spring bulletin 2009

Board of Trustees 2008–09

Officers

Kevin J. Maroni ChairPaula A. Johnson Vice ChairRichard Banks ’74 SecretaryLisa Black Franks ’78 Treasurer

Marcus CherryTeresa ChopeJohn ConnaughtonWilliam B. DruckerRichard EdieAbigail JohnsonBrian KavoogianWilliam H. KremerMartin J. MannionAnne MarcusStuart MathewsAmy Lloyd McCarthy ’86Pamela McLaurinNicole MurrayHappy RoweCarmel ShieldsGarrett Solomon ’86Harold SparrowSuzie TapsonLanny Thorndike ’81Ralph Wales

Ex Officio

Jerrold I. KatzHead of School

Cynthia A. HarmonAssistant Head for Program & ProfessionalDevelopment

Jane H. CarneyAssistant Head for Finance & Operations

Board Chairs Emeriti

Kennett F. BurnesDavid D. CrollCharles C. Cunningham, Jr.George P. Denny IIIDavid G. FubiniM. Dozier GardnerJohn L. Hall IIJ. Michael MaynardAnne Worthington PrescottDeborah Jackson Weiss

Headmaster Emeritus

Robert S. Hurlbut, Jr.

Alumni Committee 2008–09

Minnie Ames ’86 Co-ChairAli Epker Ruch ’89 Co-Chair

John Barkan ’85Peter Barkan ’86Bob Bray ’53Lisa Amick DiAdamo ’86Mark Epker ’86Rachel Levine Foley ’85Abigail Ross Goodman ’91Anne Collins Goodyear ’84Jennifer Segal Herman ’82Jeffrey Jackson ’95Julia Lloyd Johannsen ’93Greg Kadetsky ’96Richard Knapp ’90Amy Lampert ’63Abbott Lawrence ’85Nia Lutch ’97Melissa Daniels Madden ’85Allison Morse ’89Chip Pierce ’81Meredith Ross ’86Jordan Scott ’89Rebecca Lewin Scott ’89Garrett Solomon ’86Anna Sullivan ’95Kathrene Tiffany ’96Eve Wadsworth ’95Diana Walcott ’85Phoebe Gallagher Winder ’84

Park is a coeducational school thatadmits qualified students withoutregard to race, religion, nationalorigin, disabilities, sexual orientation,or family composition. Our educa-tional policies, financial aid, andother school-sponsored programsare administered in a nondiscrimina-tory manner in conformance withapplicable law.

Cover art:

In Dr. Chris Hartmann’s seventh grade

pre-algebra class, students investigate

2-dimensional geometry on graph paper

and in the computer lab using a software

program called The Geometer’s Sketchpad.

As a concluding project for this unit,

seventh graders create tessellations from

squares and rhombuses. A tessellation

“covers a plain surface by repeated use

of a single shape, without gaps or

overlapping.”

This stylized butterfly pattern is based on

a design created by Carina Young ’10. To

create their tessellations, the students

begin with a rhombus or a square, then

take away a piece of the original shape

(in this case, a triangle) and add that same

piece somewhere else. The yellow line

indicates the original square; the grey indi-

cates the triangles Carina removed; and

the pink triangles outside the perimeter of

the square are what she added to create

the butterfly.

In this issue:

2 Letter from the Head of School

There’s something happening here.

4 Ren-dezvous with Humanity

by David Perry, Social Studies Department Chair

9 An Angle on Park’s Math Curriculum

by Kate LaPine

16 Alumni Profiles in Math

Colin Arnold ’99Ali Burnes Balster ’90Alex Kehlenbeck ’98Yrinee Michaelidis ’00Tina McVeigh ’74Jonathan M. Richardson ’76Betsy Walcott ’81

30 Alumni Notes

48 Foundations for the Future capital campaign

Forging Ahead, Because We Must!

The Park SchoolSpring Bulletin 2009

EditorKate LaPine

Assisted by Liz Ballard andEliza Drachman-Jones ’98

DesignIrene Chu

PhotographyAlycia Braga PhotographyEliza Drachman-Jones ’98Flo FarrellTom Kates ’84Kate LaPineDavide PerryJohn Rick

PrintingJaguar Press

The Bulletin is published twice yearlyfor the alumni, parents, and friends ofThe Park School. We welcome yourcomments and ideas.

The Park School171 Goddard AvenueBrookline, Massachusetts 02445

To contact the Bulletin:Kate LaPineDirector of [email protected]

To report alumni news:Eliza Drachman-Jones ’98Director of Alumni [email protected]

To support Park:Rob CrawfordDirector of [email protected]

To report address changes:Sarah BragaDevelopment Office [email protected]

hese words from a song by BuffaloSpringfield were an anthem of sortsfor many of us who grew up in the

confusing swirl of events of the late 1960sassociated with the Vietnam War.

We are now challenged by a new kindof uncertainty that is particularly foreignto the usually predictable world of inde-pendent schools. How will the currentglobal economic crisis affect Park School?How will it affect our lives and the livesof our children?

Independent schools educate just a littleover one percent of the children in thiscountry. Is the financial model that hassustained them in the past still going towork in the future? In 2008–09, Park isrecognized as a leader in program quality,in faculty compensation, in support forour teachers’ continuing professionaldevelopment, and in ensuring that all ofour students are growing up as membersof an economically diverse community.Over the past fifteen years, in particular,this growth has been facilitated by arapidly growing annual fund, net revenuefrom expanded summer programs, and theearnings generated by a steadily growingendowment. During the current schoolyear, approximately 25 percent of our$16.8 million operating budget is derivedfrom sources other than tuition.

Thanks to good management and goodtiming, we at Park have not yet felt all ofthe effects of the recession that are beingexperienced by some of our peer schools.We began this school year with a major

construction/renovation project fullyfunded and complete. Our endowment—which was valued at about $38 millionon June 30, 2008—has been investedconservatively, so that our loss of about28%, while awful, is not catastrophic.Demand for admission remains extremelystrong (392 applications this year for58 available seats). We have an extraordi-narily talented and dedicated faculty andstaff. Our school will open in 2009–10with no changes in program or servicesto students.

So, how has Park been affected by thecurrent economic downturn? Three majorareas stand out for me.

First, we are seeing a significant increase inrequests for financial aid from continuingfamilies. As Park’s Board of Trusteesdeveloped the School’s operating budgetfor the upcoming academic year, theyvoted a commitment to meeting the docu-mented needs of continuing families first,before extending financial aid to newlyadmitted students this spring. To meet theexpected “new” need, the financial aidbudget was increased by 7.5 percent to$2,253,000. It appears, as of this writing,that approximately twenty students whosefamilies are paying full tuition in 2008–09will be eligible for some financial aid in2009–10. Next year, 130 children (23.6percent of the student body, up from 22.1percent this year) will receive financialassistance from the School. As we moveforward in working with current families,what we can commit to each and everyPark parent is that his or her individual

There’s something happening here. What it is ain’t exactly clear.

2 The Park School Bulletin | Spring 2009

T

A L E T T E R T O T H E P A R K C O M M U N I T Y

story will be listened to and consideredcarefully, that we will offer available aidbased on a consistent formula, and thatthose facing changing circumstances willhave their privacy respected by thoseof us charged with managing the financialaid process.

Second, Park’s Administration and Boardof Trustees will work together over themonths ahead to proactively and thought-fully develop a new financial model forthe School. We must be prepared for arange of possible scenarios as we lookbeyond the 2009–10 academic year.Already, we have imposed a moratoriumon new capital projects and we havefrozen many operating expenses for theupcoming school year at 2008–09 levels.We will plan for uncertainty by carefullyexamining additional sources of revenueand potential reductions in expenses. Wecan commit to every member of the Parkcommunity that we will remain mission-focused. Our priority will be to protectprograms and services that are central tothe experience of students across GradesPre-Kindergarten through IX.

Third, the pervasive mindset of anxietyis finding its way into conversationsamong teachers, parents, and alumni.Something is happening here. What it is ain’texactly clear. If I call a special faculty meet-ing, some teachers immediately assumethat it is to announce a reduction in posi-tions. Growing numbers of parents havebegun to express anxiety about signingtheir children’s enrollment contracts,knowing that they are not eligible for aid

now, but worrying about whether theywill remain in a position to meet theirobligations over the course of the entireupcoming school year. People at Park—like everywhere else—are anxious anduneasy. Yet we have great strengths todraw upon as a community as we createthe future at Park School.

As head of school, I recognize the chal-lenge of leadership in times like these. Iam committed to continuing to articulatethe importance of our mission, to plan-ning thoughtfully, to sharing timely, accu-rate information with all who might beaffected by the hard choices that may lieahead, and to staying focused on the corevalues of simplicity and sincerity thathave long been at the center of the Parkcommunity.

Thank you for your confidence and yourongoing support for Park.

Jerrold I. KatzHead of School

The Park School Bulletin | Spring 2009 3


ongzi, known to most of us here inthe West as Confucius (551-479

B.C.E.), espoused the importance of thevirtue of ren, translated by most sources asmeaning “humanity.” The word “human-ity,” of course, carries a few meanings.Among these are “human beings” and“humaneness.” Most sources I haveencountered interpret this latter definitionas meaning “compassion,” both toward allof humanity and to nature as well. As asocial studies teacher, I harbor a lifelongfascination with and passion for seeking adeeper and broader understanding ofhumanity. What I think I have learnedover the years has, I believe, led me, mostof the time, to view humanity with greaterhumanity.

I have taught social studies at Park for22 years. For all but a few of those years, Ihave taught Park’s Grade VIII studentsabout China. In April 2008, I embarkedon a two-week study tour to China(Beijing, Xi’an, Shanghai, Souzhou, andthe areas surrounding these cities) withnineteen teachers and tour leaders. This,my first trip to China, was offered andorganized by Primary Source, an organiza-tion that specializes in professional devel-opment for teachers. Their motto is“educating for global understanding,” andthat is, indeed, what they do, throughcourses and study tours focusing on thecultures and histories of east and southeastAsia, Africa, Latin America, the MiddleEast, and the United States. As my keeninterest in China’s history and culture goesback even further than my time at Park, itthrilled me deeply to have had a chance tovisit, in person, this land and people thathave drawn my interest for so long.

In Park’s Upper Division, we, too, edu-cate “for global understanding” throughour social studies program, focusing ourcurricula on Africa, the United States,China and Asia, and Europe in Grades VI,VII, VIII, and IX, respectively. Amongother age-appropriate, educational goals,we seek to cultivate in our students aglobal perspective and to promote theunderstanding that, as anthropologistWade Davis put it, “other cultures are notfailed attempts at being you. They areunique manifestations of the humanspirit.” Or, as Kongzi could have put it, we

by David PerrySocial Studies Department Chair (1987– )

K

Ren-dezvouswith

Humanity

Park encourages its faculty to pursue a wide rangeof opportunities for continuing education. The professionaldevelopment budget provides funding for classes, workshops,

conferences, and at times, special study tours.

Crossing Beijing’s Tiananmen Square approaching the Meridian Gate, an entrance to theForbidden City, the home of China’s emperors for 500 years


aim to have our students strive to bepeople of ren—humane, compassionate,knowledgeable, and wise human beings—and to value these virtues in themselvesand in others.

From the moment I met my tour groupat Logan Airport, to our arrival back inBoston sixteen days later, I felt myself tobe a sailor of sorts on a vast sea of human-ity— in both senses of the word. In thefirst sense, human beings, I experiencedhumanity writ large, as China’s populationof 1.3 billion people. My experientialunderstanding of this number grew andpersisted throughout my time in theMiddle Kingdom. In the second (but by nomeans secondary) meaning—humaneness—I experienced humanity writ intimately,as in a family of three sharing life’s journeytogether and sharing of themselves with astranger from another culture. Over thecourse of my brief time in China, throughall of the historical sites, delicious meals,and my feeble attempts at speaking Man-darin, it was the presence of people that,like the air and the weather, were atmos-pheric and perpetual.

I am, in many ways, a country boy atheart. I cherish open spaces—mountains,lakes, rivers, deserts, oceans, beaches, anddeep woods—places where there are fewother humans and where nature dominatesand permeates my experiences in theseplaces. Those who know me know thattime in wild places feeds my soul in impor-

tant ways. I live and work in a vibrant,seemingly densely populated part of a vastnation of 300 million people. This canmake carving out time by myself in naturechallenging, but I have a lot of experiencein overcoming these challenges in my homelandscape. Nothing in my experiences withboth solitude and society, however, hadprepared me for the human reality, theocean of humanity that is urban easternand northern China. Throughout most ofmy travels there, I confronted, that is cameface-to-face with the number—1.3 billion—that is China’s population. We Americansencounter that statistic frequently. Butwhat does this number mean? One answeris that about one out of every five humanbeings on the planet is Chinese. But whatdoes that mean? I’m not sure that I know,but I try and imagine this to help. I imag-

ine that everywhere I encounter other peo-ple—driving to work, teaching my classesat Park, sitting in a faculty meeting, ridingthe “T,” sauntering through my neighbor-hood in Millis or walking along the streetsof Boston—I try to imagine four timesthe number of people. This gives me sixtystudents in a class instead of fifteen, amuch longer commute to work, etc. As itturns out, at least from what I learned inmy travels, this is a fairly accurate measureof things. James, my host for an overnightstay in Xi’an, teaches at an elite middleschool in Xi’an. He has sixty students ineach of his two classes. These numberswere also in evidence at the other schoolsthat our group visited and at almost everystop along the way.

Even the city of Xi’an itself, describedby our tour guide as a medium-sized citywith a small feeling, has eight millionpeople. Once China’s ancient capital, mod-ern Xi’an’s pedestrian and motor traffichad grown so thick in the city that under-ground walkways were built to handle theflow of foot traffic without impeding themovement of motor vehicles and bicycles.I found this tunnel system most effectivefor getting around near our hotel. I couldeasily travel through these walkways to agiant shopping mall, a Starbucks Coffeeshop, the historic Muslim quarter, and adelightful urban park. And I was mostgrateful that the exit signs off of the mainsubterranean path were written in both

The Imperial Vault of Heaven in BeijingMorning exercises for students at the Dandelion School, an independent schoolfor the children of migrant workers in Beijing

At Park, we aim to have our students

strive to be people of ren—

humane, compassionate, knowledgeable,

and wise human beings—

and to value these virtues in

themselves and in others.


The Bell Tower in Xi’an’s city center, as seen from my hotel room window

Mandarin and English. In my time travel-ing them, these wide passageways (a littlewider than the width of a two-way street),were always traveled by many people.

One way that this scale of humanityhas influenced my thinking is in wonderinghow the Chinese government evenapproaches doing its part to help meet theneeds of that many people in terms ofsocial services, infrastructure, healthcare, orfood. I don’t have an answer to that ques-tion, but I was most impressed by the factthat, in my experience with domestic trainand air travel in China, everything wasclean, efficient, comfortable, and on time.We can’t seem to manage that here withone-quarter the number of people. ButChina has had lots of experience withmanaging things in a large nation (as wellas a lot of experience with large-scalefamine and civil war). The last time thatChina’s population was the same as thecurrent population of the United Stateswas around 1800.

Now, my experience with transporta-tion in China was limited, and, to be fair,the traffic jams that we sat in on our tourbus in Beijing made Boston traffic seemlike a drive in the country. And that auto-motive snarl came with only a small per-centage of Chinese people owning cars.But here, too, the daunting human mathcomes back to my mind, as even a smallpercentage of 1.3 billion is an awful lot ofcars— too many for Beijing’s roadways

to handle smoothly, or to make its carbonfootprint sustainable.

China’s environmental issues remindme of another memorable issue of my timein Zhongguo (the “Middle Kingdom,”China’s name for China). While there, Ibecame increasingly aware of the subtleways that our own media shape our percep-tions of China in negative ways—not bylying, but by leaving out some seeminglyimportant pieces of information. Forexample, the fact of China’s damagingenvironmental impact is frequentlyreported in American media, and I sawevidence of this in my travels. In additionto the sharp rise in automobile (and busand truck) use, and the inevitable air pollu-tion that literally follows this use, perhapsthe most damaging fact is that China gen-erates most of its electricity for its 1.3 bil-lion people (there’s that number again. . .)by burning coal—and not in “clean coal”

The Great Wall of China, Mutianyu section, about 80 km north of Beijing

While China is far from making

its carbon footprint sustainable. . .

I also saw some wonderful

“green” initiatives, too.

plants. But what I also saw were somewonderful “green” initiatives, too. For one,China and the Chinese seem to recycleeverything—paper, plastic, glass, metal, etc.Even in large cites, I saw ubiquitous,clearly-labeled, well-maintained bins forpeople to place recyclables in, and I alsosaw people using these bins. I also began tonotice, during those long forays in traffic,objects on most high-rise rooftops thatlooked like barrels perched atop some sortof slanted flat panel. I asked about themand learned that they are water tanks andsolar collectors, and I also learned that thatis how most people living in those high-rises heated their water. And yet, even withthese impressive initiatives that China’speople seem to have embraced wholeheart-edly, my thinking drifts back to that num-ber, that 1.3 billion who, even with the bestecological practices, will, no doubt make adeleterious impact on the Zhongguo.

To say the least, China, as a nation,faces many challenges domestically in theyears ahead. But what is life like for indi-vidual Chinese? Of course, I cannot answerthat question definitively, but I can relatewhat I experienced with the family that Istayed with overnight in their home on theoutskirts of Xi’an. My experience with myhost family will stay with me for a longtime. Here I was, a stranger from the otherside of the world, and my hosts welcomedme as though I was a family member thatthey had never met. “James” (my host’s

Magnificent dumpling feast at a Xi’an restaurant famous for its dozens ofvarieties of dumplings, including a dark, walnut shaped one made from walnutflour and filled with walnut filling

A dumpling-folding lesson with “Jerry” at his family’s home in Xi’an


James had originally planned for all ofus to hike up a small mountain about ahalf-hour drive outside of Xi’an—but thesteady rain foiled that plan. Once I con-vinced James that I didn’t mind the rain,the two of us headed out for a walk. Wewent through the old village gate to wherethe paved road ended and a steep, down-ward-sloping dirt road led to a brand new,multi-lane road and a paved, modern parkby the Chan River. The rain had turnedthe dirt road to a slick and sticky mud andclay mix that clung to the bottoms of ourshoes in slabs. I began to understand, per-haps, how those beautiful Neolithic potswere made at Banpo (an important archeo-logical site that Park’s Grade VIII learnabout and that my tour group visited) just afew miles downstream from where we were.James remarked that having the earth ofsuch an ancient village on one’s shoes was agood omen.

We made it to the river without acomplete mud bath. Once there, wetromped happily along the river on a dirttrail, eventually circling back to James’shome by way of the busy main street ofShihlibo, a section of Xi’an that few touristsvisit. The sight of this white man walkingalong its main street drew many startled,lengthy stares. I grew concerned, at onepoint, for the safety of a couple of bicyclistswho, while gazing with puzzled fascinationat the apparently bizarre sight of me,appeared headed for a collision with a

parked truck. Fortunately for them, theyaverted their gazes and their bikes just intime to avoid crashing.

As James and I walked, our conversa-tion ranged from our shared love of hikingin mountains to contemporary Chinesereligion, to Chinese and American educa-tion, to sharing English and Chinese wordsfor things (for example, I learned that mydaughter’s name in Chinese is “Liao Shu”).Two-and-a-half hours after we had begun,we had made a circle and found our wayback to James’s home. And we had bothfound a friend in a former stranger fromthe other side of the world.

Back at James’s family’s cozy home, Ilearned that we would be making dump-lings for dinner. Alice had prepared the fill-ing (ground pork, Chinese cabbage, andseasoning) and the dough. And together,James, Jerry, and I rolled the dumplingsinto a couple of shapes. I, of course, neededa lesson from James and pointers fromJerry to get the hang of rolling a gooddumpling. Usually, two of us would roll thedumplings while the third would take a pic-ture of us rolling the dumplings. We made afew dozen dumplings, using all of the fillingand almost all of the dough. They would beour main course for dinner.

As I later learned, our meal togetherwas a typical northern Chinese meal.We dined in my host family’s living room(traditionally, kitchens are not used fordining in China, and dining rooms gener-

English name), his wife “Alice,” and theirseven-year-old son “Jerry” live in an apart-ment which they own on the eighth floorof a building that is part of a cluster ofbuildings that form a twenty-first centuryChinese village. This complex of high-risehouses is the contemporary home of anancient village called Li Jiao Bu, which ispart of an outlying section of Xi’an calledShihlibo.

David Perry, “Jerry,” and “Alice” with the BellTower in the background

“James” with his American guest and new friend, David Perry

ally do not exist in Chinese homes), and weenjoyed a cornicopic cold appetizer courseof grape tomatoes, cucumber, Chinesebroccoli and soybeans, cold roastedchicken, cold, cooked, marinated pork, anda plum dipping sauce. This feast-in-itselfwas followed by our dumplings, and we atealmost all of them. The entire meal was—as was almost everything that I ate while inChina—delicious!

Following dinner, James and I drankseveral toasts together— to friendship, ourtime learning from each other, to family—with Chinese-made red wine. Traditionally,toasts in China are made with a potent ricebrew that westerners historically have diffi-culty digesting. And the northern Chinese,in my experience, love to make and drinktoasts. So James, perhaps in deference tomy delicate western digestive system,insisted that we toast with red wine, whichis gaining popularity among Chinese, espe-cially in cities. As we sipped our wine,James, Alice, Jerry, and I shared pho-tographs of our families and extended fam-ilies, and we took photographs of oneanother to remember our time together.An awkward moment surfaced when, insharing pictures of my children, it occurredto my hosts that I had both a son and adaughter— two children. I saw a look ofsad longing cross the faces of Alice andJames, and James explained that theyyearned to have a larger family, but they

were limited by China’s one-child policy.James studied the pictures of my childreneven more intently at that point, andimpressed upon me how lucky I am to havemy family. Hearing his wise words, I feltmy own pangs of longing, longing to holdmy children, and deep gratitude for myfamily and the role that they, especiallymy wife, Beth, played in making it possiblefor me to travel to China. No words wereneeded for us all to understand the powerof those moments and how sharing thembrought we former strangers closertogether. James and I silently and simulta-neously looked at each other and lifted ourglasses together in one more toast.

“We” cleared our dinner dishes.Actually, my hosts cleaned up as my offer tohelp was firmly refused, and I knew not toargue this. I then presented my hosts withgifts to thank them for welcoming me intotheir home. I feel safe in concluding thatRed Sox Nation now has one more outpost,in Xi’an, as Jerry did not take off the hatthat I gave him for the remainder of myvisit. Alice then gave me a couple of hand-made (by her sister) stuffed animals tobring to my children. We all thanked eachother repeatedly, and then settled in forlots of laughter at the movie Shaolin Soccer. Ididn’t need a translation to understand theuniversal language of slapstick. After thefilm, we all got ready for bed. Jerry, for thatnight, would sleep in his parents’ room, as

he had given me his room to stay in. It hadbeen a long, whirlwind of a day. Monthslater, I am still absorbing all that it held. Islept well.

In the morning, we enjoyed a lightbreakfast of steamed buns filled with meatand vegetables, soymilk, and hot tea. I tooka brief, delightful, solar-heated hot shower,dressed, and packed up my belongings.James had called us a taxi, and we headedinto the center of Xi’an (where my group’shotel was). We had some time before I hadto meet my tour and say goodbye to myhost family. I introduced them to Starbuckscoffee, and they showed me around a beau-tiful park in the center of Xi’an. We tooksome more photographs, and Jerry contin-ued to wear his Red Sox cap proudly. Atlast, we meandered our way back to myhotel to say goodbye. Our farewell filled usall with sadness at parting so soon, joy tohave found friendship in one another, andgratitude for our time together.

Confucius once advised, “Behavetoward everyone as if you were receivingan important guest.” The old masterwould have been pleased with and proudof the hospitality that I received fromJames, Alice, and Jerry. So far from myhome, they made me feel completelywelcome and at home, an important guestof the Middle Kingdom.


A musical welcome at Pangliu Village school, outside of Xi’an


An Angle onPark’s Math Curriculum

by Kate LaPine

SAMPLEPROBLEMS

?Curious to see how your

math education compares to

Park’s? Here are some

geometry problems for you

to try—don’t worry, we

won’t grade your answers or

ask to see your work!

Do you credit Park with teaching you the three “R’s”? In thisissue of The Park School Bulletin, we take a look at ’Rithmetic.In 2009, students learn much more than this elementary formof mathematics, which modern teachers would call Number.Try a few of the problems and see how you do!

We are also pleased to present profiles of several Park Schoolalumni who continue to use mathematics in their daily work—a range of engineering to neuroscience, public health to para-medicine.


Grades K–2: Up, Up and Away

Children will compare distances, measure dis-tances using non standard or standard units, useangle measures, and collect, organize, analyze,and interpret data.

Materials:

• Two rubber band rocket launchersEach launcher can be made using a protrac-tor and a ruler. The ruler is taped tothe protractor at the given angle so that thecentimeter side of the ruler is on the bottomedge and forms one side of the angle. Theruler should be taped to the protractor insuch a way that the straight edge of the pro-tractor may be held flat against the floor.The rubber band is then wrapped around theend of the ruler and stretched along the cen-timeter side to span the designated centime-ter measure in preparation for launch.

• Sets of rubber bands in various lengths andthicknesses

• Measuring stick or tape (standard units)

• Popsicle sticks or uniform lengths of string(nonstandard units)

Keep tract of results as you do the following:1. Decide on how to measure how far therubber band goes.

2. Decide how much “thrust.”3. Decide thickness and length of rubber band

You can do some trials to determine the aboveand then run some trials changing the angle ofthe launcher. What gets the best results? Howare the launch results the same? How are thelaunch results different? What might lead tothese differences?

P R O B L E M

2

RUBBER BAND ROCKETSHow can we make a rubber band flylike a rocket?

In this investigation, children will use

rubber bands to explore how changing

a variable affects the distance the

rubber band rockets travel. K–2 stu-

dents can use 30- and 60-degree angles

and compare. Children in grades 3–5

can choose the launch angles that they

wish to investigate and will make their

own launchers. Practice “shooting”

rubber bands with their fingers as well

as experimenting with other ways to

“shoot” the rubber bands.

Answer:Aparallelogramisaquadrilateral(4sidedfigure)withoppositesidesparallel.Asquareisaparallelogramwith4equalsidesand4rightangles.Arhombusisaparallelogramwith4equalsidesandequaloppositeangles.

Thus,SQUARE=RHOMBUS=EQUILATERALQUADRILATERAL=PARALLELOGRAM

Samantha says this figure is called a rhom-

bus. Felix says it is called a square. Josh

says it is a parallelogram. Can they all be

right? How is that possible? Explain.

P R O B L E M

1

Geometry. Does the word bring back memories (or nightmares!)

of proving postulates? Remember lines, planes, proofs, congruence, similarity, paral-

lels, perpendiculars, area, circles, polygons, and coordinates? Park’s ninth graders

study all of this and more in a rigorous, traditional high-school level geometry class.

What kind of preparation do Park students receive before proving theorems?

Well, they have had A LOT of practice by the time they open their Geometry for

Enjoyment and Challenge textbooks! Beginning in Kindergarten, each student

spends at least an hour a day on mathematics. “That much time affords in-depth,

substantive study of the topic, with more time to work on problems. We expect

more from children than we used to, but it’s more than that. Students are given time

to learn and understand, not just memorize the procedures,” explains Katrina Mills,

Park’s Math Specialist for Grades K-V.

It turns out that math teachers nation-wide have revamped their approach

to teaching mathematics. In 1989, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics

(NCTM) released an important paper called “Curriculum and Evaluation Standards

for School Mathematics,” which put forth many recommendations for improving

the quality of mathematics education in grades K-12. The paper underscored the

need for all students—not just the talented ones—to be exposed to the richness

of the full range of mathematics: Number & Operations, Geometry & Measurement,

Patterns & Functions, and Data Analysis & Probability.

The NCTM envisioned mathematically literate students who are confident in

their ability to do mathematics; who know a variety of techniques to approach and

to work on problems; and who are able to communicate and to reason mathemat-

ically. Based on the recommendations set forth by the Standards, several new math

curricula were developed. “This paper marked a real change in pedagogy and a

content shift as well,” says Katrina. The Council recommended increasing emphasis

on estimation, measurement, and using hands-on “manipulatives” and appropriate

technology to help students move gradually from the concrete to the abstract, like

the ninth grade geometry course.


Grades 3–6: We Have Lift Off

Children will measure and compare distancesusing standard units, measure angles with aprotractor, find the range, mode, and mean of aset of data, and collect, organize, analyze, andinterpret the data.

Materials: Same as previous

1. Decide how to design the launcher to makethe rubber band fly best.

2. Design an experiment to compare the effectsof changing controlled variables, such aslaunch angle.

3. Decide how to measure the distance trav-eled.

4. Decide on “thrust.”Organize how to collect data. Run trials andrecord results. New experiments can bedesigned to test other variables.

Taken from Teaching Children Mathematics

Learning Math in Kindergarten through Grade V

lementary school teachers started to pay attention to more

than getting kids to learn how to add, subtract, multiply, and

divide. “Before, geometry and data analysis were considered filler,

something that were always taught in the last few weeks of

school—if at all—because teachers focused on teaching Number,”

says Katrina. While computational fluency remains a major goal,

now there is substantive work in these other areas of mathematics

throughout the elementary grades.

In the 1990s, teachers at Park began incorporating many of

the recommendations into their classrooms but individual teachers

selected their own curricular materials. Children certainly learned

mathematics, but there were wide differences in approaches and

which elements were emphasized. Partly in response to this incon-

sistency, the School formally sought out a single mathematics cur-

riculum to use in Kindergarten through Grade V. As the NCTM

Standards state, “ A curriculum is more than a collection of activi-

ties: it must be coherent, focused on important mathematics,

and well articulated across the grades.” After several years of eval-

uation, Park selected the Investigations in Number, Data, and

Space® curriculum for the Lower and Middle Divisions.

“We’re asking kids to have a much deeper understanding of

mathematical concepts than we ourselves learned in grade school,”

Katrina says. Students still learn the basics, still memorize their

multiplication tables, but they have a better sense of how multipli-

cation works and can apply that understanding to real-life situa-

tions. The Standards emphasized problem-solving strategy,

especially for long-term, open-ended problems without clear-cut

formulations and without definite answers. Like real-world situa-

tions, these problems can be worked on individually or by groups

of students for days or weeks, a striking contrast to a classroom of

students working alone to solve drill and practice problems. “The

kids are engaged in the mathematics they are learning, not just

memorizing what we tell them.” Somewhat surprisingly, built into

the Investigations curriculum are many layers of professional

development so that teachers are engaging in the mathematics

along with their children. The implementation has had a profound

effect on teachers. Fifth grade teacher Courtney Bonang remarks,

“I’m a much better mathematician now because the curriculum has

transformed the way I work with numbers. I can only imagine that

if I’m 38 and am having this experience after three years of work-

ing this way, kids who are getting this exposure through grade

school are at such an advantage. I say to my students all the time,

“Poor me; I only learned the algorithm.” I hope my genuine thrill

with my own learning is coming across to my students.” Veteran

second grade teacher Phyllis Ong adds, “I realize that many of my

students in the past who were considered successful were really

just parroting back facts and algorithms they had memorized with

no real understanding. With Investigations, I see kids who really

understand what they are doing, who can manipulate numbers, and

who can truly figure out solutions to problems in multiple ways.”

How Does This Approach Work as Preparation forNinth Grade Geometry?

ath lessons at Park hum with activity. In Grade V, children

are building meter cubes with balsa wood sticks in order to

measure their classroom in square meters. On another day, chil-

dren in first grade are putting a set of wooden blocks called

“geoblocks” into a sock. Then the children take turns reaching in

Which rocket launcher gets

the best results?

How are the launch results

the same? How are they

different?

E

M

Examples

Illustration A: Geometric quilt squares created on the computer bystudents in Grades K-II.

Illustration B: Students get practice in switching between two- andthree-dimensional shapes.

Illustration C: Using specific line and angle measurements, MiddleDivision students instruct the turtle in LogoPaths to create geometricshapes.

df 50lt 90fd 25rt 90fd 50

lt 30bk 75rt 120bk 75rt 120home

repeat 4[fd 75 rt 90]

repeat 45[fd1 rt1]

and try to name the shape based on the number of vertices, faces,

and types of angles they feel. Everywhere, children are working

together and working independently. It is clear that the mathe-

matics is rich and the children are deeply engaged in what they

are doing.

In each grade, the curriculum addresses the main topics

of Number & Operations, Patterns & Functions, and Data Analysis

& Probability, and even the youngest students encounter the

Geometry & Measurement unit. “We’re teaching geometry in

Kindergarten and we’re calling it ‘geometry,’ Kindergarten teacher

Toni Gilligan states matter-of-factly. “Five-year-olds need to

develop their spatial sense and deepen their understanding of the

two- and three-dimensional world. They explore the geometric idea

that shapes can be combined or subdivided to make other shapes.

Using tiles (2-D) or blocks (3-D), children put shapes together and

take them apart, deepening their understanding of different

shapes’ attributes and how shapes are related. And, often the chil-

dren who are proficient in Number have to re-adjust in order to

think spatially.”

Five- to seven-year-old students develop a real knowledge

of how shapes are related (part to whole) and they learn many

important features such as sides, vertices, and angles. They use

manipulatives and a geometry software program called Shapes to

explore how different shapes can be combined to form others,

experiment with geometric transformations (rotations, translation,

reflection), make patterns, and investigate symmetry. (See

Illustration A) Second graders, who can identify the sides of a poly-

gon and are familiar with the concepts of congruence and symme-

try, have to figure out ‘What makes a rectangle a rectangle?’ and

‘How are rectangles different from squares?’ Katrina contrasts this

to her own education. “I clearly remember my teacher drawing two

pictures on the board and saying ‘Learn this rule: a square is a rec-

tangle but a rectangle can’t be a square.’ Our kids have to visualize

what they’re learning, they are figuring out how to think logically.

These students take what know about the attributes of shapes and

make this discovery for themselves. They’re going much deeper

than we ever did.”

The Investigations curriculum is designed to build on con-

cepts introduced in earlier grades, so in fourth grade, the main

geometry unit expands on the students’ knowledge of 2-D and

3-D shapes. For example, students have to construct a 3-D rectan-

gular pyramid out of paper and then design another with three

times the volume. (See Illustration B) To enhance their familiarity

with the characteristics of a variety of shapes, third, fourth, and

fifth graders visit the School’s computer lab to experiment with

LogoPaths. In this software program, students have to instruct a

turtle to move through a maze or to create a shape by determining

angle measurements and length. In addition to learning the geo-

metric principles of length, perimeter, and angle, students also

engage in rudimentary computer coding. (See Illustration C ) With

five years of geometry under their belts, fifth graders are able to

identify quadrilaterals by attribute and classify them in more than

one way. They measure angles of 30, 45, 60, 90, 120, and 150

degrees, and measure perimeter, area, and volume—deepening

their understanding of the relationship between volume and

linear dimensions. How many fifth graders can a cubic meter hold?



Brookline Math League

aving logged nearly 900 hours of math-

ematics over their years in school, fifth

graders are eager to join Park’s math team

for Grades V and VI. In the town-wide Math

League, fifth and sixth graders compete

against teams from other Brookline elemen-

tary schools. Three times a year, the ten

teams gather for a meet that features five

events: team problem solving, and four indi-

vidual events: arithmetic operations, bases,

geometry, and patterns.

“Thirty fifth and sixth graders attend

our weekly practice,” says Steve Kellogg,

who has been teaching math at Park since he

joined the faculty in 1983. Park’s involve-

ment in the League began when Tom Smith,

who taught math for many years before

becoming the School’s Director of

Technology, entered the first team in 1980.

Since those days, the department chair has

coached the Park team. “Anybody can be on the Math Team,”

Steve explains. “If they come to all the practices, I guarantee they

will compete in a meet. While winning is not our objective, we do

really well. The team generally wins two events every meet and

once a year wins the whole meet.” It’s true—Park’s trophy case is

full of awards from the League!

The House Project

hen students enter Park’s Upper Division in Grade VI, there

is a palpable shift in expectations for the eleven- and

twelve-year-olds. Academic work in the sixth grade is a balance

between assignments that demand a new level of depth and more

abstract thinking and the teaching of specific skills and strategies.

Mathematics is a case in point.

“We want sixth graders to understand the concepts behind

every problem they do,” Steve Kellogg clarifies. “This course is

preparing the students for pre-algebra, which they will encounter

in Grade VII.” Sixth graders study number theory, scale and mea-

surement, ratio and proportion, percent, area and volume, and sim-

ple equations. Teachers have students practice traditional and

non-routine problem-solving strategies daily.

One of the most unconventional and memorable compo-

nents of the sixth grade curriculum is the House Project. Since

1973, sixth graders have been applying geometry (calculating

angles, perimeter, area and volume) and other mathematical con-

cepts to design and build model houses. Bill Satterthwaite, “Mr.

Satt” to legions of math and science students at Park from

1970–87, got the idea at a math workshop. Since then, the project

has evolved in the ensuing 36 years.

In the 70s and 80s, students produced their houses at

home. There was great variation in the materials used and level of

parent participation. Students with architects for parents were at a

Breaking a three-way tie, Park’s 2008-09 Math Team took first place in the final meet of the seasonwith a perfect score in the team problem-solving event. Two sixth grade students, Neekon Vafaand Alex Leighton, won trophies for three perfect scores in three events. Way to go, Team!

H

W

Answer:

20/x=80/y

20y=80x

60/x=80/80-y

4800–60y=80x

4800=80y

60=y

20y=80x

20(60)=80x

15=xNote:Ifyouchangethedistancebetween

thepoles,xisalways15!

P R O B L E M

3

Two poles, 60 feet tall and 20 feet tall,stand on opposite sides of a field. The polesare 80 feet apart. Support cables are placedfrom the top of one pole to the bottomof the opposite pole. How far above theground is the intersection of the cables?


distinct advantage! Alice Perera Lucey ’77, who teaches English

and social studies and serves as a secondary school counselor for

Grades VI-IX, tells the story of when she found herself in a terrible

bind the night before the project was due. “I had cut out all the

pieces to build my model, only to find that there was not one shred

of scotch tape in our whole house. (And this in the days before

CVS was open till 10:00pm!) Screaming, I went to my mother for

help. She looked at me matter-of-factly and said that she was not

going to save me from my poor planning. I was desperate. I

scoured every cabinet in our house and found one adhesive that

might work. The next day, I brought in my poor house project

assembled with Band-Aids!”

Nowadays, the Math Department oversees the whole project

in-house and provides standard materials to every student. With a

caveat to stay within a budget of $200,000, each sixth grader

designs and “builds” a house in the two weeks before Spring Break.

First, they must understand the budget: it costs $100/square foot

for most construction, $125/square foot for bathrooms, and

$150/square foot for kitchens. Next, the students start sketching

different shapes that would work for a 2,000 square foot house,

taking into account features such as bathrooms, windows, and

steps. Then, they calculate how to draw scale models of their

houses at 1/4 inch to one foot. For a 2-D view similar to a blue-

print, they draw the perimeter and footprint of their homes on

graph paper. Students often find it helpful to draw an elevation of

their building to help make the leap from two dimensions to three;

it can be difficult to know where to put walls where before there

were only lines. Finally, sixth graders must accurately cut walls out

of cardboard and assemble their houses on top of the graph paper.

Grades VII and VIII

n Park’s Upper Division, math classes are sectioned homoge-

neously to enable students to be with peers who learn at a

similar pace and who are performing at the same level. Seventh

graders study pre-algebra, including operations with integers,

algebraic expressions and equations, data analysis, and geometry,

and eighth grade students take first-year algebra. Elaine Hamilton,

who has been teaching math at Park since 2006, comments,

“Technology has really changed how students learn these concepts.

Devices such as graphing calculators and spreadsheets allow kids

to see things much more quickly and then manipulate the data.

The technological tools cut out the drudgery and the tedious

tasks and allows them to work on the higher level questions.” The

technology enables teachers to better accommodate different

learning styles and ask thought-provoking questions to really test

students’ knowledge.

Seventh and eighth graders also have the opportunity to

join the Upper Division Math Team, which practices weekly

throughout the fall and winter in preparation for the regional

MathCounts competition. Elaine coaches four students and four

alternates as they compete against other schools in the district.

The first round is a “sprint” where the students have 40 minutes to

answer 30 questions, then a round where they have six minutes to

answer two questions. In the final round, the four team members

Top: House Project Veteran Alice Perera Lucey ’77 helps a sixth gradestudent get a straight line. Bottom: Aaron Yemane ’11 and Zack Bennet-Engler ’11 put the finishing touches on their house.

I


collaborate to answer ten questions in 20 minutes. Questions in

MathCounts competitions are an assortment of algebra, trigonome-

try, geometry, probability and statistics.

Grade IX Geometry

ark’s ninth graders are doing what Euclid did in 300 B.C.,”

Steve Kellogg explains. The course emphasizes formal proofs

and some indirect proofs. In mathematics, a proof is a convincing

demonstration (within the accepted standards of the field) that

some mathematical statement is necessarily true. Proofs are

obtained from deductive reasoning, rather than from inductive or

empirical arguments. That is, a proof must demonstrate that a

statement is true in all cases, without a single exception. An

unproved proposition that is believed to be true is known as a con-

jecture. The statement that is proved is often called a theorem.

Once a theorem is proved, it can be used as the basis to prove fur-

ther statements. Ninth graders get to work on many types of prob-

lems, including discovering and exploring theorems on their own

using a software program called the Geometer’s Sketchpad.

All the exposure and practice with geometry concepts

beginning in the younger years lays the foundation for grasping the

sophisticated ninth grade curriculum. “A lot of what we’re doing

now is familiar to me from the geometry and patterns events on

the Math Team in fifth and sixth grade,” Isa Moss ’09 articulates.

Steve presented the following example. “Younger kids would show

that a triangle has 180 degrees using an informal proof like cutting

out the corners/angles of a triangle and lay them out on a straight

line. (See Illustration D) But in the Grade IX geometry class, stu-

dents have to prove that there are 180 degrees in a triangle by

using the Alternate Interior Angles proof.” (See Illustration E)

While not formally billed as a “capstone” course, students

recognize that it functions as one. “Geometry in ninth grade really

puts together everything we’ve learned here at Park,” Henry Lucey

’09 told me. (He happens to be Alice Perera Lucey’s son, but I did-

n’t ask about his House Project adventures!) His classmate Josh

Ruder agreed, “In previous grades we mostly studied 2-D shapes,

simpler stuff. This course builds on what we’ve learned before. Its

harder and more complex, more abstract.”

Answer:

Ac=πr21256=(3.14)r2

400=r2

20=rboardsare40x12=480

480x3=1440

1256+1440=2696squareinches

P R O B L E M

4

A circular table has an area of 1,256 square

inches. To enlarge the table, you can open

it in the middle and place rectangular

boards, called leaves, in it. Each board is

12 inches wide and is rectangular in shape.

What is the new area of the whole table if

3 of these leaves are added?

(Use 3.14 for π)

“P

Illustration E: The Alternate Interior Angles Proof of the Triamgle AngleSum Theorem

TheoremIf ABC is a triangle then m∠ABC + M∠BCA + m∠CAB = 180 degreesProof

In Triangle ABC, construct line l through points A and B and line k

through point C and parallel to line l. Since lines l and k are parallel,

m∠BAC = m∠1 and m∠ABC = m∠3 (Alternate Interior Angles).Also, on line k angles 1, 2, and 3 form a straight angle and

m∠1 + m∠2 + m∠3 = 180 degrees. Using this equation, we cansubstitute m∠BAC for m∠1, m∠BCA for m∠2, and m<ABC form∠3 to prove that m∠BAC + m∠BCA + m∠ABC = 180 degrees.

Illustration D: Informal proof that the inner angles of a triangle = 180°

T


Colin Arnold is afirefighter-paramedic forthe city of Berkeley,California. Following tenyears at Park, heattended Noble andGreenough School andgraduated from theUniversity of California,Berkeley in 2005 with aBA in anthropology. He

joined a local ambulancecompany where hesupervised county opera-tions and became anationally registeredparamedic in 2007. Helives in Oakland,California.

Sixth grader Colin Arnold withhis four-story house project!

ALUM

NI

PROFILE

his line of work is all about being prepared. Every day,

we walk into situations having no idea of what we

may find. The key to a successful call is being able to

maintain control of the scene, and without a strong pres-

ence (and perhaps a touch of ego), this can become very

difficult. I believe that the confidence that I rely on daily can

be attributed in part to Park. This is ironic, because I

remember being a very insecure kid in school. But Park

taught me to think independently, which helped build the

foundation that I depend on so heavily now.

It turns out that I also rely upon the math I learned at

Park. I remember well the weekly quizzes that Mr. Howard

gave us in fifth grade. He would give us one minute to do

100 basic multiplication problems. On Mr. Walsh’s eighth

grade algebra tests, which were always hand-written, he

would ask a question about an creative topic that had

nothing to do with algebra. He would read our answers out

loud after collecting the tests, which inevitably involved

jokes about him. And Mr. Kellogg’s geometry class in ninth

grade really hooked me. I took pride in the formulas and I

still remember the pneumonic “C.P.C.T.C.” although I have

long since forgotten what it stood for; I think it had some-

thing to do with triangles. [Mr. Kellogg weighs in: “Right

you are, Colin! C.P.C.T.C. stands for Corresponding Parts of

Congruent Triangles are Congruent. The theorem states

that if two or more triangles are congruent, then all of their

corresponding parts are congruent as well.”]

I still use his class to this day when it comes to the fire-

fighting side of the job, but that’s a whole different story.

Probably the most common application of mathematics

for a paramedic is calculating drug dosages. We use a

narcotic analgesic called Fentanyl to treat pain. This medica-

tion comes packaged as 100 micrograms in two mL, and

> COLIN ARNOLD ’99

>


the usual dose is one microgram per kilogram. This means

that we have to first convert the patient’s weight from

pounds to kilos, and then calculate how many milliliters of

solution to give based on the concentration of the drug.

While it’s not the rocket science that I know some of my

fellow Park alums are versed in, it gets challenging enough

when you have a very sick person with you in the back of

an ambulance. It gets even more complicated when you

are dealing with pediatric, elderly, or hypothermic patients.

Their bodies metabolize the medication in a drastically

different way from the norm, so the dose has to be

altered. There are a lot of people in Northern California

who can thank Mr. Howard for teaching me how to

multiply and divide fractions quickly in fifth grade.

Paramedics usually don’t have time to look up a drug

dosage or check a patient’s medication, so every day we

review protocols and learn about new prescription drugs

so that when the time comes, we will know the informa-

tion. In our county, paramedics are licensed to dispense 24

different medications that have a wide range of uses—

from reversing particular types of overdoses, to cardiac

emergencies, to asthma and allergic reactions. Knowing

the effects, side effects, therapeutic index, and medica-

tions that interfere with the effects of each of those

medications is absolutely essential.

A Park School “lifer,” Ali

recalls her math classes

with Emily Tucker and

Steve Kellogg as “inspira-

tional with plenty of

opportunities to figure

things out” for herself.

After Park, Ali graduated

from Milton Academy, and

then took a year off to

travel. Upon returning to

the States, she enrolled

at Cornell University’s

Engineering School where

she majored in “Opera-

tions, Research, and

Industrial Engineering.”

Since college, she has held

a variety of positions at

Precision Castparts Corp

(PCC), an aerospace manu-

facturing company.

Currently, she spends three

days a week at the com-

pany’s Grafton facility as a

planning analyst. The

Balsters live in Hopkinton

with their two children,

Katie (3) and Lila (16

months).


ALUM

NI

PROFILE

> ALI BURNES BALSTER ’90

ogical problem solving. That’s really what drew me

to the field of engineering, not visions of working in

a lab wearing a white coat. My dad planted the

seeds for me; he worked at a chemical company and

loved delving into the detail of the manufacturing and

engineering processes. I was intrigued and wanted to

challenge myself. During orientation at engineering

school, somebody actually said, “look to your right and

your left. Only one of you will graduate.” I couldn’t

believe that we were being treated that way—for the first

time, I didn’t feel like my educators were on my side. I

now realize how lucky I was to attend two wonderful

schools, where every teacher I encountered was fully

invested in my education and believed in my ability to

succeed. That moment at orientation, because I’m

extremely stubborn, I decided that I was going to be one

of the ones to make it. Engineering school was hard. I

was clearly a minority, not only because I am a woman

(one in seven, at the time), but also because I was deter-

mined to have a social life and a fun college experience.

With my B.S. in hand, I was eager to join the work-

force and start applying what I had learned to real-life

problems. I landed at PCC, a Fortune 500 company that

manufactures critical components for the aerospace,

power generation, and general industrial markets. I love

manufacturing: the constant action, the literal and visual

sense of accomplishment, the variety of challenges.

My work with PCC has afforded me many opportuni-

ties: I have worked in six of their plants, from Portland,

Oregon to Edinburgh, Scotland, holding titles from

“Manufacturing Engineer” to “Materials Manager.” For

the past three years, I have been a planning analyst at our

plant in Grafton, Massachusetts. I am challenged daily at

L

Ali with daughters Katie and Lila


I love manufacturing:

the constant action, the literal

and visual sense of

accomplishment, the variety

of challenges.

work, but am also able to enjoy a three day work week.

The Planning Department sets the strategy and drives

operations to manufacture parts on time at the lowest

possible cost to meet customer demand. This includes

everything from raw material procurement through collec-

tion of cash. Circumstances are constantly changing due to

changes in customer demand, corporate directives, and

equipment uptime. A recent example: a couple of months

ago, our sister plant in Houston had an equipment failure

which put their forging press out of commission for

approximately six months. Very quickly our Grafton facility

had to determine how to absorb that work onto our

presses so that PCC wouldn’t lose out to competitors. I

was asked to prepare a viable operating plan based on

these new and unforeseen circumstances. Before the

outage, both the Grafton and Houston presses were oper-

ating at least five days a week, 24 hours a day. Given the

new circumstances, we had to revisit the batching logic,

maximum tonnage, furnace size, heat temperature, and

crew size. Using multi-variant mathematical modeling

techniques, I was able to devise some possible strategies

to achieve the goal. In the end, we are executing a plan

that is optimal given the unusual circumstances.

In all of my work assignments, it’s not a math skill or

a particular calculation that I have found the most useful.

Rather, it’s the interpersonal and communication skills

(which I learned at Park) that have been invaluable to my

professional life. I believe that Park, unlike Milton or

Cornell, educated the whole person. In the math class-

room, Mr. Kellogg and Ms. Tucker not only made sure that

I understood each concept, but also when and how to use

it, and why it was true. And one of the most useful

lessons was when they would challenge us to teach each

other. I learned that the trickiest part of learning math was

communicating a concept to someone else. When I

mastered that, I knew that I truly understood!


Alex Kehlenbeck entered

Park at age four in 1987

and was there for the next

ten years, through eighth

grade. He went on to

Phillips Academy for high

school and then received

his BS and MS in mathe-

matics from Stanford

University in 2005. Alex is

currently employed as a

software engineer at

Google in Boston where

he has worked on a

variety of research and

engineering projects.

ALUM

NI

PROFILE

> ALEX KEHLENBECK ’98

t was probably in middle school, in one of the daily

practices Alison Connolly used to run before each of

the Massachusetts Math League meets, when I

decided I would become a math professor. Those twenty

minutes of practice, rushing through as many of the

hardest “#3” problems as we could before recess was

over, were the highlight of most days (and not because of

the tasty snacks used to lure us there!) I imagined that

simulated the life of a professor and who wouldn’t want

to have a whole career of that? I even knew what my

specialty would be: number theory because that division

of the MML contests always had the most interesting and

surprising problems. And indeed, more than a decade

later I ended up doing my undergraduate and master’s

work studying elliptic curves and modular forms, subfields

of number theory that in spite of all their modern

complexity, can directly trace their roots back to

Pythagoras and his famous theorem about right triangles.

For many years a career in academia had seemed

certain, but along the way I discovered that the life of a

math professor wasn’t quite the cookie-filled affair I had

imagined it to be. As I looked at my options post-college,

technology, and finance—two of the most common

options among my peers— joined graduate school as

potential careers. Ultimately, I accepted a position with

Google that combined the theoretical appeal and logical

clarity that had drawn me to math, with the more prac-

tical and tangible outputs of engineering.

Today, I’m lucky enough to get to apply math in my

work every day. Whether it’s studying the pattern of

hyperlinks on the Web to improve search, or using combi-

natorics to analyze the performance of new algorithms, or

probability and statistics to figure out how reliable a

particular software design will be in the face of hardware

failures, math is at the very center of nearly all our work.

Indeed, sometimes the lines separating math, engi-

neering, and experimentation are so blurry they might as

well not even be there. In one research project I worked

on, for example, we were attempting to identify names of

people and companies on the Web. (Sounds simple, but

which is “Ann Taylor”?) We’d form a hypothesis about an

approach that might work (the math), then implement a

system to execute that hypothesis (the engineering), and

finally run experiments to determine how accurate our

hypothesis was (the scientific method). That cycle might

be repeated several times each day.

Two of the most valuable lessons I’ve learned came

from doing math at Park. In one series of math league

contests, the only problem I missed all year was a simple

one-point question that I thought I could do in my head,

I

Details matter, and always double-check

your work!


and without checking it afterwards. That gnawed at me

for weeks, and I haven’t forgotten since: details matter,

and always double-check your work. Its relevance is clear

whenever I remember that the wrong typo can send

millions of users’ queries hurtling into electronic oblivion,

never to be seen again.

The other lesson came in seventh grade, when two

classmates and I had a special math class once per week

with Steve Kellogg. One day he asked us to imagine pull-

ing a length of string taut all the way around the equator

of the earth, and then to imagine adding one extra yard

to the length of the rope. How far above the surface of

the earth would the rope then sit after making it taut

again? I won’t give away the answer, but it’s probably

much more than your intuition tells you.

The lesson was this: having a complete set of rules of

thumb to use when making estimates is very useful, but

don’t always trust them. I probably make at least a dozen

little mental estimates every day—how much network

traffic will this design generate? How much disk space will

we need for each million users? How much longer will

that web page take to load if we add an extra image to

it?—and having a set of rules of thumb that tell me if a

final answer is at all reasonable is invaluable. . . but always

double-check!

Whether it’s studying the pattern of

hyperlinks on the Web to improve

search, or using combinatorics

to analyze the performance of new

algorithms, or probability and statistics

to figure out how reliable

a particular software design

will be in the face of hardware failures,

math is at the very center of nearly

all our work.


Yrinee Michaelidis entered

Park in Nursery (now

called Pre-Kindergarten) in

1989. She went on to

Noble and Greenough,

where she spent her junior

year in France with School

Year Abroad. As a student

pioneer at the newly-

formed Franklin W. Olin

College of Engineering in

Needham, she studied

mechanical engineering.

Yrinee was a member of

the second class to gradu-

ate from Olin and spent

two years working for a

start up in the entertain-

ment industry before

turning to product design

and development.

She currently works as a

consultant in Boston.

> YRINEE MICHAELIDIS ’00

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PROFILE

Team Starfish: Yrinee, upperleft, with her freshman team-mates holding their “starfishwall climber”—one of only twocreations from the class thatclimbed the wall successfully!

>

ath has always been my passion. The beauty,

simplicity, and endless possibilities enthralled

me from a young age. As I got older, I loved my

math teachers Ms. Tucker and Mrs. Connolly for nurturing

me and helping me develop. In fact, ninth grade geometry

remains the favorite class of my entire education! Under

Mrs. Connolly’s guidance, we six girls in the honors

section felt unstoppable. Mathematics was empowering to

me, lent me confidence through teenage years and helped

me define myself. I still announce my membership to

MathCounts with a distinct tone of pride. Life is pretty

sweet as a nerd.

I wish I could say that I always wanted to be an engi-

neer. The truth is that I entered Olin College of

Engineering on a full scholarship without any knowledge

of what engineering was. It was so exciting! I discovered

that engineering is an awesome combination of problem

solving, logic, math, and equations attempting to define

the behaviors of the world. In my first year, I built a servo-

controlled wall walker that used suction to climb up glass;

learned about controls and programming, and most

importantly what it was to design, fabricate, and make

things. I fell in love with the feeling of creating—taking

raw materials like aluminum, steel, and plastics—and

daring to turn them into something else. And so it began,

my life as a maker—dabbling in engineering.

After my freshman year, I worked at Foster-Miller, Inc.,

doing research and development work for the defense

industry. I worked on “black projects” that require security

clearance, testing products for use in the military. It was

pretty exciting work and math was a part of everyday life;

I learned to use software in testing and relied on my basic

understanding of fluidics and the governing equations. I

M

Yrinee takes a break fromrebuilding Blue ManGroup’s Boston stage.


>

> spent 15 months at Foster-Miller including working there

part-time during the academic year. The practicality of

industry was a refreshing weekly break from the projects

and theory of school.

As a sophomore, the “User-Oriented Collaborative

Design” class changed my life. I fell in love with design

and recognized that mechanical and artistic design could

be combined to deliver functionality and aesthetics. I

started taking art and design classes in the hopes of

combining them with my more technical side. Sophomore

and junior year continued to be a blur of art, economics

(my minor), and highly technical mechanical engineering

classes, all present to balance each other.

Sitting in class, I wanted to be out in the world,

making an impact. But I dutifully learned the fundamentals

of fluid dynamics, thermodynamics, statistics, and higher-

level math. These courses paved a career path that could

lead to so many different industries. But my junior year, I

entered the Disney Imaginations, an international design

competition for students that brought me to the world of

entertainment. I worked with a partner to design and

present our concept of a park-wide system of video

capturing that we called “YourStory.” We were flown out

to California where we presented our design to Disney

executives and—we placed second!

After graduation, I spent two years working for 5 Wits

Productions, a design and fabrication shop north of Boston

where I designed interactive displays for museums and

theme parks. I loved working at a start-up because I could

experience many parts of the company. I did a lot of

modeling and design with SolidWorks, some project

management, and a lot of fiberglass work as I created

projects for the International Spy Museum and the

Museum of Science in Boston. It was a great experience

and a really fun industry. It seems I’ve been bitten by the

start-up bug; I’m now working at another start-up doing

product design and business development, but I can’t wait

for my own shot.

Needless to say math is an ever-present part of my life.

Because of math, I was able to study engineering. As an

engineer, I learned to solve problems: big, small, concrete,

and abstract. And math is everywhere in everything I do—

in cost calculations and market analyses, temperature

readings and 3-D CAD modeling. I still don’t always know

what an engineer does, but thanks, Mrs. Connolly, geom-

etry is still my favorite and most useful subject!

Yrinee cutting fiberglass matfor a sailboat racetrack that iscurrently in use at theMuseum of Science, Boston.


After discovering her knack

for algebra at Park, Tina

took geometry, pre-calcu-

lus, and one semester of

calculus at Miss Porter’s

School. As a political sci-

ence and history major at

Tufts, she studied econom-

ics and took a single com-

puter class, but no college

math courses. Tina earned

two master’s degrees at

Columbia: one in interna-

tional affairs and a second

in population and family

health, which led to con-

ducting field research in

international family plan-

ning in Latin America.

Shifting her focus to

domestic health in 1987,

Tina held several positions

with the New York City

Department of Health,

including project director

for the maternal-infant HIV

transmission research pro-

ject. She then pursued her

PhD in measurement, eval-

uation, and statistics in

educational psychology at

Columbia Teacher’s College.

Her training in statistics

enabled her to design and

oversee research projects in

substance abuse at

Columbia and Rutgers. Six

years ago, Tina returned to

the New York City Depart-

ment of Health, and is cur-

rently the director of the

Psychiatric Epidemiology

Unit. She and her husband,

Henry Chin, live on the

Upper West Side with their

children Lizzie (7) and

Jamie (8 months).ALUM

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> TINA MCVEIGH ’74

Basically, I’m miserable at math—but I love data

analysis. It’s really not exaggerating to say that

eighth grade algebra with Mr. Satterthwaite

changed my life, although I did not know it at the time. I

have come to realize that there are different kinds of

math for different kinds of aptitudes. So while geometry

could make me gag, algebra lights a fire under me.

I encountered statistics for the first time in graduate

school and recognized that it was an extension of

algebra. Statistical modeling and data analysis is a social

application of math that helps answer really important

questions. The field of public health draws individuals

from the medical arena and those from the social and

political sciences. Using statistics, we social scientists

analyze data to measure the health of populations. How

healthy are people? What can be done to make them

healthier? What is the most effective intervention?

The City of New York conducts an annual telephone

survey of 10,000 New Yorkers that asks about drinking,

depression, weight, diabetes, blood pressure, exercise,

diet—all sorts of questions. I’m responsible for analyzing

these data (and information from other databases) for

questions that pertain to mental health and substance

abuse. I get to work on some really interesting projects:

social isolation among seniors, comparing kids who carry

weapons to those who don’t, risk factors for suicidal

ideation in youth, correlates of fear of an intimate

partner, prevalence of anxiety and depression, trends in

psychological distress in the years following the terrorist

attack on the World Trade Center, and relationships

between psychological distress and physical health, partic-

ularly diabetes.

I am also the principal investigator of a collaborative

retrospective longitudinal study of children born between

1994 and 2004. This study has been developed over the

past five years and involves acquiring and linking indi-

vidual level data on approximately 1.4 million children

from a variety of data sources including birth and death

registries, early intervention financial and administrative

databases, lead testing and inspection databases, and

department of education data including third grade test

scores and special education records. These data are

being merged with census tract-level data from the 2000

census to enrich our measurement of socioeconomic

status. We hope to complete the data matching and

merging process by summer 2009. The data will then be

analyzed to answer questions related to disparities in

access to early intervention services, long-term outcomes

Statistical modeling and data analysis

is a social application of math

that helps answer really important

questions.


of receipt of early intervention services, relationships

between birth weight, gestational age and utilization of

early intervention services, relationships between blood

lead levels and third grade test scores, birth characteristics

associated with autism, etc.

Regardless of the project, my work follows a fairly

predictable process: 1) start with identifying the research

question or problem; 2) follow with a review of related

literature; 3) identify the data needed to answer the ques-

tion. In most cases, I work off of data sets that have

already been prepared for analysis. Sometimes, such as in

the case of the isolated seniors work, I have to wait for

my data to be collected as part of a larger survey activity

carried out by another unit. Increasingly, my work involves

matching administrative data from multiple sources. I am

working with a great team of researchers from across the

agency to carry out the longitudinal study data match,

and in the process developing a set of practice guidelines

for use in subsequent matches.

Once the data are available for analysis, the fun

begins. I get to think about what statistical model best

answers the research question: what variables are impor-

tant, what groups to compare, and whether I should

incorporate neighborhood-level data or just look at indi-

vidual characteristics. As these questions get answered

the statistical model gets more and more refined until an

optimal solution emerges. Those results then get tran-

scribed into tables, interpreted, and incorporated into

testimony, program plans, policy documents, agency

monographs and peer-reviewed publications. My career in

public health research is extremely satisfying because I get

to collaborate on timely and important projects with

colleagues who are dynamic, bright, social activists who

also enjoy the mix of scientific rigor, intellectual stimula-

tion, and social purpose that our work involves, and I get

to play with X and Y every day!


Jonathan attended Park

from Pre-K to Grade IX,

except for two years in

San Antonio, Texas while

his father took a research

sabbatical. He graduated

from the Commonwealth

School in 1980 and from

the University of

Pennsylvania in 1985 with

a BA in both mathematics

and physics. He went on to

earn a PhD in physics from

Harvard University in 1994.

Jonathan now lives in

Brookline with his wife,

Dorothy Richardson, a

child and family psycholo-

gist, and their two children

who attend Park, Ian ’17

and Ellie ’12.

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> JONATHAN M. RICHARDSON ’76

I loved the proof that there are more

real numbers than fractions, although

there is an infinite number of either!

“Math” means different things to different people.

Most people think only of arithmetic, which is

certainly what is taught first. We first learn

integer arithmetic, then fractions, and finally long division.

Pretty boring stuff for the most part. Many go on to learn

algebra, geometry, and finally calculus. This is where

things start to get interesting, but often is the end of the

number line for most students. The math I found most

interesting in college was that which bordered on the

philosophical. I remember loving number theory. I was

fascinated by the difference between the different types

of numbers (transcendental, imaginary, etc.). I loved the

proof that there are more real numbers than fractions,

although there is an infinite number of either! I loved

studying Gödel’s theorem, which points to the limits of

logical systems. I regret not studying more statistics,

however, which have turned out to be of the greatest use

in my career.

So what got me into math? Well, Mr. Satterthwaite at

Park School, of course (among others). Studying math at

Park was fun, challenging, and a source of personal pride.

Park offered more than just math preparation, it instilled

in me a great curiosity for all things mathematical. I loved

calculus in high school, majored in both math and physics

in college, and eventually got a PhD in physics from

Harvard. The funny thing is that I didn’t want to go into

theoretical physics or math, but preferred experiments.

Since finishing my doctorate, I have become an applied

scientist, working with both scientists and engineers. My

understanding of physics, instrumentation, statistics, and

analysis has allowed me to contribute to a variety of

endeavors, including medical imaging and (most recently)

detectors for biological and chemical threats in the Sensor

Technologies and System Applications Group at the M.I.T.

Lincoln Laboratory.

So where is the math now? In my career it is applied

to sensor development and evaluation. Lincoln both

develops new technologies and helps to evaluate those

from other sources. It is our job to ensure that technolo-

gies and systems are rigorously evaluated before they are

considered for deployment. Evaluation is carried out

through a combination of analytical modeling, laboratory

measurements, and field trials. Modeling typically involves

understanding the physics of the sensor. Typically, models

are based on laboratory data. Finally, sensors are tested in

the field. If all goes well, the field data compares well

with model predictions (as determined by statistical

analysis of the data).

Computers and software have evolved into fantastic

tools for science and engineering. For software, I particu-

larly like Mathematica, which I used to alter the images


Jonathan produced the followingmontage by applying various

mathematical transformations tohis “boring headshot.”

>presented with this article. Before computers, every scien-

tist, engineer, mathematician, accountant, and anyone

processing numbers had to be good calculators them-

selves. I have great envy and respect for such people, as I

am not particularly so gifted in that respect (and may be

getting worse with age). I graduated college around the

time the PCs were introduced and have used them ever

since. I fondly remember programming the first MS-DOS

computers to run experiments and analyze data in grad-

uate school. Since then, the tools available have improved

enormously, providing not only powerful data analysis

and visualization, but formula derivation (“symbolics”) as

well. It’s a geek’s dream come true!

I made a tough decision many years ago not to go

into academia. My goal was to have a more balanced life,

with a bit of time for family and non-career pursuits. I

think I have achieved that goal, but I do miss teaching. I

have been very grateful for the occasional opportunity to

present one thing or another in my children’s classrooms

over the past several years. My most recent effort was

entitled “The Shape of Numbers,” presented to my son

Ian’s first grade class. In this presentation I talked about

how different numbers of objects can be arranged into

characteristic patterns. You can’t think of the number

three without thinking of a triangle, for example, and

four is about as square as you can get. Some numbers

can be arrayed as rectangles or squares whereas others

can’t (we call them prime numbers). At the end, I asked

the class to find their own patterns using various art

supplies and graph paper. I can report that Park continues

to offer excellent teaching in math and that the six and

seven-year-olds seemed truly enthusiastic about my

presentation.

So what’s next? I wish I knew! I still enjoy having

active involvement in research, analysis, and field

measurements. I also enjoy working with people entering

the field and have sponsored one student pursuing his

master’s degree while at Lincoln. I hope to collaborate

with MIT main campus this year in the application of rela-

tively new microscopy techniques. Above all, it’s lovely to

have the opportunity to support my children as they learn

math and everything else.

> BETSY WALCOTT ’81


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Betsy entered Park in 1970

(at the Kennard Road cam-

pus) and graduated in

1981 from 171 Goddard

Ave. From Park she went

to Milton Academy and

then to Harvard for her

undergraduate work.

She completed her PhD

in 1997 at the University

of California Irvine in

Biological Sciences, special-

izing in neuroscience.

Betsy is currently a

research fellow at The

Neurosciences Institute in

San Diego and lives in

Solana Beach with her

husband, Stephan Miller,

and their daughter, Lila,

who is four-and-a-half.

y interest in the brain began with a fascination

with individual differences in behavior, but a

college course on pharmacology hooked me on

the idea of studying the biological workings of the brain.

My broad interest is in synaptic and neuronal physiology,

or in plain terms, how nerve cells (neurons) in the brain

communicate with each other (via contact points called

synapses) to form the basis of learning and cognition. My

current project is focused on how the neurons in the

prefrontal cortex—the part of the brain that sits right

behind your forehead—develop, and how development

proceeds differently in disorders such as autism.

When discussing the brain it is almost impossible not

to evoke mathematical concepts. The brain is made up of

hundreds of billions of neurons, each neuron making

synaptic connections with hundreds, if not thousands, of

other neurons. The numbers get very big very fast when

you think about the rapid interactions going on every

second within a tiny millimeter of brain tissue. We know

that the brain works by engaging many different

networks of connected neurons in complex spatial and

temporal patterns that somehow give rise to sensation,

thought, and behavior. That “somehow” is what neuro-

scientists study.

One of the most unusual aspects of the institute

where I work is that half of the researchers work in the

lab while the other half develop mathematical models of

brain systems and implement the models into brain-based

devices. These are machines (automatons) that have soft-

ware-based brains designed with the principles of real

nervous systems. They can navigate, sense the environ-

ment and most importantly, learn. Two-way interactions

are encouraged between the biologists and the modelers.

I feel fortunate to have found a great place to do research

where my findings at the more microscopic-level can

influence the more systems-level approaches to under-

standing global brain function and dysfunction.

Math is an essential tool in my research. I use it for

everything from preparing solutions to analyzing giga-

bytes of data. One example of how I use math requires a

little bit of explanation. Technically speaking, I am a patch

clamper. That means I make electrical recordings from

neurons in a small piece of brain tissue in a dish under a

microscope. I use rodent brains that are remarkably similar

to human brains. This type of recording can be performed

in humans but only in conjunction with brain surgery, so

for research into the brain at this level, we still need other

sources of tissue. Using the patch clamp technique, I can

listen in to what neurons are saying to one another.

Neurons speak using an elegant combination of electrical

M

When discussing the brain

it is almost impossible not to evoke

mathematical concepts.


Betsy, “patchclamping” in the labat The Neurosciences Institute.

Under the microscope, she ismaking electrical recordings from

neurons in a small piece ofbrain tissue “to listen in to

what the neurons are saying toone another.”

>

and chemical signaling. These recordings have enabled me

to measure how different types of neurons change

throughout normal development and to discover differ-

ences in neurons from a rodent model of autism.

When I am patch clamping, I have to make quick

calculations about the electrical properties of the cells, the

electrodes that measure the signals, and the concentra-

tions of drugs that I am using. While this is simple math, I

find it fun dealing with such tiny numbers as 10–12

amperes (picoamps) of electrical current and huge

numbers like 109 ohms (gigaohms) of resistance. Dealing

with metric scales and measuring numbers by the thou-

sands (e.g. pico, nano, micro, milli, kilo, mega, giga)

reminds me of a couple of experiences at Park. The first is

using Cuisenaire rods in Grade VI, wooden manipulatives

that helped us get a sense of scale and learn to do calcu-

lations. The other is a short movie called “Powers of 10”

that we watched several times over the years at Park. This

movie starts with a bird’s eye view of a man asleep on a

picnic blanket. Over the course of a few minutes the

camera steps further and further away from the man,

an order of magnitude at a time until the view is from

light years away from our galaxy. An updated version is

available at http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/primer/java/

scienceopticsu/powersof10/ that goes down to the level of

electrons. To me, this is analogous to the many levels of

brain function from consciousness down to individual ions

that are involved in chemical signaling at the synapse and

beyond. I am grateful for having such enthusiastic and

creative math and science teachers like Mr. Tom Smith,

Mrs. Bernheim, and Mr. Kiernan and others who created a

learning environment where my neurons were so activated

that they formed memories that have remained engaged

for more than 30 years.

1933“The best news is I have,” writesRuth Crocker Young, “is the birth ofour first great grandson, born on the19th of November 2008. We are busycleaning out our 50-year collection ofthings, getting ready to move to aretirement home next year. When thesnowy winter is over we will go toour island on Lake Winnipesauke forthe summer.”

1937We were happy that Janice Ehrmannwas able to come and enjoy theAlumni Clambake in September, butmissed Bob Erhmann, who wasunable to attend this year. We learnedthat Bob and Janice celebrated their50th wedding anniversary with a bigparty this fall. Congratulations! Bobwrites, “My life is uneventful, butthat doesn’t prevent me from enjoy-ing it. Much of my time is spent car-ing for Janice, my wife, who isdisabled. Thank goodness forMartha, my younger obstetriciandaughter. We frequently go togetherto restaurants, movies, sciencemuseum and theatre.”

1938Class RepresentativePutty [email protected]

1967Class RepresentativeRowley [email protected]

1968Class RepresentativesRobert [email protected]

Vicky Hall [email protected]

1972Class RepresentativeAndrew Cable781-642-9910

1973Class RepresentativesRick [email protected]

Maggie Frank O’[email protected]

Rick Berenson sent the followingupdates: “1. We got a puppy namedHera after the Greek goddess (yayPark 4th grade!). She is a fourthgeneration labradoodle—a hypoaller-genic breed with a great personalitythat we highly recommend to theObamas! 2. Daniel (Park ’06, BB&N’09) has been admitted to Yale, but isawaiting results from his other appli-cation before deciding where to go.His sister, Alice (Park ’09) is a fresh-man at BB&N. 3. One of my startups,InCytu, is commercializing an in-situbioreactive device system developedat Harvard with applications in stemcell delivery and regenerative medi-cine. Its lead application is a mela-noma vaccine, which we hope to getinto the clinic in 2009.” At the AlumniClambake, Lesli Rothwell said she’sbeen doing a fair amount of paintingthis past year, mostly oils. With theNavigator Foundation, she is mount-ing art exhibits of 20th Century pho-tography that opened at EndicottCollege (Czech art) and GordonCollege (Russian art) in January. “Allis well,” reports Julia Talcott. “Wehave just built a printmaking/art stu-dio in my backyard here in NewtonCorner, which is a dream come true.I also have started teaching printmak-ing classes at the Arsenal Center forthe Arts in Watertown. Betsy Leahy

1948“I still have only fond memories ofPark School from 70 or so years ago,”writes Vera Converse Gibbons.

1950Class RepresentativeGalen Clough812-477-2454

Pamela Hill Biren sends this news:“Our far flung seven children andtwelve grands keep us busy visitingand just communicating. We workedhard to help Obama achieve his vic-tory and are hopeful for the futurewith his leadership and vision.”

1953Class RepresentativeBob [email protected]

1963Class RepresentativeAmy [email protected]

1966Class RepresentativeWigs Frank610-964-8057

Thanks to Debbie Shaw Link ’48 for sending in this wonderful photograph from1946 of seventh and eighth graders. Top Row L-R: Hugh Mitchell, PeterGundersen, Harry Beckwith, Oliver Rodman. 2nd Row: Herbert Horgan, TadAnderson, Peter Gulick, 3rd Row: Debby Shaw, Emmy Faulkner, Betsy Porter, 4thRow: Ruth Reynolds, Ginny Bridge, and Janet Warren


Morton and Ty Burr appear regu-larly in my life and Susan StoreyFrank and Macy Lawrence Ratliffwhen I get lucky. Our older sonRamsey is at Colby College in Maineand loving it, twins Isabel andStoddard are in 9th grade at NewtonNorth High School. James Meigs, myhusband, is still working hard as aninternist and researcher in the area ofdiabetes and heart disease at MassGeneral. My parents, Hooker andJane, are doing well, still in the samehouse in Brookline. Can’t believe weall turned 50 this last year!” FromOrlean, Virginia, Douglas WiseHytla writes: “The barn is almostdone. Medora (20) just returned fromMendoza and Jon is finishing his firstsemester at Washington College.Hattye is a live wire and is half-waythrough sixth grade.”

1974 35th Reunion

Class RepresentativesRodger [email protected]

Margaret Smith [email protected]

Thanks to your Reunion Committee:Margaret Smith Bell, Alex Bok,

Rodger Cohen, Heather CrockerFaris, Polly Hoppin, Allene RussellPierson, and Beth HaffenrefferScholle, your 35th Reunion is rightaround the corner—please join yourclassmates on Saturday, May 9, 2009for this special occasion. For moreinformation please contactEliza Drachman-Jones in the AlumniOffice at [email protected] or617-274-6022.

Shady Hartshorne sends news thathe is “going to Alaska for three weeksto edit a show for the DiscoveryChannel. My wife, Laurie and I dotravel writing for GoNomad.comhttp://www.gonomad.com/corp/shadyandlaurie.html Laurie is still practic-ing massage and working at theSchlesinger Library at Radcliffe.”Congratulations to Tina McVeigh onthe birth of her son James HigginsonMon-Tsi Chin, who was born June20, 2008. “We are all adjusting to ourcramped quarters and nights with lit-tle sleep. Attached is a photo of Jamiewith his big sister Lizzie (age 6). Ilook forward to seeing everyone atReunion.” Ginger Erlich Thoerneris married to Mathias Thoerner, anarchitect from Munich. They live inEasthampton, New York and haveone daughter, Sophie, age 16. Gingergraduated from Harvard and is alawyer selling real estate.

1975Class RepresentativesColin [email protected]

Bill [email protected]

We were interested to read in theBoston Sunday Globe last Novemberabout Nick Lawrence’s show at thePierre Menard Gallery in Cambridge:“Nick Lawrence: Notes fromUnderground 1982-2007, a 25-yearSurvey.” As the Globe reported, “Theretrospective, which features close to150 works, culminates an ordeal thatbegan with a truly unhappy accidentin 2004, when Nick lost 20 years’worth of paintings: 1,200 artworks.”Today, Nick splits his time betweenCape Cod and New York. He hasstudios and owns DNA Gallery inProvincetown and in New York(Freight + Volume). Locals might beinterested in knowing that he stillowns Nick’s Moving Co., which hefounded in Somerville in 1988 “tosupport his early art habit.”

1976Class RepresentativeTenney Mead [email protected]

1977Class RepresentativeSam [email protected]

We were glad to hear from SarahEhrlich Aronin, who lives inLarchmont, New York with her fam-ily: husband, Eric, and Caroline (11)and Isabel (7). Marshall Berensonwrites, “After 18 successful years mywife, Kathy, and I have sold our flo-ral and event design business. We arelooking forward to new and excitingcreative endeavors. I will be returningto my musical roots and begin writ-ing and recording music. I will alsocontinue my leadership roles with thegastronomic organizations Les Amisd’Escoffier and La Chaine desRotisseurs.”

1978Class Representative Needed

“I’m getting ready to open the HighLine,” reports Josh David, “a park on


CLASS OF 1974 — 35TH REUNION!

Sunday, October 14, 2007

When Park School friends gather to share a complete lobster

feast, you’re bound to have a great time! Alumni from theClasses of 1953 – 2008 enjoyed good

eats, a tour of the school building,

and a chance to catch up with friends,

classmates and teachers. Special

thanks to the Park Alumni Committee

members who helped organize this

memorable event!

Alumni Clambake

5

6

1

2

3

4

8

11

7

9 10

12 13

1. Got butter? 2. The FaulknerHouse lawn provided the backdropfor the annual gathering 3. Enjoinglobster under the tent 4. Lucy AmesHirschfeld ‘18, daughter of MinnieAmes ‘86 and Brian Hirschfeld

5. Becky and Garrett Solomon ’86 with theirtwins, Cambell and Cooper 6. Brother andsister team, Jack ‘16 and Elizabeth Pierce ‘19,play some baseball 7. Peter Barkan ‘868. Chloe DiAdamo, daughter of Lisa AmickDiAdamo ’86 9. Tom and Margo Smithreconnect with alumni 10. Rob DiAdamo andson, Caleb 11. Rob Crawford, Director ofDevelopment, welcomes alums back to Park12. Melanie Hill and Mark Simmons ’8513. Minnie Ames ‘86 runs the registrationtable as Ali Epker Ruch ‘89 and Greg Kadetsky‘96 sign in

32

1981Class RepresentativesMatt [email protected]

Alex [email protected]

1982Class RepresentativeAllison Nash [email protected]

Alexandra Ehrlich manages theValentino boutique on NewburyStreet. “After three years of trying, Ifinally made the playoffs in my fan-tasy football league,” reports Rutledge

1979 friends and classmates Joan Morse, Wendi Daniels, and Hilary Hart had amini-reunion this fall.

an historic elevated railroad viaductin New York City. I’ve been workingon the project for ten years with co-founder Robert Hammond. If you’rein New York this summer, come takea look! You can also get more infor-mation at www.thehighline.org.”

1979 30th Reunion

Class RepresentativesLalla [email protected]

Sally [email protected]

Thanks to your Reunion Committee:Lalla Carothers, Kevin McCarthy,and Sally Solomon, your 30thReunion is right around the corner—please join your classmates onSaturday, May 9, 2009 for this specialoccasion. For more information pleasecontact Eliza Drachman-Jones in theAlumni Office at 617-274-6022 [email protected].

“In the last year, I have moved to anew house in Lexington, taken a newjob as a pathologist at WinchesterHospital, and changed my name backto Nina Frusztajer—all good things,but I have to say I’ll be happy if thisyear is not quite so eventful!” “Thisyear has been a good one for my hus-band, David, and me, with a fewchanges to the status quo,” reportsSally Solomon. “We moved fromCambridge (where David had livedfor 17 years) back to Brookline, myold stomping ground. A really bigmove was that I left my job atNortheastern University, where I hadbeen for 17 years (we figured we’dwork around a theme). I followed along-held interest of working directly

Josh David ’78 on top of the High Linein New York City.

with young children who have severebehavior problems, and spent a fewmonths at a specialized school teach-ing reading. And now…. I’m not surewhat my next step will be in the aca-demic-assistance field. As for brushes-with-Park during the year, Davidand I went to see a friend perform hismusic at a local café, and behold:There was Tom Smith, also perform-ing! It was terrific to see him. And,one of the highlights of the year wasattending Maggie Remensnyder’s

wedding to one of David’s bestfriends. I look forward to talkingabout all of this and more at our 30thReunion in May. I’m excited to seePark friends and reconnect.”

1980Class RepresentativeAndres [email protected]



Myra Paci ’80 with her daughers Nora(6) and Adriana (10)

Remembering Alice by Myra Paci ’80

First of all there’s her name. Alice. With thetall, forthright A at the beginning followed bythat sibilant second syllable, whispering hermysterious power. And then the last name:Storey. When you were seven or eight yearsold you might confuse whether it was thething you read or a part of a building but ineither case it fit her because she was a worthysubject for a book and formidable enough tobe built of brick and mortar.

Over our elementary and middle schoolyears I often went to her house, first passingthrough the kitchen: a professional-lookingaffair with restaurant capabilities, invariablyfilled with a smattering of sisters, step-siblings, her step-father Charlie, and ofcourse her mom, Adair, grinning at mewickedly, sipping from a glass of wine, andmore often than not stirring a pot of some-thing on the stove that emitted a heavenlyperfume. Everyone would greet me heartilyand with slightly ironic smiles on theirfaces–here comes that skinny, mop-hairedPaci girl again. Alice and I would run upstairsto her bedroom, close the door, and listen forhours to—this is embarrassing to admit—Elton John. We’d swoon to his love songs,worry over his losses, and practice our dancemoves in the mirror to his pop beats. We’dtalk about our friends, our enemies, boys weliked. We’d maybe make a bead necklace orweave a bracelet—some miraculous skill Alicehad learned from her four older sisters. She’dyell back at them fiercely when they yelledthrough the door to turn Elton down.

The whole scenario captivated me. I hadtwo older brothers, curly haired and slightlike me, not tall, imposing sisters with long,straight blonde hair (the attribute I mostcoveted in life) and a high quotient of cool.Like her sisters, Alice was a completely differ-ent physical animal from me. I can thank theprecision of childhood powers of observationfor still being able to visualize the round

Alice Storey Wille ’80 (1965–2008)

When Myra Paci ’80 learned that her classmate Alice Storey Wille had died ofcancer on June 7, 2008, she encouraged her classmates to honor Alice’s memoryin the pages of this Bulletin. Many thanks to Barbara Storey McGrath ’70 forsending photographs of her late sister.

smallness of her nostrils, the flatness of hernose, her neat, thin lips with their pronouncedbow, her square, even teeth, and perhaps mostvividly, her seemingly endless limbs. Her legsand arms extended as though to the horizonand bore a light, shiny filigree of golden hairs.I would admire the silver and rope braceletsthat only enhanced her narrow but hardlyfragile wrists. Her long, elegant fingersenchanted me. Her long, elegant feetastounded me. In the summer, her body wouldturn a golden tan, her hair a flaxen blonde,and her goddess-like stature would onlyincrease in my eyes.

One memory encapsulates so much ofwhat I feel about Alice. One day—was it in3rd, 4th, or 5th grade or maybe even later?—Ms. Knight, our exigent but quietly doting P.E.teacher, told us we were going to engage in a

series of endurance tests. I remember theroom: not the bright, cavernous basketballcourt with the honey-colored oak floor andhigh ceilings but a low, dark, unpleasant littleroom facing the front of the school. We had tomove through several physical tests: how manypull-ups could we do, how many push-ups,how many sit-ups, and so on. For the sit-upportion Alice and I ended up as partners, oneperson sitting on the other’s ankles while thesupine one performed the exercise. I managedfifty or so. I thought I’d done rather well andsettled down smugly on Alice’s ankles so shecould give it a try. I sat on her bony lower legsand watched first with indifference, then irri-tation as she easily surpassed my fifty, thenamazement as she continued indefatigablytoward 200 then 300, then worry as sheshowed fatigue but did not stop. The room


Apple Faulkner and Alice in the back of the

Faulkner’s truck.

slowly emptied as our classmates finishedtheir tests and wandered off to the lockerrooms to shower, dress, and meet their rideshome. I’m sure one or two friends hung on,watching Alice, gape-mouthed in wonder ather strength and endurance. Ms. Knightstayed on as well of course, looking both con-cerned and impressed. Alice’s slim, musculartorso kept its rhythm down and up from themat, even when her round face was red andsweaty and displayed her exhaustion. But shewas determined, her jaw set, her blonde hairpulled back in a loose pony tail, her eyesfocused inward on her goal. She smiledwearily now and then when she passedanother hundred or one of us exclaimed indelighted amazement. When the winterafternoon’s darkness had already turned theglass door black, she reached one thousandand lay back triumphantly on the springygymnastics mat. She held her sore stomachmuscles and groaned, but looked—and was—utterly victorious.

I find it hard to believe that Alice isgone. She was an emblem of power for me asa child, both in her equine grace and easybraininess, and in the perhaps slightly lessbenign sway she held over so many of us inour class. She was without a doubt one of thequeen bees in the classroom for years: in foursquare and our more formal after-schoolsports, with the boys for whose attention wecompeted, and in the intricate hierarchy thatwe girls created for ourselves. When I leftPark School after eighth grade to jump-startmy high school years, I left with some regretthe exciting jockeying of our queen beepower games and with even more regret closefriends like Alice.

The last time I saw Alice was at her firstwedding back in the late eighties after collegeand recently following my father’s death.Unfortunately I was in a daze of grief thatkept me from being as fully present as Iwould have liked. But I kept in touch withher sporadically over the years and knew shewas experiencing some difficulties. My otherclose friends from our class—Apple Faulkner,Sudie Naimi, Jenny Swett—and I discussedhow we could reach out to Alice and help herbring herself back to health and to her shin-ing strength. Not much came of those talksthat I know of except perhaps a few morephone calls and emails to her. In my mind,she remained far away and maddeninglyimpossible to save.

Alice’s death shakes me not only for theloss of all she was, all her potential, but alsobecause it reminds me that I barely scrapedby to continue my own life after being diag-nosed with breast cancer in 2000. I fre-

quently wonder why I survived and Alice didnot. Discounting the particulars of our differ-ing cancers, why could she not have beengiven a reprieve as well? I mourn Alice, andgrieve for the bright future that I often hopedshe was on the verge of grasping with herlong, beautiful hands.

��

I think I would describe Alice as the original“Queen Bee.” People just buzzed around her,were attracted to her sense of humor, her wayof telling a story, her smarts and her longblonde hair. She was a gifted mimic, capturingvoices and quirks of speech with perfect tim-ing. She had a strong personality—bossy,even—but she was so much fun that you justwanted to follow her ideas, be near her. Atleast I did. I always remember that Alice hadthe best handwriting, the longest braids, thewidest stride for the 12-minute mile and agreat laugh. Alice made everything look easy.— Jessica Slosberg Benjamin ‘80

I remember hanging out in her bedroomexhaustively listening with intense passionto—yes, I am outing us—Billy Joel. On vinyl!I remember her thick silver bracelets, which Icoveted. And yes, I remember that flaxenblond hair and legginess and all the boys trip-ping all over and around her.—Elisabeth Subrin ’80

It’s so long ago, but like Myra, I have a veryvisual image of Alice. All lanky legs and armsand, of course, the smile—I can really pictureher smile. A very sunny personality. She wasalways enthusiastic and game for anything, Iremember.—Adrienne Brodeur ’80

A few memories of Alice seem to have stuckin my head; I remember her showing up toschool in fourth grade dressed like one of thegirls from Little House on the Prairie (which was abig hit at the time), and everyone got a kickout of that because she looked almost exactlylike one of the characters. She was always sopoised, and she had a great sense of humor.—Andres Hurwitz ’80

I recall Alice as an athletic, vibrant kid whowas always very hip and popular. Some yearsagoI read in the Bulletin that she had gottenmarried and was raising her daughter. Nodoubt her spirit and energy leftmany positiveimprints and I join withour class in extend-ing collective condolences to her family.—Erica Johanson DeBenedictis ’80

I remember that Alice was the last in line atgym show, which meant that she was the mostskilled, and that she was. Her routines wereso graceful and always included those movesthat so many of us were not able to perfect.She was so statuesque, long, lanky and heldherself with such poise at a time when poisewas not even part of the curriculum. Iremember spending time at her home, whichalways seemed to be a bit of a retreat as it wassuch a comfortable place, and I just remem-ber all of the older girls (the Storey sisters)lingering about. Four square, bombardment—you name it Alice was right in there leadingthe pack. It was so sad to learn about herdeath this year and I will always have fondmemories of Alice.—Jillian Rudman ’80


The Storey sisters together in 2006. From left to right: Barbara Storey

McGrath ’70, the late Mimi Storey Meley ’71, Susan Storey Frank ’73,

Eliza Storey Anderson ’76 and the late Alice Storey Wille ’80

The Park School

Reunion WeekendSaturday, May 9, 2009 – Sunday, May 10, 2009

3:00–4:00 PM: Tour the “Old Park School” on Kennard Road

4:00–5:00 PM: Tour today’s Park School

5:00–7:00 PM: All-class party in the new Park School Library

7:30 PM: Individual class dinners off-campus

To learn more, contactEliza Drachman-Jones, Director of Alumni [email protected] or 617-274-6022

1999 –10th Reunion

1994 –15th Reunion

1989 – 20th Reunion







Andrew Winter ’82 and family welcomed a canine friend to the clan this year.Pictured here are sons Ethan, Reed, and Mason with Stella.

Simmons. “I lost in the semi-finals.”Last summer, Andrew Winter’sfamily moved to Hanover, NewHampshire. “Our family has grownwith the addition of “Stella,” a femaleyellow Labrador. Ethan is in 6thgrade in the newly built middleschool, plays tackle football and elec-tric bass. Reed is in 4th grade, playstackle football and electric guitar.Mason is in 2nd grade, plays flagfootball and drums. We are rockingin the granite state. Please comevisit!”

1983Class RepresentativeLisa Livens [email protected]

European representative JonathanChaloff reports: “After 13 years inRome, I moved to Paris in 2007, drag-ging my two year-old daughter,Yamima, along.” The winner of thelongest commute is: SandyBergland! “I commute to Memphisfrom my home in Park City, Utah,where I am a pilot for FedEx. I flythe MD-11 domestically and interna-tionally. The class notes from the25th Reunion were great! Everyonelooks well.” We heard fromWalterDoyle this fall: “Being back in Bostonhas been great and I have run intomany of my fellow Park alumni

friends. I shared some fish with NickNyhan who just returned from sixmonths in Paris with his wife and twochildren. Nick is enjoying life inBrooklyn fixing-up a brownstone andwas volunteering some of his freetime to the Obama campaign whilehe awaits the arrival of his thirdchild.Will Robb came to town withsome extra Red Sox tickets this falland Rob Ball and I were luckyenough to get the call! It was a greatgame and Will and I took notes fromRob’s comprehensive database of RedSox facts and figures! I ran into IanO’Keeffe at the North End skatingrink where we both take our childrento skating lessons. Ian has four kids,is living on the Hill and is threateningto come and join me in the geriatrichockey league I play in—would befun to see if the O’Keeffe/Doylecombo can still make a couple playstogether after 25 years. I havebumped into and seen lots of othersaround town who are all doing welland busy raising wonderful families.Carl Prindle, Sarah CanerGaylord, Lisa Livens Freeman,Stephens Dunne, and many others.What a great class we have!” “Afterfive years in San Francisco and fiveyears in N.Y.C., I’m back inBrookline, a mile from where I grewup!,” writes Juliet Siler Eastland. “Isthis what they mean by the “circle oflife?” Busy as a part-time freelancewriter and full-time wife and mom to

two lovely daughters. Life is good.”Josh Wolman and his wife, Rachel,and their kids, Lily (6) and Graham(4) moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma thisyear. Josh is now the director ofadvancement at Holland Hall School.“Last year, in Washington D.C.,when I worked at Sidwell FriendsSchool, we saw classmate LaurieKohn and her family regularly. I wassorry to miss the reunion; though Iloved reading all about my class-mates, their families, and life experi-ences. I truly hope to be there formy 30th!”

1984 25th Reunion

Class RepresentativeAnne Collins [email protected]

Thanks to your Reunion Committee:Anne Collins Goodyear, BradMoriarty, Tara Albright Robinson,Elena Thompson, Laura ChurchWilmerding, and Phoebe GallagherWinder, your 25th Reunion is rightaround the corner—please join yourclassmates on Saturday, May 9, 2009for this special occasion. For more


A financial planner with his ownbusiness, Jonathan Kurtz lives inGreat Falls, Virginia with wife, Susan,and two children.

1986Class RepresentativesMark [email protected]

Jay [email protected]

Jonah Givelber writes from Tacoma,Washington, “Life is going very well.Our boys, Julen (7) and Luka (4) areenjoying school. My wife and I aredoing well. Unfortunately, we won’tbe in Brookline at all this year, but, asalways, it remains close to my heart.”And we also heard from KennethKurtz. He is a physician, living inVillanova, Pennsylvania with his wife,Kari, and three children.

1987Class RepresentativesMary Sarah [email protected]

Geoff [email protected]

“I’m still moving full speed aheadto catch up with my sons, Aidan (3)and Sawyer (2),” admits NatalieCoggeshall Nelson. “There’s nothinglike experiencing the world throughthe eyes and heart of a toddler(or two!)”

information please contactEliza Drachman-Jones in the AlumniOffice at [email protected] or617-274-6022.

From Switzerland, Natascha GeilichArmleder writes: “I’ve lived here for16 years now! Sébastien and I havetwo children, Tassilo (4) and Cosima(3). I am also doing my masters incounseling. I hope to make it to theReunion, but it is doubtful, as I willhave just returned from the Statestwo weeks earlier. However I havebeen happy to catch up with some ofyou through Facebook.” “I am mar-ried on Long Island with three kids,”reports Donald Barrick. I have con-verted my wife, Nancy, and raised allthree kids: Emily (10), Christopher(7), and Brandon (3) as Boston fans.The kids all annoy their classmatesby wearing Sox and Pats parapherna-lia. I know I’m one of very few peo-ple who think it’s cool that the Soxhave a high prospect named LarsAnderson! Scary that he was bornwell after we left Park (we’re gettingold!)” Anne Collins Goodyear sendsword that “my husband Frank and Icontinue to enjoy living in Washing-ton, D.C. and working together ascurators at the Smithsonian’sNational Portrait Gallery. Frank is inthe Department of Photographs andI’m in the Department of Prints andDrawings. Later this spring and dur-

ing the summer, two exhibitions I’vehelped organize will be on view:“Inventing Marcel Duchamp: TheDynamics of Portraiture” (March27–August 2, 2009) and“Reflections/Refractions: Self-Portraiture in the Twentieth Century”(April 10–August 16, 2009). Hopeyou can come see them. If so, pleaselet me know. I look forward to seeingmy classmates and meeting spousesand children at our upcoming 25th(gasp) Reunion!” “Hello to everyonein the Class of ’84!” says KateMcNay Koch. She is still enjoying lifein rural Peru, Vermont with Bill andkids Mehana (8) and Will (7). In2007, Elena Wethers Thompsonmoved to Maryland with her family.“We are settling in with our two chil-dren, Tessa (3 1/2) and Ellis (21months). It’s an adjustment and Imiss Boston but it is nice to be closerto family. I finally joined Facebooklast month and have been connectedwith past Park classmates, which isgreat! Would love to be in touch withmany more and to see some of you atour spring reunion. I am going tostart a Facebook Group for our classso please look out for it and join thegroup. I still keep in touch withJessica Pearlman and AliciaLancaster Silva regularly. Hope you(my former classmates) are all doingwell and are happy.”

1985Class RepresentativesRachel Levine [email protected]

Hattie Dane [email protected]

Melissa Daniels [email protected]

Natascha Geilich Armeleder ’84 and family at the beach



�

�Nia Lutch ’97, Sarah Swett ’98, Meg Lloyd ’98, andBri Connolly ’01 who have all been interns at Park!

1984 classmates Phoebe Gallagher Winder and LauraChurch Wilmerding

Josh Dorfman ’90 and Peter Amershadian Even the little ones know “Children Go Where I SendThee!”

Scottie Brigham Faeber ’57, Amy Lampert ’63 andRuthie Chute Knapp ’57

Laura Church Wilmerding ’84, Michael Wilmerding,and Bri Connolly ’01

Amanda and Abbott Lawrence ’85 with Tim Sullivan ‘85

�

�

Alumni, faculty, and staff celebrated

the winter holidays at Park on an

early December evening. Musical

performances by Park’s children’s

choir and PACE (Park’s Adult Choral

Ensemble) complemented the festive

atmosphere and hearty fare in the

library, which was transformed into

a convivial and cozy venue for the

occasion. Park’s Alumni Committee

organized a children’s book drive to

benefit Cradles to Crayons. The

School was delighted to welcome

back its alumni and friends to kick

off the holiday season!

ALUMNIHOLIDAY PARTY

DECEMBER 4, 2008


Janice Allen conducts young singers in Pre-Kindergarten through Grade III

Sarah Swett ’98, Greg Kadetsky’96, and Nia Lutch ’97

Allison Morse ’89 andJonathan Mitchell ‘89

Ellen and Joe Koltun ’85 broughtlittle Gabriella to the party!

Gigi Saltonstall and Rich Knapp,both Class of 1990

�

�

1988Class RepresentativeLiza Cohen [email protected]

“Tree planting in Guinea, growingpeanuts, eating sufficient quantities ofdiverse tropical fruits, working withfolks to conserve biodiversityresources, and enjoying the shade(one of the immensely important ser-vices performed by trees) all continueto be my principal pastimes,” reportsJordan Kimball. “I cannot remem-ber who the Park School teacher waswho shared Shel Silverstein’s TheGiving Tree with us in the early years,but it was a key literary moment inmy life, which helped lead me to oneof my life-long objectives— to lovetrees for their supreme importance tolife on Earth, and help promote theirconservation and propagation. Muchrespect due to Park for planting treesthroughout the land.” Karen KurtzMatzkin, who is an attorney, liveswith her husband Drew and two chil-dren in Newton. Ramsay Westgatesends word from San Jose where heis in his fifth year teaching 11th &12th grade at The Harker School, aprivate K-12 high school. “Theschool is a snapshot of Silicon Valleylife, with most of my students beingfirst-generation-born American citi-zens, and largely coming from theIndian subcontinent or the Far East(China & Taiwan). My wife, Andrea,teaches at a nearby public highschool, and our daughter, Sarah (aprecocious and energetic dynamo),turned three in December. Love tohear from any Park alums living inthe Bay Area, and hope to make itback for reunion 25 since I missednumber 20.”

1989 20th Reunion

Class RepresentativesDahlia [email protected]

Ian [email protected]

Rebecca Lewin [email protected]

Thanks to your Reunion Committee:Ali Epker Ruch, Allison Morse,Jordan Scott, and Rebecca LewinScott, your 20th Reunion is rightaround the corner—please join yourclassmates on Saturday, May 9, 2009for this special occasion. For moreinformation please contact

U.S. Court of Appeals for the SecondCircuit in early January 2009.”Congratulations to Aisha Yasin onher marriage to Lawrence IrvingCelester, Jr. On August 31, 2008, 150family and friends gathered at TheLord Thompson Manor inThompson, Connecticut for the

service and reception. Park Schoolalumni Jaime Quiros ’93, KeishaPowell, Christina DeVaughn, andTamika Smith cheered Larry andAisha on at the joyous event, andAisha’s siblings Tariq Yasin ’93 andMalaiqa Yasin ’97 were in the wed-ding party!

Eliza Drachman-Jones in the AlumniOffice at [email protected] or617-274-6022.

1990Class RepresentativesZac [email protected]

Alex [email protected]

Zachary Cherry let us know that hemoved to Palm Beach at the end of2008 to become the vice presidentof finance for Energy S.O., LLC.“We’re developing renewable energyproperties around the world. Hopeeveryone in the Park family is well.”We also heard from David Hans:“This fall, I co-founded a law firm inManhattan, which specializes inmedia law, intellectual property, andinsurance coverage disputes(www.smallmanhansllp.com). Weare currently representing formerCIA officer Valerie Plame Wilsonand Simon & Shuster, Inc. in a FirstAmendment dispute involving gov-ernment censorship of public domaininformation that Wilson sought topublish in her 2007 memoir, FairGame. The case will be argued in the

You can help Park get GREENER! We wantto increase our electronic communications withalumni and reduce our carbon footprint.

Please make sure that we have your updatede-mail address. Drop us a line with your name andclass year to [email protected]’d also love to hear your NEWS for the nextissue of the Bulletin!

Thank you!


A L U M N IE-MAIL DRIVE!


1996Class RepresentativesNick [email protected]

Merrill [email protected]

Katayoun [email protected]

Kathrene [email protected]

Anna Capezzera sends us this news:“I moved to Silver Lake, in East L.A.,and landed a job with The MediaAccess Group at WGBH. It’s kind offunny that I moved all the way out toCalifornia and ended up with a jobbased in Boston. My job title is“Describer,” and I wish I had a con-cise way of explaining what I do. In avery simplified sense, we turn moviesand TV shows into a sort of book-on-tape, so that a blind person can heara full description of what’s happeningwhile the program is actually run-ning. It doesn’t take the place of dia-logue or soundtrack, it just gets addedin, so you can still hear the actualactors speaking and the music/soundeffects that were composed for theprogram. It’s a great job, and I enjoythe opportunity to see a number offilms before their release. Other thanthat, I’m definitely liking the mildwinters out here, and I saw HannahLabaree about a month ago when

Anna Sullivan ’95, Ashley Hall ’97, Suzy McManmon ’97, Ladd Levis-Thorne ’96,Astrid Levis-Thorne ‘98, and George Sargent ’96

1991Class Representative Needed

A belated congratulations to DavidCoggeshall who married Lori Evansin June 2007.

1993Class RepresentativesJessica Ko [email protected]

Jaime [email protected]

Ali [email protected]

Emily Braucher writes fromBogota, Colombia: “I am doingresearch for my anthropology mas-ter’s on displaced women here inBogota. It is challenging work on achallenging topic but I am meetinginspiring and wonderful people.I am happy to be living with myboyfriend’s family here in the cityand come day soon I will make itback to Boulder, Colorado.” “I’mliving in Jamaica Plain with my wifeand beautiful one-year-old daughter,”reports Clark Freifeld. “I’m agraduate student at the MIT MediaLab.” Congratulations to LawrencePerera on his marriage to LynneDuquette last spring in Taos, NewMexico. We also heard from IvyRedd, who is working for a realestate company in Atlanta.

1994 15th Reunion

Class RepresentativesAlan [email protected]

Jake [email protected]

Aba [email protected]

Thanks to your ReunionCommittee: Jen Berylson, JakePeters, Hilary Sargent, and KristenSullivan, your 15th Reunion isright around the corner—please joinyour classmates on Saturday, May 9,2009 for this special occasion. Formore information please contactEliza Drachman-Jones in the AlumniOffice at 617-274-6022 [email protected].


1995Class RepresentativesLilla [email protected]

Matt [email protected]

Alisha Crutchfield grew up onMission Hill and graduated from TheSteppingstone Foundation’s 14-monthacademic program in 1992, when sheenrolled at Park. After graduatingPark in 1994 and BB&N in 1998, sheattended UMass Amherst. She moved

to New York without knowing any-one and without a firm job, butbecame an intern at Def Jam Music.Outside of the typical administrativework, Alisha began helping to stylethe new artists. She assistedLudacris’s stylist for two years andnow is the CEO and head stylist forStylewise, a professional stylist com-pany to celebrities, as well as thefounder and CEO of Mogul ImpactEntertainment, a talent-bookingagency. She has styled clients includ-ing Kanye West, Vanessa Williams,Ludacris, Dave Chapelle, PattiLabelle, and Russell Simmons formagazines, movies and music videos.


1998Class RepresentativesLydia [email protected]

Meg [email protected]

Sarah [email protected]

From New Orleans, Dave Liebowitzwrites, “I am teaching high schoolEnglish and have been doing this forthe last two years. Despite some chal-lenges, it has been a great time, and Ilove the city. I still keep in touch witha few folks from Park and was sorry Imissed the reunion.”

1999 10th Reunion

Class RepresentativesColin [email protected]

Elizabeth [email protected]

Susanna [email protected]

Thanks to your Reunion Committee:Ally Connors, Grace Faturoti, AlexGoldstein, Margaret Gormley, BenHindman, Chloe Lewis, FranklinRoss, and Greg Vernick, your 10thReunion is right around the corner—please join your classmates onSaturday, May 9, 2009 for this specialoccasion. For more information pleasecontact Eliza Drachman-Jones in theAlumni Office at 617-274-6022 [email protected].

parkupdate

If you were “friends” with Park on Facebook,you may have noticed that our presencedisappeared suddenly. In January 2009, thePark Alumni Facebook Profile was shut downdue to Facebook.com protocol.

Since then, we have established a Park SchoolAlumni Association Fan Page. Please join usand learn about events, look at photos, and con-nect with fellow Park Alumni. To find this page,enter “Park School Alumni Association” into thesearch field and become a fan.

Links to Facebook and LinkedIn can befound on Park’s alumni website:www.parkschool.org/alumniConnect with other Park alumni today!

she passed through the area.” “Hellofrom Portland, Oregon!” writesJonathan Sheffi. “Well, after livingall over the west coast for four and ahalf years, it’s finally time to comehome. Last week I was accepted toHarvard Business School, and I ameagerly looking forward to it. I was inBoston when I heard, and celebratedwith many old friends, includingGreg Schwanbeck. I also recentlymet up with Zac Johnson when hewas visiting Portland for a few days,and with Julia Kung and Liz Priveswhen I was down in Palo Alto. Hopeeveryone else is doing well in thesetough times.”

1997Class RepresentativesSuzy [email protected]

Sarah [email protected]

Sarah Conway writes, “I had a niceholiday season in the U.S., includinga few days in Boston. I spent a great

1998 Classmates: Eliza Drachman-Jones, Daphne Johnson, Abbie Johnson,Jonathan Tucker, and Alex Aronson

deal of that time at the Lewis’ house,hanging with Anna, Chloe ’99, andEve ’04. One night I grabbed drinkswith Anna, Nia Lutch, and FredWarburg, and I also spent time withAnna and Fred on New Year’s Eve.Everyone is doing well—Anna is backliving in L.A. working at a consultingfirm, Fred is in finance in Boston, and

Nia is an intern at Park. I’m nowback in Bali, Indonesia where I con-tinue to work at a consulting firmspecializing in conservation finance.I have upcoming trips to the forestof Sulawesi in Indonesia, thePhilippines, Palau, Laos, and HongKong, some for work, some forplay. I’m also studying for my CFALevel III exam, which I will take(and hopefully pass!) in June. Ifyou find yourself in South EastAsia, please let me know!”Severine Fleming is directing TheGreenhorns, a documentary aboutyoung farmers in America. She isliving, farming, and bicycling in theHudson valley of New York.www.thegreenhorns.net. PaulNaddaff is currently working forPUMA North America as thesports marketing manager. He isfocusing on building awareness ofPUMA’s high-performance runningproduct line. Since starting a yearand a half ago, the running busi-ness has grown by 35%. Paul writesthat he is “still holding my monthlyBig Kids Dodgeball Tournaments—going five years strong!”www.BigKidsDodgeball.com. Paulalso tells us “I’m living out mydream of making cool toys/gadgets.I recently came up with an idea fora great remote control toy andhired an engineering firm to buildme a working prototype. I’m in theprocess of pitching the concept tomajor toy companies with the inten-tion of them buying the idea.” LizGrote Ouellet had a boy namedDylan Justin Ouellet on January 5,2009. Liz writes “He was sixpounds, three ounces, 19 incheslong, and we are enjoying everysecond with him.”

Jonathan Tucker ’98 bumped into histhird grade teacher, Ann Kopp, whiletraveling this year


Park Pub Night in BostonOctober 23, 2008

On a crisp fall evening in October,

20 Park alums gathered at Dillon’s

in Boston for Park Pub Night.

Friends from the Classes of 1990–2000

came together for a fun evening of

laughter and libations. A huge thanks goes

to the Park Young Alumni Sub-Committee

for planning and promoting this

great event. We are looking forward

to our next Park Pub Night in Boston

this spring—hope to see you there!


Read about Colin Arnold’s experi-ences as a firefighter-paramedic inBerkeley, CA on page 16 of thisBulletin. In November, Alex Goldsteinaccepted a new position as the PressSecretary for Governor Patrick’sExecutive Office of Labor andWorkforce Development. And, DavidKenner recently returned from twoyears in Lebanon, where he workedas a journalist for Now Lebanon andworked on a master’s at the AmericanUniversity of Beirut. His is now livingin Washington D.C., writing forForeign Policy magazine while finishinghis master’s thesis. Since graduatingfrom Yale, Rebekah Emanuel hasbeen pursuing answers to these twoquestions: What are the determinantsthat drive an injured party down aconstructive versus a destructive path?How can communities, laws, and insti-tutions help? She has studied in theMiddle East and Uganda, and willspend 2009-10 in Ireland on a GeorgeMitchell fellowship. In Ireland, shewants to explore: What can humanrights law teach us about creating andadjudicating processes that limit vio-


Top to bottom: Jessica Whitman ’00 andSpencer Bush-Brown ’00; Merrill Hawkins ’96,Kathrene Tiffany ’96, Rich Knapp ’90 and JeffTulman ’90; Sarah Shoukimas, Sarah Conway,and Fred Warburg – all ’97

Top to bottom: 1998 classmates Meg Lloyd,Eliza Drachman-Jones, Matt Krouner, and SarahSwett; Carlos Castillo’07, Sarah Swett’98, andfriend; Alex Lutch ’02 and Nia Lutch ’97

more AP exams as a senior at theCommonwealth School.

2005Class RepresentativesLily [email protected]

Ashley [email protected]

Sabrina Lee, Olamide Oladipo, andGordie Sayre all graduated cum laudefrom Milton last spring. Sabrina, asHead Monitor, received the James S.Willis Memorial Award. Gordiereceived The Performing Arts Award,and Olamide was awarded TheGorham Palfrey Faucon Prize “fordemonstrated interest and outstandingachievement in history and socialscience.” We read in the Brookline TABlast fall that Simon Reale qualifiedfor the AP Scholar with DistinctionAward, earning an average grade of atleast 3.5 (out of a possible 5) on allexams taken and grades of 3 orhigher on five or more exams takenSpring 2008 as a senior at Nobles.Congratulations to everyone!

2006Class RepresentativeMcCall [email protected]

2007Class RepresentativesThomas [email protected]

Ben [email protected]

across the street from Sara’o Bery.Occasionally she also runs into JesseCoburn and Alejandro Alvarado.

2003Class RepresentativeDiana [email protected]

At Spelman College, Rachel Redd isa theater major.

2004Class RepresentativesSteven [email protected]

Molly [email protected]

Jared Walske qualified for the APScholar Award, earning an averagegrade of at least three on three or

Congratulations to Rebekah Emanuel’99 on being awarded a GeorgeMitchell fellowship for 2009–10.

Fay Rotenberg ’00, Camilla Hammer ’03, Jay Manzi ’02, and Lee Rotenberg’02


On “Mountain Day” in September, Cushing Academy students Louisa Carroll ’07(left) and Colin Redd ’07 (second from right) posed on top of Mt. Monadnockwith other friends.

lence? What can transitional-justice-structures do to create empoweringoutlets for grief? What can socialanthropology teach us about how rit-ual, relationship, and communityguide people scarred by tragedy?Rebekah explains, Ireland “is anisland that has endured muchtragedy, and many have had to figureout what to do with grief. It is anisland where the same generation thathas seen active conflict is making thetransition to a thriving new set offutures.” Congratulations from all ofyour friends at Park!

2000Class RepresentativeJessica [email protected]

We saw Sara Redd and her dad atthe Alumni Clambake in the fall. Sarahas been teaching tennis and washeading off to business school atSimmons this January.

2001Class RepresentativesDiego [email protected]

Ben [email protected]

Lenny Dosoretz is working inProvidence for the Attorney General.You can find Julia Rosenthal work-ing in New York City as a sales andmarketing assistant for MoltonBrown, a luxury skincare company.Rebecca Spiro writes “I am currentlya senior at Bowdoin College majoringin visual arts and art history andminoring in Spanish. I am not sure

where I will be or what I will bedoing next year, but teaching is alikely possibility. At Bowdoin, I am afreshman proctor, museum docent,senior interviewer for the admissionsoffice, and an active member of theouting club.” Rebecca also writes thatshe recently saw former classmateand close friend, Caitlin Dick, at theClayroom in Brookline, where wecaught up on life and painted pottery.“Unfortunately, since Caitlin and Itook a year off after high school,many of our classmates aren’taround, because they are working!We feel lucky to have one moreopportunity to relax before enteringinto the real world, and we are grate-ful to our classmates for providing apreview of what is to come. So whileI miss the good old days, I look for-ward to the future.”

2002Class RepresentativeAlex [email protected]

“I’m heading off to New Orleansafter graduation to participate in theTeach for America program,” reportsAlex Lebow. “I spent New Yearswith fellow Park classmates MattWeinberg, Sam Hawkins,Alejandro Alvarado, Molly Boskeyand Amy Kurzweil.” We hear that“Julia Spiro is in the English honorsprogram at Harvard and is planningon writing a thesis next year. Sheserves as the associate editor for theCrimson’s weekly magazine, FifteenMinutes, and also serves as a studentdocent at the Harvard Art Museum.”At Wesleyan, Meg Weisman is busywriting her senior creative writingthesis, singing a cappella, and living

Young AlumniBagel BreakfastDecember 13, 2008

Dozens of young alumni from theclasses of 2005–2009 crowded into thedining room on the morning of YuleFestival to reconnect with classmatesand reminisce with Park teachers.

Clockwise from top: 1. Emily Bloch and Johnny Murchison, both ’09;2. Eliza Cover ’09, Emily Meltzer ’08, Kendall MacRae ’08; 3. AlexJundanian ’07 and Jacob Aduama ’07; 4. Rebecca MacRae ’06, MonicaStadeker ’06 and Steve Kellogg; 5. Peter Boskey ’05 and Clara Dennis ’05;6. Augusta Winthrop ’09, Evan Joy McLaurin ’09, and Astrid Pacini ’09;7. Manizeh Afridi ’08 and Jacob Aduama ’07; 8. 2007 ClassmatesThomas Cope, Alex Jundanian, David Haviland, Ben Lampert, Brae Cabot,and Elyssa Carlson

3

2

4

5

6

7

8


1

Aisha Yasin ’90 married LawrenceIrving Celester in August.

2008Class RepresentativesManizeh [email protected]

Marielle [email protected]

As an eighth grader, Trace Smithspent four months away from Noblesto live and train at the one of themost rigorous ski academies in thecountry. At a severe disadvantage asonly a weekend skier, Trace placed14th at the Junior Olympics in springof 07. He has trained in Chile numer-ous times, in Panorama, Canada, andMt. Hood Oregon and raced allover east of the Mississippi. He owns12 pairs of skis for the differentevents, has raced as fast as 60 mphand gotten frostbite on his feet. Wow!

2010Park students at the Roxbury LatinSchool include Nick Spinale, whowas elected president of his 8th gradeclass, and Khalif Mitchell, whosends his warm regards.

2011Tenzin Thargay was electedpresident of his 7th grade class atRoxbury Latin.

Ryan Andrew Blute


Lawrence Perera ’93 married Lynne Duquette on March 20, 2008 in Taos, New Mexico. Park alums in attendance werePerera sisters Alice Lucey ’77, Lucy Adams ’84, and Caroline Barry ’79 as well as Alice’s sons and alums-to-be HenryLucey ’09 and George Lucey ’11 (not pictured here).

Former Faculty NewsJeff and Rebecca Abrams (currentGrade I teacher) welcomed their newson Samuel Mitchell Abrams onJanuary 23, 2009. “Weekly conversa-tion keeps some of the rust off myability to speak French,” reports for-mer French teacher Lise Aubry. “My‘Painting with Spirit’ class makesMondays very special days and twobook groups keep me reading, one oflife’s greatest joys!” Matt and ErinKelly Blute (Director of AnnualGiving 2005-06) welcomed son RyanAndrew Blute on November 4, 2008.Erin writes, “It seems people allacross the country are referringto Ryan’s birth day as “historic,” so Iguess we’re not the only ones whothink he’s special!” Former librarian

Weddings1990Aisha Yasin and Lawrence IrvingCelester, Jr.August 31, 2008

1993Lynne Duquette and LawrencePerera ’93March 20, 2008

Arrivals1974Henry Chin and Tina McVeighJames (Jamie) Higginson Mon-Tsi ChinJune 20, 2008

1983Craig Eastland and Juliet SilerEastlandElla EastlandJuly 28, 2009

1984Oliver and Tara Albright RobinsonAnders Hazard RobinsonSeptember 3, 2008

Anders Hazard Robinson, son of TaraAlbright Robinson ’84

Rusty True Browder writes, “I con-tinue to love my role as K-8 librarianat the Lawrence School in Brookline.And what a pleasure to welcomePark librarians Dorothea Black andChristian Porter as they exploreoptions for Park’s gorgeous newlibrary!” Former Assistant Head ofSchoolWanda Holland Greenesends word that “Robert, David,Jonathan, and I are happily settled inSan Francisco. The weather is gor-geous, but a bit cold in the summer,and the city itself is filled with diverseneighborhoods and incredible people.Being the head of The HamlinSchool is everything I hoped it wouldbe. Lots of love to all my Park fam-ily.” (Read Wanda’s reflections on her tripto Washington in January for thepresidential inauguration on page 47.)Mary Jo Neish, who completed herstudent teaching requirement at Parkduring her senior year at Wheelockwrote with memories and news: “Ihad a really harsh master teacherwith my senior year experience so itwas really a windfall that Wheelockhad two experiences andI landed at Park and a great situationin the nursery school. I live in adarling cabin in the Santa CruzMountains in California. I had my70th birthday in September and amlooking into senior apartments inPortland near my daughter SarahKate because I have taken a few spillshere. I wish the entire Park family ahappy and healthy new year!”

Caleb Winder and PhoebeGallagher WinderCharlie WinderJune 21, 2008

1985Ellen Crowley-Koltun andJoe KoltunGabriella Adele KoltunSeptember 7, 2008

Amanda and Abbott LawrenceEstelle Prescott LawrenceNovember 8, 2008

1986Amy and Peter BarkanLila Rose BarkanAugust 19, 2008

1991Mina and Jim O’KeefeKaylee O’KeefeJanuary 8, 2009

Ogden Phipps and Ashley DoddPhippsOgden Mills Phipps IIAugust 12, 2008

1992Adrienne De VaughanJoshua Davis De Vaughn andJosiah David De VaughnNovember 23, 2008

1997Justin Ouellet and Liz Grote OuelletDylan Justin OuelletJanuary 5, 2009

Jamie Higginson Mon-Tsi Chin, son of Tina McVeigh ’74,pictured here with big sister, Lizzie.

Ashley Dodd Phipps ’91 sent us this photo of her children,Harper and Ogden.

Gabriella Adele Koltun, daughter ofJoe Koltun ’85

Adrienne DeVaughn ’92 sent in this great photo of her twinsJosiah and Joshua.

Dylan Justin Ouellet, son of Liz Grote Ouellet ’97

In MemoriamJean Mallory Childs ’45January 12, 2009

Elvira GrowdonJanuary 22, 2009Parents’ Association President(1980-1982)Mother of Allegra GrowdonRichdale ’83 and Whit Growdon ’91

Theodore C. Haffenreffer, Jr.December 27, 2008Father of Beth Haffenreffer Scholle ’74Grandfather of Liza Scholle ’10

Marjorie LeMayNovember 27, 2008Mother of Tamsin Knox ’70 andEugene Knox ’71Grandmother of Brendan Yucel ’10,Simon Yucel ’10, and MorganYucel ’08

J. Daniel NyhartDecember 6, 2008Trustee 1963-1974Father of Nicholas Nyhart ’70,Lynn Nyhart ’72, and AndrewNyhart ’76

Anne Wight Phillips’31February 12, 2009Mother of Asa Phillips ’72 andAnne Phillips Ogilby ’73

Erdna M. Reggio Rogers ’31February 8, 2009Sister of Nicholas Reggio ’40

Robert Morse Sturgis ’53February 13, 2009

Roger SonnabendDecember 7, 2008Father of Andrea Sonnabend ’66,Stephanie Sonnabend ’68,Jacqueline Sonnabend ’69, andAlan Sonnabend ’72

Ellen Simonds Stout ’41December 23, 2008Mother of William Stout ’70 andEllen Lee Stout ’72Sister of Amy Simonds Naimi ’49Aunt of Timothy Naimi ’79,Susan Naimi DiGiovanni ’80, andCameron Naimi ’84

Lydia XypterasNovember 29, 2008Park School Chef 1969-1972

Teresa WayeJanuary 1, 2009Mother of Alex Waye ’10 andNathaniel Waye ’18



Ms. Holland Greene Goes to Washington

Wanda M. Holland Greene, Head of the Hamlin School in

San Francisco, was a beloved figure at Park from 1997–2008.

She wrote this essay for the Hamlin School community upon her

return from the presidential inauguration in January, and wanted

to share it with her Park School friends, as well.

father is Kenyan, and his mother is from

Kansas. A white woman gave birth to

him and raised him for some time in a

home with her white parents. So why do

you in America call him black?” Robert

and I began discussing with him and with

each other the “one-drop rule,” its roots

in slavery and segregation, and its impli-

cations for how people have defined race

in America. We explained that the “one-

drop rule” was a historical term that

meant that anyone with a trace of

African ancestry in America was consid-

ered black and therefore denied rights

and privileges. Our cab driver looked per-

plexed and saddened. There was no time

to finish the conversation.

At the art show, Robert and I

stopped in our tracks to gaze at a power-

ful painting that visualized the “one-drop

rule.” Barack Obama’s face stared out at

the viewer, and there was a medicine

dropper above his head from which

dripped blood, darkening the top half of

his face and leaving the bottom half pale.

In an ironic twist of fate, has the oppres-

sive “one-drop rule” been turned on its

head such that we now celebrate a mul-

tiracial man as the first black president?

Four weeks later, the cab driver’s ques-

tions are still exploding in my head.

My time in the cab and at the art

show reminded me of an excerpt from

Langston Hughes’ autobiography, The Big

Sea, where he stated: “You see, unfortu-

nately, I am not black. There are lots of

different kinds of blood in our family. But

here in the United States, the word

‘Negro’ is used to mean anyone who has

any Negro blood at all in his veins. In

Africa, the word is more pure. It means

all Negro, therefore black. I am brown.”

For certain, the issues of racial and cul-

tural identity are deep and complex, and

they are incredibly important and relevant

at Hamlin, our extraordinary school that

boasts a range of fabulous individuals

and families, many of whom are bilin-

gual, international, multiracial, and multi-

faith. How do we describe and talk about

ourselves and each other? Can we cele-

brate the beauty of our skin tones and

explore our souls beneath? Shall we join

together, boldly examining our biases,

and build the inclusive community we

t is February 20, and it has taken

me exactly one month to thaw

from the bone-chilling cold of

Washington, D.C. and to fully process the

experience of attending the 56th

Inauguration of the 44th President and

Vice-President of the United States of

America. Throughout the past four

weeks, I have often caught myself think-

ing about my three days in our nation’s

capital; each reverie is filled with the

magic and meaning of history — my own

and that of this country. I was born and

have given birth during the nervous

excitement of presidential election years

—1968, 2004, and 2008 respectively—

and President Obama was elected on

November 4, my late father’s birthday.

(Oh, how James David Holland, born and

raised in the Jim Crow South, would have

beamed with pride as he cast his vote for

an African-American man.) My memories

of being in Washington are mainly jubi-

lant, a few troubling, and others remain

floating and uncategorized. I have chosen

to capture in words four distinct memo-

ries—each one a bold and relentless

thought that keeps coming up for air,

refusing to drown in the rapid swirl of my

life. It has become increasingly clear to

me that I must rescue these ideas, savor

the details, and keep them close. Casting

these essential memories into a sea of

forgetfulness would be unwise and

ungrateful; this written reflection, there-

fore, is my very own “Washington monu-

ment” that will give history and memory

permanence.

The Dearly Departing

It is Sunday night, January 18. Our bags

are packed, and we have unearthed our

East Coast winter gear from the still-

packed boxes on the second floor. Robert

and I are ready to leave our sons for the

first time in their lives. David and

Jonathan have always risen in the morn-

ing to find one or both of their parents at

home, but Robert and I have decided

that we must both head to Washington,

D.C. to witness history being made.

Thanks to Senator Feinstein, a former

Hamlin parent and grandparent, we have

two seated tickets for the swearing-in

ceremony.

Hair!

It is Monday, January 19. Washington is

humming with the optimism and activity

of American citizens, and there is

Obamaparaphernalia everywhere. I

chuckle as people are lining up to take

pictures next to a life-size cardboard

cutout of the President-elect. Robert and

I hail a taxi to the Hart Office Building to

pick up the tickets from Senator

Feinstein’s office. As we step off of the

elevator, I exclaim, “I know that hair!”

Robert gives me a confused look. I

quicken my step and peer into a nearby

office, which happens to belong to a sen-

ator of Louisiana. Sure enough—I’m

right. The hair never lies. Standing before

me for the second time in the past two

months is RUBY BRIDGES. I say, “Hi,

Ruby!” (as if I’ve known her for years),

and I introduce her to Robert. She replies

with a smile, “Hi, Wanda!” I want to

melt because she remembers my name.

We talk only for a short time because she

needs to head across town for a book

signing, and I say goodbye after thanking

her again for such a wonderful and

inspiring visit to Hamlin in early

December. How poignant it was to see

how far the country has come— that lit-

tle African-American girl in Norman

Rockwell’s 1964 painting (“The Problem

We All Live With”) who faced angry and

villainous mobs as she walked into

Louisiana’s William Franz Elementary

School grew up to see an African-

American elected to the highest office in

the land.

Kenyan Cab Driver

It is Monday, January 19, about 2pm, and

Robert and I are headed to an Obama art

show on M Street in Georgetown. A gra-

cious cab driver (who backed up on a

one-way street to pick us up) greeted us

with a great smile and immediately

engaged us in conversation. He told us

about how difficult it was to drive

through the city with all of the street

closings, how he would make only a cou-

ple hundred extra dollars that week, and

how glad he would be when the city

resumed normal operations. Then he

said, “I am from Kenya. Barack Obama’s

I

talk about? Will we work diligently to

breathe life into our creed each day so

that every child benefits from a school

that values honesty, responsibility, respect,

care, and positive thinking?

The Sandwich, the Diaper, andthe Bottle

It is Tuesday, January 20. The peaceful

transfer of power has taken place, and it

is time to make our way back to our

friend’s home where we are staying. There

is an enormous throng of people blocking

the entrance and escalator down to the

Metro station, so Robert and I decide to

walk. As we lock hands and move away

from the crowd, I glance at the piles and

piles of garbage strewn everywhere.

Trashcans are overflowing with all kinds of

refuse, and I see a half-eaten sandwich, a

dirty diaper, and an empty Aquafina bot-

tle sitting on top of one receptacle. I have

a quick flashback to childhood when I

used to watch a commercial where a

Native American man cried one tear

because the beach was covered with litter

and someone threw garbage out of a car

window. I felt troubled by the sight of the

three items, which should not have been

in the same trashcan, and I felt like a true

California resident! For the past eight

months, I have worked in a school where

composting and recycling are second

nature to the adults and children, where

Lower School girls are adept at bringing in

a snack that doesn’t create trash, and

where Middle School girls are ecstatic

about a competition to save energy and

prevent climate change. With all the plan-

ning that went into the inaugural events, I

still can’t figure out why there weren’t

twice as many trash cans, and some blue

bins for recycling all of those water bottles

and soda cans. I also wonder whose job it

was to clean up America’s mess, how long

it took, and how much it cost.

Whether one is a head of school or

the President of the United States, leader-

ship is a lofty and sacred responsibility. We

are charged with serving people to the

best of our ability, protecting them from

hurt and danger, and helping them to live

their best lives. I loved returning home to

kiss my sons and to lead Hamlin, and I will

continue to embrace the important tasks

before me with intelligence, enthusiasm,

humility, joy, and courage. In the words of

President Obama, “Let it be said by our

children’s children that when we were

tested we refused to let this journey end,

that we did not turn back nor did we fal-

ter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon

and God’s grace upon us, we carried forth

that great gift of freedom and delivered it

safely to future generations.”

My dad would have said, “Amen to that.”

SUMMARY OF THE OBJECTIVES OFFoundations for the Future

Uses of Funds

Faculty $ 4,000,000

Facilities $16,000,000

Financial Aid $ 4,000,000

Total $24,000,000

Sources of Funds

Foundations for the Future $15,000,000

Tax-Exempt Bond Financing $ 9,000,000*

Total $24,000,000

* Park secured $9 million of 4.88% fixed-rate 30-year bonds. The bondsare interest-only for the first ten years, have virtually no covenants, andcan be prepaid at any time without penalty.

Foundations for the Future capital campaign —Forging Ahead, Because We Must!

bout three years ago, Park received its firstpledge for our $15 million Foundations for the

Future capital campaign. Since then, we have raised $11.9million in gifts from the community and $9 millionfrom tax-exempt bonds, built a new wing for GradesIV-V, renovated classrooms for Grades I-III, andwatched the global economy fall into a tailspin. Indeed,much has changed at Park and in the world since 2006.But today, Park’s mission-driven goal remains the same:to raise $15 million to ensure deep economic diversity inthe student body and to sustain our leadership amongpeer schools in our ability to attract and retain the finestteachers. The troubling economic climate only makesour goals more urgent; Park must raise the remaining$3.1 million over the coming year to sustain the distinc-tive qualities of our school community.

We see a path to achieving the goal, and it goes

through you.

Over the last several months, we have seen several indi-cators that Park can count on its community to continueto support the School through these troubled times.For example, as of this writing, our Annual Fund hasreached 90% of its $1.4 million goal, with four monthsto go until the end of our fiscal year. In October, ananonymous alum offered to give Park $500,000 for theCampaign if we can raise $500,000 in new pledgesfrom alumni, and we have already received $250,000—half of the target amount! All winter and spring,parents, alumni, and past parents have met with admin-istrators and development volunteers to discuss sup-porting our capital campaign. And, despite how theeconomic downturn has affected their own accounts,people are giving.

Of course, these examples buoy the efforts of ourstaff and multitude of volunteers. But in the end, wewill need the support of everyone reading this Bulletin inorder to reach our $15 million goal and assure Park’sshort and long-term strength. Please consider makingyour own gift at a level commensurate with your love forPark and your ability to contribute. A gift to Park—especially in 2009—makes a dramatic impact in thelives of students.

A


n the day after the Campaign Kickoff

in October, a Park School alum (who

wishes to remain anonymous) contacted the

School with an exciting proposition. If, by

December 31, 2009, Park can raise $500,000

in “new pledges” from alumni for the

Foundations for the Future capital campaign,

this alum will make an additional gift of

$500,000.

The timing of this challenge could not

be better. As we strive to complete our

ambitious capital campaign focused on faculty

compensation, financial aid, and enhanced

spaces for teaching and learning, alumni

support is critical. It is the donor’s hope that

this challenge will inspire alumni to make a

tangible impact at Park at a time when, more

than ever, the School needs the support of

its alumni.

The “rules” of this challenge are simple:

• Pledges must be made between October8, 2008 and December 31, 2009, and giftsmay be paid over a multi-year period.

• Every capital pledge that is eitherunrestricted or restricted to one of thecampaign’s objectives will count towardsthe challenge.

• Because of the critical importance ofPark’s Annual Fund, we request thatalumni who are regular donors to theAnnual Fund give to the Annual Fundfirst, and support the Alumni Challengewith an additional pledge.

• Park must raise the entire $500,000amount (in pledges) in order to receivethe $500,000 challenge gift. A lesseramount raised will not be matched.

The entire Park School community is deeply

grateful to the alum who dreamed up and

offered this challenge, as well as to the many

“early” donors who have already contributed

half of the $500,000 goal! We will reach out

to all alumni in 2009 to ask for help in raising

the remaining $250,000. Please consider giv-

ing as generously as you possibly can! To learn

more or to make a pledge or gift now, please

contact Rob Crawford in the Development

Office (email [email protected]

or call 617-274-6020).

O

Park School Alumni, Consider Yourselves Challenged!

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spring bulletin 2009

Documents

original square

alumni committee

carneyassistant head

harmonassistant head

triangles carina

head of schooltheres

cochairjohn barkan

alumni notes48 foundations