Fall Term Report Card - 2020

To the Grand Class of 1969:

I had no doubt that the reopening of the Academy during a pandemic would be newsworthy, but I initially hesitated to write because I thought that there would be little of interest about the Class to report. When I looked back at my emails and texts, however, I realized that there was more than I thought, including some news about Classmates who continue to make their mark. 

News of the Academy

For those who may not have attended the Town Hall, here is what I noted:

• Since July 30, the Academy administered nearly 16,000 tests and succeeded in containing positive cases to a handful
• Before school re-opened the Academy reconfigured dorms so that every boarding student lives in a single and made other physical alterations in order to enforce social distancing
• Class sizes were reduced, and eight teachers were added to handle the additional sections
• The school has incurred approximately $8 million in incremental costs as a result of the pandemic but contributions have been robust, and the endowment now totals over $1 million per student
• In order to further insulate the campus, the day students will have the option of learning remotely or living on campus for the Winter Term
• The annex of The Deerfield Inn has been sublet for COVID space, and Ephraim Williams, which housed the alumni office, is being repurposed temporarily to serve as as a dorm
• A new "dining pavilion" is being constructed adjacent to the Dining Hall so that sit-down lunches in two shifts can be re-instituted
• A skating rink is being constructed behind the MSB where the Great Tent had been set up for outdoor learning
• While school is out until the first week of January, a so-called "D-Term" will run from December 7 - 18. The D-Term is being billed as a remote-learning and community-building experience that will include virtual School Meetings, virtual "sit-down meals" and other events
• Applications remain strong, albeit without campus visits

Also of note this term is that the Academy's architecture is now the subject of an excellent 200-page guide published by Princeton Architectural Press. The Academy is one of only three secondary schools in the series. Advancement sponsored a webinar last month which featured presentations by the author and another architect, both of whom are alumni. What I found most interesting was the explanation of the way in which today's buildings relate to each other without there ever having been a central plan and how the more recent construction makes architectural allusions not only to existing buildings but also to antecedents - such as Dickinson High School and Plunkett - that are long gone. Parenthetically, the Civil War Memorial and our role in its restoration is noted in a walking tour of Deerfield and the broader community.

News of the Class

For the historians in the Class, AC Starkey has maintained his laser-like focus on the good life as I first pointed out in my 2015 Fall Term Report Card. This fall he treated himself to a low mileage Maserati ragtop for trips to the local McDonalds' in Vero, once again proving that "living well is the best revenge". His fellow Veronian, Rusty Young, has lined up performing artists and venues for the upcoming concert season, but hasn't yet released tickets for sale. 

Neil Jacobs is now spending half of his time managing 3Point Foundation which he founded ten years ago and which he described to us at the 50th Reunion. If you are thinking of what you might support on Giving Tuesday, I encourage you to consider 3Point which is committed to remedying the inequities in opportunities to learn and develop that affect life outcomes of economically disadvantaged urban youth. 

The new technology we adopted this year has enabled Dick Prokesch - who is based in Georgia - to cover for another infectious disease specialist in Nebraska from time to time. Robert Clough, when he wasn't at his summer cabin in Maine culling the fish from Moosehead Lake, assisted the Millennial surgeons in the Bangor ME and did some performance reviews. He and Jo are scheduled to arrive in the Florida Keys on December 1 where the tarpon await them.

Happy Thanksgiving to all. 

DWS

Spring Term Report Card - 2020

To the Grand Class of 1969:

Since Graduation ceremonies for the Class of 2020 would have been today under the Great Tent, I wanted to share with you how the groundskeeping crew honored the Class of 2020 in their absence: https://www.instagram.com/p/CAfnZw3AmED/

News of the Academy

Because all of you have received emails from the Academy announcing changes to the 2020 Academic calendar and the postponement of this year's Reunions until next June, I have limited my summary to what you may not already know. 

Within weeks of transitioning the Spring Term online, the Academy offered rebates of $2,700 to boarding students and $1,100 to day students which amounts were based on the average cost of meals per day and the cost of maintaining and cleaning the dormitories. I have no insight as to when the campus will re-open or how the Academy will deal with international students from nearly 50 countries, although it has refunded deposits and postponed the deadline for the first tuition payment to July 1 by which time it will have made a decision. The Academy packed up and shipped students' belongings earlier this month so that the Physical Plant staff would be able to keep to its annual maintenance schedule beginning in early June in the hope that the campus will re-open in September.

Despite having to reschedule revisit days as virtual events, 64% of admitted students accepted their offers, up from 59% last year. For applicants hoping to matriculate in 2021,  Zoom and Skype interviews have taken the place of on campus interviews. COVID-19 updates and information from the Academy are available through this link.

In case you are curious how the Academy reacted to the Spanish Flu in 1918, The Scroll contained this interesting historical note in the final edition of the year, "While the influenza ravaged Greenfield, Turner’s Falls, and even South Deerfield, Deerfield itself remained largely unaffected. 'Deerfield has not been hit by the epidemic as far, only one very mild case being reported there, and the closing rules do not affect that part of the town,' stated a later article in The Greenfield Recorder from January 1919. However, Deerfield Academy did temporarily suspend class, extending the winter break by at least a week. 'Deerfield Academy was to have reopened yesterday, and the board of health was willing, it said, provided that South Deerfield and Sunderland people did not attend,' the article further stated. 'This would have meant a greatly reduced attendance so Principal Frank Boyden decided to wait another week to see how conditions develop.' While it is unclear when Mr. Boyden resumed classes, archival Commencement programs show that Deerfield held graduation ceremonies in 1918, 1919, and 1920."

News of the Class

Over 40 of us convened via Zoom in April for an informative Q&A session with Dick Prokesch on COVID-19 and a virtual cocktail hour. As circumstances dictate, I hope to organize a follow-up session with Dick who has been serving on the frontline. 

In other news, within a week of the closure of the Boston public schools, Neil Jacobs transitioned his after school program 3Point  so that it was hosting 14 live one hour sessions each week on Zoom and posting videos and other materials on BAND where students could leave written comments and chat. Teachers, classroom coordinators, basketball coaches and dance instructors were able to engage with students virtually while continuing to promote critical thinking, communication, social-emotional learning and the values promoted by 3Point. 

Rusty Young has been busy rescheduling concerts and booking concerts for next season, recognizing that no one knows when people will feel comfortable attending live events again. Dave Suitor told me that Camp Timanous - which his family has been associated with since 1936 - concluded that it could not safely re-open this summer. You can read about it here and see a clip of Dave.

On a lighter note, Robert Clough is enjoying life in the Keys at the expense of the local tarpon as you can see from the action shot on the left. The local fish will soon get a breather as Robert is planning to head to Maine next week where he will be teaching, helping and mentoring in surgery a few days each week when he isn't fishing.

Stay healthy and be thankful that nearly 70 of us were able to connect again on campus a year ago.

DWS

Winter Term Report Card - 2020

To the Grand Class of 1969:

As the end of the term approached this week, I could not stop thinking of Al Pacino's words from Godfather III who famously said, "Just when I think I'm out, they keep pulling me back in!" That's a bit how I feel now about the blog which I thought I had unmoored from the academic calendar after the 50th until a few Classmates pulled me back in....for now at least.

News of the Academy

If you were to venture on campus this term, I suspect the most tangible change you would notice might be the implementation of the new casual dress code which was approved by the Trustees in the summer of 2019. Unlike the dress code in past years, new articles of clothing like t-shirts and jeans are now allowed, and students no longer have to wear a blazer or sportcoat over their clothing.

The building we knew as the Health Center (and subsequent generations of alumni as "Dewey House") will be torn down in June to make room for a two story dormitory in the same location now that a new medical facility has been placed in service. The new dorm will house 20 students and is expected to be ready for the 2021-2022 academic year. The Health Center was built in 1948 and modeled after a colonial home by William and Geoffrey Platt. Beginning in the 1930's, the New York-based Platt firm designed a total of thirteen buildings on the Deerfield campus including the Main School Building, the Gymnasium and the Dining Hall.

On the sports front, Boys Squash was the standout team this term, compiling an 18-5-0 record.  Boys Hockey had a winning record for the second year in a row after five losing seasons. Boys Basketball continued to struggle, however, with the only wins in the Eight Schools Association being against St. Paul's and Choate.

News of the Class

As anyone who attended the Reunion can attest, Tim Truby has followed his passion for photography to some of the most spectacular places in the world. Tim's been busy since then upgrading his website so that it now has all the bells and whistles you would expect to find on an e-commerce site. Tim is in the process of putting together photos of an excursion he took to Iceland in May and soon will be turning his attention to his Scotland and Ireland portfolios which could turn into gallery shows.

I caught up with Christopher Beach in mid-February who, at the time, was aboard a steamer on the Irrawaddy River in Myanmar (f/k/a Burma). He and Wesley were bound for Laos, Thailand, Vietnam and Singapore in spite of the coronavirus news. They saw very little evidence of the disease other than a few masks and lots of hand sanitizer. Christopher said there was not one Chinese tourist around and that everyone had been especially happy to see them as many sites and hotels were only half full. Christopher estimated that there were only about 200 cases of the virus in an area with a population of 250 million and did not seem overly concerned.

In other news, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously in favor of a defendant for whom John Mills had co-authored an amicus curiae brief in December.  Separately, John was recently registered as a patent barrister with the United Kingdom’s Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys.  With this license registration, John is entitled to represent clients in the UK, but primarily in London, on patent disputes as well as other intellectual property matters.

On a belated note, Rusty Young quietly tied the knot with Stacey Kasselman over Thanksgiving. Stacey jumped into the deep end when she visited Deerfield for the first time on the occasion of our 50th Reunion and then led a yoga class in the new Athletics Complex. Rusty's concert venture MusicWorks is experiencing another strong year catering to the appetite for classic rock and folk artists of the 60s and 70s by staging nearly 40 events in nine cities across Florida this season.

AC Starkey and I each attended alumni events in Florida at which the new Head of School spoke. It has not escaped my notice that February seems a popular time for Northeastern schools to visit alumni in Florida.

I was happy to confirm earlier this week that Casey Reed and his wife Debra were not in the path of the devastating tornado that caused such damage to parts of Nashville.

Lastly, Steve Esthimer generously sent me all but one of the Deerfield Scroll issues from our Junior and Senior years plus Deerfield Magazine issues from our era. I was glad to receive them since I had deep-sixed my copies while overzealously doing a spring cleaning. I'm hoping they will be a handy reference if I suffer a senior moment while trying to remember some essential bit of trivia.

Let the heart hold memory bright.

DWS