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Kilimanjaro!
The Business Side
of Pro Sports
Battling
Arthritis
Undoing
K at r i n a ' s
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B U L L E T I N
Fall 2007
Volume 78 Number 1
Bulletin Staff
Director of Development
Chris Latham
Editor
Julie Reiff
Alumni Notes
Linda Beyus
Design
Good Design, LLC
www.gooddesignusa.com
Proofreader
Nina Maynard
Mail letters to:
Julie Reiff, Editor
Taft Bulletin
The Taft School
Watertown, CT 06795-2100 U.S.A.
ReiffJ@TaftSchool.org
Send alumni news to:
Linda Beyus
Alumni Office
The Taft School
Watertown, CT 06795-2100 U.S.A.
TaftBulletin@TaftSchool.org
Deadlines for Alumni Notes:
Winter–November 15
Spring–February 15
Summer–May 30
Fall–August 30
Send address corrections to:
Sally Membrino
Alumni Records
The Taft School
Watertown, CT 06795-2100 U.S.A.
TaftRhino@TaftSchool.org
1.860.945.7777
www.TaftAlumni.com
The Taft Bulletin (ISSN 0148-0855)
is published quarterly, in February,
May, August, and November, by The
Taft School, 110 Woodbury Road,
Watertown, CT 06795-2100, and is
distributed free of charge to alumni,
parents, grandparents and friends
of the school. All rights reserved.
This magazine is printed on recycled paper.
j The Lady Ivy Kwok Wu
Science and Mathematics Center
across a still pond. Jack Hill ’61
F E AT U R E S
Three Alums, Three Teams,
and a Lot of Hometown Pride................20
Bill DeWitt ‘86, Eric Woolworth ‘83, and Dick Williams
‘89 master the business side of pro sports.
By Kathleen Miller
Never Say Never....................................26
Sarah Frechette Potts ‘92 battles arthritis with
perseverance and a healthy dose of optimism.
By Sally Ann Flecker
Of Maasai and Mountains......................30
Twenty students embark on a cultural and
environmental learning expedition to Tanzania,
to travel deliberately and to return with something
more than photographs.
By Jason BreMiller
Going Back Home..................................38
Undoing Katrina’s wrath by tearing houses
down to the studs
By Henry Reiff ’71
D E PA R T M E N T S
5
Letters.................................................... 2
Alumni Spotlight.................................... 3
Around the Pond.................................... 7
And Beyond...........................................12
On the Cover: On the rooftop of Africa: Led by
Jason BreMiller, three other teachers and a parent,
20 students successfully climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in
June (see page 30). Julia Cardozo
Taft on the Web
Find a friend’s address or look
up back issues of the Bulletin at
www.TaftAlumni.com
17
26
For more campus news and events,
including admissions information,
visit www.TaftSchool.org
What happened at this
afternoon’s game?
Visit www.TaftSports.com
Don’t forget you can shop online
at www.TaftStore.com
800.995.8238 or 860.945.7736
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From the Editor
Community Service Day is always a special
event, and this year was no exception (see
inside back cover), but there's been an exceptional amount of service going on all fall.
From a cancer walk in Hartford and a blood
drive on the headmaster's holiday to a new
service learning curriculum led by Annabel
Smith (look for more on that in future issues), a new Global Concerns Clubs that has
raised awareness and significant funds, and a
Bovine Defined
Recently I read the article in the spring
issue of the Taft Bulletin about the
Hyde family and their Prospect Hill
Farm, and I immediately reached for
my Webster’s dictionary and found the
following entry for the word cow:
COW, n; pl. cows. The mature female of the
bovine genus of animals; especially, a familiar farm animal domesticated for its milk.
What, then, does one make of the
phrase “male cow,” especially as it is
used in the same sentence with “female
cow?” Did I miss something in biology class? Mr. Cawley in middle-year
English class would have deducted at
least 50 points for redundancy.
—Dick Nininger ’47
philanthropy club—as well as ongoing efforts
by the Volunteer Council and students in
the Volunteer Program—student interest in
making a difference has never been higher.
Magazine schedules being what they
are, there wasn't time to highlight everything
in this issue, but please visit www.TaftSchool.
org for more information. We did hear from
a number of Poole and Page fellows about
their summer experiences and the impact
those have had on them (see page 12). Add
to that, the arrival of the school's first student from Afghanistan and a new scholarship
program to diversify the student body even
further and you can see that the global village
is alive and well in Watertown.
—Julie Reiff
Love it? Hate it?
Read it? Tell us!
We’d love to hear what you think
about the stories in this Bulletin. We
may edit your letters for length, clarity
and content, but please write!
Julie Reiff, editor
Taft Bulletin
110 Woodbury Road
Watertown, CT 06795-2100
or
ReiffJ@TaftSchool.org
Taft Trivia
Since no one correctly identified the number of female head monitors at Taft
(five, including Lily Lanahan ’08) from the summer issue, we’ll give you a multiple
choice question this time! What was the last year the school had a gun club?
a.) 1918
b.) 1945
c.) 1968
d.) 1975
Send your answer via e-mail or postcard to the address above. The winner, whose name will be
chosen at random from all correct entries received by December 15, will receive a Taft travel mug.
Walker Hall Series
Music for a While
The Friday-night performances
are held at 7 p.m.
Basically Baroque
Taft School music faculty
September 14
Mettawee River Theater
Company with Ralph Lee ’53
September 21 (see page 8)
An Evening with Sam Lardner
& Barcelona
October 12
AUN Japanese
percussion ensemble
Bingham Auditorium
November 2
Stride Piano Player
Judy Carmichael
November 30
72nd Annual Service of
Lessons & Carols
December 11
Benefit Concert for Dr. Paul
Farmer and Partners in Health
January 18
Alturas Duo
South American folk music
February 8
An Evening with
David Friedman & Friends
February 29
Basically Baroque
Taft School music faculty
April 18
Corrections
AJ Houston ’07 was pictured with his
uncle, not his father, on page 43 of the
summer issue.
Also, McKay Claghorn ’07 was
the leading scorer on the lacrosse team
last spring with 35 goals (page 12).
Our apologies.
Taft Bulletin Fall 2007
by Julie Reiff
Opening in China
Marc Leuthold ’80 attended the opening ceremonies of the USA Ceramic
Art Museum of the FuLe International
Ceramic Art Museums (FLICAM) in
Fuping, China. Located near Xian,
FLICAM wants to promote contemporary Ceramic art in China and around
the world. Twenty American artists,
including Marc, were invited to create art in Fuping prior to the inaugural
ceremonies. These artists have created
the charter collection for the Museum,
which was presented to the public on
the opening day in July.
In 2008, the General Assembly
Meeting of the International Academy
of Ceramics will be held in nearby Xian,
and the closing ceremony of the IAC
meeting will be held in Fuping.
Marc created many works of art
for the charter collection of the USA
Ceramic Art Museum, including an
installation called “Field” (pictured
above), which he describes as “a cho-
rus of sorts, composed of many voices,
unique yet related. The work is both of
the earth and a kind of choreographed
procession or pageant in which the ancient and the modern, nature and artifice, and East and West commune.
“Working in China has allowed
me to revisit, unify and expand upon
recurring cross-cultural themes in my
work,” says Marc. “It has been exciting
to represent SUNY in China.”
Marc, an associate professor at
SUNY, has taught at Potsdam since
1997. He has also taught at Parsons
School of Design in New York City
and at Princeton University. He is one
of 40 Americans elected as a lifetime
member of the International Academy
of Ceramics.
Taft Bulletin Fall 2007
Running for Mayor
Kerri Tiernan Rowland ’88 on the campaign trail with local veterans. She is running
for mayor in Milford, Connecticut.
Kerri Tiernan Rowland ’88 is running
for mayor of Milford, “because so many
people asked me to,” explains Kerri.
“And I am in the race of my life. Milford
has been controlled by Republicans for
the last 18 years, and when only one set
of ideas, one set of beliefs, and one set of
opinions are heard, complacency sets in.
The Democrats didn’t even run a mayoral candidate in 2005, and they are excited about a viable choice this year.”
She was elected to the Board
of Aldermen in 2005, serves on the
Public Works Committee and is a liaison to the Parks, Beach and Recreation
Commission. She has been knocking on
doors across town since January. “I am
getting a great response from residents.
I think it is grassroots, political change
at its best!”
An internet marketing manager
for a consulting firm in Milford, she
is also head coach for girls’ ice hockey
at Notre Dame in Fairfield and volunteers as a coach with Milford’s
Southern Connecticut Youth Hockey
program. She graduated from Boston
College in 1992.
Kerri lives in Milford, only four
houses from where she grew up, with
husband Brian, who works at GE as an
IT manager. Their two children Sean,
10, and Emily, 8, attend Orchard
Hills School, where Kerri is a member
of the PTA. Has her last name made it harder
to run as a Democrat in Connecticut?
She says people often wonder if she is
related to the former Republican governor, “but I don’t think my name has
made it any harder,” explains Kerri. “I
usually say ‘no’ before they ask; I can see
the question on a person’s face.”
To see how she fared in the November
6 election, visit www.kerrirowland.com
Farming in Afghanistan
Agribusiness consultant Ed Borcherdt
’49, right, talks with an Icelandic
officer in Kabul, Afghanistan.
Taft Bulletin Fall 2007
A consultant in international trade and
agribusiness for more than 40 years,
Ed Borcherdt ’49 has spent much of
the last three years working with farmers in Afghanistan, helping to restore
the agricultural sector there—first with
USAID and then with the Department
of Defense.
“Seventy percent of the population is involved in agriculture, and
Afghanistan now produces 92 percent
of the world’s heroin supply,” Ed says.
“Winning the war and controlling poppy production go hand in hand.”
The strategy behind “Saving
Afghanistan” is to make friends with
farmers by teaching them modern
practices, including development of
new and existing water resources, processing and refrigeration facilities, and
the integration of their products into
world markets, Ed explains.
“Implementing this strategy should
increase their incomes by 50 percent
within five years with existing crops:
almonds, walnuts, pistachios, grapes,
pomegranates and apricots,” he adds.
When not advising farmers, Ed
serves as a director of the Korean War
Veterans Memorial Foundation. He was
one of 12 veterans from the war appointed by President Reagan in 1986.
Eco-Patriots
Ryan Ahearn ’03 and George McFadden
’03, along with two friends, biked across
the country this fall to raise environmental awareness. The group founded EcoPatriots and partnered with the Clean Air
Conservancy, hoping to raise $30,000 to
retire emission credits through the Chicago
Climate Exchange. They also launched an
education campaign on the road.
Although George and Ryan went
to different colleges, Colby and UVA respectively, they have kept in touch. “Our
love for physical endeavors especially
outdoor activities initiated our friendship
when we played varsity soccer at Taft.”
George joined the Cycling Club
at UVA his first year and found road
biking a great medium for exercise
and challenge. He volunteered at the
Charlottesville Community Bike Center
fixing and repairing bikes for those who
could not afford it.
Ryan served as president of the
Mountaineering Club at Colby and
graduated with a religious studies degree. Fellow Eco-Patriots founders
Ann Marie Rubin and Will Fadrhonc
(brother of Adrian ’98) quickly welcomed him on board.
George
McFadden
‘03, right,
prepares for
his coast-tocoast cycling
trip to raise
environmental
awareness
with fellow
Eco-Patriots
Ryan Ahearn
’03, Ann Marie
Rubin and
Will Fadrhonc.
Barclay McFadden
George checked in from the
Lexington, Kentucky, Public Library in
September, while waiting for a broken
chain to get fixed. “I had to coast and
push for about 14 miles this morning!”
he writes, “but we are ready to go again
and have about another six hours on
the road today.”
They started the trip on
September 9 in Virginia Beach after dipping their back wheels in the
Atlantic Ocean as tradition demands.
Trading Post
In case you haven’t been following
him, pro footballer Patrick Kerney ’95
changed teams this spring.
Kerney, formerly with the Atlanta
Falcons, is a defensive end with the
Seattle Seahawks.
In his Seahawks debut, Patrick
“finished with five tackles, four quarterback hurries, 1-1/2 sacks,” reported
the Seattle Times, “and provided an even
greater impact than those impressive
numbers indicate.” Seven weeks into the
season, the Seahawks were leading the
NFC West.
Andy Rogers/Seattle Post-Intelligencer
“Hopefully we’ll make it to the Pacific
around October 29 and wet the front
wheel—just in time for Halloween in
San Francisco,” says George. “Virginia
has served as preseason—well more
like boot camp—to get us in shape.
The Appalachians have been difficult,
but the scenery is amazing. Ann Marie
saw a mountain lion on the Blue Ridge
Parkway two days ago.”
To find out more, check out www.
eco-patriots.org.
QUOTABLE
New York Times Op-Ed columnist
Frank Rich wrote, “It’s a young
conservative commentator, Ryan
Sager [’97], writing in the New
York Sun, who put it best: ‘The
face of the Republican Party in
Iowa is the face of a losing party,
full of hatred toward immigrants,
lust for government subsidies, and
the demand that any Republican
seeking the office of the presidency
acknowledge that he’s little more
than Jesus Christ’s running mate.’”
To read more from Ryan,
visit www.rhsager.com.
Taft Bulletin Fall 2007
Run with Gov
In Print
Seas It, founded by Todd ’92 and
Amanda Costanzo McGovern ’93, organized the first official “Run with Gov”
race in Wilmington, Del., in August. The
race promotes colorectal awareness; Todd
spoke briefly to the crowd beforehand. Todd, better known as “Gov” to
his friends, is in the middle of another
8 rounds of chemotherapy. When Todd
was originally diagnosed with stage IV
colorectal cancer on July 18, 2004, he
refused to become just another statistic.
Seas It promotes recovery through recreation for cancer patients who seek to recapture positive thinking and to regain
control over their lives.
In an effort to demonstrate his commitment to the mission of Seas It, he is
competing in organized 5k or 8k races
between chemotherapy treatments. He
hopes to make other cancer patients and
their families aware that an active lifestyle can be maintained while battling
cancer. Races were scheduled throughout the fall in Washington, Boston,
Denver, New York, Philadelphia and
Los Angeles.
“Our hope,” explains Amanda, “is
to recruit a Seas It team of at least 20
people who will join him in the battle
against cancer by either running or
Ian ‘93 and Lindsay Stanley McConnel ‘93 with Amanda Costanzo McGovern ‘93
and Todd McGovern ‘92 at the completion of the Wilmington, Delaware, race.
walking in a race in each city. Between
our Taft/Colby/Vanderbilt connections,
we have friends who are willing to put
us up in each city,” she adds.
In Boston, they were joined by
classmates Eric Costanzo, Jimmy
Joseph, John Kennedy, Lara Spear
Riley, Ryan Shattuck and Jeff Walsh.
Todd recently completed his 5th
round of chemotherapy and says and
he is doing pretty well, but heads back
to Pittsburgh for more surgery this fall.
“He has such an amazing attitude and
outlook,” says Amanda. “It’s also cool
how Taft just keeps coming into our
lives throughout this entire experience.”
For more information, visit www.
seasit.org.
Stay Healthy, Live Longer, Spend Wisely:
Making Intelligent Choices in America’s HealthCare System
Davis Liu, M.D. ’89
Stetho Publishing, 2007
In this highly useful book Davis explains what
you need to know about health insurance plans,
how to master the 10-minute doctor’s office visit,
as well as the truth about generic and branded
medications, concierge care, body scans and
herbal and dietary supplements.
He also includes American Cancer Society
guidelines for women and men and information
on how to check out your doctor.
“It pays to stay in excellent health,” Davis
emphasizes, and he provides readers the tools to
do just that.
Paul Ehrlich, M.D. ’62, author of What Your
Doctor May Not Tell You About Children’s Allergies
and Asthma, calls the book, “informative, insightful, and comprehensive. Worth a read.”
Davis Liu is a full-time primary care physician who lives in Sacramento, California. If you
want more medical advice, visit his blog at www.
davisliumd.blogspot.com.
For more
information
on any of these
stories, visit
www.TaftSchool.org
Around the pond
by Julie Reiff
Do you think they’ll get grades for this? Peter Frew ’75
Disney Comes to Town
The Taft campus was the setting for
Disney’s upcoming movie College
Road Trip, due out in April. The film
stars Martin Lawrence (Wild Hogs, Big
Momma’s House) and Raven-Symone
(That’s So Raven) and is directed by
Roger Kumble, who also directed The
Sweetest Thing and Cruel Intentions.
The plot revolves around an overachieving high school student who
decides to travel around the country
to choose the perfect college and her
overprotective police chief father, who
decides to accompany her in order to
keep her on the straight and narrow.
Taft plays the stand-in for Georgetown
University in the film.
The production company spent two
weeks on campus, with a crew of more
than 200 and nearly 250 extras (including a few Tafties). Watch for a wild golf
cart chase through a Greek fraternity
festival; it should look familiar.
Taft’s selection as a location resulted
from increased interest by movie companies once Connecticut began offering tax
incentives for filming in the state. Taft
Business Manager Gil Thornfeldt was
approached by several movie productions this spring. The Disney movie, Gil
determined, would be least disruptive
to the school, filming in August—once
summer sessions were over and before
students returned for the fall.
“While the campus was chaotic
during the filming, the overall experience was great,” says Gil. “The movie’s
producers, director and crew were all
amazed by our beautiful campus. The
bookstore was the center of attention,
with the cast and crew wearing Taft
hats and T-shirts. There were also a
few autograph sessions with the stars.
It will be exciting to see our school on
the silver screen.”
Taft Bulletin Fall 2007
Around the pond
New Davis Fund Offers Seven-Year Scholarships
The Shelby Davis family has created two parallel programs at Taft
to increase and diversify the international student population (Davis
International Scholars) as well as the
domestic population (Davis Scholars).
These need-based scholarships will
provide up to $20,000 each for six to
ten students each year.
“We want to build a broadening
network of America’s future decision
makers,” explains Phil Geier, executive
director of the Davis United World
College Scholars Program, “by providing funds to support students not coming from independent school families,
who might be the first in their families to
attend university. We hope this will help
schools recruit highly motivated future
leaders seeking extraordinary opportunities at American boarding schools.”
But what makes this program truly
incredible is that the Davis family is
committed to funding each scholar
through their boarding AND college
education, for a maximum of seven
years (the program is available to new
10th and 11th grade students at Taft).
“The Davises wanted other children
to benefit from the very positive experiences their five children had at boarding school,” explains Ferdie Wandelt
’66, longtime director of admissions
at Taft and now assistant to the headmaster for alumni affairs. And so they
have launched these two scholarships
at the schools their children attended:
Andover, Emma Willard, Lawrenceville,
Taft (Lanse ’97) and Westminster.
“Although boarding schools are
largely a known commodity in the
Northeast,” says Peter Frew ’75, Taft’s
current director of admissions, “the Davis
Scholarships will allow us as a school to
reach out to kids in new markets in parts
of the country and abroad where families
simply don’t realize what a Taft experience can offer their children.”
This year, 15 percent of the school’s
boarding students are international, representing more than 20 countries, and
other boarding students come from more
than 30 different states from Maine to
Hawaii, Florida to Washington.
Puppets of Peace
Ralph Lee ’53 thrilled students and
faculty once again with his Mettawee
River Theater Company’s new production of a classic romp by Aristophanes,
the Greek playwright regarded as the
father of comedy.
Peace was written in 421 B.C. to
celebrate a brief respite from the war
that plagued Greece throughout most of
Aristophanes’ lifetime. It is about a feisty
man who flies to Mount Olympus to
complain to the gods about the situation
on earth. When he arrives, he learns that
the gods have fled, leaving War and Greed
in charge and Peace buried under a trash
heap. With much hullabaloo and the help
of a chorus of farmers, Peace is rescued
and an extended celebration begins.
“When Aristophanes wrote Peace,”
Ralph explains, “Athens was worn out by
a war that had dragged on for years and
was very unpopular with its citizens. He
reacted by creating a madcap world full
of outrageous characters, biting satire,
bawdy humor and an ultimately positive, cheerful resolution. It seems like a
timely play for us to tackle.”
The extravagant and zany imagination of Aristophanes provides a springboard for a theatrical world full of the visual elements that are Mettawee’s stock in
trade. “What could be more inviting,” asks
Ralph, “than a giant stinky dung beetle, a
gracious goddess of peace and rampaging
personifications of war and greed?”
Mettawee, founded in 1975, creates
original productions that incorporate giant
figures, puppets and other visual elements
with live music and movement, drawing
on myths and legends of the world’s many
cultures. In addition to his many awards,
Ralph received a Guggenheim Fellowship,
one of the nation’s most prestigious honors, in 2003. He is currently on the faculty
of New York University.
Peace was presented as part of this year’s
Walker Hall Series (see page 2). Peter Frew ’75
Bob Falcetti
When the going gets Turf
Rainy fall weather didn’t slow down the
varsity field hockey team this year, thanks
to the renovation of Camp Field to include artificial turf. The field will accommodate girls’ field hockey and boys’ and
girls’ lacrosse, and has been lined for those
sports, though, Athletic Director Dave
Hinman ’87 explains, the school could
put temporary lines (as ones does with
grass fields) for a special soccer game.
“Our team was so excited when
we heard the news,” says coach Rachael
Ryan, “because we knew the turf would
enable us to bring our game to a new
level and continue to compete with the
best teams in New England.”
The field was made possible by
generous gifts from parents, and the
company that installed it recently did
the Yale soccer/lacrosse stadium and has
done many other college, high school
and even NFL fields.
“This is an exciting project,” says
Headmaster Willy MacMullen ’78. “Turf
fields have come such a long way in the
last decade, and we really feel that we are
getting a superb product. Playing in New
England weather, a field like this makes
a huge difference. Both girl and boy athletes will benefit. Taft is very lucky to
now have a field that means our facilities
are as good as any private school.”
“Not a Winning Score,” mixed media
by Robert Eshoo
In the Potter
Gallery
Work by the Taft Visual Arts
Faculty
September 7 to October 6, 2007
Robert Eshoo
Rockwell Visiting Artist
October 12 to November 17
All Children Are Artists:
Taft Students First Semester
Visual Arts
First Afghan Student
Kabul Transit, the title
of the documentary
by David Edwards ’70
(which he screened at
Taft last year), took
on new meaning for
Naeem Ahmad ’10 as
he made the 27-hour
flight from Kabul,
Afghanistan, to be a
middler at Taft this fall, in large part due
to David’s efforts.
“Coming to Taft has been a great experience and a worthwhile opportunity
of my life,” says Naeem, the school’s first
Afghan student. “Taft is an amazing place.
The thing that surprised me the most is the
frank and friendly relationship I noticed
between students and teachers, which I
unfortunately didn’t see in my country.
“I found Taft way better than what
I actually expected,” he adds, “strange
at first, but like a second home now.
I am more than happy to be a part of
it. Something I miss the most are those
family dinners where we all gather, chat
and laugh. And of course I miss my parents and other family members, who
have always supported me.”
It’s very exciting to have a student
from Afghanistan, says Admissions
Director Peter Frew ’75. “It’s one more
indicator of how the world is shrinking ... and a start toward the critical
understanding between two disparate
cultures. A student from a war-torn
country with a devastating presence
such as the Taliban can provide other
students—and faculty—firsthand insight into the complex issues there.”
November 30 to January 19
Opening reception
Friday, November 30, 5 to 7 p.m.
Juxtapositions
Caren Canier
(wife of Langdon Quin ’66 and
mother of Dino ’05 and Adrian ’08)
Rockwell Visiting Artist
January 25 to March 5
Opening reception
Friday, January 25, 5 to 7 p.m.
Dreams
Marc Leuthold ’80
Rockwell Visiting Artist
Andrew R. Heminway Exhibition
March 25 to April 26
Opening reception
Friday, March 28, 5 to 7 p.m.
Internal Combustion
b Naeem, the school’s first student from
Afghanistan, enjoys the fall tradition of
“Super Sunday” at Taft. Peter Frew ’75
Galen Cheney ’80
May 1 to June 2
Opening reception
Thursday, May 1, 5 to 7 p.m.
Around the pond
In Brief
Helping Ugandan
Schools
An entire generation in northern
Uganda has never known peace.
Since 1986, the Lord’s Resistance
Army has abducted more than
20,000 boys and girls to fight as
child soldiers in that militia. A
quarter of a million children in
northern Uganda currently receive no education; 60 percent
of schools there are nonfunctioning, leaving others grossly overcrowded. Invisible Children is a
nonprofit organization that focuses its efforts on improving the
quality of life for war-affected
children by providing access to
quality education and innovative
economic opportunities.
Taft students participated
in the organization’s Schools
for Schools Campaign in the
spring and raised approximately
$2,500. Student leader Meghan
Clower ’08 and faculty adviser
Sharon Phelan will continue the
club at Taft this year. In its first
semester, more than 580 schools
raised $1.2 million for schools in
the conflict region.
Representative Waverly Ann
Harris, the New England Schools
representative for Invisible Children, gave a Morning Meeting
in September, attended classes
throughout the day and helped
run Taft’s first Invisible Children
meeting of the year. Prior to the
visit, students arranged a viewing
of the film Rough Cut, which looks
through the eyes of the three college students who started the organization. For more information,
visit www.invisiblechildren.com.
New Faculty
There are a few familiar faces again this year among the new members of the
faculty. Chris Brown ’64, who taught here in 1971, returned in time for Dick
Cobb not to be the sole teacher who predates coeducation at Taft. Front row,
from left: Bill Kron, science; Rachel Russell, counseling; Luz Lara, Spanish; Rachel
Cederberg, college counseling; Janet Mosley, science; Catherine Ganung, college
counseling; Kara Zarchin, English; Christopher Latham, development. Second row,
Sam Routhier, mathematics; David Dethlefs, learning center; Christopher Ritacco,
science; Benjamin Tarshis, history; Geordy Richards, mathematics; Chris Brown ’64,
English; Rob Madden ’03, Spanish. Third row, Robert Ganung, chaplain; Panos
Voulgaris, history; Yee-Fun Yin, photography; Brendan Baran, Latin and history; and
Tundé Ayinde, English. Peter Frew ’75
What the Best College Teachers Do
Ken Bain, author of What the Best College
Teachers Do, addressed the faculty at their
opening meetings and asked the question: What makes a great teacher great?
The short answer, he explains, is
that it’s not what teachers do, it’s what
they understand. Lesson plans and lecture notes matter less than the special
way teachers comprehend the subject
and value human learning.
“The best teachers know their subjects inside and out, but they also know
how to engage and challenge students
and to provoke impassioned responses.
Most of all, they believe two things fervently: that teaching matters and that
students can learn. We need to value
deep learning, though,” Bain adds, and
reinforce that idea by the kinds of assessments teachers give.
“Ken Bain affirmed so much of what
Taft faculty already do in and outside of
the classroom,” says Dean of Faculty
Chris Torino, “though many faculty left
with a heightened awareness of the constant need to craft an environment in
which deep learning can happen (and is
valued) as well as the importance of shifting students’ preconceived ideas about
their own limits, about raising the bar.”
Ken is vice provost for instruction,
professor of history and director of the
Teaching and Learning Resource Center
at Montclair State University.
b Professor Ken Bain addressed the
faculty at the opening meetings this fall.
Peter Frew ’75
10 Taft Bulletin Fall 2007
New Trustees
The school welcomed two new corporate members of the Board of Trustees
this fall: George Moore ’87 and Lisa
Firestone ’85, in addition to alumni
trustee Hank Torbert ’90.
A screenwriter and freelance writer,
Lisa was a quarterfinalist in Fade-In
magazine’s screenplay competition.
An active philanthropist, as well, she
is a trustee of the Roger S. Firestone
Foundation, board member of the
Challengers Boys & Girls Club of South
Los Angeles, a founding member of
the Los Angeles Public Library Young
Literati support group and is an active supporter of Heal the Bay and the
World Wildlife Fund. Lisa graduated
cum laude from Princeton in 1990 and
served on the board as an alumni trustee
from 1993 to 1997. She lives in Santa
Monica, California.
George is a partner in the private
equity group of Quilvest, a global alternative asset manager. He earned his B.A.
from Colby College in 1991 and MBA
from Columbia Business School in 1995.
George and his wife, Calvert, live in
New York City with their three children
Carter, George and Schuyler, and they
are actively involved in their children’s
schools and in several nonprofit organizations, including the Boys’ Club of New
York, the Museum of the City of New
York, and the Central Park Conservancy.
Hank Torbert ’90 joins the board this
fall, for a four-year term as alumni trustee.
Hank received his bachelor’s degree and
an MBA from Columbia University. He
was an associate at J.P. Morgan before becoming chief operating officer at the venture capital firm Broadcast Capital, and
most recently with Avondale Ventures,
LLC, where he is a managing partner.
Originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, Hank
now lives in Washington, D.C.
Other elected alumni trustees are
Yi-ming Yang ’87, Jo Klingenstein
Ziesing ’78 and Jamie Better ’79. Roger
Lee ’90, who completes his elected term
AIDS in Africa
Lisa Firestone ’84
George Moore ’87
Lucy Cluver, a social worker at
Cape Town Child Welfare and lecturer at the Department of Social
Policy and Social Work at Oxford
University, spoke at Morning
Meeting in September. She recently completed the world’s largest study of mental health among
AIDS-orphaned children, with
1,200 children in South Africa’s
deprived urban townships. She is
widely published and recently won
the prize for best paper at the 2007
South African AIDS Conference.
She is currently working at the HIV
Center in Columbia University. Her
talk is part of the school’s ongoing
discussions this year about global
leadership and social change, begun
with the summer reading selection,
Mountains Beyond Mountains, by
Tracy Kidder, a look at the work of
Dr. Paul Farmer.
Sacred Moments
Hank Torbert ’90
this year, has agreed to stay on the board
as a corporate trustee.
Karin and John Kukral have joined
the board as Parents’ Fund chairs this
year, succeeding Hans and Kate Morris
(see Summer 2007 issue), although Kate
has agreed to continue on the board.
Finally, the board expressed its
thanks at the spring meeting to departing members Steve Potter ’73, Dyllan
McGee ’89 and Virginia Mortara.
Tenzin Dolma, an English teacher
from Canada, who was raised in a
Dutch Community and has traveled extensively throughout the
Middle East, India, Nepal, and
other Asian countries before settling in Tibet and teaching at a
Tibetan monastery for ten years,
spoke at Morning Meeting in
September. Two Tibetan monks
traveled with her and spoke
with students and faculty about
the Tibetan refugee situation,
Buddhism, and other topics.
Dolma also brought a Tibetan
thangka with her that the school
purchased to add to the sacred
art collection, which already contains an early King James Bible
and a Torah.
Taft Bulletin Fall 2007
11
and beyond
Around the pond
SUMMER OF SERVICE, LEADERSHIP AND LEARNING
Nearly two dozen students received funding from the school’s three summer
fellowship programs to participate in service and arts programs around the world.
Robert Keyes Poole
Fellowship
Established in memory of Robert
Keyes Poole, Taft master from
1956 to 1962. Awarded annually to
enable a Taft student to engage
in travel or in a project consistent
with Mr. Poole’s lifetime interest in
wildlife and the environment.
“I had a wonderful experience in Iten,
Kenya,” says Ian Overton ’09,
“where I helped Kenya high school
students prepare to apply to colleges
in the U.S. through a program called
‘The Kenya Scholar Athlete Program’
(or KenSAP for short). Ian helped students improve their language skills and
spent time enjoying the local area. He is
spending the fall semester at the Island
School program in the Bahamas.
Before her trip, Kate Lesko ’08
thought of Fiji, as many other people
probably do, as a resort island where
she’d help build and develop places that
were already established. But Fiji, she
. Ian Overton ’09, third from right, with
a group of KenSAP students at the High
Altitude Training Center, overlooking the
Kerio River Valley in Iten, Kenya. Runner
and three-time world record holder
Lornah Kiplagat (left) owns the center.
and hopeful, always smiling and happy
that you were there.
A couple days a week we would
work in the village, where I spent most
of my time with an elderly widow who
had no children to help her. She lived
in a one bedroom shack in Momi village that was falling apart. Our group
helped her by putting up a new roof
and painting the outside. We even built
a concrete well nearby, where she got all
of her drinking water. It was a great experience and I am so lucky that I had
the chance to do something like that.”
“Costa Rica showed me the true nature
of hard work,” says Zach Brazo
’09, “and allowed me to help people
less fortunate then me. While this was
the case, I had endless fun with the
loving families as well as on the soccer
field, where many of the Costa Ricans
showed off their extreme talent and
poise.” Mixing a little soccer and service
while in La Paz, Zach played with local
children, club and village teams.
m Kate Lesko ’08 learned firsthand about
poverty in Fiji.
found, “is actually a really poor country
and is in need of so much help. For a few
days we went to middle schools where
the teachers just got off strike because
of religious conflicts and political issues.
The headmaster was upset, explaining
how these young kids were left at the
school because the parents didn’t know
what to do with them while the schools
were on strike.” Luckily the strike ended
before she had to leave.
“It was an amazing trip and I can’t
begin to explain the experience and culture shock I went through, but it really
showed me how appreciative the Fijians
are of the help we contributed. I wish I
were there longer doing more service!”
. Zach Brazo ’09 walking back from
working on a local school library in Costa
Rica (digging holes) and carrying the
tools/backpacks back for his group.
“Every day we would wake up to the
sound of roosters at the crack of dawn,”
says Beth Kessenich ’08 of
her time in Fiji. “Then we would spend
our mornings in different schools
around the villages teaching the children English words and phrases, and
even American songs. None of the
children wore shoes, and it looked
like they didn’t have even a toothbrush because their teeth were rotting.
Although the children and families did
not have much they were still so happy
b Beth Kessenich ’08 volunteers at a
school in Fiji.
Taft Bulletin Fall 2007
13
m Jessica Yu ’09 with schoolchildren in
Esokone, Kenya
ing from brick and mortar, plastered
it, and then painted it inside and out.
We even had the pleasure of seeing the
school registered by the district commissioner. We lived without electricity and
other comforts for five weeks, but I miss
every second of my stay—my homestay
family and friends and the places I was
able to visit. I fell in love with Kenya.”
c Ryan Rostenkowski ’08 (pictured
under the word “school”) with members
of his Remote Highlands Service Project
group in Fiji
m Maddy Martin ’09 with children at the
polo where she volunteered in Timbo, a
small town in Brazil
“Every day was amazing,” says Maddy
Martin ’09. “Bonding with the
kids at the polos, which are after-school
programs for underprivileged children,
was extremely rewarding. My ultimate
highlight was when we were asking the
kids about our visit to their polo, and
my favorite little boy, Mateus, said his
favorite part was ‘solo Maddy.’ They all
spoke Portuguese so verbal communication was hard, but it didn’t seem to be
a problem. We were able to communicate without words. I now have a better
idea how much needs to be done in this
world, and I actually feel like I have the
ability to make a difference.”
14 Taft Bulletin Fall 2007
“Everyone in Esokone, my homestay village, was so friendly!” says Jessica
Yu ’09. “Especially the primary
school kids. Before we even started
building the school they treated us like
we had already completed it and were
celebrating. It was so encouraging to
have the entire village support our project. We built a secondary school buildc Kristine Palmieri ’08 taught English to
Tibetan doctors, a nurse, and a monk at the
Tibetan medical institute in Dharamsala,
India, through Volunteer Tibet. “Never
in my life have I felt so connected to the
people and places around me. Every
aspect of my life—from walking around
temples and talking with monks to sipping
chai in cafés—brought a sense of peace
and unity that was unimaginable to me
before. I learned more about myself and
the world around me”
“One of my fondest memories,” says
Ryan Rostenkowski ’08
“was an afternoon that I spent in a
small classroom during a rainstorm
with about 10 Fijian kids ranging from
1st to 5th grade. They would read me
simple books in English; I attempted
to read them books in Fijian (while
they helped and corrected me), and
we took pictures and laughed as if we
had been friends for more than just one
afternoon. I could have never guessed
any difference in where we came from;
we just wanted to have fun and enjoy
each other’s company. My Fijian ‘transformation’ was truly unique as I experienced how Fijians have been living
for centuries in the mountains of their
beautiful country.”
In addition to teaching, Ryan’s
group immersed themselves in the cultural day-to-day workings of a village,
doing repairs and construction.
c Claire Novak ‘08 in front of the Roman
fort her group was helping to restore in
France.
“I had an amazing time!” says Claire
Novak ’08. “Not only did I help
rebuild a wonderful 11th-century fort,
I also played somewhat of an ambassador, as I was the first American many of
the participants in the Remparts program (from six different countries) had
ever met! It was SO amazing!”
Taylor Gorham ’08 went to
the Galápagos with Lifeworks to help
the National Park Service eradicate
invasive species, plant more endangered endemic ones, and paint some
school buildings in San Cristóbal and
Santa Cruz.
c Taylor Gorham ’08, left, helps save
tortoises (back right) in the Galápagos.
and beyond
Around the pond
Kelsey White ’08 and Maggie
Hutton ’08 worked in Thailand as
caretakers for endangered Asian elephants
at the Royal Elephant Project hospital.
Other Poole Fellows
Other students who participated in the
Poole Fellowship program:
Matt Ale ’08—Costa
Rica: build
trails and playgrounds, teach English
Lindsay Dittman ’09—Honduras:
create curriculum for children and do
community projects
Esther Kim ’09—Thailand: volunteer at an orphanage and teach English
Charlie Lovering ’08—Quebec
Labrador Foundation: work with children in rural communities
. Maggie Hutton ’08 (pictured) and
Kelsey White ’08 help care for elephants
in Thailand.
Page Fellowship
The Meg Page ’74 Fellowship,
in memory of her commitment
to compassionate health care, is
awarded annually to a student
who wishes to explore an experience or course of study devoted
to the provision of better health
care in areas such as public health,
family planning, medical research,
mental health, and non-western
practices of healing.
tal jaundice or spina bifida. One baby
was born with the weight of 1.7kg (or
3.74 pounds). I will also remember
the silence. The orphans, never having
been nurtured, loved, or cared don’t
know how to cry. It was depressing to
see their crying only in times of great
pain, but I enjoyed my experience.”
. Robin Oh ’09 volunteered at the
Children’s Medical Treatment Center in
Shenyang, China.
“I think I will remember all the
rare diseases most,” says Jun Ho
Robin Oh ’09 of his time at the
Children’s Medical Treatment Center
in Shenyang, China. He volunteered at
the hospital that takes care of disabled
orphans with support from Taft’s Meg
Page ’74 Fellowship. “Some of the orphans had brittle bone disease, neona-
KILBOURNE FELLOWS
Kilbourne Summer Enrichment Fund,
established by John Kilbourne, Class
of 1958, in memory of his parents
Samuel W. and Evelyn S. Kilbourne,
provides students with opportunities in the summer to participate in
enriching programs in the arts.
With his Kilbourne grant, Will Sayre
’09 attended a three-week filmmaking
program at the School of Cinema and
Performing Arts (SOCAPA), where he
learned the basics of filmmaking and
created three short films. “I was able to
work with advanced video technology
such as high-definition cameras and
boom devices for sound,” explains Will,
“and for my movies, I had the privilege
of working with serious actors. I worked
with and learned from adults who were
serious filmmakers. I learned many
filmmaking techniques that famous
directors such as Alfred Hitchcock and
Stanley Kubrick used in their films.
16 Taft Bulletin Fall 2007
Sam McGoldrick ’09 had
a fantastic time at Brown University
studying and learning the process of
film production. “The program was terrific, says Sam. “The goal for the three
weeks was not so much the creation of a
product, but the process. My classmates
were fun and easy to work with and that
area of Providence is beautiful.”
m Will Sayre ’09 with one of his filmmaking
supervisors, Bert Estrada
SOCAPA was an amazing experience,
and I hope to attend the Advanced
Filmmakers program next year.”
“Tanglewood was very nice, though
a lot of hard work,” says upper middler Wells Andres ’09. “In six
weeks we had three full concerts with
three different conductors. Each morning we had three hours of rehearsal, and
in the afternoon we had chamber music
rehearsals and coachings. Playing great
music in such a good orchestra was an
amazing experience and was a lot of fun
despite the long hours of rehearsal.”
Wells also won second place for 9th
and 10th grade prose in the Ferris Ellis
Literary Awards for a piece he wrote
about Madame Bovary for honors
English class last spring. The awards are
given by the Connecticut Community
Foundation. He is spending the fall
at the Maine Coast Semester at the
Chewonki Foundation.
Genevieve Bleidner ’09
pursued her interest in black and white
photography at the International Center
for Photography in New York City. “I
chose ICP because taking a class in NY
was ideal for me, and the city is a very
interesting place. ICP has one of the best
facilities around. The people I met were
all very helpful. My class was canceled
last minute so the school set me up with
a teacher who told me what to shoot and
who to talk to about photo at the school,
and I ended up meeting a few very good
photographers and printing some of
my own work as well.” Genevieve displayed her photography in September at
Starbucks Cafe in Southbury.
. Genevieve Bleidner ’09 taking photographs at the Bronx Zoo.
. Wells Andres ’09 and his friend Rachel
Sandman after their second concert at
Tanglewood
Taft Bulletin Fall 2007
17
and beyond
Around the pond
Faculty
In addition to summer fellowships for
students, the school has a long history
of supporting graduate work, travel,
curriculum development and other
professional growth for faculty over
the summer months.
Drummond and
Ruth Bell Fellowship
• Kevin Conroy, graduate work at
Middlebury College
• Greg Hawes ’85, curriculum development for “Approaches to History”
Blinken Fellowship
• Jack Kenerson ’82, ASSIST program
in Prague, Czech Republic
Earl Brauer Fund
• Annabel Smith, curriculum development for new courses in Service
Learning, leadership workshops in
South Africa (see photo) and Senegal
Davis Family
Junior Faculty Fund
• Julia Cardozo, graduate work at
Academy of Liberal & Beaux Arts,
Barcelona, Spain
m Annabel Smith, second from left, with Jessica Ng ’08, Abi Sayre ’07 and Aaron Chiu
’08 at Global Leadership Adventures in South Africa, where Annabel was the program
director. Kristen Castellano ’08 participated in an earlier session, and Maddy Martin ’08
did a GLA program in Brazil. Annabel, who came to Taft last year, first learned about Taft
from Greg Ricks at the GLA. After the workshop, she traveled to Maru a Pula School in
Botswana, headed by Andy Taylor ’72, to visit Liliana Saplontai ’07.
Davis Fellowship
• Alison Carlson, cultural and
language immersion in France,
research for summer study/travel
options for students
Alice and Arthur Greer
Faculty Fund
• Kristen Fairey, doctoral work
for dissertation on Elizabethan
architecture, Yale University
John Lyman Fellowship
• Enyi-Abal Koene, graduate work at
Middlebury College
m Science teacher Dana Carbone on the school’s first admissions visit to South Korea
with (from left) Amy Jang ’08, Robin Oh ’09, Jasmine Oh ’11, Kris Bae ’11, Sean Yoo ’09
and Brian Jang ’10
18 Taft Bulletin Fall 2007
Lance Odden
Summer Sabbatical
• Colin Farrar, graduate work in history, Harvard University Extension
Spanish teachers Rob Madden
’03 and Julia Cardozo took a
course in the Spanish methods of teaching Spanish as a second language in
Barcelona, Spain. “It was a wonderful
time in a great city and I learned a lot
about teaching Spanish to beginners,”
says Rob. “Barcelona is a fantastic city
and the architecture of the city amazed
me the whole time I was there.”
It was a intensive 3-week program
(6 hours of class a day), adds Julia. “I
lived with a host family who helped me
learn a lot about Barcelona’s culture.
The food and museums were definitely
highlights for me.”
b Spanish teacher Julia Cardozo, at
restaurant Casa Leopoldo, off Las Ramblas
in Madrid, says the food and museums
were definite highlights of her time in
Spain on a Davis grant.
m Modern Language Department Head Alison Carlson with her husband Carl (dean of students) and their boys, Cameron, Owen
and Zachary, at Chenonceau. Alison spent time scouring bookstores for new works of literature, exploring possibilities for a future
summer program for students, and generally immersing herself in French culture and language.
Taft Bulletin Fall 2007
19
Business Side of
Pro Sports
Three Alums, Three Teams and a Lot of Hometown Pride
By Kathleen Miller
Bill DeWitt ’86 knows what it’s like to design World Series Championship
rings. Eric Woolworth ’83 gets high-fives in public for the Miami Heat’s 2006
NBA Championship win. And Dick Williams ’89 watches baseball games in a
suite with the Cincinnati Reds’ general manager.
Not a bad way to make a living, but it’s all just part of the job for DeWitt,
senior vice president of business development for the St. Louis Cardinals;
Woolworth, president of business operations for the Miami Heat; and
Williams, director of baseball business operations for the Cincinnati Reds.
For all the high-profile glamour, none of the men say their jobs are the
cakewalk one might imagine.
Bill DeWitt ’86 with Dick Williams ’89 on the field
in St. Louis during batting practice before a game
between the Reds and Cardinals this year.
“When people say ‘Hey, what a life! You get to
sit and watch baseball games every day. That’s
pretty cool!’ I have to tell them the truth,”
Williams said. “Yes, I’m in the general manager’s
suite surrounded by TV screens and computers, but I’m not drinking; I’m not eating; and (I)
rarely have time to go to the bathroom.”
Williams says there is no typical day for
him with the Reds. He reports directly to the
team’s general manager and offers assistance
wherever necessary.
“If he’s negotiating contracts, making trades, I’ll offer support if he needs it,”
Williams said. “If he’s going into an arbitration case, and he needs research, I’ll do that.”
A lot of his work involves staying on
top of the budgets for players, coaches, and
scouts. He meets regularly with the various
Taft Bulletin Fall 2007
21
“I would never pretend to be a baseball
lifer,” Williams said. “My value add is not
‘Hey, this guy’s got a better slider than this
guy,’ but rather, ‘If he does have that slider,
what are some creative ways we can attract
him to our team and allocate our resources
better to be able to accommodate him?’ ”
m.
Dick Williams ’89 has fun with the host while
supporting the team and the community at
Ken Griffey, Jr.’s charity bowling event.
department heads to see whether they’re
ahead or behind on their budgets which collectively total in excess of $100 million.
“It’s incredibly dynamic! You have to
manage your budget day-to-day and monthto-month in baseball,” Williams said. “If a
pitcher gets hurt, and you’ve invested $2 million in him, you’ve got to find a new pitcher;
get the hurt one help; and stay within the
budget. You need to be very proactive in trying to anticipate the unexpected and managing for the unexpected.”
He’s also involved in putting the best team
on the field. The Reds’ system has teams in
Sarasota, Florida; Billings, Montana; Dayton,
Ohio; Chattanooga, Tennessee; Louisville,
Kentucky; the Dominican Republic; and
Venezuela. Williams helps anticipate the “domino effect” in fielding a team by working with
scouts and coaches to shift several hundred athletes around the player development system.
He readily admits he didn’t have a background in baseball. He was an investment
banker with Morgan Stanley; started a venture capital fund; and ran national fundraising for the Bush-Cheney campaign prior to
joining the Reds.
Unlike Williams, Bill DeWitt III, senior vice
president of business development for the
Cardinals, does not have to worry about sliders in any sense.
His preoccupations are the other aspects
of the game that contribute to the fan experience. Sometimes it’s the tiny details like
tweaking the team’s signature “Cardinal”
from a bird with a puffed-out chest to a
more dignified, less-haughty figure. And
sometimes it’s a project as monstrous as redesigning the entire stadium that houses the
game. DeWitt recently oversaw the development of a new ballpark for the St. Louis
Cardinals, handling everything from meetings with architects, financial people, politicians, and operations staff to designing the
building from “soup to nuts.”
“It’s obviously a team effort. If you’re
quarterbacking the design process, you’ve got
to make sure everybody is on the same page—
the interior folks, the construction guys, and
the city government people,” DeWitt said.
“Something as simple as the scoreboards
can take a good deal of time to decide what
they’re going to look like,” he explained.
DeWitt, an architectural history major at
Yale, is energized by “seeing things come out
of the ground.”
“It’s really exciting to see activity from
a construction standpoint,” DeWitt said.
“All the decisions you make end up in
bricks and mortar. It’s really gratifying to
see it all come together.”
He’s now spearheading the management
of the Cardinals’ Ballpark Village Project, a
plan to surround the stadium area with six
blocks of restaurants, housing units, offices,
and entertainment attractions that he and
city leaders hope will help revitalize the area.
The father-son team of
Bill DeWitt III ’86 and
Bill DeWitt, Jr., at the
Cardinals’ new Busch
stadium, which opened
in 2006. Dilip Vishwanat
Like the new stadium project, there’s a “constant drumbeat of meetings,” he added.
“I’m not a big fan of all the complicated
legal documents that go into these projects,
but you have people to help you stay on top
of it,” DeWitt said.
DeWitt said one of the best parts of
managing the new stadium and the ballpark
village projects was seeing what they could do
for the city as a whole.
“It’s really a transformation,” DeWitt
said. “It’s like leveraging the Cardinals to
improve the city where they play. The more
people you bring here from other areas, the
greater the return for the city’s economy.
Downtown was a lot quieter than I thought it
should be when I got here, it’s starting to pick
up now and that’s really exciting.”
But his work hasn’t been all meetings
and blueprints. He also got to taste a bit of
the show business side of baseball when the
Cardinals won the World Series last year,
and he and his family rode in the city parade
with the trophy.
Taft Bulletin Fall 2007
23
Eric Woolworth ’83
enjoying the Larry
O’Brien Trophy with
his wife of 16 years,
Jocelyn, and their
two kids, Jackson
and Cassidy.
Denis Bancroft/Miami Heat
“There were half a million people downtown lining the streets! Everybody is screaming
and waving their banners, and for a second,
you feel like you had something to do with it
even though you didn’t. The players are the
ones who go out and win it,” DeWitt stated.
m.
Eric Woolworth also knows that feeling. Last
year, his Miami Heat took the NBA title.
“The excitement that goes with that, out
and about on the town, wearing your champi-
onship ring, people you know and don’t know
high-fiving you and congratulating you—it’s a
phenomenal feeling,” Woolworth related.
About his job with the Miami Heat,
Woolworth said “Pat Riley has responsibility for the players, coaches, and scouts; and I
have responsibility for everything else.”
Woolworth oversees marketing, sales,
customer service, finance, and human resources for the Miami Heat.
“My job is making sure the building is
sold out,” Woolworth asserted. “Then there’s
game operations like coordinating the music,
the DJ, the arena host, the dance teams, the
food and beverages, the fan prompts…it’s
very much an orchestrated show that’s actually pretty complicated, very coordinated, and
designed to get the crowd into the game.”
In addition, he is charged with operating, maintaining, and booking the American
Airlines Arena where the Heat play when the
Heat aren’t playing. Under his leadership,
the American Airlines Arena has hosted the
MTV Video Music Awards twice, the Latin
Grammies, assorted TV specials and countless concerts including the band Phish.
“The run of Phish shows is a favorite
memory,” Woolworth said. “One of my friends
from Taft was Trey Anastasio ’83 [the guitarist
from Phish] and it was awesome to be able to
hook up with a former classmate from Taft,
years later, and have our work overlap.”
And then there’s coordinating the image and marketing of all Miami Heat players,
which, of course, includes Shaq.
“What you see is pretty much what you
get with Shaq,” Woolworth said. “He’s very
supportive of our marketing efforts and often
brings his own ideas to the table. He suggested Shaq-A-Claus, where he shows up in a big
18-wheeler and gives presents to underprivileged kids during the holidays.”
Woolworth, a Georgetown law grad,
who previously practiced environmental law
in Washington, D.C., first joined the Heat as
general counsel in 1995.
“I took less money and moved to a
city I didn’t know to get into the business,”
Woolworth said. “When I first got here, my
mentor told me I was now lucky enough to
be working in ‘the candy store’ of life.”
And with the Heat’s championship win,
Woolworth has tasted the top-shelf candy.
“It’s an incredible feeling,” declared
Woolworth. “We had 300,000 people come
to Downtown Miami. You’re scared because
so many people are trying to get close to you
and the players, but at the same time people
are throwing confetti, and it’s a totally jubilant, exciting day for everybody.”
“In a sense, the community owns the team,”
Woolworth said. “And right now the Miami
Heat is the crown jewel of the community.”
Eric Woolworth ’83 and Pat Riley
“feeling pretty good about ourselves”
in Dallas right after beating the
Mavs to win the Heat’s first NBA
Championship on June 20, 2006.
m.
Williams and DeWitt agree.
“This may sound a little corny, but
baseball teams are very important civic
assets,” Williams said. “You read about it
day in and day out—more than the school
board and a ton of other things. People
aren’t going to move somewhere just because a baseball team is winning, but if the
team is raising the morale of the people
who live in a city, then it’s a small part of
improving the quality of life.”
DeWitt maintained that it’s the people
outside the baseball business who remind
him how unique his daily grind is.
“It’s a kind of job where most of the time
you just do your job and you figure like anybody else, there’s calls to make and things to
do,” DeWitt said. “Every once in a while, like
when you give a kid a tour of the clubhouse,
and you see things through the eyes of somebody fresh to the situation—those moments
reenergize you. They remind me that this is
cool; this is not normal; and it gets you motivated to keep it going.”
Kathleen Miller is a
freelance writer and
a reporter for the
Washington Examiner
who lives in Falls
Church, Virginia.
Taft Bulletin Fall 2007
25
Never Say Never
A Young
Alumna’s Battle
with Arthritis and
the Lessons It’s
Taught Her
By
Sally Ann Flecker
26 Taft Bulletin Fall 2007
Annie and Ellie, the children Sarah Frechette
Potts ’92 was told she would never have, are three years old
now. They share brown hair and brown eyes, dimples in their
right cheek, beautiful olive skin, and an imaginary friend
named Deeky. They are daredevils who jump into the pool,
whether or not their parents are looking. One afternoon, instead of napping, they turned the bath on and took off their
clothes to sit down in the overflow, which was an inch high
by the time Sarah noticed water leaking from the ceiling and
came rushing upstairs. Sometime later, after she had cleaned
everything up and given them the lecture on safety, she
thought about the lesson for her. “Come take a bath on the
bathroom floor, Mommy,” they had said. “Wow,” Sarah says.
“I never looked at the world that way.”
Sarah may be extraordinarily prone toward noticing
things in a fresh way. That’s what happens when you wake up
one morning and find that your body, which you had so comfortably taken for granted, isn’t working right anymore—and
no one can tell you why.
March, six years ago. Sarah is 27, an avid runner, enthusiastic about her work as a fundraiser for a little nonprofit
called Crisis Control Ministry. She and her husband have
just moved to Winston-Salem, North Carolina. One Sunday
morning she wakes up with knees that are swollen and hot
to the touch. They are even worse the next day, so she takes
herself to a local walk-in clinic. The doctor puts her on an
antibiotic and sends her home. By the end of the week, all of
her joints are swollen. She can hardly walk. Her feet are too
big for shoes. Her body is turning against her.
This is the beginning of a long, dark period. Her general practitioner puts her on another round of antibiotics, and when she continues to get worse, sends her from
specialist to specialist. Everyone—the endocrinologist, the
cardiologist, the neurologist—shrugs their shoulders. No
one knows what the problem is. Even worse, each doctor
tells her to give up thinking about ever having children.
She wouldn’t be able to get pregnant, they say. And even
if she did, she wouldn’t carry a baby successfully. This is
not what you want to hear when you are young and newly
married and ready to start a family.
Later, when she tells the story of this time, she will emphasize the positive. Her husband is very supportive, urging
her not to give up. She has a great network of friends who help
her get around, come to her aid when she can’t get out of the
car on her own. Her best coping mechanism is to continue to
work and pretend she isn’t sick. On days that she can’t get up
the stairs, she counts her blessings. “At least I got out of bed,”
she tells herself. But there are moments that are crushing.
Taft Bulletin Fall 2007
27
One evening—it is summer by now—while she sits on
the bed watching television, she decides to work on a scarf
that she had started knitting some time back. She knits a few
stitches and her fingers lock. This can’t be right, she thinks.
She puts the knitting down, stretches her fingers a bit, and
tries again. “I ended up in tears because I couldn’t physically
move the needles,” she says. “It wasn’t good.”
After months of going from one doctor to the next,
Sarah’s husband, Ryan, a toxicologist from England whom
she describes as a “quiet scientist,” accompanies her to an appointment with a general practitioner. He sits in the chair
without saying a word for the entire hour that Sarah is being
examined. When the doctor advises more blood tests, Ryan
asks to look at what is being ordered. “That was the first time
he had spoken,” says Sarah. “He looked at the list and said to
the doctor, ‘This is not good enough. You already tested for
most of this; the rest isn’t going to tell you anything. You need
to fix her.’ And it was then that I started getting much more
serious referrals.”
This is the turning point. The tests point toward a rheumatoid disease. By now, she has developed strange rashes. Her
left eye has become bright red with inflammation. She can’t
tolerate any sun. She is sick, really sick. Don’t give up, the
rheumatologist tells her. Don’t give up. He tries different drugs,
each with a set of side effects. He runs more tests, searching
to put a name on her condition. There’s one more low point
when the rheumatologist orders more blood work. Sarah asks
what it’s for this time, and he sidesteps her question. Finally,
making her promise not to look it up on the Internet, he gives
her the name of a disease. Chances are you don’t have it, he
says. He doesn’t want to scare her. Sarah doesn’t look it up, but
her husband does. That night, for the first time, Ryan breaks
down in tears. If you have this, he tells her, you won’t live
more than six months.
But she doesn’t have that disease either.
The closest to an official diagnosis she gets is arthritis that
is probably in the rheumatoid family. “There are over a hundred kinds of diagnosable forms of arthritis and autoimmune
diseases,” Sarah says. “My characteristics are in line with rheumatoid arthritis, but all of the factors that measure swelling
on me are normal, and the rheumatoid factor is negative. And
there are some weird things like the eye inflammation and
some of the rashes that don’t necessarily fit with rheumatoid
arthritis. So my doctor says we still don’t know for sure, but
we know it is something similar to rheumatoid arthritis because of how I responded to medication.”
One of the medications her doctor prescribes for her has
to be injected. Sarah practices on oranges for a month. She
practices with an orange before each injection. Twice a week
she prepares a syringe—gets the medicine to the right temperature, makes sure the fluid is in the right spot in the syringe
and that there are no air bubbles. The needle hurts. The drug
hurts even worse. Some days, she sits in the bathroom for an
hour and cries before doing the injection. But soon she is able
to walk again. She begins, she says, to get her life back.
One of her favorite memories: She drives to Wal-Mart one
night. It is raining and she gets out of the car and runs across
the parking lot. Just like that. It’s the first time she has run in
tis
Rheumatoid Arthri
“Rheumatoid arthritis is a complex, multi-system, autoimmune disease,” says Dr. James D. Kenney ’47. “It can affect
multiple body systems with varying degrees of intensity, and
with a variety of symptoms.” In rheumatoid arthritis, the
body’s defense mechanism gets misdirected and becomes active against parts of the person’s own body. Since that set of
defenses is widespread in the body, Kenney says, it’s no surprise that a patient’s symptoms might reside in more than one
place, including the joints, skin, glands, lungs, or heart.
Kenney describes the diagnosis of a rheumatoid disease
as an inductive process that involves ruling out other possible causes. “Treatment for this is, of necessity, against the
unwanted and unfair autoimmune phenomenon. But that
is not a quick fix,” he says. “It’s not like treating a sensitive
28 Taft Bulletin Fall 2007
pneumococcus with penicillin or lining up broken bones so
the patient ends up with a straight leg. This is a less yielding
kind of disease and its variable presentation sometimes makes
it difficult to diagnose in the early phases. However, in our
new world of cell biology more direct molecular treatments
are emerging”
Kenney, whose specialty includes rheumatology, has spent
his career with one foot in academe and the other in practice.
Earlier, he worked in London with the famed British geneticist,
L.S. Penrose, before deciding that his true calling was “as a sawbones.” Kenney retired in June from his private practice. He
still has ties to Yale University School of Medicine, where he has
been a clinical professor of medicine and served for 20 years as
associate dean for graduate and continuing education.
three years. When she realizes what she is doing, she stands in
the parking lot, in the rain, and laughs like a crazy fool.
Don’t give up, the rheumatologist tells her again. This
time he is talking about not giving up on the idea of having
children. He continues to fine-tune her drug regimen. One
day he says she has three months—one month to go off the
meds and two months to try and get pregnant. Annie and
Ellie arrive nine months later.
These days, Sarah is a full-time mom. She is a spokesperson for the Arthritis Foundation and serves on the board for
the North Carolina and South Carolina chapter. She recently
ran her first 5K race since that Sunday morning when she
woke up with swollen knees. Every now and then she has a
week when life just hurts, she says. “But then I get better and I
get hugs from my girls.” Not just any hugs, but octopus hugs,
Sarah calls them—four arms and four legs wrapped around
her. “I don’t know where my girls came from,” Sarah says. “I
don’t know how I got them, but they are what keep me going
everyday. And if I could say that more strongly I would. They
are my world.”
Sally Ann Flecker is a freelance writer in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Photography by Lee Adams
“I don’t know
how I got them,
but they
are what keep
me going
everyday.
And if I could
say that
more strongly
I would.
They are my
world.”
Taft Bulletin Fall 2007
29
Twenty students embark on a
cultural and environmental learning expedition
to Tanzania, to travel deliberately and
to return with something more than photographs.
Tom Reycraft leads the way with
300 feet to go!
Of Maasai and
30 Taft Bulletin Fall 2007
Cape Buffalo Camp
I’ve always loved the metaphorical undertones of climbing
mountains, the universal applicability of gaining elevation.
When I first told my colleagues here at Taft that I wanted
to take twenty of our students to Tanzania for a Kilimanjaro
climb and Serengeti safari, they looked at me skeptically—as
if I’d just proposed a full day of obligatory Sunday classes.
Greater than my hope of seeing lion, buffalo, and yes, rhino, greater than my hope of standing with students on the highest freestanding mountain in the world, was my belief that our
students could do so in good style—that is to say, sensitively,
productively and humbly—finding ways to redeem tourism, to
visit briefly and yet leave something good behind.
A “cultural and environmental learning expedition” instead of “vacation,” we began with months of orientation on
topics such as expedition behavior, Tanzanian history, and
“leave no trace” travel ethics. Mark Thornton, Taft ’91, owner
and operator of Mark Thornton Safaris and our head guide,
welcomed us in Tanzania. This journey would, I hoped, be
a chance to work collaboratively, expedition-style, to see the
glaciers before global warming claimed them as victims, and
to confront the global questions that our students most need
to confront—questions that are valuable in the very act of
asking, that position them firmly, more decisively, as leaders.
—Jason BreMiller, trip leader
Mountains
Photography by
Julia Cardozo
Taft Bulletin Fall 2007
31
Team Taft on a game
drive in Ngorogoro!
The most unique experience
for me was sleeping at the
“buffalo camp.” After the first night, I
learned there were buffalo nearby, so I was
worried about them the entire night. I
heard something pulling up grass outside
our tent and couldn’t sleep because I was
afraid it was going to trample the tent. As
it turned out, it was only a bush pig.
—Kelsey White
We left from Headmaster's Circle on June 4, only
six days ago. Now, as we crowd closer to the fire as the sun descends, we’re
fairly brushing shoulders in a crowded circle by the time the sun finally slips
behind the same acacia-covered rise we climbed this morning. Our eyelids are
heavy and our bellies full, but we stay awake as our new Maasai friends begin
to sing. Their voices flit and echo ethereally about the cliffs behind us, deep
throaty gasps, sharp sucks of air, accompanied by sudden thrusts of their spears
that make my skin tingle. I look across the flames at my students, their faces
draped in flickering flame; I can see they feel something too. We brushed up
against something wholly new, that we didn’t even know was inside us. As the
warriors finish, pulling their cloaks about them shyly, their last note carrying
off across the plain, we stand in applause. The Maasai mutter amongst themselves, gesturing to Mark to tell us something. Apparently, they want us to sing
in return—a simple act of reciprocity. It’s only fair. Quickly, we arrange a weak
rendition of “Happy Birthday,” but it is feeble at best. The warriors look on in
mock sincerity, but clearly they were unimpressed. Then something happens
that makes my chest swell with pride, that recalls to me why I believed 20 high
school kids could travel to Africa safely, in good style, in the first place. It just so
happens that five members of Taft’s Collegium Musicum are part of our group.
Working quickly now, Charlie Fraker rallies himself to noble heights of leadership, organizing a quick performance. After a brief huddle in the shadows on the
far side of camp, Charlie, Muneeb, Ray, Kelsey emerge from waist-high grass
with the regal poise they might have summoned had they been emerging onto
the stage at Carnegie Hall. After Charlie gives the count, the sweet harmonies
of Paul Halley’s “Freedom Trilogy” reverberate across the Serengeti, and the
expressions of our Maasai brothers change from pity to reverence just as quickly.
—Jason BreMiller
Setting up camp at Lava Tower,
15,000 feet.
32 Taft Bulletin Fall 2007
We drive by jeep from our camp above Ngorogoro Crater
to our new camp just outside of the Serengeti National Park. We have been forewarned
that this will be a long, tedious journey across a vast African bush so we have low expectations. We pile into our cars and, as it is excruciatingly hot, we remove the roof to get
some air and hang our heads out. The surroundings are stunning. Seven people poking
through the roof of a jeep, blasting across the Serengeti at 70 kph with no road. It is
probably one of the best things I’ve ever done. I will never forget the feeling of endless
skies and the feeling of the wind.
—Charlie Fraker
The majority of our group have gone to sleep in their tents, leaving Lily, Camilla,
Paul, Heine and me sitting around the campfire with a Maasai warrior who does not speak our language or know much
about American culture. As we sit around gossiping and talking about home, I can tell by the way the warrior sits and
watches us that he is interested in our discussion and wants to join the conversation despite the language barrier. At first,
we try to include him in the conversation with the little Swahili that we know. However, a simple exchange of “jambo!”
(Hello!) does not satisfy both parties’ desire to communicate with one another. As a group we want to climb the cliff that
stands above our campsite in order to get a beautiful view of the sun rising over the Serengeti. In order to communicate
our plan to our new Maasai friend, we do our best to draw a picture in the dirt of the sun rising next to the burning
fire. Then, Camilla, with her Swahili-English dictionary, asks “What time?” in hopes that the Maasai will understand.
Unfortunately, something is lost in the translation and the warrior begins to write the numbers one through ten in the
dirt while saying each number in Swahili as if we had asked how to count. After a long laugh and a few more tries at
communicating our idea to watch the sun rise, we are finally successful and go to bed.
The next morning, our late night crew wakes each other up and is greeted by our Maasai friend at the edge of the
rock. With our headlamps on, we climb the rock in the dark and wait for the sun to rise. Finally, the sun creeps up over
the horizon, shining its bright orange color over the entire Serengeti. It is not only spectacularly beautiful, but also a
memorable time because of the company we share.
—Jed Rooney
Taft Bulletin Fall 2007
33
While on the safari,
we travel to an area inhabited
by the Maasai people, an area
closed to tourists. Our campsite
is an open area surrounded on
three sides by thick acacia trees
and a huge cliff that towers over
the area. After dinner, we relax
around the fire, telling stories
about the amazing animals we
have spotted, or the adventures
we might have the next day.
—Paul Kiernan
One of my favorite moments is the daylong
drive across the Serengeti to our camp in the bush.
Everyone is standing on their seats sticking out the sunroof from
the chest up, taking in the beautiful scenery whizzing by. We
pass herds of Maasai cattle grazing along the way, but not many
wild animals. Yet, the highlight of the day comes when a herd of
Thompson gazelles speeds out of nowhere and begins running
alongside and in front of our vehicle. The scene reminds me of
dolphins swimming in front of a boat as if to lead it somewhere.
We’re going around 40 or 45 mph and the gazelles keep up. It was
so amazing to see these animals, in their own habitat, really show
what they can do!
—Julia Cardozo
34 Taft Bulletin Fall 2007
Mark Thornton ’91 with Torroyo and Joseph,
our Maasai guides, relaxing in camp near Serengeti.
Approaching snowline
at 17,000 feet.
On the safari, we start to
toss a Frisbee around.
Joseph, one of the Maasai warriors on
Mark’s staff, wanders over and motions
like he wants a try. Clearly intrigued
by the plastic disk floating through
the air, the warrior feebly attempts to
catch it and throw it to someone else.
His throw wobbles in the air and goes
nowhere near its attempted target, but
after a few more throws, and many
laughs, he is able to throw in the general vicinity of someone without too
much difficulty. A second Frisbee session occurs during one of the evenings
on the climb. In the shadow of Kibo,
we have some down time before dinner, so someone whips out the disk.
We toss it among ourselves until an
errant throw somehow makes its way
over to a huge group of porters. One
of them throws a wobbler back to us,
sparking a camp-wide game of catch.
Eventually, when everyone from our
group moves on to different things, I
remain to toss it with the porters, and
we play for almost an hour.
—Schuyler Metcalf
As we drive in the Land Rover I hear a phone ring, typical. What’s not so typical for me is
looking to my right and seeing a tribal Maasai answering his Nokia cell phone in Swahili. He’s in traditional plaid cloth
with an old brown, button up U-Haul jacket to keep him warm in the 85-degree weather, and his loafers are comfortably worn out; if I remember correctly, his spear was also behind the seat. His name is Joseph. I found this out with a
pen and paper and my limited list of Swahili vocab. “Jina Langu JOSEPH” he wrote. I did my best Swahili accent and
told him my name. He showed enthusiasm about my pen and implied that he would like to keep it, so in exchange he
gave me his old pen. I also gave him a Live Strong bracelet to go with his traditional beaded bracelets. In response, he
wrote his cell number on my paper. I did the universal “Call me sometime” sign with my thumb and pinkie to my ear,
and wrote down my number for him. What we were saying to each other wasn’t clear and I think we were equally confused, but through hand motions, a few English and Swahili words, I agreed to call him. Perhaps an hour later, deep in
the Serengeti bush, Joseph said something to our driver and we stopped the Rover in the middle of nowhere. I said kwa
heri (goodbye) and he was on his way off into the middle of the Serengeti with no civilization in sight. I hope to work
on my Swahili so I can call him and catch up!
—Geneva Lloyd
Taft Bulletin Fall 2007
35
Mt. Meru guides us down.
There are only a few feet to go.
My legs are weak and shaking ,
and I am short of breath after every three steps.
I never doubt, though, that we will make it. I
am filled with adrenaline that I couldn’t have
experienced anywhere else. I’m going to make
it. I am going to stand on the top of Africa,
on top of the tallest freestanding mountain in
the world. I am going to touch the summit of
Mount Kilimanjaro. Everyone is silent. We have
spent so long together and have grown so close
while enduring the biggest test of our lives, this
moment is the one we need to do on our own.
When I reach that wooden sign at 19,340 feet, I
can’t contain my excitement. I am on top of the
world! I can’t even begin to describe the view.
The ocean of sky and clouds beneath us is just as
exciting as our satisfaction at reaching the top. I
have never been prouder of myself than at this
moment, and I share that pride with everyone
up here with me by dancing arm in arm and
singing in celebration. The climb was a hard,
long challenge that tested my endurance and
my willpower with each step up, but I wouldn’t
trade this experience for the world. How many
people get to say that they climbed one of the
tallest mountains in the world at 17?
—Raymond Jessell
The day we begin our descent,
everyone is ready to get down the mountain after camping in Kilimanjaro’s crater at
18,500 feet. There is an amazing view from
the summit, but the wind and glaciers inside
the crater make it difficult to stay out of the
tents for long. As we start our hike across the
snow and ice, the wind goes straight through
my two pairs of gloves. My heating packs do
little to help and before long, I can’t feel my
hands! With the help of a few friends who
lend extra layers and encourage me, I am able
to get out of the crater, but not without paying
a price! My fingertips still get numb now from
that day! So, what did I learn from this trip?
Make sure you have the right pair of gloves
before climbing four miles into the air!
— Abi Reisinger
Going to Africa is the most strenuous yet rewarding thing I have ever done in my entire life! Taking
eight-hour hikes every day up the tallest point in Africa takes its toll on your patience and morale. However, having my
older brother (Will ’04) and dad with me throughout the trip helps me to forget how sick or tired I feel and to think
instead of how they are doing. My brother, dad and I constantly support each other, and without them, making it up
Kilimanjaro would be nearly impossible. The happiest time of the trip is on the last day of our climb on the summit
push. I see both of them coming up the final ridge, and I know we will all make it and stand together at the top. I realize
then how lucky I am to have them there with me at the most exciting point in my life.
—Thad Reycraft
36 Taft Bulletin Fall 2007
Epilogue
Plans are underway for a return to Tanzania in 2008. Jason
BreMiller and Mark Thornton are collaborating on a program in Sustainable Development in Tanzania—a collection
of experiences and conversations exploring the complexity of
African communities and environments.
Taft reaches the
Rooftop of Africa,
19,340 feet!
Participants:
Muneeb Alam ’08
Jason BreMiller, faculty
Shatz Bromley ’08
Julia Cardozo, faculty
Charlie Fraker ’08
Jake Heine ’08
Cai Hurt ’08
Ray Jessell ’08
Paul Kiernan ’09
Lily Lanahan ’08
Geneva Lloyd ’09
Camilla McFarland ’08
Schuyler Metcalf ’09
Tyler Morgan ’08
Bob O’Connor, faculty
Abi Reisinger ’08
Thad Reycraft ’10
Tom Reycraft, P’02,’04,’07,’10
Will Reycraft ’04
Jed Rooney ’09
Nick Tyson ’09
Charlie Wagner ’09
Laurel Waterhouse, faculty
Kelsey White ’08
Teddy White ’09
Will Palmieri, friend
Taft Bulletin Fall 2007
37
GOING
BACK
HOME
Undoing Katrina’s Wrath
By Tearing Houses Down To The Studs
By Henry Reiff ’71
38 Taft Bulletin Fall 2007
It’s all anyone talks about. You hear it in the
streets, in restaurants and clubs and in every personal, serious conversation. There’s some comic
sense of the absurd—FEMA trailers are “candominiums,” and if they’re placed on a parking lot
with a storm fence, it’s “a gated community.”
But despite the legendary New Orleans sense
of humor, nobody really jokes about Katrina. A
friend said, “I wish we could just be over with
it.” There’s only one problem. It’s not over.
The ruined, deserted neighborhoods still
stretch for miles. A tourist could miss it. Bourbon
Street is alive and decadent, and the uptown and
downtown clubs have live music every night.
Half of what New Orleans was still can look pretty good to anyone who doesn’t want to look farther. But beyond the cozy confines of the French
Quarter, a few blocks up Elysian Fields, the horror show begins. It’s a city of empty houses and
broken dreams.
Friday
From the air, flying in from Baltimore, I see plenty of lights.
It’s hard to tell if anything is different. I rent a car and drive
into town. The Quarter is jumping. I find my old friend Vic
at Fritzel’s, and he tells me he needs a bass player. There’s
an old gut string upright in the utility room, so by a little
after 10 I’m playing a set with Vic on guitar and Ryan on
clarinet, doing jazz standards. As far as the crowd knows, I
live in the Quarter and do this every night. I wouldn’t mind
playing another set, but I’m staying at George’s across the
river in Gretna.
A lifelong resident of New Orleans, George lived in
St. Bernard Parish at the time of Katrina. His house was
destroyed by 10 feet of water, and he spent the better part
of a year as a refugee in Alabama. We stay up talking much
later than we should about—what else? He went through
hell, and his e-mails are a large part of the reason I’ve come.
From describing what it was like to come back to his ruined
home for the first time (the heat, the smell, the utter despair)
to reflecting on the deaths of several friends, he’s not so sure
he can stay here anymore.
Perhaps uppermost in his mind is the threat of another
hurricane. How can anyone live this way—in a state of anxious dread for four months of hurricane season, getting ready
to evacuate at a moment’s notice, wondering if everything
you’ve done to rebuild your life will be wiped out again?
Saturday
The next morning I drive to ACORN (Association of
Community Organizations for Reform Now) on Elysian
Fields. ACORN runs as advertised: You register over the
Internet and show up at 7:30 a.m. any day except major holidays. Most volunteers come from out of town; on the weekends, locals join in. Today our work crew consists of an EPA
communications officer from Texas, a local medical malpractice lawyer, five middle-age professionals who do volunteer
work together at a shelter in Chicago, a New Yorker with 17
successive Jazz Fests to her credit, a postmodern hippie who
has moved temporarily to New Orleans to help out, and our
ACORN supervisors, Billy and Paulie.
ACORN has a list of more than 1,000 houses that still
need to be gutted. It is a volunteer service that saves the
homeowner about $4,000. Houses that are not gutted will be
torn down, with a bill sent to the owner. With a gutted house,
the owner at least has a choice whether to rehab it. It’s anyone’s
guess how many displaced residents will return, and even if
they do, there may be no point to rehab, but ACORN wants
the decision to be up to the homeowners. It does not matter
to me if a house we gut eventually is demolished. What’s important is keeping that decision in the owner’s hands.
We head down the Chef Menteur Highway in New
Orleans East, and at first it seems like an ordinary Saturday.
Then I begin to notice the FEMA trailers. Some blocks have
one or two in the driveway, or none; on some, every other
house has a trailer in the driveway. You’d think half the city
was getting ready to go on a vacation, until you realize what
this means: The houses aren’t habitable. A trailer means the
owners are rehabbing their house. An empty driveway means
an empty house.
My introduction to gutting comes on the tail end of the
work on a house. The interior has been ripped out to the
studs. We finish up by pulling out errant nails and screws and
sweeping and hauling out the remaining debris. We’ve turned
this house into a shell, but it’s an improvement over what it
had become.
After about two hours of work, we’re ready to move on to
the next site. ACORN sends us into the Upper Ninth Ward,
a poor section of single and double “shotguns,” the narrow
structures of room after room that define much of New
Orleans’ residential architecture. I hear more unhinged doors
banging in the wind than sounds of human activity.
We meet Clyde, the owner of the house we’ll gut. He’s
gracious, good-natured—and thankful that we’re going to
clear out what little remains of what he once called home.
The work at Clyde’s house is harder and more rewarding—or at least satisfying, in a destructive kind of way. Armed
with a crowbar, I manage to pull down the kitchen cabinets
Taft Bulletin Fall 2007
39
Henry Reiff ’71 tries to cool off in a Hazmat suit while rehabbing houses in New Orleans.
and counters fairly quickly, and then it’s off to ripping out
wallboard and sheetrock. It’s dirty, smelly, hot, humid and
depressing, but this is what I’m here for.
When we finish up by 2, I’m ready to rip off my coveralls
(it’s amazingly pleasing to tear a hazmat suit apart) and turn
in my crowbar. Less than 24 hours back in New Orleans,
and everything is starting to feel familiar and comfortable.
It’s not home anymore, but I feel a sense of deep connection,
a living memory of a time when I couldn’t imagine living
anywhere else.
George forgot to soak the red beans the night before, so
he makes steak Dijon instead. His girlfriend, Donna, joins us.
Only 2 feet of water got into her house, but that was more
than enough; in a one-story house, everything had to go. She
gutted it herself and has been piecing her home back together,
living in a FEMA trailer in her driveway—which was badly
damaged when a car ran into it. She appreciates the fact that
I’m volunteering with ACORN, but my newfound expertise
in gutting houses doesn’t impress her that much.
Sunday
I feel like a veteran when I show up at the ACORN office.
Most of the volunteers have registered previously, usually
online, but a total neophyte can just register on the spot
40 Taft Bulletin Fall 2007
and go to work. In spite of the looseness of the operation—
or maybe because of it—it functions seamlessly. We spend
the morning ripping out more of Clyde’s house, getting it
down to the studs, and I’m feeling pretty skilled with my
crowbar technique.
Part of the ACORN magic is the lack of supervision. The
work just gets done. We came here to rip out walls and nails,
and it’s not exactly rocket science to figure out what to do.
Some of today’s volunteers are in their 70s, and I’m impressed
to see them dig in like everyone else.
When you feel too hot, sweaty or exhausted to stay in a
rotting, mold-infested house covered from head to toe (the
hazmat suits have booties as well as hoods), with your face
encased in a respirator that must have been a “Ghostbusters”
prop—well, you’ve got to get out. So we take breaks whenever
we need to, not by the foreman’s clock.
Outside, after we’ve whipped off our masks to get some
fresh air, we do get to know each other a little. A group of students from Ripon College in Wisconsin are floored to discover that I know their dean. We talk about places to go—mainly
music clubs. I try to steer them away from Bourbon Street to
the Uptown wilds of Tipitina’s and the Riverbend, but this is
their first visit to the Big Easy, so the Quarter it will be.
I’m spending tonight and Monday night with my friends
Don and Debbie in Harahan. Don’s a contractor and builder
who had the foresight to build his beautiful plantation-style
home 12 feet above sea level. When Katrina came, he did not
evacuate immediately. The only damage from the hurricane
was debris scattered over his lawn, but without electricity, water, stores or any connection to civilization, it was pointless to
stay, and the family found itself exiled in Santa Barbara. It’s
easy to make fun of being exiled to one of the country’s most
upscale communities, but still, it wasn’t home, and Don and
Debbie came back as soon as possible.
Unlike many residents who returned to find themselves
unemployed, Don and Debbie had more work waiting for
them than they could possibly manage. Debbie says she still
feels a little guilty that her Katrina experience wasn’t more
horrific. She hears tales of suffering and knows she was simply
lucky. Don harbors no such guilt. As he says, all he’s been doing is trying to rebuild New Orleans.
Monday
I tussle with the morning commute in gray rain, and in that
tedium I feel as if I’ve never been away. At ACORN, the joint
is jumpin’—enough volunteers for two teams of about 10
each have arrived.
I drive out to Clyde’s house on my own but overshoot
the turn and wind up deep in the Ninth Ward, not far from
the Industrial Canal. In every direction, blocks of sagging,
dilapidated and destroyed houses stretch to the horizon. In
other parts of the city, many houses look OK, even though
they are a mess inside. But the houses here hide nothing.
They are collapsing or have collapsed. Random debris sits
in heaps. This is what tourists should see. Get your Go-Cup
and see the Apocalypse.
When I get back to Clyde’s house, the work shouldn’t
take more than an hour—mainly just sweeping up at this
point—or so we think. But even tearing a house apart requires
attention to detail. There’s always something that has been
missed or left to do. Not all the wallboard in the bathroom
came down, a ceiling and wallboard remain in another room,
floorboards need to be ripped up, and a seemingly resurgent
population of nails and screws demands attention.
As one volunteer points out, “This is a lot different
than helping to build a house.” In spite of the fact that
gutting is part of the solution, it feels destructive and invasive. I get some satisfaction tearing a house down to its
studs—but not a lot.
Clyde comes by to thank us again. One volunteer tells
him, “I’m sorry for your loss.” He manages a pretty cheerful
demeanor with the crew and talks to the ACORN supervisor
about paperwork that he’ll do back at the office. As he gets
ready to go, he says, “If I stay any longer, I’ll start to cry.”
The infamous New Orleans humidity is at full force, filling the air with a thickness that makes everything sluggish. By
the time we break for lunch and I tear off my hazmat suit, I’m
soaked through.
My final gutting is on a suburban ranch house that must
have been this family’s hard-fought and shining piece of the
American Dream. Gutting reveals the cheap, flimsy, almost
tawdry construction that is endemic to lower-end housing
development. It’s irrelevant in the end. Katrina’s destruction
leveled the playing field, damaging the strong as well as the
weak. Ten feet of toxic water will do that.
I pry out the cheap paneling in what was once a family
room, complete with wet bar. Popping paneling turns out
to be the most satisfying of my wrecking duties, so much so
that I take pride in expertly prying the pressure points that
pop out whole panels at a time. When we finish at 2:45, I’m
as sopping wet as I have ever been in my clothes, with no
shower in sight.
I drive back across the river to Algiers Point to see my
buddy Vic, whom I played with on Friday night, and his wife,
Karen. We listen to an old tape and take satisfaction that we
rocked when we were young.
Later on I find my way back to Harahan, surprising myself that I still know the shortcuts. Don and Debbie take me
out for dinner at an upscale bistro. I indulge in crème brûlée
for dessert, because, well, even Katrina couldn’t stop the
decadence that is New Orleans. Don believes that a positive
outcome from Katrina has been a renewed appreciation for
enjoying the fun that is the culture of this city. Life is fleeting
and unpredictable. You never know when you’ll be swimming
in your living room, so laissez les bons temps rouler.
Tuesday
Driving to the New Orleans airport, I hear Dr. John and
the Nevilles singing the tune that’s been playing in my head
since I flew out of Baltimore last week—“Going Back to New
Orleans.” Monday night, George called to tell me how great
it was to spend time together. Vic calls today to tell me the
same. It feels good to connect with people whom I care so
deeply about, but there’s so much pain. The healing will take
a long time. The scars will last forever.
For information on ACORN’s Save A Home Initiative, go to
www.acorn.org. Henry Reiff is a dean at McDaniel College in
Westminster, Maryland, and a former New Orleans resident.
Contact him at hreiff@mcdaniel.edu.
This article first appeared in the Hartford Courant and is reprinted
with permission.
Taft Bulletin Fall 2007
41
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