holderness school today: winter 2010

TODAY

AND ACCESS FOR ALLBishop Niles dreamed of an excellent school that wasnot exclusive. Today that dream looms even larger.

HOLDERNESS SCHOOLINSIDE:

Fiston Kahindo ’03 & financial aid

Catching up with Pete Barnum

Alumni newsmakers

Winter 2010

A mild southerly breeze inOctober leaves the Bulllooking off towards LittleSquam atop the belltoweron Weld Hall. Photo by SteveSolberg.

Front Cover: Beneath aspreading maple, studentsrepair from the Chapel tothe Schoolhouse on aMonday morning inDecember. Photo by SteveSolberg.

Back cover: Weld Hall canseem a long way off whenit’s dark and the snow isflying. Photo by Phil Peck.

Nelson Armstrong (Secretary)

Frank Bonsal III ’82

F. Christopher Carney ’75

(Alumni Association President)

Russell Cushman ’80

The Rev. Randolph Dales

Nigel D. Furlonge

Douglas H. Griswold ’66

James B. Hamblin II ’77 (Treasurer)

Pearl Kane

Peter K. Kimball ’72

Peter L. Macdonald ’60

Paul Martini

Richard Nesbitt

Peter Nordblom

Wilhelm Northrop ’88 (Vice-Chairperson)

R. Phillip Peck

Tamar Pichette

William L. Prickett ’81 (Chairperson)

Jake Reynolds ’86

The Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson (President)

Ian Sanderson ’79

Jennifer A. Seeman ’88

John A. Straus

Rose-Marie van Otterloo

Ellyn Weisel ’86

Headmaster Emeritus

The Rev. Brinton W. Woodward, Jr.

Honorary Trustees

Warren C. Cook

Mayland H. Morse, Jr. ’38

Piper Orton ’74

W. Dexter Paine III ’79

The Rt. Rev. Philip A. Smith

Gary A. Spiess

The Rt. Rev. Douglas Theuner

Editor: Rick CareyEditor Emeritus: Jim Brewer

Assistant Editors: Dee Black Rainville,Robert Caldwell, Jane McNulty, PhilPeck, Judith Solberg, Steve Solberg, Jo-Anne Strickland, Tracy White, AmyWoods

Photography: Steve Solberg, Art Durity,Rick Carey, Phil Peck

HST is printed on recycled paper threetimes each year by the SpringfieldPrinting Corporation. Please send noticeof address changes to Jo-AnneStrickland, Alumni Office, HoldernessSchool, P.O. Box 1879, Plymouth, NH03264, or [email protected] may also be contacted at 603-779-5220.

Holderness School TodayVolume XXVII, No. 2

Features

4 And access for allFounder Bishop Niles wanted Holderness to be affordable

even to clergymen’s children. Rector Edric Weld found that

the school could not be both that and solvent. Today, in

place of “affordable,” write “accessible.” And then dream

as big as you dare.

12 Out of nowhereFiston Kahindo ’03 seemed destined to be yet another

Central African whose promise was blighted by life in

refugee camps. Instead he was given a chance to attend

Holderness, and now he’s using that promise on behalf of

others.

14 Long-term rewardsPete Barnum was the school’s Director of Admissions for

25 years and the originator of that office’s “Volkswagen”

philosophy. Now he’s the Director of Leadership Giving,

and still helping to ensure that the same sort of kids have

access to Holderness.

Holderness SchoolBoard of Trustees

HoldernessSchool Today

Departments

2 From the Schoolhouse

3 Stopping by Woods

17 Honor Roll

18 Around the Quad

27 Sports

30 Update: Faculty & Staff

32 Update: Former Faculty

33 Alumni Relations

34 Advancement & External Affairs

35 Alumni in the News

44 At This Point in Time

Y

2 Holderness School Today

SchoolhouseFrom the

YESTERDAY I RECEIVED a wonderful

email from an alumnus who attends one of

our country’s finest liberal arts colleges. He

reported that he had made the Dean’s list,

was the assistant men’s basketball coach, and

had been elected vice-president of his class.

Last week I received a photo from an alumna

who is one of the top college athletes in the

country in her sport, is excelling at an intel-

lectually powerful university, and is reaching

out to the community in many ways to serve

others.

Both emails were a reminder to me that

our graduates truly do live up to the mission

of our school:

Within the context of a caring community,

Holderness School fosters equally the

resources of the mind, body, and spirit in

each student, instilling in all the resolve to

work for the betterment of humankind

and God’s creation.

While we admire the excellence and

accomplishments of these two students, I am

reminded of a way of going about that mis-

sion, of building that community, that has

deep roots in Holderness history. Both the

above alumni benefitted from the vision of

our founder, Bishop W.W. Niles, who in 1879

stated that our school’s goal was to “combine

the highest degree of excellence in instruc-

tion and care taking with the lowest possible

charge for tuition and board…”

Today we clearly achieve that goal of

“the lowest possible charge” in a very differ-

ent way than we did for the first 75 years of

our school’s history. Strictly speaking, we are

no longer affordable, but we work hard to be

the most accessible school possible.

In this HST you’ll read how we have

applied ourselves to filling our school with

students who align with our mission’s high

calling, regardless of a family’s ability to pay.

The ways in which we did that 130 years

ago, 75 years ago, and in recent years are all

very different. This issue contains inspiring

stories about some of the people who worked

hard to find those students and make

Holderness possible for them; and also of

those students themselves, who left

Holderness to carry out the balance of that

mission.

The story of Holderness and its determi-

nation to be accessible continues to be one of

good news. Paradoxically, while we become

increasingly expensive, we have also become

increasingly accessible, doubling the number

of students on financial aid to over 40% of

the student body in recent years.

It will always take a lot of hard work for

Holderness to continue to answer to both our

mission and the vision of Bishop Niles. That

said, I hope you find this HST a reminder of

our commitment to making the Holderness

experience a reality for as many qualified

students as possible. That’s the first thing that

this community cares about. �

By Phil Peck

Head of School

Paradoxically, while we

become increasingly

expensive, we have also

become increasingly

accessible, doubling the

number of students on

financial aid.

Holderness School Today 3

Stopping By Woods by Rick Carey

AT 96 PAGES, THE FALL issue of Holderness School

Today was the longest we’ve ever published. That

was due to a combination of things. We publish

class notes every other issue, and that happened to

be a class notes issue, and a rich one at that, with

26 pages of news by and from our alumni.

That coincided with our annual fall Report of Appreciation.

This is our formal thank-you to all the people who gave to

Holderness over the previous fiscal year, and this 22-page report

was a particularly happy and important one. With the recession

having taken a big bite out of the school’s endowment, we were

blessed not only to see the Annual Fund exceed $1 million for

the first time in its history, but to see ten percent of the gifts to

the Annual Fund come from first-time donors. What’s more, an

additional seventy percent of donors increased or sustained their

level of commitment. That’s terrific in a year in which philan-

thropic giving declined sharply throughout the nation.

Then we had our usual raft of school news to report, with

Commencement and Reunion thrown in besides. The challenge

in the Communications and Development offices was to keep it

all under 100 pages, at which point we’d likely need to step up

to a more expensive sort of binding. We squeezed it all in under

that, but just barely.

So that was the good news. The bad news was that in

preparing, assembling, proofing, and printing an unusually big

issue in the usual amount of time, mistakes were made. In our

feature pages, we make a habit of listing—and so providing pub-

lic recognition to—all students awarded prizes and honors at

Commencement. Of course that includes students named to the

Cum Laude Society, but this time, as I laid out those pages, I

simply and somehow forgot about that particular

honor, and I never noticed its omission in proofing the

pages later. I apologize to all the students and families

included in that omission, and (better late than never)

you can find that list now on this page.

In the Report of Appreciation, we like to provide

thanks and public recognition to members of the True

Blue Society—i.e.,

people who have five

or more years of con-

secutive giving to the

school at whatever

level. The names of

these faithful donors

were followed by

Holderness Bull logos

in the document that

we sent to the printer.

But the Bulls dis-

appeared entirely from

certain pages during the printing process. Our friends at

Springfield Printing are still at a loss in understanding how this

happened, but they have agreed to reprint at no expense to us the

ten pages of that report affected by that error. Those pages

appear again in this issue, this time with a complete set of Bulls.

Finally, we were guilty of an incomplete photo caption in

the class note pages. We noted that Finnegan, the son of Karrie

Stevens Thomas ’93, was also the grandson of Brooke

Thomas ’58. We should have mentioned as well that

Finnegan’s other grandparents happen to be Dick

Stevens, the school’s Plant Manager, now in his 38th

year of service to Holderness, and School Store

Manager Gail Stevens. We regret the error, but we’re

glad of the opportunity to print an updated photo of

Finnegan, courtesy of the

Stevenses.

I guess I’m still waiting for the

perfect HST, and probably always

will. As long as this is a human

enterprise, even repeated applica-

tions of spell-check won’t clear out

the last bits of static. We just hope

that our errors don’t cheat people

out of honors or affiliations that

they’ve earned, and we offer heart-

felt apologies to those who endured

such in our last issue. �

Inducted in their junior year:William BohonnonBenjamin MagnanTenley August MalmquistJacob Bradshaw ManoukianJames Randall MathewsSophia Isabelle Schwartz

New members of the Class of ’09:Isabelle Lane CurranElena Crawford HayssenMeghan Ann McNultyDavid C. MorganKelsey Anne MullerMeredith Tracy PeckAllison Bennett Robbins

New members of the Class of ’10:Abigail Jane AlexanderChristopher William BradburyHyun Jung ChungSarah Rogers ClarksonMary Jo GermanosErika M. JohnsonMireille Cécile PichetteSarah Ashby SussmanLaura Olivia Pohl

Ten pages of the fall’sReport of Apprecationsuffered from a printer’serror. Those pages arereprinted in this issue.

The grandparents ofyoung FinneganThomas include long-time school staffersDick and GailStevens. We shouldhave mentioned that.

Cum

Laude

Society

2009

The fall ’09 issue of HST wasn’t perfect.Actually, far from it.

“I


And

Access

For

All

Towards the end of histenure as Holderness Schoolrector in the 1940s, EdricWeld was disappointed thathe had not succeeded inmaking the school bothaffordable and sustainable.

Now the school’s leadershipis entertaining that dreamonce again, but this time theemphasis is on a different“a”-word, one that promis-es that anybody admitted toHolderness will be able tocome, regardless of income,family resources, or whatsort of car is in the garage.

By Rick Carey

“I WANT TO SHOW you two sides of a coin,”

wrote The Rev. Edric Weld in his 1947 year-

end report to the Board of Trustees. “On one

side are a group of a dozen men, with a teach-

ing experience ranging from twenty-five years

at one end to two who are beginners….”

He continues, praising his faculty. Then he considers their

students, who come from fourteen states and a wide variety of

backgrounds. “Eleven are sons of clergymen, others are chil-

dren of teachers, doctors, social service executives, engineers,

artists, corporate executives, widows. A few are from separated

families, but not as many as you might think. They are of

almost every creed, but not of every color. What binds them

together is the fact that each is judged for himself and not

because of family background. While there is a wide range of

income and scale of living, we are fortunate not to have any of

the ‘super-sophisticates’ who can be a school’s worst

headache.”


The Rev.Edric Weld,Headmaster1931-1951

He summarizes that side of the coin by observing

that “we have a first-class group of teachers, a likeable

and sound group of boys, an excellent location, and

some fine buildings.”

But on the other side, Weld writes, was “the state-

ment of the auditor, showing a substantial deficit.”

Costs had risen sharply during the war, and he accuses

himself of wishful thinking in his financial planning: “I

paid in deficits and some of the faculty paid in inade-

quate salaries. At least the boys didn’t have to pay in a

shortage of food.”

He reminds the trustees that Holderness “was

founded to run on a simpler scale and provide less

expensive education” than other schools of the time.

That meant charging tuition at rates 15-20 percent lower

than theirs. But at that price Holderness only survived

because recurrent deficits were made good out of Edric

and his wife Gertrude’s own pockets.

“What are we going to do about it?” Weld asks. “I

must repeat some of the things I said last year.” There

are only way three ways to keep a lower-priced school

in the black, he says. The school must either employ

“lower-priced inexperienced teachers”; or it must lay off

some teachers, have bigger classes, and cut such non-

academic programs as music, art, and shop (“which are

essential to education for many boys,” he writes); or

“eliminate all scholarships as fast as scholarship holders

graduate.”

Weld rejected the first two of the above options

“for obvious reasons,” he wrote. Regarding the third:

“Only through scholarships can we make the school

available to at least a few people of lesser income . . . .

Taken as a whole, students with scholarships or grants

have strengthened this school greatly, and other schools

say the same.”

Weld’s solution? “As a long-range policy, there-

fore, I see no alternative but to approach the standard

tuition and not attempt to maintain a rate two or three

hundred dollars lower.”

The trustees agreed, but not immediately. Edric

and Gertrude would spend four more years sponging

away red ink with their own money until their retire-

ment in 1951. The new head, Don Hagerman, was not

so wealthy as the Welds. Over the next decade the

school maintained its strong faculty, its small class

sizes, its various programs—and its scholarship aid.

And quietly, incrementally, year by year, the school’s

fees approached “the standard tuition.”

Today, for the 2009-10 school year, the cost of

tuition, room, and board at Holderness is $42,675, a

sticker price that puts Holderness $3,000 below the

median of fees at its competitor schools, and makes it

the second least expensive. Good, but that’s still an

awful lot of money. Don Hagerman used to say that the

price of an independent school education should be

about the same as that of a Ford station wagon.

Nowadays make that a Lexus GS-10 sedan. But today’s

standard tuition reflects the hard facts of today’s costs in

salaries, benefits, insurance, program support, fuel, and

building maintenance.

And what about the clergymen, teachers, and

social workers whose children came to the Holderness of

Edric Weld, parents who didn’t drive Cadillacs then and

aren’t driving Lexuses now? In 1947 their children,

those students, were judged for themselves, and not for

their family vehicles.

That was when Holderness defined itself, for better

or worse, as affordable to the middle class. Today, in the

strict sense of the term, Holderness can no longer make

that claim.

THIS SITUATION didn’t exactly

sneak up on the school. It was fore-

seen by both Weld and Don

Hagerman, and grappled with by

both Pete Woodward (headmaster,

1977-2001) and Phil Peck. In

December Phil arranged for a con-

versation on the subject, gathering in

his office Director of Advancement

and External Affairs Robert

Caldwell, Director of Admission

Tyler Lewis, Business Manager Pete

Hendel, and—on conference

phone—trustee Peter Kimball ’72,

Executive Director of Gift Planning

at Harvard University.

Peter Kimball began with an anecdote. During a

recent staff meeting in his office, Kathleen Blauvelt

Kime ’99—also a member of the development staff at

Harvard—happened to describe her Out Back experience

at Holderness, saying what a positive turning point it had

been in her life. “It was called Outward Bound when I

was a student at Holderness, and it was a turning point

for me as well,” Peter said. “But a funny thing happened

the day after my conversation with Kathleen—my jour-

nal from OB appeared on my desk at home. I had kept it

in a box for years, and my daughter just happened to run

across it.”

This served as a good example for Phil of how

Holderness, then and now, succeeds by virtue of its peo-

ple and the quality of its programs. “Nobody talks about

the buildings when they recall their years at Holderness,”

he said. “They talk about things like OB, and about fac-

ulty members who changed their lives.”

These also are the things that Tyler Lewis leads

with as he recruits students for admission to Holderness.

In terms of facilities . . . well, Holderness still has what

Edric Weld boasted of, “an excellent location and several

fine buildings.” But Tyler admitted that he feels at a dis-

advantage in the “facilities wars” as he competes with

other schools for top students. One New England school,

for example, has recently opened an athletic facility

whose cost is nearly equal to the aggregate value of the

entire Holderness campus.

“We have a couple buildings that can most gener-

ously be described as quaint and rustic,” he said. “Less

generously, they’re eyesores. We have no building that

really qualifies as a ‘wow’ sort of facility in this market.

Anybody who thinks that Holderness has gotten too

fancy with today’s high tuition, I encourage them to

come and visit the campus, and then compare what they

see here to what they see at our peer schools.”

Perhaps the most startling thing about that Lexus-

level tuition, though, is that it still doesn’t cover the

costs of running the school—in fact tuition pays only 72

percent of those costs. Holderness typically gets another

13 percent from endowment income, six percent from

other sources, and a critical nine percent from the

Annual Fund—which is to say, the generosity of its com-

munity, as opposed to that of Edric Weld.

“We’re part of a new paradigm for school finance,”

said Robert. “You can’t operate these schools on the

strength of tuition. The Annual Fund has become more

important than ever, sort of like an ongoing campaign. In

fact you could describe it as one leg on a three-legged

stool of tuition, endowment income, and the Annual

Fund. You need them all, and you need an overall culture

of philanthropy in the community that supports them

all.”

Edric Weld must be regarded as an icon of philan-

thropy—not just for his years of service as the school’s


Faced with a choice of either that or the school’s

brand as “a lower-priced school,” Weld reaffirmed

financial aid, and with it the role of a student body

truly representing “a wide variety of backgrounds,”

as the more essential portion of the school’s identity.

PeterKimball


Each year students who receive financial aid from an

endowment fund established by a particular individual

donor or family are encouraged to write thank you notes

to those sponsors. Below are excerpts from several such

notes.

To Mrs. Robert S. Gillette

My name is Vytas Kriskus, and I’m writing to thank you for

the opportunity which made my enrollment in the Holderness

School possible. The scholarship given in honor of Ned

Gillette has changed my life . . . . As a child of a firefighter

and a nurse, I never even dreamed about the possibility of

being able to study in the United States of America—even

more so, in such a great institution as Holderness School.

As a student at Holderness, I have always made the aca-

demic honor roll. I was elected captain of the cross-country

team this year, which led me to win the Lakes Region Cross

Country Championships. I originally thought I came to

Holderness to play basketball only. While it is still my favorite

sport, I have enjoyed myself on the football field, lacrosse

field, the running trails, and on a bicycle. . . . Out Back is defi-

nitely the best experience of my life so far, and for all this I

would like to tell you THANK YOU VERY MUCH. I cannot

tell you how much my parents and I appreciate this opportuni-

ty given me by you. . . .

Sincerely,

Vytas Kriskus ’08

To The Rt. Rev. Philip A. Smith

. . . I am a second-year junior and I love Holderness. I am a

cross-country runner, a Nordic skier, and a cyclist. I am also in

the chorus, I participate in the Green Team’s environmental

efforts, and periodically I write for the Picador, the school

newspaper.

Holderness is a perfect fit for me . . . . I was looking for a

small, athletic school with focused classes and great teachers.

. . . The people here couldn’t be nicer. It’s true that one can’t

walk on the path to the dining hall without passing someone

who says, “Hi.” . . .

The community here is infectious. Everyone is friendly

and accepting. Contrary to other schools that I have heard

about, every teacher knows almost every student, and nearly

all the students know each other. I really love being at

Holderness and I am very grateful that the fund named for you

was presented to me. Thank you so much for this incredible

opportunity.

Sincerely yours,

(Member of the Class of ’09)

To Mr. & Mrs. Samuel W. Wakeman

Can you believe it? My time at Holderness is almost over. The

countdown to graduation has already begun as my days and

time at Holderness tick away. . . .

Being a senior does have its perks, even if it is incredibly

challenging. With three APs, Literature, European History, and

Statistics, I have a full plate on my hands. However, even with

this tough schedule, I find myself making time for friends, or

for subbing for Pantry, or for Frisbee on the Quad. I am also

taking an art class this fall, which is a completely new experi-

ence for me. I am not artistic in the conventional way, but this

class has allowed me to explore my own creativity, and it has

created an oasis where I can unwind from a day of focused

studying. I am also participating in the Job Program in a new

way as a leader for the Alumni & Development crew.

In addition, I am excited to participate in the Capstone

program this year. I am planning on going to the small African

nation of Botswana with a foundation that works to build

libraries and increase literacy. I haven’t determined my focus

yet, but I am looking into researching Botswanian democra-

cy’s effect on its people in respect to public works projects and

literacy programs. . . .

These past four years will be ones that I will never forget,

ever. . . .Now, for the final time I simply want to thank you

for enabling me to have the opportunity of a lifetime. “I would

thank you from the bottom of my heart, but for you my heart

has no bottom.”—Anon.

Sincerely,

Taylor Sawatzki ’08

To James C. Stearns ’68

I cannot thank you enough for your support this coming year. I

am currently sitting on my porch enjoying the remaining days

of summer and thinking about this coming year. . . .

I love sports, a key to thriving at Holderness, but I also

love the camaraderie of living in a dorm and doing well in

classes. Holderness is a great school for learning valuable les-

sons in balancing all aspects of life. It’s an adventure every

day finding the equilibrium between academics, athletics,

friends, and responsibilities. Finding time to eat can some-

times be difficult, but I love the outgoing and upbeat atmos-

phere. . . .

I hope this year I find the same success I found last year

in the dorm, on the mountain or field, and in the Schoolhouse.

I could not be here without your

support! Thank you very much! I

hope your year is just as exciting

and enjoyable as mine!

Sincerely,

(Member of the Class of ’10)

“Taken as a whole, students with scholarships or grantshave strengthened this school greatly . . . .” —Edric Weld

personal Annual Fund, but for his refusal to even consider

eliminating financial aid. Faced with a choice of either that

or the school’s brand as “a lower-priced school,” Weld did-

n’t hesitate. It was a choice that put Holderness—at long

last—on a path towards financial sustain-

ability. And at the same time it reaffirmed

financial aid, and with it the role of a stu-

dent body truly representing “a wide vari-

ety of backgrounds,” as the more essential

portion of the school’s identity.

DON HAGERMAN, WHO hadn’t a penny

in endowment for most of his tenure,

awarded financial aid. Pete Woodward

awarded more, thanks to a small and

growing endowment. Thanks in no small

part to the efforts of Hagerman and

Woodward and other stewards, Phil Peck’s

nest egg reached a high-water mark of $45

million in October, 2007. Since then the

recession has taken a bite out of that, reducing it to $34

million as of last December.

At the same time Holderness has been welcomed into

the Association of Business Officers of Preparatory Schools

(ABOPS), an organization of the forty most selective East

Coast boarding schools, and one in which sound business

practices are another criterion for membership. And the

school has very quietly launched the

largest campaign in its history. Far away

its most ambitious element, with a target

of $10 million, is endowment for financial

aid.

Much of the conversation that day had

to do with the current status of scholarship

funding at Holderness. During the last two

decades of the past century, Holderness

suffered from a version of the “barbell

effect” that prevailed at many other

schools: a majority of full-pay students,

another group of full-scholarship students

from very low-income backgrounds, and a

slim minority between the two. That has

changed substantially over the last decade.

Phil had the figures at hand. “In 2001 we had 52 stu-

dents on financial aid, and the average grant was 90 per-

cent of tuition. In 2008 we had 108, which doesn’t include

the children of faculty and staff, and the average grant was

60 percent. So we’re distributing a good deal more money

and doing it in smaller packages. We’ve made a point of

targeting middle-class households for partial grants, and

we’ve gotten more of them back into the school.”

Pete Hendel had some overall numbers in terms of

expenditure. “We spent $1.17 million on financial aid in

’01, and $1.92 million in ’08. So there’s a two-thirds

increase. But look at ’09—$2.18 million—and this year:

$2.61 million. Over the decade we’ve more than doubled

the funding.”

“What about tuition increases during that time?” Peter

Kimball asked.

“Tuition has gone up too, but it’s interesting to com-

pare the two,” said Pete Hendel. “From 2007 through 2009,

tuition rose at a rate of 4.9 percent each year. Financial aid,

on the other hand, has risen by 13.9 percent. Ours is the

largest rate of growth for that of any school in ABOPS.”

Tyler pointed out that Holderness was also spending

its financial aid in places where most schools don’t. “A full

68 percent of our day students are on financial aid,” he

said. “Not one of our peer schools can match that. And

international students—most schools go abroad looking

only for full-pay candidates. But we’ve got money invested

in these students as well.”

But even $2.61 million doesn’t go nearly as far as

Tyler would like it to go. Phil mentioned former

Admissions Director Pete Barnum’s definition of the ideal

candidate for Holderness. “He’s the sort of kid with whom

you can drive from one coast to another in a VW Bug with-

out a radio, and at the end of the trip you like each other

more than at the beginning,” Phil recalled. “It’s a definition

that really has much more to do with character than admis-

sions-test scores. We have a certain bar set in terms of aca-

demic accomplishment, of course, but beyond that, it’s all

about character.”

“I love visiting Holderness and running into kids who

say hi and look you in the eye,” said Peter Kimball. “It’s

not something they just put on for the adults, and it has

more to do than with just politeness. It seems to me that it

connects to a good understanding of who you are and of

your place in the world.”

“The amount of money I have to work with now has

been a huge help,” Tyler said. “I can bring more kids exact-

ly like that into this school, and fewer of the sort who

might be risky in terms of character or maturity. So it

allows us to apply a much more appropriate filter to the

admission process, which is great for Holderness in the

long run. But even so, the money runs out and we still have

to make a lot of tough choices involving candidates who

might be less desirable but whose families can afford the

full tuition. And the families who come to us have to make


TylerLewis

PeteHendel


Will Prickett ’81

Chairman, Board of Trustees:

THE MISSION OF THE SCHOOL REMAINS VERY clear, and one key

to the future success of Holderness depends on our sticking to

that mission. We need to attract

the best students we can in terms

of intellect, curiosity, and charac-

ter, and the fact is that there usu-

ally is little correlation between

those qualities, on one hand, and

family income on the other.

So while tuition income is

the largest financial driver of our

mission, we can’t focus on maxi-

mizing tuition income to the

exclusion of the best candidates

to our community. Being need-blind in our admissions would

allow us to focus just on the quality of the candidates, and I

think it’s possible for us to get there. It will take some time to

build our endowment to the necessary levels, and we have to

be careful not to go too far too fast, but the closer we get, the

better Holderness will be. �

John Straus

Chairman, Board Investment

Committee:

IN EDUCATION, WHO YOU learn with

is as important as who you learn

from. There’s so much more to it

than just the classroom. There are

all the interactions and exchanges

that occur at dinner, on the athletic

fields, in the dorm rooms, and

those are so much richer if they

involve people of different backgrounds and perspectives.

I think every school out there should want to be need-

blind—not just for the sake of those different perspectives in

its student body, but also on behalf of a community of alumni

who know the importance of giving and are all the more pre-

pared themselves to start giving back.

Is that sort of goal achievable for Holderness? Yes, I

think it is, in the long term, if the school continues to be man-

aged as conscientiously as it has been. And it may not really

take so long. It’s surprising to me how little money, relatively

speaking, it would take for our endowment to support that.

But we’ll never get there unless we first commit to it very

seriously as a goal. �

Jamey Gallop ’83

Former Chair, Board

Investment Committee:

THE ECONOMICS OF private

school education right now are

difficult. Tuition inflation has

outpaced overall inflation by a

wide margin, and it seems that

costs will continue to go up. But we don’t want Holderness to

become the sort of private country club that’s available to a

small percentage of the population. The education of students

of modest means is a central part of our mission and identity,

and that will require a larger focus on financial aid.

Of course it’s harder to raise money for financial aid and

school endowment than it is, say, for buildings. But the great-

est strength of Holderness is really not its buildings, but its

people—its faculty and staff and students. It’s essential to

keep the cost of a Holderness education within the reach of as

many people as possible to maintain the school’s unique cul-

ture. �

“It’s possible for us to get there . . . .”Fully-funded need-blind? Here are the thoughts of two current and one former trustee on theadvisability and achievability of one very audacious goal for a small school.

tough choices as well, and sometimes end up doing all sorts

of painful things—extra jobs, second mortgages—in order to

stay here. Some boarding students will become day students,

in fact, to keep their costs down.”

Robert had another paradigm shift to describe. “You look

at this campaign, and you see financial aid in a very unusual

position—at the top of the list among campaign priorities,” he

said. “We’re renovating certain buildings—Weld Hall, which

has already been done, and then certain classrooms and

dorms. But you don’t see new buildings playing a lead role

here, and traditionally that’s been the path of least resistance

in fundraising. A shiny new facility is big and visible. It

makes an immediate and obvious sort of difference in school

life, and then stands as a permanent memorial to its donors.

So it’s always been relatively easy to raise money for a con-

struction project.”

But lately that’s changed. “There really has been a shift

in philanthropy towards financial aid, and investing in peo-

ple,” he continued, “rather than in buildings and facilities. It’s

a different sort of orientation in values, one that’s more trans-

parently altruistic. Look at the progress of this campaign so

far. The three largest gifts have been for financial aid.”

The largest of the large has been donated by past parents

Eijk and Rose-Marie de mol van Otterloo (Eijk is also a for-

mer trustee, while Rose-Marie is current). The amount is

breath-taking—$2 million, matching the largest single gift in

Holderness history (also courtesy of the van Otterloos)—but

perhaps even more so is the selflessness of the gift. “This is a

gift that has nothing to do with naming rights, with the

establishment, for example, of any sort of van Otterloo

fund,” Phil said. “It’s been given to us simply to build the

capacity of the school, and to provide matching money to

encourage those who sponsor endowed scholarships now to

build them to higher levels.”

THAT, REALLY, IS THE WHOLE key, and the continuing

affirmation of what Edric Weld always demanded of

Holderness. In resigning himself to the fact that Holderness

could not persist without raising its tuition, he surely fore-

saw that the school founded as the economy-priced option

to St. Paul’s would grow to be virtually as expensive as that

other great school, and that the word “affordable” would

have to drop out of Holderness’ description of itself.

Weld refused to yield, however, on an admissions poli-

cy in which each candidate “is judged for himself, and not

because of family background.” Convinced at last that

Holderness could not be bargain-priced in providing “the

highest degree of excellence in education,” he insisted that

it at least be accessible. If the school could run in the black,

in fact, it could perhaps afford scholarships for a few more

children of clergymen, artists, and widows.

It was a choice both pragmatic and deeply principled.

It would necessitate finding enough candidates from the

upper echelons of the economic ladder to make sure the

school ran in the black. The Admission Office would do its

best to filter out the “super-sophisticates” who might be

unsuitable for this rough-hewn sort of school. Some were

sure to get in as the school went about balancing its books,

but at least the school would endure.

Which it has—and flourished. It has flourished

enough, in fact, for Phil Peck and his Board of Trustees to

now dream of making Holderness so accessible that the

word “compromise” disappears from its admission and

financial aid procedures, and the word “painful” from the

considerations of the parents of interested candidates.

“In fact we’re need-blind already in our admission

process,” Phil said with a smile. “We don’t look at family

income in choosing the kids we most want to come here.

We just aren’t fully-funded need-blind. So then we have to

make that next set of decisions about who can afford to

come here, and whom

we can afford to help.”

Need-blind, as in

fully-funded—around

Holderness the idea

also goes by an

acronym common to

the strategic planning

process: BHAG, or Big

Hairy Audacious Goal.

The current $10 mil-

lion campaign goal for

financial aid is perhaps

big, perhaps audacious,

but not quite hairy.

Having enough money

in the endowment of a little school like Holderness to be

able to accommodate each and every admitted applicant

who might need financial aid—now that idea sprouts hairs.

“There’s no question that even the ambition to become


PhilPeck

Quartile

Endowment

per Student

Debt

per Student

75th Percentile 219,491$ 99,783$

Median 157,123$ 62,622$

25th Percentile 88,051$ 36,269$

Holderness School 117,345$ 10,601$

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Endowment Per Student

75th Percentile $219,491

Median $157,123

25th Percentile $ 88,051

Holderness School $117,345

Debt Per Student


Median $ 62,622


Holderness School $ 10,601

In terms endowment and debt,this is where Holderness standsin a group of fifteen schoolswho compete for similar candidates.

Eijk and Rose-Marie van Otterloo are the donors of an historic gift to

Holderness that Phil Peck describes as “transformative,” that Robert

Caldwell praises as “altruism in the purest sense of the word.” Perhaps the

best phrase was coined by the father of Bill Koyama in 1945 (see page 52):

“the Great Providence.” Learn more about the scope, purposes, and potential

impact of this gift in the spring HST.

fully-funded need-blind is a huge undertaking

for Holderness,” said Peter Kimball. “There

are very few schools in the country that are in

that position. Princeton is, but Harvard isn’t.

Seventy percent of Harvard’s undergraduates

receive some form of financial aid now,

though, and there is a broader trend in society

that sees financial aid as a worthy investment

in what might be called social capital. I

believe in fact that there is no more important

goal for Holderness right now, and that this is

a moment where opportunity goes hand in

hand with excellence and accessibility.”

But how could Holderness’ endowment

possibly achieve what Harvard’s can’t? Well,

the former’s endowment may not be impressively big at the

moment—well below the median of fifteen peer schools, in

fact—but at least it almost all belongs to Holderness. The

school’s short-term debt of $10,601 per student is well-nigh

microscopic in a group where median longer-term debt is

more than six times that amount. “That puts our net endow-

ment up there at sixth in that group of fifteen, which is actual-

ly pretty good,” said Pete Hendel.

Size matters also, and this is one situation where it truly

pays to be small. “Given the size of our enrollment,” Tyler

Lewis said, “we wouldn’t really need as much more in our

endowment as people might think.”

Phil knew the math. “That’s true,” he said. “So we figure

our endowment on a five-year rolling average and annually

draw four percent of that amount. Then we could do it, say,

with an additional $40 million. That’s not impossible. It’s

achievable. And whether we get to that level soon or just

make headway there, we’ll be serving the school well, for

now and for fifty years from now.”

Peter Kimball wasn’t so sure about one part of that. “It

may be admirable, but is it achievable? I don’t know,” he said.

“In either event, it’s worth trying for.”

Peter then wondered if being fully-funded might tempt

the Admission Office into changing its thinking in any way.

“Would you start looking more for kids with 90th-percentile

scores on the SSATs? That sort of situation forces a school to

really articulate who precisely is an ideal candidate.”

“We would continue to emphasize character,” Phil said.

“And we would continue to do what we do: Special Programs,

chapel twice a week, the Job Program, family-style dinner, no

specialization in sports. We would look for families who

embrace all those things, whether their children are 60th or

99th percentile.”

“Good,” Peter said. “The money, if it’s ever there,

shouldn’t change our priorities. If I’m a parent bringing a

child to Holderness, I’m looking for a com-

munity of kids who are reflective, who are

inquisitive, but at the same time they’re

active—they participate, they assume lead-

ership, they give back, and they take

responsibility for where they are. We need

to hold on to that ideal.”

“And at fully-funded need-blind,” Phil said, “we would

never again have to turn away a family who embraces that

ideal, whatever their resources.”

That was when Phil asked if Peter if he was enjoying his

Outward Bound journal. “With the holiday season as busy as

it is, I haven’t opened it yet,” Peter said. “But I will, and I

may very well transcribe it.” He laughed. “There’s a chance

it’ll bring back nightmares. It’s just so odd that it showed up

now.”

MANY YEARS AGO EDRIC WELD took a grim sort of sat-

isfaction in making Holderness “available to at least a few

people of lesser income.” The two sides of the coin that he

showed to his trustees in 1947 were basically these: the

breadth, quality, and diversity of the school’s people and pro-

grams, and the challenge posed to those elements by

Holderness’ inability to pay its bills.

Bishop Niles had specified “the lowest possible charge

for tuition and board” in his vision for Holderness, and it fell

to Weld to conclude that a discounted tuition simply wasn’t

possible in any sustainable sense, at least if excellence was

required. Then there were still always compromises to be

made at the Admissions Office, even as the school, through

the decades, largely retired its debt and built an endowment.

Perhaps there always will be such compromises. But Phil

Peck and many others like to think that it ain’t necessarily so,

and that this is the time to start doing some-

thing about it. They like to think that some-

day, maybe, Bishop Niles will get his way

after all—an entirely accessible sort of

school where, from the slam of a car door

(any sort of car door) and the first firm

Hagerman-style handshake, “each is judged

for himself and not because of family back-

ground.” �


Phil Peck and his Board

of Trustees dream of

making Holderness so

accessible that the word

“compromise” disappears

from its admission and

financial aid procedures,

and the word “painful”

from the considerations of

the parents of interested

candidates.

RobertCaldwell

H


HAD IT NOT BEEN FOR Holderness School’s

commitment to financial aid, a poor Kenyan girl named

Elizabeth might never have owned shoes.

That’s just one of a great many things that might

never have happened, but let’s begin in 1992 with what

shouldn’t have happened: the sudden death of Dr. Paul

Kahindo, a physician and prominent political dissident in

the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Soon after Dr.

Kahindo died in circumstances that suggest a political

assassination, his grief-stricken wife succumbed to a

heart attack.

That was when their son Ruga, 20, went to the

Congolese press with questions about his father’s death.

This provoked an attempt on his life as well. Three

weeks later Ruga and his much younger brother Fiston,

8, were in Kenya, and among the hundreds of thousands

in central Africa with no other home but a refugee camp.

IT TOOK NO LONGER THAN that for the world of Fiston

Kahindo—and his presumed future—to be laid waste.

By way of capital, such as it was, he had only a few

years of good schooling. He had just learned the most

brutal sort of lesson about the world’s capacity for

treachery. He was about to learn about its capacity for

grace and charity as well.

Eventually he and Ruga found their way to north-

western Kenya’s Kakuma Refugee Camp, a sprawling

city of 70,000 whose name is also the Swahili word for

“nowhere.” There Fiston was lucky enough to be noticed

by a soccer coach, Jean Kakusu, who helped him gain

admission to a boarding school in Matuu, Kenya, and

funding from a foundation in Nairobi.

At the same time Elizabeth Campbell, the sister of

Carolyn Campbell ’96, spent a month at Kakuma during

a semester abroad from St. Lawrence University. There

she became friendly enough with Kakusu—who is now

Jean Campbell, and who works at a community college

in Portland, Oregon—for him to later be adopted as a

brother into her family.

But there was help coming for Fiston as well. In

2000 Carolyn had joined the math department of the

Holderness faculty. She spoke to then-Admissions

Director Pete Barnum about devoting some portion of

the school’s slim financial aid budget to a student from

an African refugee camp. That led to Pete getting on the

telephone with Fiston. Subsequently Pete sent Fiston an

application and set aside a full scholarship.

Okay, but how does someone who is essentially

penniless get from Matuu to Holderness? “Carolyn sent

me money for a plane ticket,” Fiston recalls. “But then I

Out of Nowhere

At one time thedreams of FistonKahindo ’03were limited tothe meagerpossiblities ofKenya’s KakumaRefugee Camp.Today he helpsother Africanorphans todream biggerthan that. Chalkanother one upto financial aid.

Fiston, left, spent time with Phil Peck and a lot of other old friendsduring a Lynn University recruiting trip this fall. On the right is J.J.Hall ’05, who was about to leave for his new job at Christ theCornerstone International School in Lagos, Nigeria. Read moreabout that on page 40.


arrived without anything to wear that would satisfy the dress

code at Holderness. So Elizabeth and Carolyn and Jean bought

me jackets, pants, ties, shoes, and so on.”

“Culture shock” only begins to describe this sort of

upheaval, from Nairobi to Holderness and a new set of clothes

for a whole new world. Fiston’s first language was French,

though he now also speaks English and several African lan-

guages. But a second language was just one of the multiple

challenges he faced then. “It was very hard at the beginning,”

Fiston says, “but I always had the support of the teachers

there, and I certainly would not be where I am today had it not

been for Holderness, and the grace of God.”

He arrived as a junior, made the honor roll by dint of

hard labor (and would win the Clarkson Prize for perseverance

at the 2003 commencement), but did not distinguish himself

on the English-language SAT tests he took that year for col-

lege admission. “Bruce Barton was the college counselor, and

he helped prepare my application, edit my personal statement,

and find several good colleges that would accept scores in my

range,” Fiston says. “Bruce was extremely helpful.”

One such school was Florida’s Lynn University, which

has a large enrollment of international students and which at

the last moment offered this student another full scholarship.

And after a couple of years at Holderness, Fiston found him-

self ready to flourish at Lynn. He qualified for the school’s

honors program, became a resident assistant, a student ambas-

sador for the admissions department, and as a junior was elect-

ed president of the Student Government Association—the first

international student to hold that position.

That put Fiston in a place where he could accomplish a

few good turns himself. Distressed to see a number of students

dropping out of Lynn because of money problems, Fiston led a

successful initiative to build a scholarship fund enabling stu-

dents with high grade-point averages to stay in school. He lob-

bied effectively as well for more work-study jobs and more

financial aid for international students. He helped also at the

nickel-and-dime level of student life, establishing a popular

free airport shuttle service for Lynn students.

Today he is still at Lynn, working as a full-time admis-

sions officer, making recruiting trips for the university to

schools that include Holderness, and taking graduate courses

in international business. And as the vice-president of Dream

Sponsors, Inc., he is also revisiting Africa.

“A LADY FROM FLORIDA—her name is Carla Neumann—

had gone to Africa, had come back, and had read an article

about me in a Boca Raton newspaper,” Fiston explains. “It

was about my being the first international president of the

SGA at Lynn. She wanted to set up a non-profit organization

that would help orphans at the refugee camps, and she asked

for my help and advice.”

That organization became Dream Sponsors (www.dream-

sponsorsinc.org), whose mission is to create sponsorships and

support networks “designed to assist orphan youth in Africa

with the emotional, financial, and logistical means to trans-

form their dreams into reality.”

The character of the organization, says Fiston, owes

something to Holderness: “The basic model I proposed had

very much to do with my experience there. We seek to pay

tuition for schooling, to provide uniforms and books, to make

possible medical care and insurance. We want to give them a

chance to dream, and a chance to realize their dreams.”

The bulk of Dream Sponsors’ work involves fundraising,

but in 2008 Fiston and Carla Neumann visited Bunyore, a

small village in western Kenya. There they set up a collabora-

tion with another education-based non-profit and arranged

sponsorships for a dozen village children.

Even Fiston was impressed with how little money it took

to make a big difference there. For example, he and Carla

found the elderly grandmother of one sponsored child very ill

with malaria during one home visit. “It took a small gift of $5

to provide medication to improve her condition in just a short

time,” Fiston says. “We were able to provide mosquito nets

and other supplies to help with their living conditions and to

keep Elizabeth functioning in her small rural school. She

must walk in excess of two miles each way to her school and

had never owned a pair of shoes until our visit.”

Fiston had grown up with shoes, but they wore out during

his flight from the Congo many years ago. He and his brother

trudged three weeks through the forest, subsisting on nuts and

grasses. Fiston’s legs swelled to the point that Ruga had to

carry him.

But from Nowhere, Fiston was carried to Nairobi, and

then to the United States. No one knows better than him the

life-saving importance of philanthropy, the soul-uplifting

strength of its helping hand. And no one is more eager to pay

it forward. “If ever I reach any sort of position of financial

success,” he says, “I will dedicate a portion of that to

Holderness.”

Ruga is also safe and prosperous today, living in Dallas

and raising a family that includes three children. The courage,

energy, and intelligence of these two survivors have played an

enormous role in their success—but so has the sort of helping

hand that Fiston now extends to others. �

Fiston had grown up with

shoes, but they wore out

during his flight from the

Congo many years ago. He

and his brother trudged three

weeks through the forest.

Fiston’s legs swelled to the

point that Ruga had to carry

him.

H


Catching up with...

HIS FIRST OFFICE was the size of a walk-

in closet on the second floor of Livermore

Hall, and it was never what you’d call a

low-stress sort of job, especially in the

spring, after he and his staff had made all

the tough choices about who to invite into

next year’s class of incoming students, and

the letters of acceptance had gone out. Then

you waited—to see who came back for sec-

ond visits, to see who finally signed those

letters, to see who signed those letters and

then changed their minds in August.

“But in twenty-five years,” says Pete

Barnum, “there was never a single day

when I got out of bed and didn’t want to

come to work.”

His work was as the school’s chief

recruiter and gatekeeper, Director of

Admission, from 1980 to 2005, throughout

Pete Woodward’s years as head of the

school, and into the first four years of Phil

Peck’s. During this day in January he’s sit-

ting down with Phil at the Common Man

Restaurant in Ashland and taking a glance

backwards through the years.

“I was lucky,” he adds. “I arrived just

in time for what I consider to be the Golden

Era of independent school admissions. The

economy was healthy, the market was grow-

ing, the grandparents of the kids coming in

were prosperous. And Don Hagerman, Pete

Woodward, and a lot of other people had

built Holderness into a good place to be. We

drew more strong applicants than we need-

ed, and I was never once in a position

where I had to take someone just to fill a

bed. I would have quit if I’d had to.”

Holderness was lucky too, because it

was all so unlikely to have turned out that

way. Pete was a Kent School alumnus relo-

Pete Barnum

Long-

Term

Rewards

Former Director ofAdmission PeteBarnum is still hardat work forHolderness, but in adifferent role thesedays. He says therewas just one part ofthe old job that brokehis heart every year.Now he’s part of ateam working on thecure for that.


cated to Colorado in 1970. There he and two friends were

partners in a company that designed and built spec homes,

and Pete began to get tired of that at about the same time the

Colorado real estate market was drying up. In 1979, on the

advice of a teacher at Kent, Pete attended a four-day work-

shop for admission professionals hosted by the National

Association of Independent Schools.

“It was in Menlo Park, California, and I had to talk my

way into it,” Pete laughs. “My name tag said ‘Educational

Consultant, Boulder, CO,’ which—except for the address—

was a complete fabrication.”

He learned enough about school admissions to want to

give it a try, but where? His father told him that Pete

Woodward, who had been chaplain at Kent during Pete

Barnum’s senior year, was now head of Holderness School.

What’s more, the Holderness Admission Director (Steve

Christakos) had suddenly resigned to take a job at Williams

College.

No doubt the Kent connection helped, but so did desper-

ate straits at Holderness, since all the experience Pete could

offer were those four days of conference gate-crashing. “Bill

Clough was the Assistant Head then, and the interim Director

of Admission,” Pete says. “He took me up to that little office,

gave me the file of all the schools they’d visited, and told me

to set up a travel schedule as Associate Director of

Admission. Then in April, after the acceptance letters had

gone out, he asked me, ‘Are you ready?’ I asked him for

what. He said, ‘To take over.’”

PETE LIVED IN LOWER Niles that year, an arrangement

that helped shape his philosophy of admissions. “We were a

boarding school, where teachers lived 24/7 with these kids,”

Pete says. “So I thought first and foremost, they had to be

nice kids, the sort of people faculty members would enjoy

being around.”

Phil laughs, and he repeats Pete’s trademark definition of

the sort of student he sought: “The kind of kid with whom

you can drive coast to coast in a VW Bug, without a radio,

and at the end of the trip you like each other more than when

you started.”

It helped as well that this definition so neatly gibed with

the one Don Hagerman had worked with in the days when the

headmaster was also the admission director. “There were so

many kids who came to visit but who thought they really

didn’t have a shot because of their grades or test scores,” Pete

says. “But if Don saw strength of character, a good personali-

ty, an inclination to work hard, he was willing to give them a

shot.”

So was Pete Woodward, and the result, in general,

through the Hagerman and then the Woodward/Barnum years,

have been students who, adds Pete, “sometimes are knuckle-

heads because they’re kids, but who in almost every case are

great company, fun to be around, and who have the potential

to really flourish, academically and otherwise, in this sort of

environment.”

Pete is grateful as well for the character and constancy of

the environment. Phil delineates the many elements that

Hagerman-era alumni would recognize: multiple-point-of-

contact faculty, the chapel, the dress code, the Job Program,

family-style dinner, facilities that are functional but “not

glitzy,” and more.

“Well, we never had to fiddle with the formula in order

to fill our beds,” Pete says. “Whenever I was among other

educators, and whenever the conversation got around to

Holderness, I’d hear, ‘Holderness created a niche for itself

years ago and has remained true to that.’ They’re right, and it

works both ways. We’ve been able to remain true because of

the steady quality of our applicant pool. That’s what’s enabled

Holderness to weather all the storms of hard times and

changes in educational fashion. We were able to stand by our

dress code, for example, during years when other schools

were tossing that overboard.”

In fact, the applicant pool was so strong and steady that

Pete was able to do more than just recruit for Holderness

School—he became, in fact, a good likeness of the disinterest-

ed educational consultant he had once impersonated.

“I’m thankful that you never encouraged families to

apply just to raise our applicant numbers,” Phil says. “With

you, it was always about finding the right match for a family

in terms of which school would be best. You were always

honest that way, and helpful in finding a good fit, and I think

that’s another reason why we were always full. People knew

they weren’t being manipulated.”

“Well, no kid needed to come here and have his legs

knocked out from under him,” Pete says. “There are some

kids for whom Holderness is just not the right place. But I felt

if I could help the families find the school that is the right

place—and I enjoyed doing that—then we could all feel good

about the process and move on. And because as a school we

were so healthy, and not worried about the numbers, I could

afford to do that.”

Pete says that really he enjoyed every aspect of the job


that he fell into more or less by chance—with one

notable exception. “That was the financial aid

piece,” he says. “That was one aspect that would

depress me every year, drive me close to migraines.

I’d see these absolutely wonderful kids come into the

office, and of course we’d accept them, but we only

had so much of that sort of money to go around, and

it ran out so fast.”

Accepted, but without any help in paying the

tuition, though they qualified for such: “Then I’d get

calls from distraught parents,” Pete continues. “I’d

take them through the process, step by step, and

explain how there’s a much fiercer level of competi-

tion when financial aid is involved, but of course

that can’t really satisfy them, because this is their

own flesh and blood we’re talking about. They know

how much their child has to offer, and they can’t

help thinking that we don’t. It used to just tear me

up.”

THAT STOPPED IN 2005, when Pete left the homey

suite of offices that occupies most of Livermore’s

ground floor. He handed the reins over to Tobi

Pfenninger, who served a year as the school’s interim

director, and then to Tyler Lewis. He says that by no

means had he stopped looking forward to work each

morning. “I wasn’t burned out,” he explains. “I still

loved it, but I just felt it was time for the school to

have a fresh set of eyes in that job.”

Nowadays Tyler looks for the same good road

trip companions, and Pete applauds the fact that

Tyler does so with a steadily increasing financial aid

budget. He also applauds Tyler’s commitment to ini-

tiatives that Pete began in using that money, includ-

ing scholarship funding for day students, internation-

al students, and middle class families, all of whom

are rarely funded at many other schools.

“But the Golden Era is over,” Pete says. “These

are hard times to work in admissions, even here.

You’ve got a lot more first-generation families com-

ing to campus, and a lot more of them need help in

handling the cost, especially in this sort of econo-

my.”

Phil laughs and remembers the years that he

worked for Pete, 1986-88, as a part-time associate in

the admission office.

“I’d never had so much fun,” Phil says. “Then I

remember one day we were walking over to Bartsch,

and I asked you if you thought I should go full-time

into admissions work.”

“And I told you no,” Pete says. “Because I

knew you loved the classroom so much.”

Phil notes that the years have played a trick on

them both. As Head of School, he has had to relin-

quish the classroom; similarly Pete has a whole dif-

ferent sort of job to do now in the Development

Office as the school’s Director of Leadership Giving.

“The day-to-day rewards of working with the kids

aren’t there so much,” Phil says. “But the long-term

rewards are there for the school. It’s what we have to

do. It’s a calling.”

Phil mentions the school’s current campaign,

with its $10 million goal for financial aid endow-

ment, and the great goal that lies beyond that, a

school that’s need-blind in its admission process, and

fully-funded for that.

Pete pauses over a bowl of corn chowder. He

remembers R.C. Whitehouse ’00, a local kid whose

family needed financial aid but couldn’t be provided

any. R.C. came anyway, and was elected vice-presi-

dent of the school, while his parents sold property,

mortgaged the house, worked extra jobs, and still

struggled. He remembers many candidates like R.C.

who never came, kids with whom Pete would have

loved to share seats in a Volkswagen.

“If it means that more kids like R.C. can be

accepted and funded,” Pete says, “then there will be

many long-terms rewards for this school.” �

“I’d explain how there’s a much fiercer level of competition when financial aid is

involved, but of course that can’t really satisfy them, because this is their own

flesh and blood we’re talking about. They know how much their child has to offer,

and they can’t help thinking that we don’t.”

Pete was honoredby Phil Peck for 25years of outstandingadmissions work in2005. Then hemoved into a newoffice in Livermore.

GRADE 9Miss Elizabeth Winslow AldridgeMr. Jacob Cramer BartonMiss Elena E. BirdMiss Nicole Marie DellaPasquaMr. Daniel DoMiss Jeong Yeon HanMr. Chandler John HoefleMr. Caleb Andrew NungesserMiss Victoria Sommerville-KelsoMiss Iashai StephensMiss Taylor Kathryn WattsMr. Charles Norwood Williams

GRADE 10Mr. Nathanial George AlexanderMr. Keith Michael BohlinMiss Ariana Ann BourqueMiss Josephine McAlpin BrownellMiss Benedicte Nora CrudgingtonMiss Abigail Kristen GuerraMiss Yejin HwangMr. Nathaniel Ward LamsonMiss Kristina Sophia MicalizziMiss So Hee ParkMr. Ryan Michael RosencranzMr. Jean-Philippe Tardif

GRADE 11Mr. Desmond James BennettMiss Madeline Margaret BurnhamMr. David McCauley CaputiMr. Jordan L CargillMr. Se Han ChoMiss Juliet Sargent DaltonMiss Amanda Claire EngelhardtMr. Nicholas James Hill FordMiss Pauline Zeina GermanosMiss Emily Maria HayesMiss Cassandra Laine HeckerMr. Carson Vincent HouleMiss Kristen Nicole JorgensonMiss Paige Alexis KozlowskiMr. Samuel Newton LeechMr. Samuel Cornell MacomberMr. Gabrielius MaldunasMr. James McNultyMr. Christopher Steven MerrillMiss Leah PetersMiss Elizabeth Ann PettittMr. Ethan Patrick PfenningerMr. Colin Thomas PhillipsMr. Derek De Freitas PimentelMiss Brooke Elizabeth RobertsonMr. Adam Jacob SapersMr. Lucas Paul SchafferMr. Nathaniel Owen ShentonMiss Emily Roberts StarerMr. Nicholas E. StoicoMiss Margaret Mooney ThibadeauMr. Niklaus Carl Friedrich Vitzthum

GRADE 12Miss Abigail Jane Alexander

GRADE 12Miss Abigail Jane AlexanderMiss Ashleigh May BoultonMr. Christopher William BradburyMiss Elizabeth Hope BrownMiss Hyun Jung ChungMiss Sarah R. ClarksonMr. Nicholas James CushingMr. Ivan DelicMr. Mark David Finnegan, Jr.Miss Andrea Kourajian FisherMr. Brian Mullin FriedmanMiss Mary Jo GermanosMr. Duong Tung Ha DuyenMr. William James HoeschlerMiss Erika Margaret JohnsonMr. John Scott McCoyMr. Wesley Mitchell-LewisMr. Scott W. NelsonMiss Georgina I. OgirriMr. Benjamin Christopher OsborneMiss Emily Hope PettengillMiss Mireille Cecile PichetteMiss Laura Olivia PohlMiss Gabrielle Jillian RaffioMr. Eric RochefortMr. Jack Kevin SabaMr. Kody Ross SpencerMiss Chelsea Ann StevensMiss Ji Eun SungMiss Sarah Ashby SussmanMiss Marion Trafford ThurstonMiss Aubrey Frances TylerMiss Caroline Patricia WalshMiss Kristen L. WaltersMr. Carter Travis WhiteMr. Chatarin Wong-U-Railertkun

High Honors:

First Quarter

GRADE 9Mr. Christian AndersonMr. Alexander James BermanMr. Christian Elliott BladonMr. Jeffrey Michael HauserMr. Aidan Cleaveland KendallMr. Alexander Min LehmannMiss Celine PichetteMiss Olivia Grace PoulinMr. Jesse Jeremiah RossMr. Peter Pesch SaundersMiss Lauren Louise StrideMr. Robert Patrick Sullivan

GRADE 10Miss Shelby Jeanne BenjaminGRADE 10Miss Shelby Jeanne BenjaminMr. Christopher Hepworth BunkerMiss Samantha Regina Cloud

GRADE 10Miss Shelby Jeanne BenjaminMr. Christopher Hepworth BunkerMiss Samantha Regina CloudMr. Peter Michael FerranteMiss Hannah Morgan HalstedMr. Preston KelseyMr. Andrew Phillip KimbellMr. Matthew Neville KinneyMiss Samantha Anne LeeMr. Brandon C. MarcusMr. William MarvinMiss Carly Elizabeth MeauMr. Bennett McKinley MelvilleMr. Oliver Julian NettereMr. James Ornstein RobbinsMr. Justin Demarr SimpkinsMiss Abagael Mae SlatteryMiss Erica Holahan SteinerMr. Brian Alden TierneyMr. Ruohao Xin

GRADE 11Ms Radvile AutukaiteMr. Thomas William BarbeauMiss Kiara Janea BooneMiss Cecily Noyes CushmanMr. Kevin Michael DachosMiss Samantha DevineMr. MacLaren Nash DudleyMiss Sarah E. FauverMiss Kathleen Nugent FinneganMr. Justin M. FrankMr. Alexander Ulysses GardinerMr. Nicholas William Maher GoodrichMr. Chandler S. GrishamMiss Elizabeth Ryan HaleMiss Paige Nicole HardtkeMiss Lauren Michelle HayesMr. Andrew V. HoweMr. Dewey W. KnappMr. Alex KunoMr. Charles Jacob LongMr. Colin Hugh Gaylord MacKenzieMiss Alexandra Marie MuzykaMr. Abe H. NoyesMiss Charlotte Plumer NoyesMr. Alexander Sprole ObregonMr. Zhachary Render PhamMiss Catherine Hope PowellMr. Isaac SimesMiss Haleigh Elizabeth WeinerMiss Sarah Xiao

GRADE 12Miss Karen Frances AbateMr. Michael Scott AndersonMr. Alvaro Calderon ApraizMiss Sydney Tovah AronsonMr. Philip Klein Brown IVMiss Julia E. CanelasMr. Garrett Andrew CanningMiss Julia Franckhauser CapronMr. Paul Jarvis ClarkMiss Lucy CopelandMr. Samuel Carter CopelandMr. Alex Anderson FrancisMiss Erica F. HamlinMiss Brette HarringtonMr. Sean Patrick HarrisonMr. Colin Edward HigginsMr. William Winsor Humphrey IIIMr. Kyle KenneyMiss Morgan Braid MarkleyMr. Kevin Sander MichelMr. Matthew NolanMiss Marissa Leigh PendergastMr. Jacob Andrew ScottMr. Emmanuel Sherrard SmithMiss Elise Holahan SteinerMr. Shiloh SummersMr. Jeffrey Robert Regan Wasson


Honors:

First Quarter


AP History

Around the Quad

AcademicsN

EW HAMPSHIRE’S Lakes

Region is one of the best

places in the world for the

study of flowing water ecosystems,

and the science department is on to

it. All upper-level environmental

science classes devoted study to

these systems this fall, and Dr.

Maggie Mumford’s biology class

went to Squam Lake in September

to do field work with Squam Lakes

Association research associate

Rebecca Harvey and invasive plant

specialist Brett Durham.

The biology

students got a taste

of environmental

science as they

investigated nutrient

levels, water quality

trends, and seasonal changes within

the Squam ecosystem. “That field

work is part of a directed effort

over recent years by the science

department at Holderness,” said

Maggie, “to incorporate place-

based education and environmental

literacy into our curriculum.”

The Lakes Region is a good

place for the study of forest ecolo-

gy as well, and in October

Maggie’s biology students were out

in the woods, learning the basics of

tree identification and investigating

the timing of foliage and leaf drop.

They also studied the formation of

forest soil, the factors determining

local diversity, and the interactions

that lead to forest succession.�

Environmental Science

HISTORY, FOR many of us, is not only useful

but fun. It’s one thing to be whisked away

to a different time and place in the pages of

a good novel. To be whisked away to a world sub-

stantiated by fact, however, and populated by fig-

ures who really lived, is another sort of experience,

one described by genuine history enthusiasts as a

“period rush.” No one experiences this rush more

thoroughly, perhaps, than those who physically

immerse themselves in history as re-enactors.

In October Chris Day brought a re-enactor

into his AP History class, and he didn’t have to go

far afield to find one. That re-enactor was our own

Jack Long ’11, who hails from Riverside, CT, and

who has acquired the uniform, the equipment,

and—not least—the expertise to serve as a First

Sergeant in the Revolutionary War’s First New

York Regiment.

Jack prepares for

and participates in sever-

al re-enactments each

year, most recently a re-

creation of the battle of

Saratoga. It’s a way to

not only live history, but

to teach it, and we can

recommend a good book

about the culture and

challenges of historical

re-enactment:

Confederates in the Attic

by Tony Horwitz. �

THE SCHOOL’S innovative Senior Honors

Thesis program is a spring phenome-

non, but preparation begins in the fall.

In October program director Steve Solberg

took a group he described as the “Senior

Honors Thesis 2009-10 Cohort” off campus

for some good food, good conversation, and

some serious talk about the challenges and

opportunities that await them next semester.

The program combines extensive aca-

demic research with independent experiential

learning into topics of strong student interest.

“Up until now,” Steve said that night, “we’ve

been telling you what you need to know.

Through this program, you get to tell us what

you want to know.”

That preliminary meeting has since been

followed by one-on-one meetings with

Steveand SHT advisor Emily Magnus ’88 as

students define their topics and prepare for

carrying out their research. �

SeniorHonorsThesis

According to Sgt. Long

Inside the Squam ecosystem

So tell

us what

you

want to

know.

Froshers Nicole DellaPasqua, Olivia Poulin,and Caleb Nungessertake the measure ofSquam Lake.

JackLong

Steve Solberg’sSenior HonorsThesis cohort


WIKI PAGES ARE simple informative

web pages modeled after those

that appear on Wikipedia.com

and that can be edited by classmates,

friends, and family. Among the school’s

academic goals this year is the implemen-

tation of Wiki pages into the curriculum,

and this fall Director of Communications

Steve Solberg visited a number of classes

in order to provide tips and models.

In Western Civilization, for example,

Steve helped froshers create a Wiki page

about a certain classical divinity, one pre-

viously unknown to scholars:

Fordamongus.

“In Holderness mythology,

Fordamongus is the king of the leaders, the

ruler of all things residential (and day), and

the god of the sky, thunder, and communi-

ty,” reads their Wiki page. “His followers

are those that dedicate their lives to the

concepts of initiative, fairness, dependabil-

ity, and—of course—leadership. In addi-

tion to his Indo-European inheritance, the

classical cloud-gatherer also derives cer-

tain iconographic traits from the cultures

of the ancient Near East, such as the ratty

old tie. Fordo (as he is affectionately

termed by his followers) is frequently

depicted by Holderness artists in one of

two poses: standing and striding forward,

with a thunderbolt leveled in his raised

right hand, or seated in majesty.” �

Western Civilization ORLANDO AND Rosalind, the

protagonists of William

Shakespeare’s As You Like It,

flee into the forest in order to accom-

plish a sort of self-realization.

Sounds like Out Back, sort of, and in

November a number of Holderness

students—Monique Devine’s theater

class and Peter Durnan’s AP

Language and Composition class—

made the journey to St. Anselm

College in Manchester in order to

see how that kind of Out Back was

done in the 17th century. They also

got a dose of Shakespeare’s extraor-

dinary language in its true spoken

version.

The language, in fact, was the

chief interest of the AP Comp class.

The theater class focused more on

such dramatic devices as the college

production’s raked stage. Both class-

es, though, came home with

increased admiration for the rich cul-

tural offerings of New Hampshire’s

college community. �

“IN FINANCIAL TERMS, THIS is a different sort of world from the

one your parents grew up in,” said Mark Daniell in an October

all-school assembly. “And if you don’t control your finances,

they’ll control you.”

Mark Daniell is chairman of the Cuscaden Group, an advisory and

investment business based in Singapore; vice-chairman of Aquarian

Investment Advisors, an asset-

management company also

based in Singapore; Director

Emeritus of Bain and Company,

one of the world’s leading strate-

gy consulting firms; and a fre-

quent guest on the BBC, CNBC,

CNN, ChannelNewsAsia, and

Bloomberg TV channels. He is

also the father of Christian

Daniell ’12, and the co-author—

with Karin Iris Sixl-Daniell— of Wealth Wisdom for Everyone: An

Easy-to-Use Guide to Personal Financial Planning and Wealth

Creation (World Scientific, 2006), copies of which he generously dis-

tributed free to the entire Holderness community.

A good portion of that community—all students and faculty, some

early-bird parents, and many interested staff members—were present to

hear Mr. Daniell recall that the the word “wealth” traces its real mean-

ing to concepts of welfare and well-being, and that “wisdom” implies a

mode of understanding that relies heavily on planning. “Hope is not a

strategy,” he warned. “The achievement of welfare and well-being will

require plenty of effort and planning.”

He displayed a graph that recorded the movement of the stock

market from 1950 to the present: a steady upward climb for the first

fifty years, but during this decade nothing but either stagnation or loss-

es. “No more guaranteed returns of nine percent,” he warned. “We’re

going to have to learn how to save.”

He advocates a 21st century wisdom that is actually many cen-

turies old, but which has a new and essential relevance: write down a

financial plan as soon as you can and stick to it; specify a regular sav-

ings target and stick to it; and be both conservative and diverse in your

investments. To that he added a recommendation to minimize our use of

credit cards.

The books that he donated to the community are a special edition

of Wealth Wisdom, copies that bear a photograph of the Holderness

campus on the front cover and an endorsement from Phil Peck on the

back. “I hope the book is helpful to you all in learning how to control

your finances,” Mr. Daniell said. “But there won’t be any exam on it.

Well, actually, there will—the exam will be the quality of life that you

subsequently sustain.” �

Life Skills A wealth of wisdom from a renowned fiscal expert.

Your best source on Fordamongus

Drama/AP Comp.

Out Back as

Shakespeare liked it.

Director ofResidential LifeDuane Ford ’74

Jenn Cameron ’10,Alex Kuno ’11, andLucy Copeland ’10at St. Anselm’s.

MarkDaniell


Around the Quad

The Arts

OVER THE years, the programs

mounted in performance by

bands and choruses under

the direction of music teacher Dave

Lockwood have been wonderfully

and reliably eclectic, ranging

through a rainbow of musical gen-

res and styles.

Currently Mr. Lockwood is on

sabbatical, but the tradition of a lit-

tle something for everyone contin-

ues under this year’s music teacher,

Matt LaRocca. The composers fea-

tured in a November School Night

performance by the band and cho-

rus ranged from Chopin to Jimi

Hendrix. The performances were all

different, and—at the same time—

uniformly excellent. �

Music

THESE DAYS TIGERWoods and other publicity-

shy public figures might find Neil Simon’s

play Rumors funnier than ever—or they might

not. The play describes what ensues when several

affluent and prominent couples arrive at a New York

suburban party, only to discover that the hostess is

missing and the host (the deputy mayor of New York

City) has shot himself through the earlobe. The

guests decide that, first and foremost, the evening’s

misadventures have to be kept out of the newspapers,

and then things really start going wrong.

But everything went right with theater director

Monique Devine’s production of the play in October.

Lead roles were played by Dillon Corkran ’10,

Kristen Walters ’10, Dylan Zimmermann ’10, Charlie

Poulin ’11, Brette Harrington ’10, Nick Cushing ’10,

Lucy Copeland ’10, Jeff Wasson ’10, Jeff Gordon-

Johnson ’10, Jack Hyslip ’10, and Will Hoeschler

’10. And rumor has it that they did a splendid job. �

Not the way we planned it,

and (shh) don’t tell anyone.Drama

All the

way

from

Chopin

to

Hendrix.

MattLaRocca

Will Hoeschler ’10 performs the lead vocal onthe combined band and chorus’s version of the“The Devil Went Down to Georgia.”

Above, seniorsKristen Walters andWill Hoeschler; left,Lucy Copeland ’10.


FAMED POTTER Hideaki Miyamura brought an astonish-

ing collection of ceramic work to the Edwards Art

Gallery in October—work that benefits from

Miyamura’s experiments in creating glazes that, as he says,

“have never been made before.”

Their inspiration, however, derives from some very old

glazes, specifically those Tenmoku glazes used on Chinese

tea bowls from the 12th and 13th century Sung Dynasty.

“These are very rare glazes, which no one has been able to

reproduce,” Miyamura explained. “This set me on my own

quest to experiment and create new iridescent glazes that

have a three-dimensional quality and speak to an inner feel-

ing of purity and peacefulness.”

The New Hampshire-based potter was born in Japan

but educated in the United States. After college he returned

to Japan to apprentice himself for five years to master potter

Shurei Miura of Yamanashi. There, after experiments with

over ten thousand test pieces and countless formulas,

Miyamura developed the stunning and unique glazes that

have since built him an international reputation.

He calls these glazes Yohen Tenmoku. “Yohen” literal-

ly means “stars glistening in a night sky,” and they come in

varieties that Miyamura’s Wikipedia entry describes as “a

compelling gold glaze, the ‘starry night’ glaze on a black

background, and a blue hare’s fur glaze.”

Beneath those glazes, Miyamura’s pieces are high-fire

porcelain clay in forms that suggest a classical grace and

simplicity. “I am very conscious of the ways in which form

interacts with the space around it,” he said. “I want my

pieces to feel in balance with their environment, to feel as

though they co-exist naturally with their surroundings.”

Miyamura’s work is collected by individuals, corpora-

tions, and museums all over the world. These museums

include, among others, the Art Institute of Chicago, the

Carnegie Museum, The Sackler Museum at Harvard, the

Minneapolis Museum of Art, the Israel Museum, and the

American Craft Museum, as well as the Pucker Gallery in

Boston. �

THE ART BORN of exile was on

display in the Edwards Art

Gallery last September. “I’m

building up layers of marks that

suggest impermeability, restriction,”

says Dana Velan of works that are

done on paper with oil sticks and

mixed media. “The flags [in one

piece] are red and they are collaged

on to the drawings. They carry the

numbers corresponding to my termi-

nated visas, and some of them have

my fingerprints. My specific experi-

ences with these termination draw-

ings have begun to transform into

other issues of rejection, expulsion,

exile, loss, and

identity.”

Born in

Bratislava,

Czechoslovakia,

Ms. Velan fled the

country during the

political turmoil of 1968. She ended

up in Canada, which is where she

began her training and career in art.

She started out as a printmaker,

but soon moved on to drawings,

one-of-a-kind books, and three-

dimensional mixed media pieces.

Her work has been exhibited

throughout Canada and the

Northeast, as well as at galleries in

New York, Chicago, Italy, and the

Czech Republic.

And she came herself to this

show’s opening on September 18th.

She showed slides and discussed her

work in all-school assembly that

Friday morning.

“My art work is shaped by

many influences that come directly

from my life experiences and back-

ground,” she said. “Folk tales, polit-

ical upheaval, family suicide, and

rebirth.” �

Loss and identity: Dana

Velan’s quest for home.

Edwards Art Gallery

Hideaki

Miyamura’s

supernatural

glazes

Salamarie Frazier ’12,Kiara Boone ’11, and GinaOgirri ’10 confront one ofDana Velan’s emotion-packed drawings.

Hideaki Miyamuraspeaks to students infront of his exhibit inEdwards. Art teacherKathryn Field looks on.


Service

HOMELESSNESS IS as much a rural as it

is an urban malaise, and that’s all the

more true in times of double-digit

unemployment. In 1989 the town of

Plymouth converted a two-bedroom home on

Green Street into a homeless shelter, and

with the help of the local Community Action

Program (CAP) and a number of local busi-

nesses, churches, and individuals, that mod-

est house was succeeded in 2005 by the

Bridge House, a spacious facility located on

the grounds of the Whole Village Family

Resource Center.

Holderness students have been regular

visitors to the Bridge House to help with

construction and repairs, deliver food, and

provide childcare. This year the Bridge

House came to Holderness, or at least sever-

al families did so in early December.

The visitors came to Weld Hall to join

faculty and students in “the making of the

greens,” which is a necessary prerequisite to

the Hanging of the Greens in the Chapel

each year. Children from the Bridge House

worked side by side with

Holderness students to

decorate cookies and

make Christmas cards

and ornaments. In the

meantime their parents

created wreaths.

“It was a time for

family, friends, candy, hot

chocolate, and snow,”

said Head of School Phil

Peck. “And it was a great

way to kick off the holi-

day season.” �

Bridge House

THESE ARE TOUGH TIMES ALL over for social programs, which

have suffered a series of cuts in the downturn, and one such

program is Meals for

Many, a community organization

that helps local folks who are

down on their luck to get regular

and nutritious meals.

At Holderness, students may

fulfill their community service

requirement by helping out with

the Meals for Many program for

one semester, and last

November—as Thanksgiving

approached—the Plymouth

branch of the program received

some extra help. Faculty mem-

bers and students donated several boxes of food items to the

Community Closet pantry, and over $150 to the cause. Then

Meals for Many students accompanied Janice Pedrin-Nielson

(the faculty coordinator for service programs at Holderness) to

the supermarket, where they bought peanut butter, rice, and

tuna fish to supplement the food distributed to local families.

The experience left these students a little more under-

standing of others and their needs, and helped a number of

local families meet the challenges of the current economic cli-

mate. �.

Meals for Many

IT’S BECOME an annual

event, and a chance for

good high school ath-

letes to test their skills in

coaching and youth leader-

ship. Once again the varsi-

ty field hockey and soccer

teams invited younger

boys and girls from

Plymouth and Holderness

to join them on the prac-

tice field for an afternoon

in October.

Holderness players

matched up with aspiring

youngsters and went

through a comprehensive

set of drills and skill-build-

ing games. Over two after-

noons, more than sixty

local kids came to the

Holderness fields. Later

that month the boys varsity

soccer team also collabo-

rated with Plymouth State

University’s men’s team in

a skills clinic for younger

players. �

Sport Clinics

Around the Quad

Quinn Houseman, the son of sciencedepartment chair Randy Houseman, gotin on the action.

Mee Wong U-Railkertun ’10,Ruhao Xin ’12,Duong Ha Duyen’10, and ThaiDao ’12 wereamong thosewho went shop-ping for othersbeforeThanksgiving.

MarissaPendergast ’10was one of the

students makingdecorations withfamilies from the

Bridge House.

Extra help in the making

of the Xmas greens.

Holderness

athletes

coach up

young

soccer and

field

hockey

players.

Faculty and students help stock the pantry

of Plymouth’s Meals for Many program.


Community

ONE OF THE GREAT advantages of an inde-

pendent school, and particularly an inde-

pendent boarding school, is the diversity

of its student body. Students of different races,

ethnicities, and cultures learn of necessity how to

live, learn, and work together.

Which is not to say that it’s easy, or that any

school—including Holderness—couldn’t do better

in meshing its various populations. In fact build-

ing a stronger, more encompassing sense of com-

munity is one of the prime objectives of the

school’s current strategic plan, and to help with

that Ms. Randy Ross visited the campus after

Thanksgiving to spend a day with the faculty.

Randy is an equity specialist at Brown

University’s New England Equity Assistance

Center, and her talk that day focused on “cultural

competence”—a concept that gathers up not only

a clear grasp of the differences between race, eth-

nicity, and culture, but also the process by which

an adolescent shapes his or her identity in the con-

text of those realities and also a boarding school

environment.

“It was a provocative conversation, touching

all that we do, from our academic curriculum to

our athletic fields, our dorm rooms to our own

identified ‘cultural norms,’” said Phil Peck. “Our

hope is that this and similar programs will help us

to provide a safe and thoughtful environment for

all members of our community, regardless of their

backgrounds and experiences.” �

Diversity

THINGS ARE also hap-

pening at the student

level as the school

lays particular emphasis on

strengthening its shared

sense of community. Much

of it is thanks to TODAY—

Together in Our Diversity

And Youth—which is a

more-fun sort of name for

the Cultural Alliance Club.

In November, TODAY

sponsored their first movie,

dessert, and discussion event

in the Hagerman Auditorium.

The optional event was open

to all students and faculty

and was centered around a

showing of Outsourced, a

2007 film about a Seattle call

center manager who is fired

and then dispatched to India

to train his own replacement.

That film is a comedy,

but it’s smart enough to earn

a New York Times Critic’s

Pick honor and to raise chal-

lenging questions about cul-

ture, identity, class, and the

global economy. A number of

those questions were voiced,

and thoughtfully explored, in

the discussion that followed

the film. �

Brown University’s Randy Ross maps out

the learning curve of cultural competence

at boarding schools.

TODAY at the movies with Outsourced.

EquityspecialistRandyRoss

A gatheringof TODAY


LAST SEPTEMBER the school

enjoyed a visit from Edric

A. Weld, Jr., the son of

the school’s sixth headmaster,

The Rev. Edric Weld. The

younger Edric arrived

with his daughter Leisa.

He spent the morning

touring the place where

he and his siblings—

Chris, Kent, and Mary

Anne—grew up, and

where he and Chris went to

school during a time when the

head’s residence was located

where the Ford family now lives

in Livermore Hall.

Then Edric met with

archivist Judith Solberg and

offered up a number of stories

about life at Holderness in the

’30s and ’40s, with several of

them shedding new light on

Holderness history. �

BUILDING A community, of course,

involves more than just meeting the

challenges and opportunities of

diversity. There are also the challenges—

and opportunities—of technology.

Ellyn Weisel ’86, who is also a mem-

ber of the school’s Board of Trustees, has

helped build a thriving initiative that

addresses just that issue. She is the Director

of Outreach and Philanthropy for Common

Sense Media, a non-profit organization that

provides information to parents and schools

about any and all media of interest to young

people.

In an October all-school assembly, Ms.

Weisel spoke of the gap between “digital

natives” (today’s students, in other words,

who have never known a world without

computers, cell phones, and the internet)

and “digital immigrants” (the parents and

teachers who often struggle to understand

these new media). She provided a pop quiz

that effectively demonstrated the breadth of

that gap, and then offered some eloquent

thoughts about why learning to use technol-

ogy responsibly is as crucial as learning

how to use it effectively.

She was followed on stage by School

Counselor Carol Dopp and Director of

Communications Steve Solberg. Their por-

tion of the assembly was titled “Five Things

You Should Know Before Hitting Send,”

and focused on the various consequences—

emotional, social, and legal—of misusing

such tools and media as email, cell phones,

and texting. “A simple mistake can have

long-ranging effects,” said Mr. Solberg,

“sometimes dramatically out of proportion

to the actions taken.”

The rich opportunities of these

devices, however, also extend into the artis-

tic realm. Text messages have a limit of 160

characters, and a new form of poetry is

starting to bubble up from the shorthand

routinely used by texters. That week the

school mounted the 160 Poetry Contest for

the best poem that could fit into a text mes-

sage.

Finally there were two winners:

Christian Daniell ’12 and Julia Capron ’10,

who had their poems presented in that

assembly, and who each received $20 gift

certificates to Biederman’s Deli in

Plymouth. You can read Christian’s poem

above.�

Technology

Al th slpls nits

Spnt pndrin th **

Like <3 in spring

You blve itll last 4ever

But soon ths <3 freezes over

Your lft 2 ponder the **

like dstant city lights

- Christian Daniell

Around the Quad

Community

Prize textpoets JuliaCapron ’10 andChristianDaniell ’12.

Holdernesshistory

Edric Weld ’42 takes another

walk across the Quad.

Edric Weld ’42, withhis daughter Leisa,right, came back tohis roots and enrichedour sense of history.

RU a digital native or a

digital immigrant? And

can U write a poem in

160 characters or less?Ellyn PaineWeisel ’86


ONE MORE STEP was taken this fall in a long-run-

ning tradition of excellence, one unmatched in

New England Prep School Athletic Conference

play: the Holderness field hockey team qualified for

its 18th consecutive post-season tournament.

“This year’s squad doesn’t have a star, per

se, but has many talented players who have learned

to trust each other on and off the field,” said coach

Doonie Brewer in an article that appeared in the

Lakes Region’s Citizen newspaper (“Holderness

field hockey advances in 18th straight tourney,”

11/20/09). “Team dynamics have played a major role

in our success. As always, the fan support, both

home and away, has been a terrific source of motiva-

tion for the girls as well.”

Third-seeded Holderness endured an open-

ing round nail-biter against the Dana Hall School in

a game not decided until the end of the second over-

time period on a goal by Charlotte O’Leary ’11.

Then the Bulls dominated second-seeded Millbrook ,

3-0, before falling in the finals to top-seeded

Kimball Union Academy, 2-0.

It was the Bulls’ ninth appearance in the

NEPSAC finals since 1992. During that time

Holderness has won the title four times. �

Field Hockey

AT THE AGE of 32, after

having grown up in a

middle-class white family,

writer/actor Michel Fosberg dis-

covered he was black. “Imagine

discovering you are not the per-

son you thought you were,”

Fosberg writes, “that you have a

family, a history, an ethnicity you

never knew. How would this dis-

covery impact your life, the lives

of those around you; your vision

of yourself and society?”

Those questions receive very

personal sorts of answers in

Incognito, the solo performance

piece that Mr. Fosberg has per-

formed in theaters, high schools,

colleges, and performing arts cen-

ters throughout the country—a

production chosen by the Chicago

Tribune as “one of the top theatri-

cal events of the 2001 season.”

In September Incognito came

to Holderness, where it served

both as an engrossing work of art

and an important point of dia-

logue in the school’s diverse com-

munity.

“We’ve reached a place now

where we as a country have

become polarized,” Mr. Fosberg

said during the school-wide dis-

cussion that followed his perform-

ance. “Light-skinned people fear

talking about race. Or at least

they’re too careful, trying to avoid

saying something that could be

considered offensive, and thus

avoiding any possibility of a truly

open dialogue. There are many

dark-skinned people, on the other

hand, who are waiting to pounce

on any language that they consid-

er racist. We need to give one

another permission and space to

have a real dialogue about race.

Until we do, we can’t and won’t

make any progress on this impor-

tant issue.” �

Dialogue

Michael Fosberg, who discovered one

day that he was black, performs his play

Incognito for the school community.

Eighteen post-season appearances

in a row for this proud program,

and nearly another crown. Sports One second after the

game-winning goalagainst Dana Hall.

Michael Fosberg with aphoto of his natural parents.


ABREATH OF MOUNTAIN air—a big

breath—came to the 2009 fall athletic

assembly, where the guest speaker was

Chris Davenport—the 1996 world extreme-ski-

ing champion, and more lately the author of Ski

the 14ers, a record in text and stunning photog-

raphy of an extraordinary feat in extreme ski-

ing: Chris’s alpine descents, in a single calen-

dar year, of all 54 of Colorado’s 14,000-foot

peaks.

“Chris Davenport’s skill and audacity on

skis is matched by his firm respect for moun-

taineering history and steadfast devotion to the

ideals of boldness, tenacity, and commitment,”

commented fellow alpinist Michael Kennedy in

the feat’s aftermath. “In skiing all of Colorado’s

Fourteeners in a single year he’s pointed the

way to an adventurous future—and by sharing

his and his companions’ experiences in this

book, Chris has not only done justice to the

efforts of his forebears but inspired generations

to come.”

Chris’s appearance on campus did much to

inspire this generation. “I didn’t always appre-

ciate Holderness when I was sitting in your

seats,” he said to the students. “Today, howev-

er, I realize that I was so fortunate to have this

experience, and it has empowered me, and will

empower you, to do anything you want, if you

apply what you learned.” �

Extreme Skiing

WHILE JULIA FORD ’08 continues to post

great results as a member of the US

Ski Team’s development squad, her

younger sister Lily ’12 has also caught the

attention of that organization. So has Sam

Macomber ’11. Both were among the sixty or so

junior alpine racers from across the nation invit-

ed to the National Development System’s camp

in Beaver Creek, Colorado, in December.

“These skiers earned invites after strong

performances in their age-group championships

last season,” said alpine coach Craig Antonides

’77. “This is a great early season training oppor-

tunity and a chance to train at one of the finest

speed venues in America.” �

Alpine Skiing

IN SEVERAL respects, the 14th annual

Tabor Day went better than expect-

ed from a Holderness perspective.

The driving rain forecast that day for

southern Massachusetts went inland

instead, and all of the games were

close, with most decided by a single

goal.

The bad news was that those close

scores went almost entirely Tabor’s

way. Tabor Head of School (and former

Holderness English teacher) Jay Stroud

proudly hoisted the Tabor Day trophy

after his school came out ahead 7-1 in

the game tally. But it was really a lot

closer than that.

Nonetheless it was a very good

day. “The folks at Tabor were great

hosts,” said Phil Peck, “providing deli-

cious food, wonderful facilities, and a

high level of competition.” �

Tabor Day

Around the Quad

Sports The 14th annual

Tabor Day series

won by the host

school— Tabor.

Phil Peck andJay Stroud.

Chris Davenport ’89

at the fall athletic

assembly: “This

experience has

empowered me.”

The speakerand skierwith, from theleft, seniorsErica Hamlin,MorganMarkley,Aubrey Tyler,and AndreaFisher.

Two racers invited to US Development

Team’s December skills camp.

SamMacomber ’11and Lily Ford ’12.


Sports

Fall 2009: TheSeason in Review

Cross-Country RunningThe varsity cross-country team ran its way to another fun

and successful season! It was a big team again this year—

some 25 strong—and was led by a large corps of seniors.

Despite illness during the Lakes Region championship meet,

the girls managed to win the league title again this year, with

help from seniors Andrea Fisher, Ji Eun Sung and Sarah

Clarkson. The boys, led by senior captain Scott Nelson and

bolstered by first-year senior Kody Spencer and junior Sam

Macomber, also overcame illness and injury to earn a third-

place finish in the Lakes Region.

In addition to great success during competition, we

always managed to have a good time. Whether it was long

distance training on Mondays, speed and hill workouts on

Fridays, or dinner at Coach Magnus’ beautiful home, we

found each other great company. We will miss all of our grad-

uating seniors, but we anticipate another successful season

next year behind a bumper crop of young talent.

By Mike Carrigan

Field HockeyDespite having nine returning letter-winners, this year’s varsi-

ty field hockey squad felt “new.” Carrying a relatively large

roster of twenty, the team also included seven players making

the jump from JV, two joining the program from another

sport, one new student, and one one-year international player.

However, the feeling was “new” also because of the leader-

ship of captains M.J. Germanos, Erika Johnson, and Gabbie

Raffio. They responded to a challenge and assembled an

incredibly cohesive group of young ladies.

That solidarity propelled these players to achieve more

than they dreamed they could. With a record of 10-4, we were

invited to the NEPSAC tournament. This was when the team

peaked, defeating Dana Hall on our home turf in double over-

time and coming away with a decisive victory against

Millbrook in the semifinal game. Although we “got the sil-

ver,” we were all thrilled to have made our way to the New

England championship game.

By Doonie Brewer

The JV field hockey team had an amazing season! Captains

Margaret Thibadeau and Betsey Pettitt led the team to a 6-3-4

record. Although the season

brought cold weather and biting

rain, the Lady Bulls weren’t

deterred! As the year progressed,

each practice and game brought

the team together both physically

and mentally.

New athletes such as Kendra

Morse helped establish a success-

ful season as a first-time goalie.

Returning defender Emery Durnan

and new players Iashai Stephans

and Salamarie Frazier helped to

make Holderness’ defense a daunt-

ing force. Forwards and mids such

as Eliza Cowie, Bee Crudgington,

Sarah Fauver, Xajaah Williams-

Flores, Sarah Stride, and Kiara

Boone worked continuously to

score goals. Not many teams can

2009 cross-country cap-tain ScottNelson ’10

GOAL!! for CharlotteO’Leary ’11 (5) at the endof double-overtime againstDana Hall in the NEPSACsemi-finals. She’s about to

get hugs from ErikaJohnson ’10 (25), ChuckieCarbone ’11 (1), and Juliet

Dalton ’11 (8).


Sports

say that every member of the team contributed to the

whole’s triumphs and tribulations, especially with twenty-

five athletes, yet this team can. Coaches Magalhães and

Smarse along with coaches Dopp, Dahl, and Lewis are

proud of them all!

By Katie Smarse ’04

FootballThe 2009 varsity football team ended the season 5-3. Once

again the Evergreen League proved to be the premier foot-

ball league in New England. For the second straight year,

three league teams made it to New England Bowl games.

The offense put up some impressive numbers this

year. The Bulls averaged 225 yards rushing and 190 yards

passing per game. The Bulls outscored their opponents

176-127. The offense was led by junior QB Mac Caputi

and senior RB Sean Harrison. Caputi’s key targets were

sophomore Tyquan Ekejiuba, juniors Jamie McNulty and

Carson Houle, and senior Nate McBeath. The defense was

anchored by seniors Nate Gonya, Sean Harrison, and Kyle

Kenney. Highlights of the season were beating higher -

ranked Tilton School 30-21, and just missing upsetting

KUA, 19-12. The Bulls earned a lot of respect in New

England this season and are looking forward to the 2010

campaign.

By Rick Eccleston ’92

Holderness JV football had an excellent year of fun and

competitive growth. For some reason the team did not

begin playing until they spotted the opponent two touch-

downs. This idiosyncrasy allowed for two very exciting

comeback victories, one on Parents’ Weekend versus the

Seacoast Titans, 22-12 and the other a hard fought revenge

match with Tilton, 32-22.

Coach’s Award-winner Brendan Madden represents

the hard work ethic and positive spirit of the team. James

Fredrickson won the Most Improved award, and he repre-

sents the fun-loving attitude of the team.

By Duane Ford ’74

Mountain BikingThis fall cross-country riding made up the majority of the

outings for the mountain-bike team, but the athletes

insisted on seeking out the

most technical of trails—

those with natural drops or

built features. The highlight

of the season was our trip to

Vermont’s Kingdom Trails,

where we joined up with a

professional mountain biker

for instruction in dirt jump-

ing and indoor park riding.

In their sole race, the

team secured a second place

result out of nine teams

competing. In the A

Division, Jordan Cargill

(next year’s captain) made

his mark, coming in second,

and captain Brian Friedman

placed sixth in a field of thirteen riders. In the B Division,

Alex Obregon came in fourth place out of sixteen riders. In

the C Division, Most Improved biker Dewey Knapp topped

the field of 35 racers, followed closely by Oliver Nettere.

Nick Goodrich and Coach’s Award recipient Peter Ferrante

added to the team score with their eleventh and twelfth-

place finishes, respectively.

By Tiaan van der Linde ’89

SoccerThe boys varsity soccer team finished with a 6-7-2 record.

This was disappointing, as we may have made the playoffs

with one or two more wins, and we certainly had those

chances. With the exception of the Bridgton loss, we

matched up well against our opponents in a reasonably

tough schedule. In many games we controlled possession

but struggled to finish on scoring opportunities. An early

season 1-1 tie with Andover was a good example of the

team playing up to its potential.

Finding consistency was a challenge that will be a

goal for the underclassmen who return to the squad next

year. Post-season recognition included Christian Allen, sen-

ior GK, getting the Most Improved Award for four years of

progress in the program. The Coach’s Award went to Thany

Alexander for his steady effort and play. The Weston Lea

Spirit Award goes to senior Dylan Zimmermann. Senior co-

captain Francis Ahia represented the Bulls at the All–Star

game.

By Craig Antonides ’77

The boys JV1 soccer team had a great season this year,

finishing with a respectable 8-5-2 record. We started off the

season hot, going on a five-game unbeaten streak, includ-

Quarterback MacCaputi ’11 passedfor 190 yards pergame for the Bulls.

Nick Goodrich ’11 out on oneof the team’s several cross-country rides.


ing a 3-2 win against Exeter. There were many exciting

games, such as the first match-up against KUA, where despite

the 3-2 loss, the boys played excellently for 80 minutes. In

our second match-up against KUA, we tied 2-2, showing

improvement over the season. One team we beat 4-2 in the

beginning of the season, and then we shut them out at the end

of the season.

While early on we were hunting for an undefeated sea-

son, the boys showed strength in overcoming much adversity

with all the sickness and injuries that kept key players out of

the line-up. My hope and expectation is that a number of

these boys train hard in the off-season and make it onto varsi-

ty next year.

By Mike Peller

The 2009 boys JV2 soccer team put smiles on faces all sea-

son long and, whether playing at home or away, these boys

worked hard to improve and learn, and they all grew through-

out the season. They had many memorable games against the

usual foes. It was their weekly scrimmages against the girls

JV teams or their own big brothers (the JV1 boys) that

brought out their best, however. Scheduled as a way to shake

up the monotony of the weekly practice schedule, these con-

tests typically elevated the play of all combatants and proved

to be the stone upon which the Deuce sharpened their skills,

and they were a better team for the experience.

In all, the team won as many as they lost. It will be the

shared laughter and camaraderie, more than the record, that

the boys will likely remember about their season with the

Deuce.

By Chris Day

The girls varsity soccer team had a tough season plagued

with sickness and injury. For the last three weeks of the sea-

son there was not a day when the entire squad was healthy.

Nonetheless, the team rallied and put forth incredible efforts

in all the matches they played.

The team was led by two amazing captains, Ashleigh

Boulton and Abby Alexander, and their leadership this season

set an amazing tone for all members of the team. Two other

seniors were also great role models for the younger players:

Jenn Cameron and Ashby Sussman. All four seniors will be

greatly missed next year. There is a large group of underclass-

men who have lots of soccer left in them and they are setting

the stage for serious success in the future.

By Margot Moses

Although the 2009 girls JV1 soccer season could be charac-

terized by waves of illness and injury, it was one of our most

successful seasons with a record of 10-2-1. Our team cap-

tains—Julia Canelas, Kristen Walters, and Caroline Walsh—

kept the motivation and enthusiasm for soccer alive until the

final minute of the final game.

Radvile Autukaite won the team’s Most Improved

award. New to the game of soccer, Radvile stepped in as our

goalkeeper, showing her athleticism by only allowing eight

goals against her all season. Caroline Walsh won the Coach’s

Award due to her leadership on and off the field, and her will-

ingness to help at all times. We would like to thank all of the

JV2 girls that stepped in to help us field a team when our

numbers were low. Although we will be losing five seniors,

we foresee a very promising JV1 squad emerging next fall!

By Jean Henchey

This fall was a great time for the girls JV2 soccer team,

which had a fantastic year and finished with a record of 7-2-

2. Despite the onset of illness and injuries, the team had an

impressive season marked by consistent improvement in

every player. Captain Yejin

Hwang led a solid defense

that included Hannah

Weiner, Haleigh Weiner, and

Lauren Stride. Behind them

in the net, keeper Jazzy

Young let in only ten goals

all season. Our other cap-

tain, Pippa Blau, led an

impressive offense, fronted

by strikers Lizzie Legere

and Katie Leake.

The girls capped off a

great season with a thrilling

victory against Tabor

Academy during Tabor Day,

in which they played their

best soccer of the year. They

won by a score of 8-0,

which included goals by six

different players. I thank all

of the girls for their hard

work and enthusiasm, which

made for a great season.

By Matt LaRocca �

Co-captain AbbyAlexander ’10rallied her teamthrough an injury-plagued season.

Coach’s Award winner Thany Alexander ’12 brought consistency and effort to every practice and game.


Update: Faculty & Staff

WHAT A GREAT LIFE I have lived," she frequently told friends

and family. Karen Pettitt was the mother of three wonderful

children—Adam Leslie Pettitt, Tyson Rudolph Perz Pettitt,

and Betsey Ann Pettitt.

Her family was her life. She had them involved in church and

sports programs like hockey, soccer, lacrosse, nordic skiing, field

hockey, cycling, crew, and golf. Karen seldom missed an opportunity

to be at a contest to cheer on their teams.

One of her favorite events each year was The Prouty day in

Hanover, NH, a walk/run or ride by individuals and teams like the

Holderness Bull Riders—which she captained in recent years—to

raise money for cancer research at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical

Center. It was "her special day" because it meant that cures for cancer

like hers might be found sooner.

Her diagnosis with ovarian cancer in 2002 began the seven-year

fight she waged to beat the disease. That battle was conducted with

clear resolve and a cheery outlook. She died on Saturday, August 15,

the seventeenth anniversary of her marriage to husband, Reggie. �

ST. PAUL WROTE IN his letter to the Philippians:

“I press on toward the goal for the prize of the

heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.” Karen

Pettitt’s prize is to live in the presence of a

loving God and the thoughts I offer now might

be described as a symbolic verbal wreath—the ancient

prize of ancient competitors to symbolize, in green, the

glory that never

fades.

“I press on,”

Paul wrote, “for-

getting what lies

behind.”

Karen, without

a doubt, pressed

on. Both she and

Reggie had lost a

former spouse

when they met.

Their love for

each other

embraced

Reggie’s son

Adam, Karen’s

son Tyson, and brought forth Betsy, our school classmate.

Karen’s cancer arrived in the midst of the school years—

of Reggie as our colleague, and of Adam, Tyson, and

now, Betsey, as Holderness School kids.

To Karen’s eternal credit, she lived with cancer, she

never succumbed to it. She pressed on with care. As a

daughter and as a son, she and Reggie cared for ailing

fathers a number of years back—one with cancer, the

other dealing with by-pass surgery. And she managed to

care for home and family through and beyond the illness-

es of her own.

Karen had a no-nonsense approach to her life. She

A Wreath for Karen

In Memoriam: Karen Pettitt, 1956-2009

Her family was her life: “Whata great life I have lived.”

Karen Pettitt, wife of scienceteacher Reggie Pettitt andformer staffer in the schoolstore, lost a long and valiantbattle with cancer last August.The memory of her courage,grace, and warmth will linger.

Chaplain Rich Weymouth ’70offered this eulogy for Karen ather memorial service this summer.

Both she and Reggie had lost a former

spouse when they met. Their love for

each other embraced Reggie’s son

Adam, Karen’s son Tyson, and brought

forth Betsey, our school classmate.

Karen, left, appeared atthe Prouty Run lastsummer with teachersFrank and Susie Cironeand their children. Karen with

her daughterBetsey in

1993.


PHOTOGRAPHY/CERAMICS teacher Franz Nicolay

and his spouse Henrieke Strecker were among

the artists featured this fall in an exhibit at the

St. Paul’s School’s Hargate Center Gallery.

The exhibit was called “Larger Than Life:

Manifestations of Portraiture and the Human

Figure,” and Franz contributed four pieces from his

“Encoded Truths” portrait series.

“In this work I create a studio environment in

which the sitter has the opportunity to speak with

someone in absentia, on still film, over a long timed

exposure,” Franz says about his portraits. “I invite

them to say something to that person that they have

previously been unable to express. I compose the

frame, hand them the cable release, and leave the

room—leaving them free to make their statement.

Sometimes we make a series of images, sometimes

we make just one.”

The resulting portraits, Franz adds, “are silent

tributes to this threshold experience of expression, a

pivot point of change. They carry the encoded voic-

ing of that razor-edge moment between the private

thought and its manifest expression to another.”

Henrieke contributed a multimedia piece,

“Pinhole Portrait of War,” that combined pinhole

photography and audio. �

carried on! She could laugh. She possessed and shared a radiant

smile, and her loyalty to family and friends was rock solid—as was

theirs to her. She was an avid sports fan, be it of field hockey,

cycling, nordic skiing, or lacrosse. Where the games and races

went, so did she. Even recently, while battling illness, she would

marshal her waning energies to watch Adam, down at the Ledbetter

Golf Academy in Florida, as he wended his way around the course

in pursuit of his PGA card. She went to Philadelphia to support

Tyson compete on the Schuykill against elite oarsmen. And she

attended races here at school as Betsy competed for the Bulls.

Karen loved the White Mountains and Squam Lake. Summers

were treasured on Shepherd Hill and Grapevine Cove. Just weeks

before she died, one of her prize moments, even amidst great

weakness, was to float, in the cove, on the lake, surrounded by

family. She cherished that time and lived it—spirit full and grate-

ful, ever appreciative of the gift of life.

She offered quality work in our bookstore and, in her time

working with Gail Stevens, she helped it to become a school store

and not just a place for books. Karen devoted herself to work,

places, and persons alike. She battled to maintain happy holidays at

home. She gave great support to Reggie on his sabbatical two

years ago, but remained in Ashland to facilitate Betsy’s start at

Holderness. She wanted Reggie to learn and appreciate all that he

could, to stay excited—and for Betsy to succeed. She more than

accomplished both!

Finally, Karen had guts. She was an avid supporter of cancer

research and made it to the Prouty Ride amidst illness and weak-

ness this past spring. Supported by able “pushers,” she was

wheeled through the 5 K and she loved it! Even at her end,

Karen’s care and tenacity were strong. She did not want her final

moments to be in the hospital at Dartmouth Hitchcock, nor did she

want to be at home. She wanted to get to Concord and finish there

in hospice care. And she did! She was surrounded by family. She

never gave up and was always thankful for life and for her loved

ones.

We give thanks for Karen as daughter, wife, mother, friend,

colleague and caregiver. She pressed on and her wreath is well

won! Amen. �

That Razor-Edge MomentFranz Nicolay’s contributions toan exhibit of portraiture at St.Paul’s Hargate Gallery were infact shot by his subjects. But hedid the rest of the work.

These four piecesfrom Franz Nicolay’s“Encoded Truths”portrait series were ondisplay at St. Paul’s.


DO YOU REMEMBER how peculiar the

ads were in LIFE Magazine’s early

issues? Did you miss Robert Frost’s

final two readings at Middlebury College in

the 1960s? Are you curious about what’s

really going on with the animals in your

backyard? And how does someone else cope

with an older sibling, anyway?

There’s at least one good story in the

answer to each of those questions, and

famed storyteller Jim Brewer knows how to

tell it. He’ll be making his 18th—and

final—appearance at the Corner House Inn’s

Storytelling Dinner Program in Center

Sandwich on Thursday, December 3rd.

Jim began his storytelling career at the

Pasquaney Inn on Newfound Lake in 1985.

At that time he was still in the midst of his

first career as a legendary English teacher at

Holderness School and Phillips Exeter

Academy. After he retired from teaching, he

became increasingly well-known as a story-

teller, performing at area schools and camp-

grounds, heading up the US Forest Service’s

“Woods in Winter” storytelling program,

and leading a storytelling group for

Dartmouth’s Institute for Life-Long

Education.

“As a backyard naturalist, Jim is as

knowledgeable and insightful as any field

biologist,” says Sandwich author Rick

Carey, who has heard a lot of Jim’s stories.

“He’s equally good as an observer of human

nature, and he puts it all together into won-

derful around-the-campfire narratives that

make you laugh as much as they pull at

your heart.”

At the Corner House Jim will tell sto-

ries that will range between his popular

“critter tales,” his life growing up with an

older sister, and storytelling itself as it was

practiced in LIFE’s advertising pages and

by the great Robert Frost at the end of his

life.

“The Corner House is a place that’s

popular with all sorts of storytellers,” Jim

says. “You’re guaranteed great audiences.”

�

Reprinted by permission from the Meredith

News, November 25, 2009

IWRITE TO REPORT with sadness the

death of André Gauthier, a

Fulbright Exchange teacher of

French at Holderness in 1959-

1960. M.. Gauthier, his wife

Claudine, and their children

Laurence and Sebastian, traded

places with the Fiore family for that

school year.

I reconnected with the Gauthiers

about ten years ago, and have visited

them three times since. Always the

teachers, André and Claudine would

help me plan my day each morning

over croissants and bowls of café au

lait. Each day I would be debriefed

in the evening over a five-course din-

ner (prepared by Claudine) and mul-

tiple bottles of wine from André’s

cellar. This would provide them

ample opportunity to continue my

education in French history and poli-

tics (both contemporary and colo-

nial), French, British and American

literature, and the French and English

languages.

André’s favorite cheese, by the

way, was Caprice des Dieux, which

he called Caprice des Vieux. And lit-

erature in English no longer interest-

ed him; he was now on to German.

Claudine says that she will continue

to live in the house that she and

André had built in a hillside orchard

overlooking the then quiet village of

Rosny-sous-Bois a few kilometers

east of Paris just before they came to

Holderness. �

By Fred Fauver ’62

Update: Former Faculty & Staff

Former English teacher Jim Brewer always told a good story, andhe continues to do so on a professional basis. He appeared at theCorner House Inn in Center Sandwich, NH, last December. Belowis a story on the event from the Meredith News.

Guaranteed

great stories

In Memoriam: André Gauthier

Claudine and André Gauthier, center, at theirhome in France. On the left is Fred Fauver ’62,and on the right is Fred’s daughter Alyson.

Always the teacher

André Gauthieras he apeared inthe 1960 Dial.

“As a backyard

naturalist, Jim is as

knowledgeable and

insightful as any

field biologist.”


Alumni Relations

BEGINNING WITH their class-organized

golf “tourney,” right on through to

their Celebration Dinner, the Class

of 1959 enjoyed their 50th Reunion with

gusto. The Reunion Committee of Dick

Floyd ’59, Jerry Ashworth ’59, Chris Palmer

’59, and Steve Barndollar ’59 pulled togeth-

er a record number of classmates and organ-

ized both a 50th Reunion Yearbook and a

delightful evening at Longhaul Farm. The

weekend’s activities wrapped up with lots of

shared memories and much expressed

appreciation for their experiences at

Holderness during the Celebration Dinner in

Weld Hall. We welcome them all back at

their earliest convenience! �

By Tracy White, Director of Alumni

Relations

Reunion #50! October

2-4,

2009Justin Orr was back for hisfirst reunion ever. Behindhim is an original print bylegendary art teacher HerbWaters. Below, a group ofclassmates hit the links atthe Owl’s Head golf course.

Jerry Ashworth and Chris Hoyt share aFriday night meal and some memoriesat the Longhaul Farm in Holderness.

Dick Floyd returned with threeother members of the HoldernessOctet, an a cappella singing groupwho still sound great, even as aquartet. Dick also had a copy of“Caught in the Oct,” an album theyrecorded in 1959. Later Phil Peckhonored Cushman Andrews for hisyears of steady support for theschool’s Annual Fund.


TheHoldernessAnnualFundSupporting students... one gift at a time.

The Holderness Annual Fund is the cornerstone of philanthropy for Holderness School,supporting every aspect of the school’s operations, from people to programs. Ten percentof every dollar spent in making the Holderness Experience possible comes directly fromthe Annual Fund. And, beginning July 1, 2010, you can choose how your gifts go to work forHolderness, its faculty, and its students. Thank you for your continued support.

DesignationsThe School’s Top PrioritiesFrom faculty salaries to financial aid, mini-vans to course materials, heating oil to lettuce for the salad bar, the school’s annualexpenses are diverse and real. We need your help to meet these critical and ongoing needs.

Faculty Support and Academic ProgramsThrough our academic program, we prepare our students not only toenter selective colleges, but also to live lives of curiosity, inquiry, andlearning. And it is through our faculty — a committed group ofadults teaching life lessons inside and outside the classroom — thatwe achieve these goals.

Athletics Our teams are known throughout New England for their high level ofplay and—at the varsity level—the frequency with which they qualifyfor post-season play. Yet we do not measure success by win-lossrecords or championships, but instead on the lessons learned throughcompetition: focus, commitment, responsibility, and sportsmanship.

The ArtsAs they explore the arts, students learn and develop their creativity,imagination, confidence, and resourcefulness. Whether through theperforming or visual arts, our students find and share thoughtful andpowerful pieces of themselves.

Financial AidStudents on financial aid—representing over 40% of the studentbody—bring unique talents, stories, and experiences to our communi-ty and to our classrooms. Financial aid makes this powerful opportu-nity available—both for them and for Holderness.

Special Programs The March Special Programs period is something uniquelyHolderness, as students learn lessons about themselves and theirworld through intense experiences in community service (ProjectOutreach), the arts (Artward Bound), the outdoors (Out Back), andthe classroom (Senior Colloquium and Senior Honors Thesis).

Student Leadership Leadership skills are developed through opportunity, practice, anddirection. Holderness provides students with all three through the JobProgram and a strong Student Leadership curriculum that permeatesthe Holderness Experience.

Advancement & External Affairs


Alumni in the News

Ideas

THINGS DIDN’T START well for David Cayley at

the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in

1971. He was done with Harvard, graduating

with honors in English in 1966. And he was

done with CUSO, a volunteer organization

often described as Canada’s answer to the Peace Corps

(though properly it’s the other way around, since CUSO is

the older organization). He had lived two years in a village

in northwestern Borneo, teaching in a secondary school that

had just switched from Chinese to English as its primary

language of instruction.

Then he came home to his birthplace, Toronto, where

he was uncertain about what direction to go next. In 1970

he acquired a friend who knew how to make radio pro-

grams, and with that friend’s help David recorded some-

thing that the CBC said they might be able to use: an inter-

view with Milton Acorn, a well-known Canadian poet of

the time.

At the end of the interview, however, David discov-

ered that the reel on his tape recorder had never moved.

“So I had to ask Acorn to repeat the entire procedure,”

David says, “which he graciously did, though he was

famously quite a rough diamond, and at other times quite

irascible.”

The interview was finally delivered, but it was never

aired. David’s first effort was not in vain, however. He

began freelancing often for the CBC that year, and in 1974

he landed a regular job as a story editor for a CBC morning

show in Vancouver. Eventually he became executive pro-

ducer and then host of that show.

“It was a way to finance a life-long education,” he

says about that and his subsequent career at the CBC. “I

came out of school without any focused academic ambition,

but with many curiosities. I soon found out that just about

anything I was interested in could become a radio program.

For example, I was very interested at the time in com-

munes, and for a CBC show called Identities I did a pro-

gram on such successful intentional communities as the

Canadian Mennonites and the Doukhobors, who are radical

Christians of Russian origin. That was followed by pro-

grams on agrarian reform and the labor movement, and so

on. I was in my element.”

Then, as now, one of the CBC’s flagship national pro-

grams was an interview show called Ideas. Think Fresh Air

With Terry Gross, but on a higher intellectual plane, enter-

taining scientists, philosophers, authors, and social critics.

Ideas dates back to 1964, or even earlier if you connect it

to certain predecessors, and it was one of the first shows to

which David had sold programs. In the early 1980s he

began to do regular work for Ideas. Today he is a contribut-

ing producer and something of a Canadian media institu-

tion.

By now David’s curiosities have been turned into a

number of books as well. Several are edited collections of

interviews on Ideas with figures such as

philosopher Ivan Illich, literary critic

Northrop Frye, and political theorist George

Grant. Others have to do with specific facets

of that curiosity, such as the role of the

Christian church in Western society

(The Rivers North of the Future,

Anansi Press, 2005) or the crisis in

North American prisons (The Expanding

Prison, Anansi Press, 1998).

His most recent book, published last

fall by Goose Lane Editions, is a collection of

interviews, Ideas on the Nature of Science,

which is itself a companion volume to the length-

iest series in Ideas broadcast history, “How to

Think About Science.”

“The idea for the series, then the book, came out

of a conversation with my executive producer,” says

David, who is the son of long-time Holderness English

teacher Ed Cayley. “We were talking about the way people

view science and scientists, and how that has changed over

the years. I remember when I was a boy at Holderness, for

example, I regularly saw an ad in a magazine that depicted

a grave-looking scientist in a white lab coat, and the ad

claimed that more scientists smoked Kent than any other

brand. Science has always had a considerable mystique

within our civilization, but recently a number of questions

have been raised about the dark side of science, and its

effect on our lives always seems to be intensifying.”

These changes and effects, and the ways in which sci-

ence has directed human thought and shaped society

throughout history, are considered in dialogue with a num-

ber of heralded scientists, rough and smooth diamonds

alike, among them biologist Richard Lewontin, sociologist

Ulrich Beck, anthropologist Margaret Lock, science histori-

an Simon Schaffer, and many more.

“The whole series ran for twenty-four shows,” David

says, “and it was also made available as a podcast. So lots

of people were able to listen at their convenience, which

also meant that they paid very serious attention. It was a

new quality of listening that I think was a boon to the

series.”

Meanwhile Ideas advances on to other theaters of the

intellect, and David continues his life-long tuition-free edu-

cation, reading and studying voraciously to prepare shows

about the hundreds of other things he is curious about.

And oh, yes—he still records his own interviews, and

still has to remember to release the pause button. �

Editor’s note: If you want to hear what David sounds like,

or else learn something more about science (or both),

sound files for “How to Think About Science” are still

available at www.cbc.ca/ideas/features.

A life-long educationProvided to David Cayley ’62 by the CanadianBroadcasting Corporation, his several bookpublishers, and his own insatiable curiosity.

“Science has

always had a

considerable

mystique

within our

civilization,

but recently

a number of

questions

have been

raised about

the dark side

of science.”


Service

IT WAS ONE OF THOSE “aha” moments,

followed immediately by a good idea.

“I noticed when our teacher said to

click in that everyone raised three hundred

identical i›clickers,” said Jessica Saba,

speaking to a reporter last October from

Boulder, Colorado’s CBS-TV affiliate.

Jess was describing the moment in her

sophomore year at CU-Boulder when the Clicker

Sticker was born. If you haven’t been to college in a

while, the i›clicker is a hand-held audience response

device used by students to help teachers gauge overall

understanding of their classroom material. The teacher

poses a multiple choice question, say, and each and

every student clicks in an answer. The teacher gets

instant feedback on the results and knows what’s sink-

ing in or not. Over one million students are now

required to bring i›clickers to class at some 700 col-

leges and universities across the United States.

But one mass-produced i›clicker looks just like

another. Jess had heard plenty of complaints from her

peers about losing attendance or credit points because

of lost or stolen i›clickers, and when she saw all those

identical clickers raised one day in journalism class,

she also saw that they didn’t have to be identical—and

so the Clicker Sticker was born.

Jessica created an adhe-

sive decal that fits the face of

the i›clicker, and hired an artist

to fashion seventeen different designs for the decal.

Her small business turned a profit in its first year, and

she now sells the stickers on-line (www.theclicker-

sticker.com) and in twenty bookstores in seven states.

And of course there’s a lot more market out there.

It’s worth noting that Jess has innovation in her

genes. Her grandfather is the inventor of the hospital

medical identification bracelet. “Saba still hits up her

grandpa for advice as her business grows,” said CBS

Channel Four, “but she credits his advice to sock away

cash for being able to execute her invention. She’s

never taken out a loan.” �

BECAUSE PAUL AND Louise Squibb saw

the Depression as a teaching opportuni-

ty, and because the California inde-

pendent school they founded continues to carry

that teaching forward so well, Will Graham ’72

got an award (and a handshake) from

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger

on September 30 in Los Angeles.

Will is the headmaster of the Midland

School, a co-ed boarding and day school of 90

located on a 2,860-acre working ranch in Santa

Barbara County. And the occasion was the

presentation of the 2009 Governor’s

Environmental and Economic Leadership

Award (GEELA), California’s most prestigious

environmental honor, at the Governor’s Global

Climate Summit 2. Fifteen organizations were

honored with GEELAs, but Midland was the

only school among them.

The Squibbs founded Midland in 1932.

“They saw in the lean economic times of the

Depression an opportunity to teach honest,

essential values within a rigorous academic

curriculum,” says Lise Goddard, the school’s

Director of Environmental Programs. “Their

genius was in making our relationships with

our resources transparent. Working to heat

shower water with wood fires, exploring the

outdoors and placing oneself on a topographic

map, washing community dishes, tending a

garden, or installing solar panels puts people in

the cycle of life and materials.”

For example, much of Midland’s food—

organic produce and grass-fed beef—is raised

in the school’s garden and pastures. For the

past six years, students have been adding solar

installations to the school’s power grid, to the

point where fifteen percent of the school’s

electricity needs are met by student-installed

arrays.

“This honor,” responded Will Graham,

“recognizes Midland School’s long-standing

commitment to develop well-educated college-

bound students who understand the connec-

tions between environmental protections and

social responsibility. Midland has an obligation

to our families and community to protect our

natural resources and environment for genera-

tions to come.”

In a note to Phil Peck, Will added, “My

daily work is still grounded in my Holderness

experience.” �

Alumni in the News

Ideas

Honest,

essential

values

The Midland School, headed by Will Graham ’72, claims California’smost prestigious environmental honor.

Will Graham, right,exchanges that handshakewith California GovernorArnold Schwarzenegger.

Got clicker? Need sticker!

Jess is at the far rightin this shot from lastfall’s alumni gatheringin Colorado.

Available in zebra, andmany other patterns.

Jessica Saba ’06had an ideathat’s clickingwith students allover the country.


FOR LAURA COTE, THE pivot point came very quietly

one day last spring at Holderness. She had just

learned that a friend of hers from home in

Massachusetts had gone off to a residential treatment pro-

gram for help with some sort of personal difficulty. She was

surprised by her own reaction to the news: sympathy, yes,

but also something else—envy.

That was because Laura was in the vise grip of her

own personal difficulty. She couldn’t be certain about the

when or why of its onset. Maybe it had begun once her sib-

lings went away to college, injecting a vacancy into her

family life that she felt powerless to control. The anorexia

began, perhaps, as an effort to reassert control, any sort of

control.

She left Concord to come to

Holderness as a junior in 2008—another

gesture of control, perhaps, but not one that

in any way reversed that spiral into what

she describes as “not just a disease, but an

addiction.” And in fact the disorder began to

increasingly control her.

Thankfully, that’s not the case now,

and this fall, in an all-school assembly,

Laura came back to Holderness to share—

with remarkable courage and aplomb—the

story of her struggle with anorexia. She was

diagnosed with the disease just before she

returned for her senior year, but by then the

diagnosis was not at all a surprise to Laura.

She returned here with certain medical

restrictions, one of which that she maintain

a certain minimum weight in order to par-

ticipate in sports. She ran cross-country, but

struggled to keep up her weight. One week

she could run; the next week she couldn’t. Her friends and

teammates wondered why, but Laura found herself power-

less to explain. That pattern continued into the nordic ski

season. Finally she quit the ski team, an event that her

friends found even more

Laura Cote ’09returns toHolderness todescribe herstruggle with“not just a disease, but anaddiction.”

AS I STARE INTO the sunset of my World

Race journey, I have been spending

some time flipping through the myriad

pictures I have taken these last ten months. I

glance at an image, and I remember that day... I

remember so much of what I was thinking or

how I was feeling. And I feel blessed.

In nearly every country in which I have

lived this year, I have captured an image of the

setting sun. In some places, it is over buildings

and shrouded in smog, but most of the time, I

have found the sun slipping behind a hill or a

mountain, sliding down behind great boulders,

sinking into a lake or an ocean, or

even escaping beyond a cloud-filled

horizon from an airplane window.

No matter where I have been this

year, the sun has still risen in the east and set in

the west. And unless you are living in Alaska,

you have experienced the same number of sun-

rises and sunsets that I have.

Check out these pictures and think about

this: How many days do you remember in the

last year? How many sunsets do you remem-

ber? � By Angi Francesco

Angi’s home again,sharing time withNat Campbell ’97over the holidaysthis year.

How many

sunsets?

Angi Francesco ‘98 has completed the World Race,an event combining adventure, competition, andservice. Here are some lines from her last blog entry.

Carrying that stone


Alumni in the News

LAST FALL J.J. HALL began a new job—as assis-

tant to the director and founder of Christ the

Cornerstone International School in Lagos,

Nigeria, with the understanding that he would

take over as the head of school in January this

year. “The school is relatively new,” J.J. wrote last

September, “and its founder and director has tried to

develop a similar model to Holderness—strong programs

in academics, leadership, and extracurricular activities.”

In November J.J. wrote again to describe how things

were going. He said that while English is widely spoken in

Nigeria, the three main languages are Yoruba, Igbo, and

Hausa, and that the English is accented enough to make it

hard to understand. The food is “AMAZING and very

spicy,” and Yoruba hospitality is such that “a host may

give as he can if you demonstrate a desire for it, and will

be sensitive to any cues that indicate that desire. I’ve

learned to accept that it’s too late to go back on those cues

that I accidentally gave before I knew better, and to focus

more on picking up others’ cues.”

Lagos is also a city haunted by the threat of kidnap-

pings. “I want you all to know that I don’t go outside of

the school or the house alone, and I lock my

doors on the drive to and from work,” J.J.

wrote.“I don’t have the opportunity to really

experience Lagos life outside of networking

functions or working at the school, but in the

end it’s a trade-off for my safety and we’re tak-

ing it seriously, especially for this period of

time—long story short, we know the risks, take

them seriously, and try to use caution as much

as possible.”

That month J.J. was charged with taking

six students, ages 8-11, to the offices of a US-

based computer training company. They trav-

eled across town by bus for five days in a row

while the students learned to assemble a PC

system unit, install software, and do some basic trou-

bleshooting. While on the bus that first day, J.J. decided to

teach the students a little bit about history and human

rights….

SO I BEGAN BY TALKING TO them about Wole Soyinka, a

Nobel Laureate and human rights activist. I started with

Professor Soyinka because they would be likely to be

familiar with him, not only because he’s Nigerian, but

because he has a history of involvement with CTC.

I taught them about the importance of respecting

another human because that individual is human, regard-

less of any differences in what they might think or believe.

I asked them to think very hard about the idea of “univer-

sal international law” and whether or not they thought that

it was possible for there to be laws to govern the behavior

of all humans on earth that all cultures could accept or

would use; to compliment this I also asked them to think

very hard about whether or not there still needed to be a

set of rights to protect all humans. This idea is especially

applicable in Nigeria due to the different ethnic and reli-

gious groups and the failing attempts to implement feder-

alized laws. I tried to exercise restraint in these lessons,

allowing them to draw their own conclusions based on the

material, although I did try to impress upon them the

importance of learning about human rights and human

rights leaders. As we boarded the bus the next day I didn’t

hear shouting or arguing; I thought that my strategy to

keep them behaved or else they’d have to sit through

another history lecture had worked.

Then one of the boys, Teniola, spoke up, “Mr. Justin

Hall, Mr. Hall, who are we learning about today?”

“Yeah, continue with the story, continue with the

story!” said Halidah.

I wasn’t expecting that. I asked how many of them

had heard about Martin Luther King Jr. They all had,

some had even read or heard his, “I Have a Dream”

speech. So I began with the way that racism was struc-

tured in the U.S. during that time, trying to impress along

the way the dangers of such ignorance. On the ride home

that day I told them about Dr. King as a charismatic leader

and about the sit-ins and his concept of non-violence.

The next day was the same, and I asked them to

repeat what they had learned the day before I continued to

assure that they had understood the previous lessons. They

had, and more importantly, they were able to arrive at

their own conclusions about the material. So I taught them

more about the civil rights movement and how it tied into

the concept of human rights, as well as the reason that

nonviolence was such a powerful tool. Throughout our

trips I continued with the lessons; from nonviolence and

Dr. King I moved to Gandhi and his own use of nonvio-

lent strategy.

Every day as we left the New Horizons parking lot

we saw a picture of Gandhi with, “The Sacred Warrior”

written beneath it. I asked them what it meant to be a war-

rior; I got a lot of answers, all focused around the use of

Service

J.J. Hall with studentsand other educators at

a computer trainingcenter in Lagos.

Lessons in privilege,

responsibility, and human

rights in Nigeria

“If Gandhi

used non-

violence, how

could he be

called a

warrior? They

didn’t have an

answer.”

J.J. Hall ’ 05takes thehelm of aninternationalschool inLagos.


Sports

The Outdoors

THE FEATURED SPEAKER and star

attraction at the fall athletic ban-

quet in November was Chris

Davenport, the 1996 World Extreme

Skiing champion, and more recently the

author of an unprecedented feat in

extreme skiing: alpine descents of all 54

of Colorado’s 14,000-foot peaks in the

single calendar year of 2006. He’s also the

author of a beautiful book about that feat,

already in its second edition: Ski the

14ers: A Visual Tribute to Colorado’s

14,000-foot Peaks from the Eyes of a Ski

Mountaineer.

“I didn’t always appreciate

Holderness when I was sitting in your

seats,” Chris told a dining hall full of

appreciative students and faculty. “Today,

however, I realize that I was so fortunate

to have this experience, and it has empow-

ered me and will empower you to do any-

thing you want if you apply what you

learned.” �

KELLY HOOD, a sopho-

more at Dartmouth,

won first-team All-Ivy

honors in field hockey. We’ll

let DartmouthSports.com

explain why:

“Hood had an amazing

year for the Big Green with a

record-setting 42 points on 17

goals and eight assists,” wrote

the school’s varsity athletics

website. “She broke the sin-

gle-season points record with

a goal against Harvard on Oct.

31 in a 5-3 win for Dartmouth.

The record of 41 was held by

Kim Jenkin ’02 and Lauren

Scopaz ’00. Hood was also

one goal away from tying

Jenkin for the single-season

goal record, but fell short

without a tally in the final

game of the year. Three of her

seventeen goals came as

game-winners and Hood was

the primary option on the Big

Green’s penalty corners.”

Kelly helped lead

Dartmouth to a 9-8 record, its

most wins since 2005. �

Extreme skier andauthor ChrisDavenport ’89speaks at the fallathletics banquet.

violence and physically fighting. I then questioned that, if they already

knew that Gandhi used nonviolence, how could he be called a warrior?

They didn’t have an answer. I began the lesson about Gandhi’s history

of nonviolent activism as a legitimate tactic to achieve independence

from an occupying country, and how it demonstrated that battles and

wars could be won using one’s mind and strength of character rather

than pure military might and ignorance. On the last day I tried to

impress upon them the value of the education and experiences that they

were receiving, and before I continued with the last lesson I made them

promise to appreciate the privilege of their education, and to try to

understand the responsibility that came with such a privilege. Next

term, if things go as planned, I will be offering an after-school human

rights club. � By J.J. Hall ’05

“Hood had an amazing year for the Big Green.”

Kelly Hood ’08 breaks Dartmouth’s single-season points record in field hockey.

“It has empowered me and

will empower you . . .”

courtesy Dartmouth College

Wes Mitchell-Lewis ’10 nowhas an auto-

graphed copy ofSki the 14ers.


“IT WAS JED Hoyer’s 36th birthday

Monday,” wrote Corey Brock of

MLB.com in December, “and

the new Padres general manager

spent just about every waking

hour holed up inside his suite at the Marriott

with a handful of his staff. Sound fun enough?

Oh, there was a cake, pushed off to the side of

the room, perched atop a dozen Coke cans, but

that was about the only visible reminder of

Hoyer’s birthday. ‘Every year, my birthday is

during the Winter Meetings,’ Hoyer said.”

This is Jed’s first year, however, as the

man in charge in one of the teams at Major

League Baseball’s Winter Meetings in

Indianapolis. In October he had been named the

new general manager of the San Diego Padres,

after eight seasons working in the front office

of the Boston Red Sox.

Jed played shortstop and pitcher at

Wesleyan University, where he helped win the

1994 NCAA Division III World Series. He still

holds Wesleyan’s career record in saves and

won the Ahrens Award as the school’s top male

athlete in his senior year. He coached a couple

years at Wesleyan, and was about to leave base-

ball behind when he got a try-out in 2002 as an

intern for the Red Sox. He became an opera-

tions assistant the next year, and also a student

of the new modes of statistical analysis champi-

oned by writer and statistician Bill James, who

is now Senior Advisor on Baseball Operations

for the Red Sox.

In 2003 a sharp

statistical presentation by

Jed was crucial in con-

vincing free-agent Curt

Schilling that he could

win with his style of

pitching at Fenway Park.

That led straight to an

historic World Series

championship for the Red

Sox in 2004.

In 2005 Red Sox

General Manager Theo

Epstein had a falling out

with ownership and took

a ten-month hiatus from

his job. During that time

Jed served as co-GM of

the Red Sox with Ben

Cherington, and together

they pulled off a couple of significant transac-

tions. One sent young shortstop Hanley

Ramirez to the Florida Marlins for pitcher Josh

Beckett and third baseman Mike Lowell, play-

ers who provided the foundation for the Red

Sox’s 2007 World Series crown. Beckett nearly

won a Cy Young Award that year, and Lowell

was World Series MVP.

In San Diego, however, Jed takes over a

team with a much lower payroll than the Red

Sox, one that this year finished fourth in the

National League West with a 75-87 record. At

more than $122 million, the 2009 payroll of the

Red Sox was the fourth highest in baseball; the

Padres ranked next-to-last at about $43 million.

In October Jed told ESPN.com that in San

Diego he intends to build a consistent winner

through scouting and player development,

rather than free agency and trades, and that he

learned about winning through that route as

well while in Boston.

“First of all, in Boston, one of the things

that Theo always preached was to be a small-

market team with big-market resources,” he

said. “The way I see it in Boston, a lot of time

people focus on the size of the payroll that we

had. If you do that, you miss a little bit of what

happened in Boston over the last seven years. If

you look up and down the roster and the every-

day lineup, bullpen, starting pitching, you have

great young players.”

In other words, success in Boston has been

as much the result of a productive farm system

as it has of sterling imports like Schilling,

Beckett, and Lowell. “I look at that roster and

think to myself, ‘The Red Sox could be a very

effective smaller market team,’” Jed continued.

“I don’t think the process is that much different,

given the payroll. I think it still comes down to

scouting and development, building a team with

talented young players coming up through the

system.”

And the Padres like the sound of that.

“Though Hoyer’s background is in quantitative

analysis,” wrote Thomas Harding of MLB.com

in October, “he has become more schooled in

the ways of Major League transactions, con-

tracts, scouting, and player development, essen-

tially making him the hybrid candidate who can

balance statistical analysis with a scouting

background.”

And it’s already made the new GM too

busy for birthday cake. �

SportsAlumni in the News

Jed Hoyer ’92 is the new General Manager of the San Diego Padres.He tells ESPN that the same model of franchise development thatworked in Boston can also work there.

photo Chris Hardy, San Diego Padres

In 2003 a sharp

statistical

presentation by

Jed was crucial in

convincing free-

agent Curt

Schilling that he

could win with his

style of pitching

at Fenway Park.

Don’t

focus on

payroll

and forget

the cake.


WHEN THEWORLD Cup’s first

and only slalom race before

the Olympics is held on U.S.

snow, today at Aspen, the

top one hundred fastest

women in the world will be offering a preview.

In addition to well known U.S. athletes

Lindsay Vonn of Vail, Colorado, and Julia

Mancuso of Olympic Valley, California, both

on the USA team, Plymouth, New Hampshire’s

own little firecracker, Julia Ford, 19, will be

making her World Cup debut.

“I feel good,” said Ford, last week, at

home for a short break, some rest, and some

turkey with her family before she cranks it up.

If her last season’s performance is any

indication of what we will see, this year, the

world better watch out. Julia is on fire. The

Holderness School graduate is the first-ranked

junior in the nation. She has deferred enroll-

ment at the University of New Hampshire to

continue to be on the U.S. Ski Team’s

Development team.

She nearly swept the podium at the Nature

Valley U.S. Alpine Championships in Alyeska,

Alaska, last March. It was her title finish in the

NorAmCup Super Combined and several other

factors which had brought her to the phone last

Sunday to hear she was going to get her first

World Cup start.

“Definitely this is the biggest race ever,”

she said, noting she will be with Mancuso,

Vonn, Sarah Schleper, Haley Duke, Kaylin

Richardson, and Sterling Gran, going up

against whatever the world’s best have to offer.

“Aspen is my favorite,” said Ford, who

ranks 82nd in the world in Slalom. She is a

four-event skier who is in her third year on the

team. She can handle the technical aspects of a

slalom as well as the speed and concentration

of a downhill, which is really an amazing range

of talent. When at Holderness she was a stand-

out athlete in lacrosse and soccer, as well.

Ford is bound to be on the 2014 U.S.

Olympic Team and has a remote chance,

depending on how she skis early this season, of

being named to the 2010 team.

“It’s possible,” she said of making the

Olympic roster. But not probable, she noted.

She is leap-frogging a bunch of U.S. Women

on the B and C teams to race this event today.

Attitude, optimism, and hard work are her

strengths. “I feel really good. I just had a camp

in Colorado and I feel ready to start. We skied

this summer in Portillo (Chile) and Saas Fe

(Switzerland).”

And she has been training daily, both in

Park City, and when home at the Holderness

School, where her father, Duane, is a teacher.

Former U.S. Ski Team coach Georg Capaul,

now head of snow sports at the school, keeps

an eye out for her in the gym.

Her mom, Lori (Woodworth) Ford, a long-

time ski coach, said when the call came that

Julia had a World Cup start today, they asked if

she wanted to go out for a few days on snow

before the event at Aspen. “I was a bit sur-

prised but she said, ‘No, I am good,’” and

chose to have Thanksgiving with her family at

home.

Before dawn, Friday, the Fords raced her

to the airport to get her out to Aspen. She spent

yesterday training on snow. “She’s been feel-

ing excellent,” said her mother, knocking on

wood that Julia will stay injury free.

The beautiful Rocky Mountain town has a

long history of hosting races, which date back

to 1939. Dick Durrance brought competitive

skiing to this town known for its glitz and

glamour. The course is rolling, steep, has little

bits of flats. The snow is a pretty solid hard

pack, which should suit Ford just fine, after

spending her childhood ski racing in New

England, mostly at Cannon and Okemo, where

her aunt, Wendy Neal, is director. Her other

aunt, Julie, is director of Vermont Alpine

Racing Association.

If Julia can make the top thirty in the first

run and get a great start spot on the flip, that

would be mighty fine. Good luck to Julia and

all the U.S. Women for a great season. Rip it!

� By Paula Tracy. Reprinted by permission,the New Hampshire Sunday News.

Editor’s Note: Alas, Julia, Lindsey Vonn, andthe whole US Ski Team had a bad outing thatday in Aspen. All six American racers skiedoff an icy slalom course on the opening run.“It was the first time since January, 2008,”reported the Associated Press, “thatAmerican women entered a World Cup slalomand none reached the second round.”

Lindsey Vonn skied off the course again

the next day. Kaylin Richardson turned out tobe the top US racer in the event, finishing34th. Julia finished 44th.

In December Julia returned to theNorAm circuit, posting a third and a secondin both downhill events at Canada’s LakeLouise, and also a fifth in the Super G. She issecond overall in NorAm Cup standings.

“Plymouth’s

Ford competes

with the elite

today in

Aspen.”Holderness parent PaulaTracy is also a skicolumnist for the NewHampshire Sunday News.Her November 29thcolumn was about thedebut of Julia Ford ’08 ina World Cup race.

She can handle the

technical aspects of a

slalom as well as the

speed and concentration

of a downhill, which is

really an amazing

range of talent.


At This Point in Time...

OUR SCHOOL'S historical mission

and role includes accessibility as

a core principle; it has been, and

will continue to be, an important

distinguishing characteristic of

our school. When we speak of making

Holderness School "accessible," we frequently

focus on financial aid's impact on those families

directly receiving financial support. We argue

for strengthening our financial aid program in

order to preserve certain educational opportuni-

ties for families that might not otherwise have

them.

The impacts on affected families can be

immense, and are not to be lightly dismissed.

During the tenure of headmaster Edric Weld, for

example, financial aid recipients included both

European war refugees and the American equiv-

alent. One such student was Bill Koyama,

whose Japanese-American family had been

placed in a WRA center at the outset of war. In

a 1945 letter, Koyama's father writes to Weld:

"We can see such changes in William by his let-

ters nowadays and we know he owes all these

to the Holderness and to your Reverence and to

all the faculty members. At the time William left

this WRA center, he was a good boy, alright,

clean-minded and ambitious, but we knew there

were bewilderment and uncertainty in his grow-

ing mind. Had he stayed here up to now, he

could have been just about the same or perhaps

worse mentally and spiritually …

“Once again, the grace of the Great Providence

and the American way of life deeply touched

our hearts. […] Our gratitude to the

Holderness, to your Reverence, and to all the

faculty members is hard to put in words."

This is a moving example of how keeping the

school accessible is often simply "the right

thing to do."

Yet to discuss accessibility in these terms

takes too narrow a view. We need to acknowl-

edge that real benefits are reaped by more than

just the supported families, and that the impact

is felt by others, both within the school and

beyond. How better to teach understanding,

openness, and respect than by simply demon-

strating its practice every day? How better to

underscore the inherent equality we have with

our peers than to build it into daily life? A

diverse school—culturally, economically, spiri-

tually, and beyond—is vital to educating our-

selves (all of us) in accordance with our

school's historical principles.

Nobody makes this argument more clearly

than the now anonymous alumnus who wrote to

Weld from the front during the same terrible

war:

"One of my most respected school-mates has

presented himself to me in image many times

recently and through my respect for him I can-

not force myself to believe that despite the color

of their skin, our present foes are all bad. Bill

Koyama is probably one of the finest boys I

shall ever know, and yet while 'over there' our

boys are merely fighting those 'dirty yellow—',

without any real thought as to a decent

cause[…]

"I hope and pray that Holderness will

remain untouched and continue to send into the

world its small number of young men trained in

the right way, to respect all people and the

rights of all men. It is hard to define the manner

by which 'Holderness Boys' aspire to come up

to the 'Holderness Standards ' – All I can say is

that it's wonderful every bit and it will be

passed along beyond you or I, from father to

son and by every medium by which good things

spread."

Weld sent a copy of this letter to the board of

trustees in February of 1951, juxtaposing it with

a letter from a family repaying the school for a

scholarship grant. Weld understood the connec-

tion between the school's commitment to acces-

sibility and the "Holderness Standards" praised

by the alumnus; he wanted to underscore that

connection to the trustees.

As time passes, it becomes only more criti-

cal that we keep reviewing that lesson our-

selves. �

More than just the right thing to do

“All I can say is that it's wonderful every bit, and it will

be passed along beyond you or I, from father to son, and

by every medium by which good things spread."

Bill Koyama

Archivist Judith Solberg recalls the impact aid recipient Bill Koyama ’46had on one anonymous classmate and on the future of the school.

ALUMNI HOMECOMING WEEKENDEnjoy Holderness and the White Mountains

October 1-3, 2010

Celebrating a Reunion Year for the classes of:

1935 . . .1940 . . .1945 . . .1950

1955 . . .1960 . . .1965 . . .1970

1975 . . .1980 . . .1985 . . .1990

1995 . . .2000 . . .2005 All classes are invited to enjoy thefestivites of the weekend.

So . . .Heard about thisthing we callfoliage season?

Non-Profit Organization

U.S. POSTAGE

PAIDPermit No. 197

Manchester, N.H.

Change service requested

Holderness SchoolChapel Lane

P.O. Box 1879Plymouth, NH 03264-1879

holderness school today: winter 2010

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