Dimitri Sevastopoulo
dsevastopoulo@gmail.com
I shall be attending Volunteers Weekend (SPS In ACTION) to begin preparations for our 60th reunion next spring. It is not too early to clear your calendars in order to plan to be on campus the weekend of May 29, 2020. As our participation rate in donating to the 2019 Annual Fund was over 85 percent, we are eager to break the record for attendance at a 60th Reunion. Joe, Jack and I look forward to seeing you.
Eugene Pool’s new book, out December 1 from TumblehomePublishing (Boston), is Heroic Women of the Art World, a collection of inspiring profiles of amazing women who risked everything, including their lives, for art. They include painters, sculptors, photographers, and architects, but also a band of activists, an art cop, and a spy. Among them are Maya Lin, Frida Kahlo, Annie Leibovitz, Artemisia Gentileschi, Augusta Savage, Pan Yuliang, and Zaha Hadid. These women represent the widest range of cultures, countries, races, and historical eras. They are poor and rich, persecuted and privileged, famous one moment and forgotten the next, but always heroic women of the art world.
Bill Schwind writes: “Jimmy Evarts ’70 and I made a spring visit to the School and were very taken by the greenhouse attached to the Lindsay Center for Mathematics and Science. The director of the greenhouse, Dr. Scott Reynolds, was very informative and drew us right into the issues of creating a tropical environment in a northern climate. We decided to help with a plant fund to underwrite the needs of this special place on campus. We hope the greenhouse will become a winter garden as a retreat and refuge on dreary days.”
Sam Brookfield’s 2019 summer was fully occupied with feverish preparations for the September 7 wedding of Samuel James, his third and youngest son, to Parker Edmonds of Fort Worth, held on the shores of Little Moose Lake, Old Forge, N.Y. The couple reside in Boston. Coke Anne and Jarvie Wilcox were among the 130 guests.
From Bill Stearns: “I have managed to stay in New Hampshire since graduation, both working for others and running a business for 22 years, selling all over the world. I was further blessed with my wife, two children – a daughter and a son – and now with five grandchildren. Life has been good to me.”
Richard Vietor writes: “Life continues to be quite busy thanks to corporate and nonprofit board work, travel, and general grandparent duties. I still spend some time on sailing and golf, but it is getting to be more fun letting my children own the boats and seeing the grandchildren learn. In June, I had a great time traveling on a chartered barge on the River Marne in France with a group of friends, including Sandy Whitman and his wife, Tina. Lots of history, relaxation, and champagne.”
Ralph Peer ’62 was named Officier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, France’s top cultural honor.
Tom Roberts
tarbigred@yahoo.com
Rob Howard is still practicing law. He says it is “more interesting than anything else I could be doing and it feels good to bring all that experience to use, and get paid for it, sometimes.” In his community, Rob has been on the planning board and was also school district moderator. In addition, he sang and traveled with the Concord Chorale and spent time as president of the group. He has been on the N.H. Bar Association Board of Governors for 30 years and has served as a district court judge for approximately seven years.
Ralph Peer was presented with France’s top cultural honor in 2018 and was named Officier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (“Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters”) during a gala dinner held by the International Confederation of Music Publishers. Ralph and his father are featured prominently in the first two episodes of the eight-episode Ken Burns documentary on the history of country music.
Rob Claflin
robclaflin@comcast.net
Rick Sperry
overcable@aol.com
Rick Sperry and wife Nancy went to a well-attended reception for class artist Dick Ranck at the charming 3 Roberts Gallery in Bryn Mawr on September 8. Roughly 100 area people showed up to view 20 acrylic on canvas paintings by Dick of “The Primitive Heart.” Nice hors d’oeuvres and great conviviality marked a beautiful summer evening.
John (“JB”) Richardson sends this happy news: “On August 23, Charlotte Vance White was welcomed into our family. She is the daughter of my daughter, Katherine, and her husband, Andrew White. She is our third grandchild, so we now have a grandchild from each of our three children.”
We are saddened to hear of the passing of our formmate, Mike Johnson, on Long Island on September 8, 2019. We remember Mike fondly as a gentle, kind, and generous soul and for being an SPS hockey player with the best slap shot in town. Mike graduated from Syracuse, was in the U.S. Navy, and spent his working career at JP Morgan in New York. Services were held at the Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church. Memorials may be sent to St. Paul’s School or the Animal Rescue Fund (ARF) of Long Island.
A work by Dick Ranck ’64.
(L. to r.) Peter Bragdon (SPS master in the 60s), Jos Wiley ’64, Dottie Bragdon, and Haven Pell ’64 in Exeter, N.H.
John Rice
Jwrice460@gmail.com
Randy Morgan
wyndmoor@comcast.net
In June, Randy Morgan and Terry DeKalb spent several nights with Debra and Ike Roberts at their house in Northeast Harbor, Maine. A boat ride and picnic as well as dinner with popovers at the Asticou Inn were some of the highlights. Best of all was a wonderful cocktail party thrown by Debra and Ike, where guests included Alec Wheeler and Rick Wheeler ’67. It was a great chance for all four to catch up with each other while admiring the ocean view.
David Martin writes: “Martha and I celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary with our three children, Ben ’00, Jessica ’96, and Charlotte ’93 and their families, including Mark Smith ’92. We did this at the Nine Quarter Circle Ranch in Montana. The week was a hoot and certainly the highlight of our year.”
Skip Hobbs shares: “I had a most wonderful experience at SPS September 12-14, when I visited the School to meet with science classes and share my experiences as a working scientist. I gave a lecture on Friday night on climate change and natural resource sustainability. On Saturday morning, I also met with a physics class before heading back home. The School really did an amazing job of organizing my visit and rolling out the red carpet for an old alum. The SPS of today vs. 1965 blew me away. I had meals with the students, went to Chapel, visited with science classes, had a great tour of the campus, and had a very nice half-hour meeting with Kathy Giles, the new Rector, to discuss her vision for SPS. I also sat in on the humanities class of Colin Campbell, who holds the SPS Form of 1965 Endowed Chair. He is an impressive teacher. “The students are all very smart, highly motivated, and asked good questions. The Science Department has a fantastic building and they now offer elective courses, which are college-level courses, in such topics as limnology and marine science, robotics, and artificial intelligence. In the robotics lab, they showed me some vehicles that the class had built to provide mobility for the disabled. These high school kids are doing real science as summer interns working for researchers and university professors and presenting papers on their work. My message to the students was that they are smart and should stay in the sciences and use their communication skills and science to truly make a difference in how we treat Planet Earth. Eric Saunders’s daughter teaches art at SPS. I visited her ceramics class and she also teaches glass blowing. I have been a modest donor to the SPS Alumni Fund in the past. As a result of this visit, my wallet will be opened a bit further to SPS. Our classmates who have special career skills should consider sharing their life’s experience and wisdom with the students of SPS as I did. It was incredibly rewarding and the students and School will benefit.”
This summer, Kiril Sokoloff is assisting the recovery effort in the Bahamas by building a community center in Abaco to provide a variety of necessities. The islands of The Bahamas, particularly Abaco and Grand Bahama, witnessed one of the most devastating hurricanes in history. There were numerous casualties and many families left without homes.
Jim Gibbons shares: “The obituary in the last Alumni Horae perfectly captured the essence of Toby Terrell. The combined effort of formmates who knew Toby during different periods of his life rendered a full remembrance of that life. Thank you.”
David Parshall writes: “I feel blessed to continue to live and work in New York City, the center of the universe. In my spare time, I cycle (aiming to remain ever-so-slightly physically fit), play bridge (aiming for much-needed mind improvement), and am trying to learn for the first time how to hit a golf ball (extremely frustrating and challenging). When I wake up in the middle of the night (a far-too-frequent occurrence), I often walk through the grounds of SPS in my mind and then drift back into a delightful slumber.”
David Martin ’65 and his wife, Martha, celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary with their three children, Ben ’00, Jessica ’96, and Charlotte ’93 (and Charlotte’s husband, Mark Smith ’92) in Montana.
Skip Hobbs ’65 presented a Hugh Birkhead Memorial Science Lecture at the School this fall.
Kiril Sokoloff ’65 is assisting in the recovery efforts in the Bahamas.
Hugh Clark
hclark@ursinus.edu
Peter Meyer writes: “Retired from Delta in June. Have found that all those projects that will get done ‘tomorrow’ have now become ‘today.’ My wife, Pat, continues to work, but is scaling back. Looking forward to some interesting part-time gig sometime in the future. Idle hands...”
Thoughts from Denis Ransmeier: “I read in the recent Alumni Horae of Win Brown, John Brown, and Martin Oppenheimer’s Sunday brunch routine, which led me to this reflection. I think it was in the Fourth Form when I bought an acoustic guitar from Martin for something like 25 bucks. With help from George Wheelwright and Bill Ambrose, roommates in subsequent years, I reached the point where I could play passably. But, beyond SPS, I played infrequently and for the last 30 years the guitar has gathered dust in the crawlspace above the garage. A couple of weeks ago, my granddaughter told me she wanted to learn to play the guitar. So, against my better judgement, I wobbled up a ladder up into the rafters, retrieved the guitar, restrung it, and gave it to her. If she procrastinates as well as her grandad, someone in my family may be playing a 100-year-old guitar.”
Last June, Jeff Clark, George Wheelwright, Dick Dale, and Steve Lines ’67 enjoyed some time together at a 50th reunion for members of the crews from Trinity College that participated in the Henley Royal Regatta – 1969 was the first year Trinity sent crews to Henley. A reunion row on the Connecticut River was organized, and all returned safely to the dock. Dan Drury, who also went to Henley that year, was unable to attend the reunion.
A note from John Gordon: “It has been a really busy year for me on several fronts. Most importantly, our daughter, China, graced Kiendl and me in March with a second grandchild (granddaughter Phoenix and grandson Damien). Needless to say, we are thrilled by this family expansion. On the other side of the ledger, two of my older siblings, Albert ’55 and Mary, passed on two days apart in late July. Speaking of that, several years ago I realized that I was getting older and could not count on my health, and so I adopted a rule of having ‘Yes’ be my default answer whenever an opportunity came up to do something I had any interest in. Occasionally, I am overcommitted, but so far it has been wonderfully expanding. Finally, two years ago I was diagnosed with CLL, a form of blood cancer that one supposedly lives with, but doesn’t die from. I only began therapy this spring, and I feel great.”
An update from Ray Hornblower: “Over the last few years, I have been working in the venture capital space, figuring out ways to develop and finance technologies that combat climate change and lead to a more sustainable planet. My law partners and I are contributing to an international program that will bring clean, cheap energy to developing nations with the support of the United Nations and its affiliated energy NGO, The Global LPG Partnership (www.glpgp.org). We have been working with Middle Eastern energy companies to make available and distribute clean and at deep discount (up to 50 percent) LPG (liquid petroleum gas) fuel for home cooking use in developing countries in the Third World. By replacing charcoal, wood, and dung fuel with clean and safe LPG, we will help prevent around four million annual deaths, severe forest loss, and have serious impact on women and children’s time searching for wood, charcoal, and dung solid fuels for cooking that cause terrible respiratory problems for villagers throughout the developing world. Our program is designed to enable the transition of the maximum viable population to LPG and even cleaner fuels by 2030, to avert millions of household air pollution related annual deaths and six million hectares of annual forest loss. In addition, we have been working with colleagues at various incubator venues in the U.S. and abroad to develop and finance other sustainable technologies that effectively combat air and water pollution, treat industrial waste, and disinfect food of E.coli and pesticides, all resulting in healthier produce. On the music front, having retired from the stage (I sang with an orchestra in over 300 opera houses in Europe earlier in my career), I still find time to practice about an hour every day, and I finally performed my first solo program at Carnegie (Zankel) Hall last year. Singing to various industry and government leaders from the countries where we are doing business (Pakistan, China, and in Africa) definitely helps break the ice and has led to gaining their trust and friendship. Daughter Natalie is 12 now and heading into seventh grade. She has been a total delight to Cynthia and me, although the teenage years loom a bit menacing. Cynthia continues to show great patience in putting up with me and is a wonderful mother. She spends a good part of each day working at her own boutique PR firm. My son, Sam, has had a great 11-year career at 60 Minutes, winning Emmy awards for, among other things, his life-saving segments on the opioid disaster and for other investigative pieces, while also producing adorable twin grand-daughters two years ago. My younger son, Luke, is doing well as a lawyer in the securities and investment field and will soon be working as an in-house counsel to the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange. I am an advisor to the Plimoth Plantation, now a Smithsonian ‘living museum,’ and founded by my uncle 70 years ago, and where we just celebrated the 400th anniversary of the Mayflower, rebuilt as Mayflower II, and beautifully restored at Mystic Seaport. Finally, I would be remiss if I did not mention that I owe plenty of the above blessings and good fortune to the ‘faith of our fathers’ while at the same time remaining appalled at how the faith and its central tenets (Matthew 25:40-46) have been ignored and brushed aside by some politically powerful conmen of the evangelical right. To ‘rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and give thanks in all circumstances’ is one tenet that has served me well. First Thessalonians 5:17.”
Gordie Grand writes: “We are still living in North Salem, N.Y., and are trying to downsize. Unfortunately, you cannot give a house away in Westchester County since the taxes are brutal and Trump’s tax laws have stripped us from taking them as a deduction. Cec and I are down in Anguilla now probably seven months a year, doing a lot of scuba diving and ducking hurricanes in the summer and fall. Cec is a professional florist, so she also spends a lot of time creating fabulous gardens down there and in North Salem. I, on the other hand, have a black thumb and restrict my non-diving activities to playing awful golf, going to the gym, and working with the schools mentioned below. I’ve finished my six-year tenure as a trustee of the University of Virginia’s business school (Colgate Darden) which was a great experience. I’m now on the board of Anguilla’s International School (grades 1-8), and we’re going to try to add a high school. I’m also on the board of the youth sailing school, even though my sailing skills match my golf game (just ask Copey Coppedge, Jim Phillips, and Bill Jackson). Our three children are all thriving. Our youngest son, Jake, who lives in Portland, Ore., and his team just won an Emmy for producing the Nike Colin Kaepernick ‘Dream Crazy’ ad campaign and a number of other awards for Nike ads with Serena Williams, Kyrie Irving, and some Kenyan marathoners. They also did the Nike ad campaign for the Women’s World Cup soccer last summer. Jake is married with one child, age 1. Harry, who lives near us, has a big new job opening a New York office for a prestigious L.A. investment management firm, Angeles. Harry is married with three children, 8, 6, and 4. Our daughter, Angela, lives in Dedham, Mass., married with two kids, 10 and 5. She’s involved in a ton of NFPs and does consulting with them when they undertake fundraising campaigns. She and her husband are very close friends with Walker and Jill Coppedge. Walker is also my godson – poor guy.”
Ray Hornblower ’66 with his wife, Cynthia, and daughter, Natalie (12).
(L. to r.) Oarsmen Steve Lines ’67, George Wheelwright ’66, and Jeff Clark ’66 preparing to row at their Trinity College reunion.
John Landes
Jlandes1948@yahoo.com
Pierre Irving shared this update: “Under the byline of ‘70 is the new 60,’ Mike Moore, his brother Doug, Bruce Curtis-McLane, and yours truly recently completed hiking the Presidential Traverse in the White Mountains, which includes Mt. Washington as the literal high point. When I reconnected with Mike at our SPS 50th reunion, we discovered a mutual interest in walking in the woods. This past August, Mike set up our adventure. We spent the night and were fed royally in AMC huts along the way. In spite of a few aches and pains, scratches and scrapes, and the odd blister, we made it across and had a lot of fun sharing old memories and making new ones.”
David Rea submitted a photo from 1967’s off-year 52nd Anniversary at Anniversary Weekend 2019. He calls it the “Bad Boys From Millville ’19 Tour.” The photo was taken on the Ohrstrom Library veranda by a very nice librarian who was on duty that day.
Allan “Lanny” MacDougall writes: “I am still running MacDougall Financial, where my son, James ’10, and daughter, Liz, work. I am living at the farm in Ligonier, where I was born and raised. My main outside activity is cruising the canals of France in my 103-year-old Dutch barge named Eendracht (Dutch word for Unity/Harmony). For the many language-Latin scholars, ‘Eendracht maakt macht’ is one of the oldest sayings in both Dutch and German, and is as true today as it ever was. Contact me if you are in France or Pa.”
Allan “Lanny” MacDougall ’67, cruising the canals of France in his 103-year-old Dutch barge.
A Northeast Harbor, Maine, gathering in June with (l. to r.) Alec Wheeler ’65, Randy Morgan ’65, Rick Wheeler ’67, and Ike Roberts ’65.
(L. to r.) 1967 formmates Mike Moore, Bruce Curtis-McLane, and Pierre Irving hiked the Presidential Traverse in the White Mountains.
Form of 1967 friends gathered for “The Bad Boys From Millville ’19 Tour.” Front: Tom Beale; back (l. to r.): Dave Rea, Charles Storer, Carey Rodd, Steve Barker, Bob Ewell, and Harry Billings.
Walker Wainwright
Soled59@aol.com
The grandchildren of Walker Wainwright ’68.
Reporting the arrival of my fourth grandchild: Nathalie Wainwright Strauss, who joins Penelope (10), Madeline (7), and Walker (2). We had all of them living with us for various periods over the summer. My son, Bobby, is a homicide prosecutor in Philadelphia, where his wife is head of the Lower School at Springside Chestnut Hill. My daughter, Nina (Strauss), has a decorating business in N.Y.C., where her husband, Nathan, is a litigator with Gibson Dunn. In East Hampton, I live less than a half mile from Dick Furlaud, who had Alice and me over for dinner in August with Al Ulmann, John Taft, and their wives. In June, I also caught up with Shel Sheldon’s daughter (Louise) Baldridge and new granddaughter (Gibby). Louise was in East Hampton for the opening of her husband’s gallery exhibition.”
Eliot Larson
ewlarson@comcast.net
Stephen Post released his book God and Love on Route 80: The Hidden Mystery of Human Connectedness on August 15. On September 14, he partnered with violinist Joanna Kaczorowska for an evening of storytelling and music to celebrate the publication of his book.
Tom Iglehart writes: “I fell out of the American dimension this July and August through a business trip to Eastern Europe (specifically, Serbia). A short hop to just about anywhere else, I did nonetheless fail to meet up with Ritchie and Charlie Scribner in Rome for a side trip filled with the great art masters. Is there a next time? I vow there will be, as that quadrangle of the world is blooming with genteel living, the likes of which seem long forgotten elsewhere. I am glad to contemplate becoming more European. My daughter, Jaime ’01, may soon fulfill her longtime desire to be of the EU year-round, after she completes her obligations as associate professor in film at CUNY/Hostos, recently voted “best community college” in the entire state of New York. Best to all for our 51st! Locke Besse has some great ideas for that.”
Philip von Stade writes: “My little brother, Skiddy ’80, just caught the biggest darn tuna I’ve ever seen. It’s one of the joys of living in Maine, where he and his family have recently joined us and so many other Paulies. Our 50th reunion was a wonderful flashback and gab-fest.Thankful for the photographers in our group – and our chief chronologist, Tom Iglehart.”