April 2006 Letter

To the Great Class of 1969:

News from the Academy

Although numbers for the peer schools are only anecdotal at this time, the scuttlebutt is that Deerfield overtook Andover this year as the most selective school with an admission rate of slightly over 16%, the lowest in the School’s history. It’s anyone’s guess what the rate would be if the boarding schools copied the colleges and adopted a common application and permitted online applications.

Varsity Lacrosse is off to a hot start, picking up where it left off last year. With a 4-0 record, the Lacrosse team is ranked second in New England (behind Wilton) and ninth nationally. The team travels to Choate for a 2:00 PM start time this Saturday if any of you are in the area. Most of the rest of the teams start their seasons this week.

Eric Widmer ’57, H’54 and his wife Meera Viswanathan H’55, H’95 (Miz Viz to the cognoscenti) recently hit the road with farewell receptions in Boston and NYC. The reception in New York this week drew 350 attendees and was said to be the largest in the School’s history. Following his retirement, Eric will become the Founding Headmaster for King’s Academy in Jordan, a 600 student co-ed boarding school modeled after Deerfield which will open its doors in 2007.

Class News

For those of you who have been aching to go to Manitoba (1797 miles from Deerfield, coincidentally), there still is a chance to do that and to catch up with Douglas Arnstein who will be hosting workshops entitled “Project Planning for Executives and Sponsors” and “Why Getting Better at PM Matters” on April 24. For details, go to PMI - Workshop Extravaganza 2006 (and bring your checkbook). Douglas joins Tom Merrigan, Jack Spitznagel and Rusty Young as this month’s additions to the Online Yearbook. If you’re part of the silent majority that hasn’t yet contributed a likeness, please forward a recent photo to me at dwsquires@gmail.com for uploading to the rogues’ gallery.

Christian Liipfert has found a reason to get serious about exercising, after having sworn it off for twenty years. Later this month, Christian will be one of 13,000 participants in a 150 mile bike tour from Houston to Austin in support of MS research. If he hasn’t contacted you, you can read all about it by going to 2006 BP MS 150 Bike Tour and becoming one of Christian’s sponsors by making a contribution. BP will match the first $5,000 in donations received this month.

Class Trivia

Since classes resumed March 27, I thought it would be appropriate to re-institute class trivia for the Spring Term. Here is this month’s quiz:

1. Many of us were content to graduate from college and maybe go on to graduate school. Name the classmate who, after graduating from Yale with a BA, added a BS in engineering, a law degree, two separate masters of law degrees and a doctorate of law degree.

2. Name the classmate who has been a student and practitioner of psychosynthesis theory for the past twenty years.

Annual Support

March was a slow month for contributions, as is typical. On the fundraising front, we are running about even with where we were at this time last year. On the participation side, however, we are running substantially behind last year. As of the end of March, we had received gifts from about 40% of last year’s donors in the Class. With less than three months left in the current gift year, this is the time for those among you who have supported Deerfield in the past to renew that commitment. Please don’t wait for a phone call to contribute. You can make a donation without even moving by clicking on Giving to Deerfield.

Be well.