Hotchkiss Magazine Fall 2018

Fall 2018

Cullman Art Center Gets a Long-Awaited Upgrade

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Board of Trustees con n ec t i o n EMERITI

Thomas Quinn ’71, P’15,’17,’19

Charles Ayres ’77, P’22 Craig Bradley, Head of School

Christopher Redlich Jr. ’68

Howard Bissell ’55, P’82

Robert Chartener ’76, P’18, Vice President

Jean Weinberg Rose ’80, P’18, President

John Coumantaros ’80, P’16,’19 Elizabeth Ford P’11,’13

Tom Seidenstein ’91 President, Alumni Association

John Chandler Jr. ’53, P’82,’85,’87, GP’10,’14,’16,’22

Robert Gould ’77

Roger Smith ’78, P’08, Secretary

William Elfers ’67

John Grube ’65, P’00

Timothy Sullivan ’81, P’13,’16

Frederick Frank ’50, P’12

Elizabeth Hines ’93

Rhonda Trotter ’79

Robert Oden Jr. P’97

Nisa Leung Lin ’88

Rebecca van der Bogert

John Thornton ’72, P’10,’11,’16

Raymond McGuire ’75, Vice President

Gwyn Williams ’84, P’17, ’19, President, The Hotchkiss Fund

Francis Vincent Jr. ’56, P’85

Kendra Stearns O’Donnell

Thomas Edelman ’69, P’06,’07

Daniel Wilner ’03

Carlos Pérez ’81

David Wyshner ’85, Treasurer

Alumni Association Board of Governors Natalie Boyse ’09

Annika Lescott ’06

Blake Ruddock ’12

EX-OFFICIO MEMBERS

Sirin Bulakul ’06

Barrett Lester ’81

William Sandberg ’65

Craig Bradley, Head of School

Rafael Carbonell ’93

Nicholas Moore ’71, P’89,’01,’06

Tom Seidenstein ’91, President

Weijen Chang ’86, P’22

Adam Sharp ’96

Nathalie Pierrepont Danilovich ’03 VP and Chair, Gender Committee

Paul Mutter ’87 VP and Chair, Nominating Committee for Awards

Katheryn Allen Berlandi ’88, P’19,’21 Past President, Alumni Association

Marita Bell Fairbanks ’84

Steve O’Brien ’62, P’87,’01, GP’17

Sheria Smith ’01 VP and Chair, Alumni of Color Committee

Carlos Garcia ’77

Emily Pressman ’98

Richard Staples ’74, P’10,’12

Peter Gifford ’93

Thomas Terbell ’95

Brooke Harlow ’92

Chip Quarrier ’90 VP and Co-chair, Alumni Services and Communications Committee

Caldwell Hart ’87, P’16,’20 Secretary and Chair, Nominating Committee for Membership

Charlotte Dillon Ross ’10 VP and Co-chair, Alumni Services and Communications Committee

Edward Greenberg ’55 Past President, Alumni Association Jean Weinberg Rose ’80, P’18 President, Board of Trustees

The Board of Trustees met at Hotchkiss on Oct. 25-27. Pictured left to right, front row: Chris Redlich, Roger Smith, Gwyn Williams, Jan Ford, Tim Sullivan, and Tom Seidenstein; middle row: Nisa Leung Lin, Craig Bradley, Jeannie Rose, Robert Chartener, and Charlie Ayres, and back row: John Grube, Rhonda Trotter, Kendra O’Donnell, Becky van der Bogert, and David Wyshner.

Absent were John Coumantaros, Robert Gould, Liz Hines, Ray McGuire, Carlos Perez, Tom Quinn, and Dan Wilner.

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PHOTO BY BRIAN WILCOX

Gwyn Williams ’84, P’17,’19 President, The Hotchkiss Fund

COVER PHOTOGRAPH BY W E N DY C A R L S O N

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HEAD OF SCHOOL

Craig W. Bradley INTERIM CHIEF C O M M U N I C AT I O N S O F F I C E R

Danielle Sinclair

EDITOR

Wendy Carlson MAGAZINE DESIGNER

Julie Hammill W R I T E R & D I G I TA L CONTENT PRODUCER

Chelsea Edgar VIDEOGRAPHER AND D I G I TA L M E D I A S P E C I A L I S T

Tyler Wosleger WEBSITE AND DESIGN MANAGER

Margaret Szubra CONTRIBUTORS

Hamilton Brown ’58, Rusty Chandler ’53, Roberta Jenckes, Ben Labaree ’45, and Bob Small ’66

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 and comments are welcome. Please send inquiries and comments to: The Hotchkiss School, 11 Interlaken Road, Lakeville, CT 060392141, email magazine@hotchkiss.org, or phone 860-435-3122.

F E AT U R E S

14 Seeking Better Paths: Alex Tonelli ’02 17 Hotchkiss Humanitarians 18 Healing Waters 22 The 10 Million Dollar Sandwich 26 After Writing a Memoir about Her Past, Clemantine Wamariya ’09 is Living for the Present 30 From Working the Land to Helping Refugees, Hadas Yanay ’05 Follows Her Calling 32 Against All Odds: The Rescue Mission of Varian Fry ’26 D E PA RT M E N T S

4 Campus Connection 35 Class Notes

67 In Memoriam 76 Parting Shot F a l l

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From the head

o f sc h o o l

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thanks to the hard work of a dedicated team of students, 33 percent of the produce we consume is grown on campus at Fairfield Farm. The remainder is sourced primarily from local farms and producers: 60 percent of the total food prepared and consumed at Hotchkiss comes from within a 100-mile radius of Lakeville.

The dining hall, originally built in 1948, was last renovated in 1974, when the School had 460 students. It did not come as a surprise that one of the initiatives around which an immediate consensus formed during last year’s planning process was the need to renovate and expand the dining hall.

In June, we engaged Bowie Gridley Associates, an architectural design firm from Washington, D.C., to work with Hotchkiss on this project. They have been spending time on campus, meeting with students, faculty, staff, parents, alumni, and trustees to understand the role of the dining hall in school life, what to change, and what to

PHOTO BY ANNE DAY

ealtimes are an important part of the day at Hotchkiss, a time when students, faculty, and staff slow down for a moment and enjoy conversations with one another. The dining hall is one of the spaces on campus that never closes: even when the kitchen isn’t serving food, one can often find students sitting together at the round tables, working on group projects, or meeting with their instructors to discuss an assignment.

In the past, Hotchkiss had a tradition of sit-down meals at assigned tables, with a faculty member at the head of each table. Over the years, as the School community has increased in size and outgrown the dining hall space, this important community-building custom has fallen away.

This fall, at the suggestion of Zoe Bank ’19, we revitalized that practice by holding “community dinners,” with the simple goal of enhancing the sense of community around shared meals and conversations. Due to space constraints, two classes at a time gathered in the dining hall, while the other two classes enjoyed a picnic elsewhere. At these meals, people often find themselves seated next to someone with whom they’ve never interacted — a reminder that even in a school as close-knit as ours, there are still plenty of opportunities to make new friends. At some tables, everyone placed their phone at the center of the table to avoid screen distraction. The response has been heartwarming: one of the groups I dined with suggested a reunion in the form of a Sunday tea at Frank House, which was a lovely coda to a memorable gathering.

This increased attention to the quality of student-faculty interaction in the dining hall emerged from our focus during last year’s planning process on building a stronger sense of community. We are proud of our farm-to-table dining program, including the fact that,

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Classmates Canoe Adventures Stir Up Memories I enjoyed reading the Summer 2018 Hotchkiss Magazine story about classmate John Stookey’s canoeing travels. I recall another of Stookey’s adventures. After spending my early years at Salisbury School, I did my senior year at Hotchkiss, where my father, Edward R. Hale, taught math. It must have been the 1946 summer session when John had returned to Hotchkiss. I was living at home on campus with my parents. We hatched a plan to ride their bicycles to Millerton across the New York State border. John fashioned a rope of bedsheets and escaped from his second floor dorm room. I climbed down a rose trellis from his room. Bicycles were frowned upon by the school, and I’m not sure how John came to have one. We rode five miles, hoping to see a train. Everything in Millerton was closed except a bar, which we visited without drinking anything.

Back at school, I climbed up the rose trellis. John walked in the front door of his dorm. Neither of us was caught. Since most summer session students were much younger, John said we’d have to do very well. He did. I didn’t.

Richard S. Hale ’47

preserve. The planning process is currently underway, though we have already decided for certain that the project will be a renovation, not a reconstruction — the dining hall will stay where it is, where it has always been, in the Main Building.

Assistant Head of School and Director of Strategic Initiatives Josh Hahn is leading the work of the building committee, and I invite you to email him directly with your thoughts about the dining hall renovation at jhahn@hotchkiss.org.

Some of the feedback we’ve gotten from alumni so far: keep the round tables, and don’t take down the disco ball. To those of you who feel strongly about the disco ball, rest assured that we will see to it that it hangs in the dining hall for years to come.

Alumnus Recalls Harpsichordist Wanda Landowska I read with delight Tom Drake’s reference to Ms. Landowska in his graduation address last June. Some of the Well-Tempered Clavier recordings were made on campus at Hotchkiss, and several of us students were allowed to sit quietly on the rug near her whilst the recordings occurred. I remember it as a very special moment — musical elegance and perfection. I still have the recordings.

Fred Vohr ’54

WE’D LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU! Email your letters to magazine@hotchkiss.org and include “Letter to the Editor” in the subject line, or send them by mail to: Editor, Hotchkiss Magazine, The Hotchkiss School, 11 Interlaken Road, Lakeville, CT 06039-2141. Please include your full name, class year, city, and state in your submissions.

By submitting a letter, you’ve agreed to let us use it our magazine or on our website. We reserve the right to publish letters at our discretion and edit for length and clarity. Letters should be under 400 words and refer to an article that has appeared in a previous issue.

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A Message from the Board of Trustees ROBERT CHARTENER ’76, P’18

The Trustees met during three days in late October, discussing a wide range of topics: Memorial and 261 Sharon Road –

The Trustees spent considerable time discussing the renovation of Memorial Hall and 261 Sharon Road, which is the house opposite Memorial. Current plans call for reducing the number of student rooms in Memo from 59 to 39 but increasing the size of each faculty apartment to ensure that the dorm housing option is more appealing. The space in 261 Sharon Road will more than double and will be flexible, enabling 24 students initially to live on three floors; it will provide “swing space” as other older dormitories are renovated. The cost of both projects will be approximately $25 million.

Investments – The endowment returned

9.8 percent during the 2017-18 fiscal year, putting Hotchkiss in the top five percent of the independent schools that Cambridge Associates follows. Similarly, the School’s five-year performance of 7.1 percent places Hotchkiss second of the 27 schools in Cambridge’s rankings.

That said, there was a sharp sell-off in

global equity markets in October that will undoubtedly affect the current year. The School has been gradually reducing equity exposure since the fall of 2017 and has moved toward hedge-fund managers with less directional equity exposure.

Fiscal 2019-20 Budget – The budget

assumes a School size of 595 students, down from 600 in 2018-19. The financial aid budget will remain nearly unchanged at $9.7 million, indicating a discount rate of 27.6 percent; this is below the level desired

by Hotchkiss and remains a financial priority. The endowment draw of $17.0 million remains unchanged since 2018-19 and provides approximately one-third of annual revenue. The Board approved the preliminary budget for next year.

Craig Bradley’s Review – The Board

completed its extensive work on Craig Bradley’s goals and compensation package for 2018-20. Craig’s objectives for the next two years include a focus on community life, curriculum review (such as changes to the prep and lower mid humanities program), and athletics. Additional objectives include campaign planning,

launching an international advisory board, and communications. The process will be repeated annually.

Sexual Misconduct – The Board continued its discussion of the Locke Lord report, which was released in August and will be updated as necessary. They also reviewed various alumni responses to the report. The Board asks members of the community with knowledge of sexual misconduct occurring at any point in the School’s history to contact Allison O’Neil of Locke Lord directly at 800-403-7138 or 617-2390729. RAINN’s ongoing audit of structures and practices began last summer and will likely continue through the winter.

Personnel – The Board thanked John

Tuke for his 19 years of excellent service to Hotchkiss as he leaves to become CFO of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory on Long Island. Austin Beutner P’20,’22, superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, was elected a trustee. Larry Flinn ’53 and Dan Lufkin ’49 were elected trustees emeriti in honor of their decades of service to Hotchkiss.

Thank You For Supporting Hotchkiss in 2017-18 Total funds raised for Hotchkiss in 2017-18:

$18,239,606 3,900+

donors to the School

The Hotchkiss Fund raised

$5,573,593

(surpassing the goal by $49,000)

400+

volunteers

35%

80%

Alumni Participation

Parent Participation

(this group raised $3,229,551 for The Hotchkiss Fund)

(this group raised $1,790,399 for The Hotchkiss Fund)

Your support is critical in recruiting and retaining our wonderful faculty, maintaining our beautiful facilities, and providing financial aid for bright and deserving students. We are grateful for your generosity and hope that we can count on your continued enthusiasm and endorsement of Hotchkiss for years to come.

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Recognizing Excellence Tim Fisher ’58 Receives Thomas W. Armitage ’25 Award Tim Fisher ’58 is the recipient of this year’s Thomas W. Armitage ’25 Award, given annually to a member of the Hotchkiss alumni body for distinguished service to The Hotchkiss Fund. Fisher served the Class of 1958 first as Class Agent and later, for decades, as lead agent.

Recognizing the importance of building and maintaining relationships with his classmates, he has remained committed to this endeavor throughout his years of service. Fisher also understands the value of listening to his classmates in order to design specific fundraising opportunities

that will bring them together around a common initiative in support of Hotchkiss. For their 50th reunion, Fisher took an important role in the creation of the Class of 1958 Scholarship Fund, which today has a value of almost $1.2 million. In recent years, he has singlehandedly and successfully encouraged more than 80 percent of his class to make gifts to the School.

In recognition of Fisher’s longevity, dedication, and exemplary volunteer service, we are pleased to present this year’s award to him.

PHOTOS BY WENDY CARLSON

Honoring Derval and Judith Thomas P’18 with the McKee Award to a Hotchkiss parent for distinguished service to The Hotchkiss Parents Fund.

The Thomases began volunteering for the Hotchkiss Parents Fund in 2014, when their son, Barron ’18, joined Hotchkiss as a prep. They have been dedicated and enthusiastic volunteers for four years, because they have seen firsthand the positive impact the School has had on their son.

Derval said, “What I saw in Barron is that he has developed more compassion for other people… After Barron graduates, I will still continue to volunteer and help this school out in any way that I can, because we want it to continue to provide the opportunities that it has offered to Barron.”

Derval and Judith Thomas P’18 are this year’s recipients of the McKee Award.

Named in honor of Hugh and Judy

McKee P’78,’80,’84,’89 in recognition of their tireless work for The Hotchkiss Fund, this award is presented annually F a l l

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Campus

con n ec t i o n

Cultivating a Deeper Sense of Community Meet Art Gibb ’85, Dean of Community Life

BY WENDY CARLSON

Art Gibb comes to Hotchkiss with a strong connection to the School: his father, grandfather, and uncle are all Hotchkiss alumni. Recently retired from a 28-year career in the Navy, Gibb graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy (USNA) in 1990 with a B.S. in political science and a minor in French. He is a qualified P-3C patrol plane commander and mission commander, with over 2,200 flight hours. Gibb has extensive experience as a leader, educator, and team builder: before coming to Hotchkiss, he taught leadership and ethics and was the chair of the Department of Leader Development and Research at the USNA. He completed his Ph.D. in international relations at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and holds a master’s in national security studies from Georgetown University.

At the beginning of the academic year, we talked with Gibb about his transition from military life to Hotchkiss and how he views his role as dean of community life.

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How did your family legacy and your own experience at Hotchkiss affect your decision to return to Lakeville?

Hotchkiss was transformational for both my father and me, so I know the impact this place has on students. Having the opportunity to come back and be a part of that transformation for another generation is a dream come true. I felt I was doing that at the Naval Academy, which was really important to me then, but this is a slightly younger population of students who are someday going to be in positions of leadership and influence.

So it’s an incredible opportunity to be part of informing their values, character, and integrity early on.

How has the School changed since you were a student here?

How has it stayed the same?

The biggest change is the influence of technology. When I was here, I had a typewriter. There was no Internet. I probably called my parents once every week or two. Today, parents and students communicate more frequently. But technology can also limit a student’s ability to go all in and really immerse themselves in life here, which is something we have to guard against. We need to find ways to use technology to strengthen student involvement in the community.

PHOTO BY WENDY CARLSON

How does your previous experience in the military and as an educator at the U.S. Naval Academy inform your approach to working with high school students?

My experience as an educator and in uniform has taught me about character and integrity. As adults in this community, we have really important roles helping students develop and understand those traits. Those attributes are what set the course for them — not just in college, but beyond. We do that not only by modeling behavior, but also by teaching right from wrong and holding students accountable for their actions. We also need to start preparing them for the real world in a safe environment, where they can

make mistakes and learn from them. We need to push them to take risks, allow them to fail in some situations, and help them learn from those mistakes.

Why did you choose a career in the Navy?

I grew up in Annapolis in the shadow of the Academy, where my father was a civilian faculty member. I decided at a young age I wanted to go the Academy and be a naval pilot. Coming here was interesting, because not many people knew what the Academy was and what it involved. I looked back through 20 years of the Misch before I found a graduate who went to a military academy.

When I was a student here, I was asked questions like, “Why don’t you want to go to college? Does that mean you’re going out on boats?” There was no familiarity with the military at all. I think that is less of an issue today, but there are still many at Hotchkiss who know little about our military and the commitment of those who wear a uniform.

The dean of community life is a new position at Hotchkiss. What do you view as your primary responsibility?

What are some of your goals?

The big picture is to help reinvigorate a sense of community by having oversight over all aspects of the student experience, beyond the classroom and the athletic fields. An important part of my role is to help Craig Bradley implement his vision for the School by clearly articulating to students and faculty the standards and expectations of the Hotchkiss experience and what it means to be part of this community. I really want to develop a deeper sense of the Hotchkiss identity, which I remember the School having when I was here. Something that was instilled in me is that being a Hotchkiss student means a certain expectation of service to community, a responsibility to pay forward your privilege and advantages.

What are your impressions of the Hotchkiss community?

Where do you see its strengths, and what are some areas for growth?

We’ve been so warmly welcomed by everyone we’ve encountered. And Hotchkiss continues to be an amazing place where students have a powerful and transformational educational experience, surrounded by talented students and faculty.

The residential aspect means that the learning never stops. But our commitment to rigorous education, achievement, and well-roundedness has translated into an overstretch, which students and faculty both refer to as a bit of grind. So we need to reallocate our time, resources, and emphasis to find a better balance so that students are academically prepared, but have more time to soak in the environment, to think and reflect, because that’s where the deep learning comes from.

Tell us more about your family and what you like to do, now that you’re settled in on campus.

We live in Van Santvoord West, where I’m a dorm head for upper- and lowermid boys. My wife, Sara, is the director of student activities, which is a re-envisioned role. She’s bringing new energy and focus to it, and she’s excited about working closely with students. My kids, Ryan, 13, David, 11, and Alexa, 9, have already settled in with a great group of friends and are taking full advantage of the beautiful campus. You can find them buzzing around on their bikes, swimming down at the lake, or walking our dog, Rocky. We hope to take advantage of the skiing and hiking here, and I have a sailboat, so my kids and I also look forward to getting out on the water.

So we’re not going to see you leading boot camp at the crack of dawn?

No. I’m not going to be leading close-order drill on Bissell Common!

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The Cullman Art Center Gets a Long-Awaited Makeover

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umanities students arrived this fall to a freshly transformed art wing, thanks to the Class of 2018 Senior Parents Gift, which supported the Cullman Art Center renovation.

The art wing, which once served as a student lounge and storage area, was created in 1981 with a generous gift from Edgar ’36 and Louise Cullman P’64, GP’84. A redo of the 8,200-square-foot space has been years in the making, according to visual art program director and instructor of art, J. Bradley Faus, who worked on the renovation planning with Lakeville-based architectural designers Robert Bristow and Pilar Proffitt, parents of Grace

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Bristow ’18 and Ellis Bristow ’20.

“We’ve been chipping away at this since 2011,” Faus said. “We knew we wanted to renovate it to be more flexible, especially when it came to lighting, workstations, and storage areas for artwork. All the desks and tables are on lockable casters, which allows us to rearrange the interior,” he added. “I think we succeeded with our goal of creating a bright, open, and flexible space.”

The $1.5-million renovation included upgrading the five studios and the addition of custom-made moveable modular tables and desks, redesigned storage cubbies and cabinets, updated fixtures, sinks, floors, ventilation,

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studios received upgrades as part of the $1.5-million renovation

wall panels, and finishes. The renovated space also features new overhead digital projectors, screens, and retractable ceiling outlets.

An LED lighting system, with adjustable dimmers and zone-specific capability, was installed in the studios and in the lobby gallery, where fabric-paneled walls showcase

80% Nearly

Upgrades include modular tables and desks, redesigned storage cubbies and cabinets, updated fixtures, sinks, floors, ventilation, wall panels, and finishes.

of the wood from a felled American Elm on campus was used in the construction of desks, counters, and cabinets.

PHOTOS BY WENDY CARLSON

Fabric-paneled walls showcase student artwork.

student artwork. Additional spaces, including the art lecture hall, storage rooms, the kiln room, glazing room, and a digital media area, received upgrades and new finishes.

Outside the wing, a new terrace with glass doors provides a panoramic view of Lake Wononscopomuc, giving students greater access to the natural surroundings and creating a plein air studio. As a nod to the School’s past, custom-designed desks, tables, cabinets, and storage compartments were made from one of the School’s original American elms, planted in the 1890s, which succumbed to Dutch elm disease and was cut down in 2017. Nearly 80 percent of the

wood from the felled tree was used in the construction of desks, counters, and cabinets.

The renovation was carefully planned with input from faculty and students so “it would feel fresh and new, but it would also feel right,” said Pilar Proffitt.

Students familiar with the former space, which had been largely furnished with castoffs from other departments, were impressed with the upgraded wing. “I couldn’t believe it when I walked in. It feels like they planned for everything, so it’s all very accessible,” said upper mid Kali Ryder.

With sleek white counters and walls and muted gray ceilings, the art wing now feels

very much like a blank canvas.

“I do think it’s elegant and beautiful,” said upper mid Asher Duford, a portfolio student. “But I do think we need to charcoal it up, get our paint and our fingerprints on it, and just make it smell like the old place.”

– Wendy Carlson

“I couldn’t believe it when I walked in.

It feels like they planned for everything...”

– Kali Ryder ’20

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Visitors

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Augur Lecturer John Mead ’85 Brings His Story — and a Skull — to Campus

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ohn Mead ’85, a sixth-grade science teacher at St. Mark’s School of Texas in Dallas who brought human evolution to life for his students through social media — and, in the process, became involved in a major archaeological discovery — visited Hotchkiss on Oct. 26. Mead, this year’s Augur lecturer, spoke about his work during an All-School Meeting, where he presented a cast replica of the skull of Neo, one of the most complete skeletons of Homo naledi ever found, as a gift to biology instructor Susan Park.

Mead’s story began late one evening in 2012, when he was sitting at his computer, preparing a lesson plan on Australopithecus sediba, a human ancestor discovered by paleoanthropologist Dr. Lee Berger. On a whim, Mead decided to reach out to Berger on Facebook. He sent him a message asking if he would

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field questions from his students. To Mead’s surprise, Berger replied minutes later.“I had expected him to say, ‘I’m a busy guy,’” said Mead. “Instead, he said, ‘Sure. Tell me about your school.’”

The two became friends and colleagues, a relationship that gave Mead and his class an opportunity to be involved in Berger’s discovery of the new species of human relative, Homo naledi. By 2015, a team of researchers had recovered 1,500 ancient bones and teeth from the species in a tiny, rocky chamber in a South African cave system.

Social media allowed Mead and his students unprecedented access to the excavation: the class followed hour-byhour updates of the excavation on Twitter.

Mead first developed an interest in paleontology at Hotchkiss, when he studied Darwin’s theories under former biology instructor Ted Davis, who was the first person to introduce Mead to the idea of evolution. “I had no idea how that would impact my life,” said Mead, who went on to study biology at Duke University. Today, in addition to teaching, he continues to be a National Geographic educator-explorer, serving as an evolution ambassador for the National Center for Science Education (NCSE). He is the recipient of the Texas 2018 Outstanding Biology Teacher Award from the National Association of Biology Teachers and the Eugene McDermott Master Teacher in Science at St. Mark’s School of Texas.

Mead’s visit to Hotchkiss was made possible through the Augur Lecture Fund.

Poet Major Jackson Lets the Moon Be His Judge

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ajor Jackson grew up in North Philadelphia, among the boardedup row houses north of the avenue named after the Civil Rights attorney Cecil B. Moore. The sights and sounds of that gritty urban landscape came vividly to life at Hotchkiss, when Jackson visited the campus on Oct. 25 to read a selection of his poems to students in Harris House living room.

In the poem “Mighty Pawns,” Jackson recalls a group of young champion chess players from North Philly, among them a taciturn kid named Earl.

“If I told you Earl, the toughest kid on my block in North Philadelphia, bow-legged and ominous, could beat any man or woman in ten moves playing white,or that he traveled to Yugoslavia to frustrate the bearded masters at the Belgrade Chess Association, you’d think I was given to hyperbole...”

Gabe Polsky ’98 Explores Greatness in His Latest Film In a more politically charged piece, “Stand Your Ground,” he responds to the Florida law that upholds justifiable force to protect oneself, which led to the killing of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin: “That an angry man can shoot a teenager is par. Crips, Knights, new tribesmen in new codes should in earnest put away our swords and talk shows. The mysteries we have, an unmitigated burning of sound and fury, not organism of one, but organs.

America, I have had enough.”

Jackson said the great Roman poet Horace suggested putting away a poem for five to seven years, then returning to it to see if it is worthy of being published.

“But I just can’t wait that long,” he said, adding, “however, I do like that idea of putting poems away for a short time and having some distance so I’m not so emotionally attached to it.”

Another editing mantra, he says, is “to let punctuation be my jury, and the moon my judge.”

Major Jackson is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, among other honors. He teaches at the University of Vermont and is the poetry editor of the Harvard Review. His latest book of poems is Roll Deep (Norton, 2015).

His first book, Leaving Saturn (Georgia, 2002), was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Each of his last two collections, Hoops (Norton, 2006) and Holding Company (Norton, 2010), was a finalist for the NAACP Image Award for poetry.

Jackson’s visit to campus was made possible by the Richard P. Towne Charitable Trust, established in 1981 to sponsor lectures, documentary films, dance performances, and dramatic productions.

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abe Polsky ’98 returned to campus on Oct. 13 to host a special screening of his latest documentary, In Search of Greatness.

In this new film, which was released in theaters on Nov. 2, Polsky poses the question: What makes the greatest athletes of all time? What is the essence of greatness?

But In Search of Greatness is not simply about the day-to-day grind of training or athletic superheroes; it conveys a much deeper message about creativity and the meaning of life that goes beyond the world of sports.

Polsky, who delivered the School’s 2017 Commencement address, has remained close to Hotchkiss. He screened his 2014 documentary Red Army at the School, as well as his first film, The Motel Life, in 2013.

In his quest to understand greatness, Polsky explored everything from upbringing, coaching, and genetics to creativity, psychology, and philosophy, through interviews with some of the world’s top athletes, including Wayne Gretzky, Pelé, and Jerry Rice, as well as renowned thinkers Sir Ken Robinson and David Epstein.

His interest in the subject is also personal. “I’ve been thinking about the role of creativity my whole life,” he said.

“I’ve always challenged authority, not in a malicious way, but I didn’t understand why things were done in a certain way.”

What the film reveals is that in sports and in life, real greatness springs from passionate self-expression. “That’s why we watch sports: we want to see magic, the individual artistry of an athlete,” said Polsky to students during a Q and A session following the screening in Walker Auditorium.

The most successful athletes in the film are those who were the creative thinkers, the innovators and the outliers who struggled against the odds, questioned authority and

Gabe Polsky and Hotchkiss instructor Keith Moon

the rote ways of doing things. Those include the undefeated boxer Rocky Marciano, who pioneered shorter punches closer to his opponent to compensate for his short arm length, and Dick Fosbury, who broke the high jump world record by jumping backwards.

But in everyday life, teachers and coaches often predetermine the abilities of students and athletes and how they should learn or train, Polsky said. The father of a newborn, Polsky said he has become more aware of how some parents regiment their children’s lives in ways that stifle self-expression and self-confidence.

The central message of In Search of Greatness is that mastery cannot be manufactured. The systems meant to cultivate us often stifle us instead, discouraging qualities that typically define those who leave a mark on the world: imagination, instinct and individuality, according to Polsky.

He noted that the film is also about mental health and the sense of well-being that can only come from a tremendous sense of joy in pursuing what you are passionate about.

On a personal level, Polsky said, playing hockey, both at Hotchkiss and at Yale, had been his medium for creativity. Ultimately, he found another creative path through filmmaking.

In the end, he said, “It all comes down to what you do with the puck.”

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Campus

con n ec t i o n

William C. “Bill” Ford Jr. ’75 Honored as the 2018 Alumni Award Recipient

Jeannie Weinberg Rose ’80, P’18, president of the Board of Trustees, presents the 2018 Alumni Award to Bill Ford ’75.

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illiam C. “Bill” Ford Jr. ’75, executive chairman of the board of Ford Motor Company, accepted the 2018 Alumni Award on Nov. 2 during an All-School Meeting in Elfers Hall.

Ralph Booth ’72, P’01,’03, introduced Ford and joined him on stage for an informal conversation and a Q and A with students. Booth was Ford’s proctor when he was at Hotchkiss, and the two later became business partners. In 2009, they co-founded

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Fontinalis, a venture capital company that focuses on using technology to enhance mobility across all modes of transportation.

Senior Nia Talley, a student from Instructor in Economics Adam Lang’s independent study class, asked whether Ford learned any specific skills during his time at Hotchkiss that were helpful in his career.

Ford said Hotchkiss offered a liberal arts education that opened up the world to him.

“Hotchkiss also forced us to be able to speak and write,” he said, noting former

English instructor Robert Hawkins, who routinely doled out Fs to students if they misplaced a comma on their papers. “We had to not only rewrite the paper (and we had to write a paper every day), but we had to write the rule we had broken 10 times or more at the end of the paper, so writing was a lifelong lesson that was invaluable throughout my career.” At Hotchkiss, he also developed a deep appreciation of the environment and the issues confronting the natural world, which set the stage for the environmental advocacy he pursued later on.

Ford earned his B.A. from Princeton, then an M.S. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He joined Ford Motor Company in 1979 as a product planning analyst and held positions in manufacturing, sales, marketing, product development, and finance. He joined the board of directors in 1988 and has been its chairman since 1999.

He was named executive chairman in 2006.

Today, he’s focused on leading the company that “put the world on wheels” into a new era of sustainable, accessible, and affordable mobility. His journey into the future, he said, is guided by the ideas and ideals he developed in the past.

When he joined the company, he recalled, he was an enthusiastic environmentalist at a time when most people in the auto industry didn’t want to go beyond regulatory compliance. But he kept speaking out about the environment and sustainability, and in time, his views became the consensus.

Ford’s top priority echoes that of his greatgrandfather, Henry Ford: making people’s lives better. He continues to focus on making his company “green,” but in recent years, he has taken on a new challenge: transforming it into a leader of future mobility.

To address issues ranging from traffic congestion and climate change to economic disruption and public health, the auto industry is undergoing its most revolutionary transformation in more than 100 years, according to Ford. In the near future, cars will be dramatically different — capable of driving themselves and powered by clean, renewable electricity, with an incredible array of information and entertainment options. They will be integrated into systems that tie public and private transportation together and accessed, owned, and used in radically new ways.

“But instead of looking at all the coming changes in the industry as disruptively negative, I’m looking at this as the opportunity of a lifetime,” Ford said.

Throughout a career that spans nearly four decades, Ford has emphasized the importance of improving lives and serving society. In 2015, he was presented with Steven Spielberg’s USC Shoah Foundation’s prestigious Ambassador for Humanity Award. In 2017, he received the Atlantic Council Distinguished Business Leadership Award. A member of the Irish America Hall of Fame, he also has been awarded an honorary doctorate of environmental sciences and engineering from Koç University, an honorary doctorate of law from the University of Michigan, an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Bradley University, and an honorary doctorate of economic science from University College Cork and

Left to right: Paul Mutter ’87, board of governors; Craig Bradley, head of school; Bill Ford ’75, alumni award recipient; Jeannie Weinberg Rose ’80, P’18, president of the Board of Trustees, and Ralph Booth ’72, P’01,’03.

the National University of Ireland.

During the ceremony, Paul Mutter ’87, chair of the Board of Governors Nominating Committee for Awards, praised Ford’s commitment to the environment — and to promoting sustainability and ethical leadership in the automotive industry.

In presenting the award, President of the Board of Trustees Jeannie Weinberg Rose praised Ford’s remarkable career. “You have demonstrated how pursuing a passion and leading with one’s values can truly leave a mark on a company, a generation, and a society,” she said.

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This is the first in a series of articles that highlight alumni who found direction and purpose during their time at Hotchkiss.

Seeking Better Paths With an Ugly Tie and a Little Help from His Friends, Alex Tonelli ’02 Found His Road to Success at Hotchkiss

BY WENDY CARLSON

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Horatio Alger novel, it isn’t far off the mark.

Now a successful entrepreneur and investor, Tonelli came to Hotchkiss with little more than a hockey bag and an ugly tie.

An orphan, Tonelli was raised by his grandparents in Pomona, NY, a sprawling suburb choked by strip malls and fraught with racial and economic tensions. Though he earned good grades, he felt his efforts were overlooked.

“The public school system was one of the worst in New York state,” he says. “It was more focused on disciplining ‘bad’ kids than investing in talented ones.” On a deeper level, he felt he was being treated like a

future criminal.

By the time he was in middle school, his grandfather had died, and his grandmother was in a nursing home. Tonelli found himself living on his own at his grandparents’ house or couch surfing at close friends’ houses. He’d been holding down a job at an ice rink since he was 11, helping to make ends meet. But the gig had a perk for Tonelli; he could play hockey for free, and he excelled in the sport.

He might have continued on the same haphazard course as many of his friends, some of whom ended up in jail, or dead.

But one day, an athletic trainer pulled him

PHOTO BY SPENCER BROWN

hen you talk with Alex Tonelli about his Hotchkiss experience, you learn pretty quickly that it was entirely untraditional — beginning with his first visit. He hitchhiked nearly 80 miles from home in Rockland County, NY, completely unaware that he was violating School rules by thumbing rides. When he finally arrived, wearing a rumpled blazer and a bargain-basement tie, the leafy campus with its handsome Georgian Revival brick buildings and imposing columned entrance was the most beautiful place he’d ever been.

If that sounds like a scene straight out of a

aside and told him he had potential — not just as an ice hockey player, but in life. He handed him a list of boarding schools that had strong hockey teams and offered full scholarships. Hotchkiss was the first school he visited, and the only one. He jokes that the other schools were too far away to hitchhike, but the truth, he says, is the place just felt right to him.

When he arrived in 1999 as a lower mid, he came with a big chip on his shoulder that was obvious to everyone and endeared him to very few. Still, there were members of the community who helped steer him onto a better course.

“I remember getting an F on my first paper from my English teacher, Mr. (Geoff ) Marchant, who forced me through endless revisions until it was passable. I’d never received a grade that low at my other school, and I realized how far behind I was academically, compared to other students,” he recalls.

The rigor of Daily Themes, and Marchant’s guidance, helped him become a better writer. Eventually, Marchant, who periodically gave prizes for the best Daily Theme, awarded Tonelli several, including one for an essay he wrote about the ugly tie he wore on his first Hotchkiss visit. In his upper-mid year, Tonelli became co-manager of The Record, churning out fiery opinion pieces on controversial school policies; his senior year, he received the Economics Prize.

After his grandmother died, his P.O. box at Hotchkiss became his permanent address. Several classmates’ parents took him in for long stretches of time, notably Rosemary and Rob Steinbaum ’69, whose son, Marshall, was the other co-manager of The Record.

Greg and Laura Pierce, whose son, Will, was a classmate, gave him a job at their summer camp. Pierce and Tonelli had become fast friends. As Pierce tells it, Tonelli was the first student to reach out to him

Alex Tonelli and Will Pierce both played football at Hotchkiss and attended Dartmouth.

when he arrived on campus.

“I came to Hotchkiss for football preseason as an incoming upper mid who didn’t know a soul. Alex just walked up to me after practice and said, ‘You’re new. Here’s what I wish someone told me last year when I was new,’” Pierce recalls.

“I quickly learned that I was an upper mid, not a junior, where to hang out during free time, topics of conversation to be avoided with the ladies, and which rules could be bent and how. This was all very useful advice, considering I had just arrived from a very large, single-sex Catholic day school. It was a display of friendship I will never forget.”

Their friendship endured beyond graduation: they wound up in the same fraternity at Dartmouth, played rugby together, and teamed up to found Endurance Fitness, a gym and health fitness franchise, their first of several entrepreneurial collaborations.

But there were others in the School community who helped Tonelli along the way. “I’d be remiss not to mention Andy Armstrong, father of Sarah ’02, who gave me financial advice; Debbie and Bob Morin, parents of Kyle ’02, who looked after me once I got to Dartmouth; and of course, my wife’s parents, who welcomed me into their family far before Tscharner and I became seriously involved,” he says.

At school, there wasn’t a lot of time for feeling sorry about yourself.

There was so much that needed to be done. It was phenomenal in that regard.”

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When Nancy Bird, former director of health services and one of his consistent advocates, overhead some students making fun of his “blue tooth,” a prior hockey injury that resulted in a bluish cast on one of his two front teeth, she asked her husband, a dentist, to come in after hours and fix it.

“She was one of the few people who really cared about me, which was something I wasn’t really used to before I came to Hotchkiss,” Tonelli says. “She made me feel a lot less like a Martian at Hotchkiss.”

Despite all the support he received, Tonelli was still bouncing around from house to house during School breaks; worst case, he camped out in the blue Saturn he inherited from his grandmother. On vacations, he would joke about his summer in the Hamptons, where he would go to friends’ parties and sleep in his car afterward. But those were the only periods of real loneliness he experienced at Hotchkiss.

“At school, there wasn’t a lot of time for feeling sorry about yourself. There was so much that needed to be done. It was phenomenal in that regard,” he says. “Plus, I had so many great friends.”

At Hotchkiss, he met his future wife, Tscharner Hunter ’02, on the first floor of Tinker. As Tonelli recalls: “She was on a study date with another classmate, who dared her to make a snarky comment to me.

Later in the year, her boyfriend confronted me about spending too much time with her, and we had a physical altercation that ended with me putting him in a trash can.”

That type of behavior, along with his rough-around-the-edges demeanor, sometimes got him trouble. On several occasions, he landed in front of the discipline committee, or in the office of Headmaster Robert “Skip” Mattoon, with whom he always found common ground.

Says Mattoon, “Alex did indeed push the envelope from time to time at Hotchkiss, and that brought us together, sometimes in my office, where we would draw, and then

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Alex and his wife, Tscharner, met at Hotchkiss and were married in 2015. Soon after, they established the Hunter-Tonelli Family Scholarship.

redraw, the proverbial lines in the sand over which he should not step.”

“I suppose we were both engaged in an unspoken form of brinksmanship. This turned out to be a bonding experience, and it all worked out for the best in the end.”

Tonelli concurs he could be intractable at times. “Hotchkiss was a tough crucible, and the combined stress often had me feeling like Giles Corey [the farmer accused of witchcraft in the Salem witch trials who refused to back down.] Yet, I saw it as a trial where successful passage would allow me to improve my situation, and I think that was a healthy challenge,” he says.

After graduating from Hotchkiss, Tonelli earned a B.A. in government and French at Dartmouth and an M.B.A. at Stanford. He’s now successful as a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, having co-founded Funding Circle — a small-business-lending marketplace preparing a multi-billion dollar IPO — and is a partner in a holding company responsible for building a handful

of successful businesses.

In 2015, shortly after he and Tscharner got married, they established the HunterTonelli Family Scholarship, a permanent endowment that will help support students receiving financial assistance at Hotchkiss.

For his part, Tonelli is fulfilling a promise he made to the School during his first interview with Admission. “I said I would start a scholarship with my first financial win. I viewed it as settling my debt to Hotchkiss.

They paid for me to go for three years, and I intended to pay for someone in perpetuity.

I’m so grateful that Tscharner has joined me in this effort, given how much we shared at the School.”

But financial success alone isn’t enough, he adds. “I owe a debt to all those who supported me to use that education to build things that make a difference in the world.”

As for that ugly tie, it’s been with him since he left Hotchkiss. “It’s my good luck charm,” he says.

Hotchkiss

Humanitarians From fly fishing in Colorado to rescuing asylum seekers in Nazi-occupied France, the alumni on the following pages have worked to help and heal war veterans and refugees.

PETER NALEN ’79, P’13,’15 | TRUX EMERSON ’66 | CLEMANTINE WAMARIYA ’09 | HADAS YANAY ’02 | VARIAN FRY ’26

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Healing Waters PETER NALEN ’79, P’13,’15 FINDS INSPIRATION THROUGH HELPING VETERANS

BY WENDY CARLSON PHOTOGRAPHY BY MIKE MACLEOD

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ny fisherman worth his waders knows that when you’re waist-high in water in the middle of a river, you have about as good a chance of catching a fish as the guy next to you. It comes down to luck, perseverance, and patience.

An avid fly fisherman, Peter Nalen ’79 knew the sport was a great equalizer, but he never thought about it as a powerful healer until he became involved with Warriors and Quiet Waters (WQW), a nonprofit that seeks to help post-9/11 combat veterans successfully reintegrate into society through weeklong fly-fishing experiences in Montana.

“I have to admit, I was skeptical at first,” says Nalen, who moved in 2015 with his wife, April, from the East Coast to Bozeman, MT, where he operates Peak Advisory, a marketing company he founded. In his own life, being on the water has had a restorative effect, helping him through some rough patches: first through a difficult divorce, then a toxic split with a business partner.

Still, he wasn’t convinced that simply wading in a stream with rod and reel in hand could help veterans overcome the trauma of losing a limb,

cope with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury, or even ease their assimilation back into society.

In 2016, Nalen met retired Marine Colonel Eric Hastings, WQW’s founder, who piqued his interest. During his flight missions in Vietnam, Hastings would often look down from the cockpit and trace the meandering ribbons of water that cut through the jungle, which reminded him of the trout streams in Montana, his home state. At night, he dreamt of fly fishing.

By the time Hastings returned to Montana in 1969, years before medical experts began diagnosing PTSD, he went straight to the river to fish, which, he claimed, healed him. After raising $14,000, he founded WQW in 2007, and the first two groups of injured combat veterans arrived in Bozeman in 2008. While there are dozens of recreational programs for injured veterans, the majority of the 750 veterans who have participated in WQW since its inception have reported feeling a sense of self-confidence — and hope — for the first time in years.

Nalen arranged to meet Hastings for coffee one morning. They ended up talking until 5 p.m.,

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“I realized then that this isn’t just about and Nalen walked away convinced that he wanted to get involved. His first opportunity came last May, when he volunteered to be a fly-fishing companion to Brandon Rethmel, a 31-year-old veteran who had lost his leg and suffered a head injury while serving in Afghanistan in 2009.

The experience was “utterly transformative for both of us,” says Nalen, who now serves on the organization’s national advisory board.

The pivotal moment happened midweek, when Rethmel, Nalen, and a professional fishing guide traveled to a beaver pond not far from the WQW lodge, where they

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spotted several large brown trout swimming in the crystal clear water. Rethmel waded in, leaning on Nalen for support in case his prosthetic leg became jammed in the mud.

On Rethmel’s first cast, the three watched as a trout swam toward the fly, mouth open and poised to grab it. Instead, it shimmied past. Rethmel kept casting. On the fourth cast, the trout went for it.

“It was just so exciting to watch him land that 18-inch trout, to see him hold it and measure it, and then release it back into the water,” Nalen says.

At some point during the commotion,

Rethmel took Nalen’s hand and pressed it to his chest. “Do you feel that? Can you feel how fast my heart is beating?” he said. “This was the most exciting thing that’s happened to me. You’ve changed my life.”

For Nalen, those few words were moving and profound. “I realized then that this isn’t just about catching a fish,” says Nalen. “It’s about learning a skill, achieving it, working with a team, and knowing you can succeed at it again and again.”

When Nalen first agreed to volunteer as a companion, he felt incredibly nervous and unsure. “I thought, ‘What do I have in

catching a fish.” common with someone who was trained for combat, who is prepared to put his life on the line not just for his men, but for us?’” he says. “I had a pretty easy life growing up. How could I be a good companion and support person to someone like that?”

Fishing broke down the barriers between the two men. “We were just two guys enjoying time out on the water,” Nalen explains. They talked about their kids, swapped bad jokes, and Rethmel opened up about his time in the military and his decision to serve.

He was in ninth grade when 9/11 happened, and he knew then that he wanted to join the service. But his life took a detour when he dropped out of high school, married, and started a family. While working as a janitor at a casino in South Carolina, he met several retired veterans in security, who regaled him with stories about all the things they had seen and done when they were in the service. Rethmel enlisted, hoping that it would provide him with a career and solid foundation for his family.

Just a week into his tour in Afghanistan, he was on duty in a guard tower that was struck by a Katyusha 107mm rocket. He barely survived and spent more than a year in the military hospital before he was medically discharged in 2012. After that, his life spun out of the control, and he became more and more depressed. “I was becoming reclusive, and I wasn’t present as a father and a husband. I more or less gave up on living and just wanted to drink and take pain medication,” he wrote in an email to Nalen.

Rethmel is one of the more than three million Americans who have served in uniform in the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts, according to the Pew Research

Center. Nearly 7,000 of them have died.

Tens of thousands more have been wounded, with injuries that leave both physical and emotional scars.

In 2016, Rethmel started seeing a counselor and rebuilding his life — and he became a member of Operation Heroes Support, a veteran-operated nonprofit that provides outdoor opportunities for disabled veterans, which led him to WQW. Since the week they spent on the river, Nalen and Rethmel have kept in touch. They text each other and swap fishing stories and photos. Since returning to his home outside Pittsburgh, Rethmel is planning to continue his education by enrolling in college.

For Nalen, the experience proved to be the most impactful volunteer work he has done. Beyond his involvement with WQW, Nalen mentors entrepreneurs and teaches business courses as an adjunct professor at Montana State University. He also works and volunteers with Bill Bryan ’62, who founded OneMontana, a nonprofit that seeks to bridge the gap between rural and urban communities.

For Nalen, the biggest takeaway he got from his WQW experience is a deeper respect and understanding for men and women in the armed service. Rethmel, in turn, said WQW treated him as a whole person when all too often, injured vets are viewed solely as disabled. “We (veterans) were treated like regular people, and that goes a very long way with us,” he said.

Fly fishing, meanwhile, has become a constant in his life. It’s something he can look forward to every day, a skill he can teach his kids and an activity that keeps him engaged, productive, and positive.

Rethmel hopes that at least some of his fellow vets, whether their injuries are visible or invisible, have the same life-changing experience; or, as he puts it, a chance “to land that big fish — to just get out on the water and live life.”

To learn more about Warriors and Quiet Waters, contact Peter at peter@peakadvise.com or Faye Nelson at faye@warriorsandquietwaters.org.

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The 10 Million Dollar Sandwich

BY WENDY CARLSON

A tall lunch order for Trux Emerson ’66

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PHOTO COURTEW Y OF FISHER HOUSE

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t Hotchkiss, T. Truxtun “Trux” Emerson ’66 concedes he might have been better known for his athletic skills than his academic achievements. “I was kind of a jock. I was a varsity letterman in football and hockey and captain of the varsity track team my senior year,” he says.

The experience of being a team player served him well in business and, more recently, when he and his wife, Durbin, launched a multi-million-dollar campaign in 2012 to build a Fisher House in Charleston, SC. Currently, there are 78 Fisher Houses throughout the country, where families of veterans can stay free of charge while their loved ones receive treatment at nearby VA hospitals.

These days, Emerson likes to refer to the behemoth fundraiser as “the $10-million sandwich.” The whole idea was hatched over lunch at the Hominy Grill in downtown Charleston, where the Emersons first met Major General James A. Livingston, a Medal of Honor recipient, whom they wanted to enlist as the honorary chairman for a golf tournament they were organizing to raise money for veterans.

Livingston showed up at the table with the public affairs officer from the Charleston VA hospital, and halfway through the lunch, they asked the Emersons if they would spearhead a much more ambitious project to build a Fisher Houselike comfort home in Charleston, where hotel rates can run as high as $300 per night. On a paper napkin, they figured out how much it would cost to buy the land and build. What started out as a small charity event to raise $50,000 jumped to an estimated $10-million-fundraiser before Emerson had taken the last bite of his fried shrimp po’ boy.

“We had never done anything remotely like this before, but rather naively, we said yes,” Emerson recalls. “We walked out of the restaurant wondering what we just committed ourselves to.”

But once they agreed to the project, “one of the biggest motivators for us was that failure was not an option,” he says.

At the time, Emerson was nearing retirement as an owner and partner of Walker, Wallace & Emerson, a real estate firm specializing in horse farms in the Carolinas. He and Durbin had reached a point in their lives where they felt a strong desire to give back, especially to veterans.

Military service runs deep in Emerson’s family. He is a direct descendant of Commodore Thomas Truxtun, one of the first six officers appointed by George Washington in the fledgling U.S. Navy.

Truxtun fought in the War of 1812, and five naval warships have been named in his honor; the most recent, the USS Truxtun (DDG-103), a guided missile destroyer, was commissioned in 2009.

Emerson’s father, H. Truxtun Emerson, Jr. ’35, also served in the Pacific with the Navy in World War II. Emerson followed in his footsteps by joining the Naval ROTC at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. Two years into the program, he received an unexpected medical deferment and was not able to serve on active duty, which weighed on him over the years.

Then, after attending the commissioning of the USS Truxtun in 2009, he and Durbin decided to do something to contribute to the family’s military legacy.

In 2013, they formed the nonprofit Harbour House, Inc., and kicked off the

The Fisher House in Charleston, SC, opened last December and offers lodging for loved ones of veterans receiving treatment at the nearby VA hospital.

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“Every day we have tears here; tears of grief and tears of joy. We are one big family here, and every one of our residents is so very grateful.”

—Vicky Johnson, manager of the Charleston Fisher House

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fundraising campaign with the charity golf tournament on Kiawah Island, SC. The event far surpassed their expectations: in the end, they managed to bring in more than $165,000. Despite the success, they were still woefully short of what they needed to build a facility that could house up to 16 visiting families. Then, in 2014, the Emersons received a call from the Fisher House Foundation proposing that if Harbour House, Inc., could buy the land, the Foundation would provide $6.5 million to build and furnish the house.

But finding a suitable property close enough to the VA hospital with only $300,000 in the bank was daunting.

Ultimately, Emerson said, “we found a

PHOTOS BY LINDSAY SHORTER

On left, Trux Emerson and his wife, Durbin, at the ribbon-cutting ceremony of Fisher House last December.

Above, veterans from various service branches attended the ceremony.

nearly one-acre site in downtown historic Charleston that was just perfect, but in order to get it under contract and close, the Fisher House Foundation agreed to provide us with a loan of $3 million.”

After two years and a lot of red tape — razing the abandoned funeral home on site and negotiating with the city over its ironclad historic district building codes — the loan was paid off. The Charleston Fisher House was built and dedicated in December 2017, and the first veteran families were welcomed in January 2018.

Since the facility opened, it has been an overwhelming success, according to Vicky Johnson, manager of the Charleston Fisher House.

“Every day we have tears here; tears of grief and tears of joy,” says Johnson. “We are one big family here, and every one of our residents is so very grateful.”

Now, five years after the fateful lunch at the Hominy Grill, Emerson says the whole process has been an education. “The learning curve was steep when we started, because there was so much we didn’t know,” he says.

With the project of a lifetime finally under their belt, the Emersons are breathing a sigh of relief. “For those five years, seven days a week, my wife and I were pounding the pavement and asking for donations: it became our lives until it was accomplished. Now, we are sitting

back as co-founders in an emeritus status and ironically, it’s left a hole that we are looking to fill again,” says Trux.

Since moving to Big Sky, MT, the couple has become involved with the Arts Council of Big Sky and joined a committee to promote and bring public art to the community.

“I’m sure there will be many more things we’ll become involved in. Big Sky is a small community, and we like that our efforts can be felt locally, in a meaningful way, and fairly quickly,” he says. “To us, that is more rewarding than simply writing a check, and vastly more appealing.”

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After Writing a Memoir about Her Past, Clemantine Wamariya ’09 is

LIVING for the Present

BY WENDY CARLSON

There are so many layers to Clemantine Wamariya’s life,

it’s hard to know where to begin to tell her story.

There is her epic journey as a six-year-old, when she and her 15-year-old sister, Claire, were forced to escape Rwanda without their parents during the 1994 genocide. It is a tale of heart-rending moments and images both horrifying and poetic: dead bodies silently floating on the river, which Wamariya, still full of childhood innocence, believed were people sleeping. There are desperate years she and her sister spent in refugee camps; her adolescent years growing up in a middle-class family in America; her highly publicized reunion with her parents — on Oprah! On live television! — and her struggle to reconcile her past with her life in America while she was a student at Hotchkiss, then at Yale.

All of this is revealed in The Girl Who Smiled Beads: A Story of War and What Comes After, a memoir she co-wrote with Elizabeth Weil, a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine, that was released last spring by Crown Publishers. A New York Times bestseller, the book has been translated into six languages. But the memoir is just part of her story. “There is much I wasn’t able to fit into the book,” says Clemantine, who prefers to go by her first name only. She now lives in San Francisco and is a human rights advocate on behalf of conflict survivors.

Clemantine, now 30, is striking. She has a warm, beautiful smile and an effusive personality that belies the sadness and loneliness she “I had had this whole experience experienced as a child refugee and as a marginalized 12-year-old in America. When Hotchkiss Magazine caught up with her over the of living as a person seeking phone in between her book tour and speaking engagements, she was refuge. So often, we don’t eager to talk about her life moving forward, and shed light on the write about the human emotions backstory of her memoir.

Being in survival mode for so long created an emotional numbof conflicts; we write about ness, a barrier that took her years to her overcome. Her knee-jerk the political and economic reaction to questions about her past was to tell people: “At age six, I ran away with my sister to escape the Rwandan massacre. We spent aftermath. I wanted to write seven years as refugees. What do you want me to do about it? Cry?” about those feelings.”

In her memoir, she describes the alienation she felt when she was asked to speak to a group of high schoolers about her experience.

She decided it would be easier to narrate it as an adventure. “They 26

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PHOTO BY JULIA Z AVE

just thought I was cool,” she wrote.

When she finished telling her story, one of the students asked, “Did you have any animals? Like, did you have elephants?” Another girl said, “You didn’t shower for days? Gross!”

She pretended she didn’t hear.

“So few people knew who I was,” she wrote.

When she arrived at Hotchkiss for a postgraduate year before going to Yale, she found herself alone, for the first time in her life, in her single room on the third floor of Wieler Hall. She was 20 years old. “I had lived so many places, adapted so well, but I had never

lived alone,” she wrote. “I had the skills to get into those long halls filled with portraits of pale, square-jawed men. I had the ability to work the system there. But none of that could protect me from my inner life. I felt so old and so young. I’d always been alone, but I’d never been alone. I was so many people and nobody at all.”

Looking back at her Hotchkiss experience, she feels incredibly grateful for the education she received and to the faculty who embraced her complexity and treated her with patience when she broke the rules.

Instructor in English Christina Cooper recalls having Clemantine as a student in her creative writing class, where she first began to hone her skills as a storyteller: “I remember vividly her attention to detail, and the way she was unafraid to confront, in painfully honest ways, the emotional complexities of her story: life on the run from war-torn countries of Rwanda, the Congo and Burundi, her relationship with her sister, and the blurry margins and complicated relationships and loyalties with the people and places she called home, both

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as a child and emerging young woman. Her classmates and I were a rapt audience.”

But at times, her anger was irrepressible.

In her memoir, Wamariya recalled one incident at Hotchkiss during a philosophy class in which the instructor asked the students to game out a scenario: “You’re a ferry boat captain. The ship is sinking. How do you decide who lives and who dies?”

For her, this was not a hypothetical question. “I’ve been in a boat so overloaded with desperate humans fleeing from starvation and war that people had to start throwing their luggage into the water so we all didn’t sink and die. I lost it in that class and started screaming, ‘You have no idea, do you? You’ve never been in that scenario. What gives you the right to even talk? This is real. That’s me and I have a name and I’m alive and there are people out there who are dead, or they’re living but they’re checked out and they hate the world because people in your country sat there and watched all of us getting slaughtered.’’’

“ It’s strange, how you go from being a person who is away from home to a person with no home at all. The place that is supposed to want you has pushed you out. No other place takes you in. You are unwanted, by everyone. You are a refugee.”

— The Girl Who Smiled Beads:

A Story of War and What Comes After

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PORTR AIT BY JULIA Z AVE & BOOK PHOTO BY WENDY CARLSON

She stormed out of the classroom, not for the first time.

After graduating from Yale, where she earned a degree in comparative literature, and lured by the tech industry she moved to San Francisco, where she began to slowly make peace with her fears and her anger.

One day, she was hiking in the Berkeley Hills overlooking the San Francisco Bay when she suddenly felt like she was back in Rwanda. “I paused on a hike and I looked across the hilly landscape. I thought I could have been home in my childhood neighborhood,” she recalls. It was the first time she paused to really listen to herself, to examine her emotions.

In 2011, President Obama appointed her to serve on the board of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. Then, in 2014 she traveled with a museum delegation to Rwanda to attend a commemoration of the 20-year anniversary of the genocide.

During the event, she sat with more than 50,000 other people in a stadium, where she watched a performance depicting the timeline of the Rwandan genocide. There was no dialogue, just music and movement, but it deeply moved the audience.

“Many Rwandans are silent about what happened then,” she said. “But at that moment, watching the performance was like watching a horror movie, only without the blood. People watching it in the stadium started screaming and crying, and that’s the first time many of them released their feelings about what happened. I couldn’t hold it in any longer. For the first time in my life, I cried, too, for my country.”

She cried for two days nonstop. After the visit to Rwanda, she knew she couldn’t return and simply slide back into her American life. She needed to share her story, to add to the timeline.

“So often,” she says, “we don’t write about the human emotions of conflicts; we write about the political and economic aftermath.

I wanted to write about those feelings.”

She returned to San Francisco determined to change her life. She found a therapist,

a yoga instructor, a medication coach —“anything to help me connect with my strength beyond suffering,” she says — and a publishing agency that introduced her to Elizabeth Weil, who was her rock for three years while they worked on the book.

“She was a mother to me, and as a writer, she met me at my most human self,” says Clemantine.

Less than a year later, they produced an article published in Medium, “Everything is Yours, Everything is not Yours,” which the two used to shop for a book publisher.

With the memoir’s success, Clemantine has begun a new chapter in her life. But her refugee childhood has left unseen scars: she collects seemingly insignificant items, like bus tickets, a lingering reaction to not being able to hold on to any of her childhood belongings during her years of being constantly on the move from refugee camp to refugee camp. Instead, she collected rocks and marbles from each camp and stashed them in a Mickey Mouse backpack, which became her lifeline.

Today, her apartment holds memories of the seven countries she migrated through before arriving in America. There is a rug the color of the soft, grey sands of the Democratic Republic of Congo; a woven basket from Rwanda; and a wall painted the golden brown hues of Cape Town, South Africa. In the kitchen are the colors and rich aroma of herbs from her mother’s garden.

And, in the dining room, she says, “I have the biggest dining room table because I have so many, many people coming over,” she says, laughing. Making peace with her fears has been a strengthening experience, and one of those fears was not having a home. “My apartment has become my home, and I share it with everyone, no matter who,” she says.

Meanwhile, she continues to work as a human rights advocate, an author, and storyteller who brings her perspective to various organizations, from TED Talks to the boards of Women for Women International and Refugee Transitions. She has come to terms with the realization that hate is part

of being human, that is is generated by fear, and that we need to identify that fear to curb the hate. “We’ve created these categories that divide us as humans, and in doing that, we miss each other. I want to bring people together and remind everyone that they have permission to know themselves and others beyond labels,” she said.

On a more personal level, she is deeply committed to finding joy in her life and sharing it with others. “There is so much human pain and suffering in the world. I want to honor all those difficult experiences and acknowledge their aftermath,” she says.

But at the same time, she adds, “I want to really live in the present, and find love and joy in the world around me.”

There still exists in her the spirit of the little girl who grew up in a close-knit family, eating pineapple cake and playing in her mother’s tropical garden, the little girl who believed the story her nanny, Mukamana, told her about a girl who roamed the earth, leaving a trail of beads behind her. She would leave it up to young Clemantine to imagine how the story would end, and whatever she said, Mukamana would make it come true.

“Growing up, I wanted to be like her,” says Wamariya. “I wanted to tell stories and dance for others like she did.”

It seems, at last, she has bridged the past with the present. She talks excitedly about a huge community gathering at her apartment, where she has invited many friends who have offered to share their talents: a chef from the Congo will cook for 50 people. There will be a DJ playing African music. Her uncle in Rwanda is sending her a crate of passion juice —and on and on.

And yes, she adds, she will be dancing.

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From Working the Land to Helping Refugees,

Hadas Yanay ’05 FollowS Her Calling

BY CHELSEA EDGAR

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s an adolescent, Hadas Yanay ’05 sometimes felt like an outsider. “Growing up with Israeli immigrant parents, I was always making some kind of adjustment,” she says.

Her family had a duck farm in rural upstate New York, where Yanay occasionally worked as a teenager, cleaning eggs and doing other farm chores. Her experience navigating cultural differences has played a major role in shaping her career path — first as a volunteer and board member in a nonprofit that helps rehabilitate prison inmates by teaching them agricultural skills; then by working on the front lines of the refugee crisis in Greece. Today, she’s a volunteer coordinator with the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS), a Jewish-affiliated organization based in New York City and D.C. that helps resettle refugees who have recently arrived in the U.S. “In some ways, the work is much more challenging than helping refugees in camps,” she explains. “They’re made it here, but the road is still long, and there are many, many bumps and challenges ahead. It’s not just about survival, but becoming integrated, which means trying to become part of a society where some people don’t want you.”

HIAS works with other community organizations in the greater D.C. and New York metro areas to connect refugees with resources to help them start new lives — learning English, getting job training, and finding housing.

“We’re building community and connecting volunteer networks, and it’s clear that that’s having an impact on people’s perspective.

You really see cultural barriers coming down,” she says. “A refugee that comes here and is just inserted directly into their ethnic community may only have access only to the opportunities that their friends and family have. But if we expand their network, we expand their opportunities.”

At Hotchkiss, Yanay spent her senior year abroad in Rennes, France, her first foray into international living. After graduating from Hotchkiss, Yanay attended Boston University, where she had an eyeopening experience abroad in Western Samoa. In 2008, the country was undergoing a major shift from an agrarian to a market economy.

Along with sweeping political change came processed and packaged foods — and a whole host of chronic diseases, like hypertension, diabetes, and obesity. During her semester there, Yanay worked with the local teachers’ college and nutrition center to research the impact of physical education and health programs on secondary school students’ attitudes and eating habits. Through her work in Samoa, Yanay came to appreciate how being disconnected from the process of growing and

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producing food could give rise to a whole range of social issues.

After college and solo traveling in India, she moved to Israel to work for Hava and Adam Ecological Education Farm, a program that seeks to model sustainability and self-reliance. She lived in yurts and geodesic domes on the compound and led workshops on using medicinal herbs and building shelters out of mud.

“The whole experience really forced me to be intentional with every part of my life,” she says. “It just made me hyperconscious of our consumerist culture in the United States — how much we waste and take for granted.”

Inspired by her stint living off the grid in Israel, Yanay returned to the U.S. and landed a job at a diversified garlic farm in upstate New York, then moved on to an urban agriculture startup in the Boston area that built raised beds and rooftop gardens for restaurants and city dwellers.

Then, in 2013, she attended an organic farming conference, where she met Erika Rumbley and Renée Portanova, founders of The New Garden Society, a nonprofit that provides rehabilitative agricultural and job training for prison inmates. Yanay began as a volunteer, teaching prisoners how to farm.

Within a year, she had worked her way up to becoming the nonprofit’s operations manager and, eventually, joined the board.

“A big part of the program is helping inmates gain skills and job readiness,” says Yanay. “But for some folks, the biggest benefit is purely being outside and seeing something grow as a result of their efforts.

When you’re in a prison environment, it’s hard to remember that you’re capable of making change and affecting something in a positive way.”

One afternoon, Yanay and her team decided to pick a giant watermelon. It was too big to cut with a knife, so one of the inmates had to smash it open. Everyone in the group broke off a piece and ate together, sharing the bounty of their work.

“In moments like those, you forgot the differences between people,” says Yanay.

While she was working at The New Garden Society, the refugee crisis in Europe was escalating, and Yanay felt compelled to get involved. With only a faint idea of what she was getting herself into, she signed up for a four-month

“We’re building community and connecting volunteer networks, and it’s clear that that’s having an impact on people’s perspective.

You really see cultural barriers coming down.”

volunteer assignment in Athens with the Greek Forum of Migrants.

Yanay was sent to work at Elliniko, then a newly opened refugee camp at a defunct Athens airport. Not long before she arrived, the Balkans to the north had closed their borders, stranding some 60,000 migrants from all over the Middle East in Greece. Busloads of refugees arrived each day, clustering in makeshift quarters in the arrivals terminal. Yanay worked as a coordinator in the camp, trying to create a more efficient system to address the refugees’ needs for food, shelter, and medical attention. Working at the camp was intensely physical, a constant scramble from one emergency to the next.

“These people have been walking and traveling for months, and they come in and collapse right in front of you,” she says.

With limited space and no viable exit plan for the growing number of refugees seeking admittance, conditions quickly became overcrowded. The people who came to Elliniko had given up their whole lives — their homes, their jobs, their hobbies, their personal space — and tensions began to escalate due to frustration, hopelessness, and even sheer boredom.

“During my third month there, fights were already becoming a normal part of camp life,” she recalls.

In response to the lack of structure, some refugees developed small economies of their own. One family somehow managed to acquire eggs — not included on the list of food items provided by the Greek Ministry of Immigration — and sold them to their camp neighbors. Without a common language, communicating essential information — like changes in immigration policy or the whereabouts of family members — was a tremendous challenge.

Yanay learned some Greek on the fly, and she became close with a group of Afghan teens and taught them basic English. One of them asked for her advice on whether he should pay a smuggler to get him out of the camp and take him into Germany.

“It was so hard to know what to say to someone in that situation,” she says. “They were willing to take unbelievable risks, because they had nothing left.”

Not long after Yanay came back to the U.S., she got a text from another Afghan teen she’d met at the camp in Greece, telling her that he’d decided to leave with a smuggler to Germany. Knowing that he was risking his life, Yanay feared for his safety.

Once in a while, he’d text or call to let her know he was okay. He got as far as Austria, where he found work as an interpreter and is getting his feet under him.

“He speaks, like, every language,” Yanay says, with a hint of pride. “He’s a total survivor.”

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AGAINST ALL ODDS: The Rescue Mission of Varian Fry ’26

BY ROBERTA JENCKES

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PHOTO/ UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MUSUEM, COURTESY OF ANNET TE FRY

Varian Fry walking in Marseilles 1940-41

an a person who organized the rescue of some 2,000-3,000 refugees fleeing the Gestapo in 1940-41 remain a littleknown figure in history? In the instance of humanitarian Varian Mackey Fry ’26, this seemed to be the case for a long while.

In the last 25 years, a number of biographies and documentaries have shone a light on Fry, an unlikely hero, who ran a daring rescue organization in Vichy, France, that helped anti-Nazi and Jewish refugees avoid capture. In one year, from August 1940 until August 1941, Fry and his staff, working from a small office in Marseilles, aided thousands of refugees. The visitors to their office included people from all walks of life; in the 13 months he was there, he and his staff saw an estimated 15,000 refugees. But his undercover mission, the one for which he was sent, was to help artists, writers, musicians, scientists, professors, and political figures escape. Among those he rescued were harpsichordist Wanda Landowska, philosopher Hannah Arendt, writer André Breton, sculptor Jacques Lipchitz, artist Max Ernst, author Heinrich Mann, economist and author Albert Hirschman, and artist Marc Chagall.

In a way, Fry’s remarkable story began at Hotchkiss. It was in Lakeville in the mid-1920s where he found his voice for righteousness and unhesitatingly challenged authority. He entered as a prep in September 1922, coming to the School from Ridgewood, NJ, with high marks and glowing commendations. A Ridgewood Public Schools recommendation noted that he was “a bright student, stood high in scholarship, and had won the confidence and esteem of his teachers by his manliness and upright conduct.”

But, at Hotchkiss Varian struggled at times with School rules. He was admonished for unexcused absences and dormitory violations, and his angry outbursts were noted. Ultimately, when he left the School in December 1924, the decision was entirely his own. When told he must take part in a hazing practice that involved crossing a room while holding onto a hot steam pipe on the ceiling, he refused. “Varian came to me last night and stated that he found himself unalterably opposed to some features of the traditions and customs of the school and he wished to resign,” the headmaster reported to his parents. “His mind was so fixed that advice did not avail to change his attitude.”

PHOTOS / UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM,COURTESY OF JOSEPH SCHACHTER

From Hotchkiss, he attended The Taft School briefly before finishing high school at Riverdale Country School. While there, he learned that in an English College Board exam he had taken at Hotchkiss, he had received the highest mark ever given in the nation: a 99th percentile. The essay question he had answered was on the book Ulysses by James Joyce, a book that was then banned in the United States.

Accepted at Harvard, he began his studies in the fall of 1926. In his freshman year, he and a new Harvard friend, Lincoln Kirstein, created their own literary quarterly. Through Kirstein’s sister, he met Eileen Hughes, an editor at Atlantic Monthly, whom he married after his Harvard graduation.

While writing for the American journal The Living Age, Fry visited Germany.

He later wrote in Assignment: Rescue: An Autobiography by Varian Fry: “In 1935, I had visited Germany and had smelled the air of hatred and oppression Hitler had brought to his country. While in Berlin, I had seen the first great pogrom against the Jews. I saw young Nazi toughs smash up Jewish-owned shops and I watched in horror as they dragged people out into the streets and beat and kicked them. …”

Upon his return, Fry wrote in The New York Times about the savage treatment of Jews by Hitler’s regime. He also wrote books about foreign affairs for Headline Books, owned by the Foreign Policy Association, including The Peace that Failed, which described the troubled political climate in Europe following World War I. With the fall of France in June 1940, the daily headlines and the realities of life under the rules of the new French government in Vichy brought an increasing sense of urgency.

Thousands of refugees had earlier flocked to southern France; however, the armistice signed with Germany required that the French government “surrender on demand” all refugees from the Greater German Reich.

In effect, the ruling, Article 19, applied to anyone the Gestapo wanted to detain.

Fry learned that a group of people in New York had formed the Emergency Rescue

Committee. Its purpose was to get the artists, writers, musicians, scientists, professors, political figures – men and women whose works and words had made them enemies of the Third Reich – out of France before they were seized by the Gestapo. The Committee had spent many weeks searching for the right person. Noting that he had a month’s vacation coming up in August, Fry approached them. “I’m not right for the job,” he told them. “All I know about being a secret agent, or trying to outsmart the Gestapo, is what I’ve seen in the movies. But if you can’t find anyone else, I’ll go.”

“Get ready to leave at once,” he was told.

In August of 1940, at age 32, and against the advice of friends concerned for his safety, he left for Europe, carrying with him a list of the names of men and women he was to rescue and $3,000 in cash strapped to his leg.

He set up his operation, initially working from his room at the Hotel Splendide in Marseilles. The mission’s name, The American Relief Center, ostensibly was formed to help refugees. Fry helped

“I’m not right for the job.

All I know about being a secret agent, or trying to outsmart the Gestapo, is what I’ve seen in the movies. But if you can’t find anyone else, I’ll go.”

“Get ready to leave at once,” he was told.

Affidavit in lieu of passport photos

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“Deciding whom to help and whom not to help was one of the toughest jobs of all.”

Rescuers and French workers at the foot of the Pyrenees, near the French-Spanish border

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moment. Then, when there are no guards around, they cross the border on foot.”

On one memorable occasion, Fry accompanied a party of refugees on the escape route. In the group were novelist Franz Werfel and writer Heinrich Mann and their wives, as well as Golo Mann, son of the novelist and Nobel Prize winner Thomas Mann. Fry feared they were likely to be recognized at the French border, so he oversaw their travel. After being refused entry on the train, the group decided to climb the hill. Heinrich Mann was 70 and had to be carried partway. But in time, they succeeded in their escape.

In late August 1941, he became aware that the police had become more active in their surveillance of the office. The police told him he had to return to the U.S. or risk arrest.

Reluctantly, he said goodbye to his colleagues and to France. (The office in Marseilles was raided and closed by the police in June 1942.)

On his return from Marseilles, he wrote about what he had seen in Europe. His piece, “The Massacre of the Jews,” was the lead article in the Dec. 22, 1942 edition of The New Republic; it described the horrors being carried out against Jews and predicted the coming storm. In 1945, the story of his time in Marseilles, Assignment: Rescue: An Autobiography by Varian Fry, was published in conjunction with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. He continued his career in journalism and also wrote for Fortune 500 companies. He served on the

board of directors of the American Civil Liberties Union and the International League for the Rights of Man. Toward the end of his life, he renewed his studies of Greek and Roman and began teaching part-time in Redding, CT. After the death in 1948 of his wife, Eileen, he married Annette Riley, and they had three children.

Shortly before his death at age 59 in 1967, he was awarded the Croix de Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur. He was posthumously honored in 1991 by the United States Holocaust Memorial Council with the Eisenhower Liberation Medal, and he was the first U.S. citizen to be designated a “Righteous Among the Nations” by Yad VaShem Holocaust Museum in Israel.

Varian’s War, one of several documentaries about him and his work, appeared in 2001 and starred William Hurt.

In the “Afterword” to his book, Surrender on Demand, published in 1945, Fry quoted from a letter he wrote to his wife, days after his expulsion: “I have had an adventure — there is no other but this good Victorian word — of which I never dreamed. I have learned to live with people and to work with them. I have developed or discovered within me powers of resourcefulness, of imagination, and of courage which I never before knew I possessed. And I have fought a fight against enormous odds, of which, in spite of the final defeat, I think I can always be proud.”

Note: Phelps T. “Pepper” Riley ’93 is the great-nephew of Varian Fry ’26.

PHOTO/ UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MUSEUM

thousands of refugees, but he also had the list of names of people that he was sent to rescue, the underground part of his operation. Soon, the workload required that he add workers to help him; the small group included several Americans.

“Every morning at eight o’clock the grind started again, and went right on until almost midnight,” he wrote. “There was no letup.

Each day was busier than the day before, with more people to see and more impossible decisions to make. I couldn’t help every refugee in France; there were too many of them. Deciding whom to help and whom not to help was one of the toughest jobs of all. I had no way of knowing who was really in danger and who wasn’t. The only thing to do was to give each refugee the full benefit of the doubt. …For the most part, I stuck closely to the names of my list.”

The escape route for the refugees had been used, successfully, before Fry’s arrival. It was explained to him by Frank Bohn, already in Marseilles at the behest of the American Federation of Labor, sent there to get the European labor leaders out of France.

“Those who already have an overseas visa can easily get transit visas to travel across Spain and Portugal,” Bohn said.

“If they have a safe-conduct to show the French police, they can go all the way to the border by train. Those who don’t have a safe-conduct take the train to a town not quite so near the frontier as the last stop in France. Either way, they wait until the right

Messages from the Alumni Association

A Busy Fall and Holiday Parties on Tap Recent Bearcats gatherings across the country included a reception in Chapel Hill, NC, co-hosted by Jane SommersKelly ‘81, Bill Gates ‘81, and Gus Jamison ’81, a Yale College Dinner in New Haven, and an event sponsored by the Alumni of Color Committee of The Hotchkiss School Board of Governors, who presented a day of enlightenment at The African American Museum in Philadelphia.

RING IN THE HOLIDAY SEASON WITH FELLOW BEARCATS! Parties are scheduled for the first week in December in Boston, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Washington D.C. For more details, go to: hotchkiss.org/calendar.

Ivan Henderson ’95, vice president of programming at the African American Museum, led a tour of the exhibit Collective Conscious: The Art of Social Change. Host Committee members included Dre ’93 and Corie Alicea P’18,’20, Chantel Edwards ’99, Cisco Garcia ’07, Ivan Henderson ’95, Annika Lescott ’06, Alessandra Nicolas ’95, Emily Pressman ’98, Sheria Smith ’01, and Richard Staples ’74, P’10,’12.

Be an Advisor!

Our alumni network is a valuable resource. The Hotchkiss Alumni Career Network allows users to tap into this network, pairing advisors with advice seekers. This network allows advisors to choose the services they would like to offer (i.e., career conversations, resume critiques, or mock interviews), and advice seekers can search for alumni in many fields. Signing up is fast and easy at www.hotchkiss.firsthand.co.

Questions? Email Caroline Sallee Reilly ’87 in the Alumni Office: creilly@hotchkiss.org

Other ways to stay in touch:

ALUMNI

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Class

not es Hotchkiss During World War II

Food Rationing, Club Sports, and A Dose of Patriotism

BY BEN LABAREE ’45

Benjamin W. Labaree ’45 reflects on the period from 1941-45, when he was a student at Hotchkiss. Almost all members of these classes ended up serving in the military. Over the course of the war, a total of 59 alumni were killed, but all the members of the Class of 1945 safely returned to civilian life. Labaree notes that at least two classmates suffered from “unforgettable war memories,” which, decades later, would come to be diagnosed as post-traumatic stress disorder.

S

unday, Dec. 7, 1941, began like all other Sundays for the 55 members of our class of 1945. After morning chapel and noontime dinner, we trudged back to Buehler Hall along the duck boards already laid out in anticipation of the first snowfall. Thirty or so of us filed into our common room and sprawled on the floor to read the papers and listen to the broadcast of the New York Giants football game. Suddenly, the announcer broke in: “We interrupt this program to announce that the Japanese have attacked the U.S. base at Pearl Harbor!” It was startling. Most of my classmates looked at each other, asking, “Where is Pearl Harbor?”

One of them, Joe Cooke, knew because he was from Hawaii, and I also knew because of my longtime interest in the U.S. Navy.

Much to our amazement, the headmaster, affectionately known as “The Duke,” sent a message requesting that Joe come to his office.

Somehow, our incredible headmaster had arranged to get a phone line through to Joe’s family in Hawaii so that he could talk to his mom and dad. This remarkable gesture has been with me to this day.

The impending war was the last thing on my mind in September 1941, when my father, Leonard Labaree, Class of 1915, drove me up to Lakeville from our home outside New Haven for the start of my prep year at Hotchkiss. As a scholarship student, I had a room on the third floor of Buehler Hall with

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a tiny dormer window, from which I watched with tear-filled eyes as my father drove off.

The next four years of wartime Hotchkiss were troubling, but at the same time, by far the most rewarding of my education.

I spent my first month learning the many traditions of Hotchkiss life. Preps were required to wear black neckties and beanies.

When walking along the main corridor, we had to keep our arm rubbing along the wall to stay out of the way of upperclassmen. Back then, scholarship students were required to work while at Hotchkiss; one of my first jobs was cleaning a classroom.

By October, as the war intensified abroad, some students would gather at the house of John McChesney, English master, to discuss the dismal situation in Europe. Our conversations often focused on the problems triggered by the 1938 Munich Conference, at which England and France failed to confront Hitler and Mussolini’s aggressions. Mr. Mac strongly favored American aid to Great Britain and “Free France,” as did I, along with many of my classmates.

After the United States entered the war, we watched as younger faculty members, often married and with children, left to serve in the armed forces. The Duke struggled to find new faculty members to fill these vacancies.

Several who remained had to take on additional teaching assignments. Art Instructor Tom Blagden taught us lower mids Mark Twain and The Red Badge of Courage and drew us

Ben Labaree reading his Hotchkiss scrapbook

wonderful portraits and sketches. George Kellogg came back from combat ambulance service to teach science. Old timers like instructors Walt Wilson (math) and “Pop” Jefferson (history) postponed their well-earned retirements (to our great profit), and others, like “Black Jack” Bodel, learned new “tricks” beyond his regular science classes and created a course on (I think it was) the elements of flying.

By the spring of 1942, our meals were affected by the rationing of meat, sugar, milk, and other commodities. I had been promoted from cleaning classrooms to working in the dining hall as head waiter, so I had a ringside seat to the challenge of feeding 350 growing boys and others living on top of a hill in a remote corner of Connecticut. Before rationing, I routinely refilled milk pitchers.

By early 1942, however, tables were limited to one pitcher each. I was impressed by how the school physician, Dr. Weiler, with a

reduced nursing staff, maintained his medical clinic, issuing his “red cards” to students too sick for classes or sports while treating major and minor colds and injuries and preventing school epidemics.

At the end of each year, as upperclassmen left for military service, each of us knew our turn drew nearer, and many of us kept close tabs on the events of war in Europe. In effect, we were taking our own extra course that might have been called “World War II.” Our textbooks were the newspapers and magazines delivered in bundles to the school early each morning, including Time magazine, the New York Times, or The Herald Tribune. Many of us kept scrapbooks of war maps and naval vessel sinkings, clipped from the press coverage. We would compete with one another to see who was best informed. In the spring, the School administered Time magazine’s “current events test,” just for fun.

Gradually, throughout our prep year, Hotchkiss settled into a mix of old and new.

We still wore “beanies” and black neckties.

The intramural sports league was still based on classes. Our prep teams in football and soccer still got demolished by the seniors and the upper mids. Gas rationing put an end to varsity sports, though in the fall, Hotchkiss still sent a football team to Pottstown, PA, to play our then-rival, The Hill School.

Club sports replaced class athletics. Four evenly-matched intramural teams (Baker, Hoyt, Monahan, and Taylor), were created, allowing all talented students to play. The Duke continued the tradition of declaring three holidays each term, and English Instructor Carle Parsons still drove along Undermountain Road in late afternoon to give a ride to any stragglers who had spent the day hiking Bear Mountain and were running to make the 6 p.m. deadline back to school.

Without a doubt, the greatest impact on all of us was the anticipation of serving in the armed forces, with the probability of seeing combat. By fall 1942, amendments to the 1940 Selective Service Act made registered 18 and 19 year-old men eligible for military service. Men in war-related occupations — war industries, merchant marines, and those

Scrapbook entries about World War II

married with dependent children, as well as high school seniors born after January 1, could be deferred until graduation by their local draft board. Men who turned 18 before then were liable for immediate service, and with parental permission, could enlist.

The draft created an issue for some older rising seniors, so Hotchkiss set up a special summer program, awarding them a certificate later honored by colleges. A few ’45ers had taken enough advanced courses to graduate as upper mids. On the other hand, several classmates were able to squeeze in a semester or two of college before getting the call from Uncle Sam. Despite the pervasive anxiety at Hotchkiss during the war years, we students formed a strong attachment to each other, to the School, and to its community of faculty and staff. I am forever grateful to Hotchkiss for giving me an appreciation of place — and a sense of duty.

After Hotchkiss, Labaree served in the U.S. Navy from 1945-46 and graduated from Yale in 1950. He earned his M.A. and Ph.D. in U.S. history at Harvard. Labaree had a long teaching career, beginning as an instructor in history at Phillips Exeter Academy. In 1958, he received an appointment at Harvard University, rising from instructor to assistant professor of history and Allston Burr Senior Tutor. In 1963, he was appointed dean of Williams College, serving in that role until 1967. Concurrently, he served as an associate professor, then professor of history, from 1963–77 and, later, Ephraim Williams Professor of American History from 1972-77. He was founding director of the Williams CollegeMystic Seaport Program (commonly called Williams-Mystic) at Mystic Seaport Museum in Mystic, CT, from 1977–1989 and director of the Center for Environmental Studies and a professor of history and environmental studies at Williams College from 1989–92. He retired from Williams College in 1992 as professor emeritus.

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70TH REUNION • JUNE 2018

CLASS AGENT: Ed Cissel

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CLASS AGENT: Len Marshall L E N M A R S H A L L writes, “I had a long talk with B I L L H U B B A R D , who, at 93, is hale and healthy and living in Bethlehem, PA. He retired early from Bethlehem Steel and travels extensively with his wife, Barbara. Liz and I are moving to an assisted living facility called Harbor Chase in Palm Beach Gardens. We’ll be closer to our families. Our new address is 3000 Central Gardens Circle, Apt. 245, Palm Beach Gardens, FL 33418.” Len also submitted a letter from Classics Instructor David Conti thanking the Nelson T. Shields ’43 Memorial Fund for supporting the Hotchkiss Speech and Debate Team.

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CLASS AGENT: Alan Kirk

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CLASS AGENT: Blair Childs E D J A D W I N has reported from Vero Beach that after losing their house on the ocean to a hurricane in 2004, he and his wife, Lois, have moved inland to a large adult community.

They were fortunate to acquire a large villa with total maintenance, including lawn, bugs, equipment, and even the changing of ceiling light bulbs. Their life hardly changed.

They still belong to the Vero Beach Country Club and have friends from their former community and the Princeton Club. They do a lot of volunteering with SCORE and run several golf groups.

Jadwin writes, “About five years ago, I hurt my back. No more golf, but we are still social members of the club. We traveled a lot, and I went to work writing my book. I wrote it primarily to educate my family about their background — I was very involved with the Genealogy Society of Vero Beach and gave several lectures over the years. They had a book gig, which got me started writing. I had started doing family research in 1952 and found about 1,700 close and distant relatives, going back to the early 1400s in Wales. Came up with some interesting data — some good and some terrible! Now, the bad news: Lois had a stroke on Dec. 8, 2017. She spent one

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The 70th reunion last June was very special, even though there were only three of us – pictured left to right: Joan and Frank Kittredge, Abby and Gil Dunham, and Skip Nalen.

Saturday morning, we all attended the State of the School address by Head of School Craig Bradley. Skip’s son, Peter, and grandson, Jack, were there, the latter celebrating his own fiveyear reunion! The family created the Nalen Writing Program, a gift that supports the School’s rigorous writing curriculum. Reunion class gifts were recognized, including our combined Alumni Fund and Capital Giving gift, totaling $112,999. Thanks to all of you who participated! We had a look at John Loeb’s bound issues of The Record from our four years.

Joe Flynn, chief advancement officer, brought us up to date on the School and expressed his appreciation for the Class of ‘48 Fund for Global Understanding. A special candlelight dinner, punctuated by spirited conversation and amazing singing by Skip (Princeton Triangle Club), brought a fitting end to a full and interesting day. — F R A N K K I T T R E D G E

week in the hospital and did rehab until the middle of February. She is still performing many of her usual chores and uses a stabilizing walker. She’s doing well and just turned 89. I turned 92 in September.”

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CLASS AGENTS: Hank Hamlin and John Schullinger

48 CLASS AGENT: Frank Kittredge

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CLASS AGENT: Marvin Deckoff

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CLASS AGENT: Bob Blankfein OGDEN MILLER

writes, “We will be at our place in northwest France (200 kilometers

west of Paris) from August to November 2018.

In mid-November, we are flying from Paris to New Zealand to take a cruise, ending in Sydney on Dec. 2. We plan to return to the States in December to visit the ‘children’ in Chattanooga, Dallas, and San Marino. We would welcome any classmates in France. Our email address is ogdendmiller@gmail.com (don’t forget the middle initial).”

LY N B R O N S O N writes that he and his wife, Renee, are still very active musically at the ages of 86 and 78, respectively. They live in Carmel, CA, and continue teaching and playing piano together in annual recitals.

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CLASS AGENT: Peter Genereaux J O H N F R E N C H writes, “I have been listed in five Who’s Whos over the years: World, Law, Finance, East, and America, and now, Environmental Law. This is a hoot! Carole and I are off to the Salzburg Festival and some

65TH REUNION • SEPTEMBER 2018

Sixty-Five Years Hence, the Class of 1953 Reunites on the Hill

BY RUSTY CHANDLER ’53, P’82,’85,’87, GP’10,’14,’16,’22

The 65th reunion of the Class of 1953 was held the final weekend of September, and the gods smiled on our class by providing excellent fall weather on Saturday and Sunday after a rainy Friday beginning to the festivities. Thirteen alumni, accompanied by 11 spouses, enjoyed the wonderful hospitality that Hotchkiss provided. By mid-Saturday, all had arrived to enjoy the renewal of great friendships forged during our student days and in previous class reunion gatherings.

Among the attendees were Phil and Nina Pillsbury, who flew to Connecticut from Washington, D.C., for the weekend. As a longtime former trustee of the School, it seemed especially fitting that he was present for this reunion.

Some of the highlights of the weekend included a tour of the Class of 2017 EFX Lab in the A. Whitney Griswold Science Building.

There were other opportunities to visit classes

and meet with members of the faculty and the student body in several presentations in the science building’s 1936 Lecture Hall.

Alumni from the Classes of 1953 and 1968, celebrating their 50th reunion, attended faculty and student panels and learned about life at the School today.

There was ample opportunity to meet with classmates over lunch in the dining hall on Friday and Saturday, and Hotchkiss provided food and drink to the returning alumni on Friday and Saturday evening, when we gathered in the renovated Monahan meeting space and on the rear porch of the Harris House, formerly occupied by Mr. Van Santvoord in our days on the hill. During the Saturday evening meal, we paid special tribute to those members of the Class of 1953 who had passed away since our 60th reunion in the Fall of 2013. Don Streett and I read the names of the 12 members of our class who are

no longer active in their roles as alumni.

For many of us, the high point of the weekend was the Saturday afternoon meeting in classroom 121 in the west wing of the Main Building. The majority of the Class who returned for the reunion sat around a seminar tables, and the discussion and conversation that ensued ranged far and wide, with both alumni and spouses participating. Just being in that classroom and sitting at the oval table was so very different from our experience at Hotchkiss over six decades ago, and it brought to our attention how much more participatory class discussions must be today than during our time on the hill.

Sunday dawned bright and sunny, and Tina and I once again opened our house on Indian Mountain Road to the many who stayed for brunch before heading home.

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52 Duncan Cameron (left) and his wife, Caroline, met Colin Imray and his wife, Shirley, at the East India Club in London on July 18 for lunch.

Alpine walking.”

PETER GENEREAUX

submitted this note: “T O N Y E S S A Y E was featured in the Atomic History Foundation Newsletter in a fascinating interview sharing his life story and remarkable career. He was born in London, grew up in the U.S., and attended Hotchkiss and then Georgetown University. As a lawyer, Tony served as a counsel for the Peace Corps under Sargent Shriver. He was one of the lawyers who represented The Washington Post during the Pentagon Papers cases; actor Zach Woods portrays Tony in the 2017 film The Post. He went on in a legal capacity to serve various political campaigns and politicians, including Walter Mondale and Bill and Hillary Clinton.

He also co-founded the International Senior Lawyers Project. Read his fascinating interview at manhattanprojectvoices.org/oral-histories.”

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CLASS AGENT: Julian Coolidge DUNCAN CAMERON

and his wife, Caroline, met C O L I N I M R A Y and his wife, Shirley, at the East India Club in London on July 18 for lunch. Colin was an English exchange student who graduated as a member of the Class of 1952, and he and Duncan have been close friends for 60 years.

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53 CLASS AND REUNION AGENTS: Rusty Chandler, Larry Flinn, Jay Lehr, Phil Pillsbury, Don Streett, and Ernie Wasserman J AY L E H R

writes, “At 82, I still play senior men’s hardball baseball. Average team age is about 42, with quite a few 60 year-olds. There is no stealing, and if you hit the ball into the outfield, you can walk to first base — an outfielder cannot throw you out at first. I play catcher and admit to passing a few balls but have no trouble getting into a full squat.

We played on the original Field of Dreams in Dyersville, IA, from the movie. The corn was eight feet high. I got a few hits and a few walks and never struck out, but also never beat out a ball in the infield. It was a lot of fun for all.

I am still skydiving but admit to being more apprehensive than I was 1,500 jumps ago.”

DON STREETT

reports that the great Class of 1953 raised $401,953 (got that number?) in a challenge for the Scholarship Fund.

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CLASS AGENTS: Al Ferguson and Cal Heminway AL FERGUSON

writes: “Sad news. We have lost two classmates: W A R R E N “ R E N N Y ” C L A R K and J E S S E L E M I S C H . Renny passed

on July 24, 2018. He had an illustrious career, starting as a Naval Air intelligence officer in Morocco and then as a Foreign Service officer in the State Department, serving as ambassador to three countries in Africa and other significant positions.

After retirement from the State Department, Renny worked as a consultant and then as the executive director of Churches for Middle East Peace. At our last reunion, he gave a fascinating talk about world affairs and the U.S.’s role in them. J E S S E L E M I S C H died on Aug. 24. He was an emeritus professor of history at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City. Jesse was an early leader of the ‘bottom up’ school of radical history, as opposed to the ‘top down’ view usually taken by conventional historians; Jesse focused on the struggles of African Americans, women, students, workers, etc. He was an early leader of Students for a Democratic Society and the author of many articles and pamphlets, including the acclaimed Jack Tar in the Streets: Merchant Seamen in the Politics of Revolutionary America. He was known for his wit and warmth and was described by a colleague as a ‘fun-loving contrarian with a wicked, deeply subversive sense of humor, and in whom the red flame never died.’ We will miss Renny and Jesse; they added a large measure of fun, quality, and interest to our class.

In other news, P H I L B A R N E Y reports on his exciting life in California. He delivered two of his grandchildren to Stanford tennis camp, canceled a Hawaiian vacation with one child’s family because of the bad air quality caused by the erupting volcano, went fishing in Baja, retreated to his shack in the California mountains — where his wife, Sally, hit a deer on the way home (no injuries, except to the deer) — then outran one of California’s forest fires (the shack survived, too).

H E N R Y L E V I N reports that he had a back operation to repair the injuries caused by his many years crouching in the goal at the hockey rink; he still goes to the office every day and loves practicing law. His firm, Levin & Levin, now has six Levins working there. Henry worries that if he stops working, his partners will figure out that he does not do very much and they do not need him.

PAUL HICKS

is on his way to New Haven to brief the rare book librarian at Yale Law School

on Paul’s history of the Litchfield Law School, the first law school in the U.S. Paul has been in touch with L E O N A R D O L E O N A R D I and his wife, Theoreta, who have lived in Geneva for many years — Leonardo was a lawyer with the World Labor Organization there — and T I M G R E E N and his wife, Maureen, who live in London. All seem to be well.”

FRITZ VOHR

writes, “Pat and I are moving back to New England and building a net-zero house in Shelburne, MA. Southeast Florida is not a good match for us! Anticipated total energy costs are negative 12 percent, due to photovoltaic electricity production, house construction, federal and state tax credits, and lower costs for solar. I am still practicing and consulting part-time in the correctional world.

States are slowly learning that locking most folks up is counterproductive and expensive.

Today, I am by chance in Minneapolis and thinking of H E N R Y P I L L S B U R Y and P H I L P I L L S B U R Y ’ 5 3 . I think Henry showed me the first hockey stick with a curved blade, then controversial, I ever saw. Coach wasn’t sure it was legal. Looking forward to the reunion next year. Hotchkiss remains an anchor to weather in this crazy world and mine.”

PHIL BARNEY

sends more news from Los Altos, CA: “I have recently been informed that we live several hundred yards from the wealthiest city in the United States: Los Altos Hills, California, population 8,500. We actually live on a hill in Los Altos, California, but that doesn’t count. Close, but no cigar.”

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that was what he was called by our fellow roughnecks when he and I worked in the Texas oil field the summer before we went to college. He stood 6’5” and weighed about 285 pounds; I was called ‘Big ‘Un’ at 6’2’’ and only 225 pounds. His formal name was William Henry Trotter Bush, but he was always ‘Bucky’ to family and friends. He was the son of a senator (Prescott S. Bush), the brother of a president (George H. W. Bush), and the uncle of another president (George W. Bush). He was also a delightful fellow and my close friend. His death has left a large hole in my universe. He was a loyal and noble soul who understood friendship.”

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Mary Margaret and Dave Patterson (on left) with Sue and Ed Greenberg

CLASS AGENTS: Peter Carnes, Jon Larsen, and Dusty Reeder

Club in Washington, D.C., last June for a weekend reunion of the Yale ’59 Whiffenpoofs.

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CLASS AGENT: Dave Bentley J O H N H O P K I N S reports that his new novel, Land without Echoes, will be published in 2019

by Editions Gallimard in Paris and London by Zuleika Books.

In a tribute to B U C K Y B U S H , who passed away on Feb. 28, 2018, F A Y V I N C E N T writes: “To me, he was always ‘Heavy Heavy,’ because

CLASS AGENTS: Tim Fisher

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CLASS AGENT: Nathaniel Floyd B O B H A N S O N sends this update: “Arlene and I are happily enjoying retirement in Cave Creek, AZ, in the desert foothills north of Scottsdale. The grandchildren count is up to seven, and we enjoy visiting them in Colorado, Massachusetts, and New Jersey. Our son,

C A L H E M I N WAY

writes, “We had the pleasure of breaking bread with Charlotte and E D H O L A H A N at our college reunion. Ed is enjoying retirement, sailing a lot on Long Island Sound. Other classmates spied at a distance at the same event were P E T E D U C H I N , complete with his delightful orchestra and P E T E A R N O L D (in his usual good voice) and wife, Sandy. A reminder that on June 14-16, 2019, we will be celebrating our 65th Reunion on the Hill! Your orders: Plan to attend! And even if you ‘are just too busy to be on the planning committee,’ we’d be happy to hear your ideas for events, likes, dislikes, etc.”

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CLASS AGENTS: Pete Nelson and Toby Terrell

Mary Margaret and D A V E P A T T E R S O N met with Sue and E D G R E E N B E R G at the Cosmos

56 Fred Ernst (croquet coach and referee), Dave Bentley, Judy Bentley, Buck Bush (hors de combat), Sandy McMillan, Mimi McMillan, Elie Ernst, Allison Durfee, John Ziegler, Rue Ziegler, John O’Keefe, Carlos Betancourt, Joe Hixon, and Renate Nixon.

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The Trials and Tribulations of My 60th Reunion

BY HAMILTON BROWN ’58

For many years, my favorite mode of travel has been Amtrak. I love the quiet comfort, rocking to sleep at night, the delicious meals in the company of new friends, and the chance to catch up on reading and relaxing, not to mention the views as one crosses the country.

Unfortunately, once one commits to travel by train, one is stuck on one track with one train a day (at least on the crosscountry trains). The train I travel on from New Mexico to the East Coast begins in Los Angeles, with a train change in Chicago.

On the day I set out, two or three drunks made a major nuisance somewhere near Las Vegas. Apparently, their behavior was so out of control that the train had to stop and wait for local police to subdue and remove the offenders. That cost roughly a two-hour delay. Then, somewhere near Albuquerque, a woman had a psychotic break, and she went running up and down the train aisle, cursing everyone. This necessitated another stop to wait for police and an EMT/ambulance team.

Apparently, at that point she got off the train and climbed under it, evading capture for some additional time. That excitement added another three-plus hour delay. So I finally boarded the train at 11 p.m. instead of 5 p.m. The conductor was sure that we would make up time as we went on. My connection was scheduled six hours after my scheduled arrival, and I knew from prior experience that if our train was close to the departure time, they would hold it and transfer us quickly.

However, Amtrak trains travel on railroads owned by the freight lines. The passenger trains are given a priority window in which they have the right of way, but once out of the window, they are at the mercy of the freight trains. All went well as we approached the Mississippi River. The conductor was busy coordinating transfers and saying that we all had a 50/50 chance to make our connections. Then, at the river, we ran into three freight trains blocking our path, one of which was having engine troubles. Once we

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finally started moving again into Illinois, the conductor admitted defeat. None of us would make our connections.

Accepting defeat, I thought about trying to get space on the train the following day. But that would get me to Hotchkiss Saturday evening, leaving only 12 hours until the reunion ended Sunday morning. So regretfully, I cut my trip short and turned around the next day to go home, wondering whether there would be a 70th Reunion to attend. Fortunately, J A M I E B R I C K E L L called as we were approaching Chicago, so I was able to pass along the details and send my regrets to the rest of you.

Martha and I still love our home in the mountains of northern New Mexico. Jamie and Susan visited us last year, and S A M O R R , who owns property nearby, has visited us several times. This year, we have experienced severe drought, so I have been busy clearing brush and thinning trees to protect us from a potential forest fire. There were two fires within 30 miles of us, but both were relatively small and did not threaten us. For the last three years, I have done my best to deny my physical decline by joining my son, Bark, in Bend, OR, for their end-of-the-winter Pole, Pedal, Paddle race. This year, I skied the

short downhill, then Bark did an 8K skate ski, followed by a 20-mile tandem bike ride down the mountain. I then decided to try the five-mile run, which took me an hour and 15 minutes to complete. Bark decided to keep me company. He said it was because he didn’t want to wait for me at the end and worry, but since he had just finished training to become a member of the Search and Rescue team in Bend, I thought he was hoping for the chance to practice his new CPR skills! We then did a 2.5-mile tandem kayak paddle with a short race to the finish. We finished first and won our coveted mug. Since we were the only ones in our age bracket, we also finished last!

On the geek side of things, I have spent the last year and a half translating the Dao De Jing with the help of a Chinese friend who is well versed in ancient Chinese. I have decided to explain my understanding of this spiritual classic by a fanciful dialog between the general at the frontier and Laozi as he decides to leave civilization for the barbarian regions beyond.

All in all, life is good; my body is holding up reasonably well; as near as I can tell, I am holding senility at bay. Maybe tomorrow, all will change.

Robert, Jr., is on the faculty at Blair Academy in New Jersey, while daughter D I A N E ’ 9 3 is a project manager in Boston, and daughter Karen is a soccer mom and substitute teacher in Colorado. We continue to pursue our mutual love for big game hunting, with 15 African safaris under our belt, as well as trips to such far-flung places as New Zealand, Australia, Croatia, and Macedonia. We are both looking forward to the 60th Reunion next June.”

MARK GALL

writes, “I recently completed a three-year term as a member of our school’s Alumni Board of Governors. It was a great honor and also an opportunity to see firsthand how Hotchkiss has evolved since we graduated in 1959. Our prep school has become so much more diverse in its curriculum and student body. Highlights of my BOG service included meeting students one-on-one, especially T H U N D E R K E C K ’ 1 7 (isn’t that the greatest first name ever!), who is now a student at Stanford; attending a short film competition that included works by students at Hotchkiss and other prep schools; dining at the School’s Farm; getting to know other BOG members as all of us dealt with difficult issues facing Hotchkiss in our increasingly complex world; and having one-on-one conversations with the highly capable School staff, especially Director of Constituent Relations Caroline Reilly ’87, and Chief Advancement Officer Joe Flynn.

Also, I took advantage of my trips to the East Coast to visit with several of our classmates — R O G E R C A R L S O N , D A V I D S P E N C E R , and J O H N W Y L I E — each of whom has had an extraordinary career.”

JOHN BANKS

sends this update: “After 11 great years on Martha’s Vineyard, Julie and I moved this summer to Fox Hill Village, a retirement community in Westwood, MA. Now we’re a dozen miles from Boston, two miles from our daughter and her family, a two-hour drive from our twin grandchildren, who are juniors at Dartmouth, and at least a bit closer to our son J O H N ’ 8 6 and his wife, Sarah, in Rochester, NY. John works from the Vineyard during the summer, so we get to see him then. The move’s been great, and we’re enjoying every day. Please sign up for our 60th Reunion next June!”

J O H N S Z E M E R E Y has retired after over 30 years working for the European Commission in Brussels. He is now living with his son Mark’s family in Solihull, West Midlands, England.

He attended a reception held at the EnglishSpeaking Union’s London headquarters on Sept. 17 for British students who spent their exchange year at Hotchkiss. His main activity in retirement is writing children’s books.

B I L L H U B B A R D reports that he has had several meetings with W I N C H A M B E R L I N ’ 6 1 A N D S A M A B E R N E T H Y ’ 6 1 to discuss “how we might organize or contribute to an effort to get our listing ship of state back on course.”

“These efforts are in addition to my work at Common Cause, but it’s all hands on deck in the view of many of us,” Hubbard writes.

“Also, have been following the adventures of Germaine and N A T F L O Y D as they cruise through the Erie Canal on their way to the Mississippi.”

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Former BOG member Mark Gall, left, met Thunder Keck ’17 on a visit to Hotchkiss

CLASS AGENT: Bill Hobbs

Julie and H A R R Y A U G U R and Hatsy and B I L L spent a week this spring hiking and exploring the canyonlands near Cortez, CO, and then Torrey, UT.

SHIELDS

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CLASS AGENTS: Dave Egan and Jim MacIver

On Aug. 8, 2018, P H I L M C K N I G H T delivered a lecture at the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Center in Manchester, MA, titled “Thomas Jefferson and the Constitution: the Early Years from 1787 (the Constitutional Convention) to 1803 (the Louisiana Purchase).” Phil continues to teach an environmental law and environmental history course at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts in North Adams, MA, and will once again offer a five-week lecture series at Williams College in Williamstown, MA, under the title “Shakespeare and the Law.” Next summer, he will lead a trip, titled “Shakespeare in the Tudor Age,” to Oxford and Stratford-upon-Avon.

S A M A B E R N E T H Y reports, “Despite a failing hip, I completed a 10-day motorcycle trip on my BMW R1200 GSA this past June in western Oregon, a route that included the Pacific Coast Highway. This is the third year I’ve done this with a group, and we’ve covered parts of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Montana, Idaho, California,

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Julie and Harry Augur and Hatsy and Bill Shields hiking and exploring the canyonlands near Cortez, CO, and Torrey, UT, last spring

and Nevada. We’ve averaged about 2,800 miles on these trips. I’d love to know if there are other classmates who are doing this type of activity.

An ancillary benefit is that one avoids all the daily, unsettling news out of Washington.”

62 TIM KNOWLTON sent this abbreviated note: “USMC 1963-1968; UNC-Chapel Hill, B.A., 1970; trading and portfolio management, 1970-2000; USAID and DoS, Western and Eastern Europe, Russia, Central Asia, Iraq and Afghanistan, Caribbean, 2000-2014; three sons.”

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Thomas Conant Gardner T H O M A S C O N A N T G A R D N E R sends this news: “2018 has been a year of changes. Went to Palm Springs for the winter to be near my family in southern California, and, to my surprise, I fell in love with the magical place that it is. Fast forward to August, and I’m now the owner of a condo and a house, the latter being renovated top to bottom for shortterm vacation rentals. It will be available for the 2018-2019 season. It’s a beautiful 1935 transitional California mission house with lovely gardens, in the best location for walking to everything. Glad to say that lots of visits from siblings and their offspring has made the move totally worthwhile. By all means, get in touch if you’re in the neighborhood.

And if you’re looking for a seasonal property, my Albert Frey-designed Villa Hermosa is also available by the month. Meanwhile, I’m in Istanbul at the moment, enjoying a much-needed holiday here after a week in Golturkbuku, Bodrum, and stops in Budapest and Vienna, running into old and new friends in every place. London and Oxfordshire await on the way home. Hope all of you are well and enjoying your 70s as time goes ever faster.”

STEPHEN O’BRIEN

writes, “On Sept. 9, Susan and I attended a memorial service for our classmate A R N E J E N S E N , held on Nantucket, where he spent many summer vacations with his family. He was beautifully eulogized by Reb, his older brother. Arne was a gifted Hotchkiss athlete, a kind and gentle giant.

I’m joining the Alumni Association Board of Governors this year and would welcome hearing from you with any news you would like to share with me.”

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63 CLASS AGENTS: Kip Armstrong, Detch Detchon, and Roger Liddell KIP ARMSTRONG

reports, “The Class of ’63 returned 15 strong, plus several wives and J O S H V E N T E R ’ S widow, Martha, for their 55th Reunion in June. They enjoyed the feed at the Farm on Friday eve, followed by libations and planet-gazing at the home of R O G E R L I D D E L L and his wife, Florence, our gracious hosts for the last five or six Reunions. Nancy and P E T E A D A M S showed for the picnic Saturday, and there was a delightful dinner at the Liddells that evening. Good times were had by all, and we hope to double the attendance at our 60th.

On a sadder note, J O H N G A R V A N died on Sept. 2 in Monterey, CA, from ALS. When I spoke with this wife, Nancy, she said he started showing symptoms in 2014, and was diagnosed with ALS in 2015. It resulted in his relocation to an assisted living facility in 2016.

He donated his beloved baby grand to their church when the disease attacked his hands and arms. You may recall that John did a lot of development work at both Hotchkiss and Loomis Chaffee.

N I C K B E C K W I T H missed the Reunion, as he was with family and grandchildren in Italy.

He writes that he celebrated his 52nd wedding anniversary in June with Dotty and reports, ‘She’s every bit as great as when I first met

her.’ One of his sons is living in Pittsburgh; the other is an infectious disease physician in Providence, RI. He has three granddaughters; the oldest, an Andover grad, just began at Brown, Nick’s alma mater. The other two are at Proctor and Gordon. Nick has been chairman of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center for the past 16 years. He still golfs in his free time.

G A R Y G A I L E S and his wife, Martie, live in their restored church in Big Indian, NY, in the Catskills. Their daughter, Jennifer, her husband, Dan, and their three children live outside Albuquerque, NM. They moved there last August after Jennifer received her doctorate in nursing at the University of Rochester. She works with young children with mental health issues. Gary and Martie make the cross-country trek to visit several times a year. Please email all your family news to carmstro@bloomu.edu!”

In other class news, R O N G I D W I T Z was appointed U.S. ambassador to Belgium and presented his credentials to His Majesty King Philippe on July 4, 2018. Ambassador Gidwitz has had a long and successful career in the private sector, government, philanthropy and civil society. He served as the president and CEO of Helene Curtis, a toiletry and cosmetic manufacturer and marketer, growing the company from $100 million in sales to $1.5 billion when the business was sold 17 years later. He has also served on a number of private sector boards of directors.

Bob Small ’66 Recounts Living Through the Carr Fire

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or many citizens of Redding, there was no time to do anything the evening of July 26, 2018, but to flee the roaring approach of the Carr Fire’s deadly flames, which devoured homes and tinder-dry vegetation in its path.

In less than an hour, this fire morphed from a California-normal, steadily advancing wildfire into a raging “firenado” with swirling winds in excess of 160 miles per hour and temperatures around 2,700 degrees Fahrenheit at its core. Some three football fields wide at the base, the fiery vortex ripped roofs off houses that, inexplicably, it did not burn; uprooted large oak trees in its path; tossed cars around like toys; crumpled steel powerline towers; and launched a steel shipping container into the air as it scorched the earth bare, leaving little but ankle-deep ash where many homes once stood.

The fire advanced so rapidly that evacuation orders could not keep ahead of the danger. Many folks saw the massive clouds of smoke to the west when they got home from work and prepared for dinner, but few could anticipate the fire would soon overtake them.

As the winds picked up, many residents suddenly realized that this was no ordinary wildfire. If they were lucky, they had just enough time to grab a few treasured items and their pets before jumping into their cars to flee as the 100-foot flames licked at the perimeter of their neighborhoods. Almost instantly, however, they were confronted with snarled traffic on narrow, two-lane roads. The town lacked enough police to both direct traffic and warn neighborhoods of the impending danger. Many evacuees (ultimately, some 40,000 that night) feared their car would be their final resting place.

My family and I evacuated as flames approached our home (but did not ultimately reach it). I came to realize that in a disaster which erupts so unexpectedly and ferociously, there is little that even the most battle-tested first responders can do to control it. They are surrounded by the same danger as the people they are trying to

protect. Retardant sprayed from airplanes ahead of the flames, water dumped by helicopters on hot spots, and lines carved by bulldozers to prevent the flames’ advance were no match for hurricanestrength winds, blow-torching flames moving at breakneck speed.

We had to decide for ourselves and our families the safest course of action. Five people could not escape that inferno, and it is miraculous that more did not perish.

Weeks after the Carr Fire was “contained,” it continued to sputter and smolder in the mountains to the north and west. In its wake, the flames left chimneys and brick entryways as memorial headstones, all that remains of nearly 1,100 homes in Redding and the surrounding outskirts, where about 100,000 people live and work. As I write this, only 625 fire fighters (of some 4,000 at the height of the blaze) remain to patrol the perimeters of charred acreage which, at 360 square miles, is larger than New York City.

Smoky skies stubbornly linger; the air is so thick that your eyes squint and sting, and you wonder about the long-term health effects. A steady convoy of flatbeds still heads through town, carrying equipment to clean up the contaminated rubble and repair infrastructure. Giant debris haulers roll in the opposite direction to dispose of the charred remnants. Since the town lacks the resources to handle the massive chore, repair and cleanup crews are coming from throughout the west.

Redding, where I have lived for nearly 50 years, has not had a vibrant economy for many decades and is still trying to recover from the crash of 2008. Time will tell whether the Carr Fire will make Redding stronger — economically, socially, and spiritually.

Bob Small is a resident of Redding, CA, who witnessed the Carr fire and its aftermath.

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CLASS AGENTS: Bob Graffagnino and Jody Nachman T O N Y P O O L E Y and S T E W A R T P O W E L L attended the Henley Royal Regatta in England last July.

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CLASS AGENTS: Bill Fusco, Bill Sandberg, and Kip Witter JOHN BABCOCK, PETE WADE,

and H Y met at the Babcock residence in Cape Cod on July 17 RUWET

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CLASS AGENTS: Steve Kirmse, Barry Svigals, Michael Thompson, and Dusty Tuttle

63 Front row, left to right: Marc Hoffrichter, John Sallee, Esther Sallee, Fa Liddell, and Wendy Warren. Second row, left to right: Sam Weiss, Cindy Hoffrichter, Martha Venter, Rebecca Armstrong, Penney Detchon, and Doug Raymond. Third row, left to right: Jim Hemingway, Bill Heaney, Kip Armstrong, Jim Calvert, Elliott Detchon, and John Armstrong. Back row, left to right: Leighton Longhi, Randy Huber, and Roger Liddell.

Missing from photo, Pete Adams and Nancy Henderson.

S C O T T P O W E L L and his wife, Cynthia Boxrud, continue to practice medicine in Los Angeles as an orthopedic surgeon and oculoplastic surgeon, respectively. Their home in Venice was recently featured in The New York Times. Their son, Evan, sold his mobile-charging locker company and now runs Key Mentoring for teens struggling with addiction. Daughter Jessica works in New York at the startup, Away. Scott is on the board of MusiCares, the charity arm of the Grammys, raising money and treating musicians in need. He recently did Chef’s Cycle in Santa Rosa, three 100-mile rides, to raise money for No Kid Hungry.

D U S T Y T U T T L E writes, “Had the pleasure of spending a day and a night with P E T E R G E V A LT and his lovely wife, Lorrie. He is a special friend and a wonderful caretaker to Lorrie.”

64 Classmates Tony Pooley and Stewart Powell attended the Henley Royal Regatta in England in July.

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J.C. CLASGENS

reports, “This past December, I retired after 35 years as a financial planner (which succeeded four dissatisfying years practicing law). My wife and I now spend summers in Portland, OR, our principal residence. But when the rains arrive, we move to Rancho Mirage, CA. Like so many retirees, we also plan an annual trip abroad in the future. For the next few years, it will be to Western Europe, an area once out of bounds to Nataly, as she grew up in the Soviet Union.”

DAVE CHERRY

writes, “I spent my 70th birthday fighting the Emily fire near Wagon Mound, NM. I was part of a three-man crew on a type 6 engine, sent from my local volunteer fire department on a 10-day deployment.”

John Babcock, Pete Wade, and Hy Ruwet at the Babcock residence in Cape Cod, MA, on July 17

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67 Bill Elfers, Neil Wallace, Grove Nichols, and Steve Koch at Alcatraz on a Saturday at the end of June. “We concluded that Hotchkiss was almost a cakewalk in comparison to this place,” says Elfers. “No more complaints about mystery meat!”

GEORGE BRANCH WRITES,

“Classmate and I remain great friends, as we have been since our lower-mid year. Over the last 10 years, after semi-retiring from my law practice and returning to the U.S. from London, he and I have backpacked together 2,500 miles across numerous countries in Europe and will return this fall for another long walk — this time, down through the Apennines of central Italy to Rome. We try to make it an annual event so long as our legs and backs cooperate. It’s a reason to stay in shape.

Happily, I also am in close touch with B I L L Y O U N G , another interesting, smart classmate whom I see often after moving, 10 years ago, to a farm in Kentucky. Jon was the architect for the wonderful home and other buildings that my wife, Sara, and I built. Spending more time with old friends has been the happiest feature of semi-retirement for me.”

JON LANMAN

Bill Elfers received the Distinguished Alunnus Award from the Fessenden School, which he attended prior to Hotchkiss. On right, David Stettler, head of school at Fessenden

J O H N L E V I N writes, “I will be attending the 37th annual Token Congress in Northampton, England, in October. This three-day event celebrates historic coinage. I am hoping to upgrade the following tokens: George III, Lord Chatham, and the Marquis of Granby.

Will also be hoping to purchase a Duchess of Cumberland and a more pristine Duchess of Gloucester.”

B I L L S I M S writes, “Plans are in place for a grand sailing adventure later this fall for swabbies R O B D U R K E E and E L I O T W H I T E .

Durkee will celebrate that special sea-fever offered by the relentless splash of the ocean’s spume. White, who suffers from a delicate tummy, will be lashed to the mizzenmast throughout the voyage to minimize the effects of the heaving waves. Commodore Bill’s schooner has been aptly renamed Essex 2. John Masefield would be so proud.”

J O N AT H A N C A N N O

writes that he and Pierce have been together now for 14 years.

They have enjoyed a busy year of travel, with a most interesting trip to Zimbabwe, Namibia, Botswana, and South Africa this past winter. Highlights from this adventure included parasailing over Capetown and bungee-jumping and zip-lining over Victoria Falls. Domestically, they happily divide their residential time between East Hampton and the Berkshires.

ROB DURKEE

has this news: “Plans are percolating for an end-of-year marriage with Phyllis Frazier. She is a remarkable person, and I am a very lucky lad. As Dick Gurney encouraged us to etch in memory: ‘I have felt a presence that disturbs me with the joy of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime of something far more deeply interfused…’

(William Wordsworth).”

67 Last May, Ted Morton received a lifetime achievement award from the Institute for American Universities in Aix-en-Provence, France.

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CLASS AGENTS: Eric Bruenner and Mark Pierce T E D M O R T O N writes, “In May 2017, I received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Institute for American Universities in Aixen-Provence, France, where I was a student from 1969-79 — and where I met my future wife! In May 2018, I received recognition from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (along with several colleagues) for my academic and political contributions for smaller, more accountable government in Canada. In June, I was granted professor emeritus status at the University of Calgary, where I taught for 36 years before retiring last year.”

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writes, “Our daughter, Christine Sargent, was married in Ann Arbor, MI, on Aug. 4 to Travis Williams. Christine recently received her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in cultural anthropology. Her dissertation was titled ‘Ambivalent Inheritance: Down Syndrome in Jordan,’ where she had lived for two years doing field research. She and her husband will relocate to Denver, where she will begin an associate professor position in the anthropology department at the University of Colorado, Denver. Otherwise, we celebrated our 43rd anniversary on Aug. 16. Don’t feel a day over 40. And still working — for at least another year or two!”

50TH REUNION • SEPTEMBER 2018

Our 50th Reunion was a wonderful event! My thanks to each of our classmates (and several brave spouses!) for making the journey and reflecting on how we have and haven’t changed since our days in Lakeville. There are so many highlights and personal satisfactions that we shared together, 50 years later. We caught up on unknown escapades, remembered our teachers, shared family updates, and honored the memory of friends who have passed on. There was a lot of excitement about our Class Gift to nurture incoming students, which fits well with Head of School Craig Bradley’s vision for making Hotchkiss a more welcoming community. If you haven’t considered a contribution, please do so, remembering how you first felt coming in to the School. — B I L L M c M O R R A N 50th Reunion attendees included: Chandler Bates P’93, John Booth P’98,’01, Scott Brim, Allen Cary, Mark Davis, John Enteman, Eric Evans, Larry Gates, P’99, Cy Jordan, Ian Lamberton, David Larkin, Mauri Lee, Tim Martin, Bill McMorran, Bill Miller P’01,’04, Bill Newman, Peter Perakos, Kirk Portmann, Rick Prudden, Chris Redlich, Cameron Smith Glen Smith, Sandy Stuart, John Titcomb P’00,’01,’03,’05,’11, Dan Walker. Tom Warrington, Ed Welles, Jeff Wenk, Chris Winship, and Thomas Bas.

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68 CLASS AND REUNION AGENTS: John Enteman, Bill

McMorran, Peter Perakos, Cameron Smith, John Titcomb, and Tom Warrington RICHARD INGERSOLL

writes, “The second edition of World Architecture: A Cross-Cultural History (Oxford University Press, 2018) was just released. It has become the leading textbook on the subject.”

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CLASS AGENT: Tom Keating

Save the Date for our 50th Reunion, September 27–29, 2019.

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CLASS AGENTS: Bill Benedict, Bob Clymer, Parky Conyngham, Mark Hinckley, Tom Randt, Jorge Rodriguez, and Will Smart S T E V E E W I N G and his wife, Claudia, are proud grandparents of Mirabai, born July 1, 2016; Jamie, born Feb. 16, 2017; and Silas, born Jan. 12, 2018. Mirabai and Silas were born on Martha’s Vineyard and in New Zealand, respectively. Niko and Rachael, their parents, are living the “endless summer” life at the moment.

Arno and Molly had Silas at the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital. Steve has published his first book of poetry, Town Meeting Poems, available at the Edgartown Bookstore or by emailing him at aquamv@gmail.com. Claudia highly recommends grandmotherhood.

A U G I E T U R A K just released his second book, Brother John: A Monk, a Pilgrim and the Purpose of Life. Brother John is Augie’s Templeton Prize-winning essay, illustrated with 22 oil paintings by the award-winning artist Glenn Harrington.

Set in the magnificent Trappist monastery of Mepkin Abbey, Brother John is the story of a Christmas Eve encounter between Augie and an umbrella-wielding Trappist monk that leads Augie on the path to an authentically purposeful life. Learn more at augustturak.com/product/brother-john.

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CLASS AGENTS: Doug Campbell, Ace Crary, Andy Cushman, Richard Dana, and Nick Moore DOUGLAS CAMPBELL

writes, “Following in the footsteps of many ’71 classmates, Gwynne and I have a new granddaughter in Arlington, VA. Chloe was born to Tara and C O L I N C A M P B E L L ’ 0 1 on Aug. 21. We also have a new grandson, Brooks, born on Aug. 29 to daughter Caroline and Robbie Dickie in Melbourne, Australia. Heading down under straight away!”

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CLASS AGENTS: Dave Balderston and Michael Gourlay W O O D Y K E E S E E ’s

new book, Borne On A Summer Wind, a coming of age “road trip” tale about traveling through France in the early 70s, was published by Deerfield Hill Press.

73 CLASS AGENTS: Ned Nunes and Peter Rogers

45TH REUNION • JUNE 2018

What’s Going On in Your Life?

Submit a class note and photos to

MAGAZINE@HOTCHKISS.ORG

education teacher for over 20 years. For the past 15 years, he has served on his parish pastoral council, and for the past 10 years, he has served on his parish school’s parent advisory council. He has served as Grand Knight for the parish Knights of Columbus and is a member of the Knights of Malta.

75 Michael Gillis received the Cheverus Award in recognition of his service to the Catholic Church.

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CLASS AGENTS: Charlie Denault and Penn Hulburd

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CLASS AGENTS: Tom Davidson, Dan Dranginis,

Michael Gillis, and Larry Ross M I C H A E L G I L L I S was awarded the Cheverus Award by Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley. The Cheverus Award, inaugurated in 2008 upon the bicentennial of the Archdiocese of Boston and named after the first archbishop of Boston, is awarded to Catholics for their dedicated service to the Church. The award is given to a layperson “who has served the parish over an extended period of time and has done so in a quiet, unassuming and even unrecognized fashion” and is intended to “put the spotlight on those people whose hidden contributions to the life of the Church often go unnoticed.” Gillis served as a religious

Gillis has been a member of the board of directors of the Catholic Lawyers Guild for the Archdiocese of Boston for the past 30 years and currently serves as its president.

He has chaired the board of directors of the Little Brothers of St. Francis, a group of monastic brothers who serve the homeless in Boston. He also serves on the advisory council for Boston’s Catholic radio station.

Through his law firm, Gillis & Bikofsky, P.C., he started his own charity, G&B Charities. For the past 10 years, he has supported and traveled to Hopital Sacre Couer, a hospital in Milot, Haiti, and donated a neonatal intensive care unit, a dental clinic, and a medical library. He continues to build homes in Milot through the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace, who care for the neediest individuals in Milot. He and his wife, Julie, have two daughters currently attending Boston College and a son attending St. Sebastian’s School.

by January 5 for the Winter/Spring issue.

Stay Connected to Hotchkiss and friends.

W W W. H O T C H K I S S . O R G

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CLASS AGENTS: Denise Arcand McClintic and

Blake Wilkes

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A Hotchkiss Trifecta: Three Alumni Join the Triple Crown Winner’s Circle

BY WENDY CARLSON

“I

think it was beginner’s luck,” said Ted Nixon ’70, who, along with his father, Bo Nixon ’46, was among the lucky ones to join the winner’s circle at the 2018 Triple Crown last June. The father-and-son duo from Louisville, KY, have enjoyed horse racing for a long time, but until recently, they were novices in thoroughbred ownership. In July 2017, they invested in a partnership with Starlight Racing, which has a stake in Justify, the three-year-old chestnut colt that galloped to victory in the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes, and the Belmont Stakes to win the storied Triple Crown. Only 13 horses have won all three races in the 143-year history of the Crown.

“Everyone dreams of having his horse win the Derby, but the Triple Crown is just hard to fathom. You take a horse that wasn’t even supposed to win the Derby, and that never even raced as a two-year-old, and, well, holy smokes, it was really something,” said the younger Nixon, who is the CEO of D.D. Williamson and Co., a manufacturer of natural color dye for the food and beverage industry. The victory knocked the socks off his father, who, at 90, has dabbled in horse racing over the decades.

In the Derby, the first race of the Triple Crown, Justify ran the third-fastest half mile in the course’s history, despite a rain-sopped track. The Derby win alone was a momentous victory for the Nixons. Ted Nixon has been to the Derby nearly 40 times, and his father almost twice as many times. Each year, when the two make their annual pilgrimage to the Derby museum in Lexington, they watch the video of the history of the Derby, featuring

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Bo ’46 and Ted Nixon ’70 are partners in Starlight Racing, one of the owners of Justify. They were thrilled with the win in the KY Derby (both live in Louisville) and then to follow it with a Triple Crown win in the Belmont Stakes was above anyone’s expectations. Needless to say, it has been an exciting spring.

the most recent winner crossing the finish line.

“Now, we can watch Justify,” said Ted. As it turns out, the Nixons weren’t the only Hotchkiss alumni to have a stake in Justify.

The thoroughbred is owned by a number of partnerships, including Head of Plains Partners, which is owned by Sol Kumin ’95, the chief strategic officer at Leucadia Asset Management.

Kumin is better known in the business world than in racing circles, but recently, he too, has had beginner’s luck at the track. He first became a thoroughbred owner four years ago.

Sol Kumin ’95 with his family after Justify won the Belmont Stakes and captured the Triple Crown.

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CLASS AGENTS: Bill Collin, Andy Luke, Chris Meledandri, Cindy Schmidt Softy, Simon Strong, and Allison Sirkin Woolston GREG MONTGOMERY

Then, last March, Kumin bought stakes in two Kentucky Derby contenders, Audible and Justify. (He also had a stake in My Boy Jack, who won the Lexington Stakes and gained 20 qualification points, which meant that Kumin had three runners in the 2018 Derby.)

When Justify crossed the line, it was a more emotional moment for Kumin than he had imagined. He was sitting in a box near the finish line with his parents and his kids and “100-plus” friends when Justify won the Belmont Stakes. “I got all choked up and teary-eyed and just hugged my daughter, who was on my lap,” he said.

When he is at his house in Saratoga, NY, he loves taking his kids down to the track in the early morning to watch the horses train. “That’s what gets you hooked on the sport,” he said.

Like most thoroughbred owners, Kumin doesn’t own any horses outright. He’s been credited with having “revolutionized the partnership concept”; a highly successful hedge fund manager, he says he tries to run his partnerships like a business, investing in proven horses rather than unproven horses, while most investors in the industry might buy a less pricey but promising yearling.

All three alumni agree that Justify’s success would be hard to replicate. Mike Smith, the jockey in all three stakes, put it aptly: “He truly is a gift from God.” Kumin, however, remains on the lookout for that rare thoroughbred. A horse like Justify, he says, comes “once in a lifetime — but I’m always looking for the next one!”

As for Justify, after just 158 days of an impressive career and taking in nearly $3 million for his owners, he was retired from racing in July. Since he won all six of the races he entered, he earned another record as the second horse to win the Triple Crown with an undefeated record, following Seattle Slew in 1977.

“We’re a little sorry he’s retiring,”said Ted Nixon, wistfully. “But,” he adds, “considering he’s worth $60 million as a stallion, that’s not such a bad way to go out.”

ran into C H A R L I E in Belmont, NC, at the wedding of his wife, Sara’s, cousin, Crawford Rhyne. Sara and Crawford are both part of the Stowe clan out of Belmont, and so Charlie and Sara had come down for the wedding. “Crawford was like a second daughter in our household as she grew up, and our daughter, Mary Louise, was a bridesmaid in the wedding,” Greg writes.

AY R E S

78 CLASS AGENTS: Phil Baldwin, Sally Gilliland, Doug Landau, and Chris Simonds J A N E S O M M E R S - K E L LY

started her own executive coaching company, JSK Leadership.

She has had 12 “corporate” clients over her first 12 months (including the Navy Seals), and has never enjoyed work and life as much.

“Why it took 30 years to get here is a question we parents ask ourselves as we see our children enter the workforce,” she writes. “Eldest son RQ is just starting his first job, a professional tennis career. Second son, Jeremy, a business student, is hoping to be recruited by an MLS team (if not Premier League!) So much for my corporate influence.”

D O U G L A N D A U reports that former Colombian fishing champion and Hotchkiss soccer standout M I K E M O G O L L O N has a new commercial venture after years of successful organic shrimp farming in central Florida. “His new company is Earth Care Aquaculture, which emphasizes healthy seafood, sustainability, and diet. With his science background, Michael and his team are able to grow and harvest chemical-free fish here in the U.S.A. that meet the highest governmental standards,” says Doug. Learn more at earthcareaquaculture.com.

Doug also reports that L U C I A P O G G I ’ 1 8 is staying with Doug and Melissa Landau as their “foreign exchange student” in northern Virginia. She was taking a gap year working as an intern with the incumbent congresswoman’s campaign in the western D.C. suburbs. Working long days and eating

77 Bearcats meet at a family wedding in Belmont, NC. From left to right: Charlie Ayres ’77, P’22, Beck Ayres ’22, Crawford Rhyne, and Greg Montgomery ’77

78 Michael Mogollon and Doug Crane sample Crane’s son’s microbrewery’s offerings during their 40th Reunion.

late suppers, as is the European custom, she is putting in more steps on her Fitbit than her hosts log in their triathlon training.

Doug notes that luckily, Lucia is from his wife’s hometown, so communication is not an issue, since they speak the same dialect. Plus, Lucia was a Classics scholar, so Landau can also use Latin if necessary (even though he barely got through Jon Sprole’s Latin 350 class!). According to Lucia, the Landaus put the “loco” in “in loco parentis.”

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78 Playwright, attorney/mediator, and tennis teaching pro Hank Kimmel and medical epidemiologist Barbara Mahon catch up in Atlanta.

Having only seen each other via FaceTime, the Landaus hope to travel to meet the Poggi family in person this fall, in their native city of Richmond. “

78 Les Hellman, left, and Herm Schneider, head trainer for the Chicago White Sox, in the team’s training room

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Doug Landau ’78, P’06 with Lucia Poggi ’18 at the District of Columbia courthouse

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Doug writes that several classmates were able to overcome aches and pains at the 40th Reunion, thanks to the professional “handiwork” of L E S H E L L M A N . After getting his training as a massage therapist, Hellman worked with the Chicago White Sox at their spring training in Glendale, AZ. Les noted that he “was able to use all my modalities and stretching techniques to keep [the team] limber and ready for the field. It was an amazing experience being only 1 of 30 massage therapists in all of MLB to be in that position.” Hellman helped classmates and spouses who over-exerted themselves on the Hotchkiss tennis courts, in the MAC weight room, or playing stickball in front of Memo.

In addition to thrashing his classmates on the tennis court during Reunion weekend, H A N K K I M M E L received a developmental grant from the Tony Award-winning Alliance Theatre in Atlanta to develop Confessions of A Hit Man, a full-length play about the first reunion of two ex-football players 15 years after one permanently paralyzed the other. Hank is a founding member of Working Title Playwrights in Atlanta, and he also serves as board president of the Alliance for Jewish Theatre.

B A R B A R A M A H O N , originally from Sharon, CT, was featured in “CDC Women in STEM Careers: Barbara Mahon, MD.” Barb is a physician at the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases at the Center for Disease Control & Prevention. She is also a medical epidemiologist at the CDC Headquarters in Atlanta, GA, though she travels to Africa and India for her work.

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CLASS AGENT: Seth Krosner

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CLASS AGENTS: Wendy Tanner Bermingham, Bill Boscow, Mike Collette, Jennifer Mugler Peterson, Tom Philip, and Wendy Weil Rush

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CLASS AGENTS: Sheila Ball Burkert, Gib Carey, Bill Gates, Ellis Ketcham Johnson, Becky Stebbins, and Bill Tyree G U S J A M I S O N writes, “My mother, Eleanor S. Jamison, passed away May 20, 2018.”

ROBERT RAINES

and his wife, Kerry, recently met up with S I M O N F R A N K E L for lunch in San Francisco.

N A D E R T E H R A N I ’ S architecture office, NADAAA, has won a 2018 Progressive Architecture Award for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The office won four

prestigious Chicago Athenaeum American Architecture Awards this summer. A new residence hall project for the Rhode Island School of Design has broken ground in Providence, RI. The firm’s two largest projects to date, a tower for MIT in Cambridge, MA, and a tower in Cleveland, OH, are under construction and will be completed in 2020 and 2019, respectively.

35TH REUNION • JUNE 2018

WILLIAM “SANDY” GOODMAN

writes, “I’ve come out of retirement to join TriLinc Global to empower institutional investors to use private capital to make a positive social impact, without compromising return.

Through its sponsored funds, TriLinc provides growth-stage capital to underserved regions of the world and requires borrower companies to be aligned with Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) benchmarks, and to agree to track and measure specific impact metrics over the life of their loan. I am going to visit many of our borrower companies and on-theground investment partners in sub-Saharan Africa in October, then I am going to stay for an extra week to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro!”

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CLASS AGENTS: Ally Bulley, Lisa Chandler, Rich D’Albert, and Nao Matsukata ALANE MASON

writes, “This fall marks the 15th anniversary of Words Without Borders, the literary nonprofit launched in 2003 to make international voices and perspectives more accessible to English-language readers;

it has more recently spawned WWB Campus, aimed at broadening the horizons of secondary school and college students. As I come up on 25 years at my more-than-a-day-job as an editor at employee-owned book publisher W.W. Norton & Company — which I first ‘met’ at Hotchkiss in the form of the Norton anthologies of English and American literature!

— I am thankful to have found these idealistic homes in a period of extraordinary change in publishing and the media. I get to see Midtown work-neighbors D A V I D L A T H A M , R I C H A R D D ’ A L B E R T , and L I S A B J O R N S O N W O L F for an occasional lunch (overdue, guys).

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Meanwhile, my older son is starting Fordham Prep in the Bronx this fall and playing JV soccer, and the younger son is in Catholic middle school, all good.”

DR. DANIEL JONES

is the vice chair of surgery and chief of minimally invasive surgical services at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School. He operates with J A M E S D . L E E ’ 0 9 , a fourth year M.D./ M.P.H. student at Tufts University School of Medicine. James has recently completed a surgery rotation at Beth Israel, where Jones was his preceptor. Dan reports he is increasingly operating with robots and is releasing a new Surgical Atlas of Robotic Surgery.

83 CLASS AGENTS: Andrew Carey, Nikki Williams Dietrich, Mary Goodman, Randall Mays, and Matt Meade MINTER DIAL

Robert Raines and his wife, Kerry, recently met up with Simon Frankel for lunch in San Francisco.

writes, “It was a great pleasure to return to Lakeville last June for the first time since graduation to celebrate 35 years. I went on a late-evening run that reminded me of the splendor of the campus, as well as a few distant souvenirs of my time at Hotchkiss.

Otherwise, I live between London and Paris, married with both kids in university (my son is a senior at Trinity College, and my daughter starts in September at Bristol University).

Being over here means that classmate sightings are a little rarer. I’m happy to say that I see

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John Mead was appointed an Evolution Teacher Ambassador for the National Center for Science Education and was awarded the National Association of Biology Teachers Outstanding Biology Teacher of the Year in Texas.

Dina Strachan visited Maud Taylor Morris near the Sawtooth Mountains in Idaho on her tour of all 50 states.

84

CLASS AGENTS: Charlotte Cudlip Bartol, Larry Pratt, and Stephanie Bowling Zeigler DINA STRACHAN

85

Alex Golby and Steve Hough in Kohala, HI, at the Asia-Pacific Neuro-Oncology Continuing Medical Education Conference

CHRIS TRAGGIO

on occasion in Paris, and I recently had a nice drink with M Y L E N E H O D G S O N C U R T I S ’ 7 8 . Last autumn, I played alongside A L LY B U L L E Y ’ 8 2 in the Real Tennis 1812 Tournament at Queens.

Then, when I last got to New York, I was able to catch up with I A N H I G H E T for a game of real tennis and have seen J O A N N E B L O D G E T T P R A G E R in Manhattan, as well. Otherwise, for now, I’m trying to develop my documentary, The Last Ring Home, into a feature-length film and writing my next book on branding for publication in summer 2019, while trying to crack through as an international professional speaker. I’m nuts about paddle tennis and still strum a guitar.”

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writes, “Inspired by the 2016 presidential campaign, and a misconception that all candidates visit every state, I set out to do the same. I had already seen much of America and had lived on both coasts. When I tallied what was left to visit, there were only 16 states — Wisconsin, Iowa, the Dakotas, Kentucky, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Mississippi, Arizona, Utah, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, and Alaska. Having determined that most of the unexplored locales were the midwest and mountain states, I called my adventure ‘The Flyover.’ To start, I had considered flying to Fargo, renting a car, and stepping on the gas until I reached Jackson, MS. Then I saw a picture of Badlands National Park in South Dakota and was seduced into taking it slow.

I realized that I would miss the value and beauty of the adventure if I rushed. There are no corn fields outside the shopping centers, like there are in Iowa, near where I live.

One can’t explore selenite crystal caves in Manhattan. Nor can one walk down the street and have to look for other women — like one does in the city of Fargo, North Dakota.

This series of trips has not only been fun and interesting; it helps me understand Americans better. Even when in my hometown, as not all New Yorkers are from New York, my ‘Flyover’ project helps me connect with many

of the people I encounter day-to-day, who come from other places. It’s fun when they are surprised and delighted to meet someone in New York who not only knows where their small town is, but has visited. ‘The Flyover’ has also allowed me to catch up with Hotchkiss friends. It was so nice to see M A U D T A Y L O R M O R R I S , who was a fabulous tour guide, during my July 2018 visit to my 41st state, Idaho!”

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CLASS AGENTS: Paul Poggi and David Wyshner CHRIS MCDONAGH

writes, “I had a great time playing lacrosse in the 50+ (old-timers) division in the Vail Lacrosse Shootout at the end of June. I hadn’t met most of my team before. It turns out one of my teammates was Class of ’85 on the Deerfield lacrosse team that played against Hotchkiss our senior year and is friends with G I B B Y W R I G H T and his sister. Vail is a great place to visit in the summer (especially to get away from the heat in Tucson). I plan to go back next June with my family and play again for the Air Force team. We could use some more players. It would be great if any Hotchkiss alumni want to play (must be 50 by Dec. 31, 2019). You can reach me at cmcdonagh@ravlaw.com.”

J U S T I N K I N G writes about reaching a milestone: “Well, I finally made it to my 50th state (at age 51) — a quest that I started in 1985 the day after Hotchkiss graduation with

30TH REUNION • JUNE 2018

58 59 81 86 A gathering at home of John Banks ’86 on Martha’s Vineyard in July 2018. Left to right: John Banks ’86, Ginny Litle ’81, John Banks ’59 and Tim Litle ’58

85

a cross-country road trip! Saved the best for last: Alaska was deeply spectacular. We went to Denali and flew in a plane smaller than my car to break through the clouds and glide past the heavenly majesty of the 20,000-foot summit. Also got much too close to 1,000-pound bears on Kodiak Island. Trip of a lifetime! Anyone who wants to see more pictures, please drop me a line.”

ALEX GOLBY

and S T E V E H O U G H met up on the Kohala coast of Hawaii at the AsiaPacific Neuro-Oncology Continuing Medical Education Conference, organized by Harvard Medical School. Although they had not seen each other in the 33 years since their Hotchkiss graduation, they had great fun catching up and discussing the latest research in brain tumors. Golby is a neurosurgeon at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and a professor of neurosurgery and radiology at Harvard Medical School, and Hough is with AbbVie as U.S. marketing director for solid tumors.

JOHN MEAD

Justin King finally made it to his 50th state, Alaska, a quest that started in 1985 on the day after he graduated Hotchkiss.

writes, “I am happy to report this summer was a most productive one for me. In July, I had the pleasure of speaking about my involvement with the team that discovered (and continues to discover more about) Homo naledi to a full house at the Allen Public Library in Allen, TX. You can read about the discovery in my National Geographic blog. Also in July, I received the good news that I was appointed

an Evolution Teacher Ambassador for the National Center for Science Education as well as being awarded the National Association of Biology Teachers Outstanding Biology Teacher of the Year award for Texas! My final bit of good news is that I returned to Lakeville in October to deliver the 2018 Augur Lecture in Science.”

86

CLASS AGENTS: Justin Abelow, Miriam Gelber Beveridge, Weijen Chang, Derek Dietrich, Andrew Gale, Buhl Hudson, Alison Ambach Illick, Kurt Liebich, Becky Markus McIntosh, Cece Luthi Powell, and Nian Lee Wilder C E C E L U T H I P O W E L L writes, “I had the wonderful fortune of seeing N I K K I W I L L I A M S in Bermuda this summer — a highlight for sure! It was so good to catch up with her and get to know Nikki’s spouse, Juliana Swetman.”

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CLASS AGENTS: Daphne Murray Butler, Deborah Hordon, Hilary Deckoff Langworthy, Paul Mutter, Susan Green Roberson, Ray Strong, and Jeff Williamson

88 CLASS AGENTS: Katie Allen Berlandi, Tom Davidson,Mark Geall, Jen Appleyard Martin, Steve Newman, Matt Poggi, and John Tortorella M A R K G E A L L wrote about the 30th class Reunion, held last June: “I write this on the

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not es 89 Greg Harden climbed Mount Kilimanjaro last year in honor of his late girlfriend, Sueyoung Yoo, who passed away in 2015.

89 Kate Pittenger Barnett and Mel Brown DeRussy caught up over the summer.

Sunday afternoon of our 30th Reunion, with the flush of what could be either sunburn or heat from the campfires still on my face.

Or maybe laughter. It’s not that the weekend didn’t have time for reflection, for those lost and missed, but really, the game was how hard you could make your fellow classmates laugh with stories of our collective experience. There are a few of us weirdos who have returned every five years, and I’ve realized that one of the things that draws me in is the gift that we give each other: your friends give you back parts of your past you have forgotten. We all remember different things, but to hear a story of a time you hadn’t thought of in years warms the heart. Some people, like me, came solo. Others brought spouses. We had kids from toddlers to teenagers. Some kids even brought their friends. We had to add tables to our dinner Saturday night to accommodate everyone. J O H N T O R T O R E L L A , M A R G O T B A S S and I tried to do our best rise, run, and dip Saturday morning, but it turned out to be more of a speed‐walk into a lake that was much warmer than expected. We also got shouted at by a bunch of 1968ers, who yelled: ‘What, are you guys soft? We did it without

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shoes!’ There are more lectures available than time, and that multi‐generational educational experience reminds you that there are some very thoughtful alums out there. Or you can skip everything and wander around the library, ease into the comfy chairs, and realize that nothing is due tomorrow. Set your own itinerary, but put it in your calendar: June 2023. As time goes by, you realize that there aren’t too many people in your life who have known you for more than 30 years. They’ll be waiting for you by the fire.”

89

CLASS AGENTS: Liza Reeder Carey, Alice Gouge, Katy Anderson Gray, Matt Lenehan, Colin Pennycooke, Jon Prather, Rue Richey, Jared Sprole, Lisi Miller Vincent, Sarah Virden, and Clara Rankin Williams C R I S T I N A M A R I A N I M A Y,

CEO of Banfi Vintners, was recognized by The Drinks Business as “Woman of the Year.”

A L E X A N D E R D O D G E was proud to make his Metropolitan Opera debut designing the sets for the new production of Saint Saëns’ Samson Et Dalila, which opened the 2018-2019 season.

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Alexander Dodge designed the set for Samson et Dalila, which opened at the Met for the 2018-19 season.

K AT E P I T T E N G E R B A R N E T T

writes, “In a now-annual summer tradition, M E L B R O W N D E R U S S Y visited me en route from NOLA to NC. We celebrated her birthday (a lady doesn’t age past 29, so we’ll speak no numbers!) and then snapped a photo, which she is going to kill me for submitting, but roommates MUST. Love you, Mel!! Other than that, I’ve spent all summer dodging snakes in my hen house (and no, that is not a metaphor) and trying to keep up with the 11 year-old. Doors are always open and the beer’s always cold if you’re heading south on 85!”

GREG HARDEN

writes, “Last year, I climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in honor and memory of my late girlfriend, Sueyoung Yoo, who passed away in 2015 from a ruptured brain

25TH REUNION • JUNE 2018

aneurysm. To see some cool pictures and videos while learning potentially life-saving information about brain aneurysms, check out my site: kili2017.com.”

90

CLASS AGENTS: Jasen Adams, Kate McCleary, Chip

Quarrier, and Derek Rogers

91

CLASS AGENTS: John Bourdeaux, Alison Wille Harris,

Alexis Bryant La Broi, Karriem Lateef, Cari Berlage Lodge, Marnie Virden McNany, Clarke Miller, Nicole Morrison, Philip Pillsbury, Tom Seidenstein, and Marcy Denault Wemple

After 15 years in the Washington, D.C. area, M A R G A R E T H A M I LT O N R E E V E S is making good on her threat to return to the West.

Margaret and her family are relocating to Bainbridge Island, WA, and looking forward to reconnecting with Seattle friends. Margaret had a short but sweet visit to Hotchkiss in July and was thrilled to slip in a visit with Karin and C H A R L I E N O Y E S ’ 7 8 and their chickens.

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CLASS AGENTS: Emmett Berg, Sarah Duxbury Chin, Philip Gale, Norm Hetrick, Aaron Oberman, Allison Pell Shea, and Elizabeth Newman Smyth

93 CLASS AGENTS: Dre Alicea, Brendan Behlke, Ellie Peters Bergquist, Rafe Carbonell, Amanda Carlson, Laura D’Anca, Jenn Feeley Hyzer, Kara Marchant Hooper, Erica Johnson, Maureen Marsh, and Pepper Riley MICHAEL CURI

and Y U L E H Y U N have left the Stone Age and reconnected over LinkedIn. Common interests beyond their Bearcats’ heritage unite them. They both religiously follow Ivy League basketball and pray that their alma mater goes to the Big Dance as the 13 seed ready to pull an upset. They appreciate the brilliance of Nassim Taleb. As long-time-suffering fans of Raider Nation, the two agonize over the habitual shortcomings of the Oakland Raiders, but remain optimistic that with a new city on the horizon, a plethora of invaluable draft picks courtesy of the Bears from the Khalil Mack trade, and a promising QB in Derek Carr, the Raiders can finally return to their “Commitment to Excellence.”

The two also ponder the looming fiscal crisis facing Connecticut and New Jersey and future ramifications. They both apologize for missing the 25th — with children running around, early summer is chaotic. They aim to be at Hotchkiss for the 30th!

95

CLASS AGENTS: Mo Cronin, Liam Dohn, Deirdre Hughes, Alessandra Nicolas, Ethan Oberman, Kathleen Donnelly Renouf, Tom Terbell, and Andy Torrant

96

CLASS AGENTS: Will Copenhaver, Carolina Espinal de Carulla, Janie Fleming Fransson, Sarah Hall, Biz Morris, Paul Nitze, Matt Oberman, Javier Rodriguez, Adam Sharp, Wade Tornyos, and Will Woodbridge DOMINIQUE COTE

writes, “Thrilled to have had L A U R E N D I P A O L O and A . J . S M I T H meet up with me for my 40th birthday celebration in Los Angeles this July. We had a blast and am happy to report we don’t feel a day over 30.”

PAULO PONG

writes, “We added a new family

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CLASS AGENTS: Deirdre Morton Carr, Margaretta Robertson Hershey, Amy Liu, Robin Meyersiek, Colm Singleton, and Rob Witherwax

Left to right: Lauren Di Paolo, Dominique Cote, and AJ Smith

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97 Hunter Palmer Wright and husband, Adam, announce the birth of their third daughter, Palmer Langdon Wright, on Feb. 16, 2018.

96 99

97 Mary Elizabeth Norton Austin and her husband, Sean, welcomed their second baby, Joseph Delaney Austin, on Aug.15, 2018.

Caitie Bradley ’99 and Jamie Shea ’96 were married at The Winvian Farm in Litchfield, CT, last February.

Bottom row, left to right: Cameron Bennett ’96, Joey Rivera ’96, Tim Tracy ’96, Jamie Shea ’96, Caitie Bradley ’99, Javier Rodriguez ’96; second row: JP Acosta ’96, Lulu Henderson ’97, Briony Raymond ’99, Faith Harty ’98, Jennie Prince ’96, Katie Foster ’96, Cally Morton Danella ’99, Jane Anne Morton ’99, Alex Weininger ’98; back row: Geoff Sheerar ’96, Ned Brokaw ‘74, Christopher Shea ’77, Ben Stapleton ’96, Welles Henderson ’96, Maris Doran ’99, Jon Doran; not pictured: Peter Crisp ’50, Aya Morton ’96, Sara Tucker ’96

member, Alysha Yik Sze Pong, last December.

During our summer trip to California with our other three kids, we bumped into J A V I E R R O D R I G U E Z in Blue Bottle Coffee.”

97

CAITIE BRADLEY ’99

Fraise, Rob Hill, Bill Lane, Keltie Donelan McDonald, James Moorhead, Kim Mimnaugh Sillman, John Stewart, and Kate Allen Tholking

and J A M I E S H E A got hitched on Feb. 3rd, 2018, at The Winvian Farm in Litchfield, CT. The Bearcat presence was strong.

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CLASS AGENTS: Tim Donza, Casey Copenhaver

MARY ELIZABETH NORTON AUSTIN,

and her husband, Sean, welcomed their second

baby on Aug. 15, 2018. Joseph Delaney Austin joins big brother, Henry. “We couldn’t be happier!” says Mary.

H U N T E R P A L M E R W R I G H T and her husband, Adam, are excited to announce the birth of their third daughter, Palmer Langdon Wright,

15TH REUNION • JUNE 2018

94 01 Roberto Acosta ’01, Sheria D. Smith ’01, and Steven Turner ’94 at a non-Bearcat wedding in Hartford, CT, last summer.

born Feb. 16, 2018. Big sisters Morrison, 5, and Winnie, 3, are enjoying their new baby sister at home in Wayzata, MN.

02

CLASS AGENTS: Jonathan Hill, Andrew Kryzak, Casey Reid, Peter Scala, Rebekah Sprole, and Nate Thorne

02

CLASS AGENTS: Ryan Constantine, Sarah Helming, Chris Looney, Emily Pressman, and Kate Calise Strotmeyer

CLASS AGENTS: Kyle Boynton, Courtney Quick Burdette, Emily Bohan Hyland, Molly Shanley Labella, Sarah Armstrong Moffet, and Beth Schmidt

99

TODD HINCKLEY

writes, “My wife, Georgia, and I welcomed our first child, Hays Elizabeth Hinckley, on April 20, 2018. Our new family of three is doing well, and we had a great summer together living happily in Brooklyn, NY.”

CLASS AGENTS: Clare Dooley Evans, Allie Ray McDonald, Jesse Minneman, Mike Salguero, and Susannah Vincent Toy

00

CLASS AGENTS: Kate Kramer Azzouz, Patrick Endress, Matt Grossnickle, Susan Harrison, Michael Sachs, Camille Spear-Gabel, Dan Spencer, and John Weiss CRISTINA MOON

recently moved to Honolulu and started a residency at the Chozen-ji International Zen Dojo, a Rinzai Zen Daihonzan founded by Omori Sogen and Stanley Tanouye, considered by many to be Japan’s last real samurai, and a martial arts genius from Hawaii, respectively. She writes, “I support

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C A I T I E B R A D L E Y and J A M I E S H E A ’ 9 6 got hitched on Feb. 3, 2018, at The Winvian Farm in Litchfield, CT. The Bearcat presence was strong.

While visiting from London, M A R I S S A enjoyed dinner in Westport with E M I LY DANZIGER VLOCK.

Todd Hinckley and his wife, Georgia, welcomed a baby girl, Hays Elizabeth Hinckley, on April 20, 2018.

the temple’s operations and help bring up new generations of leaders through Zen training, as well as pursue my own training through meditation and a variety of martial and fine arts.

It is the most rigorous and fulfilling work I have ever done.” You can peek into her temple life via Instagram: @chozenjihawaii

03 CLASS AGENTS: Alex Bierce, Megan Denault, James Eberhart, Lauren Gold, Caroline LaMotte, Christina Bechhold Russ, Lindsay Failing Sinex, and Stephanie Xethalis Stamas A D D I E D O W N I N G B I D D E R reports that she and her husband, Marc, welcomed their first son, Reed, on April 12, 2018. They live in the Oakland Hills.

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not es 03

Addie Downing Bidder and her husband, Marc, welcomed their first son, Reed, on April 12, 2018.

04

03 Rauly Ramirez ’03 (in the suspenders and bowtie seated in the middle) married Gillian Melia Rader (now Gillian Melia Rader Ramirez, directly to his left) in Sacramento, CA, on May 12, 2018. Standing back row, left to right: Shamir Velez ’05, Spencer Gray ’04, Lorenzo Castillo ’05, Xang Chareunsab ’03, Paul Roy ’02, Ian Gore ’04, Pierce Hance Jr. ’05, Ajene Green ’02; sitting bottom row: Faith Briggs ’06, Kevin Ervin ’04, Gillian and Rauly, Rocio Mendoza ’03, Scott Waddell ’03, and Matthew Zenteno ’05

03 William Polk Holliday and his wilfe, Margaret Ann, welcomed a son, James Polk Holliday, on June 6, 2018.

04 Vicky Pool Holm welcomed her first child, Charlotte Middleton Holm, on June 15.

04

CLASS AGENTS: Matt Boller, Lindsey Bruett, Mike Cacchio, Christina Claudio, Conor Cook, Trip Cowin, Brian Fenty, Will Holliday, Vicky Pool Holm, Jay Mills, Rowan Morris, and Cara Seabury Radzins W I L L I A M P O L K H O L L I D A Y and Margaret Ann Holliday are thrilled to announce the birth of a son, James Polk Holliday, on June 6, 2018.

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Left to right: Brian Infante ’09, Lily Downing Infante ’09, Addie Bidder ’03, Reed Bidder, Marc Bidder, Sarah Downing Martinez ’06, Clay Martinez, Chris Martinez

04 Trip Cowin and Lucy Dietch were married on April 28, 2018, in Charleston, SC, surrounded by an army of Bearcats. Front row, left to right: Barclay Kass P’04, Stephanie Landau P’04, Chris Burchfield P’08,’10,’18, William Wallace ’03, Conor Cook ’04, Joe Gardner ’04, Trip Cowin ’04, Lucy (Dietch) Cowin, Magee Quick McBride ’05, Charlotte Schmidlapp ’04, Nicholas Thorne ’04; middle row, left to right: Cindy Cahill P’04, Andrea Sprole P’01,’03,’07,’09, Russell Sprole ’03, Will Holliday ’04, Emilie McKenna Pandullo ’04, Julia Cushman Curry ’04, Scott Gourlay ‘04, Tee Cahill ‘04, Vicky Pool Holm ‘04, Meg Miller Flanagan ’04, Laura Armstrong Swann ‘04, Andrew Buchan ‘04; back row, left to right: Jon Sprole ’73, P’01,’03,’07,’09, Dennis Kass P’04, Pat Gourlay P’04,’06, Tony Cahill P’04, Mike Cacchio ‘04, Tom McKay ’04, Scott Mackenzie ’05

V I C K Y P O O L H O L M welcomed her first child, Charlotte Middleton Holm, on June 15. Owen and Vicky are over the moon and can’t wait for her to grow up to be a Bearcat.

05

TRIP COWIN

writes, “My wife, Lucy Dietch, and I were married on April 28, 2018, in Charleston, SC, surrounded by an army of Bearcats! We had a great turnout. Even better, Danny Smith provided a box of Hotchkiss jerseys that we sported on the dance floor all night! It was amazing.”

04 05 Mary Beth Edwards Rockwell ’05 and Nick Rockwell ’04 welcomed their son, John “Johnny” Ridgeway Rockwell II, on April 18, 2018.

P A I G E M A C D O N A L D C L A R K E lives in Seattle with her husband, Garrett, and her two sons, Stone, two years old, and Grey, three months.

She has two master’s degrees in psychology and recently completed a Ph.D. in applied social psychology.

Amanda Mullens Chait and husband David welcomed their second daughter, Sally Donner Chait, on June 11, 2018.

05

CLASS AGENTS: Jess Buicko, Jessica Chu, Matt Douglas, Matt Himler, Isabelle Kenyon, Stephanie Korey, Andrew Langer, Doug McPherson, Lilly Haberl Nannes, Jon Terbell, James Thaler, and Madison West A M A N D A M U L L E N S C H A I T and her husband, David, recently welcomed their second daughter, Sally Donner Chait, on June 11,

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06

Constance Ream and John Druska of Berwyn, IL, were wed on June 2, 2018, at the Ream family home in Manchester-by-the-Sea, MA. Pictured left to right are the bride’s uncle and former trustee, Peter J. Rogers Jr. ’73, P’07,’11, Isabel Pena Alfaro ’05, John Druska, Constance Ream, Wendy Henry ’05, and Lisa Ruskin ’05.

Leonard Verrilli and his wife, Cynthia, welcomed a son, Victor Agostino Verrilli, on May 18.

K A T H E R I N E R I P U L L O N E writes, “After seven years of marriage, we are happy to announce that we have settled in Cambridge, UK. My husband, Chris Martin, received his Ph.D. in anthropology from the London School of Economics and is currently an international education advisor with Cambridge University Press. I am graduating with my medical doctorate from the university and will begin work as an academic track junior doctor this summer, focusing on global women’s health.

Sadly, my father suddenly passed away last summer. He will be missed as we embark on the next chapter of our lives.”

07

MARIA ANDERSON

Solbi Lee and her husband, Youngjo Kim, welcome their son, Jay Jisub Kim, on May 19, 2017, three days after they both graduated from Columbia Business School.

2018. No one is more excited to have her around than big sister Julia, age three.

C O N S T A N C E R E A M and John Druska of Berwyn, IL, were wed on June 2, 2018, at the Ream family home in Manchester-by-the-Sea, MA. They are living in Los Angeles, CA.

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06

CLASS AGENTS: Misha Belikov, Henry Blackford, Adam

Casella, Krishna Delahunty Nirmel, Lizzie Edelman, Anna Simonds Glennon, David Keating, Nika Lescott, Lindsay Luke, Daniel Nassar, and Haley Cook Sonneland L E O N A R D V E R R I L L I and his wife, Cynthia, welcomed a son, Victor Agostino Verrilli, on May 18 at St-Mary’s Hospital in Montreal.

writes, “I have a short story about a bat scientist in a bad marriage, ‘Cougar,’ that will appear in Best American Short Stories 2018. The anthology comes out this October. ‘Cougar’ was originally published in the Iowa Review.”

LINCOLN FORAN

began a master’s program at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy, where he is a McCourt Scholar.

He previously worked at J.P. Morgan, providing investment banking coverage to clients in the metals and mining sector.

10TH REUNION • JUNE 2018

08

09 07 84 85 Natalie Boyse ’09, Fentress Boyse ’07, Leila Clifford-Ong ’07, John Wilcox ’84, and Colin Gillespie ’85 all gathered in Falls Village for the wedding of the Boyses’ aunt on the weekend of June 16, 2018.

07

CLASS AGENTS: Abel Acuna, Kate Balderston, Dana

Bohan, Ellie Edelman, Caroline Emch, Andrew Irving, Alex Korey, Liz Krane, Bart Marchant, Alex Rogers, and TT Sitterley

On the weekend of June 16, 2018, F E N T R E S S B OY S E , N ATA L I E B OY S E ’ 0 9 , C O L I N GILLESPIE ’85, JOHN WILCOX ’84, AND L E I L A C L I F F O R D - O N G all gathered in Falls Village, CT, for the wedding of the Boyses’ aunt. It was a beautiful weekend for reunions and a wedding.

SOLBI LEE

Bearcats in attendance at the wedding of Faith Spencer ’08 and Warren Armstrong on April 7 in New York City at the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church and at The University Club in NYC. From left to right: Bud Hudson ’49 P’86,’87, Tim Dana ’87, P’22, Googie Amin ’08, John Dana ’73, P’06, Rosie Quick ’08, Liza Coven ’08, Patrick Ferriere ’67, Faith Spencer ’08 (bride), Warren Armstrong (groom), Alex Douglas ’08, Malcolm Shaw ’08, Lizzie Langer ’08, Chris Dana ’93, Jane Krause ’08, Fran Nunes ’08, Chloe LaBranche ’07, Mary McKenna ’07, and Charlotte Hardie ’07.

writes, “My husband and I welcomed our son, Jay Jisub Kim, on May 19, 2017, in Manhattan. Both my husband, Youngjo Kim, and I were attending Columbia Business School. Jay patiently waited until we finished, and he was born three days after our MBA graduation! He celebrated his first birthday celebration with his uncle I N G U L E E ’ 1 0 and aunt D A N - B I L E E ’ 0 5 . We now live in San Jose, CA.”

08 CLASS AGENTS: Dana Brisbane, Alexandra Burchfield, Alexander Douglas, Aleca Hughes, Taylor Kenyon, Lizzie Langer, Clark Maturo, Greg Maxson, Emily Myerson, and Molly Reed TAY L O R K E N Y O N

regrets to inform his friends and classmates that he left the Alumni & Development Office at Hotchkiss in early August to pursue new professional opportunities in the world of education. He is now working as the director of secondary

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not es school placement and alumni engagement at Princeton Academy of the Sacred Heart, an all-boys K-8 independent school in Princeton, NJ. In addition to making sure that Princeton Academy’s best and brightest eighth-grade boys have Hotchkiss at the very top of their secondary school wishlists, Taylor will be substitute teaching and coaching the middle school squash and lacrosse teams this year.

C L A R K M AT U R O

and Alex Walsh were married in Montauk, NY, on Sept. 15, 2018.

08 Chenyu Zheng’s recently published book, 606 Days Without a Lease, explores her experience living in different houses throughout the world.

09 Daniel B. Jones ’82 and James Lee ’09 at work in the OR at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

FA I T H S P E N C E R

and Warren Armstrong were married on April 7, 2018, in New York City at the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church.

C H E N Y U Z H E N G announced the release of her book, 606 Days Without a Lease. She writes, “It is based on 606 days living in different homes in America, China, Japan, Mexico, and Colombia. I explored different styles of homes from treehouse to trailer, and met people from all walks of life — from a 25-year-pilot to an 82-year-old artist, from a filmmaker to a healer.

This experience reminded me of the kindness of strangers that opened my heart during my Hotchkiss days. During the process of living with different people, I became a global citizen.”

09

CLASS AGENTS: Natalie Boyse, Cameron Hough, Annie Keating, Kevin Powers, Henry Ross, Sarah Scott, and Jiezhen Wu JAMES D. LEE

is a fourth year M.D./M.P.H. student at Tufts University School of Medicine.

He recently completed a surgery rotation at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, where D R . D A N I E L B . J O N E S ’ 8 2 , vice chair of surgery and chief of minimally invasive surgical services at Beth Israel Deaconess, was his preceptor.

L I LY D O W N I N G and B R I A N I N F A N T E were married on Sept. 8, 2018, at a ceremony at Lily’s parents’ home in Greensboro, VT.

08 On Sept. 15, 2018, Bearcats from the Class of 2008 gathered for the wedding of Clark Maturo and Alex Walsh in Montauk, NY. From left to right: Barkley Jenny, Taylor Kenyon, Riley McCracken, Susan Effler Atwood, Ben Pack, Carla Tamer, Stu McSweeney, Kevin Infante, Kelley Merwin, Alexandra Burchfield, Clark Maturo, Nina Bianco, Alex Maturo (bride), Z’hara Green, Amber Stuart, and Abby Glassberg (not pictured: Geoff Ogunlesi)

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CLASS AGENTS: Pierson Fowler, Heather Krieger, Teddy Mackenzie, Shintaro Matsui, and Charlotte Dillon Ross J E S S I C A E AT O N , C O L L I E R S E A R L E , AND CRISTINA MAS PEIRO

all met up in Edinburgh last August to celebrate the Fringe Festival. Jessica just completed her law degree at University of Edinburgh, and Collier and Cristina were both living in the UK at the time.

5TH REUNION • JUNE 2018

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Lily Downing and Brian Infante were married Sept. 8, 2018, at Lily’s parents’ home in Greensboro, VT. Bearcats in attendance included Derek Deblois ’10, Annie Olson ’10, George Russell ’09, Adam Kaiser ’07, Kevin Infante ’08, Lindsey McKenna ’10, Chelsea Priebe ’09, Teddy MacKenzie ’10, Addie Downing Bidder ’03, TJ Cholnoky ’09, Nick Stanley ’09, Brian Infante ’09, Kyle O’Keefe ’09, Zack Martin ’09, Sarah Downing Martinez ’06, Caroline Buck ’09, Heather Marrison ’09, Taylor Mason ’04, Alex Kinney ’09, Anne Keating ’09, John Dana ’73, P’06, Alex Mason ’69, P’04, John Downing ’74, P’03,’06,’09, and Kelly Doherty ’76.

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CLASS AGENTS: Will Boscow, Shannon Brathwaite, Emmy Brigstocke, Chloe Field, Kelsie Fralick, Liza Johnson, Taylor Peterson, Abby Rogers, Isabella Steyer, and Annie Wymard CALEB TEACHEY

writes, “I just drove across the country from Vermont to California to start a new job teaching chemistry and algebra at Pilgrim School in Los Angeles, CA.”

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CLASS AGENTS: Dylan Alles, Jay Anderson, Whitney Gulden, Kei Helm, Kevin Herrera, Stephen Langer, Alexa Nikolova, and Blake Ruddock

Left to right: Jessica Eaton, Collier Searle, and Cristina Mas Peiro in Edinburgh (on top of Arthur’s Seat) last August

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CLASS AGENTS: Amr Arqoub, Emilee Bae, Meghana Koduru, George Lampe, Isabel Reed, Eva Warren, and Kiki Warren

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CLASS AGENTS: Konstantin Baranov, Katie Comfort,

13 CLASS AGENTS: Daniel Camilletti, Addison Haxo, Christian Lange, Catriona Leckie, Charlotte McCary, and Noelle Wyman

Maddy Dwyer, Liam Fleming, Seabelo John, Walker Jordan, Casey Kemper, Avery Klinger, Ben MacShane, Justine McCarthy Potter, Hafsa Moinuddin, Cam Pal, Jade Pinero, Olivia Ryder, Emily von Weise, and Jake Yoon SEABELO CHABO JOHN

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14 Yu Xuan Hong, Maihan Wali, and Maryam Bahrani ’15 met in NYC for a Bearcat reunion in August.

16 Bryant Jung with the South Korean army, serving with the United Nations Interim Forces peacekeeping operations in Lebanon

Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL), I will be deployed to Lebanon this August. I hope to take advantage of and learn from the various experiences of being a United Nations Peacekeeper. I will be finishing my service next year, after which I plan to resume my studies at the University of Chicago.”

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Seabelo John, third from left, co-founded INRI Fashion with Shakia Couch (University of Memphis), Michelle Miles (University of Memphis), and Natiasha Kent (Lemoyne Owen-College).

to participate in ImagineU, a competitive entrepreneurship accelerator program in Memphis, TN. ImagineU is a collegiate and community partnership that brings together diverse undergraduate students from Memphis colleges. Students in the program benefit from training, workshops, mentorship, and networking events with investors. Students emerge from the program with highly valued workforce knowledge and skills, a deep connection to the city of Memphis, and a new business startup with the potential to scale. John’s start-up is called INRI Fashion.

“My fellow co-founders and I work to raise awareness of textile waste as well as reduce waste from the clothing industry practices by manufacturing high-end couture dresses from repurposed textile,” he writes.

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CLASS AGENTS: Nicholas Bermingham, Julia Chen, Stephanie de Lesseps, Cahleb Derry, Sumner Erbe, Normandie Essig, Kanika Gupta, Jack Kagan, Brooke Lummis, Stella McKew, Erin Mirkovic, Stephen Moon, Teni Odugbesan, Jack Patterson, Naomy Pedroza, Marco Quaroni, Jonvi Rollins, Harlan Schade, Allie Shuldman, Anne Elizabeth Sidamon-Eristoff, Sam Sitinas, Camila Toro, Turner White, and Hannah Xu B RYA N T J U N G

writes, “A year after I graduated from Hotchkiss, I went back to Korea to serve in the military as part of the mandatory service for all South Korean nationals. After spending about a year in a presidential security unit, I was offered the opportunity to join the United Nations peacekeeping operations in Lebanon. As part of the South Korean contingent under the United

CLASS AGENTS: Carly Berry, Aaron Casella, Cecily Craighead, Neil Dabholkar, Hannah Frater, Sarah Glasfeld, Allie Hubbard-Gourlay, Jelani HutchinsBelgrave, Alyssa Iferenta, Kira Johnson, Christian Kohlmeyer, Corbin Kucera, Sally Kuehn, Kanghee Lee, Canning Malkin, Fin Ong, Pallavi Pemmireddy, Aba Sam, George Sidamon-Eristoff, Katie Smith, Annabel von Weise, Arielle Warren, and Sophie Wilder

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CLASS AGENTS: Ameneh Arsanjani, Frances Astorian, Emily Ball, Nela Braun, Caleigh Burchfield, Anna Connell, Lucy Donovan, Sally Falls, Oyinlolu Fasehun, Nick Fleisher, Justin Ghaeli, Esme Govan, Kobi Greene, Isabelle Haberstock, Claire Jennings, Alya Kalra, Emma Knight, Aadi Kulkarni, Nevie Lee, Liz Ostermeyer, Liv Parsons, Tether Preston, Zayba Qamar, Augie Rice, Emily Rose, David Schwartz, Sam Suslavich, Harry Tower Jr., Andrew Wang, Wendy Wang, Saylor Willauer, Henry Wilmot, Charlotte Wirth, and Q Zhang

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R O B E R T S T O D D A R D T R A I N E R of Rockledge, FL, died on Aug. 17, 2018. Born on Nov. 10, 1918, he was 99 at the time of his death. He earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Pennsylvania.

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VINCENT WELLES CARPENTER

of Billings, MT, died on July 23, 2018. He was 98. Born in Minneapolis, MN, on July 3, 1920, he attended Hotchkiss from 1934-1938. As a teen, he enjoyed canoeing in northern Ontario, water skiing, ski jumping, and downhill skiing. He attended Yale University for three years before the start of World War II. He then joined the Marine Corps and served in the South Pacific with the Swashbucklers VMF 214 Squadron as a fighter pilot. He left the service with a rank of captain and later received the rank of Lt. Colonel in the USMC Reserves. After the war, he attended the University of Minnesota and later received B.A. and M.A. degrees in music from Hamline University in St. Paul, where he also studied physics. He joined the faculty of Macalester College, where he taught music for 21 years and left as head of the music department. He met Janet Miller while skiing in Minnesota, and they married in 1947. The family moved to Billings in 1968. In 1964, he and a friend bought the southern part of the old Mackey Sheep Company north of Billings. It was named the Bar Diamond Ranch. In 1987, he formed a partnership with his son, Larry, to create Carpenter Livestock, a cattle ranch. The ranch was sold in 2008, and Mr. Henderson retired and returned to composing music and studying physics. He was eventually admitted to the World Science Database, an exclusive group of physicists from around the world, which accepted two of his many papers on cosmology.

He also was involved with the Red Lodge Music Festival, teaching and conducting the student orchestra in its early years. He served on the board of directors for Rocky Mountain College and the Billings Symphony Orchestra.

He is survived by his wife, Janet; three children, and five grandchildren. His father, Lawrence Carpenter, was a member of the Class of 1910; his uncle, Leonard, the Class of 1920; and a cousin, Thomas Carpenter, the Class of 1951.

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W I L L I A M R I C H A R D “ B I L L” S T R O N G , died

on May 19, 2018. Quick-witted, lively, and fun, Bill died five days shy of his 95th birthday and was still working at being a kinder, more thoughtful person. He attended Hotchkiss from 1938 until his graduation in 1941 and then went on to Yale. He loved playing and teaching tennis, backgammon, the Golden State Warriors, reading mysteries, and music. He is survived by wife Tracy, children Dana Strong, Carol Hedberg, Ginny and Henry Llop, and many grand and greatgrandchildren. His deceased brothers, Lucian and Ruxton, were members of the Classes of 1940 and 1944, respectively.

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W A R N E R B E M E N T B E R T H O F F of Concord, MA, died Aug. 28, 2018. Born Jan. 22, 1925, in Oberlin, OH, Mr. Berthoff was professor emeritus at Harvard University, where he taught from 1967 and 1990 and held the Cabot Chair of American and English Literature. Mr. Berthoff attended Hotchkiss from 1939 until his graduation in 1943. He then enlisted in the Navy’s V-2 officer training program while at Harvard College. After being commissioned an ensign in the U.S. Navy, he returned to his studies after the war, earning his bachelor’s degree magna cum laude at Harvard, followed by a doctorate from Harvard in 1954. He married Ann Rhys Evans in 1949 and taught American literature at Bryn Mawr College from 1951-1967, where he lived with his family for many happy years. A sought-after academic, he enjoyed visiting professorships at a number of universities in the U.S. and abroad, including the University of Catania, Sicily, as a Fulbright Scholar in 1957-1958. He was a Guggenheim Fellow, a Woodrow Wilson Center Fellow, and former President of the Melville Society. At the family’s summer cottage in Westport, MA, he loved water and shore bird observation and supported the Westport River Watershed Alliance. He also supported the Hawk Mountain Sanctuary in Pennsylvania and was a yearly presence at fall hawk migrations there for nearly 50 years. Generations of students remember him for imparting his vast knowledge of American history and literature, and for intellectual inspiration. Mr. Berthoff was an active citizen of Concord, MA, where he and his family had lived since 1967. He is survived by his wife, Ann Berthoff; their

daughter and son; a grandchild; two brothers; numerous nieces, nephews, and their children.

He was predeceased by his brother, Rowland.

ARTHUR L. FRAZER

died on June 27, 2018, in Wheat Ridge, CO. Born on June 11, 1924, he grew up in Oberlin, OH, where his father was a professor of cello at Oberlin College. It was here that he developed two of his lifelong passions: baseball and classical music. He attended Hotchkiss from 1939-1942. He began studies at Oberlin College in 1942, but left soon after to join the Army Signal Corps, serving in the Pacific, where he analyzed enemy communications. After his discharge in 1946, he moved to Denver, where he began raising a family and studied law in the evenings. He graduated in 1954 from Westminster Law School and practiced until 1995. He then spent eight years teaching English to adult foreign students. An avid fisherman, Mr. Frazer enjoyed both fly-fishing and angling. This was a love that he shared with his family on numerous fishing trips throughout Colorado. He also enjoyed traveling, frequently visiting friends in the United Kingdom and Australia. He worked actively on the Sister Cities program between Lakewood, CO, and Chester, England. Building on a relationship begun in earliest childhood as friends and neighbors in Oberlin, he married Patricia (Patty) Yocom in 1985. They shared a love of classical music and were talented pianists.

Active in the Shepherd of the Hills Presbyterian Church, they loved socializing with friends and neighbors, and together enjoyed their extended family and their cat, Y2Kitty. Mr. Frazer had a great sense of humor and loved to tell stories, a trait both his children and grandchildren enjoyed. Many of them now attribute their punning to him. He is survived by his wife, Patty Frazer of Golden, CO; two daughters and three sons; a stepdaughter and stepson, 13 grandchildren, and numerous great and greatgreat grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his granddaughter, Anne.

W I L L I A M R E D F I E L D “ B I L L” P H I L L I P S S R .

passed away on May 25, 2018. He was born and raised in Montclair, NJ. He learned from his father, who headed the local Community Chest, the importance of working for the good of the community. He attended Hotchkiss from 1941-1943, and then West Point, where he graduated in 1946. He was assigned to the 11th Airborne Division occupying postwar Japan. Following demobilization, he F a l l

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in m em o ri a m returned to Montclair and began a business career and raising a family of six. His career included executive training at Macy’s, on to a position with Burlington Industries, and later becoming a partner in Palm Beach Formalwear.

Throughout his life, he was an avid fisherman and outdoorsman. He was involved deeply with Petaluma politics for a number of years, and the current mayor, David Glass, said about him: “It was such a pleasure to work with Bill on so many projects and issues in our town. He cared passionately about parks and people...” Bill was an analytical man with the depth to understand that incremental steps were pathways to achieve long-term goals. Bill Phillips will be sorely missed for his camaraderie, humor, kindness, thoughtfulness, intelligence and willingness to work tirelessly for the greater good...” He is survived by his wife, Anita; his six children, and three stepchildren.

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R E V. W I L L I A M E D M U N D P A L M E R of Los Gatos, CA, died on Feb. 18, 2018. He was 91.

Born on July 15, 1926, he attended Hotchkiss from 1942-44. He received a B.A. degree from Oberlin College, an M.A. from Teachers College of Columbia University, a bachelor of divinity degree from the University of Chicago, and a D. Min. degree from Drew University.

He was a Presbyterian minister. His father, Edward, was a member of the Class of 1917.

D R . J O H N C A R LT O N R O B E R T S

of Honolulu, HI, died on July 11, 2018. He was 92. He attended Hotchkiss from 1940 until his graduation in 1944. He received his B.S. from Yale University in 1950 and his M.D. degree, also from Yale, in 1953. He was a retired physician at Straub Clinic in Honolulu and a pianist. He is survived by his wife of 71 years, Kate Craighill Roberts; children Dorothy Roberts of Kapaa, HI, Carolyn Roberts of Tucson, AZ, Rebecca Ann Roberts of Tucson, AZ, and William Peyton Roberts of Charlotte, NC; six grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. He was predeceased by his brother, William, of the Class of 1940.

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J O H N L . H U N T E R , 90, of

Venice, FL, died peacefully on Jan. 1, 2018. His wife of 31 years, Jini Mount Hunter, daughter Susan Hunter Chynoweth of Englewood, FL, and

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stepdaughter Lisa Simone Machamer of Sarasota, FL, were at his side. Mr. Hunter was born July 26, 1927, in Rochester, NY. He attended Hotchkiss from 1944-45 and earned his B.A. degree in 1951 from Allegheny College. He was an Army veteran. He worked for General Motors as a personnel manager in Rochester, NY, New York City, and Detroit, MI. He also spent several years each in Tehran, Iran, and Nairobi, Kenya, helping to open plants for General Motors. He greatly enjoyed traveling, skiing, scuba diving, and boating. He and his wife, Jini, were wonderful ballroom dancers. His passing is mourned by his daughters, Martha Hunter and Sara Hunter Horsman, both of Massachusetts, and son, John Hunter Jr. of St. Petersburg, FL. He is also survived by a sister and eight grandchildren, a great-granddaughter, and by Mary Jane Hunter, mother of his children. He was preceded in death by his brother, Robert.

B U R T O N L E W I S “ B U R T ” Z E M P S K Y passed away peacefully on Aug. 1, 2018, at age 90.

Born in New Haven, CT, in 1928, he attended Hotchkiss from 1943-45. He received a B.S. in engineering and an M.B.A. from Syracuse University. As he was fond of saying, he spent the Korean War stationed in Huntsville, AL, as a corporal in the U.S. Army. After leaving the service, he worked as a certified public accountant in New York, but then returned to New Haven to join his father’s accounting firm, JM Zempsky & Son. In 1977, he joined Dichello Distributors in Orange, CT, as general manager and retired as the company’s CEO in 1998. He leaves behind his wife, Ellen, his children, Dina and Bill, as well as his five grandchildren. He loved to walk the streets of Woodbridge, where he was known as the “walking man.”

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Carolina Symphony Orchestra. He attended Tanglewood as a fellow and later taught as an adjunct faculty member at Arizona State University, Whitman College, and Oberlin Conservatory. He toured the Midwest as a member of a clarinet/guitar duo. His interest in jazz and classical music started early, and as an improviser, he performed with a number of established jazz players; among them were pianists Dick Wellwood and Cecil Taylor, guitarist Gene Bertoncini, and Basie trombonist Al Grey. He left the music business to support his family, working in sales and marketing for KLH Research and Development Corp., Salada Foods, and Ludens Confectionery Co. as director of marketing. In 1967, he earned his MBA degree from Northeastern University.

In the mid-1970s, his original commitment to music brought him back to the field as an administrator, and he served as development director for the Phoenix Symphony and later as a fundraiser for Whitman College, eventually moving to Oberlin, OH, to become the director of external affairs for the Oberlin Conservatory. He moved to Falmouth, MA, in 1991 to join Sea Education Association and served as alumni director for his alma mater, the New England Conservatory. In retirement, he taught instrumental music part-time at Quashnet Elementary School and served as music critic for the Cape Cod Times. He was an enthusiastic fly-fisherman, bicycler, and runner, and with his wife, backpacked and hiked in many of the national parks out West. His first marriage ended in divorce. He married Elaine LeVan in 1977. He is survived by his wife; a sister, Alice Duffus of Santa Barbara, CA; his sons, Bryan C. Duckham and Noel W. Haydon of St. Louis, MO, and Todd F. Haydon of Cincinnati, OH, and six grandchildren. He is also survived by many nieces and nephews and his brother-in-law, Robert LeVan, with whom he loved fishing the creeks and back waters in the Oley Valley, PA.

W. H E N R Y D U C K H A M I I

of Waquoit, MA, died on July 30, 2018. Mr. Duckham was born Jan. 23, 1929, in New York City to William Charles Duckham, a rose grower, and Katharine Thackray Burrell, a homemaker, and grew up in Madison, NJ. He graduated from Hotchkiss in 1947. Mr. Duckham trained as a classical orchestral player at the New England Conservatory, where he earned his undergraduate degree and served as principal clarinet for the Boston Civic Symphony Orchestra and toured with the North

WILLIAM A. WHITNEY

of Duluth, MN, died on Dec. 9, 2017, at age 89. Born in Duluth on Oct. 21, 1928, Mr. Whitney attended Hotchkiss from 1944-47 and continued his studies at the Colorado School of Mines. His working life was devoted to designing and producing the highest quality ready-mixed concrete for Whitney Concrete. He was active in the Minnesota Air National Guard, based at the Duluth Airport, and in the Gnesen Volunteer Fire Department. Nancy Dolezal was

the love of his life, whom he lost several years ago. He is survived by his younger brother, Gwin, and several nieces and nephews.

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JEROME COURTNEY “JERRY” EARL

of West Palm Beach, FL, formerly of Palm Beach, died on Oct. 2, 2016. He was 86. Born in Detroit, he attended Hotchkiss from 19441947, at the same time as his brother, James ’46. In 1956, when Jerry Earl bought a Ferrari to take to a race track, his father — head of design at General Motors, who also conceived the Corvette — had the company build his son a one-of-a-kind racing SR-2 Corvette.

Mr. Earl and his wife, Suzanne, moved from Grosse Pointe, MI, to Palm Beach in 1961 and opened the Jerry Earl Pontiac dealership in Delray Beach, which he ran until 1973.

He then joined Parker Bryant Realtors. He is survived by his four children, Jerome, Suzanne, Elizabeth Carpenter and A. Richard, all of Palm Beach County; and four grandchildren. He was predeceased by his wife. His nephews, Peter and Harley, are members of the Classes of 1973 and 1970, respectively.

J O H N S H E R M A N “ J A C K ” H O Y T I I of Hillsborough, NJ, died on Aug. 14, 2016. He was 85. An aeronautical engineer who worked on the Lunar Excursion Model, he was born on March 23, 1931, in Paterson, NJ. His adoptive parents, Sherman Reese and Hayes Blake Hoyt, predeceased him. He attended The Harvey School, Hotchkiss from 1944-46, and the Sanford School. He held a B.S. in aeronautical engineering from St. Louis University, as well as an MBA. He was in the Air Force ROTC, was commissioned in the U.S. Air Force during the Korean War, and discharged as a captain.

His discharge led him to the aerospace industry, centered in Long Island. His position with Grumman enabled him to work on the lunar module project, which first landed on the moon in 1968. He also worked at Lockheed. He then established his own manufacturing business in Oyster Bay. In his retirement years, he was a realtor in Hillsborough. He is survived by his four children, Christina Vanderlip, John “Jack,” Kai Audett Holden, and Rob, and 10 grandchildren. He is also survived by his sister, Kaisley Hoyt Widdicombe, and two first cousins, Jane Ripps and Sue Hayden, with whom he was happily reunited after a successful search for his birth family.

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HENRY CHARLES “HANK” SCHREIER JR.

died on June 4, 2018, at age 87. Born in New York City to Florence and Henry Schreier ’16, he lived in Garden City, NY, nearly his entire life, except for his time away at school and in the Navy. He attended Hotchkiss from 1947 until his graduation in 1949. He received his B.A. from Williams College in 1953 and entered the U.S. Navy as a Lieutenant.

After serving for two years during the Korean War, he earned an M.B.A. from Columbia University in 1957. He worked for the Morgan Guaranty Trust Company (J.P. Morgan) for nearly 25 years as a financial analyst and, later, as the department head for all international offices. He worked for two years at Lehman Management before retiring. In retirement, he and his wife, Sally, spent 25 years traveling the globe; together, they visited all seven continents.

Inquisitive by nature, he particularly loved to see the geography and natural beauty of the world around him and to share it with his wife.

An avid golfer, he was a longtime member of the Cherry Valley Club; he also loved to ski, cross-country ski, and be outdoors. He was compassionate and generous with his time, working on several local committees and charities. He was a board member of the Emma Willard School and served on its investment committee for more than 30 years. He believed that education was the key to a better life. He is survived by Sally, his wife of 60 years; his three children and five grandchildren; his sister and her son; and cousins, great nieces, and nephews.

C L AY T O N J A C O B W E S T E R M A N N

died on Aug. 22, 2018, in Huntington, NY. Born on Oct. 4, 1931, in New York City, he attended The Allen-Stevenson School before coming to Hotchkiss in 1945. After his graduation in 1949, he received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music from Yale University. He sang in the Whiffenpoofs and founded the Yale Symphony in 1951. Mr. Westermann was a professor of music at Hunter College as well as the conductor of the Hunter Symphony. Other conducting engagements included The Robert Shaw Chorale, New York Sinfonia, and Suffolk Symphony, as well as The Spoleto Festival, Houston Symphony, and Beethoven Society. He became wellknown for completing Beethoven’s unfinished work, “Vestas Feuer.” His book, My Turn, was published by Yale Press. Anyone blessed by his

presence knows the depth of this loss. With love, kindness and spirit, he fully enjoyed everyone in his life. He had a great passion for music and community. He leaves his wife of 62 years, Barbara Flynn Westermann, a son, two daughters, and four grandchildren.

RUFUS MACQUEEN GIBBS WILLIAMS, a retired Baltimore businessman and pilot, died October 7, 2018 from heart failure at his Glyndon, MD home. He was 87. Born in Baltimore in June 1931, he was raised in Guilford and attended Gilman School before coming to Hotchkiss in 1946. He graduated in 1949 from Hotchkiss and received a B.A. degree in 1955 from the University of Virginia.

He began his business career at the old Robert Garrett and Sons, Baltimore investment bankers, and later joined Davison Chemical Co., a division of W.R. Grace & Co. In the early 1970s, Mr. Williams purchased the J.S. Young Co. in Canton. The Boston Street firm began producing licorice in 1869, and also manufactured dyes and tanning extracts. He sold the business in the 1980s and retired. Mr. Williams, who had earned a pilot’s license, was in a partnership that owned a singleengine Beechcraft Bonanza and a twin-engine Beechcraft Baron. He enjoyed playing golf, tennis, hunting, sailing, and skiing. He was a summer resident of Northeast Harbor, ME, and a member of the Northeast Harbor Golf Club, the Northeast Harbor Fleet, and the Northeast Harbor Tennis Club. He was also a member of the U.S. Senior Golf Association. A longtime member of the Maryland, Elkridge, and Green Spring Valley hunt clubs, he was a communicant of St. John’s Episcopal Church Western Run Parish in Reisterstown. He is survived by his wife of 61 years, the former Sheila Janney; sons, Rufus M.G. Williams Jr. and Richard Janney Williams; daughters, Barbara W. Horneffer and Sheila W. Fisher; and six grandchildren. His cousins include Allison Janney ’77, Jervis Janney Jr. ’52, Jervis Janney ’76, and the late Henry “Hal” Janney ’79. Two brothers who were Hotchkiss alumni, Robert Williams ’45 and George Williams ’47, predeceased him.

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DR. ROBERT M. DELISSER

died peacefully in Pensacola, FL, on Aug. 3, 2018, after steadily declining health. Born in New Rochelle, NY, on Jan. 7, 1933, he attended Hotchkiss from 1946 until his graduation in 1950. He then earned his bachelor’s degree from Middlebury F a l l

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in m em o ri a m College. After graduating from medical school at Temple University, he began his 33-year career with the U.S. Navy as a surgeon, serving in many parts of the world, including with the U.S. Marine Corps in Vietnam. He retired as chief of surgery at the rank of Navy Captain. He also did medical missionary work in Jamaica. He is survived by his brother, Richard DeLisser ’60; his nephew; and his niece and four grandsons. He will be greatly missed by family and friends. He was one of the genuinely good guys who rarely complained and accepted life on its terms, had a wonderful sense of humor, lived life to its fullest, and had a heart of gold.

DONALD CHAMBERS DODDS JR.

died peacefully at home on March 29, 2018. He was a student at “Uni” High before attending Hotchkiss from 1948-49 and then earning his B.A. degree in 1953 from the University of Michigan. He returned to Champaign, IL, after college and the Army and began farming, but soon discovered he was, in his words, “the worst farmer in the history of farming.” But he loved Champaign, and in 1959, he founded Doddson Travel (later Dodds Athletic Tours). In addition to Doddson Travel, he partnered with Tom Conlin in Conlin-Dodds Travel. They created a new genre of travel: alumni sports travel.

His first alumni sports trip was to the 1963 Rose Bowl. Doddson Travel/Dodds Athletic Tours/Conlin-Dodds Travel soon became the national leader in alumni sports travel.

A noted community member, businessman, and philanthropist, Mr. Dodds served on the First National Bank board and then later on the Hickory Point Bank advisory board.

With his brother, Newt Dodds, he developed the Interstate Research Park, the first in Champaign. A longtime supporter of Parkland Community College, he was a founding board member and served from 1968-1983. In honor of his service and support, Parkland awarded him an honorary degree in 2003 and in 2011 named its new gym complex the Dodds Athletic Center. A supporter of the Champaign Public Library, he served as a founding member on its Foundation Board and, with the rest of the Dodds family, contributed to the new library. He also served on the Krannert Center for The Performing Arts Marquis Council and supported the Krannert Art Museum and the Crisis Nursery. In 2006, Donald and Newt were named Champaign County’s Most Valuable Citizens by the Champaign County Chamber of Commerce. He is survived by his

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brother, Newt, his three daughters, and three grandchildren.

R I C H A R D F L E M I N G “ D I C K ” K I L B U R N , age

84, died peacefully at home with his family in Stowe, VT, on Jan. 23, 2018. Born on March 3, 1933, in New York City, he was raised in Greenwich, CT. He attended Hotchkiss from 1947 until his graduation in 1950. He held a B.A. and a B.S. in mechanical engineering from Columbia University, a master’s in electrical engineering from SUNY Syracuse, and a master’s in applied mathematics from SUNY Binghamton. He served in the U.S. Army for two years in Fort Carson and Leadville, CO. Mr. Kilburn was a mechanical engineer at IBM from 1964 until his retirement in 1993. He and his wife, Jan, lived in Stowe for 40 years, and he served on the Stowe School Board for eight years, including a term as chair. A passionate advocate for education, he was a lifelong, curious learner and a walking encyclopedia when it came to subjects such as science or history, especially World War II. An avid sailor, he belonged to the Lake Champlain Yacht Club in Shelburne for many years and enjoyed sailing on Lake Champlain, though he eventually moved his sailboat back to Long Island Sound, where he had grown up on the water. Once a sailboat racer, in his later years he preferred leisurely sailing trips with his family and friends.

He was a reliable fixture at his children and grandchildren’s ski races and soccer, hockey, and softball/baseball games. He was also, at varying times, a member of Indian Harbor Yacht Club in Greenwich, CT; Quaker Lake Yacht Club in PA; and Thames Yacht Club in New London, CT. He is survived by his wife of nearly 64 years, Janet Tousey Kilburn, his three children, and four grandchildren. His brother, Henry, a member of the Class of 1949, predeceased him.

T H O M A S W . L . L A U E R J R . of Fairmont, WV, died on Jan. 19, 2016 at age 83. Born in New York City in 1932, he grew up in Katonah, NY. He attended Hotchkiss from 1946-1949 and earned a B.A. in history from Princeton University in 1955. Upon his marriage to Judith Marshall, he moved to Pittsburgh, PA, and worked as an account executive at Ketchum, McLeod and Grove. He relocated to Clarksburg, WV, in 1960 to take a position in public relations at Hope Natural Gas Company.

The Lauers moved to Fairmont in 1970. He continued to serve at Hope/Dominion for 26 years, retiring in 1986. Happiest when engaged

in his many sports and interests, in his youth he played hockey at Millbrook and Princeton.

Later, he spent his spare time working on and racing his Porsche 360B Roadster, skiing, kayaking, camping, and playing his collection of musical instruments. He was an expert guitarist and dobro player (nicknamed “Leadbelly” in college), and a founding member of the Over the Hill Gang. With his wife, Mr. Lauer handled and co-bred a nationally regarded line of Salukis.

In his late ’60s, he became an avid road cyclist, riding Centuries, and participating in local riding groups. He is survived by his wife, Judith; his sister, and his daughter.

MICHAEL RICHARD “MIKE” LINBURN

passed away September 2, 2018 at age 85. Born in 1933, he attended Hotchkiss from 1947 until his graduation in 1950. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Yale in 1954 and an M.B.A. from Harvard in 1959. In his long career in finance, he worked at Evercore Wealth Management and at Morse Williams and Co., Inc., where he was Managing Director. He retired in 2016 to travel and spend time with family, after 25 years with Morse Asset Management, where he was a Financial Advisor and Chief Compliance Officer. He served on the vestry of The Church of the Incarnation in New York City as treasurer and also on the Board of Health Advocates for Older People, a non-profit organization, helping seniors to stay fit and healthy so as to remain independent. An active and engaged alumnus, he participated in Hotchkiss telethons and attended many School gatherings and events.

He is survived by his wife of 21 years, Kathleen Hoffman Linburn; his daughters Carol Linburn, Kim Moore (Hotchkiss Class of ’88), and Alexandra Hoffman; his two sons-in-law, Jan Krepelka and Manuel Gonzales-Rosario; and five grandchildren.

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D I M I T R I A . M A N T H O S died on Feb. 22, 2017, in Fort Myers, FL. He was 83. He attended Hotchkiss from 1949 until his graduation in 1951. He received a B.S. in naval architecture and marine engineering from M.I.T. and an M.S. in shipping and ship-building management, also from M.I. T. He served as president, beginning in 1962, of Admanthos Shipping, which was founded in 1947. He previously held senior positions with Tropic Drilling Company of Texas and other marine-oriented firms. He was a director

of the U.K. Mutual Steamship Insurance Association and a member of the Det Norske Veritas North America Committee and the Bahamas Maritime Advisory Council. He was a member and director of the Society of Maritime Arbitrators and served on the Ocean Industry Visiting Committee of M.I.T., of which he was a life-sustaining fellow. He is survived by his wife, Stephanie; his son and daughter; and his six grandchildren.

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W O O D R U F F M U R R AY “ W O O DY ” P R I C E

of Dennis, MA, died on July 1, 2018, after a short illness. Born on August 6, 1935, in New York City, he attended the Allen Stevenson School before coming to Hotchkiss in 1949. After Hotchkiss, he attended Harvard University and graduated in 1956. He was a lieutenant JG in the Navy and served aboard the USS Bristol DD - 857. He pursued a long career in politics in Washington, DC, where he served on the staffs of senators and congressmen.

In 1974, he joined the staff of Rep. Brock Adams (D-WA), where he was closely involved in the drafting and passage of legislation to substantially deregulate the nation’s freight railroads and to create Conrail. Later, in the continued consolidation of railroads, he became Vice President-Federal Affairs at CSX, the company formed in a merger of Seaboard Coast Line and the B&O/C&O railroads. Mr. Price retired from CSX in 1996. A voracious reader and a lover of literature, languages, and history, in his retirement he taught himself Italian and continued his study of French. He was also an admirer of all things botanical. In Washington, DC, he served on the board of the U.S. National Arboretum; and on Cape Cod, he was a great supporter of the Dennis Conservation Trust. He could often be found birdwatching or meeting a friend at Corporation Beach. He was predeceased by his wife Ann Glaze Price.

He is survived by their children, Alexandra and Matthew, and granddaughter Clio; and his first wife, Gioia, their son Ian and granddaughter Olivia. His late father, Allan Murray Price, was a member of the Class of 1914.

Cleveland Park neighborhood of Washington.

Most recently in his career, from 2008 to 2016, he served as executive director of Churches for Middle East Peace, a coalition of national church groups that conducts political advocacy in support of the two-state solution for ending the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.

Ambassador Clark was born in Bronxville, NY, in 1937 and graduated from Hotchkiss in 1954. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Williams College in 1958 and later, graduate degrees from Johns Hopkins, Georgetown, and Harvard. He also received a master’s from Virginia Theological Seminary in 2005. From 1959-1963, he was on active duty in naval air intelligence based in Morocco, writing and giving briefings to Sixth Fleet commanders on political developments in the Middle East. He then spent 33 years in the U.S. Foreign Service at State Department posts in Washington, the Middle East, Europe, Canada, Africa, and at the United Nations in New York. He served as U.S. ambassador to the Gabonese Republic and to the Democratic Republic of Sao Tome and Principe from 1987 to 1989. In 1989-1990, as the first deputy to the assistant secretary of state for Africa, Ambassador Clark played a key role in shaping the George H. W. Bush administration’s efforts to nudge the apartheid regime in South Africa to peacefully relinquish power. After retiring from the State Department in 1996, he worked as a consultant on the privatization and liberalization of telecommunications in eastern Europe. At his 50th Reunion from Hotchkiss, he wrote in his Misch II Profile: “Looking back, I see many seeds planted in Lakeville that sprouted in different ways. Four years on Town Hill opened up many worlds that were not visible in my suburban hometown. … For me the school was also teaching that it does not matter so much what you do exactly so long as you pursue it along the lines of excellence, and if possible with grace.” He is survived by his wife of 25 years, Elizabeth Petersen Spiro Clark; three children from his first marriage to Alice S. Ritchie; two stepsons; and eight grandchildren. A deceased cousin, Chapman Clark ’52, was an alumnus.

J E S S E L E M I S C H , a well-known author and

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T H E H O N . W A R R E N C L A R K , a retired Foreign Service officer and ambassador, died on July 24, 2018, from cancer in Washington, D.C. He was 81 and had lived for 50 years in the

outspoken left radical historian, died at Mount Sinai Hospital on Aug. 25, 2018. Born on Sept.

27, 1936, he spent his early years and then most of his adult years on the Upper West Side of New York City. He attended Hotchkiss from 1950-1953, graduating in 1954. After receiving

a B.A. from Yale in 1957 and an M.A. in history at Columbia University, he returned to Yale in 1963 to receive his Ph.D. in American studies. In his career as an author and historian, he wrote and published many books and articles. He also taught at several universities, most recently as professor emeritus of history at John Jay College of Criminal Justice at the City University of New York. Upon his death, The Steering Committee of Historians for Peace and Democracy (H-PAD) published this tribute:“Jesse was one of the founders of Historians against the War (precursor of H-PAD) and served for several years on its Steering Committee. His pioneering work on ‘history from below,’ with his early focus on the American revolution, inspired many young scholars who went on to do important research in United States social history. Along with his scholarship, Mr. Lemisch made an invaluable contribution to the historical profession by his critique of almost all of its prevailing practices.

More often than not his polemics hit a mark or at least raised substantive questions about the conventional wisdom. Throughout his life, Mr. Lemisch was an activist scholar. He could be contentious and difficult at times, but also a principled advocate on issues of peace and justice.” He will be profoundly missed by his entire family, wide circle of friends, students, and professional associates. Mr. Lemisch’s wife of more than 40 years, Naomi Weisstein, a wellknown feminist, neuroscientist, and the love of his life, died in March 2015. He was a devoted brother to his twin sisters, Lisa Lemisch-Lazarus and Ellen Lemisch, and uncle to Samuel Lazarus and his wife, Sophie Nasr.

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W I L L I A M H U E Y “ B I L L” R U G G I E

died on Nov. 26, 2016. Born on June 19, 1936, in Philadelphia, PA, he considered himself a native Floridian, as most of his 80 years were spent in Florida. He attended Hotchkiss for one year, 1952-53, and graduated from Fort Lauderdale High before going on to The University of Florida on the school’s first-ever full swimming scholarship. Soon after graduation, Mr. Ruggie moved to Clearwater, FL, and opened a State Farm Insurance agency, which he would run for nearly 50 years. He was an avid outdoorsman as well as a collector of contemporary long rifles, antiques, and classic cars. He is survived by his wife, Gail; his four children and three grandchildren; a loving sister, and two nieces.

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in m em o ri a m GEORGE COOLEY “TIM” HIXON P’90,’98

of San Antonio, TX, former trustee, Alumni Award recipient, and chairman of Hixon Properties, Inc., and lifelong champion of environmental causes, died on July 18, 2018.

He was 81.

Over many years, he worked for Hixon family interests, which have included the stock market, venture capital, oil and gas exploration, and real estate development. As the owner of Hixon Land & Cattle, he managed his own farm and ranch, which aligned with his love of the natural world. His interest in wildlife was nourished at Hotchkiss and fueled his lifelong commitment to environmental issues.

Speaking at Hotchkiss in September 2000, when he was presented with the School’s Alumni Award, Mr. Hixon recalled how “the Duke” — then-Headmaster George Van Santvoord ’08 — recognized and supported his love of the natural world.

“The Duke encouraged such interests and, I suspect, even admired them,” he told his audience of faculty, students, and guests.

“While roaming the farms and hills around the School on weekends and holidays, a fellow couldn’t help but acquire a few pets such as black snakes, hog-nosed snakes, garter snakes, assorted frogs, and turtles. ’Bugsy’ Bodel [a science instructor at the time] wouldn’t let me keep them in the biology lab; I couldn’t get away with keeping them in my room. So the Duke let me keep them in the basement of his house, now known as Harris House. This was just great until his wife decided it was not so good an idea after a perfectly harmless black snake got loose. But, the Duke rallied again and found an empty storeroom for me under the hallway by the old basketball court and swimming pool. What a guy! But from those days on, I have always been fascinated by the out-of-doors.”

In his speech, Mr. Hixon expressed the hope that some of those in his audience would “take a deep interest in our environment and in our natural world.”

“I ask you all to be involved in our environment,” he said. “I ask you all to be inclusive in your search for answers. I ask you all to put something back. One problem with this great country of ours is that very few people feel a sense of duty toward it. I only wish that our forefathers, when they created the Bill of Rights, had created along with it, the Bill of Duties, which would describe what we owe this country.

Maybe one of you here tonight will take the

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leadership in creating such a bill.”

A member of the Hotchkiss Board of Trustees from 1977 to 1991, Mr. Hixon worked on the Social Committee for Reunion in 2000 and on the Reunion Gift Committee in 2004-2005. He expressed great appreciation for many of his Hotchkiss teachers, such as John Bodel, Bob Hawkins, and Bill Fowle.

The Hixon Pool in the Forrest E. Mars Jr. Athletic Center is named in honor of Mr. Hixon and his brother Joseph “Joe” Hixon III ’56, P’77,’84.

“I always had good memories here,” Mr. Hixon said of his Hotchkiss days. “The friends I made here are my friends for life, people I know I could always count on. Once you leave and you look back on it, it’s pretty special.”

Born on April 8, 1937, he was the son of Sarah and George C. Hixon ’23. He came to Hotchkiss from the Bolles School of Jacksonville, FL, in 1951, a “scared-silly prep,” by his own account. Nonetheless, he kept up a fierce pace in extracurricular activities: Student Council; the Chemistry-Physics Club; French Club; Hotchkiss Dramatic Association, including serving on the stage crew for three years and as co-president and stage manager in 1954-1955; and the Hotchkiss Medical Society. He worked on the Mischianza staff all four years and was co-managing editor in 1954-1955. He played football from 19531955 and served on the Reception Committee, becoming chairman his senior year.

After Hotchkiss, he attended Washington and Lee University. He served for two years in the Army and then earned a B.S. degree from Trinity University in San Antonio, TX, in 1964. At that time, he was president and director of Hixon Development Company. From 1964 to 1982, he served as vice president and director of Midland Investment Company. He became vice president and director of Hixon Properties, Inc., a real estate investment, development, and management company primarily based in San Antonio and Austin, in 1982.

For decades, Hixon fought in the trenches on many environmental issues. He held leadership posts as founder, director, and executive vice president of Game Conservation International. He was also a member of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission, treasurer of the African Wildlife Foundation, president of the Boone and Crockett Club, and chairman of the Parks and Wildlife Foundation of Texas. Among

numerous other awards, Mr. Hixon received the Chevron Conservation Award, the nation’s most prestigious honor for conservation, in 1997. He served on a number of boards, including the Texas Nature Conservancy, Trinity University, the McNay Art Museum, and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. His interests ran the gamut from African wildlife conservation to urban sprawl and the restoration of habitats on public and private lands.

He is survived by his wife, Karen J. Hixon; sons George S. “Timo” Hixon ’90 and Bryan S. Hixon ’98; and grandchildren Foster and Clayton. More than 25 members of the extended Hixon family have attended Hotchkiss in the last century, including his father, George C. Hixon ’23, brothers Joseph M. Hixon ’56 and Bryan Simpson Jr. ’60, and numerous uncles and cousins.

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H. THOMAS “TOMMY” DYETT II

died in Rutland City, VT, on Aug. 29, 2018. After graduating Hotchkiss, he received a B.A. from Hobart College. He spent a year in Vietnam with the Army: nine months in combat and the last three months in Saigon, working for Gen. Joseph A. McChristian, who was the chief of intelligence in Vietnam under Gen. William Westmoreland from 1965-1967. After the war, he worked for Citibank as a private banker and then spent most of his career at Morgan Guaranty Trust Co. in New York.

He and his wife, Ellie, retired to Manchester Village, VT, in 1999. Mr. Dyett served on the board of The Amsterdam Nursing Home near Columbia University from 1973 to 2000, including terms as treasurer and president.

In retirement, he and his wife housed international students for Burr and Burton Academy. For six years, they did service work in Guatemala, followed by six more years in an orphanage in Nicaragua called Nuestros Pequenos Hermanos, which housed infants and children under the age of seven. He was president of the Ekwanok Country Club from 2007 to 2010. An avid golfer, he enjoyed woodworking and walking his beloved dogs on the golf course in the winter and on trails in the summer. He is survived by his wife, Eleanor G. Dyett; his three daughters and five grandchildren; his devoted sister; and many nieces and nephews. His father, John Dyett, was a member of the Class of 1930.

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D AV I D R . H AT H AWAY P ’ 0 0 ,’ 0 2 ,

a dedicated alumni volunteer who served as president of the Board of Trustees from 1996 to 2000, died on July 11, 2018, at age 74 from Alzheimer’s disease. He lived in Millbrook, NY, with his wife, Nancy. He had retired as managing general partner of Venrock Associates, a venture capital firm in New York, where he led investments in a variety of information technology companies for more than two decades.

Appointed to the board in 1992, Mr. Hathaway was named president in 1996, the same year that Head of School Robert H. “Skip” Mattoon began his 11-year tenure. “As a new head of school, I very much appreciated David Hathaway’s support — financial, personal, and professional — and I admired the leadership he brought to the board and to Hotchkiss. He loved and served the School for almost 40 years,” Mattoon said.

Jean W. Rose ’80, P’18, president of the Board, said, “We in the Hotchkiss community are deeply saddened by the loss of David Hathaway. His great enthusiasm for the work of the School and his gift for friendship held great meaning for everyone who worked with him. We extend our deepest sympathy to Nancy Hathaway and her family.”

During his tenure as a trustee, Mr. Hathaway provided leadership and worked enthusiastically to support the initiatives that were the top priorities for the School.

He was among those encouraging parents’ participation in the 1999 Senior Parent Campaign, “The Gift of Technology,” which sought to raise $1.3 million in funds to electronically upgrade the residence halls and link students with the Hotchkiss community and the world. The successful campaign also enabled parents to contact their child directly in the student’s dorm room.

Mr. Hathaway also provided leadership in fundraising for new initiatives in financial aid, the new gymnasium, and renovations to the A. Whitney Griswold Science Building. He joined the effort to “Save the Bulls,” a quest to buy the iconic sculpture by Peter Woytuk, now an iconic feature of the Hotchkiss landscape. In 1994, he established The Edith K. Hathaway Scholarship Fund in his mother’s memory.

Born in Tarrytown, NY, on April 16, 1944, to Edith and Clemens Hathaway, he came to Hotchkiss in 1959, entering as a lower mid.

Active in School life, he played on the football team and competed in track for all three years.

He served on the Auditorium Committee and the Dance Committee, was chosen to be a proctor his senior year, and was elected to the Cum Laude Society. At his 50th reunion, he wrote in the Misch II for the Class of 1962 that his strongest memories of those years were “the friendships, classrooms, and athletics.” The preparation for college was excellent, he said.

After Hotchkiss, he received his B.A. degree in American Studies from Yale in 1966 and later studied at New York University. He also earned the C.F.A. qualification.

His early career in business included service at Sprout Group, Automatic Data Processing, G.A. Saxton & Co., and Morgan Guaranty Trust, where he was an investment analyst.

He also worked in wealth management for Rockefeller Family & Associates. In 1980, he joined Venrock, where his areas of focus came to include enterprise software, data networking, and wireless equipment and infrastructure.

His activities at Venrock included the initial financings of Bachman Information Systems, Mentor Graphics, Mitek Surgical, Sequent Computer Systems, Polycom, Castle Networks, HighGround Systems, Torrent Systems, New Oak Communications, and Tilion, Inc. He served on the boards of Appian Communications, Metawave Communications, Veridiem, and White Amber, Inc. His volunteer service included work for Yale University and the Dutchess Land Conservancy. He was a trustee of Sharon Hospital, a member of the advisory board of Elm Street Ventures, a board member of the U.S. Russia Investment Fund, a director of the Bank of Millbrook, and an advisor to the Hitchcock Woods Foundation. He was active in philanthropy, with a particular focus on conservation efforts, animal protection, and education. He was also an extraordinary volunteer for Hotchkiss, beginning as a class agent in 1968.

An avid golfer, skier, and rider, he particularly enjoyed the thrill and beauty of fox hunting and served as joint master of the Millbrook Hunt. He also loved going for long walks on his farm with his golden retrievers. He is survived by his wife, Nancy Clark Needham Hathaway; his brother, John; his sons, David Bradley Hathaway ’00 and Christopher C. Hathaway ’02; and two grandchildren.

CHARLES ERNEST “CHUCK” MCGREGOR

died on June 5, 2018, at home, surrounded by family. Born on Feb. 19, 1944, he attended Hotchkiss from 1959 until his graduation in 1962 and earned his B.A. from Yale University (Pierson College). He then enlisted in the U.S. Navy, where he served in the Mediterranean as leading radioman. In 1971, he received the Navy Achievement Medal for his exemplary communications work. He brought that dedication and skill to his career in the burgeoning field of audio design, becoming widely known for his creation of sound systems in the U.S. and abroad. Working with dozens of symphony orchestras and theaters, he collaborated with conductors, musicians, directors, and actors to provide audiences with the clearest possible sound. Particularly important to him was Ravinia, the outdoor summer home of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, where he worked alongside Zubin Mehta. He also took pride in his work with the Vienna Opera House, the Cincinnati Riverfront Stadium, and a number of Broadway theaters. While at Jaffe Acoustics in New York, he provided the original concept for the Carlos Moseley Pavilion, a portable sound reinforcement system for the free concerts given by the New York Philharmonic and the Metropolitan Opera. Later in his career, he worked at EAW as a technical writer and editor and purveyor of loudspeaker performance data. He was a relentless teacher of audio technology, both within that company and across the broader industry. Despite his achievements in the field of sound, he found his greatest joy in music, playing both his acoustic bass, which accompanied him for more than 60 years, and his Fender. Upon retiring to Midcoast Maine, he became involved with many musical groups, including the Rusty Hinges, the Great Salt Bay Community School orchestras, and the Midcoast Community Chorus. A Renaissance man, he delighted in sharing his knowledge and exchanging ideas. He was predeceased by a brother and is survived by a son, granddaughter, sister, sister-in-law, and beloved companion, Christiana Adams of South Bristol, ME, as well as many cousins, nephews, and a niece.

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in m em o ri a m 67

W I L L I A M S T I R L I N G “ B I L L” T O M K I N S , age 68, died peacefully on May 31, 2018, in Blue Hill, ME, surrounded by family. Mr. Tomkins was born Nov. 1, 1949, in New York City to Elizabeth and Stirling Tomkins Jr. ’39. He grew up in Mendham, NJ, with three sisters, Kathy, Lisa, and Juliet. He loved his life in the bucolic woods and fields surrounding his childhood home; catching fish became a lifelong pursuit, whether fly fishing for brook trout in Jackman or lobstering in Penobscot Bay. He graduated from the Hotchkiss School in 1967. In 1968, after a formative year attending school in England and traveling across Europe in a VW bus with friends, he graduated from Dartmouth with a B.S. in marine biology in 1972. In late 1972, he met his future wife, Sarah (Sally) Fleming, in Hanover, NH. In the winter of 1976, Bill and Sally moved to Harborside, ME, so Bill could take a job with Maine Sea Farms, a coho salmon farm. When the farm closed, the Tomkins family bought a house in North Brooksville, started a big vegetable garden, and raised their children there. After a few years working in carpentry, Mr. Tomkins bought his first lobster boat and realized his dream of making a living on the water. He fished for lobster and scallops through the ’80s. He took great pride in having his teenage daughter and son fish with him, and tried hard, with moderate success, to instill a passion for fishing in his children. He continued to lobster out of Buck’s Harbor until last summer, when he decided he was ready to focus on other passions: spending time with his grandchildren, traveling, becoming an even more voracious reader, doing New York Times crosswords daily, and settling in to a quiet retirement with Sally.

He is survived by Sally, a son and daughter, and three grandchildren. Mr. Tomkins is also survived by his three sisters and their families, as well as many beloved cousins, nieces, nephews, and friends.

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W A LT E R H E N D E R S O N B R O W N J R .

of Stroudsburg, PA died June 15, 2018 at home, surrounded by his loving family. He was 66.

Born in Summit, NJ on March 6, 1952 to the late Catherine G. and Walter H. Brown ’42, he attended Hotchkiss from 1966-1968. He earned a B.F.A. degree in 1979 from Carnegie-Mellon University and later received his Master’s degree

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in foreign affairs. He worked in IT/Telecom for Intel, was a network system architect for Dialogic, and worked on computer systems for several agencies before owning his own telecom business, beginning in 2006. He was a member of the Industrial Design Society of America.

He lived in the Stroudsburg area for 34 years and was active in the community, including service on the board of the Children’s Museum of the Poconos. A lifelong lover of science, mathematics, and computer science, he could often be found quietly reading at one of his favorite lunchtime spots in town. Always a fan of jokes, he often started conversations with the phrase “Did I tell you the one about...”. He was always ready to lend a hand and encouraged learning something new every day. His sense of humor and kind heart will be missed by many.

He was the husband of Marianne (Focheux) Brown. In addition to his wife, he is survived by two daughters, Jennifer Brown and Alexandra Brown; a son, Walter H. Brown III; and granddaughter, Madison. He also leaves his siblings, Catherine Ericksen, Rebecca Holmes, and Harold Brown, and many cousins, nephews, and nieces. His cousin, Charles Brown III, is a member of the Class of 1968.

BARRETT MCLEOD LIGHTBOURN

of Bermuda, New Vernon, NJ, and Quogue, NY, died on July 19, 2018, after a courageous battle with a metastatic brain tumor. He was 66. Born in Paget, Bermuda, he was a 12th-generation Bermudian. He attended Hotchkiss from 1967-70 before receiving his B.A. in architecture and M.A. in mechanical engineering at the University of Pennsylvania. He earned his Registered Professional Engineering status in Bermuda and at the University of Vermont. Strongly committed to developing better systems of energy conservation, he was a member of the U.S. Green Building Council and the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), with LEED and BEEP certifications. In Bermuda and in the states, he pioneered renewable energy systems at Island Solar, Bermuda Engineering Associates, Air Care, Global Crossing, Solar Center, Mid Atlantic Engineering, and BeSolar. His love of sailing started in childhood with Firefly dinghies, then 505s. Mr. Lightbourn was the first to bring a windsurfing rig to Bermuda and was an Olympic campaigner for Bermuda in ’82 and ’83. Over the years, Barbados, with its south-

shore combination of wind and waves, was the favored destination to visit with friends, family, and lots of luggage. Friends remember his as a sneaky squash player who was able to hit the most incredible angles through extreme wrist bends. He enjoyed golf, probably his favorite sport, on links-style courses in Scotland, Ireland, England, the U.S., and at his home course, the Mid Ocean Club. An avid birder, he could often be found cleaning out the bluebird boxes on the Mid Ocean Club course to keep out the sparrows, mites, and other scourges known to interfere with bluebird nesting. He was also a member of the Coral Beach & Tennis Club in Bermuda, and in the U.S., the Quogue Field Club, the Quogue Beach Club, the Shinnecock Yacht Club, and the Chatham Club. He is survived by his wife, Suzie; two daughters; his sister and her family; and two cousins and their families.

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D O N A L D A D A M K O S C I U S K O , of Bushkill Township, PA, died peacefully in the presence of his family on June 13, 2018, at St. Luke’s Hospice House in Bethlehem, PA. He was 63 and had waged a courageous battle with pancreatic cancer. Born on July 3, 1954, in Northampton, MA, he attended Hotchkiss from 1968-1972 and earned his B.S. degree from Bucknell University in 1976. He was principal instrument engineer for Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. at the time of his retirement in 2015. He had worked for the company for 35 years. A devout Christian, he attended Calvary Baptist Church in Easton, PA. His many interests included golf, gardening, cooking, woodworking, guitar, and motorcycling. He was a pilot and loved flying.

He also took great pride in working on his home. A truly committed and loving husband, father, and sibling, he loved being with his family and is dearly remembered for his fierce support of family and friends and his neverending sense of humor. In addition to his wife of 31 years, Bernadine (Agnew) Kosciusko, he is survived by his son and his daughter, as well as four sisters and two brothers. He was predeceased by a brother, Richard.

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J A N E ( B U R G E S S ) F I T T I N G died peacefully at home Aug. 3, 2018, following a five-year battle with cancer. She was 60. Born in

Stamford, CT, on May 6, 1958, she was raised in Darien and then moved with her family to Salisbury when she was 14. In 1974, she joined a small group of girls in the first year of coeducation at Hotchkiss; she graduated in 1976. She earned her bachelor’s degree in art history from Wellesley College in 1980.

A break year before her planned move to law school brought her under the wing of the Harneys at The White Hart Inn, a move that completely changed her life’s direction. The following year, she went to Cornell to study for a master’s degree at the hotel school. She also met her husband, Peter, and married him in 1983. They moved to Ithaca, where she finished her studies, earning a master’s of professional studies at Cornell. They moved 11 times over the next nine years, finally returning to Salisbury. In the middle of all this, her son George was born. Returning to Salisbury, she worked at the Scoville Memorial Library as a children’s librarian, where she ran a winter cocoa hour and summer literature-and-lemonade program, developed a mother/daughter book club, and decided this would be the next step in her life. After obtaining a master’s degree in library science at SUNY Albany, she worked at the Edsel Ford Memorial Library for the next 13 years.

Known for her love of knitting, cooking, and other crafts, Mrs. Fitting warmly shared her knowledge and passion for learning with students, faculty, and staff. Ford Library Director Rob Hilliker noted: “Jane was the public face of the library, always ready to help anyone and answer any question.” Through her work with Humanities 150 and the Personal Librarian Program, she connected with new students at Hotchkiss every year. “We all benefited from Jane’s endless curiosity,” Hilliker said. “Jane was always learning new skills and always eager to share those skills with others through programs like Tinkering Tuesdays and the Tri-State Mini Maker Faire, which she co-founded.” Active in the local community, she served on the board of directors of the Historic District and as a Cub Scout Den Mother and participated in events such as the Festival of Trees at Noble Horizons. Above all, she was devoted to her family and friends and is deeply missed by them. She is survived by her husband, Peter, and son, George.

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T H A D D E U S B E T T S “ T H A D ” C O N S TA N T I N E

of Boston, MA, and Weekapaug, RI, died of natural causes at his home in Boston on Sept. 17, 2018. Born on Jan. 2, 1972, in Silver Spring, MD, Mr. Constantine attended Hotchkiss from 1986 until his graduation in 1960. He went on to the University of Richmond in Richmond, VA. He attended the Boston Architectural Center and became an associate at DiMarinisi & Wolfe, a municipal architecture firm in Boston. Mr. Constantine loved his schools, remaining very active in various alumni activities and college recruiting. He served as a Class Agent for his class and, along with Todd Gailun ’93, started the Hotchkiss Alumni group on Facebook.

He was an avid sports fan for his hometown and college teams. He loved the Richmond Spiders and the Washington Redskins and was elated when the Washington Capitals won the Stanley Cup this year. His two favorite places were the Newstead Resort in Bermuda and his beloved Weekapaug, RI, where he enjoyed all the Atlantic shore has to offer. All those who knew him considered him to be their kindest and most generous friend. He will be sorely missed. He is survived by his father and mother, Richard and Mallory Constantine of Weekapaug; his brother, Wells, and his wife, Negar; his sister, Caroline Constantine Rosen, and her husband, Matthew; and nephews Cannon and Archer Rosen and nieces Hanna and Ellie Constantine.

Also noted

J A M E S L A FAY E T T E M A R K S I I I ,

former faculty member and Dean of Faculty, died peacefully on Aug. 2, 2018. Jim Marks worked at Hotchkiss from 1963 until 1981, when he was named head of Lake Forest Country Day School in Lake Forest, IL. Born on Jan. 17, 1941, he was the first of three children, all born while the family was living at Kiski School in Saltsburg, PA. After graduating from Phillips Academy Andover in 1959, he attended Princeton University, majored in history, became a member of the Ivy Club, and lettered in 150-pound football and varsity wrestling.

In 1963, after graduating from Princeton, he joined the Hotchkiss faculty, teaching history and serving as a dormitory faculty member and coach. He served as head of the history department for several years and was dean of faculty from 1974-1981. At various times, he was the assistant varsity and head junior varsity football coach and the varsity ski and golf coach. He spent the 1965-66 academic year at Harvard, where he received his master’s degree in education before returning to Hotchkiss.

In 1964, he married Sarah (Sally) Barron Colbaugh. They were married for 54 years and had two children, Elizabeth Ann (Sibby), born in 1966, and Christopher Andrews (Chris), born in 1969. In 1981, Mr. Marks became the head of Lake Forest Country Day School (LFCDS) in Lake Forest, IL, where he served for 17 years, touching the lives of thousands of students. While at LFCDS, he taught ninth-grade history and was also the varsity football coach for five years. After his departure from LFCDS, he was honored by the Board of Trustees, who named a new building in his honor to house the school’s youngest students:The James L. Marks Early Childhood Center.

After retiring from LFCDS in 1998, Mr. Marks and his wife moved to Beaufort, SC, and he spent 10 years as a partner of the Educators’ Collaborative consulting firm. During his years in Beaufort, he served on the Beaufort Academy Board of Trustees and was on the board of The Coastal Community Foundation at the time of his death.

In addition to his wife, Sally, he leaves behind his children; his four grandchildren; his brother, Andrew Marks; and his sister, Judy Pauley. His family remembers him as a man of strength and faith who loved nothing more than strumming his guitar, rooting for his beloved Steelers, playing nine holes at dusk, and spending time with his friends and family.

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pa rt i n g s h o t

This fall, the Tremaine Art Gallery featured Forest, Field & Water: A History of the Hotchkiss Landscape, a deep dive into the evolution of the Hotchkiss environment — from glaciation to Native American hunting grounds, farm fields, and today’s 827-acre campus.

Combining artifacts, maps, and photography, the exhibit was an illuminating portrait of a landscape through time.

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H o t c h k i s s

M a g a z i n e

PHOTO BY JONATHAN DOSTER

Forest, Field & Water

Hotchkiss Reunions June 14–16, 2019

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Classes ending in 4 or 9

Early Bird Registration Opens January 14, 2019 Visit www.hotchkiss.org/alumni (Events & Reunions) For more information, please contact Kamaren Suwijn, associate director of alumni relations, at (860) 435-3114 or ksuwijn@hotchkiss.org.

Classes of 1969, 1964 and 1949: Save the Date for September 27–29, 2019.

Alumni Association

Nonprofit Org. U.S. Postage PAID Permit No. 36 Pittsfield, MA

11 Interlaken Road Lakeville, CT 06039-2141 (860) 435-2591 www.hotchkiss.org ALUMNI