A Haven for
Naturalists Hotchkiss’s acres of woodland have inspired many naturalists throughout the School’s long history. by Wendy Carlson
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T HOTCHKISS, HUGO WASSERMAN ’15
“The river running its looping way, water collapsing onto itself, eddies swirling as light breaks itself, shatter and regroup; the branches of a tree fragmenting the open sky”
To find those swirling eddies and canopies of trees he didn’t have to travel far. The natural world, Wasserman noted, “is so intricate that you can see something new and beautiful every minute that you spend in the relatively small expanse of woods.”
} Nature has always set Hotchkiss apart. Its setting on a hill moved Huber G. Buehler, the second headmaster, to declare at a 1916 meeting on secondary education that the “best thing
This photo of Sucker Brook was taken in 1926.
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PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE HOTCHKISS SCHOOL ARCHIVES
considered himself a naturalist in the broadest sense of the word. When the rigors of academics became too overwhelming and the stately columns and arched hallways of Main Building too confining, he found solace in nature. Clearing trails with the Woods Squad or meandering along the ragged-edge shores of Lake Wononscopomuc, he felt liberated, if only for a short time, from the order and pace of Hotchkiss life. “I came to rely on nature in everyday life, to keep me sane and give me perspective on life in general,” said Wasserman. During morning assembly on Eco Day, he recited a poem he wrote, an ode to nature that read in part: