Fall 2004 - Winter 2005

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Thacher News Fall

2004 2005 Winter

Student and Parent Survey Results n The Great Outdoors n The Big Open

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iÜÃ Fall 2004/Winter 2005 Volume XVII, Number 2 Editor Jane D. McCarthy Design Timothy R. Ditch and Jane D. McCarthy Contributors David V. Babbott, Elizabeth Bowman, Camilla Evans-Hensey, Gregory T. Haggard, John S. “Jack” Huyler, Sanford C. Jensen, Christina K. Mazzola, Richard J. Mazzola, Alisa D. McCoy, Sabina L. McMahon, Kurt R. Meyer, Sara Sackner, Joy SawyerMulligan, H. Scott Smith, and Peggy Whyte Photography Elijah Sackner Behar ’07, Eric M. Elias ’06, Darrell L. Jones, Helen Keane, David O. Kepner ’07, J. Bert Mahoney, Jane D. McCarthy, Sara Sackner, Joy Sawyer-Mulligan, H. Scott Smith, Anna M. Teague ’07, and Cheryl Winters Cover Photo Gabe Yette ’05 rumbles through the line in eight-man football. Photo by Eric M. Elias ’06 Inside Cover Photo The Barranca, January 2005. Photo by J. Bert Mahoney

Contents From the Head of School

3 Expectations Matter: A National High School Curriculum?

Campus Activities 5 One Thousand and One Arabian Nights 6 Family Weekend 8 Student Survey Results 10 Parent Survey Results 12 Silver Dollar Pickup Club 13 My Horse Tale 14 Ascending to New Heights 15 Kayaking and Climbing 16 Extra-Day Trips

The Thacher News magazine is published twice a year by The Thacher School, and is sent free of charge to alumni, parents, and friends of the School. In preparing this ­report, every effort was made to ensure that it is accurate and complete. If there is an omission or an error in spelling, please accept our apologies and notify the Head of School’s Office at The Thacher School, 5025 Thacher Road, Ojai, California 93023-9001, call (805) 646-4377, or email ­jmccarthy@thacher.org.

17 You’re a Good Man, ­Charlie Brown

Third Class postage is paid at the Oxnard Post Office.

The Great Outdoors

POSTMASTER: Please send form 3579 to the preceding address.

18 Fall Sports

27 Thomas E. “Tuck” Donnelly CdeP 1967 Relieving Hunger, One Fish At a Time 28 Andrew D. Beebe CdeP 1989 Turning the Light on Solar Power 29 Catherine A. Ruhl CdeP 1989 Managing California’s Water Supply 30 James M. Labbe CdeP 1990 Shepherding Urban Conservation 31 Allison H. Glass CdeP 1993 Researching and Conserving Charismatic Megafauna 32 Laurel S. Braitman CdeP 1996 Conserving Natural Resources

20 Snippets of News, Numeracy Puzzle

The Campaign for Thacher

35 Snippets of The Great Outdoors

21 Campaign Update: New Campus Facilities Coming

Alumni News

22 Historical Society: Shacks, Packs, and Tracks 23 Introduction to The Great Outdoors

C Printed by Ventura Printing with soy-based

24 Edward E. Eyre, Jr. CdeP 1944 A Steward of the Land

inks on recycled paper.

26 Freeman A. Ford CdeP 1959 Richard O. Rhodes CdeP 1959 An Enduring Friendship That Benefits the Environment

33 Brendan P. Bechtel CdeP 1999 Coalescing Environmental Conservation with Economic Development

NAIS MEMBER

25 N. Anthony Dann CdeP 1957 Endurance Racing

37 Class Notes 43 Bookshelf: The Big Open 44 Obituaries 46 Calendar

Head

From the Head of School

Expectations Matter A National High School Curriculum?

by Michael K. Mulligan

I

suspect that few of you have ever heard of the nation’s high school students gain of Achieve, Inc., a corporation founded the knowledge and skills they need to by our nation’s governors and business succeed in college and the work force.” leaders, but this band of public and pub- Their explanation as to why this is true: lic-minded servants has funded some very “No state requires its graduates to take interesting research on the variegated state the courses that reflect the real-world of America’s high school curriculum today. demands of work and post-secondary Their conclusions are unnerving—as if we education.” (“The Expectations Gap: A have not already heard enough bad news 50-State Review of High School Graduaabout the state of public education: Many tion Requirements.”[Achieve, Inc., 2004], of our nation’s high school-aged youth—es- p. 3) pecially those from disadvantaged backgrounds—are at great risk of neither being As we have often been told in recent years, ready to handle today’s college the old economy is out, or university curriculum, nor of USA Today reported that and the new high-tech being able to enter and contrib- university remediation economy is in. Facile ute to our increasingly technical thinkers, open-minded and complex job market. The efforts cost over problem solvers, literfolks at the American Diploma $1 billion a year. ate and critical readProject, a group of researchers are the order of the ers funded by Achieve, Inc., the Educa- day. Clear and accurate speaking, writing, tion Trust, and the Thomas B. Fordham researching (now a major factor in problem Foundation, found that “shockingly few solving), the use of reason and logic are fundamental—and ever more important— skills for surviving in today’s work place.

Geometry and at a minimum Algebra II, not to mention data interpretation, statistics, and probability, are no longer just for kids going to college. These fundamental math skills are basic to the radically evolving demands of the work place in America.

Creative and flexible thinking are essential attributes of workers in an economy that is being revolutionized by our broad access to information and mega leaps in our technological capabilities. The bottom line is that blue-collar jobs are being exported to developing nations; high tech jobs are increasingly being exported abroad to educated work forces in India and China. And America, it seems, runs the risk of losing increasing segments of our manufacturing industries and becoming home merely to the low skill demands of the service industry.

The recommendations of the American Diploma Project are straight-forward, regardless of the fearsome path our legislators will have to travel should they decide to Michael Mulligan with Annie ’08 and Joy Fall 2004 / Winter 2005

initiate radical reform: We need a national high school curriculum which requires students to take four years of English and mathematics (at least through Algebra II), because too many students are otherwise allowed to—and do—opt out of this nowessential curriculum. Upon graduation, we are told, too many high school students are ready neither for college nor the demands of the real world work place. Conversely, those who take as a minimum mathematics through Geometry and Algebra II and four years of English are significantly more likely to succeed in the work place. The American Diploma Project reports: “84% of those who currently hold highly paid professional jobs had taken Algebra II or higher. The vast majority had taken four years of English—at grade level.” (p. 5) The correlation is clear: a strong schooling in the fundamentals is clearly associated with work place success.

students across the state. What’s more, the more rigorous requirements have not resulted in the increase in dropout rates that some had predicted.” (p. 7) Expectations matter.

The bottom line? If these students do not receive a sound education in math and English, they will be headed neither for college nor a meaningful job.

This is serious business, and the statistics are alarming: Currently, only 32% of students who enter the ninth grade and graduate four years later have mastered basic literacy skills and have completed the coursework necessary to succeed in a four year college. For African Americans, this figure is 20%, and for Latinos it is just 16%. (p. 5)

Our colleges and universities, too, are The researchers also report that those stu- clamoring for high schools to insist upon dents who are not seeking a more com- a more rigorous education. The research prehensive and demanding curriculum are tells us that 30% of college freshmen are also all too often those who come from immediately placed in remedial courses to disadvantaged homes. This is not insig- learn what they should have learned in high nificant: the increasingly school. A diverse demographics of Academic competency and success whopping our nation and the influx is not just for the already successful. 4 0 % o f (especially of Latinos all college throughout large seg- Our schools have to ask for more, and s t u d e n t s ments of the US) will shift expect more, from all of our students. will have the dynamics of the realito take at ties of who can and those who will not be least one remedial course. (p. 5) That they able to participate in the American Dream. at least have this opportunity for remeThey report in “The Expectations Gap”: diation is a good thing, but problemati“What courses they take matters for all cally, it indicates troubles to come. For students but it is particularly important for one thing USA Today (2 February 2005) students of disadvantaged backgrounds. reported that university remediation efforts Taking a rigorous high school curriculum cost over $1 billion a year. And as the Dithat includes math at least through Algebra ploma Project reports, many of those kids II cuts the gap in college completion rates who come to college behind, stay behind. between white students and African-Ameri- They are less successful in college; they are can and Latino students in half.” (p. 6‑8) less likely to graduate. The report notes: “Three-quarters (76%) of students who Half is big. require remediation and nearly two-thirds (63%) of those who require one or two The good news is this, however: require remedial math courses fail to earn degrees. minority kids to take a rigorous curriculum In contrast, two-thirds (65%) of those and they will respond. Expectations, not sur- who do not require remediation complete prisingly, matter. The Achieve folks report: associate’s degrees or bachelor’s degrees.”

“The San Jose Unified School District in (p. 5) California recently showed dramatic results after it required all students to take the A-G We have some work to do. curriculum required for admission to the University of California system. Between Is it too much to require that the prepon1998 and 2002, test scores of African-Ameri- derance of American high school students can eleventh graders increased nearly seven take four years of English and at least three times as much of those African-American years of math inclusive of Algebra II and

The Thacher News

Geometry? Shouldn’t we, as the Diploma Project authors recommend, insist that this be the minimum expectation of an educated, meaningfully employed citizen in this Republic?

Here is the amazing thing: I bet you thought that the great majority of the American high school youth were already enrolled in these fundamentally important high school courses. Not the case. No state, understandably, requires that every student take a college- and work-preparatory curriculum.

In every state, however, any student can take all of the courses necessary to graduate and be entirely unprepared for college or work. (p. 10). Arkansas, Indiana, and Texas, we are told, are making the greatest headway, as all of their students will soon be automatically enrolled in a “college- and work-ready expectations” curriculum. (p.

10) Instead of having to choose this curriculum, they will have to have their parents’ and their counselors’ permission to opt out.

This is a good thing.

We need to work together to get this done.

If I have learned anything about working with kids from all backgrounds and various abilities over the last 30 years, it is this: over the long run, kids rise to our expectations. Teachers and schools who care enough to expect more of all students, those both brilliant and those who are significantly less gifted, will get a whole lot more out of their kids when they both love them well and hold them to high standards.

Kids need to feel both love and high expectations at once. One or the other will not do it. But clearly, good intentions alone will not do it. Demanding that our kids study the critical fundamentals of English and math is no longer just a good idea. It is an essential tenet of our educational principles today.

The sports analogy works here: not all teams and athletes have such talent that they can be champions. Any team and any athlete, however, can improve by leaps and bounds when instructed and pushed by a coach who has love in his heart and high standards and knowledge in his head.

Academic competency and success is not just for the already successful. Our schools have to ask for more, and expect more, from all of our students. The great majority will respond. And our great nation deserves no less. e

Play Campus Activities

One Thousand and One Arabian Nights Fall Play

Cast Ben Babbott ’05, Lauren Bangasser ’05, Britt Barnard ’07, T. J. Bermant ’05, Ian Boneysteele ’06, Belle Bueti ’06, Jeffrey Chen ’08, Alex Dotson ’07, Alina Everett ’08, Emmo Gates ’08, Billy Irwin ’06, Arthur Kaneko ’05, Yoon Kim ’06, Alexander Krey ’07, Kevin Kumana ’06, Douglas Land ’08, Ned Lederer ’05, Emily Love-Platt ’05, Logan Morrow ’06, Lucy Phillips ’08, Maya Reddy ’08, Anna Reeser ’07, Catherine Robinson ’06, Erika Satterwhite ’05, Annie Sawyer ’08, Conner Schryver ’05, Natalie Selzer ’08, Kelly Singco ’06, Leslie Sligh ’07, Cindy Sorrick ’05, Barrie Sterling ’08, Keely Walsh ’05, Anna Walter ’06, Kaitlin Walter ’05, Ariel Wang ’06, Alessandra Waste ’08, Coulter Woolf ’06, Elizabeth Woolf-Willis ’07, Caitlin Wyman ’06, and Aubrey Wynn ’06 Sound Effects Kaja Johnson ’06 and Jenny Morrill ’06 Crew Head Techie Brendan Keane ’05 Stage Manager Kirsty Mark ’05 Assistant Director Kaggie Orrick ’06 Lighting Cal Jensen ’06 Wardrobe Amanda Nonomura ’06 Props Deirdre Herbert ’06 Follow Spot Nick Wiltsie ’06 Sound Chris Gordon ’07 Painter Arthur Kaneko ’05

Director Music Director

Sanford C. Jensen Gregory T. Haggard

by Jane D. McCarthy

each beheaded the following morning before she can betray him. When he has used all the virgins of his kingdom, Shahrayar asks his loyal wazir to bring his daughter to him.

The poor man reluctantly obeys and kisses his daughter Schahrazad goodbye knowing what her fate shall be.

After they are wed, Schahrazad uses her powerful storyteller powers to lure Shahrayar along with a new tale each night, uring the week in which Thacher’s Masqu- weaving elaborate tales that replace his sorrow ers presented the Fall Play, One Thousand of betrayal and lost love with her charming and One Arabian Nights, French teacher tales, and thereby spares her life.

Katherine Halsey’s TOAD Talk centered on this story. She shared how these tales within tales came to be, how she first became intrigued with them, how they represent the whole gamut of human emotions, and how they have become a highlight of her Extra-Day Trips when read aloud around a camp fire. After reading one of the tales to set the stage and show how the tales are woven, she ended by urging everyone to see the play and become immersed in its wizardry.

D

This is the story of the addiction of an absolute ruler and the only woman who could satisfy him.

The man is Shahrayar who, after d i s c o v e ring his wife betraying him with another man, vows to never trust another woman again. After having his wife beheaded for her infidelity, he weds a new virgin from his kingdom every night, but has

The play, then, is a series of Schahrazad stories, many comic, full of energy, and pure fun, with fantastic costuming, sets, and special effects that turned the Outdoor Theatre into a magic carpet ride for the audience. Over one-quarter of the student body acted in the play and another dozen worked behind the scenes to cast a spell of wonder across the Theatre and engage the entire Community in this tapestry of tales. e

Fall 2004 / Winter 2005

Weekend Campus Activities

Family Weekend Romp-Stomping Fun

Freshmen demonstrate their newly acquired equine skills

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ue to construction on campus and having no theater, activities and venues shifted a bit for this fall’s Family Weekend. After registering on the Kidney Lawn and eating barbecued tri-tip, families ambled over to the Outdoor Theatre to watch the performing arts sampler. Some of the delicacies were the Dance Ensemble’s movements to Clint Mansell’s “Connections,” The Chorus singing Handel’s Kyrie, several madrigal tunes sung

by The Chamber Singers, and finally a few acts from One Thousand and One Arabian Nights, which were just enough to tease the audience into returning for the full production in November.

One of the weekend’s highlights was an extended Assembly period on Saturday morning that ran the gamut from a rendition of Billy Joel’s “For the Longest Time” by the Coffee Breaths (a faculty/parent/staff singing group)

The Thacher News

by Jane D. McCarthy

Will Oxley ’05 and Deirdre Herbert ’06 at the Riding Exhibition

to a student rock group’s version of Coldplay’s “God Put a Smile on Your Face,” from a senior

the dust settled, the winning shots (21 out of 25) had been fired by Ben and Brian Carter, CdeP 1974 and ’05, respectively.

Susan and Bill Oberndorf with their son Will ’08

quote about nature’s finest gift—family—to an offer to make after-school treats for Ventura County youngsters. Head of School Michael Mulligan described how the School prepares students to live in and take care of the world, even when it may appear they are insulated from global issues here at Thacher. Citing examples of alumni who have died while serving in World Wars, campaign workers, and even a TIME Magazine correspondent reporting from Baghdad, he gave examples of how Thacher offers “an education where people learn of goodness and can go out and help others.”

Families then attended mini-classes where they met teachers, discussed course curriculum, and learned how students analyze segments of novels, balance chemical equations, arrange musical harmony, argue points of view for major events in history, and solve quadratic equations. Following lunch, the Toad teams hit the fields and the courts; the Varsity Football and both volleyball teams were victorious against Mission Prep and Dunn, respectively, which helped these teams gain berths in post-season play. Out at the Trap Range, several dozen parents and their children (12 of whom were first-timers) shot at flying clay targets. When

Abby Wilder, mother of Willy ’05 and Director of Admission at a San Francisco-area school, shared her thoughts in a speech entitled, “Myths, Misconceptions, and Misunderstandings: Learning to Dig Deeper.” She debunked many societal myths about schools and encouraged those who don’t know of the value of individual schools to dig deeper and discover the opportunities available for those who enroll.

Myth #1: Public school teachers are not effective. Parents have a bias toward independent schools… when California is facing a budget crisis that has severely impacted public education, it is reasonable to be concerned when average class sizes in some schools top thirty and “extra” programs such as music, art and physical education are being cut. However, in the eye of that storm, are classroom teachers who are completely dedicated to their profession and to the children they are serving.

Myth #2: Independent schools are snobby, elitist institutions. Many teachers who make these sweeping judgments have, in fact, never set foot on the campus of an independent school…

Few of the naysayers knew that these schools had millions of dollars of financial aid available for students. Few realized that many of these “elitist” schools were in fact, more diverse ethnically and socio-economically than the public school where they were teaching.

Between classes, families helped make Snack Packs for Ventura’s Head Start program, part of a Community Service project organized by sophomore Heather Back

the quality of the students enrolled. There is significant misunderstanding regarding what diversity meant in our school community.

When we talk about building a diverse community, we mean that we would like to have a community that reflects the diversity that surrounds us—diversity of socio-economic Myth #3: If you have a child at boarding backgrounds, ethnicity, family background, school, it means that either they did something hometown, etc. Assumptions can take on a horrible at home and had to be sent away, OR, life of their own and unless you are willing the parents were so awful that the child needed to challenge them and ferret out the truth, to escape. In general, the boarding school you may find yourself acting upon inaccurate concept is much better known on the east information. coast than on the west coast. The Weekend’s grand finale featured the Kids here look mostly freshman riders on their trusty steeds really happy… at the Gymkhana Field, displaying their newly the teachers are acquired riding skills. Nary a fall or calamamazing…But ity occurred as teams of a dozen riders wove getting over that through mazes, pranced to Western tunes, and hurdle would otherwise put horses through their paces betake overcoming fore cheering friends and families. Meanwhile inertia…making some intrepid climbers demonstrated their a concerted ef- techniques of scaling Jameson Rock to gain a fort to learn, to high-level view of the equestrian events. Folget at the truth. lowing lunch, families gradually left campus, faculty shared a sigh of relief, and students reMyth #4: For turned to their studies, all with smiles of happy a s c h o o l t o memories shared throughout the fun-packed become more weekend. e diverse, there must be a sacrifice in terms of Willy ’05, Micky, Mary, Henry, and Abby Wilder following Abby’s message at Sunday’s Chapel Service Fall 2004 / Winter 2005

Section Campus Activities

The Survey Says A

ll of us at Thacher would like to thank the students and parents who took part in the fourth round of bi-annual Parent and Student surveys during the 2004-2005 school year. The responses help the School have a better understanding of parent and student needs and opinion, and how we at the School are experienced.

The surveys, developed by Thacher with help from the Pacific Consulting Group of Palo Alto, were mailed to all parents and administered to students by advisee groups last fall.

The surveys asked for feedback on over 150 components of school life, organized into 14 broad areas: Advising and Counseling; Academic Programs and Departments; Teachers and Administrators; School Culture and Discipline; Community Composition; Athletic/Horse/Outdoor Programs; Activities, Clubs, and Community Life; Arts Program; Facilities; Personal Development and Health; Communication and Involvement with the School; and Cost and Affordability.

Parents and students also rated their overall satisfaction with the School.

Highlights of 2004-2005 Student and Parent Surveys by Christina K. Mazzola and Sabina L. McMahon

Student Survey Results of Note • Questionnaires were completed by 241 students in October 2004. Surveys were admininistered by advisor groups.

• Student perceptions of The Thacher School are very favorable. The current overall satisfaction rating of 5.92 is virtually unchanged from 2001-2002. There is a tendency for students’ overall satisfaction ratings to drop as grade level increases.

satisfaction rating (5.96) on the current ­survey.

• On the current survey, Personal Development and Health offers the greatest opportunity for improving student satisfaction.

Specifically within this arena, Opportunities for Sufficient Sleep, Balance between Academic and Extra-Curricular Activities, and Pace of Life have high priority for improvement.

• Students are most satisfied with Academic Programs and Departments, which has an • Other areas offering good opportunities for improvement include School Culture and average rating of 5.99, compared with 6.03 Discipline and Activities, Clubs, and Comin 2001 and 5.87 in 2000. Teachers and munity Life. ­Administrators received the next highest

Student Satisfaction with Thacher

Parents and students rated most aspects of the School using a seven-point scale, where one equaled Very Poor and seven equaled Excellent. The survey also asked open-ended questions, which helped guide the interpretation of the responses to the rated questions.

Pacific Consulting Group also analyzed the responses to the rating questions to identify the areas that would have the greatest leverage in improving overall satisfaction with Thacher.

The Thacher News

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Average Satisfaction Ratings: Overall Arenas

Student Top Ten Highest Satisfaction (1-7 scale)

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Student Bottom Ten Lowest Satisfaction (1-7 scale)

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Item Rating Wandering as a Senior Privilege 6.68 Confidentiality Expected from Advisor 6.48 Class Size 6.44 Quality of Advisor Letters 6.24 Quality of Horse Instruction 6.20 Teacher Interest in Helping Outside Class 6.18 Advisors’ Knowledge of School 6.17 Advisors’ Awareness of Advisees’ Standings 6.15 Development of Riding Skills 6.15 Overall Quality of Teaching 6.15

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Item Rating Amount of Homework 4.39 Opportunities for Religious/Spiritual Activities 4.31 Quality of Health Center Services 4.23 Quality of Study Skills Support 4.23 Quality of HR&S Program 4.19 Breakfast Check-In 4.04 Availability of Off-Campus Activities 3.99 Quality of Weight/Workout Equipment 3.92 Size of Weight/Workout Facility 3.61 Opportunities for Sufficient Sleep 2.99

School Culture and Discipline: Pressures Please estimate the intensity of peer pressure to:

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In addition to scoring 150 components of student life, the researchers identified those components, which, if improved, would leverage the greatest increase in overall satisfaction.

Students would be more satisfied with their overall experience if the following areas were enhanced: • Personal Development and Health: Opportunities for Sufficient Sleep, Balance between Academic and Extra-Curricular Activities, and Pace of Life; • School Culture and Discipline: Feeling of Positive Morale Among Students, Friendship and Communication Among Students, and Sense of Community Among Students; and • Activities, Clubs, and Community Life:  Off-Campus Activities Availability, Availability of Weekend Recreational Activities, and Quality of Club and Activity Leadership.

Fall 2004 / Winter 2005

Parent Survey Results of Note • Approximately half (127 parents) returned the questionnaires which were mailed to them in the fall of 2004. The majority of parents (96%) had only one child enrolled in Thacher in the 2004-2005 school year, and most (70%) had only one child ever enrolled in Thacher. • Parents give Thacher an overall satisfaction rating of 6.61 on a seven-point scale. • Parents are most satisfied with the Horse Program, which has an average rating of 6.64. Teachers and Administrators received the next highest satisfaction rating of 6.61.

Advising and Counseling received the lowest satisfaction rating (5.78). All of these ratings are higher than the previous survey’s results.

Parent Satisfaction with Thacher

Item Rating Development of Responsibility and Confidence 6.69 Quality of Instruction 6.65 Overall Horse Program 6.64 Teacher Enthusiasm for Teaching 6.64 Usefulness of Quarterly Teacher Comments 6.64 Honor Code in Guiding Behavior 6.64 Overall Satisfaction with the School 6.61 Overall Teachers and Administrators 6.61 Teacher Accessibility Outside of Class 6.61 Overall School Culture and Discipline 6.58

Parent Top Ten Highest Satisfaction (1-7 scale)

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Average Parent Satisfaction Ratings: Overall Arenas

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Item Rating Availability of Off-Campus Activities 5.32 Quality of School-Sponsored SAT Prep 5.27 Quality of Dorm Rooms 5.25 Size of Common Spaces in Dorms 5.22 Availability of Common Spaces in Dorms 5.21 Opportunities for Religious/Spiritual Activities 5.15 Amount of Administrative Contact 5.04 Quality of Instrumental Instruction 5.03 Quality of Weight/Workout Equipment 4.13 Size of Weight/Workout Facilities 3.95

10 The Thacher News

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Parent Bottom Ten Lowest Satisfaction (1-7 scale)

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Cost How do you feel about the current overall cost of sending your child to Thacher

Communication and Involvement: Thacher Initiative Thacher’s level of initiative in identifying opportunities for parental involvement

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Thacher’s level of initiative in soliciting financial support

Would you recommend Thacher to a friend or relative?

Overall Impressions

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In addition to scoring individual components of the Thacher experience, the researchers identified these components which, if improved, would leverage the greatest increase in overall satisfaction. Parents would be more satisfied with the overall experience if the following areas were enhanced: • Personal Development and Health: Help­ing Students with Their Academic and Extracurricular Balance, Pace of Lives, and Managing Time and Responsibilities; • Advising and Counseling: Initiating Administrative Contact with Parents, Advisors’ Awareness of Child’s Standing, and Availability of Advisor to Student; and • Activities, Clubs, and Community Life: Providing Additional Variety of Weekend Opportunities, Clubs, and Off-Campus Events.

Fall 2004 / Winter 2005 11

Outdoors Campus Activities

Silver Dollar Pickup Club Membership Stands At 336

by Jane D. McCarthy

accounting for the inconsistent chronology on the first scroll.

The silver dollars have been made into belt buckles and a few pendants. Recently an anonymous alumnus furnished the School with several dozen 1889 silver dollars so that all recipients’ coins will honor the year SDT founded his School.

A few of the Silver Dollar Club members share their initiation experiences:

Riding Rowdy, Hill Hastings II CdeP 1966 picks up an orange at a gallop, a feat that was a precursor to the Silver Dollar Pickup

12 The Thacher News

I was blessed by having a truly great, but smallish, gray mare, Honey Bee. She was nearly as old as I was and knew more about Gymkhana than most of us. She had been trained by years of “orange” and “sack” races to turn to the left as you leaned down to pick up the orange or sack. The silver dollar was sitting on a spot of lime, and it really wasn’t much harder to pick up a dollar than it was to pick up an orange, which was Honey Bee’s and my special event.

It might have taken two or three tries the first time to get the hang of the timing, then it was something one could do with about a 75% hen Jack Huyler arrived on campus in success rate. I actually did it one time without 1949, Gymkhana took place on one end a saddle....I fell off a few times before we got —Truck Morrison CdeP 1956 of the New Field, while baseball or soc- it right.

Sun Valley, ID cer took place on the rest of the field. During winter term, the entire field was allotted to Gymkhana. Although he had ridden all his I was probably the smallest kid in the School life, Jack was amazed by one Gymkhana event my freshman year as well as in my senior year. unique to Thacher: the Orange Race in which I had a very large 14-year-old bay mare named each contestant retrieved five oranges from the Daisy, who was getting stiff in the legs but seemed to do whatever was necessary to keep ground at a gallop. me happy. I had a long talk with Daisy about Occasionally a baseball hit to the outfield the importance of getting into the Silver Dollar wound up in the equine area; the natural re- Club. She must have loped on her knees and sponse of an orange racer was to gallop out hocks. As we galloped one time around the and reach down from one side of his steed to silver dollar, I scooped it up. Daisy then stood scoop up the ball before it stopped rolling and up, now on her hooves, walked over to Jack Huyler, and I was in the Silver Dollar Club. toss it back to the players.

Having recently sat astride a horse of similar In the fall of 1952 in order to encourage par- dimensions and looked down at the distance ticipation in the Orange Race, Jack one after- between my hand and the ground I have absonoon threw down a silver dollar, loped by and lutely no idea how I ever could have picked up —Neal Howe CdeP 1969 picked it up, then stated that he would give a a silver dollar.

Sacramento, CA silver dollar to every rider who picked it off the ground at a lope. He’s been overseeing the Silver Dollar Club ever since, and mem- Jim, a smaller dark chestnut quarter horse, bership now stands at 336. Their names are and I had begun the Gymkhana season with calligraphed on two scrolls near the Margaret exhilaration. When we started working on Appenzeller Huyler Courtyard at the Library the sack race, I was excited at the possibility for all to read. Walt Foster CdeP 1950, all-time of replacing the sack with the coin. At the end high-point Gymkhana rider at that time, was back at School on that day in 1952; he was Continued on page 13 given the honor of being first to try, thereby

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Outdoors

Campus Activities

My Horse Tale Forming Partnerships with Equines

by Brendan T. Keane ’05

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aving only ridden horses at a dude ranch while growing up, the thought of spending a dozen hours each week taking care of and riding a horse wasn’t the biggest draw to Thacher for me. Thacher’s Camping and Outdoors Programs were appealing, so I figured I could handle the riding requirement. Little did I know that the riding experience of my freshman year would become such an integral Silver Dollar Pickup part of my interests that now, as a seContinued from page 12 nior, I’m applying to colleges where I of the Big Gymkhana races, all I had to do can learn how to manage my own barn was get the silver dollar and my day would be or stable. complete; however, after three trials, I came up empty-handed. The following week, with Although I learned the routine groom“Uncle Jack’s” ever-present encouragement ing, feeding, and basic horsemanship and instruction, Jim and I managed to time techniques while caring for my freshour run perfectly. I rode down with one hand man equine, Oakbar, he wasn’t the on the reins, the other gripping the horn, began nicest of horses. He’d try to bite me the turn, let go of the reins entirely and leaned if I cinched him up too tight (I got down for the reach. My hand swept through pretty good at wacking him on the the soft sand and grasped a handful of it as we nose with the lead rope) and did his went by. As I closed my hand around the dust I best to unseat me out of the saddle. He felt the edges of the coin fit into the grooves of had a lot of personality though, and we my fingers, and I knew I’d finally done it. My gradually learned how to spend some silver dollar belt buckle is now one of my fa- good time together, including the Big vorite items of clothing. It represents one mo- Gymkhana events. I also learned how to pack for the rider, too. Fortunately, I haven’t gotten ment in time when everything fell into place. horses from Mr. Warren; Oakbar and I went to hurt, yet.

—Martha C. Gregory ’06 Pattons’ Cabin together, and I also packed in It has just been in the last few years that I San Francisco, CA the Golden Trout Wilderness in the Sierra. have become interested enough in riding to I rode down towards the coin after trying and My horse during sophomore year was well- make it my life’s vocation. I am applying to failing many times. Failure is not an option for trained; Top Dog got angry with me when I the McLoughlin Horse Handling School in me so I knew I would eventually pick it up. I directed him at the wrong time or in the wrong Arizona, a year-long scholarship program for started turning the horse, leaned off, hooked manner. This is when I first realized how coor- serious horsemen that I’d like to do prior to my spur on the saddle, and reached for the dinated horses are and that to become a good heading off to college. I received acceptance dollar with an outstretched arm. At this point rider, I had to request maneuvers at the right into the four-year equine sciences program at I didn’t really care about myself, it was all or time and in the right way. This was really fun Montana State University in Bozeman; that nothing; all I wanted was to feel the silver dol- and challenging; my horsemanship improved degree covers barn and land management, lar in my hand. I felt the dirt and closed my dramatically, thanks to Top Dog’s lessons. I shoeing and packing, horse physical education, fingers grabbing a handful of dirt and pulled started barrel racing and even competed in colt breaking and training, and equine development and nutrition. Before either venture, myself back onto the horse and started riding rodeos off campus. though, I will spend some time this summer in back to the crowd of people. As the dirt started sifting through my fingers I felt something What’s so cool about riding is that each horse my family’s homeland in County Cork; Irish metal and realized it was that elusive coin. I has a unique personality, a different gait, and a horses are known as being some of the best stopped my horse and stared at the shiny metal distinct response to commands. It takes a few breeding stock in the world, and they conobject in my hands while receiving congratula- days of riding the same horse to learn all of tinue to play vital roles on working farms and tions from the other riders. I had accomplished that, adapt to the certain horse’s manner, and pleasurable cross-country jaunts as hunters my goal; I felt wonderful. Since then, whenever get the most out of its capabilities. Their gaits and jumpers.

I pass the paper that states the names of all have a particular rhythm—three-quarter time the people who had picked up the silver dol- for a canter, for instance—and if the mount I greatly respect these intelligent, coordinated lar, the memories of that moment flow back is asked to do something at the wrong time animals; I must say, I am as surprised as anyinto my mind and put a smile on my face. (when the wrong hoof is forward or the rider’s one that what started as an extra-curricular

—David B. Cook ’07 weight or position is off), it’s awkward and requirement has grown to be my life’s career Woodside, CA confusing to the horse, and can be disastrous path. e

Fall 2004 / Winter 2005 13

Outdoors Campus Activities

Ascending to New Heights

Brian K. Pidduck CdeP 1992, Director of Thacher’s Outdoor Program

L

ike many students who first arrive at Thacher, Brian Pidduck had gone camping and skiing with his family, but nothing very rigorous or challenging.

That all changed one afternoon when, under the guidance of climbing instructors Chuck Warren and Bo Manson, he climbed his first rock: “That was more fun than I’d ever had,” Brian recalls. “I was hooked.” Little did he know that this was an auspicious introduction to a sport that, in many ways, has shaped the balance of his life. Climbing every chance he got, Brian was soon proficient enough to scale sheer rock faces in Yosemite and Joshua Tree while at Thacher. And, at graduation, he and his classmate Nick Mast received the Charles Warren Alpinist Award: given to those students, in Chuck’s opinion, who possess enough outdoor and mountaineering skills—concomitant with appropriate maturity and judgment—that he would willingly put his life into their hands if need be. Now, as Director of the Thacher’s Outdoor Program, Brian is on the other side of the equation: he teaches kids to excel in wilderness skills while helping them appreciate the nuances and benefits of being outdoors.

“Spending time in the wilderness is a great way to learn about yourself and to become self-reliant,” explains Brian. “Through challenges—such as cooking over an open fire, hiking a tall pass, or weathering an unexpected storm—kids learn the extent of their innate abilities and how to care for themselves. It opens to them a life-long process of learning about themselves and nature.”

Following Thacher, Brian deferred college for a year in anticipation of traveling and gaining more wilderness skills. His first stop was the Sierra Institute, a program that focused on natural history and science of the Sierra. Then he spent six weeks as an apprentice mountain guide for an Exum Guide from Wyoming; they

14 The Thacher News

led trips throughout the Central and Western Andes. The guide suggested that Brian apprentice himself to the Exum Guides that summer; he did and soon became the youngest guide Exum had ever employed. He led technical climbs every summer in the Tetons and Wind River Range; Brian was the first to lead a trek called the Grand Traverse in which they climbed an enchainment of most of the major peaks in the Teton range in three days.

Due to his interest in biology and English at Thacher, Brian thought he would continue those majors at Whitman. Enrolling in a geology class as a freshman, however, altered that course as Brian found that everything he learned was familiar and “intuitive since we learned about all the rocks I’d climbed.”

As a senior, Brian and his climbing partner Geology Professor Kevin Pogue traveled to the foothills of Pakistan intent on mapping a portion of the Himalayas that had never been charted—which is also where Tarbela Lake, the largest earth-filled dam in the world, is located. “It happens to lie over an active fault,” Brian recalls. “If that fault ever activates, half of Pakistan will be inundated and decimated.”

Brian presented their detailed charting of the Himalayas at the US Geological Service meeting in Salt Lake City that fall.

Following graduation, Brian spent the summer as an Exum Guide before returning to Thacher to work in the Outdoor Program and to teach science. Two classmates returned to Thacher concurrently: Blossom Beatty (who had just completed her Master’s in Education at Harvard) worked as an intern in the Admission Office and taught English, and Brian Emme interned in Admissions and helped coach lacrosse. The friendship among these three flourished until Brian Emme was selected for Navy flight school and Blossom left to teach English at The Viewpoint School in Calabasas. Blossom returned to Thacher this year with a new name—Mrs. Brian Pidduck; she teaches English and advises the production of Thacher’s yearbook. Brian now teaches two sections of Advanced Placement Environmental Science and serves as the Director of the Outdoor Program. In this latter role, he oversees and coordinates all of the Extra-Day Trips twice each year and weekend camping trips throughout the year, teaches rock climbing in the fall and Continued on page 15

Outdoors

Campus Activities

Kayaking and Climbing Alternative Outdoor Pursuits

learned how to apply themselves to the vertical realm, starting first with the sandstone boulders on Thacher’s campus and then, with the fundamentals in place, moving to learning knots, hitches, belaying, and the other mechanics of safe climbing...we began to undertake more difficult climbs much earlier in the term than usual—to the local climbing areas of the Sespe Gorge, Pine Mountain, and Foothill Crag. Weekend destinations included the southern Sierra (Dome Rock, Kern River Rocks), Joshua Tree (including such intriguingly named climbs as Hall of Horrors, Lickety Splits, Lazy Day, Whispering Wall and Exorcist, and Barker Dam). Everyone, regardless of ability, learned or relearned that the satisfaction and enjoyment in climbing is proportional to the time and energy one puts into it.

Brian Pidduck Continued from page 14

spring, and directs other outdoor activities including kayaking, backcountry skiing, and mountaineering.

Thacher’s location on the edge of the Los Padres Forest and upon an alluvial plane of sand stone makes many climbing and outdoor options easily accessible. In addition to the boulders at the Gymkhana Field and the climbing wall in the gym, students can get to other climbing surfaces within a 15-to-45-minute drive, and access to Joshua Tree, Yosemite, and the Southern and Eastern Sierra for longer jaunts.

“We take neophytes with no experience, get them physically fit and conditioned for climbing (upper body strength and endurance), and teach them safety techniques and how to move their bodies in order to ascend increasingly more difficult rock faces.”

Similar instruction is available to students each spring and fall for learning how to kayak.

After much conditioning on the trails and side of the pool, students learn the basics of maneuvering and rolling their vessels in the School’s pool before taking on the nearby ocean and rivers. During extended trips last spring, some paddlers were proficient enough to maneuver through Class IV and V rapids on Brush Creek, along with the Powerhouse, and Limestone stretches of the Kern River. They also sojourned to the Salt River in Arizona for more excitement.

by Joy Sawyer-Mulligan

The climbers, led by coaches Brian Pidduck and Bo Manson, celebrated the achievements Fall Kayaking of the Most Valuable Climber, Justin Ouyang ith new faculty member Amy Elmore at ’05, and the Most Improved Climber, Julia the helm, the Kayaking Team starred a Fiske ’07. e whole raft of sophomores (Bennett Kissel, Simon Wu, Eli Behar, Joe Winters, Mark Frykman and Ryan McMorrow), two juniors (Anna Walter and Elena Penney), and one senior, Ned Lederer. Included among highlights listed by Coach Elmore were witnessing how the team rallied to help Simon and Eli fulfill their determination to do their rolls; counting all the way to 23 in the 1-minute roll contest, before Ned was done; paddling into the Ventura sunset with dolphins companionably along; inventing the game of Yak Ball; competing in slalom races for Ruben’s burritos and in biathalons in the rain. In classic sports tradition, members of the group voted on Most Valuable, Most Improved, and Best AllAround Person; Simon Wu ’07 earned all the accolades. That the team was undefeated goes, we suspect, without saying.

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When asked why Thacher focuses on the Outdoor Program, including two week-long trips each year, Brian described how relaxing and reassuring it is to spend time in beautiful and simplistic environs, surrounded by water, fresh air, rocks, and plants. He also finds his concentration piqued, especially following a difficult climb that has required incredible focus to complete. “These experiences heighten our Fall Rock Climbing senses; everything seems to be brighter, clearer, and have greater detail. It’s such a great feeling From the high peaks to the low that it’s almost addictive; I can’t wait to get out boulders, the nine participants in the Fall Climbing Program there again.” e

Fall 2004 / Winter 2005 15

Outdoors Campus Activities

Extra-Day Trips

Handling—and Enjoying—the Unexpected

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here is such a thing as camping for the city girl. It involves pristine public toilets, rustic picnic tables, s’mores, and a luxury tent with a fully inflated air mattress. All within 100 feet of the parking lot crowded with others braving the wilderness.

Thinking back, I do not remember what I expected from Thacher Extra-Day Trips. For a city girl, five days in the country marked by no more than a few vague squiggles on a slightly outdated map was beyond the feasible realm of imagination.

After my first year at Thacher as a new junior, with two hiking Extra-Day Trips under my belt, horse camping seemed an attractive choice for the Fall Extra-Day Trip of my senior year. Piling into a new Suburban with a fairly random group of four other students, a sense of apprehension grabbed at my gut.

The sagebrush dotting the desert we drove through mirrored the conversation in those first few hours: dry and sparse. As we charged up the curving mountain road leading to our first night’s campsite, however, morale and conversation grew with the altitude.

Three hours later we were sitting outside the General Store on logs eating fudge popsicles and debating the politics of our nation. Little did we know that as we spoke, our horse trailer broke down on the same mountain road that had fueled our spirits.

by Erika K. Satterwhite ’05

following vague paths through forests and meadows, losing any sign of an actual trail on the dry ground, and trying to identify our location by scouting the approximate shape of our surrounding meadows in relation to our out-dated map, turning around became the most appealing decision.

As our luck would have it, however, not even back-tracking was simple. Due to a longstanding drought in the area, our horses did not have enough grazing or water. At the suggestion of a bright group member, we crushed our granola bars and baby carrots to feed to our loyal and hungry horses.

We returned along the same route we had come, and yet everything looked different and new. The same tree, the same rock, the same hill all seemed to take on a new face as we steadily continued on. Perhaps because of this, After a cold night in our bedrolls somewhere we became lost yet again. Finding ourselves in near our original planned campsite it came to a never-before-seen clearing completely filled our attention that we did not have a compass with fresh bear droppings as rain clouds filled or toilet paper. Judging by the position of the the sky seemed to be the epitome of all that sun in the azure morning sky, we set off in a characterized our trip; we were lost, miserable, generally northerly direction in search of the and everything seemed to be the worst it could Pacific Crest Trail. possibly be.

The next few days proved to be some of the Salvation, however, is always at hand. Anmost interesting I ever hope to encounter. Sim- other Thacher backpacking trip was in the ply put, everything that could go wrong, did. same part of the country as our misfortunate grew, and with their guidance we were well Three of our horses ran away on the morning on the way back home. As we trotted along of our third day, leaving us standing on the familiar paths once again, all of the seemingly top of a rocky outpost scanning the deserted endless hours of our ill-fated trip melted into mountain meadow for any sign of life. There one large reminiscent smile. Maybe it is safer, we sat, wedged among boulders untouched by not to mention cleaner, to stay in the parking civilization, playing cards for three hours until lot campsite with the real toilets and park our horses were found and herded back. benches. But to experience the wilderness, even for a few days, is an opportunity that That afternoon we found that the trail we were should never be passed up, no matter what trying to follow did not, in fact, exist. After could possibly go wrong. e

16 The Thacher News

Play Campus Activities

You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown Winter Musical

with Schroeder and her perverse joy at tormenting Charlie Brown; Linus’s love of his blanket; Snoopy’s wild world of imagination; and the lead’s hopeless love-from-afar for the little red-headed girl. The play concludes with each character detailing his idea of what constitutes happiness.

Cast Charlie Brown Schroeder Lucy Snoopy Sally Linus

Ben Babbott ’05 Sam Felton ’05 Kaitlin Walter ’05 Isabel White ’06 Caitlin Wyman ’06 Michael Yun ’05

Dancers Heather Back ’07, Lauren Bangasser ’05, Maddie Ignon ’05, Victoria Lowe ’08, Annie Sawyer ’08, and Aubrey Wynn ’06 Band Violin Flute Piano Violin

Kaja Johnson ’06 Alex Min ’07 Julia Oh ’06 Sarah Yun ’07

Crew Head Techie Brendan Keane ’05 Stage Manager Kirsty Mark ’05 Assistant Director Kaggie Orrick ’06 Lighting Cal Jensen ’06 Sound Peter Thom ’06 Follow Spot Nick Wiltsie ’06 Props Erika Satterwhite ’05 Wardrobe Amanda Nonomura ’06, Keely Walsh ’05, and Alessandra Waste ’08 Painter Arthur Kaneko ’05 Director Sanford C. Jensen Music Director Gregory T. Haggard Choreographer Gallia K. Vickery

by Jane D. McCarthy

The beauty of the characters in this musical is that they mirror the good, the bad, the sad, and the happy realities of being human; we can all relate to being crabby like Lucy, wishywashy like Charlie Brown, a fantasizer like Snoopy, or a struggling musician like Schroeder. And, just his musical is best described as an aver- as humans, these characters don’t let adversity age day in the life of Charlie Brown. It is conquer the spirit of life; this gang of kids comprised of little moments that highlight struggles through the setbacks and finds little Charlie Brown’s life—from Valentine’s Day to triumphs that shape lives. e a baseball season, from wild optimism to utter despair—all mixed in with the lives of his friends, both human and nonhuman. The show’s vignettes that mimic the four-panel format used for Charles Schulz’s original cartoon strip, “Peanuts,” are sprinkled with songs that string together to form a day, from a bright uncertain morning to a hopeful starlit night.

T

Starting with Charlie Brown and Linus talking about their unpredictable lives’ potential, the show explores the relationships between the various characters: Lucy’s infatuation

Fall 2004 / Winter 2005 17

Campus Activities Varsity Girls’ Volleyball

Sports

Coach: Jason Burt Captains: Marguerite Kissel ’05 and Emma Werlin ’05 Most Valuable Player: Gillian St. John ’06 Most Improved Players: Lauren Church ’06 and ­Erica Puccetti ’06 Most Inspirational Player: Emma Werlin ’05

F A L L

“We met our #1 goal for the season,” reports Coach Burt, “by making it to the CIF playoffs.” After being down two games in the best out of five, Thacher rallied magnificently, and knocked off the next three games in a row. The squad had a heartbreaker of a loss to Laguna Blanca (twice a CIF finalist), losing 25-23 and 26-24—but the victory against our worthy cross-town rivals obliterated the memory, leaving in its place a most sweet remembrance and a ticket to the first round of CIF play. (There, Thacher lost to the High Desert League’s first-place team, Frazier Mountain.)

JV Girls’ Volleyball Coach: Chris Vyhnal Captain: Anjali Joseph ’07 and Molly Katz ’07 Most Valuable Players: Anjali Joseph ’07 and Molly Katz ’07 Most Improved: Adri Ryberg ’06

The JV volleyball team—15 strong—was “a hardworking, very dedicated bunch,” according to their coach. In the first game of the season, they swept Dunn in a game that included 16 kills and 21 aces.

Later on, they beat New Jewish Day Community High School’s varsity girls in a tight three-game battle.

Varsity 8-Man Football Coaches: Jeff Hooper, Eric McCarren, and ­Spencer Stevens Captains: Conner Schryver ’05 and Gabe Yette ’05

With an impressive season record of 7-1, this team was ranked third CIF Southern Section, and blasted through their first-round game against Calvary Chapel of Moreno Valley, 48-6. In the quarter-finals against California Lutheran (Wildomar), the Toads played well against a formidable team, but ultimately couldn’t overcome an early deficit. Named 1st Team All-Heritage League: Quarterback Sam Felton ’05, and running backs Conner Schryver ’05 and Gabe Yette ’05, tight end Davie Connick ’05, offensive linebacker Jordan Reiff ’06, line backer Barrett Brown ’05, and centerback Ed Cahill ’05. Named to 2nd Team All-League: tight end Ben Babbott ’05, and offensive linebackers Nick Hubbard ’07 and P.J. Benner ’06.

JV 8-Man Football Coaches: Spencer Stevens, Eric McCarren, ­Dan Campbell, and Jeff Hooper

by Joy Sawyer-Mulligan and Jane D. McCarthy

18 The Thacher News

This fall’s supreme moment for JV Football arrived in their win over Santa Clarita in the last game of the season—especially sweet, since Thacher had fallen to the same team just two weeks prior. Eight eager and dedicated freshmen located time to practice and joined with the older guys to play in the games.

Everyone learned or mastered the basics of 8-man.

“Even in the first game,” reports Coach Stevens, “when the team had practiced only four times all together, the boys played with great enthusiasm, determination and heart.”

Varsity Girls’ Tennis Coach: Stacy Margolin-Potter Captains: Sarah Eckhardt ’05 and Dana Gal ’05 Most Improved: Ariel Wang ’06

The V-girls’ coach recited a long list when asked about highlights of the season: Sarah and Dana’s defeating Villanova’s #1 doubles team on our home courts, after having been defeated the week before; the same duo’s winning 2 out of 3 doubles matches against Nordhoff and scoring a victory over Laguna Blanca on their home turf as the two were joined in sweeping all three doubles with Thacher’s #2 doubles team of Sophia Ouyang and Justine Robinett; Amanda Ach, trading riding boots for tennies on the fly to play #1 singles until injury struck (nothing to do with the boots); winning their first match against Oaks Christian 108, with Kaja Johnson (usually a doubles player) at #1 singles, Sophia at #2 and Amanda at #3, all three winning 2 of 3 singles. “We had great leadership from our senior captains,” quoth Ms. M-P: by Dana’s predictably rousing school cheers and Sarah’s speedby-example, among other ways. Other contributors: Ariel Wang (Most Improved), the “eager and feisty” Julia Oh, Brigid McCarthy, and until sidelined by injury, Brooke “Texas” Wharton. Captain-elect for next fall is Sophia Ouyang.

Junior Varsity Tennis Coaches: Jane McCarthy and David V. Babbott Captain: Charlotte Hunt ’07 MVP: Anna Teague ’07 MIP: Kathy Shim ’06 Inspirational Player: Alex Min ’07 Overall Season: 0-6

Starting with a squad in which 75% of the girls had never picked up a racquet before, we worked on the basics—especially ground strokes and serving; progressed to serving, volleys, and lobs; and wound up with some simple strategies for competitive situations.

In the first match, the team won only a few games but by season’s end, the racqueteers won nearly half of the games against our Mesa foes. Perhaps most important, though, is that the players maintained their sense of humor and fun, deepened friendships with others, and learned to love a game that many plan to play routinely for the rest of their lives.

Girls’ Cross-Country Coach: Theana Hancock Captains: Mary Bloom and Kay Bradford Most Improved: Chandler Pease Most Inspirational: Kay Bradford Most Valuable: Mary Bloom ’05 and Alyssa Tenant ’06

With only five returning runners, this squad nonetheless proved fully competitive in the Condor League,

securing themselves a solid second place by season’s end. “We missed the depth we had last year,” said Coach Hancock, “but still, we decided to have a good time, and in the process, became better crosscountry athletes individually.”

Boys’ Cross-Country Coaches: Fred Coleman and Dan Henry Captain: Bel Lepe ’05 Most Inspirational Runner and Most Valuable Runner: Bel Lepe ’05 Most Improved: Nick Brownell ’05

A neat two dozen runners made up this squad, ranging from varsity-level competitors to novice runners just learning how to train. “All the boys had great spirit, and finished the season [at second in the Condor League] with a fresh, positive attitude toward distance running,” reports the coach. “We established a good base on which to build next year’s season.”

to practicing “ground driving” (controlling the team without using a cart or wagon), then hitching the horses to the wagon safely and, at last, driving them on more and more challenging terrain, ending with nearly daily feed runs in the steep, rough terrain of Turn-Out and Carpenter’s Orchard.

Team CS In its inaugural “season,” a small but fervent band of Community Service volunteers headed down the hill during the afternoon athletics time block, ultimately fanning out to cover three programs in need of their help. Michael Yun and Cindy Mendoza helped at the Ojai Library’s Homework Help Program, tutoring students from local public schools who’d meet there after school. Max Anderson invested his time at the Topa Topa Smart Start, where he helped K-throughsixth graders with their homework, played handball or soccer with them, did craft projects, or read to the kids. Similarly engaged, but with a younger crowd (pre-schoolers) were Rena Karefa-Johnson and Eleni Towns, who volunteered at the downtown Smart Start. According to Community Service Director Molly Twichell Perry CdeP 1985, “a typical afternoon included pushing kids on swings, chasing them around on tricycles, reading to them, comforting them when something went wrong. According to Rena and Eleni, the time flew—and they always fell into the van at the end of the day exhausted, but never without a story to tell.” Sounds like a successful launch to a worthwhile program. e

Dance A baker’s dozen dancers of all levels traveled to town with Dance Director Gallia Vickery three days a week this fall to two local studio spaces for classes in ballet, modern dance, and some jazz. Lacking a rehearsal space on campus didn’t seem to put even a dent in the troupe’s dazzling performance on Family Weekend: using other spaces on campus for yoga and Pilates to augment their ventures to town, the dancers pieced together, then polished the elegant, several-part piece Ms. Vic choreographed—“Connections”—to a burnished sheen.

Yoga Under the calm and centered guidance of instructor Elizabeth Cleveland, the eight students and two adults taking yoga this fall had “a delightful season” that included yoga in the Study Hall, at the Outdoor Theatre and chapel, on trails and in stream beds, as well as at the beach—“asanas in the sand and in the water as dolphins swam and spun in the ocean nearby.” The group also participated in a “yoga wall” workshop with Brian Legere at the Ventura Yoga Studio.

Community Service volunteer students help shovel mud from homes following this winter’s flooding

Driving Gentle Giants In the second year of what we expect will ultimately be a long history, Jake Jacobsen (who trained last year alongside the knowledgeable and experienced now-sophomore Sophie LaRocque) roped four students and taught them, over the course of the fall, how to harness and ultimately drive the Percheron team of Smoky and the Bandit. Teamsters Dackory Hill, Jee Min Yun, Peter Thom, Jeff Harthorn started the season by getting to know the horses’ personalities and habits and by learning the process and nomenclature of harnessing. From there, it was on Fall 2004 / Winter 2005 19

Tidbits

Campus Activities

Snippets of News Numeracy Stumper

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Even before the National Association of Independent Schools contacted their schools in hopes of gathering funds to aid the Tsunami victims, five enterprising seniors had already undertaken this task at Thacher. Rena KarefaJohnson, School Chair Jaime Luna, Eleni Towns, Kaitlin Walters, and Max Anderson, along with coordinator Jake Jacobsen, urged students and faculty to think beyond themselves and help those in dire straits. The final total came in at $8,635, an average of over $35 per student.

Seniors Rena Karefa-Johnson and Montana Caset accompanied Mr. Shagam to the ­Wasatch Academy World Championship Qualifier debate late in January. All competitors entered four categories—debating, interpretive reading, impromptu speaking, persuasive or afterdinner speech—in this Western States match from which students could earn a spot for international competition. When the last word was uttered, Montana had been acclaimed for her fine interpretive reading and knowledge of current events. Rena returned to School as the third best competitor; if either the winner or the semi-finalist can’t attend the international competition, Rena will be competing in Cyprus this summer. For a first time out, jolly good show, ladies!

by Jane D. McCarthy

cated to a local, indoor arena (where the owners had to be evacuated by helicopter later that evening due to a tornado and road erosion).

After tabulating all the points, Thacher came in second behind the Andrew School from Ohio. Eight riders qualified to compete at Nationals in Maryland at the Garrison Forrest School in April. Tally ho, ladies!

Progress on the Performing Arts Building and the Student Commons as of press time... e

During January’s downpours, Thacher was slated to host an English horse show, including several east coast and Northern California schools; Thacher alums were on hand to help produce the event. The show had to be relo-

As a reminder, last magazine’s puzzler was:

out ahead. Tip o’ the Stetson to Dean “Kip�

Witter CdeP 1964 and former English teacher A horse race is to be conducted, with two Steve Hauge, too, who have been regular conhorses completing a circuit twice around the tributors to this column and provided flawless Jameson Gymkhana Field in head-to-head analysis again this time. competition—a distance of 1250 yards. In the first run, Widowmaker beat Glue Master by 75 yards, so in the second run, Widowmaker was made to start 75 yards behind the line.

In the second race, both horses ran exactly as The New Puzzle they did in the first. What was the outcome Maintaining the equine/outdoor theme, here’s and why? the next Numeracy Puzzler:

along the 100 stalls and opens and closes the stall gates. (The stall gates are all initially closed.) On his first pass, using the number one, he opens every stall that is a multiple of one—which is every stall. On his second pass he changes the state of every gate that is a multiple of two; on his third pass he does so again for every gate that is a multiple of three.

This continues until he has made 100 passes.

At the end of this process, explain which gates are open and which horses will be heading over the ridge to Pattons’ Cabin!

Top honors go to Joe Glasgow CdeP 1946 who correctly showed not only that Widowmaker prevails under the conditions of the second race, but that for any values of “1250� and “75,� under the conditions of the problem, Widowmaker will always come

Send your solution to Kurt Meyer in the Thacher Math Department via e-mail at kmeyer@thacher.org, or via US mail at the School address. Good luck!

20 The Thacher News

There is a peculiar, unnamed member of Thacher’s Outdoor Committee who, when checking stalls in the morning, likes to play tricks on his buddies in the riding program.

There are 100 riders currently in the program. This odd individual goes back and forth

Campaign The Campaign for Thacher

New Campus Facilities Coming Performing Arts Complex “Topping Off” Celebrated

Fitness Center and Practice Field Construction to Begin

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hacher’s recent student survey confirmed popular demand exists for both a new fitness center and a third athletic practice field. Construction of both is scheduled to begin this spring. The new Fitness Center will be built as an addition to the south wall of the Girls’ Locker Room. The 1,477-square-foot

South elevation sketch of the new Fitness Center

addition will include a separate alcove for freeweight equipment and plenty of floor space for the various training devices now scattered about the gymnasium.

space will be air-conditioned for use by summer sports camp attendees. The covered porch on the west side will also provide space for cooling off and socializing after a workout.

The new athletic field will be carved into the hillside below the road to the Gymkhana Field in the infamous Rattlesnake Grove area. To conform to the existing road and slope, the field layout will be on a southeast to northwest axis. The slope between the field and the road above it will form a natural “grandstand” seating area and the view of the Ojai Valley from this venue will be spectacular.

Cornerstone Architects

by Darrell L. Jones and Jane D. McCarthy

track has already provided dividends in terms of fewer injuires of and better performances by our athletes.” Take note of Coulter Woolf ’06 being cheered on by Coach Perry on page 18.

“Topping Off” Celebrated

Somewhere between groundbreaking and ribbon cutting comes a little ceremony in the construction of many buildings called “topping off.” This occurs when the highest structural element of a highrise is about to be swung into place, although flagpoles, spires, and ornaments don’t count. The crane delivers the last On February 9, the beam with a symbolic This field will MATT construction redwood tree and US flag have a natu- workers along with ral-turf playing surface and has been sized to all of the students, faculty, and staff attended a accommodate soccer, lacrosse, and eight-man special Assembly on the Upper School Lawn, football events. The irrigation system in the signed the last important beam, and watched as area will be upgraded in conjunction with the the crane maneuvered it into position. A small field construction and a new 500,000-gallon redwood tree and US flag were on the beam irrigation water-storage tank will be installed symbolizing that construction has reached the at the top of the Carpenter turnout to assure sky without loss of life or serious injury, and to a continuous supply of water availability. This bode well for future building inhabitants. The stored water will also serve as an additional fire tree will later be used in landscaping the new protection source for the campus.

Commons and Performing Arts complex. e

The new facility is designed for easy access from both the courtyard east of the locker room entrances and from Perimeter Road. It will be shaded by the surrounding sycamore, orange, and avocado trees and offer users views through the trees. Operable windows near the floors and in the east facing clerestory Construction of both projwindows allow for natural ventilation and the ects should be completed by the beginning of the 20052006 school-year, but the playing surface of the new field may not be ready for use until later in the fall.

These additions will make possible physical conditioning for our athletes and faculty at all times and fullfield practice and games when space has been at a premium in the past.

Michael Mulligan, David Lavender’s widow Muriel, John Sanger CdeP 1958, and John’s wife Randi, were on hand for this fall’s track dedication

David S. Lavender Track According to Track Coach Derick Perry CdeP 1983, The entire Community signed this steel beam before it was welded “The newly completed into place at February’s Topping Off Ceremony

Fall 2004 / Winter 2005 21

History

The Great Outdoors

Historical Society Shacks, Packs, and Tracks

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hroughout Thacher’s history, faculty and students have spent much of their time in the outdoors, and have offered their memories and perspectives of those times.

Materials contributed by Alisa D. McCoy

“The Literary Digest” 1899-1909:

lunch. Even more pretentious trips were taken thus poorly equipped. A pack horse was a This year also saw the beginning of what ap- rarity. Many a graduate now 20 years out can pears likely to become a permanent custom— remember trips to Topa Topa, Ten Sycamores, that of staying in shacks in Thacher canyon for Rich’s Flat, Ross Valley, and the North Fork the weekend, inviting a teacher, rough-housing, of the Matilija, with saddlebags stuffed full and eating many tasty dishes. of food, clothing, cooking utensils, and even On the value of camping as a means of building character, by long-time Thacher teacher, Forest H. Cooke in “The Literary Digest” 1909-1919:

Herr Forest Cooke leading boys on the trail past Last Chance (1921)

Our camps are our laboratories. We have to use our hands and our heads and our hearts, and we learn that work and hardship are joy, and that the hard earth is friendly, and that the dark night is not to be feared. And I would almost say that the star-lit camps are our The Tenderfoots’ first Thacher Camping Trip sanctuaries, so rich are grain for the horses, and a sleeping bag and they in intimate delight. sweater rolled over the pommel. Trips were Camping at Thacher divides itself roughly into short (there were no extra-day trips) and cooktwo periods: before and after the death of Herb ing was primitive, mostly with frying pan. So Lathrop. All the Old Boys who were at School simple a gadget as the reflector oven caused before 1915 remember Herb, a squat husky quite a stir when it was introduced. e man who had packed over the Sespe Ridge all the accouterments of civilization—a huge kitchen stove, a gasoline engine, a Victrola, a cider press. Herb was accidentally shot, and after his death his place lost much of its lure.

And from the point of view of the genuine Fifth Decade camper, the evolution since then has been all to the good.

In the early days the boys used to set out for Lathrop’s with nothing but a pair of saddlebags filled with clothes and

Early shack (1899-1900) 22 The Thacher News

Packing during the fifties

The Great Outdoors P

erhaps one of Sherman Day Thacher’s greatest and most enduring gifts was to begin a tradition at his School of students learning about their environment and, in so doing, appreciating its beauty and protecting it for future generations to enjoy. From backpacking, horsepacking, and camping trips to trail creation, renewal, and maintenance, from scaling craggy peaks to swimming their equine steeds in the cool Sespe River, the entire Thacher Community communes with nature for a week each fall and spring—and many weekends in between—forging a habit and an appreciation for nature’s beauty that often continues for the balance of their lives.

From the School’s front porch perch off the Los Padres National Forest, outdoor pursuits are an integral component of a Thacher education. Beginning with the freshmen’s indoctrination to the Outdoor Program at Golden Trout Camp within a day of arriving on campus, students gradually opt for more involved, strenuous, and diverse trips; achieve independent camping or packing status; kayak or canoe, down rapids or sail across still lakes; cross-country ski in backcountry bowls; or solo climb such world renowned peaks as Yosemite’s El Capitan. And all of this began because SDT believed and was often heard saying, “the horse and the mountains certainly give a peculiar development to a boy’s character and appreciation of worthwhile things.” And frequently, Mr. Thacher referred to the belief he thought best stated

by William Blake: Great things are done when men and mountains meet; These are not done by jostling in the street.

Take rides alone, Discover things about your horse that you had not known, And about yourself that you had not suspected were in you.

This issue of The Thacher News focuses on alumni who continue to work and play in the great outdoors, as well as a look at the School’s present Outdoor Program which is as strong and diverse as it has ever been.

Fall 2004 / Winter 2005 23

The Great Outdoors

Edward E. Eyre, Jr. CdeP 1944 A Steward of the Land

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hen I graduated from Yale in 1949, I envied many of my classmates who knew what they wanted to achieve and in what field. I had no clue, so I set a goal for myself. Because I had grown up with horses, had worked on a couple of ranches, and had been given a “Thacher Experience,” I decided to try to make enough money to go into ranching.

The first job I took was selling wholesale vegetable seeds out of Berkeley, California, because it put me into agriculture. Next I spent two years instructing in the army at Fort Ord, and then several years trading in grain and feedstuffs. Thinking I could do better on my own, I shifted to part ownership of a cleaning product that I learned to market through supermarkets. I was given the idea of a new kind of fireplace log, which a partner and I developed, manufactured, and marketed. This also led to the creation of a marketing company.

Ready or not, here came the ranch! Doing it the hard way, I started with raw sagebrush land in central Nevada in 1964 and developed a section and a half of irrigated hay ground. Our cows had to tough it out on 24 The Thacher News

different summer pastures for many years “Fossil fuel is not a renewable resource. Nor until I finally borrowed enough to buy a in some instances is water. Many of our ‘prime very remote range operation. agricultural lands’ are dependent on underground water, which is being used up. ConI don’t think a day was spent on the ranch that sider the condition of the San Joaquin Valley we didn’t have to make a decision pertaining to in California and, unfortunately, much of the the environment. “It will cost twice as much, southwestern part of our country. The aquifers but it will be so much better to put that power are not recharging, and the wells are becoming line under ground.” “If we seed that bank, can deeper and deeper. we keep it from eroding until the grass comes up?” “Go on horseback, otherwise you’ll rut “Shouldn’t we do everything possible to conup the ground badly this time of year.” “Think centrate and improve the production of food we ought to fence that little meadow off? Be- using renewable resources? sides, the sage grouse use it as a lek.” “I’ve got to go to Las Vegas to testify tomorrow. The “Fortunately, livestock can utilize a renew‘urbans’ are trying to tap into the water in this able source of energy—that given to forage basin again.” from the sun. This ‘rangeland energy’ is being converted to edible protein in every backyard, It is disastrous how water flows “uphill” to pasture, valley, or mountain range that is being money. The pull on water by grazed. If we recognize the future importance the urban centers is ever in- of grazing and the future importance of all creasing. We fight, but at best food production, which utilizes a minimum we seem to save but a little time of fossil fuel or nonrenewable waters, we may for agriculture. Unfortunately, have ample food in the future world. If we there is tremendous compla- continue our complacency about ‘productive cency concerning our food capacity’ which is so dependent on non-reproduction in this country. The newable resources, we could be headed for following is a response I wrote trouble.” to the National Live Stock and Meat Board in 1982 when I I feel more strongly about this today than was president of the Nevada I did in 1982. I even ran for political ofCattlemen’s Association: fice to make the public aware of water issues and agricultural need. Equally bad “…The trend of world food production is the spread of housing over our prime may be toward more production, better agricultural ground. Look at the urban nutrition, and greater food consumption per sprawl in the Sacramento and San Joaquin capita, but shouldn’t we look into reasons Valleys today! why this is possible? Shouldn’t we ask ourselves how long this will be possible?

Regarding my Thacher experience, I will never forget the excitement shown by Mr. McBride “Much of the agricultural advancement over when he learned that a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher the past 50 years would appear to be because was in the area. I remember that there were of the versatile source of energy—oil and other reported to be 33 condors when I left school, fossil fuels. and I understand that about that number exists today because of an extensive trapping, “Granted we can produce more food on breeding, and rehabilitation program. I helped fewer acres than in the past, but are we conduct a breeding bird survey over a very to become completely dependent on fossil remote area of Nevada for many years. The fuel? Let’s think about the large machinery thought that we should save every species is and the oil required to level the land to not logical. plow, to disc, to cultivate, and to harvest.

Aren’t most nitrogen fertilizers and chemi- My wife, Carol, and I keep three or four horses cal sprays derived from fossil fuels? Let’s so we can pack in the Ruby Mountains or here think about the oil required to get the crop in the Sierra Nevada. These trips are getting to the processing plant, to run the plant, harder to make as Carol and I are involved in to package the crop, and to distribute the too many endeavors. Among other activities, I finished product by truck to a warehouse am helping to build a new hospital and cancer and then again to a market. center in Carson City. e

The Great Outdoors

N. Anthony Dann CdeP 1957 Endurance Racing

(tack and rider) has an advantage. Each organization has awards for categories determined by either miles only or a combination of miles and points. Points are awarded to the horse/ rider teams that finish in the “top ten” of a race and accummulated over the ride season.

Separate awards are given for riders and horses by various organizations.

Riders approach endurance racing differently.

As in every sport, some are fierce competitors who must win. Others just want to “finish,” as the AERC motto is “to finish is to win.” Sandwiched between these two extremes are riders who are competitive, typically finishing each ride in the upper portion of the group, gaining some points and finishing lots of miles. For them, the goal is to ride/race their horses for a number of years and accummulate thousands of miles in the record books for themselves and their horses.

I have been campaigning my horse Java, a National Show ll of my recreational time is Horse, for the past three years spent in the Great Outdoors building his conditioning and on horses. I have been instamina to become competivolved in endurance racing for tive in this sport. He is 11 years the past 10 years and after several old and considered to be in his years of training and conditionprime for endurance. In 2003 ing of my current horse, Java, we we completed over 500 total had an extremely successful year miles at the end of the ride seain 2004. son and during the year had successfully completed his first 75-mile race.

For those who are not familiar with en- At the end of the season his total was just over durance racing, it is a timed event over a 1,000 career endurance miles. cross-country course of a minimum 50 miles to be completed in no more than 12 hours. At the start of the 2004 racing season, which The longest rides are 100 miles within 24 for those of us in the northwest typically starts hours and there are multi-day rides of 50 in March and ends in October, I did not go out miles or more for 3 to 5 successive days. with any plans to make a mark in the record During the races the horses must meet books. It evolved over the season, particularly certain physical and metabolic criteria at after my wife had knee surgery and the recovveterinary checks throughout the course. ery time was much longer than anticipated, I Failing to pass either requirement results in had two horses to ride. In addition, my horse the horse being “pulled.” Completing the was ready for more longer distance rides and race with a sound horse is one of the most our first multi-day ride. We started with a few challenging parts of endurance racing.

50s, completed a 75-mile race, and successfully completed a five-day Pioneer Ride in Oregon Several organizations govern endurance rac- that totaled 255 miles, followed with our first ing, the most prominent of which is the na- 100-mile race in July. We picked a very tough tional American Endurance Ride Conference ride for our first 100 that had over 16,000 feet (AERC). There is an international organization of elevation change during the course. As the FEI, as well as a regional group, Pacific North- season wore on Java gradually got stronger and west Endurance Rides (PNER), and several was able to complete every ride he started. other regional, state, or local groups. AERC has regional divisions with various weight clas- Because longer distance rides are more stresssifications. A horse carrying less total weight ful for horses, they require more resting time

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before and after a race. This is where a backup horse becomes valuable, allowing the rider to participate in other rides. I used my wife’s horse Strike, also a National Show Horse. As the season wore on, not only was I leading in the AERC heavyweight division with Java, I was leading in the northwest for total miles by riding two horses throughout the season, and Java led the northwest in total horse miles.

A mileage award was attainable if Java and Strike continued their strong completion of rides in the 2004 season.

At the conclusion of the season Java and I won the Heavy Weight division in AERC and placed fifth in Multi-Day Rides, both determined by points. In PNER, I won mileage for the year having completed a total of 1,280 miles. Java won the Animal Horse award, which is horse of the year based on miles and successive rides completed. He had a total of 910 miles and 17 completions without a pull.

It was a fantastic year, one that I will probably never be able to equal as my wife is now back riding and Strike will not be available.

Also, 910 miles in one year is a lot of miles on a horse and it takes a toll. There are only so many miles a horse has in him, and we don’t know how many that is until we get there, and we don’t want to use them all up at once. Java now has over 2,000 endurance miles in the record books and my goal is to get him to 3,000 miles, a level that is recognized

by AERC as a significant achievement, and believe me, it is.

I have also been and continue to be an advocate of trails preservation and development in the northwest. I have served as chairman of several Trials Committees in local organizations in the pursuit of these goals.

In closing, I attribute the development of my latent horse “gene” to Thacher and its wonderful Horse Program. Growing up in Los Angeles, I had never been on a horse until entering Thacher as a middle schooler. I well remember being scared stiff when Jesse Kahle put me on a horse in the round pen for the very first time.

I have many wonderful memories of the horses and the trails I rode in the hills behind the School. Although there were many horseless years after Thacher, I have been blessed with the opportunity to once again ride the trails. e Fall 2004 / Winter 2005 25

The Great Outdoors

Freeman A. Ford CdeP 1959 Richard O. Rhodes CdeP 1959 An Enduring Friendship That Benefits the Environment

were low cost and could be heated, and found an available polyethylene hollow-cored structure, HCX board, manufactured to replace cardboard. The first challenge was reliably connecting pipes to each end of the polyethylene collectors. I invented a welding and forming device and tested it on my kitchen stove in San Francisco. We then perfected it in Freeman’s garage, in spite of advice from a consultant that “it could not be done.” This was the breakthrough we needed; it resulted in our first patent and Fafco was born. We leased a building, built custom manufacturing equipment, and started production, spending late nights and long hours taming newly invented production machinery. A long collaboration in solar power began: Freeman focused on the business hen inspired by our physics side, and I concentrated teacher, Bob Chesley CdeP on technology. For a 1950, Freeman and I conchange of perspective, ducted welding experiments that we chartered a boat resulted in jammed radios and no for a weekend every music in Upper School; on other ocSeptember beginning casions, we launched parachutes that became in 1983. Dusting off my old charts, we sailed lodged and tangled in overhead wires. At the from Santa Barbara to the Channel Islands, risk of peer-student ire and our personal safety, reminiscent of our first visit there as seniors on we nourished our love of technology and sci- an Extra-Day Trip. ence in creative ways.

Our second breakthrough came when we reReuniting over a bottle of Chianti follow- placed the HCX board with an improved deing our studies of Economics at Dartmouth sign. I invented a new manufacturing method, for Freeman and Engineering at Stanford for and then designed and built machinery to mass me, we discussed our mutual desire to some produce solar collectors from polypropylene day invent something where we could plow extruded tubes, leading to a family of high-perthe meager profits back into a socially use- formance solar collectors and heat exchangers ful endeavor, such as helping the blind read. in 8, 10, 12, and 24-foot lengths. The secret The opportunity arose in the late sixties when technology was so intriguing to a Fafco comFreeman invited me to his new home in Ather- petitor that he was found at midnight on his ton—complete with a swimming pool, but no hands and knees peeking through a factory means of heating it—to discuss solar-heating ventilator. Along the way, we also developed technology. We developed some prototypes stabilizers for the polypropylene to protect it of solar heaters constructed from plastic and from solar degradation, thereby enhancing its metal, but these early renditions leaked and durability from months to decades. As sales were not very cost effective. We could not find increased, a second manufacturing line was an adhesive suitable for bonding plastic to built for production of solar collectors and metal, although it did stick well associated valves and controls. During the to concrete—in fact, it is still last five years, with support from the National stuck to Freeman’s garage Renewable Energy Laboratory, I have been refloor. searching and developing a low-cost, all-plastic solar collector for heating water for domestic We quickly focused on us- use, which is presently being tested at sites in ing polymers (plastic) that California.

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26 The Thacher News

by Richard O. Rhodes CdeP 1959

One problem with solar energy is its diffuseness: a one-foot square panel collects only 250 BTU’s per hour or 73 watts of power, and only 70% of that energy can be used. Several hundred square feet of surface area is needed (approximately eight four-by-ten-foot collectors connected in parallel) to adequately heat a typical swimming pool. Over one-and-a-half million Fafco collectors have been installed for 125,000 pools, mostly in the United States.

Their positive impact on the environment is obvious when one considers that if all of the installed Fafco solar panels collected solar rays at mid-day, they would generate 2000 mega watts of power or the equivalent of the power generated by two or three nuclear reactors— and in a safe, sustainable, and economical manner. Using this technique to heat a swimming pool generally pays for itself in less than four years, through savings averaging upwards of $2,000 per year.

An offshoot of Fafco’s polymer technology is Thermal Energy Storage that takes advantage of lower electrical energy costs in off-peak energy utilization hours (at night) and cools large buildings during peak energy-utilization times efficiently. During off-peak hours, a chiller circulates a cold glycol/water solution through the IceStor tanks. The solution flows though thousands of closely spaced plastic heat exchanger tubes (immersed in water), thereby forming ice around each tube. Once the IceStor system is fully charged, it shuts off until the next cycle. During the “on-peak” cycle, the glycol/water solution is pumped through the tanks. The cooled solution then circulates to the building directly or through a plate-andframe heat exchanger.

The IceStor system reduces energy costs and demand charges and lowers peak power usage.

From the utility point of view, it is much better policy to shift peak cooling loads to avoid building for new peaking capacity. The IceStor system installed in the San Francisco Marriott Hotel, for instance, handles their entire cooling needs and saves $135,000 annually in energy costs. This system paid for itself is just 22 months. Employing this technology also saves PG&E from having to build more power plants to handle energy needs during peak energy-draw periods, and saves energy since older, lower efficiency plants are not used during off-peak times.

Continued on page 34

The Great Outdoors

Thomas E. “Tuck” Donnelly CdeP 1967 Relieving Hunger, One Fish At a Time

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am the Executive Director of SeaShare, a nonprofit organization I started in 1992. It has evolved from a simple idea to reduce waste in the Alaska fisheries to become the largest single source of protein for hunger relief in the United States, aside from government-aid programs. We develop donation programs that enable seafood companies to contribute large quantities of seafood to shelters, soup kitchens, hospices, and pantries in 50 states. We establish production partnerships, making it possible to secure donated processing services, product transportation, packaging, and cold storage, and allowing us to deliver high quality seafood products at very low cost throughout the country.

SeaShare has strong environmental roots and continues to maintain an ongoing commitment to reducing waste and improving the utilization of fish in federal and state fisheries. We depend on seafood companies that, given the opportunity, want to reduce discard waste and make better use of fish they harvest.

Our earliest programs, still going strong today, were developed in response to federal fisheries regulations—implemented as resource-protection measures—that required fishermen to discard perfectly good salmon and halibut that were harvested unintentionally (prohibited bycatch). In the late eighties and early nineties

while working as a fishing-vessel manager in the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska fisheries, I encountered the tremendous waste generated by those regulations. I wasn’t the only one who objected to the policies, but I was in a unique position to challenge the regulations.

our work publicly recognized by the industry that had fought so hard over these issues. The award was presented by the National Marine Fisheries Service at the North Pacific Fishery Management Council meeting, where I had testified so many times before!

In 1992, I made a formal proposal to the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, requesting a change in the regulations that would allow fishermen to donate their prohibited bycatch to food banks instead of discarding it.

That began a long and sometimes contentious process, to bring common sense to prohibited bycatch management.

Testimony regarding the bycatch proposals gave SeaShare visibility that ultimately helped us broaden our appeal. SeaShare became a magnet for seafood companies that wanted to make better use of fish they harvested and opportunities opened up for us.

The most important one came from salmon producers that harvest fish for the high value of the roe. There are limited markets for all but the highest grade, silver bright salmon. Much of the rest is processed into low-value fish meal. Some of Alaska’s largest seafood companies began donating their fish to SeaShare (instead of producing fish meal), retaining their roe products to sell in Japan. We now use these fish in our own labeled canned salmon product, salmon steaks, and salmon patties. The program provides millions of meals for hunger relief, making much better use of fish that have been harvested.

It took nearly six years of public testimony before federal and international agencies, and the development of a series of “experimental” programs establishing the effectiveness of our plan to retain salmon and halibut bycatch for food banks. We demonstrated that the program would not undermine ongoing resource protection efforts and that we could deliver the products in good condition. That particular SeaShare program has continued to grow and in 2004 Currently, SeaShare manages or oversees seacontributed over 1.6 million food donation programs in Alaska and the meals for hunger relief.

Pacific Northwest, the Midwest (lakes and rivers), the Chesapeake Bay area and New During the time we were working on bycatch England. Kraft Foods is our main corporate issues, SeaShare rallied a broad coalition of sponsor though we get significant funding supportive seafood companies and fishery from other corporations, individuals, foundamanagement agencies. It became clear that our tions, and religions organizations. America’s common-sense ideas regarding resource man- Second Harvest handles all of our distribution agement had struck a chord. Ultimately the at the community level and we have become, pressure these groups brought to bear helped in effect, their seafood division. us re-write the regulations and establish the NMFS Prohibited Species Donation Program I graduated from UCSD in 1971 with a BA in the Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands and Gulf of in Sociology. I was eventually drawn to the Alaska. marine industry, got my captain’s license, and operated a charter schooner in California and SeaShare developed a similar program in part- Mexico for most of the eighties. Later, I benership with the Makah Tribe in Northwestern came mate on a research vessel out of VenWashington. The Makah fish for pacific whit- tura Harbor. When my daughter was born, ing and catch rockfish as bycatch. Rockfish I wanted to stay on shore but remain in the are protected and though the Makah could marine industry; we moved to Seattle in 1989 throw them away, they now donate all their to manage fishing vessels in Alaska. rockfish bycatch to SeaShare where it is used for hunger relief.

A Thacher experience that I have thought about many In 2000, I was awarded the NOAA Environ- times was “Starvation” mental Hero Award for my work on bycatch Lunch. I travel extensively retention. It’s hardly the Nobel Prize, but it Continued on page 34 was an important milestone for me, seeing Fall 2004 / Winter 2005 27

The Great Outdoors

Andrew D. Beebe CdeP 1989 Turning the Light on Solar Power

single meeting has resulted in a request for a proposal. The bottom line is that corporate and government-building managers all want green power—but only if it’s economical. Our Sunflower technology appears to hit the mark squarely.

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or the last three decades, solar energy has been hyped as the wave of the future for the production of energy. Why then does fuel continue to be the primary source of energy? Economics is a chief factor: harnessing the sun’s light through purified silicon panels placed on rooftops costs four times that of comparable “grid” power.

Even though people like the idea of utilizing “green,” non-polluting electricity that doesn’t harm the environment, there hasn’t yet been an efficient, economical means of creating adequate electricity, especially on cloudy or short-daylight days.

The engineers at Energy Innovations in Pasadena have a different take on how to harness solar power: by concentrating light on silicon cells, our “Sunflower” products radically reduce the amount of silicon necessary for the same amount of power. To put this in perspective, the Sunflower can power the needs of a large office park at half the cost of today’s solar power.

Our management team has met with 30 potential customers across the state of California—from schools and hospitals to big-box retailers and office-park owners—to discuss their interest. Every 28 The Thacher News

with my wife, Jessica Barrows, and our newborn son, Jackson.

I pondered and researched various career options, before realizing that I love being involved with developing technology (as I had been with the Internet). For the aforementioned reasons and the fact that the potential of solar energy is tremendous (some estimates are that it’s a $7 billion industry in California and a $100 billion worldwide market), I happily jumped back into the daily grind of work with a company that I believe will finally make solar power a reality. Unlike the solar-energy panels that cost a million dollars for a dorm-size building yet don’t produce all of the power that’s required by the inhabitants, our gadget will last 15 years and pay for itself in five, thereby yielding 10 years worth of free electricity. Companies don’t seem to care if our product wears out in 15 years because by then the technology will be even better, and they will be ahead of the game, cost wise.

Energy Innovations’s technology—now in its beta-testing phase for large corporations and government sites—could be as revolutionary the Web technology of the nineties, with similar growth and potential. For instance, nobody believed that people would willingly plug in their credit card numbers and purchase virtually anything over the Internet just ten years ago; now, of course, it’s commonplace. What our engineers have created is a technology that has wide-ranging uses, no established players in the field yet, and no entity to control how extensively it can be used.

The timing for bringing this solar power to the masses is especially intriguing since the supply of the world’s primary energy source, fossil-based fuel, The unit being tested presently contains 25 is dwindling. mirrors in an “egg crate” configuration; the mirrors are moved by two stepper motors that The entrepreneurial and en- run a set of screw-driven gears. Photo sensors vironmentally friendly side of track the sun and temperature-sensing therthis industry reflects my inter- mocouples fine-tune the direction in which the ests when I was at Thacher. mirrors point. Each egg crate or “heliostat” Rock climbing in Yosemite, measure six-by-six feet and produces 250 peak camping at Joshua Tree and watts of electricity. If testing goes according Mt. Whitney, and climbing bivouac-style to the to plan and production runs rise to 100,000 Royal Arches piqued my commitment to care heliostats, the cost to the consumer should defor the environment so that future generations cline to one dollar per watt. Finally, we won’t could enjoy the peace and solitude that come be dependent on coal and natural gas producfrom spending time in the wilderness. And, tion, and we’ll have a cleaner environment for I remember being a President of Thacher’s future generations to enjoy.” e Young Entrepreneur Club. This was brilliant: every member was president, which played well for every member’s college applications.

I headed off to Dartmouth and majored in Political Science. Upon graduating from The Big Green, I interned in Clinton’s White House for a year—believe me, I’ve heard every joke possible and can’t wait to get that era of my life off my résumé—before joining a consulting firm that ran the first political campaign using the Web to help elect Dianne Feinstein to the US Senate in 1994. These experiences paved the way for me to work in software-development management for a decade, including serving as President of Bigstep that helps start-up companies develop web sites to advertise their services to potential customers. I sold that company to a firm in San Diego two years ago, and took a sabbatical year to get reacquainted

The Great Outdoors

Catherine A. Ruhl CdeP 1989 Managing California’s Water Supply

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fter graduating from Thacher in 1989, I went on to study civil engineering at Stanford University. In 1994, I accepted a position with the Corps of Engineers in Frankfurt, Germany as an environmental engineer overseeing remediation projects at US bases in Europe. After two years on the continent, however, I decided to see what the rest of the world had to offer: I quit my job and bought a plane ticket…first stop India. I spent 10 months traveling and hiking in Asia and South America (a hiatus that I highly recommend to anyone who has the ability and freedom to be able to pull it off). Then reality struck, and I headed back to California for graduate school at Stanford in civil and environmental engineering. Since completing my master’s degree in 1998, I have been working with the US Geological Survey in Sacramento, CA. As the head of the Delta Flows Project at the US Geological Survey, I oversee the operation of an extensive network of monitoring stations which provide real-time flow data throughout the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta every 15 minutes. The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta is the complex system where two of California’s largest rivers converge and meet San Francisco Bay, creating the West Coast’s largest estuary.

The Delta covers 738,000 acres interlaced with a complex network of 700 miles of tidally

affected channels and sloughs. This region is The great thing about my job is that I am critical to both California’s water supply as able to balance field work and office work. well as diverse wildlife.

When I am in the field, I spend long days on a boat collecting a wide range of hydrologic The Delta is the hub of California’s water dis- and water quality data and am able to see tribution system. State and Federal pumping first hand the truly dynamic nature of the facilities export 7.5 million acre-feet annu- system that I work in. Flows which would ally. The water is used to irrigate agricultural be considered floods in the upper water crops in Central and Southern California, shed are seen regularly (every six hours) as and provide drinking water for two-thirds of the tides flood and ebb through the Delta. I California’s population (20 million people). In also see the tule fog hanging on the water’s addition, the Delta’s rich and productive eco- surface at dawn, or sandhill cranes coming in system supports many resident and migratory to roost at dusk…sights that are impossible wildlife species. There are on the order of 20 to see in Sacramento. These sights are what endangered species reside in or migrate through give me satisfaction, knowing that what I do the Delta and rely on the Delta’s unique habitat is important to the State of California and for survival. the people and ecology that depend on this unique system.

The network of stations that I oversee is the framework upon which many Thacher played an important role in piquing interdisciplinary studies are my curiosity in the sciences and teaching me built. For example, we are pro- to be confident to “push the envelope” and to posing a collaborative project consider new approaches and ways of thinkwith the California Depart- ing. I remember a freshman biology class in ment of Water Resources and which we were encouraged to experiment well UC Davis to investigate the beyond the prescribed curriculum (thank you hydrologic, biochemical, geo- Mr. Warren!). These early experiences with morphological, and ecological experimental science have served me very well processes at work in Suisun over the years. Thacher played an important Marsh. Suisun Marsh, located role in developing my appreciation for the adjacent to the confluence of environment. Extra-Day Trips to Kern River the Sacramento and San Joa- or to the Grand Canyon; horseback rides in quin Rivers, is the largest con- the hills surrounding School; early mornings tiguous brackish marsh in North America and watching sunrise over Ojai Valley (or late offers some of the best opportunities for tidal nights watching the moon): all of these expemarsh restoration in the Bay-Delta region. riences provided opportunities for personal Understanding how this complex system func- reflection about the role of the environment tions will provide a scientific basis for future in our lives. restoration efforts.

In Frankfurt, I met Jack Kemp (no, not the Another project that we are currently football player and aspiring Vice President) working on with several State and Federal in 1996. We were married in 2000 and now agencies relates the complex hydrodynamics we are the proud parents of two lovely girls: that are present in bends and junctions to Bridget (3) and Samantha (1). While we used outmigrating salmon movement. There are to go camping and backcountry skiing, we’ve several threatened or endangered salmon realigned our interests to be consistent with the species that migrate through the Delta as interests and attention spans of our youngsters: they move towards the Pacific Ocean. As now we take bike rides along the American they enter the Delta these smolts encounter River and take at least one trip up to the snow bi-directional flows caused by the tides and for sledding and snow angels. We’ve got an numerous junctions of the interconnected added bonus that Bridget now asks to get the channels that braid through the Delta re- tent and sleeping bags so we can gion. We hope to be able to better under- go camping…so if you’re out stand how these small fish move through backpacking and think you this complex environment and thereby be hear coyotes howling at able to identify management techniques that night…it just may be a famwill improve their survival as they swim ily of four sleeping in a tent through the Delta. nearby! e Fall 2004 / Winter 2005 29

The Great Outdoors

James M. Labbe CdeP 1990 Shepherding Urban Conservation

civic participation in this period, experiencing marked increases in membership of civic and neighborhood groups and attendance of public meetings. From its downtown revival in the seventies, its pioneering investments in light-rail mass transit in the eighties, to the emergence of regional growth management and greenspace planning in the nineties via the nation’s only elected regional government, the citizens of the Portland Metro region continue to consciously remake their cityscape for the better. At the core of these efforts is a sense of place that deeply values and is defined by access to nature, not just “out there” in the wilderness but in a greener, more livable urban landscape.

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or the past two and half years I have served as “urban conservationist” at the Audubon of Society of Portland (ASofP) in Portland, Oregon. With roughly 10,000 members and over a 100year history in the region, ASofP is one of the largest and oldest local Audubon chapters in the country and is probably best known for its pioneering work in urban wildlife conservation policy, education, and stewardship during the past 30 years.

Explaining my path in coming to ASofP probably begins with the recognition that Portland is a remarkable place to grow up. The mystique of the region’s rain, rivers, and forests, the accessibility of its coast, mountains, high desert, or even my neighborhood natural area provided endless possibilities for youthful exploration, discovery, and escape. The enormous privilege of having such access to nature during my childhood was as lost to me as I was lost in it.

I also did not appreciate that the seventies and eighties were a remarkable time to grow up in Portland.

As Harvard sociologist Robert Putnam recently documented in his book Better Together, Portland bucked national trends of declining 30 The Thacher News

of freedom from all cares and responsibilities vanished. Suddenly our connection to a human community for which our sophomoric actions had cause and consequence became our preoccupation.

Not without some deliberation regarding the ethics of easily leaving the entire mess behind did we eventually decide to immediately confess our folly to Mr. Clark, Head of Maintenance at the time. Despite our worst fears, he merely thanked us for reporting the damage.

A clear case of “honesty being the best policy” for sure, but there was something about the juxtaposition of our freedom in nature with our responsibility and accountability to human society that made the afternoon memorable.

I came to appreciate all of this after leaving Over the years I became more curious about Portland. But it was coming back to Thacher my own tendency to seek personal refuge in a that enhanced my appreciations benign and therapeutic idealization of nature for the power and importance and my contribution to that broader American of community in the steward- cultural practice of “solving” problems by ship of place. More memorable social escape or spatial mobility. than Thacher’s academic rigor were the lessons of interdepen- After travels abroad and a year at Middlebury dence from living in commu- College, I returned to Portland and attended nity: in the dorm, amongst my Reed College. There I developed my interclassmates, at formal dinner, or est in the “New Western History” originally on fall and spring Extra-Day nurtured by Thacher history teachers David Trips. Most of my lessons of Lavender and David Johnston. My underinterdependence at Thacher— graduate thesis examined the aboriginal and however influential in their early commercial salmon fishery on the Rogue cumulative effect—were innu- River. After a short stint in the high-tech field merable, small, and mundane. (thanks to Peter Bray), I worked for a watershed council in the Rogue Basin for two years Yet some stand out. I remember exploring doing community-based watershed planning Horn Canyon one lazy Sunday afternoon with and restoration. I became fascinated by river a classmate and still close friend, Peter Bray. dynamics and the lessons of interdependence in The clear and sunny early spring day filled us trying to steward and manage them. I returned with that carefree exhilaration for escaping again to Portland in 1999 for graduate work into the outdoors. Homework and bothersome in geography and completed a master’s thesis dorm mates and adult disciplinarians drove us; on historical channel change on the nearby the sunshine and chaparral abloom with yucca, Tualatin River. In doing so, I transferred acbuck brush and prickly pear pulled us. Fresh cumulated interests and experience in history, alder, maple, and sycamore foliage shaded rivers, and environmental interdependence into segments of the creek’s abundant, clear, and an urban setting and back to my hometown. It cold flow. We eventually abandoned the trail was a natural match for the urban conservaaltogether and waded directly up the creek, tion program at Audubon Society of Portland pool to pool, losing our sense of time with increasing distance.

My work at Audubon Society of Portland involves making connections, with people, isAt one point we took to throwing rocks into sues and ideas to more fully integrate the built the creek from atop a steep, high bank cut into and natural environments for fish, wildlife, the adjacent hill slope. It was all fun and games and people in the Portland Metro region. I until one of our tosses smashed a gravity-fed work with diverse citizens, scientists, planners, irrigation pipe. As an enormous gush of raging, and elected officials. The interdependencies of white water exploded from the broken pipe Continued on page 34 into the now eroding stream bank, our sense

The Great Outdoors

Allison H. Glass CdeP 1993 Researching and Conserving Charismatic Megafauna

local population of whales and other mammals and their environment. The main goals of WCNE are research, conservation, and education regarding marine life, especially whales.

Though I left WCNE in the fall of 2003, I have taken their goals as my own. Currently, I am a contract observer for NOAA and spend my winters in charge of a right whale aerial survey team in South Carolina, part of Wildlife Trust, a non-profit organization based in Florida.

My job is to fly in a small plane at 1,000 feet in a search pattern over waters to which right whales return every winter to calve. We photograph individuals and provide information on their location to large vessels so that they can take precautions to avoid this highly endangered species.

Most whale species are endangered, and there are three main dangers that whales continually face: pollution, entanglements in fishing gear, and ship strikes. Of course, another threat that is often think that I am the luckiest always looming on the horiperson in the world because I get zon is the resumption of comto do what I’ve always wanted mercial whaling. Pollution is to do: study whales. It all started actually the largest factor. Last when I was six years old. I think year in New England waters every kid has an “I-want-to-be-aover two dozen dead whales, marine-biologist” phase, but mine incorporating several different just never went away. My parents species, were found floating encouraged me, my grandparents offshore. Preliminary results (Jack and Margaret Huyler) adopted a hump- indicated that they had been feeding on fish back whale for me on my tenth birthday, and contaminated with a high level of neurotoxins. then I was lucky enough to attend Thacher, These types of toxins are found in nature, but one of the few high schools with a marine biol- can be concentrated by human-induced facogy class. One would think that being nestled tors, such as run-off from farming or sewage in a valley like Ojai would make studying the treatment plants. Noise pollution is another ocean a little difficult, but, of course, not so for cause for concern. There have been many cases the students in Rae Ann Sines’ Marine Biology recently where strandings of whales have been class. She brought the ocean to us, though one linked to nearby sonar testing. of my favorite memories is sea kayaking field trip with my classmates. Everything I learned Entanglements are another hazard. As I write in that class has stuck with me and revealed this, there are two severely entangled right that I can be almost as fascinated by some whales off of the South Carolina and Georgia small marine invertebrate as I am by what I coasts. One has been entangled for over two like to call the “charismatic megafauna” that years. All attempts so far to remove the gear are whales. have been unsuccessful and, sadly, the health of the animal has deteriorated so much, that Following Thacher, I attended St. Mary’s Col- even if the gear were to be removed, its chance lege of Maryland, a public honor’s college with of survival is slim. Some whales do manage to a strong marine biology program. After receiv- free themselves, others are freed by the trained ing my degree in biology in 1997, I headed to disentanglement team from Massachusetts, but the Whale Center of New England (WCNE), I have seen too many of these animals die from a non-profit research organization based in this sort of human interaction. With entangleGloucester, Massachusetts. I worked there for ments, it’s often easy to want to point a finger six years, becoming highly involved with the of blame at the fishing industry, however, those

I

are just people trying to make a living and they certainly don’t want to endanger the whales any more than we do. Luckily there are many in the fishing industry willing to use trial gear modifications, remove their gear from waters when there are large concentrations of whales, and to go through disentanglement training.

Finally, ship strikes are an issue. Incidents occur when boaters are either unaware of the whales’ presence or simply act irresponsibly around the animals. When a small recreational vessel is involved, the damage can be substantial, but usually not fatal. I have seen plenty of whales with scars to prove it. Unfortunately, if the vessel is something much larger, like a commercial tanker, the whale is often killed.

Already this year we lost two pregnant right whales to ship strikes. The North Atlantic right whale is one of the most endangered animals in the world; their population numbering a little over 300 animals for the entire Northern Atlantic (by comparison, humpback whales, also endangered, are estimated to number between 12,000 and 15,000). For such a small population to even stand a chance of returning to their original population size (pre-whaling estimates suggest over 150,000 animals), no animals can be lost to non-natural causes.

With these two ship strikes, we not only lost two calves who were just a month or two shy of being born, but we also lost two healthy, reproductive females.

So, where do I fit into all of this? As I said, research, conservation, and education are the keys. Through the research conducted by places like the ones for which I work, we can learn so much about these animals, their habits, and what in their environment affects them. That research can then be used to help with conservation issues. For example, scientists convinced the shipping industry in Canada that by moving the commercial shipping lane just a few miles east of a well-known right whale habitat would greatly reduce the number of ship strikes in that area, and it has.

My part is a bit smaller, but just as important.

I feel that the greatest impact I have had on helping the animals that I love, is through the information that I have passed along. When I worked at WCNE, I spent a tremendous amount of time as a naturalist on whale watch boats. Literally thousands of people have heard my voice Continued on page 34

Fall 2004 / Winter 2005 31

The Great Outdoors

Laurel S. Braitman CdeP 1996 Conserving Natural Resources

and writing, and spent as much time as possible trying to ingratiate myself with professors working in interesting places—offering myself up as a research assistant in exchange for low wages and room/board turned out to be a great way to travel.

photo by Sarah Wardney

I

got a D in Mr. Warren’s physics class. I failed miserably in chemistry. And in AP Biology I spent more time writing notes to friends than learning about the Kreb’s cycle.

There is perhaps no one more surprised than me that I became a scientist.

I was born and raised on a citrus ranch in Santa Paula. And while I spent a large amount of my childhood outside, I was not “outdoorsy.”

My family didn’t camp, and my first experience carrying a pack was my freshman year at Thacher, slogging up Old Army Pass hoping Mr. Manson would just cave in and carry me if I walked slowly enough.

But the thing about hiking slowly is that you notice where you are—and so I began to pay attention to the wilderness. I fell in love with the craggy landscape of the Sierra, the feeling of being filthy dirty, endless meals of mac ’n’ cheese, and the hidden swimming holes of the Sespe.

After I graduated from Thacher, I went to Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. And it was there that I started to like science. I double majored in biology 32 The Thacher News

After graduation, my boyfriend Andrew (a conservationist and oceanographer) and I moved to Bogota, Colombia, where we taught biology, natural history, and literature at a private school in the capital. While there, we fell in love with the rich natural resources of the country as well as those of Peru, Bolivia, and During college I worked in Alaska as a grizzly Ecuador. While in Colombia, I led an eighthbear researcher for the Park Service—moni- grade trip to the Colombian Amazon, where toring bear behavior on the Brooks River in students did exchanges with local communities Katmai National Park. I had a three-by-three and spent the days watching for river dolphins wooden perch in a spruce tree about 15 feet and howler monkeys and tattooing themselves above a much-used grizzly bear trail along the with rainforest inks. river. Every day I took my shotgun, bear spray, notebook, and binoculars up onto my perch Today I work in a cubicle, live with my fiancé and waited for the bears. They always came. Andrew and our Bernese mountain dog in an Once I was stuck in the tree for six hours while apartment in Washington, DC, and generally a mother and her cub took a nap at the base lead a much quieter life. I’m even considering of my ladder. I also mapped bear trails using an interdisciplinary doctorate program and GPS and took hair samples out hope to return to the West. It is all bearable of (unoccupied) dens for DNA because it is for an incredible cause. testing.

I am the communications manager for Rare, Later in college, I took time an international conservation organization off to do more field research based in Arlington, Virginia, that works to in the Andean foothills of Ven- make people benefit (both economically and ezuela—studying stream ecol- socially) from the preservation of their natural ogy (and picking up a slew resources. As a conservation community we of parasites that lived in the have seen that it is not enough to simply create most personal of body cavi- parks and protected areas—people who live in ties—my Thacher girlfriends and around these areas must benefit from their are still teasing me about this!). preservation in order for conservation to be Together with the rest of the successful in the long term. research team, we looked at the important role different fish species play in the cycling of Rare is currently working in over 25 counnutrients through the stream ecosystem. We tries—from Guatemala to Sierra Leone—on lived in tents and hammocks in the forest and issues ranging from the mitigation of blastwoke up every morning to the sound of howler fishing in Indonesia to the preservation of the monkeys in the trees above. monarch butterfly’s wintering grounds in the central highlands of Mexico. This means creatI had become transfixed with tropics, especially ing sustainable businesses owned and run by northern South America. For my senior thesis local people and building powerful grassroots I went to the Peruvian and Brazilian Amazon constituencies for environmental conservato study the trade in ornamental (or aquarium) tion. fish. For over a year I traced various fish species from the tributaries of the Amazon Basin This work is hard. We rely now more than back to pet stores in New York. I traveled by ever on central government and a select group riverboat and learned to eat (or tried to learn of large conservation organizations to protect to eat) whatever was handed to me. On every both the backyard natural areas we hold dear river trip I was taken into someone’s family, and the most treasured natural regions of the fed catfish off banana leaves, and urged to stay world—from the Amazon Basin to the Sumaon forever. When I got to small towns, people tran rainforest (both of which are disappearing had already heard of the fish gringa who was today at a faster rate than any we have seen coming to do interviews and go out on boats. previously). Yet I believe strongly that the fuA single woman was weird; a single woman ture does not need to be bleak. who wanted to talk about fishing was even weirder. My travels there were some of the Continued on page 34 richest experiences of my life.

The Great Outdoors

Brendan P. Bechtel CdeP 1999 Coalescing Environmental Conservation with Economic Development

I

have spent the last year and a half working for The Conservation Fund, a national land and water conservation non-profit in the Washington, DC, area.

I trace my environmental roots to my Thacher experience. Trail running behind campus in Los Padres National Forest as the sun rose and set over the Ojai, surfing whitewater kayaks at Ventura beaches, climbing and backcountry skiing in the southeastern Sierras, Extra-Day Trips all over California … all of these outdoor pursuits instilled in me a healthy land ethic and respect for the environment. The Outdoor Program provided me with ready access to the majesty of the natural landscape, taught me the skills to enjoy that landscape responsibly, and encouraged outdoor leadership. To this day, I consider my Charles Warren Alpinist, Best Camper, and A-Camper Awards some of my proudest (and most fun) milestones.

Classroom experiences at Thacher like AP Environmental Science and Geography allowed me to explore my academic interests in the human-environment interaction.

Group work in the classroom and athletics opened my eyes to the power of partnership.

The School’s cultural emphasis on personal accountability and performance informed a personal belief in results-oriented action.

Thacher’s Honor Code reinforced a deep

belief in honorable, responsible, transpar- We are 150 environmentalists around the naent conduct. tion who speak the language of business, sometimes described as the investment bankers of After Thacher, I studied Geography and En- the conservation community. We bring buyers vironmental Studies at Middlebury College. and sellers to the table, structure and transact I was a founding member of the Middlebury deals, and leverage our own pool of conservaInitiative for Sustainable Development, and a tion risk capital when necessary to provide leader of the Carbon Neutrality at Middlebury bridge financing. We’ve consistently been College project. I continued my hands-on ap- awarded top rankings in the environmental proach to enjoying the landscape by ski patrol- non-profit community for both our efficiency ling for four years at the Middlebury College and effectiveness. In 20 years, we’ve conserved Snow Bowl, co-founding the Middlebury Fly over 4 million acres of land and water in the Fishing Club, joining the Middlebury Moun- United States, valued at more than $2.5 billion, tain Club board, and leading Middlebury Out- acquired at a cost of less than $1.8 billion. door Orientation trips in Vermont’s Green Mountains. I spent a winter internship at the My projects run the gamut of our organizaHyatt Ranch in Wyoming, developing an envi- tion’s interests. For example, I helped broker ronmental mitigation plan for a cattle feedlot a last-minute deal between an Indiana power operation. I completed advanced coursework utility and the state conservation agency, as the in environmental geographic company’s property was about to be auctioned information systems and map- off to developers. I helped acquire properties ping, critical geography, inter- for the Flight 93 National Memorial in Somnational development, human erset, Pennsylvania, where the passengers and impact on the global environ- crew of the hijacked 9/11 flight exhibited trement, and environmental eco- mendous heroism and took the first American nomics. stand in the new war on terror. I am leading an effort to create an exciting new educational While in college, I spent sev- website focused on the Chesapeake Bay that eral summers doing corporate will reach every child in the six-state watershed sustainability work at Bechtel and build public support for a new ChesaGroup, Inc. “Corporate sus- peake Bay unit of the National Park Service. tainability” is loosely defined I am working to permanently connect and as corporate efforts to consider strengthen a blighted urban park in one of environmental and social responsibility in ad- the most underserved minority communities dition to profitability when making business in Northeast DC, where I am also working to decisions. I had the opportunity to help de- start a microfinance fund to provide capital to fine what sustainable development means to small businesses that use or enhance the park.

Bechtel, travel to Brazil to study the environ- I am working to capitalize a new conservation mental and social impacts of hydroelectric revolving fund in Maine, which will support dams, and develop a portfolio of sustainability our present and future work there. strategies for Bechtel’s future hydro projects.

My personal environmental philosophy is that I started full-time employment with The Con- responsible environmentalists should continue servation Fund shortly after graduating from to focus on the incredible power of the busiMiddlebury in 2003. The Conservation Fund ness community to affect positive change en(www.conservationfund.org) was created to vironmentally and socially. Groups like The work at the intersection of the environment Conservation Fund are making a lot of meanand business, and we are the only non-profit ingful progress environmentally with corporate in the U.S. with a dual IRS tax-exempt charter partners. Working collaboratively—instead of to engage ‘environmental conservation’ and antagonistically—I believe environmentalists ‘economic development.’ We are non-advocacy, and corporations can create a brighter future non-membership, and non-litigious. We negotiate of breathable, potable, edible, and transact conservation real estate deals on enjoyable, and profitable behalf of our partners (federal, state, and local benefits. conservation agencies, and other non-profits like land trusts), and implement sustainable In line with this ­philosophy, solutions through our real estate, leadership Continued on page 34 training, and land use advisory activities.

Fall 2004 / Winter 2005 33

The Great Outdoors Freeman Ford and Richard Rhodes

Our primary residence is Bainbridge Island, Washington. We have a second home in Ojai so that we can more easily spend time with Another IceStor system was installed domesti- nearby relatives. Both kids attend Ojai Valley cally in the Chicago Field Museum, a natural School. I spend much of my time traveling on history museum built in the late 1800s and one SeaShare-related business and in the SeaShare of the Windy City’s top tourist attractions. Al- office on Bainbridge Island. I work the rest of though several other vendors vied for this large the time from a home office in Ojai, hiking and prestigious contract, Fafco sales manager the local trails, and getting out to the Channel Dave Harris believes we won the job because Islands whenever possible. of our company’s technology that offers “superior performance...[and the ability] to custom- My future plans are to expand SeaShare’s probuild the tanks” to meet the museum’s space grams. We have a unique niche in an industry requirements. About 1000 thermal-energy- challenged by issues of sustainability and utistorage units are installed in the United States, lization. SeaShare has become a respected and but two thirds of Fafco ­IceStor sales have been credible advocate within the seafood industry in Asia, where China sales are beginning to for the wise use of a public resource and for burgeon. the cause of hunger-relief. I think that incenContinued from page 26

tives and opportunity will result in far more From our humble beginnings in Freeman’s effective resource-management policies than garage, Fafco inhabited several sites in the simplistic protectionist schemes. Through Seasouth Bay Area before we relocated in 2000 to Share, I hope I can continue to help promote a custom-built, state-of-the-art solar research, that kind stewardship. e design, and production facility in Chico. Incorporated in 1972, the company now has over 100 employees. Fafco pioneered the use of polymers for solar collectors and is now James Labbe the largest and oldest manufacturer of solar Continued from page 30 heating collectors with over 30 domestic and urban communities require partnering with international patents for their innovations. a variety of stakeholders and public interest Freeman continues to serve as Chairman of the ­advocates on issues including affordable housBoard, President, and Chief Executive Officer, ing, food access, social justice, transportation, while I—having held titles as Chief Engineer and land-use planning. and Director of Engineering and New Product Development—continue to enjoy experi- Perhaps the biggest challenge in my work is menting and inventing new technologies that convincing people why urban wildlife and save non-replenishable energy. Projects on the habitat matter. Urban conservation strikes horizon include heating water for residential many people as a peculiar endeavor. “Healthy use, improving efficiency of gas turbines used urban watershed” is presumed an oxymoron; to generate power, and lowering the cost of protecting and restoring “urban ecosystems” seawater desalination. e is deemed at best, less worthy than protecting “wilderness” in the hinterlands. However, the rapid growth of urban populations, especially in the American West, and the impact of this Tuck Donnelly growth on scarce land and water resources Continued from page 27 and the fish, wildlife, and water quality they to food banks and soup kitchens around the support, has increased the relevancy of urban country. I have eaten dozens of meals with conservation. Meanwhile the demographic people who go without food, far too often. I changes driving urban re-inhabitation coupled think back on our lunches of bread and water with the emerging role of public health and and remember how much I disliked not hav- quality of life factors in economic and commuing a real meal when I was hungry. It was an nity development are fostering interest in urban important lesson that Thacher taught me and watershed stewardship and restoration as part of a broader renaissance in urban dwelling. that took me a long time to understand.

I married Jax (who is from Oxford, England) in 1986. Jax lives to read and to garden! Rachel was born in 1988. She is an awesome swimmer, plays volleyball and basketball and loves board sports. James was born in 1991.

He is an avid baseball and tennis player, loves wakeboarding and plays cello with the Santa Barbara Youth Symphony Ensemble. The whole family enjoys traveling. My hobbies include boats of all kinds (including radio-control sailboats!), fishing, hiking, golf, and tennis.

34 The Thacher News

mental implications. The lack of safe, livable cities with nature nearby was, in part, what drove the suburban flight and all its negative environmental consequences over the last half-century. A second opportunity is to refute the idea that nature has no place in the city, a sub-theme of the broader Western worldview that treats nature as somehow separate from humans and peripheral to human society. To the extent this premise underlies many our environmental woes, urban conservation will be vital to actualizing a more just, sustainable society. e

Allison Glass Continued from page 31

babbling over the microphone, trying to pass along as much ­ information and awareness as I can. I know that if I convinced just ten people per trip to write to their representatives, or inspired another six-year-old girl to study whales, that it will help in the long run. Sure, there seem to be so many frustrating set backs, but it’s worth it when I see a new right whale calf or the humpback whale that my grandparents adopted for me so long ago. e

Laurel Braitman Continued from page 32

As people who have been shaped by the beauty of the western wildlands, the future of conservation lies in our hands. I implore each of you to be thankful for your rich experiences in our wilderness and to help ensure their existence for your children. There are so many ways to get involved—and each one is infinitely rewarding. e

Brendan Bechtel Continued from page 33

I am looking forward to tempering my environmental passions and supplementing my interdisciplinary training with a rigorous, focused Business School experience, so that I can return to the private sector and work to “green” the international business community.

I’ll be tackling some prepatory coursework this I believe there is great cultural opportunity spring and focus applying to MBA programs in the waning of hinterland escapism—with for fall 2005. I am looking at West Coast all its racial and class undertones—that has schools so that I can hopefully return to my characterized, perhaps driven, American his- native California, and enjoy my real passions: tory. One opportunity is in finally shedding telemark skiing, flyfishing, and most anything the flawed but persistent Jeffersonian notion in the outdoors. e that the city is a social and cultural evil and that American democracy and virtue is only realized in an agriculture or frontier society.

As Hegel argued over a century ago—in exact reverse of Thomas Jefferson—real democracy could not happen until Americans stopped running away from each other and “escaping” to the next frontier. This has direct environ-

Outdoors

The Great Outdoors

Snippets of the Great Outdoors Thacher Alums Share Stories

John King, Jr., CdeP 1956

John Herzog CdeP 1982

Robert Cooper CdeP 1964

My wife Lea and I have volunteered for over a year with WildCare—Tewilliger Nature Education and Wildlife Rehabilitation in San Rafael. We’ve helped injured and/or orphaned wild birds, build and repair cages for birds, bats, and smaller critters, and built a kid-sized desk for the children’s education section. This project is personally very satisfying.

I have been involved with hiking and trekking to raise money for youth drug treatment. Last May my team climbed a 19,000-foot peak in Peru; each October we climb in the local Santa Barbara Mountains; next summer it will be Mt. Shasta, and 2006 will be in Bhutan.

I climb in the US, Mexico, Equador, Argentina, France, Switzerland, Nepal, and Tibet (including a climb to 22,000 feet on Everest). Currently I am planning a trek in the Sikkim area of India that will probably include some exploration of Kanchenjunga.

Ted DeWitt CdeP 1973

I work as a marine ecologist with US Environmental Protection Agency in Newport, OR, leading a research team to understand how John Case CdeP 1959 food webs in coastal waters are affected by I haven’t been on a horse for many water quality, particularly nutrient pollution. My years, but I have traded my sad- interest in marine biology started when I was dle for a paddle here in Minnesota about 12, and blossomed at Thacher under the where we have the boundary Wa- guidance of my biology teachers, Carl Brown ters Canoe Area Wilderness and the and Don Reid.

Ontario Provincial Park—Quetico just across the border. Very remote: no Sarah Sawyer CdeP 1999 motorboats, resorts, fly-ins, etc.

Ella Groodbrod CdeP 2000

I am graduating from Prescott College with a degree in Adventure Education and a minor in Environmental Studies. My focus is in rock climbing, mountaineering, and backpacking, and I have worked with a variety of groups including at-risk youth from San Francisco and others.

Julie Nelson Hampden CdeP 1990

I have been working in environmental consulting (mostly Endangered Species Act compliance) for five years now. I received a Masters of Marine Affairs with an emphasis in fishery management in 1999—a degree that has come in handy in my current line of work.

Prior to that, I worked for two years as an Environmental Educator in Olympic National Park and for several years after college and summers during college I was a seasonal field biologist in Alaska, Montana, Oregon and Washington, surveying streams, tracking high-altitude foxes, and studying salmon, spotted owls, gray whales, and estuarine ecosystem rehabilitation efforts.

I just returned home from four months of volunteer work on a chimpanzee rerelease project in Congo, Africa, that fit perfectly with my major and masters in primatology. I stayed at a chimpanzee sanctuary, where I fed 11 chimps twice daily by taking a boat from camp filled with fruits and medicine. I then spent three months observing re-released chimps in the forest, living in a small camp with no running water or electricity with three other volunteers and 17 Congolese workers; we were chased daily by enormous elephants in the Condouti National Park.

Absolutely incredible.

Doug Holt, Jr. CdeP 1983

I have always been active in outdoors activities, even prior to Thacher, including: Committee Member of Ducks Unlimited wildlife habitat support group; the catch and release program for LA’s only wild trout rivers, the San Gabriel River in Azusa; the Azusa Dam Off Road project to protect endangered fish; expeditions to retrace the original Pony Express trail from Nevada into California; and hunting with various early eighties alums annually.

Elizabeth Huntington CdeP 1984

I am a member of the San Anselmo Open Space Committee, which strives to keep open space alive in Marin County. I also volunteer for an organization called The Mountain Institute which is an international non-profit dedicated to conservation, community development, and cultural preservation in the Andes, Appalachian, Himalayan, and other mountain ranges of the world.

George Hoffman CdeP 1971

I work as a Faculty Research Associate in the Crop and Soil Science Department at Oregon State University. My two current projects are: 1) changing the way the Meadowfoam plant is grown to make it a more successful rotational crop in the larger grass seed cropping system in the Willamette Valley; and 2) helping develop the “blue orchard bee” as an alternative pollinator of commercial orchard crops.

Nick Kent CdeP 1976

I am a consulting forester in Healdsburg, California. My firm, Kent and Associates, manages forest lands for private landowners in Northern California. We primarily manage redwood forests on a sustained yield basis. I am also involved in establishing redwood plantation forests in New Zealand.

Guy Lusignan CdeP 1953

I am now retired, but I spent 45 years managing forests in the northwest for small private and industrial land owners.

Fall 2004 / Winter 2005 35

Jessica Murray CdeP 1995

Teresa Enright CdeP 2001, Kylie Manson CdeP 2003, Lauren Cerre CdeP 2001, and Cameron Ridgeway CdeP 2003

I work for Friends of the Los Angeles River, an environmental non-profit that works to re- As Colorado College students vitalize and restore the river. and alums, we spend tons of time outside: climbing, hiking, skiing, and leading trips for the Alex Van Dyke CdeP 1946 school.

While waiting to leave to take my wife’s 15-year-old quarter horse Jason Boy Blue by trailer to the vet, I thought of the days at Thacher when I arrived with horse in trailer. Still riding with a five-year-old filly by the name of Plum Cool.

George Montgomery, Jr. CdeP 1951 I chaired the Board and stay active with Environmental Defense, a leading environmental advocacy group, and serve on the Board of the California Academy of Sciences, which provides educational services and does scientific research on the environment.

Bob Isaacson CdeP 1966

Sally and I live on and manage my Calvin Lieu CdeP 2004 family’s 900-acre cattle ranch in I’m still pursuing my passion for climbing western Santa Barbara County which that Thacher has rooted in me. As strange we are currently trying to place into as this sounds, there is actually a lot of a conservation easement with the climbing potential in Minnesota. I’m conCalifornia Rangeland Trust, in order stantly looking out for places and things to to preserve its natural resources and climb and believe climbing is a life long Stefanie Warren CdeP 1996 keep it in agriculture in perpetuity. We pursuit, wherever you are. e I am in my third year at Emory Law also breed our own quarter horses.

School and I work as a student attor- We’re are involved with a number of ney in our Turner Environmental Law Clinic.

I have been working on the Tri-State government and state grants to Water wars case and, after clerking, I develop rotational grazing on the will be going to Luce Forward in San Diego ranch, redistribute water sources, to do environmental law/real estate and develop cross fencing. I am also litigation work. I also surf as much as a board member for the Land Trust of Santa Barbara County; we have possible. protected over 14,000 acres of land from development. I also have Zachary Tillman CdeP 1997 designed and will offered an innovaI work at the Deschutes River tive English course at my college, Conservancy, a private organi- The Literature of Wilderness and the zation in Bend, Oregon. Our ­Environment.

mission is to restore stream flows and improve water quality in the Deschutes basin through a collaborative, consensus-based approach to water management issues in a rapidly changing socio-economic environment.

This involves on the ground restoration projects and the implementation of several innovative programs involving local irrigation districts, municipalities, and environmental organizations.

Meghan Jeans CdeP 1993

I work as an environmental attorney and represent a coalition of environmental organizations working on sustainable fisheries issues.

Winslow Burleson CdeP 1990

I spend a lot of time outdoors in a variety of activities ranging from sailing from Hawaii to Seattle and doing the AIDS Ride, to taking a Cave Rescue I course and EMT certification. I also teach SCUBA Steve Peletz CdeP 1977 diving, climb redwood trees and I have spent some years as a part-time took a trip to Antarctica.

SCUBA diving instructor for a research program; we’ve photographed sunken shipwrecks from World War II in Micronesia’s David Laylin CdeP 1955 Truk Lagoon, visited marine invertebrates My company, Speedtech Instruin a submarine canyon near Monterey, as ments, manufactures portable electronic instruments for outdoor use. well as diving throughout the world.

Alexia Allen CdeP 1996

I have been working for the Wilderness Awareness School here in the Seattle area for two years, as an instructor for the Kamana Naturalist Training Program.

36 The Thacher News

We invented the Edge technology that is used to determine when best to fish, hunt, or view animals. In my spare time, I train, hunt, and handle English setters (in field trials) and fly fish. Between 1965 and 1978 I was in Iran, working in the safari business.

The Thacher Family

SAFARI Kenya, Summer of 2006 Join Jake Jacobsen for for 16 days in Kenya: The Maasai Mara, Loita Hills, Tsavo East, and the Coast Thacher students, families, and alumni welcome.

Email Jake at jjacobsen@thacher.org

Alumni News

1931

Class Notes

 Reeves Morrisson enjoyed an interesting out-

ing sailing with his daughter and some of her family in her 38-foot sailboat from Maine to Scotland, on to Norway, back to Scotland, and to Ireland. Ahoy, mate!

1946

Patricia and Charles Gunther went a’fishin’ with Donald Gregory for the wily trout of New Zealand in November. They pulled in browns and rainbows that averaged 3.5-5 pounds.

1951  Chrissie and Brooks Crawford gathered their

family together for this great shot.

by Jane D. McCarthy

1956 Dirk ten Grotenhuis is fully retired with the same bride of 40 years, three children, and seven grandchildren. “My best to all my mates of ’56!”  Richard Julien,

father of Sophie Julien O’Neal CdeP 1982, married Diane Munkner on June 26, 2004 at Julien Ranch in Siskiyou County, CA, a ranch that has been in the family since 1852 and is still a working cattle ranch. Thacher classmate, Dr. John Haverly, was the official photographer. Donald Bell CdeP 1952 also attended.

1957

1934  John Hooper

shares the spotlight with granddaughters Hannah Hooper CdeP 2000 and Alexandra Blair CdeP 1998.

1943 John West moved to 3714 Cadbury Circle, Venice, FL 34293, but misses the water and unbelievable sunsets: “We are in a great, newer, detached villa, but really miss the unique, wonderful location and property we had. Still have room, so any old folks in the area please drop by! ­(941) 492‑3714.”

1952 Tom May has been making the alumni rounds.

He visited with Carol and Keni Kent this past summer at Wombat Hill, a gardener’s delight of floral color and bountiful food source. Jane and Don Yates invited Tom and Martha to dinner and the opera. And in October, Martha and Tom made a specific effort to visit Donald Bell when they were in the Asheville, NC area. Tom reports that “Donald was in good fettle. He showed us around his handsome farm and the area beyond in which he has a family interest. Fortunately, they did not suffer badly from the flooding in western Carolina which made national headlines.

We were delighted that Donald showed us much of his late wife’s (Ruth) artistic efforts over the years. The art ran from intricate quilting to sculpture and painting. Ruth had an amazing spectrum of her expression in each of these media. She died last year but her lively spirit is about the house.

Through a series of coincidences, I recently had the pleasure of meeting Mark Bissell CdeP 1975 and wife, Cathy, at the Heitz Winery. It turns out they were at the winery to taste older vintages of Martha’s Vineyard.”

Ann and Mac Coffey recently toured the Thacher campus with their niece, Kelsey Harrington, a freshman. “Six months ago,” Mac recalls, “I had asked her to describe the major difference between her two potential choices, Cate and Thacher. She quickly replied, ‘It’s between a couch and a horse.’ Needless to say, she chose the horse.”

Brenda and Bill Leppo continue enjoying their life in Hillsboro, OR, where, on a small farm, they raise Cotswold Sheep. Their business, Leppo Instruments (which makes point-of-sale terminals for school cafeterias), is thriving. And, finally, they just acquired their second standard poodle, who “looks exactly like Berbit, Jack Huyler’s poodle that attended English classes with him.”

1959 Anne and John Heard kicked off 2005 by leaving for a two-year commitment with the Pan American Development Foundation home office in Washington, DC. They would love to see “Thacher guests, official or otherwise!”

Fall 2004 / Winter 2005 37

1963

 When down

2004 was a big year for Lorance Dix Lisle. He was 1.) appointed Chief Marshal of the American Grand Priory, Military & Hospitaler Order of St. Lazarus of Jerusalem; 2.) elected Senior National Treasurer, Children of the American Revolution; and 3.) elected National Sentinel, Heroes of ‘76, National Sojourners, Inc.

1964 Becky and Kip Witter became grandparents (first timers) on July 4, 2004: Helena Faith Frey, born in San Francisco, is living in Palo Alto with her parents: Roger and Allison Witter Frey. “Three horses here at home in Woodside (a good guy); a day job in New York City (not so good as a commute!),” wrote Kip.

1965

under in Sydney, Australia last September, Gretchen and Marshall Milligan met up with Peter Goodrich, who lives with his wife and son in Melbourne.

After practicing law for several decades, Peter is enjoying a second career teaching law.

1970

Reunion

 Michele and Rod Turner took their daughters,

Anne and Kathryn ’08, to enjoy Italy’s famous sunflowers.

Reunion

 In this photo montage from Christmas, we

learned that Kimberleigh and Paul Gavin spent time in Maui, Kauai, Oahu, Yosemite, and even Las Vegas.

On August 13, 2004, Thacher’s Chinese Teacher Li Li became Mrs. R. Bruce Peters!

1972  Parker and William,

sons of Dodie and Bill Dawson.

1971

 Joni, Jesse, and Rachel seem less than thrilled

with the “music” made by Ted Rhodes.

1967

Kristian Meisling reports that it’s been a big year for music: “My wife (Ginger von Wening) and I have been gigging with our jazz trio Double Coyote every Saturday night. We play with a percussionist (Fernando) and do lots of Latin jazz and swing standards. I also play pedal steel in a country band every Tuesday. Double Coyote went in the studio and made demo CDs. I still work at BP, mostly Gulf of Mexico and Trinidad Deep Water. So the music is my second job. . . . a labor of love. Have a great 2005.”

 Toni and Bob

Hopkins with their children Whitney and Emmett CdeP 2001

1969 Jim Munger proudly wrote that his daughter, Roseanna, who recently passed the California Bar, is currently working in a firm, but is particularly interested in intellectual property and art law: “Anybody know of someone working in that field who might give some pointers? Let me know at jmunger@dunnschool.org.”

38 The Thacher News

1973  Rebecca and Dave Livermore enjoy the Great Salt Lake countryside with daughter Jenn (new to the teenager ranks) and their dog Elsa.

Thacher Cocktail party in London, hosted by Mark Leydecker CdeP 1979  Ronald Wu CdeP 2002,

Melissa Long CdeP 1987, and James Hanley CdeP 1979  Natasha Long CdeP

1991, her father Tom Long, and Melissa Long CdeP 1987

 James Hanley CdeP 1979 and

Mark Leydecker CdeP 1979

1974

 The children

Elizabeth Hydes (Westbrook) (Emma Willard Exchange 1974-75) had a terrific visit with Jan and Reilly Pollard CdeP 1976 this July in Santa Barbara. While there they also met up with Peggy and Kellam de Forest CdeP 1944 for a spirited dinner at Aja. She also saw John Wagner CdeP 1976 in LA and Carmaig de Forest CdeP 1975 who was performing in New York in August.

Sounds like a great summer for catching up with Thacher friends.

of Anthony and Mary Everett Bourke—Sara (11), Hannah (14), and Liam (9)—enjoyed “Zorbing” in New Zealand which involves riding in a giant inflatable ball as it rolls down a steep hill.

ter, and Peace” from Isabella, Phoebe, and Tessa, daughters of Stacy and Michael Kong.

 Kris Anderson is all

smiles when he spends time with two-year-old daughter, Karina. Nice photo, Linda: you must be very proud of your family!

 Butch and Wendy

1976

Dawson Cliff with their children: MacKenzie (8) and Jamie (6)

Christine and Stan Penton recently returned from St. Petersburg, Russia, with Spencer (age 7). They have Analessa (5) also adopted from Tule Dunca to join McKenzie (now 13) at their Normandy Farms equestrian center in Littleton, CO. Ana is already riding, but enjoys vaulting the best.

1982

 Kelly and Bill

Anderson and son Spencer have enjoyed returning to Thacher to see son Max ’05.

Stanley Chiu reports that 2004 was a multiplebirth year for the Chiu family: sister Christina Chiu Alfandary CdeP 1985 and husband Jack had their second child, Lia Claire, in March, while Allison and Stanley celebrated the birth of their second son, Henry, in October. “Now that makes a total of six potential Toads.”

1979

1984 2004 was an eventful year for Kevin Grant and his wife, Lisa. Daughter Anita  arrived on July 14, followed three min-

 Robert, son of Don

Amy and Larkin Montgomery welcomed their daughter Grace Baines into the world on September 15, 2004. She was 8 lbs 11 oz and 21 inches long: “definitely Larkin’s genes coming through!

Larkin loves being a father and Grace gets a big smile on her face when Larkin sings to her. Larkin was recently named the National Manager of Retirement Benefits at Kaiser Permanente. Over the years, he worked in various aspects of the benefits world and is happy to put all his experience together in this new role.” They are still living in Pleasanton, CA.

1980

 “Love, Laugh-

and Marian Huntington Schinske.

1983  Bruce Somers, Bobby

Henshel, and Robert Kahn signed up to bike, run, and swim as a relay team for the Wildflower triathlon at the end of April. Their team name, fittingly, is “The Toads.”

Bruce’s daughters are Violet and Camelia.

Reunion

When not flying around the country in his plane, David Budlong enjoys beautiful Santa Barbara.

By this May, Phebe Titus should finish her internship at the VA in Albuquerque, NM: she “could actually be Dr. Phebe (in psychology). Would love to hear from any class of ’80 if you are in the southwest,” before she likely bounds back to Montana. She has two horses, three cats, did most of her graduate work at Colorado State, and has a condo in Steamboat Springs (where she’s had about 60 ski days a year in the past three years...).

 Andrea Massey and

Chris Shaw are delighted to announce the birth of Christiana Candida on October 27, 2004.

utes later with  Neil’s arrival. Three months later, they moved to Mumbai, India, where they will live until at least June 2005. Lisa is doing historical research as a Fulbright Fellow, and Kevin has taken a leave of absence from Hamilton College to serve as baby sitter and valet. Kevin earned tenure at Hamilton and published a book, A Civilized Savagery: Britain and the New Slaveries in Africa, 1884-1926. After such a busy year, the Grants are looking forward to a comparatively uneventful 2005, but that may not come true with two babies in India…

Mark Fickes and his partner, William Gentry, are delighted to announce the birth of their twins on September 14. Their daughter, Galvin Trovillet Fickes, and her younger brother (three minutes later), Zachary Gentry Fickes were born at about 2:30 a.m. Reportedly, “Dads and babies are all doing great!”

1985

1981 Andres and Javier, sons of Antonieta Monaldi and Javier Arango.

Reunion

Sarah Peapples is looking forward to the 20th Reunion in June. She hopes to bring almost threeyear-old son, Zare, and husband, Vahe.

Christina Chiu Alfandary happily announces that their second child, Lia Claire, arrived last March.

Fall 2004 / Winter 2005 39

1986  Lila, daughter of Molly

and Mark Gamble.

Ethan and Elizabeth McLaren named their first child, Alexander Levi, on July 4, 2004: “He is a great little boy, and gets to spend a lot of time with his Aunt Jessica McLaren CdeP 1992 who lives a few blocks away.”

The big news from Sarah Lavender Smith is that she’s gone back to work full time (after having freelanced part time during the past six years after her daughter was born).

She is an editor for Guilford Publications, a New York-based publisher of books in the areas of mental health, child development, education, and communications.

1992  Carrie Johnston with her groom Adrian on

their wedding day.

1989 And yet another newborn is Jordan Allen, born to Traci and Justin Lombard, and big sister Amanda on Octoter 7, 2004.

Chloe Grace was born to Kathleen and Toby Blue on April 8, 2004.

Teresa Bui Friday was sorry to miss the Reunion last summer, but she has a great excuse: Jackson Bui (Jack to all of his friends) was born in August.

All three look forward to the 20th when it rolls around.

1987 Charles Dyer is the proud father of Jeffrey Woodbridge, who arrived on September 21, 2004. reports that son Oliver just turned two and Adam is one. They came back to California for the holidays, her first trip back to the US since moving to Switzerland two years ago.

Reunion

 Talia, daughter of Mark and

Jennifer Utman Sommer.

 The Reniers Clan: Rie and

1988  Kalai, the

wife of Scott Vi n c e n t f o r the past seven years, recently sent in a photo and note to update everyone on the arrival of their first child: Nicholas Justin Ka’eo (they call him Justin) who arrived on April 24, 2004. “He’s a happy-go-lucky little guy and we’re thrilled he’s here. Scott is as busy as ever, working as Assistant City Attorney for Santa Barbara.”

40 The Thacher News

1990

As of August 13, Jon and Jennifer Pringle welcomed a lovely baby girl—Catherine Pringle Fahey—aka Katie.

 Michelle Barnett Berg

1991 Lara Phelps Randby sends a big hello to all: “We are adjusting to and enjoying Southern life here in North Carolina. Ken is always busy with his businesses and I am in my third year of teaching in Durham. The boys started Kindergarten and preschool this year and even though school is a big part of my life, that was a shock! Hope all is well with you all!”

 The Bressie Clan, including David CdeP 1987

(back row on the right), Paul (seated on the couch), and Meredith CdeP 1994 (seated on the right side of the couch).

Ross and Jordana Munk Martin are the proud parents of Dashiell Wyle who arrived on August 29, 2002.

Toby (left) are in their first home in Oakland and expecting their first child; Bob spends time golfing, duck hunting and waiting to be a grandpa, while Betsy plays bridge, walks marathons, and anxiously awaits her grandbaby; Maggie CdeP 1992 is working on her high school Spanish teaching credential; and Wil CdeP 1995 returned from his compost business scouting in China to work with his Dad in building a new plant.

Tucker Orr and his wife Tiffany happily announce the arrival of Grey Eberhart Orr (Baby Grey) who weighed in at 6 pounds, 4 ounces on September 27, 2004. Tucker reports that “She is quiet but sometimes grouchy like her dad.” If you want to send your congratulations, his new e-mail is orrt2010@yahoo.com.

Jessica Bliss passed the California bar in July and now works for a law firm in Palo Alto. She and her husband just purchased their first home in San Jose, CA. Kendra Schmidt married Martyn Williams Crisp on February 19 at beautiful Lake Tahoe! He is British. They live in Ventura, where she has started her own business “In Style Abroad” that rents luxury accommodations. “All places (and people!) foreign continue to remain close to my heart!”

1993 Jessica Eklund became Mrs. Michael McGawn in Basalt, CO, last May. On hand for the festivities were Laura and Todd McCloskey, Paul Gamble, Jean Richards Damon and her husband Jamie, and Meghan Jeans, as well as faculty members, Kara and Jeff Hooper.

1994 At the beginning of September, Mary Everett moved to Oxford, MI to be near her boyfriend, an assistant coach with the Ole Miss Men’s basketball team. Just a few weeks after arriving, she was out at The Grove “tailgating with 60,000 others in true southern style for the football game. In a place where I expected to recognize no one, who else but Stuart McCluer walked into my line of vision! I doubted it was him as I haven’t seen him since we all graduated over 10 years ago. I walked up and said “Is your name Stuart?” He looked at me funny at first but then followed with “Mary, Mary Everett?” I met his wife and one-year-old baby girl. I filled him in on the reunion which he missed and he filled me in on the few classmates he has heard from recently. Having gone to high school in southern California, the last place on earth I expected to see an old classmate was here in Mississippi. It was such a nice surprise!”

Justin Hunnicut Stephens combined two of his passions: winemaking and spending time outdoors.

His first two wines under the Hunnicutt label are a 2001 Cabernet Sau­vignon—Napa Valley (231 cases) and a 2002 Zinfandel—Napa Valley, Chiles Valley District (252 cases). He is also serving as general manager of DR Stephens Estate, his family’s label.

Any Thacher Community member who orders Hunnicutt wine will not only enjoy fine wine, but Justin will donate 15% of sales to Thacher. It’s a win-win for everyone!

Contact Justin at justin@hunnicuttwines.com, or visit www.hunnicuttwines.com.

On the Winter Solstice, in Ridgway, CO, Aspin Jane Bowers became Mrs. Erik John Teevin.

Nate and Rika Howe Toll had the pleasure of attending the wedding of Devon Brown in Long Beach, CA on October 23, 2004. “Her union was magical, set under the humpback whales of the Pacific Aquarium. We were able to spend time with our fellow ’94 friends Abby, Ysette, Chris, Skye, and many Thacher parents (Youngs and Nichols). A wonderful weekend!”

1995

Reunion

Ramsay Palmer is still pursuing the acting thing in New York, but hopes to make it out for the 10-year Reunion. He sends his best wishes to everyone.  In this, his final year

at Tulane Law School, “A Devil in a Blue Dress (aka Alberto Struck) met up with Richie Tenebaum (aka Robert Grether, CdeP 1999) to celebrate Halloween in New Orleans.

Wolfgang Weber is living and working in Rome, Italy, where he has a writing/editing role for the Food & Agriculture Organization of the UN. He was sharing a flat (and office) with Lloyd Sacks, who recently shipped off to Sudan for work; recently arrived to take his place is Omar AbouSamra. In his spare time, Wolfe reports he’s “either admiring 12th century mosaics in Rome or traveling to visit and learn from many of Europe’s great winemakers and regions. I haphazardly update an online journal at: www.livejournal. com/~ripechablis.”

Jesse Reich is currently enrolled at Texas A&M University pursuing a PhD in organic chemistry.

He and his wife Alene (whom he met at Bates College) recently celebrated their second anniversary. He hopes to finish up in the Pecan State and head back to the East Coast (where his family resides) within the year.  Wendy and Steve

Bowie with their children, James and Jennifer CdeP 2001, and dog Josh, Jenna Osburn recently took on a new position as development director of a non-profit in the Adams Morgan area of DC that provides after-school programs and educational advocacy services to at-risk kids in the neighborhood. She’s actually in the process of trying to get a couple of their kids in Thacher and Chris Mazzola is coming to visit the centers. She hopes everyone is doing well and will visit when next in DC, as she has “tons of space.”

1999 Erin Hoppin is currently living in Brooklyn, working as a legal assistant at a law firm in Manhattan. Although she was sorry to miss the Reunion, she caught up with classmates at Sarah Bruss’s beautiful wedding in August.  On their wedding day, July 24, Matt and Kim Cahill Peterson are surrounded by the Cahill Family.

 Brian Bennett and his fiancée Anne arrive in

the States to celebrate their engagement. The groom’s mother Merilee and the groom’s best man, brother Christopher, met the beaming couple, along with father Bruce, who’s holding the camera... The nuptials were to be held February 19.

1996 Thanks to her time at Thacher, Alexia Allen Stevens has now taken on the training of a neighbor’s horse. She also reports that their “meat goat, Sausage, is taking his final nap in the freezer and should last us through the winter.”

Laurel Braitman plans to marry Andrew Barton at her family’s ranch near Santa Paula on July 30, 2005.

The University of Texas accepted Peter Marlantes into their doctorate program. That’s quite an honor, according to his proud, happy parents; only a handful of candidates are chosen each year.

Congrats, Peter!

From his Dad: Alex Kitnick is working towards a doctorate in the History of Art and Archeology at Princeton University.

1998  Many Thacher alumni were on hand in Las

Vegas when Joshua Kurlinski married Heather Harvey on June 5, 2004: best man Ryan Kurlinski CdeP 1997, Gregory Spivak, Michael Isaac, the new Mrs. and Mr. Kurlinski, Bret Johnson, Carson Campe, and groomsman Seth Kurlinski CdeP 2000.

Jenny Silverman Rowland is pursuing her dream of becoming a doctor by enrolling in the University of Pennsylvania’s Post-Baccalaureate PreHealth program; nearly all of her pre-medical school requirements are complete. But the most exciting news is that Jenny and Chris welcomed Madeline, all 7 lbs 4 oz of her, on February 25.

Fall 2004 / Winter 2005 41

2000

Reunion

Todd Meyer reports that another double Toad marriage is in the offing: “Justin Arnold sprung a surprise trip to Paris on Felicity Howe over the Thanksgiving break... and while there, he asked her to marry him. She accepted. They plan to be married next July or August.”

Devon Tarasevic loves living and working in San Francisco! She still finds time to ride and show her two Arabian horses; they’ll likely join her up north soon now that she’s finished college.

Tami, Nicole Haggard’s mother, now has bragging rights. After writing a paper concerning film and feminism for one of her doctorate classes at St. Louis University, Nicole submitted it to the “Thinking Gender” conference, being held by the UCLA Center for the Study of Women in conjunction with the USC Center for Feminist Research. Nicole will be a panelist at this fifteenth annual graduate student research conference.

Congrats, Nicole!

Clay Pell plans on attending Reunion and then graduating the following week. “Plans beyond that are up in the air.”

Life is pretty rough for Peter Hartnack. He spent the summer as a fishing guide on the Brooks River in Alaska and now he’s working in Steamboat Springs, CO and skiing every day.

2001  Nikke Alex

CdeP 2003 and Deloria Lane Many Grey Horses surprisingly bumped into each other in Anchorage, AK, for the 26th Annual National American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES) Conference during November 11-13, 2004. This is a national, non-profit organization that nurtures building of community by bridging science and technology with traditional Native values. The ultimate goal of AISES is to be a catalyst for the advancement of American Indians and Native Alaskans as they seek to become self-reliant and self-determined members of society.  Rob Dickson is

serving in the Navy as a Machinists’ Mate in the Engineering Department on board the USS John F. Kennedy (CV-67) currently on deployment in the Persian Gulf in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Aircraft from the Kennedy provide combat support for American and Coalition forces on the ground in Iraq. He has passed his two-year point in the service and was recently awarded the Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal. The ship has been on station since July and was scheduled to head back to its homeport in Florida by Christmas.

42 The Thacher News

Emery Mitchem wrote to say that he, “Laurel Back, Lizzy Brewer, Amy Vanderloop, Ali Barbieri, and Dawn Cleveland are more than happy to host anyone who is in the Claremont, CA area. So if you hit up the Inland Empire make sure to send one of us an email: emitchem07@mckenna.edu”

2002 Monique Gaskins is currently in Cuba perfecting her Spanish skills and learning the culture during her study abroad. She reports that “even during hurricane season, she is safe.”

2003 Thanks to the Thacher horse staff, Matt O’Meara has enjoyed working at Rock Creek Pack Station for Craig London as a “packer” for two summers now, since he left Thacher.

According to his Dad, Zak Kitnick made the Dean’s List and has found another “home away from home” at Bard College.

2004 From the folks of Ned Lincoln, he is at Union College in Schenectady, NY, this year and likes it very much, although he misses Thacher. He is looking forward to snow boarding this winter.

Ian Strachan wrote in from Yungaburra, Australia, which, “believe it or not, is even less exciting than Schenectady if possible... (Hahaha just teasing, Ned.) Anyway I am enjoying my year off immensely and can let you know all about it if you write me an email at <ian_strachan@gmail.com>.

Would love to hear from anyone!”

Faculty and Friends News  Former teacher

at Thacher, Eleanor Tydings Gollob, has three children: twins Sam and Jill (5) and baby Jay (22 months), and still runs, plays tennis, and puts on puppet shows for the kids.  Bon Appetit’s Director

of Food Service Richard Maxwell and his wife Ginger happily announced the arrival of Nina Katherine on January 28.

We understand that Linda and Pierre Yoo are expecting another daughter, as are Lori and Cam Schryver. e

Bookshelf

Alumni News

Rick Ridgeway The Big Open

by Jane D. McCarthy

National Geographic, May 2004

T

he Big Open is a tale of endurance, exploration, and discovery to locate the calving grounds of the elusive chiru, an endangered Tibetan antelope whose delicate wool—known as shahtoosh—has, for centuries, been woven into shawls that fetch exorbitant prices. Leading adventurer, outdoorsman, mountaineer, author, photographer, as well as Thacher past parent, Rick Ridgeway, and three companions follow the 275-mile migration trek of the chiru through Tibet’s barren and treacherous northern plateau Cheng Tang at an average elevation above 16,000 feet.

ployed by a firm other than his own, the leading outdoor outfitter, Patagonia in Ventura.

Among other tasks, he is directing their environmental programs, and, coincidentally, Patagonia A century ago, early West- will fund the ern explorers wrote of new wildlife herds of many thousands patrols of the of chiru, but their num- reserve to protect the chiru that Rick and his bers have dwindled dras- team documented. e tically as they have been hunted down and killed for their delicate, luxurious hair. Rick describes the regional history of this isolated, uninhabited, often frozen tundra that the group trudged through hauling homemade aluminum “rickshaws” replete with 200 pounds of gear needed for the month-long trek.

Further, he delves into the complex human struggle surrounding the rampant poaching of chiru and the illegal taking of their pelts. Not only did the quartet successfully find the calving grounds, but they contributed to the worldwide campaign to save the chiru: the Chinese government plans to create a natural preserve for these critters based on their discovery of the calving grounds. This tale is on a higher plane than merely a travel tour book; it ascends to natural literature while it helps to procure the future of this elusive antelope.

Beyond his outdoor pursuits and authorship—this is his sixth travel book—Rick, for the first time, is em-

A male chiru

Fall 2004 / Winter 2005 43

Obituaries Alumni News

Losses to the Community Alumni Who Will Be Sorely Missed

by Jane D. McCarthy

Samuel “Pete” A. Pond CdeP 1932 died October 14, 2004, following a short illness. Referring to himself as a “work in progress,” Pete was known for kindness, good humor, and dry wit. Professionally, he was known as an accomplished, low-key, and friendly executive with “an invisible management style” according to a colleague.

served as co-chairs of the School’s Centennial Capital Campaign which raised $18 million.

In September 1928, Jim Greene, Bill Orrick, and Pete arrived at Thacher, having traveled on the night train from San Francisco together.

They stayed in the Smut Joint (above the Dining Room), camped and packed in the Sespe by way of the Gridley Trail, and learned to cope with the wilderness. Pete played Grumio in Taming of the Shrew, a performance for which he won the Bixby Dramatic Cup. He was a good baseball player who played shortstop and had a batting average of .425 in his junior year; at his home office he proudly displayed a gold-plated baseball marked, “Thacher 17, Cate 10.” Pete spent his senior year of high school at Hotchkiss at his parents’ request for him to have a year of “refinement” prior to college.

Pete loved nature and the outdoors. According to his son Sam CdeP 1974, “He was a wise man of good humor with a repertoire of silly songs, who took immense joy in his family and the out-of-doors, especially horse-packing in the High Sierra.” He is survived by his wife of 53 years, Kip of Portola Valley; son Sam of San Francisco; two daughters, Kate of Ojai, and Eliza Pond Poolman of Waimea, Hawaii; and three grandchildren.

George P. Greenhalgh, Jr. CdeP 1932 died September 14, 2004. He matriculated to Yale where he earned a bachelor of arts degree.

He served as a US Army Captain during World War II, in which he saw action in the European theater from Normandy through the Battle of the Bulge, and was decorated for bravery. After the war, George became one of the founding partners of Clark County Supply, Inc. Besides serving as chairman of the board of directors of the First National Bank of Berryville, VA, he occupied leadership positions in a variety of organizations outside the business sphere. George was preceded in death by his wife, Judith, whom he married in 1971 following the death of his first wife, Sybilla. He is survived by his son George III, a stepson, and four grandchildren.

At Yale, Peter won the first “Y” for a minor sport as captain of the undefeated soccer team and was later named All-American. He graduated in 1936, and went on to earn a degree from the Stanford Graduate School of Business in 1939. During World War II, Pete captained PT Boat 108 (a sister boat to John F. Kennedy’s PT 109) in the Solomon Islands, where he chased down Japanese supply barges at night.

After the war, he worked for Pan American William A. Swinerton World Airways in labor relations and held jobs in FMC and Chemetreon Corporations beCdeP 1935 died Septemfore beginning his tenure at Stanford in 1961. ber 26, 2004 at his WoodDuring the next 20 years, he held top posiside home. During his tions in the business school—including acting four years at Thacher, Bill dean—during its rise to world prominence. excelled in German and “He became known at the School for his good physics when he wasn’t humor and light touch, as well as creating playing baseball, soccer, business systems that served the school well,” or riding horses, accordaccording to an obituary prepared by Stanford ing to Thacher buddy, John Hooper. “He was University. a very engaging and casual person.” He served as chairman of the Archivero board, on the In 1972, Bill Orrick (a Trustee at Thacher) “Notes” staff, and president of the Bit and phoned Pete to ask him if he would serve on Spur Club. Following Thacher, Bill attended the Board; he consented and held that position Yale University, where he graduated in 1939 for 18 years, followed by Trustee Emeritus for with a bachelor’s degree in industrial administhe balance of his life. He and Ken Rhodes tration. He then attended Stanford University

44 The Thacher News

School of Business, but left after one year to become an officer in the US Marine Corps during World War II. He served on a construction battalion in the South Pacific theater, including the Guadalcanal campaign and was awarded a Bronze Star. He left the Marine Corps with the rank of lieutenant colonel.

After the war, Bill worked for the San Francisco construction firm that his father had helped build. He served as a project manager and oversaw the expansion of Mount Zion Hospital in 1949. He moved to Denver in 1952 to manage the office, then known as Swinerton & Walberg, and then returned to the Bay Area when he became president of the firm in 1963, the same year he negotiated a contract to renovate Ghirardelli Square into a retail facility. He then expanded the company’s operations to Hawaii for a 15-year building boom that began with the Sheraton Maui. In 1976, he became Chairman of the board of the company, a position he held until his retirement in 1988. He always loved fishing, duck hunting, and continued to go horse camping when he was 80. Bill’s wife Mary died one year ago; he is survived by their four children: Jim CdeP 1967 of Chicago, Sarah of Woodside, Leslie of Geary, OK, and Susan McBaine; eight grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.

Wi l l a r d W. W h e e l e r CdeP 1939 died peacefully with his family at his side in Sacramento on November 24, 2004.

Born in Cleveland, OH, his family moved to Carmel in 1929; Bill attended Thacher for three years.

Affectionately, he was called “The Wheel,” an apt name for “the hardest working and the most good-­natured member of his class,” as stated in the 1939 El Archivero. “…it will be a long time before there will be anyone to replace Wheel’s merry grin, conscientious industry, and enthusiastic participation in the School’s activities…”

According to his daughter Kate, “Thacher remained an important part of Bill’s life and he frequently kept a copy of the alumni news nearby. Whether 18 or 84 he was just as conscientious, industrious, and enthusiastic. That ‘merry grin’ will be sorely missed.”

Following Thacher, Bill headed off to Williams College, where he graduated in 1948.

He started the Independent Film Producers Company in 1969 and worked to advance independently produced educational and artistic films.

Bill is survived by his wife of 51 years, Dorothy Beck; three daughters: Sarah, Kate, and Caroline; and six grandchildren.

David Richard Bennett CdeP 1953 died at his home in El Cerrito, CA on November 19, 2004.

During his three years at Thacher, David excelled in the arts (drawing busts of Augustus Caesar or meditating on the esthetic aspects of a fifth-dimensional heart) and gymkhana (First Gymkhana Team, Bissell Cup, C.D. Huyler Sportsmanship Cup, High-Point Man, Pack & Saddle). He acquired a number of nicknames—Ben-Ben, Ali Ben, and Mohammed Ali Ben Ben-Ben, among them—and forged a lasting image in the minds of his classmates, “sitting yogi-style on his bed and surrounded by his esoteric tomes of semantics, cybernetics, and psychosomatics.”

Following Thacher, David attended Columbia University where he graduated with a BA in fine arts. He later studied film extensively at San Francisco State University and produced several animated short films. He also studied advanced mathematics and computer technology and achieved ranking as an “expert” chess player; he was an avid bridge player and had studied various art disciplines including tapestry, photography, sculpture, ceramics, wood technology, silk screening, quilting, poetry, and, most recently, musical composition.

Friends of Thacher Michael Anthony “Tony” Alvis—skilled iron worker and artist; horseman, muleskinner, Sespe packer, and outdoorsman; surfer, naturalist, conservationist, and keeper of the backcountry—was helping a neighbor when the La Conchita hillside slid on January 10, 2005, killing Tony and nine others. Although his iron and glass lights in Thacher’s Study Hall and the horseman profile above the Gymkhana Field gate will remind us of Tony’s time on campus, he’ll be sorely missed by scores of students and faculty who shared his friendship and love of the backcountry.

Theodora Andrews, widow of Robert Andrews CdeP 1942 and mother of Richard Andrews CdeP 1967, died last July.

S.A. Bachmann, father of Peter H. Bachmann CdeP 1970.

Dr. Carl Franklin, grandfather of Leland Franklin CdeP 2004 Jennifer Victoria Galante, mother of Karen Mooney CdeP 1986.

John M. Hanna, who taught physics at Thacher from 1974 to 1985 and coached Varsity Basketball, died of cancer in Riverside, CA, last July.

David was preceded in death by his first wife Lena Rose Lane, grandmother of Deloria of 21 years, Betty. He is survived by their two Many Grey Horses Lane CdeP 2001. daughters Kate and Alice; his second wife Barbara; her two children; and nine grandchildren Dr. Roderick Turner, father of Roderick R. who called him “Poppers.”

Turner, MD CdeP 1970 and Thacher enthusiast, passed away on October 10, 2004 at the age of 84. He died a proud man, knowing that his granddaughter, Kathryn Turner ’08, is carWilliam D. Wright CdeP rying on the family tradition. e 1971 died January 1, 2004, in California. Following Thacher, Bill went to the University of California, Davis, where he studied genetics and graduated with honors.

He taught cancer biology at the Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, MO. He authored numerous research papers and manuscripts. When Peter Robinson learned of Bill’s death, he recalled a trek that he and Bonnie took with a group of kids, including Bill. They rode horses during a moonrise to the Bluffs above campus and then watched the sunrise while eating fried chicken.

Since Bill was going to compete in Gymkhana later that day, he didn’t want to risk the health of his trusty steed on the trail; he, therefore, hiked the trail when everyone else rode. When recounting this remembrance to Bill’s mother, Amy, she thought that sounded just like her sweet son who always cared for others so deeply. Amy kindly donated Bill’s saddle to Thacher for other horsemen to use and enjoy.

Fall 2004 / Winter 2005 45

Calendar

Thacher Gatherings and Events

Spring/Summer 2005 Monday, April 4 San Francisco Phonathon Thursday-Saturday, April 14-16 Senior Exhibitions Tuesday-Wednesday, April 26-27 Grandparentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Days Sunday, May 1 Napa-Sonoma Gathering Thursday-Friday, May 12-13 Spring Board of Trustees Meeting Friday-Sunday, May 13-15 Big Gymkhana Weekend Saturday, May 28 Commencement Friday-Sunday, June 3-5 Reunion for Classes ending in 0 and 5 Sunday-Friday, July 17-29 Golden Trout Camp Friday, September 2 School Begins

Boot Hill Association

How Do You Remember Thacher?

I

nspirational teachers, camping trips that did not go exactly as planned, and incomparable sunsets are all part of Thacher memories. Thacher invites you to remember the School in your estate plan. Many of the School’s most generous gifts have been given in this manner, gestures of support and confidence that will live forever.

The Boot Hill Association honors those who have included the School in their plans.

With over 200 living members, it represents an important source of future funding. Friends of Thacher have made plans to endow faculty positions, create scholarships, or support other areas of the School.

There are a variety of ways to include Thacher in your long term plans, and some types of gifts can be included in The ­Campaign for Thacher.

Thacher is the school it is today because of our collective experiences and our collective support. Please join me in becoming a member of the Boot Hill Association. Thank you for your thoughtful consideration.

John G. Lewis, Jr. CdeP 1959 ­ President, Boot Hill Association

Give yourself a break. A life income

gift is a win/win opportunity. You give Thacher a feedbag full of appreciated securities, and your breaks include tax reductions and an increase in personal income, maybe several times over. Think about it. It’s a great way to be a part of the School’s future.

—Pete Pond CdeP 1932 ­ 1915-2004

If you have questions about including Thacher in your plans, kindly contact your financial advisor or David V. Babbott, Director of Special Gifts and Planned Giving: (805) 640-3201, ext. 242 • e-mail dvbabbott@thacher.org

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