Hotchkiss Magazine | Spring 2021

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Spring 2021

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

ALUMNI ASSOCIATION BOARD OF GOVERNORS

AS OF JANUARY 2021

AS OF JANUARY 2021

Robert R. Gould ’77, Co-President Elizabeth G. Hines ’93, Co-President Robert Chartener ’76, P’18, Vice President Raymond J. McGuire ’75, Vice President David B. Wyshner ’85, Treasurer Roger K. Smith ’78, P’08, Secretary Charles Ayres ’77 Austin M. Beutner P’20,’22 Anne Matlock Dinneen ’95 John Grube ’65, P’00 Alex Hurst ’97 Annika Lescott ’06 Nisa Leung Lin ’88 Cristina Mariani-May ’89, P’23 Carlos Pérez ’81 Thomas S. Quinn ’71, P’15,’17,’19 Christopher R. Redlich Jr. ’68 Susan Green Roberson ’87, President, The Hotchkiss Fund, ex officio Thomas R. Seidenstein ’91, P’24, President, Alumni Association, ex officio Timothy P. Sullivan ’81, P’13,’16 Rhonda Trotter ’79

Rebecca van der Bogert U. Gwyn Williams ’84, P’17,’19 EMERITI

Howard C. Bissell ’55, P’82 John R. Chandler Jr. ’53, P’82, P’85,’87, GP’10,’14,’16,’22 Thomas J. Edelman ’69, P’06,’07 Lawrence Flinn Jr. ’53, GP’22 Frederick Frank ’50, P’12 Dan W. Lufkin ’49, P’80,’82,’88,’23 Robert H. Mattoon Jr. Dr. Robert A. Oden Jr. P’97 Kendra O’Donnell Jean Weinberg Rose ’80, P’18 John L. Thornton ’72, P’10,’11,’16 Francis T. Vincent Jr. ’56, P’85

Tom Seidenstein ’91, P’24, President Natalie Boyse ’09 Rafael Carbonell ’93 Weijen Chang ’86, P’22, P’24. VP and Chair, Admission and Engagement Committee Nathalie Pierrepont Danilovich ’03, VP and Co-chair, Diversity and Inclusion Committee Marita Bell Fairbanks ’84 Danielle S. Ferguson ’97, VP and Co-chair, Diversity and Inclusion Committee Carlos Garcia ’77 Brooke Harlow ’92, Vice Chair, Chair, Nominating Committee for Membership Julia Tingley Kivitz ’01 Robert Kuhn ’75 Barrett Lester ’81, VP and Chair, Communications Committee Keith Merrill ’02 Nick Moore ’71, P’89,’01,’06 Paul Mutter ’87, Vice Chair, Chair, Nominating Committee for Awards Honey Taylor Nachman ’90, P’21,’23 Steve O’Brien ’62, P’87,’01, GP’17 Daniel Pai ’19 Blake Ruddock ’12 Bill Sandberg ’65 Marquis Scott ’98 Adam Sharp ’96 Richard Staples ’74, P’10,’12 Tom Terbell ’95 EX-OFFICIO MEMBERS

ON THE COVER:

Senior Yuka Masamura from Auckland, New Zealand created Disappearance of Flower in 2020.

She reflects in her artist’s statement: “What if all the beautiful natural beings in this world disappear, either physically or from our minds? What will bring us joy? Will the change in level of happiness alter the chemical structure and process?” Too often, we take things for granted. The mixture of fear and appreciation is represented in this piece. The shapes done with alcohol ink in the back were inspired by the movement of neural cell migration in the cerebral cortex of a developing mouse brain.”

Craig Bradley, Head of School Ed Greenberg ’55, Past President, Alumni Association Robert R. Gould ’77, Co-President, Board of Trustees Elizabeth G. Hines ’93, Co-President, Board of Trustees Susan Green Roberson ’87, President, The Hotchkiss Fund

SPRING 2021 FEATURES

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M A G A Z I N E

Enduring Gratitude

HEAD OF SCHOOL

Craig W. Bradley

Matt Berman ’74 and the Hotchkiss Butterfly Effect

CHIEF COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER

Hope Reisinger Cobera ’88, P’24

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EDITOR

Wendy Carlson

Touché

MAGAZINE DESIGNER

Student Spotlight: Lauren McLane ’23

Julie Hammill ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS

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Danielle Sinclair WEBSITE AND DESIGN MANAGER

Netflix’s Megahit

Margaret Szubra

Bridgerton Based on Novels

by Julie Cotler Pottinger ’87

CONTRIBUTORS

Tom Crider ’59, David Gelles, Roberta Jenckes, Peter Pitzele ’59, Simon Strong ’77

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PLEASE SEND INQUIRIES & COMMENTS TO:

Inspiration

The Hotchkiss School 11 Interlaken Road Lakeville, CT 06039-2141 Email: magazine@hotchkiss.org Phone: (860) 435-3122 The Hotchkiss School does not discriminate on the basis of age, sex, religion, race, color, sexual orientation, or national orientation in the administration of its educational policies, athletics, or other School-administered programs, or in the administration of its hiring and employment practices.

Hotchkiss Magazine is produced by the Office of Communications for alumni, parents, members of the faculty and staff, and friends of the School. Letters are welcome. Please keep under 400 words. We reserve the right to edit and publish letters.

How Losing a Son Inspired an Effort to Fight Pediatric Cancer

IN THIS ISSUE 2 From the Head of School

40 Class Notes

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58 In Memoriam

From the Board of Trustees

10 Campus Connection

68 Parting Shot

ON THE COVER:

Senior Yuka Masamura from Auckland, New Zealand created Disappearance of Flower in 2020.

She reflects in her artist’s statement: “What if all the beautiful natural beings in this world disappear, either physically or from our minds? What will bring us joy? Will the change in level of happiness alter the chemical structure and process?” Too often, we take things for granted. The mixture of fear and appreciation is represented in this piece. The shapes done with alcohol ink in the back were inspired by the movement of neural cell migration in the cerebral cortex of a developing mouse brain.”

SPRING 2021

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FROM THE HEAD OF SCHOOL

Springing Forward

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FTER A QUIET MID-WINTER SEASON

during which students were learning from home as well as enjoying some welldeserved time off, it was a delight when they returned to campus in mid-February. With the vernal equinox came a wave of warm weather, and students rushed outside to enjoy the sunshine and warm air. As I write today, however, the daffodils are bowing their heads under a thin coating of snow.

Despite the fickle nature of spring, excitement was very much in evidence on March 23 when we celebrated the first Head of School Holiday of 2021. The holiday was held in honor and loving memory of former trustee and dear friend of the School Philip Pillsbury Jr. ’53, who sadly passed away on March 3. As I said in announcing the holiday, Phil loved Hotchkiss, and Hotchkiss loved him.

(Please see p.65) In-person classes and co-curricular activities are in full swing — well, full swing under pandemic conditions. In the weeks ahead, we look forward to varsity2

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level scrimmages with a small number of schools that have committed to the same safety measures we are following. While we remain vigilant in following the nowfamiliar practices, particularly masking, it has been uplifting to see students back on the fields, courts, golf course, and the lake.

Meanwhile, it has been a little over a year since the pandemic began. Across the country and around the world, more and more people are being vaccinated, and I am beginning to feel a greater sense of optimism. At last we may be seeing some light at the end of the tunnel.

As you know, I looked back at the School’s history as a guide to inform our response to the pandemic. In doing so, I spent time contemplating Hotchkiss’s legacy. I have considered characteristics that make this School what it is: an enduring commitment to academic excellence, a love of fair competition, and a mission centered around inspiring a diverse range of students who are committed to the betterment of self and society. These are

students who will one day inherit — and lead — our world.

During these long months of spreading contagion, in the United States we have witnessed the spread of contagion of a different kind: acts of racism perpetrated against people of color. Last summer, names that became known to us all were those of Black Americans killed in acts of racial violence. COVID-19 has also unleashed violent racist scapegoating targeting Asians and Asian-Americans. In response, the Hotchkiss community has drawn together in opposition to racism and racist violence.

Hotchkiss is first and foremost a learning community. In order to learn well, each member of the community must feel safe, seen, and supported. This diverse, pluralistic school comprises the strength, wisdom, grit, curiosity, and joy of every individual member. In an especially heartening recent moment, students from the Black and Hispanic Student Alliance (BaHSA) joined those from Triple A, the Pan Asian affinity group, for a discussion on allyship and building a shared alliance of support. The integrity and goodness of the community can be gauged by these times of solidarity.

As a learning community, we are committed to excellence. Excellence is not a static destination to be reached. Rather, it is a quest to which we are committed across all that we do. Every ten years the School is re-accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC); the last time was in 2016. We have recently undergone an interim fiveyear review, and I’m pleased to share a line from the report written by Jay S. Stroud, Commissioner of Independent Schools for NEASC: “The Commission commends the Hotchkiss faculty and Board and particularly the School’s leadership for significant progress and for a constant and unrelenting commitment to strengthening an already remarkable School.”

These words are gratifying. Yet our

capacity to continue to enhance the excellence of this School — from expanding access to more qualified students, to attracting and retaining outstanding teachers, to improving facilities, to creating innovative programming — is possible only thanks to your generosity. Our 4th annual Day of Giving on February 24 was the most successful yet, raising nearly $900,000.

Among a variety of alumni matches and challenges, the Class of 1994 successfully called upon their class to raise $20,000 for diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. In doing so, they unlocked a gift of $110,000 to support the Walter J. Crain Scholarship and Fellowship programs (see p.11). Your generosity makes a difference!

While it will be several weeks before this issue of the Magazine arrives in your mailbox, as I write to you, we have recently extended offers of admission for next year to an inspiring group of talented students. Based on application volume, this was the most competitive year for admission in the School’s history. We accepted one out of every eight applicants. We look forward to welcoming an outstanding group of new young Bearcats in the fall.

While I feel an increasing sense of optimism, I remain mindful of the persistent threat of the constantlymutating virus and the impact it has had on so many people and families connected to Hotchkiss. It has been a long year, though I have never felt more deeply grateful for the sustained goodwill and mutual support from the Hotchkiss community.

Please stay well. Happy spring!

All good wishes,

Hotchkiss Honors Its Devoted Staff and Faculty Members

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all 358 of its employees in an Anniversary Awards video ceremony. Collectively, they have provided 3,329 years of service to the School. A special tribute was given to those faculty and staff members who have served the community for 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, and 45 years of service, representing 711 years of service.

Two special awards were presented in recognition of Jessica Craig outstanding contributions to the School: Renee Sartori, assistant to the chief financial officer, received the Margot Hooker Award; and Jessica Craig, director of prospect management and research in the Alumni and Development Office, received the Robert and Candice Barker Staff Recognition Award.

Head of School Craig Bradley asked the community to reflect on the work that they do thoughout the School. “All of this work is done by a group of Renee Sartori thoughtful, skillful, and dedicated people who do their very best day in and day out to assure the excellence of the Hotchkiss experience,” he said.

Sandy Lynch, chief financial officer, presented Renee Sartori with the Margot Hooker Award, established in September 1996, in memory of Margot Hooker, a long-serving staff member.

Sartori started working in her current position in 2017 as the assistant to former CFO John Tuke P’13,’21. She began her Hotchkiss career in the Business Office as part of the accounting team in 2000. Commenting on Sartori’s devotion to the School, Lynch said, “She loves Hotchkiss and considers the people here to be her closest friends and extended family. Every day Renee comes to work, she makes it a point to walk the halls to wish everyone a good morning and ask how they are doing. Her sunny smile is infectious and brightens even the dreariest of days, and her cheerful personality makes everyone feel special. You can feel that she truly cares about how you are doing.”

Ninette Enrique, chief advancement officer in the Alumni and Development Office, presented Jessica Craig with the Barker Award, named for Robert and Candice Barker, whose four decades of service exemplified dedication to the School.

“She is a talented director of prospect research and management and brings her all to her chosen profession — her expertise, work ethic, and deep knowledge of and passion for Hotchkiss donors cultivated over 21 years,”’ said Enrique. “‘Beyond what she does for fundraising, we value most who Jessica is — a shining light, a joy sparker, a connector of the highest degree, with an enduring love for the School. She embodies the word ‘community’ with a quiet warmth that is irresistible.” H N JAN. 21, HOTCHKISS HONORED

Craig W. Bradley

SPRING 2021

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A MESSAGE FROM THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES

BY ROBERT CHARTENER ’76, P’18 Trustees met virtually in committees in the last weeks of January and as a group at the end of the month. Highlights included: Reopening and COVID-19 – There was an extensive discussion about the weeks following the reopening of School in the fall and the evolving tactics for minimizing the risk of COVID-19 transmission. Given that none of our existing spaces were designed to prevent the spread of viruses, the work has been comprehensive and is continuing. Classrooms have been altered — significantly in some cases — so that students are adequately spaced, and other areas, such as reception rooms in Harris House, have been converted into teaching spaces. Despite the dramatic changes in our physical plant, teaching itself has adapted well: While most students were learning in person on campus, the fall semester began with 64 students learning remotely.

In the second semester, 34 students have opted to be remote learners. While larger School meetings must be virtual, smaller groups like dorm pods and advisories are now becoming the loci of community.

The Founders League cancelled all interscholastic competition this school year, but Hotchkiss has been committed to giving students opportunities to be outside, to learn new skills, and to stay fit.

Dining with adequate spacing has been a massive undertaking, and two new spaces — Monahan and the student center — have been added for meals; in addition, the indoor tennis courts were converted into an indoor dining space. Despite the challenges of operating in these conditions, the School identified only two positive tests for COVID-19 (one student and one employee) in the fall, and these were successfully contained. Hotchkiss’s relatively isolated rural location has been a bonus, and it has been liberating for students to gain the freedom and sense of community that comes from being and living at Hotchkiss.

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Finance – The trustees voted to approve a 2.9-percent tuition increase to $63,520 and a preliminary budget that is balanced before pandemic costs of about $2.0 million. The budget assumes enrollment of 606 students, faculty salary increases to keep compensation competitive, and a financial aid discount rate of 31.6 percent. (The discount rate compares to 32.5 percent in 2020-21, when the yield on accepted students exceeded past levels; the discount rate is an increase over 28.2 percent in 2019-20.) The Board recommended establishing a $20-million line of credit with J.P. Morgan; though there is no plan to draw on the line, it will provide bridge financing arising from potential timing differences in inflows and outflows.

Investments – The extraordinary market rally continued through the fourth quarter of 2020, pushing endowment assets to a record $550.9 million at year end. For the first half of the School’s 2020-21 fiscal year, the endowment returned approximately 15 percent, boosted by outstanding performance from the long public equity portfolio. According to the most recent peer data available as of September 30, 2020, Hotchkiss ranked amongst the top five percent of secondary schools who reported over the trailing ten-year period.

New Faculty and Staff – The School hired 20 new faculty and staff members, whom the trustees were unfortunately not able to meet during the winter meeting. The group includes six full-time and one parttime instructor, two Penn Teaching Fellows, and three administrative faculty. All but one are members of the residential community.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion – The DEI Committee provided a comprehensive plan that includes a focus on admission and financial aid, hiring and training, curriculum and pedagogy, community life, and alumni engagement. In addition, the Board learned about the work being done by the Alumni Association, the Hotchkiss

BIPOC Parent Network, and the student council on diversity and inclusion. A goal is “belonging for all” in a community that “benefits every single one of its members.”

Walter Crain Fellowships – Head of School Craig Bradley discussed the imminent launch of the Walter J. Crain Fellowship Program formed with the Klingenstein Center at Columbia University Teachers College. In 2019, Klingenstein selected Hotchkiss to host its well-known summer institute for early-career teachers, and the Crain Fellowship is an outgrowth of that relationship with the Teachers College.

The Crain Fellowship will be a four-year appointment for teachers who will both teach and pursue a master’s degree in private school leadership. Hotchkiss plans to have eight Crain Fellows at the School by 2025.

Stone Wall – After a decade of discussion and thanks to the generous support of a lead donor and several others, there is now a beautiful stone wall marking the entrance and border of the Baker Athletic Complex and the Hotchkiss Golf Course. Beyond the wall is a new map of the School woods, which have seen a great deal of traffic during recent months. The School is focusing on the health of campus forests, particularly on the impact of invasive species and the threats of woolly adelgid and emerald ash borer, and it is finding ways to involve students from the new Outdoor Leadership Training Program in that work.

New Trustee Elected – Annika Lescott ’06 was elected to the Board. She has been a Hotchkiss volunteer since her graduation, serving as a class agent since 2006, a member of the Board of Governors since 2015, and a member of the trustee committee on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion since 2020. She is executive vice president and chief financial officer of the New York City Housing Authority, the largest public housing authority in the country, serving over 400,000 low-income New Yorkers.

THANK YOU 1,324

for supporting the 4th annual Hotchkiss Day of Giving on February 24, 2021. Your generosity helps Hotchkiss continue the tradition of excellent teaching while fostering the joy of learning and living with others.

DONORS

$892,236

ALUMNI CLASSES WITH THE MOST DONORS BY DECADE

1950s 1953 1960s 1967 1970s 1978 1980s 1987 1990s 1994 2000s 2005 2010s 2019 2020s 2021

RAISED

including $270,000 in matching funds

DONORS BY CONSTITUENT GROUP

780

55

ALUMNI

FACULTY & STAFF

114

62

STUDENTS

211

PARENTS of ALUMNI, GRANDPARENTS & FRIENDS

CURRENT PARENT PARTICIPATION BY CLASS

2021 47 2022 47

2023 62 2024 55

RANKING OF DESIGNATIONS

PARENTS

(MOST POPULAR TO LEAST)

DAY OF GIVING AROUND THE GLOBE USA • New Zealand • China • Hungary • Bahamas • Australia • Vietnam • Mexico • Belgium • Colombia • Canada • Peru • South Korea • Jamaica • Germany • Indonesia • India • Singapore • Bermuda • Brazil • Taiwan • United Kingdom • Switzerland • El Salvador • Thailand • Spain • Hong Kong • Bulgaria

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Greatest Need Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Financial Aid Athletics Arts Academics Faculty Support Conservation & Environment

Reunion Class Challenge: Champagne Toast Winners!

Class of 1991 $24,049 (48 Gifts) Runner Up: Class of 1986 $10,917 (20 Gifts) SPRING 2021

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ENDURING GRATITUDE

Matt Berman ’74 and the Hotchkiss Butterfly Effect From a challenging early education, Matt Berman developed a lifelong love of teaching.

His Hotchkiss instructors helped to pave the way for him.

B Y W E N DY C A R L S O N

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arrived at Hotchkiss as a prep all decked out in his olive-drab Sears Roebuck corduroy suit, he stood out in a sea of navy Brooks Brothers blazers flowing through the Main Building. Being different, though, was nothing new for Berman. In elementary school, he did not exactly follow class protocol, much to the consternation of his teachers.

“I was a troubled and troublesome student,” concedes Berman, who has dedicated the last 45 years of his life to teaching, often applying methods of some of his favorite Hotchkiss instructors: the venerable grammarian Robert Hawkins, the prone-to-digression English instructor Jerry Bowen ’42, P’78, and the ever-witty Latin teacher Richard Bacon ’30, P’60.

Were he in elementary school today, “I might be labeled an HD underachiever, possibly AD as well, maybe even BD. That’s a lot of Ds. Possibly dysgraphic and a bit of Asperger’s, too. But we didn’t have all those Ds back then, so I was just considered a nuisance,” says Berman wryly.

From first grade through sixth, Berman had a standing appointment after school every Friday with the principal, Mr. Silvers, to discuss “the events of the week.” Translation: to discuss what he had done to infuriate his teachers and the appropriate punishment. He was given chores he actually looked forward to, like reshelving library books or helping the kitchen staff, who would slip him an icecream sandwich afterward.

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H E N M AT T B E R M A N ’ 74

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Ironically, it was Mr. Silvers who steered Berman toward a Hotchkiss education and who recognized his potential early on as an educator.

Mr. Silvers was not warm or fuzzy, did not have a kindly twinkle in his eye, and was not given to praise or sympathy. He was abrupt, plain-spoken, no-nonsense, tough, and unsympathetic. He was the terror of the students.

“I adored him,” says Berman. “He was also profoundly observant: He saw things in people of which they themselves were unaware. I know, because he saw something in me.”

In sixth-grade, Mr. Silvers called young Berman into his office and coolly informed him that the kindergarten teacher needed help in the mornings, and he was to report to her room 15 minutes before school started every day.

“So I showed up the next morning, and a gang of curious kindergartners clustered around me. This was an event: a sixthgrader in the kindergarten yard, and not by mistake. I sat down with them as they eagerly told me all about themselves.

Within five minutes I knew what I would do with my life,” recalls Berman.

His own educational path took a turn in eighth grade, when Mr. Silvers called his parents in and told them that they should consider sending their son away to boarding school.

In West Hempstead, NY, then a gangridden, down-at-the-heels Long Island town

“He found Hotchkiss full of people like Mr. Silvers, teachers ‘who devoted a lifetime to their art and knew teens better than they knew themselves.’”

where Berman grew up, being sent away meant either military school (if you were lucky) or reform school (if you weren’t).

As Berman tells it, his parents raised the obvious questions: How could he get in with his grades? Mr. Silvers replied dryly, “You’d be surprised.”

How could we afford it? He said they gave scholarships. Why would anyone in their right mind pay for the privilege of enrolling their son? He said to leave that to him. Ten months later Berman, in his stiff corduroy suit, arrived at Hotchkiss on a scholarship.

He found Hotchkiss full of people like Mr. Silvers, teachers “who devoted a

From left to right: Instructors in English Robert Hawkins and Jerry Bowen ’42, P’78, and Instructor in Latin Dick Bacon ’30, P’60 each inspired Matt Berman’s teaching career and led him to give back to Hotchkiss through a bequest to establish a schoarship in their honor.

lifetime to their art and knew teens better than they knew themselves,” he says.

He immersed himself at every minute of every day, struggled (and sometimes failed) to keep up, fought with the teachers constantly, and was the happiest he had ever been.

“I convinced the School to let me canoe every day in lieu of a sport, and to work full-time at Salisbury Central School in lieu of classes in the spring semester of my senior year. When I went home for vacations, I would tell my parents that Hotchkiss was like living in Camelot, and I counted the days until I could get back. Sometimes I slipped and referred to Hotchkiss as home. They were not pleased.”

He also became heavily involved in computer programming, which was invaluable later in his career. He wrote for The Record and was active in theater, working mostly on the stage or technical crews. He participated in 27 drama productions during his four years, for which he received the Klingelhofer Award, more for his dedication than his few performances, he insists.

After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in education from the University of

Connecticut, Berman began his teaching career in 1977 as a long-term substitute teacher at Greenwich Country Day in Connecticut. “They put me in a thirdgrade classroom and left me on my own. I was told I was supposed to teach about the Incas, about whom I knew nothing. The textbook was boring, and nobody seemed to know or care what I was doing,” he recalls.

“So I thought back to Hotchkiss, to Walter DeMelle P’94, the director of the Edsel Ford Memorial Library, who knew how to solve every problem with research. I put the kids in a school van, and took them to the public library. We found out everything we could about the Incas, then came back and spent weeks building an intricately detailed miniature Incan village. The kids made bricks out of terracotta clay, built huts, and thatched the roofs. They planted miniature fields (with catnip!), built a mountain with a lake at the top and a working irrigation system which fed water from the lake to the fields. They built stone paths between the huts and the fields, and made little clay Incans to populate the village. They wrote the life stories of the people they

made and the history of the village.”

After a year teaching at a private school in New Jersey, he accepted a position at another private school in New Orleans that turned into a 17-year job, followed by a four-year stint teaching in a public school.

Unintentionally, though not surprisingly, he became known for dealing well with gifted students and with hyperactive kids who were gifted underachievers.

In those days, teachers were paid poorly, so Berman took a series of side jobs, including driving a school bus, doing hair wraps for tourists in the French Quarter, tutoring, typing, freelance writing and editing, adjunct university teaching, and moonlighting as a webmaster and database developer.

One of his jobs was working in a computer store, which enabled him to scavenge discarded computers and repair them for his classroom.

He had an Apple II+ in his classroom starting in 1979, and eventually convinced the school to put a Mac in each classroom in 1984. By 1996, every student in his public school classroom had a computer, pieced together from ones he had scavenged and connected to each other and the SPRING 2021

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ENDURING GRATITUDE Internet with telephone wire. Tulane University hired him to create, and then to teach, a course called Microcomputers in the Classroom, and he even produced an educational computer game.

“All of the computer work, of course, began with learning how to program at Hotchkiss,” he notes.

Berman went on to earn a master’s in educational philosophy for children and won a Teacher-Scholar Award, which gave him a grant to spend a year studying philosophy in children’s literature. Soon he was writing a column on children’s books for the New Orleans daily, The Times-Picayune. This led eventually to a gig reviewing books for Kirkus Reviews and then to a publisher’s offer to write several books, and finally stints as an adjunct professor of children’s literature at both Tulane and the University of New Orleans.

He was in line to become a teacher for gifted children at his school when he switched tracks and moved to San Francisco to take a position with an Internet startup as a senior editor for children’s books. A year and a half later, the company folded.

He intended to return to his school in New Orleans, but the lower-school principal of the Nueva School, a progressive K-12 school south of San Francisco, asked him to visit. He taught a demo lesson and was offered a job with the promise the school would pay for his master’s in Waldorf education.

At Nueva, he moved from fourth-grade teacher to communications director, to second grade, then back to fourth, with the additional job of director of public websites, then to becoming the founding director of the Nueva Center for the Humanities.

“All of this was, at least, keeping my life in a ferment, just as it was at Hotchkiss, where my life was filled with activity and purpose,” says Berman.

There were literally hundreds of other ways that Berman felt the impact of Hotchkiss in his personal and professional life every day.

“This,” he comments, “is not true of any other school I have attended, not even university or grad school. It’s really not an exaggeration to say that nearly everything I ever learned in school that has had any value in my life I learned at Hotchkiss.”

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“Mr. Hawkins’s corrections and his taking a few minutes to explain it to me ended up affecting not just my life, but the lives of hundreds of students over the past 45 years, a living example of the Hotchkiss ‘butterfly effect.’”

From former English instructor Jerry Bowen –– in addition to developing a love of writing –– he also learned the importance of digression. “Mr. Bowen used to number his digressions, and I sometimes think I learned more from them than from his lessons. My students have told me the same, as I copied this quirk,” he says.

Years later as a teacher, he came to appreciate George Kellogg ’35, former assistant head of school, who understood that learning doesn’t always happen on a schedule.

“Prep year I had thoroughly failed Latin 1: the midterm, final, and conditional. At the beginning of my lower mid year, Mr. Kellogg called me into his office. He said, ‘I’ll make you a deal. I’ll put you in Latin 2 for two weeks. You get an A average and you can stay there. If you ever drop below an A, it’s back to repeating Latin 1.’ For the next three years Latin was my best subject. And how did Latin become my best subject? You might think it was the motivation of avoiding repeating Latin 1, but that wasn’t it at all — he was just opening a door. And on the other side of that door was Latin instructor Dick Bacon, one of those teachers who had mastered the

arcane art of making the difficult seem both easy and fun. Learning with him wasn’t wandering through a dark and gloomy swamp: He cleared the way and made the road straight and well-paved. I only hoped I was able to do that for a few of my students.”

From Robert “the Hawk” Hawkins, Berman learned to love the structure of language, the joy of a well-crafted sentence, a mastery of grammar — and the novelty and supreme pleasure of writing with a fountain pen.

“One of the first things I noticed about the Hawk my first week at Hotchkiss was that his handwritten corrections and comments on our papers were written in the most exquisite handwriting. It was so beautiful that it made me almost look forward to corrections. So, naturally, I went up to him after class to ask him about it. He introduced me to three things I had never heard of before: italic handwriting, fountain pens, and edged nibs. His pen was an Osmiroid, which I found was carried in the Hotchkiss bookstore because of him, and pretty cheaply too.

“So, I used my pocket money for that month to buy one; Mr. Hawkins wrote out an alphabet of upper- and lowercase letters for me to practice with, and I began trying to imitate his handwriting, though even now I have not reached the level of perfection that he did every day.”

When Berman himself began teaching, students asked him about his handwriting and pen, just as he had done with Mr. Hawkins. Berman went to the school principal and asked if he could teach his students italic cursive instead of the usual Palmer method cursive that was typically taught in schools, and he agreed. Berman introduced fountain pens to the classroom, and on first trying them, he says, students would often exclaim, “So this is what writing is supposed to feel like.”

“Mr. Hawkins’s corrections and his taking a few minutes to explain it to me ended up affecting not just my life,” he says, “but the lives of hundreds of students over the past 45 years, a living example of the Hotchkiss ‘butterfly effect.’” H

Now semi-retired, Matt Berman continues to teach several days a week at two schools in North Carolina and remotely at Nueva. Because he benefited so much from his Hotchkiss education in his life and career, he has chosen to give back to the School with a bequest to establish the Hawkins, Bowen, and Bacon Scholarship to support financial aid for students who might not otherwise have the chance to attend Hotchkiss.

For information about including Hotchkiss in your estate plans, please contact Director of Gift Planning Brent Alderman Sterste at baldermansterste@hotchkiss.org or (860) 435-3263.

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Inclusion & Equity Progress H

to a School culture that is fundamentally equitable, inclusive, and anti-racist for all members is foundational. Work to increase diversity across the School community, to correct bias in curriculum, to train faculty, and to strengthen networks of support for all community members of color has been well underway. Last summer’s nationwide demonstrations against anti-Black injustice, however, accelerated progress that spans virtually every aspect of the School.

Since the pandemic began, anti-Asian and anti-Asian American violence has increased.

The mass shooting in Atlanta on March 16 that killed eight people, six of whom were women of Asia descent, was yet another moment of reckoning with the enduring reality of racism.

During an All-School Meeting on March 1, Head of School Craig Bradley emphasized the School’s values as a pluralistic learning community in which all are welcomed.

On March 18, two days after the shooting deaths in Atlanta, more than 400 students, faculty, and staff gathered to discuss the experience of Pan Asians in the U.S. and at Hotchkiss, this time as part of a Community Conversation centered around anti-Asian xenophobia, racism, and intolerance.

In the days that followed, students participated in conversations led by affinity groups including Triple A (Pan-Asian students), BaHSA (Black and Hispanic Student Alliance), and de Colores (Latinx and Hispanic students). During these and many other gatherings, students continue to come together to share grief, show support for one another, and strengthen the School’s culture of knowledge and understanding.

“The engagement and maturity of our students are nothing short of remarkable,” said Director of Diversity & Inclusion Yassine Talhaoui. “I am truly in awe of the sophistication of perspective, the willingness to be vulnerable, and frankly the

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commitment to drive change that students are exhibiting — not only older students, but preps and lower mids as well. It is Hotchkiss at its best.”

Among a variety of other resources, the Edsel Ford Memorial Library has supplemented its existing LibGuide of antiracism resources (https://libguides.hotchkiss. org/anti-racism) with a selection of resources dedicated to racism targeting the Pan-Asian community (https://libguides.hotchkiss.org/ anti-racism/pan-asian_racism).

The groundswell of public outrage at anti-Asian bigotry comes amidst substantial progress across the School in addressing inequity. The Board Committee on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), which was established last summer and is co-chaired by Trustees Becky van der Bogert and Annika Lescot ’06, has been active in supporting the extensive work taking place across the School.

“What students experience at Hotchkiss will help shape their roles as future leaders and changemakers. Every student should feel ‘at home’ at Hotchkiss — included in the community and appreciated for the diversity of thought, perspective, and background they bring to bear. We owe it to our students and ourselves to dedicate our time, talents, and treasures to this work.”

—ANNIK A LESCOT T ’06, TRUSTEE

As a learning environment for students who will one day become leaders of an increasingly complex world, an ability

to understand and navigate varied and intersectional environments is critically important. Students perform better when learning among diverse peers and from diverse faculty. They also achieve more when they have access to teachers, advisors, and school leaders who look like they do.

In the current academic year, 38 percent of Hotchkiss students from the U.S. selfidentify as students of color. Twenty years ago, this was 21 percent. International students from a variety of different racial and ethnic backgrounds account for an additional 13 percent of our diverse student body. Through a commitment to financial aid, generous gifts from alumni, outreach programs to engage talented students from all backgrounds, and other measures, the School is continuing to drive diverse enrollment.

“As a mission-driven institution, the students we teach are as important as what we teach them. Who they are very directly affects who we are as a whole, what we stand for, and the relevance of our institution.”

—ERBY MITCHEL P’21, DEAN OF ADMISSION AND FINANCIAL AID

As part of ensuring that all students feel safe, seen, and supported, the bias incident reporting process has been strengthened.

Using a form readily available online, students have the ability to report incidents of bias. All employees have participated in implicit bias training. In addition, a careful review and assessment of institutional policies, including the employee handbook, student handbook, and disciplinary protocols has been conducted.

The Walter J. Crain Fellowship Hotchkiss is committed to developing innovative hiring strategies to attract and retain the most capable faculty and staff.

The School is pleased to announce the establishment of the Walter J. Crain Fellowship named in honor of the late Walter J. Crain P’86,’89, the first Black member of the faculty and a long-serving and beloved teacher, coach, and dean of students.

The four-year fellowship is made possible through a partnership with the Klingenstein Center at Teachers College, Columbia University. Over the course of four years, beginning in 2021, a total of eight fellows selected for the program will have the opportunity to earn a master’s degree in Private School Leadership at the Klingenstein Center, funded by Hotchkiss, while earning a salary teaching at Hotchkiss or working in one of the School’s administrative departments. Applications for the 2021 fellowship program are currently under review.

The Walter J. Crain Fellowship has been launched with a $1 million investment from Hotchkiss. It is geared toward professionals who aspire to leadership roles at independent schools, have demonstrated a commitment to working with diverse populations, and are committed to, and effective at, supporting an inclusive learning community for all students.

Fellowship program graduates will be well-positioned to pursue transformational change in the lives of students and fellow educators at schools around the world.

“The Walter J. Crain Fellowship is an important partnership that enacts the Center’s commitment to diversify the leadership pipeline in independent and international schools. Our hope is that more schools will join us to create a consortium of schools that allow for a broader spectrum of emerging school leaders to benefit from such a dynamic professional learning experience.

Together, we can deeply diversify leadership throughout our schools and build leadership capacity to lead more equitable and inclusive schools in which all persons thrive,” said Nicole Furlonge, Klingenstein Family Chair Professor of Practice and director of the Klingenstein Center.

When Walter Crain joined the Hotchkiss faculty in 1970, he initiated a long and ongoing journey toward meaningful inclusion and belonging for all students, faculty, and staff at the School. The fellowship will serve as a lasting tribute to his legacy.

Walter J. Crain served the Hotchkiss community for 33 years as a teacher, coach, and dean of students.

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Black History Month Engagement across the Community

PH OTO: JACK J O HN S O N ’ 22

The Student Council on Diversity & Inclusion, co-chaired by Meghanna Annamaneni ’21 and Emily Heimer ’21, serves as a liaison between Hotchkiss students and School leadership. The Council is actively involved in driving programming, facilitating community engagements, and distributing communications.

The Hotchkiss Black, Indigenous, and People of Color Parent Network (HBPN) is co-chaired by Leah C. Gardiner P’24 and Rhonda HarrisScott P’24. This volunteer organization seeks to recognize, celebrate, and support the diverse members of the parent body of Hotchkiss. Among other initiatives, the HBPN has recently hosted several opportunities for incoming families to connect with current families for insights and guidance about choosing Hotchkiss and transitioning to school.

The Board of Governors (BOG) of the Alumni Association plays a vital role in creating programming for alumni and parents. The Diversity & Inclusion Committee of the BOG, co-chaired by Danielle S. Ferguson ’97 and Nathalie Pierrepont Danilovich ’03, vice president of the BOG, focuses on supporting and promoting Hotchkiss’s diverse and inclusive community.

Students in the Outing Club gather around a campfire during a chilly weekend evening.

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Hotchkiss celebrated Black History Month with a series of virtual events. The Board of Governors created an online series, featuring Black alumni whose experiences at Hotchkiss played a vital role in the development of their careers, lives, and interests. In addition, on Feb. 25, the BOG’s Diversity & Inclusion Committee hosted a Zoom event with a panel of Black alumni who have succeeded in creating their own powerful legacies.

Panelists included Sean Heywood ’96, a business developer of Alexa at Amazon; Natalie Paul ’03, actress and director; Rhonda Trotter ’79, a trial lawyer, partner, and Hotchkiss trustee; and Nathalie Walton ’03, CEO of Expectful, a meditation and sleep app for new mothers. The panel held a far-reaching discussion about the motivation and tools that helped to guide their professional and personal lives and how their experiences and identies as people of color have shaped their career choices.

On March 8, Hotchkiss’s Veterans Society hosted a virtual community conversation about diversity and inclusion in the U.S. military, featuring retired U.S. Air Force Colonel and physician Nick Lezama ’75 and his son, Alex Lezama ’05, a former U.S. Army captain who currently serves as an Army Reserves captain and State Department foreign service officer stationed in South Africa. “In the Army there is zero tolerance for intolerance,” Alex Lezama said. “You are with people from everywhere: every background, every socioeconomic group, and the unit you get is the unit you’re in. The military benefits from having an authoritative hierarchy, so when a commander says we will all work together and work effectively together, that’s it. The military has a very unique ability to be a driver for social change issues.”

To read more Black History Month at Hochkiss, go to hotchkiss.org/news

Film, Words, and Voices Honor the Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Left to right: Leah C. Gardiner P’24, an Obie Award-winning director, holds a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.F.A. in directing from the Yale School of Drama; Seth Gilliam P’24 has been acting in television, film, and theatre for more than three decades; Kamilah Forbes, curator, producer, and director, is executive producer for the Apollo Theater.

The Hotchkiss community honored the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with a series of virtual events, beginning on Jan. 17 with the screening of director Kamilah Forbes’s HBO film adaptation of Between the World and Me by author Ta-Nehisi Coates.

Published in 2015, the book was written as a letter to Coates’s teenage son and recounts the author’s experiences growing up in Baltimore’s inner city and his increasing fear of violence against the Black community.

“We — all of us — are living through an incredible time of change.”

—CRAIG BRADLEY, HEAD OF SCHOOL

MLK Day activities kicked off with an opening address by Head of School Craig Bradley, who called on the community to cultivate the seeds of change.

“We — all of us — are living through an incredible time of change. It is a time during which the legacy of struggle is bearing fruit,” said Bradley. “This fruit, of course, holds the seeds of change and of future struggle. The work of anti-racism continues. The battle for anti-racism continues. The battle for fact over fiction goes on.”

Following his address, Forbes, executive producer of the Apollo Theater, joined director Leah C. Gardiner P’24 and actor Seth Gilliam P’24 in a panel talk on “How to Access, Persevere, and Succeed in Spaces NOT Originally Designed for YOU.” That afternoon, students worked with class deans on “Doing the Work: AntiRacism at Hotchkiss,” a workshop in which students discussed the legacy they want to leave for future students. H

Campus Diversity Events O N J A N . 2 0 , prior to International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Hillel board members presented a video interview with Holocaust survivors Aneta and Joseph Weinreich and their adult children. The family recounted their struggle to overcome unimaginable hardship and to find hope and ultimately happiness. In light of the hatred, anti-Semitism, and Holocaust denial that exists in the world today, it is important that this inspiring story of hope is shared, Hillel co-heads, Sydney Goldstein ’22 and Simone Straus ’21 told the community.

O N F E B . 1 2 , the Chinese Club shared an online video to celebrate the Lunar New Year. Since the holiday fell during Winter Break and COVID-19 protocols prohibited in-person gatherings, members of the Chinese Club reached out virtually to the extended Hotchkiss community to share their New Year’s wishes. Around 30 students, alumni, teachers, and their family members participated in the creation of a video, which was shared on social media. In addition, on Feb. 15, Johanna Hahn P’14, director of parent programs, hosted a virtual happy hour to celebrate the Year of the Ox. The event was open to all, while alumni and families in Asia received a special invitation.

Instructor in History Tom Drake and his wife, Verena, piano instructors Fabio and Gisele Witkowski, and Ninette Enrique, chief advancement officer, also attended.

O N M A R C H 1 1 , the Hispanic and Latinx affinity group, De Colores, met over Zoom with four Hotchkiss alumni: Francisco Garcia ’07, Elle Cotzomi ’11, Brian Cintrón ’12, and Luis Gonzalez Kompalic ’16. Attendees asked panelists a variety of questions on topics ranging from their identity to their experiences at Hotchkiss and beyond. Alumni also spoke about their favorite parts of Hotchkiss and the different experiences that influenced their current and future career choices.

To read more about these events and watch video replays, go to hotchkiss.org/news.

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A New Lecture Series Aims to Inspire the Next Generation of Science Leaders For Katie Touhey Moore ’89, Rescuing Dolphins is a Collaborative Effort

A

S A CHILD, KATIE TOUHEY MOORE ’89

loved exploring tide pools and estuaries along the Massachusetts coast where she spent her summers. Today, Moore rescues stranded dolphins and other marine mammals in Cape Cod in her role as deputy vice president of animal rescue at the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW). On March 4, she spoke to the Hotchkiss community about her career as part of the Science Connections speaker series, a program launched by the Science Department to connect STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) students with professionals to nurture an appreciation for the sciences and to educate them about new advances in science and technology.

Moore is a global expert in marine mammal rescue. She pioneered the first systematic, successful mass stranding prevention program in the world while improving the care and diagnostic process of those marine mammals. She was also part of the team that created the award-winning documentary film Sonic Sea. She has worked with partner organizations — from the Wildlife Trust of India to NASA to local communities in Myanmar — in more than 15 countries, and she regularly advises rescue efforts around the world.

As a lower mid at Hotchkiss, Moore was drawn to science. But she barely passed chemistry, and though she really wanted to take AP Biology as a senior, she was afraid she might not be up to it.

After graduating from Hotchkiss, Moore attended Wheaton College, where she took an Introduction to Biology course and aced it. “I realized it was the same textbook used for AP Biology at Hotchkiss,” she 14

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said. From then on she learned not to let anything stop her from pursuing her passion for science. She worked with Wheaton to develop an interdisciplinary program, which became her pathway to environmental management, and she went on to earn a master’s in environmental management at Duke University.

After college, her work as a volunteer counting dolphins in North Carolina led to a relationship with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which helped her land a job rescuing stranded sea mammals in Cape Cod. Every year, the organization rescues 250 to 270 sea mammals that become washed ashore in the changing tides. The average time the dolphins are held from rescue to release ranges from two to five hours, depending on how long it takes the team of 10 volunteers to lift a 600lb. dolphin out of the muddy water and secure it to a gurney. Before the mammals are transported and released back into the open ocean, the team gathers data

on the dolphins. Blood analysis, heart rate monitoring, ultrasonography, auditory testing, and satellite tagging all help biologists find ways to improve the survival rate of stranded dolphins.

More recently, IFAW has partnered with NASA to explore whether solar storms and flares impact the animals’ ability to navigate, which could be one reason why so many are stranded. NASA engineers and IFAW biologists have two very different approaches, but, in science, Moore said, collaboration is key. When solving some of the global problems in wildlife rescue and conservation, it comes back to the people and connections you make with them, said Moore.

Ultimately, she adds, “to be a good scientist you need to be a good person — no matter what field you choose.” H In 2007, Katie Touhey Moore received the Community Service Award, which recognizes alumni who demonstrate an exemplary sense of caring, initiative, and ingenuity in their volunteer and/or vocational endeavors.

Christine Angelini ’03 Seeks to Protect Our Precious Coastal Ecosystems On March 25, Dr. Christine Angelini ’03, an ecologist with expertise in wetland, reef, and dune systems, shared her journey from Hotchkiss to her current role as director of the Center for Coastal Solutions at the University of Florida in Gainesville, FL. Angelini’s research has focused on how the interactions of certain species can moderate an ecosystem’s resilience to climate change and influence the integration of contaminants into food webs. Atlantic ribbed mussels, for example, contribute to the recovery of nutrients and plants in salt marshes following periods of severe drought.

In her research, she collaborates with a diverse and talented group of ecologists, hydrologists, biogeochemists, geomorphologists, and engineers at the University of Florida, other U.S. and international academic institutions, and a broad range of state and federal agencies that are studying how science and engineering can help coastal ecosystems.

At the University of Florida, she also serves as an assistant professor of environmental engineering sciences and is a gender equity advocate for students interested in pursuing careers in STEM. Angelini came to Lakeville from nearby Ashley Falls, MA, where she was the fourth

of six children. Her parents instilled in her a dedication toward having a strong work ethic and a strong connection to the outdoors.

“Hotchkiss was really transformational for me,” said Angelini, who was a star hockey player and excelled in junior high school. At Hotchkiss, she continued cultivating a lifelong love of learning while also being deeply involved in athletics.

She credits former Instructor in Biology Jim Morrill P’87,’89 for encouraging her interest in science and showing her what it means to be a biologist and environmental scientist. “He took us on ‘botanical forays’ around the campus,” recalled Angelini.

“He had an appreciation for identifying organisms and their niche in the environment,” she said. He also introduced Angelini to experimentation with a memorable project where she learned about DNA extraction. She participated in a three-week student trip to Antarctica, where she had an opportunity to observe scientific field work, which further piqued her interest in biology.

Looking back, she said she deeply valued her talented peers, the School’s environment of excellence, the well-

rounded guidance of her mentors, and her exposure to places beyond New England.

After graduating from Hotchkiss, Angelini attended Brown University.

There she found a mentor in marine biology instructor Dr. Mark Bertness, who invited her to become part of his field lab studying coastal areas.

Angelini earned her graduate and postgraduate degrees at the University of Florida, where she did extensive field work in the massive salt marshes along the Georgia coast, studying the role of the ribbed mussel in supporting and restoring the ecosystem.

Making discoveries about the natural world has been deeply satisfying for Angelini. But her ultimate goal is to move beyond just studying the environment to being more proactive in finding solutions to the large and complex problems impacting it. H Dr. Christine Angelini’s work has been published in a variety of leading, peerreviewed journals including Ecology, Current Biology, Conservation Biology, Marine Ecology Progress Series, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and Nature Communications.

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Hotchkiss Takes a Deep Dive Into the Solar System B Y W E N DY C A R L S O N

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S THERE LIFE ON OTHER PLANETS?

Do stars create music? How do satellites impact the night sky?

Answers to those questions and more were part of “Hotchkiss Back to the Classroom: Astronomy at Hotchkiss and Beyond,” a virtual conversation with alumni experts hosted by the Alumni and Development Office on Feb. 7.

Roger Liddell ’63 P’98, an avid supporter of astronomy at Hotchkiss, moderated the discussion with Kevin Baines ’72, Derek Buzasi ’82, and Jeff Hall ’82 –– scientists who have all pioneered discoveries in our solar system. To view a replay visit: https://bit.ly/37tqGTv William Fenton, instructor in physics and astronomy and director of the Hotchkiss Observatory, set the mood by kicking off the conversation from inside the observatory. The structure, built in 2015, houses a 20-inch reflecting telescope that is used in the School’s general elective and observational astronomy research courses. Fenton also advises the Astronomy Club, which holds a star party each spring and fall for the surrounding community.

Kevin Baines ’72, a principal scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA, joined the Zoom event, taking the audience on a whirlwind tour of the solar system in a search for evidence of life. In the past, the focus has been on Mars, “but we’re at a stage where things have changed, and many different planets have prospects for life,” said Baines.

“The biggest advance in space science has been the idea that there are oceans in

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the solar system everywhere, even out to Pluto. That’s oceans of liquid water, not ice, so if you have water that is 32 degrees Fahrenheit and above, it is possible to have life — this is a big deal.”

Small pockets of ice exist on the surface of Mars, water vapors have been spotted on the moon Europa, and there are clouds in the atmosphere around Venus. Cassini, the fourth space probe to visit Saturn, has enabled the discovery that Enceladus, the sixth-largest moon of Saturn, is spewing liquid water into space from more than a dozen geysers.

As for musical stars, Derek Buzasi ’82, an eminent scholar at Florida Gulf Coast University’s College of Arts and Sciences, discussed how stellar oscillations, sound waves running through a star, can inform astronomers about its internal properties.

We can’t hear it with our ears, but stars are continuously performing a symphony of sounds. The biggest stars make the lowest sounds, while smaller stars have highpitched ones, and all stars have thousands of different sound waves bouncing around inside them. By listening to the music of the stars, scientists can determine the mass, the radius, age, and composition of a star.

Jeff Hall ’82, director of the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, AZ, chairs the American Astronomical Society’s committee on light pollution, space debris, and radio interference.

“We are at a moment of sea change,” he said, explaining that the space environment in the immediate vicinity of the earth is becoming more and more crowded with

spacecraft performing communications, navigation, and scientific missions.

Since 1957, the number of artificial satellites in Earth’s lower orbit has risen into the thousands. Many of them are a few hundred to a few thousand kilometers above the earth’s surface. As more companies in the private sector develop technology to access space, it is likely that there will be thousands more artificial satellites, each emitting bright light that could impact observations of the night sky, Hall said.

“It is a perfect-storm moment now: the quantity of satellites, the brightness they emit, and ability of the private sector, with financial and technological resources, to launch wherever they want, whenever they want,” he said.

Aerospace companies are working to mitigate satellites by doing things like darkening the reflective surfaces of their satellites, but ground rules have to be established for space operations, Hall noted.

In a Q and A session, Fenton addressed a question many mere mortals ponder: What is the real probability of extraterrestrial life?

Said Fenton: “For me, it’s almost the only thing to think about, whether we’re alone in the universe or not. I believe there’s life out there in lots of different ways that we cannot expect. We keep finding life in places we don’t think we’re going to find it, and I think we will continue to do so.” H

“I believe there’s life out there in lots of different ways that we cannot expect. We keep finding life in places we don’t think we’re going to find it, and I think we will continue to do so.”

—WILLIAM FENTON,

IL LUS T R AT I O N: N A S A /J PL-C A LT ECH

Mark Davis ’68 Takes Us to Mars in a National Geographic Special

INSTRUCTOR IN PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY

On Feb. 18, the space rover Perseverance made its historical landing on Mars. It was an epic moment for NASA and for Mark Davis ’68, the writer, producer, and director of Built for Mars: The Perseverance Rover, a special that premiered on the National Geographic Channel following the landing.

Davis worked on the documentary for two years at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA, following the build and the inevitable crises that are part of every Mars mission, then editing the footage in his attic studio in Newburyport, MA. After the special aired on the National Geographic Channel, the film moved to Disney +.

The shaded area above is an image of the Horsehead Nebula, a star-forming region in the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex, and was photographed and processed

by Luca Polgar ’16.

The owner of MDTV Productions, Davis has written, produced, and directed eight documentaries about NASA’s Mars rovers, including the Emmy-winning Five Years on Mars (2008) and others for National Geographic and the Discovery Channel.

See p. 48 in Class Notes for more background on the film.

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Introducing Hillel B Y W E N DY C A R L S O N

At Hotchkiss, there are more than 80 clubs in which students can pursue their passions and explore new interests. The oldest, St. Luke’s Society, was established in 1891. Over the years, a plethora of new clubs have emerged, offering students everything from space rocketry to sporting clays. These clubs are open to all interested students, regardless of their backgrounds. As part of a new series, we’ll provide you with a snapshot of a club in each issue, beginning with Hillel.

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O W T H R E E D E C A D E S O L D,

Hillel is open to students as well as faculty and staff members who are interested in Jewish faith and culture.

Members strive to promote a community that is accepting and willing to learn more about the Jewish heritage. All members of the community are welcome at casual, weekly, non-religious Shabbat meetings.

Hillel was founded in 1990 by Aaron Oberman ’92, P’24, who was searching for ways to connect with his Jewish culture while he was at Hotchkiss.

“At that time, there were no Jewish faculty members on campus. So my advisor, Keith Moon, would drive a few of us to Great Barrington on High Holidays. He helped me organize the first Shabbat on campus. I am not an overly religious person, but I really missed the Jewish culture I shared with my family,” he said.

“So we started some fun activities, and we welcomed the whole community to participate. For our first Passover Seder, former Head of School Rob Oden, who studied ancient languages, read ancient Hebrew, which was cool – but of course, no one knew what he was saying! But we had a large number of attendees and many nonJewish students. That’s partly because we served Manischewitz,” he joked.

“We also held a huge Hanukkah party that was sort of like a casino night, with a Dreidel

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Spin contest that drew nearly 100 students.

The winner got a dorm pizza party.”

In the years following, the club went through fits and starts. Nathan Seidenberg, instructor in history, took over the faculty leadership five years ago and started Shabbat get-togethers in the Dining Hall on Friday evenings.

“I wanted a space for Jewish students to be able to congregate and talk about issues,” he explained.

“The renewed purpose of Hillel is to offer a place for students and faculty to find community, create Jewish connections, and build leadership skills. We are nonsectarian, open to anyone who identifies as Jewish and any allies,” he said.

“While I am devout, I do not want to push any one form of Judaism. We do offer access to High Holy Days services in Great Barrington each year and an annual Seder for anyone on campus. This year we found a space on campus to gather together to participate in virtual services, and we also encourage the students to lead initiatives.

Beginning last year, the Hillel Board started to attend the Anti-Defamation League’s annual conference on combating hate. The Hillel leadership is actively working to create an anti-hate coalition on campus,” Seidenberg added.

“I want all Jewish students to feel proud and safe about their identity at Hotchkiss,”

“Hillel, for me, not only means observance of Jewish holidays on campus, but also a measure of consistency for me to look forward to weekly: every Friday night, I know that I always have Shabbat dinner.”

—SYDNEY GOLDSTEIN ’22

Seidenberg said.

Instructor in English Carita Gardiner P’17,’20 has also spearheaded Hillel events and worked with the students in culinary activities, such as the annual latke-making workshop and dinners.

Gardiner hosted the Passover Seder at her home for years, but the event grew so large that the group no longer fit in her dining room. For the past several years (with the exception of 2020, due to COVID-19), the Seder has been held in the Rockland Room at Fairfield Farm.

“In my first 15 or so years at Hotchkiss, the club was active, but about five years ago, the leadership of Nate Seidenberg on the faculty, and students Avital Romoff ’16, Eden Schwartz ’16, and Thomas Getman ’19 took the club to new levels,” Gardiner said.

“Eden and Avi organized a series of events to help non-Jewish students learn about the culture, dress, and foods of Judaism. Then, Thomas brought a

PH OTO: WENDY C A R L S O N

Ben Weiss ’21 and Elizabeth Oliver ’22 make latkes for a special holiday dinner.

Holocaust Remembrance Day speaker and (with wonderful help from his mother) brought the latke-making workshop and Sukkah-build to campus. Nate Seidenberg’s weekly Shabbat dinners have been truly transformational. For the first two years of the dinners, Thomas’s mother overnighted us challah from New York City every week.

Now, our Dining Hall makes our challah (and it’s delicious!)”

Sadly, she added, “I do think that part of the interest we’ve had in Hillel’s activities stems from anti-Semitic vandalism that has occurred on campus in the past.” More recently, she cited the demonstrations during the Capitol insurrection in which rioters wore anti-Semitic t-shirts. “Our country clearly needs more education on what being Jewish means and on the history

of the Jewish people,” she said.

To that end, in January, Hillel Board members, led by co-presidents Simone Straus ’21 and Sydney Goldstein ’22, held a virtual community event prior to International Holocaust Remembrance Day, during which they showed a video interview with a couple who survived the Holocaust and their family.

“In light of the hatred, anti-Semitism, and Holocaust denial that exist in the world today, it was important that their inspiring story of hope was shared,” said Goldstein.

For members of Hillel, the club offers opportunities to increase community awareness about topics like the Holocaust and hate crimes. But the club has also become a valuable part of their overall

Hotchkiss experience.

Said Goldstein, “When I first joined the School, I honestly never thought that this group of people would become one of my most valued sub-communities in my larger membership of the Hotchkiss community –– I have come to the point where I really cannot possibly imagine my time at Hotchkiss without it. Hillel, for me, not only means observance of Jewish holidays on campus, but also a measure of consistency for me to look forward to weekly: every Friday night, I know that I always have Shabbat dinner.

I see some of the same people every week at Shabbat, but it also makes me so happy to see new faces of students and faculty who want to join in.” H

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The Athletic Experience — It’s Like One Big Family

Kait Perrelle Leonard ’06, pictured second row, second from left, celebrates with her teammates after winning the 2002 New England Field Hockey Class A Championships in 2002.

During an Athletics Open House in December, alumni Mario Williams ’12 and Kait Perrelle Leonard ’06 spoke about their Hotchkiss athletic experiences to prospective students and their families.

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A I T P E R R E L L E L E O N A R D ’06 is one of five siblings in a family that placed a strong emphasis on education and athletics. Her grandfather was a high school football coach and athletics director, and her father coached several sports as a high school teacher and most of her and her siblings’ youth teams growing up.

“Athletics played a major role in education. When it came time for my middle brother to enter high school, and

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our family discovered the boarding school world, Hotchkiss was where my family landed,” she explained.

For the next five years of her life, she spent her Wednesdays and weekends up at Hotchkiss watching her two brothers compete in soccer, ice hockey, wrestling, and baseball.

“In a way I grew up on this campus, befriended the faculty and faculty children, and made this place a home before I ever stepped foot into my Buehler 201 room my

prep year,” she said.

When she arrived at Hotchkiss, she had to make the difficult decision whether to continue with soccer or play field hockey, as both were fall sports. After speaking with Co-Director of Athletics Robin Chandler ’87 on her revisit day about her dilemma, Chandler strongly encouraged her to pick field hockey.

“It was the best decision I could have ever made for myself,” said Leonard.

“The first day of preseason I was scared

to my core about the year ahead: Would I make friends, would I even make the varsity team, and what if I failed the run test?

Thankfully I made it… albeit, barely! From the get-go, though, the returning members of the team took me under their wings and made me feel immediately at home. Three other preps and I made the team that year, and the four of us would eventually go on to captain the team together our senior year.

Our bond on the field was incredible, to the point where after our fourth New England championship we promised to get matching HFH tattoos (we never did). But that first year, I remember being so incredibly inspired by our leaders. I felt this incredible magic among the girls, and knew I was lucky to be included in this amazing group. The HFH team gave me something so special — a family. And like any family, we had our good days and our bad days… one of the hardest memories was losing the last game ever played on the old ’49 fields (before we got artificial turf), which was the only game in four years we had ever lost at home.”

“However, through the ups and downs — banana bread Fridays, Monday and Thursday team conditioning, beautiful November sunsets and rainy Bearcat weather, I learned the value of hard work, passion, and support.”

Before coming to Hotchkiss, she had never touched a lacrosse stick. She played a year on the JV team, and eventually when someone asked her to play goalie, she found a way to break into the varsity lineup her lower-mid year.

She also tried out for varsity ice hockey every year, but never made the team.

“Ultimately, though, my Hotchkiss athletic experience was not defined by the level of team I was on, the playing time I got, or the championships I won. It was about the people with whom I spent my time and traveled each season,” she explained.

“From the inspiring words and heartfelt passion that Robin instilled in all of us, to the camaraderie and sense of being part of a team that flowed through each and every girl on our roster, I will cherish every single moment I spent on the ’49s. I still do each day as a coach. I will always remember the lighthearted practices of JV ice hockey; I will remember the trips to Florida with the lacrosse team, running through the Disney

Kait Perrelle Leonard ’06, associate director of admission, dorm parent, and head coach of the varsity field hockey team, is in her fifth year as a faculty member.

parks, playing in the sweltering heat, and of course the dreaded conditioning, which ultimately brought us all closer together.

But most of all I remember what each program taught me. I learned how to play for the girl on my left and on my right, to work hard day in and day out to help my team succeed, how to put the team before myself, and how to become a leader, no matter what my age, skill level, or experience.

“I learned that it is the little things — asking how someone’s day was, learning about their life, connecting beyond the lines of the field — that make the most impact in any team experience. These are values I bring with me through life and onto the field each day as a coach.”

Leonard went on to play field hockey and lacrosse at Princeton. On her official visit there, she remembered noticing how similar the field hockey team dynamic was to her Hotchkiss team: the traditions, the people, and the coaches. “I knew it was the place for me — not because of the level or success of the program, but because of the heart and soul of it. Without that knowledge and experience at Hotchkiss, I’m not sure I would have ended up wearing orange and black,” she said.

After college, Leonard spent five years working and coaching at the collegiate level, but for her it just wasn’t enough time with her players. She knew she needed to come back to a community where she could make a more significant impact on

the students she coached and lived with.

When she had the opportunity to return to Hotchkiss as associate director of admissions and to coach field hockey, “it felt like I was coming home.” she said.

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S A YO U NG B OY G ROWI N G UP

in Jamaica, Mario Williams ’12 was obsessed with soccer. Some of his fondest childhood memories are of captaining teams and winning many championships and sharing those experiences with his teammates.

“Memories of long trips for games on cramped buses, tense playoff matches in the pouring rain, and dancing happily in the locker room back home all bring a smile to my face,” he said.

Williams first learned about Hotchkiss when a coach who was looking for skilled soccer players — leaders and scholars who

Mario Williams ’12 and co-captain, Mohammed Rashid ’12, celebrating winning the New England Class A boys soccer championship during their senior year (Fall 2011) SPRING 2021

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CAMPUS CONNECTION would be a good fit for the School — came to watch a “combine,” where athletes compete to showcase their soccer ability.

“I played really well that day, and as they say, the rest is history. I was on a plane to Hotchkiss to begin school in Lakeville the following August. Of all the kids who had participated in that combine, only a handful were offered opportunities to attend Hotchkiss, and of those three or four students who were encouraged to apply, I was the only one who did. Applying and attending Hotchkiss was one of the best decisions of my life,” he said.

Hotchkiss offered Williams access to resources that he never dreamed of having back home in Jamaica.

“There were only a few artificial turf fields in Jamaica when I was a kid, and having access to a field with stadium lights was rare. I still remember my first Fridaynight game under the lights on Sprole turf, the sideline bursting with students in blue and white, horns blasting loudly. Over the course of my three years at Hotchkiss, I was a member of teams that won multiple New England championships, Founders League titles, and other accolades, but being a part of the athletics program and a student at the School meant much more than the trophies.

It meant school spirit and pride in wearing the shirt on match days. It meant having the setting and support to challenge myself each day to be better. It also meant that I was in a place where there was an appropriate balance of academics and athletics, so I could spend the necessary time deepening my love for a sport that I had learned to appreciate from such a young age.”

He still keeps in touch with his former teammates. “They reach out to me often, in my capacity as a coach of the team, as they are constantly trying to find ways to reconnect with the program,” he commented.

On Taft Day in 2019, when Hotchkiss faced its athletic arch-rival, several of Williams’s former teammates sent motivational statements to the current team members to pump them up for the game. “It was an amazing gesture and highlights the lasting impact that the program has on you. Once you are a part 22

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“Once you are a part of the team, you are forever connected, and there is a very special quality about the institution that keeps people coming back.”

—MARIO WILLIAMS ’12

Mario Williams ’12 is in his second year of teaching environmental science at Hotchkiss, where he is also the head varsity soccer coach and assistant coach of varsity track and field. Williams is originally from Jamaica, where the majority of his family still resides. Mario prepares to control the ball as his former teammate, Vincent DiMichele ’11, looks on (Fall 2010).

of the team, you are forever connected, and there is a very special quality about the institution that keeps people coming back,” Williams explained.

After graduating from Hotchkiss, Williams attended Franklin and Marshall College, where he was a member of a team that won a Centennial Conference soccer championship and became an NCAA Elite Eight finalist. Hotchkiss’s dual focus on academic rigor and athletic achievement helped Williams to adjust well to life as a college student-athlete. The culture of athletic leadership and high athletic standards also prepared him to immediately be a leader on the team.

“I certainly had healthy respect for more experienced members of the team, but I understood my purpose in the program, had a strong sense of belief in myself and my abilities, and gave it my all to help support my teammates each day.

My experiences in the Hotchkiss soccer program molded me to be a purposeful,

driven, and caring teammate,” he said.

“Being a member of sports teams here is not only about finding a route to college or being a ‘star player.’ It’s about family.”

“I always impress on my players to care deeply about wearing the Hotchkiss jersey.

Many players wore the shirt before them and accomplished great feats and put in significant time and energy to do so. I expect that they will also give it their all to achieve their personal goals and help the team to accomplish its overarching goals.

But that starts with being present and caring deeply about the program and what it stands for,” Williams explained.

“Whether I am in the classroom or on the training field, I also encourage my students to be ambitious. Think big! I never thought as a child growing up in Jamaica that my athletic and academic abilities would enable me to attend an outstanding institution like Hotchkiss, or that I would have the privilege of being able to work daily with some of the most talented educators I’ve known and teach incredibly brilliant students.

To be a student-athlete at Hotchkiss is to have limitless ambition and to identify an opportunity, work hard to be able to reach out to it at arm’s length, and then seize it.”

Today, Williams carries the lessons he learned on the field as a Hotchkiss soccer player to his professional life as a coach and teacher. H

PH OTO: WENDY C A R L S O N

Senior Parents Gift, A Hotchkiss Tradition T

campaign is a long-standing tradition at Hotchkiss that provides families with an opportunity to celebrate and honor their graduates with a legacy gift that meets a high-priority need of the School. Each year, a special project is chosen by the School. Senior parents join together to raise the funds for the project, which is typically completed during the summer after Graduation. A commemorative plaque listing the names of each graduate is installed in a prominent location in or near the location of the project. Some examples of gifts include the brick sitting wall in the Main Circle (Class of 2005), the Lobby of the Griswold Science Building (Class of 1998), and the EFX Lab (Class of 2017).

This year’s project is the Class of 2021 Performance and Wellness Center in the Mars Athletic Center (MAC).

Since the opening of the MAC in 2002, the landscape of athletics has changed dramatically. Once primarily the provenance HE SENIOR PARENTS GIFT

of athletes who played on sports teams, the MAC now serves the needs of a much broader population of students and adults in the community. Both individuals and teams are embracing the global trend toward more holistic athletics programs focused on wellness, performance, and strength and conditioning. This trend has resulted in significantly increased demands for a variety of spaces in the MAC. The Performance and Wellness Center will support the building’s use as a community hub for these activities and a place for students, faculty, staff, and the local community to connect through healthy, active endeavors while being supported by highly trained professionals.

The Performance and Wellness Center will include two cardio fitness spaces for spinning, ergometer training, yoga, and other activities; a multi-functional room for wrestling in the winter and enhanced fitness space during other seasons; state-ofthe-art fitness equipment; an indoor turf

workout area; performance technology such as heart rate monitors and other biometric tracking systems; sophisticated video and sound systems; ventilation updates and new windows, among other enhancements.

“It is exciting to announce the Senior Parents Gift project to the senior families each year and work with the committee to raise the funds to complete the project,” said Johanna Haan P’14, director of parent programs at Hotchkiss. “The graduates enjoy coming back to campus during their Reunions and finding their names on the class plaque. Hotchkiss is deeply grateful to our senior families for supporting this special tradition.” H

For more information on the Senior Parents Gift, please contact Johanna Haan, Director of Parent Programs, at jhaan@hotchkiss.org or at 860-435-3121.

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STUDENT SPOTLIGHT

Touché En Garde, Lauren McLane ’23 Has a Fearless Flèche B Y W E N DY C A R L S O N

Y E A R S O L D when she first caught a glimpse of masked fencers lunging and locking blades at a small studio next to her local supermarket in Singapore. She was instantly mesmerized and begged her mother to let her take classes. It turned out she was a natural, and she soon began winning regional, then national, and finally international competitions –– and she hasn’t looked back since.

Before she started her prep year at Hotchkiss, McLane had already won first place in four consecutive national competitions for Hong Kong in both 14Y and 17U categories, and also placed first in the Division 2, North America Cup. Having received an athletic scholarship from the Hong Kong government to train with the national team, she also had the opportunity to represent Hong Kong in three regional competitions. At 14, she finished as the top-ranked 17U women’s athlete for the Asian continent in the Épée, one of fencing’s three disciplines.

Upon arriving at Hotchkiss in the fall of 2019, McLane had to work hard to adapt to a new fencing environment.

“I began the season with a top-eight result (out of 289 athletes) in the fall of 2019, representing Hong Kong in a 17U European championship in Budapest.

But when I arrived in the U.S., I really struggled to adjust to a new training schedule as well as the U.S. fencing approach, which is more focused on aggressive blade work and adjusting the angle of the blade,” she explains.

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PH OTOS: WENDY C A R L S O N

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A U R E N M C L A N E ’ 2 3 WA S N I N E

“I had to work for months to reconstruct my fencing style with my new coach to whom I owe an immeasurable debt of gratitude for his dedication, patience, and confidence in me. The hard work finally paid off when I took top 16 (of 271) in the 20U category at the Junior Olympics in Columbus, OH, in February 2020.”

Due to an ankle injury she suffered last spring and the cancellation of the competitions due to COVID-19,

McLane has not had as much opportunity to compete. And because of the offcampus travel restrictions, she had to find new ways to train.

To improve her footwork and agility, this winter she joined the JV squash team, and last fall she joined the girls cross-country team to improve her speed and endurance.

“Pushing through workouts and up the punishing ‘Cardiac Hill’ with teammates tested my physical limits. I am truly grateful

to coach Brodie Quinn ’10, director of athletic performance and fitness, for inspiring and supporting me through his awesome strength-training workouts, which he tailored to help me recover and continue to build from where I left off last spring,” McLane says.

The popularity of fencing as a women’s sport in Europe, the U.S., and in Asia has soared over the past few decades, says McLane.

“Contrary to the popular belief that men’s fencing is more entertaining because of its physicality and thereby draws a wider audience, I’ve observed that in Hong Kong and the U.S., where women’s Épée is stronger than men’s, there is actually a wider audience for women,” she adds.

Historically, fencing was primarily a men’s sport, practiced by the aristocracy as a civilized mode of dueling and as a highly regarded military discipline. Back then, tips actually drew blood when they struck an opponent instead of setting off an electrical wave transmitted to a scoring box, as in the modern version of the sport.

Fencing has three disciplines –– Foil, Épée, and Sabre, which differ in their rules, targets, and purpose.

McLane explains: “Sabre is the slashing sport and targets the waist up, as its intended purpose was training cavalry.

Foil is a dueling sport, historically ‘to the death,’ hence focused on targeting the vital organs of the torso. Both Foil and Sabre are governed by ‘priority’ or ‘the right of way,’ a decision criterion used to determine which fencer receives the touch. Épée (which is what I fence) is also a dueling sport but has the objective of ‘drawing first blood’ rather than ‘dueling to the death.’ Also, in Épée, the entire body is targeted, including the extremities.

Finally, in marked contrast to Foil and Sabre, in Épée there is no ‘right of way,’ so whoever hits first, scores. Épée’s absence of priority and wide range of targets lend it, in my opinion, to being a more dynamic, tactical, and endurance-based game.”

Fencing has taught McLane the value of determination, commitment, selfdiscipline, and humility. It has also made her more resilient.

“It gets my adrenaline going and

challenges me in unexpected ways.

Even when you’re exhausted and think you have nothing left, if you can pull yourself together to persevere, to focus, and to continue to take risks, you can overcome even your most unfortunate circumstances,” she says.

One of her favorite touchés is called the flèche, which is an explosive running attack toward your opponent’s chest.

“I like to flèche because it allows me to make the most of my speed and strength. When well-executed, the flèche can be disarming, because it is exceptionally fast and nearly impossible to defend,” she explains.

“So much of fencing and competitive sports in general comes down to an athlete’s mindset,” she adds.

“The best athletes are never content.

They always want to improve. I tend to fence my best when I am the underdog, and need to work 150 percent to keep up with my opponent. To stay focused, one of the mental cues I use is the idea of ‘one touch at a time.’ Finally, as I realize there are always factors beyond my control, I try to just give 100 percent to

those things that are within my control.

Even if I lose, I will have learned what I need to work on next so I can be prepared for another day.”

Looking ahead, McLane says her goals are to fence at the NCAA collegiate level and to compete again for a World Championship title. She had this opportunity when she was 14 and qualified to represent Hong Kong in the 17U category for the World Championships in Torun, Poland, in 2019. Although COVID-19 derailed the 2019-20 season, McLane has been training hard and is looking forward to competing again in 2021.

Beyond racking up her victories, McLane enjoys fencing because it has allowed her to make friends all over the world. Although fencing is an individual sport, McLane says it is important to support one another as a team.

“It has been an honor to represent Hong Kong and the U.S. Some of my greatest joys and fondest memories have been training and competing with fellow team members,” she says. H

“It gets my adrenaline going and challenges me in unexpected ways.”

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STAYING GLOBALLY When COVID-19 struck last winter, Hotchkiss responded quickly and cancelled all international travel programs to ensure the safety of the entire community. Hotchkiss Magazine spoke with David Thompson, director of international programs, to learn how students are engaging in virtual exchanges with their peers from around the world.

Can you share with us the value of ‘virtual’ international experiences?

We have been fortunate that during the pandemic Hotchkiss students have had access to a range of opportunities to engage with global issues. Although one can’t deny the impact of immersing yourself in a culture and geography different from your own, these virtual experiences do provide the awareness, connection, and understanding that dialogue with people from different locations and cultures can create.

Through Round Square and the Global Education Benchmarking Group in particular, our students have participated in virtual conversations about current events with peers from around the world, attended weekend-long conferences on the U.N. Sustainable Development goals, participated in a two-week virtual exchange to Morocco, and connected with students in Algeria, Iraq, and Yemen.

Why is this type of interaction important?

While our students have not been able to directly engage with different landscapes, they have connected with their peers around the world and engaged in conversations about global issues, guided by world-class academics and foreign service professionals.

Fifteen students spent a Saturday attending a summit on the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The event featured a total of 201 students from 29 schools in six countries, working in teams.

Two of our students had this to say about the experience: 26

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“This was an excellent experience in intercultural communication, teamwork, and project management. I developed great skills in working with a team of unfamiliar people to accomplish a difficult task in a limited-time environment. I learned a lot not only about my groupmates, but also about myself as a leader, team member, and individual,” said Jack Johnson ’22.

Parth Jain ’24 added, “This experience was unforgettable. Before the SDG Summit, I had never attended a conference or a large event on a global issues topic. But ever since I first learned about the SDGs in seventh grade, I have admired them as a convenient blueprint that we can use to make the world a better place. So, when I heard about the chance to attend the Envoys SDG Summit, I jumped on the opportunity!”

Can you share some of the new ways Hotchkiss students have been able to interact in their remote learning studies?

The partnership with the American Academy of Diplomacy that was facilitated

by Bob Beecroft ’58 has allowed students to take a deep dive into international relations.

In addition to the virtual visit by the former U.S. Ambassador to Qatar, students participated in a virtual conference hosted at Monticello titled “Does Europe Still Matter?” and attended a panel discussion on careers in diplomacy at Rice University’s Baker Institute.

Can you give me a snapshot of the range of travel programs the School has offered over the years, the participation rate, and why they are a vital part of a Hotchkiss education?

In accordance with Hotchkiss’s Mission Statement, the School strives to create an environment where students can “discover and fulfill their potential as individuals fully engaged in our world.” In addition, our travel opportunities offer students a chance to make use of the skills and mindsets that they develop and refine here on campus.

The experience of the Class of 2019 provides a good overview for the range and quantity of opportunities available to a Hotchkiss student. In the four years that they were on campus, they had 80 different Hotchkiss-run international travel opportunities to take advantage of, and indeed, nearly 50 percent of the class traveled at least once with the School.

Students went on exchanges to partner schools in countries such as Colombia, India, Germany, Peru, and South Africa for periods as brief as three weeks or for a marking period, or spent their upper mid or senior year abroad through School Year Abroad’s programs in France, Italy, and Spain.

Through our membership in Round Square, students had the chance to represent the School at annual global and regional conferences, as well as to participate in conversations with students at other schools and contribute to a research project done in conjunction with the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

The biggest impact on students may

CONNECTED

HOTCHKISS IN THE WORLD 2015–2019

have been through the faculty-run travel programs. One of the hallmarks of our International Programs is that the travel we do is connected to the curriculum and co-curriculum. In recent years we have had travel linked to humanities classes, to language study, to the development of science research skills, and for teambuilding in a variety of sports.

The stories that students bring back from their travels enliven class discussions, walks to practice, and dorm feeds. College-age alumni report that their Hotchkiss travel experiences influenced not only their college choice but also their classes, activities, and friend groups.

Can you explain the “world at Hotchkiss” and why this is important?

One of the great advantages of the boarding school model is that we can intentionally assemble a microcosm of the larger world — in 2020-21 our students came from 36 states and 27 countries and territories outside the U.S. Given such a diverse community of students and adults living, working, playing, and creating together, there are myriad opportunities to learn from each other in both formal and informal settings.

Poet-in-Residence Susan Kinsolving has run a Chapel program for a number of years that she calls “The Voices of Hotchkiss.” This is a moving experience where languages such as Twi, Ga, Turkish, or Arabic, among others, are celebrated.

Students read poems in their native language, followed by other students reading English translations of the poems.

Everyone learns by listening to the meter and rhyme of the pieces, and for those students whose languages are otherwise never spoken in public at the School, it is a

powerful, affirming experience of being seen.

A student commented how the flags in the Dining Hall, which represent the students, staff, and faculty present at the School each year, create opportunities for “unforced learning.” Instead of being asked to use geography in an assignment, discussions of the flags and the people and cultures and history that they represent come up naturally while one is sharing a meal with friends.

So whether it is comparing independence movements in a history class, or walking to practice and talking about an important holiday, or sharing a favorite snack from home, or giving a Chapel talk about a current event, our community is enriched by the diversity of cultures, histories, and geographies that we are lucky to have.

Lastly, what does the future of travel programs look like for the spring and fall?

In conversations with colleagues at peer schools, the consensus is that we will not plan to resume travel until the spring of 2022. To get started, many schools are looking into local and domestic travel with a focus on outdoor activities. With this in mind, I can imagine a number of opportunities to take our growing Outdoor Program off campus, as well as to give the students who are involved in Fairfield Farm a chance to learn from other farming programs in our region. H

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PROGRAMS 413 students and 76 adults traveled on Hotchkiss programs, exchanges, and international Round Square and debate conferences.

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AMERICAS

EUROPE

10

3

AFRICA

MIDDLE EAST

15

ASIA & THE PACIFIC

46%

of the Class of 2019 traveled on at least one international program.

Peer school average is 38%.

$104,510 IN GRANTS

given to members of the Class throughout their four years. Forty-eight students in the Class received at least one grant to support international travel.

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NETFLIX’S MEGAHIT,

Bridgerton v BASED ON NOVELS BY

JULIE COTLER POTTINGER ’87

Suddenly Corsets are in Vogue, Tea Sets and Big Hairdos, Too B Y W E N DY C A R L S O N

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J

ULIE COTLER POT TINGER ’87 began penning her first romance

novel as a teenager before she arrived Hotchkiss and finished it at the end of the summer of her lower-mid year. On her Harvard application, where she was asked about the book that had the most meaning in her life, she chose to describe her experience writing her novel, Standing Ovation, and having it rejected by a New York publisher. At the time, she had no idea that the rejection would just be a blip in the path of her successful career as an historical romance author, whose bestselling novels would be adapted into the gangbuster Netflix series Bridgerton.

Pottinger’s novels have been on the New York Times bestseller fiction list for years, but 2020 was a year like no other for the Seattle-based author. Her eight-book series about the Bridgerton family was optioned by Shondaland in 2017. Season one, based on The Duke and I, began streaming on Netflix on Christmas Day. Bridgerton is Netflix’s most successful series debut of all time, and it has reached the streaming service’s number one position in 76 countries. An astounding 82 million households watched it within the first 28 days of streaming.

Not surprisingly, a second season of Bridgerton is already in the works. The series has also garnered much media attention for its race-conscious casting, soundtrack of orchestral arrangements of pop songs, astounding costume design, rich period decor, and like all good page-turners, its steamy sex scenes.

This might all seem an unlikely turn of events, considering Harvard alumna Pottinger, who writes under the pen name Julia Quinn, majored in art history before setting her sights on becoming a doctor. After graduating from Harvard, she took two more years to complete her pre-med requirements. Then she sold her first book, Splendid, at the age of 24, the same month she was accepted to Yale School of Medicine. A few months into her studies, she realized that writing, not medicine, was her true calling, and she withdrew from Yale to dedicate herself to a career as a novelist.

Castle Howard featured in the series as Clyvedon Castle, the Duke of Hasting’s home

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Netflix adapted Julie Pottinger’s early novels beginning with The Duke and I. The series premiered on Christmas Day, and quickly became one of the platform’s most successful series debut of all time.

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Her decision proved auspicious. Since then, her novels have been translated into 37 languages, and she has appeared on the New York Times Bestseller List 18 times, with several of her books reaching number one on the mass market paperback fiction list. In the United States alone, there are over 10 million copies of her books in print, with more flying off the press since the Netflix series debut.

Adapted from Pottinger’s earlier novels, the Netflix series tells the story of the wellrespected Bridgerton family, which includes eight siblings and their widowed mother.

In the novels, set against the backdrop of Regency England, each of the siblings finds true love — eventually. The Netflix episodes are narrated by a scandal-sheet writer named Lady Whistledown (voiced by Dame Julie Andrews), whose true identity remains a mystery up until the eighth Netflix episode.

The series captures the romance and drama of London society life you’d expect in a period piece. Except the casting is radically different from the book. The leading characters, the prosperous and handsome Duke of Hastings (portrayed by Regé-Jean Page) is Black, and his “faux” escort, the beautiful and eldest Bridgerton daughter, Daphne (portrayed by Phoebe Dynevor) is white. Queen Charlotte is mixed race, and the witty dowager Lady Danbury is Black –– all diversions from the character descriptions in the original novel. But those are changes Pottinger is delighted to see.

“I think it’s wonderful,” she says. “The creative team started with an intriguing historical nugget — that many historians believe that Queen Charlotte was of mixedrace. Then thought: What if this had been an accepted fact? What if she used her position to elevate people of color into the aristocracy? What would society look like then? And yeah, the historical accuracy police are going to say that we didn’t have Black dukes, but you know what? I’m pretty sure we didn’t have quite so many aristocrats with ripped abs and perfect, white smiles, either. And when it comes right down to it, Bridgerton isn’t a history lesson. It’s a show for a modern audience.

Bridgerton isn’t a history lesson.

It’s a show for a modern audience.

And I think it’s important to invite as much of that audience to see themselves in the story. Because that’s the point of a romance novel, that we all deserve a happy ending.”

— JULIE COTLER POTTINGER ’87

And I think it’s important to invite as much of that audience to see themselves in the story. Because that’s the point of a romance novel, that we all deserve a happy ending.”

The female characters featured in her novels also depart from the often stereotypical damsels in romance novels.

While the women are constrained by societal norms, in Bridgerton they act with far more agency; they are sharp, witty, humorous, and calculating.

Pottinger, who has been dubbed a contemporary Jane Austen, considers herself a feminist because she gives her heroines 21st-century attitude — spunk, if you will — and often puts them in modern social dynamics. “In some ways, portraying a healthy relationship in literature is the most revolutionary thing you can do,” she wrote to her fans on her website.

Since the Netflix debut, Pottinger has been inundated with requests for public appearances, book signings, and media interviews. There has been no end of Bridgerton posts on social media as

platforms jump on the bandwagon of the series’s success. Fashion sites are now advertising puff-sleeved sweaters, pearl and crystal-hinged earrings, corsets, gloves, empire-waist dresses, and gravitydefying “big hair” dos, and a whole host of housewares have materialized — delicate china tea sets, flowing drapery, classic chandeliers, caned furniture, regal patterns and fabrics, antique mirrors, brass handles, marquetry tables and chairs, damask wallpaper, fourposter beds… and the list goes on.

“Every day something new and amazing happens, and I’m just smiling so hard that I just break out into spontaneous laughter. It’s insane and When season one of Bridgerton was being filmed in London last year, Pottinger visited the set and met the cast members. From top to bottom: Pottinger with Adjoa Andoh as Lady Danbury; with Nicola Coughlan as Penelope Featherington; with Claudia Jessie as Eloise Bridgerton; and with Regé-Jean Page as Simon Bassett a.k.a. the Duke of Hastings.

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wonderful,” Pottinger said.

In addition, adapting Bridgerton to the screen has elevated historical romance novels to a highly respected and extremely popular position on a livestream platform, something critics note has been a long time in coming.

It all began in 2017, when Pottinger’s literary agent approached her with an offer from Shondaland to produce a series for Netflix. Nearly three years later, the final filming of the series wrapped up in February 2020, just before the pandemic came into full force. But in the world of romance novelists, Pottinger has long been a well-known contender. Her novels have been in the literary limelight for more than a decade. As of February of this year, The Duke and I holds a secure number one place on the New York Times bestselling fiction paperback series.

In 2003, she enjoyed the rare honor of being profiled in Time Magazine, an accomplishment few romance novelists have achieved. In 2005, Publishers Weekly gave To Sir Phillip, With Love a rare starred review, and later named it one of the six best mass-market original novels of the year.

In 2007, she won the Romance Writers of America RITA Award for On the Way to

the Wedding and again for 2008 for The Secret Diaries of Miss Miranda Cheever.

When she won in 2010 for What Happens in London, she became (at the time) the youngest member, and she remains one of only 16 authors to be inducted into the Romance Writers Hall of Fame.

Each of her last 19 novels has appeared on the New York Times Bestseller List, with Mr. Cavendish, I Presume hitting number one in October 2008. First Comes Scandal was on the Times list in April 2020.

Since the release of the Netflix series, Pottinger’s books have vaulted back onto the bestseller list. Most recently, she had ten books on the USA Today Bestseller List and five on the New York Times list.

And this summer, she will release her first graphic novel, Miss Butterworth and the Mad Baron, which is based on story snippets that are peppered through her novels.

Pottinger is still in touch with several of her Hotchkiss teachers, but her friendship with Geoff Marchant P’93,’07 stands out.

“Our continued correspondence is one of the great joys of my life,” she says. “I even returned to Hotchkiss in the mid-

Every day something new and amazing happens, and I’m just smiling so hard that I just break out into spontaneous laughter. It’s insane and wonderful.”

2000s to guest-teach some of his classes.

It was a terrifying thrill. I have new respect for teachers, most specifically their lesson-planning. I really didn’t know what I was doing, but Mar was there by my side, this time teaching me how to teach.

And I must have done okay, because he still sends me home-tapped maple syrup from his farm in Vermont!”

As for the medical career she chose not to pursue, interestingly, her husband, Paul, is currently the director of the University of Washington’s Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine Clinic. H

Pottinger’s daughter, Zoe, currently a junior at Brown, has her hair styled for her role as an extra.

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Above, Pottinger looks through bolts of fabric. On right, she climbs aboard a carriage used in the filming.

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Simon, Oliver, Edward, and Vilma at Edward’s graduation from St. Stephen’s Episcopal Day School, Miami, a few days before Oliver suffered the onset of headaches and two weeks before he died.

HOW LOSING A SON INSPIRED AN EFFORT TO FIGHT PEDIATRIC CANCER

BY SIMON STRONG ’77

We were supposed to be at Lake Tahoe, after a glorious spring term when our younger son had graduated from our beloved Miami elementary school, and his brother, Oliver, had finished a jubilant first year as a middle-schooler, discovered his love and talent for the saxophone, and been re-selected as goalkeeper for a top Florida soccer team. Instead, one week after the onset of headaches that had curtailed Oliver’s tennis camp, and 36 hours after he had been diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia, my wife Vilma and I were in a hospital room about 20 meters away from where, at dawn on June 18, 2015, he had just passed away on a trolley. Through a fog of utterly indescribable torment we begged his oncologist for answers. “What caused this?” we asked. Amid her own tears, she replied: “It’s the environment.” And so our odyssey began.

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F

O R D E C A D E S I H AV E W O R K E D

as a reporter, author, and corporate investigator, researching and writing for some of the highest-profile media and publishing houses in the English-speaking world, and more recently for some of the best-known investigative companies.

In the weeks following Oliver’s death, as I groped for meaning and truth, I learned for the first time that cancer was overwhelmingly triggered by environmental factors — even if the actual mechanisms were deeply complex and barely understood.

That first revelation was best crystallized in a World Health Organization (WHO) paper I stumbled upon. Subsequently, I found it in the work of UC Berkeley’s professor of toxicology, Dr. Martyn Smith (now on our scientific advisory panel), focusing on the key characteristics of carcinogens, also published by the WHO. It confounded my own prior assumptions as well as those of most of my friends and acquaintances.

To the extent I had ever thought about cancer at all — like many of us outside the healthcare profession, I preferred to avoid dwelling on illness — I had always seen the disease broadly as a matter of bad luck and, to use a very British adjective, dodgy genes.

The revelation that cancer was environmentally-driven was empowering, if enraging. It meant that, at least in theory, cancer was a preventable disease. And that if we as a species ceased to poison our planet — global warming being just one consequence of human pollution — we could cease to poison ourselves.

Yet it took time for my appreciation of the integral, and at some level ineffable, relationship between human beings and our physical environment to take center stage.

That should perhaps not have been the case. At Hotchkiss, as an English-Speaking Union exchange student arriving in senior year, I was privileged to take a nature writing course with Blair Torrey, during which we studied Annie Dillard’s Pilgrim at Tinker Creek and spent many an hour penning our observations and reflections in the School’s magical woods.

I should have dug deeper and searched out Dillard’s literary and spiritual

progenitor, Henry Thoreau, not just another transcendentalist but a far more acerbic critic of environmental pollution and degradation. That would come later (and Ralph Waldo Emerson, too).

Still, a seed was sown. And there was a through-line. As part of our contemplation of nature, we did spend precious time at Succor Brook. Years later, on a sweet June afternoon, Oliver and his younger brother, Edward, laughed and splashed beside its rocks during our Class of 1977’s 35th reunion weekend.

With savage synchronicity, in writing this article I realize the class reunion fell on the same month and day that Oliver spent his final night at Miami Children’s Hospital, three years later.

My second revelation in the weeks that followed our son’s death was that the pediatric cancer rate has soared nearly 50% since 1975. It is the leading cause of death in children and teenagers, other than accidents.

Bafflingly, the data staring at me from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website had attracted not a single media mention. One pediatric oncologist even denied it was true, until I showed him the data. Why had it increased so much?

At the same time, wherever I looked,

I was being reassured about the five-yearsurvival rate, averaging 80%. Less commonly reported was a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association finding that more than 95% of childhood cancer survivors had a chronic health condition by the age of 45 — because of the cancer itself, or more commonly, its treatment.

Seeking to explore how I could drive awareness as well as research into prevention — instead of focusing on detection, diagnosis and treatment, like other charities — I turned to a statistics professor in Florida who had authored papers on pediatric cancer clusters. A few phone calls later, an excited cancer epidemiologist at Harvard Medical School connected me to Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, ironically the beating heart of the global oil industry driving most of our pollution.

For several years Baylor, part of Texas Children’s Hospital, the nation’s largest pediatric cancer center, had been administering an epidemiological questionnaire to in-patients, focusing primarily on lifestyle and genetic factors.

Baylor’s Professor Michael Scheurer, director of the Childhood Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention Program, was excited to launch a web-based study to reach a wider

Oliver’s friends and family in Miami at a “Light the Night” rally of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

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range and a much larger number of families — volume being critical to identifying meaningful environmental associations — on a shorter timeline.

And together with input from a former CDC toxicologist, Dr. David Brown, whom I had encountered because of his work on the health impacts of fracking as well as the carcinogenicity of the diced-up, used vehicle tires deployed on artificial sports fields, we developed a questionnaire that interrogated broader environmental exposures.

Our role in the study, named TheReasonsWhy.Us, is to recruit its participants. They sign up at our website of the same name. We transfer their basic data to Dr. Scheurer’s team, who follow up with the online questionnaire. This bifurcated approach enables us to focus freely on communication and community outreach and Baylor to focus solely on the study itself.

We launched TheReasonsWhy.Us in 2020.

It comprises a family questionnaire covering diet, neonatal practices, medications, and infections, as well as sports, leisure, and other personal and consumer activities. Once the data is collected, Dr. Scheurer’s team will assess exposures to key toxicants. That will involve multiple datasets including air and water studies, exposure to pollution, and the collection and analysis of baby teeth — which record when certain toxicants, including metals and pesticides, penetrate our bodies.

As a result of our expanding grassroots community outreach and some key media coverage (The Guardian, Environmental Health News), so far around 600 families have signed up from 46 states, as well as from several other countries. Modest this might seem, but by comparison the hugely ambitious National Children’s Study tragically collapsed in 2014 after spending $1.2 billion and managing to recruit just 5,000 pregnant mothers.

To be successful, to find the answers our families seek, and for Baylor’s study to yield the evidence we all need to identify and to control the toxicants imperiling our children’s health (the pediatric incidence of most other non-infectious illnesses and conditions has also surged), it is critical we drive our numbers into the many thousands.

Dr. Philip Landrigan, a legendary pediatrician, thanks to whose crusading efforts lead was removed from gasoline and 36

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who is professor of biology and director, Global Observatory on Pollution and Health, Boston College, has joined our scientific advisory panel. He says: “We must support strong research programs like this that include epidemiological and toxicological studies. Very large participation is crucial to obtain the data we need to design evidence-based programs for disease prevention in children. Research into cancer prevention must be funded on at least an equal level with research into cancer treatment. We must strengthen state and federal laws to better protect our children — and we must enforce those laws.

“Pediatric cancer is the canary in the coal mine for human health. Health effects may be gross and obvious, such as cancer or death, or they may be subtle, such as delays in development or impairment of immune function. There are more than 85,000 manufactured chemicals in use in America today. Only a handful have been tested for safety or toxicity. Children are more vulnerable because of their greater environmental exposure pound for pound than adults, coupled with the exquisite vulnerability that is a consequence of the rapid and incredibly complex growth and development of their organ systems. And the physiological effects are cumulative and long-term.”

The scale of our ambition for TheReasonsWhy.Us, the key project of our non-profit The Oliver Foundation, sometimes overwhelms. But we are garnering the support of the world’s most eminent pediatric and cancer scientists, including Dr. Margaret Kripke, former chief academic officer at University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Dr. Kripke served multiple terms on the threeperson President’s Cancer Panel, where she produced the groundbreaking 2009 report, Reducing Environmental Cancer Risk: What We Can Do Now. At the same time, we are no longer quite so alone in our prevention-focused, paradigm-shifting mission. In 2020, even as the first of our families began to take the questionnaire, more than 60 groups focused on environmental health, and comprising scientists, business leaders and policy experts, formed the Childhood Cancer Prevention Initiative. This led to a report

(Childhood Cancer: Cross-Sector Strategies for Prevention) calling for “chemical producers, manufacturers, and retailers to turn off the tap on toxic chemicals and replace them with viable, safer alternatives that people can access regardless of their economic status.”

And we have demonstrated proof of concept. Splitting the recruitment of families affected by pediatric cancer from the execution of the study itself has opened the doors to the volume and diversity of data critical to the study’s success. And Dr. Scheurer describes the response rate by our families upon Baylor’s outreach to them as “unprecedented.”

Yet, reaching the Hispanic and AfricanAmerican communities who suffer the brunt of environmental injustice is a major challenge. With regard to the Hispanic community, my Colombian wife Vilma’s role as a reporter for Univision, the biggest Spanish-language news network, is a godsend.

Our key objective is recruitment — for which we are looking to design and execute a comprehensive and inclusive communications strategy that inspires and embraces affected families across the USA and across the world who seek not only answers, but also change.

Our participating families are extraordinarily brave. Some have lost their children; some are supporting them during the anguish, and financial uncertainty, of treatment; and some are blessed to have children in full remission. What we all have in common is the hope our contribution will lead, one day, toward a cleaner world in which we humans prove ourselves more worthy stewards of our planet — and are blessed in turn with healthier lives.

As a family, Vilma, Edward, and I feel blessed that Oliver — a deeply empathic and compassionate boy already passionate about social injustice — has gifted us this chance to serve. H Simon Strong is CEO of Tenácitas International, a business intelligence and corporate investigations firm. He lives in Miami, FL, with his wife, Vilma, and son, Edward. He also serves as executive director of The Oliver Foundation, www.thereasonswhy. us. Brett Pierce, class of ’77, who was Oliver’s godfather, also serves on the Foundation’s board.

Through the Lens Peter Reiss ’89 Documents the Vaccine Revolution PETER REISS ’89 IS EXECUTIVE

producer of The Vaccine: Conquering Covid, which premiered on D+, Discovery Channel, and the Science Channel in February.

The documentary, which is available to stream on D+, has been described as a timely, light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel special dedicated to the cutting-edge science behind creating vaccines.

Set against the backdrop of a rising global death count and a pandemic that left the world on edge, the special goes behind the scenes of the race for a vaccine and offers interviews with the world’s leading doctors involved, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Along with Fauci, it features Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, and Dr. John Mascola, director of vaccine research at the National Institutes of Health, as well as interviews with scientists from leading pharmaceutical companies, including Johnson & Johnson, Moderna, and Pfizer.

Since scientific data on COVID-19 is changing so rapidly, “the film focuses on how the vaccines have been developed in record time and why they are safe,” said Reiss.

The race for a vaccine has revolutionized the process involved in creating a vaccine, following a timeline that many considered impossible. In what would become one of the most extraordinary scientific accomplishments in a generation, the early development of the COVID-19 vaccines not only has given the world reason to hope an end to the pandemic is near but also that life may soon return to normal.

Filming the documentary in the midst of the pandemic was challenging, said Reiss, who interviewed Fauci via Zoom.

“We developed strict COVID-19 protocols to be able to get him on camera

Peter Reiss owns The Woodshed, which produced The Vaccine: Conquering Covid.

“With everything the world has been through over the last year, the public craves an understanding of what is happening and what is yet to come.”

—PETER REISS ’89

without his mask. He couldn’t have been nicer, and I was shocked at how open he was about threats on his life and his family,” said Reiss.

“For all the people we interviewed, the camera crew and production staff had to have been PCR-tested within three days.

“If the interview was inside, like the Fauci interview, we set up a remote camera system in a hotel room with lights the day before.

The camera can be controlled remotely from another hotel room. The interviewee then comes into the room with the remote camera system in it and sits down and takes off the mask, and we start the interview. I am piped in on Zoom asking the questions remotely, but the camera is recording the interview.”

The film also details the heroic efforts of early trial volunteers, including Jen Haller, a Seattle resident who became the first person in the United States to receive the Moderna vaccine. Viewers hear firsthand accounts from those at the forefront of the pandemic as well as from leaders such as Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, who details the strategy behind successfully rolling out and distributing the vaccines to the masses and the hurdles leaders are facing along the way.

“With everything the world has been through over the last year, the public craves an understanding of what is happening and what is yet to come,” said Nancy Daniels,

chief brand officer, Discovery & Factual.

“We are proud to present this deep-dive into the COVID-19 crisis to Discovery audiences, detailing the work of thousands of men and women around the world who are proving there is hope on the horizon.”

Reiss described compliance with COVID19 protocols for filming people without masks as the most challenging part of producing the film.

Before venturing into documentaries, Reiss worked as a journalist for ABC News and NBC News. He credits his interest in documentary filmmaking to Lou Pressman P’98, former chaplain and instructor of religion and philosophy at Hotchkiss. “He nurtured my love of philosophy, which has been the foundation of my academic and professional career, by nurturing curiosity and perspective,” Reiss said.

“I put a lot of work into this, and I want to share it with everyone I know, as it is the story of our lifetime,” Reiss said.

Reiss’s production company, The Woodshed, partnered with Glass Entertainment Group to produce The Vaccine: Conquering Covid. Peter Reiss, Nancy Glass, Eric Neuhaus, and Jon Hirsch were executive producers, alongside Caroline Perez and Lindsey Foster Blumberg for Science Channel and Discovery. H

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‘Our Family Name is on the Line Every Day’ Bill Ford ’75, executive chairman of Ford Motor Company and the great-grandson of Henry Ford, is an elder statesman in an industry where C.E.O.s come and go.

B Y DAV I D G E L L E S

(Reprinted with permission from The New York Times)

WITH THE CORONAVIRUS RAPIDLY

disrupting American life in mid-March and organized labor pressuring carmakers to ensure worker safety, Bill Ford reached out to the competition.

Mr. Ford, the executive chairman of the Ford Motor Company, brokered a conference call with the leaders of General Motors, Fiat Chrysler, the United Auto Workers and key Michigan politicians. The result was an unprecedented decision: The Big Three automakers temporarily suspended production throughout North America.

Cars and trucks have been rolling off the assembly line again for months now, but Mr. Ford, the great-grandson of Henry Ford, still faces myriad challenges. The pandemic has forced Ford and other manufacturers to revamp production processes to promote social distancing. Tesla has made electric cars mainstream, leaving Ford and other legacy carmakers scrambling to stay relevant.

And this year, Ford was the lone American automaker to defy President Trump and commit to adhering to California’s stringent fuel efficiency standards.

Mr. Ford is an elder statesman in an industry where C.E.O.s come and go.

He joined the company in 1979, became a board member in 1988 and was chief executive from 2001 to 2006. Since then he has been executive chairman of the board.

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Though Ford is worth just a fraction of Tesla, Mr. Ford says he is optimistic about the future. The company is introducing an electric Mustang sport-utility vehicle and an electric F-150 pickup truck, and Volkswagen selected Ford as its partner to develop self-driving cars.

This interview was condensed and edited for clarity.

How did you make the decision to shut down production?

If you think back to March, there was so much we didn’t know about the virus, about how it was transmitted. In that kind of uncertainty, we had to make sure that our employees were safe. Given what we do, and that in manufacturing people by definition are very close together, we just didn’t know enough to be able to provide a safe working environment. So we decided to shut down. And then we spent the next eight weeks while we were shut down figuring out: What does a safe start-up look like? How can we ensure our employees’ safety? Fast-forward all these months later, and everything we put into place really paid off because while COVID-19 has run rampant around the world, our plants have been exceptionally safe.

Bill Ford Jr. ’75, executive chairman of the board of Ford Motor Company, was the 2018 Alumni Award recipient.

“I feel like I’m working for my children and my grandchildren.

Values matter.”

What do you believe will be the lasting impact of the pandemic on your business?

One of the things that we certainly hadn’t thought about back in March was the fact that cars and trucks in some ways are the ultimate personal protective equipment.

So people that hadn’t owned a car or truck and were reluctant to get into either public transport or a shared type of transportation decided they really wanted to have their own vehicle. When we were back in March, we actually thought that sales were going to be hit hard throughout the pandemic. But what happened was we had a bleak month or two, and then everything kind of roared back and has continued strong. That was something that I think we hadn’t foreseen as we went into this.

Last year you broke with President Trump and decided to stick with California’s tougher emission standards. You’ve publicly characterized that decision as a practical one, saying it would be too hard to make two versions of the same product. But at a personal level, what did you think of the president’s efforts to relax emission standards, which of course were part of a much broader rollback of environmental protections during this administration?

I didn’t like it. Very early on we decided to stand with California, and there weren’t many who did. In the end it was ourselves, Volkswagen, Honda, Volvo and BMW, and we were the first to raise our hand. It was just something that I felt was very important.

We knew it was the right thing to do.

The president wasn’t very happy with me, and I heard about it. But that’s OK. If you have the right values and you stick with them, then you have to be willing to take whatever comes your way.

I just firmly believed that taking a step backward was absolutely the wrong thing to do. We had also committed to the Paris accord. And why? Well, I feel like I’m working for my children and my grandchildren. Values matter. It just made no sense to me, as someone who cares deeply about the environment and as a business leader, whichever way you looked at it.

Are there ways in which the Trump administration’s policies have helped the company over the last four years?

There were a lot of things that were good.

The focus on the American worker and making things in America was really a good thing. I found the president was easy to engage with. He was usually available and was willing to listen. From that standpoint, there were absolutely some positives.

The biggest thing for our industry is certainty. We can deal with almost any reality as long as we have certainty. But when you have uncertainty, given the lead times and the heavy investments that we have as a company, it becomes really hard to operate. I remind our employees of this all the time. We’ve been around for 117 years and we’ve operated around the world in every possible political climate, from the

most liberal to the most restricted. So we’re pretty good in terms of trying not to get too buffeted by any short-term politics. If we do that, we’ll never make progress.

So what do you hope to see from the Biden administration, beyond a real, vigilant effort to stamp out this pandemic?

One thing I do really want to work with him on is infrastructure and the electrification of our industry and the build-out of the infrastructure that’s needed. When people talk about infrastructure, they often think about railroads and seaports and airports and roads.

Those are all really important. But there’s a future-looking infrastructure as well, a smart world, if you will.

Explain to me how Ford can have a market capitalization of $36 billion or so with more than $100 billion of revenue, and Tesla can have a $550 billion market cap with sales of less than your market cap. What does this say to you about how investors are valuing car companies today, and what they expect the next several years to hold?

Well, I believe they’re making a mistake in how they value us. They may be valuing Tesla exactly correctly. I have no idea. But I really believe that we have the opportunity to show not just Wall Street, but individual investors, that this is a company that has a tremendous future.

Tesla has been able to make electric vehicles mainstream in a way that no one previously had. How was it not Ford or G.M. or Chrysler that did that?

It wasn’t just us. It was also Toyota, Honda, you name it. We were pushing hybridization and plug-in, and they went right to electric. I give Tesla full credit for being the pioneer and really blazing the path for all of us. But now the game is on.

In five years, let’s see where we all stand.

Do you believe the industry in some way should have been more proactive in trying to lead the way to a future where fuel efficiency really mattered to people?

I would say we’ve been doing that. I mean, we didn’t go to all-electric, but we were pushing hybrids hard and with great success.

We feel like the infrastructure is going to be out there soon, and we can really push hard on electrification. We’re taking our biggestselling vehicles and our most iconic vehicles, the F-150 and the Mustang, and we’re electrifying them. So we’re putting our chips into the middle of the table, and I think it’s absolutely the right thing to do.

How does your meditation practice impact your work?

It gets you out of your own head. If I’m really stressed about something, or I can’t see something clearly, I have a couple of ways of sort of clearing my head. One is to play ice hockey. The other is to meditate.

When you’re in a position like mine for a long time, I’ve seen so many people whose egos have just run away with them.

Meditating brings you back to the fact that at the end of the day, you’re no different than anybody else. The minute you start believing any of the kind of hype around yourself, you’re in real trouble.

This year the whole country has been reckoning with the legacy of racism. To what extent have you and the company addressed the anti-Semitism expressed by Henry Ford?

Do you feel compelled to make up for everything your great-grandparents did?

What’s important is how we’re acting today.

So is it something I’m aware of? Yeah, absolutely, as part of my family’s history.

But is it something that I feel lingers today?

No, I don’t. Not in the least, and I want to make sure there’s no sign that that’s ever coming back.

How do you see your role in both, as a leader of the company and the family?

Most of the people who are involved with the company — our employees, our dealers, even government — like the family involvement because they know there’s someone accountable. I’m not going to disappear with a golden parachute somewhere. I’m here through thick and thin, and my reputation’s on the line every day.

Our family name is on the line every day. H

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CLASS NOTES

Tight Squeeze Ned Lambrecht ’54, who was photo editor of the Misch and The Record during his time at Hotchkiss, snapped this intriguing photo. It appears to show students attempting to roll a Volkswagen Beetle or similar-size automobile into Main Building. Maybe you can help shed some light on this curious caper. Email us: magazine@hotchkiss.org

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Gotcha!

In the last issue, we asked our alumni to solve the mystery of how this cow ended up on the Senior Grass back in 1996. The partners in crime were James Benenson ’97 and his classmate, Pete Gottlieb, who came up with the idea.

Benenson explains: “The photo of the cow made me laugh out loud when I saw it again. It was an upper-mid prank on the seniors.

Pete Gottlieb ’97 and I hatched the plan. Walter Crain gave us special permission to drive in Pete’s car (he was a day student) to a local farm, where I had made arrangements to borrow (really, rent) a cow for the day.

The farmer made us help him get the cow into the trailer, which was more than either Pete or I had bargained for.

“We got back to campus just after sunrise and tied the cow to the flagpole on Senior Grass (is there still Senior Grass?), and draped a sheet with ‘97 written on it on the flagpole. I wore a cow tie that day for Auditorium announcements, just in case the seniors had any doubt who was behind it.

“The seniors were not pleased. I may have been wrapped in duct tape from head to toe that evening at the snack bar. I’m sure nothing like that happens now…

“One final funny detail — she was not pleased about the whole thing.

When we got her tied to the flagpole, she did about 20 laps of Senior Grass, braying at the top of her considerable lungs. This woke up a lot of people in Coy and Buehler, maybe even Memorial and Tinker, too. I didn’t know cows could be that noisy. She calmed down after that.

“In fairness, one of Walter Crain’s conditions was that I had to clean up the cow pies at the end of the day. That was less fun. There were, however, greener spots of grass on Senior Grass at least until I graduated.”

Paul Nitze ’96 adds: “I was co-president of the school at the time with Mitch Deane, and we were not amused. James, who was co-president of the upper-mid class at the time, stood up in auditorium that morning and made an announcement while wearing a necktie featuring a cow. The rest of his class stood and applauded him.”

“In my humble opinion, it was not my best prank,” said Benenson.

“Our senior year I called Kelly Transit in Torrington and, impersonating the Taft Athletic Director, cancelled all of their buses for Taft Day. When Taft arrived in a hodgepodge of school vans and faculty cars 90 or so minutes late, we had banners to greet them that said ‘WELCOME, BUSLESS WONDERS!’”

In the 1996 Misch, partnersin-crime James Benenson ’97 (right) and his classmate, Pete Gottlieb, are pictured with the cow they tied to the flagpole as an upper-mid class prank.

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CLASS NOTES

What’s going on in your life?

Submit a class note and photos to magazine@hotchkiss.org

by May 30 for the summer issue.

STAY CONNECTED

TO HOTCHKISS AND FRIENDS!

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BOARD OF GOVERNORS

CLASS NOTES

Connect with fellow alumni wherever you are.

New Provider, New Features!

Alumnet can be accessed through an app on your mobile device or on a web browser. This amazing resource is right at your fingertips, just a click away! Previously run by EverTrue, but now powered by Graduway, the new Alumnet offers many more features than just an alumni directory, and we’re excited to finally share these new features with you!

DIRECTORY Find Hotchkiss alumni all in one place.

Whether you’re looking to connect with an old classmate, find Bearcats in your area, or looking for professional advice, the directory makes the Hotchkiss alumni network reachable at the click of a button.

DOWNLOAD THE NEW APP using the instructions below:

FEED An interactive, personalized list of all new content and information posted to the platform, designed with Hotchkiss alumni in mind.

GROUPS Create spaces for exclusive discussions, events, photos, and more.

FOR iOS: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/ graduway-community/id1457549791 Once you’ve installed the Graduway Community app, search for “The Hotchkiss School” in the organization field. That will bring you to the Hotchkiss Community.

JOBS Your centralized area to post or view job opportunities and internships. Since this is a closed network consisting of only Hotchkiss alumni, the postings and applicants already come from a reliable source — fellow Bearcats!

MENTORING Offer to or seek help to make career connections, answer industry specific questions, or simply chat. To make an even greater impact, offer to or seek a mentor, review a resume, or identify an internship or business opportunity.

Note: This feature will replace our current Alumni Career Network, powered

by Firsthand, effective November 30, 2021. After November 30, 2021, the Firsthand network will no longer be available.

EVENTS During this pandemic, we are not hosting any in-person alumni events. As we continue to schedule virtual events, we will share that event information here.

We look forward to the time when we can celebrate with you all in person again!

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FOR ANDROID: https://play.google.com/store/apps/ details?id=com.graduway.hotchkissalumnet FOR WEB BROWSERS: https://hotchkissalumnet.org For security reasons, your previous Hotchkiss Alumni App credentials have not been transferred to the new app. You can register as a new user by linking your Facebook, Google, or LinkedIn accounts or using your email and a password you create.

If you have any questions or trouble during the process, please email Alumnet@hotchkiss.org

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IN MEMORIAM

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MAYNARD CLEVEL AND BARTRAM JR.,

94, of Bloomfield, CT, died peacefully on January 15, 2021. Born in Sharon, CT, he attended Indian Mountain School before coming to Hotchkiss in 1941 with the Class of 1945.

His daughter, Amy, shared some interesting history in a note to the School about her father’s passing: “Dad was a day student who graduated early in 1944 to join the Navy. He did board five days a week for some of his third year at Hotchkiss due to gas rationing. He believed he was the first day student at either Hotchkiss or Indian Mountain School, but couldn’t remember which one. He is the only one listed as a day student in his Hotchkiss yearbook.” During World War II he served in the Pacific Theater as Seaman 1st Class QM and was in Leyte Gulf readying for the invasion of Japan when the war ended. He graduated from Yale in 1950 with a B.S. in Economics. He later completed the Harvard Business School Advanced Management Program. After Yale, he joined Connecticut General (now CIGNA) in national real estate investment. He was president of Connecticut General Mortgage and Realty Investments and president of CONGEN Realty Advisory Company. He then became principal at Bartram & Company real estate investment advisors, later Bartram & Cochran. He served for a time as president of the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts and as chairman, Yale’s Real Estate Investment Committee, and on Yale’s Development Committee. For more than 50 years, he served as president, chairman, director, and co-founder of the non-profit Church Homes, Inc., a pioneer in senior life care communities in CT, including Noble Horizons in Salisbury, CT. He was a founder, director, and president of Interfaith Homes in Bloomfield, CT. He was elected to the Bloomfield Board of Education and served as the vice chairman for a time, helping to further integration in the schools. He was married to Jeannette Gardner Norton (“Jay”) for 60 years, until her death in 2013. An avid sportsman and outdoorsman, he traveled the world with Jay and especially enjoyed hiking in the Alps and White Mountains. He is survived by a sister; four children and four grandchildren; a greatgrandson, and extended family.

JEREMY PETER SAMUEL MONTAGU died at home on September 11, 2020, aged 92. He was an Emeritus Fellow of Wadham College, Oxford, Curator of the Bate Collection of Musical Instruments and Lecturer at the Faculty of Music, University of Oxford; a percussionist who played with most of the major London orchestras (including the Royal Philharmonic with Thomas Beecham); and a collector and

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student of musical instruments from around the world, about which he wrote 20 books. In the 1950s he played in his own professional orchestra, the Montagu String Orchestra, seeking authentic performances of baroque and early classical works. Born in December 1927, he grew up with music, he recalled, listening to his mother playing the piano, to records, to bands in Kensington Gardens, to orchestras from his grandmother’s box in the Albert Hall, and to chanting in the synagogue. Evacuated to the U.S. in 1940, he went to the opera at Symphony Hall and played the horn in the school band while at Hotchkiss from 1941-43, and continued with it back at school in Britain.

On National Service in Egypt, he gave music lessons and discovered Arabic music. Studying economics at Cambridge, he spent most of his time with music, playing and conducting, until his academic performance was questioned and he left for Goldsmiths College of Music.

A year as Curator of Musical Instruments at the Horniman Museum (1960-61), which continued until 1970 as a weekend job, set off an interest in ethnographic instruments, and he began to collect instruments seriously, and to lecture on them. He was appointed to curate the Bate Collection in 1981, by which time he had started writing books. His first, The World of Medieval and Renaissance Musical Instruments, was published in 1975. It was the first of three David & Charles surveys of European instruments and was followed by studies of individual instruments, from the French horn and shofar to the conch, his last five being released as PDFs on his website. He retired in 1995. He was Heath Visiting Professor at Grinnell College, Iowa, in 1970-71, Honorary Secretary and then President of the Galpin Society, and Secretary of the Ethnomusicology Committee of the Royal Anthropological Institute, of which he was also a Fellow. He was a loving father to his three children and devoted to his 10 grandchildren and five greatgrandchildren. He was predeceased in 2003 by his wife, Gwen Montagu.

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Longtime Greenwich, CT resident, F. died peacefully at home on January 6, 2021, at age 92. Anyone lucky enough to have known “Dick” will be forever touched by his kindness, generosity, and charm.

Born June 12, 1928 in New York City, he attended Allen-Stevenson School and then Hotchkiss from 1942-46. Graduating cum laude, he excelled in academics and sports as well as performing leading classical roles, acquitting himself with distinction in many of the School’s dramatic productions as well as serving as its president. Following graduation from Princeton in 1950, he and his wife, Mary, RICHARDS FORD III,

relocated to Charlottesville, VA, where he attended the University of Virginia Law School. Upon graduation in 1953 with a J. D. degree, he accepted a position with Cummings and Lockwood and moved his young family to Greenwich. From 1960-63, he was honored to accept a position as consultant for the U.S. Department of Defense.

Moving his wife and young family to Geneva, Switzerland, he worked on disarmament for the Eisenhower administration. He remained there during the Kennedy administration, working on the test ban treaty and nuclear disarmament.

Returning to Greenwich in 1963, he accepted a Senior VP position at the State National Bank, later becoming Executive VP and heading the Trust Dept. when the bank became Connecticut Bank and Trust. He returned to private law practice in 1986. A member of the Round Hill Club, he loved playing golf and rarely missed his fitness training sessions. He enjoyed attending lectures in Manhattan at The Brook Club and served on the boards of the Greenwich Academy and Bruce Museum, as well as being a founding member of the Land Trust division of the Greenwich Audubon from ’71 -’79. He is survived by his wife, Phoebe Brown Ballard, and younger sister. He is also survived by Mary Hope Lewis, his first wife, and their five children and his eight grandchildren.

ALEXANDER M c AFEE (“Sandy”), 93, died peacefully on November 19, 2020, at his residence in Chagrin Falls, OH. Born in Cleveland, he attended Hawken School through eighth grade. At Hotchkiss from 1942 until graduation in 1946, he played football and baseball. He then attended Yale, where he lived in Pierson College and played on the football and rugby teams. Following graduation in 1950, he took a job with Cleveland Cliffs as a surveyor in the underground mines of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Nine months later, he was called to serve in the Korean War. As part of the Marine Corps 1st Marine Division, he fought in combat in Korea from the fall of 1951 until he was released as a First Lieutenant in December 1952. He described his experience there as elemental. “You lived in a trench, and it was 30 below zero and your mind was conditioned to getting the next can of pork and beans. You would trade a bottle of whiskey for a candle to read by.” He received eight medals for his service in Korea, including six Air Medals for completing 162 air missions over enemy territory.

After his service, he returned to the Cleveland Cliffs home office as an iron ore salesman. It was around this time that he met the love of his life, Marianna “Nina” Clemson, in a lift line on a ski trip to Aspen. They rode the chair up that day and remained together for the run of their lives — 56 years in all — until her death in 2012. In 1981 at age 53 he joined his old friend, Bill Conway, at Best Sand Company as president. “It was the greatest thing I ever did,” he once said. He

stayed at Best Sand, which became Fairmount Minerals, until retiring as vice chairman in 1990.

He was on the board of Fairmount Minerals, The Garick Corp., and Contour Packaging.

He served on the board of the Rainey Institute and as a trustee of Suomi College and was a founder of the Cleveland Racquet Club. An avid sportsman, he loved fishing, skiing, tennis, and platform tennis. An effectual golf swing eluded him. He was known more for straight talk than tact. He played piano by ear, sang with the Sleepless Knights, and had a repertoire of limericks that his friends and family enjoyed.

He is survived by his two daughters and son, six grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren.

PETER BOGUE VAN TASSEL of Edgartown, MA, died on June 1, 2020, at 91. He grew up in Scarsdale, NY, in a historic farmhouse that included on the property the first privately-owned paddle tennis court in the country. He graduated from Hotchkiss and Yale, Class of 1950. He attended the Royal Institute of British Architecture in London, then returned to Yale, earning a master’s degree in architecture. From there, he spent much of his career in New York City at the architectural firm of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, working on commercial buildings. He spent two years living in Brussels, Belgium, working on SOM’s Banque Lambert project. He ended his professional life in New York working for Scalamandré, a high-end fabric and design firm.

An avid reader, he kept a library full of literature, history, European and British architecture, and art. He had no use for television and never owned a cell phone or a computer. In 1988, just as his parents had done 30 years earlier, he left New York and retired to the Vineyard. In his later years he suffered from dementia and other health complications. He was predeceased by his two older sisters and his longtime partner, Daniel Sullivan, and was survived by two nieces and five nephews.

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BRUCE BRYANT passed away January 12, 2021, in Boulder, CO. Born in September 1930 in New York City, he grew up in Springfield, VT, and attended Hotchkiss from 1944 until graduation in 1947. He earned his A.B. degree in 1951 from Dartmouth. He made his first trip West after graduating from college and fell in love with it. He earned his Ph.D. in geology from the University of Washington. He met his wife, Dolores Ann Becker (“Sandy”), at Mt. Rainier, and they settled in Golden, CO, raising their family there. Among Mr. Bryant’s passions were mountains and the outdoors. He loved fieldwork, skiing, and hiking, and instilled that passion for the outdoors in his four children. He was active in preserving open spaces and natural

resources through the Clear Creek Conservancy and Plan Jeffco in its early days. In addition to the outdoors, he loved learning and travel. He read deeply and broadly and was always quick to bring out reference books at the dinner table. He had a four-decade long, productive career as a research geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, where he mapped in North Carolina, Kentucky, Colorado, Utah, and Arizona, resulting in more than 100 publications. In retirement he held the title of Scientist Emeritus and continued to go to the office, write and publish. His family and friends will remember him as a person of great integrity and intellect with a fine sense of humor.

He was preceded in death by his wife, Sandy, in 2007 and is survived by his four children, eight grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.

JOHN HOY T STOOKEY of Great Barrington, MA, formerly of New York City and Southport, CT, died January 31, two days after his 91st birthday, from COVID-19. After Hotchkiss, he earned degrees from Amherst College and the Columbia University Engineering School.

He was chairman of the Quantum Chemical Corporation and served on more than 25 corporate boards, ten of which were NYSElisted companies; he remained a director of Suburban Propane until shortly before his death.

A music lover since childhood, in 1982 he founded the Berkshire Choral Institute, from which more than 9,000 choristers have given over 230 performances in 22 locations around the world. In 1991 he launched Landmark Volunteers to pair groups of high school students with volunteer opportunities at established service organizations, including the Appalachian Mountain Club, Glimmerglass Opera, and the Paul Newman Camps. In 1994 he founded Per Scholas, a Bronx-based non-profit providing free technology training and career opportunities for the underserved. To date, Per Scholas has helped launch the careers of more than 12,000 graduates. Committed to organizations in his communities, he served on the boards of five charitable foundations, including The Clark and Berkshire Taconic Foundations; ten musical organizations; and nine boards of educational institutions. He was honored with Chorus America’s Distinguished Service Award in 2012.

Beyond work and volunteering, he was an outdoorsman, pilot, sailor, oarsman, canoeist and prankster. He flew for almost 60 years and sailed the waters off Center Harbor, ME, Southport Harbor in Connecticut, and the Virgin Islands.

As an oarsman he rowed from Key West to Georgia in his 50s and continued rowing daily, weather permitting, into his 90s at his summer home in Brooklin, ME, and from the Salisbury Rowing Club on Twin Lakes. As a canoeist he paddled hundreds of rivers — often on his own.

Since his 75th birthday his solo expeditions have

included the 740-mile Northern Forest Canoe Trail from the Adirondacks to Ft. Kent, ME; 330 miles of the Erie Canal and a 440-mile paddle from Montreal to Manhattan. In the fall of 2020, he soloed 100 miles of the Connecticut River. He will be remembered always by his devoted wife of 66 years, Katherine Emory Stookey; four children, nine grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.

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HENRY MACAULEY WOODHOUSE

of Indian River Shores, FL, died peacefully, surrounded by his loving family on November 30, 2020. “Mac,” as he was fondly known, was born in Detroit, MI on March 28, 1930, and grew up in Grosse Pointe. He attended Hotchkiss from 1944 until graduation in 1948 and graduated from Yale with a B.S. degree in mechanical engineering in 1952. He met his future wife, Joan K. Neuberger, on spring break in Bermuda, and they married in 1953.

They settled in Grosse Pointe and raised three children. He began his professional career at Uniroyal as an engineer before moving on to financial services at First of Michigan Corporation. Mac was an outdoorsman; he enjoyed skating, ice boating and sailing on Lake St. Clair, and hunting in Canada. He sailed in countless Mackinac Races over the years and played ice hockey in the senior league around Detroit until he retired to Florida. He always enjoyed good friends, good times, and a good laugh. Retiring to Johns Island in Vero Beach, Florida in 1991, and unable to sit still, Mac expanded on his interest in woodworking and acquired Beachland Millworks, which supplied custom woodwork in Vero. After only four or five jobs, the business became profitable. In his Misch II profile, he said, “When a builder bids on a big house, we often bid on the millwork package — the doors, moldings, windows, and outside furnishings.” With the move to Florida, he enjoyed family gatherings with his children and grandchildren during Christmas and spring vacations for more than 30 years. He is survived

by Joan, his wife of 67 years, and his three children and six grandchildren, including Sarah Canty ’10. He is also survived by his brother, John T. Woodhouse, Jr. ’46, and many nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his parents and sister.

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With great sadness, the family of WILLIAM (“Bill”) announced his passing on January 21, 2021, at the age of 89.

Born in Plainfield, NJ, he spent his life serving his country at home and abroad, eventually settling in Lower Marlboro, MD, with his wife, Mary Whitall Thomas Clevenger, and their MURRIE CLEVENGER

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IN MEMORIAM three children. After graduating from Hotchkiss and Princeton University, he served in the Navy as an intelligence officer, before joining the Foreign Service. A skilled linguist, he served in postings that included Aleppo, Syria, as well as Tehran and Meshed, Iran. He left the Foreign Service to continue his education in Middle Eastern Studies at St. Antony’s College, Oxford University in England. Upon returning to the U.S., he worked for the World Bank before becoming an analyst for the General Accounting Office (now the Government Accountability Office). During this time, he and his wife restored an 18th-century house, Patuxent Manor, where they lived for 51 years. He is survived by his wife of 53 years, Mary; three children and seven grandchildren; his sister, and nieces and nephews. His parents and two siblings, including James Clevenger, III ’56, preceded him in death. With a sharp mind and a keen wit, Bill maintained a lifelong interest in antiquity and literature as well as politics and world affairs.

He loved classical music and hot jazz, merlot and good conversation. He was an accomplished chess and bridge player, and played squash at the Maryland Club, Baltimore, into his eighties.

Affable and genial, he made friends easily, and he will be dearly missed.

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DR. CHARLES A. BLEICH (“Charlie”), 86, of Boynton Beach, FL, a dentist, teacher, amateur photographer, and music lover, died on January 2, 2021. Born in Torrington, CT, he graduated from Hotchkiss and went on to Yale, where he pursued his love of history, classics, and psychology, and met his future wife, Linda Sue Caplan. A talented musician, he played clarinet and saxophone in the Yale Precision Marching Band, which he forever credited with making it impossible for him to march correctly during his service in the U.S. Army. He and Linda married in June 1956, beginning a 63-year marriage that took them all across the world. After Yale, he graduated at the top of his class from the University of Pennsylvania School of Dentistry and received the Block Prize for the Outstanding Dental Student. He enlisted in the U.S. Army and was deployed to Baumholder, Germany, where he supported the U.S. 1st Armored Division. Returning to Connecticut, he opened a practice in Newington before eventually moving both his family and his practice to West Hartford. In 1989, he closed his practice and moved to Florida to teach at Nova Southeastern University College of Dental Medicine, where he taught for 20 more years. He was a beloved professor who liked nothing better than training his students and teasing his colleagues. He retired in 2014 to help care for Linda after she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. In addition to

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his family, he loved photography and music and “conducted” entire symphonies as they played on his stereo. Over the years, this passion brought him onto the Hartford Symphony Board, where he founded the Talcott Mountain Music Festival. Following Linda’s passing on New Year’s Eve 2020, his health began to decline, and in November he was hospitalized with the COVID19 virus. Despite valiantly surviving the virus through a four-week ordeal, he was overcome by infections and other complications from his treatment. He leaves behind his daughter and son, sister, six grandchildren, and too many nieces, nephews, in-laws, cousins, smiling patients, grateful students, and spoiled granddogs and cats to name.

SIR COLIN HENRY IMRAY, a British diplomat and author, and Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire, died on December 20, 2020 at age 87. Born in September 1933, he came to Hotchkiss through the English-Speaking Union program and spent the 1951-52 school year. After graduation, he and classmates Jock Brooks and Andy Euston took a tour of 35 of the then-48 states – “a fabulous experience,” Imray recalled in his MISCH II profile in 2012. He returned to Britain for two years of compulsory army service and, joining the Scottish Highland Regiment, volunteered to serve in Sierra Leone, then still a colony. He found that he enjoyed living in Africa and became interested in how the British Empire was preparing its indigenous peoples for independence. At Oxford, he studied politics, philosophy, and economics and specialized in the political structure of the British Commonwealth.

He decided to make a career in that part of the diplomatic service that dealt with the emerging nations of the empire. Between 1957 and 1993, he and his family lived in seven Commonwealth countries, and in Israel. He became high commissioner (ambassador) in Tanzania and then in Bangladesh; his responsibility included important British aid programs. He retired in 1993 and served for four years as secretarygeneral of the Order of St. John (ambulance), which has 250,000 volunteers in more than 40 Commonwealth countries. He then became chairman of the 25,000-member Royal Overseas League, which funds competitions and scholarships to encourage young artists and musicians. He is survived by his wife, Shirley, and four children, as well as grandchildren and great-grandchildren. In his MISCH II profile, Sir Colin wrote, “Although I did not make my life in the States, I was greatly influenced by the ideals and standards that the Duke and the staff imbued in us at Hotchkiss.”

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HORACE CORBIN DAY (“Corby”) died peacefully on January 10, 2021, at 83. Born in Orange, NJ, he attended Hotchkiss from 1952 until graduation in 1955. He went on to Brown University, where he majored in classics. After obtaining an MBA from Wharton, he began his career at Goldman, Sachs, & Co. in New York City, where he founded and led the mergers and acquisitions department, while making partner in 1971. He subsequently relocated to London with his wife and family in 1974 to lead the opening of Goldman’s London office. He served as the first managing director of the London office and continued to be heavily involved with the M&A team in New York until his retirement from the company in 1986. After several years back home in Short Hills, NJ, he and his wife, Dodie, relocated to Birmingham in 1987 to begin the transition of leadership at the family business, Jemison Investment Company. During his years in Alabama, he became involved with a number of local businesses and organizations.

He was dedicated to supporting local arts, culture, and community-focused groups like the Alabama Symphony Orchestra, Hugh Kaul Foundation, and Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham. He also supported local educational and research institutions, including Birmingham-Southern College, Southern Research, and UA-Birmingham. His intelligence and genuine kindness were always apparent; he showed an unending willingness to lend a hand or an ear at any time. He enjoyed building model airplanes, competitively sailing on Barnegat Bay, or competing in a game of backgammon. He loved playing golf with groups like the Marauders and the Rollers, but also with his wife, Kim. He welcomed family in many forms and put them above all else. He was preceded in death by his wife, Dorothy Jemison Day, and brother. He is survived by his wife, Kim Morgan Day; his sister, and his son and daughter. He was most proud to know and love his seven grandchildren and his great-grandson.

He also leaves behind his siblings-in-law, and several nieces and nephews.

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WILLIAM GORDON LYLES, JR. (“Billy”) of Charleston, SC, died on November 15, 2020, at 81. Born April 27, 1939 in Columbia, SC, he graduated from Hotchkiss in 1957.

He then attended Princeton University and went on to graduate from the University of South Carolina with a B.A. in economics.

Following USC, he attended Harvard Business School in pursuit of his M.B.A. He was a principal at Lyles Bissett Carlisle & Wolff, an architectural and engineering firm founded by

his father. As the first South Carolinian to be appointed to a major post by President Carter, he became coordinator for the newly established Reimbursable Development Program of the Agency for International Development (AID). He served as a member on the board of directors for the Bank of Commerce and the Southern Bank & Trust Co. As a member of the South Carolina Real Estate Commission, he was appointed by Governor Campbell as a Constable and Special Investigator for the Real Estate Commission. He founded The Lyles Company, through which he pursued various entrepreneurial endeavors.

He was a member of the Forest Lake Club and Palmetto Club before his move to Charleston. He is survived by three children, six grandchildren, and a brother.

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EDWIN KOPS WISBURN died on Jan. 28, 2021, at 80. Known as “Spike” or “Ed,” he never met a stranger and loved talking to just about anyone who would listen. He always had a smile and was well-loved for his warm and friendly nature. Born and raised in El Paso, TX, he attended Hotchkiss from 1956 until his graduation in 1959 and earned a B.S. degree from Washington University in 1963. He served in the U.S. Army Reserves from 1963-69. After school, he returned to El Paso and was very active in the business community, while also making significant contributions to the city through his work on the boards of the El Paso Zoo, El Paso Lighthouse for the Blind, and the Sun Bowl. After running a successful electronics business with his best friend and brother-in-law, he went on to run many restaurants. In 2009 he was the Franchisee of the Year for Jack in the Box restaurants. His daughters remember how he was a stand-in father to many of their friends, and always someone who could be relied on for his compassion. Ed retired to Sarasota, FL, and spent his days running a hot dog cart in front of the post office and at the farmers market, before launching the Mad Hatter Photo Booth. His love of photography and helping people celebrate and preserve memories of their special events brought him so much joy.

He spent his last days at Ashton Place in Sarasota, where he received wonderful care. He is survived by his two daughters, his ex-wife Cecilia, his sister and brother-in-law, and his niece. His cousin, Dr. Richard Kops, is a member of the Class of 1962.

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JAMES TRUESDALE BERNUTH (“Jim”) died suddenly on August 26, 2020. Born in Cedarhurst, Long Island, he attended Hotchkiss from 1959 until graduation in 1963. After graduating from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1967, he joined the

Peace Corps, where he spent two years teaching in Sierra Leone. On his return to New York, he began to discover his calling for helping young people develop their confidence and passion. In the ’70s he taught at an experimental remedial education program for working-class high school graduates at Staten Island Community College. He moved to Denver in 1973 and earned his Master’s in English Literature at the University of Colorado. He worked at Metro State University, connecting graduating seniors with jobs in the community. He earned his accounting degree there and worked as a CPA for several years. He worked as CFO of the Downtown Denver Partnership before becoming Vice President of Development at Mercy Housing, dedicated to providing safe, affordable housing throughout the country. After the tragedy at Columbine in 1999, he felt moved to leave Mercy Housing to become the executive director at Project PAVE, a youth violence prevention program. In 2006, he became an independent executive transition management consultant, which eventuated in his being hired to run executive recruitment for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. He was an athlete, a lifelong learner, a songster, and a writer.

He loved volunteering as a reading partner in Denver’s elementary schools and enjoyed spending time outdoors, mountain climbing and cross-country skiing with friends. After a lifetime of US Tennis Association 4.5 play, he transitioned to USTA and College officiating.

He taught through the OLLI adult education program for several years; his classes on Andrew Jackson and Harry Truman were wildly popular.

Jim’s unguarded regard for everyone was an example for all of us. He is survived by his wife, Mary; two daughters and two grandchildren; and his brother Patrick ’57. He was predeceased by his brother, Peter ’59.

WILLIAM HARDY HEANEY (“Bill”) — an anthropologist, fisherman, and photographer — died November 25, 2020, in Billings, MT, where he had bravely fought COVID-19 for four weeks before succumbing. He was 75.

Born in 1945 in Washington, DC, he grew up in Oshkosh, WI. While he spent his life in motion, his mind was never far from Wisconsin and cherished memories of his childhood. The former co-owner of the Oshkosh Northwestern, he treasured the city’s families and supported its institutions, and took special pride in facilitating a 2003 illustrated history of the city on the occasion of its 150th anniversary. He attended Hotchkiss from 1959 until graduation in 1963 and graduated from Amherst College in 1968.

After college, he taught reading in New York City schools, driving a taxi on the weekends.

After earning a Ph.D. in anthropology from Columbia University Teachers College, he

journeyed to the Southwest Pacific, where he researched migration and economic opportunity in the Wahgi Valley of Papua New Guinea and made new friends. In 1981, after teaching at the University of Papua New Guinea in Port Moresby, he returned to the U.S. He worked in finance and non-profit administration, earning an M.B.A. from Yale’s School of Management.

After several years as the administrator of Columbia’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, he taught classes in anthropology at Columbia and the University of Wisconsin in Oshkosh.

His explorations never ceased. After many years in Ridgewood, he and his wife, Vivian, lived in Oshkosh; Big Timber, Montana; and Waimea, Hawaii. They traveled widely, with Bill trying to fly-fish in whatever state or country they were in. A true Renaissance man, he patented a device to stop wind from carrying away his fishing line. His sudden passing leaves a hole in the lives of his family, who looked forward to many more meals, holidays, and adventures together.

He is survived by Vivian Gallagher Heaney, his wife of 27 years; two sons and a daughter; two grandchildren; and his former spouse, Brigid O’Brien. He was predeceased by a son, Nicholas, and his brother, Curtis. Bill’s friends remember him as a man with “insatiable curiosity and a boundless heart,” who was interested in everything and talked to everyone — at length.

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CHRISTOPHER ADAMS MEYER (“Chris”), an author, executive, entrepreneur, and consultant, with a special focus on the future of the global economy, died on October 23, 2020, at age 71. His work was dedicated to anticipating and shaping the future of business.

He often convened and facilitated discussion among diverse groups of experts to help clients anticipate how a trend or technology would affect the future of business and society. As CEO of Nerve LLC, an innovation advisory firm, he counseled companies, from startups to global giants, helping them find innovation opportunities in large-scale trends. Born in November 1948, Meyer graduated from Hotchkiss in 1966 and earned B.A. degrees in both mathematics and economics from Brandeis and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. He also held a University Pre-doctoral Fellowship in economics at the University of Pennsylvania. From 1984 to 1995, he was a vice president and group head at Mercer Management Consulting (now Oliver Wyman), where he founded and built the firm’s practice in the information industries. Then, in his seven-year tenure as the Director of the Center for Business Innovation at Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, he transformed the Center from an institutional university model to a networked

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IN MEMORIAM research capability, anticipating issues from the “global, mobile, always-on” network to the rising importance of intangible assets. While there, Meyer founded and served on the board of BiosGroup, a venture with Santa Fe Institute Stuart Kauffman that invested in applications of complexity theory to business. In 2004, he founded and served as chief executive of Monitor Networks, a Monitor Group company; in 2006 he founded Monitor Talent, a business based on the view of markets for human capital contained in his book, Future Wealth. He served on numerous boards, including the Bankinter Foundation for Innovation, the Business Innovation Factory, and the New Repertory Theatre. He published four books: the first, BLUR, was a Business Week Top Ten Best Seller, and his most recent, Standing on the Sun, was listed among the Best Books of 2012 by the Financial Times. He also contributed to many publications, including the Harvard Business Review, Wired, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Time, and Business Week. He was a guest lecturer at Harvard Business School, Tsinghua University, the MIT Sloane School, and Georgetown University, and his books have been used in business, economics and foreign service school courses. An innovator throughout his career, at Data Resources he developed the firm’s service architecture for financial institutions. He founded the first major consulting practice based on digital convergence while at Mercer Management Consulting (now Oliver Wyman). He is survived by his wife, Mary, and daughter, Miranda.

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STOWE HOLDING TAT TERSALL of Edgartown, MA, Vero Beach, FL, and Lawrenceville, NJ, died Nov. 25, 2020, after a three-and a-half-year battle with pulmonary fibrosis. He was 70. Born and raised in Princeton, NJ, Stowe was a third-generation summer resident of Edgartown, where his grandparents, Elizabeth and Robert Stowe Holding, had a house on North Water Street.

He was an alumnus of Princeton Country Day School and attended Hotchkiss from 1965 until graduation in 1968. He received his A.B. degree from Brown in 1972. He retired from Deutsche Bank in New York, where he was a vice president and managing director. He served on the Boards of Morven Museum and Garden and Trinity Counseling Service. He was a member of the Chappaquiddick Beach Club, the Edgartown Yacht Club and the Edgartown Reading Room.

The husband of Peg and father of a daughter, he is also survived by his sister and her son, his aunt, numerous cousins and his Westie, Kiefer.

He was predeceased by his parents and his brother, Sandy.

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THOMAS ROBERT GIDWITZ (“Tom”) died at home on December 4, 2020, from complications of acute myeloid leukemia. Born in Highland Park, IL, he attended Hotchkiss and then Stanford University and UCLA for a degree in Cinema. His literary career spanned most genres, including: film scripts, novels and short stories, corporate works, and, eventually, scientific and historical articles and books for the public; editing the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution members’ magazine and being on the staff at Archeology Magazine. Eventually, he became obsessed with Popocatepetl Volcano near Mexico City and finished a book on that not long before he died, considering it his life’s project. He was an active conservationist, initially working to preserve portions of Dartmouth, MA, from destructive development, later an early executive of the Dartmouth Resources Natural Trust, then still later an active member of the Buzzards Bay Coalition, its longest-serving board member, a past president, and a winner of its Guardian Award. He was a founding organizer of the New Bedford Science Cafe; and produced three years of the Buzzards Bay Film Festival, for which he wrote and directed a short movie, “Call Me Herman,” which won an award at the Wine Country Film Festival. He was opposed to legalized gambling and founded the No Dice Coalition. A bon vivant, he loved travel, art, music, hiking, good food and wine, and a good party. Any activity involving boats, especially his beloved sailboat, which he single-handedly sailed frequently to Quissett Harbor and Martha’s Vineyard, brought great joy. He played the drums and ukulele with enthusiasm. He was a detail and research fanatic. He was a member of the New England Science Writers’ Association, the New Bedford Yacht Club and the Nantucket Pastafarians. He became known in his last two years for his blog, detailing experiences with leukemia and a few of its myriad complications; he joked that he was “trying to collect them all.” Nonetheless, he lived ferociously. He leaves behind his wife, Gail Davidson, M.D.; his sister Nancy and his brothers, Ronald ’63 and Jim ’64. He was predeceased by his brother Peter ’68. He leaves numerous nephews and nieces, including Lydia ’03, Jamee ’98, Clare ’01, and Brant ’00, as well as grand-nieces, grand-nephews and cousins.

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The family of THOMAS BARCL AY COTE sadly announced his passing on November 10, 2020, after a short illness. He was 63. The son of Virginia Conklin Cote of Dayton and John Cote of Greensburg, PA, he was born on January 12, 1957, in Dayton. He attended the Miami Valley

School from kindergarten through the ninth grade. He then attended Hotchkiss from 1972 until graduation in 1975 and continued his studies at Denison University and the University of Dayton. After college he joined his brother, James Cote, at The Carillon Furniture Company.

He loved working with his hands and could repair and refinish furniture beautifully. The last five years he was engaged in the landscaping business, working outside and making every garden and yard look wonderful. He loved the sports of soccer and golf. He played soccer all his school years and afterwards with other soccer enthusiasts in the Dayton area. He grew up playing golf at the Moraine Country Club, where he lived on the third hole. He was married briefly to Katherine Hannah, who also played soccer. He enjoyed summers in Northport Point, MI. He is survived by his mother, Virginia C. Peck, and three Cote brothers; four Peck brothers, including William, Class of 1975; and one sister. He was a wonderful, caring person who would help anyone and will be missed by all who knew and loved him.

THOMAS ATKINSON HOWE , 64, died on January 26, 2021 due to a tragic accident that happened while he was helping a friend with firewood. Born in New Haven, CT, to Arthur Howe Jr. ’38 and Margaret (Burke) Howe, he early on showed an interest in the natural world. His adventurous spirit quickly led him to fishing, a family legacy and lifetime passion he shared with many. After Hotchkiss, he graduated from Middlebury College and the University of Michigan Graduate School of Urban Planning.

He moved to New Hampshire, where the family had deep ties, and worked for 10 years at the Lakes Region Conservation Trust as its first executive director. He then moved to the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests, where he worked for 24 years, most recently as senior director of land conservation.

During that time, he had his hand in protecting thousands of acres. His colleagues remember him for training and mentoring many young land conservationists throughout the state and across the country. He delighted in conserving trails, trout streams, mountain sides, urban farms and rich habitat throughout the state to sustain its people. He was a founding and active member of the Gilmanton Land Trust and the Belknap Range Conservation Coalition. There are few places in New Hampshire where one can travel without passing a property he helped protect or a landowner he befriended. He doggedly pursued his passions for fishing and hunting, sharing his skills and intuition in the outdoors with a wide circle of friends. In the arts of sight fishing for stripers, tying flies, and studying the ways of water, he was a master craftsman and teacher. He was also a devoted member of the

Con Tutti Chorus in Portsmouth, a joyful experience for him. At home in Gilmanton, he took great pleasure in sharpening old ancestral tools, fashioning a fish and game smoker from a junkyard refrigerator, and hewing an elegant 14-foot spruce pole for the saltwater flats. He had a huge heart, a gentle kindness, and an attentiveness to all those who crossed his path. His greatest passion was for his family. He leaves his wife, Sarah Thorne of Gilmanton; his son and daughter; his sister and brothers, Sam ’66 of Holderness and Arthur ’72 of South Portland, ME. A cousin, Daniel Howe, is a member of the Class of 1975. His late uncle, Richard, was in the Class of 1942.

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AVA AUGUSTA HINGSON , age 19, of Cornwall, CT, was tragically killed on November 17, 2020, in an equestrian accident while she was riding on a campus trail at her college in Sewanee, TN. Born to Andrew Hingson and Elise MeneshianHingson on May 20, 2001, in Sharon, she graduated from Hotchkiss in 2019 and was a second-year English Literature student at The University of the South in Sewanee, TN. During her time in college, she rapidly developed into an equestrian, artist, lover of nature, and poet. Ava fully engaged in every moment of life. Her spirit captured all who knew her and pointed them towards an enriched way of living. Ava’s radiance continues in us. Other than her parents, she is survived by her maternal grandparents, Hagop and Sylviagene Meneshian; her beloved uncle, Dicron Meneshian; and a host of special aunts, uncles, and cousins from both the Meneshian and Hingson sides of her loving family.

John Bennett ’57 FORMER TRUSTEE

Loyal and engaged alumnus, and leading attorney Former Trustee John Connable Bennett, Jr. ’57 died on December 6, 2020, following a lengthy battle with Alzheimer’s disease.

Born in New York City in 1939 to Eugenia and John Connable Bennett ’26, he graduated from Hotchkiss and Princeton University — both of which he loved — and Harvard Law School. Upon passing the bar in 1964, he took a job as a corporate associate at Drinker Biddle & Reath. He spent the next 41 years at the firm, working his way up to partner, and scoring a sweet corner office overlooking the Parkway in Drinker’s fancy new digs at One Logan Square before his retirement in 2005.

He would have been reluctant to mention any of the foregoing. Regardless, he loved the institutions and tried to give as much back to them as they had given him. He served on the Hotchkiss Board of Trustees for approximately a decade, and faithfully attended his Princeton reunions, relishing the opportunity to catch up with old friends - particularly his roommates Dusty Reeder ’57 and Mickey Michel. Between reunions, his bright orange, Leroy Neiman-inspired Class of 1961 commemorative blazer doubled as stage apparel for his son’s bandmate, the Washington, DC punk rock singer John “Stabb” Schroeder — a well-known connoisseur of garish clothing.

Although he didn’t much care for punk rock, John loved music. He was a huge Beatles fan until they got “weird,” when he switched allegiances to the Monkees. He was a proud member of The Orpheus Club of Philadelphia and a spirited participant in The Twelfth Night Revels, the club’s comedic musical revue.

A talented athlete, he ran track and played basketball at Hotchkiss and was on the Cottage Club crew team at Princeton. He even rowed at the famed Henley Regatta — his boat sank, which, over the years, he decided was the best possible outcome other than winning. Post-Alzheimer’s diagnosis, the highlight of John’s week was Men’s Golf at Sunnybrook, where his loyal friends would keep him pointed in the right direction and assist with ball-spotting. A happy upside of John’s illness was that his golf game improved considerably. If you asked him why, he’d grin and say, “I forgot that I’m a lousy golfer.”

What he loved most, though, was his family. He was tickled to go from being an only child to a father of five, grandfather of 14, and great-grandfather of one (and counting, knock on wood). John would tell you that the best thing he ever did was marry Hope Latta. They saw “The Graduate” on their first date in 1968, and a whirlwind courtship ensued, culminating in a Saturday-morning drive down to beautiful Elkton, MD, for spontaneous nuptials. They were back in Philadelphia by noon. Over the next 52 years, they raised five children, renovated at least six houses, planted award-winning gardens, and biked through most of western Europe — always together.

John was in awe of Hope’s strength and determination, and she loved his kind, gentle spirit. John, for his part, tried to stay positive. He was uncharacteristically open with people — including relative strangers — about how he was feeling. He cultivated an alter ego — Johnny Alzheimer’s, the Dementia Comedian — who had a seemingly endless supply of funny, albeit dark, one-liners (e.g., CHILD: “Hey Dad. How are you?” JOHN: [pause for comedic effect] “I have no idea.” [Cracks up]). Even after getting sick, John went on great trips with his children and their families, including a jaunt to the Loire Valley, where he managed a rather death-defying 15-mile bike ride. And he maintained his dignity and ability to communicate meaningfully up until the very end.

In addition to Hope, John is survived by his daughters Bradley, Gail, and Leslie, his sons, Chris and Hunter; his 14 grandchildren and his great-granddaughter.

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IN MEMORIAM

William Elfers ’67 FORMER TREASURER OF THE TRUSTEES

Known for His Voluntarism and Love of Hotchkiss Financial executive William R. Elfers ’67, a longtime member of the Board of Trustees whose enthusiasm and love for Hotchkiss were exceeded only by a tenacious work ethic, died peacefully at home on Nov. 28, 2020, in Marion, MA, due to complications associated with ALS. He was 71.

Mr. Elfers was formerly the managing partner of Tower Capital Partners in Boston.

In his community, he devoted many long hours of time and energy, committed to making the world a better place. He served as trustee and a member of the Investment Committees of the Museum of Fine Arts and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, both of these for more than 20 years. He had served as a trustee of the Newton-Wellesley Hospital, the Museum of Fine Arts, the Fessenden School, and the Winsor School. He was for many years trustee of his beloved college newspaper, the Daily Princetonian.

Bill came to Hotchkiss in 1963. A serious student, he sang in the choir, was a senior proctor, and worked as a student guide for the admission office. He participated in tennis, skiing, and cross country.

After graduation in 1967, he entered Princeton. Notably, he began volunteering for Hotchkiss his freshman year there. While at Princeton, he was very active with the school’s newspaper, the Daily Princetonian, and became the paper’s business manager in 1970. His love of newspapers was to be rekindled years later, when he created Community Newspaper Company for Fidelity Capital. After earning his A.B. from Princeton, he studied in Heidelberg (Germany) as a Fulbright Scholar before receiving his M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School.

In the summer of 1973, he worked at Fidelity Investments as a security analyst with Peter Lynch, and after graduating from Harvard, he worked in New York as an investment officer at Brown Brothers Harriman, advising European clients on U.S.

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equity investments. In 1979, Bill returned to Boston (and Fidelity) as a partner at Fidelity Ventures, where he remained until 1989.

In 1989, he became a managing director of Fidelity Capital, where he founded several companies and made many successful venture deals. In 1990, he created and built Community Newspaper Company and served as its CEO until its sale in 2001. In 2002, he founded Tower Capital Partners, and served until 2020 as its managing partner, overseeing investments in private equity companies and hedge funds.

His Hotchkiss service as class agent for 1967 included one period of 22 consecutive years, and he also volunteered as a group captain for The Hotchkiss Fund. In 1988, he received the Armitage Award for distinguished service to The Hotchkiss Fund. His own generosity to the School extended over many years to numerous scholarships and named funds. He also served on the Board of Governors of the Alumni Association.

During his time on the Board, from 1995 to 2017, he served as vice president from 2010 to 2017 and as treasurer from 1996 to 2010. He completed his service as a trustee in 2017 and was elected trustee emeritus. Throughout his tenure, Mr. Elfers actively recruited and mentored members of the Board and, specifically, the Investment Committee. Robert R. Gould ’77, co-president of the Board of Trustees, described him as being “constantly on the hunt for talent,” and as a person whose own dedication to service was deeply inspiring.

“It was essentially impossible to say no to Bill — partly because he was such a kind and gentle man, but also because it was painfully apparent that his own personal commitment of time and resources dwarfed that which most of us have ever contemplated. Saying ‘no’ was really out of the question.”

On February 18, 2020, a Head of School Holiday was announced in honor of Bill Elfers for his extraordinary commitment to the School. In communicating the holiday, Head of School Craig Bradley said, “When I

think of alumni who have dedicated themselves to serving their school in all sorts of ways, I think of Mr. Elfers.”

Following the announcement, students broke out into a chant of “Elfers, Elfers, Elfers,” which apparently brought Mr. Elfers great joy.

The ties of the Elfers family to Hotchkiss run deep. His late father, Bill Sr., was a member of the Class of 1937 and served as a trustee of the School from 1967-77 and from 1979-84. He received the Alumni Award in 1979. Most visibly at the School, the Elfers family made the gift to Hotchkiss to create the Katherine M. Elfers Hall in the Esther Eastman Music Center. The stunning performance space, known on campus simply and affectionately as “Elfers,” was given in memory of Katherine M. Elfers, mother of Bill Sr. ’37 and grandmother of Bill Jr. ’67.

“The Elfers family has been deeply generous to Hotchkiss through their service and through their substantial material support,” Bradley said at the time of the holiday announcement. “We owe them our warmest and heartiest thank you!

Thank you, Bill Elfers, your father, and your family, for all you have done for and given to The Hotchkiss School.”

In the words of Elizabeth G. Hines ’93, co-president of the Board of Trustees, “Bill was among the greatest champions of Hotchkiss, and its power to positively impact the lives of the students in its care, that I have had the privilege to work with in my time on the Board. He was kind, he was focused, and he was always willing to share his knowledge with those around him, no matter how young or uninformed. Any one of us who knew Bill learned an extraordinary amount at his side.

He was a good man, in every sense of the word, and it was simply a privilege to have known him.”

Mr. Elfers is survived by his wife, Deborah (Bennett), and two daughters, Katherine and Amelia; his sister, Jane Elfers Muther and brother-in-law, Herbert Muther, and several nephews. He was predeceased by his sister Joanne Elfers, and his parents, Ann Rice Elfers and William Elfers.

Philip Pillsbury Jr. ’53, P’89,’91, GP’20,’22 FORMER TRUSTEE, LONG-SERVING U.S. DIPLOMAT, DEVOTED HOTCHKISS FAN

During those three years he realized that the business world really wasn’t for him. “I stayed close with the Pillsbury Company and its traditions, but the foreign service was what I loved doing.

From then on, I was a better officer for what I had experienced in Minneapolis, from people I would never have met had I not had the Urban League job,” he observed. By chance a last-minute opening came about in the American Consulate in Lubumbashi, Republic of Zaire. The agency needed a French-speaking officer with African experience. In 1970, he and wife Nina left for the assignment in Zaire. For the next two decades, they travelled to locations around the world for his work Phil Pillsbury and his wife, Nina, are shown in a as a senior foreign service officer, at the same time 2013 photo on campus, standing before a map serving as exemplar representatives of the U.S. detailing Hotchkiss’s international programs, which he helped to develop and encourage.

Over many years, and especially after his retirement in 1990, Mr. Pillsbury served Hotchkiss, During his time in Lakeville, he also cultivated including as a trustee from 1997 to 2012.

Additional volunteer roles included co-chair of the another interest that became a lifelong passion: Centennial Celebration, regional council member, photography. “The first camera was an old reunion volunteer, event host, and class agent from Voigtländer,” he recalled in the 2012 Hotchkiss Magazine interview. “Taking photos really began 2005-2021.

He enriched the School’s educational offerings at Hotchkiss. Now I’ve got somewhere in the in many ways, including through the Ambassadors neighborhood of 60,000 slides. They tell the Speakers Series, which he founded in 2008. This story of what I’ve done.” annual program brings ambassadors to Hotchkiss After graduating from Yale, Mr. Pillsbury to address the School community, offering earned a Certificate in Political Science at the informed perspective on international relations and Institut d’Études Politiques de Paris. While visiting classrooms. living abroad, he observed an emerging antiMr. Pillsbury established funds in his parents’ Americanism that concerned him. He wished names, the Philip W. Pillsbury ’20 Scholarship these critics had a more accurate understanding Fund and the Eleanor Bellows Pillsbury of facts about the United States. In 1959, he Scholarship Fund, and supported the School’s joined the United States Information Agency financial aid program. He retained a particular (USIA). He chose to work in cultural affairs, interest in Africa and applauded initiatives that focusing on the American libraries, English teaching, exchanges of students and scholars, and provided educational opportunities in the U.S. for young African students. He also provided early the presentation of lecturers abroad.

After six years, he returned to the U.S. with the and enthusiastic support for The Hotchkiss School Archives, seeing the necessity of establishing a plan to work in international business, probably program and adding staff for the safekeeping and for the Pillsbury Company, founded by his great-grandfather. Then a surprising employment growth of archival materials.

In addition to his service on the Hotchkiss choice pointed the way to his future career and Board of Trustees, he served on the Board of gave him the skills, he later said, to be successful the National Trust for the Humanities and the as a diplomat in the foreign service.

American Architectural Foundation.

From 1967 to 1970 he directed the He is survived by his wife, Caroline Hannaford opportunity employment program for the “Nina” Pillsbury; daughters Fendell Pillsbury and Minneapolis Urban League. That experience Caroline Oliver ’89, and son, Philip III ’91; and with the Urban League informed all of his nine grandchildren, including Andrew ’20 and adult life, he said. “It was hard to tell ‘America’s Elizabeth Oliver ’22. story to the world’ without having firsthand Mr. Pillsbury’s family counted several Hotchkiss experience as to what was going on in the alumni, including brother-in-law Jule M. country at that time,” he said in 2012. He Hannaford ’72; cousins Winston Lord ’55 and the needed to be in the U.S. in that period to see the history-making free speech, antiwar, and civil late Charles P. Lord ’52, Mark H. Johnston ’06, rights movements of the time with his own eyes and Abigail B. Johnston ’07; and nephew Henry A. Pillsbury ’87. before attempting to interpret them for others.

PH OTO: A NNE DAY

Career diplomat in the U.S. Foreign Service, longtime Hotchkiss trustee, and beloved friend to innumerable Hotchkiss students, faculty, staff, and alumni, Philip W. Pillsbury Jr. ’53, P’89,’91, GP’20,’22 passed away on March 3, 2021. He was 85.

In more than three decades of service as a diplomat with the U.S. Information Agency, Mr. Pillsbury served in posts in Europe, Africa, South America, and Washington, DC. He served successively in Madrid, Florence, Bamako, Antananarivo, Lubumbashi, Teheran, and Buenos Aires. He directed the Youth Exchange Program and was twice recognized with the Meritorious Honor Award.

Significantly, it was at Hotchkiss that he cultivated an affinity for foreign languages that would prove to be especially valuable during his long career in a number of different countries.

While serving in Mali and Madagascar, he learned to speak Malagasy and Bambara. At Hotchkiss, he spoke Spanish fluently and won the Spanish Prize for two years.

The embodiment of a friendly Midwesterner — modest and down-to-earth — this Minnesota native was known to one and all as “Phil.” He loved Hotchkiss, from his involvement in School activities as a student to the numerous roles he played as an alumni volunteer, including 15 years as a trustee. The superlatives in the Senior Poll next to his name in the 1953 Misch yearbook foretold an accomplished life: “Done Most for Hotchkiss,” “Most Influential,” “Most Likely to Succeed,” and “Most Popular.”

Philip and his brother Henry ’54, P’87 (who passed away in 2019) both arrived in Lakeville from Wayzata, MN, in September 1950. He was a lower mid, and Henry was a prep. At Hotchkiss, Philip learned from English teacher Richard Gurney “the love of English lit and American lit” and began memorizing favorite works. One favorite, which he recited in 2007 during a discussion with a Hotchkiss English class, was William Wordsworth’s hauntingly beautiful, 208-line “Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood.”

He played hockey all of his years at Hotchkiss, served on the Student Council, and held offices in Student Government. He acted in School theatrical productions, including in one musical, and was elected president of the St. Luke’s Society as an upper mid. “The concept of service has always been here at Hotchkiss,” he said once in an interview. “After Hotchkiss, I was chairman of the Yale Charities Drive, which was a huge job my senior year at Yale. That came right out of my experience in the St. Luke’s Society.”

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IN MEMORIAM

AL SO NOTED:

Edward R. Davis P’86,’88

DIANE HOSIER, FORMER STAFF MEMBER

LONGTIME INSTRUCTOR AND WRESTLING COACH

Diane Elizabeth (Schultz) Hosier, a lifelong resident of Millerton, NY, died at her home on Nov. 18, 2020. She worked on the housekeeping staff for eight years prior to retiring in May 2019. She was predeceased by her husband, Bradley, and her parents, Elizabeth (Krum) and Lewis Schultz. She is survived by her two sisters and brother; two daughters and a son; and seven grandchildren.

PRENTICE STOUT, FORMER BIOLOGY TEACHER

Prentice Kellogg Stout of Wakefield, RI, age 88, died on January 11, 2021, after a brief illness. He graduated from Denison University and earned a master’s degree in marine science from Wesleyan University. He taught biology at Hotchkiss from 1959-1965. He later joined the Marine Advisory Service at the University of Rhode Island as a marine education specialist, serving as a liaison between public and private schools for 20 years. He is survived by his wife, Margaret, and two sons.

DAVI D S. HAGE RMAN P’88,’95, FORMER DIRECTOR OF ANNUAL FUND

David S. Hagerman died on Feb. 11, 2021, in Hanover, NH. He was 75. A graduate of Deerfield Academy, Class of 1964, David got his mentor wings as a teacher, coach, and dorm parent at Deerfield, where he served as athletic director for ten years. He became head of school at Pingree School in Hamilton, MA, and later transitioned to fundraising, serving as the Director of the Annual Fund at Hotchkiss from 1984-86. He then moved to Salisbury School, where he served as the associate head of school, assistant hockey coach and head lacrosse coach for 13 years. He also worked in fundraising at Cardigan Mountain School and Dartmouth College. He is survived by his wife, Brooke Giddings Hagerman; his children, Casey H. Bobo ’88, Kully H. Reardon ’95, Jamie H. Phinney, Whitaker H. Willocks; several grandchildren, and two sisters.

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Edward R. “Ted” Davis of Hampton, NH, died on Dec. 27, 2020, following complications from a stroke. He was 77.

Ted was born in Haverhill, MA, to Emery E. and Grace E. (Dusseault) Davis.

He was a graduate of Winnacunnet High School ’61, Bates College ’65, and Middlebury College ’67. After graduating from Middlebury, he taught at Hotchkiss until his retirement in 1998.

During his 31-year tenure at Hotchkiss, Ted taught environmental studies, biology, and limnology. In addition to coaching track and field and football, in 1969 he founded the School’s wrestling program. In 2002, he was honored with the naming of the Edward R. Davis Wrestling Room in the School’s Athletic Center. In addition, the Edward R. Davis Wrestling Award was established in his name. It is awarded annually to the wrestler who makes the greatest contribution to the team through unselfish loyalty and outstanding performance during the season.

For 26 years, Ted taught emergency medical technician and lifesaving courses. He was also deeply dedicated to the Salisbury Volunteer Ambulance Squad. After retiring from Hotchkiss, Ted returned to Hampton, NH, with his wife, Betsey (Squire) Davis, with whom he shared 39 years.

Rest did not suit Ted, and just six months into retirement, he committed to coaching three seasons of athletics at Phillips Exeter Academy. His civic duties continued in New Hampshire, where he joined the Hampton Area Lions Club and later earned the club’s highest national award, The Melvin Jones Fellow Award. Ted was an active member of the Winnacunnet High School Alumni Association and was dutifully present at the alumni tent for every home football game. He was also frequently complimented on how beautifully he kept a few of North Hampton’s cemeteries as the “Lawn Father.”

Ted Davis lived a full life. He had an endless library of passionate stories, from being a 10-year veteran lifeguard on Hampton Beach, to fishing escapades, cooking for the Cajun Queen at major raceways across the USA, EMT calls, wins and losses from his college days, and countless championships on the fields and mats of Hotchkiss and Phillips Exeter.

He is survived by Betsey and family members including his daughters, Katharine A. Gates ’88 and Aimee D. Davis; his brother, Robert F. Davis; six grandchildren, Michael W. Hogan, Kevin D. Chassi, Sarah Lamie, Riley J. Davis-Gagnon, Bennett Gates, and Elise Gates; two great-grandchildren, Lilian and Remington Hogan, and two nephews, Jeffrey and Andrew Davis. He is also survived by Betsey’s children, Chris Lamie and Sue Lamie Demske ’86. He was preceded in death by Daniel P. Lamie.

In the spring, a burial service is planned in Hampton, NH, and a Celebration of Life will be held in Lakeville, CT. Dates will be announced. The family requests remembrances (photos, written memories or tributes) of Ted to be sent to Aimee at connectandbalance@gmail.com or by mail to Aimee Davis, PO BOX 1834, Lakeville, CT 06039, so they may be shared at the spring celebrations.

John W. McMullan LONGTIME SPANISH INSTRUCTOR, AUTHOR, AND COACH

Retired Spanish teacher, wrestling coach, and holder of the Marie S. Tinker Chair at Hotchkiss, John W. McMullan, 80, died in his home in Selbyville, DE, on Jan. 3, 2021, after a yearlong battle with pancreatic cancer. He was a member of the Hotchkiss faculty for nearly three decades.

A versatile man with many diverse accomplishments, John first tackled languages — specifically, Latin – at Indian Mountain School — where, by coincidence, his roommate was Robert “Skip” Mattoon, who served for 11 years as Hotchkiss’s head of school. Studying Latin greatly challenged John, but when his father, a Yale drama professor, received a Fulbright grant to teach and direct in Santiago, Chile, he discovered, much to his delight, the Spanish language. He went on to major in Spanish at Hamilton College.

“Spanish captured my imagination. I discovered that I really did like literature after all, and that I had some facility for the language,” McMullan said in a Hotchkiss Magazine interview on his retirement.

He taught at Hotchkiss from 1978 to 2007, where he developed a reputation as a no-nonsense teacher who demanded the best from his students.

Before coming to Hotchkiss, he taught at St. George’s School in Newport, RI, and the Emma Willard School in Troy, NY. He also taught for a time at Millbrook School in Millbrook, NY. In addition to teaching Spanish at Hotchkiss, John co-authored several classroom texts, including the widely-used Triangulo: A Proposito. The School’s wrestling coach at the time of his retirement, he also had coached field hockey and lacrosse at Hotchkiss. A plaque in the Forrest E. Mars Jr. Athletic Center reads: “For all he has done to promote the best in Hotchkiss athletics, we honor Coach John McMullan.” He served on the Board of Recording for the Blind, and he worked in a leadership position for Educational Testing Service for the grading of the Spanish Advanced Placement Examinations.

He loved ’60s tunes and Doo-wop music and is remembered on campus as a fabulous dancer. Instructor in English, history, and Russian, and E. Carleton Granbery Teaching Chair Keith Moon P’13,’16, said of him that McMullan had “the best dancing feet on this faculty… At the annual faculty-staff holiday dance in December, John doesn’t just cut a rug; his fast-moving feet seem to weave that rug first… then he cuts it into little pieces. I would challenge most of our students to try to keep up with him on a dance floor.”

John is survived by his wife and companion of 31 years, Barbara S. Gatski; their children: Elizabeth S. McMullan, Daniel F. McMullan, Jenna L. Gatski Einstein, and Megan L. Gatski; three grandchildren; his brother, David F. McMullan, and three nephews and four great-nieces.

John is also survived by his beloved dog, Millie, who was at his side when he passed away, along with Barbara.

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PARTING SHOT

Artists Showcase Works by Hotchkiss students Nicole Morikawa ’21 and Annie Xu ’22 were selected for inclusion in the 2021 National Art Honor Society/National Junior Art Honor Society Juried Exhibition. The organization received 1,187 entries and selected 93 artworks for exhibition in the National Art Education Association (NAEA) Virtual Gallery. The work above, Desmond, by Morikawa also won a Gold Key in the CT Regional Scholastic Art Awards and will advance to the national competition.

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Virtual

REUNIONS Join us for a special virtual reunion celebration.

CLASSES ENDING IN 1 OR 6

JUNE 18–20, 2021 This event will be a unique and exciting opportunity to unite our alumni from around the world in a new way while maintaining those true blue reunion traditions that we hold so dear.

We look forward to lifting each other up, celebrating Hotchkiss, and honoring the friendships that formed here. Registration and program information coming soon!

Visit www.hotchkiss.org/alumni (Events & Reunions) for updates For more information, please contact Rachel Schroeder Rodgers ’09, Assistant Director of Alumni Relations, at (860) 435-3124 or rrodgers@hotchkiss.org.

FALL REUNIONS • CL ASSES OF 1970 AND 1971

S E P T E M B E R 24-26, 2021

NONPROFIT ORG. U.S. POSTAGE PAID

11 Interlaken Road Lakeville, CT 06039-2141 (860) 435-2591 HOTCHKISS.ORG

PERMIT NO. 36 PITTSFIELD, MA