Fall 2006 Taft Bulletin

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Farish Jenkins ’57 unearths a 375-millionyear-old fossil Justine Landegger ’00 works to make a difference in Darfur and Pakistan Ward Mailliard ’65 adopts an orphanage-school in India Irina Prentice ’94 —student/ journalist in the Middle East F A

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B U L L E T I N Fall 2006 Volume 77 Number 1 Bulletin Staff Interim Director of Development Bonnie Welch Editor Julie Reiff Alumni Notes Linda Beyus Design Good Design, LLC www.gooddesignusa.com Proofreader Nina Maynard Mail letters to: Julie Reiff, Editor Taft Bulletin The Taft School Watertown, CT 06795-2100 U.S.A. ReiffJ@TaftSchool.org Send alumni news to: Linda Beyus Alumni Office The Taft School Watertown, CT 06795-2100 U.S.A. TaftBulletin@TaftSchool.org Deadlines for Alumni Notes: Winter–November 15 Spring–February 15 Summer–May 30 Fall–August 30 Send address corrections to: Sally Membrino Alumni Records The Taft School Watertown, CT 06795-2100 U.S.A. TaftRhino@TaftSchool.org 1-860-945-7777 www.TaftAlumni.com The Taft Bulletin (ISSN 0148-0855) is published quarterly, in February, May, August, and November, by The Taft School, 110 Woodbury Road, Watertown, CT 067952100, and is distributed free of charge to alumni, parents, grandparents, and friends of the school. All rights reserved.

This magazine is printed on recycled paper.

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F E AT U R E S cover story :

He Landed the Fish That Landed Itself................................... 14 17

Harvard professor Farish Jenkins ’57 unearths a 375-millionyear-old fossil hailed as the missing link between fish and all limbed creatures.

By Andrew Rimas

Hope in the Face of Catastrophe........... 17

Justine Landegger ’00 works to make a difference in Darfur and Pakistan

By Brady Dennis

Life Anew................................................ 20 California schoolteacher Ward Mailliard ’65 adopts an orphanage-school in India

By Julia Feldmeier ’99

Lebanese Days....................................... 24 20

Little did one alumna realize that her decision to live in and experience the Middle East would turn her into a student/ journalist in the middle of a war zone.

By Irina Prentice ’94

D E PA R T M E N T S Letters.................................................... 2 Alumni Spotlight.................................... 3 Around the Pond.................................... 7 Alumni and Their Taft Offspring............. 28 From the Archives.................................. 30 Wish you were here….Postcards from the past

on the cover : “When you launch a pop icon,” says Farish Jenkins ’57 of his discovery of a particularly important 375-million-year-old fossil, “the attention gets totally out of hand.” T ed D aeschler

Taft on the Web Find a friend’s address or look up back issues of the Bulletin at www.TaftAlumni.com For more campus news and events, including admissions information, visit www.TaftSchool.org What happened at this afternoon’s game?

Visit www.TaftSports.com j Chinese teacher and Davis Fellow Yen Liu visits the Yungang Caves, a cluster of about 50 caves that house more than 50,000 stone carvings of Buddhas. Started in 450 and located in the Shanxi Province of central China, Yungang is a relic of the Northern Wei Dynasty (386–534 A.D.).

Don’t forget you can shop online at www.TaftStore.com 800-995-8238 or 860-945-7736

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The Intentional Tourist

It’s hard to find a corner of the globe Taft students and alumni haven’t touched recently. Some certainly traveled as tourists, but for many others their travel was an intentional act of reaching out, and for a few, it has become a way of life.

I did not intend for this issue of the Bulletin to have any sort of international theme; happily it emerged on its own. Even Farish Jenkins’ fossil has achieved international celebrity.

Current students have ample opportunities today to travel the globe and to reach out (see page 7), and the school’s Poole Fellowship Program in particular helps makes that possible. Bob Poole ’50, himself, exemplified that kind of outreach.

Returning to Taft in 1956 to teach history and coach football after two years in the army, Poole later spent two months crisscrossing the African continent in 1960 on a summer-study grant. He joined the Peace Corps and moved to Kenya with his family in 1962 and eventually worked for the African Wildlife Leadership Foundation in Nairobi.

Conservation became his passion.

So when we say we educate the whole student, part of that mission is helping students find their passions, no matter where those take them.

—Julie Reiff

m Nici Tietjen Derosier ’86 and Patience Smith ’86 visit with classics teacher Dick Cobb on Alumni Day in May.

Coolest Coach

A minor few corrections to Ryan Nerz’s article in the summer issue, “Reunion 2006.” It was Patience who revealed that Mr. Cobb scared her at first (she had him for Latin), but then he became her adviser. I had the pleasure of playing basketball for Mr. Cobb for three years—he is the coolest/calmest coach ever—and I will forever thank him for the “new math” he invented senior year to explain many very close losses. My adviser for all four years was R.M. Davis ’59; he fed my love of history and challenged me to believe in my capacity to learn and grow. We all

Taft Trivia

From what country did the school’s first international students hail? (Hint: They were brothers and did not graduate.)

The winner, whose name will be chosen at random from all correct entries received by December 15, will receive a free plush rhino.

Taft Bulletin Fall 2006

recalled Ms. Madison’s major crush on Tom Selleck. Nici shared that “We used to go up to her apartment and watch Magnum P.I.” I was a day student for my first three years—only boarded my senior year. So I both had (and missed out on) the best of both worlds.

—Sarah Curi ’86

p.s. Nici, I can’t believe that “feel the words” made it into print!

Love it? Hate it?

Read it? Tell us!

We’d love to hear what you think about the stories in this Bulletin. We may edit your letters for length, clarity, and content, but please write!

Julie Reiff, editor Taft Bulletin 110 Woodbury Road Watertown, CT 06795-2100 or ReiffJ@TaftSchool.org

Whitney McDowell ’94 and her mother Susan dedicated a year to fly-fishing around the world together.

The Mom Who Took the Bait Whitney McDowell ’94 and her mother Susan share a unique passion—for fishing. “So one day, when I was at a crossroads in my life,” explains McDowell, “and my mother was about to turn 65, I proposed the crazy idea that she and I dedicate a year to fishing together throughout the world—and she bit!

Needless to say, my mom is a very adventuresome woman and a fly-fishing addict, so it wasn’t exactly a hard sell.”

After Princeton, McDowell had spent four years in Denver working in public relations, but in late 2004, she began to question whether this was a career she could see herself in for the

long run. “I hadn’t tried anything else, so how could I know?” Meanwhile, her passion for fly-fishing was growing. Active and successful in competitive fly-fishing for several years—often one of the only women, she’s been on ESPN and OLN on several occasions.

(Yes, she runs into Diana Rudolph ’90, but oddly enough, neither realized they shared an alma mater until McDowell read about Rudolph in the Bulletin.) McDowell and her mother typically made one big fishing trip together every year. “I always longed for more,” she says, “and Mom wasn’t getting any younger.”

Their journey was not a continuous one, she explains, “We came and went as needed…but we set aside a calendar year to do it.” Their destinations included Argentina, Venezuela, Mongolia, Russia, and New Zealand, as well as several spots in the States. “Honestly, it was an incredible year across the board,” says McDowell, “and we didn’t have a bad trip (well, maybe one), but if I had to name a highlight, it would have to be New Zealand. We had both fished there before (and I actually spent a semester there in college); there’s nothing like it. The country, the people, and the fishing—the whole package—are unequaled.”

The trip also had a deeper meaning for both women. “My mom’s mother died in her early 40s (when my mom was 20), so they never had the opportunity to share this time. In addition, my dad was our biggest advocate,” she adds. “Although fly-fishing was never his passion, he thought it was the most incredible idea and was so proud and supportive of his ladies’ adventures and even joined us on the New Zealand trip.” Sadly, her father ended up very ill toward the end of the year, and they canceled their Africa trip and McDowell traveled solo to Brazil.

“I am now a firm believer that things happen for a reason,” she says. “I had no idea where I would end up after our year of fishing travels, which was definitely unsettling. I’m not a cavalier person, and yet, here I was leaving behind a stable, successful career without —continued on next page Taft Bulletin Fall 2006

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a future plan. Then, midyear, I got a call out of the blue from the president of a leading manufacturer in the fishing industry, telling me they had a job opportunity I might be ideally suited for. In the end, it really was a dream come true. I got the job as marketing manager with Simms Fishing Products in Bozeman, Montana, and was able to complete my remaining three months of travel!”

McDowell is now happily settled in Bozeman and loves her job—with a lifetime of amazing memories.

Although her father died last June, McDowell says she finds considerable comfort in the fact that he was an important part of their adventures.

“Moreover, he saw this next phase in my life evolve out of my yearlong journey,” she adds, “and knew that I was happy and settled.”

Marisa Ryan ’03 was chosen from the 22 America East ScholarAthletes named in July. Those recipients were chosen from the nearly 3,500 student-athletes at America East institutions.

America East

A Standup Kinda Guy Jonathan Drubner ’90, right, with Lance Armstrong and his manager at the ESPY Awards after-after-after party in July.

Comic Jonathan Drubner ’90 got “bumped up” to senior writer for this year’s ESPY Awards (his fifth year on the show), which were hosted by Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong.

“I was assigned to Lance and the monologue,” explains Drubner.

“All of the writers create jokes for the host, but because I do standup, I spent a bunch of time working with Lance on the performance, timing, beats, etc.

It was amazing. He’s a great dude. Not quite as funny as Matthew Perry was last year or Jamie Foxx the years before, but surprisingly funny, and obviously a bigger challenge, which was awesome.

“My only worry was that come showtime, he might not be able to deliver his jokes without making a rude gesture and adding, ‘Was that good enough, Drubner?’ But he killed it. And the material was the edgiest we’ve ever done. We got a lot of really funny press.”

As an added bonus, the day be Taft Bulletin Fall 2006

fore the show Drubner “rolled with Armstrong and his posse” on the talk show circuit: Jay Leno, Jimmy Kimmel, Jim Rome, and Carson Daly. “As we were chilling in his cramped little dressing room at Leno...in walks Leno and proceeds to ask if we’ve got jokes for the ESPYs. Obviously Lance doesn’t back down from anything, so the next thing I know Lance is doing the monologue for Jay, who was loving it. Pretty surreal. Jay even gave me a joke for Lance to use at the ESPYs, which I pretended to write down. Don’t tell Jay.” The ESPY Awards, created by ESPN, celebrate the year’s best sports stories and top athletes and support the V Foundation for Cancer Research.

Drubner is also the host of 24 Seven Gamer, head writer of the X Games, and “the genius behind the funny parts” of Spike TV’s Fresh Baked Videogames. To catch up on all the hot Drubner gossip, visit www.drub-induced.com.

Ryan Named Scholar-Athlete of the Year

Cross-country and track standout Marisa Ryan ’03 was named 2005– 06 America East Women’s ScholarAthlete of the Year.

A senior with a 3.77 grade point average, Ryan is enrolled in Boston University’s extremely competitive accelerated medical program, through which she will complete her bachelor’s degree and medical degree in seven years by overlapping the two programs.

Ryan finished second at the America East Cross Country Championship last fall, and last winter she finished first in the 3000-meter run at the America East Indoor Track & Field Championship in conference record-setting time. In addition, the Farmington, Connecticut, native was an ESPN the Magazine Academic All District Team selection in the spring and also has earned the Commissioner’s Honor Roll in every semester.

Ryan also recently earned the honor of America East Women’s Cross Country Performer of the Week. She took home first place at the Boston University Invitational, finishing with a time of 12:45.

In Print

Chapter 11: Business Reorganizations For Business Leaders, Accountants and Lawyers Myles H. Alderman, Jr. ’78 Outskirts Press, 2006 Each year billions of dollars of business contracts are restructured under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code. Debtors in Chapter 11 reorganizations range from some of the largest business entities in the world to small local businesses. When these companies reorganize, new problems and op-

portunities are created. This book explains how the process works, offers readers insights into how losses can be reduced, and reveals opportunities for superior return on investment.

The revisions to the bankruptcy laws enacted recently and the growing concern about the financial welfare of some of the nation’s larg-

est manufacturers combine to make this a very timely book. An active member of the Connecticut legal community, Alderman drafted the Bankruptcy Chapter of the Basic Practice Manual for the Connecticut Bar Association in 1992. He is a recipient of the LFE Goldie Award for outstanding scholarship.

101 Best Scenes Ever Written: A Romp Through Literature for Writers and Readers Barnaby Conrad ’40 Quill Driver Books, 2006 Readers will delight in the best scenes ever written, with passages from Thornton Wilder to Elmore Leonard. They will find old favorites and savor scenes new to them.

With each scene, Conrad provides

insights as to what the author wishes to accomplish with this passage and the literary devices he or she employed. Any avid reader will enjoy Conrad’s 101 Best Scenes Ever Written, but countless fledgling

and established writers will benefit enormously by sampling and studying these gems from the masters of the written word.

Tales from Nowhere:

Unexpected Stories from Unexpected Places Don George ’71, editor Lonely Planet, 2006 “Nowhere is a setting, a situation, and a state of mind,” explains George, who is the global travel editor for Lonely Planet Publications.

“It’s not on any map, but you know it when you’re there.”

Lonely Planet’s annual literary anthology spotlights some of the travel world’s most renowned au-

thors including Tim Cahill, Pico Iyer, Simon Winchester, Pam Houston, Jason Elliot, and Lisa Alpine. Full of surprise, passion, wonder, curiosity, and revelation, this year’s anthology takes that tradition into uncharted territory. The 31 real-life tales compose a kaleidoscopic portrait of the many Nowheres we visit—and the

many roads we take to get there—in our lives. The tales in this collection all illuminate one fundamental truth: If we embark on each adventure with an open heart and an open mind, trusting in the journey, travel will take us places we never planned to go, and enrich and enlighten us in ways we never otherwise would have known.

The Psychiatric Interview in Clinical Practice Roger A. Mackinnon ’44, Robert Michels, and Peter J. Buckley American Psychiatric Publishing; 2nd ed., 2006 In this revised and expanded edition of the classic, the authors continue to address the challenges inherent in clinical interviewing they did in their original 1971 edition while also acknowledging the task of adapting their interview strategies to a new era of psychiatry.

Many readers will likely recognize aspects of themselves in some of

the clinical descriptions. The hope is that this self-recognition will lead to greater self-understanding and self-acceptance as well as to greater understanding and acceptance of others.

The book stresses that the clinician needs to learn about patients, their problems, their illness, and their lives. From this, read-

ers will understand the universal presence of personality types and the importance of the personality as a determining factor in the unfolding of the psychiatric interview. MacKinnon is professor emeritus of clinical psychiatry at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University in New York.

Taft Bulletin Fall 2006

In Print

ASCENT:

How One Quadriplegic Fought for a Full Life and Soared

By Bruce McGhie ’50 Ruder Finn Press, 2006 In this autobiography, McGhie writes of his life, love, and accomplishments as a man dealing with quadriplegia in a pre-handicap accessible world.

After a tragic Air Force training accident at the age of 22 left him critically injured and completely dependent on others, McGhie struggled through painful and frustrating rehab with little prospect of ever leading a “normal” life.

During the agonizing recuperation and relearning process

inherent to spinal-cord injuries, he faced a variety of challenges, from getting dressed, driving with hand controls, and gaining full physical independence to getting up curbs with no cuts and using inaccessible bathrooms and public telephones.

McGhie not only overcame these obstacles and achieved the “impossible”—a virtually normal life—but also dared to strive for the extraordinary, succeeding in such endeavors as building up a successful business

and becoming the first spinal-cord injured person in the world to be licensed as a glider pilot, using hand controls he helped develop.

Ascent illuminates the amazing accomplishments of one man and his highly supportive wife while also providing an example of the inherent power people have to transcend handicaps—physical or otherwise— and live full and meaningful lives.

For more information, visit www. rfpress.com.

The Worms Of Euston Square William Sutton ’89 Mercat Press, 2006

In this debut novel of terror beneath the streets of Victorian London, novice detective Campbell Lawless delves into a world of hoofers, sabotage, and royal scandal. Aided by the Worms, a gang of urchins, he tries to uncover the ills hidden beneath the filthy cobblestones.

“We tend to think of terrorism as a recent phenomenon,” says Sutton, but this literary mystery tells a different story. This was the era of

great exhibitions, foreign conquests, underground trains. But it was also the time of the Great Stink, of cholera, and depravity—and an underclass that was far from happy with the status quo.

Launched at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, The Worms of Euston Square immerses the reader in the sights, sounds, and smells of a London of long ago.

But this is also a portrait of a city

whose atmosphere and preoccupations seem remarkably familiar and relevant to us today.

Sutton makes his home in Scotland. Besides writing plays, stories, and articles, he’s acted in the world’s longest play, tutored the Sugababes, and played cricket for Brazil. For more information, visit www.mercatpress.com.

Aristocracy and the Modern World Ellis Wasson ’66 Palgrave Macmillan, 2006

This is the first comprehensive study of the traditional European ruling class during the 19th and 20th centuries. Distilling the wealth of recent research for students and general readers, Wasson analyzes the role of aristocracy, focusing

Taft Bulletin Fall 2006

on the tensions that exist between modern egalitarian values and the way elites shape society. Topics include: wealth, family, conceptions of honor, relations with other classes, culture, recreation, gender, local authority, and national power.

Individual studies enliven the text.

Wasson is chair of the History Department at Tower Hill School and adjunct professor of history at the University of Delaware. Read a sample chapter at www.palgrave.com.

Around the pond Chance of a Lifetime The school has always encouraged students to pursue interesting and worthwhile activities over the summer break, and funds are now increasingly available through three separate fellowships to help students underwrite the costs of such adventures.

Whether in the arts, health care, or humanitarian or environmental efforts, these teens travel the globe trying to make a difference and getting a taste of the fields that interest them most. For many of them, it’s an unforgettable experience. c Uppermid Theresa Chang got a taste of what professional musicians go through during the Casalmaggiore International Music Festival in Italy.

. Kilbourne fellow Kacey Klonsky ’07 worked with her father filming a documentary in southern India.

Kilbourne Summer Enrichment Fund Theresa Chang ’08 was one of 80 musicians at the Casalmaggiore International Music Festival in Italy last summer. Their average age was 23, explains Theresa. “Everyone was very competitive,” she adds, “and a lot of them were there to prepare for international competitions.” Theresa often practiced until 3 a.m. for three weeks to prepare for her daily private lessons with her violin professor, Taras Gabora. “Since Mr. Gabora was the judge of many important international competitions, including the Paganini International Competition and Tchaikovsky International Competition, I had to! It was intense but very fun. I’m glad that I had the opportunity to discover what it’s like to be a professional musician who has to be ready to perform a new piece in only four days.” Theresa had six performances during the three-week festival.

Carrie Hojnicki ’08 used her Kilbourne grant to study at Parsons School of Design in New York City, where she took drawing classes in the morning and accessory design in the afternoon. “I had fabulous and very Taft Bulletin Fall 2006

Around the pond Poole fellow Wilson Yu ’07 spent two weeks researching giant pandas in China.

Getting a warm welcome each morning from the local families was all the reward Molly Brauer ’08 needed during her threeweek stay in Costa Rica.

Senior H.K. Seo worked on a documentary of his visit to Central Africa over the summer.

experienced teachers,” she says, “who provided wonderful insight into the accessory design world. Our major project was to design a perfume scent, bottle, and advertising campaign. My perfume was inspired by the movie Breakfast at Tiffany’s.” They also took advantage of their location, embarking on several field trips to design studios around the city to enhance their learning experience.

(Performing Arts Institute of Wyoming Seminary, clarinet), Penelope Smith (Westminster Choir College H.S. Solo Vocal Artist Program), Lizzie Strumolo (Skidmore College Acceleration Program in Art), and Nathaniel Thompson (Drexel University program in photography); and Ele Barisser ’08, who attended the Nutmeg Conservatory of the Arts summer dance program for three weeks.

Senior Kacey Klonsky not only spent a month at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts studying at the Summer Filmmaker’s Workshop, but she also spent two weeks in Thiruvarur in southern India with her father, filming a documentary on the Untouchables. “We were working with a nonprofit organization called Life in Lenses,” she explains, “which is featuring a series of films on ordinary women who have done extraordinary things with their lives.” The series will air on the BBC later this year. She received a Kilbourne grant as well as a Poole Fellowship for her work.

ROBERT KEYES POOLE ’50 FELLOWSHIPS

Other Kilbourne fellows were seniors Jennifer Medeiros (Sewanee Young Writers’ Conference), HeeKwon Seo Taft Bulletin Fall 2006

Wilson Yu ’07 spent two weeks at the Giant Panda Breeding Research Laboratory in Chengdu, China, where he conducted experiments under the guidance of the researchers. “I tried things that I would never have the chance to at school,” he explains, “such as testing hormone levels in panda urine to determine their pregnancy status and extracting DNA from panda blood.” He also helped with more mundane tasks like sweeping and feeding at the nursery, where most youngsters and females are kept. The most rewarding moment, he adds, was when he first touched a panda. “It might

sound silly but looking at them was very different from touching them, so it was in that moment that I felt the pandas were really alive and that they needed my help.”

Ted Dwyer ’07 worked for Habitat for Humanity in Anchorage, Alaska, for two weeks in August.

Meeting and conversing with the families they were building for was the highlight of his trip, he says. “I heard some great stories just sitting with the families during our lunch breaks and really bonded with a boy named Miracle. At the end we were standing on the roof of the house we were building for his family. I will never forget the scene of such a big guy just standing there crying because he was so thankful.”

Alice Gao ’07 says she enjoyed her summer immensely. “I taught English at the Kungshon School in Lhasa, Tibet.

The school was founded by Loabsang, who is fluent in Tibetan, English, and Chinese. I stayed for five weeks and was able to form friendships with the two classes I taught everyday, three hours per class. Above all, I was able to relax while doing something I love!”

HeeKwon Seo ’07 traveled to Central Africa for three weeks on his Poole Fellowship, beginning in Rwanda, then through Congo, and ending in Uganda. “The experience as a whole was truly life changing,” he explains. Among the most rewarding moments he had there (“if ranking them was ever possible”) was his visit to the refugee camps in northern Uganda and translating for a delegation of South Korean politicians and businessmen who were trying to communicate with the local leaders for relief purposes. “Our meeting was fortuitous; World Mission Frontiers just put the delegation and me together in a van because we were all hoping to visit the refugee camps.” H.K. is hoping to combine all the more personally influential moments into a documentary.

Molly Brauer ’08 volunteered for three weeks in Costa Rica, where she lived with homestay families just outside the capital during the week and traveled all over the rest of the country on weekends. “Most of our work had to do with teaching children in poorer communities and painting their houses while getting to know the families,” she explains. “The most rewarding part was the way the families welcomed you each time with huge smiles and sometimes a kiss on the cheek. Even though I spoke no Spanish, I could tell that the parents of the children we worked with were delighted to have us there.”

Other Poole fellows this year were seniors Jennifer Chang, Bianca Chu, Simone Foxman, Michael Furman, Joseph Guthrie, Cat Henry, Carola Lovering, Caitlin Maguire, Grace Scott, Jacqueline Staub, and Marina Tokoro, and uppermid Shane Sanderson. c Macie Winship ’07, of Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, was one of five girls’ ice hockey players from Taft to attend USA Hockey’s National Development Camp.

Actionphotos.com

MEG PAGE ’74 FELLOWSHIP Page fellow Lee Ziesing ’07 attended the National Youth Leadership Forum on Medicine held at Villanova University. “I loved the whole forum and met some fantastic people from all over the country,” she says. “We were exposed to so much in the modern medical field.”

During the ten-day program she visited hospitals, medical schools, and laboratories, exploring all aspects of health care in the Greater Philadelphia area. “I was able participate in activities alongside med students; possibly the most notable was getting to hold and examine a human brain. We were also given the opportunity to go into the restricted sections of the hospitals, my favorites being the helipad and the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). It was so fascinating to go behind the scenes in the hospitals and really understand what it is like to be a doctor as you are exposed to every aspect of their workday.”

Independent Adventures Students receiving school funding certainly were not the only ones to seek out interesting opportunities over the summer. Here is a sampling of some other go-getters:

“These are camps that only a few kids from each area around the country are invited to based on tryouts held in the spring,” explains varsity coach Jon Guiffre. “They are all part of a program to track and develop players for eventual selection to the U-22 and/or full national team.”

Selection to one of the national development camps happens through tryouts within the player’s home district.

Each district sends an allotted number of its top players to the different age groups camps. Each camp includes a week of practice run by college and national team coaches and a series of games each evening.

Taking Care of Business Brendan Letarte ’07 and his friend Alex had worked summers on Nantucket for a number of years and found that they worked very hard without receiving much more than minimum wage. So, they decided to start their own boat cleaning business, doing an activity that they both love (working outside, in the sun, on beautiful boats), devising their own work schedule, and charging what they thought their time and labor was worth. “The hardest part of owning our own business was customer relations,” Brendan explains. “Seeing as how we were just two kids, one still in high school and the other a college

Going National Five members of the girls’ ice hockey program were selected for USA Hockey’s National Development Camp this summer. Senior Macie Winship attended the 17/18-year-old Festival—the highest level of national development—before being selected to the U-22 team. Along with her at the 17/18 camp were this year’s captain Jackee Snikeris ’07, Ashley Wiater ’07 (who remained at Taft for a PG year), and Erin Barley-Maloney ’08.

Middler goalie Becca Hazlett was selected to attend the 15/16 camp.

Taft Bulletin Fall 2006

Around the pond

m Sam Beatt ’07 with the culmination of his efforts at a guitar-building workshop in Vermont. Jon Guiffre . Spanish teacher Matt Budzyn biked 600 miles from Roncesvalles to Santiago de Compostela, Spain, last summer through the Davis Family Junior Faculty Fund.

Uppermid Sam Shiverick, in the red hat, and his group dip their front wheels into the Pacific Ocean after a six-week trip cross country that started in Tybee Island, Georgia.

freshman, we had to work extremely hard to build our reputation and satisfy our customers. We had to be as professional as possible to ensure a consistent flow of customers.” The business ran for six weeks, and they found themselves extremely busy by the end, including a 125-foot yacht that took them seven hours to clean. “We are hoping to offer our service again next summer with plans to expand the business to include car detailing.”

Playing it Cool Sam Beatt ’07 spent 14 days learning the craft of guitar building from George Martin at the Vermont Instrument Academy last summer. Martin, whose guitars usually fetch $3–6,000, started the academy to share the craft with those who are willing to spend the time and effort to create a working instrument.

Sam often spent 12 hours a day in the workshop, straining to finish his project in two weeks instead of the usual four. The sides and back are made of rosewood, the top is book-matched Australian cypress, and the fret board is ebony. Sam incorporated many fine details into the construction, laminating veneer strips into the hand-carved 10 Taft Bulletin Fall 2006

neck and headstock and incorporating delicate inlays into the front and back of the body.

“This might be one of the coolest things I ever do,” adds Sam. Going Coastal Sam Shiverick ’08 says it’s hard to explain the feelings he had coasting downhill onto Santa Monica pier in July after six weeks of cycling across the country, from ocean to ocean, knowing his parents were there waiting for him.

“I’ll never forget it,” he says. “I had a lot of motivation to finish,” adds Sam, who didn’t even own a bike when he signed up for the trip, “because there were lots of people who didn’t think I’d do it.” He admits he had some doubts of his own about riding 100 miles or more some days and spending as much as 10 hours on a bike. Sam traveled with a group of eight students and two leaders from Overland Summers, who stayed in churches or camped in tents as they crossed the country from Georgia to California. “It was great to see the country, meet lots of cool people, and learn about my own pain threshold,” says Sam. “I even learned how to cook.”

A New Spin on Faculty Funds Teachers look forward to summer vacation as much as, and occasionally more than, their students. And while some faculty worked on curriculum development or pursued advanced degrees, others found more interesting ways to keep up with their subject matter.

With support from the Davis Family Junior Faculty Fund, Spanish teacher Matt Budzyn biked 600 miles, from Roncesvalles to Santiago de Compostela, Spain. “It took about two weeks and was an amazing journey,” he says. “After everything I had experienced in the spring with thyroid cancer, I was left wondering if I was up to the task, but fortunately I was able to endure the physical challenge.” There were many memorable moments, he explains, but chief among them was the day he finished an incline “that almost killed me.

I descended about 1100 meters, which took about 40 minutes without having to pedal at all. My average speed during this descent was about 40 miles per hour, which was exhilarating.”

Faculty Awards j Carpenter Teaching Fellowship: Aurélie Miller, French j Mailliard Teaching Fellowship: Casey D’Annolfo, English j Drummond and Ruth Bell Fellowship: Jason BreMiller and Anna Hastings, English j Blinken Fellowship: Joseph Freeman, English j Davis Fellowship: Yen Liu, Chinese j Davis Family Junior Faculty Fund: Matt Budzyn, Spanish (at left) j Alice and Arthur Greer Faculty Fund: Dan Murphy, History j John Lyman Fellowship: Pilar Santos, Spanish j Lance Odden Summer Sabbatical Teachers Fund: Alison Carlson, Modern Languages Jon Willson ’82, History Department j Full-year sabbaticals: Ferdie Wandelt ’66, Admissions Jim Mooney, Science

Coach Rusty Davis celebrates a victory with the 1976 girls’ varsity soccer team.

Clemens Kalischer/The Leslie D. Manning Archives

Hall of Fame Rusty Davis was inducted into the Connecticut Girls Soccer Coaches Association Hall of Fame this fall. Davis coached the varsity girls’ soccer team from its inception in 1973 until 1994. Under his direction, the team took home four consecutive New England titles and more than 220 victories. Davis was also highlighted in Sports Illustrated’s “Faces in the Crowd” in 1992.

Otto Barker has been getting the fields ready for game time for over 40 years. He retires this month. Roger Kirkpatrick ’06

Help Wanted Imagine being married for two months when your mother-in-law tells you she’s been looking at the Help Wanted ads and

has found the perfect job for you. Well, maybe not the perfect job, but at least one that will get you off the couch. So began the saga of Otto Barker’s 44-year association with the school. Originally hired for a two-week stint, October 3, 1962, was his first day on the job. The school needed a little extra help building faculty homes on Hamilton Avenue, near the site of the Grounds building.

Easy to spot on campus, Otto wears his signature “Greens” virtually every day: green button shirt and green work pants.

He added a wide-brimmed hat a while back, to protect his head from sun as he sits atop a tractor painting lines on the fields.

In the early years, marking the fields was easy. “There were just three football fields and two soccer fields,” he explains. Otto

was there when Lance Odden introduced lacrosse to the school, and together they determined how to line the first field.

But the biggest change Otto has seen was “the addition of girls” in 1971. Otto is one of the few who worked here when Taft was all boys. His daughter Lynne became a member of the Class of ’88. “Ninety percent of my time has been good, very good,” he says. What about that other 10 percent? His bushy eyebrows furrow together as we talk in his work area, known by all as “Otto’s Garage.” “Well, in the early days some teachers didn’t treat us (the grounds crew) so well. So I told them off.

Once, word even got back to the headmaster. But that was okay, the headmaster was a friend of mine.”

—Al Reiff ’80 Taft Bulletin Fall 2006

11

Leslie Herrlinger Lanahan ’73

Around the pond New Trustees The school welcomed three new corporate members of the Board of Trustees this fall: Jim Jacobson ’62, Leslie Herrlinger Lanahan ’73, and Hank Brauer ’74.

Jacobson is vice chairman and managing director of Spear, Leeds & Kellogg Specialists, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Goldman Sachs in New York. A graduate of Trinity College, he has served Taft as a member of the Citation of Merit Committee and the Board Finance, Investment, and Audit committees. Jacobson has served on the boards of Rumson Country Day School, Monmouth Medical Center, the Children’s Psychiatric Center Foundation in New Jersey, and the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation in New York. He currently serves on the board of the Ronald McDonald House of New York. He lives in New York City with his wife Kerry.

Lanahan is a community volunteer and a former advertising and interior design executive. With her husband, she founded The Gordie Foundation in memory of her son, Gordie Bailey, Seniors Harry Weyher and Sara Partridge at the opening reception of Uniform Codes in September.

Kelly Urmston-Parish ’07

12 Taft Bulletin Fall 2006

Hank Brauer ’74

who died in 2004 of alcohol poisoning as a result of a college fraternity initiation. The mission of the foundation is to provide today’s youth with the skills to navigate the dangers of alcohol and through education and promotion of self-worth, prevent alcohol poisoning, binge drinking, and hazing. She attended Pitzer College and New York School of Interior Design and is the mother of Lily ’08. Lanahan is part of a large Taft family; her grandfather, father, uncle, three siblings, and two nephews also attended Taft. She lives in Dallas, Texas, with her husband Michael.

Brauer is a founding partner of Colony Realty Partners, LLC, a real estate investment advisory firm in Boston; an overseer of the Peabody Essex Museum; and was appointed commissioner of the Massachusetts Public

Uniform Codes Photographer Yee-Fun Yin’s exhibit Uniform Codes is a series of portraits that uses athletic imagery to explore the issues of selfhood and status. “The clothing we wear carries messages about social status, occupation, membership, and affiliation,” says Yin, “and we must know the code to understand the message transmitted. In this series, the uniform carries the message.”

Yin’s black-and-white documentary portraits are made with a large format 4x5 camera to capture details that are enlarged and emphasized in the photographs and were on display in the Mark W. Potter ’48 Gallery from September 8 to October 5.

Yin was educated at Yale and received his master’s degree in photography from the Hartford Art School at the University of Hartford. He was the recipient of the Artist in Residence Award for 2004–06 from the Milford Fine Arts Council. He now lives in Woodbury and teaches at Gateway Community College in New Haven, Connecticut.

Jim Jacobson ’62

Employee Retirement Commission. He earned his B.A from Tufts and a master’s from MIT. He is an avid sailor, lives in Marblehead, Massachusetts, with his wife Callie, and is the father of Molly ’08, Ben ’09, and Elizabeth ’10.

Yi-ming Yang ’87 also joins the board for a four-year term as this year’s elected alumni trustee (see summer 2006 issue).

Dave Kirkpatrick ’89 steps down this fall as Annual Fund chair but will remain on the board as a corporate trustee.

Holcombe Green ’87, already a member of the board, becomes an ex-officio member as the new Annual Fund chair.

Finally, the board expressed its thanks to departing members Adam Bronfman ’81, Susan Lehman Carmichael ’83, Roslyn Ford ’80, Bridget Macaskill P’02,’05, and Sally Childs Walsh ’75. Walsh served for more than 20 years on the board.

Other events in the Potter Gallery: October 13 to November 17 Barbara Grossman, Structure, Pattern, and Harmony November 28 to December 6 Photography by Kacey Klonsky ’07

January 11 to February 18 Sarah Amos, Rockwell Visiting Artist Opening reception January 12

February 28 to April 13 Student Work Opening reception March 2

April 20 to May 29 Ken Rush ’67 Opening reception April 20

The Toughest Job Teaching is one of the toughest—and least appreciated—jobs, John Merrow ’59 told the assembled faculty at their opening meeting this fall. “I’m here to remind you how much power and influence you have.”

Standing coincidentally in front of Sullivan’s portrait in the faculty room, Merrow called himself a Sullivan imitator. Merrow, who produces series on education for PBS’s Frontline, is a former teacher himself, albeit briefly, he adds. “I taught as Bill Sullivan taught me, mak-

ing my students write and rewrite. I consciously made mistakes for them to catch, and constantly demanded their best.”

“You are a bridge—not an endpoint—for the young men and women who come into your lives. You do a lot of listening. Your job is to help kids build a self—the entity that will be their constant companion for the rest of their lives. Accomplishment is the basis for self-esteem, not empty praise. You can empathize with students without lowering your standards.”

Familiar faculty This fall’s incoming faculty contained a few familiar faces. Alumna and science teacher Laura Monti ’89 returned with her husband, a math teacher, and their two children. Dana Carbone, formerly Hardy, is also back teaching in the Wu after working in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. W.T. Miller first arrived at Taft in 1996 but left to work in France for a few years and returned this fall with his new wife and fellow French teacher, Aurélie. History teachers Edie and Mark Traina will also work side by side. Mark first joined the faculty in 1998.

New faculty, front from left, Dena Torino, Mark and Edie Traina, Julia Cardozo, Tom Antonucci, and Shannon Lenz. Standing, Laura Monti ’89, Jeremy Clifford, Michael McAloon, Bob O’Connor, Laurel Waterhouse, W.T. Miller, Casey D’Annolfo, Aurélie Miller, and Greg Ricks. Dana Carbone is not pictured.

Opening Day Science teacher Manna Ohmoto-Whitfield welcomes Brooks Taylor ’10 (grandson of Dave Taylor ’43) and his parents Kristin and Don Taylor ’76.

Plenty of other alumni were on hand as well to settle their children into a new school year. For a complete list of alumni children and grandchildren at Taft, see page 42.

Taft Bulletin Fall 2006

13

He landed the fish that landed itself.

Harvard professor Farish Jenkins ’57 unearths a 375-million-year-old fossil that has been hailed as the missing link between fish and all limbed creatures.

By Andrew Rimas It was the little sarcopterygian fish that could.

An article published in Nature in April detailed the discovery of a 375million-year-old fossil in the Arctic wastes of Ellesmere Island in Nunavut, Canada. The authors claimed that the animal, called Tiktaalik roseae, was the missing link between fish and four-legged beasts—a fish that was able to propel itself up onto dry land.

Ever since, Harvard University professor of zoology and anatomy Farish A. Jenkins, Jr., one of the authors and a member of the team that found the fish, has been swamped with media and speaking requests from all over the country and the world.

“When you launch a pop icon,” says Jenkins, “the attention gets totally out of hand.”

If Jenkins is surprised at the public furor, he’s certain of the significance of his team’s discovery. “It’s a fish at the beginning of the transition to land. It’s very important.”

There is something of the artillery officer about Jenkins, 66, with his trim moustache, his waistcoat, and his immaculate diction. In fact he did serve a stint in the Marines after graduating from Princeton, but he’s been ensconced as one of the guiding lights of Harvard’s organismic and evolutionary biology department for more than 30 years.

“I was always interested in anatomy and how things work,” he says. His office is tastefully decked with skulls, models of the inner workings of beasts, and photos of East African wildlife.

Jenkins taught anatomy at Harvard Medical School for three decades, and he’s got a particular liking for vertebrate evolution.

As well as being a teacher, Jenkins is a member of the exploratory breed of scientists that once flocked to the dark corners of 19th-century maps. He talks with equal gusto about “calcitic nodules” and the life of Otto Sverdrup (a late 19th- early 20th-century Norwegian polar explorer), and it’s with justifiable pride that he shows off his fossil-hunting tools—heavy hammers and chisels, and a pickaxe-cum-walking-stick. He’s carried them from South America, Africa, and China, of course, to the Arctic.

14 Taft Bulletin Fall 2006

The cover of Nature celebrates the discovery of a 375million-year-old fossil

by Jenkins and his team that represents an intermediate between fish with fins and tetrapods with limbs.

Farish Jenkins with Tiktaalik roseae, one of several fossils of a previously undiscovered species of fish that range from four to nine feet long. Scientists have hailed the team’s find as an evolutionary milestone. “It’s a fish at the beginning of the transition to land,” Jenkins says. “It’s very important.”

Ted Daeschler, Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia

“I have always loved the outdoors,” he says. “I disappear regularly in the summer. My wife is very forbearing of my tendency to explore.” He speaks fondly of the rigors of living on Ellesmere Island, where he returned this last summer to excavate Tiktaalik’s hindquarters. “I love the tranquility, the quietude.” Even so, July is the only month of the year when Ellesmere’s snowfall and winds aren’t utterly prohibitive for fossil-diggers, and where the cuisine isn’t quite to the standards of the Michelin guide.

“Everything is freeze-dried and rehydrated,” says Jenkins, “because helicopters are very weight limited. The only wet things we carry are salamis, cheeses, and booze.” After a day in the field, the team returns for cocktail hour and their one hot meal, but mostly they subsist during the day on chocolate, crackers, and cheese. “When we shop for these expeditions, you’ll see three guys running through the supermarket: One will have a shopping cart full of nothing but candy bars. Another with a mound of crackers. And a third with field season’s supply of toilet paper, some 70 rolls or more.” The toilet paper, apart from the obvious use, is considered

fact sheet

hobbies:

family:

Wife, Eleanor, and two adult children, Henry ’84 and Temperance, and two granddaughters.

hometown:

Arlington, Massachusetts.

Also a farm in Eaton, New Hampshire.

One morning in 2004, Jenkins’s team discovered enormous polar bear paw tracks on a sandbank not 60 feet from their tents, so one of his colleagues made a plaster cast. “The irony was,” Jenkins smiles, “that although we didn’t know it at the time, in our expeditionary cargo, we had the fossil that was the progenitor of all hands, hooves, wings, flukes, and, of course, paws.”

16 Taft Bulletin Fall 2006

On his farm, Jenkins grows antique varieties of apples and makes champagne cider. “Apples are very demanding. You have to prune them, spray them, pick them, and fence them against the ravages of deer and porcupines. Porcupines are my worst enemies. They got out of South America during the Pliocene, when the two continents hooked up, and have spread everywhere ever since...”

on professional competitiveness:

“The tendency for scientists to engage in internecine conflict is inversely proportional to the availability of data. Physicists don’t kill each other because they have the entire universe to work with. Nobody owns all the particles in the cosmos. But if you own East Africa, you’re the anthropological king.”

favorite indulgence when in the field:

A sponge bath in a pail of heated glacial water.

to hear him speak:

Jenkins will deliver the Ermine Cowles Case Memorial Lecture at the University of Michigan on January 23: “From Fins to Limbs: Discovery and Evolutionary Significance of Tiktaalik roseae.”

by paleontologists as an essential for wrapping delicate fossil specimens.

With global warming melting the sea ice, polar bears are becoming more of a danger. One morning in 2004, Jenkins’s team ventured out to discover enormous paw prints, bigger than a human face, on a sandbank not 60 feet from their tents.

“I’m one of the few Harvard faculty members licensed by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to bear Class A firearms,” he laughs. Shotguns delivering one-ounce sabot slugs are a necessary precaution, but Jenkins would have liked to introduce watchdogs to this year’s expedition. “We’re very concerned that we’re going to have more encounters.”

One of Jenkins’s colleagues made a plaster cast of the giant paw print. “The irony was,” he smiles, “that although we didn’t know it at the time, in our expeditionary cargo at that moment, we had the fossil that was the progenitor of all hands, hooves, wings, flukes, and, of course, paws.”

This article originally appeared in the Boston Globe and is reprinted with permission of the author.

At a health clinic in South Darfur, Landegger meets with a woman who had to walk more than 30 miles to reach the camp.

She was a grandmother, she said, but her three grandchildren were killed and her daughter had been seriously wounded due to sexual assault.

hope in the face of catastrophe

By Brady Dennis

A young humanitarian works to make a difference in Darfur and Pakistan

S

he has spent her days navigating the globe, from one hell to another. A war-torn country here. A humanitarian crisis there. Everywhere, scenes of hopelessness and desperation.

Justine Landegger ’00 has seen what most people try hard not to see—hunger, poverty, homelessness, disease, death. But time after time, she ventures into the darkest corners of the world, hoping to spread light through humanitarian aid.

Never has she found herself in darker or more daunting places than during her past two assignments—in the Darfur region of western Sudan and, these days, in the most troubled areas of Pakistan.

She currently works for the International Rescue Committee, a nongovernmental organization that provides food, education, water and sanitation, health care, job training, and other services to parts of the world ravaged by conflict.

Her passion for helping others began early. Landegger, the youngest of five children, grew up in a family that traveled far and often—Europe, South America, New Zealand, the Caribbean. No matter the place, she saw poverty and need.

She says a trip to Africa when she was 7 remains vivid in her memory. While everyone else searched for safari animals, she wanted only to play with the village children. She gave them her pens and paper. She reveled in the smiles on their faces.

“My parents had to keep dragging me out of the villages,” Landegger, 24, recalls.

While still at Taft, she began volunteering with Camp AmeriKids, based in Carmel, New York, a summer camp for

children living with and affected by HIV/AIDS. After that, she said, “I decided that all I wanted to do with my life was play with little kids, internationally.”

She set out to do that and much more.

At Georgetown University, she designed her own major focused on global health and development, while still finding time to become captain of the crew team. She earned a master’s certificate in Refugee Studies and Humanitarian Affairs. She volunteered with various aid organizations and traveled to Nicaragua, Guatemala, the Dominican Republic, and Bulgaria.

By November 2004, she found herself in Darfur, a region that even today teeters on the brink of catastrophe from years of conflict and genocide. A sense of urgency pervaded daily life. People “didn’t know if they were going to be killed tomorrow,” Landegger said. Entire villages vanished.

“I found it much worse than I expected,” she said. “It was very, very bleak.”

She stayed a year. After four months back home, it was off again, this time to the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. She now spends her days working with both Afghan refugees and the victims of the October 2005 earthquake that struck northern Pakistan, leaving thousands of people dead and millions homeless.

While the people of Pakistan don’t live under the daily threat of slaughter, as in Darfur, vast need still exists. A year after the earthquake, “People still don’t have shelter,” Landegger said in a recent telephone interview from Pakistan.

On a personal level, everywhere she goes, danger lingers.

She can’t go anywhere alone and rarely wanders out after Justine Landegger ’00 takes a break from her work at an Afghan refugee school in the Pakistani city of Peshawar.

18 Taft Bulletin Fall 2006

dark. She wears a headscarf and owns a burqa, though so far she refuses to wear it. She is 6 feet tall, blonde, and an American Catholic in a Muslim society.

“I don’t blend very well,” she said, laughing.

Always, there is worry back home in Ridgefield, Connecticut, too. Landegger’s siblings all have “normal” jobs—psychologists, businessmen, homemakers. Her parents view their youngest daughter’s work with ambivalence.

“From my perspective, it’s a combination of pride in her willingness to sacrifice for others and concern she may be making the ultimate sacrifice,” said Justine’s father, George Landegger, CEO of Parsons & Whittemore, one of the world’s largest producers of pulp used in papermaking.

“She’s in very dangerous places,” he said. “I’m afraid she will be kidnapped because she’s a woman or that she will be killed because she’s an American.”

But beneath his fear lies an abundance of contentment.

“I think what she’s doing is an extraordinary thing,” he said. “I plan to mention her name when I get to the pearly gates and see Saint Peter.”

Mr. Landegger said he will sleep better when his daughter is out of harm’s way. He won’t be sleeping well anytime soon. She’ll finish her work in Pakistan in time to come home for Thanksgiving. But in 2007, she plans to spend another six to eight months working in northern Uganda, where a 20-year war has left behind a trail of mutilated victims, child sex slaves, child soldiers, and displaced families.

Landegger knows plenty of detractors criticize the work she does. She’s heard herself and those like her referred to as

tree-hugging do-gooders.

“I get very frustrated with that,” she said. “I would challenge them to actually come out and see” the work the dogooders do.

When she talks about the critics, she likes to tell the parable of the starfish. It goes like this: One morning an elderly man is walking on a nearly deserted beach when he comes upon a boy surrounded by thousands of starfish. The boy is eagerly picking up the starfish and throwing them back into the ocean.

The old man, world-wise and jaded, looks at the boy and says, “Little boy, what are you doing?”

The boy answers without looking up, “I’m trying to save these starfish, sir.”

The old man chuckles. “Son, there are thousands of starfish and only one of you,” he says. “You can’t possibly make a difference.”

Holding a starfish in his hand, the boy turns to the man, tosses the starfish into the water and says, “I made a difference to that one.”

For now, Landegger says, it’s enough to travel the world, from one hell to another, throwing starfish.

“It’s not a normal job, but it works,” she said. “This is where my heart is.”

Brady Dennis is a reporter for the St. Petersburg Times in Florida.

His story on Oliver Spencer ’85 appeared in the summer issue.

After spending the day building shelters in the local community, Landegger watches a huge rainbow fill the valley at sunset—her best day in Pakistan so far.

Taft Bulletin Fall 2006

19

Life Anew

Veena, Kiran, Anjali, Arpita, Neha, and Rachna are among the 63 children who live at the Sri Ram Ashram, created in 1984 to help orphaned and destitute children in India. Rashmi Cole

C alifornia schoolteacher W ard M ailliard ’ 6 5 adopts an orphanage - school in I ndia

By Julia Feldmeier ’99

Ward Mailliard and Savita. His wife and he have helped take care of her since she was 8 months old.

M

eet Ward Mailliard. Son of the late U.S. Representative William Mailliard of San Francisco. Husband of 27 years to Kranti Mailliard. Father to none.

Let us clarify: None that he calls his own. None by blood.

Because there is Soma, the 13-year-old girl who, as an infant, was abandoned in a temple. There is Prabha, now 17, dumped in a horse trough 16 years ago. And there is young Arpita, who at age three was found with her arms broken, belly distended, and cigarette burns on her face and in her ears.

These, one might say, are Mailliard’s children. They are children of the Sri Ram Ashram, a nonprofit created in 1984 to help orphaned and destitute children in India.

When Mailliard visited India in 1986, the ashram had just received its first children and had only a small staff to care for them. It was his first trip to Asia, a journey borne out of curiosity about another culture. “The project was kind of an excuse to go to India,” he says. “I had no idea that I would get this involved.”

Twenty years later, there are 63 children and 16 fulltime staff, most of them Indian, who live on Sri Ram’s 16 acres of farmland, plus an additional 30 staff who teach at the school. Across the road from the campus is a national preserve—a jungle with wild elephants, cheetahs, and monkeys. A mile north, the Ganges flows out of the foothills of the Himalayas. It’s an area of India filled with life, and at the ashram, it’s life anew.

j j j Every January, Mailliard and his wife leave behind their friends and colleagues in Watsonville, Calif., where Mailliard teaches high school social studies at the Mount Madonna School, a K–12 private day school, and head to Uttaranchal, India, for a two-month stay at the Sri Ram Ashram. This cements their attachment to the place.

“We’re there as a built-in audience—we’re witnesses to their growing up,” Mailliard says of his visits. They have afternoon tea with the children and supervise their study hall.

They catch them when they come down the slide and watch them compete in cricket matches. They play with the infant orphans, changing their diapers and watching over them as if they were their own.

“There’s a relationship there which is more like family,” Mailliard says. “You couldn’t imagine not caring or not being interested in that child and her future. You couldn’t abandon someone after that.”

Unlike typical orphanages, the Sri Ram Ashram does not adopt its children out. It’s an easy answer to the complications of adoption and makes the ashram a destination, not a way station. Typically, they seek to take children under the age of 8 who are truly destitute—those without parents and without hope. Background checks are run to make sure that the children really are in need; some parents, recognizing that the quality of life at Sri Ram is superior to that of their

“We’re not orphans anymore,” children at the ashram explain. “ W e h av e a h o m e . ” Sri Ram does not adopt out children, but acts instead as their guardians— their family—until they’re grown.

Taft Bulletin Fall 2006

21

E v e r y y e a r Wa rd M a i l l i a rd ’ 6 5 and his wife Kranti spend two months with the children at the orphanage.

They catch them when they come down the slide and cheer them on in cricket matches, watching over them as if they were their own. “ W e ’ re there as a built- in audience — we ’ re witnesses to their growing up, ”

home, have tried to sneak their child into the orphanage.

Until recently, a sign hanging above the entrance to the main building read, Anath Shishu Palan Trust—which roughly translates as “a place for destitute and orphaned children.”

The children pointed to the sign and asked that it be painted over, Mailliard recalls. We’re not orphans anymore, they said.

We have a home.

“We support them all the way through,” Mailliard says.

“We’re just now starting to put our first kids into college over there. If it’s trade school, we send them off to trade school. If it’s marriage, you arrange the marriage. Just like any family would.”

The Sri Ram Foundation, which runs the orphanage, is a sister organization of the Mount Madonna Center, the 355acre retreat dedicated to personal growth and spiritual development where Mailliard lives, works, and serves as president of the nonprofit corporation board. The Sri Ram Foundation, the Mount Madonna Center, and the Mount Madonna School, where Mailliard teaches, are under the umbrella of the Advaita Society, formed by a group of individuals with a shared interest in yoga and meditation. India, the birthplace of yoga, seemed a natural location for the Advaita Society to launch a new public service enterprise.

j j j

j j j

In addition to the ashram, the Sri Ram campus houses a school and a medical facility that are open to residents of the nearby village and town. In 2001, a 5,000-square-foot medical center was erected to provide free outpatient care and dispense basic medicines at a nominal cost. The school serves nursery classes through 12th standard and is accredited by India’s Central Board of Education. There are more than 500 students enrolled, making the school a melting pot of children from the orphanage, the commerce-based town, and the agriculture-based village.

“India is a very layered and stratified culture,” Mailliard says. “Bringing these kids together, you get this wonderful mosaic of people all being educated at the school.”

There are many people involved in making the orphanage a success, of course, and Mailliard is quick to deflect credit from himself. Still, there is praise to be sung.

Raman Bhatia, the head of polio eradication for all of India for the International Rotary Foundation and a vicepresident of the Sri Ram Foundation Trust in India, calls Mailliard “untiring and relentless” in his efforts to improve the ashram. Most notable is his diplomacy.

“All this requires frequent visits to government and tax authorities,” Bhatia explains, “and no one can beat Ward at this. He is good: diplomatic, suave, and knowledgeable and gets the job done. All for the sake of the children ‘adopted’ as their very own.”

22 Taft Bulletin Fall 2006

A rpita , o n e o f 6 0 c h i l d r e n w h o l i v e a t S r i R a m , was found with her arms broken, belly distended, and cigarette burns on her face and in her ears.

Two of the children from the Sri Ram Ashram—Prabha and Soma, the abandoned girls mentioned earlier—are now students at the Mount Madonna School in California. Prabha, 17, is a senior; Soma, 14, is in 8th grade. This is their third year here in America; they live at the small boarding school facility on Mount Madonna’s campus. On the phone, they are mature, confident and impeccably articulate.

Moving to California was strange at first, they say, and they miss India and their siblings at the ashram—though they know that this is an invaluable educational experience for them. They point out the differences between the cultures: Students are more encouraged to express themselves academically in the States, but they are less respectful of each other and their teachers. And here in the States, they say, people want stuff that they don’t need. Which is not to say that the girls don’t enjoy the iPods and the cell phones they now possess, but, as Soma says, “I didn’t have that much stuff in India, and I was happy.”

They attribute that happiness to the ashram. They’re both well aware of the life they might have led had Sri Ram not taken them in. “When I would go into streets in town I would see all these beggars and homeless kids, and I would think, ‘That would be me begging,’” Prabha says. “You feel really privileged when you’re provided with all that and you have a lot of people to love you. It’s good knowing you’re loved even though you have nothing in this world.”

Soma agrees. “If I were not brought into the ashram, I

would consider myself a nobody in the world—I don’t think I would make a difference. [Now] I feel like I could make a change and actually do something for the people out there who I would have been.”

Part of the experiment of bringing students over to study in the United States, Mailliard says, is to familiarize them with both school systems in hopes that, ultimately, some of the children who grow up in the ashram will be the ones who run it.

Every other May, Mailliard brings a group of about 20 students from the Mount Madonna School to Washington, D.C., as part of his Government in Action program, where students interview government officials, members of the media, and other national figures. Prabha went on the expedition last spring, when the group met with Robert Zoellick, then the deputy secretary of state.

Prabha sat two seats down from him, listening intently and asking questions. Prabha: Once a baby thrown away, left in a trough. Prabha: Now a confident, articulate young woman conversing with the number two person in the State Department.

“I was having a moment there, thinking how strange life is. That you could move that distance in a lifetime,” Mailliard says. “It was just a really profound experience to realize the potential when you reach out, how a life can be changed.”

Julia Feldmeier ’99 is a writer in Washington, D.C.

The Sri Ram Ashram sits on 16 acres of farmland, across the road from a national preserve with wild elephants, cheetahs, and monkeys.

A mile north, the Ganges flows out of the foothills of the Himalayas.

I t ’s a n a r e a o f I n d i a f i l l e d w i t h l i f e , a n d a t t h e a s h r a m , i t ’s l i f e a n e w.

Kate Brooks

Lebanese As I walked to class, I was pushed down by the shock waves caused by a bomb. I collected myself, not understanding what had happened and continued on my way, but with each step I took, my journalistic curiosity grew stronger: “What if this is something important?” I thought. I turned around and walked nearly a mile toward the billowing cloud of smoke rising in the crisp blue sky of an early spring morning in Beirut.

It was February 14, 2005, and as I looked at the burning wreckage, emergency services raced through the amassing crowd carrying bodies on stretchers, while police officers and newly arrived soldiers staved off astonished onlookers.

I called ABC to file a radio report: former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri had been killed.

I resigned from ABC News in 2004 to move to the Middle East, after five years working in news in New York 24 Taft Bulletin Fall 2006

and London. My aim was to develop my own understanding of the Arab world. The oversimplified way network news depicted Middle Eastern culture conflicted with my childhood impressions of the Arab world in Morocco, where I in part grew up. There had to be more to the story than what we were offering the American public.

And there was. Soon after arriving in Lebanon where I had signed on to a new life as a master’s student of Middle Eastern Affairs, Hariri’s assassination threw me back into the fold of news, but with a twist. This time I was to work as a freelance journalist for print and on the Internet, while attending graduate classes.

The ensuing political turmoil gave my lectures a reallife dimension, and journalism sent me out in the streets to speak with people.

Days MARWAN NAAMANI/Getty Images

By Irina Prentice ’94

Taft Bulletin Fall 2006

25

Both as a student and a foreign news journalist, the unfolding events in Lebanon of: political struggles, demands for greater democracy, journalists’ assassinations, bombing campaigns, and most recently war with Israel, proved to be intellectually engaging, physically and emotionally trying and professionally fascinating.

Writing from Paris, I am taking stock of the events before returning to Lebanon to finish my degree. It would seem that no battle fought is ever black and white, and justification for war should be regarded from all sides with skepticism.

A Glimpse of Reporting In a War Zone

After helping set up ABC’s bureau in Beirut, while field producing stories on the escalation of the war in Lebanon, I was sent to the front in south Lebanon to field produce for their rotating news teams.

Last July, on my third day in the ancient city of Tyre— built on a promontory jutting into the Mediterranean about 15 miles north of the Israeli border—we attended a mass burial of 82 victims killed in the surrounding areas of the city 10 days into the conflict.

As the morning became afternoon, the army drove the bodies to a mass grave dug out near the army headquarters about a half a mile away from the hospital. Soldiers laid the coffins one after the other along the bottom of the 400-yardlong pit. The pungent smell of death was nauseating.

Watching the coffins disappear under mounds of dirt only increased the journalists’ determination to get out to surrounding hills, by then inaccessible because of the heavy artillery, aerial, and naval shelling pounding south Lebanon.

Within a few days, the opportunity arrived.

One morning, I was woken by the bellowing voice of my cameraman Vladimir: “Irina, massacre in Qana.” His news woke the whole house, which included members of Norwegian and Danish TV. Shelling or no shelling, we were determined to go to Qana.

Swinging by to pick up the rest of the ABC crew, we caravanned out through the hills to Qana, the ancient place where Jesus turned water into wine.

Once in town, we drove through windy streets over shards of glass shattered by the pressure of the bombs. As we neared the site of destruction, we went on foot in search of the targeted house.

26 Taft Bulletin Fall 2006

On the way, Red Cross workers and the army carried dead women and children between the ages of 3 and 12 on stretchers.

The site itself was impressive.

Floors of the house had collapsed, and emergency workers crawled below slanted concrete slabs, digging out bodies wedged in the rubble made up of heavy dusty concrete blocks and protruding metal wires.

The scene was important not only as a record of a human calamity, but also from the perspective of news. It was the first piece of reporting that permitted journalists to confirm descriptions we had been hearing from refugees.

Regardless of the political lean of the family apparently related to high-ranking Hezbollah members, the reality was that women and children had been killed in the attack.

Once the footage and standups were shot, we headed back to Tyre to wrap up the news of day, but the drive back was not reassuring as artillery thudded loudly in the hills nearby.

The following day, after the news of Qana drew enough international attention to coerce the U.N. into action, a temporary cessation of air strikes was granted. Emboldened by the news, we headed south to Tibnine.

The material destruction superseded even what we had seen in Qana. The center of the old town had been flattened.

As the crew marched ahead to film the rubble and shoot some standups with ABC correspondent Wilf Dinnick,

At the scene of a missile launcher destroyed by an Israeli airstrike on the eastern outskirts of Beirut.

I spotted an old lady poking her head out of a doorway.

Jamila explained to me that she was staying alone; her family had fled to Beirut. The explosions 120 feet away from her house were thunderous, she said. Since then she spent her nights at “the hospital near the southern gate of the city.”

“Hospital?” I thought, “We should go.” I alerted the crew.

We left the eerily deserted and destroyed neighborhood.

The contrast between the empty center and the bustling street by the hospital was remarkable.

The street was bustling, but not with the movements of a regular day. Rather it was teeming with refugees who had walked up from Bint Jebel, a town at the heart of the Hezbollah/Israeli war.

Exhaustion, stress, and fear resounded in the voices of the people whose stories we listened to. People had been holed up in houses for 18 days, terrorized by the fierce fighting.

A 16-year-old girl explained to me in fluent English: “We simply couldn’t take it anymore, so we decided to leave.”

Civilians sitting around two elevated pumps in the gas station described the journey took three hours by foot.

As I looked around absorbing the scene, I realized that the street was filled with old ladies, wounded men, mothers, maids, and children.

People either wandered around looking for rides up to Beirut, or simply sat along the street recouping before moving on to refugee centers set up in schools throughout the city. It seems that in wartime, the weak, elderly, and the lame are the last ones to escape. Moved by the refugees’ stories, we decided to go to Bint Jebel.

Bint Jebel was lifeless. The only sound we heard was the

Stephanie Sinclair

irritating buzz of the spy drone watching our movements, which at times was drowned out by artillery fire exploding in the distance. The summer breeze caused pieces of metal signs hanging from torn apart facades to groan and grind.

Our footsteps crunched through the rubble.

As we walked further into town, the magnitude of the destruction unveiled itself. The damage in the center was so great, it would have to be razed with bulldozers and built anew.

It was incredible to think that the civilians we saw in Tibnine earlier in the day had stayed here as long as they had.

On the third day of our travels in the southern hills east of Tyre, we headed out once more, this time to the Hezbollah bastion of Srifa. Like many other villages, it too had suffered massive damage, but this place was strange.

Surrounding piles of rubble where rescuers were hard at work, Hezbollah party members kept an eye on the press.

This time, recording the events seemed like an act implicated in a war of Hezbollah propaganda, whereby the press was to tell the stories of so-called innocent victims. Men claiming to have sons under the rubble looked relaxed; they did not appear distressed about their losses. It was hard to tell, but instinctively the story felt contrived.

The experience of these days spent in the field was both terrifying and thrilling. To get out in the hills to record the effects of war felt productive, but a first-hand view of war leads me to believe that destruction on a mass scale and the loss of Lebanese and Israeli lives are not necessarily constructive means to solve political differences. If anything, it appears that war is futile, as its potential outcome causes mistrust and fear, and sadly may engender more violence.

Taft Bulletin Fall 2006

27

Alumni and Their Taft Offspring The following alumni have children or grandchildren currently enrolled at the school:

John Wyman ’10, great-grandson of Tom Chrystie ’21 and grandson of Tom Chrystie ’51, arrives at school with his father, Peter Wyman.

John V. Farwell III ’14* (GGP)—Alexander I. Janeck ’10 Samuel F. Pryor, Jr. ’17* (GGP)—Peter C. Burgeson ’10, Antonia R. Pryor ’07 Charles P. Luckey ’18* (GGP)—Charlotte D. Luckey ’08 Thomas W. Chrystie ’21* (GGP)— John L. Wyman ’10, Henry T. Wyman ’07 Herbert S. Ide ’21* (GP)—William A. Ide ’09 Roth F. Herrlinger ’22* (GGP)—Scott H. Hillman ’09, Elizabeth L. Lanahan ’08 H. Wick Chambers, Jr. ’27* (GP)—Timothy R. Chambers ’07 Wilmot B. North ’30* (GP)—Benjamin W. North ’10 Dexter Barnes Blake ’33* (GP)—Charlotte G. Bromley ’08 Robert A. Campbell ’34* (GP)—Robert A. Campbell, II ’07 Condict Moore ’34 (GP)—Catherine R. Moore ’09, Emily L. Moore ’07 Livingston Carroll ’37* (GP)—David J. Carroll-Kenny ’07 Barnaby Conrad, Sr. ’40 (GP)—Helen P. Gazin ’07 Harry W. Walker II ’40 (GP)—Holland E. Walker ’07, Maude M. Walker ’09, Samuel G. Walker ’09 James I. Moore ’41* (GP)—Catherine R. Moore ’09, Emily L. Moore ’07 Spyros S. Skouras ’41 (GP)—Sophia M. Skouras ’08 George R. Lindemer ’42 (GP)—Eric L. Becker ’08 Walter C. Reisinger ’42* (GP)—Abigail B. Reisinger ’08 Eldredge L. Bermingham ’43* (GP)—Alexander N. Bermingham ’08 Henry W. Estabrook ’43 (GP)—Chelsea B. Ross ’09 Charles P. Luckey, Jr. ’43* (GP)—Charlotte D. Luckey ’08 Thomas F. Moore, Jr. ’43 (GP)—Millicent B. Moore ’10 David S. Taylor ’43* (GP)—D. Brooks Taylor ’10 Arthur T. Garfunkel ’44* (GP)—Amy L. Brownstein ’09 Lee Paul Klingenstein ’44 (GP)—Frances A. Ziesing ’09, Lee S. Ziesing ’07 Roy E. Demmon ’45 (GP)—Katharine L. Demmon ’09, A. Bailey Fowlkes ’09 John C. Geupel ’45* (GP)—Noah D. Geupel ’08

28 Taft Bulletin Fall 2006

Edward F. Herrlinger II ’46 (GP)—Scott H. Hillman ’09, Elizabeth L. Lanahan ’08 Samuel F. Pryor III ’46 (GP)—Peter C. Burgeson ’10, Antonia R. Pryor ’07 Taylor Pryor ’49 (GP)—Eleanor S. Pryor ’10 Thomas L. Chrystie ’51 (GP)—John L. Wyman ’10, Henry T. Wyman ’07 Peter R. Fink ’51* (GP)—Jeremy B. McKenzie ’09 Henry M. Gridley ’51 (GP)—Michael D. Klein ’10 John B. Allen, Jr. ’54 (GP)—Daniel A. Lepkofker ’10 David B. Root, Sr. ’55 (GP)—Jesse B. Root ’09 Jeffrey Paley ’56 (P)—Austin T. Paley ’09 John L. Allen ’58 (GP)—Chelsea L. Allen ’10 Ronald B. Reisinger ’60 (P)—Abigail B. Reisinger ’08 Gordon P. Guthrie, Jr. ’62 (P)—Joseph S. Guthrie ’07 Peter W. North ’62 (P)—Benjamin W. North ’10 Taylor J. Strubell ’63 (P)—Emma T. Strubell ’07 Gordon S. Calder, Jr. ’65 (P)—William C. Calder ’07 Thomas C. Cherry, Jr. ’65 (P)—Brian H. Cherry ’09 Richard W. Blossom ’66 (P)— Mina Blossom ’09, Carissa Blossom ’08 Wick R. Chambers ’66 (P)—Timothy R. Chambers ’07 Douglas G. Johnson ’66 (P)—Peter B. Johnson ’08 Langdon C. Quin III ’66 (P)—Adrian F. Quin ’08 Arthur F. Blake ’67 (P)—Charlotte G. Bromley ’08 Randolph G. Abood ’68 (P)—R. George Abood, Jr. ’07 Carl M. Geupel ’68 (P)—Noah D. Geupel ’08 Charles F. Gronauer ’68 (P)—Katheryn E. Gronauer ’09 Roy A. Schonbrun ’68 (P)—Stephanie D. Schonbrun ’07 Tom R. Strumolo ’70 (P)—Harriet E. Strumolo ’07 J. Keith Fell ’72 (P)—J. Keith Fell, Jr. ’08 Kenneth A. Saverin ’72 (P)—Diana L. Saverin ’09 Spyros S. Skouras, Jr. ’72 (P)—Sophia M. Skouras ’08 Samuel W. M. Thayer ’72 (P)—Katharine T. Thayer ’07

Peter and Jo Klingenstein Ziesing ’78 on opening day with their children Will, Annie ’09, and Lee ’07, grandchildren of Lee Klingenstein ’44

Sam Pryor ’46, center, escorts two of his grandchildren and a grandniece to Taft on opening day: Peter ’10 with parents Mark and Kathy Pryor Burgeson, Toni ’07, and Eleanor ’10 (granddaughter of Sam’s brother Tap ’49), with parents Carrie and Ted Pryor.

C. Dean Tseretopoulos ’72 (P)—Denisia K. Tseretopoulos ’07 Martha Stine Boyd ’73 (P)—Emily C. Boyd ’07 Jeffrey Foote ’73 (P)—Julie E. Foote ’09 Leslie Herrlinger Lanahan ’73 (P)—Elizabeth L. Lanahan ’08 Sharon G. McLaughlin ’73 (P)—Matthew P. McLaughlin ’10 Samuel F. Pryor IV ’73 (P)—Antonia R. Pryor ’07 Michael S. Stein ’73 (P)—Elena C. Stein ’09 James D. Tweedy ’73 (P)—Richard B. Tweedy ’09 Brooks Hendrie Widdoes ’73 (P)—Margaret H. Widdoes ’08 Henry G. Brauer ’74 (P)—Elizabeth M. Brauer ’10, Benjamin H. Brauer ’09, Mary O. Brauer ’08 Lawrence F. Brownstein ’74 (P)—Amy L. Brownstein ’09 David W. Griffin ’74 (P)—Julia B. Griffin ’08 Brian C. Lincoln ’74 (P)—Lysandra D. Lincoln ’07 James I. Moore, Jr. ’74 (P)—Catherine R. Moore ’09, Emily L. Moore ’07 Paul A. Sylvester ’74 (P)—Bridget K. Sylvester ’08 George D. Utley III ’74 (P)—Hannah D. Utley ’07 Gilford B. Walker ’74 (P)—Maude M. Walker ’09, Samuel G. Walker ’09 Robert C. Barber ’75 (P)—Martha J. Barber ’08 Amy Estabrook-Ross ’75 (P)—Chelsea B. Ross ’09 Peter A. Frew ’75 (P)—Garnett M. Frew ’10 Andrew J. Klemmer ’75 (P)—Austin G. Klemmer ’07 Daniel K. F. Lam ’75 (P)—Adrienne P. Y. Lam ’07 Todd W. Luckey ’75 (P)—Charlotte D. Luckey ’08 Lisa Reid Mayer ’75 (P)—Drew W. Mayer ’08 Peter F. Moore ’75 (P)—Millicent B. Moore ’10 Joshua A. Quittner ’75 (P)—Ella J. Quittner ’09 Elizabeth Brown Van Sant ’75 (P)—Mary Jennings Van Sant ’09, Elinore F. Van Sant ’07 W. Dewees Yeager III ’75 (P)—Jane B. Yeager ’10, Benjamin B. Yeager ’07 Robert C. Campbell ’76 (P)—Robert A. Campbell II ’07 Katharine Herrlinger Hillman ’76 (P)—Scott H. Hillman ’09

Ann Magnin ’76 (P)—Elena C. Stein ’09 Donald B. Taylor ’76 (P)—D. Brooks Taylor ’10 Karen Kolpa Tyson ’76 (P)—Nicholas C. Tyson ’09 Eric D. Albert ’77 (P)—Jamie E. Albert ’08 John W. Biedermann ’77 (P)—Max P. Biedermann ’08 John S. Brittain, Jr. ’77 (P)—Allison R. Brittain ’10 Matthew Bronfman ’77 (P)—Eli M. Bronfman ’07 Bridget Taylor ’77 (P)—Elias P. Coston ’08 Michael D. Zucker ’77 (P)—Benjamin H. Zucker ’09 James S. Birmingham ’78 (P)—Catherine N. Birmingham ’09 Laura Weyher Hall ’78 (P)—Hillary B. Hall ’10 Elizabeth Christie Hibbs ’78 (P)—William C. Hibbs ’08 Mark I. Janeck ’78 (P)—Alexander I. Janeck ’10 Alix Manny ’78 (P)—Samuel M. Colburn ’09 David B. Root, Jr. ’78 (P)—Jesse B. Root ’09 Joanne Klingenstein Ziesing ’78 (P)—Frances A. Ziesing ’09, Lee S. Ziesing ’07 Jonathan D. Albert ’79 (P)—Sarah B. Albert ’09 Charles J. Demmon ’79 (P)—Katharine L. Demmon ’09 K. Gregg Douglas ’79 (P)—Colin T. Douglas ’09 Nancy Goldsborough Hurt ’79 (P)—Nicolas A. Hurt ’09, Cai S. Hurt ’08 William V. A. Metcalf ’79 (P)—Schuyler V. Metcalf ’09 Amy E. Upjohn ’79 (P)—Elizabeth K. Brey ’08 Charles E. Allen ’80 (P)—Chelsea L. Allen ’10 Louis W. K. Lam ’80 (P)—Alfred C. Lam ’09 Nancy Demmon ’81 (P)—A. Bailey Fowlkes ’09 Shawn D. Brazo ’82 (P)—Zachary A. Brazo ’09 Nikko Peterson Thompson ’83 (P)—Olabisi O. Thompson ’09 Hadley Fink Tolliver ’83 (P)—Jeremy B. McKenzie ’09 Joseph O. Dillard ’84 (P)—Joseph O. Dillard, Jr. ’09, Monisha R. Dillard ’08 *deceased

Taft Bulletin Fall 2006

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From the Archives

Having a great time— wish you were here…

Well, maybe, maybe not.

But in the time before e-mail and attached photos, the picture postcard was a quick way to stay in touch and share an image. You could dash off a casual message without incurring the social commitment of a telephone call or perhaps a letter.

Even without their messages, these postcards from the school archives contain a wealth of information.

The former Warren House hotel served as the school’s main building during its first two decades in Watertown. The scrawled message, posted October 2, 1906, and mailed for one cent, reads: St. Paul’s—7, Taft—0.

Have been sick since the game. Will write soon. Not hurt much. Jack

The Annex dormitory, across the street where the parking lot is now, was the first major structure Horace Taft built for the school. Note the elm trees, which all but died out in the 1960s (two mature elms remain on campus), the tennis court, and the early automobile on an unpaved Route 6.

The commodious infirmary, now a girls’ dorm known as Mac House, was touted in the 1930 catalog as “a 40-bed, fully equipped hospital [including] an isolation ward for contagious diseases…and an operating room.” Built in 1927, it served a school of 300 students.

Apparently, the memory of losing two boys to the 1919 flu epidemic was still fresh in Horace Taft’s memory.

Many alumni will remember the white wooden fence, which provided an exclusive perch for seniors as they contemplated their lives beyond the Taft School campus.

If these or any other photos prompt stories of campus life, please let us know!

—Alison Gilchrist Picton The Leslie D. Manning Archives 30 Taft Bulletin Fall 2006

“At first I thought pointillism had made a comeback, but then I realized it was only 72 dpi *….”

So how do you submit great digital photos to the Bulletin and have them look fabulous in print? touch that file! We want 3.) Send the photo as a .jpg or a 1.) Set your digital camera to the 2.) Don’t it exactly as it comes out of the .tif file attached to an e-mail. If highest “image quality” setting, usually “Fine.” (First clue, the number of photos you can fit in the camera will be smaller.)

camera. We’ll crop, lighten, resize, or sharpen it here. (Photos really hate to be tweaked twice.)

the photo has a file size smaller than 200k we’re in trouble….

Illustration by Rick Doyle

TIP for more advanced digital photographers: Size matters, sometimes.

A 900k photo might still have only 72 dpi if it’s sized at 17 by 22 inches. It’s much better to teach your camera to take smaller images at 300 dpi. Resizing the file later only helps so much. (Please remember step 2 on our list.)

Please don’t send prints of digital photos. They do NOT scan well. Glossy (not matte) prints from negatives are always welcome. *p.s., dpi stands for “dots per inch.”

MUSIC FOR A WHILE A SERIES OF FRIDAY NIGHT CONCERTS IN

WALKER HALL DECEMBER 1—BILL MAYS, JAZZ PIANIST JANUARY 12—ARCADIAN WINDS JANUARY 19—FIVE PLAY, JAZZ QUINTET FEBRUARY 9—ARENSKY PIANO TRIO MARCH 2—HUDSON SHAD, MEN’S VOCAL SEXTET APRIL 20—TAFT COLLEGIUM MUSICUM ON TOUR All concerts begin at 7 p.m.

FOR FREE TICKETS AND FURTHER INFORMATION CALL THE TAFT BOX OFFICE AT 860-945-7898

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