ANDOVERBULLETIN Changing Scenery

Spring 2005
ANDOVER
BULLETIN
Changing Scenery
Changing Scenery
Members of the Andover community, as
well as commuters along Route 28, have
noticed a change in the skyline lately. But
don’t worry: The transformation is only
temporary. After more than eight decades,
the Memorial Bell Tower and its venerable
carillon have been razed as part of a meticulous reconstruction project. Dedicated in
1923 as a memorial to alumni who died in
World War I, Andover’s central landmark
was failing as a result of original construction flaws, and full restoration was needed.
Thanks to a towering fund-raising drive,
though, the academy is now in the midst
of a $5.15 million project that will reconstruct the building from the ground up. Also
involved in the project are the cleaning and
tuning of the English carillon bells, the
addition of another series of bells from the
Netherlands and the installation of an
electronic carillon system with remote
keyboard. Generous gifts for the project
have come from Trustee Emeritus David
M. Underwood ’54 and the Weaver family,
Dorothy and David ’61, Christina ’89 and
Andres ’92, as well as Otis Chandler ’46, F.
Frederick Jordan Jr. ’43, Helen Donegan,
Crosby Kemper ’45 and John Ryan ’45.
Completion is expected in winter 2006.
Cover: Progression (left-right) shows the careful
removal of the cupola, top barrel and bells of the
Memorial Bell Tower.
Right: Hard-hatted construction workers look over the
37 English- and Dutch-made carillon bells installed in
1922. Some of the bells will be repaired, cleaned and
tuned, new bells will be added, and the carillon, silent
since 1989, is expected to ring again in January 2006.
ANDOVERBULLETIN
The ANDOVER BULLETIN is published
four times a year, fall, winter, spring and
summer, by the Office of
Communications at Phillips Academy,
180 Main Street, Andover MA 018104161.
F E AT U R E S
7
Main PA Phone 978-749-4000
A SPIRITUAL VOICE IN A SECULAR SOCIETY
Changes of address and death notices:
978-749-4269; [email protected]
by Theresa Pease
Phillips Academy Web site:
http://www.andover.edu
Bulletin Phone 978-749-4040
Bulletin Fax 978-749-4272
e-mail: [email protected]
Periodical postage paid at Andover MA
and at additional mailing offices. Postmasters:
Send address changes to: Andover Bulletin,
Phillips Academy, 180 Main Street,
Andover MA 01810–4161
ISSN-0735-5718
Spring 2005
Volume 98/Number 3
Publisher
Elizabeth Roberts
Secretary of the Academy
Editor
Theresa Pease
Interim Director of Communications
Operations
Art Director
Ellen Hardy
Director of Design Services
Assistant Editors
Jill Clerkin
Sharon Magnuson
Paula Trespas
Class Notes Coordinator
Maggie Carbone
Contributing Writer
Tana Sherman
Design and Publications Assistant
Jennifer Barcza
Production Coordinator
Linda Capodilupo
THE POWER OF ONE:
Father Joseph Champlin ’47 lives out a ministry that is
both micro and macro.
5
RETIREMENTS 2005
10
Connecting the worlds of science and nature:
LYDIA GOETZE
by Vincent Avery
12
The American dream comes true at Andover:
C.Y. HUANG
by Tana Sherman
14
Fulfilling great expectations:
’CILLA BONNEY-SMITH
by Jean St. Pierre
26
16
Question, provoke and lead:
NAT SMITH
by Victor Henningsen ’69
18
So very French!:
MADAME SUZY JOSEPH
by George Dix
Photography: Lionel Delevingne,
Neil Hamberg, Ellen Hardy, Richard
Howard, Michael Lutch, Mark Teatum,
Bethany Versoy
20
A Renaissance couple:
LESLIE BALLARD AND ROBERT PERRIN
All photos copyrighted
Printed on recycled paper
by Tana Sherman
Cover:
Photographs by Mark Teatum
28
24
A SLICE OF ANDOVER HISTORY:
D E PA R T M E N T S
THE STORY OF THOMAS PAUL SMITH
2
3
26
28
31
33
Exchange
by Benjamin Heller ’05
Dateline Andover
Andover lists T.P. Smith among its notable
alumni, but who really knows anything about
this early black separatist?
82
In Memoriam
IBC
Andover Bookshelf
Sports Talk
Time & Treasure
Alumni News
Class Notes and
Alumni Profiles
EXCHANGE
FROM THE EDITOR
Spring is a bittersweet time here on the Andover campus, where—in
addition to launching another class of graduates into their adult lives—
we ready ourselves to say goodbye to retiring teachers. In most cases,
these are individuals who have served the academy for decades and whose
strengths, foibles and personalities have seemed to a generation or more
of students to define the school. In the communications office, we glibly
call them the Teaching Titans, and when you read a list of retirees with
names like Leslie Ballard, ’Cilla Bonney-Smith, Lydia Goetze, C.Y.
Huang, Suzy Joseph, Bob Perrin and Nat Smith, it may indeed seem as if
the educational gods were foresaking us.
Not so, however. A careful reading of the Bulletin will show you the
faculty pantheon is constantly regenerating itself, and newer to midcareer
teachers are carrying the school’s excellence forward unabated. Evidence
of this turns up on page 3, where you’ll discover that the College Board
recently reported PA’s students are tops in the world in AP music theory
and AP physics. And speaking of AP science, it’s no mere coincidence
that there appears on page 29 a story telling how Andover students,
under the leadership of teachers like Trish Russell and Jeremiah Hagler
and with the help of an anonymously endowed research fund, are
conducting more independent science research than ever. Then, on page
24, you’ll learn how another endowed fund helped support history scholar
Ben Heller ’05 as, with guidance from department chair Vic Henningsen
’69, he researched the controversial career of an early PA graduate and
black separatist.
In the life-after-Andover category, you’ll find profiles on such diverse
professionals as Father Joseph Champlin ’47, upstate New York’s celebrity
priest; Nora Johnson ’50, author of The World of Henry Orient and now, at
71, of a scintillating new memoir; Ruth Harlow ’79, who was named
“Lawyer of the Year” in 2003 for successfully arguing the Lawrence v.
Texas case that led to the U.S. Supreme Court striking down antisodomy
laws nationwide; and filmmaker Henry-Alex Rubin ’91, whose documentary Murderball was a sensation at the Sundance Film Festival.
Two things are new in this issue. At right you’ll find the first entry in
our reborn Letters to the Editor column. We hope you’ll feel encouraged
to share your responses to articles that appear in the magazine. Second,
on the pages that follow is the new Dateline Andover section, which
brings some campus news items to the front of the book, replacing the old
News Notes section in the back. While these changes have come about
in response to suggestions made on the random alumni survey reported in
the winter issue, I hope you will not wait for a formal survey to share your
opinions and suggestions with us.
2
Discussions strengthen
academic communities
To the Editor:
I was very pleased to read recently
that the Andover Bulletin will once
again accept letters submitted to the
editor. My household also receives
the Swarthmore College Bulletin,
Northwestern and the University of
Chicago Magazine. These publications are proud to publish letters
from alumni and members of the
community—even when authors
disagree with policies undertaken by
their schools’ administrations.
Hearing and disseminating a diversity of views can only strengthen the
academy.
And (inevitably) a request:
Please, please stop referring to the
young women and men who
currently attend Andover as “girls
and boys.”
Andrew Podolsky ’84
Montgomery Village, Md.
Editor’s note: We have indeed begun
considering for publication letters
commenting on the content of articles
in recent issues. Such letters may
be edited for length, grammar and
clarity. Disagreement with administrative policies will not eliminate a letter
from consideration. However, letters
characterized by personal invective will
not be published. As to style, we follow
The Associated Press Stylebook, a
standard for newspaper and magazine
journalists. By AP style, an individual
is a “boy” or “girl” until his or her 18th
birthday. Since most of our students
have not turned 18, we often refer to
them this way.
DATELINE
ANDOVER
Andover ‘leads the world’ in
AP physics, music theory
T
he College Board says Andover students are tops
in the world in Advanced Placement physics
and AP music theory. A recent College Board
report, AP Report to the Nation 2005, recognized
the academy’s “unparalleled success” for the
highest percentage of students who pass the AP
physics and music theory exams compared with schools of similar size
worldwide. The report named the schools that “lead the world in helping the widest
segment of their total school population attain college-level mastery of each AP exam.”
Of the 1,083 students at Andover, 69 took the Physics Mechanics exam and 69 took the Physics
Electricity and Magnetism exam in May 2004. They earned an average grade of 4.5 on a 5-point scale
on the mechanics exam and an average grade of 3.9 on the electricity and magnetism exam. The 21
students who took the AP music theory exam earned an average grade of 4.95. A grade of 3 or above
represents mastery of the subject.
Clyfe Beckwith, chair of the physics department, credits several factors with the school’s success in
teaching college-level physics to high school students. “First are the students themselves,” he says. “Our
program attracts extremely well-qualified science and math students.” A number of those taking AP
physics courses at PA are 10th- and 11th-graders.
The academy’s faculty includes eight physics teachers. Many hold advanced degrees, including two
Ph.D. degrees, and all are passionate about teaching physics to adolescents.
The academic curriculum offers 12 different physics courses. There are yearlong introductory
courses: Introduction to Physics and College Physics. Seven electives include Classical Mechanics,
Cosmology, Physical Geology, Meteorology, Electronics, Relativity and Quantum
Mechanics and Physics Seminar. In addition, there are two AP physics courses—
one based on calculus and the other on algebra.
The science facilities include the new Gelb Science Center, a 48,000square-foot state-of-the-art science building that opened in January 2004. In
addition to an entire floor devoted to physics classrooms, laboratories and interactive space for students and faculty, the building also has an astronomy observatory with a telescope housed in its 18 1/2-foot dome.
Reflecting on the AP music theory exam, Elizabeth Aureden, chair of the
music department, says, “Ultimately, the success of Andover students is due to
the extraordinary preparation given in Peter Warsaw’s yearlong AP music
theory and composition course. Peter starts with a group of students at varying
levels of comfort and experience and gets them excited about this subject.”
Warsaw credits the students and the school. “This school is known as a
place where students can study music, not just play it,” he says.
When students begin his course, they have heard a lot of music, but they don’t necessarily understand the language of music. “They are intellectually hungry to learn the language,” says Warsaw. “This
speaks to their willingness to undertake academic rigor.”
This year he has 42 students taking the course. About half are seniors, while the rest are uppers and
lowers. When Warsaw began teaching it in 1984, he had only three students. In all these years, he has
never had a student score below a 3 on the AP exam.
3
DATELINE
ANDOVER
Alumna named PA’s first
chief investment officer
P
hillips Academy has hired Amy Falls ’82, formerly a
managing director and global fixed income strategist for
Morgan Stanley, as its first chief investment officer.
Headquartered in New York, Falls will work with the Board
of Trustees’ investment committee and with Stephen Carter,
PA’s chief financial officer, to oversee management of the
academy’s $620 million endowment.
With one of the largest endowments of any secondary
school in the country, Andover is the first in its peer group to
establish a full-time position dedicated to overseeing endowment assets. The endowment invests in a broad range of financial assets globally, including debt, equity, private equity and
venture capital.
“As the markets continue to become more complex,
competitive and global in nature, it is clear that having a
chief investment officer on board to help us navigate these
waters is increasingly critical,” says Carter. “Amy Falls’ deep
financial markets expertise, combined with her knowledge of
how macroeconomic trends and geopolitical events affect
those markets, makes her the perfect person for the job.”
Falls holds a B.A. degree from Georgetown University
and a master’s degree in public policy from the John F.
Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. She has more
than 15 years’ experience in financial markets, most recently
as a managing director and global fixed income strategist for
Morgan Stanley, where she was also a member of the firm’s
institutional and individual investment policy committees.
She was responsible for setting Morgan Stanley’s strategic
and tactical investment themes for fixed income, foreign
exchange and commodities markets globally. Previously, she
ran the Emerging Markets Research group and was the global
high yield strategist.
4
Hotchkiss math co-chair
to lead (MS)2 program
F
ernando R. Alonso, co-chair of
the mathematics department
at The Hotchkiss School, has
been named the new director of
(MS)2, the school’s 27-year-old
Math and Science for Minority
Students summer program.
“Ferd Alonso is thoughtful, genuine and
committed to education,” says Rebecca Sykes,
associate head of school. “He has a demonstrated
interest in providing opportunities to kids who
have not had encouragement and challenging
academic programs.”
Alonso will begin his full-time, year-round
faculty position at PA this summer, working with
the assistance of Elwin Sykes, who is currently
interim director of (MS)2. Alonso also will teach
math to students during the regular academic
year. A graduate of Baldwin School of Puerto
Rico, where he was a Presidential Scholar and
class valedictorian, he received a B.S. degree in
material science engineering from Cornell
University. He returned to Baldwin School to
teach mathematics, computer science, chemistry
and physics and to serve as computer coordinator.
He later served the Westtown School in
Pennsylvania as math department chair, director
of student activities, computer coordinator,
lacrosse coach and dorm head. At Hotchkiss, he
co-chairs the mathematics department and heads
an 11th- and 12th-grade boys’ dorm.
Expressing excitement at being named the
next director of (MS)2, Alonso says, “The privilege of working with a diverse group of talented
and highly motivated students makes this
program every teacher’s dream. I look forward to
meeting and getting to know the students and
families from all over the country who contribute
so much to the success of the program each year. I
also look forward to meeting the hundreds of
alums who have gone through the program. Their
stories are the most eloquent testimonies to the
success of (MS)2.”
Trustees vote on
tuition, salaries, aid
Former
editors enliven
Phillipian
newsroom
Phillipian board members with their alumni counterparts critique the newspaper
in the newsroom in February. Clockwise from left rear are: Clem Wood ’04,
Elisa Harwood ’05, Gordon Murphy ’05, Melissa Chiozzi ’06, Betsy Gootrad
’74, Tom Strong ’82, Buzz Bissinger ’72 and David Schwartz ’72.
W
hile students lobbed snowballs at one another on campus in late
February, the incoming and outgoing boards of The Phillipian were
brainstorming with former editors of the school newspaper who are now
either journalists, book authors or business professionals. Jenny Savino, assistant director for classes and reunions, hosted the event, sponsored by the
Office of Alumni Affairs.
As she traveled around the country talking to young alumni, Savino was
struck by the number who said what they missed most about Andover was their
experience working on The Phillipian. Would she consider inviting former
editors to meet with students who work on the newspaper today? Savino
agreed, and when invitations went out to 20 former Phillipian editors she got an
amazing response: All 20 wanted to be involved in a mentoring relationship
with Phillipian staffers. Further, 13 of them—from every decade beginning in
the mid-1940s—enthusiastically accepted her invitation. The February date
she suggested coincided with the changing of the Phillipian guard: The 2004–05
board was being honored for its service, while members of the new board were
having their names newly inscribed on the Phillipian masthead.
At a get-acquainted dinner in Commons with the alumni advisers and
42 current and future Phillipian staffers, Nina Scott, a PA English teacher and
The Phillipian faculty adviser, recognized each outgoing board member. Later,
in the newsroom in Morse Hall, the alumni engaged the students in a lively
discussion on libel and the role of the faculty adviser. The former editors
across the board reported they are impressed with The Phillipian and are
pleased that today’s students are learning the craft of journalism.
Savino emphasized that the newsroom veterans comprise an affinitybased group that will talk with the board and give them journalistic tips and
guidance. Noting that such input should be limited, participant Evan
Thomas ’69, assistant managing editor of Newsweek magazine, pointed out,
“In delicate or controversial situations, I don’t think that counting on alums
for advice is a great idea. We don’t know the campus.”
The current crop of Phillipian editors has committed to return to campus
every February for three years to share their ideas and experience with the
paper’s staffers.
A
cting upon a mandate of the
school’s most recent strategic
plan, the Andover Board of Trustees
in their meeting in February voted to
increase the school’s financial aid budget by $1.1 million, bringing the total
financial aid budget to $10.8 million.
The increase means 40 percent of
students will receive some sort of
financial aid. The trustees also voted
to increase faculty salaries by 4.25
percent and set the tuition for
2005–06 at $33,000 for boarders and
$25,700 for day students. The strategic plan can be accessed on the
school’s Web site, www.andover.edu.
Bienvenidos a Andover
I
n support of the Strategic Plan’s
goal of attracting youth from every
quarter, the Phillips Academy Web
site at www.andover.edu now contains a section of pages in Spanish.
By clicking on a button on the home
page that says “¿Habla español? Haga
clic aquí,” a visitor to the site can find
information in Spanish on campus
resources, facts about the school, frequently asked admission questions
and driving directions to campus, as
well as a Spanish version of the
Parents’ Statement for the admission
application. Although prospective
students must be fluent in English,
sometimes their parents struggle with
the language. The new Web pages
are intended to address their need for
information.
5
DATELINE
ANDOVER PEOPLE
ANDOVER
Organist plays
in Hong Kong
Change of leadership
in Communications
Donald McNemar
appointed to new post
Patrick Kabanda, the school organist,
made his Asian debut on Feb. 12 at the
Hong Kong Cultural Centre. Kabanda,
a native of Uganda and a graduate of
the Juilliard School of Music in New
York, came to Andover in 2004. He
made his European debut at St. Paul’s
Cathedral in London in 2004.
Theresa Pease, director of editorial
services, and Andrew Gully, former
managing editor of the Boston Herald,
were named to a transition leadership
team by Head of School Barbara
Landis Chase in January. Pease is
interim director of communications
operations, while Gully is interim
director of communications planning.
Pease, who preceded former communications director Sharon Britton as head
of the department, is serving a dual
role, continuing to edit the Andover
Bulletin and other documents as well as
overseeing the publications, public
information and Web staff. A seasoned
newspaper and magazine writer, she
came to PA in 1994 after working for
20 years editing alumni publications
and doing external media relations for
Tufts University and M.I.T. A communications consultant, Andover resident
and current PA parent (Jocelyn ’07),
Gully is working part-time in the head
of school’s office helping to formulate a
long-range communications plan as
directed by the academy’s strategic
plan. He also is advising Chase on
external communications initiatives.
Donald McNemar has been named
coordinator of international programs
at the Cronin International Center at
Bentley College in Waltham, Mass.
McNemar, headmaster at Phillips
Academy from 1981–1994, has taught
at the business school’s Department of
International Studies since 2002 and
will continue to teach while undertaking new responsibilities at the center.
After leaving Phillips Academy,
McNemar was president of Guilford
College in Greensboro, N.C. He and
his wife, Britta, live in Waltham.
Dalton awarded
NEH fellowship
Kathleen Dalton, co-director of the
Brace Center for Gender Studies and
instructor of history and social science,
was awarded a National Endowment
for the Humanities Fellowship to work
on her next book. The nonfiction
work is based on the diaries of Caroline
Drayton Phillips, the wife of diplomat
William Phillips and a friend of
Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt.
Dalton’s biography on Theodore
Roosevelt was published in 2004.
Murphy named Summer
Session director
Paul D. Murphy ’84, instructor in
mathematics since 1988, will assume
the leadership of PA’s Summer Session
program in June. Murphy was formerly
dean of Flagstaff cluster. He will continue teaching in the math department
during the regular session.
New department chairs,
scheduling officer
announced
Margarita Curtis, dean of studies, and
Temba Maqubela, dean of faculty,
announced in January the appointment of new department chairs. They
are: Peter Drench, chair of the history
department; Kathy Pryde, chair of the
physics department; and Max
Alovisetti, chair of the psychology
department and director of psychological services. Paul Cernota, instructor
in chemistry and adviser for gay, lesbian and bisexual issues, was appointed
scheduling officer. All appointments
are for a six-year period.
6
Kip on Boston
Classics Panel
Instructor in classics Nicholas Kip ’60
was invited to be a panelist at the
annual meeting of the American
Philological Association, the most
highly regarded professional organization of classics teachers and scholars in
the United States. The meeting was
held in Boston in January. He spoke on
developing Greek programs. In a computer-generated presentation, Kip outlined the past 35 years’ worth of
courses and innovations Andover has
made in the classics department to
encourage the study of Greek and give
students an understanding of classical
Greek civilization. Often cited as a
leader in secondary school classics education, Andover has taught Greek
since its founding in 1778.
Director of
development
named at Addison
Maria Lockheardt has been named the
Addison Gallery of American Art’s
new director of development. She most
recently worked as corporate program
director at DeCordova Museum &
Sculpture Park in Lincoln, Mass. Her
responsibilities at Andover include
engaging PA alumni and friends in
philanthropic initiatives at the
Addison, soliciting underwriting for the
gallery’s exhibitions and programs and
promoting special projects such as the
Addison’s 75th anniversary 2006–07.
“Judge” Hardy
Ellen Hardy, director of design services, was recently asked to be a judge
for the annual NEMA (New England
Museum Association) 2005 Publication Awards. Hardy, who is in her
10th year at PA, has won bronze
awards through NEMA for design
work she did for the Addison Gallery
of American Art. She has also won
two gold awards through CASE
(Center for the Advancement and
Support of Education) for her design
work for the admission office and
OAR, as well as a bronze for the
Andover Bulletin.
THE POWER OF ONE
A Spiritual Voice in a Secular Society
Father Joseph Champlin ’47 has spent half a century
living out a ministry that is both macro and micro.
by Theresa Pease
S
trolling through downtown
Syracuse, N.Y., with Joe
Champlin is like marching at the
head of a Santa Claus parade alongside Saint Nick himself. Some
onlookers move aside to let him
pass; many interrupt the procession
for a precious moment of contact.
“Father, I loved your message
yesterday,” they say. “Because of you,
Father, my wife had a peaceful
death”; “Father, thank you for
praying with me”; and even, “Father,
I am praying for you.”
The charismatic alumnus is not
the patriarch of some enormous
family. He is the Rev. Msgr. Joseph
M. Champlin, who will retire after
10 years as rector of Syracuse’s
Cathedral of the Immaculate
Conception once he passes his 75th
birthday this month. A popular
radio personality and author of more
than 50 books that have helped millions of Roman Catholics navigate
life’s transitions, he is also a cancer
patient who has shared his experience of the disease with the reading
public, a celibate who has put an
indelible stamp on marriage, a syn-
dicated columnist and lecturer
whose strong, clear voice explicated
the dramatic evolution of Catholic
liturgy in the 1960s. He has taught
at the Vatican, corresponded with
novelist Jacqueline Susann and
helped transform the future of
minority kids from Syracuse’s
depressed inner city.
Fr. Champlin is at once a
celebrity priest and a humble pastor
who baptizes babies, hears confession and comforts the sick and
dying. He manages the cathedral’s
business affairs. He takes time to
greet the homeless people who sleep
in the shadow of the 130-year-old
Gothic landmark. He is a romantic
who cries at sappy movies.
THE PULL OF THE PULPIT
Champlin’s trip down the cathedral
aisle was not, to indulge in a pun,
preordained. He was raised as a
Catholic, but no one in his family
had ever taken Holy Orders. His
father was an Episcopalian.
“In a very old issue of Fortune
magazine, you can find a photo of a
black-haired boy who was a great-
grandson of both the founder and
the original winemaker of Great
Western Champagne. That boy is
me,” confides Champlin, who
jovially declares he was born in a
wine cellar and sent to boarding
school from Cleveland, N.Y.,
because his stepfather and mother
thought him an underachieving
delinquent who could be redeemed
by academic challenge.
But while his Andover friends
were mapping out their careers in
government, industry, education,
law, medicine and the financial
world, Champlin harbored a secret.
Even as he prepared to study engi7
calls “the injustice of apartheid, the
poverty of Lesotho and the civil war
in Rhodesia.”
Fr. Champlin pays a visit to firstgraders at the Cathedral School.
(Photo by Michael Davis, courtesy
of the Syracuse New Times.)
neering at Yale, he felt the inner
pull of the cloth.
“You ask anyone why he
became a priest, and he might
tell you it’s to help people, or to
repay a debt, or to be close to
God,” he says. “Ultimately
you’re going to find he doesn’t
really know. The truth is, he
was called in his heart to be a
priest. It’s an impossible feeling to
explain. I first felt it when I was in
third grade.”
During his freshman year at
Yale, Champlin found he could no
longer resist the magnetic power of
his vocation. He transferred to
Notre Dame briefly for a taste of
Catholic education, then spent
seven years in the seminary. He was
ordained in 1956.
NARRATING RENEWAL
After completing the first dozen
years of his priesthood in upstate
New York, Champlin was assigned
to Washington, D.C., as a liturgy
specialist for the U.S. Conference of
Catholic Bishops.
8
MESSAGES TO THE MILLIONS
His first book, Don’t You Really
Love Me?, responded to the hedonistic values portrayed in
Jacqueline Susann’s Valley of the
Dolls. It sold 200,000 copies. The
dozens of volumes that followed
cover contemporary social issues,
plus topics like confession, being
an altar-server, and the
symbols inside a Catholic
church. Champlin’s titles
take up six screens on
Champlin’s titles take up
amazon.com, but most
six screens on
copies sell through religious stores, parishes and
amazon.com, but most copies
Catholic education prosell through religious stores,
grams. Total sales number
in the 20 million range.
parishes and Catholic
If you’re a married
education programs. Total sales
Catholic, chances are
good you have owned a
number in the 20 million range.
Champlin book. His top
seller, Together for Life, is a
workbook
containing an array
“I arrived there in 1968,” he
of
readings,
prayers
and blessings
says, “right as they were changing
from which to customize a wedding
the Mass from Latin to English,
ceremony. It features a mix-andturning the priest around to face the
match menu with a tear out sheet
people and involving parishioners
the prospective bride and groom can
more in the ritual.”
share with their priest in preparaQuickly becoming a top U.S.
tion for the sacrament of matriexpert on the church’s transition,
mony. To date, it has sold more than
Champlin logged 2 million miles
9 million copies. Champlin, who
over the next 15 years, teaching the
penned other books on marriage as
new liturgy and penning a column
well, has personally counseled and
syndicated in 70 Catholic newspawed some 1,200 couples over the
pers throughout the country. Other
past 15 years.
church-related travel has taken
Champlin to Rome, where he
taught and counseled seminarians at
the Pontifical North American
College, and to South Africa, where
he had a front row seat to what he
TOUCHING THE COMMUNITY
As a shepherd, Champlin defines his
flock broadly. Some years back the
diocese transformed its middle-class,
white parochial school into a tiny
comment. “You know,” an acquainK-6 academy serving poor minority
tance told him, “with your voice, you
youngsters whose shot at even a
ought to do radio. You ought to be a
junior high education seemed
spiritual voice in a secular society.”
remote. About 80 percent of those
Since then, the priest has created
enrolled are not Catholic. Now it’s
some 200 one-minute radio spots on
not unheard-of for its graduates to
topics ranging from “Violence in the
attend prestigious universities with
City” to “The Power of Prayer.” Each
ample scholarships. Eight years ago,
message airs numerous times on
he formed the Guardian Angel
WSYR-AM 570 and WHEN-AM
Society to raise money for the
620. They cover “all things spiritual,”
school. One popular fund-raiser
Champlin says: grief, temptation,
involves the slender, elderly cleric’s
addiction, love, dying, nature. They
running in 5K road races, gaining
broad, affectionate public
support. Each run nets about
$30,000 for the school,
which has amassed a
While he doesn’t condone
$1.2 million endowment.
He also lectures on conthe sexual improprieties that
temporary issues. One talk,
have come to light, he likes to
“No Pain, No Gain,”
addresses the current crisis in
remind people, “The whole
the priesthood: an aging
Christian message is about
corps of priests, declining
interest in religious vocaforgiveness and starting over.”
tions, controversy surrounding revelations of sexual abuse by the clergy and
the church’s response to such
claims. While Champlin finds such
also provided the fodder for one of
issues troublesome, he tries to take a
Champlin’s most successful books,
positive view of the situation, pointSlow Down: Five Minute Meditations to
ing out that the tensions have given
De-Stress Your Days.
some priests the inspiration to
When Slow Down came out in
reflect more deeply on the nature of
2003—at $9.95, with Champlin’s
the priesthood and to “notch up”
money-back guarantee of its impact
their spirituality. “Out of pain
on the reader’s life—the author was
comes gain. It is only by experiencinvited to the local Barnes and
ing darkness that we are able to
Noble, where 240 people showed up
appreciate the light,” he says. And
for his autograph. Because of
while he doesn’t condone the sexual
Champlin’s popularity on the radio,
improprieties that have come to
the store sold more than 1,500
light, he likes to remind people,
copies in a month, achieving its
“The whole Christian message is
largest sale ever of a single book.
about forgiveness and starting over.”
People tell Champlin Slow Down,
Just over three years ago,
which features 101 daily meditaChamplin’s community outreach took
tions, indeed helps them relieve
a quantum leap thanks to a casual
stress and enhance their spirituality.
FACING ETERNITY
Another Champlin title has a
more poignant history. From Here to
Eternity and Back, published in 2004,
chronicles the priest’s struggle with
Waldenstrom’s macroglobulinemia,
an incurable but treatable form of
cancer that robbed him of his
strength, gave him a severe cough
and caused him to think from a new
perspective about life, death and
spirituality. In it, he writes about his
chemotherapy, dietary and drug
regimen, about his questioning
moments and about the
enormous outpouring of love
and support he received from
throughout the Syracuse
community when his illness
became public. Letters alone
totaled 2,500, he says.
During a visit with the
Andover Bulletin, Champlin
appeared well, energetic and
whole. Having just seen the
popular movie Shall We Dance?
he was spiritedly crooning the
Rodgers and Hammerstein
song when we met. He had no
cough, and he proudly revealed
having completed a four-mile run
the previous day.
“I asked the doctor my prognosis, and he said I have a five-year life
expectancy,” Champlin told us. “At
74, you can say, ‘Five years; that’s
pretty good; I’ll take it,’ or you can
say, ‘Five years. That’s bad.’ I’m trying
to keep focused on the good. I would
certainly say that I have had a full,
contented life. After all, how many
people can say they’ve traveled 2
million miles, published 50 books
and had a lifetime of pastoral experiences to look back on?” n
9
Lydia’s vision may
well be her most lasting
gift to the academy.
In the words of a science
colleague, “She built
the research atmosphere
that sets Andover apart.”
LYDIA GOETZE:
Connecting the worlds
of science and nature
L
by Vincent Avery
ydia Goetze’s 25 years as a
Phillips Academy instructor
form but one phase in a life filled
with curiosity about the natural
world, strong self-reliance, love
for personal challenges and enthusiasm for guiding and mentoring
the young.
Lydia studied biology as an
undergraduate at Harvard and at
Johns Hopkins, where she received a
master’s degree. She taught at
10
Newton
High
School
in
Massachusetts before joining the
Phillips Academy science division
in 1980. In her first few years, when
the academy was adapting to the
changing needs of faculty families,
Lydia, recently widowed and with
two young daughters, Lisel ’88 and
Erica ’90, was one of two dormitory
counselors for 42 girls in Stevens
Hall. She also taught two sections of
biology and an interdisciplinary
course on food and hunger in developing countries. In addition, with
wide experience as a mountaineer
and ocean sailor, she became the
first woman to direct the academy’s
Search and Rescue program. She
also coached all three trimesters,
rappelling down the Bell Tower,
crawling through the sports field
drainage systems and leading groups
of students on winter camping trips
in the White Mountains.
Above all, however, a passion
for learning and teaching science
filled her days and shaped the
academy in new ways. Believing
RETIREMENTS 2005
from the first that “students should
do science rather than just learn
about it,” in the late 1980s Lydia
introduced a laboratory research
course in biology and fought for its
continued improvement. As chair of
the biology department from
1986–1991 and 1997–2003, she
hired a series of young teachers with
Ph.D.-level experience to expand
the program, resulting in a growing
tradition of active student research.
In promoting advanced science,
Lydia was concerned with all
students, not just the most able, and
also with their teachers. She knew
that talking with seniors about their
firsthand experience conducting
molecular biology lab experiments
would do more to inspire and
educate younger students about the
relevance of their studies than
almost anything teachers could do.
She knew an active laboratory
program would also educate and
inspire the faculty, many of whom
had not been directly involved in
their own scientific experiments
since graduate school. Lydia’s vision
in this area may well be her most
lasting gift to the academy. In the
words of a science colleague, “She
built the research atmosphere that
sets Andover apart.”
Collaboration with colleagues
across many disciplines and a
constant pursuit of professional
development are also hallmarks of
Lydia’s Andover career. Partnerships
with teachers of history and social
science, philosophy and economics
gave rise to projects on writing
across the curriculum and ecological
literacy. Cooperation with the
Annenberg Institute for School
Reform introduced new models of
peer mentoring to science instructors. Her long-standing interest in
agriculture, health and social
science led to direct personal experience with non-violent social change
and grassroots development efforts,
first in a Hindu context with the
Gandhi Peace Foundation in India,
later in a Buddhist context with
Oxfam and Sarvodaya Shramadana
in Sri Lanka, and finally in a
Muslim context with midwives in
the Aga Khan Health Services in
northern Pakistan. Lydia speaks of
these ventures as life-changing
experiences that enriched her
teaching immensely.
More privately and in quieter
moments Lydia has pursued her love
for the natural world through largeformat landscape photography.
Spending long hours in the field and
taking the time to learn archival
digital printing techniques to craft
art-quality prints, she forms contemplative vistas that express a strong
spiritual relationship with the
environment. These beautiful images
call across cultures for respect and
care for nature as a primary motive
shaping scientific study.
With such a broad range of
interests, clear vision and deep
commitment to lifelong learning, it
was no surprise that Lydia was
appointed to Andover’s 1995
Steering Committee. Under the
leadership of history and social
science teacher Tony Rotundo, 10
teachers undertook the most
thorough review since the 1960s of
the academy’s educational program.
Of Lydia’s contribution, Tony writes,
“She brought boundless curiosity, an
inspiring openness to new possibilities and a wide but well-grounded
imagination. Like any good teacher,
she showed all the qualities of a good
student. She was passionate about
ideas but reasonable in discussion.
She was a warmly integrative force.”
Precisely! That is the Lydia
Goetze respected by students and
valued by colleagues, the teacher
who brought so much to a renewed
science program and from whom
others will now benefit as she
changes careers. When Lydia moves
back to her native Maine this
summer, she will explore the opportunities for teaching and learning
that photography may afford. From
this new perspective her energy,
curiosity and talent will continue to
engage those around her. Lydia
leaves behind in Andover a sure
foundation for the academy’s science
program and a school grateful for
her joy in learning and her dedication to teaching.
Vincent Avery is an instructor of
philosophy and religious studies.
Left: Lydia
Goetze with
Biochem 60
students in
1998; (right)
she works
with students
rappelling
from the
Memorial
Bell Tower
in 1988.
11
CHENG-YU “C.Y.” HUANG
F
by Tana Sherman
rom
China’s
Cultural
Revolution to the creative but
tranquil classrooms of Phillips
Academy, Cheng-Yu “C.Y.” Huang
describes her life as “the American
dream come true.” She is the first
Asian-American to retire from the
faculty of Phillips Academy as well
as the first woman to retire from the
math department.
“Phillips Academy helped me
get my family reunited,” she says.
“For that I will be forever thankful.”
Growing up in China with six
siblings, Huang was always good at
math and knew she wanted to teach
it. At Shanghai University, she
learned English, earned a B.A.
degree and met Yuan Han, who
would become her husband and
later the founding chair of
Andover’s Chinese department.
Huang began her teaching
career in China in 1965. The next
year, when the Cultural Revolution
started, the schools closed their
doors, and Huang was sent to the
countryside to be “re-educated.” Her
husband remained in the city, where
he raised their infant daughter, Joy,
alone for 10 months. When Huang
returned from what she calls “a time
of forced separation,” she was pained
to see little Joy hiding from the
mother she no longer knew.
12
The American dream
comes true at Andover
“She’s an imaginative teacher who has
tremendous skill at sensing where a class is and
adjusting the lesson to meet her students’ needs.
The kids trust her, love her and flock to her.”
RETIREMENTS 2005
In 1978, Deng Xiaoping started
to adopt the “open-door” policy in
China. Huang and Han, with her
uncle’s sponsorship, came to the
United States for their graduate
studies in March 1981, leaving their
children—now including a second
daughter, Liz—behind temporarily
in China. At Ohio State University,
Huang earned an M.A. degree in
comparative literature and a second
master’s degree in teaching mathematics in secondary schools. Liz
joined them in 1985. While at Ohio
State, Huang converted from traditional Buddhist beliefs to
Christianity.
She remembers fondly the day
Kelly Wise, then Andover dean of
faculty, visited Ohio State to recruit
teachers. Many of her classmates
weren’t interested when they
learned being a dorm counselor was
part of the job. But Huang, who
missed her daughter Joy, saw this as
an opportunity to be with and
nurture children. “I did not know
how famous Phillips Academy was,”
she says. “When I visited the
campus, I was not scared at all. I felt
so comfortable.”
In 1986, she and Liz came to
Andover, leaving Joy in China and
Han finishing his dissertation at
Ohio State. Huang became the third
female faculty member in the math
department.
When Huang’s colleagues saw
how much she missed Joy, the
school stepped in to help get a visa
for the girl. Fred Stott ’36, retired
secretary of the academy, shared
the details of Huang’s situation
with then vice president George
Bush ’42, who referred the matter
to an expert on visa issues in
Barbara Bush’s office. In early 1987,
Huang finally was reunited with
the daughter she hadn’t seen for
more than five years. “I left her as a
little girl, and she came back as a
young lady,” says Huang. In 1988,
Han joined his wife on the PA
faculty. Joy graduated from PA in
1989 and is now a marketing
manager in California. Liz, a 1993
Andover graduate, is a gynecological surgeon in Texas.
Huang, who became an
American citizen in 1996, has
taught all levels of math, but likes
teaching calculus the most. “The
kids are more mature, and it’s easier
to go deeper,” she says. When she
taught AP calculus for School Year
Abroad in Beijing, all her students
got the highest grade of 5 on the AP
calculus exam.
At Andover, one student called
her “an awesome geometry teacher”
and wrote in a note to Huang, “You
never got annoyed when I asked you
to explain things two and three
times, and you were always willing
to offer me extra help.”
Outside the classroom, Huang
started tai chi classes, which she
taught for 19 years. She was a house
counselor in Double Brick House for
seven years, then a complementary
house counselor in Bancroft Hall.
She has served as an adviser to both
day and boarding students.
“In the classroom and in her
life, C.Y. is not afraid to change
course midstream,” says math
instructor William Scott. “She’s an
imaginative teacher who has
tremendous skill at sensing where a
class is and adjusting the lesson to
meet her students’ needs. The kids
trust her, love her and flock to her.”
That love goes both ways. “I’m
not only their teacher, but also their
friend and an adult who can give
them some advice,” says Huang. “I
love my students. They are very
smart and respectful.”
Next year, Huang plans to
return to Shanghai and live near her
siblings. She hopes to use her free
time to teach English classes, with
the Bible as a text. Han will take a
leave of absence to be with his wife.
13
“E
by Jean St. Pierre
ver the best of friends.”
Dickens used that phrase in
Great Expectations, and it comes to
my mind now. I am honored, after
35 years of friendship, to celebrate
’Cilla Bonney-Smith as she and her
husband, Nat Smith, prepare to
retire. I am saddened, as well, since
the distance between their retirement home in Greensboro, Vt., and
mine on Cape Cod, Mass., seems
vast. But then, as Edna St. Vincent
Millay reminds us in her poem
“Renascence,” the world stands out
“no wider than the heart is wide.”
’Cilla, Priscilla, daughter of
New England, has a long and
honored New England ancestry.
She speaks with great love of her
childhood in Stratford, Conn., and
East Sumner, Maine. Her mother
and father, Ruth and Linwood,
sister and brother-in-law, Barbara
and Dennis, and she are all loyal
graduates of Bates College. It is
perhaps, therefore, appropriate to
borrow a series of phrases from New
England bard Ralph Waldo
Emerson in attempting to evoke
the essence of ’Cilla.
“To win the respect of intelligent
people and affection of children.”
Surely, Emerson was anticipating
’Cilla as he shaped his definition of
“success.” ’Cilla, who also holds
master’s degrees from Brown
University and Lesley College,
arrived in Andover in 1970 after
teaching for four years at Mount
Greylock Regional High School in
Williamstown, Mass. She and her
former husband were the first
“parents” at the Williamstown
residence of A Better Chance
(ABC), a program aimed at opening
14
Recently ’Cilla was awarded the
Brace Center McKeen Award for
“inspired and dedicated leadership in
education” and significant contribution
to the coeducational academy.
’CILLA BONNEY-SMITH:
Fulfilling
great expectations
RETIREMENTS 2005
educational doors for talented
minority youngsters. For the
following three years she taught
history at North Andover High
School while creating a life as a
faculty wife at Phillips Academy,
where she raised two sons and
became the spirit of Elbridge Stuart
House, then Stimson House. How
many students, then and now, are
more confident because of her wise
counsel and gentle patience? How
many students have filled Farrar
House, the Smiths’ current abode,
on weeknights and weekends for
meetings, as well as to bake, to play
board games, to talk and to be
regaled by Nat’s irreverent sense of
humor? Nat, a PA math teacher for
40 years, completes the life ’Cilla
has created here. Both ’Cilla and
Nat’s children, Phillip ’91, James
’94, Scott ’81, Tina ’86, and their
grandchildren are testimony to their
shared lives.
“To laugh often and love much,”
Emerson also reminds us. When I
stayed with ’Cilla most recently, I
saw her hasten from her office to
make hot fudge sundaes and then
welcome the students she advises in
ADAAC, the Andover Drug and
Alcohol Awareness Committee. A
day later, I watched her leave to
score a swim meet. College
counselor Alice Purington, her
partner in this endeavor, says ’Cilla’s
enthusiastic cheering for the
swimmers is the most significant
part of this event. On Sunday
morning, ’Cilla prepared her
kitchen for two students who came
to cook for an African-LatinoAmerican Society event. The
camaraderie in that kitchen was as
significant as the cooking.
“To find the best in others.” ’Cilla
is the essence and quintessence of
the boarding school teacher. She has
been house counselor and complementary house counselor; she has
guided ADAAC and Freedom from
Chemical Dependency week; she
has helped create and teach the
academy’s Life Issues course. She has
been both associate dean of students
in these past vital years and a
counselor in Graham House. She
has been academic adviser and day
student counselor. She has been a
guiding force and support in multicultural affairs. Quietly, she has been
a guide and mentor to so many.
Phillips Academy, only 32 years
after its merger with Abbot
Academy, has many singular women
in its pantheon. Surely, ’Cilla represents them well. So, too, does she
represent Abbot Academy women.
The sisters McKeen, Philena and
Phebe, were singular spirits. “To
Abbot,” Susan Mcintosh Lloyd tells
us, in her Abbot history book A
Singular School, “Philena and
Phebe brought the unquestioned
assumption that ‘beyond learning
was character. … and that all
teachers and students should rejoice
in the opportunity to serve others.’”
’Cilla embodies both of these
women: Philena the visionary and
Phebe the teacher. Recently ’Cilla
was awarded the Brace Center
McKeen Award for “inspired and
dedicated leadership in education”
and significant contribution to the
coeducational academy. This was an
important accolade, and only the
beginning of many as she
approaches retirement.
“To leave the world a little better,
whether by a healthy child, a garden
patch or a redeemed social condition,”
Emerson’s definition continues.
’Cilla has grown gardens abundant
in their beauty. She makes the
school and our lives more beautiful
with flowers. At all-school meetings
and at the quiet moments of the
soul her flowers stand testimony.
Always there are the “nosegays” at
Commencement: the elegant and
individual flower bouquet for each
of her advisees. Many the student
testifies to the importance of her
presence. And “redeemed social
condition”? There are limitless
examples. Phillips Academy is
indeed a
community,
a village, in
no
small
part because
of ’Cilla’s
presence.
“There’s
no
use
trying,” said
the heroine of
Lewis Carroll’s
classic Alice in
Wo n d e r l a n d .
“One
can’t
believe impossible things.”
“I daresay you haven’t had
much practice,” said the Queen.
“When I was your age, I did it for
half an hour a day. Why, sometimes
I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”
Well, for many months, before
breakfast and after, I have tried to
imagine this school without ’Cilla.
Alice is right. It’s impossible.
How many lives ’Cilla has
touched and enriched in these 35
years! We are all the richer for her
presence.
Jean St. Pierre retired in 2004 after a
lifetime of teaching English and theatre
at Abbot and Phillips academies.
15
Question, provoke and lead
NAT SMITH:
F
by Victor Henningsen ’69
or 40 years math
teacher Nat Smith
has been, to use his
words, “yanking people’s
chains.” Students who
asked innocently, “Why
are we studying this
stuff?” got the classic
response: “Three reasons.
Keeps me employed,
keeps your mother happy
and it’s good for your sex
life.” Colleagues grew used to Nat’s
challenging cross-examinations.
(“They think my questions are
rude,” he says. “I believe they’re
penetrating.”) Every fall Nat reassured anxious parents: “Your kids are
doing fabulously!” pausing to add,
“not here, of course.”
Nat is famously full, fair, frank
and direct—especially direct. From
the head of school to the youngest
ninth-grader, all learned to take
Smith as they found him, but
learned, also, that he would do the
same. He was no respecter of rank:
All got the same irreverent invitation to step up and show what they
could do. All discovered the
challenge was invigorating; they got
better as they rose to meet it. And
all saw the joy Nat took in their
improvement. “He’s as pleased with
16
“He never took himself too seriously, but, boy,
he took you seriously! I learned that
what I thought mattered, and I learned to take
responsibility for my own ideas.”
the shot you develop to beat him as
he is with his own,” noted one of his
squash partners.
“You know,” Nat observed once,
“there’s a difference between
instruction and teaching. Anyone
can instruct.”
Nat taught. He began in 1957,
fresh out of Princeton and, with the
exception of two years of graduate
work, never stopped. He came to
Andover in 1965 after stints at the
Taft School and Athens College in
Greece. At Andover he taught the
length and breadth of the math
curriculum, wrote three texts and
chaired the department. Passionate
about fairness, dedicated to racial
equality and committed to international education, Nat reached well
beyond Morse Hall as a teacher. He
taught in the ABC (A Better
RETIREMENTS 2005
Chance) program, a program that
helps educate minority youth;
Andover’s (MS)2 Math & Science
for Minority Students program; the
Andover-Dartmouth Institute, a
summer program for urban public
high school math teachers; School
Year Abroad; and PA’s International
Academic Partnership (IAP).
Revered as the man who established
Andover’s Search and Rescue
program, Nat also coached football,
track, tennis, soccer, hockey, cycling
and wrestling, retiring as the coach
of JVII squash and varsity golf.
Serving two decades as a house
counselor, Nat was the dean of the
West Quad North cluster for eight
eventful years in the 1970s. As
faculty adviser to The Phillipian he
staunchly defended the good
judgment and independence of
student journalists. Active in local
affairs, he retired this year after 35
years as president of the Andover
Village Improvement Society
(AVIS), the town of Andover’s
extraordinarily successful land
preservation trust. In the midst of all
this activity he managed to raise
four children and, with his wife,
Associate Dean of Students ’Cilla
Bonney-Smith, made their home a
welcoming refuge for students,
colleagues and alumni.
Throughout it all, Nat remained
fiercely independent, impossible to
categorize and highly influential.
Nat loves to question, to provoke
and, in doing so, to lead. His is a
unique and good-humored blend of
skepticism and enthusiasm that
challenges all to think clearly,
question assumptions, analyze rigorously and imagine creatively. He
leaves a lasting mark on the institution through his work on policymaking groups like the 1988 Long
Range Planning Committee, which
inaugurated a new era of facultytrustee relations. He was a mainstay
of the Curriculum Committee,
where, year in and year out, Nat and
his colleagues defined the purposes
of an Andover education. Students
and colleagues alike found that
debating Smith was demanding but
rewarding. More than one student
has said of him, “He never took
himself too seriously, but, boy, he
took you seriously! I learned that
what I thought mattered, and I
learned to take responsibility for my
own ideas.”
Nat has his own ideas, and they
are powerful. “It seems to me,” he
once observed, “that the only true
measure of a school’s success—the
only one that matters—is if every
kid at some point makes an
enduring connection with some
adult at the place. It doesn’t matter
who—teacher, house counselor,
coach, a member of the grounds
crew. What matters is that the kid is
touched, the connection is formed
and it endures. Good schools do
that; others pretend to. Good
teachers want to be that adult. But,
of course, schools and teachers
never really know if we’ve done it.”
For 40 years Nat not only met that
standard, he defined it. He touched
countless students. He inspired his
colleagues to be that adult and make
Andover that kind of school. As
Nat and ’Cilla retire to northern
Vermont, we who remain must ask
ourselves the quintessential Smith
question: Can we measure up?
Victor Henningsen ’69 is an instructor
in and chair of the history and social
science department.
Smith
readies
ropes in
the Search
& Rescue
room in
Evans
Hall.
17
Suzy’s teaching is notable for its theatricality,
clarity and authenticity. Her goal is to bring
French to life for her students.
A
by George Dix
So very French!
MADAME JOSEPH:
Parisian once told me that to
understand the French one
must appreciate their instinct to
make the most of their circumstances. They somehow turn setbacks into victories and the
mundane into something special,
casting a sort of agreeable spell on
others—all with verve, panache
and imagination. Suzy Joseph, who
retires this spring after teaching
French at Andover for 25 years, fits
that assessment. One of her students seemed astonished but
delighted as he blurted out to her,
“After so long in the States you’re
still so French!” Indeed, Suzy is
very French, and indeed she resolutely and positively exercises that
Gallic magic touch which has
charmed PA students and colleagues for 25 years.
At the height of World War II
Suzy was born by candlelight in
Fontainebleau, France, in the
cellar of the family home because
the American bombardment had
destroyed the roof. The family
survived the war and in 1945
moved to Paris, where Suzy
attended the Lycée Victor Hugo
and had, she says, “many models of
rigorous and excellent teaching.”
These role models, as well as a
family background, on both sides,
of four generations of teachers,
inspired her to choose teaching as
her vocation.
Initially it was Suzy’s interest in
the English language and American
literature that brought her to the
United States. Armed with a
RETIREMENTS 2005
master’s degree in English from the
Sorbonne, she landed a Fulbright
Fellowship to study at Oberlin
College, where she met and married
her first husband before moving on
to Indiana University. It was there I
first met Suzy in 1968, when we were
both graduate students in French
literature. After receiving an M.A.
degree in 1970, Suzy taught French
at DePauw University, Choate
Rosemary Hall and Milton Academy
before coming to Andover in 1980.
Suzy’s teaching is notable for its
theatricality, clarity and authenticity. She is, frankly, a bit of a ham.
But there is method to the madness.
Her goal is to bring French to life for
her students. “Besides,” she says, “I
need to enjoy myself, and I guess it’s
contagious.” If she is amusing, Suzy
is also demanding and pushes
students, she says, to “rise above
their inherited self.”
Always curious and always
seeking new approaches, Suzy has
contributed several innovations to
PA’s French department. She developed courses on French cinema and
theatre, made student portfolios
and personal experiences an
integral part of the third-year
course, and established a summer
study program in France.
Suzy likes things to be festive,
playful and humorous. She loves
flowers, food and parties and enjoys
making events, situations and
people-gathering more than just
routine. Today’s pop-culture mantra,
“It’s no big deal,” makes little sense
to Suzy. In her view we should live
fully, should make most experiences
a “big deal.” At her house lowly
Suzy Joseph’s other achievements included
coaching tennis for many seasons and
spending 12 years in dormitories
as a house counselor. For her
contribution to the French culture,
she received the Palmes Academiques
from the French government.
green beans metamorphose into
elegant haricots verts, and a Bastille
Day cook-out materializes as a
gourmet event. She also loves to
laugh, especially at herself. Her
Blanchard House girls, who always
referred to Suzy as “Madame,”
capitalizing on the association that
title has with the madams of
American brothels, once conspired
to dress up for their madame as
outlandishly made-up prostitutes,
lounging and pretending to eagerly
host an open house to celebrate
Mardi Gras. Madame found the
occasion, she says, “hysterically
funny.” In Suzy we see a touch of
irreverence, an amusement in life’s
absurdities, a Gallic spirit and great
pride in her heritage. There is an
assumption not of superiority, but of
competence, a cultural confidence
that is never arrogant.
Suzy’s enthusiasm and verve are
much appreciated by her students.
They are indeed contagious, and
even the students who wonder how
she can still be “so French” are drawn
into her orbit. One young man even
told me, “Madame Joseph speaks
French with a very good accent.”
Suzy and her husband, Gérard
Koerckel, will reside at their home
in Biarritz, France, not far from her
daughters Laura ’86 and Christine ’89,
who live in Paris and London,
respectively. Gérard, like Suzy, is a
native of France and longtime
resident of Andover who shares
with his wife a passion for cooking
and gardening.
Pursuing quiet interests like
reading and doing flower arrangements, she will also guide international visitors through lovely Basque
country, the Bordeaux wine region
and Paris, her beloved city of origin.
Suzy longs for a special quality of
life. This bon vivant, she says, will
enjoy every day as if it were the last
day of her life.
As one student said, “Oh, she
makes you feel French!”
George Dix, now on sabbatical, teaches
Spanish and French at Phillips Academy.
19
A Renaissance couple
I
by Tana Sherman
n a small Vermont farming village 30 miles south of the Canadian border, Leslie Ballard and
Bob Perrin bought a piece of land and, with no experience, spent the next 28 years building
their dream house themselves. Side-by-side they drew up plans, laid out boards and hammered
each nail. That team approach is evident not only in their home, but also in their marriage and
their 31-year teaching careers at Andover—Ballard in chemistry and Perrin in mathematics
and physics—as they retire together.
Warmth and brilliance
LESLIE BALLARD:
A
sk any member of the chemistry
department about Leslie Ballard
and the response will describe either
her boundless energy or her intellectual passion. Throughout her PA
career, she chose to teach courses at
four different levels each term
because she relished doing four distinct preparations each day.
“This was how I made sure
20
things were fresh for both me and
the kids,” she says. “There’s enough
repetition over the years. I love the
stretch of teaching upper levels, but
I also enjoy teaching young students
who are brilliant but hate science.”
Temba Maqubela, dean of
faculty, says Ballard changed
Chemistry 250, usually a course for
kids who are timid about science,
“from being a sieve that removes less
talented students to being a pump
that energizes all students. She
transformed the vision of how
science is taught.”
Ballard found her own way into
science through art. After a childhood spent in Massachusetts,
Germany, Holland, Switzerland and
New York, she attended Sarah
Lawrence College, planning to study
art. “I soon realized art wasn’t
serious for me,” she says. “My
science courses were incredible. I
wanted to go into science, where
things could be analyzed precisely.”
RETIREMENTS 2005
“She was energetic, tenacious, supportive,
intriguing, questioning and able to provide
an interesting perspective. I was always
learning something in our exchanges.”
After receiving a B.A. degree,
she worked in the Harvard lab of
renowned DNA scientist and Nobel
laureate James Watson. Next,
working in a lab at Rockefeller
University, she injected large frogs
with hormones, then collected their
eggs and ran experiments. “I like to
work with people,” she says. “I
didn’t want to spend my time with
frogs and test tubes.” She turned to
teaching as a career and received an
M.A.T. degree from Harvard.
When she joined the Andover
science faculty in 1973, during the
academy’s first year of coeducation,
Ballard was the only female in her
department, and she was teaching
chemistry and biology mostly to boys.
“The girls were second-class citizens,”
she says, remembering that one girl
who wanted to start a girls’ hockey
team was told by a female physical
education instructor that girls would
look horrible in hockey uniforms.
To encourage girls to pursue
science, Ballard developed a project
to bring women scientists to
campus. She reports a few traditional faculty members called her
program “overencouragement.”
“Things gradually got better, but
we still have a problem with not
enough girls in upper level Math 65
and Physics 580,” she says. Ballard
also worked successfully to get the
school’s science requirement
increased from one year to two, with
three years of science now
recommended.
Ballard and colleagues
Walter Sherrill, Edith Walker,
Stephen Carter and Maqubela
developed a program that encouraged minority students to study
advanced math and science. They
invited African-American and
Hispanic students who showed
potential in math and science to
meet with them weekly for
challenging problems and one-onone advice concerning upper-level
courses. Alumni of that early
program have told Ballard it was
important to their later success. She
has kept a thank-you letter from
one student, Kyra Williams ’96,
who wrote, “You helped me go that
extra mile.”
“I’ve had fun helping kids,”
Ballard says. “At the same time, I
had a reputation for being a
demanding teacher.”
Of Ballard’s intellectual passion,
chemistry instructor Cristina Kerekes
says, “If she didn’t understand
something, she would find books, do
research on the Internet and delve
until she understood. Then she
would share that knowledge with her
colleagues and students.”
Ballard was one of the first at PA
to use computers in the classroom. “I
think computers are magical instruments,” she says. In 1995, she hired a
student to give her 10 lessons in
Facing page: Perrin and Ballard on
their property in Vermont. Above,
Ballard in the classroom.
computer graphics. Then she made a
computer movie of a camera moving
inside a diamond crystal.
During her career, Ballard was
awarded a chair on the Emilie
Belden Cochran Foundation,
headed the chemistry department
and then the science division, and
served as a member of the
Curriculum Committee and the
Composition of the School
Committee. She enjoyed mentoring
new teachers. “She took me under
her wing,” says Deborah Carlisle,
instructor in chemistry. “She was
energetic, tenacious, supportive,
intriguing, questioning and able to
provide an interesting perspective. I
was always learning something in
our exchanges.”
Maqubela remembers the day in
1986 when he came to Andover for
a job interview. Ballard asked him
which chemistry courses he would
like to teach, rather than automatically assigning the new faculty
member to teach lower-level
courses. “She has institutional
courage,” says Maqubela, “and we
21
RETIREMENTS 2005
share a passion for change.” As their
friendship grew over the years, he
also has been impressed with
Ballard’s strong beliefs in human
rights, as well as her great warmth
and brilliance.
Outside the classroom, Ballard
taught yoga classes for many years
and was a house counselor, baking
and cooking for her students. When
school wasn’t in session, Ballard,
Perrin and their daughter, Kimberly
Ballard-Perrin ’98, took bike trips in
France and England and went skiing
in Switzerland.
In Vermont, Ballard paints and
gardens. A strong proponent of
fitness, she is doing lots of yoga,
skiing, biking and walking.
Describing herself as “totally
besotted” with British author
Virginia Woolf, Ballard plans to
walk with her husband on Woolf’s
South Downs in England in May.
r toddler
Ballard with he y.
rl
daughter, Kimbe
22
Understated genius
ROBERT PERRIN:
W
ith a doctorate from M.I.T.
and subsequent teaching positions at M.I.T., Harvard, Brandeis
and Northeastern, Bob Perrin
seemed on the fast track to becoming a college professor. But he disliked the fact he had little
interaction with students when
teaching math and physics in large
university lecture halls. Besides, he
had a black belt in karate, and he
wanted to make sure he had time to
practice his martial art every day.
His wife suggested he expand
his search for a teaching position to
secondary independent schools.
Visiting Andover for an interview,
Perrin says, “The rhythm of the
day—classes in the morning and
athletics in the afternoon—was such
a positive thing. But I had to
convince the physics and math
chairmen who interviewed me that I
was interested in teaching at this
level.” On the other hand, the
athletic director was interested in
hiring him to start a noncompetitive
karate program.
On joining the faculty with his
wife in 1973, Perrin says, “The oneon-one relationships with kids are so
important and rewarding. That is
the essence of teaching for me.
Every class period, my style was
continually to ask questions to bring
each student in.” His goal was to
make math and physics as exciting
for the students as it was for him and
to have the students be individually
pressed to go a little further than
they thought they could. By all
accounts, he succeeded.
“There is no one like Bob in
terms of understated genius,” says
Temba Maqubela, dean of faculty.
“He is as close to an Einstein as we
have ever had. He could solve a
problem in three or four lines that
would take a page for anyone else.”
Perrin’s colleagues describe him
as a very private person, a man of
few words and a good listener,
thinker and processor of information. “You always get the impression
his mind is going full tilt,” says Peter
Watt, instructor in physics, who
shared a Physics 580 classroom with
Perrin for many years. “He wanted to
make certain students saw the beauty
and elegance of the physics he was
teaching, as well as the nuts and
bolts. He also was incredibly patient.
I often would see him working with
students who were struggling.”
Perrin is as good a teacher of his
colleagues as of his students, according
to Don Barry, instructor in mathematics. “He was our go-to guy,” says
Barry. “Math is humbling. There’s
always a problem you can’t do. Bob
would take it home, and the next day
he would bring in the solution and
explain it. He has great insight.”
Barry calls Perrin “a real Renaissance
man” because he can go beyond the
fields of math and science.
“He wanted to make certain
students saw the beauty and
elegance of the physics he
was teaching, as well as the
nuts and bolts. He also was
incredibly patient. I often would
see him working with students
who were struggling.”
Perrin took the same problemsolving approach to building the
couple’s home in Vermont. “Starting
with no experience, we bought a lot
of books on how to build a house
and how to be your own architect.
We designed it from scratch and
built it ourselves,” he says. “It’s one
of the most exciting and satisfying
things we’ve done—to have this
idea and then transform it into a
physical reality. At this point, I’m
pretty professional and I could literally do anything in home building.”
In Andover’s classrooms, Perrin
also proved he could do anything.
He taught all levels of physics and
math, from beginning courses to
independent projects. Going beyond
the curriculum, he enjoyed the
opportunity to develop courses.
Physics 650, a seminar that focuses
on mathematical techniques in
physics, covers material most
students wouldn’t encounter until
their junior year of college. He
created it for highly motivated
students who already have finished
Advanced Placement physics.
“What’s unique about Andover is
the ability to do something like
that,” he says. Perrin, who was
awarded a chair on the Donna Brace
Ogilvie Teaching Foundation No. 1,
also served as chair of the physics
department for a number of years.
Working one-on-one with
students on their independent
projects, mostly in mathematics, he
says, “I’ve pushed those kids as far as
they could go. That’s always been
important to me.” At the other end
of the spectrum, he worked in math
study hall with kids who were in
trouble in their math courses. “To
work with these students and get
them succeeding by asking them the
right questions and helping them
along a little bit has been a positive
experience,” he says. “The primary
thing I have liked about teaching at
Andover has been the opportunity
to help each kid who’s been in any
of my classes to gain as much as he
or she can.”
Outside the classroom, he set up
a successful karate program and ran
it for 25 years.
Perrin has seen many changes at
Andover since he arrived in 1973.
One of the most exciting to him in
the past 10 years is how the dream of
“youth from every quarter” is being
realized. “Different cultural
backgrounds are part of one’s
everyday experience now,” he says. n
Top: Perrin
oversees a lab
experiment.
Bottom: He
spins a bicycle
wheel to
demonstrate
a physics
principle.
23
A slice of Andover history:
The Story of Thomas Paul Smith
by Ben Heller ’05
n the night of Sept. 8,
1849, the name of one
Thomas Paul Smith
echoed from the walls of Boston’s
Beacon Hill meetinghouse. As the
1838 Phillips Academy alumnus
stood to address the raucous crowd,
many greeted him with three
resounding cheers. His voice rose
above the throng, challenging the
assembly to hear fair discussion
where, he said, “confusion, discord
and excitement” had reigned.
Smith was a minority within a
minority—one of a handful of
African-American abolitionists who
believed the answer to educational
equality lay in separate rather than
integrated institutions. That night,
he conveyed his ideas with such
unremitting conviction that many
of his integrationist adversaries
responded with a virulent hiss. Yet
the eloquence and cogency of his
speech appealed to the presiding
O
24
school committee, which consequently voted to keep Boston’s
separatist Abiel Smith School in
operation, observing that if Thomas
Paul Smith were representative of
all Africans, then “differences in the
capacities of the two races could no
longer be seriously entertained.”
Smith was an incendiary
spokesman, an intellectual eccentric
and a rather dubious politician
whose iconoclastic vision of racial
equality energized Boston’s divided
African-American community. As a
native Bostonian who benefited
from a superb education, Smith
worked as a clothier while serving as
a prominent advocate for the
improvement of the status of the
black community in antebellum
Massachusetts. Though most wellknown for his work in the field of
education, he also served time in jail
for protesting the Fugitive Slave Act
and campaigned to establish an
African-American political party.
His interest in education
blossomed when his cousin, Thomas
Paul Jr., applied for the position of
headmaster at the academically elite
and exclusively black Abiel Smith
School on Belknap Street. Boston’s
black community had founded the
school in 1808, though a white
benefactor named Abiel Smith
provided its endowment. Thomas
Paul Smith soon became spokesman
for the Boston separatist movement
and wrote frequently to William
Lloyd Garrison’s integrationist
Liberator in support of the Abiel
Smith School. He wrote under the
pen name “Justice” and sarcastically
protested that the community’s
antagonism toward the school was “a
pretty dose … for anti-slavery to
swallow!” When the Boston school
committee began investigating the
effectiveness of the Abiel Smith
School in educating African-
American youths, Smith swiftly
organized petitions defending the
local schoolhouse. Though the
school committee eventually decided
to hire Smith’s cousin as headmaster,
attendance at the Smith School
dwindled until the state legislature
finally integrated Boston public
schools in 1855. After this date,
Thomas Paul Smith’s name vanished
from the Boston city directory.
Why would a man who had a
major impact on African-American
education disappear not only from
his hometown, but also from history
itself? Though Phillips Academy
proudly claims Smith as a “notable”
alumnus, his name carries little
recognition beyond a small circle of
scholars. Unfortunately, the scarcity
of proper documentation regarding
the activities of many prominent
African-American intellectuals is not
unusual. The eventual dissolution of
the Boston separatist movement
largely undermined the importance
of Smith’s accomplishments. Though
Smith might have preferred that
history remember him for his
brilliant and inspiring oratory, he is
equally notorious for his questionable
ethics and overbearing personality.
Distraught over the community’s
support for the integrationists, Smith
and his followers once disrupted a
school committee meeting by
surrounding the building and
launching stones through its
windows. Such incidents suggest
that Smith’s political adversaries
might have strongly encouraged his
1855 departure from Boston.
Though Smith’s controversial
ideas never took root in the Boston
community, those ideas were
undoubtedly shaped by his elite
education, particularly at Phillips
Academy. Not the first AfricanAmerican to attend Andover, the
11-year-old Smith transferred from
the Abiel Smith School in 1838
during Samuel “Uncle Sam” Harvey
Taylor’s inaugural year as headmaster at Andover. Academy Hill
remained racially charged from the
1835 visit of William Lloyd
Garrison, whose impassioned abolitionist oratory at Andover provoked
a riot among local Irish railroad
workers. Although life under the
despotic rule of “Uncle Sam” was
somewhat less than enjoyable,
Taylor’s strong emphasis on the
classics served as a foundation for
Smith’s eloquent and persuasive
prose. However, Smith’s antago-
nistic personality likely clashed with
Taylor’s conservative administration, and Smith returned to finish
his schooling at the Abiel Smith
School after only one year at
Phillips Academy. Still, his short
stay at Andover profoundly influenced his views on integrated
education. He suggested that those
“burning with wrath against [exclusively black schools] should turn
their crusade against white schools
where exclusiveness prevails.”
Impelled by his Andover experience, Smith remained passionately
committed to the betterment of
African-Americans in Boston. In
response to those who challenged
his views, Smith noted that “we are
colored men, exposed alike to
oppression and prejudice; our interests are all identical—we rise or fall
together.” Smith served as an
example for generations of AfricanAmericans and stands as an
overlooked forerunner to future
black nationalists like Marcus
Garvey and Malcolm X. n
Facing page: The Abiel Smith
School (second building) in Boston,
circa 1850.
Benjamin Heller ’05 is the first recipient of the Thorndike Internship in Historical
Biography. Currently in a three-year trial phase, the new program will annually support
the work of an upper-middler selected by the chair of the history and social science
department for the purpose of researching, analyzing and writing a short biographical
sketch of an alumnus or alumna of Phillips or Abbot academy.
The internship, given by John L. Thorndike ’45 and W. Nicholas Thorndike ’51, is a
memorial to their brother Augustus “Gus” Thorndike Jr. ’37 honoring his lifelong
passion for history. It also promotes history as a literary art and serves to help the Phillips
Academy community develop a renewed appreciation for its rich and diverse heritage.
25
Sports Talk
Andover Nordic:
An Experience in
Team Chemistr y
by Andy Cline
Captain Kendra Allenby '05 glides across the Vermont snow.
M
any Andover athletic teams
exhibit great team spirit, but it
would be hard to find one with a
greater sense of camaraderie than
the Andover Nordic Ski Team. This
coed band of serious athletes that
trains and races for long distances
on cross-country skis over challenging
terrain in freezing temperatures is
also a fun-loving bunch that spends
a good deal of time singing, laughing
and having snowball fights.
A recent conversation with
several members of the Andover
Nordic squad highlighted some
interesting attitudes and attributes
of this team.
First, the cold weather is not a
big deal. Indeed, the skiers take
considerable pride in the fact that
they are the only PA team outdoors
all winter with no one else, except
26
some annoying dogs in the Cochran
Sanctuary, wanting to share their
practice space. While the novice
team members may need to stay
indoors in the very coldest weather,
the varsity-caliber racers are working
up enough of a sweat that they need
to take off rather than put on extra
layers during practice.
What is a big deal to these
athletes is the team. One after the
other spoke of spending time
together, of working hard but having
a blast, and, most of all, of the
tremendous team bonding that takes
place during two- and three-hour
rides in a rally wagon.
On most Wednesday afternoons
the skiers pile into two rally wagons
and, with coaches Keith Robinson
’96 and Lisa Svec ’81 at the wheel,
head off to destinations such as
Putney, Vt., Meriden, N.H., and
Bethel, Maine. Besides savoring
their sack lunches from Commons,
some do homework, and a few might
nap, but it’s clear the primary theme
of the trip is music, often with
several voices singing along. This
year’s captain, Kendra Allenby ’05,
claims she wanted to be captain so
she could ride shotgun and choose
“the correct music.” Coach
Robinson is glad he shares the
athletes’ appreciation for hard-rock
groups like Metallica, as he thinks
the music helps them get fired up for
the day’s race.
On the racing circuit this
season, the PA team did quite well,
particularly the girls. Although the
boys’ team, led by Miles Canaday
’05, was often short-handed—they
need four racers to score in big
meets—they were victorious over
Northfield Mount Hermon, as were
the girls, in their only dual meet of
the season. The girls ended the
season in terrific fashion with a
third-place finish at Interschols.
Regularly competing against schools
with larger squads and superior
training facilities, the Andover team
got a big boost from several lowers
who joined a few key returning
seniors this winter. Roxy Pierson ’07
of Jackson Hole, Wyo., and James
Elder ’07 of Colorado Springs,
Colo., had each spent a good deal of
time on skis before, but Ben
Bramhall ’07 and Arielle Filiberti
’07, recruited by Robinson from his
science classes, had almost no
experience. A distance runner in
the fall and spring, Bramhall tried
squash last winter and had never
been on skis before this season. He
made significant progress and
finished 43rd overall at Interschols.
Filiberti, who plays field hockey
in the fall and is a top cyclist in the
spring, had done a good bit of
downhill snowboarding, but made
huge strides in her first season on
cross-country skis.
“She is such a good athlete,”
says Robinson, “that I knew she
would be good, but I didn’t know
she would be this good.”
In the relay race at Interschols,
Filiberti’s blistering last lap helped
secure third place for the team,
while in the morning’s individual
competition she had finished a
remarkable 11th in New England.
In between waxing their skis—
to music, of course—and playing in
the snow, the team does practice,
and it’s clear Robinson’s leadership
is key to the team’s success.
Coach Keith Robinson ’96 (foreground) looks on as the team stretches before a race.
“Keith is the man,” says
Allenby. “He’s the heart and soul of
the Nordic program.” With good
humor and a light hand on the
reins, Robinson coaxes a lot of hard
work out of his charges in what can
be a grueling, demanding sport.
“He can be hard core when he
wants to,” one team member says,
“but he makes it fun.”
The coach’s own experience on
cross-country skis began in his
senior year at PA when an Achilles
injury kept him from running indoor
track. He took to the sport and
planned to continue at Bowdoin,
training all fall with the team, until
a scheduling conflict forced him to
give up competing.
Returning to Andover as a
teaching fellow in 2002, Robinson
had the opportunity to become the
Nordic head coach. Several wax
purchases and rally wagon trips later
and after many hours riding the
snowmobile grooming machine, he
realized what a big job he’d taken
on. “It was insane,” he says, but he
has forged ahead with great energy
and no regrets.
That first season, Robinson
learned a great deal from assistant
coach John Rich, and he has
continued studying the sport
through reading and watching
videotapes. He must work with his
athletes on the classic style as well
as the now more common skating
style of racing. Each has its own
techniques to be taught as the racers
learn to negotiate hills without
falling and to gain speed while
maintaining control and confidence.
And, of course, he can only coach
them on their technique when he is
not busy grooming the course along
the playing fields of “Siberia” or the
bird sanctuary or chauffeuring their
equipment to nearby Holt Hill for a
Saturday workout.
The time commitment for both
coaches and skiers is a major one,
but they all seem to make it gladly.
The racers love the way the sport
challenges them. Whether their
goal is fitness or the finish line, they
know they get out of it what they
put in. They treasure the tough
competition combined with great
kinship that extends even beyond
the PA team.
“At races,” says Filiberti,
“everyone cheers for you.” Some
spectators along the racecourse have
been heard to say with a note of
surprise, “Andover has a Nordic
team?” Yes, we do!
Andy Cline is Andover’s sports
information director.
27
t
&
w
Time
Treasure
AN UPDATE ON ANDOVER
PHILANTHROPY AND
VOLUNTEER SERVICE
Northeastern VP
takes on PA’s top
fund-raising job
E
lizabeth Roberts, formerly vice
president for development at
Northeastern University in Boston,
became Andover’s secretary of the
academy in March. In this role, she
spearheads the academy’s fund-raising and alumni relations activities
through the departments of alumni affairs, annual giving, leadership
giving and communications. An integral member of the academy’s
senior leadership team, she works closely with the head of school and
board of trustees. She leads the Office of Academy Resources (OAR),
setting direction, priorities and expectations for the approximately 50member OAR staff.
“Libby Roberts comes to the position with a wealth of relevant
experience, high praise from those who have worked with her and
signal enthusiasm about joining the Andover community,” says Head of
School Barbara Landis Chase. “She heads a very effective team in the
Office of Academy Resources at a time of great opportunity and
challenge as we work through the alumni, fund-raising and communications implications of the 2004 Strategic Plan.”
Roberts’ prior experience includes serving as director of individual
gifts for the Boston Symphony, director of development at the DanaFarber Cancer Institute, director of the Harvard Law School Fund and
assistant campaign manager at Milton Academy. A graduate of
Dartmouth College with a religion major, Roberts is a member of one of
Dartmouth’s first coeducational classes. She served as an alumna volunteer and returned to her alma mater as associate director of the Dartmouth
Alumni Fund, holding the position for four years in the early 1980s.
Her volunteer activities also have included work at Trinity
Church, Boston, and on the board of directors of the Boston Ronald
McDonald House.
Elizabeth Roberts
Recognizing faculty talent
At a February dinner for the Board of Trustees, board president
Oscar Tang ’56 awarded two faculty foundations and one
instructorship. Shown, left to right, are Tang; English teacher
Randall Peffer, named to the Jonathan French Teaching
Foundation; assistant director of athletics Kathryn Dolan,
the John H. Porter Jr. Bicentennial Instructorship; and music
teacher Christopher Walter, Independence Foundation
Teaching Endowment No. 1.
Philanthropic
gift expands
access to
hands-on lab
experience
by Jill Clerkin
Determining the effects of guanosine tetraphosphate on the antibiotic-resistance of E. coli bacteria
isn’t in the normal course of studies
for most PA students, but it’s senior
Jaclyn Ho’s favorite subject. E. coli
bacteria can cause severe illness and
even death, especially among Third
World children, and some of the
worst strains can no longer be
deterred by common antibiotics.
“I am hoping my study of this
compound that regulates important
E. coli bacteria cell processes will help
find an effective, natural way of
reducing or even reversing E. coli’s
resistance to antibiotics,” explains Ho.
Thanks to the Gelb Science
Center’s state-of-the-art facilities
and an endowment gift from an
anonymous donor, independent
student science research is thriving
at Andover.
“Before the Gelb opened last
year, only five or six lucky PA
uppers and seniors could be
permitted to take on independent
research each year,” explains
Patricia Russell, physics and biology
instructor and head of the Division
of Natural Sciences. “But now,
during the winter term alone, 18
students were working on advanced
Above: A regular at the Gelb Science Center molecular biology lab,
Jaclyn Ho ’05 is researching a possible way to reduce the antibiotic
resistance of E. coli bacteria.
projects in molecular biology.”
Ho’s project is a shining
example of how seriously many PA
science students approach their
research—and just how significant
their results could potentially be.
But earthshaking discoveries aren’t
necessarily the goal.
“At PA you have the freedom to
create your own project,” explains
Helen Fitzmaurice ’05. “The faculty
provides guidance, but you are the
one who makes the calls, and, if you
mess up, you learn from your
mistakes. In the end, your results
might not be stunning, but you
come out with the ability to do
proper lab procedures, take meticulous notes, make judgments and do
the work independently.”
“Independent research is a
powerful way for our really advanced
students to go far beyond the classroom, and it’s a super jump-start for
college,” explains Jerry Hagler,
visiting scholar in molecular biology.
Many students hope to pursue careers
in medicine and biomedical research
or basic or applied research in molecular biology, microbiology, biochem-
istry, cellular biology, chemistry and
environmental sciences.
Participating students aren’t the
only ones who benefit from their lab
experiences. “It makes a huge
impression on younger students
when they see their classmates
doing significant work,” explains
Russell. “They have a greater reason
to be fascinated and engaged, much
more so than if it were just their
teacher doing the research.”
Along with lab equipment
purchases, upgrades and maintenance, funds generated by the
anonymous gift cover the many
materials and services routinely
needed by student scientists. These
include restriction enzymes and
DNA ligase used for DNA cloning;
DNA primer, which contains bits of
DNA used for genetic engineering;
services to sequence DNA samples
that PA students isolate or clone;
and Polymerase Chain Reaction
(PCR) materials needed to amplify
and clone specific DNA sequences.
“We are grateful finally to have
a handle on the necessary lab space,
29
TIME & TREASURE
Above: Seniors Alexandre Bois
and Helen Fitzmaurice (foreground)
discuss the progress of their
independent research projects
with faculty advisers Jerry Hagler
(standing) and Patricia Russell
(right). Above right: Thameka
Thompson ’05 reviews her lab notes
before proceeding with her project.
equipment and materials to support
our students,” explains Russell. “Our
department’s greatest limitation
right now? Faculty time to oversee
student work.”
Russell and Hagler agree that
an endowed “research mentor” is
tops on their wish list. “A research
mentor would be dedicated to
overseeing student projects and
experiments, thus allowing students
to put in more hours each week on a
more predictable schedule,” says
Hagler, who will become a full-time
science teacher next fall. “As
‘independent’ as these projects are,
qualified adult supervision is always
required.”
PA students may not save the
world, but who’s to say that research
for the next medical breakthrough,
the next major cure or the next
groundbreaking procedure won’t
start right here? n
Recent student research in molecular biology
HELEN FITZMAURICE ’05: After
isolating DNA from several different
corn products—including corn on the
cob, corn chips and Taco Bell taco
shells—Fitzmaurice tested the samples
for a certain sequence of DNA that
would indicate the presence of genetic
modification. Positive results were
found in some of the samples, including “organic” blue corn chips.
Fitzmaurice is currently investigating
horizontal gene transfer between corn
she planted last summer and surrounding weeds as well as bacteria
living in the nearby soil. Horizontal
gene transfer to bacteria is of special
concern because inserted genes can
be associated with antibioticresistant genes.
“I love working in the lab and
being able to apply my knowledge,”
says Fitzmaurice. “Thanks to my
experience here, I was able to work at
a laboratory at Boston University’s
Department of Molecular and Cell
Biology last summer.”
ALEXANDRE BOIS ’05: Bois’ project involves the observation and
analysis of three ecosystems he created
and subsequently sealed in large glass
bottles. Each bottle contains food,
water, air, and bacteria and other
microorganisms extracted from “used”
potting soil. “I periodically extract
solution from these ecosystems and
grow them on LB agar plates—
essentially Petri dishes covered in a
moist, gelatinous food,” Bois explains.
“When bacterial colonies grow, I isolate
them and attempt to identify them
using a variety of different methods,
including extraction and analysis of segments of their DNA.
“Working in the lab is one of the
most valuable academic experiences I
have had at PA,” declares Bois.
THAMEKA THOMPSON ’05: By
sequencing previously studied genes
that have been shown to have some
type of relation to geographic location
or race, Thompson hopes to trace
her family’s geographical origin or
nationality. “So far, I have had success in isolating, amplifying, purifying
and sequencing my own DNA and
Melanocortin 1, a gene related to skin
pigmentation and hair color, and thus
a good factor in studying race,”
explains Thompson. “I plan to continue the project using my parents’
DNA to help make my results more
conclusive. The fact that Andover
has the resources to allow me to do
this in high school—for four terms—
is just extraordinary. It has definitely
taught me a lot about lab work and
scientific research.”
30
30
ALUMNI
N E W S
Andover on
the Road
Alumni meet in
Hanover, N.H.
F
orty-seven alumni, including
those attending local universities, family and friends, attended a
reception at the Hanover Inn in
Hanover, N.H., on Feb. 15, hosted
by the Office of Alumni Affairs
regional associations and young
alumni programs. Faculty emeriti
Peter and Jean McKee came from
New London, N.H., and past parent
Kathy Smith-Lane came from
Hanover. Guest speaker Susan
McCaslin, instructor in philosophy
and religious studies and assistant
dean of faculty, discussed the history
of Andover’s strategic plan. A dinner followed, hosted by Jenny
Savino, assistant director for classes
and reunions, at Molly’s Restaurant.
Maqubela hosts young
alumni in California
O
n a recent visit to the West
Coast, Dean of Faculty Temba
Maqubela and Joe Goodman ’54 of
Los Altos, Calif., hosted a young
alumni dinner in Palo Alto.
Eighteen guests, including past parents Franklin Segall and Tien Tien,
attended the event, held at the Blue
Chalk Café.
Forty-eight Andover alumnae, representing classes from 1974–2000, who
work in the media in New York attended a luncheon in New York on March 8.
The event, hosted by Lucy Schulte Danziger ’78, editor-in-chief of Self
magazine, was held in a private dining room at Conde Nast Publishing Co.
A panel that participated is shown above. From left, are Danziger; Head of
School Barbara Landis Chase; Susan Chira ’76, foreign editor, The New
York Times; Emily Bernstein ’86, producer, CBS News; Melissa Biggs
Bradley ’85, editor, Town & Country Travel magazine; and Sara Nelson
’74, editor-in-chief, Publishers Weekly.
Non sibi event held
in San Francisco
Chicago group attends
play by Andrew Case ’90
S
P
ome 75 alumni and parents
gathered at the Palace Hotel on
Feb. 23 to welcome Head of School
Barbara Landis Chase back to San
Francisco. The reception featured
displays by eight Bay Area nonprofit organizations, each hosted by
an active Andover graduate.
Following an introduction from new
trustee Peter Currie ’74, Chase
applauded the non sibi spirit of the
alumni who are involved with the
nonprofits. She provided an update
on campus philanthropy in the wake
of the tsunami disaster and
described upcoming renovations to
Commons and the Memorial Bell
Tower. She touched on several
themes from the strategic plan,
highlighting the renewed commitment to serving youth from every
quarter, attracting and retaining a
top-notch faculty and undertaking a
thorough curriculum review. The
reception was hosted by the
Andover Abbot Association of
Northern California.
acific, a new play by Andrew
Case ’90, opened Feb. 24 at
Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre, and
45 alumni and guests were treated to
a preview performance and a postplay discussion with the playwright.
Case credited his Andover theatre
instructor, Kevin Heelen, with helping him develop his passion for
drama and encouraging him to pursue it as a career. Case was pleased
with the enthusiastic turnout for the
evening, which was sponsored by
the Andover-Abbot Association of
Chicago and organized by co-president Margie Block Stineman ’92.
CORRECTION:
The Bulletin, in its winter issue,
erroneously reported that Mark
Efinger ’74 called the plays for the
video broadcast of the Andover/
Exeter football game last November.
The person doing the play-by-play
was Simon Keyes ’06.
Gabriela Ardon of the Office of
Alumni Affairs compiles the
news for this section.
31
A February storm that left a
four-inch blanket of snow over
Manhattan didn’t prevent several
members of the Class of 1980 from
attending a prescheduled event at
the Greenberg Van Doren Gallery.
Alums socialized among the works
of Lane Twichell, whose show
“Here and There” was on display in
the gallery. Shown, from left, are
Afshin Pedram, Peter Liberman
and his wife, Sarah Soffer.
Class of ’64 salutes
George Bush inaugural
T
he wall-to-wall security officials lining Pennsylvania
Avenue for this year’s inaugural
parade in Washington, D.C., might
have heard the rousing chorus of
“Royal Blue” wafting from the
nearby Hotel Willard, as an enthusiastic Bill Semple led his classmates in a pre-parade vocal
warm-up. Some 40 members of the
Class of ’64 and their guests
enjoyed two days of festivities in
the nation’s capital, including fireworks over the mall, prime parade
seats next to the presidential box,
and a first-class dinner at the
Willard. Nat Semple and L.E.
Sawyer were the prime organizers
of the gathering, which drew classmates from across the country and
world. Kyoshi Kondo and his
daughter Akiko won the prize for
traveling the farthest—from
Japan—for the occasion.
Hockey players return to campus
O
n Saturday, Feb. 5, Friends of Andover Athletics (FOAA) hosted the
annual coed alumni hockey game. Nineteen alumni players, their families and friends, representing classes ranging from 1978–2000, returned to the
Harrison Rink for the game and luncheon. FOAA also hosts alumni baseball
and lacrosse games. If you want to be included on FOAA’s mailing list, e-mail
Jenny Savino at [email protected].
A reminder from
the Addison Gallery
T
o celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Addison Gallery
of American Art, the gallery’s
director, Brian Allen, is asking
alumni to write or e-mail him
([email protected]) to tell him
about their favorite objects from
the Addison’s collection. Send the
name of the object you treasure
and also a brief account of why it
was significant to you. Allen plans
to mark the Addison’s birthday
in 2006–07 in part with an
installation, 75 Favorites: The
Alumni Choose.
32
Alumni hockey players line up. They are, first row, from left, Bill Slaney ’82,
Katie Breen ’00, Susannah Richardson ’00, Steve Collins ’79, Bruce Grogven
’95, Danielle Sadler ’94, Leonora Thomas ’79, 6-year-old David Apgar and his
father, Eric Apgar ’83. Back row, from left, Randy Wood ’82, David
Constantine ’97, Ian Cropp ’01, Ryan Dempsey ’00, Bernie McKinnon ’79,
Tom McDonough ’81, Mike Day ’91, Lee Apgar ’78, with his hand on his
6-year-old son Alex’s shoulder, Susan Warren Jenkins ’79, Dan Janis ’79.
Last call for reunions
The 2005 Reunion Weekend is June 10–12. For alumni classes ending in 5s
and 0s, it’s not too late to make plans to attend! If you have any questions
regarding your reunion, please e-mail Pat Gerety at [email protected].
ANDOVER BOOKSHELF
Three Readings for
Republicans and Democrats
Impressionist Cats and Dogs:
Pets in the Painting of Modern Life
Beyond Choice: Reproductive
Freedom in the 21st Century
by Carol Bly ’47 and Cynthia Loveland
Bly & Loveland Press
Three Readings for Republicans and Democrats
attempts to bridge partisan politics and
encourages open-minded empathy for ideological differences. Using story and essay, each
reading addresses moral and ethical dilemmas
that many Americans confront on a daily
basis. The third reading, The Savage Stripe:
How a Teenage Daughter Changed Her Dad,
includes a playlet in which the characters represent three generations of Andover grads
grappling with issues of wealth, privilege,
ethics and corporate responsibility. The author
of numerous books, short stories and essays, Bly
is also a creative writing teacher and public
speaker. She lives in St. Paul, Minn.
by James H. Rubin ’61
Yale University Press
Rubin explores the presence, purpose and
symbolism of cats, dogs and other household
pets in a variety of famous impressionist
paintings. Impressionist Cats and Dogs also
provides insights into the devotion of certain
artists to their pets as well as the growing
acceptance of animals as family members and
their allusion to middle-class prosperity in the
mid- to late-1800s. A frequent traveler and
current New York City resident, Rubin is the
author of seven books and is professor and
chair of the department of art at the State
University of New York at Stony Brook.
by Alexander Sanger ’65
PublicAffairs
More than 30 years after the Roe v. Wade
decision to legalize abortion, the battle over a
woman’s right to choose continues. Beyond
Choice offers a major re-thinking of the prochoice position, arguing that abortion is not
only a morally acceptable birth control option,
but is a natural offshoot of positive reproductive strategies and evolutionary history. “The
fact that most Americans think abortion is
immoral but also think it should be legal is not
a contradiction,” says Sanger, “but an evolutionary reality.” Sanger, grandson of familyplanning activist Margaret Sanger, lives in
New York City and is currently chair of the
International Planned Parenthood Council
and goodwill ambassador for the United
Nations Population Fund.
Twentieth Century Sprawl:
Highways and the Reshaping
of the American Landscape
by Owen D. Gutfreund ’81
Oxford University Press
Twentieth Century Sprawl examines how government-sanctioned and -financed highway
expansion has steadily changed the American
landscape, often for the worse, by undermining
existing urban centers, fueling a nationwide
dependence on cars and road building, increasing air pollution and causing irreparable ecological damage. The story is told via case
studies of three very different communities:
Denver, Colo., Middlebury, Vt., and Smyrna,
Tenn. Gutfreund, a history teacher at Barnard
College and director of Urban Studies
Programs at Barnard and Columbia University,
lives in New York City.
George and Belmore Browne: Artists
of the North American Wilderness
by John T. Ordeman ’48 and Michael M.
Schrieber
Warwick Publishing
This well-researched book chronicles the
lives and adventures of two important
painters of North American landscapes and
wildlife, George Browne and his father and
mentor, Belmore Browne. Both artists were
avid sportsmen who enjoyed hunting, camping and hiking in the wilderness. It includes
more than 50 paintings and sketches plus
family photos and excerpts from letters and
diaries. Ordeman has written numerous books
on American sporting artists over the past 20
years. Currently retired after 40 years as a
school master and headmaster of several independent schools, he lives on the Eastern
Shore of Virginia.
Killing Neptune’s Daughter
Winning Single Wing Football:
A Simplified Guide
for the Football Coach
by Ken Keuffel ’42
Swift Press
Winning Single Wing Football provides the philosophy, techniques, tips and tricks of coaching the single wing, considered by many to be
one of the soundest, most time-tested offenses
in football. Written for coaches and highly
motivated players, this how-to book includes
147 football diagrams and photographs plus
some newer single wing offense strategies for
straight series running plays, indirect attack
plays, the passing game and the quick-kicking
game. A successful coach of single wing teams
for 37 years, Keuffel, now retired, lives in
Lawrenceville, N.J.
by Randall Peffer
Intrigue Press
A disturbing psychothriller, Peffer’s first novel
leads the reader down a twisted path of violence
and discomfiting sexual entanglements. The
gruesome murder of beautiful and provocative
Tina, once the object of desire of nearly every
adolescent male in Woods Hole on Cape Cod,
stirs up repressed memories and awakens ghosts
from the past. A group of former “Tina Toys,”
now grown men, who gather for her hometown
funeral, think the murderer may be someone
they—and Tina—knew well more than 30
years ago. Peffer, a PA English instructor, is the
author of Watermen, Logs of the Dead Pirates
Society, several travel guides and numerous articles in Smithsonian, Reader’s Digest, National
Geographic and other prestigious publications.
Tideline: Captains, Fly-Fishing
and the American Coast
by Andrew W. Steketee ’85, Kirk D. Deeter &
Marco Lorenzetti
Willow Creek Press
From Miami to Nantucket to San Diego—
and a half-dozen other ports—Tideline chronicles the demanding livelihoods of nine
sportfishing captains and their ongoing quests
for tarpon, blues, striped bass, tuna, redfish
and the occasional mako shark. Authors
Steketee and Deeter provide the narrative,
and photographer Lorenzetti supplies the
vivid black and white imagery that offers the
reader insights into the rugged world of man,
fish and sea, as well as the addictive sport of
fly-fishing. Steketee and Deeter also collaborated on Castwork: Reflections of Fly-Fishing
Guides and the American West. A freelance
writer and fly-fishing guide, Steketee lives in
Evergreen, Colo.
These capsule notices were prepared by Jill
Clerkin and Sharon Magnuson.
ANDOVER
BULLETIN
Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts 01810-4161
ISSN 0735-5718
Periodicals
Postage Paid at
Andover, MA
and additional
offices
Households that receive more than one Andover Bulletin are encouraged to call 978-749-4267 to discontinue extra copies.
Sidney R. Knafel ’48 named charter trustee
President of the Andover Board of Trustees Oscar Tang ’56 and
Head of School Barbara Landis Chase announced on April 12 the
election of Sidney Knafel ’48 as a charter trustee. His service on the
board will begin on July 1. Knafel has been a member of the
Andover Development Board since 1999 and has served as chairman of the Strategic Planning Committee of the Addison Gallery of
American Art. He is also chairman of the Addison Board of
Governors.
After receiving undergraduate and graduate degrees at
Harvard and completing a stint in the Army, he was an investment
banker in New York for 15 years. He then ran a cable television company he co-founded, and he
pursued varied venture capital efforts through SRK Management Company, which is still active.
He serves as a director of a number of these sponsored business entities. His other activities
include serving as chairman of the Rogosin Institute, an independent affiliate of New York
Presbyterian Hospital, and as a trustee of the Juilliard School.
“As trustee of Wellesley College and as national chairman of the recent Harvard
University Campaign as well as in his roles at the Addison,” Chase said, “Sidney Knafel has been
a champion for educational programs and the facilities that support them. He is wise and generous,
and we look forward to having him with us at the table through the crucial implementation phase
of the academy’s strategic plan.”
Knafel has two grown children, Douglas and Andrew. He and his wife, Londa Weisman,
live in Manhattan and also have residences in North Bennington, Vt., and Martha’s Vineyard.