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The Thacher School Nonprofit Org. 5025 Thacher Road U.S. Postage Ojai, CA 93023 PAID Oxnard, CA Address Service Requested Permit No. 110 Overview Six months of life at Thacher are chronicled in this Fall/Winter issue of The In every issue Thacher News. From Opening School activities to Departmental Weekend, from sports to plays, it has been a busy half year. 3 From the Head of School The Good High School: A Reflection by Michael K. Mulligan 5 Letters Profiles: Thacher Pioneers ALUMNI TRUSTEE 22 Bertel M. Ekman, CdeP ’51 37 Terdema L. Ussery, CdeP ’77 Content at Day’s End Making the Most of Hoops In this issue and Hopes 24 Klaus Schubert, CdeP ’56 Trading One Casa Rustica Campus Life for Another campus life FORMER FACULTY MEMBER 6 Acquaintances Renewed 26 Hisakazu Hirose, CdeP ’66 Learning in an American Dream 40 Edgardo Catalan 8 Footlights, Moonlight, and Charity Artistic Endeavors 28 Cynthia F. Hunter, CdeP ’80 9 Pack up Your Horse and Lessons Learned amid Manure Piles 42 No Man Is an Island Head for the Hills Edgardo Recalls a Weekend Pack 30 Carol J. McConnell, CdeP ’81 Trip of 30 Years Past 10 Music Weekend A Product of Her Environment 11 Learning from the Earth 32 Cindy Castañeda, CdeP ’88 “The Banquet Song” Becomes 12 Reflections on Becoming a Parent a Lullaby 13 Tidbits, Numeracy Puzzle 34 Stephen M. Batts, CdeP ’76 Flying His Dreams 14 Thacher’s Initial Public Offering 36 Hubert Honanie, Jr., CdeP ’57 16 Fall/Winter Sports Dances with Snakes, Toads, Sunlight, and Gems Profilesprofiles HER C S 22 Alumni A C H H T 37 Trustee O O E The Thacher News L H 40 Former Faculty Member T Fall 1999/Winter 2000 Volume XII, Number 1 1889 Alumnialumni Editor The Thacher News magazine is published twice a 44 Class Notes Jane D. McCarthy year by The Thacher School, and is sent free of charge to alumni, parents, and friends of the School. Design 54 Obituaries In preparing this report, every effort was made to J. Bert Mahoney, Tim Ditch, and Jane D. McCarthy ensure that it is accurate and complete. If there is an 56 Bookshelf Contributors omission or an error in spelling, please accept our W. Austin Curwen, Camilla Evans-Hensey, Gregory T. Haggard, John apologies and notify the Head of School’s Office at 57 Calendar S. Huyler ‘51H, Rod M. “Jake” Jacobsen, Jane D. McCarthy, Alice The Thacher School, 5025 Thacher Road, Ojai, P. Meyer, Kurt R. Meyer, Joy Sawyer-Mulligan, Michael K. Mulligan, California 93023, or call (805) 646-4377. Molly T. Perry, CdeP ‘85, Cricket Twichell, Frederick C. Twichell, Gallia K. Vickery, and William C. Vickery Third Class postage is paid at the Oxnard Post Office. Class Notes Cricket Twichell POSTMASTER: Cover Photo Please send form 3579 to the preceding address. Science Department Chair Rae Ann Sines and her Sports Section Environmental Science students set up grids on the hills Joy Sawyer-Mulligan overlooking the Gymkhana Field to track regrowth of NAIS Photography MEMBER vegetation following the Ranch Fire. Camilla Evans-Hensey, Jane D. McCarthy, Joy Sawyer-Mulligan, Wendi Parker-Dial, and Timothy O Teague Printed with soy-based inks. From the Head of School Head of School The Good High School: A Reflection by Michael K. Mulligan n 1983, Harvard professor Sara 2005, mailed to all those interested in our School. Lawrence Lightfoot published her This document is the ultimate expression of our Iaward-winning book The Good being “endlessly self-critical.” (“Endlessly” is not HeadHigh School: Portrait of Charac- used lightly here because we intend to follow up sev- ter and Culture. I was fortunate eral of the studies with biannual survey with stu- enough to have been part of a dents, parents, and alumni/ae to make sure we are small group of school heads continuing to actually achieve what we have set out who had the opportunity to to accomplish.) This Plan was driven by good busi- talk to Dr. Lightfoot about ness sense, by an overwhelming desire to make sure her research and writing that we are doing the best we can for the present when I first became Head of student body and for future generations of Thacher Thacher in 1992. At that students, and by the abiding devotion of the Thacher time, I took close notes on community to this School. what she defined as “sign- posts” of a healthy and vig- Dr. Lightfoot’s third criterion of school is that good orous school community. I schools have “permeable-boundaries within the resolved that I would return to larger social context—boundaries crossed by families these notes after a few years “on while the school remains a world unto itself: safe, the job” to see how The Thacher healthy, challenging, demanding, lively.” Time was School was faring relative to Dr. that Thacher, like nearly all independent national Michael Mulligan, Lightfoot’s list of critical indicators of boarding schools, would have fallen short of this Head of School school excellence. You will note that Dr. Light- goal—and happily so, given the tastes of sometimes foot’s hallmarks of health are virtually all about iconoclastic school heads. Families—both faculty school values—a far cry from those who insist that and student—were to be seen only occasionally, and excellence be measured only by government-man- heard from as little as possible. Dropping off Junior dated standardized test scores. on opening day and picking him up at Christmas was quite sufficient, thank you. The truth and the Not surprisingly, first on Ms. Lightfoot’s list of The practice now at Thacher are quite different: Parents Good High School was the concept of core values: don’t lose Junior to Thacher; rather parents (and the school must have these at its center, and, fur- often grandparents) join The Thacher School Fam- thermore, they must be well-understood. I thought ily. School events—on and off campus—are en- at that time—and continue to feel strongly—that livened by enthusiastic parent participation. Some Thacher is one of the best examples there is of a parents of alumni/e have even taken to creating their school with well-defined, well-understood, and long- own reunions given the friendships they developed at established core values. How do I know? Stop any Thacher. From Family Weekends, Grandparents’ Thacher student, staff, or faculty member on The Days, and School sporting events, lectures and con- Pergola and ask him or her: What are the core val- certs all the way to the weekly Mulligan Open ues of The Thacher School? Most often, they will re- House are fully subscribed to by our families, old cite without the blink of an eye the litany of virtues and new. When we say times have changed, I can given to us by our founder Sherman Day Thacher: think of no better example than our Open House Honor, Fairness, Kindness, and Truth. They will where parents drop by for cookies, ice cream sun- then note Thacher’s program wherein these virtues daes, and occasional foosball and Ping-Pong games find their expression: academic excellence, Our frequently. Truthfully, I am not sure what my reac- Honor Code (repeatedly debated and endorsed), and tion would have been as a teenager at boarding our distinctive Outdoor and Horse Program. school having my parents drop in at the Head’s Open Home, (were he to have had an Open The hint of the long-standing critical examination of House—which he didn’t.) That Thacher kids are the Honor Code is further evidence of the vibrancy generally genuinely pleased that their folks have of Ms. Lightfoot’s second road sign regarding school come by is even more impressive. Indeed, even at excellence, that of being “endlessly self-critical while the annual fall and spring Parent Hootenanny, the being simultaneously deeply rooted in the institu- young Toads get over their embarrassment at having tion.” Following several years of internal and ex- mom lead the crowd in a rousing Pete Seeger protest ternal assessments, directed by our Strategic song. It is at times like these that School and Family Planning agenda, I am confident in saying that come together almost seamlessly, and happily so. Thacher has set the industry standard for self-criti- cal examination and feedback. Fourteen studies, Parents are now officially represented on the Board later followed by ongoing debate and discussion, of Trustees as well as through several arms of the Par- have resulted in the shining Strategic Plan, 1999- ents’ Committee. Thacher is not simply more hos- Fall 1999 / Winter 2000 page 3 pitable to parents because parents want more Dr. Lightfoot then addressed directly the issue rums to be powerful: Students are given strong intimacy with the School; rather, we rely upon of School leadership. She said, “The work of footings to express opinions; thoughtful lis- parents to help us critically examine our poli- the leaders is most importantly to define the tening on all sides is the norm; and I can talk cies of in loco parentis (the current example parameters of meaning: How is it people about what our ideal vision is and how we being our look at the pros and cons of wan- should be in this community?” This work falls should be by virtue of specific example. This is, dering), and we seek to link arms with parents directly on my shoulders. Barely a day goes after all, far better than sermonizing, and I as we jointly share in the all important task of by when I do not think or talk about what learn much from our students at every session.

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