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Nobles
THE MAGAZINE OF NOBLE AND GREENOUGH SCHOOL
SPRING 2016
Kylie Atwood ’07
Blazes the Trail
PHOTO OF THE DAY
January 6, 2016
Students and faculty gathered
in Morrison Athletic Center for
the annual whole school photo.
PHOTO BY BEN HEIDER
contents
SPRING 2016
caption
IN EVERY ISSUE
Letter From the Head
3Reflections
What Nobles folks are saying
on campus and online
2
4
The Bulletin
News and notes
16
By the Numbers
Buildings and Grounds
17
My 5 Books
Nourishment by memoir
18Sports
The girls do it again
20Development
Campus projects announced
FEATURES
24
Building Opportunity
Ten years of Nobles in New Orleans
28
Food for Thought
Three grads focus on food
36
Cover Story: On the Campaign Trail
Kylie Atwood ’07 covers the candidates
On the cover: Kylie Atwood ’07 started her career in
journalism with the Nobleman. Media legend Bob Schieffer
was her mentor. Now, she is covering the 2016 presidential
campaign—and loving it. Photo by Christian Fleury
22Perspectives
The work that matters
40
Graduate News
Nobles graduate updates:
what, when, where, why and
how Nobles grads are doing
56Archive
Nobles
letter from the head
SPRING 2016
Keeping It Civil
HOW DO YOU EDUCATE STUDENTS for, as the school mission
describes, “purposeful citizenship on local, national and
global levels” in an era when the level of civil discourse
seems to be deteriorating, especially in our public political conversations?
Our students witness this deterioration daily in the
media and in the presidential campaigns, yet it is critical
in a secondary school that we construct an environment that encourages the dialectical process and create
a space where sharp disagreements in pursuit of truth
are mutually respectful. The faculty and administration
at Nobles have been discussing this challenge privately and publicly over the past several months.
There are no simple responses, but as a teacher of AP European history, I can tell you how I
approach the situation. History affords many examples, and it is critical for adolescents to perceive
that their current experience of the American political culture is neither unique nor irresolvable.
In the 19th century, many of the political terms that persist in the 21st century came into common usage in Western civilization. These include ideological labels like liberal, conservative, socialist, nationalist and authoritarian. The precise meanings, contexts and implications of these terms
have certainly shifted, and in some cases have been quite significantly transformed, yet elements
of their core assumptions remain consistent and represent responses to life in industrialized,
urbanized, technologically advancing Western society. I discuss Emperor Napoleon III of France,
for instance, who ruled from 1850 to 1871, with the perspective that he proposed authoritarian solutions for a deeply divided and troubled nation, and yet was profoundly influenced by liberal notions
of equality before the law and universal male suffrage. I present Prussian, and later German,
Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, who was in power from 1866 to 1890, from the point of view that this
intuitively conservative member of the ruling caste also appropriated both nationalist notions from
liberals and commitments to the welfare state from socialists. My intention through these conversations is to help students perceive synthesis, pragmatism and broader historical forces. They then
make their own connections to the current American predicament, as well as to the ideological
currents that underpin the views of current political candidates.
Other academic disciplines directly and indirectly strive to instill similar respect for process
and rationality in the development of ideas and approaches, in contrast to emotion and impulse.
We also seek to foster empathy and perspective in contrast to assumption and insensitivity. This
does not constitute political correctness; rather, it places emphasis on mutual respect and human
dignity, and on reflection and reasoning. None of this is simple, and students are experiencing this
at the same time they are striving to understand and articulate their own identities and beliefs,
sometimes in contrast to or in defense of family or religious values.
In the end, however, what I am describing is at the heart of a liberal arts education, with roots
in the Enlightenment of the 18th century, and the role of education in a culture and society that
seems to be increasingly divided and materially high-tech. Because Nobles is a human institution,
we will surely do this imperfectly, but the ongoing effort cuts right to the core of the mission of the
school to inspire leadership for the public good.
—ROBERT P. HENDERSON JR. ’76, HEAD OF SCHOOL
2 Nobles SPRING 2016
Editor
Heather Sullivan
DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS
Assistant Editors
Kim Neal
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR OF
COMMUNICATIONS
Ben Heider
DIGITAL VIDEO PRODUCER/WRITER
Alexis Sullivan
WRITER/CONTENT MANAGER
Design
2COMMUNIQUÉ
WWW.2COMMUNIQUE.COM
Photography
Tim Carey
Michael Dwyer
Christian Fleury
Ben Heider
John Hirsch
Julie Kraft
Leah LaRiccia
Kim Neal
John Risley
The Editorial Committee
Brooke Asnis ’90
Greg Croak ’06
John Gifford ’86
Tilesy Harrington
Bill Kehlenbeck
Nobles is published three times
a year for graduates, past and
current parents and grandparents,
students and supporters of Noble
and Greenough School. Nobles is a
co-educational, non-sectarian day
and partial boarding school for
students in grades seven (Class
VI) through 12 (Class I). Noble and
Greenough is a rigorous academic
community that strives for excellence in its classroom teaching,
intellectual growth in its students
and commitment to the arts,
athletics and service to others.
For further information and
up-to-the-minute graduate news,
visit www.nobles.edu.
Letters and comments may be
emailed to Heather_Sullivan@
nobles.edu. We also welcome
old-fashioned mail sent c/o
Noble and Greenough School,
10 Campus Drive, Dedham, MA
02026. The office may be reached
at 781-320-7268.
© Noble and Greenough School
2016
Want to read more community musings? Go to www.nobles.edu/blogs.
You can also follow us on Instagram at instagram.com/nobleandgreenough.
We have each other. We believe
in who we are. And that matters.
—BILL BUSSEY, PROVOST, ON “THE VALUE OF VOICES,” FEBRUARY 2016 NOBLES PARENTS’ ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER
Although today’s threats are real and, in
some cases, dire, I worry that too many
of our generation’s leaders are talking
far too often about fears instead of
dreams, problems instead of solutions,
differences instead of the empathic
community-building ethics, principles
and values that so many of us share. As
we prepare for, and worry about, today’s
challenges and threats, I wonder what
we teach our children: about human
potential, about what they can and
should expect from themselves and
others, about the values and ideas for
which they should work hard, about the
primacy of hope in a life well lived.
—MICHAEL DENNING, UPPER SCHOOL HEAD,
ON “A DICKENSIAN HOLIDAY: CONVERSATIONS
WITH MY GRANDMOTHER AND SPIRITS OF THE
PAST, THE PRESENT AND THE BETTER DAYS YET
TO COME,” JANUARY 2016 NOBLES PARENTS’
ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER
It seems to me that the great musicians
are actually great spirits who’ve chosen
music, or music has chosen them, to
communicate with the rest of us. Here
are a few great spirits.
—PAUL LIEBERMAN, PERFORMING ARTS FACULTY,
INTRODUCING THE BAND AT THE SECOND ANNUAL
GREAT BLACK POP MUSIC ASSEMBLY IN
CELEBRATION OF BLACK HISTORY MONTH
JANUARY 7, VIA INSTAGRAM: Mr.
Shumway introduces students to the
complex world of technology. Image by
Tim Barry ’16 #NoblemanOnline
JANUARY 30, VIA INSTAGRAM:
Nobles basketball defeats Roxbury
Latin, cheered on by a crowd of more
than 150 fans from @noblesdawgpound.
Image by Tim Barry ’16
It really opened my eyes to the world of academic
support, learning disabilities, study skills and
neuropsychological evaluation. It has made me think of
ways in which I can speak to all 12 or 15 of my students
at least once before they leave class every day.
—MIKE HOE, SCIENCE FACULTY, ON THE EFFECT HIS MIND, BRAIN AND EDUCATION M.A.
FROM HARVARD HAS ON HIS TEACHING STRATEGIES, JANUARY 2016
NOBLES LEARNING SPECIALISTS’ “STUDIES SHOW” PODCAST
SPRING 2016 Nobles 3
the bulletin
NEWS FROM OUR CAMPUS & COMMUNITY
From left to right:
George Lee ’84,
Frances Jensen P’08
and Nell Irvin
Painter challenge
conventional
wisdom.
What’s the Big Idea?
Getting to know the unknowable
In winter 2016, Nobles welcomed distinguished speakers to campus to
help the community consider big ideas as diverse as the construction of
being “white,” the possibility of humans fusing with technology, and why
teenage brains are special. Here’s a sample of what our guests had to say.
GEORGE LEE ’84, CO-HEAD OF
GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY, MEDIA AND
TELECOM BANKING, GOLDMAN SACHS
On January 19, George Lee ’84, a Goldman
Sachs partner with a proclivity for hightech innovation, spoke to graduates. His
talk, “Intro to the Future,” focused on the
exponential acceleration of development
in technology and how that might affect
assembly highlights
human existence. The following day, Lee
spoke to students in long assembly. “I’m
here to talk about the future,” he said.
Lee suggested that the future should be
studied with the same rigor that students
at places like Nobles study history.
“If there is a place where the future
bleeds into the present, it is Silicon
Valley,” he said, citing the mindsets of
innovative entrepreneurs like Tesla
Founder Elon Musk and Uber CEO
Travis Kalanick who see themselves as
inventors of the future.
Lee put technology developments
since his adolescence into perspective: “On Google, I can immediately tap
into 100 times more information than
President Reagan had access to during
his presidency.”
Lee cited Moore’s Law, which predicts
a doubling in technological capability
about every two years. “It’s an inexorable
upward path,” Lee said. “If this historically inexorable path continues, things
are going to get weird in the world of
technology.”
Lee also posited that artificial intelligence could surpass human intelligence in the next 20–30 years. He also
in high school. When
even harder. Although
a four-year spot on the
is open about the
coaches discouraged
repeatedly cut from
U.S. Naval Academy
hard work and mental
Sailoring On
about overcoming fail-
him from pursuing
teams, Accomando re-
crew team, followed
commitment it took to
English teacher and
ures in cross-country,
their sports, challeng-
jected limitations that
by coaching success
overcome his initial
crew coach Josh Ac-
hockey, football and
ing his ability and
others placed on him.
at Harvard and now,
setbacks, and inspires
comando opened up
rowing as a student
confidence, he trained
His drive landed him
Nobles. Accomando
the same work ethic
spoke about the advent of gene editing,
advanced robotic surgery and driverless
cars, which could deliver a trillion dollars
or more of societal benefit.
Many of the advances call for a
greater emphasis on the role of ethics
and philosophy in technological change,
including the need to program ethical
parameters or “behavioral guard rails”
into artificial intelligence, he said.
“It’s the beginning of a new era of
technology. The fabric of socioeconomics
and government is going to be strained
by these technologies.” Lee cited many
profound opportunities and challenges
of living in the new world. “We will need
to manage and coevolve [with technology] and make it a force for good.”
FRANCES E. JENSEN,
NEUROSCIENTIST AND AUTHOR
On February 16, Frances Jensen, neuroscientist and mother of Will Murphy
’08, spoke at a faculty meeting about
her research and some of its implications. Jensen’s book, The Teenage Brain:
A Neuroscientist’s Survival Guide to
Raising Adolescents and Young Adults
(Harper Press, 2015), is a layperson’s
guide for understanding how the frontal
lobe—and other fledgling areas of the
teen brain—allow for sometimesbizarre, sometimes-brilliant behavior.
“The brain is the last part of the body
to mature, [which is why] we sometimes
call teens ‘Ferraris with weak brakes,’”
she said.
She talked about plasticity and the
extraordinary number of synapses that
allow for efficient learning, both good
and bad. “The teenage brain is a learning
machine—it can do amazing feats,” she
said. Jensen’s book offers context related
to stress, memory, sleep, addiction and
decision making. She is chair of the
Department of Neurology in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.
Jensen spoke to faculty members
about the importance of helping teens
scaffold in the midst of behavior that can
baffle those whose synapses have been
significantly pruned over time (adults).
“Don’t alienate them. You want to give
them a frontal lobe assist,” she said.
NELL IRVIN PAINTER, AUTHOR
AND PROFESSOR EMERITA OF
HISTORY AT PRINCETON
On February 17, Nell Irvin Painter spoke
at long assembly about her book The
History of White People (W.W. Norton
& Company, 2010). “My book is about
discourse. It is about the construction of
whiteness,” she told students and faculty
members. Painter explained the origin
of the word “Caucasian” as related to
the beauty of people of the Caucasus,
the region where Europe and Asia meet,
between the Black and Caspian Seas. The
term was coined by German philosopher
Christoph Meiners in the late 18th century, and it was popularized by German
scientist Johann Friedrich Blumenbach,
she said. Through the history of science
and anthropology, the assumed number
of races has changed. Painter also said
that scientists have never agreed on what
to measure to determine race.
She explored ideas and shared historical anecdotes related to eugenics, the
right to vote and how, in the 19th century,
thought leaders, including Ralph Waldo
Emerson, believed in “English traits”
that made Anglo-Saxons superior to the
Celts. “People like Emerson thought they
belonged to a different race. Irish people
were stigmatized,” she said. She further
traced the evolving idea of race, including the effects of Nazi Germany and postWorld War II suburbanization.
Painter identified the messiness in
distinguishing between race and ethnicity and talked about the evolution of
what’s “packed into whiteness”: political
power and wealth.
Ultimately, Painter said that race
won’t go away, and that the murkiness of
its borders will continue to defy absolute
categorization. “Human history is a story
of migration and sex,” she said.
—HEATHER SULLIVAN
and positivity in his
stage with French
lowers with terrorism
peaceful, kind and
Honoring Scalia
Antonin Scalia. Den-
students and athletes.
teacher Amadou Seck
and violence. Instead,
compassionate lives
History teacher and
ning admitted, “If you
to dispel misconcep-
Seck shared that
that seek to benefit
Upper School Head Mi-
had told me 10 years
Mythbusters
tions about Islam and
truly faithful Muslims,
those around them.
chael Denning honored
ago I’d be up here do-
Head of School Bob
reject associations of
the overwhelming
the legacy of the late
ing this, I would have
Henderson took the
the religion and its fol-
majority, embrace
Supreme Court Justice
been surprised;
the bulletin
Denna Strong
DENNA LAING ’10 and her Boston Pride
teammates entered Gillette Stadium on
New Year’s Eve 2015 for the Women’s
Winter Classic, poised to make history.
Along with the Montréal Canadiennes,
they would be the first team ever to take
part in a professional women’s outdoor
hockey game. Laing’s dreams took a
gut-wrenching turn when she crashed
headfirst into the boards and suffered a
severe spinal injury that paralyzed her
below the waist and limited the mobility in her arms. Now she channels the
singular spirit she’s known for bringing to the ice into physical therapy at
Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital. On
January 20, she promised her Facebook
followers, “My goal every day is to do one
thing better or do one thing more than I
did yesterday.”
Friend and teammate Marissa Gedman ’10, now a science teaching fellow at
Nobles, says, “Denna has been teaching
me since the day we met in seventh grade
in the Morrison Forum, from her days in
the dorm, where she was legendary for
her ability to connect with people from
all backgrounds and unite the boarding
community, to her legacy down at the
Bliss Omni and Flood Rink, during her
six seasons on the varsity team.”
Coach Tom Resor says, “Denna has
always been the quintessential teammate: Dedicated and unselfish, she is
sincerely concerned about the fabric of
the group, and she loves being part of a
“My goal every day is to
do one thing better or
do one thing more than
I did yesterday.”
—DENNA LAING ’10
team that works together to achieve a
goal that is more important than individual accomplishments. She was part
of five ISL Championships and two New
England Tournament Championships.
Denna played the first tournament with a
broken bone in her hand and the second
tournament with a dislocated rib. Despite
being limited to one good hand, she found
a way to make plays and never missed a
shift as we won both championships.”
Laing has received overwhelming
support—not only from her hockey “family” in the United States and abroad, but
from countless sports teams and young
athletes who admire her fire. The Boston
Bruins and the NHL have each pledged
$200,000 to the Denna Laing Fund, and
organizations, from Boston Pride to her
alma mater Princeton, have held “Denna
Days.” The 2016 Charity Beanpot Challenge, held by the Travis Roy Foundation
I disagreed with many
about them for the
voters as we select
A Piece to Remember
spection involved in
revolve around quan-
of his positions. But he
past 30 years.” During
the president who
Vocalist and pianist
the college process.
tifiable achievements
was an intellectual gi-
this election year,
will be responsible
Sabrina Li Shen ’17
“So much of our lives
and competition with
ant and helped shape
Denning urged, “We
for nominating our
performed an original
as high school stu-
each other, which I
the laws of our country
need to think about
next Supreme Court
song she composed,
dents—specifically as
recognize as neces-
and the ways we think
our responsibility as
justices.”
inspired by the intro-
Nobles students—
sary, but I still find
Earning
for Achieve
Above: Images like these, of hockey teams forming Denna’s jersey numbers, are flooding Twitter and Instagram. Laing played #10 for Assabet
and Nobles, #14 for Princeton, and wore the two for #24 for the Boston
Pride. Left: Laing playing for Nobles during her final season in 2010.
and the Mark Bavis Leadership Foundation, also set aside $50,000 for a cominghome fund for Laing.
At Nobles, students and faculty wrote
messages of encouragement to Laing on
a poster in Gleason Hall and delivered it
to her hospital room in January. During
a series of home hockey and basketball
games on February 18 and 19, students
raised funds by selling “Denna Strong”
shirts and bracelets; athletes wore the
shirts during warm-ups, and hockey players donned yellow tape to honor Laing.
Gedman says, “I am so grateful to
Denna for showing me the way to make
valuable relationships and how to be a
leader, but most recently, I am learning
from Denna that life isn’t perfect, but
despite the cards you’re dealt, what is
most important is how you play them.
With a smile on her face and determination in her eyes, Denna is once again
showing her character in the face of this
recent adversity, and as only she can do,
handling it with grit and grace.”
Less than two weeks after her accident, Laing posted on Facebook, “For a
long time I have been looking for a new
challenge. Even though I was not expecting it be this, here we go.... I don’t want
you to feel bad for me. This is a moment
to remember for women’s hockey.... I
would never take those moments back.”
Achieve, a tuition-free program
housed on Nobles’ campus, provides
intensive academic support and
social enrichment for low-income
middle school students from Boston.
On February 2, the Bruins chose
Achieve as their featured charity for
a 50/50 raffle. More than 40 volunteers sold $17,000 worth of raffle
tickets, earning Achieve $8,500.
“Despite the Bruins giving up a
3–1 lead [over the Toronto Maple
Leafs] in the third period and losing
in overtime, it was a hugely successful evening and so much fun!” said
Achieve’s Development Officer
Cat Kershaw of the event.
The evening was made possible
by a grant from the Boston Bruins
Foundation.
—KIM NEAL
For more information and to donate, visit
dennalaing.org.
myself wishing for
sounds, it comes down
Flamenco Beats
mesmerized with her
Japan, she moved to
Morocco, Cyprus and
something bigger and
to this: I want to be
For a flamenco per-
expressive move-
Madrid 20 years ago
Canada with Cristóbal
better. Writing this
remembered for some-
formance in February,
ments and enviable
to study the traditional
Reyes Flamenco Com-
song was my way of
thing greater than
audiences clapped
rhythm, is not your
Spanish dance; since
pany, Sueño Flamenco
working through that,
numbers and scores
along and yelled, “Olé!”
traditional flamenco
then, she’s performed
and Ballet Flamenco
and as contrived as it
and words on paper.”
Yosi Karahashi, who
dancer. Originally from
in Spain, Japan,
Olé Madrid. Accompa-
the bulletin
Chinese
Hockey
Hopefuls
Come West
On January 30, 2016, the
New York Times featured
an article on Chinese youth
coming to the United States
to improve their hockey
skills. The piece, titled
“Honing Skills in U.S., a
Group of Teenagers Is Fueling China’s Hockey Shift,”
featured a photo of Phillips Academy Andover and
Nobles facing off on the ice.
Nobles player, Ou Li ’16,
(not pictured) has played for
China’s U18 team in addition
to Nobles.
Katie Benzan Scores 2,000+ Points
On February 10, 2016, Katie Benzan ’16 became the 64th student-athlete in Massachusetts to
reach the 2,000-point mark. As senior captain of the varsity girls basketball team, Benzan scored
18 points in Nobles’ 65–33 win over Independent School League rival Groton. Benzan helped lead
her team to its 13th consecutive ISL Championship. The Boston Globe and the Boston Herald reported
Benzan’s milestone. She will play basketball at Harvard University next year.
nying guitarist Anto-
each year to hone his
ternational Flamenco
Lawrence Auditorium
swords. Lingos-Utley,
Spontaneous Fist. As
nio Tiriti has studied
technique. He has
Guitar Composition
as kung fu student
a first-degree black
a national competitor
music since he was
performed numerous
competition.
Sonia Lingos-Utley
sash, studies a style
in a male-dominated
13, and flamenco
times in Spain and has
’17 whirled across
called Tzu Zan Chuan,
sport, Sonia prides
guitar since he was
won third place in the
She Fights Like a Girl
the stage, skillfully
which means the Way
herself on excelling at
20. He travels to Spain
Foro Flamenco’s In-
An awed hush fell over
slicing the air with
of the Natural and
sparring, semipadded
HOCKEY IMAGE: GRETCHEN ERTL/THE NEW YORK TIMES/REDUX
PINNING THE PROFOUND
to life in general. He exemplifies noble character and inspires
After 35 consecutive years, Coach Steve Toubman has chosen
his students and wrestlers to aspire to higher goals. He has been
to step down from his position as head coach of Nobles’ wresinstrumental in shaping the lives of Caitlin and Andrew.”
tling program. Since his decision last spring, the local wrestling
Eric Nguyen, who teaches mathematics at Nobles and
community has worked to honor the career of the man who, as
coached alongside Toubman for four years, speaks of his hisDirector of Athletics Alex Gallagher ’90 described in assembly,
tory with Toubman: “I remember competing against Nobles
“very quietly went about becoming one of the greatest coaches
when I was in high school, and I always admired and respected
in the 150-year history of this school.”
Steve for his integrity, the way he connected with his athletes
Hans Vitzhum ’11, who was a 2010 Warren E. Storer Award
and his knowledge of the sport. That I would have the opporrecipient and selected for All-League in 2011, expressed
appreciation for Toubman, saying, “More than anything, Coach tunity to coach alongside him is one of the reasons I chose to
come to Nobles. He has been a phenomenal mentor and has
makes adults. A foundation of discipline and hard work are too
helped me become a better coach, teacher and person.”
cliché to describe what he gave me and every other wrestler
The Independent School League Council recently honored
who enters that room. He affected more lives than any of us
Toubman with the ISL Excellence Award, which is reserved
realize. The wrestling seasons were my happiest times at
for those coaches who, as Gallagher explained in assembly,
Nobles. I can’t thank him enough for everything he has done.”
“have crossed the line from great coach to legend.” Nobles will
Aditya Mukerjee ’08, a winner of the Wilbur F. Storer Award,
commemorate Toubman’s influence with the Steve Toubman
says Toubman’s influence on his life continued long after his
graduation. “The most valuable lessons I learned at Nobles—the Award, given to a member of Nobles’ wrestling team who exemones that affect me day in and day out even today—are the ones I plifies superb sportsmanship, positive leadership and a passion
for wrestling. Martin Williams ’16 is the award’s first recipient.
learned on the mat. Coach Toubman, through wrestling, taught
me not to fear hard work, either physical or mental.”
—ALEXIS SULLIVAN
Parents of Coach Toubman’s wrestlers
also recognize the profound effect he has had
Toubman, at right, was
honored with the ISL
on their children. Camellia Bloch calls Coach
Excellence Award.
Toubman a “mensch,” remembering the day
her son Jonathan ’14 decided to join the Nobles
wrestling team. “It didn’t take long for us to
realize how special the wrestling team is. We
cannot say enough about the impact Steve
Toubman has had on our son.”
Joyce Fai, the mother of Caitlin ’10, Andrew
’14 and Caroline ’21, commends Coach
Toubman’s integrity on the mat, in the classroom and in his everyday interactions. “Mr.
Toubman,” she says, “is the epitome of an honorable and dedicated Nobles educator, mentor and
coach. His lessons transcended the classroom
fighting. “There’s no
Lingos-Utley trains
that has gotten me
with have become as
grew up in the Bronx;
from, from everyone
question of my work
at USA Kung Fu Acad-
to where I am today
close as family, and
there is no one I know
around you, keeps
ethic or skills, and the
emy in Hyannis with
and will continue to
there are few people
who values people
you going and makes
term ‘you fight like
instructor Sifu Eric
be my base for the
I hold higher in this
more than him. The
you so much stron-
a girl’ has become
Cruz. “Kung fu has
rest of my life. The
world than Sifu. He
constant support, no
ger, both mentally
a compliment.”
taught me everything
people I’ve trained
is Puerto Rican and
matter where you’re
and physically.”
the bulletin
Faculty in the News
Recent accomplishments of Nobles faculty and staff
members demonstrate their engagement with the
world beyond campus. The following faculty members
provide diplomatic, emotional and educational
support to local and global communities alike.
After a nomination by the Senegalese
community, its acceptance by President Macky Sall and its confirmation by the U.S. State Department,
Nobles French teacher Amadou Seck
will serve as the honorary consul for
the Republic of Senegal in the State
of Massachusetts. Seck’s diplomatic
duties will include the assistance
of local Senegalese compatriots as
they obtain legal documents and
the facilitation of trade opportunities between America and
Senegal. He will participate in events involving Senegalese
officials and visit Senegalese prisoners in local jails. Seck aims
to bring the Senegalese community together and increase its
visibility in New England. To do so, he plans to establish contact with authorities of Massachusetts, including Governor
Charlie Baker and Mayor Marty Walsh.
Focusing her efforts more locally, Nobles history and
social science faculty member
Jenny Carlson-Pietraszek recently
joined the board of directors for
the Arlington-based grief-support
organization the Children’s Room.
The Children’s Room provides
emotional support for children
up to age 19 and their families as
they cope with catastrophic loss.
Ever since she and her daughters
began attending TCR’s peer sup-
port groups in 2009, Carlson-Pietraszek has been increasing her involvement with the organization. As she explains,
“I want to do what I can to ensure that families can receive
the types of support my daughters and I benefited from
when we were living under the dark cloud of grief.”
In addition to her work with TCR, Carlson-Pietraszek
also co-chairs the Board of Diversity and Inclusiveness
Committees at Tenacre Country Day School and cofounded the Alliance of White Anti-Racist Educators
(AWARE) at Nobles.
Carlson-Pietraszek was also
instrumental in the recent accomplishment of Nobles librarians Talya
Sokoll and Emily Tragert. Starting
with Carlson-Pietraszek’s elective world religion class, Sokoll
and Tragert are working to more
frequently collaborate with Nobles
teachers as they integrate the
library’s collection into their curricula. Sokoll and Tragert reported
on their efforts in an article titled
“Project-Based Collaboration:
Young Adult Novels in Content Area
Curricula,” which was published in
the December 2015 edition of School
Library Connection. In the article,
Sokoll and Tragert presented their
work with Carlson-Pietraszek as a
model for other school librarians
hoping to increase their involvement
in the curricula at their own schools.
Sokoll and Tragert described the
mutually beneficial collaboration between teachers and
librarians as vital for schools moving toward the interdisciplinary scholastic models of the future. —AS
Girls Got Grit
hosted the NEPSAC
Championships. Girls
Championship. Katie
rade Player of the Year.
’16 was named best
Winter 2016 was
Girls Basketball
varsity basketball
Benzan ’16 not only
Girls varsity hockey
New England Division
another victorious
Championship Games
trounced No. 1 seed
scored her historic
dominated Loomis
I Player of the Year.
season for Nobles girls’
and All-Star Games,
Tabor Academy 61–45
2,000th point this sea-
Chaffee to earn the
athletics. The weekend
and the NEPSAC D1
for their fifth straight
son but was named the
Division I Champion-
A Story to Tell
of March 5, Nobles
and D2 Girls Hockey
Class A New England
Massachusetts Gato-
ship; Caitrin Lonergan
During his NED Talk,
Strange Surroundings
This winter’s Foster Gallery exhibition
Strange Surroundings features the work
of Somerville-based artist Resa Blatman.
Her collection speaks to current environmental issues through cut-edge paintings and installations that show composites of natural images fractured by
organic forms.
According to Blatman, Strange Surroundings “speaks to the vulnerability of the
earth” by recalling “a warming planet, invasive plant and animal species, rising tides
and environmental transformations.”
For her installations, Blatman spends
three to four months digitally designing the surface format, which she then
has professionally laser-cut. Once the
base structure is complete, she layers, hand-cuts and paints the pieces to
produce shapes and shadows that are
at once “both chaotic and dystopian.”
Although her work includes a strong
focus on a major contemporary issue, Blatman shies away from the term
“activist.” She is, as she says, primarily an artist. “While I’m not a scientist
or climatologist,” she explains, “I feel
deeply motivated to make work that
speaks to this pressing issue, and to do
my best to provoke thought and spark
action in the way in which others view
the resources of, and life on, our planet.”
Nature has always been an inspiration
for Blatman, but it was Josh Fox’s documentary Gasland 1 that motivated her more
recent focus on environmental issues. As
she says, “This documentary spoke to my
fear for life on earth and our destruction
of the planet. Gasland 1 made me cry.”
Since she began exploring environmen-
tal issues in 2010, Blatman has seen a blossoming of environmental concern manifest
in the curriculum of the schools where she
displays her artwork. Although her subject
is no longer as unusual as it once was, she
hopes her collection “offers the audience
some beauty and hope in the face of environmental despair.” Blatman enjoys exhibiting her work for academic communities like
Nobles. “The conversations I have with the
students are valuable to me,” she says, “and
I’m inspired by their friendliness, intellect
and determination.”
Blatman holds an MFA in painting from
Boston University and a BFA in graphic
design from the Massachusetts College
of Art and Design. Last summer, she took
part in the Arctic Circle Residency, where
she witnessed evidence of climate change
firsthand. —AS
William Wang ’16 said,
one you have to tell.”
country’s history and
membered as the 228
Among those they
when Taiwan held
“Everyone’s an expert
Wang spoke admir-
shared many of his
Incident sparked a pe-
targeted were doctors,
its fourth democratic
on at least one thing—
ingly of his Taiwanese
experiences with his
riod of violence when
lawyers and artists.
election this year, he
their own story. There
grandfather, who
grandson. On February
the Chinese National-
Wang’s grandfather
took it as a sign that
is always someone
grew up during a
28, 1947, an anti-
ist Party forces killed
devoted his life to
his efforts had been
who cares about the
tumultuous time in his
government protest re-
thousands of civilians.
promoting democracy;
rewarded. “Democracy
bulletin
Painting History
In an experiential lesson about the
Spanish Civil War, Spanish V students
reimagined and re-created Pablo
Picasso’s masterpiece Guernica.
The project was the product of a collaboration between modern language
teachers Liz Benjamin-Alcayaga and
Laura Yamartino with visual arts
faculty member David Roane.
The Spanish Civil War, as Yamartino explained, was the testing
ground for technologies used by
the major players of World War II.
Picasso’s masterpiece reflects the
chaotic violence of a German warplane
attack on a small Spanish town.
With Roane’s guidance, the students charted, graphed and divided
Picasso’s work to produce a miniature
“Picasso chose shades of gray to portray a sense of
grim suffering, but we’re challenging our students
to portray that same message with color.”
—LIZ BENJAMIN-ALCAYAGA
re-creation. While the students worked
intently on their portions of the painting, Benjamin-Alcayaga explained their
assignment: “Picasso chose shades of
gray to portray a sense of grim suffering,
but we’re challenging our students to
portray that same message with color.”
In the first attempt at this project, students were excited to break
out of their ordinary classrooms
and learn about an important piece
of world history in a unique way.
Adrianna Brown ’16 studied Guernica in art history the year before. “We
learned about the artistic techniques
in the work last year,” she said. “Now,
knowing more about the people and
the context has given me more of an
emotional connection to the piece.”
The class included many students
who had never taken a painting class
before. Roane taught them the basics
and encouraged their natural talents.
“Working with language classes can
be a great way for visual arts faculty
to broadcast what we do,” he said.
Annie Pascucci ’16 used cool colors
against a warm background to highlight a bird in her portion of the
work. Explaining her interpretation, she said, “The bird seems significant to me. It’s a living creature
in a dramatic scene. It seems to
represent the living things that have
no control over these events.”
Will Clarke ’16 echoed her sentiments; “Tengo más respeto por Picasso.”
—AS
is a beautiful thing;
rights in the upcoming
veteran and ballet
company, Exit12.
The group helps those
through trauma. “The
it’s not to be taken for
elections.
dancer Roman Baca
After returning from
affected by war, both
strength of what we
took the stage to
his tour of duty in
in America and in
do involves connect-
granted. It’s hardearned,” said Wang,
Leaving It on
describe his unique
Iraq, he and his wife
Iraq, by using dance
ing cultures and en-
encouraging eligible
the Floor
perspective and the
started Exit12 Dance
and other forms of
couraging empathy,”
voters to exercise their
U.S. Marine, Iraq War
mission of his dance
Company in 2007.
expression to move
he said.
2016
Massachusetts
Regional Scholastic
Art and Writing
Awards
Nobles congratulates the 2016 winners
of the Scholastic Art and Writing
Awards: Kevin Chen ’20 (Gold Key,
self-portrait; honorable mention for
illustration); Katia Rozenberg ’18 (Silver
Key, painting); Devon Tyrie ’20 (Silver
Key, mixed media); Sarah Mansour ’19
and Emily St. John ’19 (both honorable
mentions, mixed-media self-portrait);
and Amar Scherzer ’19 (Silver Key and
two honorable mentions in writing).
More than 50 judges evaluated
15,000-plus pieces of art and approximately 2,500 writing
submissions for this
year’s prestigious
awards. Winning entries
demonstrated
originality,
technical skill
and personal
vision or voice.
Gold and
Kevin Chen ’20
Silver Key winners
were invited to a ceremony at Boston’s Museum
of Fine Arts on March 12. Chen’s selfportrait was also featured at an exhibition at Education First.
Art teacher Lisa Jacobson said, “I
am inspired by so much of the work that
our students do; it’s affirming for them
when some of their amazing pieces are
recognized by a prestigious outside organization. They take an emotional risk
to put their work out there for judgment.
I’m also proud of them for being willing
to do that.”
Pictured are Ellen Efstathiou ’21 as Tyl,
Olly Ogbue ’20 as the doctor, Henry
Patterson ’21 as the father, Cozette RussoNeale ’20 as grandma and Sakura
Hinenoya ‘20 as the cousin, Suzanne.
MARVELOUS ADVENTURES
MIDDLE SCHOOL PLAY
The Nobles Theatre Collective debuted a theatrical performance in the Morrison Forum for the first time in more than a decade this winter with the middle
school production of The Marvelous Adventures of Tyl. This fairy tale featured a
cast of 12 actors playing 36 different roles and told the story of a kid named Tyl
who grows up and rebels against an unimaginative society.
the bulletin
department
Climbing Every Mountain
Scarlet swaths of fabric and a glittering chandelier transformed
Vinik Theatre into Austria’s elegant Franz and Zelma Liebkin
Concert Hall to transport the audience of The Sound of Music to
1937 and the iconic story of the Familie von Trapp.
2015 marked the 50th anniversary of one of Hollywood’s most
beloved musical adaptations from Broadway to film: Rodgers
and Hammerstein’s The Sound of Music. With the guidance of
Director Dan Halperin, The Nobles Theatre Collective staged the
1959 version in February and March, hoping to “both honor the
original and create an engaging and believable theatrical work
for our community in 2016, reflective of who, when and where we
are.” The production included a cast of 47, a crew of 23, a musical
revue of 13 and an onstage orchestra and band singers—all of
whom Halperin calls “talented, passionate and hardworking.”
Novice Maria (Alexa Serowik ‘16) leaves the sanctity of the
abbey to care for the children of widower Captain Georg von Trapp
(Nick Hunnewell ‘16) of the Austrian Navy. As Maria bonds with
the children and develops feelings for their father, his staunch
demeanor softens and he finds himself completely disarmed.
Their relationship plays out against the historic backdrop of the
rise of the Third Reich and Germany’s Anschluss with Austria.
The family members’ love of music binds them together, and
their loyalty to Austria compels them to escape to Switzerland,
rather than joining Hitler’s fascist movement.
The Sound of Music includes well-known songs including
“The Lonely Goatherd,” during which the von Trapp children
maneuver marionettes played by members of the ensemble;
“Climb Every Mountain” sung in the rich, transcendent voice of
Mother Abbess (Caitlin McGrail ‘16); and Hunnewell’s tender
rendition of “Edelweiss” in peaceful protest of the Reich during
the festival performance the Von Trapps use as their getaway.
—KN
ART CREDIT
READY TO LEAD
Ten-year-old Andrea Ross would never have foreseen belting out “The Hills Are Alive” from the top of the Rocky steps
while being circled by a drone for a national broadcast of
Philly’s 2015 Thanksgiving Day Parade (photo at right).
As a kid, she was busy putting on “performance after performance in my bedroom, the car, anywhere” for her less
musically inclined but infinitely supportive parents. Now
the ’09 graduate is the understudy for Maria von Trapp in
the 19-city national tour ensemble of The Sound of Music.
Ross first got involved with the performing arts through
local classes in her hometown of Franklin, Mass. An audition
at the Wheelock Family
Theatre in Boston landed
her a lead role in the musi“Nobles by itself is so exciting
cal adaptation of Tuck
and challenging, and then on
Everlasting when she was
top of that I was working on a
only 10, and her career
career—but that’s really why
grew from there.
it was the best place for me,
Theatre Director Dan
Halperin first saw Ross perbecause they support that
form at the Stoneham Theindividuality and creativity.”
atre and encouraged her to
—ANDREA ROSS ’09
check out Nobles’ growing
arts program. He remembers, “Andrea’s work as the title character in our production of
Thoroughly Modern Millie was among the most spectacular of
any student in my 16 years at Nobles.”
Ross’s experience at Nobles was atypical, since she was
works. While grueling, her New York years have also given Ross
splitting her time between Dedham and London, where
the confidence she says is “a huge reason why I’m doing the
she was collaborating with composer Andrew Lloyd Webnational tour now.”
ber on her Moon River album. “It was really tough, but havRoss was first tapped to play Maria only a few weeks into the
ing the community of Nobles to come back to was the best
production. “I was really excited, because it’s such a dream role
part.” She credits a good group of friends and caring teachfor me. Honestly, it was also very nerve-wracking, because I had
ers—even those who didn’t have her as a student, like Tim
never understudied before, and it was a totally different skill
Carey and Nick Marinaro. “Nobles by itself is so exciting
that you have to use. But it went really well, and at the end of
and challenging, and then on top of that I was working on
it, it was just that feeling of ‘I never knew I could do that.’” She
a career—but that’s really why it was the best place for me,
says three-time Tony Award–winning director Jack O’Brien’s
because they support that individuality and creativity.”
approach of stripping the show down to the characters at the
The intense high school years led Ross to take a gap year
foundation makes his interpretation more relatable.
before pursuing theatre at Pace University in Manhattan.
Songbird Maria is a natural fit for avid chanteuse Ross. “I’ve
She calls New York “a totally different ballgame...it is ceralways related to her love of music and finding the truth in
tainly the hardest place to make it. My biggest challenge has
everything through music; we all have something like that that
been finding out who I am and what I bring to the table.” She’s
we are really passionate about and have as the foundation for
especially excited about surrounding herself with friends who
finding our way.” —KN
are writers and creatives with whom she can produce new
by the numbers
BUILDINGS AND GROUNDS
197
432,000
Total volume, in gallons,
of the pools on campus
Total number of years’
experience the buildings and
grounds (B&G) team has
maintaining Nobles’ campus.
24
Number of on-campus
buildings that the B&G
staff maintains
15
Number of
B&G snow
shovels on
campus
65
Gallons of paint used on
the Shattuck Schoolhouse
walls this winter
7
Number of fields
the B&G team
grooms for
spring sports
Dozens
Times electrician Chris Roposa has
been in Shattuck’s ceilings this year
125
Tons of road salt
needed to keep
the campus
roads manageable
every winter
3
Days it takes four people to wax all the
floors in the Morrison Athletic Center
132
Windowpanes on the front of the Arts Center lobby
my books...
MIXING TASTE AND
TENACITY IN PROSE
BY JUDITH MERRITT, REGISTRAR
Writing memoirs demands honesty and intimacy. By writing about the influence
of cooking and sharing meals, these authors attempt to make sense of lives that
were at turns tragic, dysfunctional and loving. The result gives hope that even the
unpredictable experiences of an innocent childhood or the humiliation of job loss
can be a lifeline for future creativity, connection, nourishment and love.
BLOOD, BONES AND BUTTER: THE INADVERTENT EDUCATION
OF A RELUCTANT CHEF, BY GABRIELLE HAMILTON
The early years of Gabrielle Hamilton’s life were filled with parties,
lamb roasts and sleeping under the stars with the smell of wood
smoke in the air. All of that changed when her parents divorced.
Hamilton had to learn how to survive. At 12 years old, she lied
about her age so she could get a job as a dishwasher. Gradually she
worked her way up in the restaurant business, but she was disillusioned by the lack of passion for food. A trip to Europe opened
her eyes to a new sense of place and tradition, and the importance
of fresh local foods that would infuse her cooking for the rest of her
life. When she eventually opened a restaurant in New York City, she
drew strength from her hardscrabble education and her relentless
work ethic. Finally she could again create food made with love.
THE SHARPER YOUR KNIFE, THE LESS YOU CRY:
LOVE, LAUGHTER, AND TEARS IN PARIS AT THE WORLD’S
MOST FAMOUS COOKING SCHOOL, BY KATHLEEN FLINN
The first lesson Kathleen Flinn learns at Le Cordon Bleu cooking
school in Paris is that if your knives are dull as they slice through
onions, they crush the cells and the odor released will bring tears to
your eyes. Although attending this school had been Flinn’s dream
for years, many days she returns to her apartment in tears, frustrated by the difficulty of the French language and the absence of
encouragement from the strict, arrogant teachers. After tasting her
duck à l’orange, one chef screams at her, “Vous perdez votre temps”
(“You are wasting your time”). Although she questions whether she
made the right decision to attend Le Cordon Bleu, in the end Flinn
realizes that “the joy of life is in the trip” and not the destination.
A HOMEMADE LIFE: STORIES AND RECIPES FROM
MY KITCHEN TABLE, BY MOLLY WIZENBERG
Molly Wizenberg learned many lessons about life through food.
Her father always said, “You know, we eat better at home than
most people do in restaurants.” Her book has 45 chapters and 45
recipes, complete with author’s notes. For instance, in her decadent
recipe for coeur à la creme with raspberry puree, she writes, “It’s
cool and unfussy—a little like ice cream, but better, and perfect for
a warm, sticky night.” The details of meeting her future husband are
poignant and funny. When they are really pinching pennies, they
eat a favorite dish that I cannot imagine—radishes and butter with
fleur de sel.
LIFE FROM SCRATCH: A MEMOIR OF FOOD,
FAMILY, AND FORGIVENESS, BY SASHA MARTIN
The first pages of Sasha Martin’s memoir are riveting. Her curiosity, her burned hands and her trip to the hospital begin a downward
spiral. Even when she is sent far from her home in Jamaica Plain, she
never forgets the lessons she learned from her mother about cooking. She endures more tragedy than any child should experience, and
she learns to find solace and healing in preparing and sharing food.
As an adult, she embarks on an ambitious project to create food for
her family from every country in the world—195 recipes in all. The
book includes several dozen recipes as varied as Mom’s Curious
Cinnamon Raisin Pizza, Cambodian grilled eggs and the fabulous
Dark Chocolate Guinness Cake with Bailey’s Buttercream.
THE AMERICAN PLATE: A CULINARY HISTORY IN
100 BITES, BY LIBBY O’CONNELL, CHIEF HISTORIAN
ON THE HISTORY CHANNEL
Libby O’Connell is a historian, and her book presents American
food within a historical context. Beginning with the food that nourished Native Americans, including maize, bison and maple syrup,
she traces food choices throughout our country’s history. During
the Civil War, Americans ate fried catfish, beer and pretzels. She
researched a recipe for Mary Todd Lincoln’s White Almond Cake
that sounds delicious. The Great Depression and World War II are
responsible for the creation of Hershey Bars, meatloaf and SPAM.
O’Connell’s thorough research and detailed writing style highlight
the influence of the global diet on the American plate.
Alijah Rue ’17
sports
On the Playing Fields
ALPINE SKIING
All-League: James Mortimer and
Girls Overall Record: 19–1 (ISL Champi-
Awards: Clarke Bowl (for contribution
ons, sixth consecutive year); NEPSAC
Class A Champions
Boys Overall Record: 19–13 (4th in ISL);
NEPSAC Class A Championship 11th
place
All-League: Nicola Katz ’16, Izzy
Kocher ’18 and Colby Conley ’17
Honorable Mention: Sophia Kocher ’17
All-Scholastic ISL: Nicola Katz ’16
(third consecutive year)
All–New England: Nicola Katz ’16, Izzy
Kocher ’18 and Sophia Kocher ’17
Awards: James H. Bride Ski Bowl (for
enthusiasm, spirit and sportsmanship):
Nicola Katz and Aidan Crawford, both
’16. Coaches’ Award (for selfless attitude
and consistent effort): Sophia Kocher ’17,
Sonia Lingos-Utley ’17, Colby Conley ’17
and Patrick Stevenson ’18.
2016 Captains: Sophia Kocher, Sonia
Lingos-Utley and Colby Conley, all ’17
BOYS VARSITY BASKETBALL
Overall Record: 14–11
ISL Record: 7–8
Alijah Rue, both ’17
to team spirit): Isaiah Fontaine ’16.
1983–84 Basketball Award (for the
player who best exemplifies the spirit,
dedication, determination, attitude and
improvement of the 1983–84 team):
James Welch ’17
2016 Captains: James Mortimer,
Alijah Rue and James Welch, all ’17
GIRLS VARSITY BASKETBALL
ISL Record: 12–0 (ISL Champions, 13th
consecutive year); NEPSAC Class A
Champions (fifth consecutive year)
All-League: Katie Benzan ’16, Amy
Duggan ’16 and Amaya Finklea ’17
Honorable Mention: Ashley Ducharme
’18, Camille Walter ’16, Charlotte
MacDonald ’18 and Julia Ford ’16
All-Scholastic ISL: Katie Benzan ’16
All-New England: Katie Benzan ’16,
Amy Duggan ’16 and Amaya Finklea ’17
NEPSAC MVP: Katie Benzan ’16
Awards: Seadale Bowl (given by the
Seadale family for overall contribution
to the basketball program): Katie Benzan
and Amy Duggan, both ’16. Richard Nickerson Award (in honor of the longtime
coach, awarded to a nonsenior for courage and determination): Addy Mitchell
’17 and Maya Keenan-Gallagher ’18
2016 Captains: TBA
BOYS VARSITY HOCKEY
Overall Record: 15–10–3
ISL Record: 8–5–1 (2nd in ISL); NEPSAC
Large School quarterfinalists
All-League: Luke Stevens ’16, Michael
Fahie ’16 and Cam Burke ’17
Honorable Mention: Danny Jacobs and
Pat Murray, both ’16
Awards: Terry Flaman Award (for the JV
player who demonstrates spirit, enthusiasm and love of hockey as exemplified
by Terry Flaman): John Picken ’17. 1974
Award (for improvement in hockey):
Colin Mahoney ’17. Sziklas Hockey
Trophy (for contribution to the team):
Season Highlights
■■
■■
■■
■■
Winter afternoon program teams and groups collected over
2,500 clothing items and 500 pairs of shoes for the Gear Up
drive and donated them during spring break EXCEL trips to
Rwanda, Romania and South Africa.
For a fourth consecutive year, all of the Girls Varsity
programs swept ISL Championships.
Katie Benzan ’16 was named Gatorade Massachusetts
Girls Basketball Player of the Year.
GV basketball won their 13th straight ISL Championship
and their fifth straight New England Class A Championship.
■■
■■
■■
■■
GV hockey won their 17th straight ISL Championship, the
35th annual Harrington Invitational Hockey Tournament
and the New England Division 1 Championship.
Hayden Folgert ’16 and David Yeh ’18 won Graves-Kelsey
Wrestling Championships.
Gracie Doyle ’17 won the U17 division U.S. Junior Open
Squash title.
Girls alpine skiing won their sixth straight ISL championship
and the New England Class A Championship.
Katie Benzan ’16
Nicola Katz ’16
Danny Jacobs ’16
Austin Bonasia ’16. Flood Shield (for
devotion to the game, physical toughness
and emotional control): Luke Stevens ’16
2016 Captains: TBA
GIRLS VARSITY HOCKEY
Overall Record: 31–1–1
ISL Record: 12–0–0 (ISL Champions, 17th
consecutive year); NEPSAC Division 1
Champions
All-League: Caitrin Lonergan ’16, Bridget
McCarthy ’16, Lucinda Quigley ’16 and
Becca Gilmore ’17
Honorable Mention: Charlotte Abrecht
and Tess Dupré, both ’16
All-Scholastic ISL: Caitrin Lonergan ’16
NEPSAC MVP: Becca Gilmore ’17
All-New England: Caitrin Lonergan ’16
and Becca Gilmore ’17
NEPSAC Division I First Team: Caitrin
Lonergan ’16, Becca Gilmore ’17
Awards: Anne Dudley Newell Hockey
Cup (for dedication and excellence):
Charlotte Abrecht, Tess Dupré, Bridget
McCarthy and Lucinda Quigley, all ’16
2016 Captains: TBA
BOYS VARSITY SQUASH
ISL Record: 6–3
All-League: Reg Anderson ’17 and
Patrick McElroy ’18
Honorable Mention: Cole Koeppel ’19
Awards: Cutler Cup (awarded to the
member of the team who has shown
the greatest devotion to the sport):
Ross Liftman ’16
2016 Captains: TBA
GIRLS VARSITY SQUASH
ISL Record: 8–0 (ISL Champions, fourth
consecutive year); NEISA Division A
2nd place; Division I Nationals 5th place
All-League: Emily Woodworth ’16,
Alexis Lazor ’17, Jesse Brownell ’19 and
Sara Keene ’17
All-Scholastic ISL: Gracie Doyle ’17
Awards: Cutler Cup (awarded to the
member of the team who has shown
the greatest devotion to the sport):
Emily Woodworth ’16
2016 Captains: TBA
VARSITY WRESTLING
ISL Record: 8–4, 3rd place team in dual
meet standings; 12th place team at
Graves-Kelsey Tournament
All-League: David Yeh ’18 (Graves-Kelsey
1st place at 120 lbs), Hayden Folgert ’16
(Graves-Kelsey 1st place at 182 lbs) and
Martin Williams ’16 (Graves-Kelsey 2nd
place at 285 lbs)
Honorable Mention: Ethan Porter ’19
(Graves-Kelsey 4th place at 106 lbs),
Clay Mizgerd ’17 (Graves-Kelsey 3rd
place at 113 lbs), Christian Yeh ’16
(Graves-Kelsey 4th place at 132 lbs),
Cam Camacho ’18 (Graves-Kelsey 3rd
place at 138 lbs) and Bassam Qasrawi ’19
(Graves-Kelsey 3rd place at 145 lbs)
Additional Graves-Kelsey Place Finishers:
Mark Xiao ’18 (6th place at 126 lbs),
Ian Riley ’18 (5th place at 160 lbs) and
Teddy Dawson ’16 (6th place at 220 lbs)
All-New England: Clay Mizgerd ’17 (5th),
David Yeh ’18 (3rd), Christian Yeh ’16
(8th), Bassam Qasrawi ’19 (8th) and
Hayden Folgert ’16 (3rd)
Awards: Warren E. Storer Award
(for hard work and improvement):
Clay Mizgerd ’17. Wilbur F. Storer Award
(for the most outstanding wrestler):
Hayden Folgert ’16 and David Yeh ’18.
Steve Toubman Award (for sportsmanship, leadership and dedication to
wrestling, exemplified by Coach
Toubman’s 35-year coaching career):
Martin Williams ’16
2016 Captains: Clay Mizgerd ’17 and
David Yeh ’18
development
Hall of Fame
This year’s Hall of Fame class
features one team and four
incredible athletes
The 1996 girls crew team made history
when it won the ISL, New England
and National Championships. The
first boat was made up of coxswain
Sara DelRosso ’97, stroke Jill Walsh
’96, 3-seat Jenny Sherman ’96, 2-seat
Katrina Letson ’97 and bow Alison
Silveira ’97. During their championship run, the boat broke the course
record at the New England Championships, a record that still stands.
The boat went on to the Henley Royal
Regatta, making it to the semifinals.
Skip Wood ’66 was a standout athlete
in three sports at Nobles, collecting nine
varsity letters. In football, Skip was an
All-ISL, All–New England cornerback
for two years, helping lead Nobles to two
5–2 seasons. In hockey he played firstline wing for three years, had a career 115
points, was All-ISL his senior year, and
helped lead Nobles to a 16–2–2 record
and the ISL title. Yet Wood’s best sport
was tennis, where he was captain, played
for four years, and played in the No. 1
spot for two seasons. These combined
honors earned him the ISL MVP. In his
entire four-year career, Wood never lost
a singles match.
Robert Alevizos ’76 was the standout athlete of his class. Recipient of
the Nobles Shield, Alevizos received
eight varsity letters in his four years at
Nobles and was All-ISL in two sports.
He was also selected by the ISL coaches
as a high school All-American his
senior year. He would go on to play
four seasons of varsity baseball at
Harvard, where he was an All-Ivy and
All-New England pitcher his senior
year. He was drafted into the Chicago Cubs organization, where he saw
success at the minor league level.
Mark Fayne ’06, currently a defenseman for the Edmonton Oilers in the
NHL, was a standout on the football,
hockey and lacrosse teams. Over a fivegame stretch during the 2004 football
season, he pulled down 34 catches for
632 yards and seven touchdowns. He
was the ISL MVP his senior season
on the hockey team and continued to
dominate on the lacrosse field in the
spring. His defensive skill set in hockey
translated seamlessly to lacrosse as
he consistently shut down opposing teams’ best offensive weapons.
He was All-ISL in all three sports.
Ayla Brown ’06 set two school records
in basketball with 1,440 career rebounds
and 2,358 career points, the highest total
among males or females. She is also the
sixth-highest scorer in Massachusetts
history among girls, and 13th overall. She
was a three-sport All-ISL athlete from
the moment she entered the school as an
eighth-grader, earning All-New England
recognition on the cross country team
and winning an ISL-championship with
the softball team.
Since graduating from Boston College
in 2010, Brown has made her living in
Nashville as a country music singer with
six studio albums and has appeared on
ESPN’s Monday Night Football, a GOP
presidential debate on CNN and at the
Grand Ole Opry.
— GREG CROAK ’06, DIRECTOR OF
GRADUATE AFFAIRS
Rally Day 2016
On Nobles Rally Day on March 3, Nobles aimed to bring in 610 new gifts for the Annual
Nobles Fund (ANF)—one gift for every Nobles student. By the end of Rally Day, the Rally
Day team counted 624 gifts, totaling $137,650 for the ANF from 529 graduates, 53 parents,
26 past parents, 12 Nobles faculty and staff members, three grandparents and one friend.
During the three weeks leading up to Rally Day, Nobles spotlighted some of the
students who benefit from ANF support. Daily Rally Day videos on the Nobles Graduate
Facebook page featured students’ favorite stories about their time at Nobles. Throughout
the day, Nobles students posed for social media photos with the beloved Nobles Bulldog
mascot, with signs thanking individual donors.
Over the past three years, Rally Day has become a meaningful community event.
Nobles is grateful for the support of the entire school, the many wonderful volunteers and,
of course, each and every generous gift made to the ANF. Thank you!
—ALLIE TRAINOR, DIRECTOR OF THE ANNUAL NOBLES FUND
BUILDING THE FUTURE
On March 9, Nobles publicly shared the architectural plans
and models for the new Academic Inquiry Center and the
Baker Science Building renovation. The Nobles board of
trustees is expected to approve funding for the project at its
May meeting, and groundbreaking on the Academic Inquiry
Center is set for June.
Head of School Bob Henderson ’76 spoke at the event to
explain how the project will reflect the changing function
of libraries and science centers. The new Academic Inquiry
Center will include space for both collaboration and quiet study
as well as several classrooms, a couple of which will be designated “innovation” classrooms. The new building’s open design
will improve the function of the Putnam library, including
the librarians’ ability to support and supervise students. The
renovated Baker Science Building will more easily accommodate long-term projects in the rapidly multiplying and evolving
areas of scientific inquiry.
The project’s architectural team, William Rawn Associates,
took the time to understand the unique character of Nobles’
campus and community. As Henderson said, “They’ve shown
tremendous intuition about this community—who we are and
what our values are.”
Andy Jonic, the architectural project manager, attended
assemblies and spent a month touring the grounds. “[The Academic Inquiry Center] is a community-centric project,” he said.
“We wanted to create a space that would be conducive to learning, with a quiet study area that will overlook the neighboring
woodland. We’ve designed the building so that it settles into the
landscape and feels like it has always belonged there.”
The committee involved as many people with a stake in the
plans as possible. As librarian Talya Sokoll said, “The school
has kept us extensively engaged in the process. They made sure
the library was both aesthetically pleasing and could meet the
needs of the community.”
Brown Brothers Harriman hosted the celebration in the
Stokley P. Towles Atrium at their new offices in Post Office
Square.
Digger Donahue, who calls himself “a grateful Nobles parent” and longtime friend of Towles, spoke on the significance of
the event’s location. A longtime trustee, parent and honorary
graduate of Nobles, Towles was, as Donahue said, “devoted to
Nobles and one of the school’s most committed and enthusiastic supporters.”
According to Donahue, Towles repeatedly argued for the
importance of investing in secondary education. “There is no
more important stage of life and no more impactful way to
invest,” Donahue remembered Towles saying. “Not college,
not graduate school. No, secondary education is the unique
stage where the positive potential to affect young lives is most
pronounced.”
Donahue concluded with a glance around the Atrium.
“I know an evening to celebrate Nobles moving forward is
something [Towles] would not want to miss,” Donahue said.
“I feel like he is with us here tonight.” —AS
perspectives
How Does
Change Happen?
The work is what matters BY SARA MASUCCI,
LEARNING SPECIALIST AND HISTORY FACULTY MEMBER
Once, in the midst of a challenging situation, someone said, “Well,
that’s just the way it is. There’s nothing to do about it.” My response,
uttered without conscious thought, was, “I have never felt that way
in my entire life.” For me, there is always something to do. But how
you do that “something,” now that’s the fun part.
I
n graduate school, I read Virginia Woolf’s Three Guineas. In
it, she grapples with the question of where she should donate
her money to effect societal
change. What stuck with me from this
book is the question of whether or not
change is best effected from inside or
outside “the system.” I cannot say I have
an answer to this, and that’s okay. The
power of her question is in that grappling. As a history teacher, I look to the
past regularly to see what has worked,
what has failed, and what remains unclear (this is by far the largest category).
I tell my students that the purpose
of studying the past is for the future:
Learning about what has happened can
inform what may happen.
As far as my past goes, I am the
product of a school that in many ways
is like Nobles, and yet there was a
unique aspect to my high school experience that few will relate to (excepting,
perhaps, the girls who arrived at Nobles
in the mid-1970s). When I began ninth
grade, it was the second year of coeducation, and there were nine girls in
my class. Four years later, there were
nine girls on the graduation stage.
The experience of being the only girl
in the room, of feeling that you are,
simply by your presence, changing the
culture of the school, shaped much
of who I am today. What I learned
in those years was that being part of
change was empowering, and challenging, and even a little daunting,
but most of all, it was worth it.
I left high school with the senior
superlative “most likely to be the next
Gloria Steinem,” and my college years
provided boundless opportunities to
focus on activism and channel my inner
Gloria. As college campuses are, in
many ways, bubbles for social justice,
this certainly validated the sense that
working for change was empowering.
My mentor in college gave me a pin
(pins were big in the ’90s) that read “If
you’re not outraged, you’re not paying
attention.” The words fit me, and I took
that sentiment into the real world.
Entering the real world, though, was
quite a shift. The bubble burst, and the
challenges that are part of taking action
became more clear. I have a strong
opinion about everything. In my years
of school, voicing my opinions and taking action on their behalf was typically
met with support. My first experiences
getting pushback about an idea or belief
were hard. Yet it was through these
moments that I realized that the work—
the slow, hard process of trying to shift
perspectives and increase awareness—
is what matters. Change is more about
commitment than flash.
I still say what I think—it’s central
to who I am. But I also know that what
I think is stronger and more powerful
when it connects to the thoughts and
work of others. My students make me
think all the time; they push me to view
ideas through different lenses. The community at Nobles encourages critical
thinking and questioning, integral steps
in broadening one’s perspective.
“Can there be big, blow-it-all-up change? Of course, and history shows us the value and
necessity of such moments. But they are rare, and often they represent the public result
of years of small victories and setbacks.” — SARA MASUCCI
At the end of Three Guineas, Woolf
does not present the reader with a
simple answer because, of course,
there is no simple answer. Instead, she
makes the case that change comes from
bringing new voices and methods into
the conversation and from being open
to the idea that “the way we’ve always
done it” does not have to be the way
we will always do it. For me, this is the
work of change. Change doesn’t mean,
and should not mean, that everything
must go. Instead, change is most often
brought about by small shifts and incremental movements. Can there be big,
blow-it-all-up change? Of course, and
history shows us the value and necessity
of such moments. But they are rare, and
often they represent the public result of
years of small victories and setbacks.
I may not be changing the world, and
who knows if I’m even doing it right, but
I like to think I’m part of making the
world a place that’s better than it was
yesterday. I do know that it matters to
speak your mind and stand up for your
beliefs. So I’ll keep doing it.
Building
OPPORTUN
Ten years of
healing and hope
in New Orleans
STORY A N D P H OTOGRA P H Y BY KI M N EA L
DAVID YEH ’18 WINCES as he pries a rotted soffit from the build-
ing that New Orleans business owner Burnell Cotlon dreams
of transforming into a neighborhood Internet café for the
Lower Ninth Ward. (Read Cotlon’s story, right.) Cracking
open the soffit is like peering into a time capsule. The 10-foot
roofline was almost certainly underwater when Hurricane
Katrina drowned the city in August 2005, and the building’s
cavity reveals wayward items carried by the flood. Among
the first discoveries is a vintage glass gavel, circa 1967–68.
The irony in finding this symbol of justice in a place that has
become synonymous with one of our nation’s grossest misjudgments in history is remarkable.
Pre-Katrina, National Weather Service predictions for the Gulf Coast states
foretold of the devastation and uninhabitability that the catastrophe would
incur. New Orleans, a city surrounded
by water, with an average elevation of
six feet below sea level, was especially
vulnerable. Then the levees broke and
erased the poorest neighborhoods, many
of them predominantly black. The inaction and misappropriation of resources
by the government and its agencies
following the storm drew nationwide
anger; it became starkly apparent that of
the hundreds of thousands affected by
Not Gonna Stop
ITY
Left: 2008 Nobles volunteers frame a
new home. Above: The 2016 Nobles
group gathers at one of three housing
sites for this year’s service.
the storm, a disproportionate number of
those who suffered were poor and black—
and Katrina only magnified the injustice
those populations had long endured.
Now, in 2016, New Orleans’ vibrant
center shows little trace of the meteorological monster, but in certain outskirts
like the Lower Ninth, its physical and psychological toll is still painfully evident—
those are the places where, for the past
10 years, Nobles has gone to serve. Since
2005, Nobles has sent about 350 students
and 65 adults to New Orleans, where
they have dedicated more than 18,000
hours of service to recovery efforts.
“You know how you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.” Burnell Cotlon
chuckles about his approach to the herculean task he and his wife, Keasha,
have taken on since Katrina devastated their community in New Orleans’ Lower
Ninth Ward (L9). “So many people see New Orleans on TV; they see Bourbon
Street, the Superdome, and they think, ‘Oh, New Orleans is good.’ But they
don’t see the Lower Ninth. We’re forgotten, but we’re still hurting.” On the last
day of their week of service in New Orleans, Nobles students hang on his every
word, marveling at his optimism and humor under circumstances that would
render many defeated.
The Cotlons were the first in their neighborhood to move back to the L9
after the storm. Now they want to help it match the recovery they’ve seen in
central New Orleans. Along with the loss of lives and homes, local businesses
were literally washed away. Prior to Katrina, the ward was home to 14,000
people; almost 11 years later, barely 3,000 have returned. Big-box stores won’t
build there because there aren’t enough customers, but people won’t move
back because there is no infrastructure. The Cotlons aim to break that cycle.
“If you have the schools and the stores to make a community, people will come
back,” Burnell says.
The Cotlons provide goods and services residents so desperately need
but can’t find within several miles. For nine years, the Lower Ninth Ward
had no grocery store. In 2009, Burnell and Keasha bought a small, severely
storm-damaged building for $3,000 and restored it themselves. They opened
the Lower Ninth Ward Market in November 2014 and reinvested all profits
into renovating and restocking the store. To date, they have spent more than
$100,000 of their own. Before the market opened, some neighbors—about 30
percent of ward residents—took as many as three city buses to buy a loaf of
bread. Children in the area still board school buses at 3 or 4 a.m. and spend 12
to 13 hours away from home; there are no schools left standing. Burnell recalls,
“I cried many times on the roof of this building, but seeing people getting off
the bus with their kids and all the bags motivated me to work even harder.”
The Cotlons have since added a barber shop, and with the help of fellow
New Orleanian Ellen DeGeneres, a small-scale laundromat. In an adjacent
building on their lot, they envision an Internet café where teens can come do
homework and college applications. The Lower Ninth Ward Market has become
a place for children to come
read and listen to music and for
Dani Abouhamad ’18,
adults to come talk politics and
Burnell Cotlon and
David Yeh ’18
visit; it brings people together.
“I’m just an average guy
with above-average dreams.
I’m not gonna stop; I’m gonna
keep on going, rocking and
rolling, no matter what,” says
Burnell, focused on the Nobles
students gathered around him.
To learn more about the
Lower Ninth Ward Market, visit
https://www.gofundme.com
/LowerNinthWard
"I watched a lot of
the news circling
the 10-year
anniversary of
Hurricane Katrina,
and the press
almost made it
seem as if the
rebuilding effort
was complete.
We’ve done
tremendous work
as a school, and
touched the lives
of many in need,
but there is still
more to do."
—MATT ABATE ’17
The trips began when Stephanie
Grace ’83—a political columnist for
the Times-Picayune, who received a
Pulitzer for public service journalism
in 2006 for her team’s Katrina coverage—connected with Community
Service Director Linda Hurley. Hurley
led the trips until 2015, when Assistant
to the Head of School Lauren Overzet
joined her as a coleader and coordinator. Hurley says, “New Orleans is truly
unique in its history and culture. The
people are incredibly resilient and
gracious—they keep us coming back.
I love that I have been able to experience the trip over the years with so
many students, faculty and staff.
“The NOLA trip wouldn’t be what
it is without Linda Hurley and her
desire to connect people. Linda is a New
Orleanian living in a New Englander’s
body. She is the gregarious, inquisitive
person who puts a story to every face
she encounters. We meet people like
Robert Green and Burnell Cotlon, we
learn from their shared experiences,
and it makes the service work that much
more significant,” says Overzet.
Thanks to the relationship between
Hurley and Grace, early groups of
students had the opportunity to meet
with the journalists who had covered
the storm. Among them was photojournalist Ted Jackson, who captured the
now-iconic image of Lower Ninth Ward
resident Robert Green draped in the flag
belonging to his mother, a Navy veteran
and Katrina victim. Jackson and Green
are both longtime friends of
Nobles and continue to share
their stories with students.
Accounts like theirs—about
their fierce love of home,
frustration at the government’s
failure to respond and the
biased allocation of emergency
resources and services—shape
students’ perspectives. Looking
into someone’s eyes while they
explain that Katrina robbed
them of all they had in this
world, it’s impossible not to feel
despair at the sheer numbers
who were displaced or worse.
Many of this year’s volunteers
are 16–18 years old. To them,
the hurricane is only an abstract memory,
if that. To come to New Orleans and do
work in the areas hardest hit is to come
to terms with the fact that even now,
Katrina has left forsaken areas from
which the waters have receded but the
need is still high. Among the tales of loss
are also those of resilience: hearing not
only what New Orleanians mourn, but
also how they find strength to rebuild,
gives students empathy and inspiration.
Christian Pisano ’17 said, “This trip made
me realize how fortunate I really am. The
people of New Orleans are very strong
and have been through great hardship.
They taught us how to move on from your
worst moments in life.”
The needs of volunteer organizations in New Orleans have not changed
as much in 10 years as one might think,
because assistance for many communities has been neglected. In the first
couple of years after Katrina, Nobles
trips focused on immediate disaster
relief. Students worked with the New
Orleans Parks and Recreation Department rehabbing playing fields. They
volunteered at a community center
in St. Bernard Parish that helped
neighbors get groceries and process
paperwork for assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency
(FEMA) and local organizations.
Over the years, Nobles has partnered with numerous organizations in
New Orleans, among them Habitat for
Humanity, Second Harvest Food Bank
and several schools. This year’s partner
was the St. Bernard Project (SBP) of
New Orleans, which seeks to provide
affordable housing; its mission is to help
disaster-impacted citizens recover and
get back in their homes. They estimate
that 6,000 families displaced from Hurricane Katrina still need help, and that
they have enough work to last through
2020. This March, Nobles volunteers
put up drywall, sanded, mudded, painted
“More than anything, I was touched by its [the
Lower Ninth Ward's] inhabitants. Their heart, drive
and hope made me realize the magnitude of help
that New Orleans still deserves.” —ANNA HAIGH ’16
and laid flooring at three different SBP
homes in various stages of development.
On one job site, the home’s soon-to-be
resident came by to thank students. She
shared how she and her toddler daughter
were displaced by Hurricane Katrina,
then abandoned by a contractor who
conned her out of $68,000. Over the past
10 years, she and her daughter (now 13)
have moved nine times. “People come in
cars from Georgia and Florida to help,
and we appreciate it. But for y’all to fly all
the way down here to give your time—
I can’t tell you how much it means.”
Moments like these are common through
EXCEL (Experiential & Community
Engaged Learning) and the school’s mission of leadership for the public good.
Ten years of Nobles in New Orleans
bring with them countless stories. Ask a
volunteer from any year about the trip,
and without fail, those exchanges are
what they remember most. Through
the work we help people, but hearing their experiences connects us and
changes us. N
Doing His Part
This March, Assistant Director of Graduate Affairs Michael Polebaum
’08 returned to New Orleans with Nobles for the first time since his
senior year, this time as a chaperone.
Kim Neal: Tell me about the first time you went to New Orleans
with Nobles, in 2008.
Michael Polebaum: You couldn’t walk around the neighborhood
without feeling the desperation. Almost every other house was in
a state of disrepair, marked with Xs, because adjusters had to check
for damage and search for bodies. Those Xs were on houses that
were lived in, too—they just hadn't gotten around to painting.
People were angry and lost. But there was hope, too, because
people were doing good things. We worked with the Community
Center of St. Bernard where Louisa Harrison ’08, [former college
counselor] Kate Coon and I met a guy named Richard. He was not
in a good place. He wanted to kill himself.
KN: And you’re listening to him, and you’re 18 years old…
MP: I’m 18 years old. But we get him talking, and by the end of
it, he’s laughing and sharing stories. His wife died because of the
storm, his kids weren’t in the area, he lived in a FEMA trailer in front
of his home that had been destroyed. His job, as he put it, was to
drive around a woman who lost her car and had no other way to get
around. Focusing on that helped him to see that maybe it wasn’t the
best decision to end it. The next year, Richard and his family were at
the Community Center to thank Nobles.
I tell students, if you do anything on this trip, listen, because
this is a community that hasn’t been listened to for decades.
KN: How is the trip different now from what you remember?
What are the challenges?
ART CREDIT
MP: Instead of gutting houses, we’re building opportunity housing
for low- and middle-income families. That work should be happening everywhere, including before the storm hit. It just wasn’t.
As we get further from Katrina, we’ll need to do more to make
sure kids understand how and why this happened. It’s quickly becoming history in their minds. In ’08, we could say, “I’ve seen what
20 feet of water looks like. I’ve seen people standing on the roofs.”
That’s the difficulty going forward.
KN: I’m curious now if your trip in ’08 influenced your choice to
enter politics, even though it’s no longer what you’re doing full-time.
(Note: Polebaum spent three years serving various roles in the world
of Massachusetts politics.)
MP: Yes, I’m still involved
Michael Polebaum ’08
and volunteering. Change
only occurs if we make it
occur; much of that comes
through governmental
policies. We need to make
sure the right people are in
place. Katrina showed what
inaction does; the lack of
leadership was evident. It
made me angry, and it made
me want to do something.
This country’s still not what it
should be. That’s the beauty
of it, though, right? We’re
supposed to be perfecting
our union. We each have a
duty to do our part.
food
BY H EAT H ER SULLI VA N
A ND A LEX I S SULLI VA N
though
PHOTO BY JULIE KRAFT
ht
Food, like love, is a universal language—a unifying
need. The late M.F.K. Fisher, a renowned and
profound food writer, once mused, “I still think that
one of the pleasantest of all emotions is to know that I,
I with my brain and my hands, have nourished my
beloved few, that I have concocted a stew or a story, a
rarity or a plain dish, to sustain them truly against the
hungers of the world.” Meet three Nobles grads who,
in distinct ways, do just the same.
“I don’t have flowery stories
of gardens and children
who are chewing on
carrots that I had from
my earlier career. But I
ensure those programs
have the resources to be
successful across California.”
—KATIE HELWIG PANARELLA ’94
A
policy maker
“ACCORDING TO THE CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL, 86 percent
of our medical costs are related to chronic disease, many of
which are diet-related and preventable,” says Katie Helwig
Panarella ’94. “Physical activity and eating well need to become
an accessible, acceptable norm—a basic right for all families—reinforced at the individual, organizational, institutional,
professional and policy level.”
Panarella’s path to her current position at the Youth, Families and Communities Statewide Program of the University
of California, Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources
(UCANR) wasn’t always straight and narrow. While in college
at the University of California, Berkeley, Panarella knew she
wanted to work with a nonprofit, but she always thought she
would focus on poverty alleviation in developing communities
in Latin America or the Caribbean.
Early stints had her working as a research assistant analyzing
environmental effects of export processing in Bangladesh and
looking at the effects of shrimp farming in North Africa. Living
in California and between positions, she took a restaurant job to
earn money, then spent six months traveling in Europe, Latin
America, Patagonia and Central America. When she returned,
she found a position in Truckee, Calif., as program director and
hunger prevention coordinator for Project MANA (Making
Adequate Nutrition Accessible).
The common denominator was always food. Panarella said
that since her time as an athlete at Nobles, she had always had
a personal interest in nutrition but hadn’t considered
how it might relate to her interest in nonprofits.
Finally, it all came together: “The job in Truckee
combined my background in resource management, poverty elimination and working
with low-income families. In Tahoe, there’s
tourism and money. But there are also people
supporting tourism industries who are really
struggling to make ends meet. There was just
incredible need.”
That need prompted Panarella to manage three
community gardens. While earning her bachelor’s
degree at Berkeley, she had spent summers working with a
landscape architect, and she had volunteered at a community
garden working with children, so she had ideas about how the
gardens could impact lives. “That was around the time a lot of
data came out about the importance of connecting children to
food. The kids would do activities in the garden—pick their own
salads. I got into that because I love children, I have a gardening
background, and I could keep the garden growing.”
The Tahoe nonprofit eventually lost funding, and Panarella
landed at the San Francisco Food Bank in 2005, where she was
tapped to design the city’s nutrition program. Around that time, she says, data
correlating poverty and obesity exploded. “I couldn’t make sense of it. We had
really just started integrating emergency
food and chronic hunger with nutrition. If someone has the choice between
Chef Boyardee and nothing, you’re not
going to tell them to eat nothing. It was
delicate. How do you increase a focus
on nutrition without decreasing actual
access to food?”
Panarella helped develop a cooking
curriculum in partnership with Leah’s
Pantry in San Francisco, a step toward
complementing food access and nutrition
education. Her next effort in San Francisco was to help manage a USDA snack program for children. As part of that work,
she managed federal contracts and said
she began to understand the importance
of blending local and federal resources.
Soon after, Panarella began working with
the Children’s Council of San Francisco,
where she managed the USDA Child and
Adult Food Care Program. In addition
to ensuring that day-care providers prepared healthy meals for kids, the program
offered cooking classes and featured
other events focused on nutrition.
By now, Panarella was passionate
about nutrition policy and went in search
of a graduate program to help her better
understand research, scientific method
and broad policy issues.
She completed a dual master’s program at Tufts University, earning an M.S.
in food policy and applied nutrition from
the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, plus a master’s in public
health from the School of Medicine, with
a concentration in nutrition. As part of
her graduate work, she was a consultant
and research-evaluation specialist for
a children’s cooking lab project—ChopChop—which assessed objective and
short-term outcomes in low-income
Boston neighborhoods.
Last year, Panarella started her position as associate director of the Nutrition and Family and Consumer Sciences
Program and Policy at UCANR, which is
a land grant institution, established in
the 1800s, to connect university research
to farmers and the public. The youth program 4-H, which fosters understanding
of agriculture and home economics, is
one outgrowth of land grant institutions.
“The work we do now is really engaging Californians throughout the state to
address local issues at the county level,”
she says. Panarella works with a team
that tests changes in programmatic
delivery, assessing their effectiveness.
With colleagues, she might, for instance,
look at a garden-based curriculum or
another specific nutrition curriculum, or
at specific age groups, to understand the
impact on people’s behavioral changes.
Her group looks for shifts in diet quality
and physical activity, food resource management, food security and food safety.
“I don’t have flowery stories of gardens and children who are chewing on
carrots that I had from my earlier career.
But I ensure those programs have the
resources to be successful across California,” she says. Panarella calls nutrition
programming and analysis an “imperfect science” that involves incredible
complexity, including self-reporting of
food consumption and navigating the 70
languages that Californians speak, leaving much subject to effective translation.
“Yet our educators are doing an amazing job. It’s my job at the state level to
make sure they have the skills to collect
the data and to report to the USDA so we
keep our funding and continue to help
32,000 youth and 7,000 adults every year.”
N
farm team
NINE YEARS AGO, WHEN NOBLES COLLEGE COUNSELOR Kate Ramsdell
looked at the bearded founder of “CHAMPIONS: the Chin
Hair Association for Magnanimous People Intent on Nobles
Spirit” sitting before her, she pointed the young Jack Frechette
’07 in the direction of Carleton College. “I swear,” Frechette
laughs, “before I came to Minnesota, I could barely put it on a
map. Now I’ve completely adopted the life out here.”
That Minnesota lifestyle, for Frechette and his girlfriend,
Julie Kraft, meant starting a small, sustainable and humane
farm with about 100 animals and 234 acres.
Frechette followed a circuitous path to his country
lifestyle. A religious studies major, he took a side job as an
assistant grower in the biology department’s greenhouse at
his college. “It was just a job I took on a whim to make some
extra cash,” he says. “But agriculture really drew me in.”
After working on different farms all around Minnesota,
Frechette moved back to the Twin Cities to live with Kraft.
He was working on an urban farm, but they both decided they
wanted to lead a simpler, more meaningful life in the country.
Kraft, who grew up on a vegetable farm near Buffalo, N.Y., was
quick to join in Frechette’s excitement when they decided to
“give the farming thing another go.”
In December 2014, Frechette and Kraft bought a beautiful piece of land in Hinckley, Minn. They now have 100 lives
depending on them but have realized the need to pace
themselves as they expand. “It’s always exciting to get
new animals,” Frechette says, “but we have to temper our
excitement and make sure we’re always still profitable as
a small business.”
The top priority of Frechette Farms (pictured, p. 28) is to
raise their animals humanely and sustainably for their community. “We are committed to being a local producer,” Frechette
says. “Be it vegetable or poultry or red meat, we want people to
feel a connection to our farm. Every animal, no matter what it is
or how irritating it can be on a daily basis, is extremely important to us.” This means extra time, money and effort
to maintain low stocking densities for their
animals and to resist using pesticides and
herbicides on their vegetables.
“It is much more expensive and takes
a whole lot more effort to raise animals
humanely,” Frechette says. However,
Frechette Farms produces a completely
different product than what is sold at most
supermarkets. “Animals that are raised
well are not just happier animals,” Frechette
explains. “They lead to food with serious health
benefits for the consumers.”
Frechette and Kraft focus on each
animal’s individual needs, which means
that every animal on the farm gets a
name. “Naming the animals is actually
a long process,” Frechette laughs. “We
take it very seriously. Some of the names
we give the animals are more personal or
are names of people we know. We usually
get two pigs at the same time, so we give
them buddy names. We had Bonnie and
Clyde before, going off the idea that the
original Bonnie and Clyde didn’t make it
out of their last situation and, well…”
Frechette attributes the success of
his small business to the farming community around him, the beautiful land
he now owns and the wonderful animals
he works with every day. He also thanks
Kraft, who spends her days as a therapist
for children with autism and her spare
time helping Frechette on the farm. “She
has been a great partner,” he says. “She
grew up with that farmer’s temperament
that anything can go wrong at any time.
While some days are tough, we certainly
feel very blessed.
“There’s no question I could be doing
a thousand other things,” Frechette says,
“but connecting my work to a general
sense of purpose has been really important to me. Being on the farm involves
working with my hands and working weird
hours that nobody else works, but it’s all
worth it when I see the physical results of
my efforts manifest right in front of me.”
Frechette is excited to join the growing community of people committed to
local and sustainable farming. Recognizing that the movement always has
space to grow, Frechette says, “We’d
love to be able to help spread knowledge
about holistic management of animals
and local and sustainable farming so
that we become a catalyst in that growing conversation. I’m lucky enough to
put in the time on the ground to make
a difference here that might make a
larger difference in the future.”
I
food as
theatre
IN A SPRING 2015 ONLINE VIDEO, SALLY JACKSON ’96 demonstrated
how to prepare a cucumber-jicama snack. Jackson is part of
what’s known as the B-Team—celebrity chef Bobby Flay’s core
team of writers, recipe testers and assistants who help manage
the $20 million enterprise that employs about 1,500 people and
includes restaurants, cookbooks, cookware and even equestrian pursuits that comprise an empire.
“I’ve definitely always been interested in food. Growing
up I really enjoyed baking with my mom and my sister [Susannah Jackson Sullivan ’01]. My sister is now one of my favorite cooking partners.” In the summertime, the sisters and
extended family get together on the Cape, where they make
lemon sole, salads and favorite desserts—simple food, she says.
Jackson also worked during college at True Circle, a Cape
Cod restaurant where she waited tables and first worked in
a commercial kitchen.
Jackson moved to New York to become an actress and, in
the early 2000s, she took a job at Bolo, one of Flay’s restaurants
(at that time, she didn’t even know her boss’s name). More
than a decade later, Jackson—a cookbook aficionado whose old
favorites include The Silver Palate, Moosewood and America’s
Test Kitchen books—is now, in many ways, the voice of Flay.
She writes the foreword to every book as well as recipe notes
for Flay’s books, while another member of their team, Stephanie Banyas, acts as lead on recipe testing, perfecting the details.
“Bobby’s books are all geared toward the home cook. I can
understand Bobby’s mindset and vocabulary and put into
words his thoughts about recipes,” Jackson says. “In the
beginning, I would get out a little tape recorder and sit
down and interview him about each recipe and take
copious notes. Now I definitely will talk about certain
recipes and the origin and why do you particularly
like to use this ingredient—and then I can expand
upon that. I have been paying pretty close attention
to my boss for the past 14 years.”
In September, Jackson published her seventh
cookbook as part of the Flay and Banyas team, Brunch at
Bobby’s: 140 Recipes for the Best Part of the Weekend. The
latest addition is getting strong reviews on Amazon, and Publishers Weekly cites Flay’s signature emphasis on bold flavors as
appealingly present.
Jackson’s first collaboration was Bobby Flay’s Grilling for
Life, and it still might be her favorite. As part of the foreword,
she wrote for Flay, “Grilling is the most basic method of cook-
ing there is. It dates back to
the time of cavemen—food
plus fire equals good.”
But Jackson asserts that not
all of her lines struck mellifluous gold upon publication. In an earlier
book, one line—in retrospect—stunk. “I
included the line, ‘I smell a party,’ and
somehow that got past Bobby and the
editor,” Jackson says, noting that it continues to be a joke among the team.
Jackson’s role extends beyond word
choice. She is also a regular at events,
including Food Network & Cooking
Channel South Beach Wine & Food
Festival presented by Food and Wine
magazine. She helps manage media,
scheduling, contracts and accounts, and
even Flay’s equestrian interests.
“He has always been into horses and
horse racing,” Jackson says. “That interest just ballooned over the years, and it
became a real business. It’s a breeding
and racing business, and a thing that I’ve
sort of grown with.”
Clearly, Jackson isn’t bored. In addition to her work with Flay’s empire,
she’s married with two young children
and lives in Harlem. And she cooks for
them, too, something Flay has asked her
to represent in her cooking demonstrations on his website, bobbyflay.com,
where Jackson has latitude to play with
ideas and ingredients that appeal to
her. “I wouldn’t presume to think that
Bobby’s core audience is turning to him
for posts on marinated tofu and quinoa,
but goodness knows that there is a huge
population of people who are interested in that way of eating, so why not
be open to exploring it all?” she says. “Bobby’s books are all geared
toward the home cook. I
can understand Bobby’s
mindset and vocabulary
and put into words his
thoughts about recipes.”
— SALLY JACKSON ’96
Jackson’s love of cooking as a young
person in Massachusetts has developed
into an eclectic, sometimes glamorous
job. Yet it’s still about the food and collaboration, she says. Two of Jackson’s
favorite dishes from the cookbooks are
Brussels sprouts with a pomegranatemolasses syrup and a tomato strata
(recipe below). While she doesn’t write
recipes, she says that Flay includes other
members of the team in brainstorming
and cooking retreats at his home, where
he welcomes input on the food.
“Bobby is direct, forceful, engaging
and always happiest in the kitchen. He
really does know his stuff. I may kid him
about his old line about using honey not
to sweeten but to balance spicy flavors—
but he’s right, and you know it the second
you taste his food. He understands how
to create balance with contrasting flavors
and textures no matter what the cuisine.
“It’s great to work with a person who
has that kind of talent. He had a lot of suc-
cess early on, but he’s earned it,” she says.
“He’s not a flash in the pan.”
Jackson’s ability to articulate the
vision of one of the country’s most
successful chefs was learned, in part, at
Nobles. She credits English faculty member Vicky Seelen with a lifelong love of
The New Yorker, she says, and she still has
dreams about whether she has finished a
paper for Mr. Philip Burnham.
Clearly, Jackson’s sharp syntax is no
fluke. N
TOMATO STRATA
More of a baked panzanella than anything else, this strata, bursting
with tomato flavor, is a lovely side dish for poached or scrambled
eggs. It can be prepared in advance and is delicious served hot or
at room temperature. (SERVES 4 TO 6)
■■
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1⁄2 cup plus 2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for the dish
3 garlic cloves, smashed
1 medium French baguette, cut into 1⁄2-inch dice
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 pounds ripe beefsteak tomatoes, seeded and diced
Pinch of sugar
Pinch of red pepper flakes
6 large eggs
1⁄4 cup lightly packed thinly sliced basil leaves
1 cup freshly grated Romano cheese
ART CREDIT
1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease a 2-quart baking dish with
olive oil.
2.Put ½ cup of the oil and the garlic cloves in a large high-sided
sauté pan over medium heat and cook the garlic until lightly
golden brown on both sides, about 2 minutes. Add the bread
cubes and salt and pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until
the bread cubes are lightly golden brown on all sides, 5 minutes.
Add the tomatoes, sugar and red pepper flakes to the pan and
continue to cook, stirring often, for 5 minutes. Remove from the
heat, transfer to a bowl, and let cool.
3.Whisk the eggs in a small bowl and add to the tomato mixture.
Season with salt and pepper and add the basil. Pour into the
prepared baking dish. Sprinkle evenly with the cheese and drizzle
with the remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil. Bake until the top is
browned and the tomatoes are bubbly, about 30 minutes.
ON
THE
CAMPA
TRAIL
In her relatively short career, Kylie Atwood ’07 has
covered the Boston Marathon bombings live, worked
closely with media legend and former host of Face the
Nation Bob Schieffer, and teased presidential candidate
Bernie Sanders about his underwear. Here’s what
Atwood, a digital campaign journalist with CBS, had
to say to Nobles magazine editor Heather Sullivan.
BY H E AT H E R S U L L I VA N | P H OTOGRA P H Y BY C HRI ST I A N FLEURY
IGN
Heather Sullivan: How did your interest
in journalism begin?
Kylie Atwood: My love for all things
journalism started with photography
at Nobles. I had always loved taking
photos but senior year, I was a photographer for the Nobleman and my photos
became a storytelling tool. At Middlebury, I started as a photographer for
the paper, and then I decided I wanted
to start writing. I would write anything
they needed. It was a great way to learn.
I also interned for the local NBC affiliate every Friday in Burlington (Vt.).
I would wake up at 5 in the morning
senior year to go there. You don’t do
that senior spring unless you love what
you’re doing, right? My internship at
Global Post as a junior, and then at 60
Minutes as a senior, made me realize
I wanted to get into the broadcast side.
I love what I do now because I get to
do a little bit of everything. I get to
write. I get to take pictures. I get to
shoot video.
HS: What happened next?
KA: I was going to work for CBS New
York, and they called and said, “Would
you be interested in moving to D.C.?”
I said, “Yes. What do you need?” The
woman said, “Bob Schieffer is looking
for an assistant, and you would need
to start next week.” I said, “Great. I’m
going to D.C. next week.” She said,
“Actually, he’s in New York City tonight.
So if you could interview this afternoon
in New York, that would be better.” I
hung up the phone and sprinted to find
an outfit. I interviewed with Bob, and
before the evening news started, I had
the job—all in less than 24 hours.
It was the best job I could have asked
for. I learned an immense amount
about politics. I worked for Bob for
three years, which was the thrill of a
lifetime because of everything I got to
cover with him, everything I learned
from him and because, simply put, he
is one of the most amazing people I’ve
ever met.
HS: What’s the most important thing you
learned from working with him?
KA: When I’m out on the [campaign]
trail, the advice I constantly remind
myself of—that he is a big advocate of—is,
“Ask the question that everyone wants to
ask. Ask the obvious question.” You have
to know what’s happening in the news
cycle to ask newsworthy questions, but
you also have to have a sense of what the
everyday person would like to ask this
candidate. If you constantly come back
to the basics of journalism, which Bob
mastered, you don’t get as overwhelmed.
A fun example of that is when I was covering Bernie Sanders in Iowa.
That weekend, [comedian] Larry
David had imitated him on Saturday
Night Live. It was the first time we had
seen Larry David do the full Bernie
Sanders. I asked him what he thought of
the impression, and he gave the generic,
“Oh, I think it was good.” My follow-up
question was, “Well, Senator Sanders, do
you have more than one pair of underwear?” Because in the skit Larry David
said Bernie Sanders only has one pair of
underwear that he cleans every day. It
was hilarious. It was a spot-on assessment
of how the American people view this
74-year-old senator from Vermont. You
could hear his press person in the back go,
“Oh, my gosh. No, no, no.” Bernie Sanders
said he has more than one pair of underwear and actually has more than one suit.
I asked the question that the normal
American who is watching Saturday
Night Live wants to ask. That’s the main
takeaway from my time with Bob—at
least how it translates to the work I’m
doing right now.
HS: Tell me about how, still working
as Schieffer’s assistant, you ended up
covering the Boston Marathon bombings
live in 2013.
KA: I hopped a plane to Boston for the
marathon, because my best childhood
friend was running in it. Ironically, I had
taken that day off work. I was about 50
yards from the finish line. There was this
overwhelming sense of jubilation personally because I had just seen her go by, and
the whole Boston downtown was electric.
I ended up being between the two
bombs that went off. It was awful, and it
was scary, and it was completely overwhelming. At first we thought maybe one
of the manholes had erupted. In a literal second after, I remember slowing
down because we were all running away.
Then I just started taking pictures. I knew
I had to capture this moment in order
to explain to people what I was seeing
around me. I started taking videos, but I
was really shaky. As scary as that day was,
it also made me realize that even without
any experience of covering a live breaking news situation, I sort of instinctively
knew what to do: Just go out, try and
figure out what happened, talk to people,
do interviews, talk to the police.
I ended up being there all night doing
a live hit on CBS Evening News, which
is something I never in a million years
thought I was going to be doing that
night. I learned so much about what it
means to cover breaking news and how
you can be in any place at any time and
have to go into action.
I was the only person from CBS News
Network on the ground for a while. We
had our local affiliate WBZ there, [and] I
was doing live reporting as part of a CBS
special report. The first person I called
when this happened was Bob Schieffer,
and he told me, “Call the assignment
desk right now.”
I realized that that’s what I’m passionate about. I had been doing a lot of
research and politically based news, but
[the marathon] made me realize that I
wanted to be out in the field.
HS: What’s life like on the campaign trail?
KA: No two days are alike and there is
no time to sleep. My job is to cover the
candidates’ events, ask them questions,
get a sense for how people are reacting
and collect the best material for all CBS
News platforms. There are a lot of factors
at play. It is pretty exhilarating to see my
footage on CBS Evening News and my
original reporting on the CBS website. I
really hit the ground running in August
2015. I moved to Iowa and got an apartment, and then I went to the state fair for
11 days straight. Who would have thought
that the state fair is ground zero for presidential campaigns? Well it is. And at that
point, you get to get really close to them
and ask anything you want. As I watched
Jeb Bush sport a pair of cowboy boots and
drink a beer in the beer tent, I chuckled to
myself. I knew that his Iowa state director wanted him to drink that beer so he
would look more like an everyday man.
It is not easy. Some days span 18
hours, like on March 14, when Bernie
Sanders had five events in four states.
We woke up in Ohio and went to bed
in Arizona. Then there are other days,
like the afternoon I got to get Blue
Bunny ice cream as I waited for Chris
Christie’s event in Le Mars, Iowa.
It is incredibly important work.
Every day I remind myself that I am living history. I get to dive into the issues
with the candidates. On the Democratic
side, a main issue recently has been
trade deals—who would have thought
that I would be getting a crash course
in international trade? But the point
is that I am learning so much about
specific topics as well as journalism, this
country and these candidates. I write
up stories if I can, and I live-tweet.
At a typical event, I set up my camera,
and then I live-log the whole event and
mark highlights. At the end, I send a
quick summary, including a readout of
what the crowd reaction was, and what
audience members had to say, to producers deciding what to use for CBS Evening
News and CBS This Morning packages.
It is a lot of fun because you are on the
front lines and people want to talk to
you and tell you what they think. That is
my favorite part: talking to the people.
HS: Can you share some of your close
observations of the candidates?
KA: I hadn't covered John Kasich before
South Carolina. His main message was
one of uplifting the American spirit and
bringing people together. I watched one
teacher ask how he’s going to make the
education system better, and he told
her he would work on it, but ultimately
it’s up to the community. How can they
make the education system better in
their town? He’d turn things around
on the audience, which I found pretty
interesting.
He recognized me after covering him
for a few days. I was backstage before
the CBS debate in Greenville, and it was
three minutes before they were going to
go onstage, and John was out there, and
you see Jeb Bush walking around, shaking everyone’s hand in a very presidential
way. He fixed Donald Trump’s tie, which
I found hilarious. These people are about
to go have one of the deciding nights
of their campaign, and I get to see the
excitement and nervousness before they
hit the stage.
Kasich is standing there looking at the
ground, and all of a sudden he bumps me.
He doesn’t know my name, but he knows
I cover him, so he starts chatting with
me. He said, “How long do we have before
we hit the stage?” I said, “Governor, you
have two and a half minutes. How are you
feeling?” He said, “We’re going to have
so much fun.” He wanted that human
contact before hitting the stage.
HS: How has seeing some aspects of the
heartland of America surprised you?
KA: If you had told me when I was at
Nobles that I would be living in Iowa
when I was 26 years old, I would have
thought you were crazy. Now Des Moines
is one of my favorite cities in the country.
I know the baristas in town at all my
favorite coffee shops. I know their political views, who their kids are. I know that
they grew up on a farm that’s 30 miles
outside Des Moines. There are pieces of
the American story that you learn out
on the campaign trail, too. You can live
anywhere and find stories anywhere if
you’re willing to look for them. I also
love traveling, and I guess I just never
thought traveling would take me to
Iowa and South Carolina and D.C. One
thing I’ve done a lot of is take pictures
of kids on the campaign trail. On Face
the Nation, they used a bunch of my still
photos [from Instagram] to close the
show. It was like my career had gone full
circle. I was in those control rooms for
so long putting that show together, and
now I was out on the campaign trail, and
they’re using my videos, my interviews
and my still photos, which goes back to
when I started journalism as a photographer at Nobles.
HS: Can you comment on how you’ve seen
social media functioning in this campaign?
KA: I can’t imagine the campaign
trail without social media. Every time
Donald Trump tweets, CBS News gets
an alert, and that comes from the digital
journalist who covers him. This is a
social media campaign. I think most
of the candidates have an Instagram,
and most of them have a Snapchat. It’s
not just Twitter. It’s every front. When
you get retweeted by a Bernie Sanders supporter—and your Twitter blows
up because you have 30 new followers—you have to pay that much closer
attention to what you’re putting out
into the universe because it’s being seen
by more eyes than you can imagine.
HS: What's it like on the front lines of
campaign rallies?
KA: I covered tons of Trump rallies in
Iowa. As a journalist I loved covering
him. Why? Well, for better or worse,
Trump rallies are a place where his
supporters feel they can voice their
opinions. It was also interesting to watch
Trump suck the air out of any room I
have been in with him. In person he
has a very commanding presence and
he likes to have complete control. That
was evident when he threw journalist
Jorge Ramos out of a press conference.
I witnessed that moment and chased
Ramos out of the room to talk to him.
Trump’s thirst for control is also clear
when he calls out the press at many of
his events. I have been 10 feet away from
him when he has called the press scum.
You learn to roll with the punches.
I have also learned that everyone has
a story, you just have to ask them. N
graduate news
NOTES & ANNOUNCEMENTS FROM CLASSMATES
Graduate
Notes Policy:
■■ Send graduate updates
and photographs to class
correspondents if you
have one.
■■ Digital photographs must be
high-resolution JPEG images
(1MB+) to appear in print.
■■ Editorial staff reserves the
right to edit, format, and
select all materials for
publication, to accommodate
eight decades of classes in
the magazine.
■■ For more information,
please visit the Graduate
Notes submission page on
our website at www.nobles.
edu/gradnotes.
■■ Contact us if you’re
interested in becoming a
class correspondent, to
collect and compile news
of your classmates to share.
1940
CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Percy Nelson
617-244-4126
[email protected]
1941
William P. Hall announced that
in 2015, his family welcomed “a
great-grandson, grandchild #11,
named William—the first so
named since me.”
1942
1948
CLASS CORRESPONDENT
CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Putty McDowell
781-320-1960
[email protected]
Bill Bliss
781-326-1062
[email protected]
1946
1949
CLASS CORRESPONDENT
CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Gregg Bemis
505-983-7094
[email protected]
John Guilbert
520-887-0628
Gents: Reviewing notes from
our 10th reunion (yes, I saved
them), from September 1940
until graduation, we had a total
of 24 class members. Due to
departures for WWII and other
causes, while we carried 16 on our
graduate rolls, we actually only
had 11 at graduation in June of ’46.
Further attrition since then has
brought us down to five remaining members, to my knowledge.
With our 70th reunion coming
up next spring, I hope we can all
gather together one more time.
I had a good message from
Jim Homans recently, who had
nothing startling to report but
was in his usual good humor.
Dick Lucas also reported that
he had had a good conversation
with Beezer, who sounded terrific
and can be reached at 781-3207812. He would like to hear from
us. All’s well here in Santa Fe.
We’ve had a foot of snow this
past week. Tough on an old back.
Hope to see you all in May.
1950
CLASS CORRESPONDENTS
Peter Briggs
513-474-2520
[email protected]
door on the afternoon of this past
Christmas Eve but Bill Russell.
Next followed two hours of happy
conversation at a nearby coffee
shop. One thing we discovered was
that we each had written our Little
Essays on the same author, the late
but not forgotten E.B. White. Small
world indeed.
Ralph “Tad” Powell writes, “I
retired as of January 1, 2016. I am
looking forward to more time to
visit offspring, travel (Italy in July),
etc. Maybe some of you guys have
advice for me. I hope so. Please
send some along.”
1951
CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Sid Eaton Jr.
503-223-7548
[email protected]
Galt Grant
781-383-0854
[email protected]
Just over a year ago, when our
new neighbors, Jonathan and
Jessica Russell, were moving into
the house next to ours, I asked
Jonathan where he was from.
“Wellesley, Massachusetts,”
came his answer. On a chance,
I asked him if he had attended
the Noble and Greenough School
in Dedham. “No,” he replied, “I
went to the Roxbury Latin School,
but my father, William Russell,
attended Nobles.” I hurried to my
Nobles Alumni Directory, and,
sure enough, there was William
“Bill” Russell listed as a member
of the Class of 1958. Even surer
enough, who should knock on my
1952 & 1953
CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Winston “Hooley” Perry
[email protected]
Unfortunately, in 2015, I had a
number of sad announcements
to send out to everyone regarding
some of our dearest classmates
and close friends who finally succumbed to old age, and all that
goes with it. The Class of 1952 lost
Everett “Ev” Kiefer, Bobby “Kitty” Catlin and Dudley “Doodles”
Dumaine, while the Class of 1953
lost Louis “Lived to Give” Newell.
Also, David Thibodeau ’53 lost
his lovely wife, Connie, to cancer,
so all in all, 2015 took a big toll on
all of us, leaving the Class of 1952
with 18 surviving members, and
the class of 1953 with 19 surviving
members still aboveground (or “on
the right side of the grass” as Peter
Hallett ’52 calls it). So on that sad,
negative note, I’m going to switch
to more positive and happy news.
I hear from “Hollywood Hal”
Knapp ’52 that the Disney movie
The Finest Hours, which Hal and his
elderly Willy’s Jeepster convertible
had bit parts in, is finally hitting the
big screen early in 2016. The Finest
Hours is the remarkable true story
of the greatest small-boat rescue in
Coast Guard history. On February 18, 1952, a massive nor’easter
struck New England, pummeling
towns along the Eastern seaboard
and wreaking havoc on the ships
caught in its deadly path, including the SS Pendleton, an oil tanker
bound for Boston, which was
literally ripped in half. The senior
officer realized it was up to him to
take charge of the frightened crew,
and to inspire the men to work together to ride out one of the worst
storms to ever hit the East Coast.
As word of the disaster reached
the U.S. Coast Guard station in
Chatham, Mass., the warrant officer ordered a daring operation to
rescue the stranded men, who set
out in a wooden lifeboat with an
ill-equipped engine and little, if any,
means of navigation, facing frigid
temperatures, 60-foot-high waves
and hurricane-force winds to save
the crew. As I write this, Hal isn’t
sure if he ended up in the movie’s
big-screen final edition, or if his
bit part and takes ended up on the
cutting-room floor, but Hal said
that it was a great and fun experience. Also, Hal and Carol are planning their usual midwinter “let’s
get warm” trip to Longboat Key in
Florida, so Andrea and I are planning to “do lunch” at St. Armands
Circle with them in Sarasota.
In early November 2015, I heard
the latest cruising news from Peter
Willauer ’52 and his lovely first
mate, Carol, who had purchased
a Monk 36’ Trawler earlier in the
year and were motoring back and
forth between Portland, Maine, and
Key West and Stuart, Fla., “under
power for once” as Peter calls it. I
checked out a Monk 36’ online, and
it certainly looks like a very civilized
way to get from point A to B while
enjoying whatever boat drinks and
hors d’oeuvres are prepared and
presented for your cruising pleasure. So Peter and Carol still have
that water wanderlust coursing
through their veins, without now
having to pay any attention to the
setting of their sails. Just fill her up
with diesel fuel, cast off the lines,
“crank her up, and go.”
Of late, I have been the
enjoyable recipient of numerous
and interesting emails from Jack
“Denny” Farlow ’53. Jack seems
to have endeared himself late in life
to his computer (which many of us
reluctantly have) and has, knowing
Jack, worked hard at figuring out
where “the good stuff is,” which
he then forwards to classmates he
thinks might enjoy them. I think that
we have a hard-working budding
scribe in our midst, but knowing
Jack as I do, I’m not surprised.
John Childs ’53 and his great
party-organizing wife, Jean, have
finally decided to vacate their
large and long-held home on Old
Farm Road in Wellesley Hills, and
move to the North Hill Retirement Village in Needham (sorry
“Scroot,” there goes the neighborhood). Knowing John and Jean,
their choice of living space will be
quite expansive for entertaining
and the storage of John’s curling
paraphernalia, but since they won’t
have any skating pond in their
backyard, their hockey skates and
sticks and snow plow and snow
shovels will be put into storage for
the foreseeable future. I’m sure
that North Hill Village will be a
lot easier to find than Old Farm
Road was at night, because I can’t
tell you how many times I drove
’round and ’round and ’round
Wellesley Hills trying to find my
way to their home, and vice versa.
Quite regularly I receive Australian postcards and promotional
materials from Bo-Bub Wakefield
’53 and his lovely traveling companion Catherine, from all over the
Far East and beyond, extolling the
beauty of the areas that they happen to be visiting and enjoying in
retirement. Sometimes Bo includes
some of the foreign local currencies in various denominations with
his cards and letters, which I often
think I should forward to David
Thibodeau, who is our class agent,
which can then be credited to Bo’s
generous donations to the school.
But my not knowing what the current exchange rate is, it makes me
wonder if it would be at all worth
it. On second thought, I’ll just send
the foreign money to David (aka
“Tib”) and let him figure it out. Every little bit helps the school. Also,
on November 14, 2015, Bubby had
a surprise 80th birthday party put
on by his family and friends, so he
has finally reached the magical age
of 80. Congratulations, Old Man.
To ring in the new year, Peter
Hallett, and his lovely wife, Carol,
trekked down to their home in
Florida and visited us in Old Homosassa, after Peter decided that
last year’s winter snowstorms in
New Hampshire were just not that
much fun anymore. Unfortunately,
Peter found out that because of
his lack of TLC with their southern
home, (a) their water supply lines
weren’t working very well, (b) their
hot water tank wasn’t making any
hot water, and (c) their electrical
system had rusted out in spots and
wasn’t working well at all, which
required replacing a number of its
breaker switches. So, needless to
say, they stayed with us for a number of days until Peter could twist
the arms of some local plumbers
and electricians to work through
the holidays, especially ’cause it’s
turkey-, deer- and hog-hunting
season down south right now, with
graduate news
some fishin’ thrown in depending
on what the moon’s doin, y’all.
Fortunately, our southern winter
weather was its usual 70 degrees
during the daytime, so life is good,
if you don’t mind real cold showers.
You may remember that back
in September of last year, I tried to
organize a “Redneck Reunion Party
Get-Together” on Amelia Island,
Fla., in early March 2016, which
would give some of you Northerners a chance to start on your spring
tans. But unfortunately I received
such a tepid response from a lot of
you old guys who don’t travel well,
plus I found out that there were a
number of large events scheduled
on the island around that time,
that I decided to pull the plug on
the event, much to the chagrin and
disappointment of Wink Childs
’52. After a great deal of thought, I
have finally come to the realization that late summer/September
lunches in Plymouth really work out
best for most of our classmates,
for the ease of daytime driving
from and back to your homes,
especially after a glass or two of
wine for relaxation and medicinal
purposes only (under doctor’s
orders of course). So stay tuned.
I’m sure that all of you must
have received the heartfelt and
“soon-to-be-leaving at the end of
June 2017” letter from Bob Henderson ’76. As I think back over the
many years of our association with
Nobles, and our amazing headmaster Eliot Putnam (who was a
surrogate father to many of us), Mr.
Putnam (as we all reverently called
him) was, and still is, “a very hard
act to follow.” Yes, there were a few
headmasters after him, and many
changes at the school that some of
my classmates still have a hard time
accepting for one unknown reason
or another, but I think that Bob
Henderson is as close to a dynamic
leader as Eliot Putnam ever was.
The many positive changes and
additions to the school that have
been accomplished over the past
16 years are due to the leadership,
entrepreneurship and hard work of
Bob Henderson. As all of you know,
our love for Eliot Putnam knows no
bounds, and never will, but I have
to give credit where credit is due,
and therefore I have to profoundly
thank Bob Henderson for all he
has done and accomplished for
the betterment of Nobles. He too
“will be a hard act to follow,” and
I wish him well in his retirement.
1954
CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Peter Partridge
508-548-9418
[email protected]
1955
CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Bob Chellis
781-237-9436
[email protected]
There are advantages to living
in the orbit of our old school.
Saturday, December 19, the new
Putnam plays—Betsy and Arthur—
by ETP’s grandson Jesse Putnam,
were staged for the first time.
These were outstanding short
dramas. Kleenex was handed to
an overflow audience at the Vinik
Theatre. The two plays were written, staged, and acted with real
insights and sensitivity, giving us
some sense of the loss the Putnam
family suffered—losing those two
children in the same summer.
Jesse Putnam effectively played his
grandfather leading the morning
assembly, and as a grieving father.
Young Arthur was played
by Wally Stimpson’s grandson,
Alex Stimpson ’19, and he was
a natural on stage. As was his
dad, of course, if you remember
Arsenic and Old Lace our senior
year, and the annual plays before
that. After the plays, Susie and
Wally Stimpson, Gerry and Sam
Gray, Tyler and Larry Flood, John
Harrison, Koko Doty and Gage
Bailey ’56 converged on Fox Hill
to join Bob Chellis and Sandy for
cocktails and a steak dinner.
In January, Nobles invited all
old wrestlers or fans to the NoblesMilton match, followed by a reception at the Castle, honoring coach
Steve Toubman’s three decades of
coaching. It was a great excuse to
visit the new wrestling room and
see some of the wrestlers from
other classes, and to honor coach
Toubman—a worthy successor to
our wonderful coach and teacher
Wilbur Storer.
After the downsizing/reorganizing we all should do sooner or
later, Dick Finlay sent some of his
Nobles memorabilia to join Mike
Jonsberg’s in the school’s archives.
Linda and Charlie Nichols visited
Dick in Dallas and Santa Fe this
winter. Meanwhile, the Stimpsons
headed back to Naples, Fla., for the
winter. And the Floods, when not
enjoying some exotic travel, spend
far more time in Blue Hill, Maine,
than in their historic Dedham
house. And Bebo Gregg may spend
more time at his Adirondacks camp
than in Hancock, N.H. After a false
alarm a couple of years ago (sorry
Bob), Bob Taylor’s son Bobby was
happily married on the grounds
of the family’s Old Town Farm in
Peterborough, N.H., surrounded by
mountain views. Gerry and Sam
Gray are mostly on the shore in
Wareham but still do an intrepid
amount of sailing—from the Chesapeake Bay to the Dalmatian coast—
and keep a cabin in Wyoming.
And Charlie Nichols and
Linda—always striving for perfection—are moving yet again! This
time from historic, artistic Chadds
Ford to the also historic, elegant
and elite Kennett Square, with its
museums and mushrooms.
I hope to see you all at the
Castle the Friday of reunion weekend in May. As you remember,
they do a great job entertaining
every class, every year, with cocktails and dinner once we’ve passed
our 50th Reunion. And if you take
a moment to look over the battlements, they are usually staging a
lovely baseball game on the sunny
field below the Castle. Pretty idyllic. Have a great summer.
1956
CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Gren “Rocky” Whitman
410-639-7551
[email protected]
1957
CLASS CORRESPONDENT
John Valentine
413-256-6676
[email protected]
1958
CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Chris Morss
[email protected]
Penny and Bill Cutler ’59 celebrated 50 years of marriage at Rimrock Ranch in Cody,
Wyo., in August 2015.
Tappy Wilder enjoyed “marvelous face-to-face time with Peter
Wadsworth in Newport last summer (he of many lively interests
and good spirits). I continue to
manage my Uncle Thornton’s
works. Ahead this spring: a major
production of his The Matchmaker
in March at the Goodman Theatre
in Chicago, at which I will speak,
and a revival of Wilder’s long-lost
adaptation of Ibsen’s Doll’s House—
a Broadway hit for the work in the
late ’30s—at Brooklyn’s marvelous new stage, Theatre for a New
Audience. In addition to preaching the Gospel of Wilder at the
show, I’m writing a preface for the
work’s publication for TCG Press.”
Bill Danielson writes, “Esther
and I traveled through Norway
and Sweden last summer, in part
to track down Swedish relatives.
Success there inspired me to join
the genealogy bandwagon. It has
been fun to discover I’m related
via my Swedish links to the former
King of Jordan and Marilyn Monroe.
And it makes me think of my
Nobles classmates as metaphorical brothers, still connected on our
own branch of the noble-and-genealogical tree, but having grown and
matured in so many diverse ways!”
Bill and Jan Russell spent
Christmas in Portland, Ore., visiting
two of their children. Bill’s son lives
next door to Sidney Eaton Jr. ’50.
Bill and Sid enjoyed a long conversation over coffee at a café.
1959
Whit Bond
[email protected]
Buzz Gagnebin
[email protected]
John Gibson
[email protected]
William W. Cutler III has coauthored an entry on the private
(independent) schools in the
Philadelphia area for the Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia, an
online resource for both scholars
and general readers. Like Nobles,
most of these schools are very
old, some dating to the Colonial
era. Some moved to the suburbs
after World War I, and many
went coeducational in the 1970s.
They pride themselves on their
academic and athletic excellence.
The essay can be found at: http://
philadelphia-encyclopedia.org/
archive/private-independent-schools.
Bill shared a photo (left) with
his wife, Penny, in Wyoming last
summer. “We gathered at a Dude
Ranch there with our whole family
(including seven grandkids) to
celebrate 50 years of marriage.”
Bill Taylor (“Tayles”) reports,
Jesse Putnam called me and we had
a lengthy chat about ‘the family’
and how the Yankee way was not to
discuss emotional events. He has
spent the past year or so researching his family and their friends and
he is playing ETP in his own play. He
said he talked extensively with Tim
Coggeshall as Tim and Luby were
the only people who actually talked
about the deaths with the Putnams.
I am looking forward to seeing it.
I suggested to him and the school
that it would be great to gather any
old home movies taken at sporting
events throughout the years and
convert them to digital format and
put them on a YouTube channel
as a historical school archive.”
Tayles later reported, “All is
well here on the balmy shores of
Gloucester, Mass., where I remain
blessed with good health, friends,
family and plenty of snacks! In December I went to the play by Jesse
Putnam held at the Nobles theater.
It was two short plays about
the lives and untimely deaths of
Eliot Putnam’s children, Betsy and
Arthur. I had remembered a very
poignant time when ETP tried to
recite the 23rd Psalm before Monday morning breakfast to a room of
sleepy boarders. That man of superhuman strength broke down in the
middle of it because his son, Arthur,
had died that Friday afternoon in a
freak accident. Jesse had compiled
amazing amounts of information
about the two children’s lives,
but he had not heard about that
difficult morning ETP had standing
before us, and he changed the play
to reflect this after I told him the
story and how it was as clear in my
mind as ever from 60 years ago.
I saw Whit Bond ’59 there,
and a few other ‘old folks’ I
recognized, like Gage Bailey ’56,
Bobby McLeod ’57, Nim Marsh ’57
and Bob Chellis ’55. The theater
was just about full, and it was an
emotional performance, and well
worth seeing. It always amazes me
how built up Nobles has become.”
Steve Grant ’59 reported in
September, “You don’t always get
a second chance. This is the link to
my talk at the Boston Athenaeum
this month: https://vimeo.com/
album/3310726/video/139975245.
You can watch it in your PJs. Please
visit www.stephenhgrant.com for
information on my books.”
Steve later reported a ’59
mini-gathering. The 10 percent
of the class who has lived in
Arlington, Va. (he, Ted Mann and
John Gibson), met for dinner. John
came up from his “new” home (of
30 years) in Shreveport, La., for
an actuarial meeting and a visit to
his son. The three had previously
gathered in Alexandria in 2014
with John’s family to celebrate
John and Irina’s 20th anniversary.
John reports enjoying and
finding satisfaction returning to
teaching after almost 50 years,
helping his wife teach chemistry
and physics at Airline High School,
even if very part-time. He also
organized a One Nation Under
God Interfaith Musical Prayer
Breakfast. Highlights were the
graduate news
cantor’s singing of the 150th Psalm
in Hebrew and English, and the
author of the Russian Methodist Hymnal singing Thanksgiving
hymns in Russian after the cantor
sang in English, followed by duets
in both languages simultaneously.
Charles Castellani reports,
“This past year has been one of
great adventure and change for
Margaret and me. In April and May,
we had the unique opportunity to
travel to South Africa with friends
who were born there, and grew up
there, and have long since lived
in Colorado. Towns and seaside
sights reminded me of Cape Cod,
with quaint art colonies with small
streets and shops, often with both
the ocean and bodies of fresh water in view at the same time. Many
a family from Northern Europe
has a vacation home along the
byways and sandy knolls.
We spent much of our trip
in game reserves such as Phinda
(owned and run as a resort by
&Beyond) in South Africa, the Tree
House Hotel and elephant sanctuary near Pletenburg Bay, Chobe,
and Xaranna in the Ocavanga
Delta. Central to our trip was a visit
to the spectacular Victoria Falls,
staying at the vintage, historic Victoria Hotel nearly overlooking the
falls itself, where the spray from the
cascading Zambezi River supports
a magnificent rainforest. Without
the wind and cold, it felt like a stiff
squall! Of a different venue, we visited the historic town of Kimberly,
site of one of the largest, if not the
largest, diamond mines in Africa.
By a vote of the citizens of
Colorado, it can be said with assuredness that Denver is the Mile
High City, with the legalization (on
the state level) of marijuana. As if
the long-standing forecast of a contiguous city from Ft. Collins on the
north to Pueblo and Trinidad on the
south were not convincing enough,
the legalization of ‘MJ’ has brought
an out-of-control growth to the City
and County of Denver. On average,
10,000 people per month have been
moving in. No longer the proverbial
cow town it once was, or the Queen
City of the Plains, the capital is
suffocating under gridlock on nearly
all roads. Gone from conversations
are references to ‘rush hour’ traffic!
For me, 47 years living in
Denver ended in 2015. Margaret
and I decided to embrace adventure and embarked on an entirely
new lifestyle in the Black Hills
of South Dakota. We purchased
a comfortable mountain cabin,
which she aptly named Serenity—
sans pollution, traffic, gridlock and
noise, replaced by majestic forests,
clear nights filled with stars, plains,
bald eagles and genuine, friendly
people whose word is their bond,
sealed by a handshake. Pretentiousness knows no address out
here. Nice to have true neighbors who help one another as integral parts of a vital community.
We physically moved November 6,
2015. Rapid City is within an hour,
and it’s a little farther to Mount
Rushmore and Crazy Horse Monument. Wish we had moved earlier.
No time like the present!”
Buzz (Charles L.) Gagnebin
reports that this fall he has been appointed class agent for Dexter ’53,
where he and many of you Nobles
folks went through the elementary
grades at school. “It is amazing to
catch up with folks from our early
years and learn about the great
things you have accomplished in
life. For those of you who may not
know, Ron Perera, who went to Groton, then Harvard ’63, has become
famous in the music world, and for
the past 30 years taught at Smith
College out in western Massachusetts. There are many others of note
in that Dexter class. Since Dexter
moved out to the old Lawrence
estate, then merged with Southfield,
many of us have lost connection
with the school, but it is a great
place and highly recommended to
reconnect. Well, I was the home
base manager once more for a reunion of the 1961 football team that
won the first Ivy League championship for Harvard. My predecessor
as head manager, Champ Lyons, a
retired Alabama Supreme Court justice, remarks that at no other time in
his life has he had as much managerial authority to command things
his way as he had as Harvard head
manager, undergraduate manager
of football. Connie and I continue
to enjoy tricycling. It’s amazing how
many people in the area stop to chat
with you, and you make so many
new connections with so many
interesting people this way. Check
out my website: cambridgetricycleclub.org. Best of 2016 to all you guys,
and we hope to have a lot of 150th
anniversary items to report to you
about Nobles this coming year.”
1960
CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Albert Vandam
[email protected]
1961
CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Jim Newell
802-467-3555
[email protected]
Your class secretary thanks
classmates who have written in; I
encourage others to do the same.
The ’61 classmate 2015 event of
the year for me (Jim Newell) and
Sally was attending the lavish
wedding of Jack Lowell’s youngest
daughter at the Ritz-Carlton on
Key Biscayne, Miami. Beautiful
people, beautiful setting, great sitdown dinner for 400, wonderful
entertainment, music and dancing.
When you get this in May, we will
be celebrating our 55th Reunion
(at Nobles, Friday evening, somewhere yet to be determined for
Saturday). Plan to attend!
Peter Ward writes, “My new
book, What Really Causes Global
Warming? Greenhouse Gases or
Ozone Depletion? will be out
November 1, 2015. I show 1) that
man did cause the world to warm
from 1965 to 1998 by manufacturing CFC gases that depleted the
ozone layer, 2) that man stopped
the increase in emissions and
warming by 1998 via the Montreal
Protocol, 3) that 2015 is the
warmest year on record due to
an eruption of 33 square miles
of basaltic lava in Iceland that
depleted the ozone layer, and
4) that greenhouse gases have
no significant effect on global
warming. Get the details at
whyclimatechanges.com and whatreallycausesglobalwarming.com.”
Brad Willauer writes, “Ann
and I have been bareboat sailing
in Greece this September. We
spend our time here in Prouts Neck
sailing, skiing, and attempting golf,
looking in on our seven grands,
fortunately all here in Maine—two
oldest in Brunswick, two youngest
in Freeport and three middle ones
in Owls Head. We got a chance to
1967
CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Drew Sullivan
781-461-1477
[email protected]
Left: Jim Newell ’61, “Quo Vadimus?” Right: Rip Cunningham ’63, recent inductee
into the Fishing Hall of Fame, as photographed for the fall 2015 Babson alumni
magazine by Greta Rybus.
go to New Zealand last January—
a marvelous experience, a first for
us. Regards to all.”
Peter Meeks writes, “I like your
idea of coming together as a class
Saturday evening and would gladly
host same if I still lived in Dedham.
Regards to all.”
1962
CLASS CORRESPONDENT
David Mittell
[email protected]
1963
CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Jim Lehan
508-520-1373
[email protected]
Excerpted from the fall 2015 Babson alumni magazine: “Colin ‘Rip’
Cunningham, MBA ’72, knows his
way around the rod and reel. Since
1973, he has hung his fishing hat
at Salt Water Sportsman magazine,
serving in a variety of roles, including owner, editor in chief and,
currently, conservation editor. The
Dover, Mass., resident is also dedicated to fisheries management,
serving as a longtime member on
state and federal fishing commissions. This fall, the International
Game Fish Association inducted
him into its Fishing Hall of Fame.
‘It’s a huge honor,’ he says.”
1964
CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Ned Bigelow
781-704-4304
[email protected]
1966
CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Ned Reece
[email protected]
Dick Byrd writes, “My brothers and I just republished Salty:
Recollections of a Yankee in Politics,
grandpa’s book about his life in
politics. [Editor’s note: He refers to
Senator Leverett Saltonstall].
For those of you who don’t
know, it was his father who was
head of the Nobles board when the
school moved to Dedham. Three
of my uncles attended Nobles, as
did all four of us. We republished
the book because of how grandpa
writes about his very good relationship with John F. Kennedy when
JFK was first elected to the Senate.
The two men were of different
backgrounds, different generations
and different political parties, but
they got along famously and passed
some legislation together—something lacking in Washington today!
The book is available everywhere.”
1968
CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Andy Lord
617-899-3948
[email protected]
1969
CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Peter Pach
860-267-9701
[email protected]
Among the rituals of our advancing ages is going through stuff.
In our house, books insinuate
themselves into every space. My
wife, Kathy, and I spent a couple
of post-Christmas days culling the
collection and packed nine sizable
boxes for donation to a local theater group’s tag sale. All that done,
and we’re left with full bookshelves
and nowhere to put any new volumes. I can hear some of you who
have jumped to Kindles and other
forms of electronic reading saying,
“Forget about physical books.”
But I’m still fond of holding them
and have begun to reread some,
most recently Out of Africa, by Isak
Dinesen, which was a nice change
of pace from my book club’s
choice of The Martian, a breezy,
engaging science-fiction story.
Brad Wilkinson and his wife,
Mary, are much more ambitious,
as they have spent the past year
clearing out their Connecticut
home as they anticipate “returning to the Boston area for the first
time in 40-plus years. Decades
of accumulated junk has to be
disposed of. Adult children have
to be notified that our house will
no longer serve as the local E-Z
Storage. Battles have to be won
and lost between the throw-thebaby-out-with-the-bathwater
husband and the let’s-save-thissweet-little-stuffed-armadillothat-hasn’t-seen-the-light-of-dayfor-thirty-five-years wife. And...
the horror of the attic. Another
five years, and we’ll have it done.”
Scott FitzPatrick reports that
he has “settled into Connecticut
life pretty well” after moving back
east a year or so ago to marry his
college sweetheart.
Happy to get a New Year
greeting from Baird Brightman,
who checked in from his California
redoubt.
graduate news
Always eager to hear what
classmates are doing or if they
have heard news of another classmate. Drop me a note.
1970
CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Levy Byrd
781-449-7555
[email protected]
1973
CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Craig Sanger
917-705-7556
[email protected]
1974
CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Kevin McCarthy
617-480-6344
[email protected]
On January 12, a few members of
the class of 1974 got together in
Boston’s famous Durgin Park restaurant to catch up, as has become
practice from time to time. In attendance were Gary Markoff, Paul
Ayoub, Tom Sleeper and myself
(Kevin McCarthy). We talked
about families, my going back to
school and some of the charities
we all support when we are not
working. Paul made a toast to
my new career as a clinical social
worker, and Gary talked about the
great work being done by Champions for Children’s Hospital.
During the process of coming
together, we were able to hear
back from quite a few classmates.
John Frank, who lives in California,
was unable to make it, but he will
be getting together with Ethan
1974
Clockwise from top left: Tom
Sleeper and Kevin McCarthy, ’74
classmates, at Heading Home Inc.’s
annual awards ceremony, which
Tom co-sponsored; 1974 classmates
gathered for lunch at Durgin Park
(left to right: Paul Ayoub, Kevin
McCarthy, Gary Markoff and Tom
Sleeper); Nobles’ Common Fire
Up & Out move for Heading Home
was largely spearheaded by the
Edie family. Melinda Edie, Class I,
serves on Heading Home’s Youth
Leadership Council.
Goldman, who is going west on
business. Harry Elam sent his
regards, as being vice provost at
Stanford keeps him busy and on
the road. I was in touch with Roger
Coe for his birthday, and Tom
Sleeper reports that he sees him
around town regularly.
There were New Year
wishes from Jim Baird and
Geoff Brooks, as well as shoutouts from Ted Wales and Allan
Schmid. I am always kept in the
loop by Bill Chandler in New
Hampshire on Facebook.
For more than 40 years, we
have kept some fundamental camaraderie that we could not have
found anywhere else.
Last year, Gary and Tom attend-
ed the Champions for Children’s
together, and in November I got to
see what a compassionate and generous man Tom really is, when he
and his company, Intercontinental
Insurance Brokers, cosponsored the
awards dinner for Heading Home
Inc. (see picture of me and Tom at
the event), a nonprofit organization
dedicated to ending homelessness
in Boston, of which I have been on
the board for many years and for
which a group of Nobles students
volunteered their time and treasure
to this past spring, through Common Fire, a Nobles-sponsored day
of service. (See photo.)
It was great to be a member
of a class of men who truly live up
to the spirit of the Nobles mission
of being “dedicated to inspiring
leadership for the public good.”
As a board member at Heading
Home, I really want to thank the
Nobles community for last year’s
“Up & Out” move, as well as Paul
and Tom’s individual support.
Heading Home’s Up & Out
Program offers up volunteer
groups with the opportunity to
make a huge impact on a homeless family’s life as they make
the milestone move from shelter
into permanent housing. Families
moving into affordable, permanent
housing through Up & Out have
faced adversity, but leading up
to and following the move, they
receive intensive support services
to remain on track and housed.
The actual move includes
cleaning, furnishing, and personalizing the apartment to the family’s
taste and transforming the apartment into a “home.” Furniture and
housewares are either purchased
new through funds raised, donated
new, or gently used. The half-day
experience concludes with revealing the apartment to the family
and presenting them the keys to
their new home.
1975
Andrea Pape Truitt
609-646-5361
[email protected]
Jed Dawson
508-735-9663
[email protected]
Doug Floyd
781-788-0020
[email protected]
Taking top billing this edition is
Louisa Hackett, making her first
submission to the magazine in 40
years. Yeah, Louisa!
From Louisa: “In 2013, I founded
Community Votes, a New York
City–based initiative that leverages
the connections nonprofits have in
local communities to engage voters
and, ultimately, strengthen those
communities through active participation in the electoral process.
Check out the recent New York
Times article (12/11/15) ‘Mobilizing Voters in New York’s Housing
Projects.’ And for more information,
visit www.communityvotes.org.”
Jed Dawson reports, “Well,
the day finally arrived as Kirsten
and I became ‘empty nesters’ for
the first time this past September, when Asher (Nobles ’15)
went off to college. We now have
three kids, Abram ’08, Hadley
(Nobles ’10) and Asher, living
in California, and Emily ’06 and
Sam ’10 in New York City. The
adjustment is still happening as I
write these class notes. Home for
the holidays, and then away they
go. I am making good progress
with the sale of our disinfectant
technology to hospitals all over the
country. It is a great time to be in
the business of killing pathogens
in hospitals. Kirsten continues
her work at the aquarium to help
save our oceans. Some exciting
news arrived this morning when
Abram was named to Forbes’s
30 under 30 in venture capital.
Very proud parents we are! Check
the link: www.forbes.com/30under-30-2016/venture-capital/. It
was great to see so many of our
classmates at our 40th reunion
back in May. Thank you all for
making the effort to come back.”
Tom Pratt reports that he and
his family have relocated from
New Mexico to Lakewood Ranch,
Fla. (near Sarasota). “After passing
the bar here, I will be looking for a
position as an attorney.”
Peter Rice submits this under
the hypothesis that you never
know who you will run into: “A few
weeks ago, while teaching class,
a girl touring the school came
with her parents to my classroom.
As I was talking to them, I must
have mispronounced a word, and
I said, ‘Oh, that’s my Boston accent.’ The mother said, ‘I’m from
Boston.’ ‘What town?’ I asked. She
responded, ‘Dedham.’ I replied, ‘I
went to Noble and Greenough.’
She said, ‘I’m Eliot Putnam’s
daughter.’ We did not talk long, but
it was wonderful to meet her and
reminisce about Nobles.”
Tansy Parr Lovell reports,
“Had the pleasure of a visit
from classmate Ellen Quinlan
in November as we were lucky
enough to get our hands on some
Dead & Co w/John Mayer tickets.
Then, a couple of weeks later, I
made it up to Boston and had a fun
night out with another classmate,
Asa Phillips, and Ellen. It was a
great way to wrap up 2015. Old
friends are the best friends!”
Bob Phinney writes, “I am still
a teacher/administrator at Dexter
Southfield School in Brookline,
teaching Latin, science, photography and computer coding. As
1975 classmates Ellen Quinlan, Asa Phillips and Tansy Parr Lovell during a night out
in Boston.
director of the Clay Center for Science and Technology, I get to work
with the huge telescope at the
observatory. Come look through
the biggest telescope in the area
on a public Tuesday evening (www.
claycenter.org) or call me for a VIP
visit. My wife, Susan, still works
for Johnson & Johnson worldwide,
and my son, Matthew, is in New
Mexico teaching/coaching MMA
and professional boxing.”
1976
Tom Bartlett
+44 1908 647196
[email protected]
Rob Piana
617-491-7499
[email protected]
As we look forward to our class
commemoration of 40 years of life
after Nobles (Mr. Henderson exempted), it seems an appropriate
time to preview coming attractions
with news of what a few classmates are up to.
Robin Cracknell writes that he
has a show (he’s a notable artist, as
noted in past Notes) at the Sous les
Étoiles Gallery in NYC (yes, that’s
New York, not Neuilly) on March
10, with an artist talk on the 14th.
He mentions that this is his first
return in a long time to his American “home” and that he’s hoping
classmates will make it to the show.
André Stark has brought new
meaning to the word succinctness
with his Facebook posts; the latest
to this correspondent being “go,
go, go!” Whether this is a reference
to Robin’s show, an exhortation for
me to attend reunion, or a dem-
graduate news
onstration of a Boston Marathon
spectator cheer remains a mystery.
Whether or not this correspondent (Tom) will make it to the ’76
Nobles show in May hinges upon
a few work ducks (not a reference
to André) being put in a row, and
upon how easily he can make the
jump across the Big Pond. I left fulltime employment with the UK’s
National Careers Service last October and now struggle forward as
a “sole trader” working on various
writing projects, including memoirs
(www.warrencove.com). Having a
few more Boston/New England–
based projects will certainly up the
odds, hint, hint!
Rob Piana continues as an
interventional cardiologist at
Vanderbilt University, in Nashville,
Tenn. “We travel quite a bit back
and forth to Boston for family reasons, and we hope to spend more
time on Cape Cod. Anyone near
Dennis? Tom and I stay in touch
over the Nobles notes, and one
day I hope to cross the Big Pond in
the opposite direction to visit Tom
on his own turf. The snippets of
news over social media from many
classmates always provide a smile.”
Bill Mees has retired from
Lawrence Academy after a long,
distinguished career there, highlighted by an art building being
named for him.
Rob Shapiro has been a true
friend for these past 40 years. Truly, he and so many other teachers
at Nobles influenced us in profound
ways. Thanks to all of you!
Congrats to Bob Henderson
’76 on such a tremendous tenure
at Nobles. It would be wonderful to
hear from the rest of the class for
the Nobles notes. Write anytime.
Hope everyone is well.
1977
CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Linda Rheingold
[email protected]
Peter Gryska writes, “I have
learned to permanently avoid the
harsh New England winters by living in Houston, high and dry from
the recent flooding. Both daughters
have graduated from law school
and college and are off the payroll.
I am still actively working in the
Foodservice Distribution chain.
We are increasingly spending time
in west Texas at our 110-year-old
family ranch, bird hunting, building
a ranch house, running cattle, and
expanding the farming operations.
If you are ever driving west on I-20,
150 miles west of Dallas, among
the mesquite and prickly pear
wondering, ‘Why would anyone live
here?’ that is where we will be.”
1978
CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Christopher Reynolds
Cell: 800-444-0004
Home: 508-358-7757
[email protected]
1979
CLASS CORRESPONDENT
John Almy
617-448-3119
[email protected]
Dan Rodgers
212-423-0374
[email protected]
You know, it’s hard to write this
column when no one, absolutely
no one, writes to tell you what is
going on in their life. And when
your faithful scribe refuses to
stalk all y’all (that Southern drool
for “you guys”) on social media,
there is really not much to say. So
I guess I’ll have to tell you that I
miss you and please write to me
(or at least some of your Facebook
posts for me). I promise that I
will faithfully report your doings if
you would be so kind as to report
them to me. (And I might even
make them sound more interesting than they might seem when
you write them up—that’s called
“literary license.”) In the meantime, live long and prosper. And
now, a recitation, randomly (but
alphabetically), of some names,
just so it will seem to the eye that
someone did something in their
life over the past few months
(think of this as a mini-reunion):
Dwight Aspinwall, Bill Bliss, Steve
Burnside, Mark Byers, Maura
Cassidy, Martha Reiland Cebry,
Danny Corcoran, Molly Conley
Dempsey, Patsy McCormick
DiGiovanna, Charlie Dow, Ginny
Aldous Emerson, Lisa Heavey
Evans, Lisa Hellawell Fargo, Amy
Tayer Goldman, Wyc Grousbeck,
John Hoagland, Nancy Pratt
Hurley, Diane Ives, Scott Leland,
Tim Lyne, Tim Mansfield, Harry
Miller, Jim Morse, Donna Giandomenico Murphy, Kathy Newell,
Tom O’Brien, Gordon Prescott,
Fiona Jarrett Roman, Phil Rueppel, Joe Selle, Alex Childs Smith,
Dan Standley, John Stimpson,
David Vogel and Bruce Weber.
1980
CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Rob Capone
781-326-7142
[email protected]
1981
CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Kim Rossi Stagliano
203-610-1750
[email protected]
1982
CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Holly Malkasian Staudinger
914-925-2340
[email protected]
1983
CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Nancy Sarkis Corcoran
Home: 508-785-0886
Fax: 508-785-0887
[email protected]
Hello, Class of ’83: Happy 2016 to
all. Thank you for keeping in touch
all these years. I love hearing from
you and staying connected. Only
two more years until our 35th
Reunion! Here’s the latest news.
Haley Clifford Adams is
starting a new career. She has
been hired as a financial advisor
for Edward Jones. “Much studying
and testing in my near future!”
Another classmate with a
new job is Marc Gladstone. “I
am now with the Child Mind
Institute as an educational
specialist. CMI is dedicated to
supporting and transforming
the lives of children with mental
health and learning disorders.”
I also heard from Sean Duane.
He and his wife, Monica, are
doing well and still living in Connecticut with their three kids:
Lyndsey (17), Jack (16) and Alexsandra (11). He wrote, “All good
here. Honestly, feel pretty blessed
Left: Sean Duane ’83 shared this photo of his kids, Lyndsey (17), Jack (16) and Alexsandra (11). Right (from left to right): 1984
classmates Kelly White, Jen Scott, Tamar Newell, Heather Alker, Sarah Weiss and Christine Hegenbart celebrating Sarah’s 50th,
for which she received a (vintage) Dawg Pound Book of Recipes.
upcoming reunion and really hope
that you all can make it back.”
Finally, we have our 30th
Reunion coming up, and the
reunion committee would like
you to know that “all of us on the
planning committee are looking
forward to seeing everyone back
on campus for our 30th Reunion
on Saturday, May 14, from Kate,
Holly, Sara, John, Karen, A.J.,
Sandra, Ken, Heather, Heather,
Jeff, Bob, Heather and Jessica.”
See you at the reunion!
1987
with a happy, healthy family.
Monica and I have been lucky—all
three kids are good kids (so far)
and usually a pleasure to have
around. Love seeing the updates
on everyone.”
Jessica Tyler
781-934-6321
[email protected]
1984
Stephen Jordan is living in Maine
and writes “that Yankee Jungle
(TV show on Animal Planet) was
renewed for a second season, so
I will be on television beginning
sometime later this month. No
firm date due to network schedule
shuffling, but I will leave a post on
the group’s page when I know for
sure. Also, my doctor just informed
me that I am cured from battling a
case of Lyme disease I contracted
in November of last year. It was a
terrible experience, but I will say,
in the process I lost 60+ pounds
in a month, but I’ve gained back
12 pounds, so I am happy. I wish
everyone the best and look forward
to seeing everyone at reunion.”
DJ Murphy writes, “My partner
and I started cardnotpresent.
com in 2011 as a B2B intelligence
source for professionals in the
CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Christine Todd
617-699-1933
[email protected]
At a 50th birthday gathering
hosted by Jen Scott for Sarah
Weiss, we marveled that there was
no 1984 class representative for
Nobles magazine. With this photo, I
hereby volunteer for the job.
1985
CLASS CORRESPONDENT NEEDED
1986
Heather Markey Zink
508-359-9553 [email protected]
Eliza Kelly Beaulac
703-476-4442
[email protected]
card-not-present payments space
(companies that sell online, via
mobile and/or over the phone).
The company consists of an
online publication and an annual
industry event (the CNP Expo).
I am responsible for all of the
content, and my partner is
responsible for sales and operations. The show and the publication both grew quickly, and we
were acquired in November by
Reed Exhibitions, the largest
trade show organizer in the world
and a unit of global publishing
group Reed Elsevier. Being an
entrepreneur for the first time in
my life was terrifying and more
fun than work had ever been. I
don’t think it will be the last.”
Jeff Patterson is “living in Lincoln, Mass., and spending plenty
of time at Nobles, as I now have
three kids there (Class II, III and
VI). While some stuff has certainly
changed since our era, I can attest
that the dedication of the amazing faculty and the supportive
community feeling of Nobles is
still alive and well. I look forward
to seeing many of you at our
CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Emily Gallagher Byrne
781-721-4444
[email protected]
1988
CLASS CORRESPONDENT
John Hesse
[email protected]
1989
CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Rachel Spencer
917-921-5916
[email protected]
[email protected]
1990
CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Elena Weiss MacCartee
202-882-2132
[email protected]
1991
CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Kelly Doherty Laferriere
[email protected]
graduate news
1992
CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Lynne Dumas Davis
703-623-4211
[email protected]
1993
CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Sam Jackson
978-409-9444
[email protected]
1994
CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Annie Stephenson Murphy
415-377-4466
[email protected]
Greetings from the snow! In a
strange turn of events, those of us
out here in the West are enjoying
tons of snow in the mountains, and
finally some rain to alleviate the
drought in California. I’m finally getting a chance to teach my 6-yearold daughter, Ava, and 3-year-old
son, Callum, to ski. And I’m pretty
sure most of my classmates are
staring 4-0 in the face right about
now. Happy birthday, everyone!
Cole Parker reports, “I’m in
Seattle for a five-month start-up
incubator called 9mile labs. My
start-up, www.jodone.com, is a
human/robotic hybrid control
system. We created a game out
of controlling robots, for the betterment of humankind. If you’re in
Seattle, reach out.”
Elizabeth Geuss is also excited
to share news about her latest
venture: “I just launched an online
shop called Artisanal Being (www.
artisanalbeing.com). I’m the most
excited about our main goals for the
shop, which are to inspire curiosity
and creativity, and to help people
feel a little more loved and a little
more cared for. Looking forward to
growing the business this year!”
Nancy Cremins is launching
a Kickstarter in January for her
organization, SheStarts, which
helps women entrepreneurs start
and grow their businesses.
Keira Rogers is keeping herself
very busy. She shares, “I’m still living
in NYC, in the Riverdale section of
the Bronx, with my two amazing
children, Amina, 13, and Moses, 10.
In addition to living in Riverdale,
I am also working there at the
Fieldston School. I’m now in my
fourth year there as middle school
history department chair and an
eighth grade history teacher. This
year, I have the unique opportunity
to work as an eighth grade teacher
at the same time that my daughter
is an eighth-grader. Although I am
not her teacher, I teach a number
of her good friends, and so we are
learning a new way to function as
mom and daughter in that space.
This year, I have also started taking
coaching classes to help others
learn to problem-solve and get more
satisfaction out of life. When I’m
not superbusy with all of that, I’m
running to maintain my sanity and
good health, and squeezing in some
of the fun that NYC has to offer.”
1995
CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Kelly Flaman
[email protected]
1996
CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Alex Slawsby
[email protected]
Kate (Connelly) Wade writes,
“We welcomed our son, Thomas
Orazio Wade, on November 17,
2015. Big sister Emily loves having
a little brother, and we’re just looking forward to getting some sleep
sometime around the year 2020. All
the best to the Class of ’96. Look forward to seeing everyone this spring!”
1997
Class of 1994’s Ama O. Lieb and Annie S. Murphy, with her daughter, Ava Murphy,
meet up at the book signing party for Ama’s book, Phoebe Pope and the Year of Four
(written under her pseudonym Nya Jade).
Bobbi Oldfield Wegner
617-980-1412
[email protected]
Jessie Sandell Achterhof
781-990-3353
[email protected]
1998
CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Dave Klivans
[email protected]
Adam Taub writes, “This month
I celebrate my five-year wedding
anniversary with my wife, Anna.
We are enjoying our new hectic
life as parents in Menlo Park, Calif.
We joyfully welcomed our son,
Amos Morris Taub, to this world on
October 24, 2015.”
Jenn (Falchuk) Kollenscher
relays, “My news is that we just
welcomed our second girl, Jordan
Elle, on December 17. Big sister
Avery, my husband, Avi, and I
are adjusting to and loving life as
a family of four.”
Nina (Freeman) Hanlon writes,
“This year, Ron began teaching
seventh-and-eighth grade history
at Rye Country Day School. He
changed grade levels after eight
years teaching history on the fifthgrade team. I was recently named
the new director of admission and
financial aid at Greenwich Academy
and begin my post in July. Our children, Simone and Dylan, are now
2 years old, talking up a storm, and
keeping their parents very busy.”
Yantee Neufville says, “As I
reported last quarter, 2015 was
certainly a busy year of personal
milestones, which included getting
engaged and married, and buying
a home. In May 2015, I married
Malika Fair in a private ceremony
on Beacon Hill in Boston, followed
by a September ceremony that
included consecrating our vows in
my wife’s home state of Michigan.
We had a terrific time with our
family and close friends, who were
there to witness and party with us
in Detroit. Malika and I are now
rooted in Washington, D.C.”
1999
CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Stephanie Trussell Driscoll
[email protected]
2000
CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Lisa Marx
[email protected]
Michael Sanders writes, “I married
Melanie Hirsch in October. We live
in Washington, D.C.”
Alison (Fahey) Harrington
reports, “My husband, Kent, and
I welcomed our second daughter,
Rosemary Lee Harrington, on
October 5, 2015.”
2001
CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Lauren Kenney Murphy
[email protected]
Jon Li writes, “I now live in San
Francisco. Last year, I saw Justin
Bain in Big Sky, Tom Bresnehan in
Jackson Hole, Jeff Lee in Joshua
Tree and Jason Krugman in Brooklyn—always great to rendezvous
with Nobles folks. I started another
tech company called Snack (it’s
likely on the Internet). If you’re
ever in the Bay Area, look me up:
[email protected].”
Jessica Lee writes, “My husband, Henry, and I moved back to
Boston from San Francisco last May
and welcomed our son, Nathaniel,
in September. See him on p. 55,
clearly not yet sold on the concept
of East Coast winters. I work in investor relations at Root Capital, and
we live in Beacon Hill. Look forward
to seeing everyone at reunion!”
Elizabeth (Libert) Sterner writes, “2015 was a special year
for my family as we welcomed
our second son, George Clark
Sterner, in October! I was also
pumped to photograph my first
editorial assignment for The
New York Times Style Magazine,
and to extend my client pool to
quite a few fellow classmates.
Finally, to say that I am looking
forward to reunion and catching
up with everyone would be an
understatement—can’t wait!”
Evie (Dabreo) Swaim writes,
“Bryan Swaim and I were married in Boston in October, and
naturally, Nobles was a big part
of the day. As a tribute to our
(first) first date freshman year,
which was to see Titanic, our
last dance was a power-ballad
sing-along to ‘My Heart Will Go
On.’ We figured it was really the
only way to start the marriage.”
Patrick Keneally writes,
“Myles Peter Keneally was born
on July 30, 2014. He is already
excited to play for Michael Denning and the Nobles tennis team.”
Ben McManama writes, “I’m
coaching all the sub varsity hockey
teams at Nobles, and I’m coaching
middle school lax this spring.”
2002
CLASS CORRESPONDENT
William N. Duffey III
617-893-1040
[email protected]
Left: Jon Li and Tom Bresnehan, both ’01, fishing in Jackson Hole, Wyo. Right: Sara
(Snyder) Phillips and Scott Runyon, both ’06, ran into each other at their five-year
Stanford reunion, and lo and behold, Arthur Levy was there too!
2003
2006
CLASS CORRESPONDENT
2004
CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Carolyn Sheehan Wintner
781-801-3742
carolyn.sheehan@post.
harvard.edu
2005
CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Saul Gorman
617-447-3444
[email protected]
Tom Southworth married Emily
Susen on September 5, 2015, in
Bermuda. Emily is a childhood
friend of Dan Perkins, and
Tom and Emily were set up in
college by Dan and Brendan
Richards. Daniel Rosmarin is still
living in London. Drop him a note
if you’re passing through.
E.B. Bartels
[email protected]
Resident harpist Krysten Keches
wrote with exciting news: “On
October 25, 2015, I married
Daniel Smilkov at the Boston Public
Library. My brother, Greg Keches
’07, stood beside me as my ‘man
of honor.’ We also celebrated with
Scott Runyon, his wife, Emily, and
Gina Chen ’07. We’re planning
a second wedding in Daniel’s hometown, Gevgelija, Macedonia, in May
(one week after the 10th reunion).”
Besides that, everyone is saving
their updates to share in-person
at our 10-year reunion on May 14,
apparently. Can’t wait to see you!
2007
CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Greg Keches
[email protected]
graduate news
Greetings class of ’07! As I’ve said
from the beginning, our graduating class continues to impress
nationwide. We are truly changing
the world, and this is absolutely
embodied by our very own Max
Mankin. Recently listed in Forbes’s
“30 under 30 for Science,” Max is
attempting to fulfill his dream of
actually becoming Tony Stark.
Max completed his Ph.D. in
chemistry at Harvard, moved to
Seattle, and co-founded Modern
Electron, a start-up company
dedicated to generating cheap,
modular and reliable electricity for
all. Expensive mechanical engines
and turbines based on 19thcentury technology still generate
the majority of the power used
worldwide. Max and his team seek
to replace them with paper-thin
heat-to-electricity generators. The
company has so far raised ~$11
million in venture capital funding
and is recruiting very talented
engineers and scientists http://
modernelectron.com. Couch surfers from the Nobles community
visiting the Seattle area are most
welcome anytime.
Talk about amazing. I, for one,
will be submitting my résumé.
I once did an experiment in Dr.
Craft’s chemistry class. I believe
you were there to see it, Max. So,
I’m a scientist. Call me.
2008
CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Aditya Mukerjee
212-935-5637
[email protected]
Alex Lang is currently working as
a product manager for mobile and
wearable payments at American
Express. This past year she led
Amex in the launch of the Android
Pay mobile wallet with Google.
Katy Monaghan writes, “After
two years of teaching in a Washington, D.C., public school, I moved
back to Boston to earn my master’s
degree in special education. I am
currently a student at the Lynch
School of Education at BC and am
graduating this coming August.
In addition to completing my
master’s, I am teaching in Quincy
as a fourth- and fifth-grade special
education tutor.”
2009
CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Liz Rappaport
617-413-6070
[email protected]
Carey Favoloro says, “I have
stayed on for a second year at the
Aspen Center for Environmental
Studies (ACES) in Aspen, Colo. As
a naturalist with ACES, I spend my
days leading nature hikes and ski/
snowshoe tours. I enjoy talking
about science with visitors from
all over the world. Aspen is a huge
outdoor playground, and I have
loved the opportunity to adventure
in the mountains. Skiing, hiking,
mountain biking, and climbing
have all become favorite pastimes.
Sending best wishes to Nobles
friends and teachers!”
Cliff Reynolds says, “I’m
teaching English at an Islamic high
school in Mataram, Indonesia. I’ll
be here until May, and soon after
returning to the United States, I’ll
lead a group of U.S. high school
students overseas on a leadership
development, community service
and cultural engagement trip.”
2010
CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Holly Foster
508-404-4616
[email protected]
2011
CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Katie Puccio
508-446-0726
[email protected]
Hey, guys! I hope everyone’s
2016 is off to an amazing start!
It’s kind of crazy to think that this
will be the year of our first Nobles
reunion. Looking forward to seeing
a bunch of you back on Campus
Drive in May. I’m still living in
NYC, but now with my new
French bulldog puppy named
Babz. I just started working for a
music start-up called Mutrs, which
helps discover new independent
talent by allowing artists to offer
stock in their original content
on our digital exchange. I’m still
singing and making music in my
free time. I’m constantly running
into Nobles grads in funny places
throughout Manhattan. Hope
everyone is well!
Annie Winneg writes, “Hi,
Nobles alums. So far, postgrad life
is treating me well. Since moving
to New York to pursue my career
as an actor, I’ve been cast in
three productions (Off-Broadway
as well as Off-Off Broadway)
including Shakespeare’s Twelfth
Night and Jane Martin’s H2O.
When I’m not acting, I’m working
as a nanny in Manhattan and
trying to see as much theater as I can. Can’t wait to see
Nobles again at our reunion!”
Laura Zwanziger reports, “I
moved to New York City after
graduation to pursue a career in
fashion. I currently work in the
design department for Oscar de
la Renta in knitwear development.
Unfortunately, I will be missing the
five-year reunion, but I hope you
are all doing well.”
From Andrew Kenealy: “Hi, all!
After graduating from college in
June and spending a relaxing summer at home in Sudbury, I now live
in Arlington, Va., with three friends
from college. I research foreign
policy at a think tank in the city,
and I hope to continue in that field
long-term, but I am also currently
coaching high school rowing. I’m
the varsity girls’ coach at Woodrow
Wilson High School, which is the
only public high school in D.C.
with a crew team. I’m very busy
between two jobs, but enjoying
every minute of it! I can’t make our
first reunion, unfortunately—it conflicts with one of my team’s spring
races—but please let me know if
you find yourself in Washington.”
Chris Geary says, “I am a
Teach for America corps member teaching sixth-grade math in
Pueblo, Colo. Pueblo City is one
of the lowest-performing districts
in the state of Colorado, and the
town itself faces many economic
and social challenges. It’s been
an incredible experience that has
made it quite clear how great of a
school Nobles is and how lucky we
all were to attend such a school.”
Roz Watson writes, “I’m
currently working and living in
Munich, Germany, as an au pair.
After spending four years in New
York, I didn’t want to move to a
big city, so Munich felt just small
and random enough for a year of
museums, language learning, soul
searching, and, of course, working
on my own art. Before I left the
U.S. of A., I was lucky enough to
go to the art and culture festival
Burning Man with my dad and my
aunt, so let’s say I haven’t been
short of inspiration for a while. I
just spent a week in Amsterdam
for my birthday, and I’ve also been
able to travel a lot around Europe
during my free time: London, Paris,
Budapest, Bavaria—so much to
see! When I’m not traveling or
working, you can find me in one
of Munich’s famous beer gardens
with my sketchbook or a book of
German fairy tales. Haven’t run into
any Nobles grads here yet, but who
knows—I’m here until summer!”
Tung Nguyen shares, “After
graduating from Bowdoin, I moved
to Shanghai to work for an investment group called AngelVest Fund.
The group consists of 100-plus LPs
specializing within their own industries. I think it’s a great opportunity to learn directly from these
LPs and the hundreds of start-up
companies that apply for funding
every year. In other news, Shanghai
is an amazing city. If you have the
chance to visit, I’d love to show any
of you around the block.”
2012
CLASS CORRESPONDENT
Coco Woeltz
[email protected]
2013
2014
memoriam
Frank S. Waterman III ’41
passed away on October 7
at the age of 93. He was
a devoted graduate of
Nobles, as well as the
Rivers School and Harvard
College. Following his
time at Harvard, Frank
became president of the
Waterman Funeral business, which was started
by his family in 1832.
Frank also served on
a number of bank boards
throughout the region,
including the Wellesley
National Bank and the
South Shore National Bank.
Later in his life, he began to
research his family’s history
in America, which spanned
back to 1636. His book, 378
Years in America: The Watermans from 1636, the Funeral
Business from 1832, and the
Future of America in the New
World, was published in 2014.
Twice a widower, Frank
is survived by his third wife,
Ann Fecke Waterman; his
children, Pamela Waterman
Ryder and her husband,
Hilton; John Waterman and
his wife, Mallory; Annette
Brodie and her husband,
Peter; and Frank S. Waterman IV and his wife, Carrie;
his 13 grandchildren; and his
six great-grandchildren.
Thank you to class correspondent Hooley Perry ’53 for the
following tribute.
Dudley Bradlee Dumaine ’52 passed away at
the age of 82 on Christmas
Day, December 25, 2015, at
his home in Cynthiana, Ky.
Dudley was the widower of
the late Susan Beth Emery Dumaine, who passed
away in 2012.
As many of his classmates
will recall, Dudley was one
of the chosen and fortunate
few who attended Nobles for
seven years, and among his
many achievements, “Dud,”
who was 6-foot 6-inches tall,
towered over many of his
classmates, where he played
end on the unbeaten and
untied 1951 football squad,
in addition to being captain
of the 1952 basketball squad.
Dudley loved to anoint many
of his favorite classmates
with humorous nicknames:
“Stretch” being Bob Cumings,
“Scroot” being David Horton,
and I, for some unknown reason, was called “Puppa,” so I
always called him “Doodles.”
Dudley was the son of
the late Frederic Christopher
“Buck” Dumaine Jr. and the
late Margaret Keep Williams
“Pit” Dumaine. He was an
officer in the family business,
the Amoskeag Company,
in Boston, Mass., a veteran
of the United States Army,
where at boot camp he
first met his beautiful wife,
Susan. He was also a lifetime
member of the National
Rifle Association, a lifetime
member of the Masons, and,
after graduating from the
Noble and Greenough School
in Dedham, Mass., he
also graduated from Boston
University. Dudley truly loved
his seven years at Nobles,
and I would often receive
day and night phone calls
from him asking all sorts of
off-the-wall questions about
“When did Eliot Putnam
become headmaster?”
and “Who kicked the extra
points at the Roxbury Latin
game?” (Wink Childs, of
course) or “What was the
final score of the Milton
game?” plus many others.
Dudley was a native of
Weston, Mass., where he
lived for many years before
moving to a very beautiful
85-acre spread in Bourbon
County, Ky., where his very
capable daughter Meg
Dumaine handles and trains
all of the horses, goats,
chickens and other livestock
associated with a sprawling Kentucky horse farm.
Dudley’s survivors include
one daughter, Margaret
Elisabeth “Meg” Dumaine;
two sons, Chandler Andrew Dumaine and Frederic
Christopher Dumaine IV;
one grandson, Cameron
Todd Williams Dumaine; and
one sister, Ruth Brooking.
“Doodles,” you big
lovable guy, everyone will
miss you and your singular
personality, because you
were truly an original. Rest
in peace, my friend, as you
ride off into the sunset.
And what a ride it was.
graduate news
Robert J. Schaefer ’56
passed away peacefully at
the age of 76 on November
15, 2015. Born on June 9,
1939, Robert grew up in
West Newton and entered
Nobles in the eighth grade.
Robert took his studies very
seriously. He was a member
of Deutscher Verein and
was on the honor roll and
cum laude his senior year.
Following his time at
Nobles, Robert went on
to Harvard for both his
B.A. and his Ph.D. Initially
pegged by his Nobles classmates to be a naturalist in
10 years, Robert received
his Ph.D. in metallurgy. His
first job was at the Naval Research Laboratory
in Washington, D.C. He
later moved to the National
Institute of Standards and
Technology in Gaithersburg,
Md. Building off his interest
in birding at Nobles, Robert
continued his love of the
outdoors. He took multiple
canoeing trips to the Arctic
wilderness and was very active in the Audubon Society
of Central Maryland and
the Frederick Bird Club.
Robert is survived
by his wife of 41 years,
Karin Wuertz-Schaefer; his
daughter, Sylvia Schaefer;
his sister, Lucile Henricks;
and his brother, John ’62.
Patrick Kelly ’96 passed
away at his home in
Snowmass Village, Colo.,
on February 4, after a
two-year battle with an
aggressive brain tumor.
He was 38 years old. Patrick
was the youngest of four
to attend Nobles, following
his siblings: Tim Kelly ’85,
Chrissy (Kelly) Baird ’87 and
Moira (Kelly) Giacalone ’90.
After Nobles, Patrick
attended Middlebury
College, where he studied
religion and English. Following a stint serving as a
congressional aide in
Washington, D.C., Patrick
returned to Massachusetts
to work at Orion magazine
in Great Barrington. In 2007,
Patrick moved to Colorado
to begin work for the
Aspen Institute, a nonpartisan education and policy
studies organization with
a mission to foster leadership based on enduring
values. As Patrick’s family
wrote in his obituary: “He
touched so many in his life
with his calm manner, attentive listening, and deep
intelligence. He faced his
terrible illness with courage,
grace, and hope, and Patrick’s death carried its own
beauty and power. His faith
remained unshaken, and he
faced the end without fear
or regret.” Patrick will be
“remembered for his courageous and optimistic spirit,
selfless character, personable nature and ‘infectious’
smile.” Patrick was predeceased by his father, Jim
Kelly, and brother Tim ‘85.
Patrick is survived by his
loving wife, Collins Canada;
his daughter, Clara Rose;
his mother, Joan; and his
sisters, Chrissy and Moira.
From the wedding of Tom Southworth ’05 to Emily Susen this past September. Left
to right: Neil White ’05, Matt Cambria ’05, Brendan Richards ’05, Dan Perkins ’05,
Tom Southworth ’05, Brendan Armour ’05, Tom Lamb ’76 and Mike Southworth ’14.
Evie (Dabreo) and Bryan Swaim (both ’01) as well as Derek Cash, Tom Bresnehan,
Derek and Chrissie Marin, and Cindy Nguy (whose boyfriend, Tope, apparently
snuck into the shot!).
announcements
Marriages
Yantee Neufville ’98 married Malika Fair in Boston in May; the couple also
held a September ceremony in Michigan; Evie Dabreo and Bryan Swaim,
both ’01, were married in October 2015 at Larz Anderson Park in Brookline;
Michael Sanders ’00 married Melanie Hirsch in October 2015; they live in
Washington, D.C.; Tom Southworth ’05 married Emily Susen on September
5, 2015, in Bermuda; Krysten Keches ’06 married Daniel Smilkov at the
Yantee Neufville ’98 and his wife,
Malika, on their wedding day
Thomas Orazio Wade and big sister
Emily, children of Kate (Connelly)
Wade ’96
Big sister Virginia with Rosemary Lee
Harrington, children of Alison Fahey
Harrington ’00 and husband Kent
Alex Saltzman ’01 and his wife,
Megan, welcomed a son, Noah Robert
Saltzman, on December 21, 2015.
Patrick Keneally ’01 sent this photo of
his son, Myles Peter Keneally, born in
July 2014.
Adam Taub ’98 with wife Anna
and newborn baby boy Amos
Nathaniel Lee, son of Jessica
Lee ’01 and husband Henry
At the wedding of Krysten Keches ’06 to Daniel
Smilkov, left to right: Scott Runyon ’06, Gina
Chen ’07, Daniel, Krysten and Greg Keches ’07
Credit: KT Merry Photography
George Clark Sterner and big brother Calvin are the
children of Elizabeth Libert Sterner ’01.
Boston Public Library on October 25, 2015. The couple is planning a second
wedding in Daniel’s hometown, Gevgelija, Macedonia, in May 2016.
New Arrivals
Sherrie (Selwyn) Delinsky ’94 and husband Jeremy Delinsky ’93 had a
baby girl, Wrenna, in December 2015. She joins siblings Max and Ruby;
Kate (Connelly) Wade ’96, husband Kenneth and daughter Emily were
Sherrie (Selwyn) Delinsky ’94 and Jeremy Delinsky ’93
shared this photo of children Max, Ruby and Wrenna.
joined by baby Thomas Orazio Wade on November 17, 2015; Jenn (Falchuk) Kollenscher ’98, husband Avi and daughter Avery welcomed Jordan
Elle to the family on December 17, 2015; Adam Taub ’98 and wife Anna
welcomed a son, Amos Morris Taub, October 24, 2015; Alison (Fahey)
Harrington ’00 and husband Kent welcomed a second daughter, Rosemary Lee Harrington, on October 5, 2015; Jessica Lee ’01 and husband
Henry had a son, Nathaniel, in September 2015; Patrick Keneally ’01 and
wife Pamela welcomed a son, Myles Peter Keneally, on July 30, 2014.
archive
DIVISIONS OF PROVISIONS
Dick Baker and a few students from the Class of 1996
enjoy a perfectly portioned meal on plastic.
Correction: In “Archive” of the Winter 2016 issue, we incorrectly identified the location of
the image as 44 West Cedar Street in Boston. The location was, instead, 97 Beacon Street.
Give the gift of
experiential learning.
Make your gift to the Annual Nobles
Fund today so students can continue
to grow through travel and service.
Visit nobles.edu/giveonline or contact
Director of Annual Giving Allie Trainor
at [email protected] or
781-320-7005.
Noble and Greenough School
10 Campus Drive
Dedham, MA 02026-4099
Kliptown Colors
Thulani Madondo, founder of Kliptown Youth Program in Soweto,
South Africa, leads KYP in a thank-you cheer. Students on the middle
p. 42
school spring break trip to South Africa distributed 14 bags of clothes
from the Nobles Gear Up Drive to members of the KYP community.
NON-PROFIT
U.S. POSTAGE
PAID
BOSTON MA
PERMIT NO. 53825

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