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ALUMNI
Josh Vidro ’06, Altan Sadik-Khan ’06, Ahasan Budhrani ’06, Tom Boileau ’06, Megan Garguilo ’06, Liz McKenna ’06, Emma Kelly ’06, James Estreich ’06, Dillard Butler ’06, Brad Mahler ’06, Cameron Ahouse ’06
the floor. Evan Johnson’s extensive research into The Gunnery’s experiences with feminism from its earliest days through the early era of coeducation in the late ’70s and early ’80s presented a thoughtful, academic approach to a much-discussed current topic. Colin Riley’s investigation of the Cherokee Native American Boudinot family which was closely integrated into The Gunnery’s first years and the boys’ subsequent participation in the Civil War was a new story for most of the audience. Interested people can find the publications of their research on the Gunnery website. Many alumni took advantage of the improving weather Saturday afternoon to participate in the gala christening of two new shells at the Beebe Boathouse. Donated anonymously in honor of an alumnus, the boats were named for English faculty Pamela A. Taylor and Major Stephen Reich. Ed Small, who knew both honorees extremely well, gave an emotional tribute. While acknowledging Reich’s honors as a military hero and a star baseball player, Small chose to emphasize his childhood characteristics as a caring and kind sibling and an active community participant. Reich’s parents, former physics chair, Ed Reich and his wife Susan, broke the champagne bottle. Small continued with the theme of championing and caring when speaking of Pam Taylor, his treasured colleague. He brought tears to the eyes of alumni from the ’80s and ’90s who were her cherished students with tales of the extra miles Pam would go to prepare them in English. The Saturday night gala featured a disk jockey who played music from the ’70s and ’80s during dinner and populated the dance floor in record numbers with his music choices for the evening. The recent addition of a photo booth to reunions allowed funloving folks a chance to show off various hats, glasses and feather boas with their grins. Former faculty, Wally Rowe, Henry Mixsell, and Hugh Caldara were in attendance to reminisce. The Wykeham Rise graduates were, as usual, lively additions to The Gunnery mix.
This year, they had a special cocktail in the Reading Room where they presented Mr. Becker with a check for monies raised from their sale of their own art in an online auction. They also had a silent auction with four pieces including a Wykeham chair which Lynn Flanders took home. The threat of rain Saturday morning and afternoon brought lots of helpers to the Gunn Detective effort. Archive volunteers had combed the archives for photos which needed identification. With members of so many classes sharing information, some excellent stories were bound to emerge! Sarah Hauser surprised three members of the class of 1966 emerging from the basement archive. They shamefacedly confessed that, in the age of primitive technology, as seniors, they had bugged the former Bache Trustee Room which was being used by the faculty and Oggie Miller to discuss diplomas. Unfortunately, having run the wire under the rug and taped up the mike with one of the first twist-ties, they got only 30 minutes of cassette tape at a time so they were forced to race over on their bicycles to change the tapes every half hour. For some reason, probably discovery, they had had to abandon their equipment and were just checking to see if their recorder and wires had survived the last 50 years—they hadn’t. At the Annual Alumni Association Meeting, Head of School Peter Becker remarked that this year we celebrated the reunion of the first graduating class of coeducation with the class of 1981 (co-education returned in 1977). President of the Alumni Association Laura Eanes Martin ’90 and Omar Slowe ’97, President of the Gunnery Council, talked about the changes to the Alumni Association, re-energizing it and calling for volunteers to help make this new chapter a success. Martin and Sean Brown, Director of Alumni & Development, presented the Hall of Fame alumni awards which can be found on page 40.