To the Great Class of 1969:
This is just a brief note to tell you that Christian Liipfert, after twenty years of sedentary living, succeeded in biking 150 miles from Houston to Austin this past weekend. I wish I could tell you he looked none the worse for wear, but that would be stretching it. As you will recall, Christian did this for a good cause, and there is still time to contribute by going to 2006 BP MS 150 Bike Tour. It is simple to do, as I learned, and BP will match all contributions received by May 23rd. For photos and more info, go to Family Liipferts.
I will be in touch in the next few weeks with those of you on our solicitation list from whom we have not yet heard about a new year-end initiative. Stay tuned.
Be well.
Monday, April 24, 2006
Thursday, April 13, 2006
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.
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.
Tuesday, March 07, 2006
March 2006 Letter
To the Great Class of 1969:
You all will recall from senior English or elsewhere T.S. Eliot’s words from “The Wasteland” that “April is the cruelest month”, but I would submit that he didn’t spend enough time in the Northeast during February. Without ever setting foot in the Northeast, the makers of the Julian and the Gregorian calendars wisely chose to make February the shortest month. Since I last wrote, we experienced the heaviest single day snowfall in Central Park since they started keeping records in 1869, although many have been quick to dismiss the significance of this since it was so localized. Surprisingly, the Academy largely escaped the Blizzard of ’06. Nonetheless, I am told that all the campus constituencies have tired of the frigid temperatures of late and are looking forward to Spring Vacation which begins this Friday, March 10.
News from the Academy
The Scroll arrived today, and the lead story had to do with the Koch Center which is now one year behind schedule and $2,000,000 over budget. There is a lot of heated rhetoric about where blame lies and, I suspect, there will be more to learn before this is all over. The bottom line for the graduating class is that they will not be able to enjoy this stunning building which will, when finished, become an instant destination point on campus. Another item of interest was the story on the eighth annual J. Clement Schuler Concert which took place in January. It might interest you to know that the bequest by Clem Schuler, who served as music director from 1935 to 1976, now totals over $2,000,000 and produced over $80,000 in income for the Academy last year.
The long-awaited article on the School and the far reaching effect it is having in the Middle East appeared this past week in The New York Times. If it escaped your notice, you will find a reprint at King's Academy. We are still awaiting the article in The New Yorker.
On February 19th, Dr. Curtis visited campus where she participated as one of two judges for the “Declamation Finals”. Each junior English class was allowed to vote for the strongest presentation, and all of the finalists were invited to deliver their declamation to the entire community in what is one of the major academic events of the year. Over a hundred members of the community joined Dr. Curtis in the Large Auditorium to hear the students share their thoughts. After Dr. Curtis and her partner deliberated, three students walked away with First Place honors and the bragging rights that go with it.
On February 24th, the Varsity basketball team traveled to Wallingford for the last game of the season and returned the victor, 48-38. The Varsity hockey team had less to say for itself, losing the last five games of the season and finishing 8-16-1. On a happier note, Jamie Hagerman ’99, whose father was once the Deerfield Athletic Director and hockey coach, was a member of the women’s Olympic hockey team which took home the Bronze medal at Torino. The Academy has produced a number of Olympians over the years, including Amnon Krausz ’70 who you may remember entered as a junior in 1967, was a star swimmer for the School and later competed as a member of the Israeli team.
Class News
Since I last wrote, a number of you have logged on to the Academy’s new Alumni website and registered. As of today, we are up to 13 classmates and, as a result, have added Peter Hoover to the e-mail distribution list.
Tom Merrigan, a former state judge for 12 years, announced his candidacy last week for the Democratic nomination for Governor's Council in Massachusetts whose primary task is to approve or reject the governor's nominations for judgeships. For the complete story, see Merrigan for Governor's Council.
Rob Almy continues to moonlight as a lacrosse referee and wrote recently, “I just had (by far) the best two week refereeing ever, two overtime games, two one goal games and a two goal game; all among nationally ranked (college club) teams”.
I had the good fortune to catch up separately with both Tee Johnson and Rusty Young while they were each passing through New York this week. Tee seemed in fine spirits, offering his always well-considered views on a range of topics, including life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
For those of you who haven’t kept track of Rusty – and I suspect that’s too many – he has arrived at an enviable stage in life where his children are independent and he has been free to develop a portfolio of activities based on his own interests. After a career as a management consultant, Rusty stepped away from that several years ago and found an opportunity to apply his know-how helping the local YMCA develop a strategic plan which, in turn, led to an invitation to implement the plan, proving the adage that no good deed goes unpunished. When he wasn’t busy with the YMCA, Rusty found time to get involved with The Count Basie Theatre because of a longstanding interest in the performing arts. His work there as Vice Chairman led the Board to ask him to serve as the first CEO of The Count Basie Foundation and, as a result, Rusty is now officially a member of my “Captains of Industry” list within the Class which consists of Classmates who lead or have led organizations. For the press release, go to Young Named Chief Honcho.
Annual Support
Overall, Alumni participation is up 2.3% but the fundraising is about $100,000 behind where we were at this time last year. As for our Class, we picked up a couple of gifts since I last wrote, but there remains a lot of wood to chop between now and June 30th. If you haven’t already contributed and are on the solicitation list, you will be getting a mailing from the Academy shortly which highlights what the School means to a group of current students in their own words. Please take a minute to register at the Alumni website and make an online gift while you’re there.
Class Trivia
In response to last month’s trivia contest, John Lacey receives the good sportsmanship award for fearlessly guessing and, on his second try, correctly surmising that AC Starkey is, in fact, the first acknowledged BowieNetter in the Class. AC may be the only private banker in the country who attended six David Bowie concerts during the last Reality Concert Tour, which included traveling to New Orleans and Chicago for front row seats. Fortunately, AC’s wife Ann also enjoys the music. For reasons I am still trying to fathom, AC felt it necessary to go so far as to write a letter on the topic to the editor of The Boston Globe which they chose to publish. AC may still be a banker by day, but he has found his rock side later in life. Since AC is so clearly a Jersey boy at heart, I have suggested that he need venture no further than Red Bank this year where he can let his hair down at Rusty Young’s annual Fab Faux benefit concert in June.
Surprisingly, no one was able to identify Andy Cohn standing next to Chairman Mao in Shanghai in last month’s photo trivia contest. Lacey recalled having sat across from Andy at the bridge table in the smoking room in the basement of Field a minimum of twice a day every day senior year but confessed he was unable to recognize him today. (For the historians in the Class or the curious at heart, there is a photo on page 205 of the Pocumtuck which captures the moment for posterity.)
As always, I welcome your news, although you now have the opportunity to post it directly on the Alumni website if you choose.
Best wishes to all.
DWS
You all will recall from senior English or elsewhere T.S. Eliot’s words from “The Wasteland” that “April is the cruelest month”, but I would submit that he didn’t spend enough time in the Northeast during February. Without ever setting foot in the Northeast, the makers of the Julian and the Gregorian calendars wisely chose to make February the shortest month. Since I last wrote, we experienced the heaviest single day snowfall in Central Park since they started keeping records in 1869, although many have been quick to dismiss the significance of this since it was so localized. Surprisingly, the Academy largely escaped the Blizzard of ’06. Nonetheless, I am told that all the campus constituencies have tired of the frigid temperatures of late and are looking forward to Spring Vacation which begins this Friday, March 10.
News from the Academy
The Scroll arrived today, and the lead story had to do with the Koch Center which is now one year behind schedule and $2,000,000 over budget. There is a lot of heated rhetoric about where blame lies and, I suspect, there will be more to learn before this is all over. The bottom line for the graduating class is that they will not be able to enjoy this stunning building which will, when finished, become an instant destination point on campus. Another item of interest was the story on the eighth annual J. Clement Schuler Concert which took place in January. It might interest you to know that the bequest by Clem Schuler, who served as music director from 1935 to 1976, now totals over $2,000,000 and produced over $80,000 in income for the Academy last year.
The long-awaited article on the School and the far reaching effect it is having in the Middle East appeared this past week in The New York Times. If it escaped your notice, you will find a reprint at King's Academy. We are still awaiting the article in The New Yorker.
On February 19th, Dr. Curtis visited campus where she participated as one of two judges for the “Declamation Finals”. Each junior English class was allowed to vote for the strongest presentation, and all of the finalists were invited to deliver their declamation to the entire community in what is one of the major academic events of the year. Over a hundred members of the community joined Dr. Curtis in the Large Auditorium to hear the students share their thoughts. After Dr. Curtis and her partner deliberated, three students walked away with First Place honors and the bragging rights that go with it.
On February 24th, the Varsity basketball team traveled to Wallingford for the last game of the season and returned the victor, 48-38. The Varsity hockey team had less to say for itself, losing the last five games of the season and finishing 8-16-1. On a happier note, Jamie Hagerman ’99, whose father was once the Deerfield Athletic Director and hockey coach, was a member of the women’s Olympic hockey team which took home the Bronze medal at Torino. The Academy has produced a number of Olympians over the years, including Amnon Krausz ’70 who you may remember entered as a junior in 1967, was a star swimmer for the School and later competed as a member of the Israeli team.
Class News
Since I last wrote, a number of you have logged on to the Academy’s new Alumni website and registered. As of today, we are up to 13 classmates and, as a result, have added Peter Hoover to the e-mail distribution list.
Tom Merrigan, a former state judge for 12 years, announced his candidacy last week for the Democratic nomination for Governor's Council in Massachusetts whose primary task is to approve or reject the governor's nominations for judgeships. For the complete story, see Merrigan for Governor's Council.
Rob Almy continues to moonlight as a lacrosse referee and wrote recently, “I just had (by far) the best two week refereeing ever, two overtime games, two one goal games and a two goal game; all among nationally ranked (college club) teams”.
I had the good fortune to catch up separately with both Tee Johnson and Rusty Young while they were each passing through New York this week. Tee seemed in fine spirits, offering his always well-considered views on a range of topics, including life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
For those of you who haven’t kept track of Rusty – and I suspect that’s too many – he has arrived at an enviable stage in life where his children are independent and he has been free to develop a portfolio of activities based on his own interests. After a career as a management consultant, Rusty stepped away from that several years ago and found an opportunity to apply his know-how helping the local YMCA develop a strategic plan which, in turn, led to an invitation to implement the plan, proving the adage that no good deed goes unpunished. When he wasn’t busy with the YMCA, Rusty found time to get involved with The Count Basie Theatre because of a longstanding interest in the performing arts. His work there as Vice Chairman led the Board to ask him to serve as the first CEO of The Count Basie Foundation and, as a result, Rusty is now officially a member of my “Captains of Industry” list within the Class which consists of Classmates who lead or have led organizations. For the press release, go to Young Named Chief Honcho.
Annual Support
Overall, Alumni participation is up 2.3% but the fundraising is about $100,000 behind where we were at this time last year. As for our Class, we picked up a couple of gifts since I last wrote, but there remains a lot of wood to chop between now and June 30th. If you haven’t already contributed and are on the solicitation list, you will be getting a mailing from the Academy shortly which highlights what the School means to a group of current students in their own words. Please take a minute to register at the Alumni website and make an online gift while you’re there.
Class Trivia
In response to last month’s trivia contest, John Lacey receives the good sportsmanship award for fearlessly guessing and, on his second try, correctly surmising that AC Starkey is, in fact, the first acknowledged BowieNetter in the Class. AC may be the only private banker in the country who attended six David Bowie concerts during the last Reality Concert Tour, which included traveling to New Orleans and Chicago for front row seats. Fortunately, AC’s wife Ann also enjoys the music. For reasons I am still trying to fathom, AC felt it necessary to go so far as to write a letter on the topic to the editor of The Boston Globe which they chose to publish. AC may still be a banker by day, but he has found his rock side later in life. Since AC is so clearly a Jersey boy at heart, I have suggested that he need venture no further than Red Bank this year where he can let his hair down at Rusty Young’s annual Fab Faux benefit concert in June.
Surprisingly, no one was able to identify Andy Cohn standing next to Chairman Mao in Shanghai in last month’s photo trivia contest. Lacey recalled having sat across from Andy at the bridge table in the smoking room in the basement of Field a minimum of twice a day every day senior year but confessed he was unable to recognize him today. (For the historians in the Class or the curious at heart, there is a photo on page 205 of the Pocumtuck which captures the moment for posterity.)
As always, I welcome your news, although you now have the opportunity to post it directly on the Alumni website if you choose.
Best wishes to all.
DWS
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