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SPRING 2010 Honoring Members of Our Family Tree ALUMNI WEEKEND 2010 Polly Roberts Woodbridge ’42, P’64, P’65 and P’78 “I couldn’t be more pleased.” “My family has had a long and positive relationship for four generations with the school and we are very grateful to the many special teachers who had such an important impact on our lives. I want to support this important work, avoid taxes on my estate and pass assets on to family The planned gift I established is called a charitable lead trust. It was easy to set up and accomplished all three objectives. I couldn’t be more pleased.” If you would like to discuss how a planned gift could benefit you and Princeton Day School, please give me a call or stop by the Development Office. Andrew C. Hamlin at 609-924-6700, ext. 1251 or at [email protected] Contents Princeton Day School Journal Volume 47, Number 12 • SPRING 2010 p. 5 SCHOOL LIFE______________ 2 Letter from Head of School Paul J. Stellato 3 News & Events 8 PDS Notable: Father Dan Skvir 9 Arts Notes 12 Sports Notes p. 12 FACULTY p. 9 14 Faculty Notes 15 Geting to Know You: Faculty Award Fosters Community FEATURES 16 Alumni Service Award: Crutis Webster ’75 17 Alumni Achievement Award: Regan Hofmann ’85 p. 15 18 Outstanding Young Alumni Award: Taj Forer ’00 20 Athletic Hall of Fame Honorees ALUMN 25 Message from Alumni Board President 26 Spotlight on Young Alumni 28 Alumni Gatherings: Princeton, Palm Beach, New York City p. 26 31 Alumni Games P. 31 SPRING 2010 JOURNAL 32 Alumni Weekend 2010 Event Schedule Editor: Michelle Ruess Designer: Maria Kauzmann, MK Design 34 Class Notes 34 Miss Fine’s School Printed by Garrison Printing Company 41 Princeton Country Day School The Journal is printed on 100 percent 44 Princeton Day School ^ < 9 post-consumer recycled paper 56 In Memoriam On the Cover: Illustration by John Woodcock, istockphoto.com LETTER FROM THE HEAD OF SCHOOL SCHOOL LIFE Letter from Paul J. Stellato, Head of School hile the school year demands that we travel fright). And shortly, students in my eighth grade English class many, many more miles before our summer’s will begin to dismiss themselves from class (“I can’t take that rest, the spring term beckons us to make all quiz right now, Mr. Stellato. I’m off to the theater!”), as they of it we can. Among the many uses to which piece together time to rehearse their songs and steps. we will turn its bright, warm days, spring in schools is a time But their participation in these traditions is the stuff of summing-up: for prospective students and their families, of magic. It begins with the disarming inattentiveness and who are trying to imagine their new lives on this marvelous casual boredom (along with the attendant revelation) that campus; and for those within the community, who begin to accompany all of these rituals: though third, seventh, and search for adjectives that will, for years to come, eleventh graders have witnessed and heard of describe and distinguish this year of years from these events year after year, they seem genu­ others so much like it. inely surprised (and, on occasion, somewhat I have to admit that, at this time of the year, terrified) when it is their turn to participate. conversations with friends of the school often They moan and complain. They roll their eyes, begin with: “So tell me, what kind of year it pout, stamp their feet, and strike poses that has been.” Eager always to answer that ques­ can only emphasize their informed and en­ tion but halting, occasionally, as I try to tie my lightened distance from these events. Yet, once answer to something other than my mood of the they have trod the stage and remembered their moment, I think I have found a response in that lines, opened and read their parents’ letters, or place where all questions about the school are belted out a show-stopper at a middle-school asked and resolved: the lives of our students. matinee, they become true believers: weeping In particular, three spring traditions - the lower and laughing, hugging and cackling, they are school operetta, the eighth grade musical, and at once swept away by something completely the twelfth grade 100-day celebration - are as much glimpses within themselves and then carried upon that very same tide into the culture as they are gauges of the success and certainty that has washed every Princeton Day School student who of the school year. has shared what they now share. For those of you who may know little about these mag­ So the second time around I knew what to look for, and nificent celebrations, let me give you a bit of background. my impression is much stronger than that of the first: pure The operetta is just that: a lavish, all-inclusive musical story, awe at the number of hours spent by faculty and kids alike in written and produced by members of the lower school faculty; each of these endeavors; unalloyed joy at the spectacle of the sung entirely by each and every fourth grader, and replete whole: the entire fourth grade on stage, every senior - all at with cameos by their teachers and the head of school. (Ask the same time - quietly reading letters from their parents, our a college senior what role she played in the operetta, and she soon-to-be high school freshmen reveling in the bright lights will name it more quickly than her current major.) The eighth of the McAneny Theater and one another’s company; and, of grade musical carries on the tradition begun with the operetta: greatest importance, the singular experience of each child - every eighth grader plays a role in this blockbuster which, like fourth, eighth, twelfth grader - confronting for him or herself its lower-school counterpart, is conceived of and produced by the richness of shared experience and the resounding pleasure the members of the middle school faculty. Finally, as much of individual accomplishment. With my faculty colleagues, I as senior projects or fat letters from colleges and universi­ have come to appreciate and understand these tender threads ties, the end of the beginning of the senior year occurs in late of youth that weave themselves into the sturdy bonds of adult­ February: 100 days, a senior gathering at which, in addition to hood, tethering each student to a campus he or she will always nachos and burgers, seniors feast on letters from their parents, call home. You see, as elusive as it may appear, history has who do their best to sum up their lives with and through their caught up with all of them: the personal history of each is now senior sons and daughters. part of the shared history of Princeton Day School. I have now experienced two of these events - the operetta What kind of year has it been? I will invoke a head of and 100 days - twice. Later this spring, I will sit in the audi­ school’s prerogative and encourage you to ask any fourth, ence and soak up a second performance by the eighth grade. eighth, or twelfth grader. I have spoken to the seniors at the 100-day celebration, only That is, if you can get the question out before the answer to witness stoic, heroic senior boys and girls utterly undone comes thundering back. by the heart-felt musings of their mothers. Too timid to do more than utter a line or two in last year’s operetta, this year I actually sang and danced a little (and got some good advice, from a practiced fourth-grade thespian, on dealing with stage Head of School 2 • PRINCETON DAY SCHOOL • SPRING 2010 SCHOOL LIFE NEWS & EVENTS News 8 Events Corporate Green Enhances Organic Garden Princeton Day School students cheered when Princeton-based Church & Dwight Co. presented a $6,000 check to support classroom activities re­ lated to the campus organic garden during a Lower School assembly. “At Church & Dwight, we want to help out a Friend the community,” said Church & Dwight represen­ i s s o m e o n e w h o tative Kirsten O ’Donnell. “We thought this was the coolest project!” STANDS BOJffQSt The funding will enable PDS to truly make the garden an outdoor classroom and embed garden learning into n your f'jtufe the curriculum, Sharing Cultures, particularly Embracing Differences c/CcePtS in the Lower School. Stu­ A dancing dragon. A drum m ing circle. A salsa con- y J u s t the dents will test. A day of silence. A day of remembrance. These 7 ,jUU Cfn^' work closely are some of the many ways PDS celebrates individu- ru* with Master al members of our community. Gardener Pam Princeton Day School strives to ensure that differences — in race, religion, Flori, learning about our relationship to the earth sexual orientation, ethnicity, socio-economic status, learning styles and points of through planting, composting and harvesting. view - are understood to be enhancing, not threatening. The PDS garden was “raised” in April 2008 “If education is a conversation, then the more voices participating in the when more than 200 students, parents, faculty and conversation, the more each participant will be enriched,” says PDS Diveristy alumni gathered for a one-day event creating raised Coordinator Sharanya Naik. beds for vegetables and raspberry bushes, an herb garden, a butterfly garden and (of course!) the all PDS Seniors important composting area. Named Bloustein Distinguished S cholars Class of 2010 members, pictured from left, Rebecca Golden, Ellis Ratner, Lizzy Yellin, Chris Gibson, Vic­ toria Maloney, Kelsey Burns, Dina Sharon and (not pictured) Sophia Weiss- mann were named Edward J.

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