School let out on Friday for Thanksgiving Recess, probably to the relief of all.
News of the Academy
The Headmaster believed that some of life's best lessons were to be learned through sports, and for those who measure the success of the athletic program by the result of the Choate game, the lessons could begin to comprise an entire curriculum. In a game that was streamed from Wallingford, Deerfield suffered an eighth straight loss to Choate and finished the season 3-5. Although the game was not close, there is something heartening to be learned from Yale's unexpected win over Harvard this weekend in "The Game" which ended a nine year losing streak. As surely as the sun rises, that day will come for Deerfield, but for now we are left to ponder how long it may be before we too can say, like Yale alums, "Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet".
In other athletic news, The Scroll reported in January 2015 that the school was developing plans for replacing the ice rink and building a field house on top of it. From what I can tell, those plans continue to move forward, but remain contingent upon obtaining sufficient commitments. Although Deerfield completed a successful capital campaign only last year, this project was not part of Imagine Deerfield which was launched in 2011.
I suspect that many of you are scratching your heads (if not tearing out your hair) over the recent election results. With negligible dissent, nineteen members of the Editorial Board of The Scroll endorsed Hillary Clinton. While I could find no indication that there had been a mock election this term, a poll last Spring showed the top three choices to be Sanders (40%), Clinton (21%) and Trump (17%). For the historians in the Class, we held a mock election in 1968 at another
News of the Class
This September marked, sadly, the 15th anniversary of 9/11. As you know, Todd Stone has dedicated his life since then to capturing not only the horror of the moment but also the rebirth of Lower Manhattan in the aftermath. In that effort, Todd has been aided by Larry Silverstein who bought the Twin Towers several weeks before the attack and has spent his time since then rebuilding the site. As part of the commemoration of the anniversary, Todd participated in a video interview which was taped in space made available to Todd by Silverstein for a studio. I encourage you to watch the interview by scrolling down this page link and to celebrate one of our classmates. You can see some of Todd's work at the 9/11 Memorial Museum.
Rusty Young's concert business in Vero has diversified into comedy events in Delray. If you're in FL this winter, you might want to see if you can get tickets. You can check out upcoming events here. Ed Grosvenor continues to work to save American Heritage Magazine and launched a page on Kickstarter, a crowdfunding platform, to raise funds. You can contribute by going here before December 16th and sharing the link. Ed attributes his love of history to Mr. Crow and to his great grandfather Edwin Grosvenor who, the Headmaster often reminded him, was his history professor at Amherst.
Best wishes to all for a Happy Thanksgiving.
DWS
