News From Friends | Spring 2011

CELEBRATING 225YEARS

Dr. Paul Coleman ’45

NEWS FROM FRIENDS SPRING 2011

A Portrait of George Fox, created by the 2010-2011 Friends Seminary Art Club

15th Street Meetinghouse Turns 150

In Memory26 A Tribute to Joyce McCray, Friends’ 33rd Principal

The 225th Anniverary Issue

Features

Departments

Celebrating 225 Years

Spotlight on Service

225th Anniversay Celebration

NEWS FROM FRIENDS

Opening ShotsImages of Yesterday and Today

Buzz on 16th StreetAlumni Visits, an Astrophysicist-in-Residence, Celebrations, and Awards

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Notes on Silence(and Peace, Service, Integrity, Equality, Diversity, Simplicity, and Study)Excerpts from the short film, Moved to Speak

Class NotesNews from alumni and tributes to recently deceased alumni

News From Friends is published by the Development Office at Friends Seminary two times each year for alumni, parents, grandparents, and friends of the School. The mission of News From Friends is to feature the accomplishments of alumni, while capturing the School’s remarkable history, values, and culture. Each issue will have an underlying theme, such as (but not limited to) the sciences, the arts, athletics, history and literature, and service. Additionally, the magazine will give insight into recent events at Friends Seminary.

John Galayda Editor

Jennifer MacLeman Designer

Please email address changes to [email protected] or mail to:

Friends SeminaryDevelopment Office222 East 16th StreetNew York, NY 10003-3703

Robert “Bo” Lauder Principal

DEvElopmEnt officESelena Shadle Director of DevelopmentValerie Delaine Database ManagerAmanda EisnerDevelopment and Special Events ManagerKatherine Farrell Director of Alumni RelationsJohn Galayda Director of CommunicationsJennifer Nichols Director of Annual GivingPatty Ziplow Major Gifts Officer

A Collection of Short Essays by Alumni, Faculty, Friends, and Administrators

Sisters Help Children Orphaned by Haiti Earthquake

Mayor Bloomberg Celebrates Friends Anniversary with Students in the Meetinghouse

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friends seminary2

Friends Seminary educates students from kindergarten

through twelfth grade, under the care of the New York

Quarterly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends. Through

instruction and example, students follow their curiosity and

exercise their imaginations as they develop as scholars, artists

and athletes. In a community that cultivates the intellect

through keen observation, critical thinking and coherent

expression, we strive to respond to one another, valuing the

single voice as well as the effort to reach consensus. The

disciplines of silence, study and service provide the matrix for

growth: silence opens us to change; study helps us to know

the world; service challenges us to put our values into practice.

At Friends Seminary, education occurs within the context of

the Quaker belief in the Inner Light – that of God in every

person. “Guided by the ideals of integrity, peace, equality and

simplicity, and by our commitment to diversity, we do more

than prepare students for the world that is: we help them bring

about the world that ought to be.”*

*This last sentence is adapted from Faith and Practice:

The Book of Discipline of the New York Yearly Meeting of the

Religious Society of Friends (1974).

diversity mission

The Society of Friends is founded in the belief that there is that of God in every person and that truth emerges as new voices are heard and incorporated in our understanding. We believe that the quality of the truths we know is enriched and deepened by welcoming people with diverse experiences of the world into our community.

We want to foster a community that addresses the challenge of valuing difference and making every individual feel welcome, supported, and safe: a community in which each person is asked to make the rigorous commitment to recognize the Light within every other, to hear that piece of truth each person brings to the continuing dialogue which is the foundation of our community. We want our daily interactions to demonstrate that maintaining respect and pursuing the hard work of understanding difference creates strength as we work to define and move toward common goals.

Our mission as an educational institution is to prepare our students to participate in an increasingly interdependent world and, by graduating an increasingly diverse group of students, to help build a more effective citizenry and representative leadership for the future. We seek to develop the skills and discipline necessary to communicate effectively and to learn from a rich variety of experiences and points of view. This work is central to valuing diversity, to the purpose of education and to the Quaker ideals of integrity, peace, equality and simplicity.

In a world in which people continue to suffer profound inequalities of opportunity, we dedicate ourselves to stretching what we have and are capable of: to working to become a community more representative of the city in which we live and to improving our ability to support a diverse student body. The gap between our ideals and the possible creates struggle to which we commit ourselves with energy and joy.

Community service

Service is integral to Friends Seminary’s educational mission, along with the disciplines of study and silence. Our Community Service Program strives to instill a sense of stewardship of the school community and respect for and responsibility to our urban neighborhood and beyond. By providing opportunities within the curriculum and in other relevant activities for students to witness and understand the needs of others, we hope to prepare them for a life that includes service. Our goal is to integrate knowledge and understanding with compassion and social responsibility. Only through reflection and understanding the need to put our values into practice will students be able to grasp the importance to ourselves of the gift of caring for each other, for all humanity, and for the natural world.

Our Mission

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1942 - Friends students work in an art class.

2011 - Roland Gillah ’12 works on a painting in Daphne Taylor’s art class.

Opening Shots

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1918 - Girls participate in an aesthetic dancing class at Friends Seminary.


2011 - William Noling ’12 performs a dance during the School’s annual Dancers Respond to AIDS benefit held in the Meetinghouse on February 9.




1978 - Members of the Girls Varsity Basketball team pose for a photo in the school gym.


2011 - Members of the Boys Varsity Basketball team celebrate in the closing minutes of the ACIS Tournament Championship Game held in Brooklyn on February 28. Friends defeated Dwight School, 50-31.



The Meetinghouse in 1904.


The Meetinghouse today.


Notes On Silence

Kosi Eguchi, Kindergarten: I like silence because it’s quiet.

Selena Shadle, Director of Development: When I first came to Friends, before starting work here, I was immediately

struck by how silence allows the Friends students to be more contemplative and thoughtful.

Emery Andrew, Grade 10: It’s been a huge role in my life to have this silence that I can use to think and relax.

Patrick Smith,

Grade 11: I’d say silence is my best form of reflection.

Phoenix Eisenberg, Grade 12: In Kindergarten [silence] was always sort of a hassle if anything. It was sort of a pain in the neck to have to sit in silence for 20 minutes. And then, you get into Middle School and it becomes a time that you can relax. And then you get to Upper School and it becomes a reflection period. You can think about everything you’ve learned, everything you’ve done and everything you want to do.

silence

Notes on Silence appears regularly in News from Friends. In this issue, select excerpts from the short film, Moved to Speak, are featured. The film, which was

created by Whitney Kidder and John Galayda, was premiered in the Meetinghouse during Friends’ 225th Anniversary Celebration on February 25, 2011.

To view the film, visit www.friendsseminary.org/multimedia.

Notes on Silence(and Peace, Service, Integrity, Equality, Diversity, Simplicity, and Study)

friends seminary14

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Peter Anchel,

Grade 11: Peace is achieved through the harmony of opposites and harmony of everyone, which you

could apply to diversity and equality.

Lucas Gaffney,

Grade 4: Peace is when you resolve conflict without violence, but with words.

Chelsea Backer, Grade 4: Peace is when everything is nice around you.

Micah Morris, Teacher: To be able to engage in peaceful dialogue with another human being, one must be able to communicate in a

culture of openness; one must understand and be understood in languages of the worldwide neighborhood.

Maren Frey, Kindergarten: When people disagree they have to compromise or do eeny, meeny, miny, mo.

Halyna Bowley, Kindergarten: Peace is very important because with peace, people don’t get hurt. Peace is very, very, very important.

Charlie Raymond, Kindergarten: I like that nobody fights.

Judy Anderson ’66, Teacher: When I think about simplicity I think about people being who they are, being more down to earth, being direct, simple, straightforward, and saying what they mean.

Ben Frisch, Teacher: Simplicity is about making right choices.

Bo Lauder, Principal: Peace is the most fundamental and probably the most important value we can teach our students. Without it, the other Quaker tenets we practice at Friends aren’t even possible, and I think the role we can fill for our students is for them to understand that peace really begins with each individual. They have to be peaceful within themselves to bring about peace in the greater world.

peace

simplicity

(and Peace, Service, Integrity, Equality, Diversity, Simplicity, and Study)

news from friends spring 2011 15news from friends spring 2011

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friends seminary

Notes On Silence

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Jacob Lowenherz, Grade 8 : Service to me is doing something good for somebody and enjoying it.

Yorgo Vetter,

Grade 1: Service is important to me because it makes me feel I did something really nice for a person

and if it makes them happy, it makes me happy.

Brooks Valentine, Grade 4: Service to me is giving some of your time to help other people.

Benedict Chant, Assistant Principal: What I like about diversity is the fact it’s woven into everything at the

School. When people think of diversity, they often think of skin color or something obvious, but coming to the School, it was really apparent to me that what everybody really meant, talked about, and acted on was all the different aspects of it.

Rachel Peterson, Director of Community Service: Service to others is the Quaker Faith translated into action.

diversity

Russell Dukes, Custodian: I believe that service is something that we all as human beings are here to do for each other—to serve each other on some type of level in some kind of way.

service

Hugo Fetsco, Grade 12: As a diversity leader, I get approached and asked, ‘what do you think diversity is?’ I try to look beyond race and ethnicity to include religion, socioeconomic status, and how one identifies themselves sexually. I feel those are some of the aspects of diversity that need to be focused on beyond race and ethnicity.

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Stefan Davenport, School Chef: At Friends, equality for me has been one of the most important values because we are able to share ideas with everybody.

Sophia Biber, Grade 9: We call the teachers by their first name usually and it makes me feel like I’m on their level.

Henry Sikora, Grade 4: Equality is when the teachers believe that everybody should have the same stuff and that somebody shouldn’t have more because they’re better or for some other reason.

Mason Bunton, Kindergarten: Study is important because you get to learn about stuff. You have to learn so you can be smart.

Denis Seida Lieva, Grade 4: Study means to always study for something you’re about to do, like a big test that’s about to come up, like study every night. Don’t just do it the last night and get everything wrong on the test.

Nora Neil, Grade 11: Study to me is something really beyond the classroom experience. Because of my study of Arabic at Friends, I’ve become much more curious and interested about the cultures around the world, especially in the Middle East.

Lydia Fujimura, Grade 12: The equality established at Friends Seminary has allowed my friends and I to feel comfortable speaking up about what we believe in.

Evan Shor, Grade 12: Integrity is about being honest with yourself and being honest with others and always trying to make the most ethical decisions that you can.

equality

study

integrityMorgan Powell, Grade 12: As an institution for mainly academics, its really interesting how we always try to incorporate the fact that integrity is your saving grace.

diversity

news from friends spring 2011 17

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“When I graduated from Friends I thought it had

been a fun school to attend. After a few years, I

realized I had received a great education. After a

few decades, I realized that the values of the School

were instrumental to my life. I stay involved so

that other children can participate in the arc of a

Friends education.”

To find out ways you can get involved in volunteering at Friends, contact Katherine Farrell in the Alumni Office (212-979-5035 x106 or [email protected]).

Why I GIveAndrew Owen ’78

Time is running out...Don’t miss the chance to participate in

The Friend of Friends ChallengeA unique opportunity for new and

increased Annual Fund gifts from alumnito be matched dollar-for-dollar.

Your gift will help support financial aid, faculty salaries and Friends Seminary’s

long tradition of community service.

Your participation matters.

CO-ChAirS OF The 2010-2011 AnnuAl FunD:

Alumni Co-Chairs – elizabeth lyons Stone ’60, Jennifer Padgett Orser ’88,

Joshua Wachs ’89, eric Obenzinger ’03

Parent Co-Chairs – Maureen Mcnellis Gibson, Seth D. hulkower,

Amanda Miller ’84, Jeff Siegel, Patricia Starr

Parent of Alumni Co-Chairs – Sally Green, Donna rothchild, Stefanie Steel

Grandparent Co-Chairs – Sue Karp, Priscilla Southon

Andrew Owen ’78, right, is pictured with wife Kobi Conaway and faculty

member Phil Schwartz during a mini-reunion of alumni and faculty held

at Andrew’s residence this past winter. Andrew also served as a reunion

chair in the past and is fundraising for the Annual Fund this year.

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News from frieNds spriNg 2011 19

he halls of Friends Seminary are truly aged in fame—a fame that extends back over 225 years to the year 1786, when a small school was opened for the purpose of educating the

few Quaker children in the city of New York. Little was thought at that time of the influence that this school would come to have upon the lives of many children of all faiths, ethnicities, and socio-economic backgrounds—and upon the entire educational system of New York.

As a progressive leader, Friends Seminary has continually stood ready to bring forward new ideas and educational theories. Friends Seminary is a school of many New York City firsts, such as:

• 1805: founding of an organization in support of free education to the poor (an early precursor of the NY Board of Education).

• 1878: establishment of a kindergarten.

• 1890: introduction of vocational training. • 1892: desegregation of a classroom. • 1925: hiring of a full-time psychologist. • 1938: introducing evolution in the classroom. • 1943: founding of the Interracial Youth

Committee. • 1960s and 1970s: organization of school-

sanctioned, student-led protests of segregation and war.

That dynamic history has continued to the present day as Friends is establishing ground-breaking programs that closely reflect the world today. In 2008, an Arabic language program was started at the School, another first for a private school in New York City, and the country took notice. Featured twice by The New York Times, the program has flourished, and today Friends offers Arabic to both Middle and Upper School students.

In 2009, a Scholar-in-Residence program, which invites industry-leading scholars to

work with Friends students inside and outside the classroom, was started. Architect Charles Renfro, a principal designer of the acclaimed High Line, inaugurated the program, while Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, head of the Hayden Planetarium, served as the School’s scholar in 2010.

So today, as we, the Friends community, celebrate our 225th year, we look back through a history of inspiration, change, and adaptation. The tectonic plates shift under our feet, and we continually strive to prepare our students for not only the world that is, but for the world that ought to be. In doing so, we require a focused reflection, inviting our most intelligent and creative responses informed by the Quaker ethos of compassionate care for all people and the natural world we share.

In that spirit, the following is a collection of essays about Friends Seminary from members of our community.

Celebrating 225 Years

TComposite image of students in 1896 and 2011.

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frieNds semiNary20

Stephen Chinlund ’51Alumnus

“You people will have your own government, right here in this classroom!” Alice Washburn was my Sixth Grade teacher and I will always be thankful to her for many gifts. One was that she was the first person to call my classmates and me “people.” I do not know how she made it so dramatic, because she was an understated person, but I am grateful to this day for admitting us into the arena of adult people. And we did elect a class government. It was exciting to me, a little boy happy to get out of the other arena, childhood. She also managed to let us know how important government was, how it was intended to serve the people and not leave anyone out. It was thrilling.

She also was skillful at making model ships. I was fascinated, so much so that she invited me and my best friend, Christian Wolff, to her apartment to see more of her work. She had fitted out a tiny space to be like a ship’s cabin, work all beautifully done by herself. The memory stays with me because I realized then that one could live on little money in a tiny space and be happy. That liberating thought has stayed with me down the years as I have had my own times of living in tiny spaces and fitting them out to be adequate for my wife and small children.

The next year I had a less happy memory, but it too has stayed with me. I handed in some written work to Mrs. Nordstrom, one of my Seventh Grade teachers. I had decorated the capital letters on the page with curlicues, imitating the illumination of manuscripts. I was rather proud of the way they looked. As we all continued in silence, I could hear Mrs. Nordstrom’s voice, sharply speaking over the heads of my classmates, “Stephen, this is a Quaker school. We believe in simplicity. Please do not decorate your written work in any way.” I was mortified and thought that a quick death might be a good solution. One might question her teaching method, but the lesson stuck. Painful as it was, it served to guide me into love of Shaker design and, more deeply, the simple ways of Amish and Quakers and monastic life.

An earlier memory, perhaps Third Grade, was the Meeting for Worship to which three men, convicted of felony crimes were invited to speak. We had been told that they would come and I remember being frightened. They were charming, funny, serious, intelligent and entirely people I would have been happy to visit for a much longer

time. The Friends have a history centuries old of working with people in prison and that early experience prepared me for work over the last 48 years, off and on, in prisons in New York State. It has been inspiring to me, as I try to describe in my book, Prison Transformations, giving Friends the credit for early inspiration.

My years at Friends launched me in another, even deeper way, by the Friends appreciation of silence. It continues to inform my life, a treasure which invites us all to go deeper in worship and even in incidental moments when we are waiting. Silence always rewards us.

So it was that I went to Meeting for Worship soon after 9/11. We were all still reeling. There was a lot of silence. Toward the end of the time a woman stood up and said, “The other day, I passed a dead bird on the sidewalk.” She paused. “The thought came to me, ‘His eye is on the sparrow.’” Then she sat down. I cried. I gave thanks for Friends, for simplicity, for people. And for silence.

Judy Anderson ’66Current Faculty Member and Alumna

As a high school student at Friends, entering tenth grade in 1963, my class consisted of only 24 students, many of whom had been together since pre-kindergarten. It was a close-knit community; yet, my classmates soon embraced the “newcomers.” I remember learning French with Madame Carmen, German with Herr Sudborough, geometry and trigonometry with Gregory Lannon, English with Mr. Walsh (he was forever saying,”Lordy, Lordy, Lordy!” when he was displeased with us), and Modern European History and Comparative Religion with Dr. Hunter.

A highlight of my high school years was singing in the Christmas Pageant wearing a pair of the prized angel wings that were reserved for the senior girls. We sang “And the Glory of the Lord” and “The Hallelujah Chorus” from Handel’s Messiah. There were ski trips, dances, parties, singing in the glee club, and jumping on the trampoline in Physical Education with Miss Benson. There were weekly Meetings for Worship during which we sang hymns from a hymnal.

The education I received at Friends was rigorous, challenging, and inspirational. However, when I think back to “our days at Friends,” what I treasure most is the feeling of belonging to a special group

1786Friends School founded through the $10,000 bequest of Robert Murray

1860After several moves downtown, the School moved uptown to Rutherford Place

1878First kindergarten in NYC opened at Friends

1892First black pupil accepted

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of people—my classmates, within a very unique institution that prizes itself for nurturing each and every student and cultivating each student’s special talents and skills.

Christina MoustakisFaculty Emerita

“Daaarling, you’ll love it!” Joyce McCray’s exclamation concluding my interview sealed my future for nearly thirty years at Friends. And she was absolutely right. In addition to the fondest memories I hold of my students and colleagues, I often reflect on the spirit of good will, commitment, joy and play that permeated the hours spent at 222 E. 16th Street. Here’s a small sampling:

One of our former students who had joined the faculty rose and proposed to a fellow teacher at the end of an Upper School’s silent meeting; she accepted, and the room burst into both cheers and some tears of happiness.

The thunderous applause in the Meetinghouse when Ben Kingsley visited after the release of Gandhi. As we quieted down, his first words were, “Do not mistake me for the man I played.”

David Arnold’s willingness as Head of the Upper School to play the Frog Prince in a faculty show; at one point, singing on hands and knees in his frog costume and losing the thread of the song, he blurted out, “I don’t know what the h… I’m supposed to be saying,” and the audience and cast collapsed with laughter.

A lunch-hour roar of cheers was heard in the courtyard from a classroom on the third floor. When Barclay Palmer, Head of the Upper School, raced from his office and joined many of us already crowded outside the door of 305, he discovered that senior boys had hired a belly dancer to appear as a birthday present for one of their classmates.

A silent moment alone in the Meetinghouse with hundreds and hundreds of “We Deliver Love” bags strung across the ceiling, representing artwork from all grades. It was both sobering and comforting.

Eric BogosianParent of Harry and Travis

Our two sons, Harry and Travis, attended Friends Seminary from kindergarten to twelfth grade. Two boys, two very different sagas, and Friends accommodated both perfectly. Harry, now a professional artist after graduating from Pratt two years ago, was not fond of schoolwork. Gregarious, active, very bright and fun to be around, Harry didn’t want to study in a traditional way. Although he became a voracious reader, he resisted reading at first. And homework was the bane of his young existence. Nonetheless, Harry, with the gentle but persistent encouragement of Friends, made his way. He discovered that his talent lay in the non-academic area of art. Friends made room for Harry’s inclination toward the visual. When he applied to Pratt, his Friends grades actually got him a merit scholarship. Pratt turned out to be the perfect place for him and today he lives and works as a professional artist, fully immersed in something he loves.

Travis was in many ways, the opposite. He relished schoolwork, couldn’t get enough of it. Loved Latin, loved math. And when Travis was finished with his schoolwork, he sought as many afterschool activities as possible. Here, again, Friends accommodated his specific needs. If you want activity, Friends has plenty to fill in your day. Travis’ full resume and grade point average (and avid personality) got him into Brown.

We were happy that our sons could attend a school so grounded in moral values, values they clearly took with them when they left. They have remained close to their classmates, a wonderful group of young people. But what really made the Friends experience work was that two brothers, who are also good pals, were able to attend the same school while having such different styles. We believe that this is because Friends is an open-minded and inclusive school, one that puts nurturing values on par with scholastic excellence.

Roger Rosenblatt ’58Alumnus (The following was originally published in the

preface of Children of Light, by Nancy Reid Gibbs ’78.)

There were two or three parties, of course. On Friday nights there were always two or three parties, and the Friends kids, like a gang of loud birds, would swoop from one party to another in the streets downtown. One Friday night the group

1917American Friends Service Committee

founded to help alleviate wartime suffering

1923Dr. Earle Hunter, remembered by

generations of alumni for his courage and

extraordinary intelligence, is hired

1925School Psychologist hired

1943Interracial Youth Committee founded

by Dr. Earle Hunter and students

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frieNds semiNary22

1969Students and teachers participated in the Vietnam Moratorium and marched from the Meetinghouse to the 42nd Street Library

1977Following a deeply troubled period, Joyce McCray was appointed principal, and she quickly increased enrollment, balanced the budget, and strengthened the curriculum.

swept into Liz Lyons’s brownstone in the Village to pickup Liz for one of those parties, and I got lost in the house. Searching for others, I opened the wrong door, and there was Liz’s father sitting alone in the library, hunkered down with a book. He looked up at me, who he must have thought had dropped in from Pluto. “Sorry, Mr. Lyons.” I shut the door, and that was that. But I thought: That is where I would like to be someday, sitting alone in a special room, content with a book that absorbed me. A wish for dignity, privacy, self-possession.

Those were three of the qualities associated with Friends Seminary. Another was simplicity, expressed by the Quaker way of dealing with faith; by the modest, I’m-hardly-here manner of most of those connected with the school; by the structure of the building, the odd, reddish church-cum-grange hall stuck on an obscure Manhattan street. Fair-mindedness was also one of the school’s qualities, though in late 1950s fair-mindedness at Friends was more often extolled than exhibited. Still, there was Dr. Hunter, white hair swept back over his dome like painted ocean waves, who displayed fair-mindedness in all he taught, and he taught everything. I never knew any man who loved learning so fiercely, or who more honored the struggles of a free mind.

Two hundred and twenty-five years these qualities have held together, have been held together by the small company that has made up the school’s population. What sort of citizen does Friends Seminary produce? My pantheon consists of Ginny Rosenblatt, André Schiffrin, Paul and Toni Chevigny, Peter Berle, Andrea Loomis, Roy Mottahedeh, Maud and Teddy Wilcox, Gail Tirana, Jackson Bryer, Tim Foote, Peter Valente, Billy Tandler, among others. More than brains, these people had a certain tone in common, a quiet seriousness, a contempt for shabbiness and cant, and a sense of the general good. Friends, almost as old as the country, seems to attract many of those who represent the country well. Not famous people, on the whole; merely those who believe in the power of words and ideas, in peaceful persuasion and in the potential excellence of everybody.

Weston Konishi ’89Alumnus

My class, the class of ’89, was known for being particularly close-knit, but it wasn’t always that way. On freshman orientation day, I had the first-day jitters like everyone else. After meeting my fellow classmates, we went through a series of team-building exercises in the courtyard aimed at

breaking the ice and fostering group cohesion.

We must have taken those goals to heart. During our freshman retreat at Powell House, we resolved to try to get rid of the typical teenage cliques that were already beginning to divide our class.

Over the next four years, we worked steadily to overcome our divisions. Our experiential education courses with Mitch Breit and Gina Onushko helped enormously. Setting up camp together in the snowy wilderness forced us to rely on each other and shed the trappings of adolescent hierarchies. But the support and guidance of our teachers, and a school community based on the Quaker values of fairness and equality, were the real foundation of our efforts.

When we made our final retreat to Powell House as seniors, we gathered one night around a bonfire, roasting marshmallows and reminiscing about our shared experience at Friends. Some people were closer friends than others, but a basic spirit of inclusiveness pervaded our group. At that moment, it seemed clear that we’d reached our goal of becoming a unified class. I’ve never felt so close to so many people before or since.

I’m grateful for that experience, as well as the lasting friendships I made at Friends, the silent meetings I came to cherish, and the extraordinary education I received from teachers and mentors like Ron Singer, Bob Rosen, Milton Sipp, and so many others. In the words of my late classmate and buddy, Ayrev Davis, I look back at my time at Friends and remember how those days were “so damn golden.”

Malcolm W. Browne ’48Alumnus

The Friends class of ’48 had the best of everything offered by American education. The superb faculty—superior in many respects to that of most colleges—opened up exciting avenues of learning that went far beyond most of the secondary school courses available to students of our day.

Science classes given by Walter Hinman elucidated not only the rudiments of chemistry, physics, and biology, but also explained how subtle principles could be understood in terms of higher mathematics. The fission bombs that ended World War II lent impetus to physics education. World and national history as taught by Dr. Earl Hunter deepened our perception of the complex factors that move nations, and Rouse Wilcox gave even

1963Groundbreaking for 16th Street building

1986Friends celebrated its bicentennial with Mayor Edward Koch

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the future engineers in our mind a sense of the beauty of poetry and English composition—as vital in its way as the ability to write effective job résumés.

But beyond formal courses, Friends spurred an environment that inspired imagination and initiative. Take music, for example. Many of our classmates were the offspring of prominent musicians, and their home-lives enriched their Friends classes. The class of ’48 took a particular interest in Gilbert and Sullivan operettas, and we performed a half dozen of them to the acclaim that went far beyond Manhattan. In fact, they were so good that the stage manager of London’s d’Oyle Carte Company – the Mecca of G&S performances – quit his job in London and joined the Friends faculty.

The Friends Meetinghouse has a ceiling some forty feet above the floor; in the center of the ceiling is a fixture from which a chandelier can be suspended. By climbing up into a crawl space above the ceiling we were able to suspend a gigantic pendulum. By setting it to swinging, we demonstrated the rotation of the earth and other principles of physics and astronomy.

The schoolyard played a role in learning. In autumn and spring it served as a baseball diamond; in winter it was flooded as a skating ring. At other times it was used to display the pyrotechnic results of certain chemical experiments. Initially conducted in the chemical laboratory on the top floor, students and teachers in lower classrooms found these explosions so disturbing that experiments were transferred to the schoolyard after hours, where the noise was less obtrusive.

Quite a few of us have remained in touch during the sixty-odd years since we left Friends. Some of us even continue along the trails on which we started at Friends. It was a great launching.

We have attended many class gatherings, including those sponsored by Anne Codding in her charming Bethane Street house in Greenwich Village.

Long may the spirit of ’48 survive, as we become octogenarians!

Marion Hausner Pauck ’45Alumna

I look back upon my years at Friends with enormous joy and gratitude. I attended Hunter Elementary School, a progressive school with small classes, for my primary education. And although I continued for one year at the Hunter High School it soon became clear that I could not flourish there. The classes were enormous and I was shy, a bad combination. Paul Scherer, our pastor, who had sent his daughter Pamela to the school, recommended Friends Seminary where classes were small and where the level of education was exceptionally high. My father agreed to send me there and in many ways that was his greatest gift to me.

For at Friends I flourished anew. Our teachers and many of the students who became my friends were extraordinary: when I spoke at our 50th reunion I praised Earle Hunter, who taught us History and Social Studies; we affectionately called him “Ivan the Terrible.” He was our great hero. At the time, I also mentioned Rouse Wilcox, who instilled a lasting love for literature and the art of objective writing in us all. I failed, however, to mention Ms. Hermine Ehlers who taught several courses in Latin and German. She was an excellent teacher and also a lovely looking woman; we all wondered why she was not married. According to oral history (gossip), she had lost her fiancé in the First World War. At first I took French with Mme Carmen and Latin with Ms Ehlers, continuing what I had begun in Elementary School. I avoided taking German, however.

There was a complicated reason for this. My parents were German-born and had come to this country in 1922. They opened two businesses and became citizens as soon as possible. They had fled Germany before the Nazis took over and were horrified by what ensued after 1933. One day a Jewish classmate of mine at Hunter Elementary School declared that my parents must be Nazis and therefore she could not play with me anymore. The shock of this event, the unfair humiliation made me repress the German language–I had grown up in a bilingual household–and suddenly I was made to feel guilty and unwanted. Ms. Ehlers noticed this inner struggle and one afternoon she drew me aside to find out more. I told her why I felt so awkward about my German heritage and why I repressed the language. She was enormously understanding and kind. She explained to me that the language

1990God’s Love We Deliver project introduced

2005Peace Week, an annual exploration of Peace,

is introduced to the curriculum

2008-2009School and its curriculum enhanced with the

opening of the Chapman Academic Center, the offering of the Arabic language, the

launch of the Scholar-in-Residence

program, and the

foundation of the Friends is

Family Fund

2010Friends celebrated 225 years with Mayor Michael Bloomberg in the Meetinghouse

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frieNds semiNary24

itself had nothing to do with the Nazi dictatorship and the evils it had unleashed. Ms Ehlers urged me to take a course with her and to deepen my knowledge of the language. This act of kindness and high intelligence was in many ways a life saver. Through her marvelous teaching I no longer denied my heritage and became proud of the German language and literature.

In so many ways the three years I spent there were the most important of my life for I received the gift of lifelong friendship and an extraordinarily rich education and preparation for life.

Peter Rona ’52Alumnus

Among the most useful courses that I have ever taken are those in writing given by Rouse B. Wilcox, English instructor during my high school years at Friends (1948-1952). Mr. Wilcox started by giving us exercises in components of writing, like expressing an incongruity, always adhering to the principle of showing rather than telling. Then he guided us to integrate the components into essays, short stories, and poems. He encouraged us to submit our writings to a literary contest for high school students held each year by the Atlantic Monthly magazine.

In the fall of my senior year I submitted two essays I had written on my experiences the prior summer, ‘Fourteen Thousand Feet Up”, about climbing “Mount Rainier, and Five Thousand Feet Down”, hiking to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. The essays won second and third place in the essay category of the contest. I was immediately offered scholarships by schools of journalism. However, my interest was to study geology.

Mr. Wilcox telegraphed his former college classmate at Brown University, Bruce Bigelow, who at that time was Academic Vice President of Brown. He informed Dr. Bigelow that his student had won literary recognition, was offered journalism scholarships, asked what Brown could do, and sent him my essays.

Then Mr. Wilcox borrowed a jalopy from his friend, the bartender at the Gramercy Park Hotel, and we drove to Providence to meet Dr. Bigelow, making a memorable stopover in Stonington, Connecticut, Mr. Wilcox’s boyhood home. What a warm and cordial meeting we had with Dr. Bigelow in his office in University Hall! He

offered me a four-year scholarship to Brown, which I enthusiastically accepted on the spot. I have been pursuing geology and writing ever since.

Tony HissFather of Jacob Hiss ’09

My favorite picture of my son, Jacob, which sits in a place of honor on a bookshelf in our living room, was taken ten years ago when he was a Friends Seminary fourth grader. (He was a Friends “lifer,” meaning he spent thirteen years at the school, kindergarten through 12th grade; he’s now a college sophomore.) In the picture Jacob is cradling a tiny, golden-yellow baby chick in both hands; the chick was named “Fluffy,” if I’m remembering right. Jacob, wearing a dark-green polo shirt and looking square at the camera, is standing in his classroom in front of a couple of large potted plants under bright grow lights, which are also making Jacob’s hair glow.

Raising baby chicks was an annual and uniquely Friends-like project for Linda Chu, his 4th-grade teacher. Her husband Stan, a gifted photographer, took the picture (that same year Stan also had a memorable cameo role as Owen Wilson’s Sherpa in the movie, “Zoolander”). The class was thrilled and a little awed by the project, and they talked over the weekends about whether the chicks would be warm enough when the kids weren’t there to look after them. It’s the beaming expression on Jacob’s face that brings all this back – a look of proud accomplishment, of protectiveness, of deep delight, and perhaps also a tiny bit of surprise that something quite so wonderful could actually be happening.

Arthur Fink ’64Alumnus

I was at a high school for gifted and talented kids, but the lack of integrity and of high level teaching really got to me. It came to a head when I submitted what I thought was a mediocre essay. The teacher wrote that it was an A-level paper, much better than he believed I could have written. So, since he believed it was plagiarized, he was giving me a C. Somehow, I’d clear enough values to recognize that something was deeply wrong.

My parents saved my life by arranging my quick transfer to Friends Seminary. Indeed, my first memories were of a school where integrity and honesty were the norm, where students didn’t cheat, and where teachers have only the highest expectation of all students. The French textbook I needed to obtain was already on a bookshelf at home—it was the old-fashioned book that my father had used when he was a student.

I could write in detail about our history teacher Dr. Earle Leslie Hunter, English teacher John Beck Shank, math teacher Gregory Lannon, and French teacher Mme Carmen. But the key words that described all of them were a love of students, an infectious love of their subject, and an integrity that showed so clearly in all that they did.

In those days we had no real science labs, a tiny library, minimal arts programs, no theatre, and little else other than classrooms, a large meeting house, one small gym, and an inside courtyard. We could fault the school for some prejudice, and criticize the limited class offerings. But something was very right. I learned the arts of truth telling and of questioning with compassion, the skills of writing clear paragraphs, and the importance of reaching inward for spiritual guidance. Everything else came later, but that was fine with me.

James RosenquistFather of Lily Rosenquist ’08

I think what continues to impress me, Mimi, and our daughter, Lily, about Friends Seminary is the school’s openness to all kinds of ideas, cultures and ways of living. When she toured Friends as an applicant, Lily saw several students in the Meetinghouse playing different instruments. The atmosphere was both loose and focused, but most of all, creative. Later visits to School revealed teachers who are also artists, musicians and writers, committed to illuminating just how a painting, score or novel comes to life. From the silent meeting when students reflect and sometimes speak, to the more raucous concerts full of energy only teenagers can give, to the School’s commitment to service, Friends is like a stone with many facets. Light pours through and bounces off at different angles, creating surprises and new thoughts.

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225tH ANNIVERSARYADVISoRY CoMMIttEE

Madeline Vaz, Co-Clerk

Selena Shadle, Co-Clerk

Mary Alexander, Ex-officio

Charles Blank

Stephen J. Chinlund ’51

Margery Cornwell

Emma Daly

Carter Davis ’11

Heidi DeRuiter

Nicole Darren Donnelly ’88

Edward G. Doty

Amanda Eisner

Richard Eldridge

Elizabeth Enloe

Katherine Farrell

Debbie Ferretti

John Galayda

Edes Powell Gilbert ’49

Eda Herzog-Vitto ’11

Robert “Bo” Lauder

Eileen Makoff

Nicolo Marcellino ’90

Joyce G. McCray*

Gloria Pitagorsky

Alice Proskauer

Donna Rothchild

Lee Rothchild ’98

Jessica Rovello ’92

Alyssa Sadoff

Philip Schwartz

Ivy Baer Sherman ’74

Joseph L. Sweeney ’55

*deceased

elebrating the School’s 225th anniversary provides ample moments to look backward and honor our distinguished history. It

is also a milestone that encourages us to think about our future. I’ve always said the job of the Principal is to be a vigilant custodian of the past while also providing a vision for building on our values and successful practices. One of the things I enjoy about the job is dwelling in both realms.

So, what might the future of our School look like? What will this year’s kindergarten class need from us to “bring about the world that ought to be” when they graduate in 2023? First, let us consider languages. Some say that “everyone” speaks or will eventually speak English, so why bother to invest in language programs. It is a classic example of American education’s historic failure to acknowledge the validity of not only other languages, but other cultures as well. Perhaps, it is true that the number of non-native English speakers will increase in the coming decades. But, what this shortsighted prediction fails to realize is the importance of culture and history and the respect that knowledge of both signals to those with whom we interact, be they friends, business partners or research associates. Our language program recognizes this. We’ve added Arabic to our curriculum and we will introduce Mandarin soon.

225th Anniversary Advisory Committee Co-

Clerk Madeline Vaz (mother of Cosmo ’19 and

Mia ’21) talks with the mayor during the School’s

anniversary festivities on February 25, 2011.

Musings on a Vibrant Future By Principal Robert “Bo” Lauder

Someone recently said to me that our students are “digital natives” of a world that we (anyone older than, say, twenty-five) do not inhabit. That may be so, but that doesn’t mean that we can stand in the way of technology’s progressive importance in the education of our students and the world in which they live. Next year, we will launch an iPad program for grades K, 5 and 9. We think the iPad will play a transformational role, particularly in organization, research, and science and math. As more textbooks come online, we hope the iPad will also help shrink students’ backpacks. Eventually, technology will become the third largest line item in our budget, behind only personnel costs and financial aid.

But what else? Perhaps a “branch campus,” either here in the five boroughs or in another country? An even greater commitment to financial aid backed by an appropriate endowment fund? More collaborations in the downtown community, like a theater to house our drama program? And certainly, there will be a continued strengthening and celebration of the Quaker values that make us truly unique in the panoply of Manhattan independent schools.

Yes, marking the 225th anniversary does prompt musings about a vibrant future. It is also a time to remember how fortunate we all are to be here and to share in the responsibility for securing Friends Seminary’s future.

C


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It was sometime in early July of 1980 that I first met Joyce. It was a warm day to wear a suit, and I was coming for a job interview. My first impression of Joyce and the office she occupied, was a little bit like a scene out of the Wizard of Oz. Here was this woman smoking a cigarette, seated, arms folded across her chest, talking from behind a curtain of smoke. She seemed to tower over me, inscrutable and all knowing, as she gave me the once over and pummeled me with various questions. Thoroughly intimidated, I met her later that afternoon. This time she was standing and I could see, to my surprise, that she was a rather small woman.

Soon thereafter, I realized from working with her, that these initial impressions were the very essence of Joyce—towering intelligence, sharp wit and intuitive timing, boundless energy in a tiny frame. She was a global thinker who took the time to focus on the smallest of details. Fiercely loyal to family and friend, she could be equally critical of people she didn’t care for. Her friends and colleagues became her extended family and she easily interwove her private life with that of the School.

In Memory: Joyce McCray

Her leadership and supreme confidence fed and permeated everything that we did. She worked long hours, but also had fun. On one of our administrative retreats, who else but Joyce, could prepare dinner, drink anyone under the table, whip up a couple of pies in the early morning and then play a few games of tennis. These were incredible days. The School that barely weathered the 1970s became whole and full under her headship. Many of her beliefs—the importance of community, peaceful co-existence, and conflict resolution—paralleled Quaker thought and practice and she made sure that these values were reinstated into the School’s daily life. It was her contagious optimism that inspired and fulfilled the goals for Friends Seminary’s first capital campaign in 1986. A great networker and a social magnet, she found it easy to create bridges between people and communities. These talents would serve her well, years thereafter, when she headed the Council for American Private Education (CAPE), as advocate for over 33,000 private schools, whether on Capitol Hill or in the corridors of a local school.

After Joyce left in 1989, she continued to touch base with the Friends Seminary community by attending alumni events, various dedications, retirement parties (including my own), and just to visit family, friends and colleagues. Alert as ever, I could see her dwindling. The energy that had once been her foundation was clearly being extinguished. And yet, she continued. The last time that I saw her was at an alumni event about a year ago. I will always miss her generosity of spirit, her nurturing and her laughter. I can still hear her say, at that last alumni event, “so Joe, darling, come sit next to me and tell how your family is and what’s new”.

On Friday, November 12, 2010, family, friends, and colleagues of Joyce G. McCray came together in the Meetinghouse to pay their respects to Joyce, who passed away on November 1, 2010.

Joyce McCray, A Mentor and FriendJoe Gosler, January 11, 2011

Friends Seminary’s 33rd Principal

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Seventy-five years or so from now, at the Seminary’s Tercentennial, the School’s latest historian will be forgiven for concluding that Joyce McCray saved Friends Seminary. Others have saved it before her, the bold and reverent leaders who floated the School through hazardous years of wars and crashes and internal feuds. But few moments along the way provided as much theatre as the year preceding Joyce’s arrival. When she came to the Seminary from the Professional Children’s School, the task before her was so daunting that those who greeted her wondered whether she were very brave, or just very optimistic. It turned out that she was both. “Don’t be alarmed if she calls you darling” advised one very wise friend of the Seminary. “All that warmth is real.” And so it was that the Seminary, in September 1977, welcomed its Darling Principal.

Not many of her predecessors, for all their various gifts and whimsies, could warm the School as Joyce did. Her style made its impression immediately, lifting spirits, healing wounds, calming nerves, brightening prospects, raising standards and reaching out. Whatever the Seminary community had expected, she exceeded, whether in insight, energy or nimble imagination. In those years she was unavoidable, omnipresent. There she was leading morning worship, chairing faculty meetings, sampling the bake sale, cheering the basketball team, chaperoning the Middle School Dance, rappelling down the side of the building with wilderness program students, standing with Barclay Palmer at the piano on Valentine’s day, singing “As Time Goes By.” She seemed at times to defy physical laws, like the fact that human beings cannot go for a week without sleeping. She kept the Old Forge in the black. She opened the School many mornings and closed it down at night. It was as though the strength of the School depended on her very presence, for when she was there, confidence swelled.

When she was not at the Seminary she was sitting on Boards of other schools, such as Collegiate and the Good Hope School in St. Croix, or educational committees. She helped to shepherd, among other

In Memory: Joyce McCray

organizations the Friends Council on Education’s Long Range Planning Committee; The New York State Association of Independent Schools; The Independent School Orchestra; A Better Chance, and the Educational Records Bureau.

As the Seminary grew sturdier over the years, her hopes for it ripened. The School was never fat and smug, for she always had ideas in mind. Once enrollment was backed up and the faculty first-rate, Joyce set to renovating buildings, raising scholarship funds, encouraging innovation, ultimately realizing a long desired but always delayed dream: the establishment of an endowment for the School. The School not only grew strong, it grew, with a larger student body, better equipment, a richer curriculum, a more ambitious extra-curricular life.

Her efforts made possible a level of diversity among students and faculty that distinguished the School from all others in the city. She has an acute sense of tolerance, not only for diversity but for genuine oddness: for students who gathered after Meeting outside her window for a shattering Primal Scream: for seniors who endearingly viewed every day as Cut Day; for children whose high spirits might have meant expulsion from a less elastic disciplinary system; for faculty members whose ebullient teaching styles bore no resemblance to anything ever presented on Public Television.

Most interesting, and perhaps ironic, is that Joyce, known as an exquisite talker, knew so well when to be quiet. She knew when and how to listen, and how to keep the silence of faith. Though not herself a Friend, Joyce had been a more vigilant custodian of the Quaker faith than the great majority of her predecessors. Under her leadership the Meeting for Worship and the particular values that uphold it came to uphold the entire school. In silence there was exploration; in worship there was revelation; in community there was joy. And so she left to her successor a stronger school with a richer mission than has existed in Manhattan for many, many years.

Joyce McCray’s Years at FriendsAn excerpt from the essay, The Darling Principal, by Nancy Gibbs ‘78, which was first published in

the School’s bicentennial celebration booklet in 1986. Published in The New York Times on November 9, 2010

Joyce Gevirtz McCray passed away Monday, November 1, 2010 in her new home in Falmouth, Maine. She was at peace and surrounded by her daughter, Susan; Susan’s partner, Yvette and her close friends: Pat and Dick Barter. Joyce was born in Hammond, IN to Dr. Milton B. Gevirtz and Madeline Wilson Gevirtz on September 28, 1932. Joyce’s family includes her three children: Jennifer McCray Rincon, Wilson McCray and Susan McCray. Jennifer and her husband Carlos Rincon live in Denver, CO with their three children: Catalina, Sonia and Carlo. Catalina is a freshman at American University in Washington, DC. Wilson lives with his wife, Judy Weaver, in Heredia, Costa Rica. Susan lives with her partner, Yvette Pratt, in South Portland, Maine. All three of Joyce’s children have pursued careers in education and the arts. Joyce was married for nearly 20 years to the father of their three children, Dr. Richard Smith McCray. Joyce graduated from Hammond High School in 1950. She attended Wellesley College, and as President of her class, graduated in 1954. She went on to earn a Masters degree in Sociology from Yale University and a Masters degree in Business Administration from Harvard University. While a devoted mother and grandmother, Joyce committed her professional life to education. She was the Principal of Friends Seminary in New York City from 1977-1989, and then moved to Washington, DC where she became the Executive Director of the Council for American Private Education. She contributed an indescribable amount to her profession, sitting on many boards of directors, most notably of the Collegiate School in New York City and the William Penn Charter School in Pennsylvania. She was also an active member of many organizations, including the Headmasters Association, The Head Mistresses Association of the East and The Country Day School Headmasters’ Association. She had a profound, lasting impact on the world of education and on the lives of so many students and staff. She was an admired mentor and role model, a revered colleague, and had a spirit that allowed all those around her to flourish. She will be greatly missed.

1932 - 2010

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VisitedOctober 28 (through November 2)

Through the School’s Visiting Scholar Program, Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History and host of PBS’ NOVA scienceNOW, spent four school days from October 28 to November 2 working with biology, physics, and chemistry students. Dr. Tyson delivered classroom lectures, held question-and-answer sessions, joined students for lunch, and worked privately with the science faculty. On November 1, his visit culminated in a two-hour public address on the importance of improving science literacy in the United States.

“Even if you aren’t predisposed to science, it’s so easy to listen to and to digest what he’s saying, because he brings it up in such a fun way,” senior Christol Patterson said. “He provides an incredible view of how to see the world and where you fit in its spectrum.”

Principal Bo Lauder added, “He must have the opportunity to say these things 200 times a year, but he sounds like he just discovered the universe yesterday.”

The School’s annual Visiting Scholar Program was created in 2009 to augment the curriculum by exposing students to scholars and artists who would not normally be accessible to pre-collegiate students. Last year, the school welcomed High-Line architect Charles Renfro as their first Scholar-in-Residence. Renfro worked closely with students on architecture projects throughout the year and accompanied them to several of his current architecture projects around the city.

To view a short video about Dr. Tyson’s visit, visit: http://vimeo.com/friendsseminary/tyson.

December 2More than 20 alumni and faculty members helped decorate holiday food bags for men, women, and children with AIDS and other serious illnesses during the God’s Love We Deliver alumni bag decorating workshop

in the art studios. The annual event honors late art teachers John Jones and Maureen Mullen who brought this tradition to life at Friends.

December 14

Friends athletes from the past four decades donned uniforms and played in the annual alumni basketball game in the school gym. Coaches David Lieber and Debbie Ferretti were on hand to cheer on their past players as they relived their hardwood glory days.

December 15

Alexis Donnelly Glick ’90, Sean Grande ’87, Samantha Liebman ’94, Adam Owett ’75, Matt Pincus ’90, Lida Moore Musso ’86, Eric Obenzinger ’03, and Jorge Ramon ’88 returned to Friends for the annual Alumni-Student

Networking Day to teach students about their respective careers in fields. Students attended sessions in broadcast journalism, the music business, and how to make the best impression during an internship.

December 17

Members from the classes of 2007 through 2010 returned to Friends for the Young Alumni and Senior Q & A Lunch. Following the luncheon, the alumni shared their post-Friends experiences with seniors as they prepare for their upcoming college years.

February 23

Christine Cullen, soprano and classical musician, visited middle and upper schoolers at Friends to prepare them for an upcoming visit to Roméo et Juliette at the Metropolitan Opera. She talked to them about the history of opera, well-known composers such as Mozart, Wagner, Verdi and Puccini, and the importance of language in music. Christine played excerpts from various operas including The Magic Flute and Carmen, and sang “Depuis le Jour” from Charpentier’s Louise.

Buzz on 16th Street

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AchievedDiversity Efforts Award

On November 1, 2010, Friends Seminary was awarded the 2010 Diversity Efforts Award during the ninth annual Blackboard Awards ceremony at Fordham University Law School. Presented by Fordham and the United Federation of Teachers, the annual award ceremony highlights notable achievements by schools across all of New York’s educational systems.

Cynthia Chalker, Friends’ Director of Diversity, said diversity at the School is more than percentages on a pie chart. “Everybody has a story. You can’t just check off a box,” she said. “A piece of paper doesn’t tell me he splits his time between two homes, is an excellent concert pianist, or is on the verge of coming out gay.”

Robotics Competition

Eighth-grader Jacob Lowenherz and seventh-grader Giles Lemmon of the Friends Seminary Middle School Robotics team finished fourth out of forty teams in the Research Presentation Category at the Manhattan First Lego League Qualifying Competition on Sunday, January 16 held at The City College of New York. For the competition, the students created a robot to compete on a predetermined field of obstacles, presented a research paper on “Nanobots that Fight Cancer” and gave a technical presentation on how their robot was designed and programmed. The Middle School Robotics team meets weekly and is led by technology integrator Tim Cooper. Tim also oversees the School’s two Upper School Robotics teams, which recently hosted a competition for 15 NYC teams in the Friends gym.

CelebratedChinese New Year

Friends’ 20th Annual Chinese New Year celebration was held at Jing Fong in Manhattan on January 21, 2011. Proceeds from the Chinese New Year Celebration benefit the Henry Lee ’43 Scholarship Fund. Henry Lee was the first Asian American to graduate from Friends. The Henry Lee ’43 Scholarship Fund was established in 1994 by his family to honor him on his 70th birthday. The following year, Henry Lee passed away and it became a memorial scholarship. The Henry Lee Scholarship Fund is earmarked for an Asian American student and it can go to one student or be divided up amongst two or more students.

Peace Week

Friends Seminary celebrated its seventh annual Peace Week from February 7 through February 11 this year. The Peace Week Committee, led by Co-Clerks Anna Swank and Judy Anderson, generated the following statement to guide the Friends community in its thinking about how to incorporate this year’s theme—“Educating for Peace: Friends Seminary and 225 Years of Quaker Education”—into the School’s curricula.

Violence in its multiple forms continues to plague our country and the world. Ignorance exacerbates the conflicts that cause this violence. As a Quaker school, it is crucial to our mission to challenge such ignorance and explore ways to strive for peace in our work and relationships. Proponents of peace such as Dorothy Day, Gandhi, and Adam

Curle all stress the revolutionary power of love in bringing about justice and peace. The first steps to ending violence and constructing a more peaceful and just world involve learning how to love as well as understanding and appreciating a variety of cultures and their inherent similarities and differences. Friends Seminary teaches these lessons on multiple levels every day, but it is important to frame and contextualize these lessons so as to make them meaningful and palpable to our students, thereby nurturing change in knowledge, skills, and attitudes. By reflecting on the school’s past and present and the transformative power of education, we consciously work towards a more just and peaceful future and bringing about “the world that ought to be.”

Peace Week 2011 activities culminated on February 10, 2011 with a panel discussion, “Quaker Education—Past, Present, and Future,” which featured three leaders of Quaker education in America. Moderated by Friends Seminary Principal Robert “Bo” Lauder, the panel consisted of Steve Emerson, President of Haverford College, Bruce Stewart, Head of School Emeritus at Sidwell Friends School, and Irene McHenry, Executive Director of the Friends Council on Education. To view this panel discussion, visit: http://vimeo.com/friendsseminary/peaceweek2011.

Friends MultiMediaView images and video clips from these events by visiting

friendsseminary.org/multimedia.

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1 - Mayor Michael Bloomberg addresses the student body on February 25, 2011 during a celebration in the Meetinghouse commemorating the School’s 225th anniversary year. During his visit, Mayor Bloomberg read a proclamation declaring February 25 as “Friends Seminary Day.” 2 - Kindergarten teachers Stephanie Feinman ‘03 and Judy Anderson ‘66 poke their heads through a photo cut-out featuring Friends Seminary students in 1896 sitting outside the Meetinghouse.

225th Anniversary Celebration | February 25, 20111

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3 - Students watch a short video that features their classmates speaking about the Quaker tenets. 4 - A commemorative button affixed to teacher Phil Schwartz’s tie 5 - Students, teachers, and staff members listen to Mayor Bloomberg in the Meetinghouse. 6 - A 225th birthday cake of the Meetinghouse was created by chefs from the television show, Cake Boss. 7 - 225th Anniversary commemorative t-shirts 8 - 225th Anniversary commemorative pins

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n a family vacation this past summer, students Raina Milling ’14 and sister Sophie ’16 traveled to Haiti with the explicit purpose to be of service to those who were affected by the earthquake. In her letter to the community, Raina described the impact of what she witnessed:

“During our stay, we saw firsthand the devastation caused by the earthquake. Much of Port-au-Prince was completely flattened and often the highest site on the horizon was an enormous pile of rubble. However, the physical damage could not compare to the shock of seeing how Haitians were living. We played with children in orphanages that consisted only of tents placed on rocks. We brought water and supplies to a home of a dying adult. We spent time simply holding sick children in our arms so that they felt cared for. Everyday, we tutored a group of abandoned or orphaned children that the Foundation for Children in Need (FFCIN) had recently set up a home for. There were

O many difficult things that we saw firsthand. As a result, I came away from the experience wanting do something for the kids we met. I was stunned at how eager they were to be read to, or learn math, or play the instruments we brought them. These kids were filled with laughter and joy and kindness despite their horrible situation. My life is changed forever after meeting so many incredible Haitian people, and I know the only way many of the children I met will have a chance at a better life is to get an education.”

Raina and Sophie returned to school motivated by what they witnessed. In an effort to make a difference in the lives of the people who they met in Haiti, the girls formed a student group, The Haiti Relief Group, and as part of Friends Seminary’s Peace Week celebration, organized a Hula Hoop-a-thon to raise funds to support the FFCIN. On February 8, over 80 students from the Lower, Middle, and Upper Schools came together in the gym to hula hoop for Haiti and raised close to $6,000. The funds will help establish a tutoring center for the children who FFCIN supports in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

Sisters Help Children Orphaned by Haiti EarthquakeA recollection by Raina Milling ’14

Raina plays with two boys at a tent shelter. Raina, Sophie, and parents King and Cara, visit with children who were given a

home through the Foundation for Children in Need. The boys are wearing hats

donated by the New Orleans Saints.

Sophie teaches an orphan girl how to bead jewelry.

Spotlight on Service

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Tribute

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Tribute

frieNds semiNary52

Tim Sterett writes: “My father,

James Sterrett ’33, died in September of 2009. I grew up in Brooklyn and have memories of monthly meeting suppers in the Seminary basement dining room, of the meetinghouse, and of the gym. My father grew up on the top floor of one of the buildings visible to the right, on 15th Street, from the front door steps of the Seminary. His mother, Florence Palmer Sterrett, and his aunt, Alice Palmer, both taught at the Seminary. Alice Palmer lived at the Pennington. When the building where my grandparents lived caught fire and burned, they moved from NYC to a Sterrett cousin’s home in Reedsville, PA, near State College. My father graduated from Westtown School.”

Joan Howson Clarke ’34 died in West Hartford, CT, on January 9, 2011, at age 93, from complications of a stroke. Joan grew up in New York City, where her father, Roger Howson, was the head librarian at Columbia University, and her mother, Julie Benjamin Howson, was an early activist for Planned Parenthood and women’s rights. After graduating from Friends Seminary, she attended Bryn Mawr College, graduating in 1938. Her junior year, she attended the University of Michigan, where she found her calling in cultural

anthropology and participated in the first of several archaeological digs in the American West. After college, she did post-graduate work at Columbia University, which, under the leadership of the renowned anthropologist Franz Boas, had become a center of progressive cultural studies. She received her Masters in Anthropology from Columbia in 1941. She met her husband, Alden, during the War, while both were in the Army (he as an officer, she as a civilian employee). After the War, they moved to Newport News, Virginia, where Alden served for a time as the general manager of the Newport News Dodgers, before re-settling in the metropolitan area, so that Alden could take a job working in the front office of the Brooklyn Dodgers, working under Branch Rickey at the historic moment when Jackie Robinson and he, together, broke the color line in baseball. After raising her four children, she became the curator of the School Loan Department of the Morris Museum of Arts and Sciences in Morristown, N.J., and curated for more than forty years. Starting from scratch, she built the department from an untested concept into a regional educational resource of enduring value. Before the age of Google and Wikipedia, she was a virtual human encyclopedia, as fallible, perhaps, as those sources but far more lovable. She leaves behind a vast and—in the non-cliched meaning of the word—awesome collection of hands-on educational kit-packs, covering subjects as diverse as insect metamorphosis and canal-building, which are still in active circulation in schools throughout northern and central New Jersey today. American Indians were her special love and field of expertise, and on that broad and enlightening subject she could hold her own with anyone. Joan moved to West Hartford after chronic Lyme Disease forced her into retirement at the age of 88. She

never lost her love for learning, and was always drawn to the weekly lecture DVD at the McAuley, where she lived. To the end, her eye and touch for the creative flourished, as her flower displays in the halls of the McAuley demonstrated. Joan always said her body would go to science. Little did she know, that after a 70 year hiatus it would return to Columbia University as part of a study by Dr. Dwork on the effects of Lyme disease. Predeceased by her husband Alden, son Roger, and pet dachshund Pumpkin, she is survived by Susan Tonkonogy Clarke of Raleigh, NC, Juliet Clarke and Robert Fisher of West Hartford, CT, David and Wendy Clarke of West Simsbury, CT, Benjamin and Cynthia Clarke of Wayne, NJ, and eight spectacular grandchildren. Donations to Planned Parenthood - Worldwide Population or Morris Museum, Museum Loan Department, 6 Normandy Rd, Morristown, NJ 07960 gratefully acknowledged.

Charles Sidney Ruppman ’35 died peacefully

in his sleep on Monday, Sept. 13, 2010, at the home of his daughter, Lynne Enyeart in Tualatin, Ore., where

he had lived for the past four years. He was a giant among men, with his main goals in life centered on his wife, family, friends and employees. Throughout his life, from a very young age, Charles overcame many hardships with dogged determination and hard work. His life is a “rags to riches” story, full of heartening and often hilarious accounts of overcoming the odds.

Story time with dad/grandpa was a favorite family event. Charles was born in New York on July 7, 1915, to Charles Ruppman and Elizabeth Schroder, both German immigrants. He, along with his brothers, Herman

and Elmer and sister, Elenore, grew up in the Bronx. He attended high school at Friends Seminary, where he played football, and college at the University of North Carolina, where he played basketball and received a degree in electronic engineering. He then attended Northwestern University in Chicago, where he met Alvaretta, who became the love of his life and his wife of 70 years. After serving his country in World War II, receiving the Victory Medal, he and son, Charles, built a family home in Villa Park, Ill. in 1962, he decided to join an advertising agency in Peoria, Ill., and proceeded to make it into a highly successful multi-company agency renamed Charles Ruppman Advertising and Subsidiaries. In 1976, he retired as president but remained on as chairman of the board until 1996. During his time in Peoria, he was instrumental in the building of both a new library and a new church.

In addition to his wife, Charles was preceded in death by his parents and his brother, Herman.He is survived by his son, Charles (Lena); daughters, Carol Lund (Tom), Cheryl Schricker (Don), Lynne Enyeart (Ron); brother, Elmer; sister, Elenore Leslie; half brother, Charles; 16 grandchildren; 21 great-grandchildren; and numerous nieces and nephews.

A Christian family service with military honors, followed by inurnment of both Charles and Alvaretta, was held on Oct. 11, at Willamette National Cemetery. A celebration of life followed at the Enyeart home with a memorial storytelling brunch. Donations in Charles’ honor can be made to any of the following: Feed the Children.org, The American Family Association at afa.net or ProLife.org.

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Dwight Sloan ’38 was born October 14, 1920 and formerly of Charlottesville, Virginia, died on January 30, 2011 in Birmingham, Ala. He attended Friends Seminary and Charlottesville High School. He graduated in 1942 from the University of Virginia with a degree in mechanical engineering, where he was a member of Trigon and Tau Beta Pi honor societies. During World War II, he served in England with the 8th Air Force and the Royal Air Force, and then in India with the Air Service Command. Following the war, he worked for Sperry Gyroscope in the fields of aircraft control and space guidance systems for more than 40 years, retiring in Charlottesville, Virginia. He moved to Birmingham in 1996 to be closer to his family, who loved him dearly for his honesty, generosity, humor, and insatiable curiosity, He was preceded in death by his parents, Dr. Thomas Dwight Sloan and Margaret Bell Dunnington Sloan, and by his sister, Margaret Sloan Blue. He is survived by his loving wife of almost 64 years, Patricia Hennesy Sloan; by his sister Ruth Sloan Sessoms (George); by his four devoted children: T. Dwight Sloan III (Susan), Ellen Sloan Childers (Randall), Penelope Sloan Hoke (the late Timothy), and Margaret Sloan Presley; by his ten adored grandchildren: Jennifer Dill (Randy), Amy Kirchoff (Jon), Anderson Hoke (Jodie), Thomas Hoke (Abbi), John Hoke, John Presley (Kei), Benjamin Presley (Rachel), Ellen Presley, Timothy Presley and Carey Childers; and by his five wonderful great-grandchildren: Angela Kirchoff, Anders Kirchoff, Sloan Dill, Robinson Hoke and Addison Presley. He will be greatly missed. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to Friends Seminary 222 East 16th St, New York City, NY 10003, the UVA Alumni Fund PO Box 400314, Charlottesville, VA 22904-4314, www2.alumni.

virginia. edu/uvafund or to a charity of your choice.

Marjorie “Peggy” Tryon Rilleau ’39, died peacefully at home in Hull, MA, on January 24, with family at her side. Born in Jefferson NY, the second daughter of Dr. Sidney Tryon and his wife Jean, Peggy was raised in Cooperstown, NY. She graduated from Friends Seminary and attended Cooper Union where she pursued various artistic interests and gained her experience and great talent in the designing of commercial window displays. At 20, a train trip to Provincetown with her sister resulted in the two of them meeting their future husbands on Commercial Street one spring evening. She married Roger Rilleau in 1944 and for nearly thirty years, Peggy lived in Provincetown where she raised five children in the family home still maintained on Allerton St. Adding her creative input to Roger’s knowledge of leatherwork and design, they established The Rilleau Sandal Shop. Initially under the name Hand Industries, it was the first sandal shop to open its doors in Provincetown. Peggy’s artistic sensibilities were reflected in the unique environment of the shop and carried into the finishing touches of all the work created in the shop. In addition to the original designs born in the shop, it

was also a vibrant meeting place for many artists of the time. The likes of Henri Cartier Bresson, Hans Hoffman, and Harry Kemp crossed the threshold and enjoyed the easy, lively conversation of those days. In 1969 Peggy divorced, moved from the Cape, resettled in Brookline and later married Charles Kallman. She joined him in running The Wilderness House, an outdoor outfitters business that Charlie had begun in 1954 and that was frequented by serious mountaineers and backpackers. ocused primarily in the footwear and clothing aspects, Peggy became an important influence in the highly regarded business, adding her designer talents to the overall ambience of the store until it was sold in 1997. Peggy was a sun worshipper and she and Charlie greatly enjoyed the sea and sun on the Portuguese coast and on Sanibel Island, FL where she would comb the beaches and bask in the sun. They moved to Spinnaker Island in Hull, Mass. in 1997 where she enjoyed a coastal landscape and vibrant views of ocean and bay. Up to the end, she was unbeatable at Scrabble, winning her last game on the eleventh of January. Peggy will long be remembered by her unconditional loving nature, marvelous sense of humor, love and knowledge of the arts and her thrill at the continuance of life through her children, grand children and on. As she loved to say, “the beat goes on!” She is survived by her husband Charles, her child Gabrielle Rilleau and husband, Steve Stein, of Corte Madera, CA, Robin Gibbons and husband, Harold “Bear,” of Brighton, MA, Kim Rilleau and wife, Lynne, of Woodstock, VT, Noelle Rilleau of Boston and Chris O’Brien of Maine and the late Daniel Rilleau and his wife Sara of Petaluma, CA. She is also survived by grand children Seth (Ponek), Ember, Elena, Guy and Ty (Rilleau), Adam and Heather (Gibbons) Chris and Katy (OBrien), Jesse (Rilleau), Great grand children

Kyle, Gabriella, Landon, Elaina and Eben and great great granddaughter Zoriah. An intimate family gathering in her honor is being planned.

Suzanne Henderson MacLachlan ’45, devoted mother and grandmother, passed away on Feb. 3 in Chestnut Hill. Suzanne, known to her friends as Sue, spent her early years in Manhattan, attended Friends Seminary and graduated from Harvard-Westlake School, formerly Westlake School for Girls, in California, and Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania. She later moved back to NYC to become one of the first female creative executives of the advertising firm Ogilvy and Mather. It was in Tarrytown, NY, where she met her beloved husband of 39 years, Robert Holt MacLachlan, known as Bob. The couple later moved from Manhattan to Wellesley with their two young daughters, Elizabeth and Suzanne. Sue and her husband were travelers, symphony- and theatre-goers, avid readers, and active participants in the Wellesley Christian Science church. When her daughters were older, Sue returned full-time to the workforce as a writer and editor at the First Church of Christ, Scientist in Boston. Sue delighted in the fact that both her daughters and her three grandchildren, Kate, Holt, and Olivia Fletcher, lived in Wellesley and were an integral part of each others lives. Her loyal service, commitment to duty, and articulate leadership will be dearly missed by her friends and fellow church members. Her family: Elizabeth and David Bear and their children, of Denver, and Suzanne and Web Fletcher and their children, of Wellesley, feel privileged to walk in her footsteps. Published in The Wellesley Townsman from February 10 to February 17, 2011.

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Tribute

frieNds semiNary54

Mary “Misty” Rognes Thompson Larson ’46, died in her sleep at home on October 8, 2010, at the age of 81. Misty was a matriarch of the old Woodstock, raising six children and a step-son, all still living: Joel Bernard of Portland, Ore.,Michael and Terry Bernard of Woodstock, Ruel Bernard of Oakland, Ca., Melissa Flood and Andrea Bernard of Seattle, and Sara Peckham of Wenham, Ma. She left many grandchildren and a couple of great-grandkids as well. Born Mary Rognes Thompson on March 14, 1929 in New York City to Arthur Ruel Thompson and Maude Rognes Thompson, Misty was raised as an upper-West Side debutante, with what she called “an expensive Classical education,” including Friends Seminary and Cornell University, as well as rigorous training in classical piano. To the distress of her parents, Misty turned down life with the blue bloods to marry Allen Bernard, a freelance magazine writer, twenty years her senior, married twice before with a son, and Jewish. In 1958, with five children, two of them in diapers, the Bernard family moved to Woodstock, across the street from St. Gregory’s Episcopal Church, where Misty became a faithful congregant for forty years, baptizing, christening and confirming her children there. Three years later the family moved to the home on Glasco Turnpike that Misty tended for the next fifty years, until the day she died. With now seven children, Misty became active in her community, serving on the boards of the Maverick Concerts, the Artists Association and the Library. She was a Den Mother for her boys’ Cub Scout troops and a Brownie Leader for her girls. Misty was also a member of the Woodstock Bowling League. Misty’s greatest gift was a kind of “world love,” for which she was famous: an appreciation of and curiosity about the human spirit in its variety of

forms, regardless of class, ethnicity, age, or education. All were invited to Misty’s table and to shelter under her roof. Many of today’s Woodstockers once found a welcome refuge in a time of need at Misty’s house. Her son, Michael Bernard writes: “She talked often of her time at Friends Seminary and the friends she made there. One of my mother’s treasures was a silver basketball that she got as a member of the team at Friends. She kept it on a chain with her father’s Phi Beta Kappa key. We will be having a memorial and farewell party at her Woodstock home on May 7, 2011. All who knew her are invited.”

John Dustin Fife ’47 of Peconic Landing in Greenport, NY died of cancer on December 9, 2010. He was 81. He was born March 16, 1929, in Cincinnati, Ohio, to John and Margaret (Cheney) Fife. He graduated from Friends Seminary and Haverford College in Pennsylvania in 1951. On Sept. 1, 1953, he married Alice Smith of Riverhead in Tehran, Iran. Mr. Fife was a member of North Fork Country Club and First Universalist Church in Southold. He enjoyed traveling, reading, boating, sailing and fishing. He was predeceased by his son, Randy, in 2001 and granddaughter Kate Newcomer in August 2010. Mr. Fife is survived by his wife of 57 years, Alice, of Greenport; daughters, Margaret (Charles) Newcomer of Scotch Plains, N.J., and Katherine (Chris)

Perretta of Manhattan and Cutchogue; and five grandchildren, Jane and Allison Newcomer, Annie and CJ Perretta and Nathan Fife. Memorial donations may be sent to East End Hospice, P.O. Box 1048, Westhampton Beach, NY 11978 or Eastern Long Island Hospital, 201 Manor Place, Greenport, NY 11944.

Adam Pinsker ’48, an arts administrator who managed orchestras, chamber music ensembles and dance troupes and who successfully advised dance companies on how to survive by professionalizing their management, died on Friday in Manhattan. He was 79 and lived in Manhattan. The cause was complications of pancreatic cancer, his son, Joel, said. In 1969 the Rockefeller Foundation asked Mr. Pinsker to become president of the Association of American Dance Companies, a new service organization. A few years earlier a separate foundation, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, had issued a devastating report finding financial and managerial disarray among American dance troupes. As president of the association, Mr. Pinsker advised companies on attaining nonprofit status, writing charters and bylaws and hiring publicists. In “Movable Pillars: Organizing Dance, 1956-1978” (2010), a book by Katja Kolcio, he recalled that the choreographer Bella Lewitzky, who

died in 2004, had criticized him “for saying that dance companies should use press agents. She argued that dance, if it is good, will attract all the people it wants and shouldn’t stoop to having press agents,” he added. “She later joked about that.” Referring to choreographers like George Balanchine, Martha Graham and Merce Cunningham, Mr. Pinsker said: “Without realizing it, they had built businesses but they had no business experience. They were totally unorganized in those days. A number of companies, like Paul Taylor, were not even incorporated in 1970. American Ballet Theater did not have a normal budget until 1970.” Those companies went on to thrive in the dance boom that followed. In 1975 Mr. Pinsker resigned as the association’s president but remained on the board as an advocate for music and dance while continuing to work as a producer, manager and consultant. From 1984 to 1993 he was executive director of Dance St. Louis, a nonprofit presenting agency, and produced seasons by American and international dance companies. He also had a weekly radio show about the arts on the St. Louis public radio station KWMU. Returning to New York, he was executive director of the New York Chamber Symphony and the New York Philomusica Chamber Ensemble. He served on many boards, most recently as secretary of the Martha Graham Dance Company. He lectured on a wide range of subjects, including German art songs and German poetry. Adam August Pinsker was born on Sept. 16, 1931, in Long Branch, N.J., and grew up in Manhattan. He graduated from St. John’s College in Annapolis, Md. He started his career in 1954 as staff pianist and manager with the United States Seventh Army Symphony in Stuttgart, Germany. The conductor and music director then was Kenneth Schermerhorn, later a conductor with American Ballet Theater and other

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symphony orchestras, including the New Jersey Symphony when Mr. Pinsker was its manager from 1960 to 1966. After serving as manager of the Buffalo Philharmonic under Lukas Foss for two years, Mr. Pinsker was general manager of the Pennsylvania Ballet from 1968 to 1970. In addition to his son, of Boston, Mr. Pinsker is survived by his wife, Judith. (Published: November 12, 2010 in The New York Times, by Anna Kisselgoff)

Henry “Hank” Humphrey III ’49 died on November 6, 2010 at the age of 80. Hank was born in Mineola, NY on April 26, 1930, the son of Cathleen and Henry Humphrey. He graduated from Friends Seminary and attended New York University. Hank is survived by his wife, Deirdre O’Meara, who he married on July 20, 1957. Hank was a program director at the Dumont Television Network, and an account executive at Cunningham & Walsh; and Sullivan, Stauffer, Colwell & Bayles. 1n 1968, Hank became a freelance photographer and went around the world for clients such as Air India, Sperry Rand, Champion Papers, Price Waterhouse, and Union Pacific. He was the author and illustrator of six books for children. What Is It For, published in 1969, was selected by The New York Times as one of the Ten Best Illustrated Children’s Books of the year. Hank and Deirdre lived in

Westport and Weston, Conn. until they moved to Lawrence in 1990. Hank has a sister, Jennifer Humphrey, of NYC. Hank and Deirdre have five daughters, Nora Logan of New York; twins Eloise Humphrey and Daphne Comaskey of Brunswick, Maine; and Maud Humphrey and Deirdre Humphrey of Lawrence. They have seven grandchildren, Sam, Jacob, Eliza, Kate, Walter, Lucy, and Fletcher. Contributions in his memory may be made to Friends Seminary or the Democratic National Committee (www.democrats.org). Online condolences may be sent to warrenmcelwain.com.

Cheryl Fiol Feldsott ’70, who had spent about the last five years as a college and career counselor at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School, died April 16 at her home in Rockville, MD. She had kidney cancer. Mrs. Feldsott joined the Montgomery County Public School System (MD) in 1994 as a math aide at Travilah Elementary School in North Potomac. She later was an attendance secretary at Robert Frost Middle School in Rockville. Cheryl Fiol was a New York City native and moved to the Washington area after graduating in 1973 from the State University of New York at Buffalo. She spent several years working for the General Accounting Office in the administrative finance section, then worked in interior design for the company Decorating Den. She was a member of Congregation Har Shalom, a conservative synagogue in Potomac. She collected birdhouses and

Hanukkah menorahs. Survivors include her husband of 36 years, Stuart Feldsott of Rockville; three children, Lauren Zajac of State College, Pa., Andrea Feldsott of Lawrence, Mass., and David Feldsott of Boston; and a brother.

Barbara Carey ‘64 and Robbie Carey ‘72 write: “Our mother,Jane Carey, who taught First Grade at Friends from 1957 until around 1968, died on July 19, 2010, after a brief illness, which she faced bravely and with grace. She loved teaching and especially enjoyed the perspective on life expressed by the little children she taught. She often repeated the conversation she overheard between two first graders looking at an old Friends yearbook, one in which the class photo showed her with gray hair, which she had long since started coloring (she had turned gray in her early 30s). One child asked, ‘Who’s that?’ and the other replied, ‘That’s Mrs. Carey.’ ‘But she has gray hair in the picture!’ ‘Yes, maybe she was older then.’ She also loved listening to the words the kids applied to the hymns we sang in assembly—since they could not read, they just made them up as they went along. And she always commented that the littlest angels in the pageant were almost overcome with excitement when kneeling by the manger. One was so excited she fell right off the stage; another was so overwhelmed she threw up. As kids, we learned that one of the more unattractive aspects of being a first

grade teacher (besides clean-up of all kinds) was the job of searching through the garbage cans in the cafeteria for the lost bite-plate; we knew the secret that teachers like snow days just as much as students; we remember that one little girl’s need for glasses was discovered when she read, ‘H is for Hippopotamus,’ as ‘B is for Hippaflo,’ and that a budding writer announced, ‘Sainta was a ulf, then he got big, biger and biger until at last he was a grate taw man!’ Jane was a teacher not only for her classroom, but also for us and our friends. Many opinions and beliefs were challenged or cemented in hundreds of arguments about curfews, white gloves, too-tight blue jeans, politics (she gave her sister a Nixon dart-board for her birthday) sex, drugs, but never rock ‘n’ roll (she loved the Beatles and most anything we brought home and played for her - including The Doors!). We thought at the time that she was straight-laced and old-fashioned, but looking back (and thinking about the after-dance-parties that we were allowed to go to, not to mention to host at our house) maybe Mrs. Lady (as Addie Porrino, Lizzie Eames, and Margot McGeorge dubbed her) was really pretty hip. We will miss her.”

Dotty Schwartz, former Librarian at Friends, reports that faculty emerita

Eva Stangel Dub, former mathematics teachers at Friends Seminary, died on November 11, 2010 at the age of 99.

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“My years at Friends are

precious to me for the love of

learning I developed there, for the

awareness of the world around

me and a sense of purpose in that

world, and for the many friendships

that have lasted more than a half

century despite different career

paths and geographic locations.

Including Friends Seminary in my

will is a way for me to give back

to the school that has given me so

much and to help ensure that future

students are able to benefit from the

Friends experience.”Elizabeth Lyons Stone ’60

friends for the future

Planned giving at friends seminary


in 1786, robert Murray, a prominent Quaker shipping merchant, left a bequest which provided a building and financial resources for friends seminary. thus the school was launched. during subsequent decades, friends seminary has held steady to its course, offering an exemplary education of academic excellence within the context of Quaker values.

following robert Murray’s example, other generous donors have made planned gifts, thereby providing current and deferred contributions to the school and significant benefits to themselves. these donors are members of friends for the future, a group who have chosen to express their admiration and affection for friends seminary through a charitable gift in their estate plan.

Friends Seminary 222 East 16th Street | New York, NY 10003

212 979 5030 | fax 212 979 5034 | www.friendsseminary.org

Why i Made a Planned GiftElizabeth Lyons Stone '60

i included friends seminary in my Will to give back to the school that has given me so much. My years at friends are so precious to me for the love of learning i developed there. the school is responsible for my acute awareness of the world around me and, furthermore, helped me develop a sense of purpose in that world. i am especially thankful for the many friendships that have lasted more than a half century despite different career paths and geographic locations. Giving back to friends will help ensure that future students are able to benefit from the Friends experience.

CIRCULAR 230 DISCLOSURE: Pursuant to Regulations Governing Practice Before the Internal Revenue Service, any tax advice contained herein is not in-tended or written to be used and cannot be used by a taxpayer for the purpose

of avoiding tax penalties that may be imposed on the taxpayer.























In 1786, Robert Murray, a prominent Quaker shipping merchant, left a

bequest which provided a building and financial resources for Friends

Seminary. Thus the School was launched. During subsequent decades,

Friends Seminary has held steady to its course, offering an exemplary

education of academic excellence within the context of Quaker values.

And following Robert Murray’s example, other generous donors

have made planned gifts, thereby providing current and deferred

contributions to the School and significant benefits to themselves and

their families. These donors are members of Friends for the Future, a

group who have chosen to express their admiration and affection for

Friends Seminary through a charitable gift in their estate plan.

Please join Liz and the many others who have included Friends in their

estate plans.

For more information, please contact Patty Ziplow at

212-979-5035 or [email protected].

Sophia Nardi-Bart ’18 and Elizabeth Lyons Stone ’60 during Reunion 2010.

Seldom has a room been so gloriously full of its own emptiness. The Fifteenth Street Meetinghouse is 150 years old this year and its timelessness is appreciated by students today and yesteryear.

The drama of the space consists in the illuminated recess of the windows, of something as evanescent as shafts of light, how they seem to pour into the room, and the dust-choked sunbeams themselves, which are so beautifully caught.

The room is a bright, silent psychological space, illuminated, all of a sudden, by shafts of enlightenment. But, almost paradoxically, this Meetinghouse is not in fact located in a quiet neighborhood at all, but located in the epicenter of the busiest of cities.

- John Galayda, Editor, News from Friends

15th Street Meetinghouse Turns 150

Meetinghouse in Winter, watercolor painting by Stephen Chinlund ‘51

FRIENDS SEMINARY222 EAST I6TH STREETNEW YORK, NY I0003

2I2 979 5030FAX 2I2 979 5034

www.friendsseminary.org

Documents

News From Friends | Spring 2011