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Newsletter of the Thomas More College of Liberal Arts ommunitas Fall 2015 Wethersfield Revisited House Museum, and explore twenty Thomas More College Renews miles of maintained horse and walking trails. Affiliation with Stillman Estate Mr. Stillman’s legacy has two co- Chauncey Devereux Stillman (1907- equal goals: to maintain the Estate for 1989), prominent Catholic convert, visitors and to offer—at the Estate and patron of the arts, and philanthropist, in Midtown Manhattan—lectures, was a longtime friend of Thomas More seminars, colloquies, and similar College. Mr. Stillman, an architect by programs focused on Catholic history, training, was a chief benefactor of the theology, culture, and the arts. Mr. College; Stillman House, the men’s Stillman’s conversion to Catholicism residence hall, was named in his honor. was a joyous, transcendent event in About three hours from the TMC his life. He had one of Wethersfield’s campus, on 1,200 rolling acres in New rooms converted to a house chapel, and York’s Hudson Valley, lies Wethersfield, was named Privy Chamberlain to His the estate where Mr. Stillman pursued Holiness Paul VI in recognition of his his lifelong passions for horses, gardens, support of Catholic causes. and the intellect. There, atop the highest Thomas More College has been point in the region, he built a Georgian excited to renew and strengthen its mansion set in a ten-acre Italianate long affiliation with Mr. Stillman garden. Views stretch thirty miles to and Wethersfield through two new the Catskills and the Berkshires. Today, joint initiatives: annual Wethersfield/ visitors can tour the Main House TMC Fellowships for recent TMC furnished with antiques and artwork graduates and annual Wethersfield/TMC from the fifteenth through twentieth Shakespeare Workshops for rising high centuries, learn about Stillman’s Chauncey Devereux Stillman school juniors and seniors. equestrian pursuits in the Carriage (Courtesy of Wethersfield, Amenia, NY) (Continued on page 10) Rare Book Donated 2 President's Message 2 Generations at TMC 5 An Alumna's Calling 6 The Society Page 12 2 www.ThomasMoreCollege.edu Nourishing Traditions: Donor Secures Thomas More Treasure for Students The Catholic Faith, traditional the work Thomas More is doing to teach farming, online marketing, and these habits of mind and connect them organic foods are rarely associated to the praxis of regular life through their with antiquarian books and English guild projects.” conspiracies, but for Constantine Constantine and his wife Kathleen Soutsos all are matters of passionate have been regular supporters ever since interest. they were introduced to Thomas More Constantine Soutsos is a model College by former Dean, Christopher Thomas More donor. Liberally educated, Blum. Now their eldest daughter he has successfully navigated the High Evangeline is a student at the College. Tech business world, and with proceeds from Silicon Valley he looks to enrich culture and promote Catholic traditions for his family and for others. Decorative initial from an original sixteenth- “I was fortunate to receive century edition of More's English works a Liberal Education when we through which he and other families simply called it Education,” market “beyond organic” meats online Mr. Soutsos quipped. “One of the to help revive an interest in healthy and interesting things about business, even sustainable farming methods. High Tech—or maybe especially High “In a digital era where goods arrive Tech—is the importance of connecting daily from anywhere in the world via complex ideas and problems into a Amazon, the farm reminds us that coherent solution narrative. The story Donor Constantine Soutsos we are incarnated creatures,” he said. of how our proposal solves not just “When the children ask why we chose a any problem, but your problem, is the Nearly a decade ago, the Soutsos’s farm (usually after a cold day’s chores), key to earning in any business. This is purchased a lovely farm in the we don’t give them the usual stuff about a very important translation project Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Inspired hard work; instead we remind them how that requires habits of mind different by Chesterton’s fiction, Constantine the farm works us; it shapes our time, from the habits of my more technically named the farm Notting Hill. From defines our options, and teaches us the educated colleague. I greatly appreciate Notting Hill, he continues to manage IT limits and rhythms of ordinary life. We projects and negotiate enterprise deals need these habits and this formation for large corporations. Yet using skills in a digital age, lest we go slowly mad. learned in the tech world, he has created the Northern Valley Pastoral Guild, (Continued on page 9) President's Remarks Lasting human endeavors are vision who have seen the needs of the and renewed. Often forgotten is the made possible by four contributors: age and launched bold projects. To faithful steward who sustains the entire the visionary, the man of energy, push these forward, the determined endeavor with his own treasures and the man of discipline, and the good soul has always appeared, wrestling sometimes with his very life. This issue steward. Sometimes, but rarely, one each flashing notion from the realm of Communitas reveals all four types to and the same person holds several of ideas and grounding it in the us and confirms that each offers a path of these powers together in his world of the practical and doable. to imitate Christ, the one Who perfectly personality. Thomas More College has The man of discipline, though slow, sees, enacts, orders, and sustains all that been blessed with all four types. There is steady, calmly insuring that good is beautiful, good, and true. have been men and women of heroic works will be ordered, maintained, —William Edmund Fahey, Ph.D Fall 2015 3 Architectural rendering by Alec Sanderson From Poetry to City Planning, TMC Alumni Continue Studies at Graduate Level By Carley Novotny ’15 class on Willa Cather. While his M.A. medieval philosophy, and modern courses draw upon both American and philosophy. “The professors want you Not only did Messrs. Jonathan English texts, Wanner plans to focus his to be comfortable and exposed to the Wanner, Andrew Strain, and Alec doctorate on Renaissance poetry. The entire history,” Strain said. In addition Sanderson brave the academic rigor of most rewarding aspect of his studies thus to being well versed in Aristotelian Thomas More College and live to tell far, he says, has been “to be able to spend and Thomistic philosophy, “students the tale, but they have now gone on to time concentrating on these beautiful need to know about the contemporary pursue their intellectual interests at the works of art.” It is for the sake of sharing discussions” in order to “have a certain graduate level. such works of art with others that depth, a broadness to their studies,” Mr. Wanner ’14 was well-known at Wanner’s greatest occupational desire Strain explained. the College for his theatrical prowess. for the future is to teach. He was able He wrote and directed three original to hone his teaching skills at TMC last plays for the College, each showcasing summer by directing Summer Program “To be a good urban his ear for poetry. He has now enrolled students in a dramatic production of planner you have in the English Literature program at Franz Kafka’s novella Metamorphosis. the Catholic University of America Mr. Andrew Strain ’13 is Wanner’s to know what the in Washington, D.C., where he will roommate at CUA. He entered the complete his Master’s degree in the School of Philosophy last fall and good life is.” spring before continuing on to doctoral is also on a combined M.A./Ph.D. work. track. The program takes an “historical —Alec Sanderson ’14 When I caught up with Wanner approach” to philosophy, examining in September, he had just finished a the areas of ancient Greek philosophy, Strain told me that he found himself well prepared by TMC to understand A scene from Mr. Wanner's 2015 production of Metamorphosis and analyze any text and to be able to performed by TMC summer program participants produce his own scholarship on those texts in the form of essays and term papers. Additionally, he says that the character formation he received at TMC as well as the community life served as exceptional foundations for building new relationships and fostering a similar spirit of communitas in the graduate school environment. Mr. Alec Sanderson’s studies at TMC led him to enter a field both practical and speculative in nature. He graduated with Wanner in 2014 and began (Continued on page 8) 4 www.ThomasMoreCollege.edu Summer Camp for Young Ladies and Gentlemen their phones and all electronic devices for the duration of their stay, except to call home or in case of emergency. Some students are initially reluctant to part with the contemporary equivalent of a comfort blanket. “Our intention is not to demonize technology. Rather, we want students to experience the richness of focusing on the community around them,” Rensch explains. “The students come to see the no technology policy as a real blessing.” Another unique blessing is Thomas More’s focus on forming young ladies and gentlemen. This summer the boys received lessons in wrestling and a gentleman’s poker game. Anna Topping, whose husband Fellow Ryan Topping was teaching a course on the North American Martyrs, invited the girls over for tea and her legendary cocoa balls. Alumnus Stephen Lajoie ’15 reprised his Summer Program participants enjoy the view from atop Mt. Monadnock. swing dancing class. Teenagers from across the nation He defines them as “one part intense converged on campus this summer coursework, one part classic summer to participate in what has become an camp, one part spiritual retreat.” annual rite of passage: Thomas More College’s Summer Programs for high schoolers.

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