Winter Term

To the Great Class of 1969:

The unusually mild Winter Term began on a somber note with the sudden death in January of Jamie Kapteyn ’79, husband, father, teacher, coach and Field dorm master. This marked the second time in less than a year that the school has had to cope with the loss of a faculty member, after a span of forty years in which no active teacher had passed away. As you may have read in the alumni newsletter, a memorial service was attended by over 1,000 students, faculty members, friends and guests in the dining room, and included former Headmaster Eric Widmer '57 and Jeff Louis '81, Head of the Board of Trustees, both of whom returned from overseas to honor Jamie. The Winter Term drew to an end in early March with mind numbing wind-chill of temperatures of as much as 15 below and students gratefully heading off for Spring Break.

In between these bookends, the long delayed Koch Center opened for business to rave reviews. There is still a long punch list and a dispute over the cost over runs to be settled but the building is expected to have a major impact for years to come on teaching as well as on the school’s ability to attract and retain faculty in the science, math and technology disciplines.

Class Notes

For anyone interested in intellectual property law, Dr. John Gladstone Mills, Supervisory Patent Counsel for the US Navy, author of the definitive work on patent law and recipient of numerous accolades, will be visiting New York to teach a three hour refresher course on patent law on April 19th. Another DC-area based classmate with a particular interest in patents is Ed Grosvenor, whose great grandfather probably received the most valuable patent ever issued. That gene must run in the family as I noticed that in 2005 Ed filed a patent application for “a method and system for providing a generally-accepted identifier and a database for maintaining meeting identifiers”. Another classmate with a lifelong interest in communication has been amateur ham radio operator Bill Morine who achieved local attention in North Carolina in February for administering the last Morse code certification following the FCC’s decision to no longer require amateur radio operators to know Morse code in order to become licensed.

Lacrosse is continuing to grow in popularity nationally, and it is evidenced at Deerfield where more than 20% of the boys this year signed up for a one week training camp in Florida over Spring Break. That fact undoubtedly will please Rob Almy who was inducted to the Los Angeles and Orange County Lacrosse Hall of Fame last October. Rob founded the UC Santa Barbara Lacrosse club as an incoming freshman in 1969. After his playing career, Rob went on to become an official who served for over 25 years and is now a nationally certified referee, a US Lacrosse ‘Clinician’ and chief referee for the Central California region. Two years ago, Rob returned to Deerfield to referee the annual Alumni lacrosse game which Tee Johnson and I attended.

For the more culturally inclined, Christopher Beach, president and artistic director of La Jolla Music Society, made a cameo appearance on the East Coast in January to moderate a discussion on opening night at the Jacob Burns Film Festival in Westchester. Barry Ahearn is currently completing an edition of the selected letters of Louis Zukofsky, the subject of his PhD dissertation from Johns Hopkins. When that is completed he will begin work on a critical study of Ezra Pound, Marianne Moore and Robert Frost, a study tentatively titled The Imprecise Muse. For those of you who may have missed it, our own Howie Carr authored The Brothers Bulger: How They Terrorized and Corrupted Boston for a Quarter Century, an account of crime in high places which made The New York Times bestsellers’ list in 2006. Howie was in the news again earlier this month when he argued that another radio talk show host in Boston be jailed for facetiously suggesting a mob hit on Howie while on the air with the newly-elected Governor.

While in Boston last month I had the good fortune to spend time with Neil Jacobs and Nat Brayton, both of whom I am counting on to help organize our 40th Reunion, now only two years away, if anyone needs reminding. Neil is a senior partner at Wilmer Hale & Dorr where he founded the labor law practice more than 25 years ago, and the ageless Nat continues to run his eponymous money management business.

Class Trivia

Rob Almy won the Photo Trivia contest for the Fall Term by correctly identifying Jay Hand, although what seemed to intrigue him more, as a geologist, was the rock formation in the background. The other tour guide in the class, which no one identified, is Julien LeBourgeois who, at last sighting, was conducting high end tours for visitors to the Capital. The classmate I’ve selected for this term’s photo trivia contest should be easily recognizable, although you may never have seen him attired so formally. Would anyone like to venture a guess as to the location and the occasion?

As always, I wish all of you the best. Please send news or photos to me at dwsquires@gmail.com for inclusion in the Spring Term e-mail or posting to the Online Yearbook.

DWS

Fall Term

To the Great Class of 1969:

The first term of the Margarita Curtis era is now history and, if what is past is prologue, the Academy appears to be in good hands. Since her arrival this summer, Dr. Curtis has been busy meeting individually with each member of the faculty and staff as well as making the rounds with residents of the local community, students, parents and alumni. Recognizing that the Deerfield student body, like an army, marches on its stomach, she has brought food on each of her weekly visits to the dorms this fall where she has elicited suggestions for ways to improve school life that have run the gamut from the practical to the fanciful.

In addition to the normal school meetings and speakers, the cornucopia of extracurricular activities to choose from this fall seemed more like a full time job. While not attending classes, students were participating in a range of events which included, in no particular order, a math olympiad, a debating competition in Canada, the fall play, various community service projects, the annual Sadie Hawkins dance, laser tag, dodgeball and ping pong tournaments and a blood drive. Academically, the girls continue to outpace the boys in at least this year's senior class, taking ten out of 15 spots on the list of cum laude students.

The capstone of the fall athletic season was the November 11th trip to Wallingford where the Varsity Football team thoroughly beat Choate 31-6 under more temperate conditions than the near arctic weather that prevailed two years ago. The team, which presented the game ball to Dr. Curtis after the game, was considerably better than its 4-3 record might suggest, given that two losses were by a total of three points and the other was to Taft which beat only one other school. Unfortunately, the eagerly anticipated contest against an undefeated Andover team was cancelled on account of rain.

Class News

When I last wrote, I noted that the National Stock Exchange, under the leadership of David Colker, had attracted the acquisition interest of various securities firms. Following the closing of the acquisition, David announced plans to pursue other opportunities and to be available to the new owners through a transition period. He should be able to find enough to keep him busy since he reportedly still plays guitar, banjo, piano and other instruments in his free time. David earned his undergraduate and law degrees at UVA and, after a spell as a corporate lawyer in Cincinnati, joined what was then known as the Cincinnati Stock Exchange in 1984. He orchestrated the move of the Cincinnati Stock Exchange to Chicago in the early 1990's, became CEO in 2000 and re-named it the National Stock Exchange in 2003.

Another classmate in transition has been John "Jack" Spitznagel who moved from his perch at the University of Maryland to York College of Pennsylvania where he is a Visiting Associate Professor. According to his website, Jack's current research "involves studies of the polymorphic outer membrane proteins of the Chlamydia and and pilot epidemiological study of the occurrence of Chlamydia pneumonia in periodontal lesions". For a translation, contact "Dr. Spitz".

Finally, Rich Berkowitz, managing director of Berkowitz Dick Pollack & Brant, Certified Public Accountants and Consultants, began a one-year term earlier this year as president of the 18,000-member Florida Institute of Certified Public Accountants. Rich's firm, which he founded in 1980, has offices in Miami and Fort Lauderdale and employs 175 specialists.

There is other news about the Class which I've posted on the blog since September, including an obituary for "Mugsy" Madden. For those who may be sensing their own mortality, Mugsy is the 10th known member of the Class to pass away. Others who preceded Mugsy include: David Brown, George Burr, Tom Coughlin, Alan Jolis, Tim Marcum, Jeff O'Neil, Phil Poirier, David Reynolds and Pad Wales. Another thing you will notice on the blog is that I have identified the Classmates whose coordinates we are missing at 32 43.22"N72 36'27.28"W and asked for any leads. On a more upbeat note, nine of us for whom living well is the best revenge met recently for dinner in New York. You can find a photo and short report at NYC Dinner.

Class Trivia

By a process of triangulation, I think I successfully located another Classmate since I last wrote, however I am posting his photo as another in my occasional series of "Mystery Classmates" to see whether anyone can independently verify the likeness. The individual in the photo has been as hard to find as the rare birds he specializes in sighting on guided tours. Without giving away any more clues, let me know if you can identify the person in the photo.

In a related vein, can you name another Classmate who also moonlights as a tour guide?

Best wishes to all this holiday season.

DWS

NYC Dinner

For the third time in a little more than a year, members of the Great Class of 1969 living in the general vicinity of New York met to resume conversations that, in some cases, had been interrupted nearly 40 years ago by graduation. The occasion was once again prompted by Robert Clough's trip to New York for the annual Atlantic Salmon Federation dinner. Following the obligatory photo op in our apartment, the seven of us headed off to a prominent local establishment where we joined Steve Bisbee and Tom O'Gara and, to the consternation of the waiters, obliviously spent the following two and a half hours catching up on news.