pennington magazine, winter 2011

Roxana-Carmen Turcanu ’12

ComingAmerica

to

Pennington's First ASSIST Student

One YearNew World

in a

Latin AmericaPenningtonand

A Lasting Friendship Built at PenningtonAn InspiringCommunityThe Opening of School and Convocation

enningtonM A G A Z I N E

Winter 2011

Hail ChiefCelebrating Coach Eure's 100th Victory

to the

New Courses in Finance and BiologyAlan Meckler '63 on the Future of Communications

Engaging the

Future

Bulletin Board

2

21

26

32

37

2 Pennington news

21 Red Raiders Sports

41 Alumni Happenings

45 Class notes

AN INSPIRING COMMuNITy

hAIL TO ThE ChIEF

ENGAGING ThE FuTuRE

LATIN AMERICA ANd PENNINGTON

ONE yEAR ABROAd

Students are given a new view of accountability and are asked to consider what they can do only at Pennington.

Jerry “Chief ” Eure ’75 reaches century milestone as coach.

Biology class to open door to scientific discovery; personal finance class opens eyes to real life. Media visionary Alan Meckler ’63 offers his take on the future.

Two alumni recall being Latin Americans at Pennington.

Romanian junior comes to Pennington through ASSIST.

hEAd OF SChOOLPenny Townsend

ACTING dIRECTOR OF dEVELOPMENTMaggie Kelly

EdITORA. Melissa Kiser

Director of Communications(609) 737–6116

[email protected]

dESIGN/LAyOuT EdITORJaclyn A. Immordino ’03

PRINTINGPrism Color

CONTRIBuTING wRITERSDavid Donahue, Maggie Kelly,

A. Melissa Kiser, JoanneMcGann, Julia Meneghin,

Patrick Murphy '80, Michael Townsend

STAFF PhOTOGRAPhERSJaclyn A. Immordino '03,A. Melissa Kiser, Joanne

McGann, Patrick Murphy '80,Julia Meneghin, Dave Donahue,

Jim Inverso

ThE PENNINGTON SChOOL112 West Delaware Avenue

Pennington, NJ 08534(609) 737–1838

www.pennington.org

CLASS NOTESDavid Donahue(609) 737–6141

[email protected]

CONTACT INFORMATION ChANGESMary Ellen Erdie(609) 737–6122

[email protected]

PENNINGTON MAGAZINEWINTER 2011 VoLuME 52, No. 1

All materials copyright ©2010-11 by The Pennington School unless otherwise noted. The cupola device, circular logo, and split P are registered trademarks of The Pennington School. opinions expressed in Pennington Magazine are those of the authors, not necessarily those of The Pennington School.

54 In Memoriam

56 Giving Back

2 | Pennington Magazine

I extend my warmest welcome this afternoon to students, faculty, staff, parents, trustees, and distinguished guests. It also gives me great pleasure to welcome all the new students and their families to Pennington.

My enthusiastic greetings to the great Class of 2011; this is your last convocation ceremony at Pennington! Class of 2017—where are you out there? You have a few more years to go.

There is one group to which I would like to extend a special welcome this morning: our senior “lifers.” Lifers are day students who en-tered Pennington as sixth-graders and boarders who entered in the seventh grade. Senior lifers, please stand and receive your well-earned rec-ognition.

I also promised my Spanish class I would send them a shout-out: Lucas, Simon, oliver, Cris-tobal, and Antonio—my class of five senior boys. It was six, but sadly Diego abandoned us for a science elective. Girls, can’t I entice one or two of you to join us in Spanish V, second period? I could use your help. Four athletes and a musician.

It is my honor and privilege to stand in front of you today as we observe the beginning of our one hundred and seventy-third year. Think of that. 173 years. over the past 173 years, gener-

ations of students have studied here, lived here, commuted here, practiced here, performed here, and played here. And someday, for some of you sooner than others, all of you will be included in those generations of students who have passed through Pennington. Many of you will join your grandparents, parents, and sib-lings as graduates of Pennington.

Convocation is a wonderful event. Students, I love looking out at all your bright and happy faces, full of wonder and expectation. Your shining eyes! Parents, I can feel your sense of pride in your children all the way up here on the stage. I have now been a part of five con-vocations, and each new class that we welcome brings more talent, more energy, and more di-versity to our campus.

Mr. Tucci [Peter Tucci ’79, chair of the Board of Trustees,] has already spoken about the countries you represent, and your talents and interests are as diverse as your hometowns. You are not merely scholars: you are musicians, ath-letes, artists, community volunteers, student council presidents, school newspaper journal-ists, linguists, political campaign volunteers, camp counselors, world explorers, mountain climbers, babysitters, junior statesmen, chess champs—the list is endless.

So, here you are, old and new students, Big Raiders and Little Raiders, R2Rs, selected to attend Pennington because of your intellec-tual curiosity, your creative and artistic talents, your potential for leadership and service, and your commitment to your education—and be-cause you are not afraid of hard work and new challenges.

Students, Convocation and the opening of school are all about you. We, your teachers, are here because of you. And we are happy to be here because of you. During the summer we worked hard to get ourselves and the campus ready for you—to make improvements so that your learning and your learning environ-ment will be the best possible. New sound

An Inspiring Communityhead of School Penny Townsend delivered the following keynote address to students, families, and faculty at Convocation on September 12.

ABOVE Seniors (from left) Vaclav Barina, Tommy Essoka, Zachary Mironov, Andrew McWhirter, and Kathryn Testa

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systems, laptop carts, painting, pruning, pav-ing, new furniture, lights for the artificial turf field…. Don’t ever forget, every corner, every inch of this campus is your learning environ-ment. The classrooms, the library, the dining hall, the dormitories, the art studios, the play-ing fields, the dean’s office, the designated Sat-urday morning work detail areas, the Health Center, SouRCE, the yellow toaster buses, the benches around campus—are ALL part of your learning environment.

We continually renew and refresh at Penning-ton. And we do it for your benefit.

There are two stories in the local papers this morning that are of particular interest to us.In the Trentonian: “Pennington picks up 100th win for Eure: Pennington Head Coach Jerry Eure recorded his 100th career victory as the Red Raiders defeated Jenkintown 40–14.” From the Trenton Times: “The Chief joins century club. Head Coach Jerry ‘Chief ’ Eure recorded his 100th career victory yesterday in Jenkintown, PA.” [ed. note: see related story on page 21.]

Seventeen seasons plus one game, and our coach joins the century club. A remarkable statistic. This is an amazing feat, but it is not amazing simply because of 100 wins. It is re-markable because of Jerry Eure: because of Jerry’s passion, his commitment to excellence, his unconditional and categorical love of and belief in Pennington and its students.

Jerry epitomizes all that is great about Pennington. He also lives the three words that are on the benches in front of the Meckler Library: honor, virtue, humility. And he is really going to be embarrassed by what I am

about to do, especially because of that third noun: humility.

Those of you who have been coached by the Chief know what I am talking about. You un-derstand how he brings you along, how he pays attention to and cares about all that you do at Pennington. He cares about your devel-opment as an athlete, a scholar, a human be-ing. one of Chief ’s favorite expressions—and he has many—is “The way to the athletic field is through the library.” Jerry finds strengths. Jerry expects and demands excellence, and his players deliver. The 100 wins pale in compari-son to all that Jerry inspires at Pennington.

You really don’t need to hear yet again how much the world is changing. The world has changed; the teaching profes-sion has changed. Teachers no longer are the sole reposi-

tory of all knowledge that they then deliver to their students. My Spanish students can go to the Internet and find the conjugation—the pluperfect subjunctive conjugation—of every single verb in the Spanish language. They don’t need me for that information. They can listen to hours and hours of authentic, real Spanish on the Internet. They can access all kinds of cultural information about Spanish-speaking countries.

Teachers are going to be called on to help man-age that information and to help students learn how to think critically, using all the informa-tion that is readily accessible to them.

What our students are going increasingly to need—what you need , students—are coach-es. Facilitators. Mentors. Adults who help you find your strengths. Adults who help you find the things that energize you, that make you feel good about yourselves. And you all have strengths that can be developed at Penning-ton. You will need coaches—academic, artis-tic, athletic—who will push you, cajole you, stretch you, maybe even bribe you—so that

The cross-cultural connections you make here will help you better understand ourdivided world—and you will make it a better place.

—Penny Townsend

BELOw Alexandra Barch ’14 and Aleksandra Kiszka ’14


you can reach your personal excellence.

I ask you all to think for a moment about what you can do at Pennington that you can’t do anywhere else. Sure, you can find information on the computer—you can even take courses on the computer—but you need the meaning-ful relationships that will help you use that in-formation; that will teach you how to use that information; that will teach you how to turn that information into knowledge. You need re-lationships with your teachers and your class-mates. You can study and read about the global community, but you have to form relationships with people from diverse backgrounds and be-liefs if you are to understand and appreciate it deeply. And at Pennington you can learn how to live in a community.

At Pennington you can get better at the things you already do well; you can try things that you haven’t tried before. You can get better at the things you don’t do so well. There are teachers here who will help you crack the code of geom-etry; who will help you write better; who will help your perfect your command of English.

At Pennington you can do meaningful things with others; you can learn to collaborate and work together. You can support what others do by attending events; you can help others by volunteering.

And you all have a unique opportunity at Pen-nington to form friendships with students from different economic, ethnic, racial, religious and cultural backgrounds. These are friendships that can last a lifetime, and that the School will support through reunions and alumni events once you have graduated. The cross-cultural connections you make here will help you bet-ter understand our divided world—and you will make it a better place.

In the opening days of school you heard a lot about accountability: accountability for con-duct, for dress code, for arriving to class on time and prepared, for not missing dormitory check-ins, for getting to the bus on time for away games—on and on. overwhelming at times, I imagine.

I, too, am going to talk about accountability and hold you accountable. Accountable for an increased love of learning. Accountable for taking advantage of all that Pennington has to offer. Accountable for forming relationships with your teachers and advisors. Accountable for trying your best. Accountable for being creative and imaginative. And accountable for loving your school and exhibiting that love ev-ery day.

I also want you to hold us accountable. If there is something you need, ask us for it. If you want to take advantage of Mr. Tucci and the French ambassador’s invitation to visit the French Embassy in Washington, insist that we help you arrange the trip.

I’d like to close by sharing some recent email correspondence I have had with last year’s se-niors who, like you, are just beginning their school years. one actually arrived in my inbox at 2:47 this morning; I am so impressed that our former students are studying into the wee hours... or perhaps the email got snarled in a filter.

The first is fairly informal:

Hey, Mrs. Townsend—Richmond is amazing. I really, truly, truly

Pennington news

ABOVE Members of the freshman class assemble before Convocation.


recommend this school to anyone who loves Pennington; there are just so many similarities. I am currently running for a Senate position and have already joined a business fraternity called Alpha Kappa Phi. It’s not a social fraternity. I do not think I will be joining one of those. [That was most likely for my benefit.]

I hope all is well at Pennington and I will be back to visit as much as I can. Please say hi to Mr. Townsend for me. I miss his English class.

A second, slightly more formal:

Hi, Mrs. Townsend—I thoroughly miss Pennington, but I hon-estly could not be happier here at Wes-leyan. I am so pleased with my decision. Soccer has been going great! I have been starting, and today we tied Williams and almost beat them in overtime for the first time since 1985! I hope all is well at Pen-nington; know that the School and every-one in it are still in my heart and go with me everywhere I go! I will be sure to visit at the first opportunity I have!

And the third, more formal still:

Dear Mrs. Townsend,Hi! I hope you’re doing well. I’m not yet at college (and feel like I never will be, I leave so late!), but I'll be sure to send you stories and updates when I am. As for this sum-mer, I’ve been performing at Washington Crossing open Air Theater, playing music at some friends’ shows, and working for SAFE in Hunterdon, a women’s crisis center that helps domestic violence victims. I’ve been working with the financial office, making spreadsheets and helping to organize the agency’s funding and making sure they are maximizing the use of all the grant money they receive. I’ve been trained well at Pen-nington—“the boss” was so impressed with my work, she gave me a raise after just two weeks of working! Thank you, and espe-cially all my teachers. It’s not so much any of the class material I learned that helped

me in the workplace this summer, but rather the skills on learning how to think (yes, Mr. Horsley, you DID teach me how to think!), write well, be organized, and work hard.

And when I wrote back to ask for permission to quote part of the email, this is what came back.

If Chicago is half my Pennington experi-ence, it will be a great one. Words can’t express how grateful I am for everything Pennington’s given me, and I hope to one day repay the School. First, I will worry about the loans that will soon begin. . . . I tell everyone I know about how wonderful Pennington is, especially the community. I’m excited by what I’ve heard of the school year so far, and I can’t wait to see what this year holds for me and for all of you. I look forward to receiving updates.

And in bold, at the end:“You can quote me.”

ultimately, it is all about is inspiration and the energy that the inspiration excites. These emails are inspiring. The improvements in our physical plant are inspiring. The successes of our graduates are inspiring. Jerry Eure is inspir-ing. The depth of talent in our student body is inspiring. our diversity and connections throughout the world are inspiring. And it all is exciting.

You are surrounded by great resources and amazing teachers and mentors. Great coaches. You are part of an inspiring community that is steeped in history and tradition. This is your school; go find those things that you can only do at Pennington, and create your own legacy. And you will do it with energy. •

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BELOw Members of the junior class proceed in during the ceremony.

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Pennington news

I would like to provide today’s Pennington stu-dents with a short list of five things that they can do during this academic year which will enable them to continue the Pennington tradi-tion of “thinking globally.”

Get to know the School’s current international students. In this auditorium, we currently have 55 international students from 12 differ-ent countries. . . . Get to know Pennington’s international students. Invite these students to your house for a dinner on a Saturday or for a holiday. I guarantee that you will learn much from them.

Take a little time to better understand geography. Did you know, for example: that the Darfur region of Sudan is approximately the size of France; that the Gaza strip is only slightly more than twice the size of Washing-ton, DC; or that the Democratic Republic of the Congo is the size of all of western Europe? You cannot fully understand the con-flicts in these three regions, as well as many of the other global conflicts we face, without under-

standing the geography involved.

Learn another language. The vast majority of the world’s population does not speak Eng-lish. Consequently, learning another language is no longer a luxury. This is why Pennington offers a wealth of language courses, including Chinese.

Visit washington, dC. Ask your teachers if it would be possible to visit Washington, DC, sometime during this academic year. With 175 embassies, Washington is truly an inter-national city, and it is only a few hours from Pennington.

International networking. The Pennington School’s Alumni Directory lists alumni liv-ing in 39 different countries. Pick one from a country you are interested in, and introduce yourself to him or her through an email. I am sure that these alumni will be happy to hear about what is going on at Pennington, and you may have a new international contact that may prove useful to you in your future endeavors, whether in school or in your career.

—Peter Tucci, Esq. ’79Chair, Board of Trustees

The beginning of a new school year is always exciting to those of us who teach. Witnessing for the first time after summer vacation the growth spurts of our students, the new facial hair on some of the boys, new styles and outfits for the kids, and hearing about summer service projects, beach vacations, challenging summer school programs on college campuses, and strenuous work-outs to get in shape for fall sports all signal the start of a new school year, and the excitement on this campus is palpable.

Convocation and the opening of SchoolThe following are excerpts from remarks made by various members of the Pennington School community to students, families, and faculty at Convocation on September 12.

It takes but a few moments to think of the stories that abound within these buildings and on the fields of this great institution.

—william hawkey

ABOVE Members of the sophomore class assemble before Convocation.


A big part of my job is to work with the fac-ulty here, and in my 28 years on the faculty at Pennington I have come to regard this group of educators as some of the finest people and teachers around. It takes but a few moments to think of the sto-ries that abound within these buildings and on the fields of this great institution: stories of success that involve a relationship between a teacher and a student that defies definition but can best be told by the expressions of our students’ growing confidence and love for this school. Students current and past tell stories of the great influences that our teachers have had on them: stories such as how Mr. Ritter, then class dean for the freshman class and track coach, helped to ignite in a new student, a passion for running; how Mrs. Mather’s CS students get ready to have her hand back their papers for yet another round of edits; how de-manding Ms. Jones is as a teacher, but you bet-ter try to take her AP Economics class if you really want to get ahead; how much Ms. Hall will do for her art students to help them put together the best portfolios for their college interviews, and so on.

Now the buzz around campus in the opening weeks of school is generally more about the “real important” things that kids want to know about, and we get glimpses of these through overheard conversations in the lunch room, in the halls, and during the minutes in class be-fore the bell rings: What is Mr. Fulton dream-ing up for this year’s Hip Hop Dance? What will Dr. Hauser be like taking on AP Biology this year? And new students asking returning students, So what is Dean Bridges really like? Who will be cast in the fall play? Has Coach Eure really been around for 100 years? (oh, that’s my bad.) Did he really coach his 100th football win yesterday?

—william hawkeyAssociate head of School and dean of Faculty

I learned from freshman year to just simply be yourself. This at times may seem hard to do, but I can assure you that you will make friends that you enjoy being around, and will create

Pennington news

strong relationships with faculty and teachers that you will cherish forever.

What I learned from my sophomore year at Pennington is to be involved. You will get the most out of your time here at Pennington and will feel closer and closer with the Pennington family the more you do.

During your junior year, if you put the time and work in, you will be successful. Pay attention in class, do your homework, and take advantage of extra help. But working hard is not all you have to do this year. What I learned from my junior year is to be balanced.

With these three significant lessons from my freshman, sophomore, and junior years, I know that my senior year is the final year where, when it ends, I will truly be prepared for my life after Pennington.

—Michael Brown ’11Chair, Senior Class Committee

From my first day of sixth grade, I was faced with many challenges.

Like many other Middle School students, I didn’t know anyone when I came to the Mid-dle School Launch. I was nervous to start with, and not knowing anyone didn’t help. So I had to take a chance. I saw some kids eating lunch, and somehow I needed to get the courage to ask if I could sit with them. I took a deep breath and slowly walked to the table. I asked, “Can I sit with you guys?” and thankfully they said “yes.” Thanks to that challenge, I met one of my best friends.

Another one of my challenges was in Ms. Kes-sel’s (now Mrs. Fitzpatrick’s) English class. She had assigned a project in which I had to make a speech in front of our classmates, a true night-mare for me. She encouraged and supported me through the entire process. I completed the project, and I am still alive to talk about it today. The next area where I had to step out of my comfort zone involved Middle School football.

I had never pictured myself as an offensive line-man, but I had to because Coach Liwosz and Coach Coblentz made me. My first game was against PDS, and I was in over my head. I had to block a six-foot defensive lineman who time and time again had knocked me on my behind. By the end of the third quarter, he was actu-ally helping me up after every play. My coaches continued to encourage me throughout the season. I am glad that I had the chance to play football. It was one of my best decisions yet.

So, Pennington Middle School, welcome to another year. We have many opportunities to grow socially, academically, and athletically. We can’t be afraid to take a chance! Many good things can happen. If we step out of our com-fort zone, who knows what we may discover? And don’t be afraid to get knocked down once in a while. Just get back up, brush yourself off, and try it again. Remember, we are the future of The Pennington School.

—Andrew Gurick ’15Middle School Representative

ABOVE Michael Brown ’11, Chair, Senior Class Committee.

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Pennington News

New Faculty Join The Pennington School Campus

Alison Bailey joins the English department af-ter seven years at Northwood School in Lake Placid, NY, where she served as department chair and coached varsity soccer, ice hockey, and lacrosse. Before her time at Northwood, she taught for a year at Fay School in South-borough, Mass. A graduate of St. Lawrence university, she is currently pursuing an M.A. degree in English and history at Wesleyan uni-versity. She lives on the Pennington campus.

Ryan Bailey also joins Pennington’s residential faculty from Northwood School. At North-wood, and previously at the National Sports Academy, he taught history and coached ice hockey, as he is doing at Pennington. He has been Southeast District Player Evaluator for uSA Hockey since 2006. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Hamilton College in Clinton, NY.

Doughty, director of the School’s Meckler Library, has held positions as a library media specialist for the Lawrence Township Public Schools, and as a librarian at Stuart Country Day School of the Sacred Heart in Princeton and upper Moreland High School in Willow Grove, PA. In addition, she has taught high school social studies and eighth grade. She holds a bachelor’s degree in history education from the university of Delaware and a Master of Library and Information Sciences degree, with certification as a school library media spe-cialist, from the university of Pittsburgh.

Epstein earned his bachelor’s degree in his-tory and political science and an M.S. degree in secondary education from the university of Pennsylvania. He has specialized in non-west-ern history and international politics. Before joining Pennington’s history faculty, he taught that subject at The Baldwin School in Bryn Mawr, PA., where he also advised the school delegation to the Georgetown Model united Nations.

Glowatz joins the Center for Learning faculty at Pennington from TASIS—The American

The School faculty has thirteen new members this year. They are Alison Coope Bailey, Ryan C. Bailey, Laura doughty, Marc Epstein, Andrea Glowatz, Cynthia Groya, Catherine haines, Max Clayton Kennedy, Andrew w. Lloyd, Adrienne Papa, Mark Ross, Michele Ruopp, and Keri willard-Crist.

School in England, where she had been a fac-ulty member since 2004, also serving as assis-tant head of the Lower School. She is a gradu-ate of Adelphi university with B.S. and M.S. degrees in elementary education and reading, respectively; while in England she earned a post-graduate diploma in dyslexia and literacy from the university of York and a certificate in educational administration from oxford open Learning.

Groya, a professional artist and art teacher, is the director of the School’s Silva Gallery of Art. She has taught art at Newtown Friends School, Cultural Arts in Progress (CAPS), Bucks County Community College, and the St. Louis Art Museum. She earned her B.F.A. degree from Drake university and has pursued further courses in printmaking/project studio at Parsons The New School in New York City.

Haines, who is teaching mathematics, is a grad-uate of the university of oxford (England), having earned a bachelor’s degree, with hon-ors, in chemistry and a Master of Arts degree. She went on to earn an M.Sc. degree in chem-istry, as well as a Bachelor of Education degree, from the university of Toronto. She has taught mathematics, chemistry, and biology over a period of eighteen years at Western Technical and Commercial School in Toronto.

Kennedy, a resident teaching fellow in science and mathematics, is a 2010 graduate of Mid-dlebury College. He was a varsity ice hockey player there all four years, and he is an assistant coach with Pennington’s ice hockey program. Kennedy was also a student entrepreneur at Middlebury, owning and operating a student-run, campus-wide laundry business.

Lloyd holds a bachelor’s degree in English literature and composition from New York university and a master’s degree in environ-mental sustainability from Cardiff university in Wales. He is teaching Middle School sci-ence. Before joining Pennington’s residential faculty, he taught fourth grade and seventh- to ninth-grade sciences at The Park School and

was a program leader for Summer at Park, an environmentally educational day camp. He also spent eight years teaching fundamentals of marine biology and sailing for grades 3–12 on the crew of the Schooner Aurora.

Papa, who has been a long-term substitute teacher at Pennington in the past, is teaching in the Center for Learning. She has a bachelor’s degree in English from The College of New Jersey and earned graduate level teacher certi-fication from Rider university. While at Rider she was a graduate assistant in the Center for Reading and Writing. She was also trained in applied behavior analysis by Eden Institute, Bancroft NeuroHealth, and Autism New Jer-sey.

Ross teaches photography. He earned his B.F.A. degree in photography from Georgia State university and his M.F.A. degree in the same field from Temple university’s Tyler School of Art. In addition to teaching assistant-ships at Tyler, he has taught photography at Germantown Friends School, George School, and university of the Arts Continuing Educa-tion.

Ruopp, who joined the Center for Learning faculty, holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English from Montclair State and Rutgers universities, respectively. She also earned secondary teacher and supervisor certifica-tion from Montclair State and Seton Hall uni-versities. She has taught high school English, including honors and AP levels, and creative writing at Elizabeth (NJ) High School, Wood-bridge (NJ) High School, and Columbia High School.

Willard-Crist, a resident teaching fellow in reli-gion, earned her master of divinity degree from Princeton Theological Seminary in 2009. She is a graduate of Greenville (IL) College, hold-ing a bachelor’s degree in humanities, with a religion emphasis. Her interests and experi-ence deal especially with the coordination of community service projects with young adults’ spiritual formation. •


Pennington news

Thomas E. Liwosz, formerly dean of students, has become dean of community life. In his new position Liwosz works with student gov-ernment and other student groups and is the School’s liaison with charitable and commu-nity service organizations in the region.

Chad A. Bridges ’96, who had taught Middle School social studies at Pennington since 2005, became dean of students in July. He has also just completed his first year as head coach of varsity boys’ soccer.

Maggie Kelly became acting director of devel-opment after Matthew Goetting left for a post as vice president for strategic development at Girard College. Kelly joined the Develop-ment office in 2008 and had previously been planned giving officer.

Leadership Changes for the School

Melissa Kiser, on the faculty since 1983 and di-rector of public relations since 1997, is now di-rector of communications. The newly created Communications office handles the School’s web and print communications, as well as me-dia relations. Jaclyn Immordino ’03 joined the office as communications associate in octo-ber.

Anthony Cifelli, director of operations for al-most 17 years, retired in September. His suc-cessor, Vincent Pomparelli, assumed his new position in June, working with Cifelli during the transition. Pomparelli brings to the School over 25 years of diverse facilities, engineering, strategic sourcing, and construction manage-ment experience, eleven years of which were spent overseeing all facilities operations of Johnson & Johnson’s world headquarters.

This academic year brought some changed roles in School leadership.

ABOVE Vincent Pomparelli and Anthony Cifelli

Michael Brown ’11Kelly Boyce ’11Ben Colalillo ’11Rahul Krishnamoorthy ’11Matthew Landy ’11Allison Morano ’11Claire Reinganum ’11Jaclyn Ross ’11Eriks Svarcbergs ’11Bradley Applegate ’12Tyler Burns ’12Savanna dasgupta ’12Myung Jin Ko ’12Geena Molinaro ’12Steven Tydings ’12

Tri-Steps Inducts 15 into National Honor Society

ABOVE 2010–11 Inductees to Tri-Steps Chapter of the National Honor Society.

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Pennington news

The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter—’tis the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.

—Mark Twain

I teach writing and literature because I love words and I love kids. More than anything else, I try to help my students understand and appreciate the power and the beauty of language. I join them in studying great liter-ary works in order to help them appreciate the difference between the “almost right word and the right word.” I want them to share my rever-ence for Nick Carraway’s meditation at the end of The Great Gatsby or for Portia’s speech about mercy in The Merchant of Venice. But that said, I teach writing not in hopes of discovering the next Faulkner or Frost, but instead to empower my students by improving their ability to com-municate clearly in writing. At Pennington we believe that the ability to write clearly and well is essential to every graduate’s future success.

The Pennington Writing Center exists to complement the writing instruction offered throughout the Pennington curriculum. (I should confess here that at present the Writing Center consists of me, a desk, and five comput-ers in Room 105 of the Meckler Library. It can certainly grow in proportion to the students’ demand for its services.) I offer a resource to

students, a place where they can receive feed-back on their own work in a one-on-one con-ference. I do not correct their papers. I point out errors in punctuation, grammar, and dic-tion, and I connect the students with resources that address specific problems in their writing. I identify language that is vague and imprecise and explanations that are superficial and in need of elaboration. I try to determine what it is that they are trying to say, and I provide pointed feedback about how successfully their prose captures their thinking.

If I had to give this endeavor a name it would be “The Art of Not Texting.” At the risk of sounding like the Luddite that I probably am, I will nonetheless assert that my students’ preference for text messaging on the Internet subverts my every effort. Text messages, com-posed spontaneously and sent in haste, reduce composition to its most rudimentary level. Speed is everything! At Pennington, we teach our students that writing is a process, one that involves thoughtful feedback and careful revi-sion. If writing is at times inspired and elo-quence seems to come naturally, more often than not it is frustrating, and clarity eludes us. The “right word” just won’t come. So ev-ery Pennington teacher strives to enlighten students about the various steps of the writing process and to guide them through each step. Together we look for those “right words” that light up the horizon. •

The Pennington Writing Center

At Pennington we believe that the ability to write clearly and well is essential to every graduate's future success.

—Michael Townsend

The Pennington School’s writing Center was established last year under the direction of Teacher of English Michael Townsend. In the article that follows, Townsend explains the philosophy behind and practices of the Center, which is available to students various afternoons and evenings.

ABOVE Mike Townsend helps students in the Writing Center after school.

Congratulations to The Pennington School Parents Association on a very successful Sip N Bid fundraiser this past fall on campus. More than thirty-five hardworking volunteers, not to mention the many generous donors of auction items, made this outstanding event possible. Three hundred members of the Pennington community attended. This event raised $125,000 for The Pennington School.

Sip N Bid 2010: Dawn of the Decade


Pennington news

The tragic suicide of a freshman at Rutgers university last fall focused the attention of the national press on “cyberbullying.” Well before this incident, however, Pennington began to educate its students about the fundamental problem of bullying behavior, plus the tempt-ing anonymity and breach of privacy technol-ogy can provide.

on the one hand, it’s an age-old problem: there are some children and teenagers who make cruel or harassing comments about others. The Internet, social networking sites, cell phones, and text-messaging have greatly magnified the scope of any one incident, however. Director of Counseling Services Stephanie DeSouza says, “cyberspace has replaced the playground” as the location for ridicule or harassment.

DeSouza points out that children tend to be braver about saying something unkind in cyberspace than they would be face to face; today’s bullies are less likely to be cruel to others in person. As a result, mean-spirited comments can be made by more people and more frequently without being observed in public. on social networking sites and in text-messages, there is a bandwagon effect: various speakers can pile on negative comments. Kids are very impulsive, she says, and one wonders “whether all this technology is too much for them to handle at their age.”

Research has shown that peer intervention is the most effective way to stop any kind of bul-lying, DeSouza says. “There must be allies. We need to work with the bystanders.” This year, building on earlier programs helping Middle Schoolers learn how to speak up when they see someone being bullied, the School embarked on a program to educate students, parents, and faculty about how best, in the words of Head of Middle School Todd Paige, “to ensure that Pennington remains a safe place to be oneself.” There were presentations for Middle School parents, the entire faculty, and for Middle School students; a similar one for upper School parents is forthcoming.

Preventing Cyberbullying

The role of parents is important, DeSouza says. In addition to monitoring how their children use technology, parents need to engage in sig-nificant discussions with their children—even if it is not easy or comfortable to do so. These conversations should explore their children’s interactions with peers and seek their chil-dren’s own observations of social behavior among their classmates. Parents can ask their children, for instance, whether they ever inter-vene when they see someone being mistreated. Because technology can have a desensitiz-ing effect, parents can play an important role in restoring their children’s consciousness of other’s feelings.

The education of upper School students about this problem must be ongoing and use several different media, says DeSouza. Through open conversations and dialogue, they will learn to look at their actions from perspectives other than their own: What is your agenda when you are making that comment? What is its pur-pose? Why do you want to do that? How does it make the other person feel? All of these dis-cussions, it is hoped, will help counteract the desensitization that has been a side-effect of technological advances. In addition, students of all ages are joining in discussions about pri-vacy—their own and that of others.

“We have not been and will never be immune” to the problems created by the intersection of thoughtless cru-elty and technology, Paige says. Never-theless, he adds, the School is “a place where the vast majority of students consistently treat each other well.” By helping students under-stand the full implications of their actions in cyberspace, however, the School continues to prepare current and future generations for eth-ical behavior in the rapidly changing world.•

In a sense, "cyberspace has replaced the playground" as the location for ridicule or harassment.

—Stephanie deSouza

ABOVE Todd Paige and Stephanie DeSouza

The Internet and cell phones have added a new layer of technological sophistication to an old problem: cruel, harassing, or even merely thoughtless remarks young people make about their peers. Allies are the key to prevention.

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the “toy shop,” one they thought especially ap-propriate for their child; it was then wrapped on the spot by a team of volunteer wrappers. In addition, there was a drive among faculty and staff to contribute gifts for adults, so that the children could choose a gift for their parents, as well. The Christmas tree in the School’s lobby was festooned not with ornaments, but with warm hats, gloves, and scarves that were distributed.

This year’s event was held a week earlier than in previous years, before the school closed for Winter Break, to enable the boarding students to be as involved as the day students on the day of the party.

While it is unfortunate that there are so many homeless families in Mercer County, the School community is glad to have brightened the holiday season for as many as possible. •

The Pennington School held its annual holi-day party for clients of HomeFront of Mercer County on Sunday, December 12. There were approximately 400 guests.

The homeless and recently homeless families enjoyed a holiday meal donated by Sodexo, the School's dining service, and prepared by the dining staff, but served by Pennington students in Sparks Gym. There were music, games, and crafts for the children, as well as a visit to Santa Claus. A large body of students, faculty, staff, and parents were on hand to make the guests feel welcome and help with serving and direct-ing them to the various activity venues.

As is their custom, Pennington Peer Leaders ran a toy drive to collect gifts for parents to present their children on the holiday. There were two new features for the gift-giving. Par-ents were able to select a specific present from

Pennington news

HomeFront Holiday PartyThe annual event, now an irreplaceable holiday tradition at Pennington, took on added sparkle with an earlier date, a new venue, and thoughtful changes to the "gift shops."

1

1 Taylor Scull ’13 gets a hug.

2 Jason Dawlabani ’11 and Chandler Fraser-Pauls ’11

3 A guest joins Teniola Egbe ’13, and Ciara Conley ’13.

4 Families filled the new party venue, Sparks Memorial Gymnasium.

2 3

4

Pennington news

5

6 7

9 10 11

125 Masoma Imasogie ’13 and Kayla Bencivengo ’12.

6 Patrick Nelson ’14, Jahmir White ’13, Austin Summers ’14, and Jack Faherty ’14.

7 Hope MacKenzie ’13 and guest.

8 Santa’s Toyshop took over the small gym.

9 Coleman Biggins ’11 shares smiles.

10 Deejay Dane Kunkel ’13 was a hit.

11 Jessica Ratner ’13 and friend.

12 one of many happy groups.

8

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Pennington news

The School to Host Relay For Life

on April 29–30 The Pennington School will host this area’s first Relay For Life, the “signa-ture fundraising event” of the American Can-cer Society (ACS). The School and the ACS are joined as sponsors by Pennington Qual-ity Market and the Hopewell Valley Regional School District. Participants in the event will include residents and businesses from Hopewell Township, Hopewell Borough, and Pennington Borough.

Participants in the Relay camp out overnight and take turns walking or running around a track or on a path. They are organized in teams, and each team has a representative on the track at all times during the event. As the Relay For Life website explains, “Because cancer never sleeps, Relays are overnight events up to 24 hours in length.”

Pennington’s Relay For Life will be centered on Tom Liwosz Field, the School’s new lighted

artificial turf field. Participants will run and walk on the field and will camp in the areas surrounding it.

Dean of Community Life Tom Liwosz, who is coordinating the School’s role in the Relay, is pleased that the field named in his honor will be the site. As he puts it, “Relay For Life rep-resents the hope that those lost to cancer will never be forgotten, that those who face cancer will be supported, and that one day cancer will be eliminated.”

Relay For Life began in 1985 when a colorec-tal surgeon ran and walked around a track for twenty-four hours to raise money for the ACS. This one man’s effort has inspired events that now involve 3.5 million people in 5,000 com-munities in this country, in addition to com-munities in twenty other countries to raise funds to fight cancer. Traditions at the event recognize survivors and caregivers, as well. •

The inaugural Pennington/hopewell Relay For Life will take place on Liwosz field. The international network of Relays supports the American Cancer Society.

Silva Gallery of artFEBRuARy 11–MARCh 10:Marks and Meditation: Encaustic and Mixed Media Paintings Arlene Gale Milgram

APRIL 25–MAy 4:Exhibit of the 2011 Student Fashion Show Designs: Three-Dimensional Fashions with Accompanying Drawings and Designs.Artists’ reception on Wednesday, April 27, 4–6 p.m.

MAy 9–JuNE 9:Juried Exhibition of Graduating Students and Alumni ExhibitionStudent reception on Wednesday, May 11, 4–6 p.m.Alumni Weekend Wine and Cheese Reception on Friday, May 20, 4–6 p.m.

MAy 5–JuNE 3:Annual Exhibition of Student ArtArtists’ reception on Wednesday, June 1, 4–6 p.m.

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Pennington news● ● ● ● ● ● ●

Conserving Energy Through the Green Cup Challenge

2011 marks Pennington’s third year in compet-ing in The Green Cup Challenge™, a student-driven energy conservation competition. The GCC is designed to build awareness about climate change and resource conservation, while encouraging schools to work together to reduce energy consumption.

The first Green Cup Challenge was launched as an interschool energy challenge in 2006 at Phillips Exeter Academy, Northfield Mount Hermon, and the Lawrenceville School. In 2007, the Green Cup Challenge included fif-teen boarding schools and joined with the Green Schools Alliance to formally become a GSA program.

Each week from January 21 to February 18 Pennington students measured and recorded the School’s weekly energy consumption (in kilowatts). The School’s consumption over that four-week period was then compared to Pennington’s energy consumption over the last three years. In Pennington’s first year in the GCC, the School earned second place in the Northeast boarding school division.

The entire Pennington community was en-couraged to participate in the Green Cup

Challenge. Getting involved in conserving was as easy as remembering to turn lights off when leaving a room and unplugging electronics that were not currently in use.

This year’s main event was a Day in the Dark/Dress Down Day on Friday, January 28. Teach-ers were encouraged to use natural light to illu-minate their classrooms or to choose activities that made use of less energy, such as using a Smart™ Board in a darkened classroom or tak-ing the class to the Silva Gallery, taking advan-tage of its plentiful natural light. In addition, students, faculty, and staff who wore green and paid five dollars were permitted to “dress down” for the day; proceeds were used to pur-chase outdoor recycling bins for the campus.

The Green Cup Challengers, as the student-faculty committee dubbed themselves, had a cheerful, upbeat approach. Their intention was not merely to do well in the GCC, however; they hope to foster habits that will make Pen-nington “greener.” Their motto, posted near many a light switch and computer, is “Make every day Earth Day!” •

Pennington joins the competitive conservation effort for the third year and hopes to form good energy-wise habits in the process.

TOP Signs encouraged members of the Pennington community to be mindful of the environment.

ABOVE Art made from recycled trash decorated the campus in aneffort to inspire clean thinking.


Pennington news

A graduate of Rider university, Lawlor has had a varied career with investment banking firms and real estate investment companies, most recently as a consultant to Cantor Fitzgerald in New York and Investment Program Asso-ciation in Washington. She previously held positions as assistant vice president of J. Henry Schroder Bank & Trust Company (now IBJ Schroder); senior vice president of Adams, Cohen Securities; vice president of Ryan Beck & Co.; and proxy solicitation manager with Krupp Companies. In addition to volunteering for The Pennington School Parents Associa-tion, she has been an active volunteer fundrais-er for Catholic Charities of Bucks County, the American Red Cross, and the Bucks County Homeless Shelter. She and her husband, Rick, have three sons, Grant ’13 and twins Luke ’15 and Pierce ’15.

Pennington Board of Trustees Elects Three New Members

Sanders has spent his career with Chubb, be-ginning as a senior underwriter for Chubb & Son’s Personal Insurance Division. He has held positions as regional field technology manager and regional electronic commerce manager before rising to assistant vice president, e-busi-ness strategy, and then assistant vice president, corporate development. He moved to Chubb Custom Market in 2002, becoming vice presi-dent, strategic marketing; he assumed his cur-rent position in 2004. In that post he has built a dedicated business unit for the management of a $500 million portfolio of program busi-ness in commercial, personal, and professional lines. Sanders earned his bachelor’s degree at the university of Rochester. He and his wife, Jessica Frank Sanders ’85, have two sons.

Three new members have been elected to the Pennington Board of Trustees: Annette Lawlor, an investment banking professional; Franklin d. Sanders, Jr. ’84, vice president and manager of program business for Chubb Custom Market; and Timothy C. Vile, senior portfolio manager and head of global credit for Aberdeen Asset Management.

A Chartered Financial Analyst, Vile was a port-folio manager from 1986 to 1991 for Equitable Capital Management in New York, a subsid-iary of The Equitable Life Assurance Compa-ny, where he was responsible for investing the assets of the life company, pension products, and mutual fund family. In 1991 he joined the Philadelphia office of the united Kingdom–based Aberdeen Asset Management. He has been instrumental in building and managing its united States fixed income business. Dur-ing three years in Aberdeen’s London office he was named head of global credit, and he con-tinues to work with investment teams in Lon-don, Singapore, and Sydney, as well as Phila-delphia. Vile is a graduate of Susquehanna university. He and his wife, Wendy, have four sons: Andrew ’07, Dustin ’09, Evan ’12, and Troy ’15.•

It was through Tucci’s efforts that Mutombo came to The Pennington School last spring as the Stephen Crane Lecturer. Tucci has had a longstanding commitment to the founda-tion since he first saw it profiled on 60 Min-utes a decade ago. Tucci was deeply moved by the foundation’s efforts at that time to build a modern hospital for the Congolese people and asked guests at his 40th birthday party in 2001 to donate to the foundation money they might otherwise spend on a present. He raised more than $10,000 in funds—money that went to-ward what would ultimately open in 2007 as the Biamba Marie Mutombo Hospital and Research Centre in Mutombo’s hometown of Kinshasa. Tucci, a partner in the law firm of Fox Rothschild LLP, also began providing free

Dikembe Mutombo Foundation Elects Tucci ’79 to Board

legal advice to the foundation in its efforts to get the construction of that medical facility off the ground.

Tucci and Mutombo are both alumni of Georgetown university, where Tucci also earned his law degree. Tucci is co-chair of Fox Rothschild’s International Practice Group and a member of the firm’s Executive Com-mittee. In 2005, the President of the Repub-lic of France, Jacques Chirac, bestowed upon Tucci the title of Chevalier (Knight) of the French Legion of Honor. The French Legion of Honor, which was established by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802, recognizes eminent service to the Republic of France and is the country's most prestigious award. •

Peter J. Tucci ’79, chair of the Board of Trustees, was recently elected to the board of directors of the dikembe Mutombo Foundation, Inc. The founda-tion was created by former Philadelphia 76ers player dikembe Mutombo in 1997 to improve health, education, and quality of life for the people of the democratic Republic of the Congo.

Peter J. Tucci ’79


Pennington News

There are quite a few recent changes on the School campus. A splendid Yamaha grand pia-no, a gift from the Podsiadlo family, now graces the Campus Center near the Silva Gallery. It provided music for the opening reception for Hilary Hutchison: String Theory, the January exhibit in the gallery.

Sparks Memorial Gymnasium has new bleachers—in Pennington red! The motorized bleachers have safety aisles and self-storing end rails. In addition, the gym now has a new sound system, projector, and a 20-foot screen, courtesy of the Parents Association. Boarders were treated to a presentation of Avatar last month.

The Michael T. Martin Aquatic Center had a summertime spruce-up, as the pool was drained and repainted. The Center’s walls, deck, and bleachers were repainted, as well, and slip-resistant coating was applied to the steps. A new record board for the boys’ and girls’ teams, provided by an anonymous donor, was installed.

Lights were installed on Liwosz Field. The west roof of old Main and Meckler Library’s reading room roof were replaced, as were steam lines to Stainton Hall. All over the campus there were expansions and upgrades to enhance the com-fort, safety, and educational experience of both boarding and day students. •

Campus Facilities Get an upgrade

TOP The new bleachers provide a colorful focus for Pennington fans.

ABOVE Fresh paint brightens the Michael T. Martin Aquatic Center.

LEFT A Yamaha grand piano now graces the Campus Center near the Silva Gallery.

"Every inch of this campus is your learning environment," head of School Townsend told students in September. Recent improvements to facilities underscore that commitment.

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2010

Pennington news

Homecoming


Pennington News

The dedication of Tom Liwosz Field

During halftime of the Homecoming football game, there was a brief ceremony to dedicate the turf field to Tom Liwosz. The Feldman-Piltch family, pictured with the Liwosz Family, were among the generous donors that made this possible.

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homecoming 2010 was a blast!

The weather was perfect—a sunny, breezy fall day—and we had a record-breaking crowd on campus. From the many atheletic contests to Homecoming Row, it was possible for alumni, students, parents, and siblings to find many ways to have a great day.

MAy 20–21, 2011ALuMNI wEEKENd

Clear your schedules, save the date, mark the calendar!Reunite with friends and make new connections, reacquaint yourself with campus,

see what’s new and what’s still the same, and show your Red Raider spirit!There’s something for everyone at Alumni Weekend 2011!

For more information contact david donahue at [email protected], (609) 737–6141, or Julia Meneghin at [email protected], (609) 737–6144 www.pennington.org/alumni/reunions

Penningtonr e u n i o n s

School Store Open • Alumni weekend Lounge • Old Guard Luncheon • Back to the Classroom • Science Today • Reception for all Alumni • Reunion dinner for Major Classes • Fifth Reunion (Class of 2006) • young Alumni Celebration • Red Raider Fun Run • Red Raider Continental Breakfast • Supervised Children’s Activities • Art Exhibit • Archival Exhibit • Athletic hall of Fame Induction • Campus Tours • State of the School Address • Lecture by Emil Bretzger, Faculty Emeritus • Soccer Clinic for Alumni Children • Picnic Luncheon • Alumni vs. Varsity Baseball • Alumni vs. Varsity Softball • Alumni vs. Varsity Lacrosse • Affinity Group Reunions • Tennis Courts Open • Varsity Swim Team Record-Changing Ceremony • Family Swim

Tower Award Ceremony • All-Alumni Reunion Celebration

Pennington Alumni from the following classes will be celebrating milestone reunions1946, 1951, 1956, 1961, 1966, 1971, 1976, 1981, 1986, 1991, 1996, 2001, 2006

The Pennington School Hall of Fame will be inducting:1945 Football Team, 1985 Football Team, 1985 Girls’ Soccer Team

Charles Medlar ’36, Coach Lawrence Pitt, Coach Bernie Gurick


Red Raiders Sports● ● ● ● ● ● ●

Pennington Football’s trip to Jenkintown High School on September 11 turned out to be a spe-cial one for Red Raiders Coach Jerry Eure ’75. Not only did Pennington beat Jenkintown by a score of 40–14, but the win also gave Coach “Chief ” Eure his 100th career victory.

At the conclusion of his eighteenth season as head coach, Eure’s overall career record now stands at 106–65. His teams won back-to-back NJISAA State Championships in 1992, 1993, and 1994, and he has been named “Coach of the Year” on no fewer than eight occasions.

Coach Eure’s first team in 1992 went 9–0 on their way to a state championship.

“I’ve been fortunate and blessed to have play-ers who love the game, whether they have played the game prior to attending Pennington or not, and who understand that working hard is the key to success on the field and in life,” Eure said. “Along with the players, I have been blessed to work with a very special group of as-sistant coaches and our athletic trainer, Caitlin [Nielsen] McElvaine, who have helped us tre-mendously to achieve our goals.”

rEd rAIdErs sPOrts

Hail to the ChiefPennington's beloved football coach, Jerry Eure ’75, celebrates his century milestone with characteristic humility.

ABOVE Head of School Penny Townsend was on hand to congratulate Coach Eure on his 100th career win on September 11, 2010. At Eure's left was Assistant Coach Bob McHale and seniors Anthony Gaffney (partially hidden), Lucas McEliece, Erik Kácsor, and Jason Dawlabani.

Blair Thompson, longtime assistant coach and defensive coordinator, added, “Chief has been as much a part of the Pennington football tradi-tion as anyone. He made his mark on the field as one of the greatest running backs in School history. It is fitting that he has also been able to make his mark as a coach, joining fellow Pen-nington coaches such as Harold Poore, John Biddiscombe ’63, Bill Long, Bill Thompson ’84, and Frank Francisco. The great thing about him is that he knows that it is always about the kids first, that they are the source of any suc-cess he has been able to achieve.” •


Red Raiders Sports

Fall SportSwrap-up

CheerleadingThe Pennington cheerleaders had an exciting fall season. This year’s team was one of the largest squads in recent memory. The team created and put in new cheers and stunts and made their own routine for this year’s Pep Ral-ly. They also organized and emceed the Home-coming Pep Rally and generally impressed the crowds at home football games.

Cross CountryRight from the beginning of the season, there was a trail of challenges for both the boys’ and the girls’ cross country teams. By facing those challenges the teams discovered their poten-tial. Highlights for the boys’ and girls’ teams included personal bests for every runner and outstanding efforts at the one of the toughest u.S. cross country courses in Holmdel, NJ, home of the famed hill and finish line known as “The Bowl.”

Field HockeyThe 2010 Pennington field hockey season began with a record number of girls attend-ing preseason camp. The team’s final record of five wins and eight losses hardly tells the full story of an amazing season. The team took an exciting overnight trip to watch the ACC/Big Ten Challenge Cup, hosted by the university of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. In october, the team participated in the Run for the Cure and had a “Play for the Pink” game under the lights against the Solebury School, a 3–0 win! The team finished the season with a fantastic 3–1 win over the Ranney School. Several Red Raiders received postseason recognition, in-cluding Lexi Sorrentino and Jessica Gravalis, named to the NJISAA Prep B Coaches First Team, and Kate Cuozzo, named to the Times Second Team. The Central Jersey Coaches As-sociation selected Kate Cuozzo, Lexi Sorren-tino, Geena Molinaro, and Jessica Gravalis to their Honorable Mention Team.

FootballThe 2010 football team enjoyed one of the most memorable seasons in many years. The team finished at 7–2 and played a highly chal-lenging schedule that included Peddie, Law-renceville, and North Jersey power Lenape Valley High School. The 2010 varsity team captured its second consecutive Independence League title and racked up impressive stats, in-cluding 269 points on offense. In addition, the team was inspired early in the season by Coach Jerry Eure’s 100th win (see related story on page 21).


Red Raiders Sports

Boys’ SoccerLed by an outstanding group of nine seniors, the varsity boys’ soccer program had another outstanding season. With an overall record of 14–6 and a second consecutive appearance in the Prep A State Championship, this team has much to be proud of. The team posted notable wins against Hopewell Valley, PDS, Lawrenceville, Peddie, and Hun. Pennington scored 52 goals and registered 8 shutouts dur-ing its remarkable run this season. The season was capped off with five players’ receiving All-Prep recognition.

Girls’ SoccerThe varsity girls’ soccer team entered this sea-son with some big shoes to fill: six starting seniors had graduated the year before, and many of the returning girls would be expected to keep up the quality and level of play. In the end, Pennington girls’ soccer produced an-other winning season with a 16–1–2 record, their eighth consecutive NJISAA Prep A state championship, a fourth consecutive Mercer County Tournament championship, and a fi-nal year NSCAA/Adidas national ranking of #15! Senior Shannon Roche was named Prep Player of the Year in both The Times and Star Ledger and was joined on the various All-Prep teams by no fewer than eleven teammates. Girls’ Tennis

The varsity girls’ tennis team had a memorable season right from the start, as the team traveled to the uS open Tennis Tournament in Flush-ing, NY, during their preseason. The team finished the season impressively at 10–1 and beat Hun for the first time in program history. The first doubles team of senior captain Emily Pressman and junior Natalie Levine went un-defeated and were selected First Team All-Prep in The Times of Trenton. The team made The Times girls’ tennis “top ten” in each flight.

Water PoloPennington water polo had another successful season of firsts. In addition to playing an ex-citing season which included 28 matches, the program entered both varsity and junior var-sity teams at the Garden State Games; played varsity and junior varsity matches through-out the season; and hosted its first girls-only match. Senior captain Wes Lincoln scored his 100th career goal midway through the season. The water polo program bids farewell this year to its founding members, seniors Laura Pod-siadlo, Jimmy Hrabchak, and Val Pearl.

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Red Raiders Sports

Coach Gurick Gets His 300th VictoryPennington Varsity Boys’ Basketball Coach Bernie Gurick earned his 300th career coach-ing victory in a 64–50 win over Montgomery High School on Tuesday, January 4, in Mont-gomery.

Currently in his twenty-second season, Coach Gurick has been named Coach of the Year on six occasions and has guided the Red Raid-ers to four NJISAA Prep B state champion-ships and to two Mercer County Tournament championships. The Red Raiders have also won championships in holiday tournaments and participated in the prestigious Prime Time Shootout under Coach Gurick’s direction.

In 2009 and 2010, Coach Gurick’s teams fin-ished with a combined record of 44–8 and cap-tured impressive back-to-back Mercer County Tournament titles. The 23–2 team of 2010 will always stand at the top of the list of other sto-ried Pennington basketball teams. That team won Prep B and MCT championships, and it was also crowned champion of the Solebury Invitational Tournament and the John Mo-linelli Holiday Classic, hosted at Hopewell Valley High School.

Following his 300th victory Coach Gurick said, “I would like to thank my current players and all former players; the 300 victories be-long to them. I am just thankful to have been along for the wonderful ride. I would also like to thank my family and mentors like Dean Wa-ters, as well as The Pennington School for giv-ing me the opportunity 22 seasons ago. To win 300 games at Pennington is a special moment I will always remember.”

When asked what his thoughts were as Coach Gurick was closing in on his 300th victory, Athletic Director Jerry Eure ’75 said, “I would like to personally congratulate Bernie on an amazing accomplishment. To reach such a milestone as 300 victories takes impressive commitment to the program and, secondly, re-quires a deep passion and love for coaching. If you’ve ever watched any of Bernie’s teams play, they always play great defense and with a lot of enthusiasm. I’ve seen teams of Bernie’s play well beyond their abilities. This is a testament to his style of coaching; his passion and love for the game are always displayed on the court. Congratulations, and well deserved.” •

ABOVE Coach Bernie Gurick is flanked by seniors Chandler Fraser-Pauls and Anthony Gaffney.

Eight members of the Class of 2011 have com-mitted to play sports at NCAA Division I col-leges and universities. They are (pictured, from left): oliver Murphy—university of Rich-mond, soccer; Shannon Roche—university of Miami, soccer; Nathan Bruccoleri—Rutgers, soccer; Kelly Boyce—Lafayette College, soc-cer; Chandler Fraser-Pauls—Lafayette Col-lege, soccer; Anthony Gaffney—College of the Holy Cross, football; Carly Gurick—uni-versity of Pennsylvania, swimming; and Ryan Donovan—Fairfield university, baseball.

When introducing the students, Director of Athletics Jerry Eure ’75 said, “It’s truly remark-able for a school Pennington’s size to produce so many Division I athletes each year. I attri-bute it to our having great coaches, great ath-letes who are also great students, and great parents.” •

Eight Seniors Commit to Division I Programs


Pennington Features● ● ● ● ● ● ●

PENNINGtON FEAtUrEs


Pennington Features

Certainly one lesson many people have learned from the events leading to the current economic recession is that it is important to have not only a general comprehension of eco-nomics but also a firm grasp of its effects on one’s own financial situation. It is that need to apply sound economic principles to individual finances—and to have a clear understanding of what one is doing—that underlies Penning-ton’s Senior Seminar in Financial Planning.

Taught by faculty member Peter Chase, who also teaches economics and German, the se-mester-long elective seminar plunges seniors into the “real” world of income, expenses, tax-es, and investments—only this time they have a chance to learn from their mistakes with no real harm done.

Students in the seminar read articles to which Chase directs them, as well as those they find in independent research for their individual projects. In addition, they read David Chilton’s book The Wealthy Barber: Everyone’s Common-sense Guide to Becoming Financially Independent. In this fictional account, a wise and financially secure barber posits the ten-percent solution: put aside one-tenth of one’s income and invest it sensibly.

Perhaps underscoring the importance of be-ginning early with financial and retirement planning, Chase starts the students early with investments. Each student does research on po-tential investment opportunities, is instructed on the importance of diversifying (e.g., among technical, retail, and petroleum), and then cre-ates his or her own “mutual fund” of five invest-ments. He or she then “invests” an imaginary $10,000 evenly—$2,000 each—in the five he or she has chosen. The student creates an ac-count page in Yahoo Finance and keeps track of the total divided by the number of shares. The students compare their results on a weekly basis, using an “industry average” based on the class’s choices as a whole. When their portfo-lios have performed either better or worse than the average, they must try to analyze why.

The class does not deal merely with stocks and bonds, however. Every student must set up a household budget based upon realistic expens-es and, under Chase’s direction, constructs a net worth statement. He points out that bal-ancing a personal budget might require getting an additional part-time job—or cutting ex-penditures. The students have to pay bills, and Chase makes sure that they know how to write a check properly, to use a check register, and to

In the Senior Seminar in Financial Planning, Peter Chase teaches students the practical—and personal—applications of economics.

ABOVE Peter Chase takes seniors through a number of real-life situations.

$Planning for the Future:One’s Own...


balance a checkbook. The students look at the various options available for life insurance and health insurance.

Chase invited Tina orben, vice president and commercial loan officer with Hopewell Valley Community Bank (HVC Bank), to speak to the class from a banker’s perspective. orben, whose son, Jake ’11, is in the class, quizzed the group on problems with check-clearing; the importance of the personal identification number (PIN); and cash machine etiquette. She posed questions that helped students un-derstand why purchasing with a debit card may be preferable to buying with a credit card; how electronic bill-paying may prevent identity theft; and why online banking is so attractive. She also presented stark examples of the cost of financing a major purchase, such as a car, and showed how to determine whether a cash-back offer trumps a lower interest rate.

Chase points out that real estate will often be one of the “real world” expenses these students encounter first, because college may require them to choose whether to live at home, in a dormitory, or in an off-campus apartment. He has them do research on a sample college town to see how much it costs to rent an apartment, for instance, versus to live in a dormitory. Look-ing ahead to a point farther in their future, he has them examine renting versus buying a house. He also has them compare the buying power of a certain salary in various places.

The seniors also have to fill out income tax forms, beginning with the EZ form and mov-ing through the basic 1040 to the full 1040 with schedules attached. This project has a big catch: every tax return is stamped with big let-

ters: AuDITED. Just like any citizen in that unenviable situation, the student must prove the accuracy of his or her tax return.

In addition to learning a great deal about the stock market and taxes, Meredith LaBerge '11 says, "I have learned about saving for retirement. I never would have thought I should start saving for it right after college if I had not taken this class. . . . It teaches you about the real world and what will happen after college."

Quizzes and projects like the income tax return and audit are means of assessment throughout the term, but the semester-long project on in-vestments serves as a final project. The final project students prepare, Chase says, is some-what like a quarterly investment report, com-plete with graphs and analysis.

At the end of the semester Chase hopes that students will be better equipped to handle their own finances—and perhaps savvy enough to recognize that some “investment opportuni-ties” are indeed too good to be true. •

TOP "Do the math"–Chase points to relevant calculations.

CENTER Tina orben P’11 quizzed students on the pitfalls of check-writing.

BOTTOM Seniors in the financial planning seminar enjoy a lighter moment.


I have learned about saving for retirement. I never would have thought I should start saving for it right after college if I had not taken this class. . . . It teaches you about the real world and what will happen after college.

—Meredith LaBerge '11


Pennington Features

“Very few high schools across the country pro-vide students the opportunity to do original scientific research,” says biology teacher Dr. David Hauser. under his direction, however, Pennington is going to become an exception to that rule.

The key? Viruses. Hauser explains that of the millions of viruses that exist on earth, “most are essentially unknown to science.” Most of those that have been examined are those af-fecting humans, animals, or plants (especially crops), but there are many, many more about which scientists know nothing. With the tools of science and genetic research now available, viruses present an astonishingly rich field of exploration.

Hauser has established a relationship, begin-ning in the 2011–12 academic year, with the university of Pittsburgh’s Phage Hunters In-tegrating Research and Education (PHIRE) program. (“Phage” is a short form of “bacterio-phage,” a virus that infects a bacterium; phages are among the most common organisms on earth.) According to university of Pittsburgh faculty, the PHIRE program was “founded on the concept that bacteriophage discovery and comparative genomics allow students at mul-tiple levels of development to engage in true scientific inquiry.”

As Hauser explains it more simply, virus re-search is a logical choice for high school stu-dents: viruses are small and found everywhere, and the odds of discovering a new one are ex-tremely high. Students will collect soil samples from various sites. using established proto-cols, each student will isolate a virus; there is a 99-percent chance, he says, that each one found

will be unknown to science. The students will then use molecular biology techniques to pu-rify the viruses and, with PHIRE’s assistance, will send them out for DNA sequencing, done by elaborate machines.

Pennington’s “phage hunters,” who will be en-rolled in a yearlong class entitled Advanced Topics in Biology, will then have to use es-tablished software (“and a lot of sweat,” adds Hauser) to analyze “their” virus: to figure out how it works. The end product each student will produce is a scientific poster—a large, professional-quality, annotated presentation of the analysis and the process used—as is pre-pared for scientific meetings.

Advanced Topics in Biology will introduce students to a different kind of learning. “The whole course is really diving into one project,” Hauser says. The “learning is project-driven”; put in practical terms, “What do I need to learn to accomplish the goal?” He explains that they must develop the ability to ask meaningful questions and then figure out how to answer them, using the scientific process.

Students will have to learn the protocols of field work, and laboratory techniques in virol-ogy and molecular biology. They will have to read primary scientific literature and decipher what they do not understand; in the process they will have to gain proficiency in technical writing, so that they can write the appropriate extensive text for their final posters. They will need to attend relevant lectures at area univer-sities and on occasion to call or email experts at various institutions when they need to con-sult them about an area of difficulty.

Biology teacher david hauser unveils plans for a new course that will put Pennington students in the thick of original scientific research.

ABOVE Image of the "T4 Virus," courtesy of Purdue Research Park

Advanced Topics in Biology:Phage Hunters


The students, who will probably number around eight, will also learn to work as a team. They will have to brainstorm together about problems they encounter, and Hauser says that they will also learn that “real science” involves “things that don’t work,” and that the scientific process can bring “frustration and blind alleys.” He adds, “The only way to learn the process is to use it. It’s like learning to ride a bike; you fall off and get back on—and you get some skinned knees.” It is “the process of learning to think.”

The end result in the classroom will be “au-thentic assessment” of the project and the presentation. “In science classes, we tend to be test-driven,” Hauser says, “but in the outside world, no matter what the field—science, busi-ness, the arts—you don’t do tests and quizzes. You do projects and presentations.”

The results of the students’ research—because it is original scientific research—may well ex-tend beyond the classroom, however. The DNA sequences of viruses they discover, which they may have the opportunity to name, will be recorded with GenBank, the NIH repository of all publicly available gene sequences. And their posters, if they are done well, might be ac-cepted for presentation at a scientific meeting, a rare and wonderful achievement for a high school student.

This is a “golden opportunity,” says Hauser. “The probability of discovery is huge.” •

ABOVE Hauser with one of his current classes, Honors Biology.

Pennington Features

Bacteriophage discovery and comparative genomics allow students at multiple levels of development to engage in true scientific inquiry.

—university of Pittsburgh, PhIRE Program

● ● ● ● ● ● ●


Alan Meckler ’63 always has his eye on the future—ironic, perhaps, for a man who holds a doctorate in American history. Nevertheless, in his forty years in the publishing business, he has been fascinated not merely by content but also by the specific delivery of information. How do people most effectively acquire the information they need and want?

In a field that is noted for lightning-fast changes in recent decades, Meckler, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of WebMediaBrands, has earned a reputation for foresight and imagination. He began his career in the 1970s in research publishing, primarily serving libraries with publications provided on microfilm. In 1982, he applied his academic training to his current interest, writing a book, Micropublishing: A History of Scholarly Micro-publishing in America 1938–1980.

It was also in the 1980s that Meckler realized there was “enormous potential for computers and endless possibilities for applications.” By the mid-1980s commercial CD-RoMs were available, and Meckler had anticipated librar-ians’ needs for storage and information access.

By the late 1980s Meckler had his eye on the Internet and its capabilities, and it is his vision in that realm that is perhaps his greatest contri-bution to the field. He is considered by many to be an early predictor of the Internet’s suc-cess and is praised for continuing to recognize

Alan Meckler ’63

a@C o m m u n i C a t i o n s21st CENTURY

CEO OF WebMediaBrands ALAN MECKLER '63 ON THE FUTURE OF AN INDUSTRY

Pennington Features


coming trends in communication, especially the potential power of the Internet.

Meckler considers the advent of the Internet to be a “Black Swan Event,” using a term coined by Nassim Taleb. These are highly unusual, ex-tremely significant events—Meckler says only four or five occur in a century—that defy or-dinary prognostication, yet in retrospect seem predictable. Meckler sees only positives in the changes in communication, however. “People can learn more, in different ways, and more ef-fectively.”

For this future-oriented communicator, un-derstanding his own history has helped him identify strategies that have been successful. only within the last ten years did Meckler discover that he is dyslexic. Little was known about learning differences during his Penning-ton years, and neither he nor his teachers were aware of this difficulty. Today he believes that “continuing advances in communication can help eradicate some learning issues.” School will continue to be important, but “there are many new ways to train the mind.” He points out that even his four-year-old grandchild can easily handle communication devices.

For all of his fascination with technological advances, Meckler never discounts the impor-tance of human interactions. He realizes now that he intuitively trained himself to compen-sate for his dyslexia in his professional life. “I

reached out to sharp, talented employees who can fill in the blanks, good communicators who are detail-oriented.” He believes strongly in delegating authority and takes a “bottom-up” approach, encouraging employees at all levels to come to him with ideas.

What does he see as the future of communi-cations? Today there are still thousands of magazines, but the more specialized trade publications will not survive. In that arena, “I don’t think print has much of a future, except for some very popular magazines.” He says that “print will always be around, but it will be primarily consumer printing. People will still want to read novels.” The media—cable television and other sources—will merge so that “pretty soon consumers won’t think about how they are getting information; it will be transparent.” He expects that daily newspapers will die out in the next twenty years and will be printed just once a week.

These changes represent a “natural evolution,” he says, and his historian side shows as he ex-plains. “Before the invention of the printing press, there were very few books. Now, there is the Kindle.” When Meckler was a Penning-ton student, there were eight or nine New York newspapers; now there are three, he points out, and only one is profitable.

How can the average person prepare for the new age of communications? The only way

Pretty soon consumers won't think about how they are getting information; it will be transparent.

—Alan Meckler '63

to be prepared, Meckler says, is “(at the very least) to own a computer. ‘Smart phones’ are the future,” he adds, “and right now they are only in their first stage of development. Essen-tially, they are the computers of tomorrow.” He explains the inevitability of the Internet’s im-pact this way: “There is no way to stop the flow of information to the public.”

Alan Meckler will be on hand, however, to identify the most effective ways to direct that flow—and he will always be looking ahead.•


32 | Pennington Magazine &Latin

AmericaPennington

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32 | The Pennington Magazine

School The

www.pennington.org | 33& PhOTOGRAPhS Archival photographs courtesy of Francisco Villegas ’60.

Villegas came to Pennington from Cali, Co-lombia, at age 12 and studied at the School for six years. “My father was well aware of the importance of the English language for the new generation,” he says. The elder Villegas originally planned to send his son to an English military academy in Jamaica, but a polio epidemic on that island caused him to look elsewhere. It was through Donald Chapman ’37, who had married the daughter of a Villegas family friend, that the connection to Pennington was made.

“I arrived at school on october 12, 1954,” Vil-legas recalls. “At that time I was the youngest and smallest member of the School. . . . The 1960 Class Will says, ‘Villegas finally leaves Pennington.’” He knew very little English upon arrival, he says, and remembers lower school teacher Marian Williams’s working intensively with him. Her work and his youth helped him make rapid progress. “By December of 1954 I was speaking with everyone.”

He recalls kindness from fellow students. “During a long week-end in 1955, Patton Gilmour ’55, who was a PG [post graduate student], invited me to his home in Pennsylvania. He had a younger brother about my age, and we played the whole weekend. The gesture was of importance to me because it permitted me to have a family feel-ing, being so far away from home. I have been grateful to him ever since.”

Classmates William Fox, Marc Policar, and Ivan Pina were close friends, he recalls. of the latter two he says, “Perhaps being foreigners

and speaking the same language made us clos-er, but we had a wonderful relationship.” Poli-car had arrived later, in 1957, from Cuba. He had learned of Pennington through a service in Cuba and from the family of a classmate, José Crespo. Like Villegas, Policar knew “a few words in English” when he got to Penning-ton—and he was older. “I had to work very hard,” he says. “Just dive in and do it. Baptism by fire.”

These international students dealt with the difficulties most boarding students face: learn-ing to manage their time and forming good personal and study habits. In the 1950s being at school so far from home had implications that today’s international students would not recognize, however. Policar’s contacts with his

“I arrived at school on October 12, 1954. At the time I was the youngest and smallest member of the School. By december 1954 I was speaking with everyone.”

—Francisco Villegas '60

Over the many years that The Pennington School has welcomed students from all over the world, the countries represented have varied from de-cade to decade. when Francisco Villegas ’60 and Marc Policar ’60 returned for their Fiftieth Reunion last spring, their reminiscences shed light on a different era. Pennington Magazine followed up with them recently to get a glimpse of a time when students from Latin America were a significant contingent of Pennington’s international population.


34 | Pennington Magazine &34 | The Pennington Magazine

LEFT Harry Guyer ’53, Bill Fox ’60, and Francisco Villegas ’60.

RIGhT Marc Policar ’60, Susan Poli-car, Ivan Pina ’60, Francisco Villegas ’60, Martha Villegas, Bill Fox ’60, former Dean Paul Hausmann, and Head of School Penny Townsend.

parents were “typically by mail. (Remember mail?).” Villegas says, “I talked on the phone with my parents twice during that first year at school. Making a phone call to Colombia was a task that needed several days. It is hard to understand nowadays how things were at that time.”

Policar and Villegas were far from alone as in-ternational students, however. Together they remember fellow students from Puerto Rico, Aruba, Venezuela, Greece, Dominican Repub-lic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Saudi Arabia, and their own Cuba and Colombia.

Certain faculty members were particularly im-portant to these men. For the last half-century Policar has kept in touch with Paul Hausmann, “a great teacher” and one who “related well to the students.” Hausmann and his wife visited Policar recently. Coach Harold Poore left a lasting impression on Villegas, who managed the basketball team. “He was a man full of

kindness and knowledge with no egoism. The many hours we spent in preparing the basket-ball team and in the automobile traveling to the away games were lessons full of wisdom.”Villegas also remembers especially Har-old Cragin, his hall master. Cragin permit-ted Villegas, then the hall proctor, the use of his refrigerator and stove, making possible late-night preparation of grilled cheese sand-wiches. “When I arrived in Pennington I had never eaten a grilled cheese sandwich, . . . so

this was quite a privilege.” Cragin also allowed students occasional television privileges in his apartment, such as for the Ingemar Johansson–Floyd Patterson championship heavyweight boxing match.

The two men recall many activities: sports, of course, but also dances arranged with girls’ schools for the all-male School. on some week-ends they would go to Trenton to the movies or to buy clothes or records; there were also cultural trips to New York or Philadelphia. Vil-legas recalls that Headmaster Charles Smyth attended opera performances in New York and would invite students, two at a time, to join him. Villegas went a couple of times, he says—he remembers seeing Rigoletto—but he admits that the students sometimes had an ulterior motive: New York City’s lower drinking age. “Being alone in New York we took advantage of this situation and had the opportunity to have a couple of beers and then dinner. We had to give a lot of arguments to convince the bar-

tender that we were 18. After dinner we would buy a pack of chewing gum so that nobody could smell the alcohol, and we chewed gum during the opera.”

After graduation, unexpected circumstances influenced the course of each man’s life. Fidel Castro had come to power in 1959, but the political situation in Cuba “turned worse” just before graduation, Policar says. His family thought it best that he join his maternal uncle’s family in Seattle for a few months, expecting that he would then be able to return to Cuba. When doing so proved unlikely, he enrolled at Western Washington university in Belling-

“[My education] has served me well as an individual. It drove home the importance of achievement.”

—Marc Policar '60

www.pennington.org | 35&ham; he went on to earn his degree from the university of Washington at Seattle. Policar’s career has included positions with Boeing and united Fruit Company; for the last 25 years he has specialized in commercial real estate in development, leasing, and property manage-ment. He and his wife, Susan, have been mar-ried for forty-three years and have three sons and two granddaughters.

Villegas spent a postgraduate year at Chauncy Hall School in Massa-chusetts and then enrolled at Iowa State university in September 1961, studying industrial administration. His study was inter-rupted by the Cuban Missile Crisis in october 1962, when his father believed the threat of war necessitated his return to Colombia. After taking courses at the university in Cali, he re-turned in March 1963 to ISu to complete his third semester. In June of that year, however his father suffered a sudden and fatal heart attack. At age 21, as the eldest of the six children, the youngest of whom was only five, Villegas had to learn, with the help of his father’s friends, how to run the large family business, oriente S.A., in Cali and Palmira, Colombia. He was its president for forty-five years, until his retire-ment in 2008. The company, which will celebrate its centennial next year, has diversified into agriculture, main-ly sugar cane; agricultural services; real estate development; and frozen tropical fruits. Villegas and his wife, Martha, were married in 1966 and have two grown children and three grandchildren.Both men have fond memories of Pennington and consider the School’s

influence on them to be significant. “I loved springtime at the School,” Policar says. “I had a terrific experience and got a great education in the process.” Villegas treasures the friends he made and credits his years at Pennington for making him “a man at a young age. I was the only person responsible for me. Being alone, I had to solve all the problems by myself, so that gave me a great sense of independence and also made me be more responsible, for there was no

one to blame but me.” Policar echoes that idea as he says that his Pennington education “has served me well as an individual. It drove home the importance of achievement.” •

“I had a terrific experience and got a great education in the process.”

—Marc Policar '60

LEFT Members of the Class of 1960 and their wives enjoy the Student Center during Alumni Weekend.

RIGhT Austin Jarboe ’10 and Marc Policar ’60.

One YearNew World

in a


American Secondary Schools for International Students and Teachers

Pennington Welcomes its First ASSIST Student

Being a long way from home is not terribly un-usual for Pennington School students, but the route Roxana-Carmen Turcanu took is a new one for the School. The eighteen-year-old ju-nior, whose home is in Galati, in the Danube region of Romania, is here as the result of Pen-nington’s first association with the ASSIST or-ganization.

ASSIST, a nonprofit organization founded in 1969, has as its mission “to promote mu-tual understanding, cultural interchange and a more peaceful world” by providing a chance for well qualified international students to re-ceive one-year scholarships “to attend the fin-est American independent secondary schools.” Turcanu is one of 146 students from 21 coun-tries in this year’s ASSIST class.

An engaging young woman with sparkling eyes, Turcanu says that she learned of ASSIST through another foundation in Romania from which she had a scholarship. She had to go through an application process and then, once named a finalist, further interviews. Candi-dates must be academically strong, with excel-lent skills in written and spoken English; the organization also looks for talents that will otherwise enhance life at the schools in which they enroll.

Speaking fluent, virtually unaccented English, Turcanu has studied the language in school since she was quite young, “but only about two hours a week.” Her supplementary study aid? Movies! In addition to English and her native Romanian, she speaks French, which she has studied in school, and some Spanish, which she has learned through books and films. She has strong interests in photography and drama, has joined the Dramatic Society, and hopes to be involved in the spring play. She was also a prime mover in establishing volleyball as a club sport on campus.

There is a third element to the ASSIST pro-gram: a host family. Each independent school recruits a current student’s family to “adopt” the visiting student for the year, hosting him or her on off-campus weekends and for holidays. Jo Daly of Atlantic City, NJ, mother of board-ers Simon Hoffberger ’12 and Jody Hoffberger ’15, volunteered.

“For the longest time I looked at it as a benefit for Roxana,” Daly says, but adds that she soon recognized that this experience would help in her own goal “to teach my kids to be generous and open and have a worldly view. We travel a lot, so they see places, but I realized that you need to open up your home and live it. It’s pretty neat how it all clicked.”

Just as she did for her own children, Daly made certain that Turcanu had the essentials needed for dormitory life—everything from linens to a laptop computer and cell phone. The week-ends and holidays Turcanu has spent with the Daly-Hoffberger household have permitted an exchange of experiences. She shared a time of sadness with the family, attending the funeral of Daly’s father the week before Christmas. Christmas itself brought Romanian cookies, which Turcanu had never before baked on her own, games played as a family, and compari-sons of holiday customs.

An only child, Turcanu says that her parents were supportive of her spending the year at Pennington; email, telephone, and Skype com-munications have eased the separation. The host family’s role is important in that respect, as well. Daly has been touched by Turcanu’s ac-ceptance of the Daly-Hoffberger clan as a sec-ond family. “She made me cry on Christmas,” she says, describing Turcanu’s gift to her of a bracelet inscribed “God sends an angel to guide us through life, and he named her ‘Mom.’”

Becoming a Pennington student required some adjustments beyond leaving her home and family behind, however. In Romania she was a day student in a public school; like many new Pennington students, upon arrival she ex-

perienced boarding life for the first time, and she admits that “it was difficult at first.”

The structure of American academic study is different from that in Romania, as well, Tur-canu explains. Pennington students have more opportunity to make some choices about their schedules, she says. In Romania she took many more individual classes in the course of a week, but would be spending fewer hours in each one. In that system, for example, she stud-ies biology, chemistry, and physics simultane-ously over a period of years rather than mas-tering each of those sciences in succession. At Pennington, Advanced Placement Chemistry is definitely her hardest class, she says—“but I really love it!”

The relationship with teachers at Pennington is also different from what she has experienced before, she adds. The smaller classes and op-portunities to see teachers outside of class are

a change, and, as a boarder “you see them at breakfast, you see their dogs, you play with their children. . . . Having teachers as your coaches is new for me, too.”

Turcanu is doing very well in her classes, and Dean of Students Chad Bridges describes her as “a well-liked member of the boarding com-munity” and one who takes full advantage of the cultural opportunities it affords. Daly says that she “would fully recommend” the experi-ence of being a host family; it has been “so re-warding” both for her and for Simon and Jody Hoffberger.

As the trail-blazer in this first year of what may become a long-term relationship between Pen-nington and ASSIST, Roxana-Carmen Tur-canu calls to mind two American idioms that she doubtless knows. She is a class act—and will be a tough act to follow. •

To promote mutual understanding, cultural interchange, and a more peaceful world, ASSIST provides opportunities for outstanding international students to attend the

finest American independent secondary schools on one-year scholarships, and for students and teachers from these schools

to engage in educational experience abroad.www.assist-inc.org

LEFT Jody Hoffberger ’15 and Turcana at the Jersey shore.

BELOw Turcana and Jody Hoffberger dressed up for Halloween.

As you are well aware, creating an environment such as Pennington’s comes at no small cost. In addition to tuition, the annual support of the Pennington Fund from the School’s many constituencies—current parents, alumni, parents of alumni, grandparents, faculty, staff, and friends—is a crucial component of enhancing the excellence of a Pennington education. This generous support helps to fund a wide range of programs that reflect the breadth and quality of a Pennington education, such as:

Maximize your Pennington Pride by supporting our students in the classroom, on the field, on the stage, and in the studio.

To date, we have received $500,000 and stand at 62% of our goal. Please help us reach this goal by making an investment in the future of Pennington.

hOw TO MAKE A dONATION

Call the development Office at (609) 737–6126Online at www.pennington.org/giving-backComplete the gift envelope in this magazine

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Alumni HappeningsPennington Features

OrderTower

The

of the

The order of the Tower, an important part of TPS history, recognizes alumni or non-alumni who have provided outstanding service to The Pennington School. Nominations are taken from the School community, and the Board of Directors of the Alumni Association makes the recommendation for this award to the School's Board of Trustees. The presentation of the award occurs as part of the School's annual Alumni Weekend festivities. This year, The Pennington School is proud to announce the order of the Tower award to the Meckler Family.

The 2011 Order of the Tower will be awarded to the Meckler Family for their continued generous support of the School and its vision. Alan Meckler '63, a member of the Board of Advisors, is chairman and CEO of WebMediaBrands. Meckler Library is named for his parents, Lillian Meckler and the late Herman Meckler, who were primary benefactors of the Library Campaign.

1969–70David Barbour, Jr.George Shuman, Jr.

Paul W. Newcomb ’17Charles R. Smyth ’29

1970–71Howard A. CressmanJoseph M. Pierson ’28

F. Maxwell Shuster ’21Franklin T. Buck ’29

1971–72Virgil S. Johnson ’08Merlin H. Becher ’31Bishop Fred P. Corson

1973–74John J. Coonan ’74

George L. Romine ’32Lionel R. Driscoll ’40

1974–75Theodore H. Essex ’25J. Horace Githens ’10

Nelson M. Hoffman, Jr. P’72 ’75Coach Harold Poore P’48 ’55

1975–76John F. Kelly ’36

R. Bruce Poynter ’44

1977–78William L. Apertz

George E. Farrar, Jr. ’23

1979–80Mrs. W. Carl Baldwin

1984–85Catherine Bakay

Herbert L. KrauseRosella M. Krause

Donald B. RobertsonLesley D. Robertson

1985–86Marie Hutnik

William E. LongTrafton Tredick ’33

1989–90Chuck Walton ’32Mary E. Assmann

1990–91Rudolph E. Boschwitz ’47 Margaret R. Kersey P’60

1991–92Wesley D. Camp ’32 P’59

Robert B. McCurry ’42

1992–93Elliot J. Smith ’50

2001–02Robert M. Wigod ’50

2002–03Thomas K. Haje ’47

2003–04Herbert K. Sloane ’32Robert H. Beckett ’52

Steven M. Silberman ’68

2004–05A. Louis Denton ’76

Peter J. Tucci ’79

2005–06George D. Parnos P’78

2006–07Richard H. Sharrett ’46

2007–08John L. McGuire, Ph.D. P’98

2008–09Dr. Edmund V. Cervone P’90 ’92

2009–10Colonel (Ret.) Albert M. Navas ’48

2010–11The Meckler Family


Alumni Happenings● ● ● ● ● ● ●

Mitchell Sloane ’87, an entrepreneur from Brightwaters, NY, is a graduate of Ithaca Col-lege. Active in community organizations, the former Pennington soccer player and track star is also cross country coach at the St. Patrick School in Bay Shore, NY, on whose board he has also served.

Evan Geronemus ’01, a graduate of American university, is a vice president in the Equity De-rivatives Group at JPMorgan in New York City. He previously spent two years as a sales trader on the equity swaps desk at Goldman Sachs. At Pennington he was a three-time captain of the varsity boys’ tennis team.

Timothy Johnson III ’03, a social media mar-keting professional from Skillman, NJ, is a graduate of Swarthmore College. He recently took on the position of chairman of Swarth-more’s New Jersey Connection, which entails scheduling activities throughout the year that allow Swarthmore alumni to network and re-connect.

Jacob Levy ’09, hails from Morristown, NJ, and is currently a sophomore at Syracuse uni-versity, where he is involved in a community service and education outreach organization, Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE). At Pen-nington he cofounded both the School’s chap-ter of Project Eye-to-Eye and the annual Holo-caust remembrance program.

The Board's new officers are Robert Casper ’64, president, and Josh Strober ’99, vice presi-dent. •

The Alumni Association board of directors has four new members, elected in the autumn of 2010. Thanks go to departing board members Robert Car-roll III ’79 (president), Carrie Vinch ’83 (vice president), Laura desai ’97, Scott Gansl ’78, Ken hansen ’83, donna Fell Kottcamp ’79, Eliot Terborgh ’61, and Miles Truesdell ’91.

Alumni Association Elects Four to Board of Directors

ALUmNI HAPPENINGs

ABOVE The Alumni Association board met at the Campus Center during Homecoming. Pictured, from left, are Tim Johnson ’03, Robert Carroll ’79, Director of Alumni Relations David Donahue, Director of Events Joanne McGann, Donna Fell Kottcamp ’79, Scott Gansl ’78, and Mitchell Sloane ’87

The Pennington School is currently engaged in a project to capture and assess alumni preferences and opinions as part of a broader marketing initiative for our School.

The collective voice of our alumni is crucial to the long-term identity and character of Pennington, and our current work will help us better understand the perspective and point

of view of those in our alumni community.

The web-based survey—which will take approximately seven minutes to complete—will be sent to a randomly selected group of Pennington alumni in February. Those who are

selected from the entire alumni population will receive an email that includes a link to the survey. In the interest of providing the most representative set of responses, it is important

that we have the highest response rate possible. You can also find the survey at the following website address: www.pennington.org/alumni/alumnisurvey2011

If you would like to participate but prefer that we mail you a survey, please contactJulia Meneghin at (609) 737–6144.

2011 Pennington Alumni Survey


Alumni Happenings

PhILAdELPhIA on october 7 twenty-five alumni and parents enjoyed an evening at Tri-umph Brewery on Chestnut Street near Penn’s Landing. Head of School Penny Townsend and trustees Bob Beckett ’52, Dennis Keat-ing ’79 P'08 '09, Tim Vile P'07 '09 '12 '15, and Chair Peter Tucci ’79 shared Pennington sto-ries and memories with guests.

NEw yORK CITy on october 28 Head of School Penny Townsend greeted 35 alumni and parents at Legends restaurant on 33rd Street in New York City. Former trustee Elliot

Regional Receptions

1 PhILAdELPhIA Peter Whittlesey ’97, Rob Topper ’97, Nicole McInerney ’96, Bob Beckett ’52, and Peter Tucci ’79.

2 PhILAdELPhIA Patrick Hagerty ’82 and Maite Bertolini P’14.

3 NEw yORK CITy Emil Bretzger with Andrew Giallella ’01.

4 NEw yORK CITy Tom Liwosz, Taylor John-son ’06, Madeline Micali ’06, Shawn Wood-hull ’06, Adam Toltzis ’06, and Terry Burns.

5 PRINCETON Pennington Singers perform some favorite holiday songs.

6 PRINCETON Robert Sarchiapone P’13 and Penny Townsend.

1 2

3 4

5 6

Smith ’50 was on hand with Acting Director of Development Maggie Kelly, Director of Alum-ni Relations David Donahue, and Director of Events Joanne McGann. Current and former faculty who attended: Dean of Community Life Tom Liwosz and retired teachers Terry Burns (English) and Emil Bretzger (German and History).

PRINCETON The holiday season began on a joyful note for many members of the Penning-ton community at our holiday reception on December 9 at the Nassau Club in Princeton,

NJ. Those attending were treated to another outstanding performance by the Pennington Singers. After entertaining the audience with several favorite holiday songs, they concluded their performance by inviting two former Pen-nington Singers, Buddy Gardineer ’07 and James Fleming ’10, to join them in a song. Many current parents, alumni, and friends of Pennington also had the opportunity to make connections, and Head of School Penny Townsend updated everyone on the latest hap-penings on campus.•

Each reunion class has a Facebook group. These groups will re-

main active after re-unions are over. For example, the Class of 1961 has a group entitled, "The Penning-ton School Class of 1961". Check your class pages for new contact information for classmates and announcements about class gatherings and school reunions.

UPC

Om

ING

Ev

ENts

MARCh 2Celebrate Seniors Day

MAy 6Grandparents Day

MAy 20–21Alumni Weekend

JuNE 2“We Made It” Senior

BBQ

JuNE 3Baccalaureate

Senior/Parent Farewell Dinner Dance

JuNE 4Commencement

JuNE 1316th Annual Golf

Classic

OCTOBER 15Homecoming

Alumni Happenings

Alumni Weekend provides alumni in general, and reunion classes in particular, a time to enjoy each other’s company, get to know the Pennington of today, and have more alumni-oriented events than Homecoming permits. It is a supplement to Homecoming—with the added benefit of Pennington’s spring weather. This year Alumni Weekend falls on May 20–21, and there are many activities planned.

Faculty member emeritus Emil Bretzger will reminisce with alumni about his more than three decades on the Pennington faculty, span-ning the introduction of coeducation and the increasing influence of technology, among other things.

The order of the Tower will be presented to the Meckler family, honoring Alan Meckler ’63; his mother, Lillian Meckler; and his late father, Herman Meckler. The order of the Tower, first awarded in 1969, is considered one of the highest honors the Alumni Associa-tion can bestow on behalf of the School. The prestigious award recognizes “persons who have rendered outstanding service or brought distinction to Pennington”; recipients may be either alumni or non-alumni.

Alumni Weekend: May 20–21, 2011

For a complete schedule of the events planned, go to www.pennington.org/alumni/reunions

The Athletic Hall of Fame will induct three sports teams and three individuals. The 1945 football team, the 1985 football team, and the 1985 girls’ soccer team will be honored. In addition, the Hall will induct the late Charles Medlar ’36, a three-sport standout at Penning-ton who went on to be head athletic trainer at Penn State; the late Lawrence Pitt, founding coach of Pennington boys’ lacrosse; and boys’ basketball coach Bernie Gurick, who recently passed the 300-win mark in his twenty-third season.

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Alumni Happenings

ALuMNI ICE hOCKEy GAMEThe fourteenth year of Pennington ice hockey began Friday, November 26, with the annual alumni game. The record turnout of more than 20 alumni forced a change in the format of the game. Alumni who graduated in an odd year wore the red jerseys with the split P, while alumni from even years joined the current var-sity, dressed in the white jerseys with the cu-pola.

The game was characterized by solid play on both sides. It was obvious from the start that no one was taking this game lightly. odd-year alumni got off to an early lead after Brendan Douglass ’05 fed a pass to ringer Chris Keh-rer ’04, who put the puck past varsity goalie Cody Cotner ’11. Derek Fasano ’07 assisted Nick Hill ’07 with a goal to put the red team up by a score of 2–0. The energy and quickness of the white team started taking its toll on the more veteran red squad early in the final pe-riod of play. First-year alumnus Ben Markison ’10 scored with a blistering shot over the left shoulder of his teammate and goalie from last

Alumni Athletes Show Their Mettleyear Connor Widenmeyer ’10. Joe DeAntonio ’10's hard work in the corner set up the Marki-son goal. Andy Hart P’10 ’11 was left alone in front of the net and scored the tying goal for the white team with less than 10 minutes to play.

Varsity player Dan Speeney ’14 broke the tie, scoring on the exhausted red team with just under two minutes to play. After the red team pulled their goalie in desperation with a min-ute left in the game, they were able to maintain pressure in the offensive zone. Varsity goalie Tom Littwin ’12 stopped several point-blank shots; however, Brendan Douglass finally managed to score with four seconds left on the clock to tie the game 3–3, a fitting end to this classic battle.

Parents and friends of both the alumni and varsity players enthusiastically cheered on both teams as they left the ice, showing their appreciation for being treated to a tremendous game of hockey.

ALuMNI SwIM MEETon November 27, 2010, a number of Penning-ton’s alumni swimmers accepted an invitation to return to the Michael T. Martin Aquatic Center for a friendly swim meet vs. the current swim team.

Pennington’s current swimmers edged out the alumni swimmers. Returning for the alumni team were Jesse Lieberman ’08, Jordan Lieber-man ’09, Sarah Logsdon ’07, Bridget McEliece ’08, Bank Phromratanapongse ’10, Galen Sylk ’10, Amanda Burns ’10, Norman Noe ’87, Clark Mulheren ’00, and Coach George Ward ’88. There were many impressive performances for the day, but the man of the meet had to be the senior alumnus in the pool, Norman Noe from the Class of 1987! The day ended with a late-morning brunch in the lobby of Sparks Memo-rial Gymnasium. The current team opened its season on Wednesday, December 1, at home versus Hopewell. •


Class notes● ● ● ● ● ● ●

1934 • We have just learned of the death of Rodney G. Jones on october 19, 2009, at age 93 in Vero Beach, FL. Born in Brooklyn, after his moth-er’s death he was sent at age seven to work on the family farm in Pennington. He was a day student at the School and after graduation earned his bachelor’s degree at the College of William and Mary in 1938. He later com-pleted an M.B.A. degree at NYu. Jones’s wife of 68 years, Constance Stratton Crabtree, died earlier in 2009.

In 1940, he was commissioned as an ensign in the Supply Corps, u.S. Navy Reserve, where he spent the next twenty-three years, attain-ing the rank of lieutenant commander. During World War II he participated in campaigns in the South Pacific, including attacks on the Gil-bert and Marshall Islands, and in the Mediter-ranean.

Following his Navy retirement he taught ac-counting and finance at Norwich university in Northfield, VT, before moving to southern Maine. The Pennington community extends sympathy to his children, Barbara Jones of Lex-ington, MA, Stephen Jones of San Francisco, and Carole Jones Victory of Vero Beach; four grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.

1943 • henry Randolph Brokaw died on September 30, 2010, surrounded by his wife, Emily, and children, Richard VanDyke, Marianna Ballas, and Emily Schwab. A private family service was held in Florida followed by burial in New Jersey. Friends are asked, in his honor, to per-form a simple good deed, keeping “Randy” in mind.

1947 on Saturday, September 18, Robert Simmons arrived on campus on a motorcycle with his son and daughter-in-law, also on a motorcycle. He had a great trip down memory lane, as he had not been back since graduation. He left during the war and returned to Pennington af-ter World War II. Robert gave his father’s 1914 yearbook to Head of School Penny Townsend.

1952 Julianne and dick williams were back for Homecoming in october.

1954 George Gordon attended our New York gather-ing in April and Homecoming in october. He continues to work in real estate.

1958 Evan Tibbott still cross-country skis and helps with conservation efforts in the vicinity of Yel-lowstone National Park.

1961 Fiftieth Reunion co-chairs Eliot Terborgh and Sam Mather are looking for volunteers to help gather their classmates for the May 20–21, 2011, Alumni Weekend on Pennington’s cam-pus. Get in touch with them at [email protected] or [email protected].

• Word has just reached us of the death of howard E. Boyer, Jr., of San Francisco on May 4, 2005. He was 61.

• Ernest R. Lamont, Jr., died November 4, 2010. He was a lifelong resident of the Ham-ilton Township, NJ, area, and retired from the State of New Jersey Department of the Treasury with over 25 years of service. Also a member of the National Guard, he served as a mentor for Thomas Edison State College and on the board of the Katzenbach School for the Deaf. His wife of 40 years, Lucille “Pen-ny” Apoldite Lamont, survives him, as do his daughters Michele Falcone and Melissa Barnes and his grandson Jimmy Falcone. Ernie’s class-mates and the School community extend con-dolences to his family.

1962 • We have received news of the death of Law-rence Allen Lobel of Voorhees, NJ, on April 25, 2008. He was the husband of Carol Patwitch Lobel; the father of Amy Goldstein, Susan Burnette, Steven Lobel, and Stacey Elias; and the grandfather of five.

1964 From Scottsdale, AZ, Jimmy Bonacci sent a note to the Pennington alumni office: “I’m still in good shape at 6 feet, 205 pounds. Penning-ton was fun! one day I climbed up the wa-ter tower, took off my jacket, dropped it, and screamed. Mrs. [Margaret] Kersey was walk-ing by and fainted!”

1967 Peter Senft came back for Homecoming. It was his first time on campus in over forty years!

CLAss NOtEs

P


1970 Jim Ober lives in Westfield, NJ, and for his job frequently travels to Shanghai, China.

1972 Scott Magner sent in a picture of classmate and trustee John Zuccarelli, himself, and son Scott, Jr. Scott wrote, “It was fantastic seeing John again and a very impressive experience for my son to finally meet him for the first time! Here is some class trivia: During a 1973 Homecom-ing banquet on campus, Scott, Jr., was recog-nized by then Dean of Students Lee Johnson as the first child born to an alumnus in the Class of 1972.”

1973 In 2009 dan Seyler created a sculpture of a Tri-ple Spiral Labyrinth and this past autumn gave the School a copy of his sculpture. He writes, “Beginning in 2006 I studied online labyrinths from around the world. The Triple Spiral Lab-yrinth is one of the world’s oldest labyrinths, dating back 3,500 years and found on a tomb at New Grange, Ireland. The Triple Spiral Labyrinth is an ancient symbol for eternal ex-istence. The story is that each spiral represents a different stage of life, and after the final stage is completed, the eternal cycles continue.”

1974 • dr. Peter J. Cerenzo of Mantoloking, NJ, died on october 27, 2010. He owned and operated Cerenzo Chiropractic Associates in Mercer-ville. After graduation from Pennington, Pe-ter earned his bachelor’s degree from Florida Southern College and his doctor of chiroprac-tic degree, magna cum laude, from Sherman Chiropractic College (Spartanburg, SC). He went on to do postgraduate studies, as well, and was a member of several professional as-sociations, including the Mercer County Chi-ropractic Society, of which he was past presi-dent. He is survived by his children, Ashleigh Cerenzo of New Brunswick, and Corinne and Peter Cerenzo of Lumberton; his parents, Pe-ter and Dolores Cerenzo of Pennington; his sister, Charmaine Cerenzo Murphy ’78 and her husband, Kevin ’78; and his nephews, Brendan Murphy ’08 and oliver Murphy ’11. We share their sadness at Peter’s passing.

1975 • We have learned of the death of Vincent Mi-chael Cooper, Sr., on January 13 in Trenton. A lifelong resident of the area, he had worked for Sal DeLorenzo Custom Cabinetry and more recently for Precision Tools in Trenton. His obituary said, “Vinnie had a vibrant personal-ity and was the life of every party. He was loved by all and will be sadly missed. He enjoyed spending time with his family and friends at the Jersey shore and had a love for dogs.” Vin-

nie’s wife, Karen Blickert, predeceased him. He is survived by his son, Vincent M. Cooper, Jr., of Trenton; three sisters; and various other relatives, including his cousin Loretta Garmer, with whom he lived.

1986 It’s a big year for 1986, as our twenty-fifth re-union is coming up in May. Check out the 1986 yearbook pictures in the School’s online community. Jacqui Jefferson Lilly will be lead-ing the charge to get classmates to return to campus for the reunion. To contact her, call (229) 244–0104 or email her at [email protected].

In July, Trenton’s Acting Fire Director Leonard Carmichael was featured in the Trenton Times. The Trenton native and former battalion chief has been in the department since 1991 and professed a lifelong love for the fire service, exemplified by his collection of die-cast fire trucks. “These trucks are pretty much a sym-bol for what the fire department stands for,” he told The Times. “Dedication, commitment.” In addition to the obvious challenges of fight-ing fires and providing rescue, the department under Len’s leadership faces staff cutbacks be-cause of budget cuts in the city.

1987 october was a big month for Mitchell Sloane, who came back for Homecoming, attended the Pennington happy hour in New York City, and was elected to the Alumni Association board of directors. Mitchell has started a Face-book page for Pennington soccer alumni. He says, “Loving my life with my family on Long Island! It was great to see everyone at Home-coming.”

1988 Amy Rosenthal is one of the women featured in a new book that is the first guide to all surgi-cal and nonsurgical options for women with a high risk of breast cancer. Previvors: Facing the Breast Cancer Gene and Making Life-Changing ABOVE John Zuccarelli ’72, Scott Magner ’72, and Scott Magner, Jr.

P denotes a major reunion year

Class notes

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Class notes

Decisions was released in october 2010 during Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Marcy and Jon updike write that all is well in South Portland, ME, with their adopted daughter, Reese. Jon continues to work at Southworth Products and recently swam in a “Swim Across America” cause in Maryland that raised money for cancer research.

1992 Coltrane Stansbury returned to campus in May and joined the alumni office at the Class of 2010 barbecue. Coltrane is on Mayor Corey Booker’s staff in Newark, NJ.

Carlos wyre is back in northern New Jersey and working in the Teterboro Airport tower. He continues to pursue his passion of flying and being a flight instructor. Carlos also played in the Pennington alumni hockey game over Thanksgiving break!

1994 • News has reached us of the death of Scott w. Cook on January 24; he lived in Lansing, IL. Scott became passionate about emergency response service during his years at Penning-ton and was the Pennington Fire Depart-ment’s Junior Fireman of the year in 1994. An accomplished equestrian who trained and showed horses, he pursued this occupation af-ter graduation for a number of years in oman, Germany, and the Netherlands. He returned to the united States in 2006 and earned his na-tional paramedic license; he was employed by Prompt Ambulance Service in Indiana until his death. Scott was “especially devoted to his fam-ily,” his obituary read. “He easily made friends wherever he traveled and held his friendships very close to his heart. His loving spirit will al-ways be remembered by those who knew him.” He is survived by his parents, Ted and Debo-rah Cook, former faculty member and former acting headmaster, respectively; his son, Koal; his brother, Peter Cook ’90; his sister, Kristin Cook Boozer; and many other relatives and friends.

1995 Suzanne Stokes Obert reports from North Car-olina in an email to Chad Bridges ’96: “I haven’t run into anyone since graduation; you’re the first. No, actually that isn’t true. I’ve seen Pat-rick Murphy ’80 a few times over the years. How is the ‘old campus’? I drove through a few times years ago, but haven’t ever stopped. Scary to think that it’s been fifteen years since I graduated. I have a few TPS friends on Fa-cebook... I moved down to North Carolina in october 2007 with my husband of twelve years, Josh, and our son, Richard, whose fifth birthday we were celebrating.”

1996 Georgia Marcantonis Cruciani tells us, “on January 7, 2008, I gave birth to my son, Jason (Iasonas), and on September 15, 2009, I gave birth to my daughter, Konstandina.”

Pennington Dean of Students Chad Bridges and his wife, Erica, have a new daughter, Sky Nicole Bridges, who was born october 6, 2010, at 12:02 p.m., 8 pounds, 6 ounces. Sky joins her big brother, Drew, who is 5.

1997 Rhonda Roberts is a doctor in the Navy and is in residency for oral surgery. She tells us, “I should finish up in July 2013. I keep trying to get back to visit Pennington—hopefully, once I finish residency.”

Jamel Craig and Lindsay Cole were married June 19 at Grounds for Sculpture in Hamil-ton, NJ. Peyton Craig ’01 was best man. Jamel earned his bachelor’s degree from Drew uni-versity in 2001 and his M.F.A. degree from Penn State in 2005. Lindsay is a 2003 graduate of Drew. The couple lives in Charlottesville, VA, where Jamel works for Lithic Construc-tion and Lindsay works for Peace Frogs Trav-el/outfitters.

1999 Phil Prassas’s new baby, Dylan George Prassas, was born August 14, 2010, to Phil and his wife, Lindsey. Dylan was 20 inches long, 7 pounds, 2 ounces. Dylan is cute and lively and has al-ready been on the Pennington campus several times, visiting his grandmother, Mary Ellen Erdie, to the delight of the Alumni and Devel-opment office.

2000 Laura Piza winik and her husband, Adam Win-ik, had twins on June 3, 2010. “We are blessed

ABOVE Reese updike, daughter of Jon updike ’88 and his wife, Marcy.

BELOw Jin Ishige '95 and friend met up with Chad Bridges '96 when they visited campus in September.

P

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Class notes

with a boy, Charles, and a girl, Claire.” The twins made their Pennington debut at Home-coming this fall.

Adam hunter is living in New York City and was recently promoted to editor at Guideposts magazine.

denise Mojica is no longer with the Public Re-lations Society of America. She decided to “go into business for myself. I do makeup for films, theatre, runway, etc.” Denise was back in May 2010 for Alumni Weekend.

2001 Evan Geronemus is a new member of the Alum-ni Association board of directors. He lives and works in New York City.

Andrew Giallella reports that he has “been in the funeral business for the past five years.”

wei Jen “wayne” wang made his first visit back to campus on December 13. After graduating from Boston university in 2005, Wayne moved to San Marino, CA, and now works for Comer-ica Securities.

Sat Vakil is one of the artists featured in an exhi-bition, entitled The Beauty of Biodiversity: Birds, Bees, and Butterflies, at the Marie L. Matthews Gallery of the D & R Greenway Land Trust in Princeton. According to the organization’s

newsletter, “the gallery is unique in showcas-ing artists under an umbrella theme, such as agriculture, trails, and water.”

2002 Maggie Gerry hall was married on August 28, 2010, to Matthew Wesley Hall, son of Dr. and Mrs. F. Wesley Hall of Escondido, CA. The Rev. Jack Belmont, an Episcopal priest and rector of St. Matthew's Church in Pennington, performed the ceremony at the Trenton Coun-try Club in West Trenton, NJ. Maggie is a graduate of Lafayette College and received her master’s degree in social work from Columbia university. She is currently a social worker in Denver at St. Anthony’s Central Hospital, the largest Level 1 trauma hospital in Colorado. Her husband was graduated from the univer-sity of Southern California and received his law degree from Loyola Marymount universi-ty. He is currently an attorney practicing at the firm of Riggs, Abney, Neal, Turpen, orbison & Lewis, Inc., in Denver. Maggie’s new email ad-dress is [email protected].

diana Moore has been named the curator of the Marie L. Matthews Gallery of the D & R Greenway Land Trust in Princeton, an organi-zation which is devoted to preserving land and open space. She earned her bachelor’s degree in art history from Princeton university, where she focused on medieval art, and her master’s degree in contemporary art from the univer-


ABOVE Dylan George Prassas, son of Phil Prassas ’99 and his wife, Lindsey.

CENTER Claire and Charles Winik, daughter and son of Laura Piza Winik

’00 and her husband, Adam.

BELOw Wayne Wang '01 pictured with friend Kate Huang.

ABOVE Maggie Gerry Hall ’02 and her husband, Matthew Wesley Hall, at their wedding on August 28, 2010, at the Trenton Country Club in West Trenton, NJ.

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Class notes

sity of Manchester through Sotheby’s Institute of Art. The organization’s newsletter reports that Diana is involving new artists, “seeking to create a multimedia experience with sculpture, silk screens, paintings, and photography.” The first exhibit bearing her imprint, which opened January 14, includes works by Sat Vakil ’01 (see Class of 2001 notes). Diana’s day job is as a financial analyst with Advaxis, a biotechnol-ogy company in North Brunswick, NJ.

Brandon Stoneking, Ryan Lugo, and Tory wright competed in the Loveladies Invitational Fish-ing Tournament this past summer. Their team name was “Completely Misguided,” and they won second place.

Sara Abraham is a fourth-grade teacher and lives in Boca Raton, FL. She is engaged to Rob Millstein ’99, and they are getting married this summer.

Sarah Pachner is engaged to Chase Stern. They are tying the knot in New Hope this upcoming July.

2003 Anthony C. Betancourt was graduated from university of Scranton in 2007 with a bache-lor’s degree and from Fairleigh Dickinson uni-versity in 2009 with a master’s degree, both in psychology. He is now working at Educational Testing Service as a research assistant and is looking into graduate schools to pursue a doc-torate in psychology.

This autumn Tim Johnson was elected to the Alumni Associate board of directors.

After two years of teaching in Pennington’s Center for Learning, Jamie Moore has trans-ferred to the Middle School faculty, teaching social studies. He continues as coordinator of weekend activities, as well.

Also, Jamie and Gayle Freeman were married on July 31, 2010, at Trinity Evangelical Lu-theran Church in Lemoyne, PA. A reception followed at the Altland House Ballroom at Lib-erty Forge Country Club in Mechanicsburg, PA. Jamie and Gayle then honeymooned in

California followed by a trip to the French Polynesian Islands of Tahiti, Moorea, and Bora Bora.

Gayle is originally from Lykens, PA. She grad-uated from Lebanon Valley College with a B.A. degree in music. She is employed by the Penn-sylvania Department of Transportation and is a graduate student at Drexel university where she will earn an M.S. degree in arts administra-tion.

In attendance at the wedding were fellow Pen-nington alumni Victoria Hanks '04, Megan Thompson, Robin Man '04, Rhyder Cookman, and Rachel Gwin. Also in attendance were cur-rent and former Pennington faculty members Lisa Houston, Jason Harding, Peggy uzmack, Mark DiGiacomo, Bill Alford, Jocko DeCaro-lis, Katie Egan, Ensign Simmons, Kaitlyn Ken-ney, Caroline Hall, Will Burke, Mary Fraser, and Judy Rossi.

Ben Golub, who was graduated from Cal Tech, is currently a graduate student working toward a doctorate in economics at Stanford. Dur-ing a trip to California, Head of School Penny Townsend visited with Ben this autumn.

2004 Peter Guarino and Emily McBridge Guarino were married on June 5, 2010, in Manchester, CT.

James Campenella, Asher Nelson, and Tristan Sylk attended the Pennington happy hour in Philadelphia in october. James has started his own construction company in Philadelphia.

2005 Emma Thompson’s work entitled The Sea Mon-sters of Olaus Magnus: Classifying Wonder in the Natural World of Sixteenth Century Europe has received honorable mention status in the com-petition for the Dr. Walter R. Ristow Prize. The prize, offered annually by the Washington Map Society since 1994, recognizes academic achievement in the history of cartography and

ABOVE Jamie Moore '03 and his wife, Gayle, were married on July 31, 2010 in Lemoyne, PA.

CENTER Head of School Penny Townsend and Ben Golub ’03 in San Francisco, CA, with Alcatraz in the background.

BELOw James Campenella ’04, Asher Nelson ’04, and Tristan Sylk ’04 in Philadelphia.

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Class notes

is open to all full- or part-time undergraduate, graduate, and first-year postdoctoral students attending accredited colleges and universities anywhere in the world. only one paper is rec-ognized with the prize itself, and Emma’s paper was the only one accorded honorable mention. Emma wrote the paper while a senior at Skid-more, from which she was graduated in 2009 with a bachelor’s degree in history. She is cur-rently working in the development office of the New England Aquarium in Boston.

Andrea Renée Picariello departed for Cambo-dia on July 20 to begin preservice training as a Health Education Peace Corps volunteer. Since her graduation from volunteer train-

ing in october, Picariello’s work has included maternal and child health activities, as well as infectious disease prevention and treatment. She earned a bachelor’s degree in health sci-ence and athletic training, graduating in 2010 from Boston university. She says, “I enjoy helping people and am looking to make a dif-ference in an area where it is needed. With my health background, I want to help people live a longer and healthier life. I am also looking forward to traveling and learning about a new culture.” (Watch for more about Andrea in the next issue of the Pennington Magazine.)

The College of New Jersey has been one of the premier women’s soccer programs at the NCAA Division III level since it first took the field in 1990. This season, the Lions added former Division I All-American Kylee Rossi to their coaching staff, which also includes Bob Turner ’69 and Robyn Jones ’03. With that powerful Pennington presence on the side-lines, the Lions finished 18–3–1 and lost in the third round of the NCAA championships to Johns Hopkins.

After earning her bachelor’s degree from Lafay-ette in 2009, Marcella Nehrbass graduated from Duke in May 2010 with a master’s degree in engineering management. She is working for Colgate-Palmolive and has embarked on a series of assignments that will place her in management positions around the world.

In November Peter Mercatanti, Jr., was fea-tured in the Sunday business section of the Trenton Times about his new business venture. Pete is managing a Retro Fitness gym, newly opened in the building once housing his fa-ther’s Ford dealership in Bordentown, NJ.

Max Owen has moved to New York City, is working for a consulting firm, and recently got engaged.

After graduating from the united States Coast Guard Academy in 2009, Lieutenant JG Conor Madison entered flight school in Milton, FL. If all goes according to schedule, he should earn his Naval Aviator wings of gold in the spring of 2011. The picture shows him in front of a Navy T-34 fixed-wing trainer and was taken the day he completed the first and most diffi-cult phase of his flight training. He is now in his second phase of flight school and learning to fly helicopters.

2006 Madeline Micali started working at media agency universal McCann in May.

Taylor Johnson is now at Morgan Stanley and living in Belle Mead, NJ.

Adam Toltzis and Jordan Littlefield are co-pro-ducing a television sitcom pilot entitled The Scouts, which Adam has written. For more in-formation please contact Adam at [email protected] or Jordan at [email protected]. Adam played in the Pennington Golf Classic in June and attended the Pennington happy hour in New York in october.

After graduating from the university of Penn-sylvania’s Wharton School in May, Shawn woodhull is now at Morgan Stanley in equity research.

The Class of 2006 will celebrate its fifth reunion in May 2011, and reunion co-chairs Toltzis and Woodhull are looking for a good turnout!

2007 Monmouth university senior defender Ali Kli-ment was named to the 2010 ESPN Academic All-America Women’s Soccer Third Team. Kli-ment, a team captain, was one of 11 student-athletes in the District II region to be selected for the Academic All-District First Team. Kli-ment, a two-time first-team All-Northeast


ABOVE Lieutenant JG Conor Madison ’05 in Milton, FL, upon completing the first phase of flight training toward his Naval Aviator wings of gold.

BELOw Faculty member emeritus Ter-rence Burns, Shawn Woodhull ’06, and Adam Toltzis ’06 at the New York City reception.

P


Class notes

Conference selection, was also a first team re-gional selection last season.

Matt Pron is assigned to the u.S. Marine Forces in the Persian Gulf. If you wish to send Matt a note, here is his address: PFC Matthew Pron, Fast Cent Bahrain, PSC 451 Box 710, FPo AE 09834–2800.

2008 Rachel haag spent the first semester of this academic year studying abroad in Milan, Italy. “Looking back, it truly was the experience of a lifetime. I tried my best to take advantage of all Milan had to offer by studying art and fashion, coaching Milan’s first-ever women’s lacrosse team, 'Milano Baggataway,' and eating lots of delicious pasta! on the weekends, I was fortu-nate enough to travel to eleven countries, in-cluding Greece, Belgium, Scotland, and many more.” A student at the university of Red-lands, Rachel has received a scholarship from the university to return to Florence, Italy, this coming summer to study Italian again and do an internship. “I can’t wait to return!”

2009 Amber Brooks of the university of North Caro-lina women’s soccer team has been named to the 2010 Academic All-District Women’s Soc-cer Team presented by ESPN. A sophomore midfielder from New Hope, PA, Brooks was one of three midfielders, and eleven players overall, named to the District III Team in vot-ing by the College Sports Information Direc-tors of America.

While on winter break from Syracuse, Jacob Levy stopped by the School for a visit. Jacob is studying entrepreneurship and emerging enterprise (EEE) as well as marketing at Syra-cuse university. He is on the executive board of Syracuse university’s Students in Free En-terprise team (SIFE). SIFE is an international nonprofit organization that is educating people on concepts like market economics, entrepre-neurship, and business ethics through educa-tional outreach projects around the world. Last year Jacob traveled to Djibouti in East Africa,

where he helped pilot a “train the trainer” pro-gram for the u.S. military and PAE. Jacob also helped Su’s SIFE team get ready for a national competition where they took first runner-up out of 584 teams (for more information visit SuSIFE.org). Jacob was also recently elected to the Pennington School Alumni Association board of directors.

At Elon university Maria Kane is studying to be an elementary and special education teach-er while also a part of the Project Pericles Class of 2013. Project Pericles is a national program “dedicated to raising the level of civic engage-ment and social responsibility of the entire university community.” Each class of Periclean Scholars, selected annually from applicants, must create “a sustainable project and become experts in that specific area of focus” over a period of three years at Elon. As a Periclean Scholar, Maria is in a group of thirty students that is studying the region of Chiapas, Mexico, learning about both the region and the country as a whole. The scholars’ goal is to work with the indigenous people of Chiapas and improve their education, agriculture, health care, and economic development. Maria says, “We are dedicating three years at Elon and years after college to this project. I am looking forward to the upcoming years and our influence in southern Mexico.”

Kacie Friedman played one of the lead roles in her College of Charleston’s stage production of the musical Tintypes. She played Anna Held; when asked about getting the role, Kacie ad-mits that “it is unusual for sophomores to get leads in main stage productions.”

2010 At Connecticut College Billy hawkey regis-tered his biggest moment of the season when he notched the game-tying goal in regulation against Wesleyan university. The goal sent the match into overtime.

Sully Kavanagh is enjoying Temple and was back for Pennington Homecoming.

Scott hill has pledged to ΑΤΩ fraternity and has joined a campus singing group at James Madison university.

Committee Co-Chairs:Jordan gray ’91

Chris Long ’91 P’12 ’17

Committee members:Jon Bowden ’91Jenn green P’14

Jim HymanMichael Jingoli ’85 P’11 ’15

Wally Kyle P’05 ’08 ’11Ward McCarthy P’03 ’09tim Vile P’07 ’09 ’12 ’15

to register for the event or if you are interested in learning more about

the many sponsorship and volunteer opportunities available, contact

Joanne Mcgann at [email protected] or

(609) 737–6149 or visit our website atwww.pennington.org/alumni/

golfclassic

June 13, 2011

sixteenthAnnual

GolfClassicthe bedens brook Club

all proceeds benefit the

Jerry H. eure, sr.memorial endowment Fund

● ● ● ● ● ● ●


Class notes

Joey McNeill was a defensive back on the Susquehanna university football team this autumn, while his roommate, Ben Markison, played fall ball on the varsity lacrosse squad.

Alex Miragaya is playing club hockey at Ithaca College. He played in the alumni game over Thanksgiving break.

John Ricketti played every minute in goal for New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) in his debut season with the Highlanders and helped guide his team to the Atlantic Soccer Conference playoff semifinals.

At North Carolina State, dontae Johnson saw lots of playing time as a defensive back and special teams player for the bowl bound foot-ball team. Pennington gridiron teammate har-

old Spears was a defensive end on the univer-sity of New Hampshire Wildcats football team that lost to Delaware in the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) quarterfi-nal round.

La Salle women’s soccer forward Renee wash-ington was named the Atlantic 10 Conference’s Rookie of the Week after helping the Explor-ers in September games against Lehigh and St. Joseph’s.

From Penn State Erin Gillespie tells us that she is a “business major hoping to get my next big internship with a clothing/retail company sometime within the next year.” She is on the Dance Alliance team and also a baton twirler. “I’m involved in the student-run philanthropy here called THoN for the Kids, a big all-night

dance event to raise money for kids with can-cer.”

From the Wesleyan campus hannah Knudsen writes, “I am loving it here at Wesleyan, but I do still miss Pennington and all the people very much. I feel very prepared for all my classes, and I am enjoying the open curriculum here at Wes. As for soccer, I have been starting at left outside back, and I am loving every minute of it.” The team had a good season, and Hannah was selected as player of the game (decided by the team coaches and captain) after the Tufts game in the fall. Hannah added that she sees Maggie Feldman-Piltch around campus, and that Maggie has been spearheading quite a few events for Jewish students, which non-Jewish students are always welcome to attend. Mag-gie was back for Pennington’s Homecoming.

’43 Stanley T. [email protected]

’44 R.B. [email protected]

’46 Richard h. [email protected]

’47 John [email protected]

’48 James R. [email protected]

’51 Allan M. [email protected]

’52 Vince [email protected]

’54 George [email protected]

’55 Morris S. [email protected]

’57 Spencer L. [email protected]

’58 Thomas S. [email protected]

’59 wesley d. [email protected]

’60 Marcos J. [email protected]

’61 Sam [email protected]

’62 Robert G. [email protected]

’63 John S. [email protected]

’63 Richard B. [email protected]

’64 Robert L. [email protected]

’65 Peter w. [email protected]

’67 Bruce [email protected]

’70 Tom [email protected]

’71 Robert w. [email protected]

’72 John [email protected]

’73 Emery J. [email protected]

’73 Kim [email protected]

’74 dan B. [email protected]

’74 Robert [email protected]

’75 Frank w. [email protected]

’77 Jane E. Sortor [email protected]

’78 Scott R. [email protected]

’79 Emilie Z. [email protected]

’79 Andrea [email protected]

’80 denise [email protected]

’80 Raymond B. [email protected]

’80 Lisa [email protected],[email protected]

’81 Thomas d. [email protected]

’83 Carrie A. [email protected]

’84 Franklin d. [email protected]@gmail.com

’84 Elizabeth S. [email protected]

If you have a Class Note to share, please contact director of Alumni Relations dave donahue at [email protected] or the appropriate class correspondent listed below.Send us your news!


Class notes

’85 Jessica R. Frank [email protected]

’85 Georgia A. [email protected]

’86 Jacqueline Jefferson [email protected]

’87 Alex [email protected]

’88 George [email protected]

’89 Jane E. Bott [email protected]

’90 Michael T. [email protected]

’91 Jonathon S. [email protected]

’92 Kimberly d. Cook [email protected]

’93 Meghan E. [email protected]

’95 Sonya [email protected]

’96 Chad [email protected]

’97 Laura [email protected]

’98 Courtney V. [email protected]

’99 Alexander [email protected]

’00 Christopher T. [email protected]

’01 david B. [email protected]

’01 Stephen A. [email protected]

’02 Christina [email protected]

’03 Tim [email protected]

If you would like to be a class correspondent please contact director of Alumni Relations, dave donahue at [email protected] or at (609) 737–6141. your class needs you!

’03 Jen [email protected]

’04 Priya [email protected]

’05 whitney [email protected]

’05 Max [email protected]

’06 Amy [email protected]

’06 Celeste [email protected]

’06 Liz [email protected]

’07 dana [email protected]

’07 Toni Nicole [email protected]

’08 Rachel [email protected]

’08 Brittany [email protected]

’08 Marly [email protected]

’09 Sara J. [email protected]@bowdoin.edu

’09 Jacob A. [email protected]

’09 donnalie N. [email protected]@columbia.edu

’09 Alex J. [email protected]

’10 Austin d. [email protected]

’10 Madeline d. [email protected]

Don’t see your class?

In July the Trenton Times covered artist Ivia Sky yavelow’s first solo show at the Hopewell Branch of the Mercer County Library. In this exhibit, What Is A Book?, she challenged view-ers to open their minds, to let their imagina-tions run hand in hand with hers, to just have fun and be open to a new way of thinking.

Faculty • Former faculty member Larry L. Garrett of Sewickley, PA, died on December 28, 2010, at age 71. A graduate of Franklin College (IN), he earned master’s degrees from Duke university and the university of Pennsylvania. His career was in independent schools. Garrett taught English at Pennington from 1962 to 1969 and also served as director of college guidance. He

went on to teach at the Bergen School in Jer-sey City; to be headmaster of Erie (PA) Day School; and to teach upper School English and be assistant headmaster at St. Edmund’s Academy in Pittsburgh (1983–97). His sur-vivors include his brother, Lynn D. Garrett of Pine Bush, NY; a son, Brook R. Garrett of High Falls, NY; and a grandson, Samuel B. Garrett of Arnold, MD.

• José Erasmo Torres, former chair of the For-eign Language Department, died on July 30, 2010, in Washington, IA, at age 75. He taught at Pennington from 1967 to 1972. Born in Cuba, he came to the united States for high-er education, receiving his bachelor’s degree in Christian education from Asbury College and, in 1983, his doctorate in psychology from Columbia Pacific university. In addition to

teaching at Pennington, Torres taught Span-ish, history, religion, psychology, and educa-tion courses at The Park School of Baltimore, St. Edward’s School (Vero Beach, FL), Fork union (VA) Military Academy, and Trin-ity Episcopal Middle School (New orleans). He held administrative posts at some of the schools, as well. He is survived by his sister, the Rev. Marta Sanfiel, and nephew, Dr. Frank Sanfiel, both of Washington, IA. •

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In Memoriam

Michael T. Martin P’87

It is with great sadness that the Board of Trustees of The Pennington School reports the death on April 17, 2010, of Michael T. Martin, former trustee, Board president, and father of Ryan B. Martin ’87. Martin is re-membered as a thoughtful and generous man who provided the School with great leader-ship on the Board.

The Michael T. Martin Fund Financial Aid Fund, established in 1997, continues to make a Pennington education possible for promis-ing students who might not otherwise be able to attend. In addition, Pennington swim

former trusteeteams practice and compete in the Michael T. Martin Aquatic Center, a state-of-the-art swimming and diving facility renovated in 1992 through his generosity and dedicated in 1993.

Martin served on The Pennington School’s Board of Trustees from 1987 to 1996 and was its chair from 1993 to 1995. In addition to sharing his wisdom and business acumen, he was always willing to go the extra mile—liter-ally and figuratively—for the School at a criti-cal time when it was enlarging its reputation as a community of diverse learners. Martin’s support of the School also included quiet, behind-the-scenes acts of generosity.

Michael T. Martin was born on November 21, 1941, in New York City to Townsend B. Martin, a founding owner of the New York Jets, and Georgia Shanton, who died when he was five years old; his stepmother was Irene R. Martin. He was the great-grandson of Henry Phipps, a business partner of Andrew Carnegie; the Phipps family business con-tinues today as Bessemer Trust. He attended Rumson Country Day, Choate, and Rutgers.

After serving in the uS Navy, Martin became the assistant general manager of the New York

Michael T. Martin P’87

Jets. During his tenure there, the Jets won the Super Bowl in 1969. In 1974, he was named vice president and director of football opera-tions of the World Football League. At age 34, he became the youngest general manager in professional sports when he was appointed vice president and general manager of the New York Cosmos of the North American Soccer League. under his leadership, the Cos-mos won NASL crowns in 1977 and 1980.

Martin was a consultant to international sports marketing companies and founded his own business, SportsMark Inc., in 1990. owner of Michael T. Martin Racing Stable, he served on the board of the New York Thor-oughbred Horsemen’s Association and was its president from 1994 to 1997. Pennington was only one of the numerous nonprofit organiza-tions to which he devoted time and resources, and he served on many boards, as well.

Martin is survived by his wife, Jean Meyer; his sons, Christopher and Ryan ’87; his step-daughter, Kathleen Hunt; and seven grand-children. The Pennington School community extends sympathy to the family; we share their loss. •

• with sadness we list members of the Pennington family who have recently died.

Vincent Michael Cooper, Sr. '75Lois Sortor P'77

G. Donald Miller P'82, former headmasterMichael T. Martin P'87, former trustee

Bernard L. Hoffman P'84 '89Scott W. Cook '94

James M. Buchanan P'01Bernice Jester GP'02 '05 '09

Rodney G. Jones ’34Henry Randolph Brokaw ’43

Howard E. Boyer, Jr. ’61Ernest R. Lamont ’61Lawrence A. Lobel ’62Lloyd G. Chattin P'71John Zuccarelli P'72Peter J. Cerenzo ’74

IN mEmOrIAmMarjorie K. Berger GP'02 '05 '09

James F. Shea GP'05 '07Helene Z. Seeman P'10

Sang Duk Yang P'13John C. Plimpton P'14 '16

Larry L. Garrett, former facultyJose E. Torres, former faculty


Dr. G. Donald Miller P’82 former headmasterFormer Pennington Headmaster G. Donald Miller died Nov. 28, 2010, of a stroke, follow-ing several years of suffering with Alzheimer’s disease. He had been living in Hudson, FL.

Miller came to Pennington as headmaster in 1978. A native of New Rochelle, NY, he had spent most of his life in New Hampshire. He held an A.B. degree from Dartmouth College and a master’s degree from Middlebury Col-lege. Just prior to assuming the headmaster-ship at Pennington, he completed his Ph.D. degree in educational administration at the university of Michigan.

Miller’s career in independent schools began in 1959, when he became chairman of the English department and publicity director at St. Mary’s-in-the-Mountains (later known as The White Mountain School) in Littleton, NH. In 1965 he moved to Tulsa, oK, where

● ● ● ● ● ● ● In Memoriam

he had similar roles as English department chairman combined with oversight of publica-tions, public relations, and the alumni fund. In 1972, he became headmaster of The Valley School in Flint, MI, the position he held before coming to Pennington.

Miller served Pennington from 1978 to 1990, one of the most difficult periods in its history. It was he who led the School through the aftermath of the 1980 fire that destroyed o’Hanlon Hall. He oversaw the construc-tion of Stainton Hall and Buck Hall (at first called “New Dorm”), as well as other campus housing.

Miller is survived by his wife of 52 years, Lori; his sons, Donald Jeffrey and Charles Brian ’82; his brother, Kenneth; and his six grand-children. •

ABOVE Dr. G. Donald Miller P’82

BELOw Faculty member emeritus Terrence Burns and Dr. Miller at Commencement in the 1980s.

ABOVE Dr. Miller, congratulating Homecoming Queen Kim Ellis ’89 and King Ted Morton ’89 in 1988 .


Honoring those who supportThe Pennington Schoolthrough bequests, charitable

trusts, and other lifetime giftsFrancisHarveyGreenSociety

TheGiving Back

A planned gift to Pennington indicates a commitment to the long-term success of the School. These gifts, generally made through bequests

and trusts, will create a very strong cornerstone for the future ofPennington.

Gifts to the Francis Harvey Green Society can help:

• Advance the School and its mission• Ensure the continued financial strength of the School• Provide future generations of students with an

exceptional learning experience

Many loyal supporters of the School have chosen to join the Francis Harvey Green Society. There is no minimum contribution—just the

desire to participate in Pennington’s future.

If you have an interest in learning more about the Francis Harvey Green Society and how you can make a gift to the School that will last a lifetime, please contact Maggie Kelly at 609–727–6126 or

via email at [email protected].

Planned Giving at PenningtonYou have the opportunity to help

ensure our future success.

Dr. Francis Harvey Green was headmaster of The Pennington School from 1920 to 1943, making his administration the second longest in Pen-nington history.

Dr. Green’s legacy to Pennington encompassed far more than the letters, manuscripts, and books he presented to the School on his retiremnt. His legacy lives on in the commitment to academic excellence and respect for each individual that was his hallmark as a teacher and administrator. In order to perpetuate his good work, the Francis Harvey Green Society was created to provide for The Pennington School’s future through planned giving. The Society recognizes those who have made a provision for the School in their estate plans and encourages others to consider similar gifts. Francis Harvey Green Society members have made gift commitments that will help to keep the School vibrant and growing for many years to come.

Who wasFrancis Harvey Green

on December 4th 510 pancakes were eaten?

on December 15th one boy ate 22 pancakes?

on october 16th a certain table ate only 73 of these delicacies?

The reason more cakes haven’t been eaten at one sitting is the batter runs out?

We eat in one day: 75 loaves of bread? 190 quarts of milk? 25 pounds of butter? 3 bushels of potatoes? 35 quarts of ice cream? 4 bushels of spinach? 25 pies? 3 whole lambs? 1 whole calf? 45 lbs. of bacon? 70 lbs. of sausage? 70 lbs. of scrapple? 45 lbs. of wieners? 400 pork chops? 120 lbs. of pork? 160 lbs. of turkey? 100 lbs. of chicken king? 400 patty shells?

FlashBack1940to

2500 books in our library?853 records in Mr. W. o. Rarich’s

collection?89 songs in the “Red Book” written

by Dr. Green?786 stones in Dr. Green’s garden?23 tables in the dining room with 7

persons at each?70 or more trains go past in a day?$1,670 is the cost of Mr. Rarich’s records?Mr. Rarich wishes he had a car, but can’t

have that and the above?

There are20 on the faculty?2 with false teeth?Very few who don’t smoke?9 married, 11 unmarried (2 engaged) teachers?7 teachers who have been here ten years or more?4 Pontiac, 3 Plymouth, and 6 Chevrolet cars among

the faculty?Dr. Green is 80 years young on May 19th?Dr. Green became headmaster of this school 20 years

ago December 15, 1920?Mr. Wright is 6 feet 4 inches tall?Mr. Dodds is only 6 feet 5 inches tall?“Shorty” the chef is only 6 feet ½ inch tall?

There are163 in the entire student body?9 states represented: 33 from Pennsylvania? 27 from New York? 80 from New Jersey? 1 from Mississippi? 1 from Maryland? 1 from Georgia? 2 from Delaware? 1 from Connecticut? 1 from Arkansas?3 countries represented: 2 from England? 3 from Dutch West Indies? 2 from Venezuela?4 ministers in the making?0 with more than ten thousand dollars?4 children with parents on the faculty?4 Junior G-men?23 Catholic, 34 Presbyterian, and 72

Methodist boys?

There are233 school days?75 hours in study hall as punishment

for “looking at the stars”?2 weeks in a suspension term?15 classrooms?Pennington School is in its 103rd year

of existence?our chapel can seat 400 people?A person climbs 72 steps to get from

the basement floor to Lindbergh hall?

We had 37 days of vacation?

school

faculty

stuff

students

food

Did you know that...

This is an excerpt from a Pennington School publicationproduced in 1940 by an unknown author who ended it with

these last two facts the reader might or might not know:

That it is time for me to take a shower and shave, so I can go to church?That’s all there is. Hope you liked it.

u.S. History I students enjoyed meeting General Washington (Bill Agress P'13) and a Pennsylvania Rifleman (Paul Donahue) on Thursday, December 16. The reenactors were on hand to answer questions about the “crucial ten days” of the American Revolution—the battles of Trenton and Princeton—and to demonstrate the equipment and weapons used by continental soldiers during the war against the British.

A day in the Life...

THE PENNINGToN SCHooL112 West Delaware AvenuePennington, NJ 08534

www.PENNINGTON.ORG

pennington magazine, winter 2011

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