Sharon Sparlin, ssparlin@sstx.org or 512.327.1213 x 158
PHOTOS
COVER: (Clockwise from top left) Claire Zagrodzky ’16, Ben Hines ’91, Clare Crosby Coakley ’05, Chris Breckwoldt ’86, Philip Doig ’81, Ace Furman, Ph.D. ’12, Ph.D., Chris Caselli ’82, Claire Fenton ’93 and Andy Lopez ’14 pose for a faculty alumni photoshoot in November 2024
TOP TO BOTTOM: The Rt. Rev. John Hines playing basketball with students in the early 1950s; Upper School students learning about the election process in history class; the Rt. Rev. Kathryn “Kai” M. Ryan observes a Middle School theology class
FROM THE HEAD OF SCHOOL
In describing St. Stephen’s in 1950, the Rt. Rev. John Hines stated that the school’s obligation was “to educate the whole person, body, mind, and spirit, with the avowed intent that its students shall emerge to take their place in the world.” Bishop Hines’ vision of a school dedicated to “body, mind and spirit,” is common among Episcopal schools even 75 years later. And while he certainly envisioned St. Stephen’s as a college preparatory school, his expectation was that students’ experiences at St. Stephen’s would also position our graduates for full lives of meaning and significance. The Spartan pursuit of developing sharp minds, fierce spirits and compassionate hearts is worthy precisely because those qualities are necessary for creating a more just, peaceful and loving world.
While our work on campus with Spartans holds fast to these founding principles, the world we live in is rapidly changing. We are surrounded by mistrust, misinformation and polarizing conflict.
On The Hill, as you will read in this edition, we are focused on strengthening an environment that allows Spartans to skillfully engage in civil discourse. At its best, St. Stephen’s is a community that equips students with the critical thinking skills to analyze competing arguments and a diversity of perspectives, not in a spirit of combative, zero-sum
gamesmanship, but with an emphasis on deepening our understanding. We are working hard to make sure that St. Stephen’s is a place where “winning” is learning that we can disagree civilly and still love one another.
When Bishop Hines founded the school, it was in the shadow of a society that had endured the heartbreak of two world wars and in a time of deep polarization. Seventy-five years later, we still live in a world in need of healing. We still believe that the way to promote recovery in a broken world is to take seriously the educating of the whole person with the avowed intent that our students will take their place in the world.
I invite you to enjoy this edition of Spartan Magazine so you can see more directly the ways we are doing just that, now and in our bright future.
All my best,
Chris Gunnin Head of School
PHOTO
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: Clare Crosby Coakley ’05; Henry Colangelo ’18; Philip Doig ’81; Chris Caselli ’82; David Allen ’19; Claire Fenton ’93; Elliot Pena ’11; Chris Breckwoldt ’86
St. Stephen’s Alumni Return to Campus, Ushering Students Into an Imaginative Future
BY VICKI WOODRUFF, Former Middle School
When Head of School Chris Gunnin speaks of teaching at St. Stephen’s as a “noble and heroic call,” he’s not making a bold assertion or lofty claim. He’s talking about the “profound, powerful and life-changing impacts,” as he puts it, of highly skilled teachers as they relate to and interact with students.
As St. Stephen’s looks toward its milestone 75th anniversary, Gunnin says the school celebrates the importance of all its highly qualified teachers and staff members throughout its 75-year history. Within this broader pool of employees is a group that has especially deep bonds to Spartan life and history: teachers and staff members who are also alumni. They have answered Gunnin’s “noble call” to work at the school on The Hill because of the keen sense of kinship and purpose they find at St. Stephen’s. Sixteen Spartan alumni are permanent full-time or parttime employees, and even more serve in seasonal roles.
Their devotion to their alma mater and the students who have come after them involves complicated and challenging work. Gunnin explains that patterns of hiring have become more complex in the past five years. “In this time, however, St. Stephen’s has attracted an abundance of superior candidates as jobs have opened up, even as other schools have struggled to
find qualified teachers and staff members,” he explains.
Alumni whose professional paths lead back to The Hill as employees are not simply “punching time cards,” notes Gunnin, but instead are using their deep institutional knowledge to create new generations of forward-looking, mission-driven Spartans. “Alumni who return to join the faculty have a builtin appreciation for the nuances of our culture, character and climate. And they traditionally have tremendous pride in their work because they have been the recipients of the St. Stephen’s experience themselves. They understand at a core level that relationships are at the heart of our success.” He adds that beyond its high standard of excellence, St. Stephen’s is unique among independent schools because of its foundational commitment to inclusion, blended residential-day community and rugged Hill Country (Spartan) roots. Alumni see how the puzzle pieces fit together. The finished
PHOTOS
LEFT TO RIGHT: Students walking on campus in 1985; Staircase pictured in 1978
picture is a challenging and transformative experience for St. Stephen’s students within the context of a balanced program in academics, athletics and the arts.
Three alumni, all appointed since 2022, recently chatted about their experiences returning to St. Stephen’s: how they got here, how they see things now and how they see their work in relation to their students.
As Dr. Ace Furman ’12 was completing his Ph.D. in physics at The University of Texas at Austin, he had a nagging sense that he was “supposed” to go into university-level academics, but then he realized there was a better path for him. Highly trained as a computational theorist, he conducted research in complex condensed matter systems. (For the layperson: He simulated experiments on a computer, acquiring and analyzing data and then making generalizations about how things worked.) Specifically, he studied quantum chaos theory. While he found research gratifying, he shied away from postdoctoral programs because he realized what he really wanted to do was ignite student curiosity about science at the high school level, as his own had been by his science education at St. Stephen’s. In that way, he could help counter what noted planetary scientist Carl Sagan called America’s puzzling “scientific illiteracy.”
His former St. Stephen’s science teacher and mentor, department chair Frank Mikan, invited him for a “serendipitous” visit back to St. Stephen’s as he was completing his graduate work. “The support you get from this community [as opposed to that of] a higher-level academic community is leagues apart,” Furman explained. When a physics instructor position became available in 2022, Furman applied and got the job. Furman remembers Frank Mikan, Melissa Livsey and Johnny Wilson as life-changing science educators. He recalls the impact of these teaching legends as he creates a class vibe similar to what he experienced as a student and one that respects curiosity, embracing the scientific questions that don’t necessarily have easy or “right” answers. “The essence of science is discovery,” he says, “trying things, not worrying if they’re wrong.”
He also incorporates some of Laurel Eskridge’s effective classroom techniques into his own courses and says that Dr.
Jan Hines still influences his everyday life and writing. “Think for yourself! Then say what you mean,” she commented on one of his papers long ago. Now he strives to be the kind of teacher he once had.
Appointed as a St. Stephen’s faculty member in 2022, Furman enjoys entertaining and engaging his students with the flair of a flaming handmade Rubens tube to demonstrate standing wave theory, the drama of falling raw eggs to explore inertia and the hairraising properties of a Van de Graaff electromagnetic generator to create static electricity. During the historic April 2024 total solar eclipse, he enthusiastically helped students observe the changing skies with the observatory telescopes. An avid enigmatologist (a devotee of logic and word puzzles), he sponsors the Upper School Puzzle Club, which draws a fan base of communal problem-solvers. He also was faculty co-organizer of the ambitious TEDx SSTX Youth event at St. Stephen’s in September, for which the theme was “Forward.” Furman values his ability to form close ties with his students, acknowledging that for young scientists, “it’s gratifying to be taken fully seriously by an adult.” He respects the kind of “creativity where you’re bouncing ideas off each other, trying new things and collaborating.” He is excited that St. Stephen’s has prioritized a science center in the school’s comprehensive campaign, and he envisions many years of future collaboration and experimentation in the new space.
Another recent hire — one with deep knowledge of St. Stephen’s — is Soccer Academy coach Andy Lopez ’14, originally from McAllen, Texas. Lopez attended 6th and 7th grades as a day student and then was a boarder from 8th through 11th grades. For his senior year, Lopez moved with his family to Kansas City, Missouri, when his brother Mikey ’11 became a professional soccer player. Lopez considers St. Stephen’s to be his true school and credits the Residential Life program as the springboard for his most enduring friendships and a great deal of personal growth. He is on a daily text thread with five of his previous dorm mates. They hail from different countries and have different backgrounds but are united by their love for soccer and — most important — their St. Stephen’s memories and ties.
PHOTOS
TOP TO BOTTOM: Ace Furman, Ph.D. ’12; Andy Lopez ’14 (left) and Mikey Lopez ’11 (right)
Lopez attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he played Division I soccer and majored in sports administration. After graduation, he worked at Darlington School in Rome, Georgia, where he was the soccer academy head coach and a dorm parent. He looks back with special fondness on Octavia Sadler in the Middle School and Dr. Colleen Hynes in the Upper School; Sadler revved him up as an entering 6th grader, and Hynes helped break down complex academic tasks like writing and encouraged him to risk some answers in class discussion. He said his academic work at UNC was a breeze after learning from the St. Stephen’s faculty. The most important coach and mentor to him of all was Shane Maguire, director of the Soccer Academy, who was an inspiration and now is both a friend and colleague.
Because of his own St. Stephen’s experiences, he can talk to the guys in his dorm and his soccer players about the need to be coachable as both students and athletes. “I can empathize with students about their experiences and be a guide for the next generation of students to be successful in school and soccer. I love the community here — the faculty members here made me feel at home when I was a student. Now I always feel at home. This is
home for me.” And, he says, he can “pay it forward” by helping instill that feeling of connection in new Spartans.
Friend, classmate and colleague Liza Ayres ’14 stopped by to join the conversation with Lopez. Now the International Program assistant (“assistant” covers a lot of territory!), Ayres along with her sisters, Hallie ’14, Phoebe ’16 and Miranda ’18, graduated from St. Stephen’s.
“As a student I thought I knew what was going on at school with my teachers, but I had no idea. There’s so much that the faculty and staff do that was not apparent to me at all. I did not comprehend how much every teacher and adviser understands about each student,” Ayres said, reflecting on what she knows now versus what she perceived as a student. She has a renewed appreciation for her own teachers as well as those serving this crop of Spartans.
The newest St. Stephen’s alum to join the faculty, Claire Zagrodzky ’16, returns to Austin after teaching 8th grade English at St. Mary’s Episcopal School in Memphis, Tennessee. Her undergraduate studies were done at Rhodes College in Memphis, where she double-majored in English literature and educational studies. Zagrodzky was a so-called lifer at
St. Stephen’s, entering in the 6th grade and graduating in 12th, along with her siblings Chloe ’13 and Will ’18. A core teacher for the youngest Spartans, she teaches 6th grade English and will coach lacrosse. Because of her own days at St. Stephen’s, she pairs high academic expectations and standards with deep understanding, striking a fine balance between challenging and nurturing her young scholars. She hopes her 6th graders will respond to her serene classroom space and a classroom style that gets kids excited about reading, writing and discussing. She is interested in curricular design and has developed her course around themes of justice. Teaching at the Middle School, she says, is a privilege, and she relishes the unbounded curiosity of her students. She fondly recalls several teachers from her St. Stephen’s days, especially those with even-keeled classroom styles. She gives a special nod to Upper School math teacher and alum Kurt Oehler ’93 for his understanding when she experienced a rough patch during her senior year. “It really made a difference to me,” she recalls.
Yes, it is a little odd to call her former teachers by their first names (a comment made by almost all younger alumni returning to St. Stephen’s as colleagues), but Zagrodzky is getting used to it. She
PHOTOS
LEFT TO RIGHT: A view of Lake Austin in 1985; Students in a science classroom in 1981
says she gets a kick out of making eye contact and talking with her former classmate Henry Tschurr ’16, another lifer, in English faculty meetings. Tschurr joined the Upper School English faculty in 2023 after graduating from The University of Texas and earning a master’s degree from the University of Virginia. Tschurr has his own St. Stephen’s lineage: His parents are Betsy Williams Tschurr ’78 and the late Mark Tschurr, both beloved former running and cross-country coaches at St. Stephen’s. In addition, Betsy Tschurr formerly taught English in the Middle School, and Henry Tschurr’s sister, Helen ’14, also graduated from St. Stephen’s.
“It’s really good to be back,” Zagrodzky said. “So many things have changed, but the core of St. Stephen’s hasn’t changed at all. This is a close-knit community that is very welcoming but also challenging. That is what I was looking for, and that’s what I found.”
In this respect, Furman, Lopez and Zagrodzky all agree: After years of absence as they explored life beyond The Hill, they’re grateful to be able to contribute meaningfully to their alma mater and to once again be at a place that feels so much like home.
What do Furman, Lopez and Zagrodzky care most about from their time at St. Stephen’s and want to impart to their students and players? They value collaboration and connection, academic freedom, the time and space to be curious and creative, a supportive community, shared values that also have room for questioning, and a school culture that promotes growth. These bedrock ideas are both old and new, but they never truly get old.
As Gunnin says, “The core tenets of the school have served us well for the past 75 years and should serve us well for another 75. Rigorous scholarship, sharp minds, compassionate hearts and fierce spirits — these have been the model for St. Stephen’s for many years and will continue to serve our students even as our curriculum and programs change with the times.”
PHOTOS
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: Liza Ayres ’14; Claire Zagrodzky ’16; Henry Tschurr ’16; Kurt Oehler ’93
Spartan Roots
CLAIRE FENTON ’93
DIRECTOR OF COLLEGE COUNSELING / HISTORY SEMINAR INSTRUCTOR
Alan Fenton (father)
FMR. ASSOCIATE HEAD OF SCHOOL / DEAN OF FACULTY / HEAD OF BOYS’ LIVING / ENGLISH DEPARTMENT CHAIR AND INSTRUCTOR
Dobbie Leverton Fenton ’63 (mother)
FMR. ENGLISH INSTRUCTOR / COLLEGE COUNSELOR
Alan Fenton ’89 (brother)
Patrick ’22 and Hannah Simmonds ’24 (children)
Fenton grew up on campus, from her first days as a newborn with her parents and her brother to her enrollment at Columbia University.
“This school allows for and encourages a kind of creative vision and encouragement of that vision in teaching.”
ENGLISH INSTRUCTOR / COACH
The Rt. Rev. John E. Hines (paternal grandfather) FOUNDER OF ST. STEPHEN’S Chris Hines ’58 (father)
FMR. CHAPLAIN
Jan Hines, Ph.D. (mother)
FMR. ENGLISH INSTRUCTOR
Caleb Davishines ’88 (brother)
Abbie Prewitt ’21 (stepdaughter)
Run Deep
Fred Breckwoldt (father)
FMR. SCIENCE DEPARTMENT CHAIR / BIOLOGY INSTRUCTOR
Gayden Breckwoldt (wife)
FMR. MIDDLE SCHOOL ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT
Abby ’17, Emma ’19 and George Breckwoldt ’20 (children)
APPOINTED 199 1
CHRIS BRECKWOLDT ’86
UPPER SCHOOL ASSISTANT ATHLETIC DIRECTOR / FOOTBALL COACH / DORM PARENT
PHILIP DOIG ’81
UPPER SCHOOL DEAN OF STUDENTS / SPANISH
INSTRUCTOR / RESIDENTIAL DUTY ADMINISTRATOR
George Doig (father)
FMR. LATIN INSTRUCTOR / COACH
Frances Doig (mother)
FMR. ENGLISH INSTRUCTOR / HEAD OF THE RIDING STABLES
“When I came back as a teacher, I felt as if the school was already ingrained in my DNA, in my blood somehow, because I shared so many of the values from my time growing up here.”
Jack Crosby (paternal grandfather)
FMR. BOARD OF TRUSTEES MEMBER
Joanne Crosby (paternal grandmother)
FMR. EXECUTIVE CHAIR OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES
Jim Crosby ’70 (father)
FMR. LAY CHAPLAIN / THEOLOGY INSTRUCTOR / FILM
INSTRUCTOR / RESIDENTIAL TEAM MEMBER / HAITI INITIATIVE TEAM MEMBER
Tara Crosby (mother), FMR. CAMPUS NURSE
Justin ’00 and Andrew Crosby ’02 (brothers)
He was known as a bit of a prankster and may or may not have had something to do with Head of School Chris Mabley’s car showing up in the Chapel one morning in 1986.
CLARE CROSBY COAKLEY ’05
MIDDLE SCHOOL SCIENCE INSTRUCTOR
Engaging the Next Generation of Change-makers
How St. Stephen’s Teaches Students To Be Informed and Engaged Citizens, Exercising Their Own Future Civic and Political Responsibility
BY SHELLEY SALLEE, HISTORY DEPARTMENT CHAIR
PHOTO Students viewing a special Chapel presentation on Election Day, Nov. 5, 2024, about the theme of liberty as it has been expressed during major moments of American history. The American flag photo was taken by Bruce Davidson in 1965 during one of the Selma Marches in Alabama — a march in support of the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The landmark piece of federal legislation prohibited racial discrimination in voting.
“Politics depresses me,” Libby Miller ’25 acknowledged as we embarked on Citizen U, a new fall seminar on the 2024 election cycle and civic engagement. Polarized politics, incivility and political violence can make the topic toxic, but at St. Stephen’s, there is a tradition — rooted in the school’s founding right after World War II and the Holocaust — of intentionally wrestling with social issues to help future generations seek justice and peace in the world.
Citizen U experimented with some new approaches. A story in The Atlantic titled “Can Civics Save America?” unfairly saddles the next generation (and teachers!) with saving democracy, but the times call for rethinking how to equip students for civic engagement. I wanted students to discover role models of dedicated citizens. I knew they would find this by getting more involved in how elections work and seeing that the election cycle involves more than just the presidential race and alarming campaign ads. On election night in November, every student chose another race to follow closely.
The day after the election, when emotions were intense, I was so proud of this class of a dozen students and their ability to engage with serious topics and each other. Ben Patrick ’25 presented to the class about his experience volunteering with the campaign of Democrat Theresa Boisseau, who ran against incumbent Republican Michael McCaul to represent Texas’ 10th Congressional District. Patrick talked personally with Boisseau
about her concession phone call and the cordial exchange she had with Rep. McCaul. Patrick led the class discussion on the role of concession speeches. He asked the class another interesting question about whether it’s important to run for office even if you are unlikely to win.
Evan McGinnis ’25 and Aaron Bellm ’25 displayed a national map full of red arrows that indicated the shift to the right by county for a discussion about how to interpret the presidential election results. As a class, the students had watched PBS clips of journalist Geoff Bennett interviewing experts, and the class was confidently and calmly assessing the data and what they thought it meant, often using terms and ideas from the course readings.
Also on the day after the 2024 election, Libby Miller brimmed with things to say. Miller arrived in class having already read competing views about the presidential election’s outcome in Newsweek. She stayed after class to study more data with classmates and started to redesign her “visual op-ed,” the next assignment, to include an interview with her grandfather about how Miller and her grandfather viewed the election results so differently.
I had hoped all students could volunteer with a political campaign or civic organization, and while that proved harder to pull off, a few students were able to find some hands-on experiences. Felix Eugene ’25, who volunteered in various aspects of the Austin mayoral race, felt he learned a lot more about coalition building and was so interested in the operatives who run campaigns that he thought we should have a class on that in the future. McGinnis served as a student election clerk and used that to inform his investigation into the charges of voter fraud versus voter suppression in Texas.
Other students who helped the League of Women Voters met former State Rep. Mark Strama, currently the director of the Annette Strauss Institute for Civic Life at The University of Texas
PHOTO Iris He ’27 (left) and Claire Bank ’27 (right) learning about partisan gerrymandering and nonpartisan alternatives to drawing electoral district boundaries
at Austin, where student voter rates have been increasing. Strama shared with Charlie Navarre ’26 that a “big reason” students choose not to vote is “feeling like they don’t know enough about the candidates.” St. Stephen’s, with the help of the Parents’ Association, runs a yearly voter registration drive, but over the years I have heard students say they feel like they don’t know enough to vote. That was another primary motivation for this class.
It is also why all St. Stephen’s history teachers, for the second time, had a specific election curriculum for the days leading up to the election that included topics such as:
• The nuts and bolts of the Electoral College
• Modern campaign strategies
• The role of young people in a democracy
• What makes a good citizen in a democracy
In the seminar, I wanted students to study some of the structural forces fueling divides, with the idea that those divides can be tackled. When asked what he will remember from the class, Navarre affirmed that this idea had sunk in. He said he never realized “how many people are working to heal the divide.”
Basil Baldwin ’26 said that the More in Common survey — called “The Perception Gap” — we took as a class helped him realize that the number of Americans on the extremes is “a lot smaller than people think.” Leela Weisser ’25 said she had never considered “how much money was behind a political ad,” something students paid attention to in the races they were following, armed with information about the growing power of political action committees in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling.
I also used the class as an opportunity to invite guest speakers to campus. One of those guests was board of trustees
member Renee Lafair P ’19, ’14, ’14, who shared her work as a researcher with the Primary Project at Columbia University. The Primary Project is interested in whether increasing the turnout of moderate voters in primaries can help a more moderate candidate win. Since 400 of the 435 U.S. House seats are determined in primaries, this is a really important project and one Lafair pointed out is critical to the Texas State Legislature, too, something highlighted in CNN’s documentary “Deep in the Pockets of Texas.”
As part of the class, we took a field trip to the 2024 Texas Tribune Festival sponsored by the Texas Tribune, a nonprofit policy and politics news organization based in Austin. The class joined thousands of engaged citizens, media leaders, lawmakers and policy experts in downtown Austin. This event probably did the most to counter the image of politics that McGinnis says has felt “more like an outlandish sitcom to laugh at, rather than something to participate in.”
The TribFest added complexity to the caricature of “politics.” Going into the festival, more students recognized conservative influencer Charlie Kirk, founder and president of Turning Point USA, from his ubiquitous and sensational culture war Instagram reels than their own state representatives. After the event, several students wrote about a panel on health care issues that featured State Reps. Donna Howard, D-Austin, and Michael Burgess, R-Lewisville. Isa Whiteley Bermeo ’25 said it was “heartening to see diverse perspectives not on the political extremes so often portrayed by the media” on the topic of abortion. Bellm admitted that he “didn’t even know the difference between Medicaid and Medicare” going into the session but said he found the talk, led by journalists with the nonprofit health care news agency KFF Health News, explanatory and engaging.
PHOTOS History instructor Dr. Luis Murillo explains gerrymandering leading up to the 2024 election (left); 11th and 12th graders at the Texas Tribune Festival (right)
Most important , students reflected among themselves about what they were seeing. Bellm captured this when he wrote, “Before the TribFest, I assumed opinions and small pieces of [my classmates’] political views based on what else I knew about them. The TribFest changed this because it provided a space for conversations that don’t usually happen in school settings. … By understanding what pushed my classmates to [have] certain beliefs, I could see more nuance in my peers’ opinions.” This is what civic conversation should do.
Models of civil discourse emphasize that listening is an undervalued skill. Many organizations dedicated to improving civil discourse stress listening with curiosity as the critical step to having a conversation that gets beyond assumptions about each other. In the Citizen U seminar, we worked more on listening. The students and I found this to be an area in which we could improve, or as Miller put it, “we need to shut up and listen sometimes.”
YOUNG SPARTANS’ NEW CLUBS AND PROJECTS
Middle School history instructors have begun experimenting with some additional civics literacy. Media is central to this endeavor. This is a topic Head Librarian Michelle Andrews approaches as early as 6th grade in the new Expeditions class that she co-teaches with science instructor Russ Glenn.
Andrews, wearing a T-shirt that says, “But did you cite your sources?” explains that the new class combines information literacy and environmental literacy and starts with important questions like “What is news?” and “What is media?” and “What does it mean to be a journalist today?” Conveying the concept of trained journalists to 6th graders who are immersed in a world of social media influencers can be hard.
In Drew Smith’s 7th grade class, voting is woven into everyday activities like flipping the light switches on or off. “Do you want the lights like this or like this?” asks Smith as his students settle into their desks and get ready for class. We have to respect the majority, he reminds them, but he jovially asks, “What do you think it feels like when a vote is for something you care about and you just barely lose?” Hands shoot up.
Practices like this, using normal activities to drive home an important point, are part of Smith’s curriculum. When he began in 2023, Smith embraced the History Department’s goal to integrate more civics into the 7th grade curriculum in ageappropriate ways.
Something else that has been newly introduced is the spring Civics Fair, which encourages 7th grade students to take action. Everyone chooses a public concern that matters to them, researches the topic, talks to experts, and creates and delivers a presentation to an audience of parents and others at the fair.
At the 2024 fair, the issues were as varied as the 70 7th graders themselves. One of the main directives from Smith is that the students learn how to communicate and how to form and share connections.
Raman Adusumalli ’29 started with an interest in health care and ended up with a presentation on a portable sonogram that connects to a cellphone to improve maternal outcomes in
rural areas. Adusumalli researched a company that makes such devices and invited a guest from the company to the Civics Fair to demonstrate how the device works.
Perry Waters ’29 wanted his neighbors to stop feeding deer. His research proved a link between neighbors feeding deer and an increased risk of car collisions. Phillip Quast, a Watershed Supervisor in New Braunfels, “fact-loaded me,” so he had to take “notes like crazy,” recalls Waters of his research. Over the summer, he took action by publishing an article for Stroll, his neighborhood’s magazine, to share his findings.
This year Smith has taken the civics projects even further by sponsoring a Middle School civics team to attend the Speak Up! Speak Out! event in February. Speak Up! Speak Out! is a regional civics fair hosted in conjunction with UT Austin’s Annette Strauss Institute for Civic Life that empowers students from 3rd grade to high school to become change-makers in their communities.
While politics can sometimes cause despair, tempering that with better conversations, civic projects and taking action is the only way to get to a better political future. A core academic focus at St. Stephen’s is to “position people to make the world a better place,” says Head of School Chris Gunnin.
“As I continue to study effective teaching tools and techniques and reflect on the work of successful independent schools in the 21st century, I have come to believe that educational relevance is central to great teaching and better learning,” says Gunnin. “Great teachers continually reflect on the quality of their work and adjust their professional practices to ensure that the classroom experiences they offer students are relevant to the skills and talents those students will need to thrive far into the future. The best teachers boldly and regularly ask: What is the ideal approach and plan for my students? Is this coursework relevant to their futures? What should we add or take away from the lesson to make it more relevant? Is there a better way? Our teachers continually seek to answer these important questions and prepare our students for successful futures in an ever-changing global economy.”
PHOTO Ramsey Stewart ’29, ready to present his project at the inaugural 2024 Civics Fair
St. Stephen’s Breaks Ground on the Still Water Foundation Aquatic Center MAKING WAVES
On Sept. 5, 2024, St. Stephen’s Episcopal School celebrated a significant campaign milestone with the groundbreaking of the Still Water Foundation Aquatic Center. Featuring an Olympic-length (50-meter) pool, the project will enhance St. Stephen’s athletic offerings and campus infrastructure, thanks to an extraordinary $17 million gift from the Still Water Foundation — the largest in the school’s history.
Part of the overall project is a new roadway named the Spartan Loop. Funded by $3 million in anonymous gifts, the Spartan Loop will provide a pedestrian-friendly pathway, reduce through traffic in residential areas, and expand access to the tennis courts, the playing fields, campus trails and the new aquatic center.
“This aquatic center is about a lot more than swimming — it’s about building community and inspiring and supporting Spartans. It’s about creating opportunities for our students to dive into excellence and perhaps even make a splash on the national stage one day,” Head of School Chris Gunnin remarked during the ceremony.
Other featured speakers included the Rt. Rev. Kai Ryan, chair of the St. Stephen’s board of trustees and honorary campaign chair, and Jennifer Stayton ’85, executive chair of the board of trustees. They recognized the collective effort behind the project and expressed deep gratitude to all involved. Following the ceremonial turning of soil, Ryan concluded with a blessing and led attendees in the school prayer.
For over 40 years, the Still Water Foundation — under the leadership of alumni Jill Wilkinson ’64, P ’93, GP ’25, ’23 (president, Still Water) and Ellen Osborne Ray ’86, P ’20, ’16 (CEO, Still Water) — has played a vital role in strengthening every aspect of St. Stephen’s through extraordinary investments in capital, faculty support, critical language programming,
endowment and the Annual Fund. The aquatic center is the latest testament to the Still Water Foundation’s investment in current and future Spartans.
“At the heart of Episcopal education is the commitment to the whole child — mind, body and spirit — and this gift will encourage student-athletes. And I actually hope it will also encourage students who aren’t athletes to find joy in being healthy in their bodies, their minds, their spirits. … The gift will encourage student-athletes to [reach] new heights and [will] inspire generations of Spartans, whether through competitive swimming and water polo, cross training, or recreational swimming. It will also inspire students and parents and others to consider how they might steward what they’ve been given, what they’ve worked for, for the benefit of others,” remarked Ryan during the ceremony.
The Still Water Foundation Aquatic Center is slated for a grand opening in fall 2025, coinciding with the school’s 75th anniversary and the public launch of what is anticipated to be a $75 million comprehensive campaign for St. Stephen’s. This campaign aims to enhance all areas of living and learning, from new and improved facilities to endowments supporting faculty, financial aid, scholarships, programs and curriculum. To date, the Spartan community has generously given over $45 million to the campaign.
For more information about the campaign for St. Stephen’s, contact April Speck-Ewer, director of advancement, at aspeckewer@sstx.org, 512.327.1213 x 118, or Alison Chang, comprehensive campaign director, at achang@sstx.org, 512.327.1213 x 108.
Still Water Foundation representatives Ellen Osborne Ray ’86, P ’20, ’16, chief executive officer; Jill Wilkinson ’64, P ’93, GP ’25 ’23, president; James Flieller, director; Lisa Jacobs, program associate; Katy Sauer, senior program officer
Karey Oddo ’90, P ’25, ’24, campaign co-chair; Jennifer Stayton ’85, executive chair, board of trustees; Ellen Osborne Ray ’86, P ’20, ’16, chief executive officer, Still Water Foundation; Chris Gunnin P ’30, ’24, ’22, head of school; The Rt. Rev. Kai Ryan, chair, board of trustees, honorary campaign chair; Jill Wilkinson ’64, P ’93, GP ’25, ’23, president, Still Water Foundation; Chad Johnson, Page Architects; Alan Codina and Christine Sheng, Rogers-O’Brien Construction
Meet the New Trustees
Maryann G. Bell P ’24, ’22, ’20
serves on the Governance Committee. She leads the Advisory practice for Wingspan Legacy Partners, where she helps families establish governance and legacy-building strategies for multigenerational, family-owned businesses. With extensive expertise in governance, Bell chaired seven boards after having spent nearly 15 years at Goldman Sachs, managing international shares in NYC, Boston and London. Bell holds an MBA from Harvard University and a B.A. with distinction from Georgetown University. She also serves as director of the Gallivan Bell Family Office. She and her husband, Paul, are proud parents to three Spartan alumni, Amanda ’24, Devon ’22 and Clea ’20.
Rob Rogers P ’30, ’28, ’25
serves on the Finance Committee. After 20 years in leadership positions at Vista Equity Partners, Rogers established his own firm to invest in software companies, with a focus on building businesses characterized by strong organizational health and operational excellence. He has served on dozens of boards over the years, including those of several educational technology businesses. Rogers holds an A.B. from Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs and an MBA from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business. He is the proud father of three Spartans, Clara ’25, Story ’28 and Crawford ’30. Elizabeth, Rogers’ wife, hails from a proud Spartan tradition that includes; her mother, Mary Crawford Wolff ’58; uncle, the late Walter Crawford, Jr. ’56; and aunt, the late Alice Crawford Thomas ’61.
The Rev.
Stanford Adams
serves on the Finance Committee. Adams is the acting rector of The Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd in Austin. Prior to his call to Good Shepherd, Stanford served in the Episcopal Diocese of Mississippi. He is also an attorney, and has practiced health care regulatory law both with a law firm and as senior counsel for HCA Healthcare Inc.
Krista Dillard P ’30
serves on the Advancement Committee, and is the current president of the St. Stephen’s Parents’ Association. Dillard started her career in commercial real estate at Princeton Partners in Dallas, Texas. While at Direct Development and Edge Realty Partners, she built her client list to include some of the largest owners of shopping centers and both national and regional retailers. She and her husband, Bobby, are parents to Bode and Ella ’30 and are dedicated community volunteers.
75th Anniversary Reunion Weekend
75th Anniversary Reunion Weekend April 17–19, 2026
CELEBRATING 75 YEARS
Throughout the 2025-26 school year, St. Stephen’s will mark this milestone with events and activities honoring the school’s remarkable 75-year history. We hope you will make plans to celebrate with us!
Spartan Parents’ Dedication to Making The Hill a Better Place
Thank you to the St. Stephen’s Parents’ Association for supporting the entire Spartan community year-round in immeasurable ways. PA volunteers are always hard at work behind the scenes raising critical funds for the Annual Fund, serving as grade-level class representatives, communicating with parents and hosting campus events. PA leaders also serve on the board of trustees, the booster clubs, the DEI committee and much more.
PHOTOS
1 Middle School parents volunteering at the annual Middle School Halloween party
2 Lisa Stuardi P ’27, Sarah Garcia P ’25, ’23, Elise Jones P ’27, ’24 and Krista Dillard P ’30 at the Fall Fiesta
3 Anila Moledina P ’27 and Bruckie Girma P ’27, ’26 help set up the Haiti in the Helm market
4 Parents on a campus hike during Coffee Under the Trees, led by Outdoor Director of Education Charlton Perry
5 Students relaxing at the PA-organized Bunnies on The Hill event during fall final exams
Summer camp at St. Stephen’s is fun, engaging and educational. From sports camps to enrichment and the arts, we invite all children ages 6-18 to learn from our faculty, staff and student camp counselors the entire month of June.
SSTX LIFE
Welcome to Spartan Country
School pride was on full display in September during an unforgettable Spirit Week packed with dress-up days, a pep rally, the annual Spartan Block Party and cheering on student-athletes in homecoming match-ups.
Fall Retreats
Exploring Texas and Building Spartan Bonds
Huntsville, Grade 9
New Ulm, Grade 6
Port Aransas, Grade 7
PHOTOS
1 Middle schoolers enjoying the Spartan Block Party
2 Ryan Kim ’25 running the ball down the field on homecoming
3 Middle School History Instructor Octavia Sadler and Head of Upper School Aaron Snyder compete in hot wing eating contest
4 Apollo Percussion performing at the homecoming football game
5 6th graders cool off in the pool at Austin Stoney Creek Ranch in New Ulm, Texas
6 Dilan Vije ’31 runs through a tunnel formed by upperclassmen welcoming 6th graders back to campus
7 7th grade girls enjoying the Gulf of Mexico in Port Aransas, Texas
8 Reena Desireddi ’28, Hana Milosavljevic ’28 and Nadine Benson ’28 conquered the zipline at Camp Olympia near Huntsville, Texas
9 Emmett Brewer ’25, Pearl Zhang ’25, Leela Weisser ’25 and Jenevieve Tsai ’25 served on the student organizing team
10 Michael Osborne ’96 delivering his TEDx talk “The Magical Door to Adulthood”
TEDxSSTX Youth Event ‘Forward’
St. Stephen’s inaugural student-organized and -operated TEDx event, held in the Helm Fine Arts Center, centered on the idea of progression, innovation and empowerment. The day included 13 TEDx talks from faculty, staff, students, St. Stephen’s alumni including a Grammynominated artist, Austin community activists, scientists, and experts who are forging ahead in the fields of technology, arts, engineering, astronomy, sustainability, architecture, business and scientific research. Watch the talks at bit.ly/TEDxSSTX
Happenings on The Hill
National Merit Semifinalists
Spartans Named National Merit Semifinalists
Earned Commended Student Honors 9 24
In October, St. Stephen’s hosted a twoday social and emotional learning training workshop for K-12 educators presented by the Institute for Social and Emotional Learning (IFSEL). A special IFSEL training session was also held for St. Stephen’s faculty and staff, funded in part through the Brooke Howe Laws Endowment for Professional Development.
The Bishop Suffragan of the Episcopal Diocese of Texas Spends a Day With Students
In September, St. Stephen’s hosted the Rt. Rev. Kathryn “Kai” M. Ryan, who serves as the chair of the St. Stephen’s board of trustees. Ryan sat in on classes, spoke in chapel and engaged with students, faculty and staff.
“The
teachers are creative and deeply knowledgeable and enthusiastic, and their skills draw out of the students their own curiosity and their own efforts to articulate what they’re learning and apply it.”
– Rt. Rev. Kathryn “Kai” M. Ryan
Top row (L to R): Zach Prager ’25, Chris Chang ’25, Simon Meyers ’25 , Kevin Li ’25, Audrey Wan ’25, Claire Wan ’25; bottom row (L to R): Lainey Leslie ’25, Susan Moseley ’25, Alejandro Seal ’25
Varsity Boys Cross Country Congratulations
to these fall Spartan athletes recognized beyond The Hill for their performance, competitive spirit, discipline, sportsmanship, responsibility, integrity and leadership.
2nd-place finish at the SPC 4A Championship Meet Graham Boles ’25 wins first place overall
All-SPC Award Recipients
The National Field Hockey Coaches Association also named Jadyn Houston ’27 to the All-Region team, and both Houston and Eleanor Evarts ’26 were invited to the USA Field Hockey Junior National Team Selection Camp.
Varsity Football
Varsity football players Basil Baldwin ’26 (left) and Sebastian Crexiell ’26 (right) were selected to play in the Texas Association of Independent Athletic Organizations (TAIAO) Division I All-Star Football Game, and brought home a win!
Josh Mugo ’27 (left) and Charlie Dugan ’25 (right), Boys Volleyball
Donnica Armstrong ’25, Girls Volleyball
Eleanor Evarts ’26, Field Hockey
Jadyn Houston ’27, Field Hockey
“All faculty members benefit from these gifts, so I hope you’ll join me in offering thanks to the donors who believe in the sacred mission of teaching and want to support our faculty.”
– Chris Gunnin, Head of School
Faculty Awards
Head of School Selects Inaugural Recipients of Newly Established Teaching Chair Endowments
The comprehensive campaign for St. Stephen’s aims to strengthen every aspect of the school, including direct support of faculty and staff salaries and increased funds for professional development. This fall, thanks to the generosity of donors and the school’s early success during the advanced phase of the campaign, Head of School Chris Gunnin announced the recipients of two new endowed teaching positions.
$30K 4
Added annually to the general faculty and staff salary budget line in perpetuity
Laura Camp Endowed Teaching Chair
Film and Theatre Instructor Mike Dolan
Mike Dolan is known for encouraging students to discover their artistic vision and works tirelessly to help them realize that vision. He has directed plays, starred in and advised student films, and orchestrated and recorded a multitude of campus events. During COVID lockdowns in 2020, he made great use of his technological skills and creativity to give students the chance to be together, even when they were apart. For years, he has served as the sole sponsor of two of the most popular events: the Upper School play and the Upper School Film Festival, which require many hours of dedicated work outside of the school day. Dolan has also been among the most active adults in our community in creating a campus that is more appreciative of diversity, equity and inclusiveness, and has served as an advocate for many different kinds of students.
Years endowment recipients will bear the title and receive a monetary stipend
Mary Crawford Wolff ’58 Endowed Teaching Chair in English
Upper School English Instructor Ben Hines ’91
Ben Hines ’91 brings a high-energy experience to his classroom, where he pours his intellectual passion and whole heart into every lesson. The conversations he sparks about some of the biggest and most important ideas in the human experience often carry over into after-class discussions by his desk, on The Hill, on the field or during informal lunch gatherings on free seating days. Hines’ students are eager to push themselves to deepen their perspectives and understanding of the world, and he asks himself and his colleagues to do the same. Hines generates conversations about pedagogy that make those around him better teachers and, in turn, lead Spartans to become better readers, thinkers and citizens. Hines is also one of the first to volunteer when someone needs a hand, and his generosity and fierce loyalty to his students, his colleagues and his craft are among his most defining qualities.
The Spartan Legacy Society is a group of St. Stephen’s alumni, parents and friends who have included a gift to the school in their estate. Making an estate gift allows donors to reduce the tax burden on their estate and often impacts the school beyond what would have been possible during their lifetime.
Leaving a Lasting Legacy
“Gwen’s and my support for St. Stephen’s comes from our shared belief in the importance of education. Gwen spent over 30 years in the classroom as an educator. She initially taught in the regular classroom, but as her career progressed, she moved into areas where she taught children with special needs or who were at risk of falling behind and failing. She took great pride in her career and still hears from former students and their parents who have told her that she made a difference in their lives.
For me, St. Stephen’s provided permanence and a family. When I first attended St. Stephen’s, my family lived in a small west Texas town. I had never attended the same school for more than two years, as my father’s career had us moving a lot.
But I could not have attended St. Stephen’s had it not been for a legacy that my great-grandfather provided for my family. This legacy paid for my five years at St. Stephen’s and my college education. The significance of this “gift” was lost to me at the time. Only as I got older and realized how my education provided the groundwork for my career did I begin to appreciate just how wonderful my grandfather’s gift really was.
Gwen and I both want to provide a legacy for others who might not be able to attend St. Stephen’s. That is why we give annually and have provided for St. Stephen’s in our estate plans.”
Ken Barnett ’68
To join the Spartan Legacy Society, or if you have already included St. Stephen’s in your estate planning but are not yet a member, please contact Director of Major Gifts Sarah Long at slong@sstx.org or 512.327.1213 x 217. We would love to celebrate your generosity and learn where you want your gift to have the greatest impact.
WHY SUPPORT THE ST. STEPHEN’S ANNUAL FUND?
THE ST. STEPHEN’S EXPERIENCE IS A TRANSFORMATIVE ONE. We believe in our mission: Our shared purpose is to inspire a lasting love of learning and spirit of service so that each of our students lives a life of meaning and enriches the world.
The Annual Fund is the school’s highest fundraising priority and supports the St. Stephen’s annual operating budget. We ask all members of our school community to make a gift to the Annual Fund each year. Every gift directly affects today’s students, faculty and staff and is an important investment in this extraordinary school. For 2024-25, our goal is $1.8 million. A strong Annual Fund allows St. Stephen’s to make choices, not compromises.
Please help us sustain St. Stephen’s bold mission by joining with other members of the school community to support the Annual Fund. Your participation really does matter!
Alumni Events
In the summer and fall, the Spartan Alumni Association hosted events in San Antonio, Texas, and Manhattan and Brooklyn, New York.
PHOTOS
1 Alumni Regional Event in San Antonio, Aug. 15
2 Alumni Regional Event in Manhattan, Sept. 19
3 Alumni Regional Event in Brooklyn, Sept. 21
4 Sarah Todd, Corey Chen, Anita Cheng ’11 and Liza Ayres ’14
5 Campbell Chupik ’14, Emily Patrick ’13 and Alexandra Altamirano ’14
6 Amy Bieberdorf ’87, Jennifer Stayton ’85, Hank Ewert ’70, Patricia Rowe ’89, Louise Brazitis ’07 and Alice Nezzer ’87
7 The first and most recent graduates: Harrison Oddo ’24, Toppy Castle ’51 and Nicholas Chen ’24
8 Cliff “Toppy” Castle ’51
Austin Happy Hour — Fall
Alumni of St. Stephen’s and St. Andrew’s Episcopal School met up for an Austin-area happy hour on Oct. 10 at the old Austin haunt, The Tavern.
Two Trains
THE MANHATTAN EVENT offered a rare opportunity for alumni and staff to meet one of St. Stephen’s first students, Cliff “Toppy” Castle ’51. Castle and his wife, Marjorie, made a special trip, taking the train up from Philadelphia to attend the event in Manhattan.
It was another train trip that marked the beginning of Castle’s experience as a Spartan. His godfather was St. Stephen’s founding headmaster, the Rev. William Brewster, who had called Castle’s mother in Massachusetts in the summer of 1950 to ask if Castle would like to come to his new Episcopal school in Austin, Texas, for his senior year. Castle remembers being quite anxious; he had never been south of New York City. In late August, Castle took the train from Boston to Pittsburgh and met founding faculty member Dean Towner, who was on his way to teach at St. Stephen’s. The two drove to Austin together with Dean’s dog, Debbie, sitting in the backseat of his 1947 Ford convertible.
The trip was quite an adventure, and when they arrived, they found a school with six buildings: two dorms, a dining hall, an office, a classroom and the head of school’s home. From his one year on campus, Castle recalls captaining every sports team he joined, and followed up with, “I was the only senior boy, so it had to be me.”
Castle went on to study at Yale University and then served three years in the United States Air Force. He was stationed in England for two years, where he had a memorable time touring Europe and learning the military chain of command. Following his service, Castle worked for 15 years at IBM, and then seven years with Wang Laboratories. From there, he went into real estate, in which he and his wife still work today.
UPCOMING EVENTS
FEBRUARY 20
Austin Happy Hour: SSES & SAS
MARCH 2
Upper School Musical: “Amelie”
APRIL 4-6
Reunion Weekend 2025
APRIL 24
Alumni Regional Event: Denver
MAY 1
Alumni Regional Event: Houston
JUNE 3
Alumni Regional Event: Los Angeles
JUNE 5
Alumni Regional Event: San Francisco
Spartan Alumni Association Board
2024-25
Shannon Powers Flahive ’96, P ’31
President
Jane Dryden Louis ’69
Secretary
Liza Ayres ’14
Co-Chair, Reunion Weekend 2025
Amy Bieberdorf ’87
Alumni Co-Chair, Spartans Engage
Mallory Boyle ’04
Alumni Regional Representative — San Antonio
Louise McNutt Brazitis ’07
Co-Chair, Reunion Weekend 2025
Katherine Bailey Brown ’05
Alumni Co-Chair, Annual Fund
T.J. Brown ’99
Alumni Co-Chair, Annual Fund
Paul Byars ’07
Alumni Co-Chair, Spartans Engage
Maddie Renbarger ’14
Alumni Regional Representative — New York City
Benjamin Chan ’95
Alumni Regional Representative — Washington, D.C.
Hank Ewert ’70, P ’98, ’05
Former Faculty Representative
Indigo Giles ’20 Chair, Alumni Service
Ellen Jockusch ’70, P ’98, ’05
Pioneer Spartans Representative
Amanda Kushner ’08
Alumni Regional Representative — Dallas
Claire McKay ’71
Parent of Alumni Representative
Alice Nazro Nezzer ’87
Chair, Alumni Recognition
Jonathan Quander ’89
Alumni Regional Representative — Texas/ Houston
Patricia Henna Rowe ’89, P ’16, ’19, ’23
Emeritus Member
Jennifer Stayton ’85
Emeritus Member
Michelle Geo Olmstead
Director of Alumni Relations
David Allen ’19
Alumni Engagement Officer
1
2 Group of alumni in
3 Sarah Todd with Huai Yu and Chunping Du (parents of Edward Du ’14) and Jane Li (mother of Thomas Wang ’17) in Shanghai
4 Alumni Regional Event in Tokyo
5 Dinner with parents of current students in Beijing
Asia Trip
FOR THREE DECADES , Sarah Todd, director of international programs, and Lawrence Sampleton, associate head of school for enrollment management, along with members of the admission and advancement teams, have made many trips around the world to build relationships with international alumni, their families and current Spartan families. This fall, Todd spent time in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Shanghai and Beijing. Alumni Engagement Officer David Allen ’19, who was part of the Japanese exchange program as a student, joined Todd in Seoul, Tokyo and Osaka. We value this important component of building a global St. Stephen’s community.
PHOTOS
Dinner with parents of current students in Shanghai
Hong Kong
Spartan Spotlight
THE SMALL JOY OF SERVICE
Indigo Giles ’20 recently joined the Spartan Alumni Association Board as the inaugural alumni service chair
Indigo Giles ’20 has a philosophy that there are such things as “big joy” and “small joy,” and that small joy is too often overlooked. Moments of big joy come from athletic or artistic accomplishment, or graduations, those sought-after major milestones that inspire an ear-to-ear grin. For the in-between moments, there is small joy. Giles came to St. Stephen’s as a 10th-grade boarding student from Houston, Texas, and their favorite part of each day on The Hill was saying, “Good morning,” to their friends, classmates and teachers. It was a tiny act of service lived out multiple times each day, bringing forth smiles from the simple act of greeting each person in the community with genuine warmth.
When Giles arrived at The University of Texas at Austin in the fall of 2020, they felt disconnected. With the pandemic, opportunities to connect with and to serve their new community were scarce. In response, Giles gathered a few friends and started the service organization OUTreach “to provide an opportunity for service to people like me who were missing it in their lives, and to serve my home community.”
The inspiring force behind OUTreach was to make community service accessible, welcoming and rewarding for people like Giles who knew it would enrich their lives and connect them to their community.
The mission of St. Stephen’s Episcopal School is, in short, “to inspire a lasting love of learning and spirit of service” in our student body, who graduate each year into a new class of the Spartan Alumni Association. Giles is excited to live into the “lasting” component of our mission and begin to provide opportunities for St. Stephen’s alumni to serve their respective home communities, whether living in Austin, New York, Shanghai or elsewhere.
“St. Stephen’s helped me so much that it felt natural to come back and help the school.”
“St. Stephen’s helped me so much that it felt natural to come back and help the school. There is a need to be met, and I have the tools to meet it. I want this program to outlast me, and to have an impact far greater than me,” says Giles.
Inspired by Giles, the Spartan Alumni Association will kick off its Alumni Service Projects at the April 2025 Reunion Weekend. Alumni and all members of the St. Stephen’s community are invited to seek small joy through serving their local community. Invitations to Austin community service opportunities will begin in fall 2025.
Class Notes
We love to share what our graduates are up to and encourage alumni to share personal updates with us for Class Notes. Find information on how to submit your class note on page 39.
1960s
Mac Averill ’68 is enjoying reasonable health, a happy marriage and the fruits of a successful career. In the words of Joe Walsh, “Life’s been good to me, so far!”
Mark Bode ’68 is still living in Palm Beach County on the water, for 28 years now, in Leona Helmsley’s old estate with his son, Craig. Mark is fighting heart disease and can’t walk very well, but he still follows Vanderbilt football, basketball and baseball.
Molly Daugherty ’68 reports little change and is still hoping to get to El Salvador soon!
Robert Henderson’s ’68 family is recovering from a busy summer that included increased swimming schedules and various summer camps (soccer, nature and dance) for his grandkids. The new school year saw the six-, five- and four-year olds become full-time students, giving their mom, Leilani, and Robert bandwidth to plan beach time on the Outer Banks in October and in Hawaii early in the new year.
Ellen O’Brien ’68 had to evacuate from her home in North Carolina during Hurricane Helene. She reports that she gratefully returned to find no damage to her home. Her neighborhood is gradually recovering, but there is the larger concern of how long it will take the community to recover. Grocery stores, local businesses and restaurants remain closed due to water damage. With so many people losing their belongings and homes, she is happy to be OK.
1970s
Ted Wright ’70 and Antonina Macdonald welcomed their third grandson, Franklin Taylor. Franklin and his 2-year-old brother, Walter Jay Wright, live in Berwyn, Illinois, and his cousin, 3-year-old Charles Vincent Wright, lives in Canberra, Australia. (Picture 1)
Kathryn Miller Anderson ’71 celebrated her mother’s 95th birthday! Three generations of her family gathered at her house and celebrated by eating fried chicken, playing cards, dancing and laughing late into the night. Kathryn writes, “I will always be so grateful to Mom and Dad for sending Margaret ’72, Tom ’77 and me to St. Stephen’s. I cannot imagine a more wonderful gift!”
Chris Butler ’71 is “just chilling” at his abode in Santa Fe this summer, staying as far from the
Texas heat as he can, per usual. He is making some big landscaping improvements to his place and will finish the garden next summer. It’s been cooler than last summer with lots of rain, and the peaches, apricots and apples are plentiful this year. This past June, Chris and his wife, Sue Ann, spent a few weeks on Vancouver Island and in British Columbia. They were invited to perform at a Summer Solstice Jam Fest on Denman Island with some “old Canadian hippie musicians. It was a lot of fun and I’d like to return next summer if I can. Stay cool.”
Michael Emery ’71 has retired from Austin PBS after 43 years there. He intends to continue producing video, especially when it pertains to local African American concerns. Michael’s wife, Beverly, also retired from Bertha Sadler Means Young Women’s Academy, a middle school, a few weeks before he did! Now they are both living a life of so-called leisure.
Claire McKay ’71 spent a wonderful six weeks in the Netherlands this past summer with her husband, Hank Ewert ’70, visiting their youngest, Leslie King ’05, and Leslie’s fiancé, Marie Reintjes. They enjoyed much cooler temperatures than Austin’s, but still welcomed any air conditioning they could find! They visited several amazing medieval towns and loved the slower pace of life in the Netherlands, especially walking and using the local trains instead of depending on a car. They also spent two nights
Ted Wright ’70 and his third grandson, Franklin Taylor 1
in Dusseldorf, which they report has wonderful art museums and a vibrant culture. When Claire and Hank returned to Austin, they welcomed their second grandchild, Stella, born to Suzanne King ’98 and her husband, Jesus. Claire writes, “Even though I’m biased, she really is a beautiful baby girl, and grandson Alejandro, age 7, is quite enchanted with her.”
This has been a year of family and travel for Bebin Cypher ’74 and her husband, Paco. Their son Cole and daughter-in-law Katie blessed Bebin and Paco with a beautiful granddaughter, Clementine Joan Sutera, last November. They have made three trips to visit Clementine in Baltimore, and Bebin plans to return next month. Bebin and Paco spent 10 days in Oaxaca, Mexico, in May, soaking up the rich regional culture and practicing their Spanish. They also took a brilliant New Mexico road trip, visiting their son Jesse and his family. They hiked some exciting badlands and national monuments, and they took the narrow-gauge train ride from Chama, New Mexico to Antonito, Colorado Bebin writes, “A big highlight of this year was getting together with our class at Reunion Weekend. Back in ’74 I was so ready to get on with life and away from boarding school, I couldn’t have imagined the joy it would be to reconnect 50 years later! I’m so glad I attended. Thanks to my old friends who made the trip and especially to Ann for organizing, and Michael and David for hosting the parties.”
Will Goetzmann ’74 and his wife, Mariko, enjoy living on the Connecticut shore. They are both professionally active, she as an architect and he as a professor at the Yale School of Management, where he teaches finance. Together they have one daughter, who lives in London working in the arts, so Will and Mariko travel there often. Will’s mother turned 90 this year, is “lively and in good health,” and lives in the same house his
classmates remember! Will has taken a deep dive into financial history in the past decade or so, studying the role it plays in the development of world civilizations, and he gets up every day excited about his research and teaching. Will’s research takes him from analysis of Babylonian loans to applying large language models to understand the emotions that affect how people invest their money. Will comes to Austin every couple of months and finds it changes every trip.
Michael Mehaffy ’74 just took a senior research appointment at the University of Notre Dame, in addition to his regular consulting work and running conferences. He is working with interdisciplinary research on sustainable and unsustainable cities. Michael writes, “This is my 10th university appointment in eight countries — I guess either I am sought after or I can’t hold a job!”
Mike Peters ’74 celebrated his 38th wedding anniversary with Suzanne Walters in late September.
Kelley Snowden ’74 is working remotely for a consulting firm monitoring and evaluating federal grant projects, as well as writing grants and reports. She reports, “It’s a lot more fun than it sounds.”
John Williams ’74 has moved back to Austin following retirement in Oaxaca, Mexico, after 40 successful and very enjoyable years as an entrepreneur focusing primarily on real estate, especially in Oaxaca City and Puerto Escondido for the past 12 years. John hopes to become more involved in the St. Stephen’s alumni community.
Gina Adams ’75 is a senior researcher at the Urban Institute in Washington, D.C., where she works on policy research affecting children,
especially child care. As a single mom, Gina adopted a baby girl from Guatemala in 2003 and is proud to share that she just graduated from Skidmore College and is a fabulous human being. Gina lives in Arlington, Virginia with two cats and her daughter. She started doing photography during the pandemic and has just recently started showing her work. Gina writes, “I am excited to say that I was just accepted at my fourth exhibit. Check out ginafindingbeauty.com. Just starting on this journey, lots to learn, but so fun! Thank you to Sylvia and others who have helped keep us in touch!”
Paul Harford ’75 has been appointed to the faculty of the Humanities Institute at The University of Texas at Austin while continuing his work at Dell Medical School. With another biomedical engineering early-stage innovation through a National Institutes of Health grant, just when Paul thought he was going part time, he made more work for himself! Paul and his wife, Sandy, continue to support the work of Blue Lapis Light in Austin and Jump-Start Performance Company in San Antonio, and every morning they enjoy feeding time for all the birds, rock squirrels and deer around their house.
Sylvia McIntyre-Crook ’75 continues to develop her art career, and participates in gallery shows and art festivals. She reports that she was perfectly happy during the COVID shutdown to have the time and space to create without limits. She and her husband, Larry, are happily married and living in Gainesville, Flprida, where they have an abundance of gardens around their house that keep them outside and pulling weeds a fair amount. After 17 years in Austin, their daughter also moved to Gainesville with her husband, and Sylvia and Larry are happy to have them in the vicinity. Their son is a musician; he got married last year and lives in Oslo, Norway. Sylvia writes, “We love visiting them … in the summer.”
Prior to her death on Jan. 20, 2025 Cecile Richards ’75 was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden during a private ceremony at the White House on Nov. 20, 2024. Biden said the former president of Planned Parenthood and daughter of the late Texas Gov. Ann Richards “has carved an inspiring legacy” and “fearlessly leads us forward to be the America we say we are — a nation of freedom.” (Picture 2)
Charles Stover ’75 and his wife, Mary, celebrated their 31st wedding anniversary this past May. Charles retired from Apple in 2020, where his last five years in engineering were his most rewarding; he was involved in Apple’s accessibility initiative. Charles writes, “I know our work was instrumental in Apple becoming a leader in
The late Cecile Richards ’75 was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden COURTESY: PRESIDENT BIDEN/INSTAGRAM
technological accessibility.” Charles and Doug Bryce ’75 get together about once a week for some bourbon and Battlebots, and he went to a baseball game in the spring at the Dell Diamond with Paul Harford ’75 and his wife, Sandy Dunn. He reports that they had a great time. Charles and Mary are planning a trip to Utah later this year to visit the National Parks there, and next year they plan on taking a Viking river cruise in Europe.
Lissa Burnette-Rabon ’76 is living in Blanco with eight horses, four dogs, five chickens and assorted goldfish, snakes and lizards. She has mostly retired but still teaches a few riding lessons and works with a few clients doing equine-facilitated trauma work. Lissa enjoys traveling and being a grandmother to her 2-year-old granddaughter, who lives on the same property. Lissa writes, “I have a big garden and grow my own hay. Learning about my new water catchment system and keeping my fingers crossed that the aquifer continues feeding my water well. I love being in my 60s!”
Dan Norton ’76, Wendy Prentice ’75, Lissa Burnette-Rabon ’75, Pauline ’79 and Josephine ’83 Doig, Felecia Peavy ’75, Doug Bryce ’75, Charles Stover ’75, and others had a minireunion of sorts over the summer in Round Rock.
1980s
Ty Allen ’85 met up with Mark McCollum ’85 in New Jersey in July. (Picture 3)
1990s
Shannon Powers Flahive ’96, P ’31, Daniel Williams ’96, Kate Henrichson ’96, Michael Osborne ’96, Meghan Alexander ’96 and Gerry deLeon ’96 had lunch in Austin in the fall. (Picture 4)
2000s
Louise McNutt Brazitis ’07 and Matt Brazitis welcomed their daughter, Hazel Eileen, on Sept. 12, 2024. She is settling in well and excited to visit The Hill soon! (Picture 5)
Liz Minch Eichholz ’07 and her husband Jason have welcomed three girls into their life: Tempe (6), Eadie (4) and Annie Rowe (2). Liz and Jason are living in Savannah, Georgia, and Liz’s company, Weezie Towels, celebrated its seventh birthday in October.
After serving as a United States Marine Corps judge advocate for six years, Ashley Marie Robert ’08 accepted a position as an assistant United States attorney in the Northern District of Oklahoma. She currently works in the Project Safe Childhood cyber division, where her primary focus is prosecuting cyber-related crimes against children.
David Chen ’08 and his family visited Taipei, Taiwan, in June 2024 and caught up with Andy Lee ’06 and Ariel Chow ’07. (Picture 6)
2010s
Anthony Jones ’15 married Erin Egan of Dallas, Texas, on June 8, 2024.
Lara Bell Anderson ’19 married fellow Austinite Charlie Anderson on June 1, 2024, in the beautiful Texas Hill Country. Their wedding was attended by family and close friends, including several St. Stephen’s friends and teachers. Lara and Charlie currently live in Dallas, where they are enjoying their first wonderful months of marriage.
Mary Orms ’19 moved to California to continue her work with national parks. She is currently a participatory exhibit designer with the Great Basin Institute at Yosemite National Park. (Pictures 7 & 8)
Hazel Eileen, daughter of Louise McNutt Brazitis ’07 and Matt Brazitis
David Chen ’08 and family with Andy Lee ’06 and Ariel Chow ’07
Shannon Powers Flahive ’96, P ’31, Daniel Williams ’96, Kate Henrichson ’96, Michael Osborne ’96, Meghan Alexander ’96 and Gerry deLeon ’96
3
Mark McCollum ’85 and Ty Allen ’85
Marco Saucedo ’19 earned his Master of Business Administration from Texas Tech University and is now working in Austin at his family’s business.
James Wieland ’19 earned his Master of Science in information systems from Indiana University.
2020s
Indigo Giles ’20 joined the Spartan Alumni Association Board as the inaugural Alumni Service Chair. Read more about Indigo on page 31 in the Spartan Spotlight.
Jacob Hurst ’20 has begun working in sales at Oracle in Austin.
Lina Kim ’21 joined Mike Chang ’22 and Eddy Kim ’23 for a meal in South Korea before Mike and Eddy began their year of military service. (Picture 9)
Liam Cochran ’23 and Byars Langdon ’23 ended up on the same travel program to Nepal without knowing that the other signed up! Byars writes,
“He’s one of my best friends from SSTX now. St. Stephen’s class of 2023 represent!” (Picture 10)
Harrison Ratliff ’23 was named a Carroll Fellow at Georgetown University.
Avery Griffin ’24 was selected by U.S. Equestrian to be a competing member of the U.S. Jumping Junior Team.
Julia Havemann ’24 was selected to screen her short film “BRAS” at the Austin Film Festival on Oct. 26, 2024 as part of the Young Filmmakers Showcase. Havemann wrote and directed the seven-minute film about three 7th grade girls going to Victoria’s Secret in 2007 to buy their first bras, convinced that this symbol of womanhood will also grant them their first periods. (Picture 11)
7
Mary Orms ’19
10
Byars Langdon ’23 and Liam Cochran ’23 in Nepal
11
Julia Havemann ’24 at the Austin Film Festival
9
Mike Chang ’22, Eddy Kim ’23 and Lina Kim ’21
8
Yosemite National Park
Reading Recommendations
Molly Dougherty ’68 recommends “The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store” by James McBride, author of another excellent book, “The Color of Water.” She also recommends “The Diamond Eye” by Kate Quinn, which is based on a true story from World War II; A Russian woman became one of history’s deadliest snipers; then, on a goodwill tour of the U.S. to promote support for the war and U.S. participation, became friends with Eleanor Roosevelt.
Robert Henderson ’68 just finished the memoir “Imminent” by former Department of Defense intelligence official Luis Elizondo. Henderson says, “This book is for science fiction nerds, government nerds interested in how our federal agencies work (or don’t), conspiracy theorists and the curious. It’s also extraordinary self-promotion for the author and a firsthand examination of U.S. government obfuscation, fumbling and trying to report UFO/UAP phenomena. Don’t worry, we still don’t have firm answers, but ‘Imminent’ is a good read for the curious.”
Michael Emery ’71 is currently reading “The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity” by David Graeber and David Wengrow. During the recent COVID pandemic, he completed the KLRU PBS special “The Anderson Yellow Jackets,” a documentary about the experiences of alumni from Austin’s segregated Black high school that was created in 1909, then rose to statewide glory and outgrew three campuses. In 1971 it was closed as a segregated school and later reopened as Anderson High School. Emery grew up one block from the Anderson campus, where his father taught; his father had also formerly attended Anderson at its earlier location. Emery was very aware that Anderson closed in 1971 by order of a federal judge. Emery says, “That is likely the high school I would have attended had Bertha Means not pulled my number for St. Stephen’s. Because I was a boarding student, separation from my familiar Black community was impactful. But St. Stephen’s opened up another path to education, growth and opportunity, not to mention more lifelong friends. So, when given a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to honor Anderson High School and the 50-year anniversary of its closing, I took a deep breath and dove into that river of events. I didn’t get wet, but viewing the documentary still leaves me a wee bit tearyeyed!”
Jeff Glanz ’71 is reading “Everything’s Bigger in Texas: The Life and Times of Kinky Friedman” by Mary Lou Sullivan.
Chris Butler ’71 is reading as many books by Louise Erdrich as he can this summer. Butler says, “She’s from Minneapolis, Minnesota and writes fiction that takes place near an Ojibwe/Chippewa Reservation close to Fargo, North Dakota I dig the indigenous-ness of it all since I am in the big powwow grounds of the USA, so to speak.” Butler attended the Santa Fe Indian Market, which is one big gathering of the tribes from all over North America. He recommends their Get Indigenous Film Festival, where the panel this year was a discussion with Tantoo Cardinal, Graham Greene and Wes Studi. Butler recommends “Smoke Signals” and the sequel, “Hey Victor,” which he calls “hilarious.”
Ben Chan ’95 recommends “Under the Volcano” by Malcolm Lowry. He writes, “The story is set in Mexico on the Day of the Dead, which adds this eerie, vivid backdrop. The main character is a guy who’s battling his own demons, and Lowry does a good job of pulling you into his psychological state. It’s not the easiest read, but the way it explores themes of despair and redemption is powerful. If you’re in the mood for something thought-provoking and haunting, get a copy of ‘Under the Volcano’.”
David Allen ’19 recommends “The Overstory” by Richard Powers. He writes, “It’s one of those novels that introduces a wide cast of seemingly unrelated characters, then slowly weaves their
stories together. There is beautiful writing about trees and nature throughout, and a strong call to action to preserve America’s old-growth forests.”
Caroline Nalle ’23 recommends “Where the Crawdads Sing” and “Hillbilly Elegy.” She says, “Both reminded me of the books I read in my English 11 class with Mr. Hines!”
Angela Pérez ’23 recommends “Love in the Time of Cholera” by Gabriel García Márquez. “Can unrequited love last for a lifetime? That’s the premise of this novel. The book takes you on an amazing journey of love, loyalty, betrayal, etc. It makes you question the real meaning of love. A masterpiece that transcends time, and in my personal opinion, is better than Márquez’s ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude’.”
Tell us what you are reading or have enjoyed reading recently! Your recommendation could land in the next Spartan Magazine.
Marnie Wagstaff Mueller ’55 passed away in December 2023. After graduating from St. Stephen’s in 1955, she attended Wellesley College and earned her Ph.D. in Economics from Yale University in 1965. Marnie was a pioneer for women. She began her career as an economics professor at Washington University and later taught at Wesleyan University. She then transitioned to business, becoming one of the first women to reach the C-suite at Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance. She served on the boards of Boston Mutual Life, Life of Boston in New York and the Cigna Mutual Fund. In addition, she contributed to many nonprofit boards, including the Bishop’s Investment Fund, the Colt Foundation, the Kazangian Economics Foundation and ConnectiKids. Marnie enjoyed 61 years of marriage to Robert “Bob” Mueller. They have three children, Sarah Mueller Gieringer, Paul Wagstaff Mueller and Emily Mueller De Celis, and eight grandchildren.
Martin Junius Taylor III ’55 passed away on May 31, 2024, in The Woodlands, Texas. Martin was one of the first students to attend St. Stephen’s, arriving as an 8th grader in 1950. He graduated in 1955 and proceeded to earn a bachelor’s degree in business from Austin College and a master’s in international business from Thunderbird School of Global Management in Phoenix, Arizona. Martin was preceded in death by the love of his life, Marcia Key Taylor, and his brother, Mack Taylor ’55. He is survived by his daughters: Saralee Taylor Parker and her husband, Daniel Parker; Carol Trautwein and her husband, Michael Trautwein; and grandchildren Grace Butterfield and her husband Zachary Butterfield, Garrett Parker, Ryan Trautwein, and Haley Parker.
William Braymer, Jr. ’56 passed away on Feb. 10, 2024. William attended St. Stephen’s for one year before transferring to Abilene High School. He graduated in 1956 and attended Southern Methodist University, where he was an active member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. William enjoyed a varied professional career in oil and gas, real estate, and title work. However, it was his commitment to service and community that truly defined him. He was an active member of the Church of the Heavenly Rest in Abilene, and he continued his spiritual journey as a member of Saint Michaels and All Angels Church in Dallas. In 1986, William married Gayl Johnson Thayer, to whom he was fiercely devoted. Together, they formed a loving blended family.
Anne Ballanfant Voss ’57 died peacefully in Tampa, Florida, with her family by her side on May 23, 2024, after a long struggle with Alzheimer’s disease. Anne grew up on her family’s ranch in Junction, Texas. She began high school at St. Stephen’s and graduated from West Covina High School and Occidental College in California. Anne met her husband, Jim, in Germany in 1966, where he was serving in the U.S. Army. Their marriage in 1967 was the start of a 56-year adventure traveling around the world. Anne held numerous important positions in her career, being awarded and receiving commendations for her work. Passionate about relieving suffering and care for those in need, she served as assistant station manager for the American Red Cross, U.S. Army, Pirmasens, Germany. She obtained an advanced degree in early childhood development and was coordinator, U.S. Child Development Services, Picatinny Arsenal, New Jersey. Anne is survived by her husband, Jim; their son, Rick; her sister-in-law Sarah Ballanfant (Burt); brother-
and sister-in-law Bob and Sue Voss; brotherin-law Lee Buderus (Mimi); many wonderful nieces, nephews, cousins, grandnieces and grandnephews; and two great-grandnephews.
Everett “Smiley” Zab Clements ’60 passed away on May 21, 2024. Zab, who was fondly referred to as “Smiley” most of his life, attended St. Stephen’s from 1957 to 1959 and was a proud member of the baseball team. He is survived by his wife, Connie; his son Mike (JoAnn) Clements; his son John (Shilo) Clements; and his stepdaughter Tammy (Johnny) Rodriguez, as well as numerous grandchildren and greatgrandchildren.
Ralph Wafer ’65 passed away from cancer on March 21, 2024. In 1963, Ralph arrived on The Hill from Shreveport, Louisiana, and became an active student participating in choir, Spanish club, the Deacon, football and basketball. Ralph was also a student leader serving on the dorm council and the executive committee and was a dorm proctor his senior year. After graduating from St. Stephen’s in 1965, Ralph continued his studies at Tulane University. At age six, Ralph knew he wanted to be an architect. He followed that passion pursuing his degree at the School of Architecture. In 1972, he married his wife of 52 years, Deborah. The couple lived in Memphis before settling in St. Louis, Missouri. Ralph will be remembered for his passion for environmental causes, commitment to his community, love of family and friends, and positive outlook. He is survived by his wife, sons Matthew (Michele) and Joshua (Barbara), twin brother John, brother Thomas (Melissa) Wafer, sisters Louise (Rob) Ward and Dorothy Thoma, sister-in-law Sandy (Rusty), granddaughters Madeleine and Sofia, and grandsons Samuel and Henry.
Nixon Wheat ’71 passed away on Sept. 29, 2024. Nixon arrived at St. Stephen’s in the fall of 1967 from Liberty, Texas. While on The Hill, he was an active student and a friend to many. He served as the features editor of the Spartan Magazine and was the chair of the entertainment committee. After graduating from St. Stephen’s in 1971, Nixon studied at Tulane University and received his J.D. from St. Mary’s University School of Law. He served on the St. Stephen’s board of trustees from 2008 to 2014. Nixon was a community advocate and his generosity supported many causes nationwide and in his hometown of Liberty. A strong supporter of private property rights, he also felt that property owners had a responsibility to protect the environment and keep as much property as possible in its natural state. Nixon
Photo by Chris Caselli ’82
In Memoriam
will be remembered for his uncanny sense of humor, generous spirit, friendship, zest for life and unique style.
Liz Foster-Luczycki ’72 passed away peacefully on Oct. 9, 2024 due to complications from an autoimmune liver disease that she bravely battled for over 15 years. Born in 1955 to St. Stephen’s administrators Robert and Priscilla Foster, Liz grew up on The Hill. As a “faculty kid,” Liz spent many summers swimming and playing games every afternoon. As a student, Liz was dedicated and excelled in math and Spanish. She continued her education at The University of Texas at Austin, earning a B.A. in 1976 and an MBA in 1983. After graduate school, Liz started a successful financial services career in Dallas. For 22 years, Liz served as director of investment operations and endowment manager of donation relations at Southern Methodist University. She was admired for her dedication, high ethical standards, generosity and collaborative spirit. In 1993, Liz met the love of her life, Dennis Luczycki. The couple married in 2001 and built a life together filled with adventure, marked by travels throughout North America and annual retreats to their family cabin in New Mexico. She served on the St. Stephen’s board of trustees from 2011 to 2018 and spent many years serving as the alumni
class representative for the Class of 1972.
Cecily Wright ’78 died peacefully after a 20-month battle with leukemia. Cecily spent her childhood in Austin, where she attended St. Andrew’s Episcopal School and St. Stephen’s. At Whittier College in California, she met her former husband, John Fitzsimons, and graduated in 1982. She began her career in 1983 as a 1st-grade teacher in San Bernardino, California. After completing her Master of Education at Whittier College, Cecily held several roles in the East Whittier City School District. The couple and their two sons, Sean and Declan, moved back to Austin in 1993. There, after divorcing, Cecily met Ken McClure. Their loving partnership began in 2002. Cecily dedicated her life to education, not only as an educator for nearly four decades but also as a lifelong learner, continuously striving for professional growth. After returning to Austin, she commenced a 16-year tenure at St. Andrew’s. Cecily went on to work for the Austin Independent School District as an educational diagnostician. She then became certified as an academic language therapist. Cecily is survived by her partner, Ken McClure; her children, Sean Fitzsimons, Declan Fitzsimons and daughter-inlaw Katie Fitzsimons; her granddaughter, Arden Fitzsimons; her siblings Norie Clarke ’67 and
brother-in-law Alan Davis, Ted Wright ’70 and sister-in-law Nina Macdonald, Margot Clarke ’72, Henny Wright ’74 and brother-in-law Ed Stead; and her nieces Taylor Wright, Haywood Wright, Emma Davis and Sierra Stead.
Tracey Hofheinz Montauriol ’82 passed away peacefully surrounded by family and friends on Sept. 16, 2024, in Paris, France, after a long battle with cancer. After graduating from St. Stephen’s in 1982, she studied at Pomona College in California. While earning a degree in art history from the Paris-Sorbonne University, she established roots in France that lasted a lifetime. After college and studying at the Sorbonne, Tracey married, and was a devoted mother to her three sons. She made certain that her boys were not only bilingual but also familiar with daily life in the United States and Texas. She delighted in her pugs, Phoebe and Lily, who sometimes traveled with her. She is survived by her sons, Nicolas (Isabel), Maxime and Louis Montauriol; her mother, Elizabeth Hofheinz; her father, Fred Hofheinz (Linda); her brother, Paul Hofheinz ’80 (Ann); her grandson, Lucas Montauriol; and friends and family around the world. Her husband, Philippe Montauriol, predeceased her.
Dr. Laurence Becker passed away peacefully on Oct. 25, 2024. Dr. Becker made a lasting impression on St. Stephen’s students in the 1960s and 1970s while serving as an English instructor. He is also celebrated for starting the on-campus film program, giving an entire generation a new appreciation of the art of filmmaking. Over the years, Dr. Becker was a frequent guest at Reunion Weekend and other campus events, and he will be missed by many in the St. Stephen’s community.
Dr. Becker is survived by his children; Roxy, Amy (Kristen) and David (Heather); granddaughter Ashley Kate; nephews Leighton and Mason Quick; and cousins Gretchen, Denny and Barbara Becker. His life was celebrated on Oct. 31.
Coach David Paschall passed away on Nov. 18, 2024. Coach Paschall served the school for more than 30 years as athletic director, adviser, member of the history department faculty, and coach of the football, basketball and baseball teams. It was estimated that Coach Paschall coached over 1,500 football and basketball games during his 36-year tenure at St. Stephen’s. Coach Paschall, along with his wife, Sandra, and their two boys, Justin ’89 and Hunter ’92, were also members of the residential community on campus. Coach Paschall attended high school in Tennessee, where he was a standout athlete in three sports and valedictorian of his senior class. He later attended Sewanee, the University of the South, as a student-athlete, where he not only became a three-sport letter winner but was also an outstanding student who graduated cum laude. St. Stephen’s hired Coach Paschall in 1973 as the athletic director, and he held that position for 28 years. For multiple consecutive years, Coach Paschall was the head coach of the football, basketball and baseball programs. In the spring of 1994, the David Paschall Award was created to recognize outstanding accomplishments of St. Stephen’s students in academics
and athletics. To be eligible for the award, a student must earn a varsity letter during each term and maintain honor roll status during the fall and winter terms. In 1998, Coach Paschall won the St. Stephen’s Teacher of the Year Award for excellence in the classroom.
Coach Paschall’s lasting legacy is marked in the school’s Clayton Gymnasium. On May 15, 2014, the St. Stephen’s community gathered to unveil and dedicate the newly refinished gym floor as the David Paschall Court, bearing Paschall’s name and signature. The court stands as a reminder of his tremendous dedication to our school.
Coach David Paschall
Dr. Laurence Becker (in the middle) at Reunion Weekend 2024, surrounded by Spartans
Alumni Class Representatives
Will Brewster ’51 brewsterwilliam34@gmail.com
Michael Hines ’54 poppyhines@msn.com
Colin Phipps ’55 colin@phippsfarm.com
Ruth Wilson Witten ’57 ruthwitten@aol.com
J.P. Bryan ’58 BryanJ@teai.com
Tom Romberg ’59 tromberg@me.com
Pat Fatter Black ’60 ggpat77@gmail.com
Steve Jolly ’61 stevejolly@mindspring.com
David Sanders ’62 rdavidsanders@msn.com
Julia Cauthorn ’63 julia@texancapital.com
Arthur Wright ’64 arthur.wright@tklaw.com
Dianne Duncan Tucker ’65 ddtuck@aol.com
Randy Parten ’67 jrparten@parten.com
Robert Henderson ’68 rehenderson@nvcc.edu
Josh Harrison ’69 JHarrisonLaw@aol.com
Dee Meador ’70 meadortx@yahoo.com
Kathryn Miller Anderson ’71 zjmiller1513@gmail.com
Darrell David ’72 darrell.s.david@gmail.com
Douglass Anderson ’73 dlalaw@hotmail.com
Ann Rhodes McMeans ’74 armcmeans@gmail.com
Dr. Mary L. Brandt ’75 mary.l.brandt@gmail.com
Dan Norton ’76 daniel@danielnorton.com
Robert Ettinger ’77 robert@ettlaw.com
Mark Tucker ’78 mrtucker@mindspring.com
Carroll Lively Reeser ’79 carroll@reeser.net
Peter Larkam ’80 peter@peterlarkam.com
Charlotte Stuckey Brigham ’81 charbrigham@gmail.com
Thomas Groff-Barragan ’24 groffthomasusa@gmail.com
Class Notes Submissions
We encourage alumni to share personal updates with us for Class Notes. Spartan alumni are contacted by their class reps several times a year to gather news and information. For assistance contacting your class rep or to submit news directly to Spartan Magazine, please contact Michelle Geo Olmstead, director of alumni relations, at 512.327.1213 x 178 or molmstead@sstx.org, or David Allen ’19, alumni engagement officer, at 512.327.1213 x 115 or dallen@sstx.org.
Class notes can also be submitted online at sstx.org/alumni. Select the “Stay Connected” box. We welcome high-resolution photographs with your Class Notes submission. Please send a JPG format in the largest size possible (at least 900 pixels; image 3 inches wide at 300 dpi). Please include the full names and class years of everyone pictured.
Spartan Magazine editors reserve the right to edit or omit any information submitted.
Get Social!
Connect with St. Stephen’s and your classmates online
LinkedIn Group St. Stephen’s Episcopal School Alumni
Private Alumni Facebook Group
facebook.com/Groups/StStephensAlumniGroup
Follow St. Stephen’s at:
We are seeking class representatives for the classes of 1975, 2003 and 2004. If you are interested, please contact Michelle Geo Olmstead, director of alumni relations, at molmstead@sstx.org.
Facebook facebook.com/sstx.org
Instagram @SSTX_OnTheHill
YouTube @StStephensAustin
If you have not received emails from the Alumni Office recently, we may not have your current email address. Please send your information to dallen@sstx.org so you do not miss invitations to events and news about your classmates!
Breaking Through
“Since the age of four or five, I have always been enchanted by the beauty of this campus. On winter mornings when my sisters missed the bus, we’d drive the winding three miles from Bee Caves Road to campus (via what is now Rob Roy Road), through fog they claimed was dragons’ breath. If the timing was right, we’d catch the sun just breaking the horizon. With my photographs I try to celebrate the promise of magic and wonder that each new day brings.”
— CHRIS CASELLI ’82, CAMPUS PHOTOGRAPHER / PHOTOGRAPHY INSTRUCTOR
Photos by Chris Caselli ’82
Friday
PIONEER DINNER
STUDENT ART SHOW
Scanlan Art Gallery
Saturday
APRil 5
Sunday APRil 4
APRil 6
Celebrating the Classes of 1951-1975 • 5:30 p.m., Bowen Fine Arts Studio
SPARTAN ALUMNI AWARDS AND LEADERSHIP BRUNCH
Celebrating alumni volunteers and presentations of 2025 Alumni Honorees • 10 a.m., Bowen Fine Arts Studio
STATE OF THE SCHOOL AND SPARTAN ALUMNI ALUMNI ASSOCIATION MEETING
12:30 p.m., Bowen Practice Space
ALUMNI RECESS
Mapmaking Activity
Self-guided Tour of Campus
All day, Bowen Fine Arts Studio
Pickleball/Padel Tournament 1:45 p.m., Padel Courts
Open all weekend
CLASSES WITHOUT QUIZZES: ENGLISH/WRITING AT ST. STEPHEN’S 2 p.m., Hines Hall Classroom
PANEL DISCUSSION: CELEBRATING SPARTAN AUTHORS
3 p.m., Hines Hall Classroom
ALUMNI RECESS
Trivia • 4 p.m., Hines Hall Classroom
Geocaching • 4 p.m., Hines Hall Classroom
PARENTS OF ALUMNI RECEPTION
Parents of 2015–2025 classes are invited to attend • 5 p.m., Helm Fine Arts Center Lobby
DECADES HAPPY HOUR
5 p.m., Bowen Fine Arts Studio
TASTE OF AUSTIN
Join the entire alumni community to enjoy Austin food trucks, music and family-friendly activities. • 6 p.m., Bowen Fine Arts Studio
YOUNG ALUMNI SPECIAL EVENT Spartans from the classes of 2014–2020 are invited to attend • 8 p.m., Location TBD
TOUR THE TRAILS AND HIKE THE GULCH
8 a.m., Meet at Chapel
ALUMNI SERVICE PROJECT
Join the Spartan community campus service projects 9:30 a.m., Meet at Chapel
ALUMNI CHAPEL
11 a.m., Chapel
Brunch served after the service in the Buddy Temple ’60 Dining Hall
2025 Reunion Committee
Sallie Smither Crotty ’84 The Spartan Impact Award
Clarke Heidrick ’68 The Founders Award for Distinguished Service
Alexandra Mauro, MD ’07
Spartan Young Alumni Achievement Award
Jeannette Schaleben Cook ’58 Spartan Alumni Leadership Award
Fred Myers ’71 Spartan Alumni Leadership Award
Liza Ayres ’14, Reunion Weekend co-chair; Mallory Boyle ’04, Reunion Weekend co-chair; Louise McNutt Brazitis ’07, Reunion Weekend co-chair; Hank Ewert ’70, P ’98, ’05, former faculty representative; Ellen Jockusch ’70, Pioneer Spartan representative; Claire McKay ’71, P ’98, ’05, parents of alumni representative; Alice Nazro Nezzer ’87, alumni recognition chair
6500 St. Stephen’s Drive
If you know someone who is interested in enrollment at St. Stephen’s, please ask them to contact the Admissions office for more information or to schedule a tour.
sstx.org/admission
St. Stephen’s Upper School students enjoy a fall day near the Chapel
