GeorGianp u b l i c at i o n o f g e o r g e s c h o o l , n e w t ow n , p e n n s y lva n i a

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april 2008

01perspectivesScientific Discovery: Students and alumni consider complex ethical questions that can arise from scientific advancements.

12alumni weekendJoin hundreds of alumni from around the world as we celebrate Alumni Weekend, May 9, 10, and 11, 2008.

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Vol. 80 No. 01

find ing treasuresAn auction find inspires an alumna’s trip back in time and helps George School’s archives find a new home.

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This issue’s Perspectives topic comes at a

particularly appropriate time. This past fall,

we celebrated the news that Mario Capecchi ’56

had been named one of three joint recipients of

the nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. now,

this spring, George School senior Kenny Kao has

been named one of forty finalists nationwide in

the prestigious intel Science Talent Search, often

called the “junior nobel Prize.”

American physicist Joseph Henry (1797–

1878) once said, “The seeds of great discoveries

are constantly f loating around us, but they

only take root in minds well prepared to receive

them.” Through our science curriculum at

George School—which includes both interna-

tional Baccalaureate and Advanced Placement

offerings—we are engaged in the work of prepar-

ing young minds to receive scientific discoveries.

As a Quaker school, we are also preparing

our students to engage thoughtfully with the

complex ethical questions that can arise from

scientific advances. i recently discussed this with

David Bruton ’53, clerk of the George School

Committee, the school’s governing board. David

noted, “obvious examples are the ethical ques-

tions raised by mapping the human genome or

the public policy questions posed by the impact

of the human footprint on the environment.” i

was struck by David’s observation that there is

a “congruence between Quaker habits of learn-

ing and the increasingly collaborative nature of

modern scientific endeavor. More and more,

science is practiced in cross-disciplinary ways,

with the benefit of skilled listening to different

perspectives well understood.”

Contemplation, collaboration, self-disci-

pline, perseverance, vision, and a passion for

problem-solving are all qualities we hope to

instill in our students at George School. in this

Perspectives section, i think you will see that

these qualities have played important roles in

the scientific endeavors of alumni, faculty, and

students.

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Table of ConTenTs

perspectives Scientific Discovery

Science, Science Fiction, and Chutzpah

Alumnus Studies Links Between Biodiversity and Societies

iB Biology Class Collaborates and reflects

Student’s Alternative energy research Gains recognition

eQuiz Highlights

features

Finding Treasures

Alumni Weekend

Alumni Award recipient: Barbara Dodd Anderson ’50

Alumni Award recipient: David Bruton ’53

Alumni Award recipient: John Hoffman ’73

Vol. 80 | no. 01 | april 2008

GeorGian

PHoTos: Intermediate Algebra (Inside Front Cover) Gregory Cohen and Anthony Campusano, part of Steven Fletcher’s Intermediate Algebra class, work together graphing linear equations and solving quadratic equations. Scientific Discovery in IB Biology (Front Cover) Rebecca Schmidtberger practices her micropipette skills in preparation for an IB Biology lab exploring gel electrophesis and the characteristics of different DNA strands. Cover Photos: Bruce Weller

campus news & notes

alumni tell us

in memoriam

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Scientific Discovery

Head of sCHool nanCy sTarmer is a graduate of The College of Wooster and Boston University Graduate School of Education.

Perspectives edited by Jul iaNa rosati

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by KareN doss bowmaN

Mario Capecchi ’56 always has an eye toward the

next steps in research. “As a scientist, you’re always

thinking about the future and projecting your

thoughts close to the boundary separating science

from science fiction,” says Mario. “The technol-

ogy changes, the kind of questions you’re asking

change, what you’re thinking about changes, and

so on.”

A joint recipient of the 2007 nobel Prize in

Physiology or Medicine for pioneering discoveries

that led to the development of a technology known

as gene targeting in mice, Mario has now received

more than forty of science’s most prestigious hon-

ors and awards, including being elected to the

national Academy of Sciences and as a Fellow of

the American Association for the Advancement of

Science. nevertheless, Mario doesn’t spend much

time ref lecting on the recognition he has received.

“The most exciting experience in science is

at that very moment when all of a sudden you rec-

ognize something that hasn’t been seen before, or

thought about before,” he says.

A scientist’s vision for a potentially groundbreak-

ing discovery isn’t always met with enthusiasm.

When Mario began his research on gene targeting

in the late 1970s, many in the scientific community

considered his work too radical—if not impossible.

in 1980, the national institutes of Health (niH)

turned down his proposal seeking funding for the

project.

But Mario believed in his research and had a

vision of the positive contributions it could make

to the world. He persisted, and four years after the

initial rejection, Mario received a grant to support

that work from the niH. More than twenty years

later, the powerful gene targeting technology he

developed from that project is being applied to vir-

tually all areas of biomedicine, from basic research,

to the development of treatment for diseases.

“i think some of it is chutzpah,” Mario replies

when asked why he continued the research, even

when facing skepticism. “You have to have some

confidence that you can do it. it’s a huge gamble.”

As one of the world’s very early molecular

biologists when the field emerged in the late 1950s,

Mario was part of a creative and collaborative

group of scientists who were driven to make bold

discoveries.

“We considered ourselves Young Turks,”

says Mario. “We had a lot of bravado and, in a

sense, naivete. But it was also extremely exhilarat-

ing to see all of a sudden that we could approach

extremely complicated biological problems that

people had no inkling of how to approach, but we

could reduce them into workable units and start to

study them.”

To help the non-scientist understand gene tar-

geting technology, Mario suggests visualizing a

word processor that contains an enormous text,

covering thousands of volumes that each are about

a thousand pages long. The text, he explains, is in a

foreign language, but the reader realizes that it has

letters—four letters to be exact (instead of twenty-

six letters, as in our alphabet).

“You know that the order of those letters must

constitute the text, but you have no idea what these

thousands upon thousands of letters are saying,” he

says. “That’s the starting point.”

Mario and his colleagues developed the ability to

change any piece of the text—a single letter, 10

letters, or 1,000 letters, even 100,000 letters—and

then determine the effects of those changes in the

formation or operation of living mice. “We could

change the text into anything we want, and then we

ask, ‘What are the consequences of changing that

text?’” he says. “it allows us to decipher the mean-

ing of the text. From the effects, we can infer the

function of the particular genes that we modified

on the formation or behavior of the mouse.”

The gene targeting technique that emerged

from his research, along with that of fellow nobel

Prize awardees Sir Martin evans and oliver Smith-

ies, enables scientists to produce mutations (alter-

ations) in almost any desired gene of the mouse

genome. Mario notes, “Whatever we learn from

the mouse is directly applicable to humans because

in terms of gene content the mouse is 99.9 percent

the same as humans.” With the ability to create

“knockout” mice—as mice with loss of gene func-

tion are called—scientists can study the roles these

individual genes play in diseases and use them to

test potential therapies.

After graduating from George School in 1956,

Mario went to Antioch College, where he earned

a degree in physics and chemistry in 1961. He

received his PhD in biophysics in 1967 from

Harvard University, where his adviser was Dr.

James Watson, the codiscoverer of DnA’s structure.

From 1967 to 1969, he was a Junior Fellow of the

Society of Fellows at Harvard, and, in 1969, joined

the faculty at the Harvard School of Medicine.

in 1973, Mario moved across the country to

join the biology faculty at the University of Utah,

where he currently holds several faculty titles,

including Distinguished Professor of Human

Genetics and Biology at the university’s School of

Medicine. it was at Utah that Mario began his work

on gene targeting, a project that lasted about ten

years from conception to realization.

With more than 5,000 human diseases

attributed to single-gene mutations—such as

Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases, cystic fibro-

sis, and arthritis—gene targeting has revolution-

ized biomedical research. An investigator at the

Howard Hughes Medical institute, Mario also is

interested in using gene targeting to gain a better

understanding of how the brain develops and

functions. Doing so could have significant implica-

tions for treating mental illnesses such as depres-

sion and bipolar disease, he says.

While genetic engineering technology has the

potential for positive contributions, there are also

ethical issues to consider. Mario’s philosophy is

that “information itself is never evil. You can make

good uses of information; you can make bad uses

of information,” he says. “in the absence of infor-

mation, however, we are very limited in our

choices.”

Mario is currently opposed to any gene ther-

apy in human beings that would have consequences

beyond the individual. “We have neither the wis-

dom nor the foresight to contemplate such experi-

ments,” he says. For that reason, he’s opposed to

germline gene therapy, which involves making

alterations to sperm and eggs. “Such modifications

would affect the offspring,” Mario says. in somatic

gene therapy, on the other hand, changes are made

to cells in any body tissues except for sperm and

eggs. Mario says that he could be a proponent of

such changes “if done appropriately.” He explains,

“Such changes which would affect the individual

but not the offspring would be more equivalent to

present medical practices.”

Characteristically keeping an eye on the

future, Mario elaborates, “As our knowledge base

changes, the kind of medicine that will be done

also changes. it would be very unwise through

medical intervention to affect future generations

of people irreversibly, as would happen through

germline gene therapy, because in addition to being

of questionable value using current technologies,

in the future there would inevitably be developed

much better and simpler solutions.”

“ The most exciting experience in science is at that very moment when all of a sudden you recognize something that hasn’t been seen before, or thought about before,” Mario says.

Science, Science Fiction, and Chutzpah

Perspectives

nobel Prize winner. As one of the world’s very early molecular biologists when the field emerged in the late 1950s, Mario Capecchi ’56 was part of a creative and collaborative group of scientists who were driven to make bold discoveries.

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systems,” says Jason. in the villages he is study-

ing, Jason explains, a significant environmental

constraint is low soil fertility, which leads to low

agricultural production and, in turn, to limited

food supplies, imposing an undeniable burden on

human well-being. He says, “insufficient food sup-

plies have other social consequences—especially

low school attendance and low economic produc-

tivity due to malnutrition—that prevent people

from advancing out of extreme poverty.”

The goal of Jason’s research is to help the villages

to combine organic agricultural strategies with

modern agricultural technologies in a way that is

economically and environmentally sustainable.

Fallowing is the basis of organic agriculture. This

technique enriches the soil by allowing native plant

species to grow, preserving biodiversity in

the process. While modern technologies such as

fertilizers and hybrid seeds will also be necessary

to enhance agricultural production, they are

expensive. “The hope is that the farmers will

achieve a sustainable ‘green revolution’ that will

encourage economic development,” Jason says.

Because of the interdisciplinary nature of their

work, problems such as low soil fertility are only

one piece of the puzzle that Jason and the other

scientists are attempting to solve. “Conducting

research in conjunction with large, collaborative

interventions that affect people’s daily lives brings

a unique set of challenges for scientists. every

development, aid, or conservation project in a

developing country has important effects on local

residents, and inevitably has a form of power that

must be understood and harnessed productively,”

Jason points out. “Poorer residents, women, and

minority groups are often more vulnerable to crises

such as droughts, and are less likely to benefit from

any sort of intervention or project, so they must be

explicitly considered and engaged in planning and

implementation.”

Seeking the knowledge and advice of residents,

Jason believes, is an important part of conduct-

ing effective research under these circumstances.

Devising well thought-out projects in the first

place, he notes, is another. “our efforts must

provide useful information for the ongoing

interventions without compromising our

contributions to advancing fundamental scientific

knowledge in our disciplines,” Jason says. “What

this means practically is choosing research

questions carefully, and designing studies that

provide information with a variety of uses.”

in addition to sharpening his keen interest

in biology through science courses taught by Mark

Wiley and Pacho Gutierrez, Jason credits George

School with strengthening the kinds of critical

thinking skills that are essential to his research.

“George School teaches you to look at critical issues

and identify the underlying factors that are driving

the world,” he says.

“ Our current understanding of the linkages between ecosystems and society is inadequate,” says Jason.

Jason sirCely ’96—pictured here in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in southwestern Uganda—is a candidate for a PhD in ecology and evolu-tionary biology at Columbia University.

Perspectives

by Kim FerNaNdez aNd Jul iaNa rosati

What happens when the number of species in an

ecosystem decreases? What if all of the organisms

that fulfill a particular function disappear? What

roles do human societies play in causing such losses

of biodiversity, and how are human societies in turn

affected by these changes? Through research in

Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania, Jason Sircely ’96 is

trying to help answer questions like these.

“our current understanding of the linkages

between ecosystems and society is inadequate,” says

Jason, a candidate for a PhD in ecology and evo-

lutionary biology at Columbia University. He con-

tinues, “The ecosystems of our planet are facing

rapid and unprecedented changes. Dramatic human

alteration of ecological processes—carbon dioxide

emissions and climate change, for example—is tak-

ing place alongside deforestation and other land use

changes.”

Coordinated by The earth institute at Colum-

bia University, Jason’s research is a part of the Mil-

lennium Villages project, which seeks to help com-

munities in sub-Saharan Africa achieve the eight

Millennium Development Goals set by the United

nations, with a target completion date of 2015. The

goals are defined as follows: eradicate extreme hun-

ger and poverty; achieve universal primary edu-

cation; promote gender equality and empower

women; reduce child mortality; improve mater-

nal health; combat HiV/AiDS, malaria, and other

diseases; ensure environmental sustainability; and

develop a global partnership for development.

An interdisciplinary approach characterizes

The earth institute, whose mission is to “mobi-

lize the sciences, education, and public policy to

achieve a sustainable earth.” Through their particu-

lar research project in eastern Africa, Jason and his

colleagues at The earth institute are trying to dis-

cover ways to improve agricultural production and

eliminate hunger, while avoiding environmental

degradation and biodiversity loss.

“There’s a sense that human well-being is tied

not only to our own economic systems and our own

decisions, but also to the environmental and civic

constraints that shape our economic and social

Alumnus Studies Links Between Biodiversity and Societies

mbola millennium Village outside of Tabora in western Tanzania.

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by Jul iaNa rosati

“When information is shared within the scientific

community, there’s a synergy that takes place,” says

George School science teacher Polly Lodge. Thanks

to a synergy between Polly’s teaching style and the

philosophy of the international Baccalaureate (iB)

diploma program, students in her iB biology class

have a number of opportunities to understand the

impact of scientific endeavors both within and

beyond the field of science.

George School is one of two U.S. board-

ing schools that offer the iB diploma program,

an intensive preuniversity curriculum that leads

to a series of rigorous exams. iB classes at George

School—and at the 1,653 other schools worldwide

that offer the diploma program—follow a curric-

ulum developed by the international Baccalaure-

ate organization (iBo), headquartered in Geneva,

Switzerland. iB biology covers themes such as evo-

lution, universality versus diversity, system equi-

librium, and structure and function. Students are

required to learn the material in detail and at a fast

pace, completing forty hours of laboratory experi-

ments and documenting their work in laboratory

books that the iBo will evaluate.

“They’re very specific about what they want

me to teach,” Polly says of the iBo. However, she

notes, “it’s up to the individual teachers to decide

how.” When the class studies molecular biology,

Polly takes the opportunity to review the key sci-

entific discoveries that led up to James Watson and

Francis Crick’s 1953 discovery of DnA’s structure.

“in that lecture, i’m consciously trying to show

students that often in science you’re not working in

isolation,” Polly says. “Clearly, in determining the

structure of DnA, Watson and Crick needed to use

the work of other scientists.”

Johanna Schneider ’08, a student in the

class, says, “i found it interesting because i always

thought that scientists, like inventors, would try to

keep their experiments and findings to themselves

in order to keep the fame and recognition for them-

selves.” Johanna continues, “in reality they share it

with each other in order to further human knowl-

edge of the world.”

The iB biology curriculum echoes Polly’s

interest in teaching the importance of collaboration

in science. A major project in the curriculum calls

for students to work in teams, with members of

the school’s other iB science classes, to create and

conduct an experiment. each team chooses a

question, devises an experiment to answer it,

and then conducts the experiment and collects

the resulting data. According to Polly, this exer-

cise helps students to gain insight into what pro-

fessional scientists do. “Most scientists work on a

team,” says Polly.

With the inclusion of topics such as gene ther-

apy, in vitro fertilization, genetically modified

organisms, and the social implications of AiDS, the

iB biology curriculum can prompt students to ask

questions about the ways that scientific discover-

ies affect people’s lives. “The iB biology curriculum

specifically states places where the iBo wants stu-

dents to think about ethical issues,” Polly says.

She points out that this aspect of the curricu-

lum is in synch with George School’s mission. “it’s

part of Quaker education to get students to think

about ethical issues,” Polly says. She notes, “i don’t

think it’s my right or position to say what is right or

wrong.”

To enhance the opportunities for ethical dis-

cussions in her class, Polly has chosen to assign

readings beyond the textbook. richard Preston’s

The Hot Zone—an account of a 1989 ebola out-

break in a Washington DC laboratory—raises ques-

tions about when it is appropriate to inform the

public of a health threat, and under what circum-

stances one should take a risk to protect others.

in The Botany of Desire, Michael Pollan asks what

methods should be used to produce food, given the

potential risks of pesticides, herbicides, and genetic

modifications. Polly explains, “Students are given

the opportunity to think about not just the ‘how’ of

the science, but also, ‘What are the questions that

society has to wrestle with?’”

Polly has firsthand experience conducting research

as part of a team, and thinking about the con-

nections between science and society. During the

2005-06 academic year, she took a sabbatical to

study wildlife in namibia and Kenya. in namibia,

she conducted research through the earthwatch

institute, an international nonprofit organiza-

tion that gives volunteers the opportunity to join

research teams that are working on projects related

to environmental sustainability.

“in namibia i studied behavior, population

movements, dung analysis, and food sources of

desert-dwelling elephants,” says Polly. in Kenya,

she studied wildlife conservation—observing ele-

phants, lions, and other species. “i set up a photo

identification system for the elephants,” says Polly.

“We did waterhole monitoring, radiotelemetry, and

human-wildlife conflict prevention.”

it takes enthusiasm and commitment to spend

several months in another part of the world con-

ducting hands-on research to enrich one’s exper-

tise. it appears that Polly’s enthusiasm is infectious.

Johanna says she expected iB biology “to be really

difficult and a lot of work.” What she didn’t expect

was the fun that she and her classmates would have

along the way.

“We laugh a lot in class,” Johanna says, noting

that Polly sometimes uses props to inject humor

into her lectures. For instance, a toy sword and

spray bottles allowed her to memorably act out

the chain of events involved in the human body’s

immune system. in addition, Johanna has fond

memories of a trip that the class took to the new

Jersey shore to study aquatic life. She remembers

that she and her classmates spent the trip “ask-

ing tons of questions.” Johanna says, “We were so

immersed in it. everyone was genuinely excited.”

Polly’s iB biology students have also noted her

commitment to her work. Zach Martinez ’09 says,

“one of her greatest strengths, besides her passion

for biology, is her ability to teach to all different

types of learners.” Geena ianni ’09 agrees, “She’s

always willing to attempt to explain a concept to

you in a different way. How she teaches is just as

important to her as what she teaches. She’s also

incredibly passionate about what she does.”

“ In that lecture, I’m consciously trying to show students that often in science you’re not working in isolation,” Polly says.

ib biology George School science teacher Polly Lodge currently teaches chemistry and IB biology and serves as interim head of the Science Department.

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IB Biolon Class Collaborates and Reflects

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Polly Lodge demonstrates the proper way to expel a f luid sample from a micropipette, a tool used throughout scientific studies.

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by Jul iaNa rosati

When Kenny Kao ’08 reached the end of his seven

weeks in Stony Brook University’s prestigious

Simons Summer research Fellowship Program in

2007, he knew that his work wasn’t done. He could

tell that he had completed about 90 percent of the

work that was necessary to solve the problem he

had set out to solve—finding a way to increase

the power output of PeM fuel cells, an emerging

alternative energy source considered to have great

potential for use in the automobiles, robots, and

space missions of the future. For Kenny, 90 percent

wasn’t good enough. He needed to find out what

the final 10 percent would be.

“The current problem is that these types of

fuel cells have a low power output relative to the

cost,” Kenny explains. “it is ten to twenty times

more costly than if you were to generate energy

from natural gas. Basically, my job was to improve

the efficiency.”

George School teacher Chris odom, who cur-

rently instructs Kenny in AP Physics as well as

Computer Programming and robotics, notes, “You

just can’t teach motivation, and Kenny’s got it in

spades.” That motivation paid off. Kenny arranged

to stay at Stony Brook for an extra week, and when

the new school year began at George School, he

continued to make trips back to the university to

finish his project, which he conducted under the

supervision of materials science and engineering

professor Miriam rafailovich, PhD. The results of

Kenny’s work suggest a way in which the PeM fuel

cells’ power output can be increased by over 500

percent, and this has earned him major national

attention. Kenny has been named one of forty

finalists nationwide in the 67th Annual intel Sci-

ence Talent Search, known as the nation’s old-

est and most prestigious science competition. it is

sometimes referred to as a “junior nobel Prize.”

The contest’s 1,602 entrants represented 504 high

schools in 45 states, Puerto rico, and the Virgin

islands.

“Kenny is well deserving of this honor,” says

Chris. “He is tenacious. That’s the best way to

describe him. He is relentless in a very positive way.”

PeM fuel cells use hydrogen fuel and oxygen from

the air to produce electricity. each cell is similar to

a battery, with an anode at one end and a cathode

at the other. in between is the “polymer electrolyte”

or “proton exchange” membrane—the source of the

initials “PeM.” When he started his work at Stony

Brook, Kenny did not know of any experiments that

focused on the membranes of PeM fuel cells, and he

decided that his project would do just that.

PeM fuel cells are an attractive alterna-

tive energy source because they generate electric-

ity without pollution. At the anode, the hydrogen

atoms split into protons and electrons. The protons

pass through the membrane, while the electrons

move along an external circuit, generating electric-

ity. When the hydrogen protons and electrons reach

the cathode, they combine with oxygen, form-

ing water. in order to improve the efficiency of this

process, Kenny deposited nanoparticles on the fuel

cell membrane, taking advantage of the university-

grade laboratory equipment at Stony Brook to do

so. He then studied the effect that the microscopic,

synthetic particles had on the voltage and current

of the electricity produced by the fuel cells. on the

basis of his findings, he created a model that shows

the conditions under which a PeM fuel cell will

generate energy at optimal power output.

“We are extremely proud of Kenny,” states Head

of School nancy Starmer. “Given George School’s

commitment to environmental sustainability, i

think it is particularly exciting that Kenny

has received this national recognition for research

concerning an alternative energy source.”

in addition to success in the intel Science Tal-

ent Search, Kenny’s work made him a winner of

Massachusetts institute of Technology’s 2008

THinK competition, which celebrates high

school students’ efforts to create “technology for

humanity.” He has also submitted his work as a

patent application. Given Kenny’s achievements,

it’s surprising to learn that he remembers the first

few weeks of his project as discouraging. “it was

basically a failure,” he says. About halfway through

the program at Stony Brook, however, he had a

breakthrough. The results of his experiments

improved and, he says, “i realized it was actu-

ally pretty fun.” During the week that he stayed

beyond the program’s end, he was able to build on

the work he had done so far to reach a new level in

his research. “The extra week was more important

than all seven weeks of the program,” he observes.

Kenny, who plans to study engineering and

business in college, says that when he first set out

to spend his summer doing scientific research, his

goal was to get a hands-on preview of university-

level engineering work. now, he is essentially the

sole expert in a particular area of knowledge about

PeM fuel cells. “i had never dreamed of doing

something like that,” Kenny says.

Chris remarks, “it’s very relevant research, easily

reproduced, easy to explain. Kenny’s results are just

as clear as they could possibly be. it’s exactly what

you hope your students will be able to do someday,

and he did it at the age of eighteen. it’s not often

that this happens.”

Student’s Alternative Enern Research Gains National Recognition

Perspectives

Kenny Kao ’08 of Taipei, Taiwan, has been named one of forty finalists nation-wide in the 67th Annual Intel Science Talent Search, known as the nation’s oldest and most prestigious science competition.

The results of Kenny’s work suggest a way in which the PEM fuel cells’ power output can be increased by over �00 percent.

Pem fuel Cell Kenny Kao shows a Polymer Electrolyte Membrane (PEM) fuel cell, an emerging alternative energy source. Kenny found a way to increase the power output of the cells.

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Memories of Science at George School

���� | Dav i D t. ta na ka

My exposure to the sciences at George School

taught me that what was initially unknown was not

unknowable; that the hard work associated with

discovery can lead to new insights into one’s world

and more important, into oneself. Without the

knowledge gained in the sciences that i obtained

at George School, i would never have had the tools

needed to become a doctor; but without the teach-

ers and friends i met at George School, i would

never have had the experiences needed to help me

with my quest to become a healer.

���� | ro b ra n D e l m a n

Going to a very competitive science college i was

well prepared—a fine testament to the quality of

teaching overall. it was the combination of science

and math at GS that made the difference. Taking

Sam Smith’s calculus class plus physics at the same

time made “sense.” i would say, however, it was the

labs that i enjoyed the most—especially Ken’s chem

and Dusty’s bio lab (though slogging through the

pond with Mac Mcnaught catching fish by hand

is something i’ll never forget). Funny thing is that

Ken gave me a five-year letter when i graduated. i

opened it five years later and it said “You’ll proba-

bly be a chemical engineer” and even though engi-

neering wasn’t offered in my college—i ended up

being a chemical engineer through grad school. it’s

amazing when a teacher knows you that well. i’ve

always been indebted to him for showing me the

practical side of chemistry (and the house of toast

stories—you can be funny and a scientist).

���� | he at h e r l. ba r n e s

[i currently work in the field of] assisted reproduc-

tive technology. . . . i enjoyed my whole year of AP

biochemistry with rob orr. The fetal pig dissec-

tion was fascinating for me and the “origin of life”

research project/paper was very interesting AnD

very challenging.

Responses might be edited due to space limitations

and Georgian style guidelines.

eQuiz Highlights

The December eQuiz asked alumni to describe the

role of scientific discovery in their lives. Some of

the responses are highlighted here. Thank you to

the 160 alumni who participated.

Reflecting on Scientific Research

���� | ca r lo s lu r i a

Most areas of scientific research and discov-

ery fascinate me. To name but three: (1) stem cell

research—because of its potential for eliminating

genetic diseases and replacing injured or defective

organs; (2) cognitive functions research—not only

because dementia will affect a growing number

of people as our population ages, but also because

our ability to collect data is vastly outstripping

our ability to analyze and apply their meaning; (3)

alternative energy research—for obvious reasons.

���� | Dav i D c. lev i n

For the past thirty-three years i have been in aca-

demic medicine at the University of oklahoma

in the Pulmonary Disease and Critical Care Sec-

tion. . . . early in my career i was involved in niH-

and VA-sponsored trials on treating patients with

emphysema. More recently i have participated in a

number of pharmaceutical company Phase ii and

iii trials of a wide variety of bronchodilators. . . .

Any time one is involved in human clinical trials,

one must seriously evaluate the risk/benefit ratio

to the patient. in addition, the frequent necessity to

include a placebo arm in any therapy trial must be

explained in detail to any volunteers for such stud-

ies. [There should be] even more diligent follow-

up of all trial subjects who may (or may not) be on

active therapy.

���� | su s a n gu h l brow n e

The new analytical technologies for investigat-

ing rock and mineral characteristics, combined

with the new technologies for resources develop-

ment, empower not only the U.S., but also other

nations to provide world solutions to problems

that once were not feasible. . . . Based upon my

involvement in hands-on environmental science at

George School, i pursued a major in geology with

an emphasis on geomorphology. i then earned

my master’s in water resources and hydrogeology,

with my research focus on drinking water quality

in groundwater supplies. i continued my career in

hydrogeology over the next twenty years, and now

work as a geologist for the Alaska Geologic Materi-

als Center.

���� | li n Da s. blu m

i have a paper in [the] Journal of Palliative Medicine

about the economics of our palliative care program.

i am involved with a project to explore the benefit

of early palliative care interventions for patients in

the emergency room at my hospital. . . . The issues

involve distributive justice—how should limited

resources be allocated justly for people with

advanced illness.

���� | ma rg a r e t th o m a s re D m o n

recent research that monkeys can do mental addi-

tion and make and use tools suggests that we are

extremely arrogant to assume that we are the only

“sentient” species on this planet. As a Quaker, i feel

that we need to be respectful of all life on earth,

and that we need to extend our thinking about how

other species may participate in the stewardship

of the earth. i am excited by the possibilities as we

learn more about other species.

�00� | al l i s o n s. be to f

i am in my third year of the Medical Scientist

Training Program at Duke University. This is a

combined MD and PhD program funded by the

national institutes of Health. i once sat in a

conference and the speaker asked the attendees to

raise our hands if we knew anyone whose life was

changed by cancer. A sea of hands were raised, and

not one person sat with both hands in their lap.

This moment will stick with me for the rest of my

life. Cancer is a pervasive disease that changes lives.

i also believe that it’s a manageable disease. What

motivates me is that some day i hope to sit in a

similar conference—while i expect that many lives

will still have been changed by cancer, i hope that i

will be able to look around and see one person who

sits quietly, hands folded neatly in his or her lap,

grateful for the years of research that protected that

family from this disease.

Perspectives

Alumni Profile

sa ra h Do h l e ’01

What are you doing now? I’m a molecular biologist at Agrivida in Medford MA, a start up company developing technol-ogy for transgenic plants opti-mized for cellulosic ethanol pro-duction, which can be used as an alternative fuel. Most of the work I do involves DNA manipulation and protein synthesis.

Describe a lesson you learned at GS, and how it was valuable at college. The skills which have really ben-efited me are those which I devel-oped in my life before college and

in large part at George School— a strong work ethic, problem solving ability, interpersonal skills, intellectual curiosity and desire to do something productive with my life. George School was a great place because there was so much opportunity for learning outside of the classroom as well as within.

What was your most inter-esting class at GS and why?Gosh, I had so many really inter-esting classes at GS. A lot of it had to do with having teachers who were interested in what they were teaching. And having teach-ers who really emphasized how to find the answer to a question and not just what the answer was. This is a very valuable lesson. Paul Machemer in my freshman math class would always give us the opportunity to figure out the prob-lems before showing us how to do them, which was terribly frus-trating and difficult, but far more valuable in the long run. Tom Eng-lish in his U.S. history class would always ask, “Why then?” referring to what else was going on in the world to create a change at that point in time. I also particularly

remember Ed Youtz’s emphasis on learning the logic behind physics and Rob Orr’s biology class.

What is your favorite GS memory?Lots of great memories. I can’t pick just one. It changes depend-ing on my mood and level of nos-talgia. Particularly memorable was streaking down a frozen South Lawn and the challenge of trying to run back up on the ice. I really enjoyed my time in West Main, both as a sophomore and as a prefect.

What do you do in your free time for fun and relaxation?When I’m not working on develop-ing a more economical alternative fuel source, I enjoy hiking, camp-ing, rooftop barbequing and per-forming with the Boston League of Women Wrestlers.

What are you reading now?Just finished Skeletons on the Zahara, and loved it. I am strug-gling through Ghost Plane and the Fundamentals of Biochemis-try, second edition.

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Features

“Plans now are in place to update the archives both

physically and systemically,” shares Linda

Heinemann, George School library director.

“We are working on a mission statement for the

archives, so George School knows what it is

preserving, collecting, and acquiring, and on

developing policies for conservation, preservation,

maintenance, staffing, lending, copying, and emer-

gency situations. A clean, properly ventilated, easily

accessible space for the archives is an integral part

of our plans for our new library.”

The vision is simple. The George School

archives will be a contributing part of the school

as a whole. They will have a prominent place in

the new library, in a clean well-ordered room with

glass doors that invite interest and curiosity. There

will be enough space to house the archives and the

entire photography collection, now safely stored in

another building,

Judith hopes that each student will be intro-

duced to the archives and their contents. encour-

ages Judith, “i look forward to the day when we

have a detailed, computerized catalog of the George

School collections, so the contents can be known,

and conveniently used by everyone.”

Help Save Our PastThis month we have launched a campaign to raise $250,000 to name the new archives in the Mollie Dodd Anderson Library for Kingdon Swayne ’37 in honor of his long and careful oversight of the collections. He has sorted, organized, and described most of the items in both the photography storage room and the archives, and safely boxed, and filed great numbers of them.

Charlie Waugh ’36, a lifelong friend of Kingdon’s, has jump-started our fund-raising campaign with a matching gift pledge of $50,000, so we need to raise $200,000 from friends to meet the terms of the gift and the naming requirements for the archives.

Please help us meet this challenge. Gifts can be made online at:http://alumni.georgeschool.org/donations, or by contacting Director of Development Anne Culp Storch ’67 at 215.579.6569 or anne_storch@georgeschool.org.

Judith Sutton ’64 noticed a framed panoramic

photo at a Brown Bros. auction a few years ago.

Her curiosity piqued, she looked closer and

discovered it was a panoramic photograph of

George School students and faculty from the

1936-37 school year.

“The serendipity was amazing,” enthuses

Judith. “i found my mother’s oldest friend, Liz

Hill Brady ’37, right in the middle, grinning in her

sweater set and scarf. Searching for my mother,

ellen Pearson Sutton ’38, i spied my uncle, Don

Sutton ’39, son of Stan Sutton, coach, who with

my father Stan Jr. ’36, (not in the picture) had

grown up on campus. There was rinky McCurdy

Sutton ’40 who married Don, and there, tiny and

uncharacteristically somber, was my mom. They

called her Peanuts.”

Judith had to have the picture even though it

was wrinkled, badly framed, and water stained in

one corner. She bid longer than she expected and

paid over fifty dollars plus tax and commission

for the privilege of taking it home with her.

“it wasn’t just that it was a photo of my mother,”

Judith explains. “The George School staff in the

front row was a history of my own school years:

Steve Fletcher ’28, my principal through all eight

years of the newly formed newtown Friends

School, and his wife Wanda, who taught third

grade. Jack Talbot, father of my lifelong friend Bill,

a darling young Miss Dedinski, who tutored me

in French at George School, Mr. Walton, whose

face i’d known all my life from the newtown

Meeting facing bench, ‘Mr. Dick’ McFeely, my

George School headmaster, and my grandfather,

handsome as ever.”

Her mother was no longer living, so Judith

shared the photograph with Liz who was over-

whelmed with happy George School memories.

Liz made a list of all the people in the photograph

whose names she remembered and shared a scan of

the photo with her friends.

Judith’s experience with this one discarded

George School photograph was about to change her

life. Her find led her back to George School to look

through the school’s collection of all-school pan-

oramic photographs in the archives. “i believe there

is an image of the face of every single person who

attended George School in the last one hundred

thirteen years,” marvels Judith. “imagine what

could happen if we made them all safe and accessi-

ble. The archive could be full of such stories, if only

people could easily find them.”

Judith discovered that the archives at George

School were stored in a basement room of the meet-

inghouse. Her concern about their accessibility,

shared with members of the George School com-

munity, prompted the formation of an archive

committee and a commitment to house the George

School archives in the new Mollie Dodd Anderson

library.

“An archive is a cross between a library and

a museum, and should be treated with the same

respect,” explains Judith. “it is a collection of

artifacts of all kinds, often irreplaceable and frag-

ile, which tell the story of a particular institution.

George School prides itself on its rich history.

it should be a priority to make our archives safe

and available to the public so that the George

School story they document will be available into

the future.”

Finding Treasures oPPosiTe Page: Part of the GS panoramic photo from 1936-1937 that inspired Judith Sutton’s treasure hunt through the archives.

oTHer finds from THe arCHiVes: 1. Photo album documenting construction

of Orton. 2. Treasures from John M. George’s trunk. 3. Silver trophies and other athletic awards. 4. Hand-made scrapbooks and calendars

created by George School students. 5. Photo album showing kitchen staff and

the old gym, now Marshall Center.

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Highlights on Saturday, May 10 include the follow-

ing master classes and discussions:

• Libraries Never Looked Like This Before: Meet

Library Director Linda Heinemann and learn

about the new and innovative services that a

top-notch school library can provide to student

researchers.

• An Old Green Building Story: Follow the fasci-

nating pictorial history of how the 1812 Cen-

tral Philadelphia Meetinghouse was moved to

the George School campus as told by long-time

George School architect Charles Hough ’44.

• Strategic Planning Listening Group: Attend a

listening group session in which a facilitator

will seek your input on key issues facing George

School as we develop the school’s strategic plan.

• From Vision to Reality: Learn what John

Hoffman ’73 discovered about the nuts and

bolts of creating a successful not-for-profit

organization to serve a societal need like

The Albert G. oliver Program.

• George School Website Preview: Take an early

look at the new George School website, sched-

uled to be launched this summer as the result

of a comprehensive redesign project involving

alumni, parents, students, faculty, and staff.

Saturday’s activities include an alumni and

faculty breakfast reception, alumni games,

children’s activities, an all-student art show,

all alumni gathering, and reunion photos.

At noon, the groundbreaking ceremony for

the new learning commons and Mollie Dodd

Anderson Library will occur. All in all, it’s not

only a weekend to reconnect with George School

but a day to renew old friendships and undoubt-

edly forge new ones.

For more information contact Debbie Chong at

215.579.6564 or by email at advancement@

georgeschool.org. Don’t forget to visit our website at

http://alumni.georgeschool.org for complete details

and online registration.

The Class of 1958 graduation photo is one of the class photos that line the hallways of the George School Meetinghouse and Main.

Features

Alumni Weekend May 9, 10, and 11, 2008

George School welcomes the entire Cougar alumni

community to celebrate. This is a particularly

special year for the Class of 1958, celebrating their

fiftieth reunion, and the Class of 1983, celebrating

their twenty-fifth reunion. if your Class year ended

in an eight or a three and you are celebrating a five-

year milestone, your classmates have plans in place

for a fun reunion weekend for you. if you are un-

aware of the plans for your class, please contact us.

Whether you are coming by yourself or with

friends and family please let us know so that our

faculty, student volunteers, and reunion team are

ready to show you a great time. You can register

online at http://alumni.georgeschool.org. Just click

on the green Alumni Weekend box on the lower

right corner of the screen. A full schedule also is

available online.

Starting with Flashback Friday—an opportu-

nity to attend classes just like you were once again

a George School student—you will enjoy the

opportunity to participate in a variety of events,

concluding with Sunday’s meeting for worship.

Catch up with old friends, share fond memories, and see what’s new at George School.

�00� Alumni Awards

on Saturday morning, the 2008 Alumni Award

recipients are honored for their outstanding accom-

plishments and service in their professional, personal,

or civic life. Their achievements inspire other George

School students and alumni and bring honor to our

school. This year’s award recipients are:

Barbara Dodd Anderson ’�0Barbara has long played a significant role in support-

ing the faculty and students of George School She

established a teaching chair in honor of her father,

David Dodd, a distinguished graduate school profes-

sor. She created a scholarship that provides tuition aid

to sixteen students every year. The new green library

will be named in honor of her granddaughter, Mollie

Dodd Anderson. And her recent gift of $128.5 million

brought international attention to George School.

David Bruton ’��David has been a member of the school’s governing

board since 1998, serving as Clerk since 2001. From

1960 until 2007, he practiced law with the Philadel-

phia-based firm of Drinker Biddle & reath, where he

served as a managing partner and as chairman of the

litigation department. His litigation practice included

appearances before the United States Supreme Court,

federal courts of appeal and trial courts, and the

Pennsylvania state courts.

John Hoffman ’��John was founder and president of The Albert G.

oliver program, an education not-for-profit in new

York City which places intellectually gifted African

American and Latin American students from lower

income families into selective boarding and day

schools. Since 1983, eighty-four oliver students have

been placed at George School. John currently is

the director of high school placement at De La

Salle Academy, an independent middle school in

Manhattan, for academically talented, low-income

students.

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using—in place of “elwyn Brooks”—the nickname

he had acquired at Cornell University. “They’d

both been raised as farm boys,” says Barbara.

“They just hit it off.”

When David Dodd was in his nineties, Barbara

and her late husband, John, traveled with him to

the farm in north Brooklin to visit her father’s

good friend, and Barbara saw up close the place

that had inspired e.B. White to pen not only One

Man’s Meat, but also the classic children’s novel

Charlotte’s Web. “He was so generous and so nice,”

she says of the author. “it was very interesting to

talk to somebody who has a mind like that. He was

a wonderful writer and he was a wonderful man.”

Aside from her love of e.B. White, overall

Barbara’s personal book collection illustrates her

keen interest in travel, art, history, design, architec-

ture, furniture, and antiques. “i have quite a good

library on those topics,” she says. She particularly

enjoys reading about places she visited with her

husband or her parents. one source of inspiration

is a three-month period of her childhood in which

she traveled to england, Switzerland, and Austria

with her mother and father. “My mother had been

ill, and it was kind of nice to take her there,” says

Barbara.

As for Mollie, Barbara describes her as a

“cerebral” and “very advanced” reader. now in

the sixth grade, Barbara’s granddaughter is able

to read at a tenth-grade level, and is fond of J.K.

rowling’s Harry Potter series. Mollie also owns

an autographed set of e.B. White’s books—a

gift from her grandmother. “She has a wonder-

ful vocabulary,” Barbara says proudly. “She’s read

almost everything in the school library.” That

seems an apt accomplishment for the namesake

of George School’s future library.

When Barbara Dodd Anderson ’50 gave a $5

million named gift for George School’s planned

new library in the fall of 2006—a year before her

gift of $128.5 million to the school made head-

lines—she chose to name the facility in honor of

her granddaughter, Mollie, an avid reader. The

campaign for the Mollie Dodd Anderson Library

and adjoining learning commons continues, with a

plan for a groundbreaking on Alumni Day. it seems

fitting to ask what is on the shelves of the existing,

personal Anderson libraries. in other words, what

do Barbara and her granddaughter like to read?

“i must tell you i do love e.B. White,” says Barbara.

Known as one of the greatest essayists of the twen-

tieth century, e.B. (elwyn Brooks) White devel-

oped his concise, elegant writing style as an early

staff member of the New Yorker. For decades, col-

lege students have learned his philosophy of “clear-

ness, accuracy, and brevity in the use of english”

through The Elements of Style, his revision of a

grammar and usage handbook written by his late

Cornell University professor William Strunk Jr.

Barbara cites his essay collection One Man’s Meat—

which gives a portrait of daily life at the writer’s

farm in north Brooklin, Maine—as a favorite

book. Thanks to e.B. White’s friendship with her

father, renowned economist David Dodd, Barbara

knows both the author and the setting firsthand.

“e.B. White and my father were very good

friends,” Barbara says. She recalls that the two met

while vacationing in Florida one January.

“My father knew somebody who had a house

on the bayou, and he would go over there to fish,”

she remembers. one day, David Dodd introduced

himself to a man who was fishing on the bench

next to his. The man replied, “i’m Andy White,”

Features

Alumni Award Recipient: Barbara Dodd Anderson

Barbara Dodd Anderson’s Personal Libraryby Jul iaNa rosati

“ E.B. White and my father were very good friends,” Barbara says.

faVoriTe THings Aside from the work of E.B. White, overall Barbara Dodd Anderson ’50 enjoys reading books about travel, art, history, design, architecture, furniture, and antiques.

�. One Man’s Meat by E.B. White

Originally published in 1942, this collection of personal essays depicts life at E.B. White’s farm in North Brooklin, Maine—where Barbara and her father, David Dodd, later visited the writer. Drawn from pieces that first appeared in the New Yorker and Harper’s Magazine, the book exemplifies E.B. White’s observant, succinct prose.

�. William Morris by Himself: Designs and Writings edited by Gillian Naylor

Nineteenth-century English designer, poet, and social reformer William Morris advocated the ideals of simplicity and traditional craftsmanship in design. This book presents images of his distinctive wallpapers, fabrics, and other creations, along with excerpts of his writings.

�. Bernard Maybeck: Visionary Architect by Sally Byrne Woodbridge and Richard Barnes

Influential California architect Bernard Maybeck devised redwood and shingle houses in the San Francisco Bay Area, as well as prominent buildings such as the First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Berkeley (1910), and the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco (1915). This biography details his archi-

tecture, as well as his contributions in the areas of design and engineering.

�. Suffolk Houses: A Study of Domestic Architecture by Eric Sandon

This volume describes the history and evolution of timber-framed houses constructed in the rural county of Suffolk, England, during the fifteenth and six-teenth centuries.

�. Traditional Japanese Furniture: A Definitive Guide by Kazuko Koizumi

Through the groundbreaking research of leading scholar Kazuko Koizumi, this book provides a com-prehensive history of over eighty distinct types of Japanese furniture, examining their craftsmanship and aesthetic development in the context of Japa-nese culture.

Barbara Dodd Anderson’s Favorite Books

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Giving back to your alma mater can involve open-

ing many things – your heart, your checkbook. in

the case of John Hoffman ’73, it also involves open-

ing doors. Within seven years of graduating from

George School, John began what was to become his

life’s work: identifying high-achieving, low-income

students from new York City and matching them

to and preparing them for academically challenging

independent schools, including the one he attended

and which made a big difference in his life.

it began slowly and serendipitously, when

John, in his mid-twenties and on the fast-track at

Pepsi-Cola, met with then Head of School David

Bourns and Director of Admission Barry Koppock

about how to use unspent financial aid funds to

increase student diversity. in concert with people

he knew in the new York City recreation depart-

ment, John was able to identify several strong

candidates who enrolled at George School. For

a couple of years, John continued to recruit

students through the recreation department, but

he realized that to find the most academically

qualified students, he would have to go directly

through schools.

Dr. Albert oliver, the second-in-command

in the new York City school system, supported

John’s efforts from the beginning. With oliver’s

help, John was able to identify more students than

George School could take, so he established rela-

tionships with other independent schools interested

in bringing bright students of color to their cam-

puses. When Dr. oliver was tragically killed in an

auto accident, John felt led to quit his lucrative cor-

porate job at Pepsi-Cola and start a not-for-profit

organization dedicated to giving deserving students

the opportunities that schools like George School

could provide.

in 1983, John did just that, founding the

Albert G. oliver Program. The program identifies

high-achieving African-American and Latin-Amer-

ican seventh-graders in new York City and pro-

vides them with the information and preparation

necessary to enroll and be successful at top inde-

pendent schools. The idea of students coming back

and providing service to their community has been

an integral part of the program since its inception.

After ten years, John began to feel that “the

schools themselves had to get better. They needed

more faculty of color.” So in 1994, John founded the

independent Teaching Project, a teacher placement

program for minority teachers. He missed working

with kids, however, and in 1998 John became direc-

tor of high school placement at De La Salle Acad-

emy, an independent middle school in Manhattan

for intellectually talented, low-income kids.

During his twenty years with the oliver

Program and De La Salle Academy, John estimates

he helped send more than one thousand students

to independent schools. To date, the oliver Pro-

gram has sent eighty-four oliver Scholars to George

School and another twenty-one students have come

from De La Salle.

According to John, George School “raised in

me the consciousness of the importance of helping

others, minding the Light, doing God’s work, and

doing work that has real intrinsic value. i person-

ally think that the essence of work and life is

making a difference.” if making a difference is the

yardstick, then John certainly measures up.

one former oliver Scholar, Yasmine Abdul-

Mani ’96 shares, “John was concerned about our

future and what direction we were going with our

mind and our soul.” now the new York Metro

program coordinator at A Better Chance (an orga-

nization that, like The oliver Program, recruits,

refers, and advocates for bright students of color to

attend independent schools), Yasmine views John

as her mentor and supporter since she was thirteen.

“Many people expect certain things of you com-

ing from a boarding school. John just expected the

best of us. He saw this potential in us and challenged

us to meet it and would not accept anything less.”

nearly sixty years after coming to George School

as a student, David Bruton ’53 can still be seen

walking its tree-sheltered paths several times a

week. Today, David is clerk of the George School

Committee (GSC), the school’s governing board.

He is one of the school’s caretakers, using the

experience that grew from seeds planted more than

a half century ago to help guide the school through

an exciting time. He brings to the task both

considerable energy and a considered approach,

always with an eye to ensuring the long-term

health and vibrancy of the school.

in addition to being a George School alumnus,

David is the father of a graduate (Kathryn ’84), but

he readily admits that he wasn’t very involved with

the school until former head David Bourns invited

him to join the GSC a decade ago.

in the years since he was a George School stu-

dent, David graduated from Princeton University

and Harvard Law School and embarked on a legal

career at the Philadelphia-based firm Drinker Bid-

dle & reath. He was at the firm his entire career

(now officially retired, he works in arbitration) and

served as managing partner and chairman of the

litigation department. Several cases he was involved

in went to the Supreme Court, and he presented the

oral argument in one that concerned the separation

of church and state in education. For many people,

that would be the highlight of a legal career.

in looking back, David speaks most glow-

ingly of the freedoms he enjoyed: to take part in a

broad range of cases, from corporate to education

to civil rights issues; to learn new things from each

case, and finding continuing intellectual challenge.

He credits George School with helping in key ways.

“one of the things my George School education did

was to give me a sense of confidence and a desire to

be independent and to think for myself,” David says.

Since good writing is sometimes even more impor-

tant to a litigator than persuasive speech, David

feels “really blessed that my George School edu-

cation helped me understand the glimmerings of

what good writing is about.”

With a lifelong commitment to education and

opportunity, David has had many secondary and

postsecondary schools as clients and has served on

the boards of both another school and a Philadel-

phia area social service agency for children. Bring-

ing his skills and passion to the GSC was a natural.

David is enthusiastic about the “wonderful,

vibrant way in which the school has operated” and

about this “thrilling time to be involved.” He iden-

tifies four major initiatives that the GSC has had

a hand in that he believes will not only ensure the

long-term stability of George School, but also pro-

vide it with opportunities for continued change.

These are the nearly completed curriculum review

process, led by Head of School nancy Starmer,

undertaken by the school as a whole and the faculty

in particular; the school’s commitment to leader-

ship in environmental sustainability; the building

of the new green learning commons and library;

and the long-range planning for Barbara Dodd

Anderson’s transformative gift.

As in his career, David is involved in a broad

range of activities at George School. As nancy

Starmer describes, “He’s been very supportive of

the faculty, supportive of faculty housing and com-

pensation, and supportive of the library. i’d be

hard pressed to find an area where he hasn’t been

involved and committed.”

David Bruton has brought to the GSC and to

the school a mixture of energy and deep thinking,

what Assistant Clerk Joe evans appreciates as his

“wise, thoughtful, and deliberate approach and his

vision for George School.” A vision, Joe points out,

that is born of love.

Features

Alumni Award Recipient: John Hoffman

Reaching Higher to Reach Kids

Alumni Award Recipient: David Bruton

A Decade of Commitment and Caringby aNdrea lehmaN

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GS Celebrates Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day

George School held its nineteenth annual all-day

commemoration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day on

Monday, January 21, 2008. The day began in Wal-

ton Center Auditorium with the off-Broadway play

Platanos and Collard Greens. A romantic comedy

that addresses stereotypes, prejudices, and myths

that exist between African-Americans and Latinos,

the production has been performed at over seventy-

five colleges and universities across the country.

Following the play, various workshop sessions

on campus encouraged participants to discuss and

ref lect in a variety of ways on Dr. King’s message of

multiculturalism, diversity, and peace. The work-

shops were led by professors and graduate students

from Temple University, members of the islamic

Society of Central Jersey, George School students

who attended the national Association of indepen-

dent Schools’ annual Student Diversity Leadership

Conference, and various George School student

organizations.

The day’s events concluded with an all-school

meeting for worship in the afternoon. in addi-

tion, a group of students and faculty participated

in the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service in

Philadelphia.

Two New Buildings on Campus

For the first time since the mid-1970s—when town

houses were built on the south end of campus—

new housing units are being constructed. This

time, the units are being built to provide greater

faculty presence at the center of campus. The two

new twin homes are sited between Brown House

and the football field and were envisioned in the

2002 Campus Master Plan. They will be completed

by the end of March.

Three of these new, energy-efficient residences

have three bedrooms and two-and-a-half baths.

An additional unit is wheelchair accessible with

four bedrooms and three-and-a-half baths.

Dean of Faculty Scott Spence said, “Housing

of this quality plays a pivotal role in attracting and

retaining top-notch faculty families and enables

them to live in a neighborhood where housing costs

far surpass a teacher’s ability to afford them.”

Head of School nancy Starmer explained,

“With plans to renovate Tate House beginning

this summer, and the displacement of the three

faculty families currently living in this 1756

dwelling, these units are coming on line just in

time to fill a need.” She continued, “We’re grateful

to all of the graduates and friends who contributed

funds to this project, to George School Committee

member Mike Kosoff ’56 for his leadership of the

planning committee, and to the members of our

physical plant staff for helping to make this project

a reality.”

campus News & Notes

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ESL Assembly

At an assembly on December 14, 2007, students in

George School’s eSL (english as a Second Language)

program gave performances to share elements of

their cultures with the community, drawing enthu-

siastic cheers from the audience. A group of Korean

students danced to a popular song from Korea;

Vietnamese students gave solo performances of

popular songs from their country; Chinese students

performed on a traditional Chinese harp; a group

of Chinese students presented a humorous skit

about “kung fu” table tennis; and a Japanese

student performed a fan dance. George School

has one hundred students of foreign national-

ity or Americans living abroad, from twenty-seven

countries.

George School Supports Soup Kitchen

efforts by George School faculty and students have

provided regular support to the Trenton Area Soup

Kitchen (TASK) during the current school year.

TASK serves meals to the hungry in Trenton, new

Jersey, and provides adult education and various

other services to help its patrons achieve self-

sufficiency. George School english teacher Michelle

Peñaloza has done weekly service work at TASK as

a recipient of a 2007-2008 grant from the school’s

Andrew Bourns Social Justice endowment, estab-

lished by David and ruth Bourns in memory of

their son Andrew ’87. inspired by a suggestion from

Michelle, George School’s Student Council orga-

nized a winter clothing drive on campus in Decem-

ber and January, led by Student Council President

Mark Gerelus ’09. Approximately twenty-five large

bags of donations resulted. Mark says, “it was great

to see that our community could work together as a

whole to help those less fortunate.” Michelle says of

George School, “it’s a pretty amazing thing to live

and work in a community of people so willing to

help others.”

Michelle first learned about TASK from

George School religion Department Head Chip

Poston, who served at the facility as a previous

Bourns grant recipient. in previous years, Chip also

established a tradition of taking a group of George

School students to serve at TASK once a month

during the school year. During his sabbatical in the

second term of this school year, math teacher

Valerie Folk and english teacher ralph Lelii have

continued the tradition.

Campus News & Notesby Jul iaNa rosati

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esl assembly Faculty members Susan Wilf, Anitra Lahiri, and Rachel Fumia pose with English as a Second Language (ESL) students.

TasK Students leading the collection of hats, scarves, and gloves for the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen include Chidera Anyanwu, HsuehErh Yang, Mark Gerelus, Capri Bronaugh-LaRocca, Matt Shipon, and Levi Roy, with faculty member Linda Heinemann.

faCulTy Housing New brick faculty housing will provide a greater faculty presence at the center of campus and will play a pivotal role in attracting and retaining top-notch faculty.

marTin luTHer King Jr. day Students who helped organize Martin Luther King Day events include (first row, left to right) Geetika Gupta, Krystena Anderson, Levi Roy, Chidera Anyanwu and (standing left to right) Nelson Green, Johanna Schneider, Tsi’Ann Mander, Josh Carrion, Lamarr Milton, and SooMi Chung.

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Community Chorus and Orchestra Concert

George School’s Community Chorus and orches-

tra presented an opera-themed concert on Febru-

ary 17, 2008, in the George School Meetinghouse.

Selections included “Habanera” from Carmen by

Georges Bizet, “Make our Garden Grow” from

Candide by Leonard Bernstein, the overture to

The Barber of Seville by Gioacchino rossini, and

“Bacchanale” from Samson and Delilah by Charles

Camille Saint-Saëns.

Georgian Design Supports Sustainability

The December 2007 issue of the Georgian debuted

a new design created by George School’s award-

winning partner, Tony rutka, of rutka Weadock

Design. As part of the school’s sustainability

efforts, the new, lightweight cover and interior

paper contain 30 percent recycled post-industrial

fiber. in addition, the interior paper carries the

Forest Stewardship Council’s “Mixed Sources”

label, and biogas energy is used in the manufactur-

ing process. The cover paper is Green Seal certified,

and its manufacturing process uses 100 percent

wind-generated electricity.

Investment Club Hosts Guest Speaker

The George School investment Club (GSi) hosted

a guest speaker—financial planner Jeff Sprowles

of Jeff Sprowles and Associates, LLC—on Monday,

December 17, 2007. Michael Guth ’08, president

of GSi, said, “Jeff Sprowles educated us about how

he became a financial planner and what it would

take for a high school student to pursue such a

career. He also told us about his personal investing

philosophies and the rationale behind them. it was

a great experience for those who came.” GSi is a

student organization that educates its members

about finance through discussions, readings, guest

lectures by investment professionals, and participa-

tion in a stock market game.

Attend Strategic Planning Listening Groups

George School has embarked upon a comprehen-

sive process of developing a strategic plan for the

school. “it promises to be an exciting process,” says

George School Committee Clerk David Bruton ’53.

“We are confident that the strategic planning pro-

cess will strengthen the bonds of our shared com-

mitment to George School. We invite the active

participation of all members of the larger school

community in this effort.”

on March 1, 2008, the George School Com-

mittee used its midyear retreat to conduct the first

of a series of listening groups to foster conversa-

tion about strategic goals and priorities for the

school. Similar listening group sessions will follow

throughout the spring for all constituencies of the

George School community, including faculty, staff,

students, parents, alumni, and friends.

We hope that alumni will be able to attend

listening groups scheduled during Alumni Week-

end, on Saturday, May 10, 2008, from 9:30 to 10:45

a.m. facilitated by George School Committee

members. Parents are invited to a listening group

session scheduled on Tuesday, April 8, 2008, at 7:30

p.m. in the Admission Lobby of Main, immediately

following the Parents Association meeting that

begins at 6:30 p.m. if you are unable to attend a

listening group, we urge you to take part in an elec-

tronic survey that will be installed online following

the listening group sessions. Visit the alumni web-

site (http://alumni.georgeschool.org) or the par-

ent page of the George School website (http://www.

georgeschool.org) to find links to the survey.

Basketball Highlights

The girls varsity basketball team won the first-

place trophy at the AnC Jamboree on December 8,

2007. At the event—an annual one-day basketball

tournament at The Academy of the new Church

in Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania—the George School

team competed against teams from five schools.

Shortly afterwards, team co-captains Lisa Bernar-

dini ’08 and Chidera Anyanwu ’08 presented the

first-place trophy to Head of School nancy Starmer

at an all-school assembly. Girls Varsity Basketball

Coach richard Polgar said, “it was an excellent day

for the girls. every player contributed in a mean-

ingful way to the tournament victory. Last year, we

took second place in the same tournament, so our

goal this year was to win it all, which we proudly

did. The girls represented GS in fine fashion.”

The boys varsity basketball team scored an

exciting overtime victory with no time remain-

ing against Friends’ Central School on January 19,

2008. Kyle Scott ’09 hit the winning shot. emman-

uel Tapia ’08 led the Cougars with fifteen points,

and Tom Wayda ’09 contributed thirteen points

and ten rebounds.

The atmosphere at the game was energetic,

with extra enthusiasm provided by George School’s

Cougar Crazies—a group of students who appear

at athletic events sporting forest green shirts and

green-and-white face paint to promote positive

energy among George School’s fans. “i was par-

ticularly impressed by the Cougar Crazies, who

kept it loud and positive even when the team fell

behind by ten points or so in the second half,” said

mathematics teacher and boys soccer coach Paul

Machemer ’65, who attended the event.

“The game was an example of high school

basketball at its best,” said Boys Athletic Director

Sean Casey, head coach of the boys’ varsity basket-

ball team. Assistant Coach John Stevens ’02 said,

“it was the most exciting game that i have been a

part of in years.”

GS Student Named Distinguished Scholar

George School senior Diana Goodman of Princeton,

new Jersey, has been named an edward J. Bloustein

Distinguished Scholar for the 2008-09 collegiate

academic year. over 21,000 high-achieving new

Jersey students were considered for this honor,

which was given to approximately 5,000 students

on the basis of their outstanding academic records

and standardized test scores. The edward J.

Bloustein Distinguished Scholar program is a merit

scholarship program administered by the Higher

education Student Assistance Authority, an

independent agency of the State of new Jersey.

campus News & Notes

girls basKeTball team members (left) include Lisa Bernardini, Chidera Anyanwu, Coach Richard Polgar, Andrea Lipson, Coach Aaron Good, Joelle Sanphy, and Britt Russell.

boys basKeTball teammates (below) huddle around Head Coach Sean Casey. Seated from the left: Malik Garner, Kyle Scott, Emmanuel Tapia, and Justin Cancelliere. Standing from left: Coach John Stevens, Arie Manders, Tom Wayda, Logan Davis, Alex Reese and Jas Chojnowski.

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inVesTmenT Club members include: (first row, left to right) Kevin Hang, Luis Menezes Cabral, Michael Guth, (last row) Vir Patel, Eric Katz

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SUBMIT A CLASS NOTE1. Fill out the form at:

http://www.georgeschool.org/explore.asp?content=1602. Or send it by email to: georgian@georgeschool.org3. Or mail to:

Georgian, PO Box 4438, Newtown PA 18940-0908

UPDATE YOUR CONTACT INFORMATION1. Fill out the form at:

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• By phone at 215.579.6564 • By email at advancement@georgeschool.org • By mail at PO Box 4438, Newtown PA, 18940-0908

CONTACT OTHER ALUMNIFor contact information for alumni:1. Visit the online community at:

http: //alumni.georgeschool.org2. Or contact the Advancement Office:

• By phone at 215.579.6564 • By email at advancement@georgeschool.org • By mail at PO Box 4438, Newtown PA, 18940-0908

VISIT THE ONLINE COMMUNITYSee class homepages, update personal profiles, contact friends, check the event calendar, see photos, and more:http://alumni.georgeschool.org

VISIT THE ONLINE COMMUNITYhttp://www.georgeschool.org

stay connected

PHoTos: Shop George School Online (Back Cover) Celebrating the opening of our new online bookstore are students Chenab Navalkha, lamarr milton, elle Bassett-Cann, kayla Robinson, Andrea Riley, and emily Berenstain. Shop online now at https://alumni.georgeschool.org/store. Alumni Weekend (Inside Back Cover) Graduation photos line our meetinghouse wall waiting for alumni to return to celebrate their George School friends and memories may 9, 10, and 11, 2008.

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GEORGIAN

april 08 | Vol. 80 | no. 01

Parents of alumni: if this magazine is addressed to a son or daughter who no longer maintains a permanent address at your home, please email us at advancement@georgeschool.org with his or her new address.

GeORGIAn edITORSusan Quinn

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GeORGIAn sTAFF Peggy Berger odie LeFever

Kim Colando ’83 Holly raudonis

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