Alumni Newsletter Spring 2004 - Ecolint Alumni Office

NEWSLETTER
Spring 2004
International School Alumni Association
Association des Anciens de l’Ecole Internationale
62, Route de Chêne • CH - 1208 Genève • Tel: +41 22 787 25 55 • Fax: +41 22 787 26 35
E-mail: [email protected] • Website: www.ecolint-alumni.ch • Portable: +41 79 449 50 43
ECOLINT celebrates its 80th Anniversary.
The Alumni Association holds its
5th World Alumni Reunion – 17-20 June 04
The Organizing Committee:
Vivian Hakkak
Jill Wolf
Dean Soldatos
Sam Jarrell
Michel Pelletier
Sue Anthony
Lydia MacKenzie Bés (La Chât)
Ian Cogswell (La Chât)
Leona Godfrey (La Chât)
Philip Hill (La Chât)
Sommaire
2
3
Reunion programme
Programme de la Réunion
Contacts Anciens
pour la Réunion
4
Coordinateurs dîners de classes 4
Les Internats
4
Conseil de Fondation
5
Elections 2004 au Conseil
de Fondation
Message du Directeur général
Message du Président
La Châtaigneraie – Nouvelles
La Grande Boissière – Nouvelles
Chalet Ferrière, route de Florissant, Geneva, where the International School was founded in
1924. / Chalet Ferrière, route de
Florissant, Genève, l'endroit où
l'Ecole internationale a été fondée
en 1924.
This is what your School was like
in 1924. Why not come and see it 80
years later...
Less than three months to go before the
big event. Have you registered yet?
If not please visit our website NOW on
www.ecolintalumnireunions.com for
information on the event, hotel/travel tips
and secure online registration.
An exciting programme with very special
highlights awaits you this Summer (see
page 2). Who would want to miss the once
in a lifetime opportunity of listening to the
all-alumnus band ‘The Internats’ whilst
wining and dining overlooking the lake;
enjoying a delicious BBQ artfully cooked
by three ‘master chefs’ from the LGB Science Department or sampling wine at a
local vineyard, and of course spending a
memory-filled evening reminiscing with
friends and teachers on your old campus!
We expect the biggest turnout ever, so,
whatever your plans are for the Summer
of 2004, make sure that you make a
stopover at your old school from 17-20
June and enjoy the fun!
Annuaire – Forums –
Réunion mondiale
Nouvelles diverses
9
10
12
13
17
18
Réunion mondiale –
Formulaire d'inscription
19
World Reunion –
Registration Form
20
Escalade 2003
Les Archives Stereva
Départs en retraite 2003
M. Meyhoffer with the School’s very first
students in 1924. / M. Meyhoffer avec les
tout premiers élèves de l'école en 1924.
e
ECOLINT célèbre son 80 anniversaire – l'Association des Anciens
organise sa 5e Réunion mondiale
des Anciens – 17-20 juin 2004
Voici comment était votre école en 1924 –
pourquoi ne pas venir la voir 80 ans plus
tard...?
Moins de trois mois avant le grand événement, vous êtes-vous déjà inscrits?
Si non, veuillez consulter MAINTENANT
notre site web www.ecolintalumni
reunions.com, d'une part, pour vous renseigner sur la réunion, les hôtels, le tourisme et, d'autre part, pour vous inscrire en
ligne en toute sécurité.
Un programme exitant avec des temps
forts inoubliables vous attend cet été (voir
page 3). Qui voudrait manquer cette occasion unique de pouvoir boire et manger
avec une vue imprenable sur le lac et aux
5
6
7
8
9
In Memoriam
rythmes du groupe "Les Internats" composé exclusivement d'anciens? Qui ne
voudrait pas savourer un délicieux barbecue préparé dans les règles de l'art par trois
"chefs-cuisiniers" du Département des
sciences de LGB, déguster un choix de
vins dans un vignoble genevois, ou encore passer une soirée pleine de souvenirs en
compagnie de vos amis et professeurs de
votre ancien campus?
Nous nous attendons à une participation
plus forte que jamais. Quels que soient
donc vos plans pour l'été 2004, assurezvous de pouvoir vous rendre à votre
ancienne école du 17 au 20 juin et amusez-vous!
N EWSLETTER
2
5th Alumni World Reunion, 17-20 June 2004: Programme
La Châtaigneraie
La Grande Boissière
14h00 - 18h30
Meet on La Chât campus for registration, a first
contact with old friends and teachers and a visit
of the campus for those so inclined. The
organizers are trying to secure the participation
of as many teachers as possible. If you are still
in contact with teachers or old friends make sure
they attend. The more the merrier!
Meet on LGB campus for registration, a first contact
with old friends and teachers. The organizers are
trying to secure the participation of as many teachers
as possible. If you are still in contact with teachers
or old friends make sure they attend. The more the
merrier!
18h00
‘Vin d’honneur’ offered by the School at La Chât. ‘Vin d’honneur’ offered by the School at LGB.
19h00
Opening ceremony
Opening ceremony (Greek Theatre LGB).
19h30
Buffet dinner on La Chât campus with music
by alumni.
Buffet dinner on LGB campus with music
by alumni.
14h00 - 16h00
Educational Forum at LGB.
Educational Forum at LGB.
16h00 - 19h00
Registration.
Registration and LGB campus visits.
Thursday, 17 June
Friday, 18 June
16h00
From 20h00
To all Michael Quin’s former students and colleagues:
In memory of Michael Quin, Mrs. Juanita Quin and
her daughter, Irene, would like to invite those who
remember Michael for tea at 16h00 in the rose garden at
LGB to share our memories. Tel +41(0)22 349 59 39
RSVP [email protected]
Class dinners in local restaurants.
Class dinners in local restaurants
10h30
Visit to local vineyard with lunch
(schedule to be determined later).
Visit to local vineyard with lunch
(schedule to be determined later).
11h00
Annual General Assembly of the Alumni
Association at LGB. Following the Assembly,
an aperitif will be offered by the Central
Committee.
Annual General Assembly of the Alumni
Association at LGB. Following the Assembly,
an aperitif will be offered by the Central
Committee.
18h00
Aperitif offered by the School at the Noga Hilton
Hotel, followed by the Dinner Dance (19h00) on
the terrace of the hotel, with the special
all-alumni band ‘The Internats’. From midnight groovy Disco with Leona.
Aperitif offered by the School at the Noga Hilton
Hotel, followed by the Dinner Dance (19h00) on the
terrace of the hotel, with the special all-alumni
band ‘The Internats’. From midnight groovy Disco with Leona.
Brunch – BBQ on La Chât campus.
Brunch – BBQ on LGB campus.
Saturday, 19 June
11h30
Brunch - BBQ “Chez ALF”
Sunday, 20 June, 2004, at La Grande Boissière, from 11h30:
Join us for a gourmet BBQ and savour the culinary delights
prepared by master chefs
Alan Sharpe
Les Wise
Frank Lunt
from the Science Department LGB.
Photo: Sue Antony and Sabah Al-Basri Salman
Sunday, 20 June
N EWSLETTER
3
5e Réunion mondiale des Anciens, 17-20 juin 2004: Programme
La Châtaigneraie
La Grande Boissière
14h00 - 18h30
Rendez-vous au campus La Chât pour les
enregistrements, premiers contacts avec les
anciens amis et professeurs et visite du campus
si souhaité. Les organisateurs s'efforceront
d'assurer la participation d'un maximum de
professeurs. Si vous êtes encore en contact avec
des professeurs ou d'anciens amis, assurez-vous
de leur présence. Plus on est de fous, plus on rit!
Rendez-vous au campus LGB pour les
enregistrements, premiers contacts avec les
anciens amis et professeurs. Les organisateurs
s'efforceront d'assurer la participation d'un maximum
de professeurs. Si vous êtes encore en contact
avec des professeurs ou d'anciens amis,
assurez-vous de leur présence. Plus on est de fous,
plus on rit!
18h00
Vin d’honneur offert par l'Ecole à La Chât.
Vin d’honneur offert par l'Ecole à LGB.
19h00
Cérémonie d'ouverture.
Cérémonie d'ouverture (Théâtre grec LGB).
19h30
Dîner-buffet au campus La Chât et musique
par des anciens.
Dîner-buffet au campus LGB et musique par des anciens.
14h00 - 16h00
Forum d'éducation à LGB.
Forum d'éducation à LGB.
16h00 - 19h00
Enregistrement.
Enregistrement et visites du campus LGB.
Jeudi 17 juin
Vendredi 18 juin
16h00
Dès 20h00
Aux anciens élèves et collègues de Michael Quin:
Mme Juanita Quin et sa fille Irene invitent tous ceux
qui se souviennent de M. Quin à prendre à 16h00 le thé
et partager des souvenirs dans la roseraie de LGB.
RSVP [email protected] Tél +41(0)22 349 59 39
Dîners de classes dans des restaurants locaux.
Dîners de classes dans des restaurants locaux.
10h30
Visite de vignobles locaux et déjeuner
(détails à determiner ultérieurement).
Visite de vignobles locaux et déjeuner
(détails à determiner ultérieurement).
11h00
Assemblée générale annuelle de
l'Association des Anciens à LGB, suivie d'un
apéritif offert par le Comité central.
Assemblée générale annuelle de l'Association
des Anciens à LGB, suivie d'un apéritif offert par
le Comité central.
18h00
Apéritif offert par l'Ecole à l'hôtel Noga Hilton,
suivi du dîner dansant (19h00) sur la terrasse de
l'hôtel, aux rythmes du groupe unique d'anciens
"Les Internats". Dès minuit - "groovy" Disco
avec Leona.
Apéritif offert par l'Ecole à l'hôtel Noga Hilton,
suivi du dîner dansant (19h00) sur le terrasse de,
l’hôtel, aux rythmes du groupe unique d'anciens
"Les Internats". Dès minuit - "groovy" Disco
avec Leona.
Brunch – Barbecue au campus La Chât.
Brunch – Barbecue au campus LGB.
Samedi 19 juin
Dimanche 20 juin
11h30
How to register for the
Alumni Reunion
Comment s'inscrire à la
Réunion des Anciens
Please sign up and pay on the secure online website
www.ecolintalumnireunions.com
or
Complete the registration form on the last two pages of this
‘Newsletter’ and mail/fax it to the Alumni Office as soon as
possible.
Vous pouvez vous inscrire et payer en allant sur le site web sécurisé:
www.ecolintalumnioreunions.com
ou
Vous pouvez également compléter le formulaire d'inscription que
vous trouverez à la fin de cette "Newsletter" et nous le retourner
par fax ou poste dès que possible au bureau des Anciens.
N EWSLETTER
4
La Châtaigneraie:
Organising Committee: Lydia MacKenzie Bés/81
Ian Cogswell/81
Leona Godfrey /84
Philip Hill/82
Contact Persons:
1974
Mark Barmes/74
1977-80
Femi Adeniji/80
Gilbert Moeckel/80
1987
Danielle Crook/87
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
La Grande Boissière:
1933-49
Loïs Meyhoffer/33
1950-57
Jock Galloway/55
Margaret Morris-Spector/54
Christine Kjellberg/56
1958-64
Georgia Achard/60
1962-63
FLP Donate Dobbernack/63
1965-66
Patricia Aldrich/70 - assisted by
Pennie Aldrich/65
1967-69
Sarah Williams Wilson/70
1970
Patricia Aldrich - assisted by
Sarah Williams and Linda Perry
1970
FLP Karin Raton-Fayolle/70
1971-74
Linda Perry/70
1976
Andrew Chapman/76
1977
Debbie Cooper Poston/77
1978-81
Carol Miller Synalovski/78
1982-83
Wim Kool/83
1984
David Judge/84
1985
Sven Dietrich/85
1986/87
Marco Christov/87
1988
Hagit Moustaki-Snir/88
1989
Mughees Husain/89
1990
FLP Kaarina Rodriguez-Lorenzini/90
1993-94
Wilfred de Guzman/94
1995
Tulika Tripathi/95
1996 onwards
Please contact Alumni Office
Former Staff / Ancien personnel: Eric Anthony
Class Dinner Co-ordinators:
La Chât. 1976-2004
Ian Cogswell/81
LGB 1925-1949
Loïs Meyhoffer/33
and Johannes Ernst/54
LGB 1950-1957
Anees Ahmad/54
and Christine Kjellberg/56
LGB 1958-1964
ELP Georgia Ehrgott Achard/60
FLP Donate Dobbernack/63
LGB 1965-1975
Vivian Hakkak/66
LGB 1976-1986
Isabelle Gilliéron/82
Matilde Bagnoli-Maranzana/82
LGB 1987-92
Suzanne Ott/87
LGB 1993-1994
Wilfred de Guzman/94
LGB 1995-2004
Please contact Alumni Office
Former Staff / Ancien personnel: Eric Anthony
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
Manny
Araoz
(guitar/vocals),
Chikara Hattori
(percussion) and
Jimmy
Frank
(drums/vocals).
Their repertory of
jazz, bossa-nova,
Rock Group. No one has for- rock 'n' roll, soul,
gotten those rollicking rock- blues and slows
ers from the sixties: Cengiz of the sixties kept
Yaltkaya (piano/keyboard), us rocking right
Version française sur www.ecolint-alumni.ch
The INTERNATS: Comeback of
Ecolint's Rock Group at the
World Reunion
First there were the Beatles
and the Rolling Stones, and
then there were the INTERNATS, Ecolint's very own
[email protected]
and [email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
Cengiz is a jazz pianist playing gigs in what seems to be
every jazz club in the world
from his home base in Los
Angeles. His latest CD "Visits" published under the Fever
Pitch label, is a must have
album (www.cdbaby.com).
Manny stayed in Geneva,
becoming a local icon as the
lead guitarist for "Chocolat
Blanc" whose next gig will be
at the Davis Cup quarter
finals live on Swiss and
French television.
Chikara ended up in Belgium
in the entertainment business
and continues playing keyboards, drums, bongos, congas, cow bells, timbales,
chimes, maracas, wood-blocks
and just about any instrument
he could get his hands on.
And last but not least, Jimmy
has been rocking away with
several bands over the years
from London to Seattle to Los
Angeles. The "Jimmy Frank
Band", the latest Jimmy reincarnation, has had several
CDs published, the latest of
which is "Bring on the blues".
If you like the blues, you'll
love Jimmy.
The Alumni World Reunion
2004 will bring these lads
together for their own reunion
as the "INTERNATS" at the
Dinner-dance on Saturday, 19
June 2004.
The band will be rounded out
by Dusan Rock of "Chocolat
Blanc", on the bass.
This is one evening not to
miss!
Stuart Ballin/67
Photo montage: Sam Jaarrell
Alumni contacts – Alumni Reunion 17-20 June 2004
up through final exams. But
with the joy of graduation in
1967, there was also the
heartbreak of the breakup of
the band. Each member went
on to follow his separate
career in music.
N EWSLETTER
5
after years of hard work, hours
of painstaking deliberation and
Herculean fundraising efforts,
the Board approved the new
Saconnex Campus (or shortly
we hope, to be renamed the
Campus des Nations). The hard
work continues with committees working on the programme
for the new campus, the finalising of the plans and the hiring
of a campus principal. The
members of the Board are
working with energy and enthusiasm to ensure that the new
campus will be the flagship
school of international education worldwide.
Photo: Sabah Al-Basri Salman
Governing Board – Atalanti
Moquette
Yet another historic year
at the International
School of Geneva and for
the Board.
The Board is finally complete
with twelve elected members
and the various representatives
from the Canton de Genève,
the Canton de Vaud, the Federation and the UN. Under the
careful and wise guidance of
our Chairperson, Hélène
Durand Ballivet, the Board has
worked together to make some
significant decisions which we
hope will take the Foundation
forward into the future. The
arrival of our new Director
General has been the best thing
that has happened to the Foundation for a long time. His
commitment, inimitable work
ethic, objective and humane
approach have helped the
Board to assume its role and
responsibilities within the
Foundation.
Even more of our energy however has gone into meeting the
recommendations of the ECIS
accreditation report. The
accreditation of the ISG will be
renewed if we have completed
a significant list of must dos.
The Board has been very
involved on the committees
On the 9th December 2003,
dealing with philosophy and
governance and developing an
updated strategic plan. These
committees have offered a
tremendous opportunity for all
the members of the ever-growing Ecolint community to work
together to set a single vision.
The support of the Alumni on
these committees has been
invaluable and we thank those
who have given up so much of
their time to move us forward
in our goal to provide the best
educational environment for
each student in our school.
We are greatly looking forward
to the 80 year celebrations, which
you are organising for June. At
that time we hope to meet many
of you who have been part of
Ecolint history and who have
contributed to what makes
Ecolint so unique.
Atalanti Moquette
Member of the Board
Elections of the Governing
Board – 2004
Elections au Conseil de
Fondation - 2004
The Governing Board Consultative General Assembly will be held
on Tuesday 25 May 2004 at 20h00 in the La Grande Boissière
cafeteria.
L’Assemblée générale consultative du Conseil de Fondation aura
lieu le mardi 25 mai 2004 à 20h00 dans la caféteria de La
Grande Boissière.
Undeterred by a ferocious
thunderstorm that swept
across London early in the
evening of 27 April, 2004,
about 30 UK alumni plus
another 20 partners and
friends gathered in the bar of
the No 5 Cavendish Club, a
stone's throw from Oxford
Circus in the city centre, for
an enjoyable social evening
from 7.30pm onwards. The
event marked the informal
launch of the long-mooted
UK alumni chapter which is
finally getting organised and
plans to hold another larger
event towards the end of the
year. Alumni from the 1960s
to the 1990s mingled animatedly for three hours or so with
several meet-ups between
alumni who had been contemporaries but had not
known each other at Ecolint.
A particularly welcome par-
ticipant was Sam Jarrell,
President of the Alumni
Association, who flew in
from Geneva to help inaugurate the UK chapter. In the
photo are UK alumni chapter
steering committee members
Nick Bonard/87 - thanks
Nick for organising the venue! - just-married Agnes de
Guzman/90, Roger Murray/67, Nick Hembrow/81,
Mehreen
Rizvi-Khursheed/86 and Edward Upsdell/90. There were also two
alumni there from La Châtaignerie - we should try and
encourage more La Chât.
people to become involved.
Plans are already being discussed for the next event so
watch this space!
Roger Murray/67
Photo: Sam Jarrell
UK Alumni Chapter
Participants: Laura Anson, Kaye(Katie) Barham, Jaime Bendeck,
Helen Bland, Nicolas Bonard, Caroline Calder-Smith, Agnes De
Guzman, David Green, Michael Gutteridge, Nick Hembrow, Sam
Jarrell, Emma Knight-Hayter, Roger Murray, Alison Price-James,
Mehreen Rizvi-Khursheed, Edward Upsdell and Emma Whisker.
(Please excuse any omissions).
Dates des Kermesses
La Grande Boissière:
La Châtaigneraie:
Pregny-Rigot:
5 juin 2004
12 juin 2004
19 juin 2004
N EWSLETTER
6
Dr. Nicholas Tate
Director-General’s message
Photo: Véronique Dupraz
are so crucial to the
life of the Geneva
region.
The question of whether Ecolint should be supported by the
state has been aired in the local
press in recent weeks. This has
arisen as a result of a forthcoming debate in the Grand
Conseil on financial support
from the Canton of Geneva for
the new Saconay campus which
is due to open in September
2005. The public attention
given to this matter has encouraged reflection within Ecolint
about what distinguishes the
school from other schools.
First, we are a Foundation governed by a Charter and Regulations
approved by the Federal Department of the Interior. State representatives, from the Federation
and from the Cantons of Geneva
and Vaud, sit on the governing
body. This gives the state a role
in the governance of the school
that it does not have in other
independent schools. In supporting the expansion of the school,
the state, it can be argued, is simply fulfilling its duty to create the
educational infrastructure necessary to attract and retain the
multinational companies and
international organisations that
Second, although
linked to the state,
we are an independent school. This
gives us the freedom to experiment
in ways denied to
schools locked into
a state system of
education. We may
have chosen to
subscribe to a
number of systems
of external accreditation – the
Council of International Schools,
the International
Baccalaureate Organisation –
but these allow considerable
freedom to develop our curricula in ways that meet our distinctive needs. Whether they
allow sufficient freedom is
something that a genuinely
independent school must keep
continually under review.
Third, we are a not-for-profit
school. When critics of the
state support we receive talk of
‘unfair
competition’
we
respond with puzzlement. We
do not think in these terms.
Accustomed to private schools
expanding for reasons of income generation, I was surprised
and impressed to discover that
the Saconay project arose from
a sense of duty tout court. Our
Charter requires us to ‘serve the
international community and
those committed to the concept
of international education, be
they members of the international or local community’. This is
a very different motivation
from the pursuit of profit, which
must be the driving force of
most proprietary schools.
Fourth, we are a self-governing
community with some highly
democratic features: a governing body elected by parents,
staff and alumni; a dominant
parental presence on the governing body; and a Consultative
General Assembly which meets
once a year and extraordinary
sessions of which may be
convened following a petition.
These constitutional arrangements reflect and reinforce a
tradition of open debate that is
an important part of the esprit
Ecolint. This can have its disadvantages as the occasionally
turbulent history of the Foundation indicates. It has the
advantage of providing an environment for learning in which
there is a commitment to free
expression and a respect for different ideas and points of view.
Fifth, the Foundation’s relations with its staff are based on
a Collective Employment
Agreement. This is not the case
in many other independent
schools. As anyone who has
ever worked under a capricious
and tyrannical management
will testify (and this happened
to me once, briefly, much earlier in my career), the security
that this gives is the most effective way of ensuring that staff
give of their best to the job in
hand. It runs the risk, however,
of creating a powerful vested
interest that can easily forget
that the sole purpose of the
institution is to serve its students rather than its employees.
In a long career I have also had
experience of this latter situation. It is something that Ecolint, I am sure, will continue to
guard against.
Finally, we are distinguished
from many other independent
schools by the extent to which
we are ‘international’: in our
commitment to explicit principles of international education;
in our pursuit of bilingualism in
English and French; in our
extraordinarily international
student population (117 of the
193 sovereign states in the
world were represented in our
student population in 2003);
and in the international outlook
and commitments of so many of
our alumni. What we mean by
an ‘international education’
must remain constantly under
review, and the gulf between
the rhetoric and the reality ruthlessly analysed, but it is at the
heart of what we do.
What are the origins of this distinctiveness? I have been reading recently a monograph on
the Genevan writer Robert de
Traz who is best known for his
book L’Esprit de Genève,
published in 1929. De Traz,
according to the author, was
responsible for creating the
twentieth-century mythe de la
Genève internationale, through
which the origins of the international Geneva of the League
of Nations, the period when
Ecolint was founded, could be
traced back to the Cité-Refuge
of the Reformation, to Calvin,
to Geneva’s political traditions,
and to Rousseau. The conclusion of the monograph is that
we are indeed talking about a
myth, but a myth that has had a
powerful effect on reality.
In reading about de Traz’s
mythical esprit de Genève I was
struck by the similarities with
what I have tried to define above as the esprit Ecolint. Both
have the same openness to the
outside world; the same critical
spirit; the same groundedness
in a particular community (our
constitutional arrangements are
often described as very Swiss);
and the same internationalism
which remains internationalism and tries not to sink into
cosmopolitanism, which was
one of de Traz’s bêtes noires.
Both are powerful and excellent
myths, but to what extent is the
esprit Ecolint also a reality and,
where it is not, what can we do
to turn it into a reality? I am
still at the stage of trying to find
out.
Nicholas Tate
(Version française sur www.ecolint-alumni.ch)
I.B. 2004
B.I. 2004
We wish all I.B. candidates in the School success in the forthcoming examinations and throughout their future studies and
careers.
The Central Committee
A tous les candidats du B.I., nos meilleurs vœux de succès pour
leurs prochains examens, leurs études ultérieures et leurs
carrières.
Le Comité central
N EWSLETTER
7
Photo: Suzi Jarrell
President’s message
Nine months into the job and
we are already producing a
second newsletter. Once again
Sue Anthony has been gently,
(and then not so gently)
reminding me that I need to
write another article. Once
again pressures of work mean
that I have let one deadline go
by already. I should have
learnt my lesson by now, the
longer you leave it the more
difficult it gets, not because the
deadline gets tighter but
because all the obvious topics
are already being covered. As
you will see Vivian Hakkak
writes about the World
Reunion, which should be the
best yet. Nicholas Tate discusses what makes our school
international, and Atalanti
Moquette tells us why there is
a renewed sense of optimism at
the school. Maybe I could harp
on about our websites and
online discussion groups but
you would probably just
switch to another channel.
(Sorry - that’s the TV director
speaking)
Looking for inspiration in our
last newsletter I was reminded
that Hélène Durand-Ballivet,
who once held this position
and is currently Chairwoman
of the Governing Board, feels
that the eightieth anniversary
of the school, and the construction of a fourth campus, is
an opportunity for a “refondation de l’école” according to its
founding charter. According to
my daughter who has just
started work on her Interna-
tional Baccalaureate at
LGB, the
elusive
“esprit
Ecolint” is
alive
and
well, despite
the turmoil
of the last
few years.
However,
just as reaffirming
marriage
vows can
breathe new
life into a
contented
but
humdrum marriage, so this
“refondation” will give the
school community an opportunity to reflect on what it means
to be part of an international
school in a world where political opinions seem to be
increasingly polarised.
It might also be a good time for
the Alumni to consider what
role we should be playing in
the school’s life. What are we
doing right? How could we do
it better? What else should we
be doing? These are a few of
my thoughts and ideas please
don’t hesitate to let me know
yours.
The launching of the alumni
website, the reunion website
and three online discussion
groups is obviously progress,
and judging by the regular flow
of new registrations it is an
effort that has been appreciated by Alumni around the
world. There is still more to do
though. Currently all these
online activities require separate registration, something
which is both time consuming
and confusing. There were
good pragmatic historical and
financial reasons why things
evolved this way. With the
reunion on the horizon, it was
necessary to come up with a
site that would handle online
booking quickly and cheaply.
The costs of professionally
designed websites have a way
of escalating alarmingly.
Nonetheless, it is something
that needs to be improved on.
What is needed is one website
with, one registration process
to a site that will provide an
online directory, registration
for alumni events around the
world as well as news and photos of the various Alumni
activities around the world.
But I promised I wouldn’t harp
on about the websites so moving on…
As you will have read elsewhere in this newsletter, preparations for the World Reunion
and in June are well underway,
but judging by the number of ad
hoc Alumni Escalade dinners
that were held last year, local
events are something we should
be doing more to encourage.
Various local chapters exist
with informal structures, but so
far, they have little representation in the Alumni Association,
apart from once every five years
when they can attend the Annual General Assembly at the
World Reunion. We need to find
some way of giving these
groups a voice in Alumni
affairs.
However, Alumni are not only
interested in socialising and
getting in touch with old
friends, they participate in
school life in very practical
ways. A number of us have provided advice and guidance at
the school career days. So far,
this is limited to Alumni in the
Geneva area but it could be
built on. An Alumni Mentor
scheme could be set up where
Alumni all over the world
could help graduating students
by offering to mentor students
who attend universities nearby.
In the past, the Alumni Association has supported student
charity projects in Tanzania,
Brazil and Nepal, and we will
be looking at ways to continue
this type of effort. There were
suggestions on one of the
online discussion groups that
we should be setting up a charity which would help resolve
the worlds great problems.
This is probably too ambitious,
but giving to charity is very
much part of the Ecolint ethos.
“The Friends of the International School of Geneva” have
a very simple idea here; there
aim is to provide scholarships
for children in developing
countries to attend schools in
their own country. The cost is
low, the results tangible and
contacts already exist to help
identify potential beneficiaries. We are looking at ways in
which Alumni can support this
effort. But of course, charity
begins at home. The Legacy
fund auction at the UK
Reunion raised a considerable
sum towards the Greek theatre
project and the creation of an
endowment fund. At the
moment we are looking at the
best way to move forward with
this effort but I hope that in the
future the Alumni will play a
role in helping to fund some of
the exciting developments in
the School’s strategic plan.
Perhaps the most important
role the Alumni can play is as
the living memory of the
school’s traditions. When my
friend Max Ma visited Geneva
last October, he spoke movingly of the fact that the International School was a place
that united differences and
commonalities, where Muslim
and Jewish students shared a
meal without pork at the same
table. The spirit of Ecolint, he
said, was both his compass and
his flame. We the Alumni have
a responsibility to help keep
that flame alive, for future generations.
Sam Jarrell /72
Web edition
A web edition of this ‘Newsletter’
has been posted on the
Alumni website at:
www.ecolint-alumni.ch
Une version internet de cette ‘Newsletter’
peut être consultée sur le
site des anciens:
www.ecolint-alumni.ch
N EWSLETTER
Photo: Sabah Al-Basri Salman
Nouvelles de
La Châtaigneraie
Cette année, le trimestre d’hiver
a bien porté son nom. La neige
était au rendez-vous permettant
une saison de ski réussie pour
les élèves du primaire et du
secondaire et pour nos équipes
de ski. Notre équipe de transport
a également su maîtriser la
situation et la technique de chaînage n’a plus de secret pour nos
chauffeurs. Malgré la situation
difficile certains matins, les
cours ont eu lieu normalement
ainsi que les examens pour les
classes de 10 à 13.
des travaux d’entretien et d’installer de nouveaux équipements: les sols de 2 salles de
classe primaire ont été réalisés,
peinture et sol du département
du Special Needs. De nouveaux stores ont été installés
sur les 40 fenêtres côté Genève
du nouveau bâtiment. Un couvert a été construit côté Lausanne du nouveau bâtiment,
grâce à la générosité d’une
famille. Il abrite 6 tables qui
permettent détente, piquenique pendant les récréations.
Fin décembre, nous avons reçu
la visite ECIS-MSA concernant la sécurité. Notre campus
n’avait pas reçu de remarques
spéciales car nous avions réalisé la plus grande partie des
équipements: système d’alarme à la Ferme et dans le primaires, portes de sécurité dans
le primaire, ventilation des
fours céramique, nouvelles
fenêtres dans le bâtiment des
sciences, nouvelles portes pour
la cafétéria et le département du
Special Needs. L’Institut de
Sécurité a visité tous les campus et a établi la standardisation
des consignes de sécurité, les
plans d’évacuation des bâtiments et les lieux de rassemblement.
La préparation de la prochaine
rentrée scolaire septembre
2004 est bien avancée. Le
calendrier scolaire 2004-05 est
maintenant disponible. Les
fiches de réinscription vous
parviendront prochainement.
Le budget opérationnel a été
voté. Nous disposerons de
périodes supplémentaires en
primaire pour le soutien scolaire et l’informatique ainsi que
des ressources supplémentaires
pour les livres. Concernant le
secondaire, création d’un demiposte de conseiller pour les
classes 7 à 10. Nous disposerons également d’un budget
plus important pour les compétitions sportives et l’entretien
du campus. Le budget capital
est en préparation. Deux projets
principaux ont été retenus par
le CDG: réalisation d’un terrain
de football synthétique et suite
de la transformation de l’ancien
bâtiment. Le Conseil de Fondation prendra position en mars
sur ces projets.
Les écoles primaires de la Châtaigneraie et Mies ont reçu la
pré-visite en novembre et les
visites en mars pour obtenir la
reconnaissance de l’office du
BI pour les programmes primaires. Les résultats nous
seront communiqués pour la fin
avril.
Les vacances de Noël et de
février ont permis de réaliser
Le projet de la future salle de
sport est maintenant sur les
rails: le bureau URBAPLAN
chargé d’établir le plan d’ex-
8
tension partiel est en train de
préparer l’étude du mandat
parallèle (concours d’architectes) en fonction d’un cahier des
charges qui a été élaboré par le
comité de travail. Un calendrier
a été établi prévoyant la réunion d’un jury au mois de septembre. Les études préparatoires (géomètre, services des
eaux, service des forêts) ont été
réalisées.
droits des personnes et la sécurité collective.
Le Groupe Santé se réuni régulièrement. Les résultats des travaux sont maintenant consultables sur le Web. Une évaluation
de la «Fourchette verte» introduite en primaire est en cours et
nous espérons obtenir le
«label» rapidement. Pendant la
semaine du cerveau des intervenants de l’Université de Lausanne visiteront les classes.
La constitution de la future
équipe enseignante est en cours
et les directrices primaires et le
directeur secondaire s’activent
pour le remplacement des professeurs qui nous quittent:
(retraite, année sabbatique,
départ volontaire.) Une dizaine
de poste sont à pourvoir.
Le service de la Guidance est
particulièrement actif depuis la
fin novembre: dépôt des dossiers
d’inscription dans les universités anglaises et Nord américaines et médecine pour la Suisse.
Il a organisé aussi la soirée des
métiers qui a connu un grand
succès avec plus de 40 professions représentées. A signaler
l’encourageante participation
des anciens élèves (avocats,
archéologue, biologistes, banquiers, médecins…) Enfin le traditionnel programme «Horizon» organisé par l’Université
de Lausanne a été suivi par plus
de 38 élèves pendant 2 jours (96
formations présentées.)
Les projets humanitaires
témoignent de l’intérêt de nos
élèves pour les problèmes de
société: la soirée Escolhina a
battu tous les records de participation. Le groupe de Tanzanie met au point son traditionnel voyage pour soutenir
plusieurs écoles dans la région
de Moshi. Le Fashion Show se
prépare activement pour soutenir les projets de Global Harmonie. Enfin, la vente d’oranges en faveur de Terre des
Hommes a été encore bien soutenue cette année par les élèves.
Nos élèves ont aussi participé
aux débats du SLN (Student
League of Nations) qui se sont
déroulé au Palais des Nations
Unies à Genève. 13 écoles participaient et ont débattu de
résolutions concernant la sauvegarde de notre planète, l’armement nucléaire, le clonage
humain, le droit d’asile les
Les élèves de 7e de Mies se préparent à un débat sur le thème
de l’eau organisé par la Fondation Bellerive. Celle-ci soutien
également l’édition du prochain numéro d’Earth Focus
qui est entièrement préparé par
un groupe de rédacteurs de
notre campus.
La vie scolaire a aussi été marquée par quelques incidents. Le
projet d’équipement de la place centrale entre les bâtiments
primaire et secondaire a pris du
retard. Un nouvel arbre sera
prochainement planté et des
bancs seront installés.
Les travaux des comités et task
forces sur le plan stratégique
des 10 prochaines années sont
sur le point d’aboutir. D’autre
part, le plan d’action sur les
recommandations ECIS MSA
est régulièrement mis à jour.
La décision de construire le
nouveau campus a bien sûr une
incidence majeure pour notre
campus puisqu’il entraîne la
fermeture du site de Mies en
septembre 2005. Ce site ouvert
en 1999 connaît un grand succès puisqu’il accueille 250 élèves primaires et secondaires.
Un groupe de travail (Advisory
Group) a été constitué par Dr.
Nicholas Tate, directeur général comprenant des représentants primaires et secondaires
de tous les campus dans le but
de préparer la rentrée de septembre 2005.
Je remercie les parents qui travaillent dans le PTA, CDG et
différents groupes de travail.
Un merci tout particulier aux
parents qui préparent actuellement la Kermesse et qui méritent nos encouragements. Merci également aux parents qui
ont organisé l’accueil des élèves pour les compétitions ISST
et SLN.
Michel Chinal.
Directeur du Campus,
“Bulletin” mars 2004
N EWSLETTER
9
Photo: Sabah Al-Basri Salman
La Grande Boissière - Nouvelles
Dear Alumni,
The 2003/2004 school year is
proving very productive for
LGB. Action plans were prepared at all levels to ensure and
monitor progress in the implementation of ECIS recommendations. The Campus Plan was
brought to its completion allowing a long-term view for the
evolution of the Campus in term
of facilities needed to support
our Educational Programmes.
The main projects foreseen are,
addressing the needs of the Art,
Drama, Music and
Sports departments
and, the creation of
additional classroom space for the
Primary and Middle Schools.
CDG
elections
were held this year
to replace a number
of members whose
mandates expired. There was
enthusiastic participation in the
elections on behalf of parents
and staff, and the outcome is a
dynamic and determined CDG.
At the January CDG meeting, a
Parking and Circulation Committee was formed to address,
and attempt to resolve, the ongoing circulation problems at
LGB.
A Health and Safety Committee
was created to ensure that ECIS
recommendations pertaining to
health are implemented and to
Annuaire - Forums - Reunion
Mondiale:
Trois formes de participation = Trois méthodes d'inscription!
Trois formes de participation =
trois méthodes d'inscription!
Voici un bref aperçu pour vous
guider.
1. Annuaire des Anciens:
source d'information
unique et primordiale
Annuaire accessible en ligne
par le site web de l'Association
des Anciens de l'Ecolint
http://www.ecolint-alumni.ch.
Pour y accéder, vous devez d'abord vous inscrire sur ce site
(cliquez sur "S'inscrire maintenant") en fournissant les données qui vous sont demandées.
Vous pouvez rendre invisibles
certaines données vous concernant, si tel est votre désir. Vous
recevrez ensuite par courriel
une confirmation de votre
inscription et droit d'accès.
Si vous avez des problèmes
d'ordre technique, si vous avez
oublié votre "Identité Ecolint",
si vous souhaitez signaler des
modifications concernant d'autres anciens figurant dans l'annuaire,
veuillez
prendre
contact avec: webmaster@
ecolint-alumni.ch. Si vous avez
oublié votre mot de passe, cliquez sur "J'ai oublié mon mot
de passe".
Cette inscription en ligne permettra aux gestionnaires de cet
annuaire: (a) d'inclure tous les
anciens qui ne s'étaient pas
encore annoncés dans le passé
et d'accueillir les "nouveaux
anciens"; (b) d'actualiser les
données des anciens figurant
dans l'annuaire et de corriger
les erreurs survenus malencontreusement lors du transfert des
anciens fichiers.
Il est donc extrêmement important de donner la priorité absolue à votre inscription en ligne,
puis à la mise à jour régulière
de vos données.
2. Forums des Anciens:
outils de communication
aisée et rapide
Trois forums de communication par messagerie électronique à objectifs distincts et
officiellement reconnus par
l'Association des Anciens de
l'Ecolint, à savoir: ECOLINT,
ALUMNI et FREESPEECH.
Pour y particper, vous devez
vous inscrire selon les indica-
respond to the broader health
needs of our global community,
ensuring an individual and collective response to healthier
living.
Security on campus has been
substantially improved with the
installation of a central alarm
system and smoke detectors in
all buildings. Also, the evacuation procedures were revised
involving the whole LGB community.
Quality of life in the cafeteria has
improved considerably since the
installation of an additional sales
point. This reduces queuing time
for students and staff at peak
times.
Buildings
The Château/Vieille Maison
project has progressed well. The
Secondary administrative offices will re-locate to newly decorated offices on the ground floor
of the Vieille Maison and the
Guidance department will move
to the first floor of this building.
Also, re-locating the Infirmerie,
tions fournies sur le site web de
l'Association des Anciens de
l'Ecolint – http://www.ecolintalumni.ch – page "Forums
Anciens". Pour de plus amples
informations, il vous suffira de
cliquer sur le lien "Instructions
détaillées" figurant sur la page
précitée.
L'inscription à ces forums s'effectue par des ordres spécifiques que vous donnerez à une
adresse courriel spéciale – [email protected].
Veuillez noter que l'extension
de cette adresse diffère quelque
peu de celle des adresses
reliées au site web susmentionné.
L'inscription au forum ECOLINT est un véritable "must"
pour tous les anciens et constitue donc également une priorité absolue. Ce forum est réservé aux informations et
annonces officielles du Comité central de l'Association des
Anciens et de la Fondation de
l'Ecolint.
Le forum ALUMNI permet aux
anciens d'échanger des messages sur des sujets ayant trait
exclusivement aux anciens et à
l'école. Le forum FREESPEECH vous permet de correspondre sur tout autre sujet,
d'ordre politique ou autre,
n'ayant aucun rapport immédiat ou direct avec l'Association des Anciens ou l'école.
English version on www.ecolint-alumni.ch
Bookroom and Outdoor programme to the Grand Bâtiment,
has made it possible to re-group
the Humanities department in
the Château, while freeing up
space for the Primary school in
the Reception building, enabling
the Board-approved expansion
of the Primary francophone programme.
The LGB PTA continues to be an
important source of fundraising
for which the whole school community is most grateful. Thanks
to their contributions, the climbing wall is under construction
and will be completed by the
summer. Also, thanks to joint
funding by the PTA and the
Alumni Association, the Greek
Theatre will be renovated in the
near future.
Registration for the Reunion will
take place in the Château conference room from Thursday 17th
June at 14h00. We look forward
to welcoming you all in June for
the 5th Alumni reunion.
Jean-Guy Carpentier
LGB Campus Principal
3. Réunion mondiale des
Anciens 2004: un événement incontournable
Programme, inscription en
ligne aux différentes manifestations et paiement en ligne en
toute sécurité sur un site web
spécial – http://www.ecolintalumnireunions.com –, accessible directement ou à travers le
site web de l'Association des
Anciens de l'Ecolint –
http://www.ecolint-alumni.ch.
Le Comité d'organisation serait
très reconnaissant si tous les
anciens souhaitant participer à
la réunion pouvaient privilégier, dans la mesure du possible, l'inscription et le paiement
en ligne afin d'alléger quelque
peu sa tâche. Merci d'y penser!
4. Last but not least:
paiement des cotisations
L'Association des Anciens de
l'Ecolint ne peut, hélas, subsister d'amour et d'eau fraîche.
Nous vous rappelons donc l'importance des cotisations et vous
prions de consulter à ce propos
le site web de l'Association –
http://www.ecolint-alumni.ch
– page "Devenir Membre".
Nous attirons votre attention
sur le fait que vous pouvez
actuellement payer vos cotisations en ligne sur le site web de
la réunion mondiale 2004, en
ouvrant un compte Paypal. Le Comité central
N EWSLETTER
10
Escalade December 2003 Around The World
Photos: Laura Hedgcock Jarvis/73
Toronto
Front Row: Rita Kaul Baumgartner, Gordon
Albright, Laura Hedgcock Jarvis, Back Row:
Jock Galloway, Diana Mikalunas Pitour, Jini
Kaul Israni, Jini's husband.
We celebrated
on
Friday
e v e n i n g ,
November 28th.
A very Swiss
evening:
• Smoked meat
from
the
Grisons
• Fondue/
Raclette
• Salad
• Plum tart
• A splendid,
impressive marmite
Thank you Aldo and
Rita Kaul Baumgartner
for kindly offering to
hold the dinner in your
apartment. Thank you
Gordon Galloway for
finding Fendant in
Toronto. Thank you
Sue Anthony and the
Central Committee for
the marmite which survived its Atlantic crossing without damage.
Aldo and Laura
We missed all of you
who did not attend. However
there will be another Escalade See you in Geneva in June
dinner in Toronto – the 3rd – in 2004.
November/December 2004.
Jock Galloway/56
Just let me know if you are I heard you even had a cow bell
interested.
from the Alps!! (The Editor)
Photos: Bruce Barta/75
Denver
I trust you had a pleasant
Escalade in Geneva – we all
remember last year’s 400th
anniversary of the Escalade in
Photos: Riva Freifeld/61
New York
Judy Thomas/63 telling the Escalade
story.
This year’s New York
Escalade was held on
13 December at our
usual
mid-town
hangout ‘Tout Va
Bien’. Charles Potter
and Karl Cerni organized this event. Rock
Brynner told us the
fascinating story of
his recent trip to
Vladivostok,
his
ancestral home town.
Liz Frank gave us the
latest on her soon-to-
Geneva very fondly. Our Denver Escalade on 6 December
was great fun and as usual we
all gathered around our Gene-
va marmite for traditional
singing and breaking of the
marmite.
Pennie Aldrich/65
be-published (by Random they are anyway!
Riva Freifeld/61
House) novel. The glamorous
Judy Thomas did her
spellbinding recitation of the events that
occurred in Geneva in
1602 which we celebrate as ‘Escalade’,
and this was followed
by singing and the
smashing of a marmite. I, a little hung
over from the previous night’s Escalade
in Washington, managed to take a few pic- (l to r) Harding Bancroft/60 (face hidtures which are not den), Christine Kjellberg/56, Steve
quite up to my usual Tobias/62, Charles Potter/62, back of Liz
standards – but here Frank’s head/63.
N EWSLETTER
11
Photos: Alexander Smouha/84
Washington D.C.
(l to r) Stan Smith/64, Riva Freifeld/61, Carol Popper Galaty/60
and husband Gil.
(l to r) Margaret (wife of Franz Oppenheimer/37), Sujata
Kelkar/93, Tom Taylor/86 and wife Alysha.
The dinner took place at the
recently opened downtown
Washington DC location of The
Melting Pot, a gourmet fondue
restaurant that would make
even the Swiss blush in shame!
Nineteen alumni attended the
dinner: Femi Adeniji/83, Paul
Booth/60, Erin Emeson/97,
Beth-Ann Fischer Gentile/61,
Alan Fox/60, Riva Freifeld/61,
Sujata Kelkar/93, Kathleen R.
McNamara/80, Franz Oppen-
heimer/37, Linda Perry/70,
Carla Peterson/62, Carol Popper Galaty/60, Cindy Richmond/73, George Satterthwaite/53, Phil Scruggs/84, Stan
Smith/64,
Alexander
Smouha/84, Tom Taylor/86 and
Amy Weinstein Plotnick/71.
Alexander Smouha/84
So sorry that the Genevese marmite did not arrive – we’ll make
sure it gets there next year!!
(The Editor)
Genève
pouvoir accueillir à cette soirée
le Directeur général, Nicholas
Tate, et son épouse Nadja.
Hélène Durand-Ballivet, présidente du Conseil de Fondation,
et Sam Jarrell, notre président,
ont rendu un hommage spécial
aux enseignants ayant pris leur
retraite en 2003 après de nom-
Photos: Eric Anthony
Membres anciens et actuels du
personnel administratif et
enseignant se sont à nouveau
réunis avec les anciens pour
déguster le traditionnel dîner de
l'Escalade, qui a eu lieu le 10
décembre à la cafeteria de La
Grande Boissière. Les quelque
100 convives ont été heureux de
Dr. Nicholas Tate lors de son discours.
(g à d) Hélène Durand-Ballivet, Sue Anthony, Nicholas Tate, Mary
Sorrentino, Isabelle Gillieron et Sam Jarrell.
breuses années de service.
Point culminant de la soirée: la
célébration de l'Escalade et un
exposé de Jaques Naef sur le
rapport entre l'Escalade et l'Ecolint.
Former and present administrative and teaching staff joined
the alumni for the traditional
Alumni Escalade dinner held
on 10 December in the cafeteria at La Grande Boissière. We
were about 100 present and
were delighted that the Director-General, Dr. Nicholas Tate,
and his wife Nadja were able to
join us. Hélène Durand-Ballivet, the chairperson of the
Governing Board, and Sam Jarrell, our President, paid a special tribute to the teachers who
retired in 2003 after many years
service. Jaques Naef gave an
excellent speech about the relationship between Escalade and
Ecolint.
Anciens membres du personnel retraités en 2003.
(g à d) Anne-Thérèse Couroucé, Tony Welling, Dorothy Stevenson,
Erika Thiessen, Bill Johnston, Stuart Whitehurst, Maureen Smith,
Claudine Deschenaux et David Rowe.
N EWSLETTER
12
the Rajchmans, Adolphe Ferrière, the Meyhoffers, Maurettes
and Roquettes - and not least his
wife, Ruth Sweetser.
The Stereva Archives
Photo: Vicky Stereva’s collection
Among curiosities in the collection is a gravestone, inscribed
‘Céline 1821’, which Vicky Stereva rescued from the excavations for the Salève building in
1978. The Grand Duchess
Fedorovna lived in what is now
the Vieille Maison in the early
XIXth century and Céline was
her horse.
l. to r.: Eugène Binder, Henry Baum, Vicky Stereva,
M-C. Söderjeln, Eric Lowry, Marianne Wilmersdoerffer-Gourary
and Michael Newman.
In September 1929 a young Bulgarian girl, Victoria Stereva,
arrived at the school in its fine
new premises at la Grande Boissière. She had been awarded one
of fifteen ‘Forstall bursaries’
from a fund created by Mrs. Nell
Forstall, and she was to spend
four happy years here as a boarder. She returned to Geneva
after the Second World War to
make her career. Such was her
devotion to the school she began
what she called ‘the Collection’.
With the support over the years
of the Alumni Asociation, RenéFrançois Lejeune, Robert Shade, George Walker and many
others she was able to develop
and house these archives of the
first twentyfive years of Ecolint;
and with a great deal of help
from Sue Anthony most of them
were catalogued.
Vicky Stereva died in 1996 and
under the terms of her will the
Stereva Foundation was established and generously funded.
Its aim was to maintain and
extend the Stereva archives
through the appointment of a
part time archivist working one
day a week and to control
ensuing running and capital
costs. The president of the Foundation is Michel Pelletier (61).
The first archivist was Michael
Knight/99, author of ECOLINT:
a Portrait of the International
School of Geneva 1924-1999.
He passed the baton to Richard
Vyvyan/01 in 1999.
The most important item of the
archives is the set of papers of
Arthur Sweetser (the Father
Founder, as Vicky Stereva justly called him), the bulk of which
were collected together and presented to the School by his
daughter, Susan Sweetser-Clifford, in 1974. They show how
the school began and then survived against all odds, thanks to
the vision and tenacity of this
remarkable man, and to his collaborators, among whom were
Photo: Eric Anthony
Soirée fondue/raclette à
Genève
Cette soirée du
1er avril 2004
n'aurait pu être
mieux choisie
pour enterrer
l'hiver
et
accueillir
le
printemps,
puisque le froid
hivernal avait
subitement fait
Since 1999 some interesting
papers of Paul Meyhoffer, Fred
Roquette and Chef Schaller
have been added; and covering
later periods are papers of
Robert T. Shade/94, Joyce
Wakenshaw/90 and Paul Decorvet/98. But there is no doubt that
the second most significant
contribution the school has
made to international education
was its role in the creation (in the
‘60s) and development (in the
‘70s) of the International Baccalaureate, and we are fortunate
in having been given the papers
of Robert J. Leach/81, ‘Father of
the IB’, and Phil Thomas/97,
who was on the IB Council in its
early years.
Unfortunately the room given to
Vicky Stereva was taken over
after her death, and the archives
are temporarily housed in dilapidated quarters on the top floor
of the Grand Bâtiment, once
upon a time the four star Garstang Hotel! However, any alumni wishing to consult the archives would be most welcome.
For any matter concerning the
archives, e-mail crvyvyan@
bluewin.ch or write to/telephone me at the school.
Richard Vyvyan/01
The archives, which in principle were restricted to the period
before 1950, are organised in the following categories:
I
II
III
IV
V
VI
VII
VIII
IX
X
XI
XII
XIII
XIV
XV
XVI
XVII
XVIII
XIX
XX
Index
Documents of Founders
Brochures of Early Years
Registers of Students (now in Alumni Office)
History of School
Activities and Life at School
‘School Spirit’
School Anniversaries
International Education
Ecolint Personalities
School Campus
Alumni Reunions
Alumni Letters & Memories
Art by Alumni
Books, Articles etc. by Alumni
Portraits of Personalities
Student Magazines & Newspapers
Photographs (unsorted)
Personalities who had contact with Ecolint
‘School Colours’
place à un petit air printanier,
encore suffisamment frais pour
apprécier une fondue ou une
raclette et pourtant déjà relativement doux pour rendre les
esprits joyeux et délier les langues.
Ce fut donc une trentaine d'anciens de générations diverses
qui se sont réunis au restaurant
“Les Armures”, au cœur même
de la vieille ville de Genève,
autour de Sam Jarrell, président
du Comité central des Anciens
et de Sue Anthony, coordinatrice du Bureau des Anciens.
Il y avait là non seulement les
anciens
de
la
région
Genève/Vaud mais aussi deux
anciens élèves venus du Chili et
du Royaume-Uni, de passage à
Genève. Trois anciens professeurs étaient également de la
partie: M. Eric Anthony, M.
Serge Borle et Mme Juanita
Quin, épouse du très regretté et
tant apprécié M. Michael Quin.
Tout le monde s'est quitté fort
tard, avec un joyeux “au revoir
et à bientôt au mois de juin à la
réunion mondiale”!
Donate Dobbernack /63
N EWSLETTER
13
anciens. Il aime aussi pouvoir
exercer sa fantaisie et sa créativité en toute originalité. Il se
nourrit, croît et embellit dans un
milieu cosmopolite et donc coloré; il aime par-dessus tout les
nourritures nées sous des climats
variés et dans des cultures diverses. Il apprécie particulièrement
le contact personnalisé au sein de
petits groupes privilégiant les
échanges et le développement de
la personne. Mais il a horreur des
préjugés et tend à dépérir
lorsqu'on veut normaliser, et
cadrer, et donc rétrécir, son
champ de vision.
Seuls quelques moyens modestes s'avèrent efficaces pour le
remettre sur pied totalement et
rapidement: le sourire et la petite lumière brillant à la manière
d'une étoile, dans les yeux de ses
amis les enfants du monde, les
petits, mais les grands aussi, heureux d'apprendre et d'inventer.
Au cours des années, dans les
grands espaces où soufflent côte
à côte les vents de la tradition et
de la nouveauté, ce virus est
devenu indestructible et c'est ainsi que, par un beau matin de juin
2003, je me réveille, un peu surprise, voire étonnée, me disant:
"Mais, il est toujours vivant, plus
que jamais, et moi aussi! Et le
comble de l'étonnement: nous
n'avons pas vieilli!"
Claudine Deschenaux/03
Staff retirements 2003
ing an old farmhouse.
Roman Tomczak, with help from
Linda G. and Michele R.
Jean Blackbourn
Jean Blackbourn started teaching
at La Chat, in 1980, the year the
Primary school was first opened
with Mike Parkhouse as Principal.
The first few years were spent
teaching in the Learning Support
unit then a big mistake was made.
Jean played a piano at a party to
welcome Keith Goulden, the new
Principal. She had no idea that the
music teacher had left and was
unreplaced.
The next day she was also teaching music.... supposedly for six
weeks, until we found somebody
suitable. It took SIX YEARS. By
this time all Jean’s colleagues
were deaf and brain dead from listening to 40 aspiring recorder
players attempting Busy Bee
every lunch time. The school had
a splendid orchestra of 60
recorders, 6 violins, 1 trumpet and
5 guitars. We had some amazing
concerts. Jean also introduced the
Easter Hat Parade for the lower
primary students.This was a huge
success, the parents and grannies
loved it.
After music and learning support
Jean grew into an EFL/ESL
teacher...with a difference. English became fun for them and for
her. Madame Blackbourn, pour
les petits francophones, c’était
Madame Blackbird, devant nos
chères têtes blondes c’était la
capacité de s’émerveiller encore
et encore. Jean loved the handson approach to language and has
frequently been seen with the
accoutrements of the trade, paper,
felt, crayons, scissors, glue and
paint, disappearing down to the
Jenny Buffle
When I joined Ecolint in 1999
Jenny was – to me – no more than
a rumour, coming from somewhere close to Les Marronniers.
Of course, as I was soon to realise,
she was much more than that to
the community of the school, not
least because she carried such a
distinguished Ecolint family
name.
I forget the reason why she made
the journey across the campus to
join the Foundation’s administration. It probably had no more logic than most other events within
the school but it was the best thing
that happened to me when she
became my personal assistant.
Being one of the least pompous
people I know, Jenny would probably settle for the title “secretary”
but her range of duties in the combination of boardroom, surgery
and padded cell that was the director general’s office, went far
beyond anything narrowly secretarial.
Jenny was my Star Wars defence
system, shooting down stray
intruders. Jenny was my sounding board, with a remarkable
knowledge of the people and procedures of both the school and
Geneva. Jenny was my bilingual
amanuensis who covered for
inadequacy in one language and
verbosity in the other. Jenny was
a wonderfully rounded person
who balanced her work at school
with the demands of a talented
family, her drama and her church.
And in doing so, she provided an
important role model that sustained the sanity of all those
around her.
Jenny is a brilliant organiser. At
very short notice she acted as secretary to the largest ECIS accreditation team ever assembled, for
International College, Beirut and
played a crucial role in its success.
She did it again two years later in
Portugal saying she would go anywhere so long as it had palm trees.
Jenny comes from a British naval
family and as a girl she spent much
of her schooling abroad, an early
global nomad. Yet she has
remained quintessentially British,
indeed English, with an active participation in the language, the art
and the religion of her own culture. At the same time, Jenny is
completely international, genuinely at home in any cultural situation and wholly absorbed by the
language, the art and the religion
of other cultures.
She thus
embodies the very principles that
Ecolint stands for, “equality and
solidarity among all peoples and
the equal value of all human
beings without any distinction of
nationality, race, sex, language or
religion” and shows us how international mindedness does not
exclude, indeed depends upon, a
deep understanding of one’s own
cultural roots.
My own happy memories of eight
years at Ecolint owe much to Jenny’s unfailing support and encouragement and I wish her every happiness in her retirement.
George Walker
Director General
International Baccalaureate
Organization
Pourquoi suis-je restée aussi
longtemps dans cette école?
Ma réponse va probablement
vous surprendre: à cause d'un
insecte imaginaire que l'on pourrait nommer èmpis paidagogikos
ou culex pedagogicus, selon que
l'on soit adepte de l'école antique
grecque ou latine. Quoi qu'il en
soit, cet insecte a jeté son dévolu sur ma personne, sous les
grands arbres du 62 route de
Chêne, par un beau jour de septembre 1961, pour m'infliger sa
piqûre qui s'est avérée des plus
positives. Il s'agissait d'ailleurs
plus d'une sorte de rappel, comme l'on dit en immunologie, la
première injection m'ayant été
dispensée quelques années auparavant.
Mais voilà! L'inoculation ne suffit pas. Pour qu'il puisse faire
souche et se développer, encore
faut-il que le virus, appelons-le
ainsi, bénéficie de conditions
particulières: en effet, il a besoin
de se sentir libre, apprécié et
reconnu sur son territoire par ses
pairs, des plus jeunes aux plus
craft room. Pour accompagner ou
faire danser les enfants, c’était un
piano ou une guitare toujours
prêts. They will surely remember
learning many of the traditional
English nursery rhymes and
songs, that they first heard to the
melodic strumming of Jean on her
guitar.
Extra curricular activities included ... pony riding, field trips
galore, costuming school plays
and listening to problems. One
pony ride stands out in her mind.
She had just crossed a small river on her horse and suddenly
heard screams. The ponies and La
Chat’s darlings were rolling in the
water.
Jean’s last few years at La Chat
included, beside English/ESL,
teaching dance to class 1 and craft
to class 2. Jean has used paint
and craft as a medium to make
learning painless. The children
enjoyed this immensely and totally, to the extent that they sometimes participate right up to
the elbows! Another thing the
children enjoyed famously was
watching Muzzy, a video they still
ask for on Fridays.
Team teaching with Linda Greenwood she helped to develop the
artistic genius of numerous
young children .
I am sure all the children that Jean
has taught, and all the teachers she
has worked with, will have fond
memories of her and her dry sense
of humour. She had a smile for
everyone. Dans la salle des profs,
c’était une place, dans le coin,
réservée pour elle. Jean is now
enjoying a well earned retirement
living near to Nyon and renovat-
Anne-Thérèse Couroucé
Anne-Thérèse Couroucé, après
un séjour au Canada où elle a collaboré à l’enseignement dans une
école bilingue, a rejoint notre
communauté de l’Ecolint, en
N EWSLETTER
1969... et y est restée 34 ans!
34 ans au cours desquels elle a
accueilli et accompagné des centaines d’élèves, consolidant leurs
premiers pas sur le chemin des
apprentissages fondamentaux,
toujours avec son style ouvert,
dynamique, tranquille mais chaleureux.
34 ans où elle a traversé, aux côtés
des collègues, élèves et parents,
les époques difficiles comme celles plus réjouissantes et stimulantes que nous avons connues.
34 ans de notre histoire collective
ou quelquefois personnelle
nouant non seulement des liens
profonds de collaboration mais
aussi de solide amitié.
Pourquoi si longtemps dans cette
institution ai-je demandé?
• “Pour la philosophie et l’esprit de
l’Ecolint, fil conducteur à travers
les années et les changements.
• Pour le respect des différences,
la mise en valeur des particularités.
• Pour la possibilité d’expérimenter, d’innover, d’exercer sa fantaisie, de développer sa créativité. Pour la possibilité d’évoluer,
croître et embellir, au sein de
groupes divers privilégiant les
échanges et le développement
de la personne.
• Pour la richesse des cultures
côtoyées.
• Pour des conditions d’enseignement privilégiées.
• Pour une ouverture extraordinaire sur le monde...et même
pour les moments difficiles.”
Merci Anne-Thérèse pour tout ce
que tu as donné aux élèves qui ont
eu le privilège de t’avoir comme
professeur lors de leurs premiers
contacts avec le milieu scolaire, à
un moment si décisif dans leur
perception d’eux-mêmes en tant
qu’apprenants.
Merci pour ce que tu as apporté
aux collègues qui ont fait ce parcours à tes côtés.
Merci pour ton rayonnement, ta
fidélité, ta solidarité.
Merci d’avoir porté haut les
valeurs de l’Ecolint.
Mais comme “retraite” n’est pas
synonyme d’immobilité et de passivité, “bon vent” pour ce nouveau
parcours que nous te souhaitons
tout aussi stimulant, plein de surprises et passionnant.
Gladys Doebeli Rocourt
William Johnston
Desmond Cole-Baker – Director
of the English Section in the 1960s
-liked to appoint Irish teachers.
This is not a criticism because he
appointed some very fine teachers
from the emerald isle and Bill
Johnston was no exception to the
rule. Arriving at Ecolint in1967
he quickly integrated into the Chemistry Department and was soon
recognised by colleagues and students to be a very gifted teacher. I
always remember one student
who approached me asking to
transfer from Bill’s class to mine.
I was very surprised at this since I
would normally have expected a
traffic in the opposite direction.
When I asked her why she wanted to transfer she replied that he
was “he was very stern and scientific – and you are not at all like
that!” Quite a back-handed compliment. Scientific yes – stern certainly not. Indeed I believe that all
who know Bill would agree that
he is a very light-hearted character with a great sense of humour.
Sadly – but quite normally – Bill
was looking for promotion and
left us in 1972 to take up a Head
of Science position in England.
Happily for us he realised that life
was better in Switzerland and he
asked to return in 1974. We had
no hesitation in taking him back.
However Bill had many more
talents than just those of a Chemistry teacher, and in the years
that followed he was asked to
undertake several administrative
posts. These include a period as
Head of Boarding House and as
AdministrativeAssistant to Director Jan ter Weele in the 1980s. In
1989 Bill transferred from La
Grande Boissiere to La Châtaigneraie . Our loss was their gain.
In addition to teaching Chemistry,
Bill was also Assistant Principal
through to 1995.
George Walker recognised Bill’s
talents and appointed him successively as Foundation Curriculum
Coordinator and Foundation IT
Development Coordinator in the
1990s.
Bill has also made an outstanding
contribution to the IBO in his role
of Senior Moderator of MYP
(Middle Years Programme)
Science, and in this role he has led
numerous training programmes
for teachers in North America and
Europe. Bill continues in this role
even though retired.
Thank you Bill for a long and distinguished career in the International School. Now you can relax
a little and enjoy an ever increasing number of grandchildren!
Eric Anthony
Carol Pluntke
When Carol Pluntke retired at the
end of last school year, she had
been the Pregny-Rigot librarian
for 20 years. However, her more
14
personal contact with the International School of Geneva began
some years earlier, when her
daughter Carina started at Rigot in
the Early Childhood Class in September 1976, followed shortly
afterwards by her brother
Andreas. It was not very long
before the Rigot teachers noticed
Carol’s deep and abiding interest
in books and children’s literature
and encouraged her to become
involved in the much-needed reorganization and expansion of the
Rigot Library, which, at that time
was housed in a cupboard. With
Carol’s help the collection was
moved into a slightly larger "walkin" cupboard off the corridor,
where it became a lending library
for the first time, manned by parent volunteers, who were supervised by Carol. I think she must
have made a great success of this
early venture into library work,
because in September 1983
became the librarian for both Rigot and Pregny.
At that time the library at Pregny
was situated in an open central
area surrounded by classrooms
and had to be "closed down" periodically when the space was needed for events such as assemblies,
parent meetings and pot-luck
suppers. It was not until 1987 that
the Pregny extension was completed and Carol was able to move
into a purpose built library, which
she had designed herself and
which became her pride and joy.
She made it a warmly welcoming
and fascinating place, full of
bright and colourful displays,
where the love of books and reading was nurtured. In recent years
she was at the forefront of the planning process for the proposed
Multi-Media Centre, which will
hopefully be constructed in the
very near future. After all, as Carol could testify, this project was
first discussed more than 5 years
ago!
Carol is a truly fine example of
what it means to be a lifelong
learner. From her early days as a
volunteer, she worked with
immense enthusiasm, building up
her knowledge of librarianship,
implementing new and creative
ideas to make her libraries even
more stimulating and exciting.
She built up a rigorous library curriculum, which emphasized the
development of research skills
and challenged the children to be
true inquirers. She experienced so
many changes, which made a
huge impact on her working life,
especially the coming of the digital and technological age, which
revolutionized the running of the
libraries. She seemed to thrive on
even the most daunting challenges. When it came to technology, her husband Klaus was an
immense support and helped her
and us out on a number of occasions. We have heard that he was
not too bad at fixing Rigot furniture either!
One of Carol’s attributes, very
much appreciated by teachers and
parents alike, was her wonderful
talent for involving parent volunteers in the running of the libraries,
giving them the opportunity to
feel part of school life through the
time they could give. For some the
library provided both a haven and
a support service.
Carol was a superb colleague,
always supportive of what was
happening in the classrooms and
ready to contribute in any way she
could. We appreciated her meticulous organization even if it was a
little nerve-wracking to be told at
the end of a Unit of Inquiry that
reference books were missing or
that resource boxes had been
returned incomplete!
At the end of the school year two
poems figured among the
tributes written about Carol. They
sum up perfectly her contribution
to the school over so many years.
Commitment to helping our community be all that it can,
Appreciation of the differences of
every woman, child and man
Reflecting on all that has gone
before
Open-minded to what the future
has in store.
Laughing while searching for a
well-balanced plan.
Able to take a creative approach
to any quest
Networking for answers with risktaking zest.
Natural integrity rising to the test.
Principled in her approach to life
every day.
Leading us to understand that
there is always a way.
Utmost care taken forming minds
to inquire
Nurturing independence as confidence grows by the hour.
Tolerance prevailing, come what
may.
Knowledge that her library is a
haven of relief
Empathy enough for all, with a
ready handkerchief.
SG
Who is a librarian?
She is a colleague, friend and
teacher who:
Loves books and delights in shar-
N EWSLETTER
15
ing her passion with children
Instills a respect for reading and
the worlds it opens up for young
minds
Brings endless enthusiasm to
organizing resources and teaching
library skills
Rises to the challenge of life-long
learning and is
Always ready to try something
new and exciting
Recognizes the potential in every
child and is
Infinitely patient, tireless and supportive of colleagues,
Absolutely caring, knowledgeable and considerate.
Never a "hairy, scary librarian",
but always ready for fun and
laughter.
SAO
was well placed with his varied
experience to help develop what
is now seen as standard practice.
He always preferred to comment
and advise and bring common
sense to any meeting or committee rather than talk of unrealistic
ideals. Others may have had the
vision but David knew what
would actually work, his feet were
always on the ground.
What do you say of a man who
feels such a responsibility for an
abandoned squirrel that the animal is given free range of a considerable proportion of the appartment. Rather unusual, not quite
what you would expect – and that
is a fair summing up of my friend
David.
Alan Sharpe
Carol was OUR librarian at Pregny-Rigot, and if we hadn’t discovered her, so serendipitously, all
those years ago, I think we would
have had to "invent" her.
We wish Carol a well-earned
retirement, spending time with
her husband Klaus, her children
and their families and travelling
round the world.
Sandra Oakley and Sandra
Gleed: Pregny-Rigot
Maureen Smith
Maureen Smith retired in 2003
after teaching Mathematics for 24
years, in both the Secondary and
Middle schools at La Grande
Boissière. She began as a part time
teacher of one class and her capacities soon lead to her being called
upon to take more and more classes. After several years as a part
timer her qualities were finally
recognised and she began a full
time contract in 1986. Maureen
was one of the founder teachers of
the Middle School.
Maureen graduated from The
University of Keele with a degree
in Mathematics and Economics.
She was first employed by the
University of Bristol as a Research
Assistant and when Bob moved to
Chichester she went to teach
mathematics at Chichester High
School for Girls. She next moved
to the West Sussex County Council Planning Department as a
transportation planner. In 1968
Bob and Maureen moved to
Geneva and began their family
here. Both sons, Matthew and
Dan, were educated at Ecolint
She was respected by all in the
Middle School for her wisdom,
opinions and also her ability to
contribute in a calm manner to
school discussions. It has been a
rewarding experience for all of her
colleagues to have worked with
such an inspiring professional.
Maureen’s teaching reflects her
character: positive, active, precise,
determined, cheerful and warm,
and she will be remembered by
many alumni as a gifted teacher,
who was able to help students of
all abilities to understand and gain
confidence in Mathematics.
True to her character Maureen has
not had a minute to spare since
retiring and is enjoying travelling,
David Rowe
At least now that David Rowe has
left I might be able to make it into
the ten best-dressed male teachers
of Ecolint. David has been part of
the school for forty years in so
many roles, physics, mathematics
and chemistry. Thoroughout that
time he never waivered from the
virtues of thorough preparation,
intellectual honesty and rigor of
approach. David was a man of
many parts and more complex
than most. If there were decisions
to be made, he never expected
more of others than he demanded
of himself.
Teaching was one way of using his
talents and interests. However, if
the world had turned a little more
quickly, or an interest turned into
a promise, David would have been
an artist in his own right. When I
first knew him there was considerable hesitation about which road
to choose. We have two of his
works and they continue to give
pleasure and reflection. He has
carried that duality of arts and science into his contact with his
friends, colleagues and his students. David also worked at our
sister school , La Châtaigneraie,
and Le College du Léman at a time
when international education was
really trying to find a meaning and
relevance in a changing world. He
skiing, walking and of course
being grandmother to Leo, Mia
and Caia.
You are already greatly missed. Roslyn McCabe
Alison Ball
Our Memories of Mrs. Smith
Writing this takes us back to 7th
and 8th grade, when life seemed
easy and stress free… We had a
good rapport with most of our
teachers, but one we had a great
connection with was Mrs. Smith.
We remember her classes, not for
the mathematics (though we must
have done some work as we both
ended up in Maths Higher!), but
for the ‘chats’we used to have during class. She spoke to us as
though we were adults – which we
obviously considered ourselves to
be at 13! We would talk about
everything – holidays, Natalie’s
aunts new car, the many different
watches her husband bought her
from abroad, the plan of Rachel’s
neighbourhood (including diagrams!) etc. etc. Though known
for imposing discipline, she also
had a lighter side… and on April
Fools day she made us all climb
in through the window, even
though the door was fine!
We were always very fond of Mrs.
Smith, and were so touched that
she came to our graduation in
1999. When we heard she had
retired, we jumped at the chance
to write this little insert. She was
one of the teachers at Ecolint who
shaped our school experience –
and we will remember her as a person, even after we have forgotten
our quadratic equations!!
Mrs. Smith – enjoy your retirement and thank you for all the
memories!
With love, Natalie Wilson and
Rachel Harvey
Dorothy Stevenson
After 25 years with the Foundation Dorothy Stevenson has
retired. Dorothy started off at Bellerive and became the Primary
School Secretary at La Châtaigneraie when the new school opened
in 1980. In this age of increasing
administrative specialization and
fragmentation of roles it is difficult to imagine the diversity and
number of tasks Dorothy has carried: receptionist, admissions officer, nurse, classroom assistant,
guidance councillor, admissions
secretary, public relations officer,
human resources secretary, external examinations invigilator, extra
curricular activities coordinator,
staff induction coordinator, chef
de protocol, editor in chief, travel
agent, festival secretary are only
some of the titles that could have
been attributed to Dorothy in the
past. Above all Dorothy played a
central role in the day-to-day life
of the school over many years and
she did all this competently, caringly and considerately.
Dorothy has known (and remembers) thousands of children and
their parents. She was often their
first contact with the school and
played a major role in ensuring
their on going welfare. Thousands
of children have received first aid
from her and I can not imagine the
number of bandaids distributed,
the quantity of ‘magic’ cream
applied or the TLC dispensed to
students, staff and parents.
Dorothy enjoyed taking part in
many field trips and ski weeks and
her participation was always
appreciated, not only for her personal qualities and administrative
strengths but she was also a trained
teacher and hence an invalid support for teachers. Children who
needed individual solace when
school was just too much to cope
with or those who needed ‘time
out’ to allow classes to function
smoothly could find a place on
Dorothy’s knee under her watchful eye.
The office was not only a central
place in the school, it was also the
heart. Dorothy remembered birthdays and never let a happy, or sad,
event go past unnoticed. She was
expert at taking the pulse of the
school and picking up distress signals. Problems and worries were
shared with her. She was careful
with confidences and provided
sound advice and practical help.
She was also a mine of information on the international school
network and kept us up to date on
the latest news and developments.
With such intensive professional
activity, one could imagine that
Dorothy would need quiet, restful
evenings at home. On the contrary,
her social and cultural life was just
as active as her working life and
her interests just as diverse. She
was a great music lover and supported and encouraged teachers
and students in celebrating their
talents through her invalid assistance in organizing choir trips and
music festivals. She was a member of the Culture Vultures group
and enjoyed regular evenings at
the ballet, opera or theatre.
Her health did not allow her to play
but she was also a keen tennis
spectator and was involved in
recruiting and supervising the ball
boys and girls for major tennis
tournaments. Through Dorothy
N EWSLETTER
several children from the school
were able to enjoy this experience.
Dorothy has always led a busy life
and finding a slot of free time in
her diary was never easy. Before
her retirement in July 2003, we
knew where to find her during
daytime on at least five days of the
week. Now we need to make an
appointment weeks ahead and if
you try contacting her on her
mobile phone, beware. Your call
could be transferred to anywhere
in the world. Dorothy continues to
be an active member of the local
and international community and
we wish her a long, healthy and
happy retirement.
Ann Le Diraison
Erika Thiessen
Les cours avaient repris depuis
une bonne quinzaine de jours,
sous un ciel aux couleurs d'automne, lorsque Erika Thiessen fit
une première apparition remarquée au Collège International de
la Châtaigneraie, début octobre
1972.
De cette première rencontre, notre mémoire retient la blondeur des
cheveux s'échappant d'un foulard
bleu, bordé de piécettes dorées,
l'azur de l'œil, le rayonnement du
sourire dans le visage délicatement bronzé de cette "touriste"
apparemment égarée en "Terre
sainte". Nous apprîmes, un peu
surpris, que nous étions en présence de notre nouvelle collègue
d'Allemand et nous fûmes immédiatement sensibles au charme
sans mièvrerie, à la grande élégance et à la profonde humanité
qui sont encore aujourd'hui, après
plus de trente années, la marque
d'Erika.
Originaire de Hambourg, professeur titulaire en RFA, elle décida
de rester en Suisse et devint un élément important de la nouvelle
équipe pédagogique destinée à
relayer celle de l'ancien Collège
Protestant Romand. Elle apporta
à son enseignement son exigence,
son remarquable professionnalisme et sa passion du métier. De
nombreux élèves ont découvert,
grâce à elle, le potentiel poétique
de la langue allemande à laquelle
Erika confère le charme d'une
mélodie !
Son action ne se limita pas à sa salle de classe, loin de là. Pendant
toute sa vie professionnelle, elle
contribua largement à la vie sociale de l'école, réalisant de
nombreux projets, aidant ses collègues dans les leurs, participant
aux courses d’école ou autres activités extra scolaires.
Femme sensible, esthète, Erika
s’intéresse aux arts et particulièrement à la musique qui accompagne sa vie. Comme ses sœurs,
elle doit cette passion à ses
parents. Dans la famille Thiessen,
chacun jouait d'un instrument et
l'harmonie familiale s'exprimait
en musique. Elle apprit le violon,
se passionna pour l'opéra et pour
toutes les musiques du monde car
cette grande voyageuse polyglotte, amoureuse de la Chine au point
d’apprendre le chinois, est un
esprit ouvert aux autres et curieux
de toutes les cultures. Son intérêt
ne s’arrête d'ailleurs pas aux
humains et sa tendresse pour les
éléphants est devenue légendaire.
Femme de caractère, Erika est un
esprit libre et tolérant qui respecte profondément les autres, sait
merveilleusement bien les écouter et les comprendre. Elle a élevé
la discrétion au niveau d'un art de
vivre.
Pendant plus de trente ans, nous
avons partagé avec elle beaucoup
plus qu’une activité professionnelle, des moments de la vie, des
fous rires, des larmes, des bonheurs. En quittant l'école, elle a
emporté un peu de notre jeunesse et de notre histoire mais d'autres pages savoureuses vont encore s'écrire avec elle, en toute
amitié.
Hélène Forneris
Tony Welling
Tony Welling has taught Geography at La Châtaigneraie since
September 1975 with enthusiasm
and passion. He inspired students
to extend themselves and he maintained an excellent rapport with
them. He was always sensitive to
their needs and willing to take
extra time to help them achieve
their goals. Consequently many
of them went on to study Geography at university.
Field work is an essential part of
Geography for Tony and his on
site analysis of landscapes
whether in the Val d'Herens, the
Mer de Glace or the Atlas Mountains was especially impressive.
He recognised the value of exposing students to a variety of different experiences and was convinced that experience in the field
should be part of every student's
education. Upon arrival at La
Chât, he took over the organisation of "Field Week." He expanded the list of destinations to
include areas in France, Italy and
Germany as well as Switzerland.
The success of "Field Week" was
in no small way due to Tony's dedication and organisational skills as
it's co-ordinator for twenty years.
16
"Field Week" remains for many
students the highlight of their
experience at the school.
His greatest interest has been in
development issues, furthered by
a one term exchange at the International School of Moshi, Tanzania in 1995. He has an international outlook and a deep concern
for others. He was involved in
fund raising from the beginning
and since 1990 he has co-ordinated the fund raising efforts of student council for specific Global
Harmony Foundation projects in
Latin America and India. Over
fourteen years students raised
145,000 Swiss francs for these
projects.
He has a profound love and
respect for mountains and has
climbed widely in Europe, the
Himalayas and the Andes. He is
an active cross-country and randonnée skier and for twenty-five
years he organised cross-country
ski trips as part of winter ski days.
Tony served as Head of Geography for fifteen years and was a
constant source of support,
encouragement and information
to his colleagues. He is an outstanding Geographer with an
incredible knowledge and love of
the subject. He reads extensively
and his remarkable ability to retain
detail never failed to amaze his
colleagues and students alike.
It was indeed a privilege to have
worked with Tony or to have been
taught by him. His positive attitude and sense of humour will be
greatly missed at La Chât. We
wish him a long, happy and well
deserved retirement.
Joan Holden
Stuart Whitehurst
Stuart was born and lived in the
North of England. He spent three
years at Birmingham University
studying Education where he
obtained his teaching certificate.
After his first teaching position in
Harlow, he studied evenings at
London University, graduated
with a BSc with Honours in
Chemistry and later was appointed Head of Chemistry at the Mark
Hall comprehensive school.
All of Stuart’s professional life has
been devoted to Education, the
greatest part having taken place at
the International School in Geneva. In 1972, he was about to leave
England to take up a teaching post
in New-Zealand when he applied
to an advertisement from the International School of Geneva for a
Nuffield Chemistry experienced
teacher. Nadine, his Swiss born
wife reluctantly agreed for a lim-
ited two-year period. Thirty years
later, he retired from the International School of Geneva.
His first fifteen years were spent
in the Chemistry Department at
LGB teaching the IB programme
under the leadership of Eric
Anthony, Head of the Chemistry
Department.
At a very early stage in the world
of microcomputers, Stuart foresaw the potential and impact in
Education and encouraged students with free access to his Apple
IIe, the first microcomputer available. He also convinced the
School to take the visionary step
of equipping each classroom with
a computer, this figure having
grown to the present approximately 1000 Foundation computers.
In the late eighties, he joined the
Middle School for another
planned limited period of two
years, but instead, he remained
there for the last fifteen years of
his professional career. His duties
included the setting-up of the Science and Computing Departments, for which he was successful, thanks to the constant support
of Paul Decorvet and also
designed and installed the first fully operating pedagogical network
in the Foundation. In 1986, he
replaced Nick Carter as English
language assistant-principal and
this experience in administration
convinced him that his real vocation was teaching and working in
the classroom.
When he looks back at his career
at Ecolint, he remembers with
pleasure his first experience of
teaching a class of seventeen students with seventeen different
nationalities and is proud to have
offered his two daughters Vicky
and Nathalie the opportunity of an
international education. He also
recalls the years when his personal and professional life at Ecolint
were very closely related with all
the members of his family, including his wife, either teaching,
studying or nursing at LGB.
It is when he started teaching his
former students’ children that he
realized that it was time to retire
and to move forward. He retired
last June, and despite an oftenrepeated promise never to return
to school, he has already been
back about twelve times. He now
has the time to enjoy digital photography but his real retirement
project is to spend more time with
his family and especially his
grandson.
Ray Bonnan
N EWSLETTER
17
In Memoriam
Frank Dorsay
Frank Dorsay is remembered with affection by his former students and colleagues: we have received many messages and
here are two of them:
Ann Johnstone/53
Ann Johnstone, who left Ecolint in 1953, died on 11 June 2003
in Ottawa, Canada. We send our deep regrets to her family and
friends.
Frank Dorsay nous a quittés le 20 octobre 2003 à l'âge de 79
ans.
Rares sont les professeurs qui font l'unanimité, il était un de
ceux-là. Il avait l'amour de l'Art et aimait l'enseigner, le partager : avec sa patience infinie, sa gentillesse à toute épreuve, et
beaucoup, beaucoup d'humour (il lui en fallait!). Mais Frank
Dorsay était aussi un aquarelliste de grand talent, ses oeuvres
étaient à son image: sereines, nuancées et sensibles.
Un grand et irremplaçable Monsieur s'en est allé: Salut l'Artiste. Nos chaleureuses pensées et sincères condoléances vont
à ses filles Karen et Noële.
Diane Gilliéron-von der Weid/83
Today I read the very sad news that my favorite teacher at Ecolint, Frank Dorsay, has passed away. I was looking forward to
maybe seeing him again at the world-reunion in 2004, how sad
to hear, he is no longer there. He was an excellent teacher, he
knew instinctively how to get the best out of all his students,
no matter if they had talent or not, his great sense of humour
would spread like a fire though his art lab, there was never any
hate or fear there, a safe- haven for all students.
For the students that did have a gifted talent like himself, he
would put enormous positive energy into developing them into
a creative thinker like himself.
What a great loss to all of us who knew him, his stories of life,
and his good humour, and his way of life should be an example for us all, if everyone would be like him the world would
be a better place.
May he rest in peace, together with his wife Cécile, who was
also a marvelous teacher and person.
Wim Kool/83
Robert Leach
It was with great sadness that we learnt of Bob Leach's passing away on 17 April 2004. During his many years at Ecolint
he made an important contribution to the life of our school. One
of the instigators and creators of the International Baccalaureate Bob was also responsible in 1953 for the creation of the
Students United Nations. The mark he made on international
education will live on in our collective memories. Above all
though, his students will remember him as an inspirational history teacher full of passion and humour.
Our heartfelt condolences to Felicity and David in this difficult time.
Sam Jarrell/72
A tribute will be given to Bob in the next edition of the
‘Newsletter’.
Alumni News
We regret that we do not have the space available to include
Alumni News in this edition. We will, however, include a large
Alumni News section in the Autumn Newsletter. Please be sure
to provide us with your news items for inclusion.
Steven Towle/85
We are extremely sad to have to inform you that Steven Towle,
who graduated from La Châtaigneraie in 1985 from class 13,
was killed in a backcountry skiing accident in the Sierra Nevada mountains on 14 June 2003. Our heartfelt condolences to
his wife, Anna, and daughter, Nimue, his parents and his brother, Andrew/84.
Suzanne D’Arbigny-Allan/53
We regret to inform you of the death of Suzanne D’ArbignyAllan, who died in England on the 31 October 2003. Our sincere condolences to her husband and family.
Michel Barton/66
It is my sad duty to inform you that Michel Barton (class of
1965/66) passed away on 28 November 2003 in the USA. He
was 55. He leaves his wife, Béatrice, his son Stéphane and his
daughter Gill.
Francis Amar/66
We extend our deep sympathy to Michel’s family and friends.
Colette Rohrbach-Weltz
C’est avec beaucoup de tristesse que nous vous faisons part du
décès de l’ancienne maîtresse du primaire, Colette RohrbachWeltz, le samedi 1er mai 2004, dans sa 85e année. Tout comme
Manguère et Alouette, Colette faisait partie de ces enseignants
qui, dès notre plus jeune âge, nous ont fait aimer d’aller à l’école pour découvrir plein de choses nouvelles et passionnantes,
et que l’on consultait encore bien après avoir quitté le primaire.
Merci Colette pour tout ce que tu as fait pour tes élèves.
Nous présentons nos plus sincères condoléances à sa famille,
et en particulier à sa fille Françoise Criner-Rohrbach et son fils
Daniel Rohrbach. Un hommage spécial sera rendu à Colette
dans le prochain numéro de la “Newsletter”.
Nouvelles des Anciens
Nous regrettons de ne pouvoir publier les nouvelles des anciens
dans ce numéro en raison du manque de place. Dans le numéro
d'automne prochain, nous consacrerons une partie d'autant plus
large à ces nouvelles. N'oubliez donc pas de nous envoyer vos
nouvelles à temps.
N EWSLETTER
Small ads
18
Naissances
Toutes nos felicitations à:
This is a service we are providing which is free to all paid-up
members. Contact us at [email protected] if you wish to place
an ad. in the next issue of the alumni ‘Newsletter’.
Petites annonces
Ce service est offert gratuitement à tous les membres qui ont
payé leur cotisation. Contactez-nous à [email protected] si
vous désirez en faire paraître une dans la prochaine édition de
la ‘Newsletter’.
• Nicola Corthay-Johnston/87 and Marc Corthay, a son, Jeremy,
brother for Megan and Kieran, born in Geneva on 16 April
2004.
Témoignage
Chers Amis Anciens,
J'ai assisté, toujours avec le
même plaisir, à toutes les
réunions mondiales depuis
leur création. Cette année,
malheureusement, je ne pourrai être des vôtres. En effet, à
l'occasion de la première
“Année Sainte” du siècle, mon
épouse et moi-même avons
décidé de parcourir, à pied bien
sûr, le Chemin de St-Jacques
de Compostelle: et le meilleur
mois, pour éviter les grosses
chaleurs et la foule des pèlerins, est le mois de juin. Mais
je serai avec vous par la pensée, et adresse un grand bonjour à vous tous, et notamment
à ceux et celles des “cuvées”
1958 à 60.
Quelques nouvelles
J'ai pris ma retraite voici plus
d'un an, après avoir fait toute ma
carrière dans l'industrie pharmaceutique, dont les 30 dernières dans le premier laboratoire
indépendant français, le laboratoire Servier.
J'ai eu deux enfants, Paul et
Martine, et (pour le moment)
deux petites-filles de 9 et 5 ans,
Clara et Aurélie.
Tous les Anciens qui passeraient dans le Midi de la France seront les bienvenus. J'habite un petit village entre Sète et
Montpellier.
Amicalement à tous.
Jean POIREL/58
10, rue Gélibert
F-34560 Montbazin
Tél. 0033 467 78 70 72
Photo: Eric Anthony
Les “Anciens” sportifs
• Fiona Shade-Campbell/81 and John Campbell, a daughter,
Shona Mairi Hunter, sister for David and Gavin, born on 7 July
2003.
Enrico Mantovani/82 with other alumni during a football match
in the LGB gym - February 2004.
Pour des projets de construction,
de rénovation ou de transformation
sur Genève, en France voisine ou
dans le canton de Vaud, 2dlc Architectes
partenaires se tient à votre disposition.
Your Newsletter Team:
Layout:
Stéphane & Kaarina/90 Lorenzini
(-Rodríguez Campoamor)
Translations:
Donate Dobbernack/63
Editing:
Sue Anthony
Administrateur: Stéphane Lorenzini
(époux de Kaarina Rodríguez Campoamor/90)
86b avenue des Communes-Réunies
CH - 1212 Grand-Lancy
Tél. 022 743 28 83
Fax. 022 743 28 85
E-mail: [email protected]
www.2dlc.net
N EWSLETTER
19
ASSOCIATION DES ANCIENS DE L'ECOLE INTERNATIONALE DE GENEVE
(English see overleaf)
REUNION MONDIALE 17 – 20 JUIN 2004
FORMULAIRE D'INSCRIPTION
Veuillez compléter ce formulaire et l'envoyer, jusqu'au 1er juin 2004 dernier délai, à:
Bureau des Anciens, Ecole Internationale de Genève, 62 route de Chêne, CH-1208 Genève ou, par fax, au (+41 22) 787 26 35
Dernier délai pour annulation: 15 avril 2004. (Pas de remboursement après cette date)
J'inscris …..… adulte(s) / …..…enfant(s)
Nom de famille, nom de jeune-fille, prénom
En majuscules
Année de
départ
LGB
Campus:
La Chât. Pregny
a) .................................................................................................................. ..................
b) .................................................................................................................. ..................
c) .................................................................................................................. ..................
Adresse: ..................................................................................................................................................................................................
Ville: ................................................................ code postal: ........................................ pays: ..........................................................
Tél. privé: ........................................................ tél. prof:.............................................. fax: ............................................................
E-mail: ....................................................................................................................................................................................................
Coût total:
17 juin 2004
Buffet LGB Buffet La Chât. Coût par personne
CHF 65.--
19 juin 2004
Dîner-dansant
Noga-Hilton
Coût par personne
CHF 140.--
20 juin 2004
BBQ LGB BBQ La Chât. Coût par personne
CHF 28.--
………………
…...…………….
……………….
TOTAL
à payer
..……………
Participerez vous à votre Dîner de Classe qui aura lieu dans un restaurant le soir du 18 juin 2004? …………….
Si oui, combien de participants: ………….. (Paiement au restaurant)
Paiement:
Paiement sur le compte postal suisse – spécial Réunion: CCP 17-474911-5
Transfert bancaire sur le compte spécial Réunion à l'Union de Banques Suisses UBS
IBAN: CH69 0024 0240 4505 9001 H (compte: 450.590.01 H)
Par carte de crédit: VISA*
Mastercard
American Express
Numéro de la carte ……………………………………………… date d'expiration .…./…...
* Pour VISA, veuillez indiquer le numéro de contrôle (les 3 derniers chiffres du numéro près de votre signature) …………….
Signature .......................................................................................... date ..........................................................................................
Logement:
Nous avons négocié un prix préférentiel pour vous dans les hôtels suivants. Veuillez contacter directement les hôtels, en mentionnant
"participation à la Réunion mondiale 2004 des Anciens de l'Ecole Internationale" pour bénéficier de ces prix:
• Le Cénacle
17 Promenade Charles-Martin, CH-1208 Genève (juste derrière LGB),
tél.: (+41 22) 707 08 30, fax: (+41 22) 840 30 40, E-mail: [email protected], www.cenacle.ch
(chambre simple: CHF 64.--/84.--, chambre double: CHF 96.--/116.--)
• Résidence appart'Valley 1 place Porte de France, F-74240 Gaillard/Annemasse, tél.: (+33) 450 84 33 00, fax: (+33) 450 87 04
74, E-mail: [email protected], www.appartvalley.com
(studio pour 2: Euros 45.--, appart. pour 4: Euros 60.--) – ‘tarifs SOCIETES’
• Noga Hilton Hôtel
19 quai du Mont-Blanc, CH-1201 Genève, tél.: (+41 22) 908 90 82, www.hiltongeneve.ch
(chambre simple ou double: à partir de CHF 290.--)
• Montbrillant Hôtel
2 rue de Montbrillant, CH-1201 Genève, tél.: (+41 22) 733 77 84, fax: (+41 22) 733 25 11,
www.montbrillant.ch
(chambre simple: CHF 148.--, chambre double: CHF 180.--)
• Hôtel Les Nations
62 rue du Grand-Pré, 1202 Genève, tél.: (+41 22) 748 08 08, fax: (+41 22) 734 38 84,
E-mail: [email protected], www.hotel-les-nations.com
(chambre simple: CHF 165.--, chambre "twin": CHF 220.--, suite: CHF 210.-- - 250.--)
N EWSLETTER
20
THE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION OF THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF GENEVA
(Français au verso)
WORLD REUNION 17 – 20 JUNE 2004
REGISTRATION FORM
Please complete this form and send it, by 1st June 2004 latest, to:
Alumni Office, International School of Geneva, 62 route de Chêne, CH-1208 Geneva or, by fax, to (+41 22) 787 26 35
Cancellation deadline: 15 April 2004. (No refund after this date)
I register …..… adults / …..…children
Last name, maiden name, first name
In capitals
Year of
leaving
LGB
Campus:
La Chât. Pregny
a) .................................................................................................................. ..................
b) .................................................................................................................. ..................
c) .................................................................................................................. ..................
Address: ..................................................................................................................................................................................................
Town: .............................................................. postal code: ........................................ country: ....................................................
Phone home: .................................................... phone office: ...................................... fax: ............................................................
E-mail: ....................................................................................................................................................................................................
Total cost:
17 June 2004
Buffet LGB Buffet La Chât. Cost per person
CHF 65.--
19 June 2004
Dinner-dance
Noga-Hilton
Cost per person
CHF 140.--
20 June 2004
BBQ LGB BBQ La Chât. Cost per person
CHF 28.--
………………
…...…………….
……………….
TOTAL
à payer
..……………
Will you be participating in your Class Dinner to be held in a local restaurant on the evening of 18 June 2004?…………….
If yes, how many participants: ………….. (Payment at restaurant)
Payment:
Payment on Swiss Postal Account – special Réunion: CCP 17-474911-5
Bank transfer to the special Reunion account with the Union Bank of Switzerland UBS
IBAN: CH69 0024 0240 4505 9001 H (account: 450.590.01 H)
By credit card: VISA*
Mastercard
American Express
Card number ……………………………………………… dexpiry date .…./…...
* For VISA, please indicate the control number (last 3 digits of the number near your signature) …………….
Signature .......................................................................................... date ..........................................................................................
Accommodation:
We have negotiated preferential rates for you in the following hotels. Please contact directly the hotels, mentioning "participation in the
2004 International School Alumni World Reunion" in order to benefit from these rates:
• Le Cénacle
17 Promenade Charles-Martin, CH-1208 Genève (just behind LGB), phone: (+41 22) 707 08 30,
fax: (+41 22) 840 30 40, E-mail: [email protected], www.cenacle.ch
(single room: CHF 64.--/84.--, double room: CHF 96.--/116.--)
• Résidence appart'Valley
1 place Porte de France, F-74240 Gaillard/Annemasse, phone: (+33) 450 84 33 00, fax: (+33) 450 87 04 74,
E-mail: [email protected], www.appartvalley.com
(studio for 2: Euros 45.--, appart. for 4: Euros 60.--) – ‘tarifs SOCIETE’
• Noga Hilton Hôtel
19 quai du Mont-Blanc, CH-1201 Genève, phone: (+41 22) 908 90 82, www.hiltongeneve.ch
(single or double room: from CHF 290.--)
• Montbrillant Hôtel
2 rue de Montbrillant, CH-1201 Genève, phone: (+41 22) 733 77 84, fax: (+41 22) 733 25 11,
www.montbrillant.ch
(single room: CHF 148.--, double room: CHF 180.--)
• Hôtel Les Nations
62 rue du Grand-Pré, 1202 Genève, phone: (+41 22) 748 08 08, fax: (+41 22) 734 38 84,
E-mail: [email protected], www.hotel-les-nations.com
(single room: CHF 165.--, twin room: CHF 220.--, suite: CHF 210.-- - 250.--)