Spring 2013 Taft Bulletin. - The Taft School

Alumna
Honored
Taft Dining
Life in Russia
Spring 2013

in this issue
Departments
2 From the Editor
2 Taft Trivia
3 Letters
4 Alumni Spotlight
9 Around the Pond
15 Sport by Steve Palmer
34 Tales of a Taftie: J. Irwin Miller ’27
by Amy Wimmer Schwarb
35 From the Archives: Search The Papyrus!
by Alison Gilchrist

Spring 2013
18
A Common Mission
Rear Admiral Cindy Thebaud ’81
on service and leadership,
in pursuit of peace
By Brady Dennis
24
Food, Glorious Food
At the heart of any school is its dining—
and at Taft it’s all about heart.
By Jennifer A. Clement
h Students at Mount
Vernon during their trip to
Washington, D.C., for the
presidential inauguration
in January. Megan Valenti
30
The Domestic
Goddess of the
Green Line
By Jennifer Buttenheim
Eremeeva ’84

Spring 2013
from the EDITOR
A school is its people, its stories. I remember
interviewing an alumnus who roomed
with Charlie Taft ’14 (the president’s son)
and whose first ride in an automobile was
while visiting the White House with him
over vacation. Another told me what it was
like to haul heavy wet boards back up to
the pond rink after they had washed down
stream in an early thaw. I’ve enjoyed the
tales of the first girl pioneers and listened
to Old Boys’ tales of the Raid on Wade
(now my office).
I am privileged in my role to hear some
amazing Taft tales—from those who knew
Mr. Taft to those who spent only a few
short months on campus but have never
forgotten them. Sadly, I have only been
able to share with you on these pages a
???
Taft Trivia
On the Cover
v Rear Admiral
(select) Cindy
Thebaud ’81 is this
year’s Horace D.
Taft Alumni Medal
recipient. Read
her interview that
begins on page 18.
Jocelyn Augustino
portion of what comes to my ears.
Over the years there have been a few
attempts to record this oral history,
most of those focused on the war years,
but we know these have only scratched
the surface.
Toward this end, won’t you share your
favorite Taft memories with us? The spring
we are launching the Rhino Tales project
(see back cover). Tell us your favorite
memory—a teacher, place, tradition or
classmate. Record it on your own and send
it to us, or join us for a recording session
on Alumni Weekend.
As always, I want to hear your stories—
and want to make sure that future generations
will be able to enjoy them as well.
—Julie Reiff
In what year did the school first award the Citation of Merit,
now called the Horace D. Taft Alumni Medal? (Remember,
you can use the website to help you find the answer!) Send your
guess to juliereiff@taftschool.org. We’ll send a Vineyard Vines tie—
or reasonable substitute—to the winner, whose name will be drawn from all
correct entries received.
Congrats to Kat Wills Muthig ’86, who correctly identified girls’ basketball as the
team Dick Cobb coached for 29 years. (It helped that she co-captained the ’86 team.)
Alumna
Honored
Taft Dining
Life in Russia
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Taft on the Web
Find a friend’s address or look
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at www.taftalumni.com
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Spring 2013
Volume 83, Number 3
Bulletin Staff
Director of Development:
Chris Latham
Editor: Julie Reiff
Alumni Notes: Linda Beyus
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Julie Reiff, Editor
Taft Bulletin
The Taft School
Watertown, CT 06795-2100 U.S.A.
juliereiff@taftschool.org
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Linda Beyus
Alumni Office
The Taft School
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The Taft School
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The Taft Bulletin (ISSN 0148-0855)
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Taft School, 110 Woodbury Road,
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the school. All rights reserved.
2 Taft Bulletin SPRING 2013

Letters
No Small
Accomplishment
I read with interest Andy Larkin’s account
of his rowing days at Harvard
for a then very young Harry Parker, an
American icon for USA and collegiate
rowing. Andy isn’t giving the whole
story! He and Francis “Beak” Watson
ran cross country for John Small, and
they would be part of the early cornerstones
that led to Jim Sterling, Parker
Mills and Mike Macy leading us into the
years of power and success in running at
Taft. Watson went to Yale and Andy to
Harvard and rowed against each other
several times. Beak told me he finally
hung up his oar after handing his racing
shirt to Andy on several occasions.
Andy is considered one of many of the
great oarsmen at a school that has a bunch
of great oarsmen. In the winter of 1978,
a group of us from UNH were allowed to
use the Newell boathouse indoor rowing
tanks. I ran into Coach Parker one Sunday
morning (almost literally), and we talked
about Andy and the influence that John
Small and his brother Bruce had on guys
that either ran for them or rowed for
them. If Taft had had rowing, Small would
have coached crew, as his brother did, and
it would have been an awesome time for
schoolboy rowing. As it is, they both had
great impact on runners who for whatever
reason decided to row in college.
I do not think I can adequately
describe what the 1968 Harvard
Heavyweight boat accomplished, and it
would be the last USA boat to be selected
from the collegiate system. Andy and that
entire 1968 boat are considered legends
for many reasons—like they won the
Harvard-Yale boat race (4-mile distance
row) and then turned around and won
the collegiate nationals (2,000-meter
sprint) and then headed for Mexico City.
I heard Small say he was there at Red
Top when Harry Parker gave them their
Harvard diplomas. In Andy Larkin Taft
has a real gift.
—Charlie Wemyss, Jr. ’74
Exceptional
Often times in life you don’t know you’ve
had an extraordinary experience or been
around someone great until years later
when there is a moment of introspection.
As a day student, I only had Mr. Cobb
for one year in Latin. The way he taught
was radically different. He used the
Socratic method. He addressed students
formally (Mr. Liu). My personal and brief
encounters only scratched the surface of
his greatness that “The Legendary Mr.
Cobb” beautifully illustrated, the depth of
his preparation, richness of his character
and his humanity. In retrospect, they were
there all the time, but as someone just
trying to get through the class and as an
adolescent, I didn’t appreciate it or see it.
Now, as a physician leader who supports
and inspires over 500 doctors to
provide care that is even more personal,
convenient, and affordable, Mr. Cobb’s
quiet and thoughtful leadership through
his various roles at Taft resonated with
me. Because doctors traditionally are a
notorious bunch to lead, do not like to
be told what to do, and yet are incredibly
intelligent, leadership is about
influence and persuasion and not so
much about power or titles. No doubt,
this too is the mark of a brilliant teacher.
Doctor comes from the Latin verb docere,
which means to teach.
In the business school literature, there
is discussion on whether leaders are born
or made. I believe in the latter. Reading
the article and reflecting, I realize that all
Taft teachers are excellent, but is it possible
someone might be exceptional?
You know someone has made an indelible
mark on your life when decades later
one voice and quote still rings in your
ears and you repeat, “You have a 50/50
chance, but 95 percent of the time you’ll
be wrong.” And decades later one tribute
to a teacher provides further mentoring
and guidance without saying a single
word. Thank you, Mr. Cobb.
—Davis Liu ’89
The Larger World
Congratulations on another superb
Taft Bulletin! I was a student at Taft in
1949–50, my junior year, and returned
to Friends Seminary in New York City.
The real reason for my leaving was that
the culture of the school seemed selfish
and materialistic. I wanted to go to a
school that cared about the larger world
and imbued students with a sense of
responsibility.
Now, if I had a chance to spend a year
at school anywhere, I would certainly be
delighted to go to Taft. The turnaround
came pretty quickly after Paul Cruikshank
left and was replaced by a headmaster
with a great vision for the larger world
and a gift for communicating that vision
to students, faculty and alumni. That
dramatic change has been massively sustained
and deepened over the years. A
very big job.
The Bulletin has done a brilliant job
of communicating the excitement and
satisfaction of life as a student and as a
graduate devoted to serving others and
engaging in further learning for its own
sake. Not just smiling faces all in a row
getting awards, but people on the scene,
doing their thing, in faraway countries.
With students from exotic lands coming
to Taft and being made thoroughly
welcome, I just want to be right there because
you make it so attractive!
—Steve Chinlund ’51
Love it? Hate it?
Read it? Tell us!
We’d love to hear what you think
about the stories in this Bulletin.
We may edit your letters for length,
clarity and content, but please write!
Julie Reiff, editor
Taft Bulletin
110 Woodbury Road
Watertown, CT 06795-2100
or juliereiff@taftschool.org
Taft Bulletin SPRING 2013 3

alumni Spotlight
By Julie Reiff
v Amanda Green
and Phish front man
Trey Anastasio ’83.
Previews of the show
opened in New York
in February.
Bruce Glikas/FilmMagic
Hands on a Broadway Score
Considering the breadth of his musical
résumé—he has composed symphonic
scores, performed with prestigious orchestras
like the New York Philharmonic,
created a jazz album, and over the last
two decades been the leader of a rock
band that has enjoyed a fanatical following
and phenomenal success—it’s no
surprise that Trey Anastasio ’83 would
eventually tackle Broadway.
He’s come a long way since Space
Antelope and Red Tide, the bands he
played in while a student at Taft. In
his latest incarnation, Anastasio, most
widely recognized as front man of the
rock band Phish, is co-composer of
the new Broadway musical Hands on
a Hardbody. The musical, with a book
by Pulizer Prize-winner Doug Wright
and with music co-written by Anastasio
and Amanda Green, is based on a 1997
documentary film about a yearly endurance
competition in Texas in which
contestants vie for a brand new pickup
truck. The winner of the truck is the last
one to remain standing with his or her
hands still touching it—after what can
be days on end under the elements.
The musical had its world premiere
last spring at the La Jolla Playhouse in
San Diego, and the original cast members
are reprising their roles for the
Broadway show, staged at the Brooks
Atkinson Theater.
“It’s a rock musical in the best
American way,” said Anastasio while
promoting the La Jolla show. The
story’s “American Dream” foundation is
the perfect canvas for Anastasio’s trademark
blend of folk/funk/rock music.
He also noted that many of the songs
speak to very relevant issues today.
Chronic unemployment, financial distress
and the working class take center
stage in Hands on a Hardbody, though
there’s not necessarily a redemptive,
fairytale Broadway ending.
While Anastasio has composed
umpteen (152 and counting) songs for
Phish, Trey Anastasio Band and others,
he said that what made this project
unique was co-writing songs with Green
and then hearing them sung back by the
ensemble—a feeling he describes as “a
joyous experience.” As he told Rolling
Stone, “The songs are, by their very nature,
far more direct emotionally than
many songs I’ve written or co-written in
the past. Writing for singers other than
myself or another band member has
been incredibly liberating.”
For more information, visit www.trey.com.
—Phoebe Vaughn Outerbridge ’84
4 Taft Bulletin SPRING 2013

Motion Captured
h Photographer
Jonathan Selkowitz ’84
was recognized by FIS
and the USSA as FIS
Journalist of the Year.
Over the past two decades, photographer
Jonathan Selkowitz ’84 has brought the
visual action of ski racing to life through
his lens. A Massachusetts native now living
near Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Selkowitz
was honored by the International Ski
Federation (FIS) and U.S. Ski and
Snowboard Association (USSA) as 2012
FIS Journalist of the Year.
The award recognizes career contributions
to the sport, and Selkowitz joins
a distinguished list of a dozen U.S. journalists
honored since 1996.
In his career, Selkowitz has covered
the Winter Olympics in Nagano, Salt
Lake City and Torino. His work has
appeared in myriad publications, from
Powder to ESPN Magazine, Newsweek
and Rolling Stone.
“Skiing is a very visual sport, and it’s
important to recognize the contribution
that photographers like Jonathan
Selkowitz have made to bring the excitement
and passion of our sport to
the public,” said FIS Communications
Director Riikka Rakic.
Selkowitz grew up skiing at Bousquet
and Jiminy Peak in the Berkshires, where
he competed in freestyle and alpine racing
during his Taft years, continuing to race at
Colby College. While at Taft, he and Duke
Sullivan ’83 founded the Taft Ski Club.
In 1988, Selkowitz moved to Jackson,
where he coached ski racing and was
an instructor for several years. A fall in
which he injured his knee gave him the
opportunity to study photography more
seriously. At his first World Cup in 1994
in Park City, Utah, Selkowitz encountered
his former college Spanish tutor,
a photographer for Ski Racing, and his
career in sports photography took off.
“As a coach and instructor, I tried to
teach the perfect turn. Now, as a photographer,
I strive to capture and illustrate
the most dynamic turn,” said Selkowitz
at the award ceremony. “It is a great honor
and pleasure to work with some of the
finest athletes and sport professionals.”
Few have matched the passion of
Selkowitz, who routinely drives all night
or grabs a couch for a night just to photograph
the sport he loves.
But Selkowitz isn’t all work and no
play. “I’ve been enjoying a mix of alpine,
Nordic and backcountry skiing close to
home in the Tetons,” he said this spring,
“as well as making photos—some of the
best conditions for this happen in late
March and April.”
—Linda Beyus
Source: www.usskiteam.com
Don’t forget to share your
Taft memories with us on
Alumni Weekend or online.
See back cover for details, or visit
www.taftschool.org/rhinotales.
Taft Bulletin SPRING 2013 5

alumni Spotlight
The Healing Power of Music
When a young child picks up an instrument,
he is learning more than just music.
“Through the instrument they learn
everything,” says Katie D’Angelo ’97, who
has been a Suzuki teacher of violin and
cello since 2007, after five years of teaching
music in the Greenwich school system.
The philosophy of Suzuki education
in particular is very interesting,
says D’Angelo. “It’s about process- not
product-based teaching. We focus on the
whole child and work on skills like cooperation.
I love teaching young children
through experiential musical activities
and play. The Suzuki Method has a joyful
approach.”
She began studying cello at the age
of eight and continues to play professionally
throughout Fairfield County
and Westchester. She teaches students as
young as three years old as well as adults
in her studio in Newtown, Connecticut,
which she opened in 2011.
This year, not surprisingly, D’Angelo
dedicated the winter concert, held in
Walker Hall at Taft, to The Healing
Power of Music. Thirty of her students
performed various songs as part of the
“Old Man Winter”-themed program.
Both children and parents enjoyed
themselves and had fun making music
together as a community.
“You really can see [the healing power
of music],” says D’Angelo. “Kids may
come in from a rough day and by the
end of their music lesson their mood is
transformed. My goal is to help children
become happy and musical people.”
For more information,
visit www.katiedangelo.net.
Case Flash
The law evolves constantly, and attorneys
strain to stay current. Continuing
legal education (CLE) programs help
lawyers synthesize new statutes and
court decisions, but lag behind the law
by many months, and sometimes years.
“CLE has not changed much since
the 1970s,” says Sam Schoonmaker
’86, a Connecticut attorney who focuses
on appeals and family law. Programs
are about 90 minutes to 4 hours in
duration, and attorneys usually drive
to an auditorium to listen to a program
designed for a wide audience.
While preparing to speak at a CLE
program last year, Schoonmaker had
the idea to create short, intensive
programs that could be delivered
electronically. ”Why not combine
video, text and graphics to bring
CLE right to attorneys’ computers
and smartphones? Distribute timely
programs—within a week of a court
decision,” he said.
He worked with the Connecticut
Bar Association staff to create a
multimedia CLE format, and formed
the three-attorney Case Flash team
(a retired judge, an edgy practitioner and
Schoonmaker). Together they started
videotaping their focused discussions;
Schoonmaker then works with CBA
staff to create multimedia programs.
The first program received 500
views in its debut week. The third program
received 1,474 views within the
first two hours of its release. “We only
produce important programs. When
the CBA announces a new program,
members watch it immediately,” he said.
The CBA is working to expand
Case Flash, and Schoonmaker has
received inquiries about introducing
the program to other bar associations.
“Nonprofit bar associations serve their
communities in many ways, including
a lot of pro bono work,” he said.
“Hopefully this will help them serve
members and be a new revenue source.”
For more information, visit www.ctbar.org.
Sources: Family Advocate, Connecticut Lawyer
Dan Anderson/Connecticut Bar Association
6 Taft Bulletin SPRING 2013

Coach Cobb
A number of Coach Dick Cobb’s former players returned to campus in February to celebrate his 29 years of coaching girls’ varsity basketball.
Alumnae and current players gathered for a reception after the last home match, a win over Hotchkiss. From left, Kathrene Wills Muthig ’86,
Kara McCabe ’02, Katie McCabe McDonough ’04, Patty Carlson Ruprecht ’85, Denise Shirley ’78, Erin Duffy ’95, Cobb, Elizabeth Macaulay
Lewis ’98, Lisa Frantzis ’75, Melissa McCarthy Meager ’74, Susan Salisburg Ziegler ’75, Jean Strumolo Piacenza ’75, Pam Church ’81, Katie
Karraker ’11 and Sarah Curi ’86. Coach Cobb also attended receptions in California over spring break and in New York City in April. Ledlie Pastor
MacArthur Board
Paul Klingenstein ’74 has been elected
to serve on the MacArthur Foundation
Board of Directors. Klingenstein, who
has spent most of his career focused
on health care innovation and young
companies, joined the 13-member
board in March.
“Paul brings to the MacArthur board
a rich knowledge of health programs in
some of the world’s most challenging
places and expertise in investing in the
game-changing ideas that will improve
that care around the world,” said Board
Chair Marjorie M. Scardino. “He will
enrich our understanding and debate
about MacArthur’s work.”
After a brief period as an
advisor to the Rockefeller
Foundation, Klingenstein
formed Aberdare Ventures,
a venture capital firm in San
Francisco, in 1999. Since
then, the firm has invested in
more than 50 companies, the
majority of which are now public or have
been merged into public companies.
In the late 1990s, Klingenstein
advised on private-sector healthcare
initiatives in India, China and Malaysia;
in the late ’70s, he worked as a field
biologist in Tanzania, Kenya and
Uganda. He has served on the boards of
various educational and
nonprofit institutions,
including the African
Wildlife Foundation,
Juma Ventures (former
chair), Marin Country
Day School and Taft. He
is currently chairman of
the board of the International AIDS
Vaccine Initiative.
MacArthur’s board sets policies and
strategic direction for the Foundation;
approves grant-making areas, initiatives
and grants; and oversees investments
and the audit process through the work
of its committees.
Taft Bulletin SPRING 2013 7

In Print
8 Taft Bulletin SPRING 2013
Scopes Retried: A Novel About
Creation and Evolution
Stephen Bartholomew Jr. ’63
There are almost 10,000 books on the subject of
creation and evolution. Among this vast body of
literature, however, Bartholomew’s book is novel—
in that it’s a novel. It also takes dead aim at a theory
that most people agree is “the central organizing
principle of biology”—the theory of evolution.
Ian Taylor, author of the classic book about
creationism, In the Minds of Men: Darwin and
the New World Order, currently in its sixth
printing, wrote a compelling foreword for the
book. In it he said:
“When I sat down to actually read it through,
I couldn’t put it down. Parts of it brought me to
tears! I was stunned … this was surely not your
average creationist literature! … Held to the
page by the story line, by the end of the book the
reader will have received a powerful and compelling
defense of creationism. While traveling the
exciting journey through the book, all along the
way the reader is being fed life-saving food—the
truth about God’s creation. It is a brilliant concept,
and a truly remarkable achievement. I strongly
recommend it to anyone searching for the truth in
this intense and critical debate.”
Supernatural: Writings on an
Unknown History
Richard Smoley ’74
While studying at the University of Oxford, Richard
Smoley came in contact with a small group that
was studying the Kabbalah, one of the mainstays of
the Western esoteric tradition. It was here that he
was introduced to many of the ideas he has gone
on to explore in his many books and articles. His
latest work, Supernatural, is a concise anthology that
provides both an introduction to the paranormal
and a reason to take a fresh look at it.
“We are often conditioned to think of the
Judeo-Christian tradition as the only valid,
historically accurate and rational spiritual
philosophy,” says Smoley. “Occultism, magic and
the esoteric are, by contrast, considered illegitimate,
delusional and lacking in intrinsic worth.
Supernatural challenges this prejudice, revealing
that Western occult traditions are richer and more
historically impactful than most of us imagine.”
The book is a critical and respectful account of
topics from the unseen world and a primer to the
occult and magical traditions of the West.
“Richard Smoley pushes the newest frontier in
human knowledge,” author John Shelby Spong says
of Smoley’s previous book, The Dice Game of Shiva.
“The path he walks is not into a new religion, but
beyond the boundaries of all religious systems and
into a new and universal consciousness, where new
visions of the meaning of life are found.”
Smoley was a longtime editor of the respected
spiritual journal Gnosis and is the author of Inner
Christianity and coauthor of Hidden Wisdom.
The Most Creative, Escape the
Ordinary, Excel at Public Speaking
Book Ever: All the Help You Will Ever
Need in Giving a Speech
Philip Theibert ’71
Philip Theibert has extensive experience in
speech writing, online teaching, marketing,
media relations, internet marketing and public
relations. His articles have appeared in the
Wall Street Journal, Vital Speeches, ToastMaster,
Executive Speaker, Communication World,
BusinessWeek Careers, Writer’s Digest and Public
Relations Strategist. In addition, he has considerable
communication experience as an executive
speechwriter, newspaper reporter, magazine
editor, advertising copywriter, public relations
director, college instructor, college textbook
writer and media relations director.
His books include Business Writing for Busy People,
How to Give a Damn Good Speech, The Hard Problems
of Management and Lessons in Corporate Change.
You can follow his blog at www.writingcoachnow.com.
If you would like a copy
of your work added to
the Hulbert Taft Library’s
Alumni Authors Collection
and listed in this column,
please send a copy to:
Taft Bulletin
The Taft School
110 Woodbury Road
Watertown, CT 06795-2100

For the latest news
on campus events,
please visit
www.taftschool.org.
around the Pond
By Julie Reiff
Ghanaian Dance Craze
Takes Over Bingham
Ghana’s Azonto dance craze, in which the dancers mime
everyday activities, has taken over dance floors across Africa,
Europe and the U.S., writes The Guardian (U.K.)—and now
the Bingham stage! Guest artist Leah Moriarty, a Brooklyn
native who recently traveled to Ghana to be immersed in
the country’s dance and drumming, worked with the Dance
Ensemble on “two incredibly fun pieces,” says Taft dance
teacher Kate Seethaler.
“What is really wonderful about the concert this year is the
sheer volume of talent and enthusiasm our students clearly
showcase with respect to dance,” says Seethaler. “A number
of the pieces pack the stage full of energetic and passionate
people. The students are a truly fantastic group of playful, funloving
movers, who have gelled and grown tremendously as
individuals throughout the course of the season.”
Seethaler was joined by science teacher Amanda Benedict as
another faculty choreographer, adding that her contemporary
ballet piece “was truly lovely and very well performed.”
Patti Buchanan, dance director at Westover, also
expanded her usual contribution to the show from
one piece to two—“a real treat!” says Seethaler.
Moriarty’s two African-themed pieces—one classical
and one contemporary—were among the highlights of the
concert. The show also featured improvisation in two of the
pieces, where the dancers have been given a structure that they
improvise within as part of the live performance.
“The dancers take bold risks,” says Seethaler, “working
extremely hard and pushing themselves outside their comfort
zones. I was excited to see where they let the performance take
them each night.”
Watch the Azonto dance online at www.taftschool.org/arts.
n Jillian Wipfler ’13.
Olivia Paige ’15

around the POND
Aquaculture
Haiti was once one of the wealthiest
countries in the Western hemisphere.
Now 63 percent of people there survive
on one meal a day or less. Bill Mebane is
trying to change that by improving the
country’s fish-farming efforts.
Speaking in Laube Auditorium in
February, Mebane outlined the project
and the science behind it. He is the originator
and director of the Sustainable
Aquaculture Initiative as well as superintendent
of the Marine Biological
Laboratory’s Marine Resources
Aquaculture Engineering Division at
Woods Hole, Massachusetts.
He has been actively involved in the
field of aquaculture for over 25 years.
His first visit to Haiti in 2000 introduced
him to the problems of rural mountain
fishponds; he has been working,
pro-bono, to develop and implement
low-resource tilapia production techniques
in the country ever since.
His team looked for ways to feed
the fish with indigenous plants, but
they failed at first to understanding the
culture they were working with. Most
Haitians, they soon realized, didn’t have
the skills to put together the complicated
food the scientists had come up with.
So they turned to efforts in Bangladesh
and Israel, where they were using periphyton
aquaculture technique. Essentially,
farmers put substrate in a pond and add
nutrients and sunlight for periphyte to
grow. Periphyte is the ideal fish food and is
an efficient, low-resource way to grow fish.
They brought the technique to Haiti,
where they trained local leaders who, in
turn, trained others. They are now successfully
providing relatively high-yield
protein and a valuable income source to
needy families there.
Still, the program has struggled financially,
existing on small grants and
donations. Three Taft students are participating
this spring, trying to create the
cheapest, most sustainable, family-sized
n Bill Mebane with new friends in Haiti
aquaculture production tank, with the
goal of going to Haiti in another year to
do some installations. Interim Director of
Environmental Stewardship Carly Borken
started on the project with Mebane 10
years ago as an intern at MBL.
“I am glad that Taft students and Ms.
Borken have stepped up to the plate to
lend a hand!” says Mebane. “As they
say in Haiti, this is a bon bagay (good
thing). What your students accomplish
in that small computer room with a fish
tank could literally improve the lives of
many people.”
For more information, visit www.mbl.edu/sai/.
Peter Frew ’75
Concerts
Concert pianist Andrew Armstrong
has delighted audiences around the
world, at Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie
Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Grand
Hall of the Moscow Conservatory,
Warsaw’s National Philharmonic—
and now Taft’s Walker Hall.
The one-hour concert, held in
January, included Scherzo No. 2 in
B-flat minor by Chopin, Claire de
Lune by Debussy, and Pictures at an
Exhibition by Mussorgsky.
Taft’s instrumental music teachers
also performed their annual concert,
Art from the Heart, in January. Winter
weather forced folk musicians Rani
Arbo and daisy mayhem to reschedule
their concert in April, which was followed
by a program of classical choral
music later in the month.
10 Taft Bulletin SPRING 2013

Noises Off
As soon as the cast of Michael Frayn’s
hilarious comedy Noises Off read the script
for the first time, every actor and actress
knew this show was going to be unlike
anything they had ever participated in
before. Noises Off is a “play within a play,”
so the characters in the script prepare for
their own play, Nothing On, a complicated
ordeal involving love, ghosts and burglars.
As a result, each Taft actor plays two roles.
The entire play is set on a rotating stage,
expertly constructed by David Kievit and
his crew, and in Act II, the audience views
the production from the backstage side of
the set, seeing the pantomime unfold as
the cast struggles to keep the production
going in the midst of chaos.
“Initially, we were very nervous,” said
Tommy Robertshaw ’14. “The script was
absolutely hilarious, but we knew this
play was going to be a challenge…. The
timing has to be perfect. Everything going
on onstage has to match up perfectly
with our pantomime backstage! It makes
for the most hilarious situations, and by
the end of rehearsals what was originally
the hardest part of the play ended up
being our favorite.”
Director Helena Fifer hired a professional
stuntman to teach the cast how
to fall down stairs, flip over couches and
accidentally hit each other.
“The script calls for so much physicality,”
says Rebecca Karabus ’14, “and we had
so much fun learning how to be funny with
our bodies as well as with our words!”
“There is no question,” adds Fifer, “that
‘it took a village’ to perfect Noises Off but
we think it has been worth all of the fuss.”
The cast included Max Flath ’13,
Gaines Semler ’15, Vienna Kaylan ’15,
Sebastian LaPointe ’14, Cassie Willson ’13,
Rebecca Karabus ’14, Aidan Gorman ’14,
Tommy Robertshaw ’14, Simmons
Gaines ’15 and Maggie Luddy ’16. Set
design was by Sean Fanning, costumes by
Susan Becker Aziz, lights by Blake Joblin ’13
and sound by David Kievit.
—Vienna Kaylan ’15, Taft Papyrus
h Gaines Semler ’15,
Simmons Gaines ’15
and Vienna Kaylan ’15
perform the play within
the play, Noises Off.
Peter Frew ’75
Taft Bulletin SPRING 2013 11

around the POND
Robert Falcetti
NYBG
Videowokart/Shutterstock.com
On Wednesday, February 27,
five Taft seniors traveled to the
New York Botanical Gardens for
an exclusive tour of the beautiful
conservatory and the cutting-edge
molecular biology laboratory.
These students are enrolled in
a new course, Post-AP Biology,
which is designed to expose graduates
of AP Biology to the process of
designing and carrying out scientific
research. The students received a
tour of the conservatory buildings
from Dr. Scott Mori, a research
biologist with the NYBG who has
become a wonderful resource for
Taft. The NYBG’s famous orchid
display was set to begin in early
March, so the students got to see
some of these amazing flowers up
close, with the benefit of Dr. Mori’s
expert commentary. After traveling
through the many ecosystems
modeled in the conservatory, the
students proceeded to the molecular
biology facility, where they were
greeted by Dr. Amy Litt, another
scientist at the NYBG. The students
were able to see a modern,
well-equipped lab facility in action.
They marveled at the scanning
electron microscope and the fascinating
images of pollen grains it
captured. They also observed graduate
students performing some
of the same lab techniques that
they had been learning to perform
themselves. The trip culminated in
a lively discussion with Dr. Litt, as
she mentioned a new scientific approach,
DNA barcoding, that had
just been covered in their class.
Wisdom of Solomon
When he was 17, author and journalist
Normon Solomon walked through
a tent city on the Mall in Washington,
D.C., called Resurrection City, part of
the Poor People’s Campaign—a 1968
effort organized by Martin Luther
King, Jr., and the Southern Christian
Leadership Conference.
“There had been a lot of rain,”
Solomon recalled for the audience. “We
were at a cusp of history. At a time when
the federal government was spending
huge amounts of money for a war in
Southeast Asia, they would later come
and bulldoze the city. Here in 2013, we
have an opportunity anew to resurrect
our faith and our hope. Not faith in any
narrow sectarian sense—we need faith
in democracy and the essential hope that
together we can create a much better
world for the future.”
Solomon is a journalist, media critic
and antiwar activist. He is a longtime
associate of the media watch group
Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting
(FAIR), and in 1997, he founded the
Institute for Public Accuracy, which
works to provide alternative sources for
journalists, and served as its executive
director until 2010. The Los Angeles
Times called him “a formidable thinker
and activist.”
His latest book is Made Love, Got
War: Close Encounters with America’s
Warfare State. He is also the author of
War Made Easy: How Presidents and
Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death,
Target: What the News Media Didn’t
Tell You, Target Iraq” “Wizards of Media
Oz: Behind the Curtain of Mainstream
News,” “The Trouble With Dilbert:
How Corporate Culture Gets the Last
Laugh,” “False Hope: The Politics of
Illusion in the Clinton Era,” “The Power
of Babble: The Politician’s Dictionary
of Buzzwords and Doubletalk for Every
Occasion,” and “Killing Our Own: The
Disaster of America’s Experience With
Atomic Radiation.”
A collection of Solomon’s columns
won the George Orwell Award
for Distinguished Contribution to
Honesty and Clarity in Public Language.
He has appeared on PBS NewsHour
With Jim Lehrer, CNN, MSNBC, Fox
News Channel, C-SPAN and NPR’s
Marketplace, All Things Considered,
Morning Edition and Talk of the Nation.
12 Taft Bulletin SPRING 2013

Sustainable
Mark W. Potter
Gallery
Photographers Dan Mead, a
former educator turned psychotherapist,
and his wife, Sally
Eagle, entrepreneur and the first
executive director of the Berkshire-
Taconic Community Foundation,
first photographed their travels
for personal enjoyment, and subsequently
to document them for
family and friends.
Over the past 35 years, the
process of editing and selecting
photographs to be viewed by others
enticed them to focus more intently
on vividly capturing the essence of
the landscapes, the wildlife and the
cultures they encountered and the
scenes they witnessed.
Since the advent of digital
photography, they have had the
opportunity to both travel extensively
and to study with and learn
from some of the leading landscape
and wildlife photographers
in the country, including David
Muensch, Jack Dykinga and John
Shaw. In 2008, they began exhibiting
their work in schools and
communities in the Northeast.
Visit www.meadeaglephotos.com
for more information.
h Chinstrap Penguin,
Antarctic Peninsula, 2009,
20x30 digital print.
Mead Eagle Photography

around the POND
Celebrating Civil Rights
Among the highlights of this year’s
Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration
was an alumni panel on Sunday night,
focused on service and featuring Ashley
Barronette ’07, Holly Donaldson ’07,
Donald Molosi ’05 and Mike Rubin
’74. In his introduction, Headmaster
Willy MacMullen posed the question,
h Headmaster Willy
MacMullen ’78 with
MLK Day panelists
Holly Donaldson ’07,
Donald Molosi ’05,
Ashley Barronette ’07
and Mike Rubin’74.
Peter Frew ’75
“Do you think a good life is one that is
marked by serving others?”
Remarking on the school’s motto of
service, he added “We are a school that is
interested in understanding the past, in
asking difficult questions, in committing
to service, in trying to ensure that justice
is shared evenly—in preparing you to be
a global citizen and leader, and just a good
person. This is our work. It’s a different
day, but it’s just another day at Taft.”
The celebration continued with the
now traditional Prayer Breakfast on
Monday morning. Acting Waterbury
Police Chief Vernon Riddick, the first
African American to head the department,
served as the keynote speaker.
This was followed by an all-school gathering
in Bingham, where Steven Tejada
performed excerpts from his remarkable
one-man show, Boogie Down Journey.
From there, some students headed
to the gym to welcome middle-school
students from the local area in the Young
Heroes Program. Others headed to class
to watch civil rights-themed films for the
remainder of the morning. The school
reassembled in the afternoon for the
multicultural arts celebration of Taft’s
Beloved Community.
Visit www.taftschool.org/news to watch
videos of the various events.
Inauguration
The presidential inauguration was
the driving force that inspired 70 Taft
students to visit the Capitol in January
and celebrate the swearing in of Barack
Obama for his second term. The visit,
though, started off with an afternoon
spent at Mount Vernon, thanks in part
to Curt Viebarnz (P’11,’12,’14).
There, students enjoyed a tour
of the property and a special lecture
from George Washington University
Professor David Brunsman, who
discussed the significance of George
Washington’s election. Over the
course of three days, students also visited
numerous national monuments,
the Manassas Civil War Battlefield and
the Newseum.
14 Taft Bulletin SPRING 2013

For more on the
winter season,
please visit
www.taftsports.com.
winter SPORT wrap-up
By steve Palmer
Wrestling 13–8
Blessed with excellent senior leadership,
this year’s squad earned the most victories
in quite a few years. Tri-captain Will Pope
’13 was the heart and soul of the team and
finished with 20 wins and 6th place in
New England at 195 pounds. Undefeated
in the regular season, tri-captain Adam
Parker ’13 took 5th in New England at
220 pounds. The weather-forced cancellation
of the league tournament, to be
held at Taft, was a blow to the Rhinos,
who were poised to do quite well. High
seeds in that tournament included tricaptain
John Davidge ’13 and Jeff Kratky
’13. Newcomer David Wolff ’13 finished
the season with a flourish and took 7th in
New England at 285 pounds.
Boys’ Basketball 18–5
New England
Quarterfinalists
h Co-captain Kade
Kager powers the
boys’ basketball
team to an 18–4
regular season and
team’s 9th postseason
appearance
in 11 years.
Peter Frew ’75
Taft won 16 of its last 18 games to finish
the regular season with an 18–4 record
and qualify for the Class A New England
basketball tournament. This marked the
9th postseason appearance in the past
eleven years for the program. Although
the Rhinos fell to Trinity Pawling in
OT in the quarterfinals, this team will
go down as one of the most successful
in school history. Co–captains Tim
Drakeley ’13 and Kade Kager ’13 led a
talented group of eight seniors and together
were honored with James Painter
Logan Memorial Trophy. Senior forward
Taft Bulletin SPRING 2013 15

Risley Sports Photography
h Co-captain
Maggie O’Neil ’13
Joey Flannery averaged 19.8 points per
game and shot a blistering 46.3 percent
from three-point range for the season.
As a result, Flannery was named the Tri-
State League’s most outstanding player.
Kager and Flannery were also named
to the All-New England Class A team,
while Quinton Dale, Shawn Strickland
and Kager were named to the Tri-State
All-League second team. During a 7-day
period in February, the team was forced
to play four road games due to postponements
and came away with four victories
at Avon (74–64), Salisbury (61–58),
Kent (62–49) and Loomis (70–50).
The victory at Salisbury, the defending
NE champions, was the crowning accomplishment
of a tremendous season.
The team will be left in good hands with
Shawn Strickland ’14 and Hadley Stone
’14 as co-captains for next season.
Girls’ Basketball 12–9
New England
Quarterfinalists
The Rhinos stood at 2–7 in mid-January
and then lost tri-captain Katie Harpin
’13 to a season-ending injury. Yet, from
this low point, Taft rebounded and won
ten of its last 11 games. Four of those
wins were against teams to which the
Rhinos had previously lost: Loomis
(58–53), Kent (63–40), Berkshire
(48–34) and Hotchkiss (58–50). The
squad’s improvement was due to greater
commitment to defense, adjustments
made by post players Rylie Mainville ’14
and Chelsea Robinson ’15, and the allaround
play and leadership of tri-captains
Morgan Manz ’13 and Maggie O’Neil
’13. The Big Red’s strong second half of
the season led to its qualifying for the
third straight year for the Class A New
England tournament, where it lost to a
talented Rivers team. Manz (13.5 points,
8 rebounds, 3 steals per game), who will
play at Quinnipiac next year, and O’Neil
(7 points, 5 rebounds, 3 steals per game),
who will play at Swarthmore, were
named both Founders League and Class
A New England All-Stars. Starting guard
Dominique Moise ’14 (5.7 points per
game) was elected captain.
Girls’ Squash 11–5
Founders League Champions
With a strong lineup top to bottom, Taft
went undefeated in the Founders League
to capture its 5th consecutive league title.
Key wins during the regular season came
against Exeter (6–1), Hotchkiss (6–1)
and Westminster (6–1). At the New
England Tournament to close the season,
top returner and co-captain Sue Ann
Yong ’14 played powerful squash to finish
in third place and lead Taft to 5th place,
just points behind a powerful Groton
team. Elle Carroll ’16 (#4) and co-captain
Isabel Stack ’14 (#5) both finished
4th in their respective draws, while Bella
Jones ’15 took an impressive 3rd place
at #6. Maggie O’Neill ’14 was a strong
#2 all season, and Eliza Dunham ’16
(#3), Sarah Cassady ’13 (#7) and Pensiri
Naviroj ’15 (#8) rounded out Taft’s formidable
lineup. Though the National
Championship Tournament was cancelled
due to the major winter storm in
January, Taft had earned a #5 seed among
high schools across the country.
Boys’ Squash 13–3
Founders League Cochampions
At 13–3, the team had a strong season
after losing four of the top players from
last year’s team. With three new middlers
in the line-up, Taft raced out to
a 9–0 record and a #4 ranking in the
U.S., thanks to sharp and convincing
wins over Rye Country Day (7–0) and
Choate (5–0). A 1–6 loss to Brunswick
as well as the cancellation of the U.S.
High School Nationals put a damper
on the mid-season but did not prevent
the team from sharing the Founders
League Title. Senior captain Andrew
Cadienhead put an exclamation point on
his outstanding four-year career with a
3–1 victory over champion Brunswick’s
#2 player at the New Englands to secure
a 3rd-place finish. Taft’s #1 all year,
Atticus Kelly ’14 finished a very strong
4th at New Englands, and captain-elect
Jake Lord ’14 and Brandon Salvatore
’15 both won the consolation bracket
in their respective fields to secure 5th
place for the team overall. This young
but talented team will return six of eight
players next year.
16 Taft Bulletin SPRING 2013

Skiing
Taft’s 2nd place finish out of the 15
teams at the Class B New England
championships marks this squad as
the strongest in program history. The
Rhinos possessed a formidable 1–2
combination in both the boys’ and girls’
fields. Eli Cooper ’14 was nearly undefeated
on the season and won both the
slalom and giant slalom individual titles
at the New Englands. Henry Conlon ’15
was right behind, with a 2nd place slalom
finish and an 11th place in the GS.
Throughout the season Captain Kramer
Peterson ’13 was a strong third man and
finished 18th out of 70 New England
racers. For the girls, Sarah Reilly ’14 was
exceptional, winning the slalom and
placing 2nd in the GS out of the 60-plus
skiers. She was closely followed all winter
by Captain Karlea Peterson ’14, who
was 3rd (SL) and 5th (GS) at the championship
races.
Girls’ Hockey 8–12
Taft got off to a 4–0 start before dropping
six one-goal losses in the next ten
games. In fact, playing solid team hockey
all season, the Rhinos ended up in 12
one-goal games, often against the topranked
teams in New England, and that
2012–13 WINTER ATHLETIC AWARD WINNERS
was the story of this season. Perhaps the
best of those games was a wild 3–4 loss
to #3 ranked Westminster that saw three
goals in the last 90 seconds. Key wins
for Taft came against Deerfield (5–0),
behind four goals by Rachel Muskin ’14,
and Kent (5–4) behind uppermiddler
Katherine Roznik’s four goals. Linemates
Roznik and Muskin worked well together
all winter and led the team in scoring.
In an exciting finale, All-Founders
League goalie Colleen Marcik ’13 tallied
over 30 saves to finish her great threeyear
career with an inspiring 2–1 win
The Patsy Odden Hockey Award-----------------------Kathleen C. McLaughlin ’13
The John L. Wynne Wrestling Award----------------------------William C. Pope ’13
The Harry F. Hitch Wrestling Award-----------------------George Adam Parker ’13
The Boys’ Squash Award---------------------------------- Andrew O. Cadienhead ’13
The 1986 Girls’ Squash Award--------------------------------Margaret N. O’Neill ’14
The Girls’ Ski Racing Award------------------------------------------ Sarah T. Reilly ’14
The Boys’ Ski Racing Award------------Eli H. Cooper ’15, S. Kramer Peterson ’13
The Coach’s Hockey Award--------------------------------------- Charles T. South ’13
Angier Hockey Trophy--------------------------------------------- Albert B. Nejmeh ’13
James Paynter Logan Memorial Basketball Trophy------Timothy S. Drakeley Jr ’13
Kade G. Kager ’13
1978 Girls’ Varsity Basketball Cup----------------------------Kathryn M. Harpin ’13
Morgan G. Manz ’13, Margaret E. O’Neil ’13
h Captain Andrew
Cadienhead ’13
Peter Frew ’75
over Hotchkiss. Throughout the season,
Audrey Quirk ’14, Athena Wilkinson ’15
and Sierra Hannough ’14 were multitalented
defenders who made up for the
injury loss of All-League player Lynndy
Smith ’13. Captain Katie McLaughlin
’13 was a force at both ends of the ice,
while Victoria Gordon ’15 and Rachael
Alberti ’15 were the team’s most aggressive
forwards.
Boys’ Hockey 11–10–2
The 2013 Rhinos, comprised of 13
seniors, were 4–6–1 in the first half of
the season, losing three one-goal games.
Taft then went 7–4–1 for the second
half, with huge victories over Deerfield
(5–3), New England finalist Kent (4–2),
and Hotchkiss, twice (3–1, 6–1). The
team’s leading scorers were All-New
England Selection Andrew Gaus ’14,
who tallied 14 goals and 18 assists for
32 points, and fellow Founders League
All-Star Cole Maier ’14, who finished
with 11 goals and 11 assists. Throughout
the season, the team was led by captain
and Angier Award winner Al Nejmeh
’13, while three-year varsity letter winner
Chas South ’13 earned the Coaches’
Award for his play on defense.
Taft Bulletin SPRING 2013 17

A Common
Rear Admiral
Cindy Thebaud ’81
on Service and
Leadership, in
Pursuit of Peace
By Brady Dennis
As Cindy Thebaud ’81 moves through
the first floor of her two-story colonial house a
few miles from the Potomac River, in Alexandria,
Virginia, the walls around her tell the story of
a life lived fully, on land and at sea. She is surrounded
by reminders of the missions she has
undertaken against pirates and drug runners
and potential U.S. enemies, of the fellow sailors
whose careers she has helped to shape, of the
people she has encountered and the lives she has
touched from Haiti to the Horn of Africa.
“They all have stories,” she says, gazing around
her living room on a recent winter afternoon.
“I’ve had an opportunity to do some pretty neat
and unusual things.”
On the shelves nearby sit wooden elephants
from Gabon, a carved lion from Cameroon and
trinkets given to her by the Senegalese Navy’s
chief of staff, as well as from counterparts in other
navies. Elegantly carved figurines of African
women stand near a front window.
“The tall lady was a small token from the
mother of a tribal chief in Ghana,” Thebaud says.
“She was 92 years old—quite an amazing person.”
On one wall hangs a colorful plate she bought
during her time stationed in Naples, Italy. Other
walls hold pictures of the 26-foot boat she first
sailed on with her family as a girl in Connecticut, as well as a 44-
foot, custom-designed sailboat that she and her Navy classmates
raced on in the Chesapeake Bay. There’s a bowl she bought in
Taiwan, a desk from the Philippines.
Together, the keepsakes tell the deeper story behind Rear Admiral
(select) Cindy Thebaud’s impressive résumé: Graduating with distinction
from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1985. A master’s degree
from the George Washington University. Honors graduate of the
Naval War College. Service on ships in the Atlantic and the Pacific
fleets, with missions in every corner of the globe. The second woman
to serve as a commanding officer on a Navy destroyer. Two deployments
focused on increasing maritime security in west and central
Africa. Stints in Washington working to support the Joint Chiefs of
Staff, including as a Taiwan desk officer and as a special assistant to
the Chief of Naval Operations. The list goes on and on.
The objects also offer another insight that no piece of paper
quite can: While she has spent her days in the armed forces, much
of her work has been decidedly humanitarian—even the motto for
the detroyer she commanded, the USS Decatur, was “In Pursuit
of Peace.” Which makes Thebaud an ideal recipient of this year’s
Horace D. Taft Medal, the school’s highest alumni honor, given
each to a person who has consistently gone beyond the call of duty
to serve others.
On the eve of receiving that honor, Thebaud sat down with the
Bulletin to talk about how she ended up in the Navy, what she has
learned about leadership and what the future might hold. What
follows is an edited transcript of that conversation:

At the Navy Memorial
in Washington, D.C.
When Thebaud is
not aboard ship, she
makes her home in
Alexandria, Virginia.
Photo by Jocelyn Augustino

Growing up,
what drew you
to sailing and to
the water?
My family grew up sailing. Some people have an RV and go out camping. We sailed.
Weekends, we were either cruising or racing. That’s what we did for family vacations.
I grew up sailing a lot in the summers on Long Island Sound. I sailed at Taft and had the
opportunity to go to the Naval Academy to race in high school regattas. That was where I
first really learned about the Naval Academy.
Talk a bit about
your time at Taft.
What did you take
away from it?
As far as my parents were concerned, whatever you are interested in should drive whatever
you want to do. Don’t be bound by the confines of perceptions. And I think Taft really
reinforced that—to branch out, to develop a confidence in following your interests.
It’s [also] a very regimented life. That was one of the ironies. When I got to Navy, it
really wasn’t nearly the culture shock that a lot of my classmates had. My academic plebe
year at Navy was easier than my academic senior year at Taft. It got you used to being out
on your own, living on your own, responsible for your own time. Self-discipline.
What are some of
the lessons that
being in the Navy
has taught you
over the years?
One of the things that’s neat about the Navy is that it gives you a lot of responsibility at a very
young age. When I was 23, I had 67 people working for me running the engineering department
of a 49-year-old ship. You’re responsible for making sure that they’re all getting their
work done and that the ship can get underway when it needs to and where it needs to go.
It may not be a lot of fiscal responsibility, per se, like working on Wall Street. But you’re sailing
in harm’s way and being prepared to go out and do whatever the country asks you to do.
One of the other things that’s unique about military service is that, as a leader, you have
responsibility for your people 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. So, if somebody has family
issues or personal issues, you are coach and counselor. In some ways, it’s probably akin to
being a teacher at Taft.
With family of
the local Paramout
chief in Sekondi,
Ghana, aboard
USS Nashville.
20 Taft Bulletin SPRING 2013

What conclusions
have you come to
about what
a good leader is
and does?
A vision of what your organization’s mission is and where you are trying to take it. How the
people underpin and support that. In particular, with the military, building the esprit de
corps and the camaraderie of doing things we may not want to do or that we may not necessarily
understand, but moving that unit forward as a whole.
Have you enjoyed
the challenges of
being in positions
of leadership?
Absolutely. One of the big things in the military is the “covenant leadership” you have of
serving the people who work for you. As a unit commander in the military, you have a
moral and ethical obligation to be responsible for the people that work for you. It’s not just
doing your functional day job. As a commanding officer in the military, you’re charged in
addition with the personal and professional development of your people. It’s an opportunity
to serve your country and other people in an unusual and dynamic and challenging
way. And you learn a lot about yourself in the process.
I was so surprised when I got the call about this [alumni] award. I see my time in
the Navy as more of a vocation because it’s what I’ve been trained to do. But then I turn
around and think, Well, if I wasn’t doing this, what else would I be doing instead? And I
really don’t know. One of the reasons I’ve stayed in the Navy is it is service and it reflects
Taft’s motto: “Not to be served, but to serve.”
Geographically,
where are some
of the places
the Navy has
taken you?
I have been to every continent except Antarctica. I have been stationed on both the East and
West coasts—Norfolk, Va., San Diego, Washington, D.C. I was director of professional development
at the Naval Academy … and have been in ports around the world, Guam, the Middle
East, Philippines, Singapore, the Mediterranean, Israel, France, Spain, Greece, West Africa
from Senegal to Angola. When I was executive officer on the cruiser, we were based out of
Pascagoula, Miss., which was a whole new culture for me. While on that ship, amongst other
things, we went into Haiti to conduct some community support and outreach. I was also there
in 2010 with my African deployment staff as part of the earthquake relief effort.
That’s why they say, “Join the Navy and see the world.”
You’ve had many
missions and many
assignments over
the years. Is there
one that really
stuck with you or
that was really
formative?
There are several. [But] being in command of a ship is an awesome opportunity. We were
over in the Middle East in late 2003, into 2004, not too long after the start of Operation
Enduring Freedom. You have to be ready all the time. There’s uncertainty in the environment
you’re going into, and you have a warship that’s trained to put ordnance on target if
that’s what we’re called to do. We hope world events don’t require that of us, but know that
if the country calls, it’s part of what you’re going to do.
How has the Navy
itself evolved
over the years?
The biggest thing for me, personally, is Women at Sea. When I was commissioned in 1985, fewer
than 20 of more than 1,000 new Surface Warfare ensigns we sent to ships were women. And,
it was just a handful of auxiliary support ships we could go to. In 1994, the combat exclusion law
changed, and opportunities began to open markedly. Now, virtually every ship in the Navy is
open to women, and about a quarter to a third of our new shipboard officers each year are women.
We've had women commanding officers of both ships and aircraft squadrons, and indeed of
an entire carrier strike group. In the last two years, women also started serving in submarines…
all things that were wild pipedreams when I came in. It truly has been a sea change!
But, we are also down to a Navy that’s about 285 ships, from nearly 600 when I started.
We still maintain a global presence, but with fewer ships. The capabilities of each individual
ship have grown, and the expertise of our people has evolved with the technology. The
capability of our young sailors is amazing. Virtually all our enlisted personnel have high
school educations, and many have undergraduate or master’s degrees. So we have a very, very
educated force compared to when I first came in.
Taft Bulletin SPRING 2013 21

At nearly every
stage of your
career, you have
been one of few
women to cross
that particular
threshold. How
much has that
mattered to you?
Although I’m just doing what everybody else in the Navy is, it is unique to have generally
been in the minority. When I went through the schooling to be a department head, to be
an engineer officer, I was the only female in a group of 67 officers. So it can be isolating.
People say, “What was it like to be the first or second female commanding officer of a
surface combatant [ship]?” And I say, “What it’s like to be a commanding officer.” I grew
up in that community. I had commensurate operational background and experience to my
male peers. Sure, there were challenges, but all commanding officers have challenges!
There was a young man who was working for me when I was engineer on the destroyer.
He was leaving, and he said, “Ma’am, I just really want to thank you. Where I come from,
the men work in the garages and warehouses and the plant, and the women work in the
beauty salons and the supermarkets. And never the two shall meet. When I heard we had
a female coming in as our chief engineer, I thought, Oh my gosh, what’s going to happen?
You proved that we’re all working with a common mission and a common objective.”
Is it important
to you to have
set an example
for other women
coming along?
It is. I’m extremely indebted to those who went before me and set the stage for all I’ve
been able to do, and I hope I can do the same for those following in my wake. When I first
came in there was no path to command for the women who were officers at sea. We sort
of intuitively knew these were some very talented ladies—things would have to evolve and
change. And they did. And it’s been a good thing.
I’m curious about
your life away
from the Navy. Who
is Cindy Thebaud
when she’s not
Rear Admiral
Thebaud? Who are
you when you’re
out of uniform?
My sports passions were skiing and sailing, and unfortunately, I don’t spend nearly as much
time as I would like to with either of those, because the Navy does keep you pretty busy.
For a while, I was running quite a bit. I ran the Marine Corps Marathon a number of
years ago. Following [a bout with] breast cancer [in 2005], I also got involved in the Avon
Walk for Breast Cancer, which is a two-day, 40-mile fundraising effort to help with cancer
research as well as making services available to people in need locally. When I’ve been stateside,
I’ve done a number of those walks. I tend to look for causes like that.
I also enjoy singing. I sang in glee club at the Naval Academy. So, when I’m in a place
where I’m there for long enough and I’m not bouncing all over, I tend to sing in church
choir. One of my personal challenges is that every time I go into a job in the Navy, it’s
something new. So I have this perpetual steep learning curve everywhere I go. I spend a
lot of time reading, trying to get smarter on all the aspects of it. We have this euphemism,
“Jack of all trades, master of none.” [Laughs]
In a previous
interview, you
talked about
possibly retiring
from the military by
2005. Why have you
chosen to stay on?
It had to do with the continued opportunities that kept coming up. I’ll have to move on at
some point, but the Navy has kept making terrific opportunities available to me. My next
ideal job would be to serve as a Strike Group commander, which would be an amazing,
phenomenal opportunity, but that decision will be up to the Navy. Time will tell.
Speaking of
retirement,
eventually, What
comes next?
Good question. I haven’t figured out what I want to do when I grow up. [Laughs] It will be
interesting to see what kind of turn that takes, whether it’s working with an NGO, working
in some sort of international development, something in the maritime domain, something in
the national security realm, or perhaps even back in education. My interests remain varied.
22 Taft Bulletin SPRING 2013

With VADM
Harry Harris
(commander, 6th
Fleet), who
presented Thebaud
with the Legion of
Merit award for
her work as the
Destroyer Squadron
Commodore.
What would
you say to any
students at
Taft who might
consider a career
in the military?
Service in the military really is a great opportunity—a very broad range of career fields,
lots of high tech and leading-edge areas in which one can get involved, combined with
superb leadership opportunities at a very junior level, challenging environments that force
you to grow both personally and professionally, and, of course, the opportunity to serve
our country and to work with really top-notch people from all walks of life.
Personally, I figured I’d do my five years and get out. Heck, I figured I’d be doing well
if I made it through all four years at the Naval Academy! What’s kept me around, though,
is the unique opportunities I’ve had—both operationally and educationally, as well as the
phenomenal people with whom I’ve been able to work. The breadth of responsibility that
you gain as a young officer—I had no idea.
I’ve always had a diverse range of interests, and that’s one of the things that’s been good
for me in the military. It provides you an opportunity to either specialize in something if
you want or to maintain a very diverse portfolio.
Aside from service to country, service to others on a day-to-day basis is one of the
tenets that’s very important. People tend to think of the military as an organization with a
mission of killing people, but for most of us, that’s the last thing we want to do. Our job
is to prevent wars, but if they do occur, to be able to prevail, and to defend our national
interests. In the Navy, it’s about operating forward, building partnerships and relationships
but being ready for whatever our country calls us to do.
You’re headed
out to a twoweek
training
conference in
Africa tomorrow.
Is packing
just second
nature now?
No. I don’t do civilian attire well, so I really have to think about that. [Laughs] I’m joking
a bit, but if you don’t like to think about what you’re going to have to wear every day,
go into the military! j
Brady Dennis is a staff writer for The Washington Post.
For more on the Horace D. Taft Alumni Medal,
visit www.taftschool.org/alumni/merit.aspx.
Taft Bulletin SPRING 2013 23

“ One cannot think well, love well, sleep well,
if one has not dined well.”
—Virginia Woolf

At the heart of any school is its dining—
and at Taft it’s all about heart.
by Jennifer A. C lement / photography by Robert Falcetti
It’s 7 a.m., and lower schoolers slowly start to drift
in to Laube Dining Hall and scratch their names
off the sign-in list. But as hard as it might be to pull
themselves out of bed at this hour, the rewards that
await them are worth it.
The oversized bagels are from Ami’s Bakery in
Waterbury, which were written up in Connecticut
Magazine. On Thursdays, there are homemade cider
doughnuts from Dottie’s in Woodbury. Every morning,
students are treated to a fruit and yogurt bar
brimming with fresh-cut honeydew and cantaloupe.
“You should see the pineapple,” said Chef Jerry
Reveron. Oatmeal with fresh blueberries and honey
comes highly recommended. “Breakfast is so important.
It makes a kid’s day. It really does.”
This spring marks the third anniversary of the
new Moorhead Wing, which houses the new Laube
and Prentice dining halls, the newly renovated east
dining hall and an expansive underground kitchen.
Geographically and socially, this complex serves as
the heart of the Taft campus. At its center is Reveron,
awarding-winning chef and director of Food Services.
Reveron’s passion for and knowledge of food
are reflected in the tremendous variety and quality
of the dishes on offer daily—from Carnegie
Deli-inspired sandwiches to a sit-down dinner of

“ You live here, you get
educated, you eat.
And if you don’t get
the food part right,
it makes for a bad day
in the classroom.”
Chicken Marbella, studded with apricots, currants and golden raisins, for 1,300 on
Parents Weekend. Since 2009, Reveron has overseen and managed every aspect of
food services at Taft and, by his own account, spends quite a bit of time in the kitchen.
But he does not allow himself to be confined by it. Rather, his enthusiasm for sharing
a great meal seems to bubble over, whether he is teaching cooking classes for faculty,
advising seniors on food-related projects, leading alumni on tours of a local dairy farm,
or immersing himself and his students in regional cuisine, as he did last June for the
“Living the Arts in Italy” adventure.
“It has to be about the food,” Reveron said in late February during an interview in
his office, which has a small window overlooking the Servery, the school’s mealtime
hub. Food, he asserted, essentially accounts for one-third of the student experience
at boarding school. “You live here, you get educated, you eat. And if you don’t get the
food part right, it makes for a bad day in the classroom.”
To ensure that students have a good day in the classroom every day, nutrition
is paramount in meal planning. The school employs a full-time nutritionist who is
available for one-on-one consultations for students with special dietary needs or restrictions.
Students are quick to point out that the Servery offers lactose-free milk and
a gluten-free station with everything from pizza and pasta to cupcakes. Food service at
the school is also nut-free, with the exception of peanut butter at the sandwich station.
All meals are prepared with the freshest, highest-quality ingredients. The marinara
sauce is made from scratch, and 90 percent of all baked goods are made on the premises.
“We whip our own butter and cream cheese, peel our own carrots and onions,”
Reveron said, leading a tour through walk-in coolers filled with fresh produce and a
station where the pastry chef was frosting a fresh carrot cake.
Taft also keeps pace with the farm-to-table movement, sourcing an increasing
number of items locally. The milk and ice cream, for example, come from Litchfield’s
“ It’s a new
adventure
every day.”

Arethusa Farm, which students know is branded as “milk like it used to taste.”
Apples are picked seasonally at March Farms in nearby Bethlehem, and the
all-natural beef, pork and poultry come from Roxbury’s Greyledge Farms.
Lunch is by far the main event, with 900 students, faculty and staff filling the dining
halls on an average day. “That’s where all the action is,” Reveron said. From the brickoven
pizza to the rainbow-studded salad bar to the “action station,” where menu items
such as uber-trendy noodle bowls are prepared to order, the choices are dazzling.
“It’s a new adventure every day,” said Gaby Fabre ’13, who describes how she and
her friends determine what to have for lunch each day. “We scope the entire cafeteria
before beginning the selection process, which also takes a while.”
Here, even a salad can become a complex and artful undertaking. “For such a
long time salad was really boring to me,” said Fabre, who professed that she now
enjoys taking time to construct a salad each day and recently discovered that
sunflower seeds make a great topping. “You improvise every day. It’s healthy, and
you have a lot of options. Even today, you have the option of regular salad and the
special salad,” she said as she tucked into both—a vegetable-pasta salad made with
tri-color tortellini, and a small garden salad of her own design.
Adhering to a long-standing Taft tradition, Fabre was sharing her lunch period
with her adviser, Dean of Faculty Chris Torino. She follows this same routine every
Thursday. For them and other students, the shared meal provides a chance to catch
up on the week.
Other times, Fabre dines with friends and teammates. “At Taft you don’t have
one or two friends, you have 16 of them,” she said. “I play on a hockey team. When
we have dinner, it’s a very long process.”
“The dining hall is a really nice place to relax,” agrees Cassie Willson ’13, who is a
“ We whip our own butter
and cream cheese,
peel our own carrots
and onions,”

Cooking
by the Numbers
900
600
700
125
5
Minutes
1,000
150
Lunches served on
an average day
Average breakfast
or dinner service
Seating for a sit-down
dinner
Pizzas served at
lunch daily
to produce
5 brick-oven pizzas
Pounds of pasta
made weekly
Gallons of fresh
marinara sauce
cooked per week
fan of the wheatberry salad and blackened tilapia. “I’m not a fish person,” she added,
“but this fish is really good.”
Willson is also intimately familiar with the dining hall scene, having eaten here
“since the age of two.” A faculty kid, she has witnessed the changes in both food and
facilities, but one thing that remains the same is the experience of sharing food with
friends. “We tend to sit here for a really long time. That’s when we socialize. People
come and go,” she said. “We’ll sit here for two hours.”
A highly unscientific survey of Taft students’ favorite foods revealed that homemade
potato chips, rotisserie chicken and “fro-yo” bar are popular, along with the
“Tour of Italy” pasta dinner. Cole Maier ’14 said the cheeseburgers, steak strips,
mashed potatoes and chicken parmesan top his list of Taft favorites, while Andrew
Cadienhead ’13 said he would most miss the buffalo chicken tenders after graduation—and
the double chocolate chip cookies.
The biggest hit, however, seemed to be Reveron’s “Top Chef ” inspired competitions,
such as this winter’s Chili Cook-Off and Chowderfest. “They all compete,”
said Torino of the chefs, noting that students and faculty are asked to vote for their
favorites—and the competition is fierce. “This isn’t like, ‘I’m serving your food.’
His chefs were calling out, ‘Vote Number 3!’ They were all peer pressuring.”
“It’s great what he’s doing with this and his team,” Torino said, adding, “No dining
hall has ever felt that way to me. Everything is exceptional.”
The cook-offs are just one example of Reveron’s passion for culinary excellence,
which also is evident in the trophies and medals that have accumulated in his office.
In 2012, Reveron earned his National Pro Chef Level II certification from
the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York. He was one of seven
Aramark chefs in the country to take the exam, with only five earning this certification.
He received an American Culinary Federation Gold Medal in the 2012
500
7
Minutes
Cookies baked
at once in the
convection oven
to bake
all 500 cookies

“Everything is
exceptional.”
Aramark Culinary Excellence Competition, in which 150 chefs from around the
country compete, along with ACE Silver Medals in 2011 and 2012.
“It says to me that I must be doing the right things,” Reveron said of his achievements,
but he is even prouder of what he has accomplished with the food service
program at Taft. “It’s all about making sure the students get the best meal. I’ve toured
a lot of boarding schools in the Northeast. I think we have the best program, and I’m
not just saying that. We really set the benchmark for what boarding schools should be.
We’re always reinventing ourselves.”
Reveron was thrilled when several parents emailed to request his Chicken
Marbella recipe from Parents’ Weekend. He recalled a sign at a colleague’s restaurant.
“It said, ‘Beyond this door walks passion.’ That’s so powerful,” Reveron said.
“I thought, Here’s a guy who loves food—lives it. I really see that here.”
Alongside his awards, Reveron keeps photographs of his students and experiences
at Taft. Several are from the 20-day tour of Italy, where the Collegium Musicum
performed and students took classes in Italian, drawing, photography and, of course,
cooking. “It was the first time a chef was involved. It was just a great time,” Reveron
said, recalling that they visited local farms for cheese and herbs, learned how to cure
prosciutto and siphoned olive oil from huge vats.
The reception they received in the town of Faicchio, in the Campania region, was
overwhelming. “This town took us in,” Reveron said, recalling one evening spent dining
al fresco in the homes of local townspeople. “Everything was magical. It was one of the
biggest highlights of my career as a chef. We’re doing it again in 2014. I can’t wait.”
Jennifer Clement is a freelance writer who has been living
and working in Litchfield County for nearly 20 years.
Taft Bulletin SPRING 2013 29

Brian A Jackson/Shutterstock.com

V
eteran American expatriate Jennifer Buttenheim
Eremeeva ’84 is a writer, photographer, Russian historian,
blogger, and humor and cooking columnist based in
Moscow. In addition to Russia Lite, Jennifer is the creator
and curator of The Moscovore. Calling Moscow home for
the past 20 years, she always tries to find the funnier side
of life in Russia.
Here’s one of the great unsolved mysteries of the universe: Why does
the alumni magazine get through the floundering Russian postal system
with a regularity you can set your clock by, but the New Yorker almost
never appears?
Still, I give the Class Notes a summary glance before I consign the
magazine to the trash. The Class of 1984 seems to be doing well. Many
of my classmates are approaching the zeniths of their professional
lives—or at least those who write in are.
The last time I submitted anything to the alumni magazine was back
in my banking days—a picture of me “enjoying a joke at the Russian
Economic Forum” with the Duke of York. I consider how I might update
it without suggesting entropy:
“Jennifer Buttenheim Eremeeva ’84 is still living Moscow, Russia,
with her husband, HRH (Leningrad Officers’ Cadet School # 401, class
of ’86) who is the Deputy CEO at A Difficult Start Up he’s asked her
never to write about, and daughter Velvet, 12. Jennifer has abandoned attempts
at working in Russia’s formal economy and is currently employed
full-time as a domestic goddess.”
I never set out to be a domestic goddess. I cannot even remember
wanting to learn to cook, and I certainly never intended to become an
expert on Russian food. Recently, like good domestic goddesses do, I
held a massive clutter-bust and gave away all my corporate gear. Today
my wardrobe consists of a different pair of yoga pants for each day of the
week. Suddenly, I know how to make kvas—kvas of all things! I write a
popular food blog about culinary adventures in the Russian capital.
The Domestic Goddess
of the Green Line
Taft Bulletin SPRING 2013 31

I photograph blini. Magazine editors from the United
Arab Emirates inexplicably want my borscht recipe.
Katya, my Russian emigré friend from New York,
sent out an urgent all-points bulletin the other day
on Facebook.
“Friends,” she urged in two languages, “what is
the correct culinary translation for ‘salo’?” I didn’t
miss a beat.
“Salt pork or lard,” I typed back automatically.
No, I never planned to become a domestic goddess,
but in two decades, Russia, it seems, has turned
me into just that.
The Domestic
Goddess Incubator
In 1992, I moved to Moscow to live with my boyfriend,
whom I later married. I call him HRH, which
I tell him stands for Handsome Russian Husband,
but I sometimes alter it to mean Horrible Russian
Husband. He calls me Petrovna, since my father’s
name is Peter. Everyone should have a patronymic.
“Marrying a Russian man,” people comment with
surprise, “that’s unusual—normally it’s the other
way round.”
It is unusual. And here’s the other thing: It isn’t the
same thing as when a foreign man marries a Russian
woman. In fact, the only thing we have in common
is that we name our daughters Sophia and our sons
Alexander. Apart from that, it’s like comparing apples
and gasoline stations.
The foreign man—let’s call him Bill—who marries
Natasha is welcomed into her family enthusiastically
with open arms no matter what his age or circumstances.
As long as Bill can chew gum and walk a
straight line—a straight line to the embassy that
is—to fill out the paperwork for a fiancé visa, he’s
a member of the family now. “Molodets, Natasha!”
(Atta girl!). Natasha moves into Bill’s well-appointed
flat on the Pond, lowers her heels and tones down her
fingernails. When Bill’s contract is up and he whisks
Natasha off to Connecticut or Cumbria—that’s considered
the logical next step, and a step up at that.
Bill and Natasha have made an equitable exchange of
commodities and look likely to live happily ever after.
When we meet and fall in love with our HRH—
let’s call him Boris—matters do not unfold quite
so smoothly. We may be Bill’s equal on paper or in
the boardroom, but we are leagues below him in the
Russian marriage stakes. We tend to speak better
Russian than Bill does, but never quite well enough
for our Russian mothers-in-law. These tough-cookie
Russian ladies, who are happy to grin idiotically at
Bill, find it harder to discuss politics with us. Foreign
daughters-in-law are suspicious creatures. We work.
We eschew potatoes. We expect their sons—men
brought up to believe they actually are the scions of
some royal house—to help us unload the dishwasher.
We are reckless with our health. We put ice in our
drinks and air conditioning in our apartments. We sit
on stone walls or metal chairs, thereby rotting our reproductive
plumbing. We marry woefully late (around
28), which means that by the time we do get around
to having children (30-35) we are way past any expectation
of normal gestation or pregnancies. We expect
Boris to be with us in the delivery room, rather than
boozing it up at home with his friends. When we miraculously
do give birth to Sophia and Alexander, we
don’t automatically hand them off to the older generation.
If career advancement isn’t obvious, we have
to think strategically about whisking Boris back to
Boston or Brixton, because it might not be a win-win.
How have HRH and I have managed to avoid
these pitfalls? Well, for one thing, he is the one who
works in the cutthroat Russian formal economy while
I stay at home and battle writer’s block in yoga pants.
I can’t see it working the other way around. And, despite
my mother-in-law’s worst fears, I have become a
domestic goddess—exactly what most Russian men
expect from their wives.
When I moved to Russia, I didn’t know how to
cook, but as I was female, the task naturally fell to me,
just as gassing up the car did to him. From each according
to his ability, to each according to his needs,
right? My first culinary laboratory was a modest affair,
located in Northern Butova (Southern Butova
being then only a vague sketch on a drawing board),
a charmless environ most expats only glimpse fleetingly
on the way to Domodedovo Airport. HRH had
his apartment and “propiska” (registration) there, so
that is where we lived.
Now I am glad we did. When Russians or those
funny expats who have gone native start talking about
overprivileged foreigners, I reel out a few well-honed
anecdotes about our happy years in Northern Butova
and that tends to shut them up.
It was appropriate that our glasses outnumbered
our plates, since there wasn’t much food in the
mid-1990s. We lived on pasta alla carbonara,
which I improvised using Rossiisky cheese and
tinny-flavored faux ham. This was the first of many
culinary revelations for HRH, who had hitherto only
eaten pasta in “makaroni po flotsky,” a military staple.
32 Taft Bulletin SPRING 2013

His mother, up from Kiev for an awkward weekend,
was appalled.
“My son has forgotten what a potato is,” she wailed
up and down the musical scale. She and I will never
see eye to eye on matters culinary.
As we geared up to become parents, HRH and
I agreed that it was time to leave the Orange Line.
I lobbied hard for the Green Line, to which I retain
an affectionate affinity to this day. A big part of that
was the Leningradsky farmers’ market, and once we
moved within walking distance, Velvet and I became
regulars. The market was full of sights, sounds and
smells that cut through the gray gloom of a Moscow
winter. More Mediterranean than Slavic in their outlook,
the market vendors seemed glad to see us, or at
least did a credible imitation of being so. Slowly but
steadily, with fresh meat, produce, herbs and eggcups
of pungent spices from the one-armed Uzbek spice
merchant, I gained confidence in the kitchen. Recipes
with unavailable or hard-to-find ingredients became
irresistible puzzles to solve. Interest became passion. I
made “plov” (pilaf), I made pesto, and I made apricot
baby food for Velvet. I did a turkey. I contemplated
attempting a whole suckling pig. I still do.
Cooking gradually became therapy. There was so
much I could not control about my life in Russia—
the messy politics, the volatile economy, the traffic
snarls and the disturbing rise of anti-foreign feeling.
But in the kitchen, the food did exactly what I told it
to. I needed no spravka (certificate) to fit the right
blade in the food processor and mix lemon juice,
mustard, vinegar and oil into vinaigrette. Things
were straightforward in the kitchen: corruption,
after all, when it happens in the kitchen, is easily
dispatched down the disposal, its lingering smell
eliminated with a few sprays of vinegar and water
and a firm swipe of the counter.
Becoming a domestic goddess is largely a question
of trial and error, and my journey was full of both: the
duck that a shifty poultry salesperson sold me without
removing the quills, the strawberry sorbet that refused
to freeze (strategically repurposed into daiquiris at the
very last moment), and the Thanksgiving I tried to
go to the St. Andrew’s Ball the night before and cook
a meal for nine the next day. You can do one or the
other, but not, I learned, both.
An extended version of this essay first appeared in an
anthology published by the Moscow Times and can be read
on Jennifer’s blog: www.russialite.com. You can also check
out more of her recipes at www.moscovore.com—
culinary adventures in the Russian capital.
The Moscovore's
Spring Borscht
Ingredients
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
4–6 young beets, with their stems
1 large yellow onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, mashed
3 large tomatoes seeded and diced
2 liters of beef, chicken or vegetable stock
300 grams of meat (lamb, pork, beef or
a mixture of the three), cubed
1 cup of sauerkraut, coarsely chopped,
retain the juice or “rasol” to add as a finisher
3 large carrots, julienned
Salt, pepper to taste
½ cup fresh dill
½ cup fresh parsley
Garnish
h
h
Sour cream
Chopped fresh dill and scallions
Preparation
1. Roast the beets in their skin, with their stems
for 30–40 minutes in a 350°F/180°C oven.
Let them cool, then peel the skin from the beets
and cut them into small cubes.
2. In a heavy-bottomed soup pot, sauté the diced onions
and mashed garlic until translucent.
3. Add the diced and dried lamb, pork and beef,
and brown gently.
4. Add the carrots, sauté briefly, and cook mixture,
covered, for 10 minutes.
5. Add the stock, beets, tomatoes and sauerkraut.
Bring to a gentle boil.
6. Simmer on low heat until the carrots are soft.
7. Add rasol and simmer for an additional 5 minutes.
8. When ready to serve, taste, correct seasoning
with salt and pepper and add dill and parsley
9. Garnish with a dollop of sour cream or crème fraîche.
Taft Bulletin SPRING 2013 33

tales of a TAFTIE
By Amy Wimmer Schwarb
John Loengard//Time Life Pictures/Getty Images
J. Irwin Miller, Class of 1927
Industrialist and Advocate for the Arts
Courtesy of Indianapolis Museum of Art
SOURCES:
“This is Irwin Miller,”
Town & Country, July 1974
Eero Saarinen: Shaping
the Future, edited
by Eeva-Lisa Pelkonen
and Donald Albrecht
“A New Concept
of Beauty,” House &
Garden, February 1959
Interview with
Bradley Brooks, director
of historic resources
and assistant curator
of American decorative
arts at the Indianapolis
Museum of Art
“Is It Too Late for a Man
of Honesty, High Purpose
and Intelligence to Be
Elected President of the
United States in 1968?”
by Steven V. Roberts,
Esquire, October 1967
“J. Irwin Miller,”
Indianapolis Star
Magazine, Sept. 13, 1970
What successful Taftie,
no longer living, would
you like to see profiled
in this space? Send
your suggestions to
juliereiff@taftschool.org.
J. Irwin Miller turned his family’s ailing company into
an enterprise that supplied half of America’s diesel
engines for trucks.
But his reputation as a principled businessman is just
one side of this multifaceted man. A white man from
Indiana who leaned Republican but sometimes voted for
Democrats, he was an early proponent of civil rights who
helped organize the March on Washington and pulled his
business out of South Africa during apartheid. A devout
and scholarly Christian, he became the first layman to
lead the powerful National Council on Churches and
commonly read the New Testament in Greek.
Miller also believed in the power of music; he played
his Stradivarius regularly and expected his five children
to practice daily for their piano lessons.
He was a 20th-century Renaissance man. Yet for all
Miller’s accomplishments, his most lasting legacy might
be his support for the work of others—namely, forwardthinking
architects. One giant in architecture, Kevin
Roche, called him “the perfect client.”
Roche was among those who owes part of his career to
Miller’s vision for sanctioning architects to do what they
do best and began his career as a protegé of master architect
Eero Saarinen—a mid-century architect and industrial
designer best known for the Gateway Arch in St. Louis.
Miller’s respect for architecture began while he
was an undergraduate at Yale. When he returned to
Columbus, Indiana, after earning a master’s at Oxford,
he persuaded his hometown church to think big and
interview some enterprising architects.
The church’s hire was Eliel Saarinen, father of Eero,
who taught architecture at the University of Michigan.
“In essence,” Miller explained to Town & Country in
July 1974, “they said: We don’t know anything about
modern architecture. But we do know something about
people, and this is a great man. We’re willing to go wherever
he might lead us, even though we might not like it,
because we really trust this guy.’”
The First Christian Church became the first modern
architecture showpiece in Columbus, but it was only
the beginning. Saarinen brought with him his son, Eero,
and one of his architecture students, Charles Eames, the
man who would become a great mid-century furniture
designer. At the soda fountain in downtown Columbus,
Miller forged a friendship with the young men.
More projects followed, with Miller’s vision, and
often his funding, behind them. When Columbus was
struggling to keep up with the public school building
boom in the years following World War II, Miller
encouraged the community to use talented, notable
architects from a list he provided, and his company
foundation paid the architects’ fees.
Today, this city of 44,000 is home to more than
70 buildings and pieces of public art by internationally
acclaimed architects such as I.M. Pei, the two
Saarinens, Richard Meier, Harry Weese, Dale Chihuly
and Henry Moore.
Smithsonian magazine has called Columbus, a “veritable
museum of modern architecture.” The American
Institute of Architects ranks Columbus sixth in the
nation for architectural innovation and design, right
behind New York City and Washington, D.C.
“When important buildings and important architects
started flourishing in Columbus, it attracted attention
to Columbus,” said Bradley Brooks, director of historic
resources and assistant curator of American decorative
arts at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. “It’s still an ordinary
Indiana county seat town, but it’s concerned about
design, architecture, planning. They think about things
in ways that other cities their size only wish they could.”
The city’s architectural pièce de résistance is Miller’s
personal home, designed as a modern architecture marvel
by his friend Eero Saarinen. Today, it is owned by the
Indianapolis Museum of Art, which offers small group
tours of the place where this Renaissance man once
practiced violin and read the New Testament. j

from the
ARCHIVES
www.taftschool.org/about/papyrus.aspx
Search The Papyrus!
Exciting news from the Archives! With the
recent digitization of The Papyrus, thanks to
a grant from The Hook Fund, a trove of Taft
history is now accessible to the entire Taft
community. The student newspaper, which
was started in 1894, is now readable in full text
and keyword searchable. That’s 1,913 issues.
Issues from 1894 to 1988 are also available
through the school website.
Until now it has been a cumbersome
process to research something in the printed
Paps. From the Taft website, you can
now quickly hone in on a decade and issue,
look for a references to a person, event or
subject, and find it highlighted in the text.
The Pap is perhaps the resource in the
Archives that best conveys the history of the
school from the student perspective. It’s the
first place to look for information on Taft
lore and traditions, school life, contests in
athletics and debate, which girls came to
campus for a dance, how the gym was decorated,
distinguished speakers, and news of
faculty and student views about the school
and the world, especially in times of war.
There are even a few spoof issues.
The paper and its editorials are very
much a reflection of their times, from early
editors chiding their fellow students’ behavior
in the early issues, to their serious
questioning of the value of a prep-school
education and authority much later in the
century (thanks to then Editor- in-Chief
Steven Erlanger ’70, now Paris bureau
chief at The New York Times!)
www.taftschool.org/about/papyrus.aspx.
—Alison Gilchrist,
The Leslie D. Manning Archives
Taft Bulletin SPRING 2013 35

Taft Bulletin
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Join our audio
storytelling project!
Tell us about your favorite memories
of Taft and how the school has shaped
your life. Or join with another Taftie
and tell us your tale together.
Visit www.taftschool.org/rhinotales
j for story ideas
j to listen to sample stories
j to find out how to share your story with us
on Alumni Day
j or to find out how to send one on your own.
Don't forget to include the details!
WHO were you with?
WHEN was it?
WHERE did it take place?
WHAT was it about?
WHY is it something you remember?
j Please keep your recordings
under 5 minutes
j Briefly state your NAME, class
YEAR and TOPIC at the start
j Or, email
RhinoTales@taftschool.org
now to reserve your
recording time on
Alumni Day, May 11.