Architectural Heritage - The Taft School
Architectural Heritage - The Taft School
Architectural Heritage - The Taft School
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B U L L E T I N<br />
Navigating the<br />
Waters of<br />
College Admission<br />
BUILDING A BETTER<br />
Athlete<br />
PROTECTING NEW YORK’S<br />
<strong>Architectural</strong><br />
<strong>Heritage</strong><br />
F A L L • 2 0 0 4
B U L L E T I N<br />
Fall 2004<br />
Volume 75 Number 1<br />
Bulletin Staff<br />
Director of Development<br />
John E. Ormiston<br />
Editor<br />
Julie Reiff<br />
Alumni Notes<br />
Linda Beyus<br />
Anne Gahl<br />
Jackie Maloney<br />
Design<br />
Good Design<br />
www.goodgraphics.com<br />
Proofreader<br />
Nina Maynard<br />
Mail letters to:<br />
Julie Reiff, Editor<br />
<strong>Taft</strong> Bulletin<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Taft</strong> <strong>School</strong><br />
Watertown, CT 06795-2100 U.S.A.<br />
ReiffJ@<strong>Taft</strong><strong>School</strong>.org<br />
Send alumni news to:<br />
Linda Beyus<br />
Alumni Office<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Taft</strong> <strong>School</strong><br />
Watertown, CT 06795-2100 U.S.A.<br />
<strong>Taft</strong>Bulletin@<strong>Taft</strong><strong>School</strong>.org<br />
Deadlines for Alumni Notes:<br />
Winter–November 15<br />
Spring–February 15<br />
Summer–May 30<br />
Fall–August 30<br />
Send address corrections to:<br />
Sally Membrino<br />
Alumni Records<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Taft</strong> <strong>School</strong><br />
Watertown, CT 06795-2100 U.S.A.<br />
<strong>Taft</strong>Rhino@<strong>Taft</strong><strong>School</strong>.org<br />
1-860-945-7777<br />
www.<strong>Taft</strong>Alumni.com<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Taft</strong> Bulletin is published<br />
quarterly, in February, May,<br />
August, and November, by <strong>The</strong><br />
<strong>Taft</strong> <strong>School</strong>, 110 Woodbury Road,<br />
Watertown, CT 06795-2100, and<br />
is distributed free of charge to<br />
alumni, parents, grandparents,<br />
and friends of the school.<br />
This magazine is printed on<br />
recycled paper.
F E A T U R E S<br />
Building a Better Athlete ................................... 18<br />
In a culture of specialization, are three-season athletes headed<br />
toward extinction?<br />
By Andrew Everett ’88<br />
Page 9<br />
<strong>The</strong> Guardian ...................................................... 23<br />
In New York City—where demand for real estate is soaring, land is<br />
scarce, and money is plentiful—the stakes are high. Bob Tierney<br />
’61, who chairs the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission, helps<br />
protect its heritage while still allowing for growth.<br />
By David Lombino ’96<br />
Navigating the Waters of<br />
College Admission ............................................. 28<br />
How parents and students can steer clear of myths and<br />
misinformation to find the college that is right for them.<br />
By Andrew McNeill<br />
D E P A R T M E N T S<br />
Page 10<br />
From the Editor .................................................. 4<br />
Letters ................................................................. 4<br />
Alumni Spotlight ................................................ 6<br />
Around the Pond ................................................ 10<br />
Endnote............................................................... 34<br />
On the Cover<br />
Bob Tierney ’61 shows off the rotunda in New York’s landmark City<br />
Hall. <strong>The</strong> rotunda has been the site of municipal as well as national<br />
events; Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses Grant were laid in state here,<br />
attracting enormous crowds to pay their respects. DON HAMERMAN<br />
<strong>The</strong> Heroic and Pathetic Escapades of Karagiozis, designed and<br />
directed by Guggenheim Fellow Ralph Lee ’53 and performed at <strong>Taft</strong><br />
by his Mettawee River <strong>The</strong>atre Company in September. PETER FREW ’75<br />
Page 12<br />
E-Mail Us!<br />
Send your latest news, address change, birth announcement, or letter to the editor<br />
via e-mail. Our address is <strong>Taft</strong>Bulletin@<strong>Taft</strong><strong>School</strong>.org. We continue to accept your<br />
communiqués by fax machine (860-945-7756), telephone (860-945-7777), or U.S.<br />
Mail (110 Woodbury Road, Watertown, CT 06795-2100). So let’s hear from you!<br />
<strong>Taft</strong> on the Web:<br />
Find a friend’s new address or look<br />
up back issues of the Bulletin at<br />
www.<strong>Taft</strong>Alumni.com.<br />
What happened at this afternoon’s<br />
game?—Visit us at www.<strong>Taft</strong>Sports.com<br />
for the latest Big Red coverage.<br />
For other campus news and events,<br />
including admissions information, visit<br />
our main site at www.<strong>Taft</strong><strong>School</strong>.org,<br />
with improved calendar features and<br />
Around the Pond stories.<br />
Don’t<br />
forget<br />
you can<br />
shop online at<br />
www.<strong>Taft</strong>Store.com
FROM THE EDITOR<br />
From the Editor<br />
<strong>The</strong>re’s no doubt about it; I have a fun job. It<br />
has its difficulties, of course, but most days I<br />
find myself fortunate to indulge my own<br />
curiosity and busybody nature as I seek to tell<br />
the stories that define the larger <strong>Taft</strong> community.<br />
I am intrigued by your tales of success<br />
and adversity, of daring and commitment,<br />
and above all your concern for others.<br />
One challenge I face is convincing the<br />
more modest among you that your story is<br />
worth telling. Why me? some ask. It’s a fair<br />
question. With nearly 8,000 living graduates<br />
how do we highlight some over others?<br />
I have my own prejudices, and find some<br />
subjects more interesting than others, but in<br />
most of our lives there is some moment,<br />
some choice, some commitment, that makes<br />
our tale worth sharing. <strong>The</strong> trick is connecting<br />
at the right time.<br />
I get plenty of help, too, from proud parents<br />
and humbled friends who tell me about<br />
the exploits of their children and classmates.<br />
Others include the Bulletin in their list of<br />
publicity contacts, happy for whatever exposure<br />
their endeavor might gain.<br />
One bias I will admit to is my conviction<br />
that people want to see faces. Eye contact<br />
seems as important in print as it is in person.<br />
In an age of increasing isolation, we want to<br />
connect, to read expressions, to make the<br />
story personal. Which is why we ask for<br />
photos of you, why we include so many<br />
images in class notes, and why we’re picky<br />
about the quality.<br />
We live in an age when we are inundated<br />
with information. I find my own house gets<br />
buried periodically in an onslaught of paper—things<br />
I keep intending to read, or file<br />
away for the future. So I make it a point to<br />
value your time, by keeping stories to a reasonable<br />
length and trying to find stories<br />
you’ll find useful or interesting.<br />
I imagine many of you, like me, also like to<br />
live vicariously through the adventures of graduates<br />
who have dared to do things the rest of us<br />
only dream about. We have those dreams in<br />
common, and we gain the opportunity to find<br />
out what might happen if we choose to move<br />
to another part of the globe, if we climb a<br />
mountain, race sports cars, or adopt a dozen<br />
kids. It may be a cautionary tale, or it may give<br />
us courage, but it helps us connect to one<br />
another, to share more than our memories of<br />
a small campus in suburban Connecticut.<br />
As always, I welcome your stories, even<br />
though I can’t print them all. I also want to<br />
thank all of you who completed the readership<br />
survey* in the summer issue. Your<br />
feedback is enormously helpful. I encourage<br />
you to continue the critique by sharing your<br />
thoughts on each issue in our letters column.<br />
So, please, let me hear from you.<br />
—Julie Reiff, editor<br />
*Congratulations<br />
to Wilma Johnson, a <strong>Taft</strong> employee for<br />
16 years now living in New Mexico,<br />
who won the <strong>Taft</strong> chair. Her survey<br />
was chosen at random from all entries<br />
received before September 30. Thanks<br />
again to all who responded.<br />
Recipe Alert<br />
Sandy Saxten’s recipe for Poke Rolls in<br />
the summer issue of the Bulletin (p. 29)<br />
was missing a key line of instructions:<br />
“After assembling the rolls in wonton<br />
wrappers, sauté in a small amount of olive<br />
oil for two minutes or until golden brown.<br />
Slice and serve with dipping sauce.”<br />
Our apologies for the omission.<br />
—Julie Reiff, editor<br />
Letters<br />
We welcome Letters to the Editor relating to<br />
the content of the magazine. Letters may be<br />
edited for length, clarity, and content, and<br />
are published at the editor’s discretion. Send<br />
correspondence to:<br />
Julie Reiff • <strong>Taft</strong> Bulletin<br />
110 Woodbury Road<br />
Watertown, CT 06795-2100 U.S.A.<br />
or to ReiffJ@<strong>Taft</strong><strong>School</strong>.org<br />
I want to take this opportunity to tell you<br />
what a good job you are doing with the<br />
magazine. <strong>The</strong> editorial balance is terrific,<br />
and I like the layout and design. I especially<br />
like the picture pages you have interspersed<br />
with the class notes.<br />
I missed my 45th Reunion in May, as I had<br />
to be in Atlanta for a business meeting. I guess<br />
I’ll have to make it a point to let nothing<br />
interfere with my 50th—which seems a lot<br />
closer now than it did back in May 1959.<br />
Your father-in-law, Al Reiff, was a wonderful<br />
teacher. He was a friend and mentor to me<br />
and the teacher I remember most fondly from<br />
my years at <strong>Taft</strong>.<br />
—J. Stephen Buckley ’59<br />
Just finished a page-by-page scan—alternated<br />
with intense reading—of the summer<br />
Bulletin. Special thanks for the treatment of<br />
’33 as usual. I do wish Kay and I had swelled<br />
that luncheon picture to seven.<br />
That Citation of Merit award to Wesley<br />
Williams ’59 was really inspiring, and I mean<br />
to drop him a note of admiration. Hope I do!<br />
Speaking of that group. We lost a real<br />
standout recently in J. Irwin Miller ’27. I<br />
knew him a bit personally and was always in<br />
awe of his accomplishments in Columbus,<br />
Ind., in the whole state, as well as all he did for<br />
<strong>Taft</strong> and Yale. I knew his sister, Clementine<br />
Tangeman, much better because she preceded<br />
me as president of the board at Emma<br />
Willard. What a model she was!<br />
—Don Buttenheim ’33<br />
I was immensely pleased to see the photo of<br />
my little granddaughter in the Bulletin. It<br />
came out really well. I think the magazine is<br />
outstanding. I can even see it in the stack of<br />
mail in the mailbox. It is visually very appealing,<br />
and the colors are vivid. <strong>The</strong>re seems to<br />
be a good balance of photos and print.<br />
I probably read about half the articles, but<br />
am much more likely to read an article like the<br />
one on Oscie than one on someone I didn’t<br />
know. I also like “From the Archives.” <strong>The</strong><br />
photo in the summer issue is much earlier than<br />
1954 (see next page); that tree was gone by the<br />
4<br />
<strong>Taft</strong> Bulletin Fall 2004
FROM THE ARCHIVES<br />
<strong>The</strong> cameraman is, indeed, Ken Parker, who<br />
came to <strong>Taft</strong> in 1942. Ken taught French and<br />
Spanish and was the director of public relations.<br />
—Harry Hyde ’52<br />
<strong>The</strong> picture had to be taken around 1947. Bill<br />
Browning is second from the left in front of the<br />
tree. <strong>The</strong> first man on the left might be George<br />
Gershel, and Jerry Rogers on the far right, all<br />
of whom graduated in 1948. By 1954, Bill and<br />
I had been married for two years.<br />
—Jane Browning<br />
Summer Bulletin, page 46<br />
Ken Parker but not in 1954<br />
<strong>The</strong> archive photo in the summer issue was<br />
probably “snapped” in 1945–46. Not realizing<br />
Ken was a faculty member, someone along the<br />
way must have attached his son’s year to the name<br />
on the photo. Thanks to the following readers<br />
who helped us identify most of the film crew.<br />
—Editor<br />
<strong>The</strong>re was a master at <strong>Taft</strong> named Ken Parker;<br />
his son was a member of the Class of 1954.<br />
Mrs. Parker succeeded Mrs. Shons as librarian<br />
in 1953 and was librarian for two years. <strong>The</strong><br />
Parkers left in 1955, when he became public<br />
relations director at Trinity College.<br />
<strong>The</strong> picture could not possibly have been<br />
taken in 1954, when two-tone cars with fins<br />
were at the height of their popularity. Running<br />
boards died out right after the war.<br />
—Chris Davenport ’56<br />
I recognize all but the man peering from the 1941<br />
Ford wood-sided station wagon. [Alan] Ward<br />
’46 is the first on the left. Hester, who worked<br />
backstage for the theater productions, wears<br />
the gloves. I don’t remember enough about the<br />
next two to call their names. [Thomas] Merrill<br />
’47, the last on the right, played clarinet.<br />
—Alexander King ’47<br />
Photo vintage is 1944–48 as most autos in<br />
background are pre-WWII. Only recognizable<br />
student is Bill Browning ’48, second<br />
from left.<br />
—Craig Bristol ’48<br />
George “Tony” Allerton ’46 also checked in<br />
via telephone to identify Alan Ward ’46 as the<br />
boy on the far left.<br />
If you have more information about the photograph<br />
from the summer issue or this one (see page<br />
32), please contact:<br />
Alison Picton, archivist<br />
<strong>Taft</strong> <strong>School</strong>, 110 Woodbury Road<br />
Watertown, CT 06795<br />
or e-mail pictona@taftschool.org<br />
time I got there, probably when the street was<br />
widened for the intersection.<br />
One suggestion for an article would be on<br />
day students or <strong>Taft</strong>’s relation with the town.<br />
Being a boarder whose family had been in<br />
Watertown since 1678, I saw things a whole<br />
lot differently than my peers. <strong>The</strong> older generation,<br />
my grandmother in particular, always<br />
referred to it as Mr. <strong>Taft</strong>’s <strong>School</strong>, presumably<br />
since she knew Mr. <strong>Taft</strong>.<br />
—Tommy Hickcox ’57<br />
I was disturbed and saddened by the <strong>Taft</strong><br />
Bulletin staff in the insensitivity of its coverage<br />
of the Women’s Pro-Choice March in D.C.<br />
It’s one thing to report an event in print, but<br />
quite another thing to include an “in your<br />
face” color photograph of teenage students<br />
holding placards advocating abortion. Although<br />
some discretion apparently was made<br />
not to place the photo on the cover of the<br />
Bulletin, it is on the school’s web site for all the<br />
world to see. Even if the photograph were<br />
excluded, one wonders what moral and ethical<br />
values <strong>Taft</strong> is inculcating to its students. Are<br />
any of <strong>Taft</strong>’s 577 students pro-life, and did any<br />
participate in the Pro-Life March in D.C. on<br />
January 23? I hope future issues of the Bulletin<br />
will be more discreet and discerning about all<br />
aspects of sensitive issues.<br />
—Henry N. Giguere ’52<br />
My wife Sally and I were positively delighted<br />
to read in the latest issue about the award<br />
given to Wes Williams. As chaplain from<br />
1955–60 [for more on Dave, see page 61),<br />
Wes was one of my favorite young men. I’ve<br />
often wondered what happened to him—<br />
and now I know!<br />
—Dave Duncombe<br />
We all know <strong>Taft</strong>’s reputation for excellence<br />
at the highest level, but the Bulletin excels<br />
even <strong>Taft</strong>’s lofty standards. <strong>The</strong> layout, the<br />
photos—ever crisper and clearer—every facet<br />
of the magazine is superb.<br />
One singular advantage you have is the<br />
incredibly broad and varied lives and careers<br />
and doings of your students and alumni.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y range the four corners of the globe,<br />
using their talents and commitments in art,<br />
music, writing, community service, athletics,<br />
and involvement at the highest level.<br />
You must be aware that you set the standard<br />
that so many independent schools are<br />
emulating. I receive several publications from<br />
my and my children’s schools—sadly none of<br />
them <strong>Taft</strong>—and the pattern is clear. <strong>The</strong>y’re<br />
all following your lead.<br />
—Fran Snyder<br />
[widow of Philip ’38]<br />
<strong>Taft</strong> Bulletin Fall 2004<br />
5
ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT<br />
Alumni<br />
SPOTLIGHT<br />
A Concert to End All Concerts<br />
Despite mud and other hardships, some 70,000 fans made the pilgrimage to Coventry,<br />
Vt., to sing and cry along with Phish during its final concerts over the August weekend.<br />
Fans left an estimated 5,000 cars parked in neat rows along Interstate 91 and hiked for<br />
miles to reach the concert. TONY CENICOLA/THE NEW YORK TIMES<br />
<strong>The</strong> news broke at the end of May that<br />
the Vermont-based band Phish—often<br />
referred to as a younger version of the<br />
Grateful Dead—was breaking up. <strong>The</strong><br />
band’s leader, Trey Anastasio ’83, said<br />
at the time that “Phish has run its course<br />
and that we should end it now while<br />
it’s still on a high note….We don’t want<br />
to become caricatures of ourselves, or<br />
worse yet, a nostalgia act. We realized<br />
that after almost 21 years together we<br />
were faced with the opportunity to graciously<br />
step away in unison, as a group,<br />
united in our friendship and our feelings<br />
of gratitude. So Coventry will be<br />
the final Phish show. We are proud and<br />
thrilled that it will be in our home state<br />
of Vermont. This is not like the hiatus,<br />
which was our last attempt to revitalize<br />
ourselves. We’re done. It’s been an amazing<br />
and incredible journey.”<br />
Anastasio later gave an hourlong interview<br />
with PBS’s Charlie Rose, and the<br />
band played on the David Letterman show<br />
a few weeks later—performing from the<br />
top of the Ed Sullivan <strong>The</strong>atre marquee,<br />
two stories up from the street. After the<br />
show ended, the band performed an additional<br />
20 to 25 minutes for fans.<br />
Despite a summer schedule of 13<br />
concerts, the final August festival in<br />
Coventry sold out in June. <strong>The</strong> band<br />
auctioned off 80 pairs of tickets, donating<br />
the proceeds to Vermont nonprofits<br />
through <strong>The</strong> Waterwheel Foundation,<br />
created by Phish in 1997 to oversee the<br />
band’s various charitable activities.<br />
To meet the enormous demand from<br />
“phans,” the two-day festival was simulcast<br />
in high-definition video and Dolby<br />
surround sound at theaters across the<br />
nation as well as on XM satellite radio,<br />
making it possible to listen in to the concert<br />
from anywhere in the U.S.<br />
An onsite radio station—a regular<br />
feature at other Phish festivals (each with<br />
its own name: <strong>The</strong> Badger, Thin Air, or<br />
<strong>The</strong> Bunny)—also pumped out “an<br />
eclectic mix of music, traffic reports,<br />
event updates, interviews with fans and<br />
festival crew, a double session of Phish<br />
archivist Kevin Shapiro’s ‘From <strong>The</strong><br />
Archives’ programs, late-night audio<br />
freakouts and of course all of Phish’s sets”<br />
from Thursday through Monday.<br />
Capturing some of the frenzy surrounding<br />
this final summer, select<br />
public television stations aired a 90-<br />
minute special on Phish’s 2003 festival<br />
in Limestone, Maine. Shot in highdefinition<br />
video, It combines exclusive<br />
interviews interwoven with live material.<br />
<strong>The</strong> official Phish web site refers to<br />
6 <strong>Taft</strong> Bulletin Fall 2004
It as “unquestionably the best footage<br />
ever captured of the band playing live.”<br />
When it came time for the final concert,<br />
held at the Newport State Airport<br />
in Coventry, Vt., more than 70,000 fans<br />
came from all over the country to say<br />
goodbye creating a daylong traffic jam<br />
on Interstate 91. Record precipitation,<br />
though, turned much of the parking areas<br />
to mud, causing some ticket holders<br />
to be turned away.<br />
In tears during the final show, Anastasio<br />
reportedly told the crowd, “We’re having<br />
some emotional ups and downs up here,<br />
as I’m sure you are. When we started we<br />
had so many ideas, we were going to do<br />
this thing and that thing and break down<br />
that rule. When I think back on it now, I<br />
think of how little I knew about music<br />
and about friendship.”<br />
“Although Phish was at the center of<br />
a jam-band scene that’s full of collaborations<br />
and connections,” wrote the New<br />
York Times, “it also stood alone. Phish<br />
operated on a scale to rival the Grateful<br />
Dead, its career model and sometime<br />
musical model as well. One thing Phish<br />
takes with it as it disbands is the ambition<br />
to put on one-band events like Coventry.”<br />
Medea Turns Muslim<br />
With the New York debut of Medea in<br />
Jerusalem, Roger Kirby ’65 has transported<br />
Euripedes’s play from the<br />
Mediterranean to the Middle East. But<br />
the shift in geography is not as great as<br />
the shift in time. Instead of 406 B.C.E.,<br />
Kirby updates the story by casting<br />
Medea as a Muslim woman who marries<br />
a Jew and moves to Israel.<br />
Critics praised Kirby for bringing<br />
new life to the classic play, updating the<br />
language and developing the plot around<br />
contemporary events, while remaining<br />
faithful to the original. <strong>The</strong> New York<br />
Times described the play as “wilder and<br />
bloodier than Euripedes imagined.”<br />
Not surprisingly, the play “provoked<br />
considerable controversy and<br />
very heated reviews” as well, says Kirby.<br />
“To the very positive side, a memo was<br />
circulated within the U.N. suggesting<br />
that it be seen.” A Mideast broadcasting<br />
system did a segment on the show<br />
that was shown throughout the region,<br />
including Iraq, in September.<br />
<strong>The</strong> reason Kirby wrote about the<br />
crisis in the Middle East, he told the New<br />
Sean Haberle as Jason and Rebecca<br />
Wisocky as Medea in Roger Kirby’s<br />
recent New York production<br />
York Daily News, is that “no sentient person,<br />
especially living in New York, cannot<br />
not take an interest. Apart from the terror<br />
issue, there’s the seeming stupidity<br />
and blindness and lack of common sense<br />
on the part of so many different entities.<br />
One can’t just stand by and let events<br />
take their natural course. Twenty-four<br />
hundred years of violence is enough.”<br />
A New York lawyer by trade,<br />
Kirby’s three previous plays, Natural<br />
Inclinations, Modern Man [Fall 2003],<br />
and Burleigh Grimes each had its debut<br />
in London. Medea in Jerusalem was performed<br />
at NYC’s Rattlestick <strong>The</strong>ater<br />
from August 5 through September 4.<br />
Friday Night Lights<br />
It has been a busy year for actor/director<br />
Peter Berg ’80, who appeared in the film<br />
Collateral with Tom Cruise and directed<br />
Director Peter Berg ’80 and Actor Billy Bob<br />
Thornton on the set of Friday Night Lights<br />
his own movie, Friday Night Lights, about<br />
a Texas high-school football team.<br />
Based on the novel of the same name<br />
by H.G. Bissinger (Berg’s cousin), Friday<br />
Night Lights is the story of the 1988<br />
Permian High <strong>School</strong> football season, but<br />
it’s really a “story about community and<br />
the sociology of a town,” said Berg, who<br />
starred as the hockey-playing doctor Billy<br />
Cronk on the television series Chicago Hope.<br />
As director and co-screenwriter, Berg<br />
spent much of last year’s football season<br />
in Austin and Odessa, Texas, staying with<br />
the players and their families.<br />
“What I saw [at games] was absolute<br />
chaos, with the coaches talking to these<br />
17-year-old boys like they were soldiers,”<br />
Berg recalls. “Everything is happening at<br />
once, there’s pure desperation in the air,<br />
and 40,000 people are screaming in the<br />
stands. It was a lot like the beginning<br />
minutes of Saving Private Ryan.”<br />
<strong>The</strong>se were big schools and football<br />
was big time there, said Berg, who played<br />
for Larry Stone at <strong>Taft</strong>.<br />
“Coach Stone was a very intense<br />
character,” said Berg. “He used to traumatize<br />
me. He’d say, ‘It takes a special<br />
breed of cat, Berg. Are you a special breed<br />
of cat?’ I always remember him saying<br />
that to me. I even put it in a speech one<br />
of the characters says in a television show<br />
I did called Wonderland.”<br />
Friday Night Lights opened in theaters<br />
in October. Berg also directed last<br />
year’s <strong>The</strong> Rundown.<br />
<strong>Taft</strong> Bulletin Fall 2004<br />
7
ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT<br />
From Connecticut to Cork<br />
Jaywalking with the Irish<br />
David Monagan ’70<br />
Lonely Planet Publications, 2004<br />
For David Monagan,<br />
the dream of dropping<br />
everything to<br />
pack off to another<br />
country for a great<br />
family adventure<br />
became real when he<br />
and his family left<br />
the “Volvo-purring<br />
perfection of the<br />
Connecticut hills”<br />
to move to Ireland<br />
for one, two, or three<br />
years—or perhaps a lifetime.<br />
What he and his family discover<br />
upon landing in a peculiar Cork City, is<br />
an Ireland transformed. By turns hilarious<br />
and withering, Monagan’s book,<br />
Jaywalking with the Irish, is the tale of<br />
how profoundly the new Ireland differed<br />
from the Monagan’s dreams. What they<br />
found was a world still whirling with eccentricity<br />
and abiding heart. <strong>The</strong> result<br />
is a uniquely nostalgia-free portrait of a<br />
country wrestling with its place as the<br />
fastest growing economy in Europe.<br />
“You won’t find a better or truer<br />
PATRICK LYNCH<br />
depiction of Ireland than this<br />
one,” says Frank McCourt,<br />
author of Angela’s Ashes.<br />
“David Monagan captures<br />
the country and its landscape<br />
in exquisite detail and does it with<br />
wit, charm, and compassion.”<br />
Monagan is a longtime journalist<br />
and publisher whose numerous credits<br />
include the New York Times, Boston Globe<br />
Magazine, Forbes, Discover, Psychology<br />
Today, <strong>The</strong> Irish Times, Irish Examiner, and<br />
Reader’s Digest. He is currently writing a<br />
nonfiction book called Explorers of the<br />
Heart. A former Dublin college student,<br />
Monagan says he can “talk about most<br />
anything Irish,” from his adventures on<br />
lifeboats or in building Kerry megaliths<br />
or in the mother of all eccentric pubs.<br />
Other Alumni<br />
Works in Print<br />
Over the Edge of the World<br />
Magellan’s Terrifying<br />
Circumnavigation of the Globe<br />
Laurence Bergreen ’68<br />
HarperCollins, 2003<br />
House of Holy Fools<br />
A Family Portrait in<br />
Six Cracked Parts<br />
Amy Biancolli ’81<br />
Lulu Press, 2004<br />
Back to Life<br />
Introducing the Simple Cure<br />
for Back Pain and Sitting Ills<br />
Condict Moore ’33<br />
Butler Books, 2004<br />
Kindness of Strangers, edited by Don<br />
George ’70 [Fall 2003] was named<br />
the winner in the Best Travel Essay<br />
category at the eighth annual Independent<br />
Publisher Book Awards. <strong>The</strong><br />
IPPY Awards, as they are known, were<br />
presented at BookExpo America<br />
2004 in Chicago. “We are extremely<br />
honored,” said George. “From the beginning,<br />
we believed that these tales<br />
of human compassion and connection<br />
around the globe would resonate with<br />
readers and inspire them to create acts<br />
of kindness in their own lives.”<br />
Singing Her Praises<br />
Between Here and Gone<br />
Mary Chapin Carpenter ’76<br />
Columbia Records, 2004<br />
Mary Chapin Carpenter ’76 has a new<br />
album out, Between Here and Gone from<br />
Columbia Records. Released in April, this<br />
is her first collection of new songs since<br />
getting married in 2002. <strong>The</strong> Chicago<br />
Sun-Times called it her “most pointed<br />
and poignant songwriting” yet.<br />
“Carpenter sustains an introspective<br />
tone throughout the album,” agreed the<br />
Washington Post, “crafting thoughtful<br />
songs about unresolved emotions (‘What<br />
Would You Say to Me’), spiritual refuge<br />
(‘My Heaven’) and hard-won love<br />
(‘Elysium’). <strong>The</strong> Paul Simon-like portrait<br />
‘Grand Central Station,’ beautifully<br />
drawn and hauntingly arranged, ranks<br />
among her finest ballads.”<br />
Between Here and Gone “addresses<br />
the theme of travel and transition, the<br />
fragility of life, and the ephemeral nature<br />
of happiness,” said Amazon.com.<br />
“Carpenter reestablishes herself not only<br />
as a world-class poet, but as an artist of<br />
the first order.”<br />
Fans flocked to her summer concerts<br />
around the country to hear her latest<br />
songs as well as her Grammy-winning<br />
favorites. Carpenter also appeared on<br />
CBS Sunday Morning in late August and<br />
the Jane Pauley Show in early September.<br />
8 <strong>Taft</strong> Bulletin Fall 2004
ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT<br />
On and Off the Wall<br />
Other recent and upcoming alumni<br />
artists exhibits<br />
Adam Brent ’91<br />
“Cooked Green”<br />
June 12 through August 31<br />
<strong>The</strong> Art Lot<br />
Brooklyn, New York<br />
John R. Whitton Bria ’69<br />
“New York Points of View”<br />
September 17 through December 31<br />
<strong>The</strong> Gallery in the Park<br />
Cross River, New York<br />
William Hudders ’82<br />
“Summer Light”<br />
September 5 through October 30<br />
Ahlum Gallery<br />
Easton, Pennsylvania<br />
Marc Leuthold ’80<br />
“Expanding Vortex”<br />
March 22 through May 15<br />
Gallery Pahk<br />
New York, New York<br />
[For a list of exhibits in the Mark W.<br />
Potter Gallery, please turn to page 15.]<br />
“Bend,” 2004, 48" x 60", oil on linen COURTESY KATHARINA RICH PERLOW GALLERY<br />
Upcoming Exhibits for Ken Rush<br />
Artist Ken Rush ’67 will have a selection<br />
of his recent landscapes included in a<br />
three-artist exhibition at Katharina Rich<br />
Perlow Gallery in New York City that<br />
opens January 6. He will also be having<br />
a solo exhibition opening February 18<br />
at the Southern Vermont Arts Center in<br />
Manchester, Vermont. Spending time in<br />
New York and Vermont, Rush is entering<br />
his 26th year of teaching art at Packer<br />
Collegiate Institute in Brooklyn.<br />
“I work from, with, and in the landscape,”<br />
says Rush. “At first, my painting<br />
made very specific reference to what I<br />
saw. Now I am no longer working from<br />
any specific reference or source.”<br />
Rush’s landscape has been internalized<br />
into thematic series that basically<br />
find voice in his studio. <strong>The</strong>y are neither<br />
memory images nor observed ones, he<br />
explains, but instead are personal explorations<br />
of the act of painting. “I consider<br />
them,” he says, “in spite of their elements<br />
of familiarity and recognition, to be essentially<br />
abstract.”<br />
Rush has studied at some of the<br />
finest institutes worldwide, including the<br />
Sir John Cass College of Art in London<br />
and the Syracuse University <strong>School</strong> of<br />
Fine Arts. He is the author and illustrator<br />
of several children’s books, including <strong>The</strong><br />
Seltzer Man and Friday’s Journey.<br />
<strong>Taft</strong> Bulletin Fall 2004<br />
9
AROUND THE POND<br />
pond
AROUND THE POND<br />
<strong>The</strong> new<br />
Moorhead<br />
Learning Center,<br />
located in the<br />
former “Kitchen<br />
Corridor,” as it<br />
neared completion<br />
in September.<br />
PETER FREW ’75<br />
<strong>The</strong> newest addition to the campus this<br />
fall is the Moorhead Learning Center. A<br />
warm, beautifully lighted environment,<br />
the new center—still under the direction<br />
of Karen May—will continue to offer<br />
students help with strategic reading<br />
techniques, study and writing skills, organizational<br />
and time management skills,<br />
as well as evaluations and peer tutoring.<br />
<strong>The</strong> new center is named in honor<br />
of Rodman W. Moorhead ’62 and his<br />
family, who have assisted the school in<br />
students succeed. <strong>The</strong> first person a <strong>Taft</strong><br />
student should go to will always be his<br />
classroom teacher. <strong>The</strong> center is simply<br />
an extension of what we already do<br />
really well.”<br />
“What I think distinguishes us<br />
from the nation’s best day schools,” Liz<br />
Shepherd ’05 wrote in <strong>The</strong> Papyrus last<br />
spring, “are the resources we have on<br />
campus—resources that remain open<br />
long after that last class bell sounds. <strong>The</strong><br />
Learning Center is a sacred haven for those<br />
Expanded Learning Center Moves to New Quarters<br />
its efforts to provide more support for<br />
student learners over the years.<br />
“Rod Moorhead is one of the school’s<br />
most remarkable, generous, and committed<br />
graduates,” said Headmaster<br />
Willy MacMullen ’78. “In addition<br />
to being a longtime trustee, he has<br />
supported the school in every way<br />
imaginable, and his unique commitment<br />
to student learning has changed<br />
this place. Without his intellectual<br />
curiosity, this center would never have<br />
happened. This is clear: We will meet<br />
the school’s mission of educating the<br />
whole student even better now.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> Moorhead Learning Center was<br />
a project years in the making; and in<br />
some ways it is the end result of research<br />
showing that students learn in very<br />
different ways. “In the same way that<br />
our nation’s best universities created<br />
learning centers, <strong>Taft</strong> is also committed<br />
to providing both the space and resources<br />
to ensuring that its students meet their<br />
potential,” MacMullen said.<br />
“People like Don Oscarson ’47,<br />
who exemplified the role a tutor can<br />
play in the lives of <strong>Taft</strong> students, taught<br />
us how important that can be,” explains<br />
MacMullen. “<strong>Taft</strong> has always been<br />
and will always be a rigorous academic<br />
experience. <strong>The</strong> Moorhead Learning<br />
Center is simply one more resource<br />
among many that we use to help students,<br />
another tool we have to help<br />
who seek a more nurturing educational<br />
environment. Some of <strong>Taft</strong>’s brightest<br />
students spend time there just to gain<br />
some extra confidence on their writing<br />
or other areas they feel need some work.”<br />
What’s remarkable, adds MacMullen,<br />
is that so many students are interested in<br />
how they learn, often honors students.<br />
<strong>The</strong> learning center in the Arts and<br />
Humanities Center proved so successful<br />
that more space was needed.<br />
With the additional room, May is<br />
hoping to work more with teachers, to<br />
run department workshops and help<br />
them better understand ways in which<br />
different learners learn. She also hopes<br />
the new facility will allow them to<br />
develop the existing Peer Tutoring<br />
program. “Our learning center is open<br />
to all students,” explains May, “which is<br />
rarely found at other schools.”<br />
Designed by architect David<br />
Thompson, who was responsible for<br />
the renovations to Walker Hall two<br />
years ago, the Moorhead Learning<br />
Center includes study space, three new<br />
offices, a conference room, and several<br />
tutoring rooms. In addition to the learning<br />
center, the renovation also includes<br />
a counseling wing where school counselors<br />
Jean Strumolo Piacenza ’75 and<br />
Jonathan Bernon have their offices.<br />
A dedication of the new facility,<br />
located in the former Pond Wing, will<br />
be held in the spring.<br />
<strong>Taft</strong> Bulletin Fall 2004<br />
11
AROUND THE POND<br />
Purely Artists for a Time<br />
Seven students were awarded Kilbourne Summer Enrichment Grants in the Arts this year, helping them underwrite all or part of the<br />
expense of “summer programs, classes, seminars, or trips which are enriching and will encourage and expand the students’ interest and<br />
skill in the performing and visual arts.” Established by John Kilbourne ’58, the grants were all given to seniors this year, although<br />
younger students are welcome to apply. Six of them share their experiences here.<br />
CAROLYN LUPPENS ’05 loves the<br />
Kilbourne program “because it gives students<br />
the chance to be purely artists for a<br />
time. At school,” she says, “there are too<br />
many pressures from too many different<br />
things for the environment to be conducive<br />
to a solitary focus, but that is often<br />
the discipline required to excel at any art.”<br />
Carolyn went to St. Andrews University<br />
in Scotland for a month to study creative<br />
writing with some of the foremost Scottish<br />
authors and poets. “As excellent as the<br />
professors were,” she said, “as inspiring as<br />
the location was, and as incredible as my<br />
peers were, the most valuable thing I<br />
learned was how to be a writer, an opportunity<br />
for which I am eternally grateful.”<br />
JESSICA GIANNETTO ’05 attended<br />
a weeklong photography course<br />
at the College of Southampton on Long<br />
Island that heightened her love for photography.<br />
She said her professor, a photographer<br />
for the New York Times, gave<br />
her a piece of advice that she took to heart:<br />
“Take every picture as if it is your last.”<br />
She also said that the darkroom was her<br />
sanctuary and that she spent much of the<br />
day in it printing. “I learned a few new<br />
techniques that I am anxious to experiment<br />
with and plan to do an independent<br />
study project during the year.”<br />
ELSPETH MICHAELS ’05 took a<br />
sculpture class at Yale University. “It was<br />
one of the most rewarding, intimidating,<br />
challenging, and fun experiences I’ve ever<br />
had,” she said. Learning plastering, welding,<br />
and woodworking, Elspeth says the<br />
class totally changed her perspective on<br />
art. She says her classmates, who were<br />
mostly upperclassmen at Yale, challenged<br />
her to think more and care more about<br />
her art. “After submitting my A.P. Art<br />
portfolio last spring, I felt I needed to<br />
take a break from 2D art and try sculpture,<br />
something I’ve had little experience<br />
with. Since this class, I’ve approached art<br />
with a new attitude, clearer perspective,<br />
more creative ambition, and a willingness<br />
to be more adventurous.”<br />
12 <strong>Taft</strong> Bulletin Fall 2004
AROUND THE POND<br />
Monica Raymunt ’05, right, with fellow acting student Michal,<br />
who came from Miami, at the Yale Summer Program.<br />
Also at Yale, MONICA RAYMUNT<br />
’05 studied acting techniques at the<br />
University’s <strong>School</strong> of Drama. “We took<br />
five classes each day in voice, movement,<br />
acting, improvisation, and text analysis,<br />
in addition to scene study and other<br />
events every evening,” she said. “While<br />
the schedule and workload were demanding,<br />
I honestly reveled in every moment<br />
and wish I could experience it all over<br />
again. <strong>The</strong> program strengthened my<br />
passion for theater in ways I never<br />
dreamed possible.”<br />
NELL MALTMAN ’05 went to a<br />
Second City training camp for two<br />
weeks. She spent two and a half hours<br />
learning improv and the same amount<br />
of time for comedy writing each day.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> class was, honestly,” she said, “the<br />
best experience of my life.”<br />
WILL SEALY ’05 chose to study filmmaking<br />
in New York. “While many other<br />
students in the five-week program chose<br />
to study 18mm film production,” explains<br />
Will, “I decided on the alternate digital<br />
course. Over the program, I wrote, directed,<br />
and edited three short films. <strong>The</strong> second,<br />
a four-minute-long music video of an upand-coming<br />
New York City band, was so<br />
well received that I decided to send it to<br />
the Hollywood Student Film Festival.”<br />
Senior Sara Rubin also received a Kilbourne<br />
grant, to study art.<br />
A look at the numbers<br />
For the school’s 179 openings for new students this fall, the Admissions Office<br />
received over 1,400 applications. <strong>The</strong> current student body of 564 is made up<br />
of the following:<br />
• 288 Boys and 276 Girls<br />
• 96 Lower Mids, 147 Mids, 158 Upper Mids, and 163 Seniors<br />
• 462 Boarding and 102 Day<br />
• 45 percent are from private schools and 44 percent from public schools.<br />
• 22 percent are students of color.<br />
• <strong>The</strong>y hail from 34 states and 18 foreign countries.<br />
• 34 percent are on financial aid, receiving $4,250,000 in total grants.<br />
• Tuition for boarders is $32,900 and $24,000 for day students.<br />
<strong>Taft</strong> Bulletin Fall 2004<br />
13
Poole Days<br />
One of the most prestigious awards at <strong>Taft</strong> isn’t given out at graduation; it isn’t even<br />
limited to seniors. Named for Bob Poole ’50, Poole Fellowships are travel grant money<br />
awarded each summer to help students fund service projects around the globe. Poole, who<br />
returned to <strong>Taft</strong> to teach and coach football, went on to devote his life to conservation in<br />
Africa. His legacy of serving others lives on.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re were seven recipients this year. <strong>The</strong>ir stories enrich our community and inspire<br />
others to make a difference. Four of them share the highlights of their experiences and<br />
what made it worthwhile.<br />
Jade Scott ’05 with Charity, 3, at the New Day foster<br />
home for children with special needs in China.<br />
VANESSA BROWNSTEIN ’06<br />
had “an amazing time” on her Poole<br />
Fellowship in Belize! “During our<br />
orientation week, we hiked up Mayan<br />
ruins, canoed through caves, and learned<br />
about the country and its culture before<br />
we went to our homestays,” she explained.<br />
“We spent a little over two<br />
weeks in a remote town building a resource<br />
center. It was hard physical work,<br />
which taught me to push my personal<br />
limits both physically and mentally.<br />
My host family spoke Spanish, so the<br />
language barrier provided us an opportunity<br />
to find different ways to<br />
communicate as well as teach each other<br />
our native languages.”<br />
JADE SCOTT ’05 spent three<br />
weeks in China working with special<br />
needs children in the New Day foster<br />
home and helping at the New Day Factory<br />
in a small town outside Beijing. “It<br />
was very much a culture shock,” says<br />
Jade, “but the most amazing and eyeopening<br />
experience I have ever had. I<br />
got to work with children, to practice<br />
my Chinese [promoting her to Chinese<br />
3 at <strong>Taft</strong> this year from level 1 last year],<br />
and met the most incredibly generous<br />
people. I went independently, without<br />
a program, and that was one of the best<br />
decisions I could have made.”<br />
NICHOLAS CHU ’05 traveled to<br />
Kuala Lumpur and Penang, Malaysia,<br />
where he volunteered for five days at an<br />
orphanage called Rumah Hope, as well<br />
as at an orphanage for handicapped and<br />
disabled children for another five days.<br />
In Penang, he volunteered at an orphanage<br />
managed by the Salvation Army.<br />
“My Poole grant was simply a great<br />
experience,” said Nick. “I was given the<br />
opportunity to travel to a country I’ve<br />
always been interested in, to volunteer<br />
in a way I’ve always loved—playing<br />
with kids. It was a new and unforgettable<br />
experience.”<br />
In Thailand, TAMARA SINCLAIR<br />
’05 taught English and played games<br />
with children between the ages of 3<br />
and 5. “It was an institution set up by<br />
monks and was therefore adjacent to a<br />
temple,” she explained. “<strong>The</strong> children<br />
approached me with apprehension at<br />
first, but they soon grew to love and<br />
trust me and in the same way I grew to<br />
love these children and rely on them<br />
for my daily dose of innocence, simple<br />
happiness, and sheer unbridled energy.<br />
Some days, after the children were taking<br />
naps, I taught the attendants basic<br />
English; this was the most rewarding<br />
part of my trip. To be able to hold conversations<br />
in English with women who<br />
just two weeks before knew only a very<br />
limited number of English words was<br />
a great feeling.”<br />
Other Poole Fellows for 2005 were<br />
Samantha Glazer ’06, who went to<br />
Australia; Jacob Hammer ’05, who went<br />
to Tibet; and Leah Nestico ’05, who<br />
went to Thailand also.
AROUND THE POND<br />
PETER FREW ’75<br />
Self Portraits in Learning<br />
“Everything we write is a self-portrait,”<br />
observed Joe Gordon, dean of undergraduate<br />
education at Yale College, who<br />
addressed the faculty at their opening<br />
meeting in September.<br />
Speaking about plagiarism and <strong>Taft</strong>’s<br />
mission as described in the recent “Portrait<br />
of a Graduate” (see summer 2003),<br />
he offered the following observations.<br />
“We can understand [in the <strong>Taft</strong><br />
Portrait] why the appeal to integrity<br />
comes first and foremost. If everything<br />
we write is a self-portrait, then our integrity<br />
is always at stake when we write:<br />
we can either be working to build it, or<br />
we can be risking its dissolution.”<br />
“As anyone who has compiled a writing<br />
portfolio or read through one knows,<br />
our essays show us at different stages in<br />
our development and in a variety of<br />
professional and social roles. Our writing<br />
reflects how we see the world and<br />
how we have come to terms with it.”<br />
Invoking famous portraits in literature,<br />
Gordon quoted Oscar Wilde’s Picture of<br />
Dorian Gray: “Every portrait…is a portrait<br />
of the artist, not of the sitter.”<br />
A member of Yale’s disciplinary<br />
committee, Gordon explained that students<br />
who’ve plagiarized “don’t anticipate<br />
that the greatest injury was somehow<br />
in failing themselves.”<br />
“We make portraits and value them<br />
because they show us who we, or others,<br />
are at a particular moment, in a particular<br />
place. <strong>The</strong>y are human reflections. <strong>The</strong>y<br />
are never immediate, that is, never unmediated;<br />
they may be flattering or critical,<br />
but either way they are inevitably ‘alienated’<br />
from persons, both from the subject<br />
and from the viewer. Both because of this<br />
alienation and despite it, they are among<br />
the greatest teaching tools we have.”<br />
In the Gallery<br />
This year’s exhibits at the<br />
Mark W. Potter Gallery<br />
Marine Painting Today<br />
Selected Work from the<br />
J. Russell Jinishian Gallery<br />
September 16 to October 9<br />
Questions of Travel<br />
Photography by Joan M. Hurley<br />
October 15 to November 20<br />
Bridget Starr Taylor ’77*<br />
Illustrations and Drawings<br />
January 7 to February 3<br />
Jamie Fuller*<br />
Drawing, Paintings, Prints, Sculpture<br />
February 11 to March 11<br />
This exhibition is made possible by a<br />
grant from <strong>The</strong> Andrew R. Heminway<br />
’47 Endowment Fund.<br />
Advanced Placement Studio Art<br />
at <strong>The</strong> <strong>Taft</strong> <strong>School</strong><br />
April 1 to April 16<br />
<strong>Taft</strong> Independent Studies<br />
Program Exhibits<br />
April 19 to April 26<br />
<strong>Taft</strong> Student Work in Drawing,<br />
Design, Painting, Sculpture,<br />
Photography, and Ceramics<br />
May 16 through the summer<br />
*Rockwell Visiting Artists<br />
<strong>Taft</strong> Bulletin Fall 2004<br />
15
AROUND THE POND<br />
New Faces on the Faculty<br />
Otis Bryant<br />
M.A., Trinity, Howard<br />
History<br />
Matthew Budzyn<br />
M.A., Northern Illinois, Middlebury<br />
Spanish<br />
Roberto d’Erizans<br />
M.A., Wofford, Middlebury<br />
Spanish<br />
Herbert Erick Dalton ’00<br />
B.A., Middlebury<br />
Teaching Fellow in History<br />
Chad Faber<br />
M.A.T., Georgetown, Brown<br />
History<br />
Catherine Guiffre<br />
B.Ed., University of Reading<br />
(England)<br />
Mathematics<br />
Jonathan Guiffre<br />
B.A., University of Vermont<br />
Development, Publicity<br />
Peter Hanby<br />
B.A., Colby<br />
Science<br />
Anna Hastings<br />
B.A., Middlebury<br />
English<br />
<strong>The</strong>odore Jewell<br />
M.S., Harvard, University of North<br />
Carolina <strong>School</strong> of Law, Yale<br />
Mathematics<br />
Marilyn Katz<br />
B.S., University of Pennsylvania<br />
Teaching Fellow in Science<br />
Daniel Keating<br />
B.A., Duke<br />
Teaching Fellow in History<br />
Bonnie Lui<br />
B.A., Williams<br />
Teaching Fellow in Chinese<br />
Daniel Murphy<br />
B.S., University of Maine<br />
History<br />
Jamie Nichols<br />
M.S., University of Michigan<br />
Science<br />
Manna Ohmoto-Whitfield<br />
M.S., Princeton, Rutgers<br />
Science<br />
Andrea Orben<br />
B.S., B.A., University of<br />
Colorado, Boulder<br />
Learning Center<br />
Katherine Papay<br />
M.S., Franklin & Marshall, Cornell<br />
Science<br />
Sharon Phelan<br />
M.A., Wesleyan, Bread Loaf <strong>School</strong><br />
of English<br />
English<br />
Melissa Sullivan<br />
M.A.T., Duke, Suffolk<br />
Science<br />
Legacy Students<br />
Current students and their alumni connections<br />
R. George Abood ’07 ......................... Randolph G. Abood ’68, parent<br />
Lindsay C. Albert ’06 ................................... Eric D. Albert ’77, parent<br />
Jamie E. Albert ’08 ...................................... Eric D. Albert ’77, parent<br />
Cody E. Auer ’05 .......................... Bernhard M. Auer ’35, grandparent<br />
Jacob B. L. Baldwin ’07 ................. Thayer Baldwin* ’31, grandparent;<br />
Thayer Baldwin, Jr. ’58, parent<br />
Martha J. Barber ’08 ............................... Robert C. Barber ’75, parent<br />
Charles A. L. Bartlett ’08 ............... Charles A. Lamb ’42, grandparent;<br />
Susan Condie Lamb ’77, parent<br />
Alexander N. Bermingham ’08 ............. Eldredge L. Bermingham ’43,<br />
grandparent<br />
Max P. Biedermann ’08 ..................... John W. Biedermann ’77, parent<br />
Marika K. Bigler ’06 ............ Edward Madden Bigler ’40, grandparent;<br />
Paul G. Bigler II ’74, parent<br />
Griffith B. Bigler ’08 ............ Edward Madden Bigler ’40, grandparent;<br />
Paul G. Bigler II ’74, parent<br />
Carissa Blossom ’08 ........................... Richard W. Blossom ’66, parent<br />
Emily C. Boyd ’07 ............................... Martha Stine Boyd ’73, parent<br />
Mary O. Brauer ’08 ................................ Henry G. Brauer ’74, parent<br />
Elizabeth K. Brey ’08 ................................ Amy E. Upjohn ’79, parent<br />
Renfrew M. Brighton, Jr. ’05 .. G. Renfrew Brighton, Jr. ’43, grandparent;<br />
Renfrew M. Brighton ’74, parent<br />
Whitney Z. Brighton ’06 ... G. Renfrew Brighton, Jr. ’43, grandparent;<br />
Renfrew M. Brighton ’74, parent<br />
John S. Brittain V ’06 .......................... John S. Brittain, Jr. ’77, parent<br />
Charlotte G. Bromley ’08 ....... Dexter Barnes Blake* ’33, grandparent;<br />
Arthur F. Blake ’67, parent<br />
Eli M. Bronfman ’07 .......................... Matthew Bronfman ’77, parent<br />
Vanessa R. Brownstein ’06 ................... Fred X. Brownstein ’64, parent<br />
William C. Calder ’07 ...................... Gordon S. Calder, Jr. ’65, parent<br />
Robert A. Campbell II ’07 ...... Robert A. Campbell* ’34, grandparent;<br />
Robert C. Campbell ’76, parent<br />
David J. Carroll-Kenny ’07 ......... Livingston Carroll* ’37, grandparent<br />
Nicholas W. K. Chu ’05 .............. Cassandra Chia-Wei Pan ’77, parent<br />
Spencer T. Clark ’05 ............... Elias C. Atkins* ’15, great-grandparent;<br />
June Pratt Clark ’72, parent;<br />
Robert T. Clark ’72, parent<br />
Caroline M. Coit ’05 ....................... Charles A. Coit* ’35, grandparent<br />
Reed E. Coston ’06 ...................................... Bridget Taylor ’77, parent<br />
Elias P. Coston ’08 ....................................... Bridget Taylor ’77, parent<br />
Edward R. Downe II ’07 ......................... Hugh W. Downe ’73, parent<br />
Madeleine E. R. Dubus ’05 .................. Peggy D. Rambach ’76, parent<br />
Benjamin A. Ehrlich ’06 ........................... Paul M. Ehrlich ’62, parent<br />
J. Keith Fell, Jr. ’08 ......................................... J. Keith Fell ’72, parent<br />
Kristina V. Felske ’07 ......................... Peter V. Snyder ’34, grandparent<br />
Andrew J. Foote ’05 ....................................... Jeffrey Foote ’73, parent<br />
Amanda L. Frew ’05 ..................................... Peter A. Frew ’75, parent<br />
William D. Gahagan ’06 ....................... Alexis D. Gahagan ’74, parent<br />
Ashley I. Gambone ’05 .................. Michael D. Gambone* ’78, parent<br />
Kyle S. Gambone ’06 ..................... Michael D. Gambone* ’78, parent<br />
Helen P. Gazin ’07 ........................... Barnaby Conrad ’40, grandparent<br />
Lindsay S. Gordon ’08 ................. Audley C. Britton* ’43, grandparent<br />
Julia B. Griffin ’08 .................................. David W. Griffin ’74, parent<br />
Joseph S. Guthrie ’07 ...................... Gordon P. Guthrie, Jr. ’62, parent<br />
Caroline C. Hall ’06 ............................ Laura Weyher Hall ’78, parent<br />
Carter E. Hibbs ’05 ..................... Elizabeth Christie Hibbs ’78, parent<br />
Daniel M. Hillman ’06 ...... Roth F. Herrlinger* ’22, great-grandparent;<br />
Edward F. Herrlinger II ’46, grandparent;<br />
Katharine Herrlinger Hillman ’76, parent<br />
Cai S. Hurt ’08 ........................ Nancy Goldsborough Hurt ’79, parent<br />
Thomas S. Ide ’05.............................. Herbert S. Ide* ’21, grandparent<br />
Arthur L Kell ’08 ...................................... Laura Gieg Kell ’73, parent<br />
Jane I. E. Kinney ’06 ................................ H. Craig Kinney ’68, parent<br />
Arden V. Klemmer ’05 ........................ Andrew J. Klemmer ’75, parent<br />
16 <strong>Taft</strong> Bulletin Fall 2004
AROUND THE POND<br />
Lee Whitfield<br />
M.A., Princeton, Columbia<br />
Mathematics<br />
PROMOTED<br />
Carl Carlson has been named dean<br />
of students.<br />
DEPARTING<br />
Business manager Eric Norman ’81<br />
has announced his departure at the<br />
end of the fall semester.<br />
FACULTY STATS<br />
Male 64<br />
Female 50<br />
Average age 41<br />
Average years at <strong>Taft</strong> 9<br />
Austin G. Klemmer ’07....................... Andrew J. Klemmer ’75, parent<br />
Adrienne P. Y. Lam ’07............................ Daniel K. F. Lam ’75, parent<br />
Elizabeth L. Lanahan ’08 ... Roth F. Herrlinger* ’22, great-grandparent;<br />
Edward F. Herrlinger II ’46, grandparent;<br />
Leslie Herrlinger Lanahan ’73, parent<br />
Gray B. Lincoln ’05 ................................ Brian C. Lincoln ’74, parent<br />
Lysandra D. Lincoln ’07 ......................... Brian C. Lincoln ’74, parent<br />
Claire W. Longfield ’06 ........................ John S. Wold ’34, grandparent<br />
Charlotte D. Luckey ’08 ..... Charles P. Luckey* ’18, great-grandparent;<br />
Charles P. Luckey Jr.* ’43, grandparent;<br />
Todd W. Luckey ’75, parent<br />
Drew W. Mayer ’08 .................................. Lisa Reid Mayer ’75, parent<br />
Paige T. McGough ’07 ........................ Myles R. McGough ’68, parent<br />
Laura R. McLaughlin ’06 ............... Sharon G. McLaughlin ’73, parent<br />
Elisabeth T. McMorris ’05 ......... Gordon B. Tweedy* ’24, grandparent<br />
Clare E. Mooney ’05 ............................... Laird A. Mooney ’73, parent<br />
Emily L. Moore ’07 ......................... Condict Moore ’34, grandparent;<br />
James I. Moore* ’41, grandparent;<br />
James I. Moore, Jr. ’74, parent<br />
Alexandra d. Nielsen ’07 ........................... W. Sam Carpenter III* ’34,<br />
great-grandparent;<br />
Jeffrey M. Nielsen ’77, parent<br />
Kendra B. Pettis ’06 ................................ Kenneth A. Pettis ’74, parent<br />
Thomas F. Piacenza ’06 ................. Jean Strumolo Piacenza ’75, parent<br />
Antonia R. Pryor ’07......... Samuel F. Pryor, Jr.* ’17, great-grandparent;<br />
Samuel F. Pryor III ’46, grandparent;<br />
Samuel F. Pryor IV ’73, parent<br />
Langdon C. Quin IV ’05 .................. Langdon C. Quin III ’66, parent<br />
Adrian F. Quin ’08 ............................ Langdon C. Quin III ’66, parent<br />
Diana P. Sands ’06 ...................... Edward Van Volkenburg Sands* ’14,<br />
grandparent;<br />
Edward Van V. Sands ’65, parent<br />
Hilary C. Saverin ’06 ........................... Kenneth A. Saverin ’72, parent<br />
Zachary S. Schonbrun ’05 .................... Roy A. Schonbrun ’68, parent<br />
Stephanie D. Schonbrun ’07 ................. Roy A. Schonbrun ’68, parent<br />
Elizabeth W. Shepherd ’05 ............. David W. Fenton ’48, grandparent<br />
Hillary N. Simpson ’06 .................. Ronald H. Chase ’54, grandparent<br />
Spyros S. Skouras III ’06 ............... Spyros S. Skouras ’41, grandparent;<br />
Spyros S. Skouras, Jr. ’72, parent<br />
Samuel M. Smythe ’05............ Thomas F. Moore, Jr. ’43, grandparent;<br />
Cheves McC. Smythe ’42, grandparent;<br />
L. Smythe ’70, parent<br />
Mackenzie M. Snyder ’05 ...................... John P. Snyder III ’65, parent<br />
Emma T. Strubell ’07 .............................. Taylor J. Strubell ’63, parent<br />
Andrew C. Strumolo ’06 ........................ Tom R. Strumolo ’70, parent<br />
Harriet E. Strumolo ’07 ......................... Tom R. Strumolo ’70, parent<br />
Bridget K. Sylvester ’08 ............................ Paul A. Sylvester ’74, parent<br />
Katharine T. Thayer ’07 ................... Samuel W. M. Thayer ’72, parent<br />
Denisia K. Tseretopoulos ’07 ......... C. Dean Tseretopoulos ’72, parent<br />
Hannah D. Utley ’07 .......................... George D. Utley III ’74, parent<br />
Elinore F. Van Sant ’07 ............. Elizabeth Brown Van Sant ’75, parent<br />
Susannah M. Walden ’06 ......... John B. S. Campbell* ’34, grandparent<br />
W. Camp Walker ’05 .................. Harry W. Walker II ’40, grandparent<br />
Holland E. Walker ’07 ................ Harry W. Walker II ’40, grandparent<br />
Mary C. Walsh ’06 ................................ Sally Childs Walsh ’75, parent<br />
Clayton C. H. Wardell ’06 ............ Christopher C. Wardell ’69, parent<br />
James H. Wheeler ’05 ...................... Page Chapman* ’29, grandparent<br />
Margaret H. Widdoes ’08 .......... Brooks Hendrie Widdoes ’73, parent<br />
Mercer T. L. Wu ’05 .............................. Michael S. C. Wu ’73, parent<br />
Peter H. Wyman, Jr. ’05 . Thomas W. Chrystie* ’21, great-grandparent;<br />
Thomas L. Chrystie ’51, grandparent<br />
Henry T. Wyman ’07 ..... Thomas W. Chrystie* ’21, great-grandparent;<br />
Thomas L. Chrystie ’51, grandparent<br />
Benjamin B. Yeager ’07 ..................... W. Dewees Yeager III ’75, parent<br />
Lee S. Ziesing ’07 ................... Lee Paul Klingenstein ’44, grandparent;<br />
Joanne Klingenstein Ziesing ’78, parent<br />
*deceased<br />
<strong>Taft</strong> Bulletin Fall 2004<br />
17
Athlete<br />
BUILDING A BETTER<br />
In a culture of specialization, are three-season athletes headed toward extinction?<br />
By Andrew Everett ’88
BUILDING A BETTER<br />
Athlete<br />
Peter Frew ’75 remembers discussions 15<br />
years ago about the Larry Stone Award,<br />
given at graduation to the student who<br />
contributes most to <strong>Taft</strong> athletics. <strong>Taft</strong><br />
coaches were convinced that that year’s<br />
three-sport star was the end of an era,<br />
that the great three-sport athletes were<br />
going the way of the dodo.<br />
Luckily for <strong>Taft</strong>—and in contrast to<br />
what has been happening at other high<br />
schools around the country—that has not<br />
been the case. Frew, who has worked in<br />
Admissions and coached for the last 20<br />
years at <strong>Taft</strong>, and Headmaster Willy<br />
MacMullen ’78 point to recent graduates<br />
like Venroy July ’00 and Rob Madden ’03<br />
as embodiments of the <strong>Taft</strong> ideal.<br />
Why is it that <strong>Taft</strong> has been able<br />
to resist what Williams College athletic<br />
director and noted author on kids’<br />
sports Harry Sheehy calls a “tidal wave”<br />
of specialization?<br />
MacMullen thinks it is due to the<br />
nature of a liberal arts education in general<br />
and <strong>Taft</strong>’s culture particularly. “It<br />
is so clear that in the current landscape,<br />
specialization is the coin of the realm,”<br />
explained MacMullen. “We understand<br />
and see it, but the nature of a liberal<br />
arts education at <strong>Taft</strong> is to take risks<br />
and try things.”<br />
And MacMullen makes it clear that<br />
this philosophy extends well beyond the<br />
athletic realm. <strong>Taft</strong>’s mission is to broaden<br />
a student’s horizons, not just on the playing<br />
fields, but off them too.<br />
“As a school, even though we recognize<br />
that kids have focused on one sport,<br />
we push them to embrace all the opportunities<br />
at the school. It is bigger than<br />
just athletics. Kids should audition for<br />
Collegium or try out for a play. This is a<br />
time in their life, and a place, to take risks<br />
and take advantage of opportunities.”<br />
July, who recently graduated from<br />
the University of North Carolina, where<br />
he was a Morehead Scholar and varsity<br />
wrestler, praises <strong>Taft</strong> for differing from a<br />
disconcerting norm. “Specialization is a<br />
part of our entire culture now. Kids are<br />
not trying to broaden their horizons.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y are trying to find the one thing they<br />
can be good at. People seem to want to<br />
stick with only the things they are good<br />
at versus trying new things.”<br />
July says <strong>Taft</strong> opened his eyes by forcing<br />
him to do the opposite. <strong>The</strong> only sport<br />
he knew before he came to <strong>Taft</strong> was track<br />
and field. And while a strong student, his<br />
extracurricular activities were likewise limited.<br />
At <strong>Taft</strong>, July not only became a<br />
football star and New England champion<br />
wrestler, but also a tour guide, a debater,<br />
corridor monitor, and the aforementioned<br />
Morehead Scholar. Said July, “<strong>Taft</strong> gave<br />
me a push and opened up opportunities.”<br />
This push is a built-in part of the<br />
<strong>Taft</strong> philosophy. As Dave Hinman ’87,<br />
<strong>Taft</strong>’s athletic director, notes, the school<br />
requires students to participate in a sport,<br />
or an “ex” in <strong>Taft</strong> lingo, every season. “We<br />
do not allow exemptions from the athletic<br />
program,” Hinman stated. While<br />
many schools in America are devolving<br />
towards pay-to-play, or are losing players<br />
to out-of-school select teams, <strong>Taft</strong> has<br />
the luxury of not just offering but requiring<br />
participation every season.<br />
Rob Madden, a sophomore at<br />
Amherst College, is also a great example<br />
of a three-sport athlete. A three-sport<br />
captain by the time he was a senior, he<br />
started out on the JV teams of each sport.<br />
Madden had opportunities to<br />
specialize in soccer as a youngster, but<br />
he valued a summer camp he attended<br />
and enjoyed other sports too much.<br />
“I wanted to do other things, too,” he<br />
said. “I just loved to play all sports.<br />
As Mr. Mac and I joked a lot at <strong>Taft</strong>,<br />
whenever he asked me what my favorite<br />
sport was, I told him it was whatever<br />
one I was playing at the time.”<br />
One of the best athletes to graduate<br />
from <strong>Taft</strong>, however, was also one of<br />
the few to step outside of the three-sport<br />
system, and she says it was the right decision<br />
for her. Barbie Potter ’79 rose to<br />
the top 10 on the women’s professional<br />
tennis tour after starring at the number<br />
one spot on the boys’ varsity tennis team<br />
at <strong>Taft</strong> as a 14-year-old lower mid.<br />
“TAFT’S GIG IS TO PUSH YOUNG ADULTS<br />
TO EXPLORE THEIR HORIZONS. In an<br />
increasingly professional culture, it is what<br />
differentiates <strong>Taft</strong>.”<br />
—Barbie Potter ’79<br />
<strong>Taft</strong> Bulletin Fall 2004<br />
19
BUILDING A BETTER<br />
Athlete<br />
Because of her superior skills and potential<br />
pro ambition, Potter was allowed to<br />
train on her own during her last three years.<br />
She was fully engaged in the academic and<br />
social life at <strong>Taft</strong>, but got full “ex” credit for<br />
her daily individual tennis practice.<br />
While she sometimes wonders<br />
whether she might have been a more balanced<br />
athlete if she had played soccer or<br />
lacrosse as well, Potter made it clear that<br />
“time invested in other things might have<br />
made it impossible to get to the tour.”<br />
“<strong>Taft</strong> is good at challenging preconceptions,<br />
regardless of the clarity the<br />
kid brings. It’s what <strong>Taft</strong> is about,” she<br />
said. “<strong>Taft</strong>’s gig is to push young adults<br />
to explore their horizons. In an increasingly<br />
professional culture, it is what<br />
differentiates <strong>Taft</strong>.”<br />
Even if a student arrives on campus<br />
having been significantly committed to<br />
one sport, the <strong>Taft</strong> culture is dynamically<br />
opposed to specialization. “Ultimately it<br />
is the kid’s choice,” explains Hinman.<br />
“But <strong>Taft</strong> has a few things in place that<br />
help. We ask coaches to encourage kids<br />
to play other sports, and the Founders<br />
League does not let seasons overlap—<br />
except for New England Tournaments.”<br />
July, for one, knows this system drove<br />
him to discover both football and wrestling,<br />
the latter which he continued to<br />
great Division I success at UNC. “If I had<br />
not gone to <strong>Taft</strong>, I am pretty sure I would<br />
have specialized in one sport. Wrestling<br />
was not even an option where I grew up.<br />
<strong>Taft</strong> helps you recognize how much else is<br />
out there. I will always know there are<br />
other things out there in life. If wrestling<br />
had not gone well for me in college, I know<br />
I could have found something else.”<br />
After a short pause, July added: “Doing<br />
all three made me a better person. I<br />
sometimes wonder what would have happened<br />
if I had not gone to <strong>Taft</strong>….”<br />
Another alum with similar sentiments<br />
is Patrick Kerney ’95, who came<br />
to <strong>Taft</strong> with a primary focus on ice<br />
hockey, but now patrols NFL stadiums<br />
as the starting defensive end for the<br />
Atlanta Falcons.<br />
“If I had put all my eggs in the<br />
hockey basket at <strong>Taft</strong>, I would not be<br />
where I am today,” Kerney said. “I<br />
almost gave up football to run cross<br />
country in order to get in great shape for<br />
hockey. I was counseled out of it.” He<br />
credits coaches like Mike Maher, Jol<br />
Everett, and especially Steve McCabe<br />
with encouraging his participation in<br />
other sports. Doing so made him not<br />
only a better athlete, but a better person.<br />
“With one sport, you do not branch<br />
out,” he explained. “It is not as good for<br />
the person. What it does in the long run<br />
is identify you as, say, a hockey player.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re is no other way to see yourself. You<br />
do not see yourself as also an intellectual,<br />
or a musician, or whatever else might be<br />
inside. I love the <strong>Taft</strong> mission to build<br />
the whole person.”<br />
Another alum who feels just as<br />
passionately about his <strong>Taft</strong> experience,<br />
and the lessons it taught him, is Colin<br />
Aymond ’88. “I grew up in Michigan<br />
essentially playing hockey year-round.<br />
Going to <strong>Taft</strong> opened my eyes up. It<br />
forced me to pick other sports, because<br />
all the guys I was hanging out with<br />
played three sports.”<br />
Added Aymond: “It also forced me<br />
to try new things outside of sports. I got<br />
into an acting class, which opened my<br />
eyes. I want my son to go to <strong>Taft</strong> so he is<br />
forced to do things not in his comfort<br />
zone. <strong>The</strong> <strong>Taft</strong> culture breeds it. You have<br />
great teachers and coaches. <strong>The</strong>y recognize<br />
your talents and push you to extend<br />
and develop them.”<br />
Clearly, some onus is on the student<br />
as well. Aymond or Kerney or July could<br />
have resisted the push to try new things,<br />
but their willingness to embrace new experiences<br />
is what made them perfect for <strong>Taft</strong>.<br />
Katey Stone ’84, women’s ice<br />
hockey coach at Harvard University, is<br />
a firm believer in a variety of athletic<br />
experiences. She noted that although she<br />
liked field hockey least of her sports at<br />
<strong>Taft</strong>, her experiences there, especially<br />
personal struggle, were as valuable as her<br />
starring roles and success in ice hockey<br />
“I TELL [KIDS] TO PLAY LOTS OF SPORTS, THAT I<br />
SKIED, SAILED, AND PLAYED TENNIS,<br />
LACROSSE, AND FIELD HOCKEY. <strong>The</strong>re was no rink<br />
in the summer, so I did not even skate from<br />
March to September.”<br />
—A.J. Mleczko Griswold ’93<br />
20 <strong>Taft</strong> Bulletin Fall 2004
BUILDING A BETTER<br />
Athlete<br />
and lacrosse. She also relished the variety<br />
of coaching she got by playing three<br />
sports, something she looks for when<br />
recruiting for Harvard.<br />
“I am a firm believer in players being<br />
coached by other people,” she said. “You<br />
need different perspectives. I try to recruit<br />
the kid I was. I hated to lose. I loved to<br />
compete. I do not want a narrow focus. I<br />
want kids with a long-term outlook.”<br />
Jill Bermingham Isenhart ’82, a hall<br />
of fame athlete at Bowdoin College,<br />
agreed wholeheartedly. “<strong>The</strong> variety of<br />
sports is so important because it forces a<br />
change in the people around you, the<br />
coaches and the experience,” she noted.<br />
July, despite leaving <strong>Taft</strong> almost two<br />
decades after Stone and Isenhart, thought<br />
those sentiments held true for his experiences<br />
as well. “At <strong>Taft</strong>, my sophomore<br />
and junior year, the football team really<br />
struggled. But I learned a lot from losing.<br />
I knew how it felt to lose, so I had<br />
no fear of losing in wrestling.”<br />
When he got to UNC, he was initially<br />
fearful of facing teammates and<br />
opponents who had done nothing but<br />
wrestle since they were five or six years<br />
old. He thought his lack of focus would<br />
be a detriment. But the opposite was true.<br />
Noted July, “A wrestling specialist is<br />
not used to losing. In college everyone is<br />
a winner in high school, but someone has<br />
to lose. Many specialists can’t handle it.”<br />
And Stone sees the same thing at<br />
Harvard. “<strong>The</strong> multisport athletes I see are<br />
more emotionally balanced,” she said. “<strong>The</strong><br />
specialists, who have been overcoached, are<br />
becoming a huge problem. <strong>The</strong>y have no<br />
idea how to figure things out on their own.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y struggle when dealing with adversity<br />
and conflict resolution.”<br />
Her older brother Mike Stone ’75,<br />
baseball coach at the University of<br />
Massachusetts, agreed heartily. “People at<br />
the next level are more impressed with a<br />
well-rounded athlete. I look for the kids<br />
who also played other sports like football<br />
and hockey. <strong>The</strong>y have toughness.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y’ve been knocked down, or have dug<br />
a puck out of the corners. I encourage<br />
kids to play as many sports as possible.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y need to struggle in some things to<br />
find ways to grind it out.”<br />
Even A.J. Mleczko Griswold ’93, who<br />
won gold and silver medals as a member<br />
of the U.S. Olympic women’s ice hockey<br />
teams, cannot fathom the need or desire<br />
to specialize. “<strong>The</strong> more sports the better,”<br />
she proclaimed. “I love to play other<br />
sports. I am constantly amazed by the<br />
parents who ask how their daughter can<br />
make the Olympic team, and the kid is<br />
nine! I tell them to play lots of sports, that<br />
I skied, sailed, and played tennis, lacrosse,<br />
and field hockey. <strong>The</strong>re was no rink in the<br />
summer, so I did not even skate from<br />
March to September.”<br />
While winning Olympic medals<br />
may have been the highlight of her athletic<br />
career, ironically her participation<br />
on the national team also led to her biggest<br />
disappointment—having to give up<br />
lacrosse at Harvard.<br />
“I was thrilled [to make the national<br />
team], but it eliminated all spring participation<br />
in lacrosse. I would not trade my<br />
U.S. team experience because of all that I<br />
got out of it, but it is still a bummer to me<br />
to have to have given up lacrosse.”<br />
And Griswold remains passionate<br />
about competing, whatever the sport. “I<br />
still look for that competitive outlet,” she<br />
said with a laugh. “I play golf and tennis,<br />
and love beach volleyball on<br />
Nantucket. I’m also looking for a men’s<br />
hockey league to join this winter.”<br />
An interesting coincidence would be<br />
if she ended up in the same Boston-area<br />
league as James Driscoll ’96. While he is<br />
best-known for his golf prowess—after<br />
<strong>Taft</strong> he starred at UVa, finished second at<br />
the U.S. Amateur, played in the Masters,<br />
and currently ranks in the top 20 on the<br />
Nationwide Tour, golf’s top minor<br />
league—Driscoll’s real passion is hockey.<br />
He came to <strong>Taft</strong> as a postgraduate,<br />
but there was no way he was going to<br />
spend the winter working on his swing.<br />
He had to play his “favorite sport,” even<br />
though he was not quite good enough to<br />
play varsity hockey. He said he “just loved<br />
“I LOOK FOR THE KIDS WHO ALSO PLAYED<br />
OTHER SPORTS LIKE FOOTBALL AND HOCKEY.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y have toughness. THEY’VE BEEN KNOCKED<br />
DOWN, OR HAVE DUG A PUCK OUT OF THE<br />
CORNERS. I encourage kids to play as many sports<br />
as possible. THEY NEED TO STRUGGLE IN SOME<br />
THINGS TO FIND WAYS TO GRIND IT OUT.”<br />
—Mike Stone ’75<br />
<strong>Taft</strong> Bulletin Fall 2004<br />
21
BUILDING A BETTER<br />
Athlete<br />
to play,” so willingly started for and was<br />
a great leader on the JV team.<br />
“Playing another sport can never<br />
hurt you,” said Driscoll, “and will likely<br />
help you.” He points to both mental and<br />
physical rewards hockey gives his golf<br />
game. “My hockey helped, and still<br />
helps, my golf.” In addition to similar<br />
hand-eye coordination needs, Driscoll<br />
explained that hockey “allows me to get<br />
away from golf, so that when I return I<br />
remember how much I want to be out<br />
there and how excited I am to play golf.<br />
Focus in golf is hard to come by, and if<br />
you are out there for long periods, you<br />
can lose it. After my time off [playing<br />
hockey], my desire increases my focus to<br />
the point that I play better.”<br />
Madden said that his experience at<br />
Amherst is another great example of this.<br />
While he felt he was a better soccer<br />
player than lacrosse player, he found a<br />
role on the lacrosse team as a long-stick<br />
midfielder. “Having kids who play many<br />
sports benefits the team,” he said. “While<br />
individual skills may not all carry over,<br />
some will. For example, I learned more<br />
about a solid soccer tackle by hitting guys<br />
in lacrosse. But, more importantly, you<br />
learn how to be a good team member.”<br />
This willingness to contribute and<br />
compete is what MacMullen says separates<br />
the typical <strong>Taft</strong>ie from many of his<br />
or her high-school peers around the<br />
country. “We celebrate those who contribute<br />
to the school, those who do tend<br />
to learn by competing wherever and<br />
whenever they can, to represent the<br />
school and learn.”<br />
Isenhart hopes <strong>Taft</strong> can keep up this<br />
stand, as she is dismayed by what she<br />
sees with local sports near her home in<br />
Boulder, Colo. “<strong>The</strong>re seems to be too<br />
much pressure to keep specializing and<br />
increasing the level of competition. Kids<br />
need the opposite—to be competitive<br />
but diverse. I don’t like seeing good<br />
athletes being forced to choose. It keeps<br />
upping the ante for other kids.”<br />
And Sheehy of Williams College<br />
agrees that these other kids are the most<br />
harmed. <strong>The</strong> best athletes will likely get to<br />
the next level, be that college or pro,<br />
whether they specialize or not. It is the kids<br />
who try to specialize to keep up that are<br />
denied potential opportunities to find other<br />
outlets. “<strong>The</strong> worry is that if they do not<br />
specialize, they will be selected out of the<br />
system. And parents fear this for their kids.”<br />
Even MacMullen is not immune. “As<br />
a parent, I am sympathetic to the pressures<br />
to follow that trend. Every parent<br />
faces it. If you want to do everything you<br />
can for your child, then it follows that you<br />
might need to do what everyone else is<br />
doing. It can be difficult to resist.”<br />
And resistance is exactly what<br />
Sheehy said is needed to change the momentum.<br />
“What we need is for the parents<br />
of a few key players to have the<br />
courage to say this is wrong.”<br />
Hinman, father of two, is willing to<br />
be one of those parents. “With my children,”<br />
he declared, “I’m just going to fight<br />
it. I want them to do what they want, but<br />
I also want them to do a lot of things.”<br />
When Mr. <strong>Taft</strong> founded the school,<br />
he did it to educate the entire child—<br />
mind and body. One hundred fourteen<br />
years later, the physical plant, student<br />
body, and curriculum continue to change<br />
with the times, but, says MacMullen, the<br />
school’s athletic philosophy will not.<br />
“Specialization will always happen<br />
less at <strong>Taft</strong>,” MacMullen declared. “As<br />
coaches and an entire school, we are<br />
united in a belief that kids should do as<br />
much as they can. We know this is<br />
counter to the national trend and will<br />
continue to run counter, and we’re<br />
proud of it.”<br />
Former “faculty brat” Andrew Everett ’88<br />
played soccer, ice hockey, and lacrosse at<br />
<strong>Taft</strong>. A high-school All-American in lacrosse,<br />
he captained the lacrosse team his senior<br />
year at Williams College. He currently lives<br />
with wife Elise in Charlottesville, Va., where<br />
he continues to play ice hockey two or three<br />
times a week. Formerly senior associate<br />
editor of NFL.com, he now works in sales<br />
for Expedia Corporate Travel.<br />
“THERE SEEMS TO BE TOO MUCH PRESSURE TO<br />
KEEP SPECIALIZING AND INCREASING THE LEVEL<br />
OF COMPETITION. Kids need the opposite—to be<br />
competitive but diverse. I DON’T LIKE SEEING<br />
GOOD ATHLETES BEING FORCED TO CHOOSE.<br />
It keeps upping the ante for other kids.”<br />
—Jill Bermingham Isenhart ’82<br />
22 <strong>Taft</strong> Bulletin Fall 2004
Guardian<br />
<strong>The</strong><br />
PHOTOGRAPHS BY DON HAMERMAN<br />
In New York City—where<br />
demand for real estate is<br />
soaring, land is scarce, and<br />
money is plentiful—the stakes<br />
are high. Bob Tierney ’61, who<br />
chairs the city’s Landmarks<br />
Preservation Commission,<br />
helps protect its heritage<br />
while still allowing for growth.<br />
By David Lombino ’96
“<br />
His<br />
greatest<br />
challenge is to<br />
make sure the<br />
city preserves<br />
the best of<br />
our history,<br />
while allowing<br />
for intelligent<br />
and wise use<br />
of historic<br />
buildings.”<br />
Previous page, A former Koch adviser,<br />
Bob Tierney knows his way<br />
around City Hall. <strong>The</strong> seat of New York<br />
City government since 1812, the building<br />
is one of the city’s most treasured<br />
landmarks. When the site was chosen<br />
in 1803, it was at the northern limits<br />
of the City. Today it stands only two<br />
blocks from Ground Zero. DON HAMERMAN<br />
New York is a city of superlatives, some more warranted<br />
and flattering than others. Yet few would argue<br />
that two fitting descriptions are the unparalleled<br />
beauty of its historic and modern built environment,<br />
and its citizens’ relentless pursuit of prosperity. <strong>The</strong>se<br />
two characteristics, not unrelated, can often come to<br />
blows as they did in 1963 when the beloved old<br />
Pennsylvania Station was demolished to make room<br />
for, well, a less lovable Madison Square Garden.<br />
Visions of a New York that is unfettered to rebuild and<br />
develop itself on demand are scary indeed—where<br />
market fluctuations and fleeting design fads would<br />
alternatively flatten and remake the city, leveling the<br />
rich history that lines its urban canyons.<br />
At the crux of these conflicting interests<br />
is the Landmarks Preservation<br />
Commission, chaired by Robert Tierney,<br />
whose career in public service to New<br />
York City has spanned four decades and<br />
now permanently influences the city’s<br />
built environment.<br />
“It is a contentious town. It’s filled<br />
with people with strong opinions,” said<br />
Tierney, a tall and lanky man with an<br />
articulate manner and a crowded room’s<br />
most commanding voice. “Everything<br />
we do is open and very public. It is a<br />
governmental-political process with a<br />
small p.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> Landmarks Preservation Commission<br />
is responsible for identifying and<br />
designating local landmarks and historic<br />
districts, and regulating changes to designated<br />
properties. <strong>The</strong> five boroughs of<br />
New York City contain more than 1,200<br />
individual landmarks, and more than<br />
23,000 buildings housed in the city’s 79<br />
historic districts. <strong>The</strong> agency has a fulltime<br />
staff of 45 employees that reviews<br />
more than 8,000 applications a year,<br />
making it the largest municipal preservation<br />
agency in the U.S.<br />
By charter, the goals of the agency<br />
are to safeguard the city’s historic,<br />
aesthetic, and cultural heritage, help<br />
improve property values in historic<br />
districts, encourage civic pride, protect<br />
the city’s attractions for tourism, and<br />
strengthen the economy. <strong>The</strong> nature of<br />
the commission’s mandate is not to designate<br />
zones for commercial or residential<br />
use, but to make the scale of proposed<br />
projects suit the historical character of an<br />
area, its sense of place. A research wing<br />
looks at the city’s one million buildings<br />
and proposes new structures and areas for<br />
landmark or historic designation.<br />
<strong>The</strong> 11-person commission holds<br />
public hearings every Tuesday in a big,<br />
bright boardroom overlooking City Hall<br />
Park, in an area of town with a high concentration<br />
of bow-ties, a stylistic nod to<br />
another era of public service and urban<br />
politics. Depending on the issue, a small<br />
army of local residents, historical advocates,<br />
developers, architects, and lawyers<br />
24 <strong>Taft</strong> Bulletin Fall 2004
will attend. “Interests are in conflict. <strong>The</strong><br />
owner may say he wants A, B, and C,<br />
and we might say D, E, and F are more<br />
appropriate,” said Tierney.<br />
Mitchell Moss, a professor of urban<br />
planning at New York University for<br />
more than 30 years and director of the<br />
Taub Urban Research Center at NYU,<br />
where Tierney was a visiting scholar in<br />
2002, put the chairman’s role in perspective.<br />
“His challenge is to balance the<br />
importance of preserving the historic integrity<br />
of buildings and neighborhoods<br />
with the need and opportunity for new<br />
development. His greatest challenge is to<br />
make sure the city preserves the best of<br />
our history, while allowing for intelligent<br />
and wise use of historic buildings.”<br />
In New York—where demand for<br />
real estate is soaring, land is scarce, and<br />
money is plentiful—the stakes are high.<br />
At one commission hearing, an architect<br />
and a developer presented a bird’s nest of<br />
plans, elevations, sections, and fictional<br />
photos of a proposed three-story addition<br />
to a building in the historic district<br />
of Tribeca. A three-story penthouse in<br />
Tribeca, now one of the city’s trendiest<br />
locations, is worth millions, and acceptance<br />
of the addition probably means life<br />
or death for the entire project. In a courtroom-like<br />
atmosphere, the architect and<br />
a team of lawyers and developers took<br />
notes and listened attentively over the<br />
drone of air conditioners.<br />
Although the architect designed the<br />
addition to pull back from the street in<br />
order to be invisible to pedestrians, some<br />
commissioners still worried that the 47-<br />
foot top of the proposed addition could<br />
be seen from certain angles from the sidewalk,<br />
diminishing ever so slightly the<br />
historic nature of the area. A local resident<br />
appeared with a petition signed by<br />
neighbors and compared the three-floor<br />
addition to an “antique slot-machine”<br />
and called it “completely out of control.”<br />
Tierney acknowledged a “positive start”<br />
and asked for more detailed information<br />
and sightline drawings to prove there<br />
would be no surprises, before closing the<br />
hearing. <strong>The</strong> team grabbed their plans<br />
from the front of the room, and, within<br />
seconds, another mess of plans appeared<br />
for a renovation of a historic 1880s house<br />
on the Upper East Side.<br />
Missteps in urban planning are<br />
costly. A case in point is the 1963 demolition<br />
of the old Penn Station, designed<br />
by the revered architectural firm of<br />
McKim, Mead, and White—an act<br />
Tierney characterizes as “civic vandalism.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> Landmarks Commission was<br />
founded in the wake of that tragedy. Ten<br />
years later, its authority was tested when<br />
Grand Central Station was threatened<br />
with similar destruction. <strong>The</strong> commission<br />
rejected the plan, and developers,<br />
who argued the city was robbing them<br />
of their property rights, appealed the case<br />
all the way to the Supreme Court. This<br />
year marks the 25th anniversary of the<br />
1979 Supreme Court decision that upheld<br />
the charter of the Landmarks<br />
Commission and paved the way for its<br />
modern existence and relevance.<br />
Tierney encountered the source of<br />
his future passion for the built environment<br />
in Vincent Scully, a professor of art<br />
history at Yale, still today lecturing into<br />
his 80s. “In his last lecture to us, he said,<br />
‘You are a graduate of Yale. You will go<br />
off, and you will have in your lives an<br />
opportunity to put into practice what we<br />
have been talking about, what we have<br />
learned here: to think about design, architecture,’”<br />
said Tierney, who graduated<br />
in 1965 with a degree in English. “It took<br />
a while, but I always remembered it.”<br />
After Vanderbilt Law <strong>School</strong>, Tierney<br />
did “the straight Wall Street thing,” practicing<br />
law for the New York corporate<br />
law firm of Millbank, Tweed, Hadley,<br />
and McCloy. But he was naturally interested<br />
in city politics. Living in the West<br />
Village, he became acquainted with his<br />
congressman and the future mayor, Ed<br />
Koch, for whom he volunteered his free<br />
time. Through that relationship, he had<br />
the opportunity to work for New York<br />
“<br />
People here<br />
care about<br />
what they are<br />
doing,” Tierney<br />
said, “and they<br />
are not only<br />
passionate, but<br />
also skilled and<br />
dedicated.<br />
In lieu of<br />
making a lot<br />
of money,<br />
they are here<br />
for the service,<br />
and there is<br />
a tangible<br />
feeling that<br />
the city will be<br />
better because<br />
of the work<br />
they do here.”<br />
<strong>Taft</strong> Bulletin Fall 2004<br />
25
“<br />
Everybody’s<br />
eyes are<br />
on Lower<br />
Manhattan.<br />
<strong>The</strong> economy is<br />
surging again<br />
down here, but<br />
we need to be<br />
as careful about<br />
what we tear<br />
down as what<br />
we put back up.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re is a<br />
renewed sense<br />
of design and<br />
architecture<br />
since 9/11,<br />
and it’s great<br />
for the future of<br />
urban design.”<br />
governor Hugh Carey, for whom he served<br />
as an assistant counsel in the mid-1970s.<br />
<strong>The</strong> motivation to work in government<br />
and in public service stemmed from<br />
a familiar place. “It sounds corny, but the<br />
<strong>Taft</strong> motto is actually a very serious thing<br />
to me. It’s real, and it was a factor.”<br />
In 1977, Koch took the city by surprise<br />
by winning a seven-person primary<br />
and becoming mayor, defeating future<br />
Governor Mario Cuomo in a runoff election.<br />
After three years in Albany working<br />
with the governor, Tierney went to work<br />
for his old friend, first as assistant counsel<br />
and eventually general counsel, for six<br />
of Koch’s 12 years as mayor.<br />
<strong>The</strong> honorable Robert Keating, now<br />
the dean of the New York state Judicial<br />
Institute who, as a prominent New York<br />
judge, knew Tierney from his days as a<br />
Koch adviser, described Tierney’s role in<br />
government. “Bob has an extraordinary<br />
combination of good judgment, intelligence,<br />
and integrity. When you put those<br />
three together, you have someone who is<br />
exceptional at advising someone at the<br />
highest level. Because of his access to and<br />
impact on these people, he has had a<br />
more significant impact on the city than<br />
the city can know,” he said. “In my experience,<br />
his has always been a concern<br />
for the private citizen, while recommending<br />
that executives have a responsibility<br />
to lead, to change. It is a difficult and<br />
enormous responsibility.”<br />
From 1983 to 2001, Tierney worked<br />
as the head of public affairs for AT&T.<br />
He left government behind after a more<br />
than a decade of service. “I wanted to try<br />
something different. It was not a Wall<br />
Street law firm; it was a way to have a less<br />
stressful job and stay close to government<br />
and politics,” he said. “If you are a lifer in<br />
either [sector], it’s not as interesting, you<br />
are not as effective. I can be better at what<br />
I do by experiencing the different worlds.”<br />
When Michael Bloomberg was elected<br />
mayor in 2002, Tierney had an opportunity<br />
to rejoin the public sector in a different<br />
capacity as Landmarks commissioner. Af-<br />
ter a year as a visiting scholar at NYU, he<br />
was confirmed unanimously by the City<br />
Council as chairman of the commission in<br />
January 2003. Tierney praises Mayor<br />
Bloomberg for his new approach. “He is a<br />
great manager. <strong>The</strong>re is no politics, and<br />
you’re never looking over your shoulder.”<br />
So far, Tierney considers his greatest<br />
achievement as commissioner the designation<br />
of the Meat Packing area as a<br />
historic district in 2003. Photos of the<br />
Meat Packing District will never adorn the<br />
cover of Town and Country. A mix of<br />
low-lying, nondescript residences and a<br />
few still functioning wholesale meat<br />
warehouses line cobbled-stone streets as<br />
Manhattan slopes towards the Hudson<br />
River, just northwest of the West Village.<br />
Five cobbled streets come together to<br />
a point outside of the trendy French<br />
brasserie Pastis. It is not uncommon to<br />
see a large container filled with steer bones<br />
parked next to a thriving nightclub. “Some<br />
would argue about the architecture, but<br />
it tells a story,” said Tierney. “When you<br />
walk around that area, you know you are<br />
in a special place. If we didn’t act, that<br />
would certainly be jeopardized.”<br />
Professor Moss agreed. “<strong>The</strong>re were<br />
three great pressures: owners who wanted<br />
to tear down the structures and put up<br />
hotels and high rises; groups who wanted<br />
big-box retailers; and other groups who<br />
were trying to have it become a destination<br />
for nightlife,” he explained. “<strong>The</strong>y<br />
have preserved the buildings, and there<br />
will be intelligent reuse of them. <strong>The</strong> area<br />
will forever be one of those naturally occurring<br />
places—people like being there.<br />
It could turn out to be one of the great<br />
successes on the West Side.”<br />
Fiscal belt-tightening in the city hit<br />
the commission hard, and they currently<br />
have nearly half the full-time staff that<br />
they used to. With more than a million<br />
buildings in the city, the commission cannot<br />
possibly keep tabs on all of them, and<br />
needs to rely on citizens and community<br />
groups for proposals. Some complain<br />
that designations are concentrated in the<br />
26 <strong>Taft</strong> Bulletin Fall 2004
wealthy borough of Manhattan and<br />
lacking in the other four. “I’m trying hard<br />
to go outside, and I’m very interested<br />
in working on designating buildings<br />
outside Manhattan,” Tierney said. “But<br />
sometimes we lose one. We’ll get a phone<br />
call. Occasionally it will happen.”<br />
Yet Tierney smirks at the widely held<br />
idea that the public sector is a frustrating,<br />
inefficient bureaucracy. “Believe me,<br />
Ed Koch and Michael Bloomberg make<br />
more decisions in a morning than people<br />
in a well-known communications company<br />
make in a year,” he said. “This myth<br />
of the private sector CEO is misplaced.<br />
<strong>The</strong> myth of government workers and<br />
bureaucracies is misplaced, and I’ve seen<br />
both of them. People here care about<br />
what they are doing, and they are not<br />
only passionate, but also skilled and dedicated.<br />
In lieu of making a lot of money,<br />
they are here for the service, and there is<br />
a tangible feeling that the city will be<br />
better because of the work they do here.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> agency’s offices on Centre Street<br />
are just a short walk from Ground Zero,<br />
where developers recently broke ground<br />
to build the Freedom Towers and a permanent<br />
memorial in the footprint of the<br />
fallen World Trade Center. Tierney was<br />
personally appointed to a commission<br />
that will advise the Lower Manhattan<br />
Development Corporation as to what<br />
artifacts from the twin towers wreckage<br />
should be brought to the site and incorporated<br />
in the memorial design. “Everybody’s<br />
eyes are on Lower Manhattan. <strong>The</strong><br />
economy is surging again down here,<br />
but we need to be as careful about what<br />
we tear down as what we put back up.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re is a renewed sense of design and<br />
architecture since 9/11, and it’s great for<br />
the future of urban design.”<br />
Looking ahead, Tierney, a jazz enthusiast<br />
and still a West Village resident, seems<br />
purposely vague, but he cannot imagine<br />
ever wanting to leave his current position<br />
through a hypothetical second Bloomberg<br />
term. A registered Democrat, he claims<br />
not to be a political ideologue, merely<br />
enamored with the process of politics and<br />
government. “Politics is irrelevant in this<br />
administration, which is great,” he said.<br />
No matter his future course, Tierney’s<br />
years of service to New York City will have<br />
a permanent impression on its landscape.<br />
Professor Moss said, “You take a walk with<br />
Bob Tierney around New York, and it’s a<br />
great learning experience. He has a remarkable<br />
sense of the city’s history, and<br />
he understands the role of community<br />
in the political process. He is one of the<br />
most respected landmark chairmen ever,<br />
and he has had an enormous impact on<br />
the commission with his fairness, wisdom<br />
and experience.”<br />
David Lombino is working toward a<br />
master’s degree in U.S. foreign policy and<br />
media from Columbia University. Last summer<br />
he worked as a diplomatic reporter for<br />
one of Japan’s largest daily newspapers,<br />
covering the U.N., the Republican Convention,<br />
and the New York Yankees.<br />
<strong>Taft</strong> Bulletin Fall 2004<br />
27
Navigating the<br />
Waters of College<br />
Admission<br />
How parents and students can steer clear of myths and<br />
misinformation to find the college that is right for them<br />
By Andrew McNeill
Mark Twain described the process<br />
of negotiating the Mississippi<br />
Delta as more a matter of<br />
instinct than memory, that last<br />
year’s clear channel might well have a shoal this<br />
year. And so it is with the world of college<br />
admission. As a college counselor, one must<br />
recognize the greater influences and currents that<br />
shape the admissions policies and decisions of<br />
colleges, and intuit what lies downstream.<br />
Staying abreast of the latest trends or strategies<br />
in admission leaves too many counselors<br />
and parents ill-equipped to gauge the shifting<br />
currents of admission. <strong>The</strong> popular media has<br />
picked up on this, and into the fray surged a<br />
phalanx of writers who would deign to inform<br />
the public. Some writers, like Jacques Steinberg<br />
who spent over a year researching before writing<br />
<strong>The</strong> Gatekeepers, get it right for the most part;<br />
others are willing to prey upon the anxieties of<br />
students and parents in order to get a headline.<br />
Often, these articles are, like a skillful<br />
politician’s answer to a nuanced question, accurate<br />
while also misleading. It is not a matter of<br />
malice; the popular media is motivated to make<br />
sweeping generalizations to catch the eye—and<br />
heart—of as many readers as possible, but there<br />
are very few questions pertaining to admissions<br />
that can be answered without a careful, individual,<br />
examination.<br />
Almost any question posed to a college<br />
counselor should be answered, “It depends…,”<br />
for nothing is obvious. Unless you have navigated<br />
the river many times, it is easy to miss<br />
the telltale signs that suggest a better or worse<br />
channel lies ahead.<br />
To make navigating that river a little easier,<br />
let’s map out a dozen of the most frequent myths<br />
or half-truths that students and parents are<br />
likely to hear.<br />
ILLUSTRATION BY ALISON KOLESAR
“Everyone in the class<br />
is applying to the same<br />
schools I am. Is this<br />
going to kill me?”<br />
How much will that competition hurt your chances? It<br />
depends. Two years ago we sent 1,053 applications to over<br />
200 colleges, but 75 percent of those went to only 39 schools.<br />
Every year we know which schools will be sought out by our<br />
students, and each student chooses to apply to those schools<br />
or to look beyond the in-crowd.<br />
A small college will not want to enroll a large number<br />
of students from one school, but how many they will offer<br />
admission to is quite variable. Most colleges have ways of<br />
predicting the likelihood of a given student enrolling if<br />
admitted. Larger universities don’t worry about the “school<br />
group” at all, except to make sure their decisions are consistent<br />
and sensible.<br />
“Joe and Mary love this<br />
college, I think I want<br />
to apply there.”<br />
First ask why they love the college? If Joe loves it because his<br />
girlfriend is going there, and Mary likes it because the soccer<br />
team is so much fun, do these factors apply to you? Know<br />
your own priorities, then find out how the school matches<br />
them. Critical thinking and informed decision-making are<br />
at the heart of any good college process. Not only will this<br />
help assure that you wind up at an appropriate school, it also<br />
helps you get in. Increasingly, applications ask, “Why did<br />
you decide to apply to our college.” <strong>The</strong> only compelling<br />
answer is a detailed analysis of your interests and the fit with<br />
the programs offered by the college.<br />
Duke’s dean of admission once told me that a marine biology<br />
applicant who fails to mention the fact that Duke owns<br />
a research island is all but certain to be denied. An applicant<br />
who didn’t scratch the surface enough to see how the school<br />
would serve the student clearly is applying for a superficial<br />
reason. He doesn’t want students simply looking to get in to a<br />
“top” school; he wants students who can demonstrate that they<br />
would get a lot out of Duke and in so doing contribute to the<br />
university. He speaks for all schools.<br />
“I’ve done a whole<br />
lot of extracurricular<br />
work. How much<br />
will that help?”<br />
<strong>The</strong> value of a strong extracurricular record varies from college<br />
to college, but as a general rule, smaller ones care more.<br />
Every college will tell you that they care more about depth<br />
than breadth, meaning they would like to see a developed<br />
passion for something—almost anything—than a little of this<br />
and that. Behind your activities are personal qualities such as<br />
initiative, follow-through, commitment, and leadership that<br />
can enhance the quality of life on their campus.<br />
In extracurricular matters, leadership is the hardest quality<br />
for colleges to measure. If you are elected captain or school<br />
monitor they know that you are respected, but they don’t know<br />
if you can lead. Most of the highly selective colleges will admit,<br />
when pressed, that their well-rounded student bodies are<br />
made up of students who are pretty strong at everything, and<br />
exceptional at something.<br />
30 <strong>Taft</strong> Bulletin Fall 2004
“Admission is random.<br />
Colleges accept one<br />
student with an SAT of<br />
1000 and deny another<br />
with a 1600.”<br />
Decisions often appear random when they are not. Every college<br />
has its priorities, and those can overcome a student’s<br />
weakness in the academic record. Legacy, athletic or artistic<br />
talents, ethnicity, gender, geography, potential major, even<br />
political inclination can make any given candidate more or<br />
less attractive. <strong>The</strong>se priorities can change from one year to the<br />
next. Some colleges have very specific requirements that are<br />
not widely known. To have anything like a reasonable body of<br />
data from which to draw useful conclusions one must look at<br />
dozens of admissions decisions, preferably over time. Since these<br />
currents are always shifting and beyond your control, it is best<br />
to steer your own course with the knowledge that there is an<br />
excellent college out there that values who and what you are.<br />
“Getting in is<br />
impossible these days.”<br />
It often feels that way, but remember that only about 50 colleges<br />
out of over 2,500 accept fewer than 50 percent of their<br />
applicants. Among those that accept most applicants are literally<br />
hundreds of colleges with excellent records of placing<br />
graduates in top graduate programs and jobs.<br />
Judging a college by its selectivity is like judging a hospital<br />
by how healthy the patients were before admission. In the<br />
absence of hard numbers that describe the quality of teaching<br />
and thinking on a campus, that is exactly what most families<br />
do. As a result, highly selective colleges attract more applications<br />
and get even more selective without necessarily improving<br />
their student bodies.<br />
For years now, the most selective colleges have wrestled<br />
with whom to turn down, not whom to admit. One admissions<br />
officer described her job as “separating the wheat<br />
from the wheat.” At these schools the numbers of rejected<br />
students has skyrocketed, but the average SAT scores, GPAs<br />
and other concrete data of the inrolled classes have improved<br />
very marginally.<br />
If one looks beyond the most well-known colleges, there<br />
are plenty of excellent options.<br />
“How do I know how<br />
many colleges to apply<br />
to? If I apply to a whole<br />
lot of top colleges my<br />
chance of getting into<br />
at least one of them is<br />
better, right?”<br />
Probably not. Appearances aside, decisions are not random<br />
events. If your credentials do not suggest that you are competitive<br />
in a college’s pool, applying to a score of colleges at<br />
that level doesn’t help you appear competitive at any of them.<br />
If you are competitive at that level—your grades, SAT, and<br />
extracurricular record are such that you might or might not<br />
be admitted—it is wise to apply to more than one college,<br />
but not too many.<br />
Applying to a dozen colleges probably indicates a lack<br />
of careful thought and research, and can cost you when the<br />
letters come. If you apply to ten colleges you are likely to<br />
be writing ten or more essays, each of which will require<br />
multiple drafts and great care. Unless you write them over<br />
the summer, that effort is taken out of your homework,<br />
and that will drop your grades, and that is going to keep<br />
you out of the colleges you just labored over. And, a shoddy<br />
essay that didn’t get proper attention will also keep you out.<br />
Instead, examine each of the “reach” colleges carefully, find<br />
those three schools that best match your interests, and focus<br />
your attention on them.<br />
<strong>Taft</strong> Bulletin Fall 2004<br />
31
<strong>The</strong>re is no right number to apply to. In rare cases, when<br />
the student knows just what he wants and there is a wellmatched<br />
college that we know is all but sure to admit him,<br />
two or three is sufficient. In equally rare cases, when the student<br />
shows a confusing record with both real strengths and<br />
clear weaknesses, ten or twelve are advisable. In general, I advise<br />
one or two “reach” schools, two or three “possibles,” and<br />
two or three “likely” colleges—or a total of five to eight.<br />
As with any investment, it is important to take into account<br />
how risk-averse the student is. A student whose self-worth<br />
is determined by the college process should assure herself of<br />
options in at least equal ratio to her rejections. A student with<br />
great reserves of ego strength can more easily go for broke.<br />
“You say this college is<br />
a long shot, but there’s<br />
nothing to lose, right?”<br />
While I appreciate the pluck, I generally try to advise students<br />
to steer away from applying to schools to which—experience<br />
tells us—a given student simply will not be admitted. If he or<br />
she has real ego strength and can say “their loss” when the thin<br />
letter comes, there really is nothing to lose. But, for most teenagers,<br />
this is not the case.<br />
Every year we work with seemingly confident young people<br />
who forge ahead with early applications contrary to advice,<br />
and when that rejection comes they collapse—sometimes ruining<br />
their final exams and hurting their chances for regular<br />
decision. If the rejection is in the regular round, they feel stuck<br />
at a “safety” school. Sometimes it is wiser to let go of the dream,<br />
focus on what is realistic, and let yourself get excited about<br />
your new “first choice.”<br />
Has a student ever gotten in when I said the chances were<br />
minimal? Yes, twice that I can remember; and that is why we<br />
support every candidate at every school regardless of what we<br />
think his or her chances are.<br />
“I want to apply early,<br />
but I don’t know where.”<br />
This is classic cart-before-the-horse thinking. Treat Early<br />
Decision like a marriage: you don’t do it just to get it done,<br />
you do it when you are in love. That said, the option of applying<br />
early could force some strategic thinking. If college A is the<br />
perfect fit but also a reach, and B is a very good fit and a school<br />
that you might or might not be admitted to, and all the others<br />
are unattractive to you—do you apply early to B in order to<br />
assure not having to go to one of the others and give up on<br />
A—or do you try for A, knowing you might end up at C or D<br />
as a result? That’s why we call it college counseling, not college<br />
science. In any case, never apply early decision unless you are<br />
100 percent certain that you are well matched to the college; it<br />
is terribly sad when students come to me in the spring and say<br />
“I’ve changed my mind, I don’t want to go there anymore.”<br />
“I keep hearing about<br />
taking a year off; why<br />
do people do that?”<br />
In England gap years have been common for a long time, and<br />
they are gaining popularity here. Admissions deans at Harvard,<br />
Princeton, Penn, and others have encouraged students to think<br />
seriously about taking a year to recharge the batteries, to<br />
explore one’s passion, to find direction, and to mature a little.<br />
Studies have shown that kids who take the gap do better in<br />
college than similarly able students who do not, and, despite<br />
some people’s concerns, I have never heard of a student deciding<br />
not to go to college afterward. I don’t recommend just<br />
hanging out for a year, but there are a myriad of exciting,<br />
potentially life-transforming programs available.<br />
32 <strong>Taft</strong> Bulletin Fall 2004
“When should we start<br />
SAT prep?”<br />
Before committing the money and time to test prep, I’d make<br />
sure it is necessary. Take the test twice before deciding if the<br />
scores will be a negative in the student’s file. If his grades are<br />
weaker than the scores, flashy scores might suggest he is underachieving<br />
at school. And, remember that investment in test<br />
prep increases the pressure on the student to perform. I often<br />
hear a frustrated student lament, “Mom spent all that money,<br />
I wasted my summer, and I still got rotten scores!” Maybe those<br />
resources should have gone elsewhere. When test prep is called<br />
for, avoid doing it during a school year. To get value from test<br />
prep, homework is essential, but a student’s focus should be<br />
on doing work assigned for school. Generally, the summer after<br />
junior year is the best time, but of course it depends on<br />
what else might be done that summer.<br />
“What should I do this<br />
summer to help me get in?”<br />
If you have never been active in community service, the summer<br />
at a soup kitchen or in a third-world country will impress<br />
no one—unless you have a transforming experience and follow<br />
it up with new commitment. I once worked with a student who<br />
helped deliver an AIDS baby in sub-Saharan Africa, then held<br />
that baby when it died two months later. She came back to school<br />
and started raising money to fight AIDS, and her essay would<br />
draw tears out of a statue. That helped. But colleges know that<br />
many students try to improve their credentials, and they read<br />
quite cynically. Magic bullet summers are very, very rare.<br />
For most students I recommend further development of something<br />
about which they are passionate, whether it is a sport, acting,<br />
or writing poetry. While having a great tan won’t help, getting<br />
ready for senior fall and writing drafts of killer college essays is<br />
probably better than an artificially constructed experience.<br />
A recent Harvard admissions article, “Time Out or Burn<br />
Out for the Next Generation,” encouraged parents to remember<br />
that their children are learning, growing, vulnerable people,<br />
not products to be packaged, and went on to note that too<br />
many students arriving at elite universities have no energy left<br />
to take advantage of the opportunity they earned.<br />
“What if I don’t get into<br />
a school I’ve heard of?”<br />
Statements about getting into the “right” places reflect a sense<br />
that certain colleges represent necessary credentials to predict<br />
success. An exhaustive study by MIT economist Robert<br />
Samuelson, however, found that students who had been admitted<br />
to Ivies but did not enroll at one outperformed (if income is<br />
the measure of success) those who did enroll. In other words, it<br />
isn’t about being at such schools, it is about being a person who<br />
could get in. If admissions offices were still separating the wheat<br />
from the chaff, being offered admission could be important;<br />
now that they separate the wheat from the wheat, it matters less.<br />
Today, being denied admission at the hyperselective colleges is<br />
not at all a statement about one’s future. Further, I often see<br />
students who did not get into their top choice who come up<br />
and cheerfully announce on Alumni Day, “You should recommend<br />
my college to more people. It’s great!”<br />
<br />
A person heading into the college process might, at this point,<br />
be ready to throw up their hands and say, “This is impossible,<br />
these waters are too treacherous!” I would answer that, well, it<br />
depends. It depends whether you seek a college or university at<br />
which you can learn, grow, and step up, or whether you want<br />
a certain college upon which you have set your sights with<br />
your eyes clenched shut by your determination to achieve it.<br />
Even today those students who present themselves honestly<br />
and without cunning find that though they may not be able to<br />
find a channel that leads to a dreamed of goal, the river takes them<br />
where they can, indeed, learn, grow, and step up. If they relax and<br />
take the channel that seems best, they escape the shoals of hubris,<br />
and make their way to the open sea where anything is possible.<br />
Somewhere along that journey they are likely to write back to <strong>Taft</strong><br />
that in hindsight, they would not have wanted it any other way.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re is still a certain Zen to the college process.<br />
Andrew McNeill has been <strong>Taft</strong>’s director of college counseling<br />
since 1998 and has been navigating the college admission waters<br />
at Choate, the Gunnery, and Lawrence University since 1983. When<br />
opportunity arises, he kayaks the wide open waters of Otis Reservoir<br />
with his children Kaley, Ian, Maggie, and Ryan, and his wife Holly.<br />
<strong>Taft</strong> Bulletin Fall 2004<br />
33
E N D N O T E<br />
<strong>The</strong> LOST<br />
and <strong>The</strong> FOUND<br />
By Chaplain Michael E. C. Spencer<br />
“there is something<br />
special about the<br />
place where you<br />
grow up, your home.<br />
It is the ground,<br />
the rock, the center,<br />
maybe the one place<br />
you can be sure of.”<br />
Seven tons. This past<br />
summer I sold my<br />
parents’ house, my<br />
home for 23 years.<br />
My job, one that I<br />
had been putting off<br />
relentlessly, was to sort<br />
through all of the<br />
rooms, closets, and<br />
hidden corners, throw<br />
away the old stuff, and<br />
salvage what I could.<br />
Now, I had been<br />
dreading this. I had<br />
been putting it off ever<br />
since my mom died and my father had moved<br />
out of the house. But, I ordered one threeand-a-half-ton<br />
dumpster and with three of<br />
my cousins, I got to work. In four days, we<br />
swept through the house and filled up that<br />
dumpster, not once, but twice. Seven tons.<br />
Needless to say, my parents were professional<br />
packrats. My mom never threw<br />
anything away, and my dad had a knack for<br />
accumulating piles of broken junk in the basement<br />
and garage—reserved, as he said, for<br />
that chance occurrence when he would need<br />
some spare parts for whatever project interested<br />
him at the time. <strong>The</strong>re were endless piles<br />
of power tools and five different appliances—<br />
all of which were broken and had to be picked<br />
up separately from the seven tons, making<br />
me think now that I probably should add<br />
another half ton to the total.<br />
My parents had a lot of stuff, and as the<br />
only son, I was left to go through all of it.<br />
Now, in a way this was like a very cool treasure<br />
hunt. In the course of moving through<br />
my parents’ house,<br />
I found some pretty<br />
interesting things: 30<br />
of my mom’s old<br />
pocketbooks, clothes<br />
my father hadn’t worn<br />
in 40 years, art supplies<br />
from his days as a<br />
painter, a shotgun and<br />
the live shells from his<br />
hunting days, old medals<br />
from World War II<br />
and Korea, old highschool<br />
yearbooks, cut<br />
Brazilian gemstones<br />
purchased by my mom in 1955, endless books<br />
from their library, my grandmother’s fivefoot-high<br />
1920 radio (still working), not to<br />
mention all of my childhood games, toys,<br />
and equipment that I hadn’t seen in years.<br />
I saved some things and donated some<br />
things, but most everything else I threw away.<br />
Seven tons.<br />
What I’ve come to realize is that the reason<br />
why I put this off for so long, and the<br />
reason why it was so disturbing, was because<br />
the seven tons was not just junk, but represented<br />
seven tons (or more) of memories from<br />
home. In selling my parents’ house, I was dismantling<br />
home. I was dismantling the very<br />
place where I grew up. And that dismantling<br />
is tough stuff, and I felt lost and alone.<br />
It’s true, I may have a home here with<br />
my family, but there is something special<br />
about the place where you grow up, your<br />
home. It is the ground, the rock, the center,<br />
maybe the one place you can be sure of. That<br />
house holds memories for me. It provides me<br />
34 <strong>Taft</strong> Bulletin Fall 2004
E N D N O T E<br />
“She stepped into<br />
the chaplain’s office<br />
and asked, ‘Is this the<br />
Lost and Found?’”<br />
with a sense of place that no other house can.<br />
I climbed on the huge maple tree in the<br />
backyard, I learned to ride my bike on the<br />
sidewalk, I celebrated birthdays and Christmas<br />
in the huge living room, I spent countless<br />
hours in the adolescent oasis of my bedroom,<br />
I wrestled with my father on the kitchen floor,<br />
I spent two weeks tending my mom as she<br />
lay dying in the sun porch—her favorite room<br />
in the house. This was more than just a roof<br />
over my head, this house was the foundation<br />
for my heart, the place where it was formed<br />
and where it was broken. And so in a way,<br />
now without it, I feel lost and I feel homeless.<br />
With empty rooms echoing with<br />
memory, I keep thinking, when all is lost,<br />
where do we find home?<br />
One day, five years ago, in the first few<br />
days of school, a wide-eyed lower mid wandered<br />
into the living room area at the back of<br />
the dining hall and then into my office. She<br />
had lost something during the rush of the<br />
opening of school. She stepped into the<br />
chaplain’s office and asked, “Is this the Lost<br />
and Found?” I had to smile, wishing I had<br />
thought of it myself. And I said, “Yes, this is<br />
the lost and found, but I may not have exactly<br />
what you’re looking for.”<br />
It is disturbing to lose things, and it is<br />
disturbing to watch other people lose things<br />
as well. I lose two to three pens a day and my<br />
keys each week. Some of you may know that<br />
I am a big “Lord of the Rings” fan. In the<br />
first book of the trilogy, <strong>The</strong> Fellowship of the<br />
Ring, Frodo inquires about the mysterious<br />
Aragorn who wanders through the mountains<br />
and forests. <strong>The</strong> wizard Gandalf says, “Remember,<br />
Frodo, all who wander are not lost.”<br />
All who wander are not lost. <strong>The</strong>re is a fine<br />
line between wandering and being lost, but<br />
the line is there. I saw a poster once. It pictured<br />
a late night foggy road, and in the<br />
distance one bright streetlight. <strong>The</strong> caption<br />
on the bottom read, “How can you be found,<br />
if you’ve never been lost?”<br />
You may at times feel very lost while you<br />
are at <strong>Taft</strong>. Now, you may not want to admit<br />
it, but deep down you may be feeling lost.<br />
You may get a hint of the fears of physical,<br />
psychological, and emotional homelessness.<br />
You may be far from home. Home is not lost,<br />
but it may be distant, and you may long for<br />
it. Don’t worry; everyone here has experienced<br />
the exact same thing. You may be lost, but<br />
you are never alone. And even if this is your<br />
second, or third, or fourth year at <strong>Taft</strong>, you<br />
may feel lost just the same. You may be wandering.<br />
You may be found. You may be<br />
completely lost. When all is lost where will<br />
we find home? When all is lost, where will<br />
we be found?<br />
Five years ago I told that lower mid that<br />
my office was the lost and found. I would<br />
take it one step further. This whole school<br />
is one big lost and found. We all come here,<br />
and we choose to give something up. As<br />
scary as it is, we choose to lose something.<br />
It may be loss of freedom, loss of friends<br />
from home, loss of number one star status<br />
at a smaller school. And we all deal with this<br />
loss, this dislocation, and this homelessness<br />
in different ways, some are healthy and some<br />
are addictive. We often feel disconnected,<br />
we often feel like our sense of place is slightly<br />
out of whack, or that our home is being<br />
shaped differently.<br />
We all lose something when we come to<br />
<strong>Taft</strong>. And that’s OK. We all choose to lose,<br />
so that we can discover something greater in<br />
ourselves. For how can you be found, if you’ve<br />
never been lost? When all is lost, we are found.<br />
Remember that all who wander are not lost.<br />
Sometimes we lose and sometimes we discover,<br />
and in the process here we create a<br />
home. So, welcome to <strong>Taft</strong> wanderers. You<br />
are the lost, and you are the found.<br />
Michael Spencer holds a master of divinity degree<br />
from Yale University, summa cum laude, and<br />
will soon complete a master of sacred theology<br />
degree from Yale and Berkeley Episcopal Divinity<br />
<strong>School</strong>. He is a transitional deacon in the<br />
Episcopal Church and will be ordained to the<br />
priesthood this winter. In addition to serving as<br />
school chaplain, he is head of the Humanities<br />
Department and coaches girls crew. He came to<br />
<strong>Taft</strong> in 1997 and lives on North Street with his<br />
wife Amy and children Aidan and Katherine.<br />
<strong>Taft</strong> Bulletin Fall 2004<br />
35
<strong>Taft</strong> Bulletin<br />
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