The Pingry Review - Winter 2018-19

Illuminating EXPERIENTIAL EDUCATION AT PINGRY

Lower School’s Seven Virtues • Matt Levinson, Next Head of School • Ted Corvino to Retire WINTER 2018-19

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THE PINGRY REVIEW

Credit: Rebecca Sullivan

Students in Rebecca Sullivan’s Drawing and Painting class take their studies outdoors. Pingry’s resident chickens, it turns out, are perfect subjects for learning how to capture movement in art. Read more on page 8.

Illuminating “Ex Ed” at Pingry Page 8 In 1926, a group of enterprising

students founded the School’s Honor Code —an initiative that epitomizes experiential education. Over 90 years later, it is more relevant and important than ever at Pingry.

On the cover: Cai O’Brien ’23 and Jordan Miller ’23 remove invasive weeds during a summer 2017 Global Field Studies Program in Yosemite National Park. Credit: Jeff Jewett, Director of Global Education.

Departments

From the Headmaster . . . . . 3 Scene Around Campus . . . . 4 Philanthropy . . . . . . . . . 26 School News . . . . . . . . . 32 Athletics News . . . . . . . . 40

Alumni News . . . . . . . . . 44 Visit to the Archives . . . . . 56 Class Notes . . . . . . . . . . 58 In Memoriam . . . . . . . . . 70 Closing Word . . . . . . . . . 72

26 Honor, Respect, and Politics Former New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman delivered the John Hanly Lecture on Ethics and Morality, emphasizing the importance of respectful conversations during times of disagreement.

32 Meet the Next Head of School Matt Levinson, who began his career in education in New Jersey and is currently Head of School at University Prep in Seattle, assumes the top job at Pingry on July 1.

36 Step Aside STEM . . .

Pingry’s independent research program—once an arena for the science-minded only—has a friendly rival: the humanities. Learn about the mind-bending project that literary Upper Schoolers, under the guidance of English teacher Graig Peterson, have been immersed in.

38 Lower School Director Ted Corvino to Retire At the end of the school year, Mr. Corvino will conclude a distinguished 45-year Pingry career as an administrator and a teacher. We offer a tribute—and a fun Q&A. WINTER 2018-19

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Opening Shot

Monroe Russell ’24 and Saniya Tariq ’24 use microscopes to explore cells and cell tissue, guided by Middle School science teacher Shauna Leffler P ’31.

Winter 2018-19 | Vol. 75 | No. 2

Editor Greg Waxberg ’96

Design and Layout Ruby Window Creative Group

Editorial Staff Kate Whitman Annis P ’23, ’23, ’28, ’30

Photography Camille Bonds Peter Chollick Bruce Morrison ’64 Dale V. Seabury Ryan Smith

Communications Writer

Associate Director of Institutional Advancement

The Honor Code

Pingry believes that students should understand and live by standards of honorable behavior, which are essentially a matter of attitude and spirit rather than a system of rules and regulations. Decent, selfrespecting behavior must be based on personal integrity and genuine concern for others and on the ethical principles which are the basis of civilized society. The members of the Pingry community should conduct themselves in a trustworthy manner that will further the best interests of the school, their class, and any teams or clubs to which they belong.

They should act as responsible members of the community, working for the common good rather than solely for personal advantage. They should honor the rights of others, conducting themselves at all times in a moral and decent manner while at Pingry and throughout their lives as citizens of and contributors to the larger community of the world.

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Elizabeth Breidinger

Director of Institutional Advancement

Allison C. Brunhouse ’00, P ’31

Director of Admission and Enrollment

Andrea Dawson Senior Writer

Holland Sunyak Francisco ’02

Director of Alumni Relations and Annual Giving

Edward Lisovicz

Advancement Writer

Dale V. Seabury P ’31

Director of Strategic Communications and Marketing

www.rubywindow.com

The Pingry Review is the official magazine of The Pingry School, with the primary purpose of disseminating news and information about the School, alumni, students, faculty, and staff.

Contact the editor with comments and story ideas: The Pingry School 131 Martinsville Road Basking Ridge, NJ 07920 gwaxberg@pingry.org 908-647-5555, ext. 1296

A LETTER FROM THE HEADMASTER

Dear Members of the Pingry Community A particular high school backpacking trip I took many years ago sticks with me.

It was mid-October, snowy in the Green Mountains, and excitement levels were high for a three-day hike on a section of the Long Trail. My classmates and I split into two groups, one beginning at each end of the section of trail that we were hiking, with a plan to cross paths mid-way and exchange keys so that we could take the other group’s van back to campus. At the trailhead, as my group began distributing goods to share the burden of carrying our supplies, we discovered that we were in possession of all the pots and pans. Oh, and fruit. The other group had the rest of the food, but nothing to cook it in. For a day and a half, we lived on fried oranges!

“. . . we are focused on building a learning environment and curriculum—fully integrated from Kindergarten to Form VI, and across disciplines —in which academics and experience go hand in hand . . .”

It was a memorable problem-solving exercise, to be sure. But for many of us, as we think back on our education, experiences and were more often than not separate, even divergent, concepts. We were either doing one or the other— we were inside the classroom learning, or outside of it, doing something else.

While more broadly accepted today, the idea that meaningful, impactful experiences can be central to schooling is not novel, nor is it something that most schools have made central to what they do. The opportunity to do just that—to place experiential learning at the heart of our academic programming, and to capitalize on the science, now well documented, of how the brain learns best— is pretty extraordinary. And it’s why, as you’ll read in this issue’s feature article, our Experiential Education Working Group, led by John Crowley-Delman ’97 and Rebecca Sullivan, is leading the charge at Pingry. From innovative, classroombased methods and co-curriculars to Community and Civic Engagement efforts and our growing offerings in Global Programs, we are focused on building a learning environment and curriculum—fully integrated from Kindergarten to Form VI, and across disciplines—in which academics and experience go hand in hand, where motivation is tapped, learning is deeper, and retention is lasting.

I encourage you to visit page 8 to discover how Pingry students have been getting in on the action.

Collecting flora specimens in the woods to better understand how a local ecosystem functions, learning how to craft a joint in order to build a timber-frame barn, or navigating your way out of a backpacking trip spent hungry are all specific aptitudes learned through experience, and certainly useful on their own.

But the more transferable skills of problem identification and problem solving, of collaborating, and of planning, structuring, and executing a project are all skills that are useful in just about anything you try to do. My hope is that when Pingry students look back on their education and talk about what and how they learned, they will recognize that it was largely through their varied, eye-opening, challenging, and yet ultimately rewarding experiences.

Sincerely,

Nathaniel E. Conard P ’09, ’11 WINTER 2018-19

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Scene Around Campus

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LaV! Left: Instructional Guide and German teacher Norm LaValette P ’04, contemplative in the classroom.

Upper School Fall Play Above: Pingry’s Drama Department presented Rick Elice’s Peter and the Starcatcher, a pirate tale that explores the events before a young, nameless orphan becomes the boy who never grew up— Peter Pan. Drama Department Chair Stephanie Romankow directed a cast and crew of more than 40 students.

Working Out Right: Sammi Barr ’22, exercising good form in the Greig Family Strength and Conditioning Center.

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Break Time Above: Abby Di Giorgio ’22, Maureen Schwarz ’22, and Camryn Cockerham ’22 in The Bear Pause (Pingry store).

The Joy of Music Right: Lower School music teacher Emma Liu with her students—the smiles say it all.

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Credit: Dr. Laura Herndon P '19, '22

Winning Robots Above: The Robotics Team at the FTC (FIRST Tech Challenge) Winter’s Edge Meet.

Pictured are members of Upper School teams 6069 and 14543, and Middle School team 14544, with advisors Dr. Marie-Pierre Jolly, Jeffrey Jenkins, and Christina Lee.

Lower School Musical Below: Students on stage for Junie B. Jones The Musical JR., an adaptation of four of Barbara Park’s best-selling books, brought to life with music and lyrics by Macy Heisler and Zina Goldrich. Lower School drama teacher Keara Gordon directed.

Illuminating EXPERIENTIAL EDUCATION AT PINGRY

Can a school hold close to its traditions and still be pioneering in its approach?

Growing up, John Crowley-Delman ’97 led two very different educational lives. For six years, from September through June, he was a student at Pingry—at the time, a school that was loyal to academically rigorous, classroom-centered learning. From June through August, however, the Adirondacks were his playground, as he reveled in intense, off-trail hiking, bushwhacking, and tentless camping at the progressive Camp Treetops, as it was called in the summer months, a co-ed sleepaway camp on the outskirts of Lake Placid, New York. (By age 13, he was an unofficial member of the Adirondack 46’ers, an elite club whose membership is reserved only for those—typically adults!— who have summited all 46 High Peaks in the Adirondacks.) He returned for two summers in college to serve as a counselor, and, later, as the camp’s Wilderness Trip Planner, designing and staffing an array of outdoor adventures, from hiking and canoeing to rock-climbing and horseback riding.

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VER since his childhood at Camp Treetops, he has longed to merge the two profoundly different, but, in his view, equally meaningful educational experiences. How can you take the “mind” part of Pingry—the academics—and meld it with the spiritual and physical realms, he wondered? At the heart of his wish lies a tricky pedagogical question, which many educational institutions today wrestle with: Can a school rightly proud of its academic heritage hold close to its traditions and still be pioneering in its approach? Can a Pingry and Camp Treetops coexist?

A catchphrase in schools over the last decade, experiential education has roots that go back much further; educational theorist John Dewey was an early proponent, penning Experience and Education in the late 1930s. Its historic arc—both in American education and at Pingry—is a point Mr. Crowley-Delman is quick to emphasize. The School has 158 years of successful pedagogical practice under its belt; ex ed is by no means meant to unravel it. What’s more, Pingry teachers have been implementing experiential education approaches for years.

Mr. Crowley-Delman, who returned to his high school alma mater in 2006 to teach Upper School history, believes it’s possible. Fresh off a yearlong sabbatical at St. John’s College in New Mexico—where he pored over Sanskrit and arcane philosophical texts in pursuit of a master’s degree in Eastern Classics— he has been named Pingry’s first Director of Experiential Education. Along with Upper School visual arts teacher and Experiential Education Coordinator Ms. Rebecca Sullivan—and in conjunction with Pingry’s recently formed Experiential Education Working Group—a visible face is now being placed on a school initiative that many Pingry faculty have been passionate about for years. Their first undertaking has been to design and implement programming surrounding this year’s professional growth theme: you guessed it—experiential education. As a natural outgrowth of Pingry’s 2018 Strategic Plan, experiential education is also a timely area of focus.

Case in point: Assistant Headmaster–Short Hills Campus and Lower School Director Ted Corvino P ’94, ’97, ’02, a 45-year veteran teacher and administrator whom Mr. Crowley-Delman credits with transforming a somewhat prim, books-and-desks Lower School into “a child’s world.” Thirtysome years ago, Mr. Corvino also happened to be his sixthgrade social studies teacher.

“I remember learning about the American Revolution from him, and he asked us, ‘What do you need to have a successful revolution?

Do you need a majority of the people behind you?’ The answer, which we figured out together, as a class, was a shock to me, a real ‘wow’ moment. No, you don’t need a majority. You need a minority of people to be really on board. The American Revolution was prompted by maybe a third of the people. We felt ownership over that experience in class. He always made us feel like we were the thinkers, the historians.”

“Pingry’s vision of experiential education is for the purpose of intellectual challenge, and to develop students who are curious for the rest of their lives.”

Experiential education, or “ex ed,” as it’s called, is an educational philosophy that underscores the importance of learning by doing and collaborating, as opposed to learning by simply reading or memorizing. Picture a class of Upper School visual art students, intently positioned in front of Pingry’s resident flock of chickens, learning how to capture movement in drawing. Or Lower Schoolers, who are not simply listening to their teacher read Ezra Jack Keats’s Snowy Day, a 1963 Caldecott Medal Winner, but tasked with figuring out how to prevent Peter’s cherished snowball from melting.

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Patti Euwer P ’97, a Lower School teacher since 1986, also recalls early efforts at experiential learning, which, she says, felt like a natural extension of the classroom at the time. For several years in the late ’80s, she engaged all her third-grade students in a soup-making endeavor, using whatever leftover potatoes or vegetables they could find at home. “We were recreating a meal that the pilgrims would have eaten. We made applesauce and cornbread. I remember you could smell them in the hallway. I wanted all of these students to come together to understand a little bit better about the life of early settlers. It was well before the term ‘experiential education’ even came about.”

Contrary to some prevailing stereotypes of experiential education, Mr. Crowley-Delman isn’t only a bearded outdoorsman, offering up camping trips and s’mores.

(For the record, as a graduate of the National Outdoor Leadership School’s Outdoor Educator program, he has been known to lead Pingry students on some pretty exciting backpacking adventures, most recently to the majestic red rock formations of southeastern Utah, where he pressed kids to consider the thorny topic of land use in the West—read more at pingry.org/ extras.) His ultimate goal is to curate a richly inspired learning environment that melds classroom learning with more innovative, student-guided methods. And he plans to build on existing, grassroots efforts among Pingry faculty to do so. “Pingry’s vision of experiential education is for the purpose of intellectual challenge, and to develop students who are curious for the rest of their lives,” he says. Consider an oyster rehabilitation project that Upper School science teacher Deirdre O’Mara P ’17, ’19, ’21 is undertaking with her marine biology class: In partnership with the Billion Oyster Project, she is taking students to New York Harbor to help reconstruct vital reefs, monitor oyster growth, and perform on-site research. That’s the kind of ex ed Mr. Crowley-Delman is getting at.

Look no further than the Outing Club, Independent Senior Projects (ISPs), the Upper School’s Student Tech Committee (STC), Global Programs, Project Week in the Middle School, and the Lower School’s gardens, to scratch the surface, and it’s clear that opportunities abound for Pingry students on both campuses to learn by doing. Look back even further in the School’s history and recall that the very founding of its Honor Code in 1926 was accomplished by a group of enterprising students, an undertaking that epitomizes experiential education: students, under the guidance of a teacher, creating—doing—on their own. Considering Pingry’s history and current efforts, readers may wonder: Why all the fuss now? And, at a time when many schools are jumping on the ex ed bandwagon, how is Pingry’s approach different?

Headmaster Nat Conard P ’09, ’11, who himself had a progressive secondary school education at The Mountain School in Vermont, where ex ed featured prominently, explains. “For years, Pingry teachers have successfully piloted ex ed. Now, we’re putting a name to it, and we’re making the experiences more purposeful, intentional, impactful, and strategic. And we’re training all faculty on how to do it.” Intentionality is an aspect Mr. Corvino

also points to. “Before, we had a teacher tap a maple tree so kids could have a pancake breakfast. Now, these hands-on experiences are more closely connected to the curriculum,” he explains. “You see [Lower School social studies teacher] Jason Haber bringing his students into the woods to recreate Lenape dwelling structures, and [Lower School science teacher] Sue Tummarello taking classes out to the campus stream to examine its ecosystem and native organisms. You have [Lower School science teacher] Heather Smith out in the garden, helping students make connections to their math and science classes. These are purposeful activities, and prove that not much is accomplished in the isolation of a classroom.”

What distinguishes Pingry’s approach, and the reason why Mr. Crowley-Delman has visited five schools to date in order to observe their ex ed programs at work, is the deliberacy with which the school is seeking to craft its own. Indeed, Pingry is building on its educational legacy while at the same time exploring innovative opportunities for hands-on, thought-provoking— perhaps even life-changing—learning experiences.

“No other school is quite taking the approach that we are,” Mr. Crowley-Delman explains. “Many offer hiking or backpacking trips, and that’s the end of the story. What is special about ex ed at Pingry is the ‘mind’ piece, and our focus on three specific levels of programming: the classroom and campus, the community, and our Global Field Studies courses, both domestic and international.

This is intellectual; this is deep learning. And this is hard. But that’s what makes it special.”

By its very nature, experiential education defies explanation, verbal and written. Words conspire to limit and undermine its very purpose. So, in the spirit of ex ed, we instead present what we hope are visually illuminating vignettes, examples of ex ed in action at Pingry—whether students are working inside the classroom, engaging in the larger community, or exploring the world beyond.

Now, let’s shine a light on the many faces of ex ed at Pingry.

For even more examples of ex ed in action at the School, visit pingry.org/extras.

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Campus & Classroom “You can’t stand up there and lecture them.

They’re used to technology and instant gratification; you have to keep them challenged . . .

The more experiences you can give them, the more broadly you are able to teach.”

—Assistant Headmaster–Short Hills Campus and Lower School Director Ted Corvino P ’94, ’97, ’02

During last fall’s in-service day, over 170 faculty and staff attended their choice of eight off-campus and 11 on-campus “Ex Ed in Action” workshops, all designed and led by Pingry faculty members.

Topics ranged from educational escape rooms to the politics of food to a chemistry-themed workshop on “blowing up your curriculum” by, quite literally, blowing things up. Here, Upper School science teacher Olivia Tandon invites her colleagues to get dirty, as they help her tend and harvest from the kitchen garden on the Basking Ridge Campus. With the fruits of their labor, including fresh eggs from Pingry’s chickens, they headed to the kitchen to prepare homemade quiche and salad.

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Rhea Kapur ’21, a member of Pingry’s Student Tech Committee, replaces a battery on a student’s 2015 MacBook Air. One of 12 students rigorously trained as an Apple Certified Mac Technician this school year (Pingry is now an official Apple Service Provider), she lends her expertise at the Bear Repair, a student-run troubleshooting and repair “shop” on the Basking Ridge Campus. To read more about Rhea’s work, visit pingry.org/extras.

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In the Lower School drama studio, a carefully designed curriculum encourages students to think creatively, problem solve, and collaborate. Here, drama teacher Keara Gordon leads a group in presenting a fairytale tableau of Little Red Riding Hood. As they act out three “live� scenes from the story, their classmates must guess what fairytale they are portraying!

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Campus & Classroom Jamie Wang ’20, Alina Irvine ’21, Alex Strasser ’19, and Guanyun Liang ’21—all members of Pingry’s Robotics Team—perform maintenance on Team 14543’s robot at the Bear-ly Built meet, the first Pingry-hosted FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Tech Challenge Robotics event. Sixteen teams from area schools converged on the Bugliari Athletics Center last October for the event. Team Advisor Jeffrey Jenkins notes how different that same robot looks today, just a few months later: “The differences show the continual design changes as students learn what has worked and refine robot systems to be more competitive throughout the season.”

Thanks to the initiative of Lower School science teacher Ms. Smith P ’16 and Grade 3 teacher Mrs. Euwer—who spent countless hours designing, placing raised beds and benches, and planning crops—the Short Hills Campus boasts a wellused learning garden/outdoor laboratory. (A second garden, built last school year by Grade 4 students and known as the Three Sisters Garden, reflecting Lenape culture, also exists on campus.)

Kindergartners learn not only about the science of pumpkins, but, under warm fall sunlight, have an opportunity to paint their own, too.

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Community “Even though I was just about four-and-a-half hours from the familiar halls of the Pingry campus, I was exposed to a lifestyle so drastically different from mine in suburban New Jersey . . . the experience forced me to evaluate my own way of life from a totally new perspective.”

—Drew Beckmen ’19

In the process of designing its own farm and garden program, Pingry has taken several groups of students for one-week courses over the last few winters to the Adirondacks’ North Country School (Camp Treetops in the summer months), where maple syrup tapping, barn cleaning, cooking, and snowshoeing are all in a day’s work. During one such visit two years ago, several students were inspired to get Pingry on the composting bandwagon. Thanks to their efforts— and a grant from the Union Foundation—a campus composter is currently under construction.

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Every October, Pingry students participate in a Community Service and Civic Engagement Day (recently renamed from “Community Service Day” to better align with Pingry’s philosophical approach—that is, not simply offering service, but partnering with and learning from others). Here, at America’s Grow-a-Grow in Pittstown, they prepare a greenhouse for winter.

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Community Visual arts teacher Rebecca Sullivan leads a group of students on a weekend urban hike through Jersey City, visiting, among other artistic highlights, Natural Springs, the mural work of artist Shepard Fairey.

Members of the Middle School Girls’ Chorus sang for residents of Centerbridge II, a retirement community in Bridgewater. After their performance, they color pictures and enjoy snacks with them.

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Global “Place-based learning is really cool.

It’s not only hands-on but . . . relatable. You actually understand because you can physically see what you’re learning about.”

—Josie Cummings ’18

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Like all Pingry Global Field Studies Programs, this spring 2017 backpacking adventure to southeast Utah, led by Mr. CrowleyDelman, Ms. Sullivan, and Upper School history teacher Matt Horesta, had an “essential question� tied to it: Should the Bears Ears National Monument designation be rescinded? Spurning the notion of student tourism, Pingry students travel with purpose, and are expected to ponder, grapple, debate, and reflect on a range of difficult issues. Here (top left), they had to decide as a group whether to stop and head back to their campsite, or plow ahead.

They forged ahead, and discovered one of the most awe-inspiring pictograph panels (bottom left) of the entire program.

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“It made me realize how closed-minded I am—not necessarily ignorance, but an unawareness.

I had become so familiar with what I knew that I lacked the understanding of what I hadn’t experienced . . .”

—Luc Francis ’21

Luc Francis ’21 and other Upper Schoolers study the biodiversity of Belize’s barrier reefs during a summer 2018 Global Field Studies Program. Snorkeling through the Hol Chan Marine Reserve Area among nurse sharks, southern stingrays, and a giant green turtle was a highlight.

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While on a 2017 summer program in China, 17 Pingry students learned the art of dumplingmaking and practiced Tai Chi with a master. During their visit, they experienced homestays with peers from Pingry’s sister school, Quzhou No. 2 High School.

Global In the ultimate example of experiential education, three Pingry students—Miro Bergam ’19, Ketaki Tavan ’19, and Ethan Malzberg ’19—parlayed their campus-based efforts, which they began as freshmen, to fundraise and educate the Pingry community about the work of The Denan Project, into a 10-day Global Field Studies Program through Peru last summer. Here, the villagers of Uratari are hosting a welcome ceremony for them, their first “outside” visitors in more than 10 years. Read more about Miro, Ketaki, and Ethan’s experiences on page 24.

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In Our Own Words: Ketaki Tavan ’19, Miro Bergam ’19, and Ethan Malzberg ’19 In the spring of 2017, our first annual Charity Night was a huge triumph for us. Since our freshman year, we have worked to help support the efforts of The Denan Project (TDP)—an all-volunteer, nonprofit organization that provides health and development assistance to underserved people living in Peru, Mongolia, and Ethiopia.

The Charity Night propelled our work with TDP, which had previously consisted of pizza sales and Dress Down Days, into a far wider audience. It had a strong focus on education and awareness as opposed to solely fundraising, as we had done before. The event also helped to fund water delivery to a refugee camp in Denan, Ethiopia, during its drought.

It also brought in the President and Founder of TDP, Dick Young, as the keynote speaker, drawing an audience of over 100 attendees who took time out of their Friday evenings to learn more about the organization and its mission.

Toward the end of the night, we were approached by Mr. Jewett, Pingry’s Director of Global Education, who proposed a travel course to one of TDP’s locations. The three of us had already been planning a trip to cap off our work with the organization near the end of high school, but, collaborating with Mr. Jewett, we were able to transform that goal into the first-ever, student-driven Pingry Global Field Studies Program. We led the charge in designing the curriculum and the accompanying two-week itinerary for the program, guided by Mr. Jewett’s knowledge of experiential education and [Director of Community and Civic Engagement] Ms. Hartz’s experience with community service. Mr. Jewett, Ms. Hartz, and Ms. Torres [Upper School science teacher], who was also involved in the implementation of the curriculum, all served as trip leaders.

Having been involved in nonprofit work for nearly three years, we set out with specific questions that we knew we couldn’t find answers to in a classroom 24

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setting. We wanted to understand how these organizations operated from the inside. The purpose of the program was to conduct case studies of three nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in Peru, including TDP, through the lens of sustainability. Sustainability, as it applies to our research, is the ability of an NGO’s work to foster independence in a community. We hypothesized that, in an ideal world, a sustainable NGO could step away from the community in a finite period of time, and the community would thrive on its own (as opposed to a nonprofit pouring endless resources into a project).

We compared and contrasted their models for building sustainable communities, exploring the following questions: • Is this work sustainable, and if not, how can it be improved?

Pingry’s group visiting Machu Picchu in Peru.

• Does the work build independence or dependence in local communities?

• How do factors such as tourism and geography influence the approach and impact of an NGO? Sacred Valley Health (SVH), also known as Ayni Wasi in Quechua, an indigenous language of Peru, was the first NGO we visited. Based in the town of Ollantaytambo, in southern Peru, Ayni Wasi serves nearby high-altitude communities by giving health education to elected women called “Promotoras.”

Promotoras are trained bimonthly by Ayni Wasi to serve as caregivers in their home communities. By giving these jobs to local women, Ayni Wasi helps set the communities on a path to

success, regardless of whether or not the organization is there in the future.

Ayni Wasi’s approach to sustainability relies on the training of local women so that they can depend on their own knowledge rather than that of SVH. Awamaki, the second Peruvian NGO we visited, helps register female weaving collectives as official businesses.

Awamaki assists these collectives in determining the value of their weaving products and helps the women gain confidence in their selling strategies. In doing so, Awamaki hopes to preserve the weaving tradition in rural communities. By instilling confidence in the women and helping the cooperatives become officially recognized, Awamaki helps these women continue the tradition of their craft. Awamaki’s model of sustainability depends on women graduating from its program and becoming autonomous in the weaving economy.

The Denan Project was the final Perubased NGO we visited. Its microloan program, through which TDP loans out cuy (guinea pigs, as we know them) and bees to local people, teaches business skills and fiscal responsibility. TDP executives attend community meetings every time they visit Peru. During these meetings, TDP examines the business models of potential microloan recipients to ensure the program’s success. Because of the nature and success of its microloans, TDP never loses money on a transaction, making this exchange inherently sustainable. Additionally, the recipients of the loans, themselves, are the ones responsible for turning the loans into a business that stimulates the economy of their community. These skills and the businesses that result can outlast TDP itself.

sustainability allows the organization to efficiently provide an array of services; this perspective illuminated for us the limits of an exclusively sustainable approach.

Outside of these three NGOs, we visited the Peruvian cities and towns of Lima, Cusco, and Machu Picchu. While sightseeing in these locations was highly enjoyable, the immersive nature of our trip made them equally academic.

Witnessing the commodification and tourism of Machu Picchu served as a standing reminder of how tourism can shape the landscape for indigenous peoples—something we saw both support and undo the work of organizations like Awamaki and Ayni Wasi.

The program reached its climax when, on our final day, we visited the Congress of Peru. Our group had the opportunity to meet with Congressman Wilbert Rozas, Chairwoman of the Congressional Education Committee Paloma Noceda, and President of the Congress Luis Galarreta to discuss TDP’s proposed construction of a boarding school in the village of Uratari that would allow students from neighboring villages to

attend. This meeting put to work all of the communication skills and NGO knowledge we had accrued during our two-week trip.

Nonprofit work is not inherently perfect.

An NGO’s model can only be sustainable with the understanding that it is an outside source that must adapt to the needs of and empower the local people.

With this awareness, an effective and long-lasting impact can be made.

Ultimately, this trip was an important culmination of our work with TDP. While we did gain valuable findings regarding sustainability and nonprofit work, we also explored questions of culture, power, privilege, and humanity. These questions are all inherently relevant when it comes to nonprofit work and the variables that contributed to our study of it, including politics, governmental structures, and other societal factors. Getting to learn so immersively from the real world was a truly valuable experience that we will never forget.

The experience forever changed the way that we approach nonprofit work, and we hope to continue spreading that knowledge.

The greatest finding we learned while investigating TDP’s project was that, often, sustainability must be compromised in order for greater change to occur. For example, the funding of TDP’s hospital would not be possible without large international donations (which are not sustainable sources of money).

However, without such donations, TDP would be unable to offer medical care as a service. TDP’s practical outlook on Ethan Malzberg ’19, Ketaki Tavan ’19, and Miro Bergam ’19.

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Philanthropy

Governor Whitman Discusses Honor, Respect, and Politics “We all have a concept in our heads about the right way to behave. We don’t all share the same views on the specifics, but we all start with that same idea.”

So began Christine Todd Whitman GP '23, '23, '28, '30, former Governor of New Jersey, when she opened this year’s John Hanly Lecture on Ethics and Morality. The Governor referenced her experiences with the Whitman Strategy Group, as Environmental Protection Agency Administrator under President George W. Bush, and, of course, as Governor of New Jersey. She also shared one of her favorite quotes about leadership, courtesy of President Dwight D. Eisenhower: “Leadership is about getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it.” Summarizing, she said, “You have to know why you want to do something and why it’s important so you can convince other people it’s important to them.”

Given the political climate of recent years, Governor Whitman pointed out that many people are tending to hold fast to their opinions. “The ability to have a conversation with someone you disagree with has become more and more difficult,” she said. “People are being told that they can’t compromise, because whomever you say the word ‘compromise’ to becomes convinced that they are giving something up.”

The Governor then engaged with a group of Upper School and Middle School students drawn from the Honor Board and Student Government, answering questions they had prepared.

The round-table format saw a wide range of topics, including managing healthy relationships with people you may have had disagreements with (“First of all, listen to them…tease out what you agree is a problem. If we agree that 26

THE PINGRY REVIEW

partisan politics to determine policy, which has made it extremely hard for people to come together. We zealously guard our rights under a democracy, but forget we have responsibilities: Being informed, voting, and being engaged about issues we care about.”).

Following the lecture, Governor Whitman had lunch with Middle and Upper School students. The conversations revolved around what honor and respect mean for students at Pingry, as well as probing questions for the Governor about her career in politics and her potential solutions to some problems facing Americans and, in particular, residents of New Jersey.

Former New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman speaking to the audience before answering students’ questions.

“People are being told that they can’t compromise, because whomever you say the word ‘compromise’ to becomes convinced that they are giving something up.”

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––––––––––––– an issue needs to be solved, we have the basis for a conversation.”), to personal differences in belief with those leading the Bush administration (“The president and I didn’t disagree . . . as a cabinet member, one of the first things you learn is that you don’t determine policy … your job is to give the President and Vice President the best advice you can.”), to the current high levels of public distrust in government (“We’ve allowed

Addressing the incursion of social media into the world of politics, the Governor said: “It has the capacity to do great good—it allows information to spread and disseminate quickly and keep the public informed. However, it can also do harm if people limit themselves to echo chambers that only reinforce their preconceived beliefs.” (Her statement about echo chambers aligned with the Convocation speech delivered in September by Headmaster Nat Conard P ’09, ’11, who charged the students to remove themselves from echo chambers.) The conversation then shifted to a discussion of news media, and avoiding bias in media consumption. “If you go to two sources with a different take on an issue,” she said, “the truth is usually somewhere in the middle—but there’s always a judgment call that you have to make.”

The John Hanly Lecture Series on Ethics and Morality was established in 1999 on the occasion of former Headmaster John Hanly’s retirement, to commemorate his commitment to teaching students and other members of the School community how to make decisions within an ethical framework.

A Day In the Life of the Pingry Physics Suite Day “C”: just another day in the Pingry Physics Suite. Room 136 opens at 8:05 a.m. on an electric note—AP Physics: Electricity and Magnetism, with Jeff Jenkins for a full hour (kicking off the day with topics such as electrostatics, charged particles, electric potential energy, and potential energy gradients and how they relate to electric forces).

From there, things relax a little bit— Introductory Physics, with Jill (Kehoe) Law ’04—as students begin to explore the concepts that will be delved into much more thoroughly in the higherlevel courses. A brief reprieve follows for lunch, then things ramp up again with an Honors Physics class taught by Bill

Bourne P ’08, before the day closes with another junior year introductory session with Dr. Azadeh Samadani.

window-lined teachers’ offices, the buzzing hub of activity and collaboration that binds the classrooms together.

Room 140 sees a totally different share of Pingry students; the day begins with freshman Physics students taught by Chuck Coe P ’88, followed by AP Physics: Mechanics with Dr. Samadani. After lunch, it hosts Mr. Jenkins for the first time that day with Physics I, when students gain proficiency with the skills required to excel in the physical sciences. The day closes out on an intense note, AP Physics: Mechanics, with Mr. Coe. Before, after, and between classes, students of all grade levels can be seen poring over their textbooks in the

This snapshot provides only a brief glimpse into the not-so-secret life of the Pingry science labs; every hour of the school day throughout the year, these newly renovated and modernized spaces are being put to work by enthusiastic students and faculty. Thankfully, both class and lab spaces can be modulated to suit physics students at any point in their learning, from humble beginnings to undergraduate-level research (ask Dr. Samadani about having students spin on a rotating table to model inertia and angular momentum!).

“We’re so grateful to those who gave us these renovated spaces,” Dr. Samadani says. “We love the new labs—the spaces are so much bigger for students to spread out and do the experiments.

We can customize the labs and store all of the equipment we need.”

“For me, the new common areas have been incredible,” Mr. Coe adds. “When I assign group work, the students use those spaces to collaborate and work together even during class time. It gives them the seclusion to discuss the task at hand without sacrificing the space they need to work.”

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CREATE YOUR LEGACY

BY INCLUDING PINGRY IN YOUR ESTATE PLANS TODAY

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True Blue Spotlight Q&A with members of Pingry’s True Blue Society, those who have given to the School for 10 or more consecutive years.

Deirdre O’Mara P ’17, ’19, ’21, Biology Teacher and Head Coach of the Girls’ Varsity Swim Team (24th year at Pingry)

would have been able to figure out without Pingry. The way they go through the day, they are experiencing something totally unique to them—it’s incredible to see that in my home.

What inspires you about Pingry today?

This is a hard one to answer—the School has evolved so much over my tenure here. Some of my close friends from teaching are still some of my closest friends today. Gail Castaldo P ’00, Clare Gesualdo, and Ginny McGrath P ’95, ’00 were absolutely wonderful friends and mentors—besides the fact that they were amazing, gifted teachers, they always made me laugh.

There are quite a few things—as a professional, it’s the constant drive for creative, intelligent teaching. It’s impossible to imagine any place striving harder than we do. The creative process is held in such high regard here—it makes me excited to come in every day and see what’s new.

As a parent, it’s totally different—my children are all completely different people, and I have been privileged to watch them value and discover different things about themselves from their teachers— things that I could never have taught them! Pingry has awoken something special in each of them, given each a unique stamp of identity that they never

What is your fondest Pingry memory?

In 2009, when I was running the SMART Team, we won a poster competition at the International Experimental Biology Meeting—and we were up against teams from Princeton, Duke, and Yale!

My students were just high school sophomores, but they won this big award for a poster we submitted to an international scientific meeting—that was pretty unbelievable.

Deirdre O’Mara P ’17, ’19, ’21.

What has been your most memorable experience as a teacher?

It has to be teaching and sharing a classroom with Miller! I mentioned Pingry was very different back then— we didn’t have the sophisticated lab setups and teaching spaces that we have today. Miller and I shared a classroom—back in those days, his office was right next door. Every day, he would come in and ask the kids an enthusiastic, “HOW’S EVERYBODY DOIN’?” I was fresh out of the box at that point—but I’ll never forget it!

A Lifetime Connection to Pingry for John Boffa ’72

John Boffa ’72.

Throughout his professional and personal lives, John Boffa ’72 has cultivated and maintained a deep personal connection to Pingry—he has consistently supported The Pingry Fund for decades, volunteered for events like Reunion and Career Day, and included Pingry in his estate plans. “Pingry was a very consuming part of my life, and it was instrumental in giving me experiences that would help me in the future,” he says.

Early on, Mr. Boffa learned the value of hard work and how to manage a multitude of priorities—like all Pingry students. “At Pingry, we used to start each day at 8:15 a.m. with chapel service,” he recalls. “Then we had classes—then a formal sit-down lunch—then we had more classes—then we had clubs— then we had athletics—so, by the time we got home, it was probably 6:30 or 7:00 p.m. Add in four hours of homework, and Pingry consumed our entire day.” Perhaps balancing his school work with cross country, Glee Club, The Pingry Record, and founding the Pingry Ecology Club is what taught Mr. Boffa to manage his time so effectively—though his connection to Pingry did more for his career than that.

“I always thought I would be a newspaper editor, though it didn’t turn out that way,” Mr. Boffa says. “I leveraged my Independent Study Project (ISP) to get a job after college—I called up Mary Louise Sprague (then a Pingry parent),

who I had interned for with my ISP. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go directly to graduate school or work for a year or two first, so I asked her advice. She talked to me for about an hour, and at the end of that hour she said, ‘Call me up in about a week and let me know what you’ve decided.’ I called her up a week later and told her that I still hadn’t made up my mind, and she told me she just so happened to have an opening for a newspaper reporter. I think that, by asking her for advice instead of asking for a job, that showed my respect for her and my seriousness about journalism—and so she gave me my first job.”

For Mr. Boffa, including Pingry in his estate plans was one of the easiest decisions he has ever made. “I decided that I would leave a portion of my estate to Pingry. It’s my way of thanking the School for the excellent education I received— and since the biggest mistake people make is to put off planning their estates, I decided to make that gift years ago.”

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Calling All Young Alumni!

Join the Blue and White Club

The Blue and White Club is open to all young alumni, one to 15 years out of Pingry, and strives to create a vibrant and well-connected community of young alumni who demonstrate their Pingry pride through engagement, volunteerism, and philanthropy.

The Pingry alumni network is one of the greatest resources available to members of our community—and can open the door to incredible opportunities. The Blue and White Club aims to help create and foster those opportunities.

As we build the Blue and White Club’s leadership team and event programming, we’re counting on young alumni like you.

Get in on the ground level of this incredible opportunity to be a part of something big—volunteer as a class ambassador to help engage your peers and raise critical support for your school, or simply join as a member by making a gift. Not only will you claim a leadership role in the “long blue line” of Pingry alumni, but you’ll also gain entry to networking and social events—including Reunion—COMPLETELY FREE. Questions? Want to get involved? Contact Osa Fasehun ’14, Assistant Director, Next Generation Giving and Engagement, at ofasehun@pingry.org or by phone at 908-647-5555, ext. 1266.

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Join Jan! Make a Gift for Pingry’s Future Sixty years out of Pingry might seem like a long time, but Jan Kennedy ’59 will be the first to tell you that it seems to have passed in the blink of an eye.

Since graduating, he has worked hard to find success in life—attending an Ivy League institution, studying abroad in Belgium, marrying his high school sweetheart, working in his passion (aeronautics) in a booming economy, and retiring early.

Mr. Kennedy credits Pingry with teaching him resilience and determination, as well as igniting his curiosity and lifelong passion for learning.

Feeling indebted to the institution that gave him so much, he felt it appropriate to pay it forward by investing in Pingry’s future through a planned gift. His reason? “I want to help underprivileged students,” he says, “those who might want to attend Pingry, but don’t have the financial ability.”

CHALLENGE

Join Jan! This year— his 60th Reunion —he is calling on his classmates to join him in making a planned gift for Pingry’s future, with a goal of getting 25 percent of the class to join the C.B. Newton Society.

This planned gift makes him a member of the C.B. Newton Society, which recognizes everyone who has included Pingry in their estate plans. This year—his 60th Reunion—he is calling on his classmates to join him in making a planned gift for Pingry’s future, with a goal of getting 25 percent of the class to join the C.B. Newton Society. “Although much has changed at Pingry since our school days,” he says, “things like

the Honor Code and striving for academic excellence remain as important as ever. My love of Pingry has kept me an active volunteer for many years, and it is why I have included Pingry in my estate plans.

In doing so, I am both affirming my commitment to Pingry’s future and ensuring that my future support is directed as I wish.”

Everyone who has included Pingry in their estate plans can become a member of the C.B. Newton Society—all you have to do is let us know! It’s never too early to start thinking about your Pingry legacy, and letting the School know that you’ve designated a portion of your estate to Pingry has a myriad of benefits: 1. Peace of mind—ensuring that your wishes will be fulfilled as you see fit.

2. Designating a purpose—like Mr. Kennedy, you can support the programs at Pingry that mean the most to you.

3. Recognition—if you let us know that you’ve included Pingry in your estate planning, the School can express its gratitude during your lifetime for a gift that will come later.

Members of the Class of ’59 who are interested in setting a new planned giving Reunion record, please contact Major Gifts Officer Mary Whithed at mwhithed@pingry.org or at 908-647-5555, ext. 1264.

Ways to make a Planned Gift to Pingry • Bequest—as easy as including one sentence in your will • Naming Pingry as a beneficiary of your IRA, 401(k), or 403(b) • Charitable Gift Annuity—provides annual income during your lifetime • Real Estate—leaving Pingry one of your real estate holdings WINTER 2018-19

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Pingry Announces Next Head of School Following a comprehensive, five-month search process, which culminated in a unanimous vote by the Board of Trustees, Pingry was pleased to announce on November 30 that Matt Levinson was selected to be its 16th Head of School. He will assume his new role on July 1, 2019.

Mr. Levinson brings to Pingry over 25 years of leadership experience in independent schools, most recently as Head of School at University Prep in Seattle, Washington, and previously in senior leadership positions at Marin Country Day School and The Nueva School, both in the San Francisco Bay Area. He began his career in education at Princeton Day School and was active in summer programs at both New Jersey SEEDS and Prep for Prep. In addition to his leadership experience, he has taught Middle and Upper School history, served as department chair and grade-level dean, and coached varsity soccer. Mr. Levinson has established a strong record as an innovative educator 32

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“I have long known of Pingry since my early days as a teacher in New Jersey, and I have always admired and been impressed with the School’s commitment to its Honor Code, and its clear and unequivocal focus on what is best for students . . . In every conversation I had with members of the Pingry community, I was struck by everyone’s deep and abiding passion for the School. What stood out most, however, was the persistent and dedicated focus on students and teachers, the lifeblood of the community . . . stories of connection and impact, and a genuine pride in how Pingry forges enduring relationships.”

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Excerpt from Matt Levinson’s letter to the Pingry community

who is dedicated to the health and well-being of his school community.

Time and again throughout its process and in speaking with his former colleagues, the Search Committee confirmed Mr. Levinson’s leadership skills and fluency with the myriad issues facing independent schools today.

Thanks to your collective feedback, and the guidance of Search Committee Co-Chairs Stuart Lederman ’78 and Katharine Procter P ’22, ’26, a thorough

search process has reached a wonderful conclusion. We are delighted to welcome Matt Levinson and his family to our community. As Pingry embraces the next chapter in its 158-year history, we are confident he will shepherd the School skillfully, wisely, and compassionately. As Mr. Levinson’s official start date approaches, we look forward to welcoming him to our campuses and to introducing him to our community.

Q&A

Credit: Rhea Kapur '21

with Matt Levinson

By Brynn Weisholtz ’20

This piece is adapted from an interview conducted by The Pingry Record Editors-in-Chief Miro Bergam ’19 and Ketaki Tavan ’19, Senior Assistant Editor Felicia Ho ’19, and Assistant Editor Brynn Weisholtz ’20. The original article is titled “Next Year’s Head of School Matt Levinson Introduces Himself” and can be found in the December issue (Volume CXLV, Number II) of The Pingry Record.

How do you plan to connect with the students, faculty, and staff in the Pingry community beyond the classroom?

I plan to connect with the students by attending various events, such as games and drama productions. After being a classroom teacher for 14 years, I don’t know any other way to be part of a school community. I am also eager to visit classes to see the great teaching and learning, and to get to know all of the amazing staff through participating in a variety of activities and events.

What are you most looking forward to in joining the Pingry community?

I am most looking forward to meeting as many people as possible and learning about the Pingry community from administrators, faculty members, students, parents, and alumni.

How would you describe your leadership style in three words?

I would describe myself as collaborative, inclusive, and energetic; I am constantly in motion and try to engage everyone across all aspects of the school.

What do you hope to bring to Pingry?

When I attended Haverford College, they had an Honor Code and it was the single most defining part of my college education. It imbued the whole community, affecting how we engaged with each other and how we approached learning in the classroom; it acted as our conscience. I hope to bring this experience with me to Pingry, to continue to shape the power of the Honor Code in the Pingry community.

I’m sure you already have a preliminary vision for the impact you will have on Pingry. Can you share some of your immediate and long-term goals for our community?

The most immediate goal is getting to know everybody. I want to spend the first months meeting with students and faculty and staff. I want to focus mainly on involving the community in the work toward the five key themes Pingry has in place with respect to its 2018 Strategic Plan. The students are the lifeblood of the school, so it’s important to hear what they have to say. We need to have different kinds of conversations regarding the School’s pillars and more involvement in

applying strategic plans to address the issues we face as a community. My longterm goal of bringing people together in a whole, inclusive, and collaborative community can be accomplished by distributing leadership and empowering people to work on something they are truly passionate about.

Do you have any plans of stepping back into the classroom at Pingry to teach?

Having taught AP European History, AP U.S. History, American Studies, and middle school history, I would love to find a way back into the history department.

If you think of this Q&A as your introduction to the community, what would you want to say?

I would hope that you are all open and receptive to dialogue and that we can continue it while I am here. I want the community to get to know me in a personal way.

Visit pingry.org/headsearch to learn more about Pingry’s Head of School search process and Mr. Levinson’s extensive leadership experience, and to read his entire letter to the Pingry community.

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The Seven Virtues

A Reintroduction at the Lower School and strengthen the Honor Code in the Middle School. Mrs. Finn, who was on the committee (late 1980s) that led to the 1994 creation of the Lower School’s Code of Conduct, immediately thought of the banners. “I just decided, after hearing what Mike said, that we could do more here in the Lower School to prepare the kids for the Middle School,” she says. “My intent was to identify an Honor Code initiative that was pervasive, but I didn’t want to create extra work for the teachers. Reviving the seven virtues felt natural.”

Seven brightly colored felt banners, each bearing a single word, were handed to Dr. Sandy Lizaire-Duff P ’25, Assistant Director of the Lower School, when she arrived at Pingry in 2016. They came from her predecessor Carolyn Gibson P ’03. “She never explained to me how they came about or how they related to Pingry,” Dr. Lizaire-Duff recalls.

“They were a mystery to me.” So, she stored them in her office and settled in to life at Pingry. Then, at the end of the last school year, music teacher Patty Finn happened to ask about them.

Suddenly, their mystery—and history— began to unravel.

As Mrs. Finn explains, in the early 1990s, when Joyce Hanrahan (Ted Corvino’s predecessor) was Director of the Lower School, she selected a book each year for the faculty to read together. One year, she selected The Children’s Book of Virtues, edited by William J. Bennett, and, to accompany the book, had seven banners made, each reflecting a different virtue presented in the book: respect, loyalty, honesty, courage, hope, justice, and love. Each month during the school year, Mrs. Gibson displayed one of the banners, which served as a discussion point for students, faculty, and staff. Mrs. Finn either found or 34

THE PINGRY REVIEW

SEPTEMBER - GREEN

RESPECT

OCTOBER - PURPLE

HONESTY NOVEMBER - BLUE

HOPE

DECEMBER - BLUE (CONTINUED)

HOPE

JANUARY - TAN

JUSTICE FEBRUARY - RED

COURAGE MARCH - ORANGE

LOYALTY APRIL - PINK

LOVE

wrote a song to complement the virtue.

“Gradually, the tradition kind of disappeared,” Mrs. Finn remembers.

Fast forward about 20 years, to the end of the 2017-18 school year and a meeting of Pingry Magistri faculty.

Mike Webster P ’24, ’27, ’27, Middle School history teacher, wondered what more could be done to revivify

And so, during Morning Announcements this year, which Grade 5 students are responsible for preparing and presenting over the loudspeaker, with Mrs. Finn‘s help, a little something extra is added to their run-down of school news items: a quote, thought, anecdote, or piece of trivia related to one of the virtues.

Accompanying the Morning Announcements are Mrs. Finn’s songs, which students learn and sing in class or during assemblies. As before, she either finds or writes them herself. Buttons have also been made, one for each virtue, which faculty wear. Lower School visual arts teacher Russell Christian has rendered graphics to complement the quotes about each virtue, which are featured on the display monitor in the Theodore M. Corvino Lower School Commons. And those colorful banners?

They now hang front-and-center outside the Main Office.

Lower School Librarian Ann D’Innocenzo is also in on the action. “Since the early 2000s, the library has always had a window [to the right of the door] decorated with the theme of a particular virtue.

Kudos to Patty for bringing this tradition back and making it more prevalent in the School,” she says. “It’s making a big difference.” Mrs. Finn notices a difference, too. “The younger kids are asking me a lot of questions about the virtues.

I think it’s one of those things that will grow. Our society needs a little civility right now.”

Talking in the Library!

Picture this scene: Middle School students, in the same English class, sit together on the quiet side of the C.B. Newton Library, a book of choice in many students’ hands. Though it is normally a “quiet” space, library rules are temporarily suspended while they take turns discussing books they have read or are reading (no spoilers!), perhaps inspiring their classmates to seek out the same titles.

They’re involved in a Book Talk, started

by Middle School Librarian Felicia Ballard and English teacher and Form III/ IV Dean of Student Life Carol Mahida in 2015-16* (the year Ms. Ballard and Ms. Mahida joined Pingry). “It’s about honoring the act of reading, getting students to read, and valuing their opinions. It’s one thing for me to recommend books, but it’s different to hear it from your peers, especially in Middle School,” Ms. Ballard says. Ms. Mahida brought the idea to Pingry, based on Book Talks that a fellow teacher initiated at her previous school (Allen-Stevenson in Manhattan).

“It feels like a real-world experience because the students aren’t sharing

New Staff

(This philosophy aligns with faculty/staff summer reading in 2018—self-selection from a list of offerings, followed by group discussions; read more at pingry.org/ extras.) English Department Chair Christine Taylor also reminds students about “different kinds of books for different purposes . . . some might not be the best to read before going to sleep.”

Middle School students discussing books by the same author.

things like sentence structure,” she points out. “It’s a more balanced approach to talk about content, and it’s important for them to realize that, whatever you’re interested in, there’s a book about it, and you can talk about it.”

Following the group discussion, students have time to read or explore the shelves.

“We believe in self-selection,” says Middle School English teacher Bria Barnes, “so students can build independence as they figure out what they like to read.”

A Birthday Wish, Mrs. Hoffman earned a B.A. in History at The College of William & Mary and an M.S. in Fundraising Management at Columbia University.

Tracy Dana, Leadership Gift Officer, most recently served as Director of Annual Giving at Crossroads School for Arts & Sciences in Santa Monica, where she managed a multimillion-dollar annual fund. Prior to Crossroads, she worked in New York as a Major Gifts Officer at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Mount Sinai Medical Center. Ms. Dana earned a B.A. in History, with minors in African Studies and British Literature, at St. Lawrence University.

Elizabeth “Libby” Kasserman P ’29, Advancement Associate, recently served as Director of Operations at Somerset Rehabilitation Services.

Prior to that, she was Omni-Channel Account Executive for TUMI and Operations Manager for Nine West Group. Ms. Kasserman earned a B.A. in Political Science at Rutgers University.

Jane (Shivers) Hoffman ’94, Associate Director of Parent Engagement, returns to Pingry after serving as Director of Major Gifts and Director of Leadership Programs from 2003 to 2008. An active alumna, Mrs. Hoffman has also served on the PAA Executive Board and been Alumni Co-Chair of The Pingry Fund.

Founder of the non-profit organization

Helena Moseman, Administrative Assistant, Basking Ridge Campus, spent the past three years as receptionist, office manager, and Human Resources Assistant at the healthcare marketing agency RevHealth.

A proud mother to three adult children, Ms. Moseman earned a degree in Communications at New York University.

And there’s another benefit of Book Talks: Middle School students are getting to know the librarians and the library’s resources. “They are going to the library on their own, checking out books, and holding their own Book Talks,” Ms. Mahida reports. “I love seeing students there who might not normally visit the library.” * After Ms. Mahida began these talks for her sixth-grade classes in 2015-16, they expanded to all of Grade 6 in 2016-17 and then the entire Middle School. Ms. Mahida has introduced Book Talks to her Grade 9 classes, and plans are underway to bring them to the rest of the Upper School.

Katrina Musto, Associate Director of The Pingry Fund, joins Pingry with six years of experience in foundation and donor relations.

She previously served as a Resource Development Associate for the United Way of Northern New Jersey and as the Corporate and Foundation Relations Assistant at the Foundation for Morristown Medical Center. Ms. Musto earned a B.A. in Communications at Fairleigh Dickinson University.

Osakhare Fasehun ’14 (“Omoregie” as a student), Assistant Director, Next Generation Giving and Engagement, served as Director of the Senior Class Gift Campaign at Bowdoin College, where he earned a B.A. in Government and Africana Studies, with a minor in Francophone Studies.

Most recently, he interned with the Superior Court of New Jersey – Essex Vicinage.

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Step Aside STEM, Humanities Research Is Born at Pingry Game theory, evolutionary psychology, child development, behavioral economics, and pathological altruism are pretty heady topics for a group of Pingry upperclassmen to concern themselves with, particularly when the end of the school year is so seductively within reach.

Nevertheless, last May, 14 juniors and seniors paid a visit—their second that semester—to the Lower School, where, under the guidance of Upper School English teacher Graig Peterson, they wrapped up data collection on a twopart experiment, the design and groundwork for which began in the summer of 2017. Their test subjects? Grades 1, 3, and 5 students on the Short Hills Campus.

Their hypothesis? Social, biological, and evolutionary factors contribute to the moral arcs of children’s creative stories, and those stories, in turn, align with children's bargaining strategies. For what class was this thorny, yet fascinating, experiment undertaken? None.

In fact, the experiment is one of a number of non-credit Humanities IRTs, or Independent Research Teams (HIRTs), that were rolled out last school year.

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They are a fitting corollary to Pingry’s science-based IRTs, popular among many students, that have been in the works for several years now. Guided by a Pingry faculty member and designed and executed by Pingry students, with meeting times squeezed in between regular classes and after school, its express purpose—like the school’s other IRTs—is to teach kids how to conduct research . . . in the humanities.

STEAM- and project-based learning— and their emphasis on real-world application—have been an educational trend, one might argue, fixation, for over a dozen years. Brian Burkhart, Director of Educational and Information Technology, Computer Science Department Chair, and English teacher, who last school year advised another HIRT, on American Modernism, offers a different point of view. “A lot of truly innovative work requires students to have the abstract thinking and communication skills that the humanities develop,” he says. Why would a computer science teacher— who also happens to be chair of the department—be guiding a project,

Upper School students on Mr. Peterson’s Humanities Independent Research Team sit with a Lower Schooler in the Lower School Library during their data collection phase last spring.

in his free time, in the humanities? His answer explains why Pingry has been on the cutting-edge among its peer schools in seeking to develop and offer students HIRTs. “As society builds better coders and as machines are able to do more themselves, we still need smart people who can tell the machines what to do. People are always behind technology, and delving into these skill-sets more is really important for our students.”

For the 14 Upper Schoolers who immersed themselves in the experiment at the Short Hills Campus last spring, delve they did. From the standpoint of evolutionary biology and child development, they sought to understand why children are so hooked on stories and storytelling, that timeless narrative of antagonist versus hero.

They also sought to understand how their need for resolution of those stories underlies the creative impulse.

So, follow closely. This is what the group’s complex experiment looked like (note, Lower School Librarian Ann D’Innocenzo was instrumental in its execution): Short Hills students, assembled in the library, were given 45 minutes to pen a story that had to meet two criteria. It had to include a conflict and some sort of resolution. Then they were brought, one by one, to a “prize table,” where, wearing gleeful smiles, they were encouraged to select 10 of their favorite toys or knick-knacks. They were told, however, that they must split their bounty with a complete stranger (an Upper Schooler they didn’t know).

The Lower School student determined the split—5-5, 8-2, and so on. If the stranger across the table declared “deal,” the split proceeded. “No deal,” no one gets anything. Next, the roles were reversed—the Upper School students suggested a split, and the Lower Schoolers had their chance to declare “deal” or “no deal.”

Data is being analyzed, but initial findings suggest a strong correlation between the children whose stories end justly and those who offer their stranger an even split (or those who reject an uneven split offered, thereby punishing the stranger for their unfairness). Children, it seems, are naturally attuned to social justice and social cohesion, wanting to be part of a “tribe” of good people. Conversely, they are quite willing to try to reform someone who isn’t. This is what social scientists refer to as altruistic punishment. Is it a learned behavior, or encoded in kids from the get-go? That’s precisely what Mr. Peterson’s group is trying to ascertain.

The experiment grew out of a thesis idea that Mr. Peterson was mulling over a few years ago, when he considered applying to a doctorate program in English literature. A class on the imagination at Middlebury College’s Bread Loaf School of English, where he is pursuing a master’s degree over the course of five summer intensives, further sparked his interest. “This is a great way to merge the analytic with the literary—for the math students in our research group, some of whom

“It’s thrilling to be able to conduct cutting-edge empirical research—with a team of high school students—that builds on recent interdisciplinary models from academia.”

b

Graig Peterson Upper School English teacher

––––––––––––– are very advanced, to get involved in the humanities, and for the humanities students to get involved in math,” he says.

The ultimate goal, he explains, is to keep the experiment alive by recruiting more Upper School students to his research team and expanding the project to include data from more school populations (Middle and Upper Schoolers in addition to Lower Schoolers). For his part, Mr. Burkhart— who is teaching English classes on American Literature and magical realism this school year, to complement his work in the Technology and Computer Science departments— is overseeing another HIRT project.

His investigation examines American Modernist literature, specifically the

Two Lower Schoolers collect their bounty at the prize table, part of the group’s complex experiment involving evolutionary biology and child development.

works of William Faulkner, and uses them to consider epistemological problems, such as how to represent experience through language. In short, students interested in humanitiesfocused research, and the abstract thinking and communication skills that come with it, stay tuned. This year alone, Pingry is offering six humanities IRTs. Illustrating their importance—and the very notion that human ingenuity truly is irreplaceable—is a story from a Lower Schooler that Mr. Peterson found particularly compelling. Written by a third-grade student during the group’s data collection phase last spring, its outcome flies in the face of the experiment’s social cohesion hypothesis. But, its outlier status is further evidence of the richness of creative and abstract thinking so integral to humanitiesbased work. “The story was about a thief who was apprehended by police,” explains Mr. Peterson. “At the very end, just before the happily ever after, a ‘mystery man’ enters and asks, ‘Wait, hold up! Are you sure you got the right guy?’ Turns out, the thief had outsmarted everyone.”

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closely entwined with the faculty with whom he has worked. As they will tell you, his greatest impact has been his guiding leadership and support of their ideas. “He has brought a lot of positive change to the School. He listens, and he’s open to just about anything, within reason, that faculty want to try, whether it’s a workshop we want to attend or an idea we’re passionate about,” says third-grade teacher Patti Euwer P ’97, who began at Pingry in 1986, 12 years after Mr. Corvino. “But for me, it’s his love of the students and his love of the School that really stand out. That just emanates in everything that he does.”

Lower School Director Ted Corvino to Retire After 19 years as beloved Assistant Headmaster and Lower School Director, and another 26 years as a Short Hills faculty member, Mr. Ted Corvino P ’94, ’97, ’02 will retire with the close of the 2018-19 school year.

During his 45-year tenure, as both teacher and administrator, Mr. Corvino’s imprint has been indelible, helping to evolve the school from a traditional, classroom-centered educational experience to one that harnesses its verdant campus as a dynamic outdoor laboratory for students to engage and explore collaboratively. Upper School history teacher and Director of Experiential Education Mr. John Crowley-Delman ’97, a Pingry lifer who was once Mr. Corvino’s social studies student, credits him with 38

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–––––––––––––

“I’ve been blessed to ride on the backs of some amazing teachers who have been masters of their craft. The teachers and the children are the true heart and soul of this school.”

b ––––––––––––– transforming the Lower School into “a child’s world.” Indeed, among his trademarks, every morning, rain or shine, for the last two decades, he has greeted his students by name with a handshake and a smile.

Mr. Corvino has been a pivotal figure in advancing the culture of the Lower School, and his legacy is perhaps most

Dr. Sandy Lizaire-Duff P ’25, Assistant Director of the Lower School, who will assume Mr. Corvino’s role on July 1, concurs. “Ted has a way of cultivating academic excellence that energizes and creates harmony,” she observes, having joined the School nearly three years ago. “Working with Ted has been a wonderfully rewarding experience.

I have learned a tremendous amount about the Lower School community and what it means to be a peoplecentered leader from him. He leads from the heart with integrity and a wonderful sense of humor.”

Editor’s Note: Mr. Corvino received The Cyril and Beatrice Baldwin Pingry Family Citizen of the Year Award (1991) and Albert W. Booth Master Chair (1999). For more background on his Pingry career, including his inspiration for teaching social studies and his teaching philosophy, see these Pingry Review articles: “40 Years of Making Children a Priority” (September 2014) “Asking the Right Questions, Strengthening Connections” (Spring/Summer 2002) Interview as part of a cover story on the Country Day School tradition (Winter 1998) Visit pingry.org/extras to read a more detailed account of Mr. Corvino’s tenure at Pingry, and the announcement of Dr. Lizaire-Duff’s appointment.

Lightning Round with Mr. Corvino Proudest moment?

Watching my kids [Teddy ’94, Bobby ’97, and Amy ’02] graduate from the Upper School.

Favorite Pingry tradition?

Greeting students in the morning and shaking their hands. The annual Lower School Holiday Concert is also near and dear to my heart. It’s the only time each year that Kindergartners through fifthgrade students perform in the same concert. It’s just an amazing tradition.

Given your previous answer, do you remember the coldest day outside shaking Lower Schoolers’ hands?

About five or six years ago, we had a bitter cold morning, in the low teens.

The kids were offering me their gloves and hats. Parents rolled down their car windows and yelled to me that I should go inside!

Favorite dining hall food?

Everyone here knows that I rarely eat lunch. In spite of how I look, I’m a pretty finicky eater. And quite often, I’m just too busy. When we’re having hamburgers and hot dogs, I’ll be there, but otherwise, I skip lunch. Occasionally, Charlie [Williams, SAGE’s head chef at the Lower School] will come into my office and give me the wrong kind of stuff, brownies and cookies!

Strangest Pingry task, in addition to serving as teacher, administrator, and, for a time, even bus driver?

One year, I was asked to dress up as Santa Claus, but [former Facilities Team member] Rudy Romano did it instead. I also had a stint in food service: In 2000, when the Yankees were playing the Mets in the World Series, I had a wager with Charlie. If my team (the Yankees) won, he had to wear a Yankees jersey and cap and join me outside to greet the kids in the morning. If he won, I had to put on my apron and gloves and help to serve a meal. The Yankees ended up winning, but I felt so guilty that I joined him in serving the food anyway. And he joined me outside. We did it for each other. The kids and parents got such a charge out of it. Charlie was laughing through the whole thing.

Most embarrassing moment as a teacher?

John Hanly (Headmaster from 1987-2000) came in to observe my class one day and, unbeknownst to me, the red pen in my shirt pocket was leaking ink! A student raised her hand and asked me, “Is your heart bleeding, Mr. Corvino?” Mr. Hanly burst into laughter in the back of the room.

Memorable interaction with a former student-turned-Pingry parent?

We have a current Lower School parent who I remember picking up as a Kindergartner in my bus driving days.

One day, his dad asked me to step out of the bus so he could take a picture of us.

So, there I was in front of the bus with this little five-year-old, who was wearing shorts and carrying his lunch box. I ran into the alumnus the other day, who is now a physician—he has two children in the Lower School—and he said, “You know, I bet my dad still has that photo.”

I haven’t seen it yet, but it’s fun to remember these successful alumni when they were just kids.

Most cherished item in your office?

Two items: A Ralph Waldo Emerson poem about success, which I’ve had in my office forever. It’s a reminder to me what success is all about; it keeps me grounded. And a photo of my dad with my son Bobby. My dad was a World War II veteran and, while he considered the field of education, he ultimately became a businessman. He always told me to make sure I did something I loved.

Funniest comment/question from a student?

There are too many! But I remember that my parents used to come for Grandparents’ Day years ago, when my children were at the Lower School.

Students would come up to me and say, “Mr. Corvino, you have parents!?” They couldn’t believe it. More recently, I had a Kindergartner ask me if I was “rehiring” next year. I think he meant “retiring.”

Your biggest piece of advice for the future Lower School Director?

Spend as much time with the kids as possible. Administrative demands can take you away from what we are all so passionate about to begin with: educating kids. We have a pretty terrific Lower School, keep it going. I inherited it, too, and I’m happy to pass it on. We’re all just caretakers. Keep it going, and appreciate the teachers and the kids; they are the heart and soul of the School.

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Athletics

BIG BLUE ROUND-UP Fall 2018 Season

Boys’ Cross Country

Boys’ Soccer (13-5-1)

NJISAA Prep A Championships: team, 1st place; Henry Wood ’22, 2nd place; Thomas Drzik ’19, 3rd place Somerset County Championships: team, 3rd place

Somerset County Championships: 2nd place

Girls’ Cross Country NJSIAA Non-Public A South Championships: Nicole Vanasse ’20, 1st place NJISAA Prep A Championships: team, 2nd place; Nicole, 2nd place Skyland Conference Championships: Nicole, 1st place Somerset County Championships: Nicole, 3rd place

Field Hockey (10-12) Football (4-6) Metropolitan Independent Football League (MIFL)/New Jersey Division: 1st place MIFL: 3rd place

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Girls’ Soccer (15-6-1) NJSIAA Non-Public State Championships: 1st place NJSIAA Non-Public A South Championships: 1st place Somerset County Tournament: Semifinalists

Girls’ Tennis (13-4-1) NJSIAA Non-Public A Tournament: team, Finalists NJSIAA Non-Public A South Tournament: Champions NJISAA Prep A Tournament: team, Finalists Somerset County Tennis Tournament: Champions

Water Polo (11-5) Garden State Invitational: 2nd place

Girls’ Tennis Big Blue clinched their second consecutive NJSIAA Non-Public A South state title on October 16, defeating Bishop Eustace, 5-0. Two days later, in the group finals, they fell to #1 seed Holy Angels, 2-3, in what Head Coach Marion Weber described as a “hard-fought match.” Other highlights of the season included individual victories for Sarah Kloss ’22 (second singles) and Nicole Kloss ’19/Caeley Feeney ’21 (second doubles) in the Somerset County Individual Tennis Championships.

Nicole and Caeley also advanced to the round of 16 in the NJSIAA Individual State Doubles Tournament.

Above: Big Blue earns their second straight NJSIAA NonPublic A South state title. Pictured are Olivia Gallucci ’22, Gia Graziano ’21, Caeley Feeney ’21, Sabrina Schneider ’22, Allie Matthias ’19, Cassie Yermack ’19, Nicole Kloss ’19, Gabrielle Billington ’20, Sarah Kloss ’22, Lynn Robinson ’20, Lily Schiffman ’20, and Head Coach Marion Weber.

Girls’ Soccer It was a jubilant season for the Girls’ Soccer Team, and they saved their best for last. In a powerful state tournament winning streak, complete with nail-biting victories that surprised even them, Big Blue pulled out an NJSIAA NonPublic A South Championship title, the program’s first since 2012. Capping the season off was a head-to-head battle against Oak Knoll for the Non-Public crown—victory, once again. Said junior Alexandra Weber, “. . . to be able to win a state title is incredible. Playing with your friends is something you don’t always get to do, and that is what makes high school soccer so special.”

Right: Madisyn Pilla ’20, a First Team All-State selection, in the NJSIAA Non-Public State Championship Finals against Oak Knoll.

Above: The team, post-victory.

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Boys’ Cross Country Henry Wood ’21 (16:31, second) and Thomas Drzik ’19 (16:34, third) led the Boys’ Cross Country Team to their third consecutive Prep A Championship title on October 24. In their best finish in recent team history, they also took third at the Somerset County Championships. Of their Prep A title, Head Coach Matt Horesta said, “Winning the title three times in three years speaks to a culture of success that has taken root in the program over the last decade. Each year, the guys see themselves building upon the accomplishments of their former teammates, and this most recent win is very much a part of that.”

Above: Henry Wood ’21 and Thomas Drzik ’19 go 1-2 at the Prep A Championships.

Girls’ Cross Country Junior Nicole Vanasse, a First Team All-State runner, blazed to yet another successful cross country season, clinching a second consecutive Non-Public A South state title on November 10. She also became the first Pingry female runner to earn entry to the prestigious Foot Locker Cross Country National Championships, held on December 8 in San Diego, considered a crowning achievement among high school runners. There, she placed 32nd.

Left: Nicole Vanasse ’20 at the Prep A Championships.

For more information on these stories, visit pingry.org/extras.

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Fallon and Fink Make History for Big Blue Swimming Current school record-holder and All-American Matt Fallon ’21 squared off against fellow Pingry swimmer-turned-professional athlete and two-time Olympic Trials Qualifier Nic Fink ’11 in December. They met poolside at USA Swimming’s Winter National Championships, held in Greensboro, North Carolina. In a historic moment for Big Blue swimming, the pair—separated in age by nine years—competed in the 200-meter breaststroke prelims, which Nic would go on to win (2:10.24), his first of two national titles during the meet. The Pingry sophomore held his own, securing two Olympic Trials cuts.

“My first national event with the pros was breathtaking,” Matt reports. “It was a totally new experience seeing all of the cameras and swimming with people I had only seen on TV. It was quite intimidating, but swimming with Nic was different. Since he is a Pingry alumnus, it felt different swimming alongside him in that final [the 200-meter breaststroke]—I felt as though we shared something in common, making the situation much more comfortable.” For more on the event and their collective accomplishments, visit pingry.org/extras.

RIght: Matt Fallon ’21 and Nic Fink ’11 at the USA Swimming Winter Championships in early December.

Below: Jonathan Butler ’15, No. 5, playing for Harvard University.

Credit: Penny Ashford

College Athletes Men’s Lacrosse Jonathan Butler ’15 (defense, Harvard University) was named one of three captains for the 2019 season. He started all 13 games at defense a year ago and led the team with 15 caused turnovers.

He was an All-Ivy League 2nd Team honoree in 2017.

Women’s Lacrosse Annelise Kinney ’15 (defense, Lafayette College) was named one of two captains for the 2019

season. She has seen action in all but three games over the past two seasons. Annelise recorded 14 ground balls and 11 caused turnovers during the 2018 season, including season-bests with four GBs and three CTs in the opener.

least eight saves in 35 of 51 career games. An All-MPSF 2nd Team selection as a freshman, she has recorded 119 career ground balls, second all-time in school history.

Jenny Wilkens ’15 (goalkeeper, University of California, Berkeley) was named one of four captains for the 2019 season. She boasts 18 career double-digit save performances, and has collected at

Jack Casey ’16 (midfield, University of Notre Dame) was

Men’s Soccer

named to the CoSIDA Academic All-America 2nd Team for the second consecutive year, the CoSIDA Academic All-District Team, and the All-ACC Academic Team. He also received the 2018 Knute Rockne Notre Dame Scholar-Athlete Award.

ACC—Atlantic Coast Conference CoSIDA—College Sports Information Directors of America MPSF—Mountain Pacific Sports Federation WINTER 2018-19

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Mr. Morrison’s photograph of Peyto Lake in Banff National Park is part of Pingry’s art collection (he donated it to the School many years ago). Taken in the 1990s, the photo is displayed on the second floor of the Hostetter Arts Center.

The Call of Nature Most Pingry students—in particular, student athletes—know Bruce Morrison ’64 as the man with the camera, whose frequent presence at Big Blue sporting events has made him the School’s iconic and beloved sports photographer. Many may not know that, between graduating from Pingry and returning to his alma mater in 2003, he’s had some unforgettable photography experiences, such as observing whales in the Gulf of Alaska, capturing grizzlies in Katmai National Park, and savoring the epic view of half a million migrating sandhill cranes passing over the cornfields of central Nebraska.

Nature photography is Mr. Morrison’s first love, as he will tell you.

Shortly after earning a degree in Business Administration at Monmouth College, and as an antidote to city living

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during the two decades he worked on Wall Street, he turned to birdwatching.

He began taking his camera and eventually spent more time photographing than observing. Landscapes, mammals, birds, flowers, trees—they all captured his interest. When he moved out West in 1990 to earn a master’s degree in Environmental Science at the University of Montana, he was perfectly positioned to hone his craft. A self-taught artist, he visited as many national parks as possible, including Glacier, Yellowstone, Banff, Jasper, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and the Grand Tetons, which remain his favorite.

Family called Mr. Morrison back East a few years later, but not before he saw his work in the National Geographic Traveler and The National Geographic Guide to Birdwatching Sites, Western U.S. (a two-page spread!), to name but a few publications. The Greater Yellowstone Coalition and other non-profits have also published his work. His departure from big sky country was Pingry’s gain.

A chance meeting with Boys’ Varsity Soccer Team Head Coach Miller Bugliari ’52, P ’86, ’90, ’97, GP ’20, ’24, his former biology teacher, landed him what would become a long-term role as Pingry’s sports photographer.

To complement his return as a treasured Pingry alumnus, his photography has been displayed at two group exhibits and one solo show in the Hostetter Arts Center Gallery (the latter coincided with his 50th Reunion). What does Mr. Morrison enjoy most about working for his alma mater? “The best thing is getting to know the kids,” he says. Sentiments from “the kids” are mutual: In 2016, they dedicated the yearbook to him. Mr. Morrison smiles as he recalls it. “I was quite honored to receive the dedication and will always cherish the award.”

To meet more Pingry People, visit pingry.org/people.

Letter to the Editor

Belated Gratitude for Great Teaching I smiled when I came upon the excerpt from Dr. Herbert F. Hahn’s essay “What Makes a Good Teacher?” in the Fall 2018 issue of The Pingry Review [page 18].

Certainly, there was no one more qualified to write on the subject. Dr. Hahn was more than a good teacher; he was a great one. He was twice my teacher, in 1979 and 1980, when, returning to Pingry after suffering a heart attack, he taught electives in Religion and Philosophy. He was frail and slight, “[a] tattered coat upon a stick” (he would have recognized the allusion to Yeats), and sometimes short of breath. Ill and infirm as he was— he would not live much longer—he had returned to Pingry because teaching was his calling. He loved us, his new students, before he even met us.

Dr. Hahn spoke slowly and softly, almost gravely, and we hung on his every word.

To me, he was a sage, and, like many 18-year-olds, I was beginning to ask the big questions in life. I remember one day after class, when we had been discussing Hinduism and reincarnation, I cornered Dr. Hahn and, with astonishing gracelessness, asked him, ailing and wan, what he thought happened to us when we died. Like any great teacher, he did not at first answer. He asked me what I thought, to keep me thinking, but also to show that he cared what I thought. I mumbled something.

Ultimately, in a moment I will never forget, he said this: “It is enough for me to know that, when I die, a flower will spring from my grave.”

Photo Added to English Classroom – “Dr. Hahn was a teacher I deeply respected while I was a Pingry student, and I admired him for his mentorship of junior faculty while I was teaching,” says Special Assistant to the Headmaster Miller Bugliari ’52, P ’86, ’90 ’97, GP ’20, ’24, pictured with Director of Institutional Advancement Elizabeth Breidinger. “Hanging his picture in the English classroom that is dedicated in his honor further commemorates his legacy and contributions to Pingry.”

and writer and begin to make something of him, although a considerable amount of red ink was required. Mr. Baldwin was an authoritative and exacting teacher who simply demanded excellence. And he was a good man.

I remember once visiting him in his office (at the time, he was also Head of the Junior School), quite anxious about something or other, possibly in tears.

I don’t remember what he said, but I left his office thinking that everything would be okay and feeling taken care of.

Reading “What Makes a Good Teacher?” makes me wonder what Dr. Hahn would think of me now. In part, because of his influence, I, too, became a teacher. I’ve taught English for nearly 25 years.

I learned from Dr. Hahn the importance, mentioned in his essay, of knowing the difference between what really matters in a classroom and what doesn’t.

A few years later, I met a similarly demanding teacher in Albert W. Booth, who ended up being my Latin teacher for the rest of my Pingry career. Mr. Booth taught me more than just Latin.

He taught me to think logically. Latin, for him, was a system of rules, and the trick was to learn and apply them with perfect, logical precision. Of all my teachers, none worked harder than Mr. Booth.

When he wasn’t teaching class, he was usually tutoring a student one-on-one.

It is unsurprising that Dr. Hahn dedicated his essay to Richard S. Baldwin. Mr. Baldwin was my English teacher in fifth grade, my first year at Pingry, and in my case he did his best to take a disorganized thinker

To my regret, I never thanked any of these men for the gifts they gave me.

I made excuses. In particular, I decided that Mr. Booth, who by the time I graduated had taught nearly half a century,

would not remember me. Years later, a friend who visited him told me that Mr. Booth had asked after me. Even then, I did not visit, much less write him a note. And then, in 1993, Mr. Booth died.

All three men molded my intellect and my character. They taught me, by example, to do what was right, and they taught me the value of self-discipline.

They were masterful teachers—magistri —who taught me that, as a teacher myself, I would have tremendous influence over some of my students. Their own influence on me persists: after some 40 years, I can still hear their voices, as if I had been in their class just this morning.

And of course, in deciding to become a teacher, I was honoring each of these great men. I wish I could tell them. So, I wish I’d learned sooner to thank my teachers. But like most teachers, I believe in second chances. Someday, I will track down Dr. Hahn’s grave and lay flowers there. I owe Mr. Booth and Mr. Baldwin some flowers, too.

—Neil M. Kulick ’80

To read Dr. Hahn’s full essay, originally published in the Fall 1976 issue, visit pingry.org/extras.

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Former Navy Pilot Delivers “How to Not Accomplish Your Dreams (but be OK anyway . . .)” with Becky Murphy Strickland ’98 “Close your eyes,” she instructed the audience as she began her Career Day keynote address. “Picture your life five to 10 years from now. Take a mental snapshot of what that looks like, and store it away in your memory—because that’s the last time you’re ever going to see it.”

Juniors and seniors were joined by 54 Pingry alumni representing various career fields who returned to campus on January 25 to provide a wealth of knowledge during the two hours of classroom breakout sessions that followed the keynote.

After an introduction from Headmaster Nat Conard P ’09, ’11 and Pingry Alumni 46

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Association President Woody Weldon ’91, P ’23, Ms. Strickland took the stage.

She graduated from the Naval Academy with a degree in English, finished at the top of her class in flight training, and was one of the first two women in the Navy selected to fly the F/A-18E Super Hornet. She currently works as Senior

Manager of the Worldwide Ops Integration and Worldwide Learning and Talent Development teams for Amazon Logistics.

Ms. Strickland related her own highschool imaginings—she would have seen herself as a doctor, with a perfect house, a perfect spouse, a puppy (“obviously”), and several adorable children. After a career and personal life that took her in unexpected directions, Ms. Strickland explained that she pivoted away from that earlier dream—in her schooling, in her career, and in her personal life—and that this was completely alright.

She has clearly worked hard to build a successful career; but that wasn’t to be the focus of her address. “Today, we’re going to focus a lot on my failures,” Ms. Strickland explained. “I’m going to be completely transparent about times

things did not go right for me—but I had to collect myself and keep going.”

The first setback came at the Naval Academy, where she discovered that chemistry was not the discipline for her. “You can’t be a doctor without knowing chemistry,” she conceded, “so I decided to become a warrior, and set a new career path to become a Marine.”

During training to join the Marine Corps, Ms. Strickland took an exhilarating ride in an F-14 Tomcat. Falling in love with flying, she pivoted yet again and went to flight school. After graduating at the top of her class, she became one of the first two women selected to fly the then-new F/A-18E jet. When an injury 10 years later left her unable to continue flying fighter jets, Ms. Strickland sought a career with the FBI. But after another unexpected encounter, this time with a fellow Naval Academy alumnus at a career event for members of the military, she pivoted once more and accepted an offer from Amazon. “I thought working in the private sector would challenge me in a way that I hadn’t [experienced] before—plus I couldn’t ignore the money,” Ms. Strickland joked. Her career at Amazon allowed her to reference another inflection point—not of her own making, but the ill-fated Amazon Fire Phone.

“At Amazon, we pride ourselves on our failures,” she said. “Every great idea that has ever existed is built on the tombstones of failed ideas.” Taking what they learned from the failure of the Fire Phone, the company went on to market the Kindle, Fire TV, and Alexa products to wild success. “Our motto is, Fail Fast,” Ms. Strickland said. “If you’re going to fail, then go for it. If you go big, put yourself out there, and make yourself vulnerable. You’re quickly going to see what goes wrong—and how to make it better.” She also spoke about the importance of diversity and inclusion— after feeling that she failed to create an inclusive team, Ms. Strickland built her career around incorporating different voices and perspectives. “What we’ve learned is that diverse groups of people come up with more ideas to solve the same problem—rather than

all agreeing on the same solution, they will collectively come up with the best idea—or take parts of different ideas to come up with the mega-idea.”

“Failing is a good thing—it can help you transition from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset,” Ms. Strickland said by way of summary. “The path to success never looks like what we think it will.

We think it’s going to be linear, but it’s

probably not going to work out that way. Remember: that’s okay. At the end of the day, even if you change strategies—or completely sidestep your plan altogether—you’re still going to be successful because you’re making those choices.”

Visit pingry.org/extras to watch the Career Day keynote address.

Thank You, Career Day Speakers!

Look for photos of many of these alumni in Class Notes.

Engineering/Architecture

Medicine

Jack Falcone ’04 Ryan Shrader ’99 Andrew Werner ’04

Isa Bacardi ’04 Dr. Alexandra Braunstein ’97 Dr. Kate Coyle ’03 Dr. Gautam Malhotra ’92 Dr. Ari Marciscano ’03 Dr. Neha Pathak ’98 Dr. Patrick Reid ’97 Dr. David Salz ’03

Entrepreneurship Alex Baydin ’93, P ’26, ’29 Austin Conti ’07 Amanda Freeman ’94 Julie Johnson ’05

Finance Dan Ambrosia ’07 Ama Burnham ’99 Brian Crosby ’89 Uma Seshamani ’98 Rahul Vinnakota ’96

Law Matt Blumenstyk ’00 Amanda Dumville ’05 Sean Kulkarni ’98 Liz Loonam ’00 Jamil McClintock ’04 Rob Polsky ’98 Jessica Westerman ’08 Marissa Litwin Zalk ’99

Management Consulting Dr. Monal Mehta ’05 Kim Susko ’97

Marketing/Advertising Michelle Cunningham ’85 Brette Graber ’07 Katie O’Connor ’06 Alex Snape ’07

Media/Communications Lance Gould ’83 Katie Scott Old ’99 Jamie Shapiro ’97 Ted Smith ’00

Non-Profit/Public Service Stephanie Lim Capello ’93 Ronald Rice ’86 Ned Southworth ’89

Performing Arts Jenny Gorelick ’10 Haley Joel Satnick ’97

Psychology Maya Artis ’09 Dr. Brittney Silvestri Jordan ’05 Dr. Abby Merin ’00

Science Dr. Jeff Lubin ’77 Dr. Craig Ramirez ’07 Dr. Chris Walsh ’75

Technology Alyssa Baum ’14 Elizabeth Jolley ’12 Becky Murphy Strickland ’98

Visual Arts Christine Layng Aschwald ’02 Sarah Kurz ’99 If you are interested in being a Career Day speaker in January 2020, please contact Associate Director of Alumni Relations Maureen Maher at mmaher@pingry.org.

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Pingry Events

1

2

Alumni Hockey [ 1 ] Standing: Peter Martin ’10, Alex Russoniello ’10, Robbie Hugin ’11,

Alumni Squash

Boys’ Varsity Ice Hockey Head Coach Scott Garrow, Haley La Fontaine ’14, Nick Ross ’97, Jake Ross ’96, Chris Ulz ’93, Boys’ Varsity Ice Hockey Assistant Coach John Magadini, Greg Naratil ’17, Brett Zanelli ’17, Pete Faherty ’87, AJ Bernstein ’17, David Faherty ’88, Kyle Walker ’14, Chris Franklin ’96, Eric Rogers ’14, and Jamie Smith ’15. Kneeling: Dan Weiniger ’08, Brian Weiniger ’10, Josh Creelman ’14, Jim Gensch ’83, P ’13, Jack Smith ’17, Dan Ambrosia ’07, Brad Zanoni ’07, Andrew La Fontaine ’10, Nick Branchina ’12, and Pat Lackey ’12.

Stephanie Wilf ’13, Lindsay Stanley ’16, Charles Malone ’20, Maggie O’Toole ’05, Drew Blacker ’05, Jonathan Zeitels ’15, science teacher and Boys’ Varsity Squash Head Coach Ramsay Vehslage, Henry Gadsden ’11, Rachel Chen ’18, and Alex Chiang ’20. Kneeling: Yash Jaggi ’16, Sam Scherl ’17, Liz Jolley ’12, Chloe Blacker ’10, and Will Stamatis ’09.

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[ 2 ] Standing: Rahul Vinnakota ’96 with Lucy Vinnakota, Mark Shtrakhman ’16,

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Los Angeles Reception

San Francisco Reception

Ventrella ’82, Paul Ciszak ’72, Sherwood Kelley ’62, history teacher and Director of Experiential Education John Crowley-Delman ’97, George Heller ’97, Matt Alexander ’97, Don Szerlip ’70, Lori Schaffhauser ’92, Joseph Della Rosa ’03, Roy Sykes, Jr. ’66, James Ogden ’12, Rick Hadley ’66, Dr. Tim Gustafson ’71, Director of Alumni Relations and Annual Giving Holland Sunyak Francisco ’02, and Headmaster Nat Conard P ’09, ’11. Sitting: Samantha Korn ’14, Matt Fechter ’09, Shelby Bartlett ’08, Tamara Kelley, Special Assistant to the Headmaster and Boys’ Varsity Soccer Head Coach Miller Bugliari ’52, P ’86, ’90, ’97, GP ’20, ’24, George Lewis ’82, and hosts Greg Cortese ’97 and his wife Jessica Knoll.

Miller Bugliari ’52, P ’86, ’90, ’97, GP ’20, ’24, Orianne Dutka ’98, Julian Scurci ’99, Ian Deeks ’03, Grace Niu ’00, Julia Walsh ’03, Doug Goodkin ’69, Dr. Sandra Lee ’91, Paul Crooker ’80, Matt Sheeleigh ’11, Will Hetfield, Jr. ’01, history teacher and Director of Experiential Education John Crowley-Delman ’97, John Huber ’79, David Rapson ’75, Ann Rapson, Chris Bunn ’82, Director of Alumni Relations and Annual Giving Holland Sunyak Francisco ’02, former science teacher Luke De, and Headmaster Nat Conard P ’09, ’11.

[ 3 ] Standing: Michael Gray ’01, William Parham ’06, Caton Clark ’97, Peter

[ 4 ] Special Assistant to the Headmaster and Boys’ Varsity Soccer Head Coach

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Back-from-College Lunch

[ 5 ] Akshina Gupta ’17, Jennifer Fish ’18, Maya Huffman ’18, Allie Verdesca ’18, Megan Pan ’18, and Graham Matthews ’18. [ 6 ] Gabe Gever ’17, Zach Keller ’17, and Jack Schiffman ’17. [ 7 ] Alexis Kinney ’18, Jenny Coyne ’18, and College Counselor Sue Kinney P ’15, ’18. [ 8 ] Sana Sheikh ’18, Myla Stovall ’18, Alice Berndt ’18, and Josie Jahng ’19. [ 9 ] Jessica Li ’18, Giancarlo Castillo ’18, Sara Donovan ’18, and Alexis Elliot ’18.

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Pingry in Print Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love

American Cipher: Bowe Bergdahl and the U.S. Tragedy in Afghanistan

By Dani Shapiro ’80

Co-Authored by Michael Ames ’98

Knopf

Penguin Press

Ms. Shapiro’s newest memoir was inspired by a family secret concerning her father, uncovered by a genealogy test she took in 2016, and it explores ethical questions surrounding fertility treatments and DNA testing. Inheritance is a book about secrets within families— secrets we keep from one another in the name of love. Ironically, this history was hidden from Ms. Shapiro for decades while she was writing books on themes of identity and family history. In The New York Times Book Review, Ruth Franklin writes that Inheritance’s true drama is not Ms. Shapiro’s discovery of her father’s identity, but the meaning she makes of it. NPR’s Heller McAlpin says the book reads like an emotional detective story, full of twists and turns.

“When Private First Class Bowe Bergdahl walked off his Army outpost and was captured by the Taliban in June 2009,” Mr. Ames says, “I was editor of Sun Valley Magazine in his hometown of Hailey, Idaho. At the office, Bergdahl’s father was our UPS driver, and while he continued delivering the mail with a businessas-usual smile, we watched his family’s crisis become the focal point of the war in Afghanistan.” After his move East, and in Newsweek cover stories, Mr. Ames continued to follow the unfolding story of Bergdahl’s brutal captivity, which grew into a political scandal. He ultimately teamed up with Army veteran and freelance writer Matt Farwell for a book-length work. “I believe we achieved our goal: to set the record straight and tell the definitive story about this sad chapter in America’s unending tragedy in Afghanistan.”

—Summary adapted from Ms. Shapiro’s website

Professor Zach’s K-5 Math Curriculum

By Zachariya Trichas ’19 iUniverse

“After my maternal grandmother passed away from cancer in 2008,” Zachariya writes, “my family decided to start The International Foundation for Progress and build The Tahira Educational Grammar School in her memory, because education was very important to her.” Located in Pakistan, the school provides free education, and Zach had long wanted to help with those efforts, but thought he couldn’t because the students were too far away and he was too young. Yet, after becoming a math tutor, Zach realized that distance wasn’t a barrier and that he could, indeed, do his part to help the students—the result is this book. To learn more, read Zach’s complete “In My Own Words” essay at pingry.org/extras.

Members in Action: Pingry School’s Mission to Integrate Experiential Ed throughout the School By history teacher Julia Dunbar and visual arts teacher and Experiential Education Coordinator Rebecca Sullivan An article about Pingry’s October 15 “Ex Ed in Action” faculty/staff in-service day was featured in ISEEN’s (Independent Schools Experiential Education Network) December 2018/January 2019 Field Notes newsletter. Read about Pingry’s focus on Experiential Education on page 8, and read the ISEEN article at pingry.org/extras.

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Pingry History - Part 1

Football at Pingry, 1874-1960

By Dr. Joseph Hanaway ’51, 1950 Captain, and Terry Montgomery ’61, 1960 Captain From the authors: The invaluable archival research at Pingry was done by Greg Waxberg ’96, Editor of The Pingry Review.

Changes in Rules and Regulations To understand the evolution of Americanstyle football, the authors have made a list of rule changes in college football as background for Pingry’s great football tradition: 1871-1912 Field size reduced from 166 x 100 yards to 100 x 53 yards.

1875 Soccer ball replaced with rugby ball, easier to carry and pass.

1880 Teams limited to 11 players, but, most important, establishment of a line of scrimmage where the ball was placed for each down.

1882 Field marked with white five-yard lines, and the important “yards and downs” rule accepted: to gain a first down, the ball has to move five yards in three plays.

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Our years playing football for the Big Blue created some wonderful memories.

For instance, while playing varsity from 1948-1950, I remember great friendships with players from other schools, rallies when the student body sang the Yale and Princeton fight songs (prior to the existence of “Old John Pingry”), and unplanned, game-winning plays. Terry and I want to share how this great sport that we love evolved at Pingry. But first, to understand the development of football at Pingry, you need to understand some of the history of football in America.

1883-84 Scoring system—touchdown (TD), 4 points; point after a TD (PAT), 2 points; field goal (FG), 5 points; safety, 2 points.

Further revisions: PAT, 1 point (1898); FG, 3 points (1909); TD, 6 points (1912).

According to James E. Herget’s book American Football: How the Game Evolved, soccer, rugby, and football trace their origins to England, where men kicked a ball on a field. From there, the game was introduced to U.S. universities as a form of rugby and rapidly spread throughout the country in the 1870s and ’80s. American football was created from a decade or two of rule changes in rugby. Secondary schools adopted it slowly, handed down from university coaches and teachers who had played and were eager to pass on their experience.

1890s Huddle created by quarterback Paul Hubbard at Gallaudet University for deaf and hard-of-hearing players, so they could hear or read lips about the play numbers.

The early games that had the most influence on American football— and football at Pingry—were played between Harvard University and McGill University from Montreal in 1874. McGill introduced English rugby to the U.S., in which the ball could be kicked and carried (contrasting with the rules of 52

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what many people consider the first official U.S. football game, between College of New Jersey and Rutgers College in 1869, when players could not carry or throw the ball). Harvard immediately adopted this version of rugby.

1888 Tackling below the waist permitted; using outstretched arms on offense and defense illegal; officials authorized to use whistles.

1893 For the snap, Coach John Heisman (Heisman Trophy) introduces direct pass from the center to quarterback, in the air, instead of rolling the ball on the ground.

1906 Forward pass allowed; establishment of neutral zone, equal to length of ball, at the line of scrimmage; game time 60 minutes (two 30-minute halves); and officials for major games are one referee, two umpires, and one linesman.

1907 Single wing developed by Glenn Scobey “Pop” Warner at Carlisle College.

It would become Pingry’s traditional formation for decades.

1910 Seven-man line established.

1912 First down now gained with 10 yards in four downs.

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This list is adapted from the official 1993 NCAA Football Annual: homepages.cae. wisc.edu/~dwilson/rsfc/RuleChanges.txt.

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The earliest Pingry football game (it was called football, even though it was rugby) on record in 1874 against a Mr. Wyckoff’s school is mentioned in a report by Paul Martin (Class of 1878) in Dr. Herbert Hahn’s The Beginning of Wisdom. Martin mentions a victory for Pingry, but no other details of this standard rugby game.

Rugby began to change to Americanstyle football when the Intercollegiate Football Association (IFA) was established in 1876 to form rules and regulations for a uniquely American game. William H. “Pa” Corbin brought these rules to Pingry in 1892 when he became Headmaster, creating the game that Pingry has played for decades (see “Changes in Rules and Regulations”).

The earliest team picture (fig. 1) in 1886 reveals 10 players casually grouped, wearing padding and heavy sweaters, one holding a rugby ball and one player

—with the first semblance of a Pingry uniform—wearing a blue jersey with a large “P.” Howard Maxfield (Class of 1889), in a letter in The Beginning of Wisdom, gives a description of football in the 1880s. The teams were run by seniors, who chose the other players, conducted practices, and arranged games because there were no coaches.

There was a forward line of up to eight players who stood facing the opponents with no neutral zone. The ball was advanced by kicking and carrying and would be centered by rolling it on the ground to a back who would run left or right, depending on the plan.

The seniors who ran the football team were independent, the games were violent and rough, and the players had little protective equipment. There was little teamwork because of the individualism of the backs, who played for themselves. With a small team, players played offense and defense (called

“both ways”), and there were substitutions only for injury, if there were enough players.

We have little information about plays, signal calling, and other details at Pingry in the 1880s. By 1890, football was the major athletics activity among the upperclassmen. Victor Lukens (Class of 1891), Captain of the 1890 team, is quoted in The Beginning of Wisdom: “The year I was captain, I played fullback. Frank McGee was quarterback.

I gave the signals to nobody but Frank.

If my right hand rested on my leg, pointing outward, he passed the ball to me; if it pointed to the left, he passed to John English. If both hands [ 1 ] 1886 team. [ 2 ] William Herbert “Pa” Corbin. [ 3 ] 1897 championship team (5-2). Note the striped jerseys, pads sewn on the shoulders of the jersey of the player holding the ball, and pads outside the jersey on the player behind him.

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rested on the leg, he (the quarterback) tapped some fellow in the line with his hand (arranged ahead of time), and they had some trick by which we put over (ran) a line play. I never heard of ‘called signals’ at that time.” The 1890 team had a 6-1 season, scoring 103 cumulative points to the opponents’ 19, a successful season.

Uniforms were padded jackets, canvas pants, heavy stockings, and leather shoes, with no helmets or pads. The need to improve this light padding became necessary in 1888, when tackling below the waist was allowed. This rule resulted in increased injuries to the upper body on both sides and, ultimately, better equipment.

Pingry football, in the American style familiar to today’s readers, began when, as we mentioned earlier, Yale football star and its 1888 team captain William Herbert “Pa” Corbin (fig. 2) accepted the job of Headmaster to replace the founder, Dr. John Pingry. Mr. Corbin, a very capable and popular young man, observed the 1892 football team and then attempted to coach the 1893 team, but the seniors resisted his offer, apparently not appreciating his Yale achievements and not wanting to relinquish their control. To make a point, Mr. Corbin scheduled the final game with the Westminster School in Dobbs Ferry, New York, where he had coached before going to Pingry.

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When they were badly beaten by a disciplined and well-practiced Westminster team, the Pingry boys realized that Mr. Corbin’s coaching might be better than their way.

He introduced teamwork, discipline, prompt daily practices, position assignments, signal calling, and practiced plays. Mr. Corbin’s 1897 team (5-2) won the New Jersey Interscholastic League Championship. The team picture (fig. 3) of 19 men reveals a few items of note: the ball was still rugby style, and attention to a Pingry uniform is seen on six players wearing striped jerseys, four wearing blue jerseys with a “P,” and the rest wearing sundry solid blue or white.

It is curious that three players in the front, and one in the second and third rows, are wearing shin guards on their lower legs—shin guards were normally used in soccer, not football.

The first “head protector” (can’t be called a helmet) seen at Pingry was in a 1902 team picture (fig. 4). A player on the far left wearing a turtleneck is holding a soft leather, sheepskin-lined head protector, much like military pilots would wear in the future. Showing greater concern for a Pingry uniform, of the 13 players, four are wearing blue jerseys with striped sleeves, precursors of the navy blue and striped-sleeved ones worn for decades. The neglected pants are torn, worn, and ragged, needing repairs.

required until 1939. Note the absence of numbers on the jerseys, and the pantaloons worn by Pingry players— a fad at the time—had no functional value to the players. The formation was the single wing with a seven-man line and four in the backfield.

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entire Pingry team in navy blue jerseys with full arm stripes. The helmet situation improved by 1914 in another Thanksgiving Day game picture against, once again, Battin High (fig. 6), showing all the players on both teams with helmets. The player on the left either lost his helmet or is playing without one. At least five different hard leather helmet styles can be seen, all secured by neck straps. Showing how far advanced Pingry and local schools were, the helmet was not officially

The teams continued with part-time coaches until 1920, when Reese Williams (fig. 7), a five-foot, four-inch bundle of energy, was appointed Physical (Education) Director to oversee the athletics program. He is pictured with Vincent Lesneski P ’54 (Mr. Les), who was appointed Assistant Physical (Education) Director in 1930 and helped with coaching, having a great influence on generations of boys on and off the field. Reese Williams coached teams in all three seasons. In 1921, he coached the school’s second undefeated football team (6-0). The team picture (fig. 8) reveals almost all the players wearing shoulder pads, jerseys that still have no numbers, and tighter-fitting pants.

The ball has been reduced in size, but is still rugby-shaped.

Look for Part II in the Summer 2019 issue, including a new national requirement in 1937, and memories of Coach Williams’s approach to sportsmanship.

Pingry’s first undefeated team (5-0-1) in 1911 (fig. 5) is shown playing Battin High on Thanksgiving Day (visit pingry.org/ flashesback for more on this rivalry, from the Pingry archives). The picture reveals helmets on most of the players and the [ 4 ] 1902 team. This picture includes the first head protector, held by the player on the far left. Two pairs of shoulder pads can be seen in the back row. [ 5 ] Pingry’s first undefeated team (5-0-1), 1911, showing some players without helmets. [ 6 ] 1914 team. All players on both teams are wearing helmets—at least five different types.

All Pingry players have striped sleeves and baggy pants. [ 7 ] Coaches Reese Williams and Vince Lesneski P ’54. [ 8 ] Pingry’s second undefeated team (6-0), 1921. Seven players have striped jerseys, there are no numbers, half the players are wearing small shoulder pads, and the ball is smaller. The great William Corbet ’21, P ’50, ’52, GP ’77, ’78 (postgraduate year) is third from left in the back row.

He captained the 1919 and 1920 teams.

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Trophy Photography Underway

A Visit to the Archives 10

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Names in the Marching Band 5. Bob Eisenhauer ’64 6. Doug Popper ’66 7. Bob Dwyer ’65 8. Barry Long ’66 9. Terry Rettig ’65 10. Jon Steinhart ’65

11. John Witte ’67 12. Don Dixon ’65 13. Richard “Biff” Stickel, Jr. ’63 14. Bob Micone ’65 15. Doug Bates ’66 16. Tom Sarnowski ’65

Thank you to these alumni who contacted us about the photo in the Fall 2018 issue: Dick Manley ’63 Don Dixon ’65 Bob Dudley ’65 Bob Dwyer ’65 Jim Hecox ’65

Chris Hoffman ’65 Bob Jensen ’65 David Nicholas ’65 Peter Cowen ’66 Dr. Adam Rowen ’66, P ’05

Bob Dwyer ’65 writes, “We marched and played at football games, but we never marched and played at the same time! Anecdote: when I was in the Sixth Form, and Coach Bugliari had the soccer team on the way to our undefeated county and state championship season, Mr. Kurtz (the band director) called out to me in the field late in the game and asked if I would leave the game so that we could play the National Anthem before the start of the football game. My answer was to ignore the question and keep playing.”

Archival Intern Shaun-Marie Cooke at work with the camera.

What began in 2015 as Archivist Peter Blasevick’s mammoth undertaking to oversee the development and implementation of Pingry’s digital Athletics Hall of Fame has become an ongoing effort to care for, archive, and digitize Pingry’s history and artifacts. Most recently, Mr. Blasevick digitized 103 editions of the Blue Book and 198 issues of The Pingry Review. Now, thanks to the efforts of Archival Intern Shaun-Marie Cooke, hundreds of Pingry trophies—part of a rapidly growing collection—are being individually photographed and catalogued*. So far, because of their sheer volume, sports trophies are first, but Mr. Blasevick plans to include other achievements, such as academic and arts trophies.

“Photography of the trophies is similar to other archiving projects, to eventually make the School’s history more accessible to the Pingry community,” he says. “Trophies mean a lot to those who won them—seeing them again can bring back great memories.” * Along with Ms. Cooke’s photography, this project represents a collaboration between Mr. Blasevick, the Technology Department, and Visual Arts Department Chair Miles Boyd.

Pingry Flashes Back—Online and on Social Media!

Over the course of nearly 160 years of Pingry history, the School has amassed some fascinating artifacts, from antique printing blocks to Dr. Pingry’s handwritten documents to school catalogues from the 1800s. Each month, through the efforts of Mr. Blasevick and Greg Waxberg ’96, Communications Writer and Editor of The Pingry Review, we are showcasing an item and “flashing back” to a bit of Pingry history. Visit pingry.org/flashesback and keep an eye on Pingry’s social media accounts for new posts!

For example, in December, we shared the program from the 1937 Christmas Pageant and Revels, which included three current or future headmasters: Larry Springer, Charlie Atwater ’31, P ’63, and Scotty Cunningham ’38, P ’78, ’80. Our January “flashback” featured video highlights from the 2003 dedication of the Hostetter Arts Center.

Part of the program cover from the 1937 Christmas Concert, featured in Pingry Flashes Back.

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Familiar Faces, as Retirees Keep Giving Back Attendees:

Pat Lionetti P ’85, ’88, ’89, Dr. Trish Lowery, Beth Maloney P ’00 (wife of Bill Reichle), Bill Reichle P ’00, Gail Castaldo P ’00, Judy Lee, and Judy Seebald P ’05 at Stage House Tavern in Scotch Plains, NJ in December.

(Faculty/Staff) Reunion! Twenty-three retired Pingry friends, representing nearly 675 years of collective Pingry experience, met for lunch in December, continuing a young tradition of periodic gatherings that began in 2016. That summer, Pat Lionetti P ’85, ’88, ’89, Susan Ortner P ’97, and Judy Seebald P ’05 met for lunch in Princeton after visiting a museum exhibit and had a revelation. “We discussed the fact that there are so many retired Pingry people in the area,” Mrs. Lionetti recalls, “and how it would be fun to bring everyone together. There are events for alumni, but none for ‘faculty and staff alumni.’” They contacted former colleagues, and the first luncheon was held in August 2016. To date, seven have taken place, and the group has expanded to include over 40 retirees.

At each of the past five get-togethers, the group has not only assembled to share Pingry memories and catch up.

Recalling “a feeling of community spirit at Pingry,” former Upper School Office Administrative Assistant Barbara Edwards suggested at the holidays in 2016 that the group support the Plainfield Area Humane Society (she was familiar with them through a neighbor).

Since then, the friends have used each reunion to support an area organization, selecting the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital (former school nurse and health teacher Joanne Childs, whose granddaughter was a patient there, was the group’s contact); Hurricane Harvey relief (Dr. Jennifer Guss ’88 was the group’s contact in Houston), Operation Shoebox New Jersey, and, most recently, St. Hubert’s Animal Welfare Center.

“These Pingry friends are amazing, loving, and incredible,” says Dr. Guss, who felt such comfort when the group reached out to her after the hurricane, to check on her family and community. “They not only fostered our learning, growth, and development, and took a personal interest in all of us as students during our Pingry years, but, as is evidenced by these donations, they continue to take a true and loving interest in all of us Pingry alumni even as we have moved on and far away as life has progressed.”

A few highlights of current activities: Dr. Ashcom has been a docent at the Princeton University Art Museum for 12 years and a volunteer at the Doylestown Library for five.

Mrs. Kastl has been traveling the globe —Ireland, Eastern Europe, Romania (climbed to the top of Dracula’s Castle) —and spending time with her sister at their antique store (in Weil Antique Center) in Allentown, PA. Mrs. Krusch tutored after retiring, joined two book clubs, and started a third.

Mrs. Lee coaches swimming at the Westfield YMCA and Westfield Memorial Pool, officiates high school swim meets, and remains a member of Pingry’s Athletics Hall of Fame Committee.

Mrs. Lionetti and Dr. Richardson continue to work together at their private psychotherapy practice in Basking Ridge, and Dr. Richardson works with children through the Division of Child Protection and Permanency.

View more photos from the lunch at pingry.org/extras!

Connie Allan P ’75, ’77, ’79, ’83, 1979-2003 (Grade 1) Dr. Jane Ashcom, 1994-2005 (English Department Chair) Tom Boyer P ’96, ’98, 1982-2017 (Health/P.E./Math/Football/Athletics Hall of Fame) Jeanine Carr, 1982-2011 (World Languages) Gail Castaldo P ’00, 1979-2014 (Spanish/French/Peer Leadership) Dr. Susan Dineen, 1990-2018 (English/ Justin Society/The Pingry Record) Connie Fayen P ’90, ’02, 1988-2013 (Lower School Library/Admission) Fred Fayen P ’90, ’02, 1963-2008 (History/College Counselor/Director of Guidance) Chris Irish P ’96, ’99, 1991-2014 (Grades 1, 3, 4/Math Specialist) Kelly Jordan P ’04, ’06, 1988-2017 (French/AFS) Evelyn Kastl, 1969-2016 (Computers/English) Elaine Krusch, 1977-2007 (Typing/Computers/Study Skills) Marge Lear-Svedman, 1980-2012 (Visual Arts/Blue Book) Judy Lee, 1985-2016 (Math/Swimming/ Athletics Hall of Fame) Pat Lionetti P ’85, ’88, ’89, 1977-2013 (English/Psychology/School Counselor/ Peer Leadership/The Pingry Record) Dr. Trish Lowery, 2000-2017 (Science) Mary Jean McLaughlin P ’78, ’80, ’83, ’84, GP ’12, ’15, ’18, ’21, 1978-2007 (Grade 4) Bruce Rahter, 1977-2013 (Science) Bill Reichle P ’00, 1987-2010 (Math/Water Polo/Swimming/Athletics Hall of Fame) Dr. Mike Richardson, 1969-2012 (History/Visual Arts/Psychology/School Counselor/Peer Leadership/Girls’ Soccer/ Athletics Hall of Fame) Judy Seebald P ’05, 2005-2015 (Librarian) Barbara (DeAngelo) Stockhoff, 1986-2014 (Administrative Assistant to the Headmaster) Pat Vergalito, 1985-2012 (Benefits Coordinator)

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Class Notes Share all your news!

Submit your Class Note at pingry.org/classnotes, or mail it to Holland Sunyak Francisco ‘02, Director of Alumni Relations and Annual Giving, The Pingry School, 131 Martinsville Road, Basking Ridge, NJ 07920.

1952 MILLER BUGLIARI P ’86, ’90, ’97, GP ’20, ’24 placed No. 10 in an NJ.com ranking of the 50 most influential people in New Jersey high school sports for 2018. He was selected for his longevity as a coach, being inducted into the National High School Hall of Fame, and amassing a record (as of August) of 850-116-75. His record as of the end of the Fall 2018 season is 863-121-76.

1954 PETE THORNE writes, “Hi! It’s been quite some time since I’ve been in contact with Class Notes.

I’m a retired CPA from New Jersey.

Currently, I am a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints, and I am serving in the largest genealogy library in the world, located in Salt Lake City, Utah. People come to the library from all over the world. However, my specialty is working with those looking for their ancestors who lived in the United States and

Canada. One of my fondest memories at Pingry was playing soccer with Miller Bugliari ’52, coached by Mr. West, in 1950 and 1951 during my freshman and sophomore years. I’m currently living with my older son, Rick, in Saratoga Springs, Utah. However, I still visit New Jersey occasionally to visit my younger son, Chris, at his sevenacre farm in Robbinsville, just south of Hightstown.”

1962 FRANK ALI writes, “In keeping with the tradition of having my picture taken with present and past Delaware Governors, here is the latest picture taken in October at the Volunteers Award Banquet, where our Fort Miles Historical Association was presented with an award for being the outstanding volunteer group with Delaware State Parks.”

The program reads, in part, “In 2003, the Fort Miles Historical Association was founded to work with Delaware State Parks and, in particular, Cape Henlopen State Park, to develop the potential of Fort Miles, one of

Dick Welch ’55, John Holman, Jr. ’55, P ’79, GP ’09, ’11, ’14, Bob Shippee ’56, Bruce Morrison ’64, John Holman III ’79, P ’09, ’11, ’14, Miller Bugliari ’52, P ’86, ’90, ’97, GP ’20, ’24, Chuck Wynn ’55, and Phil Burrows ’55, P ’90 at Rod’s in Morristown in December.

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Delaware Governor John Carney and Frank Ali ’62 at the 2018 Governor’s Outstanding Volunteer Service Awards in Dover, DE.

America’s coastal defense fortifications, located within Cape Henlopen State Park. In 15 years, the Fort Miles Museum volunteer group has grown from four to nearly 400 volunteer members who work within several layers of volunteerism, all focused on sharing the rich history of Delaware’s role in coastal defense.”

1964 HOWARD GEORGI writes, “It has been a nice surprise to have Alyssa Chen ’18 in my very advanced freshman physics class, Physics 16, at Harvard. It has been many years since we have had a Pingry graduate interested in physics.”

1967 BILL ENGEL has been elected to serve a one-year term as Chair of the Board of New Jersey’s largest philanthropic association, the Council of New Jersey Grantmakers, which serves private and corporate philanthropy. He was chosen by the CNJG Board during their annual meeting in December. In a press release, Interim President Jon Shure praises Bill for knowing philanthropy “inside and out.” Bill is Chair of the Board of The Hyde and Watson Foundation, has served for over 200 cumulative years as a trustee of five private foundations and one charitable trust, and has served as a trustee of numerous

Miller Bugliari ’52, P ’86, ’90, ’97, GP ’20, ’24 with Don Dixon ’65 during Pingry’s December visit to California.

nonprofit organizations. He was elected to the CNJG Board for a second term in 2015 after initially serving from 2002 to 2009.

ROBERT SEAMAN writes, “The time has come to take the shingle down from my law practice. In 1994, I retired from the Navy after 20 years of service as a JAG. During that time, your tax dollars sent me around the globe. They also sent me to two forward tours; first, to an aircraft carrier patrolling the Eastern Mediterranean, later to the Persian Gulf (afloat) as the law of war advisor to Commander Middle East Force. Forward tours are mostly boring, except when terrifying.

For the last 20 years or so, I have had something of a niche appellate practice. I had only six clients, all of whom live in relatively close proximity in the most exclusive gated community in California— Death Row at San Quentin. It was an interesting, intellectually demanding, and stressful practice.

Standing before the California Supreme Court, arguing for a man’s life, is a markedly sobering experience. My wife Nancy and I live in the high desert land of perpetual rodeo, Prescott, AZ. Soon, we’ll be able to hike in the western national parks, putter in the garden, and play with the dogs. Not bad things to do in retirement.”

Sitting: Miller Bugliari P ’86, ’90, ’97, GP ’20, ’24 and Frank DeLaney ’77, P ’12. Standing: Jim Hoitsma ’75, Martin O’Connor ’77, P ’11, ’14, Chuck Allan ’77, Kip Haselton ’77, P ’12, Jonathan Shelby ’74, P ’08, ’11, ’19, Steve Lipper ’79, P ’09, ’12, ’14, Chris Allan ’79, Tom Trynin ’79, and Dr. John Boozan ’75. They met for an annual dinner at Morris County Golf Club.

1972

1975

STEVE NAUGHTON writes, “Always such a joy to reconnect with great buddies and to reminisce about our Pingry experiences (nearly 50 years ago!). We share life, laughter, and love. Always look forward to our dinner reunions.

Teammates for life!”

DAVE RAPSON writes, “My wife Ann and I became grandparents in October when our daughter Pearl gave birth to our granddaughter Grace. I continue to practice law on a semi-retired basis in Oakland, CA and in February began my seventh season as pitching coach for the Head-Royce School’s varsity baseball team. In December, we enjoyed the annual visit to the San Francisco Bay Area by Miller Bugliari ’52 and Nat Conard who, along with John Crowley-Delman ’97, provided an interesting look at Pingry’s Experiential Education program. We will miss seeing Nat at future Pingry events and wish him the best.”

Jack VanWagner ’72, Dr. Steve Naughton ’72, Bobby Cunningham ’72, Eric Fowler ’72, and John Maher ’72 at McLoone’s in West Orange, NJ. Unable to attend: Greg Hewitt ’72.

Dr. Chris Walsh ’75.

DR. CHRIS WALSH, Bullard Professor of Pediatrics and Neurology at Harvard Medical School and Chief of Genetics and Genomics at Boston Children’s Hospital, spoke in the Science session at Career Day.

Martin O’Connor II ’77, P ’11, ’14, Sean O’Donnell ’75, P ’05, ’10, Charlie Stillitano, Jr. ’77, P ’17, and Miller Bugliari ’52, P ’86, ’90, ’97, GP ’20, ’24 in Kenilworth in December.

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1977 DR. JEFF LUBIN, Senior Cognitive Scientist at SRI International, spoke in the Science session at Career Day.

1980 DANI SHAPIRO was featured in a New York Times Book Review Q&A in January, prior to the release of her newest memoir (read more on page 51). The discussion probed many aspects of her literary life, including what moves her most in literature (entering the inner life of another human being), favorite genres to read (mostly fiction, essays, and poetry), how she likes to read (books in paper form, late at night), a surprising book on her shelf (vintage medical books, for research into the cultural history of reproductive medicine), and her reading habits as a child (under the covers, with a flashlight!).

Chris Welch ’84, Phil Lovett ’79, Leighton Welch ’79, Tom Trynin ’79, Steve Lipper ’79, P ’09, ’12, ’14, and Miller Bugliari ’52, P ’86, ’90, ’97, GP ’20, ’24 at Gallagher’s Steakhouse in New York City in October.

1985 MICHELLE CUNNINGHAM, Senior Director and Global Business Leader at the medical device company Becton Dickinson, spoke in the Marketing/Advertising session at Career Day.

1986

1983 LANCE GOULD, Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer of Silicon Valley Story Lab, spoke in the Media/Communications session at Career Day.

Michelle Cunningham ’85.

RON RICE, Senior Director – Government Relations for the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, spoke in the Non-Profit/ Public Service session at Career Day.

Ron Rice ’86.

1989 BRIAN CROSBY, Partner at TRAUB Capital, the private equity investment group within TRAUB, a leading specialized consumer and business development firm, spoke in the Finance session at Career Day. MIGUEL GUTIERREZ was profiled in The New York Times in January.

Titled “A Choreographer Gives In to His Ambition of Recklessness,” the article details the inspiration for his new piece that opened at the Chocolate Factory Theater as part of American Realness, an annual festival that highlights provocative new dance and performance works.

The McLaughlin family’s holiday luncheon at Chick and Nello’s Homestead Inn in Trenton. Pictured around the table, clockwise: former Spanish teacher Vic Nazario P ’90, ’94, JoAnn Liptak, Sharon Forte, former P.E., health, and fitness teacher and coach Joe Forte, Dr. Richard Schonberg P ’05, ’08, Lou Ruprecht ’56, P ’79, ’82, ’87, Miller Bugliari ’52, P ’86, ’90, ’97, GP ’20, ’24, Dr. Mark McLaughlin ’83, Edie McLaughlin Nussbaumer ’84, P ’18, ’21, and Dr. James Ware, Jr. ’80.

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NED SOUTHWORTH, Head of School of MOT Charter School, spoke in the Non-Profit/Public Service session at Career Day.

Apu ’93 talking about emergency care with Health 10 students.

Health 10 Students Learn from Apu ’93 Boyce Bugliari ’86, Miller Bugliari ’52, P ’86, ’90, ’97, GP ’20, ’24, and Alan Berger ’68. Boyce, a television writer in California, is Co-Creator and Co-Executive Producer of Coop & Cami Ask the World, a live-action comedy that premiered on the Disney Channel in October. Alan is an agent with Creative Artists Agency.

An ambulance that “belongs” to Apu ’93—a wizard of Pingry’s Tech Department by day and, much to the surprise of students, veteran EMT by night—made an appearance on the Basking Ridge Campus in November. As part of her efforts to introduce Pingry’s Health 10 students to a range of medical professions, Health Department Chair Sue Marotto (a former volunteer EMT following 9/11, and Apu’s teacher some 25 years ago) asked him to arrange an ambulance visit. The local Liberty Corner First Aid Squad was unavailable, so Apu brought an ambulance from his own First Aid Squad in Springfield, let students explore it, and, in the process, shared his EMT experiences.

Mrs. Marotto’s rewarding EMT experience, which taught her about what goes into emergency care, was, no doubt, a factor about 15 years ago, when she decided to augment Pingry’s existing First Aid course and bring BLS (basic life support) certification to the School. Pingry is still the only school in the area to offer it (most offer the less-rigorous Heartsaver CPR course). In fact, the BLS and First Aid certification, good for two years, are a graduation requirement for all Pingry students. As a result of taking BLS and First Aid, she says, many students become interested in further training—and so, her invitation to Apu and his ambulance to give them a taste of the world of an EMT.

Christian Donohue ’86, Boyce Bugliari ’86, Miller Bugliari ’52, P ’86, ’90, ’97, GP ’20, ’24, Olivia Lai ’19, and Gil Lai ’86, P ’19.

Apu, who graduated from Stevens Institute of Technology with an Engineering degree, has volunteered with Springfield’s First Aid Squad for over 25 years, serving as its Captain for 10. What led a tech-obsessed youth to begin volunteering with his town’s squad at the age of 16, and pursue formal EMT training shortly thereafter? His mom, a pediatrician, told him he was spending too much time in front of the computer and needed to get out of the house. He read a town notice that Springfield was looking for volunteers for their First Aid Squad. One baby delivery and countless car accidents later, not to mention cardiac arrests, allergic reactions, and a few memorable reunions with those he helped to save, he’s still a volunteer. He was even on the scene about 10 years ago when a Pingry school bus overturned on Route 78 (“no serious injuries, thankfully,” he remembers).

He captured the attention of a recent Health 10 class with his tales and takeaways. “When you deal with life or death situations as an EMT, you learn to see what the big problems are and break them down into smaller problems you can work with. You can apply that approach to anything in life,” Apu told students. “The network going down at Pingry may seem like a really big deal, but you come to learn that it’s not that big a deal.”

In 2019-20 Mrs. Marotto will introduce an EMR (Emergency Medical Responder) course—taught by Apu!—which is only 60 hours, compared to EMT's 200.

It will be offered to juniors and seniors who have taken Health 10. This comes on the heels of a popular new Foundations of Sports Medicine course she recently initiated, taught by Steve Spezio, athletic trainer and health teacher, and Erin Carannante, athletic trainer, health teacher, and Pingry’s Assistant Director of Athletics.

Ned Southworth ’89.

“For students who are considering a career in the medical field or medical professions, I want to extend the offerings and provide them with more exposure,” Mrs. Marotto says. “These offerings also help to meet the objectives of the Strategic Plan’s student wellness initiative. From the sports medicine course and the BLS and First Aid certification to bringing in the ambulance, I want the students to really have some hands-on experiences in the field.

These are all great opportunities to do just that.”

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1992 CHRIS LEAR recently spoke at length with LetsRun.com about his 2000 book Running with the Buffaloes: A Season Inside With Mark Wetmore, Adam Goucher, and The University of Colorado Men’s Cross Country Team, an in-depth account of the 1998 team’s season. Read more at pingry.org/extras.

DR. GAUTAM MALHOTRA, a board-certified attending physician for the Veterans Affairs New Jersey Health Care System, spoke in the Medicine session at Career Day.

1993 ALEX BAYDIN P ’26, ’29, Founder and CEO of the regulatory technology company PerformLine, spoke in the Entrepreneurship session at Career Day.

Eccles to write an article for Barron’s under the headline “Investors Need More and Better Data on Sustainability,” in which they discuss impact investing, blended finance, and ESG investing (environmental, social, and governance). Graham writes, “Robert and I have been working on a project to bring everimproving Artificial Intelligence capabilities to the capital markets by better predicting and pricing social and environmental risks. With this information, the world’s largest asset owners and managers will be able to allocate capital in more responsible and productive ways.”

1994 AMANDA FREEMAN, Founder and CEO of SLT (Strengthen Lengthen Tone) and Co-Founder of Stretch*d, spoke in the Entrepreneurship session at Career Day.

1996 RAHUL VINNAKOTA, Managing Director at H.I.G. Capital, spoke in the Finance Session at Career Day.

1997

Stephanie Lim Capello ’93.

STEPHANIE LIM CAPELLO, Chief Operating Officer of Girl Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania, spoke in the Non-Profit/Public Service session at Career Day.

DR. ALEXANDRA BRAUNSTEIN, a board-certified oculoplastic surgeon at NJ Oculoplastic Consultants and Associate Professor at Columbia University, spoke in the Medicine session at Career Day.

Chris Newhouse ’97 and Miller Bugliari ’52, P ’86, ’90, ’97, GP ’20, ’24.

DR. PATRICK REID, a neurosurgeon, has been appointed Assistant Professor of Neurological Surgery as part of the Spine Surgery Service at the Department of Neurosurgery at Columbia University College of Physician and Surgeons. He is also Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center. According to a news release, Patrick has had extensive residency and fellowship training in complex spine surgery at some of the most well-known

KOOHELI CHATTERJI has been named Kent Place School’s Director of the Middle School, effective July 1. She succeeds Karen Rezach, who led Kent Place’s Middle School for 18 years and transitioned to lead the school’s Ethics Institute. Kooheli spent the past five years as Middle and Upper School Division Head at Chatham Day School, and, prior to that, was Middle School Dean of Students, an English teacher, and a coach at Pingry.

GRAHAM MACMILLAN III, Senior Program Officer of Mission Investments at the Ford Foundation, teamed up with Professor Robert 62

THE PINGRY REVIEW

Uma Seshamani ’98, Rahul Vinnakota ’96, and Dan Ambrosia ’07.

and revered institutions in the United States, including the University of California, San Francisco and the Hospital for Special Surgery. He will focus on predominantly degenerative conditions as well as spinal deformity and general spinal neurosurgery.

With a dual background in both neurosurgery and orthopedic surgery, Patrick is one of a select number of neurosurgeons trained in a second surgical specialty. He returned to Pingry to speak in the Medicine session at Career Day.

1999

Ama Burnham ’99.

Lance Gould ’83, Katie Scott Old ’99, Ted Smith ’00, and Jamie Shapiro ’97.

HALEY JOEL SATNICK, a television and film actress, spoke in the Performing Arts session at Career Day. JAMIE SHAPIRO, Producer for ABC Television’s The View, spoke in the Media/Communications session at Career Day. KIM SUSKO, Director in the Management Consulting practice at RSM, spoke in the Management Consulting session at Career Day.

1998 MICHAEL AMES has co-authored a book. Read more on page 51.

SEAN KULKARNI, Legal Counsel on the Power & Infrastructure Finance and Fund Finance Teams for the specialist bank Investec, spoke in the Law session at Career Day. GIDEON LEWIS-KRAUS wrote a cover story for the January 20 issue of The New York Times Magazine, titled “Is Ancient DNA Research Revealing New Truths—or Falling Into Old Traps?”

DR. NEHA PATHAK, Medical Editor for WebMD, spoke in the Medicine session at Career Day. ROB POLSKY, General Counsel of Law360, spoke in the Law session at Career Day.

MIHO SAEGUSA’s ensemble, the Aizuri Quartet, for which she plays violin, was nominated for a 2019 GRAMMY Award in the “Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble” category for their critically acclaimed debut album Blueprinting.

AMA BURNHAM, Vice President of Equity Derivatives Sales at Bank of America, spoke in the Finance session at Career Day.

UMA SESHAMANI, Founder and Managing Director of MNAHVI Group, LLC, spoke in the Finance session at Career Day. BECKY MURPHY STRICKLAND, Senior Manager of Worldwide Ops Integration for Amazon Logistics, Amazon’s internal Last Mile package delivery service, was the Keynote Speaker and spoke in the Technology session at Career Day. Read more on page 46.

Sarah Kurz ’99.

SARAH KURZ, a painter, spoke in the Visual Arts session at Career Day. KATIE SCOTT OLD, Television Reporter at WPVI-TV in Philadelphia (where she is known on-air as Katherine Scott), spoke in the Media/Communications session at Career Day. RYAN SHRADER, Ship Control Simulation Software Engineering Supervisor for General Dynamics Electric Boat, which designs and builds submarines for the U.S. Navy, spoke in the Engineering/ Architecture session at Career Day.

Sean Kulkarni ’98, Amanda Dumville ’05, Matt Blumenstyk ’00, and Jessica Westerman ’08.

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2000 MATT BLUMENSTYK, Corporate Training and Development Manager at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP, spoke in the Law session at Career Day.

Lauren Callaghan ’02, Caitlin Morahan Churchill ’02, Jay Lydon ’02, and Lexy Knopp ’02.

2002 Liz Loonam ’00.

LIZ LOONAM, Associate in the Debt Finance Group at Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP, spoke in the Law session at Career Day.

CHRISTINE LAYNG ASCHWALD, Vice President on the Client Advisory Team at Christie’s, spoke in the Visual Arts session at Career Day. ALEXANDRA PETERSON CANALE, Executive Vice President, Deputy Director New York at GCI Health, was honored by PR News as one of its “Top Women in PR,” a group the organization describes as “bold women who are making an impact in the communications field.”

CAITLIN MORAHAN CHURCHILL writes, “I married Dan Churchill at

Jupiter Hills Club in Florida on December 1, and three of my Pingry classmates were in attendance: Lexy Knopp ’02, Lauren Callaghan ’02, and Jay Lydon ’02.

We live in Hoboken and are both working in New York City.”

2003 DR. KATE COYLE, a dentist, spoke in the Medicine session at Career Day. DR. LOU DI LEO, a teacher, writer, and attorney who became Assistant Professor of English at Florida Southern College in 2016,

has created a new course, Legal Writing & Style, and wrote an essay on the FSC website to promote it. The essay reads, in part, “Good prose is seldom found in legal writing . . . legal English is largely dull and turgid, stuffed with clichés and pomposity . . . law students can too easily mistake jargon-riddled, hyper-formal writing for legal acumen. And when lawyers-to-be make this mistake, they tend to doubledown on bad writing habits, such as avoiding everyday words, in an attempt to demonstrate professional merit.” The course’s objectives? Expose students to wellwritten legal texts and help them discover the joy in language, “essential to persuasiveness.” Lou became interested in education and law through his parents—his mother, a special-education teacher; his father, a private practitioner and municipal judge, emphasized the ideals of hard work and commitment to something greater than the self. “When I read Chief Justice Earl Warren’s opinion for Brown v. Board of Ed. in my second year of law school, my interests in education and law were cemented. ‘Education,’ he wrote, ‘is the very foundation of good citizenship.’”

DR. ARI MARCISCANO, Radiation Oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, spoke in the Medicine session at Career Day.

Dr. Abby Merin ’00.

DR. ABBY MERIN, a licensed psychologist in private practice, spoke in the Psychology session at Career Day. TED SMITH, Vice President and Global Head of Communications at PGIM, the investment management business of Prudential Financial, spoke in the Media/ Communications session at Career Day. 64

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Dr. Ari Marciscano ’03, Dr. Alexandra Braunstein ’97, Dr. Gautam Malhotra ’92, and Dr. Kate Coyle ’03.

Dr. David Salz ’03.

Andrew Werner ’04, Ryan Shrader ’99, and Jack Falcone ’04.

DR. DAVID SALZ, a board-certified ophthalmologist with The Eye Specialists, spoke in the Medicine session at Career Day.

and I were surrounded by family and friends, many of whom are members of the Pingry community.

My brothers Todd Kehoe ’99 and Bryce Kehoe ’01 performed a fantastic ceremony, while Laura Cowan Kehoe ’99 and [History Department Chair] Megan Jones were in the bridal party. We had the best day, in no small part because of the people who came to celebrate with us!”

2004 ISA BACARDI, Assistant Nurse Manager at Lenox Hill Hospital, a member hospital of Northwell Health, spoke in the Medicine session at Career Day. JACK FALCONE, President of the family-owned and -operated steel construction and engineering company Stonebridge, Inc., spoke in the Engineering/Architecture session at Career Day. JILL KEHOE LAW married Jay Law on July 7 in Fogelsville, PA. She writes, “On our wedding day, Jay

JAMIL MCCLINTOCK, Legal Counsel for Deloitte, spoke in the Law session at Career Day. ANDREW WERNER, Senior Associate Principal at the international architecture practice Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates PC, spoke in the Engineering/Architecture session at Career Day. Jill Kehoe Law ’04 and Jay Law.

Front row: Dr. Lee Saraceno P ’02, ’03, Miller Bugliari ’52, P ’86, ’90, ’97, GP ’20, ’24, and Dr. George Papasikos P ’00, ’03. Back row: Lenny Saraceno ’03 and Dr. Jacy Papasikos ’03.

Isa Bacardi ’04 and Dr. Neha Pathak ’98.

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KELLY PEELER’s financial advice company NextGenVest, which helps Generation Z navigate the financial aid process via text message, has been acquired by online lender CommonBond, which finances and refinances undergraduate and graduate student loans.

Millions of NextGenVest’s text message conversations revealed that students wanted more than recommendations from Kelly’s company—they wanted help signing up for something, so the acquisition will enable Kelly’s team to move beyond advice and provide loans. Named to Forbes’s “30 Under 30” list for 2018, Kelly joins CommonBond as Vice President of NextGen and writes, “We’re excited to join forces to reduce the cost of higher education!”

Austin Conti ’07, Amanda Freeman ’94, Alex Baydin ’93, P ’26, ’29, and Julie Johnson ’05.

2005 AMANDA DUMVILLE, Associate with McCarter & English, LLP, spoke in the Law session at Career Day. JULIE JOHNSON, Co-Founder and President of the cyberphysical security company Armored Things, spoke in the Entrepreneurship session at Career Day.

JULIETTE JORDAN WHITTEN and her husband John were thrilled to welcome Claire Jordan Whitten at Morristown Medical Center at 4:01 a.m. on October 29.

Juliette writes, “The whole family is loving life with a baby, especially new grandma Kelly Jordan :)”

Ella Reeve Duddy.

CARRIE HOLT writes, “Ella Reeve Duddy was welcomed to the world on September 23!”

Claire Jordan Whitten.

Dr. Monal Mehta ’05.

DR. MONAL MEHTA, Director of Business Development Strategies and Alliances at Pfizer Oncology, spoke in the Management Consulting session at Career Day.

2006 Dr. Brittney Silvestri Jordan ’05.

DR. BRITTNEY SILVESTRI JORDAN, licensed clinical psychologist at the Veterans Affairs Hospital, spoke in the Psychology session at Career Day. 66

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LISA HARRIS HIMELMAN and her husband Eric welcomed their son Max David into the world on November 23. They enjoyed a celebration with family and friends in early 2019, which included Lisa’s close friends Lindsay Pounder ’06, Jennie Ellwanger ’06, and Jodie Francis ’06.

Lisa Harris Himelman ’06 with her husband Eric and their son Max David.

2007 DAN AMBROSIA, Vice President of Partners Group, spoke in the Finance session at Career Day. AUSTIN CONTI, Co-Founder and CEO of Tenna, LLC, spoke in the Entrepreneurship session at Career Day. BRETTE GRABER, Director of Integrated Programs at Mass Appeal Media, Inc., spoke in the Marketing/Advertising session at Career Day.

Eric Hynes ’08, Liam Griff ’04, Morgan Griff ’06, Rob Oh ’03, Sam Jurist ’06, John Stamatis ’05, Miller Bugliari P ’86, ’90, ’97 GP ’20, ’24, Tom Strackhouse ’06, and Will Munger ’05.

Dr. Craig Ramirez ’07.

DR. CRAIG RAMIREZ, Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of TEZCAT Laboratories, spoke in the Science session at Career Day. ALEX SNAPE, Content Strategist at Routehappy by ATPCO, spoke in the Marketing/Advertising session at Career Day.

2008 JESSICA WESTERMAN, Associate at Katz, Marshall & Banks, LLP, spoke in the Law session at Career Day.

2009

Maya Artis ’09.

MAYA ARTIS, Music Therapist at Trinitas Regional Medical Center, spoke in the Psychology session at Career Day.

Emma Carver Akins married Ryan Akins on June 23 at Sankaty Head Golf Club on Nantucket, MA. Pictured are Anne DeLaney ’79, P ’09, ’11, ’14, ’14, Emma Carver Akins ’09, Ryan Akins, Jackie Reef ’09, Chloe Carver ’11, Reeve Carver ’14, Sean Carver ’14, Chip Carver, Jr. ’77, P ’09, ’11, ’14, ’14, Brooke Conti Trousdale ’09, Becca Hamm Conard ’09, Kelsey Hiscano ’08, Katie Contess ’09, Corey DeLaney ’12, Christina Vanech ’09, Emily Haselton ’12, Patrick Trousdale ’08, Kip Haselton ’77, P ’12, Frank DeLaney ’77, P ’12, Jack DeLaney ’16, and Jonathan Reef ’07.

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2013 MAX GOTTLIEB is a senior at Brown University and Captain of the Men’s Ice Hockey team.

2014 ALYSSA BAUM, Software Engineer at Google, working on GoogleDocs, spoke in the Technology session at Career Day. Haley Joel Satnick ’97 and Jenny Gorelick ’10.

2010 JENNY GORELICK, a producer for film, theater, and live events, and Operations Manager and Director of Ticketing for the upcoming 73rd annual Tony Awards, spoke in the Performing Arts session at Career Day.

Alyssa Baum ’14.

What is life like as a college athlete?

Seven alumni who are playing sports in college shared their opinions and experiences during a Q&A with students, faculty, and staff, prior to the Back-from-College Lunch in December. It was part of a new series at Pingry, “Beyond the Athlete.” Topics included: • Typical team schedules (for example, late-afternoon weekday practices, when classes aren’t scheduled, and weekend games) • The experience of transitioning from high school sports to collegiate sports (Mike Carr said, “The biggest change is the skill level of those around you. At Pingry, you could be ‘the best’ on your team. In college, everyone was ‘the best’ on their high school teams, so what makes you stand out?”)

• Game time: the change in dynamic from playing every minute of every game in high school . . . to, perhaps, not playing every minute in college (Myla Stovall said, “Train a lot. If you have the mindset, you will get the playing time. Be grateful for the playing time.”)

• Balance of social life, academics, and athletics (consensus: it can be easy to develop friendships only with teammates, but there is more to college than your sport. Players need to branch out beyond athletics to get to know the school and other students, especially during the off-season.)

• What they miss most or appreciate most about Pingry (being able to relax somewhat while playing sports, compared to the intensity of college sports)

Scott Keogh ’10 and Miller Bugliari ’52, P ’86, ’90, ’97, GP ’20, ’24.

2012

Elizabeth Jolley ’12.

ELIZABETH JOLLEY, Product Manager for AmericanExpress. com, spoke in the Technology session at Career Day. 68

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Austin Parsons ’18 (Div. I track, University of Notre Dame), Mike Carr ’16 (Div. III football, Middlebury College), Myla Stovall ’18 (Div. III field hockey, Wesleyan University), Emma Lombardo ’18 (Division III soccer, Bates College), Jamie Zusi ’18 (Division I lacrosse, University of Pennsylvania), Shea Smith ’18 (Division I lacrosse, Princeton University), Jenny Coyne ’18 (club triathlon, Yale University), and Director of Athletics Carter Abbott.

TanTan Wang ’16 as soloist with The Yale Spizzwinks(?).

visit with the group, following an appearance as a freshman in January 2017. The ensemble performed several Yale songs, as well as Some Nights, Let Me Down, Let It Be, and I Heard It Through the Grapevine.

2017 JAKE MAYER was profiled in an online article for introducing

Jack DeLaney '16.

Princeton University to the Folds of Honor Military Tribute Program, which he helped launch at Pingry.

The program gives high school or collegiate golf teams the opportunity to honor a fallen or wounded American soldier by having a team member carry a golf bag displaying the name, rank, and branch of service of the soldier. The bag also contains a card that tells the soldier’s story.

2016 JACK DELANEY and the Tufts University Men’s Soccer Jumbos won the Division 3 title at UNC Greensboro in December, defeating Calvin College (Michigan) 2-1 in the finals. It is the second NCAA ring for Jack (a junior) and the third in five years for Tufts. Jack was visited by Elon Soccer player Owen Gaynor ’17 in some very inclement weather, and Owen brought good luck for his former Pingry soccer teammate. Tufts Coach Josh Shapiro received a mention on ESPN for his third championship and is a regular at Coach Bugliari’s Pingry Soccer camps.

TANTAN WANG returned to Pingry in January with The Yale Spizzwinks(?), America’s first and oldest underclassman a cappella group. This was TanTan’s second

John Zanelli ’16, Josh Gully ’16, Chris Dugan ’16, Reid Quigley ’16, Dr. Warren Radcliffe, Jr. ’49, GP ’16, Miller Bugliari ’52, P ’86, ’90, ’97, GP ’20, ’24, Max Cummings ’16, Pat Korth ’16, Thomas Zusi ’16, Jack Casey ’16, Greg Naratil ’17, and Jamie Zusi ’18.

CLASSNOTES: Share all your news!

Submit your Class Note at pingry.org/classnotes, or mail it to Holland Sunyak Francisco ‘02, Director of Alumni Relations and Annual Giving, The Pingry School, 131 Martinsville Road, Basking Ridge, NJ 07920.

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In Memoriam Robert M. Hill ’41

August 22, 2018, age 96, Boerne, TX

Mr. Hill entered Princeton University after graduating from Pingry. A member of the ROTC, he enlisted in the Army Specialized Training Program and graduated from the Field Artillery School as a Second Lieutenant. He served in World War II as a platoon leader with the 31 Infantry Division’s Cavalry Reconnaissance Troop in campaigns in New Guinea and Mindanao, Philippine Islands. In late 1945, he became Aide de Camp to Major General Clovis Byers, Chief of Staff of the Eighth Army in the occupation of Japan. After returning to and graduating from Princeton University, Mr. Hill joined a predecessor bank to J.P. Morgan Chase, retired from that bank as Senior Vice President of the International Division, and established an international bank consulting service.

His wife of 53 years, Evelyn, and brother Roger, Jr. ’51 predeceased him. Survivors include his son Robert (Charlotte); grandchildren Rebecca and Alexander; son-in-law Michael Becker; sister Lois Schmidt, and nephew Robert ’71.

Robert Lewis Horton ’48

Robert Willis Morey, Jr. ’54

Mr. Horton served as a pilot in the U.S. Navy for 30 years and was inducted into Pingry’s Athletics Hall of Fame as a member of the 1947 Track Team. Survivors include his eight children, Robert (Jane), Cathy (Ken), Kenneth (Lisa), David (Nancy), Mark (Jackie), Jeffrey (Robin), Timothy (Camille), and Russell (Lucy); 20 grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren.

Mr. Morey earned a B.S. at Yale University, where he stroked the Men’s Varsity Eight Oared Crew to a gold medal in the 1956 Olympics. He was commissioned as an Ensign in the U.S. Navy (ret ’68 LTJG) and served as navigator aboard the icebreaker USS Atka. He completed his graduate education at Harvard Business School, worked in finance, and later founded an underwriting company, R.W. Morey, Inc., a pioneer in catastrophic health care reinsurance. He served on multiple boards, including San Francisco Opera, California Pacific Medical Center, Coventry Health Care, and many schools. Survivors include his wife of 50 years, Maura; sister Louise (Dick); children Suzanne, Robert (Kristin), Jennifer (Garrett), Alison (Mark), and Edward; and nine grandchildren.

December 1, 2018, age 88, Chester, NJ

Howard J. Kramer, Jr. ’49

September 21, 2018, age 87, Vero Beach, FL

Mr. Kramer attended Georgetown University, spent two years in the U.S. Navy, and started his own mortgage company. He was satisfied with these accomplishments, but his greater joy was the comradeship he shared and maintained with many of his classmates during and after Pingry. After more than 70 years, he was still friends with Joseph A. Carragher, Jr., Esq. ’49 and Dr. Warren A. Radcliffe, Jr. ’49, GP ’16.

Survivors include his wife Lynne, son Howard, daughter Deirdre, grandson Michael, and sister Mary. Mr. Kramer will be remembered most for his wonderful sense of humor, his loyalty to friends, and his love of family.

Dr. William Lippincott Hanaway ’47

Alan Embree ’52

Dr. Hanaway earned a B.A. at Amherst College and entered the U.S. Navy through the Newport Naval Training Station on the destroyer USS Wood in the Mediterranean.

Based in Naples, he came to love Italians and their way of life, and received a diploma in Italian Language from the University of Perugia. He earned an M.S. in Library Science and an M.A. and a Ph.D. in Iranian Studies at Columbia University. Dr. Hanaway served as Chair of what was the Department of Oriental Studies at the University of Pennsylvania (it changed names to Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, and is now East Asian Languages and Civilizations), earned Fulbright support for study in Tehran, and was a visiting professor in Middle Eastern Studies at Oxford University. He cofounded and edited Penn’s journal Edebiyat, a publication of the Middle East Center devoted to Middle Eastern literature, and co-founded the American Institute of Iranian Studies in Tehran, supported by the U.S. government. He served as Manager of Pingry’s Hall of Fame 1947 Track Team. Survivors include his wife Lorraine, daughter Annie (Peter), grandchildren Will and Robin, and brother Joe ’51.

Mr. Embree earned a B.S. and an M.B.A. at Cornell University. After serving as First Lieutenant in the U.S. Army in Germany for two years, he continued his education at The University of Chicago Divinity School and received a Master of Arts. He was Chair of the Humanities and Philosophy Departments at the YMCA Community College in Chicago and then Associate Director of Major Gifts at The University of Chicago. He was also a member of the Board of Directors of the Chicago Chapter of the National Society of Fund Raising Executives. His passion for education continued into retirement, when he tutored English at Evanston Township High School, English language learners in Rhode Island, and immigrant families and high school students in Newtown, CT. Class Historian at Pingry, he wrote a brief account of the class from Grade 1 through Grade 12, which he shared at graduation. His brother S. Dawson ’47 predeceased him. Survivors include his wife of 61 years, Lea; son Darren (Tina); daughter Michelle (Warren); and grandchildren Coleman, Leanne, Jetson, Myles, and Jared.

December 30, 2018, age 89, Wayne, PA and Lyman, NH

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October 31, 2018, age 84, Sandy Hook, CT

January 18, 2019, age 82, San Francisco, CA

Philip Van Orman ’54

November 30, 2018, age 82, New York, NY

Mr. Van Orman attended Wesleyan University and Columbia University Law School, and enlisted in U.S. Army training camp. After law school, he joined a law firm, but then worked for the Federal Reserve, where he met his wife Mary; he was Executive Director of the Federal Reserve Employee Benefits System and she was a lawyer in the Legal Department of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Upon retiring, Mr. Van Orman was dedicated to the Cottagers’ Association of Cape May, NJ, serving as its President and later as the Chair of its Audit Committee. Sports were a big part of his life: he was an avid tennis player, watched family members compete in squash, lacrosse, and soccer, and played badminton and miniature golf with them. He also loved to find solutions to seemingly impossible engineering problems. Survivors include his wife Mary, to whom he was devoted; daughters Elizabeth (Tom) and Margaret (Todd); and grandchildren Cate, Tommy, Caroline, Charlie, and Andrew.

Dr. Edmund Jefferson Danziger, Jr. ’56 January 8, 2019, age 80, Toledo, OH

Dr. Danziger majored in History at The College of Wooster and earned a Ph.D. in History at the University of Illinois; during graduate school years, he taught history at Chanute Air Force Base and accepted a one-year appointment teaching history at SUNY Cortland. He spent the next 46 years at Bowling Green State University, teaching multiple history courses and serving as History Department Chair. He published four books and many scholarly articles about Native Americans. His sister Janene preceded him in

death. Survivors include his wife of 57 years, Margaret; son John; daughter Anne (Jarrod); grandchildren Abigail, Oliver, and Ione; brother Doug (Marlene); and niece Reagan (Eric).

John Lawrence McGuire, Jr. ’58 December 31, 2018, age 77, Village of Golf, FL

Mr. McGuire graduated from Georgetown University and Rutgers Law School, and practiced law in Short Hills, NJ. He enjoyed a second career as owner of Hampton’s Wine Shop in Palm Beach, FL. Survivors include his dear wife Margaret “Peggy” Farrell McGuire, LCSW; children Mary Kay (Todd), Maureen, John (Aimee), Lt. Colonel Keith (Amy); Charlotte Hill; brothers Frank (Janet) and Richard; cousin John (Jenine); and grandchildren Ashley, Blakely, Will, Finnegan, Marin, Payton, and Hazel.

Col. Robert Renton Baldwin ’59 January 11, 2019, age 78, Randolph, NJ

Col. Baldwin graduated with a B.A. in Mathematics from the Virginia Military Institute and completed law school “on the other side of the hill” at Washington and Lee University. He was commissioned in 1963 as an officer in the U.S. Army.

After completing law school and a clerkship at the Virginia State Supreme Court, his active duty service started in 1967 with transfer to the JAG Corps. Upon completion of his active duty service, he continued to serve his country in the U.S. Army Reserve as a JAG Officer until being placed in the Retired Reserves in 1993. In 2000, he was officially retired from the military. He was a tax attorney for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company in New York—rising to be a leader in his field—from 1971 until his retirement in 2005.

He was also an active board member at the Rosedale Cemetery in Montclair, NJ, for over 30 years. Col. Baldwin was preceded in death by his sister Carol “Petey” Flynn. Survivors include his wife Carol; children Catheryn, Robert, Jr. ’96, and Elizabeth ’01; grandchildren Samantha and Timothy; and brother Albert F. III ’67.

Charles Van Saun Boillod ’61 November 14, 2018, age 76, New York, NY

Mr. Boillod, an All-American high school football and lacrosse player, earned a B.A. at Lafayette College and an M.B.A. at Columbia University.

A visionary Wall Street pioneer, he began his career at Goldman Sachs and was instrumental in developing the “convertible bond”; he was quoted in the December 1987 New York Times article “The Attraction of Convertibles.” He was also an early advocate of computer-aided sales and trading.

Mr. Boillod was a lifelong skier, a pilot who flew his own plane, a world-class fly fisherman who holds several saltwater fly fishing records, and a passionate motorcycle enthusiast—one of his cross-country trips is documented in the 1984 travelogue Travels with Charlie and Jack: For the Walter Mitty in Us All, which he distributed to Pingry classmates at their 25th Reunion (“Jack” is Jack Shepherd, a friend and business associate). He was inducted into Pingry’s Athletics Hall of Fame as a member of the 1961 Lacrosse Team. Survivors include his wife Maureen Barry Somerville, stepdaughter Bonnie Somerville, and children Charles C. Boillod and Caroline VS Schneirla from his first marriage to Joan Coddington Boillod.

Stephen Haines “Terry” Plum III ’65 December 10, 2018, age 70, Holyoke, MA and Warren, ME

Mr. Plum attended Middlebury College and earned a Master’s in Library Science at the University of Washington in Seattle and a Master’s in Anthropology at the University of Connecticut in Storrs.

He was a librarian and an educator at SUNY Plattsburgh, Middlebury College, and the University of Connecticut in Storrs. In 2000, the Simmons College (now Simmons University) Graduate School of Library and Information Science (now SLIS) hired him to teach future librarians. In 2002, he became Program Director of SLIS West in Western Massachusetts. He also ran the Simmons program on the campus of Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, MA. Many librarians working throughout New England were taught by him. He also served as President of the Holyoke Public Library Board through a decade of fundraising and renovation, resulting in a restored and vibrant library that reopened in 2013. In the last two decades of his career, Mr. Plum traveled the globe to provide instruction in library science to international students and help establish academic and national libraries. He was inducted into Pingry’s Athletics Hall of Fame as a member of the 1964 Soccer Team.

His brother Robert predeceased him in 2014.

Survivors include his wife Sydney; children Trevor (Brandy) and Hilary (Zach); brothers Michael and John ’67 (Mimi); sister Nancy; nieces Sabrina and Tamina; and grandchildren Berit and Valen.

Daniel Charles Popp ’85

February 1, 2019, age 51, Neptune City, NJ

Mr. Popp graduated with a B.S. in English from Rutgers University and was a talented musician, writer, chef, and gardener. He worked as a painter and then as a chef for Compass Group USA at Monmouth University. Mr. Popp was the son of former Pingry Arts Department Chair and summer school operator Michael Popp, who predeceased

him along with Daniel’s sister-in-law Susan.

Survivors include his wife Patricia; mother Julia; siblings Nelson, David ’79 (Susan), James ’82 (Sharon), and Alice ’89 (Denton); and nieces and nephews Thomas, Pamela, Samantha, Eva, Michael, Emily, Andrew, Ronan, and Sylvan.

Dr. Matthew Martin “Marty” Cuaycong ’93 December 5, 2018, age 43, Tenafly, NJ

Dr. Cuaycong attended Washington University in St. Louis, where he attained Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Biology, before eventually deciding to go to medical school at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School (UMDNJ). He then matched into the Pediatrics Residency Program at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, where he also completed his fellowship in Neonatology. After his years of training, he landed his dream job with his beloved work family at NYU Winthrop Hospital in Mineola, NY. A few years ago, Dr. Cuaycong was diagnosed with a brain tumor and, since then, had fought a hard battle. His family will recall him always remaining positive, filled with faith in God, and cherishing his family and friends. He is most fondly remembered by family, friends, colleagues, and patients for his dedication to the medical profession and his genuine, heartwarming smile. Survivors include his wife Lorraine, parents Nelson and Gloria, sister Marybeth ’96, brother-in-law Michael, nieces Calista and Jessica, parents-inlaw Benny and Sue Ng, and brother-in-law Bryant Ng.

Adam Lawrence Goldenberg ’04 January 7, 2019, age 32, Plainsboro, NJ

Mr. Goldenberg attended Cornell University and subsequently received an Associate’s Degree in Management from the Culinary Institute of America. Restaurants were his passion ever since he was a young child, and at age 15 he was managing the local ice cream parlor. He enjoyed the atmosphere and challenge of the restaurant industry, where his personality and people skills made him successful in many food service endeavors, including the Harvest Group as a Director of Training, Manager, and GM. Mr. Goldenberg most recently was General Manager of Panera Bread Company in West Windsor. He returned to Pingry in 2013 to speak at Career Day. He was adored by friends and co-workers and had a profound effect on the lives of all who had the fortune of knowing or working with him. Survivors include his loving wife Cordelia Schore; children Logan and Liliana; parents David and Jan; brother Noah (Candice); and grandmother Sylvia Waskover.

WINTER 2018-19

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Closing Word

You Can’t Google This By 2018-19 Honor Board Chair Drew Beckmen ’19

Over the six days I spent in the High Peaks region of the Adirondacks last winter, I was able to immerse myself in an entirely foreign way of life. Even though I was just about four-and-a-half hours from the familiar halls of the Pingry campus, I was exposed to a lifestyle so drastically different from my life in suburban New Jersey.

When we arrived, the students and faculty at NCS welcomed us with open arms.

Although we knew nothing about how the school functioned, they were patient and willing to teach us how they live sustainable lives in the heart of the largest state park in America. Just hours after arriving, our group ventured to the barn for afternoon chores, which included tending to the chickens, sheep, goats, and horses. To say the least, I was petrified.

Before the program, I had never really been around farm animals, much less taken care of them. On the first day of chores, I was hesitant to get involved, stepping back to let the more experienced NCS students finish the job. Yet, as the days passed, I became increasingly attached to the animals. On the last day, I asked to go back to the barn because I still had not captured the perfect photo of my favorite sheep.

Although I originally signed up for Pingry’s Global Field Studies program to the Adirondacks because of its recreational opportunities, I came away with so much more. The program forced me to evaluate my own way of life from a totally new perspective. Entering it, I had such a limited view of what it means to “live sustainably.” Recycling my water bottles? Turning off the sink while I brush my teeth? That was about all I knew. My time at the North Country School (NCS) over Presidents’ Day weekend last year provided me with an entirely new lens through which to view the world around me.

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By the end, I had acquired so much knowledge about topics from organic food to generating your own heat.

However, no teacher ever lectured me about these topics as they would in a traditional classroom. I was forced to learn by doing: We learned about sustainable ways of eating by cooking with ingredients almost exclusively produced at NCS or local farms. We learned about generating heat by thoughtfully cutting down certain trees in the NCS forest for use in their biomass plant (where they burn wood to generate their heat). I found that it is so much easier (and more fun) to learn by doing, rather than listening.

In just four days, I realized how much a person can learn by being in a new, possibly uncomfortable, situation.

Though it is unnerving at first, I have come to embrace feelings of discomfort and unpreparedness because, in those moments, true learning occurs. As chairperson of the Honor Board at Pingry, I apply this same mindset almost daily.

Serving as chairperson of the Honor Board is both a privilege and a tremendous responsibility. My peers look to me when they need guidance on how to act in accordance with the Honor Code, and I am expected to have the “right answer.” However, like the rest of my peers, I am not omniscient, especially when it comes to matters of ethical and moral standards.

Much like my first time entering the barn at NCS, my time on the Honor Board has raised more questions than answers. Did I make the right decision in that moment? Have I done everything I can to live by the principles of the Honor Code? Though these questions differ greatly from “How can I possibly take an egg out from underneath a hen?”, my search for answers to these questions has been an indispensable part of my Pingry education.

Although I initially lamented the fact that none of these questions could be answered by a Google search, I now realize that their inability to be Googled is what makes them so valuable. The answers I am seeking come from experiences, whether outside the walls of Pingry, like at NCS in the Adirondacks, or within them.

This article is adapted from an “In My Own Words” essay that Drew wrote in March 2018 for pingry.org.

Pingry Reunion: May 17-18 Visit pingry.org/reunion for more information

CALENDAR OF UPCOMING EVENTS Monday, March 11

Naples Reception Alumni Class Notes Send us your latest news!

Do you have a new job?

New baby?

Just married?

Recently moved?

Other updates to share with your classmates?

If so, we are collecting class notes and photos for the next issue of The Pingry Review.

Visit pingry.org/classnotes, or mail your note to Holland Sunyak Francisco ’02 The Pingry School 131 Martinsville Road Basking Ridge, NJ 07920

Kensington Golf & Country Club — 5:30 p.m.

Wednesday, March 13

Vero Beach Reception

Hosted by Judy and Steve Newhouse ’65, P ’95, ’97, ’99 — 5:30 p.m.

Thursday, April 4

Boston Reception

Location TBA — 6:30 p.m.

Thursday, April 11

Washington, D.C. Reception

Hosted by John Boffa ’72 at The University Club — 6:30 p.m.

Friday, May 10

Grandparents & Special Friends Day Short Hills Campus — 9:00 a.m.

Friday, May 17 and Saturday, May 18

Reunion Weekend Basking Ridge Campus

Check pingry.org/calendar and watch your email for information about upcoming events.

Send us your email address! If you haven’t been receiving invitations and updates about Pingry events, it’s probably because we don’t have your current contact information. Send your updated email address and mailing address to alumni@pingry.org to get back in the loop!

Facebook: Pingry School Alumni Twitter: @PingryAlumni LinkedIn: Pingry Alumni Network Instagram: @PingryAlumni

Changing Jobs? Trying to Find Fellow Alumni?

Download the secure and powerful Pingry School Alumni Connect App today and instantly connect and network with fellow Pingry graduates around the world. The app includes a directory of Pingry alumni that’s integrated with LinkedIn and searchable by name, class year, college, industry, company, and city. The app is available on both the Apple and Android platforms.

For volunteer opportunities or any additional questions, please contact:

Holland Sunyak Francisco ’02 Director of Alumni Relations and Annual Giving hfrancisco@pingry.org 908-647-5555, ext. 1284

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 PINGRY SCHOOL