Bulletin - Fall 2009

Fall 2009 Volume 46.Number 2

Bringing the best of themselves and our students. Going beyond the usual and expected is paramount for faculty at Tower Hill School. They prepare students through the power of education by unlocking individual potential, nurturing talents and sparking curiosity.

Bringing the best of themselves and our students. Going beyond the usual and expected is paramount for faculty at Tower Hill School. They prepare students through the power of education by unlocking individual potential, nurturing talents and sparking curiosity.

in this issue...2 ..............Headmaster letter

3..............Spotlight on Faculty

4..............Connecting Toward Fulfillment: Hugh Atkins

6 .............Embodying Multa Bene Facta: Ellis Wasson

8 .............Sabbatical 101: Eric Perkins

10 ...........1517 Mt. Salem Lane: .......... The Hayward House

16 ...........A Calling to Teach

18 ...........Graduation 2009

24 ...........Around Tower Hill

28 ..........John’s Notes

HeadmasterChristopher D. Wheeler, Ph.D.

2009-20010 Board of Trustees

Lance L. Weaver, President

David P. Roselle, Vice President

William H. Daiger Jr., Treasurer

Linda R. Boyden, Secretary

Michael A. AciernoTheodore H. Ashford III

Dr. Earl J. Ball IIIJane H. Carey

Robert W. Crowe Jr. ’90Ben du Pont ’82

Charles ElsonFrederick S. Freibott

Marc L. Greenberg ’81Thomas D. Harvey

Pierre duP. Hayward ’66Michael P. Kelly ’75Ellen J. Kullman ’74

Keith StoltzMatthew T. Twyman III ’88

Dennis Zeleny

Acting Director of DevelopmentKathryn R. Warner

Editor, Director of CommunicationsNancy B. Schuckert

Class Notes EditorSenior Development Officer

John C. Pierson Jr. ’59

PhotographyJim Graham Joe Smolko

Nancy B. Schuckert Ben Fournier

Layout/DesignKedash Design

Submissions to the Bulletin, suggestions for articles, photographs or letters are

welcome. Mail information to the Development Office, Tower Hill School,

2813 West 17th Street, Wilmington, DE, 19806

or email [email protected]. We reserve the right to edit

submissions for space and content.

Tower Hill School welcomes students of any race, religion, color or nationality.

The school does not discriminate in its administrative policies or in the

administration of its program.

If you would like to submit Class Notes, check our updated sport scores or

read about the latest events sponsored by the Alumni Council, please visit our

web site at www.towerhill.org.

Cover: Hugh Atkins, Chair of the English Department

2 Tower Hill BulletinFall 2009

During our opening day convocation on September 11, I was reminded of the terrible events that date will forever evoke. But as I gazed out on our 747 students and 180 faculty/staff I was also mindful of Tower Hill School’s legacy of excellence and how our school has thrived even in the most difficult of times. This school year is no exception! We entered our 91st year just three students short of our all-time high enrollment of 750, a wonderful result given the challenges of this difficult economy. I can’t help but be excited about our momentum and strength.

The single most important factor driving Tower Hill’s success today is our faculty. At Tower Hill excellent teaching is paramount. Our learning environment constantly challenges students to go beyond the usual and expected. For example, one of the new science department courses this year is Biomolecules and DNA, an advanced biochemistry study on the use of DNA for research, medical and legal applications. Our ability to offer this course is a direct consequence of our move away from the Advanced Placement curriculum, which you may recall reading about in our Spring 2009 Bulletin. Our students are challenging themselves in a number of other fascinating courses, too, and will leave Tower Hill with a deeper understanding of their subjects and more critical thinking and analytical skills than ever before.

The faculty have had a lead role in moving our program away from the AP’s standardized curriculum, but it is Carol Pepper, Director of Curriculum Development, who is driving a comprehensive review and renewal of our curriculum from Pre-school through 12th grade. We are confident that this effort will prepare students extremely well for their next educational setting and for their emerging roles as global citizens. We thought you would be interested in reading about some of Tower Hill’s line-up of incredible teachers, and inside this issue you will find articles about three of our master faculty members: Hugh Atkins, English Department Chair; Ellis Wasson, History Department Chair; and Eric Perkins, Music Department Chair. These are but three of the extraordinary teachers we have in our midst! We’re also proud to look back and offer a remembrance of legendary Lower School Head Bill Smith, written by his children.

Thanks to the many hours of research completed by Ed Lincoln ’67, you will read about Tower Hill’s recent acquisition of the former Harrington property, the last piece of property contiguous to the campus that was not owned by the school. I know you will enjoy learning about the history of this house and viewing the photos of 1517 Mt. Salem Lane.

Finally, I hope that you will enjoy reading “John’s Notes” and catching up on the news from your Tower Hill classmates. And why not keep them up-to-date on your news? Whatever it might be, they would like to hear. Please send us a note or photo to [email protected]. We would love to include your news in the next Bulletin!

October 2009

Yours for Tower Hill,

Chris Wheeler, Ph.D. , Headmaster

3Fall 2009Tower Hill Bulletin

A closer look at the talented teachers at Tower Hill


the creative act

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Connecting Toward Fulfillment

By John Robinson, Upper School English and College Guidance Counselor

.M. Forster in his classic novel, Howard’s End declares, “Only Connect…Connect the poetry and the prose of life.” I think of that phrase often when I think of Hugh Atkins. He has been making marvelous creative connections all of his life possessing an eclectic imagination that allows him to see vital links between seemingly disparate ideas. This was apparent from my first meeting with Hugh in the late summer of 1982. I lived around the corner making it convenient for us to have several lively conversations before the beginning of the school year. We discovered that we had much in common especially our love of jazz, blues, rock and roll, the novels of Iris Murdoch, the films of the French New Wave and the theatrical genius of Peter Brook. I explained to him the mythic nature and tradition of baseball and he the mystical and historical importance of cricket. I explained the phenomenon of the curve ball and he

the googly. A bond had been established. Within a few weeks we were reveling with the Who and the Clash at the old J.F.K. stadium. I was reminded of this during Hugh’s recent inspiring and entertaining graduation address (See pages 21-22.) He alluded to the Who’s My Generation while he extolled the graduating class to thoroughly engage the world collectively and individually, taking pride in their achievements. This vision of creative participation informs all aspects of Hugh’s life and career.

Filling in for David Scherer who was on sabbatical, Hugh, a graduate holding a master’s from Emmanuel College, Cambridge and many years teaching at Wellington College and City of London School, enjoyed a year-long position as Chair of the Speech and Drama Department, including the teaching of a few English classes. Drawing heavily on his vast experience in the theater, having directed over 60 shows in England, including Shakespeare, Beckett, Brecht,

Stoppard, Shaffer, Anouilh, Chekov, Tourneur and Neil Simon, he infused new innovative energy to the program. His Tower Hill production of Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead in the spring of ’83 was a tour de force, as he experimented with gender roles with several students playing the lead characters of the opposite sex. When Hugh left at the end of the year, my colleague Jim Wood and I started “conspiring to get the Brit back.”

In 1985 Hilary Russell, English Department head at the time, followed his poetic bliss to his blessed Berkshires after several fruitful years leaving his position open. It didn’t take much lobbying to convince headmaster David Blanchard that we needed a different emphasis, dare I say, accent in the English Department.

For the past 24 years Hugh has been responsible for supervising all teaching of English, Grades 5 through 12, the

spotl ight on FACULTY

Tower Hill Bulletin Fall 2009 5

of connecting

Golding Endowed Faculty Chair.

A consistent thread through all of Hugh’s work, including his wonderfully detailed imagistic collages is the vibrant idea that art is life. The dance between art and the reality of the daily world is a phenomenon to be cherished. Hugh amply demonstrates that the creative act of connecting is a step toward fulfillment. “The arts tell us who we are; they show us how life can be and how it might be.”

The Wilmington community benefits greatly from this philosophical world. As co-founder of TASCH Productions, Hugh is committed to providing stimulating alternative theater in the Wilmington area. A board member to the Christina Cultural Arts Center, the Kuumba Academy, past board member of the Tri State Bird Rescue and a member of the Educational Advisory Board of the Delaware Theatre Company, he tirelessly shares his insights, talent and experience.

Hugh Atkins has been my mentor for almost a quarter of a century. It has been a long time since that lazy summer afternoon we spent listening to the hip jazz blues of Mose Allison, talking about novels, films, theater and teaching—connecting always connecting.

reading program in Grades 5 through 8 as well as the coordination of a 12-person department.

The requirements of a department head are many. Some tasks are tediously prosaic—the bureaucracy takes its toll with budgets, schedule planning, evaluations and seemingly endless meetings; however, the great chairs leave ample room for creativity. Cultivating intellect, imagination and expertise from his department, Hugh empowered us to collaborate with him on a major curriculum overhaul. For well over two decades the English courses of the Upper School have been challenging, nuanced, thought provoking and diverse. An appropriate role model for his department, Hugh conjured courses that connected the post modernism of Don DeLillo’s White Noise to Milton’s classical Paradise Lost (in the course entitled Planet Waves); the existentialism of Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man to Ishmael Reed’s contemporary hoodoo of Mumbo Jumbo (in the course entitled Is You Is?).

As a superb teacher, Mr. Atkins entreats his students to take intellectual risks. Teaching in a lyrical manner, he knows that language is essence. Language is truth. Through academic rigor and good

humor his students learn as much about themselves as they do the novel, play or poem they are studying. In addition, Hugh’s exemplary writing conferences are empathetic, encouraging and always critically constructive.

Hugh has served Tower Hill unselfishly outside the classroom as well, as chair of the curriculum committee, coordinator of the Pierre S. du Pont Arts Center and co-founder and first chair of the faculty council. He has lent his acting talents to school productions of Romeo and Juliet and Camelot. Writing, developing and directing Sleepers Awake in 1997 with its use of masks and music, fusing together Eastern and Western traditions was an enormous challenge and an unqualified success.

The integration of art in life has been a theme for Hugh throughout his career. His sabbatical in 2003 took him to Bali to study how the epic mythic narratives of the Hindu epics the Ramayana and Mahabharata were “vehicles for religious, social and political commentary,” dramatic performance being a central dynamic to Balinese life. The course Adoption and Adaptation is the product of this experience. In 2008 the school honored Mr. Atkins with The Timothy B.


6 Fall 2009 Tower Hill Bulletin

Embodying Multa Bene Facta By Harry Baetjer, Associate Head of School

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Unbeknownst to most, Ellis has maintained a high level of involvement as an author and a globally recognized authority on English elites, England in the 19th century and teaching English history. He has published 20 or more reviews and nearly 20 additional articles in scholarly magazines from the Journal of British Studies, to the Economic History Review, to The History Teacher with articles published in England, Germany, the United States and Russia. There have also been four books including an English history textbook (Modern Britain: 1714 to the Present) that was published this past August. In addition, Ellis has presented at eight conferences, including three European meetings. His work has been recognized with fellowships in the Royal Historical Society, the Royal Society of Arts and a Citation of Merit from the English-Speaking Union, but perhaps most notably as a Visiting Fellow at Wolfson College at Cambridge. In May he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a historic British association. Ellis’ academic work has brought him well-deserved recognition and with it recognition for Tower Hill.

The Tower Hill community has most often associated Ellis with the Forum, our spectacular lecture series now

in its 11th year. The Forum series of lectures has been made possible by a gift designated specifically for Upper School students and faculty. Tower Hill has been fortunate to share this remarkable gift with other faculty, parents, alumni and friends, expanding the impact of the Forum, and Ellis’ efforts have been critical. Certainly, one must recognize the extraordinary generosity of the Rappolt family in making the Forum possible, but it’s the work Ellis does in identifying appropriate speakers that is essential to its success. This is the final and most time-consuming step in a process that begins with selection of the year’s theme by the History Department, the Rappolts and a group of students. Ellis has gradually developed the process for students to get involved not only in the planning, but also in publicizing the event in the school and introducing the speakers. In addition to lectures, every speaker has been willing to be part of an afternoon discussion group or classes so that interested students from any grade in Upper School can also interact with these outstanding experts in a small group setting. From the development of the theme for the year to the final speech, the Forum has become an educational opportunity for students. But the hardest work—identifying, negotiating with, and organizing the logistics for the speakers—remains Ellis’ responsibility.

Ellis’ roles as Department Chair and teacher are the ones those of us inside the school immediately associate with him, and they are inextricably intertwined. Ellis embodies the teacher as a lifelong learner and encourages this approach in everyone around him. As his colleagues in the History Department will tell you, they receive a consistent

he voice on the other end of the phone was professional, pleasant and apologetic. The chair of the department was away and was not available. It was 1990, and I was checking references on a candidate. The secretary asked if she might help, and I asked her if she knew Ellis Wasson. “Oh my, yes. He was wonderful to work with. We all wish that he was still here. The students loved him.” It has been nearly 19 years since that conversation, and those sentiments about Ellis hold true now more than ever.

Tower Hill was exceedingly lucky to meet Ellis at that time. In the fifteen years since he had received his doctorate from the University of Cambridge, he had been a teacher, department chair and dean of faculty at The Rivers School, and Headmaster of the Senior School at Shady Side Academy for five years. His exceptional career and the number of different institutions that were trying to recruit him, in fact, made us rather nervous originally, as we were concerned whether Tower Hill would offer enough interesting challenges to attract and keep Ellis at the school. But Ellis spoke with conviction about his desire to limit his administrative responsibilities and to focus on research, writing and teaching. It was and remains today the perfect match.

Forum speaker Governor Jack Markell on September 29, 2009, with Dr. Ellis Wasson, Paul Harrell (former faculty member who is currently serving on Delaware’s Department of Education) and students involved with the Forum program.


stream of articles about different aspects of history and the teaching of history that emanate from a wide variety of professional magazines. They extend the historical horizons and challenge the members of the department to continue to grow. The yearly department summer reading book is just another way to encourage a community of learners.

The work Ellis does in the classroom is, arguably, the most important contribution he makes. Great teachers inspire interest, develop skills, impart knowledge and become positive role models for students. Tower Hill is blessed to have a number of great teachers, and Ellis is one of these great teachers. On one of the online rating sites notorious as an outlet for unhappy students, a comment from a former student who is now attending the University of Delaware where Ellis also teaches college courses, begins to explain why his students are so positive about him. It also encapsulates the evaluation of nearly every one of Ellis’ students. “I had Ellis Wasson as a high school student (he teaches AP Euro). You will not find a smarter man, nor a professor with as much enthusiasm for his topic as he does. Lectures are actually interesting stories that make boring topics relatable and memorable.” Former students will also talk about the fairness of his grading, the skills that they learned (especially in writing); and his genuine desire to see his students succeed. But beyond this they appreciated his effort to see them perform in athletics, music and drama.

We recognize a junior student each year who most embodies the school motto: Multa Bene Facta. It is very clear that if there were a faculty equivalent, Ellis would be a prime candidate. So, 19 years ago the secretary at The Rivers School had it right. Since that time, Ellis has gone far beyond in his contributions to the Tower Hill community and the academic world.


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Above: Ellis Wasson in his Cambridge doctoral gown, painted by former student David Larned, Jr. ’95. David and his wife Sarah are professional artists living in Chester County.

Below: Forum speaker and U.S. historian Linda Gordon discusses her book The Woman’s Movement with a small group of students before her lecture on April 22, 2009.

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hen one experiences a good movie, play, film or work of art, he or she is changed in some way. If only for a short time, one’s perspective, sensibilities, empathy are altered and perhaps consciousness is expanded a little. Like these, my sabbatical has changed me in profound ways. The full extent and for how long are questions that I am just too close to the event to judge, but I experienced a fundamental shift. The changes were not delivered like some great epiphany, but more like the turning of a corner to reveal new vistas and ways of looking at the world. I have also learned a great deal about myself, my physical abilities, the joy of reaching what seemed like far-fetched goals at the start and a new sense of confidence in my place as a citizen of the world.

My sabbatical proposal focused on three areas: education, renewal and travel. In early January, I started an online course from the Berklee College of Music entitled “Music Notation Using Sibelius.” This course was of particular interest to me because of Tower Hill’s recent movement to go beyond the

SABBATICAL 101By Eric Perkins, Chair of the Music Department

Advanced Placement curriculum and to add a more structured technology component to the traditional Music Theory AP course that I have taught over the past 30 years. Recent advances in music software make it ever more important for students to be knowledgeable in this area. The technology is useful in almost all areas of music study including composition, analysis, performance aids for both live performance and practice, and for commercial applications from the stage to video editing to recording and movie sound tracks. I acquired useful techniques and understanding about using Sibelius software for inclusion in an updated theory course. It also opened the door to new course ideas like computer orchestration, sequencing and drum machines, coordinating music to video, using the computer to activate banks of mid-controlled musical instruments and many others limited only by technical expertise and imagination.

The second part of my sabbatical experience involved hiking parts of the Appalachian Trail in Maryland, West


Virginia and Virginia. I started at the Trail Conference Headquarters in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, where I had a chance to break in my new boots, watch rock climbers and experience a little bit of the ups and downs in the elevation of the trail. Once I established my walking rhythm, I became more interested in what nature had laid out before me than how my body was reacting to all the walking. Being out in nature and miles away from my everyday experiences helped me renew my sense of wonder and think about how my own personal experience fits into this natural world. Hikes in the Shenandoah National Park above the Skyline Drive held both the most challenges and the rewards. Hiking to the top of Mary’s Rock (elevation 3514 ft.) was one of the most interesting hikes with looping switchbacks across the slopes of the mountain on top of stonewalls built by members of the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s.

Three other hikes were particularly noteworthy as well. Big Stony Man mountain and Hawksbill mountain both share peaks over 4000 ft. in elevation

Eric Perkins hiked many parts of the Appalachian Trail in Maryland, West Virginia and Virginia during his recent sabbatical.

Wynton Marsalis performs in the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, one of many musical programs Eric attended in New Orleans and Montreux, Switzerland.



and breathtaking views of the valleys and mountains, and Bearfence Mountain’s side trail over a “rock scramble” added both physical and mental challenges. The “rock scramble” trail followed along the top of 200 to 300 ft. high rocks sticking straight up forming the ridge of the 3652 ft. high summit. I carefully followed the trail markers painted on the rocks while picking out solid footing and at times crawling up and down rock formations and around blind corners on ledges, and at the same time, tried to maintain the mental focus not to obsess over the dropoffs on either side of the trail. While enjoying and benefiting

from my solitude along the trail, I began to question if hiking alone might not always have been a good idea!

The third part of my sabbatical involved traveling to New Orleans and Montreux, Switzerland, to attend jazz festivals. The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival was celebrating its 40th year, while the Montreux Jazz Festival was in its 43rd season. Both festivals offered outstanding performers with their own distinct flavor. The New Orleans festival was a huge event with 11 different stages at one site hosting performers continuously throughout each day for

the two-week period. The atmosphere was very much like New Orleans itself—free wheeling, larger then life and a little gritty with food choices just a bit beyond the ordinary like Alligator Pie. In three days of concerts, I saw 21 programs by top performers in the jazz and pop worlds, including Cindy Scott, Wynton Marsalis with the Lincoln Center Orchestra, Pete Fountain, Etta James, and Terence Blanchard plus pop artists, James Taylor, Joe Cocker, Earth Wind and Fire and The Dave Matthews band. Montreux was much more refined, and the setting was in one of the most naturally beautiful places I’ve experienced. I had great seats for one evening’s performance featuring Steve Winwood, The Derek Trucks Band and David Sanborn. It was a fabulous show in a very professional, refined atmosphere with great sound and inspired performances, which is what the whole Montreux experience is about.

My sabbatical experience was one of personal challenge and growth. The course work was very detailed and took many hours of meticulous reviewing and rewriting to make the final products as error free as possible. The hiking stretched me physically and gave me much time to reflect and wonder. The travel gave me a new sense of the world and a wide experience in the variety of ways humanity expresses itself through music.

Eric Perkins conducts the Upper School concert band. Under his guidance, the music program has grown and become a core part of the Tower Hill curriculum.

education...renewal...travel

When Eric Perkins first took the stage at Tower Hill School in 1979,it was in front of a very small band on the very small stage of the 1919 Auditorium. That band contained a wide range of abilities—both Middle School and Upper school students—and met irregularly as part of a non-graded activity. Committed to music as an educational necessity, Eric began to make changes first as a member of his department and later as department chair. Today every student who proceeds through Tower Hill’s program receives the benefit of an ensemble experience. Band and chorus are both flourishing; a new string program has begun; there is a multi-faceted general music program; and several avenues for further musical development have emerged. Today when Mr. Perkins takes the stage and addresses the audience and students in his soft-spoken manner, he stands in front of one of several thriving ensembles. These ensembles are no longer merely activities but graded courses based on strong educational principles. Under his guidance great changes have taken place in the music department—perhaps it was time for a bit of a break...perhaps a sabbatical?

By Scott Zeplin, Middle School Music and Acting Music Department Chair during Eric Perkins sabbatical


WWhen the Tower Hill Board of Trustees met in December 2008 to discuss a possible bid for the Harrington parcel, the house and surrounding outbuildings were not a motivating factor. We knew there would be significant renovation costs, and “a large house that appeared to have no academic use” was not on our priority list. We concluded that we would need to explore tearing it down.

The board’s decision to pursue the land acquisition was driven by the fact that this four-acre property was the last large parcel adjacent to our existing campus. Further motivation was our knowledge that local developers had discussed with city officials the construction of 24 townhouses, which current zoning permitted. Fortunately, Tower Hill was the successful bidder.

Immediately after taking ownership, a few curious board members took a walk-through of the house. It was a poignant and defining moment. The universal reaction was “we cannot tear down this house.” Fulfilling dreams, however, comes with a price. In March 2009 the full board met inside the Harrington house, and there was unanimity on two issues: we should mount a heroic effort to save the house, and no tuition dollars or endowment funds would be spent on renovation expenses. Fortuitously, fundraising efforts have been successful, and we can now foresee it ultimately becoming a facility for school and alumni events as well as the headmaster’s house.

Shortly after we acquired the property, I received a call from Ed Lincoln ’67 asking who had purchased the property and what was going to happen to the house. From our association as students at Tower Hill and our current involvement at Winterthur Museum, I knew Ed was naturally curious and exceedingly bright. As I had already become an experienced guide to the house, I agreed to give Ed a tour. Previous tours had lasted 10 minutes; Ed’s lasted two hours. I learned more about hinges, latches, light fixtures, switches, flooring, paneled doors and other features than I had ever hoped to know. I came away exhausted but I also knew I had hit the proverbial jackpot: I had found someone who had the ability, knowledge and desire to put together an extensive history on the house and property. What follows is a distillation of many volunteer hours of Ed’s time. As a result, both I and the Tower Hill community, will have gone from clueless to fascinated. Ed has relished the challenge, and I have thoroughly enjoyed the journey of learning. I am sure you will as well.

Pierre Hayward ’66Board of Trustees, Buildings and Grounds Committee


The front view of 1517 Mt. Salem Lane, renamed the Hayward House. Work

on the property earlier in the year, including removal of

trees, brush and overgrown landscaping, has revealed

the magnificence of the Georgian/American Federal revival house. Photographed

October 2009.

Will Harrington Jr. on steps with unknown girls in the 1920s.

1517 MT. SALEM LANE:The Hayward House

By Edmond L. Lincoln ’67

arly in 2009 Tower Hill acquired 1517 Mt. Salem Lane, one of the fine early 20th century houses remaining in Wilmington. Prior to the acquisition, the property was known as the Harrington house named after the family who owned it from 1923-2009.

At this year’s graduation ceremony Lance Weaver, President of the Board, announced the property had been renamed the “Hayward House” in memory of Rosa Laird Hayward McDonald (1916-2009). Throughout her lifetime, she continued the legacy of her father, William Winder Laird, and the other ten school founders in keeping Tower Hill as a leader in educational excellence.

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The HistoryLast February a flurry of activity began on the four-acre site adjacent to Tower Hill that is bounded by Pennsylvania Avenue, Tower Road, Mt. Salem Lane and the Rice Paddy. Brush and trees have been selectively removed, the ground has been graded and seeded and a handsome red-brick Georgian/American Federal revival house and its dependencies have begun to emerge like Sleeping Beauty.

At the outset, it is important to understand that the history of the site that Tower Hill purchased in February 2009 is the story of two houses: a very large house (1501 Mt. Salem) that was built in 1906, torn down in 1936 and was situated in the middle of the four- acre parcel; and a second house (1517 Mt. Salem) that was built in 1916 on a corner of the parcel and remains there today.

The earliest records of the property date back to 1847 when a 12-acre plot of land between 19th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue was acquired by

Mt. Salem Methodist Church. The church cemetery—still there today between 17th and 19th Streets—was authorized to sell a portion of the land between 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue. Some development occurred during the next 30 years, before the purchase of four acres by Hamilton M. Barksdale, DuPont’s explosives genius, and Ethel du Pont Barksdale. Mrs. Barksdale was a daughter of Victor du Pont. (Older Tower Hill readers will remember Victor’s house, which used to be the pre-kindergarten building and was situated on what is now the end zone of the Tower Hill football field.)

In 1905-06 the Barksdales built “Wyncrest,” a very large brick gambrel roof house, at 1501 Mt. Salem Lane in the approximate center of the property. Also in 1906, a carriage house and stable was built. The carriage house remains today and serves as a garage. A second house,1517 Mt. Salem Lane, was built as a wedding present for the Barkdale’s daughter Greta Barksdale Brown (1891-1965) and her husband

Frank Donaldson Brown (1885-1965). Though surprising today, it was not uncommon before 1929 for well-to-do parents to provide houses for their newly married daughters as part of a dowry.

As originally built, the house was smaller than today—a five-bay house with Georgian style balance and two windows on each side of the front door. Between 1917-1919 a game room, circular game room hall stairway, living room, master bedroom, and master bathroom and playroom were added onto the southern end of the original house. The magnitude of this addition, which increased the size of the house by one-third, may have been the result of needs of an increasing young family. Another explanation which Greta Brown Layton ’42, a daughter who was born after her parents left the house, shared was that her father’s mother came to live with her parents shortly after their marriage, which contributed greatly to a need for significant additional space.

Left: George Foote and Lisa Harrington Foote on the porch roof at 1517 Mt. Salem Lane on their wedding day on May 6, 1978.

Above: George and Will Harrington Jr. on a sled in the front yard of 1517 Mt. Salem Lane during the mid-1920s.


Above: The spectacular circular staircase on the west side of the house was added during the extensive 1917-19 additions. Photographed October 2009.

Left: Aerial view of Tower Hill School and the surrounding area on July 12, 1925.

(1) The school’s original building bounded by open space on 17th Street.

(2) “Wyncrest,” 1501 Mt. Salem Lane, was built by the Barksdales in 1905-06 in the middle of Pennsylvania Avenue and Mt. Salem Lane. The house was demolished in the 1930s.

(3) 1517 Mt. Salem Lane, a wedding gift from the Barksdales to their daughter, was built in 1915-16. Photo courtesy of Hagley Museum and Library.

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Donaldson Brown had joined the DuPont Co. in 1909 and helped arrange DuPont’s purchase of a substantial stake in General Motors in 1918. A protégé of DuPont colleague John Raskob, who was then chairman of the Finance Committee of General Motors, Brown resigned his roles with DuPont in 1921 and joined General Motors in New York where he served in various senior positions until December 1959. Brown was known for his introduction of statistical formulas to measure return on investment, return on equity and other indicators of corporate performance.

As a result of joining General Motors, the Browns did not occupy the house for long and sold 1517 with its single car garage and .6 acres of land to Elizabeth Harrington and her husband Willis F. (Buck) Harrington in 1923. The Harringtons eventually acquired the remaining portion of the four-acre parcel in 1936.

After the death of Buck Harrington in 1960 and Elizabeth in 1972, 1517 passed jointly to her three sons—Charles, George and Willis, Jr. In 1973

Willis acquired the entire property and made it the home for his wife Janet and their daughter Lisa (now Lisa Harrington Foote ’72). Willis died in 1997 and Janet in 2008.

The House The house is a handsome two-and-a- half story residence of almost 10,000 square feet and is supremely comfortable without being ostentatious. Ceilings are 10 feet high and door widths are generous. The main staircase with its mahogany rail is stately, while the circular staircase from the 1917-19 addition is of extraordinary grace and refinement. Some of the construction details reflect uncommonly high engineering standards. Much of the sub-flooring between stories is concrete and terra-cotta as are some of the interior walls.

The Georgian/American Federal revival style of which 1517 is an example was a “ligua franca” at the time it was built. It is tantamount to being an American architectural vocabulary, which came into its own at the time of the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. No architect had a monopoly on

the style. The preliminary thinking is that 1517 and Wyncrest were probably designed by the same architect, which may explain why certain details at 1517 look a bit old fashioned for a 1915-16 construction. The 1917-19 additions have a more up-to-date, slightly more “chic,” feel and may reflect a different hand from the one designing the original part of the house.

While we know a great deal about 1517, we have not yet identified the contractor or architect as local architectural practices from the early 20th century and their archives are not well documented or preserved. No plans appear to have survived for the original house or the 1917-1919 additions. We have the plans for the conversion of the carriage house into a garage in 1936. These are by Brown and Whiteside, the architect of Tower Hill. Further additions were made in between 1929 and 1933. These were by Wallace and Warner, a Philadelphia firm active in the Wilmington area.

A more detailed version of Ed Lincoln’s history will be available at the Alumni House as well as at the Hayward House when the renovation is completed.

Left: The library, part of the original house, has 2 ½ inch thick doors and a generous door width of 40 ½ inches. The paneling was added in 1933.

Right top: Back view of the Hayward House. Recent renovatons include a new roof, copper gutters, flashing and new windows. Photographed October 2009.

Fully one third of the house, the right side of the photo that includes the hexagonal tower and the portion of the house to which it is attached, was added in 1918, two years after the house had been given as a wedding gift.

Right bottom: The Hayward House’s main entryway and mahogany staircase. Photographed October 2009.



hen our father Bill Smith came back from serving in WWII, he became an elementary school teacher in Philadelphia. It was not a common or even conventional (or lucrative) course for a young man after the war. He finished his college degree at Temple on the G.I. Bill and returned to serve in another way. It was both an altruistic and absurd idea that the world would change through elementary education, but Bill Smith imagined nothing less. His profession was a calling he answered with enthusiasm, with discernment and commitment, and with passion and humor.

The post-war world swirled with interesting and progressive ideas of education from A.S. Neill’s Summerhill to John Dewey’s experiential education to Maria Montessori’s self-directed learning to Jean Piaget’s ideas of cognitive development. Bill Smith sampled from them all, modified them in the work place and developed his own pragmatic education theories, which were one part ongoing experiment, one part teacher-friendly environment and one part day camp romp. At Oak Lane Country Day School in suburban Philadelphia, he and other returning war vets spent summers working with kids in a setting that fostered intellectual, creative, academic and personal growth with special emphasis on art, music and drama. He learned in this progressive place a kind of laboratory for learning-by-doing. Our father worked first in the

A Calling toBy Bruce Smith and Craig Smith ’74

William R. Smith Endowed Fund for Financial Assistance—Established and endowed in 2009 to honor one of its founding members, William P. Smith. This endowment will provide a continual reminder to our community of the commitment to Tower Hill School–its values and ideals–that Bill Smith and other faculty members, past and present, maintain. n If you would like to contribute to this fund, please send your check to Tower Hill School c/o Development Office and note that it is for the William R. Smith Endowed Fund for Financial Assistance.

public schools of Philadelphia and then at Episcopal Academy where he taught reading and science and coached the 70 and then 80-pound football teams among other duties. In 1968 he came to Tower Hill. When he retired in 1989 after having a disabling stroke, he was delighted to help select Sandy Wang as the next head. Before he died in 1993, he told us that he wanted his service to be on a Friday. We realized he wanted to give his teachers and students who attended the funeral a start on a long weekend.

When our family made what seemed like an epic excursion south to Wilmington, we eventually took up residence on West 18th Street within sight of the music room and the tower at Rockford Park. Bill Smith walked to work each day at the place where his son, Craig entered as a 7th grader and graduated in 1974 and where his grandkids Sarah and Bill Smith attended from 1986-2000.

His achievement as the head of the Lower School is not to be easily measured by bricks or brains, by institutional expansion or by the numbers of National Merit Scholars produced on his watch. Instead he was successful in proportion to the number of kids who were granted authentic childhoods. His world was finger paints, seedlings in cups, songs on the recorder, arithmetic, penmanship, small animals and a geodesic dome he made out of plywood. He made a place that was caring and concerned with the welfare and development of children: it’s not

to be underestimated how formidable a job that is. He made it look easy. Teaching is not for the timid; elementary school teaching requires fortitude as well as “with-it-ness,” which is almost impossible to school. He had that gift.

He surrounded himself with excellent teachers, people who were smart and aware and with-it. In the triumvirate of parents, teachers, and students, he favored the teachers.

Let’s not forget the Christmas Tree trim or Halloween where Mr. Smith would come dressed as the lost and found, wearing all the items of disremembered clothing like some Dickens’ character and having those items removed by parents who recognized that sweater, that Winnie the Pooh shirt. He coached little guys’ football at Tower Hill and was legendary; we have the pictures, as a starter for the track meets, wearing a jaunty cap and looking official and firing a gun, maybe for the only time in his life.

Our father had that quality that we learned to call “professional patience,” an evenness of temper, a calm way of speaking that wasn’t condescending and a Quaker quietude. My brother and I were the beneficiaries of his habitual sweetness, which is why we’re grateful to have him remembered with this gift in his name.

WTEACH

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New students were welcomed at the opening day convocation on September 11, 2009.


89th Annual Graduation Exercises

89th Annual Graduation Exercises

Tower Hill’s 89th Graduation was held on Saturday, May 30, 2009, on the Rice Paddy with the reception at St. Amour. The traditional area for graduation adjacent to the Field House was no longer available due to irrigation and drainage lines on the newly completed Frank E. Acierno fields. Graduation 2010 will be moving to the newly acquired Hayward House. The school is committed to a “tent graduation” going forward to avoid the use of the Field House in the event of bad weather.

Deborah Kaiser, Director of Physical Education, offered the Invocation. Board President Lance L. Weaver presented former board member Charles Gummey with an honorary diploma for his many years of service to Tower Hill. Mary Dever Hobbs and Alexis Aurigemma, members of the Class of 2009, performed For Good, dedicated to the class. Lindsey Alice Edinger and William D. Zantzinger, members of the Class of 2009, delivered speeches. Hugh Atkins, Chair of the English Department, introduced by Michael Holston Schmitt, delivered the commencement address. Christopher Wheeler, Headmaster, and Lance L. Weaver, President of the Board of Trustees, awarded diplomas to the members of the Class of 2009.


Albright College American UniversityArizona State UniversityAuburn UniversityBentley UniversityBoston College Bradley UniversityBrown UniversityBucknell University Clarkson CollegeClemson UniversityColby College Colgate University College of CharlestonColorado CollegeColorado School of MinesConnecticut CollegeCornell UniversityDavidson College Dickinson CollegeDrexel UniversityDuke UniversityEast Carolina StateEckerd CollegeElizabethtown College Emory UniversityFranklin & Marshall CollegeGeorgetown UniversityGeorge Washington UniversityGeorgia Institute of Technology

Hamilton College Harvard UniversityHaverford CollegeIndiana UniversityIowa State UniversityIthaca CollegeJames Madison UniversityJohns Hopkins UniversityLehigh UniversityLynchburg CollegeMiami University (Ohio)Michigan State UniversityNorth Carolina A&TNortheastern UniversityOhio Wesleyan UniversityPenn State University Princeton UniversityRandolph Macon UniversityRensselaer Polytechnic Institute Rhode Island School of DesignRose-Hulman Institute of TechnologySaint Joseph’s UniversitySavannah College of Art & DesignStanford UniversitySyracuse UniversityTrinity CollegeTufts UniversityTulane UniversityUniversity of AlabamaUniversity of California (Santa Barbara)

University of ChicagoUniversity of Colorado (Boulder) University of ConnecticutUniversity of Delaware University of GeorgiaUniversity of Massachusetts (Amherst)University of Miami University of MississippiUniversity of MissouriUniversity of North Carolina (Chapel Hill) University of Pennsylvania University of Pittsburgh University of Richmond University of St. AndrewsUniversity of the SciencesUniversity of South Carolina University of TennesseeUniversity of Vermont University of Virginia Ursinus College Vanderbilt University Villanova UniversityVirginia Tech University Wake Forest UniversityWashington CollegeWashington UniversityWidener UniversityWilliams CollegeYale University

Michael Aboff ............................................... Franklin & Marshall CollegeSara Adelman .............................................................. Iowa State UniversityKyle Anderson ...........................................................University of DelawareAlexis Aurigemma .............................................................. Brown UniversityCaleigh Azumaya ........................................................University of VirginiaStephanie Bernasconi .....................................................Dickinson CollegeRachel Brown .......................................... University of Delaware-HonorsAnthony Carter .......................................................................Boston CollegeMerritt Cooch ....................................................... East Carolina UniversityBenjamin Craig ......................................Georgia Institute of TechnologyEvan DeDominicis ............................................................. Williams CollegeLindsey Edinger ............................................................... Colgate UniversityColleen Egan ......................................................Michigan State UniversityAndrew Esposito .........................................................University of VirginiaJon Gabriel ................................................................. Elizabethtown CollegeCatherine Glen ..................................Savannah College of Art & DesignCharles Glick .................................................................. Stanford UniversityNicole Grant ............................................. George Washington UniversityTaylor Hewes ....................................................... Johns Hopkins UniversityJustin Hicks .....................................................................Bucknell UniversityMary Hobbs ........................................................................Haverford CollegeTyler Hobbs ...............................................................University of DelawareChristopher Kane ..............................................................Lehigh UniversityMadelyne Lynam .....................................................University of DelawareMeghan Lyons .....................University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill

David Ma ........................................................................... Harvard UniversityRonald Ma ...........................................................................Delaware-HonorsEmily Mackey ...........................................................University of DelawareSean McCloskey ............................................................Bucknell UniversityNathan McDonald ..................................................University of DelawareLucy McMurry ................................................................... Davidson CollegeDavid Melnick ..........................................................University of DelawareRyan Mitchell ........................................................... Elizabethtown CollegeCallye Phillips ...........................................................University of DelawareRoyale Randolph ................................................................... Ursinus CollegeAlex Richmond ............................................................University of GeorgiaTimothy Saunders ...................................................University of DelawareMichael Schmitt ..................................... University of Delaware-HonorsCatherine Seabrook ............................... Rhode Island School of DesignKarim Shafi ...................................................................University of VirginiaSusanne Singer ..............................................................Bucknell UniversityAndrue Smith .......................................... University of Delaware-HonorsKathryn Sommers .................................................................Duke UniversityNaomi Staley .............................................................................. Colby CollegeChelsea Stuart ...........................................................University of MissouriAlexander Timmons ................................................University of DelawareTyler Trerotola .............................................................University of VirginiaAlexandra White ........................................ Pennsylvania State UniversitySamir Yezdani ............................................................University of DelawareWilliam Zantzinger .....................................................University of Virginia

Class of 2009–Colleges Entered

Class of 2009–Colleges Where Students Were Accepted


Lindsey Edinger’s Speech Today is a day of celebration, a day that allows us to reflect on our past achievements and revel in the prospects of our new and exciting futures. Congratulations to the class of 2009; we have all worked hard and deserve to savor our success.

Yet, despite the festive mood, today is strange for me. As I stand here amongst my peers and teachers, my friends and family, I cannot begin to fathom how to articulate the simple word “goodbye.” What is the appropriate gesture that can summarize the experiences and relationships I have developed these past fourteen years? Is it through a handshake or an embrace, a promise to see one soon or never to forget? Today ends more than just my Tower Hill career; it marks the end of a chapter of my life.

Being a third generation Hiller, along with having a faculty parent, one might say I’m a bona fide “lifer.” Yet upon further reflection I’d hardly say that either of these factors are the reasons that have bound me so closely to this school. The roots of my connection begin in the security and support this community has provided for me over the years. Every year when my mom takes the 4th grade on their Williamsburg trip, she practically recruits the entire school community, faculty and parents to help my dad watch over my brother and me. It becomes a Hiller effort to make sure all three E-bears are properly fed and cared for. And I know my story is not unique, that there are countless examples of this community’s generosity and compassion.

Though all of this might sound overly sentimental and a bit wistful, even the most overblown and tired clichés exist because at their core lies the truth. They are based upon actual experiences, experiences such as ours. How else would you explain how the Lower Schoolers make good luck signs for the varsity teams, and how parents of past alumni still attend and cheer at our games? And what about the fact that Mr. Smith can recall teaching some of our parents and even their final grades? So while this tight-knit community may sound like a terrifying prospect to most students, who would probably prefer not to have the majority of the school know what they did Friday night, there’s something comforting about how Marvin always says hello on your way to lunch or snack.

The truth is that once we leave Tower Hill, there’s no guarantee that anyone will know our names. In the real world communities like this are rare. And while we constantly complain about seeing the same 50 faces at school everyday, these same 50 faces all have an invested interest in our well being. There may never be a time in our lives where we can claim to have such an intimate relationship with even half that number of people.

So although many of you underclassmen may be counting down the days till your own graduation, you may find that when the time comes you will be more hesitant to take flight than you expect. For how do you say goodbye to someone who could tell you both of your parents’ first names, and then tell you every haircut you had in Middle School? How do you say goodbye to friends you have known for almost as long as you have lived? How do you say goodbye to the context that has defined you for the past 14 years of your life?

In truth, you don’t. For me Tower Hill has become engrained into my life’s experience as well as become part of my identity. Here we have not just forged memories but have created a lasting impact on the development of each other’s character. And as I stand here before you facing my uncertain future, I stand with the confidence of knowing that I will always be a part of this community. To the families, teachers and especially my classmates: it has been through your support and care that this school has become a second home for me. So, while some of you may never visit these grounds or people again, you should know that your membership here never expires. Hence in lieu of goodbye, I’d simply like to say thank you.

William D. Zantzinger’s Speech Thank you, Lindsey. And thanks to everyone here, but especially the parents. After all of these years, it was you guys who drove us to preseason twice a day. It was you guys who had to come to all of our parent-teacher conferences and come to all of our plays. We recently watched some of the older plays in the homeroom, and speaking for everyone, we’re sorry.

I remember my first day coming to Tower Hill. I had spent one year at Ursuline (no, it’s not just for girls), and I was an outgoing little kid. So when my teacher decided it was time to start class, I interrupted her. I had seen a box of Gold Fish on the top of a high shelf, and told her that before we got started, I thought she should give everyone some, because (and again I was speaking for everyone) we were all very hungry. She gave in, and we all got Gold Fish. Snack was always an important part of Pre-K and I still remember looking for fallen popcorn underneath tables after snack time. So snack is how I started at Tower Hill.

And when you first start school, Graduation feels like it will never come. Then, when it is finally here, you wonder how it came so fast. So, I started eating popcorn off the floor, and now, 14 years later, I’m one of the graduation speakers. Oh, how far we’ve come.

Tower Hill played such a large role in the life of everyone who is graduating here today. Not just in the time we all spent here, but in the people we met and the things we did. Because we have been with the same small number of people for so


Hugh Atkins’ Speech

Good evening. I should like to begin by thanking the Class of 2009 for the honor of being asked to

speak on this momentous occasion. To speak, but what to say to those who are at the last hurdle, in the final lap, just a few feet from the top of the mountain…At the very least, we need to move beyond cliché. How about this?

My name is Hugh. How do do you do?I’m here to speak, to loudspeak to youI got some rhymes if you got the timeI’ll give you a buck if you got a dimeCuz I’m the giver of gifts, the teacher manI’ll tell you how and when you canI’ll tell you “Yes” and I’ll tell you “No”Just so’s you know what seeds to sow.Think, don’t sink. Drive, don’t drink.

If you the chain, then who’s the link?Go reach out, give yo peeps a shoutWho knows who’s goin’ on without?So, that’s my line and now I’m doneI’ll give you the love, cuz I gotta run!

OK, maybe not. Let’s try again. In the hallway that runs between the library and the Upper School English classrooms, there is a portrait of the late Jim Wood. The picture is there because Jim remains the presiding spirit of the Tower Hill English department. In his passion, his wit, his generosity of spirit and his abiding sense of mischief, he exemplified qualities that continue to define the way we work. Each morning when I unlock the classrooms, I say good morning to Jim. He doesn’t say much in reply, but I like to think that he’s keeping an eye on us, making sure that we’re doing good work without taking ourselves too seriously. So, I’ll take Jim as my muse, and hope that you, the Class of 2009, will take time also, as

long, we have really become more than just classmates. Saying we are a family is really a cliché, but in our case, it seems to fit. Sure, we crossed swords on occasion, and had our fair share of drama, but at the end of the day, we have made closer friends here than we ever will.

And that is what made the Class of 2009 great. We didn’t send the most kids to Ivy League schools, or have the best GPA, but we were clearly the best class. And I really do think we were like a family. We bickered like brothers and sisters, but we looked out for each other. I mean who here hasn’t gotten into a fight with Tim? I know I have. But we kept each other out of trouble, and (throwing modesty out the window) even the teachers seemed to notice that we were different. We were the only class to get a TV, a projector and an X-box in our senior homeroom. We had more privileges than any class before us. I wish you all could have seen our homeroom at Christmas. We had so many Christmas lights, Santa himself would have been proud. But I can’t give all the credit to us.

It was also the teachers at Tower Hill who changed us. I’m not known for my memory (as most of my teachers will tell you), but I can still remember Mrs. Bailey quoting “Never is never a verb; never is always an adverb.” I’ll never forget when Colley Bell told us stories of his childhood, most of which could have been made into million dollar movies, and some of which may have been stolen from million dollar movies, Mr. Hughes reminding us that we were just a bunch of “goobers,” and The Purple Poet Lady giving us candy.

Those are just some of the people who made our class great. It was the teachers and the people we experienced them with. As we go on to the next stage in our lives, I hope no one will ever forget these people. So that’s it, we’re finally done. We had to complete a hundred projects, a thousand papers and a million tests to get here (and it feels like most of them were due last week). But we did it, and in the words of Sara, “We’re Dunzo!”

The Class of 2009 following the graduation services on May 30, 2009. Mr. Atkins’ speech was one of the most creative in Tower Hill history. He danced during the introduction of his speech to rap music, and his closing poem used the names of each of the members of the Class of 2009. To view the video for all graduation speeches, go to www.towerhill.org, click on Events & More and Graduation 2009.


you head off into futures unknown, to celebrate those who have helped you to this place in your lives, those special and remarkable people whose influence you may recognize only in retrospect.

But first let’s honor you! I should like to go on record as saying I really like this class! There may be some in the audience who believe that teachers think this way about each class that they teach. Trust me, this is not so. But, in this case, it is. I am certainly not alone in recognizing your intelligence and common sense, your humanity and humor, your willingness to look out for others and for each other, your leadership and your sheer geniality. You have done the school, your families, but more importantly, yourselves, proud. And now, in the words of the great Harry Kalas, you’re “Outta here!” I think that it’s at this point that I’m supposed to give you some advice, to exhort you to make a difference and to be socially responsible, so let’s take that ride down the great American highway to revelation, truth or maybe just an insight or two.

Even as you celebrate the here and now, think about the there and then. For, although, in the words of one great poet, “It’s been a long time comin;” in the words of another, you have “miles to go before (you) sleep.” Think on the past; develop a legacy. Take pride in what you and your peers can do. You are not only the individual you; you are also part of a g-g-generation. Last November’s presidential election rocked because of the numbers of young people invested in the process. Keep it up! We need you!

Rejoice in paradox: the unlikely becoming the likely, the fiction turning into truth and vice versa. If baseball was invented in Cooperstown, New York, in 1839 for instance, how come Jane Austen has the heroine of Northanger Abbey playing the game in 1817? How can change also be a constant? If language is our attempt to make sense of the world, why are there 192 definitions of the word “set?” Know always that wisdom comes only to those who know how much they do not know.

Dance the dance! Four days ago, some of us were dancing in the halls, but

whether it’s on the floor or in your soul, make sure the steps are your own. Boogie on down! If someone laughs at you, laugh right back, because if he’s laughing at you, it means he doesn’t get it. Dancing in the Dark, Steppin’ Out, Walkin’ The Dog, you take your Top Hat, White Tie and Tails and glide, slide way out wide to the other side: Tiny Dancers, tutu dancers, uptown prancers, dashing lancers, sashaying across the psychic ballroom. You dig?

Find your songline and follow it until you have seen all the countries of the world and all of their people. Don’t sit in the cage; fling open the door and fly from the perch. See from above, from below, from the sides, the wondrous differences that make up the human self. If we can celebrate the multiple beaks of Galapagos finches, the least we can do is rejoice in our own variety. Thirty-five years ago, in the old Yugoslavia, a truck driver stopped for a hitchhiker and discovered that he hadn’t eaten for days; he pulled into a restaurant and made the hitchhiker eat his fill. Many miles north, in Zagreb, he dropped off the hitchhiker who only discovered a day later that the pockets of his rucksack were stuffed with banknotes. The same happened in Libya. The “kindness of strangers” is not a sentimental myth, but how will you know unless you meet some? Know yourself, but know others also.

Choose your targets, but not the easy ones! Everyone complains about the institutions of which they’re a part, but few have the passion to do anything about it. If you see something is wrong, work to right it. Remember cynicism is not rebellion; it’s the last refuge of the emotionally and intellectually defunct. The culture of complaint is rampant, but whining will always be just whining. It goes nowhere, achieves nothing, except gradual erosion of the spirit. Write, act, paint, make movies, sing, dance (again), read, think, look, listen. The arts tell us who we are; they show us how life can be and how it might be. And they do so in a mighty chorus of overlapping voices. And the greatest voice of all is William Shakespeare whose most famous soliloquy, “To be, or not to be…” you should make into your own mantra.

And, in that spirit, I’d like to finish with a new version of that speech, recently discovered behind the lockers in the Senior Room:

“Bernasconi or not Bernasconi, that is the question.

Whether ‘tis Edinger in the mind to Singer

The Glicks and arrows of Aurigemma fortune

Or to take arms against a Sea of Brook

And by Yezdani end them. To die, to Cooch

No Ma, and by a sleep to say we Grant

The Lynam and the thousand natural Hicks

That Kyle is heir to. ‘Tis an Azumaya

Devoutly to be wished. To die, to Hobbs—

To Hobbs—perchance to Karim; ay there’s the Schmitt,

For in that Nate of death, what dreams may be Sean

When we have Sommersed off this mortal Royale

Must give us pause. There’s the Melnick

That makes Trerotola of so White a life.

For who would bear the Callye Craig of time,

Th’Esposito’s wrong, the Adelman’s contumely,

The pangs of despised love, the law’s Staley

The Lucy and DeDominicis

That patient merit of th’ unworthy takes

When he himself might his Mitchell make

With a bare bodkin? Who would Lyons bear

To Cat and Kane under a weary life

But that the dread of something after Jon

The undiscovered Aboff from whose bourn

No traveler returns, Saunders the will,

And makes us rather Max those Smiths we have

Than fly to the Chelsea we know not of.

Thus Woody does make Carters of us all,

And thus the native Hewes of resolution

Is Mackeyed o’er with the Brown cast of thought

And enterprises of great pitch and Egan

With this regard their currents turn DMa

And lose the name of Richmond.”

Thank you again.


AwardsAwardsCum Laude Induction Lindsey Alice Edinger Mary Dever Hobbs Lucy Marshall McMurry Alex Nicole Richmond Naomi Alina Staley

Haon Award In Art Catherine Julia Seabrook

David E. Scherer Dramatics Award Alexis Aurigemma Timothy Patrick Saunders

Algard Mathematics Award David Ma

Frank C. Ashby Foreign Language Award Alexis Aurigemma

P. Edward Hughes History Award Lindsey Alice Edinger

Crichton Science Award Caleigh Mariko Azumaya

William J. Carveth Music Award Michael William Aboff

Alison Arsht Leadership Award Mary Dever Hobbs

Home And School Community Service Award Stephanie Kalena Bernasconi

Home And School Athletic Awards Boy: Evan Alex DeDominicis Girl: Mary Dever Hobbs

Spiller Achievement Award Catherine Julia Seabrook

Trustees’ Awards Service: Meghan Elizabeth Lyons Scholarship: David Ma

National Merit Award StudentsNational Merit Commended Students Caleigh M. Azumaya Charles A. Glick Mary D. Hobbs Michael H. Schmitt Williams D. Zantzinger

National Merit Semifinalists Andrew Esposito David Ma Ronald M. Ma Kathryn A. Sommers

National Merit Finalists Andrew Esposito David Ma Ronald M. Ma Kathryn A. Sommers

National Merit Scholar David Ma

Presidential Scholarship Nominees Charles A. Glick Kathryn A. Sommers

Awards Presented on Friday, May 29, 2009 Recognized at Graduation

Faculty/Staff RecognitionTower Hill recognizes members of the faculty and staff who have contributed significantly during their years of service.

Sarah Barton–2 Matt Copeland–6 Megan Heganbarth–1 Maureen McAleenan–6 Mark McNulty–4

Parent RecognitionThe following Parents are recognized for having accumulated 20 or more “student years” at Tower Hill School. Their youngest student graduated with the Class of 2009:

Dr. Douglas J. Adelman and Dr. Sylvia H. Stevenson

Mr. and Mrs. Robert A. Glen

Mr. and Mrs. Robert M. Hewes IV

Dr. Philip Ma and Dr. Sheau-Hwa Ma

Ms. Patti P. McDonald

Mr. and Mrs. Paul H. Phillips

Ms. Karen E. Randolph

Mr. John C. Richmond and Mrs. Teri Long Richmond

Mr. and Mrs. James Seabrook, Jr.

Mr. and Mrs. Randy R. Singer, Jr.

Mr. Ralph H. Staley and Ms. Laura A. Lewin

Drs. Khaja and Vijaya Yezdani

Mr. and Mrs. William D. Zantzinger

College Guidance Director Don Dietrich joins members of the Class of 2009 in the entryway of the school as they prepare for the graduation service.


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1. Renovations to Carpenter Field House will be completed this coming winter. The Field House is the final phase of the Campaign for Athletics, which has transformed the athletic facilities on campus.

2,4,11. Summer at Tower Hill, a new program offered this past June through August, was attended by over 400 students from 45 schools in Delaware, Maryland and Pennsylvania. The program included exciting sports, artistic, academic, and enrichment activities, and a full day camp program.

3. Moving Up Day for the 8th Grade was held on June 5, 2009.

5. R.R.M. “Ruly” Carpenter III ’58 was honored at the Spring Celebration on April 25, 2009. He was one of five distinguished community members recognized as part of the Inaugural Founders’ Achievement Awards for their service to Tower Hill. Others included Alison C. McKenna ’57, Pam and Bill Rappolt and Katharine “Puss” Schutt ’62.

6. The Upper School spring 2009 production was a fractured fairytale musical entitled Once Upon a Mattress, based on the Hans Christian Anderson fairytale of The Princess and the Pea.

7. Artistic creations galore! The all-school Evening of the Arts was held on April 29, 2009, and included musical concerts and artwork.

8. Students and faculty started their summer by volunteering for Habitat for Humanity. On June 13 they drilled, hammered, dug, swept and sweat at Habitat’s Greenbridge site in downtown Wilmington.

9. Alumni, parents, grandparents, faculty and staff attend the live auction at the Spring Celebration on April 25. Attendees enjoyed a silent auction, dinner and the Inaugural Founders’ Achievement Awards. Proceeds benefitted the Fund for Financial Assistance and concluded the Campaign for Athletics.

10. Board of Trustees Vice President David Roselle attends Tower Hill’s Grandparents’ Day on April 24 and works on a project with his grandson John Koenig ’21.

12,14. The 87th annual Field Day was held on May 22, 2009, on DeGroat Field.

13. Stu Markley, physical education teacher and coach from 1985-2002, pictured with Headmaster Chris Wheeler. The Tower Hill community celebrated Stu Markley’s service to the school by naming the new track in his honor in May.

AROUND TOWER HILL

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AT TOWER HILLRecognize yourself or classmates in these photos? We would enjoy hearing any details from our alums. Your input will also enable us to keep our archived record updated. Thanks! Contact Kathy Warner at 302.657.8358 x 210 or [email protected].


1942Doris Slawter Eldridge serves on the Class of 1942 Class Reunion Planning Committee and will have been married to Rev. James Eldridge for 65 years on October 28, 2009. For 70 years (and continuing to do so) she has donated her services as pianist for her church’s worship and musical ministries. Doris and her husband will make two trips this year to visit children in Indiana and California. Their first cruise, a Caribbean cruise, is in the planning stages for November to celebrate their 65th wedding anniversary on October 28, and Jim’s 90th birthday on December 14. They stay very active with friends, church, home and garden. We wish them well.

1947Jean Jamieson Lewis and her husband Sam have returned from her granddaughter Katie’s high school graduation from Marin Academy in San Anselmo, California. Katherine J. Morris is the daughter of movie-maker Jim Morris ’73. She will be attending USC in the fall.

1953Sandy Jellinghaus McClellan and her husband are enjoying the slower pace of retired life since he retired from his clinical practice of family medicine in 2008. Though living a “slower pace,” they manage to stay busy in Minnesota and look forward to another RV trip in the fall.

1954 55th Reunion YearMike Beresford writes from Massachusetts that he and Judy, married for 46 years, continue to see the country in their ’97 red Porsche convertible. It is great fun! Their daughter lives in Wyoming, and their two sons are closer by in Massachusetts. In addition they keep busy with six grandchildren and serving in church and charity work. Mike continues to run in road races and usually finishes in the top three of the longer races because “there are so few in the 70+ age bracket. We’re grateful to God for all our blessings, including my Tower Hill years and four in the Marine Corps.”

JOHN’S NOTES

Once again this year we’ve enjoyed hearing from alumni around the world about what’s going on in their lives. We encourage you to share your news with other Hillers and now it’s easier than ever. Just email us at [email protected].

I hope you enjoy reading the following pages.

F R o M T H E D E S k o F

1958After 41 years of living mainly in Ontario, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick, Canada, Gary Webster has put down some roots near two cousins in Connecticut. He writes that he has kept in touch with Murry Soash ’58 often. Friends of Rob Flint may know that his daughter Katie was married to Ben Kaplan on May 30, 2009, in Woodside, California where the Flints live.

1960Gail Rothrock Trozzo went to her 45th reunion at Sweet Briar College in May and enjoyed catching up with many friends.

1963For some time now Tibbie Hoopes Field has been involved with Sulgrave Manor, George Washington’s ancestral home in England. It is a museum open to the public and was given in trust to the people of UK and the U.S. in 1914. Tibbie asks us “to please visit it in the UK. It is an easy one-hour train ride from London through the beautiful British countryside.”

1972From Palm Beach Gardens Ellen Cannon tells us that she is still happily working as managing editor of Bankrate.com, and there is certainly no shortage of financial news to write about these days. She would love to see any Hillers who might be in her area of Florida.

1974 35th Reunion YearDavid Lips is the author of Healthcare Capital Finance: In Good and Challenging Times, which examines the impact of the credit crisis on the health care industry, particularly on non-profit hospitals. David is a tax and transactions attorney at Hall Render Killian Heath & Lyman in Indianapolis. David was also the co-producer and an instrumentalist on Roger Schmelzer’s vocal CD About Now. Five of David’s songs are featured on the CD, which was released in October 2008 on Original Cast Records. One of the names

The Alumni Council hosted the annual golf outing on June 1, 2009, at the Delaware National Country Club.


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mentioned for President Obama’s Supreme Court nomination was Virginia Seitz, Tower Hill’s second Rhodes scholar. She was on the legal team that went before Judge Sonia Sotomayor during the major league baseball strike in 1995. On October 20, 2009, Virginia spoke to students and faculty on The Ethics of Freedom of Speech for Students and Faculty, as part of the Forum lecture series.

1978Joe Rubini and Caroline are enjoying their new home in Abington, Pennsylvania and watching Dr. Mehmet Oz ’78 on Oprah.

1986Karen Hancock Shuler and her husband have been transferred by Citgo to its Corpus Christi refinery where she is a strategic planning engineer and her husband is the general manager of operations and maintenance. After some time in Louisiana they are happy to be back in Texas. Jennifer Gordon Sattler had a children’s book Sylvie published by Random House last May.

1988Bill Bailey and his family will spend a year in France while he is on sabbatical from Columbia University. After having twins, Matt and Carmen Twyman gave birth to Xavier on July 1, 2009. Matt writes that mom and baby are doing well and that dad is very tired!

1990On the 4th of July weekend yours truly bumped into Geoff Donoho in Rehoboth, both of us down there fighting the crowds for a long weekend. He is married, the father of two girls and a dentist in Ardmore, Pennsylvania. He reminded me that Hillers can run but can’t hide from each other. I’m so glad he spoke up and said hello. It sounds as if Rick Holmes is keeping quite busy. He and wife Laura adopted their second child, Andrew (Drew) David Holmes, from China on April 20, 2009. He turned three on May 26 and joins David and Laura’s five-year old daughter Lily. They are still living in north Wilmington, and Rick is part of a group private practice at the Pike Creek Psychological Center and consulting

psychologist at Kuumba Academy Charter School in Wilmington. He is also part of the board trying to bring Gateway Lab School into creation in Delaware; it is a charter school specializing in working with children with ADHD and/or learning disabilities. Good luck, Rick. There is a great need for what you are doing in today’s market.

1993Jennifer Biondi Navarro has taken a big step and moved to Ottawa with her two boys, Nick, seven, and Peyton, five. Jennifer is working for the local Easter Seals organization running a toy-lending library for kids with special needs. She loves it!

1994 15th Reunion YearDr. Gregg Fink married Jennifer Harrison on November 8, 2008. Gregg opened his own dental practice in Newark, Delaware in January 2007.

1996We get word from Julia Gayduk ’97 that “Anne Parsons married Elizabeth Bastian Parsons at Anne’s parents’ house. Anne and Bastian are currently living in Chicago as Anne works her way through a Ph.D. in American History at the University of Illinois-Chicago.” On May 7, 2009 Dr. Jesse Ehrenfeld was elected Vice-Speaker of the House of Delegates of the Massachusetts Medical Society. The House of Delegates is the legislative and policy-making body of the organization that represents some 22,000 doctors and doctors-to-be in Massachusetts. Jesse holds too many positions and is affiliated with too many organizations to list them all, but currently he is on the faculty of Harvard Medical School as well as an assistant in Anesthesia at Massachusetts General Hospital. After graduation from Tower Hill and Haverford College, Jesse moved to Boston and has done impressive work there since.

1998In June of 2008 Dr. Maria Karas finished her residency in internal medicine at New York Presbyterian Hospital/Cornell and is now beginning her fellowship in cardiology at the same hospital. (Editor’s note…..Maria continues to

be one of the best about keeping us up-to-date on where she is and where her medical career is

taking her.) Kristin McCann graduated from St. George’s University School of Veterinary Medicine and completed her clinical rotation at the University of Florida. Kristen has been appointed to the

Board of D.R.E.A.M. Park, the new equine facility in Gloucester County, New Jersey. She has been selected as a member of the National Association of Professional Women. She will maintain a mixed animal practice in New Jersey.

2001Casey Owens had been working with the Gates Foundation in Seattle for the last couple of years, but she has now been appointed Special Assistant to the Senior U.S. Treasury Envoy to China. She seems perfectly suited for this new role since she studied Chinese at Harvard and in Beijing. It seems she is moving farther and farther away from her uncle Vice President Joe Biden, but I know personally how proud he is of her.

2004Nick Casscells and Jillian Noyes attended their white coat ceremony at Jefferson Medical College on August 7, 2009. They are both in the Jefferson Medical School class of 2013. We also hear that receiving his white coat that same day was Patrick Gomella ’03.

Nick Casscells ’04 and Jillian Noyes ’04 received their white coats at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia last August.


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2005Adrienne Carey graduated from Cornell last spring with a B.A, in both French and Comparative literature, as well as a minor in international relations. She has received a Fulbright and is teaching English in France this current school year. When Dr. Kevin Ruth, former head of the Tower Hill Foreign Language Department was in Paris, he had lunch with Adrienne who was there on an exchange program and who had become quite acclimated to Parisian life. Word has come to us from the University of Delaware Alumni Association that Teagan Gregory has been recognized by their group as the outstanding man of the graduating class of 2009. His resume is pretty impressive as he majored in political science and international relations with minors in East Asian studies, philosophy and religious studies. He will attend law school in the fall of 2009. He was a Dean’s List student every semester, maintained a GPA above 3.9 and was one of 12 students in his class to receive a Eugene DuPont Memorial Distinguished Scholarship. His honors and records go on and on. After finishing at the University of Michigan Law School, Teagan hopes to return to this area and maybe even run for political office in the future. Matt Moyer, currently a senior at Cornell University, was named honorable mention to the Collegiate Lacrosse All-American and All-Ivy First Team. He has been a three-time All-American and played in his second final-four last May in Boston. Prior to Matt, the last Tower Hill alumni to make an All-American Division 1 team was Cinda Carpenter Cattermole ’90 in 1993. Nick Rossi received the Vice Admiral E.C. Waller Award from the U.S.

Naval Academy Lacrosse Team for spirit, morale and dedication. He was the recipient of this prestigious award, which included an engraved watch. It was presented to him at the U.S. Naval Academy Awards and Recognition Ceremony on May 21, 2009, the day before graduation.

2006Margaret DeWees had a unique experience at the Cannes Film Festival in France last May when she created a film called This is my Rollins College T-Shirt, a project with three other classmates at Rollins. It was the first student film ever screened at the Global Peace Film Festival at Orlando, Florida and then was accepted to be screened at the Cannes Film Festival May 13-24. What a unique experience! Tessa Taylor spent last year’s spring semester in Peru and Ecuador on a service trip with Carpe Diem International.

2007Ian Lonsdale will be studying abroad at the Copenhagen Business School in Denmark during the spring of 2010.

2008Ericka Chehi has been named to the Dean’s List at Lafayette College for superior academic work during the first semester of last school year. Caitlyn Van Sickle was the winner of the Ken and Cheryl Williams Rookie of the Year Award named “Rookie of the Year” by UNC Tar Heels Field Hockey. Although Caitlin redshirted the 2008 season, she distinguished herself through practices and spring competition as a consistent and hardworking athlete.

2009Stephanie Bernasconi, winner of the Tower Hill Home and School Service award at June’s graduation, also received the Gold Award of the Girl Scouts of Southeastern Pennsylvania. The Gold Award included a project of many tree plantings, several environmental clean up projects and various other workshops she ran for young kids. She is certainly on her way to makinga mark for herself in the service community.

Faculty Karen Bohn, Lower School Reading, attended a workshop offered by SRA/McGraw Hill for the Imagine It! reading program. The session detailed ways in which teachers can differentiate instruction to accommodate the varying needs of students within the classroom and introduced a number of new technology resources now available to more effectively utilize the Open Court reading series. Karen also took a course, Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling developed by Dr. Louisa C. Moats at Reading ASSIST™ Institute. The course is designed to provide teachers with an understanding of the structure of the English language and how children use it. Navanjali Jagatpal, Lower School Art, was invited to speak on Asian Indian culture and to present a workshop to teachers participating in a program at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia called World Cultures through Art. Her Rangoli project, which has been done with Tower Hill students, received enthusiastic feedback and was specifically reviewed by others as the most enjoyable and widely applicable presentation

Matt Moyer ’05 (center) pictured with Brad du Pont ’82, lacrosse coach, and John Pierson’59, senior development officer and former teacher. Matt is a three-time college All-American in lacrosse. At Tower Hill he was a high school All-American and a four-year starter on defense.

Nick Rossi ’05 is congratulated by President Barack Obama at graduation at the U.S. Naval Academy on May 22, 2009.


JOHN’S NOTES

of the course! She also participated in several professional development opportunities during the summer of 2009. Five Lower School teachers, Beth Kelleher, Julie Smith, James Erhardt, Nicole Symonds and Karen Bohn and twelve other early childhood educators from the tri-state area attended the three-day professional development event in June 2009 sponsored by the Gesell Institute of Child Development of New Haven, Connecticut. The workshop focused on the ages and stages of child growth, developmental theory and the administration of the Gesell Developmental Observation screening. Observing and interpreting development and behavior in the areas of cognitive, language, math and motor development of 2 ½ to 6-year-old children has assisted them in planning appropriately-challenging preschool and kindergarten curricula and in administering the GDO. Elliot Mitchell, Upper School Science Chair, was a reader for AP Biology in June. The work involved spending a week in Kansas City, Missouri reading biology exams from the entire country. Jorge Pardo, Upper School Spanish teacher and Director of Diversity, was selected in May 2009 as a recipient of the National Association of Independent School’s 2009-2010 Teacher of The Future Program for his global and immersion efforts as a language teacher. He received a $1,000 stipend and will lead an NAIS online educational discussion forum and create a demonstration teaching unit video to be posted on NAIS’s web site. Nancy Schuckert, Communications Director, attended a workshop

in Kansas City, Missouri for yearbook advisers. She also attended a workshop with four Tower Hill Upper School students at Endicott College in Beverly, Massachusetts, where they learned about yearbook design, photography and writing skills. The yearbook has become a regular course in the Upper School curriculum this fall. In July 2009 Frank Singles, Middle School History, attended the Historical Literacy Project’s institute focused on The Progressive Era. Among the topics studied were women’s suffrage, industrialization and muckrakers. The institute included a field trip to Ellis Island and the new Tenement Museum in New York. Frank has assisted teachers in developing units of study based on the material from the institute. Trina Tjersland, Drama Department Chair, spent another summer at NYU and managed to see a whole bunch of her favorite Tower Hill alums. She saw Miles Bingham ’94, Caroline Noseworthy ’94, Britt Saffer ’95, Alexis Mascitti ’00, Meredith Holzman ’99

and Daisy Lidz ’06. Bill Ushler, Associate Director of Admission, attended the Whipple Hill Conference in July on web site functions available for not only admission but the school in general. Carl Wismer, Middle School Assistant Head and Math teacher, also attended the Whipple Hill Conference. Dr. Ellis Wasson, Upper School History Chair, had new book published last August entitled A History of Modern Britain: 1714 to the Present. He is the author of Whig Renaissance: Lord Althorp and the Whig Party 1782-1845 (1987), Born to Rule: British Political Elites (2000) and Aristocracy and the Modern World (2006) and has published numerous articles on the history of British politics and European society. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a historic British association that is dedicated to the improvement of society with a particular interest in education. Fellows are selected on the basis of contributions to the enhancement of society. During this past summer at Colorado State University, Dr. Wasson trained and supervised readers to evaluate the European History AP exams from across the nation.

Headmaster Chris Wheeler’s book Inside Their Headships: Conversations with Independent School Heads is scheduled to be published in the spring of 2010. The book explores perspectives of independent school leadship via interviews with 10 current and former independent school leaders.

Former FacultyJohn Newlin, Middle School Head from 1979-2008, published an article in the Independent School Magazine entitled Thirteen Keys to Success for the Middle School Head.

Dancing in the Halls on May 27, 2009. Students and faculty dance in the hallways while Aditi Roy, NBC 10 News Anchor and Reporter, interviews students. Last May after studying the progressive era of the 1920s-30s and learning about Headmaster Burton Fowler’s approach to education through self-discovery, exploration, and even dancing in the halls, 11th grade history students led an all-school diversion from the humdrum of everyday schoolwork. “Dancing in the halls” was not only a way to recognize our rich past but to let students blow off a little steam at the end of school year.

Trina Tjersland, Drama Department Head (center), joins alums Miles Bingham ’94, second left, and to the right Caroline Noseworthy ’94 and Britt Saffer ’95 in New York this past summer.


Births It’s a Boy1988 Xavier Morris Twyman to Carmen and Matt Twyman on July 1, 2009

1988 James Coldwell Bourell to Dr. Brooke Bailey and Todd Bourell on April 15, 2009

1996 Samuel McClennen to Meredith Hershey and her husband Matt Perney on November 4, 2008

It’s a Girl1988 Margaret Elizabeth Keidel to Phil and Sally Bugbee Keidel on April 1, 2009 Lily Eleanor Bourell to Dr. Brooke Bailey and Todd Bourell on November 27, 2007

1994 Ann Lane to Cole Flickinger and his wife Tonya on May 15, 2009

1995 Aubrey Noelle to David Pragoff and his wife Tina on Jan 9, 2009

1996 Lenna Zoe to Aleni Pappas Kyriakakis and her husband Anthony on April 23, 2009

1998 Susan Elliott to Scott Pragoff and his wife Lauren on May 1, 2009

Weddings and Unions1987 Wendy Peddrick to James Sears in June 2009

1994 Gregg Fink to Jennifer Harrison on November 8, 2008

1996 Andy Carmine to Lindsay Ferris on December 31, 2007

1996 Anne Parsons to Elizabeth Bastian in June 2009

1999 Patrick Baetjer to Jessica Moffitt in Baltimore on June 13, 2009

DeathsDorothy Ackart Nichols ’26 on June 28, 2009

Baird Brittingham ’49 on March 2, 2009

Tricia Colt ’60 on June 29, 2009

Sidney Scott Jr. ’42 on May 7, 2009

Laurabelle Swartz Tullock ’32 on August 31, 2009

George M. Whiteside III ’51 on March 20, 2009

Former Faculty/Staff Jeanine Mottola on April 21, 2009

Grover Lee Todd Jr. on August 9, 2009

JOHN’S NOTES

Great care has been taken to ensure the accuracy of this publication. We sincerely regret any errors or omissions and ask that you notify us so that our records can be updated.

Update on the Schoonover Collection In the Spring 2009 Bulletin, the article about the school’s Schoonover collection mentioned that the Frank E. Schoonover Catalogue Raisonné had just been published. The Choptank Foundation, a charitable organization in Wilmington, has purchased and distributed over 100 of the books to high schools throughout Delaware, including one to the Tower Hill library. It was also the Choptank Foundation that made the very generous gift to pay for the restoration work of all eight of Tower Hill’s Schoonover paintings. The restoration work was performed by Michael Neville.

Dr. Gregg Fink ’94 and Jennifer Harrison at their wedding on November 8, 2008.

Ran for office, Got my dream job, Took an exotic trip, Got another degree, Quit my day job, Had a baby, Got published, Retired, Got married, Starred on You Tube, Became a grandparent, Ran a marathon, Ran for office, Got my dream job, Took an exotic trip, Got another degree, Quit my day job, Had a baby, Got published, Retired, Got married, Starred on You Tube, Became a grandparent, Ran a marathon, Ran for office, Got my dream job, Took an exotic trip, Got another degree, Quit my day job, Had a baby, Got published, Retired, Got married, Starred on You Tube, Became a grandparent, Ran a marathon, Ran for office, Got my dream job, Took an exotic trip, Got another degree, Quit my day job, Had a baby, Got published, Retired, Got married, Starred on You Tube, Became a grandparent, Ran a marathon, Ran for office, Got my dream job, Took an exotic trip, Got another degree, Quit my day job, Had a baby, Got published, Retired, Got married, Starred on You Tube, Became a grandparent, Ran a marathon, Ran for office, Got my dream job, Took an exotic trip, Got another degree, Quit my day job, Had a baby, Got published, Retired, Got married, Starred on You Tube, Became a grandparent, Ran a marathon, Ran for office, Got my dream job, Took an exotic trip, Got another degree, Quit my day job, Had a baby, Got published, Retired, Got married, Starred on You Tube, Became a grandparent, Ran a marathon, Ran for office, Got my dream job, Took an exotic trip, Got another degree, Quit my day job, Had a baby, Got published, Retired, Got married, Starred on You Tube, Became a grandparent, Ran a marathon, Ran for office, Got my dream job, Took an exotic trip, Got another degree, Quit my day job, Had a baby, Got published, Retired, Got married, Starred on You Tube, Became

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Documents

Bulletin - Fall 2009