Saturday, November 24, 2018

Fall Term Report Card - 2018

To the Great Class of 1969:

News of the Academy

As you know, it has been a busy Fall Term by any measure at the Academy. In late August the Board announced the appointment of John Austin, the current Headmaster of King's Academy, Jordan, as Deerfield's 56th Head of School, culminating a six month search. In October the Morsman's 99 years of cumulative service to the Academy was honored at the dedication of the Morsman Tennis Pavilion on the Lower Level, and in November the Athletics Complex, Deerfield's most ambitious building project ever, was dedicated.

Some of the topics which received extensive coverage in The Scroll included a three page spread on the Arts Program and debate over the Kavanaugh nomination. Other topics of interest included a presentation to the entire school by the '83 graduate whose 2012 email to the Head of School led to the sexual abuse investigation, an article on the being Black at Deerfield and another on the role of politics in the classroom. Juuling on campus and anti-bullying efforts also made the news. 

Varsity Football matched last year's 6-3 record but lost to Choate 44-8 for the tenth year in a row. By now it has become glaringly obvious that this is no longer the rivalry it once was because Choate has chosen to go all-in on its football program and now fields a team each year that probably could beat most NESCAC schools. This year's Choate team went undefeated again and won each game by an average score of 39-6. 

News of the Class

Stone, Kjorlien, Squires, Davies, Starkey
After a three year hiatus, some of the local members of the Class met for drinks and the obligatory mug shot before heading off to a nearby restaurant for dinner. In addition to those pictured on the left, Peter Bernstein joined us at the restaurant for what turned out to be two-and-a-half hours of nonstop conversation.

The first of these dinners was in 2006, and since then no fewer than fourteen Classmates have joined me at one dinner or another. What these dinners have had in common each time we have gotten together is the ease with which we have able to reconnect and resume conversations that began decades ago.

The Reunion Committee and its various subcommittees have been working overtime planning our 50th. Under the able direction of Lacey and his wingman Arnstein, members of the Committee have been re-engaging with Classmates, in some cases for the first time since graduation. Although registration will not open until mid-January, the responses to date have been overwhelmingly positive. Whether or not you have decided to attend, please submit your bio for Pocumtuck Revisited before the year-end deadline. The Reunion Yearbook will be mailed to everyone in the Spring. On a scheduling note, the final mini-reunion will be on March 1 in Fort Lauderdale where Rusty Young will be producing a concert by The Fab Faux, the foremost Beatles tribute band.

The members of the Program subcommittee (Beach, Clough, Ewing, Rawles and Olchowski) have been doing a crash history course re-familiarizing themselves with the Class by scouring through nearly 50 years' worth of class notes in the alumni magazine. They would welcome hearing from any Classmates who might like to make presentations or participate in discussion panels at the Reunion. Another way to participate in the Reunion will be by submitting a remembrance of one or more of the twenty Classmates who have passed away since 1969. A description of what we are looking for will be mailed out in early 2019.

Around the same time we also will be describing in greater detail the Class Gift which Lacey alluded to in his recent letter. The instal- 
lation of a bronze replica of the Deerfield Soldier funded by the Class will complete a multi-year collaboration to restore the 1867 Civil War Monument at the center of the Deerfield campus. The fabrication of a replica combines 3-D imaging technology with bronze casting techniques that date back more than 2000 years. The image on the left is a digital model created by scanning an identical soldier earlier this month in New Haven. A full-scale physical model will be created from the digital image and then used by a fabricator in New York to create the bronze replica which will be placed on the obelisk next Spring.

Best wishes to all.

DWS