Williston Northampton Bulletin Spring 2014

MATH AND SCIENCE

THE PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE

DOC GOW A Giant on Campus

#FREEMOORE SPRING 2014

Kevin Moore ’07 takes the ice.

STRATEGIC PL STRATEGIC PLANNING STEERING COMMITTEE CO-CHAIRS

Elizabeth D’Amour P’00, ’03, ’04, ’07, President, Board of Trustees James M. Dubin ’64 Trustee MEMBERS

Sam Astor ’03 John Booth ’83 Trustee Tim Cheney Director of College Counseling Mark Conroy Director of Athletics Chris Dietrich Director of Admission Emily Ditkovski Faculty – Fine & Performing Arts Kim Evelti Associate Academic Dean Brad Foster P’14, ’16 Trustee Jen Fulcher Director of Middle School Robert W. Hill III Head of School Jeff Ketcham Associate Head of School

Chuck McCullagh Chief Financial Officer Kathy Noble Dean of Students Julie North P’15 Ann Pickrell Assistant Head of School Ed Michael Reggie ’70 Paul Rutherford Faculty - Science Matt Sawyer Faculty - English Andrew Shelffo Chief Information Officer Greg Tuleja Academic Dean Peter Valine Dean of Faculty Traci Wolfe Director of Communications Eric Yates Chief Advancement Officer

LAN

HEAD OF SCHOOL Robert W. Hill III P’15, ’19 Chief Advancement Officer Eric Yates P’17 Director of Alumni Relations Jeff Pilgrim ’81

Our recent strategic planning process left no stone unturned. An inclusive process that involved faculty and staff, trustees, parents, alumni, and students, the planning process asked us to question all assumptions. We researched best practices and had healthy debates over the issues. In this way, we modeled ourselves after our founders: the innovative entrepreneurial values of Samuel and Emily Williston, and the idealism and perseverance of Miss Whitaker and Miss Bement.

The effort began with a special meeting of the Board of Trustees in November 2012. After 15 months of hard work, the Board unanimously voted to adopt the final plan at its January meeting this year. This document reflects a fresh start for the school, one that takes into account the challenges and benefits of the 21st century.

“Innovation & Purpose: Strategic Plan 2014,” is an evolving document with priorities, goals, and strategies that serve as waypoints to our future school. We aim to use this plan as a management tool for Williston Northampton over the next five years. This is an era where institutions must be much more responsive and nimble. And we’re confident that, in the five strategic priorities, we’ve found a pathway to sustained success.

What began nearly 175 years ago as Williston Seminary is now a proud institution that serves students from around the United States and the world. I would like to believe that our founders’ values live on in the Williston Northampton School of today. I invite you to read our plan and to share in my excitement for both the Williston Northampton today and tomorrow.

Director of Communications Traci Wolfe P’16, ’19 Design Director Aruna Goldstein Director of Online Communications Rachael Hanley

Please send letters to the editor, class notes, obituaries, and changes of address to: The Williston Northampton School Alumni Office 19 Payson Avenue Easthampton, MA 01027 T (413) 529-3300 F (413) 529-3427 Established in 1915, the Bulletin is published by the Advancement Office for the benefit of alumni, parents, faculty, staff, and friends.

Sincerely,

robert w. hill iii Head of School

cover photo by Joanna Chattman

KATE VERDICKT ’05

Ms. Verdickt is an art intern and teaches at the school.

CONTENTS | VOLUME 100, NUMBER 2

FEATURES 15 | SPECIAL SECTION: ALL ABOUT SCIENCE Alumni reflect on where science has taken them in their careers and lives.

22 | GIVING HIS HEART TO THE GAME When a Twitter campaign and years of hard work came together, Kevin Moore ’07 became a legend.

26 | GIANT ON CAMPUS From fruit flies to flagella: Longtime science teacher Jack “Doc” Gow looks back on more than 30 years in the lab.

CAMPUS NEWS

15

Alumni talk about finding inspiration for careers in science and math.

6 | CAMPUS EVENTS Tim Farnham ’84 addresses this year’s Cum Laude Society inductees; the campus celebrates together at the annual Holiday Banquet, a new school tradition; and two long-serving teachers retire at the end of the school year.

8 | ARTS WALK The first-ever Arts Walk gave students the opportunity to share their work with the Williston Northampton community.

10 | MAKING PROGRESS, INSPIRING CHANGE Shabana Basij-Rasikh and William Kamkwamba visited campus this year to share their experiences in defying expectations, and encouraged Williston Northampton students to do the same.

PEOPLE/PLACES 30 | CLASS NOTES News and profiles from classmates and former faculty.

PH OTO G R A PH S: J OA NN A C H AT T M AN

52 | FIVE QUESTIONS FOR… Alex Cowan ’94 talks about life as a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and author.

10

Williston Northampton hosted several visitors who inspired students to make a difference in the world.

62 | FROM THE ARCHIVES Considering the history of science facilities on the campus and in our lives.

63 | OBITUARIES Remembering those we have lost and sharing your thoughts from our online In Memoriam pages.

campus news

| #willypride

WEBSITE REDESIGN

RESPONSIVE DESIGN

For the past year, the Communications Office has been working on a new website, featuring a new design and content management system.

Here are just a few of the website’s features!

HOMEPAGE

The new homepage design is a sleek and streamlined introduction to the school. We’ve added more profiles, portals into our content, and pop-up features, such as the I WILL statements.

The new website automatically adapts content to fit the screen size of the user’s device. This means that the website can be displayed automatically on mobile phones and tablets—putting all of that great content and photography at your fingertips.

The new website’s robust search function helps users quickly find what they need, while a login button gives those familiar with the school direct access to WillyNet.

YEARBOOKS

Our News and Events boxes have links to the school’s blogs, calendars, and social media.

Yearbooks are available online through the alumni mashup page.

Browse through yearbooks from 1902 on, from Williston Academy, NSFG, and the Williston Northampton School.

PHOTOS AND BANNERS

The new website allows for greater flexibility in customizing our pages and layouts. We’ve updated all of the photography and highlighted photos at the top of each page.

ATHLETICS MASHUP PAGES

New mashup pages are a great way to showcase the terrific content from students and faculty.

There are four mashups— all accessible from the website’s homepage.

4 WILLISTON NORTHAMPTON SCHOOL

The alumni pages feature the alumni connections blog, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and In Memoriam blog.

The new athletics manager helps sort out games, results, rosters, and coaches. Every team now has its own page with an overview, list of upcoming games and results, and coach profiles. The mobile features let coaches post game results directly from their phones.

Fans can also keep up to date with optional text and email alerts for their favorite teams.

campus news

| letters

CLASS NOTES our first

Hall of Fame Winners

FA L L 2 0 1 3

Whoever is designing the Bulletin did an amazing job! I really thought the designer did such a great job doing smart things like putting all the births together and the spread of Reunion attendees on white was so fresh and modern. Made me think maybe I should go into alumni magazines after seeing it!

It really was a refreshing change.

—Tina Strasberg ’73

THE MANY CHAPTERS OF AL SHALER

In an otherwise very fine article on me in the recent Bulletin was an egregious error: that I am seventy-nine years of age. Anyone that old is half dead. I am only seventy-eight.

—Alan Shaler

THE FIRST HALL OF FAME WINNERS

Congratulations on the beautiful ‘book’ on notable Willistonians.

I played football on the same team as our famous swimmer, Chip Ide ’53, an amazing athlete. Good to see him recognized.

Say hi to Chip while you’re at it!

—William Opsahl ’54

That was an interesting issue, but I had one disappointment. There was no picture of the Class of 1943, nor mention that we had one third of the remaining members at Reunion (plus mates). Many pictures were taken, and at least one of all of us at the dining room table was sent to you. With the rest of the class all over the country, I felt we did well!

—Hardy Reemsnyder ’43 I am a member of the Class of 1988, and our 25th Reunion in Easthampton was this past June.

I was wondering why there was no mention in notes or pictures of our Reunion in the recent Bulletin.

Twenty-five years is a huge milestone, and we had alumnae come from as far as Oregon and Nevada.

—Erica Faulkner ’88 I just received the latest Bulletin and was shocked to see that not only was there no photo of Class of 1988 published but that you actually skipped 1988 all together in the chronology (see pages 57-58). Obviously a mistake because I could have sworn I did attend there for three years and graduate!

I’ve attended every reunion 5, 10, 15, 20 and now 25... and for the last two reunions I even traveled from Reno/Tahoe, Nevada to support the event. It was kind of funny to find 1988 missing all together from the Bulletin especially since we had a good turnout of at least 15, I believe.

—Sue Colina ’88

(left to right): Hardy Reemsnyder ’43, Jan Jette, Chuck Robitaille ’43, and Sally Luedeke

Front row (left to right): Erica Levine Faulkner, Madeleine Crowther Middle row: Colleen O’Reilly-Lacks, Sue Colina, Marsi Foster, Nicole Clausing Third row: Steve Royko, Matthew Gendron, Darcy Harwood, Lance Reynolds, Molly Matthews Conner

ed. note:

Classes for which there is no class representative or no class notes have been received will not be listed in the class notes section of the Bulletin.

Thank you for your letters, and here are some Reunion photos of the classes mentioned above.

SPRING 2014 BULLETIN 5

CAMPUS NEWS IN DON'T DO LIFE HALFWAY

Cum Laude Society Inductees (l to r) Nan (Catherine) Ding, Giovanna (Gia) Parker, Matthew Carney, Shiyuan (Matt) Mei, Brendan Hellweg, Matthew Cavanaugh, Abigail Rogers-Berner, Zhi Jie (Percy) Chen, Olivia Foster, Tory Kolbjornsen, Madeleine (Maddy) Stern, Persis Ticknor-Swanson, and Elizabeth Calderone

6 WILLISTON NORTHAMPTON SCHOOL

As a freshman, Tim Farnham ’84, remembered feeling utterly lost on the first day of French class as his teachers began addressing students—in French only. Mr. Farnham realized that if he didn’t work hard to learn the language, and fast, failure was a very real possibility.

“It was the challenge, and the experience of meeting the challenge that was so energizing, so stimulating, and it kind of woke me up to what Williston was going to be about,” Mr. Farnham, an associate professor at Mount Holyoke, said as he addressed this year’s Cum Laude Society inductees at a ceremony January 17.

By the end of the first grading period, Mr. Farnham had earned a B+, and French had become the class of which he was most proud. The fear of failure, it turns out, can be a powerful motivator to succeed.

“Living a life in which you only are giving half effort is a life lacking passion, lacking purpose; it’s not fun—it saps your energy,” he said.

“We should fear going out and not giving it everything we’ve got.”

PH OTO G R A PH S: J OA NN A C H AT T M AN I L LU ST R ATI ON S : A RU N A GOL DST E I N

Tim Farnham ’84, encourages this year’s Cum Laude Society inductees to give their all when striving to meet life's challenges.

campus news

SHORT

| in

short

RETIREMENTS IN

2013-14

STAN SAMUELSON

​ ath teacher Stan Samuelson M is retiring after 32 years in the classroom. A passionate founding member of the school’s Diversity Committee, Mr. Samuelson also was an advisor to countless clubs over the years, including Community Service and PRIDE. And no one wore bow ties (including one made of wood!) as well as he did.

A NEW TRADITION Williston Northampton students enjoyed the semi-formal holiday banquet, held just before the start of the winter break. The muchanticipated event is quickly becoming one of the most beloved Williston traditions for both students and faculty alike. After the banquet dinner was served at the Birch Dining Commons, Head of School Bob Hill hosted the attendees at his home, offering hot chocolate and dessert as students gathered for a spontaneous singalong around the piano. The evening made for a memorable end to the trimester and was an unforgettable way to kick off the holidays.

CLAIRE FRIERSON

After 32 years of teaching Spanish and French, Claire Frierson retired this June. Whether it was making costumes for the Williston theater, leading trips to foreign countries, or serving as advisor of The Willistonian, Ms. Frierson's dedication to the school community over the years has reached well beyond the walls of the classroom.

SPRING 2014 BULLETIN 7

artsWalk

PH OTO G R A PH S: J OA N N A CH AT TM A N

Drawing faculty, students, and families from the Williston Northampton community, the first-ever Arts Walk in the Reed Campus Center gave students the opportunity to share their work and to learn what it takes to create a thoughtful exhibition.

8 WILLISTON NORTHAMPTON SCHOOL

campus news

|   campus

spaces

Read more about the latest Arts News at willistonblogs.com/ artsspotlight Find more event photos at www.flickr.com/ willistonnorthampton

SPRING 2014 BULLETIN 9

Believing in

CHANGE

Shabana Basij-Rasikh and William Kamkwamba were born worlds apart, but they both believe in making their respective countries—and in turn the world—a place where change is possible.

SHABANA BASIJ-RASIKH

As a young girl in Afghanistan, Shabana BasijRasikh dressed in boys’ clothes to walk with her sister to school. Their “school” — a tiny makeshift classroom inside a neighbor’s home —was a well-guarded secret. It had to be; being discovered would bring brutal consequences. To be exposed by the Taliban meant certain death.

Forbidden by the Taliban to attend school, young girls in Afghanistan either remained uneducated or put their lives at risk in order to learn. The teacher, the students, the families involved —everyone faced death, said Ms. Basij-Rasikh, “simply for the crime of educating girls.”

Despite the constant threat of exposure, Ms. Basij-Rasikh’s family decided to educate their four daughters illegally.

“I have extremely amazing parents,” said Ms. Basij-Rasikh, co-founder and president of the 10 WILLISTON NORTHAMPTON SCHOOL

School of Leadership Afghanistan (SOLA), and an Afghan education activist. “They could not stand the idea of us, especially the four sisters in my family, growing up uneducated,” she told students at the Williston Northampton School’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Day assembly on January 20, at which she was the keynote speaker.

For five years, Ms. Basij-Rasikh disguised herself as a boy and went with her older sister to their secret school, where more than 100 young girls attended class. The sisters took a different route to school every day so no one would suspect where they were going, hiding their books in grocery bags. Ms. Basij-Rasikh remembers constantly fearing the Taliban would find the school and kill everyone inside.

During the most tenuous times, she begged her parents to let her stay home. They shouldn’t risk their lives just to go to school, she remembers saying. Her father’s response, however, motivated her to return each day, Ms. Basij-Rasikh said.

“You can lose everything you have. Everything you own can be taken away,” she remembers her father saying. “But there is one thing no one can ever take away from you —your education,” he continued. “It is the biggest investment in your life and you should never regret it.”

When news broke in Afghanistan about the attacks of September 11, 2001, Ms. Basij-Rasikh began to realize for the first time how vastly different educational opportunities were for other girls living in different parts of the world.

After the United States and others in the international community helped overthrow the

Taliban regime a year later, in 2002, Ms. Basij-Rasikh was allowed to openly attend a public school in Afghanistan for the first time in her life. She was 12 years old.

Schools had been banned for so long, Ms. BasijRasikh recalled, that almost all of her classmates were at least six years older than she was.

“It was only then that I started to realize how lucky I was that our parents risked our lives,” she said.

As the top student in her class, Ms. Basij-Rasikh won a scholarship and traveled to the United States to participate in a study exchange at a Wisconsin high school. She was later accepted at Middlebury College in Vermont.

While at Middlebury, Ms. Basij-Rasikh considered becoming a doctor, a lawyer, or an engineer— career choices driven by the needs of Afghanistan, she said. She decided, however, that she could make the biggest difference by helping to educate the next generation of doctors, lawyers, and engineers. So, as a college sophomore in 2008, Ms. Basij-Rasikh co-founded the School of Leadership Afghanistan (SOLA).

The all-girl boarding school, located in Kabul, began with five students and a single mission: to teach students English so they could apply for scholarships to study abroad.

Ms. Basij-Rasikh says she realizes it will take years for meaningful change to happen in Afghanistan. But she is not discouraged.

“Change never happens overnight,” she says, “but if you don’t believe in it so strongly, then it will never happen.”

PH OTO G R A PH S: J OA NN A C H AT T M AN

campus news

|   change

WILLIAM KAMKWAMBA

When he was a little boy, William Kamkwamba would pull apart his family’s radio, looking for the tiny people hidden inside and discovering batteries instead. After hearing that heated dung could produce methane and thus electricity, Mr. Kamkwamba tried boiling goat droppings in his mother’s favorite cooking pot.

Speaking to the Williston Northampton School community during a special assembly on December 5, Mr. Kamkwamba laughed when he recalled that particular experiment. “That project didn’t work at all,” he said.

Mr. Kamkwamba, who was this year’s Sara Wattles Perry ’77 speaker, admitted that he’s never been that patient when it comes to science. That’s one reason why, in a country where 80 percent of the population are farmers, the young Malawian decided to follow his scientific interests. Using a few textbooks as his inspiration, Mr. Kamkwamba decided to build an electricity-generating windmill at his home.

“A lot of people were laughing at me. They thought I was going crazy,” Mr. Kamkwamba said.

“I didn’t have money to buy materials. I didn’t know what materials I was looking for.” Still, the then-teenager persisted, scavenging an old bicycle

wheel and some fire-stretched PCP pipe, among other things, to produce a windmill with enough power to recharge a cell phone or light a bulb—an amazing feat in a rural village with no power or running water.

Since news of the project took off over seven years ago, Mr. Kamkwamba has given TED talks and been named a TED Global Fellow. He has co-authored a book about his experience, called

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, finished high school in South Africa, and enrolled at Dartmouth College, where he’s currently a senior.

He’s also returned to his native village in Malawi many times with many different projects:

“ Challenges are challenges regardless of how small.

Everything is possible in this world if you trust yourself.”

12 WILLISTON NORTHAMPTON SCHOOL

a wind-powered water pump for irrigating the parched farmland; three new elementary school classrooms with laptops and solar panels; and a biogas digester (a functioning one this time) for converting cow manure into cooking fuel.

“I’m interested in continuing projects that solve many problems in my community,” Mr. Kamkwamba said. “I’m more interested in finding ways to make farming more efficient and profitable in Malawi.”

During an extended question and answer session that followed the scheduled talk, students asked Mr. Kamkwamba for his perspective on life in the United States. He noted that Americans often buy new devices as replacements, rather than trying to fix the old one first.

“If they wake up and find it’s not working, they get frustrated and go and buy a new one,” he said.

“I think that’s one thing that people might learn from our people—try again to solve problems, like in Malawi.”

Asked about how one could persist in the face of incredible adversity, as he did, Mr. Kamkwamba’s advice was simple.

“Challenges are challenges regardless of how small,” he said. “Everything is possible in this world if you trust yourself.”

campus news

| sports

review

FASTER FOOTBALL PH OTO G R A PH S: PAU L S C H N ADTTAC H E R

for players and spectators alike, the team

huddle has been synonymous with football.

Insulated from the noise of the crowd and the eager ears of the opposing team, the huddle is an opportunity to review plays, strategize, and motivate one another to clinch the win. However, on more and more football fields across the country, the time-honored huddle is becoming a practice of the past.

Over the last several years the game has seen the spread of the “no-huddle” or “hurry-up” offense, a strategy in which the threat of players quickly snapping the ball prevents the opposition from communicating with one another, putting them at a disadvantage. First used in the NFL in the 1980s, the no-huddle technique has since been used by countless football coaches across the country. And now it’s taking hold at Williston Northampton.

The Wildcats have considered this type of offense for a few years and this year, Head Coach Mark Conroy says he and Assistant Coaches Donnie McKillop, Matt Sawyer, and Brian Crockett (see tribute on page 61) agreed to charge ahead.

“We were ready to simplify our offense,” said Coach Conroy. “This was the year of change. And son of a gun, it really went well.”

With a team record of 6-2 (4-0 for home games), it was hard to keep up with the Wildcats’ new and faster pace.

“Basically, the hurry-up offense is designed to run the most plays possible in a game,” explains starting center and defensive tackle Matthieu “Alex” Massengill ’14. “The offense keeps attacking the defense and driving towards the endzone. Usually, it is the opposing defense that gets winded.”

Along with his teammates, Mr. Massengill

prepared for the more strenuous style of the game by snapping the ball 100 times a day over the summer and swimming 500 meters a day on top of lifting, sprinting, and running, he says.

“It was a bit tiring at first because there are no breaks, but our cardio got better and we got used to it,” says Gabe Breton ’14, wide receiver and cornerback/safety. “Our team was fast and explosive.

Some teams couldn’t keep up with us.”

The team’s hard work paid off.

“No one was really as efficient at the no-huddle offense as we were this season,” says Coach McKillop. “Our team was agile, quick, and fit.”

Coach Conroy cited winning Washington State’s Mike Leach as an inspiration behind making the leap to faster football.

“He could get his entire offense on a cocktail napkin,” says Coach Conroy. “He didn’t have 100 plays, but what he was doing, he was doing really SPRING 2014 BULLETIN 13

campus news

With eight players earning All Colonial League recognition for their play, the Wildcats have reason to celebrate. Congratulations to all!

• Ledell Robinson ’14: ANE, First Team Colonial League; also broke touchdown record • Anthony Cruz ’14: All New England, First Team All Colonial League • Sam Blake ’14: First Team All Colonial League • Marquis Francois ’14: First Team All Colonial League • Alex Massengill ’14: Second Team All Colonial League • James Griffin ’16: Second Team All Colonial League • Stephen Goldsmith ’15: Second Team All Colonial League • Scott Hendrick ’14: Second Team All Colonial League

Follow all the Wildcat news on our athletics blog at www.willistonblogs.com/athletics

14 WILLISTON NORTHAMPTON SCHOOL

review

FALL AND WINTER 2013-14 In an effort to offer information in a more timely fashion, we print only short recaps of a team’s season in the Bulletin; read full descriptions online at

www.willistonblogs.com/athletics

FALL

HIGHLIGHTS

Football (6-2) Field Hockey (11-5-1) Boys Soccer (6-7-3) Girls Soccer (6-8-2) Boys Cross Country (8-6) Girls Cross Country (10-2) Girls Volleyball (1-14) Boys Water Polo (5-9)

The girls varsity squash team clinched its first-ever squash championship in February, winning the New England Interscholastic Squash Association Class C Tournament by a margin of one point, 50-49, over Kingswood-Oxford and six other schools. The team was led by senior co-captains Olivia Foster and Alysha Wong, who won the third and fourth flights respectively.

Christina Zalewski ’14, of Canonsburg, PA, became the fourth varsity girls hockey player in school history to score 100 points when she assisted on a goal in the team’s 5-1 victory over NMH February 12.

Ms. Zalewski accomplished this feat in a remarkably short time, becoming the third Wildcat to achieve this milestone in three years. Previous 100-point scorers include Alex Starzyk ’13, Katherine Tomaselli ’12, and MacKenzie Lee ’08.

Girls varsity basketball player Natalia Baum ’15 scored her 1,000th career point in February during a game against Loomis Chaffee School. Ms. Baum, who entered the game needing eight points to reach 1,000, scored the basket on a lay-up midway through the first half. She’s the eighth player in school history to break the 1,000-point mark.

WINTER

Girls Basketball (9-13) Boys Basketball (10-12) Girls Hockey (19-6-3) Boys Hockey (13-10-2) Girls Squash (7-8) (Class C NE Champs) Boys Squash (6-8) Girls Swimming (6-2) Boys Swimming (4-5) Wrestling (7-9) Girls Skiing (4th place in league) Boys Skiing (4th place in league)

PH OTO G R A PH S: M AT TH E W CAVA N AU G H

well and at such a tempo that other teams couldn’t make adjustments.”

Coaches McKillop and Crockett both played this style of game in college and brought their invaluable experience to the Williston fields.

But football at the school is not only about speed and winning. It’s also about the relationships formed between teammates. As player Sam Blake ’14 wrote in The Willistonian, “…Football has become more than a game you play with people you’ll never see again.

These people, who started off as strangers, became brothers with an unbreakable bond over the course of eight weeks…At the end of the day, you don’t celebrate with your fans or the opponents, but your brothers.”

Beyond any game plan or new twist on the sport—even beyond forging lifelong bonds— the late, beloved Coach Crockett said it best.

“Everyone could see [the players] were having fun. Fun is what the game is about!”

| sports

THE PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE OF

SCIENCE AND MATH

Williston Northampton inspired generations of students to find a passion for math and science. Alumni reflect on where their own questioning minds have taken them years after setting foot on campus.

SPRING 2014 BULLETIN 15

QUESTIONING

MINDS

HOW ACHIEVEMENTS IN SCIENCE, MATH, MEDICINE, AND ENGINEERING BEGAN AT WILLISTON NORTHAMPTON by megan tady

T

he decades-long quest for fusion energy has been like a search for the Holy Grail. Harness energy from magnetic fusion and we could power the planet with a nearly inexhaustible energy supply. With fusion, gone are the threats of a nuclear plant meltdown like what happened in Fukushima, Japan. Gone are the languishing nuclear waste products that countries bounce around like hot potatoes. Gone are the greenhouse gases from coal-burning plants that are slowly (or rather quickly) suffocating our ecosystem.

“Fusion is how the sun works,” says Nathaniel Ferraro ’98, a physicist at General Atomic in La Jolla, CA. Mr. Ferraro is one of the undaunted scientists trying to crack the fusion code. The question is not just: Can they create fusion energy (the answer is yes), but can they build an energy plant that uses fusion instead of fission? And, when does fusion become economically viable as an energy source?

Here’s how fusion works: Fusion energy is released when light elements like hydrogen are fused together to create heavier elements. To get the hydrogen to fuse at a useful rate, it’s heated to exceedingly high temperatures (100 million degrees, which is hotter than the center of the sun). At these temperatures, the electrons and nuclei of the hydrogen atoms separate, forming an electrically conducting gas called a plasma. The basic challenge of fusion energy is to confine the plasma at these high temperatures so that the fusion reactions can continue. Since no known materials can withstand such extreme conditions for long, scientists construct a “cage” for the plasma using strong magnetic fields.

Mr. Ferraro is tasked with this last piece—figuring out the best way to contain the plasma with magnetic fields. He spends his days running calculations and codes on supercomputers in a lab to solve problems of how electrically conducting gases interact with magnetic fields. “It’s actually a pretty challenging problem that’s been worked on for a long time,” he says. “It’s very interesting work. I hope it’s beneficial to society. It’s something to do that I can be proud of.”

Seven international parties, including the United States, are currently building the world’s first experimental fusion power plant at Cadarache,

16 WILLISTON NORTHAMPTON SCHOOL

“ [FUSION ENERGY] IS A PRETTY CHALLENGING PROBLEM THAT’S BEEN WORKED ON FOR A LONG TIME. IT’S VERY INTERESTING WORK. I HOPE IT’S BENEFICIAL TO SOCIETY. IT’S SOMETHING TO DO THAT I CAN BE PROUD OF.” NATHANIEL FERRARO ’98 PHYSICIST: GENERAL ATOMIC, LA JOLLA, CA

a scientific research facility near Marseille, France. Called “ITER,” which means “the way” in Latin, the plant will be used to show that fusion is feasible. If all goes well, Mr. Ferraro says we could be getting electricity from fusion in the next 30 years.

“The energy that we use now is very dirty,” he said. “I think [fusion] would be a big step forward.”

Mr. Ferraro has loved science since he was a kid. His dad bought him Carl Sagan books and they watched Discovery shows about the solar system. But he didn’t just up and become a physicist working on one of science’s biggest questions by simply reading about the cosmos. He had to train his mind.

And that training began at Williston Northampton.

In the classroom, Mr. Ferraro asked and answered the questions that would eventually lead to: How can I make fusion energy a reality? Before he could posit that, he started out asking: Will the spaghetti bridge I built in Curtis Turner’s AP Physics class actually hold the weight of my thick Physics textbook?

Mr. Ferraro is among generations of alumni who began to hone their math and science skills at Williston Northampton, building a foundation for future passions and careers. Looking through a microscope at aquatic life from the school’s pond ignited one student’s life-long zeal for microbiology.

Conquering a pre-calculus problem sparked the mind of a future doctor, or engineer, or architect to say: “I can do this.”

With plans for a new state-of-the-art academic center on the horizon, another generation of students will fall in love with science and math.

Alumni reflect on where their own questioning minds have taken them years after setting foot in a campus lab.

PHOTOGR A PHS : K .C. A L F RED

FROM FRUIT FLIES TO MED SCHOOL

Jack “Doc” Gow’s biology classroom was buzzing—literally. Fruit flies zipped around the room, escapees from a genetic experiment where students had to etherize the flies in order to study them. Students were responsible for keeping a colony of fruit flies alive for six weeks, and had to interbreed them to determine how they inherited certain traits, like wing shape and eye color.

“What was there not to enjoy about working in the lab? About working with fruit flies?” says Cherie Holmes ’75.

Dr. Holmes particularly loved the hands-on nature of Mr. Gow’s classes.

“It wasn’t just learning for learning’s sake,” Dr. Holmes says. “[Mr. Gow] taught us to apply the science. It’s the same with medicine. How can I take what I learn in the classroom and apply it to my patients?”

Dr. Holmes is now an associate medical director and orthopedic surgeon at the Cheshire Medical Center/Dartmouth Hitchcock Clinic in Keene, New Hampshire.

“I do it because I know that there’s something that I’ve learned that I can give back to a patient that is very meaningful to them,” she says. “To see the smile on someone’s face when they can walk again, or watch a child improve and be able to play sports again—it’s extremely gratifying.”

She says the math and science curriculum at Williston Northampton prepared her for both undergraduate courses and medical school.

SPRING 2014 BULLETIN 17

“ TO SEE THE SMILE ON SOMEONE’S FACE WHEN THEY CAN WALK AGAIN, OR WATCH A CHILD IMPROVE AND BE ABLE TO PLAY SPORTS AGAIN—IT’S EXTREMELY GRATIFYING.” CHERIE HOLMES ’75 ASSOCIATE MEDICAL DIRECTOR AND ORTHOPEDIC SURGEON, CHESHIRE MEDICAL CENTER/ DARTMOUTH HITCHCOCK CLINIC, KEENE, NEW HAMPSHIRE

“The time that I spent in my math and science classes I developed a strong, educational way of looking at learning that provided me a strong basis for going on for the rest of my life,” Dr. Holmes says.

And she credits her calculus class for teaching her something beyond numbers. “Williston taught me tenacity,” she says. “You don’t give up, even if you’re really struggling and having a hard time. My calculus class was truly not the easiest class, and it was one of those times—just don’t give up. Just keep plugging away and you’ll get there.”

UP FOR THE CHALLENGE

N

ina Goodrich ’74 also remembers the fruit flies. But one of her most important memories was a challenge from her physics teacher. The merger with the Northampton School for Girls had just taken place, and Ms. Goodrich said some teachers were still getting used to teaching girls. “[My teacher] told me and the other three girls it was okay if we didn’t do that well in the class,” she said. “But we were up for the challenge.” All four girls held the top four positions in class.

However, girls were, and still are, rather uncommon in math and sciences. Men largely dominate the STEM fields—science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. In 2013, women held only 20 percent of all computer science jobs. One in seven engineers are female, and just seven percent of chief information officers (CIOs) are women.

18 WILLISTON NORTHAMPTON SCHOOL

“ THE VALUE OF SCIENCE IS TEACHING PEOPLE TO HAVE A QUESTIONING MIND AND TO LOOK FOR EVIDENCE. IT ALLOWS YOU TO BE MORE INQUISITIVE, TO ASK THE RIGHT QUESTIONS, AND TO NOT BE LED SO EASILY.” NINA GOODRICH ’74 EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: GREENBLUE, CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA

Since her Williston Northampton days, Ms. Goodrich has been blazing a path. She earned a bachelor’s degree in molecular biology from Wellesley College, and she’s spent decades helping large companies rethink packaging and products to be more innovative, sustainable, and economical. Ms. Goodrich is now the executive director of GreenBlue, a non-profit dedicated to this mission.

“The value of science is teaching people to have a questioning mind and to look for evidence,” Ms. Goodrich says. “It allows you to be more inquisitive, to ask the right questions, and to not be led so easily.” Ms. Goodrich often consults for people who aren’t scientifically minded, and she said it was Mr. Gow who taught her how to explain complex ideas.

“I always remembered that he made science sound simple,” she said. “That is so important when you’re reaching a marketing audience or a CEO—to be able to strip it back to terms and use analogies that other people can understand. That is something I absolutely learned to do at Williston just by watching and listening to [Mr. Gow].”

A ROLE IN SOCIETY

PHOTOGR A PHS: J OAN N A CH ATT MA N A ND A N DR EA SHI R E

D

an Monopoli ’92 had a reckoning while reading The Reckoning in Peter Gunn’s economics class. The book, by David Halberstam, details why the U.S. auto industry lost ground to Japan after World War II. “It put into focus for me the role that scientists and engineers can play in society, and the importance they have to the overall economy and the health of the economic system,” Mr. Monopoli says. “I think [reading that book] was probably the moment, the driver, that I really did want to pursue engineering in college.”

Mr. Monopoli is now an engineer and manager at Draper Laboratory. He helps the company take products from design to fieldable prototypes. For example, Draper is testing and evaluating a guidance system for the U.S. Navy’s fleet ballistic missile system. In lay terms, this means Mr. Monopoli helps make sure missiles hit their targets.

Mr. Monopoli credits his pre-calculus teacher, Ann Vanderburgh, for helping him rise to the academic challenges at Williston Northampton.

“The quality of the instruction and the faculty and the rigor of the academic curriculum was critical in preparing me to handle my engineering education that I pursued in college,” he says.

Roland McEldowney ’59 had a similar experience. He says at Williston, “learning became a pleasure,” and that his math and science classes set him up for success in college. He received his bachelor’s degree in geology from Franklin & Marshall College and a master’s from San Diego State University, and launched a career as a mineral explorer. He joined the Peace Corps in 1963 in Ghana. Since then his work has taken him all over the globe as he hunts for precious stone deposits for his clients.

“It’s a big rush,” he says. “Most of the time when I’m out in the field, I have

a desire, hope, and belief that I’m going to find another big gold deposit, or silver, or whatever. And I know I can do it again.”

Mr. McEldowney says he’s sensitive to the environmental consequences of commercial mining. “I’m an environmentalist at heart,” he says. “I’m not a tree hugger, but I do realize that we have to protect the wild world that we have and everything in it.”

Rather than retire, Mr. McEldowney is still scouring the mountains of Colorado for a glint of treasure. “I look at the rocks and dream about another big mine,” he says. “It’s been an inspiring life. I’ve loved every minute of it.”

INVESTING IN OUR OWN

S

tudents in the U.S. tend to be average in science and lag behind in math compared to their counterparts in Asia and Europe. The 2012 Program of International Student Assessment, an exam that tests 15- year-olds around the world every three years on math, science, and reading, surmised the woeful results. In math, the U.S. ranked behind 29 education systems in other countries; in science, 22.

As countries evolve and innovate to stay globally competitive, Mr. Ferraro, the fusion physicist, says many of the major societal issues of our time—climate change, public health, energy independence—will require people who are up to the task.

“We’d like to be able to solve these [societal] problems on our own rather than have to buy solutions from other countries,” Mr. Ferraro says. “The economy is driven more and more by technological advances and products, and we need people who have these technical skills to produce these products.”

That is to say, math and science may be more important than ever. Williston Northampton recognizes this, and the school is working with archtiects to design and build a facility to support teaching and learning in these fields for generations to come. The proposed academic center will boast 10 new science labs and eight math classrooms, as well as a 150-seat lecture hall, the first of its kind at Williston Northampton. The building will also have a rooftop terrace that will serve as an outdoor lab space; a dedicated space for the robotics program; and new front and side entrances that will act as a gateway for campus visitors. A new STEM Commons will provide a common space for students and a dramatic entryway into the building.

“I think it’s great,” Mr. Monopoli says. “Having a facility that is up to date, state-of-the-art, and attractive will help emphasize the importance of science and technology as part of the curriculum.”

Dr. Holmes agrees that investing in math and science is key. “I think we shortchange our students overall if we don’t give them a strong math and science education because it’s the baseline for the structure on which to build everything else,” she says.

“If you don’t have a good math and science teacher at an early age, you become frightened of the subject,” Ms. Goodrich says. “If you’ve got the will to do it, and the initiative, you don’t have to be a brainiac to go into the sciences.”

SPRING 2014 BULLETIN 19

After more than four years of planning, solar power is a reality on campus, taking Williston Northampton another step towards greater environmental sustainability. by rachael hanley

On May 10, during their annual spring meeting, the Williston Northampton Board of Trustees took an important vote. Their decision was unanimous.

The Athletic Center and Hockey Rink, which were being reroofed with new shingles, would be the sites of the school’s first solar power installations.

The vote was the result of over four years of planning, research, and advocacy by the Physical Plant staff and Chief Financial Officer Charles McCullagh.

“This has been like crossing the Sahara,” Mr. McCullagh said recently. “But we’re in a window of time right now where you have to take your best shot.”

The first hurdle that school officials had to overcome was a financial one.

Although solar technology has been around so long that Jeff Tannatt, director of the Physical Plant, remembers studying the subject during his college years in the 1970s, the panels have required prohibitive upfront installation and equipment costs until relatively recently.

“We’ve been looking into solar for probably four years,” Mr. Tannatt said.

“For us as a school to go out and buy a system…the cost of the system compared to the energy it generates did not make it feasible.”

Incentives such as federal tax credits, as well as rebates for residential and commercial systems in Massachusetts, have paved the way for private companies to step in. Companies are able to claim the credits and rebates not available to non-profits, like schools, and in return pay for installation and maintenance costs.

Once the solar panels are in place, the companies can then sell back the power at rates competitive with existing utilities. But the profit margins are 20 WILLISTON NORTHAMPTON SCHOOL

narrow enough on solar that companies usually want to go big—really big.

“Most of the people we spoke to originally were looking to put in a system that would supply all the power for the whole campus—that takes eight acres of land,” Mr. Tannatt said. “That just isn’t something that worked for us.”

School officials interviewed nine different solar panel companies, but felt that most of the firms—with an eye on speed and size, rather than detail— were not the right fit. The exception was a family-run roofing company from Lewiston, Maine called Industrial Roofing Companies (IRC). Through its subsidiary, Solar Roofing Systems, IRC recently started working on smaller scale solar projects with schools such as Belmont Hill School and Cambridge School of Weston.

IRC was unusual in that it had an appetite for solar tax credits and planned to both own and maintain the systems over the long term. For the company, partnering with schools only made sense, said IRC Director of Business Development Kurt Penney.

“We’re taking advantage of the long-term nature of solar, as well as the longterm nature of private schools,” said Mr. Penney by phone. With solar such a hot commodity, Mr. Penney has been kept busy on the road, visiting clients.

“We’re owning this, so it’s not a short term relationship. We’re going to do it right, and we’re going to do it well.”

Even as they ironed out the final details for the solar project, IRC was busy on the Williston Northampton campus. This past spring, the company replaced the tricky, barrel-shaped roof on the Lossone Hockey Rink.

The Athletic Center uses roughly 410,500 kilowatt hours per year in electricity. Some 180,000 kW will now be supplied by solar power.

Lossone Rink will be covered by 400 panels, built to accommodate the curved roof. Purple, green, and red lines in the design indicate shadows from surrounding trees.

“The curve is very challenging and the access is challenging,” Mr. Penney said. “It’s a difficult one, but it came out beautifully and we’re proud of the work.”

Once safety measures are in place, IRC will begin on electrical work inside both the rink and Athletic Center, and will install a racking system to hold the solar panels in place.

“That’s where the roofing experience comes in handy,” said Mr. Penney. “No one is worried about the first couple of years, but what about year 14? It’s good to know we’ll be there if any issues arise.”

This summer, the company will install 400 panels on the rink roof, which will generate about 80-90 kilowatts of power. Another 144 kilowatts worth of panels will go on the southeast and southwest sections of the Athletic Center.

The system will come with an integrated monitoring package, which will let the company check on the panel output from afar, and will alert technicians if power generation seems to be low. Another monitor in the Athletic Center will let students and visitors also check the arrays in real time on campus.

Nicholas Pattison ’14 (Colby College ’19), who spearheaded many environmentally friendly projects on campus as the recent president of the Sustainable Community Club, was enthusiastic about the project, describing it as “a wonderful initiative that takes us one step closer to being more sustainable.”

“Many colleges and institutions are going carbon neutral now, and it is truly inspiring to see Williston taking steps to help the environment,” Mr. Pattison wrote in an email. “Not only will this help the environment, but students will also have a tangible understanding of the benefits of renewable energy.”

In the fall, the campus solar project will generate about 283,500 kilowatts per year, equal to half of the power used by the Athletic Center and Lossone Hockey Rink or 10 percent of the total 2.5 megawatts used by the school. Williston Northampton has locked in a pre-determined rate for the next 20 years, which will help hedge its bets for future power use. With electrical rates on the rise, Mr. Tannatt said such an agreement will only help the school.

When the buildings produce more power than they use, the meters will run backwards and the school will get a credit from Western Massachusetts Electric, the utility company.

“One of the reasons we’ve been going back and forth on this is because a couple of years ago electrical rates were much better than they are today,” he said. “While [the price of solar panels] have stayed roughly the same, electrical rates have skyrocketed.”

Both Mr. Tannatt and Mr. McCullagh said that they are already looking ahead to what other buildings might make sense for smaller solar panel installations, such as the Schoolhouse. Mr. McCullagh said the school wants to take full advantage of the solar benefits available in Massachusetts.

“We said we’d do this only when it started to make sense financially,” he said. “It certainly makes sense now.”

SPRING 2014 BULLETIN 21

22 WILLISTON NORTHAMPTON SCHOOL

PHOTOGR A PHS: J OAN N A CH ATT MA N

GIVING HIS HEART TO THE GAME Kevin Moore had waited his entire life for this. As the crowd roared, waving “#FreeMoore” signs high overhead, he skated onto the ice.

What happened next is how a legend is born. by nathalie sczublewski

on march 2, 2012, the university of massachusetts minutemen

needed to win. The last home game of the season, Senior Night, would decide whether the team advanced into play-offs. It was do or die.

But in the stands, a different movement was taking place. This one, with all of the UMass fans behind it and a campaign on social media, was aimed at replacing the first-string goalie with the third-string one: A player who had only been in three UMass games before, who wore bowties and vintage jerseys around campus, and who would soon become known as the “Rudy of UMass.”

That morning, Kevin Moore ’07 went through his normal pre-game routine. He ate a banana with peanut butter and drank a cup of coffee.

He put his headphones on and listened to Bob Dylan and Derek and the Dominos. He sat and visualized himself between the goal posts.

When it was time, he stood in the tunnel with his teammates. The arena lights dimmed and the crowd began whistling and cheering.

Then the Mullins Center host boomed through the speakers, “Heeeeere come your UUUUU-Maaaaaass Minutemeeeeen!!!”

Mr. Moore and his teammates skated onto the ice.

Mr. Moore grew up in the small suburb of Belle Mead, New Jersey, with his family, including two brothers, Derek and Craig. He started playing hockey at the age of five. By seven, he had decided to be a goalie. By sixteen, he had decided to follow a dream of turning pro.

When asked to write a grade school assignment about where he saw himself in five, 10, 20 years, Mr. Moore answered, “junior hockey, college hockey, and pro hockey.”

Although he was a starting goalie as a high school freshman, Mr. Moore decided to make the switch to private school. At Williston Northampton, he was recruited to play on the school’s hockey team as one of the goaltenders and became team captain. According to Head Coach Derek Cunha, Mr. Moore had a mature, calming influence on the team and demonstrated an intense work ethic on and off the ice. “[He] could relate with everybody in the locker room,” Coach Cunha said. “He was someone who worked really hard and wouldn’t accept anything less from any of his peers.”

By the time he graduated in 2007, Mr. Moore was already looking ahead to junior hockey.

Junior hockey has three tiers: Tier-1 United States Hockey League (USHL), Tier-2 North American Hockey League (NAHL), and Tier-3 Atlantic Junior Hockey League (AJHL). After high school, most hockey players choose to play junior hockey prior to college hockey. After Williston, Mr. Moore signed a contract with a team in New Jersey in the AJHL league. But when he called to figure out when practice started, the coach had some startling news.

“I called the coach and he basically said, ‘I’m sorry, but we forgot to tell you that we cut you,’” Mr. Moore said. “They explained to me that they went with two younger goalies to go in a different direction.”

SPRING 2014 BULLETIN 23

It was the start of a downward spiral. Mr. Moore was cut from almost every team he joined. The Junior Flyers? Cut. The Binghamton Senators? Cut. The New Jersey Hitmen and South Shore Kings? He was cut from them, too. He finally landed as the third goalie for the Hartford Wolf Pack, making an hour-long drive to and from practices. After a few months, Mr. Moore was traded to the Walpole Express and, three weeks later, traded back to the Wolf Pack, making him the first player in AJHL history to be traded for himself.

In search of other teams, Mr. Moore and his father drove huge distances to pre-season tryouts. But hockey is one of the most expensive sports to play: the equipment, tryout fees, gas money, and lessons all add up. One day, as the two were headed back from Chicago, Mr. Moore’s father told him that he couldn’t keep driving to tryouts. The son begged for one more chance.

Mr. Moore was finally signed to the Phoenix Polar Bears in Arizona as their starting goaltender. Then he was contacted by Len Quesnelle, the assistant coach for the University of Massachusetts, on a recommendation from another coach.

One of the UMass goalies had left the team to play baseball, and Mr. Quesnelle wanted Mr. Moore to play. His best official junior hockey game was a league showcase in Las Vegas, Nevada. In the winter of 2009, Mr. Moore joined the Minutemen as their fourth goaltender. He was officially accepted to UMass Amherst in the spring, majoring in journalism and sports management.

A STYLE ALL HIS OWN

On a recent day at the UMass Amherst campus, I sat on the concrete wall outside the Mullins Center, the 10,500-seat arena where the Minutemen play, to speak with some of Mr. Moore’s former teammates and friends. Jeff Teglia, Mr. Moore’s best friend, recalled how he always encouraged his fellow teammates.

He’d pump them up when they were losing a game and stoke their fire when they were winning.

“ It felt like people were appreciating my skill set, which might not necessarily have been a great goalie, but a great teammate, and a great worker, and somebody who gives his heart to the game.”

“He led by example. He definitely worked his butt off every day, even in times when he knew he wasn’t going to get a shot,” Mr. Teglia said. “I think that’s one of the things that showed what type of person he is, the type of hard worker he is.”

Mr. Teglia and other teammates recalled how Mr. Moore would always come in to do extra drills and had an amazing work ethic on the ice.

“He would always be the last one off the ice during practice, no matter what,” said teammate Anthony Raiola. “He knew what he was doing...In practice, he could get 15 shots in a matter of 30 seconds from 15 different angles.”

24 WILLISTON NORTHAMPTON SCHOOL

His friends also described Mr. Moore’s unique sense of style, featuring vintage hockey jerseys, green Crocs, and pants tied with hockey laces. He’d sometimes grow a moustache and curl it with wax. On game days, he’d wear antique -looking suits with bow ties.

Although Mr. Moore was on the UMass team for three and a half years, he played in just three games. His first official time on the ice, at an away game against Merrimack College, was bittersweet. His dream of playing Division 1 hockey had finally come true, but the Minutemen were crushed in an 11-2 loss.

FREE MOORE

But it was not until the final game of his senior year that he would become known as a legend, the “Rudy of UMass.”

Weeks before Senior Night, a group of girls who called themselves The Bench Crew, a UMass hockey fan group, started a Twitter petition to let Mr. Moore play in his last game. Their campaign and hashtag, #FreeMoore, were quickly picked up by a popular UMass hockey blog, Fear the Triangle.

“It was to show support of a player who never got an opportunity, but who deserved it a lot more than other players,” said Amy Sonder, a member of The Bench Crew. “We took a picture of our ‘#FreeMoore’ sign and Fear the Triangle re-tweeted it and from there it took off.”

After spotting the hashtag, Mr. Raiola, who Mr. Moore calls the “Minnesota Miracle Man,” sent a text to NHL player Derek Stepan asking for help. The New York Rangers forward responded by tweeting, “I hope senior goalie Kevin Moore at UMASS gets in on his senior night on Friday. #freemoore.” The tweet was picked up by ESPN sports analyst John Buccigross and baseball legend Jim Abbott, who sent their own tweets in support.

“I guess it just felt like I was being recognized,” Mr. Moore said later, recalling the campaign. “It felt like people were appreciating my skill set, which might necessarily not have been a great goalie, but a great teammate, and a great worker, and somebody who gives his heart to the game.”

Thousands flooded the Mullins Center for the last home game of the season. In the stands, hockey fans began chanting “Let Kevin play!” Signs and giant posters covered the arena. Two particularly large ones featuring Mr. Moore’s face were positioned behind each bench. Whenever the coach or players went into the locker rooms, a big poster of Mr. Moore smiled down on them.

“People were banging on the glass behind our bench and shaking it,” said Peter DeAngelo, Mr. Moore’s former teammate. “It was pretty crazy.”

Teammates soon took up the chant. Then starting goalie Kevin Boyle skated out from the goal to the bench, saying to his coach, “Take me out, put him in.

Take me out!”

The clock wound down. At the start of the third period, UMass was winning by 1-0. The Merrimack Warriors scored, then the Minutemen responded, dominating the third. With two minutes left, Coach Don “Toot” Cahoon told Mr. Moore to start stretching. The goalie’s heart was racing. As the clock read one minute and thirty-five seconds, Mr. Moore took the ice.

“It was the loudest I’ve ever heard the Mullins Center,” said Mr. Raiola of that moment. “All of the players that weren’t playing sit together, and we were all freaking out like, ‘HE’S GOING IN! OH, MY GOD!’” Recalling this, Mr. Raiola waved his UMass hockey hat in the air and shook the shoulder of the invisible person beside him. “I got tears in my eyes when he stepped out onto the ice.”

PHOTOGR A PHS: J OAN N A CH ATT MA N

When a Twitter campaign and a lifetime of hard work converged, a dream came true for Kevin Moore ’07.

The eruption from the stands as he skated toward the net did not bother Mr. Moore. In fact, he didn’t hear it at all.

“I was so focused that it was sort of like this cone of silence,” he said.

With Mr. Moore between the posts, the Minutemen won the game 5-1, advancing to the Hockey East playoffs.

“At the end of the game, when I saw all the guys coming at me, it felt like I had just won the Stanley Cup with them,” Mr. Moore recalled. “How hard they hit me—it was like a tidal wave.”

After the game, Mr. Moore took part in a press conference with two other teammates in the Green Room of the Mullins Center.

“Just seeing how happy he was after the game, his interviews and everything, he literally said it was the best day of his life,” said fellow goaltender Stephen Mastalerz. “Just seeing him with a smile on his face…I don’t think anyone didn’t have a tear in their eyes.”

On a recent October afternoon, Mr. Moore pulled up to the Ice Den Rink in Hooksett, New Hampshire, in his blue Subaru Outback. He was wearing a navy Williston Northampton baseball hat, a black Mighty Ducks Hawks t-shirt, maroon UMass hockey shorts, and his standard green Crocs. He walked into the rink, holding a small Dunkin’ Donuts coffee.

The dull clunking of skates on a rubber mat heralded the first lesson of the day.

A young goalie in full gear waddled in to the practice room and began stretching

his legs on the floor.

“Hey, bud! How was Mexico? What did you do?” asked Mr. Moore with a smile.

“We swam with dolphins and went diving in these underground rivers,” the boy replied.

After stretching for a few minutes, the two headed to the net. The boy started his lanes. Mr. Moore skated away, picking up pucks to practice blocking. The boy moved to stop them. Butterfly. Slide. Butterfly again.

“Nice, save!” Mr. Moore said, then, “Cover! Cover! Cover! Fast! Fast! Fast!

Get out of your comfort zone!”

The boy missed a puck and let out a small sigh of defeat.

“That’s okay. Try again and focus,” Mr. Moore said.

Since college, Mr. Moore has not given up his dream of a career in hockey.

He’s just adjusted it slightly. After playing professional hockey from January 2013 until the end of the season for the ECHL’s Evansville Iceman, he’s decided to be a goaltending coach full-time. He now teaches private lessons through GDS, Inc.: The Next Generation of Goaltending Development. His new dream is to one day become the head coach for Princeton University or UMass Amherst.

“I do my best not to look into the future as a fairytale, because I think the best qualities that I have were developed in my lows and through my adversity,” he said then paused and leaned back in his chair.

“I have no regrets,” Mr. Moore said finally. “I gave my heart to the game.”

SPRING 2014 BULLETIN 25

A LIFE OF INQUIRY

Beloved science teacher “Doc” Gow reflects on his 31 years at Williston as students recall the curiosity and passion he inspired both in and out of the classroom. by megan tady

26 WILLISTON NORTHAMPTON SCHOOL

to science teacher jack

“doc”

gow, the williston pond was

PHOTOGR A PHS : MAT T H EW R OB B INS

more than just a campus landmark; it was the perfect test site for his biology class. What organisms lived in the water? What were the light conditions? Could the students get depth measures to draw a bottom contour of the pond? How did conditions change with the seasons?

Mr. Gow’s students dragged dip nets (like small butterfly nets) and tow nets through the water to collect organisms. They also fashioned submerged devices onto which organisms could latch. Everything they collected they carted back to the lab and scrutinized under a microscope.

“The students would bring back jars full of muck,” Mr. Gow says.

“There were so many different things scooting around in there.”

Sometimes the students would stumble across a critter that no one could identify—not even Mr. Gow. He’d point to a stack of books, which the students would thumb through in search of a classification.

If Mr. Gow had developed a trusted methodology in his 31 years of teaching, it was this: never interrupt the students’ natural process of inquiry. Meaning, he didn’t simply give the answers; he required students to lean on their curiosity and on the steps of science to draw a conclusion.

“I felt that it was very important that laboratory work be as open-

ended and based on student curiosity as possible,” Mr. Gow says. “I’d present a problem and I’d say, ‘Anything in this lab you feel will help you resolve that problem, go get it.’”

Mr. Gow retired in 2000 after a teaching career stretching back to 1969. He lived in the dorms for 10 years, and he coached tennis and hockey. During his tenure, he re-envisioned the science classroom, and Williston Northampton built new lab stations to better facilitate student interactions. He was a class advisor for eight years. And he was tireless—even hard on himself—in preparing lessons that would get kids excited about science.

“I probably lit the fire,” he says. “I hope I did. But the students kept it burning.”

A SCIENTIST FIRST

Mr. Gow has no idea how he procured the nickname “Doc.” Perhaps, he thinks, it was because he wore a white lab coat during experiments.

“Nicknames were something that just happened back then,” he says.

“I was fortunate to get that nickname as opposed to any other number of possibilities.”

When Mr. Gow arrived at Williston Northampton, he was new to teaching, but not to boarding school life. His father taught physics and chemistry at Westminster School in Connecticut for 47 years,

SPRING 2014 BULLETIN 27

“ Every year, I would come to class knowing that I was going to be energized by the students questions and curiosity.”

and Mr. Gow grew up as a “fac brat.” “I saw [my parents] enjoying that life,” he says. “The thing I missed seeing was how hard my father worked.”

After Mr. Gow earned a biology degree from Colby College, he spent a year researching immunology and genetics at the Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine, along with several other years of research work elsewhere. “I knew I wanted to teach, but I felt I ought to be a scientist before I taught science.”

At the Jackson Lab, Mr. Gow worked under Dr. George Snell, who would eventually earn a Nobel Prize in 1980. “I had an experience with just an unbelievable scientist,” Mr. Gow says. “If you had an image of a scientist, he would probably be it.”

Mr. Gow went on to earn a master’s degree in biology at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland while also working as a research assistant in the school’s biology department.

Finally ready to lead a classroom, Mr. Gow was hired at Williston and drew up his first lesson plans for both biology and chemistry. “[My first] class could have buried me,” he says. “Students have a power that I’m glad they don’t understand. I think most new teachers feel jittery and not self-assured, so to have a good group that was responsive and respectful and curious, that makes a huge difference.”

Soon, Mr. Gow was helping other new teachers. As the science department head for 15 years, he mentored younger faculty, including chemistry teacher Sue Petrone.

“Jack was a great listener,” Ms. Petrone says. “For him, a first-year teacher versus a 25-year teacher—they both had value and their opinions mattered regardless of their tenure at the school. He was very interested in engaging everyone.”

Ms. Petrone, who is now the upper school head at Gill St. Bernard’s School in New Jersey, says she was continually inspired by Mr. Gow’s teaching style.

“I think what kids saw was a person who cared about them and was passionate about science, or whatever it was that he was doing—tennis or hockey,” she says. “He could talk about cells and cell division and you would get excited about it in a way that others might not bring that out in you.”

WHEN CHLORINE MEETS METAL SODIUM

Mr. Gow wanted his students to experience science as an applied field, and he tried to plan demonstrations and hands-on experiments to coincide with all of his lessons.

28 WILLISTON NORTHAMPTON SCHOOL

Students measured the rate of seed decay by measuring carbon dioxide output. They bred fruit flies. And sometimes the experiments were tinged with an element of danger. Like when they tested the explosiveness of powders, or watched as chlorine and metal sodium, when mixed and lit on fire in a glass jar, formed salt.

“We would do it as safely as we could, but the night before was always a night of concern,” he says. “Would that jar blow up on me? It never did.”

Mr. Gow says he was fed by the synergy in the classroom, and how students responded to his enthusiasm. “Each year, I would come in thinking, ‘Am I going to be able to get on their wavelength?’ And it happened every year,” he says. “I would come to class knowing that I was going to be energized by their questions and curiosity.”

Cherie Holmes ’75 recalls her AP biology class with immense fondness, and says Mr. Gow’s excitement further inspired her love of science. “Doc was extremely passionate about biology,” she says. “He fostered passion in the students who took his class. I really wanted to learn the materials and I was interested in how what he taught related to other things in my life.”

While Mr. Gow adored the classroom, he says the “always-on” nature of boarding school life presented some challenges for his private, introverted personality.

“I’m not a storyteller, and I’m not a humorist,” he says. “You come to a boarding school, you’re living in a dorm, coaching, eating in the dining hall, and you’re virtually always open to the community. It was tiring for me. It wasn’t the natural thing. I liked what I was doing, but it wasn’t easy.

When it came time for vacation, I was spent. I really needed to get away.

And I could see that for my colleagues, I’m convinced, it was easier [for them] in many ways.”

The other challenge: chaperoning school dances. A lover of classical music, Mr. Gow’s ears would ache at the onslaught of pop music. “The music of a typical Saturday night was cruel,” he says. “To be even a football field’s distance away was tough on my mental state.”

What Mr. Gow did enjoy was coaching, and his players loved him. Bob Loeber ’94 was on Mr. Gow’s undefeated tennis team. “[Mr. Gow] did an awesome job to make sure we weren’t too full of ourselves,” Mr. Loeber says. “He taught us the game. He taught us how to behave. He’s not a yeller or a screamer. He’s Doc Gow. He’s a guy that you want to do well for.”

Mr. Loeber says Mr. Gow was “one of those guys you want to depict in

If Mr. Gow had developed a trusted methodology in his 31 years of teaching, it was this: never interrupt the students’ natural process of inquiry.

Never one to simply give students the answer to a question, he instead gave them the tools they needed to seek it out for themselves.

a movie about a prep school.”

“He’s such an iconic guy,” Mr. Loeber says. “The minute you see him, you feel like you graduated five years ago instead of 25 years ago. He’s just a good person. When you see him, you just see good.”

A PROCESS OF INQUIRY

Mr. Gow didn’t just retire to retreat to Maine with his wife and have more time with his grandkids. There was something else on his mind: “I didn’t want to end a year feeling like I hadn’t been at my best,” he says. “I wanted to retire before I lost the edge.”

Above all else, he hopes he piqued his students’ interest in the discipline and diligence that science requires. “I hoped that [my students] came out of science classes feeling that it was a process of inquiry,” he says.

Is Mr. Gow a ‘giant on campus?’ Always the scientist, he rejects the proof.

“I know there are people who remember me, and I feel rewarded by that,” he says. “A giant, I am not. My father taught for 47 [years]. Now, that’s a giant. I felt like I did a good job and I loved what I was doing. But a giant? Nah.”

SPRING 2014 BULLETIN 29