B U L L E T I N Taft Portrait of a Graduate - The Taft School

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L E T T E R S From the Editor The past year has flown by while I’ve sat in the editor’s seat. The themes I see having emerged from Alumni Weekend and Commencement particularly are celebration and affirmation. Alumni gathered together to affirm each other as with the Citation of Merit award, or, as with the Class of 1953, for the largest contribution and most participation to the Annual Fund campaign. Yet there were other forms of affirmation—learning that a fellow alum now has grandchildren in their life, or that a classmate’s children have gone on to schools of their choice, or that a classmate one hasn’t seen in years has had a completely different career than might have been imagined. Maybe they sailed their boat to the Caribbean and happily made a new life there. Others are artists, lawyers, parents, fundraisers, doctors, writers, publishers, or as in the case of John Rodgers ’55, farmers. Women and men who have gone on to fully live their lives and Taft has often provided them with the springboard to soar. Celebration filled the air on Commencement Day with graduates surrounded by family, friends, and faculty. One parent said it was a mixture of joy and wistfulness as their child moved on to the next stages of young adult life. On this day too, affirmations were part of every class speaker’s words at the podium, echoed by Headmaster Willy MacMullen naming the achievements and uniqueness of the Class of 2003. Finally, I want to welcome Editor Julie Reiff back from her sabbatical. Her ongoing dedication to sharing all of your stories in the Bulletin is something to affirm and celebrate as well. Thank you all for staying in touch this past year. It’s been an honor and a pleasure. —Linda Beyus, Acting Editor We welcome Letters to the Editor relating to the content of the magazine. Letters may be edited for length, clarity, and content, and are published at the editor’s discretion. Send correspondence to: Julie Reiff • Taft Bulletin 110 Woodbury Road Watertown, CT 06795-2100 U.S.A. or to ReiffJ@TaftSchool.org Taft’s ski club in 1980 Ski Club I read with great interest the article on Jonathan Selkowitz ’84 in the Spring Bulletin. The origins of the Ski Club [mentioned in the Selkowitz article] are a little imprecise. In 1978, I was sick of all the boring intramural activities for the winter and wanted to ski so I went to Coach Stone and inquired about skiing as an intramural sport. Not being a lover of non-“American” sports, he told me I’d need at least 30 names. The other individual involved in this legwork was Tim Post ’79. We came back a few days later with at least 60 names, a bus contract for travel to Mt. Southington a few days a week and a package deal for passes from Mt. Southington. As a result, he couldn’t say no. Tim Post and John Gagne did all of the legwork getting skiing recognized as a winter intramural sport in 1978 or 1979. I was so involved in skiing that I began to teach at Okemo Mountain in Vermont in 1979, and was excused from Saturday classes because the learning experience of teaching was considered so valuable. As one can see in the Class of 1980 Annual (p. 184), it was already a very large group in its second year of existence! So when Taft starts winning state championships, I’ll be very proud to have given it its beginnings. —John R. Gagne ’80 Super Bowl and Sermon In reading of the dedication of Walker Hall, I was reminded of having been placed on a student-faculty committee in the fall of 1968, under the direction of then Chaplain Phil Zaeder, where our findings resulted in the abolition of the school’s long-standing compulsory church attendance requirement. How happy we were! Abolition would also sound the death knell for the dreaded Sunday suit requirement. At one of the final required services, the sermon coincided with the broadcast of the third Super Bowl, prompting a few boys to secrete transistor radios into the church, so as to follow the game surreptitiously on earphones. “The Strazette Gazzee,” a short-lived underground student newspaper, recounted this event as follows, which I have abridged to protect the guilty. Super Sandman’s Sermon Awakens Tafties Today the Taft School was liberally put to sleep by a certain Reverend “Sandman.” This was the only required church gathering to hear the Super Bowl this term. The service started out with the Jets in field goal range, leading 10–0. As the prelude ended, the Jets had scored against the Colts, putting them ahead 13–0. After the “convocation” sang a hymn, Reverend “Sandman” talked for an hour and a half on ‘up-tightness.’ Many Tafties guarded their radios, while others tried in vain to tackle the point of the sermon. As the game ended, “Sandman’”conveniently finished his sermon, with the score 16–7 Jets, quite an upset to go along with an upsetting service. The author of that piece, incidentally, was labeled by the school as having an “N.A.” (negative attitude), a prevalent student syndrome in those turbulent years. He was soon thereafter tried and convicted for the crime of smoking a Camel Filter in his dorm room (as witnessed by a Master through his window from across the CPT courtyard) and was sentenced to a year of hard labor at Loomis. He is now a schoolteacher. —Bob Foreman ’70
ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT Alumni SPOTLIGHT New Members Elected to Board of Trustees Roger H. Lee ’90 At the annual Alumni Day luncheon at Taft on May 24, Headmaster Willy MacMullen ’78 announced that Roger H. Lee ’90 has been elected by the school’s graduates as the new Alumni Trustee. Roger will serve a four-year term on the Board of Trustees, ending in 2007. Roger is employed with Battery Ventures, where he is actively investing in and advising entrepreneurs. His own entrepreneurial career began during his junior year at Yale. His first company, NetMarket, developed security software and conducted some of the first secure commerce over the Internet. In 1997, Roger cofounded Corio, a provider of outsourced information technology services. During his four years at Taft, Roger played varsity soccer, varsity tennis, and junior varsity hockey. He also served as both a school monitor and dormitory monitor his senior year, graduating cum laude. Following his graduation from Taft, Roger has served as head Class Agent for the Annual Fund and started the John Alexander ’90 Memorial Scholarship. Roger earned a B.A. from Yale University and graduated with distinction in political science. He was a member of the soccer team, worked at the Investments Office at Yale, and also studied abroad at the London School of Economics. Roger also serves as a member of Yale’s University Committee on Distance Learning. Outside of work, Roger is a cofounder and board member of the Schools Mentoring and Resource Team (SMART), a 5-year-old nonprofit organization that provides a wide range of educational and social services to povertystricken children in San Francisco. Roger lives in San Francisco with his wife Clarissa where they spend free time with friends, skiing, and exploring northern California. Headmaster Willy MacMullen ’78 welcomes Alumni Trustee Roger Lee ’90 to the Board. PETER FINGER Taft Bulletin Summer 2003 5
Page 1 and 2: B U L L E T I N Northern Exposure t
Page 3: F E A T U R E S Satisfaction in the
Page 7 and 8: PETER FINGER ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT Alumn
Page 9 and 10: “Over the 45 years of actively ma
Page 11 and 12: AROUND THE POND Why a Rhino How the
Page 13 and 14: AROUND THE POND Adam Bronfman ’81
Page 15 and 16: Faculty News Jonathan Bernon, schoo
Page 17 and 18: ANNUAL FUND REPORT Volunteers Raise
Page 19 and 20: S P O R T sport Spring 2003 Highlig
Page 21 and 22: S P O R T Coming off their New Eng
Page 23 and 24: PHOTOGRAPHY BY BOB FALCETTI Rear Ad
Page 25 and 26: understanding. They came from small
Page 27 and 28: all the way. You have been incredib
Page 29 and 30: James Blanchard ’03 Class Speaker
Page 31 and 32: Portrait of a Graduate Children oft
Page 33 and 34: Portrait of a Graduate academic dep
Page 35 and 36: Northern Exposure to Native Arts Su
Page 37 and 38: GRETCHEN SAGAN An exquisite basket
Page 39 and 40: Alumni Weekend began with a well-at
Page 41 and 42: Alumni awards, such as the Citation
Page 43 and 44: an evening dinner. The smiles on th

B U L L E T I N Taft Portrait of a Graduate - The Taft School

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