Becoming Magazine 2013

The Harley School. Committed to our motto, “Become what thou art.”The Harley School. Committed to our motto, “Become what thou art.”

2013

Class Notes

The Myth of Specialization

From Gap to Growth: Four Harley alumni talk about the greatest benefits of their gap years

The Commons Unveiled

Harley Tennis Coach and Member of the Faculty, John Dolan, Ph.D. Shares his Perspective and Experiencesby John Dolan, Ph.D.

Alumni:

Every Issue:


The Myth of Specialization

Letter from the Head of School

Commencement and College Choices

By The Numbers

Archives: Give Me an ‘H’

New at Harley: Meet Ward

Sports Wrap-Up

f e atures:

Learn About the Programs Housed in Harley’s Newly Constructed Living Building by Karissa Raymond

Four Harley Alumni Talk About the Greatest Benefits of Their Gap Yearsby Nancy Weltchek

From Gap to Growth121826

4678911

Robert Sands ’76

Charles Fallon ’60

Jane Merrill ’08

Class Notes & Photos 30-49

Making an Impact 54

What I’ve Learned 55

Become What Thou Art 53

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HEAD of SCHOOL

Ward J. Ghory, Ed.D.

EDITOR and PUBLISHER

Aimee J. Lewis

ART DIRECTOR and DESIGNER

Lisa Osborne Lange ’74

EDITORIAL ASSISTANT

Jenna Wainwright

EDITORIAL CONSULTANT

Ceil Goldman

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS John Dolan, Ph.D., Rosie Gilroy ’13, Matt Hurley,Peter Mancuso, Karissa Raymond, Nancy Weltchek

CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Lindsay Arena ’15, Colin Huth, Ken Huth, Ron Kalasinskas,

Lisa Osborne Lange ’74, Lauren McLaughlin, Raj Singaravelu, Terry Smith, and submissions from our community

DIRECTOR of DEVELOPMENT

Debra Weiss Walker ’83

DEVELOPMENT and ALUMNI RELATIONS STAFF

Karen Saludo, Anne Townsend, Jenna Wainwright

THE HARLEY SCHOOL

1981 Clover StreetRochester, NY 14618

(585) 442-1770

Becoming Magazine welcomes letters from readers. Please send correspondence to the above address

care of Becoming Magazine editor. Letters may be edited for publication.

Becoming Magazine is published by The Harley School.

E-MAIL QUESTIONS and STORY IDEAS [email protected]

ONLINE www.harleyschool.org

POSTMASTER

Send address changes to: Becoming Magazine The Harley School 1981 Clover Street Rochester, NY 14618

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his summer, a letter to faculty and staff from our new head of school, Ward Ghory, began, “With pride and pleasure, I am putting my shoulder to the wheels you have turning at Harley.” This imagery led me to think of the work of the School, the collaborative efforts of many to define and refine the best experiences for our students—and now with new leadership, who joins us in the work before us. As we close in on the opening of The Commons, we will soon celebrate our accomplishments and new offerings for students afforded by this remarkable, environmentally sustainable building, which has a goal of net-zero operation. Beyond the amazing building itself, I am struck by the opportunities our students will have to lead initiatives and create new practices for environ-mental sustainability, civic responsibility, service learning, and project-based learning. They will create not just The Commons and its programs, but a shared purpose as they follow their individual and collective paths, and experience an education that prepares them for college, a career, and productive adulthood. With nearly 100 years as a foundation and the hard work of so many, we are in a position of great strength to carry forward our mission, our values, our principles, and our support of students as we Become what thou art. With that mission in mind, I hope you enjoy this issue of Becoming Magazine. Take the time to learn more about Mr. Ghory on [pages 4 and 9], to understand why we are so excited about The Commons [page 18], to reflect with faculty member John Dolan on the importance of balance in students’ lives [page 26], and to share what our alumni are experiencing from their profiles and Class Notes.

Join us in the exciting and rewarding year to come.

Aimee J. LewisEditor

2013

from the editor.

© 2013

Letter from the Head of School

Commencement and College Choices

By The Numbers

Archives: Give Me an ‘H’

New at Harley: Meet Ward

Sports Wrap-Up

Charles Fallon ’60

Class Notes & Photos 30-49

Making an Impact 54

Become What Thou Art 53

T

4 | Be coming Magazine

The Harley School1981 Clover Street, Rochester, NY 14618

Candidate Approaches Podium:

“Joy in Learning”Greetings, Harley. I thought I’d introduce myself to the extended Harley community in this article the same way I introduced myself when still a candidate. As part of the head of school finalist interview process, I was invited to address the faculty and staff (and later parents and alumni) on “an educational topic of my choice.” This open-ended assignment is a fair but complex test. School leaders articulate ideas, shape perspectives, resolve conflicting opinions, and defend decisions continuously. They propose the language, values, and principles that reveal a school’s philosophy in action. On ritual school occa-sions, they are entrusted to give voice to a community’s emotional responses, standing symbolically for the whole. Placing the prospective leader in the position of public speaker enacts an important future role.

A candidate preparing to speak faces several challenges. Despite consulting many contacts and resources, he knows remarkably little about what makes this school tick. During rounds of interviews he learns little more and so must balance a welter of first reactions. In the end, I vowed to speak personally and let people know why I wanted this job.

To do so, I turned for inspiration to Alfred North Whitehead, a wise classicist with unexpectedly radical tendencies. I’ve long admired Whitehead’s essays and lectures. His clarity comes from great compres-sion of thought. In a collection published more than 60 years ago, Whitehead writes about the aims of education, offering a war-weary England a vision that evoked the heritage they had fought to preserve (Alfred North Whitehead, The Aims of Education and Other Essays (New York: New American Library, 1949).

My favorite essay provides a down-to-earth metaphor describing the rhythms by which a developing mind learns. I hoped teachers would leave my talk able to use Whitehead’s metaphor of a three-step rhythm of learning the very next day. Following are excerpts from what I chose to say:

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Joy in LearningToday I want you to get an underlying sense of why I’m applying to lead Harley. The short answer is: I am drawn here because of two remarkable phrases your school uses to describe itself: “joy in learning” and “become what thou art.” Let me explain the connection.

I attended Catholic boys’ schools through twelfth grade, where “joy in learning” was not on my teachers’ Top Ten list. My education consisted of too much time learning about subjects other people had analyzed and organized for me, and of too little time learning by doing—i.e., solving problems I had helped pose or define.

As a result I am driven to understand and create more authentic ways of learning. To do so, I draw on what Whitehead calls “the rhythm of learning.” He proposes that all significant learning moves through three phases, which he terms Romance, Precision, and Generalization. My thesis today is that true joy in learning requires attention to all three phases.

Lasting learning starts with Romance—those magic moments when we catch a first glimpse of the beauty and power of an insight or idea. Walking around Harley, I watched students in glass flamework class mesmerized by the marble they were shaping in the hottest part of the flame. I saw middle-schoolers bowed over three-dimensional bugs they were building in art class and admired high-schoolers tackling Turner’s “frontier thesis” in history and “approaching the limit” in calculus. When Romance bowls us over, we see with fresh eyes and get carried away by expanding possibilities starting to make sense.

Alas, we can’t stay forever in the wonder of an “AHA” moment. Bringing system and order to informa-tion holds its own special power and pleasure. The great academic disciplines introduce time-tested approaches to analyzing and synthesizing information. Students acquire a taste for precision by asking questions. Around Harley’s discussion circles, at the science bench, and in rehearsal, I have watched your students learning how to formulate their own understandings with accuracy and clarity.

Many schools over-emphasize a false notion of rigor. But Precision—organizing intriguing information in valid and systematic ways—is just not the whole answer. Progressive schools challenge students to do something with what they are beginning to understand. Whitehead calls this final stage Generalization. He considers this the fruit of knowledge, the goal of the developing organism. Through Generalization we expand and apply what we know. Channeling the insight and energy of Romance through the tools of Precision to arrive at the powers of Generalization, we can at last construct our own answers to ques-tions that provoke us. When third graders plan and plant a garlic garden, then brand and market their “Harlic” produce, they’re experiencing the full rhythm of learning.

For me, “joy in learning” comes when students work through all three phases of a complete cycle of learning. So I like it when graduates come back from college and tell me how well prepared they are, how efficiently they study, how readily they can write papers. (That’s Precision.) And I like it even better when they say, “Mr. Ghory, the place where I discovered my passion was at your school.” (That’s Romance.) The most satisfying moment of all, however, typically comes after college, when our grown children come to show us what they are becoming, to tell us what they are doing with the interests we helped them identify and explore. (That’s Generalization at its finest.)

It is through repetition of this deep and joyful rhythm of learning that our students can “become what thou art.” Secure identities grow from the inside-out. Let’s help our children stand up for emerging values and act on questions they have learned to ask. This is the fruit of our labor, our highest calling.

I am seeking the privilege of leading The Harley School so I too can continue to become who I am. Put simply, I want to work in a school attuned to the rhythm of joy in learning.

COLLEGE CHOICESAlfred UniversityArizona Culinary InstituteBrown UniversityCase Western Reserve UniversityConnecticut CollegeFordham UniversityGenesee Community CollegeGeorge Washington University Gettysburg CollegeHobart and William Smith CollegesIthaca CollegeKeuka CollegeLoyola University, MarylandMonroe Community CollegeNew York UniversityRochester Institute of TechnologySaint Anselm CollegeSchool of the Art Institute of ChicagoSUNY College at GeneseoUniversity of California, BerkeleyUniversity of RochesterUniversity of PittsburghVanderbilt UniversityVassar CollegeWellesley CollegeWesleyan University

2013Commencement


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1,000

the equivalent number of lightbulbs turned off,during the Day in the Dark

percentage of the senior class

currently in the Rochester

PhilharmonicYouth Orchestra

percentage of thesenior class

currently in the Rochester

PhilharmonicYouth Orchestra

242

50,000

1number of years

that Harley students have participated

in the Scottish exchange

program:

Valentines madeby primary

studentsand

delivered tofolks receiving

Meals onWheels

number of requiredcourses in the Artsfor Upper School students. Offeringsinclude World Opera,glass, ceramics, andchildren’s theater

electronic billboards in Times Squarewhere a photo from Harley’s glass studiowas aired in 10-minute intervals all day

as part of a NAIS promotion

Public Relations Society of AmericaAward forBecoming Magazine:Best Not-For-ProfitMagazine

approximately

bees housed in Harley’sfirst apiary

1924 The year HARLEY was named(the combination of the first 3 and last 3 letters in the name of one of its founders, Harriet Bentley. It was formerly “The Children’s University School of Rochester”

The year HARLEY was founded

Harley Circle members

1939 The year the alma mater was first sung. It was written by the class of 1941 in their sophomore year

2013 The year The Commons

opens

The address on Oxford Street before HARLEY moved to 1981 Clover Street in 1926

900gallons of wastewater flow saved by not printing the School calendar on paper from virgin-cut wood.

By the Numbers

Archives


1940s – 1990sHarley (later HAC) cheerleaders, clad in white bobby socks, skirts, and letter-bearing sweaters boosted the morale and added pep to Harley’s athletic teams for nearly 50 years. Liz (Betty) Curtis ’47, a member of the Harley squad in the 40s recalls the good times she had with the other girls and how they had to make their own skirts out of white waffle pique fabric. Until the 70s, squad members were required to provide their own uniform, but that changed when Cynthia Hallenbeck Libby ’72 cheered for HAC. “… [In] grade 10, I thought that playing a sport would be great so joined the field hockey team and then cheered in the winter for the basketball team (I was way too short to play basketball … ). It was fun to do both! I also remember when Title IX passed in June 1972 discussing with Steve Hinrichs the fact that the cheerleaders were required to buy their uniforms—it took a bit of time to change, but it did! Lots of fun and great memories! The cheering I do now is for the Yankees but strictly from the stands with my daughters.”

Kim Meagher Salisbury ’76 recollects, “It was fun to be on the squad with ‘the older girls’. One grade above me, but a world apart. I tried everything at Harley. Underneath my cheer outfit [was] my soccer uniform!” “[Now], I cheer for my kids, for my husband, for my employees, for my animals… and I still occasionally perform ‘FIRRRRRE UP! Spark the spirit! Pour on the heat! Harley Braves can’t be BEAT!’ at parties … (no joke!).”

“Cheerleading was an ongoing part of my time at Harley,” reflects Vicki Delmonte Durfee ’75, “even starting back before we merged sports with Allendale/Columbia. We cheered for football, soccer and basketball. And when Jim Durfee ’75 scored a goal or made a basket, I got to do the cheer for him! I’m still his biggest fan.”

Bob Joslyn, former Harley athletic director, remembers how successful the program was, spur-ring him to bring in a cheerleading coach from “the outside” to work with the girls. Students earned athletic credit for their participation in the program. When interest waned in the 1990s, parents, teammates, faculty, and friends took over the role of firing up the players with cheers of encouragement from the sidelines. And now we get our spirit from Wolfie, the HAC mascot.

Harley

by Jenna Wainwright

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New at Harleyan interveiw by Rosie Gilroy ’13as editor of Acorn Press her senior year

Since I hadn’t yet met Mr. Ghory when I was

asked to interview him, I jumped at the chance

to introduce myself when I passed him in the

Gallery. I’ll always remember the first time I

met Mr. Ghory—not because it was the morning

after Senior Prank Night, so the setting for our

discussion was a bit, well, pranked—but because

even though we’d never met before we ended up

talking for at least 20 minutes. I know that

Mr. Ghory will be a fantastic leader of The Harley

School: he’s easy to talk to, really interested in the

students, and, as you will learn from this inter-

view, bringing a wealth of knowledge and experi-

ence to our School. I’m only sad that I won’t be a

Harley student while Mr. Ghory is head of school.

What did you do in education previously that led you to The Harley School?I became a teacher to make schools better places to grow and learn for children and adults. In schools, I could pursue my concern for social justice and my love of learning. During my final semester at Yale, I had my initiation into the trials and joys of inner-city public education as a student teacher at Sheridan Junior High School in New Haven, Conn.Leading up to Harley, my career can be divided into three phases:

1. The Cincinnati Public Schools: After college, I joined the public schools of my hometown in four formative roles—as a secondary-school English teacher, as the co-founder of a magnet school, as the planner and evaluator of a K-12 urban school improvement program, and as an academic assistant principal. In intermittent years away from teaching, I earned a doctorate in curriculum studies, completing my dissertation research on factors influencing student engagement in 31 alternative schools. I will bring to my Horizons work a belief in “the public purpose of private schools” based on 13 years of public school experience.

2. Buckingham Browne & Nichols School, director of the Upper School: I came into my own as a leader at BB&N. During my 12 years there, in Cambridge, Mass., BB&N came to be seen as a school on the move, the urban school of choice in Boston. We changed the sched-ule, created interdisciplinary curricula, formed a diverse faculty, and took greater instructional advantage of our in-town setting. Higher enrollment, increased fundraising, and improved college selectivity soon followed. While at BB&N, I published two books with Robert L. Sinclair: Reaching Marginal Students (based on my dissertation), and Reaching and Teaching All Children (extending our ideas through a national coalition of 65 public schools in six states).

3. University School of Milwaukee, head of school: In eleven years as head of a preK-12 coed day school of 1,070 students, I led USM through two successful strategic plans. We completed a two-phase, $44 million “Next Generation” campaign that added $15 million to our endowment and expanded our facilities by 20 percent, while remodel-ing 80 percent of our academic spaces. Among other initiatives, I am especially proud that our faculty conceived and endorsed a revised faculty evaluation system, a new preK-12 curriculum review process, a preK-12 globalization theme, and an improved professional develop-ment program. I could now define myself as an academic leader.


What was your first impression of The Harley School? What stood out to you?I felt confident and comfortable at Harley from the start, due to the outreach of the search committee. There was an unpretentious, friendly, smart vibe that signaled Harley had created an intentional commu-nity based on values, principles, and questions that I shared. It was a pleasure to review Harley’s roster of distinctive programs supplement-ing its lively core curriculum. I knew this was a school reaching beyond traditional “college prep” practices. Serious people were at work and play! I had also been looking for a community exploring sustainability, civic engagement, and holistic education: so I was glad to see Harley teachers experimenting with project-based and hands-on learning.

What are your plans for The Harley School? What do you think your Harley legacy will be?For me there is no better work than leading a school community through its next cycle of change and improvement. I enjoy the shared process of making, then carrying to fruition, a strategic plan that works. I look forward to defining recognizable needs, proposing achievable plans, and seeking the resources required to accomplish the priorities we set. The direction we take will naturally be influenced by my values and insights. But the sign on the arch says, “The Harley School,” not “The Ward Ghory School!” Meaningful improvement grows out of this school’s particular mission. When I step down, I hope people can say, “He helped us become better and more sustain-able at what we value most.”

What was your favorite subject in school?Maybe it started with all the stories my mother read to me as a child on her lap in our rocker, but I have always been drawn toward the humanities and social sciences. My physician father made sure his only son studied mathematics and science, but literature, history, world languages, and philosophy captured my imagination. It’s fair to say, though, that I really began to master English and history when I had to teach them to others.

Can you tell me anything about your family? I’ve heard that your wife enjoys photography. Rochester is certainly the perfect place to explore that!Rosie, you will smile to learn that I consider it one of my accomplish-ments to have raised three sons who want, and can more or less afford, to live in New York City! My oldest son, Joe, who married the fair Amanda last summer, lives overlooking the East River in Brooklyn. Joe specializes in technology placements at Russell Reynolds, an executive search firm; Amanda is a senior merchandising manager with Kate Spade. My middle son, Adam, is a Flash animator by day and an indie rock star by night. Adam built his own completely analog recording studio in Brooklyn. Look for his recent LP, Beards of Summer. Our youngest, Michael, is “the shoe guy”; he recently completed his MBA at Columbia and is coordinating Coach Inc.’s efforts to expand into women’s and men’s footwear. My wife, Anne, is a professor emerita of design and photography with an active international portfolio. She is teaching environmental design in the graduate program at RIT, and looking for ways to join Rochester’s vibrant art scene.

What do you think of Rochester so far? What have you already done here?In just our first two weeks, we appreciated how Harley people reached out to us—the grandparents/alumni/past parents who hosted us in the apartment over their barn for all our visits to town, a teacher who brought his own kids and then some Harley students over to help us unpack, a trustee who squired us around the Jazz Festival, a trustee who dropped off soup, another trustee who included us on July 4, a parent who helped Anne line our pantry with shelf paper, a parent and daughter who took us on a driving tour, the maintenance guys who moved furniture—such outreach speaks volumes about the community we have joined.

September 22, 2013. Ward and his family who attendedthe Installation. From left: Michael, Ward, Anne, Amanda, Joe. Not pictured, son Adam.

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Isabel Hirtelen-Booker ’13, Grace O’Brien ’13 , and Amanda Hall ’13, were this year’s recipients of the Ralph S. McKee Trophy, awarded to Har-ley student-athletes who have displayed the great-est amount of dedication, leadership, and ability in athletics. Honorees are

also expected to be positive role models and academically successful students. Hirtelen-Booker was a multiple state champion in the hurdles, but also was an accomplished volleyball player and swimmer. O’Brien was on the Wolves soccer, swimming, and track and field teams, playing an integral role in the success of all of them. Hall competed on the HAC soccer, bowling, and softball teams, and was a positive influence and successful competitor her entire HAC career.

The boys’ tennis team extended the Wolves’ streak of at least one sec-tional team title a year to 20 years when they defeated Batavia in the Class BB team sectional finals. It was the team’s seventeenth champion-ship title over-all and their ninth since the turn of the century.

state qualifiers

mckee winners

sectional champs

scholar athlete

boys' tennis team

HAC

all greater rochester

Last school year, five HAC student-athletes earned the privilege of going to states to represent both their schools and section five. Aamir Zain ’14 capped off a fan-tastic cross-country season by securing a berth in the New York State cross-country meet at sectionals. Matt van Niekerk ’13 placed second in supersectionals in golf, qualifying him for the state tournament where he placed third. Jordan Ben-jamin ’15 and Aaron Mevorach ’14 won the state qualifier doubles tourna-ment and then made a very impressive run at the state tournament, finishing third. Isabel Hirtelen-Booker ’13 completed a stellar track and field career with a second place finish in the hurdles during her final state meet.

The 2012-13 athletic season saw section five crown four different HAC student-athletes as individual champions. Matt van Niekerk ’13 won the Class C individual golf championship. Isabel Hirtelen-Booker ’13 won the 100 meter dash, 200 meter dash and the 100 meter hurdles at track and f ield sectionals. While Jordan Benjamin ’15 and Aaron Mevorach ’14

were champions in the Class B doubles tennis tournament, defeating teammates Walker Zupan ’14 and Ethan Kennedy ’14.

For the fourth c o n s e c u t i v e s c h o o l y e a r , H A C was rec-ognized by the New York State P u b l i c H i g h School AthleticA s s o c i a t i o n (NYSPHSAA) with the Scholar-Athlete Team School of Dis-

tinction Award. All 18 varsity athletic teams qualified for the NYSPHSAA Scholar-Athlete Team Award by earning grades of 90 percent or higher, qualifying HAC for this prestigious award.

Last spring, the Democrat and Chronicle recognized four HAC student-athletes as All-Greater Rochester (AGR) all-stars in their respective sports. Jordan Ben-jamin ’15 and Aaron Mevorach ’14 were selected to their second straight team for their prowess in tennis. Isabel Hirtelen-Booker ’13 was named to the team for the third consecutive year as a standout in track and field, and Matt van Niekerk ’13 was chosen for a second time for his accomplishments in golf.

Lloyd’s spark and equestrian skills earned her an invitation to return to Spain to work at one of the largest horse-breeding farms in Europe.

youth exchanges. “I took a deep breath and said to myself, ‘Yes, I will talk.’ ” In the reception that followed, an older gentleman sporting a horse-printed tie com-pl imented Lloyd on her remarks; she complimented him on his neckwear. In the ensuing conversation, Lloyd learned that Juan Miguel, as he introduced himself, owned one of the largest horse-breeding farms in Europe, Yeguada El Pomar. “He welcomed me to pay a visit,” Lloyd recalls. “How about Tuesday?” she asked, needing to move quickly, as she was leaving Spain in only five days. Forty-eight hours later, Lloyd was headed north to Santander, where she spent two days visiting the breeding laboratories and riding the horses

“Always say yes,” advises Maggie Lloyd.Lloyd, an equestrian who grew up on a horse farm in Geneseo, N.Y., left Spain at the end of her gap year with an invitation to work at one of the largest horse breeding farms in Europe—all because she said yes to a casual invitation. “At the end of my gap year, I attended the annual Rotary Conference for Spain,” says Lloyd, who lived with a host family in Zaragoza—Spain’s fifth-largest city—for 11 months. She and a few other Spain-based Rotary exchange students were not slated to speak at the meeting, but when the chairwoman’s PowerPoint stalled, Lloyd found a microphone thrust in her face and an expectant audience of 100 Rotary sponsors waiting to hear about the benefits of long-term


From Gap to Growth:

Maggie Lloyd ’11

Didrik Soderstrom ’08

Taylor Holloran ’11

Will Willsea ’10

LFacing Yourself in Patagonia

Always Say Yes

Always Say Yes


Maggie Lloyd ’11

Feeling Peace at the Bottom of the Ocean

Will Willsea ’10


Facing Yourself in Patagonia

by Nancy Weltchek

at a farm known for being one of two (the other is in Germany) in Europe to successfully conduct an embryo transplant in a horse. Her equestrian skills and sharp intellect made such an impression on Juan Miguel and his family that they extended Lloyd an open invitation to come back and help with the business. Lloyd, the only American in the Zaragoza high school she attended, also left Spain with a community of friendships. “I made a whole reality for myself in another country,” she says, describing a group of ten girlfriends whose bonds are as strong as those among her friends at home. “Culture makes people different, but if you can see through cultural and linguistic differences, you can have a great relationship with anyone.” Reflecting on her year, Lloyd says, “I became more strongly who I am. When I got to Carlton College, I thought, ‘This is more for me.’ ”

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From Gap to Growth:

Maggie Lloyd ’11



Will Willsea ’10


Always Say Yes

From Gap to Growth:

Maggie Lloyd ’11



Will Willsea ’10


Always Say Yes

From Gap to Growth:From Gap to Growth:

Maggie Lloyd ’11



Will Willsea ’10


Always Say Yes

ccording to data from the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA, about 1.2 percent of first-time college freshmen choose to defer enrollment for a year. This relatively small number, however, belies what college admissions directors and students alike herald as the dual benefit of the so-called gap year: personal and professional development.

In 2012, Holly Bull, president of the Center for Interim Programs, an organization that’s been counseling on

gap years since 1980, told Time magazine that colleges are beginning to endorse this planned break between

high school and college as “a really positive thing.” Princeton University saw such value in the concept that it

established a tuition-free “bridge year” program that offers sponsored service programs in five international

locations. In 2011, the National Association for College Admission Counseling hosted a panel focused

exclusively on gap years. At the time, the group’s director of public policy and research told Forbes that while

data didn’t yet exist, anecdotal evidence supported the value of the growing phenomenon. Bull concurred.

Students who take a gap year, she reported to Forbes, arrive at college more focused and often do better

academically, an opinion borne out in an assessment Middlebury College conducted among its own students.

Maggie Lloyd, pictured on the banks of the Ebro River across from the Basilica of Our Lady of Pillar, in Zaragoza, Spain.

From Ahus, Söderström made regular calls to Dramaten, the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm. “I kept calling and bugging them, ‘Is there any way I can help out?’ Finally they said yes.” Söderström landed an assignment with the Ingmar Bergman International Experimental Theatre Festival. His job was to pick up the actors and directors at the Stockholm airport and chaperone them around the city, an assignment that gave him one of the two biggest challenges of the year: figuring out Stockholm, a city of islands, well enough to be a bona fide guide. (The other was learning Swedish.) “I’d take the subway to a random spot in a region where I would have to take the artists. I would stand on a corner and note the intersection. Then I would draw a map of the city as I was walking it,” Söderström says. By creating and memorizing his own map, he figured out where he would need to take people. “It worked,” he notes with pride. “I knew the city.” After leaving Sweden and the lessons he learned there, Söderström was taken under the wing of Garry McQuinn, a producer who went on to be nominated for a Tony award. “I’m going to show you the way to make a living in this business,” Quinn told Söderström. “Garry McQuinn taught me the single greatest rule, and that is to keep up with your connections,” advice Söderström lives by every day. “You never know who is going to be in the room when you walk in for an audition. It could be someone you kept up a connection with. “I have had the advantage of the chance to both reflect and connect—and each has proved vital in my life.”

Didrik Söderström ’08, a Swedish-American citizen, says he didn’t feel like a Swede until he could speak Swedish. Raised speaking only English, Söderström, an actor and graduate of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, left for Sweden to master the language and find work in the arts. He accomplished both goals. His first stop was his uncle’s hometown of Ahus, a village in southern Sweden, a region fought over by the Danes and Swedes centuries ago. Four days a week he would ride an old bike of his uncle’s—“it was from the 1950s”—two hours to Kristianstad, the nearest big city, to take


Swedish classes with a class of immigrants and sing in a Swedish gospel choir. Söderström’s mornings were spent on solo runs through a forested trail that ended at the Baltic Sea. Legend has it that in the 1400s a Swedish king was being chased by the Danish army. Rather than being caught, the king ran his horse straight into the Baltic. “As I was running, I could feel history,” Söderström says. “I was the happiest in that forest covered in moss and pine trees. I was an extrovert growing up, but I learned the value of solitude. I needed time to process myself.”

Always Say Yes


Maggie Lloyd ’11


Will Willsea ’10



he wasn’t happy there, largely because he had no community, Holloran says he was satisfied with his experience because he learned things about himself. “I learned I wasn’t a city person and I wasn’t a loner, and that I really need community. I couldn’t have learned those things any other way,” Holloran notes. “Even though Buenos Aires wasn’t as fun and meaningful to me, I took important things from it.”

part of my life,” he says. When the group learned it had convinced the Philippine government to open a new marine-protected area, “we arrived at the community celebration to be welcomed by 2,000 people, all overjoyed to see us,” Holloran says “That’s when I fully realized the importance of the work we were doing.” After a three-month layover back home to make some money, Holloran went south to Argentina to work with underprivileged children. Every afternoon from his lodgings in the upscale neighborhood of Recoleta, Holloran

would board a chartered van and head, most days, to the courtyard of an abandoned hospital. He and the other volunteers, “who were constantly rotating,” would play with the kids and help them with their homework. And they often, Holloran recalled, broke up fistfights and rock-throwing scuffles. Although in the Philippines he had been 30 miles away from the closest grocery store—and 20 hours to the nearest hospital—Holloran never felt alone there. By contrast, several months later in Buenos Aires, a metropolis of well over 11 million people, he felt very alone. Even though

Taylor Holloran ’11 started his gap year with a 70-pound bag and a 70-hour trip to Napancao, the Philippines, a place so remote that it’s not on most maps. He spent three months on a private scuba site, studying the effectiveness of marine-protected areas. The goal of the program, run by London-based Coral Cay Conservation, is to help the Philippine government prevent overf ishing. “I had never thought about environmental protection beyond a passing interest and a class in biology,” Holloran says. “Now I’m an environmental studies major at Gettysburg.”

The focus of Holloran’s first weeks was on learning how to scuba dive, getting certified, and then passing rigorous aboveground and underwater tests to prove his knowledge of fish and coral species. Like many others, he failed the first few times, but by the end of his stay he had such command over the subject he was teaching the new volunteers. Once certified and versed in marine life, Holloran would dive every day, recording what he saw on underwater writing slates. “SCUBA diving was the most amazing, coolest, surreal, peaceful thing I’ve ever done. It will be a major

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In the Philippines, Taylor Holloran ’11 realized a lifelong dream to learn to SCUBA dive, while also helping the Philippine government prevent overfishing.

Always Say Yes


Maggie Lloyd ’11


Will Willsea ’10




Willsea admits that at the outset he sat back. “I wasn’t the first to wake up and make breakfast for everyone,” he says. That changed when a 24-year-old “brutally honest” French-Canadian called him on his lazy ways. “The first few times he called me out on it, I was taken aback, but then I said to myself, ‘I am being lazy. It’s time to grow out of my obnoxious youth.’ NOLS Patagonia allowed me to grow up and reshape how I am, how I interact with others, and how I want to be seen by others.”

trees dense, they lost sight of the dogs, staying close only through the sound of their barking. They never did find the mountain lion, but what Willsea remembers more is the simple, deep, non-verbal communication between him and his host father. “It was nice to just be hanging out with each other,” he notes. Patagonia may have pushed him to the physical limit, but Willsea’s most revelatory experience was the result of personal interaction, not corporal exertion. “It’s NOLS practice for every group member to give feedback on the others every day. You get honest feedback that most find difficult to give.”

Will Willsea ’10 had long dreamed of becoming a Navy Seal or a fighter pilot. With the requisite Congressional nomination, he was headed to the U.S. Naval Academy to pursue his dream—or so he thought. But as the time approached to make his final decision, his gut told him something wasn’t right. “I realized I didn’t have enough life experience to be making life-or-death experiences for others—or for myself. I needed time to rethink what I was going to do with my life,” Willsea says. “I took a gap year to find out who I wanted to be.” The year—planned after looking at 25 other schools and being admitted to St. Lawrence—took Willsea to Patagonia, Chile, on a sixth-month National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS), which he chose for its length and intensity. After backpacking across Patagonia to get used to living outdoors, Willsea did month-long stints sea kayaking and mountaineering, followed by a homestay with a ranching family deep in rural Patagonia. It took him two days to get there. “My host father took me to see the land and the sheep in the valley,” Willsea says as he relays one of his best memories. As they rode, they came across a succession of slaughtered sheep, all of them bearing the telltale signs of a mountain lion attack. Willsea turned to the older man and said, “Let’s go find him.” “Are you serious?” his host father asked. “Yes, it makes sense to me.” On horseback, with five herding dogs in tow, the two set out at dawn in pursuit of the killer mountain lion, the host father with a knife and rifle. They climbed mountains so steep they had to tie up the horses and continue on foot. In places where the brush was thick and the

Always Say Yes


Maggie Lloyd ’11


Will Willsea ’10



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Lloyd’s, Söderström’s, Holloran’s, and Willsea’s experiences may have

been different, but each discounted a common parental worry that once

out in the world, a “gapper” will have trouble settling back into the rigor

of academic life. Not so for these Harley graduates, whose gap year

experiences not only gave them a stronger sense of themselves, but also

renewed their energy and motivation. Of his re-entry into academic life,

Willsea said, “I’m not here to hop around just to have a good time. I’m

here to hit the books. I’m here to prepare myself for the rest of my life.”

The Sands-Stern Award recognizes an individual or family who has

demonstrated extraordinary commitment to The Harley School through the contribution of their

service and passion.

The award is presented

at the School’s annual Harley Circle Celebration

honoring its members.

The Harley School Annual Report

is online.

www.harleyschool.org/annualreport

It’s easy being green.

2013 Peter ’72 and Deb ’73 Willsea2012 Phyllis Bentley ’452011 Joe ’48 and Nancy Briggs2010 Arunas and Pamela Chesonis2009 Richard ’69 and Jennifer Sands Robert ’76 and Nancy Sands Andy Stern and Melissa McGrain


magine a building where in one room children learn to care for a human being, everything from bandaging wounds on a mannequin, sharing experiences of grief and loss, to preparing to volunteer in local areas and across the globe in hospices and orphanages.

In another room students build boats and furniture with machine tools and 3D printers—bringing to life the math and engineering principles learned all year. Other students carefully analyze charts and graphs from a control room to monitor energy levels and productivity of an algae farm and carbon-sequestering activity, as well as the co-gen and solar sources.

And in still another room, students gather to discuss civic leadership, the U.S. political process, public-private partnerships, and how the School can support students to become good citizens of its own school community, of Rochester, and of the global society.

ITeaching students at multiple levels

to create a sustainable future

The Commons Unveiled T

by Karissa Raymond

The f ine balance struck between sustainabil it y and aesthetics has truly

made this a unique version of an upstate New York barn.

[photo t aken Octobe r 2013]

Cait l in Richard ’13, Samantha Steron ’26,

and Bennett Kuk la ’17 at the groundbreaking ceremony last year.


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The building is home to three new educational resources at the School:

The Briggs Center for Civic Engagement, The Center for Mindfulness and

Empathy Education, and a state-of-the-art Science Center.

The Briggs Center for Civic Engagement will focus on programs that put students, faculty, and the institution in positions of civic leadership, expanding Harley’s role in public-private programs. The curriculum taught in The Briggs Center will encompass a two-pronged approach: the first prong to be a democratic engagement curriculum, which may include coursework like the U.S. political process, dissent in U.S. history, and civic rights and responsibilities. There will be a progressive approach to cultivating investment in the democratic process, from playground rules to Upper School town meetings. The second prong is an experiential service-learning curriculum, which will not only extend the many service projects and service work the School already does, but also include reflection and sustained engagement. Harley believes that the values and habits cultivated by this work are integral to what it means to be a contributing member of the world community.

The Briggs Center will also support the work of the Greater Rochester Summer Learning Association and Horizons at Harley, and is meant to be a gathering space for community activities as well as a resource space for social entrepreneurship.

The Center for Mindfulness and Empathy Education (CMEE) will empower preK-12 teachers, students, staff, and parents with the requisite support to foster a sustained, compas-sionate presence through the development of programs that demand authentic human engagement. It will support emotional literacy among students, and build upon The Harley School’s Hospice Outreach Program, an elective course in which senior students volunteer to provide end-of-life care at nine Comfort Care Homes in the Rochester area. The CMEE will also house a library of resources on mindfulness and empathy education, a dedicated space for meditation and reflection, and a host site for visiting speakers and educators engaged in these practices.

The CMEE positions Harley as a national leader in the training of emotional literacies. Two years ago, Harley was invited to submit a proposal for what is the most prestigious grant pro-gram in the country for independent schools—the Edward E. Ford Foundation’s Educational Leadership. Harley has developed a unique methodology for teaching emotional intelligences through the Harley Hospice Program, and is committed to sharing this initiative with others in the educational community. Harley won the grant to formalize, validate, and provide teacher education and professional development in training for teaching empathy, as well as to establish the CMEE. The University of Rochester’s Motivations Research Group will conduct program research, and the CMEE hosts a symposium annually that brings together leading theorists and practitioners to further the teaching of emotional literacies.

his fall, The Harley School unveils The Commons, which, according to the Cloud Institute for Sustainability Education, will be the first preK-12 education space in the country that is a leader in providing the multiple dimensions of education needed for a sustainable future. This new “living building” provides a compre-hensive approach to teaching science, empathy, design thinking, and social responsibility—all components faced by our community in creating sustainability.

The name of this new building—The Commons—really expresses the concept behind this initiative. It asks: What’s common among us at The Harley School? What are our rights and responsibilities regarding our common space in the Rochester community? Chris Hartman ’93, social and environmental sustainability coordina-tor at Harley, says, “There are substantial issues in life, significant issues facing our community, and we are assigning students real and meaningful roles within challenges and giving them the sup-port to be successful in navigating through them.”

Visionaries of this project believe The Harley School will connect in concrete ways with Roch-ester, and more broadly the country, as the com-munity as a whole joins to function in more sus-tainable directions.

“The Commons will offer a holistic approach in education that engages students in running it—not only playing a deeper role in the Roches-ter community, but also providing us with real and meaningful opportunities for our students to be leaders and agents of change locally,” Hartman says.

Joe Henderson, a researcher of sustainability edu-cation at the University of Rochester and part of the steering committee for the project, says that The Harley School is taking a different ap-proach to teaching sustainability. “We owe it to the kids to be honest with issues in this world,” Henderson says. “Learning is done when people can relate. Harley’s unique model of education is preparing kids for what’s happening now; it’s action-orientated.”

T T his is The Commons at Harley.

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T he Science Center will focus on student-led programs that welcome broad participation and collaboration in tackling real-world science projects, which will join science and civic respon-sibility (otherwise known as Citizen Science) to tackle current science problems. The School already participates in some Citizen Science activities, such as the Cornell ornithology proj-ect, but plans to expand its engagement and make productive use of the extraordinary resource of Allens Creek.

The objective of the Science Center is to make Citizen Science a thread that runs through the curriculum of the School—not a curriculum unto itself, but rather an aspect of what we do in science that also meets the broad sustainability goals of the School and The Commons.

Hosted on the bottom floor of the building will be a Projects Space and “Maker Space”, dedi-cated to hands-on learning for grades preK-12. The space will provide an infrastructure to ex-pand and enhance Harley ’s commitment to project-based learning, realistic and meaningful work for students, and the development of stu-dents’ knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary for innovation, collaborative work, real leadership, and a sense of self-intervention. This area will be used to help foster the skills and experiences that students will need to be creative and effective problem solvers. “The idea behind it is to shift the mind from thinking to build, to building to think,” says Chris Hartman. “Systems thinkers are reinventing the world. We are giving them the tools to become excited, enthusiastic, and active problem solvers while having the empathy and awareness of real and important needs.”

Some of the activities included in the curriculum are working with areas of

wood, metal, and electronic fabrication, as well as supporting design thinking, ideation, prototyping, and testing real

things with a real purpose.

24 | Be coming MagazineTo see the evolution of The Commons, visit www.harleyschool.org/news/the-commons

225-watt solar modules

rain sensing sky l ights

weather station

green roof

porous pavement

ti lt-up insulated wal l panels

vacuum tube solar hot water heaters

5,600 cubic yards of dirt removed

19.35 kw of electrica l power generation

6,488 sq. f t. of sip panels

1,785 sq. f t.(5.8 tons) of glass

for the green house

15,000 sq. f t. f loor space

90 LED strip l ight f ixtures

The Commons

T

continuous insulated envelope

Upper School science classroom

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225-watt solar modules

folding door entrance for large projects

Center for Mindfulness & Empathy Education (CMEE); hospice classroom

The Briggs Center for Civic Engagement; community space

Middle School science classroom

green wal l

sa lvaged barnwood

variable refr igerant f low heatingand cooling

& energy recovery

venti lation

radiant f loor heat

bathroomsgreen wal l

bathroom

off ice

classroom storage

lobby and display wal l

maintenance

elevator

stairs

“maker space”

project space

tank to col lect rain waterand overf low wil l f low to rain garden

catwalk

exit

loft

off ice

I.T. closet

control center with white board wal ls

mechanica l room

skylight

skyl ight

future site of green wal l and experiments

geothermal heating and cooling

illu

stra

tions

by

Stev

e Bo

erne

r T

ypog

rap

hy

solar chimneys (heating and venti lation)

Flag Hal l (for our beloved class banners) and entrance from Beckerman Center

B


ecause the curriculum being taught inside The Commons is brimming with lessons about sustainability, the School feels it is important to be practicing what it is teaching. The 15,000-square-foot recycled West-ern NY barn—which will soon be unveiled as The Commons—earns its status as a “living building” because it will generate its own energy, heat and cool with renewable nontoxic resources, capture and utilize water and carbon in its greenhouse, and operate efficiently. The students will be active participants, working toward a net-zero operation in energy, water, and carbon dioxide by managing its operation. In addition to using environmentally friendly materials, the building has been designed using sustainable construc-tion principles—meaning it is designed to reduce its overall impact on the environment from start to finish. These principles not only use environ-mentally-friendly construction materials, but also create a design that reduces wasted space in the interior of the building.

The Commons will allow and encourage students to be a part of the greater community and engage in its sustainability. UR researcher, Henderson, has presented on The Commons project from a research perspective at various conferences. He comments that Harley is doing an educationally sound way of teaching: “They are using a robust version of education by providing this holistic approach. They are changing the way education is done … and redefining it.”

Harley student, Belle Sherwood ’19, one of three students who are part of the steering committee for The Commons, is a liaison between the Middle School and the committee. “The Com-mons will bring a new way of learning; the kids are really excited,” Sherwood says. The feedback from students has been that it will be fun to be a part of keeping The Commons sustained. Sher-wood states:

“If something is broken, the kids can come up with a solution.

By including the kids, it empowers them. ”

Flag Hal l and entrance from Beckerman

looking west2 013 | 25

team. In all my years as a player and coach in many sports, I’ve never seen anyone as driven as he was. Months after the rest of us had stowed our gloves under our beds and embarked on other pursuits, he would climb atop the pitcher’s mound in his backyard, a contraption he had made out of plywood and artificial turf, and pitch to his younger brother long into the autumn night. And his obsessive dedication seemed pay off. Despite standing only 5 feet 7 inches, by junior year Jesse had transformed himself into an all-county pitcher and was attracting the attention of pro scouts. But the tens of thousands of pitches he had thrown over years of grinding practice had taken a toll. He developed a shoulder injury and eventually had

seller Outlier? Make it a priority; don’t let other things get in the way. In a word, specialize.

Or maybe not.

Research with children and adolescents has shown that the cost of specialization can be high, often outweighing the benefits. Recognizing the link between sustained practice and successful performance—an epiphany more common among kids who specialize than among their generalist peers—is a positive thing, but mounting evidence suggests that such a realization may come at a price. I remember a young athlete named “Jesse.” Jesse was a pitcher on my high school baseball

Everybody wants to be good at something. Being good at something creates a mindset that psychologist Albert Bandura calls “high self-efficacy,” a strong belief in one’s ability to per-form a task well. People with high self-efficacy feel less anxiety in the face of tough challenges and rebound faster from setbacks. Being good at something also can boost social status, get you into the col lege of your choice, earn you a lot of money, and make you feel deep-down-okay about yourself. It ’s good to be good at something. So how do you get good at something—I mean really good? The answer seems obvious: spend a lot of time doing it. Remember the 10,000 hours made famous by Malcolm Gladwell in his best-

the myth of

s p e c i a ili o

n

b y jo h n

d o l a n p h d

z a t


school, he’s left most of them in the dust. This is partly thanks to his undeniable talent. But it also shows the advantage of having a broad athletic background. Many of the defining strengths of Jordan’s game—agile footwork, lightning-quick hands, poise under pressure—come from his experience playing other sports. Jordan’s story is not unique. The truth is kids are better off enjoying a variety of sports, trying out a number of musical instruments, satisfying as many intellectual interests as their curiosity demands. In the end it is not the lifelong specialist, but rather the child who’s been allowed to develop a broad range of skills—the youngster driven not by perfectionism, but by passion—who will prevail.

their intellectual growth. They may stunt their social growth as well. How many opportunities for hanging with peers—a critical time for practicing interpersonal skills vital for their survival and happiness in the adult world—do they miss because of mandatory practice sessions or competitions? And the final irony: Kids who specialize in sports or music or any skilled activity early on do not gain a lasting edge over kids who don’t. You can study the voluminous research that bears this out, or just take a look at Harley’s own Jordan Benjamin ’15, currently the fourth ranked 16-year-old tennis player in the eastern United States. Jordan always has loved sports—all sports—and has excelled at them. But his parents never forced him to pick just one. Long after most his age in USTA juniors had forsaken all other activities in their obsessive quest for tennis success, Jordan was still playing a different sport every season. He led Harley’s modified soccer team in scoring in grade 7, and in grade 8, was tapped to play JV basketball. Shortly before starting high school, he decided to focus more on his tennis. Though most of his opponents had already gotten a five-year head start, Jordan made up ground—rapidly. Now a junior in high

to get surgery. He ended up missing his whole senior season, and never was able to throw the same again. Besides the obvious risk of overuse injury, specialization can have other, more insidious psychological consequences. Robin played tennis for one of Harley’s rivals. Like Jesse, by the time she hit high school, she’d already put in countless hours of practice in her sport; but unlike Jesse, she had no passion for it. Her play was joyless. This was so uncomfortably obvious that I asked her once why she even bothered playing (I knew her pretty well). I’ll never forget what she told me. It was true, she said, she really didn’t like playing. But she was the best player on her team and she felt like she had an obligation to help them win a sectional championship. With Robin at first singles, her team did win. Duty done, she put down her racquet and never played again. The injury and burnout that result from specialization aren’t unique to sports. I’ve seen the same damage done to young violinists, dancers, video gamers, even math students. When kids, often encouraged by well-meaning parents, obsessively pursue excellence in one activity at the expense of most others, they deny their own natural curiosity and stunt

John Dolan Ph.D., is a teacher, psychologist, and tennis coach at The Harley School. After completing his training in clinical psychology at Yale University, he spent 10 years in private practice, working with children and adolescents. He started at Harley in 1994. When not at Harley, he likes to hang out with friends and write screenplays, make independent movies and discover new restaurants. His dream is to be team psychologist for the Boston Red Sox.

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words1000

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grade was highlighted by Madame Windholz and learning lots of French, and discovering I was deficient in drawing. Third and fourth grades were in Public School #1, when I learned to write rather than print. Back at Harley in the fifth grade in the Barn was enlightening, with great combinations of shop with medieval and Persian history. Jim Henderson and I started the Harley Printing Company (using the print shop for printing school programs, etc.). As a class we were somewhat unkind to a supply teacher (still feel guilty). The “R” club briefly appeared, with the principal activity being “Spin the Bottle” (I was accused of having sloppy kisses). Mr. Burnham arrived for the sixth grade, and excelled in keeping our class under good control. We boys were behind the girls in maturation, and were somewhat confused when they formed the “Army,” led by Becky Kennedy and Carol Berry. Jim and I retaliated by forming the “OFF” (off fems forever), but had no idea of how to proceed. I think we figured it out eventually. Seventh and eighth grades introduced Mr. Utter and Chinese history. Pre-World War II isolation-ism was in full force, soon to be reversed. I returned to Harley for the twelfth grade, living at Hollister House. A highlight for me was the enlightenment of Mr. Niemeyer. Best wishes to you all.

40sVirginia Sharp Carpenter ’41 writes: Now living in Clark Meadows in Canandaigua, N.Y., an assisted living facility, near my eldest daughter and family. I have two other daughters—one in Ann Ar-bor, Mich., and one in Jacksonville, Fla. I have seven grandchildren. After 30 years in Jacksonville, I am so glad to be back in New York State. Great memories of my years at Harley. A very special place!

Peter Gleason ’43 writes:Sorry I couldn’t make the reunion this year, and reminisce with y’all about our days at Harley. My first memories are in the grade of “Transition” with Mrs. Utter. It seems that this particular grade was a re-pository for those who had flunked kindergarten, and was located in the “new” building (circa 1930). Next was first grade, with Mrs. Broadbrooks (and daughter Gracia). The highlight still in my memory was when Nathaniel Rochester Rogers appar-ently drank his milk too fast and threw up. Second

Peter Gleason ’43

Ginger Dreyfus Karren ’48 (right) with her husband, Harold

Martha Frey Allen ’48 and her husband, Don

2 013 | 31

for over 3,000 fourth-grade students in the subject of early transportation. I’m not forgetting that Harley was offering preschool over 70 years ago. Harley was the best then—and still is. Congratulations!

50s

Dick Cerasani ’56 writes: The South Dakota State Historical Society Press has purchased my book for publishing in 2014. It is about the artist and the schoolteacher—my dad and mother. My mother, Mary Cerasani, taught at Harley from 1951-1954. It is a beautiful love story.

Malcolm Baldwin ’58 writes:With my wife, Pamela, I have been enjoying sheep farming, our vineyard (with sales to a nearby winery and one of 30 in Loudoun), and our wedding events and farm stay as a cottage business. Still active in local government affairs and very happy with Obama’s re-election!

since. A couple of old timers raising two teenagers is a pretty good challenge, but with the help of the Harley community, we met it. As time marched on, we arrived at June 2012. Shirley developed some serious health concerns and we knew it was time to leave our home of 62 years and move to be closer to family. We moved to Boise, Idaho, where we live in an unbelievably lovely senior community that is almost as concerned and invested in us as Harley is with its students. Till we meet again!

Martha Frey Allen ’48 [p i c tu red l e f t ] writes:Don and I are thankfully quite well—and counting our blessings. Our family continues to grow with the addition of Great Grands, and more on the way. Hooray! We traveled to Rochester to see my brother, Don Frey ’47. He has since passed away. Words can’t express how wonderfully loving and supportive his wife, Carol, and four children have been through the decades of his declining health—they have been extraordinary caregivers. We have added a now 10-month-old puppy to our family. He is my only “exercise machine!” Tempus Fugit! Enjoy!

Ginger Dreyfus Karren ’48 [pictured left] writes: Believe it or not, I was blessed with a wedding on September 16, 2011. I knew Harold Lerner 40 years ago, when I managed an opera quartet that he sang in. We went on with our respective separate lives and he moved to New York City six years ago. I think of Harley and old friends often and am grateful to have a wonderful family. Come see me, old friends, and stay in the heart of Manhattan at my apartment that I share with “special” people on a short-term basis. Let’s keep well and in touch. My e-mail is [email protected].

Richard J. Anderson ’49 writes:Maria and I are both retired from over 20 years as teaching volunteers in AARP’s Safe Driving Class program. Maria had been a pioneer in pre-elemen-tary Head Start in both private and public schools. I taught there for the Rush-Henrietta Adult Education program. We now work for the Camillus Erie Canal Park, which this year provided education experiences

John Hart ’43 writes: When I went to school, Harley was located in a barn and cold as all get-out. But the community was as warm as the building was cold. Through the years, the Harley community has continued to shape my life. Right after graduation, I signed up for the Navy, only to be turned away due to my poor eyesight. How-ever, the officer in charge told me there was a new outfit being formed, The Sea Bees. I ended up serving in the Construction Battalion as a stevedore. I served in the Pacific, Pearl Harbor, the Philippines, and fleet headquarters in Japan. I remember especially unload-ing ships at Pearl Harbor in the dead of night. All the docks were full, so we had to unload the ships there in the open water. In 1947, after the war, I was at the beach in Char-lotte, when I met the woman who would become my wife. Her name was Shirley. She thought I was, and I quote, “goofy” when we met. We married two years later in October of ’49. We’re still together to this day. Together, we raised two wonderful children in our home in Rochester: John Alan Jr., a pediatrician in Rockford, Ill., and Hillary, who works with special needs children, including volunteering as a Special Olympics coach. I started my work career selling floor coverings to the public, working my way up to being the buyer for my department, which required me to go to New York and Chicago markets twice a year. Later I worked as a traveling carpet salesman representing carpet mills to retail stores and wholesalers. I traveled all across upstate New York, usually averaging 50,000 miles a year. I was good at what I did and earned many awards. I was recruited by numerous companies, but decided to stay with my firm. I worked there for 21 years until they closed. I then worked for another seven years until I retired in 1990. I have five grandkids, two of whom went to Har-ley. I’ll never forget one Thanksgiving when I was vis-iting Hillary and the kids in Boise. My granddaughter Jackie ’11 was no bigger than a grasshopper, only two or three years old. We were sitting at the table when I said to her, “Jackie, you’re the apple of my eye.” To which she responded, “No, grandpa, I’m the pupil.” From that time on, I knew she was blessed. I kept telling her, “What you lack, Harley will improve. What you’re good at, Harley will make better.” Years later I nearly fell out of my chair when she told me she wanted to go to Harley. In 2010, Hillary and Pat had to relocate (with the help of some amazing Harley families) to Cleveland for medical treatment, so their son Corey ’14 came to live with us as well. He fell in love with The Harley School and has been there ever


until recently, winning a senior men’s singles and doubles championship in 2005 and obtaining a top 5 New England amateur ranking. My wife of 40 years passed away a few years ago. I sold the farm but decided to stay in this area despite the winter weather. I recently met and am engaged to a local gal. When not working on her horse farm, we go trail riding, play golf, duplicate bridge, and travel. I get back to Rochester frequently to visit my family (sister Sara Prozeller Hartman ’61 and three brothers live there). Sara is active in Harley affairs and her son, Chris Hartman ’93, is on the faculty. I enjoyed seeing everyone at our 50th reunion and especially Dick Chapman, who was a great influence on my life, and Larry Goodale ’63, who was the best man at my wedding.

Jean Rudd ’62 writes: After Harley, I attended Hollins College in Virginia, attracted by their excellent English department. Life was transformed by the college’s year-abroad pro-gram, which settled students with Paris families; undertook a marathon three-month summer bus tour of most European countries. Next to the University of Chicago for a master’s in English, then a job with the University of Chicago Press. It moved me to New York to help open an office there and assist its social sciences editor. Three jobs followed in the field of en-dowed (not fundraising) foundations. In NYC I met Lionel Bolin, then with the city’s law department, later with NBC’s law department. As an add-on to a planned trip to France, we married. Lionel’s long-time networks, political work, and new job in the en-tertainment business introduced us to much of what makes New York exciting. Lionel’s job moved us to the NBC station in Chi-cago, where, after job searches and freelance writing, I found a dream job, where I remained for 20 years: first staff member of a family foundation. Over time I worked with the board of directors to expand to non-family board members, develop giving priorities and practices, and increase the foundation’s influence. The staff grew, as did the foundation’s assets and grants. The enormous privilege of the job was working with and funding impressive nonprofit leaders trying to improve the region’s schools, social welfare programs, and public governance. The foundation also support-ed community organizing, and around 1983 I met a remarkable young organizer whose group required funding to begin work in Chicago. We funded that hire and, impressed with his strategic thinking and reflectiveness, asked him to join a foundation advi-sory committee and eventually its board of directors,

which he ultimately chaired (becoming my boss as well as social friend). He later stepped down to run for the Senate and then for the presidency. While his story is now well known (and the foundation under-went withering scrutiny during the campaign), he is just one of hundreds of amazing, less recognized people that we worked with in the arts, organizing, and social justice fields. My 20th year with the foundation coincided with the millennium, which I took as a sign to move on. I then spent several years part time with another founda-tion, heading an initiative to preserve and restore natu-ral areas around Chicago. Now retired, we live in two natural areas—seven months in a small beach com-munity on Lake Michigan, surrounded by national and state parks (because of the great biodiversity in the area), and in winter outside Tucson in the Sonoran Desert. Great birding and hiking in both areas.

Susanne Wilson Hershey ’63 writes: Between the years 1967 and 1998, I worked as an upper-school English and psychology teacher and as the school and college counselor for an independent school here in Pittsburgh quite like Harley: The Winchester Thur-ston School. Had three years’ time out in the early 70s while my husband, Dale (a lawyer), and I were starting to raise our two children, Lauren and Alex.

Rebecca Randolph McBride ’63 writes: Since graduation, I went on to earn a B.A. from Oberlin College and a Ph.D. in English from the University of Pennsylvania. During summer work camps with the American Friends Service Commit-tee (AFSC) in Europe, I met my first husband, Dr. Andrew McBride, and we had two children, Dennis and Nash. After our divorce, I moved to Columbia County in upstate New York, where I worked as writer/editor for Welfare Research, Inc. in Albany, and then in 1994 married Farid Gruber, a teacher in a small, private school similar to Harley. In the fall of 2010 my book, Traveling Between the Lines: Europe in 1938, was published. I retired from my job in 2010 and continue to work as a freelance writer and editor.

Michael Fallon ’58 writes:Five years ago, some of you came out to the family farm and had a lot of fun exploring. Since then, our mother, Harriet Fallon, has passed away and the farm is now in other hands. However, my brother Charles Fallon ’60, has an interesting property near Honeoye Lake where we might foregather, weather and brother permitting. I keep forgetting to call Bob Gray ’58 whenever we come in to New York, and there don’t seem to be alumni gatherings in New York of late. I also owe Malcolm Baldwin ’58 a call. Cecile and I celebrated our 46th wedding anniversary on April 7. We continue to spend five months a year in Sara-sota, where we are more active, and get together with brother Marty ’60 who lives in Naples, 90 minutes down the Gulf Coast.

60sJim Townsend ’61 is the Adirondack Park Agency’s general counsel. He was a member of the APA board for over 10 years prior to accepting the appointment in January 2013. He commutes to and from Rochester on weekends. Jim, who left his private practice in Rochester, said in an interview, “I thank Governor Cuomo for this opportunity and will dili-gently work to promote and protect this magnificent treasure.”

Randy Prozeller ’62 writes:I went to Williams College (along with Steve Snell ’62) after Harley, where I majored in economics and played intercollegiate soccer, basketball, and tennis. I focused on soccer in my last two years and made the All New England team my senior year. After gradu-ation I took a year off from school, when I coached the Harley varsity soccer team and worked at a bank holding company in Rochester. The Harley team won the CUPS league title that year and beat Fairport (my home town), which had won the Section V champi-onship. In 1968, I attended Harvard Business School. This was interrupted for a few years when I became a naval officer on the USS Boston, sailing around the world, destination Vietnam. Back to Cambridge, where I finished my M.B.A. and got married. I spent most of my business career in the medical device in-dustry, working at Abbott Labs in Chicago and Palo Alto before moving to New England, where my wife and I bought and renovated a 1735 farmhouse near Boston. In New England, I played competitive tennis

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50th Reunion of Class of 1963

Rachelle Liberty Jacobs ’88; Barbara Allard Coe ’63; and LCDR Kaarin Coe ’88 celebrating Kaarin’s promotion

in Pearl Harbour, September 2012.

Lee Sherwood McDermott ’64 and Richard Patterson

Jonathan Feltner, Jim Bullard, and Eric Smith

Jonathan Feltner, Rebecca Randolph McBride, Larry Goodale, Susanne Wilson Hershey, Barbara Allard Coe, Eric Smith, Richard Patterson, Laura Grossman Fukunishi, and Jim Bullard

Richard Patterson, Larry Goodale, Barbara Allard Coe, Rebecca Ran-dolph McBride, Jim Bullard, his wife Dee, Jonathan Feltner, Eric Smith, his wife Nancy, Laura Gross-man Fukunishi, and Susanne Wilson Hershey

Robert Hunder, step-dad, Barbara Allard Coe ’63, LCDR Kaarin E. Coe ’88, on the bow of the USS Missouri.

Barbara Allard Coe ’63 writes: We went to Hawaii in September 2012 for daughter Kaarin’s (Coe ’88) promotion to Lieutenant Commander (LCDR) on the bow of the USS Mis-souri under the big guns. Rachelle Liberty Ja-cobs ’88 joined Kaarin from Orange County, Calif. It was a very special visit. Kaarin did all the work and we got to be very proud.

Louise McAllister (Merritt) Mitchell ’63 writes: After college, I worked in historic preservation, founding the Historic Albany Foundation to preserve the city of Albany, N.Y. I married an Englishman in 1985 and lived in the West Indies before returning to the UK in 1988. I am currently running a small plant nursery.

Rick Patterson ’63 wrote: I remarried on January 19 to Dr. Carolyn Martin, Ph.D., who is a practicing psychologist in Memphis. We went to France in June for our honeymoon, and returned to Harley in August to celebrate my 50th Reunion.

Eric Smith, Richard Patterson, and Larry Goodale

Margie Kaiser Badger ’64 writes: I continued full time at Tidewell Hospice until Sep-tember 14, 2012, when I really did retire . . . except I am still working for them part-time, which gives me joy and flexibility. Our kids and grandkids are doing great. I am now the great-grandmother of one and expecting two more. Let the Light Shine! Hope you all are doing well.

Michael Todd ’64 writes:I have retired to Florida, and just welcomed two grandchildren in April. Kimberly Alyse Todd was born April 1 (no fooling) in Pleasanton, Calif., and Michael Ryan Todd was born April 10 in Port Char-lotte, Fl. I volunteer at the local hospital one day per week. Life is great!

Chuck Todd ’63 writes: Dear Classmates,It is with great regret I am unable to attend our 50th Reunion, and thus I am using this means to share what has taken place during this time. Harley’s motto of “Become what thou art” has always inspired me to seek and discover who I am and where am I going. After Harley, I attended the University of Rochester for one year and then transferred to Baldwin Wallace College in Ohio. There I majored in psychology and philosophy, with minors in biology and chemistry. During that time I became a residence hall counselor, and one summer worked as a psychiatric attendant at Rochester Psychiatric Hospital. Residence hall counselors had many foreign exchange students who become close friends. Together with Rick Patterson ’63 and Mark Smith ’65, we organized the first Baldwin-Wallace soccer team. In my senior year I started to date my future wife, JoAnn (Jodee) Coman. As I was graduating from B-W, my 1-A notice for military service came in the mail. I came home to Rochester and joined the N.Y. National Guard and postponed going to graduate school. While waiting to be called for basic training, I worked construction for six months and then was sent to Fort Jackson in South Carolina. After completing both basic and advance training I returned to Rochester. Jodee and I were married in 1971 and she started teaching in the Penfield schools while I attended the Counseling Program at the University of Rochester. In 1973 I was hired by the Fairport School District as a middle school counselor at Martha Brown School, where I worked as a counselor, grades 6-9, for 34 years. In that time I developed many programs, such as dealing with bullying, stress management, coping skills, looking at one’s learning skills, and how to discover one’s future, to name a few. In 1996 I was selected as the Middle School Counselor of the Year for New York State. I also became very involved with New York State School Counselor Association and, while co-president of the association (2003) developed the NYS Comprehensive School Counseling Program: A Guide for K-12. Throughout this time I was involved with chemical prevention programs and the Developmental Assets programs. However, I feel that the greatest accomplishment for Jodee and me was raising our twin sons, David and Aaron. All through watching them grow, being their scoutmaster in outdoor programs such as backpack-ing or canoeing through the Adirondacks, our time together was joyful and rewarding. They have become wonderful young men and fathers of their own. Jodee and I enjoy spending time visiting each family, with grandsons from 9 months to 9 years old. Upon retirement I worked for Woodcraft for a little over a year; then, Jodee and I decided to move to Sun City Carolina Lakes in South Carolina. We like an active adult community where everything is read-ily available and we can learn new skills as we choose. Presently we enjoy kayaking, water aerobics, yoga, woodworking, and art, and are part of a lifetime learning program. When we are not here we love traveling to various parts of the country and world. So to my fel low c lassmates, you are more than welcome to come and v isit us here in Sun Cit [email protected]

Elizabeth Vick ’66 writes:I’m still very settled in Marlboro, Vt., raising calves, sheep, chickens, and lots of veggies, and am active in a variety of local organizations. Last year, Craig and I spent a month in Australia visiting our son, Max, and had a great Christmas visit from the Eng-lish branch of the family, as well as the Vermont and Massachusetts contingents—a houseful! Greetings to all my classmates!

ALUMNI

In MemoriamViolet Bliss Goettel ’34

Virginia Lee Burnham ’37

Morton “Jerry” Baum ’43

James Henderson ’43

Martha Bentley Hall ’46

John Donald Frey ‘47

Beryl Baldwin Punt ’49

Edgar Reed ’49

Carleton Castle ’50

Ann Hamilton Wolfe ’60

James Briggs ’72

David Relin ’81

Daniel Martel ’06

Paul Snyder ’65 and Judith Johnstone Smith ’65 got together in Florida last February.

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in the budget/finance area, and I’m currently the chief financial officer at Goddard. As you can imag-ine, NASA has been a fascinating place in which to work, quite unique within the government for its mission of exploration and science. But like the rest of government, it is a big organization with its own bureaucracy that can be cumbersome. The latest ex-citement of the Mars Surface Lander was special for Goddard—the biggest instrument on the rover was designed and built there. It is very cool to spend time with these scientists, who are constantly dreaming of future exploration missions to the planets—al-though I will say I can’t understand much of their conversations! Outside of work, I live in Columbia, Md., mid-point from D.C. and Baltimore. My husband is also in the space business, and I have one daughter, 23, who is a second-year teacher in Newark, N.J., as part of Teach For America. My passions point to the outdoors—I have two horses. One belongs to my daughter and is in New Jersey; mine is a 17-year-old quarterhorse. He definitely keeps me humble—he really doesn’t care how bad my day has been when I show up—just wants to know what I have in my

70sJulie Mayne Baker ’72 writes: To my Harley classmates— Wow—40 years have gone by since we gradu-ated—it is hard to believe! There are memories of my years there that are crystal clear, others that are getting more and more fuzzy. I intend to get out our senior yearbook to refresh my memories of names and faces—knowing that none of us have aged at all, right? Right! I will not be able to get to Rochester for the reunion, although my mom and sister still live there, and so I visit a few times a year. When I’m there, I regularly run or bike up Clover Street, and I’m amazed at how Harley has physically evolved. I follow its progress through the alumni magazine and am always encouraged to see how healthy Harley has stayed. I’ve worked all these years for NASA in the Washington, D.C., area since getting my master’s degree in public administration in 1989. I spent 20 years at Headquarters and moved to the Goddard Space Flight Center in 1999. My career has been

Jan Costello ’68 writes: This spring I will complete 30 years as a law teacher at Loyola Law School, and begin a five-year process of slouching toward retirement. Last year I was ac-cepted into a graduate program in theological studies and am enjoying alternating semesters: one teaching law, the other being a student of theology. Two years ago my husband, Dick Rothschild, my daughter, Laura, and I moved to an honest-to-goodness horse ranch in Acton, along with many and varied species of animals. We are working to develop an animal-assisted therapy program.

Cindy Hawley Heineman ’68 writes:Fondest memories of Harley: Bonfires freshman year after a game, May Day, and the senior room. Favorite teacher: Mr. Hewey. Update: I see on my visits back to Harley that a lot has been developed in the area of the arts. I would have loved that. For work I have divided my time between O.T. and massage. As far as my avocations, I have taken up many fine crafts, including textiles, glass, and metals. I just got in my first juried show in metal jewelry this year.

A fabulous belated 40th Reunion was attended by 10 members of The Harley Class of 1972 at Peter Davidson’s lovely Pine Point Adirondack Camp on Upper St. Regis Lake. Betsy (Serrell) Nord, Joan Griswold, Robin (Scagliola) Simoneaux, Andrea (DelMonte) Scott, Donna (Hampton) Maloney, Douglas Drake, Peter Willsea and Deb (Schaller) Willsea ’73, Bob Hallenbeck, Richard March, and Peter Davidson, along with several spouses and significant others, enjoyed the beautiful setting. We told stories ’til the wee hours, ate and drank sumptuously, and adventured up St. Regis Mountain on Saturday for perfect views of the Saranac Lake area. We hope more of our mates will join us for future gatherings!


dor to Syria, but now is the German ambassador to Saudi Arabia. I can only imagine how lucky he was to get out of Syria before the civil war. I am not sure that it is easy for him in Saudi Ara-bia, but in regard to this, I would quote Karl Marx: “Aller Anfang ist schwer, gilt in jeder Wissenschaft,” und tatsachlich, in jeder land—the last part from me rather than Marx.

George Henne ’72 reaction: Ich glaube du mein-test “ in jedes Land ” . . . Mehr später/more later!

Annie Dingerson Corkery ’72 writes:I am sorry I could not make it back for Reunion weekend. Also, am pretty stunned to realize it was our 40th (!); yikes. Anyway, I’m still in the Bay area, on the edge of the blue Pacific, and always happy to see people.Hope you had a happy 40th Reunion!

Douglas P. Drake ’72 writes:Dear Class of 1972,This is your ex-classmate, writing to you after nearly forty years of class Diaspora, in order to pursue the remote possibility that some of us may want to speak to each other again after so many years. I have lived as remotely as almost anyone in our class in the far NW corner of Washington State—lured there so long ago by Kenneth Ketwig, who was my guide for several years to the delights and eccentricities of our fellow residents of the Great Northwest. After Jack Prewitt ’71 and I had driven across the country in his Volvo, Kenneth treated us to a meal at Toad Hall, purveyors of home-brewed root beer and whole-wheat pizza in 1972. We were accompanied by the editors of Fairhaven District’s own under-ground newspaper, Northwest Passage, renowned for its subversive content. Kenneth’s venture in Bell-ingham was hosted by a contact he made through Sing Out magazine, a national publication devoted to American folk music. Kenneth stayed at Fairhaven College for about a year, then moved to Seattle in order to garner some more exotic life experience in pursuit of his new am-bition as a writer. This he did, and I can tell you some stories. He ended up moving to New York City to study with Marguerite Young at The New School, the author of Miss Macintosh, My Darling, Kenneth’s favorite book for many years. I saw him a couple of times there and he was doing very well creatively, though struggling with health and money issues. On the other hand, I stayed pretty rooted in Bell-ingham for these many years. It offered so much in

east when I met a group from Cleveland who had a great opportunity for a new MBA, and we’ve been here ever since, other than a brief sojourn to Okla-homa in the early ’80s. After a short stint in the steel business, I moved to corporate finance and merg-ers and acquisitions with a great firm in Cleveland, started a firm doing the same things, and ultimately ended up with a bank after a series of acquisitions. The deal business was changing, and I found oppor-tunity in investment research and management, and now lead a practice (since this spring) focused on multigenerational asset management for Key Bank. Thus, the circle of life—upstate New York is one of our major markets. Three children, none in Cleveland. One teach-es and coaches at a private school in Atlanta, one is in sports marketing in suburban New York, and the third is in Baton Rouge. Trivia point—my old-est graduated from University School in Cleveland, where boys of his parents’ (i.e., our) generation expe-rienced a long-serving headmaster named Roland McKinley. McKinley was head of Harley when he made his move to University School.

Peter Davidson ’72 (aka Ben) writes:I went from Harley to a job as a dishwasher and cook at the Holiday Inn in Lake Placid. Steve De-Mocker went with me and worked as a waiter at the same place. I believe that the two of us were the first kids in Harley’s history since WW II not to go right to college after high school. Eventually, I went to college and then to medical school. I am a general internist and have been taking care of underserved patients for quite a while, for the past 14 years at Boston Medical Center, and now moving to New York University. I am looking forward to being back in Manhattan. I have connected to some, but not all, of our classmates since graduation. I spent an afternoon or evening with Julie Mayne Baker on “Skid-row”—aka Skidmore, where she went to college. I came enticingly close to catching up with Ann Dingerson in San Francisco 30 years ago when I was interviewing for a residency. I spoke with Jen-nifer Gage about 20 years ago, but have not been able to reach her since on Google or by any other means. Jennifer has had a career as a translator for literature from French to English, and vice versa, and also worked as a translator at the UN for some time. I always forget to speak about our classmate Volkmar Wenzel, from Wuerzburg, Germany. Talk about a guy who has had an amazing career . . . My understanding is that he was the German ambassa-

hand for him. We also have two dogs, so I tell people I have five children, but four of them have four legs and fur. My other passion is running, although the years and lots of miles have slowed me down con-siderably. I’ve run 20 marathons, including Boston, several times, and for many years focused my vaca-tions and travels around marathons. These days I’m running for the mental and physical release, doing a few short triathlons and walking the dog. I hope all of you are healthy and doing well. I’ve been quite remiss in keeping up over the past years. Best to everyone!

Bill Batcheller ’72 writes: Ladies and Gentlemen— First, life by the numbers:1 bride (36 years and counting)2 cities lived in since finishing school (Cleveland and Oklahoma City)3 children (boy, girl, boy 30, 27, 23)4 houses lived in5 classmates seen over the years post-college (Hal-lenbeck, March, Mayne, Tome, and Will-sea). Also spoke with Scags when she was passing through Cleveland doing college visits6 employers over the years (net of acquisitions)I have three rally memories from the year we graduated:1. Navigating with Roger Pierson ’73 in what was scheduled to be an all-night rally starting in Bath in October or November. We went off the road, hopped a barbed-wire fence, and ended in a field. We found a couple of well-lubricated farmers with a tractor to winch us out, but found the car no longer drivable. (Hence, my future reluctance to want to drive.) This was accurately described in the literature as a “crash and burn” style rally.2. Winning one of Gail McGuire’s rallies (also with Pierson), and finding that the prize was a bottle of wine! No one seemed to mind that we weren’t 18 yet. Let’s think about that in the context of our own kids.3. As rallymaster of the Harley Rally in Spring term, I manned one of the checkpoints (I think with Cary ’72 and Martha ’74 Slocum, and maybe others), and learned that hibachis emit heat from the bottom, after cooking burgers while sitting on the roof of my parents’ car. Fortunately, it was about to be traded, but penance did involve several weekends of work. I met a girl at Union who said yes as we were be-ginning our senior year, and who spent the first two years of our post-college life supporting us while I went through business school in Charlottesville. We thought we were headed to New York or the South-

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Martha Lestin Kleinman ’73 writes that you can contact her at at [email protected].

Roger Pierson ’73 writes: I am a distinguished professor in the Obstetrics & Gynecology College of Medicine at the University of Saskatchewan. It’s been a long strange journey . . . how else could one end up in the middle of Saskatchewan?

Randall (Randy) States ’73 went to Rochester Institute of Technology and earned a BFA in photo-graphic illustration in 1976. Randy then went to Brooklyn, N.Y., and completed an MFA at Pratt Institute. He remained in New York City working as an assistant to professional photographers and performed free-lance photography assignments for industrial firms, corporations, and business clients. He married Sarah Taylor in 1981; their daughter, Campbell, was born in 1984. In 1985, Randy and family moved to Baltimore, Md., where he started working as a home remodeling contractor, and moved again to New Haven, Conn., in 1987. Many changes occurred in New Haven, in-cluding divorce, remarriage (Laura Fawcett, 1991), and a new career. He returned to school to earn a second undergraduate degree, a BS in civil engineering from the University of Connecticut in 1997, followed by a master’s in civil engineering. His area of specialty is geotechnical engineering—the design and construction of bridge and building foundations. Randy is an avid skier and runner, and ever so slowly moved to digital photography. He and his family still go to 31 Mile Lake in Quebec.

the way of natural wonder and cultural diversity that I could find nowhere else I wanted to be—perma-nently, anyway. My first quarter at Fairhaven Col-lege was a unique one, consisting of five two-week sessions devoted to a single class each. After duti-fully attending a traditional academic subject for the first session, I then embarked on a two-week sailing adventure on a 40-foot wooden schooner out of Se-attle! We sailed to the northern regions of the Geor-gia Straits in British Columbia to discover island dwellers devoted to building wooden sailboats of their own. After that, there was a seminar intended to recreate the lifestyle of a Gandhi commune in In-dia, where the instructor had spent many a month. Then, a session on experimental theater. And so it went in Bellingham, pursuing a myriad of interests, working with amazing people who just happened to be there at the same time I was—sailing the islands, hiking and climbing in the mountains, music performance and recording, modern dance, and a serious study of communication theory as ap-plied to literature and the performing arts. That was the theme of my Interdisciplinary Concentration at Fairhaven. I made several trips to Europe during this time as well, one lasting eight months, includ-ing crewing on a ship to South Africa. In 1984, with my best friend and a new love, moved to Brooklyn, corner of Smith and President. We had great adventures working in 57th Street gal-leries, playing sax at PS 122 and Franklin Furnace, attending every NYC Ballet performance that sea-son, and eating lots of Indian food. Then we moved to Seattle for a winter. Decided to find a way to get a better job, so I moved back to Bellingham in 1986 to get an MBA. Then came a few years of fi-nancial jobs, peppered with more trips to Europe, until I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in 1991. That did change things. It was a relatively straight-forward cure. No real complications, but gradually I started to choose a much healthier lifestyle. Started hiking the Grand Canyon for 10 days every spring and fall; that lasted for 10 years. Did more lengthy hikes in the North Cascades. Became trained as a mountaineer, and climbed several technical routes of over 9,000 feet. Took up running, biking, and seri-ous tennis. Bought a sailboat. In 2004, my love and I embarked on a six-month journey to Asia. It was the trip of a lifetime for me, although I hope to match it one day soon. We spent some time in Tokyo, then a month in Thailand, then three months in India, which required another month of recovery in very relaxed places in Thailand again, from which we could not budge. I did a lot

of photography, and have a website devoted to it at www.imageevent.com/dpdrake, if you are interested and not easily put off by some crazy behavior. Since then, we have bought a beautiful place overlooking Bellingham Bay and have settled in, but not quite fully accepting the homeowner lifestyle. It’s very comfortable and lovely, but that itch for adventure won’t go away and the house tends to tie one down a bit. Well, I don’t know how much of this you really wanted to hear, but my hope is that we can start a bit of a group communication. I’m sure we all have some great stories to tell. I, for one, would love to hear them. I have, amazingly, very much enjoyed seeing old friends, faculty, and acquaintances at the few Harley reunions I have been to. I highly recommend it. I hope this letter finds you all in good health and good spirits.

Donna Hampton Maloney ’72 writes: I got a B.S. in education because my father told me not to. After that, nursing school and 20 years of that

before I burned out. Nine years in retail followed, during which in an odd turn of events I began work-ing with some folks in the entertainment industry. Had to take a year off to care for my mother, who had Alzheimer’s before passing, and then another bit of time to recover from an accident I won’t bore anyone with. I’ve been very fortunate in being able to do a bit of traveling—last trip was to New Zealand in May, where through friends who were in the Lord of the Rings movies got to see some of The Hobbit being filmed. I’m off to Europe in November for my next adventure. I have two beautiful children. My daughter Kris, 29, is a horse trainer in Missouri and married a wonderful man in May. My son Dan, 27, lives in Buffalo with his lovely girlfriend and does construction. There . . . 40 years in the abridged version.

Bill Minett ’72 writes: Oh, I have stories . . . but right now I’m trying to free a stubborn, frozen ball joint on my ’98 Acura!


80sJim Moore ’80 writes: Emma ’12 graduated from Blair Academy in 2012 and just finished her first year at the University of Rochester, where she has reconnected with former Harley classmate Richard Munson ’12. Emma loves being back in Rochester. She’s majoring in Eng-lish and psychology and plays for the women’s squash team. It was great to see her play in the Women’s Na-tional Tournament at Yale this winter. Harry ’17 will be a freshman at Blair Academy in the fall. He has finally begun to beat me at squash and is likely to be the first ninth grader to start for our varsity in five years. He also plays all manner of gui-tars and basses and was recently the Cat in the Hat in his middle school’s production of Seussical the Musical. I just finished my fifth year back in the classroom at Blair, where I teach English to freshmen and seniors and AP Microeconomics to seniors. This year, I was surprised and gratified to win the John C. and Eve Bogle Teaching Prize. This summer, I’ve been teach-ing essay writing and coaching squash at Williams College in Williamstown, Mass.

Martha Cameron ’81 writes: “Retired” from my position as director of community programs at Manlius Pebble Hill School in Syracuse after 16 years to return to college full time at SUNY Oswego to obtain my MBA.

Jenny Hayden Merritt-Hackel ’76 writes:Well, it was Steve Hinrichs who encouraged me to consider nursing school at the University of Michigan, and now I have retired from there and started a new career as a faculty member at the school of nursing at UMass Boston. So please come visit! I am so happy to be returning east even though I loved Michigan, too. I can be reached at [email protected], or cell 734-660-3461.

1978 35th reunion

Michael Faber ’78 writes: I spent an enjoyable weekend with Kraig Kayser and his family in San Francisco this October. Kraig and I are smiling in the photo because the Bills-Niners game was still close (it did not end that way).

Robert Staehle ’73 continues with his work at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. NASA recently an-nounced that it “has selected 24 small satellites, in-cluding three from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Labora-tory in Pasadena, Calif., to fly as auxiliary payloads aboard rockets planned to launch in 2014, 2015 and 2016.” One of these satellites derives directly from work in 2011-2012 by a team that Rob led. The In-terplanetary NanoSpacecraft Pathfinder In Relevant Environment (INSPIRE) project is intended to open deep-space exploration to low-cost spacecraft about the size of a cereal box, often with significant college-student hands-on development of the hard-ware and software. If successful, it will pave the way to a 10-fold cost reduction for focused scientific mis-sions to the Moon, asteroids, Mars, and beyond.

Rob writes:While being dominated by crazy ideas, I’ve lived in a manner that outwardly appears amazingly normal. My life has been guided by the pursuit of my two passions: space exploration, and appreciating the natural world here on my favorite planet, Earth. My degree in aeronautical and astronautical en-gineering seemed abnormal to most people at Har-ley. The education from Harley and Purdue opened exciting doors at the start of my present journey, never with a particular destination in mind, pretty much following my nose. I helped in small ways with the Voyager mission to Jupiter, and the first two U.S. space stations (Skylab was the first, and the second is the one up there now). Colleague Stacy Weinstein and I had the crazy idea to explore Pluto. That mis-sion is on its way to a 2015 Bastille Day encounter, though without my involvement since its birth. The crazy idea occurred to me that we could explore be-yond Earth with spacecraft the size of cereal boxes; the first is now being built at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where I have worked since 1977, often thinking I would be somewhere else in a few years. With the love of my life, Lori Paul, I’ve worked to conserve a little land from population encroachment. Through luck, healthy diet, and disciplined exer-cise, I remain in better condition than I ever was at Harley. I’m having a lot of fun, and still get paid to do it. Bottom line: happy!

Michael Goldman ’81 writes: This is a photo of me (left), Woody Allen, and class-mate John Morse. John and I worked together this past summer on Woody Allen’s latest film, Blue Jas-min, shot in San Francisco and New York. The film stars Cate Blanchett, Peter Saarsgard, Sally Hawkins, and Alec Baldwin. John was the first assistant director in charge of scheduling the film shoot and running the set while shooting was taking place. I was the art director and managed the scheduling, bud-geting, and construction of the sets. John and I both got our start in the theater department at Harley. We were part of Bill Dalton’s infamous “Ratz” tech crew.

2 013 | 39

Steve “Willie” White ’81 continues to happily supply Seattle with wine and circus acts as director of wine for Click Wholesale Distributing and a board member of the School of Acrobatic and New Circus Arts (SANCA). He lives in Edmonds with his wife and daughters, Vicki, Zoe, and Averi.

Susie Mees Longfield ’82 writes: Even though I didn’t take AP Bio (although I wish I had!), Maggie Schneider was always one of my favorite teachers, and after graduation, a lifelong friend. She is so dearly missed!

Thom Ward ’82 has a new book of poems out called Etcetera’s Mistress. A review stated: “In these nine poems alone, Ward finds his stride, states his case, and produces work that goes beyond the compe-tent to the realm of the memorable.”

1983 30th reunion

Linda Hamlin Arnold ’83 writes:In the past year or so, it’s been great to have talked to some of our classmates and see how the creative entrepreneurial core that was taught at Harley has shined—Steve Corryn running his own appraisal business, Tina Selak Klaus opening her art stu-dio, Kim Corbett and her husband owning a bou-tique furniture store outside of London, Regina Boykins working in the healing arts in the North-west, and Jim Bagby working in the most creative place I know—the library—sharing his knowledge for seekers of information or entertainment. Most of my connections have been on the phone or electroni-cally, which is still wonderful, but just not the same as connecting in person. Although I live far away from Rochester these days (in Colorado), and was unaable to come back for Reunion, I still feel very connected not only to my past memories with all of you, but also with Harley today through my personal commitment three years ago to become a member of the Harley Circle, with a pledge to donate $1,000 a year for five years. I have to admit there were moments when I wasn’t sure I could swing it financially, but was proud in the end to give up some other things to make room for this pledge. Whether you are able to make the Re-union or not, I hope you will consider giving a gift of any amount to the School this year in honor of our 30th.

For more information on this or other planned giving opportunities,contact Debra Weiss Walker ’83,

Director of Development, (585) 442-1770 ext. [email protected]

Visit www.harleyschool.org/supporting-harley/planned-giving

“I graduated Harley in 1948 and when I look back they were still some of

the happiest years of my life. The School was exceptional.

I made lifelong friends, learned how to study,

and owe Harley a debt of thanks for the education I received.

Ginger Dreyfus Karren ’48”

“Our children tell us that this was our greatest gift to them—

a Harley education. So when we came to adjust our will, we included Harley.

Sandy and Suzanne Mayer, former Harley parents”

“The reason I keep giving to Harley is because

Ron Richardson did an amazing rendition of The Talking Heads’ Psycho Killer. Tim Douglas ’82

”

Harriet Bentley Society

Consider including The Harley School in your will.

YOUR


Personal news on my home front: We are in the process of downsizing to a smaller house a couple of miles away from where we currently are (yes, moving again, if you can believe it!). This one will be a true fixer-upper renovation project that we are going to try to do ourselves; I’m excited to tear down walls, put in new flooring, and add our personal touches while forging strong memories for my two teenage boys, Alex and Andrew, working alongside me and hus-band, John. Fortunately we will have several months to work on the house before actually moving in. I also started working last November for a company that services charter schools in the Denver area, where I am currently a financial consultant to four different schools. The work is filled with long hours and not much pay, but I have found a way to combine my heart for community service with my professional work ex-perience to help kids in underserved communities who now have educational options with this sprout-ing of charter school alternatives.

David Shechter ’86 writes: My son, Josh, grad-uated from Harley this past year, Class of 2013. It brought back a lot of memories of my graduation. The ceremony was great! I’m so happy and proud of him. Josh will live on campus at MCC and study commu-nication video/media. My wife, Michelle, received tenure this past spring as a teacher tech assistant at Roth Middle School. She also works part-time at the Bird House on Monroe Avenue. My daughter, Emily,

Krysta Banke ’93 writes:

To the Harley Class of 1993:We rode the bus together.

We sat on the carpet as Mrs. Kimmet read The Witches.

You told me you liked Hilary. I kept your secret for decades.

You came to my birthday party at Sharkey’s Skate Rink and I went to yours at Chuck E. Cheese’s.

Wearing pieces of gauze, we danced to Night on Bald Mountain with Jay.

Koi told us he was related to Michael Jackson. I stole some of Sugar’s glitter.

You showed me your Garbage Pail Kids cards and I showed you my sticker book.

We made coil pots with Mr. Richardson. Mr. Cinquino demonstrated how not to eat an

ice cream cone. We flipped over rocks looking for crayfish and crossed the wooden bridge to unknown land.

You let me play with your Atari watch.I gossiped about your first kiss.

Mrs. Parsons asked us for hugs.We watched Stand by Me at your sleepover.Your mom fed me the best stewed chicken

I’d ever eaten in my life.We carved pumpkins at Nate’s farm, and played tetherball waiting for our parents to pick us up.

We biked to the beach together.I loved you.

Your crush on me didn’t count, because I didn’t have a crush on you.

Ian Watson ’88 and his wife, Angela, welcomed their third child, Emily, in September 2012. Ian and his family are still residing in Reykjavik, Iceland. Ian’s son, Jakob, went to Harley Summer Camp this past summer.

Visit our new website. www.harleyschool.org. Keep up-to-date with Harley news & events

90sKate Turner Jacus ’92 stopped by Harley with her daughter, Ainsley.

Jennifer Rubenstein ’92 and her husband, Pete, welcomed daughter, Zora Raye, born on April 2, 2012.

is headed to Sperry High School next year and I am hoping she continues to cheerlead. I have been busy umpiring girls’ fastpitch softball and working when-ever I can. I also played in the 7th annual alumni soccer game. Hope all is well with all alumni.

Sasha Rieders Coffiner ’96 writes: My hus-band, Brad Coffiner, and I are thrilled to announce the birth of our twin boys, Noah Harrison Coffiner and Jonah Dylan Coffiner, January 25, 2013. All four of us (plus our pug Dakota) are doing well. We will be relocating to suburban Philadelphia in April. I am currently taking a break from practicing as an attor-ney to be with the twins, while Brad is an architec-tural planner for the American International Group (AIG).

David Belden ’93 writes:

I actually left Harley after seventh grade and moved out to Palo Alto, Calif., where I graduated from Palo Alto High School. Wanting to return to the East Coast for college, I attended Dartmouth College, studied philosophy, and was introduced to mountain biking, which is still my main sport. After Dart-mouth I returned to Palo Alto, starting a career in sales. After four years of successfully selling enter-prise software, the unthinkable happened and I was diagnosed with advanced-stage colon cancer. I un-derwent surgery and six months of chemotherapy, and ultimately survived thanks to great doctors and a tremendous amount of support. Needless to say, I was exhausted from the whole ordeal, so I took a year off to recover, and during that recovery I applied to and was accepted at Stanford Business School. I at-tended Stanford from 2003-2005, graduating with an MBA. Since then, I’ve worked at a few startups (including my own), and finally joined Google, where I’m currently a sales manager. In 2006 I took up swing dancing and ultimately met my wife in a swing dance class. We recently added little Max to the family, born August 14, and accordingly, moved from San Francisco to Menlo Park so we can start a family in suburbia rather than a busy city.

2 013 | 41

[photo at left] Heather Rubenstein ’95 and hus-band, Brendan, had twin boys, Samuel Cyd and Everett deMar, born July 25, 2012. Pictured with Trainor Kimmet [center], son of Ryan Kimmet ’95.

Brett Zefting ’98 f lew into Montana to visit Caroline Marshall ’98. Rob Williams ’98 happened to be on a road trip in the area at the same time. It was a great mini reunion!

In case you missed a past issue of Becoming Magazine: www.harleyschool.org/alumni/becoming-magazine

Boys Basketball

Boys Basketball

Boys Basketball

Boys Basketball

Go Wolve s | Fa l l 2 0 09 | 11 | Be coming Magazine | Go Wolve s !

100 words Kids volunteer in local Rochester hospices and learn about end-of-life care. At the end of the academic year, students who have provided more than 100 hours of bedside care may elect to travel to Calcutta, India, to work at Mother Teresa’s facilities for the dying/destitute, orphaned, abused, and physically and mentally challenged. While there, students provide bedside care and comfort, and feeding and laundry assistance, while teaching and playing with children. This program has expanded to include a trip to Belize where Harley helped set up the first hospice in that country. Students use teleconfe

100 words Kids volunteer in local Rochester hospices and learn about end-of-life care. At the end of the academic year, students who have provided more than 100 hours of bedside care may elect to travel to Calcutta, India, to work at Mother Teresa’s facilities for the dying/destitute, orphaned, abused, and physically and mentally challenged. While there, students provide bedside care and comfort, and feeding and laundry assistance, while teaching and playing with children. This program has expanded to include a trip to Belize where Harley helped set up the first hospice in that country. Students use teleconfe

100 words Kids volunteer in local Rochester hospices and learn about end-of-life care. At the end of the academic year, students who have provided more than 100 hours of bedside care may elect to travel to Calcutta, India, to work at Mother Teresa’s facili-ties for the dying/destitute, orphaned, abused, and physically and mentally challenged. While there, students provide bedside care and comfort, and feeding and laundry assistance, while teaching and playing with children. This program has expanded to include a trip to Belize where Harley helped set up the first hospice in that country. Students use teleconfe

100 words Kids volunteer in local Rochester hospices and learn about end-of-life care. At the end of the academic year, stu-dents who have provided more than 100 hours of bedside care may elect to travel to Calcutta, India, to work at Mother Teresa’s facilities for the dying/destitute, orphaned, abused, and physi-cally and mentally challenged. While there, students provide bedside care and comfort, and feeding and laundry assistance, while teaching and playing with children. This program has expanded to include a trip to Belize where Harley helped set up the first hospice in that country. Students use teleconfe

xx-xx league; xx-xx overall

record: more

Kevin Gibbs/ Claude Williams, Asst.

Jon Benjamin ’09, Peter Sahasrabudhe

’10


record: more



’10


record: more



’10


record: more



’10

ReCoRd

CoACHeS

CAPTAINS

ReCoRd

CoACHeS

CAPTAINS

ReCoRd

CoACHeS

CAPTAINS

ReCoRd

CoACHeS

CAPTAINS

The Harley School grows | Rochester at the forefront of infectious disease research | Beyond expectations: Students experience new birth by caring for the dying

2009 Fall

Southampton to South Africa{

The Harley School. Commited to our motto, “Become what thou art.”

The Harley School. Commited to our motto, “Become what thou art.”

2010 Summer Man on a Mission | Harley Community How To ... Re-Raising The New Harley Barn

The Harley School. Committed to our motto, “Become what thou art.”

The China Factor:Opportunities and Challenges

Gamelan at Harley | War and Peace; Heartbreak and Triumph: The Daniel Mari ’48 story2011

DESIGNCreativity and Design Thinking: Solutions in business.

Our designer alumnishow us examples.

2012

Class Notes | Rochester Innovator Partners with MIT to Explore Alternative Energy Uses | Stopping Summer Learning Loss | Commencement | Sports

The Harley School. Committed to our motto, “Become what thou art.”

Gifts to the School directly impact student experiences, faculty development,

and the strength of the programs we offer.

Your financial support will ensure The Harley School maintains its mission of providing an exemplary education to students

and realizes its vision for future generations of scholars.

Membership is granted to supporters who make a five-year commitment to

The Harley Fund with an annual gift of $1,000 or greater.

lease support The Harley School by joining The Harley Circle today.

To join, contact Director of Development Debra Weiss Walker ’83

(585) 442-1770 ext. 3031, [email protected]

or visit www.harleyschool.org

J

P

THE HARLEY CIRCLE

OIN

Sara Prozeller Hartman ’61 and Peter HartmanCharter members since 2009


OIN

Anonymous (2)

Mr. and Mrs. Warren W. Agor

Mr. John Arnold and Ms. Linda Hamlin Arnold ’83

Mr. and Mrs. Burton August

Mr. Robert August

Mr. and Mrs. Charles Baldo

Mr. and Mrs. Jack Baron

Dr. Terry S. Baronos and Dr. Lily Sinha Baronos ’87

Mr. and Mrs. Bruce B. Bates

Mr. and Mrs. Jim I. Benjamin

Mr. Doug Bennett and Mrs. Abigail Stern Bennett ’99

Mr. Richard G. Bennett ’36 and Mrs. Ruth Harris Bennett ’36

Ms. Phyllis W. Bentley ’45

Mr. and Mrs. Norman Breen

Mr. and Mrs. Joseph C. Briggs ’48

Mr. Bruce Brown ’79

Mr. Stephen Brown

Mr. James Butler and Dr. Melanie Butler

Dr. Michael Nazar and Ms. Catherine Callery

Mrs. Virginia Sharp Carpenter ’41

Mr. and Mrs. Arunas Chesonis

Mr. James Chung ’89

Mr. Alan Cohen and Ms. Nancy Bloom

Ms. Patricia Corcoran

Dr. and Mrs. Timothy Cottrell

Miss Mary Critikos ’54

Mr. Louis D’Amanda ’47 and Mrs. Allis VanVoorhis D’Amanda ’49

Mr. and Mrs. Dennis Diehl

Mr. and Mrs. Timothy S. Douglas ’82

Mr. Dennis Drew and Ms. Karen Saludo

Mr. Nathaniel G. Duckles ’04

Dr. Charles Duffy and Dr. Katherine Duffy

Mr. Taylor Hogan and Dr. Cynthia Dunn

Mr. James B. Durfee ’75 and Mrs. Vickie DelMonte Durfee ’75

Mr. Richard J. Babin and Ms. Jo A. Eaton

Mr. Joseph Ellis and Dr. Deborah Kerley

Dr. Clifford R. Everett and Ms. Rita M. Adler-Everett

Mr. Peter T. Ewell ’66

Mr. George Ewing

Mrs. Margaret Ewing

Ms. Victoria Rodwin Ferentz ’82

Mr. Raymond Fiorini and Ms. Gail Fiorini

Dr. Theodore Ford, Jr. and Ms. Margaret DeFranco

Mr. Scott D. Frame ‘73 and Mrs. Katherine Kearns Frame ’73

Mr. and Mrs. Conger W. Gabel ’62

Mr. and Mrs. John W. Gardner ’70

Mr. Lee Gartley, Jr. ‘82 and Ms. Tina Gartley

Mr. Ward J. Ghory and Mrs. Anne Ghory-Goodman

Dr. and Mrs. John A. Girotto

Mr. Mark Goldstein and Dr. Dena Levy

Mr. James Grieve and Ms. Eleanor R. Rusling

Dr. Jonathan Gross and Ms. Laura Gross

Mr. Anthony L. Gugino and Dr. Earlene C. Gugino

Dr. David S. Guzick and Dr. Donna E. Giles

Mr. Peter W. Hartman and Mrs. Sara Prozeller Hartman ’61

Mrs. Katherine Turner Jacus ’92

Mr. Kraig H. Kayser ’78

Mr. David T. Kearns ’48* and Mrs. Shirley C. Kearns

Mr. Mark Kellogg and Ms. Joanna Bassett

Mr. and Mrs. Gary Kimmet

Dr. Stan Orbach and Mrs. Linda S. Kingsley

Mr. and Mrs. Alan Knauf

Mrs. Rebecca Kraai

Mr. and Mrs. James Laurito

Dr. and Mrs. Michael Leit

Mr. and Mrs. William W. Lloyd

Mr. Charles L. Longfield and Ms. Susan Mees Longfield ’82

Mr. B. G. Staffan Lundback ’66 and Mrs. Lee Craig Lundback ‘66

Dr. Scott MacRae

Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Mahar

Mr. Jon B. McNally and Mrs. Susan Parkes McNally

Dr. and Mrs. Daniel Mendelson

Mr. and Mrs. Neal P. Miller ’61

Mr. and Mrs. Richard Moon

Mr. and Mrs. Robert Moore

Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth E. Motsenbocker

Mr. Frank Sherman and Ms. Valerie Myntti

Dr. William O’Malley and Dr. Karen Jaranowski

Mr. and Mrs. Michael Paddock

Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence Peckham

Dr. and Mrs. Ralph Pennino

Dr. Terry Platt and Dr. Dianne Edgar

Dr. Bernard Ricca and Dr. Stephanie Townsend

Mr. John Ringwood ’62

Mr. and Mrs. Steven Robins

Dr. Deepak Sahasrabudhe and Dr. Jane Liesveld

Mr. Peter E. Samek and Ms. Susan Topel-Samek

Mrs. Marilyn Sands

Mr. and Mrs. Richard Sands ’69

Mr. Robert Sands ’76

Dr. Jude S. Sauer and Dr. Eva Sauer

Mr. Timothy Scahill and Ms. Cathleen Scahill

Mr. and Mrs. David M. Schraver

Mr. and Mrs. Brian D. Scudder

Mr. and Mrs. John Sebastian

Dr. David Seldin ’74

Dr. William J. Sheeran and Ms. Deborah L. Pearce

Dr. Clarence B. Sheffield, Jr. and Dr. Marit B. Sheffield

Mrs. Jean Hayes Spalding*

Dr. Andrew Stern and Mrs. Melissa McGrain

Mr. and Mrs. David Stern, Esq. ’81

Ms. Lynn E. Stern ’81

Mr. Charles C. Stuard ‘82 and Ms. Pam Frederick

Mr. Robert Sykes and Mrs. Catherine Hargrave Sykes ’45*

Mr. and Mrs. William C. Sykes ’76

Mr. J. Nelson Thomas ’86

Mr. Tim Tindall and Ms. Erica Harper

Dr. T. Michael Toole ’79

Mr. John S. Trow ’76

Dr. Marguerite A. Urban and Dr. Linda L. Spillane

Mr. Roger C. Garrett and Ms. Mary Catherine (Kitty) Van Bortel

Mr. and Mrs. Christopher K. Varner ’80

Mr. and Mrs. Herb Voelcker

Mr. and Mrs. Timothy Wainwright

Mr. Michael Walker and Mrs. Debra Weiss Walker ’83

Ms. Helen Wiley and Hon. Marian Payson

Mr. Peter H. Willsea ‘72 and Ms. Deborah Schaller Willsea ’73

Mr. Daniel P. Yeoman ’00

Mr. and Mrs. Janez Zupan

Mr. Mark A. Zupan*d e cea sed 2 013 | 43

and I have continued to do with my research and I am working with Susan Wood (for FDA Assistant Commissioner for Women’s Health and Director of the Office of Women’s Health until 2005) to publish my findings. Gratefully, I have a great job post-graduation. I am working within the George Washington Univer-sity’s School of Public Health and Health Services’s Department of Prevention and Community Health working on an NIH funded grant to address Latino health disparities in Langley Park, Maryland. Not only do I have the opportunity to utilize my Spanishskills, but I’ve had the opportunity to learn how to create a website with basic coding (www.avancegw.org). Like at PAETEC (now Windstream), I am blessed to work with and for people who I trust and

highly respect. And throughout all this, I am still staying connect-ed with my Harley class-mates. I’ve seen Mark Begensich a few times, whether it is in Roches-ter, San Francisco, Seattle or San Francisco, Greg Shear and of course, Catherine Carithers. I’ve been able to stay up to date on all the Harley

happenings throughout the years while I was work-ing at PAETEC and by living at Jay Stetzer and Maura Allen’s house (an apartment in their house) and visiting with them every time I return home. I wasn’t a Harley Lifer who had the privilege of having Jay and Maura as teachers, but I’ve had the privilege of having them as teachers to my adult soul. And I can’t forget meeting up with Karen Saludo when she came through DC and gave me updates on all the happenings around school. Everyone hates high school and I know I was ready to get out of Harley by the time I graduated, but years later I would totally go back to Harley! There is now a glass blowing studio, trips to India to volunteer at a hospice clinic, a community garden, and to top it all off, a soon to be self-sustaining barn. I’ve enjoyed staying connected to my Harley class-mates on Facebook and seeing what we’ve all become — which looks fabulous all around. Best wishes to all of my classmates and if any of you are ever in DC, give me a call, you have a place to stay!Warmly, Karin

00sJennifer Simmons Svensson ’00 married Daniel Svensson in Pittsford, N.Y., October 8, 2011, after being proposed to under the Eiffel Tower. She recently graduated from Canisius College with a MS in school counseling.

Karin Bleeg ’01 writes: I feel like the past 2 years have raced past me. Since 2011, I have left my job at PAETEC to pursue my passion in working in public health, began graduate school and now, I have graduated, with a job I im-mensely enjoy. While I’ve been living in Washington, D.C. for the past two years, I started a community garden in DC’s Ward 5 Edgewood neighborhood with a classmate and friend, Cassie (she lives in Edgewood). The gar-den is free and open to all Edgewood residents and has been financially supported by grants and private donations, along with the time and energy of neighbors and friends of Edgewood (Like us on Facebook! Friends of Edgewood Recreation & Garden). Starting and maintaining a community garden has been quite an adventure. For one, up until 4 years ago, I had no interest in gardening and mostly because I disliked all the creepy crawly bugs and I didn’t want to weed. Lo and behold, I got caught up in the local food movement in Rochester, NY, thanks to a sum-mer farming at Mudcreek Farm in Victor, NY and connecting with Harley alum and teacher, Chris Hartman, founder of Good Food Collective and the South Wedge Farmer’s Market. Fast forward to present day and I am trying to manage a com-munity garden with my friend, Cassie, in a racially tense neighborhood and under the bureaucratic eye of DC’s Department of Parks and Rec and local politics. Who knew growing fruits and vegetables would cause so much drama? In addition to the garden, I became more involved in the pro-choice movement by joining the DC Abor-tion Fund (DCAF) soon after moving to DC. I ul-timately ended up doing my Master’s thesis research on the data that is collected by DCAF case managers

Save the Date Reunion / Alumni

WeekendJune 13 & 14, 2014

Whether you are celebrating a milestone or just want to catch up with friends, all alumni are invited back to

The Harley School each year for reunion.

Honoring reunion classes year ending in 4 and 9

5th Class of 2009 10th Class of 200415th Class of 199920th Class of 199425th Class of 198930th Class of 198435th Class of 197940th Class of 1974

45th Class of 196950th Class of 196455th Class of 195960th Class of 195465th Class of 194970th Class of 194475th Class of 1939

Check your mail this winter for reunion details.If you have any questions about reunion,

contact Karen Saludo (585) 442-1770 ext. 3030, [email protected]


2 013 | 45

2003 10th reunion

Carey Ruckert Carta ’03 writes: After gradu-ating from Hamilton College in 2007, I moved to NYC to work in sales/marketing at CBS Radio and an international packaging/labeling company. After getting my fill of the city, I moved back to Rochester in 2009 to attend the Simon School of Business. I graduated from Simon with my MBA in 2011 and moved to Fairfield County, Conn., to work at Day-mon Worldwide as a category and consumer insights analyst. Also in 2011, I married my wonderful hus-band, Chad, in August. In March 2013, Chad and I moved back to Rochester when he accepted a job offer from Empire Valuations. I am still in my role as an analyst at Daymon, working remotely from Rochester. Both Chad and I are thrilled to be back and hope to be here for the long run. :)

Sonya Dumanis ’03 writes: I have currently fin-ished up my Ph.D. in neuroscience at Georgetown University, where I focused on Alzheimer’s dis-ease research. Starting July 1, I will be a Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellow in Berlin at the Max Delbrueck Center, where I will be continuing my research on Alzheimer’s disease. If anyone wants to visit me in Berlin, they are more than welcome to send me an e-mail, [email protected].

Ashley Hellman ’03 returned to California after living in Lima, Peru, for six months. She’s been work-ing for World Wildlife Fund–Peru to assess the status of fresh water in Lima.

Caitlin Frame ’05 [p i c tu red be low] and Andy Smith, are running a small organic dairy business, The Milkhouse, in South China, Maine. Check out their website and blog, www.mainemilkhouse.com. They are expecting a baby in November!

Elizabeth McDonald ’01 and her friend, Mike, stopped by Harley in January 2013 while home over holiday break. Elizabeth is teaching science at a private school in San Francisco.

Luke Lennox ’06 married Maria Comaratta on August 18, 2012, in Buffalo. Maria and Luke are both completing their third year at the University of Buffalo Medical School. They hope to pursue resi-dency programs in ophthalmology for Luke and anes-thesiology for Maria.

Meaghan Malone ’06 is engaged to Mike Ster-nowski—congratulations!

Ellen Altier Maher ’01 had a baby girl, Lilah, in December 2012.

Rob Richardson ’01 proposed to Bethany Jones on Christmas Eve 2012. An August 2014 wedding is planned.

Page Durant Robinson ’01: Here is a photo of her daughter, Eloise in her precious Harley onesie. She was born on January 29, 2013, 7 lbs 10 oz, 22”.


Tug of war,

Help support The Harley School’s cherished traditions by giving to the 2013-2014 Harley Fund.

Learn more or make a gift at: www.harleyschool.org

a highlight of Harley’s

annual May Day Celebra-

tion, second only to red,

white, and blue-striped

bomb pops, nutty bud-

dies, and ice cream

sandwiches, continues

to be a good-natured

test of brute s t reng th

and determination for

Harley students. A victory

offers bragging rights to

the winning class and has

proven to decades of

students, that a firm hold,

sure footing, a bit of grit—

and teamwork—pay off.

2 013 | 47

AJ LaMere ’08 married Paige Tidd in August.

Andrew Richenderfer ’08 writes: Following graduation, I enrolled at Case Western Reserve to pursue a degree in physics. There, I met some wonderful new friends while keeping in touch with old ones (Cliff Costello ’07). I also pursued a number of extracurricular interests, including Habi-tat for Humanity, Homeless Stand Down, intramural sports, and scientific research. I spent my summers at different research labs studying nano-optics, plasma physics, and Graphene. In May 2012, I graduated from Case magna cum laude with a B.S. in physics and the following fall I enrolled at Massachusetts Institute of Technology to begin my Ph.D. work in nuclear engineering. I am currently in my first year as a graduate student at MIT, with my research fo-cused on thermal hydraulics for better nuclear reactor designs.

Nicky Boucher ’08 reports: I am an education as-sistant teaching K-12 about the hypoxic zone off the Gulf of Mexico. We do many hands-on labs doing otter trawls and capturing plankton to better explain how nutrient pollution can create dead zones. I wish The Harley School could have students visit. I partici-pated in their collegiate-level field and lab component when I was on a mosaic semester at Dickinson called Luce LUMCON [Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium] does a spectacular job finding interest-ing labs to teach about the current research from their research station.

Caley Fain ’08 is heading to SUNY Albany this fall to pursue a master’s in clinical social work.

Ben Guzick ’08 writes: I graduated from col-lege—discovered/recognized a love for food and eat-ing—and am pursuing that now as fully as possible!

Tammela Platt ’06 writes: I finished my Peace Corps/Ukraine service teaching 4th grade in November 2012 and moved to London in January to earn a Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults. I started my M.A. in English literature at University College in London this fall.

Chris Cowdery-Corvan ’07 is engaged to Megan Ross. The wedding is planned for June 2014.

Rachelle Duroseau ’07 graduated from Naza-reth College summa cum laude in December 2012.

Newest Harley store item long-sleeved t-shirt“Harley Makes History First in Computing” harkens back to Harley’s pioneering use of computers in the early 1970s. On the back: The Digital Equipment Corp. (DEC) logo/ BASIC/RT-11 “A small, single user RT operating system for the Digital Equipment Corporation PDP-11 family of 16-bit computers.” Modeled here by Richard Lange ’09, the new engineer-in-residence for The Commons. The t-shirts are ‘computer card’ beige, and available in S, M, L, XL. To order: send $20 check payable to: The Harley Store, to Len Wilcox, The Harley School, 1981 Clover Street, Rochester, NY 14618.

Rachel Kurchin ’09 writes: It’s with great excite-ment (and still a certain amount of disbelief) that I report I’ve been awarded a Gates Scholarship to study at Cambridge University next year! I’ll be living in Churchill College and working toward the M.Phil. in materials science and metallurgy. Afterward, I plan to return to the States and start a Ph.D., likely also in materials science, and I hope to do research in renewable-energy technologies.

A grand welcome to Nick Cohn ’07, Harley’s new glass teacher

photo : Ho l l y Heber t

Cricket Cleary ’11 is majoring in communica-tions at the University of California–Santa Barbara. Her dad reports that she is doing great!

[above] I was thinking of all of you at Harley this past weekend when Kiersten Thompson ’09 and I found ourselves competing against each other at an IHSA horse show in northern Minnesota. I’m at Car-leton and she is at St. Olaf (also in Northfield), so we actually ride at the same barn! We hadn’t seen each other since fifth-period select choir with Mr. Bur-roughs, so it was great fun catching up.All my love to Harley,Maggie Lloyd ’11

Brooklyn Bianchi ’12 is at UCLA on a four-year ROTC scholarship.

Ray Chang ’12 writes: I finished my first year of Cornell (woohoo!) and will take off to Indonesia for the purposes of traveling and volunteering.

Ingram Miller ’12 is now at the Eugene Lang School at The New School in New York City.

Louis D’Amanda ’09 and Celeste Schepp ’09 were engaged June 2, 2013.


10sSeveral members of the Class of 2011, Ulrik Söderström, Rob Deane, Gage Willand, Jaziel Ortiz, and Marissa Malone gathered at Boulder Coffee in January 2013.

[ l e f t ] Griffin McGregor Anderson ’12, Rob Cooper (Allendale-Columbia Class of 2012), Lily Frye ’12, Meghan Dens (Allendale-Columbia Class of 2011), and Dave Holroyd ’12 on a hike in the Adirondacks in summer 2013.

March 29, 2014BLAST! save the date

BLAST! is Harley’s biggest and most exciting fundraising event of the year. In fact, it is our only fundraising event of the year. We hope you will join us as we celebrate the School together. Please buy your ticket, become a sponsor, or advertise in the event program. Your participation ensures our success. Jenna Wainwright: [email protected]

6:00 - 11:00 p.m. Temple B’rith Kodesh Rochester, NY

Sebastien Fauchet ’09 and Jonathan Benja-min ’09 gaduated from the University of Richmond in May 2013.

• •

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Reunion 2013Alumni Reunion Weekend 2013, October 11 and 12Thank you to everyone who joined us for this fantastic weekend!

1. Kathy Kearns Frame ’73 hugs classmate, Barbara Marticelli McGarey 2. Class of 1973: Betsy Hecker, Barbara Marticelli McGarey, Dorothy D’Amanda Hayes, Charles Grammer, Rob Staehle, J. Merrill, Mark McGrain, Kathy Kearns Frame, Jeff Mulligan and Karen Tweet Laufer 3. Cassandra Czubara Caufield ’03 and her son, M.J. 4. Class of 1988: Adam Stetzer, Matt Thomas and Dan Kunitz 5. Mark McGrain ’73, Karen Tweet Laufer ’73, Cindy Heineman ’68, Rick Heineman ’69 and J. Merrill ’73 6. Ward Ghory with Ben Speciale ’98 and his wife, Mindy 7. Class of 1968: Bob Levis, David Martin and Cindy Heineman 8. Beth Bafford, Dan Yeoman ’00, Karen Yeoman ’98, Ben Speciale ’98 and Mindy Speciale 9. Come back and visit us again soon! 10. David O’Brien ’05, James D’Amanda ’05, Dana Platt ’05 and Allie D’Amanda Sacks ’03 11. Class of 1983: Debbie Ginsburg Hoff, Laura Joslyn Klibanoff, and Debra Weiss Walker 12. Jane Merrill ’08 and her parents, Susan Kramarsky and Larry Merrill

Save the Date

June 13 & 14

Alumni Reunion 2014

1. 2. 3.

4. 5. 6.

7. 8. 9.

10. 11. 12.

• •


Alice Ritter (librarian, 1967-1987) is pictured with Debra Weiss Walker ’83 and Anne Townsend: I miss Harley and am always glad for news of the dear place, and wish I could be there for a visit. If anyone is ever this way, please contact me through the School.

Neal Roden (Middle School teacher, 1982-1989) writes: I was so saddened to hear of Maggie Schneider’s passing. She made me feel so welcome when I arrived and was a kind friend. Sorry I missed the reunion of the class of ’87. Hope it was fun!

Paul Schiffman (Head of School, 2000-2006) writes:We are doing great. Our daughter Allison is residing in New York City, practicing law. Our daughter Jan-ice is residing in London with her husband Rob and their 20-month-old son Isaac. Sandy and I have found desert living to our lik-ing—the best part of living in Las Vegas . . . so many visitors from Rochester, who we see many times each year. Miss everyone at home; however, the mountains and heat agree with us. I am happy that my good friend Ward Ghory is joining Harley. Have known Ward for over a dozen years and he is a kind, caring, intelligent, just all-around nice person. I know he will come to love Har-ley as much as I do.

Michael Lasser (English, 1966-1998, head of English Department, 1966-1978, Arts Cen-ter director, 1975-1989) was the guest speaker at The Chatterbox Club. A packed house includ-ing a Harley table enjoyed his talk entitled: To see as songwriters see. Lasser is currently a lecturer, writer, broadcaster, critic, and has a nationally syndicated public radio show called “Fascinatin’ Rhythm.”

Barbara Stirrat (pre-school teacher, 1986-1994) writes: I am in Orange County, Calif. My oldest son, Mark, and his wife, Megan, and their three children ages 5, 3.5, and 1.7 keep everyone moving. He is a patent attorney and she is a financial adviser. Our youngest son, Brad, was married on June 1, 2013, here in California in Laguna Beach. He is a CPA and she is a mechanical engineer. I have been traveling this year to Paris, France, Wil-liamsburg, Va., and Chatham, Mass.. I’m involved in a Philanthropic Education Organization for Women and the Orange County Philharmonic Society. I have a very good time playing “at” golf. I play with a group of gals every week who are not in competition with each other. We just have fun and pick up the ball if we don’t like it. My best to everyone! Please tell everyone hello for me who still remains at Harley and who still remembers me.

Alex DeSantis (English, 1972-2009) took part in a photo shoot in New York City with Rebekah Sherman-Myntti ’09.

John Dolan (Upper School teacher and school psychologist) gave a PowerNet talk at Midtown Athletic Club entitled Competition to standing room only crowd.

FACULTY AND STAFF

In MemoriamDon Backe*, Head of Lower School 1969-1977Betsy Morse, Lower School teacher 1941-1942Kitty Silvestrone, Science teacher 1968-1977

*see page 52

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GRADES 5 & 6 SCIENCE TEACHERRobin Long Long grew up in Winnetka, Ill.. She went to Stanford University from 1964-1967, although left after her second year finding some of her classes less stimulating than most of the classes she took in high school. She later finished her undergraduate degree at Empire State College and a masters degree at Nazareth College. Prior to finishing her degrees, Long worked with her husband in his pottery studio in Branchport, NY and spent mornings home-schooling her first two children, while trying to start a public school program based on the British Open Classroom model. When this didn’t pan out due to some political opposition, Long and her family went to England where she studied the British School System first-hand as a parent. Long joined the Harley family in 1987 as a middle school math and science teacher, but spent the majority of her Harley career teaching grades 5 & 6 science. One of Robin’s fondest memories at Harley is bringing the administration into her office before the birth of the World Wide Web, to witness her enter DOS commands into an old pre-286 IBM computer that was 'on-line' to access a distance library. In retirement, Robin hopes to employ her skills and experiences in a manner that offers some cultural “payback.” She is currently pursuing activities that offer children opportunites to personally connect to nature.

INTERIM HEAD OF SCHOOL Valerie Myntti [PICTURED W ITH] Rebecca Orbach ’16, Emma Chesonis ’16, and

Allison Urban-Spillane ’16Myntti joined The Harley School community in 1994 as a parent when she enrolled her daughter, Rebekah ’09, in the nursery program. Her ties to the school include the roles of parent, trustee, faculty member, and administrator. Prior to moving to Rochester, Valerie practiced law in the Philadelphia area. While her daughter was a student, Valerie was very active in the daily life of Harley. She volunteered as a Parent Council Room Rep and served as Chair of Parent Council. She later joined the Board of Trustees, serving on several committees, including Development, Strategic Planning, and the Committee on Trustees. Once her daughter moved on to Harley’s Middle School, she took her passion for the School into the classroom when she joined the faculty of the Lower School. She was a primary teacher and later nursery classroom teacher. In 2007, she accepted the position of director of admissions at Harley. During her final year at Harley, she served as interim head of school. In her retirement, she plans to run marathons, hike the Appalachian Trail, and trek the Himalayas.

SCHOOL SECRETARYJackie Smith Smith came to Harley 33 years ago as a receptionist, but soon found other duties being placed in her capable hands. Those duties included secretary for the Wilson Arts Center and its director Michael Lasser; assistant to the Lower, Middle and Upper School Heads; and assistant to the Driver’s Education program. In 1991, she added the role she has since made famous: secretary to the College Counseling program and, until just a few years ago, she did all those jobs while also serving as the school’s receptionist! Jackie has been a true team player and a deeply appreciated contributor to the work of The Harley School. In her retirement, Jackie looks forward to spending time with her husband, Dave, at their cottage on Keuka Lake.

GRADE 3 TEACHERSheila Grant Before Grant joined The Harley School, she worked for the Pittsford School District teaching elementary school and at St. John Fisher College supervising student teachers. She was hired in the Lower School at Harley in 1996. After spending time in both grades 5 and 6, in 2001, Grant landed in a third grade classroom and remained there until retirement. She loved working with third grade children because they were always eager to “give a hug or a high five.” Grant will miss most the Halloween Parade, Focus Week, and the nurturing family atmosphere of the School. She plans to return to the School this fall as Harley the Clown in an act that she has performed for several generations of Nursery students. She is looking forward to spending time with her first grandchild, Caroline Grant, born this past August..

FOUNDER OF HARLEY'S HOSPICE PROGRAM Bob KaneAfter years of film-making and international marketing work, Kane came to Harley in 2003 bringing with him the Hospice program that he started at the Norman Howard School. Bob taught tenth grade English and hospice for most of his time at Harley. Two years ago, when the School received a grant from the Edward E. Ford Foundation, Kane moved to full-time hospice, mindfulness, and empathy education work, teaching several sections and directing the newly-formed Center for Mindfulness and Empathy Education. Students point to their experiences in Hospice class—and, perhaps more to the point, in providing hospice care—as among the most important learning experiences of their lives. Many Harley graduates have taken these lessons and passion for care-giving onto their collegiate careers and beyond. In retirement, Kane plans to spend more time with his wife Maureen, his dogs, his banjo, and his books. .

Retirements&


Harley memories: “I remember whenever faculty meetings went on too long or I pontificated too much, Pam Kimmet would put on a silly hat that she brought especially for this purpose.”

“[On] another occasion: About 25 minutes after school let out, I was having a smoke in my office when my door burst open and a very upset 5-year-old girl named Jennifer flew in, sputtering, ‘My mommy hasn’t come yet …’ Then she looked at me, brown eyes wide as Oreo cookies and burst into tears and started sobbing hysterically. I jumped up from my desk and took her in my arms, asking, ‘What’s wrong, Jen? What’s wrong?’ ‘You … you … you … (between sobs) … are going to die!’ (sob, sob, sob, etc.) Startled, I asked her, ‘Why do you say that, Jen?’ (sob) She pointed to the cigarette in the ashtray. ‘C-C-C-Cancer … ’, she said and redissolved into tears. That was my last cigarette … when a loving child—not even my own—speaks from the heart, I listen.”

“Harley remains in my memory as the finest school and group of extraordi-nary teachers of my career. There were many other excellent teachers in my schools, but never in such numbers or so committed to the same teaching philosophy.”

An excerpt from A History of The Harley School 1917 – 1992: An article about Lemon, Don Backe’s black Labrador retriever, appeared in The Harley Record for Winter 1973, titled, “Do We Charge Him Tuition or Pay Him Salary?” Lemon attended school daily and participated in a variety of activities, including time on the playground at recess and lunchtime play period. In quieter moments he attended Lower School as-semblies, faculty meetings, parent conferences, and official gatherings. The article stated, “Lemon is a pet for those children who do not have a pet at home; he offers affection to all who are kind to him, and he brings joy to those who watch him play and see enthusiasm in his wagging tail.” Faculty members were accustomed to popping Lemon into Don’s office if he was found wandering about when Don was not around. However, one time this really backfired: the dog who had been put into Don’s office, and who, un-

known to the faculty, remained there for two days while Don was out sick, turned out not to be Lemon at all but a neighbor’s black Lab. The imposter caused consider-able damage to Don’s office while the real Lemon was at home with Don, nursing him through his illness.

Don Backe devoted his life to education. After teaching for several years in independent schools, Don joined the Harley community as the head of the Lower School in 1969. As Harley’s literature and reading specialist Joy Moss put it, at a height of 6' 4", he gave “Lower School students someone to look up to.”

After serving eight years at Harley, Don left to head the Unquowa School in Fairfield, Connecticut, but often looked back on [his] years at Harley with admiration and fondness, claiming that they “were probably the happiest of [his] professional life.” In 1987, a serious car accident left Don paralyzed and in a wheelchair. But that didn’t stop him from feeling like the “luckiest person on the face of this earth,” because of the strong support system he found in his wife and five children. In 1991, Backe started a sailing program that became his true passion for the rest of his life. Chesapeake Region Ac-cessible Boating (CRAB) provided sailing opportunities for persons with disabilities and supported the philosophy that “the secret to survival and longevity is anticipation—that is, having that feeling of, waking up look-ing forward to something that someone loves.” Don’s devotion to inspiring students and helping them find their passions through CRAB earned him the Old Pulteney Maritime Heroes Award in 2012.

His Harley experience: “My associates [at Harley] were the brightest and most child-centered of any staff I headed. I duck at the thought of judging other great staff I had the pleasure of heading, but Har-ley sits definitely at the peak. I think that was because from top to bottom, from Nursery through Grade 12, the School went into depth of experience with the kids, no light touches … Teachers felt free to take chances and en-courage the kids to do the same, not so much with physical safety but with the mind, challenging the kids to dare to think further.”

“My years at Harley taught me more about learning and the value of depth in collegial experience. Never have I worked with so many truly thoughtful col-leagues nor felt the willingness to reveal love ofcommunity and persons young and old. Self ex-pression, when allowed, can be shared for the best results in character and thinking.”

In Memor i am

Donald E. Backe1936-2013

Head of the Lower School, 1969-1977

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Charles Fallon ’60 grew up in the midst of farmland in West Bloomfield, N.Y. After learning of The Harley School when Fallon and his twin brother, Marty, were entering Grade 9, their parents decided to enroll their boys (Michael ’58, Charles ’60, Martin ’60 , Edward ’66). “There was an expectation at Harley to engage in learning. That pushed me,” Fallon said. Teachers such as Mr. Opdycke, Mrs. Edey, and Mr. Armstrong brought creativity, interesting stories, and a variety of hands-on projects that made learning fresh and exciting. One memory that Fallon cherishes is taking a field trip into the city and seeing Martin Luther King Jr. speak—something that made a big impact on him. This engaging, creative, and positive learning environment, along with a caring and generous upbringing at home, stimulated Fallon’s desire to work with students, particularly those who needed extra attention or had special needs.

Fallon graduated from Colby College with a degree in European history, and later attended SUNY Brockport for a master’s in secondary social studies. He was offered a position as a special education teacher in the Rochester City School District. He accepted it with enthusiasm—and really connected with the children he taught. Special-ed students, who struggled each day to come to school, just wanted to be like everyone else, but they were the school outcasts. Fallon’s mission was to get his students engaged in school activities. With the creativity he learned from Harley, along with his mother’s caring and “no one is different” attitude, he was able to provide, within his classroom, special-ed students with the normal existence they longed for.

After Fallon received his doctorate at the University of Rochester, he wanted to work in curriculum administration, and took a job getting a program called Alternative to Suspension up and running. It was a position that involved working with kids outside of the mainstream. Fallon would listen to the students and then figure out a way to help them experience success. He and his team provided overnight stays, direct services, and group counseling to the dozen kids in the program. “We saw that these kids began to respond,” said Fallon. “We were making a difference in their lives.” He worked on this program for three years, until funding was no longer available.

Fallon’s favorite job—whether it was because he found it the most rewarding or because he met his wife, Marcia, there—was at Hillside Children’s Center. As principal, he felt he had the freedom to instill in Hillside teachers some of the creativity, optimism, and daily energy he had had at Harley, so they could meet the needs of Hillside’s emotionally disabled children. “I was fully engaged in trying to make a difference in the lives of these kids,” Fallon said. He recalls a special moment when he was in a meeting with a parent and child, and he could talk about the child’s strengths and successes rather than the bad and negative reports they had been hearing for years. Those were moments he savored.

Today, although retired, Fallon is still very involved in the educational community. He is a board member of the Friends & Foundation of the Rochester Public Library, a program that supports the central and downtown libraries and its programs; he is also a substitute principal two to three times a week. Fallon noted that doing all these things keeps him involved. “You have to love these kids, and they know that,” he said. “They are capable of being successful. They have to leave with that thought.”

Educator and Advocate:

CHARLES FALLON ’60

Become what thou art

by Karissa Raymond


JANE MERRILL ’08

Making anImpact

Istill remember my first race. Modified Swim coach Lorie Rick had me doing the backstroke in the medley relay, the first leg of the first event of the first meet I’d ever attended, much less swam in. I hadn’t come to Harley expecting this—I had come to Harley for the small classes, the personal attention, the community, “the Harley Way”—but there I was swimming alongside some of the people who turned out to be some of my closest friends in Middle and Upper School. Participation in a team sport was expected of each and every one of my classmates. For a few years, every student was a student-athlete. We were all athletes, because Harley told us not only that we could be, but also that we must be—that every student had the capacity to take on a new skill and contribute to the team. Throughout my time at Harley, this proved to be a powerful notion. The tenacity and focus I learned in the pool gave me the skills to take on calculus with James Aldrich-Moodie my senior year, an experience that prepared me for the rigors of college. This past summer, my supervisor asked me to join our staff team for the Chicago AIDS Run and Walk. I agreed, albeit apprehensively, and signed up to run the 5K race. I trained all summer, slowly progressing from alternating running and walking to running longer and longer distances, finishing every run sweaty and red-faced but excited to be one step closer to my goal. On Saturday, September 28, I ran my first 5K. As I crossed the finish line, I felt that same sense of astonish-ment at my own capacity I had first experienced at that swim meet nearly 10 years ago.

After her illustrious swimming career at Harley, Jane graduated magna cum laude from Northwestern University with a degree in social policy and classics. Following graduation, Jane became a Northwestern University Public Interest Fellow at Chicago’s Center on Halsted. There, she has worked to launch an advocacy department, and was recently recognized for her work at the center by the Windy City Times, earning a place on their 2013 30 Under 30 list.

Learned

Never fear change.Some of the greatest decisions I have made, both personally and professionally, have been those that required the most significant amount of change. When faced with a choice between a familiar comfort zone, where growth is limited, and a new challenge that brings opportunities, uncertainty, and excitement, I’m always going to choose the challenge and embrace the change. I have an undergraduate degree in philosophy, changed gears to become a practicing lawyer, then joined the family business and worked my way up the management ranks to president and CEO of Constellation Brands. During my tenure as CEO, the company has transformed dramatically through a series of strategic changes that have enabled us to grow into the third largest total bever-age alcohol company in the United States, the #1 premium wine company in the United States, and, most recently, the #3 beer company for the U.S. market. Continually evolving who you are and what you do is the key to long-term fulfillment and success.

Learn from the best. My father, Marvin Sands, founded Constellation Brands in 1945, when the American wine industry consisted mainly of dessert wine that shipped in bulk and was bottled like milk. While a lot has changed since then, “who we are” as a company remains largely the same, thanks to the core business values my father demonstrated by example each and every day. He really cared about the people who worked for him—as demonstrated by his open-door policy. Regardless of whether the person worked on the bottling line floor or was a senior executive, he treated everyone the same. He was a strong believer in giving people the trust and authority to “act like an owner” and create new ways of doing things, as opposed to telling them what to do and how to do it. These leadership principles remain as the underpinnings of our employee culture today—and are a major contributor to our industry growth and leadership. What I learned from my father was that the qualities of an exceptional leader come from both the head and the heart, and are not conditional based on the size of the company.

Lead by letting others shine. Leadership is not about thinking you’re the guy who knows everything and telling people what to do by giving top-down direc-tion. It’s really about hiring great people with diverse ideas and then listening to them, and figuring out how to put their ideas into action. It’s important to maintain an entrepreneurial spirit throughout the corporation to foster innovation. It’s also impor-tant to have a reward system in place so that people want to win and can personally benefit from their contributions toward the company’s success.

Love what you do and have fun doing it. Let’s face it; if you’re not having fun running a company that owns some of the most popular wine, beer, and spirits brands in America—including Corona beer, SVEDKA vodka, and Robert Mondavi wines—you’re doing something wrong. But seriously, if you’re going to spend anywhere from 40 to 55 hours a week at work, you better make sure you are passionate about what you do and enjoy doing it. Our employees are some of the hardest working and most talented in our industry, but we also know how to have a good time and regularly celebrate our accomplishments. I don’t make distinctions between my “work” life and my “personal” life—to me, it’s all my life, and I want to make every part of it as interesting and worthwhile as possible.

ROB SANDS ’76, president and CEO of Constellation Brands, a global bever-

age alcohol company headquartered in Victor, N.Y., shares his thoughts on the

importance of loving what you do, collaborating with great people, and never

forgetting where you came from. Sands is the father of LAUREN SANDS ’06

and MACKENZIE SANDS ’08.

What I’ve

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Thanks to all alumni, family, faculty, and friends who joined us for Reunion weekend. It was great seeing you and catching up! View more photos at:www.flickr.com/photos/harleyschool

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Becoming Magazine 2013

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