Fall Term 2007

To the Great Class of 1969:

The marking period for the 209th Fall Term of the Academy has ended, and students have been dismissed for a week to celebrate Thanksgiving (and to worry over how they fared on final exams).

The varsity football team (5-3) improved its record vs. ’06 but culminated the season with a 14-7 loss to Choate (5-2-1) at Jim Smith Field on November 10th. This probably was retribution for last year when Deerfield traveled to Wallingford to complete Choate’s worst fears of a winless season. Nonetheless, it was a disappointing end to a season which began so promisingly when Deerfield outscored its first two opponents by 56-7 and seemed unstoppable. Boys Water Polo had an excellent season and won the New England Finals at Hotchkiss to end the season. Boys Soccer (8-3-6) “finished strong” with a win on Choate Day, when the soccer field was dedicated to Jamie Kapteyn ’79 P’09 who died of a heart attack in a pick-up soccer game with members of the faculty at Deerfield in January. For the girls, the Field Hockey team distinguished itself with a record of 10-2-1.

As I know I have mentioned to some of you, the Academy has undertaken a year-long strategic planning initiative which the Board of Trustees has named “Imagine Deerfield”. The current parents already have been polled, and the plan is to reach out to the alumni in due course. The ultimate objective of the exercise is to decide on three or four initiatives to pursue, consistent with Deerfield’s core mission, over the next five to ten years.

Class News

As you may know if you’ve visited Albany Road Redux recently, nine members of the Class convened earlier this month for dinner. This was the third annual Fall Dinner and the fourth time since 2005 that members of the Class have met in New York to continue discussions that, in some cases, lapsed on graduation. In total, 13 classmates have attended these dinners, and four diehards who still appreciate the importance of a sit-down meal have made each gathering. Robert Clough, to his dismay, accumulated one Accountability Point (“AP”) for failing to make this year’s dinner after having accepted. Robert has been placed on notice that if he accumulates 12 AP’s he will be subject to Level I sanctions and will be required to attend study hall on two consecutive Friday evenings from 7:30-10:30. If you’re curious, you can read all about AP’s beginning on page 14 of DA to Z, a 101-page handbook for students and parents which demonstrates, if nothing else, how much more complicated life has become.

Steve Esthimer wrote this week that his band “When Cousins Marry”, a twenty-five year old rock and blues cover band, will be releasing its first CD entitled “Shotgun Wedding” in the next few weeks. The CD will be for sale on the internet through CD Baby or the band’s website which is currently under construction.

Ed Grosvenor is back in the news after having agreed last month to fork over $500,000 to Forbes and to assume $11 million in subscription liabilities for control of American Heritage Magazine, its affiliated Web site (americanheritage.com) and its book division, according to The New York Times. Ed was quoted as saying, “As a publisher, I saw saving American Heritage the way a preservationist sees preventing Grand Central station from being turned into an office tower”. Ed previously published Portfolio, an art magazine, in the 1970’s and ‘80’s, among other ventures. He is in the process of raising $2.25 million to finance American Heritage which is scheduled to resume publication in December.

Tee Johnson flew in to New York from Buenos Aires in October for the 123rd Audio Engineering Society Convention where he displays his line of products each year at the Javits Center. Shortly after landing, Tee was in midtown where he proceeded to compress 38 years into a two hour lunch regaling Rusty Young and me.

Steve Morley is working in critical care and pursuing an advanced degree in nursing, after a career in engineering. He continues to play guitar, mainly jazz and blues (as well as a little bit of Uilleann pipes) and irregularly hosts a radio program serving southern CT (WPKN 89.5 FM) and eastern Long Island (WPKM 88.7 FM). Steve writes that he occasionally talks with Douglas Arnstein (also once from Hamden, CT).

Since I last wrote, I’ve been busy re-tooling the blog to take into account advances in technology and have added a search function I dubbed “Lost and Found” where you can search the archives by entering a Classmate’s name. You’ll also notice on the right hand side streaming news on Deerfield and a link to Albany Road Redux | Google Groups, a spin-off of the original blog. I’m still fine tuning it, but the new web site is intended to be an interactive meeting place where any member of The Great Class of 1969 can communicate instantly with other Classmates by uploading content onto pages, posting comments or initiating discussions.

Trivia

Kudos to John Lacey and Christian Liipfert, both of whom successfully identified last term’s mystery classmate as Skip Allen. The task was considerably easier for Christian who roomed with Skip at Bucknell. As for the entrepreneur who made a success out of a local bakery, the correct answer (which no one got) was Van Scott. The next time you’re in the vicinity of Birmingham, AL stop by Savage's Bakery, a scratch bakery located in the suburb of Homewood.

This term’s trivia question relates to Choate Day and is in two parts:

1. What year was the first Deerfield-Choate football game played? and

2. What is the series record?

Happy Thanksgiving.

DWS