1980

John Maeck
mwfarmcsa@gmail.com

Lea Mitchell writes: “Hello to all. I am an artist and art teacher in Olympia, Wash. Sixty used to sound old to me. It no longer does. I live on a houseboat/art studio on Puget Sound, am working on several community art initiatives, and would love to reconnect in real time or email (lea@mitcub.net).”

A note from Christina Robert: “When asked by my brother, Marc ’78, in March 2020 where I wanted to be if the pandemic did actually force us to lock down, my immediate answer was ‘Not in the (expletive) British countryside.’ I write to you having spent the better part of this last year in rural Wiltshire. To my great surprise, I have loved and been grateful for every minute. I have lived in London and been advocating for the natural world most of my adult life as a columnist, film producer, and board member – and yet I had never lived through four seasons surrounded by field and forest. Now, all I want to do is forage, photograph flora, lie on moss, and talk to trees. I could go on about the magical properties of elderberry elixir. I have been in close radio contact with Quincy Houghton, Andrew Greenebaum, and Melanie Falk ’79 throughout this crazy year. Richard Walsh, Billy Van Ingen, Clare Cushman, Tom Hamilton, and Will Schwalbe are never too far away from the possibility of a great email exchange. My relationships forged at St. Paul’s are becoming more cherished as time goes on. I feel very lucky to have this community of fellow travelers. Sending love to all.”

Wallace Henderson checks in: “I have made N.Y.C. my home for the last 35 years and am blessed with two wonderful city-raised children, Olivia (22) and Ian (19), both at the University of Chicago. In terms of career, I have been in private equity for quite a while and was fortunate to be a founding partner of Blackstone’s Infrastructure Fund, where I am now. However, I am starting a new and independent sustainable investing fund with a close friend while remaining an advisor to Blackstone. The fund will target early-stage investments in young companies promoting the sustainable use of resources and the decarbonization of our economy. Never too late to make a difference. In terms of classmates and other SPSers I have kept up with over the years, the list is too long. Better to mention a couple I haven’t seen more or less since graduation. Ben Singer is one and Fritz Woodward is another. Where are they?”

From Gifford West: “I keep in close touch with Rich Perkins, Eldon Scott, David “G” Nelson, and Mark Schneider. We sail nearly every year and got together for the last time on the weekend of March 6, 2020, for a cross-country skiing weekend in central New Hampshire. Then, COVID hit. Mark has a house in Sandwich, and some of our classmates will remember my house, ‘Picklepine’ in Holderness. They are all well. Dave Nelson continues to run his high school in Atlanta, for which he deserve immense praise. Eldon is the king of ‘Ghost Kitchens’ (and a parent of three SPS kids).”

1981/40th

Lixy Paradis Carey
lixypc@gmail.com

1982

Lou Adreani
laadreani@statestreet.com

This past year has been a time to appreciate the outdoors, appreciate your family, appreciate your friends, and appreciate humanity. It’s also been an opportunity to give back in some way. While clearing snow from my neighbors’ driveways isn’t significant, their gratitude was outsized. Everyone is looking for some positive. Share your “positive.” One of the most important people in my life passed on February 21. My relationship with Cliff Gillespie was as my chemistry teacher, dorm master for three years, father figure, and, later in life, like a brother to me. I spent three times a year with him, every year, for the past 38 years reminiscing. I know Cliff, and I know he would love the stories to be shared in his memory. So here are two:

1. Cliff’s 7 a.m., chemistry class. It smelled like coffee grinds and Old Spice in a setting of Bunsen burners and asbestos pads. Cliff starts writing in his block letters ‘18 grams per mole’ – the chalk crumbling under the pressure of his hands. Cliff turns to address the class; a student yawns. Cliff looks at him and says: ‘Get out!’ Student: ‘But I don’t want to.’ Cliff: ‘I’m not asking.’ No one so much as blinked for the rest of class.

2. John Buxton, Craig Spivey ’83, Cliff Gillespie, and I go running to a hill named Suicide behind the Unitarian Church in the Spring of 1982. On the way to the church, John says: ‘This hill brought Gillespie to his knees.’ Craig and I look at each other as if to say, ‘Oh, oh!’ We get to the top and John says: ‘Everyone okay?’ The following six weeks, Cliff and I challenge each other by sequentially running this hill. When I had done the hill five times – that’s five times up and down Suicide, Cliff returns the next day and says: ‘I did it five times in boots.’ That’s when I tapped out.”

Ben Scully writes: “Still enjoying life in Busan, Korea. Trying to get out more around Korea, so I went to Geoje Island, site of the main U.N. Prisoner of War camp during the Korean War and scene for one of my favorite books, War Trash. A crazy chapter of history, as at one time there were 137,000 POWs in a very small area. Got up to the YeongNam Alps, which is beautiful and has great hiking. And, of course, visited a few temples along the way.”

 Rufus Clark shares: “We were very fortunate to have both Brett ’14 and Chars ’18 home with us for several months last year. Brett has moved back to N.Y. and is still working remotely; Chars has moved in with some friends and continues her virtual studies. Hopefully things get back to normal soon for the sake of everyone, but especially our kids. Very sad news about Cliff Gillespie. Truly an incredible and inspirational man who was a mentor and example to so many of us. He will be missed.”

From Brad Copithorne: “After having spent almost 30 years in California, Kia and I pulled up stakes and moved back to the East Coast this winter. I am still scarred by New Hampshire winters and we chose the gentle four-season climate of Asheville, N.C. We are loving the chance to get outdoors in the mountains and looking forward to COVID ending to start enjoying the music, art, and dining opportunities of the region.” 

Jennifer White Callaghan writes: “We are in D.C., grateful for the fact that we live in a neighborhood with lots of space and not many people. I am now managing Allen & Overy’s U.S. pro bono practice and it is a dream job. Our 10-year-old daughter, Meg, started back at school two days a week in February, and she is thrilled with every minute of it. Richard and I and the dog are confused by her absence. We are hoping the vaccine rollout continues and that summer is more normal than last but, overall, we can hardly complain. Stay well, everyone.” 

Alex Wilmerding writes: “I was very sorry to read the news about Cliff Gillespie. Many of us didn’t have the opportunity to attend one of his classes, or to run as part of the lacrosse team in boots through the SPS woods before the final frost let way to spring. But, I am hugely grateful for his contribution to St. Paul’s. His leadership of the School as an Interim Rector was a gift. It was because I knew he, Alina, and daughters Dede ’79 and Susie ’81 were culture carriers for the School and would carry SPS in an uncertain time. This last year under COVID has been one unlike any my wife Ginny and I could have imagined. We know we are blessed and have suffered very little, except for the loss of time and isolation from an aging, albeit healthy, family. We have otherwise learned a lot and been blessed to have our two kids, Nicholas (Yale ’24) and Mimi (St. Andrews School ’21), under our roof in Hong Kong and in the U.S. for seven and eight months out of the past 12. We were able to keep Hong Kong hours from our summer place in the middle of the Long Island Sound for six of the last 13 months, and our firms and clients didn’t seem to miss a beat thanks to technology. Having essentially resigned ourselves as empty nesters shipping the kids off to school and then college three-plus years ago, we have all reconnected meaningfully this year and so far dodged the COVID bullet. Hopefully many of you have also been blessed with silver linings. We are now on our fifth wave since January last year in Hong Kong (defined as just 60-100+ cases a day in a city of seven million) and rather than commuting once a month to Japan, Australia, and/or various South East Asian countries, we still embrace Zoom and Teams as working almost as well but are impatient for a different balance to emerge. I hope this finds you all well and that, by our 40th, we not only all remain healthy, but are all able to meet in Concord or nearby.”

Anne (Dickinson) Barber writes: “Our daughter, Ilida, made it into the real world after graduating in the pandemic (American University ’20) and is employed full-time as the lead teacher in a D.C. learning pod. Our twins are seniors in high school – sometimes remote and sometimes in attendance, depending on the dictates of the school administrative unit. Both are attending college in the fall, so COVID did not derail them too badly. Graham and I are happy and healthy. I was worried at first about my business, because I am a self-employed lawyer, but, after March 2020, it righted itself. We have all been fortunate and avoided COVID so far. Spring has come to northern New Hampshire. We’ve had our first sap run, and French toast for dinner with our own fresh maple syrup.” 

A note from Heidi E. Erdrich: “It was a busy year even from my secure lockdown location. Usually, we both travel quite a bit for work, but right now I’m the (virtual) Glasgow Visiting Writer at Washington and Lee via Zoom. I can see from what Anne Dickinson Barber sent that others of our form were, like me and spouse, home with college kids. Our youngest child is waiting for more college acceptances, then we will see if the nest empties or if we cuddle up in the pandemic’s next wave. In either case, I invested in new tech for this new normal. As an introvert, this part suits me – but I hope we all have a safe 2021.” 

Harry Brigham shares: “After 28 years in Baltimore, we are moving to N.Y.C. (Chelsea), where my wife, Carter, will be a graduate student at the School of Visual Arts. I look forward to catching up with old classmates in the area and continuing to be the ‘round boat’ magnate in the world of summer camps and resorts. CORCL boats is cautiously enjoying a strong start to 2021 compared to the abrupt end of sales in March 2020. We have two boys, Greer, 23, and Leland, 21, and we were fortunate (parents’ perspective) to have them studying remotely with us for seven months of 2020 on the island of Islesboro in Maine (where we run into Peter Truslow, James Houghton, and Ben Adams). My current interests include the International Rescue Committee, racing my sailboat around the country, photography, and keeping relatively fit (a nod to Lou Adreani).”

Alice Coogan writes: “Despite the chaos of the last year, there have been silver linings that have kept things in good perspective. I have remained gainfully employed in healthcare and was grateful to have its leadership and presence in my back pocket instead of the CNN feed. Also, both my parents have been safe in assisted living facilities, and although we were not able to see one another for a while, the assurance of them being safe and well cared for was immeasurable. Lastly, although all of the planned festivities and parties last May were canceled, my daughter happily graduated magna cum laude from Northeastern University and had two job offers to choose from (she does not take after her mother). She now works at HubSpot in Boston, and I have no idea what she does, but she seems happy. I hope everyone is well, and I look forward to an in-person reunion at some point.”

From Doug Lee: “I am still in Hong Kong (since 2015) and have been stuck here since November 2019 due to COVID. Just can’t get myself to go through the quarantine periods required for traveling. I am semi-retired and just helping my wife with her Korean food takeaway business (www.k-roll.com.hk). My oldest son (26) is living with his girlfriend in Seattle and my younger son (24) is in graduate school at Brown. Still keep in touch with Clinton White, John Leone, John Song, Greg Lee, and Ben Scully. We all still miss Jim Kuhn so much. Still get a X-mas card from Heidi every year (bless her heart)!”

Chuck Doucette sends this news: “Ellen and I have a son, Lucas, 7, in first grade, and another son, Adam, 6, in Kindergarten. They have been attending school two days per week for most of the school year, and are scheduled to return to five days per week on April 5. We live in Arlington, Mass. We are planning to sell our house and hope we can remain in the Boston area. Somehow, we made it through last year still employed and healthy. My dad, Dennis, will turn 85 in August.”

Mark Koumans writes: “First things first: Thank you, Lou Adreani, for prompting us to stay in touch. Early in 2020, I was tapped to coordinate the Department of Homeland Security’s preparations for a potential presidential transition. The first few months were routine, even boring, albeit in the new ‘virtual’ normal. We assembled various electronic briefing papers. Then came the election and the aftermath. I hope the Department, let alone the nation, never again has to undergo a (delayed) presidential transition in the midst of a pandemic, with an incumbent who did not acknowledge that he lost, followed by a nationwide cyber attack, and culminating in an assault on the U.S. Capitol. There was a complete absence of trust between the two sides, but my job was to prepare one team for taking over from another; my team doubled in size as work multiplied in preparation for inauguration. The DHS agencies include CBP, CISA, FEMA, ICE, TSA, the U.S. Secret Service, USCIS, and more. The Biden team studied Trump immigration, domestic terrorism, cyber, inauguration security, and other policies, and so we juggled 200+ meetings, some friendlier than others, and had to generate hundreds more papers and charts in response to hundreds of Biden team requests. The Biden team was four times as big as the Trump team four years ago, and they onboarded about four times as many on Inauguration Day, too. It was an honor and an adventure to have led this effort, but it was a great relief when it was complete. Meanwhile, the family soldiers on: Lucy continues her social entrepreneurship, Helene is in her junior year at Brown, and Lizzie is in her junior year at the local high school. After our last SPS reunion and a number of 50th birthdays a few years ago, it’s been fun to be back in touch with Ed Marchese, Kate (Hamm) Deane, and Rhonda Roberts. Someday soon, when we’re all vaccinated, we may even see each other again – other than for Zoom cocktails.”

1984

Alexandra Strawbridge Maurer
mainestraw@gmail.com

It is March 25 and, this morning, Angus King ’88, and I took a plunge into the ocean in Portland, Maine, with a few friends to remind us to start gathering outside to see our friends more often. We are lucky to live here. I have seen quite a bit of neighbors Dave Walton ’97, Al Timpson ’79, and Skiddy Von Stade ’80, among others, to get through this past year as comfortably as possible. Hope this finds everyone emerging well.”

Mary Robins shares: “Sheltering in place in Durango, Colo., has allowed me to be in the wilderness, enjoy my two teenagers, pause the busy dating life, connect with far-flung friends, cultivate my garden, get as healthy as ever, and be still. The past year hasn’t been measured by months but rather by which Netflix series is gripping me – it’s been K-dramas lately (you, too, will dig them). I was lucky to ski with Alexandra Strawbridge Maurer, Maja Paumgarten-Parker, and Billy McCullough right before the U.S. shutdown, and summit a Colorado 14-footer with David Ingalls. Given my aging stride, I was definitely more than six feet apart. Another pandemic delight has been reconnecting with Chris King Forbes and texting with SPS gal-pals. Few things compare to being with friends I’ve known for 40 years.”

1986/35th

Elizabeth Hotson
liz.bigham@mac.com