SPA Magazine Fall 2014 by St. Paul Academy

fall 2014

The Magazine of St. Paul Academy and Summit School

INTRODUCING

SPA’S NEW CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS inside: 2013-14 AnnUAl Report

Scott Streble

>> letter from the head

NEW BUILDINGS

change people—their habits, their attitudes, and the ways in which they see themselves and their surroundings. This is particularly true for schools. As any teacher or parent will tell you, children are sensitive to their environments. An artful and enticing design can fuel the imagination, nurture confidence and inspire great performances. This understanding of the power of great architecture was at the heart of the decision to build the Huss Center for the Performing Arts, which is well underway with a scheduled opening date of August 2015. As I write this letter to you, the footings and foundations have been laid and the exterior walls are rising after a summer of preparatory earthwork. It is difficult to describe the excitement that the construction has generated on campus, especially among our students and faculty, who are already eagerly anticipating the performances that will take place on the new stage. The Huss Center will fundamentally change the way the SPA community regards itself. As you’ll see in this issue of SPA Magazine beginning on page 18, the design, beauty, and scale of the building speaks to the primacy of the fine and performing arts to the SPA curriculum and experience. For decades, SPA has regarded the arts as one of the sturdiest and significant components of the liberal arts, giving children the opportunity and freedom to explore their emotions and creativity. With the opening of this new space, the blossoming talent of our student actors, musicians, and speakers will finally have a home worthy of their endeavors. The Huss Center has been designed to reflect both our past and our future. In designing the building, architect Tim Carl has created a space that beautifully connects the solidity of the original St. Paul Academy,

built in 1900, with the modernity of the Ben Thompson addition in the 1970s and the brightness of the 2000 addition that gave us the Middle School and the new Dining Hall. The merging of these very different architectural styles is a hallmark of the Huss Center for Performing Arts, which features a sweeping brick-andglass exterior that will completely reshape the look and feel of the west side of the Randolph campus. The new building will reflect our appreciation of the arts and gesture towards the future of St. Paul Academy and Summit School. It will help us think broadly and imaginatively about the future of our curriculum, our classrooms, and the school as a whole. The construction of this magnificent building would not have been possible without the passion of John and Ruth Huss, for whom the building is named. Ruth is a 1957 graduate of the Summit School; Ruth and John are devoted patrons of the arts in the Twin Cities and are equally devoted to SPA. Their lead gift was both the building’s genesis and an inspiration to the entire SPA community; the success of the $19.2 million capital campaign that funded the project is due largely to them. We are profoundly grateful to John and Ruth, and to the hundreds of donors who supported the campaign and the school’s other, equally important philanthropic priorities. I hope you’ll take a few moments to peruse this year’s Annual Report, also included in this magazine—it is a fitting tribute to the overwhelming generosity of the SPA community, and is a sign that the future of St. Paul Academy and Summit School has never been brighter.

Bryn S. Roberts, Head of School

2014-2015 Board of Trustees

Contents

Officers

The Magazine of St. Paul Academy and Summit School

Fall >> 2014

Charlotte Shepard Johnson ’64, President Mrunalini Parvataneni, Secretary Scot W. Malloy, Treasurer Members Mark W. Addicks William M. Beadie ’58 Litton E.S. Field, Jr. ’75 Elizabeth Driscoll Hlavka Anne Larsen Hooley Frederick C. Kaemmer ’88 David W. Kansas ’85 Allan Klein ’64 David Kristal Bruce A. Lilly ’70 Paul S. Moe Tim O’Brien ’77 Ann Ruhr Pifer ’83 Gail A. Ward Timothy A. Welsh Shannon McNeely Whitaker ’78 Philip W. White ’81 The Honorable Wilhelmina M. Wright

Features

1 Letter from the Head

14 Celebrating the Class of 2014

Commencement celebrations and college choices for the Class of 2014 2013-2014 annual report

On the cover

Introducing SPA’s New Center for the Performing Arts

Beginning in the fall of 2015, music and theater will have a new home at SPA: the now-underway Huss Center for the Performing Arts.

36 2013-2014 Annual Report

27 Alumni/ae Profiles: The Impact of Performance

Departments

Andrea Scott ’79, Sean Patrick Flahaven ’91, Jesse Markman ’00, and Elizabeth Berg ’07 reflect on the impact performance has had on their lives and careers.

4 Through the Doors 10 Spartan Sports

Let’s be friends. Join us at facebook.com.

32 Alumni/ae News 34 Philanthropy

37 Class Notes 45 In Memoriam

See what we are doing at youtube.com/user/ StPaulAcademy

On the cover: The sweeping, glass-enclosed entryway to the Huss Center for Performing Arts will lead to the 650-seat auditorium and the two-story Arts Commons. Read more about the new performing art center beginning on page 18.

Head of School >> Bryn S. Roberts

St. Paul Academy and Summit School 1712 Randolph Avenue St. Paul, MN 55105 651-696-1366 (phone) 651-696-1380 (fax) info@spa.edu www.spa.edu

Editor >> Ami Berger Contributing Writers >> Sarah Bach-Bergs, Jenni Beadle, Ami Berger, Tami Brass, Laura Billings Coleman, Sarah Johnson, Peter Sawkins ’81 Principal Photographer >> Scott Streble Contributing Photographers >> Ami Berger, Katie Braman ’16, Tami Brass, Greg Helgeson, Kreg Holt, Leo Kim, John Severson, Laura Slade ’16 Design and Layout >> Kimberlea Weeks, Sexton Printing

SPA Magazine is published twice annually by St. Paul Academy and Summit School for alumni/ae, parents, and friends of the school. We welcome your comments and thoughts. Please contact us at spamag@spa.edu with suggestions for stories, news, and photos, or write us at SPA Magazine, 1712 Randolph Avenue, St. Paul, MN, 55105.

Check out our photo depot at stpaulacademy. smugmug.com

Read SPA Magazine online at spa.edu > About SPA > News and Media

>> Through the Doors

identity and community at SPA Students collaborate with Penumbra Theatre on powerful series of monologues about race, class, ethnicity, and difference

Ami Berger

The Common Ground students worked with Sarah Bellamy, Co-artistic Director of Penumbra, and Claribel Gross, Penumbra’s Community Outreach Coordinator, to write and perform monologues that explored a particular aspect of each student’s experience around their race, ethnicity, class, or religion. The monologues are deeply personal and emotional, and Bellamy notes the students’ courage in sharing these experiences. “They are passionate, smart, caring individuals who demonstrated great courage Common Ground students perform at an Upper School assembly in April 2014 and leadership throughout the process of creating and sharing their monologues,” A powerful and moving performance of monologues says Bellamy. “I believe the students realized the profound by members of Common Ground, SPA’s affinity group value of being honest about who they are, how that shapes for Upper School students of color, was performed in their experiences, and ultimately enriches what they can offer.” April 2014. Yusra Murad ’14, one of the Common Ground performers, The performance was the result of a year-long agrees. “I think what struck me the most is that while writing collaboration between the students and the Penumbra the monologue I was able to discover feelings which I had Theatre. According to SPA Diversity Dean Karen Dye, never been able to articulate before,” says Murad, whose the monologue project grew out of the work Penumbra monologue focuses on confronting anti-Muslim sentiments. was already doing with students in the Middle School. Creating the monologues was not always easy, says Common “We initially thought the Common Ground project Ground member Bella Martinez ’15, whose monlogue tells the would be a way to connect our Upper School students story of being the only person of color in her kindergarten to our eighth-graders as a mentoring project,” Dye says, class. “Initially the monologues were just going to be for the “but once the Penumbra staff saw what the students eigth-graders so I wasn’t that nervous to write or perform were capable of, the performance aspect really one,” says Martinez. “Then I actually started writing mine and took off.” it got more difficult. Performing them was scary because it was The fourteen students who participated in the very personal, but everyone was very kind and supportive. Common Ground project come from a wide range of Every time we performed it got a little bit easier to tell our backgrounds, races, religions, and ethnicities: Asad stories.” Martinez says she was nervous about sharing her Masood ’15, Emma Rodgerson ’15, Jared Mosher ’14, story with her Upper School peers, but the positive feedback Jesus Vega ’15, Mansuda Arora ’15, Marcus Alburez after the performance was reassuring. “I know it’s important Myers ’14, Ysabella Johnson ’14, Yusra Murad ’14, Ellis for the community and I’m relieved people reacted well to Evans ’14, Bella Martinez ’15, Dozie Nwaneri ’15, Sam what we had to say,” she says. “I hope it’s starting some new Carlson ’14, Isabella LaBlanc ’15, and Ava Gallagher ’14. conversations within SPA.” 4

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record breaking

6 student artists

Middle School Pi Day

courtesy of The Rubicon

included in “Best 100” art exhibition

Pi Day winner Emilia Hoppe ’18 (“cutie pie) t-shirt.

The artwork of Jessica Wen ’14, who was awarded a Senior Portfolio Prize in the 2014 “Best 100” Juried Art Exhibition.

Six student artists from SPA had eighteen individual pieces selected for inclusion in the Les Farrington Best 100 Juried Art Exhibition. The “Best 100,” now in its 57th year, is a competition for Saint Paul-area high school students, whose artwork is judged by a panel of three jurors from the art community. For the 2014 competition, more than 1,000 entries were submitted by students from 17 schools; only 100 pieces or portfolios were selected for inclusion in the exhibit. The six SPA students whose work was selected were Zoe Matticks ’14; Claire McGlincey ’14 (also the winner of a $100 Juror’s Award); Isebelle SaulHughes ’16; Philip Swanson ’14; Jessica Wen ’14 (also the winner of a $1,000 Senior Portfolio Award); and Michael Wilkins ’14.

New Principal Holly Fidler joins SPA as Lower School Principal

Ami Berger

Tami Brass

with her QTPi

On Friday, March 14, the Middle School Pi Day celebration broke records in more ways than one. Congratulations to eighth-grader Emilia Hoppe, winner of the digits-of-pi contest: Emilia won the contest for the second year in a row by reciting 1215 digits of pi (not a misprint—one thousand two hundred and fifteen), smashing the previous record of 1004 digits by more than 200. Kudos also go out to the entire Middle School for a successful canned food drive in honor of Pi Day; the students collected more than 1600 cans of food that were donated to Neighborhood House in St. Paul.

SPA is pleased to welcome Holly Fidler as SPA’s new Lower School Principal. Holly joins SPA from the Laurel School, an independent school for girls in Shaker Heights, Ohio. At Laurel, Holly initially served as a Grade 3 lead homeroom teacher and then as the Director of the North Star Collaborative, a signature program and partnership between Laurel and the Cleveland public schools. A native of Cleveland, Holly is a graduate of St. George’s School, a boarding school in Rhode Island, for grades 9-12, and Emory University, earning a B.A. in French. She then returned to Ohio and graduated with a Master’s degree in Elementary Education from the Ohio State University. Holly has taught French, English and language arts, and social studies in both lower and middle schools. Head of School Bryn Roberts reports that Holly “was the unanimous choice of the search committee and her extensive classroom and administrative experience will be of great benefit to SPA,” Roberts says. “Holly’s work at Laurel reflects in many ways the same opportunities and challenges we face at SPA with regard to curriculum, culture, and community.” Holly began her work with SPA in July 2014, and was warmly welcomed to the community by faculty, parents, and students.

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Class of 2014

Cum Laude Society inducts nineteen members of the Class of 2014

Nineteen members of the Class of 2014 were inducted into SPAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Cum Laude Society on May 20, 2014. The Cum Laude Society honors those members of the class whose academic achievement (with a GPA in the top 20% of the class) and citizenship qualifies them for the chapter. This yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Cum Laude inductees are front row, left to right: Grace Owens-

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Kurtz, Zoe Matticks, Lucy Li, Nick Cohen, Alex Miller, Kaia Findlay, Cynthia Zheng, Sarah Coleman, Sonya Das; back row, left to right: Vittorio Orlandi, Hannah Johnson, Katherine Jones, Alida Mitau, Jonathan Sogin, Harrisen Egly, Nate Truman, Nolan Fahey, Charlie Southwick, Christian Koch.

courtesy Laura Slade

>> Through the Doors

Scott Streble

“hour of code” Middle School debuts “Hour of Code” program to build computer programming skills This winter, the Middle School debuted a new program focused on computer programming and coding skills. The “Hour of Code” program offers basic computer programming and coding instruction and computer science activities that nurture creativity and problem-solving skills. The program debuted in December 2013, coordinated by Director of Instructional Technology Tami Brass, (pictured above) who originally launched the program as part of the annual Computer Science Education Week. “Today’s students are surrounded by technology,” Brass says. “Our students have 1:1 computers in school and many have their own tablets, phones, and other devices at home. We tend to think of this exposure to technology only in terms of schoolwork and entertainment, but computational thinking is a valuable skill in terms of students’ futures as well. By getting a feel for computational thinking early,

students will have a foundation for success in any future career path.” The first Hour of Code program proved enormously popular, attracting more than 60 students (and some of their parents). Brass was inspired to turn the event into an ongoing program, and dozens more students attended coding events in January, February, and April. “You don’t need to be a programmer, engineer, or geek to participate,” Brass says. “This is a chance for students to explore whatever areas of computer science they’re interested in.” Those areas include working with Javascript, HTML, and programs like

Scratch, LightBot, and Tynker. “This is an amazing way to jump start your love of coding, and allows you to learn the stuff behind the websites and videogames,” said one student attendee. “I really enjoyed it—and anyone who won’t come because they ‘don’t like coding’ is just looking for excuses,” said another. The Hour of Code program is part of the overall expansion of computer science curriculum in the Middle School. This past spring, all sixth graders participated in an Introduction to Computer Science unit, and all eighth graders will take a new Technology Innovations course beginning in the fall of 2014.

spa bids farewell Seven long-time faculty retire SPA bid farewell to seven retiring faculty in the spring of 2014. The seven have more than 200 years of service to the school. Farewell gatherings were held at both the Goodrich and Randolph campuses to honor the retiring faculty:

Cliff Clark Lower School Principal

Joyce Teibel Lower School Technology Specialist

Andy Power Lower School Science

Judy Cummins Upper School Dean of Students

Bob Jewett Middle/ Upper School Art

John Finch Upper School History

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Tina Barsky Upper School Science

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>> Through the Doors

upper school performers in the “spotlight” Two Upper School productions earn accolades from Hennepin Theatre Trust’s “Spotlight” program

This is the first year SPA has participated in Spotlight, an educational initiative developed nine years ago by the Hennepin Theatre Trust to recognize and support the theatrical efforts of high school students, teachers and their communities. The program sends three trained evaluators (Twin Cities actors, technical directors and/or professors) to attend participating schools’ productions and provide educational feedback via an extensive performance report. The Trust then determines areas of the production that will receive special honors in the categories of Outstanding and Honorable Mention.

Performances in a Supporting Role for Jack Romans ’16 and Helen Derechin ’14. The show also received Honorable Mention awards for Overall Production, Overall Performance, Performance in a Featured Role for Maddie Flom-Staab ’15, and Performances in a Supporting Role by Emily Ross ’14, Charlotte Hughes ’14, Ysabella Johnson ’14, Evan Laduc ’15, and Halsey Moe ’15. “The cast really worked hard on the musical and that was clear to the Spotlight judges,” says Upper School English faculty Eric Severson, who directed both shows. Individual Spotlight award winners were invited to perform in the Hennepin Theatre Trust’s Spotlight Showcase in June 2014.

Caucasian Chalk Circle earned two Honorable Mentions for Overall Production and Overall Performance. In addition, nine students earned awards for individual performances: Charlotte Hughes ’14 (Outstanding Performance in a Leading Role); Sonja Mischke ’15 (Outstanding Performance in a Supporting Role); Evan Laduc ’15 and Connor Allen ’14 (Honorable Mention Performances in a Supporting Role); and Halsey Moe ’15, Anna Biggs ’16, Maddie Flom-Staab ’15, Nissa Rolf ’16, and Claire Walsh ’16 (Honorable Mention Performances in a Featured Role). Once on This Island was awarded four “Outstanding” awards: Outstanding Vocal Performance by a Chorus; Outstanding Performance in a Leading Role for Emma Chang ’14; and two Outstanding

spa journalists shine In Star Tribune/Guthrie Theatre review writing competition Backstage selfie: courtesy Laura Slade

Eve Perez-Greene

(left) and Laura Slade backstage at the Guthrie during a break in the writing competition

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Two SPA student journalists won awards in the annual Star Tribune/Guthrie Theatre review writing competition in the spring of 2014. Eva Perez-Greene ’15, who is the Editor-in-Chief of The Rubicon, took first place in the competition, and Laura Slade ’16 was named Honorable Mention. SPA was the only school to have multiple students honored in the competition. The competition is sponsored every year by the Guthrie Theatre and the Star Tribune. Student journalists from metro high schools attend a Guthrie production and then write a theatre review, which is judged by journalists from the Star Tribune.

Photos by John Severson

This year’s Upper School fall play, Caucasian Chalk Circle, and the Upper School spring musical, Once On This Island, both earned numerous individual and performance awards from the Spotlight Musical Theatre Program, a theatrical awards program through the Hennepin Theatre Trust.

Photos by Greg Helgeson

Celebrates art and community at SPA

Hundreds of parents, alumni/ ae, faculty, staff and friends of SPA gathered on May 3, 2014 for the Spring Art Party. Volunteers transformed Briggs gymnasium into an art gallery, showcasing the painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, and mixed-media work of students in grades K-12. Party guests enjoyed the art and the opportunity to bid on a number of “Great Gatherings”—community events that will take place throughout the upcoming year. Many thanks to Spring Art Party Co-chairs Christine Sand Bluhm and Ellen Konstan and the dozens of Parent Association volunteers who made this event possible.

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>> spartan sports

Winter 2014 Season Wrap-Up Girls’ hockey The girls’ United hockey team (a cooperative team with Visitation) had an historic season, placing second in their conference with a regular season record of 16-8-1 and qualifying for the State hockey tournament for the first time in team history. United, seeded fifth in the tournament, posted a convincing 5-2 win in the State quarterfinal game over Proctor-Hermantown before falling to the number one seed, East Grand Forks, in the semis and placing fourth overall in the tournament. Alev Baysoy ’14, who will play Division 1 hockey for Princeton University in the fall of 2014, was named to the Pioneer Press All-Metro East team and received All-Conference and All-State honors. Catherine Johnson ’16 also took home All-Conference honors and was named to the All-Tournament Team. All-Conference Honorable

Boys’ basketball The boys’ basketball team also had an historic season. The young and talented team finished with a 20-9 regular season record, a section championship win over archrival Minnehaha, and SPA’s first-ever State tournament appearance. Captains and seniors Harrisen Egly ’14 and Aidan Arnold ’14 were the team’s leaders both on and off the court, and Egly was selected as a member to the Minnesota Basketball Coaches Association (MBCA) Academic AA All-State team. Dalante Peyton ’16 was named a Star Tribune Prep Athlete of the Week for his exceptional performance in the sectional championship, and Head Coach Kevin McKenzie was named Section 4AA Coach of the Year.

Fencing Both men’s and women’s fencing capped off strong seasons with championship performances at the State tournament: the men took home the State team championship title and the women’s team placed second at State. The Spartan fencers also had strong performances in the individual events, winning the championship in Men’s Saber and taking second place in Men’s Epee, Men’s Foil, Women’s Epee, and Women’s Saber. Women’s Foil finished in the top ten with a 7th place win.

Boys’ hockey The boys’ hockey team had its strongest season in years, with a solid regular season record of 18-9. The talented group attracted the notice of the prep hockey community with big victories over strong hockey schools like Mahtomedi and Rochester Lourdes, prompting the Youth Hockey Hub to name

them “the new kings of 4A hockey.” The team fulfilled these lofty expectations by playing well into the postseason, earning a third seed in the section and advancing to the section semifinals. Team captain Drew Blackmun ’14 led the team in points with 44, followed by fellow team captain Jake Westfield ’14 with 37, Dev McCabe ’18 with 32 and Matt Dahlseide ’17 with 22. Goalie Noah Parker ’14 finished with a .906 save percentage and 2.30 GAA. All-Conference honors went to Blackmun, Westfield and Parker with Honorable Mention recognition going to McCabe, Tyler Seplak ’15 and Mick Sullivan ’14.

Girls’ basketball The girls’ basketball team embraced a change of direction and a renewed sense of dedication and hard work under new head coach Nick Novak. The team won 13 games in the regular

1 >> Goalie Catherine Johnson ’16 in the net for the Girls’ United hockey team, which went to the State Tournament for the first time in 2014. 2 >> Delante Peyon ’16 on a fast break past the Caledonia defense in the boys’ basketball team’s first appearance at the State Tournament.

Courtesy SPA Athletics

Mention recognition went to Clare Tipler ’17 and Andrea Olson ’16.

3 >> Steven Go-Rosenberg ’14 (left) and John Wilhelm ’14, members of SPA’s State champion fencing team, warm up before a meet.

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Spring 2014 Season Wrap-Up season, more than three times as many as the previous year, and was seeded seventh in the section for the postseason. Katey Brattland ’18 led the team in scoring with 359, including 75 three-pointers. Also contributing were Katie Ademite ’15 with 237, team captain Jonte Clairborne ’14 with 201 and Sarah Romans ’15 with 122.

Alpine skiing The boys’ alpine team finished second in the Tri-Metro championships and Peter Baker ’16 qualified for the State meet. All-Conference honors went to Baker, Chris Gast ’14, and Kevin Patterson ’15. Patterson also took home Most Valuable Player honors. Honorable Mention recognition went to Jonathan Sogin ’14 and Tom Patterson ’18. The Most Improved award went to Ian Scott ’17. The girls’ alpine team had a strong third place finish in Tri-Metro Conference championships. All-Conference honors went to Bailey Donovan ’19 and Katherine Brunnell ’17 with Brunnell also taking home the Most Valuable Player award. Honorable Mention recognition went to Jenifer Sogin ’19 and Julia Hansen ’15 and the Most Improved award went to Sogin and Numi Katz ’18.

Nordic skiing The girls’ Nordic ski team took second in the Tri-Metro Conference championships with Ellen McCarthy ’15 taking first place in pursuit. Ellen, Val Hart ’18 and Lexi Hilton ’16 all received All-Conference honors. The team placed fifth overall in the section

meet, with Ellen and Val finishing fourth and eleventh respectively, qualifying them for the State meet. The Team Silver Academic award was given, on behalf of the Minnesota Nordic Ski Coaches Association, to the girls’ team consisting of McCarthy, Hilton, Hart, Sela Patterson ’14, Katrina Hilton ’14, Mary Naas ’15 and Dina Moradian ’18. The boys’ Nordic ski team finished fifth in the Tri-Metro Conference championships with Mike Destache ’15 taking sixth in pursuit. Mike also took home All-Conference honors and qualified for State with an 11th place finish in the sectional meet.

Boys’ swimming The boys’ swimming and diving team co-op with Highland Park High School had a strong season with a 5-1 record overall including wins over Johnson, Como, Harding, Humboldt and South St. Paul. They were competitive in the conference, taking second overall in the St. Paul conference meet. AllConference honors went to Karsten Runquist ’16 in the 200 relay team, the 100 fly and the 200 IM and to Sam Matenaer ’16 in the 100 free.

Dance The dance team had a very strong season, placing first at the Moundsview Invitational. They also took home both a third and a fourth place finish in two additional conference meets. All-Conference Honorable Mention recognition was awarded to Jessica Wen ’14 and Cynthia Zheng ’14.

Captain Nick Cohen ’14 on the field for the Spartans.

Baseball The boys stormed out to a 7-0 start to the baseball season, including a big win over archrival Minnehaha 4-3. Many new freshmen contributed significantly to the early season success including Riley Bowman, Emerson Egly (who led the team in hitting with a .529 average) and Weston Lombard. The team finished with an overall record of 11-8, and 6-5 in the TriMetro Conference. Harrisen Egly ’14 was All-Conference and selected to the All-Metro East All-Star team for his stellar pitching and field play; Harrisen hit .465 and had an ERA of 0.26. Senior captain Josh Johnson ’14 was also AllConference, and All-Conference Honorable Mentions went to captain Nick Hoffmann ’14 and Emerson Egly ’17.

Softball The girls had a turnaround season in 2014 on the softball field, winning 10 games, eight more than in the previous season. The team’s overall record was 10-10 and included wins over Blake, Providence, Fridley and Concordia. A big reason was the conversion of

captain Alex Miller ’14 from her natural short-stop position to pitcher, where she excelled; Alex also hit over .600, was selected All-Conference, Second Team All-State by the Softball Caches Association, and ended her SPA career with 186 total hits. Jonte Claiborne ’14 and Ella Hommeyer ’16 were also selected All-Conference; Vanessa Miller ’16 and Claire Tipler ’17 were All-Conference Honorable Mentions.

Track & Field Mike Destache ’15 and Mary Naas ’15 led the boys’ and girls’ track and field teams with two conference titles each, in the 1600m and 3200m runs. Mike was also section 4A champion in the 3200m and Mary finished second in the 1600m, performances which qualified them both for the state meet. On the boys’ side, Mike was AllConference and Charlie Southwick ’14 and Jackson Lea ’15 were All-Conference Honorable Mentions. For the girls, Mary was All-Conference with Meera Singh ’14, Julia Hansen ’15, Lexi Hilton ’16 and Lauren Hansen ’17 earning All-Conference Honorable Mentions.

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>> spartan sports

Spring 2014 Season Wrap-Up Golf

Boys’ Tennis

It was an energetic and positive girls’ golf team led by first-year coach Kaytie Zimmerman. Captain Annette Vargas ’15 and Emilia Hoppe ’18 performed well at the sectional match, playing well enough to qualify for the second day of competition. Annette shot a career best 90 on the second day, just missing a state qualifying score. Dalaney Carter ’15 was selected All-Conference Honorable Mention at season’s end. The boys’ team came into the season with high expectations and several returning players from last year’s team that qualified two players for state. The boys went an impressive 15-4 and finished in third place in a very competitive Tri-Metro Conference. They also finished third in the section. The team dropped 32 strokes from it section results last year, and Noah Parker ’14 and Drew O’Hern ’17 both qualified for the state meet. All six of the players on the varsity were recognized with conference honors” Noah, Drew and Colin O’Hern ’17 were All-Conference and Tony Morice ’17, Justin Jallen ’16 and Cal Nicholson ’14 were All-Conference Honorable Mentions.

The boys’ tennis team was a mix of senior depth and youthful exuberance in the 2014 season. The team performed at a very high level, winning all but one conference match all spring. The team finished second in the conference and the section, just short of state qualifying. Seniors Mick Sullivan, Emun Solomon, Mason Mohring and Nick Ozolins were the backbone of the team. Wins over Breck, Minnehaha and Mounds Park were highlights. All-Conference went to Mick Sullivan, Nick Ozolins and Shaan Bijwadia ’15; Mason Mohring and Eliott Tong ’15 were AllConference Honorable Mentions.

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Girls’ Lacrosse The United girls’ lacrosse team, a cooperative team with Visitation, improved this season under a new coaching staff. The girls developed throughout the season, which included wins over Columbia Heights, Rochester Mayo, North St. Paul, and Minnehaha Academy. The team finished with an 4-11 record. With only a few seniors graduating and an impressive group of young players, especially from SPA, the future is bright for this up-and-coming sport.

SPA joins five peer schools in forming Independent Metro Athletic Conference St. Paul Academy and Summit School and five other Twin Cities independent schools—The Blake School, Breck School, Minnehaha Academy, Mounds Park Academy, and Providence Academy—have aligned to form the Independent Metro Athletic Conference (IMAC) for competition beginning in the fall of the 2014-2015 school year. The six IMAC schools sought to create a conference based on the shared belief that athletics should operate in harmony with the educational mission of each member school. “It is very exciting to bring these quality institutions together to create a new paradigm in conference governance that will be cooperative, supportive and innovative in its approach to serving our student-athletes,” says Peter Sawkins, SPA’s Director of Athletics. Sawkins notes that the mission of the new IMAC conference is very much in line with SPA’s approach to both athletics and academics. IMAC member schools will seek to establish common boundaries to keep athletics strong and in proportion to the commitment to academic excellence of the member institutions; provide a broad range of athletic opportunities; ensure competitive balance between member schools; promote recognition of individual student-athletes and the conference as a whole; and deepen professional development of coaches in a manner consistent with the shared philosophies of the member schools. “As a group of six independent preparatory schools, we share many things related to the academic calendar,” said Providence Academy Athletic Director Kurt Jaeger, who is acting as a spokesperson for the new conference. “In the IMAC, we will work closely together to achieve an appropriate balance with regard to athletic competition and academics.” The formation of the new conference follows changes to the Tri-Metro Conference, the former home of the six schools. In recent years, the Tri-Metro expanded the number of member schools to sixteen, creating a large disparity in enrollment numbers of the member schools and posing significant scheduling challenges.

Jake Westfield

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Egly was the star pitcher and shortstop on the boys’ baseball team which finished 10-6 on the season, batting .465 and had an ERA of 0.26. He was selected to the 40th annual Play Ball! Minnesota High School All-Star Series as a member of the Metro East squad. He was also captain and starting forward on SPA’s boys’ basketball team, which made its first trip to the state tournament in the winter. In basketball he was selected Academic All-State. In the fall of 2014, Egly will attend Columbia Universiy, where he will play baseball for the school’s Divison I team.

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Miller is a two-sport athlete in volleyball and softball and was captain of both teams her senior year. During the 2014 softball season, Miller switched to the pitcher position, helping the team win 8 games more than the year before. She also dominated offensively, with 185 hits and a .656 batting average. She is a three-time All-Conference honoree in softball and was selected for the Senior All-Star Softball Series; she was also All-Conference Honorable Mention in volleyball. Miller will attend Bowdoin College in the fall of 2014. A

Photos by Katie Braman

Noah Parker

’16:

Starting point guard Peyton played a starring role in the 2013-14 season for the boys’ basketball team which finished with a 17-9 record. He led all scoring (with 28 points) in the team’s thrilling 28-point victory over archrival Minnehaha in the section finals to earn the Spartans’ first-ever trip to the state basketball tournament. Peyton also scored his one thousandth career point in the game, making it an even more special night for him and the team. nte

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Drew Blackmun

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“I couldn’t be more proud of them,” says Coach Owens. “They will represent SPA with flying colors, just as they always have.”

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As of the fall of 2014, all three are still pursuing their hockey careers, either in college or in a junior league. Jake Westfield is a first-year student at Gustavus Adolphus College and plans to play for their hockey team; Drew Blackmun is playing for the Alberni Valley Bulldogs, a British Columbia Hockey League team in Port Alberni, British Columbia; and Noah Parker is in Montana, playing for the Missoula Maulers of the Western States Hockey League.

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Owens attributes the team’s success—particularly their 2013-14 season record of 18-9—to the level of mutual respect and equality that existed amongst the players. “Drew, Jake, and Noah were instrumental in creating team cohesion this past season,” says Owens. “They each exemplified perseverance, leadership and dedication, both to the game and to their teammates.”

Johnson was the mainstay goalie on the girls’ United hockey team, and a big reason for the team’s success with a total of 15 wins. She stopped 42 shots in United’s dramatic overtime win against perennial powerhouse South St. Paul, which gave United a first-ever berth in the girls’ state hockey tournament. Johnson continued to shine in state competition, helping United to a 4th place finish and earning individual All-Tournament recognition in addition to All-Conference honors.

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Their recruitment follows a successful season of Spartan hockey due largely to the talent and leadership of the three. “We are incredibly proud of Drew, Jake, and Noah for reaching this next level in their hockey careers,” says Peter Sawkins, SPA Director of Athletics. “This is yet another testament to the talent in the program as well as the success the team has had the last two years under head coach Bill Owens.”

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Three members of the Class of 2014 were tapped for three different junior hockey leagues following their graduation from SPA in June 2014. Drew Blackmun (forward), Jake Westfield (forward), and Noah Parker (goalie) were recruited for team tryouts in the British Columbia Hockey League, the North America Hockey League, and the Western States Hockey League, respectively.

Three Spartans in Class of 2014 tapped for junior hockey

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Class of 2014 Commencement The 91 members of the Class of 2014 became the school’s newest alumni/ae at SPA’s 114th Commencement on Sunday, June 8, 2014.

Ceremonies opened with the “Graduation March,” performed by Blythe Rients ’19 and Taylor Rients ’16 on violin and Cole Thompson ’17 on piano. Comments from Head of School Bryn Roberts, Board of Trustees President Charlotte Shepard Johnson ’64, and Upper School Principal Chris Hughes followed, along with the remarks of Senior Class Speakers Yusra Murad ’14 and Bilal Askari ’14.

Head of School Bryn Roberts welcomes Commencement Speaker and retiring Dean of Students Judy Cummins to the podium for her remarks to the graduates.

This year’s Commencement address was given by Upper School Dean of Students Judy Cummins, who retired this spring after forty-four years of service to the school. Cummins spoke about her long and fulfilling career at SPA, and concluded her remarks by addressing the Class of 2014, of which she had been declared an honorary member: “I hope that each of you gets that call that allows you to find a fulfilling life-work. Doing what you like is freedom but liking what you do is happiness. And now it’s time for us to move forward and live with the excitement and ambiguity of what the next phase brings.”

Kaia Findlay received

Lucy Li received

the 2014 Alumni/ae

the 2014 Faculty

Bowl, which is presented to an individual elected by the faculty from nominations made by the senior class. It is given each year to that

Yusra Murad (above) and Bilal Askari were selected by their classmates to be

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the recipients of the Bowl, awarded to those members of the senior class who have been recognized by their peers and teachers for significant contributions to the school. Fa ll 2014

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Photos by Greg Helgeson

The graduates during the Recessional following the ceremony: Sam Carlson and Alexandra Miller (left); Jared Mosher and Yusra Murad (center); and Bilal Askari and Cristina Zarama (right).

Left to right: Alida Mitau and Aidan Arnold (1), Ysabella Johnson and Sonya Das (2), Jonte Claiborne (3), Michael Wilkens (4), and Alev Baysoy (5).

Left to right: Harrisen Egly and family (6); Ava Gallagher, Commencement speaker Judy Cummins, and Yusra Murad (7); Emun Solomon, Dylan White, and Nick Ozolins (8).

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Class of 2014 college choices

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INTRODUCING

SPA’S NEW CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS BY Laura Billings Coleman | renderings courtesy of HGA

When it comes to learning a new instrument, Almut Engelhardt believes the phrase “playing music” can be a little misleading. “There’s a perception that being a musician is all about fun, and natural talent, being kissed by the muse, and overcome to produce these beautiful sounds all together,” says fine arts faculty member Engelhardt, a violinist who played with the Cologne Symphony Orchestra before moving to the U.S. “But in reality it is so much hard work to make even a single nice sound from your instrument, and then to achieve the kind of synchronicity to play all together without total chaos requires so much practice. It is not just play.”

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A whole generation of students at St. Paul Academy and Summit School have proven they’re up to the challenge, swelling the ranks of the Middle and Upper School orchestras from just 13 players when Engelhardt first started in 1991, to nearly 200 orchestra students at the start of this school year. The sheer numbers forced Engelhardt’s string, brass, percussion and woodwind players on a pilgrimage through chapels and auditoriums across St. Paul, before arriving at O’Shaughnessy Auditorium at St. Catherine University, which has hosted SPA’s student performers for several years. But starting in 2016, Engelhardt will be able to raise her baton without worrying whether the triangle—or the

endowed & current use fund donors St. Paul Academy and Summit School is fortunate to steward more than 90 named endowed and current-use funds. Income from the endowment offsets 7% percent of the school’s budget, including support of faculty, scholarships, the fine arts, programs and facilities. We are grateful to those whose generosity continues to provide crucial support through these funds, and through unrestricted gifts.

$50,000 and above

$500-$1,000

Margaret W. Harmon Charitable Fund F. T. and Nancy Weyerhaeuser u Irrevocable Trust of Frederick T. Weyerhaeuser

Baillon Family Foundation, Inc. Caroline Baillon u Charles L. Leavitt III u Susan M. Mairs David and Anne Murphy u Mary F. and McNeil V. Seymour, Jr. u Victor and Kathleen Tschida u Dr. John H. Wolff

$15,000-$49,999 The Citron Family Arts Fund u in memory of Ellie Citron Paul and Margaret Citron u n Dan and Tracey Citron u Dena and Matt Larson u Margaret H. and James E. Kelley Foundation, Inc. David and Martha Sewall u

$5,000-$14,999 Barbara & Carl B. Drake III The Driscoll Foundation u Elizabeth Driscoll u George M. Logan u William and Barbara Welke u

$1,000-$4,999 Anonymous Susan O. Bush Curtis J. and Connie Christofferson Joseph and Mary Fahey u George and Nancy Gephart u Jesse S. Okie and Mary Harrington u Martha Okie and Anthony Fouracre The Saint Paul Foundation u Joan L. Shapiro u

Up to $500 Carol Stack and David Cleveland u Cloquet Trust Jane and Robert Bennett u Timothy and Susan Elchert u Jane Engebretson Julia L. and Timothy P. Heidmann u Jeanne, Charles, Jocelyn and Linnea Herzog R. B. and Courtney Kiernat u Katherine A. Levin Susan G. Harris and Russell Gallop Nick, Linda, Lauren and Nicholas Linsmayer u Rob and Aimee Mairs James McVeety and Deborah Green u Mary Kay and Paul Orman u Quallcomm Foundation Margaret A. Rarig u Cora Ruhr William and Carolyn Schrader Jennifer Schumi u G. Richard and Ella Slade u

The signature space of the building will be the 650-seat auditorium. In this drawing, the view is from the back of the stage looking out into the audience chamber.

When complete, the two-story, glass-enclosed Arts Commons will offer direct access to the auditorium and a new entryway into the Upper School from the west side of campus. This view is from the southwest corner of the new building, looking north towards Randolph Avenue.

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Faculty Chairs

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Hamm Family Chair in History Held by Ben Bollinger Danielson

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J. Jerome Hill Chair in Foreign Languages Held by Kristin Flom

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>> Ann ua l Repo r t 2013-2014

In fact, orchestra is just one of the performing arts offerings at St. Paul Academy and Summit School that have been bursting at the seams in recent years. Anne Klus, director of choral activities, can now count on as many as 250 singers performing in various groupings for the annual Upper School Pops Concert, while jazz band leader Bill Mayson has to remind musicians not to swing so much that they risk falling off the packed risers. Theater productions are also enormously popular, with scores of Middle and Upper School students auditioning for roles in the plays and musicals that put the Converse Auditorium on the Goodrich campus into perpetual “standing room only” mode during performances. “[Retired SPA theater director] Dutton Foster created a program that was all about getting as many kids involved as possible, and I’ve tried my best to make sure that we can cast as many people as we possibly can,” says English teacher and theater program director Eric Severson. Last spring, that meant fitting more than 50 cast members into a production of the musical Once On This Island with group scenes that Severson says “just exploded the stage,” and creative blocking backstage that he admits “looked a lot like moving cattle.”

Ruth Seely Huss ’57 and A. J. Huss Chair in Modern Literature Held by Judith Johnson Thomas E. Irvine Chair in Humanities Held by Haseena Hamzawala P. A. Schilling Family Chair in Mathematics Held by Anne Marie Shimkus Frederick Weyerhaeuser Chair in Science Held by Steve Heilig

timpanist—survived the trip down Randolph Avenue. Instead, orchestra members will perform from the stage of the new Huss Center for Performing Arts, a long-awaited addition to St. Paul Academy and Summit School that is about to become a reality. Construction of the $19.2 million building began over the summer, and students, faculty, parents, and alumni/ae are already looking forward to what the new 34,000-square-foot space is about to make possible. The first major capital improvement since 2000, a new building where performing arts is the priority signals something important about SPA and its stakeholders, says Engelhardt. “This community understands that

A view of the building from the corner of Randolph Avenue and Wheeler Avenue, with the windows of the multipurpose space on the corner, the windows of the Arts Commons on the far right, and the north side of Briggs gymnasium on the far left.

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you get something out of the arts that touches the heart. When you’re performing with a group, you learn how to achieve something greater than what you can achieve on your own,” she says. “So many generations of students at SPA have worked toward that with their energy and time, making the programs grow the way they have, that they’ve all contributed toward creating this center for the fine arts. They say, ‘If you build it, they will come’ but in this case, the students at SPA have come to the arts, and now we can build a facility that supports their work,” she says. “It is such a wonderful testimony to the enthusiasm we have for the arts at SPA.”

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Student performers aren’t the only ones who’ve been challenged by the lack of adequate performance spaces at SPA, particularly after the 300-seat assembly space in the southeast wing which

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became part of the new Middle School in 2000. “I’ve gone to a lot of events in the gym, on bleachers or folding chairs, and it’s not the best place to hear the choir or Senior Speeches,” admits Emily Seesel, whose children and grandchildren attended SPA. Seesel remembers discussing plans for a fine arts center when she served as a trustee from 1968-1980 and was thrilled last year when she learned that decades of discussion had finally turned into action. Seesel was one of dozens of donors who gave to the capital campaign to raise the $19.2 million in construction costs toward a performing arts center. She is also one of a number of donors to the campaign who gave even though no one in her family will benefit from the new wing (Seesel’s granddaughter Sarah Coleman graduated from SPA in June 2014). “It’s a wonderful school, and I have tremendous affection for SPA, so I know my gift will benefit all the students yet to come, and they are deserving of it,” she says. SPA’s campaign steering committee heard this refrain regularly throughout the 2013-14 school year, as they continued the campaign that secured more than $7 million in contributions. Combined with the $12 million already committed to the campaign at the start of the year, as of October 1, 2014, nearly all of the project funding is in place. “We’ve had phenomenal

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A view of the multipurpose space in the northwest corner of the building, set up for a speaker or large meeting.

response from our long-term legacy donors, including many families who’ve had generations of students pass through SPA,” says Dorothy Goldie ’73, Director of Institutional Advancement. “But we also had help from a new generation of supporters who found this case to be compelling enough that they wanted to step up and do things they hadn’t done before.” Parents of alumni/ae have also been important contributors. For instance, after sending their 3 daughters (Rebecca ’97, Sara ’99, and Jennifer ’02) to SPA, Robin and Pamela Ehrlich included a gift to the school in their estate planning, but decided to shift their contribution toward the capital campaign after reading about the progress toward the performing arts center in a recent SPA annual report. “Our kids always looked forward to going to school, and I think the arts were an important part of that excitement,” says Robin Ehrlich. Trustee David Kristal and wife Cristiana Giordano say they’ve seen the same benefits of arts education for their own daughters, now in grades 6 and 8. “At SPA, the student performing arts experience literally begins in kindergarten and carries through to graduation,” says

An aerial view of the new building, showing Drake Arena in the bottom right.

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Leo Kim

RUTH AND JOHN HUSS: Dedicated to the arts and to SPA students.

Mary Todd Lincoln is a meaty role for a young actress, and Ruth S. Huss, class of ’57, recalls the great fun she had in the role in the Summit School’s 1956 production of “Abe Lincoln in Illinois.” The lead female role in Robert E. Sherwood’s 1938 play calls for hysterical outbursts and contemptuous insults mixed with Southern belle charm—a scenerychewing role that earned Huss an award for her efforts. “I’m not sure if it was for best actress or best worker bee, but it was a lot of fun,” says Huss. Ensuring that the next generation of students at St. Paul Academy and Summit School has the same opportunities to test themselves, try out new roles, and perform before the community was one of the reasons Ruth and her husband John Huss made the lead gift toward the new performing arts center at SPA, a 34,000-squarefoot building that will be named in their honor when it opens in 2015. While Huss went on to study art at Smith College, she believes having access to a wide-ranging arts curriculum has benefits far beyond the academic. “One of the great values of arts education—it’s just fun.” The Husses are well-known arts and culture supporters in the Twin Cities, serving on the boards of the Minnesota Opera, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, and the Minnesota Historical Society among many others. As a trustee at SPA, Huss says she

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saw the growing need for a dedicated gathering space for the school community, “rather than having to put up those awful folding chairs in the gymnasium,” At the same time, her husband John, a trustee at Lake Forest Academy (an independent school outside Chicago), had seen the positive impact a similar arts and communitybuilding space, the Cressey Center for the Arts, had for his own alma mater. “We knew from the start that a performing arts center like this is a project that hits our candle power, and that we’d be interested in supporting it,” says John Huss. “But being part of funding the gathering space and auditorium [at Lake Forest] made it an easier sell if you will, because I saw what it did for that school.” Over the years, the Husses have helped fund projects as varied as arts documentaries for public television to new works of music that have played to global audiences. But John says he and his wife were both amazed by the student performers at a recent SPA concert performance at O’Shaughnessy Auditorium at St. Catherine University. “SPA is a liberal arts school—not a music school—but we were just blown away by these kids and the quality of what they’re doing,” he says. Having a performance space of their own, he says, “will just allow them to do their job even better, and give them the tools they can enjoy for the rest of their lives.” u

An architectural rendering of the entire Randolph campus upon completion of the Huss Center.

Kristal. “Performance connects students to their own talents in a way that captures their unique interests and experiences,” he says. “To facilitate and build a permanent gathering space that supports the many needs and abilities of our children, and where students can find their own voices, will serve the whole community on a regular and sustainable basis,” says Kristal. “It’s a forward-looking gift that reflects how we feel about the school and its impact on our children.” Fellow trustee Ruth Huss, a Summit School alumna from the Class of ’57, who along with her husband, John, made the lead gift toward the performing arts center, says she’s heartened by how many families with current students made commitments to the capital campaign. “I’m no spring chicken, so it’s been wonderful to see the way young families have stepped up to make this happen,” Huss says. “We’ve talked about this for a long time; there’s definitely pent-up demand for a performing arts center,” says Goldie. “But I think our fundraising success in the last year is also a reflection of where the school is now with really good leadership, a really good faculty, a very strong arts program and students who are having a great experience with the performing arts every day.”

after three decades directing SPA’s choral activities, Anne Klus is delighted by alums such as Elizabeth Berg (profile on page 27) and Sean Flahaven (profile on page 28) who have found career in the arts. But Klus says she’s just as proud of graduates she meets who tell her that the songs they sang in her choir “are embedded in them forever. For so many people, high school is the last exposure they may have these opportunities, but it can lead to a lifetime of appreciation.” Head of School Bryn Roberts agrees that connecting students to the arts is critical no matter what direction their lives take after leaving SPA. “We hear about arts being jettisoned in public school systems, and people ask ‘How are kids going to be creative in the future?’ I believe you come to appreciate what it means to be creative through the arts; you learn it by playing an instrument, and you learn it by singing and acting and by working with other cast members,” he says. “And you come to appreciate your own creative energies, and the power of your creativity, when it’s multiplied by many.” Roberts says SPA’s trustees chose to make a performing arts space their top priority because it truly resonated with the school community. “The Twin Cities is a community

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brimming with excellence in the arts,” he says, noting that the Huss Center’s designer, HGA design principal Tim Carl, also designed the critically-acclaimed expansion of the American Swedish Institute, the renovation of the University of Minnesota’s Northrop Auditorium, and Macalester College’s new Janet Wallace Fine Arts Center. Roberts traveled regularly last year to meet with alumni/ae around the country to share how the new performing arts center will help move SPA’s strategic goals forward in the coming years. “I’m always impressed when I talk with graduates who ask me about where we’re going [in the future],” he says. “I’ve talked to a lot of people around the country about this, and they care deeply about SPA. They’re not coming and talking to me with an image of the school that’s frozen in time.”

Renewed connections with stakeholders, led by the work of the capital campaign committee, made it possible to secure the funding needed to begin construction following commencement last spring. “The trustees knocked themselves out on this, and without vibrant and bold trustee leadership we wouldn’t be here,” Roberts says. “It really is a remarkable event for a community to do it at this point in time, and it reflects deeply what we care about in the arts. We’ve got a first-rate performing arts program, and this will give us a first-rate facility. “We see this as a critical component of defining who we are as a community at SPA,” Roberts says. “This is a space that will raise our ambitions, and change the way we see ourselves as a community,” he says. “It really is a summons to the students to think about how they can be the best they can be, and that is the heart of the center for performing arts.” u

A view of the two-story Art Commons, looking east toward Briggs Gymnasium.

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ALUMNI/AE PROFILES: BY Laura Billings Coleman

Elizabeth Berg ’07, Sean Flahaven ’91, Andrea Scott ’79, and Jesse Markman ’00 reflect on performing at SPA and how the arts continue to play a role in their lives and careers.

Elizabeth Berg ’07 Actress and singer A high school parent/teacher conference with SPA choir director Anne Klus helped set Elizabeth Berg on the path towards a life of performance. Klus told Berg’s parents that their daughter had the talent and drive to become a professional performer, and Berg took those words to heart. “Hearing that at age sixteen was a real turning point for me,” says Berg, now 24. “The support system I had at SPA really launched me to the next step, and gave me the confidence to go after my dreams.’’

Photos by Kreg Holt

Today, Berg is happy to report she is “living the dream and pounding the pavement” in New York City, with a resume tagline tailored to catch the eye of Broadway casting directors: Red hair, green eyes, soprano with belt. Since earning a BFA in musical theater at the Boston Conservatory, she’s been cast in regional performances of Hello Dolly and Showboat performed in cabarets and new music workshops, and spent 18 months on a national touring production of Mary Poppins, playing to many family members and SPA friends when the production stopped at Minneapolis’s Orpheum Theater

last year. “That meant a lot to me as a performer,” she says. “You always want to make the people at home proud.” “The music, performing, and visual arts at SPA were a huge part of my high school experience,” says Berg, who also studied at MacPhail Center for Music and the Children’s Theatre Company. While she was a student at SPA, Berg played saxophone, sang in the choir, and took on a series of increasingly juicy theater parts, beginning with a 5th grade performance of Egyptian Cinderella and finishing up her senior year with a starring role as Eva Peron in a 2007 production of Evita. “That sort of challenging role is not offered at most high schools, and it really pushed me,” says Berg, who credits the high expectations set by such faculty members as Klus and director Eric Severson for honing her work ethic. “It’s unacceptable to me to go to a rehearsal not having learned the music or not having my lines memorized,” a commitment to preparation that Berg says has helped to buffer the frequent disappointments in a profession famous for rejection. “Knowing that I’ve worked my hardest and reminding myself when things are outside of my control is the best way to stay sane.” While the real life of a working performer may be less glamorous than she first imagined in 10th grade when she traveled with SPA’s choir to perform at Carnegie Hall, Berg says she still feels the thrill of being at the epicenter of the arts world every day. “Standing on that stage, that was the moment I knew I really wanted to end up in New York and pursue the arts. I’d love to be on Broadway for the rest of my life, but one of the beautiful things about being in the arts is that you can chose where you want to be and perform anywhere,” says Berg. “As I go forward in my career, I want to show the teachers who taught me how to sing and how to act that I’m really doing it. I’m taking what they instilled in me, and I’m going forward in the world, and I’m sharing it with other people.” u

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two hit it off, and “I even had the hubris to send him my thesis,” he says. Sondheim later returned it with a complimentary note—a correspondence that has grown into a collaborative professional relationship that has spanned nearly two decades.

Photos by Kreg Holt

Today, Flahaven is Senior Vice President of Theatre and Catalog Development for Warner/Chappell Music, the global music publishing arm of Warner Music Group. He serves as Sondheim’s music administrator, works with songwriters such as Bobby Lopez (Frozen and Book of Mormon) and Tom Kitt (Next to Normal), and serves on the faculty of New York University’s Tisch Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program, where he earned his own M.F.A. “I also run the catalogue which is somewhere just south of a million songs, ranging from George Gershwin, to Led Zeppelin, to Green Day,” says Flahaven. “It’s a wide-ranging job, but I’ve always been interested in learning the different aspects of the business, and working with people that I admired, and I feel fortunate that I’ve been able to do that.”

Sean Patrick Flahaven ’91 Senior Vice President of Theatre and Catalog Development, Warner Music Group A funny thing happened when Sean Flahaven, class of ’91, sat in on an orchestra rehearsal of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, a 1996 Broadway revival of the Stephen Sondheim musical starring Nathan Lane. There in the almost empty theater he noticed the composer himself, the titan of musical theater, and the subject of Flahaven’s own senior thesis at Boston College. “I’d never met him so I thought, ‘What the hell?’” says Flahaven, who adds that growing up in a political family (his father Patrick Flahaven served as Secretary of the Minnesota Senate for 36 years) “taught me not to be afraid of cold calling.” After Flahaven introduced himself, the

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Though it’s not the career path he might have predicted for himself when he was a student, Flahaven says playing trombone in SPA’s jazz band provided lessons that have served him in all his roles as a writer, composer, orchestrator, conductor, producer, and music publisher. “Trombone is not a glamorous instrument by any stretch of the imagination, but because you’re not playing the melody most of the time, it gives you the chance to be in the middle of the band or orchestra and really listen to what’s going on around you,” he says. “You’re not the star, and so you learn how everyone’s contributions musically and aesthetically can serve the larger purpose. A lot of famous arrangers and band leaders have been trombone players for that reason.” At SPA, Flahaven took part in almost all of the school’s arts offerings, singing in the choir, appearing in 13 plays, writing plays and fiction, and showing up on weekends with the crew of students who helped nowretired theater arts teacher Dutton Foster ’57 build sets. Flahaven says that building a dedicated performing arts space at SPA will be well worth the investment—even for the students who never step foot on the stage again. “The arts have always been a tenuous employment path,” he says. “But I think in the arts we know that giving kids any kind of exposure to theater, music, and performance is only going to benefit them in everything they do.” u

Andrea K. Scott ’79 Arts Editor, The New Yorker

Photos by Kreg Holt

Andrea K. Scott got her first real glimpse of New York City’s art scene during her senior year at SPA, following former fine arts faculty chair Hazel Belvo on a tour that took students from museums to galleries to artists’ studios. It’s a route Scott is still covering today, as arts editor of The New Yorker magazine. “I live in a city with something like 700 galleries and scores of museums, and my job is to decide which of all of those exhibitions get reviewed in The New Yorker,” says Scott, who came to the magazine in 2008.“My day is a combination of pounding the pavement in all of the art neighborhoods of New York, putting out the front of the book every week from Times Square” and shadowing artists for occasional profiles, a job she compares to “being a professional stalker.” While Scott didn’t start writing about art until her 40s, she began forming opinions about it at a very early age.

She traveled to the Uffizi with her parents and her sister, Lucia (SPA class of ’80), to see Boticelli’s “Birth of Venus” at the age of nine, the summer after she entered the newly-merged St. Paul Academy and Summit School in Grade 4. Scott studied Latin and Russian in the Upper School, where she also served as student director for a series of plays. Her talent for working behind the scenes on these productions caught the attention of the SPA faculty, who selected her as the recipient of the Dramatics Award in the spring of her senior year.“SPA’s approach to learning was innovative, and I would credit that with the eclectic nature of my interests, and opening me up at a very young age to seeing connections between disparate things,” she says. Scott pursued Women’s Studies, West African drumming, and Carnatic music at Wesleyan University, and worked at Film in the Cities and a Warehouse District gallery before moving to New York in 1989. After getting her

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start with a Swiss art dealer, she worked at a SoHo art gallery, put together corporate art collections, and produced an avant-garde internet arts start-up acquired by AOL. Still, it wasn’t until after a solo trip to India that she decided to become a writer, beginning as a freelancer for Time Out New York and a stringer for The New York Times. “I’d always had a fantasy about writing, but I didn’t feel I had ‘permission’ in the art world, where so many writers have Ph.D.s in art history,” she says. “But it turns out experience is its own qualification, and after 20 years in the New York art world, I had a lot to say.” Despite her lack of formal training, Scott now offen serves as a visiting critic in graduate programs at such schools as Columbia, New York University, and the University of Pennsylvania.

Photos by Kreg Holt

Writing for a general reader is one of the pleasures of her post at The New Yorker, Scott says. “There’s a lot of pretension and jargon in arts criticism, but I believe art is for everybody—especially in New York City where galleries are one of the few free forms of entertainment. We’re living in a world increasingly obsessed with metrics and the quantifiable, the branded, and corporate, and conglomerated and I think the arts are one of the last bastions of individuality and expressiveness, where the qualitative trumps the quantitative,” she says. “Arts education is more essential now than ever, so for me to hear that SPA has made that commitment to the arts with this new performing arts center—to me it’s thrilling.” u

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Between caring for service veterans in Seattle, teaching at the University of Washington, and training the school’s next crop of psychiatry residents, Jesse Markman, ’00, admits it’s been a long time since he picked up the trombone he used to play at SPA. But he still practices many of the lessons he first picked up in the school’s jazz band in his work as a psychiatrist providing team-based care to vets coping with post-traumatic stress. “When you’re in a band or a choir, you’re performing with a team where you learn that your contribution has value,” says Markman, M.D., now a staff psychiatrist for the VA Puget Sound in Seattle. “You also find out that if you don’t practice and prepare, then the whole group suffers. You learn that the work is not just about you, and I think that lesson is absolutely invaluable. It’s the basis for a lot of the work I do now in teaching and management.” While he was a student at SPA, Markman played in the Greater Twin Cities Youth Symphony and Minnesota Youth Symphony, performed with the jazz band, and conducted Vivaldi’s “Summer” in the final performance of the Senior Strings the spring he graduated. “I was so involved in music at SPA that it is really difficult to say exactly how it shaped me as it was so much a part of my everyday life. I think it teaches you an artistic appreciation that boils over into other subjects.” Moving from math class to music practice every day also taught him the importance of shifting gears, he says, “and making time for music also meant I didn’t burn out on other things. In the work I do now, I really have to pay attention to balance, and doing as much music as I did taught me to appreciate that.”

Dr. Jesse Markman ’00 Psychiatrist, Seattle Veterans Administration

Markman earned his undergraduate degree at Yale, then moved to the University of Michigan for a dual-track M.D. and M.B.A. He began his medical residency at the University of Washington in 2009, and now serves as the associate training director of the school’s psychiatry residency training program. “I think the hard work and dedication I learned through music certainly helped me get through medical school and the subject matter helps me relate to my patients as I have experiences other than just being a doctor,” he says. “Also in psychiatry and psychotherapy there’s an appreciation for picking up on small things, particularly body language, and intonation of voice. I’m more aware of those things because of my interest in music. I don’t know what it would be like to turn that off.” u

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>> alumni/ae news

Alumni/ae

Council Corner

This exciting new series will kick off in the fall of 2014. Our inaugural speaker wll be Josh Meyers ’92, CEO of Slickdeals, LLC. Slickdeals is the leading online deal-sharing community, serving approximately 10 million users a month. Josh will answer questions posed by moderator Sasha Aslanian ’86, reporter at Minnesota Public Radio. Please mark your calendars to join us on Thursday, October 23, 2014 from 5:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. at The Minneapolis Club for this inaugural event

Lauren Nuffort ’02 President lauren.nuffort@gmail.com

Greetings SPA Alumni/ae! I am excited to invite you to join us for a new event series sponsored by the St. Paul Academy and Summit School Alumni/ae Council. Our new Speaker Series is a semi-annual event that will feature the remarks of some of SPA’s most innovative graduates. Themes for our guest speakers will include technology and inventions, entrepreneurialism, finance and commerce, sustainability and the environment, entertainment, sports, and education. Speaker Series events include a presentation by the featured speaker, a questionand-answer period, and the opportunity for attendees— alumni/ae, parents, and friends of the school—to meet and network while enjoying hors d’oeuvres and beverages.

Our Speaker Series will continue with our second event featuring Andy Redleaf ’75, founder and President of Minneapolis-based hedge fund Whitebox Advisors. This will event will take place on Thursday, February 5, 2015 from 5:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. at The Minneapolis Club. Please visit www.spa.edu > Alumni > Events for more information. This is guaranteed to be a fantastic and insightful series! We look forward to seeing many of you on October 23 and February 5. On a final note, the Alumni/ae Council is looking for enthusiastic alumni/ae from all decades to join in its mission. If you are interested in joining the Council, please contact me. For more information, please visit www.spa.edu > Alumni > Alumni/ae Council.

2014-2015 Council Members Joe Benson ’68 Dan Citron ’89 Sarah Crandall ’02 Aram Desteian ’01 Lindsay Giese ’05 Hilary LeBon ’91 Alex Nemeth ’95 Lauren Nuffort ’02 Zach Pettus ’99 David Salchow ’88 Craig Smith ’87 Nikki Stennes ’05

alumni/ae event calendar October 2014

February 2015

Alumni/ae Speaker Series: Josh Meyers ’92 October 23, 2014, 5:30 p.m.

Alumni/ae Speaker Series: Andy Redleaf ’75 February 5, 2015, 5:30 p.m.

Recap: Golf & Tennis Classic 2014

729 Second Avenue South, Minneapolis

Nearly 100 alumni/ae,

The Minneapolis Club

parents, and faculty

November 2014 Alumni/ae Holiday Party November 26, 2014, 7 p.m.

Sweeney’s Saloon 96 North Dale Street, Saint Paul

December 2014 Classes of ’04 & ’09 Reunion Parties December 26, 2014 Various times and locations.

Visit www.spa.edu>alumni>events for details.

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April 2015 Vocal/Orchestral Concert & Community Chorale April 25, 2015, 7 p.m.

O’Shaughnessy Auditorium St. Catherine University All alumni/ae are invited to participate and attend! Contact aklus@spa.edu for details.

Visit www.spa.edu > alumni > events for more information on all of our upcoming events!

joined us for our annual Golf and Tennis Classic on August 18, 2014. It was a beautiful day at the White Bear Yacht Club for the 15 foursomes on the green and the dozen players on the tennis courts. Thanks to all who attended!

Recap: Reunion Weekend 2014

Thank you to the more than 350 alumni/ae and friends we welcomed back during Reunion Weekend 2014! SPA classes ending in 4 and 9 celebrated their milestone reunions with class parties, and alumni/ae from more than 40 different class years came back to the school to reminisce, rekindle old friendships, and reconnect with classmates.

Reunion Weekend kicked off on Friday, September 5 with tours of both the Randolph and Goodrich campuses, led by current SPA students. That evening featured the All Alumni/ae Art Show and Reception, held concurrently in the Harry M. Drake Gallery and the Lilly Courtyard. The gallery exhibit featured the work of alumni/ ae artists Sally Wood Duback ’64, Left to right: Kathleen Smith ’05, Nikki Stennes ’05, Ruth Schilling Emily Squires, and Egohsa Awaah ’04.

Harwood ’69, Anne Baker Parker ’74, and Jim Vose ’69. The morning of Saturday, September 6 was the annual Heritage Brunch at the Randolph campus, honoring alumni/ae of all classes who graduated fifty or more years ago. The highlight of the weekend was that

Photos from all of Reunion events can be viewed online at stpaulacademy. smugmug.com > Alumni/ae and Advancement > ReunionWeekend-2014.

Left to right: Mike Ristau ’85, Susan Fisher Koll ’51, and Mark Ristau ’84.

night’s class parties, hosted throughout the Twin Cities in local restaurants and alumni/ae homes. See pages 40-42 for photos of Saturday’s class events!

Thursday, October 23, 2014 JOSH MEYERS ’92

SPA ALUMNI/AE COUNCIL SPEAKER SERIES AT THE Minneapolis Club

Moderated by Sasha Aslanian ’86

Joshua Meyers ’92 is a thought leader in innovative online strategies and services. He has held leadership positions with Match.com, Yahoo!, and DailyBurn, and is now the CEO of Slickdeals, a product-rating website that has grown to 9 million users per month with more than 500 million visits per year.

Thursday, FEBRUARY 5, 2015 ANDY REDLEAF ’75

Moderated by Tim Welsh, Current Parent and Trustee Andrew Redleaf is the Founder and CEO of Whitebox Advisors LLC. Mr. Redleaf was a Founding Partner of Deephaven Capital Management. While at Deephaven, Mr. Redleaf managed the Market Neutral Fund from 1994 to 1998. From 1980 to 1994, Mr. Redleaf was an options trader at the CBOE. Prior to his experience at the CBOE, he spent two years as an options trader with Gruntal & Company. Mr. Redleaf graduated from Yale University in three years with a BA and MA in Mathematics and was recognized as the top mathematics student of his graduating year in 1978.

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Annual Fund exceeds the goal in 2013-14 with the help of 1700+ donors The 2013-14 Annual Fund ended the fiscal year on a resounding note of success, raising a total of $1,234,965 from 1,734 donors and exceeding its dollar goal, according to Jenni Beadle, Director of the Annual Fund.

Penumbra Theatre project (2013)

Parent participation in the 2013-14 Annual Fund ended with a full 75% of current parents making a gift to SPA. This percentage has risen significantly in the last five years; in 2008-09, only 50% of parents made a gift to the school. Beadle attributes this success to Annual Fund Chair and Trustee David Kristal (P’19 and P’21) and the more than two dozen dedicated parent volunteers who worked at both the grade level and division level to encourage their fellow parents to “be part of the equation” and contribute to the Annual Fund [see page 50 of the Annual Report section for a list of these volunteers—Ed. ] Thekla Rura-Polley and Craig Polley (P’25, ’21, and ’19) were key volunteers for the Class of 2021, which came in first in the Parent Participation Challenge with a whopping 91% of parents with children in the class making a gift to the Annual Fund. “We volunteer for the Annual Fund because it takes all of us parents to support the amazing education that our children experience at SPA,” says Thekla. “When we talk with parents about giving, they often mention how happy their children are at SPA, how much they appreciate the opportunities to participate in performances and how much the teachers care about each child. We really enjoy these conversations and making connections with other parents.” Another area of strength for the Annual Fund was the extraordinary level of participation from faculty and staff. A record-setting 88% of faculty and staff gave to the Annual Fund; that number was only 57% in 2008-09. The effort was led by three faculty and staff volunteers (pictured left to right) Andrea Sachs, History faculty and Assistant Director of College Counseling, who worked with Middle and Upper School faculty; Ben Pierce, Kindergarten faculty, who worked with Lower School faculty; and Sue Scott, Director of Data Integration, who worked with staff on both campuses. “I volunteer with the Annual Fund because SPA is my community,” says Ben Pierce. “I’m lucky to spend my day with remarkable kids, families, and colleagues. This is a small but meaningful way to give a little bit back to a community that gives me so much.”

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Hank and Kristen Brandtjen

Honoring leadership giving

The President’s Circle In 2013-14, St. Paul Academy and Summit School introduced a new recognition level within the Leadership Giving Society. The President’s Circle recognizes donors who contribute $10,000 or more to the Annual Fund each year. In its first year, 23 donors became part of The President’s Circle with their annual gift; like all gifts to the Annual Fund, President’s Circle gifts are put immediately to use towards operational expenses that support the SPA experience on a daily basis. Paul Citron, former SPA Trustee, alumni/ae parent and current grandparent, has been a donor at the President’s Circle level for several years and Middle School mural project (2010) has directed his philanthropy to support the fine arts program at SPA in memory of his late wife Ellie. “The gifts from Paul Citron and his family over the last five years have made special experiences possible in the fine arts program which would not have been possible otherwise,” says Marty Nash, Fine Arts Department Chair. “We’ve welcomed a wide array of visiting artists who have worked directly with our students in ceramics, dance, costuming, theater, video and more. The work of our entire K-12 fine arts faculty to continually challenge our students has been inspired and greatly influenced by this gift.” The support of the President’s Circle will continue to be a key factor in sustaining a strong Annual Fund and providing operational funds for core needs and priorities each year.

another remarkable year

Leadership Giving Society “What has been remarkable is that even during the current capital campaign for the Huss Center for the Performing Arts, we’ve seen the number of individuals joining the Leadership Giving Society grow,” says Anne Larsen Hooley (P’16, P’18, P’21, P’23), Chair of the Leadership Giving Society for the past two years. “Schools need both capital gifts to support exciting new building and infrastructure projects, as well as annual gifts to meet the immediate needs of running the school each year. Luckily at

SPA, we have donors that understand this important difference.” Leadership Giving Society members make gifts to the Annual Fund of $2,500 or more each year. Several special events throughout the year honor their support including the Annual Recognition Evening that was held this year at the home of Hank ’77 and Kirstin Brandtjen in April 2014 (pictured at left). Since 2011, membership in the Society has grown by 50% to 163 members, including 47 new members in 2013-14.

Generations of alumni/ae and families have always made leadership giving to the school a priority. And like all independent schools, SPA relies on the generosity of these donors to help advance the mission of the school. Leadership gifts provide funds that, like all Annual Fund gifts, support excellent teaching, small class sizes, financial aid, classroom and technology resources, and the best possible educational environment to prepare our students for their futures.

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Scott Streble

>> philantrophy

letter from the

2013-14 annual fund leadership At St. Paul Academy and Summit School, giving is part of the fabric of this community.The culture of the school promotes academic excellence coupled with the values of compassion and giving from the heart. As chairs of the 201314 Annual Fund and Leadership Giving Society, we also celebrate the giving nature of the community when it comes to philanthropy. The pages that follow recognize the 1,734 individuals who stepped forward to make contributions to SPA’s Annual Fund.You make a difference in the school’s excellence every day.You make a difference in the opportunities the SPA experience provides.You make a difference because of your giving. Thank you. We also want to salute the nearly 100 volunteers listed on page 50 who played a vital part in the success of the Annual Fund by serving as alumni/ae volunteers, grade level parent volunteers, faculty and staff representatives, or as Leadership Giving Committee members.Your dedication to the school’s success is deeply appreciated. In this special issue of the SPA Magazine that also includes our 2013-14 Annual Report, we hope you will join us in paying tribute to the many generations of St. Paul Academy and Summit School alumni/ae, parents, and friends who passionately contribute each year to ensure the traditions and vibrancy of the SPA experience remain as strong as ever. With gratitude, David Kristal Parent ’19 and ’21 Member, Board of Trustees Annual Fund Chair Anne Larsen Hooley Parent ’16, ’18, ’21 and ’23 Member, Board of Trustees Leadership Giving Society Chair

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“A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination.” —Nelson Mandela

>> CLASS NOTES

’47 CLASS AGENTS Sallie O’Brien bridgetaobrien@frontier.net Stanley Shepard stanlucyshepard@worldnet.att.net

Mark Orton and his wife, Diane, are moving permanently to a small town on the banks of the Columbia River in Oregon. Mark is retiring from a very successful career as an organist and choral director. He has children scattered throughout the west and is looking forward to his new environment, a distinct change from his current home on Long Island.

’53 CLASS AGENTS Judy Blake judith.blake@att.net John Holman copas2@msn.com

Nicky Benz Carpenter says she’s involved in “the usual projects.” Currently, she’s co-chair of the Minnesota Orchestra’s search committee for a new president and CEO. No big trips are on the horizon, although Nicki follows up Vassar College board meetings with visits to friends who live nearby. She looks forward to

the weddings of her two grandchildren in August and December. Our sympathies go to Nicki on the loss of her husband, Tom, this past spring. Mary Dosdall Guyer and Reyn celebrated their 57th

anniversary at Harbor Island in the Bahamas. She says they don’t want another 57, but “15 more would be nice.” Mary and Reyn spent a few days with Karen Winter this summer and then went on to visit friends in Michigan before returning to St. Paul for another week. Next they headed up north to Shell Lake where they rented a cabin near their daughter Katie’s place. Marlene Heger Bixby spent

a lot of time this summer up at their Danbury cabin. They had a full-house over the 4th when their children and grandchildren visited. More cabin time was logged when they visited son Tim and family at their summer place in upstate New York. Other out-of-town trips included seeing Scott and his crew in Kansas. Marlene says their annual Dartmouth mini-reunion in Florida this past winter was, as always, a lot of fun. Mar and Ned

are also contemplating a cruise—sometime, maybe, somewhere.

Have news to share?

Ann Luyten Dieperink

Email your news to alumni@spa.edu or send it to Class Notes:

reports she has another grandchild enrolled at SPA. Lauren Dieperink finished 6th grade in June. Her sister, Emily, finished the 9th grade. The girls are daughters of Michael Dieperink ’78. Ann spent a lot of the summer working in the large garden of her Afton home. Caco Myers Baillon leads an active life. She plays tennis, still goes to the gym, has just started mat pilates and sometimes does reformer pilates on the machine. She also spends lots of time in her garden. In April, Caco attended a Myers reunion in Coral Springs with Betty Myers and many of the Parish cousins—Jack Parish ’55 and Liz, Judy Parish Diedrich ’58 and Dick, newlyweds Mike Parish ’58 and Kori, Bob Parish ’60 and Betsy Bertholf Parish ’65, and Peter Myers ’71. Everyone had a great time. Judy Blake reports, “I’m back writing for pay, doing one or two articles a month for a local magazine. Currently, I’m working on a series featuring wood

St. Paul Academy and Summit School 1712 Randolph Avenue, St. Paul, MN, 55105 We look forward to hearing from you!

Become a Class Agent! Class Agents keep in touch with their classmates and provide updates on SPA happenings. Class Agents also help with special events and reunions. All classes welcome additional volunteers and multiple Class Agents are encouraged. To become a Class Agent, please contact alumni@spa.edu or 651-696-1366.

Rob Woutat, SPA faculty member from 1964 to 1987, has published his third book, an account of a sensational murder case in his county in Northwest Washington state in 1981. Rosalina’s Story— A Trail of Mayhem traces the criminal career of of a young woman who left two dead men in her wake before she was finally convicted of recruiting her second husband to help murder his successor. A condensed version of the story was presented recently on the Investigation Discovery channel. www. spa.e du

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>> CLASS NOTES

’53

continued

art—sculptures carved from tree stumps, which kicked off with a piece on the lady with a water jug that stands across from the Governor’s Mansion on Summit Ave. Other than that, life goes on as usual, with a few weeks in Zihuatanejo in the winter and time at the lake in summer (45 minutes from door to door—perfect).”

’72 CLASS AGENT John Edgerton jedgerton@propertiesedge.com

Mystie Brackett married

Chuck Esterly on October 11, 2014 in Lyons, CO. “Proving you CAN have grandchildren without having children! Very happy!” says Mystie.

’88 CLASS AGENT Daniel Deuel dhd823@comcast.net

>> Garrett Wedding

’95

’96

CLASS AGENTS

CLASS AGENT

Katie Frisch katiefrisch@gmail.com Kristoffer L. Weum kris.weum@gmail.com

Minette Loula mmloula@gmail.com

s Robin Feickert recently adopted a little boy—Benjamin Richard Feickert. He’s 18 months old and very busy! She works as the Director of Healthy Living at the White Bear Area YMCA so they have lots of opportunities to keep moving.

’89 s Abebi Stafford returned to SPA with his three children for a visit in September, 2014. The family toured the Randolph After 14 years together, Tina campus and visited with a few Garrett is happy to report that of Abebi’s favorite teachers, she was finally able to marry her including Lucy Polk, Jim partner, Carol Jean Trousdale, McVeety, Anne Marie Shimkus, on November 2, 2013. The Kris Flom, Bill Ross, and Carol wedding, at the Women’s Club King. Abebi is a musician and a of Minneapolis, was attended member of the award-winning by many family, friends, and group Bayorhythm, which SPA alumni/ae including Karen recently released a new album Garrett Tvedt ’86, Sarah that has received radio play in Bancroft-Howard ’86, Kitty Atlanta, North Carolina, and Higinbotham ’90, Jack Garrett London. ’72, Mike Garrett ’65, and Martha Garrett Burdess ’68.

CLASS AGENT

Dan Citron dancitron@gmail.com

s Following Benjamin Freyinger’s graduation from SPA, he attended Boston College and subsequently graduated with a degree in art history and a minor in fine arts. After a year working for the Guggenheim Foundation in Venice, Italy for a little over a year, he returned to the United States and earned a Masters in Architecture from UCLA in 2005. A few “grueling” internships in New York, LA, and Germany led to Benjamin’s formation of LADG, an architecture collaborative with his current business partner, Andrew Holder, a professor of architecture at the University of Michigan. The firm is one of the recipients of the 2014 Architectural League of New York’s “Young Architects Prize and currently has an exhibition on display at Parsons. Benjamin’s work will be the subject of a fall exhibition in SPA’s Harry M. Drake Gallery.

’97 CLASS AGENTS Dena Citron Larson denacitronlarson@gmail.com Jeff Jarosch jeff.jarosch@gmail.com

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accessories, fancy beverages, luxury accessories and other objects in his bold, lush signature style.” Ralph earned a BFA from the Rochester Institute of Technology; along with his advertising and editorial work, he is also working on a personal series of color-infused landscapes that take him from Brooklyn, New York, where he is based, to countries like Scotland, Wales and England, as well as states such as Colorado, Arizona, Montana and Wyoming.

>> Gebauer Wedding s Hilary Gebauer and Marc Katz were married on September 21. Celebrating at the earthy and sweet (just like them!) reception were (back row, left to right) Rhys Conlon’s husband Raj Boopathy, Tara and Abby (McDonald) Donner, Jeff Jarosch, Tim Piehler, Adam Mills and wife Maria, Matt Felt, Natalie (Ruotsinoja) Durk; (middle row, left to right): Rhys Conlon, Chad Kampe (Matt Felt’s husband), Matt and Dena (Citron) Larson, Aaron Gebauer ’90, Amy Gebauer ’87 and Chris Gebauer ’88; (front row, left to right): Kate Starns, Marc and Hilary, and Alison Crossley

and her partner, Tim Kelso.

’00 CLASS AGENTS Evan Berquist berquist.evan@gmail.com Jesse Markman markman.jesse@gmail.com Noah Mehlan nmehlan@hotmail.com Ann Marie Winskowski winskowski@gmail.com

In 2012, Ben Foster married Jenni Foster, a long-time Wisconsin friend whom he met while attending SPA. He also recently launched his own recruiting consultancy, 4Sight Search, which specializes

in digital marketing within Minneapolis / St. Paul and Denver.

’06

Chad Asmussen moved to San

CLASS AGENTS

Francisco three years ago for a job in software sales where he met his wife, Ruba. They married in September 2014 in the Bay Area. Ralph Smith has been named

s Kevin Raheja and Brittany were married on April 1st 2014, after having their first date at Borough restaurant in Minneapolis. They currently live in downtown Minneapolis and recently purchased Salon 331, a hair salon in NE Minneapolis.

one of thirty “New and Emerging Photographers to Watch” by PDN, an industry publication of Photo District News. According to the PDN website, Ralph “… has the ability to make food look sculptural, a skill that has caught the eye of photo editors at publications like The New York Times Magazine… But food is not the only thing Smith’s good at shooting. He also depicts flowers,

Lien Bui lbui@gustavus.edu Rory Collins roryfcollins@gmail.com Alex Gast agast88@gmail.com Marjahn Golban mgolban@gmail.com Henry Parker henrysparker@gmail.com

Breanna Zarmbinski married Paul Shrewsbury on May 30,

2014, in St. Paul. Many members of the Class of 2006 joined them to celebrate. Front row, from left to right: Jack Bathke, Erin Venker, Kate Noel, Rachel Johnson, Breanna Zarmbinski, Christina Mills. Back row: Rory Collins, Maddie Graber, Allison Mills.

’03 CLASS AGENT Thomas Christ kiselblat@gmail.com Emily Shor emilyshor@gmail.com Aleksander K. Sims aleksander.sims@gmail.com Brenden Goetz brendengoetz@gmail.com

>> Zarmbinski Wedding

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1949

| Standing, left to right: Piers Lewis, Cathy Lewis, Annella Dosdall, Tom Dosdall ’48, Bill Clapp, Bill Canby, Jane Canby, Sue Elsinger, Peggy Lemmon, Ted Weyerhaeuser, Nancy Weyerhaeuser, John Elsinger ’48, Jean Ambler, Jack Ambler, Judy Kinkead, John Kinkead, Sharon Clapp. Seated, left to right: Adele Hersey, Jim Stronge, Marlene Stronge.

1954 | Back row: Jamie Slade, Burt Bigelow, Walter Mayo, Peter Frenzel, Bill Kansas, David Beadie, Rick Driscoll, Polly Olmstead, John Stafford. Front row: Bonnie Mairs, Ellen Seymour, Roger Bacon, Deta Stafford, Myra Greenberg, Jim Neher.

1959 | Stephanie Smith, Ginny Magnuson, Margie Byers, Ruth Otto, Jan Rupert ’60, John Rupert ’58. Second row: Chris and Tom Hauser, Tom Willius (with arms crossed), Ruth Willius (with hands crossed), Andy Holt (in plaid jacket). Back row: Henry Pryor, Hilary Magnuson. Rosalyn Motter, Fritz Magnuson ’66, Jim Gardner , Will Motter, Tom Roe, Margaret Roe, Jock Irvine, Sheila Holt, Michael Foote ’58. Attended but not pictured: Ethel Griggs ’59, Connie Kunin ’59, Lucy Jones ’59, Susan Cross ’59, and Maria Denzer ’59, Ellen Blasena ’60, Stew Fobes ’59, and Bill ’58 and Carol Beadie. 1964 | Front center: Nancy Field (mother of Cindy who was unable to attend). Second row left to right: Shirley Woolley, Cindy Piper, Tad Piper, Val Moore, Eleanor McLear, Gady Blake, Shotsy Johnson. Third row: Andy Power, Carol Patterson, Linda Waag, Ellen Pillsbury, Judy White, Jean Bradford, John Low, Rick Moore. Fourth row: Bruce Myers, Tom Patterson, Linda Goldenberg, Jemie Thorvig, Bruce Thorvig. Fifth row: Ward Johnson, Bill Geery, Ann Geery, Sally Thacher, Robin Roderick, Alex Berg, John Maher. Sixth row: Barb Greenman, Molly Greenman ’71, Susan Hopwood, Nan Eklund, Liz Berkenkamp , guest, guest, Jock Pillsbury. Seventh row: Whit Shepard, Andrea Shepard, Charlie Gordon, Sheila Owens, Jack Goldenberg, Allan Klein, John Bradford. Eighth row: George Woolley, Bill Owens ’65, Sally Duback, Karlin Symons, Spike Eklund.

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1969 (St. Paul Academy) | Ned Foster, Chip Allen, Mike Sprafka, Curtis West, Toff Linsmayer, Huck Cammack, Tom Vangsness, Ward Gill, Phil Villaume, Chuck Griggs, Bob Slattery, Croil Hunter, Bob Gordon.

1974 | Left to right: Nick Janecky, Shannon Kelley, Chuck Whitaker, Roddie Hauser, Paul Nahurski, Ellen Sell, John Gilkeson, Sarah Wright, Eric Mohring, John Simler, Bruce Minea, Diane Tiffany, Bill O’Brian, Tom Herbst, Jim Flom, David Husbye, Doug Habermann, Jim McNair, Terry Hite, Stan Thiele.

1979 | Tom Rasmussen, Jeff Day, Steve Buscher, John Patrick Reed (Carol’s friend), Carol Kayser, Anne Walton von Bergen, Michael Bourdaghs, Michael Hudec and Bizzy Hudec.

1989 | Front row, L to R: Todd Geller, Peter Johnson, Julie Duckstad, Dan Citron, Josh Lipschultz, Andy Brown. Second row, L to R: Husam Ansari (half hidden), Betsy Kiernat Zakrajsheck, Sara Bergman Krasny, Martha Burton-Santibanez, Michael Anderson, Theo Allison, Greg Smith. Third row, L to R: Maria Fragomeni Vanzyl, Jess Blue, Susie Druck Kyle, Jean Kim, Elena Giannetti. Back row, L to R: Elise Gudeman, Kate Delaney, Alicia KuninBatson, Heather Gardner, Leslie Smith Iyer, Tina Garrett.

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>> CLASS NOTES

â&#x20AC;&#x2122;07 CLASS AGENT Derek Schaible derek.schaible@gmail.com

1984 | Back row: Carrie Corrigan, Sara Mairs, Mark Ristau, Emily Greenberg, Tim Commers, Julia Mairs Neisbecker, Benita Dieperink, Tom Guyer, Julie McGlincey, Sarah Bullard, Peter Nichols (hidden), Brian Lipschultz, Joe Bagnoli, Shaban Nazarian. Front row: Val Grant, Karin Barnes, Lisa Pope Neary, Kristen Hall, Sarah Cooper Hale, Chris Redko Madson, Spencer Deinard. Lying down: David Dawkins.

Peter Labuza is writing and reviewing for Variety magazine. Recognized and respected throughout the world of show business, Variety is the premier source of entertainment news. Since 1905, the most influential leaders in the industry have turned to Variety for timely, credible and straightforward news and analysis. Devon Holstad graduated from

the University of Michigan Law School, with honors and will work as an associate attorney at the New York law firm Cahill, Gordon & Reindel, LLP. He is also the Head Coach of the undergraduate Pace University Mock Trial team.

â&#x20AC;&#x2122;08 CLASS AGENTS Vanessa Levy

1994 | Back, left to right: Phil Preeshl, Reena Singh, Declan Mumford, Brady Androff, Mickey Tierney, Maija Tonry, Molly Burke, Katie Viemeister, Bryan Smith, Kate Willis Ladell, Corey Stennes, Peter Moore, Kevin Drew, Amanda Cammack, Isabelle Lang, Leah Lellman, Maren (Eggert) Hilton, Claire Sorman. Front, left to right: Dan Price, Jeannine (Pinder) Befidi, Jolie (Thomas) Drury, Rachel Garrett, Elie (Foster) Donahue, Keren Gudeman, Remi Eichten, Brendan Kramp, Tamara Brenner, Annie Tsong. Attending but not pictured: Andrew Katz, Mike Miller, Beth (DeCourcy) Miller, Amy (Brynolfson) Gaalswyk.

1999 | Top row left to right: Ben Kremenak, Mike Davis, Mark Heinert, Jamie Laurie, Hans Grinager, Mike DeCourcy, Tim Cooper. Middle Row left to right: Andrea Halverson, Ellen (Osthus) Fee, Meaghan Moriarty, Marin Nelson, Hannah Phipps-Yonas, Kathryn Grande. Bottom Row left to right: Evora Olson Wellman, Lesley (Gerberding) De Paz, Katy Gehrig, Monisha (Mitra) De La Rocha, Lisa Stein.

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vanessalevy1@yahoo.com Nolan Filter nolan.f.filter@gmail.com Jessica Garretson Jessiepiper@gmail.com Ariella Rotenberg rotenberg.ariella@gmail.com

s Anja Crowder works at ABC News headquarters in New York as a production coordinator for the Sunday morning political news show This Week with George Stephanopoulos. She attended the White House

Correspondents Association Dinner in May 2014: “As a journalist I was able to both attend the dinner and cover it the next morning on our show. It was truly a blast. Everyone under the sun was there all in one room, celebrities, politicians and journalists. I even bumped into Amy Klobuchar at a cocktail party beforehand who remembered me from a campaign rally at Macalester two years back. I got a photo with Martha Raddatz, who occasionally anchors our show, and of course, I saw fellow SPA alumna Rebecca Jarvis ’99 who is our Chief Business Correspondent at ABC. She and I have become friends at the network as she sometimes files for our show.”

as part of the 2+2 program. The 2+2 Program is a deferred admission process for current students, either in college or full-time masters programs. It is comprised of two years of professional work experience followed by two years in the HBS MBA Program.

’10 CLASS AGENTS Katherine Labuza klabuza@gmail.com Paige Owens-Kurtz owenskur@stolaf.edu

CLASS AGENTS

Alex Van Orsow has recently

been accepted to Harvard Business School (HBS) for his MBA. After working for two years at Medtronic in the Twin Cities, he will matriculate to HBS for the class of 2018

s Annie Hart earned the fifth and final All-America honor of her Nordic skiing career by placing eighth in the women’s 15K Freestyle at the 2014 NCAA Championships in Utah with a time of 41:28.7. Annie, who graduated from Dartmouth College in 2014, just missed out on All-America honors in the 5K Classical race by less than a second, placing 11th in the first

gives people a chance to feel comfortable to express and reveal their own traditions’.”

’12 CLASS AGENT

The Class of 2012 is looking for Class Agents! Please contact alumni@spa.edu to find out more.

Jenny Niedenfuehr, who

’09 Colin Cowles colin.cowles@gmail.com Grace Ferrara graceferrara2@gmail.com Atsuko A. Fukushi fuku0035@umn.edu Andrew Magne andrewtmagne@gmail.com

of her two races. A model of consistency throughout her career, Hart placed among the top ten 33 times and the top five 24 times with four victories in the final 35 races of her career. She also ran the Boston Marathon in April 2014 wearing lots of Spartan gear!

attends Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisc., is an Anthropology major and president of the rapidly growing Cultural Food Club (CFC). Jenny’s work with the CFC was recently featured in a profile on the Lawrence website: “According to Jenny, cooking is an essential life skill which can be honed and celebrated by making foods from other cultures. Not only that, but cooking food from other cultures can promote awareness of other people and how they live. She strongly believes that ‘promoting awareness of diversity prepares students to live in today’s global society. It enables students to understand and accept new cultures as well as learn to love them. It also

s Bayert Salverda was a member of the Saint John’s University rugby team that captured its second consecutive National Small College championship with a 37-25 win over New England College Sunday, April 27, 2014 at Infinity Park in Glendale, Colo. It was just the third time in the tournament’s history that a team has recorded back-to-back national championships.

’13 CLASS AGENT Sophia Myers -Kelley smyerskelley@gmail.com

Egly brothers boost local baseball team: Spencer Egly ’13 and Harrisen Egly ’14 were a big part of a local Edina baseball team’s success this past summer. An article in the August issue of the Edina Sun Current entitled “Egly brothers boost Edina Legion” describes the Spencer and Harrisen’s contribution to the team: “Spencer completed his fourth season of Edina Legion ball in 2014, while Harrisen completed his third season. They were among the statistical leaders in quite a few categories. Harrisen batted .400, the second-highest average among Edina’s regulars. Spencer hit .337 and tied for the team lead in RBIs with 24.” Spencer is now a sophomore at Washington University in St. Louis, and Harrisen has just begun his first year at Columbia University in New York; both play baseball for their universities.

s In August 2014, St. Olaf sophomore and soccer goalie Ben Braman was named one of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference’s “Players to Watch” by the Pioneer Press.

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>> CLASS NOTES

From Class of 2010 to Class of 2014: The SPA Class of 2010 celebrated many college graduations this spring. Congratulations to our Class of 2010/2014!

Harry Lavercombe:

University of Wisconsin, Madison

Zac Brown:

Loyola University of Chicago

Libby Fones (with brother Robert Fones â&#x20AC;&#x2122;07):

Sarah Whitaker and Abby Thorsgaard:

Babson College

Whitman College

Maddy Karon: Vanderbilt University Sonja Manning:

George Washington University 44

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David McVeety:

Tufts University

>> in memoriam

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Richard “Dick” Hascal Brill was born on August 30, 1915 in St. Paul, Minnesota. He graduated from St. Paul Academy in 1934 and earned a Bachelor’s degree in Mining Engineering from the University of Minnesota. He worked in purchasing for Alcoa for 25 years before joining Union Bank as Assistant Vice President and Purchasing Agent where he worked for 20 years before retiring. Throughout his career he was active with the Purchasing Management Association with multiple terms as an officer at both the national and regional levels. In 1947 he married his wife of 66 years, Elizabeth Jane Schmidt. They lived in Pasadena, California for 54 years where he was involved in a number of volunteer activities including the Boy Scouts of America, the Historical Society of Southern California where he was a Director, the Episcopal Church and A Better Chance where he was the Regional President. Following his retirement he remained active as a volunteer at the Huntington Hospital. Dick passed away on March 26, 2014 in Escondido, California. He was 98 years old. He is survived by his wife Elizabeth, son Jim of Pacific Palisades and daughter Mary Frost of Rancho Bernardo.

Joseph W. Elsinger died peacefully July 17, 2014. Joe was born on November 1, 1923, and graduated from St. Paul Academy and Yale University. Always a true gentleman, his quick wit, sense of humor, joke telling and gentle spirit will be forever missed. Survived by his wife, Anne Lovering Elsinger ’42; brother, John Elsinger ’48 (Sue); and adoring stepchildren, step-grandchildren, and step-great grandchildren.

’51 Leo Hauser passed away unexpectedly on September 1, 2014. Leo was born October 13, 1932 in St. Paul, Minnesota. He graduated from St. Paul Academy in 1951 and later received a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Minnesota in 1955. He married Helen Elizabeth Bros in 1957. Leo was an Officer in the Coast Guard where he and his new wife spent his deployment in Puerto Rico. After serving in the Coast Guard, Leo worked as a Product Manager at General Mills, where he entered the world of finance. He later took positions with Piper, Jaffrey & Hopwood, and H. Hentz & Co. and ultimately owned his own seat on the New York Stock Exchange. After selling his seat on the Exchange for a then record amount, Leo returned to the Twin Cities and put his

’53 incredibly positive energy to work by creating Personal Dynamics, a self-development company, with partner, Bob Conklin. In 1976 he was voted the president of the American Society for Training and Development, and appointed by then President Ford to the U.S. Department of Education LifeLong Learning Committee. As an internationally known motivational speaker and trainer, Leo started Hauser Productions and published Five Steps to Success to help share his expertise in self-development with the world. Five Steps to Success has been translated into several languages. The last several years, Leo has been enjoying his retirement and spending time with his wife of 57 years, his children and grandchildren. Leo is survived by his wife Helen; son Leopold Hauser IV; daughters, Elizabeth Cameron, and Sara Hauser; grandchildren Leopold Hauser V, Max Hauser, and Elena Cameron; brother Thomas Hauser ’59. He is preceded in death by his parents Leopold and Marian and grandson Timmy. Memorials may be directed to St. Paul Academy and Summit School.

Gail V. Hogg, of Minneapolis, died peacefully and surrounded by love on September 4, 2014, after a brief illness. Predeceased by her beloved husband, best friend, and fellow pea-in-thepod Jim Hogg, Gail was a caring and proud matriarch of her three daughters, Delene Lambert, Leslie Pritchett, and Jennifer Lick, her four sons, Bill Hogg, Alan Hogg, Andy Pugh, and Peter Hogg, and their collective eleven grandchildren. Gail, the daughter of Hugo and Mary Victor and a life-long resident of the Twin Cities, was born in St. Paul on June 15, 1935. She attended Summit School and the University of Minnesota, graduating college with a degree in psychology. Gail had many interests, was always learning, and never went anywhere without a book. She enjoyed traveling all over the world, embracing different cultures and making friends wherever she went. She loved being with her faithful dogs and her many dear friends. Above all she adored her children and grandchildren. Even at the end, Gail’s optimism and sheer will were unbowed. Never one to let anything slow her down, four days before her death she was earnestly planning “the trip of a lifetime” to the Galapagos Islands, saying she could use something to look forward to.

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>> in memoriam

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Sally Earl Zorich was born in St. Paul on September 18, 1942. Her many talents included jelly-making, gardening, knitting, and organizing skills which led to the position of Director of Volunteers at Minneapolis Children’s Hospital during its inception. Then came 15 adventuresome years on the North Slope of Alaska, where she met the love of her life Steve, a fortunate twist of fate and unbelievable luck for both of them. Back in St. Paul she ran her own very successful market research firm for over 10 years, and then came retirement and a quieter life on the shores of Amen Lake in the north woods of Minnesota. Sally is preceded in death by parents Dr. John and Jane Earl, survived by husband Stephen and sisters Mary Earl ’58 (Charles Pederson) and Nancy Earl Hoy ’55 (Howard), sister-in-law Patty Sweet (Greg), brothers-inlaw John Zorich (Billie Jo) and Michael O’Keefe (Sibyl), and many loving nieces and nephews and their children.

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William Harris Barrows died on May 26, 2014 at home after battling brain cancer for more than 2 ½ years. He was born and raised in St. Paul, MN. Beloved husband of Donna (nee Epstein); loving father of Sam, Charlie and Ted; dear brother of Mary Ann Wark ’65 (David), Robert Barrows ’66 (Linda) and Patricia Rosbrow ’69 (Thomas); devoted son of the late Sidney and the late June Harris Barrows ’40; cherished son-in-law of Sidney and Sondra Epstein; enthusiastic brother-in-law, uncle, cousin and friend to many. He graduated from St. Paul Academy and Summit School in 1972, Trinity College in CT and Chicago Medical School. Bill was a pediatrician for thirty years and a mentor to young physicians. He was fond of saying that nothing you do for a child is wasted or forgotten. He volunteered for 25 years at a free clinic. He was also a mohel who brought 1000 babies into the Jewish tradition. He was an avid skier, runner, gardener and photographer who documented the special moments in the lives of all his family and friends. He will be missed by so many.

’80 Charles P. Vaughn died of natural causes on August 24, 2014. Preceded in death by his father, Dr. C. Gordon Vaughn, he is survived by his partner Roger Sima of Minneapolis, mother Mimi Vaughn of Saint Paul, brothers John Vaughn ’76 of Stillwater, MN and Peter Vaughn ’83 of South Kent, CT, nephew Conor Vaughn and sister-in-law Jana Webster, both of Stillwater.

’11 James Adams died on February 28, 2014 in a tragic automobile accident in Northfield, MN. He was a beloved son of Jim and Julia Adams of St. Paul, MN and brother to Jack Adams ’05 and Jane Adams ’07. James was born in St. Paul on March 17, 1993 and attended Adams Spanish Immersion elementary school followed by St. Paul Academy and Summit School and Carleton College. At SPA, he was an accomplished athlete and scholar, co-captain on the football, hockey and golf teams. He won several academic awards, including the Cum Laude Society, upon graduation in 2011. At Carleton he was a junior majoring in chemistry and a member of Carleton’s

Ultimate Frisbee team. The team was traveling to Stanford University for an invitational tournament at the time of his death. James participated in canoe trips to the BWCA with Camp Widjiwagan, culminating in a Voyageur trip to northern Canada and Hudson Bay in summer 2011, an experience which affirmed his love for Minnesota and the outdoors. James had a sparkle in his eye, an ever-present smile, and an infectious laugh. He was always a leader, making and welcoming new friends into his communities. His determination to succeed on the playing field and in the classroom was matched only by the compassion he showed toward others. A scholarship has been created in James’ memory at SPA; please see page 45 for more information.

Friends David Sims, long-time faculty member at St. Paul Academy and Summit School, died on August 3, 2014. He joined the faculty at St. Paul Academy in 1964 as a teacher of Latin and continued teaching in the merged school until his retirement in 2003. He was a valued colleague at SPA and a loving father and grandfather. Many SPA colleagues and former students attended the memorial service at Olivet Congregational Church on August 23.

Remembering James Adams ’11: The James P. Adams Memorial Scholarship The days following the February 28 car accident that took the life of James Adams ’11 were heartbreaking ones for the SPA community. James, along with his brother Jack ’05 and sister Jane ’07, and their parents Jim and Julia, were tightly woven into the fabric of the school. “James leaves an indelible imprint at SPA,” Head of School Bryn Roberts wrote in his letter to parents and faculty on March 1, the day after the accident. “He was a true scholar and a member of the Cum Laude Society which honors the top students in each graduating class. This rather spare description does not capture his intellectual energy and the infectious enthusiasm James brought to class each and every day,” Roberts wrote. “He had an unbridled interest in asking challenging questions and discussing complex issues and topics. James was unfailingly generous with his classmates and they enjoyed working with him for all of the right reasons: he was interesting, kind, and consistently outgoing and good-humored. He quite simply loved being part of the school community.” In the aftermath of James’ death, there was an outpouring of support for his family; this included many generous donations made to St. Paul Academy and Summit School in his memory. In consultation with the school, the Adams family (pictured below with James at his SPA Commencement) decided that the best tribute to James would be to use the funds for an endowed scholarship. The James P. Adams Memorial Scholarship will provide tuition assistance for students for whom an SPA education would be out of reach without financial aid. “James simply loved SPA—his classmates, his teachers, his teammates, and his friends. He was always the first to pitch in when something was needed,” says Julia Adams. “We hope this scholarship will help deserving kids have the same experience that James enjoyed at SPA. It is something he would have wanted.” [See page 43 of the Annual Report section of this magazine for a complete list of donors to the James P. Adams Memorial Scholarship—Ed.] As the community continues to mourn its loss, the scholarship will provide a reminder of James’ talent and effervescent spirit. “Every day our halls are filled with laughter and exuberance, the qualities exemplified so splendidly by James,” Roberts wrote in his March 1 note. “His death reminds us of the transitory and unpredictable nature of life. As much as our community grieves, I hope that we will redouble our efforts to take full advantage of our talents and opportunities, both as individuals and as a community.”

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>> performances

Upper School Musical Once on This Island May 2014

Middle School Musical Peter Pan March 2014

Upper School Vocal/Orchestral Concert April 2014

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Upper School One-Acts Metamorphosis | January 2014

Upper School Jazz Concert April 2014

Photos by John Severson

For more photos from the SPAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s student performances, visit stpaulacademy. smugmug.com/ performances

Middle School Spring Showcase May 2014

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Non Profit Org. U.S. Postage

PAID

Twin Cities, MN Permit No. 3400

1712 Randolph Avenue St. Paul, MN 55105-2194 Change Service Requested

To parents of alumni/ae: If this is no longer the current mailing address for your son or daughter, please let us know at alumni@spa.edu or 651-696-1366.

Construction began on SPA’s new center for the performing arts in July 2014. See the cover story on page 18 for more on the project.

MARK YOUR CALENDARS October 2014 Alumni/ae Speaker Series: Josh Meyers ’92 October 23, 2014, 5:30 p.m.

The Minneapolis Club (see page 32)

Middle School Fall Play, Alice @Wonderland October 24-25, 2014, 4 p.m.

Converse Auditorium, Goodrich Campus

November 2014 Upper School Fall Play, One Man Two Guvnors November 21-22, 2014, 7 p.m.

Converse Auditorium, Goodrich Campus

Admission Open Houses November 16, 2014

Goodrich Campus (grades K-5), 1-3 p.m. Randolph Campus (grades 6-12), 3-5 p.m.

December 2014 Upper School Pops Concert December 5, 2014, 7 p.m. The O’Shaughnessy, St. Catherine Univeristy