing page, Kathleen with two Masai guides. and small island, she found the military community incredibly supportive, especially when child-care became a concern for her. “Being forward-deployed to a small community brings people together; everybody helps each other out. The same thing must be true at South Kent.” After their time in Alaska, Marty left active duty in the Navy to pursue a Masters in Education, and Kathleen was transferred to Washington DC to a position in national intelligence management at the Defense Intelligence Agency.

Kathleen recalls that her tour in Washington DC gave her the confidence to make bold moves and to learn how the intelligence community worked together at the national level. “It was a fascinating experience. I managed the intelligence accounts of all the Navy operating forces and was helping lead the Navy Intelligence preparation for the paperless ship, something hard to envision back in 1988.” Shortly after the birth of their second daughter, Anna, 20 • The Hillside Summer 2011

Kathleen and her husband were presented with an opportunity radically different from any with which they had been involved: leave the Navy to run a B&B in Vermont! Not wanting to sever ties with the Service, Kathleen stayed active with the Navy Intelligence Reserve in a unit in Burlington, Vermont.

A few short months into the B&B venture, she and Marty sensed too many problems, so she applied to rejoin the Navy. But 1990 was a time of down-sizing for the military, and they were letting people go. However, as a result of her success at her last Navy assignment in Washington, DC and her Reserve work, Kathleen was welcomed back in uniform full time. She was assigned a program management position as an Intelligence Reserve Program Director for several Midwestern States. “I came back to active duty just a couple of weeks before the first Gulf War. Little did I know that I was about to lead a limited recall in support of Desert Shield/Desert Storm.”

Lieutenant Commander Lindenmayer’s next assignment to Stuttgart, Germany, over-rode any ideas of leaving the Navy and staying in the Chicago area where her children were happily in a school where their father taught. She and Marty decided the experience of living in another culture was worth moving for. [The experience was so positive for her older daughter Elise that she currently lives in Stuttgart and works for a German/ American company there.] In Stuttgart, Kathleen began her tour as a “Command Intelligence Briefer to the 4-star Commander and his Staff.” In 1994 she transitioned into counter-terrorism “before it became a sexy thing to do.

We were a very small group back then, but we had a lot going on. We observed Saddam break every rule in the book and closely monitored and/or supported US-efforts against Hezbollah’s worldwide global jihad, the various Palestinian Terrorist Groups and their unfortunately incessant attacks against Israel, as well as a myriad of other European-based Marxist-Leninist groups. Our big game in town though was the Balkan War. There was all that tension between the East and the West over who was going to get control of this region. That was also the first time that I heard the name Osama bin Laden.

He had declared war on the West years before most Americans knew who he was.

He had the money and growing influence through the ’90s to lend support to a growing Islamic Jihad—it was very scary to watch. I’m glad he was finally found, though justice is far from being served.

Our national leadership and our military have a tough job: we need the right capability in place, the right information, and the political will to do something. Most of the time, you have only pieces of this.

Unfortunately for all of us, it’s far from over.”

While they were stationed in Stuttgart, Marty was brought back in uniform him-

self and became Chief of Intelligence for Special Ops Command Europe. And then there was Rwanda, one of the largest humanitarian disasters in human history.

The European Command was in charge of any military logistical response to help out: lifting water, food, getting people out, tracking thousands of fleeing people.

The military is the only organization that has the lift and capability to arrange logistics like that on such a large scale. That situation would play a seminal role during her last tour of duty.

After Stuttgart, and owing to her previous experience in working with the Reserve in 1997, Kathleen returned stateside to create the first Joint Intelligence Operations Center for the Reserve at Ft. Sheridan, Illinois, just outside of Chicago.

This center provided a watershed opportunity for intelligence and our entire military reserve. “This was a proof of concept where we could tap into the talent and capabilities of people who wore the uniform part time; we showed that we could leverage these talents, improve readiness and enable the work of our national intelligence community through this process.”

The experiment was successful and the virtual analytic environment that was created is still used today. “Using my recent connections in Europe, we showed that we could perform as part of the European Intelligence Watch. We were at the cusp of international cooperation over the wires.”

Known as an expert on working with the Intelligence Reserve and for integrating capabilities and requirements from the full time components, Kathleen became the Program Director for the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) in 2000. Immediately following 9/11, Kathleen led the first formal ONI mobilization since World War II. Shortly after the mobilization, she was moved to the Pentagon where she became the Deputy Director for Management of the Navy Intelligence Community. This office set the standard for Department of

He had declared war on the West years before most Americans knew who he was.

Defense in its comprehensive approach to coordination and collaboration between the active and the reserve components.

One ‘first’ after another. Finally, in 2006, she returned to Stuttgart where she was the intelligence lead on the team that created US Africa Command. “Though I was not an ‘Africanist,” I had worked similar missions in which I had to create things from nothing, handling large budgets, dealing with human resources; I knew how to get an organization going.”

Once operational, she handed the full intelligence operational reigns over to a Defense Senior Official and became the Africa Command lead for Intelligence Security Cooperation and Engagement.

In this function, she liaised directly with African military intelligence leads and senior Intelligence Officials from the US. Her work took her from Stuttgart and Washington DC to various partner nations in Africa. She reflects on this experience: “I still pinch myself when I think of the privilege it was to serve in this way; I was so blessed to be a part of all this.” .

One might suppose that Kathleen’s 26-year military career of impressive ‘firsts’, of enormous responsibility and pressure, would persuade her to enjoy a typical retirement of slower pace, of relaxation now that she and Marty have moved back to Kent. One would suppose incorrectly. Already she is immersed in an MBA program at Western Connecticut State University, was tapped for a business team-challenge competition against teams from other universities across the country—a challenge which her team won—and so is on her way to Washington to present the results to a major nonprofit. Home in Kent, she has joined the Kent Memorial Library Board, the Elderly Housing Board, and is active in CCD at the local Catholic church. “I saw it as a challenge. I knew it was going to be hard, but I’ve always done things differently.” n Summer 2011 The Hillside • 21

inretrospect

Faculty Children

growing up South Kent All children, except one, grow up. They soon know that they will grow up, and the way Wendy knew was this. One day when she was two years old she was playing in a garden, and she plucked another flower and ran with it to her mother. I suppose she must have looked rather delightful, for Mrs. Darling put her hand to her heart and cried, “Oh, why can’t you remain like this for ever!” This was all that passed between them on the subject, but henceforth Wendy knew that she must grow up.

22 • The Hillside Summer 2011

J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan

M

ost of them never received a South Kent diploma. Yet in many respects their lives were governed by the same daily rhythms as were generations of South Kent students, carried along with the ebb and flow of young men and their mentors. Into the playhouse. Through the dining hall. From the chapel.

They shared—not always freely—their parents with future alumni. These “older brothers” became part of the fabric of their childhood. They were the unknowing recipients of a little girl’s first crush.

The unsuspecting victims of a childish prank. They were the young men and, for a short time, women with whom the faculty urchins shared a tacit understanding that it most certainly was “us” against “them”.

For many teachers, there are students whose image remains fixed in time. We may not have seen them since we returned that last paper or final exam. Circumstances may have prevented them from attending a reunion. We missed their wedding. A family photograph never made it into the alumni magazine. Most of us lack the skill of the sketch artist who is able to add decades to the last photograph of a missing child and so, they remain an awkward adolescent, sitting in the back row (third seat from the right), hunkered down over an in-class assignment. Similarly, to many alumni these faculty children, these unrelated younger siblings, remain on the Hillside’s “Neverland,” their images fixed as they were on that final Prize Day before the newly-minted alum took off for college.

We are extremely grateful to those “faculty brats”—and their parents—who, in sharing their memories with us, have provided a unique perspective on a special community. The impact that these youngsters had on the community was significant; its mark on these children—now adults—was indelible.

George Bartlett In the beginning there were none for the first few years of SKS history. All the teachers were bachelors, living in the “old building” along with the scholars. This arrangement continued until 1925 when the headmaster married and invited his bride to join him in a two-room, second floor apartment which since then has served as headmaster’s office, Father John’s “digs” and the alumni office. What goes

ing system under the football field sparkles a lonely diamond.

When I arrived in 1929, space became a real priority, resulting in the addition of a greenhouse-like bay window tacked onto the south side of the building. This excrescence became Mary’s boudoir and was dubbed either the “carbuncle” or the “wart”. This arrangement served the purpose well even under the most extreme conditions. To wit, one particularly cold

Tom, Clare, Lori and Mary Dingman, headed to Lane’s Pond

on there now, I am not sure.

Although the space was entirely livable, the amenities were few; for instance, there was no recognizable kitchen. Most conspicuous in its absence was a sink, the lack of which left only the bathtub for the washing of dishes and the endless parade of diapers which followed after sister Mary was born in 1927. During one such exercise, our mother lost her engagement ring and, to this day, in a pipe somewhere between “second floor, old” and the leach-

January night, Mary was put to bed along with a ham for which there was no room in the tiny ice box. The next morning, “rosy fingered dawn” found Mary no worse for wear but the ham was frozen solid!

In 1930 the headmaster’s house was built and none too soon, either. That year sister Frances was born, followed shortly by Sydney and Rockwell. One more and we would have had enough for a hockey team!

This explosion of “faculty brats” called Summer 2011 The Hillside • 23

Faculty Children

Group photo in the SKS courtyard, circa 1961. Left to right, Back Row: George Bartlett holding Caroline and Peter Bartlett; Anne Waller, Lori Dingman, Legare Cuyler holding Linda Mary Kohut, Gail Henry, Ida Henry, Mary Dingman, Clare Dingman, Tommy Dingman. Middle Row: Lawrence Smith, Ellen Smith, Margie Smith, Peggy Waller, Billy Brown, Sydney Waller; Front Row: Cricket Richards, Richard Kohut, Polly Bartlett, Daniel Holt, Mike Kohut, Timmy Richards, Eliza Wister, Sally Wister. for an executive decision, and the executive decided that the school proper would become “child unfriendly”, definitely off limits and in today’s terminology, a “no fly zone”. To underscore this policy, the “Old Man” marshaled his five offspring half way between their house and the school courtyard, declaring that spot as “the dead line”. Talk about unintended consequences, his stern prohibition worked much better than he thought. For years we were petrified by that piece of lawn, not because we were sure he meant business but because we never knew when that dreaded “dead lion” would show up . . . especially at night!

As time went on, the number of faculty children increased and their presence at 24 • The Hillside Summer 2011

meals, athletic activities, performances, etc. became commonplace, adding much to the collective ambiance. By that time all five of us were off at our own boarding schools where we monopolized the time and attentions of other kids’ parents.

Come to think of it, I never saw many of our counterparts on those campuses, either. I guess there were deceased “kings of the jungle” all over!

Nita Brown Howland I guess I would say that I feel very lucky

to have grown up at a place like SKS. I know times were simpler for everyone back then, but South Kent was definitely a pretty idyllic place. We had a lot of freedom to roam the campus playing our various games—leaf piles were a big attraction as were the barn, the big tree below the Smith/Dingman house, the brook down which we’d float tennis balls for hours, Hatch Pond where we’d skate on the (scary) black ice. (I really wish I hadn’t known about John Deak going through that ice.) Movies in the Playhouse on Saturday night (Hatari was the best!), skit night, the Nativity Play—it was all wonderful. The only downside to being a faculty brat is that there was no preparation for the “real” world. I can remember

finding out that most jobs only came with two weeks vacation and thinking that was just impossible. That’s probably why I’ve ended up spending the last twenty-one years back in a prep school even though I swore I’d never marry a teacher!

Peg Waller Burhoe Smells, sounds, and images emerge, randomly, seamlessly... our world was of a piece—from the apple blossoms and peonies to the violets and iris, the pink multiflora roses along the Chapel rink wall and lilies of the valley down the hill behind the headmaster’s house; from the riot of Victor’s zinnias to the daffodils in Prince and Princess’s field, the old white draught horses next to the Fieldhouse where the pear tree’s fruit was delightfully grainy in August—from our sighting the steeple coming down Bull Mountain on a January’s night to ‘The Boys,’ clad only in towels, running between buildings for their one (three?) minute showers—from

the Chapel’s musky scent of incense mixed with wood oils to rolling down the Chapel Hill into the leaf piles raked by the Hours’ Boys—from The Boys’ singing shaking the rafter beams to the creaking knees cracking as we genuflected—from the silence of the candles being extinguished to the emptiness of the campus in summer—from the white table cloths and silver tea services for Teas in the Courtyard, which were poured by The Faculty Wives who wore stockings with seams and pumps, to the movies on Saturday night in the unheated Playhouse with its ‘Pigtail Against the World’ proclamation, where we kids huddled in the balcony, watching The Boys on Halloween recite Chaucer to win goodies baked by our moms, as we waited for the broom stick of donuts to come our way—from the kittens in The Barn’s hay loft above the steers’ mucky paddock to horseback rides beyond The Deer Park up to the Water Tower’s high field, passing the tomato and potato fields, hearing football practices bumping and thumping the padded dummy—from the sled runs down from Wits End, through the tennis pines behind the library, past the cemetery down the Chapel Hill, between that pear tree and, with luck, the Field House wall, and, with luck, to Lou’s Lagoon—from the peepers in June to the September tree frogs—from the treacher-

Above: Mary and Lori Dingman and friend with Peter Pony, late Winter 1947; lower left: faculty children hockey team.

ous Goat Path along the lake to Boyd’s store and Lane’s Pond skating before the lake froze—from the train tooting its way below Bull Mountain, that ancient Appalachian beast, to pucks slamming the rinks’ boards or The Boys’ broom line clearing the rinks between intervals—from the ‘twonk twonk’ of tennis in the pines where the needles lowed in the wind, to the cadence of Chapel and Schoolhouse bells, ringing each day through its course—from climbing up on Elephant Rock to watch baseball games, to the coxswains’ shouted encouragement across the way—from the squeak of the Old Building’s door hinges to football cleats scraping the Courtyard’s stones—from the candles at Saturday night dinner to the waiters’ stylized pace between Kitchen and Dining Room—from Chandler Road’s shack of Mrs Maybrick (the exonerated and alleged murderer in England) and her 22 cats to its jack-in-the-pulpits and swinging vines—from The Brook’s blue slag, vestiges of Pigtail’s colonial iron foundry, to the smell of skunk cabbage in early spring - from our morning school Summer 2011 The Hillside • 25

Faculty Children

Left: Mary Dingman, Legare Cuyler and Lori Dingman, c. 1942-43; below: Peg Waller, Sydney Waller, Anne Waller, Nan Brown and Clare Dingman, April 1956

group, gathering mass and momentum as we filed down the hill along the stone wall, across that slippery, slanted stone bridge by the Straight House to make the bus on time—from May Day baskets and, for beauty’s sake, washing our faces in dew to the Bartlett’s Christmas tree having real candles—from Mrs Lyon’s pinkie pudding which we graciously ate because she had a television to Reuben Lee parachuting—from from from... this list can never end because SKS lives forever in my heart, soul, and collective sense of being. Amen.

Ellen Smith Knapp We Smiths were born into the “Little Red House” where our parents brought their magic—our dad painting the large Alfred E. Neuman on the back of the house—memories of early Chinese Chow with “boys” who seemed like men to us, Dad being Santa Claus for us, and the making of beer in the basement with the Kuhner twins. Also memories of SKS babysitters (Chico Aller) in suits. Our neighbors were Mrs. Trinka and the Walinskis—we played on the sidelines of countless football games, more interested in playing bumper cars with other kids (stuffing freshly mowed grass under our shirts and running full tilt at each other).

We were near Hatch Pond and regularly 26 • The Hillside Summer 2011

went there for crew races and salamander hunts with our father.

Then we moved the whole operation up the hill, which seemed like another land, of more kids, bigger kids—kids of all ages. From the smaller Bartletts and Richards and Kohuts up through the Browns. The Dingmans and our cousins the Cuylers were gone by then. We discovered forts in the woods made by bigger kids—and we generally played outside from the moment we got home from school until

after dark, whatever the season. Forts, bike clubs, raking leaves at the bottom of Chapel Hill and spending hours running and diving into them. Playing up in the barn where there were kittens in the

hay, oftentimes a freshly butchered cow hanging upside down—being up in the hay loft was very special. Riding our bikes everywhere, exploring every house. Planning May Days where we’d get up before dawn, pick masses of flowers and deliver a bouquet to each house before we left for school. Dad still being Santa and then mentoring young men who’d grown up with Art Smith being Santa, to taking on the role for new little kids.

We babysat each other, we played in front of the Straight House before school, getting down there early enough for a long game of baseball or kick-the-can. We skated on both ponds together, with the skilled moms who skated well, teaching us. The faculty boys learning alongside the SKS students—hockey, sledding, tree climbing.

The Bartletts’ cider press, the Halloween skit night, with donuts being passed

around on broom poles. Cakes on the stage for prizes. Watching movies in the Playhouse—getting scared and running home at night through the dark with no fear of the place. The Square Dance, the Christmas Pageant... The Deaks...

Mrs. Lyon teaching us how to knit, being able to run through the buildings at SKS which smelled of old wood—being free to be invisible and yet being part of the larger world of the school.

At night hearing the dorm prefects calling out to the main prefect by the Old Building that everyone was “in”.

Margaret Smith Being a Faculty Brat at SKS in the 1950s and 60s was an experience that I would not trade for all the tea in China! My sister and I have often commented that when we tell people about our childhood, they think we’re making it up, Ozzie & Harriet style. But we’re not. My world was Bartletts, Browns, Dingmans, Farrs, Funnells, Richards, Wallers, Wisters and more. In 1999, we had a faculty brat reunion up at Bringhurst. I’m looking at a series of photos taken that day, and what shows up consistently in all of them is the look of pure joy and love on all the faces. We were home again. Together.

There’s no way I can single out and describe just a few memories for this article. There are too many. They’ve come flooding back: washing our faces with morning dew before delivering May Day baskets of flowers around campus… playing in the brook behind the Straight House… gathering at the Straight House to wait for the school bus together—Beep Brown would lie in the middle of Bulls Bridge Road with his ear to the ground, claiming that he could “feel” the bus com-

ing…going on strike for a raise in babysitter pay from 10 cents to 25 (announced in the Faculty Brat Gazette)…my Japanese brothers…Chinese chow at our house… the balcony of the Playhouse…riding bikes down to Boyd’s Store for wax candy lips….Black Maria….the Halloween skit night cake baking contest…..running away

Tom Dingman, Anne Waller, Jody Brown, Nan Brown

from Ellen, Sally, Polly, but never Nita (I wonder why?)…messing up the piles of leaves after the boys had raked them up for jobs….” Wanna hack out? Yeah!

Bye!”...Russian Tea on Sunday afternoons at home with a living room full of students…scavenging the dorm rooms after the boys went home in May…afternoons spent freely going from one faculty house to another—our mothers never seemed to mind being invaded by hungry hordes of brats—the pack of faculty dogs roam-

ing the campus….Pouncer and Puppy bringing cow legs back from the school dump on Chandler Road…reading comic books and playing dress-up at the Browns’ house…believing in Santa because we saw him (thanks, Dad!)….watching the live candles being lit on the Bartletts’ Christmas tree…many second Moms and Dads whom I loved (and still love)…Syddie and Peggy Waller’s summer camp at the Gleason House…Christmas pageant at the chapel…girls’ fort and boys’ fort in the pine forest by the tennis court….

Field Day by the chapel… tea and scones with Mrs. Lyon…rolling down the Chapel Hill…sledding from the library down past the Field House to the pond…..

John and Vic Deak leaving enough snow on the road so that we could sled…. helping Dad correct 2nd form English papers….. helping Dad coach crew then hunting for turtles at the end of Hatch Pond… walking to Mrs. Chandler’s house on Chandler Road (forbidden)…. trying to dig up Mrs. Chandler’s grave in the Chapel graveyard (definitely forbidden!)…. climbing around in the hayloft of John Deak’s barn, looking for litters of kittens in the hay…going to the kitchen to get the blickie for supper…learning to swim in Hatch Pond…playing together at football and baseball games…Mom and other faculty wives making Christmas decorations in the cellar of the Dingman house…. the fabulous Glee Club performance of “Guys and Dolls”….150 big brothers to torment…. and so, so much more.

In retrospect, it was not perfect, but just about as close to perfect as it could Summer 2011 The Hillside • 27

Faculty Children

get! There was a feeling of safety, of trust, of belonging. We had a large built in family, and we are still connected though we are scattered far and wide.

Several years ago, Tom Dingman hosted a gathering of some faculty brats at his home at Harvard. He said then, and we all agreed, that we’d walk off the ends of the earth for each other still, even though

and baked beans on Saturday night; the smell of Daddy’s chem Lab; playing Bull Pen in the Woodwards’ barn; faculty boys throwing rocks at the faculty girls who were supposed to dodge them—probably in the “bullying” category these days. (Actually, the girls liked playing.) Walking to the school bus when it picked us up down by the cross-roads and then on very lucky

dogs and their individual personalities; making terrariums and wreaths from greens and berries in the woods; going after Xmas trees with Daddy, who always chose some sickly one in order to give others more space to grow; the barn and its inhabitants, particularly the day the sow, in a pen with her babies, got loose and chased Legare and me into a wagon, screaming. We were rescued by Victor Deak. We were never supposed to go in the barn without an adult. At one point Legare had chicken pox or measles and all the faculty children, plus some children from Kent School (Louisa and Skip Mattoon) had to go to the Cuyler house to lick lollipops with him so we would all get it and get it over with!! That was the winter when all four Dingman kids had chicken pox and measles and Mom never got out of the house for the whole winter.

The goat path above the lake and walking to the lake to skate, returning home with freezing toes, and moonlight skating on the whole black ice covered lake—particularly fun when some of the boys had gone AWOL and joined us. Christmas Eve in the Chapel; hymns in the Chapel; feeling that SKS was the best, best place in the world; the utter devastation when Daddy said we were moving!!!

An assortment of young Wallers, Dingmans, Gillettes, Codys and Henrys gather for a portrait in the South Kent dining hall, c. 1950.

it may have been decades in some cases since we’d seen each other! We’re still family. Thank you, South Kent School, for giving us that!

Mary Dingman Abel Hot raisin bread for Saturday lunches, accompaniment to spaghetti or chili before very exciting football games; hot dogs 28 • The Hillside Summer 2011

days coming home from school, going to Boyd’s store for a popsicle ($.05!!); the wild celebration on the hill when World War II ended. John Woodward throwing watermelon in Mr. Cuyler’s car and then getting his big toe caught in a mole trap; blackouts, eggs in slimy preservative in the basement, eating goat meat. Daffodils in profusion on the hillside above the old dump; going rummaging in the dump after the boys left in June and finding all kinds of discarded treasures; crushes; the fragrance of lilacs and peonies in the spring and apples in the fall; the faculty

Lori Dingman Wadsworth I remember how difficult it felt to always have to share my dad with the SKS boys. My husband Chris was a headmaster for many years and still remembers one early Saturday morning when our young son Benj looked at his dad and said, “Daddy, why do you want to go play with those kids instead of me?” Needless to say Chris stayed home to play catch for the next hour or so. How often I remember feeling exactly that way!

Tom Dingman Growing up at South Kent was a tremendous experience. The other faculty families were like extended families for us, and we had the range of the campus to explore. After Kent Center got out each day, we’d watch team practices, dam brooks, or build tree houses (no need for Toys ’R Us). Special memories include: harvesting tomatoes and potatoes and going into the root cellar (I will never forget the smell); watching the Halloween skits and recitation of Chaucer lines, and eating doughnuts passed around on broomsticks; taking advantage of the first ice on Lane’s Pond (Hatch Pond took longer to freeze over); seeing the chapel spire lit up in the winter as we came over the hills; feeling the magic of the crèche set up in front of the chapel; being able to attend the Holiday Square Dance in the school dining hall with Uncle Woody and Amy Lyons leading the “Grand March;” secretively delivering valentines all over campus; getting the next batch of hand-me-downs, usually from Legaré Cuyler or from Skip Mattoon, whose father was on the Kent School faculty; watching Saturday night black and white movies in the old playhouse, seated on wooden pews; going to coffee klatches hosted by our parents (the mothers seemed to do all the work) and playing games in the living room with the boys; having Daylight Savings Time arrive and with it the nightly games of stickball on the hockey rink next to the chapel; getting kicked out of our beds when Mothers’ and Fathers’ weekends arrived and our family put up students’ parents; making baskets on May Day; going to Prize Day and feeling very sad to see the sixth-formers finishing their SKS careers; watching our parents carrying home-made iced tea (was it really iced tea?), sandwiches, and cakes to the end-of-year faculty party be-

Nan Brown, Beep Brown, Anne Waller, Sydney Waller, Tom Dingman, Clare Dingman

hind the Straight House and recognizing how much more relaxed they seemed.

This list is far from complete. I just recall thinking I had the best childhood of anyone around. It was actually more challenging to attend South Kent as a faculty brat as my father was a renowned hard grader, and I’d be only too aware of the moans and groans as homework was returned (my two lowest grades at South Kent were in the courses he taught me: Physics and Chemistry). I also was concerned about not screwing up and setting up embarrassment for all. In fact, Bruce Small called me on a failure to attribute others’ work in a history paper I did (it was pretty good copying), and that made me feel terrible. The other uncomfortable moment consistently came with the start of vacations as I’d watch the other boys head off on the train to New York—with wild meeting plans for 42nd Street—and I’d usually trundle across the campus with a paper bag full of belongings. Mind you, we always had fun, but the transitions were awkward.

Clare Dingman Rhoades I am most grateful for having learned to live with less, to be aware of waste and the importance of saving for what was most important for us individually and for the entire community.

We certainly learned sharing, like the only pair of double-bladed ice skates for the beginner in the community, AND lollipops with those who had gotten the measles, mumps, chicken pox or whatever so we’d be sure to get the contagious diseases over with ourselves.

Being given awful nicknames by the faculty that hurt my feelings!

Feeling lonely at times because there were no faculty girls my age.

Helping my mother make a homemade Christmas gift for every faculty family every year, like orange/clove balls or those clothes pin aprons, etc.

Not only the SMELL of the root cellar but KISSING school boys in the cellar!

Climbing out of my bedroom window to play with the boys after hours. Getting drunk on the boys’ moonshine.

Sadly saying goodbye to the boys at Summer 2011 The Hillside • 29

Faculty Children

Evening prayers. Great hymns. Incense.

Chocolate cookies at the Browns’ house after getting off the school bus. Seemed like everyone shared what food they had.

Huge baskets of oranges in the winter and picking all the raisins out of the raisin bread while carrying it home.

The year of the flu epidemic and Aunt Amy and Mom and other faculty wives taking care of the boys in the infirmary.

Aunt Amy’s year-old Christmas pudding.

Feeling very safe and protected and cared for by the entire community.

I feel blessed to have been raised in the SKS community.

Alice Woodward, Mary Dingman, Wendy Cameron with “Aunt Bott”; Front, Lori and Clare Dingman

the R/R station at the end of term, and putting pennies on the tracks illegally and getting caught by my father once and being thrown into the back of the army truck in front of the boys!!

Not seeing much of my father ever because he was always at school.

Having to climb up the ski hill on Chandler Road in order to get a 5 second ski down!

My father returning from Hatch Pond several times frozen to his clothes because the tractor he was clearing the rink with had gone through the ice. He was only upset because he lost his pipe in doing so.

Returning from the Browns’ house on Friday nights after watching the ONLY TV show we were allowed to see at night and being terrified by Legare Cuyler jumping out at me from behind a tree.

Jumping into the huge leaf piles raked by boys doing work or penalty duty scattering the leaves all over again!

Bonfires on Hatch Pond and night skating with the terrifying cracking sound of the ice.

Discovering with Nanny Brown the “cups” worn by boys in football. “Hmm, what are these ever for?”

30 • The Hillside Summer 2011

James Funnell The magic of May Day: I remember getting up at the crack of dawn, scampering around campus gathering flowers as our shoes got more and more soaked by dewy grasses. We would then convene with our gathered blossoms and divide them, with Maggie Bartlett’s artistic input, into bouquets. The final phase was heading out again to hang a bouquet on each faculty door, all this before breakfast!

I remember being a diehard SKS fan, going to as many home games as I could, helping as a ball boy, filling water pails, etc. I remember the fun we had every morning waiting for the bus together, playing street hockey in the road. We must have filled half the bus back in the 70s! I remember favorite baby sitters— Frank Newlin, Hayward Chapelle, Ben Cornelius—and having a couple of rare girl boarders take over my old room when I was living in the dorm. I remember our house as a part time bed-and-breakfast when trustees came to town.

Mary Dingman and Wendy Cameron

I remember the Saturday night movie in the Playhouse, and the candy store beforehand! I remember the plays—Inherit the Wind, Mr. Roberts, Twelve Angry Men, Arsenic and Old Lace. I remember wonderful Halloweens cruising all over campus in search of candy, then enjoying broomstick after donut-laden broomstick at Skit Night. I remember Edmund Fuller reading “A Child’s Christmas in Wales” and square dancing at the Christmas party to the music of Frisky’s band.

In short, my memories are all very positive. I never felt as though I was sharing my dad, probably because Mom was there for us all the time and Dad was pretty routinely home in the evenings. I remember the inconvenience of not having vacations sync up which usually meant that we didn’t get to do many exciting trips during school breaks, but that was more than made up for by having Dad around all summer.

Having raised my kids in a similar environment, though, I think I am more aware

of the time I have missed with my own kids. Just yesterday, I missed both of my sons’ lacrosse games so that I could coach my own team. One of Margaret’s favorite stories to illustrate how much time I have to spend in the office at certain times of the year involves a conversation between her and a five-year-old Nicky a few days before my parents were coming here for a visit: Margaret—“Guess who is coming to visit us this weekend?” Nicky—“Maybe Daddy?”

Ruth Abbott Greenberg Growing up as a faculty brat in the 70s and 80s was to be always surrounded by a sense of community. As in any community, there were positive and negative aspects. I choose to share the positive.

Some of my favorite memories include: rubbing my face in the dew on the morning of May 1st, before picking flowers and placing them on faculty front doors, eating warm cider donuts off the long wooden poles in the Playhouse, playing on the hay bales in the barn (before it was removed to build the gym) while looking for barn kittens, disappearing into the woods behind Bartlett Dorm and playing on the ropes course, square dancing at the faculty Christmas party and eating the bright hard candy that was put out in the bowls, walking down to the dining hall and seeing the windows all fogged up and saying to myself “oh no, it’s liver night” and having my mom reassure me that I only had to eat the breaded veal, sitting on my dad’s metal table in his lab looking at the bottles of fruit flies or going with his ecology class to search for crayfish in the streams of Macedonia Brook, and skating on the hockey rink under the stars (before the roof was built) with the other faculty brats on New Year’s Eve. Being a faculty brat meant that I had

Tom Dingman’s first day of school, with sister, Mary

hundreds of big brothers. My house was always full of extra people. When I was young there were several students whom I really connected to. Hayward taught me how to make crowns and chains out of the dandelions that covered the hillside.

He would always share his drawing paper and pencils with me. I faintly remember a Nativity Play where I must have been younger than six. I was sitting and watching with my mom, dad, and sister when my favorite “big brother” Eric came out, playing the angel Gabriel. At that moment the reality and fantasy line in my young mind smashed together. By the time the play was over, I was convinced that Eric had died and was now an angel.

I was inconsolable, and no words from my parents could convince me otherwise.

Someone told Eric about my sadness, and within a short period of time he was up at our faculty apartment holding me on his lap and letting me know that he was very much alive. The connection between students and faculty is one of the most valuable aspects from growing up in a pri-

vate school setting. Sense of community and compassion are two lifelong lessons I learned because of being a faculty brat.

Chris Farr Although I know there were times when growing up on campus was difficult, I only have positive memories of being a faculty brat.

Everyone’s childhood is marked by moments that we wish had been different. Yet when I describe my childhood to people, I refer to going up at SKS as the best growing/learning environment a kid could possibly have. What child wouldn’t want an instant group of 20-25 friends available at a moment’s notice to play wiffle ball, capture the flag, or sardines? Where else could we have gathered before sunrise to create May-Day baskets and secretly deliver them to faculty homes? Where else Summer 2011 The Hillside • 31

could you skate all day on the pond or the rink? Who didn’t enjoy the traditions of Skit Night, the Nativity Play, and cider making? Where else could we interact with older kids and admire their achievements on the stage, in the art room, on the field, and on the ice? And where else could a child get home from school and play until dark, breaking only for dinner with your extended family of 150?

The moments that stand out are numerous: the evening I vomited on Joe Burke’s head from the balcony of the Playhouse because I ate too much candy and too many doughnuts at Skit Night; Chick Willing cooking ‘liver dinner’ for the School (that meal could be smelled for miles around); Big Bill’s pancakes; beating Salisbury on the rink; skating on black ice at Hatch Pond; flag football on the Chapel Rink.

The life of a boarding school faculty member is all-consuming, but sharing my parents with the students at South Kent never felt anything but normal to me.

There were many times that Mom and Dad were “pulled away” to provide extra help to students in need, coach games, or fix the Huskey/Zamboni. But these absences were balanced by all the positives of being a faculty brat. Of all the friends I’ve developed through high school, college, and adulthood, no friends feel as close as the kids I grew up with on the hillside.

The moments we all shared have created a special bond, and I feel as though I can fall back into those familiar friendships with a snap of the fingers despite having not seen some of my fellow faculty brats for years.

For me, SKS was a wonderful place to grow up.

Here is a specific memory of a thenyoung faculty wife, on being a mother at South Kent in the 50s.

32 • The Hillside Summer 2011

Nancy Waller “One of the loveliest happenings in my life slips in and then out of my mind over the years. I must catch it firmly in writing before it melts away again for another long absence.

One early golden evening when we were still living in the apartment in the New Building and the whole school was at supper, I had put Anne and Syddie to bed (or they were ready for bed and playing in their room) while I was immobile nursing Peggy.

When I had finished and tucked Peggy in her crib out in the Coop, I went into the little girls’ room. Absolute silence! They had disappeared.

Where did I find them? Down in Martine’s flower-filled garden in the deep rose light of the sunset—our little girls in their pink and blue Dr. Denton’s with their pink cheeks and sparkling eyes, hiding among the zinnias, marigolds and phlox that were just their height. So unbelievably beautiful—a golden, still moment in time! And then I can see them as we went up the hill laughing—Syddie in blue, waddling along, for she was still in diapers, and Andy in pink, so blonde and rosy. Mother said years ago, the older she got the more like exquisite flowers little children seemed. I find it so very true. And what flowers I had!!”

...rubbing my face in the dew on the morning of May 1st, before picking flowers and placing them on faculty front doors.

“As you look at Wendy, you may see her hair becoming white, and her figure little again, for all this happened long ago. Jane is now a common grown-up, with a daughter called Margaret; and every spring cleaning time, except when he forgets, Peter comes for Margaret and takes her to the Neverland, where she tells him stories about himself, to which he listens eagerly. When Margaret grows up she will have a daughter, who is to be Peter’s mother in turn; and thus it will go on, so long as children are gay and innocent and heartless.”

Photos courtesy of Nita Brown Howland and Mary Dingman Abel. Excerpts from Peter Pan reproduced with permission of the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.

My brother Cricket holds my hand and I back out the second floor window. I slide my other hand along the rope and kick my feet to find the bottom of the dented steel bucket. We have made our own elevator.

Cricket is two years younger than I am. He can run and skate as fast as I can though. His real name is James, but I don’t remember calling him anything but Crick or Cricket or sometimes Crocket. It comes from Jiminy Cricket in Pinocchio. Polly and Peter Bartlett and everyone else we know saw the Pinocchio movie, and after that our dad started calling my brother Jiminy Cricket instead of Jim. Anyway, my name is Tim, and if they called him Jim it might have been confusing.

Our house is the New Wing. It is a wing—like the wing of a bird or a plane—on the north end of South Kent School’s big Schoolhouse building. On the end away from the building, looking up the valley toward Kent, our house is all glass up to the top of the pitched ceiling. There are sliding glass doors across the front. The ceiling goes up so high that our Christmas trees are bigger than anyone else’s we know. We put them on a table borrowed from one of the classrooms in the Schoolhouse, and they reach almost to the top of the ceiling.

Underneath our apartment is a school dorm. When we first moved in, the New Wing was brand new. I was four and Cricket was two. Our little brother Andy wasn’t born yet.

Our dad teaches math at South Kent.

He grew up at the bottom of the hill, went to the School and came back to teach after he was an Air Force pilot in Japan. Our mom grew up in St. Louis

The Elevator

by Tim Richards ’75

and met our dad when they were in college. She is a teacher, too, but isn’t teaching now while we’re little.

We’ve been dropping ropes out of the windows since September when we came back from Cape Cod. We have the windows open at night all the time.

I like having the windows open so I can feel the wind at night and smell the grass after the school boys have cut it. We first put a rope out of my bedroom window one afternoon when Cricket and I were playing with our GI Joes. We sent one soldier on a mission down a cliff by tying a fuzzy old brown rope around GI Joe’s waist. Then we leaned out and lowered him down to the ground. When we were finished playing, we left the rope hanging out the window.

That night, I started to pull up the rope and saw something tied onto the end. I pulled it up as fast as I could and found a cut-out paper lion with a note on the back saying Hi from one of the boys living below. My mom said I should write back, so I did and lowered my note back down. The next day there was a reply, and while it stayed warm enough to have windows open, we kept sending notes up and down on the rope.

It doesn’t stay warm too long though. By Halloween, we have to wear coats to go down to Skit Night.

That’s when the whole school crams into the Playhouse at the bottom of the hill to eat donuts and apples and drink apple cider while the students put on skits. All the new boys have to recite Chaucer. The donuts are warm and covered with cinnamon. They’re served by sliding them onto broomContinued on page 41 Summer 2011 The Hillside • 33

inperspective

Alumni

Global

Citizens

by Mary Flemming Brown

I

have always loved reading fiction. I came to appreciate non-fiction late.

Somehow, as a student I never enjoyed studying history; it seemed to me then just dates—wars and kings and tedious memorization. In recent years, I’ve decided I should have studied history by watching historical documentaries; I find them enthralling—even all the dates, the wars and kings. And now I recognize that history is, in fact, the thing that I love most: real people and their stories. There are just too many of them to include in classroom study, and historians have been forced to bury them in ‘times’ and ‘ages’ and trends—losing all that charming anecdotal humanity of individual lives. These days I choose to read about my greatest heroes, like Ernest Shackleton, Ulysses Grant, Abraham Lincoln. And I still claim Sydney Carton as one of my heroes. Yes, yes, I know he’s fictional. That seems, however, a poor reason to eliminate him from my A-list.

Now, especially in retirement—that 34 • The Hillside Summer 2011

period in which you have time to think, have plenty of time to listen to NPR, actually have time to learn—I think a lot about people I have known; I wonder what they are doing, have done; I wonder what they wonder. And having taught many international students over the years, both in ESL classes and regular English classes at South Kent, I naturally wonder about them.

For they are, in the very best sense, my heroes, too. I am in awe of their courage in choosing to study entirely in a foreign language—of their determination to succeed in an unfamiliar and often uncomfortable culture—of their ability to keep their balance in the delicate dance of loyalty to their own country and cheerful acceptance of our enthusiastic championing of the US I wonder how they happened to come to South Kent, what their time here felt like to them later, and how that time might have affected their view of the US itself, of the rest of the world, of the world situation. Certainly, the world situation currently invites judgment. What do they see

as the future?

So I wrote to a few of our alums from disparate parts of the world. I asked questions; they answered most of them. These four alumni are a small percentage of those I might have contacted. There are plenty of other countries that house SKS graduates—we have an extensive history of welcoming international students into the community. This time I called on the generosity of Guillem Pages, an ASSIST student in 1998 from Spain; Peter Wallis who came to us from Australia, in 1994; Ziad Al-Turki, Head Prefect in 1984, from Saudi Arabia; and Tomas Petru, from the then-newly independent Czech Republic, who was at SKS in 1990. They have shared their particular memories of South Kent, of where they have traveled since then, both literally and professionally. The extent of their global adventures surprised me but, then, they demonstrated that interest in the wider world early on, when they decided to study in the States. I should never have expected to find them now “at home.”

G

uillem Pages began with vivid memories of his class work. “I remember a calculus problem about an astronaut: even after I got the right answer, I was still not sure I understood it.

I remember my Anatomy and Physiology (really more of a philosophy class) teachers saying that our skin could be seen as a life’s diary— beauty spots, scars, moles—a point that still amuses me sometimes.

I remember working very hard for months to write an essay [his creative nonfiction sixth form term paper] about astronomy for my English class; I still keep the essay at my parents’ home and read it when I go back to Spain.

“I remember a classmate teaching me to walk in baby steps on the snow: ‘Guiligem, (my name Guillem is difficult to pronounce) remember: baby steps, baby steps,’ he says as he helps me back onto my feet. I remember winning the first half of our final crew race but ending in fifth position in the second half. ‘Row, boys, row!’

(I continued rowing until I graduated from university, and I plan to row again

once my children are older.) I remember singing in chapel ‘Amazing grace, how sweet the sound . . .’; recycling the cans and bottles early in the morning; listening at assemblies also early in the morning; standing in pajamas under a tree at 3:00 in the morning after some classmate set off the fire alarm in the dorm; learning what diversity means with my Korean, Hispanic, American, German, and South American friends.

“I have been living in China for five years, working as Business Development Manager for Roca, a Spanish multinational. After I graduated from SKS, I went back home to Europe where I studied Civil Engineering in Barcelona and Paris where my wife Cristina studied as well.

We both shared a strong desire to travel

Guillem, Mei, Christina and Guim Pages

and learn through experience, so in 2006, we moved to Shanghai for 18 months in order to study for an MBA at the China Europe International Business School.

We have been living here for almost five years already! We expect to stay for two more years at least. Our years in China have given us, apart from many enriching experiences, two children: a daughter Mei,

born in 2008, and a son Guim, born in 2009. Mei speaks Chinese and Catalan but understands Spanish, so she will have no problems with that language. She is also taking English classes in kindergarten; so far she knows the colors, banana, apple, and how to count to ten—forgetting the 5 and 6!

“The business at Roca, selling toilets, is really interesting but also complex. We have five factories in China and many complications: unfair competition, unfair government policies, distribution problems—but still the business is going well because China is booming and, in the end, we can never escape the toilet! As for what I will do when I leave China, that is a question I ask myself many times a week. I want to go back home and have my children play with their cousins, but the job market in Spain is very bad now, so I guess I will wait some years.

“Living abroad offers a great opportunity to learn a new language, learn about cultural differences, see new solutions to the same problems, see new problems. Since I left the US, I have lived back home in Spain, in Paris, in Liechtenstein, and in China. I have learned much that has enriched my life, but on the other hand, I have piled up much grief: many friends that I have no time to keep in touch with, wonderful places that I can no longer picture, friends back home who do not understand my point of view anymore. I have been lucky that I have found a partner, my wife, who shares this passion for learning. We understand each other and remember together.

“Many things have happened to our world since I graduated from South Kent Summer 2011 The Hillside • 35

Global Citizens

School, from the war in Iraq, to the terrorist attacks of September 11, to the unending war in Afghanistan, the victory of President Obama . . . . There are many points of foreign policy of the Bush Administration that I could never support.

However, the year in the US gave me a good understanding of American society: what the great things are that have made the US the country that it is and also its shortcomings. During these years, when I have been involved in a discussion regarding the US, I have always felt I had a good understanding of this country. In many cases, I heard other people mostly repeat the stereotypes their national media, politicians, and opinion leaders had told them.

Having lived in the US always makes me think of this country as people. I remember my roommate, my teachers, my football team quarterback. The US, as any country, is a group of people, and therefore stereotypes and prejudices are always a wrong way to describe them. Still today, a part of me feels attacked when people criticize Americans. I see how, in most cases, the arguments used are incomplete, uninformed, or completely biased.

“Obviously none of us knows enough to guess the future. The most we can do is put all the information we have together and choose a conclusion that is good for us. I consciously choose to be optimistic.

I believe in the next 20 years China will continue to draw hundreds of millions of people out of poverty. India will also do so but at a slower speed. Brazil and Russia will have a more bumpy development. Sub-Sahara Africa, I believe, will need many more years to overcome their inefficient tribes and governments. North America will maintain its leadership as the most dynamic economy in the world and will surprise the world with new businesses as it did in the past with internet, mobile phones and so on.

“At some point in the next 20 years, there has to be a change in the economic model of developed countries. Citizens 36 • The Hillside Summer 2011

in countries under development are hungry for a house and a car. Once they get them, the system’s inertia makes them want a better house and a better car. Thus a high percentage of a household’s income is currently used to purchase these two goods. However, once you are born into a good house with a nice car in the garage, you do not value these products as much. Sometime in the next 20 years, households will start to spend much more on education, preventive healthcare, good quality food, cultural activities.

A part of me feels attacked when people criticize Americans. I see how, in most cases, the arguments are incomplete, uninformed, or completely biased.

This trend, I believe, will start in Europe, where countries are developed enough and traditions are strongly rooted.

“The Hillside grew in me the seed of curiosity. We have much to learn from others. We first look to the world through our own lenses. After we have a strong exposure to other groups, cultures, people, we not only learn about them, but we also learn to know ourselves better. This gratitude for diversity I first experienced at South Kent, and it still today determines many of the choices I make in my life.”

I

n 1993, South Kent welcomed its first ASSIST student from Australia. Peter Wallis has written that he came to South Kent with a very limited view of the world. “Meeting the students who came from a lot of different walks of life as well as parts of the world gave me more perspective on where I came from. Going to a new school on the other side of the world also gave me the opportunity to ‘reinvent’ myself as a person, as no one had any expectations of me. I have very fond memories of how friendly and welcoming the students were, and of the many adventures we had in my year there.

“After returning from my year at SKS, I completed my secondary schooling at Melbourne Grammar School. I then moved on to Monash University in Melbourne from which I graduated in 2003 with degrees in Medicine and Law. Over the next five years, I did a number of residencies in many different parts of Australia and New Zealand, in various medical specialties. In 2004 I met my wife Amanda while working in Burnie, northern Tasmania; we married in 2008.

My interest in Paediatrics was piqued in 2007 when we spent 2 months working at a mission hospital in Tanzania, where I ran the paediatric ward. We also worked for 18 months in Alice Springs in the very sparsely populated centre of Australia.

The hospital serviced an area 1.5 times

the size of Texas, inhabited by only 45,000 people. Here we gained an appreciation of the health issues facing Australia’s indigenous people, and a taste for the desert that will never leave us.

“Last year we lived in Kenya where I worked with MSF (Doctors Without Borders) running the tuberculosis part of a large HIV programme. I was lucky enough to have the resources to expand and revise the operation of one of three functioning multi-drug resistant TB treatment programmes in the country. This year we are working in Townsville, in far northeastern Australia. I have started my paediatric training, and Amanda, her emergency medicine training.

The first round of exams was in February.

“Outside of Peter and Amanda Wallis work, I am still into outdoor sports. This interest has taken me mountaineering in Kenya and Argentina, whitewater kayaking in Uganda, Zambia and Chile, and mountain biking throughout Australia and New Zealand. We have recently taken up some more sedate activities such as scuba diving and wildlife photography.

“In 2001 I was forced to take a year out of my studies due to illness, which enabled me to spend a summer teaching whitewater kayaking in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, followed by clerking at a large legal firm in Melbourne. But on September 11, 2001, I was rock climbing in

Yosemite National Park, on my way home from Colorado. In Australia we felt reasonably immune to such terrorist attacks; after all, who would bother such a small country? On October 12, 2002, Australia got its wake-up call when a bomb in Bali, a popular holiday resort island near Australia, killed 88 Australians. While it was not

on Australian soil, we considered it to be an attack on Australia.

“This year has started off pretty hard for us down under, with floods and cyclones (just clipped the edge of us), followed by the earthquake in Christchurch (NZ, but a family place for us), and then, of course, it was all eclipsed by the horrible destruction in Japan. Politically it was exciting in North Africa, at least until the attempted revolution in Libya started to stagnate, and so the US hasn’t featured in our news much recently. It was interesting, however, to be in Kenya soon after President Obama rose to power. Particularly in the

Luo area of Kenya, he is claimed as a son, and every second pop song is about him.

It seems the Luo were expecting him to come and help sort out Kenya’s problems but, of course, the US had enough problems of its own at the time.

“I guess that from a distance, over the years, it has been hard not to be cynical about the US and its motives in the theatres of war in which it involves itself. The media here loves to portray the US as very parochial with the citizens having no idea of or interest in anything outside their own country.

Having lived in the US both at SKS in ’93-’94 and in Colorado in 2001, I am able to think of the people I have met and know that this is an unfair generalization. Certainly I would be mortified were people to equate the views of Australia’s leaders with my own.

“I enjoy living abroad much more than simply traveling, as it allows one to get a real feel for the place where you are living, and an appreciation of the locals, as well as the opportunity to learn about and explore special places that the tourist may miss.

I enjoy the challenges of living in a new place, where simply going to the market to get some vegetables can be a bit of an adventure. I seldom miss “home,” family and friends while I am abroad, perhaps because I am often not living near them when I’m in Australia anyway, and with modern communications, it’s generally pretty easy to stay in contact. I think it is nice to have Summer 2011 The Hillside • 37

Global Citizens

someone from a similar background to share your experiences with when you are abroad. When I was staying in PNG there was no phone or internet access, and I was one of 2 expats in the village; the other expat was a Polish missionary who had been there for 20 years. While the locals were very friendly, and I never wanted for company, it was difficult not to be able to talk to someone who understood where I came from. Getting married, and moving around with Amanda has made this a whole lot easier. We are hoping to go away again next year, somewhere, for another adventure.”

Z

iad Al-Turki spent three years at South Kent, beginning in 1981; his sister was then a student at Middlebury College where she had met a South Kent alum who recommended the school for her brother. Today, along with a number of Directorships including Honeywell Turki Arabia, Keller-Turk Co, Wi-Tribe, and National Air Services, Ziad is Vice Chairman of ATCO Group which focuses on construction, marine services, shipping, oil and gas equipment, and control instruments. Ziad describes his first reactions to boarding school: “I went from a very sheltered life, not knowing how to do much for myself, to what at first ap38 • The Hillside Summer 2011

peared an impossible situation. We all had to shower in one place, and I had never been naked in front of anyone; there were small, cramped rooms, no TV, and so on. I remember crying so much and wanting to go home, but that all changed within days.

Mr. Bartlett was wonderful; his peaceful, gentle nature, his way of being a father figure to all was amazing. I’ll never forget him. I miss Abe, by the way.

“After South Kent I went to Rice University in Houston. For the first semester I was enthusiastic about college, but my enthusiasm soon diminished; I realized that I really wasn’t into the major I had signed up for—Electrical Engineering (everything I wanted to learn about it I could learn from a book at Radio Shack)—and I really didn’t like college life. I found myself more comfortable within a circle of friends who were older and already pursuing their careers. At that point I just wanted to maintain decent grades to breeze through college. Two years later I fell in love with Los Angeles and couldn’t tolerate Houston any more. I remember going to the Dean of Admissions at Pepperdine in Malibu a week before the next term started and begging him to let me in. He gave me a challenge: pass an entrance exam right then and there with high marks, and I was in. I think he was sure that I wouldn’t. To his surprise I did, went back to Houston, dropped out of Rice, and moved to LA. As was South Kent, this was a great move for me. In Houston I had been sheltered in a way, living in my family’s building, with ATCO on the same floor as my apartment; in LA, I was alone in a big, brandnew world. I opened up to that world, developed spiritually in my own way, made friends from all over the world (our dinners were like the United Nations) and just enjoyed a great social life. College was something I did in my spare time; I simply

Ziad, Sharifa, Anastasia, Alia and AbdulRahman Al-Turki in Egypt

wasn’t a dedicated student.

“I stayed in LA for 7 years before returning to Saudi Arabia with my wife Anastasia; I was 29 at the time, and I immediately started working in my family’s business ATCO. I didn’t want a position, a title; I just wanted to float around. Working for your father is extremely difficult; you are always seen as just a kid, but by floating around the company, looking into all the different divisions, I realized that I enjoyed most finding problems and fixing them. I don’t like having an operational role; I get bored easily if there’s no challenge, if things are routine. So I now stay excited by developing new businesses, getting them off the ground, and then handing them over for others to run. I truly love my job.

“But for me, the greatest joys are my three children, AbdulRahman, 16; Sharifa, 13; and Alia, 9. They are what matter most to me. I now commute between Saudi and the UK as we have a home there, and the

children are flourishing in school in the UK. They speak English and Arabic, English being their primary language; they are also studying French.

“My reading these days is on Buddhism.

I also love to dive, fish, travel, and cook; I go to cooking school whenever I have free time. On the internet you can find a lot about my involvement with the professional squash world. This really came about by chance. I met Bret Martin, an ex-pro squash player who’s an idol to us squash nuts, coaching at Southport Racquet Club in Connecticut. I couldn’t believe that a legend like him would have to struggle to make a living. I invited him to come to Saudi to play an exhibition match and began talking about doing a tournament in Saudi. I wrote to the Professional Squash Association (PSA) and after receiving their tour guide/marketing material, I realized why the sport was in the state it was. I saw it as a challenge to help fix the sport I love. In 2008 I was appointed Chairman of the PSA and began an uphill battle to change the face of squash around the world.

“September 11th showed how fragile the world is—how people can be led like cattle to believe things that are not true (e.g.

Americans and Muslim Fundamentalists), but it shifted the world East. Saudi had to open up to India, China, and other countries; we went back to our history of trading East and investing more within our region. Now I do not make any investments outside the MENASA (Middle East, North Africa, South Asia) region.

“What I learned at South Kent was that people were the same the world over— religions are the same, we have the same values, same wants, same needs. People do not have to be from the same mold to get along.

“Saudi is an interesting culture, a culture that was much better before all the wealth. Unfortunately, the wealth created

a very ignorant and arrogant society—a horrible mixture in a personality. People are beginning to realize that we need to go back to our humble culture. No one really knows what will happen in the future; personally I find what’s happening in the Middle East exciting. The region has not seen political reform in 50 years. It’s like the West in the 60s: youth are the majority and are rising for their rights. Now the West is old and the Middle East is young.

In Saudi Arabia, 50% of the population are under 21. Youth want more: a better life, better future, freedom! There may be a bit of turmoil in the next 2-3 years, but the future is bright in the region. King Abdullah is driving reform; with what happened in the region, he can drive it faster. Saudi will see a sustainable boom over the next few years, creating better opportunities for the youth. We’ll get there, but it will take time.”

W

hen my email requesting life stories reached Tomas Petru, he was between travels to Cuba and Florida, on his way to Cocos Island in Costa Rica for some scuba diving. His constant travel companion, his Blackberry, means he’s never really on vacation—or able to avoid pesky people from his past. I knew Tomas had had a very active role in

the Czech Republic’s Velvet Revolution, and I wanted him to share some of those details. He graciously relayed information both about his early school years in Czech and his career post-SKS, but his specific memories of his arrival at and introduction to South Kent School make a fine beginning to his story.

“South Kent was for me, definitely and without question, the rocket engine which put me on my current track and opened the gate to many interesting experiences.

I was a boy who went in 1990 to SKS with $272, collected from across my whole family; I had a very basic knowledge of English, no clue about the world and western society, and was freshly exported from Czech Republic—ex-so-called socialist country which had just finished the Velvet Revolution. I had no idea what medical insurance was; community life was a whole new experience. I found community everywhere: in the infirmary with Norma Weidner, in the kitchen with Carol and the 3 Bills, in physics class with Father Crews. I remember Mr. Brown buying me my first Nike Air running shoes; I remember Norma explaining what medical insurance was; I remember my discussions with Father Crews—how was it possible that he teaches physics when everything is here because of God? I remember. And if I should forget, I have a diary with a record of every day. I have not forgotten my new friends: Byung Don Yoo, whom I have met much later in Laussane but whom I cannot find anymore; Chonlameth Chaichuen, whom I have visited in Thailand; Markus Denker and Stefan Keese, whom I visited in Germany. I remember running crosscountry and one of the last meets when we ran in mud, cold rain, and totally crazy conditions. I remember ice hockey and my first body-check to one of the Korean students which ended in a fight—all the Koreans against me. I remember so much.

I have called it “our little prison.” It was such a good year.

“When I was young, I was active in Summer 2011 The Hillside • 39

Global Citizens

sports, in the arts, in school. And I was always a rebel. In the totalitarian regime in Czech, there was an organized process leading to the Communist Party at the end, which started when children began school. The youngest kids joined an organization called Sparks, which was about games and play. Most people my age—30 years and older—still remember the Sparks Vow. Translation: ‘I promise in front of all as a shining spark that I want to live for my beautiful country so the country is happy.’ That organization was followed by the Pioneers, which combined games and propaganda. You can still see Pioneers in photographs from Cuba, China, Vietnam—those were the young kids with red scarves who accompanied politicians during different events. The next step was Union of the Young for high school students. Again it created an environment for socializing; however, it was almost impossible to go to university or to a good job if you were not a member. You also could not study if your parents were not in the Communist party. As a kid I was always a leader, so from First Grade on, I was chairman or president in this structure. I saw only the games and play side of it, and it was actually much later, even after finishing my year at South Kent, that I was able to think about what it really was and how it worked.

“My year at South Kent happened because we had the Velvet Revolution in November 1989, which started with the police beating the students in Prague on November 17th. There was no independent news distribution in Czech other than Voice of America and Radio Free Europe, which were both illegal. So when I arrived at school one morning, the students were all standing outside trying to find whether anyone knew what was happening, whether we should all strike.

The faculty could not calm them down, so I was asked, as president of the school Union of the Young, to get the students back inside. Which I did, though I have 40 • The Hillside Summer 2011

Lucy, Tobias, Tomas and Sofie Ema Petru

no idea how I convinced several hundreds of them to do so. I was scared. I knew that for misbehaving, our studies could be over, our ability to get jobs would be over, that prison was a possibility. Being shot at? No, I don’t think I was considering that. I get a chill up my back when I think of it now. I think I did the right thing at that moment, but even now I wonder if I should not have been braver. My friends still remember the moment and sometimes make sour jokes about it, but it could have been their end and mine. It was good that it was, instead, the beginning.

“Anyway, after the first shock, I started to gather information (as we all did). I went to school during the day, where we did not actually study much as we were going to different demonstrations, gatherings, and so on. I distributed printed materials explaining the situation, and a few times I went to the army facility and, while there, told the guards not to shoot at us—that we were not the bad guys. That chill keeps coming up my back as I write this even though it was 22 years ago. You remember China and Tiananmen Square, or just read the news today from Yemen, Libya, or Egypt. In our case, it ended—or started—on December 29, 1989, when the still-communist parliament elected Vaclav Havel as the new president.

“After my year at South Kent, I returned to my studies in Czech. After high school graduation, I started at the University of Palacky, in Computer Science. It was renamed Computer Science much later; the name of that study at that time was “Theoretical Cybernetics, Mathematical Informatics, and Theory of Systems, with Focus on Automatic Systems, Counting Machines, and Software Development.”

We joked that if you could remember the name of your degree, you were halfway through.

My first job was IT-related when I maintained the PCs for a kind of Yellow Pages company; that evolved into selling custom-built computers for DTP to others. From there I worked as a computer graphics systems specialist, then as a technical specialist of a start-up which hoped to build a local “Disney Park” in Czech. It never got funded, I never got a salary, and it ended with the management suddenly disappearing. That sounds like a terrible end, but it was the start of something new for me. I left my hometown and moved to Prague. During the ‘Disney’ research I had encountered Visual Connection, a small company focused on visual media technologies, which would be my place of employment from February 1996 to today. I began as a sales engineer on the customer side but also handled back office international delivery communication. I became director of the company in 1999 and a co-owner in 2003. We have developed international business with exhibiting abroad, are working on proposals in the EU, and have opened a company in Dubai. In late May of 2008, while at a business breakfast arranged by Dubai Studio City, I met with Robin Smyth, CFO of KIT Digital, and later with the CEO; on the evening of that same day, the CEO proposed to acquire us. Thus we became part of KIT Digital (NASDAQ: KITD) where I am now President of Integration Services, overlooking the broadcast integration business. Our headquarters are

in Prague, and we are listed on the Czech stock exchange in addition to NASDAQ. I have just acquired part of my old business from KITD and also a mobile solutions company, UNITY Mobile, with operations in the US and Europe.

“Serendipity seems to play a big part in my life. The latest serendipity happened when I was going to buy a gift for my wife in Las Vegas, and on the way I passed by one of Peter Lik’s galleries. He makes unbelievable landscape large-format photographs and is successful globally.

Peter Lik’s roots are Czech as his parents are Czech. I was so struck by his art that I started to buy it, and after I had more art than walls to hang it on, I decided to open his gallery in Prague, so that is what is happening these days.

“I am married to Lucy and have a 4-year old daughter Sofie Ema and a 1-year old son Tobias. They are definitely my biggest interest in life. I am creating for them all

the opportunities I can think of. Already they can do much more than I could at their age. Sofie is learning English at the full-English kindergarten and is already signed up for the international school.

Tobias is taking English classes for babies, and after the summer, he will start at the English kindergarten as well. I believe that mastering English is mandatory for future success, and I will try to allow them to study more languages like Spanish, Japanese, and Chinese. The ability to communicate is what will make the difference.

“Communication and the challenges to communicate are what are most important in the recent world. Nothing is resolved without communication, but too often people don’t communicate at all. That can be true between partners, or inside a family; the same is true for nations, political parties, and so on. And the means of communication vary around the world; not everyone has access to the latest forms

of technology. I feel that technologically we can overcome so much. A great example is Dubai, a city with the highest buildings, a ski slope, great infrastructure, built on sand in an area where there was nothing; now there is a modern country.

However, our cultural differences, a lack of understanding, lack of willingness to learn, a lot of ego and nationalism—all are not helping to build a strong world. There is no such thing as free food; there is not free air, free water, and there are no shortcuts. Our societies are failing in sharing resources. Societies are more interested in competing than cooperating. Instead of cooperating in order to bake a bigger cake, countries work at baking many small cakes—all competing for ingredients. Education and communication are the keys to understanding, to the ability to build a more equal world. SKS contributes to that understanding of the bigger world; I wish there were more institutions like it.” n

“The Elevator,” continued from page 33

rope, I’ll get in the bucket and he’ll lower me down slowly. Then he’ll get to go.

Before we start, we take out the GI Joes and their things and check the knots. We pull the bucket up to us and slide the window wide open so I can fit out and turn around.

I have to balance on my knees on the windowsill. This makes me stop for a second, but I can’t change my mind with Cricket ready to lower me down. I stand up on Cricket’s bed and put my knees on the sill facing outward, looking toward Bull Mountain, not down. The trees are still bare, so Bull Mountain is grey and rusty from the tree trunks, the rock and the leaves on the ground. I spin around on my shins and face Cricket. As I climb back into the bucket holding onto Cricket and the rope, I can feel a light touch of sun on my neck through the haze.

I lower myself until my feet are at the bottom of the bucket and my shins rest

on its lip. Cricket is holding the rope with his head out the window beside mine.

“Are you ready, Cricket?”

“Yeah, I’m ready. ” “Let it out slowly, OK? ” “OK. ” “Hold on. I’m gonna let go. ” I let go. The bucket and I fall full speed. When I hit the recently frozen ground, the rim of the bucket dents both of my shinbones as I crash forward.

When I can breathe again, I look up.

Cricket is leaning out the window, and I can tell right away he didn’t do it on purpose. His face is as white as his hair, and his mouth and eyes are wide open.

“I couldn’t hold it,” he says. “It burned my hand and went right through my fingers.” I stand up. My shins hurt pretty badly, but I can walk and breathe, and everything else seems fine. “That’s OK, Cricket, I’m alright. Do you want to try it?” n

sticks so students who have that job can pass donuts to the kids in the middle of the rows.

After Halloween it got too cold to have the window open. We couldn’t even leave it open a crack for the rope. We didn’t think about our rope again for the rest of the winter.

Now it is almost spring, and the snow has melted.

Cricket and I found the rope today and sent GI Joe on more missions, this time from his room, next door to mine.

Then we got a metal bucket and tied it to the rope with lots of knots so we can send our two GI Joes and their guns and camping gear up and down all together.

That’s when I see that Cricket and I can do the same thing. I thought of it, so I get to go first. Cricket will hold the

Summer 2011 The Hillside • 41

inprint

South Kent Authors

Recently published? Please let us know, and please consider donating a copy of your book to The Martin A. Henry Library’s “South Kent Authors” collection. Not only will our students be impressed by the scholarly and literary accomplishments of faculty and alumni, but we will gratefully list your publication on the SKS website’s “South Kent Authors” page! All book donations are considered giftsin-kind to the school. Please visit www.southkentschool. org/authors to see a more complete list of published works as well as purchasing information.

42 • The Hillside Summer 2011

American to the Backbone Christopher L. Webber ’49

Fixing Everything Nedland P. Williams ’64

Round-Trip to Deadsville Tim Matson ’62

This is the incredible story of a forgotten hero of nineteenth century America— James Pennington, a former slave who became a Yale scholar, Congregational pastor, and international leader of the Antebellum abolitionist movement. Pennington’s voice was not limited to the preacher’s pulpit. He wrote the first-ever “History of the Colored People” as well as a careful study of the moral basis for civil disobedience, which would be echoed decades later by Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. More than a century before Rosa Parks took her bus ride, Pennington challenged segregated seating in New York City street cars. Leading white Americans attempted to define their country in mono-racial terms and many black Americans emigrated to Liberia or Haiti, but Pennington insisted, “I am an American to the backbone and am entitled to the same rights as anyone else.”

Fixing Everything provides citizens with a blueprint to retake control of the federal government and reassert American leadership in a world gone astray. This integrated solution will limit government spending to a reasonable percentage of GDP; close agencies responsible for 60% of government spending; dramatically simplify taxes; reduce, quantify, and manage entitlement commitments; present a new form of free market healthcare organization; confront pension liabilities; encourage legal immigration, while discouraging illegal immigration; contain legal awards and costs, while encouraging early settlement; reduce crime; and put an end to the “nanny” state. Citizens will assume personal and financial responsibility for their actions and well-being.

A new form of safety-net will avoid mal-incentives, while encouraging effort and initiative.

Our narrator, Tim Matson, assaulted by middle-aged existential doubt and morbid preoccupations, sets out to confront the demons of death and the denizens of the funeral trade. His odyssey begins when he stares down a photograph of Ginseng Willard, a flinty old Vermonter who built his own coffin from a piano case, then used it as a bed for the rest of his natural days. Matson ups the ante by deciding to build his own coffin. Like any self-respecting American literary hero, he heads out on the road to learn how to go about it. Along the way he meets an unforgettable cabal of characters who populate the funeral underground–among them the Undertaker and the Crusader, the Anatomist and the Astrologer, the Organist and the Gravedigger–and learns why the living always get the last word, and why when sprinkling ashes, it’s best to use a wide-mouthed urn.

intouch

Class Notes

Please remember to send in your class notes by mail, by email (classnotes@southkentschool.org) or by using the form on the alumni page of the School’s website.

Chris Webber ’49: “Currently serving as Vicar of St Paul’s Church, Bantam, CT and writing books.

American to the Backbone will be out at the end of May. Third edition of The Vestry Handbook will be out in October. Welcome to Christian Faith also due out in October. The Beowulf Trilogy should be out within the next year.”

40s

50s

Del Hitch ’49: “The time has finally arrived where my age and golf skill have converged and I am regularly shooting my age!! Golfers will appreciate this!!”

Tony Crossley ’53: “I celebrated a memorable moment in my life when I was honored at our annual gala on April 9th for having founded and led Including Kids since its inception in 2003, expanding from 8 children with autism to over 45 fulltime students, from 2500 sq ft. to 16,000.

Henrik Bull ’47: “For the last 10 years we have taken trips with Grand Circle Travel to such places as China, Turkey, Croatia and Sicily and last year by boat down the Rhone River.

We used to laugh at the old people in their busses. Now we have become them and have met many interesting people.”

Bob Beveridge ’50: Bob and Berta Beveridge have moved into a highrise continuing care retirement community in downtown Seattle. Bob’s ministry is still nuclear abolition and being a grandpa.

Joy certainly comes from giving in a non-profit setting.”

Stephen Rule ’54: “All goes well here in The Villages. I cruise at least

Above, Foster White ’55, Terry Moody ’56 and Clark Farnsworth ’41 gather in the courtyard for an alumni weekend photo; far left, Tom Tison, Doug Lyon, Paul Matthews, Lewis Cuyler and Dave Angus represent the Class of ‘51 at Alumni Weekend; left, John Farr ‘58 with Billy Speight ’11, this year’s recipient of the John C. Farr Trophy, at the Alumni Banquet

Summer 2011 The Hillside • 43

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Class Notes

Above: Class of 1961: Back row - Norm Lowe, Chris Mabley, Stuart Cowan, Front row - Craig Heuss, Gil Norman and Mark Thompson; Right, Class of 1981: Richard Coles, Bill Wreaks, Annie Funnell, David Coles, Ted Purdy, Ben Bartlett and Todd Green

44 • The Hillside Summer 2011

three times a year, occasionally more often. The most exciting adventure for 2011 will be in early August when my traveling companion and I will do a week’s journey on the Danube River with Viking River Cruises. Neither of us has ever done this kind of travel, so we are increasingly excited.

Over Thanksgiving, we’ll be doing our now-annual holiday cruise (my seventh), this time to the Panama Canal (my third, our second). Always a fun journey. When I’m home, I serve as VP of the Airheads, a support group for those challenged with COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease). Many of our members use supplemental oxygen most, if not all, of the time. We meet twice a month for “education and support,” and another two times for “breathing and exercise,” where we strive to breathe better, but never break a sweat! :-) The Villages always has something going on, and social gatherings are always great fun. Mine are mostly based on where I have lived, where it’s fun to meet others who came from there, too. And, I serve as Secretary to the local chapter of the Military Officers Association of America (MOAA). This past Saturday, we had a fund-raising golf tournament.

Early returns suggest that we’ll send

just over $20,000 to Operation Helping Hand, a Tampa-based organization started by our sister chapter in the area which supports the families of severely wounded service people being treated there (mostly brain injuries). The families usually must live on the local economy which can be a real drain on undoubtedly low funds to begin with. Celebrated my 75th birthday with family and friends and still don’t feel a day older than maybe 60! Also enjoyed special recognition aboard Holland America’s new New Amsterdam. There are one or two advantages to achieving this “advanced” age. My 83-year-old brother still calls me Kid!!”

Jack Coleman ’56: “I am retired after 27 years at William Penn Charter

School in Philadelphia. I am trying to make myself useful in various ways.

I much enjoy: astronomy, kayaking (including two recent trips as escort for the 28.2-mile Manhattan Island Marathon swim), gardening, biking, etc.”

Peter Moon ’58: “While I am retired, I have three activities which keep me busy: exercising, boarding and maintaining my three John Deere tractors (1941, 1945 and 1950 vintage). For my boating, please see my web site (under construction at www.mvmorninglight.net). I would love to have SKS people as my guests (6 max/trip with no obligations) for trips on and around the Cape Cod Canal and the upper reaches of Buzzards Bay. The trips are about 90 minutes and are

always fun for me and my guests. My wife, Lorna, and I thoroughly enjoyed my 50th reunion in 2008 and are looking forward to my 60th.”

60s

George Gilliam ’60 was kind enough to compile the following report after his class’ 50th year reunion, last year.

“Wynn Wister handed twenty-one of us our hand-written diplomas on Prize Day, June 9, 1960, and eight of us returned for our 50th reunion in June, 2010. The eight of us (Craig and Scott Kuhner, Perry Butler, Pete Diefendorf, Bill Heuss, Jackson Kemper, Dick Loveland, and I) were joined by over one hundred alums from other classes. Several of us were able to reach Rik Woods via Skype, and we were delighted that Frank Forester was able to join us (in person!) for a few hours. Nobby and Liz Richards, Charlie and Celie Whittemore, and some other familiar faculty faces greeted us, as did Titus Moody, Bob Gibbons, John Farr, Legare Cuyler, Cal Frost, Rod Burton and some others who were a year or three ahead of us.

Not a one of us looked a day older or a pound heavier.

The place had changed—new entrance way, new faculty and headmaster, new buildings, including an indoor ice rink (“OMG!,” as the kids would say). And the place had not

changed—the Chapel in its simple, unadorned beauty, the dining room (remember “Waits for ‘Speeding’”?), the kitchen, Schoolroom, the Library.

Perhaps only Bill Heuss, Perry Butler, and I remember spending a day or so walking stacks of books from the attic of the Old Building down several flights of stairs and then up the hill to the library, to be re-shelved under Doc Henry’s watchful, Deweydecimal-fixated eye.

The biggest disappointment was that so many familiar faces, so much a part of our youth, so influential as we formed our value systems, were not with us. In addition to our absent classmates, Ma Brown, Wuzzie Wittenberg, Wynn Wister, Bruce Small, Art Smith (to whom we dedicated our yearbook), Peter Chase, Tom Dingman, Pat Humphreys, all were gone.

Each had an important place in our early lives.

To get a sense of the places our classmates hold in this world, each of us who attended the 50th completed a short questionnaire. Bill White (who had planned to join us but had to send regrets at the last minute) mailed his in. I emailed the same questionnaire to each of our other classmates for whom the school provided an address, and received responses.

We have enjoyed a cross-section of careers, and have interesting—in some cases surprising—outside interests.

Jackson Kemper is the only one of us involved in a traditional manufacturing business; he is president of Kemper Valve & Fittings Corporation near Chicago. What does he do in his free time? He and his wife Sharon ride motorcycles all over the world.

Most of the rest of us are involved in some sort of service business.

Perry Butler and his wife Jo run

Clockwise from top left: Richard Lawrence Sr. and Head of School Andrew Vadnais at a recent New York gathering; Richard Cohon is recognized for his service to the South Kent School Board of Trustees, by Board Chairman Jeff Rosenberg ‘80; Bill Capozzi and Debbie at the Alumni Weekend Banquet; Mike Grady, Sean Walker, Keith Fanneron and Mike Merrick at the Second Annual SKS Golf Tournament

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Class Notes

Perry’s Restaurants in San Francisco (I’ve eaten at the oldest one—first rate) and Perry spends his free time golfing and hiking. Dick Loveland is an IT guy. He and his wife Robin spent part of their retirement years running seminars on cruise ships, all over the world. Bill Heuss—a newly-wed, who attended with his bride Margaret Anne—as an Episcopal clergyman had four churches during his career, but his most interesting position was as the National Youth Advisor for the Episcopal Church.

Craig Kuhner is an architect at the University of Texas at Arlington;

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he and his wife Sasha are hikers and photographers. Scott Kuhner has alternated between working in institutional sales for U.S. and Brazilian equities and circumnavigating the world twice in his sailboat with Kitty and their two sons, and without any of the electronic navigation gizmos that are commonplace today. Bill White spent most of his career in banking, though during the Berlin Wall and the Cuban Missile crisis he was a U. S. Army missile electronics technician. Pete Diefendorf teaches history at Chittenango High School in upstate New York; Dief has also spent over 25 years as a paramedic.

After an almost thirty-year career in law, banking, insurance, and politics, I entered graduate school at age 54 to study history, and now teach at the University of Virginia; my wife Page (also a recovering lawyer) and I are trying to learn to play golf. I’m still trying to shoot my IQ. All of us have been married. Six of us have divorced and re-married; one has been widowed and remarried. Between us, we nine have 17 children, two step-children, and 33 grandchildren.

Politically, a majority of us seem to be in the middle, or perhaps a

Clockwise from top left, members of the Class of 1961 receive their “Old Guard” caps at the Alumni banquet; Head of School Andrew Vadnais with alumni parent and former trustee Barbara Currier at a recent New York reception; Clark Farnsworth ’41 at the Alumni banquet; members of the class of 1981 gather for dinner on Alumni Weekend: Class of 1986: Graham Duncan (’88), Henry Brownell, Ransom Duncan and Steve Nahley after ‘Winning’ the Alumni Race on Hatch Pond (Photo by Nicole Brownell)

Scott Kuhner: “Simplicity of life, directness of purpose, and self reliance. Those three principles have guided my life. They were what enabled my wife and me to sail around the world in a 30’ sailboat...We had to keep it simple. We navigated with a sextant. We had no radio to call for help if anything went wrong; it was up to us to fix it....We were able to give up our jobs and sail around the world because when we were making money we lived simply and frugally. We never owned a new car, etc.” tad left-of-center. Six of the nine respondents self-identified as Democrats, one as Republican, one as a “moderate Republican,” and one as “conservative.” Most read newspapers and journals, and tune to television and radio talk and news shows that reinforce our political prejudices.

Most surprising, I thought, in light of the amount of time we spent in

chapel and studying religion, was how few of us actively practice a religion. Six of the nine do not practice any religion, one spent his life as an Episcopal priest, one is a practicing Episcopalian, and one is a Unitarian.

Almost all write with passion about the South Kent experience and its defining place in our lives. Some excerpts:

Bill Heuss: “I was challenged by the academics, the small classes and attention the masters gave me. I loved playing football, hockey and baseball, and over my 6 years, lettered in all three. The traditions of SKS were an important part of my love of the school, and the chapel services were important in my faith growth.”

Dick Loveland: “I was able to study enough to go to college (which was

Above, Class of 1986: Back row - Henry Brownell, Keith Fanneron, Joe Pegues, Steve Nahley, Front row - Josh Hanfling, Hani Farsi, Goff Christian and Ransom Duncan; Below: alumni, faculty, staff and friends at the Second Annual South Kent Golf Tournament

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Class Notes

a delayed coming-out party for me), participate in athletics and develop a perspective which would help me later in life.”

Perry Butler: “I was a little boy in search of a place to belong. In the spring of our 5th form year, I was asked to be the senior prefect—a very surprising and astounding development. It was the most significant and important thing that had ever happened to me and it changed my life. I took the job very seriously and was determined to be the best prefect ever. As a class we had a very good senior year, and I learned more about leadership than I ever could have in any other manner. I grew up at South Kent. The school, my classmates, the masters, Wynne Wister, Ma Brown, Nobby Richards,

Left: Andy Hinds playing in a softball exhibition tournament in Havana; Below: members of the class of 1976, Jeff Conover, Reed Martin and Pat Jenkins on Alumni Weekend

Wuzzy Wittenberg, Pat Humphreys were my family.”

Bill White: “My grade school motto is Esse Quam Videre, that is ‘To be and not to seem to be.’ South Kent’s is ‘Simplicity of Life, Directness of Purpose, and Self-Reliance.’ These two mottos have stood me in good stead all my life.”

David Chamberlain ’62: “Enjoying my retirement in Colorado and Florida. Hope to attend my 50th reunion in 2012.”

Michael Strong ’63: “My wife Nancy does Grant Administration for 9 professors in the UNC Chemistry Dept. Older daughter Morgan lives at home. Younger daughter Hunter teaches at a Montessori school in Asheville, after spending a month in Shanghai last summer. I make 20-minute presentations to middle and high school PTAs to tout the merits of the Color Code Essay Writing System.”

Andy Hinds ’64, captain of the 1964 SKS baseball team, represented the United States in November 2010 in a softball exhibition tournament against Cuba in Havana.

The U.S. Interests Section, the State Department’s equivalent agency when dealing with countries we don’t recognize, helped organize the seven-game series. It pitted the U.S. senior softball team against a Cuban team that included two Cuban Baseball Hall of Famers. Despite the Cubans’ strong defense and placement hitting, the U.S. team prevailed, winning four of the seven games thanks to “long ball” hitting. Andy played second base and shortstop. Off the diamond, the U.S. players enjoyed

48 • The Hillside Summer 2011

touring the architectural gems of Old Havana, visiting Ernest Hemingway’s Cuban home and seeing the well preserved 1950s American cars that are now used as taxis.

Robert Nielsen ’66: “I just finished my fifteenth year at Emma Willard School and still look forward to each new year. I read for the AP Calculus exam each June and see it as an incredible professional experience.

My wife Jane works for the New York State Bar Association helping lawyers with their continuing education. I am off to Europe this summer to hike across England with two other faculty members.”

William Frothingham ’69: “Will be riding in my 5th Pan Mass Challenge this August. 192 miles in two days. All funds raised go to the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. We raised 32 million last year. Would love any help to increase that figure. Please visit PMC.org, type Will Frothingham, and thanks for your help. Any other SKS riders out there? Let me know and we will meet in Bourne!”

70s

Andrew “Drew” Horton ’70 retired from the City of Boulder Parks and Recreation in 2003. Drew won the National Mandolin Flatpicking Championship in Winfield, KS in 2001.

He continues to play and perform semi-professionally in the area near Westcliffe, CO. Drew and his wife Mary have a small ranch near Westcliffe where they enjoy horseback riding, ranch work and where Drew occasionally organizes/produces house concerts.

Clockwise from right: F.K. Day ’78 at the Trustee dinner at Infinity Fields; Paul Abbott addressing the audience after receiving the School’s Robert J. and Mary Anna MacLean Distinguished Service Award; Dorell Wright ’04 and son Devin engaged in an intense Xbox battle.

Randy Folsom ’72: “Life is good. I live in Charleston, SC with my wife.

We have 3 kids and the youngest is a junior at Clemson doing Air Force ROTC so he has a job when he graduates. Our oldest is 26 and lives in SC and will be getting married next year. Elizabeth got married right out of college and lives about 10 miles from us. I am currently an RN working at the VA and hope to retire in 6 years. I still keep in contact with Scott Mitchell and even saw him last week.”

William Miller ’72: “I am retired these days but still able to stagger around and plant stuff, then pray for rain. I also keep a couple of Haflinger draft horses amused, (You want us to do WHAT?) and take direction from an inexact number of cats. Anybody wanting to know what a high desert is like, stop on by. I keep a pretty nice RV for guests on the assumption the guest room will be a-building for a while yet.”

Jay Swan ’77 is working as a Sr. IT manager at Wellpoint. Still living in Morris, CT

80s

Tadd Hoddick ’81: “In May, my wife Nicki and I will have been married for 10 years. We are expecting our first child in late September.

Nicki works as a Speech Language Pathologist for Genesis Healthcare Systems in Pittsfield, MA. I work for the NYS Insurance Fund, one of the few agencies which actually brings money in to the state, as opposed to hemorrhaging it. I run the agency’s ITS Monitoring Group, conducting a range of Performance Analysis, Resource Monitoring, and Provisioning Analysis tasks on all agency servers and infrastructure assets. Prior to joining NYSIF, a little over 5 years ago, I spent 9 years working for Keane, Inc., as a Senior IT Consultant, and Branch Network Administrator in a variety of capacities ranging from Webmaster for several large state projects, to Office Automation roles, to Medical Data Analysis for a CDC funded development initiative at the State Health Department. I also spent 15 years riding as both a paid and volunteer EMT, from 1992 through 2007. For fun, Nicki trains dogs, ranging from Puppy Classes to Beginner Rally and Obedience classes, working with the Albany Obedience Club. When not working

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on the house or property, I spend my free time volunteering for the Kinderhook Fire Department Fire Police and volunteering as the Pistol Range Master for the Kinderhook Sportsman’s Club, where I teach/tutor both men and women how to safely carry, shoot, and maintain their pistols.”

Taylor Stockdale ’81 was recently appointed Head of School at The Webb Schools in Claremont, CA. Taylor has served Webb in a wide variety of significant areas of administration and school life, beginning in 1988 when he joined the Admissions Office. He has been a dedicated teacher of history and economics, an athletic coach, and a dorm parent. Prior to this appoinment, Taylor served as Assistant Head of Schools leading day-to-day operations.

David Berghold ’83 continues to run “The Last Windup” in Bozeman, MT. The clock and watch store, which Dave first opened in Bozeman 20 years ago, recently moved to a more spacious location for both retail and service. David lives with his wife Amy and children, Connor (11) and Brenna (6). “I would love to hear from any SKS folks passing through Bozeman. Visit my site www. lastwindup.com.... for contact info or email me at dave@lastwindup.com.

90s

Bill Denham ’91: “Our boys are growing up too quickly. Peter is 8, Patrick is 5, and Stuart is 3. Claudia just finished homeschooling Peter through the second grade. Patrick will start kindergarden this fall. We are wrapping up a two and a half 50 • The Hillside Summer 2011

year assignment in DC. I was a Congressional liaison in the House of Representatives. It was fascinating to gain insight on the legislative process up-close, especially the defense bills. Interfacing with Members and staff and learning to appreciate their perspectives was also highly valuable. Our next assignment is to Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, Japan, where we’ll return to the Air Force life we are used to: being on a base, flying airplanes, and having an operational mission.

We’ll start by driving out of Virginia in mid-July, stopping across the country to visit friends and family.

We will be in Klamath Falls, OR for about three months where I will go through a refresher course on the F-15. We’ll be at Kadena by the end of October.”

Steven Tobani ’93: “I finally decided to check out what is going on at SKS. The campus looks great.

I am living just outside Denver, CO. I’m working for a Networking Company (Brocade), and overall things are really great. I keep in touch with Walker and speak to Cooper from time to time. I hear Tim Staples is in the Denver area. If anyone knows how to reach him, please let me know.”

Jonathan Bartholomew ’94: “I am a merchant marine, 1st Engineer working for Sealift, Inc. on one of their merchant vessels. My wife and I and three children, Lara Jane, Shelby Lynn and Ian Hunter, reside in Florida.”

Paul Brunst ’97: “I’m actually moving to DC at the end of July. I was offered a new job as Vice President of Engineering for Dominion Power. It’s a great advancement in my career.

I’m very excited! Just enjoying life.”

Bryan Pisetsky 97: “My wife and I recently celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary. Our son Michael just finished 1st grade, and our daughter Rose turned 4 in June. My wife and I own two Mathnasium Learning Centers (www.mathnasium.com). We’ve hit some rough patches with the recession and all, but we are starting to see business pick up again so we are excited about that. We’re hoping to make it out to SKS next year for my 15 year reunion.”

Olivier Knowles ’98: “I’m living in the south of France and working as a trainer for international businesses— providing consultations on improving cross border relations and business practices. On that note, some good news: my practice is going to get a giant boost because I’m in the process of becoming certified by the government. If I’m recognized as such, this will open the door to many more opportunities. It’s very exciting and worthwhile after three years of doing this.”

00s

Seth Epstein 00: “I got married about a year ago to my wife Tara whom I met at Emory. We’ve been together almost 10 years! I still work as an Art Director for an advertising agency. Recently bought a house in Fort Lauderdale FL, and got a Golden Retriever named Stoli, so I guess I’m starting to settle down. My brother Dane ’01 lives about thirty minutes north of me in Delray, FL. Ian Baer has come to visit me down in FL

Bill Denham 91’ with his wife Claudia and sons Stuart, Patrick and Peter, in front of the US Capitol building.

(twice in the past year actually). I hope to make it up to the Hillside for an alumni weekend or other gathering sometime soon.”

After a lengthy career at Dutchess Community College, Mike Liffland ’01 is transferring to Penn State to complete his undergraduate studies.

At Penn State, he will be majoring in political science in the school’s prelaw program. Being ten years out of South Kent, he will be watching— rather than playing for—the Nittany Lions this fall in football.

Nathan Lusk ’01 married Beth Hird on June 19, 2011, on Rowes Wharf in Boston in a service officiated by school chaplain Father Steve Klots.

Nate’s South Kent classmate Ben Ruzzo served as Best Man in the ceremony. Other South Kent graduates in attendance included Kealan Rooney ’03 and Gavin Fazio ’03

relaxing. I’m headed to the Cayman Islands in July for some scuba diving and then going on my first ever cruise in August with Elizabeth (yep, we’re still good). I might get a parttime job at Microcenter or BestBuy repairing computers while I’m in school, or later this summer.”

to New York City to work in the Vintage/Platinum guitar department of Guitar Center Manhattan.”

After clerking for a year under a federal judge in Hartford, Drew Barber ’03 will be moving to Boston this fall to take a position as an attorney with Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. He and his wife Jeanne—who will also be working as an attorney in Boston—will be living in Charlestown.

Top: Kealan Rooney ‘03, Mike Liffland ‘01, Ben Ruzzo ‘01, Nate Lusk ‘01, Beth (Hird) Lusk, Father Steve Klots, Gavin Fazio ‘03, and Eric Lusk ‘82 (Photo courtesy of Matt Francis Photos); below, members of the Class of 2006 gather at a picnic hosted by Father Steve Klots: Marcus Cooper, Parker Knight, Tony Morrone, Danny Jackson, Lou Lozzi, Nate Seader and Josh Reinhold

(both of whom attended Endicott College with the bride and groom), classmate Mike Liffland ’01, and the groom’s uncle, Eric Lusk ’82. Nate and Beth currently live in Golden, CO, where he is completing his nursing degree.

Brian Buonomo ’02: “I just moved

Spencer Morse ’03: “Life is good!

I’m headed back to get a second undergraduate degree in Computer Science, with a focus in Networking.

The sad thing about being a Comp Sci person is that you can’t just go straight to grad school without an undergraduate degree in the field. It’s the equivalent of a med school student applying for med school without a bio/chem, neurology or other scientific undergraduate degree. So I’m enrolled at Arcadia University, set to graduate in 2 years. For now, I’m

Greg Rogan ’03: “I’m currently in London, UK. After South Kent I went to Hamilton, which was a fantastic experience. Good academics, solid athletic program, great people. I graduated in 2007 and moved to Boston where I was working on a start-up business called “The Campus Word” with two of my college buddies. The idea was to create a media outlet for college students, and it was moving in the right direction but I did not receive an extension on my visa and had to leave the US in September 2008. I returned to Ireland to get my bearings and figure out the next step. After a couple of months, I started a recruitment business for western teachers interested in working overseas, which I am still involved with. I moved to London in February 2010 where I am working and still playing a bit of football.

My business actually just launched our new platform yesterday, called TeacherPort, which we’re hoping provides an easier way for teachers to find their next teaching position abroad. So if you know of any alumni SKSers interested in a bit of an adventure overseas, tell them they can find it on TeacherPort!”

Jack McClinton ’04 finished up his second year playing professional basketball in the Israeli Superleague.

Paul Cummins ’04 is working on his PhD in the UK. Jon Fein ’04: “I’m working for a sports and entertainment company in Summer 2011 The Hillside • 51

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Class Notes

Matej Kenda ’04 is now in a master’s program at Georgetown University, Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Center for Eurasian, Russian and East European studies.

James Lombardo ’04 is pleased to announce his engagement to Tanya Waggoner. They met through mutual friends and share a love of the outdoors, especially biking, camping, and kayaking. James continues to work in insurance and is currently studying for his life, health, and securities licenses. He also stays busy keeping track of his dog, a St. Bernard-Beagle mix.

Pat Melillo ’04 is living and working in Costa Mesa, CA. Doo Young Lee ’04: graduated from Northeastern after two years in the Korean military and is now working for Reebok corporate. He and Seho Park ’05 visited the School this spring. Seho, a graduate of Emory, is currently applying to law school.

CT called Velocity Sports & Entertainment. I’m currently living in Fairfield, CT. In January, 2011 I was promoted from a Trainee to a Coordinator. I’ve traveled all over the country working NFL and MLB games and went to Dallas for a week, planning and executing a Super Bowl XLV program.

Next big trip is Maui for 10 days over the summer for FedEx. I’ll make it back up to South Kent sometime this summer.”

EJ Hildebrandt ’04 is working for the MTA and is a regular at many SKS events.

Jeff Hill ’04 is in his second season coaching hockey at Rice Memorial High School in Vermont.

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Dan Jewell ’05: “I just graduated from SUNY Cortland with a BS in Kinesiology: Fitness Development. On the hockey side, I personally did all right but we missed out on playoffs, so that was disappointing. Other than that, I am currently working at a place in Norwalk, CT called BlueStreak Sports Training. I am not sure what I will be doing in the fall yet. I have the option to stay here, and I also have the opportunity to start my coaching career at a number of prep and college programs.

Top left: Tony Morrone ’06, Anthony Camardi ’08 and SKS Trustee Fitz Robertson ’05 on campus for Alumni Weekend; Middle; Seho Park ’05 and Doo Young Lee ’04; Right: Four Bruens and a baby—Aubrey Olivia Baright surrounded by her uncles, Matthew ’06, Jesse ’09, Benjamin ‘11, and Steven Bruen ‘04

The reason I haven’t made up my mind is that I may give it a shot to play professionally. I expect to be making that decision soon.”

Anthony Apollon ’05 graduated from the College of Wooster in 2009.

He is currently attending Temple Law School in Philadelphia and will be studying in Rome for the summer.

Kyle Berry ’06: “I’m working in Leesburg, VA at River Creek Club.

Things are going well, trying to save up some money and make a run at a mini golf tour to test the waters a bit.”

Ryan Lesko ’07: “I am happy to report that I graduated from college with a degree in Criminal Justice at Roanoke College in Salem, VA. I will apply for law enforcement jobs as well as look at jobs at Department of Homeland Security and TSA. I’m currently in a long term relationship and my girlfriend and I are looking to settle in together soon. My family and I are appreciative of everything South Kent offered me over the course of my four years there. It not only made me a well-rounded person but also culturally balanced. I look forward to seeing my class at our reunion in a year.”

Anthony Camardi ’08: “I will be entering my senionr year at Western New England College where I am majoring in Sports Management. I volunteered at the Travelers’ Championship in Cromwell, CT in June.

Recently repeated as champions in the Greater New Milford Chamber of Commerce Annual Golf Classic and Business Challenge at the Golf Club at River Oaks in Sherman, CT where I played with Bill Finnerty ’08, my father, and Rich Chavka.”

Tre Kayumba ’09: “I will be going back to the orphanage where I used to live to work as a counselor. I will also be involved in a UNICEF program to assist in the rehabilitation of “child soldiers” in war-torn regions of Africa.”

10s

Recent graduate Benjamin Bruen ’11 is excited to be attending Hobart & William Smith Colleges in the fall, the alma mater of his brother Matthew ’06.

Prize Day 2011

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inmemoriam

1935 William Walser Janeway, WWII pilot, husband and father.

Walser Janeway of Guilford, CT died on February 8th, after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease, just after his 94th birthday. Walser was born February 1st, 1917 on Staten Island, NY to Dr. William Richard Janeway and Caroline Rodman Janeway. He was educated at South Kent School and Princeton University. Inducted into the Army Air Force flight school, he flew many missions from Foggia, Italy, returning home after World War II to raise his family of four boys. They were stationed in IL, SD and TX, and after 22 years he retired from the Air Force as Captain and settled in CT where he was employed at Pratt & Whitney Aircraft. Walser was active in the Guilford Walking Club and First Congregational Church as well as serving with Meals on Wheels.

Walser Janeway is survived by his wife of 68 years–Ann Janeway of Guilford, CT and his brother Randolph Rodman Janeway of East Weymouth, MA. His sister Carol Janeway Anderson predeceased him as did his son Frederick, leaving three sons–Whitney Janeway of Wilton, CT, Richard Janeway of Gulfport, MS and John Janeway of Wallingford, CT.

1935 The Very Reverend Henry Lawrence Whittemore, Jr. died peacefully on Sunday, January 30, 2011 in Southwestern Vermont Medical Center in Bennington. Only three weeks before his death, Larry celebrated his 93rd birthday at his home in Manchester with all of his family. Larry Whittemore, husband of Elizabeth Eschmann Whittemore, was born on Jan. 8, 1918 in Ardmore, PA, the son of Henry Lawrence Whittemore and Caroline (Doremus) Park Whittemore. He grew up in New Canaan, CT, graduated from South Kent School and from Williams College in the Class of 1939. He taught at St. Albans School in Washington, 54 • The Hillside Summer 2011

D.C., enlisted in the United States Army, and was assigned to the OSS, where he served in Southeast Asia–Sri Lanka and Burma. He was awarded the Bronze Star for meritorious service. After being honorably discharged from the Army, Larry entered the Episcopal Theological School in Cambridge, MA and graduated in 1948. Ordained to the Episcopal priesthood in the Diocese of Connecticut, he served as Assistant at Trinity Church in Hartford and as vicar of Old St. Andrew’s Church in Bloomington, CT. From there he went to Swarthmore, PA to serve as rector of Trinity Church. In 1957, he and his family moved to Chestnut Hill, MA where he served as rector of the Church of the Redeemer until 1967 when he accepted a call to be dean and rector of the Cathedral Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, PA. There he served until his retirement in 1983. In his post-retirement years, Dean Whittemore served as vicar of St. Andrew’s Church, Boca Grande, FL for five years. He and his wife returned to their home in Landgrove and then moved to Middlebury, where they resided for 16 years. In 2007, they moved to Equinox Village in Manchester Center. Dean Whittemore served on many Diocesan committees and was a deputy to four General Conventions of the Episcopal Church. He was a trustee of the Philadelphia Divinity School and of the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge. He was an instructor at the Philadelphia Divinity School and taught homiletics at the Cambridge Seminary as well as the Moravian Seminary in Bethlehem, PA. In Middlebury, he served on the Board of the Friends of the Middlebury College Art Museum and on the Board of Elderly Services, Inc. He is survived by his loving wife of 59 years and by their two children, Elizabeth B. Whittemore of Hopkinton, MA, Henry L. Whittemore and his wife, Darcy, of Readfield, ME; by two grandchildren, Katherine P. Whittemore and Samuel T. Whittemore; and by his brother, Charles P. Whittemore ’39 and his

wife, Cecile Brown Whittemore, of Salisbury, CT.

1936 Scott Brodie, 93, of Gulf Breeze, FL died on January 24, 2011. Scott was born November 22, 1917 in New York City and raised in Larchmont, NY. He attended South Kent and Hackley School, and graduated with a textile engineering degree from MIT. From American Viscos he transferred to the newly formed Chemstrand and was among the first employees at the newly constructed plant in Pensacola. Following his many years at Chemstrand, Scott planned, built and owned the Depot Restaurant, using antique railroad cars as a theme. In later years he worked in the family business at Pensacola Hardware until retirement.

Trains were a life-time hobby for Scott. He used an antique caboose as the heart of his Santa Rosa vineyard setting where he tended and harvested grapes from some 90 vines. Scott passed on a majority of his railroad collection to Yakima Valley Rail and Steam Museum in Toppenish, WA. His community activities involved the Pensacola Little Theatre where he met his wife, Ann. Ann and Scott traveled the globe on numerous occasions and visited 48 states as well as Canada in their RV or by rail.

He was one of the charter members of the Gulf Breeze Rotary in 1973 and was awarded the Paul Harris Fellowship award. Scott was a coin collector, active church member of Gulf Breeze Presbyterian Church and a family man. Scott was preceded in death by his brother, Walter Brodie of Larchmont, NY. He is survived by his wife of 51 years, Ann Martin Brodie, and 3 children: daughter Susan Arnold, son Steven Brodie, and daughter Edith Brodie; 2 grandchildren, Lauren and Scott Brodie all of Gulf Breeze; and 3 nieces, Elizabeth Brodie Tischler, Catherine Brodie and Janaffa Brodie.

1940 Edwin de F. Bennett died on March 20, 2011. He was a resident of Cedar Crest, Pompton Plains, NJ where he had resided for three years with his wife, Inge Goldstein. He died peacefully at age 89. Edwin’s life was devoted to teaching and healing. He taught at Orange County Community College, Middletown, NY where he was a professor of sociology. Previously he was an instructor of sociology at Pennsylvania State University. Prior to that he was the coordinator of religious activity at the University of Houston. A graduate of the Episcopal Theological School in Cambridge, MA, he earned a masters degree in theology, and a second masters at the Harvard Divinity School. For 20 years Edwin worked as an Episcopal priest in Massachusetts and Texas. In his work during the 60s, he was a tireless supporter of equal rights for Blacks which resulted in a cross-burning in his front yard on Thanksgiving Day, 1968. Edwin was a chorister for two years as a youngster in residence at the Choir School at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine. He received a scholarship to South Kent where he received many scholastic and athletic awards. He attended Princeton University, interrupted by service in the US Armed Forces during World War II. Upon his return he completed his undergraduate degree at Princeton. Edwin was involved all his life in community building, ethics, and world peace. At his residence in a retirement community, he stayed involved in public affairs issues seminars. He is survived by his wife Inge, a social worker, two daughters, and four stepchildren.

1946 Frederick L. Munds Jr. 83, of Indianapolis, passed away March 16, 2011. Fred was active in Boy Scouts and received the Silver Beaver award. He was also active in the Episcopal Church of the Nativity, and

Storytelling Arts of Indiana. Fred was past co-owner and co-founder of P M & Associates. He is survived by children Ellen Munds, Ric Munds and Rob Munds; grandchildren, Bennett, Elle, Lucy and Savanna. Memorial contributions may be made to the Episcopal Church of the Nativity, Storytelling Arts of Indiana, or the Boy Scouts of Central Indiana.

1947 Col. Duncan Dunbar Chaplin III, USMC (ret.), 82, of Strafford, NH died on April 12 at Havenwood Heritage Heights in Concord. Duncan was born June 23,1928, to Ruth Burt Chaplin and Col. Robert T. Chaplin, U.S. Army (ret.), in Fortress Monroe, Elizabeth City, VA. He spent his early childhood as an “Army brat” and lived in various places with his parents. At the age of 14, Dunc attended South Kent for grades seven through 12. Upon graduating in 1947, he continued his education at the University of Virginia from ‘47 to ‘51, receiving a BS in commerce.

He continue his education while serving in the U.S. Marine Corps at the University of Maryland School of Government and Politics, Pepperdine University, and Madison University, receiving an MA in management in 1980. Duncan married Ann Huntington Theopold of Dedham, MA in June 1951. They had three children, Susann Chaplin of Epsom, Philip T. Chaplin of Boston, and Lucy (Gustafson) Chaplin of Meredith.

1949 Clifford H. Duerfeldt Jr., 80, passed away at home February 22, 2011. Pete was born June 30, 1930 in San Diego, CA to Rear Admiral Clifford H., Sr. and Jane Seaman Duerfeldt. He is survived by his wife Pat; sons Clif and Shawn; granddaughter Chloe; sister and brother-in-law, Sue

and Don Corey; niece Brooke; nephews Peter and Matt, all of Bedford, MA. Pete graduated from South Kent, attended the Naval Academy, and graduated from Jacksonville University. He was a long-time supporter of BEAKS, a member of the HABIJAX Wednesday Gang and enjoyed nature and helping others.

1957 Richard W. Jones of Sandwich, MA passed away peacefully on Wednesday, February 23rd at the age of 72. Formerly of New York City and Harrington Park, NJ, Richard graduated from The Browning School, served in the U.S. Army Medical Corps and Army Reserve, and later attended Columbia University where he earned a BA in English and Comparative Literature. He went on to work for the American Management Association, The Bergen County Record, Pascack Valley Hospital, Beth Israel Hospital, and Wayne General Hospital. All of his hospital employment involved the directing and management of community and public relations. Throughout his life, Richard expressed great passion for education, music, literature, gardening, woodwork, family, friends, and his beloved Sandwich, Cape Cod. He is survived by his wife Sarah, his brother Stephen, his sons Christopher and Philip, and his grandchildren Carter, Lysbet, Holly, and Trevor.

1979 John W. Wood passed away on Saturday, June 4, 2011, surrounded by his family and friends. John spent his childhood in Houston. As a teenager, John attended South Kent. While there, he auditioned, performing Asleep At The Wheel’s “Miles and Miles of Texas” and was accepted to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in

London, England. However, being a 7th generation Texan, his heart was with his friends and family at home and came back to attend the University of Texas at Austin.

John graduated from UT with a BA in Journalism. He became a videographer for KXAN and KTBC. In 1991, he left his position as Chief Photographer at KTBC and went on to found video production companies, Videosha and J. Wood Television Production. John was recognized for his work by the Associated Press, Governor’s Proclamation, Texas Production Manual, and National Press Photographers Association. His work with the Shoah Foundation, Kid Fish and the Sunshine Camp reflected his passion for his world and his community. John is survived by his wife, Laura Gilliam Wood; his son, John Jacob Mason Wood; his father, Dr. Robert Wood, Jr.; brothers, James Wood and Robert Wood III.

2003 Charles E. Speight, 26, of Cold Springs, NY passed away on Sunday, February 13, in a car accident. Charlie was an employee of Darien Schools; he also worked at musician Levon Helms’ Midnight Rambles in New York State. He was the son of Jean and William Speight.

Charlie attended the Haldane Schools in New York until 10th grade when he entered South Kent; he was a graduate of Sacred Heart University in Bridgeport. He had a passion for hockey, playing on many local teams as a youngster and continuing his hockey career at South Kent and Sacred Heart University. For the past two years he worked at Middlesex Middle School and Tokeneke School.

He was a parishioner of Our Lady of Loretto Church in Cold Spring, NY. Besides his parents, Charlie is survived by a sister, Colleen; a brother, Billy; and by many aunts, uncles and cousins.

Summer 2011 The Hillside • 55

inretrospect

84 Years Ago

The Pigtail, May 11, 1927

56 • The Hillside Summer 2011

Scott Brodie ’36

Member of the St. Michael’s Society

A

s reported earlier in the magazine, Scott Brodie ’36 of Gulf Breeze, FL passed away on January 24, 2011. A few years earlier, Scott and his wife, Ann, made a provision in their estate plans for a Charitable Remainder Trust that will ultimately benefit South Kent School.

Recently Timothy von Jess visited with Ann in Florida.

Ann shared that both she and Scott felt blessed by the wonderful education Scott received during his time on the Hillside. “I always felt lucky that Scott attended South Kent. There were habits he learned at South Kent, along with the terrific academic education, that served him well during college and throughout his life. Scott and I believed that joining the St. Michael’s Society was a wonderful way to thank South Kent School and help the next generation of South Kent students reach their own goals.”

Other alumni may be interestd in how a Charitable Remainder Trust works. The salient points are summarized below: • You transfer cash, securities or other appreciated property into a trust.

• The trust pays a percentage of the value of its principal, which is valued annually, to you or beneficiaries you name.

• When the trust terminates, the remainder passes to South Kent School to be used as you have directed.

Some of the benefits for the person establishing the trust are: • Receiving income for life or a term of years in return for your gift.

• Receiving an immediate income tax deduction for a portion of your contribution.

• Paying no upfront capital gains tax on appreciated assets you donate.

• Being able to make additional gifts to the trust as your circumstances allow for additional income and tax benefits.

For more information regarding planned giving options available at South Kent School, please contact Tim von Jess, Director of Development, at (860) 927-3539 x205, email him at vonjesst@southkentschool.org, or visit the planned giving section of the School’s website at www.southkentschool.org/alumni/planned_giving.php

South Kent School

40 Bulls Bridge Road South Kent, CT 06785-1199 860-927-3539

Parents of Alumni

If this publication is addressed to your child who no longer maintains a permanent address at your home, please notify the alumni office of a preferred mailing address by calling 860/927-3539 x299 or emailing us at advancement@southkentschool.org.

Thank you!

NON-PROFIT ORG. U.S. POSTAGE PAID PERMIT 14 NEW MILFORD CT