Joan Dembinski '55 Fulfills Her Dream

The Albany Academies Magazine SPRING/SUMMER 2016 Joan Dembinski ’55 Fulfills Her Dream of pursuing science, becoming a pastry chef, and giving back to students. The Albany Academies Magazine TALKING HEAD SCHOLAR 1 32 LUNCHEON SPRING/SUMMER SOUNDING OUT 2016 2 CUBA MID-WINTER 33 DINNER GIFTING TO THE 6 ALBANY ACADEMIES NEWS & MADE EASY 34 ANNOUNCEMENTS Editor: Ann Wendth, Director of Institutional Advancement Associate Editor: Alexis “Biz” Deeb ’08, Marketing and Communications 7 CAMPAIGN UPDATES FRANK O’BRIEN Associate 36 MEMORIAL HOCKEY Contributors: Tom Washington, Simon Balint ’16, Katarina Lichak ’16, Alina Keegan Daley ’06 , Dr. James FitzGerald ’57, Dr. Douglas M. North ’58, MAKING THE RIGHT GAME Caroline Hessberg Taylor ’71 8 MOVE Photography: Alexis “Biz Deeb ’08, Tom Wall, iSmile Studios, Loni Hetman, T.R. Laz Photography, Bob Neudel, EMH Photography ADMISSIONS Design: Evolving Door Design Q&A WITH JOAN 37 EVENTS CALENDAR Printing: Fort Orange Press 10 DEMBINSKI ’55 A2, The Albany Academies Magazine, is published twice a year by the COMMENCEMENT Institutional Advancement Office and sent to alumni/ae, parents, 38 grandparents, donors, friends, and other educational institutions. Comments HONORS PROJECTS are welcome and should be addressed to Director of Institutional 14 NEW BOARD Advancement, The Albany Academies, 135 Academy Road, Albany NY, 12208 or email [email protected]. A SPECIAL WELCOME 42 MEMBER Board of Trustees 15 DONNA RUGGIERO Jennifer Amstutz P’19, ’21 Dr. Hyacinth Mason P’19 A TRIBUTE TO William J. Belleville, Jr. ’89 George C. McNamee ’64 P’12, ’16 42 E. STEWART M. Christian Bender ’78 P’15, ’20 Cornelius D. Murray Esq. ’62 SPRING Peter Campito, P.E. ’78 P’15, ’17 P’99, ’05, ’06 17 GATHERING JONES, JR., ’59 Nancy Carey Cassidy P’13, ’15 Dr. Stewart C. Myers II ’58 Eileen M. Considine Esq. P’08 Monica Kasselman Oberting Esq. ’91 COMMENCEMENT John Hayes ’87 P’16, ’18 Brad Rosenstein ’79 MAY 43 James Hens P’22, ’23 Kaari Stannard P’20, ’23 20 PROJECTS AWARDS Eric Lewis ’83, P’17 James A. Sidford P’19 Leslie Morgan Marvin ’61 Dr. Ferdinand Venditti, Jr. P’03, 14, ’15 REUNION ON THE ROAD The Albany Academy Alumni Association Board of Directors 22 Neerav Patel ’96, President Dr. James F. McMahon, Jr. ’85, 44 AGAIN... Mark Bonavita ’94, Vice President P’22, ’24 Secretary Alan MacMurray ’75 MOVING UP Kenneth C. Weafer, Esq. ’95, ATHLETIC Nicholas Faso, Esq. ’02, Treasurer David Nardolillo ’94 26 CEREMONIES Charles Anderson ’75 Marcus Q. Pryor ’87, P’15, 46 HIGHLIGHTS Thom Besch ’77 P’13, ’15, ’17 Immediate Past President Barnaby Bullard ’89 Michael Raymond ’06 CELEBRATION Todd Curley ’93 Brendan Reuss ’94 28 OF THE ARTS 48 CLASS NOTES Raymond DeMarco, ’87 P’22 Jonathan Sussman ’04 Joseph DeRosa ’02 James Tacy ’50 P’88, ’95 Joseph G. Fitzgerald, USN (Ret) ’74 Dan Welsh ’93 AAG HALL OF FAME IN MEMORIAM James Kim ’96 30 50 Albany Academy for Girls Alumnae Council AA HALL OF FAME Jessica DeRosa Davos ’98, Margaret Lamar King ’65 31 P’27, ’29, President Jillian LeFevre ’07 Carol Crummey McCardle, Esq. ’04, Brittiny Belmonte Razzano Esq ’04 Vice President Gretchen “Pat” Aronowitz Alexandra “Lexi” Mosher Buckley, Rubenstein ’53 Esq. ’03, Secretary Staci DeNigris Shea ’00 Kimmey Janco, Esq ’81, P’17, Allison Walsh ’10 Mission Statement Treasurer Jennifer Walsh ’09 Who We Are: The Albany Academies—The Albany Academy and Albany Academy for Girls— Suzanne Aronowitz Cross ’00 Kelley Walsh ’07 develop capable and confident students through single-gender education in the Lower and Middle Alexis “Biz” Deeb ’08 Rosemary Daoud Walsh ’77, School, and through coordinate education in the Upper School. Kendra Hart ’08 P’07, ’09,’10, ’13, What We Do: Employing individualized and positive education, The Albany Academies provide Shannon Hughes ’07 Immediate Past President students with the knowledge, skills, and character needed for leadership and success in the creative, Lynne Hutter Kimball, Esq. ’97 Bettina Zeccolo-Mamone ’89, P’19 entrepreneurial century that lies ahead. Talking Head have spoken in these pages extensively • Paving for traffic circles, parking about The Albany Academies new mission lots, and pathways will be I statement and its reflection in how we completed this summer. No more have expanded our curriculum to offer more ruts, cracks, and potholes. opportunities for student-centered projects. • The playing fields and lawns “Active Learning” is tremendously successful, are maintained at a higher level to which this edition of A2 will attest. than ever before. Now, however, I would like to turn to the This is just a partial list, but it all adds more material changes underway that will up to the oft-heard comment at Reunion enhance the future of the school, especially this year: “The place looks great!” over the next 20-30 years. Yes, I am talking about “the physical plant,” “bricks and mortar,” and The Campaign for the Third Century. Over the But wait, there’s more - much more. past five years the physical plant has been changing - in a new direction, This summer, work begins on the upwards. renovation of The Michael B. Picotte ’65 Field House. This noble structure is Some of the major projects have been featured here before: The now 50 years old: still viable and about Schellenberger Alumni/ae Center; The Caird Field Grandstand; the AAG to be beautiful once again. Next year, as Auditorium, the Borisenok Family Science Center, and the Dining and part of this project we will be turning to Events Center. But these are not the whole story, for there are many less construction of the Ruth M. Sumberg glamorous parts of the physical plant that have also been renewed and Gymnasium. The “silent phase” of replaced - not by contributions, but by operational surpluses. major fundraising for these projects was • By the end of the summer new, efficient windows will have tremendously successful. Now fundraising replaced all the 85-year-old windows of The Albany Academy. continues for the final 20% of the Field These have already been contributing to dramatically lower fuel House and Gymnasium. Give it some costs, and we expect more of the same. thought :-) • Similarly, many of the pipes and valves of the steam heat system Just as an army runs on its stomach, have been replaced and are saving money too, while making the so does a school run with its bricks classrooms more evenly and adjustably heated. Much less clanking and mortar. Thanks to all who have is heard resounding through the building. contributed to the next decades of our • The technological infrastructure of The Albany Academies has illustrious histories. gone from rudimentary to sophisticated, with hundred-fold With good wishes, increases in bandwidth and the capability to run complicated academic computing. • The Robison Track was redone; the Dorwaldt baseball field and the AAG softball field were vastly improved through donations Dr. Douglas North ’58 from a Trustee and an alumna; and both the Robison Arena and Head of School the Standish Swimming Pool received extensive upgrades to their The Albany Academies cooling and heating systems. Spring/Summer 2016 1 Sounding out Cuba By Kim Taylor Kim Taylor visits Cuba with Dave Matthews, Smokey Robinson, and Usher to find a country rich with art, education - and possibility. 2 The Albany Academies Magazine n the winter of 1961, we were told, Che Guevara asked Fidel Castro to play golf in what had been the most elite country club in Havana, I by then long deserted, its members having fled the Revolution. No one knows whether it was Che’s or Fidel’s idea, but it was decided this would be the location for a national art school, the Instituto Superior de Artes. And this was the spot where my 15-year-old son, Henry, and I found ourselves this past April. In Cuba. Havana. Standing in the courtyard of this school, built by architect Ricardo Porro and inspired by female fertility. “Notice the four breasts at each end. We are now inside the woman’s reproductive organs,” our guide intones. A bit much for Henry, who chooses to sprint inside to see some other art. I was six years old when the Cuban missile crisis played out. I remember watching our handsome President, John F. Kennedy, on our television with rabbit ears, telling us to store rations in basements or bomb shelters, and my mother crying. I helped bring distilled water and condensed milk down to the cellar. I brought down Candyland and Chutes and Ladders since I couldn’t imagine what my father would do, Kim and son Henry with Usher, who also home all day from work, cooped up in our dank basement. had impromptu performances with Cuban counterparts I grew up looking at the metal globes at home and school with the driving by university dorms that loomed terrifying red hammer and sickle of Russia plastered over the tiny island like a decrepit prison. of Cuba. A bearded Castro remained a menacing figure over the years, in his olive uniform and boots and beret with the red star, denouncing “Why would anyone choose America at every turn. Communism, Mom?” he asked. Yet here I was, a world away from my Berkshire home yet only a “Google Batista, honey.” 45-minute flight from Miami, in the hot sunlight of this country that The roads were old and often littered had cast such a dark shadow on so many of us for so long. with piles of asphalt from abandoned jack-hammering. But the crumbling architecture was eclectic and elegant, even In the face of extreme poverty and a in its decay.

Load more