Fall-Winter 2017-2018 Webb Magazine

THE WEBB SCHOOL

WEBB MAGAZINE

History comes to life Alumni -­- Where they are and what they're doing FALL-WINTER 2017-2018

The Webb School Magazine

Inside:

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WEBB

THE WEBB SCHOOL

FALL-WINTER 2017-2018

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MAGAZINE

68 seniors celebrate Blazer Day

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The 68 seniors in the Class of 2018 participated in Blazer Day, one of many Webb traditions, Nov. 14, as they received their senior blazers in a special chapel ceremony.

12 History comes alive

Webb has many archival treasures, but in the past year, pieces of World War I history have captured the attention and renewed interest of L.R. Smith, history teacher; Hannah Little, library director; and Susan Howell, archivist.

features -- Durieux, 14-20 Alumni Moss, Steele and St. John Webb alumni live all over the world and do lots of interesting things. Read about several in this issue.

Also inside:

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Fall Recap

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Strategic Plan for 2017-2020 Fall Sports Class Notes

On the cover:

L.R. Smith dressed in period attire and took Son Will’s WWI Four-Minute Man script, slideshow and the Balopticon to the annual Tennessee Parks Service Living History Weekend at the Sgt. Alvin York State Park in Fentress County in November. Read more on page 12.

2016 - 2017

Fall-Winter 2017-2018

Annual Report

of Gifts and Donors July 1, 2016 - June 30, 2017

Available online www.thewebbschool.com/alumni/give-to-webb

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THE WEBB SCHOOL

WEBB

MAGAZINE

Raymond S. Broadhead Head of School Joe Iorio Assistant Head of School and Business Manager WEBB COMMUNICATIONS EDITOR: Rita Mitchell Director of Communications DESIGN & LAYOUT: Gayle K. McClanahan Graphic Designer CONTRIBUTORS Alyce Allen Director of Advancement Services Dorothy Elkins Alumni Research Assistant Carmen Greenberg Director of Parent Relations & Annual Giving Jonathon Hawkins Director of Alumni Relations & Annual Giving Matt Wilson Director of Alumni & Development The Webb School Magazine is published biannually in the summer and winter by The Webb School, 319 Webb Road East, Bell Buckle, Tenn. The Webb School is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization: 620401875.

The Webb School complies with all applicable anti-discrimination laws and does not discriminate on the basis of gender, race, color, religion, ethnic or national origin in the administration of its educational policies and programs, admissions p r o c e s s e s , scholarship and financial aid programs, employment practices, athletic and other school administrative programs.

1-931-389-9322

Growth and improvement continues with Strategic Plan, SAIS reaccreditation As I write this piece, in Bell Buckle, we are in the midst of our transition from summer to winter. We have already had a killing frost. The zinnias, roses, peppers, tomatoes, and warm-weather plants have passed along, while the hardy fall varieties (lettuce, cabbage, broccoli, and evergreens) still produce. The frost has been followed by many warm days and chilly nights, and students and faculty peel off layers as the day goes on, only to build them up again as evening approaches.

This seasonal transition at Webb is as timeless as the honor code.

This issue features the career paths that some of our alumni have chosen. I am hopeful that our readers will find this interesting and inspiring. The Webb connections around the world are truly amazing to me!

We have had very busy opening months at Webb this year. There has been some deep work focused on our Strategic Plan and our five-year SAIS reaccreditation visit which took place in October. The Strategic Plan (see pgs. 22-23), approved by the Board of Trustees on Nov. 3, is a fundamental piece of our reaccreditation. The strategic plan was developed during a one-year period beginning in October of 2016. For our six major goals, we answered the following questions: Where is the school right now?

Where does the school want to go?

What is the school’s plan to achieve the vision?

How will the school measure its level of success in achieving the vision and continue to use data to inform its future?

The development of the plan consisted of surveys of all of our constituents, focus groups to further define the areas of improvement, and much committee work to produce tactics to reach each of our goals. It is time-consuming, but very rewarding work.

In a recent visit with an alumnus, after I discussed our progress at Webb, he remarked.

“You’re halfway there.” He then pointed to a poster on his wall with that slogan and a

picture of a man scaling a steep mountain face.

He elaborated that because of changing landscapes, we are perpetually halfway there regardless of our progress.

This is what our strategic plan is all about, to get us halfway there in an ever-changing educational and social environment.

With regards to SAIS reaccreditation, the school passed all standards and was unanimously recommended by the visiting committee for reaccreditation for the next five years.

The visiting committee made many positive commendations, including the thoroughness and quality of the school’s self-study and school improvement plan. We look forward to the work in the next five years to get “halfway there.”

It has been a fall of numerous student and faculty accomplishments in many areas of school life. Some of these will be featured in this magazine, while others are on our very active website. I am very proud of what we accomplish at Webb. While we are not perfect, we strive to do better every day. I am honored to be part of this wonderful place where students, faculty, and staff personally interact and learn from each other in the deepest sense.

The Webb School Magazine

319 Webb Road East Bell Buckle, Tenn. 37020

A note from the Head of School

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FALL RECAP...

Kudos & news 75 Years at Webb Three alumni and a current student recently presented “75 Years at Webb” in a panel discussion. Jim McDonnell Jr. ’43, board chair emeritus, right, was joined by his son, James W. McDonnell III, class of ’68, Ben Blakeley, class of ’93 and Alumni Board member, and Maranda Gant, a boarding student who is a member of the class of 2018. The panel fielded questions and explained life as a Webb student during their years of attendance. Trustee Phil Coop ’66 served as moderator. (See page 31 for “Trustee emeritus and longest-serving Webb board chair honored.”)

Hurricane help sent to Texas Recognizing the need for continued support and aid to the areas in Texas hard hit

by Hurricane Harvey, Webb sponsored a “jeans day” fundraiser in September for all students, faculty and staff. Assistant Director of Admissions Rhea Hyatt ’07 organized the event with the assistance of Cailey Patterson ’19, a boarding student from Houston. In addition to the jeans day fundraiser, John Sawyer ’88, chairman of the Webb board of trustees, and Paul Martin ’88, a board member, agreed to match the funds collected in the school drive up to $1,000 each pushing the total to more than $5,000.

Fall-Winter 2017-2018

“I wanted to get the fundraiser going just to show all those that are a part of the Webb family in Texas that we are doing our best to help them and keeping them in our thoughts and prayers,” said Hyatt. “I saw lots of efforts to help on social media and thought our community could contribute in some way.” He added, “I contacted our only student from Houston to see if she knew of any charitable organizations that could use some help. Cailey did some research and decided upon the Houston Food Bank. She said that she has worked with them in the past and has seen them really make a difference in Houston.”

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Several performances were presented by students in the choir and the strings programs.

Students carry out successful food drive The International Thespian Society members and Student Council members at Webb joined with the United Methodist Church in a national event to collect food items for hungry children.

During the month-long drive in October, singleserving nutritious food for weekend backpacks for school-age children was collected. Canned goods were accepted, as well, for the Bell Buckle United Methodist Church food pantry; however, the need there was not as great as for the backpacks during the drive. All nonperishables were weighed as part of a competition at schools across the nation. Packers for the backpacks were led by Nicole Taucare, dean of faculty/dorm parent, and residents of Wendel Haynes Hall.

Senior Blazer Day The 68 seniors in the Class of 2018 participated in Blazer Day, one of many Webb traditions, Nov. 14, as they received their senior blazers in a special chapel ceremony.

The presentation is scheduled annually on or near the birthday of founder, W. R. “Sawney” Webb, who was born on Nov. 11, 1842. Marking the Blazer Day ceremony, Chase Spurlock, a Webb 2005 graduate and Alumni Board president, was the keynote speaker. As seniors continued the longtime Blazer Day tradition, the class members also had the opportunity to ring the bell that once stood at the original school in Culleoka, Tenn., where Sawney Webb and brother, John Webb, began their classes.

Each year, alumni present the blazers during a school-wide chapel service. This year, Elizabeth Willis ’80, alumni board member, and her nephew, Taylor Williams ’07, participated. Middle School Head Tabetha Sullens ’94 announced the seniors’ names. Parents, underclassmen, faculty, staff and guests attended the event.

The Webb School Magazine

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Faculty members pursue professional development KELLY NORTHRUP A presentation submitted by Kelly Northrup, Latin teacher, was accepted for inclusion in the American Council on Teaching Foreign Languages 2017 program at the ACTFL Annual Convention and World Languages Expo in Nashville in November. The session was titled “No Time for a Project: 4 Quick Cross-Cultural Activities for Latin.” According to the ACTFL website, the expo is an international event bringing together more than 7,000 language educators from all languages, levels, and assignments. ... goal is to provide a comprehensive professional development experience that will have an impact on language educators at all levels of teaching and, in turn, help their students to succeed in their language learning process.

SCOTT DORSETT Scott Dorsett, Director of Athletics, recently received the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association (NIAAA) Certified Master Athletic Administrator designation. Dorsett’s CMAA oral presentation was accepted Nov. 16.

MOLLY BARGER Molly Barger, English teacher, attended the Blackfriars Conference 2017 at the

American Shakespeare Center in Staunton, Va., in October. During the conference, she presented – Experiential Shakespeare Pedagogy Colloquy “Multimodalities and Transmediation are critical.”

“If the way we teach a text matters because we are, in fact, shaping our students’ experience of the text, then using various modalities of text is also crucial,” said Barger.

“In the classroom, we can create more active environments utilizing pedagogies such as Process Drama. In terms of Shakespeare, students can act through various scenes, exploring the impact of staging and acting choices on the text. Similarly, using and exploring professionally filmed versions allows for similar discussions but requires a close examination in the same way Process Drama might be approached. In this way, we can ask students to be actively involved in exploring a text rather than being passive learners at their desks.”

JULIE HARRIS Julie Harris, director of admissions, is serving on the North American Boarding Initiative (NABI) advisory board.

NABI was created by The Association of Boarding Schools (TABS) “to respond to the enrollment challenges boarding schools face with an aggressive multi-million-dollar, five-

year initiative funded by member schools to grow demand for college-prep boarding schools among families in the U.S. and Canada. The goal of the initiative is to raise awareness of the profound, transformation, and lifelong difference a 24/7 educational experience offers young people.”

MIKE QUINN Mike Quinn, art teacher, was one of 75 artists featured at the 2017 Burning Man in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert, Aug. 27Sept. 4. His proposal was selected from a field of 500 applicants, and he received a honorarium that provided a cost-sharing grant for the large sculptural installation at the event. The work was called “Of a Temporary Nature” and consisted of 24 giant floating fairy shrimp sculptures. “It is odd and combines my interests in art, biology, philosophy and spirituality,” he said. Quinn noted that he always encourages his students to enter art contests and submit works for exhibition. “I wouldn’t have submitted a Burning Man proposal if I didn’t think it would somehow have a positive impact on my students. But I know it will positively impact me as an artist, and teacher.”

Fall-Winter 2017-2018

Faculty and staff receive "thankful" bags from WSPA

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The Webb School Parents’ Association presented faculty and staff with “Thankful” Bags filled with all sorts of treats from homemade bread and cookies to specialty items, candy and other snacks. The presentation was during a special chapel on Nov. 7. Each year, parents provide the unique treats for the bags, and they are assembled by a WSPA group. A total of 119 bags were delivered. Amy Norris, WSPA co-president, spoke briefly during chapel to express appreciation to faculty and staff and to Tricia King for chairing the project.

"You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown" staged “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown” was the November play presented in the Black Box Studio Theatre of the Lundin Fine Arts Building. The production was directed by Ruth Cordell, and the technical crew was directed by Ralph Jones. The cast included Slate Bowers, Charlie Brown; Bailey Brock, Snoopy; Amy Chen, Lucy; Delana Howard, Sally; Mackenzie McKillip, Pig Pen; Alexis McKnight, Peppermint Patty; Trey Snell, Linus; Annie Zhou, Woodstock; and Carol Zhou, Shroeder. Stage and director assistants were Emma Petersen and Chloe Blansett. Caroline Cooper and Maddy Ellis were in charge of makeup. The crew included Wilson Fennell, Ella Harris, Dayton Hasty, Charlotte Hedley, Oliver Hutchens, Collin Jones, Siree McRady, Johnny Ou and Kelty Shroyer. Also assisting with the production was the maintenance staff. The cartoon set design and execution was by Peter McKillip, father of Mackenzie McKillip. Trey Snell and his father, Freddie Snell, also worked on the production.

Middle School students took their annual fall camping trip to New Frontiers in Dowelltown, Tenn. The two-day trip included fun, adventure, and outdoor experiences.

One of the goals of the trip each year is to prepare the middle school students for longer overnight trips in high school at Webb.

Webb Hosts Parents' Weekend

Jayden Jackson of Wartrace was named Equitation 12-14 World Champion and received Top 3 in the 12-17 Juvenile World Grand Championship at the recent 2017 Tennessee Walking Horse Celebration in Shelbyville, Tenn.

Parent-teacher conferences and presentations by Bruce Hunter, director of college counseling, Jamie Newberg, assistant director of college counseling, and guest speakers were part of the afternoon activities.

The day was capped with a football tailgate at Lagler Field followed by dedication of the PAWS concession building and the first football game of the season.

The Webb School Magazine

Parents participated in a variety of activities during Webb’s annual Parents’ Weekend in September. They had the opportunity to attend classes with their children during the morning and join them for lunch in the Grace Follin Dining Hall.

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Webb earns reaccreditation from SAIS The Webb School has earned reaccreditation for five years from the Southern Association of Independent Schools (SAIS). Head of School Ray Broadhead was notified of the reaccreditation following a yearlong process of self-evaluation and an onsite peer review in October.

The SAIS reaccreditation self-study was led by Broadhead, Andrew McRady, dean of students, and Kelly Northrup, Latin teacher.

Others contributing information were the many stakeholders of the school (students, faculty, parents, trustees, and alumni), who completed surveys more than a year ago to help identify areas that may need improvement. Ideas were further studied by the faculty, administrators, and the trustees.

SAIS is a voluntary organization of independent elementary and secondary schools throughout the Southeastern United States and the Caribbean. The organization addresses issues of importance to non-public schools such as organizational excellence, accreditation, curriculum, professional development, governance, equity and leadership.

“The most important aspect of the reaccreditation process is the selfstudy, as we deeply examine ourselves, reflect on where we are, and determine where we need to improve,” said Broadhead. “The process also exposes us to new and higher standards demanded by SAIS. In the next few years we will work hard to achieve our goals and create a culture of learning, in a safe environment, where our standards of behavior and character remain fundamental to our mission. I am deeply grateful for all of our constituents who contributed their thoughts to help make Webb the best it can be.”

Fall-Winter 2017-2018

To earn reaccreditation from SAIS, Webb complied with quality standards, was evaluated by an outside group of peer professionals, and implemented a school plan focused on strategic improvement and student performance in accordance with the school’s mission.

A team representing SAIS conducted an onsite visit to review the school’s self-

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study and standards compliance and its adherence to its mission.

The team was comprised of diverse educational leaders from institutions in the Southeast. The visiting team sought the answers to critical questions the school asked of itself.

“For me, accreditation provides the opportunity for us to more deeply reflect on who we are and why we do the things we do.

Of course, it is about being accountable to ourselves and all of our stakeholders---students, parents, and alumni,” said Northrup.

“Accreditation can become about checking boxes, and it is important to make sure those boxes are checked. However, and much more excitingly, it is also a chance to recall our dedication to our mission, remind us of our unique gifts and challenges as a school, and reignite our passion as educators to carry out our mission, maximize our gifts, and face our challenges head-on.”

McRady added, “It is always exciting when a community looks at the big questions that guide a school. Accreditation talks in terms of “stakeholders” - all of those who have a stake in the school community - that includes students and parents, teachers and staff, and the governance of the school. We are all involved in this great endeavor that is The Webb School. We are part of a historical continuum of excellence in education that reaches back almost 150 years.” McRady, a 1986 Webb graduate, noted, “As we moved through the accreditation process, we were able to focus on the elements of our history that have made our school great and then chart our way forward into the coming years. This is an exciting time in education, and The Webb School is uniquely poised, with our depth of history and educational understanding, to move confidently forwards into the 21st Century.”

Among numerous commendations, the visiting team commended Webb for: • Talented and energetic admissions team, • Strong alumni support in all aspects of the operations of the school, • Strong tradition and commitment to The Honor Code, • Successful completion of new dorms, student center, and residential village, • Strength and dedication of the faculty and their willingness to help students outside of class time, • The Board’s active commitment to the recent capital campaign, and • The thoroughness and quality of the school’s self-study and school improvement plan.

A Southern Association of Independent Schools team came to Webb for a reaccreditation visit in October. Chairing the group was Andrew Yepson, Cedar Creek head of school; and other members were Brent Bell, Darlington School head of school; Eric McAfee, Brandon Hall School dean of students; and Heather Singer, Westchester Country Day School middle and upper school counselor. From left are McAfee, Yepson, Singer and Bell.

Borba, Hudson fall Follin Speakers The 2017-2018 Follin Speaker Series welcomed Dr. Michele Borba, author of “Unselfie – Why Empathic Kids Succeed in Our AllAbout-Me World,” and David L. Hudson Jr. ’87, First Amendment expert, as the first two speakers. The Follin Speaker Series is an endowed program at Webb.

Dr. Borba is an internationallyrecognized educational psychologist and parenting, bullying and character expert whose aim is to strengthen children’s empathy and resilience, and create safe, compassionate school cultures. She has spoken to parents and teachers on six continents and delivered keynotes to more than one million participants for organizations such as Harvard University, Sesame Street, Boys and Girls Clubs of America, United States Air Force Academy, American Academy of Pediatrics, Girl Scouts of America, and a TED talk. She is a regular NBC contributor appearing 150 times on the Today Show and featured on three Dateline Specials as well as Dr. Phil, Dr. Oz, Dr. Drew, The View, NBC Nightly News, The Early Show, CNN and others.

Hudson is a law professor who serves as First Amendment ombudsman for the Newseum Institute’s First Amendment Center.

He contributes research and commentary, provides analysis and information to news media. He is an author, co-author or co-editor of more than 40 books, including “Let The Students Speak: A History of the Fight for Free Expression in American Schools” (Beacon Press, 2011), “The Encyclopedia of the First Amendment” (CQ Press, 2008) (one of three coeditors), “The Rehnquist Court: Understanding Its Impact and Legacy” (Praeger, 2006), and “The Handy Supreme Court Answer Book” (Visible Ink Press, 2008).

He has written several books devoted to student-speech issues and others areas of student rights.

He writes regularly for the ABA Journal and the American Bar Association’s Preview of United States Supreme Court Cases. He has served as a senior law clerk at the Tennessee Supreme Court, and teaches First Amendment and Professional Responsibility classes at Vanderbilt University School of Law and various classes at the Nashville School of Law.

The Webb School Magazine

A new flagpole with light, donated by the Webb School Parents’ Association and installed near the Culleoka Bell, was dedicated on Nov. 10. As part of chapel, guests joined students, faculty and staff in a program to honor veterans in advance of Veteran’s Day on Nov. 11. Lighted, a flag can now remain raised at night. Also, as part of the program, a flag, donated to the school by Riley Cook, a Vietnam veteran and Webb staff member, was raised. Cook said in a letter to the school read by Ashlea Shepard, WSPA co-president, that "this flag was flown over our nation’s Capitol in honor of those men and women I served with during my two tours in Vietnam. It also flew over my home on 9/11 to honor those who died in the attack on our country." He added, "Today, I’m donating this flag to the students and faculty of The Webb School in their honor."

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Smith honored with 2017 Faculty Enrichment Award: service awards presented L.R. Smith, with 40 years as a history teacher at The Webb School, was recognized by Webb Parents’ Association with the 2017 WSPA Faculty Enrichment Award. Amy Norris, WSPA co-president, presented the award at the opening of school recognition dinner.

The Faculty Enrichment Award is presented annually to an outstanding member of the teaching faculty who has taught at Webb for at least three years. Students and families cast votes to select the recipient.

Smith, a resident of Bell Buckle, expressed appreciation for the award and added, “It really belongs to the entire faculty.” Following the award presentation, he paraphrased a comment about teaching French often shared by his wife, Moira Smith, Webb Foreign Language Department chair and French teacher. “There’s nothing in

the world I’d rather do than to go up that hill every day and teach history at The Webb School.”

Smith teaches part-time as the instructor of history and ethics classes, is chapel director and serves as assistant coach for the trap and skeet team. He began the clay target program as sponsor in the 1980s and gifted the Faculty Enrichment Award stipend to the program. Also during his tenure at Webb, he served as Honor Council advisor for more than 30 years. Smith received a B.A. from Guilford College and M.A. from University of North Carolina-Greensboro.

Several other awards were presented at the annual event by Ray Broadhead, head of school. Those recognized and their number of service years included Dorothy Elkins, Alumni and Development research assistant, 60 years; Alyce Allen, Alumni and Development Director of Advancement Services; Ruth Cordell, speech and theatre teacher, theatre director, Cindy Cox, associate manager of business operations; Hannah Little, library director; Kelly Northrup, Latin teacher; and Kelvin Nunley, maintenance staff, 10 years; Neil Barrett, English teacher; Daiva Berzinskas, director of International Programs and English Language Learner teacher; Riley Cook, maintenance staff; Coy Corbin, bus driver; Adam Feldbruegge, Science Department chair, science teacher; Jason Joslin, maintenance staff; and Matt Wilson, Alumni and Development director, five years.

Fall-Winter 2017-2018

Mid-Autumn Festival celebrated

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Webb students and faculty traveled to Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro on Aug. 21 to see 100 percent totality of a solar eclipse that began at 1:28 p.m. and ended one minute and 28 seconds later. Totality in Bell Buckle was about 98 percent. The last total eclipse visible in the United States was in 1979 and seen in Portland, Ore. The next total eclipse visible in the U.S. will be in 2024, but the pathway does not include Tennessee.

The Mid-Autumn Festival was celebrated on Oct. 4 at Webb. Falling on the 15th day of the 8th month according to the Chinese lunar calendar, the MidAutumn Festival is the second grandest festival in China after the Chinese New Year. The day is also known as the Moon Festival. On the festival day, family members gather to offer sacrifice to the moon, appreciate the bright full moon, eat moon cakes, and spend time with their families. In South Korea the autumn festival is called Chuseok. It honors ancestors and deceased relatives, but the holiday also serves the purpose of keeping the family together in a time when work and other obligations may separate people. Traditionally, Chuseok also allowed South Koreans to celebrate the autumn harvest after a season of hard work. Chuseok is held on the 15th day of the 8th month on the lunar calendar, or the fall equinox. At dinner on Oct, 4, Songpyeon, a sweet rice cake that is enjoyed as a snack or dessert, was served to the Korean students and moon cakes to the Chinese students. The Chinese Parents’ Association provided dumplings and egg rolls for the celebration. A special chapel performance was presented by Director of the Center for Chinese Music and Culture Dr. Mei Han and her musical ensemble.

Merit Scholarship Semifinalists named Seniors, Jones Allison and Kelty Shroyer, were named National Merit Scholarship Program Semifinalists in the fall.

Also, seniors, Hayden Weeks and Lucas Wiesemann, each received a National Merit Scholarship Program Letter of Commendation.

Allison of Bell Buckle and Shroyer of Lino Lakes, Minn., were among the top 1 percent of 2017-18 U.S. high school seniors to achieve the semifinalist distinction. A total of 16,000 semifinalists were named for the 2018 National Merit Scholarship Program. They are eligible to continue in the competition and to vie for 7,500 National Merit Scholarships worth approximately $32 million that will be offered next Jones Allison Kelty Shroyer spring.

To become a finalist, semifinalists must have an outstanding “I am very excited for Jones and Kelty. This is both a wonderful academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and honor, and a wonderful opportunity,” said Head of School Ray recommended by a high school official, and earn SAT scores that Broadhead. “Being a merit semifinalist will open many doors for confirm their previous test performances. Semifinalists must also them in the college admissions process. Lucas and Hayden just submit an essay and detailed application, which demonstrate missed the mark, as the field has become increasingly competitive in participation and leadership in their schools and communities.

Tennessee.”

Weeks of Murfreesboro and Wiesemann of Clarksville were among High school juniors are automatically entered into the National approximately 34,000 Commended Students throughout the Merit Scholarship Program by taking the Preliminary SAT/ nation who were recognized for their exceptional academic promise.

National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT®).

Although they did not continue in the 2018 competition for Approximately 90 percent of the selected semifinalists are expected National Merit Scholarships, Commended Students placed among to advance to the finalist standing, announced in March, and about the top 5 percent of more than 1.6 million students who entered the half of the finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship, earning competition. the Merit Scholar title.

"Faces & Our Cultures" brings Guatemalan students to Webb, includes exchange

Webb partnered this year by providing a seven-week exchange program to our students. First, two students from Guatemala joined the Webb community from Oct. 17-Dec. 10. The students were Kristhal Guerra, 11th grader, and Adriana De la Torre, 9th grader.

Both girls lived in Rand Dormitory.

“It’s a good opportunity for us,” said Moira Smith, Foreign Language Department chair. She noted that when language students meet students from other countries, it makes language programs take off. “It’s great for our students.”

This summer, a seven-week program in Guatemala will be offered to Webb students. The program in Guatemala will take place during their school calendar so students will have the opportunity to live with a host family in Guatemala and be fully immersed in academic classes with their student host. For more information, please contact Moira Smith at msmith@webbschool.com or Carrie Auwarter at cauwarter@webbschool.com.

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The Webb School is participating in Faces & Our Cultures, a cultural exchange experience between Guatemala and the U.S. that partners with 100 schools in 13 different states. Each year more than 160 cultural ambassadors from Guatemala travel to the U.S. to share their culture with school communities and learn from the American culture.

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Webb has many archival treasures, but in the past year, pieces of World War I history have captured the attention and renewed interest of L.R. Smith, history teacher; Hannah Little, library director; and Susan Howell, archivist.

HISTORY

comes alive

Fall-Winter 2017-2018

More than 650 glass slides from the early 1900s, many of them pertaining to World War I, and a complete Four-Minute Man slideshow script promoting the United States’ participation in the war, are the focus of a project that, once completed and archived online, could turn out to be one of a kind. The sheer number of slides makes Webb’s collection unique. Online searches have yet to yield collections as large or as varied.

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Smith learned of the slide collection in about 1978 from the late Lane Abernathy ’39, former alumni and development director. And through the years, Smith would set up the Balopticon projector and show some slides during the study of WWI in his classes. Because the Balopticon is made of sheet metal, Smith found that its 400watt bulb overheated the unit and could cause the slides, some created from photographs and others that were hand-painted, to crack if they were left in the projector too long. He stopped showing the slides because he did not want to take a chance of ruining them.

“It was before computer scanning,” Smith said.

The slide collection, script and a working 1910 Bausch and Lomb Balopticon “Magic Lantern” that projects the slides, belonged to

“Son Will” Webb, a Four-Minute Man and Webb headmaster from 1926-1953, following the death of his father, Webb founder W. R. “Sawney” Webb. The majority of the WWI slides were created by the U.S. Committee on Public Information, whose main purpose was to influence public opinion about the war via the Four-Minute Man presentations. The CPI recruited community leaders across the country – as many as 74,000 -- to be Four-Minute Men. They made their presentations in support of the war and buying government bonds during the four minutes required to change the reels of feature motion pictures in movie theaters.

In addition to the large number of WWI slides, the Webb collection includes slides of national parks, songbirds and other subjects of interest to Son Will. Most of the slides were ordered by Son Will from a July 1918 CPI catalog, which is also part of the Webb collection. Slides of the school’s summer camp, the campus, area road improvement projects and folk art, which Son Will created from photos during the same time period, are other collection pieces.

In 2012, Little and Howell began organizing Webb’s extensive

collection of archival pieces to catalogue and display. “I decided that seeing as how Hannah and Susan were really pursuing archives at Webb, something needed to be done with the slides. At that time, I said, ‘wouldn’t it be nice to preserve these things, scan them, post them online and have an archive.’”

In the fall of 2016, as part of a WWI class that Smith taught, he and his students cleaned about half of the slides. Then, Smith picked up the project again last summer because 2017 is the centennial of the U.S. entry into the war. “I said to myself, ‘you’ve got to do something.’ This is the centennial of when Son Will was, in fact, a Four Minute Man,” he added. “The CPI and the Four-Minute Men sold WWI the way they would sell cigarettes, Vick’s VapoRub® or any other commodity. It was mass advertising. This is how important it was. It was now or never.” Smith explained, “I started going to the library and cleaning up the rest of the slides.”

The WWI and other slides were cleaned, scanned and identified as closely as possible. After Son Will’s Four-Minute Man script was located in the collection, Smith noticed that the WWI slides continued on page 28

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When school began in August, he had time to continue his project because he now teaches parttime. “This is the first time ever that I’ve had enough time to get in here and work on this, and now it’s an obsession. As Hannah will tell you, she had never seen me in the library this much before, really. Now I live there. I have my own personal work station there.” Speaking of scanning and identifying the slides, Smith said, “I had no expertise. Hannah helped me. This has been an education for me.”

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Captain Yann Durieux Fall-Winter 2017-2018

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Crew of C.S. Dependable Selected for the Indian Coast Guard SAR Award

n July 10, 2017, at a presentation in New Delhi, India, the crew of the TE Connectivity SubCom cable ship C.S. Dependable, represented by their Captain Yann Durieux, accepted a noteworthy honor from Reprinted with permission / TE SubCom the Director General of the Indian Coast Guard. In recognition of the C.S. Dependable’s remarkable rescue of 14 crew members from a sinking fishing vessel off the Maharashtra Coast near Mumbai, the Indian Coast Guard’s National Maritime Search and Rescue Board (NMSAR) presented Captain Durieux with the SAR Award for Merchant Vessel.

Last September 17 (2016), the C.S. Dependable was at work installing an undersea cable system when a crew member spotted debris and, shortly after, discovered small groups of men treading water and clinging to pieces of a recently destroyed vessel. What happened next was a textbook display of seamanship, preparedness and human decency.

Over the course of an interminable 90 minutes, with Captain Durieux carefully maneuvering the ship in 2.5 knots of surface Yann Durieux, right, accepts award current to keep the men in the water away from the ship’s thrusters, a complicated rescue mission took place, with crew spread out on weather decks, the bow, stern, gangways and bridge. Some served as lookouts calling out survivor sightings and others threw life-rings into the water as the captain moved the ship toward each survivor and security team members secured in harnesses pulled men out of the water, including one man who had his 11-year-old child clinging to his back.

After six hours on board the C.S. Dependable, Indian Coast Guard vessels arrived on scene. While fighting intermittent heavy squalls, the captain and the C.S. Dependable crew then had to execute

Durieux travels world in career; keeps some Webb memories close Yann Durieux moved to Bell Buckle with

another challenging mission of transferring the fishermen to the Coast Guard vessel. During that process, it was learned that the Coast Guard vessel reportedly recovered one additional survivor and one deceased fisherman.

“Once I got on the cable ships, I enjoyed it as we have pretty diverse experience and tend to be in different parts of the world for various periods of time. I cannot think of a single point that made me stick with it,” Durieux said. He sailed on various vessels immediately out of school, but since 1992 has been with TCSC (a subsidiary of TE SubCom, which was AT&T at the time he started). He has 25 years with the company and has been sailing as captain since 2004.

Cable ships do all types of subsea work. The basic mission is to install and repair fiberoptic cable systems, which carry the vast majority of international internet/data/voice traffic, hence the name cable ship. The ships employ subsea tools such as a ROV (Remotely Operated Vehicle), basically a tethered Robotic Submarine, which operates as far down as 2,500 meters water depth. Beyond that the ships uses traditional tools such as grapnels attached by lines. Durieux said the ships have been employed for other types of missions.

The Webb alumnus said there have been many experiences — both rewarding and challenging — in his career. “Installing systems across the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans and doing repair work on cables all over the world, one sees a lot of things.” Among those “things” were recovering a downed Navy E2C Hawkeye plane from the bottom of the sea in the Gulf Stream in 2007, employing anti-piracy measures, dealing with all types of people, seeing things in Europe, Africa, Asia, North America and South America and holding refugees from Cuba until the Coast Guard could arrive off Key West nearly 10 years ago. “That’s not to mention the

Durieux credits Webb for his success in higher education and a career. “I was very well prepared by Webb. I felt I was ahead of the curve once at the academy, and that was due to Webb.”

In recalling the faculty who helped make that preparation possible, Durieux said, “Mr. Lagler (Latin and geography) and Mr. L.R. Smith come to mind as standing out. Mrs. Truitt, Mr. Rice – there were many good teachers.” He added, “I am still sad that I never visited Mr. Lagler before his passing.”

“It may be cheesy, but I would say the place infused some character in me. I don’t think I realized it at the time, but it is still a part of me.”

Asked about a particular memory of his time at Webb that he could relate, Durieux said the question “brought a smile to my face. I was probably not the most well-behaved.”

He added, “Chapel, declamations (which I recall often when I address groups of people), seeing Mr. Smith dress up in various WWI or Revolutionary War uniforms” -- those memories are also still with him.

Durieux splits his time off in Vermont and Tennessee. In Vermont, he attends sporting events and other activities with his three children, Brigitte, Natalie and Nicolas. He also enjoys traveling, diving, the outdoors and finding other experiences to share with them.

In Tennessee, he visits his mother, MarieClaire, who resides with her husband, Spencer Turrentine, in Bell Buckle. Durieux’s father, the late Alan Durieux, served as Webb coordinator of transportation and maintenance in the early 1980s.

The Webb School Magazine

“On behalf of the crew of the C.S. Dependable, I am humbled and honored to accept the SAR Award from the Indian Coast Guard NMSAR,” said Captain Durieux. “While it was difficult knowing that the entire crew of the fishing vessel wasn’t rescued, I’m proud that we did everything that we could for our fellow seafarers. This situation could have turned out very differently, but because SubCom prioritizes the hiring and retention of experienced sailors, I believe each member of our crew is heavily invested in each other’s success, whether it’s deploying a cable system or anything else that might happen on board.

The crew felt empowered to do the right thing because they knew that safety, operational excellence and good seamanship are all inherent to our mission.

Our job is a tough one, but it’s great to know that you have calm, knowledgeable and proud shipmates to back you.”

his family in1977 and enrolled at Webb as a seventh grader in 1981. Upon graduation in 1987 as a member of Webb’s Ancient Guard, he received an appointment to the U.S. Merchant Marines Academy, one of five U.S. military academies. He began his career sailing as 3rd officer after graduating from the USMMA in 1991.

challenge of working in a sometimes hostile environment – Alaska United (Cable Fiber Optic System) in 1998 for one – and typhoons, hurricanes and near misses avoiding icebergs off Newfoundland in 2015. These come to mind.”

He added, “It’s a diverse job, and I guess that is one thing I enjoy.”

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Fall-Winter 2017-2018

Physician-scientist

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career that combines primary care with research are ideal for Moss It would be difficult to imagine a person more focused, driven and passionate than Elizabeth Moss ’09 as she prepares for her career in medicine and research. Still, Moss is quick to say there is a serendipity to how it has all come together.

The Webb alumna is a student in the medical/scientist training program MD/PhD at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston with an expected graduation date of May 2021. She graduated summa cum laude with honors in 2013 from Boston University with a Bachelor of Arts in chemistry and a concentration in premedical. Throughout her education, she has earned many honors and awards, been successful in grant writing and participated in numerous research experiences.

different things. It took a lot of exploration in college for me to figure that out and figure out what in the research world interested me.”

Reflecting on her life’s preparation so far, Moss said, “It feels very much like a purposeful task, but then I look back at all the ways it could have been done differently, and it was sort of serendipity that I chose this particular program.” She added, “Originally I thought I’d go to medical school. That’s something that I’ve wanted to do for a very long time. And then I found out about this double program that you can also do research. I went to Tufts to visit for a MD interview, and ‘I loved it so much I said, I can spend eight years here.’”

Moss said the most challenging aspect of her life is the time constraints. “The good part about a PhD program is that you make your own schedule, and you can work at your own pace. That is actually a negative for me. I always want to push myself farther.” She added, “Maybe one of the good parts about a program like this is you’ve got to sink or swim. You have to learn it, so it’s encouraging me to make those coping mechanisms and figure out how to organize my life so that I stay sane.”

Part of her balancing act involves an important life event. She is marrying Sterling Wall on July 14, 2018. “One of the first things we did was hire a wedding planner. We’re like, we don’t have time for that, so we need some help. We’ve actually had a big year. We got engaged in February, we bought a house in June, and we adopted two kittens in August."

The most rewarding experience in the Tufts program so far has been mentoring in research a 16-year-old high school student (who is now a freshman in college) for the last three summers. Usually those mentored

The Webb School Magazine

Moss has been drawn to science for many years. It started with Webb teachers such as Bill Rice, in chemistry and Linda Williams in biology and continued at BU. She was also “fascinated by medicine and the intricacies of the human body” from watching her mother, gynecologist Dr. Mary Moss, also a Webb trustee, and her father, Dr. Max Moss, a radiologist, as they pursued challenging and fulfilling careers in medicine. “I’ve just had this hard science bent for a very long time … sort of leading up to this kind of a program. It is interesting because learning science and doing research are two very

She was involved in organic chemistry research for a year or so and did not like it. It nearly turned her away from research, but “then I stepped into a biology lab and just totally fell in love, and that sort of set me on this path of doing biology research.”

continued on page 33

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“George R. R. Martin told me early on that I’d be considered to be a new writer for the first 10 years of my career, so I ought to make the best of it and try to publish as much as I could in that time.” Martin is best known for the Song of Ice and Fire book series – the basis for the “Game of Thrones” series.

Allen Steele ’77 heeded that advice, and, after becoming a full-time science fiction writer in 1988, has published 21 novels, seven shortstory collections, four novellas and a collection of non-fiction essays.

His work has appeared in most major American science fiction magazines and dozens of anthologies. Among his extensive list of honors are three Hugo Awards, several Asimov’s Readers Awards, Locus Award and Seiun Award. He also has received numerous Hugo, Seiun, and Nebula finalist designations. In 2013, he received the Robert A. Heinlein Award in recognition of his long career in writing space fiction.

Fall-Winter 2017-2018

Now, after having several of his novels, including his first, Orbital Decay, optioned for the screen and also writing some of the

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A llen Mulherin Steele, Jr. became a

full-time science fiction writer in 1988, following publication of his first short story, “Live From The Mars Hotel” (Asimov’s, mid-Dec. ’88). Since then he has become a prolific author of novels, short stories, and essays, with his work translated into

screenplays, the TV/film rights to Steele’s Coyote five-novel series have been bought by Bainframe, an indie production. Steele is hopeful that this time the project will come to fruition.

“The project is still in early stages of development, with one step back for every two steps forward, but I’ve been warned that TV shows – particularly science fiction – often take a long time to develop,” said Steele. “So, while we’re still far from setting up the cameras, things are coming along at Hollywood’s usual pace: glacial, interrupted by sudden bursts of activity.” Bainframe, he said, wants to “do this either for cable or network, whichever can give them the best deal, including creative control. The aim is for each novel in the series – there are five, along with a large handful of related

more than a dozen languages worldwide.

His most recent novel is Arkwright (2016).

Steele was born in Nashville, Tenn. He received his B.A. in Communications from New England College in Henniker, N. H., and his M.A. in Journalism from the University of Missouri in Columbia. Before turning to science fiction, he worked as a

staff writer for daily and weekly newspapers in Tennessee, Missouri, and Massachusetts, freelanced for business and general-interest magazines in the Northeast, and spent a short tenure as a Washington correspondent, covering politics on Capitol Hill. Steele is a former member of both the Board of Directors and the Board of Advisors for

STE ELE FIV ENO VEL SER IES OPT IONE D BY BAIN FRAM E FOR TV

short stories and novellas – to be the basis for a season.” He added, “The novels form a narrative arch lasting several centuries, with subsequent generations of characters involved in actions on two worlds, Coyote and Earth, so that’s a very large stage for a drama like this.”

The Coyote novels are about the first manned starship from Earth, the URSS Alabama, and the colony its crew and passengers establish on a habitable moon in the 47 Ursae Majoris system, which they name Coyote. Over the course of generations, the colonists establish this earthlike but nonetheless quite alien world as humankind’s second home; the series as a whole is a science-fictional retelling of early American history, with many of the same themes involved.

Steele said that Allen Bain, Bainframe founder/ president and producer, was “searching for a published body of work that could provide the basis for an ongoing science fiction series with the same sort of epic scope as “Game of Thrones.” It’s also an inherently optimistic series, much different from the dystopian view that’s become prevalent in much recent science fiction. The Coyote novels have that kind of range and attitude, and this is what has attracted him and everyone who’s involved in the project.

“I think Allen (Bain) has the right approach, which is using each book in the series as the

“So far, my role has been as Allen’s expert source for all things Coyote-related,” Steele said. “I know this world and its people better than anyone, and so I’ve become the person he turns to when he has questions. I have two loose-leaf binders stuffed with notes and drawings, and Allen now has copies of most of that material, which will be referred to as the screenplay for when the pilot is generated.

My involvement with this, so far, is an informal one as creative consultant. Allen is the producer, and I have complete confidence that he wants to do a good job of adapting the novels to TV.” Steele said Coyote was born from a desire he had to write a novel about interstellar exploration that was more realistic than the standard Star Trek model, a faster-than-light starship with a highly competent crew and magical technology. “It took a while to get a good handle on this, though, and I made two false starts that were eventually abandoned. I’d just about given up on the idea when I moved to western Massachusetts and found myself in continued on page 33 and novels included on the “Visions of Mars” disk aboard NASA’s Phoenix lander, which landed on Mars in 2008. He lives in western Massachusetts with his wife Linda and their dogs.

To read more about Allen Steele, visit www.allensteele.com. “’”

The Webb School Magazine

the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, and is also a former advisor for the Space Frontier Foundation. In April, 2001, he testified before the Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics of the U.S. House of Representatives, in hearings regarding space exploration in the 21st century. “Live from the Mars Hotel” is among the many stories

basis for a season. He’s also very respectful of the story and its themes; we’ve talked quite a bit about what we’d like to do, and he’s been open to my ideas. So, I think the series is in good hands at Bainframe, and if everything works out, it’ll be a good, mature science fiction TV series, Steele explained.

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St. John wins award for breast cancer research Reprinted with permission • Tullahoma News • By Elena Cawley

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aley St. John, 22, of Manchester, encourages anyone battling breast cancer to not give up hope because researchers continue to discover new ways of fighting the disease. St. John recently received a first-place award by the Tennessee Academy of Science for her research, which brought the medical community closer to finding how to suppress cancer invasion.

“I went to Lipscomb University, and I got a bachelor’s degree in molecular biology and a minor in chemistry,” St. John said.

“I graduated in December 2016. Right now I’m applying for medical schools, and I’m in the interview process.”

Currently, St. John works at Saint Thomas Rutherford Hospital as a nursing assistant.

During her senior year in college, St. John applied for a research fellowship called Langford-Yates Research Fellowship. A scholarship only open to Lipscomb University students, this fellowship program enables biology, chemistry and biochemistry undergraduate students to conduct summer research.

Fall-Winter 2017-2018

“My advisor, Dr. Beth Conway, is a researcher with the biology department at Lipscomb,” St. John said. “Dr. Conway has done a lot of research over the past few years. She encouraged me to apply for the fellowship; so I did, and I ended up getting it.”

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St. John was involved with the research program from May to December of 2016.

“Dr. Conway’s lab has been doing a pretty long study about a protein, called neprilysin,” St. John said. “It took about eight months to complete my leg of the research. It’s a study that has been going on for several years, and they are continuing it now at Lipscomb.”

ST. JOHN’S ROLE WAS CONDUCTING THE LAB WORK. “I helped Dr. Conway design some of the experiments, and I was the one carrying them,” St. John said.

THE STUDY AND RESULTS For women, invasive breast cancer is the second most common cancer and the second leading cause for cancer-related death.

The study focused on understanding invasion, which is an important step of cancer development.

With neprilysin having an essential role related to invasion, knowing how neprilysin acts in different situations could be a key to suppressing the growth of the tumor. Due to its involvement in cancer invasion, neprilysin has been a subject of interest for several previous studies; however, most of the previous results have not been conclusive.

To conduct the research, St. John hypothesized that neprilysin has different roles in different cells. In some cases, neprilysin suppresses invasion, and in some cases, neprilysin increases it.

The results of St. John’s study were conclusive, defining exactly in which cells neprilysin acts as a promoter or suppressor.

HOPES FOR BATTLING CANCER If there is a way to restore neprilysin in the cells suppressing tumor invasion, cancer growth could be inhibited.

PRESENTING THE RESEARCH “I presented to the Tennessee Academy of Science Conference in November 2016, at Austin Peay State University,” St. John said.

“There were 16 other students conducting research in my division.”

Though nervous, St. John said she felt confident presenting the research to the Tennessee Academy of Science because of the conclusive findings.

“I felt confident because of the statistical analysis,” she said. “We had very strong significance, meaning this was not just a fluke.”

Out of the 16 people who presented, St. John was awarded first place, and her research was published in the Journal of Tennessee Academy of Science.

WORK CONTINUES The research has been continued and expanded, according to St. John. She hopes that within two years, when the current phase of the study is completed, Conway will publish the results in Oncogenesis, an online journal publishing cancer reviews and studies.

can sequence your genome and find out what markers you have and what your risk factors are. And if you have certain markers, they are developing all sorts of new drugs to target specifically that unique breast cancer.”

The medicine is now much more specific and much more effective, said St. John.

“Don’t give up hope because there are all sorts of new studies going on, and the more they learn, the better they will be able to treat it,” she said.

“That’s cool because it’s online, and that way anyone in the world can find the research there and build on it,” St. John said.

She encouraged people fighting cancer not to give up.

“Oncology is an amazing field nowadays,” St. John said. “There are things they (oncologists) can do now, they couldn’t do years ago. They are getting to where they

St. John makes career decision early at Webb Haley St. John, a Webb student from 2007-2013, decided on her career path early

on. In middle school and high school, her science classes were always her favorite.

“Mrs. Linda Williams taught ninth grade biology at Webb, and that was when I got hooked. It wasn’t until late high school when I realized I wanted to pursue medicine.”

She added, “My senior year I took anatomy with Mrs. Pamela Seals, who also happened to be my advisor, and I think her class and her encouragement were key to helping me realize that I wanted to be a doctor. In college, I became involved with volunteering and medical missions work that gave me insight into the medical field and helped me know that medicine is what I truly want to spend the rest of my life doing.”

continued on page 34

The Webb School Magazine

St. John, who graduated with a B.S. in Molecular Biology from Lipscomb University in December 2016, knows that the years she spent at Webb impacted her in a very positive way. “The education I received at Webb has helped me immensely going forward in my education and my career. For any Webb seniors reading this, the transition from high school to college for me was a breeze, and I have Webb to thank for that. Webb helped me develop the study skills, the diligence and integrity that allowed me to succeed. Webb does an exceptional job in allowing students to foster and pursue their own academic interests. I still remember that for my junior project I wrote a 10-page paper titled “The Genetic Basis of Cancer.” I think my 11th-grade self would be really happy that I continued on to do cancer research in college.”

St. John took photos of the breast cancer cells and fibroblast (normal, stromal cells in breast tissue) cells in a cell invasion assay. The cells are labeled with a fluorescent green dye. The top picture shows invasive breast cancer cells without neprilysin cultured with the fibroblast cells, and the bottom shows breast cancer cells with neprilysin expressed that Haley engineered cultured with fibroblast cells. We found that neprilysin expressed in the breast cancer cells reduced breast cancer cell invasion (and we found the opposite pattern with fibroblast-expressed neprilysin).

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The Webb School

Strategic Plan 2017-2020 Editor's Note: The public version of the 2017 strategic plan below is merely an outline of our strategies. The full plan is more than 20 pages long and has several tactics to complement each strategy. The Board of Trustees will review progress on the plan at least twice each year. It is a living document, and goals may be modified or added in the next few years.

Our Process

As a school community, Webb strove to make the development of our new strategic plan one in which all of our stakeholders participated. We began in October of 2016 by sending the SAIS survey to Trustees, Alumni, Faculty and Staff, Parents, and Students. In January 2017 the Head of School, Raymond Broadhead presented a condensed version of the survey’s results and SAIS Vice President Damian Kavanagh’s presentation to the faculty and opened the topic for ongoing discussion. Later

in January 2017, the school asked Kathy Hanson of Marts and Lundy consulting group to meet with focus groups composed of members from all of our constituent groups.

After input from the Administrative Council, the Head of School created headings of the key points of a draft Strategic Plan. The Board of Trustees met in early February 2017, and at the April 2017 Board of Trustees meeting, the Board

made further comments and gave additional input to the plan. In May 2017, the faculty groups made more refinements to the plan and created another draft which was reviewed by the Board of Trustees Strategic Plan Committee in July 2017. Final editing was then completed by the Accreditation Leaders and submitted via the SAIS Accreditation Portal. The Strategic Plan was approved by the full Board of Trustees at the November 2017 meeting.

“To turn out young people who are tireless workers, and who know how to work effectively; who are accurate scholars; who know the finer points of morals and practice them in their daily living; who are always courteous.”

Mission Statement -- W.R. “Sawney” Webb

Fall-Winter 2017-2018

Timeline

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• October 2016: SAIS surveys sent to all constituents • April 2017: Rough draft of strategic plan was sent to the Board of Trustees • May 2017: The faculty groups made more refinements to the plan • July 2017 Draft reviewed by the Board of Trustees Strategic Plan Committee • October 2017: SAIS came to campus for accreditation and received plan • November 2017: Strategic plan officially approved by the full Board of Trustees

Goal 1: Enrollment Management Our main focus for the next four years will be implementing strategies to fill our boarding capacity with quality students.

Our goal is to have a student body of 350 students, of whom 150 are boarders with at least a 50% boarding population of those enrolled in the Upper School. We will also focus on continuing to enroll mission-appropriate students who have the ability and ambition to maximize their college opportunities while being afforded academic and nonacademic leadership roles at Webb.

The Enrollment Management committee has created four strategies, including; increase the domestic boarding population, refresh external marketing, improve retention, and increase financial aid.

Goal 2: Alumni and Development The Alumni and Development Office wants to celebrate and recognize the impact of the campaign and begin planning for the 150th celebration to be held in 2020.

The mission of the school will be highlighted in this sesquicentennial, along with a fundraising campaign. Finally, the Alumni and Development Office wants to continue to grow its philanthropic programs in all areas---annual, major, and planned---to help ensure the financial well-being of the school.

The following represents our strategies: Demonstrate Impact of “Moving our Tradition Forward Campaign”; Plan and execute celebration for the 2019-2020 Academic Year; Plan and execute fundraising campaign as part of 2020 anniversary; Increase philanthropic programs with individual goals for Webb Fund, major gifts, and planned giving; Improve analytics and data for use with donors and volunteers; Explore making facility improvements for the current Alumni Center.

Goal 3: Communication and Consistency of School Values

Goal 5: Academics Though our students are leaving with a strong academic experience, we feel the school could do a better job of enriching students in other aspects of their lives. The school envisions producing graduates who are not only academically prepared, but are well-prepared to live a healthy and productive life. We also would like to ensure that for all of our students a Webb education is a unique and fulfilling experience based on our mission and values, not driven by test results.

Goals for the Academics Committee include: Foster an Independent Curriculum; Educate and Care for the Whole Child; Improve our Processes; Expand our Global Education; Ensure Appropriate Education for All Students.

Through consistent interpretation and application of our central principles across disciplines, we will make sure that all of Webb’s constituents have a better understanding of who we are as a school and how we do what we say we do.

Internally, this will require a strong new faculty hiring and orientation process whereby our values are well communicated, as well as more standardized policies and procedures that are open to change as needed, but focused on a common understanding of our mission which all faculty and staff clearly understand and regularly follow. From this, appropriate, consistent communication to our external constituents will ensure that students, parents, and alumni feel that their Webb experience, while unique, has fundamental commonalities.

Goal 6: Governance

The general goals are these: Improve Internal Communication; Strengthen MissionFocus of Programming and Written Materials; Improve External Communication.

The goals of the Governance group are these: Ensure a stable Financial Future; Continue recruiting strong leaders to build an effective board.

Goal 4: Building and Grounds As the school has just completed an $11.1 million capital campaign, which included five major building projects, our vision for the future is “on hold.” In 2017, the Board Retreat was used to gather input from the Board of Trustees to help identify our future Building and Grounds needs. This input was then put before a committee of faculty and staff. This resulted in a prioritized list of projects for consideration.

Recognizing that there are limited resources available at this time, the committee further organized the lists by the cost of each project.

ENDURING UNDERSTANDINGS Integrity is a cornerstone of a flourishing life and community.

Learning is an enjoyable and ongoing process.

Respect for self and others is essential to a harmonious society.

Self-discipline and autonomy are essential to success.

Each person has unique gifts and capacities and a responsibility to develop them.

Each person shares the responsibility and honor of serving others.

The Webb School Magazine

The committee understood that by working closely with the Board of Trustees through the Building and Grounds Committee, some of the projects could be completed in the very near future. The Building and Grounds Committee has money available each year for capital improvements and small projects. By working closely with the Building and Grounds Committee, the committee was able to schedule some projects on the Lower Cost list and the Medium Cost list for the summer of 2017. The group believes that within 2-5 years it can complete many of the projects on these two lists. In addition, the committee realizes that the projects on the High Cost list will require more detailed study and will have to wait until the next capital campaign. With careful coordination with the Development Committee and other Board committees, we feel that there can be great success in identifying the right High Cost projects that can also be successfully funded during the next campaign.

The school wants to make continuous efforts to ensure stable finances for the future years. Managing the budget and endowment, growing the endowment through philanthropy, and continuing to create an effective board are all paramount to building for the future.

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Celebrating Tradition through the Generations Congratulations to our many Legacy students who celebrated a milestone on Senior Blazer Day. We appreciate our legacy families and their continued connection to The Webb School. Please make plans to join us for a special Legacy Reception at graduation this spring.

Farrar Vaughan '95 and son Harrell Vaughan '18

Clint Insell '95 and son Rhett Insell '18

Tabetha Sullens '94 and daughter Lexi Sullens '18

The Webb Legacy Scholarship Program

Fall-Winter 2017-2018

• Applicants must have a parent, grandparent, aunt or uncle who attended The Webb School.

• $10,000 Legacy Scholarships are given to boarding students who live outside of Tennessee and its eight neighboring states.

• $5,000 Legacy Scholarships are given to boarding students living in Tennessee or one of its neighboring states (TN and neighboring states qualify for a special in-state tuition rate).

• $1,000 Legacy Scholarships are given to day students.

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Darin Hasty '90 and son Dayton Siree McRady '18 and father Andrew Hasty '18 McRady '86

Amy Mitchell '95 and daughter Lucy Mitchell '18

Robert Allison ’89 and son Jones Allison '18

Alexis McKnight '18 and father Troy McKnight '86

Westh-Blanc places 10th in state golf tournament Vilda Westh-Blanc placed 10th in the state golf tournament, Oct. 9-10, at Willow Brook Golf Club in Manchester, Tenn. The 8th grader from Bell Buckle shot 84 and was tied for 6th after the first day of the two-day tournament and followed with 89 the second day for a 173 score. She advanced to state after placing second in the 2017 Division IIA Middle-East Region Golf Tournament hosted by Webb at River Bend Country Club in Shelbyville on Oct. 2. For the regular season, Westh-Blanc, had a 9-hole match average of 42.5. She is the two-time Middle Tennessee Athletic Conference individual champion and competes on the Sneds Tour and the U.S. Kids Junior Tour.

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Vincent wins collegiate bowling event

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After anchoring his high school team to victory, Donovan Vincent participated in the individual tournament. At 15 years of age, he qualified first. To claim his victory, crystal trophy and $700 scholarship, Vincent had to take on one college freshman, four high school seniors, the current #1 ranked junior in Tennessee and the Tennessee State champion. This was Vincent’s first tournament back since he tweaked his knee earlier in the season. Vincent was ranked the #1 U15B bowler in Tennessee at season end. He has competed in his sport not only on a state platform, but on a national stage and in all three youth national events.

Westh-Blanc wins tour event, qualifies with Brown for Teen World Championship

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Vilda Westh-Blanc of Bell Buckle and Conner Brown of Shelbyville, eighth graders, played in the U.S. Kids Tour at Champions Run Golf Course in Rockvale on Nov. 12. Westh-Blanc won shooting 74. Brown finished third. Both golfers completed the fall season as Nashville Local Tour Players of the Year and are qualified for the U.S. Kids Teen World Championship set for Pinehurst, N.C., in July 26-28, 2018.

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Fall-Winter 2017-2018

Athletes of the Month

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August Jada Millikan ’18 • Cheerleading September Leann Faour ’21 • Soccer October Greg Kilpatrick ’18 • Football “This program, in its third year, is designed to recognize student-athletes from Webb for exemplifying outstanding character and leadership both on the playing field and in the classroom,” said Director of Athletics Scott Dorsett.

A. Varsity Girls’ Volleyball B. 2017 Homecoming C. Varsity Football D. Varsity Girls’ Soccer E. Varsity Boys’ Basketball F. Cheerleading G. Middle School Cross Country H. Middle School Volleyball I. JV Boys’ Basketball J. Middle Girls' School Basketball K. JV Volleyball L. Varsity Cross Country M. Golf N. Middle School Boys' Basketball O. JV Girls' Basketball P. Varsity Football

Fall All-District Varsity Volleyball Sidney Dupree

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Parents’ Weekend, complete with the first home football game, was the backdrop for the Parents of Athletes at Webb School to dedicate a new concession building. The project that PAWS had planned for several years was completed earlier this year. Gifts donated during several years and earmarked for the concession stand project and money that PAWS generated from concessions, gate fees and spirit gear funded the building.

Dorsett Athletic Director of the Year; Webb Sportsmanship Award finalist Scott Dorsett, director of athletics, received the Athletic Director of the Year Award for the Middle Region of the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association. The recognition was part of the A.F. Bridges Awards ceremony on Nov. 9. The awards were presented in “recognition of the ideals of ethics and integrity in the teaching and promotion of citizenship and sportsmanship.” Webb also was a finalist for the Sportsmanship Award. Award decisions were made by a State Selection Committee.

His love of athletics began while he was a student at Glencliff High School, in Nashville, Tenn., and continued as he served his country in the United States Air Force. Dorsett looks at the teachings of the

Dorsett has been involved with the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association since 2007. He is currently serving as a National Faculty Chair for Leadership Training Course 714, “Dealing with Challenging Personalities,” as well as Membership Committee Vice Chair and State Certification coordinator. He is currently PresidentElect (2016-2018), will be President (2018-2020), and will serve as Past President (2020-2022) for the Tennessee Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association.

He has just completed a four-year term as President of the Middle Tennessee Athletic Conference, and currently serves as Past President and Treasurer for MTAC. During his tenure as President, the conference expanded to 32 teams.

Dorsett is very involved in local, state, and national organizations that affect educational athletics. He is always looking to find opportunities to make an impact on the next generation of athletes and leaders wherever service opportunities are possible.

The Webb School Magazine

Dorsett, Certified Master Athletic Administrator, began his teaching and coaching career more than 16 years ago after a successful career in the corporate sales profession. Dorsett oversees the athletic programs at Webb, which include the physical education department and after-school enrichment activities. He is in his ninth year at Webb and has coached sports at the middle school and upper school levels including football, boys’ and girls’ basketball, softball, baseball, and track.

late Coach John Wooden as inspiration in pursuit of education through athletics.

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History

continued from page 13 had numbers, and he realized that they corresponded to the Four-Minute Man script. The Son Will slideshow, which dates to the summer and fall of 1918, is now synced with the script.

And, Smith discovered that some of the slides could be interchanged or omitted to lengthen or shorten the slideshow for audiences other than the original theater-goers.

After a rehearsal before students in one of his classes, Smith dressed in period attire and took Son Will’s Four-Minute Man script, slideshow and the Balopticon to the annual Tennessee Parks Service Living History Weekend at the Sgt. Alvin York State Park in Fentress County.

The November weekend showcases York’s experiences as a WWI hero and includes reenactors, aircraft and presentations as highlights. Except for Smith’s students who saw his dress rehearsal, those attending the Living History Weekend were the first to see and hear Son Will’s presentation since 1918.

The remainder of the slides in the collection are now being scanned and identified by Smith to complete this phase of the project. The slides depicting the Webb summer camp date to 1920. “Son Will took the black and white photos and sent them off to Philadelphia and had them colorized. What I understand is that they must have advertised the camp to get students to attend.” In addition to creating the camp slides, Smith explained, “Son Will also must have taken a particular interest in road improvement projects in Bedford County and the surrounding area. He created the Son Will ‘Road Slideshow.’ These are homemade slides. He took pictures and turned them into slides. There are also slides of campus – boys in ties playing football in front of the Big Room in the 1920s or 1930s. The collection includes a slide series on how to build an airplane among numerous others.”

“The scans are high-quality photo files, which is the best preservation, and we’ll be able to put them in archival software,” said Little. Tennessee State Library and Archives recently approved a grant submitted by Little and Howell to help with software and other costs to bring the total project to fruition.

“Although we have the skills and resources necessary to physically preserve the slides, the invaluable World War I knowledge of our inhouse historian, L.R. Smith, made it possible to fully complete this project,” said Howell.

“We’re at the last step,” Smith said. “We have completed scanning the entire CPI collection, and we’re finishing scanning everything else. “What we’ve done; we have preserved them,” said Smith. “But now we need to make them available. We need to put them to work. It’s one thing just to have them on file. What I would like to do is create an online archive that anyone in the world can access.”

Fall-Winter 2017-2018

Little added, “Once the project is completed, Webb could be considered a research institution on this topic.”

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Smith, Little and Howell agree that these types of glass slides and especially the WWI slides could exist at other institutions or be owned by individual collectors. But their research so far has not revealed any collections as large as Webb’s, and no complete slideshow scripts have been found. They have searched the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian, the National Archives and the National World War I Museum websites. Slides have only been found in small lots.

“As far as I can tell, Webb’s is a very large collection,” Smith said. “You talk about bringing history back to life; that’s what we’re doing.”

For more information about this project, contact L.R. Smith, lrsmith@webbschool.com; Hannah Little, hlittle@webbschool.com or Susan Howell, showell@webbschool.com. Smith is also available for Four-Minute Man Slide Presentations.

Celebrating Our Webb Family

The holiday season is a time for joy and reflection.

It is a time to remember others and give back to what matters most in your life. An honorary or memorial gift is a special way to recognize the impact someone has had on you. Please make a gift to The Webb Fund in honor or memory of someone at this special time of year.

TO HONOR

TO REMEMBER

an outstanding member of The Webb School family.

your teacher, classmate, or a family member.

TO THANK

TO CELEBRATE

your child for striving to be the best and brightest in education.

Make a special gift to The Webb School today by visiting www.thewebbschool.com and clicking on Make A Gift.

The Webb School Magazine

your parents for their sacrifices or a special teacher for guidance and support.

For more information, or to make a gift by phone, please call the Alumni and Development Office at 931-389-5724.

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Thank you for supporting Webb during the holidays.

Take a moment to remember someone you care about this holiday season.

Class Notes 1950s

David Phillips ’66, Carmel, Ind., writes: “Started growing grapes in 2012 and making wine with plans to establish a commercial tasting room in 2018. Check out www.sugarcreekwinery.com.

Mark Mann ’69, Butler, Pa., writes: “Retired in the fall of 2016 as a newspaper editor after 40-plus year career in journalism. Sailing, hiking, bicycling, camping and listening to live music are interests of mine. My wife and I take most of our trips to Denver and Long Island to see our son and daughter and their families.”

1970s

Bill Lassiter ’56 of Brentwood, Tenn., and Raford Hulan ’56 of Shelbyville, Tenn., stand in front of the Culleoka Bell on a recent trip to The Webb School. While on campus, they visited with Matt Wilson, Director of Alumni and Development, as well as a student recipient of The Rev. Nat Long, Class of 1956, Memorial Scholarship.

1960s

Fall-Winter 2017-2018

Murfreesboro Community Development Director John Callow ’66 won the 2017 Read to Succeed Celebrity Spelling Bee in November.

According to the Daily News Journal, Callow, a former DNJ reporter, outlasted David Urban, dean of Middle Tennessee State University’s Jones College of Business. Callow won by successfully spelling “slumgullion.” The spelling bee is Read to Succeed’s largest fundraiser of the year.

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Earl Hereford ’60 joined Jonathon Hawkins, director of alumni relations and annual giving, during Hawkins’ visit to Chattanooga.

Joe Stout ’70 and Chappie Adkins ’70 are pictured at Joe and Brenda’s new home in Ocean Springs, Fla., in July 2017. Diane and Chappie stopped by for a visit. Chappie lives in a part of South Florida that was under forced evacuation due to the recent hurricane so he and Diane spent a few days north in Jacksonville.

Effective July 1, 2017, George Huddleston Jr. ’76, Murfreesboro, left, was appointed by Gov. Bill Haslam as a member of the Tennessee Aeronautics Commission for a five-year term representing general aviation. Other members are Chairman Butch West, Columbia, Representing Middle Tennessee; Vice Chairman Kirk A. Huddleston, Knoxville, Representing East Tennessee; Secretary Nisha Powers, Memphis; Representing West Tennessee; and Member Larry Mullins, Gray, also representing general aviation.

1980s

Irvin Ashford Jr. ’87, Senior Vice President, Public Affairs - Director of Community Development and External Affairs, Comerica Bank – Dallas-Ft. Worth area and a member of The Webb School Board of Trustees, recently spoke to a group of students who are participating in Year Up Dallas/Ft. Worth. According to the Year Up Facebook page, Year Up “envisions a future in which every urban young adult will have access to the education, experiences, and guidance required to realize his or her true potential. Our mission is to close the Opportunity Divide by providing urban young adults with the skills, experience, and support that will empower them to reach their potential through professional careers and higher education.”

Highlight: 1943

Trustee emeritus, longest-serving Webb board chair honored Webb honored longtime Webb trustee emeritus and board chair, James W. McDonnell Jr. ’43, with a special luncheon during the November Board of Trustees meeting on campus.

McDonnell was elected to the board in 1957 and served as chair from 1967-1988, tenure longer than any other chair to date. He was named trustee emeritus and a member of the Distinguished Alumni Society in 1993.

Trustees, close friends and family attended the luncheon that included remembrances of McDonnell’s time at Webb as a student and trustee. Among those speaking were Phil Coop ’66, George Pine ’68, Bob Thompson ’65, Charles Alexander ’68 and Wilson “Woody” Sims ’42, all longtime board members.

“We’re here today to honor Jim McDonnell, and he is the poster child for someone who has made The Webb School part of his life and supported it,” said Coop. “Jim’s service to Webb began as early as 1943.” Coop recounted a fundraising project that McDonnell helped spearhead as a senior and then focused on his work as a trustee. He told how McDonnell and Sims worked to create Webb’s endowment at a critical period in the school’s history. He closed his remarks saying, “Jim, on behalf of the current board of trustees, thank you very much for the leadership you’ve given us over the years.”

Pine also highlighted aspects of McDonnell’s tenure as a board member and chair and lauded others at the luncheon who have supported Webb for many years. “Jim, we thank you every day for everything you’ve done for The Webb School.”

Sims and Thompson related that McDonnell had always been a friend and a mentor in their professional careers and in service to Webb. Alexander closed the expressions of gratitude saying, “I don’t think The Webb School would be celebrating its 150th anniversary (in 2020) without Jim McDonnell.”

“I said it this morning, I say it now, and I’ll say it for the rest of my life, Webb School doesn’t Jim McDonnell '43 and Woody Sims '42 owe me, I owe Webb School,” said McDonnell.

Citing the work of Sims, Webb Follin Jr. and Bryant Woosley in earlier times, he added, “I can’t minimize enough my role, and I can’t maximize enough what they accomplished. I appreciate everything everyone says, but I can’t tell you how undeserved it is, because I know I’m looking at the people who deserve the credit.”

Earlier in the day, McDonnell ’43 was part of a four-member panel of alums that celebrated 75 years of Webb. Joining McDonnell was his son, James W. McDonnell III ’68, Ben Blakeley ’93 and Alumni Board member, and Maranda Gant, a boarding student who is a member of the class of 2018. The panel fielded questions and explained life as a Webb student during their years of attendance.

McDonnell, a native and lifelong resident of Memphis, attended Vanderbilt University and then entered the Navy in 1944, serving during WWII. After his military service, he received BA and law degrees from Yale University. In 1951, he was recalled to active duty during the Korean War. Following his discharge in 1953, he joined the Memphis firm of Canada, Russell and Turner as an associate and became a partner in 1959. The firm became McDonnell Boyd in 1990, and he was senior partner. During his career, he has held memberships in the Memphis, Tennessee and American Bar Associations, the National Association of Railroad Trial Counsel and was named a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers.

1990s Walker Brown ’99, a resident of New York City, N.Y., is managing director of Ladder Capital, a commercial real estate finance and investment firm. He’s lived and worked in New York for 14 years. Originally from Atlanta, Ga., he attended Webb two years (1998-1999). He is married to Sara Lib Brown, and they have an 18-month-old daughter, Finley, and are expecting a son in March.

Please submit class notes to a_dwebb@webbschool.com.

The Webb School Magazine

Kathryn Dusseau Kloos ’96, Corbett, Ore., and her family evacuated their home earlier this year due to a raging forest fire. They and their pets stayed with friends. A day later the winds changed, and the home was saved. “God is good.”

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Highlight: 1972

2000s

Internet safety, responsible use focus of Crichton presentation Students at Webb were urged to seriously think about how they communicate online and to be aware of consequences they may not have considered.

Trustee Scott Crichton, Associate Justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court, a trustee and a 1972 Webb graduate, presented “Sexting, Texting and Beyond” at Webb on Nov. 2. He has given this and other programs to numerous schools and other groups. The presentation covers electronic misbehavior and its legal and moral consequences.

In the Internet Safety segment, Crichton noted it is impossible to know with whom you are really communicating, and predators often impersonate teens online. Citing popular social media choices – Tinder, Plenty of Fish, Snapchat, WhatsApp, Kik, Instagram and Facebook – Crichton provided information about the criteria for establishing these accounts – some with no age restrictions – and the percentages of teens using the various media. He included stories that had tragic consequences for teens who did not know with whom they were communicating and then urged caution and the use of safety measures for technology protection.

Fall-Winter 2017-2018

The Webb alumus also used a portion of the program to discuss laws regarding misused technology. He explained cyberbullying – which is a violation of law in most states – includes the “transmitting of any electronic, textual visual or written or oral communication with malicious and willful intent to coerce, abuse, torment or intimidate a person under the age of 18. As an example, he cited “a group of teenagers (any age) gather and send a series of cell phone texts or emails to another teenager (under 18) that are mean, intimidating and hurtful.” Penalties can be possible jail time, fine and seizure or impoundment of the electronic devices (cell phone, computers, photography equipment). Again, he cited real-life stories about victims of such actions and included, “If you wouldn’t say it in person, don’t say it online.”

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Crichton discussed sexting – the act of sending sexually explicit photos electronically – noting that it is done mainly between cell phones, with the crime primarily practiced by high school teenagers and young adults (but known to occur among children as young as middle school). He cautioned that such material can be easily and widely distributed, and the originator has no control. “Taking a photo, sending it or receiving and possessing it or sending it to another is a violation. Once it’s out there, there’s no getting it back,” he included as part of his presentation. Crichton cited penalties as a fine, jail time or both.

He followed his comments noting Webb’s Student and Parent Handbook 2017-2018 highlight the school’s rules, policies and consequences on these topics.

Preston Flaherty '10, Julie Harris '95 and Kelsey Bancroft during a recent visit to campus.

Preston Flaherty ’10, Knoxville, Tenn., moved to Knoxville last year and opened and runs a nonprofit called Dream Bikes.

The mission is to help provide work opportunities and people/sales skills for low-income minority teenagers by refurbishing used or damaged bicycles and reselling them in the community. “It’s a great organization that is really making a difference in the community.”

Jerry Zacharias ’00 met Carrie Auwarter, Webb associate director of admissions, at the Trinity Episcopal School High School Recruiting Fair in Charlotte, N.C., in October.

Savannah G. Carter ’10 writes: “I just want to update you all and let y’all know that I got the job I was hoping for at The Webb School out here in California! I’m working as a receptionist in the Business Office. I began after Thanksgiving. So happy to be a part of the Webb community-at-large.”

Kaci Dupree ’13, State College, Pa., writes: “Graduated May 2017 from the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelor’s degree in history, political science and Spanish. Now attending Penn State Law School.”

Director of Alumni Relations and Annual Giving Jonathon Hawkins recently met in Chattanooga with two alumni who also serve as class agents and are very involved with their classes, Kaleb Tilton ’12 and Brianna Wofford Taylor ’11.

Moss

continued from page 17 are undergraduate or graduate students, so it was unusual to have a high school student. “It was really rewarding because she hadn’t taken any science courses or done any lab courses in high school. It was teaching her the foundation basics. She totally blossomed, so it was such a joy to watch her do that and become very interested in science and become very good at the techniques that I use in the lab.”

Mentoring also was one of the things that convinced Moss she wants to be involved in research long-term. “When you end up doing research as a career, you actually don’t do the experiments at the bench all the time. You’re doing the high-level thinking, writing grants and mentoring students. You have graduate students, undergraduates and post-doctoral people, who have already finished a PhD. I can see myself doing that as a part of a career.”

As a result of her experiences, Moss wants to be a physicianscientist. She has not settled on a field, but seeing patients and practicing medicine for 30 percent of her time and spending the other 70 percent doing the intellectual work of writing grants, going to conferences, mentoring students and running her own research program appeals to her. “That would be ideal. That kind of a combination is not super common because often one will take over the other. In my ideal world, it would always be a split between the two,” she said.

“I have three and a half more years of school -- a year and a half of PhD (she is studying sex differences in cardiovascular disease) and two more years of medical school. I still have to do all my medical school rotations. After that, I’ll do a residency of three years. If I

decide to subspecialize that will be another couple of fellowship years, so it’s like 10 years from now that I’d be getting my first faculty appointment.

I’ve got a while. It’s a marathon.”

While preparing for a physician-scientist career, Moss is aware of changes in medicine that will impact her work. Two things that she thinks will continue to alter medicine are technology and health care policy shifts to preventative care. Preventative medicine encourages people to exercise more, quit smoking and adopt more healthy lifestyles to help prevent heart attacks, strokes and other illnesses. This, she said, will reduce their need for specialists to treat the effects of unhealthy lifestyles. “I think if there isn’t, there should be much more of a shift in primary medicine, primary care and family physicians -- having that be much more of a valuable and valued relationship than it is now. That would make all of us healthier.”

One of the ways that these changes are affecting her career right now is that she’s strongly considering going into a primary care specialty, where she’s on the preventative side rather than something such as cardiology. “I’m really interested in women’s health and also the way that women experience disease, such as cardiovascular disease. There’s a lot of research that has not been done in that field.

Trying to incorporate this focus on primary care and focus on the way that women experience disease, right now, that’s the way I see my career unfolding.”

Steele

continued from page 19 a small town that predated the Revolutionary War. The remnants of the original settlement are still to be found on the mountain where my house is located, and it was while exploring these ruins that it occurred to me that an interstellar colony would look a lot like this: built from native materials by people for whom survival was a daily struggle. And then one night, I heard coyotes howling in the woods further up the mountain, and everything just seemed to click.”

In 2015 when Steele participated in the Follin Speaker Series at Webb, he also met with students interested in creative writing and gave them advice about pursuing a literary career.

“The first thing is to keep plugging at it and don’t give up. No one is ever an overnight success when it comes to writing; like any art, this is a craft that takes years to learn. But the best thing to remember is, first and foremost, a reader wants to be entertained. So, if you can learn how to tell a good story that someone else is going to want to read, then you can become a successful author.”

The Webb School Magazine

Steele began writing shortly before enrolling at Webb, but it was during his years at the school that he became serious about his work. He explained that there wasn’t much to do in Bell Buckle in those days, and most people generally filled their free time by watching TV. Not being a TV junkie, he preferred to spend his time by reading and writing instead. “A lot of my classmates thought this was pretty weird, but two faculty members in particular understood where I was coming from: Stan Rupley, my English teacher, and Lynn Holliman, the librarian. Stan cut me loose from the usual class assignments and let me write short stories that he’d critique on his own, and Ms. Holliman acquired books for the library that I wanted to read (we got Stephen King into the Webb library long before King became famous). Between the two of them, they gave me a lot of the support I needed at that time.”

The Webb alumnus characterizes himself as a compulsive and almost incessant writer, and notes that there’s never been a time when he hasn’t been working on something, whether it be a novel or short fiction. “Since this is a full-time job for me, it’s necessary for me to regularly produce fiction; I have bills to pay, and I can’t afford to sit around and wait to feel inspired. It’s been unnecessary to set goals as far as output is concerned.” He added, “Five days a week, I get up in the morning and, shortly after breakfast, sit down at my desk, pick up where I left off the day before and write three to five pages. Do this for thirty years, and you’ll produce a few million words of fiction, too.”

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St. John

continued from page 21 The Webb alumna considers Linda Williams (biology), Bill Rice (chemistry), Ron Smith (English) and Ralph Jones (history) as some of her favorite teachers. “Mrs. Truitt taught math to both me and my dad (Scot St. John ’84). I do have to give a special thank you to Mrs. Seals, because if it weren’t for her, it would have taken me a lot longer to realize that medicine is my calling.”

solution on her own. Haley’s laboratory technique was careful and consistent, which provided us with reliable results. Her results gave us the first clue that neprilysin expressed on breast cancer cells might be suppressing invasion, while neprilysin on normal cells (stromal cells) cultured with breast cancer cells seems to promote invasion.

Receiving the book award for anatomy was a highlight of her senior year. “I will also say that surviving senior survival was one of my proudest achievements and one of the highlights of my Webb career.”

“Currently, students in my lab are further investigating this hypothesis and are also looking at the function of neprilysin in other normal cells found in breast cancer.

I anticipate that the results from this project will be published in an international, peer-reviewed research journal in the next 1-2 years.

It’s the academic preparation she received at Webb that will be a lasting asset, especially as she attends University of Tennessee Health Science Center College of Medicine in the fall of 2018. “I think Webb has absolutely turned me into a tireless worker and an accurate scholar, and has given me the tools and the training I need to be successful in my continuing education and beyond.”

“In college, I watched many of my classmates struggle with the rigor of difficult classes while I rose to the challenge because I knew how to work effectively. Any good doctor must know the finer points of morals and practice them in their daily living, and I know that as a Webb graduate I am very blessed to go into my future career with a strong sense of integrity and honesty. The values and characteristics that were ingrained in me at Webb have been very valuable to me, and I will carry them with me for the rest of my life.”

Fall-Winter 2017-2018

Dr. Beth Conway, Lipscomb University associate professor of biology, offers additional comments about Haley St. John. “Haley was one of my academic advisees, so in addition to getting to know her in the genetics class I teach, I also met with her regularly to discuss her academic and career goals. Through my interactions with Haley, it was clear that she was a diligent student with a deep curiosity and a strong work ethic. She demonstrated strong problem-solving skills in genetics, and this is often one of the most significant clues that a student might do well in research.

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“As a student researcher in my lab, Haley was selfmotivated and independent. If she didn’t know how to do something, she was very resourceful in figuring out the

“Haley is bright, inquisitive, hard-working, and has strong critical-thinking and problem-solving skills. I think she will make an excellent physician, and hope that she finds a way to continue doing research throughout her medical career.”

St. John also carries with her fond memories of life and relationships at Webb. “I remember several cold spells throughout my Webb tenure where the pond behind the library froze over and was used as an improvised ice skating rink. It hardly ever snowed enough for school to get cancelled, but you bet that on those cold winter days you could find us out there on the ice! Also, some of my best memories are the plays and musicals I got to do with Ms. (Ruth) Cordell, and playing violin in the orchestra led by Mrs. (Susan) Mullen. I made great friends in the fine arts building, and some of my favorite memories involve play practices with friends and theater and strings performances. Theater and music are still very close to my heart.”

When she has spare time, she likes to read—likely another interest that was nurtured at Webb. “Lately I’ve been reading a lot of books written by physicians since I’ve been thinking about where my career might take me after medical school. The most recent book I read was Go For Orbit by Dr. Rhea Seddon, which details her career as one of the first female astronauts selected by NASA. Her daughter Emilee and I went through Webb together.

It was a fantastic read, and I recommend it especially to those who are considering careers in STEM.”

Obituaries

Following are annotated obituaries of alumni. To view the announcements in their entirety, visit www.thewebbschool.com/alumni.

The Webb School publishes obituaries as they are received from family and friends of alumni.

Please submit notices to a_dwebb@webbschool.com. (School photos are included when available.)

1930s

1950s Bourne Bean ’38, a resident of St. Louis, Mo., passed away on Nov. 1, 2016. A memorial service was held at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church on Nov. 7.

The Honorable Dudley Seth Wheatley, Jr. ’39, of Greenwood, Miss., died on Sept. 26, 2017, after a brief illness. A Requiem Eucharist was celebrated at the Episcopal Church of the Nativity on Nov. 4.

(McKibben and Guinn Funeral Home)

C. Eugene Faulk, III ’51, of Canandaigua, N.Y., passed away on Oct. 15, 2017, at the age of 83, after a short illness with pancreatic cancer.

Allen Marsh Shapard ’53, age 82, of Lebanon, Tenn., died Oct. 7, at the Lebanon Health and Rehabilitation Center in Lebanon. A memorial service was held at St. Barnabas in Tullahoma Oct. 14. (Sellars Funeral Home, Lebanon) John G. Doak, Sr. ’54, born May 17, 1936, passed away Nov. 20, 2017. Services were conducted Saturday, Dec. 2, 2017, at Phillips-Robinson Funeral Home.

1940s Clinton Robert “Bob” Fitch, Sr. ’40, age 94, of Grand Prairie, Texas, died peacefully on July 14, 2017, in Cedar Hill, Texas, after a brief illness. A family service was held at Wayne Boze Funeral Home in Waxahachie, Texas.

(Published in the Grand Prairie Reporter) Luke Eldridge Wright ’43, Memphis, Tenn., 92, passed away peacefully at the Veterans Administration Center of Memphis after a long illness, on April 23, 2017. A service was held on April 28, 2017, at the Lord’s Chapel of Elmwood Cemetery, with reception and burial following.

(Published in The Commercial Appeal on April 26, 2017)

Arthur Godfrey Fort, II ’55, a resident of Nashville, Tenn., died on Nov. 8, 2017, in Nashville. The funeral service was Nov. 14 at St. George’s Episcopal Church.

1960s

Charles O. Hon, III ’63, a resident of Chattanooga, Tenn., died Sept. 28, 2017, at his home. A celebration of his life was on Oct. 3 at First Centenary United Methodist Church.

Ted Elliott Rose ’64, a resident of Chattanooga, Tenn., passed away peacefully on Sept. 20, 2017. Hamilton Funeral Home & Cremation Services was in charge of arrangements.

John Norman Wimberly, Jr. ’64, Brevard, N.C., 71, passed away Aug. 8, 2017, at his home.

1970s James Milton “Jim” Bailey, Jr. ’72, age 64, of Nashville, Tenn., passed away on Aug. 4, 2017. A Celebration of Life was held Aug. 9, 2017, at Woodlawn Roesch-Patton Funeral Home Dignity Hall. Interment followed at Woodlawn Memorial Park.

Karen Rena Sanderson Chancey ’77, age 57, of Nashville, Tenn., passed away Sept. 22, 2016.

Services were private.

2000s Joseph Seth Stephens ’00, of Tullahoma, Tenn., passed away on Oct. 27, 2017, at Saint Thomas Rutherford Hospital in Murfreesboro.

Funeral services were held on Oct. 31, 2017, in the Kilgore Funeral Home Chapel. Burial followed at Rose Hill Memorial Gardens.

(Kilgore Funeral Home, LLC)

The Webb School Magazine

William M. McKinney, Jr. ’48, a resident of Louisville, Ky., died Oct. 25, 2017. The funeral service was Nov. 1 at St. Matthews Episcopal Church in Louisville.

Howard Taft “Buddy” Ferguson, Jr. ’55, age 79, went to be with His Lord and Savior on Aug. 2, 2017, in Baton Rouge, La. Private burial was held at Evergreen Cemetery in Woodville, Miss. A memorial service was held on Aug. 5 at Westminster Church in Baton Rouge.

(Published in TheAdvocate.com from Aug. 3 to Aug. 5, 2017)

Dr. Thomas Cole Flournoy ’63, Shreveport, La., died Oct. 19, 2017, from cardiovascular complications. He was remembered on Oct. 21, 2017, at Grace Community United Methodist Church in Shreveport.

A memorial service was held at The Warehouse.

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The Webb School BELL BUCKLE

Post Office Box 488 Bell Buckle, TN 37020 Address Service Requested

Cocktails, Dinner and Dancing The second of February, Two Thousand and Eighteen Embassy Suites by Hilton 1200 Conference Center Boulevard Murfreesboro, Tennessee 37219

Fall-Winter 2017-2018

RSVP DEADLINE January 22, 2018 To purchase tickets, contact Alyce Allen aallen@webbschool.com

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Visit the website every day for school and alumni news and current events.

http://www.thewebbschool.com