Rate My Ride ROCKof Our

Transcription

B
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ROCK
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PEACE
Through Theater
of Our
Geologist Jeremy Boak ’70
Explores the Prospect of Oil Shale
Rate My Ride
Not Seen On Campus
W I N T E R
2 0 0 8
B U L L E T I N
Winter 2008
Volume 78 Number 2
Bulletin Staff
Director of Development
Chris Latham
Editor
Julie Reiff
Alumni Notes
Linda Beyus
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Proofreader
Nina Maynard
Mail letters to:
Julie Reiff, Editor
Taft Bulletin
The Taft School
Watertown, CT 06795-2100 U.S.A.
ReiffJ@TaftSchool.org
Send alumni news to:
Linda Beyus
Alumni Office
The Taft School
TaftBulletin@TaftSchool.org
Deadlines for Alumni Notes:
Spring–February 15
Summer–May 30
Fall–August 30
Winter–November 15
Send address corrections to:
Sally Membrino
Alumni Records
The Taft School
TaftRhino@TaftSchool.org
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www.TaftAlumni.com
The Taft Bulletin (ISSN 0148-0855)
is published quarterly, in February,
May, August, and November, by The
Taft School, 110 Woodbury Road,
Watertown, CT 06795-2100, and is
distributed free of charge to alumni,
parents, grandparents and friends
of the school. All rights reserved.
This magazine is printed on recycled paper.
22
16
28
j Students gather around a
bonfire on the pond as part
of the Big Red Rally on the
eve of Hotchkiss Day and
the final contests of the fall
season. For more on how the
teams fared, see page 16.
F E AT U R E S
Rock of Our Energy Salvation?..............18
Geologist Jeremy Boak ’70 explores the potential of oil
shale to solve our nation’s energy crisis.
By J. L. Sommars
Peter Frew ’75
City at Peace..........................................22
Working with teens in cities around the globe to build
peace through the performing arts.
By Sevanne “Vanni” Kassarjian ’87
Rate My Ride..........................................28
Consumer Reports Senior Automotive Editor Gordon
Hard ’70 Helps Buyers See Beyond the Sticker.
By Michael Kodas
D E PA R T M E N T S
Letters.................................................... 2
Alumni Spotlight.................................... 3
Around the Pond.................................... 8
Sport.......................................................16
By Steve Palmer
From the Archives..................................32
Things You Don’t Often See Anymore
By Alison Picton
On the Cover: Geologist Jeremy Boak ’70 says his
focus at the Colorado Energy Research Institute is
on the development and stewardship of the earth’s
resources. For more, turn to page 18. Chris Shinn
Taft on the Web
Find a friend’s address or look
up back issues of the Bulletin at
www.TaftAlumni.com
For more campus news and events,
including admissions information,
visit www.TaftSchool.org
What happened at this
afternoon’s game?
Visit www.TaftSports.com
Don’t forget you can shop online
at www.TaftStore.com
800.995.8238 or 860.945.7736
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Objectionable
From the Editor
The most exciting thing to happen on
campus this winter is certainly the move
to the senior research paper. Okay, so students might argue that it was the laser tag
game in McCullough one Saturday night,
or the last-minute score in the boys’ varsity hockey game to upset top-ranked
Salisbury, but neither is as historic.
How many of you remember writing the big history term paper your
upper mid year, frantic in those last days
of the winter term to complete your
bibliography or rewrite that conclusion?
Academically the research paper tended
to dwarf everything else that semester.
Why not, the History Department
asked, have students work on this most
important skill in the senior year, after
the college application process was complete, and allow students to choose a
subject of genuine interest to them, in
any discipline? This would have the added advantage of making students work
more independently, as they soon would
in college.
Working with faculty members
from every department, seniors have
indeed selected an impressive array of
subjects. Although several students still
focused on historical topics, such as invasions of Afghanistan from Alexander
the Great to the U.S., others reached into
science, art, language, health and popular
culture to explore such issues as juvenile
justice and human rights, creativity and
mental illness, foster children, concussions, ocean acidification and coral reefs,
the cervical cancer vaccine or the work of
dancer Martha Graham.
Reaching out to the faculty as a whole
(trainer Maryann Laska and Headmaster
Willy MacMullen are both advising topics) has allowed those of us not in the
classroom to share our expertise, too.
Fortunately for me, program director
Greg Hawes ’85 steered Charlotte Luckey
’08 my way; her focus is on how outside
events shaped the Taft Community during World War II. A fourth-generation
Taftie (and great-granddaughter of Paul
Cruikshank), she is fortunate (or Luckey)
to have her grandfather’s scrapbooks and
letters in addition to the resources of the
school’s archives. By now she may even
have interviewed one of you!
—Julie Reiff
Taft Bulletin Winter 2008
A Chorus Line
As much as it pains me, I can provide additional
information about the archive photograph in
the last issue (p. 42). Clearly Manning had way
too much time on his hands to process this picture into his archives!
Pictured is part of the chorus line from
the Class of ’53 Alex in Wonderland musical.
The production, including original music, was
crafted by our gifted classmates and was a very
transparent roast of Paul Cruikshank and numerous faculty members.
I believe this may have been the last
theatrical production permitted where the
students were given free rein. Sadly, a number
of the key individuals involved in the production are deceased. The chorus line was selected
from those who either flunked the voice tests
or who were so outrageous they were cast as
comic relief!
—Steve Henkel ’53
The 1953 Senior Review: From left, Steve
Henkel, Ralph Lee, Mike Cipollaro, Jim
Goldsmith, Nate Smith, Bruce Docherty, and
Jack Dobbs. Thanks to Steve and also to Mike
Brenner ’53 for the identifications.
Love it? Hate it?
Read it? Tell us!
We’d love to hear what you think about
the stories in this Bulletin. We may edit
your letters for length, clarity and content, but please write!
Julie Reiff, editor
Taft Bulletin
110 Woodbury Road
Watertown, CT 06795-2100
or
ReiffJ@TaftSchool.org
I find your “quotable” on page 5 of the
fall issue personally objectionable. Our
Taft Bulletin is no place to post political feelings—for one party or another.
This is an alumni/ae informational publication keeping graduates informed as to
what is going on in and with our school. If a graduate chooses to enter politics—so
be it. We don’t have to hear or read his or
her feelings in OUR bulletin. That I disagree with Ryan Sager’s statement is an “under
statement.” That being my position, I do NOT
expect it to be published in my (our) Alumni
Bulletin. We deserve better.
—Alan P. Danforth ’44
I was very surprised to see your choice for the
“Quotable” section. As such I assume you approve of what our illustrious alum Ryan Sager
’97 chose to write about the Republicans in
Iowa. I am particularly offended by his slam at
Jesus Christ. My recollections of Taft are that
we were taught Christian principles and values.
Furthermore we would never disparage any
public servant who chose to speak of his belief
in a supreme being. Maybe things have changed
there at Taft, God forbid!
—John Boyet ’51
Taft Trivia
When was the Parents’ Association
Field House, next to the football field,
constructed?
a.) 1911 b.) 1938 c.) 1945 d.) 1952
Send your guess via e-mail or postcard to
the address left. The winner, whose name
will be chosen at random from all correct
entries received by March 15, will receive
a Taft stadium blanket.
Congratulations to Mike Spencer ’69,
who correctly guessed 1968 as the last
known year the school had a gun club.
Curt Buttenheim ’36 kindly identifies the
members of the 1936 Gun Club pictured
with our question: seated, from left, David
Eames, Jack Hindley, Dave Ferris, Walter
Kleeman, Jack Broome, unknown and
George Genzmer; standing, Ray Jopling
and John Rogan.
Pedro Mendoza ’01 hel
ps establish a
computer and internet
resource center
in a rural Amazon villag
e.
The Real Amazon.com
The idea was to give extremely poor,
rural populations in the Amazon access
to the internet and new technology.
So Pedro Mendoza ’01, working for
the nongovernmental organization
Fundación Proyecto Maniapure, arranged a deal with the social branch
of the Microsoft Corporation to
provide the funding to establish an
infocenter in Maniapure, a rural village in the Amazon.
“This infocenter,” says Pedro, “will
have access to the internet and provide
a useful tool for students after class.
My job there is to teach students how
to use Microsoft software. Many students learned for the first time in their
lives how to use a computer.”
The project is still developing, as
they wait for eight computers to inaugurate the infocenter, which were due
early this year.
“I worked with native criollos
and with Panare indians that lived
close by. The area in which I worked
is very remote,” adds Pedro. “It’s a
10-hour drive from Caracas, Venezuela,
and one has to cross the Orinoco River
by a small ferry called chalana.”
The main idea of the project is to
educate a poor population and allow
them to acquire the necessary skills to
work in the modern world, providing
both the financial and technical assistance of Microsoft and the support of
Fundación Proyecto Maniapure.
Students and teachers check out the new science lab at Nkoanrua Secondary School in Tanzania.
Lab Report
When Stephen Smith ’51 traveled to
Tanzania in 2006 he was very moved
by the children at Nkoanrua Secondary
School, Tengeru, in Arusha.
“I had lunch one day with three
of the boys and asked how long it took
each of them to walk to school. One said
an hour and a half, but he explained he
had long legs, or it would take one and
three-quarter hours. The next said he
was lucky that it only took him threequarters of an hour, and the third said
two hours each way. Are they dedicated
to getting an education!”
Wondering how they could help,
Stephen and his wife, Judy, discovered
that the school had no science facilities,
so he contacted Taft for some guidance on what they would need. Science
Department head David Hostage provided them with information along
with some advice on the curriculum.
The fact that the school had minimal
electricity and no running water didn’t
deter the Smiths. Working with a brilliant
local Tanzanian and an American woman
who runs the nonprofit Jifundishe (www.
Jifundishe.org), the Smiths were able to
provide a lab complete with rain barrels
to provide running water, electricity and
propane gas to operate the Bunsen burners. In addition to the lab itself, there is
an equipment storage room and a small
teacher’s office, where the books are kept.
The formal dedication was held last July.
“It was quite a day,” remembers
Stephen, “a three-hour dedication, but
that’s Tanzania—much lecturing of
the children, women performing local
dances, a small brass band, and some
500 students in attendance. The head
of the Arusha School District and an
assistant minister of education from
Dar es Salaam, plus numerous assorted
officials, were very impressed with the
schoolroom. It appears that we built a
science lab that far surpasses anything in
public schools in Tanzania. It is amazing how so few dollars go so far there if
managed correctly.”
“This lab will give students at the
school a definite advantage when it comes
time to take the National Exams,” explains Stephen. “Fewer than 10 percent of
government schools here have equipped
labs, and learning chemistry, biology and
physics using only theory makes it very
difficult to really understand.”
The Smiths’ interest in Tanzania
began with the International Theatre
Literacy Project (www.ITLP.org), which
takes theater educators to three secondary schools in Arusha and helps children
improve their English (Kiswahili is the
native national language, but all classes
are taught in English in the later years) by
teaching them how to write, produce and
perform a play. “It also gives each a better
sense of self confidence,” adds Judy.
The Smiths returned in 2007 for the
ITLP program and the dedication of the
lab. The Taft Tanzania trip, offered again
this June (see fall 2007), has in turn
looked to the Smiths to help arrange a
day when Taft students help at the school
with ITLP and one day with Jifundishe
at its free public library with local
schoolchildren. Stephen is also hoping
one or two of the students at Nkoanrua
Secondary School might one day come
to the Taft summer program and hopes
to send a few experienced science teachers to Tanzania to help the school adjust
to its newly lab-oriented curriculum.
Flex Those Jobs
Sara Sutton Fell ’92 is no stranger to
starting a new business. While still an
international relations major at UC
Berkeley, she and classmate Rachel Bell
Robards co-founded JobDirect, a company that traveled to colleges and helped
soon-to-be grads post their resumes online (see winter 1997 Bulletin)
Now she’s started a website geared
toward telecommuting and flexible jobs:
www.flexjobs.com.
Other job-seeking sites either
overlook flexible work or treat it as
an afterthought, Sara told the Denver
Business Journal. “There never has
been a well-known, reliable site for
good flexible jobs.”
What are flexible jobs? They are
jobs that fall outside of the traditional full-time, 9-to-5 structure. They
can range from telecommuting, part-
time, flexible hours, contract work,
consulting, project-based to seasonal,
or a combination.
Sara firmly believes that there are
a lot of professional people looking
for more flexible job opportunities,
such as stay-at-home parents, international candidates, retirees, athletes
and graduate students.
There are very compelling benefits
for employers who provide options,
she adds, that include saving money
on overhead, more productive and
focused workers, improved employee
morale and company loyalty, reduced
number of sick days and job turnover,
or better ways to handle fluctuating
workloads or special projects.
For job seekers, FlexJobs is free.
Employers pay anywhere from $50 for
a single job posting to $300 for a year
of search access.
For more information, visit www.
flexjobs.com
“Before going into the culinary field,
I was in service and sales for a business
publishing company,” says Chris. “After
logging some 50,000 calls over eight
years, I needed a change. The spark that
made this a real possibility originated
with a simple question from my wife
Allison: ‘What do you want to do?’ Six
months later I began the Pastry Arts
Program at L’Academie de Cuisine.” The eight-month program ended
with an externship at a fine-dining
restaurant in northern Virginia called
2941. “I stayed on there and was made
responsible for the pastry production,”
he adds. “One day during a rare slow
week, I made some molded chocolates.
Chef raved about them and a few weeks
later asked me to make some more for
some VIP guests. Soon they were given
to every diner at the end of the meal.”
Good feedback kept rolling in so he
decided to make a go of it on his own.
In October 2006, he walked into a local
chocolate shop and the owner agreed to
start selling his chocolates. A month later someone else asked if he could carry
them at his soon-to-open shop, and others followed.
“My grandfather was a baker by
trade. Maybe the pastry is in my blood,”
adds Chris.
“I actually enjoy baking breads and
pastry more than chocolate, but I enjoy
sleeping at night, so chocolate won out
over baker’s hours.” Christopher’s Confections’ commercial kitchen is located at Basikneads
Catering in Alexandria, Virginia. You
can find his chocolates in the D.C.
area at Artfully Chocolate, Biagio Fine
Chocolate, Periwinkle, and The Park
Hyatt Washington, or online at www.
christophersconfections.com.
m Sara Sutton Fell ’92, president of
Flexjobs.com, works on the balcony of her
home in the Boulder foothills with her dog
Derby sleeping at her feet. She launched
the job-posting website in September.
Kathleen Lavine | Denver Business Journal
Design by Flavor
Dark Tanzanie chocolate ganache, gingerbread, or Juniper Cassis are just a few
of the pralines created by chocolatier
Christopher Blume ’88, who opened
Christopher’s Confections in 2006 near
Washington, D.C.
. Chocolatier Christopher Blume ’88 gave
up a career in sales to pursue his passion.
Knot Your Ordinary Bag
Jennifer Lopez and Eva Longoria have
both been spotted with the latest “arm
candy” by Kathy Kwei ’90, and Bag
Trends called her fall collection—made
of water snake and lamb or calf skin with
goat suede linings—“absolutely divine.”
Kathy launched her own handbag
line last spring, hoping to blend modernity and tradition with unique textures
and luxury materials, but her signature
Chinese “Eternity” knot-inspired weave
is always the main focus.
The art of Chinese knotting that
she learned from her grandmother has
inspired and been integrated throughout her work. As a young girl, Kathy
remembers spending afternoons with
her grandmother knotting cords for
necklaces filled with jade and precious
stones, or looking over the intricate embroidery patterns of old quilts and robes.
Her grandmother was a clothier “artiste” for silver screen legends Katherine
Hepburn and Anthony Quinn, as well
as a master at Chinese knotting, which
instilled in Kathy a deep reverence for
her cultural roots and passion for working with her hands.
Kathy’s fashion career began in public relations at Louis Vuitton in Hong
Kong, spanning 14 countries in the Asia
Pacific region. Her love of handbags,
passion for design, and entrepreneurial
spirit inspired her to start her own line.
In 2002, she left the company to pursue
a master’s degree in accessories design
from the prestigious London College
of Fashion (Cordwainers). While in
London, she worked with handbag designer Susannah Hunter, as well as the
trendy Billy Bag Company. After moving to New York, Kathy completed a
six-month internship with the famed
Zac Posen, working on his handbag and
accessories line for the spring/summer
2006 collection.
Deeply ingrained in her heritage,
Kathy draws much of her inspiration from her Chinese roots as well as
her experiences from living globally in
nine different cities including Athens,
London, Dubai, Hong Kong and New
York. Her pieces are available at numerous boutiques around the country and
abroad, at many Nordstroms and online
at activeendeavors.com, 20ltd.com and
luxcouture.com.
. Designer Kathy Kwei ’90 learned her
signature Chinese “Eternity” knot spending
afternoons with her grandmother.
In Print
The Line / La Línea
Beldon Butterfield ’53
Ediciones de la Noche, 2007
In this novel set in nether world
of the Mexican drug trade, men
and women on both sides of the
border wage an ill-fated “war
on drugs.” Amid this world of
violence, a three-way romance
is forged between DEA agent
Fernanda Deering, the dashing
but conniving Jaime Nunez,
a subcomandante in Mexico’s
elite enforcement agency, and
George Redfield, a bon vivant,
bi-cultured Pulitzer Prize-winning
journalist. Born and raised in
Argentina, Butterfield came
to Mexico with Time Inc. and
eventually became acquainted
with the narcotics culture of his
adopted country. He divides
his time between San Miguel
de Allende and Mexico City.
I’ll Drink to That
Beaujolais and the French Peasant
Who Made It the World’s Most Popular Wine
Rudolph Chelminski ’52
Gotham Books, 2007
The remarkable saga of the
wine and people of Beaujolais
and Georges Duboeuf, the
peasant lad who brought both
world recognition. Chelminski
transports us to the unique
corner of France where medieval history still echoes and
where the smallholder peasants
who made Beaujolais wines on
their farms battled against the
contempt of the entrenched
Burgundy and Bordeaux establishment. He is also the author
of The Perfectionist: Life and
Death in Haute Cuisine, published in 2006.
The Teapot Dome Scandal
How Big Oil Bought the Harding White House
and Tried to Steal the Country
Laton McCartney ’59
Random House, 2008
Mix hundreds of millions of
dollars in petroleum reserves, rapacious oil barons and crooked
politicians, White House cronyism, and the excesses of the
Jazz Age and you have the
granddaddy of all political scandals—Teapot Dome. McCartney
tells the complex story of how
big oil handpicked an obscure
senator to serve as the nation’s
23rd president. Contemporary
records newly made available
reveal just how far reaching the
affair was and how high the
stakes. McCartney is also the author of Friends in High Places and
Across the Great Divide.
Our Man in Mexico
Winston Scott and the Hidden History of the CIA
Jefferson Morley
Foreword by Michael Scott ’73
University Press of Kansas, 2008
Chief of the Mexico City sta- Michael to confront the reality
tion from 1956 to 1969, Win of his father’s life as a spy and
Scott occupied a key position in his sudden death in 1971 while
the founding generation of the Michael and his stepbrother
Central Intelligence Agency, George Leddy ’73 were at Taft.
but until now he has remained Morley reveals how Scott ran
a shadowy figure. Investigative hundreds of covert espionage
reporter Jefferson Morley fol- operations from his headquarlows the quest of Scott’s son ters in the U.S. Embassy while
keeping three Mexican presidents on the agency’s payroll,
participating in the Bay of Pigs
fiasco, and, most intriguingly,
overseeing the surveillance of
Lee Harvey Oswald during his
visit to the Mexican capital just
weeks before the assassination
of President Kennedy.
For more
information
on any of these
stories, visit
www.TaftSchool.org
Around the pond
Peter Frew ’75
by Julie Reiff
Walker Hall
Sam Lardner and Barcelona entertained
a full house in Walker Hall with their
“musical celebration of life and love in
the Mediterranean.”
Admissions Director Peter Frew ’75
first met Lardner when on sabbatical in
Barcelona in 1999. “We lived across the
street by total coincidence,” says Peter,
“and shared many a meal, song fest, and
games of tennis.”
Sam Lardner & Barcelona have been
bringing their killer flamenco fusion to
audiences in Spain, the U.K. and North
America since joining forces 3 years ago.
“Sam has captured the depth and
richness of his adopted town’s culture,”
writes one fan. His “beautiful singing
voice, Barcelona’s killer instrumentalists,
it’s everything a cross border musical
collaboration should be,” adds another.
Their recent CD, Barcelona, was
heard around the dorms for weeks after
the concert and remains a favorite for
many new fans.
Antonio Restucci is a world-class
guitarist in his own right, and Matías
Míguez is considered among the best
Latino bass players of his generation.
Sandra Ortega and Yasmina Azlor add
richness, depth and authenticity with
their syncopated clapping rhythms and
powerful vocal harmonies.
Their concert marked the third installment of Walker Hall’s Music for a
While series. For more about their music, visit www.samlardner.com.
Stride Right
Count Basie nicknamed her Stride, acknowledging the command with which
she plays this technically and physically
demanding jazz piano style. Grammynominated pianist Judy Carmichael is
clearly one of the world’s leading interpreters of stride piano and swing.
“She’s a born entertainer,” says
Chris Latham, the school’s new development director. “The way she pulls the
audience in with little bits of history
and wonderful stories. She’s at once disarming and very professional.”
Carmichael has played a variety of
venues from Carnegie Hall to the Peggy
Guggenheim Museum in Venice to programs with Joel Grey, Michael Feinstein,
Steve Ross and the Smothers Brothers.
Her Grammy-nominated recording,
“Two Handed Stride,” teamed her with
four giants of jazz from the Count Basie
Orchestra: Red Callendar, Harold Jones,
Freddie Green and Marshall Royal.
She has written two books on stride
piano and numerous articles on the subject of jazz. She has served on a variety of
music panels at the National Endowment
for the Arts and is one of few jazz pianists
honored as a Steinway Artist.
She has appeared frequently on
Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home
Companion and on National Public
Radio’s Morning Edition, Entertainment
Tonight and Sunday Morning with
Charles Kuralt. She hosts and produces her own Public Radio show, Judy
Carmichael’s Jazz Inspired.
Her performance at Taft was
presented as part of the school’s yearlong Friday-night concert series in
Walker Hall, Music for a While. She
also performed for the entire student body that morning in Bingham
Auditorium. For more information,
visit www.judycarmichael.com.
tries live in overcrowded housing,
with poor water quality, no sanitation
and no garbage collection. Roughly
two million of these “shanties” are in
South Africa. “It is wrong to assume
that the people who live in these shanties are there because they have done
something wrong in life,” adds Carissa.
“They simply were not born with the
same opportunities.”
Shanty Quad
Students in Greg Ricks’ South African
Democracy course built a “shanty
found commonly around the world”
in the middle of Centennial Quad in
November, with some construction
help from faculty members Greg Hawes
’85 and Rob Follansbee. Their goal was
to reflect on the poor physical housing
that exists all over the globe.
“We all get so wrapped up in our
lives here at Taft that we lose sight of what
is truly happening in the world that this
school is preparing us for,” says Carissa
Blossom ’08, who founded the Global
Concerns Club this year. “People outside
of our community are living in shipping
containers, cardboard boxes, under plastic sheeting, in old cars, and in shacks,
shanties and slums. We live in a world
struggling to recognize and act on the inequalities that exist everywhere. It is vital,
especially in a democratic country where
the people’s opinion is heard by their government, that people are truly aware of
what is going on in the world today.”
The UN estimates that more than
1.6 billion people in developing coun-
m Shanty builders Patrick Antoine, Maddy Bloch, Charlotte Bromley, Kristin Castellano,
Alex Cernichiari, Cody Ernst, Tyrone Hughes, Rex Merdinger, Daquan Mickens, Dwayne
Simon, Sarah Sullivan, Bridget Sylvester, Bisi Thompson, and Zach Williams along with
faculty members Greg Ricks, Rob Follansbee and Greg Hawes ’85. Julie Reiff
Around the pond
Music, Tea, Flowers
and Prayer
A riveting performance by AUN, twin
brothers Ryohei and Kohei Inoue, was
the highlight of Japanese Culture Week
in November, a new event this year.
Arranged as part of the Friday-night
Walker Hall Music Series, the Japanese
percussion ensemble gave students a
taste of their music at Morning Meeting
on Thursday, even inviting students to
join them on stage playing one of their
dozen instruments.
Hearing the group was coming,
Japanese teacher Seiko Michaels then
began to plan a weeklong series of
events—including Japanese flower arranging and a formal tea ceremony in
the Potter Gallery.
“If an idea such as this emerges in
the community,” Art Department Head
Bruce Fifer told the Papyrus, “that exposes
us as a community to traditions in other
cultures, that supplements our overall
education and enriches our lives—I try
to facilitate it and make it happen.”
j Traditional Japanese drummers
Ryohei and Kohei Inoue perform as part
of Japanese Culture Week. Yee-Fun Yin
Chaplain Robert Ganung, who
taught in Hawaii for four years, shares
an interest in Japanese culture (he was
interim minister at a Japanese-American
United Church of Christ congregation
in Kauai) and arranged for a Japanese
Buddhist priest to visit as well. Rev.
Kenjitsu Nagakaki spoke at Morning
Meeting and also visited classes. The
minister at the New York Buddhist
Church, his tradition is known as Jodo
Shin, which was founded by Shinran
Shonin in the 13th century in Japan. It
is part of a form of Buddhism known
as Pure Land and is based upon the
idea of trusting in Amida Buddha’s
(bodhisattva or enlightened being)
infinite wisdom and compassion for
liberation from the endless cycles of
life, death and rebirth.
“Being able to return home to New
England from Hawaii and help plan
Taft’s first-ever Japanese Cultural Week
was an exciting experience for me,” adds
Bob. “And I look forward to organizing
next year’s event.”
Seniors made their way, despite
the rain, down to Country Cinema on
Main Street for the private showing.
(Bingham Auditorium is now digital
only.) Peter got a huge round of applause from the kids when he made his
Hitchcock-like appearance in one of
the early scenes.
The screening was limited to seniors, in part because the cinema could
not hold the entire school, “but we also
thought this would be a special treat
for this class, an event they could use
to build class unity,” said Headmaster
Willy MacMullen ’78, who introduced
Berg and gave him a refresher tour of
the campus earlier that evening.
In the film, which stars Jamie Foxx
and Jennifer Garner, a team of U.S.
government agents is sent to investigate
the bombing of an American facility in
the Middle East.
For more information, visit www.
thekingdommovie.com/
Kingdom Come
Julie Reiff
In a rare event at Taft, seniors were
invited to a special screening of The
Kingdom with director Peter Berg ’80,
who introduced the film.
10 Taft Bulletin Winter 2008
Author Tracy Kidder
Mountains Beyond Mountains, the book
selected for the all-school read last summer, may be about a doctor who sets
out to cure the world, but there was a
large buzz on campus in October for
the chance to meet the Pulitzer Prizewinner who tells his story.
At the center of Mountains Beyond
Mountains stands Paul Farmer. Doctor,
Harvard professor, renowned infectious-disease specialist, anthropologist,
the recipient of a MacArthur “genius”
grant, world-class Robin Hood, Farmer
was brought up in a bus and on a boat,
and in medical school found his life’s
calling: to diagnose and cure infectious
diseases and to bring the lifesaving tools
of modern medicine to those who need
them most. He helped found the organization Partners in Health, which has
led the worldwide fight against tuberculosis and AIDS prevention.
Author Tracy Kidder explains that
Farmer’s message “is to pay attention
to the world as it really is…. Don’t join
what often seems like America’s collective amnesia toward the suffering that
can seem so distant but that in fact
surrounds us. Don’t forget about the
forgotten people in this world…. We
are all human beings.”
Kidder is the author of the best sellers
The Soul of a New Machine, House, Among
Schoolchildren and Home Town. He has
been described by the Baltimore Sun as the
“master of the nonfiction narrative.”
Although much of his talk focused
on Farmer’s work and topics raised by
the book, Kidder ended his remarks
with some advice of his own:
“There is no skill you can acquire
that can’t be used, one way or another,
to improve the world,” Kidder explains.
“If at least part of the time you get your
mind off yourself and out into the world,
the work of school gets easier. You do
the work, but for a larger purpose. And
if one of your goals is to find a way to
improve the world, then I don’t think
you have to worry a great deal about improving yourself. If you begin to do the
first thing then you will, by my definition anyway, have already begun to do
the second.”
j Author Tracy
Kidder meets with
interested students
at an open session
in the faculty room
in the afternoon.
Earlier in the day,
he spoke about his
book and the work
of Dr. Farmer at
Morning Meeting
and visited classes.
Maddy Bloch ’08
Renewed Debate
The Debate Team has struggled to
become more active in recent years,
but a renewed effort in the fall has
sparked promising results. Taft uppermid Bennett Siegel was awarded
the prize for Best Novice Speaker at
the annual Hotchkiss Parliamentary
Debate Tournament in November.
Eight students (four 2-person
teams plus 3 observers) gave up their
Sunday sleep-in to travel to Lakeville.
Nine schools participated in the
tournament, including Andover,
Deerfield, Choate and Hotchkiss.
Students debated extemporaneously
for three rounds, choosing from
three topics for each round.
Topics involved areas of current events like the legalization of
selling bodily organs and the value
of Wikipedia. Siegel received the
highest scores from the judges for
his three rounds, achieving a 90 average (out of 100).
Taft is a member of the Debate
Association of Independent Schools,
and the team looks forward to
continued success in both debate
and public speaking tournaments
during the coming months. The
team is coached by English teacher
Christopher Brown ’64, a lawyer
who joined the faculty this fall.
11
Around the pond
Off to See the Wizard
Miss Gulch (Bisi Thompson ’09) pedals her bike determinedly as a tornado
rips across the Bingham stage. Dorothy
(Louise Trueheart ’08) follows, Toto
in hand, and before you can click
your heels, you’re not in Kansas—or
Bingham—anymore, but in some
magic world skillfully created by director Rick Doyle.
Rick’s magical Munchkin Land
sets, floating bubbles and “hot-air”
balloons were only surpassed by the
performance of the talented cast,
who entertained faculty, students and
visiting family members on Parents’
Weekend in October.
m Senior Lily Lanahan and uppermiddler Juliet Ourisman test their
structure in the 2nd Annual Spaghetti
Bridge Competition. Michael McAloon
Pasta Bridges
Weighted Down
Once again, students in Jamie
Nichols’ Introduction to Engineering
course tested their problem-solving
and engineering skills using only
spaghetti and epoxy.
Their task: construct a bridge
that spans one meter, be no more
than a half meter tall, and have a
mass of less than .75 kilograms.
(Each two-person team is also given a small block of wood equipped
with a metal hook to incorporate
into their structure that will allow
them to suspend the weights.)
Winners were declared in two
different categories. Seniors Noah
Geupel and Mark Lentini’s bridge,
Lady Dianne, held the most weight
at 8 kilograms. Senior Lily Lanahan
and uppermiddler Juliet Ourisman’s
bridge, The Martha, had the highest
load to bridge weight ratio at 7.8.
No team surpassed last year’s
winner, constructed by Patrick
Gritt ’08 and Chance Jennings ’08,
which held 15 kilograms.
“The best show at Taft in years,”
“Broadway worthy” and “Wow,” were
among the lavish praise heaped on
Dorothy and her traveling companions
(seniors Maggie Hutton as the Wicked
Witch, Sam Shiverick as Scarecrow,
Charlie Fraker as Tin Man and Nick
Tyson as the Cowardly Lion).
Support for the production was
provided by the James G. Franciscus
Theater Fund and the James Hollyday
Webb Theater Fund. Thomaston
Opera House lent costumes, and the
Warner Theater some elements of the
set. Flying Effects were provided by
ZFX, Inc.
. Munchkins welcome Dorothy (Louise Trueheart ’08) to Oz in the fall musical. Bob Falcetti
Walk for a Cure
On most Sunday mornings, you will
find the majority of Taft students snug
in their beds. Yet on a recent Sunday last
fall, nearly 50 students and faculty members braved the cold and sacrificed their
sleep-in to participate in Making Strides
Against Breast Cancer, an annual walk
hosted by the American Cancer Society.
Making Strides Against Breast
Cancer is the ACS’s premier event to
raise awareness and dollars to fight
breast cancer. The walk is also designed
to celebrate all breast cancer survivors
and to provide hope to every person affected by this disease.
Many students volunteered as cheer-
leaders and handed out water for the
walkers on a beautiful fall morning in
Hartford’s Bushnell Park.
The Taft Team also raised nearly
$3,000 for the American Cancer Society.
Why Making Strides and not other
walks? “This is what our students want
to participate in,” explains Baba Frew,
director of Taft’s Volunteer Program.
“We really want the kids to decide what
is important to them and what ways
they want to get involved.”
In addition to the money raised from
the walk, students raised $1,531 for Lee
National Denim Day, another event to
raise funds for Breast Cancer research.
m Seniors Hope Gimbel, Beth Kessenich,
Isaac Bamgbose ’09, Zach Brazo ’09,
Maggie Hutton, Sarah Linhares and
Christine Call cheer on walkers at the
American Cancer Society’s Making Strides
event in Hartford. Peter Frew ’75
Songs include holiday favorites
such as “Once in Royal David’s City,”
“O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” and
“Adeste Fideles,” as well as Gregorian
and African chants arranged by
Paul Halley.
Collegium Musicum is a select
group of 55 singers chosen by audition
each year. Its repertoire spans nearly
every major period of music from
medieval to contemporary. The group
has toured extensively, including trips
to China, Spain, Italy, Australia, New
Zealand, as well as New York City,
Philadelphia and San Francisco.
This March, Collegium will make a
concert tour to Paris, Aix-en-Provence
and Barcelona. Contact Bruce Fifer
for more information (BruceFifer@
TaftSchool.org).
A TAFT CHRISTMAS
Taft Collegium Musicum released a
new music CD for the holidays, A Taft
Christmas. Conducted by Bruce Fifer,
the Collegium recordings include a festive assortment of Christmas carols and
anthems from various live performances of Taft’s Annual Service of Lessons
and Carols with the Taft Chamber
Ensemble, a guest brass ensemble, and
guest organist Paul Halley.
Peter Frew ’75
13
Around the pond
With Honors
In a ceremony in Bingham Auditorium,
12 Taft Seniors (all girls, as their fellow students quickly noted—a first
at Taft) were inducted into the Cum
Laude Society.
Founded a century ago, the Cum
Laude Society is the national scholarship
society in secondary schools, corresponding to Phi Beta Kappa and Sigma
Xi in colleges and scientific schools.
Twelve members of the Class of
2008 were inducted in October, based
on their academic records for both their
middle and uppermiddle years. This
group will be joined at graduation by
others whose selection will be based
upon their records for their uppermid
and senior years.
These dozen students represent
the top 7.5 percent of the class, with
weighted averages that ranged from
5.073 to 5.56 for those years (a maximum of one-fifth of the senior class may
be elected). Also recognized at the assembly were the ranking scholars for the
previous year, with the highest average
of his or her class: Alice Cho ’10, Mike
Notaro ’09 and Amy Jang ’08.
m Headmaster Willy MacMullen ’78 and
Academic Dean Jon Willson ’82, right,
welcome the newest members of the Cum
Laude Society, from left, Jasmine Chuang,
Jessica Ng, Nellie Beach, Courtney
White, Theresa Chang, Christine Call,
Taylor Gorham, Natalie Landis, Sarah
Sullivan, Amy Jang, Caitlin O’Halloran and
Katherine Latham (in absentia). Yee-Fun Yin
NEASC Accreditation
When a graduating
senior proudly accepts a diploma from the headmaster at
Commencement, no thought is given
to the process that allows the school to
award it. Once per decade every college and high school in New England
is evaluated by a visiting committee
of fellow educators under the auspices
of the New England Association of
Schools and Colleges.
Taft’s visiting committee, chaired
by Dexter Morse of Worcester
Academy and Assistant Chair Thomas
Hassan of Phillips Exeter, consisted of
representatives from twelve different
schools, who conducted more than 90
interviews on campus in October, basing those conversations in large part
on the school’s rigorous 175-page selfstudy report created last year.
Not surprisingly Taft successfully
met all 16 standards and, therefore,
passed the accreditation process without any qualifications. Making four
commendations and three recommendations, the committee praised the
school, above all, for the candor, rigor
and depth of the self-study, for the campus, facilities and institutional resources,
for the devoted and committed faculty
and for the school’s work on diversity.
“The committee emphatically stated,” said Headmaster Willy MacMullen
’78, “that what impressed them most
was that their recommendations were
exactly the areas Taft had identified in
our self-study as places we wanted to
improve. The visiting committee saw
Taft to be a confident, thriving leader
in independent school education—an
ideal setting for a 21st-century independent school.”
Those recommendations were to
improve the support and evaluation
of administrative faculty, as well as
descriptions of job responsibilities;
to improve communication, both external and internal, but especially the
latter, in terms of policies and procedures; and to improve evaluation
procedures for all faculty.
In upcoming months, the school
will develop action plans for these areas
as well as those identified in the selfstudy as areas for improvement that the
committee did not point to.
“I feel enormous pride,” Willy adds,
“in the work everyone did in writing a
self-study that was praised by one experienced member of the team as ‘the best,
the most honest, most comprehensive
self-study I have ever read.’ That process
and document, joined with the work
of the visiting committee, will mean a
great school becomes even greater.”
In Brief
College Advice
Fred Hargadon, former dean of
admission at Princeton, Stanford,
and Swarthmore, spoke with seniors and their parents in October
about the college admission process. Hargadon has also served as
senior vice president of the College
Board, a trustee of Swarthmore
College and the Thacher School,
and spent six years as a member
of the Visiting Committee of the
Harvard Board of Overseers for the
College and Graduate School of
Arts and Sciences.
Math Team Top 10
On Display
Advanced and independent photography students joined several hundred
artists at the 10th annual City-Wide
Open Studios exhibition in New Haven
in October.
More than 300 people visited the
exhibit, including a few Taft alumni.
“The reviews were very positive,” says
Taft photography teacher Yee-Fun Yin.
“Taft students gallery-sat on Sunday
and met with many visitors to talk about
their work. They also met other exhibiting artists and learned about their work.
The show closed Sunday evening on a
high note when a private collector from
New York City bought two pictures.”
Exhibiting photographers were
seniors Claire Novak, Shane Sanderson,
Sarah Sullivan, uppermids Catie
Birmingham, Amy Brownstein, Barbara
Romaine and Julian Siegelmann and
middlers Tierney Dodge, Hillary Hall,
and Erik Roomet.
Over the past ten years, CWOS
has drawn thousands of visitors to explore New Haven’s neighborhoods
while discovering artists and revamping
perceptions of the city. For more information, visit www.artspaceNH.org
m “Keep Off,” silver
gelatin print by Shane
Sanderson ’08, one of the
photographs exhibited in
New Haven last fall.
The math team is very busy again
this winter.
“We have three NEML contests, the American Mathematics
Competitions, and a few of us will go
to Cambridge for the Harvard-MIT
Mathematics Tournament,” explains
Math Team adviser Ted Heavenrich.
Their results so far have put
them in the top ten nationally. After
three contests in the NEML (halfway through the season) the team is
in fourth place in New England.
“The only private school ahead
of us is Phillips Andover,” says Ted.
More significantly, the same
contests are given in 47 out of the
50 states in the U.S., and only eight
schools in the country have done
better than Taft.
15
S
S
S
S
Fall
Mike Moreau ’09 won the Founders League meet in a
new course record at Avon and helped lead Taft to an 8–2
record this fall. Peter Frew ’75
Girls’ Cross Country 5–4
The Taft harriers put together their
strongest season in several years. A solid
21–35 win over Kent in the wind and
rain of Parents’ Weekend ensured their
winning record, but the team’s best day
of the season came at the Founders
League meet, where Taft earned 3rd
place behind All-League finishes by
Emma Nealon ’11 (8th) and Sophie
von der Tann ’09 (10th). At the New
England Championships, Taft placed
6th as a team, with three runners in
the top 30: captain Brooke Hartley
’08 (23rd), von der Tann (17th), and
Nealon (26th).
P
P
P
P
O
O
O
O
Wrap-up
by
R
R
R
R
Steve
TTTT
Palmer
Captain-elect Liesl Morris ’09 in a 3–2 victory over Loomis on the new turf
field. She won the NE Tournament award and was named a Founders
League All Star. Peter Frew ’75
Boys’ Cross Country 8–2
The boys’ team placed 6th at the 34team Canterbury Invitational to open
the year and then went 8–2 in dual
meets during the regular season. Their
best meet of the year came on a wet
and wild home course on Parents’
Weekend, a 21–35 win over a very
strong Kent team. The next weekend,
Taft placed 3rd at the Founders League
meet, with the individual champion in
Michael Moreau ’09 and two other AllLeague runners in Shane Sanderson ’08
(14th) and Tom O’Mealia ’10 (15th).
The team returns eight of its top ten
runners for what looks to be a strong
2008 squad.
Field Hockey 10–4–1
New England Quarterfinals
This skilled team was balanced, front
to back, and qualified for their 12th
straight New England tournament,
earning coach Rachael Ryan her 100th
win. Highlights included an impressive 3–2 late-season win over a 10–1
Westminster team and a 3–1 victory
over Choate. The Rhinos’ defeat of
Loomis (3–2), the first game played on
Taft’s new turf field, was certainly an
inspirational moment. In the end, Taft
dropped a hard game to Greenwich
Academy (1–3) in the first round of
the New England tournament. In that
game, Sarah Sullivan ’08 made ten
saves to keep the game close, and the
score was tied 1–1 at the half behind
Felicia Desorcie’s ’08 goal. Leading
scorers for the season were Desorcie
and Kelsey Lloyd ’09 (10 goals each),
followed by Kelly Collins ’08 (8 goals).
The team will sorely miss captain Jenny
Glazer ’08, a three-year starter, and
Kate Lesko ’08, who was the backbone
of the defense.
PG Nyasha Miller was powerful at net all
season, earning both New England and
Boston Globe All Star accolades. Brian Boland
Girls’ Soccer 9–5–1
This offensively powerful team racked
up nine wins in the first 11 games, including a 2–0 win over Choate and a
7–0 win over Deerfield. One of their best
games of the season, a 1–1 tie with New
England runner-up Loomis, came with
a high price, as senior goalkeeper and
co-captain Ashleigh Kowtoniuk ’08 was
injured, making for an uneven end of the
season defensively for this fine squad. Up
front, Taft was led by Kerry Scalora ’10
(24 goals, 12 assists), and Holly Lagasse
’09 led the way for the defense. Tricaptains Bridget Sylvester ’08 and Schatz
Bromley ’08 handled the central midfield, while youngsters Jenny Janeck ’11
(forward) and Sierra Mead ’11 (defender)
were key players. Versatile players Becca
Hazlett ’09 and Lagasse will captain the
2008 team.
Boys’ Soccer 6–10–1
For this young team, a goal here and
there made the difference in a season of
very close games. A string of three victories (over Andover 2–0, Salisbury 1–0
and Berkshire 2–1), evened their record
at 4–4 early on, but late in the season, the
ball bounced the other way. In perhaps
their finest game, and the season’s last,
Taft dropped a heartbreaker to an undefeated Hotchkiss team (1–2). Forwards
Dan Lima ’09 and co-captain Ollie
Mittag ’08 created many opportunities
up front, while co-captain Cam Mathis
’08 led in scoring (7 goals) and had a big
impact in most games. Will Bunker ’09
was instrumental in the midfield, with
Kevin Spotts ’10 and Johnny DePeters
’09 as tireless defenders. Jake Heine ’08
had some great games in goal, especially
in the 2–0 win over Andover.
Football 0–8
The season started with one of the best
games in several years, as Taft battled back
and forth with a strong Avon Old Farms
team, holding a late 14–13 fourth-quarter
lead. In the end, Taft’s final drive would
come up just short on Avon’s 20-yard line,
a 14–21 loss. But, the Rhinos would lose
more than just the game, as Taft’s leading
rusher (99 yards) and tackler, Dwayne
Simon ’08 would leave late with a season-ending leg injury. More key injuries
would limit Taft’s defense for the rest of
the fall, including in a well-played 29–37
loss to Kent at home on Parents’ Weekend.
Offensively, quarterback Drew Connolly
’08 was versatile, with 185 rushing yards,
nine TD passes, and 82 completions.
Tyrone Hughes ’08 (34 receptions, 412
yards) and Tom Cantwell ’08 (26 receptions, 358 yards) were dangerous threats
downfield all season, and captain Andrew
Balysky ’08 and Robbie Bourdon ’09 led
the team in tackles and assists.
Volleyball 16–3
Founders League Tri-Champions,
New England Finalists
This perennial powerhouse fought through
New England’s best to end the regular season with a 14–2 record and a #2 ranking.
Often, they would fill the gym, both home
and away, with loud Taft fans—a great volleyball crowd. Two wins against Choate
(3–1, 3–0) showed the talent of the year’s
squad, but it was rival Hotchkiss who
would provide the defining epic battles
for a great season. The schools met three
times, each match decided in an intense
3–2 score. In the first meeting, Taft would
claw back at home after losing the first
two games, only to drop the fifth game,
12–15. It was the reverse in the final regular season match at Hotchkiss, with Taft
winning the first two games, then coming
back to win 15–13 in game five. The New
England Championship would be a replay
of those two incredible matches, and it was
perhaps the best of them all, though Taft
would drop the fifth game 11–15. To get
to that championship game, Taft defeated
strong teams from Hopkins (3–1) and
Deerfield (3–1) in the first two rounds.
Nyasha Miller ’08 was powerful at the net
all season and was named a New England
All Star and a Boston Globe All Star, while
Kristin Castellano ’08 and two-year captain Maggie Widdoes ’08, both skilled,
versatile players, were also New England
All Stars. Nellie Beach ’08, Alexis Cronin
’08 (Founders League All Star), Camilla
McFarland ’08, and Elyse Brey ’08 were
all three-year varsity players, and this year’s
seniors were certainly one of the great volleyball classes of all-time. The 2008 team
will be led by captain-elect Geneva Lloyd
’09, All-Founders League player Grace
Dishongh ’09, Carly McCabe ’10 and
Miller Bowron ’09.
For more on the fall season,
visit www.TaftSports.com.
17
of Our
One geologist explores the potential of
oil shale to solve our nation’s energy crisis.
By J. L. Sommars
Photos by Chris Shinn
“If you
expect to
solve the
problem in
your lifetime,
you haven’t
taken on a
big enough
problem.”
eremy Boak ’70 quotes an old Arabic proverb to describe his career. “If you
expect to solve the problem in your
lifetime,” he says, “you haven’t taken on a big
enough problem.”
One look at his resume and you realize this
Harvard-educated geologist is no stranger to accepting challenges.
Boak managed two projects to close Rocky
Flats, where nuclear weapon components were
made for 40 years.
He explored for oil along Alaska’s North
Slope, looking for the next Prudhoe Bay Field.
Following the terrorist attacks on 9/11,
Boak safely removed 75 grams of weapons-grade
plutonium from Downtown Denver.
He traveled to Greenland to study some of the
oldest known objects on our planet—3.8-billionyear-old rocks—to understand how continents
were built.
He led a team of scientists to determine
the 10,000-year environmental impact of the
nation’s repository for spent nuclear fuel.
Yet, Boak says his current assignment may
be the most daunting and have the greatest impact of them all.
Boak is at the epicenter of what some say
could lead to our nation achieving energy independence. Working for the Colorado School of
Mines in Golden, Colorado, he is responsible for
fostering discussion and debate about the controversial future of oil shale.
Last October, a symposium he organized drew
more than 330 experts from twenty countries, the
largest gathering of its kind in the world.
Not only controversial, oil shale may be the
most misunderstood energy source on the planet.
For starters, it’s not shale, nor does it contain oil. But geologists like Boak prefer this
simple field name to the more precise, yet
tongue-twisting, “kerogen-rich lacustrine dolomitic marlstone.”
“It’s really the precursor to oil,” explains
Boak. “Oil shale contains organic material that
produces oil if you heat it.”
The U.S. contains most of the world’s oil shale
reserves, much of it located in western Colorado.
Boak says the U.S. Geological Survey has estimated global oil shale reserves at three trillion
barrels of oil. This is more than twice the amount of
oil produced in the world over the last 150 years.
“The potential is enormous,” says Boak.
“But so are the technical, environmental and political issues that go along with it.”
With oil prices hovering around $100 a barrel, it is no wonder that slabs of this dry, gritty
rock have captured the attention of the world’s
energy community.
19
“I always saw the whole business of being an earth scientist
as having a service component to it,
trying to solve problems for the earth and our society…”
“The potential
is enormous,
but so are
the technical,
environmental
and
political
issues that go
along
with it.”
“Shell Oil estimates that production will be
profitable at an oil price of $30 a barrel,” Boak
says. “Others are more skeptical, putting the
breakeven point at $40–$50.
“The extraction techniques vary. Shell, for
example, proposes to insert a heater down the
hole to cook the rock. They claim that generating the electricity would require one barrel of oil
for every three to five barrels produced.”
Working like a slow cooker, Boak says this
process would require at least one and a half years
before oil could be removed from the ground.
“One of our biggest challenges is what to
do about the greenhouse gases that are created,”
he says. “As much as 250 million tons of carbon
dioxide could be generated each year once really
large-scale production is reached.”
He says one solution might be to essentially
reverse engineer the natural gas industry.
“We would build a separate system to capture the CO2 emissions aboveground and pipe
them back into the earth.”
Environmental issues are always a concern,
especially in Colorado, the state that once pulled
the plug on hosting the Winter Olympics (because of its impact).
“When people in the Department of Energy
come out and say, ‘We think we can have two
and a half million barrels a day of oil shale production in 15 to 20 years’ that immediately
triggers the debate,” says Glenn Vawter, a mining
consultant and shale oil pioneer in Glenwood
Springs, Colorado. “What is it going to do to
our water? What’s it going to do to our wilderness areas? What’s it going to do to our air? And
most of all, what are the infrastructure needs for
our communities that we don’t have and where’s
the money going to come from?
“We’ve had a lot of meetings where Jeremy
has had to herd all the cats,” Vawter says. “He is
the person who always keeps the discussion and
debate on track, particularly with people on the
academic side who tend to be very opinionated
and only want to do their own thing.
“We’ve learned that when you’re talking
about oil shale, there are a lot of cats out there.”
Boak is also quoted frequently in the national and international news media.
“He’s respected as someone who is balanced
in his reporting of what’s going on,” says Vawter.
“He’s not on the side of industry or the environmental or adversary groups. He gives a balanced
report. That’s one of the good things he brings to
the debate.”
Yet, the soft-spoken Boak can also be as
stubborn as the rock samples that clutter his
office. While working at Las Alamos Labs he
successfully stood up to a group of creationists
determined to change the high school science
curriculum in New Mexico.
“We’ve also finally become engaged in the climate debate.
We can examine our long geologic history….
There are important stories to be told
about what are the conditions that cause this
and how does our current situation relate to our past.”
The son of an engineer, Boak admits to being
a geek when growing up. He remembers reading “The Universe and Dr. Einstein” when he was
nine years old and credits an eighth grade science
teacher for sparking his interest in geology.
He attended Taft with his twin brother, Jeff,
and graduated from Harvard in 1974. He applied to the Peace Corps but elected to attend
grad school instead. In 1983, he achieved his
Ph.D. in geological sciences.
Married to Anna Stafford and living in
Denver, the couple has a 16-year-old son.
“Chris is good at math and science and
is thinking about going into medicine,” says
Boak. “Some of that is the influence of TV
shows like House. There aren’t many TV shows
about geologists.
“In the movies, we’re generally portrayed as
flakes or drunks. Although, I must admit that
beer drinking is near an essential quality for geologists and it’s significant to note that our mayor,
who opened the first brew pub in Denver, was
trained at Wesleyan as a geologist.”
Boak says another misperception about geologists is their commitment to the environment.
“We have this Rodney Dangerfield image,”
he explains. “When it comes to the environment,
people think of biologists and biochemists, but
they don’t think about hydrologists and geohydrologists who are concerned about sand and
sediment and how the water that flows through
them might be contaminated.
“We’ve also finally become engaged in the
climate debate. We can examine our long geologic history and the times when the earth was
even warmer and there were no ice caps and
glaciers. There are important stories to be told
about what are the conditions that cause this and
how does our current situation relate to our past.
“Taft’s motto is Not to be served but to
serve. I imbibed that pretty heavily when I was at
school. I always saw the whole business of being
an earth scientist as having a service component
to it, trying to solve problems for the earth and
our society, even though those problems might
not be solved in my lifetime.”
Almost forty years later Boak considers
the motto of his new school, the Colorado
School of Mines.
“Our focus is on the development and stewardship of the earth’s resources,” he says.
Having studied 3.8-billion-year-old rocks,
he has a unique, if not humbling, perspective on
his life, his purpose and profession.
“Do you know the origin of the word,
stewardship?” he asks. “It’s from the Old English,
a compound of stig, which means house or hall,
and weard, which is a ward, guard or keeper.
A steward is responsible for caring for something
valuable that he doesn’t own. As a geologist, our
house or hall, that valuable piece of property
we’ve been entrusted with, is the Earth.”
Jack Sommars is a freelance writer in Littleton,
Colorado.
. The Roan Cliffs stand above the Colorado River
west of Rifle, Colorado, where the steepest part
is the oil shale itself. The richest part of the oil
shale lies north of these cliffs in an area called the
Piceance Basin, which contains enough organic
material to produce more oil than the current
reserves of Saudi Arabia. Courtesy of Jeremy Boak
“Our focus is on the development
and stewardship of the earth’s resources.”
21
Cityat
P E
AC
!
E
Working with teens in
cities around the globe
to build peace through
the performing arts.
By Sevanne “Vanni” Kassarjian ’87
Photography by Christopher Smith
I
went to my first City at Peace rehearsal twelve
years ago. I had no idea what I was watching. It
was overwhelming—the energy, the volume, the
intensity, the hormones! Seventy teenagers, ages
13 to 19, packed into one room, eating, laughing, stretching, singing…. And then, just as I
got used to the noise, I was overwhelmed again.
City at Peace, I learned, is an international nonprofit
organization that empowers teenagers to create safe, healthy,
peaceful lives and communities. Using the performing arts
as a vehicle, City at Peace is developing the next generation
of engaged community leaders, but I had no idea what that
meant until I went to that first rehearsal.
The rehearsal room was on the second floor of a bank
in Northwest Washington, D.C. They didn’t have their own
space yet and they certainly didn’t have a theater to rehearse
in. I had been invited by the artistic director, Paul Griffin
(whom I married three years later). He was working with two
kids I would have crossed the street to get away from. They
were learning how to tape onto the floor the dimensions of
the theater they would eventually be performing in.
“Measure 20 feet from the center, that’s where the wings
start. This is the edge of the stage. Right here. It drops off
into the orchestra pit so everybody better get used to stopping
right here…. Everybody, circle up!”
eate
cr
to
re
si
de
r
he
or
s
hi
on
d
se
ba
en
os
"Each [Teen] is ch
."
change in the world, not on their talent
Suddenly there was silence and focus as the group was
called to order and their work began.
Some of the teens were from group homes, some had
spent time on the street, while some were attending school
with the president’s daughter. Many had never spoken to anyone with a different skin color from their own before. Some,
still kids themselves, had their own kids with them. Some had
their younger siblings whom they were charged with caring
for in the absence of a parent.
While it was my first rehearsal, they were already well
into their year of Saturdays together and their show was only
a month away. When I arrived, among the large group of cast
members there were three adults—the director and two volunteers organizing snacks (for some cast members, the only
meal of the day). As I watched, what started out looking like
chaos to me turned out to be a well-oiled machine that still
produces theater each year that is relevant and excellent.
I listened as they worked on several songs. One slight
blonde girl mumbled shaking her head until a girl twice her
size put her arm around her and sang in her ear until she got
her back on key. Some soared, coming from the Baptist church
and confident of their voices. Then they sweated through perfecting choreography, giving it their all regardless of ability.
This is the way it works: City at Peace holds auditions all
over a city, looking for teens who represent as wide a range of
experiences, lifestyles and backgrounds as possible. Each is chosen based on his or her desire to create change in the world, not
on their talent. Most of them have never performed before.
The group meets for a year every Saturday and is led by
a team of youth within the group. They have two goals: one,
write, produce and perform an original musical from their
real-life stories and their vision for positive change, and two,
design and execute community-action projects in their cities
based on this emerging vision.
Before they get to build a show they spend months building themselves as a team. They do social change exercises in
which they discuss power and discrimination and fear and
ignorance. They develop amazing facility with topics that
adults stumble over, like race, sexuality, poverty. They do
trust exercises, dropping into each others arms and revealing more about their lives than they were aware they knew.
They tell each other their life stories, learn how to listen,
understand and work together. They sing and dance and act,
performing for each other their own work and writing, and
improvising scenes based on the topics that they cover. All
with the aim of creating their show from the building blocks
they have made themselves.
Finally, after several hours of dancing and singing they
break for lunch and then, still sweaty, return to work on
scenes in groups around the large room, preparing to present their work to each other. The rest of the cast made up the
audience in rehearsal that day and they were watching stories
from their own lives—one scene about a drunken parent, the
next, someone contemplating suicide egged on by her mirror.
The audience laughed and cried and knew when it was right.
Paul and a group of teens started City at Peace to serve a
need that they felt for a place where teens could speak their
hearts and minds and do something about the violence and
conflicts they were experiencing. (DC was the “murder capital” of the U.S. at the time and experiencing an epidemic of
youth violence.)
Since then City at Peace has grown. It is now an international organization with local programs in New York, Los
Angeles, Washington, D.C., Santa Barbara (California),
Charlotte (North Carolina), Baton Rouge (Louisiana), several
cities in Israel, and Cape Town, South Africa.
Paul and the musical director and choreographer who
work with the kids never for a moment approach the work
as if, well, they’re only kids. They demand their absolute best.
Anytime anyone isn’t giving their all, they are invited to leave;
after all, it’s free and the door is open. Cast members only stay
if they want to—and if they want to stay, then they must do
the work and respect other people who are trying.
I come from a world of professional theater, and I had assumed that the rehearsals and performances were going to be
haphazard and “fun” for the kids. But because their material
was from their lives and experiences, the stakes couldn’t have
been higher. No one plays in his/her own story and so it’s
very simple: if one cast member is creating a scene based on
the death of another cast member’s mother, they better “get it
right.” I remember eavesdropping and hearing from one scene
group, “No one talks like that. That sounds like television.”
City at Peace became a major part of my life and not
just because I would eventually marry its founder and director. Over the years I have had the honor to work on several
shows. As a professional actor and a corporate coach, I usually get asked to work on the big family scenes, the narrator,
C
ity at Peace envisions a society where
teenagers are valued, respected and
play a leading role in creating vibrant communities.
City at Peace is working with leaders in two additional cities in the U.S. to initiate new programs in
2008 and was recently awarded funding from a major international foundation, allowing expansion of
its program over the next three years and the chance
to build programs in new cities in South Africa.
Other honors include:
j 2007 Mayor’s Art Award for Outstanding
Contribution to Arts Education
(finalist in 2005 and 2006)
j 2007 Youth Pride Alliance Allies Award
j 2006 semifinalist President’s Committee on the
Arts and the Humanities Coming Up Taller Award
j 2005 Excellence in Youth Empowerment
Award from the D.C. Commission on
National and Community Service
j 2001 Margaret Mead Centennial Award
For more information, visit: www.cpnational.org
my tears are mostly out of pride. It’s a pride that leaves me
speechless at their courage and in awe at their determination
to change their world.
They have the courage to share their lives and take responsibility for them. When the curtain goes up some kids
know that their parents will recognize their life stories—the
father who has been beating his daughter privately for years or
the mother with an addiction to prescription drugs—and they
are ready to support each other in any way that’s required.
I’ve watched cast members grow up, go to college, get
married, have kids, start careers. Since I have had my own
and the tough monologues. One year I was performing in
Repertory at the Actor’s Theatre of Louisville in Kentucky
during the week before the City at Peace show. In between
my performances I would fly back to work with the cast. I
wanted to be there for them, and I wanted to see their work.
They spend the year asking each other: What do we care
about? What do we want to communicate to people about
each other and the world we live in? The answers to those
questions are why they perform.
I introduced the late Garrett Wyman ’87 to City at Peace
after we met up again years after graduation. He became a
founding member of the Board of City at Peace, now headquartered in New York. He served tirelessly to promote and
build the national organization’s initiation and growth. He
would often say: “You have to see a show to really understand
City at Peace.”
Several times during that first rehearsal I found myself
in tears. Tears for kids half my age with more experience of
pain than I could imagine; and tears of side splitting laughter. They each bring in such remarkable life stories and are
often coping with so much; and they learn to put their focus
on how to serve each other and their communities. Now
"...I found myself in tears. Tears for kids
half
my age with more experience of pain than
I could
imagine; and tears of side splitting laug
hter.
...Now my tears are mostly out of pride.
"
kids I have the biggest pool of baby sitters in New York! And
there will be some friends for life. The demands of my own
children have taken me away from all-night decision-making
sessions just before the show. But even when I was on bedrest with both of my pregnancies, a few City at Peace actors
came to work on their parts in my living room. Somewhere
along the way I became the de facto adviser for those interested in pursuing careers in theater. Even as I write this I
am aware of application deadlines looming, thinking “if his
mother has kicked him out, how do we fill out the parent
information section…?”
At the end of the first rehearsal, I was scooped up and
hugged by about 12 kids in rapid succession. Over the years
of watching hundreds of teens get their hugs at the end of
each rehearsal (a City at Peace tradition), my appreciation of
something that I first saw as almost quaint has grown into
awe. For some of them, this is the only affirmation they get.
It’s so powerful for these young people who have all the money
in the world but whose parents are too busy to hug them, for
teenagers who have no parents, for teenagers who only know
physicality as violence. It’s basic, fundamental. Teenagers need
it to grow and they are still growing kids.
Rate My Ride
Consumer Reports
Senior Automotive Editor
Gordon Hard ’70
Helps Buyers See
Beyond the Sticker
By Michael Kodas
I
t’s understandable that readers of Consumer Reports would
expect Gordon Hard to be driven. As a Consumer Reports
senior editor for automobiles, he pens some of the most
influential words in the automotive industry. Even his email
address—a combination of the “Go” of his first name and the
“Hard” of his surname—implies intensity.
But like a lot of the vehicles he writes about, the expectations are deceiving. While his words and his driving (at least
when he’s at the testing facility) live up to his name, Gordon
presents a decidedly laid-back figure in person.
His relationship with cars began when he was 13 and his
parents gave him and his brother a 1950 DeSoto to dismantle
and rebuild.
“We got pretty good at the first part,” he reports on the
Consumer Reports website.
After high school, he undertook his first great road test
when he drove a 1971 Volkswagen Microbus from Connecticut
to Nicaragua. The trip was a teenager’s dream, which Gordon
continues today in a job that allows him to drive home a different car every night if he chooses to. He clearly continues to
enjoy that part of the job, but admits there are a few drawbacks. Everyone at the facility knows who puts every little
dent and ding into each of the cars they test, and occasionally Gordon forgets what car he drove to the supermarket.
“A couple times I’ve tried to get into someone else’s car because it was like the one I had yesterday,” Gordon recalls.
Gordon maintains a low-key and informal approach to a
job requiring the utmost precision. He’s an apt reflection of
the entire staff at the Consumer Reports 327-acre auto test
facility at a former drag strip in East Haddam, Connecticut.
29
“We’re rigidly egalitarian here,” Gordon says.
There are no lab coats, but plenty of denim. Gordon’s wearing khakis, sneakers, a plaid shirt and wire-rimmed glasses under
a faded Taft baseball cap. His jacket bears a logo for the testing
facility—a steering wheel with the Consumer Reports bull’s-eye
at its center. A Woodstock prep school student scrawled the
design on a napkin during a field trip to the testing track.
Gordon enjoys telling the tale of the way the logo made
it to his jacket almost as much as he does driving around the
bigger version of the Consumer Reports symbol that sits at
the center of the test track’s skid pad. Here the bull’s-eye is
surrounded by pavement-lane markings at 200- and 250-foot
diameters that make the entire pad look like a gigantic record
player. One of the astronauts, as Gordon likes to call the test
drivers, accelerates around a 25-foot-wide lane at increasing
speeds until he or she can no longer keep the car within the
lane. An accelerometer measures the lateral forces to determine the vehicle’s ultimate cornering grip. Giving a tour of
the facility, Gordon drives the circuit just fast enough to lean
his passengers against the doors of the Mercedes he’s taken out.
He races down the track’s straightaway, a leftover from its
previous life as a drag strip. An adjacent mile-long serpentine
handling circuit is patterned off the Lime Rock Park racetrack.
Braking tests are conducted on wet and dry pavement. Another
braking test uses a wetted-pavement “split mu” surface in which
the pavement under the left tires is slicker than the pavement
under the right side of the car. Cars with antilock brakes stop
straight, those without will spin completely around here.
The testing center has a full complement of its own road
maintenance and paving equipment, and gets help from the
Connecticut Department of Transportation to maintain precise
and consistent grip coefficients, but that doesn’t mean that the
track is made up entirely of good roads. Each vehicle tested at
the facility also visits what they call the “REC” road, for Ride
Evaluation Course, a 1.5-mile course through the woods with
precisely placed potholes, dips, manholes, drainage grates,
cracked pavement, and uneven joints. There’s an off-road course
with a bog that vehicles must occasionally be winched out of
and a rock hill that challenges the best all-terrain vehicles. Tires
are also tested at the facility, as well as at a snow-covered parking
lot of the Jay Peak ski area in northern Vermont.
While Consumer Reports has one of the best-equipped
automotive proving grounds (no car magazine has a comparable track), the best-known automobile testing instruments
and characters promoting automotive safety, the crash test
dummies, are nowhere to be found there.
“We don’t do any crash tests, (at least) on purpose,” Gordon
says. “We drive them hard here but we don’t injure them.”
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and the
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration handle collision tests. Consumer Reports, on the other hand, purchases
all of the vehicles it tests, and sells them used, with low but
hard mileage, when they are done with their tests.
Cars are fitted with a variety of high-tech meters and
sensors during their testing, but some of the most important
measurements are subjective.
“Some things are impossible to do strictly empirically,”
says Senior Engineer Gabriel Shenhar.
Noisiness is a good example, Gordon points out. Road
noise in the test vehicles is measured with microphones, but
the subjective analysis of the engineers is a better gauge.
“A noise might be low in decibels, but still be raucous and
annoying to a lot of people,” Gordon says. “You won’t pick it
up on a scope, but you will pick it up from people who will
say ‘I hate that noise.’”
So the engineers are the most important part of the vehicle testing process, and can have a far greater impact on the
automotive industry by running tests at Consumer Reports
than they can working for manufacturers.
“Nobody has invented a means to measure ride comfort,”
Gabriel says. “The rear ends of our engineers here are the most
precise instruments in the world.”
“Classy asses,” adds Gordon.
Gordon’s role in the process is to take the engineers’ detailed testing reports and turn them into something that any
car buyer can understand. He writes at least ten road-test reports a year, along with material for the magazine’s special
automotive publications, buying guides, and additional stories for ConsumerReports.org and its blog.
Gordon has noticed that the tensions between Consumer
Reports and various automotive manufacturers has eased
since executives from the companies have started visiting the
car testing facility regularly.
“There used to be this perception … that Consumer
a cigarette-puffing robot that proved that no brand of cigarette
was substantially less harmful than another.
The test result backfired when one cigarette manufacturer,
which Bill Hard’s article identified as having infinitesimally
lower amounts of tar and nicotine than other brands, published
full-page advertisements bragging that the Reader’s Digest story
showed they made healthier cigarettes. It’s a ploy encountered
a few times at Consumer Reports, and is why the magazine has
a “no-commercialization” policy that prohibits companies from
republishing scores or quotes from the magazine.
It’s not surprising that Gordon’s identical twin brother
Robert is a writer and editor too, though he works for a
German chemical and nuclear fuel company that has the almost-satirical moniker NUKEM.
“We don’t do any crash tests, (at least) on purpose.
We drive them hard here but we don’t injure them.”
Reports hated Detroit, which was never true,” Gordon says.
“But based on our tests the Japanese cars usually beat the
domestics because they were made better, more reliable, and
with more attention to detail. So they scored better in our
tests. It’s just that simple.
“They want a pass for patriotic reasons,” Gordon says.
“Well, we can’t do that.
“We sometimes feel bad because we know that Detroit’s
in a lot of trouble and when we criticize their cars, we hurt
their sales and that means somebody’s career is going to be
hurt as well. But we also feel that Detroit’s troubles are selfinflicted. They’ve had 25 years to get their act together since
Toyota started being a real competitor.
“We learn something about their decision-making process. Maybe there is an overlooked virtue they want to tell
us about,” Gordon says. “And we can tell them things that
people within their company don’t want to bring up because
few people want to give their boss bad news.”
Gordon began his tenure at Consumer Reports in 1984 at
the magazine’s headquarters, where he wrote about consumer
electronics and food. But after a steady diet of walkmans and
popcorn, “I jumped at the chance to write about something
more interesting than mayonnaise,” adds Gordon.
Gordon got his start in the business continuing his family’s
legacy at Reader’s Digest. His grandfather, William Hard, Sr.,
was a roving editor of Reader’s Digest and is famed as one of
America’s original muckraking reporters who crusaded for social reforms in articles penned for the Nation, New Republic
and Saturday Evening Post. Gordon’s father was also a longtime
editor at Reader’s Digest, whom Time magazine referred to as
“nervous, nicotinous William Hard, Jr.” He once tracked down
“If you live in a house with lots of books and gifted storytellers, where no subject is taboo, and where the world and its
curiosities is always Topic A, then it’s not unusual to gravitate
towards editorial work, which provides a continuous information fix,” Gordon says.
For Gordon’s own son, Hayden, 11, the job at Consumer
Reports provides plenty of fringe benefits. A hill where they
test how cars handle in the snow, occasionally with snow they
manufacture, is also perfect for sledding.
“Sometimes we have snow when nobody else does and we
bring our kids in for sledding. It’s great,” Gordon says. “They
slide down and they get a ride up.”
Reports on the sleds have been suggested, Gordon says.
“If we could find an objective test panel.”
Michael Kodas is a photojournalist, picture editor and writer at
the Hartford Courant and author of the upcoming book High
Crimes: The Fate of Everest in an Age of Greed.
31
F r o m t h e A r c h i v es
Things You Don’t Often See Anymore
by Archivist Alison Picton
the library:
using the card catalog
Just ask Peter Frew ’75…
digitization changed all that
in 1995.
Leslie D. Manning Archives
seniors hanging out on
the senior fence, 1940
Captains’ photos were taken
on the fence for many years as
well, in the Yale tradition.
playing cards and smoking in Wade, the senior house, 1960
Beginning in 1938, Headmaster Paul Cruikshank forbade card-playing in dorm rooms without permission. The rule was finally dropped
from the Student Handbook in 1967. The 1938 New Boy Book also laid out a complicated smoking rule for uppermids and seniors, but by
the early 1940s only seniors were allowed to smoke, and then only at the Senior House. Cigarettes were banned entirely in 1988.
students shoveling snow
During World War II Headmaster Paul Cruikshank initiated
the Job Program, which required all boys to do some of
the manual labor around the school. Now the facilities and
grounds staffs do most of those jobs.
F r o m t h e A r c h i v es
making solid geometry models in
the basement of the Annex, 1950
While they existed principally for the use of the school’s maintenance staff, the
Woodworking and Machine Shops were available to boys interested in building
things during their free time. Both facilities were popular beginning with World
War II, when extracurricular courses in mechanics and technical trades were
offered (and boys had “hobbies”).
letters from home…
or from a girlfriend. Finding mail
in one’s PO box, when the message
was an object that had a feel, a
weight, a scent, her handwriting…
laundry day
Around 1967. Once a week, the Main Lobby and Headmaster’s Entrance became laundry central. A laundry service still
exists for those who choose it, but deliveries have moved downstairs, and each dorm is equipped with washers and dryers.
Set the record
straight.
old photo? Have more, or
golf anyone?
more accurate, information?
Until the mid-1960s the school’s own 18-hole course approached the edge
Kindly share it with us.
of the campus. Some dormitories actually sit on early parts of the course.
Recognize someone in an
Email reiffj@TaftSchool.org
or write to Julie Reiff, editor,
Taft Bulletin, 110 Woodbury
Road, Watertown, CT 06795.
Fifty years from now,
what sights that are commonplace now won’t we see?
Taft Bulletin
The Taft School
110 Woodbury Road
Watertown, CT 06795-2100
860.945.7777
www.TaftAlumni.com
Change Service Requested
Non-profit Org.
U.S. Postage
PAID
Permit No. 101
Burl., VT 05401

Rate My Ride ROCKof Our

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