The Frederick Gunn School Bulletin Spring 2025

Living our Mission

THE BULLETIN OF THE FREDeRICK GUNN SCHOOL

Cover photo by Mark Liflander

Dear Frederick Gunn School Community,

WHEN WE REACH MAJOR

milestones, like our 175th Commencement Exercises, it is natural to ask deep questions. What is the consistent soul of this school? Who do Highlanders show themselves to be in public once they leave this place? What are we stewarding into the future? One of these questions has something to do with how we know we are staying true to our heritage, even as we boldly stand for what the future of education requires.

You may be curious how we answer some of these questions, so consider this letter a look into the inner workings of how we are getting this job done. For more about how we are living out our mission, we wrote an article about it (starting on page 4).

In the past few years, we have talked about our educational philosophy as being an alignment of Frederick Gunn’s founding vision with the leading research and best practices of today. The outcome has been an animating energy and a focus on four Pillars of our educational philosophy.

The animating energy of Gunn is what Fred put in writing in 1871. He said in an address to a group of educators in Hartford, Connecticut, that he “had in mind an ideal of a school.” The specifics of that ideal are as relevant as ever, and if you don’t own a copy of The Biography of Frederick Gunn (originally published in 1886 as The Master of The Gunnery), I recommend it to you in full, and this address in particular. I don’t want to get distracted, however, from the animating energy of its own. “An ideal of a school” is a vision of a place that is always relevant, not because we are timeless — as though we could know what timelessness required — but because we are open-minded, curious, attentive, and adaptable as a school community. We are a school striving for the best of our students — not because

being student-centered is au courant, which it is, but because the animating energy of this place, its soul, requires us to be a school of purpose, with courage to meet the demands of the day.

This animating energy finds practical output in the four Pillars of our educational philosophy. As we have looked at our founding vision and contemporary research, we began with a clear first Pillar: Public Character and Active Citizenship Embodied in our Citizenship and Just Democracy program, and championed by the director of that program, Bart McMann, who is also our Dean of Programmatic Innovation, this Pillar aligns to what we now have solidified in our mission statement as cultivating students who are “courageous in character.” Using language of character and virtue, not as private traits for one’s personal life, but as public traits that can exemplify a person’s impact in the world, allows for deep and meaningful conversations with students.

Students of The Frederick Gunn School, both current and long since graduated, talk about this place as home. One alumnus recently described to me the sense that in choosing Gunn, he was choosing Washington, Connecticut, not just a school. This hit me deeply, because our second Pillar is A Sense of Rootedness and Place. We believe that as students learn to treat The Frederick Gunn School and Washington as home, caring for this place and understanding their role in leaving Gunn for future generations, this sense of confidence, care, and

We are a school striving for the best of our students — not because being student-centered is au courant, which it is, but because the animating energy of this place, its soul, requires us to be a school of purpose, with courage to meet the demands of the day.”

stewardship is a transferable sensibility to where our students go from here. There is a reason that Frederick Gunn inspired what would become the founding of the Steep Rock Nature Preserve, as was recounted in a recent lecture celebrating their own centennial (page 38) by Edwin Matthews, who studied history and science at Harvard, law at Yale, and taught briefly at Gunn while spending over three decades defending the Shepaug River.

All of the stories that we have recounting Frederick Gunn in the classroom are about students taking ownership of their learning and embracing its relevance. The research on this is only getting more clear, that students who are intrinsically motivated by the relevance of their studies not only have better short-term outcomes but also embody our school motto, “A Good Person is Always Learning,” in their lives. We have called the Pillar that embraces these opportunities: Learning Yourself and How to Learn

The fourth and final Pillar is about Risk-taking and Innovation. As I tell families who come to visit Gunn, the culture of this Pillar is further enshrined than the program that champions it! Gunn is a place where our students make space for each other. They allow their fellow students to take risks. This might sound trivial, but I assure you, it is an extremely special part of this school. All adult teachers who work with students want them to innovate and take risks. That our school has a culture amongst students where this is actually possible is extraordinary. The outcome is the key insight of Arne Rees, who teaches in our Entrepreneurship Program: self-starterism. We define this as the key insight of a community to form students

who will take risks and try something new, and peers who champion that process.

Think of these four Pillars as the parameters of a sandbox, within which we have asked our educators to play, and to innovate. It’s an intrapreneurship hub for our school, with directors championing those mission-aligned insights that breathe purpose and relevance into our program as a whole, including but not limited to our academic curriculum.

When we see that the 175th Commencement Exercises are just the latest moment in the life of a school animated by the drive to chase “the ideal of the school,” it is clear why 175 seems quite young, actually, and why I am so convinced of the relevance of The Frederick Gunn School in the educational landscape of today and tomorrow.

Always learning,

Emily Raudenbush Gum Head of School

Students and faculty, including Raudenbush Gum, far right, gathered at Conroy House after Baccalaureate for root beer floats, a tradition begun by Susan Eanes H’91 P’90 GP’20 ’23 ’25.

The

Frederick Gunn School cultivates independent, critical thinkers empowered to be a force for good. We educate Highlanders to be ambitious citizens, who are always learning and courageous in character, like our founders, Frederick and Abigail Gunn. — MISSION STATEMENT, 2024

Living Our

IN 2024, THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES approved a new mission statement for The Frederick Gunn School (above). Our mission serves as a driving force for our programs and is a distillation of our values. Like the renaming of our school, it emphasizes our recommitment to our founders, Frederick and Abigail Gunn, and reinforces how we are carrying their legacy forward. That’s a lot to pack into two sentences. Yet these words reflect the ways in which our approach to educating young people remains both timeless and current. This is how we are living our mission today.

It is best practice for schools to regularly review their mission statements and to make revisions that incorporate current educational research and the school’s priorities and goals, according to the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, which accredits schools, including Gunn. However, Greg Bamford, former Head of School at Waterford School

Bamford said. “In contrast, a crisp, distinctive mission that evokes the core of a school makes it easier for every board member to remember: What does our mission call us to do?

When we do this work well, boards rally and get energized. The school clarifies its powerful, pithy reason to exist. And boards begin having better conversations.”

Gunn’s mission statement was last updated in 2014. “So it was time,” said Head of School Emily Raudenbush Gum. “Schools need to update their mission statement language. It’s part of good governance.”

We wanted to be able to capture really precisely in the mission statement — and the Board did not want to miss the moment — the energy, and all of the innovation and work that we’ve done to root ourselves in our founding.”

– Head of School Emily Raudenbush Gum

in Boulder, Colorado, cautioned in an article published in Independent School magazine, that “mission statements often become long lists of everything a school aspires to be.”

“These lists make it hard for our schools to stand out in increasingly competitive markets, and they make it hard for board members to fulfill their strategic and generative duties,”

In the decade between redrafting the language, much work was done by the Board and the administration to recenter the school on Mr. Gunn, his values and ideals, beginning with the renaming of the school in 2020. The essence of Mr. Gunn’s beliefs were distilled into the school’s Core Values, which influence and drive everything that we do as a school, and led to the development of the four Pillars, to which all of our programs are now aligned: Public Character and Active Citizenship; A Sense of Rootedness and Place; Learning Yourself and How to Learn; and Risk-taking and Innovation.

“We have been working to align our school and everything we do to the confluence of our founders’ vision, current research, and best practices. As we’ve done that, we’ve created programs and opportunities for students, and a culture that we feel extremely proud of, and want people to know about,” said Raudenbush Gum. “We wanted to be able to capture really precisely in the mission statement — and the Board did not want to miss the

THE INFLUENCE OF FREDERICK AND ABIGAIL

THE EARLIEST VERSION of the school’s mission comes from “Confidence Between Boys and Teachers,” Mr. Gunn’s 1877 address at a Teachers’ Convention in Hartford, Connecticut. He envisioned a school that emphasized equality, inclusiveness, and kindness. He wrote: “I have in my mind an ideal of a school. (You will pardon me, I was asked to speak of confidence between boys and their teacher, but, properly speaking, an ideal school should be composed equally of boys and girls.) The school is situated in the country; the buildings are picturesque and attractive; the atmosphere is warm and genial. In this school of which I dream, there is cooperation, there is helpfulness, and, so far as the laws of Nature will permit, equality.”

That original mission was not revised until 35 years later, in 1912, under second Head of School John Brinsmade, whose aim was to “follow as closely as possible the best traditions” of the school established by Mr. and Mrs. Gunn. The next revision, in 1936, toward the end of the tenure of third Head of School Hamilton Gibson (Class of 1902), incorporated Mr. Gunn’s love of nature as well as the importance of service to one’s country.

Three decades passed before the mission statement was revised again, in 1962, under Head of School Ogden D. Miller H’69 P’50 ’54 ’55 GP’84, whose headship also introduced the school crest, the school motto (in Latin) and The Gunnery mace.

A revision undertaken in 1984, under Head of School Michael Eanes H’90 P’90 GP’20 ’23 ’25, spoke about the importance of a liberal arts education in preparing students for college, combined with a reference to “that warm and genial atmosphere that Mr. Gunn spoke of” 100 years earlier.

The 1992 mission statement — the first of two revisions adopted during the tenure of Head of School Susan Graham H’12 — was the first to mention Abigail Gunn as a cofounder of the school and partner of Mr. Gunn. It stated in part: “In 1850, Frederick William Gunn, educator, abolitionist, and outdoorsman, along with his wife, Abigail Brinsmade Gunn, founded The Gunnery. A man and woman of vision, the Gunns opened their home to educate young people. In so doing they established a school that flourished for nearly a century and a half by standing squarely on the ideals of its

founders, ideals of intellectual challenge, moral courage, physical rigor, and character.”

Four years later, the mission’s scope was greatly expanded under Graham to emphasize not only character but scholarship, personal integrity, and social responsibility. It mentioned the school’s “skilled and committed faculty,” a comprehensive curriculum, rigorous athletics, and artistic and social activities, all of which were designed to instill “maturity, selflessness, and a lifelong love of learning.”

“Mission statements have been a living part of the school, always referencing Gunn, always referencing character, always, to some degree, rooted in the place,” Raudenbush Gum observed. Of the 2024 revision, she said: “We wanted to capture, as I think every mission statement does, the history brought up-to-date, based on best practice and research. That’s how our program has been evolving. Our mission statement redraft was meant to capture that. And so we talked about independent critical thinkers, we talked about helping students become courageous in character, and always learning. We re-introduced Abigail.”

moment — the energy, and all of the innovation and work that we’ve done to root ourselves in our founding. And that rootedness was, to some degree, kind of buried inside of our last mission statement.”

A statement both timeless and current

To Trustee Missy Cuello Remley ’87, the mission statement serves as the North Star for the Board and the school. She worked closely with Raudenbush Gum to prioritize what should be included in this latest version. “The two of us kind of took on that task. We did a lot of brainstorming with the Board. It was a human-centered approach,” Cuello Remley said.

The process, begun in the winter of 2021, involved many stakeholders. There were workshops with the entire faculty and meetings with the Board of Trustees, whose members include alumni and current and past parents. The challenge was to make the mission statement broad enough that it reflected a variety of opinions and preferences while also adhering to the ideals of the founders and honoring the school’s history. The language had to be applicable to any field that students might choose to pursue, Cuello Remley said, and there was an acknowledgement that current students are going to graduate into jobs that have not even been created yet.

on the ways in which the school continues to learn from and embrace the vision of its founders: “We’ve had a 10 to 15-year run of reexamining our founders. We have really recently been reexamining Abigail’s role with Frederick, and that got me thinking and hypothesizing. They had very different styles,

We wanted the mission statement to be timeless, and we wanted to include Abigail in there. That was a priority, not just for us, but for the whole Board.”

– Trustee Missy Cuello Remley ’87

“We wanted it to have open-mindedness and critical thinking — I was so happy that language made it in. We wanted the mission statement to be timeless, and we wanted to include Abigail in there. That was a priority, not just for us, but for the whole Board,” she said, adding, “It was an amazing process.”

Trustee Stephen Baird ’68, Governance Committee Chair, said the new mission statement captures the essence of what the school has always done well, things that have resonated from Mr. Gunn’s time to today. “The faculty teaches 14-year-olds and prepares them for a successful life. That’s timeless. We’ve done it for so many years. We’ve helped students to find their voice, to take risks. We help them develop independent thinking. The other thing I thought about was how deep relationships can be. This is what we do best, as a small school with a wonderful culture, and a very personalized way of educating.”

The “always learning attitude” is so important, Baird said, “because that gets you where you want to go.” He also reflected

almost like a ying-and-yang approach, which has had some bearing on why our school is so successful, and why reopening Abigail’s role is so important.”

Independent, Critical Thinkers

The term “independent, critical thinkers” was intentionally chosen to “capture Mr. Gunn’s non-conformism to anything except for what his education and reason required of him,” Raudenbush Gum said. “He was open-minded enough to change his opinion when he was proven wrong. He learned, not just from books and reading, but also from experience. He was engaged in the public life of the town and public debates with all kinds of people, and he understood that that kind of active, public engagement is required for learning, even among young adults.”

Today, the development of students as “independent, critical thinkers” takes place through the framework of the four pillars. The Civic Changemaker Project, a capstone project and graduation requirement that students complete in senior year, is closely aligned with the pillar, Public Character and Active

Maya Edwards ’26

Citizenship. “They string together all of the moments where they’re coming to understand who they are as individuals, and what drives each of them, from the values of their families through their own critical engagement with the value sets around them, the values of the school,” Raudenbush Gum said. “They come to have a voice, and we ask them to find a place to put that voice into practice.”

A Sense of Rootedness in Place is steeped in Gunn’s place-based learning programs, from Nature Writers class, to the integration of Gunn Outdoors in the Pathways curriculum completed by all ninth-grade students, to the way outdoor experiences are prioritized in leadership programming. The latter is best exemplified by the camping trips that all newly elected Prefects participate in (along with the outgoing Prefects) to build leadership skills and come together as a team.

Highlander Term, the school’s 10-day, experiential, projectbased mini-term, aligns with the pillar, Learning Yourself and How to Learn; while Risk-taking and Innovation can be viewed through the lens of the Entrepreneurship Program, which challenges students to think about what it takes to build companies, and institutions of any kind, and then do just that, even though they are only teenagers

Courageous in Character

In addition to “independent, critical thinkers,” the two other major components of the school’s new mission statement are “courageous in character” and “always learning.”

“Courageous in character is probably one of the better known pieces of Frederick Gunn and his story,” Raudenbush Gum said, referring to U.S. Senator Orville H. Platt’s account in The Master of The Gunnery, where he recalled how Mr. Gunn stood on the side of temperance by going into a local tavern and literally turning over the tables. She also pointed to Mr. Gunn’s willing to be driven out of town, first to New Preston, and then to Towanda, Pennsylvania, where he lived in exile for several years, because he refused to set aside his abolitionist views when he was teaching at his first school, Washington Academy, on the Washington Green.

“What you see is not just independence, but conviction,” Raudenbush Gum said. Referring to the new mission statement, she said: “We felt like ‘courageous in character’ captured that in language a little more precisely — the conviction to be willing to be wrong, to be willing to be on the outside of what was considered the going logic of the day, and understanding that leadership really required that kind of courage.”

“We’re trying to find age-appropriate ways for our students to demonstrate that courage,” she continued, explaining, “We are asking our students to give junior speeches in front of the whole school. We’re asking them to find places to lead. We’re asking them to identify the values out of which they’re operating through our citizenship curriculum. We’re creating spaces like the Gray Party, where our students are figuring out how to have public discourse that’s both courageous and rooted in a sense of honor and obligation. We’ve created affinity groups with our students, spaces where they feel they can really figure out who they are, that sense of self, but also advocate for themselves.”

The school is also in the midst of “rebooting” its discipline system, she said, so that it’s “restorative in its structure, because we believe that in order to support students being ‘courageous in character,’ they’re going to make mistakes. We know, as Mr. Gunn did, that it’s hard for teenagers to understand that balance between independence and courage and conformity.”

Always Learning

The phrase “always learning” stems from our school motto, but has significance in the new mission statement as well. “I think we see this in both Frederick and Abigail — a real open-mindedness

about what was being required of them as educators in the 19th century. The courage of Abigail to be an educator at a time when that was more rare, and to step alongside her husband, and frankly, to tell him when it was time to get the school started back home — that was pretty immense courage,” Raudenbush Gum noted, referring to the fact that Abigail taught a class of girls alongside her husband at Towanda Academy before they founded their school in Washington in 1850. Abigail also wrote to her husband from her parents’ home in Washington, and outlined the plan that would allow him to return from exile, and open the school with the support of her father, Daniel B. Brinsmade.

“But I think that ‘always learning’ is a combination of critical engagement with what’s true, and also real open-mindedness that it might be wrong. It’s a fallibility. It’s an instinct of humility in the face of new information,” Raudenbush Gum said, speaking to how students are living this aspect of our mission today. “We are doing this in the classroom, but also socially, helping our students to understand what active listening is, how to accept people with different viewpoints than yourself, and what it means to engage with them in the learning process.”

A DAY IN THE LIFE

Ryan Ryu ’25

Boarding student, Gunn House

> Hometown: Seoul, Republic of Korea

> College: Vanderbilt University (fall 2025)

7:45 a.m.

Students begin their day with breakfast in Solley Dining Hall or have the option of grabbing coffee at The PO, a popular dining and gathering spot for generations of Highlanders.

10:35 a.m.

Twice a week, the entire community comes together in the Tisch Family Auditorium for School Meeting. Students have a chance to reset with “Hitting Pause” moments, listen to their peers present their Junior Speech (a right of passage for every Highlander), share announcements, and participate in House Cup challenges.

11:10 a.m.

Civic Journalism and Media Making is a signature class in the Citizenship and Just Democracy curriculum. This year, Ryan was an editor-in-chief of The Highlander newspaper, a student-run publication available in print and online. Students in this class also produce videos for The Highlander News Network on YouTube, and The Highlander Podcast on Spotify.

3:10 p.m.

Ryan was a veteran of Gunn’s Model United Nations program, which is both a cocurricular and a club. In April, he helped to organize and host Gunn MUN II, a two-day conference that brought middle and high school students together for an immersive diplomatic experience in The Lizzie & Jonathan Tisch Center for Innovation & Active Citizenship.

5:00 p.m.

At the end of the academic day, students head to the gym, fields, or rink to practice or participate in athletic contests that change with the season. Gunn currently offers 15 varsity sports across 35 teams. In the fall, Ryan plays Varsity Football, and in the spring, Varsity Baseball.

8:15 a.m.

Current Highlanders attend classes five days a week and follow a block schedule. In addition to classes in English, history, science, mathematics, world languages, and the arts, students are required to take one class in the Center for Citizenship and Just Democracy each year. Here, Poppy works on a lab assignment in Honors Chemistry, one of 39 advanced courses offered this year.

9:25 a.m.

Poppy worked in the ceramics studio for her AP Studio Art class, a yearlong course offered in the Thomas S. Perakos Arts and Community Center. Students document their work and present a portfolio that demonstrates their proficiency, with the option of submitting them to art schools and to the College Board for the AP Studio Art Exam.

10:35 a.m.

College Counselors develop individual college strategies for each Highlander to help them stand out in the college application process. Each spring, seniors are invited to decorate the windows of the College Counseling Office with the logo of the school they plan to attend in the fall, which for Poppy, is Tulane University.

3:30 p.m.

Van Sinderen, the senior girls’ house, is one of 10 residential buildings on campus that Highlanders call home. As Gunn alumni know well, the friends you make here — sharing a room, hanging out in the common room, talking with your house parents, eating pizza, or helping a classmate with math — become your friends for life.

4:15 p.m.

In the fall, Poppy played for the Varsity Field Hockey team, which earned a playoff bid for the fourth consecutive year. As a freshman, she had never played field hockey before. As a senior, she was named captain, earned an All-NEPSAC Honorable Mention award, and the Cornell Field Hockey Award.

A DAY IN THE LIFE

Poppy Kellogg ’25

Boarding student, Van Sinderen House

> Hometown: Westerly, Rhode Island

> College: Tulane University (fall 2025)

On these pages: two of the four portraits that will be featured in the Abigail Gunn Reading Room

Celebrating New Traditions

If you had stumbled upon the Koven-Jones Glade on the night of April 30, 2025, you might have thought you were at a Scottish ball at the University of St Andrews, or even one of the parties in “The Gunnery Grove,” made famous during Frederick and Abigail Gunn’s time.

Following a month of travel across the U.S. to promote and grow the school, Head of School Emily Raudenbush Gum led a traditional Scottish cèilidh (pronounced KAY-lee), complete with live music, strawberries and cream, and dancing. The sound of bagpipes and students’ laughter and whooping filled the air on that tranquil spring evening, as a kilt-clad caller swiftly led the gathering through the steps of one country dance after another.

Raudenbush Gum and her oldest son, Hezze, danced at the head of the line, demonstrating the steps when called upon. She also announced an impromptu school holiday on May 1, in honor of May Day, which has been celebrated in Scotland for centuries. At St Andrews, where Raudenbush Gum earned her undergraduate degree with joint honours in international relations and theological studies, students mark the day by running into the sea at sunrise. At Gunn, May Day is a day of rest, a time for students to just enjoy being with friends or hiking into Steep Rock on a spring afternoon. Highlanders have been quick to embrace this annual event as a new school tradition.

Activating Our Heritage

The 175th anniversary of the school was a big part of the 2024-25 school year. The school intentionally took a less conventional approach to the celebration of this major milestone, choosing to activate its heritage in lasting and worthwhile ways.

“This was an opportunity to dig deeper into things that have been part of our community for a long time, and to elevate their prominence within the student experience,” said Chief Strategy Officer Doug Day, who led Gunn 175. “The activation of our heritage began with renaming the Reading Room in Bourne to the Abigail Gunn Reading Room. That

decision was more than just a symbolic move. It’s something that we really thought deeply about to bring Abigail more into the storytelling of our school. It’s very authentic to what Abigail meant to the experience of founding our school, and the partnership that she had with Frederick.”

This summer and fall, visitors will see some changes to the Abigail Gunn Reading Room, including new signage and four portraits commissioned to honor Abigail’s life and legacy, each accompanied by a plaque explaining how Abigail was influential and important to the founding of the school. As a trailblazer in women’s education and a steadfast partner in shaping our school’s mission, Abigail’s vision continues to inspire our community today. The renaming of this space brings her contributions as our cofounder into sharper focus.

Woven From our Values

Beyond the cèilidh, another nod to Mr. Gunn’s Scottish roots came in May, when the school unveiled its own, uniquely designed Frederick Gunn School Tartan. The timing was impeccable. As anyone following fashion last fall and winter noted, tartan is having a moment. “An explosion of tartans, checks, plaids and tweeds brought British country style and outdoor chic living to the forefront for fall 2024,” Women’s Wear Daily affirmed, noting that Chloé, Barbour, and even Taylor Swift were embracing the trend, while Vogue declared tartan “in,” adding: “this print still has a long way to go in 2025.”

In Scotland, tartans are more than just patterns — they are visual expressions of a family’s values, origin, and pride. The

Frederick Gunn School Tartan is inspired by the Tartans of Clan Gunn, one of the oldest Scottish clans, noted for its resilience and character, and the clan from which Mr. Gunn descended. The school registered its newly designed tartan with The Scottish Register of Tartans.

“We are no longer borrowing other people’s Scottish heritage. We now have our own,” Raudenbush Gum said, noting that Mr. Gunn wore tartan, and a funny hat, which William Hamilton Gibson, Class of 1866, described as “a Highland cap” in The Master of The Gunnery.

The Frederick Gunn School Tartan was thoughtfully designed to reflect the character of the community, each thread woven with intention and the spirit of what it means to be a Highlander:

• Green honors the wild, untamed beauty of the natural world and serves as a reminder that true learning often begins outdoors.

• Blue lifts our gaze to the endless sky above campus. It symbolizes possibility, growth, and the lifelong pursuit of knowledge.

• Red runs in a pair, representing Frederick and Abigail Gunn. It’s a tribute to the love that founded our school and continues to shape its spirit.

• White is the thread that brings us together, representing shared purpose and the clarity of a common mission.

• Black anchors the pattern with strength and pride. It stands for loyalty, tradition, and the lasting bond between generations of Gunn students.

Left: Gigi Boucher ’25 and Dylan Kur ’25 wore the new Gunn Alumni scarf at Commencement.

Above and right: Students will have the option to wear a skirt or tie in the new tartan this fall.

This tartan is a bold statement of who we are as a school. It connects our past to our present, and the future of Gunn. Beginning this fall, current students will have the option of wearing a Frederick Gunn School Tartan skirt or tie as part of their formal dress uniform. Since the tartan belongs to everyone in our community, the school will be sharing information soon about how students, alumni, families, and faculty can take part in this meaningful new tradition by purchasing “merch” featuring The Frederick Gunn School Tartan over the next year, and students have already inquired about how the new tartan may be incorporated into the school’s athletic uniforms.

Inspired by our History

Also this spring, the school announced that, beginning with the Class of 2025, every Gunn graduate will be given the option to choose either an alumni tie or a new alumni scarf to wear at Commencement.

The alumni tie, which was redesigned following the school’s historic decision to change its name in 2020, features The Frederick Gunn School crest on a navy field. The alumni scarf, a silk square, similarly features the school crest and colors, with the school name and motto, “A Good Person is Always Learning,” printed along a navy border. The design is evocative of the Ivy League Campion scarves, designed and produced by the Campion Store in Hanover, New Hampshire, from 1949 to 1951. Recently, a Connecticut-based company, Legacy Scarves LLC, “restruck” three silk scarves from this series — for Brown, Dartmouth, and Yale — so it is timely that Gunn has created an alumni scarf to add to our school history.

Those students who chose to wear the Gunn alumni scarf at the school’s 175th Commencement Exercises in May were, in large part, excited, and at least one alumna reached out to the school via Instagram, saying she wanted a scarf!

Celebrating Moments of Joy

In February, our community celebrated the world premiere of “The Highlander Journey,” an exciting new film project that tells the story of what it is really like to be a student at Gunn today, from freshman to senior year. Fast-paced and fun, this fiveminute movie highlights some of the challenges, changes, and traditions — including School Walk, Senior Rock, and the Stray Shot — that resonate with current students and alumni alike.

In its first 24 hours on Instagram, the movie received more than 50,000 page views and 200 comments — many of them from young alumni like former Head Prefect Bea Flynn ’24, who said: “So magical!! The people, the beautiful campus, the amazing experience, and the lifelong friends and memories you make along the way!! There’s nothing like Gunn!!!”

As of late May, the film had garnered 63,500 page views and nearly 650 shares, and won an award from the National

School Public Relations Association. It will continue to feature prominently in the work of the Admissions Office.

“This film was made in partnership with our students and it is a proud representation of our community — a place where we cheer for each other, work hard at everything we do, and have a lot of fun. Gunn is also a place where you will make the kind of friendships that last a lifetime,” said Chief Enrollment Officer Suzanne Day.

Looking ahead to the 2025-26 school year, Gunn will continue to find ways to activate our heritage. Watch for an announcement about our school mascot, coming this fall! “I think it’s going to be very exciting,” Doug Day said. “We will continue to be the Highlanders, but we’re going to create a visual identity for the Highlanders, and everyone will see that when students return in September.”

To view “The Highlander Journey,” scan the QR code.

The Film Guys with students and Charlie, a Highlander cow, filming for “The Highlander Journey.”

MAKING A DIFFERENCE

Behind the Scenes of a Transformational Campaign

CAPITAL CAMPAIGNS ARE unpredictable initiatives. Some variables offer reasonable predictability based on feasibility studies during the planning phase, while other variables can emerge during the fundraising phase that might bring tailwinds or headwinds to the process.

Traditional campaign tactics certainly informed the launch of The Campaign for The Frederick Gunn School. Priorities were established, a consultant was hired, feasibility studies were conducted, and school leadership scrutinized the assumptions of those studies. Ultimately, a campaign was launched. Yet, what has never been acknowledged before were the results of the feasibility studies, a range of analyses based on time-tested modeling by fundraising consultants, connected to some of the most successful

campaigns ever in secondary and higher education. These models projected that Gunn could expect to raise approximately $35 million to $50 million in what would become known as The Campaign for The Frederick Gunn School.

What came next was a pivotal moment for the school when it chose to ignore the conclusion of consultants and instead committed to a comprehensive, $75 million campaign — believing in the generosity of the Gunn community. Making a decision to commit to a comprehensive campaign that was $25 million to $40 million more than the experts recommended was bold. But it was also consistent with the mindset that has propelled the school to new heights over the last five years. And, most importantly, the Gunn community has stepped forward in inspiring and

PHOTO BY JIMMY GIROLAMO

unprecedented ways with more than 3,700 campaign donors already ensuring that our even more ambitious goal of $100 million will not only be achieved, but will, in fact, be exceeded.

“This extraordinary outcome would not have been possible without the support of our community, and the dedication and leadership of Jonathan Tisch ’72, Trustee Emeritus and Executive Chair of The Campaign for The Frederick Gunn School, Campaign Co-chair Wanji Walcott P’19, Campaign Co-Chair Jon Linen ’62, my predecessor, Peter Becker, Board Chair Patrick Dorton ‘86, and the Board of Trustees,” said Head of School Emily Raudenbush Gum. “Each and every person who contributed to the campaign so far has demonstrated that they believe in the vision of Frederick and Abigail Gunn, who continue to inspire all of us to make this the best world we can live in, to be bold, to Be a Force.”

and it’s certainly exciting for the students who are knocking on our doors,” Raudenbush Gum said.

Important growth also has taken place in the school’s endowment, which has grown from $23 million to nearly $40 million over the course of the campaign to date. Nearly $11 million of this growth has come from new endowment commitments through the campaign. And while our endowment remains below that of our peer schools, and remains a priority for future fundraising, this growth has resulted in immediate impacts. Faculty compensation has been enhanced in just a few short years, and future endowment support will allow the school

The Gunn community has stepped forward in inspiring and unprecedented ways with more than 3,700 campaign donors already ensuring that our even more ambitious goal of $100 million will not only be achieved, but will, in fact, be exceeded.

All donations, large and small, will help to achieve the goals established for the campaign: to open doors for students who would otherwise not be able to afford a Frederick Gunn School education; to attract and retain the exceptional educators who shape our students’ lives; to transform the residential experience on campus in ways that will help students to connect with each other and with nature; and to ensure student wellness by providing access to centralized health and wellness services.

Transformational Impacts

Evidence of the campaign’s impact is apparent across the west side of campus, where the Thomas S. Perakos Arts and Community Center, a game-changer for our school, opened in 2020, and The Lizzie & Jonathan Tisch Center for Innovation & Active Citizenship, which transformed the center of campus, opened in 2024.

Collectively, these two buildings provided 22 new classrooms, allowing the school to house 57% of its classes in new spaces. Beyond new classroom spaces, the campaign has supported the aggressive expansion of the school’s academic programming over the last five years. Class offerings increased from 104 to 150 different classes in the 2024-25 school year. This nearly 50% increase in the number of course offerings, combined with new classroom spaces, has made an immediate difference in the student experience, and the perception of the school in the marketplace. Applications have grown by more than 70% over the last five years in a boarding school market that is experiencing flat to low single-digit growth. Prospective families have taken note of Gunn’s momentum and value proposition.

“This $100 million campaign, which is extraordinary for The Frederick Gunn School, for any small boarding school, also has allowed the school to position itself among the leading voices in the value proposition of small boarding schools in the country. That is really exciting for the school, it’s exciting for our parents,

to push this critical metric towards the upper tier of its peer set.

“We have achieved a tremendous amount of success in enrollment since 2020. The success of the campaign, the growth of our endowment, and the growth of our annual fund are all markers of the success of our school. But again, none of this would be possible without the continued support of our community, and we are so grateful for what we have been able to achieve together,” Raudenbush Gum said. “When you participate in supporting the school, in whatever ways you are able, you are contributing to the real-time impact on our students and faculty, not only in terms of where are today, but where we are headed.”

Ensuring a Bright Future for Gunn

The Campaign for The Frederick Gunn School will continue through the end of 2025, meaning that all gifts received by December 31, 2025, will count towards the $100 million campaign goal. Any annual fund gifts will continue to contribute to the school’s efforts to sustain a $2 million-plus annual fund. The annual fund contributes directly to the operations of the school, and when contemplated in the context of the larger campaign, provides support for future initiatives oriented around wellness, residential life, financial accessibility for students, and best-inclass compensation for our faculty.

“It’s a privilege to help bring this transformational campaign across the finish line, standing on the shoulders of those whose vision, dedication, and tireless work laid the foundation for this success,” said Matthew Goetting, Chief Advancement Officer. “I am deeply grateful to past and present members of the Alumni & Development Office and to the entire community for the remarkable momentum they’ve created. Together, we are ensuring a bright future for The Frederick Gunn School, and I’m so proud to be part of the team picking up the baton and helping to move things forward.”

Seth Low Six Degrees of Separation:

Associate Head of School Seth Low P’26 ’28 recently completed his 21st year at The Frederick Gunn School as an administrator, teacher, and coach. We asked him to reflect on his time at the school and how his role, and our campus, have changed. His appreciation for school history is also notable, and we were happy to learn that we could connect him via a line of outstanding educators and leaders all the way back to school founder Frederick Gunn!

What were some of the most memorable moments in your 21 years here? Certainly the double-whammy of Covid and renaming the school, on opposite ends of the emotional spectrum, stand out. It’s kind of a blur to think back on all of that happening at the same time. When heads change, those are memorable moments. Retirements are also memorable, particularly for people like Ed Small, Russ Elgin, and others who worked here for decades. The process that we went through from 2015-2020 of articulating and clarifying our values also stands out to me. It was the work that led up to the relaunch of the school, but it was also the culmination of a lot of conversations about what we stand for, what our educational philosophy is, what we think is the 21st century version of Frederick Gunn’s philosophy. That meaningful work led to the things that are happening now around our Core Values, our Pillar programs, and what we think excellent teaching looks like. Opening new buildings is exciting, and just as exciting to me is the planning that goes into them. Where we are going to put buildings? What is going to go into them? What do they look like? How’s it going to change the experience? To see all of that come to fruition is so fun.

It was your idea to create The Koven-Jones Glade. What has it been like for you to see that space come to life? One

of the reasons it’s been fun for me to be here is that my own value set and beliefs about what it means to restore yourself and get outside align really closely with Frederick Gunn’s. It’s one of the things that attracted me to the school originally, and it’s one of the reasons I’ve stayed here so long. So to be able to see kids having fun outside and, frankly, just more green grass, is great. My new favorite tradition is before the School Walk, when we have fire pits and a local bagpiper out there. The next thing I want to see is The Grove. I think of that area between the Glade and The Lizzie as The Grove with these mature trees. Eventually, we can have an area that’s a pedestrian park, that will mimic the spot where the Gunns had their Grove parties.

Do you have other favorite spaces on campus? The Reading Room is one of my favorite spaces on campus. The light, just the beauty of the space; that was where we had faculty meetings for the first 12 years of my time here. We’d pack all the faculty in there and we’d have our Student Progress Meetings there. Kempton is another of my favorite spaces. It’s been many things in my time here. I love the way it’s perched on that outcrop of rock and sort of nestled in there. The thing that I really appreciate about this campus as a geology major is the way the rock and the bedrock interplay with the trees and the vegetation. I’m glad that we’ve activated it in a different way.

BY

PHOTO

Russ Elgin, Senior Master, 1975-2014

Rod Beebe, Head of Mathematics and Science and Athletic Director, 1947-1977

Elizabeth Kempton H’52, Art Teacher, 1911-1947

You started out teaching mathematics here, became an administrator, and now you are a parent of two Gunn students. How have your roles changed your experience? I believe you can teach without being in a classroom, but I’ve always taught in a classroom. I taught math for 16 years, and I’ve taught in the Center for Citizenship and Just Democracy for the last four or five. That’s important to me. I’ve also felt that’s important for our administrators, particularly the administrators at the Leadership Team level, to live the life of a faculty. So I’ve always taught, I’ve always coached, I’ve always had residential responsibilities, and most of the folks in that group do the same. Being a parent has definitely helped me understand the student perspective. I taught a freshman lesson yesterday and my daughter, Sarah ’28, was in it, and I got to ask her last night, ‘How did that go? What should I do differently next time?’ Because the mission and values of the school align with my beliefs, I was always excited to have my kids come here. I’m excited for the things they’re doing here, and how it’s shaping them as individuals.

John Chapin Brinsmade, Class of 1864, Second Head of School 1881-1922

Frederick William Gunn, Head of School, 1850-1881

How did playing lacrosse at Williams College influence your decision to coach? I’ve always found satisfaction and pleasure through team sports — soccer, basketball, lacrosse, whatever it is. I got involved in coaching soon after I left college, in a volunteer capacity outside Boston, where I was working. I quickly found that it was the best part of my day. It was one of the things that led me to thinking that I should be in schools and in education. I wanted to try to provide kids with the kind of coaching I wish I’d had, and being able to work with different coaches here allowed me to figure that out. I worked early on with Richard Martin P’20 ’23 ’25 in football and learned a ton about what good coaching looks like. When I became a head coach, I learned from coaches like Mark Conklin, who was a great coach here for years in the lacrosse program, and then Mike Marich P’23 ’24 after that. Over the years that I was involved in it as an assistant or a head coach, we built a lacrosse program that I’m really proud of in terms of how it helps students become great players and great people.

Mr. Gunn valued the connection between the school and the town. One of the ways you have lived that is by serving as a volunteer firefighter. Why is that important? There are a couple ways I’ve tried to connect with the town. That is definitely one of them, and having done that for over half the time that I’ve been here has been super meaningful for me. The other way that I’ve done it is connecting to the local schools. Our kids went to Washington Primary School and Shepaug Valley School. My wife, Anne P’26 ’28, and I both coached youth sports. Getting to know different kids and different parents in town has been really great.

I hope that more people have the same kind of experience I have — that they want to be here for a long time — for their own professional and personal experiences, but also to move the institution forward.”

You grew up at Blair Academy, where your father, Dave Low, Sr., GP’26 ’28, was Assistant Head of School. How has that influenced your career here? I am certainly like my dad in certain respects. I hold the same job at a boarding school that my dad held. He was the Dean of Students and then the Assistant Head for Student Life at Blair for 32 years. I’m certainly influenced by the way he thought about community, and kids, and being there for faculty. He mentored countless faculty in the time that he was at that school. I think it’s why I try to walk the walk as an administrator. It’s behind some of my instincts around gathering people together socially in the community, whether it’s after Prize Night or for a pizza party, or Burns Night.

The idea of pulling the adults together to build that family definitely comes from my experience growing up.

BY

Highlanders explored Tainan, the heart Taiwan, where they learned about the preservation of traditions.

PHOTO

IAN RATHKEY

Clockwise from top: Ashley Edmonds ’26 greeting a Beluga whale at Mystic Aquarium as part of Exploring the Ocean: Intro to Marine Biology; students and faculty from Stem Discovery: London in front of Buckingham Palace; and students with their project in Boat Building: Crafting a Northeaster Dory.

HIGHLANDER TERM

Gunn Goes to … Greece, Taiwan, London, and more!

FOR 10 DAYS IN LATE FEBRUARY and early March, the school paused its regular curriculum so that students could explore one of 25 different experiential learning opportunities offered during Highlander Term. This unique program, which originated in 2020 as Winterim, continues to allow students to take a deep dive into one new and exciting area of study. This year’s course offerings included travel-based experiences to Taiwan and Greece — where students were immersed in local history, culture, and local cuisine — as well as England, where the focus was on scientific discovery and innovation, with stops at Bletchley Park, Cambridge University, the London Museum of Science, and Stonehenge!

Closer to home, students embarked on a beginner’s course in aviation and a hiker’s challenge that took them across 47-miles of trails in Steep Rock’s four preserves. They tried their hand at glassblowing, boat building, sewing, watercolor painting, and community service projects, and studied genealogy, poetry, marine biology, music, theatre, films, and filmmaking. They explored regional art museums, libraries, and bookshops, and learned about the importance of balancing social responsibility and profitability in business. Students also earned certifications in Lifeguarding and — via trips to the White Mountains of New Hampshire — Avalanche Awareness, Wilderness First Aid, and Leave No Trace principles.

Each course in Highlander Term aligned with one of Gunn’s four Pillars: Public Character and Active Citizenship, A Sense of Rootedness and Place, Learning Yourself and How to Learn, and Risktaking and Innovation. For the first time, all ninth grade students engaged in Freshman Foundations, a new series of experiences — including hiking, making maple syrup, indoor rock climbing, and yoga — that introduced them to all four Pillars and helped set them up for success at Gunn and beyond. Also new this year: students had the option to gain hands-on experience by securing an internship anywhere in the world. In all, 16 juniors and seniors completed internships that aligned with their goals and interests, which included working with a YA novelist, the engineers at American Airlines, and representatives of the Republic of Kazakhstan at United Nations Headquarters in New York.

from top: Anderson Busby ’27 at the controls of a Cessna 182 in Intro to Aviation; students at the Lion Gate, which marks the entrance to the citadel of Mycenae in Greece; students and faculty in the Local Community Service class at the Community Kitchen of Torrington; Gigi Boucher ’25 and Drew McKessey ’26 took time to read at Yale’s Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library; and Blake Baumgartner ’26 perfecting her glassblowing technique at Kinship Glassworks in Milford, Connecticut.

Clockwise

ELLIOTT FISHER

ALISA CROFT

JEN

HART

ENTREPRENEURSHIP SEMINAR

How to Build a Business Plan that Rocks

EACH YEAR, STUDENTS in Gunn’s popular Entrepreneurship Seminar have the opportunity to learn from a series of engaging guest speakers who offer advice and bring their real-world experiences to the classroom. This winter, the curriculum went to the next level, when faculty member Arne Rees invited Allen Kovac, a 40-year music industry veteran, to teach students how to build an entertainment business.

It is a subject close to Kovac’s heart. Over the course of his career, he has managed artists including Blondie, The Cranberries, EnVogue, The Bee Gees, Mötley Crüe, and Meatloaf, and founded multiple companies. In 2006, he founded Eleven Seven Music, which became the number one rock label in the world with offices in New York, Los Angeles, London, Berlin, Toronto and Sydney. Rebranded in 2019 as Better Noise Music, it currently bills itself as “a content company that creates music, books, films, documentaries, theatrical productions, tours, and television.”

“Content is king — king for Netflix, king for Spotify, king for licensing – in any business. Taking content and being able to move it from just a song, to a book about the song, to a movie, and then putting the music, the book, and the film all together as an asset is something we’re teaching. And then we’re teaching them how to brand and market it,” said Kovac, who retired from the day-to-day operations of Better Noise Music in 2023 and currently serves as Chairman of the Board.

“I’ve known Allen for a few years and we’re always talking. I would discuss with him a lot of my ideas for the entrepreneurship program, so he was involved right from the beginning and showed a lot of interest. He came as a speaker last year and what he talks about is so substantial,” said Rees, who is currently in his second year at Gunn and co-taught with Kovac for three weeks in February. They used Mötley Crüe as a case study, showing students how “the world’s most notorious rock band” was able to expand its audience, and achieve tripledigit income growth, following the release of the 2019 biopic, The Dirt, on Netflix, which was based upon a New York Times best-selling book about the band.

No stranger to the classroom, Kovac has taught students about the entertainment and music business at Syracuse University, NYU, and UCLA, and notes that college students are often amazed when they learn he has been creating entertainment companies and scaling them, packaging tours, and marketing music, since he was just 19 years old. He booked his first concert, featuring Tom Petty, in Oregon using $1,200 that he and two friends had saved, and advertising support he managed to earn after talking with the owner of local radio station KZEL-FM, the Crystal Ship record shop in Eugene, and a record label.

“My mom said, ‘If you’re going to work, ask questions, so you can learn about business,’” said Kovac, who followed her advice and sold out that first show. He earned enough money to book more artists, including Hall and Oates, Elvis Costello, and punk rock legend, Patti Smith.

His goal in bringing his experience to Gunn is “to help to change the culture, so when companies like mine want to hire people, there’s a more fundamental understanding of what an independent company is, how you start from scratch, how you build it, and then how you scale it. They’re learning all of that,” he said of his students.

Allen Kovac

ON STAGE The Game of Love

THE TIMELESS APPEAL of Jane Austen’s romantic novel, Pride & Prejudice, was presented by Gunn Theatre through the lens of Kate Hamill’s delightful adaptation in November. A talented team of actors and designers brought Austen’s beloved characters — centered around the young, spirited, and opinionated Elizabeth Bennet, her family, and the potential suitors drawn into their orbit — to life in the Tisch Family Auditorium of the Thomas S. Perakos Arts and Community Center. From the lively, disco-themed opening dance number to the bespoke set, complete with a chessboard floor, the production was one of the company’s best and it was a joy to watch the characters navigate Austen’s carefully choreographed game of matchmaking and love.

The Frederick Gunn School

Theatre requires action, and Jane Austen’s novels are a feast for theatricality, especially this adaptation. I hope you lean into the comedy, romance, hypocrisy, family expectations, hopes and dreams, pressure to conform to societal norms, and the game that often comes with finding the right partner.”

— KENT BURNHAM, DIRECTOR OF THEATRE ARTS

THE CURATOR Giving Voice to Modern-Day Feminists Through Art

IN JANUARY, A TRAVELING STUDENT ART EXHIBIT showcasing varying perspectives and interpretations of feminism opened in the Perakos Family Cares Art Gallery in the Thomas S. Perakos Arts and Community Center. Titled “Amplifying Voices: Global Feminism,” the multimedia show was co-curated by Stella Zhu ’25 and three of her friends from Shanghai: Churan Xu ’25 and Michelle Zhang ’25, who attend The Lawrenceville School, and Rui Wang ’25, a student at Miss Porter’s School. Together, they selected a total of 43 works by 24 artists from 14 schools, including 11 schools in the United States, two in China, and one in Switzerland, which were featured in the gallery for one month before the exhibit moved to Miss Porter’s in February, and then to the Hutchins Gallery at Lawrenceville.

Zhu, who was a student in AP Studio Art and the Technique & Artistry cocurricular program, was inspired to create

“Amplifying Voices” after helping to curate and promote a similar show, “Undefined Women,” featuring the work of female artists in China, in the summer of 2023.

“I approached artists by posting recruitment calls on social media and visited galleries to speak to female artists in person. Unfortunately, these exhibits were banned in China because the content was identified as too progressive and in line with Western ideas,” Zhu said in her curatorial statement.

After returning to Gunn in the fall of 2023, she began talking with Andrew Richards P’20 ’23 and Lincoln Turner of the visual arts faculty about her experience in China and they encouraged her to recreate the show at Gunn. “There was a brochure that I made for the exhibit in China. Mr. Richards said, ‘This is awesome.’ And then Mr. Turner said we should put the show up again at our school. They were very nice to let me share this with the school, as an extension of what we did at Shanghai,” Zhu said.

Working with Turner, she put out a call for artists last summer and began collecting work from artists around the country and the world. The pieces she and her co-curators selected included art from four Gunn students — Rebecca Tu ’25, Willa Regan ’27, Michal Schroeder ’26, and Marley-Austell Kennedy ’25 — and students from Lawrenceville, Miss Porter’s, Taft School, Pomfret School, Governor’s Academy, The Hill School, The Cambridge School of Weston, Weston High School, The American School in Switzerland, The Sichuan International Department of Chengdu Shude High School, Qibao Dwight in Shanghai, China, UCLA, and USC. Their work ranged from paintings and drawings to photography and video.

Two pieces in the exhibit, “Half the Sky,” by FiFi Wu at UCLA, and “He(a)r Silent Whisper,” by Clare Shen from Miss Porter’s, incorporated characters of Nüshu script, a “hidden” language. According to the description for Wu’s piece, the Nüshu language is “derived from Chinese characters that were invented and used exclusively among ethnic Yao women in Jiangyong County in Hunan Province of southern China.”

A mixed media work on canvas by Cailyn Cien of Weston High School depicted “the societal pressure placed on women, particularly older women, to conform to unrealistic beauty standards surrounding youth (and thinness).” A large surrealist

oil painting by Judy Wang of Governor’s Academy centered on “how female forms are constantly subjected to the male gaze, like statues exhibited in a museum.”

“We have a really diverse representation of different interpretations of feminism. I hope through this exhibition that people can see the potential of female artists,” Zhu said. “We really want to empower the female artist and bring the concept of amplifying different voices, different backgrounds.”

“Although more women artists are entering museum and exhibition spaces, a discrepancy exists between female and male

We really want to empower the female artist and bring the concept of amplifying different voices, different backgrounds.” — Stella Zhu '25

artists’ presence in galleries. Through this exhibition, we seek to not only bring to light the philosophies of modern-day feminists through art, but also provide an opportunity for student-artists to showcase their work,” she said.

In addition to her work in the visual arts, Zhu was a member of Vocal Ensemble and appeared in numerous Gunn Theatre productions. She credited her experience at Gunn with helping to make her artistic ideas a reality.

Facing page: Co-curators Rui Wang ’25 from Miss Porter’s School and Stella Zhu ’25 from Gunn; and Rebecca Tu ’25 from Gunn with her mixed media work, “Bound to Dance.”

Above: Featured artists from Miss Porter’s and Gunn with Gunn faculty members Lincoln Turner (far left) and Andrew Richards P’20 ’23 (far right) at the artists reception.

ROWLAND SCHERMAN ’55 Peace, Protest, and Promise

Aretrospective exhibition featuring photographs by Rowland Scherman ’55 opened April 12 in the Perakos Family Cares Art Gallery of the Thomas S. Perakos Arts and Community Center. The exhibit remained on view through Alumni Weekend in June.

STUDENTS HONORED WITH SCHOLASTIC ART AWARDS

Student-artists Heri Kim ’26, Michal Schroeder ’26, and Rebecca Tu ’25 were selected to participate in the 2025 Connecticut Regional Scholastic Art Awards Exhibition in January and brought home four top awards for their work.

Kim was honored with two Gold Key Awards for her paintings, “The Obsession With Consumption” and “The Weight of Want.” Both pieces reflected the theme of consumerism, which she chose as the focus of her portfolio for AP Studio Art.

Tu had two pieces selected for the exhibition, a painting titled “Tethered Flights,” which won a Silver Key Award, and “Bound to Dance,” which was selected in the Drawing & Illustration category.

Schroeder received an Honorable Mention Award for her mixed media work, “The Cellist,” which was inspired by the international bestseller, The Cellist of Sarajevo, by Steven Galloway, “and the hope that can come from music and life,” she said.

The Connecticut Scholastic Arts Exhibition is the largest juried student art exhibition in the state. Students from public, private, and parochial schools across the state are invited to participate. This year’s finalists were selected by a panel of professional artists and university art faculty and their work was exhibited in the Donald and Linda Silpe Gallery at the University of Hartford.

Scherman was the first official photographer for the Peace Corps and photographed for LIFE magazine, Look, the United States Information Agency, and others. Through his lens, he captured many of the iconic musical, cultural, and political events of the 1960s, including the 1963 Newport Folk Festival, the March on Washington, D.C., and Woodstock. He traveled with U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy, toured with Judy Collins, and was in the studio when Crosby, Stills, and Nash recorded their first album. He won a Grammy Award for “Best Album Cover, Photography” in 1967 for his photograph of Bob Dylan, which was used for “Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits.” Scherman’s work is archived at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and featured in the book, Timeless, and he was the subject of the documentary, Eye on the Sixties

Left to right: Rebecca Tu ’25, Michal Schroeder ’26, and Heri Kim ’26 with recent work in the painting and drawing studio of the Thomas S. Perakos Arts and Community Center.

THE LOST TRIBE Exploring West African Musical Heritage and Influence

IN FEBRUARY, THE LOST TRIBE, a drum-centered Afro-funk fusion ensemble, led by multi-percussionist Jocelyn Pleasant, led students and faculty on a musical journey from Guinea, Senegal, and Ghana to Cuba and New York City, the birthplace of Hip Hop music and culture.

The ensemble’s hour-long performance, which was arranged by Ron Castonguay P’26, Director of the Arts and Music Director, in conjunction with Benjamin Kang, Dean of Belonging and Inclusion, was presented as part of the school’s 2024-25 Speaker Series. Students learned about different styles of music and different instruments, including the balafon, a West African percussion instrument that is similar to a xylophone, the krin, an African log drum, and the djembe, a hand drum that is shaped like a goblet. Some of the instruments were played by the musicians on stage, while others were featured in videos and still images projected onto a screen above them.

“As we’re traveling, you’re going to see and hear music from around the world that represents maybe someone’s culture here, that represents all of our culture on the stage. And the way that we like to present our music, and to perform and create, is to take a little bit of this, a little bit of that, and then mix it all together, and then you have your own thing. Lots of different music styles from around the world have been created that way,” said Pleasant, a percussionist,

Music is something that brings people together. We all borrow a little bit of this, we all borrow a little bit of that.” — Jocelyn Pleasant, percussionist, drummer, educator, and musical director, The Lost Tribe

drummer, and educator, who is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology at Wesleyan University. “By the time you’re done, hopefully there will be no one sitting in their seats and we’re going to get you all up and you’re going to get to party with us. That’s also what a Lost Tribe show is about.”

The Lost Tribe demonstrated how African drumbeats could be combined with guitar to create the sounds of reggae and had everyone in the audience on their feet and dancing to a performance of a rhythm and dance style called Kpanlogo that originated in Ghana in the 1960s. The finale featured an interactive Hip Hop performance that combined the influence of West African drums with guitar and keyboard, turntabling by DJ Stealth, break dancing — by students and performers — and “MCing.”

“Hip Hop borrowed from a lot of different things and it created its own style, its own technique, its own flair,” said Pleasant. “If you rip all that down, it goes back to that West African heritage.”

A TRIBUTE TO TRUNDY

On April 12, a tribute baseball game and memorial service were held on campus in honor of Jeff Trundy, whose lasting impact as a teacher, coach, advisor, colleague, and friend was eloquently expressed by those who gathered.

Gunn Baseball played The Williston-Northampton School on Barnes Field — and won, despite a cold, spring rain that caused the game to be paused and then ended in the fifth inning. That same afternoon, students, alumni, parents, parents of alumni, current and former faculty, and friends gathered for a memorial service in the Thomas S. Perakos Arts and Community Center.

As the service began, Head of School Emily Raudenbush Gum announced that prior to Trundy’s passing in December 2024, former Board Chair and Trustee Emeritus Gerrit Vreeland’61 and his family had made a substantial gift to The Frederick Gunn School endowment to establish The Jeff Trundy Excellence in Coaching Award. This award will be given in honor of Coach Trundy every other year to a faculty member. Coach Trundy was named the inaugural recipient and honored posthumously.

“That ability of Jeff’s, to just show up so consistently and so kindly, and in such a strong way for the community, was seen all the way up,” Raudenbush Gum said. “Gerrit and Jeff spoke not long before Jeff passed away. It was a very meaningful moment for Gerrit to be able to speak to Jeff, and I know

The Frederick Gunn School Bulletin

that it touched Jeff as well. It’s hard to overstate the fact that Jeff, who was such an understated person, could be seen and acknowledged by a Board Chair in this way for his impact at the school.”

Asked about his decision to establish the award, Vreeland said: “I always wanted to give a coaching award. I learned more from the coaches than I did from anyone, with the exception of my history teachers. I always thought there should be an award for the teachers who coach.”

Each year Coach Trundy’s teams had three simple but important goals. One: respect the game. Two: respect your teammates. Three: get better every day. Those goals inspired Gunn student-athletes for over 25 years. This award, donated by the Vreeland family, celebrates Coach Trundy’s legacy by honoring a Gunn coach who loves and respects their game, and who works every day to bring out the best in their players, on and off the field, just as Jeff Trundy did.” — The citation for The Jeff Trundy Excellence in Coaching Award

As a young student growing up in New Jersey, Vreeland said he struggled academically with what would later be diagnosed with dyslexia. “They were going to make me stay back. Somebody raised the idea to my parents of sending me to a small, New England prep school, where I would get more attention from the teachers than I did in the public school. I ended up at The Gunnery. I fell in love with the place. I loved team sports and I just flourished,” he recalled.

In some ways, the afternoons he spent playing football, baseball, and hockey at Gunn were as impactful, if not more so, than his time in the classroom. “If somebody were to say to me, ‘How did you develop to be as successful as you have been, dealing with dyslexia?’ I would say, ‘I learned to get through the classes, and then I went to the athletic fields.’ That’s where my best friends were, and the coaches were just ordinary teachers, but what they did was teach you about teamwork. They’d say, ‘You can’t be good at a sport unless you develop a love for the sport.’ I gained a lot of confidence on the athletic field, and that confidence kind of transferred to the academic side of the fence.”

When he later returned to Gunn as a Trustee, Vreeland said he would always find a few moments

on Board Weekends to make his way down to the baseball field to watch Trundy coach.

“It was like watching the conductor of an orchestra. It looks simple, but we all know it’s not the case. To watch him run a baseball practice was amazing.”

Trustee Emeritus Gerrit Vreeland ’61

At the tribute game, Trundy’s hat and glove (facing page) were placed near the bench, and his jersey number, 19, was painted on the field.

Jonjon Feliciano ’26 at bat. His junior speech was about the impact Coach Trundy had on his life.

FIELD HOCKEY EARNS FOURTH CONSECUTIVE PLAYOFF BID

AFTER ENDING THEIR REGULAR SEASON with backto-back wins against Choate Rosemary Hall (4-1) and Canterbury School (2-0), Gunn Varsity Field Hockey earned a spot in the NEPSAC Class C Field Hockey Championship for the fourth consecutive year. As the #3 seed, Gunn faced off against #6 seed Pingree School at Loomis Chaffee on November 13, 2024.

Although the outcome was not what the Highlanders wanted (Pingree won 3-1 and then fell to Greens Farms Academy in the NEPSAC Semifinal), Gunn had an incredible

season. The team won 10 of their last 11 regular season games, and outscored their opponents 46 to 8.

“We’re just rolling, and playing some awesome field hockey, and working together for a common goal,” Head Coach Ashley LeBlanc said just before the playoffs began. “This is our fourth consecutive playoff bid. That feels incredible. I’m super proud of the team for their leadership and effort this season.”

Varsity Field Hockey ended its regular season with a record of 12-5-1 and headed into the playoffs with some momentum, having defeated Choate on November 6 and then rival Canterbury School at home on November 9, which was Canterbury Day.

“With the seeding, every game means so much,” LeBlanc said. “And then to win at home in the final regular season game against your rival always feels great.”

FALL 2024 14 Highlanders Earn All-League Honors

Congratulations to these 14 Highlanders who earned All-League Honors from the New England Preparatory School Athletic Council (NEPSAC) in their respective sports this fall.

First Team All-NEPSAC:

Megan Sladish ’25: Defense, Varsity Field Hockey

Cassy Cotton ’27: Midfield, Varsity Field Hockey

Karl Hammer ’25: Forward, Boys Varsity Soccer

Evan Bailey ’26: Wide Receiver & Defensive Back, Varsity Football

Owen Laatsch ’25: Runningback & Linebacker, Varsity Football

All-NEPSAC Honorable Mention Awards were presented to:

Izzy Blake ’26: Forward, Varsity Field Hockey

Poppy Kellogg ’25: Forward, Varsity Field Hockey

Victor “Vico” Pozuelos ’25: Midfield, Boys Varsity Soccer

Morgan Brown ’25: Middle Hitter, Varsity Volleyball

James Timmins ’25: Tight End & Linebacker, Varsity Football

Ethan Meyer ’27: Runningback & Defensive Back, Varsity Football

Mia Merrill ’25: Defender, Midfielder, Girls Varsity Soccer

Blake Baumgartner ’26: Girls

Varsity Cross Country

Gigi Boucher ’25: Girls Varsity Cross Country

Megan Sladish ’25

Cassy Cotton ’27

Karl Hammer ’25

Evan Bailey ’26

Owen Laatsch ’25 Izzy Blake ’26

Poppy Kellogg ’25

Victor “Vico” Pozuelos ’25

Morgan Brown ’25

James Timmins ’25

Ethan Meyer ’27

Mia Merrill ’25

Blake Baumgartner ’26

Gigi Boucher ’25

WINTER 24-25 All-League Honors Awarded to 10 Highlanders

Gunn is proud to celebrate these 10 Highlanders, who were honored by the New England Preparatory School Council (NEPSAC) for their athletic achievements in the winter season.

All-NEPSAC Awards were presented to:

Sofia Cuozzo ’25: Forward, Girls Varsity Hockey

Maria Gilshannon ’27: Forward, Girls Varsity Hockey

Ely Steffen ’27: Boys Alpine Skiing

All-NEPSAC Honorable Mention Awards were presented to:

Mia Merrill ’25: Defense, Girls Varsity Hockey

Olivia Kurtz ’25: Defense, Girls Varsity Hockey

Tucker Mears ’26: Right Wing, Forward, Boys Varsity Ice Hockey

Ryan Tartaglione ’26: Right Wing, Center, Boys Varsity Ice Hockey

Harrison Muntner ’25: Shooting Guard, Boys Varsity Basketball

Luisa Hoops ’27: Point Guard, Girls Varsity Basketball

Wilhelm Luft ’27: Boys Alpine Skiing

PHOTO

Sofia Cuozzo ’25

Maria Gilshannon ’27

Ely Steffen ’27

Tucker Mears ’26

Mia Merrill ’25

Olivia Kurtz ’25

Wilhelm Luft ’27

Harrison Muntner ’25

Ryan Tartaglione ’26

Luisa Hoops ’27

The Frederick Gunn School Bulletin 36

PHOTOS BY PHIL DUTTON ’81 P’23

ICE HOCKEY TEAMS RETURN TO NEW ENGLAND CHAMPIONSHIPS

THE BOYS AND GIRLS VARSITY ICE HOCKEY teams both qualifi ed for the New England Championship Tournament this year and played in the quarterfi nals on March 5.

This was the 17th consecutive season that Boys Varsity Ice Hockey earned a playoff bid. The team ended its regular season with a record of 12-12-7, which included a 3-1 win over Northfi eld Mount Hermon on February 28, and a tie, 2-2, in the Highlanders’ fi nal game of the season, against Berkshire School on March 1.

The #8 seed in the Piatelli/Simmons bracket, Gunn traveled to Kimball Union Academy in Meriden, New Hampshire, where they faced the #1 seed Wildcats. Although the Highlanders did not advance to the NEPSAC Semifi nals this year, Head Coach Craig Badger said playing in the tournament is always fun, especially when the rink

Boys Varsity Hockey celebrates after scoring against Quebec’s Stanstead College at home on January 18; Girls Varsity Hockey huddles at the start of a game against Taft on December 9, 2024.

is packed with fans. “We’ve had years when we’ve won championships, and years when we’ve haven’t, but a playoff game is fun. It’s one game, and in one game, literally anybody can win. It’s a great experience for the kids,” he said.

It was the second consecutive year that Gunn Girls Varsity Ice Hockey earned a playoff bid. As the #8 seed, Gunn faced #1 seed New Hampton School in the Dorothy Howard bracket on March 5.

Refl ecting on the season as a whole, Head Coach Dan Allen said: “The girls played really hard. They bought into the system and how we wanted to play, and they ended up having a pretty identical year to last year, which was great. We won 14 games last year, and we won 14 games this year. It was obviously exciting to make the playoffs in back-toback years. Overall, it was a super successful season.”

Steep Rock’s 100-Year History and Frederick Gunn

It is noteworthy that the 175th anniversary of The Frederick Gunn School coincides with the centennial of Steep Rock Preserve, established by a student of Mr. Gunn, Ehrick Kensett Rossiter, Class of 1870.

Generations of Highlanders, beginning with Frederick Gunn himself, have walked the trails of Steep Rock and admired the breathtaking views from its summit overlooking the Clamshell and the Shepaug River below. The 1,000-acre nature preserve is where we hold School Walk and has served as a classroom for generations of Gunn students. Steep Rock is also where students in the Outdoor Program, known today as Gunn Outdoors, still go to connect with nature and the same woods and waters that fascinated our founder.

To learn more about the shared histories of our two institutions, we turned to the Paula and George Krimsky Archives and Special Collections and Moira Conlan P’26, Director of Library and Archives.

“Sometimes in summer the whole school went for a night’s camp to Steep Rock, a name far too prosaic and tame to fit the unappreciated wonders of nature it describes,” Clarence Deming, Class of 1866, recalled in The Master of The Gunnery, the memorial volume published in tribute to Mr. Gunn by his students. Deming went on to describe the view from the summit, still familiar to Highlanders today: “You stand on the brink of a vast gulf, but a gulf filled with picturesque beauties. Directly in front and sheer down, as it seems to the eye, breaks a precipice five hundred feet high. Right and left the cliff turns in a mathematical curve, sloping down in diminishing spurs to a wooded level on either side half a mile away. Trees and underbrush hide the gaunt surfaces, and far below, close at the foot of the cliff, the Shepaug River forms a grand semicircle as perfect in its lines as if nature had done her work with a compass … With the trees in full leaf, the Shepaug running with abundant waters and the wind-gusts beating the rounded slopes of foliage into waves, the picture is indescribably beautiful.”

Rossiter in Steep Rock, 1929

The Influence of Emerson and Gunn

As one of the oldest and largest land trusts in America, Steep Rock was an anomaly in the United States and in Connecticut when it was started by Rossiter, said Edwin Matthews, Trustee Emeritus of Steep Rock Association, who on March 20, 2025, presented “Washington, Connecticut: From Industrial Roots to Leadership in Land Conservation,” as part of Steep Rock’s Centennial Virtual Speaker Series. Matthews conducted research for his presentation in the Gunn archives and concluded that a confluence of ideas, including abolitionism, naturalism, and the ideals expressed by Ralph Waldo Emerson influenced Rossiter’s decision to conserve land for public use and establish Steep Rock. As Matthews put it: “We owe Steep Rock to Mr. Gunn.”

“Frederick Gunn deeply admired Emerson and taught Emerson to Rossiter,” Matthews said, noting that he found in the archives a book of Emerson’s essays, titled “Miscellanies,” published in 1856, and believes that Mr. Gunn read this same volume to Rossiter and his fellow students.

As evidence of Mr. Gunn’s fondness for Emerson, he cited a recollection shared by James P. Platt, Class of 1868, in The Master of The Gunnery, “No subject was beyond his reach ; poetry, history, philosophy, politics ; the leading men and topics of the day ; the works of God in the vast domain of nature — all furnished him with texts for new and original sayings, and it was in itself a liberal education to be a listener at those nightly symposia … Mr. Gunn’s love for poetry was native and intense, his power of presenting the writer’s thought in all its fullness wonderful, and in many a soul was stimulated the poetic fancy as he listened to the strong rendition of the stirring verses of Lowell or Emerson, Longfellow or Whittier.”

“He read Emerson and Longfellow and what you could begin to see is what Mr. Gunn was teaching, and the curriculum, and his independence, and his belief in fostering individual thinking was part of what Emerson was teaching,” Matthews said.

Rossiter himself reflected on the alignment between Mr. Gunn and Emerson in a commemorative volume of the Stray Shot, published in 1917, on the 100th anniversary of Mr. Gunn’s birth. When he was a student at Gunn, Rossiter said Emerson “seemed to me the most difficult writer to wrestle with and the most incomprehensible of all authors; in fact, I found him so overwhelmingly tiresome that I never once read a page of any work of his for ten years; but when I did, it was to discover how often he spoke as an oracle to the Master [meaning Mr. Gunn]. His philosophy fitted into Mr. Gunn’s system of ethics, morals and prudences, with so little slack that he was a constant source of energizing inspiration. Let any one who knows this writer’s thought read the excerpts of the Master of the Gunnery, and the congeniality of their minds will become insistently apparent.”

A Shared Belief in Abolition

Ehrick Rossiter and his twin sister, Charlotte E. Rossiter, were born in 1854 in Paris, France. Their parents were Thomas Prichard Rossiter, a painter and member of the Hudson River School, and his first wife, Anna Ehrick Parmly Rossiter.

Thomas Rossiter was an abolitionist, Matthews said, and a congregant of Plymouth Church in Brooklyn, New York,

ABOLITIONISTS AND GUNNERY

PARENTS Thomas Rossiter may have been encouraged to send his son, Ehrick, to Mr. Gunn’s school by clergyman, abolitionist, and Gunnery parent Henry Ward Beecher, shown here with his sister, Harriet Beecher Stowe. Albumen print by Jeremiah Gurney, 1868, Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Museum Purchase, Lloyd O. and Marjorie Strong Coulter Fund

School Walk, 2006

which was a stop on the Underground Railroad and nationally known for the outspoken abolitionist views of its minister, Henry Ward Beecher. Beecher sent two of his children to be educated by Mr. Gunn at The Gunnery — Herbert “Bertie” Beecher, Class of 1863, and William C. Beecher, Class of 1865, who would later serve as Vice President of the Alumni Association. Henry Ward Beecher’s sister, Harriet, the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, lived in Litchfield and also sent her son, Charley Stowe, Class of 1864, to Mr. Gunn’s school. In 1882, Beecher would deliver the eulogy to Mr. Gunn in the First Congregational Church on the Green memorialized in The Master of The Gunnery. But their relationship began when he became a Gunnery parent.

“I feel indebted to you and to Mrs. Gunn for those influences which have carried my boys over the critical period of their lives … To say that I am satisfied with you can but by faith express the truth of my feelings,” Henry Ward Beecher wrote to Mr. Gunn in 1867, according to a letter republished in Adam Korpalski’s book, The Gunnery: 1850-1975, A Documentary History. “If I had thirty boys, I wish I had, every one of them I should enter the portal of life through your school. I am glad to find that the boys will, I believe, have a lively sense of appreciation for you and look to Washington as a kind of home over the hills.”

More letters from the Beecher Family Papers at Yale University Library, reprinted in Korpalski’s book, reveal that Beecher referred other students to Mr. Gunn, including Hewitt Dayton Humphrey and his brother, Wheelock S. Humphrey,

both graduates in the Class of 1863. Writing to Mr. Gunn around 1861, the famous preacher said: “A lady from our church wishes to have her son with you. He is a nice lad, and his parents good people … Will you take him? If you expect to take all the boys of Plymouth Church, you must begin to build higher.”

“It was Henry Ward Beecher who recommended to Thomas Rossiter that he send his son, Ehrick, to Mr. Gunn’s School,” Matthews concluded. The school ledger confirms that Charlotte Rossiter, who went by Lottie, was also a student at Gunn, in the Class of 1869.

In the commemorative volume of the Stray Shot from 1917, Rossiter recounted the day he left The Gunnery, after spending five happy years there. Mr. Gunn and his daughter, Mary Brinsmade, accompanied him for the first few miles of his journey toward his home on the Hudson. Then, he said, “we each, by the eye’s signal, bade the other God’s speed. In a surge of feeling and with a solemn appreciation of his fatherliness, I passed meditatively out of his jurisdiction into a larger world, yet never beyond the pale of his influence. It was a parting never to be forgotten.”

The First 100 Acres

Ehrick Rossiter studied architecture at Cornell University, graduating in 1875, and was well established in his career by the time he returned to Washington. In 1882, he designed the Schoolhouse for The Gunnery, under second Head of School John Brinsmade, Class of 1862. Rossiter is also known as the architect of some 25 “summer cottages” in Washington as well as Saint John’s Episcopal Church and Gunn Memorial Library, dedicated in 1908. Matthews noted that Rossiter arranged for the artist H. Siddons Mowbray, who lived in Washington, to paint the mural on the library’s ceiling, which includes quotations from Emerson. Rossiter also placed in the library a bust of Emerson, “given to him by Daniel Chester French, the sculptor of the Lincoln Memorial,” he said.

According to Carol Bergren Santoleri’s book, The History of Steep Rock Association, published in 2020, when Rossiter returned to Washington, he purchased six acres on Kirby Road. There he planned to build a summer cottage called “The Rocks” (which can be seen today, across from the Upper Lot) for himself, his wife, Mary, and their children. (They were: Frank H. Rossiter, Class of 1898, Percival Kensett Rossiter, Class of 1900, E. Winthrop Rossiter, Class of 1912, and Edith H. Rossiter).

However, in the spring 1889, Rossiter decided to delay construction of his own house to purchase 169 acres, which included the Steep Rock Summit. In her book, Santorini noted the property consisted of “a heavily wooded hemlock forest accessible by river crossings that rose to a panoramic overlook.”

1891 BRIDGE This photograph from the archives is labled, “the long, winding bridge to the Rossiter-Steep Rock Road.”

A Lasting Legacy

“In 1925 Rossiter donated the land, which included the Steep Rock overlook, to a carefully chosen group of trustees, thus ensuring its preservation,” according to the Steep Rock Association. The first board members Rossiter entrusted with the stewardship of Steep Rock were his friends and nearly all shared his connection the school. They included:

• Hamilton Gibson, Class of 1902, Gunn’s third Head of School and the son of naturalist and painter William Hamilton Gibson, Class of 1866; Rossiter also designed Hamilton Gibson’s home in Washington, “The Sumacs.”

• Victor McCutcheon, Class of 1902, who served as Secretary of the Alumni Association, was our Board Chair under Gibson, and was Steep Rock’s first Board Chair; McCutcheon Lounge in Memorial is named for him and his house on South Street was later the home of Serge L. Miller ’51 GP’12 ’20 and his family (see page 64).

• H. Siddons Mowbray, painter and muralist, whose home in Washington, “La Tourelle,” was designed by Rossiter; it is now owned by the Mayflower Inn and called Darlow House.

• E. Winthrop Rossiter, one of Rossiter’s four children, and an alumnus of the Class of 1912

• Arthur L. Shipman, an attorney who wrote the original trust indenture, according to “Seventy-Five Years of Steep Rock,” written by Steep Rock Trustees Robert L. DeCourcy P’62 ’64 ’70 and Helen Wersebe, who have their own unique ties to the school

This drawing of the carriage trails in Steep Rock is from our archives. It was a gift from William Hamilton Gibson, Class of 1866, to Abigail Brinsmade Gunn.

• Arthur C. Titus, Class of 1890, who served as the town’s First Selectman from 1920-1941, according to “Seventy-Five Years of Steep Rock”

• Anne Van Ingen, whose philanthropist father, Edward Hook Van Ingen, built the first summer home in Washington (now owned by the school and called Bourne Hall) and commissioned Rossiter to design Holiday House in Steep Rock as a retreat for female factory workers from New York

“He used his house money to save the hemlock grove, which became the cornerstone of the preservation of the valley up and down the Shepaug,” Matthews said.

“During his 36 years of ownership, Rossiter built carriage roads and small river crossings and invited his friends and fellow townspeople to enjoy the wild beauty of this section of the Shepaug River Valley,” according to Steep Rock Association. But at the time that Rossiter was buying up property to save Steep Rock, Matthews said “land trusts in America were generally not used for this purpose. The last thing you would do is put land in trust and open it to the public. You would keep the public out.”

It is clear, he said, that Rossiter was inspired to do so by his experience as a student of Mr. Gunn. Influenced by his appreciation for nature and the earliest inklings of the

• Adrian Van Sinderen, Class of 1906, who with his wife, Jean, was a generous benefactor of the school, and later donated 650 acres to Steep Rock that became Hidden Valley Preserve; their family home, “Glen Holme,” was designed by Rossister and became The Glenholme School.

• George W. Vaillant, whose family lived for more than a century in a house on Old North Road that Rossiter designed for his brother, the artist Louis Vaillant.

conservation movement in America, Rossister encouraged his friends to add to the land trust’s holdings through the years. The editors of the Stray Shot took note of what he accomplished, writing in December 1925: “No place in Washington probably suggests more delightful memories to Gunnery Alumni, or has entered more closely into the background of their boyhood in Washington than Steep Rock. Startlingly unexpected in its rugged and yet quiet beauty of natural setting, it owes its present quality of unblemished preservation to the care and ownership of Ehrick K. Rossiter. For years Mr. Rossiter has treasured its hemlock groves, its mountain laurel, its flowers; has built and maintained carriage roads and river fords, and has encouraged Washingtonians to share with him the enjoyment of a veritable treasure of unique natural beauty.”

A COMMUNITY THAT’S WARM AND SUPPORTIVE

IN APRIL , we caught up with Emma Corner P’24, whose son, Milo Corner ’24, was wrapping up his first year at Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas, Texas. Emma is the founder of Emma Corner Interiors, a New York City and Hamptons-based design company that specializes in private luxury residential projects. As the parent of a Gunn alumnus, she has stayed connected with the school, and has fond memories of Milo’s time at Gunn.

How did you find your way to The Frederick Gunn School? When Milo went to Saint David’s School, we were really good friends with Mili Johnson P’23, and her son, Alex Johnson ’23, who attended The Frederick Gunn School. Mili kept saying to me, “Emma, look at The Frederick Gunn School for Milo,” because he was going into the 10th grade. My husband went to boarding school and he didn’t have a great experience and we wanted to be with our kids. So we looked at day schools, and because it was during Covid, we couldn’t really get inside the buildings. We were kind of worried about him going to a high school that was kind of small and didn’t offer as much, so we said, “You know what, Mili, we’ll look at The Frederick Gunn School.”

Q:

What was it that attracted you here? We met Suzanne Day, Chief Enrollment Officer, and she gave us a lovely tour of the school and talked about the curriculum and how it was a little bit different. There were opportunities in engineering and the Entrepreneurship Program, and all of those kinds of things that Milo excels in. It sounded like a better fit for Milo in terms of bringing out his strengths. We just got such a great feeling about it that we decided it was a good fit for Milo. My first question to Suzanne, even on my tour, was, “How do

you deal with a kid like Milo, who is dyslexic?” She nailed the answer. She said, “We will give him extra support from Day 1 and then as he matures and develops, we’ll kind of take away that support.” That was the perfect answer for me.

What was your experience like once Milo was on campus? Once he arrived, we felt good that he had all of this support set up for him. He got to know his teachers. I just found them very open to whatever we needed for Milo. They were always there to support him. He’s really very

Above: Alex and Emma Corner P’24 with Milo ’24 at SMU.

Left: Emma and Milo ’24 with Head of School Emily Raudenbush Gum at Commencement last May

creative, and the school understood that, and they supported that. During Covid, he had been working with an architect to learn all of the different programs. He continued to do that, and the school gave him credit for one of his classes doing architecture. His second year, he followed the construction of The Lizzie & Jonathan Tisch Center for Innovation & Active Citizenship. The school was really open to that. They let him in the building. He met the site manager. It created opportunities that he never would have had if he stayed at a day school in the city. As they say, they meet you where your child is at — and they did with Milo. He really matured, and he really grew at The Frederick Gunn School.

Q:

What are your hopes and dreams for Milo? Just to be happy, really, to find something that he loves and enjoys. Milo is a unique kid. He’s very driven, he knows what he likes. He’s always known what he was interested in. He knows that he loves building, construction, architecture — all of those things. He sought out internships with an architect. This summer, he’s got an internship with a commercial real estate company. He’s a go-getter. I just want him to find something that he can thrive at and be happy at.

Q:

What was your experience like as a Gunn Parent? I was there the whole time. You couldn’t keep me away. It was an hour and 50 minutes in the car. It was a beautiful drive. I’d go and watch Milo’s games. He ended up being a tri-varsity athlete, which is funny for us, because he’s not a sporty kid at all. He had a great experience running cross country, skiing, and then in the spring, he played tennis. I would always come and watch and support him, and l loved being around his friends.

Q:

What advice do you have for families considering Gunn for their students? Just go look. I find the community very warm. They’re very supportive. There’s something for everybody there. I think they understand that education is changing and they’re changing with it. They value the importance of entrepreneurship. The curriculum is dynamic, and they get it, that it’s not just about maths and English anymore. Another positive is you’ve got a great leader in Emily Gum, who understands education. She is very open to conversation with all of the parents. No question is a bad question with her. She’s just supportive. I was just really grateful for everything they did for Milo. I couldn’t have been more happy with his experience at the school.

The Frederick Gunn School is seeking alumni in Boston, New York City, and Connecticut, who are willing to engage current Highlanders through an exciting, new, student-driven initiative. Are you interested in shaping the next generation of leaders?

Be a mentor. Be a connector. Be a force.

WORK GUNN @

Host a group of students in your workplace for a morning or a ernoon to help them gain valuable, professional experience:

• Exploring potential career paths

• Engaging in meaningful conversations

• Connecting classroom learning to real-world challenges

• Collaborating on meaningful projects is program will run during Highlander Term: February 23 to March 4, 2026.

Scan the code to complete the interest form by September 15, 2025.

WHERE IDEAS MATTER

Miguel Padró ’94 helps business leaders drive change for the common good

THIS SPRING, we caught up with Miguel Padró ’94, who talked about his role with the Aspen Institute and his trajectory from Gunn, where the seeds of active citizenship were planted. His experience as a Highlander prepared him to serve as an international relief worker in Bosnia in the late 1990s, and for the work he does now, helping Fortune 100 companies align their business strategies with societal well-being.

As Assistant Director of Aspen’s Business & Society Program (BSP), Padró, 48, works with business leaders to drive change around issues including sustainability, wages, benefits, and how

to create better jobs, “any issue that a company is working on through its operations — not through its philanthropy — that impacts society in a meaningful way,” he said.

“We focus on, essentially, large companies and the relationship between large companies, their investors, and society,” Padró said. “Our operating premise is that if we want to solve the major challenges in society, business needs to be at the table helping out. But it’s not what you donate on the sidelines. It’s about how they operate in terms of creating jobs and opportunities, and distributing the value they create fairly, but also their impact on communities and the environment.”

Aspen BSP offers fellowships and builds networks of leaders across different fields, such as communications, sustainability, and law, convenes them around various challenges, and creates spaces for them to work together on better solutions. “It’s leadership development, but it’s also shared learning. We bring together the right group of people, try to frame good questions and create a safe space so that these leaders can get to a new place with their thinking, and hopefully, channel that towards some action, and change,” he explained.

The challenge is to move the needle within big companies with layers of bureaucracy and, more recently, in the face of national

PHOTO

During Alumni Weekend in June 2024, Miguel Padró ’94 moderated a conversation  with Head of School Emily Raudenbush Gum about her vision for the future of Gunn, and how alumni can engage with the school.

policy changes around issues such as diversity, equity, and inclusion, and climate change. His work is both humbling and inspiring, he said.

Learning to be curious, and to listen

When Padró arrived on campus as a freshman in January 1991, from Charlton, Massachusetts, he was following the lead of his older brother, Juan Padró ’92. “He was a hockey player, and a good athlete as well. He started looking at boarding schools on his own. His intent was to repeat his junior year and continue playing hockey. I actually remember Laura Eanes Martin ’90 P’20 ’23 ’25 gave my brother his tour. I was just a passenger in this whole ride. He really fell in love with Gunnery and decided to go there.”

Founded in 1949, the Aspen Institute is an international nonprofit organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with a campus in Aspen, Colorado. Its mission is to “drive change through dialogue, leadership, and action to help solve the greatest challenges of our time.”

Miguel started his freshman year of high school in Charlton but made the decision to join his brother at Gunn after visiting him over Fall Family Weekend. “I stayed with my brother in Gibson. The whole experience just blew my mind. They had a captains’ practice for the hockey team. They let me skate with them. I thought, ‘I want to do this.’” With some coaxing from his brother, and the support of Andy McNeill P’17 ’18, then Director of Admissions, he was able to enroll at Gunn midyear.

“I still remember my first day. I remember walking around campus with this group. All of a sudden, I had this tribe,” said Padró, who became a dorm monitor, tour guide, and Head Prefect in senior year. He remembers playing ultimate frisbee on the Quad, going to The PO, playing broom ball on weekends at the rink.

“I have tons of memories of the hockey rink. We spent a lot of time there,” said Padró, who played on the varsity ice hockey team all four years. The team made the playoffs his freshman year. As a senior, he was a tri-captain with Clayton Massey ’94 and Dj Bush ’95, and won the Rice Bowl. That year, Gunn also recorded a memorable, 7-3 win at home against Cushing Academy. “They had multiple guys who were drafted to the NHL. They were just a super team. They had to play in our rink that February. It was one of those really cold days and we didn’t have walls on the rink. So we did have a home ice advantage. We just absolutely crushed them.”

Padró also played varsity soccer his last two years, and was co-captain as a senior with Jason Feller ’94. At Prize Night, Padró received The Athletic Cup Award, The School History Prize, The Michael Neal Eanes Award for Greatest Scholastic Improvement, and was inducted into the Cum Laude Society. He was the recipient of The Gunn Cup at Commencement. Reflecting on his time as a student, he recalled that Gunn was where he learned to be curious. “I had some incredible teachers

who encouraged us to ask questions. That was hugely important to everything I do now,” he said. “The other thing that is maybe a little bit more esoteric is just dialogue. In my work, we basically convene business leaders in dialogue, so the ability to operate in a small setting, where you’re really trying to openly share thoughts, and explore ideas, and be vulnerable, and listen — all of those values were embedded into how we were taught.”

Among the faculty who had a positive impact on his experience were Margaret (Randazzo) Philpott, who taught Spanish and was his advisor, and the late Tom Adolphson, who taught history and humanities. “He was one of the people who really helped me discover that my ideas could matter, and that I could form decent arguments, and that I could understand history in a different way. He took us on trips to the Metropolitan Opera House. We got to see Pavarotti rehearsing. He wanted us to pay attention to history. I think of him as my own Mr. Keating from Dead Poet’s Society. He was that kind of personality.”

Ed Small, who taught math and computer science at the time, was also influential. “He was like the ‘tough love’ character in my journey. He was fully supportive, but he wasn’t going to let me

The approach was really to help me discover who I was, and so my ideas really mattered. Looking back, that’s incredibly important to what I do now.”

cruise,” said Padró, who also recalled the late Pam Taylor was his English teacher for two years. “She was just an icon, and again, someone who gave tough love to everybody, but she clearly loved what she did and she believed in me.”

A life-changing experience

After graduating from Gunn, Padró majored in history at St. Lawrence University, where he played Division I Men’s Ice Hockey into his sophomore year. His advisor in the History Department taught a class about the former Yugoslavia and Bosnia, where he was involved in relief work. Padró was among the students who traveled with him to Bosnia, to study at the University of Sarajevo and do service work, the summer before his senior year.

“It was a totally life-changing experience, but it’s very, very clear, 100 percent of these seeds were planted at Gunnery in that kind of curiosity, and that ability to take risks, and to know yourself, and to be confident doing it,” Padró said. “To be able to experience history as it was unfolding in all of its messiness,

and being thrust into a wartorn place with real, complex ethnic, religious, economic, and political dynamics was probably one of the most formative experiences of my life.”

Within a week of graduating cum laude from St. Lawrence, Padró returned to Bosnia. “My plan was just to go there and try to work with NGOs and be useful for as long as I could. I ended up finding a local youth organization that was focused on youth reconciliations after the war. These kids had had their entire childhood ripped away,” he said.

He did whatever was needed, helping the organization to communicate with western NGOs, assisting the local radio station, and even playing basketball with teenage boys. After four months, when his money ran out, he returned to the U.S., took a temporary job at John Hancock insurance in Boston, then returned to Europe on a backpacking trip.

Discovering your voice, and ideas, matter

Shifting gears upon his return to the U.S., Padró spent the next several years working in sales, primarily in the healthcare technology and education sectors. Just before the global financial crisis hit in 2008, he planned to begin traveling again, and met his future wife, Rebecca. The couple got engaged and set off on a four-month trip to Southern Africa and Southeast Asia,

before settling in New York. Padró earned his master’s in international relations at The City College of New York in 2010. The day he handed in his master’s thesis, he interviewed for the job at Aspen Institute. He has been there ever since.

He and Rebecca now live in Pennsylvania with their two children. They still enjoy traveling, and ski as a family. Their daughter is a serious gymnast, and their son enjoys rock climbing and tennis, while Padró continues to nurture his interest in music, which also had its beginnings at Gunn. He plays guitar and bass in several bands, and recently returned to playing hockey after a 17-year hiatus.

Through his conversations with Head of School Emily Raudenbush Gum, and visits to campus for Alumni Weekend in 2024 and 2025, and the annual Alumni Hockey Game this year, he has been impressed by the way Frederick Gunn’s educational philosophy is being instilled in students today.

“The community that The Gunnery was in my experience — and I think still is — was one where it’s such a small place that you have to honor and value each other to get the most out of it. The strength is in the people. They are extraordinary people from all kinds of different backgrounds. To be able to discover that your own voice and your ideas matter, and that you can learn from other people, and your peers, is incredibly valuable,” he reflected. “I think a lot of people wish that we had more of that in society right now.”

PHOTO OF ALUMNI HOCKEY GAME: PHIL DUTTON ‘81 P’23

Above: Padró as a college student and relief worker in Sarajevo, 1997, with children who had lost their parents in the Bosnian War. Above right: He was happy to be back in Linen Rink for the Alumni Hockey Game in January. Right: Padró with his wife, Rebecca, and their children.

WARM WELCOME

The Frederick Gunn School is pleased to announce the appointment of a new Board member.

MATT LUCEY P’27 has served as President and Chief Executive Officer of PBF Energy Inc. and as a member of the PBF Board of Directors since July 2023. PBF is one of the largest independent refiners in North America, operating, through its subsidiaries, oil refineries and related facilities in California, Delaware, Louisiana, New Jersey, and Ohio. Lucey joined PBF Energy’s predecessor company at its formation in 2008, serving as the company’s first Chief Financial Officer until

FOND FAREWELLS

2014, when he became Executive Vice President. He has been President of the company since 2015, in charge of day-today operations and strategic projects. Prior to his tenure at PBF Energy, Lucey worked in private equity specializing in several sectors of the broader energy industry from 2001 to 2008. Before that, he spent six years in the banking industry. He and his wife, Elizabeth P’27, live in Greenwich with their daughter, Addie ’27.

The Board of Trustees has expressed its admiration and gratitude on behalf of the entire Gunn community to these Trustees for their service to the Board.

SHERMAN R. HOTCHKISS ’63

concluded his second term as a Trustee in April. As a member of the Board from 1992 to 2005, he chaired the Development Committee, served on the Committee on Trustees, the Admissions and Marketing committees, and led the Alumni Committee for The Campaign for The Gunnery. Instrumental in the renovation of the James R. Haddick Field House, the reception room was dedicated in his honor in 2001. He returned as a Trustee in 2017, serving as a member of the Alumni and Development and Audit and Risk committees. Hotchkiss earned a bachelor’s degree from Denison University, where he played football and was named an All-Ohio League player. A lieutenant in the United States Navy, he spent 18 months in Vietnam. Hotchkiss was honored as Alumnus of the Year in 1994 and inducted into the Athletic Hall of Fame in 2006. After graduating from Columbia University with his MBA, he worked in finance and marketing for the American Broadcasting Co., PepsiCo, and UST Inc. He later managed an oil and gas exploration company. He and his wife, Barbara, live in Vero Beach, Florida.

served a three-year term on the Board of Trustees. A lawyer, former student leader, and antiapartheid activist from South Africa, Elsberg studied at the University of the Witwatersrand and received her Master of Laws degree (LL.M) and a diploma in international tax policy from Harvard Law School. She worked as a litigator in New York City, at Morgan Lewis and at Kobre & Kim, for almost a decade before taking time off to spend with her young family. On a pro bono basis, she represented the City of New York as the corporation counsel, successfully winning every trial that went to jury verdict. Since leaving the formal practice of law, Elsberg has volunteered for numerous organizations and volunteered for Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaigns and the congressional campaigns of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Jamaal Bowman as well as Justice Democrats. She and her husband, David, have three children, Ben ’25, who will attend Skidmore College in the fall, Laura, and Adrienne, who attended the NightingaleBamford School.

NATALIE HOLME ELSBERG P’25

Celebrating the Holidays and 175 Years of Gunn

ALUMNI, FAMILIES, AND FRIENDS celebrated the start of the holiday season and 175 years of Gunn at our annual holiday receptions in Boston, New York City, and Washington, D.C., in December. These fun and festive events are a great opportunity for alumni to connect with each other and hear the latest updates about what’s happening on campus from Head of School Emily Raudenbush Gum.

Guests enjoyed draft pours and Seaport views at Trillium Fort Point in Boston, and drams, drinks, and dinner at Jack Rose Dining Saloon in Washington, D.C., which boasts one of the largest whiskey collections in the world, while Trustee Natalie Holme Elsberg P’25 and her husband, David Elsberg P’25, provided a warm welcome at the Harvard Club, a landmark building in the heart of New York City.

To see more Highlander Event photos, please scan this code:

Washington, DC

ALUMNI HOCKEY A CELEBRATION OF LOVE AND FRIENDSHIP

THIS YEAR’S ALUMNI HOCKEY GAME was a memorable occasion for all of the alumni who returned to Gunn, but especially for Logan Adams ’15 and Kayla Walewski ’17

The couple, who met through friends at school and stayed together all through college, celebrated their engagement on campus in August 2024 with many alumni and current faculty in attendance. Now, they are planning their wedding at a historic, countryside venue in Connecticut in August 2026, and are in the process of buying a house.

Linen Rink is a special place for them. As Walewski recalled, “Logan asked me to prom on the ice. He set out little hockey pucks and spelled out P-R-O-M. It definitely brings back memories.”

Although the pair had played together in an adult hockey league, the game on January 25 marked the first time they faced off against each other on the ice. “I learned how to skate at that rink, and now being able to play hockey there with my soonto-be wife was amazing. It’s very special,” said Adams, a former prefect who played varsity soccer, hockey, and lacrosse at Gunn. He grew up on campus and remembers going to Linen Rink to cheer on the Highlanders — including Greg Holt ’05, who also returned to play in the game on January 25. “He was a hockey player when I was a faculty child at the school. He went to the school, and I went to the school, and now we can play hockey together.”

In addition to Adams, Walewski, and Holt, this year’s red and white rosters included: Anthony Bird ’13, Bill Boguniecki’90, Chris Fonte ’93, John Fonte ’93 P’24 ’26, Richard Galiette ’87, Shane Gorman ’10, who was a player-coach for both teams, Charley Kellogg ’84 P’25, Miguel Padro ’94, and Ryan Rutkowski’24. Alumni were joined by current faculty members Bart McMann and James LeBlanc, and Robert Hollinger III, who son, Blake, works in the Admissions Office. Poppy Kellogg ’25 covered the score board and music while Boguniecki’s wife, Maria, and children, Eva, Jon, and Lea, and Bird’s guest, Naomi Leeds, were among those cheering from the stands.

“It’s always a lot of fun to come back and play, and it brought back some great memories of my time at the school,” said Adams, who is hoping more Highlanders will participate in the game in the future.

“Logan convinced me to play and it was a fun time to be back and see how the school has grown overall,” said Walewski, who was also a tri-varsity athlete at Gunn — in soccer, ice hockey, and softball — and part of the 2014 New England Championship Girls Varsity Ice Hockey team under Coach Hugh Caldara and Assistant Coach Kate McMann ’05. Following her graduation from Gunn, Walewski played goalie for the Division I Women’s Ice Hockey team at Sacred Heart University, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in health science and a master’s in occupational therapy. Although she took a break from hockey once she started her graduate degree, she was happy to be back in the net in Linen Rink in January.

“It was cool to meet up with alumni and hear their stories and hear about their memories at Gunnery. It would be great to get some of the girls involved,” she added.

She and Adams enjoyed catching up with current faculty, especially Athletic Director and Head Coach for Boys Varsity Lacrosse Mike Marich P’23 ’24, who was in his first year as an

I learned how to skate at that rink, and now being able to play hockey there with my soonto-be wife was amazing.” — Logan Adams ’15

Assistant Coach for Boys Varsity Lacrosse when Adams was a senior on the team.

“It’s crazy to think he’s been there for 12 years. Time has flown by,” said Adams, who was named a U.S. All-American in lacrosse at Gunn, was an Offensive Player of the Year as a junior, and earned First Team All-league honors twice before going on to play for the DIII Men’s Lacrosse team and major in communications and media studies at the University of Lynchburg.

“Hockey wasn’t my path but I still love to play anytime I can, whether it’s with friends on a pond or in a men’s league,” he said.

Asked what keeps them coming back and engaging with the school, Walewski reflected: “It was a place where we were able to grow and learn so much. It’s not often that you get to grow up with the person you end up marrying. Obviously, if we didn’t go there, we would be in totally different places in life. I feel like we credit who we are and what we are looking forward to in the future to The Gunnery.”

Logan and Kayla (holding the banner) were among 16 alumni and current faculty who participated in the Alumni Hockey Game in January.

The Founders Society Dinner

ON APRIL 25 , the school hosted its annual Founders Society Dinner to honor and celebrate the alumni, parents, Trustees, and friends who contributed leadership gifts to The 1850 Fund in the past year.

“Thank you for investing in The Frederick Gunn School. As Founders Society donors, you are helping to keep our momentum going. Our school is absolutely thriving in so many ways, thanks to you,” said Head of School Emily Raudenbush Gum.

Your support doesn’t just fund buildings or programs; it builds relationships, sparks growth, and gives students the chance to not only imagine a future, but to live it.” — Gunn Society

Co-president Poppy Kellogg ’25

Board Chair Patrick Dorton ’86 announced at the dinner that the community had surpassed the $100 million goal set for The Campaign for The Frederick Gunn School. “Over the past few years, our school has seen incredible success in so many ways. Our students, faculty, and staff are thriving, our campus is transformed, and our curriculum is teaching students how to be a force for good in the world,” Dorton said. “We are here tonight

to celebrate those wins for our students and our school. Your support of the campaign, now and going forward, will continue to make The Frederick Gunn School the best boarding school.” Gunn Society Co-presidents Poppy Kellogg ’25, who is heading to Tulane University this fall, and Ryan Ryu ’25, who will be a Chancellor’s Scholar at Vanderbilt, provided examples of how annual fund gifts profoundly impact the student experience. “This place has become home. Not just because of the dorms or the campus, but because of the people — my friends, my teachers, my teammates,” said Kellogg, who followed in the footsteps of her father, Charley Kellogg ’84 P’25, when she chose Gunn. Ryu provided further evidence of the transformational impact that annual fund gifts can have on keystone programs such as the Center for Citizenship and Just Democracy. “As a student passionate about political advocacy and diplomacy, I found something rare: a school where civic engagement wasn’t just encouraged, it was embedded in into the institution itself,” said Ryu, who led a Model United Nations conference at Gunn in April, attended by 120 middle and high school students from 10 schools, and was part of the team that brought home three awards from a Model UN conference at Yale. “Tonight I speak not only with gratitude but with hope – hope that others like me will have the chance to discover who they are, who they can be, and how they can serve.”

Trustee Paul McManus, Jr. ’87 P’21 ’23 thanked Founders Society donors for making Gunn a philanthropic priority. “Our work for The Campaign for The Frederick Gunn School has brought us to this monumental point in our history, but there is a great deal more work to be done,” he said. “We have many ambitious goals ahead of us, and we are counting on all of you as we build the next chapter in our history together.”

If you are interested in becoming a Founders Society member, please visit gogunn.org/give or scan this QR code.

I ❤ FRED

Celebrating 175 Years of Love

IN FEBRUARY, 370 alumni, parents, students, faculty, staff, and friends joined us in spreading the love for Gunn by making $40,772 in gifts to The 1850 Fund during our ninth annual I❤Fred challenge. This two-day event was a celebration of 175 years of memories, traditions, and all the things we love about Gunn!

I❤Fred started in 2017 when students challenged faculty and staff to see who could achieve 100% participation in donating to The 1850 Fund. Today, it’s a campus tradition that extends to our entire community!

Our heartfelt thanks to all who participated, and congratulations to:

❤ Class of 2023

As the alumni class with the highest number of donors, the Class of 2023, led by Luke Martin ’23 and Grace McManus ’23, had their class banner displayed during Alumni Weekend in June. Note: this was a competitive category. The Class of 2023 barely edged out the Class of 1990, led by Laura Eanes Martin ’90 P’20 ’23 ’25, in their bid to top the leaderboard in back-to-back years.

❤ Class of 2025

This year’s senior class dominated the on-campus portion of the challenge. Thanks to their 40 donors, they enjoyed a dress-down day and late-night check-in on February 21.

❤ Parents of the Class of 2025

Not only did the seniors step up to the challenge, but so did their parents! With 27 donors, they earned the Senior Class a special dessert party on March 28.

❤ Faculty

Thanks to our faculty for demonstrating to our students what it means to Be a Force for Good with 97.5% participation!

PHOTOS BY RACHEL DUFFY

Students and faculty showed their love for Gunn on February 13 (from top): Daisy Moriarty ’25 and Madden Albert ’25; Poppy Kellogg ’25, Crissa White P’28, Alfie Blakely ’25, and Tyler Clouthier ’26; and Curry Nye ’26 and Maya Edwards ’26.

Former Classmates Playing Pro Hockey

IF YOU FOLLOWED the National Hockey League (NHL) and the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) this winter, you may have noticed two Gunn Hockey alumni and classmates were added to their rosters. Marc Gatcomb ’18 made his NHL debut with the New York Islanders on January 14, 2025, while Noemi “Nemo” Neubauerová ’18 played in the PWHL’s inaugural season for the Toronto Sceptres.

“It was a game I’ll always remember and a whole day I’ll never forget,” said Gatcomb, who was playing for the Islanders’ American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate in Bridgeport, Connecticut, when he got the call-up. On the drive to UBS Arena on Long Island, he shared the news with family, friends, and his former coaches at Gunn. His parents, Marc and Katie Gatcomb P’18, along with Gunn Head Coach Craig Badger and his family, and Assistant Coach Shane Gorman ’10 and his wife, Emily, were among those who cheered him on from the stands.

“It was definitely cool to be able to fulfill that lifelong dream and to have my friends and family there, and former coaches and teammates. At the end of the day, I wouldn’t be there without all of those people that have supported me and helped me to

get where I am,” said Gatcomb, who graduated in 2022 from the University of Connecticut, where he majored in economics and played for its Division I Men’s Ice Hockey team. He spent a little over two seasons with the Abbotsford Canucks, the AHL affiliate of the Vancouver Canucks, before signing a two-way NHL contract with the Islanders.

Neubauerova, who was a PWHL draft pick last summer, was excited to join the league at the beginning of what she called “a new era” in women’s ice hockey. “The players in this league are so talented and just hard working. It’s very physical and very fast. I’ve been super grateful and trying to enjoy every moment of it. It’s a tough league to play in, but it’s good.”

In April, she left Toronto to represent her home country, Czechia, in the IIHF Women’s World Championship. She first played for Czechia in the championship as a Gunn student in 2016. She and fellow Highlander Kristyna “Tynka” Patkova ’18 also represented Czechia in the winter Olympics in Beijing.

Neubauerova holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Colgate University, where she played for the D1 Women’s Ice Hockey team, and played for a fifth year (under pandemic rules) at Providence College, where she earned her MBA. Prior to entering the PWHL draft, she played professional women’s hockey for one year in Sweden. Looking ahead, Neubauerova is considering a career that would allow her to build on the work she has started doing to support young Czech athletes. “I would love to go to the next Olympics in 2026,” she said, “and after that we’ll see.”

A Gift to Inspire Others to Give

JOHN FISHER ’54 was inspired to make a legacy gift to the school by his classmate, Benjamin Davis ’54, who passed away in August 2023. At a memorial service held on campus in June 2024 for David Miller ’54, Fisher took the opportunity to remember two other members of their class who had recently passed away, Davis and Fred Sessa ’54, by sharing letters written by their children.

Davis’ son, Benjamin H. Davis V, wrote: “My father, without question, credited his year at The Gunnery as the single most significant and transformational event in his early years, and the experience that turned his life around and directed it toward success and prosperity.”

Noting that his father had made a sizable contribution to The Frederick Gunn School in his estate plans, the younger Davis said: ”My simple ask of his remaining classmates, and of all Gunn school alumni, is that they reflect on how impactful their experience at the school was, and how much those experiences have contributed to their lives.”

Fisher took that request to heart, and was moved to make a legacy gift to the school with the hope that he might inspire other members of his class to do the same. “Ben’s generosity over the years has prompted me to join him in making a legacy

ABOUT THE UNDERHILL SOCIETY

gift to our school, not quite as grand, but significant,” Fisher said. “For me it was a gratitude gift for all of the things The Gunnery did for me.”

He attributes his success in life in part to English teacher Michael Post, for whom the Excellence in English Award, given at Prize Night, is named. “I became editor of The Gunnery News, and from there, I went to Harvard. Gunnery raised my aspirations and also qualified me for a scholarship. I was an honors student and became editor of the Harvard yearbook,” Fisher recalled. At Gunn, he also excelled in French, studying with Perry Sturgis until he became fluent. Through an anonymous donor identified by Head of School Ogden D. Miller H’69 P’50 ’54 ’55 GP’84, Fisher spent the summer before college in France, where he met his future wife, Rita.

After college, Fisher established a public relations firm, and launched an education program with Reader’s Digest. He has remained actively involved with the school, serving as a Class Agent for 70 years, as a reunion committee chair, and was the 2004 Alumnus of the Year. He returns to campus for Alumni Weekends and to speak with current students. “I’m so proud of the way the school has evolved,” he said. “Be a Force: that says it all.”

The Underhill Society pays homage to our most philanthropically-minded alumni, parents, and friends who have included The Frederick Gunn School in their estate plans. Their generosity will provide critical future resources, ensuring that Mr. Gunn’s school thrives for generations to come. The society is named in honor of H. Willets Underhill ’31, a longtime Trustee and benefactor of The Frederick Gunn School, and in memory of his brother, Samuel Jackson Underhill ’35, who was lost in combat during World War II. Together, and with the help of Samuel’s wife, Margaret, they bequeathed gifts totaling $2 million to the school.

For more information, please contact Bill Curren, Associate Director of The 1850 Fund & Planned Giving, by calling 860-350-0189 or emailing currenb@frederickgunn.org.

THE CAMPAIGN FOR THE FREDERICK GUNN SCHOOL

Underhill Society members who are 65 by the end of 2025 and fully document their bequest, insurance policy, trust, or other estate gift with the school will count toward our ambitious $100 million campaign goal.

Serge Miller ’51 GP’12 ’20

F

ORMER FACULTY MEMBER

Serge Lawrence Miller ’51 GP’12 ’20, whose connections to the school ran deep, passed away on February 18, 2025. As a freshman at Gunn, Miller coxed the second boat of the first crew in school history, established by Head Coach Rod Beebe. Following Miller’s graduation from Yale University, he joined the faculty at Gunn from 1962 to 1970. He taught mechanical drawing, math, and French, served as Assistant Coach for rowing alongside Beebe, and became Chairman of World Languages.

His wife, Elizabeth Dwight Bellinger Miller, was the greatgranddaughter of Frederick and Abigail Gunn, and the granddaughter of Mary Gunn Brinsmade and second Head of School John Brinsmade, Class of 1862, as well as a loyal friend and supporter of Gunn. Together the Millers raised four children in Washington, Keith, Cyrus, Wendy, and Chapin P’12 ’20, who was a Gunn faculty member from 1997 to 2018 and served as Academic Dean and Assistant Head of School. His wife, Anna Carew-Miller P’12 ’20, was a member of the English Department faculty and English Department Chair, and their daughters, Callie Carew-Miller ’12 and Mary Carew-Miller ’20, followed in Serge Miller’s footsteps by graduating from Gunn.

AS A GUNN STUDENT , Miller played varsity football and was a member of the ski team, but was most proficient at rowing, the editors of the 1951 Red and Gray said, noting that in his senior year, he was team captain and rowed stroke seat in first boat. Beyond athletics, Miller was a member of the Gunnery News staff, Dramatics Club, Dance Committee, Photographic Editor of the Red and Gray, and was appointed a Monitor his senior year.

“He was a great guy, low key, and just easy to get along with,” recalled Former Trustee Bruce Bradshaw ’51, who was Miller’s roommate in Brinsmade during sophomore year and remained a close friend.

Cyrus Miller recalled some of the stories his father told about being a Gunn student. “They would get bag lunches on the weekends and take them wherever they wanted to go. He and Henry Osterweis ’51 actually camped across from Winnie Walsh’s P’80 ’11 place on Route 199 and fried eggs in a pan.”

Following Miller’s graduation from Gunn, he served for two years in the U.S. Army and attended Yale, where he rowed for one year and took drawing with the artist Josef Albers, who was chair of the Yale School of Art’s Department of Design from 1950 to 1958. “He was an avid photographer,” Cy Miller said, explaining that although his father took some architecture courses, he eventually chose to major in French at Yale. He would spend summers in Nice and Paris, France, where his mother, Jane Morrison Miller, had a home, and later earned additional degrees from the University of Grenoble and the University of Aix en Provence. In 1970, Miller earned his master’s in French from Trinity College, which he completed by taking night classes while teaching.

WHILE A STUDENT AT YALE , he met his future wife, Liz. The couple announced their engagement in 1956. By all accounts, the Miller family home on South Street was a hub of community. “Very often, he would have advisees come to the house for spaghetti dinners,” Cy Miller recalled.

“Beyond being a fully dedicated and well-loved school master, we remember Larry and Liz’s dedication and active participation in local and national political issues and events. They were always up for lively and strongly felt positions about important and timely political issues,” said Michael Eanes H’90 P’90 GP’20 ’23 ’25, who taught alongside Miller before becoming Head of School. “Secondly, Susan H’91 P’90 GP’20 ’23 ’25 and I fondly remember the wonderful gatherings at their home on South Street. The combination of Larry’s cooking, the eclectic guest list, and the topics at hand meant there was never a dull or slow moment. Their place was truly one of 1960’s intellectual thinking, and repartee.”

Tom Braman ’57

THOMAS CHAPIN BRAMAN, PH.D., ’57 , the great-greatgrandson of school founders Frederick and Abigail Gunn, passed away on January 18, 2025. As his obituary noted, Braman was “proud of his Scottish/Norse/English ancestral roots on both sides of his family” and generously shared his knowledge of Gunn and Brinsmade history with the school, enriching the Paula and George Krimsky ’60 Archives in particular. A loyal and consistent supporter of Gunn, he was inducted into the Arts & Letters Hall of Fame in 2022. Six generations of his family attended Gunn.

Born in Princeton, New Jersey, on December 20, 1939, Braman was the son of Ruth and Hunn Braman ’33. His paternal grandparents were Eleanor Brinsmade Braman, Class of 1903, and Hunnewell Braman, Sr. Class of 1911, and his great-grandparents were second Head of School John Brinsmade, Class of 1862, and Mary Gunn Brinsmade, the only surviving child of Mr. and Mrs. Gunn. His brother, Robert Braman, Ph.D. ’61, uncles, Grenville Braman ’36 and William Braman ’32, and cousins, Steve Gray ’61 and Jack Braman ’66, also attended Gunn.

AS A GUNN STUDENT , Braman earned varsity letters in football and basketball, was captain of the Boys Varsity Basketball team, and a member of the History and Current Affairs clubs. He received the Excellence in Biology and Most Improved Scholar awards at Prize Night. Following his graduation from Gunn, he attended Princeton

University. After suffering a knee injury that effectively ended his college athletic career, he transferred to Franklin and Marshall College, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in history. He would later return to school to earn a master’s in Latin American studies and a Ph.D. in Latin American history from the University of Florida. His dissertation was titled “Land and Society in Santiago de Chile, 1540-1575.”

In 1964, he embarked on what would become a 42-year career with the Central Intelligence Agency. His assignments took him to more than 50 countries, and along the way he met his wife, Lillian, in South America. Following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Braman returned to the agency and served “as a trainer, analysis instructor, and military liaison officer in various

countries in the Middle East, Europe, and South Asia. He had six assignments in Iraq and is one of the few CIA officers to have served in both Iran and Iraq,” according to his obituary. Additionally, he served as Operations Center Chief on the President’s Daily Brief staff, and as a general White House staffer. A loyal Gator, he served on the Board of the University of Florida International Center following his retirement from the CIA, and assisted the Honors Program.

IN MARCH 2024, Braman reflected via email on his education at The Gunnery, calling it “a perfect fit” and “essential” to his future career in the CIA, particularly in terms of his writing skills. His experience at Gunn prepared him in other ways, including his ability to interact with people he met around the world. “I learned discipline and how to study. I also learned how to live with people even when you totally disagreed with their ideas. There was always common ground somewhere,” he wrote.

Tom Braman is survived by his wife, Lillian; his sister, Kathleen Braman Allen; his brother, Bob Braman ’61, and many friends in the U.S. and abroad. The family has kindly requested that, in lieu of flowers, memorial donations be made in Thomas’ name to either The Frederick Gunn School (Attn: The Class of 1957 Fund), 99 Green Hill Road, Washington, CT 06793, or the Gunn Historical Museum, 5 Wykeham Road, Washington, CT 06793. Please include your name and address so the family can properly thank you.

O Coach Jeff Trundy

N DECEMBER 24, 2024,

faculty member Jeff Trundy passed away.

Known to all as “Coach,” Trundy served for 27 years as a member of the Science Department faculty and as the David N. Hoadley ’51 Baseball Coach. He was remembered by current and former students, faculty, and parents for his kindness, warmth, and humor, as well as his passion for teaching and coaching — both at Gunn and in the Cape Cod Baseball League, where he was the legendary head coach and “heartbeat” of the Falmouth Commodores for over 26 years.

“Whether he was teaching science or coaching, he encouraged his students to be their best — to be respectful, to persevere, to be part of a team,” Head of School Emily Raudenbush Gum said. “In a career that spanned almost 50 years, students and colleagues alike were drawn to his candor and his infectious laugh. He loved teaching, on and off the field, and relished being a part of a school community.”

“Known throughout the league and beyond as ‘Gentlemen Jeff,’ Coach Trundy left an indelible mark on everyone he interacted with. He not only coached the young men who had the privilege of playing under his leadership but also took a personal interest in their lives, mentoring them to play with integrity,” the Falmouth Commodores said in December.

One month before his passing, Trundy was entered into the Cape Cod Baseball League Hall of Fame. He was able to view the induction ceremony in Harwich, Massachusetts, remotely, and afterwards, a dozen of his former CCBL assistants drove over three

hours to Connecticut to ensure that he received his Hall of Fame ring, according to Peter Gammons, who has written about baseball for nearly 50 years for outlets such as The Boston Globe, Sports Illustrated, and ESPN.

“Trundy is one of the most liked, respected persons who ever managed/ coached on the Cape,” Gammons said via social media, noting that another Cape league icon, Scott Pickler, who has coached the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox since 1999, had flown in from California, “just because it was Jeff’s day.”

Born in Lewiston, Maine, Trundy lived and breathed baseball from a young age. He began his baseball career at the University of New Hampshire, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in physical education and biology, and coached baseball while earning his master’s degree in physical education and recreation at the University of Colorado. For 20 years, he coached baseball at Cony High School in Augusta, Maine, and received the Maine Public School’s Coach of the Year Award

three times. He was a part-time scout for the Toronto Blue Jays.

According to CCBL, Trundy began his Cape League tenure in 1995 as an assistant coach with the Cotuit Kettleers, and became head coach for the Falmouth Commodores in 1999. He went on to become one of the longest tenured managers in the history of the league. He was named the recipient of the Mike Curran Manager of the Year Award by his peers four times — in 2004, 2016, 2019, and 2024. In 2023, he achieved a remarkable milestone by surpassing the 500-win mark.

In 2013, Trundy was inducted into the Maine Baseball Hall of Fame, which noted that he “had the good fortune to coach numerous outstanding college players,” in the Cape league. “Many of these college players have gone on to professional and major league careers. These include twenty-one current major leaguers, such as American League Allstars Jacoby Ellsbury and Aaron Crow.”

At Gunn, Trundy accompanied freshmen on their annual trip to Lake Placid for a decade and was the holder of The Noto Family Chair for Dedicated Service from 2018-2021. He coached boys and girls soccer, but spring was always devoted to baseball. Trundy coached for many years alongside assistant coaches Richard Martin P’20 ’23 ’25 and Ed Small. Given his passion for the game, it was fitting that opening day was his favorite day of the year. As he recalled in 2021: “It’s exciting. Baseball’s back. It’s also the time of year. The grass is getting green, the leaves are coming out, the warm weather is coming.”

Jeff Trundy is survived by his wife, Patti, and three daughters.

Tim Poole

A

MEMBER of the English Department faculty and Head Coach for Girls Rowing for nine years, Tim Poole passed away on December 26, 2024. Born in Japan and raised in the United States and abroad, Poole earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English at the University of Texas (Austin), where he rowed as a lightweight for Texas Crew. Prior to joining the Gunn faculty in 2016, he taught English to middle school students in Texas. Passionate about poetry, he encouraged students to participate in the English Department’s annual poetry recitation night and was selected to attend the Poetry Foundation’s 2019 Summer Poetry Teachers Institute in Chicago. He was named the holder of The Wallace H. Rowe III Chair in Critical Expression from 2020-2023 and the holder of the W. Hamilton Gibson Chair in the Humanities in 2024.

History teacher Steve Gritti P’28 spoke of the unlikely friendship he and Poole developed. “Despite the differences, we built a great friendship because, at our core, we shared a deep commitment to our work, and a love of the community we live in,” Gritti said, noting that in boarding school “the friendships we make become more central to our lives than in most other jobs. And since many of us are not from around here, we also become each other’s families. Tim was such an important part of our family.”

World Languages Chair Teresita Magãna wrote an original poem for Poole, “The Weight of the Wordless,” and English Department Chair Richard Martin P’20 ’23 ’25 read excerpts from Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony, the novel Poole taught for many years. “He often argued that every student at Gunn should read it, in an English class, before they graduated. The novel is set in the southwestern United States and tells the story of a young man of mixed race who struggles to find his place in the world.”

“DEEPLY THOUGHTFUL , Mr. Poole was known for helping students to leave this community as better writers and critical thinkers, and he was considered by some of our young alumni to be among the most formative faculty in their time here,” said Head of School Emily Raudenbush Gum, who was joined by current and former faculty, students, alumni, and friends at a service of remembrance for Poole on February 23.

“Every morning during the school year, I would hear the Schoolhouse door open and Tim would walk in, always the first in the building after me, whether or not he taught first block,” recalled Moira Conlan P’26, Director of Library and Archives. “We would exchange our vaguely sarcastic waves before he headed upstairs for his mug. Our first cup would find him sitting on his stool across from me, exaggeratedly slurping his coffee, his expression changing from annoyed to intrigued to satisfied as he worked his way through The New York Times crossword.”

English teacher Leah Peluchiwski recalled how Poole would peer over her shoulder in the English Department Office when she was working on a piece of writing. “I knew that with his judgement, what I was working on would either be significantly improved from Tim’s critical eye and thoughtful mind, or my day would become a little funnier from the random cultural reference on which I would soon be educated.”

English teacher and Interim Director of Rowing Chris Visentin recalled Poole’s love of literature and how together, they and other members of the faculty gathered for literary holidays such as Burns Supper and Shakespeare’s birthday. In June, Visentin also invites friends and colleagues to his home to celebrate James Joyce and his novel, Ulysses, on Bloomsday. “Every year, Tim — and only Tim — would show up. I don’t think Tim ever read the book through (to be fair it is long and, yes, at times tedious), but he appreciated it, and he appreciated the appreciation of good literature.”

English teacher Kori Rimany ’14 reflected on how Poole and Visentin would often trespass, wordlessly, and with characteristic dry humor, on her freshman English classes. “Tim’s absence is felt in many places around here: his classroom; the back row of tables in the dining hall where, if you were extra lucky, you could witness Tim sitting across from a pint-sized, babbling Connor Fisher and responding only with nods or eyebrow quirks; the library stool on which he drank his first cup of coffee across from Moira in the mornings; the common room of Van Sinderen, where he lent his ear to senior girls … his corner of the rink, where he would stand to watch his rowers and students play … the boathouse; and most certainly, the English Department Office.”

Ten Minutes With Sean Milano

THIS YEAR MARKED SEAN

Milano’s 19th year of teaching in boarding schools. He began his career after following the advice of his former teammates at Williams College, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology and was a three-year starter at strong safety in football. He taught math and coached football and baseball for more than a decade at Canterbury School before joining the Mathematics faculty at Gunn in 2022.

Milano currently teaches Calculus, Precalculus, and Algebra II Honors. He is Head Coach for Varsity Softball, Assistant Coach for Varsity Football, and a house parent in Gibson, where he lives with his wife, Amy, who teaches third grade, and their three young children, Tate, Tessa, and Rhys. “Our kids love it here,” he said. “It’s a great place to grow up.”

When he is not teaching or coaching, Milano enjoys watching the sunrise from Emerson Fitness Center, hiking at Steep Rock with his goldendoodle, Barley, and riding his bicycle around campus.

What is your favorite Gunn tradition? AllSchool Walk. My first year, Ellissa Popoff, Tyler Sheik, and I got lost! I’m always reminded of that moment, because now I feel I know Steep Rock like the back of my hand. It’s the best in the winter, because it’s so quiet. We usually go up to the Pinnacle. I’ve got a space in the rocks where I can sit and relax. Even if it’s 30 degrees, as long as there’s no wind and it’s sunny, if I close my eyes and imagine really hard, I feel like I’m at the beach!

What is your favorite lesson to teach? I really love all the lessons in Algebra II Honors. It’s

Education

> BA in Psychology Williams College

Current Responsibilities

> Math Teacher

> Head Coach, Varsity Softball

> Assistant Coach, Varsity Football

> House Parent, Gibson

> Advisor

the course I’ve taught the most. It allows me to really focus on the needs of the student, if that makes sense, and what’s even cooler is, sometimes I’ll learn something new. I’ll feel like I’ve got it all figured out and then Emmet Panzer ’27 will say, ‘I’ve got this simple way to find the inverse of a rational function.’ I didn’t think you could do that. And sure enough, you can.

Who has been your greatest influence? Mathematics

Department Chair Alisa Croft. She’s awesome. She’s always checking in. She’s a great listener.

What is your favorite saying or expression? “Struggle is nature’s way of strengthening.” Any mistake, any setback … it’s an opportunity to learn and grow. Especially with coaching, the best moments have happened after bouncing back from a tough loss. Heading into my senior year of college, I coached a Babe Ruth baseball team for the summer. We were kind of the Bad News Bears. I essentially had all of the players who didn’t make the A team. We ended up playing the A team in the playoffs — and we won! It was just an awesome experience. We had been beaten badly by that team in the regular season and we were able to come back and win.

What would you say to Frederick Gunn if you had the chance to meet him? First of all, I’d like to go on a hike with him while having that conversation. He was so knowledgeable about the outdoors. I’ve read that he could say, “Oh, that’s that bird, or that’s that flower.” I would want him to share his knowledge with me about Steep Rock. I’d definitely do more listening than talking on that hike.

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

OFFICERS 2024-25

Patrick M. Dorton ’86

Board Chair

Wanji Walcott P’19

Vice Chair

Beth W. Glynn

Secretary

Ashleigh Fernandez

Treasurer

TRUSTEES 2024-25

Stephen W. Baird ’68

William G. Bardel

Robert Bellinger ’73

Kevin Bogardus ’89

Sarah Scheel Cook ’82

Jon C. Deveaux

TRUSTEES EMERITI

Leo D. Bretter ’52 P’88

Jonathan Estreich P’06

Edsel B. Ford II ’68

Joan Noto P’97

Jonathan Tisch ’72

Gerrit Vreeland ’61

Josh Feil '98

Adam C. Gerry P’21

Emily Raudenbush Gum Head of School

Timothy Jackson P’24

Thomas R. King ’60

Jonathan S. Linen ’62

Matt Lucey P’27

Damien Marshall P’24

Paul M. McManus, Jr. ’87 P’21 ’23

Bonnie A. Pennell ’86

Missy Cuello Remley ’87

Krystalynn Schlegel ’96

Omar Slowe ’97

Richard N. Tager ’56

Robert M. Tirschwell ’86

Rebecca Weisberg ’90

ALUMNI ASSOCIATION EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

Laura Eanes Martin ’90 P’20 ’23 ’25

President

Omar Slowe ’97

Vice President

Scott A. Schwind ’89

Krystalynn M. Schlegel ’96

BULLETIN Spring 2025

The Frederick Gunn School Bulletin is produced biannually (spring and fall) by the Marketing & Communications Department. Send alumni news to: classnotes@frederickgunn.org.

Editor

Jennifer Clement P’22 ’25

Associate Director,

Strategic Communication & Marketing clementj@frederickgunn.org

Chief Strategy Officer

Doug Day dayd@frederickgunn.org

Chief Advancement Officer Alumni & Development

Matthew Goetting goettingm@frederickgunn.org

Chief Enrollment Officer

Suzanne Day days@frederickgunn.org

Design

Alison Wilkes / alisonwilkes.com

Printing

David Emery ’73, GHP / ghpmedia.com West Haven, Connecticut

Send address corrections to: alumni@frederickgunn.org or visit gogunn.org/alumni or write Alumni & Development

The Frederick Gunn School 99 Green Hill Road, Washington, CT 06793