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Nina Riggs Speaks in Prose A lifelong poet, Nina Riggs ’95 became a memoirist just in time to craft an invaluable gift for her family, friends, and the many, many people who would have liked to know her.
12 Promoting Stories That Need to Be Heard and Seen Building on her artistic childhood experiences in Jamaica, Chloe Walters-Wallace ’03 devotes herself to amplifying the voices of marginalized people.
16 Writing with Light Amanda Weil ’78 creates photographic art glass installations on an architectural scale that define public spaces in cities around the world.
20 Defying Gravity on the World’s Stages
Across the Quad
46 Mr. Millet Turns 100
In creating a way for “the rest of us” to host chamber music in our living rooms, Sam Bodkin ’07 tapped an unmet need.
28 Milton Artists Speak Their Minds Focused student artists build on classical principles with advanced design, technology and materials—counting on myriad roles in today’s cultural and economic marketplace.
34 The 2017 Middle School Speechies Middle Schoolers let us in on what competing in the National Speech and Debate Association’s annual tournament is all about.
38 Leveraging Applause 40 Commencement 2017 44 Reunion Weekend
Raneem el Torky ’17 66 Classroom Anatomy of an
52 Head of School
Exam Project
Listen. Learn. Apologize. Love. Never Turn Away.
68 Milton Mural
by Todd B. Bland 72 Messages 53 Retiring Faculty and Staff
79 Class Notes
58 On Centre
86 Board of Trustees
62 In Sight
92 Post Script
Photograph by
A Brief Moment at Milton
John Gillooly
During the Vietnam Years (1969–1970)
A spellbinding soloist for the National Ballet of Canada, Dylan Tedaldi ’09 relentlessly pushes himself to discover the most expressive dancer he can be.
24 Log in to Groupmuse
64 Sports
Who’s Singing Now?
by Robert Baldwin ’72
Editor Cathleen Everett Associate Editors Erin Berg Marisa Donelan Liz Matson Design Stoltze Design
Photography Claire Bangser Anthony Cunanan Michael Dwyer John Gillooly Karolina Kuras Kjeld Mahoney Photography
Brian Mullaney Museum of the City of New York Ilene Squires Weil Studio Greg White
Milton Magazine is published twice a year by Milton Academy. Editorial and business offices are located at Milton Academy, where change-ofaddress notifications should be sent. As an institution committed to diversity, Milton Academy welcomes the opportunity to admit academically qualified students of any gender, race, color, disability status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, religion, national or ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs and activities generally available to its students. It does not discriminate on the basis of gender, race, color, disability status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, religion, national or ethnic origin in the administration of its educational policies, admission policies, scholarship programs, and athletic or other School-administered activities. Printed on recycled paper.
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Art Works Artists move mountains: shifting perspectives, opening hearts and minds, instructing us quietly, revealing difficult truths. Over the ages, we have been grateful to artists, or angry with them, or astounded, or affirmed. In the most difficult times, we rely on artists to wrestle with the most complicated issues, take us to unfamiliar places, and burrow into spaces that need light. They connect us powerfully to beauty and transcendence. Artists help us reach for our deepest selves and for each other.
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acro s s t h e qua d
Who’s Singing Now? From “Ave Verum Corpus” to “The Storm is Passing Over,” from Beyoncé to Bach, singing at Milton has deep roots. Singing thrives at Milton, and the groups that gather to practice and perform are robust and varied. You’ll recognize many that are decades old, others were just launched this year. On a typical day, voices sing out at morning assemblies, in rehearsals, in classrooms, in formal performances or simply in hallways, dorm rooms and common rooms. Some songs are throwbacks to different eras and others are the latest summer jams. Nearly everyone singing is very happy about it.
the groups
Chamber Singers
Gospel Choir
A scheduled course, students study and
Gospel Choir began as a student club in
perform great choral literature from every
2004. It grew out of a conversation between
period, especially literature written for
Lori Dow, associate director of admission,
smaller choral groups. Membership in Glee
and Louise Mundinger, music faculty, about
Club and an audition are required. Every
what was missing in the music department.
other year, Chamber Singers travel to perform
Today, Gospel Choir performances are highly
in places such as Vienna, Prague and Italy.
popular campus events. Ms. Dow directs the choir, along with Vaughn Brathwaite as
Glee Club
music director. Ms. Dow welcomes all students
The oldest music group at the School, Glee
interested in singing gospel.
Club dates back well over a century and includes Class IV students and Chamber
“It is so great just seeing the kids of all back-
Singers. They sing a standard choral
grounds perform. We have kids who joined
repertoire and perform at assemblies
because they love performing and others who
and concerts throughout the year.
have never sung before. I’ve heard kids say rehearsal is the best part of their day. I want them to enjoy the music, but I also want
“My experience at Milton was transformative for me as a musician. In my a cappella group, I was introduced to different types of music and in Gospel Choir, I sang the music I grew up listening to. Both groups helped me to learn how to be a leader in a field I’m passionate about.” — oladunni oladipo ’17 4
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them to understand the message and the meaning of the lyrics.” lori dow, Choir Director
“I had such a variety of singing experiences at Milton. I love the instrument of the voice because it is so organic and expressive. I sang solos and duets with my friends at Beatnik open mic nights. I was a member of Chamber Singers, Gospel Choir, annual musicals, and co-founded REZON8, the largest coed a cappella group at Milton. We started REZON8 to increase vocal performance opportunities for students so the talent of the student body could be better included and displayed. The memories of sharing my love of music and voice with so many fellow peers and faculty are ones that I’ll cherish forever.” — dalton letorney ’17 Lori Dow leads the Gospel Choir, 2017
Singing A Cappella
The Miltones
Octet — all girls
The Miltones are the oldest boys’ singing
Miltones — all boys
group. Ted Whalen, music faculty, has
3 For Each of Us — coed
led the group for 22 years. The group ranges
Epic — all girls
from eight to 12 members and their songs
REZON8 — coed
are typically quite current. One of Milton’s
The Octet
a cappella night showcasing Milton’s a cappella
The Octet is Milton’s oldest girls’ singing group.
singers, as well as groups from other high
According to Kitty Benton ’52, the group was
schools and colleges, that often include many
the “brainchild” of Lynn Erdman ’52. In keeping
Milton alumni. It draws a packed house in
with tradition, today’s students audition for
King Theatre.
most popular night events is an annual
one of eight spots. But in a nod to current
Miltones, 1963–1964
times, a beat boxer has joined the group to bring the total to nine members. “I used to write out their arrangements, but today’s students are really good at making these arrangements on their own, so now I act as their coach. I listen to their arrangements and make sure what they intend is coming out. The easier it looks, the harder they worked!” louise mundinger, music faculty member who has led the group for 15 years
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studio one
NINA RIGGS ’95
Nina Riggs ’95 In her newly released memoir, The Bright Hour, Nina Riggs ’95 sets up the terms of engagement right at the outset. “Dying isn’t the end of the world,” Nina reports her mother joking in the months before she died. Shortly thereafter, Nina had to reckon with the truth in her mother’s cryptic humor. While she was still undergoing treatment for breast cancer that had been diagnosed 11 months earlier, Nina’s cancer became metastatic and incurable. She was 38. “There are so many things that are worse than death,” Nina writes, “old grudges, a lack of self-awareness, severe constipation, no sense of humor, the grimace on your husband’s face as he empties your surgical drain into the measuring cup.” Nina was an accomplished poet—well published, a winner of awards. Her habits of mind and heart served her art form: she was an astute observer, interested in the largest ideas and most trivial of details, a committed listener, a deep thinker. Nina’s sister-in-law and fellow poet, Amelia Wilbur Riggs ’03, says that she “appreciates a generosity in Nina’s poetry and a delight in the world she knows. It’s not all centered in her need for self-explication. It has a lovely groundedness. You can feel her reverence for the real world: what she sees, emotionally, aesthetically. She is clear, witty, imaginative.” Also front of mind for her family and friends—those from Milton and across Massachusetts, down the East Coast and in her hometown of Greensboro, North Carolina—is Nina the consummate storyteller. “Her stories were vibrant, amazing, hysterical,” says her close friend and Milton roommate Eliza Harrington Myers ’95. “The astonishing thing is that having heard Nina tell them, I’d read them later, and they were even better.”
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ninariggs.com
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In The Bright Hour, the storyteller who is a poet or the
in late January, just a couple of weeks before her death on
crystal-clear, memorable images to conjure up a situation
February 26, 2017. She wrote with vision and the intention to
or to distill an idea, to deftly highlight an irony, to soothe,
finish. Her pages warmly welcome us into the intimate rela-
to rationalize, to share fear and summon courage. Nina hadn’t planned to write a memoir until her essay, “When a Couch is More Than a Couch,” appeared in the New York Times weekly column and podcast, “Modern Love.” In the essay, Nina searches relentlessly for the perfect “grown-up” couch, after 16 wedded years living with “well-
tionships that mattered during a highly conscious journey, one that purposefully includes humor, beauty and magic. “Nina’s images are salient, real, and even recent,” says John. She writes, for example, of her next-door neighbor’s pristine dark-purple house with the hot-pink columns, where constant yard work tidies and perfects, especially
loved misfits.” She’s “propped in bed, on a dozen pillows
with a leaf blower. “When I was spending a lot of time bald
with her laptop.” An internet fiend, she calls herself, home-
on our back deck—in the throes of chemo and buzzed out
bound but inspecting every option the most hip furniture
of my mind by the steroids, thinking, gardening, breathing,
stores have to offer, getting to the bottom of the minutiae of
trying to get my footing in a world where I suddenly didn’t
construction and fabric and variances of period and style.
feel at home—I would often spend the day next to the sounds
The couch project is an irresistible, wry entrée into her own
of Dan’s labor on the other side of the fence. . . . At one point,
and her family’s life: the humorous tenderness with which
as he walked up the back steps to his house, he paused and
her husband, John, defers to Nina the decision about whether
looked over at me sweeping, he who does not make easy
custom upholstery would be a good idea in a household
eye contact even when someone is not bald in their pajamas—
with two young boys; the pretty comfortable viewing those
and we nodded to each other, as though acknowledging
boys are doing right now on an old futon; the invitation from
that the thing rattling loose in both of us was the same.”
her husband to lie quietly and “stare at the ceiling” together on the dusk side of a short, gray January afternoon; the
She recounts digging holes together, hiding, laying out identical clothes for the first day of kindergarten with
silences and what might be happening behind them. As Nina
her cousin Bonnie Dundee (also Milton ’95) in Concord,
considers contemporary versus midcentury modern, she
Massachusetts at their ancestor Ralph Waldo Emerson’s
slips us the facts about the stakes in their lives, the journey
family estate. She takes us with her and John, and their
looming ahead.
boys, Freddy and Benny, to visit Universal Studio’s Portofino
The day after “When a Couch” was published, Brettne Bloom of the Book Group called Nina to inquire about a fulllength memoir. Two weeks later, Nina signed a book contract
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September 2016, and completed the roughly 300-page book
poet who is telling stories creates and weaves together
Bay in Orlando—two months before her death. “It’s hard to keep track of the different levels of artifice here,” Nina says, “and in some ways it reminds me of my own body. It looks
to write the manuscript with Marysue Rucci, her editor
intact—lovely, even, on the outside—but you can sense that
at Simon & Schuster. Nina began working on the project in
on the inside something is not right.”
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ninariggs.com
A meaningful gathering place for Nina is Naushon—the island off the Massachusetts coast, northwest of Martha’s Vineyard, where Nina spent all her summers. On a Labor Day when the “ocean has shifted from hazy gray-green to chilly navy,” to distribute her mother’s ashes, Nina describes the frenetic surviving guinea hen—one of a flock at the start of summer, the others victims of osprey and a fox. “She weaves in and out of the grasses. She does not stop moving until she returns to the roost on her own before dusk each
“Her images convey unifying themes and intersect with universal themes. She was rigorous about self-editing, and didn’t abandon any of her long-held standards, regardless of being sick.” — John
evening. It seems it is not easy to find peace as the last living member of your species at the end of summer on an island in the chilly Atlantic. What must she be thinking? There is no fear as great as her fear. From time to time she lets loose a great squawk, standing at the highest spot on the hill . . . ” “It was not just the compressed time frame of this under-
Nina makes no secret of her anxieties—she had always been a worrier. For example, she was never in a bed other than her own without a plan for escape, just in case, she con-
taking,” John says. “It’s that she never did a project remotely
fesses. Whereas John, she says, with smoke in the hallways,
like this. Writing in this style, rather than poetry, might
alarms ringing and flames licking under the door would
actually have freed her up. She could be much funnier, and
finally acknowledge that they might need to leave. Nina
yet you still have the lyricism of her language. Her images
relates that a therapist once told her that the only thing that
convey unifying themes and intersect with universal themes.
would satisfy her on the internet was finding the website:
She was rigorous about self-editing, and didn’t abandon any
www.heyninariggseverythingisgoingtobeok.com.
of her long-held standards, regardless of being sick.” At every turn, The Bright Hour offers stunning ironies that could be parsed forever, but one at the center is the bold,
“The physical places in our lives,” John explains, like Naushon, “were stunningly beautiful and also inherently dangerous. The other side of that pervasive sense of absolute
dogged courage Nina shows as she resolutely addresses our
beauty was the equally strong awareness that there was
collective vulnerability, and hers in particular—now that
no safety net. With the ocean surrounding you, you never
she is living “with death in the room.”
forgot that life there is precarious. Existence doesn’t just
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cruise along. Fragility is a part of anyone’s existence and you have to have it constantly on your mind.” Nina found solace in a favorite volume of John’s during
without understanding,” and “always do what we are afraid to do.” Ultimately, a phrase of Montaigne’s came closest to a mantra for Nina: “‘We have to learn that what
her two years with breast cancer, Michel de Montaigne’s
cannot be cured must be endured,’” Nina says. “You see
Essays. Montaigne was no stranger to death during his life
why I talk to him all day.”
in 16th-century France. His younger brother died suddenly at age 23; only one of his six daughters survived infancy;
Nina’s characters are authentic, flawed and heroic. She draws herself, family members and friends so completely
his best friend died “in his arms at the hands of the plague,”
that we fully relate to them; we’re intensely aware of the
writes Nina. Montaigne himself suffered a lifetime of
particular roles they play in the reality of Nina’s drama.
debilitating kidney stone attacks.
Throughout the book, Nina refers to her oncologist as “the
“I love about Montaigne,” Nina writes, “that despite
Queen,” for instance:
roving bands of thieves and constant political upheaval, he reportedly never kept his castle guarded. He left all his doors
The Queen of Triple Negative Breast Cancer: that’s
unlocked. He acknowledged the terror that could come. But
the doctor I have the great fortune of being squeezed
by considering it and allowing it in, he resolved to live with
in to see for how to treat this aggressive-seeming,
its presence. ‘I want death to find me planting my cabbages,
hormone-negative tumor, the clinic coordinator at
not concerned about it—still less—my unfinished garden.’”
Duke Cancer Center tells me. . . . Dr. Cavanaugh is
Montaigne was Nina’s muse as she responded to what
smart like a switchblade and wears knee-high black
life turned up, and wrote about it. “She, too, chose to live
boots with her white coat. She looks completely
a life that was exposed,” John notes. “As for the metaphor
together. She might be my polar opposite.
of his castle, Montaigne lived with the prospect of death by dint of circumstances and also by choice. Nina opened herself up to existential threat at every turn.” As she makes her way, Nina also weighs the opinions
the disease determinedly followed its own confounding
of her great-great-great grandfather, Ralph Waldo
course—refusing to meet any expectation and continually
Emerson, and the written conversations Emerson had with
delivering blows.
Montaigne’s writings. Emerson cautions that “life is an apprenticeship to the truth,” that “we must try to see,
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The Queen’s judgment and care, we learn over time, is a critical, trusted source of clarity for Nina, even when
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ninariggs.com
Nina uses perfectly crafted, lively dialogue, family events of the past and future, just the right amount of
history, and events within the book’s time frame, to draw
time she passes this landmark of the roadway from Durham
the full measure of her characters with relatively short
(Duke) to home in Greensboro. “Lyla,” she names the
strokes. Working toward the core of what makes her Dad
scooter’s owner, and naturally there is intrigue in Lyla’s
tick, Nina shares key notes about his childhood and
life. Amelia tells that even when she had to struggle to
then says, “Somehow he grew up into the most competent
breathe, Nina had to share the back story of the wonderful
person I know. He can: ride a horse, head a soccer ball,
EMT who drove her from Duke to the hospice where
fry a chicken, fix a washing machine, fix an engine, tether
she died two days later.
a boat in a storm, dance the foxtrot, build a tree house,
“There was no sharp division between Nina’s domestic
work out a tune on the piano, calm a baby, win at rummy.
self and her artistic self,” John says. “Nina chose to prioritize
He never complains about anything, even though in my
our voice, our marriage, her boys, her family and friends
lifetime so far he’s been struck by lightning, been bitten by
by design. Nina crafted the role she had as a writer. So she’s
a brown recluse and lost his life partner.” As so frequently
left the most amazing legacy anyone could have, for me,
happens in Nina’s writing, this tight little paragraph is
for her boys. I think people who read The Bright Hour will
more than a clever list: it’s rife with soon-to-emerge meta-
get a really true picture of Nina, as an artist and as a person.
phors, foreshadowing, insight and irony.
I’m really glad about that.”
Nina could never resist a story—either ferreting one out from people around her, like medical techs and
by Cathleen Everett
shoppers at Target—or imagining what would fill in the gaps. She describes her colleague patients in the waiting
Author’s note: In addition to Nina’s Milton friends quoted in this
room at Duke as “The Feeling Pretty Poorlies.” She
article, I would like to thank Christy Plotner ’95. After Nina’s
tracks the presence or absence of a white motor scooter
death, Christy helped me understand her own and Nina’s closely
outside the door of a room at the Embers Lodge each
allied experience with breast cancer.
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C H L O E W A LT E R S - W A L L A C E ’ 0 3
Promoting Stories That Need to Be Heard and Seen Chloe Walters-Wallace ’03 Chloe Walters-Wallace grew up watching stories unfold on film sets in Jamaica where her mother is a line producer. Childhood was adventurous and colorful in her eclectic community that Chloe describes as “sort of middle-class hippies who, to this day, are wonderful creative, open, free-spirited people.” Today, she lives in New Orleans, where she multitasks projects and numerous roles centered on amplifying the voices of marginalized people. “There’s more awareness about the lack of diversity in film,
a society,” says Chloe. “Their work either puts a mirror
Chloe, “a lack of women filmmakers, filmmakers of color,
up to ourselves or explores a different viewpoint to show
and LGBTQ voices. My little slice of this work, which is
life from a different perspective.”
needed in many other industries across the United States, is to push this industry to diversify, because it hasn’t been working so well for these particular filmmakers.” Chloe is program director for the Emerging Voices
New Orleans lacks the direct connection to an industry that is heavily rooted in New York and California, and that’s a challenge. Chloe previously worked for the Tribeca Film Institute as a program coordinator for Tribeca All
Mentorship program at the New Orleans Film Society
Access, which connects filmmakers of color, women and
(NOFS), which helps expand career opportunities by
LGBTQ groups with industry gatekeepers. The location
connecting six local filmmakers of color with industry
in the center of New York City made her task easier.
gatekeepers each year. Many applicants for the program come from New Orleans, but also from Baton Rouge and
“Here, this North-South prejudice is still going on. We haven’t had a ton of investment here. I don’t know why
Lafayette. Their work includes documentary projects,
that is or what that means, exactly. However, there is a new
experimental films and music videos.
push for a geographic diversity. It’s the new buzzword.
“I love reviewing the applications and seeing how filmmakers use their experiences or the experiences
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around them to tell us stories that we can all connect to as
especially with the debate about #OscarsSoWhite,” says
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It hasn’t really siphoned to New Orleans. but we’re trying to do our best.”
stu dio t wo
DY L A N T E DA LD I ’ X X
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Every October, the NOFS brings East and West Coast film industry leaders to the New Orleans Film Festival, where they are paired off as mentors to the selected filmmakers. In addition to one-on-one meetings, mentees participate in intensive meetings and workshops with other industry professionals to pitch their projects and build further connections. Sundance and Time Warner 150, in addition to smaller organizations like Firelight Media and
in theater, but minoring in anthropology started to shift
Seed & Spark, have participated.
Chloe’s direction. It fostered a love of learning about people’s
New Orleans location may be a challenging work location, but Chloe loves living there. “New Orleans has its own
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After college, she became a research production assistant
distinct culture, but it also reminds me of home: the weather,
for the award-winning director Jonathan Demme, who
the people, the music. People just play music out of their
was working on a film about Bob Marley. She earned a
homes and out on the street. Even New Orleans’ potholes,
certificate in documentary media studies from the Schools
politics and ideas of class—they’re very similar.”
of Public Engagement at the New School in 2008, followed
Chloe’s love of documentary filmmaking loosely goes
All photos by Claire Bangser
lives that led to a passion for documentary filmmaking.
up with a master’s in material and visual anthropology
back to her time at Milton, when she was cast in a 1212 Play
at the University College, London, in 2012. She directed and
production of Medea. She was hooked, and jokes that she
shot her own short documentary, Owning the Oasis, about
could see her name in lights above Broadway. As a Mellon
a secluded street of row houses in New York City.
Mays Undergraduate Fellow at Barnard College, she majored
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“My true love is documentaries and creating films. I love
talking to people and learning about how they see them-
On the side, Chloe’s labor of love is Tsunami Scarecrow,
selves, or delving into characters and seeing through their
a portrait documentary she is creating about the Jamaican
worldview, and how that precipitated their actions and
artist David Marchand. He was a self-taught mixed-media
their relationships, all of those things.”
artist, who recently passed away unexpectedly. “I really
Chloe actually came to New Orleans five years ago
love complex characters, in life, in art, and David was the
for her other job, media and communications manager
ultimate. To me, he’s also a sign of cultural resistance. He
at the Institute of Women in Ethnic Studies, a public
was a self-declared Dadaist and always knew his worth
health nonprofit. This group does programming and
even when the Jamaican art industry didn’t.”
media outreach on sex education and mental health education that is targeted toward New Orleans youth.
Looking toward the future, Chloe is drawn to the digital media landscape. She is particularly interested in producing
Their most common format is public service announce-
programming like the work of the New York Times Op-Docs
ments on local television, social media, billboards and
or Field of Vision. Chloe is hopeful that diversifying the film
bus ads.
industry will happen, albeit slowly.
“We did a campaign that advocated for quality mental
“I think more voices are getting out there. There’s a long
health resources across the city, and we’re doing a
way to go, and that has to do with the systems in place.
campaign now that addresses the harassment and social
Some of this is changing because of companies like Amazon
marginalization of youth of color, LGBTQ youth, and
and Netflix. But a lot of the people selecting the films are
religious minorities. We want this campaign to reflect New
not people of color. The barrier is that they just don’t connect
Orleans as a more inclusive New Orleans, and push for
with stories from people of color, so they don’t think they
better school climates.”
are important. But the landscape is changing. Social media
She’s also involved in a group called NOW, LOVE,
is bringing so much to the table. No one wants to be talked
which is New Orleans Women, Living Our Values Everyday.
about on social media anymore. It’s a fascinating method
Chloe is helping this anti-Trump, all-women’s action
to get people to change or think differently.”
network coordinate a screening series of films that address issues relevant to each of the group’s action teams.
by Liz Matson
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studio three
AMANDA WEIL ’78
‘Photography Means Writing with
’
Amanda Weil ’78 When she was 10 years old, Amanda Weil discovered a darkroom in the basement of her rambling family home in Mt. Kisco, New York. Her father had built it before she was born. “I have vivid memories about figuring out how to use the darkroom,” says Amanda. She didn’t have a camera, she just made photograms. These are images made by placing an object directly onto the surface of a light-sensitive material such as photographic paper and then exposing it to light. An adult clearly supplied the photographic paper and developing chemicals, “but nobody particularly noticed what was going on,” she says. In fact, the area was wet and she got an electrical shock every time she turned on the enlarger; she quickly learned to wear sneakers to ground that shock. She was free to experiment. When she did get a camera, she continued teaching herself.
reports, “and in ninth grade I went off to a French school
have a photography program after school, so at 10 years old,
in Switzerland, where I basically single-handedly did the
Amanda marched around the corner to the Spence School
yearbook for the school that year.” In retrospect, Amanda
and asked to take part in theirs. Spence agreed.
muses, overload from that year affected her choosing to
The matters of light and transparency that fired up
years. They roared back to the foreground at Harvard,
child consume her today. Amanda’s studio creates photo-
where she got involved in the Visual and Environmental Studies Department. “My parents were very perturbed.
(www.weilstudio.com). “The glass is transformed by the
‘What? Why are you doing that at Harvard?’ Nobody in
photograph, and the image is transformed by light,” she
my family had any interest in creativity as a life endeavor.
says. Her work references the power of stained glass, which
I was expected to do something far more mainstream—
depends upon transmitted light for the full visual experi-
become a lawyer, or marry one, at least.”
ence. In public and residential locations across the United
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move away from photography and art during her Milton
Amanda’s curiosity and fascination when she was a graphic art-glass installations on an architectural scale
All photos © Weil Studio
“I had a strong identity as a photographer,” Amanda
Nightingale-Bamford, her school in New York City, didn’t
“Clearly I had found something very relevant to me.
States and abroad, Amanda’s large, translucent images
I began using transparencies—photographs printed on
create the look, feel and experience of a space.
a clear background—because they make the viewer more
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weilstudio.com
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conscious of light. Then I started to work with scale because I started thinking about how to keep a viewer’s attention. I found that when you scale up to the size of the body, people begin to have a visceral relationship with what they’re looking at.” For example, Amanda’s senior art thesis, called “Hanging Around,” was composed of large-scale transparencies of her friends that she hung on a wire grid. “So when
are collage constructions, created from aerial photographs. In a chair, peering closely at those trees, the visitor comes
you walked by them they would all kind of move. You would feel like you were
to realize that the aerial views are local. He may be able to
mingling among translucent beings.”
locate his own farm. Inside a building on San Francisco’s
After graduating and a fellowship with the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program in New York, Amanda dipped into “the 1980s art world, before realizing that
Mission Street, abstract collections of squares in multiple greens lend light, calm and beauty to a large lobby. Even-
it wasn’t how I wanted to make my way.” She launched her own company, making
tually the squares sort themselves out—when your eyes
furniture using her imagery, and continued pursuing her ideas about photography,
scan upward and drift along the horizon—as a grove of
light and translucence.
California oak trees. Teak benches invite you to stay and
Advancing technology drove the next transformative changes in Amanda’s work.
listen for the birds! Lit against a dark Los Angeles block
A glass manufacturer who’d seen her work in a magazine approached her. He told
at night, translucent pink shapes with delicate, darker-pink
Amanda that he could “do what she was doing with glass,” as she put it, “but at an
veins define themselves as bougainvillea blossoms on vines
architectural scale. ‘Why don’t you sell your ideas to architects,’ he suggested, ‘and
winding over the two-story exterior atrium of a restaurant. In another restaurant, as you climb an open staircase,
I’ll produce them.’” “I did that,” Amanda says. “That became the work of my studio. It’s been successful.
you imagine that you’re inside an Etruscan ruin—heavy,
I’m a classic example of an artist with a business, much more an artist than a business
singular, hand-hewn stone blocks surround you. Closer
person.” You’ll find Amanda’s installations in hotels, restaurants and apartment
inspection, as you divert from your menu, reveals that they
buildings from New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles through Ottawa,
are intensely detailed photographs of ancient stones: a
Berlin, Geneva and Tokyo; medical centers in New York, Pennsylvania and California;
glass wall illuminated from behind.
memorials (such as the 9/11 Memorial in New York) and parks. Typically an architect or designer proposes a space to Amanda that awaits a spec-
Amanda’s work relies on high-resolution digital files. To capture images she wants, Amanda uses a GigaPan
tacular light-filled focal spot. She generally brings a light designer onboard. With
system, which works by mounting a camera and lens on top
the client, the team considers issues of context, scale and location as well as the client’s
of a robotic head. This system was developed for NASA
vision. The studio creates imagery specifically for each project.
prior to appearing on the consumer market. The robot is
Amanda’s imagery ultimately interacts with its viewers. Sometimes, it simply
programmed to take a grid of pictures in a scene. Using
provides an encompassing tone or a spirit, as do the enormous scans of sea glass that
software to stitch together the captured images into a single
set apart the Weill Cornell GI Oncology Infusion Unit in New York. Other times
photograph—Amanda is able to create an image exponen-
it’s a complex trompe l’oeil, as in an emergency services waiting area in Lancaster,
tially larger than the resolution of a standard image. Expertly
Pennsylvania: from outside at night, the waiting area looks like it’s bordered by a
using the software, she can layer and juxtapose and create
grove of winter trees. Inside, at close range, viewers come to realize that the “trees”
complex views from the visual data. That’s how the lobby
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of the Atlas Building in New York came to be framed by a massive image of the woven, dissembling strands of a textile fragment from the Garment District just outside the building’s doors, juxtaposed against an image of sea and sky. Only recently, having relinquished her lifelong Manhattan roots and moved to Berkeley, has Amanda been able to “find the psychic space to expand my personal artistic ideas.” It’s public art that draws her head and heart. For nine years, ending in 2013, Amanda chaired the board of Creative Time, a vigorous New York-based organization that for decades has commissioned and presented ambitious public arts projects, such as the Tribute in Light, the twin beacons
real impact. Creative Time has brought socially engaged art
of light that illuminated Lower Manhattan six months after
into the forefront of arts discourse. Now lots of organizations
9/11. “That involvement has been the most profoundly
are working within that domain, but we were at the leading
satisfying part of my life, really,” she acknowledges. One
edge. I believe we still are.”
extraordinary experience, Amanda says, was being
The project that may end up tapping Amanda’s newly
present for Paul Chan’s staging of Waiting for Godot, with
found psychic space is one she started in 1987 when she was
the Classical Theatre of Harlem, in the desolated streets
at the Whitney Museum Program. “I took a picture every
of the Ninth Ward in New Orleans, after Katrina. “You could
hour for the month of September, every waking hour, and
see that shining a light on that overlooked community was
this is my 30th year. The idea was that pictures accrue
so relevant. That’s where social change starts.” Creative Time pioneered bold ideas about mobilizing and organizing artists to show that “art matters, artists’ voices are important in shaping society, and public spaces
fascination over time, so I’d take the pictures—wherever I was, in the city—and just put them away. “I was very idealistic, and I felt in my youth that if you could change the way people see things, you could change
are places for free and creative expression.” Creative
the world. I started out from a very idealistic position.”
Time’s annual Summits, which occur throughout the United
Now that she’s looking at this decades-long series of images
States and increasingly in international locations, gather
she’s created and digitized, Amanda finds it interesting
artists to address explicitly the intersection of art with social
to think that while memory is not linear, these photos create
and political issues.
a linear memory, a way of looking at things and people
Anne Pasternak, currently director of the Brooklyn
over time. She is hopeful that ultimately it will reflect not
Museum of Art, was the executive director of Creative Time
only a chronology, a series of life moments, but also insight
from 1994 through 2015, during Amanda’s tenure as chair.
about our culture. “Because if this project is, in the end,
“My role,” Amanda says, “was to help her realize her extra-
culturally relevant, then I’ll believe that the magic I sensed
ordinary vision over those years. She’s a force of nature—
as a child will have helped me to create meaning. And what
brilliant.”
more could one want out of one’s work in life?”
“I do believe in what Creative Time is doing. Socially engaged art takes culture as its material, and it can have a
by Cathleen Everett
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studio four
DY L A N T E DA LD I ’0 9
Dylan Tedaldi ’09 on the artist he is, and the artist he would be. Dylan Tedaldi ’09 First soloist for the National Ballet of Canada, Dylan Tedaldi has been dancing since age 6. Early on, he studied jazz, tumbling and hip-hop at a small studio near his home in Boston. Teachers identified his talent, encouraging him to audition for Boston Ballet School, where he studied for many years; he honed his skills through summer courses with the School of American Ballet and San Francisco Ballet School. During Dylan’s Class II year at Milton, he was one of a handful of young dancers in the world invited to compete at the prestigious Prix de Lausanne in Switzerland. There, he particularly excelled in his contemporary solo by Hamburg Ballet director John Neumeier. At Neumeier’s invitation, 17-year-old Dylan spent a year training with the Hamburg Ballet, in a program designed to prepare dancers for professional company life. In 2009, Dylan joined the National Ballet and was promoted to first soloist in 2015. His roles with the company include playing Florizel in The
Why is the work that you do important?
Winter’s Tale, and dancing the title role in Le Petit Prince. His
Classical ballet shows people what can be created with
repertoire has range, including central roles in Alice’s Adven-
dedication to something highly specialized. The perfor
tures in Wonderland, Romeo and Juliet, Nijinsky, The Nutcracker,
mances that we share with people are beautiful to see,
West Side Story, Swan Lake, Hamlet and Russian Seasons. Dylan
and at their best they make people think. Maybe the
earned the Rolex Dancers First Award for his performance in
dedication they require translates for the audience and
Spectre de la Rose in 2014 and the Patron Award of Merit in 2011. inspires people to work hard at their own endeavors. After eight years with the National Ballet, Dylan All photos by Karolina Kuras
For me, working for so long and hard on a single thing,
talks about the challenges, rewards and surprises of being
and being able to realize that, is gratifying. Not every
a professional ballet dancer, and his vision ahead.
single day is gratifying. I’m an artist, but I also work for
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an organization. I have to do things that are not what
because though I want to prioritize myself, I’ll have more
I dreamt of doing when I signed up to be a ballet dancer.
opportunity if I’m satisfying the company and individuals
Reminding myself that this role is the product of a lot
working with me. There’s more stability in working with a
of hard work—sticking with something, getting better
larger artistic organization, and that’s important for me, too.
at it and setting new goals for myself—is important.
I have to be persistent at valuing my artistic pride, because that priority is not in my job description. I could
What is most challenging for you?
easily get away with working to satisfy the artists around
Managing the goals I have for myself, alongside what’s
me, and I’m sure that would lead to a lot of success. But I
expected and required of me by my colleagues and the
wouldn’t be proud of the artist I became.
people who manage the organization, can be hard. As an What’s most rewarding?
I’m most rewarded when I find something new in my perfor-
“I constantly want to challenge what is comfortable for me. I look at every role and every performance as a way of progressing and making myself into a dancer who tells a story and who moves in ways that affect people emotionally.”
mance, and it translates to the people around me. The ultimate success for me is when I’m learning and am proud of what I’m achieving, and that’s confirmed through feedback. In some shows, I’ve performed as I was told and done exactly what was required of me. And that’s led to feedback like, “You really took these corrections. Great show. I could see you were doing what I asked.” In training as a ballet dancer—especially when you’re young—everyone assumes that you’ll do what you’re told, so that you always feel like a student, even when it’s your job. I feel good about satisfying those people, but not necessarily like I’m dancing the way I want. The ultimate winning
artist, I want to use my work to grow artistically. But I
situation is when I’m able to do what’s asked of me and still
don’t just work for myself. I’m working alongside other
stay true to the way I want to perform something.
dancers, and my personal artistic priorities are not
22
I’ve also had a couple of rehearsal experiences working
necessarily theirs. I have to maintain my artistic integrity
with choreographers who allow us to be very personal;
and be proud of my own work while also satisfying the
their feedback is not so much, “You need to do the steps
artists around me. Achieving that balance can be hard,
this way,” but more, “You need to look within yourself and
M I LT O N M A G A Z I N E
national.ballet.ca
/nationalballet
@nationalballet @nationalballet
feel this way while you’re doing that step.” When I have
tale stories. Many dancers I admire are very technical,
taken choreography to that new place, and found something
wonderful movers. But it’s not fair to me to set a goal
within myself, that’s satisfying. That’s when I’m learning
that has nothing to do with who I am as an artist. I want
more about myself as an artist.
to be versatile, to be able to put myself into any work I perform—to share something unexpected that’s really “me”
What has surprised you?
with the audience. I want to be a well-rounded artist,
I’m not the dancer I expected to become 10 years ago.
an open artist, an honest artist. When I can see who other
I assumed that I would dance the works that I wanted to
dancers are through their dancing, that affects me most.
dance all the time, and I would always be able to grow
I’ve always been a bit shy, and the more I can show who
artistically. I’ve tried to keep pushing myself throughout
I am through my dancing, the more satisfied I am.
my career, but a lot of the growth I’ve experienced has been unexpected. That’s surprising in a great way. It leaves
Interview by Erin E. Berg
room for me to try to achieve some of the goals I had set for myself when I was younger. You shouldn’t limit yourself with expectations, but it’s always good to have goals. I’ve danced a lot of works that are not the ones I love watching, but it’s all helped me grow, because I’ve been pushed to find something satisfying in each one of those works. That way, when we do works I’m really invested in, I grow that much more, because I’m coming at it from a different—more appreciative—perspective. What is your relationship with the audience?
When I speak to our audience members, their commentary often falls in line with my feelings about a piece. But sometimes I have a totally different opinion, and I wonder whether the people who should have seen a piece are even in the room. In my art form, you do what you’re told and don’t complain. That’s great discipline. But when I watch a performance myself, the elements I admire most are the windows into each of the individual dancers. When I listen to my own direction and am proud of the art that I created, the audience members whose opinions I value often enjoy the piece most. The people you admire will respect your being true to yourself. Figuring out what kind of artist you are and not deviating from that for the wrong reasons is important. What kind of dancer do you want to be?
Within the dance world my position is very hierarchical. We have principal dancers and soloists. All ballet dancers in a large, classical company set goals for themselves: Most want to rise through the ranks and become a principal dancer. Initially, I wanted to be that kind of dancer—to have lots of large, fancy roles under my belt, to have my name mean something in the ballet world. But the people who become principal dancers are very specific dancers with a look well suited to these fairy
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studio five
SAM BODKIN ’07
You, too, can have your own, cozy classical music party. Just log in to Groupmuse Sam Bodkin ’07
Seven stories above West 57th Street, the acrobatic notes of centuries-old piano music nearly drown the Manhattan symphony of sirens, car horns and bus brakes. About 30 people—some strangers, some friends—give their rapt attention to what is happening on the keys. Sitting cross-legged at the heel of the piano is Sam Bodkin ’07, who closes his eyes and taps his fingers in sync as Jeremy Jordan plays Chopin’s Polonaise in A, Op. 40. Sam is the founder of Groupmuse, a social network connecting classical musicians with audiences at intimate, informal gatherings, typically in the living rooms of apartments and homes. On this April night, the crowd’s ages range from 21 to about 70. They’ve come to hear Mr. Jordan, a Juilliardtrained soloist and chamber musician. He begins with Saint-Saëns and moves on to Bach and Chopin. Later, he’s joined by jazz musicians to improvise versions of Debussy’s Clair de Lune and the waltz from the video game “Zelda.” Between sets, guests mingle with the musicians and each other. One woman, a first-time Groupmuser, explains that she enjoys classical music, but is not “the type who’d look forward to getting dolled-up and going to Lincoln Center or Carnegie Hall.” She read a newspaper article about Group-
Sam says of Couchsurfing. “It was eye-opening to see what
muse and was sold.
the internet had made possible in terms of a cultural
People have different motivations when they RSVP, Sam says. It’s a great way to explore a city and meet new people— Sam now lives with his partner, Emily, who was a “solo roller” at Groupmuses when they met; he has built close
exchange and how willingly generous people were with their spaces in the name of that cultural exchange.” Sam plays the piano but is not a Groupmuse musician— and at Milton, he played in bands and participated in an
friendships and attended weddings of fellow Groupmusers.
album club. He didn’t know anything about classical music
It’s an inexpensive and casual way to hear live classical
until his freshman year of college, when a friend asked him
music, and it’s a venue for performers to connect with audi-
to listen to a cello piece he was working on.
ences that may become fans. “These are chamber music concerts. Chamber music
“I became an overnight evangelist,” Sam says. “Within six months, I was so obsessed that I went to the Newton
was originally intended for small, intimate performance,”
Free Library and was yanking everything off the shelves
says Sam. “I think the music is a real draw, but there’s
indiscriminately, just packing my brain with as much of
also an overarching sense of the mission, which is to bring
this stuff as I possibly could. I decided, pretty definitively,
people together to experience something with beauty,
that I was going to devote my life to expanding listenership
depth, substance and spiritual significance, these sounds
for this art form.”
that have been inspiring people for centuries. It’s a way to imbue everyday life with great beauty.” After graduating from Milton, Sam spent a year traveling
Classical music added “richness” to Sam’s life. He began making mixes for “anyone who would express even the faintest whiff of interest in classical music.” After two years
Europe with a friend before entering college. During that
at Colby College, Sam transferred to Columbia, where
time, they used the social network Couchsurfing to find local
he majored in political science, even though, he says, “this
hosts who opened their homes for free to travelers. The
obsession with classical music quickly became the focal
spirit of sharing would plant the seed for Groupmuse a few
point of my entire intellectual, creative energy.”
years later. “That was how we made our friends, and how we visited all of the countries we stayed in, and it was revelatory,”
On breaks during his junior year at Columbia, Sam started hanging out with friends who were studying at the New England Conservatory. Parties in Boston’s
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student-packed Allston neighborhood came with a classical music soundtrack. “The light went off for me. I could be at an awesome party, with artists who really know how to throw down, and take the moment to listen to something so beautiful. I realized it had infinite potential as a way to get more people into classical music, and also as a way to bring communities together around something meaningful,” Sam says. “Essentially, anyone who has a floor can host a party like this.” The problem with broadening the audience for traditional classical music performances, Sam says, is environmental. Outsiders might see it as art of the elite, with impersonal concert halls and the formality of the concerts keeping the audience separated from the musicians and the music itself. Although more traditional classical forums often try to bridge the gap by offering discounted tickets to students and The first Groupmuse was hosted by Milton
young people, the assumption remains that classical performance is rigid and stuffy. “The revelation that led to Groupmuse was
alumnus Jonathan Coravos ’06 in Somerville, Massachusetts. John and Sam each brought
my realizing that providing live classical
friends, and at the end of the performance,
music in a more relaxed, social setting could
Sam asked “Who’s going to host the next one?”
make it a great asset in a moment that seems
Six people raised their hands. Soon, there were nightly Groupmuses in
so desperately lacking in positive and meaningful social opportunities,” Sam says. “People
Boston. They have since expanded to New
need a reason to be around one another, and
York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Seattle,
to connect to each other.”
with plans to launch in Washington, D.C., Chicago, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Detroit and Cleveland. Nearly 3,000 Groupmuses have been held so far. Performers interested in joining Groupmuse can submit links to audio or video demos through its website, which are then reviewed by the company. If they are of professional caliber, they’ll be approved. The musicians are matched with hosts based on ensemble size and guest capacity. Thanks to some “very lucky connections,” Sam developed a rudimentary website in early 2013. By June of that year, he had his first co-founder on-board, a childhood friend and musician named Ezra Weller. Three months later, Sam recruited his friend and second co-founder, Kyle Schmolze, who brought startup experience and Web development skills. After a few lean years, Groupmuse stabilized financially. The founders’ first priority was paying the musicians: guests at every
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/groupmuse
@groupmuse @groupmuse
Groupmuse are expected to give at least $10, all of which goes to the performers. To stay in operation, the three raised money through private capital and the crowdfunding website Kickstarter. In 2016, they decided to charge $3 for guests to reserve spots. “That created some much-needed revenue for us,” Sam says, “and it ensured that people would actually show up.” Groupmuse has been profitable since late 2016. “Overwhelming mistakes” plagued the business as it struggled toward profitability, such as hiring more people than the operation needed. Now cooperatively owned, any new hires will have a stake in the company’s future. In addition to its home parties, the company works with other classical music organizations to help sell tickets to young fans through its Groupmuse Nights Out program. They now also offer Massivemuses, larger performances that can accommodate bigger audiences. Sam’s ambition for the company is nothing short of global. “I want Groupmuse to be a resource available to musicians in every major city on Earth,” he says. “I want musicians to be able to use it as a tool to cultivate and be supported by local listenership, and I want it to be used as a tool for communities to get to know each other. If we’re building sustainable relationships that have a positive impact within the places we serve, I will consider it a success.” by Marisa Donelan
All photos by Ilene Squires
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at milton
B Y C AT H L E E N E V E R E T T
Moving on, with Skills, Insight and Power Milton Artists Speak Their Minds
Some student artists come to Milton hungry to try various media, already tech savvy, aware of the power of design. Perhaps they started tinkering in an elementary after-school art class or got a Flip video camera (now-defunct) as a birthday gift, and kept experimenting. Other teens wake up to an exciting experience in the arts for the first time through one of Milton’s foundational arts program courses, and simply dive in. Ultimately, a number of boys and girls grow toward the particular challenge and reward in the arts. Today, their skills and expectations are likely to be integrative: They easily build on classical principles with advanced design, technology, and materials, and can count on myriad roles in today’s cultural and economic marketplace. At Milton Magazine’s invitation, five seniors selected works of importance to them, and we share those, along with statements about their intent, the technical issues they managed and insightful perspectives on their own creative processes.
Joy Lee ’17 I question what’s around me in day-to-day life, what
shadows it created. Outside the classroom, I began
I have yet to see and to understand. I’m drawn
a journey in publication design that carried through
to narratives in my external environment—used
to industrial design. Now, I’ve learned that social
materials, untold stories of cultures and people.
impact design is the intersection between my desire
I present these ideas and details both conceptually
to help people and my passion for sustainable design.
and viscerally. Spontaneous and physically
While my journey has only begun, I want to assist
connected to my work, I can as easily cover a note-
communities facing challenges through delivering
book with calligraphy as shape an architectural
good design and creative approaches. I dream
form study with mesh window screening and wire.
of being on an international frontline, researching
For this self-portrait, I photographed myself with
social and health issues, and designing creative
my camera set atop a stack of books, fiddling with
solutions that will affect populations and help them
the neck of my small LED study lamp and the
to be independently sustainable. FA L L 2 017
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a t m i l t o n
Matt Magann ’17 Photography, more than most media, is intrinsically tied to the visible world. A photograph is a literal depiction of something that exists, yet the photographer’s interpretation of that reality is what makes a photograph art. In my work, I like to explore that dynamic. I don’t pretend that my photos are an objective documentation; they hinge on my own experience of the scene. Yet of course they also depict something that physically exists. A photograph is a kind of collaboration between the scene and the photographer: The final product is a synthesis of vision and reality. Photography highlights, celebrates and challenges the ways in which we perceive the world. Each of these images that are among my favorites depicts a location I found moving. In these photographs, I haven’t tried to minimize the subject. By acknowledging the nature of the image, I let my vision work with the scene to create a final photograph.
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP
Bedouin Herders, Wadi Araba, Jordan Al-Hashemi Street, Amman, Jordan The Narrows, Zion National Park, Utah
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/MiltonAcademy1798
@Milton_Academy @miltonacademy
Sam Oldshue ’17 My style can be described as between classic and modern, creating form out of a combination of line and value. Influenced by Impressionists such as Degas, Cassatt, Sargent and Van Gogh, as well as more contemporary artists such as Freud, my expressive strokes of intense color and unbalanced composition give each work a distinct psychological mood. Between graphic and tonal, the work, whether painted or drawn, focuses on intense minute details that come together to create form. This attention to detail some-
to find a tension between photo
and photographs of my own com-
times distracts from overall form,
realism and realistic abstraction.
position, I try to let my emotions
but when balanced, it draws the
I spent years teaching myself to
and my model’s life experience
focus of the viewer to the areas of
capture a subject, to observe and
influence how I express them. Art
the work that most clearly express
copy it onto a page. Since I started
allows me to show an interpreta-
the subject. Oil paints have become
painting seriously, I have been
tion, both physical and emotional,
my preferred medium because
figuring out how to balance reality
of a moment, person, or a situation
they challenge me to be both tech-
with interpretation, struggling to
that is deeply personal. I want
nically sure and expressive, to
paint both a person’s jaw line and
my audience to be able to feel that
escape the confines of form. I try
his personality. Working from life
connection. FA L L 2 017
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a t m i l t o n
Te Palandjian ’17 “Too Deep” is the second piece in my “Network of Dreams” multi-media painting series. The series depicts girls in surrealistic nature landscapes, Edens that I have explored in my own dreams. The first in my series depicts a girl cannonballing into an ocean of pink jellyfish, only to learn that trees and the White Mountains are beneath the surface. “Too Deep” follows that narrative, depicting what the girl encounters as she sinks into the depths of the ocean. Though she is fearful about the darkness and pressure against her ears, a paradise awaits her—an underwater galaxy of stars, playful manta rays, and streams of light from above. Each time I look at “Too Deep,” I feel the fear, excitement and appreciation for nature that I experienced in my dreams. From a stylistic standpoint, “Too Deep” characterizes my work. I like to use bright colors (blues and pinks here), gestural and visible brush strokes, and moving forms. I used colored India ink, acrylic paint and spray paint for the streams of light. I am proud of the chaotic lawlessness of my lines, colors and media. These techniques represent not only my messy passion in the studio, but also my natural approach to life.
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/MiltonAcademy1798
@Milton_Academy @miltonacademy
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP
A great example of using a remote camera. This remote was hidden in the set of the play, right onstage. I used a remote trigger to get the photo of the hairspray with the lights coming down. Shot this over the Maine coast in the dead of winter, peering down from a couple thousand feet out of a doorless helicopter. Nothing compares with that experience. One of my favorites, this photo was the moment—in no more than a second, the boy turned away. I love the combination of the perfect pose and the lack of any symmetry in the scene. It’s the perfect candid.
Evan Scales ’17 Having worked for a number of years off campus
right. Before a viewer even reads your text copy, he
in video and marketing, I approach my photography
or she is going to judge the visual appeal of the ad.
with a large emphasis on viewer engagement and
If the image doesn’t draw them in, they’ll never read
entertainment. In many photography classes the
your call to action. This is not to say that my photo-
phrase “because it looks cool” would be frowned upon
graphy is just meant to look “cool”; I also strive to
as a rationale, but I believe that if you can describe
move the viewer with emotion and a message. I hope
your work using that phrase, you’re doing something
you enjoy! FA L L 2 017
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/MiltonAcademy1798
@Milton_Academy @miltonacademy
at milton
When the Middle School Speechies Took Over Birmingham The early signs were easy to spot in the airport: young teenagers muttering to themselves with animated hand gestures; a lanky kid whose hoodie read “It’s Debatable,” waiting for a chaperone to collect a rental car; young people in matching T-shirts volleying foreign policy factoids. They were headed to the National Speech and Debate Association’s annual tournament in the third week of June, which brings together middle- and high-school teams from across the country—and from some international schools— to wage a war of wits and words. Fourteen Milton eighth graders, all Class of
School—a massive building in northeast
extemporaneous speaking in 2016; this year,
2021, represented the Middle School. Milton
Birmingham, Alabama, the modern anchor of
Alexandra Upton ’18 represented the Upper
Magazine followed them for a few days, and
a neighborhood dotted with churches and strip
School and placed within the top 60 in
devised a guide to an often-misunderstood
malls—pockets of cheering popped up; some
dramatic interpretation. Coach Debbie Simon,
tradition.
teams erupted with chants and clapping, as
the tournament’s 2016 Middle School Coach
others fought back tears. Someone suggested
of the Year, will retire in June 2018 after nearly
No. 1: There’s a time and a place for celebration.
that Milton start a chant; after all, sending four
four decades at Milton.
After the preliminaries, after the quarter- and
competitors to the national finals was nothing
semifinal rounds, after the tornado (we’ll get to
to sneeze at.
that in a bit), after they’d spent nearly 24 hours navigating a sweaty, fortress-like building and eating maybe too much candy, the last breaks were announced: The top six competitors in
“We’re not going to do that,” outgoing team co-captain Ben Simpson said gently. “We’re not that team. That’s not what we do.” Some Milton speechies were at nationals for
Debbie stated her expectations for this last team early and often: They would be prepared and professional; they would support each other unconditionally, in victory and defeat; instead of focusing on winning, they would “speak their truth.”
each category would advance to the finals, and
the first time, but Milton’s competitive speech
new national champions would soon emerge.
tradition stretches back generations.
work ethic, team spirit and collaboration,”
Marshall Sloane ’17 won the national title in
Debbie told the team the night before
Throughout the cafeteria of Huffman High
“I am so proud of this group in terms of
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a choice of three prompts, then seven minutes to prepare and deliver a speech on that topic; and so on. Carli Gilson’s dramatic interpretation piece was adapted from While the World Watched, a book by Carolyn Maull McKinstry, who survived the Ku Klux Klan bombing of Birmingham’s 16th Street Baptist Church, which killed four of her friends. Carli had practiced the piece long before the tournament, and a coach at Lexington High School in
but a visit to the church when the Milton
Massachusetts.
team arrived in the city lent power and depth
Speechies learn early that both their words and delivery matter, Chris says. At nationals, competitors range in age and maturity, as well
to her performance. Jana wrote an original oratory piece on living in a “post-truth society” that swung from
as levels of comfort in their business-formal
lighthearted to heart-wrenching, as she
attire. Some of the youngest kids looked as if
described a sensational headline extolling the
they’d raided their parents’ closets. Most looked
virtues of eating ice cream, and later delved
polished and poised, like slightly miniature
into her own fears about being a Muslim girl
executives at ease in an unusual environment.
in the face of lies and misunderstandings
The documentary Figures of Speech, co-produced by Sami Kreigstein ’04, captures
about her community. The grave danger caused by mass dissemination of false information
the nervous energy of four high-school duo
became clear to Jana during a visit to the
interpretation teams—including one from
Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C.
Milton—as they compete in nationals. They’re “competitive acting”: “Imagine you took a
“We all need to realize that our post-truth habit could lead us down a path that history has
theater geek and a varsity athlete and put them
already recorded. So, I invite you to join me in
preliminary rounds started. “I know how hard
together.” Contestants are self-assured,
campaigning for the truth,” she says.
you’ve all worked, and that you care about what
high-achieving and outgoing. In conversation,
you’re doing. And all I want to hear, if I ask you
they’re measured and thoughtful.
how the tournament went, is: ‘I did my best.’” Ben described the team as a family: “We love
“In speech, you gain the confidence that comes from putting yourself out there and
No. 3: Be ready for anything, even an act of God.
“How tall are you, man?” a judge asked Milton co-captain Garvin McLaughlin when he
and support each other, even if we don’t all
knowing you have mastery of your topic,” Chris
stepped in the room before a storytelling round.
hang out together all the time.” In their text
says. “Some kids come to it shy and nervous,
All eyes were suddenly on Garvin—who is
messaging group, students lobbed encourage-
and others are naturally great speakers. What
taller than this judge—and the other students
ment and inside jokes to each other, birthday
those naturally talented speakers know by
literally sized up their competition. The
wishes and silly videos.
instinct, anyone can learn to do if they put in
question added a perfect twist to Garvin’s story,
the time and effort.”
which required him to transform into Charlie
“Going into every single round, you feel a huge amount of support, because we’re all
Each speech category has strict rules: Duo
the Caterpillar, a character from a 1993
rooting for each other,” said co-captain Jana
interpretation requires the participants to
children’s book who is “very, very small.” He
Amin. Thea Chung, another co-captain,
perform a piece of published literature—they
pulled it off, advancing to the quarter-finals.
added, “It’s not just during the tournaments.
cannot use original material, make physical
Going into the rounds, the speechies had
Speech is such a positive environment that
or direct eye contact, or use costumes or props;
even if you don’t end up winning, it’s hard to
they have to tell a complete story through
might wind up with one who asked abrupt
be sad for very long at all.”
carefully choreographed movements and
personal questions, or the judge who kept his
sounds. People who choose declamation deliver
face parallel to the desk, never looking up
No. 2: When you get it, you really get it.
“Speech is a profound educational experience
no idea what kind of judge they’d meet—they
an excerpt of a speech that was delivered in
from his notes—nor could they count on consist-
public. Original oratory requires the speaker
ency in setting. Events were held in classrooms,
that’s really difficult to explain to someone who
to deliver their own speech, written to educate
computer labs, conference rooms, closets
hasn’t gone through it,” says Chris Palmer ’96,
or persuade the audience on a topic of their
and even open, adjoining rooms, which required
who is a technology contractor with the NSDA
choosing. Impromptu speech gives competitors
competitors to perform as if they were
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unruffled by the simultaneous speeches happening 20 feet away. They knew to expect the unexpected, and to stay focused through minor distractions, and so an announcement on Thursday afternoon took a few minutes to settle in: All competitors and adults must report to the school’s practice gym immediately, even if they were in the middle of a round. With nearly 1,000 students and hordes of parents, coaches and volunteers packed in and trying to guess the cause of the lockdown, the gym instantly became uncomfortably tight. Tropical storm Cindy had dropped an EF-1 tornado in Birmingham’s Fairfield neighborhood, leveling a small shopping center and collapsing the roof on at least one home. The only injuries reported were minor, but tornado warnings are taken very seriously in Birmingham, especially after a deadly storm blew through the city in 2011. Huffman High School’s practice gym is windowless and
declamation, for her performance of
fortified by foot-thick walls—it was a safe,
Rita Pierson’s speech “Every Kid Needs
if steamy, place to wait out the weather.
a Champion.”
The tornado arrived just before breaks were
In the original oratory ceremony, Jana
announced. When a competitor breaks, they’ve
stood onstage with her fellow finalists.
moved to the next level of competition. The
Each of the top six would be recognized in
atmosphere before the announcements is tense,
the category. The team buzzed with excite-
even without the interruption of a natural
ment when there were three left, then two,
disaster. “This is what speech tournaments are
and finally erupted in cheers: Jana was the
all about. Waiting, performing, and waiting,”
new national champion.
Thea had said the day before. The students
The Middle School team was also recog
watched for any sign of official word; any adult
nized as one of the five “Teams of Excellence,”
carrying a piece of paper into the cafeteria
a designation Debbie said recognizes every
could set off dozens of “are they posting the
member.
breaks!?” inquiries. Then, almost as soon
Then it was over. Hugs and cheers of
as the categories were announced, they were off,
congratulations and a fancy team dinner
scattering to classrooms for their next rounds.
followed. On Saturday they explored
Of the 14 Milton students competing, 12 broke beyond the preliminaries.
Birmingham’s historical district, learning more about the city’s pivotal role in the civil rights movement, before flying home
Finally: There’s a time and a place
and dispersing for summer vacation. The
for celebration.
text messages kept coming: “Thank you all
On the last day, the middle school competitors
for everything!!! <3” “Thank you so much
were in downtown Birmingham for the finals,
Ms. Simon . . . these past two years have been
followed by an awards ceremony at the
amazing.” “Oh my lord everyone quiet on
Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Center. Ben
the plane!”
and Garvin’s duo performance, “Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me,” about two hostages
Illustrations by Kyle Nelson
They did their best, and their best was very good.
held in Beirut in 1992, earned them a thirdplace trophy. Sam Bevins took fifth place in
by Marisa Donelan
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a t m i l t o n
Leveraging Applause In Pierre Young’s music class, his second graders are “wiggly,” that combination of tired and giddy that can spell chaos even for the most experienced teachers. But Pierre, nearing the end of his first year teaching music
sing and dance, stomping their feet and waving their hands
in the Lower School, has a plan. He puts on a high-energy
in sync. Pierre teaches dance moves along with choral and
song and the kids are on their feet instantly, dancing as fast
instrumental music. This summer, Greenleaf Hall’s music
as they can. It’s a chance to re-focus the students before they
room will acquire dance-studio mirrors so kids will be
settle into the rapid-fire pace of Pierre’s class.
aware of their movement as they learn music.
Next, the room fills with a recording of Owl City’s “Good Time,” which the students are preparing for Grandfriends’ Day. Nobody does just one thing in Pierre’s class—so they
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“These kids are ready, they are on fire,” Pierre says. “They have these gifts and talents, you just tap into where they are and pull them out. It’s my greatest joy.”
@Milton_Academy @miltonacademy
Performance—enthusiastic, early and often—is the chief ingredient in making a lifelong musician or music lover, according to Pierre. The right instruction and encouragement can give students the confidence to enjoy the spotlight, rather than run from it. To that end, it’s not enough to be proficient in scales and rhythm exercises, he believes. Pierre arrived at Milton from the Boston Renaissance
their self-conscious preteen years, some students withdraw, worried about being embarrassed onstage. The switch from uninhibited to shy can start as early as third or fourth grade, Racheal says. “There’s definitely a turning point,” she says. “It seems that they’re aware of the outer world looking at them, and aware of feeling shame and awkwardness. They pull back a little bit,
Charter Public School. From a military family, he was raised
sometimes without the words to describe what they’re feeling.
all over the South. His first exposure to music education
They’ll just say: ‘I don’t want to do it.’”
was through church. At 7, he sang in quartets, and by 13,
Pierre believes that the affirmation of applause and the
he was the director of music in a church. He is a classically
completeness of preparing for and accomplishing a show are
trained pianist and professional jazz musician.
so rewarding, they can help stave off those feelings.
“Lower School teachers told me,” says Principal Racheal
“If you keep performing music, singing or doing other
Adriko, “that in a new music program, they wanted joy.
kinds of theater, whatever it is that keeps you out there, you
‘We want children to understand that music is self-soothing
won’t be afraid to keep going,” Pierre says. “Everybody
and it’s something that will be with them for life,’ they said.” “In Pierre,” Racheal says, “we have found the Pied Piper
has a voice, and we have to nurture that at the youngest ages. Even if you can’t play an instrument, you have a voice. You
of Milton. He is more than magical. He is a gift to these
can always sing. If you have the proper tools and the training
children. They adore him. He is a transformative force.”
to get there, the sky is the limit.”
The force was on display at the all-school holiday assem-
“Pierre has brought to our children the permission to
bly before winter vacation last year: As the Lower School
express themselves,” Racheal says. “It’s not just about song.
chorus moved onto the stage—led by Pierre, dressed head-
It’s about appearance and projection. It’s about movement, it’s
to-toe as an elf—the expected clumsy cuteness seemed
about connecting with the people who see the show from begin
imminent, until they launched into a choreographed step
ning to end. He says, ‘Even when we have a big show, the stage
routine and sang Kool & the Gang’s “Celebration.” The
is still my classroom, so if we don’t get it right, we can start
whole room exploded in cheers.
again.’ He’s helping our children see that mistakes are OK.”
Pierre hopes to preserve the interest in performance among children for as long as he can. As they grow toward
by Marisa Donelan
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c o m m e n c e m e n t 2 0 1 7
Tze’s Fail-Safe Plan for Meaningful Success Tze Chun ’98
This feels like I’m coming home. I was the valedictorian of my own graduating class in 1998. But at Milton, being valedictorian isn’t based
How do you go about doing what you love, every day, for the rest of your life?
on grades. It’s something the class votes on. So, I wasn’t the best student. Just the most popular. It’s been 19 years since the last time I stood up
1. just do it. I feel like maybe I’m not the first one to say these words.
here. And for those of you in the graduating class who are also blessed
But the truth is, for the most part, it costs you nothing to do what you
with Asian genes, in 19 years you might look like this, too.
love. When I was at Milton, I spent my time outside of class painting, or
I remember standing up here on my graduation day, in a very
making movies. My backpack was filled with paintbrushes, camera
unfortunate, ’90s-style sports jacket and a ponytail, and looking out
equipment, and stage blood. It was weird. But guess what, when you do
at my classmates. I remember the joy and excitement of being able
what you love, things get weird.
to speak to them about the next step in their lives. And I remember
You want to make music, or create an app, or dance? Just do it. (I’m
thinking, wow—I am totally unqualified for this job. I didn’t have
going to trademark that.) You’re growing up in a different age than I did.
all the answers then, and almost 20 years later, I still don’t. First off,
There’s never been more information at your fingertips, but with that also
I don’t feel that I’ve accomplished nearly enough to be your graduation
come the tools to practice doing what you love. Paint, read, take photos,
speaker. And if you feel that way, you should definitely contact Todd
take selfies (don’t do that). If you’re into business, read about startups.
Bland when this is all over. But, since I’m up here, I’ll try. One member
If you’re a scientist, I know that equipment’s kind of expensive, so break
of the Milton family to another.
into a lab and experiment after hours. Then, study law and represent
The last thing I said in my graduation speech in ’98 was this: “In a few moments, one by one, we’ll take our diplomas, then we’ll file
yourself during your trial for breaking and entering. The most important thing is to practice what you love doing, every single day. People generally
down that aisle, past our parents and teachers, and out into the world.
love doing what they’re good at. And finding that out only happens by
It’s a step I’m willing to take, because I know it is time to do so. But I also
practicing. Also, if we’re talking about a generation gap, stop looking at
know that when I take that diploma, I will be paying for it with a piece
your phones. Look at your iPads, the resolution is so much better.
of my heart that can never be replaced.” Right? So earnest! But what I’ve come to learn is, this has held 100
2. surround yourself with people who help you do what
percent true. I haven’t ever felt as at home, as welcome, as nurtured, as
you love, and help them do what they love. I’m going to get
I did when I was here. I love this school. Here, I found out what I really
real for a second. (Which is, by the way, only something that people my
loved. Which is making art, and telling stories.
age say to people your age before they ask you if you’re on drugs.) I grew
Here at Milton I gained the confidence to believe that I could do those
up with a single mom. She’s out there in the audience right now. My
things, like, for my life. It’s where I met my wife, Cara McKenney, with
sister and I were financial aid kids when we were at Milton. But there
whom I have two wonderful children and who’s out there in the audience
was one thing my mom never spared an expense for and that was helping
right now. Just so you guys know, at Milton, Cara was a jock, and I was
me pursue my interests. She’d buy me books, take me to art shows. Most
an artsy kid. When people ask Cara what I was like in high school, she
weekends when I was at Milton, she drove my friends and me around to
remembers me as, “the emo kid who was always painting and crying
make movies. She rented me a camera. She rented me a gun. Sure, it was
into his ponytail.” So there’s nothing that love cannot overcome. Since leaving Milton, as I’m sure all of you will experience, I’ve had
a prop gun. But I’ve just always wanted to say to my mom: Thank you for getting me that gun. I really needed it.
good days and bad days. I’ve had good years, and bad years. But through
Look. You may not be in this situation now, because Milton is a
it all, I’ve felt very lucky to have lived a life where I get to do what I love.
special place. But the world is filled with people who want to tell you why
It started at Milton, and it continued. And to me, that’s the greatest gift
you can’t do the things that interest you. People who tell you there’s too
you can give yourself: To do what you love, every day, for the rest of your life. So, you may ask, how do you go about this? Well, I have a “Four-Point
much competition. You’re not smart enough, not driven enough, or what you want to do has already been done. Those people are only trying to
Plan.” It’s a list, sorry. It’s the simplest way of organizing information.
justify why they can’t do the things they love. Don’t listen to those people.
It’s like a critical essay, except it takes no skill and nobody’s grading you.
(Especially Greg. He’s the worst.) Only you know what you’re capable of.
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3 . don’t let rejection break you. This seems intuitive, but it’s
the easiest thing to forget. Rejections suck. And when you’re starting out, you’re going to get a lot of them. And not to be a jerk, but you probably deserve them. We all do. I didn’t start out as the best writer or director. When I graduated from college, I made 10 short films before getting noticed. That’s 10 films that I begged my friends to work on. Ten films I arduously wrote, cast, shot, edited and submitted to festivals. Not one of those 10 films was accepted to a single film festival. Sometimes my mailbox would have two or three rejections, back when rejections were, like, mailed to you. They’d just be sitting one on top of the other like some kind of parfait of disappointment. But all that time, I was learning. I was getting better. Most importantly, I didn’t stop. My 11th short film was accepted into Sundance, which opened up doors for me and started my career. Doing anything worth doing is an uphill battle. The number of rejections you get doesn’t matter, nor does how many people say no to you. What matters is that one person says yes. Don’t give up. 4 . this last thing might be the hardest. embrace your contradictions. Each of you is a unique human being, with your own
interests that may not traditionally go together. Finding your place in the world means exploring those contradictions. Confuse people. You might be a nerd who loves golf. Or an athlete who finds particle accelerators
you are. Dare to be True to your contradictions and your strengths.
super-sweet. Putting yourself in a box so people can understand you
Dare to be True to your dreams. Dare to be True to the pursuit of those
better is not your responsibility. Embrace your contradictions. That
dreams. That is the greatest gift you can ever give yourself.
combination of conflicting elements of who you are? That’s what makes you different from everyone else. And that’s your strength.
And I know I speak for everyone here when I say: We can’t wait to see what you do.
Looking at you guys right now, I’m transported to the last time I was up here. A lifetime ago. I’m so excited for you, about this next step in your
Tze Chun ’98 is an acclaimed artist and filmmaker who began making
lives, about the friendships, and the strengths you’ve developed here.
movies as a Milton student. Tze graduated from Columbia University, where
In two hours, the Quad will be empty. So I just want you to savor this moment. Look into the audience, at your teachers, your parents, your
he majored in film studies. His film Windowbreaker was accepted at the Sundance Film Festival in 2007. He wrote and directed the 2009 film Children of Invention, a critically lauded story about two young children left
grandparents, your siblings. Then look at each other. Know that
to fend for themselves after their mother is arrested for her involvement in
everyone here is so very proud of you. As you should be with yourself.
a pyramid scheme. Children of Invention, an official selection at the 2009
Milton’s motto is “Dare to be True,” and, as a teenager, that was just
Sundance Festival, earned more than a dozen festival prizes, including the
something that I’d see on plaques, or that adults would say—I didn’t know
Grand Jury Prizes at the Boston and Newport International Film Festivals.
why. But I’ve come back to it, again and again. Dare to be True has meant
Tze, named one of “25 New Faces of Independent Film” by Filmmaker
many things to me over the years. But one way I’ve interpreted it has
Magazine, has also written for television, most recently for “Once Upon a
stayed with me. And if I can leave you with anything, it’s this:
Time” and “Gotham.” His wife, Cara McKenney ’98, is a Creative Arts Emmy
Dare to be True to yourself. Dare to be True to your instincts of who
Award winner for her part in the title design of the television show “Mad Men.”
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c om m e nc e m e n t 2 017, c on t.
College Matriculation, Class of 2017
Amherst College 1
University of Chicago 8
Assumption College 1
Clark University 1
Babson College 3
Colby College 6
Bard College 1
Colgate University 1
Barnard College 2
Colorado College 1
Bates College 1
Columbia University 6
Baylor University 1
Connecticut College 2
Bennington College 1
Cornell University 4
Boston College 4
Dartmouth College 3
Boston University 2
Dickinson College 1
Bowdoin College 4
Elon University 4
Brandeis University 2
Fordham University 1
Brown University 7
George Washington University 2
Bucknell University 1
Georgetown University 4
Carleton College 3
Gettysburg College 1
Carnegie Mellon University 1
Grinnell College 1
Case Western Reserve University 1
Hamilton College 1
College of Charleston 1
Harvard College 16
the talbot baker award On the day before graduation, at the spring prize assembly, three faculty members were honored with the Talbot Baker Award, recognizing excellence in teaching. Created in 1968 to honor Talbot “Bake” Baker ’25, this award “provides a living memorial based on a confidence in the humanity of teachers and the quality of teaching” that Mr. Baker experienced as a student at the Academy and as parent to Nick ’51, Toby ’53 and Ben ’57. Katie Collins (Director of Academic Skills Center / Goodwin House) Liz West (Middle School Learning Specialist) Sarah Wooten ’04 (Admission Office / Millet House)
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Hobart & William Smith Colleges 2 College of the Holy Cross 1
Sewanee: The University of the South 1
Ithaca College 1
Skidmore College 2
Kenyon College 2
Smith College 1
King’s College London 1
University of South Florida 1
University of Massachusetts, Amherst 2
University of Southern California 1
Massachusetts Institute of Technology 1
Stanford University 5
University of Miami 2
Swarthmore College 1
University of Michigan 1
Trinity College 1
Middlebury College 1
Tufts University 1
Mount Holyoke College 1
Tulane University 1
New York University 8
Union College 1
Northeastern University 1
Vanderbilt University 1
Northwestern University 1
Vassar College 1
Oberlin College 1
Villanova University 2
Occidental College 2
University of Virginia 1
University of Pennsylvania 3
Wake Forest University 1
Pitzer College 2
Washington College 1
Pomona College 1
Wellesley College 1
Princeton University 3
Wesleyan University 4
Providence College 1
Williams College 7
Purdue University 1
University of Wisconsin, Madison 1
University of San Francisco 1
Yale University 7
Sciences Po / Columbia University Dual Program 1
Accurate as of July 6, 2017
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reunion weekend
by the numbers
822
alumni and guests came to campusâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; many traveling from as far as Hong Kong.
â&#x20AC;&#x160;a lumni making class gifts contributed
$
5.8m
including more than $776k to the Milton Fund.
611
alumni made a gift to the Milton Fund in honor of Reunion. The Class of 1997 led the way with 70 donors. the class of 1982 raised
$
1.93m
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66
committee volunteers contributed time, talent and treasures to make Reunion a success.
54% of the Class of 1967 made a class gift.
stu dio t wo
DY L A N T E DA LD I ’ X X
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r eu n ion w eek en d, con t.
Happy Birthday, Mr. Millet! On May 25, 2017, Milton’s beloved teacher, advisor and squash program founder, Mr. Frank Millet celebrated his 100th birthday. On campus this spring, during Reunion weekend, 600 family, friends and fans honored his 75 years of service and countless contributions to this School. With words of wisdom and wit from Marshall Schwarz ’54, Yuleissy Ramirez ’11, Will Speers ’75 (standing in for Deval Patrick ’74), James Taylor ’66 and J.B. Pritzker ’82, Milletdevotees from all decades sang and smiled and honored their beloved mentor and friend.
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r eu n ion w eek en d, con t.
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head of school
BY TODD B . BL AND
Listen. Learn. Apologize. Love. Never Turn Away. At Milton’s Commencement ceremony on June 9, 2017, Head of School Todd Bland delivered this welcome address to the hundreds of family and friends celebrating Milton’s newest alumni. I have a conflicted relationship with this day, and perhaps I’m not alone. This is one of the most joyous days of the year and also one of the saddest—a moment to celebrate an amazing class while also saying farewell. I want to use these precious minutes to effectively honor—and appropriately thank—the 190 individuals sitting on either side of me. I have shared with many of you an internal struggle that is certainly not mine alone: I wonder, is this world . . . Is Milton . . . Am I getting worse or better with the passage of time? Depending on the day or the moment, I can be absolutely convinced of either. Never has this question felt more poignant than two weeks ago, when the Upper School came to a standstill of pain, frustration, anger, confusion and need. For me, and for many others, it was one of the most difficult weeks in
Apologize, and forgive. People have hurt you, and
memory, and also one of the most important. We were
will hurt you, and you have done the same. This is a reality
forced to confront some realities about the Milton experi
of life. Apology and forgiveness are hard—and critically
ence that we must change. Because we are such an
important. You have done it for each other, and I urge you
incredibly diverse place, we have to care for that diversity
to keep doing it for the rest of your lives.
and support it in meaningful ways, and that requires hard
Never turn away. Do the work. Stay the course in your
work. I am sorry that the situation reached such a boiling
relationships, even (and especially) during the bumpy
point, but it was an awakening for which I am grateful.
parts. Resist what you see happening in the world today—
How does a community resolve such deep emotion and challenge? Not easily, not neatly, and certainly not separately. In committing to this work, we must be in it together. Mean-
people turning away from each other. Dig in, and do the work, particularly when it gets hard. Finally, love. Love with everything in you. Love when
ingful change requires awareness and understanding,
you feel it in your heart, but more importantly, love when
resolve and resilience. These qualities, these skills, are alive
you sense love’s absence.
and well in Milton students, and certainly in the members
To the Class of 2017, you have learned so much and still (like all of us!) have so much to learn. We all know, as sure
of this graduating class. Twenty-five years ago this month, Mrs. Bland and I
as you are standing before us today, that you will take the
were married. Just prior to that, someone I respect shared
best of what you are and the best of what you have to make
with me his “cornerstones” of a healthy marriage. I believe
your relationships, your communities, your colleges, your
they are the cornerstones of all productive relationships.
country, your world better. You’re prepared, and you’re
They’re simple, elemental. This morning, I share them
willing—you have proven that. You have inspired all of us,
as lessons that the Class of 2017 has demonstrated for us—
and Milton will be better because of your example. And so, family and friends: I present to you the 190
in moments big and small. First, listen. Listen, particularly to those with whom
extraordinary candidates to receive their Milton Academy
you vehemently disagree. Listen to see each other. Listen
diplomas: the loving, listening, learning, apologizing,
to understand, and to learn. Listen to know one another.
forgiving, never turning away, Class of 2017.
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r e t i r i n g f a c u l t y a n d s t a f f Dr. Don Dregalla Music Department Chair Member of the Faculty, 1980–2017 Over his 37 years at Milton, Don has worn many hats: maestro, teacher, department chair, dorm staff member, class dean, tour leader, interim Middle School co-head, baseball coach, hockey timekeeper, president of Massachusetts Music Educators, Ph.D., Talbot Baker recipient. Each speaks to his deep care and commitment. When Don came to Milton Academy in 1980, the School had one orchestra, with eight students. Through his dedication and advocacy, Milton now has more than 130 students participating in four different orchestras. At Don’s lead, these groups have served students who went on to successful music careers and those who played for their own enjoyment. All were well nurtured under Don’s baton; he has a fine ability to both instill an appreciation of traditional orchestral music and guide his students in exploring new music. On the walls of the Orchestra room hang flags of the 18 countries that Don and his students have toured. A chaperone observed, “Don’s complete enjoyment of the cultural and
Let us also recognize Kathy Dregalla, Don’s
musical experience is only matched by his
wife of 42 years. In addition to her 36 years
enjoyment of his students’ reactions. His desire
of teaching music in the Newton Public Schools,
for them to have the best possible experience
she has been a loyal and vital member of
is one of his strongest gifts.”
Milton Academy’s Orchestra, playing and
Put all of this together and you have a good sense of Don’s dedication to the young people
teaching bassoon since 1985. She has also taught Milton’s Grade 6 General Music classes
in his care, giving them opportunities to
for the last three years. Her visual attention
perform and grow. As impressive as his list of
with flowers and posters have brightened
accomplishments is, we all know him best as
Orchestra performances.
a kind friend and colleague. A former Milton
We will miss Don and Kathy’s generosity,
teacher noted, “Don’s unflappable nature
warmth, talents and positivity as they return to
taught me a lot about keeping perspective in
Cleveland—Don’s childhood home. We thank
the tensest situations. He always had a quip
both of them for their long and fruitful service
ready to keep us from taking ourselves too
to Milton Academy, and we wish them happi-
seriously. I am so grateful to have overlapped
ness as they begin the next chapter of their lives.
with him in my nine years at Milton, and I am thankful for his wisdom, his generosity and
Bob Sinicrope
his friendship.”
Music Department
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Bryan Cheney Visual Arts Department Member of the Faculty, 1968–2017 Forty-nine years of service to Milton does call out for celebration. When Bryan arrived at Milton in the fall of 1968, he came with “an
Connects.” Though wrestling was new to Bryan, he became “an integral part of the program,” according to Dick Griffin. Griff
embarrassment of riches,” enough talent and energy to power several
remembers a particular photo of Bryan leaping, fist in the air, after
full-time careers. His mind, observed one friend, “whirls everywhere,
we eked out a victory against Governor Dummer (back when it
an idea a minute.” In Bryan’s open way of looking at life, everything is
was called Governor Dummer). Always total commitment.
possible. He has never found a problem he didn’t want to solve, and he
Bryan created the photography program; inaugurated the Wood
is always working on at least one. Some friends suspect Bryan never
Studio course; helped formulate the concept of semester courses;
sleeps; lifelong friend Clay Hutchison ’76 claims that Bryan sleeps with
developed the living floral display seniors build at graduation; and
his eyes open: an apt metaphor, perhaps, for Bryan’s approach.
performed in a number of faculty plays, including Measure for Measure
Gordon Chase thinks Bryan’s signature collection of hats is the perfect metaphor for the roles Bryan has served. A brief sampling of the
and Fiddler on the Roof. Bryan crossbreeds lilies for fun, and his Christmas tree decorations,
things Bryan has done during his years at Milton includes: Advising the
which require more than a little bit of tree climbing (tree-climbing
yearbook staff forever. Winning a nationwide photo contest sponsored
and wall-climbing have played roles in Bryan’s various personae),
by J&B and serving as photographic editor for a book on Israel. Joining
are legendary.
Kay Herzog and John Torney as the trio of creators of Milton’s pictorial
Back in the early ’80s, when Milton hosted the Ralph Bradley
history: Visions and Revisions. Creating an “installation”: a room-sized
Arts Festival, Bryan organized a famous Arts Parade, which included
timeline for Milton’s Bicentennial, called “Milton Creates, Milton
horses, fire trucks, and a live elephant named Ruth.
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A skilled and visionary architect who has designed homes from Idaho to Florida, New Hampshire to Nantucket, Bryan has helped with every master plan project Milton undertook in the past 50 years. Bryan,
Newton South High School (and then the Park School). By December she and Bryan were married. Life as a faculty spouse presented its own challenges. Faculty Wife
for instance, suggested moving the arts department to its present
Teas were still a part of School culture in the ’ 70s. At her first tea,
location. As Milton re-sited the baseball field, and it became clear that
Marilyn, engrossed in conversation, sat down in the nearest available
the third-base line would run right through the Cheney garage at Voses
chair. Soon after, the wife of a longtime Latin teacher plopped in
House, Bryan picked up a chain saw and reduced the garage by half so
Marilyn’s lap: Didn’t Mrs. Cheney know that this was her chair?
the third-base line could proceed unimpeded, and Milton didn’t have to destroy a perfectly good garage.
In 1978, when son Colin was born, Marilyn turned her full attention to growing a family, with Ian and Claire arriving in ’80 and ’83,
Ensconced in his basement classroom (his son Colin likened it to a
respectively. Eventually she resumed coaching, increasingly drawn to
mad scientist’s lair), Bryan can claim to have spent more time underground than any other Milton employee. Even so, as one student wrote, “The photo classroom was a place where we all wanted to be because of Mr. Cheney. He gave us a space to laugh, to explore, and to share our evolving vision of the world.” Bryan has resisted being categorized as a photography or arts teacher. As his wife Marilyn observed, “Forget cameras and architecture. His greatest gift has been giving kids freedom, the ability to see the possibilities in front of them.” In addition to exemplifying “Dare to Be True” in his own life, Bryan has always dared his students to
“A single, powerful theme threads through the many notes of appreciation that Bryan has received: “Thank you for helping me see the world—and, as a consequence, myself—in full.”
see true. A single, powerful theme threads through the many notes of appreciation that Bryan has received: “Thank you for helping me see the world—and, as a consequence, myself—in full.” A 1970 note credited
the younger, novice athletes. “My downfall as a coach was that I didn’t
Bryan with “speeding me forward down the path of becoming a more
care if we won; I cared about how kids learn and how they grow.” One
‘together’ photographer” and others continued through the five-page
drizzly afternoon, Colin came home to find the whole thirds field hockey
letter from a recent grad that concluded, “I do not want to stop talking
squad having a tea party in the kitchen and making brownies.
with someone who has shaped me into who I am today.” Marilyn has been Bryan’s partner through all those years and
In 1986, Marilyn began directing Christian education at St. Michael’s Episcopal Church and tending to students as dorm mother in Voses
adventures. After a year of coaching and teaching physical education at
House. She continued those roles for 25 years, and expanded her work at
the Milton Academy Girls’ School, Marilyn decided that Milton was not
St. Mike’s to include head of healing ministry.
for her and accepted a position at La Jolla
Next year, for the first time since 1979, someone other than Marilyn will arrange the flowers for Chapel and the two big podium
Country Day. A first
arrangements for Graduation. Reflects Marilyn, “I will miss all the
date between Marilyn
lovely flowers and having quiet time in our Chapel on those Sundays. I
and Bryan happened
am so grateful for this satisfying work.” Marilyn has brought that same
the night after
sense of serenity and happiness to so many students and adults over the
graduation in Bryan’s
years. As one former parent proclaimed, “That lady walks on water!”
apartment in Robbins. Remembers Marilyn, “The meal was very
Bryan and Marilyn will move to the home in Maine they have been working on since Bryan began his time at Milton. They better have lots of beds and brownies given how many former students hope to visit. It
mediocre. But then he
is a moment of Bryan’s cherished “pure recognition” for us to see all that
showed slides of his
he and Marilyn have done these many years—their partnership; their
trip to Spain. By the
modeling of rich, full, joyful lives; their uncanny instincts as teachers,
third slide of ice
as mentors, as caregivers—and know that we have been blessed.
dripping off the orange
Marilyn and Bryan leave us with an indelible and inspired legacy, and
trees, I thought, ‘Yup,
we are so much the better for it.
that’s it.’” So Marilyn turned down La Jolla
Rod Skinner ’72
and started teaching at
Director of College Counseling
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r e t i r i n g fac u lt y a n d s ta f f, c o n t.
Paul Menneg Visual Arts Department Member of the Faculty, 1980–2017 Inspired by the social change sweeping college
available to his students. He has stayed close to
In the 1980s, the visual arts department
them and to the School’s graduates. And those
initiated the process that led to the construction
students-turned-alumni have experienced the
of the Kellner Center and ultimately to the
laughter, sense of inner calm, and love of the
department’s current home. Paul embraced this
absurd that animates Paul’s everyday life. They
long effort and believed as much as anyone in
know him as a kind man.
the commitment to creativity that this project
Paul helped Milton progress from its
campuses in the late ’60s, Paul Menneg first
groundbreaking Arts Program diploma
taught at the Verde Valley School in Arizona
requirement to a full complement of semester
before coming to Milton. From his first moment
electives. He established a challenging standard
would mean. In the politics that sometimes came into play, Paul remained dedicated to the “cause of art,” understanding that something precious was always at stake: enabling students
in the ceramics area of Warren Hall, Paul
as the department’s primary teacher of
to find their expressive voices, as an essential
personalized his spaces and made himself
ceramics and sculpture. Over time, his students
part of growing up. His students did grow—
won first prizes in New England competitions
many still creating in the ways this dedicated
and demonstrated that they could create
teacher showed them how to do.
works of art that could be called professional. Informed by Paul’s love of surrealism, these
Paul shared his 37 years at Milton with his spouse and fellow art instructor Maggie
pieces were a surprise and delight to all, as a
Stark, and with their two children, Emilie and
life-sized torso acquired a bird’s nest and tree
Edie. We will remember Paul on campus for
branches for a head, as sculptors transformed
his warm sense of humor and his clear-eyed
found objects into “windows of vulnerability,”
honesty—affirming what Nobel Laureate Bob
and as others created metamorphoses of one
Dylan once said: “You don’t need a weatherman
form into another. Paul’s students embraced
to know which way the wind blows.”
“creative process” in numerous ways, as they constructed cardboard boats to achieve a “Victory at Sea” in Milton’s swimming pool.
Susan Marianelli Performing Arts Department and Upper School Speech Coach Member of the Faculty, 2004–2017
a tie. If I recall correctly, this required multiple sessions for some of our most accomplished students. Deemed a capable
Gordon Chase Former Visual Arts Department Chair
knows each one as an individual person. When students enter Susan’s classroom, they are there to give 110 percent—in part because they want to do well at speech competitions, but more significantly because
instructor on how to tie
their relationship with Susan motivates them
a Windsor knot, I soon
to give their all to the craft of speech. When
received another invitation
Susan’s students speak about the speech team,
My friendship with Susan began 13 years ago,
from Susan—a promotion, really, from
it is always in the context of what an amazing
in the fall of our first year at Milton. I received
sartorial consultant to economic and historical
teacher Susan is and how she has helped
an email from Susan, asking if I could help with
consultant. Over the years, I have spent many
them to better understand and to reach their
the speech team. Susan noted her assertion that
an afternoon posing current events questions to
potential as students and as people. Susan is not only a passionate teacher, but
academic excellence should be matched with
Susan’s students, and critiquing their responses.
knowledge of the practical. In keeping with
I have come to enjoy these afternoons with
also an avid student of history and economics.
Susan’s philosophy on educating the whole
the speech team—a window into the world of
A couple of years ago, Susan asked if she could
student, I unexpectedly found myself in the
speech, but also a window into the world of
sit in on my classes, and do the reading but
dance studio standing in front of the mirrored
Susan as a teacher. What I have observed is that
not write the papers. She promised not to
wall with all of the young men on the speech
Susan is not only passionate about her craft,
participate in the discussion, as she felt that
team. I was educating them on the art of tying
but she also cares deeply for her students and
would distract from the students’ learning.
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Maggie Stark Visual Arts Department Member of the Faculty, 1986–2017
into a suite of murals for the town library. Older students in the 3-D Studio Art course would progress from building a functional chair out of cardboard to designing a conceptual clock
Practicing artist, gallery director, parent and
based on Alan Lightman’s novel
innovative teacher, Maggie Stark has had to
Einstein’s Dreams.
be a proficient juggler during her 37 years at Milton. Like all the best jugglers, she managed
Maggie’s professional work as an artist and designer animated her teaching. Her
commemorated when grateful colleagues inscribed her name in the concrete apron there. Looking back, Maggie thanks Milton for the freedom it gave her as a teacher. The
that skill so self-effacingly that after a while the
classroom doubled as her studio space and
eggs seemed to be circling of their own accord.
was filled with silver mirror balls, glowing
School should be at least equally grateful for
glass tubes, and light boxes. As with her
the energy, inventiveness and dedication she
recent “Timelock” series, her many “high-
brought to the challenges freedom presents.
Years before the creation of innovation labs and “maker spaces,” Maggie was already connecting art and science through design.
tech” exhibits, contemporary in all respects,
She feels that since she came to Milton,
Her 3-D Studio Art course was groundbreak
have captured human struggles in meta
students’ attitudes toward art have evolved in
ing for Milton and for secondary education.
physical terms. Her reach as an artist and
positive ways—that, particularly, there is a
Maggie provided an important role model,
educator extended to fellowships that took
stronger sense of the thrill of making things. If
especially for girls in a traditionally male
her to Germany and to South Korea.
this is so, much of the credit belongs to her.
realm. Often using books as triggers, Maggie
Maggie’s commitment to Milton extended Gordon Chase, Former Visual Arts
connected the designer’s world of space
beyond the classroom. Her 11 years as director
and form to the world of ideas. Eighth graders
of the Nesto Gallery produced a stream of
Department Chair
would channel what they’d read into tile
memorable shows. Her leadership in designing
Ian Torney ’82, Visual Arts Department Chair
designs for the Middle School common room.
and installing the playground at the Milton
David Smith, Former English
Ninth graders would transmute fairy tales
Academy Children’s Center was permanently
Department Chair
True to her word, once I started class, Susan focused on taking notes and tried her best not to join the class discussion. Though, the highlights of the semester for both me and my class of eight students were the moments when Susan could not contain herself and would dive into the discussion. Despite her best intentions, Susan became a valuable member of our class. Susan, your practical, holistic, empathetic and humored approach to both teaching and learning are characteristics that have not only endeared you to your students, but that will also serve you well as you move into the next chapter of your life. We wish you all the best in the next part of your journey, but we will miss you here at Milton. Joshua Emmott History Department and Wolcott House Head
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on centre Sailing Team Caps Undefeated Season with Third-Place Finish at Two National Events
An epic sailing season ended on a high note when Milton placed third in the ISSA Baker Team Race Championship held in Norfolk, Virginia. The national race consisted of the top 12 teams from around the country. Milton qualified for the race after placing second at the New England team racing championship held at Bowdoin College. The team also had great success in fleet racing—placing third in both the New England championships and the national ISSA Mallory Doublehanded Championship. The number-one-ranked team also won the Massachusetts State High School Championship. These accomplish ments capped off an undefeated regular season in which the team went 20–0, losing only four races the entire season and winning every meet. “Going undefeated was my proudest moment,” says Eli Burnes ’17, one of the co-captains of the team. “We had to be very focused all season, because every race counted.” Co-captain Ginny Alex ’17 said their biggest meet win was against St. George’s School. The appearance at the Baker race was the first time for Milton Academy since 2007. The weather was not ideal, with low wind and intermittent storms. “We were disappointed that wind wasn’t better, but we have strong skills so that it didn’t hold us back too much,” says Ginny. “We all went in really wanting to win, but coming out of it we were still happy with our third-place finish. We’ve grown so much as a team. During our freshman year, our goal was to make it to New Englands by the time we were seniors, and now as seniors, we made it to team racing nationals once and to fleet racing nationals twice.”
Robotics Team Competes in First National Championship For the first time, the Robotics Team competed in a national champion ship, traveling to Council Bluffs, Iowa, for the CREATE U.S. Open of Robotics, one of the largest robotics tournaments in the world. Chris Hales, math and computer programming faculty member, accompanied six students from the team and said it was a great experience. Milton’s team came in 70th out of 250. Senior co-heads Anne Bailey ’17 and Isabel Basow ’17 said one of the biggest surprises was the team spirit and enthusiasm displayed by all the attendees. “I expected it to be very serious. You work on your robot, compete, and just get it done,” says Isabel. “But everyone was really into it,” says Anne. “They decorated their areas, hung state flags. There were ‘spirit bots,’ robots that were just for fun and would high-five you or throw candy as you walked by.” The team competed with their robot “Tokyo Lift,” and despite a few technical issues that cropped up during competition, the team was happy with their performance. Anne and Isabel said they also took away some inspiration for the future.
M I LT O N M A G A Z I N E
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and help rookies.” Junior co-heads Truman Marshall ’18 and Carson Prindle ’18, along with Thomas Elliott ’18 and Sarah Hsu ’19, were the other members of
“We got a lot of ideas for robot design,” says Anne. “And for the team
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in general. We learned a lot about team dynamics by observing how other teams work together. We saw different ways to distribute tasks
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stu dio t wo
DY L A N T E DA LD I ’ X X
Students Earn State and National Honors in the Economics Challenge This spring, four students represented Milton for the first time in the
grew up learning about economics from his parents. For Jaime, the
National Economics Challenge, after winning their division in the statewide competition. Class of 2018 students Jaime Moore-Carrillo,
subject is the perfect combination of math, history and social science. “I’m interested in the decisions people make, and the factors that play
Dhruv Jain, Quincy Hughes and Jeffrey Cao were invited to the Massachusetts State House to be recognized as state champions. The
into why they make them,” says Jaime. Math faculty members Michael Wood and Susan Karp, along with
first Milton students to compete in the challenge, they also placed
history faculty member Mark Heath, helped the students prepare for and
16th out of 35 teams in the semifinals of the David Ricardo Division in
enter the competition. The team developed a study guide and worked
the national challenge.
together to prepare for the broad range of topics.
Questions in the competition focused on economic theory, micro-
The study of economics “simplifies life,” says Quincy. “It’s an
and macroeconomics, and current events. Only one member of the team
interesting study of how the world functions. It helps you understand and
has taken a formal economics course at Milton so far. Jaime, for example,
predict things that should happen under a certain set of circumstances.”
John McEvoy ’82—Alumnus and Parent—Joins the Board Americas Executive Board and Sustainability
John McEvoy ’82 is the managing partner of
Lehman Brothers Communication Fund. He
Neponset Bay Capital LP, a private investment
previously served as principal and partner
Initiative Advisory Board of MIT Sloan School
fund. From 2003 to 2016, John managed
of Soros Fund Management, after holding
of Management. He also serves on the board of
corporate and asset-based investments in the
several credit-related positions at Prudential
directors and as a trustee of the Boys and Girls
aviation, shipping and paper industries for
Investment Corporation.
Clubs of the Twin Cities and Boston.
John earned his bachelor’s degree from
Father to Alex ’19, Leydn ’20 and James ’25,
was a founding partner. Prior to that, John was
Brown University and his master’s in man-
John and his wife, Aedie, live with their family
managing director and London group head of
agement from MIT. He currently sits on the
in Milton.
Wayzata Investment Partners, of which he
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on cen t r e , con t.
Milton’s Ski Teams Win NEPSACs Championships Both the boys’ and girls’ varsity ski teams emerged victorious in the Class B NEPSAC Alpine Skiing Championship held in February 2017 on Okemo Mountain in Vermont. The last time a Milton team won the NEPSACs was 2002, when both teams swept the championships. The teams competed in the Slalom and Giant Slalom (GS) events. Chris Matthews ’17, captain of the boys’ team, said, “I think a change in mindset definitely lent itself to
Lydia Hill ’17, Katarina Stephan ’19, Sophie
’20 finished second in both Slalom and GS;
our performance at NEPSACs.” Girls’ team
Kylander ’18 and Shayla Kelley ’19. Lydia
Beck Kendig ’20 finished eighth in both Slalom
captain Emily Bell ’17 praised the depth on
finished first in Slalom and second in GS;
and GS; Ben Pratt ’19 finished 18th in Slalom;
both the boys’ and girls’ teams that was
Katarina finished second in Slalom and fifth
and Chuck Leonetti ’19 finished 20th in GS.
crucial to the victory. “The talent runs really
in GS; Sophie finished 15th in Slalom; and
far down our roster,” she said.
Shayla finished 11th for GS. The boys’ team
we all root for each other, so it’s a really nice
accomplished a similar feat, with all four of
support system. Winning both was so exciting,
their scorers finishing in the top 20. Matt Ryan
and we all got to celebrate together,” said Emily.
All five of the skiers scoring points on the girls’ team finished in the top 15, including
Everyone “watches each other’s races and
Tackling Food Waste and a Culture Shift, Two Students Lead the Way Patrick Huang ’18, of Wolcott House, and Daniel Xiao ’18, who lives in
Compost, a residential and commercial “food scrap pickup service”
Forbes House, noticed a problem that irked them: When their friends
operating in Greater Boston. Science faculty member Joel Moore met
and dorm mates took food back to their rooms from the dining hall, the
with the two students regularly to discuss their plans and to work
food waste was discarded into regular trash cans, for lack of a more
on a presentation to School administrators. “Daniel’s and Patrick’s
sustainable alternative. The two boys wanted to do something about
commitment was excellent. They showed patience, grit and diplomacy
it. Last spring they led a pilot composting project in both Wolcott and
throughout the process,” says Joel.
Forbes houses. They’ve launched this program in the same year that
plan, and the two began a trial run of the initiative in February. They
implemented a composting
placed one Bootstrap composting bucket on each floor of the dorm
system in the dining halls
to collect vegetables, fruits, grains, and the dining hall’s compostable
as part of the School’s
paper plates and utensils. Each week, Patrick and Daniel move the
broader sustainability
buckets to a designated pickup location for collection by Bootstrap. A
initiatives.
long-term goal is to receive composted soil back from Bootstrap for the
“We started thinking about how we could
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School’s gardens. The pilot project ran through the end of the school year. Bootstrap’s
harvest what was being
founder says that it “typically takes two to three months for people
thrown away in the
to fully embrace the service. Over time, compost skeptics will
dorms and give it back to
buy into the process.” Daniel and Patrick are working harder on
the earth,” says Daniel.
communicating about the project to their peers. They hope the project
The boys researched
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Facilities Services and Milton’s Business Office approved their
Milton’s dining services
leads to brainstorming of other sustainability ideas on campus
composting companies
for students to be involved in, including adding more dorms to the
and decided on Bootstrap
compost project.
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Milton’s Artists and Writers Recognized for Outstanding Work Thirty-eight Milton students received recognition—Gold Key, Silver Key or Honorable Mention—in the Massachusetts Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards began in 1923 and are considered the most prestigious arts awards for teenagers in the country. All Gold Key award work is submitted to the national scholastic competition. Aditya Gandhi ’18 won a Gold Key and Honorable Mention in poetry. “My interest in writing comes mostly from reading literature. I owe thanks to all my English teachers, but especially to Mr. Connolly. The two poems of mine that were recognized deal largely with identity and how it is shaped by culture and society.” Tony Xu ’17 won a Gold Key award for his painting titled “Fish Guts.” “My interest
Hannah Neri ’18 won an Honorable
art. “I’ve taken photography at Milton since my sophomore year and fell in love with
Mention, Silver Key and Gold Key for her photography as well. “My family likes to
in painting, specifically this type of realism
the medium. Working with photography
painting, was inspired by visits to the fresh food
gives me an appreciation for and fascination
travel a lot, so photography is a great,
markets in China as a kid, and also by my own
with people and light, and these two things
portable way to document our trips and
interest in exploring grotesque and detailed
ultimately became the main focus of my work.
the different cultures, in a way that is unique to me. My photography is inspired
images using oils. Brian Kim’s (’16) works last
‘Eleanor,’ my Gold Key photo, is a picture of my
year were also an inspiration. I created this
cousin Eleanor sitting in a pool with her head
by the people and places around me. All
painting from a photograph of a real model that
tilted upside down toward the camera. My
three recognized photographs were taken
I made after purchasing a fish from the market.”
cousin is my favorite subject to photograph—
on trips—two of them when I was in
Caroline Massey ’18 won Silver and Gold
she’s always a very enthusiastic, cooperative
Malawi visiting an orphan school and one
and goofy model!”
of them in Bologna, Italy.”
Keys for photography and a Silver Key in
Students Host Independent School Sustainability Conference at Milton
up of 21 schools from all over New England. Seven schools attended the conference. “When I’m working on sustainability issues at Milton, I sometimes feel like it’s always me and the same 15 students,” says Ariane. “I was
The student-run Independent School Sustainability Coalition (ISSC)
happy to see so many other students who are working on and saying
held its first one-day conference at Milton to discuss sustainability
the same things I’m doing and saying. It was nice to hear these similar
issues and exchange ideas and initiatives. The coalition was the idea
voices. I also loved learning what other schools are doing and different
of Ariane DesRosiers ’19, who was inspired by the online literary
ways to get the community involved.”
publication The Tavern, a collaborative effort among independent-
Pierce was instrumental in arranging the keynote speaker, Chantelle
school students. Pierce Wilson ’19, Patrick Huang ’18, Max Hui ’18 and
Mendonsa, who works for the Center for Policy Advocacy at the Natural
Jennifer Chen ’19 also played roles in forming the ISSC, which is made
Resources Defense Council.
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in sight
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P H O T O B Y J O H N G I L L O O LY
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sports
B Y L I Z M AT S O N
Raneem el Torky ’17
she was 8 years old. In Egypt, schools are for education and clubs are for sports. Raneem spent hours in the city’s snarled traffic traveling
An accomplished squash player from Alexandria, Egypt, finds her footing as a scholar-athlete
between the two. She left school at 3 p.m. and started playing squash around 4 p.m., until courts closed at 10 p.m.: six hours of playing every day except Fridays. “Literally, I used to live in our car! It was hard work—just school and squash, school, squash, school, squash. That was my whole life. I spent
On the squash court, three-time All-American Raneem Mohamed
every minute during the school year in Egypt either in school, doing
el Torky ’17 is relentless, attacking the ball with tremendous power.
homework, or on the courts.” That year at Milton, she adjusted to training less and balancing
Unaccustomed to losing, she plays to win every single match. Off the court, however, the aggressive demeanor switches off; Raneem
her academic workload. French and math came easily, but English
is charming, friendly and outgoing. As a sophomore, Raneem was
and science classes were more difficult as she worked to improve
introduced to Milton by meeting other students, moving into her dorm
her English-language skills. Her first big match and for her, the most memorable, was against Deerfield, a traditionally strong team that
and adjusting to American food. One of the biggest culture shocks?
Milton had not beaten in some time. The game was at home and Milton
“I couldn’t play squash because the courts were closed! There were so
fans crowded the benches in the Williams Squash Courts.
many rules that you could play only at certain times and that was hard
“At first, our team felt there was no way to beat them,” says Raneem.
for me. That first weekend I asked another squash player if he wanted to go play and he texted back: ‘Ha, ha, Raneem. It’s Friday night. There are
“Then we were winning matches, and a team win against Deerfield became dependent on my match. When I won, I was so happy. It was
fun activities here. Just go out!’” Following in the steps of her two older sisters, Raneem had played squash at a sporting club in her hometown of Alexandria, Egypt, since
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such a good experience for me to know that so many people from the school were there watching the team, and we won.”
@Milton_Academy @miltonacademy
“I know Raneem was already feeling at home at Milton,” says Coach Chris Kane, “but walking into the dining hall that night after that
really ended on a real high note, both in terms of her play, but more importantly, to shrug off the previous loss. She played incredibly,
match, I think she felt celebrated in a way that was helpful to her feeling
tactically sharp and intelligently, she didn’t give her opponent any
appreciated here. It was a great moment.”
openings, and, in so doing, she helped us finish sixth. In some ways, she
Raneem’s path to Milton began when her sisters (both professional
hasn’t had as much practice with losing, and here she had to show the
squash players) hosted a Milton squash player, Cece Cortes ’07, who
resilience that is so essential to her growth as an athlete and as a person.
spent time in Egypt improving her game. As a 13-year-old, Raneem
To me, it was quite fitting, even though it wasn’t the storybook ending
encountered Coach Kane at the U.S. Juniors Squash Open. She was
with the title that she wanted.”
traveling with family members and they put her on a bus, alone, to go
This fall, Raneem is excited to be attending Princeton University,
visit the Milton campus. At that time, Egypt was in upheaval; schools
playing squash and considering an engineering major. She hopes one
were shutting down for weeks at a time and daily life was disrupted.
day to return to Egypt, possibly playing a role in helping her country.
Raneem’s family slowly came around to the idea that it would be better for her to attend school at Milton. Raneem’s junior year at Milton brought challenges—on the courts and in the classroom. She was seeded number one in the U.S. Juniors Squash Open tournament. Having placed second and third in previous years, her goal was to win. Her mother traveled from home to watch. But Raneem lost in the second round, a stunning upset for her. “I was really sad and depressed for a while, because it had been my dream, always, to win the U.S. Open. I realized I was not training enough. I wasn’t getting enough sleep. I was struggling in biology, my hardest class. I felt like giving up on all of it.” Raneem went home for winter break and was unsure if she wanted to come back. Family, friends and Coach Kane convinced her not to give up. “I love Milton; coming here was the best thing that happened to me. I realized I was just sad that I lost the tournament, not about the school. When I came back after break, I changed my strategy and a lot of people helped me.” With the help from teachers and peers, and even a friend’s mother, Raneem immersed herself in tackling biology and succeeded. “I am so thankful for the people who took the time to help me and were there for me.” By senior year, Raneem was on top of her academics and captain of the squash team. “In Egypt, we play individually, not as a team, and I was kind of crazy on the court. Not like mean or having a bad attitude, but I would get nervous and yell stuff and it was embarrassing. At Milton, playing on a team, I learned to care about the team’s reputation and upholding the school’s name. I really grew up here and became more mature. Being captain of the team taught me how to be responsible and to be a role model for the freshmen. I learned to give the advice that seniors were giving me when I was a sophomore.” After posting two personal undefeated seasons at Milton, one of her goals senior year was to win the New Englands, but in the semifinals she lost a close match to a Deerfield player, and in the first few moments afterward, she was devastated. “One of the things we worked on so much over her time here is how you respond to these things,” says Coach Kane. “Well, she came back two hours later, and played, arguably, the cleanest match she’s played in her Milton career and beat a player who is phenomenal. She
Matt Tabor ’17 is an Arizona Diamondback Matt Tabor’s senior year pitching stats explain why Major League Baseball scouts were standing on the sidelines of Nash Field this past spring. ■
6–0 RECORD
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42 INNINGS PITCHED
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0.60 ERA
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75 STRIKEOUTS, 8 WALKS
At the end of the season, Matt was drafted by the Arizona Diamondbacks in the third round. He made the “hardest decision of my life”—choosing to forgo college and give professional baseball a shot. “This is a once in a lifetime opportunity that I would regret my whole life if I didn’t do,” Matt says. Matt came to Milton in Class III and lived in Goodwin House. “My time at Milton was the best three years of my life. When I stepped foot into the dorm, I felt like I had 28 brothers instantly.” The two-time ISL MVP said he loved the baseball team and playing for Coaches Matt Petherick and Jeff Natale. “All the guys are my lifelong friends and we all laid everything on the line for each other. When the scouts would come out to the games, I never felt like I was being treated differently. I can’t thank everyone at Milton enough for how good they were to me; it was just the best experience!” Matt’s spent the summer training at the Diamondbacks’ facility from 1 to 11 p.m. every day. Keep an eye out for him! FA L L 2 017
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c l a s s r o o m
Anatomy of an Exam Project Creating a Digital Self Portrait
The project started with a straight photo: Take a portrait that shows command of particular aspects of the DSLR (digital camera). Frame the photo and select the strongest image using a software program called Bridge. Edit the photo image roughly in Photoshop, and import it into Illustrator. Use the tools in Illustrator to create the full piece.
Exploring identity, which is the real work of adolescence,
Color was one of the strongest features in their portraits,
has always been a major aspect of Milton’s arts programs.
Nicole explains, because they were composed of geometric
Articulating and validating identity was a particularly
shapes filled with single colors. “We dealt a lot with color,
fraught process for the teenagers at Milton during this past
and earlier on in that semester, we had a color blog. The
year’s election and post-election environment. Its impor
students were able to return to color and consider its impact
tance as a shared endeavor across campus only grew as the
and function in this project.” Using a tool called Eyedropper in Photoshop, students
months evolved.
created color palettes based on their photos. They could
Nicole Darling, Milton Class of 1997, teaches Technology | Media + Design in the visual arts department.
create a background any way they wanted, and several
The exam project that Nicole developed for her class asked
students chose color as a way of accenting and reinforcing
students to render a visual sense of self, relying on some
their expressions (captured in the DSLR). Making
newly acquired technological skills (January 2017). “There
decisions about the background reflected a whole other
were four pieces in terms of their methodology review,”
level of creativity. How would the image interact with
Nicole says, “but the task was to create a self-portrait that
the background? Ultimately, what Nicole wanted to see
conveys emotion, that explores one aspect of their identity
students achieve was an excellent integration of figure,
and how they see themselves in the world. In doing so, they’d
graphic or text and background—“how all those things
necessarily return to ideas iterated in other formats, and
came together and worked.”
build on the skills they’d gained to create something new.”
Zoe Camaya’s work (Class II) is a particularly successful execution of the challenges Nicole incorporated into the self-portrait. Zoe was patient and demanding during the first phase—working with the DSLR to capture the image and emotion she wanted. She surrounded her image with William Ernest Henley’s bold lines from his poem “Invictus”—“I am the master of my fate. I am the captain of my soul,” lines with particular contemporary relevance. Zoe searched online for the brushes that would render the effect she wanted with her calligraphy. In Illustrator, she fulfilled her vision: like hovering, smoky ephemera—those words set up a stark tension with the fear and uncertainty evident in her face. Learning basic principles and practices of design using contemporary and rising technologies is the subject matter of Nicole’s Technology | Media + Design course. Incorporating these technologies, evolving internet-based resources and basic design principles into Milton’s strong, traditional courses is a leading driver of innovation for the arts faculty. Visual arts department chair Ian Torney sees the connection between these newer capabilities and traditional artistic competencies as essential requirements for successful artists and entrepreneurs in today’s busy art and design environment. by Cathleen Everett
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A C U R A T E D G A L L E R Y O F A R T S , L E T T E R S A N D D E S I G N B Y M I LT O N A L U M N I
sarah colt ’88 Director, The Gilded Age The Gilded Age is a two-hour program for PBS’ awardwinning series American Experience that explores the dynamic and fluid final decades of the 19th century. The narrative depends largely on the hopes and dreams, and the triumphs and failures, of men and women who took big personal risks to change the direction of the United States. They shared a belief in the promise of the American future, faith in the technological wonders of the age, and confidence that their country could reach for its economic potential while holding onto its most cherished democratic ideals. They were all bullish on America. The industrialist steel maker and champion of laissez faire capitalism Andrew Carnegie; trend-setting socialite Alva Vanderbilt; white-shoe banker J.P. Morgan; political activist Henry George; and Populist leader Mary Elizabeth Lease all wanted particular outcomes, both for themselves and for their country. Coming up short of their goals, they refused to resign themselves to failure. It is their personal and heartfelt efforts that animate this compelling, complex and urgently relevant story of one of the most convulsive and transformative eras in American history. National broadcast of The Gilded Age is slated for winter 2018.
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tetsu higuchi ’12 and devaughn holliday ’12 Co-founders, Cypher League Media A Brooklyn-based media company and arts collective, Cypher League Media’s vision is to “create platforms for sharing the arts and ideas of our generation.” Today, Cypher League (established in 2012) runs a digital and physical publication; event production; a record label called Dojo; and a music-sharing and collaboration app. The company celebrates young creators—artists, activists, and entrepreneurs who embody the inventive, inclusive, and ambitious spirit of hip-hop. Cypher League, with several Milton alumni as founding members, employs students and recent graduates from universities, including New York University, Northeastern and Cornell. The company profiles individuals who are building by connecting— who seize and provide opportunities for education, expression, and expansion of consciousness. The company’s tagline is “Culture is Yours to Create”—which is also the name of their recent tour that promoted “free-expression, good music, and an empowering mindset” at universities like Middlebury, Wesleyan and Amherst. In the vanguard of a new movement in hip-hop music and culture, their goal is to provoke curious people into taking positive action, to invigorate a generation of youthful cultural participants, and to be the leading independent media platform for the millennial generation through a dedication to original and relevant content. Learn more at cypherleague.com.
bill hilgendorf ’98 Co-founder, Uhuru Design Uhuru Design, a multidisciplinary design
the products they use and the spaces they
firm based in Red Hook, Brooklyn, was
inhabit. This is evident in their creative
founded in 2004 by Bill Hilgendorf and his
reuse and repurpose in the creation of fine
business partner, Jason Horvath. Uhuru
furniture and interior spaces.
began as a high-end custom furniture design
Bill and Jason were recognized by the
and build company with a focus on timeless,
Smithsonian, featured as part of the museum’s
sustainable design. Over the past 10 years,
40 Under 40: Craft Futures for innovation
the company has built a full interior-design
in their field. Uhuru’s original Cyclone
division with high-profile projects in the
Lounger, fabricated from reclaimed Coney
commercial, residential and hospitality sectors.
Island Boardwalk ipe, was acquired by
A leading innovator in New American Design,
the Smithsonian for its permanent collection.
Uhuru has pieces selected for display in
The company was featured in a 2016 New
the Smithsonian’s and Brooklyn Museum’s
York Times piece titled “The Rise of the
permanent collections. Uhuru offers clients
Locavore Designer.” Bill’s designs will be
and partners access to an influential global
featured on campus in Milton’s Nesto
audience seeking a deeper connection with
Gallery in spring 2018.
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murray “mac” dewart ’66 Editor, Poems About Sculpture Poems About Sculpture is an anthology of poetry—from around the world and across the ages—about humanity’s most enduring art form. Inspired by the ideas embodied in monumental temples and fragmented statues of ancient civilizations, poets over the centuries have converted their reactions to physical materials—clay, wood, glass, marble, granite, bronze—into poetic verse. This anthology, with foreword by Robert Pinsky, ranges from Keats’ Grecian urn and Shelley’s “Ozymandias,” to contemporary works about Maya Lin’s Vietnam Veterans Memorial and Janet Echelman’s wind-borne hovering nets. Sculptures commemorating love or war, objects or apparitions, forms human or divine, have evoked responses from poets, including Homer, Ovid, Shakespeare, Baudelaire, Rilke, Dickinson, Yeats, Auden and Plath. A compendium of one art form reflecting on another, Poems About Sculpture is a treat for art lovers of all kinds. Mac Dewart has been creating sculptures for decades. His largescale works have been on display in museums and exhibition spaces from as nearby as Harvard’s Fogg Art Museum and Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, to places as far as China, Peru and Russia.
jenny slate ’00 Actress, Landline Landline follows the lives and relationships of the Jacobs family — played by Jenny Slate, Edie Falco, Abby Quinn and John Turturro — in 1995 Manhattan. The film is set in an era when people called from pay phones, relied on answering machines, made mix tapes for their friends, and shared one family PC connected to a dot-matrix printer. Technology is a focal point when sisters Dana and Ali Jacobs discover a floppy disk containing erotic poetry written by their father and intended for someone other than his wife. Infidelity seems a family trait, bemoans Ali, as she learns about her father’s extramarital transgressions and watches her older sister cheat on her live-in fiancé with a guy she knew in college. Dana and Ali’s relationship — and its evolution — is a central thread in the film. Director Gillian Robespierre and co-writer Elizabeth Holm collaborated on the 2014 film Obvious Child, also starring Jenny Slate. Landline premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2017 and was purchased by Amazon Studios. One critic nods to the film’s talented cast and “a fast-paced approach from director and co-writer Gillian Robespierre” to developing this “charming, multi-generational dramedy.”
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claire cheney ’02 Founder, Curio Spice Company Founded in 2015, Curio Spice Company introduces customers to the rich world of organic spices from around the globe. Offering top-quality, flavorful spices sourced directly from farmers and producers, Curio Spice Co. uses the highest standards in organic and fair-trade agriculture. Whether you’re a professional chef, an adventurous home cook, or just trying to get something
jason spingarn-koff ’92 Executive Producer, Daughters of Destiny
quick and tasty on the table, you’ll enjoy how
Daughters of Destiny is a four-part Netflix original
nutrition. The company also provides recipes
these unique spice blends make familiar foods and drinks taste special. Spices are toasted whole, ground and packaged by hand to ensure maximum freshness and
documentary series chronicling the lives of five girls
and stories that introduce customers to the
raised at Shanti Bhavan, a unique coed residential school
people, geography, and cultures behind the
in Tamil Nadu, India. These girls are from families
food. Claire Cheney founded and owns Curio
of the so-called “Dalit” caste and are among the most
Spice Co., a local, independent, Public Benefit
impoverished communities in the world. Directed by
Corporation working to provide a better life
Academy Award-winning filmmaker Vanessa Roth, the
for farmers, protect the environment, and
series witnesses the girls come of age at Shanti Bhavan,
unite people around food. As a Public Benefit
where the expectation is that they must grow up to
Corporation, Curio Spice Co. is focused
support themselves, lift their families and communities
on business that’s fair for all, as well as on
out of poverty, and contribute to the larger world. The
sourcing many herbs and spices locally to
series highlights the struggle of students as they strive to
save energy and improve the local economy.
define themselves, re-define gender and class, and create a new future for the generations that will come after them. The strength and power of the girls’ own storytelling
To learn more, visit Claire’s blog, Aromatum, at aromatum.blogspot.com.
and dramatic experiences over seven years of filming from the gates of Shanti Bhavan into their homes brings viewers through their stories of family, love, loss, hard work and courage. An original music score by Academy Award- and Emmy Award-winning composer A.R. Rahman (Slumdog Millionaire) punctuates the emotional journey. The series launched globally in July 2017. For more information about the Shanti Bhavan Children’s Project, visit shantibhavanchildren.org.
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m e s s a g e s Rodney Glasgow
A noted educator, speaker and facilitator on issues of diversity and equity, Rodney Glasgow visited campus to work with students, faculty, staff and administrators on issues of race and identity this spring. Milton’s administration engaged Mr. Glasgow in response to events in which many Upper School students demonstrated through peaceful sit-ins—a result of rising tensions and incidents of what students viewed as insufficient disciplinary response. Chair of the National Diversity Practitioners Institute, Mr. Glasgow has a long and distinguished career in this work. He serves today as chief diversity officer and head of middle school at St. Andrew’s Episcopal School in Maryland. Mr. Glasgow earned degrees in Afro-American studies and psychology at Harvard University and holds a master of arts in organization and leadership from Columbia. He is an independent-school alum, having graduated from Gilman School. He is also president of The Glasgow Group, a consortium of dynamic and innovative consultants.
“The privilege of being in this community is that you can make the community what you want it to be.”
Annie Jean-Baptiste ’06
Annie Jean-Baptiste ’06, diversity programs manager for Google’s Global Diversity and
“At Google we talk about ‘building for all,’ and in order to do that, people
Inclusion Team, works to diversify the next
with different perspectives and
generation of technology professionals and
backgrounds need to be at the table,
promote inclusion programs among the tech
with equal agency to voice opinions
giant’s 60,000 employees. She returned to
and get things done. Research shows
Milton as the 2017 Martin Luther King Jr. Day speaker, asking students to honor other people’s
that teams with more diversity and
perspectives, and sharing her beliefs about
deeper inclusion are more innovative
what people can do to be more inclusive and follow
and successful. We can extend that
the life and lessons of Dr. King. Students have
to Milton—we need the diversity of
the power to effect change when they check their privilege, love harder, take risks, break rules,
experience and backgrounds to foster
experience discomfort, and take an empathetic
the creativity and genius that Milton
approach to disagreement, Annie says.
is known for.”
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Kimberly Cheng
All history is global history, says Kimberly Cheng, this year’s Hong Kong Distinguished Speaker. Ms. Cheng presented an overview of her research on Jewish refugees living in China during World War II, explaining the confluence of world events that led 20,000 migrants to flee persecution in Europe. Ms. Cheng is a doctoral student in the joint Ph.D. program in Hebrew and Judaic Studies and History at New York University. She was a Penn Teaching Fellow in the history and social sciences department at Milton. She has also previously worked at the Roman Vishniac Archive at the International Center
“The study of German Jewish refugees in
of Photography in New York City and the archives at the
Shanghai teaches us that history is always global,
History Center of Tompkins County in Ithaca, New York.
always transnational. We tend to isolate studies
She holds a Master’s of the Science of Education from the University of Pennsylvania and an A.B. from Cornell University in history, Jewish studies, and German studies.
of history, but we cannot think of it as bound by national borders, nor can we think of current events that way.”
Chris Waddell
Thirteen-time Paralympic medalist and monoskiing world champion Chris Waddell asked Upper and Middle School students to shift their perspectives of people with disabilities and to push beyond the limits of the labels placed on them. Mr. Waddell became the first paraplegic person to summit Mount Kilimanjaro. He wants his climb, along with his One Revolution Foundation, to improve visibility and opportunities for people with disabilities. Mr. Waddell was inducted into the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame and the Paralympics Hall of Fame. The Dalai Lama honored him as an “Unsung Hero of Compassion.”
People Magazine named him one of the “Fifty Most Beautiful People in the World.” Skiing Magazine placed him among the “25 Greatest Skiers in North America.” Middlebury College presented him with a Doctorate in Humane Letters. National Public Radio (NPR) named his 2011 commencement address to Middlebury as one of “The Best Commencement Speeches, Ever.”
“Not being able to walk was the worst thing that I could imagine happening, but it was also the most powerful thing that ever happened to me, because I had to get better. I always had to find some sort of solution to every problem.”
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“When I first came to America, feminism was a topic of great debate. I don’t know why it was resisted. I don’t know why we have to make the case for ourselves.”
Jamaica Kincaid
“A lot of young people are using
Speaking with students as the spring’s
Bingham Visiting Writer, award-winning author Jamaica Kincaid urged young writers
social media to present a view of themselves that isn’t real, just to
to throw off the restraints of convention.
feel like they’re enough. In a lot of
During her time on campus, which coincided
cases, it’s not cruelty or outright
with International Women’s Day, Ms. Kincaid
bullying that makes for a negative
reflected on her career and on womanhood. Born in Antigua, Ms. Kincaid came to the
social media experience. It’s a low-
United States at age 16. In her first writing job
grade, constant reminder of what
at the teen magazine Ingénue, Ms. Kincaid
you could be, should be, or would be.”
interviewed Gloria Steinem about her teenage years. Soon, she joined the staff of The New Yorker. Her works of fiction frequently examine topics of race, gender and sexuality, and colonialism, along with complicated mother-
Cindy Pierce
Knowing and being consistently yourself—in private and in public—is the key to making
daughter relationships. Ms. Kincaid is a
healthy choices, says Cindy Pierce, this year’s Margo Johnson Endowed Speaker.
member of the American Academy of Arts
Ms. Pierce, a social sexuality educator and comic storyteller, discussed the pressures
and Letters and she teaches at Harvard. Her
that come with “hookup culture” on high school and college campuses, telling students
works include At the Bottom of the River,
they have the power to set boundaries and build healthy relationships that fit their
Annie John, Lucy, The Autobiography of My
lives, instead of focusing on meeting external expectations. Ms. Pierce is the author
Mother, and Mr. Potter. See Now Then, her most
of Sex, College and Social Media: A Commonsense Guide to Navigating the Hookup Culture;
recent novel, won the Before Columbus
Sexploitation: Helping Kids Develop Healthy Sexuality in a Porn-Driven World; and the co-
Foundation’s American Book Award in 2014.
author of Finding the Doorbell: Sexual Satisfaction for the Long Haul.
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“Savagery we were unaccustomed to seeing was put on camera. The Islamic State wanted us to see, in
Graeme Wood
Graeme Wood, last spring’s Class of 1952 Speaker for Religious
Understanding, is a national correspondent for The Atlantic and lecturer in political science at Yale University. His Atlantic cover story, “What ISIS
high definition, and show the
Really Wants,” was the most-read piece on the internet in 2015. Mr. Wood
entire world. This was disarming
spent the last few years reading and analyzing Islamic State propaganda
to many in my profession. For
and speaking with its followers from around the world. Mr. Wood is the
media and journalists there has been a learning curve in how we
author of The Way of the Strangers: Encounters With the Islamic State. He has been a Turkey and Kurdistan analyst for Jane’s, a contributing editor to The New Republic, and books editor of Pacific Standard. His work has
approach this story, this content,
appeared in The New Yorker, The American Scholar, Bloomberg Businessweek,
and how we cover it as news.”
The Wall Street Journal, and the International Herald Tribune.
Franny Choi
Exploring the intersections of race, gender, sexuality and immigration, poet and activist Franny Choi read several of her poems at an assembly
“Our liberation is all
sponsored by the Asian Society and GASP student groups. Ms. Choi,
tied up in the same
the author of Floating, Brilliant, Gone, shared work about life as the queer
thing. If one of us is
daughter of Korean immigrants. Ms. Choi has received awards from
not free, then none
the Poetry Foundation and the Kentucky Women Writers’ Conference for her work, which has been published in Poetry Magazine, The Poetry
of us is free.”
Review, Indiana Review, Margins, New England Review, and others. Her work has been featured by the Huffington Post, PBS NewsHour, Feministing, and Angry Asian Man. She was a 2016 Rhode Island State Council on the Arts Fellow and former co-director of the Providence Poetry Slam, one of the most highly regarded spoken-word poetry
“Every person is as original
communities in the nation. As a Project VOICE teaching artist, she
as they allow themselves to be.
has taught students of all ages and experience levels.
To look at something that’s happened in your life, and to
Matt Trammell ’09
When you find something you love, you’ll never be bored, Matt Trammell ’09 told students this spring. Matt is a music writer and the nightlife editor for The New Yorker. His work includes following both
draw meaning from it that hasn’t already been assigned to you, is work you’re going to have to do, regardless of
rising and well-known artists through New York City’s concert scene;
whether you’re writing a
reviewing new albums; connecting good music to the culture that it
memoir. It’s going to help you
reflects; and sharing that perspective with the world. During a visit to
find out what you want and
campus, coordinated by English department chair Tarim Chung, Matt
what you have to contribute.”
attended classes and met with student groups and publication leaders. Milton was the first place he learned that he could write well, he says. At New York University, Matt realized that he could marry his lifelong love of music and his skill for writing into a career, taking a freelance job writing album reviews for Rolling Stone. After NYU, Matt worked at FADER magazine, prior to his role at The New Yorker.
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Dr. Angelika Fretzen
Bob Ryan
Victories in pharmaceutical research may be life-changing, or they
Well-known sports journalist Bob Ryan made the case that sports play
may be very small, says Dr. Angelika Fretzen, senior vice president
an important role in people’s lives, whether they are athletes or fans.
of product development at Catabasis Pharmaceuticals. This year’s
Along with other “leisure pursuits” such as books, movies and the arts,
Science Assembly speaker, Dr. Fretzen discussed Catabasis’ research
Mr. Ryan said sports fill a gap, enriching lives with a competitive and
into a drug to regenerate muscle and lessen the effects of Duchenne
unifying spirit. Mr. Ryan is a retired columnist for the Boston Globe’s
muscular dystrophy. Prior to joining Catabasis, Dr. Fretzen was vice
sports section, where his work still appears semi-regularly. He has been
president of pharmaceutical chemistry and development at Ironwood
writing for the Globe since 1968, covering all of Boston’s sports teams.
Pharmaceuticals, where she led the development and approval process
Mr. Ryan is also a regular panelist on ESPN’s Sunday morning
for the irritable bowel syndrome drug Linzess. She was an Alexander
roundtable, “The Sports Reporters.”
von Humboldt Fellow in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University. She holds a Diploma (M.S.) in chemistry from the University of Würzburg in Germany and her Ph.D. in organometallic and synthetic organic chemistry from the University of Geneva, Switzerland. Dr. Fretzen also has an MBA from Suffolk University in Boston.
“If you are open to finding what fascinates you, what will grow into a passion over the years of your life, the next steps will come to you. You don’t know exactly what those next steps are going to be, but discovering that passion is perhaps the most important thing you could do at this stage
“Some people say sports are just entertainment. But sports are unscripted, which is what makes them different from just entertainment. When you go to a concert, you don’t want to be surprised; you want to hear the music you expect. With sports, there is a good chance for surprises.”
in your life.”
Doris Edwards
To better understand humanity and where we are today, young people should seek out the stories of older relatives and loved ones, Holocaust survivor Doris Edwards told students. Born in southern Germany in 1929, as a young girl, Ms. Edwards witnessed the rise of the Nazi party. She and her older brother were
“If you have an older person in your family, ask them to share their life with you. Once they are gone, those stories disappear.”
evacuated to the Netherlands through the Kindertransport rescue program, while her parents fled to the United States. Her grandmother, along with her aunt and cousins, died in concentration camps. After a dangerous journey through Europe, Ms. Edwards and her brother reunited with their parents in New York City. Ms. Edwards now shares her story through the Facing History and Ourselves nonprofit, an educational program that asks students to examine topics of racism, prejudice and anti-Semitism. Her visit to campus was sponsored by the Jewish Student Union.
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3Peat
Beginning with a single suggested word from the audience, the 3Peat improv troupe rolled
out a series of hilarious scenes for students in King Theatre. Five members of 3Peat, an acclaimed part of Chicago’s vibrant improv comedy scene, came to Milton as Melissa Gold Visiting Artists. They performed for and with students, held a master class in the basics of improv, and visited several classes, including improvisation and public speaking. 3Peat, which plays every Monday at Chicago’s legendary iO Theater, formed in 2012. The performers, who are all black, were friends and improv teachers involved in Chicago comedy but felt pressured to compete with one another for a limited number of parts in theater and television, which inspired them
“The student performers were way
to form 3Peat.
ahead of where I was expecting them to be. They didn’t hesitate to get up and participate. As a group, we don’t judge
“There are people who say that humans aren’t responsible for changes in the climate, but
one another. It’s a space where you can
that is contradicted by the research and opinions
feel safe to be silly and just have fun.”
of 97 percent of climate scientists. Frankly,
— Torian Miller
we’d better hope that climate change is humancaused. If it’s human-caused, we can do something about it. If it’s not, we’re hosed.”
Bob Inglis
A revenue-neutral reduction in carbon emissions is within reach for the United States, former U.S. Representative Bob Inglis told students. He says that achieving it, however, will require politicians who deny mankind’s effects on the climate to change their tune. Mr. Inglis is the founder of RepublicEn—a network of Republicans acknowledging humankind’s impact on climate change. He proposes a carbon tax that would provide financial incentive for manufacturers to lower carbondioxide emissions. When he publicly acknowledged the human influence on climate change, Mr. Inglis lost his congressional seat in a primary to Trey Gowdy, the Tea Party Republican currently representing South Carolina’s 4th district. Mr. Inglis was this year’s Earth Day speaker, sponsored by the student environmental group Lorax and the Sustainability Board.
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“My hometown is not very diverse, and it’s easy to get stuck in a mindset. Moving into Hathaway House, I was immediately surrounded by people from around the world. For many of them, giving back is a life orientation, not an obligation, and that mentality was new to me. It started me thinking about my own place in the world. Last summer, I volunteered with several Milton graduates teaching English in Myanmar—that decision came from a lot of reflection. I am indebted to the people who have given to Milton—people who made my scholarship possible. I’m a stronger thinker, student, friend and leader because of Milton. Now I want to carry that opportunity forward for others.” Ailsa Beggs ’18 Hathaway House Sandpoint, Idaho
Dare is a campaign about people: our faculty, our students, and the power of their experiences together. Learn more about how you can support Milton today, and for decades to come. milton.edu/campaign • 617-898-2447 katie_connolly@milton.edu
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class notes 1937 Eleanor Gleason Bleakie is proud
Office, Hugh Marlow is still living
Lisa Wardlaw continues to look
to have reached the age of 97. She
in Middlebury, Vermont. His
back on her K–12 years at Milton
lives by herself on the Gulf River in
wife joined him in retirement his
with great fondness and appreci
Scituate. She has four kids, two of
past spring. They have traveled
ation. She lives year-round at
them Milton alums, and a total of
together to Istanbul, London,
Squam Lake, still selling real estate.
six grandchildren. Eleanor remem
Bosnia, Slovenia, Croatia and more.
She catches up with her three children and six grandchildren
bers the days at Milton when the
They have a daughter who lives
only way girls were allowed to
less than an hour away, two sons in
in Utah and New York whenever
meet boys was to join the Glee Club
Texas, and a third son in Colorado.
possible. She also recently made
or take a science class.
a trip to Taos, New Mexico, for
Sidney Walker was one of the 28
1957
students from the girls’ school
After graduating Milton, Benjamin
some awesome skiing! She feels fortunate to be in good health.
who graduated in ’37. As one of
Baker made it through college in
only two girls who had come from
five years, spending one year in the
1961
public schools, she experienced
United States Coast Guard. He
Dr. Barbara K. Lawrence has
some culture shock during her
made his way back to Massachu-
recently released her latest book,
first few years at Milton.
setts and eventually became the
The Other Island: Ben’s Story, the
City and Regional Planning
sequel to Islands of Time, publish
1947
Assistant Director of New Bedford.
ed in 2013. Award-winning and
Nowadays, he’s a bookseller at
best-selling author Paul Doiron
After selling his Milton home,
Baker Books.
calls it “ . . . a moving and beauti
Judy Robbins continues her liter-
coastal fishing communities.”
Fred Eustis moved to Westport,
Massachusetts, to build a house.
Eleanor Gleason Bleakie ’37 remembers when the only way girls were allowed to meet boys was to join Glee Club or take a science class.
fully written novel of Maine
He has one child, Edith ’03, in
ary pursuits on the board of the
Best-selling author Christina
New York, and one child, Peter
local library, and by editing A
Baker Kline adds: “ . . . a beautiful
’06, in North Carolina. All of the
Lifetime of Genesis, a combined
love story set in Maine.”
Eustis alums were greatly helped
memoir and biblical reflection, by
by Mr. Millet and remember
Rabbi Henry Zoob. Judy’s son is
▼ Nate Barbour was meeting
him fondly.
back in the Boston area, having
family from Australia in Spain
returned from years as a professor
last August when he ran into an
1952
at the University of Pennsylvania
old friend and Milton classmate
to become dean of Boston College’s
Tom Haigh at the Plaza de Mayer
Steve Endlar and his wife
School of Education. Judy has two
in Madrid.
Alberta recently moved to
grandchildren, one a college junior
Belmont, Massachusetts, after 43
and another just graduated. Dr. Barbara K. Lawrence ’61
years in Brookline. Avid skiers,
published The Other Island:
they enjoy the winter and
Ben’s Story, a sequel to
summer at Sugarbush with their
Islands of Time.
children and grandchildren. Steve and Alberta spend March in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. ▲ Rev. John D. Sussesell was
1953
sorry to miss his 50th Reunion
Having retired after 28 years in
friendships and gets in contact
Middlebury College’s Alumni
whenever he can. He is doing well.
in June, but treasures his old
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cl a s s no t e s, con t.
1962
1980
After enjoying two years of
complications due to Parkinson’s
The short film, Symposium,
retirement, David Fuller was
disease. Donald leaves his adoring
written and co-directed by Tom Grady, premiered at the Boston
lured back to sit as family court
wife, Laura; his beloved children
judge in Western Massachusetts
Sarah, Samuel and Georgia; his
International Film Festival April
for several months, beginning in
stepsons Andrew and Oliver, and
2017. It is also an Official Selection
December 2016, to alleviate a
their wives Bethany and Jocelyn.
of the 2017 Newport Beach Film
judicial shortage. On another
Festival. The film stars Academy-
court, he is on a team of 65+ tennis players who represented New
1967
Award nominee Margaret Avery
England in the 8.0 Nationals in
A breast cancer scare since the
Surprise, Arizona, in early May.
last Milton Reunion changed
Warren Koehler would be proud.
everything for Geraldine Mason
(star of The Color Purple).
1981
Bryant. She also became a cyclist
David Smalley just celebrated
and an athlete at age 65, cycling
30 years of marriage to Cecilia.
David Fuller ’62 sat as
through the five boroughs of
Their daughter, Kate, is a nurse
family court judge for a
New York, the Loire Valley in
practitioner and was married
France, and the Connemara
July 2015; she expects their first
Coast in Ireland. She continues
grandchild in March. Their son
to channel her expertise in
Nick is an officer in the United
few months after retirement to alleviate a judicial shortage.
musical composition and docu-
States Navy and was married in
mentary filmmaking.
October 2016.
1970
1984
Joel Davidson is currently
▼ This year, Christopher Walsh
working as an organist at a church,
completed a long project of
▲ Pam Sebastian was thrilled
a high holiday cantor, and a social
compiling, restoring, photo
by the arrival of her newest
security lawyer—winding down
graphing and exhibition of art by
grandchild, Bear.
1963
but not stopping. He relaxes in
his late father Kenneth B. Walsh.
Naples, Florida, as he ponders the
Along with two exhibitions on
transition to retirement. Hello to
the South Fork of Long Island,
Glenn Spear ’69!
where his father lived and painted, Christopher created a book of
While keeping up with a 2 ½-yearold granddaughter in northern Rose Kernochan ’77 is pursuing a degree in library and information science, with a focus on social media.
his father’s work and a website,
Vermont, wood hauling and
1977
tutoring, Jenny Hamlin Russell
Rose Kernochan is married and
book and website feature essays
is back in the classroom, teaching
living in NYC with one daughter
written by Christopher and his
two classes of extraordinary
at Milton, Anya Wiggins ’18.
brother, Jonathan Walsh ’82.
ESL students from Russia, Haiti,
After a career in publishing—
Ecuador, Mexico, Nepal and
and then motherhood—she is
beyond.
pursuing a degree in library and
KennethBWalshArt.com. The
information science, with a focus on social media. So far, she has
1964
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M I LT O N M A G A Z I N E
enjoyed doing internships at NYU
Donald Gibby Paige passed away
and the International Culinary
February 12, 2016, while in the
Center. Next term, she will be at
loving embrace of his family, from
Columbia studying social media.
milton.edu
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@Milton_Academy @miltonacademy
1985 outdoor guide with NOLS, the Chewonki Foundation, the University of Maine’s Maine Bound and Plymouth State University. ▲ More than 30 years after
graduating from Milton, John Cutler still keeps Milton’s motto
1988
close at hand. He is married to
Alexandra “Alixe” Callen became
classmate Rebecca Cutler (née
the first woman to lead the
Lipman). They have two children,
120-year-old St. George’s School
a son, 22, just graduated Trinity
when she began her tenure on
College, and a daughter, 19,
July 1, 2017. James “Jaime” Hannon ’85
attending Washington University.
recently authored the
▲ Joey Chase and his wife, Clara,
James “Jaime” Hannon recently
1989
are happy to announce the birth
authored the Appalachian Mountain
Leia Roza Portnoy, born January
Club’s Mountain Skills
of their third child, Wesley Forest
Club’s Mountain Skills Manual,
31, 2014, in Bulgaria, was adopted
Manual, an essential guide
Chase, on June 2, 2016. Wesley’s
an essential guide for every hiker,
by Adam Portnoy and Elika
for every hiker, backpacker
proud grandmother is Nancy
backpacker and explorer. Jaime
Portnoy on July 18, 2016, joining
Burley Chase ’50.
has worked as a teacher and
big brother Axel.
Appalachian Mountain
and explorer.
Science at Milton goes well beyond beakers and Bunsen burners. The discipline comes to life through innovative faculty who bring real-world experiences to the classroom; curious students pursuing the field’s most perplexing questions with determination; experiences beyond the classroom and lab— field trips, clubs and organizations—that fuel passions. Your annual gift to the Milton Fund makes this possible.
www.milton.edu/donate 617-898-2447
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cl a s s no t e s, con t.
1996
1990 Her brother Matt Corey ’97 is a
Jayna Zweiman founded the
world traveler, peacemaker and
Pussyhat Project to produce the
now entrepreneur, starting an
pink hats worn by millions of
asset management company in
protesters at the Women’s March,
the United Kingdom. Her brother
and at many other demonstrations
Jeff ’91 and his wife have two
since. Recently, she has started a
children and live in Wellesley,
new project: Welcome Blanket.
Massachusetts.
Volunteer knitters will send
▲ Meika Neblett married Rich
handmade blankets to immigrant
Cronin on May 27, 2017, at the
families, along with a note from
Beacon XV hotel in Boston. In
the knitter.
attendance were friends and Jayna Zweiman ’96
fellow Milton alums Sarah
founded the Pussyhat
Bynum, Emma Jacobson-Sive,
1997
Project, a volunteer-based
Touré, Lily Batchelder, Roxana
On December 17, 2016, Cameron
knit hat project, producing
(Alger) Geffen, and (there in
pink hats worn by millions of
spirit) Dierdre Reber.
demonstrators at the 2017 Women’s March.
Robert Margarite was born to ▲ Andrew Shultz was married
Audrey Beaton Margarite and
to Judith Yu in May 2016.
Michael Margarite.
1991
The wedding was officiated by
▼ Hannah Lerman, along with her
were Tom Giordano and Edgar
1998
husband Kendall and son
Ngwenya, and Megan McCallion
TJ Hynes was born November 3,
Marcus Sarofim, groomsmen
’91 attended.
2016. His birthday is just two
daughter, Piper, on April 26, 2017.
days before that of his father,
They are thrilled she’s here!
1993
Tod Hynes.
Spencer, welcomed her new
2000 ▼ On June 17, 2016, Mark Angeloni
and his wife Allison welcomed their son Ryan Luca Angeloni.
Amy Kurzweil’s ’05 debut Flying Couch: A Graphic Memoir was published in October 2016.
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M I LT O N M A G A Z I N E
1992 Since being back in Boston after
▲ Lindsey Ollman Huebner and
time in New York and Los
her husband, Daniel, are excited
Angeles, Lisa Duggan has
to announce the birth of their
reconnected with many Milton
daughter, Elsa Georgia, in March
friends. She and her husband
2017. Elsa joins her older half-
Kevin welcomed their daughter,
siblings, Emery, 15, and Greta, 13.
Leila, in 2013, and her little
Lindsey and her family live in
brother, Jack, in September 2016.
Marin County, California.
milton.edu
/MiltonAcademy1798
@Milton_Academy @miltonacademy
In Memoriam 2002
2005
Ryan Sebastian ’06
▼ Marc A. Pitman’s third book,
Amy Kurzweil’s debut Flying
Milton Magazine of Spring 2015 features the exciting,
Ask Without Fear for Christian
Couch: A Graphic Memoir was
boundary-shifting work of classmates Harry
Ministry, was published this
published in October 2016.
O’Hanley and Ryan Sebastian, engineers at SpaceX
March. The book provides a
Through illustrations, Amy
in Hawthorne, California. We now note with
jargon-free guide to fundraising
works through her own identity
great sadness, Ryan Sebastian’s death (June 15, 2017)
for ministry leaders.
as an artist, as well as her family’s
of bone cancer. Ryan led Milton’s Rocketry Team
history after surviving the
and he credited Milton and Tom Gagnon (Science)
Holocaust. Kirkus has praised
with fostering and developing his love of rocket
Amy’s work as “a debut that
engineering. Ryan was my gracious and erudite
enriches and extends the
guide to the remarkable SpaceX manufacturing
potential of graphic narrative.”
facility. He was comprehensive, clear and patient, sharing the energy and creativity of his engineering role at SpaceX and explaining the company’s culture and goals. His company’s founder, Elon Musk, believes that the United States will get to Mars; at that moment in time, Ryan did as well. We are grateful to Ryan and will miss his contribution to science, to his family, and to his many friends. Cathleen Everett
2004 ▼ Jordan Raphel married Jessica
▲ Young Government Leaders–
Murphy in San Francisco in the
Atlanta Chapter selected
fall of 2016 in the company of
Elise Lockamy to the cohort
many Milton friends and former
of inaugural honorees of its
faculty. Guests included Jordan’s mother Annette Raphel and his
“YoungGov40” Award. The award highlights the metro-Atlanta
brother Aaron Raphel ’96, and
region’s top government
2004 classmates Jelena
employees under the age of 40.
Djordjevic, DJ Mauch, Nathaniel
She is currently a health scientist
Naddaff-Hafrey, Jon Simpson
at the U.S. Centers for Disease
and Jesse Drummond, along
Control and Prevention.
with former faculty members Bob and Weez Gilpin.
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cl a s s no t e s, con t.
2007
2013
▼ Class of 2007 Head Monitors
Jordan Quintin received a
and Class Monitors Steve Sando,
Fulbright scholarship to teach
Adit Basheer, Samantha Yu and
English in Kenya next year. When
Jane Suh met up at Reunion this
she returns, she will continue her
past summer and re-created a
teaching career with Teach for
photo from back in the day!
America. She and her family are grateful for the time she spent at Milton, the teachers who gave her the tools and educational experience required to fulfill her dreams, and financial aid that made her Milton experience
2006
possible.
▲ Alex Rodman and Jeff Marr ’04
were married on September 17, 2016. They were joined by many
2014
Milton classmates, including
▼ Sydney Park was given the
Stephanie Richards, DJ Mauch ’04, Bennet Hayes ’04, Armeen
Health and Wellness Award by top photo: Steve Sando,
Columbia College and Columbia
Poor ’04, Ned Samuelson ’04,
Adit Basheer, Samantha Yu
Fu Foundation School of
Jim Frantz, Andrew Baird ’04,
and Jane Suh
Engineering and Applied Science
Mark Motejunas, Yi Li ’05, Justin
bottom photo: Steve Sando,
on April 17, 2017. The award
McIntosh ’04, Ilana Krieger ’04,
Jane Suh, Adit Basheer and
recognizes a spirit of caring for
Bailey Carroll, Jessalyn Gale,
Samantha Yu
community and the ability to
Katherine Marr, Emily Tsanotelis
establish an example of a healthy
’04, Stacey Harris, Elizabeth
balance of responsibilities, duties,
Katz ’04, Josh Krieger ’04,
and activities through leadership.
Annie Jean-Baptiste, Zoe Jick, Nick Lazares ’04, and Scott Motejunas ’04. Claire Opel ’06 founded Summer Youth Corporation in New Mexico, a summer camp for children on and around Navajo Nation.
Claire Opel is preparing for the
third season of the nonprofit summer camp she started with a former teacher colleague. Their camp, Summer Youth Corporation, works with children on and around Navajo Nation. ▲ Three Miltonites in the
Chicago area are starting their first year at the Kellogg School of Management together: Julian Fu, Brooke Kingsland and James Frantz ’06 proudly displayed the
Faulkner House coat of arms and a Milton Academy pennant.
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M I LT O N M A G A Z I N E
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Alumni Athletics soccer
Last Fall, alumni and parents came together to compete for the annual Blackman-Hays Alumni Cup. They hope to see more old friends at this year’s Cup! ▲ 40 and over milton alumni team (milton players in orange):
standing: Kem Poston ’93, John Cuming ’77, Chris Trakas ’77, Seth Handy ’85 (white jersey), Chris Churchill ’85, Bruce Chafee (friend), Kent Lamere ’73 front: Bill Atwood (parent), Swing Robertson ’81, David Walker (parent), Chris Robertson ’83, Bill Hanson ’89 ◀ milton class of
2016 alumni players Gavin Baker-Greene, Luis Viceira, Adam Branson, Jerry Ozor
▲ alumni cup milton team
back: Chris Robertson ’83, Charles Gill ’05, Gavin Baker-Greene ’16, Luis Viceira ’16, Adam Branson ’16, Jerry Ozor ’16, Matt Enright ’05 front: Daniel Sibor ’01, Andrew Stachiw ’05, Doug
lacrosse
Sibor ’05, David Walker (parent), Seth Reynolds ’94,
During Reunion Weekend 2017,
Jacob Garfinkle ’03
alums gathered for a game of lacrosse. ◀ back: Tom Gagnon (faculty),
Corey Simonson (faculty), Mark Harrington ’72, Geordie Dunnington (faculty), Orhan Gazelle ’07, Rich Gedney ’15, Zac Trudeau ’05, Matt Enright ’05, Jack Cahill ’14, Rob Hawkins ’04, Chris Karlson ’14, Miles Bailey (faculty) front: Eddie Richardson ’12, Nicholas Gagnon ’12, Benjamin Gagnon ’15, Harry Pearce ’12, Owen Martinson ’17, Matt Sullivan ’13, Whit Harrison ’02
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boa r d of trustee s Robert Azeke ’87
Margaret Jewett Greer ’47
Stephen Lebovitz P ’10 ’12 ’14 ’17
Dune Thorne ’94
New York, New York
P ’77 ’84 G ’09 ’13 ’14
Weston, Massachusetts
Lincoln, Massachusetts
Bradley M. Bloom P ’06 ’08
Chevy Chase, Maryland
Emerita Emeritus
Yunli Lou ’87
Erick Tseng ’97
Shanghai, China
San Francisco, California
Wellesley, Massachusetts
Eleanor Tabi Haller-Jorden ’75 P ’09
Stuart Mathews P ’13 ’17 ’17
Kimberly Steimle Vaughan ’92
Charles Cheever ’86
Wädenswil, Switzerland
Vice President and Secretary
Boston, Massachusetts
Concord, Massachusetts
Waban, Massachusetts Franklin W. Hobbs IV ’65 P ’98
Luis Viceira P ’16 ’19
Douglas Crocker II ’58
Emeritus
John McEvoy ’82 P ’19 ’20 ’25
Delray Beach, Florida
New York, New York
Milton, Massachusetts
Mark Denneen ’84
Harold W. Janeway ’54
Chris McKown P ’13
Boston, Massachusetts
P ’79 ’81 ’87 G ’12 ’14
Milton, Massachusetts
Elisabeth Donohue ’83
Webster, New Hampshire
Belmont, Massachusetts Dorothy Altman Weber ’60 P ’04
Ted Wendell ’58 P ’94 ’98 ’01
Emeritus Wendy Nicholson ’86
Claire Hughes Johnson ’90
New York, New York
Sylvia Westphal
Caterina Papoulias-Sakellaris
Boston, Massachusetts
P ’18 ’21 ’25 ’27 ’27
Menlo Park, California Randall Dunn ’83 Chicago, Illinois
Peter Kagan ’86
P ’17 ’19
New York, New York
Milton, Massachusetts
James M. Fitzgibbons ’52 P ’87 ’90 ’93
William Knowlton P ’23
Liping Qiu P ’17
Boston, Massachusetts
Beijing, China
Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts John B. Fitzgibbons ’87
Emeritus
Treasurer
Lakeville, Connecticut
M I LT O N M A G A Z I N E
Kevin Yip ’83 P ’16 Hong Kong
H. Marshall Schwarz ’54 P ’84
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Ronnell Wilson ’93 West Orange, New Jersey
Emeritus
Bronxville, New York
Milton, Massachusetts
Vice President
President New York, New York
Boston, Massachusetts
◀ CL A SS O F 1942 (75TH R E U N I O N) John Carey.
▼ C L A S S O F 1 9 5 2 (6 5 T H R E U N I O N) Tim Gates and his wife, Katerina.
▼ C L A S S O F 1 9 5 7 (6 0 T H R E U N I O N)
front row: William Driver, Helen Wilmerding, Penelope Hull, Toni Stackpole Russin, James Bowditch, Patty Potter Anderson, Frank Yeomans, Steve Anderson. back row: Nick Estabrook, Charles Lutz, Daniel Oliver, Peter Moore, Henry Fuller, Robert Hubby, Ephron Catlin, Gerry Flynn, John de Neufville.
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▶ CL A SS O F 19 62 (55T H R E U N I O N)
front row: Pam Watson Sebastian, Dina Roberts, Bet Ladd Cecill, Amy Bright Unfried, Julie Cheever. back row: Wilson Pile, Bill Rogerson, Diana Pappas Hamilton, Bob Rugo, David Millet, Arthur Perry, Polly Abell Jimenez.
▼ CLASS OF 1972 (4 5 T H R E U N I O N )
Dave Evans, Mark Harrington, Rod Skinner, Mark Buckbinder.
▲ CL A SS O F 19 67 (5 0T H R E U N I O N)
first row: William Quinby, David Condliffe, Frances Yerkes, Anne Slichter, Holly Cheever, Jean MacDonald, Gretchen Wagner Feero, Meredith Davis, J. Maxwell Bleakie, Harrison Drinkwater. second row: Carolyn Stetson, James Hivnor, John Ballantine, Margaret Hunnewell, Geraldine Bryant, Sally Walker Helwig, Jana Palfreyman Porter. third row: John Robbart, Timothy Marsters, John McCutcheon, Lindsay Murphy, John Sheldon, Peter Tenney, Marion Paolilli, Betsy Hurd, Edith Stevenson, Mimi Drummond, Nora Morgenstern, Stephen MacAusland. fourth row: Charles Hewitt, Stephen Silman, Lyn Wheeler Anderson, William Hobbs, William Fitz, Edward LeBreton, James Sargent, Robert Armstrong, Phoebe Armstrong, Tucker Drummond.
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▶ C L A S S O F 1 9 7 7 (4 0 T H R E U N I O N )
first row: Lina Waingortin, Ellen Sibley, David Giandomenico, Arnold MacDonald, Elizabeth Bisbee, Lisa Simpson, Tim Sommerfield, Jennifer Evans Lussier. second row: John Cuming, Chris Trakas, Becky Greenleaf, Chris West, Heather Crocker Faris, Rick Smith. third row: Morris Tyler, Bill Roslansky, Grace Evans, Danny Evans, Laura Spence-Ash, Ben Procter, Susan Twitchell. fourth row: Charlie Truslow, Betsy Prout Lefler. fifth row: Mike Ryan, Joe Merrill, Rose Kernochan, Susan Rogers Moehlman.
▶ C L A S S O F 19 82 (35 T H R E U N I O N)
front row: Ed Sneiderman, Bonnie MacDonald, John Feldman, Anne-Marie Aldous, Katie Robbins, Michelle Villegas, Nick Gray, Wally Kemp, Margie Talcott, Julia Shepherd, Diana Manchester Barrett. second row: Paul Schofield, John McEvoy, Bradford Daley, Rich Stetson, Phil Robertson, Fred Nangle, Toni Chute, Mike Kinnealey. top rows: Eric Howard, Steve Kylander, Mark Robinson, John Ohlson, John DeMatteo, Fran McLean, Steve Georgaklis.
◀ C L A S S O F 19 87 (3 0T H R E U N I O N)
front row: Jennifer Goldberg, Marin Street, Christine Turner White, Chris Dusseault, Kate McNay Koch, Abby Smith Davis, Megan Teare, Skip Wiemeyer, Jay Wilkins, Nancy Joyce, Rupa Mitra, Lori Dandridge Cunningham, Katie Zilla-Ba. second row: Catharine MacLaren, Kiersten Wendell Blest, Darrell Kirton, Nick Schmid, Terrance McGuire, Ashley Mattoon, Bryant Urstadt, Sarah Crittenden, Alethia Jones, Jason Peckham. back row: Jared Eigerman, Stewart McDowell, Jeffrey Breen, Tom Lowenstein, Michael D’Esopo, Rob Azeke, Lex Mathews, Robert Young.
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◀ CL A SS O F 19 92 (25T H R E U N I O N)
front row: Yeng Felipe Butler, Jhoanna Aberia Belfer, Laura Wood, Diane Popeo, Tina Courey, Molly Merrill Ladd, Phoebe Knowles, Enrique Colbert, Peter Scoblic. second row: Lee DuBose, Kendra Motley Demopoulos, Phil Belfer, Laura Chauncey Westmoreland, Pat Dundas, Reed Johnstone, David Kahan, Jonathan Rein. third row: Jeff Kirkman, Stan Szeto, Kimberly Steimle Vaughan, Eliza Erikson, Kathleen Lintz Rein, Tim Dempsey, Justin Blumenstiel, Molly Wheat. back row: Adam Burr, Tyler Langlois, Emily Lloyd, Meg Aldrich, Max Clendenning, Amanda Filley, John Mitchell.
◀ CL A SS O F 19 97 (20T H R E U N I O N)
front row: Drew Hendrickson, Lucy Flood, Heather McGhee, Cassim Shepard, Jackie Barton Pomahac, Lauren Whatera, Carmen Rijo, Meg Riley, Nathaniel Callahan, Laura Ford, Patty Murphy, Sarah Case, Nicole Darling, Samuel Cox, Brian Haley, David Bihldorff, Michelle Buckley. second row: Samuel Lester, Jared Miller, Scott Golding, Jill Brewer, Lisa Puglisi, Alyssa Friedman-Yan, Annie Moyer Martinez, Sara Shaughnessy, Will Gardner, Jess Phifer, Debbie Accetta Pedersen, Esther Freeman, Katie Wade, Jeff Cooper, Will Hutchinson, Ethan Kurzweil, Peter Curran, Matt Courey, Jon Crafts. third row: Kyle Quinn, Hilary Sargent, Lily Davis, Alex DePalo, Tyler Schiff, Sarah Kenney, Josh Olken, Mufi Taher, Francesca Texidor, Kurt Collins, Jack Donahue, David Rand. back row: Abraham Role, John Camera, Jamie Haverty, Jay Haverty, Eve Manz, Emily Murphy, Aisha Woodman, Elizabeth Ward, Jenny Shoukimas, Lucas Crowley, Ted Noon, Nima Safabakhsh, Josh Frank, Meroe Morse.
▶ CL A SS O F 2002 (15TH R E U N I O N)
front row: Anne Duggan, Adrian RosselloCornier, Kyle (Kennedy) Kerr, Caroline Sterne Falzone, Ellie Berens, Hays Golden, Caroline Donovan, Tze Chun. second row: Mona Safabakhsh Joss, Chloe Dugger, Ian Pegg, Fazal Yameen, Hilary Frankel Tsibris, Dave Forbes, Yvona Trnka-Amrhein, Sarah Shea, Jen Ragus Saarbach. third row: Emily Cutrell Mahoney, Nick Kojucharov, Momoko Hirose, Collin Davis, Sara Perkins Jones, Caroline Curtis Hayes, Brittany Beale Hampton, Mike Carthas. back row: Sam Burke, Miguel Williams, Pablo Ros, Jill Kruskall, Sarah Ceglarski, Alison Quandt Westgate.
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In Memoriam Class of 1943 Lorna Owen Morehouse Class of 1944 Jean MacDill Dougherty Class of 1945 Louis Cloutier Janet Cook Krache Clinton Townsend Class of 1946 Kathleen Harris Anderson Class of 1951 Morgan Palmer Class of 1953 Jenepher Rice Lingelbach ▲ CL A SS O F 2007 (10TH R E U N I O N)
front row: Caitlin O’Malley, Teresa Curtis, Sarah Ebert, Cecelia Cortes, Samantha Yu, Lauren Alliegro, Neha Wadekar, Samantha Lee, Alex Place, Alex Desaulniers, Tina Nguyen, Hanna Tonegawa, Meredith Ruhl, Emily Kemper, Rachel Konowitz, John Ghublikian, Adit Basheer, Erica Bibby, Veronika Sykorova, Stephanie Wye, Tim Corkum, Lauren Cohen, Beau Cohen, Mike Cohen. second row: Orhan Gazelle, Jacquie MacDonald, Aiyana Ryan, Elle Davis, Nina Monfredo, Chandler Sherman, Elizabeth Whitman, Nick Makinster, John Shepard, Phil Keefe, Tim Walsh, Alice Bator, Sarah Paige. back row: Charlie Posner, Justin Kahn, Rueben Banalagay, Jono Forbes, Zubin Thomas, Kenzie Bok, Korei Klein, Steve Sando, Ivan Kozyryev, Alex Bean, Frank Smith, AJ Harris, Eskor Johnson, Will Driscoll, Emeka Kanu, Sam Bodkin, John Don, Mike Matczak, Andy Giandomenico, Clare Choi, Elsie Kenyon, Kelsey Hudson, Jane Suh.
Class of 1954 Henry H. Thayer Class of 1958 Philip Stockton Class of 1960 Charlotte Goodhue John B. Millet Jr. Class of 1963
▼ CL A SS O F 2012 (5T H R E U N I O N)
front row: Darryl Bobbie, Brian Yip, Gordon Batchelder, Eric Davis, Travis Sheldon, Walton Lee, Merilin Castillo, Shannon Reilly, Henry Arndt, Patrick Burke, Jackson Walsh, Hannah Auerbach, Tiffany Nguyen, Bright Osajie, Babafunso Akinwunmi. second row: Louis McWilliams, Josh Ruder, Tori Cabot, Megan Kim, Kate Ballinger, Elly Day, Molly Gilmore, Natasha Bhasin, Kamyra Edokpolor, Sarah Evans, Erin Martin, Zach Belnavis, McKean Tompkins, Catharine Leffel, Liz Stanfield, Ben Scharfstein, Tom Schnoor. back row: Mackenzie O’Neil, Shauna Yuan, Vince Kennedy, Jessica Carlson, Christian Castillo, Jared Friedberg, Jack Platts, Harry Pearce, Brandon Daly, Curtis Hyman, Tetsu Higuchi, Eric Nesto, Paul In, Thomas Englis, Rob O’Gara, Tyler Starks, Jon Franco, Nick Gagnon, Keyon Vafa, Matt Lebovitz, Deema Dahleh, Max Bennett.
Jane Cheever Talbot Class of 1976 Ann Bisbee Scheffler Class of 1980 Jennifer Fernald Link Class of 1981 John W. Bergan Class of 1988 Kurt R. Griffin Class of 1995 Nina E. Riggs Class of 2006 Ryan O. Sebastian Former staff Reverend Richard Buckner III
To notify us of the death of an alum, please contact the Development and Alumni Relations Office at alumni@milton.edu or 617-898-2447.
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post script
BY ROBERT BALDWIN ’72
A Brief Moment at Milton During the Vietnam Years (1969–1970)
favorite teacher. At the end of the year, we showed up at his house with two whipped cream pies and coated him and Milton Smith. I still have a fuzzy black-and-white photo. Immediately after the Kent State massacre
Although known principally as an attorney
For the many students who admired and
with a strong sense of social justice, Miles
loved him, Gersh was far more than a brilliant
and colleges went on strike for the remainder
Gersh also served as a remarkable English
speaker with an interest in big issues and
of the semester. That night, some 30 Milton
teacher at Milton Academy in 1969–1970. Fresh
ideas. He was humble, soft-spoken and a great
students met secretly in the Chapel to plan
from Harvard Law School, he took a “gap
listener. He displayed unusual kindness
a strike for our campus as well. Over the next
year” teaching at Milton while transitioning
and compassion. These personal qualities
few days, liberal students and some younger
to his first job in the law as a public defender
informed his teaching, which drew not on
faculty organized an all-campus meeting where
in Washington, D.C.
any specialized academic knowledge but on a
we voted to suspend classes and concentrate
in early May of 1970, hundreds of universities
lifetime of wide and close reading. He taught
on political discussions, racial and gender
Faulkner and Bellow, among others, and was
awareness, and anti-war efforts. This strike
students. In part, we admired him for his
equally adept at traditional and contemporary
was resisted by the headmaster and many
remarkable intelligence, his breadth of
fiction. His emotional intelligence made him
but not all of the older faculty. But it enjoyed
knowledge, his interest in the larger, public
a natural teacher in the old-fashioned sense of
strong support among the student body
sphere, his integrity, and his amazing
a mentor, advisor and friend. Gersh also had
and many of the younger teachers. Among
I was in 10th grade when Gersh arrived. He quickly made a big impression on his
eloquence. He spoke in paragraphs without
a dry sense of humor, which expressed itself
these was Gersh, who spoke up at the all-
pauses or filler words. Most of his students
in commentary on absurd social and political
campus assembly about the need to suspend
also responded to his strong liberal politics
trends delivered with an incredulous tone
at a time when the anti-Vietnam War move-
punctuated by sudden bursts of laughter. Those
popularity and because he dared to speak up
ment swept higher education and many
explosions and the radiant smile which
publicly, Gersh became a convenient scape-
secondary schools.
accompanied them did as much to endear
goat for some who blamed him for “inflaming”
Gersh was beyond cool. He drove a green MG sports car and showed a sophisticated,
us to him as anything else. While Gersh was never a manic performer
“business as usual.” Largely because of his
the students. Nothing of the sort took place. The more activist students met privately on
broad taste in music encompassing the Band,
like the boarding school teacher played by
their own within 10 hours of the Kent State
the Byrds, Beethoven and Bach. It was
Robin Williams in Dead Poets Society, he was
massacre and planned the strike in the dead
Gersh who introduced me to the Brandenburg
just as beloved by his students, just as charis-
of night without faculty input. The fact that
Concertos on period instruments and to
matic (in his more subdued manner), and
the younger teachers eventually supported this
Deutsche Grammophon. By the end of his
left just as much of an impact despite his short
plan was a separate development and com-
first semester, he was one of the most popular
time with us.
pletely expected given the liberal politics of
teachers among his students in grades 10–11.
It was easy back then to stop by your favorite teacher’s place, uninvited, and hang out ”shooting the breeze.” With one of my
radical, Gersh’s characteristic manner was mod-
friends, I was a regular visitor at Gersh’s
eration, restraint, and mildness of temperament.
faculty house, which he shared with Milton
At the same time, his strong sense of social
Smith. We would ask him questions about
justice informed much of who he was—a socially
all manner of subjects just to elicit his marvel-
engaged intellectual.
ous, impromptu summaries of complex issues.
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many younger, upper-middle-class, educated elites at that time. Far from a rabble-rousing
When I was hospitalized in the infirmary
We had him play his favorite music so that
for four days after an acute appendicitis, one
it might become ours as well. By ourselves, we
teacher came to visit me—Miles Gersh. This
competed with imitations of Gersh, recited
simple act of charity left a deep impression
his brilliant summary of Kennedy’s handling
because it was so characteristic. Having been
of the Cuban Missile Crisis (which we had
sent off to boarding school at 13, I missed the
transcribed and memorized), and swapped
two people in my family whom I worshipped:
stories about our latest encounters with our
my doctor father and my older brother. Only
decades later did I realize why Gersh had been
as a Milton teacher extended far beyond his
alive. When Gersh’s email went silent at my
so important back when I was a socially awk-
employment or our graduation. When I
most recent communication in March 2017,
ward 16-year-old a thousand miles from home.
attended a wedding in Colorado in June 2013,
I Googled him and found that he had passed
Born 10 years earlier, Gersh was young enough
I finally had a chance to see him after almost
away in January 2014, just six months after
to be like a cool and kind, older brother but
40 years. (See attached photo.) I was proud to
our get-together. In the immediate aftermath
old enough to be a father figure. He replaced
introduce my wonderful wife and son and
of that shock, I have written this tribute in
both of my mentors. I’m sure I was not alone.
to show him that I had done right by myself
the hope that death will not swallow up his
After Gersh moved on from Milton, I kept in good touch as long as he remained in D.C. I
as a professor. In return, he gave me the
brief but important contribution to the
approval and affection he knew I had come
Milton community. My remarks are too late
camped out a number of times in his apartment
to receive. His kindness, emotional nuance,
for Miles . . . but not for his daughter, Maris,
when passing through and did my best to
and humor were unchanged. I told him I would
or for his other students.
show him that I had turned out OK after the
write him a long letter explaining why he
worst angst of the teen years at Milton. After
had been so important to me at a time of great
Robert Baldwin ’72
he moved to Denver, I would call or email out of
personal uncertainty.
Associate Professor of Art History
the blue every five years. He always replied promptly, as if he understood his duties
Over the next two years, I kept reminding
Connecticut College
myself to write that letter while we were both
rwbal@conncoll.edu
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