Fall 2010 Highlights - Front Page - Christ Church Episcopal School

C h r i s t C h u r c h E p i s c o p a l S c h o o l • G r e e n v i l l e , S C 

Highlights 

In this issue... Celebrating the First 50 Years, Inaugurating the Next 50 • The Class of 2010 

The Daniel-Mickel Foundation Master Teachers • Headmaster Leonard Kupersmith's Vision for CCES 

Fond Farewells to Lee Cox and Connie Lanzl • Board Chair Edgar Norris, Jr.'s Faith in the Past, Faith in the Future 

CCES Today • Global Perspectives • and much more! 

Fall 2010

Highlights Fall 2010 

Published by the Advancement Office 

Bibby Sierra, Director 

Alice Baird, Editor 

Contributing Writers 

Class Agents 

Alice Baird 

R. J. Beach 

Tao Brody ’10 

Barbara Carter 

Lee Cox 

Dolly Durham 

Elizabeth Gross ’87 

Sterling Jarrett ’10 

Leonard Kupersmith 

Missy Park ’80 

Rip Parks ’72 

Marie Earle Pender ’95 

Peter D. Sanders 

Viviane Till 

Courtney Tollison ’95 

Graphic Designer 

Brandy Lindsey, 

The Graphics House, Inc. 

A Note from the Editor 

The first thing you’ll note about this issue, I’m sure, is its heft. Last year we 

published only one issue of Highlights; this is a sort of two-in-one issue, not only 

in form, but in content as well. This issue marks the end of Lee Cox’s tenure as 

Headmaster and the beginning of Leonard Kupersmith’s. With the conclusion of 

our coverage of last year’s whirlwind of 50 th anniversary events, this Highlights also 

marks the end of the first fifty years of CCES and the beginning of what we may 

call, for now, the next 50. 

In these pages you will find our traditional tributes to the graduating class, the 

current Daniel-Mickel Foundation Master Teachers, and the many alumni events 

held since our last issue. A pullout poster in the centerfold pays homage to “50 

Favorite CCES Faces” selected by alumni, students, parents, faculty, and friends; we 

hope to see it displayed in offices around town as well as on campus! 

Headmaster Leonard Kupersmith inaugurates his vision for the school with his 

letter on page 5, and we honor the conclusion of Lee Cox’s tenure as President 

and of Connie Lanzl’s as Vice President for Advancement. Our “Portrait in 

Philanthropy,” an interview with School Board Chair Edgar Norris, Jr., looks both 

to the past and the future of the school. 

As more and more alumni partake in our global economy, it is likely that “Global 

Perspectives” will become a regular section of Highlights. In this issue Rip Parks 

’72 and Courtney Tollison ’95 reflect on their unusual experiences abroad; in 

addition, current Upper School Director Pete Sanders describes the school’s 

commitment to providing a truly relevant 21 st century education through Chinese 

student exchanges and the planned introduction of Mandarin foreign language 

studies in 2011-12. Another new section, “CCES Today,” will focus on current 

school programs and people that exemplify the school’s paths to excellence in the 

classroom, on the athletic field, and in the many venues in which our students 

choose to realize their potential. 

I hope you enjoy this issue. Write to me at bairda@cces.org. 

Alice Baird 

Director of Communications 

Cover photos: 

The Class of 2010 

Read more on page 

9. 

Erratum 

We apologize that we printed 

Robert DiBenedetto’s 

photo instead of McAdams 

Christopher’s (shown left) in the 

last issue of Highlights. 

2 | Highlights Fall 2010

Celebrating the Class of 2010 

Table of Contents 

Letter from the Headmaster, Leonard Kupersmith ........................................5 

The Class of 2010 .........................................................................................................9. 

Class of 2010 Portrait......................................................................................................9 

Class of 2010 College Matriculations ...........................................................................10 

Class of 2010 Scholarships ...........................................................................................12 

Awards Night Honors ..................................................................................................13 

Senior Thesis Honors Recognition ...............................................................................15 

2010 Commencement Address, by Dr. Leland H. Cox, Jr. ......................................... 17 

CCES Today...................................................................................................................20 

The 2010-11 Daniel-Mickel Foundation Master Teachers, by Alice Baird....................20 

The Senior Class Leaves a Legacy of Compassion, by Sterling Jarrett ’10 and 

Tao Brody ’10........................................................................................................29 

Youth in Government Teaches Students How to Change the World, by Alice Baird 

(reprinted from the website)......................................................................................31 

Go, Cavaliers! Another Banner Year for CCES Athletics, by R. J. Beach ......................33 

Coach David Wilcox: Architect of a CCES Boys Soccer Dynasty, by Alice Baird.........35 

Fond Farewells.............................................................................................................38 

Dr. Leland H. Cox, Jr.: CCES President/Headmaster 

2000-2010, by Alice Baird.....................................................................................38 

Sidebar: Governor Honors Dr. Cox with Order of the Palmetto.......................43 

Director of Development Connie Lanzl 1998-2010: 

A Legacy of Sophistication and Devotion to the School, by Alice Baird................44 

Global Perspectives...................................................................................................50 

The Path to Mandarin at CCES, by Peter D. Sanders..................................................50 

A Lifelong Global Outlook: It All Started Here, by Rip Parks ’72................................54 

Teaching in the Ukraine as a Fulbright Scholar: 

A Clash of Ideals, by Dr. Courtney Tollison ’95 ...................................................56 

The CCES 50 th Anniversary.....................................................................................60 

The CCES Birthday BASH: A Party 50 Years in the Making.........................................60 

Pastor Hobby Outten ’85 Celebrates Alumni Chapel Service.......................................62 

CCES Explores Its “Oral History” at Museum .............................................................63 

Upcountry History Museum Hosts CCES Exhibit........................................................64 

50 th Anniversary Alumni Basketball Reunion: They Still Got Game!.............................65 

Bonus Feature: 50 Favorite Faces Pullout Poster 

Character. Community. Excellence. Service. | 3


Portrait in Philanthropy ..........................................................................................66 

School Board Chair Edgar M. Norris, Jr.: Belief in the School, 

Faith in Its Future, by Alice Baird..........................................................................66 

CCES Alumni ...............................................................................................................69 

Letter from Alumni Association President Elizabeth Reyner Gross '87........................69 

2010-11 Alumni Association Governing Board ............................................................69 

Save the Date: 2010-11 Alumni Events Calendar ........................................................ 70 

The Art of Successful Failure: Keynote Remarks at 2010 Alumni Career Program, 

by Missy Park ’80 .................................................................................................71 

Alumni Oyster Roast Draws a Crowd............................................................................73 

Matt Brashier '10 Selected for 2010 Billy Richardson Sportsmanship Award...............74 

Cavalier Classic Golf Tournament Raises $8,000...........................................................75 

Alumnae Field Hockey: Stickin’ With It!.......................................................................76 

Alumni Weekend Tennis: We Are the Champions!........................................................77 

Reunions: 

CCES on the Road in Charleston...........................................................................78 

CCES on the Road in New York.............................................................................78 

The Class of 1975: Sweet (Edible) Memories..........................................................79 

The Class of 1980: A Very Special Guest Appearance.............................................80 

The Class of 1985: Jammin’ Together.....................................................................81 

Lost Alumni............................................................................................................81 

The Class of 1990: Reuniting in Greenville’s Fashionable West End.......................82 

Alumni Christmas Party.........................................................................................82 

Cavalier Classics: Connecting Parents of Alumni Since 1991..................................82 

The “Prolific” Class of 1995, by Marie Earle Pender ’95.......................................83 

2010 Cavalier Sporting Clay Tournament...............................................................84 

Lazy? Not the Class of 2000!...................................................................................85 

1989 & 2010 Casts of South Pacific Share Some Enchanted Evening......................85 

Class News ...................................................................................................................86 

Marriages .....................................................................................................................86 

Births............................................................................................................................86. 

Deaths...........................................................................................................................87. 

Class Notes....................................................................................................................87 

Former Faculty Notes....................................................................................................91 



Letter from the Headmaster 

Dr. Leonard Kupersmith 

I feel esteemed 

to serve as 

headmaster of 

Christ Church 

Episcopal 

School. A 

leadership role in 

any organization, 

institutional 

or corporate, requires one to mediate 

between founding principles and current 

needs. We must always understand and 

respect our original premises while we pay 

careful attention to a changing economic, 

cultural, and academic landscape and seek 

opportunities for development of services 

and refinement of quality. 

CCES was founded by a core group of 

wise and generous citizens of Greenville to 

provide a kind of school that did not exist 

in the community. Such an independent 

day school would be an extension of 

Christ Episcopal Church and serve young 

people from the early stages of their formal 

education through their secondary years. 

Such a school would obviate the proclivity 

to attend boarding school through the 

college preparatory high-school years. CCES 

would be college preparatory, Episcopal, 

independent, P-12, and traditional in its 

respect for core competencies and cultural 

literacy. My duty is to honor those seminal 

intentions. We remain committed to 

those values. The challenge is to uphold 

those principles, ensure that all operations 

are first-rate, and yet adjust to changing 

expectations and perceived needs. 

Leadership is Service 

Different leaders and senior management 

staff will understand and therefore 

implement these values differently. They 

require interpretation very much like 

foundational legal documents. This balance 

between personal vision and original intent 

is tricky. As a leader, one is obligated 

to recognize and preserve the purpose 

of the founder(s). Yet, he or she is also 

accountable to make changes that improve 

performance. I do not believe that a leader 

should impose his or her stamp on an 

organization. Certainly, how one conducts 

himself will reflect one’s principles and 

preferences. However, leadership is service. 

Leaders should subordinate their agendas 

and egos to the values and character of the 

communities that they lead. 

To be sure, Greenville is a different 

community from what it was in 1959. 

In its transformation from the world’s 

textile capital to a community with a 

diversified economy; a growing force in 

automotive research, development, and 

manufacturing; an attraction for families 

from other parts of the country interested 

in living in a civil, beautiful, progressive 

city with a moderate climate and access 

to beaches and mountains and anchored 

by a downtown, which is now a model for 

urban development; a high concentration 

of international residents, businesses, and 

capital, Greenville is on the move, doing 

a remarkable job in balancing its own 

traditional values with prudent and strategic 

change. 

From my standpoint, the most significant 

changes that I have observed in my career, 

since 1968, almost coinciding with the 

founding of CCES are: 

• the emergence of middle schools; 

• great dependence on technology; and 

• the recognition and accommodation of 

a wide spectrum of learning needs. 

continued 

"The challenge is to 

uphold [the school's] 

principles, ensure that 

all operations are firstrate, 

and yet adjust to 

changing expectations 

and perceived needs." 



With due regard for those major gradations 

in the school landscape, I would argue 

that the values that informed the school at 

its inception and have served to sustain it 

through the years remain constant. These 

values have supported a school through fifty 

years. In that time, CCES has educated 

thousands of students, including more 

than 3,000 alumni, to be solid thinkers, 

responsible citizens, employees, and parents, 

high-achieving college students, and people 

with ethical backbones. That kind of 

education should be jealously guarded and 

resolutely cultivated. 

Faith in the Past, 

Faith in the Future 

This matter of faith in the past as we assert 

faith in the future has absorbed me for 

years. I had the privilege of serving as the 

founding head of a day school for thirteen 

years prior to my arrival in Greenville. There, 

I was one of the architects of the Mission 

of that school. Here, I serve others’ vision 

and principles. This issue is exemplified in 

the fierce debate between the originalists on 

the Supreme Court and those who believe 

that the Constitution is a living, organic 

document that must adjust to the times. 

Nearly twenty years ago, Robert Bork 

weighed in with an article in the Philanthropy 

Roundtable magazine connecting the duty 

to be true to the Founders’ intent in the 

Constitution with protecting the founder’s 

intent in philanthropic foundations, like 

the Ford Foundation or the Pew Charitable 

Trusts. Mr. Bork laments the deviations 

from founders’ intent that leaders of such 

foundations have promoted. He presents the 

challenge succinctly: 

“The problem of fidelity to original 

intent in both judging and foundation 

administration is one of self-discipline to 

the service of the founder’s rather than one’s 

own moral purposes.” 

Although I am not staking out a position 

on the originalist argument vis-á-vis the 

Constitution, I agree with Mr. Bork’s 

argument that leaders must pay careful 

attention to the intent of the Founders. 

From that position, I see the following goals 

absorbing my attention for the next five years: 

Building endowment to achieve 

financial sustainability and maintain 

affordable tuition levels while providing 

excellence in all aspects of the school. 

Ensuring that our teachers are well 

supported—that they have appropriate 

professional development opportunities, 

substantive administrative review, and 

comprehensive introduction to the school 

when they begin their CCES position. 

The key difference in independent schools 

that ensures top-quality education for all 

students is competent, dedicated faculty 

who share the values of the school. One of 

the most venerable virtues of CCES is its 

stellar teachers. 

Establishing an Achievement Center 

whereby children with learning needs 

receive ample support and children 

poised to move forward can do so. 

The Achievement Center will be fully 

integrated into the school, with its own 

director and staff, training program for 

classroom teachers, communication 

protocols with classroom teachers, 

and fee schedule for services. Through 

this service, CCES will better educate 

the students it admits. The sacred 

commitment to serving all students 

optimally, a cardinal principle of CCES 

at its inception, holds today. 

Finding the proper balance between 

technology and human relationships 

and interactions. The priority of the 

individual and the subordination of 

instrument to its human practitioner are 

core values of CCES. We have heeded 

Thoreau’s warning about becoming 

“tools of our tools.” 



Integrating the seventeen twentyfirst 

century attributes (formulated 

by a committee of teachers and 

administrators in the spring of 2009) 

that inform our curriculum design into 

our P-12 programs of study; producing 

the most effective continuity from grade 

to grade and division to division in 

teaching and learning; and publishing 

the full P-12 scope and sequence and 

supporting detail to educate parents 

about the full school program and help 

to shape their expectations for the school 

and their children. This goal reflects the 

maturation of the Founders’ vision for a 

fully coordinated P-12 program. 

Enhancing the knowledge that colleges 

and universities have about CCES. 

The Class of 2010 stacks up against the 

best-placed classes of any high school in 

the Southeast. For example, 4 of 5 early 

applicants to Georgetown were admitted, 

with one deferred (one is matriculating, 

the others are going to Princeton, USC- 

Honors, and Brown). The original spirit 

of college preparation is flourishing today 

at CCES. 

Strengthening the active assertion of 

faith. The Founders’ vision unequivocally 

called for a foundation of faith, which 

for the school required compliance with 

rites but not active confession. The best 

way for a school to build character is to 

acknowledge a higher authority than 

humans, a sovereign standard to which 

we are accountable. From a religious 

perspective, this ultimate authority is 

God, who accommodates man through 

the auspices of Creation and sacred texts. 

In a sense, this principle is the original 

originalist reference. It subscribes to 

belief in absolute truths in a cultural 

environment dominated by relativism. 

Guarding and revering our 

independence. Our status as a kind 

of non-public school, an independent 

school, a member of the National 

Association of Independent Schools 

(NAIS) and accredited by the Southern 

Association of Independent School 

(SAIS), gives us a wide latitude to plot our 

own course, removed from the intrusive 

politics of the public sector. Because 

the political waters shift frequently, 

educational trends follow suit, producing 

a turnstile of new reforms that generate 

tremendous financial cost and even 

greater educational debris. We hold steady 

to our formative principles, adjusting to 

our local needs while respecting our values 

and culture. Independence yields freedom 

to design programs, hire teachers, create 

schedules, structure administration, and 

work collaboratively with our governance 

body. This independence also produces 

accountability for the decisions we make. 

Freedom to direct the school as we see fit 

and freedom to choose for our parents 

provides the best basis for healthy and 

productive relationships and effective 

service. The Boards of independent 

schools share the stewardship of our 

schools’ missions: they affirm policies, 

monitor fiscal conduct, and employ and 

review the chief executive of our schools. 

They are a ballast for administration. 

They support the obligation of 

administration to direct the school. 

Preserving the remarkable quality of 

education that CCES has provided 

for five decades. I have been fortunate 

to serve fine schools for nearly forty 

years and serve in leadership positions 

for over thirty years. CCES is dazzling 

in its splendid array of educational 

opportunities. Its academic quality is 

absolutely first-rate. Consider a few 

statistics for the Class of 2010: 10 

National Merit Semifinalists, the most of 

any non-public school in South Carolina 

continued 



and twice the number at its nearest 

competitor, Porter-Gaud. In 2010, CCES 

students took 192 AP exams; 85% of 

these exams produced a 3 or better (the 

so-called pass grade on a 1-5 scale). CCES 

exceeded the national average overall 

on exams by more than 20 percentage 

points. With reference to the IB Diploma, 

all 16 of our IB candidates earned the 

Diploma—100%. Since its inception, 

we have averaged over 95% success rate 

for Diploma attainment—25 percentage 

points higher than national average. 

Please note that we are benchmarking 

our students against the best students 

in the country, those who are taking 

AP and IB exams. Beyond academic 

accomplishment, a reflection of fine 

teaching, solid programs, and a culture 

that celebrates academic achievement, our 

school has won the Director’s Cup for 

best athletic program in Class 1A among 

South Carolina High School Athletic 

League schools ( all but four members 

are public schools) for 19 straight years. 

This recognition is our state’s equivalent 

of the Sears Cup, awarded to the best 

collegiate athletic programs. One look 

at our major musical productions this 

year—South Pacific and Beauty and the 

Beast, the latter including a cast of over 

100 middle-schoolers—confirms that 

the arts at CCES galvanize the entire 

community and produce mass appeal and 

participation as well as singular talents. 

In fact, three members of the Class of 

2010 will attend undergraduate school 

to prepare expressly for careers in music. 

Finally, CCES provides this irresistible 

array of academic, athletic, and artistic 

opportunities along with a spiritual 

center. All of our activity in school is 

anchored in an institutional foundation of 

religious belief. The Chapel of the Good 

Shepherd is the center of our campus 

physically, culturally, and spiritually. My 

sacred duty is to preserve the lavish lifeline 

of nourishment for young people that has 

always distinguished this superb school. 

Even Excellence Can Become 

More Excellent 

So, my goal is to ensure that the foundational 

principles, which remain as relevant and 

sound today as they did in 1959, are alive 

and well at the school. Teachers and staff, 

instruction, curriculum, and co-curricular 

programs, and facilities should embody these 

principles and provide rewarding experiences 

for every member of the community. I once 

believed in the precept that “if it ain’t broke, 

don’t fix it.” However, my encounter with 

Edwards Deming’s standards of quality 

improvement inspired a conviction that we 

can always do better. Even excellence can 

become more excellent. Such an attitude is 

built into the American psyche from our 

origin: the Preamble aspires to build a “more 

perfect Union.” “Perfect” just isn’t good 

enough. So, my obligation is to lead the 

cultivation of the already fine foliage that 

grows on the stalwart CCES trunk. The 

opportunity that I embrace is to at once 

respect the past and prepare for the future or 

to look at the duty another way—to infuse 

the past into the future. 

CCES has served students distinctively since 

1959. Its success rests on the principles of 

faith, independence, curricular continuity 

for the full span of primary and secondary 

years, dedicated teachers who embrace 

the school’s Mission, and an unwavering 

focus on preparing all of its students for a 

vigorous college experience. These values 

have served my predecessors well and have 

been protected by the Boards of Trustees 

throughout the school’s history. They 

have stood the test of time and provided 

a touchstone as the school navigated 

changing landscapes. I look forward to 

honoring those values as we do our best 

to serve all students at all levels well in the 

21 st century. ■ 



Congratulations, Class of 2010! 

Front row, left to right: Elizabeth Monroe, Maya Pudi, Tricia Lu, Alex Bylenga, Hannah 

Smith, Katherine Grandy, Ellie Walker, Tao Brody, Taylor Ingram, Rebecca Jennings, Alexis 

Hinton, Yaorui Xiao. 

Row 2: Lisa Baird, Jacqueline Pusker, Caroline Stone, Allie Stern, Ellison Johnstone, Mary 

Ashton Nalley, Erin Carter, Georgia Haas, Katie Thomason, Emily Swenson, Heather 

McCall, Seabrook Lucas. 

Row 3: Pressley Merchant, Natalie Robichaud, Elizabeth Antworth, Anna Koken, Sterling 

Jarrett, Laurel Gower, Steven Christopher, Graham Paylor, Will Culp, Cody Cobb, Hunter 

King. 

Row 4: Dexter Rogers, Hudson Townes, Chas Duke, Robert DiBenedetto, Jordan Gwyn, 

Josh Shaw, Jonathan Ferreira, Sal Lombardi, Robert Monroe, Daniel Yoon. 

Row 5: Marchant Cottingham, Sheldon Clark, Macon McLean, James Stuckey, Matthew 

Cole, Marc Fleischhauer, Merritt Perry, Kenny Grant. 

Row 6: Connor McEvoy, Shion Nagasaka, Mike Millon, John Flanagan, Matthew Brashier, 

Jay Gresham, James Pendergrass. 

Last row: Benedikt Barthelmess, William Bryan, Reggie Titmas, Ted Parker, Cameron 

Crawford, Christopher Woody, Alex Head, Alex Phillips,Will Young, Phillip Wheeler. 



Class of 2010 College Matriculations 

The IB Class of 2010 poses 

for a group photo with, far 

right, IB Diploma Program 

Coordinator Nancy White and, 

far left, Headmaster Leonard 

Kupersmith, who teaches the IB 

Theory of Knowledge class. 

Lisa Lynn Baird, Wofford College, SC 

Benedikt Mohammed Barthelmess, 

University of Manchester, England 

James Matthew Brashier, Clemson 

University, SC 

Jacqueline Tao Brody, Clemson University, 

SC 

William King Bryan III, Clemson 


Alexandra Irene Bylenga, Clemson 


Erin Elizabeth Carter, Clemson University, 

SC 

Steven McAdams Christopher, Furman 


Sheldon Dunham Clark, Capital 

University, OH 

Cody Chastain Cobb, Samford University, 

AL 

Matthew Alexander Cole, Appalachian 

State University, NC 

Marchant Colin Cottingham III, 

University of Colorado at Boulder, CO 

James Cameron Crawford, Duke University 

William Ellis Culp, University of South 

Carolina, Honors College, SC 

Robert Pope DiBenedetto, Clemson 


Charles Moss Duke IV, Clemson 


Jonathan Tavares Ferreira, Winthrop 


John Francis Flanagan II, Georgetown 

University, DC 

Marc Thomas Hubert Fleischhauer, to 

attend university in Germany 

Laurel Elizabeth Gower, Vanderbilt 

University, TN 

Katherine Elizabeth Grandy, The University 

of Alabama, Honors College, AL 

Kennan Hunter Grant, University of 

Virginia, VA 



James Steven Jennings Gresham, The 

Citadel, the Military College of South 

Carolina, SC 

Jordan Taylor Gwyn, Stanford University, CA 

Georgia Ann Haas, Clemson University, 

SC 

Alexander Joseph Head, Clemson 


Alexis Rae Hinton, Clemson University, 

SC 

Taylor Kathryn Ingram, Clemson 


Elizabeth Sterling Jarrett, Wofford 

College, SC 

Rebecca Gibson Jennings, University of 

Richmond, VA 

Ellison Green Johnstone, Washington and 

Lee University, VA 

Hunter Franklin King, Carnegie Mellon 

University, PA 

Anna Krafft Koken, University of South 

Carolina, SC 

Salvatore Joseph Lombardi II, Wingate 

University, NC 

Tricia Cicia Lu, Wellesley College, MA 

Jane Seabrook Lucas, University of 

Georgia, GA 

Heather Elizabeth McCall, Samford 

University, AL 

George Connor McEvoy, Washington 

University in St. Louis, MO 

Macon Chapman McLean, Brown 

University, RI 

Pressley Patricia Merchant, Wake Forest 

University, NC 

Seraphin Michael Millon, Wofford 

College, SC 

Sarah Elizabeth Monroe, Wofford College, 

SC 

James Robert Monroe III, Presbyterian 

College, SC 

Shion Nagasaka, Emory University, GA 

Mary Ashton Nalley, Clemson University, 

SC 

Edward Francis Parker, Emory University, 

GA 

Graham Hill Paylor, Clemson University, 

SC 

James Westmoreland Pendergrass, 

Wofford College, SC 

William Merritt Perry IV, University of 

Georgia, GA 

Alex Stephen Phillips, Clemson University, 

SC 

Maya Pudi, New York University, NY 

Jacqueline Bernadette Pusker, Clemson 


Natalie Kendall Robichaud, Wesleyan 

University, CT 

Dexter Macdonald Rogers, Tulane 

University, LA 

Joshua Thomas Shaw, Presbyterian 

College, SC 

Hannah Leigh Smith, Clemson University, 

SC 

Allison Desverreaux Stern, Clemson 


Caroline Sullivan Stone, Princeton 

University, NJ 

James Harold Stuckey III, University of 

South Carolina, Honors College, SC 

Emily Ann Swenson, The University of 

Alabama, AL 

Kathryn Ann Thomason, Clemson 


Reginald Wollaston Titmas III, Winthrop 


Emily Hudson Townes, Clemson 


Eleanora Katherine Walker, University of 

South Carolina, SC 

Joseph Phillip Wheeler, Virginia 

Polytechnic Institute and State University, 

VA 

Christopher Charles Woody, Tufts 

University, MA 

Yaouri Xiao, University of Illinois at 

Urbana-Champaign, IL 

Do Hyun (Daniel) Yoon, Mercer 

University, GA 

William Taylor Young, Texas Christian 

University, TX 

Half of the Class of 2010 

will attend out-of-state 

or international colleges, 

including Princeton, Brown, 

Stanford, Duke, Washington 

and Lee, Georgetown, 

Vanderbilt, NYU, Tulane, 

and UVA, among others. 



Class of 2010 Scholarships 

The Class of 2010 received scholarship offers totaling more than $2.6 million. This excludes South Carolina 

Palmetto, Life and Hope Scholarships. 

The Class of 2010 put in a strong performance in this year’s National Merit Scholarship competition. The 

class had nine (9) National Merit Finalists and one National Achievement Finalist; one was named a National 

Achievement Scholar. Of these, five were named National Merit Scholars. This brings the total of CCES National 

Merit Finalists to 156 (since 1972). 

77% of the graduating class qualified for the SC Palmetto, Life, and Hope Scholarships. 

13 (16%) members of the class qualified as South Carolina Palmetto Fellows. 

86% of the class qualified for the SC Palmetto Fellows, Life, or Hope Scholarships. (International students are not 

considered in this calculation, as they are not eligible for SC scholarship awards.) 

The Class of 2010 received 

scholarship offers totaling 

more than $2.6 million (excluding 

South Carolina Palmetto, Life and 

Hope Scholarships, for which 77% of 

the graduating class qualified). 

The class put in a strong 

performance in the National 

Merit Scholarship competition, 

with 9 Finalists, 1 National 

Achievement Scholar, and 1 

National Achievement Finalist. 

Scholarship Highlights 

A total of 37 scholarships valued at more 

than $30,000 each were offered by 27 

colleges and universities to members of the 

Class of 2010. These include: 

Birmingham Southern College, Greensboro 

Scholarship 

Capital University, Presidential Scholarship 

Centre College, Founders Scholarship 

Claremont McKenna College, McKenna 

Achievement Award 

Converse College, Trustee Honor 

Scholarship 

Emory University, Emory Opportunity Award 

Emory University, Liberal Arts Scholarship 

(2 awarded) 

Furman University, Achiever Scholarship (3 

awarded) 

Furman University, John D. Hollingsworth, 

Jr. Scholarship 

Mercer University, Presidential Scholarship 

Miami University of Ohio, General 

Scholarship 

Millsaps College, Millsaps Award 

Oglethorpe University, Presidential Scholarship 

Laurel Gower ’10, with her 

mother, Ellen Gower. 

Otterbein College, President’s Scholar Award 

Presbyterian College, Athletic Scholarship 

Presbyterian College, Highlander 

Scholarship 

Providence College, St. Joseph Scholarship 

Queens University, Deans’ Scholarship 

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Rensselaer 

Medal Award 

Southern Methodist University, 

Distinguished Scholar (2 awarded) 

St. Louis University, Presidential Finalist 

Scholarship 

Tulane University, Academic Achievement 

Award 

Tulane University, General Scholarship 

University of Alabama, Alumni Honors 

Scholarship 

University of Georgia, Charter Scholarship 

University of Rochester, Dean’s Scholarship 

University of South Carolina, Carolina Scholar 

University of the South, President’s 

Scholarship 

Wagner College, President’s Academic and 

Theater Scholarship 

Wingate University, Merit Scholarship 

Wofford College, Bonner Scholarship 

Wofford College, Merit Scholarship 

Wofford College, Old Main Scholarship ■ 



Awards Night Honors, 

May 29, 2010 

CCES Community 

Service Award 

Given in recognition of a senior 

who has demonstrated a steadfast 

commitment to service, both within 

and outside the school community. 

Jacquelyn Tao Brody 

CCES Service 

Recognitions 

Given by individual faculty and staff 

to students who have made voluntary 

contributions to the improvement of 

school life through personal initiative, 

individual concern, and services not 

otherwise recognized. 

Ninth Grade 

Kathleen Joanna Benedict 

John Joseph McLeod 

Tenth Grade 

Alexandra Olga Hamberis 

Jeffrey Stone Benedict 

Class of 2010 Special 

Awards 

Headmaster’s Award 

Laurel Elizabeth Gower 

Ellison Greene Johnstone 

Modern & Classical Languages 

French 

Elizabeth Kathryn Antworth 

Heather Elizabeth McCall 

Latin 

Caroline Sullivan Stone 

Spanish 

Anna Krafft Koken 

German for Native Speakers 

Benedikt Mohammed Barthelmess 

Fine Arts 

Visual Arts 


William King Bryan III 

William Ellis Culp 

Linda B. Reeves Scholar-Athlete 

Awards 

Erin Elizabeth Carter 

Steven McAdams Christopher 

Publication Awards 

Hellenian Yearbook 



Elizabeth Sterling Jarrett 

Sarah Elizabeth Monroe 

Delphian 



Cavalier Express 


Macon Chapman McLean 

Creative Writing Award 

Crawford Baskin Lewis, upon the 

recommendation of Ms. Susanne 

Abrams, for being an invaluable 

teaching assistant during ceramics class 

this year. 

William King Bryan III, upon the 

recommendation of Mrs. Barbara 

Carter, for his willingness not only 

to volunteer but also to go above and 

beyond what was expected during two 

highway clean-up days in March and 

April. 

Chaplain’s Award 


Aletta Wood Jervey & Jinks 

Jervey-Page Memorial 

Scholarship 


Departmental Awards 

English 

John Francis Flanagan II 

Charles B. Glennon Memorial 

Mathematics Award 


History 

Hunter Franklin King 

Jane Seabrook Lucas 

Upper School Art Director’s Award 

Lisa Lynn Baird 

Hunter Franklin King 

Jane Seabrook Lucas 

Seraphin Michael Millon 

Vocal Music Award 


Instrumental Music Award 

Joseph Phillip Wheeler 

Performing Arts 

Cody Chastain Cobb 

George Connor McEvoy 

Drama 

Dexter Macdonald Rogers 

Kennan Hunter Grant 

Debate Award 


Mock Trial Award 


Model UN Award 


Academic Team Award 

Reginald Wollaston Titmas II 

Youth in Government Award 



Student Leadership Awards 

Technical Achievement in the Arts 

Honor Council Chairman 2009-10 


Dexter Macdonald Rogers, upon 

the recommendation of Mrs. Molly 

Aiken, for his diligent work behind the 

scenes providing technical assistance 

for our musical theater and chorus 

productions. 



Science 

Natalie Kendall Robichaud 

Athletics 

Student Council President 2009-10 

Ellison Greene Johnstone 

Passing of the Gavel 

Ellison Greene Johnstone ’10 to 

Cavalier Spirit Awards 

The Cavalier Spirit Awards are given 

in recognition of a boy and a girl from 

the Ninth Grade and from the Tenth 

Grade who exemplify the Cavalier 

Spirit, characterized by integrity, 

enthusiasm, outreach to others, and 

cooperation. 

Do Hyun Yoon 

Computer Science 

Athletic Department Awards 

Kathryn Ann Thomason 

Graham Hill Paylor 

James B. Conyers Sportsmanship 

Awards 

Benjamin Fordham James ’11 

Compassion International Transfer 

Ellison Greene Johnstone ’10 to 

David William Robinson 

continued 

Jordan Taylor Gwyn 

Shion Nagasaka 

Georgia Ann Haas 



Class of 2010 Special 

Recognitions 

National Merit Scholarship 

Finalists 



Kennan Hunter Grant 

Ellison Green Johnstone 

George Connor McEvoy 


Shion Nagasaka 

Natalie Kendall Robichaud 


CLASS OF 2011 

SPECIAL AWARDS 

Roger, Kirk, Dena Stone 

Scholarships 

Alex Christopher Boota 

Alexandra Hayden Latham 

Class of 2011 

Collegiate Awards 

Dartmouth College Book 

Award 


Hollins University Creative 

Writing Book Award 

Elizabeth Sloan Scovil 

Salem College Book Award 

Elizabeth Virginia Minten 

Sewanee Award for Excellence 

in Writing 

Furman University Scholars 

Alyssa Davies Althoff 


Victoria Bond Gentry 



Lauren Campbell Vann 

Lander University Junior Fellows 

Katherine Nell Taylor 

Mary Gage Caulder 

Newberry College Scholars 

Mary Kaitlin Clohan 

Patrick Norman Conner 

John Claibourne Hughes 

Tristan W. Rulli 

Collin Marshall Walker 

Wofford College Scholars 

Austin Grant Davids 

Kirsten Emory Hicks 

Hunter Gregory Sieber 

George Eastman Young Leaders 

Award 

Christopher Ryan Lawdahl 

Frederick Douglass and Susan 

B. Anthony Award 

Victoria Anne Nachman 

University of Rochester Bausch 

and Lomb Honorary Science 

Award 


University of Rochester Xerox 

Award for Innovation and 

Information Technology 


Cum Laude Society Induction 


Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 

Medal Award 


Lauren Cambell Vann 

Smith College Book Award 

Margaret Griffen Wynkoop 

Christopher Ryan Lawdahl 

Kailey Grace Miller 

Class of 2011 Special 

Award 





Vanderbilt University Book 

Award 


Jefferson Book Award 


Victoria Anne Nachman 

Neil Parchuri 

Daniela Dacco Award 



Will Grist Scholarship Award 


Jackie Messer Rogers Award 


Blair Babb Smoak Memorial 

Award 


Washington and Lee Book 

Award 

William Dargan Merline 

Wellesley College Book Award 

Annacie Katherine Sastry 

Centre College Fellows 

Benjamin Fordham James 


College of Charleston Cistern 

Scholars 

William Dargan Merline 


Annacie Katherine Sastry 

Presbyterian College Junior 

Fellows 

James Anthony Benson, Jr. 

Anna Ridley DiBenedetto 

Caroline Rigby Hudson 

Christine Noel Sherman 

University of South Carolina 

Upstate Scholars 

Korbinian Gerd Barthelmess 

William Jennings Bryan Dorn III 

The Daniela Dacco Award is given 

in memory of Daniela Dacco, CCES 

Class of 1973, the first CCES exchange 

student, to recognize the sophomore 

classmate who exhibits leadership, 

concern, and sensitivity for others. 

Athena Denise Conits 

President Lee Cox, left, 

applauds as outgoing student 

government leader Ellison 

Johnstone presents the 

Student Council Teacher of the 

Year award to English teacher 

Janet Gubser. 

Columbia College Scholar 

Caitlin Olivia Carson 

Elizabeth VonGruenigen Hughes 

Margaret Griffen Wynkoop 

Erskine College Fellows 

Carolyn Ann Harvey 

Dirk Raymond Pieper, Jr. 

Margaret Griffin Wynkoop 



2010 Senior Thesis Honors by Barbara Carter 


“Women in Broadcast Journalism: Does the 

‘Glass Ceiling’ Still Exist?” 

Mentor: Paulette Unger 

Our first honoree pursued a topic of 

great personal interest to her because she 

may very well go into this field. While 

out for twelve weeks on maternity leave, 

Mrs. Unger was extremely impressed with 

Ms. Carter’s work ethic, noting that “she 

regularly kept me updated on her progress” 

and worked independently during that 

time. Her English reader commented that 

“while her research was impressive, what I 

found equally impressive, if not more so, 

was the work that this student put into 

composing the paper itself.” He added 

that this exemplifies what the Senior Thesis 

is supposed to be: choosing a topic of 

significant personal importance, “learning 

as much as is possible about the topic,” and 

then “being willing to accept criticism and 

use it effectively to revise the paper in one’s 

own style and in one’s own words.” 


“The Renewal of Russian Absolutism: The 

Reign of Putin and the Death of Democracy” 

Mentor: Kristi Ferguson 

Our next honoree chose a subject that he 

“is passionate about.” His desire to study 

history and learn about different political 

forces in the world is indeed impressive 

in one so young. Mrs. Ferguson, who 

has been involved with the senior thesis 

program for the past 13 years, ranks him as 

one of the best mentees she has ever had, 

and for several reasons: his desire to learn; 

his work ethic; his willingness to take and 

incorporate suggestions not only from the 

mentor, but also from the English reader, 

and his sense of the importance of the topic 

and of wanting to share that importance 

with his peers. His English reader lauds 

him for the strength of his sources, his 

organized and sequential presentation of 

information, and his “grammatical and 

mechanical presentation within the paper.” 

She concludes by saying, “in keeping with 

the historical nature of this topic, the tone 

of the paper – and of the presentation – is 

serious, with vocabulary that is mature and 

technical to the subject matter.” 


“Into Africa: Trends in U.S. African Policy” 

Mentor: Barbara Carter 

Our next honoree has been described 

as follows: “Everything in his life . . . is 

undertaken with great enthusiasm and with 

[an] incredible desire to learn . . . and to 

share that knowledge with others.” As I 

stated in my recommendation, “he is a true 

scholar and . . . loves learning and knowledge 

just because they are there.” As he states in 

his own recommendation, he spent much 

time “in libraries and study rooms reading 

both electronic and print material relating 

to Africa and American foreign policy 

therein. . . . he examined both primary and 

secondary materials from sources as diverse as 

native African writers and State Department 

officials. His English reader notes that the 

continued 

Dexter Rogers ’10, center, 

accepts his senior thesis honors 

recognition from English teacher 

Janet Gubser, while students 

and Senior Thesis Coordinator 

Barbara Carter applaud. 

When John 

Flanagan becomes 

US ambassador to an 

African nation, we can 

say proudly that it all 

began here! 



“When I began this 

Senior Thesis process, 

I did not imagine the 

intellectual growth that 

I would experience.”— 

Heather McCall 

paper “is a polished and cogent piece of 

writing with information on a continent that, 

unfortunately, we Westerners understand far 

too little about.” She continues by saying 

that although the topic was quite expansive, 

this young man’s overview was indeed 

truly well done. She concluded, “When 

he becomes US ambassador to an African 

nation, we can say proudly that it all began 

here!” 


“Les Miserables and The Hunchback 

of Notre Dame: A Portrait of the Social 

Problems in France from the 15 th to the 19 th 

Century” 

Mentor: Virginie Mitchell 

Our next recipient has, as her mentor writes, 

“a real passion for [in addition to music,] 

history and French.” So, it came as no surprise 

that she wanted to examine the historical 

perspective in two of the most famous works 

of Victor Hugo, Les Miserables and The 

Hunchback of Notre Dame. Her English reader 

says that she “approached this unit of study 

with the same energy, enthusiasm, and work 

ethic that is so evident in all that she does.” 

She read the works over the summer and 

found that although she thought she would 

like Les Miserables the best, she discovered an 

intellectual depth to The Hunchback of Notre 

Dame that caused her to question things 

relating to the Catholic Church, sorcery, and 

physical torture and pain that she had never 

questioned before. Ms. McCall noted, “When 

I began this Senior Thesis process, I did not 

imagine the intellectual growth that I would 

experience.” 


“Problems in Modern Science: A Theistic 

Approach” 

Mentor: Donna Miller 

Our next recipient took on a weighty 

subject delving into the unanswerable 

questions posed by scientists and 

theologians alike: How did we come 

to exist? Is there a meaning to life? Is 

there a God? As his mentor states in her 

recommendation, “these are questions that 

occur in every great thinker and artist.” 

In his work he showed how scientists do 

not necessarily have to choose atheism 

over theism in order to remain true to 

their scientific studies; he did not try to 

prove the existence of God, but rather 

that it is within the realm of scientific 

possibility that God does exist, and 

therefore, a scientist can choose to believe 

or disbelieve based on his own feelings 

rather than through scientific necessity. 

The young man says of himself, that this 

thesis “forced [me] to re-examine [my] 

personal beliefs on the subject . . . and 

also contributed to [my] understanding 

of the world that surrounds” us and what 

makes it work. 

Dexter MacDonald Rogers 

“Redefining Theatre in the 21 st Century” 

Mentor: David Sims 

Our final recipient is yet another unique 

and very special student. His mentor 

describes him this way: “Sometimes 

I wonder if he isn’t a 60-year-old man 

disguised as a high school student, but 

totally unable to pass as in immature 

and naïve teenager.” His English reader 

was on the same wavelength when she 

wrote, “he may move slowly . . . and may 

frequently play very droll characters [on 

stage, but] if you talk with him and watch 

his eyes, you will see [the] passion for this 

discipline that he loves.” He says himself 

that his knowledge of the theatre has grown 

“exponentially over the course of this 

project.” He now considers himself as wellinformed 

about Peter Brook and Bertolt 

Brecht as about Tennessee Williams and 

Eugene O’Neill. ■ 



2010 Commencement Address by 

President Lee Cox: “You’re Gonna 

Need a Bigger Boat” 

In the 1975 movie Jaws, there is a scene in which the trio of Amity Island’s police chief Martin Brody (Roy 

Scheider), professional shark hunter Sam Quint (Robert Shaw), and marine biologist Matt Hooper (Richard 

Dreyfus) have launched offshore in pursuit of the great white shark that has been feasting in gruesome fashion on 

the island’s citizens and visitors. The quest rises to a new level while Chief Brody is tossing bloody chum onto the 

water as bait to attract the shark. He is talking back over his shoulder to Quint and Hooper when the head of the 

massive shark suddenly erupts. And everything changes. Shaken, Brody walks, almost trance-like to Quint and in 

a subdued tone perfectly pitched to his state of emotional shock, says, “You’re gonna need a bigger boat.” 

Suddenly, all of the technical, scientific, 

and professional skills that have been 

brought to the task of slaying the killer 

shark have been rendered meaningless by a 

single moment of tectonic change. I want 

to suggest to you that this powerful spoken 

line is an apt metaphor for our times, 

delineating a tectonic fault line between 

an anticipated future and its reality. 

The challenge before us, and especially 

you who will be alive throughout most 

of this century—is not the menace of a 

malevolent great white shark but rather the 

waves of exponential change which may 

prove to be the defining phenomena of the 

21 st century. 

Unpreparedness for radical technical and 

scientific change is nothing new to the 

human experience. The difference is the 

length of time between the arrival of an 

innovation and its impact on human 

institutions. Examples are Gutenberg and 

the printing press, Galileo and the telescope, 

Edison and the light bulb, Bell and the 

telephone, the Wright brothers and the 

airplane; in each case there is increased 

compression between the emergence of an 

innovation and its impact on significant 

numbers of people. 

Expect 21,000 Years of 

Change in Your Lifetime 

Today then, what do we mean when we 

apply descriptors such as “exponential,” 

“quantum leap,” and “light speed” to the 

phenomenon of change? Think in terms of 

Moore’s Law which has correctly predicted 

the doubling of computer power every 18 

to 24 months. Economists Tom Hayes and 

Michael Malone have written of what they 

call the ten-year century in which “changes 

that used to take generations—economic 

cycles, cultural shifts, mass migrations, 

changes in the structure of families and 

institutions—now unfurl in a span of 

years.” Hence the ten-year century and, by 

implication the one-year decade; and since 

we see no leveling off in the rate of change, 

we may soon be speaking of the five-year 

century and the six-month decade. 

Academician, futurist, and inventor 

Ray Kurzweil projects a model showing 

technological paradigm changes doubling 

every decade. Thus, he writes, “we 

won’t experience one hundred years of 

technological advance in the twenty-first 

century; we will witness on the order 

of twenty thousand years of progress… 

continued 

"...we see no leveling off 

in the rate of change..." 



about one thousand times greater than was 

achieved in the twentieth century.” On the 

global impact of rapid change, Tom Hayes, 

in his book Jump Point, describes how it 

took some 100,000 years for mankind to 

move from the domestication of animals 

through social, political, and technological 

changes to arrive at a globally integrated 

(networked) market of one billion people 

in 2001. Then, he writes, “Only six years 

later, in 2007, the second billion arrived. 

And, at an astounding rate of acceleration… 

the third billionth person will arrive in just 

a few years….And at that point, one-half 

of the world’s population…will be united 

in a truly global marketplace of products, 

capital, and ideas: the largest economic 

engine in the history of the human 

adventure.” Here lie prospects for great 

hope and opportunity and equally great 

risk and uncertainty which will require 

flexibility, imagination, the ability to see 

patterns in the midst of constant streams 

of data and an ability to act without being 

certain that your information is altogether 

accurate or complete. 

“We won’t experience one 

hundred years of technological 

advance in the twenty-first 

century; we will witness on the 

order of twenty thousand years 

of progress…about one thousand 

times greater than was achieved in 

the twentieth century.” 

—Economist Ray Kurzweil 

“The tools you take with you [to 

confront these unprecedented 

changes] are formidable.” 

—Lee Cox 

Other engines are also driving the pace 

of change into warp speed. Journalist 

Joel Garreau lists four influences that will 

provide technological and scientific fuel for 

the engines of change. He uses the acronym 

GRIN: genetics, robotics, information 

(including silicon-based intelligence), and 

nanotechnology. These technologies, in the 

hands of scientists, engineers, the military 

research establishment, and entrepreneurs, 

have the power to alter the world as we 

know it, to challenge our understanding of 

what it means to be human, and to blur—if 

not erase—the boundaries between fantasy 

and reality. 

Reality, Not Science Fiction 

Consider the work of the Defense Advanced 

Research Projects Agency (DARPA) whose 

mission statement is “To accelerate the 

future into being.” Today, at UC Berkeley, 

the army has a functioning prototype 

exoskeleton suit allowing a soldier to carry 

a load of 180 pounds as if it were only 4.4 

pounds. With continued enhancement, 

combat-equipped soldiers may well be able 

to leap tall buildings in a single bound and 

to run at sprinter’s speed for as much as 30 

minutes. That is the vision. 

Today, in a laboratory at Duke University, 

you will find Belle, a telekinetic monkey 

who, with her thoughts, using neural 

implants in her brain, can cause a 

mechanical arm in Massachusetts to 

move as her mind commands it. The goal 

is to create a connection between any 

intelligence, human or silicon, mind or 

machine, anywhere. 

And just over a week ago, in the May 21 st 

issue of The Wall Street Journal, the front 

page headline read, “Scientists Create 

Synthetic Organism.” This creation, a 

single-cell organism which can reproduce, 

has been authenticated in the peer review 

journal Science, and though laboratories 

have been altering DNA and genetically 

engineering plants and animals for years, 



this breakthrough, says molecular biologist 

Richard Ebright of Rutgers University, “is 

literally a turning point in the relationship 

between man and nature.” 

You’ve Been Given 

the Right Stuff 

Brave new world, indeed; one in which 

your generation will be challenged, 

stretched, tested, encouraged, energized, 

tempted, and stressed as no other in our 

history. Now, whether you fully realize 

this or not, you have been given the 

“right stuff” by your families who have 

invested in your CCES education and who 

understand, as do your teachers, that you 

are the hopeful “messages we send to a 

future we will not see.” 

The tools you take with you are 

formidable. You have been encouraged 

not just to learn but to think deeply and 

critically. In our academic, communal, 

and sacramental lives together, you have 

been enjoined to believe that you are not 

accidental beings on life’s stage—though 

you will encounter some teachers in your 

college and university classrooms who will 

tell you that you are—but children of a 

loving God who knows you and through 

whom each of you carries a spark of divine 

purpose in your lives. Just as there are 

those of you who have taken time during 

the school day to spend a few minutes 

in The Chapel of the Good Shepherd to 

think, meditate, pray, or just slow down, 

that is a practice (as well as a survival skill) 

that I encourage all of you to cultivate for 

your life’s journey. You need to be able 

periodically to separate yourself—mentally, 

emotionally, spiritually—from the sheer 

speed and flow of unfolding events circling 

around you. This is key to the quality 

of leadership these times will require; 

and I mean by that not just leadership of 

others, of enterprises, organizations, and 

institutions, but also your own leadership 

of yourself. 

The essence of the kind of leadership I’m 

talking about is captured in these words 

from a prominent CEO: “Control is not 

leadership; management is not leadership; 

leadership is leadership,” and it derives first 

of all from your own deep sense of “purpose, 

ethics, principles, motivation, [and] 

conduct.” 

This will take you to your own deep, 

disciplined, faithful, ongoing discernment of 

what light the spark in you is meant to ignite. 

It is a pathway to wisdom, and it is wisdom 

that will show you how to build that bigger 

and best boat, the vessel you will need to 

safely navigate the seas that await you. ■ 

Dr. Cox, with 

his wife, Jo, 

at their tenth, 

and final, CCES 

commencement 

ceremonies. 


2010-11 Daniel-Mickel Foundation Master Teachers 

The 2010-11 Daniel-Mickel 

Foundation Master Teachers: 

Strong People Skills by Alice Baird 

Standing outside the chapel by the new sunflower sculpture, a gift of the Class of 

2010, are Daniel-Mickel Foundation Master Teachers, from left, Paula Merwin 

(MS), Rodney Sullivan (US), and Robin Yerkes (LS). 


CCES Today 

Ask this year’s Daniel-Mickel Foundation Master Teachers—Robin Yerkes in the Lower School, 

Paula Merwin in the Middle School, and Rodney Sullivan in the Upper School—what makes a 

good teacher, and “knowing your subject” never comes up. It simply goes without saying. Physics 

teacher Rodney Sullivan, for example, has a Ph.D. in his field. 

Strikingly, all three of this year’s honorees see teaching as a means for building 

character as much as knowledge. In their discussion for this article they professed a 

shared personal belief in the importance of “people skills.” Each has acquired these 

skills in different ways: Merwin, from having worked for several years as a social 

worker with adolescents in both England and California; Yerkes, from her broad and 

varied teaching background; and Sullivan, from having grown up as the ninth child in 

a family with five brothers and four sisters. Their purpose as educators is not merely 

to teach their subject but also to connect with their students as individuals. It is what 

motivates them in the classroom and beyond, enabling them to give in ways that are 

personal, transformative, and enduring. 

Another trait all three share is a sense of gratitude for being at CCES, even though that was never 

what they had set out to do. Yerkes referred to it as “happenstance,” Merwin as “serendipity,” 

and Sullivan as “part of God’s plan for me.” 

This class of master teachers is the seventeenth in the history of the award, established to 

recognize excellence in teaching at CCES. Candidates may be nominated by colleagues, students, 

parents, or administrators and are selected by a committee that includes the Headmaster, division 

heads, and representatives of the Daniel-Mickel Foundation, School Board, Parents Organization, 

and Alumni Association. It is the school’s most prestigious 

honor and carries with it a monetary award of $2,500, which the 

recipient may use however desired, no strings attached. 

In recognition of these teachers’ talents and dedication to CCES, 

the tributes printed here expand on the announcements placed 

on the website at the time of each award. 

continued 

This year’s honorees 

see teaching as a 

means for building 

character as much as 

knowledge. 



In the Lower School 

technology lab after the 

awards ceremony, from 

left, Lower School Director 

Denise Pearsall, Asst. 

Director Valerie Riddle, 

Robin Yerkes, and Charlie 

Mickel, who presented 

the award on behalf of the 

Daniel-Mickel Foundation. 

Lower School Technology 

Teacher Robin Yerkes: 

Giving 150% 

“My first year teaching at CCES [in 1998] 

I kept feeling like I was in the twilight 

zone,” admitted Robin Yerkes. By then, 

she had already been teaching for six years 

in the public schools in educational settings 

ranging from 7 th and 8 th grade language 

arts to middle school remedial math, adult 

GED, homebound middle-schoolers, and 

elementary classrooms in Title I schools. 

“I wasn’t used to the hugs, the parent 

support, or the respect and good behavior 

of my students,” she said, speaking of her 

first experience at CCES as a fourth-grade 

classroom teacher. 

In 2005 she moved to the position of 

Lower School (LS) Technology teacher, and 

was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis the 

following year. “I had to leave regularly 

between classes for IV transfusions,” she 

recalled, and was again amazed by the 

support she received from colleagues and 

parents. Even parents from her prior year 

classes—parents whose children were no 

longer in the Lower School—sent meals, 

as did numerous faculty members, who 

also pitched in to cover her classes during 

her medical treatments. “This could never 

have happened at any of the other places I 

taught,” she said. 

The CCES environment has allowed 

Mrs. Yerkes to blossom as a teacher. More 

than that, it has inspired her, in her quiet 

way, to return the favor by serving the LS 

community together in many special ways. 

“She makes sure that everybody on the 

faculty feels taken care of and cherished,” 

wrote LS German teacher Angelika 

Hummel-Schmidt in a nominating letter. 

“As a community member,” said LS Director 

Denise Pearsall, “she gives 150%!” 

To illustrate: she co-chairs the LS Faculty 

Sunshine Committee, directs the student 

handbell choir, serves as leader of the CCES 

Daisy troop and assistant leader of the 

Brownie troop (for whom she coordinated 

this year’s Girl Scout cookie sale—4,000 

boxes by 50 girls), produces the LS literary 

magazine (which takes pains to include 

a contribution from every student in the 

school), puts together the PowerPoints for the 

weekly chapel services, teaches classes during 

Summer Encounters (she also directed the 

Adventure Camp program from 2003 - 2005), 

and publishes the LS Specialists Newsletter, 

to name just the most visible of her many 

activities. In addition, Robin commutes every 

day from Moore, SC, and has three young 

children, fourth-grader Alex, third-grader 

Melanie, and first-grader Amanda. 

“I have worked at Christ Church Episcopal 

School for 19 years, and I have seen many 

wonderful teachers,” said LS Secretary 

and alumni parent Janie Sickinger, 

who wrote a detailed letter in support of 

Mrs. Yerkes' nomination. “Robin Yerkes 

surpasses all of them in her integrity, work 


CCES Today 

ethic, compassion, patience, and general 

willingness to do anything to help other 

teachers, parents, and students.” 

“It Just Falls Into Place” 

So how does she do it all? “I do a lot of what 

I do because it just falls into place,” she said, 

downplaying her generosity with her time 

and talents. “Being a Christian, I strive to be 

a servant and to do the best I can for others.” 

That sense of Christian mission also inspired 

her to serve as Coordinator of Children and 

Youth Ministries for Foothills Church, PCA, 

in Spartanburg for five years before coming 

to CCES. 

None of which detracts from her role in 

the classroom, which, after all, is what the 

master teacher award is all about. “Robin 

Yerkes does an outstanding job as the 

technology teacher at our Lower School,” 

said Mrs. Pearsall. “She works with students 

to make sure that they have the skills to 

use the computer and coordinates learning 

engagements and projects with the gradelevel 

teachers to make using the skills 

meaningful for the students. Robin also 

encourages our faculty members to utilize 

technology and helps teachers stretch their 

skills in a very cooperative way. Teachers 

feel comfortable asking Robin for help!” 

So, of course, do students and even parents, 

both of whom she has been seen tutoring 

during her free time. “Robin is always ready 

to help and extremely patient,” noted Mrs. 

Hummel-Schmidt. “You can approach her 

with any kind of technology problem; she 

will never make you feel inappropriate. She 

approaches everybody with greatest respect 

and kindness….[She] is a true role model 

for us all. She handles all challenges with 

dignity and grace.” 

With Robin’s broad academic skills—she 

loves math and still tutors math up to the 

college level—and the “people skills” she 

developed working with troubled adolescents, 

struggling adult learners, and disadvantaged 

students, she is able to focus on the 

individual student, tailoring her approach in 

a very personal way. For example, when Will 

Guzick ’07 was a student in her fourth-grade 

class, she taught him algebra as enrichment. 

When he graduated, he wrote her a letter 

saying, “I guess it’s never too late to thank 

your fourth-grade teacher.” 

As technology teacher, she has had a significant 

impact on the LS curriculum in all grades. 

“Robin has worked tirelessly to revitalize the 

technology curriculum to make it relate to IB 

planners,” noted Mrs. Sickinger. This aspect 

of her job requires her to work cooperatively 

to serve all the classroom teaching teams in 

the school. With her own technology lab 

classrooms comprising all the students in the 

school, from Primer to grade 4, she is able 

to discern each child’s progress over their LS 

careers. “I love to see students as they develop 

into intelligent, articulate young children,” 

she said. “I can literally see the effect a CCES 

education has on their development.” 

“I always wanted to be a teacher,” Robin 

confessed. “My high school chemistry 

teacher once told me, ‘If you want to teach, 

do it, and be the best teacher you can be.’” 

It is advice she has lived by—and that has 

helped earn her the appreciation of parents 

and students—and the recognition of the 

2010-11 master teacher award. 

continued 

When Will Guzick '07 

graduated, he wrote Mrs. 

Yerkes a letter, saying, "I guess 

it's never too late to thank your 

third-grade teacher." 



Sixth-grade reading teacher 

Paula Merwin enjoys 

the applause from, left, 

Charlie Mickel, and from 

students, faculty, and family 

members after the surprise 

announcement of her award. 

24 | Highlights Fall 2010 

Middle School Reading 

Teacher Paula Merwin: 

Asking Students to Think Deeper 

A sense of adventure propelled this 

British-born reading teacher to jobs on 

two continents (“above” more than two, if 

you count her time in air as a stewardess). 

It also led to a few years in Los Angeles 

working on a TV pilot and in TV and film 

production. 

A sense of deep commitment motivated 

her to serve as a social worker for troubled 

adolescents in England and in California. 

Commitment, adventure, and a sense of the 

emotional needs of young adolescents are all 

evident in Paula Merwin’s reading classes 

and in her leadership (with eighth-grade 

geography teacher Donna Burns) of the 

Middle School (MS) “Peace Program.” 

“Twelve-year-olds are insular and selfabsorbed,” 

said Mrs. Merwin. “It’s my job 

to help them to empathize with characters 

that are very different from them, to 

encourage them to see other perspectives.” 

You will not find that stated as a 

curricular objective anywhere in her job 

description, but her emphasis on pointof-view 

underpins all that she undertakes 

in the classroom. In her nominating 

letter, MS Director Val Hendrickson 

wrote: "Paula Merwin's classroom is 

a tangible example of a lively place for 

sound learning. I have watched Paula 

ask her students to think deeper than 

normally expected for middle-schoolers. 

In fact, her lessons in literature focus on 

elements that go far beyond the run-ofthe-mill 

Middle School character/plot 

analysis….Her high expectations for their 

learning and thinking are well-framed 

and supported with thorough planning 

of instruction, and Paula models a strong 

work ethic.” 

“Paula opens the door for divergent 

thinking for her students; she encourages 

them to risk thinking ‘outside the box,’ but 

she demands support for that thinking. 

This kind of framing encourages critical 

thinking, with corresponding substance, of 

the level that should be the gold standard 

for all classrooms. Though very challenging, 

it is also clear that, in some almost magical 

way, Paula’s lessons are stimulating and 

engaging for students across ability levels in 

her classroom.” 

A Relationship That Elicits 

Students’ Best 

That “almost magical way” is the 

relationship that Merwin builds with 

each student. “It’s the teacher-student 

relationship that elicits the best from 

students,” she says. “They know I care 

about them, so I don’t have to be strict with 

them.” 

CCES parent and Alumni Director Viviane 

Till provided examples of Merwin’s impact 

on her own children: “I will forever be 

indebted to Mrs. Merwin for instilling the 

love of reading in both of my sons. My 

older son, Steven, never seemed to find 

books that appealed to him until sixth 

grade. Mrs. Merwin was able to zero in on 

his interests and find books that sparked 

excitement and curiosity. She literally

CCES Today 

opened up the world of reading for him. 

“My younger son, Robert, was a different 

story. His weak reading skills made all his 

classes difficult. Mrs. Merwin took the time 

to find out what made Robert tick and how 

to overcome his obstacles. In the process, 

his reading level increased by two-and-a-half 

grade levels, and he now reads with gusto 

and delight!” 

“I describe myself as a coach,” comments 

Merwin. “I coach my students as 

individuals.” Assistant MS Director Betsy 

Burton explains the impact this approach 

has on students. “Sixth-graders are lucky 

to have Mrs. Merwin expect the best from 

them. She has a knack for challenging them 

and supporting them at the same time. She 

believes that each and every child can and 

should be pushed to go and to grow beyond 

what he or she might believe is his or her 

own limit.” 

Passionate About Her 

Students’ Well-Being 

Noted for her compassion, Merwin is 

sensitive to her students’ and colleagues’ 

emotional needs too. Having worked with 

troubled youth, she is able to sense when 

her students are in pain and is perceptive 

about “the maelstrom of emotions” that stir 

children of this age. She played an active 

role in developing the advisory program 

for the sixth-grade team, and, noted Mrs. 

Burton, “she was a natural choice to assume 

a leadership role when we implemented 

our Olweus program.” Olweus, which the 

students have renamed “Peace @ CCES,”is a 

bullying prevention program that originally 

hailed from Norway. It empowers teachers, 

parents, and students to thwart bullying by 

addressing the behaviors of bystanders and 

victims as well as perpetrators. 

“Paula is passionate about the social 

and emotional well-being of students,” 

comments Mrs. Hendrickson. “Over the 

last three years, Paula has given countless 

hours to the planning and implementation 

[of Olweus]. She has collaborated with 

outside consultants, worked seamlessly 

with faculty co-chair Donna Burns, 

and been a touchstone for our inhouse 

planning committee, including 

parents. Based in large part on Paula’s 

wise reflections and articulate advice, the 

program has been a success….Through her 

choices of literature for teaching, in her 

interactions with students, and in parent 

conferences, I have observed Paula ‘get real’ 

in a manner that communicates her caring 

and the value she places on justice….[Her] 

nurture of student competence, provision 

of intellectual rigor, and a palpable focus 

on students as people are absolutely the 

best of what an educator can offer.” 

In other words, she teaches hearts with the 

same intensity as she teaches minds. 

continued 

Paula Merwin “encourages 

critical thinking, with 

corresponding substance, of the 

level that should be the gold 

standard for all classrooms.” 

–Val Hendrickson 

Robert Till, one of twelve 

students in Merwin's 

classes last year whose 

reading level jumped 

several grade levels, 

displays a certificate of 

achievement. During 2009- 

10 one of her students 

posted a gain of more than 

4 years in reading level; 

six jumped more than 3 

reading levels. 



Hands in pockets, Dr. Rodney 

Sullivan beams at the 

announcement of his award 

as Upper School Daniel- 

Mickel Foundation Master 

Teacher, part of Awards 

Night ceremonies at Christ 

Church the evening before 

Commencement. He is flanked 

by, at left, Charlie Mickel and 

right, former CCES President 

Lee Cox. 

26 | Highlights Fall 2010 

Upper School Physics 

Teacher Rodney Sullivan: 

Being Significant 

Dr. Rodney Sullivan could be teaching 

physics at the university level. He could be 

doing cutting-edge, original research in his 

field. 

But at least for now, he teaches six different 

physics courses in the CCES Upper School 

(US). 

Don’t take that as a sign of skewed 

priorities. Although his intentions were 

never to pursue a teaching career, he believes 

he is doing exactly what God intended for 

him. 

“I would rather be significant than 

successful,” he explained. 

It is a goal that many would say he has 

achieved in the four short years he has been 

teaching at CCES. 

CCES parents Roger and Debbie Stone 

summed up the consensus of students, 

parents, and colleagues in a nominating 

letter that ran almost three single-spaced 

pages: “Dr. Sullivan is an educational leader 

to his students. They respect him as an 

intellectual and admire him as a mentor and 

role model.” 

Last year the Student Council named him 

their “Teacher of the Year.” In other words, 

in addition to being respected, he is loved. 

Is this unusual for a physics teacher? We 

think so—especially for one who sets the 

academic bar so high. But Rodney Sullivan 

is an unusual man. 

From Making Robots to Finding God 

in the Physical World 

A native of Greenville, Dr. Sullivan grew 

up “within walking distance of downtown,” 

the ninth in a family of ten children. His 

father was an automobile mechanic, and as 

a child, Rodney played with his dad’s tools. 

“I made robots and toys out of Coke cans 

and cardboard,” he recalled. That was the 

beginning of his fascination with how things 

work. 

A top high school student, he applied 

mainly to engineering schools, but chose 

to attend Presbyterian College (PC) in 

Clinton, SC, on a football scholarship with 

hopes of taking advantage of their dual 

program in engineering and physics. Injuries 

forced his retirement from the team after his 

sophomore year. “That allowed me to take 

full advantage of all the other things PC 

had to offer besides athletics,” he said. The 

result was that he earned so many academic 

and service awards and participated in so 

many campus activities in leadership roles 

that a listing of them on his resume would 

have taken a full page, had they not been 

presented in two side-by-side columns. 

At the time he began his graduate studies 

at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, 

Rodney thought that he was heading 

toward an engineering career. “But the 

more I learned about physics, the more I 

saw God revealed to me in His physical 

laws.” Awestruck by the magnificence of 

God’s design—the subject of a book he is 

working on—he went on to earn a Ph.D. in 

Chemical Physics in 2004. 

What began with questions about how

CCES Today 

manmade machines work ultimately led 

him to much bigger questions about how 

the universe that God created works at its 

most fundamental level. 

Being True, Real, and Personal 

His ultimate goal is to have his own research 

laboratory (probably in partnership with 

one of his brothers) to experiment with 

alternative energy sources, but after earning 

his degree, he began teaching physics at 

Piedmont Technical College in 

Greenwood. He was there two 

years when his wife received a 

job offer in Greenville and they 

relocated here, at the same time 

that CCES was seeking a physics 

teacher. While he freely admits 

that teaching at the high school 

level was never part of his original 

plan, he is more than happy to 

be teaching at CCES now. That’s 

because it fits with two of his most 

important guiding principles. 

First of these is that “I try to live 

my life to glorify God. I come 

to work every day because I work 

for the Lord.” One of the things 

he loves about CCES, he said, is 

“being able to go to chapel with 

the kids and pray with them.” It 

was a sentiment echoed by both 

his fellow master teachers, Robin 

Yerkes and Paula Merwin. 

He expressed his second guiding 

principle this way: “Wherever I 

go, I have to make that place— 

and myself—better.” 

While he personally believes that 

is a tall order because of the very 

many accomplished teachers 

at CCES (compared against 

whom, he says, “I am the least of 

these”), his students recognize the 

difference he has made to them. 

An example of that is expressed in 

the sidebar by Macon McLean ’10, below. 

Certainly, physics is not everyone’s favorite 

subject, nor are the great majority of the 

students in his classes going to go on to careers 

as physicists—although his AP students 

did post a 100 percent pass rate in 2009 

and 2010. The secret of his popularity with 

students is not that he jokes around with them 

or injects some levity in his lessons; it’s that 

he makes every effort to “show them genuine 

continued 

From Cosmological Phenomena to 

Marvel Comics Supervillains 

Dr. Sullivan is one of my favorite teachers that I’ve had the pleasure of learning 

from throughout my years at CCES. 

One of the many wonderful things about Dr. Sullivan is how positively he 

responds whenever a student engages him. From cosmological phenomena to 

Marvel Comics supervillains, Dr. Sullivan is always happy to have a conversation 

with his students. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve stayed late after class into 

lunch period just talking with him about anything and everything. He’s a veritable 

font of information, not just on physics, but the history of science, its applications, 

technology, and nearly anything else you can think of. 

This enthusiasm shines through all his work and doings. If one of his students is 

struggling and they show willingness to work, Dr. Sullivan makes every possible 

effort to help them out. For instance, although I demonstrated very little promise 

during my first year of physics, Dr. Sullivan never gave up on me and formed a 

brand-new advanced physics class for me and two other students, in which I 

improved drastically. 

But Dr. Sullivan isn’t all-work-and-no-play. He’s always cracking jokes, 

singing random songs with unabashed abandon, and coming up with fun little 

demonstrations to illustrate physical principles. 

Being under Dr. Sullivan’s tutelage for the last two years has been a growing 

experience for me. His tough tests have forced me to buckle down like never 

before. His vibrancy has kept me engaged in the subject material every day. His 

ability to convey complex information easily and swiftly has kept me informed 

and constantly learning. 

I guess what I am trying to say is that Dr. Sullivan is an invaluable asset to the CCES 

faculty and the Christ Church community at large. Keep up the good work! 

Macon McLean ’10 



love. I am not preparing them necessarily to 

be physicists,” he says, “but I want to prepare 

them to be great in life.” 

Toward that end, he sums up his philosophy 

of teaching as being “true, real, and 

personal. I try to make everything plain 

and simple, I am truthful, and I try to get 

to know my students personally.” Echoing 

what Merwin and Yerkes both expressed, he 

said, “It’s all about the relationships.” 

He knows that his students “may not be 

built like me. That’s fine. So show me what 

“I would rather be 

significant than successful.” 

–Rodney Sullivan 

you are passionate about, and be the best 

you can.” 

Erin Carter ’10 confirmed his approach. 

“His positive attitude is seen in and out of 

the classroom. He sets up pick-up games 

with his friends on Sundays in the gym 

to show off his mad basketball skills, and 

then he shows up for some of the students’ 

athletic games on the weekdays. He takes 

an interest in his students’ lives. I’ve seen 

him attending the school plays, the football 

games, and the basketball games.” 

Sullivan freely admits, “there are no 

bounds or limits to my imagination.” 

Neither, apparently, are there bounds to his 

enthusiasm for getting to know the young 

people in his classes, nor to the joy he 

experiences in teaching and in “being where 

God wants me to be.” ■ 


CCES Today 

The Senior Class Leaves a Legacy of 

Compassion by Sterling Jarrett ’10 and Tao Brody ’10 

For most, senior year is the most memorable year of high school. At Christ Church, senior year is no joke. Upon 

leaving school for summer at the end of junior year, the students are given a major responsibility. The student 

must select and research a topic of choice, write a 15-page paper on that topic, and give an in-depth presentation 

of 30 minutes to an audience of faculty, students, and family members. The students work on their theses for 

nearly a year and are therefore able to produce a wonderful project and gain an incredible amount of knowledge 

through the process. 

Last year Easton Seyedein ’09 decided to 

research a worldwide organization called 

Compassion International (CI). Easton was 

a part of the group of students who traveled 

to Quito, Ecuador, with fellow Christ 

Church students in the summer of 2008 

for a short-term mission trip. After visiting 

a Compassion International site in Quito, 

Easton decided to base her Senior Thesis on 

this organization. 

Compassion International’s mission is 

“releasing children from poverty in Jesus’ 

name.” CI has host sites throughout many 

poverty-stricken areas of the world, and its 

goal is to help make the lives of children 

living in these areas more fulfilling and 

to give them a brighter future. For a fee 

of only $38 a month you may sponsor a 

child through Compassion International. 

This fee ensures that your child will receive 

food and clean water weekly, have monthly 

medical attention and care, be provided 

with educational opportunities, and receive 

important life-skills and training. The 

guidance that the children receive through 

this program helps make their lives better 

both short and long-term. After seeing 

first-hand how Compassion International 

helped so many kids, Easton decided that 

she wanted to make it a senior class project 

to sponsor a child through Compassion 

International. 

An Eight-Year CCES 

Commitment for One Child 

Our Compassion International child is 

Dayanna Nicole Tobar Caicedo. She is a 

young girl from Ecuador who is passionate 

about her family as well as church. In 

every letter to us, she has written about 

the active role her church plays in her life. 

From school to social events, the church 

is undoubtedly where Dayanna spends 

the majority of her time. She lives with 

her father, a laborer, and her mother, a 

continued 

Tao Brody, left, 

and Sterling 

Jarrett, right, 

display a photo of 

Dayana. 


CCES Today 

homemaker, and a one-year-old sister 

named Genesis. Currently Dayanna is 12 

years old, and each successive Senior Class 

will continue to sponsor her until she is 18. 

In order to raise money to pay the monthly 

fees, the current senior class followed in 

Easton’s footsteps and made exam goodiebags. 

These were sold through e-blasts to 

parents for their children, and thankfully, 

their cooperation enabled the seniors to 

raise a significant amount of money. It was 

enough to support Dayanna for the year, 

with some left over to add to her account, 

with hopes that we will be able to send her 

something extra once she turns of age and is 

released from our care. 

The class has received many letters from 

Dayanna, each sent along with one of her 

hand-drawn pictures. Her brief letters are 

handwritten in Spanish and translated into 

English. In February she wrote: 

“Many greetings in the name of Jesus. How 

are you? I hope well. I am well. I was very 

glad to receive your letter and to see you 

didn’t forget my birthday. The tutors did 

a birthday together because some children 

turned years and they celebrated us with a 

cake, sweets, and even piñata, all was fine. 

Kisses and hugs.” 

Each month, a selected senior advisee group 

replies to her letter and writes back with 

detailed descriptions of what is going on 

in their lives and even sends along their 

group picture. With news of Homegoing 

and all the creative dress-up days, to the 

exciting news of our sports teams and 

the importance our church plays in our 

community, these class letters are never 

dull. The last one even contained several 

postcards from various places the seniors 

visited during spring break. 

The seniors of the class of 2010 have 

enjoyed being able to help a child who is 

less fortunate in such a simple way. We 

trust that the incoming Senior Class will 

continue to send Dayanna letters, and to 

improve the relationship that we have 

been able to form with her. ■ 

Sterling Jarrett ’10 is currently a freshman 

at Wofford College; Tao Brody ’10 is a 

freshman at Clemson University. Both students 

participated on an eight-person board of CCES 

seniors that raised funds and organized letterwriting 

to Dayanna. 


CCES Today 

Youth-in-Government Teaches 

Students How to Change the World 

by Alice Baird, reprinted from the website 

About a third of Upper School students were absent from classes between November 18 – 21, 2009. The 101 students 

were engaged in an exciting learning experience in Columbia along with students from every corner of the state. 

They were learning how to change the world at the South Carolina YMCA Youth-in-Government Conference (YIG). 

Freshmen Garner Outstanding 

Bill Award 

Two freshmen, Meghan Althoff and Tate 

Brody, went to the conference with a solidly 

researched idea they estimated would save 

South Carolina $66 million in five years 

(“conservatively,” they said). They came 

away with an Outstanding Bill Award, an 

unusual achievement for freshman students. 

Their bill, PH32, entitled “An Act to Replace 

Government Fuel-Using Cars with Hybrids,” 

proposed replacing half of the state’s gas and 

diesel vehicles with hybrids in order to save 

both taxpayer dollars and the environment. 

“Hybrid cars put off 50% less carbon dioxide 

than regular cars and 90% less pollution,” 

their bill stated. With research on the state’s 

current fleet, mileage driven, maintenance 

required, and insurance costs, and taking 

into account the initial price differential 

between gas and hybrid vehicles, the students 

estimated that each hybrid would save the 

state $11,000 over 70,000 miles or five years. 

Speaking about the experience at YIG, 

Althoff said, “It was cool seeing how things 

work.” Brody was also impressed. “We were 

just kids, and we were doing a great job! It 

was just like the real thing!” 

The whole experience “makes you feel like 

you’re making a difference,” added Althoff. 

Melanie Carmichael, who teaches 

government classes in the Upper School, has 

been taking ever-larger student delegations 

annually to YIG, but the size of this year’s 

group far exceeded any she had previously 

chaperoned. Apparently, her enthusiasm 

for the program is inspiring and attracts 

more and more students to experience this 

opportunity. 

The size of the delegation also meant 

more chaperones. This year Upper School 

teachers Lauren Barden, Anne Howson, 

Matt Jacobssen, and Rodney Sullivan 

accompanied and monitored the students. 

Upper School Director Pete Sanders joined 

the delegation for a day too. 

“It’s a good feeling when a student comes up 

to you at the end of a conference and tells 

you what a good learning experience this 

trip was, or writes about some aspect of this 

continued 

Now sophomores, 

Meghan Althoff, far 

left, and Tate Brody, 

far right, received 

an Outstanding Bill 

Award at their first 

Youth in Government 

conference. Chandler 

Carpenter, center, 

now a junior, earned 

a Most Outstanding 

Witness Award 

during the Mock 

Trial competition. 

Anderson Haney, 

not pictured, ran an 

impressive campaign 

for Youth Governor. 


CCES Today 

The whole experience 

“makes you feel 

like you’re making a 

difference.” 

–Meghan Althoff ’14 

conference in their college essay!” said Mrs. 

Carmichael. “I believe that the knowledge 

students receive from participating in YIG is 

worth every minute away from a traditional 

classroom setting.” 

She explained that YIG is a hands-on 

laboratory for learning about government 

and politics. She explained, “Using the 

State Capitol’s official House and Senate 

chambers, legislative meeting rooms 

and the courtrooms at the SC Court of 

Appeals, student delegates select various 

governmental positions to role-play. 

Legislators, clerks, pages, and lobbyists are 

active in writing bills on topics of interest 

that would be legitimately addressed at the 

state legislature level. A mock trial situation 

uses students as attorneys and justices. 

Newspaper reporters and editors publish a 

daily paper. And in the middle of this are 

statewide elections and campaigns.” 

Most Outstanding Witness 

Award 

Sophomore Chandler Carpenter 

participated in Mock Trial activities as both 

a plaintiff’s attorney and a defense witness 

in an assigned case involving the death of 

a student resulting from steroid use. His 

understanding of the issues in the case, 

knowledge of the facts, and ability to think 

on his feet earned him a Most Outstanding 

Witness Award. 

To prepare Carpenter, along with other 

students participating in Mock Trial, 

Upper School Communication teacher 

Donna Miller rehearsed them three times 

a week, often at 7:30 a.m. (You know that 

students—and teachers—are dedicated 

when they volunteer to get to work so early 

in the morning!) 

“Of all the co-curricular activities I 

sponsor,” said Mrs. Miller, who also coaches 

Debate and Model UN, “Mock Trial, in my 

opinion, gives students the most valuable 

academic experience. They learn a lot 

about how to use language to influence 

the audience, for example, the difference 

between using leading and direct questions.” 

A lot of preparation goes into all the students’ 

activities. According to Mrs. Carmichael, all 

legislators are responsible for researching and 

writing a bill that is submitted to the YIG 

office for publication in the bill book. “Our 

students are also required to write speeches 

introducing and concluding their bill for 

both committee and chambers. They must 

also supply questions that can be asked by 

our delegation members during bill debate,” 

she said. 

Almost State Governor 

Junior Anderson Haney ran for Youth 

Governor at YIG. He pulled together a 

campaign committee of CCES students, 

distributed campaign hats, and campaigned 

on the platform “Come Together” (with 

music by the Beatles). He gave campaign 

speeches at general convention, at opening 

night, and before various groups. His 

campaign was so successful he made it 

to the final election, only to go down in 

the end to an opposing candidate from 

Riverside High School in Greenville. 

Speaking of the students who participate in 

YIG, Haney said, “Everybody’s got bright 

futures. Students are working really hard. 

You hear so much about how disinterested 

today’s young people are in current events, 

news, and politics. That’s not what you see 

at YIG.” 

What Students Gain 

“Students come away from this experience 

with an appreciation of government and 

politics, including detailed knowledge of 

how bills are passed into law. They have 

also studied problems on a local/state level 

and have written bills trying to rectify these 

problems. Very quickly they realize that 

many of these problems are truly complex,” 

said Mrs. Carmichael. 

continued on page 30 


CCES Today 

Go, Cavaliers! 

Another Banner Year for CCES Athletics 

by R.J. Beach 

It was another banner year for the CCES athletic program, which in 2009-10 fielded 40 varsity and junior varsity 

teams. The year brought state championships to four teams—girls tennis, girls basketball, boys soccer, and 

boys tennis—and the program was ranked the number one athletic program in the Class A division of the 

South Carolina High School League (SCHSL) for the 19th consecutive year. This year our teams also set some 

school records, allowing CCES to accumulate its greatest number of points ever in the Athletic Director’s Cup 

competition. 

Moments after their 

championship game, the 

boys’ tenth consecutive 

state title, the team signals 

their victory with all ten 

fingers. Far right, Coach 

David Wilcox beams at 

the record-setting win. 

The fall season saw the Girls Tennis team 

win their third consecutive state title— 

their 10 th overall—and the Boys Cross 

Country team finish their season with a 

strong second-place finish in the State 

AA-A meet. The football team won the 

Region championship and advanced to the 

second round of the playoffs. 

The winter sports season was capped by 

another outstanding run by the Girls 

Basketball team. Once again, their season 

ended with the hoisting of the state 

championship trophy in the Colonial 

Center in Columbia. This was the second 

consecutive state championship for the 

Girls Basketball team, and was recognized 

by Greenville Mayor Knox White ’72, 

who offered the team a city resolution 

proclaiming the second week in April each 

year as CCES Cavaliers/Girls Basketball 

Team Week. You can watch a video of the 

entire game on the CCES website at www. 

cces.org/athletics. 

Spring is normally a strong season for 

CCES teams, and this year was no 

exception. The Boys Soccer team won 

continued 


CCES Today 

Girls Basketball Coach Sally Pielou, 

center, with SC All State team 

members, left, Hayden Latham ’11, 

also named Class A Player of the Year, 

and right, Erin Carter ’10. Watch a 

video of the entire championship game 

on the CCES website! 

Right, #1: Athletic Director R.J. Beach, 

standing by a trophy case crowded with 

huge Athletic Director’s Cups. 

Four state 

championships— 

including the tenth 

consecutive boys 

soccer title, and the 

22nd CCES Boys Tennis 

championship—and the 

19th consecutive year that 

CCES has been recognized 

as having the #1 ranked 

Class A athletic program 

in South Carolina. 

the state title for the tenth consecutive 

year; all ten teams were coached by 

Upper School math teacher David 

Wilcox (see article, opposite page). This 

tied a national record for consecutive 

state championships for a Boys Soccer 

team. The Boys Tennis team title was 

the 22 nd for CCES—twice the number 

of the state’s second-place school. Boys 

Golf and Girls Soccer both finished their 

seasons with State Runner-up trophies. 

The Girls Track team had an outstanding 

performance at their State Meet, finishing 

in third place. 

Next year, with the addition of Middle 

School Football and Middle School 

Football Cheerleading, CCES will field a 

record 42 athletic teams. Come out and 

support our Cavaliers—you can check 

out each team’s schedule of games on the 

website. 

Go, Cavs—and let 2010-11 be another 

record-setting year for the CCES athletic 

program! ■ 

R.J. Beach is the CCES Athletic Director and 

has coached 9 boys golf championship teams since 

1996. 

Youth-in-Government continued from page 28 

On a social level, CCES students learn to work with other students from public 

and private schools from all areas of the state. “Many friends are made at YIG 

and are often kept year after year. I’ve had more than one student come back 

from college to tell me that a friend they met at YIG is in their dorm or on their 

hall,” Mrs. Carmichael noted. 

And the most important thing they learn? 

They learn what it’s going to take to change the world. ■ 


CCES Today 

Coach David Wilcox: 

Architect of a CCES Boys Soccer 

Dynasty by Alice Baird 

He is passionate about teaching AP Statistics in the Upper School. 

But when he talks about his “other passion,” the game of soccer, he speaks very unlike a mathematician. He 

mentions the game’s “artistic component” and “the flow and creative element of scoring goals.” 

In David Wilcox’s hands, CCES boys 

soccer is, indeed, a thing of beauty. 

As well as something for the record books: 

with his teams’ tenth consecutive Class A 

state championship this spring, CCES tied 

a national record for consecutive boys soccer 

state titles. 

“Soccer is not a game of stats,” insists 

Wilcox. “It is a very simple game: a kind 

of global language that everyone speaks. 

It’s just about getting the ball in the goal. 

Either team can score in the snap of a 

finger—but it is very difficult to score.” 

(Which makes Robert DiBenedetto’s 

streak-clinching goal on a diving header off 

a corner kick from Cole Seiler ’12 in the 

state championship game this past spring all 

the more remarkable.) 

Despite Wilcox’s insistence that soccer is 

not about stats, his teams have put up some 

remarkable numbers: 

• 10 consecutive state championships 

from 2001 – 2010 

continued 

Coach David Wilcox 

stands behind his ten 

CCES championship 

trophies. 


CCES Today 

“I have always had very 

selfless players who put 

aside their personal goals 

for the good of the team.” 

• 6 NSCAA (National Soccer Coaches 

Association of America) Scholar All- 

Americans 

• 1 NSCAA All-American 

• 23 players named All-State a total of 38 

times 

• 9 HSSR (High School Sports Report) 

Class A Players of the Year 

• 7 North-South Senior All-Stars 

• 34-0 record in SCHSL (South Carolina 

High School League) Class 1A soccer 

playoffs 

• 163 goals for, 11 goals against in 

playoffs during streak 

And, for Wilcox himself, there have been nine 

(9) HSSR Class A Coach of the Year and four 

(4) NSCAA State Coach of the Year awards. 

No Fascination with the Streak 

Coach Wilcox himself professed little 

fascination with winning # 10 (although 

everyone else on campus did). “I didn’t 

think about it at all. My focus was on 

every single game.” In fact, he said, he was 

more proud that his boys beat Mauldin 

and Greenville High for the very first time 

this year; that they conquered Southside 

Christian, to whom CCES had lost twice 

during the prior season; and that “we won 

the Upper State championship and State 

championship games in shut-outs for the 

last three years.” 

Clearly, although Wilcox attributes some of 

his historic streak to luck, he has to take some 

credit for his teams’ successive victories. 

What Makes a Good Coach? 

So what makes a good soccer coach? 

“First of all, you have to have good players,” 

he says. “Soccer is a players’ game.” He 

notes that CCES athletes have all had some 

club soccer experience, and many have 

played year-round soccer in the Middle or 

Lower Schools. “By the time they are in the 

Upper School, they are playing lots of sports 

besides soccer, and they have good athletic 

instincts.” 

His definition of a good player goes beyond 

being fit and having the technical, tactical, 

and psychological skills to play well. “The 

players can’t be in it for themselves. I would 

never put up with that. I have always had 

very selfless players who put aside their 

personal goals for the good of the team.” 

The coach’s job is “to organize the players 

to reach their potential. A soccer coach 

is a manager, not a choreographer,” he 

emphasizes. Toward that end, he views his 

role as one of “monitoring team chemistry 

and managing lots of personalities.” 

Psychologically as well as athletically, Wilcox 

is a stern taskmaster. “If a player scores 

three goals in a game but played at half his 

potential, he won’t get a pat on the back 

from me. I am not easy to please.” 

“That’s what makes him such a good 

coach,” comments Athletic Director R.J. 

Beach. “He sets the bar high; then, when 


CCES Today 

the team rises to his expectations, he sets the 

bar even higher.” 

While he is undeniably tough, he is also 

even-tempered and makes sure that he 

projects confidence. “I don’t panic. I don’t 

get flustered. I never portray doubt or 

uncertainty. The kids have to believe that 

I’ve given them a game plan that gives them 

the chance to win.” 

Of course, it’s not all psychology. Wilcox, 

who went to Christian Brothers University 

in Memphis on a soccer scholarship, 

understands the game. He obtained his 

first coaching license when he was still an 

undergraduate, and has coached numerous 

camps over the years. In Greenville, in 

addition to his popular CCES Summer 

Encounters soccer camps, he has coached 

for the Carolina Elite Soccer Academy 

(CESA), Greenville Futbol Club, St. Giles 

Soccer Club, and the Downtown Soccer 

Association. 

His knowledge of the game’s finer points— 

its artistry, if you will—allows him “to create 

competitive training environments where 

the players are forced to their limits and 

learn to make the kinds of decisions they 

will make in games. My teams are always 

in competitive situations in training against 

other strong players, so they are prepared to 

face tough opponents. Our tough schedule, 

against top 3A and 4A teams in the state, 

also prepares us for the playoffs.” 

Replicating His Approach in the 

Classroom 

It is an approach that with his Master of 

International Business Studies degree from 

USC and a ten-year corporate career at 

such companies as Anderson Consulting in 

Nashville and Motorola in Brazil, he attempts 

to replicate in his statistics classroom. 

“Statistical connections to the business world 

are natural to me since I have had exposure 

in my previous career. I spend a significant 

amount of time coming up with problems 

for examinations that require critical thinking 

rather than just memorization of processes or 

methodology,” he explains. 

The payoff? Beginning in 2000, his 

students have posted some of the best AP 

Statistics passing rates in the state, according 

to Wilcox. In some years that passing rate, 

defined as 3 or higher on a 5-point scale, has 

been 100 percent. 

It is a track record that has brought him to 

Nebraska as a grader for the College Board’s 

AP Statistics exams for the past eight years, 

and where he served this summer as a Table 

Leader coordinating a team of statistics 

readers. (No, he does not get to grade CCES 

exams!) 

In the international languages of both soccer 

and mathematics, David Wilcox’s efforts 

translate, universally, as successes in pursuit 

of excellence. ■ 

Mayor Knox White ’72 will recognize 

Coach Wilcox and members of all ten 

championship teams on October 1 

at the Sports Hall of Fame Induction 

ceremonies prior to the Homecoming 

Game. You are welcome to attend 

this special recognition and the Hall of 

Fame induction. 


Fond Farewells 

A Fond Farewell 

Dr. Leland H. Cox, Jr. 

CCES President/Headmaster 

2000 – 2010 

by Alice Baird 

In his ten years at the helm of Christ Church Episcopal School, Lee Cox led the 

school during a period of unprecedented growth in enrollment, facilities, and 

philanthropy. As a lifelong Episcopalian, he seemed genuinely honored to be 

entrusted with upholding and advancing the Episcopal identity of the school, 

and it was always evident that he loved CCES, its people, and its commitment 

to excellence. In late April we sat down together in his office to talk about his 

tenure at CCES. 

“Lee Cox was just the right person to come to our school as Headmaster in July 2000. At that particular time in our school’s 

history, our community of students, parents, faculty, and staff needed reuniting. Lee quickly saw the common strengths and love for 

CCES among us, and through his diplomatic leadership style and commitment to kindness brought different ideas together within a 

healing framework of unity. We were ready to face the 21 st century!” Lanny Webster, CCES Board of Visitors 

You arrived at CCES in the summer of 

2000 just as the bulldozers came on the 

scene to prepare the foundation for the 

new Upper School. For the first five 

years of your tenure as Headmaster, 

you were deeply involved in fulfilling 

the vision of the One, Together capital 

campaign by transforming the campus 

with new and renovated buildings. Is 

that the primary legacy of your ten years 

at CCES? 

It certainly has been a significant part of 

what has been accomplished in the past 

ten years, but in the end, buildings are 

just buildings. An exception to that is, of 

course, the chapel, which is so much more 

than a building. The chapel is the physical 

and spiritual nexus of the school, the most 

outward manifestation of our Episcopal 

identity. But it is our fidelity to this 

identity, not the building itself, that makes 

it real—the events and activities that draw 

faculty, students, and visitors there. For 

me, the chapel is also always a reminder 

of Dr. Francis Smith, a man who had no 

children of his own, yet found it in himself 

to make such a generous gift for the benefit 

of generations of CCES children. 

The test of any leader is to leave a place in 

better shape than when he or she arrived. 



I think that my primary legacy has been 

the building of a sense of confidence about 

the school and a progressively increasing 

pathway of excellence in academics, 

sports, and the arts. It was not a unified 

community when I got here, but it is a 

unified, cohesive community now. There 

is no such thing as a viable or productive 

community that is not founded on trust, 

and I believe I have been known as a 

trusted leader. 

Sometimes too much is made of tenure 

and legacy—these things depend to a 

tremendous extent on the quality of people 

a person is able to surround him/herself 

with. And in this I’ve been very fortunate, 

both in the boards I’ve worked for and the 

administrative teams I’ve worked with. 

They have supported me as much as I’ve 

supported them. Again, it all devolves from 

trust. 

Aside from these things, I think that the 

increase in enrollment, the strengthened 

financial position of the school, and the 

negotiated agreement with BMW that led 

us to become the only school in the world 

outside Germany to be accredited by the 

Bavarian Ministry of Education are all 

substantial parts of my legacy. 

separation empowered the school to build 

its own governance structure, to truly chart 

its own course in an independent way, and 

to establish itself as a 501(c) (3) non-profit 

institution. Raising money for the school 

is clearer now, and because our new bylaws 

no longer require the school board chair 

to be Episcopalian, we are now able to 

tap into a wider pool of leadership talent. 

This paved the way for Frances Ellison 

and Rod Grandy to become school board 

chairs. 

Is that what you mean when you say that 

the school has matured under your watch? 

Certainly that’s part of it. When I think of 

the school maturing, I think of the school 

growing into itself, but also growing into an 

expanded vision of what it can be. When I 

came here, CCES was ready to grow beyond 

a parish school, and the separation of church 

and school was a huge step in the school’s 

maturation. Our educational program also 

matured as a result of implementing the IB 

programs, which was a very bold move at 

the time. When I arrived on campus, the 

diploma program was already in place, and 

the machinery was in motion for integrating 

continued 

Lee in Carson 

Stadium with his 

dog Bill and his wife 

Jo. “As First Lady of 

CCES, Jo brought her 

gifts both as hostess 

and ambassador,” 

he said. “She was 

involved both in 

the many activities 

of the school and 

has also been a 

significant presence 

at Christ Church 

and the Greenville 

community.” 

Early in your administration the school 

separated its governance from that of 

Christ Church. How would you rank 

that as part of your legacy? 

In my opinion, it is the single most 

important event in the history of the 

school since it first opened in 1959. Prior 

to the separation, although there was a 

school board, it was still subject to the 

authority of the rector and the vestry, a 

fact that made it, essentially, a committee 

of the church. Although our ties to Christ 

Church will always remain strong, the 



Some of Lee’s fondest 

memories center on Dr. 

Francis Smith, whose 

gift enabled CCES to 

build The Chapel of the 

Good Shepherd. In 2004, 

with current Board Chair 

Edgar Norris and his wife 

Stephanie, Lee escorts Dr. 

Smith to the site where the 

chapel will be built. 

the IB Primary Years Program in the Lower 

School and the Middle Years Program in 

the Middle School. But these programs 

were not nearly as well known then as they 

are today, and there was a lot of trepidation 

among the parents and even some faculty 

members about them. They needed to be 

proved, and we did that by forging ahead 

and establishing an exemplary IB program. 

It also helped us respond to Greenville’s 

changing demographics and moved us in 

the direction of becoming more global in 

our relationships with other schools around 

the world. I think that I’ve also had an 

impact by placing responsibility and some 

degree of autonomy and accountability in 

the hands of individuals on the management 

team. That, too, has allowed the school to 

mature. 

With all of this, there began to be a 

realization that the school had climbed 

several rungs up the ladder and had 

become a real regional player. When 

Dan Heischman, Executive Director of 

the National Association of Independent 

Schools (NAES), visited us recently, he said 

that when NAES wants to take the pulse 

of independent schools to measure their 

health, there is just a handful of schools they 

look to as bellwethers, and Christ Church 

Episcopal School is one of them. 

What do you think were the most 

significant challenges you faced at CCES? 

Before I came to CCES and after I arrived, 

I did not find anything that was broken 

and needed to be fixed. But I think there 

are two areas where more remains to be 

done. The first is in the area of increasing 

racial and cultural diversity at CCES. We 

have made significant progress, no doubt 

about that, but more needs to be done to 

diversify the student body, the faculty, and 

the administration. Part of the challenge 

has been the perception of affordability that 

leads many families to self-select without 

ever looking at existing opportunities for 

financial aid. Another is that independent 

school culture is relatively young in the 

South and Southeast, and independent 

schools are not as commonly looked to as 

alternatives as they are in other regions. 

Another challenge has been creating an 

understanding of what our tuition dollars 

pay for and the importance of developing 



significant streams of non-tuition revenue 

to supplement tuition. The first group 

to “get it” and set a sterling example of 

philanthropy for the school community has 

been the board. They have significantly 

stepped up their own giving level and have 

taken a more proactive role in identifying 

individuals who are capable of very 

significant gifts, such as Dr. Francis Smith. 

Building a culture of philanthropy at CCES 

was not really as well understood and 

embraced in 2000 as it is today. 

You’ve served as Headmaster/President 

longer than any other head in the school’s 

history. Is there a secret to your staying 

power? 

I’ve been fortunate in having long and 

successful tenures throughout my career: 

13 years as Executive Director with the 

South Carolina Humanities Council and 

12 years as the President of the Governor’s 

School for Science and Math. I am pleased 

to have been here for ten years, but the 

issue is not longevity but the times in 

which we live. Schools today are far more 

complex institutions than they used to be, 

and the notion of having a single leader 

who will be the right leader for years and 

years at a single school is increasingly 

unlikely. What is needed is the right leader 

for the right school at the right time, and 

then, as challenges and 

circumstances change, 

leadership needs to 

change too. 

to address the school community during 

its consecration. His impact, along with 

the whole sense of ministry that grew up 

around him and his connection not just 

with the Lower School but with the entire 

student body, will remain an enduring 

memory. 

Another memory is of wandering around 

the school and at any given moment feeling 

something wrapped around your leg and 

looking down to see a Lower School student 

peering up and saying, “Dr. Cox, I just love 

you!” 

They didn’t do that at the Governor’s 

School? 

No, thank goodness! 

What will you miss most about CCES? 

It may be a cliché, but as with all clichés, 

it holds a substantial amount of truth: 

I will miss the people most of all, the 

quality of the relationships I’ve had 

with the senior administrators (some of 

the most capable professionals I’ve ever 

worked with in my life), the collegial 

relationships with faculty and staff, and 

the many unasked-for, unsought acts of 

kindness and consideration they have 

shared with me. 

continued 

What will you take 

away as your fondest 

memories of CCES? 

One of my fondest and 

clearest memories is that 

of seeing Dr. Francis 

Smith stand in the chapel 

A licensed pilot, 

Lee guided CCES’s 

soaring reputation 

during a period 

of unprecedented 

growth. 



If you had to summarize CCES in just a 

few words—say, in 140 characters, the 

length of a tweet—what would you say? 

I would say, “grounded, yet forward-looking, 

ambitious yet compassionate, energetic yet 

humble, unified in a commitment to allencompassing 

excellence.” 

Wow! That’s exactly 139 characters! One 

last question: are you going to continue 

to tell jokes at your new position as 

Interim Headmaster at Valwood in 

Valdosta, Georgia? 

Did you hear the one about the engineer, 

the priest, and the attorney… ■ 

Tributes to Lee Cox 

“I feel privileged to follow the noteworthy ten-year tenure of Lee Cox’s leadership 

at CCES. He has directed the school through its campus consolidation, the signal 

event of building the Chapel of the Good Shepherd, and the emergence of an 

athletic dynasty. 

Lee brought steadiness to a community in need of warmth and cheer when he 

arrived ten years ago from a successful presidency of the Governor’s School of 

Math and Science. With his gracious wife, Jo, Lee united the school through 

a gentle touch and a humane spirit, reinforcing the Episcopal traditions of the 

school. The superb school that I have the privilege of serving is a much better 

place because of Lee’s legacy.” Leonard Kupersmith, Headmaster 

“When I first met Lee Cox, my gut feeling told me that I wanted to work for this 

man. He is smart, fun, and lets people do their jobs. He knows what issues are 

important, what issues to let go of, and holds all of this together with a grounded 

faith in Jesus Christ. I will miss him as a good friend, mentor, and boss.” Richard 

Grimball, CCES Senior Chaplain 

“Lee has led CCES with a keen awareness of its tradition and past but with 

a visionary eye to the future and the shifting landscape of education and our 

community. He is truly a ‘people person,’ finding joy in day-to-day interactions 

with everyone. The welcome in his voice and eyes is genuine, no matter who is on 

the other side of a smile or a hug. I think his love for CCES is so deep. Both he and 

[his wife] Jo have been loyal to every cause, event, function or activity that made a 

difference in the lives of the CCES family. I can’t imagine him having a deeper love 

for the school unless one of their own children or grandchildren attended. It’s been 

a privilege that my time on the CCES board allowed me to know Lee, work with 

and learn from him.” Sherri Timmons, CCES School Board 

“Dr. Cox personifies the ideal of the well-rounded independent school leader. An 

erudite intellectual and noted Faulkner scholar, he is also an accomplished athlete 

who played football at Wake Forest. Whether in the classroom teaching or on the 

sidelines cheering on our teams, Dr. Cox has had a high level of authenticity with 

CCES students.” Pete Sanders, CCES Upper School Director 



At a meeting of the CCES Board of 

Visitors and Board of Trustees at the 

home of Billy and Lanny Webster, 

School Board Chair Edgar Norris, 

Jr., center, presents the South 

Carolina Order of the Palmetto from 

Governor Mark Sanford to Lee Cox, 

second from left. At the surprise 

presentation, from far left, were 

Board of Visitors President Joe 

Jennings; Greenville developer 

Bo Aughtry, who coordinated 

the award arrangements with 

the Governor’s Office; and board 

member Shane Taylor. 

Governor’s Office Awards Order of the Palmetto to Lee Cox 

Outgoing CCES President Lee Cox was presented with the South Carolina Order of the 

Palmetto from the office of Governor Mark Sanford on Tuesday, May 25, at a gathering 

of the school’s Board of Visitors and Board of Trustees at the home of Billy and Lanny 

Webster in Greenville. 

The Order of the Palmetto, which recognizes lifetime achievement and service to South 

Carolina, is considered the highest civilian honor awarded by the Governor’s Office. In his 

award letter, Governor Sanford wrote that “this award is in recognition of all you’ve done to 

better our part of the world over the years.” 

CCES Board Chair Edgar M. Norris, Jr., presented the award, which comes in the form 

of a framed certificate and a letter from the governor. Board member Shane Taylor 

and Greenville developer Bo Aughtry were responsible for proposing and making 

arrangements for the award with the Governor’s Office on behalf of Dr. Cox. 

The governor’s award letter detailed Cox’s career accomplishments as Executive Director of 

the South Carolina Humanities Council in Columbia, as the first President of the Governor’s 

School for Science and Mathematics in Hartsville, and as President and Headmaster of 

Christ Church Episcopal School in Greenville. In addition, it recognized his work “as an 

ambassador for many causes,” including the Downtown Greenville Rotary Club, Kairos 

Prison Ministry, Angel Flight, BMW, and the Winthrop University Board of Trustees, among 

others. 

“You are indeed a legend in your own time,” wrote Sanford, “and your influence in the field 

of education will be as enduring as the profession itself….Despite your very considerable 

achievements, you have maintained a reputation for both humility and personal integrity. 

What a wonderful model of citizenship you are and an extraordinary example to all of us of 

a life well lived!” 

Presentation of the Order of the Palmetto was a complete surprise to Cox and his wife, Jo. 

More than 100 people were present at the Websters’ home to applaud the award and to 

recognize Cox’s ten years as leader of Christ Church Episcopal School. 



A Fond Farewell 

Director of Development Connie Lanzl 1998 – 2010: 

A Legacy of Sophistication and Devotion to the School 

by Alice Baird 

Author’s Note: Connie Lanzl has been my professional mentor and personal friend for the past ten years—and 

she has proved nothing short of extraordinary in both roles. Those of you who know her will surely attest to her 

many contributions to the school, many more than could be mentioned here. 

Asked to describe 

CCES in 140 characters 

or less, the length of a 

“tweet,” Connie wrote: 

“Best preparation for 

success in broadest 

sense: academics, 

service, leadership, 

positive risk-taking, 

balance of left and 

right brains.” 

Her devotion to the school was always 

evident: the late nights and long weekends, 

her desire to make CCES shine in every 

venue, her pride as the parent of three 

graduates. 

But what motivated her went deeper than 

her conscientious sense of responsibility, 

strong work ethic, and what Headmaster 

Leonard Kupersmith characterized as 

her “boundless stamina.” Her own life 

having been shaped by her 13 years at 

Friends’ Central, an independent Quaker 

school outside Philadelphia, she is a deeply 

committed advocate of the independent 

school experience. 

When her husband, Steve, was offered an 

opportunity in Greenville, her first order of 

business was finding an independent school 

for Amanda ’00, Brett ’02, and Drew ’05. 

“If CCES had not been here,” she said, “we 

would not have come to Greenville.” 

“A Huge Sense of Family” 

Her father, Richard Burgess, taught English 

and public speaking, directed the school 

dramas and musicals, and served as line 

coach for the football team for over 20 years 

at Friends’ Central. “I knew how lucky 

I was to be there as a faculty child,” she 

said. “It was a very special environment, 

and I loved the close relationships between 

the teachers and the students.” What she 

called “the school’s huge sense of family” 

really hit her after her father left a rehearsal 

for Finian’s Rainbow and wound up in the 

hospital for removal of a brain tumor. That 

day marked the end of his teaching career 

and the beginning of his struggles with 

bone cancer. Connie was in ninth grade at 

the time, and she remembers vividly how 

the school community rallied around her 

and her family. Among the illness’s many 

cruelties was the fact that he lost his ability to 

communicate; this was matched by another 

irony—he received therapy gratis from a 

former student whom he had once inspired 

to become a speech therapist. He died 

during the summer before her senior year. 

The relationships she had formed with 

her teachers “brought home to me,” she 

said, “what was important.” So, following 

in her father’s footsteps, after graduating 

from Wilson College in Pennsylvania, she 

taught English, history, and drama, and 

coached hockey and lacrosse for three years 

at another Quaker middle school, and when 

the opportunity arose to serve as Alumni 

Director at Friends’ Central, she leaped 



at the chance. There her sense of family 

was reinforced by the many alumni who 

brought her stories of their experiences with 

her father. “Even years later,” she recalled, 

“when I went to reunions and the children 

were young, alumni and former faculty 

would take the time to tell them stories 

about the grandfather they never knew.” 

Formidable Talents, 

Impeccable Style 

While her youthful experience may 

help to explain her deep commitment 

to independent schools, it does little to 

shed light on the formidable talents and 

impeccable style she brought to her role 

as Director of Development at CCES, a 

position she assumed in 1998 under Head 

of School Ellen Moceri. Within two 

years at Friends’ Central, she had been 

named Director of Development, a role she 

reprised at Nishimachi International School 

in Tokyo and Camperdown Academy 

in Greenville before arriving on CCES’s 

administrative staff. The little-understood 

function is critical to an institution’s 

financial health, ability to grow, and 

the cultivation of a bond of community 

among school constituents. Development 

encompasses annual and capital fundraising, 

strategic planning, communications 

and marketing, alumni relations, public 

relations, volunteer and staff development, 

and special events, and it requires 

leadership, tact, sound judgment, advanced 

technological skills, creativity, marketing 

savvy, excellent organizational abilities, 

and meticulous attention to detail—all of 

which, in addition to her wit and grace, she 

demonstrated with consistent excellence. 

Former CCES President Lee Cox summed 

up his assessment of the role Connie played 

at CCES: “The adjective ‘consummate’ 

and the noun ‘professional’ are often used 

without full appreciation of what these 

words, when combined, connote. When one 

is referred to as a consummate professional, 

I think it should mean that he or she aspires 

to the highest possible standards, not just in 

a chosen profession but in one’s life as well, 

and that this lofty level of professionalism 

is conducted always with dignity, humility, 

and style. It is not, then, a term that should 

be used prolifically or indiscriminately; it 

should apply only to a few select people. 

During the ten years I have worked with 

Connie Lanzl and known her as colleague, 

continued 

The Lanzl family and friends 

at the 50th Anniversary 

Birthday Bash, from left, 

friend Jenny Sieger, Drew 

‘05, husband Steve, Connie, 

Alicia DeFronzo ‘97, 

Amanda Lanzl Salas ‘00, 

Abby DeFronzo Lanzl ‘02, 

and Brett ‘02. 



The groundbreaking ceremony for 

the chapel in May 2004. No detail 

of the ceremony was too small for 

Connie’s attention, from marking 

the field to measuring the ribbon 

that crisscrossed it and, inset, the 

size of the shovel for the student 

representing the Lower School. 

friend, critic, and counselor, I was every 

year made more aware that I was in the 

company of a true consummate professional, 

without whose numerous skills, focus, and 

dedication, CCES would simply not be the 

school it is today.” 

During her tenure at the school, Connie 

rose to numerous challenges, not the least of 

which was planning and implementing the 

$13 million One, Together capital campaign, 

the largest in the school’s history. With 

the building of a new Upper School, the 

consolidation of the Cavalier Campus, 

the renovations to the Lower School, 

the building of the Chapel of the Good 

Shepherd, and an increase in the school’s 

endowment, this campaign ultimately laid 

the groundwork for expanded enrollment 

and an elevated sense of the value of CCES 

in attracting business to the Upstate. 

With the campaign also came the many 

public events she planned that now stand 

as milestones in the school’s history: the 

separate dedications of the new Upper 

School and Lower School in 2002, the 

chapel groundbreaking in 2004, and its 

consecration in 2005. Other events not 

connected with the One, Together campaign 

that she planned included the dedication of 

the Cavalier Training Center in 2006 and 

the many 50 th anniversary events reported 

in this issue of Highlights and the last. No 

detail of these or any of the school’s routine 

annual events was too insignificant for her 

attention, whether it was the decoration of 

the hard hats and shovels used at the chapel 

groundbreaking or setup and cleanup at 

Grandparents Day celebrations. 



A New Level of 

Sophistication 

The role of development in the school’s 

administration changed significantly during 

her tenure, in large part, she said, “because 

of the scope and the amount of money 

that needed to be raised.” With the advent 

of the Internet, technology played a large 

part too; she oversaw the establishment of 

the school’s first website, and under her 

guidance, subsequent iterations of this nowessential 

element in the marketing mix have 

received regional recognition. The maturing 

age of the school also commanded a new 

approach. 

When she arrived at CCES, she noted 

that the community was not interested 

in benchmarking against similar schools. 

“Although CCES was not competing against 

Charlotte and Atlanta for enrollment, 

our students were competing for college 

acceptance with them and with students all 

over the country,” she said. “We needed 

to establish a process of benchmarking to 

understand what other independent schools 

are doing throughout the U.S.” 

Assessing her legacy, Connie reflected that 

she “helped burnish the school’s image 

of sophistication and professionalism,” 

an image reflected in Highlights today 

and in the high level of professionalism 

among her staff members. She has been, 

said Kupersmith in his announcement of 

her departure, “an immensely respected 

voice of dignity and good taste.” Her 

development experience at Friends’ 

Central, where she planned the school’s 

sesquicentennial [150-year birthday] and 

where the admission office competed for 

students in an educational environment 

dominated by independent schools, helped 

guide her sense of the sophistication that 

CCES could reflect. Her contacts at other 

independent schools and with leaders at the 

Council for the Advancement and Support 

of Education (CASE) enabled her to 

implement proven strategies and introduce 

standard practices. Establishing the CCES 

Sports Hall of Fame and the Alumni Career 

program in the Upper School (page 71) 

exemplify her efforts to elevate CCES to a 

new level. 

Her legacy also encompasses many tangible 

accomplishments, including a doubling 

of the amount of money raised by the 

Annual Giving program; publication of the 

school’s first history, a project that had been 

initiated by the Golden Cavaliers and was 

more than twelve years in the making; and 

orchestration of a series of 50 th anniversary 

events in 2009-10 that could appeal to 

all constituencies and “draw them to the 

campus with a purpose and a guarantee that 

they would be among those they know,” 

with the goal of eventually encouraging 

them to support the school financially. 

A Lacrosse National 

Hall-of-Famer 

Another aspect to Connie’s legacy that has 

little to do with her achievements in the 

Development Office was accomplished on 

the Linda Reeves Hockey Field from 2001-07 

when she served as CCES field hockey coach. 

Inducted into the United States Lacrosse 

Hall of Fame in 1996 and the Pennsylvania 

Lacrosse Hall of Fame in 1998, she had played 

varsity lacrosse throughout high school and 

college and was a member of the U.S. Lacrosse 

Squad from 1970-80, serving as captain in 

1975, 1976, and 1980. In 1975 she led a 

touring team to Great Britain for 5 ½ weeks 

and returned undefeated—the first team ever 

to achieve this record. 

Years later, while living in Japan, she was 

to achieve another athletic first. She was 

approached by the international lacrosse 

federation to coach Japanese female 

athletes from all over the country to go to 

the World Cup in Edinburgh, Scotland, 

continued 

"During the ten years I 

have worked with Connie 

Lanzl and known her as a 

colleague, friend, critic, 

and counselor, I was every 

year made more aware 

that I was in the company 

of a true consummate 

professional, without 

whose numerous skills, 

focus, and dedication, 

CCES would simply not 

be the school it is today." 

—Lee Cox 



A Very Personal Legacy: 

A Tribute from Lei Offerle 

Connie taught Virginia [Offerle ’07] so much more than just the game of 

field hockey. 

She taught her hard work and perseverance as the team toiled through the 

heat and humidity of summer workouts. 

Virginia learned self-confidence as she chose to pursue a sport that was just 

her own—one that her older sister had not played! 

Virginia also learned time management as she learned to focus on her 

studies during the frequent and long bus rides to games in North Carolina. 

Virginia learned dedication when she joined the school soccer team for the 

express purpose of staying in shape for field hockey. 

Connie taught Virginia leadership skills as she learned to motivate, encourage 

and challenge her teammates as a captain her senior year. 

In an 11th grade essay, Virginia named Connie as the person, other than a 

family member, who had impacted her life the most. In that essay Virginia 

commented that Connie had shown her that it was indeed possible to be a 

great wife and mother, to be successful in your chosen career, and to still be 

able to enjoy something you’re passionate about like field hockey. 

Of all the things that Connie taught Virginia, that may be the best lesson of 

all. 

in 1993—something Japan had never 

done before. With 16 players, a trainer, 

and a Japanese interpreter in tow, she 

indeed brought the team to the World 

Cup, where “we beat Czechoslovakia and 

lost all our other games. But the Japanese 

girls were the darlings of the tournament,” 

she recollected, “because of the way they 

played and their enthusiasm,” traits, 

no doubt, that she had fostered as their 

coach. 

Explaining her love of the game, Connie 

said, “I was influenced by my coaches who 

set high expectations for me. My ninth 

grade coach was a U.S. player who was 

a junior English major at the University 

of Pennsylvania. At the end of practice, 

she would combine extra coaching 

with her need to stay in shape, and we 

would spend an additional hour just 

running up and down the field, catching 

and throwing, or experimenting with 

shooting. She invited us to come watch 

her at the National Tournament that 

happened to be in Philadelphia that year, 

and I was awed by the level of what I saw. 

She told me she expected me to do that. 

My coach during my first two years in 

college was outstanding and later became 

my coach on the undefeated touring team. 

We are still in touch, getting the team 

together every five years.” 

Building Community 

Combining elements of her role in 

development and her passion for field hockey, 

the event she singles out as her favorite is 

the dedication of the Linda Reeves Hockey 

Field in the fall of 2000. “There was a strong 

wish at the school to do something for Linda 

Reeves,” she recalled, referring to the beloved 

girls athletic coach who had served the school 

from 1972 to 2000, when cancer robbed her 

of her ability to work. “At the same time 

there was an opportunity to transition from 

the former leadership. There was a feeling 

in the community that the school had lost 

its sense of being a family, and here was an 

opportunity to reengage people in a very 

personal way.” 

Coach Reeves had no children of her own, 

but, said Connie, “I knew the impact of 

my coaches on my life,” and the dedication 

became a way to show Linda how deep 

and wide her CCES family was. Alumni, 

parents, members of current and past field 

hockey teams, students, and faculty rallied to 

participate in the dedication—and to keep it 

a secret from Linda. Brought to the campus 

on a false pretext, Linda was escorted to the 

field in a gaily decorated golf cart by Athletic 



Director Ashley Haskins. There, to her 

astonishment, she was greeted by the entire 

Upper School student body and hundreds 

of parents and alumni, many of whom 

had contributed to a special scrapbook put 

together lovingly by CCES parent Joy Page. 

“It was not a high tech event, nor was it 

fancy,” Connie commented, “but it expressed 

the essential relationship between CCES 

families and teachers.” Said one witness to 

the event, “It was an incredibly generous 

gift to Coach Reeves,” who died six months 

after the dedication. “I wouldn’t be surprised 

if the joy it gave her prolonged her life just 

a little bit.” It hearkened back, too, to the 

gifts of appreciation the Friends’ Central 

community had shown Connie’s father 

during his illness. It was, perhaps, her way of 

paying that forward. 

It was also a signal expression of the kindness 

and generosity Connie brought to all her 

interactions, both personal and professional, 

at CCES. 

What’s Next? 

“When I took this job at CCES, it was partly 

because it gave me the opportunity to be 

connected with my children’s education in 

a way that wasn’t hovering or smothering,” 

explained Connie. She remained Director of 

Development (or V.P. of Advancement in an 

ever-changing cycle of title changes) for five 

years after her last child, Drew, graduated. 

Moving on to new challenges with hardly 

time to catch her breath, in July Connie was 

named President of Junior Achievement in 

Upstate South Carolina, covering Greenville, 

Spartanburg, Oconee, Pickens, and Anderson 

counties. Established in 1916, Junior 

Achievement Worldwide is the world’s largest 

organization dedicated to educating students 

about workforce readiness, entrepreneurship 

and financial literacy through experiential, 

hands-on programs. Her new position takes 

full advantage of her leadership skills as well 

as her abiding commitment to educating 

young people. 

And although we may see her sometime in 

future on the stage in the Greenville Little 

Theater or Centre Stage, where she has 

performed in productions of Steel Magnolias, 

Sylvia, and Guided Tour, for the time being 

her hands are full between her responsibilities 

in the community and at home, where 

she takes her “other job,” as first-time 

grandparent, very seriously indeed. ■ 

When Coach Linda Reeves was 

escorted to the surprise dedication 

of the hockey field in her name, 

she was greeted by banners, 

cheerleaders, varsity field hockey 

students, the entire Upper School, 

parents, and players from all her 

former teams. It was a moving 

tribute for all involved. 


Global Perspectives 

The Path to Mandarin at CCES 

by Peter D. Sanders, Upper School Director 

With 20 percent of the globe’s population and a decade-long, mind-boggling annual GDP growth of 8 percent, 

China has emerged as a world power, and Mandarin Chinese has become one of the fastest-growing languages 

of study in the United States. Furthermore, the high level of commercial integration between China and the U.S. 

has made learning Mandarin a high priority for many Americans. Greenville and the Upstate are not exceptions, 

as more local companies (several headed and staffed by CCES parents) find themselves doing business with 

China and, increasingly, in China. So it makes sense that CCES is taking steps toward adding Mandarin Chinese 

to the Upper School curriculum as a foreign language option for our students. 

Eight major Chinese dialects, and even 

more regional sub-dialects, are spoken in 

China. Mandarin is the vernacular that has 

long been spoken in the vicinity of Beijing 

and which over time became the language 

of the ruling class. In 1958 the People’s 

Republic of China made Mandarin its 

official dialect, and it became the primary 

language taught in the country’s schools and 

universities. 

Partnering with the Confucius 

Institute at PC 

The initiative to add Mandarin Chinese 

language studies to the CCES curriculum 

received a jumpstart during summer 2009 

when Headmaster Leonard Kupersmith, 

Director of College Counseling Linda 

Schulz, and I visited Presbyterian College 

(PC) to meet with its president, John 

Griffith. During that hot day in Clinton 

we learned about the college’s soon-to-be 

established Confucius Institute for Chinese 

Studies. The program’s mission is not only 

to develop the study of Chinese culture and 

language at PC but also to promote and 

support it at other institutions of higher 

learning, as well as at elementary and 

secondary schools throughout the Upstate. 

President Griffith invited CCES to be a 

partner school with PC, and the offer was 

readily accepted. 

When the 2009 school year began, 

I met with Dr. David Liu, Professor 

of Government and Director of PC’s 

Confucius Institute. He offered useful 

advice on how we could start the process 

at CCES and how the Institute could 

help with resources. Later that fall Upper 

School history teacher Rodney Adamee, 

a group of students from his Chinese and 

Japanese history class, and I attended the 

inaugural ceremony of the PC Confucius 

Institute. 

That ceremony included the unveiling 

of an impressive outdoor statue of the 

Chinese philosopher and namesake of the 

new program. Later that same day Dr. 

Liu alerted me to an opportunity. An 

American delegation of 400 secondary 

school educators would be traveling to 

China, and my participation would afford 

opportunities to get a close-up look at 

Chinese schools, network with American 

colleagues interested in establishing 

Chinese language programs, and meet 

professional counterparts in China. I 

joined this delegation of colleagues from 

all parts of the United States. I was the 



Upper School Director 

Pete Sanders, top of 

stairs, displays, with 

the help of the students 

in his freshman history 

class, a ceremonial scroll 

given to him by the Jihua 

Middle School, one of 

two Chinese schools with 

whom CCES has forged an 

international partnership. 

only school representative from South 

Carolina. 

Chinese Government-Sponsored 

Mandarin Teachers 

For seven heavily scheduled days in 

December 2009, I was in China as a 

member of the Chinese Bridge Delegation, 

sponsored by the Chinese government’s 

Hanban/Confucius Institute and the 

College Board. The program started 

in Beijing where for the first two days I 

participated in intensive tutorials on the 

teaching of Mandarin and lectures on the 

Chinese educational system. The delegates 

learned firsthand of a related Hanban/ 

Confucius program where the Chinese 

government sponsors Mandarin teachers 

in the U.S. Our itinerary was not without 

some sightseeing, as we made our way to the 

Great Wall on a bone-chillingly cold, but 

brilliant, day, along with many others from 

China’s well-ordered capital of 12 million 

people. After Beijing, the delegation 

was divided into groups of fifty and then 

continued 



Being a South Carolina 

secondary school offering 

Mandarin will enhance the 

school’s prestige and the value 

of a CCES education. 

travelled to outlying cities where we would 

spend time at potential sister schools and 

meet teaching candidates. 

My group went to Chongqing, which many 

Americans will recognize under the old 

spelling of Chungking. During World War 

II Chongqing was the capital of Chiang 

Kai-Shek’s Kuomintang Nationalist Party 

and the headquarters of General Joseph 

Stillwell, Commander of American and 

Allied forces in China. 

As a history teacher, I was well aware of the 

city’s past, but I was not current with its 

contemporary status as a major port on the 

Yangtze River and as one of the country’s 

strategic cities in the southern interior. 

Chongqing’s population speaks to a major 

factor that astounds the visitor to China: the 

staggeringly visible fact of the country’s huge 

population. Chongqing, whose city proper 

has 13 million people, is one of China’s 

“mega-cities.” The surrounding municipality, 

which is about half the geographical size 

of South Carolina, has a population of 32 

million, approximately seven times South 

Carolina’s total population of 4.6 million. 

These big numbers play out in the schools, as 

the two secondary schools I visited numbered 

6,500 students each in the upper (grades 

9-12) divisions. 

The first school I visited, Chongqing Middle 

School Number 1, was located in the center 

of the city, and Jihua Middle School in a 

nearby suburb (grades 6 -12 comprise middle 

school in China). Students, teachers, and 

administrators at both schools were extremely 

friendly and excited about forging ties with 

CCES. Chongqing Number 1 is a wellestablished 

school, and admission to it is 

highly sought after. Its students go to China’s 

top universities as well as to institutions 

overseas, including the United States. Jihua 

Middle School is only twelve years old. Many 

of its students are from families that were 

relocated to the city by the government when 

the Three Gorges hydro-electric dams on the 

Yangtze flooded their villages. Jihua certainly 

had its high achievers, but that school told a 

compelling story of country people having to 

make the challenging adjustment to city life. 

Both schools struck me as wonderful partners 

for CCES as they afford exposure to students 

from varying strata of Chinese society. 

The daily regimen of China’s schools did 

not go unnoticed either. Competition for 

spots at coveted universities is intense. The 

admissions process involves a number of 

criteria, including exacting national exams and 

highly analyzed grades. This likely explains the 

long school day that runs from 8:00 a.m. to 

9:00 p.m. The day is punctuated with breaks 

for meals, physical education, and study halls, 

but it is a grueling five-day routine stretched 

out over a 200-plus-day school year. It is 

debatable whether the length of the day yields 

the desired results, but it certainly provided 

a catalyst for discussion when I shared this 

fact with my history class upon returning to 

Greenville! 



Enhancing the Value of a CCES 

Education 

At the end of the stay in Chongqing, I 

signed on behalf of CCES two “Memos 

of Understanding” with both Chongqing 

Schools with the aim of making ties, sharing 

ideas and resources, and creating student 

exchanges through the Internet and Skype 

technology and, in the future, through 

actual visits. 

The trip to China, the cost of which was 

largely underwritten by the College Board 

and the Chinese government, thoroughly 

convinced me of the importance of adding 

Mandarin to our curriculum. While 

English remains the lingua franca of the 

Internet and of international business, we 

are headed towards a world dominated 

by two languages: Mandarin Chinese 

and English. CCES’s partnership with 

Presbyterian College provides us with a 

tremendous advantage in terms of resources 

and advice. The next step is to lay the 

curricular groundwork and begin the search 

for a teacher. Fortunately, Hanban and the 

Confucius Institute will be of assistance on 

this front. Our goal is to offer Mandarin 

Chinese as a language option in the Upper 

School by the 2011-2012 school year. 

The process leading up to that time will 

be deliberate, with considerable planning 

and a thorough search for the right teacher. 

In addition, we will educate our students 

about China. For example, the Upper 

School’s January 2011 Reading Day will 

focus on the book China Road: A Journey 

into the Future of a Rising Power, by NPR 

correspondent Rob Gifford. The entire 

US student body will read and discuss the 

book, and there will be activities at every 

level to facilitate a deeper understanding of 

the Chinese people, its culture, economy, 

opportunities, and potential pitfalls. In 

addition, we are incorporating Chinese 

programs into our faculty’s professional 

development. During the past summer 

Lower School Chaplain and Assistant 

Director Valerie Riddle participated in a 

Chinese Bridge Delegation trip to China, 

and Upper School History Department 

Chair Kristi Ferguson went to China 

through a program with Furman University. 

The prospect of offering Mandarin classes 

and of establishing ties with schools in 

China presents CCES with an exciting 

outlook for our community of learners. 

It will offer our graduates a valuable 

marketplace skill and serve to expand the 

school’s global outlook. Not least of all, 

becoming a center of Mandarin education 

will support Greenville’s strategic vision 

of the Upstate as a recognized center 

for international trade and investment. 

Being a South Carolina secondary school 

offering Mandarin will also enhance the 

school’s prestige and the value of a CCES 

education. Most of all, it will open new and 

challenging educational vistas for students 

in the Upper School. ■ 

Pete Sanders is Director of the Upper School. 

Our goal is to offer Mandarin 

Chinese in the Upper School by 

the 2011-2012 school year. 



A Lifelong Global Outlook: It All 

Started Here by Rip Parks ’72 

My first steps toward a global journey began at CCES. There I was set on a circuitous path that has led me to live 

seven years abroad, as well as to make numerous pleasure trips overseas. Recently I returned to Greenville after 

almost 20 years, and I realize that the global perspective I developed over the years has helped me appreciate the 

multicultural community that is Greenville today. 

I was a member of the “famous first” senior 

class of 1972. The CCES focus on the 

international community actually began 

a generation ago, long before Michelin 

and BMW began transforming Greenville. 

Like many members of my age group, I 

was exposed to remarkable teachers along 

the way who unfolded the world before 

me. When I participated in the summer 

European travel program led by teachers 

Florence Pressly and Cathy Jones, I 

vividly remember that as soon as we arrived 

in Great Britain for our first excursion, I 

became hooked on travel. 

After completing an undergraduate degree 

in architecture at Clemson University, I was 

commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in 

the US Army Corps of Engineers. When 

I realized that my initial assignment out 

of Jump School was sending me to rural 

Louisiana, I scrambled to get my orders 

changed to Germany. I lived four years in 

Europe, where I traveled extensively and 

learned conversational German. I enjoyed 

the exposure to several European cultures in 

every respect, especially the German culture. 

Interestingly, many German businesses have 

since located in the Greenville region. 

After graduate school, I began my career 

in architectural design in the health care 

field, which drew me to Charlotte, where 

I was reacquainted with CCES graduate 

Edith Batson ’73. At that time, Edith was 

completing her graduate degree in Christian 

Education. We married in 1994 and 

eventually set off for our greatest overseas 

adventure to date: the Persian Gulf area of 

the Middle East. 

Living in the Middle East: 

“Virtual Monday” and Holding 

Hands 

In 2000 our firm contracted with the 

government of the United Arab Emirates 

(UAE) to upgrade the health care facilities 

of their armed forces. This ambitious 

program involved hundreds of US and 

foreign professionals and over a billion 

dollars of services for the full contract. 

Edith and I moved to the capital city of Abu 

Dhabi in January of 2001, where we were 

still living on 9-11. We were treated very 

respectfully, but tension was everywhere. 

The UAE is very westernized and largely 

pro-U.S., although the official governmentrun 

media seemed obliged to rail against 

Palestinian injustice and to implicate the US 

as part of the problem. 

Edith and I remained in the Persian Gulf 

country for three years. It was a very 

positive experience for both of us. Edith 

served on the staff of our English-speaking 

church, and interacted with people from 

over 32 nationalities. It was fascinating 

to be in this strategic region during such a 

tumultuous time. I believe we have a clearer 

understanding of the geopolitical significance 

of this region as a result of having lived there. 



We also have a deeper appreciation of 

cultural differences. In navigating the culture 

in the UAE, we encountered situations and 

traditions which ran from the humorous 

to the serious. For example, the work week 

begins on Saturday because Friday is the 

holy day. We referred to Saturday as “virtual 

Monday,” but I never did get used to that. 

Our attitudes to very basic customs required 

adjustment too. In business, demonstrating 

trust is far more important to easterners than 

demonstrating capability. Westerners get 

right down to business; easterners want to 

know you as a person first. Competence is 

proven later. This, coupled with the cultural 

emphasis on hospitality in Arab culture, 

meant that every business session began with 

hot tea or coffee, even in summer. One 

of the more surprising business customs, I 

learned, is that men hold hands as a sign of 

agreement. I’ll never forget the day an Arab 

army officer friend of mine reached over and 

held my hand as we walked down the hall 

together. This was a huge compliment to 

me, but I am glad I had read about this in 

advance and was prepared! 

Shoes and Hand 

Gestures 

Outside the office there 

were also many social 

conventions to observe. 

We were careful never to 

cross our legs in a business 

or social circumstance so 

that the bottom of the shoe 

faces an Arab citizen. The 

ultimate insult is to throw a 

shoe at someone, which, as 

you may recall, is what the 

Iraqis did to the statue of 

Saddam Hussein when US 

troops overran the capital. 

We learned to be careful 

with hand gestures too. 

They mean very different 

things in different cultures. 

Sometimes a gestural error can be funny, 

sometimes decidedly not. 

Socially, men and women are separated 

in many public venues, such as hospital 

waiting rooms. They are entirely separated 

in major public events, such as weddings. 

(Edith reports that the women have a much 

better time at weddings than the men.) 

Interestingly, western women are frequently 

given preference over locals and expatriates. 

Once Edith was escorted to the front of a 

line in a bank, and although this was very 

uncomfortable for her as a westerner, and 

especially as a Southerner, she accepted it 

as being part of the culture. While Edith 

was neither obligated nor asked to wear an 

abaya, the long, black robe that is often very 

sheer, she did dress very conservatively out 

of respect for the local culture. Islamic rules 

regarding women are enforced and prevalent. 

For example, during Ramadan, Arab men 

refuse to shake a woman’s hand, especially 

a westerner’s hand. However, we did not 

live on a compound for westerners, which 

is a common practice in Saudi Arabia due 

to strict Islamic values and traditions. In 

continued on page 68 

Rip Parks 

'72 and Edith 

Batson Parks 

'73 adventuring in 

the desert during 

Rip's time in Abu 

Dhabi working 

as an architect 

on a huge United 

Arab Emirates 

government project. 



Teaching in Ukraine as a Fulbright 

Scholar: A Reaffirmation of Academic 

Integrity by Courtney Tollison ’95 

Before the summer of 2008, I knew very little about Ukraine. I did not read Cyrillic, did not speak Ukrainian 

or Russian, and knew very few people who had ever been there. My knowledge of Ukraine could have been 

summarized very briefly: borscht, the Orange Revolution, a notorious mail-order bride industry, beautiful ballet 

dancers, and the former USSR. 

155 countries, and considers Fulbright to be 

the “most widely recognized and prestigious 

international exchange program in the 

world.” 

Courtney Tollison 

’95, on the campus of 

Chernivtsi National 

University. “I have been 

spoiled by the beauty 

of the Furman campus,” 

she said, “but Chernivtsi 

was amazing as well.” 

But one afternoon that summer, I 

received an e-mail that would reshape 

much of my life for the next two years. 

The U.S. State Department’s Fulbright 

Scholar Program sought applications 

from American historians for lecturing 

and research positions in various locations 

around the world. This long-standing 

exchange program was established after 

World War II with the purpose of sending 

American scholars abroad to facilitate crosscultural 

interactions that would ostensibly 

mitigate future conflicts. Today, the State 

Department oversees Fulbright programs in 

While I had received notices about the 

Fulbright program for several years, the 

timing of the 2010 grants coincided with 

the end of a multi-year World War II 

project I was directing, and thus I read the 

e-mail with more interest. I responded, and 

ten months later, following an extensive 

application process, multiple selection 

rounds, and Homeland Security and myriad 

other checks, I received notice that President 

Obama’s Foreign Scholarship Board had 

approved my selection. I was assigned 

to teach courses in U.S. history at Yuriy 

Fedkovych Chernivtsi National University 

in Chernivtsi, a remote city in the western 

part of Ukraine just a few dozen kilometers 

north of the Romanian border. 

Challenges of Teaching in a 

Former Soviet Bloc Country 

Teaching college and graduate-level 

American history to young people with 

little background in either U.S. history 

or culture, who also espoused radically 

different attitudes regarding academic 

honesty, challenged me as a historian, 

teacher, and mentor. Many of the questions 

I received from my students and others 

focused on American pop culture, President 



Obama, and our country’s challenges with 

obesity. The Ukrainian students’ warmth 

towards me, eagerness to assist in hosting 

me, and abundant interest in certain 

periods and themes in American history 

that could provide useful lessons for them, 

such as the American Revolution, the 

Civil War, the Progressive Era, Wilsonian 

ideals, and Reagan’s approach to the Cold 

War, delighted me. Although they often 

reminded me of students I teach in the U.S., 

I noticed a stark and pernicious difference 

in terms of outlook. 

While American students are certainly 

concerned about the impact of the 

economic downturn on their immediate 

future, they nonetheless remain optimistic 

about their long-term career prospects. 

They trust that their hard work will pay off, 

that opportunities will come in a matter 

of time, that their government will remain 

stable, and that their country will provide a 

thriving place for them to live for decades to 

come. 

In contrast, many of the Ukrainian students 

were quite cynical, not only about their 

immediate future, but their long-term 

prospects as well. Simply put, they do not 

have a great deal of faith in the political 

and economic systems under which they 

live. Consequently, they are not confident 

that their investment in their education will 

yield benefits, and thus they fall prey to the 

corruption that characterizes life in Ukraine. 

Despite this lack of confidence in the 

current system, I sensed a nascent optimism 

about their country’s potential. I tried to 

be encouraging, acknowledging that while 

these problems seem so endemic they will 

never cease to be obstacles, change must 

begin with the individual. In my classes, 

I focused on individuals in American 

history, such as Thomas Jefferson, Susan 

B. Anthony, Jane Addams, Cesar Chavez, 

and Fred Shuttlesworth, who were able to 

provoke or inspire important changes in 

American political and social systems. I 

made them well aware of a famous quote 

from Mahatma Ghandi: “Be the change you 

want to see in the world.” 

A Balance Between Empathy and 

Motivation 

The lack of confidence in the value of 

education may also explain their unnerving 

disregard for academic honesty. These were 

students for whom I came to care deeply, 

so their future became important to me. In 

our discussions regarding the students’career 

prospects, I ardently sought an effective 

balance between empathy and motivation. 

The students’ cheating and plagiarism, 

however, posed a major challenge, forcing me 

to seek yet another balance. To be effective, I 

knew I needed to first understand the culture 

and history of the place in which I was living, 

and then develop a plan for introducing 

principles and methods new to them but 

familiar to us. 

I believed, and still believe fervently in the 

CCES Honor Code. Although Fulbright 

had somewhat prepared me to encounter 

such practices, seeing my Ukrainian 

colleagues’ tacit approval of rampant 

cheating and plagiarism was disquieting. 

The few colleagues I had who spoke English 

had taken a great interest in observing 

my teaching practices; when I engaged 

them in a discussion of issues relating to 

Academic Conduct, I realized many weren’t 

familiar with words such as citation, or 

the methods of footnoting or endnoting. I 

continued 

“As I fashion my historical self, 

I appreciate CCES not only for 

enhancing my interest in the 

world but also for providing 

such a solid, holistic learning 

environment.” 



“I believed, and still believe fervently in the CCES 

Honor Code… So while I came to understand… 

such attitudes, I remained personally and 

professionally committed not only to my ideals, 

but also to the continued emphasis on their 

importance in my classroom.” 

tackled the issue 

head-on in the 

classroom and in 

more intimate 

discussions with 

students, and in 

the meantime 

repeatedly 

assured myself 

that these 

practices were not intended as a statement 

of their respect, or lack thereof, towards me. 

Through such interactions, I realized that 

their attitudes were reflective of the culture 

of the Soviet Union, in which property, 

intellectual and otherwise, was communal; 

if it existed, it was to be shared. “We help 

each other here,” one student told me, 

while others nodded in agreement. They 

countered that while American students 

compete against each other, Ukrainians 

share their resources. In a country with 

a long history of challenging living 

conditions, sharing was not a virtue, but 

a necessity. So while I came to understand 

the history and lasting implications of 

a political and economic system that 

cultivated such attitudes, I remained 

personally and professionally committed 

not only to my ideals, but also to the 

continued emphasis on their importance in 

my classroom. Furthermore, the tensions 

created by our contrasting viewpoints 

forced me to articulate the rationale behind 

why American and many other educators 

and scholars feel so passionately about 

the importance of academic honesty. The 

challenges created by our cultural relativistic 

patterns resulted in a healthy exercise that 

prompted the students and me to defend 

our respective stances; in America, our 

common culture often deems this exercise 

unnecessary, but in another country, the 

ability to effectively articulate why we 

believe academic honesty to be so important 

was crucial. 

The students took an interest, but not for 

the reasons I had hoped. Although they 

recognized that learning and respecting 

certain academic principles was essential if 

they hoped to come to the U.S. to study, 

they did not seem to think it useful to 

implement such practices in their studies in 

Ukraine because the system, they told me, 

penalizes rather than rewards those students 

who abstain from such practices. 

Sadly, this cynicism and unwillingness to 

implement disciplined approaches was not 

limited to students in my classroom. As I 

travelled the country speaking on behalf 

of the US Embassy Outreach Program, I 

was able to see firsthand how Ukraine still 

battles the vestiges of many decades of Soviet 

rule, most notably widespread corruption, 

poor infrastructure, and a general distrust 

of government. From my interactions 

with the Ukrainian people, I observed that, 

while there are certain qualities that are 

ubiquitous among most human beings, one’s 

circumstances and quality of life depend 

greatly on the political, economic, and 

cultural systems one lives within. 

Serving as an Official 

International Election Observer 

However, I believe there is cause for 

optimism. Although the nation is, in effect, 

only two decades old, the Ukrainian people 

have a deep and abiding love for their 

country. This was never more apparent 

than during presidential elections that took 

place in January and February, in which I 

had the privilege of serving as an official 

international observer. The feeling of 

national patriotism and pride was palpable 

at each of the polling stations I visited and 

was evidenced by a tremendous turnout 

from young and old alike. This type of 

civic participation, deemed legitimate 

by the international media because of 

such international observation, portends 

positive changes for this young country. It 

also served as a reminder never to take the 

privilege of voting for granted. 



So while living abroad prompted a realization 

of how fortunate and blessed I am to be an 

American, I also developed an appreciation 

for the benefits of the challenges and 

inconveniences of life in Ukraine. Frequent 

power outages, a slow and spotty internet 

connection, and a television with no English 

channels (and that didn’t even work for the 

first three months because of too much snow 

on the roof) forced me to rediscover my 

passion for books. With no car, I enjoyed 

walking everywhere. The abundance of fresh 

fruits and vegetables in the small markets that 

dot every corner and the lack of a working 

microwave forced more nutritious eating 

habits. Having lived without, I no longer 

take central heating and air conditioning, 

smoothly paved sidewalks, safe drinking water, 

trustworthy healthcare, and a ready supply of 

warm shower water for granted. I lived a life 

much slower and healthier than the one I had 

when I left the US, and I loved it. 

As I reflect on this experience, I am 

reminded of a speech that David Shi, an 

historian and the recently retired President 

of Furman, gave several years ago. “The root 

of the word ‘history’ is story,” he said, “and 

as such it recognizes our human impulse 

to fashion our historical selves into stories. 

We are all practicing historians. As we go 

through life we represent ourselves through 

our life story….We savor the events and 

experiences, the people and relationships 

that enhanced our lives.” 

As I fashion my historical self, I appreciate 

CCES not only for enhancing my interest 

in the world but also for providing such a 

solid, holistic learning environment. I value 

Ukraine for serving as a fertile forum for 

true cultural exchange. Not only was I able 

to learn from the many positive aspects of 

Ukraine and its people, but I was afforded 

the unique opportunity to better appreciate 

and understand my own country, as well 

as the values and principles which make 

America exceptional. ■ 

Dr. Courtney Tollison teaches history at Furman 

University and serves as Museum Historian at 

the Upcountry History Museum in Greenville. 

Just before leaving Ukraine, her book, World 

War II and Upcountry South Carolina: “We 

Just Did Everything We Could,” was released 

in coordination with the opening of an exhibit 

she curated at the Upcountry History Museum, 

“Weaving Our Survival: Upcountry Stories of 

WWII.” The exhibit will run through November 

14, 2010. 

Wearing authentic-looking 

fur hats, Courtney, left, 

and CCES friend Anne 

Genevieve Gallivan ’94 

huddle against the wintry 

cold in front of Saint 

Sophia, an 11 th century 

Ukrainian Orthodox 

Church, in central Kyiv. 


The CCES 50th Anniversary 

The CCES Birthday BASH: 

A Party 50 Years in the Making! 

What is a birthday without a birthday party, especially when it’s a 50 th birthday? Well, CCES had a grand party— 

and it was a BASH! 

1) Guests toasted the 

school’s next 50 years with 

champagne. 

2) The atmosphere was 

elegant—and relaxed—as 

guests enjoyed the buffet 

and the company of 

acquaintances. 

3) Guests are confronted 

with photos from their past, 

including the silly poses, big 

hair, and very short basketball 

shorts! 

4) Billed as one of South’s 

premiere dance bands, Liquid 

Pleasure kept the party 

moving to a lively beat. 

5) Longtime faculty members 

offered memories and toasts: 

at the microphone, Upper 

School biology teacher 

Reggie Titmas; behind 

him, from left, Teacher- 

Administrator Emerita Jean 

Cochran and English teacher 

Barbara Carter. Middle 

School math teacher Ginny 

Tate (not pictured) also 

offered a faculty toast to past 

and future students. 

6) Party-goers pause to linger 

at the posters celebrating 

each of the “50 Favorite 

Faces” selected by the CCES 

community. (See the pullout 

poster, centerfold, of all 50 

Favorite Faces.) 

On Saturday, March 20, during Alumni 

Celebration Week, the CCES Alumni 

Association sponsored a birthday party for 

the entire school family: alumni, parents 

of alumni, faculty, former faculty, current 

parents—in fact, anyone who has been a 

part of the school during its first 50 years. 

Alumni Association President Elizabeth 

Marion ’01, Bentley DeGarmo ’97, 

and Liza Wilson Ragsdale ’99 headed 

up the committee of alumni who worked 

to make the BASH such a success: Dena 

Stone Benedict ’78, Betsy Goldsmith 

Varin ’78, Jennifer Taylor Sterling ’80, 

Angela Keown Hart ’81, Preston Gibson 

McAfee ’81, Allison Martin Mertens ’81, 

and Chelle Zimmerman Kelaher ’86. A 

committee of parents also brought fun and 

sparkle to the event; many thanks to Lisa 

Ashmore, Stephanie Bauknight, Julie 

McKissick, Lisa Nalley, Allison Spinks, 

and former faculty member and alumna 

parent Joyce Parks. (Thanks also to our 

wonderful CCES maintenance crew for 

their amazing work!) 

McCall Field House, one of the original 

buildings on the Wenwood campus, 

1 

was transformed for the BASH. With 

a large tent, a great band, and round 

tables decorated with gently lit cherry 

blossom branches, the gym never looked 

so beautiful! Guests entered through a 

“Tunnel Through Time” draped with 

Cavalier-blue fabric and dozens of amusing 

and sentimental photos from 50 years of 

The Hellenian. Posters of the “50 Favorite 

Faces of CCES,” who had been nominated 

by alumni, parents, faculty, former 

faculty, and students, were displayed, 

drawing many guests for conversation and 

reminiscences. 

Liquid Pleasure played toe-tapping music 

from every decade of the school’s history, 

luring many to the dance floor for a little 

exercise. Toward the close of the evening 

President Lee Cox introduced faculty 

members Barbara Carter, Ginny Tate, Jean 

Cochran, and Reggie Titmus, who each 

gave a champagne toast celebrating the last 

50 years and anticipating the next 50. 

Many thanks to all the volunteers, displaced 

PE teachers, and guests who made this 

historic evening so memorable. 



2 

3 

4 5 

6 

Guests entered through 

a "Tunnel Through Time" 

draped with Cavalierblue 

fabric and dozens of 

amusing and sentimental 

photos from 50 years of 

The Hellenian. 



Pastor Hobby Outten ’85 

Celebrates Alumni Chapel Service 

To celebrate the school’s 50 years as a community of faith, an Alumni Chapel service was 

held as part of Alumni Celebration Weekend on Sunday, March 21, 2010. With special 

permission from the bishop, Lutheran minister Hobby Outten ’85 served as celebrant, along 

with his longtime friend, Father Richard Grimball and Chaplains Valerie Riddle and Joe 

Britt. It was another historic event: the first alumni church service performed in the Chapel 

of the Good Shepherd on the Cavalier campus. Outten served as guest pastor from the 

Resurrection Evangelical Lutheran Church in Kings Mountain, NC. The turnout of alumni, 

former faculty, current faculty and parents of alumni far 

exceeded expectations, and plans are being made to hold an 

alumni chapel service again next year. 

Many thanks to Lower School music teacher Joy Hughes for 

providing music and to parent volunteer Betsy Elliott for 

the lovely flowers and for her assistance. ■ 

Who could have 

predicted that there 

would come a day 

when former CCES 

English teacher Jackie 

Suber would be 

looking up to Pastor 

Hobby Outten ’85? 

Middle School Chaplain Joe Britt, Senior Chaplain Richard Grimball, Reverend Hobby Outten 

’85 and Lower School Chaplain Valerie Riddle led the first Alumni Chapel Service to be held in the 

Chapel of the Good Shepherd. 



CCES Explores Its “Oral History” at 

Museum: Who Said History is Dull? 

On March 24 the Upcountry History Museum in Greenville hosted an unusual forum entitled “Christ Church 

Episcopal School: Untold Stories.” 

It was a “gotcha moment” when, during 

introductions by moderator Alice Baird, far 

left, a photo of Dena Stone as a sixth-grader 

with teacher Barbara Harrison, flashed 

on the screen behind her. Fellow panelists 

Barbara Carter, Jean Cochran, and John 

Kittredge ’75 were more amused than she. 

The event, part of the museum’s monthly 

“Lunch and Learn” series, featured a 

panel of CCES luminaries with l-o-n-g 

memories: English teacher Barbara 

Carter, Teacher Emeritus Jean Cochran, 

South Carolina Supreme Court Justice 

John Kittredge ’75, Headmaster Emeritus 

Jim Rumrill, and alumna and current 

parent Dena Benedict Stone ’78. The 

panel was moderated by Director of 

Communications Alice Baird. 

The forum was billed as an “oral history” of 

CCES, unlike the “official history” that is 

told in The First 50 Years of Christ Church 

Episcopal School: A Journey to Remember, by 

Allison Betette Warren ’82. And, as oral 

histories are wont to do, the stories told 

veered toward the I-really-can’t-believe-that 

humorous, with memories of outrageous 

student escapades, outraged teachers, and 

unlikely beginnings. 

But, always, the discussion came back to 

the tried-and-true values that have sustained 

CCES over the decades and the real 

affection both audience and panelists shared 

for this 50-years-young institution. 

History—why, even the history of a 

school—doesn’t have to be dull! ■ 

Still laughing after the discussion at the museum were the panelists, from left, 

CCES graduate, parent, and volunteer extraordinaire Dena Benedict Stone ’78; 

South Carolina Supreme Court Justice John Kittredge ’75, whose perspectives 

as a CCES student were somewhat tempered by time and his experiences as the 

parent of three graduates; legendary English teacher Barbara Carter, feared by 

a generation of students but loved by a generation of alumni; Teacher Emerita 

Jean Cochran, known as the school’s First Teacher, strict but beloved; and 

Headmaster Emeritus Jim Rumrill, whose frankness during the discussion was 

both entertaining—and moving. 



Upcountry History Museum 

Hosts CCES Exhibit 

Just in case you had any doubts that the 50 th anniversary of CCES was indeed historic, the Upcountry History Museum 

hosted an exhibit entitled “Christ Church Episcopal School: Growing with Greenville” from April 15 – June 1. 

Below, Dena Stone Benedict 

’78 points to a plaque honoring 

nephew Randy Stone ’09’s varsity 

wrestling record on the exhibit’s 

athletic wall, while his father, 

Roger Stone, beams with pride. 

Visitors, including Board Chair 

Edgar Norris, center, peruse the 

CCES 50 th anniversary exhibit at the 

Upcountry History Museum. 

Conceived and produced by CCES 

Communications Director Alice Baird, the 

exhibit was designed “to capture the energy that 

defines CCES.” Objects on display showcased 

the school’s spiritual strength, athletic and 

academic prowess, artistic accomplishments, 

and the versatile creativity of both students and 

teachers. “We even tried to capture some of 

the fun of being a Cavalier by displaying a few 

selected CCES tee shirts from Barbara Carter’s 

collection,” noted Ms. Baird. 

Two highlights of the eclectic exhibit were 

the Faculty Wall of Fame and a display 

case honoring the school’s Episcopal roots. 

The Wall of Fame included portraits of 22 

teachers and staff members, each of whom 

had served CCES for 25 years or more—in 

other words, for at least half the life of 

the school! The display case evoking the 

beauty inherent in the school’s religious 

traditions contained items contributed 

by Senior Chaplain Richard Grimball, 

including a white chasuble sewn for him by 

his mother. 

A 12-foot-long timeline of events in 

the history of the school, the growth 

of Greenville, and milestones in U.S. 

education was complemented by student 

art pieces depicting Greenville, aerial 

maps of the Cavalier Campus, portraits 

of the Classes of 1972 and 2009, and a 

recent portrait of the first four-generation 

CCES family (The Rev. Tom Carson, 

with daughter Kay Carson Vaughan ’65, 

granddaughter Kathy Vaughan Jones ’93, 

and great-grandson Will Jones ’22). 

A glass-topped credenza featured fascinating 

Senior Projects loaned by Barbara Carter, 

a magnificent “Freshman Bug Box” 

contributed by Reggie Titmas, trophies 

representing a few of the school’s many 

athletic championships, and an SAT trophy 

acknowledging our students’ academic 

dominance in South Carolina. A small 

display of Molly Aiken’s original musical 

score for Hats, which she wrote for her 

students and which they performed in 

continued on opposite page 



50 th Anniversary Alumni Basketball 

Reunion: They Still Got Game! 

Proving that they are high flyers and finesse players still, 15 former CCES Cavaliers representing all decades in 

the school’s history turned out on January 10, 2010, for the first-ever All-Alumni Basketball Reunion. The event 

took place in McCall Field House between the varsity girls and boys games against Landrum that evening. 

Did we say “former 

Cavaliers”? There’s 

no such thing—once 

a Cavalier, always a 

Cavalier! 

Following introductions by Rodney 

Hinton, President of the 2009-2010 

Booster Club, the alumni were split into 

two groups for an Around-the-World 

competition. The former Cavaliers 

who put it all out there on the court 

included two players from the first CCES 

boys basketball team, Bill Bannon ’72 

and CCES Sports-Hall-of-Famer Rick 

Knight ’74. Another Sports Hall of Fame 

member, Nancy Yeargin Furman ’73, 

took it to the hoops a few times, as did 

Jim Doolittle ’73, Martha McKissick 

’82, Mike Sierra ’82, Bibby Harris 

Sierra ’83, Gwinn Earle Kneeland ’85, 

Chelle Kelaher ’86, Tod Hyche ’86, 

Jonathan Breazeale ’87, Montague 

Laffitte ’96, Brett Lanzl ’02, Brett 

Rhyne ’06, and Chandler Catazaro ’09. 

Good sports all, they scored a good time 

and proved they “still got game”! 

Upcountry History Museum continued from previous page 

Edinburgh, Scotland, along with Marilyn Mullinax’s stained glass interpretation of the 

school seal, offered a tiny glimpse of the caliber of our talented faculty. 

The exhibit could not possibly pay tribute to all the people who have left their mark on 

CCES in 50 years, but it conveyed the vitality of the school and its pursuit of excellence in 

all areas. ■ 


Portrait in Philanthropy 

School Board Chair Edgar M. 

Norris, Jr.: Belief in the School, 

Faith in Its Future by Alice Baird 

In May, a few days before Commencement, I sat down with Edgar Norris at his offices downtown to discuss 

his steadfast investment of time, talents, and resources in CCES. His is a commitment that has extended years 

beyond the graduation of his last child to attend the school, Anne Keating Norris ’05. What emerged is a 

picture of his fidelity to a family tradition of philanthropy, and of his intensely held belief in the school’s power to 

transform individual lives—and the life of the Greenville community. 

Over the years in Greenville, you have 

served on numerous community boards, 

such as the Greenville Symphony and 

the Furman Advisory Board, and you 

have supported numerous non-profit 

organizations here. Yet, clearly, CCES 

has become a personal philanthropic 

priority. Why? 

My father has always had a strong belief in 

education. He had seven grandchildren, and 

they all attended CCES. He recognized the 

strong academic programs at the school, and 

he knew that the talented faculty delivered 

remarkable results. He supported the future 

of CCES by giving to the school endowment. 

Like him, I understand the value of an 

independent education. I spent five years 

in boarding school at the Woodbury Forest 

School in Orange, VA, and the education 

I received there was one of the greatest 

building blocks for the rest of my life. 

While my last child graduated from CCES 

in 2005, I had three children before her who 

benefitted from the school’s talented faculty. 

I began a school board term in 2001, and 

today, even after nine years on the board, 

I have as much love and enthusiasm 

for CCES as ever. The last ten years in 

the life of the school have seen so many 

accomplishments through the leadership of 

Dr. Lee Cox, and this has inspired me and 

others to remain connected to Greenville’s 

most important college preparatory school. 

Even if I didn’t have grandchildren, I would 

want this institution to be successful beyond 

my lifetime. There were a lot of people 

before me who made it possible for my 

children to attend CCES, and I want to do 

the same for tomorrow’s students. 

Philanthropy is something that is partly 

learned, through family traditions and 

history. Look at the example of Bill and 

Linda Gates and Warren Buffet. They are 

not leaving the bulk of their fortunes to 

their families. Their wealth, coupled with 

their philanthropic visions, will have a huge 

impact on society. Of course, even if you’re 

not Bill Gates, you can have an impact. I 

wanted to focus on helping one institution 

primarily, and that is CCES. And through 

my support of the school, I believe I am also 

strengthening Greenville. 

Your support of the school has included 

substantial cash gifts, but you have also 

given gifts of life insurance and stock. Is 

this a good way to support CCES? 

Gifts of stock or appreciated securities 

are a popular way to fund charitable 

gifts. This method is often a win-win for 

the donor and the recipient, offering tax 

advantages to the giver and tangible assets 



to the institution. Unfortunately, since the 

economic downturn, a lot of people have 

seen the appreciation in their investments 

vanish. Deferred gifts are another option. 

Perhaps they have a life insurance policy 

they no longer need, or an asset they no 

longer need to secure their personal financial 

goals. Another method is a direct bequest 

through a testamentary gift by will. 

Everyone’s situation is different. Younger 

families may not have the ability to give away 

assets at the present time or even during 

their lifetimes. In that case, they can further 

their philanthropic goals through gifts of life 

insurance, bequests, or charitable remainder 

trusts. Institutions may not benefit 

immediately from deferred gifts, but they are 

valuable in helping to plan for the future. 

In recent years the School Board has 

made increasing our endowment 

a priority. CCES currently has an 

endowment of some $11 million. Why 

isn’t that adequate? 

For those who have the ability, a gift to the 

endowment is a gift “in perpetuity.” It is a 

gift that lives on, ensuring an institution’s 

long-term sustainability. A one million 

dollar addition to endowment would 

provide the equivalent of approximately 

three full tuitions per year. These are 

monies that would otherwise need to come 

from the school’s operating budget through 

tuition. 

Endowment helps us attract diverse 

student populations and provide aid to 

children with need—I think everybody 

at some point in their lives has some kind 

of need and has the right to call on others 

for assistance. Endowment also helps us 

ensure the quality of the faculty. They are 

the ones who deliver value to individual 

students, and in order to attract and retain 

quality faculty at competitive salaries 

without having huge increases in tuition, 

we need a strong endowment. 

Christ Church School’s reliance on tuition 

revenues is way too high. Compared to 

other institutions we benchmark against, 

our endowment is about half of where it’s 

supposed to be. A large endowment allows 

the school to moderate tuition increases and 

to keep tuition reasonable and affordable for 

the entire school family. 

Christ Church School is a critically 

important asset for the Greenville 

community and in order to ensure its 

future, we have to have more endowment. 

It is my desire, along with my wife 

Stephanie, to look to the school’s future 

needs to help secure it financially. We 

particularly want to see help for minority 

students with great promise and need. This 

is why I am committing to a sacrificial gift 

to the school’s endowment, in the form of 

both current and deferred gifts. 

You asked me earlier why I give, and the 

answer is that I just love the school. It 

becomes easy to give when you have such 

connection and love for what CCES does for 

our community. That connection lives on, 

even though my children are no longer there. 

Being a CCES parent was such a large part 

of my life it would seem odd to break that 

continued 

Elizabeth Monroe 

’10, along with other 

members of the 

Student Council, serve 

School Board Chair 

Edgar Norris at the 

Annual Giving Pancake 

Breakfast held on 

February 16. 



It becomes easy to give 

when you have such 

connection and love for 

what CCES does for our 

community. 

connection. And seeing how my mother and 

father both loved the school, and then my 

bringing Francis Smith there and having him 

be adopted by the school, it was easy for me to 

make giving to CCES my personal priority. 

That was really such a special chapter in 

the school’s history. 

It really was. Dr. Smith was like a father 

to me, and it was a privilege for me to 

introduce him to CCES. His initial 

motivation was to do something to honor 

his wife while he was still living. He wanted 

to give back to the community where he 

had lived all of his adult life. But once 

he got to know CCES and the school 

increasingly adopted him, what started as 

a memorial gift to build the chapel became 

so much more than that. The connection 

and love that grew up between him and the 

school was something very special. 

As is your connection and love for CCES. 

Thank you, Edgar. ■ 

Editor’s Note: The Chapel of the Good 

Shepherd was given by Dr. Francis T. Smith, 

whose extraordinary gift and generosity of spirit 

helped to create both a lasting memorial to 

his wife, Martha, and a profound impact on 

generations of CCES students. 

A Lifelong Global Outlook continued from page 51 

the UAE, we lived in an upscale apartment 

complex with other Emiratees and western 

professionals. It was no different than life 

in any major city of the world, with the 

exception that there was a mosque on almost 

every street corner awakening the faithful to 

prayer at 5 in the morning. 

Beware of Road Surprises 

My favorite road sign in the UAE read, 

“Beware of road surprises,” a reference 

to the locals’ dangerous driving and love 

of speed. Paved roads are a relatively new 

phenomenon in the desert, and perhaps 

that is why the average street curb is 12 – 

18 inches high, compared to our standard 

6-inch-high curb. But “beware of road 

surprises” can also be a reminder to any 

expatriate that there is always something 

new to be learned, something exciting and 

unpredictable to be experienced in a foreign 

land. 

Since we returned from the Middle East 

in late 2003, we have traveled to distant 

locations such as Mauritius, Thailand, 

and New Zealand. We actively promote 

international travel to the next generation of 

our family. Edith and I returned this past 

summer from a tour of Morocco, where 

we took our niece, Adele Stewart, daughter 

of Caroline Batson Stewart ’75, now a 

freshman at Georgetown University. As a 

result of her travels to Morocco, Adele has 

signed up for an international exchange 

program through Georgetown. While in 

Morocco, the three of us were guests of a 

US embassy official whom Edith and I met 

while living in the UAE. Living overseas 

exposed me to the US government officials 

posted in various nations around the world. 

The US Foreign Service is certainly worth 

examining as a career field. 

With technology, the world has flattened 

dramatically. The current students at 

CCES will live in a highly integrated and 

interconnected global community, which 

they must be prepared to embrace. Today 

the International Baccalaureate programs at 

CCES have somewhat formalized this global 

outlook as part of the curriculum. But it 

was always there. In fact, for me, it started 

a generation ago as a member of Christ 

Church’s first graduating class. ■ 

Rip Parks, AIA, ACHA is managing principal 

of DesignStrategies in Greenville, SC. He is 

a graduate of Clemson University, Boston 

University, and Washington University in St. 

Louis. 


aCCESs 

Alumni News 

A Message from Your CCES 

Alumni Association President 

As your CCES Alumni Association president, I write to you with enthusiasm and 

school pride to update you on the upcoming association activities. 

We have now concluded our yearlong celebration of the first 50 great years at 

CCES. Hopefully, you had an opportunity to join your classmates for one of 

the many fabulous and successful events hosted during this time. If you did not, 

I encourage you to find time not only to visit the school and see for yourself the 

growth and excitement the school has experienced, but also to reach out to a 

classmate and rekindle that Cavalier friendship. No matter how long it has been, 

we all still share the Cavalier bond that is filled with pride, spirit, and long-lasting 

memories. A special “thank you” to all of those alumni who participated in, hosted, 

or helped to coordinate the commemorative activities. 

Many of us appreciate and recognize the opportunities that CCES has provided. 

As alumni, we must strive to strengthen, protect and improve CCES so that future 

students will experience the same opportunities we have, if not more. This year 

the Alumni Association will host a Clay Shooting Tournament, Alumni Christmas 

Party, Oyster Roast, and Golf Tournament, and will participate in the school fundraising 

gala, the Cavalier Evening. 

I am excited to share with you a new concept being launched this year. We are 

starting the Cavalier Alumni Club, a group of alumni dedicated to achieving the 

above-mentioned goals via events and activities. Each city will have its own local 

chapter of the Cavalier Club. Please look for more information coming to you this 

fall and consider taking an active role in the new Cavalier Club. 

As president it is my goal to continue the forward momentum of the Alumni 

Association. It is my intention to do so by continuing the activities of last year’s 

board. Along with those activities, we will add additional opportunities for alumni 

and others to participate in the growth of CCES. 

The Cavalier students’ enthusiasm and achievements continue to exceed previous 

levels of accomplishments; you don’t want to miss out on sharing the pride that 

comes with each of these new milestones. I urge each of you to make the time to 

get involved, enjoy attending alumni events, or just coming to a school sporting 

event or artistic performance. You’ll be reminded, once again, of what a great place 

CCES continues to be. 

Hope to see you this fall, 

2010-11 CCES Alumni 

Association Governing Board 

Elizabeth Reyner Gross ’87 

President 

Bern DuPree ’98 

Vice President 

Debi Reyner Roberts ’88 

Secretary 

Kelly Sherman Ramirez ’83 

Treasurer 

Scott Burgess ’03 

Ernest Crosby ’95 

Rob Eney ’96 

Dorthe Hall ’03 

Marie Clay Hall ’75 

Andreana Horowitz ’03 

John Jennings ’84 

Silvia Travis King ’96 

Blair Dobson Miller ’00 

Gunn Murphy ’03 

Park Owings ’82 

Martha Wilson Quinn ’80 

Taite Quinn ’03 

Liza Wilson Ragsdale ’99 

Bill Runge ’87 

Katherine Russell Sagedy ’89 

Elizabeth Marion Short ’01 

Jennifer Taylor Sterling ’80 

Courtney Tollison ’95 

Frank Williams ’82 

Elizabeth Reyner Gross ’87 

2010-2011 President 

CCES Alumni Association 


Alumni News 

2010-11 Calendar of Alumni Events 

Save These Dates! 

August 

16 Alumni Association Board Meeting 

September 


17 Cavalier Sporting Clay Tournament, 

RiverBend Sportsman Resort, Inman, SC 

October 

1 Homecoming/ Sports Hall of Fame Induction, VIP Dinner, 

Upper School, Dining Room 


November 


December 


23 Alumni Christmas Party, TBA 

January 


21 Alumni Phonathons 

February 


TBA Oyster Roast, TBA 

March 


18 Cavalier Classic Golf Tournament 

25-27 Alumni Celebration Week: Alumni Career Program, Alumni Reunion Parties 

(Classes of 1976, 1981, 1986, 1991, 1996, 2001, 2006), Alumnae vs. Varsity 

Field Hockey Game and Family Picnic, Alumni Chapel; various locations 

April 


30 A Cavalier Evening, Carolina First Center 

May 


28 Commencement, Christ Church downtown 


Alumni News 

The Art of Successful Failure: 

Remarks by Missy Park ’80 

Alumni Career Program Keynote 

Speaker March 19, 2010 

Missy Park is the Founder and President of Title Nine, a multi-channel retailer that focuses on women’s athletic 

apparel and sportswear that is comfortable, functional, and looks great. A National Merit Semifinalist and fivesport 

athlete, she was voted Most Athletic in the yearbook and was inducted into the CCES Sports Hall of Fame 

in 1999. 

My career, really my life story, is not a story of 

one success piling rapidly on top of the next. 

I subscribe more to the Winston Churchill 

school of thought: “Success is moving 

enthusiastically from failure to failure.” That’s 

what I’d like to talk to about today: this idea of 

failing faster to succeed sooner. 

Whatever success I’ve had in life, I attribute 

to the fact that I am very, very good at 

failure. I try to do it quickly and cheaply, I 

take what learning I can from my mistakes, 

and then I forget them. I try not to dwell on 

them and to move on quickly. And a funny 

thing happens as I move enthusiastically 

from failure to failure: I actually start to get 

better at what I’m doing. 

In seventh grade, I tried out for the junior 

varsity basketball team but didn’t make the 

cut. That just taught me that I had to get a 

better jump shot. [Editor’s Note: In Grade 8, 

she won the basketball Most Improved Award.] 

When I put together my first catalog Title 

Nine catalog, I mailed the 30,000 copies 

I could afford, even though everyone said 

I needed to mail 250,000. I got exactly 

13 orders—four from folks I didn’t know. 

Smarter people might have quit. But I 

noticed something about every one of those 

first 13 orders: each one included a sports 

bra. You better believe we included a lot 

more sports bras in our next catalogs. Today, 

we mail out over 30 million 

catalogs, and we sell close to half 

a million sports bras a year. 

That first catalog was ugly and a 

failure by anybody’s estimation. 

But it was cheap, and we got a 

whole lot of learning without 

losing our shirts. And what we 

learned from that failure paved 

the way for the successes we’re 

experiencing now. 

We are so serious about the 

value of failure that every year 

Title Nine holds a Big Mistake 

Contest for our employees. It’s 

one way we share what we have learned. 

But once we’ve made the mistakes and learn 

from them, we move on. Then it’s time to 

move on to new mistakes, new learning. 

The Perfect Time to Learn the Art 

of Successful Failure 

If you ask me, high school is the perfect 

time to begin to learn the art of successful 

failure. It’s the time to make mistakes and 

practice failure with gusto. While the stakes 

may seem high to you now, trust me when I 

tell you that the stakes only get higher. 

And CCES has created the perfect 

environment for each of you to learn how 

continued 

She may be the 

successful President 

of a thriving multimillion 

dollar company, 

but Missy Park ’80 

is enthusiastic about 

failure. 


Alumni News 

Georgia Haas and Katie 

Thomason, senior co-captains 

of the CCES 2010 Girls’ State 

Champion Basketball Team, 

surprised Missy Park with the 

gift of a basketball signed 

by the whole team. It now 

occupies a place of honor in the 

offices of Title Nine. 

to make mistakes, to push you outside your 

comfort zone, right up to and over the brink 

of failure. And that brink, that place called 

failure—well, that is the learning place. 

Seniors, your Senior Theses are soon due. 

Guess what? They are not all going to go 

perfectly, but regardless of how they go, 

you’ve already put yourself on the road 

to success by attempting something quite 

difficult. You’ve probably learned things 

that would not have been possible had you 

stayed within your comfort zone. 

To this year’s casts of South Pacific and A 

Midsummer Night’s Dream—I’m guessing 

each of you who participated in those 

productions had some moments of failure 

and learning on your way to success. 

And how about that girls basketball state 

championship team? Just one big success, 

right? Well, actually, wrong. I watched 

the video of the entire game on the school’s 

website, and even in that championship 

game there were plenty of mistakes. But 

the team came up with new strategies and 

pulled together. It worked. They won. 

Mistakes Are Our Friend, 

Failure Our Teacher 

Mistakes are our friend, failure our teacher. 

But unless we are 

willing to risk the 

mistake, we forego 

the opportunity 

to learn. CCES 

provides many 

opportunities 

for failure—and 

success. There are 

39 sports teams, 

small classes, the 

Blue Belles, the 

Cavalier Express, 

the Hellenian, and 

both AP and IB 

curricula, to name 

a few. 

“Whatever success I’ve had 

in life, I have to attribute to 

the fact that I am very, very 

good at failure.” 

Now, folks might not have told you this, 

but all of the activities and opportunities 

available here, combined with the small and 

nurturing environment that is CCES, are 

set up to allow each and every one of you to 

learn from failure. 

To sum up, I want to offer a primer on 

Successful Failure in High School: 

1. The most important step is to start. Just 

do it! The easiest way to start is to start 

small: start with lay-ups and then move 

up to three-pointers. 

2. Do something every day that makes you 

a little nervous, something where the 

outcome is in doubt, and do it for the 

rest of your life. Raise your hand in class, 

run for student government, try out for 

a play or a sport, write an article for the 

Cavalier Express. Note that I did not say 

make a team, get elected to office. The 

value and the learning come from the 

process of trying and trying and trying 

and learning and learning and learning. 

3. A successful failure depends on what 

you learn and not what other people 

think. Nowhere in the anatomy of a 

successful failure do I talk about what 

other people think of your failure or 

performance. There is no better time 

or place to practice and learn successful 

failure than in high school. 

And there is probably no better school than 

CCES. 

So, go out there and fail, fail with gusto, 

and fail with enthusiasm, fail publicly and 

fail privately, but above all, fail faster and 

learn quickly. Make that your formula for 

success. ■ 


Alumni News 

Alumni Oyster Roast Draws a Crowd 

Whether it was the free oysters, a chance to escape the wintry chill of February, or the opportunity to mingle with 

friends and former teachers, the Alumni Oyster Roast on February 18 drew a crowd at Oysters on the West End. 

Greenville area alumni are welcome to next February’s oyster roast. Even if you don’t like oysters, you’ll like the 

fellowship and the conversation! 

It may have been the free oysters, 

it may have been the friends, 

that drew, from left, Allison 

Buck Ellis ’00, Bart Ellis ’96, 

Foster McKissick ’00, Michael 

Short and his (then) future wife, 

Elizabeth Marion ’01, to the 

Alumni Oyster Roast last February. 

The Class of 1993 was well 

represented. Catching up on all 

the latest, from left, were former 

classmates Lillian Prevost 

Monroe, Wesley Walker, 

Christine Baldwin Perkins, 

Leigh Ann Wellons, and Kathy 

Vaughn Jones. 

Silvia Travis King ’96, far left, 

chaired the party, which was 

sponsored by the CCES Alumni 

Association. She was joined by 

Dorthe Hall ’03, Greta Reed 

’00, Allison Buck Ellis ’00, and 

former science teacher Diana 

Stafford for a photo. 


Alumni News 

Matt Brashier ’10 Selected 

for 2010 Billy Richardson 

Sportsmanship Award 

Matt Brashier ’10, characterized by CCES 

Head Football Coach Don Frost as “a 

good leader who always practiced good 

sportsmanship on and off the field,” was 

honored with the 2010 Billy Richardson 

Sportsmanship Award. The award was 

established by the Class of 1981 to honor 

the memory of classmate Billy Richardson 

and is given each year to a deserving 

member of the football team who “best 

portrays the same qualities so admired in 

Billy: a true team player who displays the 

utmost in sportsmanship and in dedication 

to his team.” The award was presented 

to Brashier at the annual football banquet 

held on January 10, 2010. Billy’s parents 

and sisters Kitty Richardson Allen ’76, 

Gladys Richardson Wooten ’83, and 

Liz Richardson Ursy were on hand to 

congratulate Matt and his family. ■ 

From left, Matt’s parents, Angela and Ted Brashier, Coach Don Frost, award-winner Matt 

Brashier, and Billy Richardson’s parents, Lib and Billy Richardson, at the presentation in honor 

of Billy Richardson ’81. 


Alumni News 

Cavalier Classic Golf 

Tournament Raises $8,000 

Many thanks to sponsor Kent Wool, our 

loyal golfers and volunteers for making the 

2010 Cavalier Classic such a success! A 

change in venue brought participants to 

the beautiful Furman Golf Club, where the 

Alumni Association played hard in order to 

be able to donate $8,000 to the Dr. Georgia 

Frothingham Scholarship Endowment. 

This endowment, named for the beloved 

Latin teacher, provides financial aid to 

children of alumni. 

Mark your calendar now for the 2011 

Cavalier Classic to be held on March 18, 

2011. Any interested players, eighteen years 

and older, are welcome to participate and 

compete for bragging rights. ■ 

All smiles for this year’s winning 

team! They are former School 

Board Chair Rod Grandy, current 

CCES parents Ron Rasmussen and 

Tom Fox, and current school board 

member Mark Daniels. 

Many thanks to the Alumni Golf 

Tournament Committee volunteers 

who organized the tournament. Here, 

taking a well-deserved break, are, 

from left, Andreana Horowitz ’03, 

Golf Chair Debi Reyner Roberts 

’88, Kelly Sherman Ramirez ’83, 

Slivia Travis King ’96, and Co-Chair 

Dorthe Hall ’03. 


Alumni News 

Alumnae Field Hockey: 

Stickin’ With It! 

The annual Alumnae Field Hockey 

game always draws a crowd during 

Alumni Celebration Weekend. 

These women love to compete 

against the “kids” on the current 

varsity team—and, as usual, to win! 

Once a coach, always a coach. 

Three former CCES field hockey 

coaches, from left, Ann Hassold, 

Diana Stafford, and Connie Lanzl, 

line up with current coach 

Lindsay Mosley. 


Alumni News 

Alumni Weekend Tennis: 

We Are the Champions! 

Bottom, at the alumni tennis matches 

held during Alumni Celebration 

Weekend, Chelle Zimmerman 

Kelaher ’86 shows her great form 

with this forehand shot... 

…and Libba Galloway ’75 springs 

into action to win the point! 


Alumni News 

Southern Hospitality, CCES Style! 

CCES on the Road made it to Charleston, 

SC, on December 3, 2009, for a taste of 

southern hospitality at its best. Wendy 

and Allen Gibson ’75 kindly opened their 

beautiful, shot-gun style home, just a few 

blocks from the Battery, to all Charleston 

area alumni, and what a lovely evening it was! 

Kicking off the Christmas season with 

CCES President Lee Cox and Headmaster 

Leonard Kupersmith were CCES alumni 

John Blincow ’77; Sally McKissick Coen 

’81 and her husband, Richard; Barbara 

and Rod Connell ’75; Joe Nicholson 

’83; Amanda Travis Parrott ’97 and her 

husband, Will Parrott ’97; new father 

Andy Schwartz ’97; and Manning and 

Rebekah Hughes Unger ’90. 

Allen Gibson ’75 and 

his wife Wendy extended 

their gracious hospitality 

for a CCES on the Road 

reunion in Charleston last 

December. 

If you are living in the Charleston area and 

don’t want to miss the next CCES on the 

Road, please send your e-mail and mailing 

address to the CCES Alumni Office at 

tillv@cces.org or go to our website and click 

“Update Your Information” on the alumni 

page. Hope to see ya’ll next time! ■ 

CCES on the Road in New York 

Mary Jane Hipp ’63 and 

Charlie Brock in the foyer 

of their home in New York 

City. Mary Jane graciously 

hosted 20 CCES alumni, 

administrators, and guests 

in a January “CCES on the 

Road” reunion. 


Alumni Celebration Week: Class Reunions 

The Class of 1975: 

Sweet (Edible) Memories 

From top to bottom: 

The Class of 1975 is leaving a special legacy 

at CCES, as several have children who are 

second-generation CCES alumni and current 

students. In that special group are Spiro 

Conits, Marie Clay Hall, John Kittredge, 

Caroline Richardson Mahaffey, Smyth 

McKissick, Charlie and Rachel Ellison 

Mickel, Jeff Outten, Doug Page, Musette 

Williams Stern, and Roger Stone. 

Ah, such sweet memories! 

From left, favorite reunion party guest Jackie 

Suber with “retired” class agents Marie Clay 

Hall, Roger Stone, and his wife, Debbie. 

Marie and Roger arranged the party, and the 

Stones opened their home for the gathering. 




A Very Special Guest Appearance 

Class agent Jack Rogers gathered the Class 

of 1980 together for a two-part reunion 

party that began with drinks at Barley’s 

Tap Room in downtown Greenville and 

continued with a brief walk to Soby’s for a 

stylish dinner. Headmaster Emeritus Rufus 

Bethea expressed his special affection for 

the class by making a guest appearance at 

their 30 th reunion. ■ 

Headmaster Emeritus Rufus Bethea ponders a 

question from Susan Strain Brownlee at the 

30 th reunion of the Class of 1980. 

From left, Holly Horton McCall and her 

husband, Jeff McCall, with class agent Jack 

Rogers are already hatching plans for their 

35 th reunion party. 

Above, still friends after all these years. 

Looking friendly, but like they mean 

business nonetheless are, from left, 

Falls Harris, Chris Robinson, Brad 

Parham, and Bruce Kintz. 



Class of 1985: 

Jammin’ Together 

There were plenty of good vibes at the Class 

of 1985 reunion, held at Karen and Nelson 

Arrington’s home and arranged by Pepper 

Horton. And when the group wasn’t 

laughing, they were jamming to the sounds 

of Louis Sagedy’s guitar. 

Now that’s a reunion: Louis Sagedy hugs 

the former teacher he dubbed “Jackie 

Gaddy Suber (frajalistic).” 

Lost Alumni 

Help us locate these “lost” alumni so they can 

be a part of their class reunion in 2011. Please 

contact Viviane Till, CCES Director of Alumni 

Programs, at tillv@cces.org or call 864-299- 

1522 x1294 with contact information. 

Class of 1976 

Bob Tucci 

Elizabeth Donahoo Wilson 

Class of 1981 

Greg Hendershot 

Brian King 

Class of 1986 

Heather Burnett Davis 

Geoffrey Selhorst 

Holley Hollingsworth Todd 

Class of 1991 

Marc Henriksen 

Francisca van Leusden 

Class of 1996 

Ryan Darby 

Chris Evans 

Monica Holmes 

Paul McHugh 

Class of 2001 

Mary Katherine Radin 

Barrett Yoder 

Class of 2006 

Seif Abboud 

Oliver Koenigsbruegge 



Cavalier Classics: 

Connecting Parents of 

Alumni Since 1991 


Reuniting in Greenville’s 

Fashionable West End 

Check your mailbox this 

spring for your annual 

invitation to join Cavalier 

Classics and attend the 

Spring Luncheon on 

Thursday, April 14, 2011. 

Come for the fun, the food, 

and the fellowship—and to 

brag about what your kids 

(or grandkids!) are doing 

these days! 

Class Agent Grayson Davis Marpes, center, is surrounded by classmates at the Fieldhouse Condo 

of Clayton Hunt, back row, second from left. The well-situated condo, where the class held its 

reunion, overlooks the Greenville Drive baseball field in downtown Greenville. 

Alumni Christmas Merriment 

Mark your calendars 

for Thursday, 

December 23, for 

this year’s CCES 

Alumni Christmas 

Party! Enjoying some 

holiday merriment 

at the 2009 Alumni 

Christmas Party 

held at the Upstate 

History Museum 

were members of the 

Class of 2002, from 

left, Kevin Roe, Amy 

Jacques, Ellen Daniel Stevens, Brooke Carpin, Lila Kittredge, Drew Perraut, and 

his guest, Toby Quiranta. 



The “Prolific” Class of 1995 

by Marie Earle Pender ’95 

Editor's Note: All ages reported in this piece were as of the time of the reunion in March. 

The Class of 1995 met at the Blockhouse for 

our 15-year reunion. As one visiting CCES 

teacher noted, we have a prolific class! All 

present had a least one child. Although there 

was some talk of the economy, healthcare, 

and jobs, many conversations revolved 

around child psychology, first steps, and toilet 

training—none of which CCES could have 

ever prepared us for! 

McFall Anderson is working with Drew 

Sturtevant ’94 at Anvis Alarm. McFall and 

Kelly have a two-year-old son, Thomas. 

Brody Glenn and his wife, Tish, are 

expecting their third child in April. Brody is 

President of Centennial American Properties 

and also chairman of the City of Greenville 

Planning Commission. 

Eden Kellet Martin and Steve have 

Chappell, 3, and Annie, 15 months. Steve 

has one more year of medical school in 

Charleston and claims that they might 

venture on to start a massage therapy office 

together…..we wouldn’t put it past them! 

Carter Little Meadors is the Marketing 

Director for the Greenville Symphony. 

Jack, 3, and JB, 19 months, make 

symphonies of a different kind at home. 

Her husband, Zane, has been working for 

almost a year in business development with 

Melloul Blamey Construction. 

Hannah Rogers Metcalfe sported a most 

becoming bulge, which was due to arrive 

in June. She is a litigation lawyer with the 

Wyche law firm. 

Kayce Harper McCall and Donnie also have 

two girls, Harper, 2, and Cason, 14 months. 

Kayce works for the Solicitor’s Office in 

Greenville. 

Walt Wilkins ’92 is running for current 

Solicitor Bob Ariail’s seat this fall. 

Marie Earle Pender and Gibbon live 

in Hendersonville, NC, with their three 

children, Rogers, 6, Welles, 4, and Vardry, 1. 

They own Buyer’s Edge, a home inspection 

and radon mitigation company. 

Andrew Pittinos and Winsy have a 

Continued 

Babies and toddlers 

are high on the list 

of things keeping 

the Class of 1995 on 

the go! 



3-month-old baby boy. Andrew is a financial 

advisor with Wells Fargo. 

Farrah McCauley Redmond and Mike have 

been back in Greenville for two years now. 

They have two girls, India, 3, and Francesca, 

18 months. 

Andrew Shive and Jenna are expecting their 

third child in September. Tanner, 4, and 

Cady, 19 months, keep Andrew on the go 

when he’s not working as a manufacturer’s 

rep for Appalachian Sales Group. 

Catharine Mebane Sturtevant and Drew 

celebrated the birth of their daughter, Beverly, 

in February. They also have a son, Lofton, 3. 

Catherine Rainey Then is living in Saluda, 

NC, with husband Travis and their two 

daughters, Eliza, 3 years old, and Virginia, 6 

months. 

Brent Williams is a VP with South Financial 

Group. He and wife Penn are also busy with 

Annabel, 3, and Carter, 1. They certainly 

kept Brent in shape for the half-marathon he 

recently ran at Kiawah. 

Here is some news from the few who could 

not make it to the reunion, but sent updates: 

Kendall McKenna Ashley wrote, “I am 

living in New Orleans and love it. I still 

work for Aveda; however, I recently started a 

Holistic Nutrition and Wellness Coaching 

firm call Passion Fed Wellness. In addition 

to running my company, I also teach Yoga. I 

recently planted an organic garden, and I am 

crossing my fingers it produces something.” 

Will Holt said, “We’ve left Hawaii for the 

foreseeable future and settled in Oakland. 

Our son, Raiden, is 14 months old. I’m a 

gastroenterology fellow in San Francisco, and 

that’s enough to keep us pretty busy, as you 

can imagine!” 

Scott Morton wrote, “Sara and I are now living 

in Yarmouth, Maine, just north of Portland. 

I am a sales manager for Webster Atlantic 

Corporation, a publishing company. We just 

launched a new statewide business magazine, 

and I’ve been busy getting it off the ground. 

On the ground we’re busy snowboarding and 

hiking with our black lab, Cole.” 

Jennifer Ogden Neher is living in San Diego 

with her husband, John, and 2-year-old 

son, Townsend. Her employer of almost 

ten years, Blackbaud, moved her and her 

family out there from Charleston in January 

2009 after acquiring a San Diego-based 

company. Jennifer now manages support for 

Blackbaud’s Internet products, which include 

Blackbaud NetCommunity and Blackbaud 

Sphere. (Blackbaud is a software company 

that creates products specifically for nonprofits. 

CCES is a client!) The Nehers are 

hoping to move back to Charleston in June 

2010 where Jennifer will continue to manage 

her bicoastal team. 

Marsha Kennedy wrote, “I’m into my second 

year in Micronesia. I’m a staff attorney for the 

Congress here…I love the expat lifestyle. I’m 

planning to move on near the end of the year. I 

am not ready to head back to the high tax rates 

in the states nor to paying state plus federal 

income taxes. So, I’ll probably be moving on 

to another international location when I leave 

here. Also, I’m working on setting up a new 

website, LawyersAbroad.com.” 

We look forward to seeing you all again in 

2015! ■ 

Cavalier Sporting Clay 

Tournament 

Friday, September 17 

You don’t have to be a crack shot 

to have some fun at the Annual 

Cavalier Sporting Clay Tournament, 

and it’s not too late to make your 

reservation for the 2010 event, to 

be held Friday, September 17, at 

RiverBend Sportsmans Resort. Call 

864-299-1522 x1294 or e-mail 

tillv@cces.org to reserve your spot! 



Lazy? Not the Class of 2000! 

They just happened to choose The 

Lazy Goat in downtown Greenville for 

their tenth reunion. Above, some of 

the go-getters of the class, who were 

joined by a few favorite teachers, 

including party animals, seated, 

front row, Jean Cochran, Jackie 

Suber, Faye Jay; and standing, 

Diane Stafford; the former faculty 

members made the rounds to all 

the evening’s class reunions via the 

“Cavalier Cruiser.” Many thanks to 

Allison Buck Ellis ’00 and Grace 

Hungerford Trail ’00 for arranging 

the high-energy get-together! 

1989 & 2010 Casts of South Pacific 

Share Some Enchanted Evening 

“You’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught,” goes 

one of the songs in South Pacific, considered 

controversial when the show first opened 

because of its commentary on prejudice. 

But the only controversy surrounding the 

CCES spring performance of a musical 

some consider the greatest ever written was 

whether the 1989 or the 2010 cast did a 

more magical job. The verdict: since both 

casts were carefully taught by music director 

Molly Aiken, it was a tie. 

Several members of the 1989 cast were in 

the audience at the current production 

and spoke to the lead players following 

the performance. Mrs. Aiken said she 

specifically chose to stage South Pacific for 

the school’s 50 th anniversary year because 

of its historical significance and powerful 

message—and, of course, its memorable 

songs. ■ 

It proved an enchanted evening indeed 

for, from left, Robin Bettger Fishburne 

’92 (Ensign Betty Pitt from the 1989 CCES 

cast), Director Molly Aiken, Cody Cobb 

’10 (Emile de Becque), and both Nellie 

Forbushes, Heather McCall ’10 and 

Maggie Parham Murdock ’90. 


Class News 

Class News 

MARRIAGES 

Catherine Wrenn Gibellino to 

Jon Gibellino on May 29, 2010. 

Jim Ryan to Amanda Herron in 

March 2009. 

2004 

Stephanie Nickell Holland to 

James Holland,on June 6, 2010. 

1995 

To Mary Beth Fischer Ginn and 

husband, Stuart, a son, Charles 

August, on September 10, 2009. 

1967 

Arthur Miller, to Roberta 

Beck Connolly, in an Episcopal 

ceremony at the Church of the 

Heavenly Rest in New York City. 

1993 

Gayle Brooker Wilkinson to 

William Neilson Wilkinson III of 

Memphis, TN, on May 22, 2010, 

at Lowndes Grove Plantation in 

Charleston, SC. 

1995 

Angele Rishi to Ashish 

Vakharia, on April 11, 2009, in a 

traditional Indian wedding with 

four days of celebrations, below. 

Courtney Tollison ‘95 was one 

of Angele’s bridesmaids. 

1999 

Shelby Pool Ruehling to 

Michael Ruehling, on July 

3, 2010, at Christ Church 

Episcopal. Amanda Pool ‘99, 

Charlotte Pool ‘01, and Emily 

Holt Siracusa ‘99 served in the 

wedding party. 

2000 

Greta Reed Cleveland to 

Harvey Cleveland ‘01, on June 


2001 

Patrick McInerney to Betsy 

Heckert McInerney on March 

13, 2010, in Birmingham, AL. 

Among the attendants were the 

groom’s sisters, Meghan ‘98, 

Briana ‘04, and Katie ‘06, and 

classmate Sanjay Rama ‘01. 

Thea Van der Zalm Pitzen to 

Wayne Pitzen, Lieutenant Junior 

Grade, United States Navy, on 

June 5, 2010, in Greenville, SC. 

Elizabeth Marion Short to 

Michael Short, May 8, 2010, 

at Christ Church in Greenville, 

above. Among the wedding party 

were alumni Katherine Ballard 

‘01, Douglas Marion ‘04, Hunt 

Marion ‘06, Foster McKissick 

‘00, and Melissa Jimenez 

Nocks ‘01. 

2002 

Adam David to Hayley Mize of 

northern California on August 1, 

2009. 

2003 

Pam Ryan Brueck to David 

Brueck in April 2009. 

Meagan Miller Haas to Zach 

Haas, from Rhode Island, in 

Greenville on May 1, 2010. 

Alissa Green Yeargin to Charles 

Yeargin ‘02, on May 15, 2010 in 

Charleston, SC. 

BIRTHS 

1979 

Bobby Stewart and wife, 

Ann, adopted Elenore “Nellie” 

Chengshun on September 21, 

2009, in Guangdong Province, 

China. She turned 2 on February 


1985 

To Gwinn Earle Kneeland 

and husband, Matt, a daughter, 

Emilyn Prior Kneeland, born 

October 30, 7 lbs., 13 oz., 20 

inches long. Emilyn joins her 

three older brothers, Hew, Herb, 

and Henry, and older sister 

Eleanor. 

1989 

To David Dixon and wife, 

Melanie, a daughter, Emily 

Marion Christine Dixon. 

1990 

To Grayson Davis Marpes and 

husband, Stephen, a son, Barrett 

Alexander, on September 5, 

2009. 

1991 

To Brooks Gibbins and wife, 

Ashley, a daughter, Ashton Penn 

Gibbins. 

1993 

To Amy McCauley Farnsworth 

and husband, Stephen, a son, 

Colin McCauley, on 

March 26, 2010. 

To Rory Payne Foster 

and husband, Dolph, a 

daughter, Evelyn “Evie” 

Guerry, on February 26, 

2010. 

To Lillian Prevost 

Monroe and husband, 

John ‘88, a, John “Jack” 

Riser, Jr. on April 9, 

2010, right. 

To Janie Mebane Mobley and 

husband, Joe, a daughter, Harriet 

Wingfield. 

To Catharine Mebane 

Sturtevant and husband, Drew, a 

daughter, Beverly McGee. 

To Josh Williams and wife, Julie 

Yip-Williams, a daughter, Mia 

Seng Williams, on October 23, 

2009. 

1996 

To Montague Laffitte and wife, 

Lauren Bell Laffitte ‘97, a son, 

McNeill Jackson, born February 


To Jennifer Allison Reidenbach 

and husband, K.B., a daughter, 

Allison “Alli” Breeland, on March 


1997 

To Sallie Small Holder and 

husband, Paul, a daughter, 

Catherine Scott, on May 24, 

2010, weighing 7 lbs. 8 ozs. 

To Annie Wood Parker and 

husband, Drew, their first baby, 

James Robert Parker, born 

September 29, 2009. 

To Amanda Travis Parrott and 

husband, Will, a daughter, Elena 

“Ellie” McCallum, on May 10, 

2010, weighing 6 lbs. 12 oz. 

To Kate Meyer Patterson and 

husband, Alex, a son, Griffin 

Meyer, born January 21, 2010. 


Class News 

1998 

To Bern DuPree and wife, Mary, 

a son, Frank Morris DuPree, III, 

born on April 11, 2010, above. 

To Elizabeth Cleveland 

Kwitchen and husband, Jeff, 

their first son, Wyatt Jeffrey, on 

May 14, 2010. 

To Rob Slater and wife, Jessica, 

a daughter, Harper Jean, on May 

7, 2010 at 3:30 p.m., weighing 7 

lbs. 15 oz. 

2000 

To Blair Dobson Miller and 

husband, Jon, a daughter, 

Campbell Elizabeth, on March 8, 

2010, above. 

To Kristy Nix Young and 

husband, Thomas, a son, Thomas 

“Ty” Rudolph Young V, on July 


2002 

To Lila Kittredge, a son, Murray 

Jeffries Kittredge, on March 22, 

2009. 

To Brett Lanzl and wife, Abby 

DeFronzo Lanzl ‘02, a daughter, 

Ava Rose, born on December 9, 

2009, weighing 6 lbs. 6 oz., 19 

inches long, right. 

DEATHS 

1973 

Buck Mickel, on May 3, 2010. 

CLASS NOTES 

1964 

Randy Stoneburner received two 

honorary degrees from his alma 

mater, Presbyterian College, in 

2008: Doctor of Human Letters 

and Doctor of Public Service. 

After graduating from Tulane 

Medical University, where he 

received an M.D. degree, and 

Harvard University, where he 

received a master’s degree in 

public health, he served as an 

epidemiologist in the World 

Health Organization. He is 

currently the senior analyst for 

United Nations AIDS in Geneva, 

Switzerland. 

1967 

Francie Cochran Markham 

returned to Zimbabwe for her 

sixth mission trip last July, this 

time traveling with her son, 

Aaron, and his girlfriend, Casey. 

They worked at the Fairfield 

Children’s Home (fosakids.org) in 

the 117 year-old Methodist Old 

Mutare Mission Centre. 

1972 

Mary Jane Gilbert Jacques 

RGJacques@aol.com 

Lucie Bethea Earhart became 

a grandparent in April 2009 

to Nathan, son of daughter, 

Carolyn, and her husband, Daniel 

Whittington. She reports, “Nathan 

is not only our first grandchild but 

also the first great-grandchild of my 

father, Rufus Bethea.” 

1973 

Candy McCall 

907-683-0149 

candym@olcinc.com 

Gay Wallace Peden Sadly, Gay’s 

husband, Don, passed away 

suddenly on June 1. 

1974 

Elizabeth Bethea Patterson 

libpatterson@comcast.net 

615-353-0559 

1975 

CCES Alumni Office 

tillv@cces.org 

864-299-1522 x1294 

Bob Morgan writes, “As we 

celebrate ten years back in 

Greenville and ten years as realtors 

with Prudential C. Dan Joyner, 

our daughter Lauren married Chris 

Winchester of Greenville on June 

26. Both Clemson grads (Class 

of 2009), they will live here in 

Greenville after a honeymoon in 

St Lucia. She works with Erwin 

Penland, and he is with TIC 

Properties. Life is amazing and 

we are blessed!! Jennie and I also 

celebrated our 25th on May 25th!!! 

What a special year! We are blessed 

with all three children. Robert is 

a senior at Clemson, and Shirley 

Ann is a junior at Greenville High. 

Lee Moseley reports that he enjoys 

writing and sports. 

1976 

Kirk Stone 

stonek@minoritysales.com 

864-235-5967 

Lynda Harrison Hatcher 

lyndahatcher@verizon.net 

804-387-4873 

Sadly, Kitty Richardson Allen’s 

husband, Tim, passed away on 

March 16, 2010. 

1977 

Rebecca Clay 

rebeccasinteriors@charter.net 

864-233-6650 

Elizabeth Webster Cotter ‘s 

daughter, Beth, is a freshman at 

Wake Forest, Caroline is a senior 

at Wofford, and son, Junior, plays 

football for Hammond School in 

Columbia. 

Gena Farr Haskell has been 

named Head of the Advisory 

Council for Camp Courage, a 

camp for children with cancer 

or blood disorders. Gena has 

been involved with Pediatric 

Hematology/Oncology for 25 years 

and states, “We are so blessed to 

have a camp for this population, 

who otherwise would not get 

to attend a summer camp. I 

welcome any Cavaliers who 

want to see the camp or become 

involved in any way.” 

John Walter has been appointed 

to the Head position at The Wesley 

School in North Hollywood, 

CA. Wesley is a K-8 school whose 

graduates go on to attend premiere 

Los Angeles area schools, such as 

Buckley, Harvard-Westlake and 

Campbell Hall. 

Laurie Steinman Watral has 

started her own business, Raleigh 

Geriatric Care Management 

(www.rgcmgmt.com), a service to 

assist the aging population and 

adult children of aging parents 

in sorting through the myriad 

of services for the elderly. Her 

oldest daughter, Jill, graduated 

from UNC Chapel Hill in May; 

her middle daughter traveled to 

Israel for the summer; and her 

youngest enjoyed the summer 

working on her tennis skills. 

1979 

Ted Hassold 

ted.hassold@windstream.com 

864-271-7303 

Ron Coleman is the chair of 

the Litigation group at Parker, 

Huydson, Rainer and Dobbs in 

Atlanta. He and his wife have two 

children, Will and Claire. Will 

is a senior who will be attending 

Sewanee next fall, and Claire is in 

8th grade. 


Class News 

Elizabeth McColl’s novel, Opening 

Arteries, has been published by The 

Main Street Rag in Charlotte. 

Jan Shaw owns and operates The 

Balance Institute in Columbia, 

where she is in her ninth year of 

providing personal training and 

massage therapy. 

1980 

David Sagedy 

zagnutt14u@yahoo.com 

864-422-0423 

Nicie Yohn Phillips 

jnp91@mailstation.com 

Becky Wilson Ahlberg and her 

husband, Greg, have just moved to 

Evanston, IL, after living for four 

years in Sydney, Australia. She is 

working for the Southeast Regional 

Sleep Disorder Center. 

Caroline Gowan reports that eight 

years ago, after 17 years on the 

LPGA Tour, she became a PGA Tour 

rep. She recently assumed the role of 

Tour Rep for Sunice Outerwear, the 

outerwear sponsor for the Winter 

Olympics in Vancouver. 

Ross Grimball is living in Baton 

Rouge, LA, with his wife and three 

sons. 

1981 

Allison Martin Mertens 

allisonmertens@gmail.com 

864-233-9358 

Maylon Hanold is leaving The 

Overlake School as a sixth-grade 

teacher after 13 years. She’ll 

be homeschooling her son and 

working as an adjunct professor 

at Seattle University in the Sport 

Administration and Leadership 

Program. 

1983 

Scott Odom 

orf_modo@hotmail.com 

650-596-0177 

Jennie Arnau is touring the 

country promoting her fourth 

album, Chasing Giants. 

1984 

Daniel Varat 

danny.varat@charter.net 

864-233-6340 

Amy Therese Beller is an attorney 

with the law firm Simpson Thacher 

& Bartlett in New York City. She 

is working full-time focusing on 

the energy sector; she specializes 

in project and energy finance, as 

well as regulatory matters. She is 

married and has two sons, 9 and 6 

years old. 

Charles Runge has opened 

his own business, Advanced 

Maintenance of Greenville/ 

Spartanburg, to service commercial 

fleets at the customer’s business site. 

1985 

Pepper Horton 

pepper@GFandH.com 

864-234-5641 

Christopher B. Roberts 

864-271-9768 

croberts@bellsouth.net 

Harrison Kisner is living in 

Greenville and has a six-yearold 

daughter, Elizabeth. He is 

teaching full time at Clemson and 

has a clinical therapy practice on 

Cleveland Street in Greenville. 

1987 

Katy Glenn Smith 

Katy@Katydid.biz 

864-271-3891 

Amy Bowles Propst reports 

that her son, Patrick, is loving 

kindergarten, and she is loving 

being able to walk him to 

school every day. Amy’s new 

photography business is going 

well. You may purchase her 

photographic notecards at Roots 

and at the Pickwick Pharmacy on 

Augusta St. in Greenville. Amy 

loves doing something creative 

with her time and looks forward 

to a successful Christmas season. 

Check out her website at www. 

amileephoto.com! 

1989 

C. Langdon Cheves III 

langdoncheves@yahoo.com 

864- 271-0962 

Katherine Russell Sagedy 

krsagedy1@gmail.com 

864-233-7932 

1990 

Grayson Davis Marpes 

grayson.marpes@infor.com 

864-895-9399 

Travis Allison has released a new 

album, Migrant Heart. 

Clayton Hunt's business, The 

Graphic Cow Co., won the 2010 

Greenville Chamber of Commerce 

Small Business of the Year Award. 

1991 

David Belk 

davebelk@insightbb.com 

502-742-1232 

Mills Ariail 

mills@rmalawoffice.com 

864-467-9015 

Kate Sijthoff Snoots 

kateandjeffrey@hotmail.com 

704-708-5442 

Wayne Hopkins has graduated 

from Fuller Theological Seminary 

with a Masters of Arts in Theology. 

He started a revival-preaching series 

in Greenville this spring and spent 

the summer working to complete 

his first book—more details to 

come! 

Charles Reyner Windsor/Aughtry 

Co. named Charles Reyner, Jr., 

the new Broker in Charge. Reyner 

will take over duties that Paul 

C. “Bo” Aughtry III, one of the 

company’s principals and president 

of the commercial division, has 

filled since the company was 

founded 21 years ago. 

1992 

Micah Kee 

micahkee@caplan-group.com 

770-962-4182 

Clark Gallivan was named one of 

Greenville First’s Best and Brightest 

Under 35. 

Chopper Johnson is about 

to rejoin the ranks of college 

undergraduates. After almost 

fifteen years working in print 

journalism in Charleston, SC, 

with The Post and Courier and 

the Charleston Regional Business 

Journal, he is headed back to 

the College of Charleston to 

complete a double major in 

history and education. He has 

also started to tick off a longterm 

goal by beginning to hike 

the Appalachian Trail. He hiked 

76 miles over six days in May, 

and headed back for another 

seven days in August. (No Mark 

Sanford jokes, please.) 

1993 

Nicole Swalm Bell 

nbell@wycheco.com 

205-879-6702 

Nicole Swalm Bell has joined 

Marguerite Ramage Wyche ’65 

at the Wyche Company, a new 

real estate company in Greenville. 

Leigh Anne Wellons is still at 

GE, still single, and has two dogs 

and a cat. She is also taking 

classes towards a masters in 

natural health. 

Gayle Brooker Wilkinson and 

her husband spent two weeks 

traveling around Italy on their 

honeymoon. They will continue 

to live and work in Charleston, 

SC. 

1994 

Anne Genevieve Gallivan 

864-235-0705 

Brooks Ariail Conner 

Brooks.connor@windstream.com 

864-236-9879 

Katherine Aiken White 

katherineaikenwhite@gmail.com 

864-242-6634 

1995 

Marie Earle Pender 

mpender12@gmail.com 

828-694-0733 

Marsha Kennedy has passed the 

FSM bar examination. She is also 

a member of the FSM national bar 

and the Pohnpei state bar. Marsha 

is now a law clerk for the judges at 

the Pohnpei State Supreme Court 

in Micronesia. 

Angele Rishi and husband, 

Ashish, are living in Atlanta. She is 

still practicing real estate litigation 

at Weissman, Nowack, Curry & 

Wilco, PC. Ashish practices general 

and cosmetic dentistry. 

Courtney Tollison spent five 

months in western Ukraine 

teaching American history as 

a Fulbright Scholar. Courtney 

traveled quite a bit throughout 

the country and region, speaking 

on behalf of the U.S. Embassy’s 

Outreach program. She reports, “It 

was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime 

experience!” (See article this issue, 

p. 56) 


Class News 

1996 

David Sickinger 

dsickinger@garvindesigngroup. 

com 

803-739-9695 

Sam R. Zimmerman 

b.zimmerman@gordian-group. 

com 

864-288-0326 

Tina Block traveled to the 

Bahamas last summer for her 

father’s 65th birthday, and she 

ended up getting engaged! 

Lizzy Holt Delfino has just earned 

her Ph. D. in Epidemiology at 

Tulane University in New Orleans. 

Jennifer Allison Reidenbach 

continues to operate her speechlanguage 

private practice, Allison 

Therapeutics. Her husband, K.B., 

is an SEM analyst manager with 

Levelwing Media in Mt. Pleasant, 

SC. 

Mimi Yarborough Webb and 

her husband, Paul, are living 

in Simpsonville with their two 

daughters, Rebecca and Mia, and 

Paul’s son, Eli. 

1997 

Bentley DeGarmo 

bentleydegarmo@hotmail.com 

410-347-0007 

Kathleen Meyer Patterson 

katemeyerpatterson@gmail.com 

229-247-1110 

Do you enjoy Highlights? 

Do you appreciate your CCES education? 

Do you treasure your CCES friends? 

Do you contribute to Annual Giving? 

Last year 12% of CCES alumni participated in Annual Giving. 

This year, our goal is 25%. 

Whether you can give $25 or $2,500, your participation in our 2010-11 

Annual Giving campaign is important. 

By participating, you affirm the value of a CCES education in your own life, and you help ensure 

that today’s students will enjoy an excellent education too. 

Your Annual Giving investment provides dividends not only today, but also in 

the future. As an essential part of the school’s operating budget, Annual Giving helps 

CCES meet the challenges of preparing today’s students for a future of integrity, 

collaboration, achievement, and responsibility. 

For more information on Annual Giving and how to participate go to www.cces.org and click 

on Giving to CCES. Or call Dolly Durham, Director of Annual Giving, at 864-331-4242. 

Sarah Rogoff 

sarah.rogoff@medpoint.com 

864-420-4899 

Sallie Small Holder and her 

family have moved to Charleston. 

Lauren Bell Laffitte and husband, 

Montague ’97, have a new baby, 

McNeill, who “is such a wonderful 

addition to our family. Big 

brother, Monty IV, is really sweet 

to him when he’s not throwing 

baseballs his way.” 

Annie Wood Parker and 

husband, Drew, have started their 

own real estate business, The 

Parker Company, specializing in 

residential and commercial real 

estate in the Greenville area. 

Kate Meyer Patterson and her 

husband, Alex, are living in 

Valdosta, GA, where they now 

have three children, Ellen (4), 

Campbell (3), and Griffin (9 

months). Kate is the Preschool 

Director at First United 

Methodist Church Preschool, 

and Alex is the Executive 

Director of The Presbyterian 

Home of Georgia. 

Stacy Small Smallwood After 

a year of hard work, Sallie has 

re-launched her website with 

an entirely new design to make 

shopping easier. Check out her 

website at www.hampdenclothing. 

com. 

1998 

Anna Johnson 

lvarived1253@aol.com 

859-245-8598 

James D. Sparkman IV 

jdsparkiv@aol.com 

864-616-5985 

Robbie Cunningham has 

moved back from the “Left 

Coast” to the “Right Coast” to 

practice law in Washington, DC. 

Anna Johnson, still living in 

Lexington, KY, is now working 

for the National Thoroughbred 

Racing Association. She was 

4th in the 2009 National 

Reining Horse Association 

Rookie of the Year Finals in 

Oklahoma City. 

1999 

Craig Ragsdale 

rags1205@aol.com 

864-420-6983 

Kelson McKnew 

bronwynkelson@yahoo.com 

864-277-4064 

Katherine L. Sickinger 

katsickinger@hotmail.com 

864-277-8166 

Kenneth Cosgrove was appointed 

to the SC Tax Re-Alignment 

Commission by the Chairman of 

the Ways & Means Committee 

in the House of Representatives, 

Dan Cooper. Kenneth has since 

been named Chair of the Fuel Tax 

Subcommittee. 

David Hamilton has moved back 

to Greenville after nine years in 

Florida. He continues to travel and 

work as a freelance sports TV host/ 

reporter, but is happy to be back in 


Class News 

the Upstate. David was featured 

as senior reporter on the 2009 

Butkus Award TV Special on Fox 

Sports Net, broadcast on national 

television. 

Kelson McKnew is still in Sumter, 

SC, working as an assistant solicitor 

and really enjoying criminal 

prosecution. She is also still 

teaching kickboxing, lifting, and 

abs classes at the local YMCA. 

Kelly Gavron Scoggins completed 

her MBA and graduated with 

honors from the McCombs School 

of Business at the University of 

Texas at Austin in May 2010. She 

will be joining the investment 

management division of Goldman, 

Sachs & Co. as a private wealth 

advisor in Houston, TX. Kelly 

and her husband, Drew, recently 

celebrated her graduation and 

their five-year wedding anniversary 

with a trip to England, Italy, and 

Austria. 

Russ Wagner, a media sales 

representative for WYFF-TV and 

an active member of the Kiwanis 

Club, shaved his head as part 

of a fundraiser for St. Baldrick’s 

Day, held last March 14 as part 

of “Shaving the Way to Conquer 

Kids’ Cancer.” Last year’s efforts 

raised $50,000 locally for a grant to 

the Greenville Children’s Hospital 

Cancer Center. 

2000 

Allison Buck Ellis 

allison.ellis@infor.com 

864-414-1472 

Grace Hungerford Trail 

madi4@aol.com 

864-630-2360 

Lauren Jacques graduated from 

Dental School at MUSC in May, 

2010. 

Amanda Lanzl Salas and her 

husband, Dan, and Bernese 

Mountain Dog puppy now live in 

Charlotte. Dan received his MBA 

degree from University of Texas 

in May and is working at Bank 

of America. Amanda starts work 

in September as Development 

Manager for Teach for America. 

Melissa Morrow Threatt recently 

spent a day at the CCES Lower 

School giving presentations to 

each class of second-graders, 

relating to their “Communities” 

and “World of Work” units of 

inquiry. Melissa has BS degrees 

in architecture and Spanish 

from Clemson, and an MS in 

architecture from LSU. She 

and her husband live in Easley, 

where he is a Ph.D. candidate 

in architecture at Clemson. 

Melissa prepared a PowerPoint 

presentation for the students, and 

shared architectural models she 

created during her undergraduate 

program at Clemson and for her 

terminal project at LSU. She also 

presented the LS art room with a 

favorite book by Leo Leoni. “The 

students were fascinated,” reports 

LS art teacher Marilyn Mullinax, 

who added, “Maybe one of these 

young students will decide that 

architecture is what they’d like to 

do!” 

Chelsea White has completed her 

masters in social work degree and 

is working with families that have 

children with significant mental 

health issues. 

2001 

Rutledge Johnson 

rjdc05@aol.com 

Lauren Sheftall 

gingerbear1216@yahoo.com 

K.B. Ballard is living with 

Meghan McInerney ‘98. She just 

returned from Ecuador, where she 

was working at the U.S. Embassy. 

Esther Lee is working on her 

Ph.D. in Sport Management from 

the University of Georgia. 

Elizabeth Provence McMillian 

and husband, Everett, live in 

Greenville with their dog, Hunter. 

2002 

Brooke Carpin 

brookecarpin@gmail.com 

512-694-5233 

Moutray McLaren 

william.mclaren@furman.edu 

864-246-5285 

Adam David, a corporal in the 

United States Marine Corps, 

recently returned from combat 

duty in Afghanistan, after 

completing his third tour in the 

Middle East. He and his wife, 

Hayley Mize, currently reside in 

Placentia, California. 

Amy Jacques, as part of the 

editorial team at PR Tactics, the 

monthly newspaper published by 

the Public Relations Society of 

America, has received two industry 

awards for editorial excellence, the 

APEX and the Magnum Opus 

awards. 

Drew Perraut is currently working 

as a regulatory policy analyst 

at the Office of Information 

and Regulatory Affairs in the 

Executive Office of the President in 

Washington, DC. 

Charlie Yeargin and Alissa Green 

‘03 were married on May 15, 

2010, in Charleston, SC. They will 

continue to reside in Greenville, 

SC, where Alissa works as a speechlanguage 

pathologist at Greenville 

Memorial Hospital and Charlie 

works as a LEED- accredited 

professional and IT consultant 

at Yeargin Potter Shackelford 

Construction. 

2003 

Ashley Page Mooney 

ashleypmooney@gmail.com 

864-616-1069 

Britten Meyer Carter 

brittenmeyer@gmail.com 

864-380-5795 

Caitlin Wood 

gcwood@charter.net 

864-238-8762 

Meagan Miller Haas is working 

as an RN at St. Joseph’s Chandler 

Hospital on the orthopedic floor 

along with her husband, Zach. 

He graduated with a BS degree in 

nursing from Columbia University 

in New York City in May 2009. 

Daniel Holman has been accepted 

into the Peace Corps and assigned 

to Botswana as an advisor to a small 

non-governmental organization 

(NGO) called Light and Courage 

in Francistown, Botswana, that 

provides palliative care for people 

living with HIV. His first three 

months in Botswana were spent in 

training, living with a host family to 

learn the language and culture. He 

writes, “I will be helping Light and 

Courage expand their services for 

AIDS patients and possibly work on 

HIV prevention in the community, 

and will live in Botswana until June 

of 2012.” He began volunteering 

at a local HIV/AIDS group in Reno 

called Northern Nevada Outreach 

Team (NNOT), “and it quickly 

opened my eyes to how much 

disease impacts our lives,” Holman 

said of his decision to join the Peace 

Corps. “I look forward to learning 

more about the impact HIV/AIDS 

has had in Botswana and working 

to address it from a grass roots 

level.” 

Graham Moseley has been sent by 

the Navy to Charleston for three 

months. He is thrilled to be back 

in SC for a while. 

Coley Sitton completed the San 

Diego Rock ‘n Roll Marathon on 

June 6. She writes, “It was a huge 

accomplishment for me!” 

2004 

Andrew C. Waters 

andy.waters@furman.edu 

864-244-6019 

Elizabeth Morrow Gailey 

elizabethmgailey@gmail.com 

864-232-1578 

Jessica Anderson has been 

accepted to the University of 

Georgia’s College of Veterinary 

Medicine and will be starting her 

first year in the doctor of veterinary 

medicine program this fall. 

Mary Elizabeth Carman will be 

starting in the Physician Assistant 

Program in Savannah, GA, in 

January 2011. 

Sean Evins is living and working 

in Washington, DC. He enjoys 

his job with the House of 

Representatives by day and going 

to grad school by night. “Hope my 

old classmates are doing well,” he 

writes, “and if you are in DC, look 

me up.” 

Whitney Howell, creative 

communications account executive 

at Debbie Nelson & Associates in 

Greenville, was honored with the 

Silver Wing Award for promoting 

the Greenville Housing Fund’s 

Homes for Teachers Program. The 

award was presented at the SC 

Chapter of the Public Relations 

Society of America’s Mercury 

Awards banquet. 

2005 

Fletcher McCraw 

mccraw.fletcher@gmail.com 

864-370-2339 


Class News 

Helen Doolittle 

hcdoolittle@gmail.com 

864-297-4131 

Anthony Bucci is training as a 

countertenor. After graduating 

from the University of Michigan 

with a degree in music, he was 

accepted into the Manhattan 

School of Music and as a student 

of Pat Misslin, who taught Renee 

Fleming, Stephanie Blythe and 

Margaret Lattimore, to name a 

few. 

Courtney Crandell has 

completed her double major 

in accounting and music from 

Furman University. She has 

worked as an audit intern with 

one of the Big 4 accounting 

firms, KPMG. Upon 

graduation from Clemson, she 

began working full time as an 

audit associate for KPMG in 

Greenville. She still loves living 

downtown. 

Heather Hodgetts is now 

living in Lund, Sweden, and 

working on her masters at Lund 

University. 

Meredith Johnson graduated 

from Presbyterian College in 

May 2009. She is currently in a 

master of counseling program at 

Loyola University Maryland in 

Baltimore, MD. 

Michael West recently completed 

a 1500-mile bike ride through 

Spain, Italy and Croatia, where 

he camped in orchards “and 

other hospitable locations.” He 

blogged about his trip at http:// 

detourswithdetours.blogspot.com. 

2006 

Ellis Bridgers 

ebridgers@elon.edu 

864-288-0619 

Zay Kittredge 

Kittzj@wfu.edu 

864-233-5525 

Haley David graduated 

cum laude from Wake Forest 

University with a BA in 

psychology and a minor in 

health policy and administration. 

She is currently living in 

Winston-Salem, NC, and began 

graduate studies for a masters in 

management from Wake Forest 

School of Business this summer. 

Gauthier Guicherd is attending 

medical school at the Université 

d’Auvergne in Clermont-Ferrand, 

France. 

Rachael Holman graduated with 

a degree in communications from 

Northwestern University. 

Eva Jorgensen-Graham 

graduated early from Elon 

University in December 2009, 

thanks in part to the 11 credits 

she brought with her from the 

CCES IB program and that gave 

her almost a semester head start. 

She has returned to Greenville, 

lives downtown, and is working 

as an agent for New York Life 

in their offices near the baseball 

stadium. 

Elizabeth Troutman was 

honored as a senior in the 

Furman Paladins women’s 

basketball program at the regular 

season home finale against Elon. 

The game was Furman’s WBCA 

Pink Zone Game, designated 

to raise breast cancer awareness 

and funding for the Kay Yow/ 

Women’s Basketball Coaches 

Association Cancer Fund. 

Russ Williams has graduated 

from Clemson University with a 

degree in mechanical engineering. 

He is now living in Norfolk, VA, 

where he is a civilian engineer at 

the Naval Shipyard. 

2007 

Lauren Page 

lwpage@uga.edu 

Kendra Abercrombie graduated 

in May with a double major in 

history and African-American 

studies with pre-law intent. “I 

just want everyone at CCES to 

know that I am so thankful for all 

the support that I received from 

everyone there, and I am also 

very thankful for being given the 

experience and opportunity to 

attend CCES.” 

Will Guzick reports that he is 

enjoying his time at Harvard, 

where he is now a senior. 

“Highlights so far have been jobs 

that have taken me to Korea, 

China, and Peru (and New York 

this summer), doing research 

with a Harvard Business School 

professor, being Ivy League 

tennis champs my freshman year, 

and, of course, meeting a lot 

of amazing people.” He spent 

three weeks last summer traveling 

in India and afterwards held a 

summer job at Credit Suisse in 

New York City. 

Buckley Jacques studied abroad 

in Florence, Italy, during May and 

June 2010. 

Elizabeth McDonald and Mary 

Elizabeth Watson spent spring 

break 2010 in Barcelona, Spain. 

Neal Moseley and Jack Mann 

just spent the summer in 

Barcelona, Spain. 

Alice Stewart has recently been 

awarded membership in the 

Phi Beta Kappa Society, Delta 

Chapter of South Carolina. She 

is a senior at Clemson University 

majoring in political science 

with minors in legal studies and 

French. 

Beat Wuest took a break from 

his mechanical engineering 

studies at the Technical University 

in Munich, Germany, to visit 

Greenville in April. 

2008 

Kelsey McCraw 

mccrawk12@wlu.edu 

Elizabeth Beeson 

Beesoneli@hotmail.com 

Laura David is currently a junior 

at Clemson University, where 

she is studying economics. She 

is a member of Sigma Kappa 

Sorority and Delta Sigma Pi 

Business Fraternity. She spent the 

summer interning at PropertyBoss 

Solutions in Greenville, SC. 

Madelaine Hoptry, a sophomore 

at USC Upstate, has been 

appointed the editor of their 

literary magazine, writersINC. 

She is an English major and has 

been on the Dean’s list each of her 

three semesters at college. 

Warren Moseley is a junior at 

Clemson studying graphic design. 

2009 

Jennings Johnstone 

tennischickjlj@aol.com 

Bailey Davis 

thinkpinkcdd@belsouth.net 

Elizabeth Blake will be studying 

abroad in Ireland for her second 

semester. 

Drew Brandel is at Presbyterian 

College and part of the PC and 

Men’s Choirs. 

Timothy Butler earned Dean’s 

List at the University of Alabama 

and has been invited to join 

Alpha Lambda Delta, a national 

honor society for first-year college 

students. 

Sarah Guzick has finished her 

freshman year at Yale. This past 

summer she worked as an intern 

at Aspen Valley Wildlife Sanctuary 

in Rosseau, Ontario, Canada 

(130 miles north of Toronto). 

Her new hobby is photography, 

and her internship allowed many 

opportunities to photograph the 

wild animals. 

J.K. Jay has returned to Clemson 

but will not continue his football 

career due to a back injury. He 

served as a student football coach 

for the remainder of the 2009-10 

year. 

Andrew Rovner is attending 

Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, 

NY. 

2010 

Ellison Johnstone 

Tootsiepop9231@aol.com 

Laurel Gower 

Leg1991@aol.com 

Sheldon Clark has finished 

recording his fourth studio album. 

The record, called All the World’s 

a Stage, features all original music 

“with a little help from my friends, 

Cody Cobb and Eric Evert ‘09.” 

FORMER FACULTY NOTES 

Shirley Fry passed away on June 

25, 2010, in Beaufort, SC. She 

taught fifth grade from 1960 - 

1979. 

Frank Tabone, former school 

office manager, passed away on 

July 17, 2010. He served the 

school from 1978 - 1993. 


04.30.11 

Save the Date 

6:00 - 10:00 p.m. 

Carolina First Center 

Live and Silent Auctions 

Dinner • Dancing • Live Band 

An unforgettable evening to benefit CCES. 

To volunteer, contact Jenny Pressly in the 

Development Office at 864.299.1522 x1298. 

Christ Church Episcopal School 

245 Cavalier Drive • Greenville, SC 29607 

Non-profit 

U.S. Postage 

Paid 

Greenville, SC 

Permit #53 

Address Service Requested

Fall 2010 Highlights - Front Page - Christ Church Episcopal School

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