The Pingry Review - Summer 2020

THE

REVIEW

PROGRAMMING SUCCESS

Why Computer Science at Pingry Is Not Just

Cutting-Edge, But Also

StereotypeBreaking Q&A: ANDREW GOLDSTEIN ’92

C O V I D - 1 9 I M PA C T S P I N G RY

SUMMER 2020

C A R E E R D AY 2 0 2 0

Contents 16

Programming Success

At a time when independent schools are yearning to tout their computer science programs, Pingry has reason to swagger. It is one of a handful across the nation to offer such a comprehensive and cuttingedge course load, one which is successfully engaging girls as well as boys. And it’s doing so with a nearly all-female faculty.

pingry.org/review

SUMMER 2020 | VOL. 76 | NO. 3

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Q&A with Andrew Goldstein ’92

A high-profile federal prosecutor and hand-picked member of Robert Mueller’s Special Counsel investigation, Mr. Goldstein began his career as a Pingry teacher, then investigative journalist, before becoming an attorney.

On campus last fall for the John Hanly Lecture on Ethics and Morality, he answered a few questions.

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#BigBlueBond

On March 26, amid a swirling global pandemic, the School’s first remote learning program launched. While administrators, faculty, and staff had just days to craft it, they successfully engaged 1,135 students a day for twoand-a-half months, all from home. In the face of uncertainty, adversity, and untold tragedy, learning continued.

Pingry persisted. Here’s how.

F RO M TH E EDI TO R

Departments 2 One Pingry 6 Pingry Favorites 10 Faculty/Staff Farewells 12 Virtual Commencement Celebration 14 View from SH/BR 38 Athletics 44 On the Arts

50 52 54 67 70 71 72

Virtual Reunion Pingry Creates Class Notes In Memoriam Pingry in Your Neighborhood A Visit to the Archives A Final Look

Most of this issue’s content was planned prior to March, when the COVID-19 pandemic caused the School to transition to remote learning and cancel traditional on-campus events. The editorial staff proceeded with certain content and adjusted as needed, such as creating a feature on how the pandemic has affected the Pingry community.

In circumstances when virtual events replaced those on campus, we have tried to capture the reimagined programming or direct readers to our website to read about it. We hope this issue provides some normalcy, reassurance, and connection during these difficult times.

The Pingry Review is The Pingry School’s official magazine.

Contact the editor with comments and story ideas: gwaxberg@pingry.org 908-647-5555, ext. 1296 The Pingry School 131 Martinsville Road Basking Ridge, NJ 07920 EDITOR Greg Waxberg ’96 Communications Writer EDITORIAL STAFF Peter Blasevick Archivist

Allison C. Brunhouse ’00, P ’31 Director of Institutional Advancement Andrea Dawson Senior Writer Jane Hoffman ’94, P ’26 Director of Annual Giving and Community Relations Edward Lisovicz Advancement Writer Dale V. Seabury P ’31 Director of Strategic Communications and Marketing Holland Sunyak ’02 Associate Director of Advancement DESIGN AND LAYOUT Aldrich Design aldrichdesign.biz PHOTOGRAPHY Camille Bonds Bruce Morrison ’64 Maggie Yurachek COVER ILLUSTRATION Frank Ramspott/istockphoto

One Pingry

SPIRIT

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THE PINGRY REVIEW | SUMMER 2020

The Lower School held virtual “Spirit Week” in May, inviting students to dress up and participate in Superhero Day, Blue and White Spirit Day, Wacky Wednesday, Thoughtful Thursday, and Family Field Day.

WE E K

Through the heroic efforts of the Advancement Office, Operations Team, and Upper School Office, Pingry delivered balloons to the homes of every member of the Class of 2020 on the final day of classes. Here, Chris Waltzinger ’20 receives his gift from Operations Officer for Transportation Amir Abiskaroon.

below:

“For the past three years of my life, I have been waiting for my senior year lacrosse season with a team that has become one of the most important aspects of my life . . . Since March 12, the coaching staff and everyone on the team has been determined to stay bonded together . . . Throughout this time, I have personally learned how to manage my time, how to push myself harder than ever, and how to be self-disciplined . . .”

—Emma Capanna ’20, Girls’ Varsity Lacrosse Team Captain, on missing her final season of competition

at right:

For “Storytime Online,” Drama I students created videos for Lower School students in which they retell familiar stories with their own twists; the goal was to engage the younger students while challenging drama students to create a virtual performance. Here, a scene from Little Red Over the Rainbow, when Little Red (Milenka Men ’23) voices her frustration to the narrator about ending up in Dorothy’s story.

Emma Capanna ’20 practicing remotely.

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One Pingry

The Balladeers performing Mamma Mia! by Abba. To create the ensemble’s videos during remote learning, each member recorded their part and submitted the audio. With “time, patience, and a good ear” (in the words of Music Teacher Jay Winston), students edited the voice tracks together.

Faculty and staff joining musical forces to sing “That’s What Friends Are For” during Teacher Appreciation Week.

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Dozens of Pingry community members are working to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, including Apu ’93, a nearly 30-year member of the Springfield First Aid Squad.

An Emergency Medical Technician and EMS Chief in Springfield, he serves not only on the front lines of the pandemic, but also on the front lines of remote learning at Pingry, as an integral member of the School’s Technology Department.

“As I helped explain ‘least common multiples’ to my frustrated eleven-yearold today, I came to a realization: I don’t think I know what ‘least common multiples’ are. Luckily, my eight-year-old’s homework involved writing a note to a grandparent, so I quietly switched tables and wrote a note to my parents, blaming them for my failures in math.” —Director of College Counseling Tim Lear ’92, P ’25, ’27, ’30 in an April letter to parents of the Class of 2021

For his Independent Senior Project, Thomas Wolf ’20 hosted this year’s Walk With Heart (he has now attended all 14)—this year’s was virtual—to benefit the John Taylor Babbitt Foundation and its efforts to prevent sudden cardiac death. Also a baseball player like the late John Taylor Babbitt ’07, Thomas spoke during a Facebook Live broadcast, appearing alongside JoAnne and David Babbitt P ’07, ’09: “This is not just my senior project . . . The first time I took the fields for a tryout, I walked past the plaque honoring his memory. I stood next to his retired jersey, Number 8. When I made the team, I asked for a jersey with a number 8 on it to honor John—not because of the athlete that he was, but because of the person he was, a true and unselfish teammate in every aspect of his life. So I wear Number 38 and hope that he is watching. I hope that he would be proud. He stills serves as my inspiration every day.”

As a part of a motivational social media video from the Athletics Department, Athletic Trainer and Heath Teacher Steve Spezio and his daughters encourage the community to stay active with their own activities during remote learning.

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Pingry Favorites

Ms. Engel, Mr. Atwater, Mr. Engel, Mr. O’Neill, and Ms. Ziebarth are, variously, trustees of the E. J. Grassmann Trust and Union Foundation—the Union Foundation provided the grant to build the composter, and the E. J. Grassmann Trust recently provided a grant for the Robotics program.

Front row: Suzanne Engel and Ned Atwater ’63. Back row: Upper School History Teacher and Director of Experiential Education John Crowley-Delman ’97, John Culpepper, Bill Engel ’67, Michael O’Neill, Amy Ziebarth P ’23, and Upper School Science Teacher Olivia Tandon. They are standing to the left of Pingry’s new composter.

Mr. Culpepper’s Composter

John Culpepper, Director of Facilities and Sustainability at North Country School and the original designer of Pingry’s composter, visited the School for the first time in February. His passion for farming and sustainability come from a “passion for working outside and leaving the earth—both the planet and soil—a little bit better than I found it.” North Country School (in the Adirondacks), where Pingry students have traveled for Global Field Studies courses, has defined sustainability as initiatives that reduce the carbon footprint, reduce fossil fuels, increase the quality of indoor/outdoor environments, and, Mr. Culpepper emphasizes, keep money in the local economy.

His blueprints for the composter are available online, for free, because “I have no interest in making money—I’m interested in getting low-cost technology to anyone interested.”

“Many plant nutrients are considered part of the waste stream, but everything in that stream can be captured and turned into something of value. If we continue to think of it as ‘waste,’ we’ll treat it that way. Think of waste as an underutilized resource.”

—JOHN CULPEPPER

Magistri Members

Shelley Hartz

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Deirdre O’Mara

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Ramsay Vehlslage

Matty Yorkshire

Celebrating the newest members of the Magistri, those who have worked at Pingry for 25 years or more (read more at pingry.org/extras): Director of Community and Civic Engagement Shelley Hartz, Biology Teacher and Girls’ Varsity Swimming Head Coach Deirdre O’Mara P ’17, ’19, ’21, Middle School Science Teacher and Boys’ Varsity Squash Head Coach Ramsay Vehslage, Jr., and Lower School Spanish Teacher Matty Yorkshire (Mrs. Yorkshire is retiring—read more on page 10).

Recognition for Writing Enjoy this excerpt from an essay by Keira Chen ’24—she won a Silver Key in the New Jersey region of the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. excerpt

DREAMS OF CHANGE

The legends say that the island of Ostrov used to be a rich, lush place full of magic and wonder. It was a place where dreams could come true.

I don’t know if I believe those legends. They’re probably just the product of someone’s wishful thinking, anyways. Nowadays, Ostrov is a bustling city, the namesake of the island, the epitome of modern times.

There’s not much of the Old Land left. Only bits and pieces, if you know where to find them.

Sitting in the park’s bushes in the shadow behind two buildings, I

search for glimmers of magic in nature— what most call “Shatters”—though I don’t have much hope of finding one. The last time I found one here was at least several weeks ago.

Sigh.

Maybe I should move on.

Sighing again, I stand up, swiping at my clothes to get the green off.

It’s quite sad, really. This place is one of the few natural areas left in this city. One of the last on this island, maybe.

But what can I do?

I shake my head. I’m being silly. This place is too far gone anyways.

A Favorite of the Music Industry . . . and USC!

Read more at pingry.org/extras.

For Charlie Stillitano Jr. ’77, P ’17, soccer has been a lifelong passion. A member of Pingry’s Athletics Hall of Fame, he toppled School records and led the team as a captain. Mr. Stillitano continued his lauded soccer career as a Captain and All-American at Princeton, and professionally has spent over 25 years as a leader in U.S. and international soccer. How has soccer culture changed over the years? “Back [in the early to mid-1970s], soccer wasn’t really thought of as an ‘American’ sport,” he says. “Its most ardent proponents tended to be immigrants.” Immigrants like his father, Charlie Sr., who hailed from Italy. Both father and son found the perfect place to indulge their passion: Charlie Jr. scoring goals on the field and Charlie Sr. helping Pingry’s team on the sidelines. Charlie’s brother, Leandro ’76, was also a Captain at Pingry, and went on to play for Columbia in college.

Thanks to the family’s shared love of the sport and Mr. Stillitano’s desire to bring their favorite teams to Pingry’s campus, the School’s soccer teams play on the World Cup Field, a professional-grade grass field generously given to the school by Mr. Stillitano. Also thanks to his influence in the international soccer world, Pingry has hosted world-renowned teams like Juventus, National Soccer Teams from Italy and Ecuador, professional clubs in Turkey and Greece, and the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team, to name a few.

“Working with the Italian National Team was an incredible source of pride for me,” Mr. Stillitano says. “It really brought my connection with soccer to where it all began—with my dad, and with Pingry.”

Read more about Mr. Stillitano’s incredible accomplishments in the full citation at pingry.org/extras.

© IRA L. BLACK

Charlie Stillitano Jr. ’77 Awarded Letter-in-Life

Michael Arrom ’13 appeared on ABC’s Good Morning America on January 29, one of three musicians accompanying actress and singer Sofia Carson on her new single, “I Luv U.” Among other high-profile appearances in recent years, Mr. Arrom has performed on FOX’s Glee, toured with Steve Vai, and accompanied Keith Urban at the American Country Awards. A graduate of the University of Southern California, Mr. Arrom has joined its Thornton School of Music faculty as an adjunct instructor and has a private teaching studio on campus.

Spine Poetry Middle School Librarian Felicia Ballard held a Middle School Spine Poetry Contest in April to celebrate National Poetry Month. Students and teachers were invited to create a poem by stacking a group of books; the student winner was Avery Hoffman ’26.

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Pingry Favorites The Amazing Race Across America!

Wanting students to stay active during remote learning, Director of Middle School Athletics Gerry Vanasse P ’14, ’20 encouraged them to participate in “The Amazing Race Across America” (ARAA), a virtual competition that engaged Middle School students from five independent schools in the area—Pingry, Morristown-Beard, Kent Place, Newark Academy, and Far Hills Country Day School. Students “raced” for 6,150 miles, from New Jersey to San Francisco and back again; ARAA counts every 10 minutes of “vigorous” exercise—running, resistance training, biking—and every 15 minutes of “non-vigorous” exercise—light walking, recreational biking—as one mile. Pingry fielded three separate teams, and students could monitor their progress on this map.

Ending a “Cancel Culture” Delivering a speech titled “Cancelling Cancelling,” Cal Mahoney ’21 won the 2020 Dr. Robert H. LeBow ’58 Memorial Oratorical Competition.

During this annual event for sophomores and juniors, Cal spoke about the challenges of a “cancel culture,” in which an individual’s behavior is deemed so unacceptable that society tries to silence them. The competition, in which students speak for four- to six-and-a-half minutes on a topic of their choosing, was funded in 2005 through the generosity of the Class of 1958, led by the late William Hetfield, in memory of their classmate. Dr. LeBow was an accomplished public speaker, addressing audiences worldwide about the need for health care reform. Read more and watch Cal’s speech at pingry.org/extras.

The Class of 2020 dedicates the 2020 Blue Book to retiring Upper School English Teacher Dennis Pearlstein, a 13-year member of the faculty. The news was revealed in a touching video that replaced the traditional on-campus ceremony. See the video at pingry.org/extras, and read more about Mr. Pearlstein on page 10.

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Upper School English Teacher Tom Keating P ’27, ’29 and Joshua Kazam ’95 at Mr. Keating’s iconic hallway table in January.

Conversations about Collaboration Pingry’s abundance of collaborative workspaces provides an incredible boon for students: they are places to share ideas, decompress, and connect with faculty members and friends.

Generations of Pingry students have met Upper School English Teacher Tom Keating P ’27, ’29 in his iconic hallway spot to discuss coursework, seek extra help, or just engage in affable conversation. Now, due to the generosity of Joshua Kazam ’95 and his family, the Keating Collaboration Space has been dedicated to honor a teacher for whom conversation and collaboration have always been central. When Mr. Kazam returned to campus this past winter, the conversation with his former English teacher picked up as if he had never left.

Mr. Kazam and Mr. Keating have remained close since Mr. Kazam’s graduation—a span of 25 years. The friendship began with a mutual admiration of each other in Mr. Keating’s English classroom.

“Josh was a top student in ways that you can measure,” Mr. Keating reminisces. “But what I most admire—then and now—is how dynamic a person, a thinker, and a writer he is, and how freely he is able to express that. Conversations with him are always engaging and interactive.”

For his part, Mr. Kazam appreciates Mr. Keating’s dedication to his students and to

dialogue in the classroom. “I wanted to honor Tom, and the difference that he makes in the lives of his students,” Mr. Kazam says. “When I think back on the things that made my education exceptional, Tom is definitely one of the things that stood out. Everyone shares a healthy respect for his dedication to education and his teaching style.”

“My classmates and I have the ability to simply walk by, sit in the chair, and talk to Mr. Keating about anything,” says Rhea Kapur ’21, who spoke at the dedication, “whether it’s politics, music, art, literature, college essays, or just life in general. During my time at Pingry, my definition of the value of a Pingry education has changed. Yes, it’s in the opportunities that we are exposed to, and yes, it’s in the quality of the education we receive here. But it’s even more so in the kind of conversations with the people that you have here, and the relationships you forge— the conversations that go on in this space, and the stories that go along with them.”

“The essence of education is collaboration,” Mr. Keating says. “The exchange and sharing of ideas are why people become teachers in the first place. That’s the reason I went to the hallway—it’s where the students are. The support that Josh has provided recognizes and honors collaboration itself.”

The Girls Get It Pingry earned the College Board’s AP Computer Science Female Diversity Award for achieving high female representation, at least 50 percent, in AP Computer Science. Out of the 20,000 institutions that offer AP courses, 818 achieved this milestone during the 2018-19 school year. Pingry was one of 143 recognized in the category of AP Computer Science A, with 12 girls in a class of 21 students. The Computer Science Department has five female teachers—a rarity among computer science faculty at any level—who serve as role models and stereotype-breakers to female students. Read more about Pingry’s computer science program on page 16.

Career Day For this annual event attended by juniors and seniors, over 50 alumni returned to the Basking Ridge Campus, representing 14 industries.

Read more on page 54.

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ALUMNI

INDUSTRIES REPRESENTED

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Faculty and Staff Farewells Tributes to those who have worked at Pingry for 10 years or more

John Crowley-Delman ’97 Rich Freiwald P ’03

John Crowley-Delman ’97, Upper School History Teacher and Pingry’s first Director of Experiential Education (appointed in 2018), leaves after 14 years to become Director of Outdoor Education at Riverdale Country School in the Bronx. “Pingry has given me so much,” he says.

Mr. Crowley-Delman was active in numerous aspects of school life: he taught World History 9 and 10, as well as American Society and Culture; served as Co-Chair of the School Design Subcommittee for Pingry’s Curriculum Review; designed and led Global Field Studies courses in Idaho/ Wyoming (humanities), Utah (land use), and the Adirondacks (farm-to-table education and sustainability); with fellow Upper School History Teacher Matt Horesta, co-created the Outing Club with hikes and overnight camping trips that enabled students to spend more time in nature and learn environmental responsibility; and helped develop the Basking Ridge Campus’ hiking trail and campsite.

Mr. Crowley-Delman also coached Middle School and JV football and boys’ JV lacrosse, having played both sports as a Pingry student. He was inducted into Pingry’s Athletics Hall of Fame in 2016 as a member of the 1995 Football Team, and received the Senior Class Faculty Chair (2011) and David B. Buffum History Chair (2013).

Patti Euwer P ’97, Lower School Teacher who has taught Grade 3 for 33 years, retires after 34 years at Pingry (she taught Grade 2 her first 10

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Patti Euwer P ’97

year). Among her initiatives outside the classroom, during her first year at Pingry, in partnership with thenGrade 2 Teacher Virginia Nazario P ’90, ’94, Mrs. Euwer helped inaugurate the Mitten Tree—a mainstay of Pingry’s holiday traditions that involves Lower School students from Kindergarten through Grade 5 donating new mittens, hats, gloves, and scarves to children in need.

Mrs. Euwer also had a hand in creating the Lower School garden.

“I’d like to think of myself as [Lower School Science Teacher] Heather Smith’s sidekick in getting the garden rolling,” she says. “Heather wanted the garden to be more than just a place to grow things—to make it ‘kid friendly’ as well as an ‘outdoor classroom.’ We did many things collaboratively in getting things ready . . . And the garden has certainly grown and evolved over time.” Mrs. Euwer also introduced the interdisciplinary State Project to third-grade social studies as a way for students to learn about a state while developing their research and writing skills.

A recipient of the Herbert F. Hahn Junior Faculty Award (1997), Woodruff J. English Award (2002), and The Albert W. Booth Master Chair (2016), Mrs. Euwer is grateful for the past three-plus decades. “It has been both an honor and a privilege to teach and work beside the students who walk into my classroom each year. I believe we learned and grew together.”

Rich Freiwald P ’03 (or “Frei” as many of his students affectionately call him), Upper School Visual Arts Teacher, retires after a 32-year Pingry career.

While best-known for teaching Clayworking and Sculpture, Mr. Freiwald led other arts classes during his time at Pingry, including Art Fundamentals, Advanced Topics in Art, Graphics (printmaking and graphic design), Metalworking, and Photography, and he oversaw portfolio development for students working on 3D artwork.

Outside the classroom (or studio, as it were), he helped construct sets for the Drama Department, spent 11 years as Blue Book photographer, and advised two student clubs, the Make a Wish Foundation as well as Potters for Peace (pottery sold to benefit the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota and, in more recent years, Cancer Support Community).

Over the past three decades, many of Mr. Freiwald’s students have been accepted to and won awards in “Fresh Perspectives” at the Morris Museum, an annual, juried exhibit of artwork by New Jersey high school students. For his part, Mr. Freiwald won a National Endowment for the Arts/Council for Basic Education Grant to introduce interdisciplinary teaching in art and chemistry; received the Herbert F. Hahn Junior Faculty Award (1999), The E. Murray Todd Faculty Chair (2001), and The Albert W. Booth Master Chair (2012); and he was the dedicatee of the 2003 Blue Book. “It has

Read the full-length coverage, as well as additional tributes to departing faculty and staff, at pingry.org/extras.

Elaine Ochab Dennis Pearlstein Norm LaValette P ’04

Matty Yorkshire

been an honor to share my life with, and be part of, the Pingry family.”

also received The Albert W. Booth Master Chair (2010).

Norm LaValette P ’04, Upper School German Teacher, retires after a 41-year Pingry career that also included the instruction of teaching skills. He is best known for his time in the classroom, including 22 years as Head of the Language Department (1995-2017), when teachers began to lead language trips more frequently.

For the past three years, he continued to teach and served as Instructional Guide, offering advice or assistance on pedagogy to many teachers.

Instructional skills have been a passion of his since the 1980s; in the summer of 1986, Mr. LaValette led the first of what would become annual four-day workshops for teachers new to Pingry—the NJAIS Instructional Skills Workshop. “We would reveal instructional skills that might enhance their toolbox, but the teacher would purposefully elect to pull a skill out of the box to enhance a lesson.”

In athletics, since 1980, he served as Head Throwing Coach for the Boys’ Varsity Track and Field Team (that team started with one thrower, Jim Peters ’80, and expanded to nine) and, since 1997, for the Girls’ Varsity Track and Field Team. From 1985-1987, he was also Head Coach of the Boys’ Varsity Basketball Team. Mr. LaValette was the inaugural recipient of The Norman B. Tomlinson, Jr. ’44 Chair for History and Literature (1989) and

Elaine Ochab, Receptionist at the Basking Ridge Campus and a familiar voice over the School’s PA system, retires after 28 years. Through the years, she also handled bus transportation forms and the School’s mail, and filled in for other offices. “I will miss my co-workers, the many friends I have made, the friendly parents, and feeling the energy and seeing the activities of the students—they are always involved in so much!” Her late husband Joe worked for Facilities from 2006-2010; they shared stories about their day during the ride home together, a special time in their lives.

Dennis Pearlstein, Upper School English Teacher and a 13-year member of the faculty, retires after a 49-year teaching career; the 2020 Blue Book is dedicated to him. “It is very hard to retire, because of my identity as a teacher, and I loved working with Pingry students,” he says. Mr. Pearlstein taught in the Middle School for four years and the Upper School for nine, finding pleasure in teaching high school and college favorites. His courses included English 9 and 10, American Literature, and the senior electives The Greek Epic and Magical Realism. Mr. Pearlstein also served as Advisor to the LGBTQ Affinity Group (seven years), Co-Chair of the English Department’s self-study for NJAIS

accreditation, and Co-Chair of the School Design Subcommittee for Pingry’s Curriculum Review.

Matty Yorkshire, Grades 4 and 5 Spanish Teacher, joins the Magistri and retires upon the completion of her 25th year—she spent more years teaching her native tongue at Pingry than at any other educational institution during her 46-year career, which spanned elementary, high school, and community college. Over the course of her Pingry tenure, Mrs. Yorkshire taught Grades 1-5 (since 2015, Grades 4-5) and oversaw Foreign Language Week for roughly a decade, excited to see the students’ active participation in learning about other cultures.

“I love to teach young minds because they are fascinatingly open to speaking a new language while being so curious about the associated cultural differences,” Mrs. Yorkshire says. “Many students were intrigued with learning the language firsthand from someone who speaks [it as their native tongue]. I do not consider myself to be a public speaker. However, my students made it easy for me to be proud of the language.”

Recipient of The Albert W. Booth Master Chair (2008), Mrs. Yorkshire treasures her meaningful relationships among faculty and students, and one of her fondest rewards has been to witness her students’ continued successes in Spanish on the Basking Ridge Campus.

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COMMENCEMENT A VIRTUAL CELEBRATION

On Sunday, June 7, Pingry celebrated the School’s 138 newest alumni—the Class of 2020— in the School’s first virtual celebration, a video that was emailed to senior families, faculty and staff, trustees, and Honorary Trustees, and published on Pingry’s website.

CLASS OF 1902 EMBLEM AWARD NOMINEES

left to right, top row to bottom row:

Gabrielle Billington, James Cummings, Anna Dillon, Corbey Ellison, Brian Li, Olivia Nugent, James Pagano, Joshua Thau, James Wang, Alexandra Weber, Samuel Williams

Our class will be remembered for its resilience, its ability to come together when times are tough and achieve better versions of ourselves.”

By the efficiency and amount of service, and by loyalty of attitude, the student who has done the most for the School and shown the greatest amount of school spirit.

THE MAGISTRI LAUDANDI AWARD

The student who demonstrates personal integrity and generosity that inspire the best in others, whose sense of purpose is to the greater good, and who helps all succeed.

—BURKE PAGANO ’20, CLASS PRESIDENT

We pray and mourn for Alexandra Weber ’20 those who have been affected by the pandemic, and when our strange Spring Break finally comes to an end, we will be in a new chapter of our lives.”

—BRIAN LI ’20, STUDENT BODY PRESIDENT

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THE CLASS OF 1902 EMBLEM AWARD

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James “Burke” Pagano ’20

Take what Pingry gave you, and ‘go big’ into the world. ‘Go big’ in community—be a leader, get involved, and make sure your voice is heard.”

—HEAD OF SCHOOL MATT LEVINSON P ’21

MAGISTRI LAUDANDI AWARD NOMINEES

Lifers (13-Year Club, students who attended Pingry since Kindergarten) Dylan Anidjar Amir Arnold Lucy Berndt Renée Chan Alexander Chiang Aimee Composto Caroline Dannenbaum Victoria Gu William Hoffmann Derek Huffman Peter McClearn Tyler McLaughlin Dominic Mendelsohn Noelle Mullins Madeline Skapper Julius Smith Lauren Taylor Joshua Thau Alexandra Weber Legacies (students whose parents or grandparents also graduated from Pingry) Patrick Birotte William Bugliari Alyson Feeley Joseph Gottesman Henry Graff Anne Oatman Katherine Oatman Christopher Waltzinger Samuel Williams Jonathan Younghans

left to right, top row to bottom row:

Stuart Clark, Anna Dillon, Corbey Ellison, Eve Gilbert, Brian Li, Olivia Nugent, James Pagano, Lance Perlow, Joshua Thau, Sydney Tindall, Alexandra Weber

I would like to concentrate not on what you missed, but on what you gained. . . Recognize that you have gained great wisdom, coming to respect just how suddenly and unpredictably your world can change, and that you must always be prepared to meet that challenge. Take pride that you did, in fact, successfully adjust to this new reality.”

—JEFF EDWARDS ’78, P ’12, ’14, ’18, CHAIR OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Stay tuned for additional highlights from Commencement 2020 when the real ceremony is able to take place, including the Valedictory address and this year’s recipients of The Cyril and Beatrice Baldwin Pingry Family Citizen of the Year Award as well as the Letter-in-Life Award.

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View from

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SH BR

In early April, while students, faculty, and the majority of staff were at home, Facilities Technician Tim Thompson and Groundskeeper Mike Janes continued their work to beautify the Basking Ridge Campus. Mr. Janes celebrates 25 years at Pingry this year, having joined the School in 1995.

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Programming

Members of the Upper School GirlCode Club at last winter's FemmeHacks competition at the University of Pennsylvania.

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WHY COMPUTER SCIENCE AT PINGRY IS NOT JUST CUTTING-EDGE, BUT STEREOTYPE-BREAKING

Success

DAYLIGHT HAD YET TO BREAK on a cold Saturday morning in early February on the Basking Ridge Campus. At 6:30 a.m., as their classmates were turning over in bed, 10 Upper School girls, all members of Pingry’s GirlCode Club—and one faculty advisor—met in the front parking lot and piled into a My Limo van awaiting them.

The drive to Philadelphia was just under two hours, but rather than slip back to sleep, they were clutching travel mugs and buzzing with excitement.

Emma Huang ’21, one of the club’s three leaders, was especially energized. It was her second year attending FemmeHacks, THE PINGRY REVIEW | SUMMER 2020

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an annual collegiate hackathon hosted by Women in Computer Science, a student-run organization at the University of Pennsylvania. Last year, she and two other Pingry club members were among only a handful of high school teams to attend the event, a sun-up-to-sun-down coding, app-developing, and sponsor-pitching marathon. This year, the group was 10 strong. When they emerged, bleary-eyed, from the Pennovation Center at 11:00 p.m., one of their three teams had an award in hand (or, to be precise, Visa gift cards). Vanguard, one of the event sponsors, had presented the “Best Financial Hack” honor to Emma and her three teammates, Rhea Kapur ’21, Jessica Yatvitskiy ’21, and Eve Schiller ’21. Their winning project? A sleek, user-friendly, interactive website and game promising to educate teens on the basics of finance and investing.

That Pingry students would dedicate well over 12 straight hours on a Saturday to an extracurricular event involving computer programming and web design should not come as a particular surprise.

What is somewhat surprising: Emma and her fellow GirlCoders represent a growing number of female students who are eagerly pursuing computer science at the School. And they are doing so, at least in part, because Pingry offers one of the most comprehensive, advanced courses of study—taught entirely by women, no less—among independent schools across the nation. They can’t help but be pulled in.

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of Pingry’s computer science program can be traced directly to its roots. In 2005, a year out of Hamilton College, he distinctiveness

where he was one of six Computer Science majors in his graduating class, Brian Burkhart was hired as Pingry’s first-ever dedicated computer science faculty member. (Before his arrival, an AP class was available at the School, but the teacher, plucked from the Technology Team, was not a programmer, and merely facilitated a class of self-starters.) The job offer was not exactly the future he had envisioned—a mere four years earlier, as a freshman, he was a curious newbie, taking his first intro class in the field. By his own account, he wasn’t a terribly promising student. But the discipline intrigued him, and he gritted his way through the coursework; he was determined to learn the subject. With a double major in Philosophy, he was by no means a die-hard programming nerd. In fact, he was equally captivated by the writings of Nietzsche and considered pursuing graduate work in Philosophy. A practically-minded advisor suggested he teach for a few years while he figured out what he wanted to do. He could easily have taught English instead, but his computer science skills were more in demand than his humanities skills. After a brief stint teaching computer science at another independent school, he landed at Pingry.

Two years in, when Pingry’s English Department needed an extra teacher, it was only natural that he add English classes to his teaching load.

The following year, he decided to pursue a master’s degree (over the course of five summers) in English at Middlebury’s Bread Loaf School of English. All the while, he continued to grow the School’s computer science program. In 2012, when he was named

Then & Now In 2005, a total of 12 students took the two Upper School computer science classes offered, and only four sat for the A.P. exam.

Today, an average of 85-105 students each year, led by two dedicated Upper School faculty, follow a multi-year program that offers 12 semesters of curriculum (not counting the faculty and classes offered in the Middle School).

2005

12

NOW

4.625

The Pingry bump

The Pingry Factor

3.07 2.97

85-105 12 Computer Science class offerings

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32 Students sitting for the A.P. exam

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PINGRY

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NEW JERSEY

Student Participation

In 2018 (the most recent data available), 3,853 kids in New Jersey took the A.P. exam, with an average score of 3.07 among nonpublic school students.

That same year, 32 Pingry students sat for the exam, with an average score of 4.625. Without Pingry students, the state-wide average among non-public schools would be 2.97.

“What I love most about the program are the teachers.

I can’t think of a single instance where my teachers have not been 100% open to our thoughts and ideas as students. They are always just as excited about them as we are.” —RHEA KAPUR ’21 Director of Educational and Information Technology—a K-12 position—as well as Chair of the Upper School’s Computer Science Department, his net widened, and he was able to build out more classes and hire additional faculty. Last fall, he became Director of Technology and Curricular Initiatives, allowing him to focus even more on strategic curricular planning—not just for the Computer Science Department, but school-wide.

In 2005, a total of 12 students took just two Upper School computer science classes, both taught by Mr. Burkhart. Today, an average of 85-105 students each year, led by two dedicated Upper School faculty (Mr. Burkhart continues to oversee the department), follow a multi-year program that offers 12 semesters of curriculum, not counting the faculty and classes offered in the Middle School (more on that later).

Today, Pingry is one of a handful of schools nationwide offering such a comprehensive, advanced level of computer science coursework. Only technical schools, like Bronx Science, are on par, or provide more.

Mr. Burkhart’s unique background and perspective are as invaluable as ever as he continues to develop the department. Recalling his own struggles, to this day, he feels for the kids for whom the subject doesn’t come easily.

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I’m most proud of is that we attract students to our classes who aren’t computer science superstars,” he says. “This was always a priority of mine from the beginning—I want to teach the computer science kids, yes, but I also want to teach the curious students who just want to learn the discipline. Ultimately, I want computer science at Pingry to be as popular as an English or a history class.”

While the School isn’t quite there yet, it’s getting awfully close. So successful is the department that, while Mr. Burkhart still oversees the curriculum and other initiatives, his in-class teaching presence this past year was not needed. He taught English instead.

To fully appreciate the depth and breadth of Pingry’s computer science offerings—and its Upper School offerings specifically—it helps to understand he thing

The Teachers Brian Burkhart B.A. in Computer Science, Hamilton College; M.S. in English, Middlebury College Specializes in program development, software design, digital humanities

Marie-Pierre Jolly B.S. in Computer Engineering, Université de Technologie de Compiègne, France; Ph.D. in Computer Science, Michigan State University Specializes in machine learning, comp vision

Anupama Menon B.S. in Math, Physics, and Computer Science, Mangalore University, India; M.S. in Computer Science, Fitchburg State University Specializes in information technology, robotics

Aye Thuzar B.S. in Computer Science and Economics; M.S. in Computer Science, Ohio State University; M.S.Ed. University of Pennsylvania Specializes in programming languages and design, formal languages, algorithms

Danielle Mirliss B.A. in Psychology, Rutgers University; M.A. in Psychology, New York University; M.Ed. in Instructional Technology and Media, Teachers College, Columbia University; Ed.D., Instructional Technology and Media, Teachers College, Columbia University Specializes in curriculum development, online learning, immersive learning environments

Alana Zussman B.F.A. in Advertising Design, Syracuse University; M.S. in Art and Design Education, Pratt Institute Specializes in integration of design-thinking into the classroom, using a range of media and technology

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One of 15 members of the Upper School Robotics Team last year, team captain Monica Chan '21 adjusts one of the team's robots in preparation for a competition.

“The whole department has been built upon the enthusiasm of the students. They dive into all sorts of projects.” —BRIAN BURKHART

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that, at most independent schools, the high school program—if one exists—begins with an intro class and stops with the A.P. course. Pingry, however, offers six years’ worth of elective-based curriculum with different entry points for Upper Schoolers, depending on prior experience. (See the sidebar on page 24 for more information about the Middle and Lower School computer science curriculum.) First comes the intro course, broken into two semesters—a survey class in the fall, which teaches basic concepts, and a beginner programming class in the spring. Next—and new for the 2020-21 school year— is an honors class called Computer Science Principles, an “A.P. 1.5,” as it were. The launch of the class will, Mr. Burkhart hopes, help to attract curious students who have taken the intro class, but may not be quite ready for A.P. The familiar, year-long A.P. Computer Science course follows. Then comes the first, post-A.P. year of higher- level coursework, broken into two semesters: Data Structures in the fall and Programming Languages & Design in the spring.

Students who take the year-long Advanced Topics— which they can repeat, as the topics vary from year to year—are doing the work of college sophomores.

A project-based class, Advanced Topics, is rare among independent schools. And at Pingry, it is based solely upon the interests and expertise of the faculty. Mr. Burkhart has taught a class on ethics, about ethical issues inherent in the field of computer science. A native of France, Dr. Marie-Pierre Jolly, who has a doctorate in Computer Science and spent more than 20 years as a senior research engineer at Siemens, taught machine learning last fall.

During the spring semester, Aye Thuzar, a promising student who left a politically unstable Myanmar to attend college in the U.S., followed by master’s degrees in both Computer Science and Mathematics for Secondary Education, taught advanced algorithms. Students who repeat Advanced Topics also have additional teaching assistant duties, and are expected to spend part of class time helping to untangle concepts for their peers.

“Many of the [college] classes I take and most internship experiences revolve around group-based work, and I am lucky to have a wealth of related experience at Pingry to draw upon—my CS projects were fantastic practice in projectbased work.” —ZACHARY KELLER ’17

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after the GirlCode Club’s awardwinning showing at FemmeHacks, Emma—one of four girls in a class of 10—puzzles over a broken code in her A.P. Computer Science class, led by Dr. Jolly. The students’ task? Find out what’s wrong with the code, and fix it. A naive observer would consider it pretty heady material for a junior who, just last year, was sitting in her first computer science class. From a young age, Emma was curious about technology and how things worked, but her interests were equally weighed to the humanities.

She never considered herself a “techie,” she recalls.

But the Middle School’s annual Hour of Code piqued her interest, and then, thanks to that first intro class her sophomore year, she was led down a path she never expected. As a freshman, she joined the GirlCode Club as well as the Student Tech Committee (STC), was selected to Cooper Union’s prestigious Summer STEM Program last summer, and, last school year, she began work with Dr. Mirliss to develop a STEAM Club for Pingry Middle Schoolers. Using technology to pursue her interest in ethical entrepreneurship, this past winter she was named a finalist in the internationally recognized Conrad Spirit of Innovation Challenge for her “VapeEscape” prototype, a vaping detection device that wo w e e k s

The Upper School Curriculum Survey of Computer Science (fall semester) / Intro to Computer Programming (spring semester) Computer Science Principles, Honors A.P. Computer Science Data Structures (fall semester) / Programming Languages & Design (spring semester) Advanced Topics (repeatable, 2019-20 topics were Machine Learning and Advanced Algorithms)

*While the curriculum constitutes more than a four-year program, starting points vary depending on students’ experience.

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The Extracurriculars Pingry’s course load in computer science is robust, to be sure. Equally dynamic are the out-of-class offerings, several of which are student-developed and studentrun. Here's a sampling from the Upper School.

Student Tech Committee (STC) Founded in 2011 by Mr. Burkhart, STC involves Pingry students working on technological advancements around campus, from updating the School’s website to expanding use of its Innovation Space, which now includes workshops by and for students on how to use Computer-Aided Design (CAD) programs.

Bear Repair

Since 2014, the Computer Science Department has hosted a summer internship program, divided into two groups—general tech help and coders. Eight to 10 students in each group work on a variety of projects, from the installation of interactive projectors in classrooms to writing the code and scripts for an internal “event request” system for faculty and staff who need to book rooms.

Launched in 2018 by students—all Apple-Certified Mac Technicians—as an extension of STC’s “Help Desk,” it helps students, faculty, and staff diagnose and repair their pesky computer problems. And it shows that Pingry students are as interested in hardware as software!

CodeQuest An annual coding competition, hosted

by Lockheed Martin; Pingry sent three teams last school year.

Digital Humanities Lab The result of a Humanities IRT that Mr. Burtkhart oversaw this school year, this award-winning project—a suite of digital tools to help students perform literary analysis—was designed and programmed by Julian Lee ’21, Justin Li ’21, and Noah Bergam ’21.

GirlCode A female-only, student-run club that explores a variety of programming and coding initiatives on and off-campus.

Robotics Team Hour of Code All divisions of Pingry observe this annual, international day of coding, usually in early December, which aims to expose all students to a bit of programming fun.

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This school year, 15 Upper School members and 18 Middle School members meet five days a week after school and participate in a variety of regional and even national competitions.

In spring 2019, they qualified for the World Robotics Championships in Detroit.

Independent Research Teams During the 2019-20 school year, Pingry students were engaged in two different computer science-based Independent Research Teams (IRTs): one team examined what kind of neural network structure would optimize problem solving, and another worked to build a “drover,” a drone/rover hybrid, to perform certain tasks.

ILLUSTRATIONS BY FRANK RAMSPOTT, ROUZES AND PRESSUREUA/ISTOCKPHOTO

Alison Lee '20 and Samantha Burak '20.

Summer Internship Program

Research Team (IRT) projects provide additional is paired with an app of her own design to combat sources of wonder and inspiration for Dr. Jolly. As the vaping epidemic. Late this past spring, after yet one example, she cites Rhea Kapur ’21, a passionanother round of (virtual) presentations to a panel of ate computer science student who, like Emma, is industry experts and distinguished judges, she and her a GirlCode and Student Tech Committee member. team won the highest honor in their category, and she Last spring, she participated in an IRT, advised by was named a Pete Conrad Scholar. Icing on the cake: Dr. Jolly, called ShallowMinds. In grossly simplified Her team also won the Global Collaborator Award. layman’s terms, the group examined the structures While Emma sorts out the incomplete code, a of neural networks. On the side, Rhea is teaching screen-saver image of the 1999 film, Pirates of Silicon herself Russian. “The things these students are Valley, fills Dr. Jolly’s white board. A poster showcasdoing and thinking of doing are just amazing. Now I ing “7 Awesome Women of Computer Engineering” feel like I’m rewarded again,” she says, recalling the hangs beside it. In her third year teaching Pingry ennui that set in during her final years at Siemens. students, Dr. Jolly queries Emma and her classmates “When I explain something and they understand and on array lists, loops, recursion, string manipulathey’re able to apply it, it feels good.” tion, autoboxing, instantiation, and concrete versus Dr. Jolly is one of five full-time female computer abstract interfaces. In the late 1980s, when the Apple science and technology faculty between the Basking IIe was still savoring its cutting-edge status, she was Ridge and Short Hills Campuses (see sidebar). But one of four women in her graduating class at the it wasn’t until recently, when they were all sitting Université de Technologie de Compiègne, just north of Paris. After a two-decade career coding, developing, and maintain“We have a lot of freedom as teachers compared ing a complex program—still in use to other private schools. Our culture cares today—for Siemens cardiac MRI scanners, her interest in the work about teacher growth. I can propose new began to wane; she wanted a differclasses that I’m passionate about.” —AYE THUZAR ent challenge. She transitioned to education, and hasn’t looked back. together for a department meeting, that they took At first, more accustomed to her days teaching stock of their gender ratio, an exceptional feat in a Ph.D. students, she admits to having some trouble field that remains dominated by men. “We were lookbringing concepts down to the level of a high schooling at each other, saying, ‘Wait a minute. With the er. She also had to teach herself Java and Python, the exception of the department head, Brian [Burkhart], coding programs used at most schools (at Siemens, we’re all women. This is awesome!’” she recalls. her work was done in C++). But Pingry students, she Even more impressive than a female-only cohort says, are “just amazing.” She is endlessly impressed of computer science teachers leading a dynamic by their eagerness to go above and beyond. In her program of course offerings, is the varied perspecAdvanced Topics class last year, keen to push stutives they bring to their craft, says Ms. Thuzar. “With dents to do more research-oriented work, she had a background in both computer science and the them develop a concept, program it, and write a humanities, Brian [Burkhart] has his own lens. Dr. report on the result. She didn’t care what program Jolly comes from an industry background and has a they coded in or what syntax they used; those skills doctorate; my interest is in creating curriculum. It’s they know already. What she wanted to see was their a really good variety, and ultimately, benefits the stuoriginal work. One of her students, Julian Lee ’21, dents,” she says. [Ms. Thuzar is developing the curwrote a report that impressed her so much that she riculum for the new Computer Science Principles helped him proof another report for submission to a course, due to launch next year.] peer-reviewed journal, Pattern Recognition. Julian And that’s just Upper School faculty. Dr. Danielle had been working on the submission as part of a sepMirliss P ’26, Educational Technology and Innoarate, extracurricular project, so it was pure coincivation Coordinator, who is integrating a variety of dence when Dr. Jolly shared with him that, for many innovative technology into the Middle School curyears while at Siemens, she served as a one of the riculum, has a doctorate in Instructional Technology journal’s reviewers. and Media, with a specialty in online course developServing as an advisor to Independent Senior Projment at the collegiate level. Anupama Menon P ’26, ects (ISPs) and mentoring students’ Independent

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Middle School Computer Science Teacher, previously worked in information technology at Intel and Verizon. And Lower School Technology and Innovation Coordinator Alana Zussman has spent her career figuring out how best to creatively incorporate technology into K-5 curriculum—among many other initiatives, she introduces the littlest Pingrians to the fundamentals of coding.

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department that is unique not simply because of the number and scope of its course offerings, but also thanks to the diverse backgrounds of its faculty, has an energizing effect on students and teachers alike. “We have the academic freedom that I was used to in higher education,” says Dr. Mirliss. “We can integrate technology, teach computer science according to our passions, and take risks because we all love teaching here and we all love the students. We’re committed to making sure the kids are getting the skills they need to be successful in the Upper School and beyond.”

Currently, 40% of students in the School’s computer science classes are girls. While Mr. Burkhart allows that work remains in terms of reaching equal male/female representation, Pingry’s all-female faculty are, without a doubt, a galvanizing force. “At first, I wasn’t even aware of it, but, since becoming a leader of the GirlCode Club and getting more involved with different activities on campus, computer science

it’s hard not to notice. They’re role models for us,” says Emma, who says she has noticed more of her female peers taking computer science classes over the last few years and, in general, getting involved in different activities and clubs, like the Student Tech Committee. “I attribute that increase to them. Seeing women teach your classes—that changes the stereotype and your perspective.” Proof of Pingry’s progress: This past winter, the School was one of only 143 schools nationwide to receive the College Board’s 2019 AP Computer Science Female Diversity Award for attaining student diversity in the AP course.

Also inspiring—for male and female students alike—is the fact that Mr. Burkhart regularly invites graduates, who now hold a variety of jobs in computer science or related fields, back to campus to chat with current students.

As she does nearly every year, Alyssa Baum ’14, a software engineer at Google—the only female on her eight-person team—returned to the Basking Ridge Campus in January to talk with students in the Advanced Topics and Data Structures classes about her experiences in the industry and how she landed her job. A Computer Science major at Brown, she was pleasantly surprised to see that a majority of the students—six of seven total—in Data Structures were girls, a noticeable rise from her previous visits.

She cited the opportunity at Pingry to learn the fundamentals in a small classroom setting as invaluable.

The Younger Generation

A Middle School Robotics Club team member at work.

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lum, which cleverly combines introductory computer science classes with technology that is integrated into other core classes to keep things fun. Cases in point: Mrs. Menon asked her Grade 7 computer science students to create their own ping pong game using Scratch—game design, she says, is coding in disguise, and an easy way to hook kids. Dr. Mirliss worked with Spanish Teacher and Middle School Academic Dean Allen Thomas this past winter to incorporate virtual reality headsets into a Spanish lesson. She also helped Middle School science students use 3D printers to create their own organisms.

Middle School Curriculum Comp Science 6 (Friday course) Computer Science 7 Computer Science 8 (elective)

At the Lower School, Ms. Zussman works with teachers to incorporate design-thinking strategies into existing curriculum. Sure, sometimes that means using augmented reality programs and Scratch Jr., but just as often, it doesn’t entail any technology. “Kids often expect to be using a tool or an app, but I want them to focus on the process first, and then choose the tool that makes sense for what they need to accomplish—and reflect on why they chose it.

It’s not always about an app or an online experience.” In short, she’s partnering with faculty to teach students that it’s ok to experiment, take risks, and ask questions.

Introduction to Game Design Using Unity (Grade 7 Friday course) Clubs: STEAM, Virtual Reality, Robotics Club, Minecraft Club

FRANK RAMSPOTT/ISTOCKPHOTO

Nurturing curiosity and developing foundational skills in the lower grades are critical to the program’s success, according to Mr. Burkhart. Dr. Mirliss and Mrs. Menon are at the helm of a burgeoning Middle School curricu-

NADIA BORMOTOVA/ISTOCKPHOTO

Stereotype Busting During the 2019-20 school year, 40% of the computer science students were girls.

“They’re role models for us . . .

Seeing women teach your classes— that changes the stereotype and your perspective.” —EMMA HUANG ’21

“In college, Computer Science is a popular major, and you can have hundreds of people in an intro class. At Pingry, there were seven of us. That individual attention was formative in helping me to grow and learn.”

Not only is Mr. Burkhart nurturing the department’s alumni network, he’s showing students how interdisciplinary the field can be. Computer science is not only reserved for techies huddled over their problem sets; it can be used by anyone to solve real-world problems.

Zachary Keller ’17 loved taking computer sciences classes at Pingry. Intro to Computer Science as a freshman was followed by the A.P. class, and then two years of Advanced Topics. But he knew he didn’t want to pursue computer science exclusively. A sophomore at Harvard, with an eye toward working in business technology, he has decided to major in Applied Math and Data Science, and says that his experiences taking Pingry’s computer sciences classes have put him in a unique position. “Those classes gave me the confidence and practical skills to take any computer science class in college without being worried about not being a Computer Science major,” he explains. “I have been able to enjoy and benefit from classes that

The Alumni SPOTLIGHT ON ALYSSA BAUM ’14 Currently a software engineer at Google, working specifically on the Google Doc Team, Alyssa Baum ’14 has the distinction of being the Computer Science Department’s first summer intern.

She still remembers spending the better part of the summer coding a script for an event request form in Google, to streamline the process of Pingry faculty and staff reserving rooms and arranging catering and tech set-up for meetings and other events. She also wrote the first script that allowed faculty to populate their class schedules in a Google calendar. But computer science was never on her radar—until her sophomore year, that is, when she took the intro class at the urging of Mr. Burkhart, her adviser. The A.P. class followed in her junior year, and the rest was history. Her senior year, Mr. Burkhart took her to Google in New York City to meet Kevin Proudfoot P ’18, ’22, the Executive Creative Director of Creative Lab. It was a defining moment for her, she says. “We talked to a Google Classroom team, which I ended up working on several summers later as a college intern. The experience showed me comp science outside of a classroom, and the things I could do with a degree in the field. I’d been planning to major in it in college, but that day solidified it for me.”

typical non-CS majors never take.” Echoing Mr. Burkhart’s pedagogical philosophy, he adds, “These classes have formed an important part of my education and are becoming increasingly necessary for non-CS majors to take, because programming and computer design will surround us regardless of the industry we pursue.”

Mr. Burkhart recalls another alumni campus visit a few years ago. Amol Kapoor ’14, currently working at Google in California, and Sydney Li ’13, a staff technologist at Electronic Frontier Foundation, which seeks to protect civil liberties on the Internet, addressed his Advanced Topics class.

Both are former Google interns who have very different impressions of the experience. “They shared with the class the things they are most passionate about, which eventually led to a spirited debate on the potential and merits of machine learning, which Amol believes is the future of computing, but Sydney feels is inherently flawed,” Mr. Burkhart recalls. The students were captivated. When class ended, he had to run to a meeting. He returned to his office 30 minutes later only to find the debate had relocated there. “I found Amol and Sydney had taken over my office and were explaining neural nets to a rapt audience of seven students. They were writing furiously on the glass board—it looked like something out of the movie A Beautiful Mind.”

Emma has also enjoyed the visits from Pingry’s computer science alumni. Chances are pretty good that she, too, will return at some point in the future to address students. And when that day comes, she may very well speak to how the depth of the School’s computer science program, and its related extracurriculars, served as an unexpected breeding ground for her varied interests, from coding and app development to understanding the human experience in technology. “It’s a field where you can be interdisciplinary and explore. I like to use computer science and technology as a springboard to execute whatever ideas I have. Pingry’s classes have really changed the way I see things,” she says.

“I’m so grateful that I’ve had all these opportunities, and I’m very happy to have taken that first step in the intro class my sophomore year. All of these experiences have led me to where I am now, with so many great pursuits to consider.”

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hen two Pingry Upper Schoolers approached him in the O’Connor Board Room last November, their admiration was visible—palpable, even. Andrew Goldstein ’92, a hand-picked member of Robert Mueller’s Special Counsel investigation and former Chief of the Public Corruption Unit at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, had just shared weighty remarks for the School’s annual John Hanly Lecture on Ethics and Morality. Other students, faculty, and staff, who made their way to the large conference room to chat with him afterwards, had dispersed.

The boys took the opportunity to introduce themselves. Mr. Goldstein immediately remembered their father, whom he had worked with years before, and was attentive and jovial in exchanging pleasantries. Having just months earlier concluded a nearly two-year federal probe, amidst roiling media fanfare, into Russian interference in the 2016 election, he could be forgiven for lackluster repartee with teenagers. But he was on.

His ease with students can be traced back to the late 1990s, just after his graduation from Princeton, when then-Headmaster John Hanly invited him back to Pingry to teach AP Government. One of his favorite classes, it was taught by one of his favorite teachers, and mentors, Joe LaValley, who had died the year before. Returning to his alma mater to lead the class was an honor, he recalls. Mr. Goldstein stayed at Pingry for three years—his final year, at Mr. Hanly’s invitation, he became Dean of Students—until a summer internship at Time magazine led him down a different path.

On the following pages, a Q&A that reveals a bit of that journey— from former Pingry varsity athlete, Peer Leader, and Vital Signs writer, to a high-profile federal prosecutor and central figure in one of modern America’s most tumultuous political events.

Andrew Goldstein ’92 on Storytelling, Respect, and the Merits of Not Always Pleasing Others 26

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“You can do a lot of good as a journalist by exposing wrongdoing, in the same way you can as a prosecutor.”

Your career trajectory—Pingry teacher, investigative journalist, and attorney—is a unique one.

Do you see a thread that connects these three professions? Without question, the skills that I thought

A February 2019 New York Times profile of you, detailing your role as one of Mr. Mueller’s lead prosecutors, states that you are “known for [your] non-confrontational personality and cautious approach to prosecutions.” Do you agree with this characterization? If so, to what do you attribute your measured approach, in an era that seems to exemplify the opposite? I would prefer “thoughtful”

made a good teacher translated extremely well to journalism, which then translated extremely well to “cautious.” In a witness interview, I am not a screamer. to the law. As a teacher, the most important thing I don’t yell at people. I think a better way to have people you can do is to find a concept or set of facts that are answer your questions—and answer them truthfully—is complicated or important for a particular reason to ask focused, good questions and have the ability to ask and spend time preparing for class by asking, ‘What follow-ups or confront them with information, in a way is the best way to communicate what I’m trying to where you’re always talking respectfully. The decisions teach?’ This is exactly what you do as a good journalthat prosecutors make are very important and can have a ist, though your audience is different—get the facts, huge impact—you can’t let that paralyze report the story, and ask, ‘What you, but you do want to take the time to is the best way to tell the story?’ make sure that what you’re doing is the There is an art to doing that. The “The Honor Code is the right thing. best prosecutors and defense lawyers are also good storytellers, the School’s ‘secret sauce’ What was the greatest lesson you ones who can get out of the jargon ... students are trusted learned at Pingry, either as a student and communicate the story.

After three years at Time, what made you decide to leave journalism to pursue law school? At

to make important decisions on their own while being given the tools and incentives to make the right decisions.

It’s on you, there’s nobody watching you.”

or teacher, that you have carried with you throughout your career? The

best way to teach students and deal with your friends and kids is to treat people with trust and respect, where Time, I was sent to Memphis to the people you’re talking to and interreport a story about a corrupt acting with want to live up to it. Think daycare system. They created a of me, as a 24-year-old, becoming Dean voucher system that gave daycare of Students. You could think of that as operators thousands of dollars for administrative malpractice at a school each kid they took in, with almost —SPEAKING AT THE JOHN HANLY like Pingry. But John Hanly did that no oversight. Politically connected LECTURE ON ETHICS AND MORALITY because he knew that, as a young faculty businessmen—with no childcare member, I could connect with the stuexperience—were given licenses dents in a particular way. He also had enormous trust in to house hundreds of kids, some in formerly closed me that I would live up to that responsibility. I was happy department stores that, overnight, became giant to have been given that assignment. It made me want to childcare facilities. The system was rife with corrupearn the respect and responsibility that he gave me. tion. And there was a tragic result: At least three kids died from being left in vans in the heat. As a journalWhen you presented this past school year’s Hanly Lecist, I was glad to be able to expose some of what was ture on Ethics and Morality, you spoke to students about happening in my writing. But I also knew there was a the importance of striving to get their motivations right, criminal investigation going on, and the experience setting aside what is selfish in favor of the principles made me decide that I could do more good as a prosthey want to base their decisions on. What advice would ecutor. By investigating corruption and tragedies you give when others are not operating from an equal such as this—with the tools of a prosecutor—I could place of good? In the end, you need to be driven by your try to bring people who abuse the public trust to own moral compass. I’ve been lucky enough to operate in justice and expose wrongdoing in a more substantial offices—the Special Counsel and U.S. Attorney’s Office— way. That was the defining moment for me.

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For more about Mr. Goldstein’s fall visit to the Basking Ridge Campus, addressing students, faculty, and staff at the annual John Hanly Lecture on Ethics and Morality, visit pingry.org/extras.

where your motivation to do the right thing is predominant and shared by the office. If you think that somebody is being driven by other factors, you can raise those concerns. The leadership of both of those offices would never tolerate that. I had the luxury of working in environments where we were collaboratively trying to do the right thing.

I recognize that not every workplace is the same way. But students should try to find environments where it is part of their job to do the right thing.

clients. I do think, if I had the opportunity to go back into public service or run an investigation for the government in a particular way, that would be something I would strongly consider.

Any big-picture takeaways from your work on the Mueller investigation that you would like to share?

What’s your single best piece of life advice for a Pingry student? Don’t compromise. Use your talents to advance

It was a terrific experience for me to be a part of. I think the world of the group that we had and of Robert Mueller. What was so rewarding about it was that we really were, on a daily basis, just trying to do what’s right, and do it quickly. It was important to the country that we do things as quickly as possible and have 100% downthe-line integrity with everything we did. To do all of that in the middle of a storm, where people on the left had wildly unrealistic expectations of what prosecutors can and should do, and people on the right were accusing us of all kinds of bias that we didn’t have . . . it was, in some ways, very rewarding to be in an office where we could tune that out and make decisions based on the merits of the case.

Any thoughts about returning to the classroom?

Yes, absolutely. I hope at some point to teach trial practice. I guest-taught a class at Penn Law on corruption law this past winter. I love teaching.

things that you believe in, because that will give you the personal rewards that will make your life worth living.

The thing that you worry about for a school like Pingry, where students have been pleasing others in a lot of what they do, is that they will make decisions after Pingry that are tilted by what they think is expected of them, or by money. The best way to live a life that you enjoy is for the thing you’re spending the most time doing—your job—to be something you believe in.

You have accomplished a great deal since your early years teaching at Pingry. Is there anything left you’d like to achieve or experience? I’m

working at a really terrific law firm now [Cooley LLP] that also does great pro bono work and represents a lot of really interesting and important

Andrew Goldstein '92, his wife Julie Rawe, and their daughters on the Basking Ridge Campus.

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16 Scenes of Remote Learning and How COVID-19 Touched the Pingry Community

#Big Blue Bond W

hen the school day ended on Friday, March 6, and Pingry students, faculty, and staff departed for Spring Break, no one could have imagined what would happen next. With the COVID-19 global pandemic worsening, long-awaited athletics and Global Field Studies Programs scheduled over break were cancelled. Following state and federal public health guidance, on March 12, Head of School Matt Levinson P ’21 informed students, their families, and faculty and staff that, after the two weeks off, they would not be returning to campuses for at least three weeks. Teachers, already preparing for a possible school closure, immersed themselves in developing remote learning programs for their students, with extraordinary support from the Technology Department. Over 1,100 Pingry students, from Kindergartners to celebrating seniors, took to their laptops. Then, on Monday, May 4, Governor Murphy announced New Jersey schools would not reopen for the remainder of the academic year. For the first time in the School’s 159-year history, Pingry’s campuses faced a long-term closure.

And yet, in its new, virtual form, school continued. Pingry persisted. A school as old as ours—whose founding, in 1861, coincided with the start of the Civil War—is intimately acquainted with historical challenge, and survival. There was World War I, followed closely by the Spanish influenza outbreak, forcing the School to close for a month in the fall of 1918. Then came the Great Depression. During World War II, Pingry accelerated its school year to allow students, many of whom were subsequently lost, to join American troops. A global health pandemic, while a vastly different battle, is yet another challenge for the School to face, head-on.

From a daily buffet of virtual classes, clubs, and Advisory to “remote” Student Body Government elections, fitness challenges, a Lower School-wide reading competition, and even a virtual Commencement celebration, Pingry is doing just that—crafting a remote educational program that, by its very nature, epitomizes experiential learning and embraces cutting-edge pedagogy in an interconnected, if not always in-person, educational environment. As Mr. Levinson reassured faculty and staff during a videoconference in May, “We will get through this. We are starting a new chapter in Pingry’s history.”

In the following pages, we offer a snapshot of remote learning “scenes” between March and May 2020. They are at times serious, at times humorous, at times mundane, and yet all testament to the School’s nearly two centuries of fortitude, community, and resolve.

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In the early days of remote learning, faculty and staff from every division expressed their feelings for their students.

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“This experience taught me more about empathy than anything else.”

—MARIEL SANDER ’16 IN THE NEW YORK TIMES

Mariel Sander ’16 was profiled in a New York Times article that detailed her month-long work in a hospital morgue—doing her part to help during the pandemic.

While visits to college campuses were on hold this past spring, making final decisions difficult for seniors, the College Counseling Office and Alumni Relations Team worked together to give students an alternate opportunity: They gathered more than 150 alumni in college to connect with Pingry seniors to answer questions about their schools.

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“Before this pandemic, my plan was to actually visit USC only if I got admitted into the school because first, I was not that confident I was going to get in and second, it is very far to travel.

So, I have never visited the college I am going to attend, which scared me at first, but the alumni network set up by Pingry helped so much and allowed me to feel more comfortable. I spoke to Abby Beckmen ’19, who attended USC in the fall as a newly admitted freshman. The main concept we talked about was the freshman residence halls. Obviously, I found a lot of information online, but actually hearing from someone who stayed in the hall helped a lot. Through this conversation, she not only told me about the hall she stayed at, New North, but had a lot of information on the other halls from her friends as well. The conversation was extremely helpful and actually influenced me to fill out the Housing Application for USC as soon as possible, to ensure myself a spot.” —RAYMOND FLUET ’20

“Through my experiences in EMS during this pandemic, I have come to realize how important it is to do whatever I can to help my community. If I did not have EMS, I would have been brought back to that helpless feeling [of not being able to aid others] from years ago.

But now, I no longer feel helpless. My actions actually have an impact and I know what to do.” —HANNAH GUGLIN ’20 32

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Hannah Guglin ’20, an EMT for the Martinsville Rescue Squad.

5 At the request of Boys’ Varsity Lacrosse Head Coach Mike Webster P ’24, ’27, ’27, former boys’ varsity lacrosse players provided training tips for current Pingry players. “I stated how sorry I was that their NCAA seasons were cut short . . . and I asked them to help my current players by submitting a short video of them sharing a small drill or skill. I wished to share this with my Middle and Upper School players to help them get through this difficult time. Perhaps the videos would inspire them to keep practicing on their own. I have been involved with lacrosse alumni my whole career at Pingry, as I want players to continue to support the program, and this is just one of those small ways that they did.”

Kindergarten-Grade 2 Science Teacher Heather Smith P ’16 based her remote learning lessons on the outdoors— which is exactly where she would take students if everyone were together at school. “This is the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, and I wanted to be sure the youngest students understood the significance of this special day and how important nature is, and how we use it in so many different ways, even for art,” she explains. “So, I charged them with many outdoor tasks that encouraged them to pay close attention to nature.” For the first assignment, students created the word “NATURE” from natural objects; for the second, they made an object.

6 Austin Chang ’16 (Swarthmore College ’20) demonstrating a drill for upper body shooting mechanics.

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Dr. Scott Halpern ’91 wrote a column for Newsweek on the choices facing health care workers and patients.

“There are, of course, key differences between these underlying realities of health care and what COVID-19 has forced us to confront.

In less trying times, we work hard to narrow the gaps between these realities and our ideals, whereas in crises we have no choice but to make more blatant tradeoffs with far more dire consequences. But as we face the tragic choices that now confront us, it helps to keep these longer-standing imperfections of health care top of mind. Because the lessons we’ve already learned point to principles that, if broadly adopted in crisis, should help minimize the harms of COVID to the American population.”

—BIOETHICIST DR. SCOTT HALPERN ’91 IN NEWSWEEK

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Drama Production Designer Joe Napolitano created a series of videos for Middle School theater tech students during remote learning, including one about building to scale. He sought to translate designthinking ideas into tangible assignments, creating handson activities that students could complete with limited materials.

A screenshot from Drama Production Designer Joe Napolitano’s lesson on building to scale.

Prior to Spring Break, Middle School Math Teacher Lisa Hartmann’s students were learning about linear and nonlinear systems of equations, and were introduced to equations for circles. During online lessons, they applied algebraic methods to solve systems that involved circles and parabolas. “As a bonus activity to get students to experiment with the equations for circles,” she says, “I sent them a graph of myself without glasses (with the equations visible). The students created a variety of new frames in their own copies of the graph.”

While studying systems of linear and nonlinear equations, Middle School Math Teacher Lisa Hartmann challenged her Math 3Y class to add her glasses to this graphical image.

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“Before, I just saw it on the news. It becomes much more real when I am the one with the plastic shield on my face, looking at someone who is struggling to breathe.

It’s a serious moment.”

10 Chris Browne ’16 was profiled on Hamilton College’s website in April to recognize his work as an EMT who volunteers on COVID-19 calls in his home community of Harding Township.

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Painting and Art Fundamentals students were given the assignment to “recreate” well-known paintings by master artists while keeping the composition and cropping as similar as possible to the original.

top to bottom: Isiah Simon ’20 posing as René Magritte’s The Son of Man. Maya Khan ’23 recreated Whistler’s Mother.

Olivia Telemaque ’22 as Pablo Picasso’s The Absinthe Drinker.

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“As tutors, we are not only able to help the Middle Schoolers succeed in their remote classes, but we are able to act as mentors and help prepare them for the Upper School. We understand that this is a hard time for parents with younger children, which is why it is comforting to know that something positive will come out of this unfortunate time. Although I do not believe I would have thought to create this program were it not for remote learning, I plan to continue it when we all return to campus, as it is a great experience for not only the Middle School students, but the Upper Schoolers involved as well.” —OLIVIA GALLUCCI ’22, ONE OF 12 UPPER SCHOOL STUDENTS WHO VOLUNTEERED TO TUTOR MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS DURING REMOTE LEARNING

Despite the quiet campuses, Facilities Team members have remained busy on both campuses, working on outside projects and maintaining the site. In particular, Grounds Supervisor Neil Spagnuolo, Building Trades Supervisor Bobby Wulff, and Groundskeeper David Sandorse spent a great deal of time and effort installing a new, permanent batting cage by Reese Williams Field.

Facilities Technician Jenn Johnston at work on the Short Hills Campus.

As part of community and civic engagement, students have been sending “Thank You” cards to Pingry’s community partners: Samaritan Homeless Interim Program (SHIP), Bridges, the Community Food Bank, and America’s Grow a Row.

Students, faculty, and staff were offered numerous physical challenges and virtual fitness classes during remote learning, from HIIT (High-Intensity Interval Training) to yoga to the Middle School's Amazing Race Across America, as part of comprehensive well-being offerings coordinated by the Community Well-being Collaborative (CWbC) and updated regularly at pingry.org/well-being.

“Easter Sunday was my son Reihan Obaray’s 8th birthday.

It’s been hard to celebrate our kids’ birthdays these days. If he was in school, he would celebrate his birthday with his friends, and they would each share what they loved about him in class, and the teacher would record it on a poster and hang [it] up on the classroom wall. His second-grade teacher, Mrs. Driscoll, had everyone in the class share their thoughts in a Zoom call, she recorded it on a poster, and hand delivered it to our house and taped it to our front door to ensure he felt special even though we are not together.

The care our teachers have for our students never ceases to amaze me!” —RUPAL OBARAY P ’27, ’30 THE PINGRY REVIEW | SUMMER 2020

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VECTOROVICH/ISTOCKPHOTO

12 13 14 15 16

Visit pingry.org/extras for a host of news articles focused on the community during remote learning and COVID-19.

Athletics BIG BLUE HIGHLIGHTS

For the second year in a row, Big Blue captured the Skyland Cup Championship title; the team was also named Skyland Conference Champions. En route to a 14-3-3 season, Eric Bush ’21 and Jared Kordonsky ’21 both reached 100 career points.

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For more details on the Winter 2019–20 season, see pingry.org/bigblueroundup

<< Renée Chan ’20 won the New Jersey High School Squash Championships, and both the Girls’ and Boys’ Varsity Squash Teams placed an impressive 12th in the nation at the U.S. Squash High School Team Championships. (Pictured here, Olivia Hung ’22.)

< The Boys’ Varsity Basketball Team finished its season as Skyland Conference Mountain Division Champions.

Magic 13—that was the number of consecutive state titles the Boys’ Varsity Swim Team secured, the most ever in state history.

Helped by junior Matthew Fallon, who broke two national—yes, national—records during the season (in the 200-meter IM, 2:00.37, and the 100-meter breaststroke, 1:01.04), the team also defended its conference, county, and Prep Championship titles.

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Athletics BIG BLUE HIGHLIGHTS

top right:

In her final winter track season, pole vaulter Caroline Dannenbaum ’20 (pictured here with Pingry’s pole vaulting coach Mark Cortazzo P ‘15, ‘16) earned gold for the second year in a row at the NJSIAA Meet of Champions, just a week after winning the event at the Non-Public A Indoor Track & Field Championships. For her achievements, she earned nj.com’s “Winter Track & Field Athlete of the Year” honor. above: Henry Wood ’21 placed second in the 800-meter run at the NJSIAA Non-Public A Championships; at the Meet of Champions, he broke the school record, running 1:56.68.

> After a first-place finish in the District 18 Wrestling Tournament, Jack Martin ’22 advanced to the quarterfinal round of the Region 5 Tournament.

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A record six Big Blue skiers qualified for the NJISRA Race of Champions—Matt Dispenza ’20, Peter McClearn ’20, Tobey Jay ’22, Ann-Sophie Kraemer ’23, Camille Collins ’23, and Rosemary Collins ’21, who had a podium finish in second. The girls’ team finished as 2019-20 Non-Public Champions.

> After a nail-biting, tie-breaker match, Jessica Lin ’21 defended her epée title by taking gold at the NJSIAA Individual Fencing Tournament, and earned the nj.com “Girls Fencer of the Year” honor. Her sister and teammate, Katie Lin ’23, tied for third, while, in foil, Alison Lee ’20 and Zala Bahn ’23 placed fifth and ninth, respectively—four individual fencers in the Top 10 was the culminating achievement of one of the team’s best seasons in program history.

(Pictured: Katie Lin ’23, Ameera Ebrahim ’21, Alexa Drovetsky ’23, and Jamie Wang ’20.)

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Athletics

Q&A WITH THOMAS ZUSI ’16

From Midfielder to Officer A three-year letter-winner in both lacrosse and soccer at Pingry, Thomas Zusi’s senior year was a true culmination of his work and commitment as a student-athlete. He led the Boys’ Varsity Lacrosse Team to its second straight Non-Public B (NPB) state title and helped it advance to the Tournament of Champions (TOC) finals for the first time in the program’s more than 60-year history. He was also named a High School Lacrosse All-American, earning All-State and All-Conference honors as a midfielder. An equally successful collegiate career at Washington & Lee University, where he helped The Generals win the Old Dominion Athletic Conference title his junior year, was cut short this past spring by the COVID19 pandemic. But, as a member of the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) throughout college, and now, upon graduation, a freshly Commissioned Officer in the U.S. Army, he is clear-eyed about his experiences, his successes, and his desire to give back. Here, he shares a few Pingry memories, as well as what’s next.

Having it cut short was definitely painful.

People say to play each game like it could be your last, and all of the seniors on our team really know what that means now.

It is a sharp reminder to appreciate every moment you have doing the things you love. On a different note, this catastrophe has also brought out a lot of good in the different communities that I have been lucky enough to be involved in. Coach Webster [Head Coach of Pingry’s Boys’ Varsity Lacrosse Team] reached out to me when he heard about my season ending to check in and talk, and set

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WASHINGTON & LEE ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS

First, given the havoc that COVID-19 has wrought on athletics—high school, collegiate, and professional teams alike— what was it like to learn you couldn’t close out your senior season of play?

“The positivity and community outreach that I have felt since the beginning of social distancing have been inspiring and uplifting.”

up a group chat with current Pingry alumni playing lacrosse in college. We each recorded a video of ourselves teaching a drill that we like to pass along to the current players, for practicing while in isolation. The positivity and community outreach that I have felt since the beginning of social distancing have been inspiring and uplifting, and I hope that these videos help fuel that attitude, and pass it along to younger players throughout these unprecedented times.

Looking back on the great success of your senior season at Pingry four years ago, what did it all feel like?

Winning the NPB state championship my senior year was one of the best moments in my career. I was really close with a lot of the seniors and juniors on the team, and my brother [Jamie ’18, now playing lacrosse for the University of Pennsylvania] was on the team with me. Being able to hold the trophy with him was really cool. We lost to Delbarton in the TOC finals, but the thing I remember most about that game wasn’t the outcome—it was how full the stands were, how many people came out. Coach Fahey [Associate Head Coach of the Boys’ Varsity Soccer Team] was reaching out to alumni to come watch; guys I played with my freshman year were all at the game. Everyone came back. To this day, even in all my college games, that TOC final at Kean University was the biggest crowd I’ve ever played for.

Four years playing collegiate lacrosse is filled with excitement, but was there anything you missed about competing for Big Blue? I missed the relationships that I had

with the players on the soccer and lacrosse teams, and my coaches and teachers asking me about my season. Everyone was involved to an extent that I could walk into the office of Coach Bugliari [Head Coach of the Boys’ Varsity Soccer Team] anytime and talk to him about my schoolwork, my day, my lacrosse. Coming back to Pingry now, I still visit Coach Webster and Coach Bugliari, and they’re still genuinely interested in how and what I’m doing. I still get birthday text messages from Coach Webster. That’s something that’s really special. It’s a bigger scale in college; it’s not as tight-knit. I was very close with my teammates and the people involved in the lacrosse program, but athletics are more of an “other life” as opposed to as interconnected to school life as it is at Pingry.

What’s the single greatest lesson you learned as a student-athlete at Pingry that you took with you to Washington & Lee? How to manage my time and prioritize all

the different aspects of my life. At Pingry, I was interested

in athletics and soccer and lacrosse, but I was also really interested in pottery. Balancing all of those on top of school work—making a priorities list—was one of the biggest lessons Pingry taught me. That helped me coming into college, where I had to balance my school work with lacrosse, ROTC commitments, and time to have a social life. My ROTC commitments varied each year, but every week I had an hour-long class on military science or a “lab” on rifle shooting or soldiering tasks, for example.

We had physical training for an hour-and-a-half twice a week. Every few weekends, we would do four to six hours of training exercises at Virginia Military Institute, which is just down the street from Washington & Lee. And once a semester, we went into the woods for five days over a weekend for field training exercises. We drew rifles, performed road marches, slept on the ground, and practiced security drills. There were some cold nights, I must say!

What led to your decision to pursue ROTC in college?

My junior year of high school, my brother and I talked a lot about joining the military. We talked about how we’ve grown up in a relatively wealthy area, how we’ve gotten the chance to go to Pingry. We wanted to pay back and do our part, to an extent. We started getting more serious about training and working out and working towards that goal. I was looking at West Point and the Naval Academy my senior year, but I knew I wanted to play lacrosse in college. I was trying very hard to go to either one, but it didn’t work out in terms of athletics. I landed on Washington & Lee and am very glad I did. I had the best of all worlds—I was able to do ROTC, play lacrosse, join a fraternity, and have a meaningful college experience.

You graduated in May are now a Commissioned Officer in the U.S. Army. What’s next, and what are you most excited about? This summer, I report to Fort Benning for four

months of Basic Officers Leaders Course. After I graduate, I will go on to training specific to my branch, which is armor. Then I’ll find out where I’ll be stationed. I owe four years of active duty service and four years of reserve.

I’m really excited to get to travel a bit and meet a lot of new and different people from all over the place. Growing up in New Jersey, you tend to meet people of similar backgrounds, but getting to meet people who didn’t go to college or who have different inspirations for why they joined the Army is something that appealed to me. I’m looking forward to that new perspective.

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On the Arts DRAMA/DANCE

An accomplished dancer and choreographer, 30-year faculty member Patricia Wheeler teaches drama and dance courses at Pingry, choreographs the annual Upper School Musical, and directs the annual Middle School Musical.

“[Drama and dance] are intricately connected. All actors should be able to dance, and all dancers should be able to act,” she says. “In musical theater, if you feel strongly about something, you speak it as a monologue. If you feel more strongly about it, you start singing, but if you feel so passionately about it that speaking and singing can’t contain it, then you dance— it’s a more heightened form of expressing emotion.”

To read Ms. Wheeler’s full profile, and the profiles of many other Pingry artists, visit pingry.org/artists.

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VISUAL ARTS

2019 ACHIEVEMENT IN THE ARTS AWARD WINNER Pingry presents this award to distinguished Pingry graduates or former teachers in recognition of the contributions they have made to artistic pursuits throughout their careers.

Steven Henry ’81

Steven Henry ’81 at Pingry’s 2019 New York City Community Reception, which he hosted at the Paula Cooper Gallery.

For 22 years, Mr. Henry has been Gallery Director for the renowned Paula Cooper Gallery in New York City, which opened its doors in 1968 and has remained focused on—but not limited to—conceptual and minimal art. “For me, what has been the [gallery’s] underlying and connecting link has been this belief in the ‘radical,’ and however one defines that [word] within the context and times,” he said in a 2018 interview for the international arts organization Art Basel.

From 1990-1997, Mr. Henry served as Associate Director at the Margo Leavin Gallery in Los Angeles, and prior to that, he worked at the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York City and the Dallas Museum of Art in Texas. Active in the New York City arts community, he is a member of the Board of Directors of the Little Opera Theatre of New York, is a founding member of the Board of Directors of the Inner City Foundation, and, for several years, served on the Board of the Harlem School of the Arts. Mr. Henry received Bachelor of Arts degrees in both Art History and Political Science from Northwestern University and both an M.B.A. and a Masters in Arts Administration from Southern Methodist University.

“What’s been remarkable has been the consistency of vision—the commitment to artists, and advocacy of all stripes and kinds [of artists] . . . For me, what has been the [gallery’s] underlying and connecting link has been this belief in the ‘radical,’ and however one defines that [word] within the context and times.”

—STEVEN HENRY ’81 IN A 2018 INTERVIEW FOR ART BASEL’S MEET THE GALLERISTS VIDEO SERIES, WHEN THE PAULA COOPER GALLERY CELEBRATED ITS 50TH ANNIVERSARY

editor ’ s note :

Mr. Henry was scheduled to be honored in an annual ceremony, held on the Basking Ridge Campus every spring. Because that event was postponed, we present this tribute and plan to honor his future campus visit.

Mr. Henry and the Paula Cooper Gallery have been generous to Pingry through their time and philanthropy; visual arts students have visited the gallery for walking tours.

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On the Arts MUSIC/DRAMA

More than 50 students brought audiences back to the roaring ’20s when Pingry’s Drama and Music Departments joined forces for the student edition of Broadway’s longest-running American musical, Kander and Ebb’s Chicago.

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Music Behind the Musical Mostly unseen, but very much heard, pit musicians for the Winter Musical include students and faculty. For Chicago: Student Edition, the ensemble included four student musicians: Sanford Friedman ’21 (bass), Justin Li ’21 (piano), Helen Liu ’21 (keyboard), and Asher Matthias ’23, who learned the trombone for this production even though his primary instrument is French horn (to make for an easier transition from his familiarity with a valved instrument, he chose valve trombone instead of slide trombone).

The request to play trombone came from Music Teacher Jay Winston: The score contains two trombone parts and, as Mr. Winston says, “The quality of the French horn’s sound doesn’t fit in quite as well with the sound of a 1920s jazz ensemble.” How do the students describe the experience of playing “out of sight” and coordinating with the singers?

“The biggest challenge of playing offstage was being unable to coordinate directly with the actors. However, our conductor/1st piano, [Music Department Chair] Dr. [Andrew] Moore, could see most of the stage from where he was sitting and was able to direct us and play at the same time.”

“The set was actually designed so that Dr. Moore, Helen, and I were visible through a gate from most angles, which allowed for some lighthearted interaction between the orchestra and the actors.

For example, Roxy would flirt with me in the pit before going on stage, and actors looked back at us and asked for exit music.”

—HELEN LIU ’21 (pictured, top right)

—JUSTIN LI ’21

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True Blue Spotlight

Q&A WITH MEMBERS OF PINGRY’S TRUE BLUE SOCIETY

Christine Guo ’22, Ning Zhang, Vincent Guo, and Jennifer Guo ’14.

Vincent Guo P ’14, ’22 What inspires you about Pingry today?

What inspires me most about Pingry is its core values.

Our older daughter started at Pingry back in 2001 as a Kindergartener, and our younger daughter is a rising junior here. During the many years we’ve been with the School, we’ve seen it evolve to keep up with the pace of the competitive educational landscape. We’ve witnessed new courses, new methods of teaching, and greater emphasis on incorporating technology into the curriculum. In the midst of all this change, however, Pingry keeps the important aspects the same. The fundamentals, such as the Honor Code and the tireless commitment to students, have been an integral part of the Pingry education since the very first day.

What has been your proudest moment as a Pingry parent?

There have been many proud moments for me. Pingry is a place where you see students excel every day, whether in academics, arts, or athletics.

One of the most memorable moments for me was in 2013, watching my daughter Jennifer (’14) and her partner Avery 48

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[Hatfield ’14] win their first doubles match to clinch the Somerset County Tournament title for Pingry Girls Tennis. The win was really a culmination of all the effort they put in over the course of many seasons, and it was impressive to see how much they had grown to get to this point. We felt lucky, as parents, to be a part of that journey, and watch the team rally together for the win.

What most excites you about our community?

What makes our community stand out is the collective commitment to Pingry. It’s the thread that connects all parts of the School: students, faculty, alumni, and parents.

The students work hard every day toward achieving their goals, and our community is exceptionally dedicated to supporting them.

I still remember late one evening during Spring Break, we sent a question to one of the faculty. I didn’t expect a quick response TRUE BLUE SOCIETY given the circumstances, but in just a few hours they had emailed back a very detailed Those who have explanation. We were touched by the faculgiven to The Pingry ty’s compassion. For me, it highlighted the Fund for 10 or more extent to which Pingry teachers care about consecutive years the students and the broader community.

Thank You for Coming Together Even When We Were Apart!

We are so grateful for the generosity and enthusiasm with which students, alumni, parents, grandparents, and friends have supported the 2020 Pingry Fund. Pingry is fortunate to have a committed and generous community whose participation in The Pingry Fund has proven to be an invaluable resource in the School’s response to the challenge of remote learning—allowing the School the flexibility to harness the collective talents and skills of the entire community to reimagine and redesign what the Pingry experience can be when we are not physically together.

For more information or to make a Pingry Fund gift, visit pingry.org/give or contact Jane Hoffman ’94, P ’26, Director of Annual Giving and Community Engagement, at jhoffman@pingry.org or 908-647-5555, ext. 1222.

Your support is greatly appreciated!

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Reunion 2020 Pingry produced a day of virtual programming for this year’s Reunion that celebrated classes ending in 0 and 5. The images here capture much of the programming—still available for viewing at pingry.org/reunion, the day’s offerings also included a Hillside Campus Experience Tour with Special Assistant to the Head of School Miller Bugliari ’52, P ’86, ’90, ’97, GP ’20, ’24 and a tribute to outgoing four-year PAA (Pingry Alumni Association) President Woody Weldon ’91, P ’23.

While virtually connecting with 55+ classmates and teachers wasn’t what we envisioned initially as planners, it went without a hitch and we had a great time. The Zoom Reunion renewed old bonds and forged new ones. My nine years at Pingry with these peers and teachers were among the most special and treasured of my adolescence. Forty years later, I still feel the same way as Pingry remains a special place with wonderful people. I look forward to seeing [everyone] and renewing these friendships in person when we can gather again, hopefully in the not-too-distant future.” —HERB GRICE ’80

New Members of the Pingry Athletics Hall of Fame Liam Griff ’04

A terrific all-around athlete, Liam earned eight varsity letters on the way to becoming a three-sport captain for Big Blue (soccer, basketball, and lacrosse). In addition to being a member of the 1,000 point club in basketball, Liam shattered—and in some cases still holds—multiple scoring records in lacrosse: career goals (131), goals in one season (70), and goals as a junior (49). With 151 career points, Liam was First Team All-State and was also named a First Team All-American. He went on to play four years of varsity lacrosse and three years of junior varsity basketball at Harvard.

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Katie Scott Old ’99

One of the best players in the history of the Pingry field hockey program, Katie was an incredible presence at center midfield because of her combination of talent, height (5’9”), speed, intensity, and winning attitude. She was a fouryear starter who served as a senior captain and collected multiple All-American, All-State, and “Player of the Year” honors. After helping lead Pingry to a record of 66-8-6—and after earning an additional four varsity letters in lacrosse!— Katie continued her field hockey career at Harvard. In four years with the Crimson, she again served as a senior captain while also garnering multiple First Team All-Ivy League honors and being named a Regional All-American.

Coach Mike Richardson

Started the Pingry girls’ soccer program as a club team in the 1970s and went on to serve as its first and longtime varsity coach beginning in the fall of 1976.

halloffame.pingry.org

You can visit the Pingry Athletics Hall of Fame to search for the citation of every individual and team inductee.

You can also search the database for information on over 9,000 Pingry athletes and over 1,600 Big Blue teams.

The number of ’85-ers who joined our Zoom Reunion exceeded any of our expectations—at the high point, we had 44 participants! It was amazing seeing classmates I hadn’t seen since graduating 35 years ago, and it felt great. Just wish there had been more time to hear from everyone! Our Zoom Reunion allowed us to get a larger attendance from all over the U.S. and internationally (Norway and Israel). Would be great to consider having mini Zoom reunions to continue the Pingry connection before another five years go by . . .” —NED WARD ’85

The Class of 1995 made the best out of our 25-year Reunion . . . [connecting] from around the world, . . . The Reunion gave us a great reason to celebrate during these troubling times. The Class of 1995 is also making history by becoming the first class at Pingry to celebrate a 26-year Reunion. I hope to see everyone in person in 2021 as Pingry celebrates our 26-year Reunion next May!” —JOHN FLACK ’95

Back to the Classroom “Meeting with alumni brought back a rush of great memories; it was like they were students back in my classroom. At the same time, they brought with them all the experience and perspective they have gained in their years since graduating. That made the classes even more dynamic and interesting.

I can’t wait to do it again. Of course, what I really can’t wait for is seeing them on campus!”

—UPPER SCHOOL ENGLISH TEACHER TOM KEATING P ’26, ’29

Upper School English Teacher Tom Keating P ’26, ’29 leading a virtual edition of his Ethical Dilemma class.

New PAA Board Members

New PAA Officers

Save the Date for

Reunion 2021 May 14-15 Kevin Schmidt ‘98 PAA President

Liz Wight Seigel ‘03 Vice President

Kristin Sostowski ‘93 Vice President

Alison Little ’82, P ’22, ’25

Lauren Salz ’06

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Pingry Creates BOOKS, BUSINESSES, BEAUTIFUL ARTWORK , AND MORE — TAKE A PEEK AT WHAT OUR COMMUNITY MEMBERS HAVE BEEN UP TO

Richard Thomas ’62, a two-decade resident of Hilton Head, SC with a passion for history, has written Backwater Frontier: Beaufort County, South Carolina at the Forefront of American History (Heritage Library Foundation), which focuses on stories of leadership in this region of the Southeastern coastline.

Why does Mr. Thomas believe that Beaufort County’s history is book-worthy? “While reviewing the most significant events in the area’s history, I discovered that they constituted several firsts in our country’s history, such as the first European capital in North America— Santa Elena, on modern Parris Island—being founded four miles from my house. Because of the waterways that emanate from Port Royal Sound [an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean, in Beaufort County], European countries were interested in this area for strategic purposes.

There are many untold or unknown stories.”

Internationally renowned music educator Doug Goodkin ’69 has written his ninth book, Teach Like It’s Music: An Artful Approach to Education (Pentatonic Press). “Whereas the other [books] offer material for music teachers, ranging from jazz to poetry to world music—the ‘what’ of teaching music to children—this one deals with the ‘how.’

[I write about] how all subjects could benefit from a more

Corby Thomas ‘92 playing for his son and niece.

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musical flow to their classes—shape, design, enticing beginnings, connected middles, and satisfying ends.” Mr. Goodkin’s ideas are intended to inspire all teachers to teach with more playfulness, passion, and purpose.

Dr. Bon Ku ’91, a board-certified Emergency Medicine physician at Jefferson University Hospitals in Philadelphia and Director of the Health Design Lab at Thomas Jefferson University, has co-written Health Design Thinking: Creating Products and Services for Better Health (MIT Press). According to the publisher, “This book makes a case for applying the principles of design thinking to real-world health care challenges. As health care systems around the globe struggle to expand access, improve outcomes, and control costs, Health Design Thinking offers a human-centered approach for designing health care products and services.”

Examples include a credit card-sized device that allows patients to generate their own electrocardiograms, and Internet-connected devices for early detection of breast cancer.

Corby Thomas ’92 has returned to his Pingry roots—his ISP was to write and record a six-song rock album—by composing and recording children’s music under the name Corby T Music (corbytmusic.com). “The love of recording has not left me since,” he says. “It wasn’t until my early 30s that I revisited this passion for writing and recording music, and recorded my own full-length original pop rock album. Then, inspired by the birth of Megs’ and my first son Jackson, I reconnected with the process, this time with a new direction: children’s music. Playing music every day for my son, I began writing down my ideas, and before long they took shape and I began releasing recordings again . . . Already having released four songs and two videos on YouTube, Corby T Music has taken shape, and the sky is the limit.”

AFS student Dr. Sämi Ludwig ’78, a professor at the University of Upper Alsace, Mulhouse, has published his third monograph on American studies, Resurrecting the First Great American Play: Imperial Politics and Colonial Ambitions in Frontier Detroit (The University of Wisconsin Press). The book examines the 1776 play PONTEACH: or, the Savages of America: A Tragedy, attributed to Major Robert Rogers, a military hero from the French and Indian War. It was the first English play written by a North American on an American topic. Dr. Ludwig discovered PONTEACH while he was a doctoral student teaching American drama at the University of Berne, and never forgot what he believes is substantive, fantastic material that offers melodramatic entertainment.

The story is based on the Ottawa chief Pontiac, who led an Indian uprising that resisted British power in the Great Lakes region. The play has never been performed, but Mr. Ludwig writes in his Introduction, “A closer examination of Rogers’s much-misunderstood text reveals a work of outstanding artistic craftsmanship.”

Susan Barba ’93 has published her second book of poetry, geode (Black Sparrow Press). “I wanted to create a work of art in conversation with the earth—examining our current climate crisis from the perspective of deep time—to engage with the geological history of our planet,” she says. “I also wanted this book to pay tribute to the beauty of our earth.” A poem from the book, “Practice,” appeared in The New York Times Magazine in January. Her first book was Fair Sun (David R. Godine, 2017).

had read. “I’ve always loved turtles, and in many cultures, they are depicted as wise and magical creatures, which was perfect in the context of my story,” she says. Read more at pingry.org/extras.

A short story by Justin Li ’21, The River Stories of a Ghost, has been published by The Maine Review, an online literary journal that publishes culturally significant and innovative writing and visual art. The story also earned a Regional Gold Key and National Silver Medal in the 2020 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. A nonfiction piece inspired by a great-aunt whom Justin has seen once in his life, the story “recounts the hardships she faced as a girl with a cleft palate in 1950s China, and uses her experiences to explore why we tell stories as humans,” he says.

Justin, who often writes about culture and family, attended the Iowa Young Writers’ Studio and became familiar with The Maine Review through an advisor in the program.

Thomas Beacham ’20 created an exhibit for Thomas Edison National Historical Park in West Orange, NJ that covers a topic not previously addressed in detail at the park: Edison’s efforts to support the U.S. war effort during World War I, including efforts to develop domestic sources of rubber and phenol as well as leading the Naval Consulting Board, which developed important war technologies. “I am intrigued by stories of how technology affects society and influences history,” Thomas says. Read more at pingry.org/extras.

A sculpture by Visual Arts Teacher and award-winning ceramicist Rich Freiwald P ’03 was recently purchased by the Everson Museum in Syracuse, NY for its permanent collection. Stand Your Ground (2016-17), a 30-inch-tall glazed porcelain sculpture depicting the standoff between good and evil, was displayed at a ceramics conference in Pittsburgh when it caught the attention of Garth Johnson, the museum’s Paul Phillips & Sharon Sullivan Curator of Ceramics. “For my art—for ceramics—Everson is the ultimate destination,” Mr. Freiwald says. “I never dreamed that one of my pieces would be in this museum. I reacted in disbelief. It’s very, very cool!”

Read more at pingry.org/extras.

Noah Bergam ’21, Justin Li ’21, and Julian Lee ’21

A short story by Mirika Jambudi ’23, Como la Tortuga Recibió Su Caparazón (How the Turtle Received Its Shell), written for her Spanish 2 course taught by Kevin Schroedter, was published

by La Revista Literal, an online magazine that Mr. Schroedter recommended. She wrote her story during the class’s unit on legends and myths, inspired by nature-influenced folk tales they

created the Digital Humanities Lab to help students with writing essays about literature; it analyzes uploaded books and provides details such as word frequency and sentence length. Noah, Justin, and Julian believe that a computer’s capability for text analysis should be available to everyone, so this app offers tools to analyze a single text or make comparisons among multiple texts. They developed the app during a summer Pingry Tech internship and coded it from scratch, using Python and HTML. It won the New Jersey 7th District’s Congressional App Challenge, which encourages student participation in computer science and coding, so in February, they demonstrated the app to New Jersey Congressman Tom Malinowski, who represents New Jersey’s 7th District. Read more at pingry.org/extras, and read about Pingry’s computer science program on page 16.

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Proud Part of the 6% Career Day Keynote Speaker Dr. Jennifer Weiss ’89 Makes the Case for Women in Orthopaedic Surgery

Dr.

Jennifer Weiss ’89 was fortunate that, early in life, an inspirational figure motivated her to become an orthopaedic surgeon (or, as she now describes herself, a “fierce” orthopaedic surgeon).

Multiple studies have examined why so few women choose to become orthopaedic surgeons—they account for only six percent of board-certified orthopaedic surgeons in the U.S.—and the most commonly cited reason is lack of exposure to the specialty before and during medical school. Thankfully, Dr. Weiss had that exposure from a young age: Her father, Dr. Andrew Weiss P ’85, ’89, ’96, was an orthopaedic surgeon and served as Chair of Orthopaedics at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey from the late 1970s until the mid-1980s.

“His influence was tremendous,” she says.

“He loved his work. He loved his patients. He

loved surgery. He brought me with him to round on patients. He brought me to South Africa and Europe when he lectured. And he was ahead of his time in work-life integration—he included his kids in his work before that was ‘a thing.’ I couldn’t help but be drawn into this field that he adored so much . . . at Pingry, Valerie Sinady ’88 asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. She said I told her that I wanted to be an orthopaedic surgeon, but only for kids. And that’s exactly where I ended up.”

Now serving as Assistant Chief of Orthopaedic Surgery, specializing in Pediatric Orthopaedic Surgery and Sports Medicine, at Los Angeles Medical Center, Dr. Weiss has witnessed other obstacles—“imagined, not real”—that prevent women from entering this field: the assumption that you need to be incredibly strong (“technique can trump brute strength”), the perception of it being an “old boys club” (“you can’t be what

I loved her story—being a sports fan, working with teams, and becoming a strong, successful, female doctor. I asked how she was able to work with a professional sports team, because that is something I would love to do! Dr. Weiss told me to try to get as much exposure as possible with different teams, [such as] working on the sidelines [and] working with trainers in the training room. [She also] gave me recommendations for applying to medical school. Dr. Weiss has definitely become one of my role models.”

—ALYSSA SCHWERTFEGER ’20, aspiring doctor who met with Dr. Weiss during Career Day

Watch Dr. Weiss’ keynote speech at pingry.org/extras.

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you can’t see”), and the misperception that a woman has to choose between having a family and being a surgeon (“being a surgeon may allow for more flexibility than other medical careers”). Dr. Weiss herself is married with three children; with a nod to her father’s example and the importance she places on spending time with her family, she tries to bring one of her children with her when she travels for work. In fact, Dr. Weiss was joined on Pingry’s annual Career Day by her two young daughters, who shared a special day with their mom while also getting to see her high school stomping grounds and meeting some of her former teachers.

Because of the ingrained misconceptions of the profession, and knowing first-hand the importance of professional role models and mentors, Dr. Weiss has worked tirelessly to help talented women become successful surgeons and enter the male-dominated world of orthopaedic surgery. “I don’t have many women [older than] me in the field to mentor me . . . so the message [I want to send] is to not climb the ladder and pull it up behind us. I’m climbing the ladder and helping [pull up] the people below and behind me.”

Her “ladder” included a rigorous experience at Pingry as a shy rule-follower who learned how to push past her limits, gained confidence to speak up in class, and developed

Career at a Glance education :

Williams College

medical school :

Mount Sinai School

of Medicine internship and residency :

Baylor

College of Medicine fellowship :

Children’s Hospital Los

Angeles previous :

Director of Pediatric Sports Program at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and Santa Monica Orthopaedic & Sports Medicine Group current :

Assistant Chief of Orthopaedic Surgery, specializing in Pediatric Orthopaedic Surgery and Sports Medicine, at Los Angeles Medical Center, part of the Kaiser Permanente health system affiliations :

Member of the Board of Directors and Communications Cabinet Chair for the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons; Member of the Task Force on Physician Wellness for the Pediatric Orthopaedic Society of North America.

resilience as an athlete after being cut from the tennis team; she also played basketball, serving as co-captain her senior year, and was pushed by her coaches to take herself seriously.

Dr. Weiss has always identified with athletics, and even served as a team doctor for the professional soccer club LA Galaxy (2008-2011). “You don’t have to be the best athlete to learn lessons from sports—being around them is important, too.”

Her next steps after Pingry were Williams College, where she majored in Art History, Criticism, and Conservation, and then Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Why not pre-med? “I never intended to go into Art History. Williams happens to be a great school for that. There is so much for future doctors to gain from being educated in the liberal arts. During college, the goal is learning how to learn, and learning how to connect with the world and people. Very little is learned during pre-med work that applies to taking care of patients as a doctor. Mount Sinai School of Medicine was ahead of its time in understanding that an education in the humanities makes incredible doctors.”

What has contributed to Dr. Weiss’ success in this field? “I grew up in a house with a brother and a sister. I was athletic—not ‘girly.’ My friend group was co-ed—from a young age, I was with groups of guy friends. I learned there are assets that men bring to male social groups—the ability to banter. I could do that, too. Ultimately, what I love about orthopaedic surgery—the tactile and finite nature of it—is what drew them to the field, too, and then I stuck it out.” She has discovered two major perks of being a woman in surgery: the mothers of her pediatric patients “like girl doctors,” and “I put people at ease— the medical experience and doctor-patient interaction are less intimidating.”

At the end of the day, when this sports lover has helped take care of a young athlete, a note such as this one makes her career worth it: “Thank you, Dr. Weiss, for fixing my knee!”

I will be attending Boston University, which happens to have one of the best medical programs in the country. Dr. Weiss encouraged me to choose a major that I am passionate about or would like to learn more about—aside from science.

She also taught me—no matter how many people discourage me—to follow my dreams and believe that I can achieve the impossible. Going into orthopaedic surgery as a woman, she received a lot of negative comments regarding females not being good enough to be surgeons, and she clearly proved them wrong.”

—NICOLE GILBERT ’20, aspiring surgeon who met with Dr. Weiss during Career Day

Thank You,

Career Day Speakers!

The success of this program reflects the strength of our alumni network and the lifelong connections to Pingry. The enthusiastic participation of our alumni made the panel sessions rich in guidance and insight, and we know that the career wisdom and life lessons shared with our students will be remembered long after their graduation.

Look for photos of many of these alumni in Class Notes. engineering /architecture

medicine

Cole Jordan ’12 Ian Lindsay ’95 Matt Lipper ’12 Christine Neff Medvedev ’98

Dr. Matthew Shun Ta Chow ’81, P ’13, ’16 Taylor Demkin ’09 Dr. Meredith Wepner Grossman ’98 Dr. Scott Halpern ’91 Gretchen Weiss Oatman ’89, P ’20, ’20, ’23, ’23 Valerie Sinady ’88 Dr. Jennifer Weiss ’89

entrepreneurship

Sumeet Shah ’04 Amanda Wiss ’93 finance

Alexander Daifotis ’10 Anthony Mark Garcia ’06 Jill Faherty Lloyd ’81 Conor Mullett ’84, P ’14, ’15 Kate Martuscello Smith ’00 Cherie Fuhrman Werbeloff ’99

non - profit /public service

Caroline Albanese ’09 Aimee Sostowski ’97 performing arts

Andrew Horowitz ’01 Lillie Ricciardi ’10

law

Shermona Mapp Akotia ’99 Tanya Fickenscher ’89 Henry Klingeman ’82 Kara Belofsky Miller ’01 Leslie Wepner Regenbaum ’98 Samuel Tasher ’05

psychology

Deena Dolce O’Connor ’93 Dr. Aaron Welt ’67, P ’06 Dr. Nate Zinsser ’73 science

Dr. Mike Nitabach ’84 Dani Temares ’13 Brooke Conti Trousdale ’09

management consulting

Alison Little ’82, P ’22, ’25 Jon Roberts ’05 Kevin Sachs ’91

technology marketing /advertising

Stephanie Somogyi Miller ’98 Leslie Helmstaedter Philipsen ’92 Harrison Yu ’11 media /communications

Michael Ames ’98 Corey DeLaney ’12 Alex Holland ’04 Chloe Sorvino ’11

Scotty Eckenthal ’08 Lindsay Holmes-Glogower ’99 Jennifer Nahvi-Sickles ’95 visual arts

Emily Heller ’93 Sarah Kurz ’99 Scott Loikits ’90

If you are interested in being a future Career Day speaker, please contact Associate Director of Alumni Relations Maureen Maher at mmaher@pingry.org.

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Class Notes S HA RE YOUR NEWS Submit your Class Note at pingry.org/classnotes, or mail it to Greg Waxberg ‘96, Editor of The Pingry Review, The Pingry School, 131 Martinsville Road, Basking Ridge, NJ 07920.

1948 JACK COOPER retired on January 1, 2019, after a long career as a named partner in the law firm of Lindabury, McCormick, Estabrook & Cooper. The firm was formed after the acquisition of Jack’s former firm in which he was Managing Partner. While officially retired, he keeps his skills honed by continuing to work with several clients.

GORDON LENCI writes, “Career highlights: After eight years on the Pingry faculty, I left for Kansas City in 1968 to head Barstow School. Sage decisions: I hired two New Jersey headmasters—Pingry icon Elliot Knoke, retiring Head of Gill, and Joe LeBlanc, Head of Short Hills Country Day School! Elliot ran the Upper School, and Joe ran the Lower and Middle School divisions. Thus began 20 years of headmastering, which included the drama of a six-alarm fire in 1976 at Baltimore’s Roland Park Country School. (We faced the prospect of buying new property, raising millions of dollars, and building a new campus.) I also confronted widower’s status and raising seven-year-old Kent. He now teaches near Boston and has two sons (9 and 11). Post Headmastering: I spent the 1990s as owner/operator of a summer Bed & Breakfast (in my 170-year-old farmhouse) in sight of Cape Cod. In the spring and fall, I was a tour guide to 55 countries (mostly via cruise ships). Retirement in Florida: Music demands copious time—a large church choir, barbershop chorus, and singing in a quartet. (Dick Baldwin got me started.) Pickleball replaced tennis two years ago, in obeisance to tired soccer knees. I still savor summer vacations in South Dartmouth, MA with offspring who come and sail gleefully in our beloved 40-year-old sturdy sloop. Warm wishes from sunny Florida.”

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Dr. Jim Smith ’58, LeBow competition runner-up Ajuné Richardson ’21 (who spoke about her African American identity), LeBow competition winner Cal Mahoney ’21 (who spoke about canceling “cancel culture”), and Ted Walter, Jr. ’58, GP ’26.

1958

1962

DR. JIM SMITH and TED WALTER, JR. GP ’26 attended the Dr. Robert H. LeBow ’58 Memorial Oratorical Competition in February.

Speaking to Upper School students prior to the speeches, Jim noted that, every year, he is impressed by the “intelligence, sensitivity, and warmth” of the students who compete. Speaking of his late classmate, Jim addressed the question, “What does success mean?” From his perspective, Bob LeBow was successful because “he did the best he could for himself, and he gave—his was a life of giving to others in need.”

RICHARD THOMAS has written a new book, Backwater Frontier: Beaufort County, South Carolina at the Forefront of American History (read more on page 52). Many alumni may recall that he worked at Pingry from Richard Thomas ’62.

1972-1976, teaching reading for Grades 5 and 6, Middle School science, and Upper School Russian history and Asian history, along with coaching freshman soccer, varsity soccer, and varsity lacrosse. His years at Pingry were part of a varied career that included working for PepsiCo, HBO (sales, development, accounting, and marketing) and Comcast (marketing). For the past three decades, he has been a leadership consultant to Fortune 500 corporations, and among the consulting companies he founded is Legacy Leadership and its division, Legacy Leadership of the Lowcountry; as a lover of history, he figured out a way to combine that

1960 BART WOOD was recognized by the City Council of Green Cove Springs, FL for his volunteer participation in the city’s annual Parade of Trees. The Parade of Trees is a onenight showcase of artificial, decorated, illuminated Christmas trees that are provided by the city to those in need—the city does most of the work, with the balance provided by a local Elks Lodge. Bart’s wife Dorothy is on three committees, which led to his volunteering.

ROB KAUFMAN - KAUFMANPHOTOGRAPHY.COM

1952

Jill Faherty Lloyd ’81, Conor Mullett ’84, P ’14, ’15, Alexander Daifotis ’10, and Kate Martuscello Smith ’00.

passion with his consulting to help executives become more effective as leaders and builders of teams and effective organizations—namely, through case studies of key leaders in historic events, to understand their actions and behaviors. Richard is also a founding member of the Hilton Head Island Institute, active in lacrosse governance, and a five-time inductee into Pingry’s Athletics Hall of Fame as an individual, teammate, and coach.

1967 DR. AARON WELT P ’06, who maintains a private practice in psychotherapy, spoke in the Psychology session at Career Day.

1969 DOUG GOODKIN is “retiring” after 45 years of teaching music to children ranging from three years old to eighth grade at The San Francisco School. Quotation marks mean more time to continue teaching Orff workshops worldwide, performing with his jazz band Doug Goodkin & the Pentatonics (check out their Boom Chick a Boom CD), and writing (he recently published his ninth book, titled Teach Like It’s Music: An Artful Approach to Education—read more on page 52). New projects include an upcoming podcast, a documentary film about his last year at the school, and, of course, more time with the grandchildren. He writes, “Loved attending the 50th Reunion last Spring—greetings to all!”

1972 DR. JOE COSTABILE, former President of the Medical Society of New Jersey (MSNJ), received the MSNJ’s Robert DeGroote Award for leadership of and contributions to the advancement of medical care and organized medicine. Nominated by his peers, Joe was honored at MSNJ’s annual meeting. On May 19, the U.S. Navy vascular surgeon and member of the 4th Medical Battalion with the U.S. Marine Corps was profiled on nj.com for

Dr. Nate Zinsser ’73 and Dr. Aaron Welt ’67, P ’06.

helping to fight COVID-19: He had returned from a five-week deployment to a Brooklyn hospital, where he encountered what he called “a nightmare” and “war-like conditions.” But he also said he would do it again “because it needs to be done.”

Dr. Matthew Shun Ta Chow ’81, P ’13, ’16.

Henry Klingeman ’82.

1973 DR. NATE ZINSSER, Director of West Point’s Performance Psychology Program, spoke in the Psychology session at Career Day.

THE HONORABLE MICHAEL CHERTOFF ’71, former Secretary of Homeland Security under President George W. Bush, appeared on CBS’ Face the Nation on May 24 in his role as Co-Chair of the ReOpen DC Advisory Group. He addressed the safety of reopening Washington, D.C. amid a high concentration of COVID-19 (“We’ve had a steady decrease in new cases . . . as long as that continues, we should be in a position to begin the process . . . in a way that maximizes safety”); his recommendation to not fully reopen schools for in-person learning until there is a vaccine (reopen with small groups of socially distanced students, such as those who need extra instruction); his simulation, when he was Secretary of Homeland Security, for how to respond to a pandemic (“What the planning should allow you to do is equip yourself and train yourself to adapt”); and whether the fall election should include mail-in ballots (“It should definitely include mail-in ballots . . . It allows people to vote without putting themselves at risk for long lines at voting sites. The other thing we can do is curbside voting—drive up and deposit your ballot, and it’s in lockdown. Having the most options possible is the best way to make sure people get to exercise their very important franchise as voters.”).

He also said that coordination with Virginia and Maryland will help determine how to mitigate the risks of the virus entering the capitol from other parts of the country.

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Class Notes 1977 SCOTT WARD writes, “I have family in Vermont and, as I have often done in the past, I attended the Christmas Eve service at the (tiny) Weybridge Congregational Church. Unbeknownst to me, until the congregation rose at the conclusion of the service, [former Pingry Headmaster] Nat Conard was seated in the pew directly in front of me! Belated congratulations to Hootie Warren for receiving the Letter-in-Life Award at last year’s Commencement Exercises! I have lived in Boston for many years and work for Northern Capital Securities, selling fixed-income securities to mid-market institutions.”

1978 AFS Student DR. SÄMI LUDWIG was visited at home in Switzerland by former Pingry English Teacher Ted Li in early December and has regularly had Pingry visitors in the last few years.

He has published his third monograph on American studies—read more on page 52.

Preventing Teen Suicide DR. JENNIFER HARTSTEIN ’88, a nationally recognized child, adolescent, and family psychologist based in New York City, returned to Pingry in March to speak with parents about preventing teen suicide—part of the 2019-20 school year’s theme of supporting student well-being. In her presentation, she emphasized the need to focus on a person’s intent and explained the differences among suicidal behavior (anything related, such as a plan), ideation (thinking of ending one’s life), what might appear to be an attempt (difficult to define), and non-suicidal self-injurious behavior (no intent to die, but causing bodily harm). She also spoke about risk factors (such as psychiatric disorders and family history), warning signs (perhaps a subtle comment or behavioral changes), and the impact of excessive pressure.

Her advice for parents: Become educated about the topic, ask children open-ended questions about what they—the parents— are observing, validate their feelings, offer support, and seek help. Dr. Hartstein also believes that schools should implement more mental health programs and create policies and procedures for mental health issues.

1980 TODD EISENBUD writes, “Funny how time has eroded the ‘social cliques’ that existed in 1980, yet due to circumstances out of our control, we were forced to use ‘computer clicks’ to connect. It was so great to see and hear from so many of our classmates and teachers on our Zoom Reunion. Sad that we couldn’t give Valerie Sinady ’88.

Dr. Scott Halpern ’91.

Gretchen Weiss Oatman ’89, P ’20, ’20, ’23, ’23 each other hugs, but on the bright side, and Tanya Fickenscher Leonard ’89. we will get a chance to do it in person next year. I am looking forward to hugging everybody!” nature reserve in South Africa to an underpopJonathan began his publishing career as an ulated national park in Mozambique. SVSL editorial assistant at Random House, rising 1981 produced both a website and documentary to become its editor-in-chief. video series. Read more about “Moving Giants” DR. MATTHEW SHUN TA CHOW P ’13, ’16, in the Fall 2018 issue of The Pingry Review.

HENRY KLINGEMAN, a trial lawyer who a Fellow of the American Society of Anesconcentrates on criminal defense work as thesiologists who practices at Morristown 1984 a Partner in the Newark firm of Klingeman Medical Center, spoke in the Medicine session Cerimele, Attorneys, spoke in the Law sesat Career Day. CONOR MULLETT P ’14, ’15, Co-Founder and sion at Career Day. Managing Director of Lightview Capital, spoke JILL FAHERTY LLOYD, a Managing Director in the Finance session at Career Day. 1983 and Financial Advisor at Evercore Wealth Management, spoke in the Finance session at DR. MIKE NITABACH, Professor of Cellular LANCE GOULD, Co-Founder of the media Career Day. and Molecular Physiology and of Genetics at consulting firm Silicon Valley Story Lab the Yale University School of Medicine, spoke (SVSL), has been named a board member 1982 in the Science session at Career Day. of World Elephant Day, an annual event intended to raise awareness of the plight JONATHAN KARP has been named CEO 1988 facing Asian and African elephants. In 2018, of Simon & Schuster. A longtime editor who SVSL helped to launch “Moving Giants,” an has been with the company for a decade, he VALERIE SINADY, a family nurse practitioner elephant conservation project—translocatpreviously served as president and publisher of with Maryland Emergency Medicine Network ing 200 elephants from an overpopulated Simon & Schuster’s adult publishing division.

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Scott Loikits ’90, Taylor Demkin ’09, Kevin Sachs ’91, and Ian Lindsay ’95.

Leslie Helmstaedter Philipsen ’92.

Physicians, spoke in the Medicine session at Career Day.

1989 TANYA FICKENSCHER LEONARD, Vice President and Deputy General Counsel for Major League Baseball, spoke in the Law session at Career Day. GRETCHEN WEISS OATMAN P ’20, ’20, ’23, ’23, a physical therapist who works at Overlook Medical Center, spoke in the Medicine session at Career Day. DR. JENNIFER WEISS, an orthopaedic surgeon specializing in Pediatric Orthopaedic Surgery and Sports Medicine, who serves as Assistant Chief of Orthopaedic Surgery at Los Angeles Medical Center, presented the Keynote address and spoke in the Medicine session at Career Day. Read more on page 54.

1990 SCOTT LOIKITS, a Principal and the Director of Design for GreenbergFarrow, an international architectural and engineering firm, spoke in the Visual Arts session at Career Day.

Deena Dolce O’Connor ’93, Kristin Sostowski ’93, Amanda Wiss ’93, and Emily Heller ’93.

DR. BON KU, an Emergency Medicine physician at Jefferson University Hospitals in Philadelphia and Director of the Health Design Lab at Thomas Jefferson University, has co-written a new book. Read more on page 52.

KEVIN SACHS, a Senior Partner with McKinsey & Company, spoke in the Management Consulting session at Career Day.

1992

1991

LESLIE HELMSTAEDTER PHILIPSEN, Director of DOVE® Chocolate at Mars Wrigley, spoke in the Marketing/Advertising session at Career Day.

DR. SCOTT HALPERN, the John M. Eisenberg Professor of Medicine, Epidemiology, and Medical Ethics and Health Policy at the University of Pennsylvania and a practicing critical care physician, spoke in the Medicine session at Career Day. In April, he wrote a column for Newsweek and was interviewed on CBS This Morning about the tragic choices facing healthcare workers and patients amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and the need to allocate care to those who will benefit the most. Read more on page 30.

CORBY THOMAS writes, “I recently started an exciting new project, writing and recording children’s music. With two animated music videos already complete, there are more in line for release soon. Inspired by the birth of our first son, Jackson, this has been a great way to reconnect with writing and recording music, something I began with my senior ISP with Mike Gerstein ’92 and Pat Terrel ’93. Who knows where it will go! I have received great support from Pingry friends so far, so thank you—it has been great to see how

our alumni network can help an idea grow.

For more on this, check out ‘Corby T Music’ at the streaming platform of your choice!” Read more about Corby’s endeavor on page 52.

1993 SUSAN BARBA is a Senior Editor for New York Review Books and has published her second book of poetry. Read more on page 52.

EMILY HELLER, Owner of Jellybean Reps, a boutique artist representation agency, spoke in the Visual Arts session at Career Day. GRAHAM MACMILLAN was featured in a recent edition of Colby Magazine to discuss the leveraging of capital market incentives to help drive positive social and environmental impact. Graham serves as President of the Visa Foundation.

DEENA DOLCE O’CONNOR, a speech language pathologist, spoke in the Psychology session at Career Day. AMANDA WISS, Founder and CEO of Urban Clarity, spoke in the Entrepreneurship session at Career Day. THE PINGRY REVIEW | SUMMER 2020

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Class Notes

Emily Yorke ‘93, P ‘23 with family and friends on her wedding day.

EMILY YORKE P ’23 married Scott Townley at Ninety Acres in Peapack, NJ on September 1.

Pictured are Thomas Yorke ’93, Kim McIntyre ’93, Emily Yorke ’93, Kelly McIntyre ’93, Andrew Schauers ’23, Ed Yorke, Jr. ’57, P ’90, ’93, ’93, James Yorke ’59, former Pingry Spanish Teacher Victor Nazario P ’90, P ’94, Ed Yorke III ’90, Sean Kulkarni ’98, and former Pingry English Teacher Laura Yorke Kulkarni ’98.

PHILIP WALSH ’93, ANDREW LEGGE ’94, and PETER BLANCHARD ’95 work together at Havelock Wool, an innovative company that unites sustainability and healthy building to make all-natural sheep’s wool insulation for homes. Each of them transitioned from careers in finance to launch Havelock. Further coverage of their venture will appear in the fall issue.

1995 IAN LINDSAY, Project Engineer for Chevron, spoke in the Engineering/Architecture session at Career Day.

1980s and 1990s from the ancient burial site of Shum Laka in Cameroon—detailed in a paper she recently published in Nature. “The new technique of ancient DNA extraction has only been developed in the last 10 years, and Africa, in particular, has not really been an area of focus for this research,” she said. “Everybody around the world today descends from African Homo sapiens, so if we want to understand our species—Homo sapiens—the last 200,000 to 300,000 years of the fossil record in Africa is incredibly important . . . Through comparing the DNA of these ancient children from 8,000 and 3,000 years ago against DNA from other people, both ancient and living, we were able to construct a model of relatedness where we see how these different groups are related to each other . . . From the children’s skeletons, I’m really interested in [learning] how the spread of farming and herding transformed the continent and the movements of people.

These four children have enabled us to look back into a time that’s really lost to us today.”

More has been written about this discovery

JENNIFER NAHVI-SICKLES, an IT executive with Johnson & Johnson, spoke in the Technology session at Career Day. DR. MARY PRENDERGAST, an archaeologist and Professor of Anthropology and Chair of Humanities at Saint Louis University’s campus in Madrid, and an archaeologist, was interviewed on BBC’s World Service. The topic?

Recent genetic sequencing of DNA in ancient human remains (four children) that date back about 8,000 years and were excavated in the

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in The New York Times, National Geographic, and elsewhere.

1996 CHRIS CUNEO lives in Dallas and works in wealth management. He writes, “I moved here with my sister Lizzy ’02. We’re both doing very well, enjoying the sunny weather, and sneaking back to New Jersey when we can.”

DR. LEAH WEISS EKSTROM’s book How We Work: Live Your Purpose, Reclaim Your Sanity, and Embrace the Daily Grind was featured on Forbes’ list of “20 Books to Inspire Your Happiest Life at Work.” Leah is a Lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and the Co-Founder of Skylyte, a leadership consulting firm that helps high-performing companies sustain their talent edge by empowering managers to prevent burnout. Read more about the book in the Fall 2018 issue of The Pingry Review.

1997 AIMEE SOSTOWSKI, Director of Foundation & Government Grants at the Community FoodBank of New Jersey, spoke in the Non-Profit/Public Service session at Career Day.

1998 Chris Cuneo ’96 and Miller Bugliari ’52, P ’86, ’90, ’97, GP ’20, ’24.

MICHAEL AMES, an investigative reporter and writer, spoke in the Media/Communications session at Career Day.

Aimee Sostowski ’97.

Michael Ames ’98.

Chef ANDREW GRUEL, Owner and CEO of Slapfish Restaurant Group, appeared on Hallmark Channel’s Home & Family (he is a regular guest on the show) on January 27 to make his Cheesy Lobster Crunch Burger.

He describes it as “the triple-layer chocolate cheesecake of the seafood world . . . a big ‘lobster mozzarella stick.’” Along with lobster (Andrew prefers Maine lobster for its rich flavor), the main ingredients are shredded mozzarella cheese, blue crab, and panko breading (or anything crunchy, to coat the burger), all topped with chips. The recipe is available at pingry.org/extras.

Sarah Kurz ’99.

Shermona Mapp Akotia ’99 and Jennifer Nahvi-Sickles ’95.

Dr. Meredith Wepner Grossman ’98, Leslie Wepner Regenbaum ’98, and Stephanie Somogyi Miller ’98.

DR. MEREDITH WEPNER GROSSMAN, a pediatrician and Assistant Professor in the Departments of Pediatrics and Medical Education at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan, spoke in the Medicine session at Career Day.

Christine Neff Medvedev ’98.

LESLIE WEPNER REGENBAUM, General Counsel & Corporate Secretary of K2 Intelligence, spoke in the Law session at Career Day.

1999 SHERMONA MAPP AKOTIA, Senior Counsel in Cigna Corporation’s US Business Law Group, spoke in the Law session at Career Day. LINDSAY HOLMES-GLOGOWER, Director of People Operations and Talent Development

Cherie Fuhrman Werbeloff ’99.

at Pingry, spoke in the Technology session at Career Day. SARAH KURZ, a widely exhibited and published painter, spoke in the Visual Arts session at Career Day. JESSICA DEE SAWYER ’99, LIZ DEE ’02, and their cousin SARAH DEE ’99, Co-Presidents of their family-owned and -operated Smarties Candy Company—which produces over one billion rolls of candy each year—were profiled on NBC’s TODAY in February. The

CHRISTINE NEFF MEDVEDEV, Founder of Sustainable Design Studio, spoke in the Engineering/Architecture session at Career Day. STEPHANIE SOMOGYI MILLER, CEO of Spread PR, spoke in the Marketing/Advertising session at Career Day. Sarah Dee ’99, Jessica Dee Sawyer ’99, and Liz Dee ’02 on TODAY.

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Class Notes KARA BELOFSKY MILLER, a Partner at Virginia & Ambinder, LLP in Manhattan, spoke in the Law session at Career Day.

2004 ALEX HOLLAND, Global Leader of Medical Devices Strategic Communication at Johnson & Johnson Medical Devices Companies, spoke in the Media/Communications session at Career Day. Kara Belofsky Miller ’01.

Jon Roberts ’05.

SUMEET SHAH, who handles deal sourcing and portfolio operations at SwiftArc Ventures, a new, early- and growth-stage consumer-focused venture capital firm, spoke in the Entrepreneurship session at Career Day.

2005 JON ROBERTS, a Director at Luminary Labs, spoke in the Management Consulting session at Career Day. Samuel Tasher ’05.

segment included a tour of the factory, such as the “tablet room,” where compression is used to press the candy into tablet shapes.

Since taking over as Co-Presidents in 2017, Jessica, Liz, and Sarah have been updating the company’s branding and production processes. Read more about the company’s history in the Winter 2017-18 issue of The Pingry Review.

CHERIE FUHRMAN WERBELOFF, a financial advisor at National Wealth Management, spoke in the Finance session at Career Day.

Scotty Eckenthal ’08.

2000 KATE MARTUSCELLO SMITH, Senior Director of HR & Recruiting at Betterment, a FinTech company located in New York City, spoke in the Finance session at Career Day.

2001 ANDREW HOROWITZ, a songwriter, producer, and recording artist, spoke in the Performing Arts session at Career Day.

SAMUEL TASHER, Managing Director of Wyatt Partners and General Counsel to Cloud X Partners, LLC, spoke in the Law session at Career Day.

2006 PETER CIPRIANO won both the court tennis and racquets titles at the 119th annual Gold Racquets Championship held at The Tuxedo Club in Tuxedo Park, NY over Presidents’ Day Weekend. It was Peter’s third consecutive Gold Racquets championship in both games, which had never been done before. Peter and his wife Dana live in

LOWELL SCHILLER serves as Principal Associate Commissioner for Policy of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. In this role, Lowell leads the FDA’s Office of Policy and manages agency-wide processes for the development of regulations and guidance. He also provides leadership and support on policy issues across the FDA’s portfolio, which includes drugs, medical devices, biological products, foods and dietary supplements, cosmetics, veterinary products, and tobacco.

Lowell lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife, Julia, and their two children.

Anthony Mark Garcia ’06, Sumeet Shah ’04, Andrew Horowitz ’01, and Harrison Yu ’11.

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Brooklyn Heights with their daughter Bella, age 2, and son Gaetano who was born on January 31. Peter is a director of Savills USA, an international corporate real estate brokerage firm, in their Manhattan office.

ANTHONY MARK GARCIA and his wife Amanda recently welcomed their daughter Camille—and Dr. Blake Vessa ’10 was the obstetrician who helped deliver her. A Director with the Responsible Investing (RI) team at Nuveen, the investment management arm of TIAA, Mark spoke in the Finance session at Career Day. Dinner in New York. Front row: Jennifer Lang Sullivan ’09, Miller Bugliari ’52, P ’86, ’90, ’97, GP ’20, ’24, and Tyler Parsels ’08. Back row: Andrew Babbitt ’09, Katie Parsels ’09, Eric Hynes ’08, and Katie Salvaggio ’09.

2007 CRAIG RAMIREZ is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at NYU School of Medicine.

He participated in a study that, according to a news release, revealed how pancreatic cancer cells avoid starvation within dense tumors by hijacking a process that pulls nutrients from their surroundings.

2008 SCOTTY ECKENTHAL, Engineering Manager at Fabric, a startup offering young families the ability to easily apply for and purchase life insurance, spoke in the Technology session at Career Day.

2009 CAROLINE ALBANESE, Director of Operations at the Bellevue Program for Survivors of Torture, spoke in the Non-Profit/Public Service session at Career Day. TAYLOR DEMKIN, a Nurse Practitioner in Interventional Cardiology at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, spoke in the Medicine session at Career Day. BROOKE CONTI TROUSDALE, a graduate fellow in the Laboratory of Genome Maintenance at Rockefeller University, spoke in the Science session at Career Day.

2010 ALEXANDER DAIFOTIS, an Associate on the Corporate Development team at D. E. Shaw in Manhattan, spoke in the Finance session at Career Day.

EMILY GILBERT is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics at The University of Chicago, working with a team at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. She led the discovery of the TOI-700 three-planet system, which includes TOI-700 d, the first habitable zone, Earth-sized planet discovered with NASA’s TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) mission. Emily and other researchers presented the findings to the American Astronomical Society in Honolulu in January. For more on this discovery, see the NASA press release at pingry.org/extras.

LILLIE RICCIARDI, an actress, voice-over talent, and audiobook narrator, spoke in the Performing Arts session at Career Day.

2011 NIC FINK swam all three breaststroke events in December in the championships of the newly formed International Swimming League (a professional swimming venture outside of the Olympics and World Championships). He won the 50-meter in 25.75—beating the defending Olympic gold medalist and setting an American record—as well as the 200-meter and placed third in the 100-meter.

ALEX LIEBERMAN was interviewed on NBC’s TODAY in January for a “Motivational Monday” segment about Morning Brew, his and Austin Rief’s free daily business enewsletter for young professionals. Launched five years ago, the newsletter is now distributed six days each week to 1.7 million people. Alex recounted how, during his senior year at the

Peter Cipriano ’06 with his championship plaques at The Tuxedo Club. Behind him are a photograph and painting of the late Thomas Greevy, The Tuxedo Club’s head Racquet Sports Professional for over 40 years.

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Class Notes University of Michigan, he used his free time to help students prepare for job interviews and discovered that they didn’t have a convenient, engaging way of staying current on the business world. He explained that “I started writing something that I hoped would better engage the young business professional.”

CHLOE SORVINO, who leads all coverage of food, drink, and agriculture at Forbes magazine, spoke in the Media/Communications session at Career Day. HARRISON YU, who works in Global Product Planning and Product Marketing for Maserati, spoke in the Marketing/Advertising session at Career Day.

Alex Lieberman ’11 on TODAY.

2012 COREY DELANEY, an Associate Media Manager at ESPN, spoke in the Media/Communications session at Career Day. COLE JORDAN, Transportation Engineer with WSP Global, one of the world’s leading engineering professional services firms, spoke in the Engineering/Architecture session at Career Day. MATT LIPPER, Engineer with the medical technology firm Becton Dickinson, spoke in the Engineering/Architecture session at Career Day.

2013 MICHAEL ARROM, keyboardist, appeared on ABC’s Good Morning America in January.

Read more on page 6.

HANNA BEATTIE, professional ice hockey player for the Connecticut Whale, was selected to play in the NWHL (National Women’s

Matt Lipper ’12.

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Hockey League) All-Star Game in Boston this past February. A three-year NWHL veteran, Hanna was in the middle of a breakout season for the Whale when the announcement was made in late January.

A versatile, defense-first skater capable of playing multiple positions, she was fourth on the Whale in goals (3) and had six points in 20 games this season. She was also third in the league in takeaways (23) behind All-Star captains Madison Packer and Jillian Dempsey. Hanna is fifth all-time in games played by a member of the Connecticut Whale and was one of the league’s representatives when the NWHL rang the opening bell at Nasdaq on December 23. In addition, she was featured in an nj.com article in February, “A Decade of Greatness,” the website’s selection of the 15 best New Jersey girls ice hockey players from 2010-2019. She was praised for her stellar defense at Pingry before playing for Williams College and the Whale.

Caroline Albanese ’09 and Cole Jordan ’12.

DANI TEMARES, a Genetic Counseling Assistant at the NYU Langone Perlmutter Cancer Center, spoke in the Science session at Career Day.

2014 HALEY LA FONTAINE was featured in an nj.com article in February, “A Decade of Greatness,” the website’s selection of the 15 best New Jersey girls ice hockey players from 2010-2019. She was praised for her offense and defense during her Pingry career: 11 goals and four assists as a senior, moving her career totals to 20 goals and six assists. Haley attended Middlebury College, where she recorded five goals and 17 assists and was a +9 in a 91-game career.

2015 ANTHONY WANG writes, “I am enrolled in the Medical Scientist Training Program at Washington University in St. Louis, pursuing

Martha Ryan Graff ‘84, P ‘15, ‘17, ‘20 and Dani Temares ‘13.

Hanna Beattie ’13 in the NWHL All-Star Game.

both an M.D. and a Ph.D. in (hopefully) eight years. This program is completely funded by both the NIH and private funding at WashU in hopes of training future physician scientists who can bridge the academic (research-based) and clinical spheres within the medical field. I decided to pursue this program because I enjoy the inquisitive nature of research and value the opportunity to treat and care for patients. Ultimately, I hope to integrate my clinical and research experiences, using one to augment my competency in the other, so that I may both develop clinically relevant treatments and provide the best care to my patients. As a result, in this program I hope to develop the basic clinical skills and knowledge necessary to treat patients and the analytical skills and knowledge necessary to develop and carry out significant research projects. I am still unsure of which research field I am interested in, but I am considering cancer immunology and, as a result, oncology for my clinical specialty. Pingry has influenced my decision to pursue this program because, first and foremost, the teachers— special shout-out to Mrs. O’Mara—fostered my love for science, specifically biology, and learning, in general. Just as importantly, my interest in many things, in particular cancer and research, started at Pingry. I remember that, in Honors Biology, I first came to learn about cancer biology and developed an interest in understanding it. On the other hand, through the Waksman club, I got my first taste of research and what that entailed. With these experiences in mind, I decided to attend Rice because I was interested in biology and research, both of which Rice excels at since it is located right next to the Texas Medical Center. I continued my research career

working at both Baylor College of Medicine and MD Anderson Cancer Center, which helped me develop a better understanding of what I wanted to do, landing me here in this program.”

2016 JESSICA FOY, who double majored in Psychology and Health, Medicine & Society at Lehigh University, and enjoys public speaking, delivered a TEDx talk titled “Close the Gap” about internal and external identities (she applied through a campus club, Lehigh TEDx). Knowing that people show the idealized versions of themselves and hide their weaknesses, Jessica questioned why it is so difficult for people to be authentic.

“Think about the question, ‘How are you?’

How many times have you said, ‘I’m great!’

Anthony Wang ’15 at a white coat ceremony.

Jessica Foy ’16 at Lehigh University. Her podcast Sorry, We’re Open features guests who discuss being open about their identities.

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Class Notes

Harvard students meeting for a weekend lunch: Rachel Chen ’18, Zach Keller ’17, Coby Weiss ’17, Miro Bergam ’19, Darlene Fung ’19, Felicia Ho ’19, Sam Scherl ’17, Alyssa Chen ’18, and Udochi Emaghara ’19.

when you were having the absolute worst day ever? Instead of concealing your emotions, try answering the question with, ‘I’ve been better.’ You don’t have to bare your soul to a stranger to be ‘authentic.’” For her part, Jessica was diagnosed with anxiety at age 12 and, for many years, considered it “an incredibly negative part of my identity.” More recently, she reappraised its role in her life— among other benefits, it leads to compassion, empathy, stronger friendships, and improved situational awareness. “My anxiety is not a blemish on my identity, nor does it make me weak. Instead, it makes me different, and— news flash—different isn’t always bad.” She asked audience members to consider what they typically conceal, and how they can blend it into their external identity.

KATIE MARINO, an infielder for the Notre Dame Softball Team, was named a team captain for her senior season. The Science-Business major and Sociology minor was a three-time captain of Pingry’s Softball Team who struck out 1,044 batters and posted a .527 career average at the plate while playing for Big Blue. Adding to her ACC (Atlantic Coast Conference) All-Academic and National Fastpitch Coaches Association All-America Scholar-Athlete honors the first three seasons, Katie was named to the Preseason All-ACC Softball Team. She was also

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named one of 30 candidates for the 2020 Senior CLASS (Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School) Award in collegiate softball. To be eligible for the award, a student-athlete must be an NCAA Division I senior and have notable achievements in community, classroom, character, and competition. In addition, Katie is one of four Notre Dame recipients of the ACC’s 2020 Weaver-James-Corrigan Postgraduate Scholarship Award (named in honor of the first three ACC commissioners).

2017 SAM SCHERL plays #4 for Harvard’s Squash Team, which won the College Squash Association’s National Men’s Team Championship for the second year in a row.

Kevin Ma ’19 (Amherst), Sean Tan ’18 (Williams), Victor Vollbrechthausen ’18 (Tufts), Leighton Mayers ’19 (Bowdoin), and Will Zhang ’18 (Williams) at the NESCAC (New England Small College Athletic Conference) Men’s Swimming & Diving Championships in February. Sean Tan won the 400-yard individual medley (4:00.78).

2018 MEGAN HORN, playing basketball at Washington and Lee University, was named Third Team All-Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC). At the time of the announcement in late February, she had averaged 8.7 points, 5.8 rebounds, and 4.2 assists through 25 games. She opened the season with the program’s first triple-double—19 points, 10 rebounds, and 10 assists—and had career highs in total rebounds (145) and assists

(105). Megan’s assists are fourth in the ODAC and the seventh-most in a season in program history.

2019 JOSIE JAHNG of Yale University’s Field Hockey Team was named to the National Field Hockey Coaches Association National Academic Squad for the 2019 season.

In Memoriam DR. JAMES CUMMINGS DUNSTAN ’43 March 22, 2020, age 94, Charlottesville, VA Dr. Dunstan was Salutatorian at Pingry and won an academic scholarship to Princeton University.

He transferred to Yale University for ROTC, graduating with a B.S. in Engineering.

He served in the U.S. Navy during World War II and was recalled in the Korean War. Dr. Dunstan’s business career began at General Cable, as the youngest plant manager, and ended at Essex Wire, as the youngest Vice President. After earning a Ph.D. in Finance at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business, he launched his teaching career at Darden, retiring as a tenured professor. He was active in executive training programs, was a director of public utilities for the Virginia State Corporation Commission, and worked for Harry Byrd in the U.S. Senate. Dr. Dunstan served on numerous boards, including the Martha Jefferson Hospital Board, UVa Health Science Foundation Board, and Charlottesville Catholic School Board, with whom he facilitated the building of their St. Dunstan Chapel. Dr. Dunstan was predeceased by his first wife of 48 years, Betty, and his brother Thomas. Survivors include his wife of 21 years, Julia; brother William; three children, James (Sarah), Robert (Mary Ellen), and Elizabeth (Chuck) Maddux; eight grandchildren; and 14 great-grandchildren.

JONATHAN ELLIOTT ROBBIN ’47 December 4, 2019, age 89, Galena, MD Mr. Robbin graduated with an A.B. in History and Literature from Harvard University, and an M.A. in Comparative Literature from Columbia University. He founded General Analytics Corporation, Claritas, Inc., and Ricercar, Inc., and has been referred to as the “Father of Geodemography.” He was predeceased by his wife of 61 years, Franca, and son, Bradley Robbin. Survivors include his son, Adrian, daughters Francesca and Maria, five grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.

ALONZO KIMBALL “KIM” MARSH, JR. ’48 February 25, 2020, age 89, Madison, WI Mr. Marsh graduated from Rutgers University, married Lilian Elizabeth Carncross, and spent two years in the U.S. Army, stationed in Texas. He began his career at Campbell’s Soup and moved to Oscar Mayer; he finished his time there in the Corporate Quality Assurance Department. Mr. Marsh was active in Boy Scouts with his sons and served as

Scoutmaster of Troop 8 in Madison. He also volunteered for over 25 years at Second Harvest Foodbank of Southern Wisconsin, where he also served on the Board of Directors and as Interim Director for several years. Mr. Marsh was preceded in death by his parents; sister Mary; wife Lilian; and son David. Survivors include three children, Beth (Ralph), James (Teena), and Peter (Zula); three grandchildren, Matthew (Lindsay), Andrew, and Arie; and one great-grandchild, Alexander.

JOSHUA WARD ’48 November 25, 2019, age 89, Chatham, NJ Mr. Ward received a B.S. in Engineering from Princeton University and a J.D. from Fordham Law School, with honors. He was a patent attorney, mostly with GAF Materials Corporation in Parsippany. A loyal Pingry alumnus, he greatly assisted his classmates in keeping them up-to-date on each other and on the School. He was also an avid flyer, obtaining his pilot’s license at age 16 and flying until he was 80. He had two sons with his wife Polly and was preceded in death by his close friend Edith.

Survivors include his sons Bailey and Peter ’77.

JOHN S. WALLACE, SR. ’50 January 18, 2020, age 87, Voorhees, NJ Mr. Wallace was elected Class President his junior and senior years and excelled in football and swimming, serving as Captain of the 1949-50 Swimming Team and setting records—twice for the 100-yard freestyle (records at the time), and once for the 40-yard freestyle. He also swam and broke records for Westminster College. Mr. Wallace served in the U.S. Army as a Sergeant.

He was among the first coaches of the Howell Lions Pop Warner Football organization and coached Little League Baseball for many years.

Survivors include his son John S. Wallace Jr. and his son’s fiancée, Silvia Barbato; daughter, Laura; stepsons Thomas, Edward (Lori), and Bill (Edie); stepdaughter Susanne (Ken); and five grandchildren, Anna, Cora, Lily, Joey, and Jeanette. Mr. Wallace died seven days after his wife of 39 years, Diane, passed away from Parkinson’s Disease.

JEROME J. “JERRY” GRAHAM, JR. ’52 March 20, 2020, age 85, Harding Township, NJ Mr. Graham received an A.B. and graduated cum laude from Princeton University, where he was President of the Glee Club his senior year, and received an LL.B. from the University of Michigan Law School. He was passionate about law, beginning his legal career at Carpenter, Bennett & Morrissey in Newark, NJ, and later forming the law firm of Graham Curtin in Morristown, NJ. Mr. Graham was a member of the American, New Jersey State, Essex County, and Morris County Bar Associations. In 1960, he was admitted to the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, and in 1979 to the U.S. Court of Appeals, Third Circuit. He was also a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers—NJ State Chair, 1990-1991/ Regent, 1993-1997—and a member of the Supreme Court Society in Washington, D.C. Mr. Graham won many awards and, in 2010, received the Trial Bar Award from the Trial Attorneys of New Jersey. Mr. Graham was also active in local government, serving on the Harding Township Committee and the Harding Township Zoning Board of Adjustment, and eventually as Harding Township Deputy Mayor. He served on many Boards, including The Winston School and Morristown-Beard School, and was one of the founders of Somerset Hills Bank (Lakeland Bank). Mr. Graham was instrumental in starting the New Jersey Men’s Platform Tennis League Classic Tournament, and the tournament organizers honored him by naming the winner’s trophy the Graham Cup. He was predeceased by his brother-in-law Bob Kirkland ’48. Survivors include his wife of 62 years, Marie “Tine” Kirkland Graham; four children, Victoria Graham Chadwick (Steve), Kirkland Graham DeLaney (Tim), Stuart Maxwell Graham ’81, and Jerome J. “Jay” Graham III (Carla); sisters Joan (Sheldon) and Judith; sisterin-law Ann; many nieces and nephews; and grandchildren Kelsey (Kevin), Devin, Graham, Sam, Clara, George, and Astrid.

DONALD ERNEST GUGELMAN ’53 February 4, 2020, age 84, Richmond, VA Mr. Gugelman was one of two students in his graduating class who attended the School all 12 years. He graduated with a Business Administration degree from Nichols College, where he was an ROTC member, and served in the U.S. Army Reserve for nine years. He was a Virginia State Trooper for a year, and worked for 34 years as a Credit Executive

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In Memoriam at Sears, Roebuck & Co. After retiring, he volunteered at the Richmond International Airport, giving tours of planes to school children, and volunteered for several years with the Henrico County Police Department, working with detectives in the Cold Case Squad. In 1982, he had the honor of being asked to represent the U.S. credit industry by addressing the Congressional Judiciary Committee on Bankruptcy Reform, U.S. House of Representatives, at the request of Committee Chairman, Congressman Peter Rodino.

He received numerous commendations and awards from Sears, as well as other credit organizations for excellence in credit management.

His community involvement included holding offices in several organizations, and his dedication to local communities earned him several awards. He was predeceased by his brother and sister-in-law, Eugene and Lavinia Ruark.

Survivors include his loving wife of 40 years, Eddie Mae; cousin, Dianne; two children, two grandchildren, and many special in-laws.

JAMES NOWELL ’55 Langley, WA GORDON C. STRAUSS ’56 February 8, 2020, age 81, Mount Pleasant, SC Mr. Strauss graduated from The University of Virginia, earned a Juris Doctorate at Rutgers Law School, and practiced law in Princeton, NJ for 40 years, primarily as a sole practitioner.

After moving to South Carolina, Mr. Strauss immersed himself in studying the history of Charleston, visiting countless historic sites and collecting Charleston Renaissance art and Charleston furniture.

He was predeceased by his first wife Loralee.

Survivors include his second wife, Louise; daughter Gretchen (Bill); son Andrew (Lisa); daughter Heidi; stepson Robert (Katy); sister Suzanne; and seven grandchildren: Tyler, Toby, Chloe, Ashley, Nichols, Ellie, and Lucy.

ROGER HALLER ’64 March 30, 2016, age 70, Oxford, GA Mr. Haller—who grew up with a love for horses, was riding at the United States Equestrian Team’s (USET) headquarters in Gladstone, NJ by age 17, and was a member of the Somerset

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Hills Pony Club and achieved his ‘A’ rating at age 18—played a major role in the evolution of Eventing and was an Olympic and World Championship cross-country course designer. As a member of the FEI Eventing Committee, he played a key role in the redrafting of the discipline rules, including the introduction of the star-system for international events. He designed the cross-country courses for the 1978 World Championships in Lexington, KY and the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, GA. He officiated in 46 states and 14 countries and judged major events across North and South America. Mr. Haller served as Vice President of the USEA (United States Eventing Association) and the USEF (United States Equestrian Federation) Eventing High Performance Committee and Technical Committee. He was also Executive Director of the Pan American Equestrian Confederation’s General Assembly. The Haller family farm, Hoopstick Farm, in Bedminster, NJ, became the original site of the Essex Horse Trials, which hosted its first event in 1968, and Mr. Haller was the event’s first organizer, course designer, and course builder. In 2012, he was inducted into the US Eventing Association Hall of Fame. Survivors include his wife Ann, sister Barbra, and step-siblings Sidney Funston and Richard Reid. Mr. Haller died after a battle with cancer.

DR. WILLIAM E. “BILLY” CUNNINGHAM ’77 January 3, 2020, age 60, Los Angeles CA A fierce advocate for improving the health of underrepresented communities, and Professor of Medicine and Public Health at UCLA, Dr. Cunningham was a national leader in addressing racial/ ethnic and socioeconomic disparities among vulnerable populations living with, or at risk of, HIV. Most recently, he was working to improve HIV care for HIV+ men and transgender women released from Los Angeles County Jail. After receiving a bachelor’s degree at Brown University and graduating from the UCSF School of Medicine, he completed his internal medicine residency training at UCLA. He was selected for the 1991 cohort of the UCLA Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar Program and completed a master’s in Public Health at the UCLA Fielding

School of Public Health before joining the faculty in both the Schools of Medicine and Public Health. As Director of the UCLA Clinical Translational Science Institute TL1 Summer Fellowship Program, Co-Director of the Investigator Development Core for the NIA-funded Resource Centers for Minority Aging Research, Director of the Training Core for the NIMHD-funded Project Export, and Associate Director of the UCLA Robert Wood Johnson/National Clinical Scholars Program at UCLA, Dr. Cunningham was instrumental in the mentoring of hundreds of trainees, most of whom were from underrepresented minority groups aspiring to enter the medical and/or public health professions.

He also taught graduate-level courses on racial disparities and health, health services organization, and outcomes and effectiveness research. In 2008, he was inducted into Pingry’s Athletics Hall of Fame as a member of the 1977 Boys’ Lacrosse Team—his senior year, he served as Co-Captain with close friend Skot Koenig ’77 and was named AllState Honorable Mention as an Attack player.

He was also inducted into Pingry’s chapter of The Cum Laude Society. Survivors include his wife Sharon, sons Emery and Kendi, and brother Dr. Robert Cunningham ’72. Read an article about Dr. Cunningham, from Inside Lacrosse, at pingry.org/extras.

Faculty/Staff DAVID R. “DAVE” ALLAN April 22, 2020, age 84, Mountainside, NJ A member of the Magistri, known for his kindness, compassion, and devotion to Pingry and its students, Mr. Allan was an administrator and a faculty member from 1960-2001, teaching history and serving as a college counselor, Head of the History Department (1968-1979), Director of College Guidance (1980-1995), and a coach of multiple sports.

Mr. Allan taught fondly remembered European and American history courses (students recall his comment about the Holy Roman Empire, “It wasn’t Holy, wasn’t Roman, and wasn’t an Empire”) and was one of the first teachers to coach girls—leading the Girls’ Varsity Basketball Team from 1979-1985 and coaching again from 1992-1997. He was co-dedicatee of the 1981 Blue Book.

“Dave put his heart into everything and took pride in the performance of his charges, whether the measure was athletic, academic, artistic, or social,” says former History Teacher and College Counselor Fred Fayen P ’90, ’02. “Dave, above all else, treasured the independent school philosophy that demands faculty participation in a variety of roles, all the better to know different facets of student

personalities, abilities, and foibles—the whole person.” Former English Teacher Ted Li adds, “He was dedicated to fulfilling whatever roles the School might require . . . there was a creativity and an openness to new ideas.”

In athletics, Mr. Allan was also an assistant coach for freshman football (1960-1968); varsity football (1969-1976); boys’ third team, JV, and varsity basketball; girls’ JV basketball; and JV lacrosse (1960-1965). On the basketball court, he played in a 1960s Pingry summer league (with teachers/coaches Frank Romano P ’77, ’79, ’80, ’82, ’85 and Miller Bugliari ’52, P ’86, ’90, ’97, GP ’20, ’24, as well as Herbert Busch, Jr. ’55, Tony Borden ’62, and others); he also played in many pick-up games at Pingry.

Early in his career, Mr. Allan refereed high school and college lacrosse, was a founding member of the New Jersey Lacrosse Officials Association, and was inducted into the New Jersey Lacrosse Foundation Hall of Fame in 1999. (One alumnus recalls being on the field when he was refereeing: “He was so concerned about not showing Pingry favoritism that he never gave us a single call—it was like playing against an extra opponent!”)

Among the memories shared by current faculty is one from Chemistry and Physics Teacher Drew Burns, who earned degrees in Chemistry at Williams College and MIT, taught science at Lawrenceville, and became Assistant Director of Admission at Franklin & Marshall College. During one of his Pingry visits, Mr. Allan asked him, “So, when are you going back to teaching?” “He could tell that’s where I wanted to be,” Mr. Burns reflects, “and I knew he was right.” Mr. Allan eventually helped connect him to an opening at Pingry. “I’m very indebted to him . . . to a certain degree, he rolled out the carpet for me.” His colleague Tim Grant P ’03, ’06, who coached girls’ varsity basketball with Mr. Allan in the 1990s, was grateful for guidance, saying, “His knowledge and caring attitude helped shape the way I coach today. Dave was the type of role model every new coach should have.”

Mr. Allan received a B.A. from Williams College and an M.A. from New York University, and taught at Nichols School in Buffalo prior to joining Pingry; he also coached baseball early in his career. He is survived by his loving wife Connie (Cornelia), who taught Grade 1 at Pingry from 1979-2003; after retiring, they continued to be involved with the School. Their children David ’75 (Betsy), Robert (Chuck) ’77, Christopher ’79 (Alison), and Elizabeth (Lisa) ’83 graduated from

Pingry, and the Pingry-Duke Prize is named for their late daughter Lisa. Survivors also include former son-in-law Andrew Smith, eight grandchildren, and two step-grandchildren. Mr. Allan passed away due to complications from COVID-19.

MARY JEAN MCLAUGHLIN May 5, 2020, age 89, Short Hills, NJ A member of the Magistri, Mrs. McLaughlin taught Grade 4 from 1978-2007 and continued as a Lower School substitute teacher for several more years. She served as Chair of Language Arts for many years and actively supported the campus’ Veterans Day and Earth Day programs. A cause close to her heart was New Jersey and its environment; her love of the state prompted her to help create the fourth-grade social studies curriculum, including participation in a pilot program with Jockey Hollow National Park. Proud of her own heritage, Mrs. McLaughlin was also instrumental in developing the fourthgrade immigration curriculum. She attended the College of St. Elizabeth and earned her certificate at Newark State Teacher’s College.

Mrs. McLaughlin’s husband of nearly 60 years, Dr. John J. McLaughlin, predeceased her in 2017. Survivors include four children, John ’78 (Elizabeth), Michael ’80 (Maureen), Mark ’83 (Julie), and Edie Nussbaumer ’84; 10 grandchildren, Connor ’12, Lauren ’15, Mary ’18, Emily ’21, Maura, Ann, Kaleigh, Patrick, Alex, and Trevor; brothers Walter and Francis (Susan); sister Carol (Bob); sister-in-law Ann; and 14 nieces and nephews. Mrs. McLaughlin passed away due to complications from COVID-19. On May 11, in a tweet and during his daily press briefing, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy paid tribute to her 30-plus years of teaching, noting that she passed away on National Teacher Day. On May 15, WCBS-TV in New York also paid tribute to Mrs. McLaughlin by noting her service to others, both as a career educator and by encouraging her children to be lifelong learners and career servants.

CHRISTINA COYLE “TINA” O’CONNELL-DUGGAN February 7, 2020, age 85, Short Hills, NJ Mrs. O’Connell-Duggan, a graduate of Rosemont College, taught Grade 1 at Pingry

from 1979-1994. For over 50 years, she volunteered at St. Anne’s School and St. John’s Soup Kitchen in Newark. She was predeceased by her siblings Lois and Vincent, and first husband of 29 years, Thomas R. O’Connell.

Survivors include her loving husband of 28 years, Edward Duggan; brother, E. Christian Stengel, six children: Carolyn (Stephen), Stephen (Eileen), Christopher (Beth), Susan (Kelly), Kathryn, and Ann ’85 (Joe); 12 grandchildren, including Christopher ’10; seven step-children: James (Barbara), Thomas (Tracey), Timothy (Jennifer), Maureen (Billy), Kathleen (Timothy), Christopher (Mary), and Melissa (Dr. E.C. Brugger); 27 step-grandchildren; and three step-great-grandchildren.

JOHN RAE WHITTEMORE ’47 May 16, 2020, age 90, Morristown, NJ A member of the Magistri, Mr. Whittemore worked at Pingry from 1957-1994, teaching biology and serving as an assistant wrestling coach for most of those 37 years; for the first nine, he taught history, reading, and science in the Junior School.

He also served as Head of the Science Department from 1978-1981. Mr. Whittemore received a Bachelor’s degree in Geology from the University of Virginia, served as a Lieutenant JG in the U.S. Navy during the Korean War, and began his career with the Inter-American Geodetic Survey, surveying jungle and mountain terrains as a cartographer in Central and South America. Mr. Whittemore later earned a Master’s degree in Education at New York University. Survivors include his wife of 60 years, Beth; son Thomas ’80; daughter Jennifer Sloane ’83 (Leslie); and grandchildren Amy, Kirsten, and Susan.

As this issue was going to press, we learned of the passing of former administrator, teacher, and coach Ed Cissel ‘39, P ‘73, who worked at Pingry from 1949-1967. An overview of his Pingry career appears in the May 2015 issue; an obituary will be published in the fall issue.

The editorial staff makes every effort to publish an obituary for and pay tribute to the accomplishments of alumni who have passed away, based on information available as of press time. If family members, classmates, or friends would like to submit tributes, please contact Greg Waxberg ‘96 at gwaxberg@pingry.org.

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Pingry in Your Neighborhood KEEPING YOU CONNECTED TO PINGRY

W

hile we will miss the opportunity to gather with generations of Pingry alumni across the country in the near future, we have created numerous opportunities for alumni to stay connected with Pingry and each other!

The Office of Institutional Advancement has launched Pingry People LIVE and Pingry People

Pingry People LIVE informs, inspires, and connects alumni with each other and the larger School community, reminding us of the strong Big Blue Bond we all share!

Pingry People LIVE features include: • Pingry Record journalist Eva Schiller ’21 interviews Former U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff ’71 to better understand what it will take for schools to open in the fall and the historic nature of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Until our next gathering, we remain united, from all corners of the country and across the globe. Thank you for your understanding and tireless support as alumni, and thank you for everything you are doing in your communities during this difficult time. For an up-to-date list of upcoming virtual events and programming, visit pingry.org/alumni.

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Helping, which include videos, articles, and podcasts, featuring some of our esteemed Pingry alumni being interviewed by reporters from The Pingry Record.

They discuss topics as varied as health and wellness, front line working experiences, and current events and entertainment.

Pingry People Helping highlights members of our community who are making a difference. Whether working on the front lines to provide essential services or being first to respond to a medical emergency, Pingry people are giving their time, energy, and tremendous talents to help those in need.

Pingry People Helping features include: • Pingry Record journalist Noah Bergam ’21 interviews Dr. Purvi Parikh ’00, who shares insights from her time working in a New York City hospital during the COVID-19 crisis.

To check out the Pingry People LIVE and Pingry People Helping series, featuring other amazing Pingry alumni, visit the “Community and Alumni Connections” section of pingry.org/well-being. Don’t forget to check your social media and email for exciting updates about this program. If you know a member of the Pingry community who could be featured on the web page, please email Cait Finneran, Associate Director of Alumni Relations & Special Events, at cfinneran@pingry.org or Frederique Lear Schachter ’96, P ‘27, ‘30, Advancement Associate, at fschachter@pingry.org.

A Visit to the Archives

A snapshot of search results within Bynder.

Pingry Photos à la Amazon To illustrate the wisdom of Archivist Peter Blasevick’s mantra that “any collection is only as usable as it is findable,” hundreds of thousands of digital photographs dating to the 2001-02 school year* are migrating to a digital asset management solution called Bynder, and will be more accessible for internal use by various departments.

Previously, images from events were archived on homegrown servers, inside specific folders within a school year, so individuals searching the collection needed to know which folder to check. But now, photos will live together in one comprehensive collection, with Bynder operating in the same spirit of “filtered searching” that makes Amazon and other websites so user-friendly. Now, entering search terms and checking off boxes under different categories narrow the results.

“The switch from folder-based storage to a more sophisticated solu-

tion was necessitated by a number of factors, including scalability—more images every year mean more folders and more places to look, whereas Bynder has the same ease of use whether there are 100 or 1,000,000 objects,” Mr. Blasevick says. In addition, Bynder makes it easier for users to preview images and to create and share collections with one another.

As with Mr. Blasevick’s other major projects, this migration is time-consuming, though he was able to devote more time to it during Pingry’s period of remote learning, using his home computer to add 30-40,000 pictures weekly. “We’re not just moving digital images from folder to folder—we have to create a spreadsheet for every group of photos being imported,” he says.

That spreadsheet might include data such as the date the pictures were taken; event name; campus; division;

U PDATE

> All of Pingry’s athletics

trophies have been organized and digitized — a yearlong project of cataloging, photographing, storing, and making the trophies available for future displays.

sport; gender; and photographer’s name. “In this process, we don’t have to label every photo individually, but we have nearly 600,000 digital photographs to move, so we do end up clicking on every one!”

At present, Bynder is only accessible to faculty and staff. Alumni who are interested in perusing the collection—or viewing any of Pingry’s archived materials—are welcome to schedule an appointment with Mr. Blasevick.

* Prior to 2001-02, photos were analog (printed pictures, slides, or negatives)—those will continue to be digitized.

To see more items from the Archives, visit Pingry Flashes Back (pingry.org/flashesback).

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A Final Look

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“Wear Your Still Life as a Hat!” Upper School Visual Arts Teacher Nan Ring’s students completed an assignment that combines realist drawing techniques for depicting 3D forms with a self-portrait to learn portraiture. The students found a hat that represents their personality, and while using a mirror, drew their selfportrait under the hat, which was adorned with the still life forms. “Learning to draw still life forms is a traditional lesson,” Ms. Ring says, “but the addition of the hat and portrait makes it more personal and relates it to the individual students’ lives.”

Art Fundamentals students used toned paper, charcoal pencils in white and black, compressed charcoal sticks, and Conté crayons.

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NON-PROFIT ORG. U.S. POSTAGE

PAID The Pingry School Basking Ridge Campus, Middle & Upper Schools Short Hills Campus, Lower School 131 Martinsville Road Basking Ridge, NJ 07920 CHANGE SERVICE REQUESTED

The Blumberg family posing with PINGRY, related to a nature-focused Lower School science project.

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