spring 2015 hst web

THE SNOW WAS DEEP THIS YEAR FOR OUT BACK, AND MSR SNOWSHOES WERE ESSENTIAL EQUIPMENT FOR THE JUNIORS. WHILETHEY OFTEN USE ESTABLISHED TRAILS THROUGHOUT THE WHITE MOUNTAINS, THE STUDENTS ALSO BUSHWHACK AND BLAZE THEIR

OWN TRAILS, NOT ONLY LEARNING CRUCIAL SURVIVAL SKILLS BUT ALSO DEVELOPING AN APPRECIATION FOR MOTHER NATURE.

NONPROFITUS POSTAGE

P A I DLEWISTON, MEPERMIT NO. 82

CHAPEL LANE PO BOX 1879 PLYMOUTH, NH 03264-1879

INSIDE:r Filling the VW Bugr Special Programs 2015r Catching Up with Martha Kesler

Holderness School Spring 2015 Holderness School Today magazine. Flat size is 11.0 inches tall by 18.19 inches wide (includes 0.19 inches for perfect-bound spine); folded size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide. Artwork prints in four-color process and bleeds all four sides. Cover artwork; Cover IV and Cover I.

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HOLDERNESS SCHO

OL TO

DAYTHE M

AGAZINE OF HO

LDERNESS SCHOO

L SPRING 2015

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I’M TRUE BLUE

ARE YOU TRUE BLUE?

ARTWARD BOUND OFFERS HOLDERNESS STUDENTS THE OPPORTUNITY TO COLLABORATE WITH SOME PRETTYAMAZING ARTISTS, INCLUDING DANCER AND CHOREOGRAPHER LISA TRAVIS, WHO ALSO TEACHES BALLET FORATHLETES DURING THE SCHOOL YEAR. ON THE HAGERMAN STAGE LISA WORKS WITH A GROUP OF SOPHOMORESTO CREATE A DANCE SEQUENCE THEY WILL PERFORM FOR THEIR CLASSMATES LATER IN THE PROGRAM.

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Holderness School Spring 2015 Holderness School Today magazine. Flat size is 11.0 inches tall by 18.19 inches wide (includes 0.19 inches for perfect-bound spine); folded size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide. Artwork prints in four-color process and bleeds all four sides. Cover artwork; Cover II and Cover III.

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Special Programs 2015During Special Programs, the world becomes their classroom asHolderness students take the time to test their strengths andweaknesses in sometimes very novel situations. The results arealways impressive, and sometimes life-altering.6

24

Catching Up with Martha KeslerFor many, Martha Kesler is synonymous with Hagerman theaterproductions. The life and laughter she brought to the the stagepropelled many into theatrical careers and left the rest of usculturally enriched. BY RICK CAREY

F E AT U R E S14 Filling the VW Bug

If you were to drive across country in a VW bug, who would you invite to travel withyou? It’s a rhetorical question members of the Holderness admission team oftenask as they go about the difficult task of selecting new students to invite into thecommunity. Their answers are rarely simple or straight-forward. BY RICK CAREY

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Board of Trustees

Sandeep AlvaJonathan BaumGrace Macomber BirdChristopher Carney ’75, TreasurerRussell Cushman ’80The Rev. Randolph Dales, SecretaryVictoria FreiNigel FurlongeTracy McCoy Gillette ’89, Alumni

Association PresidentDouglas Griswold ’66Robert HallJames Hamblin II ’77, ChairpersonJan HauserThe Right Rev. Robert Hirschfeld,

PresidentRobert Kinsley ’88Richard NesbittPeter NordblomSusan Paine ’82R. Phillip PeckThomas Phillips ’75Jake Reynolds ’86Ian Sanderson ’79Andrew Sawyer ’79Jenny Seeman ’88Harry SheehyGary SpiessPoppy Staub ’85Jerome Thomas ’95Sander van Otterloo ’94

HEADMASTER EMERITUSThe Rev. Brinton W. Woodward, Jr.

HONORARY TRUSTEESWarren C. CookPiper Orton ’74W. Dexter Paine III ’79Will Prickett ’81

Holderness School Today is published three times ayear by Penmor Lithographers. Please send noticeof address changes to the Advancement Office,PO Box 1879, Plymouth, NH 03264, or [email protected]. © 2013 Holderness School

EDITOR: Emily Magnus ’88EDITOR EMERITUS: Jim BrewerASSISTANT EDITORS: Rick Carey, Robert Caldwell,

Stacy Lopes, Lauraine Paquin, Judith Solberg,Courtney Williamson, Amy Woods, ClayDingman

DESIGN AND PRODUCTION: Clay Dingman, BarkingCat Productions Communications Design

PHOTOGRAPHY: Emily Magnus, Ken Hamilton, LieslMagnus ’17, Minh Tran ’16

Holderness School Today is printed on sustainablyproduced, chain-of-custody stock certified toForest Stewardship Council (FSC) standards. HST isprinted using only wind-generated renewablepower, and inks derived from vegetable sources.

ON THE FRONT COVER: During Artward Bound, stu-dents often have the opportunity to throw potson a potter’s wheel. Here, sophomores LoganKilfoyle and Brendan O’Hara take on the chal-lenge of forming the sides of a ceramic bowl.

D E PA RT M E N T S

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From the Schoolhouse

From the Editor

03264: Letters to HST

Around the Quad

Sports

Update: Former Faculty and Staff

Alumni Events: Gatherings

Alumni in the News

At This Point in Time

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Second Visits not only coincide with one ofmy favorite times of the year, they also occurduring my favorite time in our admission cycle.In early April our campus sheds its wintercoat, and our community returns from Marchbreak with a sense of renewal and optimismthat only spring can bring. It is during thistime that we welcome our prospective familiesand provide a window into the Holdernessexperience. Our students readily greet everyonewith a smile and a handshake, and our teacherspassionately discuss our intentional approachto programs that support both the studentsand the community.

Through it all, the emphasis is deliberatelyplaced on the people. Our greatest asset, afterall, is the extensive group of people who liveand learn here.

Beautiful facilities are no doubt important,but the people and programs that grow andthrive within them are paramount. We havepurposefully built, and continue to build, anurturing community to support those whoembody our values and mission. Whether it’srecruiting faculty, or cultivating the next gener-ation of Holderness families through theadmission process, or choosing our supportstaff, we focus on the dynamic relationshipsthat sustain both the individuals and thegroups within the community.

As you read through this issue ofHolderness School Today, you will not only gaininsight into our admission process, you willalso see the very tangible results of our com-mitment to getting that process, as well as theprocess of building our community, right.Remember the one and only Martha Kesler?Does the name Warren Witherell sound famil-iar? Their stories and the very strongrelationships they built with the Holdernesscommunity are within these pages.

And who are the teachers of this generationwho are building community one lesson at atime? You can read about the meaningful les-sons Kelsey Berry and Tyler Cabot are

teaching their Research Methods students, andhow these lessons are later applied within ourSenior Thesis program. We also hope you’llread about Maggie Mumford and VickyStigum’s students; in the stem Energy coursethis fall, they presented several photovoltaicproposals for our hockey rink to our renewableenergy consultants, making facilities construc-tion into a hands-on academic experience!Plus, I hope you’ll enjoy the fun and heart-warming piece about the annual bowtie party,an event inspired by Doc Overaker. This yearover students and faculty, both male andfemale, cheerfully mastered the finer points of

this often-maligned accessory. It was truly acommunity effort!

As always, we hope you finish reading thisHolderness School Today inspired by the waysin which we are both dynamically moving for-ward and nurturing the core values, people,and programs that make Holderness trulyHolderness.

Phil PeckHead of School

SPRING 2015 | HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY 3

FROM THE SCHOOLHOUSE

Our Greatest Asset

Building community isn’t always about writing mission statements and designing new programs.

Sometimes, it’s simply about doing what needs to be done in the moment. During the Cheri Walsh

Memorial Eastern Cup race in February, Head of School Phil Peck shed his formal attire, pulled on

his old coaching jacket, and waxed skis. In the above picture, Mr. Peck delivers the perfectly

prepared skis to the start for the Holderness team.

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4 HOLDERNESS SCHOOL TODAY | SPRING 2015

A few nights ago, I ate dinner in a bar wheretelevisions aired national sports competitions inevery corner. The bright screens and flashingcolors at first annoyed me, inevitably drawingmy attention away from the conversation I wastrying to have with the real person across thetable. But when my companion excused himselfto go to the restroom, I allowed myself to bepulled into the world on the screen. It was awomen’s basketball game between Harvard andYale. Exciting, yes; but for me the game quicklybecame secondary to what was happening onthe sidelines. While the players continued tofocus on the hoops at either end of the court,my attention turned to the way in which thegame was being recorded. Where were the pho-tographers? How many of them were there?Were they taking stills or video? What storieswere they trying to capture that weren’t imme-diately obvious to me?

As director of publications I am constantlyscanning my life, and the lives of those aroundme, for possible angles and perspectives. The

world coalesces into headlines and snapshots.When Holderness installed a wood floor in thegym a couple years ago, I am sure the basketballplayers were excited for the feel of real woodunderfoot—the grip on their shoes, the slightlydifferent bounce of the ball. But for me, thepale color of the wood and the reflective sur-face of the finish meant more ambient light,which in turn meant higher shutter speeds andlower isos. In other words, I’d be able to getsharper images. And the change in the cross-country running course? While it meant amore challenging trail for the racers, for me itwas all about the number of times the runnerswould loop through the field for photo ops.More time in the dark woods translated intofewer opportunities to catch the concentrationon their faces and the late fall sun shadowingtheir muscles.

Then there are the words and conversationsthat work in tandem with the photos I take.What words can I use to convey the simpleexuberance of the freestyle skiers? And how canI describe the respect and awe I feel toward ouralumni and their accomplishments?

Fortunately, I don’t always have to do it onmy own – particularly this winter, when wediscovered new sources for news. In an alumninewsletter that went out last fall, Director ofAlumni and Parent Relations Amy Woods putout a request for writers who have stories thatthey want to share, about the school or other-wise. While we didn’t receive an overwhelmingresponse (this was actually a good thing!), wereceived enough to begin a short list of storiesabout Holderness and the greater community.They are the stories of our alumni and friends,told in their own words—reflecting the historyof the school and the lives that have beenchanged by Holderness. The first of these sto-ries is found on page , written by DickConant ’ about his hiking experiences inretirement. A master storyteller, Dick hasadded color and detail to the fabric of the

Holderness story. Look for additional stories byalumni in upcoming issues.

Then there’s Instagram—snap a picture andinstantly your followers proclaim theirapproval. While my daughter and her friendshave been on Instagram for well over a year, thegenerational gap and the learning curve at firstdidn’t seem worth overcoming. But in January Idecided to give it a try, and have found itaddicting. I love the minimalistic approach thatInstagram requires and the challenge of select-ing just the right perspective, one that willemotionally connect Holderness alumni,friends, and families with the school.

Connecting. Storytelling. That’s my job.Find an angle, a turn of phrase, a perspectivethat connects, if only for a moment. The toolsjust keep getting better, and I am so excited toinvolve alumni and friends in the process aswell. Thanks for helping me tell the stories ofHolderness.

By the way, if you are interested in seeingour posts on Instagram, you can follow us atHoldernesstoday.

Emily Adriance Magnus ’Editor, Holderness School [email protected]

FROM THE EDITOR

The Tools of a Modern Storyteller

On the job at the Plymouth State hockey arena.


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03264: LETTERS TO HST

Please Forgive MeOn page of the Summer issue ofHolderness School Today, your excellent articleon the Kingston family is titled “The KingstonDynasty.” On the same page appears a photo-graph of the three Kingston brothers, referredto as, “three great amigos.” Would it have beenthat much of an editorial disaster to refer tothem as “The Kingston Trio”?

Please don’t mind me. Just another long-retired alumni (class of , John Kingston’sclass) with far too much time on my hands!

Bill Lofquist ’

A Connecting FlightSo, the family and I spent Thanksgiving inNorth Conway with my brother and his family.As we were boarding the plane in San Diego toget there, the first mate asked Maggie, our threeyear old, where we were headed, and sheproudly exclaimed, “New Hampshire.” Well,that seemed to perk him up a bit, and he askeda few questions, probing what our tie to NewHampshire was. I told him that I had gone toschool there, and he, of course, asked whichone. As the family and I were being usheredfurther into the cabin by the line of travelersbehind us, I said “Holderness,” to which hereplied, “So did I.”

We proceeded to the back of the plane, ourthree seats making up the second to last row,and settled in. The plane filled up, and thecabin door ultimately closed. As we taxied outto the runway, a flight attendant came back toour row, handed us Eric Prime’s ’ businesscard, and told us that he had told her to takecare of us. She then allowed us to spread outacross the entire empty row behind us (theonly empty seats on the plane), brought freemovie players for each of us, and then, through-out the flight, offered us complimentary foodand drinks.

When we landed and deplaned, Eric waitedfor us, and we had a friendly chat as we made

our way to baggage claim. I must say, despitethe five-hour drive through the snow that nightto North Conway (did New Hampshire forgethow to plow?), that was the most pleasant trav-el experience I have ever had with my wife andtwo daughters under the age of three.

Kevin Meier ’

Missing from the Strategic PlanI just finished reading the Winter Holderness School Today magazine which Ienjoyed very much. I am writing to add mytwo cents regarding the discussion of theStrategic Plan.

I am currently the Director of HumanResources for a non-profit in VT, focused onproviding alternative educational options foradults outside of traditional K– systems.What I saw missing from the Strategic Plandiscussion was any mention of the need to

attract and retain excellent employees. The mis-sion and vision that have been identified will beinterpreted and reinforced by the employeeswith whom the students have contact.

What made my time at Holderness memo-rable was not the facilities or the food, it wasthe extraordinary teachers who conducted myclasses, coached my teams, and played the roleof my dorm parents. I believe the StrategicPlan needs to acknowledge that the employeesneeded to make the plan successful have uniquequalities and attributes. Specific efforts andresources are required to attract and retain theemployees you need.

The fabric of Holderness has always beenand will continue to be made up by the peoplewho work there. They need to be a focal pointof the Strategic Plan. Thanks for listening.

Robert “Luke” Dowley ’

Letters from Across the Decades

In honor of Out Back, Ged Smith ’71 emailed us and shared the above photo and this explanation:

“Dug this up on my computer this morning, and I thought you would get a laugh out of seeing [Bill]

Clough and me. Oh, and I don’t know if the tradition continued, but we built those pack frames

ourselves!” EDITOR’S NOTE: Thanks for the photo, Ged. The students no longer build their packs;

instead, aluminum frame packs are passed down from year to year.


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Scenes from Special Programs 2015


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Scenes from Special Programs 2015

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An Out Back group on Signal Ridge onehalf mile from the summit of MountCarrigain (elevation 4,700 feet) in thePemigewasset Wilderness of the WhiteMountain National Forest.



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t was April, 2014, and the three-by-five-foot photos were like flags raised

against winter: brilliant green-grass andblue-sky images of the Holderness campusin spring perched on stakes on the brickterrace in front of Livermore Hall, above thesnow that blanketed the baseball field, andagainst the still-cold bricks of Weld Hall.

They hadn’t been easy to install. A lateblizzard had buried central New Hampshireunder two feet of snow. Tony LeMenager’smaintenance crews had had to drill screwholes into the bricks of Weld and dig post-holes into the icy snowbanks lining thecampus paths. Emily Magnus ’88 andCourtney Williamson—the school’s directorof publications and its director of strategicmarketing and communciations, respective-ly—stared in wonder out the windows ofLivermore as the photos were raised. “Thisis wacky,” Emily said.

But it was the weekend of Second Visits,that time when the families of newly admit-ted students—students who have oftenbeen admitted to several other independ-ent schools as well, some much farthersouth—come back for another look beforemaking their fateful decisions. And Directorof Enrollment Management Tyler Lewis hadrefused to cave in to the weather. Even if itwas only through the keyholes of theseposters ruffling in the wind, these kids andtheir parents were going to see what thecampus usually looks like in spring.

Emily wasn’t alone in her surprise. Manyothers wondered if Tyler had been pouring

bourbon into his coffee. “But once theywere all in place, well—it was brilliant,” saidEmily. “There was nothing that could haveso effectively illustrated who we are andwhat life at Holderness is like—a sense offun and whimsy, our willingness to makedo with whatever we’ve got, and our com-mitment to community and making ourguests feel welcome.”

Tyler has been at Holderness since2006, and his approach to his work in theAdmission Office has always representedthe school well, emphasizing its commit-ment to community. But recently, with ashift in his title—from director of admissionto director of enrollment management—hisfocus has been renewed. In part it’s toreflect one of the goals that he has set forhis department: not just to admit new stu-dents, but also to ensure that Holdernessfollows through on its promises and thatnew students stick around to becomealumni. Hence, “enrollment management.”

And in part it’s also to emphasize hisresponsibility to this primary value of “com-munity.” In fact, during the school’s mostrecent round of strategic planning—and inan accompanying debate on Holderness’score values—Tyler argued, successfully, infavor of including Community amongst thevalues. Ultimately, the final draft boileddown to these simple three: Community,Character, and Curiosity.

Now it’s the task of Tyler and theAdmission staff to find young men andwomen who answer positively to all three of

those virtues, and to ensure that they preferHolderness to all places where the grassmight reliably be greener in April. Arguably,it’s a tougher job now than it’s ever been.Weather is the least of their worries.

WAITING FOR THE PHONE TO RINGWell, it was never easy, but Pete Barnum,who served as the school’s director ofadmissions from 1981 to 2006, rememberswhen the job was simpler.

“Real estate was booming in the ’80sand ’90s, the economy was much stronger,people had more discretionary income,and if I remember right, our boarding stu-dent tuition in my first year was $5,865,”Pete says. “It used to be the rule of thumbin independent schools that your tuitionshould be around the cost of a Ford Taurusstation wagon. Look at us now—today itcosts a Lexus.”

Marketing, by necessity, was chieflyword-of-mouth. Only the most endowment-rich independent schools could affordprint, radio, or television advertising.“Somebody would contact us, and we’dsend a letter, make a telephone call,” Peterecalls. “We used the same school cata-logue for about twenty years. After a visit,we’d send them a thank you note, and aChristmas card. We used the same accept-ance letter, I think, for all the time I ran thatoffice. We had a blue piece of plywoodhung on the wall of our office in Livermore.It was a map of America stuck full of pinswith the names of kids and their grades,

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IT’S NOT ENOUGH FOR AN ADMISSION OFFICER AT A SCHOOL

like Holderness to find enough applicants; though in today’s

environment, that’s hard enough. It’s all in who you find, and

then who chooses to come. BY RICK CAREY

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and that was our data bank for where ourapplicants were coming from.”

There were open houses, and sometravel, and visits to regular feeder schoolsand placement consultants, along with theoccasional alumni event that could be pig-gybacked into a recruiting effort as well.But Pete had a slim budget and a smallstaff, who mostly had to wait and hope thatthe phone would ring.

That it rang so often was both a testa-ment to the school’s good word-of-mouthreputation and the work done once thephone did ring. They operated out ofsunny offices on the bottom floor ofLivermore, where a hospitable Labrador

Retriever or two helped give kids the feel-ing that they were visiting a friendlyrelative’s home.

And what sort of student were theyhoping would come pet those dogs? Inspeaking once to a group of parents, Petefound a metaphor that summed it up nicely,and that has since become part of schoolculture. “We’re looking for the sort of kid,”Pete said, “with whom you could climb intoa VW Bug and drive with him, or her, cross-country. And the important thing is that atthe end of the trip you’d still be friends.”

Good grades and high SSAT scores?Sure, that helped. Potentially a runningback for Norm Walker’s football teams, or

a forward for Marty Elkins’s field hockeysquads? Not an impediment, no more thanit would be anywhere else, in a marketwhere good athletics command publicattention. But the trump-all criteria layburied in that cross-country travel sce-nario: crucially, a young person high in EQ,the acronym that would be later attachedto what psychologist Daniel Goleman calls“emotional intelligence.” Another way toput it? A good Community member, wellstocked with Character and Curiosity.

By the 1980s, things were looking up atHolderness. Pete Woodward—who hadbecome headmaster in 1978—had deftlytransformed the Holderness School for

Pete Barnum, whose original vision for the Admission Office remains in place today.


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FILLING THE VW BUG


Boys into a coed school. That decadeended with a successful capital campaign,and the ’90s would end with a second suchcampaign. These campaigns would retiredebt that Holderness had carried almostsince its founding, and would build anendowment that would reach $27 millionby the time of Pete’s retirement in 2001.

At the same time, college and inde-pendent school tuitions everywhere werealso on their way up, under pressure fromsoaring health care and energy costs, ris-ing insurance premiums, and increasedemphasis in the marketplace on large andhandsome facilities. As Holderness tuitionbegan its own upward climb, PeteBarnum’s financial aid budget rose as well,but there was always a heartbreaking limitto the dollars in that bucket. And this wasthe part of his job that Pete never foundeasy or simple: inviting kids of splendidcharacter and curiosity, but scant familyresources, into that VW Bug, and not hav-ing enough financial aid money for them toafford to climb in.

“On average, about 25 percent of ourenrollment received financial aid,” Petesays. “The money we had went awfully fastamong all the families that came in withgreat kids, wonderful kids, but not a lot ofmoney in the bank.”

Then, once the acceptances (andrejections) had gone out, there was thatanxious period during which Pete and hisstaff awaited word—especially after SecondVisits—on who among those acceptanceswould really come to Holderness. “I

remember not sleeping very well duringthe weeks between March 10 and April 10,”Pete says, “wondering how all the dustwould settle.”

Year after year, though, the dust settledpretty neatly with just enough high-EQkids. “When Pete Barnum left that work in2006, he did so as one of the most respect-ed admission officers in New England,” saysPhil Peck. “And I was so fortunate in myfirst years as head of school to have hadthe benefit of his experience and counsel.”

Pete, for his part, had the benefit ofgetting out just ahead of the GreatRecession, when all the boom went out ofthe economy.

THE GAME CHANGERS American independent schools began asplaces for the economic elite to send theirchildren—which made Holderness, foundedin 1879 for the benefit of the sons of cler-gymen and others of modest means, sucha radical experiment for its time. Duringthe postwar boom of the ’50s and ’60s,however, nearly all such schools becameaffordable to the Ford-driving middle class.

In 1963, for example, the US censusreported a median income of $9,300 forfamilies with one or both parents college-educated. That might not seem like much,but the cost of tuition, room, and board atan Ivy League school—Harvard, let’s say—was only $2,620, and at Holderness only$2,500. These sticker prices were lessthan that of an economical Ford Falconwagon, and soon both colleges and inde-

pendent schools were dependent on themiddle class for a substantial part of theirenrollments.

This partnership came under strain, ofcourse, as school costs rose and as middleclass income growth substantially slowed.With the real estate bubble and crash of2008, that income growth, stagnant since1980, went negative, and remains so.

Which has been a game changer for inde-pendent school admission officers. “The jobis more complex and challenging now thanit’s ever been,” says Andy Hirt, the directorof member relations at The Association ofBoarding Schools (TABS). “And the competi-tion is fiercer.” In fact, Head of School PhilPeck was sobered to hear at a TABS confer-ence last fall that nowadays a mere one halfof one percent of American families areapplying to boarding schools.

However, a report from the NationalAssociation of Independent Schools (NAIS)includes something surprising: “The board-ing school funnel shows demandstrengthening in the past ten years.”Where is the strengthening demand com-ing from? Look overseas, where theword-of-mouth reputation of Americanboarding schools remains as good as gold.

Here at Holderness, meanwhile, thenumber of students receiving financial aidhas nearly doubled since Pete Barnum’stime, with 23.5 percent of the school budg-et now earmarked for financial aid. Harshpoverty is not a requirement, since theaverage grant now is for 67 percent of thecost of tuition—meaning that the school

“WE’RE LOOKING FOR THE SORT OF KID,” PETE SAID, “WITH WHOMYOU COULD CLIMB INTO A VW BUG AND DRIVE WITH HIM, OR HER,CROSS-COUNTRY. AND THE IMPORTANT THING IS THAT AT THE ENDOF THE TRIP YOU’D STILL BE FRIENDS.”


continues to try to attract and supportmiddle-class families.

Yet the total number of families applyingfor financial aid has fallen—as it has acrossthe nation. “It seems like a lot of families arejust assuming they can’t get enough fund-ing,” says Associate Director of Admission

Nancy Dalley, who is also Director ofFinancial Aid. “And so they stay away. Theynever even look into the process.”

Not only have applications for financialaid fallen at all boarding schools, so hasoverall yield, with accepted students lesslikely than ever to enroll. So even as

demand has been sustained, or strength-ened, thanks to international applicants,demand as a whole, reports the NAIS, “iscoming from less qualified applicants, fewermission-appropriate kids, and/or growth ininternational applicants who aren’t reallyadmissible or fully ready to commit.”

SELF-STUDYSo with qualified, mission-appropriate kidsharder to find than ever before for schoolsacross the nation, what’s a little school waynorth of Boston to do? For Tyler Lewis andhis admission staff, it meant doing a bit ofresearch and self-reflection.

“We looked around—and up—at schoolswe respect and admire,” says Tyler. “Schoolswith solid programs, reputations, and mis-sions, and we gathered critical data abouttheir operations: workload, staff size, attri-tion and yield, the size of their financial aidbudget, et cetera.”

That sort of external survey was fol-lowed by an internal self-study. The wholeadmission process was broken down intoeleven interrelated components—market-ing, technology, office space, travel, thefamily visit, and more—and then thestrengths and weaknesses of each atHolderness were candidly laid out duringa full-day retreat.

Tyler also solicited feedback on hisdepartment and its work from trustees,from the school’s administrative team, andfrom outside consultants and visitingplacement officers. In 2013 Andy Hirt ofTABS was then admission director atMassachusetts’s Brooks School, and Tylerinvited him to come to Holderness in Mayof that year. Andy spent two days on cam-pus, interviewed a number of constituents,and provided a lengthy report on what hesaw and recommended.

There was more: accepted studentswere surveyed on why they choseHolderness, and the parents of “attrits”—students who leave school before

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Tyler Lewis, director of enrollment management, Holderness Admission, with Baxter, chief dog.


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graduating—were interviewed about whathad gone wrong. “They’re an especiallygood source of information,” says Tyler,“on the extent to which our productmatches up with our promises.”

At the same time, Tyler—encouraged byPhil Peck and Board Chair Jim Hamblin ’77—composed his own vision of what wasneeded for the office to move forwardover the next five to ten years. At last heand his staff gathered that and all thefeedback and data they had collected intoa strategic plan that plugged like an exter-nal power source into the school’s overallstrategic plan.

“A great benefit of the process was thatwe were able to incorporate a lot of whatwe learned into our planning and dailywork as we went along,” Tyler says.“However, many of the strategies are muchlonger-range, and will serve as goals to pur-sue beyond the plan’s five-year window.”

PIXELS AND BYTESOne thing that’s obviously different in thisnew era of admission work is the role ofcommunication technology in marketing.No longer is getting the word out a matterof expensive space in print media or timein broadcast media. The internet and socialmedia have opened up a whole newworld—but one that’s not only ferociouslycompetitive, but balkanized into a myriadof discrete audiences, each requiring a dif-ferent method and strategy to reach.

One of Andy Hirt’s recommendationswas for Holderness to become more activeand aggressive in digital marketing, andthis is just what’s being accomplished withthe help of Courtney Williamson, who washired in 2012. An avenue such as email, forexample, means no more waiting for thetelephone to ring in the Admission Office;instead the school can take the initiativeand know just who to contact.

“Thanks to the fact that Nancy Dalley issuch a meticulous database person, we

can pull very specific lists of names towhich to send emails,” says Courtney.“Nancy and Erin Colon—the new assistantdirector of financial aid—can do queriesthat let us send tailored emails to girlsfrom Iowa, or to boys who love hockey, orto moms who live near Stowe, Vermont—and we never again have to devise aone-size-fits-all message.”

Nor are these your grandfather’semails—well, even your older brother’s,let’s say. “Not only do we do more email,it’s of a higher storytelling quality,”Courtney adds. “Now we use HTML emailsthat have our school’s shield and colors onthem, that feature pictures and includelinks to our website. The idea is to createsomething captivating and enjoyable tolook at and read.”

Communication is also flowing in bothdirections across Facebook and Twitter,and the school is advertising in those ven-ues as well. In addition, Courtney ispurchasing keywords in Google’s newAdwords program—which ensures thatwithin the right zip codes, when a certain

word is included in a user’s search termson Google (“skiing,” for example), then aHolderness ad appears with the results,and of course the ad contains an easy linkto the website.

Where previously there was no easyway to measure the effectiveness of a printad, Courtney can avail herself of a wealthof data on the impact of these forays. “Wecan see, if we send out an email, how manypeople opened it and what links theyclicked,” says Courtney. “I can see whatare the average times emails get opened,which helps me know when to send them.With Google Adwords, I can know the age,region, and gender of who sees our adsonline, and I know the sites they visit whenthey see our ads. I can tell if my advertis-ing dollars are effective.”

The data is instructive not only aboutdemographics, but message content. In anemail last August, for example, Courtneyincluded a link to “Holdersense,” a stu-dent-managed Tumblr blog about theschool’s dress code: “And it was the most

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Livermore Hall, the home of Admission.

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ADMISSION FOUR POINTSThe “Four Points” project was a response to the need for printed materials that were as unique and

intentional as the personal connections students and families experience when they visit campus. We

picked four key moments in the application cycle and designed printed collateral that could deliver a

sense of personality and community into the hands and homes of our prospective students.

1. INQUIRY: VIEWBOOKWhen a young person (or mom or dad) first reaches out to us—by email, online,at a fair, on the phone, or even by dropping by—he or she receives a viewbook.We pack as much information about our academics, sports, faculty, campus, res-idence halls, and co-curriculars as possible into this vivid, visual booklet.

2. VISIT: COLLECTOR’S CARDSThese provide fun and useful bits of information. A ninth-grader from Alaskareceives a card with tips on travel to Holderness that doubles as a postcard he orshe can send home. A tenth-grader from Thailand receives a greeting in CentralThai, as well as an FAQ for international students. A student interested in STEMreceives a waterproof card with equations used in the school’s biology wet labs.

3. ADMITTED: NOTIFICATION PACKET“The answer is yes!” Our notification packet exudes enthusiasm. Admitted stu-dents receive folders that feature a quintessential campus scene and open towelcoming photos of students, a packet of stickers, a personal letter from thedirector of admission, an invitation to Second Visits, and, of course, the paper-work needed to accept our invitation to attend Holderness.

4. OPENING DAY: CARE PACKAGEThe first few hours on campus can be intimidating, no matter how great the fit.New students are greeted by house and floor leaders and given a box that holdstheir Opening Day t-shirts and arrival paperwork. It’s a cheerful gift, and it dou-bles as storage for new keys, schedules, notes, handbooks, and other items thatpile up in new dorm rooms during those exciting first weeks.


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ADMISSION VISITS 2013–14NATIONALr Multiple locations

in New Hampshirer Boston, MAr Hartford, CTr Burlington, VTr Portland, MEr Providence, RIr New York, NYr Philadelphia, PAr Baltimore, MDr Washington, DC

r Miami, FLr Atlanta, GAr Columbus, OHr Chicago, ILr Minneapolis, MNr Denver, COr Aspen, COr Bozeman, MTr Boise, IDr Sun Valley, IDr Reno, NVr San Francisco, CA

r Lake Tahoe, CAr Los Angeles, CAr Santa Barbara, CAr Palo Alto, CA

INTERNATIONALr Montreal, Canadar Tokyo, Japanr Seoul, South Korear Beijing, Chinar Shanghai, Chinar Changchun, China

r Hong Kong, Chinar Hanoi, Vietnamr Bangkok, Thailandr Kiev, Ukrainer Moscow, Russiar St. Petersburg, Russiar Berlin, Germanyr Hamburg, Germanyr Helsinki, Finlandr Oslo, Norwayr Stockholm, Swedenr Madrid, Spain

r Answer the phone and make sure calls don’t go to voicemail.r Welcome families—and consultants and school representa-

tives—to Holderness with coffee, tea, a cup of hot cocoa, orperhaps just a comfy chair.

r Create brochures, postcards, emails, and letters that bestrepresent Holderness and share our mission and programswith the world.

r Train and schedule students to be tour guides—their knowl-edge of the school and its history are the foundation ofevery prospective students’ visit.

r Connect with prospective families and students via phone,Skype, email, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.

r Review files of applicants and decide which ones will con-tribute most to a balanced and diverse community.

r Counsel families—not just on applying to Holderness but onfinding a school that fits their needs and understanding whatit means to be a part of the boarding school community.

r From down the street to across the globe, our admission offi-cers log many miles. From personal visits to school fairs, theadmission associates travel wherever they think they mightfind students who want to hear about Holderness.

r Coordinate meetings of prospective athletes and coaches.r Communicate with applicants—almost 500 of them!r Reach out to students who apply for financial aid and help

them through the process.r Organize and host Open Houses, Second Visit days, and

Opening days.r Manage the overall enrollment of Holderness students—who

is staying, who is leaving, and who will be part of the nextgeneration.

r Help new students settle into their new lives at Holderness.Finding classes, ordering books, choosing a seat at lunch—the Admission staff is there to help!

A TYPICAL DAY IN ADMISSIONThe Admission Office is a busy place, but the associates always find time to focus on their visitors—to

answer questions, share their knowledge of the school, and generally make everyone feel welcome.

There’s no typical day—every season brings different tasks—but here’s a sampling of the things the

admission officers do during any given day.


popular click—far more popular than thehome page, or the admission home page.Yes, these kids wanted to know about ourcommunity and our leadership programand our academics, but they also wantedto know what clothes they would be wear-ing. That’s what you’re like when you’rethirteen. I love getting insight into themind of a thirteen-year-old that isn’t mere-ly conjecture.”

Another thing that the internet does isblur the line between advertising and con-versation, which in school marketingprovides a sort of sweet spot. “The scienceof all this goes back to Pete Barnum sayinghe wanted kids he would jump in a car withand drive cross-country,” Courtney con-cludes. “We’re just using new ways toanswer that same question. It’s still word-of-mouth—but now it’s also happening inpixels and bytes.”

While Skype also allows for conversa-tions, sort of, in their own pixels-and-bytessort of way, one of the reasons that theadmission staff is now as large as it is—Tylerplus six other officers, twice the size ofPete Barnum’s largest group—is soHolderness people can go on the roadthemselves more often, and cover moreface-to-face meetings with families.

Last fall, for example, Tyler or membersof his staff—Nancy, Erin, as well as CynthiaDay, Marilee Lin, Woody Kampmann, andPatrick Saunders—visited the school’s NewEngland feeder schools and consultants, asthey have for decades. But they also visit-ed Chicago and San Francisco twice, andBoston, Toronto, and Montreal as well; alsoFlorida and Idaho; and also Russia and theScandinavian countries. This fall Asia is onthe international itinerary, with trips toChina and South Korea.

Recruiting from overseas, however, isdone only in a calibrated way. Since this iswhere that “strengthening demand” iscoming from, some schools have found an

easy way to fill beds by cashing in applica-tions from abroad. At Holderness, ofcourse, the surge in international applica-tions has helped with the school’s strategicgoals of becoming more diverse as a com-munity and more global in its curriculum.But, without an English-as-a-Second-Language program and with an insistenceon English fluency, Holderness has chosennot to go above 20 percent for interna-tional enrollment. Currently, internationalenrollment counts for 16 percent of thestudent body, with no more than ten stu-dents from any single foreign country.(Which meant last fall that the school had85 applicants from China for only threeavailable spaces.)

This means, then, that eighty percent ofavailable spaces each year have to be filledfrom a market where demand has dramati-cally weakened. Step one is for theschool’s broad-band digital marketing, itsdomestic on-the-road recruiting, and—yes,still—its word-of-mouth reputation toattract the attention of mission-appropri-ate candidates. Step two is to persuadethem to come to campus for a visit andthen commit to Holderness.

FACE-TO-FACE HOSPITALITYOriginally the south wing of Livermore Hallwas known as the Rectory. It housed thefamily of The Rev. Edric Weld and his wifeGertrude during Weld’s twenty-year tenurein the 1930s and ’40s. Then HeadmasterDon Hagerman and his wife Ibba raisedtheir children there, at least until a head-master’s house was built on the other sideof Rt. 175. Subsequently the Rectory hashoused a series of faculty families: theBrewers, the Perkinses, the Fords.

Meanwhile, Pete Barnum was interview-ing perspective families next door in thetwo rooms off the central foyer inLivermore, outfitted as New England-styleliving rooms, with colorful rugs, plushcouches and easy chairs, and oil paintings

on the walls. It was much more like ahome, actually, than an office.

But as the admission office began toexpand, two living rooms were notenough, and the Rectory became admis-sion headquarters. Tyler and his crew nowwork their magic from a place that actual-ly was a home, with fireplaces and bigwindows and comfortable sitting areas. It’sjust the sort of place—had you driventhere from LA in your VW Bug—whereyou might want to set a spell.

“The experience people have whenthey come into the office is crucial nowa-days,” Tyler says. “It’s easy to talk about asense of community and a home-like, fami-ly-style atmosphere on campus, but that’snot going to be convincing unless peoplecan actually feel it. And we can make surethey feel it if they’re greeted in offices thatare themselves home-like and family-style.”

The expanded space (and staff) alsosolves a problem that had recently bub-bled up as a result of the school’s moremuscular marketing efforts. “The processwas rupturing,” Tyler says. “We hadreached a point where we were turningpeople away, and losing interviews,because we simply couldn’t handle thenumber of people who wanted to visit.”

Now, when they come, Tyler knows fromhis research that families are greeted withmore face-to-face hospitality than they’llfind anywhere else. “We have two officersthat stay with each family throughout thewhole extent of their visit here—one withthe parents, and the other with the kid—and that’s unique,” he says. “We spend alot of time with these families, and we con-stantly hear favorable comments fromthem about the care and level of attentionthey receive here versus other schools.”

Those favorable comments have trans-lated into favorable results. Since 2009,interviews conducted at the school haverisen from 412 to 494; applications from348 to 494. That means that the average

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number of applicants to enrollee has risenfrom 3.5 to 5.4. Even as the school’s board-ing enrollment has climbed with theaddition of new dormitories, not only haveall the beds been filled, the admissionoffice has helped the school achieve a nettuition revenue surplus for the past eightyears, and also the lowest average attritionrate in the history of the school.

MAINTAINING LOFTSo in a world where the competition isfiercer than it’s ever been, notes Andy Hirt,Holderness is not just staying afloat—itactually seems to be rising above. Butmaintaining that loft isn’t easy. In order tokeep on rising, Tyler and his crew face anever evolving to-do list.

One item has to do with a little unfin-ished business from 1978 and the school’sshift to coeducation. Only with the com-pletion of the Pichette and WoodwardFaculty dorms on Mt. Prospect Street hasthe school had the capacity for a 50/50gender balance in enrollment. Therefore,one of the four goals of that AdmissionOffice strategic plan produced at the endof the self-audit is to recruit enough girlsto at last achieve this balance.

A second goal addresses an ongoingissue in Holderness evolution, and oneendemic to rural, outdoor-oriented board-ing schools: to enhance its levels ofdiversity, but without the easy fix of a lotmore students from abroad. Diversity itselfmeans different things at Holderness: dif-

ferences in race, ethnicity, religion, geo-graphic origin, socio-economic status, andsexual orientation. These days there aremore students of color at Holderness thanever before, some ten percent of enroll-ment, but this is still not at a level thatfosters a real sense of racial diversity inthe community.

Admission’s third goal is to admit largerclasses of entering ninth-graders. “We hadan entering class of 39 in 2006, and 56 lastyear, which was great,” Tyler says. “Keepingit up around 50 not only allows us to gradu-ate more alumni who have been throughthe full Holderness experience, but alsoallows us to be more selective in whom weadd at the higher grade levels.”

And the last goal—perhaps the most diffi-cult—is finding more kids who are the rightfit for Holderness from families who canafford the full price of tuition. Andy Hirtsuggests that Holderness awards too muchby way of financial aid, that it’s too much ofa strain on the budget. Admittedly, just aslight uptick in the number of students whodon’t need financial aid would do much toprotect accessibility for those who do.

Also among Andy’s recommendationswas that Holderness plant its marketingflag on the snow sports program, that itdefine itself crisply as “the best snowsports school in America.” Snow sports doplay an important role in the story of theschool, but they will never become thecommon denominator that brings peoplehere. “Families are responding to the dis-

tinctive warmth and friendliness ofHolderness,” says Nancy Dalley. “They likethe small size of the school, the sense of apersonal touch in everything we do.”

And what’s different here is how real,pervasive, and sustained that warmth is—from the first-blush wackiness of thoseposters above the snow to Phil Peck’shandshake at commencement. Warmthand friendliness are essential to a cross-country ride in a VW Bug, as are thehigh-EQ corollaries of Character andCuriosity. All that Tyler Lewis and his staffhave to do is make sure that high-EQ fami-lies keep coming here to experience it: justorchestrate the marketing, log the airlinemiles, check off the strategic goals, keepthe welcome mat warm, ensure that wekeep our promises—all while keeping theirears to ground that’s rapidly shiftingbeneath them, and staying awake at nightin hopes that the dust settles favorablyeach spring.

Whatever the complexities, things areworking. Last fall, some two hundred peo-ple—a record number—attended aHolderness School open house event.Parents and their children who were only afew minutes late found standing-room onlyin the east wing of Weld Hall. Meanwhileapplications per enrolled student are up43% since 2008. Word is getting out. �

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“THE SCIENCE OF ALL THIS GOES BACK TO PETE BARNUM SAYING HEWANTED KIDS HE WOULD JUMP IN A CAR WITH AND DRIVE CROSS-COUNTRY,” COURTNEY CONCLUDES. “WE’RE JUST USING NEW WAYSTO ANSWER THAT SAME QUESTION. IT’S STILL WORD-OF-MOUTH—BUT NOW IT’S ALSO HAPPENING IN PIXELS AND BYTES.”


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IT SEEMS ODD—BUT SOMEHOW RIGHT—that when Phil Peck asks

Martha Kesler about her favorite memories of Holderness, something as

serene and solitary as this should rise to the top: “I remember sometimes

sitting alone in the dark on the white fence across the road from Weld

Hall,” she says. “I loved the Schoolhouse, and the moonlight on the old

brick buildings, and the quiet that lay across the Quad.”

Odd because during her long career at the school, Martha was the

least solitary person, stressing involvement above all else in her role as

director of the theater program. She mounted vast musicals with casts of

up to a quarter of the school’s enrollment and spring senior plays that

drew on the talents—in one way or another—of every member of the grad-

uating class. Rarely was it quiet in a world so full of instruments and

voices, or dark in a life with so many hours spent under the lights of the

Hagerman Center’s stage. But with so much of her life and soul poured

into those big shows and into the actors she deployed so skillfully in

them—well, this is someone who certainly earned her moments alone at

night on the Quad.

ON A BLEAK NOVEMBER DAY, Phil and Martha’s conversation, with

all its laughter, unfolds via conference phone. Since her retirement in

1998, Martha has been living to Sarasota, FL—the city where she attended

high school. With its sweet climate and rich arts and cultural life, Sarasota

seems like just the right setting for this bright orchid. But back in the day,

one might not have predicted the same sort of contentment for her at an

outdoorsy, ski-minded northern New England school.

Martha—a.k.a. M.K.—came to Holderness in 1979 with her then hus-

band Walt, who had been hired by Headmaster Pete Woodward to revive

the school’s chapel program. He would go on to also serve as director of

college counseling and then assistant headmaster.

The Keslers moved into Upper Rathbun and later one of the new

South Campus girls’ dorms. Martha—who had a bachelor’s in music edu-

cation, had taught music in five previous schools, and had directed a

number of church choirs—assumed roles as a dorm mother and the leader

of Walt’s choir.

She was a performer in those choirs as well. “Martha, I remember

some beautiful solos,” says Phil, who is busy calling to mind all the differ-

ent things she did during her years at Holderness. He mentions that for

many years Martha was manager of the school’s bookstore, her leadership

straddling its change in location from the basement of Rathbun to the

lower level of Weld. “When did that happen?”

“Don’t ask me when—ask how,” Martha laughs. “The student body did

it—box by box, shelf by shelf.”

“Weren’t you also the first director of the Edwards Art Gallery?” Phil

asks.

Yes, Martha was that as well. When the Carpenter Arts Center was

renovated in the mid-’90s, it also acquired a new wing, housing an art

gallery that was a gift from the Edwards family. “We suddenly had this

new resource, but realized, oops, we were going to need someone to run

it,” Phil recalls. “You cheerfully raised your hand and said, ‘I’ll do it.’”


Catching Up With Martha KeslerA BEAUTIFUL PERFORMANCE

Martha Kesler knew a lot about music—but not so much about theater—when she came toHolderness in . When eventually she took over the theater program, though, she put a stampon it that endures to this day.

by rick carey

� Martha in costume, but also directing, during the 1991–92

Holderness production of The Mystery of Edwin Drood.


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Then there was Martha’s role as a traveling companion and chaperone

with Phil back in the 1980s, when Phil was teaching popular courses in

Russian and Chinese history and taking groups of students during spring

vacations to both countries. Phil and Martha were in China together in

1989, and were astonished by how freely and candidly their guide spoke

to them about politics. Then, two weeks later, the events in Tiananmen

Square unfolded. They were also together on a Russian airliner when

water began raining out of the plane’s overhead vents; Russian travelers

in the seats around them simply took out their umbrellas.

Like running the bookstore and curating the art gallery, directing the

theater was something that Martha learned how to do on the fly. Former

English teacher and Assistant Head Jay Stroud was handling drama when

the Keslers arrived. Then Jay was succeeded by chemistry teacher Paul

Elkins, who had done some theater as an undergraduate at Harvard.

“I used to sew costumes and help with other things for Jay, and then

did more with Paul: costumes, props, dressing the set,” Martha says.

“Then I also started helping students direct their senior projects if they

happened to involve theater. That led to doing a full-length play on grad-

uation weekend that became the senior play, with only senior performers.

Oh, it was just great to see kids who had never walked on stage do them-

selves so proud in comedy or drama.”

When Paul Elkins and his wife Marty left Holderness (temporarily) in

1988, Pete Woodward asked Martha to take Paul’s place as the head of

the program, and the everybody-in-the-pool attitude that Martha had

brought to the senior plays encompassed the winter musicals as well.

Besides the throngs on stage, there were more students building and

painting the sets, running the lights, assembling the props and costumes,

and managing the stage. And the social divides that often exist in any

community between, say, athletics and the arts became much smaller. “I

remember on several occasions,” marvels Phil, “seeing two to three kids

who were team captains—and the sort you’d never expect to see on

stage—playing lead roles in your plays.”

CATCHING UP WITH MARTHA KESLER

No one is left out. Students—and some faculty—fill the stage in the final curtain call for Godspell in 1989–90.



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And despite her on-the-job training, Martha quickly figured out how to

harness the students’ talents. Consider some of the actors trained by

Martha and what they’ve done since. Nat Faxon ’93 starred in the FOX

comedy series Ben & Kate, currently stars in the FX comedy series

Married, co-wrote and directed the acclaimed 2013 feature film The Way,

Way Back, and in 2011 won an Academy Award for Best Adapted

Screenplay by co-writing the script for the George Clooney film, The

Descendants.

Derek (Rick) Richardson ’94 has had guest roles on numerous televi-

sion series and starring roles on the ABC comedy series Men In Trees and

the WB drama series Felicity. He has also starred in the films Dumb and

Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd and Hostel (earning a 2006 MTV Movie

Award nomination for Best Frightened Performance in that horror film).

Currently he plays Nolan Johnson opposite the Charlie Sheen character

in the FX comedy series Anger Management.

Tarun Shetty ’97, meanwhile, a successful model and stand-up comic,

is just beginning an acting career as well, starring as the title character, a

wannabe star, in the 2011 independent film Bobby Khan’s Ticket to

Hollywood.

With casts including talents such as these, Martha often mounted

shows that would have brought down houses that didn’t include a single

proud parent or faculty member; the performances were about as good as

high school theater can possibly get. Martha’s novice actors (almost all of

them skiers, basketball players, and hockey players) were mounting per-

formances worthy of kids attending an arts academy.

“You know, when I ask people in the community what things should

never change about Holderness,” Phil says, “Some of the things that come

up most often are those big musicals and plays, all of them with so many

people involved. And of course Monique Devine, our current theater

director, is keeping that tradition alive. I think we had 65 students in last

winter’s show.”

“Oh, I know,” Martha says. “I love Monique and what she’s doing.”

These large casts have not only lured athletes to the arts, they have

broken down cliques all across the campus. Martha’s success in reaching

across those divides made her, away from the footlights, a go-to faculty

resource and pillar of support for students who didn’t fit into the usual

sports-minded, outdoorsy Holderness mold. Those kids, who were out on

the fringes of the community, found their way into the heart of it all

thanks to Martha.

Of course the heart of it all is where her and Walt’s own children grew

up. And all three acted and sang in either Elkins or Kesler productions, or

both. When Phil asks what it was like raising her children here, Martha

says, “It was really like having a whole village helping every day. They

were protected and safe wherever they went.”

And where have they gone since? Nowadays daughter Martha Ellen ’85

is teaching theater and English at Wayland Academy in Wisconsin;

Andrew ’88 is teaching physics at New Jersey’s Newark Academy; and

Stefan ’91 is an architect for the city of Dallas, near where their father Walt

now lives.

During her years here, Martha also sang with the New Hampshire

Friendship Chorus, an elite group that travels the world as ambassadors

of music, and with whom Martha performed in China, South America,

Australia, New Zealand, Korea, and Vietnam. She directed children’s

plays as well for the Plymouth Regional Arts Council. On campus, there

were also a variety of informal faculty or student or student/faculty choral

ensembles and theatrical special events as well—a holiday production in

the Chapel of Amahl and the Night Visitors, for example, that included

faculty and day student parents in costumes and makeup rich enough to

make faculty unrecognizable.

Then she landed running in Sarasota. For eleven years she directed

the Sarasota Jewish Chorale. Last year she was among twelve honored by

Sarasota’s famed Players Theater, a venerable, top-of-the-line community

theater group that launched the careers of actors such as Montgomery

Clift and Jayne Meadows. Martha has been managing props and helping

in the costume shop there since 2000.

Last fall Nat Faxon was singled out for a Holderness Distinguished

Alumnus Award, and Martha—making her first visit to campus since

2008—came up from Florida to present the honor. Nat’s television sched-

ule prevented him from making the trip from California, but he was there

via Skype on the big screen in Hagerman Auditorium, where it had all

begun for him. The two talked of old times in front of a packed and

appreciative audience.

“It was a phenomenal experience for me to be back there again with a

great purpose like that,” Martha says. “And all the different things that I

was able to do during my years at Holderness—I feel like it was a bucket

list all by itself.”

Phil asks Martha what comes to mind when she thinks about

Holderness. Martha is silent for a moment, and then lists several things:

“Generosity, warmth, involvement, trust, love…this phone call.”

Moonlight across old brick buildings, a hush across the Quad, after the

applause has died down. That’s part of it too. �


CATCHING UP WITH MARTHA KESLER

those kids, who were out on the fringes of the community,found their way into the heart of it all thanks to martha. �



AROUND THE QUAD

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“Take a careful look through the woods,” saysMs. Berry. “What do you see? What looks like itmight be man-made? What were people doinghere? Why would they have settled here?”

It’s no secret that the Lakes Region and theWhite Mountains are great extensions of theclassrooms at Holderness School. Lessons inwinter survival and group dynamics are taughtin the White Mountains north of campus, whilelessons in Lake Turnover and water clarity aretaught over the gunnels of a barge on SquamLake. This fall history teacher Kelsey Berryfound another way to use the local environment.

Research Methods, a required semestercourse for all sophomores, introduces studentsto the process of inquiry using primaryresources. Students explore non-Western topicsin the context of the National History Daycurriculum, learning about other cultures whiledeveloping appropriate skills for conductingextensive and intensive research. The course hasbeen taught at Holderness for many years, butthis year Ms. Berry and history teacher TylerCabot decided to do things a bit differently.

“I grew up in the Plymouth area,” explainsMs. Berry. “But I didn’t know much about thehistory of the area until I was working on aMaster’s in Heritage Studies at psu. One of myprofessors brought us to Livermore Falls andopened my eyes to the historical significance ofthe place. In Research Methods, Tyler and Idecided to share that history with our students.”

Back in September students started thecourse with a visit to the Holderness Archiveswhere Ms. Berry and Mr. Cabot introduced thestudents to local history. In addition to a heftycollection of Holderness School records andmemorabilia, the Archives also contain severalbooks on the history of Plymouth, photographsof local landmarks, and original letters from theRevolutionary War. Students were able to lookup the names and occupations of long-time res-idents, read about the original settlement ofPlymouth, and understand all of it in the con-text of world history.

“Starting in the Holderness Archives givesthe students a tangible reference point and helpsthem to see history not as something distantbut real and unfolding before them,” continuesMs. Berry. “It gives them the opportunity to be

investigators and understand what it means touncover history through primary resources.”

Once students had an understanding of thewritten history of Plymouth, they piled intominibuses and rode to Livermore Falls to gatherfirst-hand observations of one of the first settle-

ments in the area. Equipped with cell phonesand notebooks, the students recorded theirobservations—the locations of cellar holes andwells in relation to the river and the falls, the ageof the forest, the geography of the terrain.

Questions without answers came quicklyand required the students to take what theyhad learned in the classroom and Archives andapply it to their surroundings. And then stand-ing on a rocky ledge overlooking the falls,students also got a chance to compare archival

One Inquiry at a Time

Standing below Livermore Falls in Plymouth, history teacher Ms. Berry shows her students historical

photographs of the area and asks them to compare these to the current view. Above them are the

remains of one of the only existing pumpkin seed bridges, named for the shape of the support arches.

Starting in the Holderness Archives gives the students a

tangible reference point and helps them to see history not

as something distant but real and unfolding before them. It

gives them the opportunity to be investigators and

understand what it means to uncover history through

primary resources. — KELSEY BERRY


AROUND THE QUAD


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photographs of the falls and its mill with thecurrent falls and what remains of the mill.

When they returned to campus, the stu-dents again relied on technology to help themcreate maps of Livermore falls, “focusing onremnants of past uses and modern views of thehistoric pictures.”

Ms. Berry then tied their findings to biggerworld events including the Belgian Conquest of

the Congo for which there is an absence ofnative testimony.

“We’ll also look at the role of memoirs inhistory during our study of Apartheid SouthAfrica using Mark Mathabane’s Kaffir Boy,” saysMs. Berry. “Just as we did when looking at thescrapbooks and journals in the HoldernessArchives, we will discuss the reliability ofsources, especially sources couched in memory.”

It is a process that often creates more ques-tions than answers, but that’s fine with Ms.Berry who hopes that many of the students’questions will motiviate them to pursueanswers through their National History Dayprojects later in the course, or perhaps throughtheir senior theses two years from now.

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: the pulp mill at Livermore Falls, circa 1920; Kayli Cutler in the Holderness Archives examining a letter from the Revolutionary

War; a portion of what remains of the pulp mill today, showing the same section of wall that appears at center in the archival image.



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This past summer, when Holderness Schooldiscovered the rink roof was damaged andbeyond repair, it was hard to be positive. Whatdid this mean for the upcoming hockey season?How would our hockey teams practice? Couldthe home games be rescheduled? And if thegames weren’t played at home, who wouldcheer for the Bulls?

But Holderness has a history of turning chal-lenges into opportunities, and as the communitydigested the facts, the administrators werealready rolling up their sleeves and making plans.Athletic Director Rick Eccleston quickly madesome phone calls, found alternative practice icefor the teams, and rescheduled the home gamesat other local venues. Transportation for prac-tices and games would be logistically challenging,but it was nothing that couldn’t be solved with afew rented vans and some creative scheduling.

coo Steve Solberg was also busy; it was hisresponsibility to find the best way to demolishthe old rink before construction could begin.Ultimately Holderness hired North RidgeContracting, a company out of Deerfield, NH.While it would take them longer to clear thesite, up to of the building materials wouldbe recycled. From the plywood on the roof tothe steel beams to the fluorescent lights, NorthRidge committed to finding homes for all thebuilding materials. In addition, the schoolmade arrangements for the rink’s bleachers andscoreboard to be relocated to HoldernessCentral School.

With the immediate needs of the hockeyteams taken care of and the deconstructionphase well under way, others began envisioningthe future. The thought of raising enoughfunds for an indoor hockey rink seemed insur-mountable, but the final product didn’t seem tosuit the school’s needs anyway. For decades,Holderness athletes had proudly played hockeyin all weather in their outdoor rink, undeterredby howling winds and sub-zero temperatures.Spectators never faltered either. No matter thetemperature, if there was a game on a Friday

night, students’ hooded faces ringed the plexi-glass sideboards, their mittened hands bangingon the glass whenever one of ours scored a goal.

So as plans for the new rink began to form,it was quickly decided that fresh air and openspace were crucial to the design. The plans do,however, include design features that will makethe New England winters a bit more bearable.Team boxes will be protected from the weatherby wall panels, while the spectator bleacherswill be heated. In addition, several walled pan-els will be installed on the northwest corner ofthe building to block the bitter winter winds.

“It’s going to be a place that makes a state-ment about who we are,” says Rick Eccleston.“We’re staying true to our roots with the out-door design, but the look and overall concept ismodern and forward thinking.”

Improved foot-traffic patterns and a wideplaza with a central fire pit will invite familyand friends to the Bartsch/Gallop complex.The current plan also calls for the installationof photo voltaic (PV) solar panels on the newroof. Holderness students in last fall’s scienceelective, stem Energy, conducted research and

proposed three different designs (more infor-mation on page ). Such an installation couldproduce enough energy to match the electricalneeds of the new facility. In addition, efficientled lighting and a much improved refrigerationsystem will further limit the rink’s energy usageand will further support Holderness’s commit-ment to sustainable building practices.

The building is also being designed for useduring the off-season for strength and condi-tioning as well as team practices. One versionof the plan proposes replacing the ice withastro-turf for the spring sports seasons. It couldmean the end of shoveling the baseball dia-monds and tennis courts!

In when the rink was first installedunder the direction of Rip Richards, it was excit-ing and new. Students proudly assisted with thelaying of the ice and the care and maintenance ofthe rink. It was their rink. Next winter when thenew rink receives its inaugural layer of ice, thestudents probably won’t need to spray it on witha garden hose, but it will be their rink, one ofwhich they can be very proud.

A New Rink: Designed with Holderness in Mind

A view of the proposed rink from Mt. Prospect Road with Gallop Gymnasium in the background.


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by phil peck

We’ve been saying all along that one of thethings that will make the Strategic Planunique is to renew our commitment to meas-urement and to create a new level oftransparency throughout our community.

Fortunately for us, it’s an interesting timewhen it comes to theories of measurement. Therise of big data and the ability to track digitalmetrics has paved the way for a lot of newthinking about how organizations chart progressand learn from experiences and feedback.

In his book The Signal and the Noise, NateSilver says, “We must become more comfort-able with probability and uncertainty,” and thisis a big shift. Being comfortable with probabili-ty means being curious and open-mindedabout the results of our research and learningfrom the data we gather. We also have to becourageous enough to make changes along theway. As we try new things and analyze the out-comes, we need to ask “What did we learn?”instead of “Were we right?”

The Strategic Plan is ambitious, and toget where we want to go we need to commit todoing four things: benchmark, define outcomes,measure, and iterate.

I’ll use Senior Thesis as an example becauseit is a program that is going to help us advanceone of our strategic objectives: strengtheningour alumni network. As many of you know, westarted doing research on how to conduct a sen-ior capstone project almost ten years ago. ChrisDay did a master’s thesis on senior capstonesand visited exemplary programs in independentschools and colleges around the country.Through his research, we learned as much as wecould about best practices and things to avoid.This allowed us to benchmark the industrystandards for senior thesis programs, and thenarmed with this information, set about design-ing a program that would not only be as goodas that benchmark but better. (We are activelydoing this now for our proposed new science

facility, our leadership program, as well as ourproposed athletics programs.)

Next, outcomes. We are only beginning thisdiscussion, but possible desired outcomes forSenior Thesis in the next five years mightinclude: an established stewardship process anddigital networking platform to sustain andgrow our alumni mentor pool; respect for andunderstanding of the program by – of thecolleges who most often admit our students;and a pilot summer internship program devel-oped out of the Senior Thesis mentoringprogram. These are all hypothetical outcomes,but these examples reflect the ways in which itwill be possible for us to take something we arealready doing well and make it better.

So how will we measure our progress? Thereare a lot of possibilities here, too. We mightdecide to look at how many of our studentschoose majors in college in subject areas relatedto their senior theses, or how the program hassupported their work in college. We might askseniors what skills they learned during theirMarch field work and how that list compares tothe list of skills they thought they would learn.

Or, we might ask our alumni about the structureof the mentoring process—what worked andwhat we can do better. Part of our work thisyear will be to figure out the questions we needto ask in order to help us effectively measure theprogress of Senior Thesis.

Then, for me, the last part—iteration—isthe best part. Instead of giving up when an ideaseems not to work, or checking off a goal whenit is reached, we will continuously reflect onwhat we discover, paying attention to the jour-ney not the end point. This means thatwhatever we learn can help us build andadvance to the next level. The results are nevercertain, but it’s an exciting and positive process.And with the strong vision outlined in theStrategic Plan to keep us focused, I’m confidentwe will go far.

So, that is what this “Scorecard” series isgoing to be about. In each issue of HoldernessSchool Today, I plan to present an example, likethis one, about how we are progressing on ourstrategic vision for Holderness School. I hopeyou will find this an engaging and informativeprocess.

Strategic Planning Score Card

It’s the first inning, so to speak, of the new Strategic Plan. It’s time to check in and figure out the score.



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Let’s begin in a science classroom in early fall.Students are sharing what they have learnedabout photovoltaic cells and which ones will beideal for installation on the Holderness hockeyrink. The pitch of the roof, the types of cells, thereturn on investment, the environmental impact,and the cost of the project versus the savingsover time are all part of their evaluation process.

Flash forward a month and students aresharing their knowledge of photovoltaics withvendors, teachers, students, professionals, andthe general public during the AmmonoosucSolar Forum at the White Mountain School.

“We learned a lot about the use of solarphotovoltaic arrays in schools and the buildingof net zero homes, where they only consumethe amount of energy produced,” says seniorLizzy Duffy. “We also listened to a very inform-ative session in which a professor talked aboutthe new laws that are being developed.”

Flash forward another two weeks and thesame students are gathered outside of Hager-man testing solar cookers they have built outof cardboard and aluminum foil. The tempera-ture is well below freezing and the sun isn’tcooperating, but the students remain deter-mined and hopeful. Suspended at the centersof their solar cookers are marshmallows, wait-ing for the concentrated rays of sun to heatthem. Unfortunately, the clouds win for theday, but each time the sun finds a narrow slit ofclear sky, the temperature inside the solar cook-ers rises—perhaps only by a degree or two butenough to demonstrate the potential energy ofthe sun and the success of their solar cookers.

This is stem Energy Solutions: Energy Flowand System Design, a new course at Holdernessoffered to juniors and seniors and team taughtby science teacher Maggie Mumford and mathteacher Vicky Stigum. At the center of thecourse is the concept of stem—an educationalacronym that stands for Science, Technology,Engineering, and Mathematics and asserts thatnone of the subjects should be taught in isola-tion. Nationwide, stem courses attempt to

address the lag in Western achievement in sci-ence and math, and rather than teaching facts,require students to break down problems intoparts and create solutions.

“Holderness science and math courses havebeen utilizing stem principles for many years,”says Dr. Mumford, “but this course offered an

opportunity for us to focus much more atten-tion on collaboration and design rather than ontraditional laboratory experiments.”

But because the course doesn’t utilize a text-book or neatly packaged science units, answersdon’t come easily.

“In stem Energy,” says senior Kai Lin, “thereis never just one solution to a problem, but

many. Everyone in the class might come upwith a different answer to a specific problem,but all solve the matter sufficiently. New doorsare always being opened, and new knowledge isalways needed to solve problems.”

Senior Jake Rosencranz agrees. “I used toalways approach problems believing that I

would find an answer immediately,” he says.“When we created our solar cookers, our groupstruggled immensely. Frustration drove throughall of us as the deadline approached; however,we sat down, analyzed our project, and figuredout what the problem was. Dr. Mumfordstressed the importance of learning from mis-

STEM Energy: From Classroom Lessons to Field Experiences

Senior Carson Holmes presents her group’s photovoltaic proposal for the hockey rink.

Holderness math and science courses have been utilizing

STEM principles for many years, but this course offered an

opportunity for us to focus much more attention on

collaboration and design rather than on traditional

laboratory experiments. — DR. MAGGIE MUMFORD


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takes and how engineers conduct many trialsbefore they reach their final solutions.”

And while Dr. Mumford and Ms. Stigumhave a wealth of knowledge on renewable energy,they also reached out to other experts to providethe students with additional information. Forexample, during their first project when studentswere asked to design a photovoltaic system forthe new rink, Dr. Mumford and Ms. Stiguminvited a local residential net zero designer and aconsultant of commercial solar installations totalk with the students. And when it came timeto put their ideas on paper, a stem innovatorfrom Groton School, Jon Choate, paid a visitand taught students about design software.

Up next Dr. Mumford and Ms. Stigumhope to tackle wind and biomass energy.Always looking for ways to incorporate engi-neering and design into each unit, they hope tolook at the shapes of different blades and howthey affect power generation. Next year theyhope to create D models of the blades on aD printer. Meanwhile, the biomass system atHolderness is taking shape, and there will beplenty of opportunities for the students to help.Case in point, next year, once the system is upand running, students will be monitoring themoisture content of the woodchips and usingthe biomass plant’s data acquisition system tomonitor their efficiency.

But so far for the students, their favoriteproject remains the design of the photovoltaicarray for the rink. “This project required us todo extensive research and learn how to presentour ideas to the Holderness board of trusteeand the people at the Ammonoosuc EnergyForum,” says Kai. “It would be neat to comeback to Holderness some day and see solarpanels on the roof of the new rink.”

Jake agrees. “It was fun to work on thedevelopment of the rink,” he says. “This projectcan truly change the history of HoldernessSchool, which is why I devoted so much timeto it. I wanted to make a difference.”

Their interest in the project was not wasted.Their solutions ultimately were viable and werevery similar to the professional proposalsHolderness received. The exercises then, teachfar more than stem principles and include les-

sons in group dynamics and perseverance aswell—both of which are important for address-ing that lag in Western achievement in scienceand math.

Ready to roast marshmallows? Students test their solar cookers on a frigid November morning.

A marshmallow waiting for the rays of sun to turn it golden brown.



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Students often talk about feeling as if they live in abubble at Holderness, so busy in their daily livesthat it’s hard to pay attention to what is going onin the rest of the world. This fall, however, we werefortunate to hear from several speakers whobrought the world and its concerns to us. Whilewe can’t print everything they shared with us,below are some of their insights.

The Rt. Rev. A. Robert HirschfeldBishop of New Hampshire, on All Saints’ DayAs a celebration of Baptism, All Saints’ Day is afeast when we remember that death has nopower to separate, alienate, divide. The defeat ofdeath means that relationships we had withthose who have gone over to the other side con-tinue, though they have changed. We noticethem. We notice how their lives have changedours, and we wonder how our lives might havechanged theirs. We notice. And that’s whatsaints do. They notice…All those whose por-traits are displayed in The Chapel of the HolyCross have worked with the vision that allhumanity, indeed all creation, is inextricablybound together in a fellowship of love, justice,and truth. They did not accept the neat andtidy boundaries and divisions that too oftenserve to keep the hungry, the poor, the suffering,the oppressed separate from us. As we noticethem, they notice us, as if to ask, “Do you see tothe other side, do you notice your neighbor,even the one you would rather not see?”

Jerry Ashworth ’59 Olympic gold medalist in the Xm relay,during the Fall Athletic Awards AssemblySavor all the opportunities you have to com-pete in every sport, and set realistic goals.

Andrew HerringFormer Army Captain and the Assistant to theHead of School, on Veterans’ DayVulnerability is fundamental to the humanexperience. To apply to college, to stand at thispodium, to ask someone for a walkback, to live.

Everything that we do exposes us to the possi-bility of being wounded. Such is the case of theveteran. The very act of going to war introducesthe prospect of true harm. The warfighter iswillingly, at least in a now all-volunteer force,confronting an enemy in the defense of the val-ues and the way of life that we all hold so dear.

Dr. Philip RitemanAuschwitz survivor, during a talk at PlymouthRegional High SchoolI am a survivor of Auschwitz. I did not speakabout it for thirty, forty years, but I’m here todayto make sure it doesn’t happen to you guys. I amthe last generation, from my time….It’s you guys;you’re going to take over the world. Your chil-dren, you make sure they live in a good world.

Don’t teach them to hate…You live in Heaven;you are the luckiest people in the world. Don’tever give away your values.

Lieutenant Jeanne FreemanNaval Nuclear Power Training Officer, in a paneldiscussion at a Friday AssemblyOne of the things I love about my job is whenthe people who work for me succeed. It’s such aproud thing to see them excel, to get promoted,to receive awards, to qualify to new watch sta-tions. The thing that’s amazing is that whenthey succeed, you succeed because their per-formance is a reflection of your leadership.That’s really humbling. They always thank me,but really I should be thanking them becausethey are working hard for me.

Outside the Holderness Bubble

CLOCKWISE FROM ABOVE: Philip Riteman; Rev. Hirschfeld; Andrew Herring; Jerry Ashworth;

Lieutenant Freeman.


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It’s the Head’s House on a Tuesday evening inthe fall. Sixty-plus boys and a dozen girls arejockeying for space in front of every mirror inthe house. Plates of brownies sit on the tableuntouched, and gallons of ice cream remain inthe freezer uneaten. The students aren’t stylingtheir hair or flexing their muscles, and studyhall is the next thing on their agenda. So whydo they remain fixated in front of the mirrors,expressions of deep concentration and determi-nation on their faces?

It’s Mr. Peck’s annual bow tie party. Englishteacher John Lin, Associate Director ofAdmission Patrick Saunders, former languageteacher Lew Overaker, and a crew of experi-enced students are on hand to teach anyonewho is interested how to tie a bow tie.

“You can choose any bow tie you want,”explains Mr. Peck, gesturing at a table ofoptions, “but before you leave tonight, you mustlearn how to tie it, and then you must wear it atleast three times during the school year.” Thestudents nod and return to work. While thereare copies of written instructions for individu-als who prefer to learn on their own, moststudents are relying on their teachers andfriends. It’s a community effort.

First occurring six years ago, the bow tieparty was originally established at the requestof Mr. Peck. As a relatively new head of school,he attended several black tie events and did notlike the idea of wearing a clip-on bow tie. Hecouldn’t figure out the twists and folds of aproper bow tie on his own, so he decided toenlist the help of Lew Overaker.

For those who know Lew Overaker, it willcome as no surprise that the private lessonturned into a party; Dr. O wanted to share hisknowledge not just with Mr. Peck but with anyfaculty member who was interested. The gath-ering was a success. By the end of that first bowtie party, Phil Peck and several other faculty—including Dean of Academics PeterDurnan—learned to tie bow ties and continueto wear them to this day. The others? Well, let’s

just say there are still several faculty on campuswho prefer the bow tie’s longer cousin.

Once Phil Peck had mastered the art of thebow tie, he started to inspire others. JulesPichette ’, then a sophomore at Holderness,was curious. Could students learn also? Thenext year, with donations from parents, Mr.Peck purchased bow ties and invited stu-dents to his house for dessert and a shorttutorial. Since then, for the past four years,boys, as well as a few girls, have filled his livingroom eager to learn.

And while the bow ties are usually new, thisyear they come with a history. Charles Forker, adear friend of Dr. Overaker’s, was aShakespearean scholar and often visitedEnglish classrooms at Holderness, sharing hispassion for and insights into Shakespeare. And,like a proper scholar, Dr. Forker never wentanywhere without a bow tie. Sadly, Dr. Forkerpassed away late last year, but he left his collec-

tion of bow ties to Dr. Overaker withinstructions to share them with the students ofHolderness School. Sixty students now proud-ly wear the vintage bow ties of Dr. Forker.

We are happy to report that by the end ofthe evening this fall everyone in attendance hadlearned the folds and twists of a perfect bow.And throughout the fall a whole new genera-tion of Holderness students proudly walked toclass with style that would impress evenWinston Churchill.

ABOVE: Students in the living room of the Head’s

House, practicing their bow tieing techniques.

RIGHT: President of School Charles Harker, who

first learned to tie a bow tie during his sophomore

year, passes his knowledge on to his classmates.

A Beginner’s Guide to Holderness Style



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The Fall Concert

CLOCKWISE, FROM ABOVE: Virginia Bonsal ’17 and Netta Johnson ’18

sing with the school chorus; Keegan Penny ’18 and Will Harker ’18

make their debut on the Hagerman stage with “Wagon Wheel;”

Peter Reynolds ’18 playing guitar; Carter Bourassa ’17 on drums; and

Anna Soderberg ’16 and Kai Lin ’15 on trumpets—all are part of the

school band, directed by David Lockwood.


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Scenes from the Fall Play: Dearly Departed

MEMBERS OF THE CAST, CLOCKWISE FROM ABOVE: Aaron Harmatz ’16 and

Dave Leclerc ’16; Lydia Fisher ’16, Liam O’Reilly ’15, Maggie Barton ’16,

and Kai Lin ’15; Charles Harker ’15 and Jack Brill ’17; Maggie Barton ’16

and Celia Fleckner ’15; Becca Kelly ’15 and Charlie Day ’15



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Walk into Bartsch at any time of the day andTony is there—early mornings, before and afterclasses, after dinner, during study hall. Movingquickly between students, he offers advice andinstructions in quick sound bites. He tells onestudent who has sprained her ankle to stand ina bin of rice and walk in place, lifting her toes inorder to strengthen but not strain her ankle.Another student complains to Tony about hissore back, and Tony quickly helps him deter-mine the cause of the pain and what stretcheshe needs to do. Minutes later he is talking pres-sure points with another student, showing herways to alleviate her headache. All the while, heholds his cell phone in his hand, checking thetime and counting the minutes until the Easternalpine skiers need to rotate to new stations.

While Tony Mure has been offering advicein the Bartsch training room for years, his jobbecame more formalized this year whenHolderness asked him to become a full-timestrength and conditioning coach.

“We did a nation-wide search, and Tony wasone of four finalists,” says Athletic Director RickEccleston. “Ultimately, Tony’s familiarity withthe school and kids, along with his passion andenergy, made him the leading candidate.”

Using the fitness tests conducted byDirector of Snow Sports Georg Capaul, Tonyhopes to develop a four-year plan for all stu-dents that will begin in ninth grade with anintroduction to the weight room. By senioryear, Tony hopes his program will help preparestudents for collegiate athletics, both physicallyand mentally. Modeled after DartmouthCollege’s Peak Performance program, Tony’sprogram is also meant to educate Holdernessstudent-athletes about nutrition, sleep, andphysical conditioning.

“When I graduated from Holderness years ago,” explains Rick, “I went off to HobartCollege with aspirations of being a Division IIIcollege hockey player. I had no idea what itwould take to be a college athlete. I don’t wantthis generation of Holderness athletes to make

the same mistake. By having access to aresource like Tony Mure, our athletes will beprepared to step onto any college campus,whether it’s Division I or III, and they willknow what it takes to compete at that level.”

Tony has already begun to transform theweight room with fresh paint on the walls andHolderness crests above the mirrors. A chalkboard for writing down workout schedules hasbeen added between the windows, and newequipment has arrived as well. Additionalbumper plates, Olympic racks, and bencheshelp Tony meet the needs of a wider variety ofstudent-athletes. There are also plans for eightKeiser spin bikes, a trx system, and more plyo-metric equipment.

“There are afternoons when I’ve got kidsin here working at five different stations withtwo to three coaches helping,” says Tony. “Thenumber of athletes we’re able to serve isimpressive.” From hockey players to alpine

skiers, basketball point guards to endurancerunners, Tony is adept at creating plans forindividual athletes.

And while his exercises at first may appeareclectic, they are drawn from the principlestaught by Igor Burdenko. “The BurdenkoMethod is all about studying how the bodymoves cohesively as a unit,” says Tony, whoholds level one certification. “Most Americansfocus on strength and agility. Burdenko focuseson flexibility and balance. Without flexibility

Tony Time

Strength and Conditioning Coach Tony Mure at work in his office.

Are we more like matter or energy? When all we do is pay

attention to the matter, the physical, we don’t tap into our

internal energy. Most of us utilize only a small percentage

of our potential power. — TONY MURE


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and balance all the strength in the worlddoesn’t do you any good.”

To demonstrate, Tony stretches out on abench and shows how he combines and layersexercises. He begins with a basic bench press.

“Laying on your back, lifting weights per-pendicular to your chest will make youstronger,” Tony explains. “But you can do better.Lift your feet off the ground as you press theweight up, and suddenly you are not juststrengthening your arms but your lower core aswell. Balance and coordination also come intoplay as you drop one leg while keeping theother parallel to the floor.”

And it isn’t just the physical training thatinterests him. After losing his father at age six,Tony says he began a spiritual journey that hehas continued to pursue to this day. Every year,he says, he reads two to three books on motiva-tion. The names of spiritual gurus like DeepakChopra, Tony Robbins, and Ralph WaldoEmerson intertwine with his thoughts aboutphysical training.

“Are we more like matter or energy?” heasks. “When all we do is pay attention to thematter, the physical, we don’t tap into our inter-nal energy. Most of us only utilize a smallpercentage of our potential power.”

He cites Holderness senior CharlesHarker’s success in cross-country as an exam-ple. In the days leading up to his championshiprace, Tony recalls seeing Charles and notingthat he was jittery and nervous. Tony tookCharles aside and worked with him.

“For each of us there is an internal referencepoint and an external reference point,” heexplains. “Your external reference points are thepeople, events, and situations that youencounter. Your internal reference point is yourspirit. If you allow external reference points toguide you, you’re screwed; but with your inter-nal reference point, things become muchclearer. With Charles, he was so nervous aboutthe event and the people he would be racingagainst, he couldn’t focus. I talked to Charles

about running his own race and finding hisown frequency. This helped calm him andhelped him run his best race ever—:.”

So what does Tony see as a Holderness ath-lete’s biggest impediment to success? Time.“Holderness is an incredibly busy place,” hesays, “and it’s hard for students to find time totrain for top-level athletics. I’m constantly look-ing at their schedules and trying to find moretime for them.”

It’s a challenge that appeals to Tony and hissense of efficiency. And as the school begins atime-motion study this year, Tony will be per-sonally invested, making sure that Holdernessstudent-athletes not only receive high-qualityindividualize training plans that address boththeir psychological and physical goals, but thatthey also have time in which to carry out thoseplans.

Ally Trask ’18 walking in rice to rehabilitate her sprained ankle--per instructions from Tony.


If all goes well, the US Ski Team will beHolderness School’s next door neighbor in. In October, the US Ski Team announcedthat the Mittersill Race and Training Slopes atCannon Mountain Ski Area in Franconia willbe an official training site for the United StatesSki and Snowboard Association (ussa). Joiningski areas in Idaho, Colorado, and California,Mittersill will be just one of four sites across thenation with this official designation.

Julia Ford, who graduated from HoldernessSchool in and was a member of the US Ski Team at the Sochi Olympics, notesthat as a competitive skier coming from theEast it is inspiring to see a facility developed inthis region.

“For years I have been preaching, to whoeverwill listen, how amazing the skiing at CannonMountain is,” she says. “Now, with the additionof the Mittersill training center and the US SkiTeam’s designation, the training at Cannon willbe over the top, ideal.” The hope is for on-snowtraining to begin in , an event that willimpact , ussa alpine racers.

Here’s a look at the training facilities. With avertical drop of , feet and a slope length of, feet, Baron’s Run has few intersections—and therefore few interruptions—and will be anideal speed venue for super G and giant slalom.In October, construction on Baron’s run wascompleted and included tree clearing, stump-ing/grubbing, grading, and re-vegetating. Inaddition, Cannon purchased a high-capacitycompressor that will improve the snowmakingcapacity for the whole mountain by .

The phase of the project will includeEcho Lake dam construction (required by themountain’s water permit) and the installa-tion of a snowmaking loop. In addition, with avertical drop of feet and a slope length of, feet, Taft will be widened to metersand will be perfect for slalom and giant slalom.The final touch will be the Valar T-bar thatwill be installed next to Taft. According toHolderness School’s Director of Snow Sports

Georg Capaul, what athletes do while they aregoing up hill is nearly as important as whatthey do going down: “You need to do bothfast…training intensity and concentration isbetter when you have less time between runs.Repetition is important.”

This boon for competitive skiing, as well asfor the Holderness School Snow SportsProgram, is the result of a public/private part-nership between the State of New Hampshire,Franconia Ski Club, and Holderness School—all of which have a rich history in the sport.

Along with Cannon, Mittersill was one ofthe first prominent ski areas in the East, open-ing to the public in . Mittersill closed in, and for decades, its trails were kept asecret, skied only by locals who were willing towalk to the top and ski the ungroomed slopeswith little guidance.

Recently, however, locals have worked inpartnership with the State of New Hampshireand the US Forest Service to reopen the trails;the – season witnessed their officialreopening, with a new double chairlift added ayear later.

Governor Maggie Hassan lauded the project,stressing how important collaboration has been.“We’re proud to have fostered this partnershipwith the Franconia Ski Club and HoldernessSchool to create a world-class training venue atCannon Mountain,” she says. “The fact that theussa has also pledged its support is a testamentto the importance of this project, both for youthracing and the positive impact it will have onskiing in New Hampshire.”

It’s the kind of neighborhood whereHolderness skiers will have plenty of amazingrole models and plenty of room to thrive;Baron’s Run and the Taft Slope will provide aplace for a whole new level of training.

But there will still be other spaces reservedfor those who prefer the silence of the NewHampshire forest. Beyond the groomed snow ofBaron’s Run and Taft, the remaining trails onMittersill will be left undeveloped, perfect forbackcountry skiers and a few BicknellThrushes—a small threatened songbird thatnests above feet on Mittersill and whosehabitat will remain protected from the projectson the slopes below.

A Sikorski S61 helicopter flies to the top of Mittersill with concrete for the lift tower footings of the new

double chair in the summer of 2010.

Neighbors with the US Ski Team

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SPORTS

BEFORE LAST NOVEMBER, KATHY LIECH ’18, WHO IS FROM Kenya, had never seen snow, but that didn’t stop her from trying out for the nordic

ski team. In January she completed her first race with a little help from her team-

mates, who waited for her and cheered loudly as she crossed the finish line.



Winter Sports

SPORTS

CLOCKWISE, FROM ABOVE: Luke Randle ’15 looks for a teammate to

receive his pass during a game against Brewster; snowboard

teammates past and present, Chris Allen ’10, AJ Jarabek ’17, James

Mitchell ’16, Karina Bladon ’17, and Christina Raichle ’15; Conner

Mayes ’18 and Spencer Bernard ’17 smile for the camera during a

JV2 basketball game; coach Woody Kampmann talks strategy with

his varsity players during a game against Brimmer and May.



SPORTS

ABOVE LEFT: Dan Cabassa ’17 reaches for the net during a game against Brimmer and May. ABOVE RIGHT: Varsity hockey coach Chris Day, sporting his

best Holderness garb, studies a game against Worchester Academy at the PSU hockey arena. BELOW LEFT: Sarah Gillis ’17 skis the final gates of a slalom

course during the Macomber Cup at Waterville Valley. BELOW RIGHT: Freeskier Henry Hall ’16 jumps with style during a competition at Loon Mountain.


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SPORTS

CLOCKWISE, FROM ABOVE: JV hockey player Lindsey Houseman ’15

fights for possession of the puck against a player from KUA; coach

Maggie Mumford discusses a GS course with Hannah Benson ’16

during the NEPSAC Championships at Cannon; Sydney Parker ’17

aims for the Middlesex goal during a varsity game at PSU; Sarah

Alexander ’15 and her varsity teammates celebrate her first goal of

the season during a game against North Yarmouth; the girls’ nordic

ski team lines up with smiles before a race on their home course.

Winter Sports


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SPORTS

CLOCKWISE, FROM ABOVE: Varsity athlete Aly Axman ’16 fights for

possession of the ball during a game against Proctor; school team

skier Jesse Ransford ’16 leans into the final gates of a GS course

during this year’s NEPSAC Championships at Cannon; members of

the boys’ varsity hockey team and their fans celebrate a goal

against Worchester Academy; Storm Tompkins ’17 dribbles toward

the basket during a JV game against Brewster.


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SPORTS


IT’S A DAILY ROUTINE FOR MANYHolderness students—riding north in a bus to one of

two ski areas, running gates and perfecting jumps,

enduring long hours bundled against the cold New

Hampshire winters. But on days late in the season

when the weather breaks and the temperature rises

above freezing, there’s no better place to be. At

Cannon Lexi Black ’16 discusses the NEPSAC GS

course with coach Maggie Mumford.


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SPORTS


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january , –may ,

Warren Witherell was in many ways a perfectfit for Holderness School when he came here in. He was young, bright, and athleticallygifted. Quickly he established himself as afavorite teacher and an outstanding coach.

But after only two years, Warren left to pur-sue a master’s degree in American Literature atthe University of Hawaii. Despite the distance,however, Warren kept up a lively correspon-dence with many members of the Holdernesscommunity. His letters, which we are lucky tohave preserved in the Holderness Archives, con-tain friendly ramblings to his former students,as well as more serious exchanges with Head ofSchool Don Hagerman. In addition to sharingstories from their daily lives, the two enteredinto lengthy discussions about the theologycourses at Holderness and how the curriculumshould be organized. With so much in commonwith the community and its vision, it seemedlikely that Warren would return to Holderness.

Yet, there were no vacancies when Warrendecided to return from Hawaii a year later, sohis search for employment took him elsewhere.Of course, Don Hagerman wrote a strong letterof recommendation for the young lad, who ulti-mately went to work for Northwood School inLake Placid, NY.

That could have been the end of the story.But it wasn’t; Warren Witherell’s indirect

influence on the Holderness communityremained strong. Generations of Holdernessskiers and coaches know and still read his booksabout skiing—How Racers Ski and The AthleticSkier—and many Holderness administratorshave been inspired by his leadership at BurkeMountain Academy. When he died on May ,, he left behind a wealth of knowledge andscores of athletes who owe their success to hiscoaching and guidance.

Born in Albany, NY, Warren’s first passionwas for water skiing. Most notably, he was thefirst person to ever jump feet. Other firstsinclude the double wake cut, making two-trickpasses on a single ski, and winning the very firstMasters Tournament in in slalom. In thes Warren was also a critical member of theAmerican Water Ski Association RulesCommittee, and in was inducted into theWater Ski Hall of Fame.

Warren did not snow ski until he was ,but quickly he understood how to make alpineskis work for him rather than vice versa. Afterteaching English and history at a number ofschools throughout the s, Warren moved toBurke, VT, to coach alpine skiing part time dur-ing the winter of . For one young skier,however, weekend coaching wasn’t enough.Martha Coughlin, who had dreams of makingthe US Ski Team, wanted a full-time coach andconvinced Warren to take on the challenge ofnot just coaching her but educating her as well.Others soon followed and according to a People magazine article, Witherell decided, “Ifthere are kids willing to work hard at being thebest, some adult has to provide for that. You

can’t compete with the Europeans skiing onlyon weekends” (Kahn, February , ).

That same year, Witherell founded BurkeMountain Academy and remained the school’sheadmaster until his retirement in . Duringhis time, according to the Burlington Free Press,“over students and alumni of the schoolwere named to the US Ski Team, and toOlympic Teams.”

However, Witherell wasn’t satisfied with justproducing world-class skiers; he wanted his ath-letes to achieve academic success as well. In, Warren wrote a letter to HoldernessHead of School Phil Peck in which he said,“The bottom line is that schools should workfor kids, not the other way around…Childrenmeet our expectations of them, and mostschools’ expectations are way too low.” In addi-tion to contributing many skiers to national skiteams, in recent years Burke has sent its alumnito top colleges throughout the nation—includ-ing Columbia University and Williams,Middlebury, and Dartmouth Colleges. Theschool’s matriculation list is a living testamentto Warren’s founding principles.

In Warren was honored nationally asecond time when he was inducted into the USSki and Snowboard Hall of Fame—becomingthe only person to be inducted into both thewater skiing and alpine skiing halls of fame.Warren’s knowledge stretched far beyond BurkeMountain, influencing coaches, skiers, faculty,and students at every level. As US Olympicskier Mikaela Shiffrin shared on Twitter shortlyafter his death, “Warren’s impact on generationsof high schoolers and ski racers, includingmyself, is immeasurable. I owe Warren my grati-tude, for founding the school that gave me achance to pursue my dreams.”

Warren Witherell: In Memoriam

Warren Witherell—author of How Racers Ski,

founder of Burke Mountain Academy, and

former faculty member of Holderness School.


UPDATE: FORMER FACULTY AND STAFF


the balch society honors a group of forward-thinking individuals who support

Holderness School by combining charitable giving goals with estate and financial planning goals.

When you make a planned gift, you creatively support the school, yourself, and your loved ones, while inspiring

generosity in others. Joining the Balch Society involves no dues or solicitations, but members will be included in

Balch Society communications and invited to participate in special events.

The most important benefits? Giving Holderness School strength and providing educational opportunities for

generations of students. Design a plan today that works for you and your family.

For more information, contact Pete Barnum, Director of Leadership Giving, at 603.779.5221 or [email protected].

paul and marty elkins

were part of the Holderness community

for a combined forty-one years.

Through teaching, coaching, and dorm

parenting, they tirelessly gave to

students, faculty, and friends. But the

Elkins didn’t stop giving to Holderness

when they moved on. Instead they

became members of the Balch Society,

supporting the school for as long as the

doors of Schoolhouse remain open.

marty and paul elkins with daughter cordy elkins

5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5

5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5


Gatherings

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ALUMNI EVENTS



This winter Holderness organized several gatherings throughout the Northeast. In

December alumni and friends of Holderness celebrated the holiday season in both New

York City and Boston, and later at the Head’s House on campus. Then in February

another group of alumni skied an snowshoed a section of the Maine Huts and Trails

system. Stay tuned for more events this spring!

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ALUMNI EVENTS




ALUMNI IN THE NEWS

Jonathan Sherman ’95 andEmilie Lee ’99

The paintings of Jonathan Sherman ’—andthose of Emilie Lee ’—open windows into a new(and also very old) way of seeing.

“Painting,” wrote Cennino Cennini, one of themasters of the Italian Renaissance, “calls forimagination, and skill of hand, in order to dis-cover things not seen.”

Cennini and such brethren as Raphael andLeonardo Da Vinci were dedicated to closeobservation and the precise representation ofthe visible. But that is exactly where the unseenis to be found, believes Jonathan Sherman, wholived in Florence for six years, studying not justthe techniques of these masters, but their livesand philosophies.

For the better part of a century, painting atits highest levels has been dominated by themodes of abstraction and expressionism. AnEdwards Art Gallery exhibit in April, however,celebrated the work of two alumni artists—Jonathan and also Emilie Lee—who arechallenging that orthodoxy in portraits, still-lifes, and landscapes whose commitment tonaturalism harks back not just to earlier times,but to a different way of seeing and experienc-ing the world.

It’s not coincidental, perhaps, that Emilieleft Holderness with not just a precocious tal-ent for art, but also a passion for rock climbing.Jonathan also had a hunger for the outdoors,but in his case it was focused on snowboarding.“I went to Lewis and Clark for two years,where I started a major in studio art,” saysJonathan. “Then I went to the University ofVermont for a year—and then I dropped out.”

He moved to Squaw Valley, hoping tosnowboard professionally, training there withsuch other alumni shredders as AndrewParkhill ’ and Kip Garre ’ (who would diein an avalanche in ). By , however,Jonathan’s passion for studio art won out—

which required another radical change ofaddress, this time to Florence.

“I wanted to learn the language of the artthat was practiced in the th century in Italy,”he says, “and there was no one in this countrywho knew that language.”

It was a language whose grammar was builtfrom the physical world, whose syntax was theinterplay of light, shade, texture, and propor-tion. And each of the great painters of thattime and place gazed so deeply into the physicalthat the result was not only a glorious cata-logue of art, but also, Jonathan believes, a sortof spiritual illumination.

“Raphael was a perfect example of the trans-formative effects that the proper practice of arthas on a human being,” Jonathan says. “Hisbeing was so radiant and gentle that it was saidthat all people who were in his physical pres-ence were uplifted and freed from negativity.People said the same for Leonardo andMichelangelo. They were playful and joyousand laughed a lot.”

Jonathan returned to the United States in and established a studio in Marblehead,MA: “The various aspects of the craft withinthe studio, such as making or preparing paper,are designed to awaken the individual and con-nect them to the source of what lies beneaththe materials, allowing them to create works ofart in alignment with this source—God.”

The craft in itself—Cennini’s “skill ofhand”—is crucial to this awakening. What’seven more essential, however, is passion, as hetold Holderness students in an assembly afterthe exhibit had opened. “It has been my experi-ence that once you are aligned with yourpassion,” he said, “your thirst for learningincreases, and you begin to absorb informationeasily, and to thoroughly enjoy it.”

Then, as you explore that passion, whetherit’s bound to art or something else, you alsolearn more about yourself. “And what hasbeen true for me,” Jonathan continued, “is thatthe more I learn and know about myself, the

more I am able to value other people andtheir experiences.”

And here lies the discovery of “things notseen”—the capacity for empathy, beauty, andknowledge, when mixed together in a humansoul, to kindle a radiance that bathes the world.Jonathan showed slides of the work of Raphaelet al. to the students and said, “I can assure youthat the artists who created these magnificentworks had the well-being of others held in theirhearts. That is one of the key ingredients thatmakes these works so special and powerful, andallows them to endure for centuries.”

Will the works of Emilie Lee and JonathanSherman endure that long? Well, they share incommon a sense of joyousness, and a radiantbreath of well-being, that spans space and time,which suggests indeed that they might.

The Discovery of Things Not Seen

Jonathan Sherman’s “Portrait of a Young Girl.”

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13APR15_Departments_Alumni_Draft_05:HST_Departments_Winter_2013 4/30/2015 5:04 PM Page 52

Kyle Carey ’03

A second CD by Celtic-Americana singer/song-writer Kyle Carey ’ hits the top of the nationalfolk charts and has reviewers bewitched.

The website Lonesome Highway (“a music por-tal for hard-core country, folk, bluegrass, roots,and Americana music”) starts with her bio:“[Kyle] Carey has lived a colorful life as a citizenof the world and absorbed traditional influencesfrom various sources: living in an Eskimo villagein the Alaskan Bush, studying language andmusic in Cape Breton, Canada, the Isle of Skye,and New York City. So we are given a trulytransatlantic artist who includes both Americanand Celtic styles into her songs.”

The occasion for the review last Septemberwas the debut of her second CD, North Star—three years after her initial offering, Monongah,trumpeted her arrival on the international folkscene. The success of that first album providedKyle the “street cred” to assemble an all-star castto back her on this follow-up: producer SeamusEgan, founder of the Celtic super group Solas;multi-instrumentalist Dirk Powell, who hastoured and recorded with Emmylou Harris, JoanBaez, Steve Earle, Kris Kristofferson, amongothers; Juilliard-trained cellist Natalie Haas;famed Irish traditional singer Pauline Scanlon;rising British folk stars Ben Walker and JosienneClark; and other luminaries besides these.

Nonetheless, in a genre where major-labelbacking is particularly absent these days, Kylehad to mount a Kickstarter campaign tofinance her album. A number of her backerscame from the Holderness community, andthe whole process had a certain upside, Kylesaid in a November interview with JasonPeverett of the Peverett Phile: “I think itmeant a lot to my friends and fans to be partof the process. It’s a wonderful feeling to makean album with a community.”

And the outcome? According to the numberof airplays from folk-oriented radio DJs across

the nation, North Star debuted at No. . Amongsingle tracks, Kyle’s cover of Kate Wolf ’s song“Across the Great Divide” hit No. .

All the songs—with the exception of theKate Wolf cover—are original, and two are inScots Gaelic, an ancestral language in whichKyle is fluent. “The arrangements possess greatharmonies, and the melodic feel of the manymusicians used here translates into a verysmooth listen,” says Lonesome Highway.FolkWords agrees: “One of those specialalbums that offers its own inherentmagic…With a richly emotive voice that Icould listen to for hours, this lady breathes lifeinto every phrase.” A reviewer for Johnny’sGarden was also spellbound by her voice: “Kyleaffects me as the sirens did Odysseus.”

Americana-UK addressed the themes ofthe album: “North Star explores, through re-imagined traditional folk tunes and originalcompositions, the age old relationship betweenthe Celtic fringes of the British Isles and thenew world of the east coasts of America andCanada, hence the Carey-penned andAmerican-centric ‘Casey Jones Whistle Blow’

sitting alongside the arguably more esoteric ‘SiosDhan an Abhainn.’…The release breaks furtherground by exploring the female experience ofthis ancient international exchange, an aspect ofthe human experience, certainly in music, thathas been less explored.”

The hard work now lies in performing insupport of the album. Kyle is booking toursacross the United States, Canada, and Europebut is most looking forward to the Europeanvenues. “I play bigger venues [in Europe],” shesaid in an interview with Jason Peverett, “and theentire thing is much more sustainable. Europeand Canada have a much friendlier society andculture when it comes to the arts. Everything inthe United States is set up to make leading anartistic life as difficult as possible.”

It’s rather a paradox that an American artistshould find a more enthusiastic receptionabroad, but in the worlds of American folkmusic, blues, and jazz, that has traditionallybeen the case. It’s another sort of “ancient inter-national exchange,” but one that Kyle hasmastered with rare talent and depth of soul.

“As the sirens did Odysseus”

Kyle in Scotland where she went to learn Gaelic and explore the roots of folk music as it exists on

both sides of the Atlantic.


ALUMNI IN THE NEWS

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ALUMNI IN THE NEWS

Here’s a sampling of young alumni athletes whoenter the – winter sports season with highhopes and expectations.

Magazines that come out towards the end of awinter sports season are written right at thebeginning, when hope shines bright in everylocker room. As we lean into the – sea-son, we have our eyes on several Holdernessalumni athletes who—by virtue of what theyaccomplished in the previous season—have par-ticular cause for hope, and perhaps have alreadygotten off to strong starts by this deadline inearly December. There are quite a few, actually.

Up in Aurora, Ontario, Andy Munroe ’ isthe goaltender for the Aurora Tigers, who sitatop Ontario’s Junior A hockey league with arecord of -, and who are ranked No. nationwide in Canadian junior hockey. Lastseason Andy combined with fellow backstopKevin Entmaa to post a league-low total of goals against, and in November Andy wasamong several Tigers selected to play in theCentral Canada Cup All-Star Challenge.

In Brunswick, ME, Bowdoin College’swomen’s ice hockey team is undefeated throughfive games. Forward Ariana Bourque ’ hadtwo assists in a - win over Nichols College,and is tied for the team lead in scoring. Bourqueled the Polar Bears in scoring last year, and wastwice named the New England Small CollegeAthletic Conference Player of the Week.

In Hanover, NH, Gabas Maldunas ’was having a breakout season last year forDartmouth College’s Big Green men’s basketballteam. A '" forward-center, named to the All-Ivy second team as a sophomore, Gabas wasleading Dartmouth in scoring, was second inassists, and was topping the Ivy League inrebounding when a torn acl sidelined him afterhis fifteenth game. Dartmouth is off to a slowstart this year, - after five games, but Gabas isplaying himself back into shape, averaging .points per game, . rebounds, and providingplenty of rim protection with ten blocks already.

In Providence, RI, Amanda Engelhardt ’is waiting for the ski areas to swing into fullgear and for Brown University’s women’s skiseason to begin in January. But last winter,Amanda posted four meet wins in slalom forthe Bears and finished first overall in the slalomat the Eastern Collegiate Ski Conference cham-pionships. She also finished second in the giantslalom to claim the event’s overall title, leadingBrown to the team championship. She finishedth in the GS at the United States CollegiateSki and Snowboard Association champi-onships at Lake Placid, and was named to theAcademic All-Ivy Team.

Finally, in Geneva, NY, a quartet of alumnaeare helping to build a brand new women’s icehockey program at Hobart and William SmithColleges. In just its second year of competitionin the tough Eastern College AthleticConference, and playing a schedule front-loadedwith road games, the William Smith Heronswere -- at the end of the first week in

December, but the future looks bright thanks tofour freshmen from Holderness: forwardsMorgan Bayreuther ’ and Sarah Garrett ’,and defenders Hedi Droste ’ and RebeccaBegley ’. All four have notched two or threepoints in the scoring column, and together theyaccount for more than a quarter of the team’sscoring so far this season.

Leaning Strong Into Winter

ABOVE: Leading scorer Ariana Bourque on the

ice for Bowdoin. AT RIGHT: Gabas Maldunas

mans the low post for Dartmouth.


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ALUMNI IN THE NEWS

Chris Davenport ’89

Chris Davenport ’ isn’t just one of the pioneers ofskiing’s new disciplines. He’s also a former worldchampion, a continuing innovator, and a newlyminted Hall of Famer.

Usually a candidate for an athletic Hall ofFame has to fade away into the shadows of hisor her chosen sport and then stand by for thejudgment of history. Sporting immortality israre for those who, in one way or another, arestill active. Think John Elway in football, an ’Hall of Famer who received recognition for hisrecord as a quarterback and is still doing well asgeneral manager of the Denver Broncos.

It’s a short list, but in April we can addChris Davenport. Chris will be one of a class often luminaries inducted into the US Ski andSnowboard Hall of Fame in Ishpeming, MI.“Each of these inductees has been a pioneercontributor to our sport in America,” says thehall’s October announcement. Indeed, Chrisarrives with strong credentials.

He began his career in the early ’s just asalpine skiing was breaking out of its narrowspectrum of standard gate-to-gate disciplines,and Chris’s daring and success in backcountry,big mountain, and extreme skiing did much topopularize the new pursuits.

In he won the World Extreme SkiingChampionship in Valdez, AL, and four yearslater—after landing on the podium in each ofthe year’s tour events—was the InternationalFreeskier’s Association’s World Freeskiing cham-pion. He also earned a bronze medal at espn’s Winter X Games and won the Hoursof Aspen, an event in which racers ski laps of themountain from one sunrise to the next.

In Chris became the first person to skiall of Colorado’s ,-foot peaks, a featthat produced both a popular film and a bookauthored by Chris, Ski the ers (Capitol Peak,). He has skied and guided on Everest,bagged first ski descents of mountains allaround the world, and in published a sec-ond book—Fifty Classic Ski Descents of NorthAmerica—with Capitol Peak. That book, said

Wildsnow.com, “could be to ski alpinists what arelic is to religious fanatics.”

Meanwhile Chris has been a featured per-former in more than thirty films by WarrenMiller and Matchstick Productions, and on tel-evision he has been an announcer and expertcommentator at Olympic, World Cup, and XGame events for espn, abc Sports, andOutside Television.

Skiing successfully for so many years so faroutside the gates on steep and untracked slopesis a testament not only to the Hall of Famer’sathleticism and skill, but also to his judgmentand the care he lavishes upon his equipment.So it’s not surprising that Chris also lectures onrisk management as it relates to business andsports, and that he’s helped in the developmentof such products as Kastle’s fx- moun-taineering ski and Scarpa’s freeride ski boot.

Unlike football, skiing is a lifetime sport,and one of its glories is how open its invitationremains to participants of whatever skill level,whatever accomplishments, whatever age. Wellinto his forties, Chris Davenport continues towork in the industry and in the sport at a Hall-of-Fame, top-of-the-mountain level. Hecurrently lives in Aspen with his wife and threeboys and recently joined the ownership groupof Kastle. He continues to work as a ski guideand camp operator, and just for the fun of it, hestill takes time to find very steep slopes of freshpowder deep in the backcountry.

The induction ceremony in April will be inSteamboat Spring, CO. But despite the beautyof that location, and the many other exoticplaces Chris has visited throughout his career,this New Hampshire native is one of those Hallof Famers who has never forgotten where hecame from. “I give lots of credit to Holdernessfor setting me on a path that led to this honor,”Chris said in a December email to Phil Peck.“As I write this, my oldest son Stian is sittingnext to me working on his application toHolderness. Wouldn’t it be cool if he endedup there?”

This Way to the Top

Chris is still active in all aspects of the ski industry, and still manages to find deep powder way off

the trails as well.


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ALUMNI IN THE NEWS

Brud Folger ’56

Brud Folger ’, who retired from coaching in, was inducted into the Maine Ski Hall ofFame last October. Retirement, though, was mere-ly the start of a second career.

Until recently, in December each year, BrudFolger did a pretty fair Santa Claus imitation—not by donning a beard and red suit, but ratherby climbing each day into a single-engine Cessnaand making sure that the US mail and packagesfrom FedEx and ups were delivered to NorthHaven, Vinalhaven, and other such island com-munities off the Maine coast. The Cessna

belonged to Penobscot Island Air, and some-times Brud would fly it across the Atlantic wavesas far as Matinicus, seventeen miles out, anisland whose ferry service to its fifty year-rounders dwindles in winter to twice per month.

But first there was the skiing. “My parentsdidn’t ski, but all the kids in Farmington[Maine] did,” Brud remembers. “The TitcombMemorial Ski Slope ran lights on the slopesstarting on Wednesday each week. We’d bethere all night, every night, and then all day onthe weekends.”

Brud was captain of a Farmington HighSchool ski team that won both state and NewEngland championships, with Brud himself win-ning the downhill. Then he did a PG year at

Holderness, winning the downhill again at theNew England Prep School Championships, andtaking a second in slalom, leading Holderness tothe nepsac title.

But why Holderness for Brud? “I just wasn’tready for college,” he explains. “Don Hendersongrabbed me by the nape of the neck, and by thetime he was done, my sat scores had come up points. I’ll always be grateful for everythinghe and Mr. Hagerman did to guide me, organ-ize me, educate me.”

Brud went on to Middlebury, where hemeant to build a resume for joining the nation-al team, but instead a knee injury ended hiscollegiate racing career. “I was racing [futurenational team member] Jack Beattie down a

Beautiful All the Way

Hall of Fame ski coach Brud Folger stands outside the cockpit of a Cessna 208 Caravan, one of the planes he has been using to get around the islands of

Penobscot Bay.


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ALUMNI IN THE NEWS

slope for the fun of it,” Brud says. “Just a coupleof foolish kids.”

His enrollment in a Reserve OfficerTraining Program at Middlebury earned him asecond lieutenant’s commission in the USArmy after graduation, and he began to skicompetitively again when he was assigned tothe Army ski team. But then the Cold Warintervened, and he spent the rest of his three-year military career as commander of a tankplatoon on the East German border.

“I applied to flight school, and I could havegone if I had extended my enlistment,” Brudsays, “but Vietnam was heating up by then, andI don’t know if I’d be here if I had chosen that.”Instead he chose civilian life in Foxboro, MA,where he and his wife taught high schooltogether, and where Brud quickly earned apilot’s license.

By then it was too late to ski competitivelyat the top levels of the sport, but not too late tocoach. Early in that second year in Foxboro, in, Brud got a call from the University ofMaine in Orono, where there was a ski teamcoaching vacancy—head coach, in fact.

Over the next years, Brud’s BlackBear teams—which trained at SugarloafMountain—won strings of state ski champi-onships and sent a host of athletes to all fourdownhill events at the ncaa Division I cham-pionships. He served two years as president ofthe Eastern Intercollegiate Ski CoachesAssociation, and in he coached the UnitedStates fis University women’s team at theWorld Games in Lake Placid. There his skiersclaimed two gold medals.

Coaching at the collegiate level, Brud found,had special satisfaction. “I enjoyed working withstudent-athletes, because at that time in life it’snot just about skiing,” he says. “You also have thepleasure of helping these young people developand mature into adults.” His old ski coach DonHenderson couldn’t have said it better.

After his retirement from coaching in ,Brud joined forces with Warren Cook—then

owner of Sugarloaf, and long-time chair of theHolderness School board of trustees—infounding the Sugarloaf Foundation, a nonprofitthat oversees the resort’s various educational,cultural, and athletic activities. Brud then servedas the foundation’s president for two years.

In October , when Brud was inductedinto the Maine Ski Hall of Fame, it was notedthat, “Brud has been a local Sugarloafer whosestories about local characters make him a popu-lar speaker. More than fifty years devoted todeveloping ski competitors and promotingSugarloaf have earned Brud Folger a place inthe Maine Ski Hall of Fame.”

For the most part, though, retirement forthis man was simply a quick, carved turn intoanother lofty and adrenaline-fueled pursuit.During the summer of , he put his pilot’slicense to use in one of the world’s iconic set-tings for small-plane operators, the AlaskanBush. He flew Cessnas and muscularDeHavilland Beavers, all equipped with floats,to remote, airplane-or-boat-access-only loca-

tions in southwest Alaska for the Bristol BayLodge in Dillingham.

He did that for another season as well, anda few years later—while attending a flightinstructor’s clinic hosted by Penobscot Air inMaine—he was offered a job flying on this sideof the country. Brud went on to spend fiveyears as Penobscot’s chief pilot, and is now theairline’s director of operations.

Skiing and flying have elements in common,he believes, and it’s not just the adrenaline. “Ithink about putting on a pair of skis, and look-ing around to see some snow resting on a pinebough that is backlit by the sun,” he says. “Orhow beautiful Penobscot Bay is when flyingover it on a really cold winter morning, and thesea smoke is rising off the waves, and the risingsun is lighting it up. There’s a lot of excitementin both, of course—but there are equal amountsof beauty and serenity.”

Still going, on out to far-off Matinicus, andbeautiful all the way.

Life isn’t all Maine ski slopes and blue skies. Sometimes Brud slips away to Key West, FL, for a break.


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Holderness School Spring 2015 Holderness School Today magazine. Finished size is 11.0 inches tall by9.0 inches wide.


ALUMNI IN THE NEWS

by dick conant ’

Mt. Washington is famous not just for its record-breaking weather but also for its crowded summit.And while most hikers find it a bit over-populated,Dick Conant ’ has a different perspective.

On August of this past year, I hiked Mt.Washington in the company of two of mythree sons to complete, all in one fell swoop,the ,-footers of the White Mountains, the,-footers of New England, and the highest peaks of New England.

When I started this madness upon myretirement in , I had only about peaksunder my belt—most of them hiked with theHolderness Outing Club back in the early ’s.I owe my life-long love of hiking to that timeand to the outing club director, Mr. William“Bill” Biddle, who taught English at Holdernessfor many years.

I still recall my first hike with him and theHolderness Outing Club in the fall of ,

when we did Mts. Flume and Liberty in thesouthern Franconia Range on a beautifulColumbus Day weekend. After that initial hike,I did a scattering of peaks with the OutingClub and on my own in the next decade, butthen life and work took me first to Florida andthen western New York and finally southernConnecticut. While I was working full timeand raising a family, I never could find enoughtime to hike (or ski for that matter). It wasn’tuntil I retired that I started doing both activi-ties in earnest.

I hiked over peaks that first summer in. After polishing off most of NewHampshire and Vermont, I started venturinginto the wilds of Maine, where I summitedKatahdin with my eldest son as he finished theAppalachian Trail. The summer and fall of progressed with memorable hikes throughthe Crockers in Maine—where I surprised abear on the trail—and a trip into Canada,where I hiked Border Peak on the internationalboundary. In October , my eldest son (Mr.

AT) came east from Ogden, UT, to help mehike the more intimidating bushwhacks innorthwestern Maine.

Which left the hike up Mt. Washington. Ona gorgeous, late summer day we started early upthe Ammonoosuc Ravine Trail. As the shortestpath up Mt. Washington, the AmmonoosucRavine Trail passes several beautiful waterfallsand provides majestic views of the PresidentialRange once you get above tree line.

When we reached the summit, the craggypeak was crawling with people. As I waited inline to have my picture taken at the true sum-mit, I started grumping to my sons about howI was probably the only one who deserved thehonor in the crowd of flip-flop clad tourists.

I then remembered something Mr. Biddlehad said to us on a hike way back in . Ithad been a nice fall day, and we had come upona vantage point that looked towards the south-ern Presidentials and Mt. Washington. Wecould see a cog train heading up the mountainspewing coal smoke. One of the boys observedhow awful it was that Mt. Washington hadbeen defiled with the cog railway, the carriageroad, and the “city above the clouds” thatcrawled with tourists.

We all expected Mr. Biddle, given his back-ground, to agree heartily, but he proved to bethe contrarian that day, saying something to theeffect, “Boys, think of all the people who wouldnever be able to access the summit of Mt.Washington without the railway or road. Mostof those people take away a new appreciation ofthe White Mountains, and maybe they will beencouraged to explore further, even on foot. Ifthat happens, then all is well.”

I have often thought of those words overthe years as I have progressed from being acasual visitor in the Whites to gaining a moreintimate relationship with them through myhiking experiences. In the end, maybe it’s notimportant how you accomplish the experience;it’s that you have had the experience in the firstplace.

Summiting New England’s Highest Peaks

Author Dick Conant on top of Jay Peak, Vermont, a New England Hundred Highest peak.



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IN MEMORIAMEarl A. Damon ’40

November 5, 2013Warren Witherell

(former employee)May 26, 2014

James R. Finne ’37August 24, 2014

Leverett Brainard Davis, Sr.(former employee)August 27, 2014

David Boynton ’58September 17, 2014

Ed Beattie ’49October 5, 2014

Chris Hoyt ’59October 30, 2014

BIRTHSJon Conant ’96 and Karen

Demattio: Maz SanderConant, February 23, 2014

Haleigh Weiner ’11: Rori HannahWeiner, June 13, 2014

Abbey DeRocker ’95 and GreggKawecki: Kwinn EmmeliaKawecki, June 26, 2014

Quentin McDowell ’99 andLauren McDowell: RooneyClyde McDowell, July 2014

Karen Boutwell (employee) andKelli Robinson: KinleyElizabeth Boutwell-Robinson,August 8, 2014

Hacker Burr ’98 and StephanieBurr: Hardwick “Hacker” HallBurr, Jr., September 24, 2014

Peter Bohlin ’02 and KarenBohlin: Abigail Kenley Bohlin,October 1, 2014

Jay Connolly ’03 and NicoleConnolly: John BensonConnolly, October 17, 2014

Rachel Goldberg Nissi ’01 andNordo Nissi: Harrison RobertNissi, November 11, 2014

MARRIAGESAlexander Smith ’01 and Damla

Tuncel, Saratoga Springs, NY,May 14, 2014

Tony Mure (employee) andTrisha Demers, June 7, 2014

Sam Rigby ’03 and Laura French,Fairlee, VT, June 15, 2014

Will Richardson ’96 and DevonRodonets, York Harbor, ME,June 28, 2014

Amanda French ’01 and DanaGreenwood, Holderness, NH,June 28, 2014

Jeff Nadeau (former employee)and Sarah Mongan, July 12,2014

Dan Shin ’95 and IsabellaBoylston, Sun Valley, ID,July 19, 2014

Andrew Walter ’99 and SarahCullicutt, July 26, 2014

Tyler Stearns ’07 and LaurenMaggart, August 2, 2014

Mike Schnurr ’00 and TracyWang, August 9, 2014

Emily Riehle ’99 and SamuelMartin Dixon, August 16, 2014

Mattie Ford ’04 and VincentRocco DiNapoli, August 16,2014

Evan Mullen ’00 and JennyLyckland, Portsmouth, NH,August 23, 2014

Nick Smith ’07 and AlexaElmlinger, New York, NY,September 6, 2014

Nina Barker ’89 and MichaelBrogna ’91, September 6, 2014

Zachary Zoulias ’02 and BriannaBrothers, September 13, 2014

John Van Slyke ’96 and ElizabethAnn Sayers, September 20,2014

Peak Hanson ’91 and SarahLawton, Park City, UT,September 27, 2014

Ben Tyler ’07 and Sophia Davis,St. Louis, MO, October 11, 2014

Rory Clifford ’06 and BrittaniaNicol, October 11, 2014

Tyler Gosselin ’07 and JessicaMacMinn, October 11, 2014

Nathaniel Campbell ’97 andJennifer Wilson, October 25,2014

Milestones

Former Holderness Athletic Trainer Jeff Nadeau and Sarah Mongan were marriedthis summer with lots of Holderness folks in attendance.

Holderness Technology Support Specialist Karen Boutwell and partner Kelliwelcomed Kinley Elizabeth Boutwell-Robinson into their family on August 8, 2014.

13APR15_Class_Notes_Draft_08:HST_Class_Notes_2013 4/30/2015 4:40 PM Page 59


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’35–’44Want to connect with your class-mates? Consider becoming aclass correspondent and encour-age your classmates to reconnectin the HST Class Notes. For moreinformation, contact us at [email protected]. Thank you!

’45 (reunion) CLASS CORRESPONDENT Harry Emmons ’[email protected]

’46 Want to connect with your class-mates? Consider becoming aclass correspondent and encour-age your classmates to reconnectin the HST Class Notes. For moreinformation, contact us at [email protected]. Thank you!

’47 CLASS CORRESPONDENT Bill Briggs ’[email protected]

’48 Bart Chase is doing well in theNorthwest, with two daughtersand five grandchildren nearby.“Life is good, despite the age of85+ years,” Bart reports. “Enjoyeda 35-day cruise across the NorthAtlantic. Life is good for ourentire family. We always work tokeep our wellness level as high aspossible. Best to all classmates.

Still have so many special memo-ries of those great years atHolderness.” … Rik Clark writes,“1948 classmates were deeply sad-dened with the news of the deathof Alice Jane Hinman on May 11,2014. Alice Jane and CoachHinman were a loving, caring,and effective presence in ourdaily lives at Holderness. Veryspecial people, both of them!Sandy and I continue to beblessed with decent health andthe ability to remain active andtravel. Golf, both social and com-petitive, continues to be verysatisfying. Staying in close contactwith Holderness through Head ofSchool Phil Peck and others isvery rewarding. A two-day visit tocampus in November has helpedkeep us in the Holderness loop.Our 70th reunion in 2018 is notthat far in the future.” … After the65th reunion, Bess and PaulWilson were kept very involvedsaving their family clothing storefrom a financial closing. A com-munity fundraising effort rescuedthe store, and it remains in busi-ness in Wickford, RI. … JohnCodman, Mike Goriansky, DaveHapgood, Tom Loemker, andJohn Tewksbury have not beenheard from recently but are pre-sumed to be doing okay. … DeanMullavey writes, “After graduatingfrom Holderness I attendedSyracuse University, graduatingmagna cum laude in 1952 with aBFA in art education. I becamevery interested in the making ofpottery while there and decidedto continue in this field at Tulane

University, receiving my MFA inceramics in 1954. Since then it hasnever been boring. I spent severalyears in Japan working for the USArmy; taught at Mary WashingtonCollege in Virginia; was a free-lance potter at the Clay ArtCenter in Port Chester, NY;taught pottery at the BrooklynMuseum; and have been exhibit-ing pottery in many exhibitionsover the years. I moved to Canadain 1961 to teach ceramics andretired in 1995, but I have keptbusy making pots, buying andselling antiques, and avidly col-lecting just about everything. Atage 87 I manage to keep busy. Ihave left out a lot of in-betweenhappenings too numerous to list. Iforgot to mention that I took partin the Holderness alumni exhibi-tion of 2010 and participated in aworkshop with Franz Nicolay’spottery class; it was great fun tobe back at school!”

CLASS CORRESPONDENTRik Clark ’[email protected]

’49Bill Baskin, Jr. writes, “Judyand I aren’t very mobile but weare enjoying the attention andsupport our children and grand-children lavish on us. The latestjoy is experiencing freshman col-lege years with our two oldestgrandchildren.”

CLASS CORRESPONDENTBill Baskin ’[email protected]

’50 (reunion) Frank Hammond writes, “Wecontinue to enjoy condo life herein New London after handing ourhouse over to our daughter Bebeand her family. Her husband Jimcommutes to Boston and appears

not to mind the length of thetrip. Their son Henry attendsthe Landmark School inMassachusetts and is doing wellthere. Their daughter Megan is aday student at Proctor Academy.(Perish the thought! Just kidding.)She loves it there. Squidge and Istay put pretty much all of thetime. We don’t travel anymoreexcept for an occasional road tripto York, ME, to take in therefreshing sea air. My only exer-cise is a daily five-mile bike rideduring the summer months,weather permitting. And, finally,we continue to be in relativelygood health.” … Douglas Renniestays busy with local affairs, golf,and travel. The Rennies are closeto their three daughters and eightgrandchildren and have beenmarried for 611⁄2 years. “My howtime flies,” he says. … Bill “Chico”Laird writes that he is settlinginto retirement in Franklin, TN.

CLASS CORRESPONDENTFrank Hammond ’[email protected]

’51 Bill Summers is having chemotreatments, which started inFlorida and have continued inNew Hampshire. He and Faith arehoping to get to their reunionsthis year.

CLASS CORRESPONDENTBill Summers ’51 [email protected]

’52 CLASS CORRESPONDENTAl Teele ’52859.734.3625

’53 Want to connect with your class-mates? Consider becoming a

Have you recently encountered a milestone in your life?

Share your news with your classmates! Please contact Amy

Woods at [email protected].

SHARE YOUR NEWS!


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class correspondent and encour-age your classmates to reconnectin the HST Class Notes. For moreinformation, contact us at [email protected]. Thank you!

’54Tales out of school … Bill Lofquistreports from langorous Honoluluthat life could be better but notby much. After graduating fromMiddlebury College, he extendedhis education for two years in theUS Army, one of which was spentat the Eighth Army Headquartersin Seoul, Korea. This was fol-lowed by five years in New YorkCity in unsuccessful stints at twoMadison Avenue advertisingagencies. But by day and night heearned an MBA from New YorkUniversity’s Stern School ofBusiness; he also met and mar-ried the former ToshikoSugiyama, and moved toArlington, VA, where he workedfor the US Department ofCommerce in Washington, DC.Bill’s 33 years as either an indus-try economist at the US PostalRate Commission or a senior ana-lyst at the US Department ofCommerce came to a close in1999, as did retirement in Reston,VA, in 2009. Leaving son Jamesand two grandchildren inBroadlands, VA, and daughterLisa in Richmond, VA, he andToshiko moved to Oahu. Bill waselected to Waikiki’s Neighbor-hood Board and his condominiumboard, spends mornings on hislanai with Kona coffee and thelocal newspaper, and gazes at thevast Pacific.

CLASS CORESPONDENTBill Lofquist ’[email protected]

’55 (reunion) CLASS CORRESPONDENTBill Byers ’[email protected]

’56Brud Folger was recently induct-ed into the Maine Ski Hall ofFame. He was the head ski coachat the University of Maine for 28years. His teams competed in EISADivision I in the East and many ofhis skiers qualified for the NCAAsevery year. In 1976 Brud was thewomen’s alpine team coach forthe US team when they competedin the FIS World UniversityGames held at Lake Placid, NY. …After proofreading the above,Dick Meyer added, “I hadn’t keptup with Brud’s career, so I didn’tknow he had been the ski coachat U Maine. However, his collegeroommate at Middlebury was AlLamson, a member of my restora-tion team at the Maine NarrowGauge Railroad Museum inPortland, ME. We restore thewooden rolling stock of theremaining cars of the historicMaine two-foot gauge railroads. Aland Brud skied together in col-lege and at least Al almost madethe Olympic ski team.”

CLASS CORRESPONDENTDick Meyer ’[email protected]

’57Steven Hall sent a quick note tosay, “I am still working forReliance Industries; they’re ontheir third expansion to theirrefinery in Jamnagar. We arebased in Navi, Mumbai. My enddate is March 31, 2015.”

CLASS CORRESPONDENTFrederick Ellison ’[email protected]

’58Charlie Kellogg says he is, “closeto being fully retired but am veryinvolved with a few not-for-profitorganizations: The ManchesterEssex Conservation Trust, theChebacco Land ManagementCommittee, and the United StatesBiathlon Association. I am alsotrying to be a good grandparentto four grandchildren, three girlsand a boy. For recreation, I amrunning, biking, and kayaking,with skiing in the winter, usuallyin Jackson, NH.” … Don Lathamreports, “With both of us retired,Jen and I plan to head for warmerweather this winter, stopping inthe Philly area to celebrateChristmas (and all the Decemberbirthdays) with our two children,their spouses, and five grandchil-dren. We will be holed up in KeyWest during the month of Marchif you find yourself in the area.Very best wishes to all.” … BrookeThomas writes, “Shirley and I hadlunch with Louise and MichaelKingston this past summer inNewport, VT. As expected, wehad a good time rehashing storiesof the school and classmates andthe routes we have traveled overthe decades.”

CLASS CORRESPONDENTCharlie Kellogg ’[email protected]

’59Jerry Ashworth enjoyed a rivercruise from Amsterdam to Basel,Switzerland, in September. Heattended Steve Barndollar’sdaughter’s wedding and spentsome time with Dave Sleeper andChris Palmer watching theirgrandchildren play various sports.

CLASS CORRESPONDENTJerry Ashworth ’[email protected]

’60 (reunion) While on his way to Canada forhis granddaughter’s birthday,Gerald Shyavitz wrote, “I marvelin the magic of having a beautifulwife of 47 years, two wonderfuldaughters, and four wonderfulgrandchildren.” … Once againSpike Hampson is this issue’schampion notes writer. Obviously,he takes the academic imperativeto publish or perish seriously: “Mylife continues to be more of thesame, but at a slower rate. I’m stillteaching online courses at theUniversity of Utah and doing a bitof ski instructing at Deer Valley inthe winter. But for both activitiesmy enthusiasm has waned, and Igive increasing thought to theidea of giving them up. The boat-ing life, however, still has me in itsgrip: I just returned to theDominican Republic where Kobukhas been in storage for the past

Spike Hampson ’60 and Kathy Palmer (sister of Chris Palmer ’59) in Snoqualmie, WA;Spike’s yurt in Utah that is no more.



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ten months, and in a few moredays I hope to set off for PuertoRico and the Virgin Islands. Idoubt I’ll get any farther than thatbefore the winter winds set in,but probably I’ll return to carryon in the spring. I can’t rememberwhether I told you before, butwell over a year ago I bought asmall sailboat—a 25-foot CapeDory—with plans to do moredeep-water cruising, but this timein a vessel designed for such con-ditions. The sailboat is inRockport, TX, and I’ll spend someof the winter there. It’s a goodthing I now have two boats toshuttle between, because my yurtin Utah is no more. This past July,I accidentally started a fire thatburned it down, along with all mypossessions. With nothing left totie me down, it makes little sensefor a vagabond like me to seekout a new fixed place of resi-dence, so at least for now I willcontinue to be a homeless waterrat. This past June–July, aGerman friend and I spent sixweeks in Brazil travelling andwatching World Cup matches onbig screen televisions in bars andrestaurants and public spaces setup for crowds (we watched theBrazil–Mexico match onCopacabana Beach with tens of

thousands of onlookers, forexample). One piece ofHolderness-related news has todo with the family of ChrisPalmer ’59, who graduated a yearbefore us. He was from Plymouthand our parents were very goodfriends. I can remember spendingtime with the family on a numberof occasions before going off toHolderness. I never knew Chriswell, but I did know his youngersister Kathy who was/is about ourage. In any event, once in collegeI never saw either of them againuntil a couple months ago when Iconnected with Kathy, who haslived for decades with her hus-band Phil in Snoqualmie, WA.After the yurt burned, I took amonth-long road trip to thePacific Northwest in the hope thatsome hiking and car campingwould give me a chance toregroup. While out there I locatedPhil and Kathy and spent a cou-ple days with them. A reunionafter half a century is a satisfyingthing, for some mysterious reason.Chris still lives somewhere backEast, but I have yet to cross pathswith him. Kathy, though, is doingfine and sometime not too farback (maybe 5–10 years) she did atrail ride with two companionsthe full length of the Pacific Crest

Trail, from Mexico to Canada. Icontinue to do some writing, butthe internal clock seems to beticking slower and slower thesedays, with a resulting decline inproductivity. I have a draft of abook about the boat trip (cover-ing the passage from PrinceEdward Island to the Bahamas)and also a draft of a mystery novelset in Utah and Mexico, but forsome reason I never find the timeto clean them up and get themfinalized. I say “finalized” since Ihave no immediate plans to mar-ket any of my writings—only to getthem into printed or self-pub-lished form. I also have over halfof a book written on how to ski,but it has been sitting idle andunfinished for about three years. Ikeep thinking that one of thesedays I will become so physicallyincapacitated that all I’ll be ableto do is write and edit, so I’verationalized putting off any senseof authorial urgency on the theorythat there will be time enough forthat later.” … Your humble andobedient class correspondent alsoheard from Ross Deachman, AlanDewart, and Don “Soko”Sokoloski, none of whom hadmuch in the way of news, but sentalong best wishes. At least weknow they are still breathing.

Speaking of breathing, I had whatthe docs call an acute exacerba-tion of my chronic pulmonaryproblem that has been a real nui-sance of late. A few days in thehospital fixed me up for the timebeing, so I look forward to harass-ing you well into the future. Saidcondition did not prevent mefrom attending my 50th reunionat Cornell, where Maureen and Ivisited with Pam and CharleyWitherell. That was most enjoy-able except for the sad news ofhis brother Warren’s death at age79 on May 26, 2014. More recent-ly I was able to exercise my usuallack of maturity by doing somehigh-performance driver educa-tion at the Mid-Ohio Sports CarCourse, a first-class track nearMansfield. It was great fun, and Iplan to pursue further trainingnext year at Watkins Glen, Mid-Ohio, and our local track calledPittRace.

CLASS CORRESPONDENTLen Richards ’[email protected]

’61 Want to connect with your class-mates? Consider becoming aclass correspondent and encour-

The Holderness Bulls during a 12-0 win over Berwick Academy in the fall of 1961. The team was 4-2-1 that year, including a win against traditional rival Proctor Academy.


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age your classmates to reconnectin the HST Class Notes. For moreinformation, contact us at [email protected]. Thank you!

’62 Dick Gardner went ziplining atAcadia National Park with his twodaughters and says, “Cheers to all.”

Want to connect with your class-mates? Consider becoming aclass correspondent and encour-age your classmates to reconnectin the HST Class Notes. For moreinformation, contact us at [email protected]. Thank you!

’63CLASS CORRESPONDENTSDave Hagerman ’[email protected]

’64The turnout for our 50th reunionwas as good as anyone couldexpect. With help from JeffHinman, Jim Ricker, TerryMorse, and Craig Blouin, we beatthe drum for weeks leading up tothe grand event. The weathercooperated and we enjoyed see-ing folks who, in several cases,had not been back to campussince graduation in 1964. After acocktail reception in Livermore,we proceeded to Weld Hall for fordinner. Through some last-minutenegotiations, we basically tookover the after-dinner program andpresented awards to deservingattendees. HandcraftedHolderness Bull trophies weregiven out as follows: First toRetire—Jeff Hinman; ClosestDistance Traveled—Dave Stamps;Furthest Distance Traveled—BillBaxter; Most Published—(recall-ing that we have several authorsin our midst) Rich Seltzer; FirstReturn to a Reunion—John

Butler; Best QuestionnaireResponse—Terry Morse;Certificates of honorable mentionwent to runners-up in each cate-gory. On Saturday we had achance to participate in a forumwith students that gave us a goodlook at how the school haschanged to meet current chal-lenges. The rest of the day wastaken up with an outside bar-beque lunch, sports games, a hikeor golf, or simply more talking.Another dinner, this time at TheCommon Man restaurant inPlymouth, and dancing went onuntil we began to fade. Therewasn’t enough time to cover allthe stories that needed to beretold, but we gave it a good try.I’m sure that those who werethere enjoyed themselves. If youwant to know what it’s like, thencome to the next one! In themeantime, go to the school’s web-site and peruse the pictures thatwere taken. A big thanks to theschool for making this happen,and thanks to all who attended.Sandy Alexander reports, “After arewarding reunion gathering, I amwrapping up the summer seasonin New Hampshire, getting readyto head west to Colorado for thewinter.”

CLASS CORRESPONDENTSandy Alexander ’[email protected]

’65 (reunion) Bill Carter has started a non-prof-it organization to raise money tosend people who have served inthe military to HippocratesHealth Institute. His website iswww.saveyourlife.co. … TerryJacobs recently designed a build-ing in Saudia Arabia for the SaudiFDA laboratory. He also points outthat the 50th reunion is comingup, and we need to get our classmobilized.

CLASS CORRESPONDENTTerry Jacobs ’[email protected]

’66 CLASS CORRESPONDENTPeter Janney ’[email protected]

’67 Charles Hurburgh writes, “I sup-pose I am one of your long lostalumni. I live in Iowa; I am thegrain science leader for Iowa

State University and own farm-land in Iowa. Agriculture isbecoming a leading industry inthe country; I guess I am part ofthe big agriculture that is viewedwith some skepticism on bothcoasts. I recall a lecture serieswhere we heard, shall we say,controversial views of the issues.Independent thought is what thiscountry is lacking. I would be will-ing to perhaps give a view ofagriculture and what it means tothe country.”

Peter Whitney ’67 and Graham Hill ’67.

Jim Hollis ’67 and Graham Hill ’67.



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CLASS CORRESPONDENTJohn Pfeifle ’67 603.938.5981

’68 CLASS CORRESPONDENTJohn Coles ’68 [email protected]

’69Larry Jamieson recently retiredafter 39 years as a clinical psy-chologist. He and Ellen live inVirginia for half the year andspend the remainder at their lakehouse in Maine. … Henry “Max”Maxfield writes, “My latest newsis I have Parkinson’s disease. Itwas undiagnosed for about fiveyears, but I have been undertreatment now for two years. Nowbefore you go feeling sorry forme, please understand that this isa slowly progressing disease, and Istill play tennis and golf, go wog-ging (walk/jogging), biking, andskiing—you get the idea. So I amleading a rather full life. Mydaughter Laura’s new short film, AGirl A Cat A Bomb, premiered inPortsmouth as part of the NewHampshire Film Festival. It wasterrific, and can be found at:vimeo.com/maxflyfilms/videos.

Our son Max just received hismaster’s in education. He is nowteaching in his first year at HighTech High in San Diego, CA. Mywife Tina is working on producingtwo new songs and her thirdmusic video. Just Google Tina orChristine Maxfield or look her upon YouTube. I hope the rest of myformer inmates are doing well.”

CLASS CORRESPONDENTJon Porter ’[email protected]

’70 (reunion) CLASS CORRESPONDENTPeter Weiner ’70 [email protected]


’72 Will Graham writes that he finallyreconnected with buddy CashHoyt this year. Cash and Molly

visited the Grahams last spring inLos Olivos, CA. The “Chillicothekid” has not lost what MikeWeese used to call Hoyt’s “everpresent coolness,” Will says. “I ampretty sure he could still throw afootball, but he could not get meto run long or short routes withmy new right knee.” Will alsocaught up with David “Big Nick”Nicholson, of Grafton, MA, whileattending his dad’s memorial serv-ice last summer. His father was a10th Mountain man in WorldWar II. The celebration of his lifeand the tributes from theNicholson family were inspiring,Will says. David recently called tosay the oldest of his three sons,Dave, is engaged, Will adds. InAugust, Will met Loretta andMorgan Dewey ’77 and Ki andBill Clough ’57 for a SunapeeLake tour in New Hampshire withMorgan at the helm. Will contin-ues as headmaster at the MidlandSchool in Los Olivos, CA. … Lucyand I caught up with Miriam andPeter Kimball this summer, whotreated us to lunch at their tennisclub in Chatham, MA. Peter, wholives in Sherborn, MA, continuesto do development for HarvardUniversity in Cambridge, MA, mylate brother’s alma mater. I amstill employed at The Republicannewspaper in Springfield, MA, asan online content producer forour website, MassLive.com. Thecompany I work for, AdvanceInternet, is currently promotingits digital-first process wherebynews stories appear online beforethey get into print. We have manynews organizations around thecountry including ones in NewOrleans; Portland, OR; Cleveland,OH; Newark, NJ; and Syracuse,NY, as well as others in Michiganand Alabama. On the family front,Lucy and I became grandparentson November 16, 2013, whenElizabeth Avery Shepard was

born to Jessica and Ted Shepard,of Duxbury, MA.

CLASS CORRESPONDENTDwight Shepard ’[email protected]

’73 As I write this, the wind is gustingup to 40 knots, and it is 39degrees outside with snow fallingjust inland of here. Looks like skiseason should be starting up inNew England in a few weeks! Asfor my news, I did the Hartfordmarathon a few weeks back, andalthough it rained from start tofinish, I had a good clean run andam encouraged to maybe do theProvidence and New York Citymarathons next year at the ripeold age of 60! I have also recentlydecided to take up acoustical gui-tar. I never did any type ofinstrument back in my schooldays, and I’ve always wondered ifI have any ability. One of our catsweighed in with an opinion lastweek by coughing up a hair-ballinto the guitar case while I wasbutchering chords! … I’ve heardfrom a number of you. In the“Where is Waldo” category, MattKamarck writes, “I am the leadteacher with a small group ofteachers starting an Americanprogram for Knowledge Link atGuiyang No. 1 High School here insouth central China. This makesmy fourth country on my thirdcontinent as my travels as ateacher continue. I am teachingphysics and astronomy, coachingbasketball, and playing chess.And per a request from the headof school, I will start a softballprogram, which will include help-ing to design and build thefacility, ordering the equipment,and training the players andcoaches.” … Stan Theodoredisrecently graduated from MoravianTheological Seminary and has

Larry Jamieson ’69 and wife Ellen.


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accepted a position at CaronTreatment Centers. He will beworking at their main location asa family counselor with his owncase load and also with familieswhen they come in for the FamilyEducation Program. … PeterGarrison writes that he feels theneed for some of that polar vortexin North America, so he is sellinghis condo in Panama and return-ing home to New Hampshire. I’msure we all wish him the best,although I will miss his snarky,gloating notes about conditions inthe tropics as we all freeze up inthe northern climes. … Tim Scottsays that all is well up his way inbeautiful downtown Jackson, NH.He also had a great visit with Patand Don Henderson early in thefall at their Vermont home. Herelates that at 90 and 88, respec-tively, Don and Pat look simplylike slightly older versions ofthemselves. Peter’s news of theHendersons provoked a flurry ofremembered “Donisms” fromsome of the rest of us: MikeMixter will never forget Don’sadage, when assigning large vol-umes of history reading: “If youwant to read faster, read faster!”Geoff Klingenstein recalls thememorable, “And don’t forget

boyssss, never do your readingnotes in pencil as this might hap-pen,” as Don licked his hand andsmudged someone’s diligentlytaken notes done on the priornight’s reading assignment! Andfinally, Peter Terry adds the clas-sic, which he always says to hisown students to this day: “Getyour money’s worth, boysssssss!”… Since we are on the topic of theHendersons—and by the way thatwas a great article in theHolderness School Today maga-zine—I will relate probably mymost embarrassing moment atHolderness. During the 1970–71ski season, the Holderness recskiing and alpine teams were stillusing Tenney Mountain. After anafternoon of skiing, we boardedthe bus back to campus. When Iclimbed up the stairs into the bus,Mr. Henderson had alreadyassumed his rightful position inthe front seat and had taken offhis ski boots. I guess I didn’t seehis feet sticking out, and Istepped on his toes with my skiboots. His response was immedi-ate, as you might expect, and wassomething along the lines of“Damn boy, watch where you aregoing!” I think I mumbled an apol-ogy and slunk to the back of the

bus to be razzed by my school-mates for stepping on Mr.Henderson’s toes! I’ve never got-ten over the embarrassment. …That’s all for now. Enjoy the win-ter, wherever you plan to spend it,and I hope to hear from somemore of you next time around.

CLASS CORRESPONDENTSDick Conant Jr. ’[email protected]

’74CLASS CORRESPONDENTWalter Malmquist ’[email protected]

’75 (reunion) Mac Jackson is building a barn athis new place in Waitsfield, VT. …Tom Carney says he is “notretired, not even close to it since Ihave four boys, 16 and younger.But I like what I do, so I probablywouldn’t retire anyway. We splittime between northern NewHampshire and the coast ofMaine (paying taxes in both—noone has ever accused me of beingsmart). John Putnam once askedfor the coordinates of our housein Maine. I finally got myself a

really good GPS so here they are:N43˚54.254' W070˚00.070' Stopby! Bring cheese, I’ll pay. Reunionplanning anyone?” … BairdGourlay spent most of last sum-mer converting a 40-footcontainer into a summer cabin,complete with electricity, twosinks, outdoor shower, king-sizebed, and party deck. He still livesin Sun Valley and skis over a hun-dred days a year. He says, “I soldmy rental ski shop last year, sonow I guess I’m retired, except Idon’t seem to have much time,between golf, skiing, travel, andmountain bike riding. Charlotte(28) lives here, and manages atGrumpy’s (Perry and Putnam’sfavorite spot). Ben (25) just gotback from two years in Mongolia(Peace Corps) and is looking for ajob in the music industry. AndAinsley (23) lives in Breckenridgeand teaches third grade. MeaningChelle and I are empty nesters.Come join us any time, exceptChristmas.” … Hunter Ten Broeckreports, “I’m still in Albuquerque,designing landscapes for our com-pany, Waterwise Landscapes.Barb and I have two growndaughters in Colorado andOregon. We hike whenever wecan in the west and east. My

Jack Sanderson ’75 paddling on Long Island Sound. Hunter Ten Broeck ’75 on top of Lindsey Peak (elevation 14,024 feet) in southernColorado this past summer.



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other passion these days is pho-tography.” … Ed Cudahy says thathe and his patient wife Susan (35years) are still in Denver. Three oftheir four children are marriedand living close by; they have acouple children of their own,which makes Ed a grandpa! He isstill involved in three businessesand looks forward to a day whenhe can goof off. Give him a shoutif you’re in Denver. … Tom“Fuzzy” Phillips writes, “I hadtwo boys go through Holdernessrelatively unscathed. Both are incollege, majoring in every vice wedid. I am married and livingbetween Connecticut andWoodstock, VT. George Fox and Ihad a spirited breakfast the otherweek. It seems like it’s all workingout pretty well for him. He did,however, comment on my totalseparation from every single foli-cle on my head (fuzzy no more). Ifanyone is rolling throughWoodstock, Putnam or I willreceive you for beers or chow.” …John Putnam comments, “I wentto a Middlebury reunion theother day, but never againbecause my classmates, exceptPerry and Susan, are now oldfarts. What’s all this retirementstuff? I can’t even play golf betterthan Keegan, who I taught to ski,and my kids are now all in physi-cal rehab for motorcycle andskiing-related injuries. My oldestdaughter is heading south to theislands on a Bristol 30 with (getthis) a diesel that won’t start!Never mind getting old, comemilk the cows, and I’ll take off in

your private jet and see you whenI get back. Make sense of that.” …Jack Sanderson reports, “Well, Iguess I’ll bite on the old fartupdates. I live outside of Bostonwith my wife of 30 years. We havea 25-year-old daughter in gradu-ate school studying elephantcognition and a 23-year-old son inhis last semester at Ithaca (Onelast tuition payment and I’mdone!). I work for a medicaldevice company (pacemakers,heart stents, surgical devices) andtravel on business to sites inIndia, China, and the Philippines.I still play lacrosse year round onan over-40s masters team,although each year it gets a littleharder to get back on the fastbreaks like I used to. I’ve alsoplayed a couple of times on theMiddlebury alumni team with anumber of Holderness gradsincluding Will Graham ’72,Duane Ford ’74, and Fred Beams.In 2002 I took five years off fromthe corporate world to build row-ing shells and racing kayaks forOlympic athletes and did a wind-mill blade startup. In the summersyou can find me paddling in LongIsland Sound off the Connecticutshores.” … Chris Carney is mar-ried with two daughters, Liz (28)in Washington, DC, andAnnie ’08 (25) in Boston. He leftFidelity Investments in Bostonand now lives in Falmouth, ME.He does some real estate invest-ing and a lot of volunteer work.He is on the board at Holdernessand led Out Back groups in 2010and 2011. He is also on the boardof Maine Huts & Trails whereCharlie Woodworth ’76 is theexecutive director. He sails andcrews on an Etchells in the sum-mer, plays some golf, and is apatroller at Sunday River in thewinter. He says, “I see HenryBliss ’76, Jack Thomas ’74, andSteve Morse ’74 in Maine andkeep up with Tom Cargill.

Recently I visited with EleanorBright, Nick’s wife. Life is good.”… Linda Fogg Noyes has spent alot of time on the water over theyears. She reports, “Pike and Ihave spent the last six yearsbringing our boat down to Floridaand the Bahamas for the winter.Summer usually has seen us onthe coast of Maine or Canada.This year we put the boat to bedand are building a barn/garage inBethlehem, NH. We are planningto sell our Marblehead home,store the stuff in the barn/garage,and probably get back on theboat for a bit. Last time we werebuilding here (just us, with nohelp), the garage became thehouse because we ran out of timeand energy. So, our home up hereis small and a bit like living on aboat! This time we have somehelp, hopefully enough help, sothat the barn ends up as a barn.Last January we sailed with afriend from the Canary Islands toAntigua—19 days of sailing down-wind in lovely weather! Ouroldest daughter (30) is marriedand living in Greenwich. Ouryoungest daughter (27) lives inMarblehead and works at thelocal veterinary hospital. Hope to

get some skiing in this winter!” …Andy Holman has been living inBurlington, VT, since 1995. He hasgone through several iterations ofemployment, but fortunately, hiswife’s law firm is thriving. She iscurrently the president of theAmerican Immigration LawyersAssociation. Andy’s daughter justgraduated from McGill Universityand is currently applying to gether master’s in publishing. His sonis a sophomore at ColoradoCollege and leading the life ofwhich we are all jealous. Andy isstill skiing (telemark) and cyclingavidly. “They keep me thinkingyoung,” he says. … Jim McDonaldwrites, “I’ve been at SouthernUtah University for seven years asdean of humanities and social sci-ences—after 13 years at UT-SanAntonio as an anthropology pro-fessor and in variousadministrative positions. Beforetaking the job here, I don’t thinkI’d ever set foot in Utah. It’s anamazing place. SUU is in the verysouthwest corner of the state, inclose proximity to Bryce Canyonand Zion National Parks—theplace, basically, is one big hikingtrail. I also manage to strap onsnowshoes and get a kayak out

After a 102-mile bike ride, current trustee Andy Sawyer ’79, P ’18 and David Parker ’78met up with Kirk Siegel ’78. Together they traveled to Tim Scott’s ’73 cabin forshowers, sustenance, and great cheer.

Jono Sexton ’75, his wife Karen,daughter Lily, and son Justin (6' 9").


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and about. My wife Jan is ourdirector of financial aid. It’s goodthat someone knows where themoney is! I’ve got three grandkids,the oldest of whom is now a fresh-man at SUU majoring inpsychology. Latinos are the boomdemographic in Utah and Nevada.We have a thriving HispanicCenter that’s part of my college—lots of community outreach aswell as organizing students oncampus. We’re seeing increasingnumbers of Dream Act studentswho pose a particular challengesince they aren’t eligible for insti-tutional funding of any sort(though in Utah they are eligiblefor in-state tuition if they’ve goneto high school here). It’s an uphillbattle, but we’re working hard atit. Among other things, I’ve alsobeen working on rural develop-ment and governance projects inMexico and Guatemala. Andretirement, no way. Having waytoo much fun.” … George “Foxey”Fox reports, “Okay, so workingbackwards. I moved home toRidgefield, CT, 20 months agoafter 30 years in Kittery Point,ME, to transition my failing mom.We coerced her into assisted liv-ing, where she broke her hip, thenwent through rehab. She is now ina nursing home, and we are siftingthrough her 5,500-square-foothorde that is filled with treasure.I’ve been visiting Chris Garnettin upstate New York, helping himconstruct his dream shop/studio.Not unlike our school daze build-ing Arpinum, we’re up to thesame shenanigans and still takingthe edge off. I’ve stayed currentwith Ted McElhinny and MasonBoucher, sometimes with TomCargill and Mat Rowley too. Ihave spearheaded the restorationinitiative of the historic WoodIsland Life Saving Station at themouth of Portsmouth Harbor (seeSaveWoodIsland.com, and comingsoon, TreeboTreehouse and

Krakmando). Speaking of daugh-ters, my oldest is a doula and acranial sacrel therapy instructor.She’s often in Peru, assisting withthe ceremonial administration ofindigenous medicine (now prov-ing effective with veteran PTSD),as she’s a budding shaman. Aftera childhood stacked with mini-bikes, I have developedadult-onset motorcycling syn-drome with a ’76 Sportster XLCHand an ’03 Police Road King. Ilived on Nantucket from 2000–2004 and bumped into ChrisFraker a bunch. Let’s all do the40th and I’ll round up my posse.”… Perry Babcock contributes,“My daughter once gave Baird’sdaughter the chicken pox andthat was the last time I got invitedto Sun Valley! Putnam nearlykilled me this summer. He pickedme up on his old sailboat andmade me drink beer, wine, andother things until I started talkingnonsense. I think he has seven oreight kids, mostly from the samewoman. My daughter, Hannah ’80(28), is an administrator at a pri-vate school. Molly (24) manages alocal tavern, and Perry III is at UMaine for the second year. All mysports equipment is over 20 yearsold, except a hockey stick some-one gave me last year. I still playhockey with the young guys;sometimes they pass me the puckif I promise to buy them beerafter the game. And, my wife stillloves me.”

CLASS CORRESPONDENTMac Jackson ’[email protected]

’76 CLASS CORRESPONDENTSCharlie Bolling ’[email protected]

Biff Gentsch ’[email protected]

SEPTEMBER 3, 1959–JANUARY 8, 2015

After a battle with cancer, Sanford Morris “Sandy” Treat III, class of1978, died on January 8, at his home in Edwards, CO, surroundedby family. He was 55.

Sandy was gifted in soccer, baseball, tennis, and golf, but snow ski-ing was his compelling addiction and his reason for attendingHolderness. Sandy was an eight-time National Masters Champion insnow skiing, and was the overall fastest super-G competitor at theWestern Regional Championships in Park City, UT, in February 2014.

After graduating from the University of Denver with a degree inconstruction management, Sandy started buying houses in Denver,fixing them up, and selling them. Later he moved his business tothe Vail Valley, and Summit Habitats was born. His wife Kathyproved an able partner, as her flair for interior design launched adistinct look for Summit Habitats, enhancing Sandy’s reputation forsuperior workmanship and integrity. Their extensive work in down-town Edwards received multiple architectural awards.

All the while, the Treats together—including their two sonsSandy IV and Andrew—have had a knack for making everyone theymeet feel good about themselves. Sandy was always animated andsmiling and made whoever was with him want to see him again orjust be around him more.

Sandy will be sorely missed, his legacy far-ranging. In his lastmonths, Sandy had a special reunion with his close Holdernessfriends, most of whom then wished him goodbye at a celebration ofhis life in Colorado. In lieu of flowers, please consider a contributionin Sandy’s honor to Ski Club Vail Scholarship and/or the “Treat LifeRight” Pan Mass Challenge Bicycle Team (www.pmc.org/TT0172) onbehalf of the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. — John Hollister

SANFORD M. TREAT III ’78

PHOTO FROM SANDY’S SENIOR PAGE IN THE 1978 EDITION OF THE DIAL



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’77 Mike Granger has retired fromthe Air Force after 26 years in theGuard and Reserve but is “still fly-ing the Airbus. I pretty much onlyfly island day trips, so I am homemost nights. The islands are pret-ty much hassle-free with node-icing and no big cities! I wishwe were able to overnight downthere more often, but that is notthe case. I still have a house backin Maine and get up there asmuch as possible in the summerand fall.”

CLASS CORRESPONDENTPeter Grant ’[email protected]

’78 CLASS CORRESPONDENTLuther Turmelle ’[email protected]

’79From Hinesburg, VT, DougHenson writes, “My oldest daugh-

ter Melissa is a pre-K teacher onCape Cod. My middle daughterMegan is traveling around Europewith her fiancé, completing hercollege degree online. Myyoungest daughter is a senior inhigh school and is looking forwardto a “gap year” next year, hopeful-ly in the south with her horsedoing some serious eventing. Shehas done quite well around hereand in Canada, so it is time tobroaden her horizons a bit.Shelley, my wife of 29 years, is apreschool teacher in Shelburne,VT, with a master’s degree in spe-cial education. I have beenworking for a small civil engineer-ing and land surveying firm for 25years and am now a partner inthe firm. I am a licensed land sur-veyor and have passed the firsthalf of the engineer’s exam. Afterquitting sailboat racing when ourchildren were born, I got backinto it this summer and spendWednesday evenings and someweekends back out on LakeChamplain as a crewmember on aJ-30. Last school year, we hosteda junior from Austria for the

entire school year, and this yearwe have a senior from Italy. Thisis an awesome experience, bothfor my daughter and for Shelleyand me. I enjoyed seeing LewOveraker at Reunion 2014.”


’80 (reunion) CLASS CORRESPONDENT Greg White ’[email protected]

’81 CLASS CORRESPONDENTBill Baskin ’[email protected]

’82 Junior Achievement of CentralMaryland honored “edupreneur,”mentor, and investor FrankBonsal III at “JA Jams: AnEvening with Kenny Loggins,” onNovember 7, at Joseph MeyerhoffSymphony Hall. Frank wasTowson University’s first directorof entrepreneurship, EdTechMaryland’s co-founder, and a ven-ture capital and angel investor. Heis a special adviser with NewMarkets Venture Partners and along-term partner with BonsalCapital. As an angel and throughhis role at New Markets, he hasinvested in over 25 private educa-tion companies. He previously hasserved as a teacher, adviser,coach, and administrator to mid-dle and high school students.

CLASS CORRESPONDENTChris Pesek ’[email protected]

A gathering on Long Island, Squam Lake, in July: Bob Zock ’85, George Samaras ’82,Mark Cavanaugh ’82, Peter Coolidge ’82, Headmaster Emeritus Pete Woodward,Peter Wensberg ’84, Walter Dodge ’83, Charley Hansen ’83, and Jamey Gallop ’83.They write, “To all animal lovers: the raccoon hats are synthetic!”

Mark Aldrich ’87 and Austin Eaton ’87.


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’83 Jud Madden reports, “I turned 50this year. I suppose I should begrateful to hit that mark, but wow,it seems like we were just gettingout of Out Back a few years ago. Ilove having my own law practiceso that I can handle cases all overOhio yet also have time to serveas a township trustee. I also enjoyworking our hobby farm, raisingegg and meat chickens, Angusbeef, and dairy goats. Makingmaple syrup in our sugar shackhas been a highlight every year aswell. The maple syrup effortbrings regular contact with HankLovejoy who has the same activi-

ty going on at his New Hampshirefarm each spring.”

CLASS CORRESPONDENTJud Madden ’[email protected]

’84CLASS CORRESPONDENTFred Ludtke ’[email protected]

’85 (reunion) Jean-Louis Trombetta went outfishing and diving with NicholasDorion in the Caribbean and hasbeen in touch with Gillian Kirby.He hopes that many classmates

will join in for the 30th reunionnext year.

CLASS CORRESPONDENTJean-Louis Trombetta ’[email protected]


’87 Austin Eaton writes, “My familyand I moved to the Minneapolisarea about a year ago. Chip(eight) and Mason (seven) haveadapted well. We will be busywith karate, skiing, and basketball

this winter. I played golf withMark Aldrich for the first timesince our Holderness graduation27 years ago. He hasn’t lost a step.It was great to catch up. NormWalker would have loved seeingus together again.” … After sevenyears at a pharma company, AndyTwombly took a global role withBP as the regional crisis, continu-ity, and emergency responsecoordinator for the Americas. Hewill be traveling everywherebetween Canada and Brazil. He islooking forward to working out ofNew Jersey, which brings himcloser to New Hampshire andHolderness.

CLASS CORRESPONDENTKathryn Lubrano Robinson ’[email protected]

’88Lauren O’Brien Smith reports,“We have moved this fall to a newhome in Duxbury, MA. We justfinished up three months of con-struction and camping out in ahome without heat, a stove, beds,or hot water. My Holderness daysprepared me well for this!”

CLASS CORRESPONDENTAlex MacCormick ’[email protected]

’89 Class Correspondent JenniferMurphy Robison had an amazing25th reunion with her fellow class

Xavier (5) and Logan (3), children ofTamsen Plume Anderson ’89.

Polly Spencer ’90, Hilary Taylor ’93, andHilary’s daughter Sadie in San Diego.

Cara Cargill ’89, Tamsen PlumeAnderson ’89, and Lindley Hall van derLinde ’89 on Rattlesnake Mountainduring Reunion Weekend.

The wedding of Nina Barker ’89 and Michael Brogna ’91.

Chris Davenport ’89 and Theo Jordan ’02 at the Colorado Avalanche InformationCenter last fall.



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of ’89ers! … Brad Greenwood con-curs: “Had a blast at reunionseeing everyone both on and offcampus! We have a special groupthat will always be tight. I justreturned from a Helly Hansensales meeting in Alicante, Spain,where we saw the start of theVolvo Ocean Race—the world’sbiggest, baddest sailing regatta.We are outfitting team SCA, theall-women boat from Sweden.Very cool experience. It has oneUS stop—Newport, RI—in May.Come down and check it out.Family is good; girls are back inschool—having fun and learningnew things all the time. Our

youngest daughter Charlie rodeher pedal bike for the first timeyesterday which was exciting foreveryone! She switched from abalance bike right to pedal bike—no training wheels—highlyrecommend it.” … Nina BarkerBrogna and Michael Brogna ’91got married on September 6, hav-ing reconnected 27 years afterthey first met at Holderness and22 years after they dated in col-lege. Holderness alumni at thewedding ranged from Nina’sfather Bill ’62, to members of theclass of ’92.

CLASS CORRESPONDENTJen Murphy Robison ’[email protected]

’90 (reunion) After years of following classmatePepper deTuro’s entries, ErikOrmberg was compelled to writein: “I am a high school guidancecounselor and head footballcoach at Medfield High School inMassachusetts. I missed seeingPepper this summer when hiskids were in Walpole at the hock-ey camp. I wish him and allmembers of the class well.” Wewelcome Erik’s wife Joan and twoboys, EJ (nine) and Dylan (five) tothe 1990 Holderness School classand hope they will join us in thefall of 2015 for our 25th reunion!… Courtney Landau Fleisherloves life back in New England:“We have finally put down roots,as we bought a house in thegreater Burlington, VT area. Ienjoyed hosting three Holdernessstudents from China overThanksgiving in 2013 and wel-comed Paul Sampson ’17 this yearafter returning from a trip to theVirgin Islands in November.”

CLASS CORRESPONDENTCourtney Fleisher ’[email protected]

’91 CLASS CORRESPONDENTMichael O’Keefe ’[email protected]

’92 Nicole Ash has encountered lotsof alumni recently: “Some of thework girls put together an icehockey team for the annual BlackIce Pond Hockey tournament inConcord in January. I ran intoBret Pfeifle there; it was great tosee him. I also saw Kristin Gratonat a softball tournament—in whichour kids were playing—and KellyMullen Weiser. If anyone is in thearea, we just built a house andhave plenty of room! [email protected]” … Kelly MullenWieser is managing the InvestNew Hampshire Regional Center,an EB-5 Visa Regional Centerapproved by the United StatesCitizenship and ImmigrationService to encourage foreigninvestment and to create jobs inthe northern tier of NewHampshire—Carroll, Coos, andGrafton counties. She is excitedabout the opportunities this pro-gram will bring to NewHampshire. … Jake Norton hasbeen busy: “Life is great here inour new town, Evergreen, CO.Our kids are growing up tooquickly, with Lila now seven andRyrie just about five. I’m keepingbusy with a mix of climbing, guid-ing, photography, and filmmaking.In 2013, I made my first film—working with co-Director DavidMorton (brother-in-law of JohnSpiess ’94)—called High andHallowed: Everest 1963. The filmtells the story of the AmericanMount Everest Expedition of 1963,with a special focus on the first

Kwinn Emmelia Kawecki was welcomed into the world by proud parents Gregg Taft ’95and Abbey DeRocker ’95, and big sister Kate.

Katie Lyman ’95 and son Henry withDean of Faculty Chris Day, P’15, ’17, ’18.

Tyler Hamilton ’90 and Ben Eaton ’90, at an event organized by Brooke Moran ’91 atWestern State Colorado University in Gunnison, CO.


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ascent of the West Ridge by TomHornbein and Willi Unsoeld. Thefilm won many awards worldwideand will be available soon onlinefor purchase. Those interestedcan check out the trailer here:highandhallowed.com. I’m nowworking with Pete McBride on afilm telling the story of theGanges River in India. In the fallof 2013, Pete, Dave Morton, and Ifollowed the Ganges from sourceto sea. We started with anattempt on an unclimbed, 6900mpeak at the head of the river, andthen followed the river for over1500 miles to its terminus in theBay of Bengal. Our challenge nowis to tell the river’s story in a com-prehensive, authentic way.Information will be posted on mywebsite and social media whenthe film is close to ready. Lookingforward, as ever, to connectingwith friends from the Holdernessfamily. If you’re in the Evergreenarea, let me know!”

CLASS CORRESPONDENTKelly Mullen Wieser ’[email protected]

’93 CLASS CORRESPONDENTLindsay Dewar Fontana ’[email protected]

’94CLASS CORRESPONDENTSSam Bass ’[email protected]

Ramey Harris-Tatar ’[email protected]

’95 (reunion) Bryan Erikson is having a greattime teaching and is entering histhird year as the head hockeycoach for Wareham/Carver HighSchool: “We went 0-18 in our firstyear—one point shy of the statetournament last year (9-10-1)—andwe have high hopes for next year.Next year Alex (12) will enter thefirst seventh grade class atXaverian Brothers High. He isplaying a lot of hockey and videogames, of course. Brady (eight)will enter the third grade and ishooked on hockey and everyother sport that requires my wifeMegan and me to get up superearly. I still see John Coyle a lotand miss all of you fromHolderness.”

CLASS CORRESPONDENTJohn Farnsworth ’[email protected]

’96 Heather Pierce Roy writes, “Weare still living at The Fay School, aboarding school outside of

Boston, where my husband teach-es and where I have coachedlacrosse for the past couple years.Raising our five-year-old andthree-year-old here has been thebest! In January 2014, I joinedAva Anderson Non Toxic andhave begun educating folks abouttoxins in their everyday products.I’m educating others, helping myfamily and the country becomeless toxic, and still able to behome with my two kids!” … JohnVan Slyke reports, “We spent thesummer being chased around thewoods by our two very enthusias-tic Jack Russell Terriers and justreturned from a trip back home toget married by Dr. Chris Haas.I’m still with Amazon and my(now) wife is managing the USfoster care adoption program forWACAP.”

CLASS CORRESPONDENTSEmily Evans MacLaury ’[email protected]

Heather Pierce Roy ’[email protected]

’97 Meg Rapelye-Goguen reports,“My family moved to the DC areain August, and I just started a newposition as executive director ofPhoenix Bikes, a nonprofit youthdevelopment program that oper-ates a sustainable communitybike shop in Arlington, VA.”

CLASS CORRESPONDENTPutney Haley ’[email protected]

’98 Tara Walker Hamer writes, “Wewere lucky to have had Momwith us long enough for her toknow and love on all three of ourgirls. I think of Holderness often,especially when recalling mychildhood for my daughters. I amso thankful for all the specialfriends who have shown theirsupport over the last five impor-tant and difficult years.”

CLASS CORRESPONDENTTara Walker Hamer ’[email protected]

Tara Walker Hamer’s ’98 three daughters: Vivian (six), Lola (three and a half), andEtta (nine months).

The Chalmers family. Their insurance business won the Maine Family Business Awardin 2014; Jim Chalmers ’98 speaking at the award ceremony.



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’99Jon Boyle writes, “My wifeMaggie and our three kids—Susie,Jack, and Ryan—have been livingin Ann Arbor, MI since March2010. After getting out of theArmy, I took a job with AvfuelCorporation, a global distributorof jet fuel and aviation services.The job has taken me around theworld and is typically a lot of fun.We have really enjoyed AnnArbor and of course have becomebig fans of the University ofMichigan. Football Saturdays inAnn Arbor are an event thateveryone should experience atleast once! I hope everyone isdoing well. Let me know if youare ever in Michigan!” … BrookeAronson McCreedy and her fami-ly moved back to Massachusettsin July: “We had intended to stayanother year in Ireland, but myhusband took a new position backin Boston. We were able to packup and move in a matter ofweeks. We have settled back intoour home and our ‘normal’ lifefairly seamlessly. We miss ourfriends back in Ireland and themany adventures we were able totake while living in such closeproximity to so many amazing

places, but we are very gratefulfor the opportunity we had andthe many memories we made as afamily. We are looking forward toa more relaxing year and enjoyingall of the things we missed abouthome.” … “Life is good,” says BretIngold. “After 10 years of nomadiccaretaking, sailing, and adventur-ing with my wonderful wife, lifehas settled into a nice rhythm! Wesplit our time between working onsculptures at the Johnston Artstudios in Abaco, Bahamas; lead-ing service trips and buildingplaygrounds out of recycled tiresin the developing world with ourgrassroots nonprofit, RISE Now(www.rise-now.org); and livingsimply in the woods of NewHampshire, gardening and prac-ticing natural building. I got toreconnect with Wes Lowrie whenwe both lived in Seattle and havebeen working regularly with NateBonneau ’98 who is a cofounderof RISE Now.” … Emilie Leereports, “My latest news here inNYC is that I’m helping to launch anew collaborative workspace forartists called the Grand CentralAtelier. This project is the latestin the evolution of the WaterStreet Atelier/Grand CentralAcademy community. In our new

space we have more squarefootage for artists’ studios, and weare opening a gallery at the endof October. The space is alsohosting workshops, lectures, andevents. It’s an exciting time to bepart of something new! Last sum-mer I was traveling in Greece, andI spent a week with Joel vonTrapp and his wife Anna. It wasamazing to see where they liveand explore the mountains andbeaches around their home!” …Quentin McDowell writes, “Wehad our third child, Rooney ClydeMcDowell, in July and movedinto a great new house on theMercersburg Academy campus.This is my eighth year atMercersburg, and I am currentlythe senior associate director ofadmission and the head boys’ soc-cer coach. At the time I amsubmitting this update, we areranked No. 5 in the nation forprep school soccer and arepreparing for the league champi-onship game against The HillSchool (PA). Most importantly, weare all happy and healthy.”

CLASS CORRESPONDENTBrooke Aronson McCreedy ’[email protected]

’00 (reunion) Jason Rowe is back on the roadand hoping to make it to campussometime this year: “I gotengaged this past summer, andwe took some time away in SanJuan, PR. Other than that I amstill scouting for San Jose and amsure I’ll be seeing the Morminason the road this winter. Hopeeveryone is well.”

CLASS CORRESPONDENTAndrew “Sully” Sullivan ’[email protected]

’01 John Ziadie writes, “Living thedream! Married to my beautifulwife Lauren but no kids just yet.We do have a ‘dogta’ (daughter)who’s probably smart enough toenroll in any college. I’m currentlyworking as a product/platformtrainer for Thomson Reuters, but Ido have dreams of one day own-ing a chain of jerk chicken/beefpatty restaurants on or aroundevery ski mountain in NewEngland. I currently reside inWestchester, NY, and couldn’t bemore grateful for the life with

Evan Mullen ’00 married Jenny Lyckland in Portsmouth this summer. Harrison Robert Nissi, son of RachelGoldberg ’01 and husband Nordo Nissi(brother of Taylor ’03 and Molly ’06).

Harrison Robert Nissi (son of RachelGoldberg ’01 and Nordo Nissi) proudlyshows off his new Bulls hat! Go Bulls!


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which I’ve been blessed.” … CraigWright ’fesses up: “This year Ifinally grew up and got married toTammy Kelly. Tammy is fromDublin, but we met in Scotlandand tied the knot near Edinburgh.We’re moving into our new homenext week and the next chapterbegins! I’m writing this from mydesk in Paris on the ChampsÉlysées, so you can tell I get abouta bit these days. I hope all of myclassmates and teachers are doingwell. Thanks again for making mytime at Holderness so incredible.Maybe one day I’ll make it back!”… Evan Kornack and his wifeKinsey live in Boston. Evan worksin venture capital and Kinsey infinance. They spent a lot of timeon the water this summer and arenow looking forward to ski sea-son. … Tyler Stubbs reports, “Iwas involved in a serious bicycleaccident on Labor Day in SanFrancisco. Now I have seven tita-nium plates in my face. I’m almostfully recovered and will only havea couple scars to show for it. Themarvels of modern medicine areextraordinary. I was overdue foran accident as I can’t tell you howmany miles I’ve put on bicyclesduring my life, many of which canbe attributed to the coaching ofPhil Peck and Jeff Nielson. Also,I got to travel across the countryfrom west to east in a MINICooper for work this summer onMINI Takes the States 2014. Overfour hundred MINIs went thewhole way, hitting 18 states and 15cities in two weeks; it was all doc-umented with BuzzFeed. It wasgreat.” … Amanda French is lov-ing her work as an elementaryschool counselor: “We live on thewest coast but are lucky enoughto go back East and spend 4–6weeks between Campton, NH,and Cape Cod,” she says. “I gotmarried in June at the Chapel ofthe Holy Cross at HoldernessSchool—easily the best day of my

life!” … Karyn Hoepp Jenningswrites, “Not much new to reportfrom me. My husband and I had abusy summer with family eventsand weddings. All is good here!Really, I just wanted to write in sothat I can win the champagneflutes! Hope everyone is doingwell! XOXO.” … Rachel GoldbergNissi works for T.J. Maxx buyingrunway and contemporarywomen’s apparel. She and herhusband welcomed their sonHarrison Robert Nissi on July 11,2014, and are very happy living inCharlestown/Boston.

CLASS CORRESPONDENTSKaryn Hoepp Jennings ’[email protected]

Adam Lavallee ’[email protected]

Sophie Moeller ’01

’02 Betsy Pantazelos writes, “I havejust moved to New York City asthe retail district manager forPatagonia and am enjoying takingon this new challenge and locale.”… Kate Vlahakis reports, “Lifeand work are great. I’m living inWestchester County, NY, andworking as the head women’s bas-ketball coach at ManhattanvilleCollege. I am also an adjunct pro-fessor in our sports studies

program. Just turned 30 (yikes!)and am running road races andspending time with my chocolatelab and girlfriend.”

CLASS CORRESPONDENTBetsy Pantazelos ’[email protected]

’03 Nicole and Jay Connolly had theirfirst child on October 17. Jayreports that John Benson Connollyis healthy and doing great.

CLASS CORRESPONDENTNick Payeur ’[email protected]

’04Ashley Crook is in school full-time at NYSID completing adegree in interior design andloves it.

CLASS CORRESPONDENTRyan McManus ’[email protected]

’05 (reunion) Brie Keefe reports, “In July wemoved to Richmond, VT, to be

closer to Burlington as well as mynew teaching job in Montpelier.I’m still teaching middle schoolscience. Just the other day Ibroke out some Holdernessapparel, and of course that result-ed in a conversation withsomeone who has a Holdernessconnection. I’m looking forward toour 10-year reunion!” … Han MinLee got married! … Kevin Dalyhas had a busy year: he and hisbrother bought a farm in Maine,Kevin got married in May, and heand his wife are expecting a sonin February … Hannah Hickok isliving in Brooklyn, NY, and keepsin touch with “Holdernessies”when she can. She recentlymoved into a new job where sheis now an associate editor at Dr.Oz The Good Life (health/lifestylemagazine). Her previous job wasas an assistant editor at Redbookmagazine. … Pete Schlech writes,“I’m in the US Air Force and flyKC-10s for the 76th Air RefuelingSquadron based out of McGuireAFB in New Jersey. I have been onthe road most of this last year:Portugal, Italy, Germany, Alaska,Hawaii, the Middle East, DiegoGarcia, and Japan, among otherplaces. I live in Philadelphia, PA. Igo back to flying for my airline in

Amanda French ’01 on her weddingday with husband, Dana Greenwood.

Amanda French ’01, Joy Domin ’01, andSophie Moeller ’01 at Amanda’s wedding.

Alexander K. Smith ’01 and DamlaTuncel (from Istanbul, Turkey) weremarried May 24, 2014 at the SaratogaPolo Club, Saratoga Springs, NY.



CLASS NOTES

Draft 8 (13APR15)


a few months and working parttime for the Air Force.” … WillieFord is still loving his work as themarketing director for POC. Thecompany recently moved to ParkCity, UT, and Willie reports thatthere are quite a few people fromNew Hampshire representing. …In June, Jenn Calver left VermontAcademy and went to theUniversity Liggett School, a pri-vate day school in Grosse Pointe,MI. She is working in admissionsand coaching lacrosse. “TheMidwest has taken some gettingused to, but I’m starting to settlein,” she says. “Be sure to reachout if you’re ever in the Detroitarea!” … Noah Andersen-Davidlives in Stavanger, Norway. InMarch he finished three years ofstudy to become a real estateagent. He had an exciting first

year and is enjoying family lifewith his wife and two children.He says to let him know if youare visiting Stavanger.

CLASS CORRESPONDENTBrie Keefe ’[email protected]

’06 CJ Vincent recently movedacross the country to take a jobwith Apple, Inc. and work intheir industry leading supplychain. He is enjoying theCalifornia lifestyle so far! … Afterfour years at Vineyard Vines,Jesse Straus has joined NourishSnacks, a startup healthy snackcompany: “Launched in May2014, we’re exploding and it’s

super exciting. Now an uncle oftwo, soon to be three!”


’07 It is still hard to believe howquickly the time is going by, andwhile our Holderness days seemso recent in some respects, theyseem like a lifetime away in otherways. This year, we have a num-ber of classmates who wrote inwith exciting news of engage-ments, marriages, and children. Ijust moved to Beacon Hill from

Cambridge, MA and am reallyhappy to be here. Summer wasgreat and flew by. One of myhighlights was the wedding ofMattie Ford ’04, during which Icaught up with many of myfavorite class of ’04ers and somefaculty as well. … Taylor Jamesran the New York City Marathonon November 2; she and SamShlopak are still living together inthe city. … Kory Himmer hasbeen in Boston since 2011 andrecently moved to the Fenwayarea. Kory is working as an ana-lyst at a software companydowntown and is taking commer-cial real estate courses at BostonUniversity. … Sarah Morrisonreports, “I am still living inBrooklyn and loving every minuteof it! I continue to work atFoothold Technology, which pro-vides electronic health records tohuman services agencies; howev-er, I have transitioned into a moreoutward facing role, focusing onour events, partnerships, andclient relations. I can also be spot-ted doing odd jobs around townto keep busy (working the door atevents, putting together propstylings for fashion shoots, or pro-moting vintage store deals toother local businesses). On a lessprofessional note, I bleached myhair platinum blonde (and amobsessed with it!) and have spentthe last few months dog sittingthe cutest little beagle named

Mattie Ford ’04 takes a moment withher siblings after her marriage toVincent DiNapoli. (L–R) Julia ’08,Mattie, Lily ’12, and Willie ’05.

Sam Rigby and Laura French at their wedding on June 15, 2013. (L–R) Jamie Gallagher (former faculty), Tom Valeo ’93, SamRigby ’03, Laura Rigby (French), Grace Nehring ’03, and John Leavitt ’04.


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Animal. I am also counting downthe days until our 10th reunionafter seeing many familiar ’04faces at their reunion this year!” …Josh Hoar is still working in carsales and has just started in aposition at Dealer.com inBurlington. … Olga and MikeHeyward relocated to New YorkCity from Holderness; Mike nowteaches fifth- and sixth-graders atHarlem Academy, a private inde-pendent school in Harlem. … TadSkelley writes, “I’m in year twoon the coaching staff at theUniversity of Notre Dame. I amalso recently engaged to JosieHill, and we are getting marriednext summer. I look forward toevery August when I am able tocatch up with a bunch of myHolderness buddies at the TravisRoy Wiffle Ball tournament inVermont. It is always a good timeto reminisce about our days atHolderness.” … Stephen Martinreenlisted in the Marine Corpsand has been assigned as anexplosive ordnance disposal tech-nician. He and his wife KourtneyBrim Martin are kept busy bytheir one-year-old son, MitchellMartin, and are expecting adaughter in January 2015. The

Martins moved twice this year—spending most of 2014 living atEglin Air Force Base, FL, but noware stationed at Camp Lejeune,NC. … Tyler Gosselin writes, “Jessand I got married on October 11,in Blowing Rock, NC. We had anamazing time with all of our fami-ly and friends, and it was great tohave Jeff Rudberg ’06 and KoryHimmer there, both of whom wehave been very close with whileliving in Boston. Kelsey Smithalso made the trip for the wed-ding, and it was great to have herthere too.” … Nick Smith marriedAlexa Emlinger in New York Citythis past year. The ceremony wasat the Brick Church on ParkAvenue, and the wedding recep-tion was at the Union Club. Nickworks for Bessemer Trust atRockefeller Center.

CLASS CORRESPONDENTAnnie Hanson ’07 [email protected]

’08 Haley Hamblin is working atAnthropologie as their NewYork/New Jersey event photogra-pher. She is also still working with

VII Photo agency. … HannahO’Brien is in her second yearat St. George’s School inMiddletown, RI. This year shetook on the role of fourth-formdean and works in the Dean ofStudents Office. She also teachesUS History and Modern World,coaches varsity field hockey andice hockey, and lives in a girls’dormitory with her puppy Winni.… Baird Meem writes, “I’mpleased to say that I’m still lovinglife in NYC and working inaccount management at Young &Rubicam on the Dell account.This year I also became a volun-teer for New York Cares and havethoroughly enjoyed the experi-ence. I am thrilled that I havemany Holderness friends in thecity. I stay in touch with GregRamey, Polly Babcock, DanMarvin, Andrew Grace, HaleyHamblin, and Ax Hayssen ’07.They are all doing well!” … MilesSellyn is entering his secondyear as an account director atVancouver-based creative agency,Drive Digital. He recently becamea part owner of the business andalso got engaged. He will marry inMontreal next summer.

CLASS CORRESPONDENTJessica White ’[email protected]

’09Sophia Schwartz is living inSteamboat, CO, and training andcompeting in freestyle mogul ski-ing. “This will be my first yeardoing the full World Cup circuitwhich is exciting,” she writes. “Ihead to Finland for my first eventon December 1!” … Meredith Peckreports, “Currently I am complet-ing my last undergrad semester atJohns Hopkins and will receivemy diploma from Smith College inJanuary. At Hopkins, I’m workingin a biophysics lab studying pro-tein interactions and will presentwork at the Biophysical Societymeeting in February. I’ll continuemy work in the lab while applyingto medical schools. I also coach aU12 girls’ soccer team and volun-teer at a health clinic inBaltimore.”

Nick Smith ’07 and his bride, Alexa Elmlinger, at their wedding in New York City,September 2014.

Ben Tyler ’07 married Sophia Davis in St. Louis on October 11, 2014. After thewedding, the party travalled to New Hampshire for a service on Cannon Mountain.



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CLASS CORRESPONDENTSMeg McNulty ’[email protected]

Allison Stride ’[email protected]

’10 (reunion) Congratulations to Karen Abate,who graduated in May with adegree in elementary teachereducation/special education. Sheis working towards a May 2015completion date for her master’sin autism/severe disabilities at theUniversity of Delaware. She alsoreports that she lost 50 poundsthis last year! … Wesley Mitchell-Lewis certainly covers a lot ofground: “While at the Universityof Vermont, I studied globalsports management in Londonduring the Olympics; I back-packed in Nepal focusing onglobal and regional studies; andthen I went to Austria to studyinternational management and

ski. I have since graduated andhave begun working full time forRed Bull as a field marketing spe-cialist based out of Providence,RI.” … Gabbie Raffio is a businessdevelopment representative forNetSuite, a software company inBoston. “I have enjoyed living inSouthie and running into someHolderness friends throughoutthe city,” she writes. “This sum-mer I spent some time inSteamboat Springs, CO, withMadde Burnham ’11, doingadventurous things like downhillmountain biking and exploringthe hot springs! I look forward towhat comes next in my salescareer.” … Jeff Wasson is workingon a master’s in history and thenplans to join the Army to work inintelligence. … Tizzy Brown grad-uated in May from GeorgeWashington University with adegree in American studies andstayed at GW to pursue a master’sdegree, also in American studies,with an emphasis on women’s

studies. Since graduation, she hasbeen working at Third Way, a cen-trist think tank that writes policyrecommendations for Congress. …Ashby Sussman graduated fromCornell University in May andstarted working as a businessconsultant at Sapient GlobalMarkets. “For training, I went toBangalore, India, for nine weeks,where I learned about a varietyof topics relevant to my job.Aside from training, I traveledevery single weekend I wasthere—both inside and outsideIndia. I am now back in Bostonworking full time and have reallyenjoyed it so far!” … AbigailAlexander recently graduatedfrom Bates College and moved toBoston for a research position atMcLean Hospital where she willstudy autism under a HarvardMedical School professor.

CLASS CORRESPONDENTSAbby Alexander ’[email protected]

Ashleigh Boulton ’10 [email protected]

John McCoy ’[email protected]

Em Pettengill ’10 [email protected]

’11Cecily Cushman writes, “I am asenior at Connecticut College andam getting ready for my final sea-son of lacrosse! I am hoping tofind a job in Boston after I gradu-ate, so I can be around otherHolderness grads!” … This sum-mer, Klaus Vitzthum internedwith a tech startup callediSpecimen in Lexington, MA,before returning to Burlington forhis senior year. … CatherinePowell is a senior at UVM and is“currently studying my brains out

in psychology and gender studies.I have interned at a forensicassessment practice and am alsointerning with a school psycholo-gist at a local elementary school.I’ve basically turned into a hippie:fighting social injustices, eatinglocal, occasionally showering. I’vealso become an avid brunch-er,coffee addict, TED talk viewer. I’mcurrently involved in the EvolvingEconomy/ Economic Coalition atUVM (we are essentially challeng-ing the current system ofeconomics in the US and how itcreates injustices in every aspectof our lives all the time—except forthe rich white men). I’m trying tofigure out my life post-college atthe moment (no seriously, thisvery moment I’m reflecting on it).I’m sure my Holderness peers areas well. Hope to see everyonesoon!” … Madeline Burnhamaccepted a job offer in Boston andexpects alumni in the area to hither up! … Haleigh Weiner writes,“The first baby from the class of2011 was born June 13, 2014! Mydaughter Rori Hannah is a beauti-ful and happy little girl who lovesto laugh and play.” … Chris Merrillreports, “My internship is goinggreat so far. I study computer sci-ence at school, and Yahoo hasprovided me an opportunity toput those skills to use for the firsttime in a practical setting. I’mlearning a ton about corporatestructure, corporate culture, andthe production process. It’ll all behelpful when I (hopefully) end upin this area next year as a full timesoftware developer.” … ColePhillips writes, “Colton Ransom,Ian Ford ’12, myself, and anotherfriend from the St. LawrenceUniversity Outing Club drove outto Wyoming for two weeks of ourChristmas break. We toured inboth the Idaho/Wyoming Pass andthe Grand Teton National Park.”

Cole Phillips ’11, Sumner Ford ’09, Colton Ransom ’11, and Ian Ford ’12 atop TaylorMountain in Wyoming at 10,352 feet, ready for a 4,000-foot ski descent.


Draft 8 (13APR15)


CLASS CORRESPONDENTSCecily Cushman ’[email protected]

Mandy Engelhardt ’[email protected]

Sam Macomber ’[email protected]

Jamie McNulty ’[email protected]

’12 Jules Pichette is two years intohis degree at the University ofRichmond and reports that he iscurrently jumping betweenQuebec, New York, California,and Virginia. … Hannah Halstedrecently got back from a Perustudy abroad program where shetook classes at The School forField Studies. … StephanieSymecko had a great summerinterning for Pfizer ConsumerHealthcare, spending time withher family, and CrossFitting. Shefinished an exciting field hockeyseason during which her teammade it to the NEWMAC playoffsfor the first time since she hasbeen at WPI. Starting in the newyear, Stephanie will be living inHong Kong for a few months,working on a project involvingmicroplastic pollution. … EricaSteiner will be studying abroad atUniversità Cattolica del SacroCuore in Milan, Italy, next semes-ter. … Haley Mahar lovedspending a semester in Londonduring which she studied Englishand history at Queen MaryUniversity. She got to spend a daycatching up with fellow 2012 grad-uate Keith Babus. Whileexploring Germany, Haley alsosaw Kristina Micalizzi who is alsostudying abroad, but in Madrid,Spain, at the UniversidadComplutense de Madrid. “I haveonly been here for a month,”

Kristina writes, “but am enjoyingthe city. My Spanish is improvingquickly since all of my classes aretaught in Spanish. I have had theopportunity to travel aroundEurope since my arrival and raninto Haley Mahar and BeeCrudgington at Oktoberfest inMunich. I also spent time inLisbon, Portugal, which is one ofthe most beautiful places towhich I have ever been. I amexcited to be coming back toBoston/New Hampshire forChristmas break to see my familyand friends, but am very happythat I will be abroad all year.” …Isabelle Zaik is studying market-ing at Westminster College in SaltLake City. She started a mountainbike club this year which has kepther busy; she is also taking busi-ness courses and interning atDiscrete Clothing which is a“badass local Salt Lake brand!” …Abigail Guerra reports, “I havebeen studying abroad inAuckland, New Zealand, thissemester with Keith Bohlin. We

have seen and done the mostincredible things: bungie jumping,hiking, skydiving, holding koalas,getting SCUBA certified on theGreat Barrier Reef, and so muchmore. I ran the Auckland halfmarathon on November 2, the dayafter my 21st birthday. This semes-ter has been the best experienceof my life. I am looking forward tomy last three semesters of NavalROTC and to being on the BUtriathlon team when I return.” …Benedicte Crudgington is lovingher time studying in Madrid,Spain: “I am majoring in healthand exercise science and psychol-ogy and am minoring in arthistory. I want to go on to get mymaster’s in nutrition and then alsocounseling. I plan to become anutritionist and work withpatients who have chronic dis-eases such as diabetes andgastrointestinal issues.” … PeterFerrante is majoring in journalismat CU Boulder and snowboardingas much as possible. He has seenPippa Blau and Justin Simpkins.

… Nicholas Renzi reports, “Familyis doing great. My little sister(Allie ’14) is starting as a fresh-man on the BU field hockey team.I am still in engineering but actu-ally don’t know what I want to dowhen I graduate. Club hockey isa lot of fun; we took a trip toFlorida to play FGCU recently.” …Josie Brownell is studying inMongolia! She is learningMongolian and will be conductingan independent study project onthe relationship between landconservation and pastoralismbefore returning to ColoradoCollege for the second semester.… Owen Buehler is taking asemester off from Cornell to doan engineering coop. … MiguelArias Zuger is having the time ofhis life in London. … Eliza Cowiewrites, “I have been enjoying mysophomore year! I have beenbusy working in admissions, train-ing with the alpine ski team, andworking at Bittersweet Farm, alocal organic farm.”

A bunch of Holderness alumni from the Class of 2014 gathered at Merrimack College to visit with Terrance Amorosa ’14 as hisClarkson hockey team took on Merrimack College.

CLASS NOTES




CLASS NOTES

CLASS CORRESPONDENTS Peter Ferrante ’[email protected]

Matthew Kinney ’[email protected]

Alex Leininger ’[email protected]

Kristina Micalizzi ’12 [email protected]

Stephanie Symecko ’[email protected]

’13 Sarah Bell writes, “Sophomoreyear is pretty awesome so far. Ilive in a suite with seven of mybest friends, and it’s great know-ing the ropes and knowing whatto expect in school and inlacrosse. I’ve decided to major inBEO (business, entrepreneurship,and organizations). It’s basically amix of economics, engineering,and sociology classes. I love thatI’m getting a well-rounded experi-ence and taking classes in a lot ofdifferent fields. Our first fall balltournament is this Sunday atHarvard, and I get to take downformer teammate/roommate/

enemy, Mackenzie Maher, whichis always a good time. Looking for-ward to returning to the oldstomping grounds in the nearfuture! Go Bulls!” … HannahFoote writes, “Last year I startedan annual school-wide dodge balltournament (because I missed theyearly dodge ball tournaments atHolderness) to raise money andawareness for the women in theDemocratic Republic of theCongo who have been raped andtortured. I look forward to organ-izing the annual dodge balltournament this year as well! I amnow an environmental sciencemajor and a peace and justiceminor. I might soon be doubleminoring in art as well. I have alsojoined the women’s rugby team; ithas been a struggle trying to pickup a game I have never seen orplayed before, but having a chal-lenge in my life gives mesomething to work towards. Itfeels good to be back on a teamthat is encouraging and support-ive.” … Fabián Štoček reports, “Ijust decided to become a neuro-scientist. I completed the VT50-mile run over the weekendand am excited to learn moreabout consciousness, Buddhism,and neuroscience at a conference

with the Dalai Lama coming up.”… Olivia Leatherwood has decid-ed to major in political scienceand minor in Spanish languageand business law. She has beenenjoying the sun (and studying)since transferring to theUniversity of Miami. … Universityof Montana second-year studentSteve Page recently was selectedas the inaugural artisan designerfor Boston-based retail shop HUD-SON. The HUDSON Discoversprogram showcases emerging arti-san-designers from across thecountry in the retail shop HUDSONas well as online at hudson-boston.com. Steve will be the firstartist to be featured.

CLASS CORRESPONDENTS Kelly DiNapoli ’[email protected]

Olivia Leatherwood ’[email protected]

’14 Elizabeth Powell writes, “Juststarting my fourth week at col-lege! I have definitely had a lot of‘firsts’ in this past month, and

although I miss the Holdernesscommunity, it has been a veryexciting and fun time here at col-lege. Not much other news as ofnow, but I’m sure there will bemore to come!” … Hedi Drostereports, “I’m taking Spanish, cal-culus, women’s studies, and afreshman seminar about sustain-ability called ‘Consuming theWorld.’ My schedule is crazy withschoolwork, hockey, and sleep!Hope all is well back atHolderness. I can’t wait to visitwhen I get some time.”

CLASS CORRESPONDENTSTess O’Brien ’[email protected]

Samuel Paine ’14

Garrett Phillips ’[email protected]

Elizabeth Powell ’[email protected]

Conner Clemens ’[email protected]

Stephen Wilk ’14

Draft 8 (13APR15)


Admission Associate Woody Kampmann visits with families in Beijing, China this pastfall. Pictured are current parents Li Wang P’16, John and Helen Liu P’15, Tong MuP’18, Hua Zhang P’18, Yan Wei and Xiaozhong Yang P’17, Zhaoxia Xie and Xianlin YuP’16, Chenglan Tang, and Jiazheng Zhang P’15.

Celeste Holland ’14 riding at The Prouty with Tim Rice (father of Lea Rice ’14) andRon Houle (father of Carson Houle ’11).



#COMEBACKFORBLUE

REGISTER ATWWW.HOLDERNESS.ORG/REUNION2015

SAVETHE DATEHOMECOMING AND REUNION WEEKEND

HOLDERNESS SCHOOL

25–27

2015

SEPTEMBER



AT THIS POINT IN TIME

Draft 7 (13APR15)


The following is excerpted from a December e-mail from Dick Stevens, former director of build-ings and grounds and a Holderness employee from–, to Phil Peck.

Hope all is well. I really do need to stop by andsay hello. Gail and I were returning fromWaitsfield, VT, the other day and couldn’t helpnotice all the activity on campus. Looks likeyou are keeping Tony [Tony LeMenager, currentDirector of Facilties] busy. I was drawn up Mt.Prospect Road when I saw men taking the roofoff the rink. I had heard that this was going tohappen, but I can’t say I was prepared for it.

The real shocker was when I looked for therink house. My winter home away from homewas gone. It was like I had lost a friend. In fact,two friends. Those compressors were a part ofme as I am sure they were of Rip [Rip Richards,Director of Facilties prior to Dick Stevens]. Ispent many, many hours with them cursing,praising, and thanking them. I would give them

a little pat at the end of a long day on my wayhome, ask them to keep running, and let themknow that I would be back to check on themduring the wee hours of the morning. Evenafter I left Holderness, if I was passing through,I would sneak in and give them a little pat andask them not give Donne too hard of a time.

As you probably know, the rink was my firstjob at Holderness. The first year I was terrifiedof those two compressors; there were very fewsafety devices, all the gauges were made of glass,and there was always an ammonia leak in apacking somewhere. I used those gas maskscountless times.

My favorite ammonia memory was when wewere changing the tubes in the chiller, and Iwas slowly bleeding off the excess ammonia.Thinking that I would speed up the process alittle, I cracked the valve open a bit more andwent home to have some dinner. I no soonerstepped inside the door when the phone rang.It was Pete Woodward telling me that there

was a major ammonia leak and that the firedepartment was on the way. By the time I gotback across the street, I was met by an excitedfireman literally jumping up and down andrunning around in circles. He immediately toldme I could not go near the building. I tried toexplain that I had caused the problem, and itwould only take a minute to fix. Nothingdoing. He wouldn’t hear of it. Just thenHolderness Fire Chief Dick Mardin arrived. Iexplained what the problem was, and we calmlywalked into the building and shut down thevalve. We had a good laugh, and he asked that Inot open the valve quite so much the next time.

Of course there are many more memories,including ones from before we built the roof andput in the concrete slab. The ice had to go downon a sand bed, and we watched the weather con-tinuously, waiting for just the right conditions.Once we started flooding we had to keep goinguntil the ice was thick enough to put a piece ofsnow removal equipment or the Zamboni on it.If snow fell on the too thin ice, it was everyoneout to remove it by hand before we could startflooding again. Those were the days when facul-ty and students would sign up for flooding shiftsthroughout the night, and we would floodaround the clock until the ice was thick enough.I can still see Rip out there, pipe in mouth, gen-tly swaying that old fire hose back and forthwith just the right motion to make perfect ice.

As time went on we improved the ice-layingprocess, and now Donne does the whole thinghimself, just him and the Zamboni. Now it istime for a major improvement again. I have tosay it is a little sad watching from the outside,and for sure I will miss checking on the “littleFrick” and the “ X ” when I drive by. But I amsure their time has come. There are many morestories and perhaps they will be told someday.For now I will savor my memories and remem-ber all the wonderful times, both good and badin that little rink house.

Best of luck with the new rink. I look for-ward to seeing the completed project.

Dear Phil

Rip Richards and a crew of students flood the rink in preparation for the winter hockey season. In

the background stands the rink house, Dick Stevens’ original winter home.


I’M TRUE BLUE

ARE YOU TRUE BLUE?

ARTWARD BOUND OFFERS HOLDERNESS STUDENTS THE OPPORTUNITY TO COLLABORATE WITH SOME PRETTYAMAZING ARTISTS, INCLUDING DANCER AND CHOREOGRAPHER LISA TRAVIS, WHO ALSO TEACHES BALLET FORATHLETES DURING THE SCHOOL YEAR. ON THE HAGERMAN STAGE LISA WORKS WITH A GROUP OF SOPHOMORESTO CREATE A DANCE SEQUENCE THEY WILL PERFORM FOR THEIR CLASSMATES LATER IN THE PROGRAM.

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Holderness School Spring 2015 Holderness School Today magazine. Flat size is 11.0 inches tall by 18.19 inches wide (includes 0.19 inches for perfect-bound spine); folded size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide. Artwork prints in four-color process and bleeds all four sides. Cover artwork; Cover II and Cover III.

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THE SNOW WAS DEEP THIS YEAR FOR OUT BACK, AND MSR SNOWSHOES WERE ESSENTIAL EQUIPMENT FOR THE JUNIORS. WHILETHEY OFTEN USE ESTABLISHED TRAILS THROUGHOUT THE WHITE MOUNTAINS, THE STUDENTS ALSO BUSHWHACK AND BLAZE THEIR

OWN TRAILS, NOT ONLY LEARNING CRUCIAL SURVIVAL SKILLS BUT ALSO DEVELOPING AN APPRECIATION FOR MOTHER NATURE.

NONPROFITUS POSTAGE

P A I DLEWISTON, MEPERMIT NO. 82

CHAPEL LANE PO BOX 1879 PLYMOUTH, NH 03264-1879

INSIDE:r Filling the VW Bugr Special Programs 2015r Catching Up with Martha Kesler

Holderness School Spring 2015 Holderness School Today magazine. Flat size is 11.0 inches tall by 18.19 inches wide (includes 0.19 inches for perfect-bound spine); folded size is 11.0 inches tall by 9.0 inches wide. Artwork prints in four-color process and bleeds all four sides. Cover artwork; Cover IV and Cover I.

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LDERNESS SCHOO

L TODAY

THE MAGAZINE O

F HOLDERNESS SCHO

OL SPRING

2015

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spring 2015 hst web

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