Greetings XCI #2 - Wayland Academy

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newsandnotes Throughout his life, William Ellis was a dedicated and loving husband, father, and son. He is survived by his wife, Nancy Kempton Ellis, two sons, William Grenville Ellis, Jr. and Bradford Graham Ellis, two daughtersin-law, Lola Belle Ellis and Diane Mulroney, and two grandchildren, Anna and Tucker Ellis. Mr. Philip E. Buchanan `85 died March 2, 2009. Philip was a 1990 graduate of The Colorado College in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where he met his life partner, Wendy Thomas. Following college, he secured a single engine commercial pilots license for both land and sea at Hillsboro Helicopters in Oregon. His passion was float planes, and he spent many hours flying around both the Columbia and Willamette Rivers. After moving to Wisconsin, he was employed by Fox River Paper Company in Appleton in the human resources department, and he was transferred to Housatonic, Massachusetts, where its Rising Paper division was located. Once there, Phil decided to pursue his dream of building custom furniture, and he apprenticed himself to Peter Thorne of West Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Later, he set up his own shop in Housatonic where he built beautiful pieces of furniture. Phil also served on the town library committee and was instrumental in establishing a regional guild for fellow furniture makers. Phil 40 Philip E. Buchanan `85 wayland academy greetings and Wendy were married in August 1993. When in Housatonic, they built their dream home on a granite hillside. Their daughter, Zoey, was born in 2003, and the family raised bees, blueberries, Newfoundlands, and a cat. In his senior year in high school (1985), Phil was diagnosed with a head tumor. For twenty-four years, Phil met the challenges of managing this cancer through surgeries, radiation therapies, and medications. He and Wendy traveled, skied, canoed, swam, camped, drove Phil’s 1976 Landcruiser, listened to music, and laughed together. In 2006, Phil became blind; he and Wendy decided to sell their home and his business and move to Portland, Oregon. Phil enrolled at the Commission for the Blind, where he began to learn Braille, to acquire mobility skills, and to establish a workshop in his new home. Unfortunately, in 2008, the pressures of the tumor in his head took their toll, and Phil’s health declined. In the last two months, Phil was bedridden in his home where he enjoyed the company and appreciated the support of his friends and family. Phil was a person of simple values, of trust and hopefulness. He worked hard and laughed a lot — his sense of humor was wicked, wry, and funny. He met people honestly; he was faithful. Phil met the challenges in his life with grace, and surmounted them with honor. Aimé J. Ellis `87 died May 26, 2009. Aimé was an Associate Professor in the Department of English, at Michigan State University. To his colleagues, friends, and students, Aimé was an ambitious, intelligent, kindhearted, and creative man, with a knack for engaging his students and challenging their preconceived notions of the world. His book, If We Must Die: From Bigger Thomas to Biggie Small, explores several themes in 20th century African- American literature and will be published in the next year. Michael L. Thieman `02 died May 17, 2009, as a result of complications of Myasthenia Gravis and Graves’ Disease. Michael graduated from Wayland Academy in 2002 and received the James P. Freeman President’s Award. This award is presented annually by the members of the senior class to one of their own classmates. Michael was a semester away from completing his Bachelor of Art’s Degree in Business. He was studying for his LSAT exam in pursuit of his goal to obtain his law degree in order to help others. Mary Ellen (Molly) Rich Borges (Former Faculty), of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, died January 15, 2009. She was the widow of Donald W. Rich, Jr., her husband of 25 years; she is survived by her husband of 23 years, Dr. Wayne H. Borges. Mary Ellen chose to teach, a gift she continued to share throughout her life. She first taught at Wayland Academy from 1947-1950. She was introduced to her first husband, Donald, by Wayland president Weimer K. Hicks. While living in Central Pennsylvania, she became an English/Theatre teacher at Cumberland Valley High School. After receiving her master’s degree, she became a guidance counselor and started a peer counseling program. While often in the news about her teaching and counseling efforts, Mary Ellen was characteristically creative in promoting good health when she had her “Be Well” license plate prominently displayed in the Carlisle Sentinel after her car unexpectedly accelerated into the front window of a local paint store.
The Greetings Essay Contest As part of Wayland’s ongoing efforts to encourage great writing and lifelong learning, in the last Greetings, we requested entries for a Greetings Essay Contest. The topic was “Describe your favorite memory of Wayland Academy.” Below is Joan Cooper Larsen’s winning entry. A single memory of Wayland? My words, I am sure, will reflect those of the hundreds of students that spent their boarding school years at this wondrous place. A single memory cannot encompass the moments, the days — and yes, the years — that we still look back at with the knowledge that the experiences that peppered our everyday life would continue to hold us in good stead for the years to come. It was a much more innocent time. We arrived — novices on the dating scene — with rules galore on how we were to conduct ourselves with the opposite sex. But boys and girls — an even number of each in every class — were thrown together at what were called “mandatory” dances in the gym every Friday and Saturday night. “Going steady” was acceptable — wonderful, actually. But the three minutes to get from the gym to the girls’ dorm did not lend itself to much “undesirable” behavior. And yet — yet — in the rarified air of this Wayland world, there were three boys and three girls in our class who eventually married their Wayland sweethearts. Physical contact was certainly at the very minimum as we were told to dance 18 inches apart (with one teacher who actually had a measuring stick available). Joan Cooper Larsen `49 Eighteen inches — once we were a little more mature, the space angle — well — it seems an extraordinary distance, don’t you think? I will say no more. Manners — you do remember manners, don’t you, from “the old days”? As one, we always rose to our feet if any adult entered a room. With the boy, girl, boy, girl system of seating at the dining room, the boy always saw that the girl’s chair was pushed in before he sat down. We girls liked that a lot — as what girl does not want to feel like a princess at every meal? But it seemed that a boy holding a girl’s hand under the table was always seen by the table’s chaperone with the undersea telescope who frowned at what was called “close communion”. An instant two dismissal points and forty demerits and a letter to the parents made another try at another time more than risky … but not impossible … or so I found. Stories of those years pile one against another and would run the length of a good book. Living together 9 months a year in what were — to most — the awkward years of being a teenager drew us close, forming a bond that the college years could not measure up to. Again, I believe that most would agree that the friendships formed, the confidences shared, the “first love” feelings that others couldn’t help but know in this tight environment, were the ties that have bound so many of us closely to one another over 50 years later. The friends made in those teenage years that still are the dearest friends would have to be the fondest memories. They still are “there” for us, still support us through the traumas as well as the delights of getting older. We may not live within walking distance, but with phone and e-mail and just plain love for each other that found its beginnings during our Wayland years, we find are the best gift that the school could have given us. And so I will take this opportunity to thank Thelma Arslan Connor, Carolyn Frey Keating, Lynn Roseman, Connie Sensiba Mueller, Betsy Law Roberts, Jackie Kerr, the wonderful Sal Christifolli (and a few more I will leave unnamed) — my classmates at Wayland in 1949 — who I still count as my nearest and dearest friends … and my never to be forgotten Wayland blessing. 1949s Ice Carnival www.wayland.org 41
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