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Following
a Path
of
Tradition
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Story by BECKY PURDY
H
AVE you ever wondered why
Loomis Chaffee seniors wear
coats and ties and white
dresses at Commencement
rather than the caps and
gowns that their counterparts don at most
other high school graduations? Do you
know why a folding chair appears in a tree,
on a rooftop, or at some other vantage point
overlooking the Commencement exercises
on the Island every year? Did you realize
that graduating classes have marched along
the Senior Path during the Commencement
processional for the past 70 years? And did
you know that the dormitories’ late-night
excursions to a diner on Commencement
eve are the modern-day version of the
“father-and-son smoker” in the SNUG in
the 1930s?
Traditions form the basis for nearly every
aspect of Commencement at Loomis
Chaffee, from the smallest details to the
broadest gestures. The stories and meanings
behind these traditions reflect the school’s
unique history and long-held values,
unfolding like a tableau every year during
the first week of June.
Photo: Patricia Cousins
loomischaffee.org | 21
Location
I
N the early years of The Loomis Institute, Commencement
took place in Founders Chapel, but by the late 1930s, enrollment had grown to the point that the chapel no longer could
accommodate the seniors, the juniors — who were required to
attend — and the parents and friends of the graduating students. According to a 1939 Loomis Alumni Bulletin, the school
moved the Commencement exercises outdoors to the quad.
A “reading desk” was placed in front of the central entrance
to Founders, and seniors and guests sat facing Founders. The
bulletin notes, “we braved the weather, (and very nearly fatal it
was, too!)” but does not elaborate on the conditions. Eventually,
Erickson Gymnasium became the indoor location for Commencement in case of rain.
Commencement was moved to its current location, between the
Head’s House and the Homestead, during the 1970s, according to longtime faculty members. This setting overlooking the
Farmington River provides a sense of the school’s history and
beautiful surroundings while allowing enough room for the
approximately 1,200 people who attend each year. In recent
years, a large tent that is erected in Grubbs Quadrangle for the
post-Commencement luncheon has served as a rain location
for the ceremony itself. On these occasions, the tireless staff,
particularly the Physical Plant workers, scramble at dawn to
disassemble the entire scene and reassemble it under the tent.
Everything from the stage to the sound system and the floral
arrangements to the hundreds and hundreds of chairs are
moved to the quad.
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Mr. Batchelder presides over a Commencement ceremony in the late 1940s.
Photo: LC Archives
New Loomis Chaffee Song
Music by Ludwig van Beethoven, “Hymn to Joy”
Words by James S. Rugen ’70
and Timothy C. Lawrence
Wellspring, font of truth and beauty,
Harvest of the Founders’ dreams;
Built upon a settler’s homestead,
Rising o’er two noble streams:
Loomis Chaffee, honored always,
Home to each who seeks and strives;
Flame undimmed and shining brightly,
Shrine for better, grander lives.
Stemming grief, the Founders strengthened,
Forging dreams that conquer tears;
Granting deep, embracing wisdom,
Sowing hope for future years.
Loomis Chaffee, honored always,
Home to each who seeks and strives;
Flame undimmed and shining brightly,
Shrine for better, grander lives.
Attire
A
LTHOUGH the dignitaries — the head
of school, deans, trustees, and Commencement speaker — wear academic
gowns signifying their colleges and graduate
schools, students never have worn caps and
gowns at Loomis, Chaffee, or Loomis Chaffee
Commencement. As an opportunity school from
its inception, Loomis enrolled many students
from families of modest means who could not
necessarily afford extras such as ceremonial attire. The egalitarian symbolism of the students’
more ordinary, semi-formal clothing at Commencement has carried through the years.
Today graduating boys wear dark blazers and
light-colored slacks, a color scheme that the
school requests for uniformity. Graduating girls
wear white dresses, a tradition carried over
from The Chaffee School. Although mortarboards do not soar through the air when Loomis
Chaffee seniors officially are declared graduates,
the freshly minted alumni seem no less exuberant as they celebrate this moment on the first
Friday of June.
Flowers
C
ARRYING flowers at Commencement
is a tradition harkening back to The
Chaffee School. Former Dean Evelyn
Smith ’50 and her classmates carried yellow
roses at their Chaffee Commencement. Yellow
was the class color.
Senior class president
Pamela Valentine ’73 leads
Commencement procession.
Photo: LC Archives
One year in the late 1960s, the Chaffee seniors
decided they wanted to carry wildflowers.
Administrators and the local florist tried to
convince the girls that wildflowers wouldn’t
stay fresh long enough for the Commencement
activities, says Evelyn, who worked at Chaffee
and then Loomis Chaffee from 1963 to 1997. But
the girls were determined to have something
different and even offered to pick the wildflowers themselves. And so the Chaffee girls
clutched wildflowers at Commencement that
year, and the flowers didn’t last through the day,
Evelyn recalls. No class since then has carried
wildflowers at Commencement.
After the merger of Chaffee and Loomis, the
girls continued to carry Commencement flowers, and soon the boys began wearing boutonnieres that matched the girls’ small bouquets.
loomischaffee.org | 23
Processional Route
O
NCE they have dressed for the occasion and received their
flowers — pinned onto the boys’ lapels, clasped in the girls’
hands — the soon-to-be graduates assemble in Grubbs Quadrangle for a panoramic class photo. A few additional formal pictures follow,
and then it is time for the class to line up on both sides of the Senior Path.
The faculty, meanwhile, line up two by two, with the dignitaries at the
front followed by all faculty in order of seniority — most senior to newest
— in front of the Loomis Dining Hall and along the Covered Way.
Given the “go” signal, the dignitaries and faculty process along the Senior
Path, passing through the two lines of applauding seniors, where happy
smiles and quick handshakes are often exchanged. This tradition is one
of the most emotional for the faculty, as they see the faces and feel the
appreciation of the students they have taught, advised, coached, and
mentored for the previous four years.
The processional continues toward Founders Hall, and as the last faculty
member passes by, the senior class led by junior marshals joins the
procession. The march continues through the center doors of Founders,
through Memorial Hall, and out the north side of the building, where
members of the procession can first hear the processional music played
by the Commencement Orchestra. The two-by-two formation splits
around Founders Circle, meets at the other side, and proceeds along the
Commencement assembly’s center aisle. Dignitaries step onto the stage,
where chairs await them. Faculty process to the right of the stage, and
seniors peel off into their designated seats flanking the center aisle.
Memorial Hall and the Senior Path figured prominently in the Commencement processional long before the ceremony took place in its
current location. In the year that the exercises moved to the quad, the
1939 alumni bulletin article describes what was then a new Commencement location and processional: “Guests were grouped in the shade on
both sides of the Senior Path. The boys marched through Memorial Hall,
down the aisles facing the audience and were seated in a solid bank along
the Path.”
The members of the Chaffee Class of 1955
proceed across Poquonock Avenue with
Headmistress Barbara Erickson on their
way to the site of their Commencement
ceremony, The First Church in Windsor.
Photo: LC Archives
1973 Loomis-Chaffee Commencement procession: Visible in the line are Commencement speaker
Homer Babbidge, former president of the University of Connecticut; Headmistress Barbara
Erickson; and faculty members Bernita Sundquist, Dorothy Fuller, Evelyn Smith ’50, Chaplain
Duncan Newcomer, Josephine “Dodie” Britton, Elizabeth Speirs, Donald Joffray, and Frank
House. Photo: LC Archives
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The Senior Path: A Classy Design
T
HE Senior Path has its own
share of traditions. The walkway
through the center of Grubbs
Quadrangle got its name early in the life
of the school, and according to longstanding but unwritten student code,
underclassmen can cross the Senior Path,
but are not supposed to walk along it.
Thus, it is a perfect route for the beginning of the Commencement processional.
But there is more to the Senior Path’s
lore. What was originally a dirt path is
gradually becoming paved with brick
squares honoring every graduating class
since 1977. And the sight of masons laying
the latest square is an annual harbinger
of Commencement.
It was the freshman class in 1976–77 that
initiated the idea of bricking the path, as
several longtime faculty members recall.
Richard Venable, now retired, was the
advisor to the freshman class that year.
“Soon after John [Ratté] became headmaster, he called a meeting of the class
advisors to brainstorm ways to build
class spirit,” Dick recalled in a 2006
email to registrar Beth Fitzsimmons,
a response to her request for the path’s
history. “For years the Senior Path was
a dirt path in name only. Anybody and
everybody walked on it. It had no meaning for the seniors. I suggested that some
time during freshman orientation, the
freshmen would buy a brick and place
it into the Senior Path. From that, other
suggestions were made. The senior class
had no interest in it.
not to run the path while the seniors
were around. Of course, there are always
those who want a direct confrontation,
so many of them ran the Senior Path
whenever they wanted.
“When the seniors caught a kid or two,
they would drag them off the path, and
later drag them down to the Cow Pond
and throw them in. Of course this presented problems [for the deans].” Physically removing underclassmen from the
Senior Path is now forbidden under the
school’s anti-hazing rules, but the path
remains hallowed ground, with enough
folklore to keep younger students at bay
until it is their turn to claim the Senior
Path.
“Once the seniors decided to reclaim
the path, they wanted to be part of the
bricking of the path,” continued Dick. “It
was decided that the path would begin
with all four classes but that the keystone
would be placed at the time of graduation.”
Today the path contains bricked squares,
each in a different pattern, extending
more than halfway from Founders to the
Loomis Dining Hall. The senior class
holds a contest each year to choose the
design of the class square. Members of
the class can submit designs, and after
approval from the school administration
and Physical Plant Department, the class
votes on the final selection. Some designs
are elegantly simple. Others are complex
swirls. And some leave people scratching
their heads. The Class of 2010 square is
in the shape of the Batman logo, which
was the source of some good-natured
ribbing from Head of School Sheila Culbert on Class Night. “A bat?” she asked
the senior class in mock befuddlement.
“What will it be next year? Pokemon?”
The center of each class square contains
a granite stone engraved with the class
year. The masons do not place the center
stone until after Commencement, however, because a small time capsule holding the year’s Commencement program,
the Commencement issue of The LOG,
and the Cum Laude program is buried
under the center stone. Beth says the
earlier time capsules also contain prom
tickets and Class Night programs, but
the school discontinued prom tickets and
stopped printing Class Night programs
in recent years.
LC Physical Plant
employees Richard
Maska and Malcolm
Smith lay the brick
design for the Class
of 1978.
Photo: LC Archives
“But I thought it was a good idea and presented it to the freshmen, who also liked
it. At our next class meeting, we made
signs and sang some pretty stupid lyrics
to ‘Follow the Yellow Brick Road.’ We
paraded down the Covered Way while
the seniors were listening to a talk about
college, I think. They were surprised to
find the freshmen interested in bricking
the path.
“After our next class meeting, the entire
freshman class ran down the Senior Path
yelling loud enough for the seniors to
hear. The next class meeting, the freshmen wanted to do it again, but I knew
by now that the seniors were starting to
defend the path. The kids were cautioned
loomischaffee.org | 25
Arrangement of Seats
W
hatever the location, the
arrangement of the Commencement scene always has followed carefully diagrammed and described plans.
And even with changes in venue, there
is a consistency to the layout that is a
tradition itself.
Gym, in case of poor weather, squeezed
the same layout onto the basketball
court. And in recent years when rain
has forced Commencement under the
quad tent, not surprisingly, the arrangement has been recreated within
the tent’s confines.
Seating plans for the Loomis Commencement on June 4, 1970, are preserved in the Loomis Chaffee Archives
and reflect the precision with which
the entire event was planned. With the
rostrum as the focal point, four sections of seats fanned out at the front
of the audience. The section nearest
the Head’s House was to seat special
guests, such as family members of the
Commencement speaker and other
dignitaries, and was to be eight rows
deep with eight seats per row, according to the handwritten instructions
on the diagrams. The two middle sections, each eight rows deep and seven
seats wide, were for the seniors. And
the section nearest to the Homestead,
reserved for faculty, was to contain
four rows of eight seats each and two
rows of nine seats each. Behind these
sections were two large sections for
guests, separated by a center aisle that
was to be “2 boys wide,” according to
the notation on the diagram. A set of
bleachers behind the guest chairs offered overflow seating with a higher
vantage point.
No diagrams or seating plans note the
location of a chair in a tree. But every
year, one appears on Commencement
morning. This special seat carries the
designation of the “last chair.” Science teacher Joseph Neary started
the tradition, according to Registrar
Beth Fitzsimmons, who has coordinated Commencement for the last 17
years. For most of her years overseeing the event, Beth says, Joe has been
“chair chairman,” supervising the
junior faculty members who help set
up the folding chairs on Commencement morning. One year, Joe received
complaints that an elderly guest had to
stand during Commencement because
some spectators had moved chairs
from their designated spots, and Joe
was asked to hold some chairs in reserve for older guests in future years.
Recognizing that even those reserved
chairs might fall victim to resourceful
spectators, Joe came up with the idea
for the last chair, and he assigns it each
year to the newest faculty members.
The numbers of rows and the angle of
each section have changed since 1970,
but the layout has remained virtually
the same for the last 40 years. An accompanying 1970 diagram for Erickson
26 |
Here’s how Joe explains it: “I decided
that there would always be one more
chair, with a view of the stage, as inaccessible as possible. I gave the task to
the newbies because they’ve never
seen the ceremony before, and I want
them to have a sense of how big an
event it is. (Plus it makes them think
or plan this, and they’re usually young
enough to handle whatever they dream
up in terms of heights, etc.)”
A tree next to the Head’s House often
holds the last chair. This year, however, the folding chair sat on the roof
of River Cottage, the faculty house
next to the Homestead. “I personally
thought that River Cottage was a brilliant idea,” says Joe. “Great view of the
stage and inaccessible, so it fit with the
guidelines, plus it was easily in view of
the students, and for anyone looking
up, [offered] a moment to laugh.”
Rainy Commencements require fast
thinking from the new faculty member
responsible for continuing the lastchair tradition. The guidelines still apply, Joe says, so the designated faculty
must move the chair to the quad tent
and position it in an impossible spot
with a view of the stage. This stipulation was the source of disappointment
in 2008, when rain spoiled a heroic and
creative positioning of the last chair.
New faculty member Paul Chiozzi
“had gotten the chair up into the
cupola and tied it to the outside of the
structure with his belt,” Joe recalls,
“and then it rained, and he had to put
the chair into the tent somewhere.”
This year “the last chair” was balanced
securely on the roof of River Cottage.
Photo: John Groo
Content of the Ceremony
I
F participants in the first Loomis Commencement in 1916 had returned to the
Island on June 4, 2010, they likely would
have felt a familiar rhythm to the ceremony, albeit with a much larger crowd. The
Commencement program has changed
remarkably little during the last nine
decades.
After the processional, everyone takes
their seats, and the chairman of the Board
of Trustees offers a greeting and invites
everyone to sing “America the Beautiful.”
The head of school then presents Commencement prizes, followed by addresses
from the senior class speaker and the
Commencement speaker. The entire
audience then rises to sing a hymn and
settles in for the presentation of diplomas.
Spontaneous jubilation ensues, followed by
farewell remarks from the head of school,
a benediction, and a recessional that concludes back in Grubbs Quadrangle with a
buffet luncheon.
Commencement prizes in 1916 included
awards for the best posture, the best garden, and the best hen house, as former Director of Development John Clark wrote in
the summer 2003 issue of Loomis Chaffee
magazine. The school also awarded a
medal at the first Commencement to the
boy who, “by his industry, loyalty, and
manliness,” had done the most for the
school. This prize is still awarded today
with a modern adjustment to the wording.
Called the Nathaniel Horton Batchelder
Memorial Prize, the medal goes to the boy
in the graduating class who exemplifies
“industry, loyalty, and integrity.”
A medallion also accompanies the Jennie
Loomis Prize, which goes to the senior
girl “who is recognized by the faculty for
outstanding contributions to the school.”
The prize honors the memories of Jennie
Loomis, the last Loomis family member
to live in the Homestead, and her mother,
Mrs. Thomas Warham Loomis. There is
some disagreement about the history of
the prize and whether it originated at
Loomis, at Chaffee, or at both schools before merging into a single Loomis Chaffee
prize when the two schools re-merged
in the 1970s. Undisputed, however, is the
award’s long-standing tradition as a top
Commencement prize.
The medallions for both the Batchelder
Prize and the Jennie Loomis Prize were
designed by sculptor Evelyn Longman
Batchelder, second wife of Headmaster
Nathaniel Batchelder.
The school presents four other long-standing prizes to seniors on Commencement
Day. The Ammidon Prize, established by
former chairman of the Board of Trustees Hoyt Ammidon ’28, goes to the boy
in the graduating class whom the faculty
determines “has been outstanding
in his concern for other people.”
The Florence E. Sellers Prize,
in memory of the director
of Chaffee from 1936 to
1954, “recognizes a young
woman with the characteristics of Mrs. Sellers:
a quest for excellence,
self-discipline, and a
concern for others.”
The top male scholar
in the graduating class
receives the Loomis
Family Prize, which
honors the founders and
their successors, “who have
contributed time, energy, and
fortune to nurture the growth
of The Loomis Institute.” The top
female scholar earns the Mary Chaffee
and Charles Henry Willcox Prize, which
“commemorates Mary Chaffee Willcox’s
generous contributions of energy, time,
and talents to The Chaffee School as well
as her nurturing of scholarship among the
Chaffee women.”
The list of Commencement Day prizes
used to be much longer. A script for the
1950 Loomis Commencement, typed on
sheets of onionskin paper, lists 16 prizes,
including an award for the top scholar in
the junior class, various book prizes and
college-sponsored prizes, art and music
prizes, and athletics awards.
The relief portrait of
Gwendolen Sedgwick
Batchelder, the first
headmaster’s first wife,
adorns the bronze,
24-karat gold-plated
medallion — designed by
his second wife, Evelyn
Longman Batchelder
— that is awarded to
the recipients of the
Batchelder and Jennie
Loomis prizes.
Photo: Matthew Septimus
The standard of presenting six Commencement prizes was established in 1971,
the first joint Commencement of the re-
loomischaffee.org | 27
combined Loomis and Chaffee schools. Faculty members Glover Howe ’48 and Evelyn
Smith ’50 negotiated these and many other
details as part of their shared responsibility
of planning and overseeing Commencement.
To highlight the top prizes and to keep the
Commencement ceremony to a reasonable
length, the presentation of all other Commencement prizes was moved to Class Night.
(The number of Class Night prizes was reduced gradually until only the Charles Edgar
Sellers Faculty Prizes are awarded on that
evening. The Sellers Faculty Prizes, in memory of beloved teacher and coach Charles
Edgar Sellers, recognize selected graduating
seniors for “personal achievement and service to the Loomis Chaffee community.”)
After the head of school presents the Commencement prizes, the senior class speaker
steps to the podium. Elected by his or her
classmates, the senior class speaker offers a
10-minute reflection on the occasion and the
class’ years together. The class speaker tradition began in 1985, after a subcommittee of
the Student Council proposed the addition.
In an April 17, 1985, letter to Chairman of
the Board of Trustees Thomas S. Brush ’40,
Anne Peracca ’85 explained the committee’s
proposal: “I found the 1984 Commencement beautiful, but feel that the ceremony
could be greatly enhanced by the inclusion of
something that every senior could relate to
on a personal level. It would be more than appropriate if the graduating class would elect,
from among its own, a class speaker.” The
president and vice president of the Student
Council wrote an accompanying letter of
endorsement.
Chairman Brush replied on April 26: “I have
given a great deal of thought to your interesting proposal. … The difficulty, it seems to me,
is that the Commencement exercises are already lengthy, with everyone on uncomfortable chairs, often under a hot sun. Those of
us in academic gowns really suffer. There is,
moreover, the possibility that another speech
would detract from the Commencement Address itself.”
“Even so,” he continued, “I think we should
try it, and the Student Council has my permission to go ahead. The Class of 1985 may
go down in Loomis Chaffee history as having
inaugurated a new tradition.” And so it has.
The Commencement speaker follows the
senior class speaker at the podium. The
Class speaker for 2010, Jon Rosenthal mimics
some of his favorite teachers as Chairman of the
Board Christopher K. Norton ’76 enjoys the amused
reactions of those teachers. Photo: Highpoint
28 |
Commencement address is a tradition that is, of course, hardly unique
to Loomis Chaffee. Respected, wise,
accomplished, or famous (or a combination of these adjectives) adults offer
advice and ponderings to graduating
high school and college seniors around
the globe. Commencement speakers at
Loomis, Chaffee, and Loomis Chaffee
have included college presidents,
university scholars, jurists, architects,
trustees, an actor, a documentary filmmaker, and, this year, a retired faculty
legend.
In 1971, the Commencement speaker
for the first combined Loomis and
Chaffee schools’ ceremony was to be
Ella T. Grasso ’36, a U.S. congresswoman who a few years later became
the first woman elected governor of
Connecticut. Just days before Commencement, however, Representative
Grasso had to cancel. As Headmaster
Francis Grubbs explained to the Commencement crowd, the congresswoman
“has been ordered by her physician to
cancel all engagements other than her
Congressional duties for an indefinite
period of time.” (There was no indication of her specific medical ailment or,
in retrospect, whether her condition
was in any way related to the ovarian
cancer that took her life 10 years later.)
With little time to spare, the school
recruited the two presidents of the
Loomis and Chaffee student councils
to deliver Commencement addresses.
Phelps Gay ’71 and Mary Lou Lombard
’71 hurried to pen suitable speeches,
and by all accounts, the two presidents
rose to the occasion.
Headmaster Grubbs also read from
Ella’s prepared address, which the
congresswoman had sent to the school.
Lauding the school’s achievement of
coeducation, she wrote, in part: “I
congratulate you all — battered males,
triumphant females — the skeptics and
the true believers — for the patience,
diligence, forbearance and sagacity
with which this historic decision has
been executed.” Ella might well have
added that the solution to her unexpected absence — dual speeches by the
male and female leaders of the student
Hymn” still follows Beethoven’s familiar tune but with words that conjure
the school’s origins and echo the 1877
Loomis Family Testimonial, the 1900
will of John Mason Loomis, and the
song “Out of the Hearts of the Founders” by Knower Mills. “Wellspring,
font of truth and beauty,/Harvest of
the Founders’ dreams/ …,” the hymn
begins. (See full lyrics on page 22.)
The Commencement audience seemed
pleased by the new hymn, written by
musicians James S. Rugen ’70, an LC
music teacher and member of the Communications Office, and Timothy C.
Lawrence, associate director of studies.
Ella T. Grasso ’36
body — confirmed Loomis Chaffee’s
commitment to coeducation.
After the keynote address, the crowd
rises to sing a hymn to the tune of
Beethoven’s “Hymn to Joy,” from Symphony No. 9. Instrumental music by the
Commencement Orchestra and lyrics
printed in the Commencement program guide the audience. “Joyful, joyful, we adore Thee/God of glory, God of
love … ,” the crowd sang each year for
the last 60 or more years, following the
words penned by Henry van Dyke in
the early 20th century.
This year, however, new lyrics appeared on the Commencement program. The new “Loomis Chaffee
Although the earlier lyrics were suitably celebratory, the religious nature
of the words to “Joyful, Joyful” made
some people uncomfortable at this
school whose founding documents
include the promise that no employee
or student shall “be compelled to
acknowledge or sign any religious or
political creed or test whatever.” Although never heavily religious, Loomis
Chaffee Commencement through the
years has shed most of its religious
references — including prayers, Biblical
readings, and other religious hymns. A
spiritual benediction, however, remains
at the very end of the ceremony, providing a reflective conclusion to the event.
Members of the Class of 2010 delight in the comments of their classmate. Photo: Highpoint
loomischaffee.org | 29
Presentation of Diplomas
W
ith fanfare and prizes and
speeches and song as preludes
to the essential business of Commencement Day, the ceremony arrives
at the much-anticipated presentation
of diplomas. Stacks of the beribboned
documents wait on a table at the left
side of the stage, and the dean of
faculty steps to the podium to read
each graduate’s full name. Much care
is taken to pronounce each name correctly, and to aid in preparation, deans
have been known to record the seniors
speaking their own names.
Even the order in which the seniors
receive their diplomas has a history. At
Chaffee, the graduating girls lined up
by height, Evelyn recalls. At Loomis
and Loomis Chaffee, height, alphabet,
and personal choice have variously determined the order. Faculty members
recollect some years when the seniors
were allowed to sit next to their
friends in the class, and the seating
lineup determined the diploma order.
But this arrangement led to too many
last-minute changes and hurt feelings.
Today the alphabet dictates seating,
and seating determines diploma order.
A’s and K’s (or L’s, depending on the
exact alphabetic makeup of the class)
go first as the occupants of the front
rows of the two sections of seniors.
J’s (or K’s) and Z’s go last.
As each name is called, each senior
steps onto the stage, receives his or
her diploma, and shakes hands with
the head of school. It is at this point
that another tradition transpires. Each
member of the senior class hands a
small item to the head of school as
they shake hands. One year the item
was a silver dollar. By the end of the
ceremony, then-Headmaster John
Ratté had a heap of roughly $200 to
deliver to the Annual Fund from the
graduating class. One year the seniors
decided to hand over squirt guns,
no doubt a tongue-in-cheek commentary on the deans’ ban of the toys
that spring. In 2010 each senior gave
Head of School Sheila Culbert a puzzle
piece, which, when assembled, created
a picture of the Homestead.
When the last senior steps off the
stage, often with his or her arms
raised toward the cheering class, the
dean of faculty informs the gathering
that the class has officially graduated
from Loomis Chaffee. To no one’s
surprise, the dean’s voice, though
amplified, is often drowned out by the
celebrations of the new alumni.
The head of school then offers some
final words of advice, inspiration, and
farewell to the class before the benediction and recessional.
Sharene Hawthorne-René ’10 transforms from student to alumna the moment she receives her diploma from Head of School Sheila Culbert. Photo: Highpoint
30 |
Traditions Surrounding Commencement
A
number of traditional events
surround Commencement as
well. As early as 1923, the Loomis
Glee Club performed a concert on the
day before graduation; the tradition
continued even after Chaffee was
established across the river and the
two schools had separate singing
groups. A June 1947 program for a
Commencement Concert lists songs
by the Loomis Glee Club, the Chaffee
Glee Club, and the Loomis orchestra,
and two final songs performed by the
combined glee clubs. Although Loomis Chaffee no longer has a glee club,
song is still very much a part of the
pre-Commencement festivities, with
the Chamber Singers and the
A Cappelicans serenading the gathered students and families on the
previous evening.
The Senior Show also entertained
guests on Commencement eve in the
1930s. The Class of 1939 put on two
performances of Snow White and the
Thirty-Nine Dwarfs, directed by faculty member Norris E. Orchard, for
whom the theater later was named.
The alumni bulletin described the
show as “another Orchard triumph,
with its bit of satire on progressive
schools, baseball, and other human
weaknesses.”
Class Night now provides a veritable variety show of entertainment,
prizes, tributes, and nostalgia on
Commencement eve. The event used
to take place in the gathering dusk
on Founders Terrace before weather
and, no doubt, mosquitoes swayed
organizers to hold the event indoors.
Chaffee Gymnasium in Chaffee
Hall and, more recently, the Olcott
Center became the indoor venues for
Class Night. The program usually
has included prizes, performances,
opportunities for levity, and ceremonial transfers of student leadership.
According to a Class Night program
from 1957, the final acts of the evening were the transfer of the Student
Council gavel and the transfer of
the Senior Class Key and Path. The
Music teacher William C. Card directs the Loomis Glee Club on the Homestead lawn as part of the
Commencement festivities some time in the early 1920s. Photo: LC Archives
outgoing Student Council president
still presents the gavel to his or her
younger successor, but in recent years
that rite has occurred a couple of
weeks earlier during the all-school
awards assembly.
The Chaffee School held Class Day,
during which students received
prizes and athletics awards. Evelyn
Smith ’50 recalls the presentation of
the Greyhound Trophy to the class
with the most intramural basketball
wins and awards for the winners of
the school tennis and ping pong tournaments. Each girl who had earned
enough athletics “points” received a
version of the varsity letter, a large
“C” emblem, on Class Day. After the
rejoining of the two schools, Class
Day merged into Loomis Chaffee
Class Night.
To involve seniors who might not
want to perform a particular talent,
Class Night organizers added a new
feature, “I Remember,” in 2001. Seniors submit in advance short remembrances from their years at Loomis
Chaffee, and the faculty and students
who coordinate Class Night choose
ones that seem fitting for the event.
The one- or two-sentence recollections often evoke quirky moments
from freshman year, bittersweet
reminders of the passage of time, tender acknowledgments of small acts
of kindness, and good-natured digs
at best friends. The authors of the
selected remembrances read them
from the stage.
After the more formal program, the
school has always arranged social
events for Commencement eve. In
1939, according to that year’s alumni
bulletin, the Senior Show was followed by “a father-son smoker in the
SNUG, with pop, cigarettes, and barber shop harmonies until midnight.”
In subsequent decades, the Loomis
junior class hosted a dance; Chaffee
graduates recall eagerly hoping to
receive invitations. More recently,
dormitory faculty have taken the
seniors to an all-night diner in Hartford, returning to campus after midnight with a sufficiently exhausted
crew of soon-to-be graduates. If they
listen carefully, they just might hear
a young faculty member climbing a
ladder with a folding chair.
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