WFS Summer 2012 Magazine

FriendsFriendsWilmington Friends SchoolSummer 2012

Summer 2012 • Friends magazine

BOARD OF TRUSTEESChair Susan KelleyVice Chair Darcy RademakerTreasurer Daniel KleinSecretary Russ EndoAndrew Aerenson ’81 Christopher F. Buccini ’90 Denise ChapmanThomas M. ConnellyDoneene DamonMeg Gehret Erskine ’83 Brett D. FallonReginald D. Flowers ’90

Alumni Association Board Liaison Christopher W. Lee ’82

Home & School Association Board Liaison Jane Hollingsworth

ADMINISTRATIONHead of School Bryan GarmanAssistant to theHead of School Ann ColeAssistant Headfor Academics Peter WenigmannAssistant Head forFinance & Operations William BaczkowskiHead of Lower School Annette HearingHead of Middle School Jonathan HuxtableHead of Upper School Rebecca ZugDirector of Admissionsand Financial Aid Kathleen HopkinsDirector of Communications Tracey Quillen Carney ’80Director of Development Judy Aliquo

ALUMNI BOARD Donald Altmaier ’51Melissa F. Billitto ’87Nicole J. Caddell ’03Carolyn Gates Connors ’81Kimberley Massih Dolan ’89Kristin M. Dugan ’03Tim E. Gibbs ’76

Professional photography by Billy Michels ’89, Elisa Komins Morris and Bill LIndsey

Design/layout by Jacquelyn Quinn Dickey

With thanks to the alumni, students, faculty, families, trustees, and staff of Wilmington Friends School for their contributions to the community effort of Friends magazine. Please send any comments or corrections to [email protected].

From the Head of School 1

For Alumni & Friends 2

Alumni Back (to Work)On Campus 6

Commencement & The Class of 2012 11

Labors of Love:Bill Neff & Marilyn Maguire 18

Auditorium & Gym:Memories, Gratitude & The Future 20

Spring Highlights 23

New Head of Middle SchoolJonathan Huxtable 29

Class Notes 30

Alumni Spring Fling 32

Trustee News 35

In Memory 36

In Closing: Mr. Neff inside back cover

FriendsWilmington Friends School

Summer 2012

Scott W. Gates ’80 Ellen L. GayJ. Harry HammondDeborah Murray-SheppardLaura K. ReillyJocelyn Sutton Stewart ’82David TennentHarvey Zendt

Amy Curran Harper ’94Raven Harris ’06Josh Klein ’98Chris Lee ’82Sarah Lester ’04Donald C. Morton, Jr. ’94Tom Scott ’70Amanda Corby Soto ’00

Mission StatementWilmington Friends, a Quaker school with high standards for academic achievement, challenges students to seek truth, to value justice and peace, and to act as creative, independent thinkers with a conscious responsibility to the good of all.

On the cover, graduates Keiko Endo, Gwen Baraniecki-Zwil, and Caroline Connolly; on this page, David Singleton, retired from the Board of Trustees as of July 1, 2012 after 25 years of service.


Dear Friends,

Although I have been at Friends School for only a small portion of its history, I can say with utter confidence that we have just closed one of the most triumphant of our 264 years.

Friends parent and trustee Tom Connelly summoned that spirit of triumph on April 17, the day of the auditorium fire, when he walked up to me to offer, he said, “congratulations.” At first, I just smiled—awkwardly, no doubt—at the unexpected greeting. “You’ll never have a better day,” Tom said, “Everyone is safe. You’ll never have a better day.” Tom was right, of course. There are events that bring priorities immediately into focus, moments when we both understand and feel what matters most.

What matters most at Friends School are people and an unwav-ering spirit of community defined by care and responsibility, by compassion and confidence, by a sense of shared purpose—inspired by history and looking always to the future.

This June, that spirit was represented in all of its aspects. Led by our commencement speaker, accomplished and thoughtful musi-cian Judah (J. J.) Dadone ’03, we celebrated the Class of 2012, and we look forward to how our newest alumni will let their lives speak—and sing—in the years to come. We marked, almost in wonder, the service of Bill Neff and Marilyn Maguire, who set a standard for stewardship of Friends School that will benefit and challenge us for generations. And we thanked David Single-ton, whose leadership on our Board of Trustees was not always visible to all, but reverberated in ways deep and wise through the life of the school for more than 25 years.

We also began the process not just of preparing to rebuild the Auditorium and South Gym, but of re-imagining their designs and how they can best serve our students for the next 50 years. As we gathered memories from alumni, we began to see the future of those facilities, with a growing sense of excitement about how the new theatre and gym will bring people together again.

As we complete our celebration of the 2011-2012 school year, we extend our thanks to all of you who main-tain a clear and purposeful focus on what matters most. Thank you for all that you have done and continue to do to make Friends such an extraordinary community. Stronger than ever, we look forward to the work to come.

Congratulations to the Class of 2012, with best wishes to all.

In friendship,

Bryan Garman

F R O M T H E H E A D O F S C H O O L


Bryan with happy graduates Nick Napoletano and Nigeria Ponzo.

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Dear Friends,

Director of Alumni Relations Paige Winburn recently asked alumni who are also staff members at Friends to write about our perspectives on the school (see pages 6-9). A number of us on staff—Susan Morovati Finizio ’87, Julie Boswell McCulloch ’89, Don Morton ’94, Laura Jersild Pardo ’90, Lesley Dennis Tryon ’71, and I—also have children who are current students or, in Lesley’s case, graduates of Friends; and associ-ate teacher James Maguire ’06 is young enough that he still has siblings enrolled. So our perspectives are, indeed, a sum and mix of views from dif-ferent vantage points.

The fact that Paige’s survey came just a few weeks after the fire in the Auditorium added another angle. I arrived as a student at Friends, which was then just one campus for K-12, five years after the auditorium-gym wing was built. And over the next 13 years, I spent a lot of time in there. Violet Richman productions are for me, as for many of her era, remarkable memories; she made it cool to get out of your comfort zone (long before anyone called it that), and is still the coolest person I’ve ever known. And there were Auditorium Meetings for Worship that made an impression—one when I, as a junior, was “moved to speak” in objection to a senior administrator’s remark, and waited for weeks for repercussions that never came; the Meeting when my late cousin Bob Quillen ’79 sang “Yellow Submarine” because, he said, he “just felt like singing”; the Meeting after a class-mate’s mother was killed in a car accident; and the one when former Head of School Bill Goulding quoted language from an upper school student “underground” newspaper—it was the 70’s—to illustrate that it probably was not something that should be lying around for fifth graders to read (he had a point).

As for the Boys’/South Gym, I remember how packed it was for Friday night basketball games and staring wistfully as a middle schooler with a crush on one of the senior players (who became a fellow Friends parent; wouldn’t you like to know). And there were the ropes we took pride in climbing and a huge trampoline that would be banned by any self-respecting 21st century insurance company. I also remember the late Gail Rinehart, teacher and coach, working with two students who had serious physical challenges, and enabling them to teach their peers about tools for exertion and balance that might not be self-evident.

Pretty powerful memories—because of the people and values that defined the experiences. All of the alumni-staff members who responded to Paige’s questions about Friends (and a lot of the members of the Class of 2011 in their reflections, too, on pages 33-35) focused on values and relationships, on how people treat each other, on learning to appreciate different talents and points of view, on devel-oping a sense of responsibility and definition of success that broadens to the common good.

I’m looking forward to how this visionary school will rebuild that auditorium-gym wing; it’s excit-ing when you start to hear about different theatre designs and what architects imagine when they look at those “spaces” (there are no “rooms” in design-speak, I’m learning). I also know that it’s the

current and next generation of leaders in the school’s performing arts and athletics programs who will shape what students experi-ence inside those walls; it’s the fellow students who will share in their efforts and celebrations and challenges that will make those memories stick until they have children of their own; it’s the school’s philosophy and values that will provide the most essential architecture for true life lessons, whose meaning only deepens with time.

Thank you to the people of Friends School, with best wishes always to all—and especially to retirees Bill Neff, Marilyn Maguire, and George Lascny, and to the newest alumni, the Class of 2012.

Gratefully,

Tracey Quillen Carney ’80

From the Editor(Alumna-Parent-Director of Communications)

F O R A L U M N I & F R I E N D S

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Celebrating construction of the Auditorium and Boys’/South Gym in 1961.

Two Friends people who created mem-ories in the old gym, and who continue to do as coaches, Bob Tattersall and Billy Harman ’69

Violet Richman and Tracey Quillen Carney ’80 in June 2012.



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Wilmington Friends Homecoming & Reunion Weekend 2012October 18-20, 2012

Thursday, October 18, 201211:30am:True Blue/1748 Society LuncheonMiddle/upper school Library

6:00pm:Evening of the ArtsStudent performances and Alumni Art Show for artists cele-brating reunions: all are welcome.Middle/upper school Library

Friday, October 19, 201211:30am:50th+ Reunion Luncheon to celebrate Classes of 1962, 1957, 1952, 1947, 1942, 1937DuPont Country Club

6:00pm:All Alumni Reunion and Awards ReceptionMiddle/upper school Library

Saturday, October 20, 20127:30am:Homecoming Service ProjectMiddle/upper school parking lot (ends at 2:30pm)

8:30am:Smith McMillan 5K Run/WalkUpper campus

9:00am:JV/Third Team Volleyball vs. Sanford

10:00am:V Volleyball vs. Sanford

10:00am:Meeting for WorshipMiddle/upper school Meeting Room

11:00am:V Field Hockey vs. Tatnall

11:30am:Homecoming Lunch (runs until 1:30pm)Homecoming Tent

12:00pm:Kids CornerJones House lawn (ends at 2:00pm)

12:00pm:V Soccer vs. Tatnall

12:30pm:JV Field Hockey vs. Tatnall

1:30pm:JV Soccer vs. Tatnall

2:30pm:V Football vs. Tatnall

Evening:Class Reunions for years ending in 2 and 7

* Cross Country, TBA

Homecoming Service ProjectSaturday, October 20, 20127:30am-2:00pm

This is the fourth year for our very successful, all-community Homecoming Service Proj-ect, under the auspices of the QUEST Center.

We will be collecting items to donate to The Ministry of Caring, an ecumenical non-profit and great service partner of Friends School.

We ask each Friends family—alumni and current families, faculty and staff—to bring one item to Homecoming Saturday, please, to help us fill a truck with donations for our neighbors in need. Preferred donations include:

• non-perishable foods• personal hygiene and baby-

care products• winter outerwear (new or

gently used)• blankets and towels (new or

gently used)

Please take your donations to the truck in the middle/upper school parking lot, any time from 7:30am to 2:00pm on Saturday, October 20. Thank you for helping us to main-tain the school’s mission of service as a central part of our celebration.

For more information about the Homecoming Service Project, please contact Peter Wenigmann, 302.576.2905 or [email protected].


Summer 2012 • Friends magazine4


2012 ALUMNI AWARDS ANNOUNCED

The Alumni Board is very pleased to announce the 2012 winners of the Alumni Awards:

Distinguished Alumnus: Mark Ball ’52 International arbitration expert; former general counsel, U.S. Agency for International Development; former staff director, Peace Corps

Service Award: Sharon Cohen ’84 Founder and Director, Figure Skating in Harlem

Young Alumnus: Dan Joseph ’02 Special Effects Designer and Illusioneer, Walt Disney Imagineering

Each year, the Wilmington Friends School Alumni Association presents recognitions for outstanding achievements and service. As representatives of all Friends alumni, our honor-ees exemplify the best qualities of a Friends School graduate, including integrity, a commit-ment to serve others, and an active value of social justice.

All Alumni are invited to celebrate at the Alumni Reception and Awards on Friday, October 19, 6:00-8:00pm in the Middle/Upper School Library.

Please join us!

Please consider nominating a fellow alumnus/a for recognition. Submit your nomination to the Alumni Office by email-ing [email protected] or by calling 302.576.2981. Thank you!

Pictured below are the 2011 Alumni Award receipients.

Honorees from the previous 10 years:

2010: Tom Stephenson ’60, Bonnie Wilson Crosby ’79, and Omar Khan ’902009: John Urice ’64, Pamela Perkins Young ’64, Brian Curtis Mand ’902008: Fran Biondi ’832007: Alisa Lippincott Morkides ’752006: John Salzberg ’542005: Rob Buccini ’86, Chris Buccini ’902004: Matthew Meyer ’90 2003: The Nix Family2002: Thom Marston ’75 2001: Rob Hoopes ’57

2011 Service Award Recipient Joe Ayers ’89. 2011 Distinguished Alumnus of the Year Peter Duus ’51 with classmate Bob Landon.

2011 Young Alumnus of the Year Dan Pfeiffer ’94 with classmate Don Morton.

Summer 2012 • Friends magazine 5


The Class of 2012 includes eight children of alumni (and two grandchildren of alumni):

Chessie Aleman Tracey Porter Aleman ’87 and John Aleman ’84

Caroline Connolly(See front cover.) Chip Connolly ’79 Grandfather Art Connolly ’55

Sumner Crosby(See back cover.) Bonnie Wilson Crosby ’79

Porter Ergon Alexandra Poorman Ergon ’77 Grandmother Ellie Alexander Poorman ’53

Kendall Flanagan Sharon Mulrooney Flanagan ’84

Courtney Lang MaryJane Laberee Lang ’81 and Tom Lang ’81

Sarah Newbold Marion Rothbart Newbold ’78

Chris Whitney Chris Whitney ’64

Alumni with children newly enrolled for 2012-13:

Carolyn Gates Connors ’81Anna Quisel ’87 and Bret Snyder ’87Ashley Cattermole Gillerlain ’91Herb Matter ’91Matt Terrell ’91Sarah Singleton Turick ’95Chris Rowland ’95Chris Loeffler ’00Kate Goemaat Brown ’02

Alumni Families

Tracey Porter Aleman ’87, Chessie Aleman ’12, and John Aleman ’84.

Chris Whitney, Class of 2012, with his diploma and father Chris with the Friends diploma he received in 1964. (Photo: Tim Read)

Porter Ergon ’12, daughter of Alexandra Poorman Ergon ’77 and granddaughter of Ellie Alexander Poorman ’53.

Sharon Mulrooney Flanagan ’84 and Kendall Flanagan ’12.

Sarah Newbold ’12, daughter of Marion Rothbart Newbold ’78, with classmate Caroline Provine.

Matt Lang ’08, MaryJane Laberee Lang ’81, Courtney Lang ’12, Tom Lang ’81, and Kristin Lang ’10.



The rich fabric of community that is woven together at Friends includes a mix of curious and focused students, interested parents, supportive alumni, and committed faculty and staff—and a number of people who fit in multiple categories. The dual per-spective of alumni who have come back to Friends as members of the staff makes for some unique insights on the school today. A few of their thoughts, shared in response to a recent survey…

Pigeon Pollard Graham ’93, has been back at Friends since 2001, coaching various sports—including her continuing role leading the varsity girls’ lacrosse team. She also worked part-time for several years in the Alumni Development Office.

How did Friends influence the person you became?I believe that WFS gave me a well-rounded view of the world. It taught me to appreciate things that are out of the ordinary and to see things in shades of gray. Success isn’t always shown in black and white.

What do you want other alumni to know about Friends today?How bright, tolerant, and well rounded the students of WFS are.

What is your favorite day of the year at Friends?March 1. Because that is the first day of lacrosse season.

What else would you like to share with alumni?I am very proud to be an alumna of WFS. I am most proud when kids return to school and seek me out, they attend prac-tice and want to make sure that the current WFS students are doing the school proud—not just by winning but in the way they treat others around them.

In 2005, Chris Loeffler ’00 returned to WFS, where he teaches third grade and serves as an assistant football coach. Chris reflected on what it feels like to be back: “It is an absolute pleasure to be teaching at Friends. When I came here [as a stu-dent] in fifth grade, I found a place that felt different. The teach-ers taught differently, the students treated each other differently, and most importantly they cared for each other with a mutual respect that I had not seen very often in my previous school.”

What do you like about teaching here?As a teacher, I have the chance to continue that great work by teaching in a way that respects and inspires the light within each student. I always felt like my ideas actually counted as a student at Friends, and I still feel that way as a teacher. Each of us brings something unique to our school, and that is what makes our community so special.

What has stuck with you, from your days at Friends as a stu-dent?One of the most important things that I learned at Friends was the idea that we need to listen to every voice, that each person has something valuable to add to the conversation. I think that is a big reason why I went into teaching. I love trying to help students find that voice and to feel that sense of joy when their voice is heard.

Alumni Back (to Work) on Campus

What do you want alumni to know that they might not?The easiest thing for alumni to see are the physical changes that have happened, from new buildings to new technology. The continued commitment of the faculty is harder to see, but clearly as important. The value of the work that individuals and groups do each day is immeasurable. The amount of time and thought that is put into the curriculum, teaching methods, and each individual child goes above and beyond.

What is your favorite time of year at Friends today?As a coach, each game is exciting, and Homecoming gives us a great chance to see former classmates and friends. My favorite moments, though, are the spontaneous events that happen in a classroom. This year, our students created their own project to help raise money for the World Wildlife Fund. Other favorites include the smile on a student’s face after receiving a Valentine’s Day card, a round of applause after finishing an exciting read aloud, or the comment, “That movie wasn’t even close to being as good as the book.”

This year, James Maguire ’06, joined the lower school faculty as an Associate Teacher (working with Chris Loeffler, above, in third grade). Asked to describe what it’s like to be back, James said, “In a word, surreal. I might have acted a little less ridiculously in class if I had known I’d later be held accountable for the development of my teachers’ children. Also, wonderful: to see so many kind faces that have only grown kinder, and so many of my favorite new teachers, who have lost the title of ‘new’ but still seem to be many students’ favorites.”

What insights have you gained about your time as a student?I realize now what patience my teachers exercised with me on a daily basis. All my best teachers—and there were many—shared parts of themselves with me, and taught me by treating me as a person rather than strictly a “child” or “student.” I strive for those things above all, regardless where my career path takes me: the patience to engage issues, and individuals, one-on-one.

Pigeon Pollard Graham, back row far left, with her 2012 Quaker lacrosse squad.

Compiled by Paige Winburn, Director of Alumni Relations



What is your favorite time of year at Friends, as a teacher?Hosting students’ grandpar-ents and special friends—especially former and fellow teachers—was even more enjoyable than bringing my own grandparents to school when I was here as a student. Reading aloud to my third graders, or to the pre-k class I help with, or to the kinder-garteners I care for at ASP [After School Program], is and always will be the best part of my day.

What do you hope alumni know about Friends?Teaching here has reinforced my knowledge that WFS can produce amazing individuals, but has also shown me the tireless effort of hundreds of people, every day, that makes that practice possible. I’m grateful for the opportunity to pay that effort back to the school, and forward to the children with whom I work.

After returning to Friends in 2007, Alexandra Mellow ’01 is now a second grade lead teacher—and an enthusiastic one. “While growing up, WFS was my home away from home,” she wrote, “Having the WFS community as part of my daily life again is wonderful!”

What did you take from your experience as a student here and apply to your life as an adult?One of the biggest lessons that I took away from WFS is to always try and look at a situation from a different perspective, or “Put yourself in someone else’s shoes.” Taking the time to try to understand one another allows for education and reflection on many levels, which in turn can hopefully lead to solutions/problem-solving through cooperation, collaboration, and com-promise.

Favorite time of year at Friends?Some of my favorite moments of the school year surround Meeting For Worship. Each week, something very power-ful happens when we are dis-cussing and learning about the Quaker testimonies and values with students. Being able to sit silently, reflect, and listen to students of all ages share their thoughts with the community is something that makes our school unique. Whether MFW is in our homeroom, with our younger pre-kindergarten buddy class, or as an entire lower school division, we come together to reflect on life and the important messages that can often be found deep within ourselves. It is a won-

derful weekly reminder to slow down and listen both to each other and to ourselves.

Susan Morovati Finizio ’87, was Director of Communi-cations from 1999-2002, and since 2006 has served as Family Resource Coordinator (the school staff liaison to the Home & School Association) and deputy in the communications office, recently adding the responsibilities as the school’s first Environ-mental Stewardship Coordinator. In that role, Susan looks for ways that Friends can be more green in its institutional practices (e.g., composting and energy use) and in its curriculum. Susan was quick to note, “The teachers already weave environmental awareness and practice into their classroom experiences and have done so for years, so I act more as an investigative reporter to keep track of all that is going on.”

What is it like to work back at Friends?I definitely have more flashbacks of middle and high school than I think I would working in a different place, triggered especially by the distinct smell of the stairwell leading to the cafeteria, the clunky sound of lockers being opened, and the warmth of the brown classroom doors in the middle school hallway. In a more global sense, working here I realize how much thought and care

goes into creating a vibrant, safe, and engaged community (something I took for granted as a student).

What’s the same and what’s different from your time as a student?While Friends is keeping the pace (and is sometimes setting the pace) of progress in education—such as the institution of the 1:1 laptop program, more opportunities to travel abroad, and physical improve-ments to the campuses—the core values are still here.

How did Friends influence your career path?Many lessons at Friends gave me the confidence to build skills and take risks along my professional journey, leading me to this eclectic job that I love to do every day. Three lessons come to mind.

James Maguire and Chris Loeffler in their classroom at lower school.

I realize now what patience my teachers exercised with me on a daily basis. All my best teach-ers—and there were many—shared parts of themselves with me, and taught me by treating me as a person rather than strictly a “child” or “student.”

Susan Morovati Finizio with her children, Johnny ’22 and Olivia ’19



1) Some causes are worth it.In the late 80’s, nuclear proliferation was growing more and more threatening. There was a national movement called The Great Peace March in which demonstrators walked for over eight months from Los Angeles to DC to raise awareness and call for the elimination of nuclear weapons from the world. At the time, I was in Rick Grier-Reynolds’ Peace, Justice and Social Change class in which we learned about the march. Many of us felt strongly about participating and the school allowed us to miss classes on the day the march came through Wilmington. Marching in the driving rain, I felt empowered as an individual contributing to a larger cause and proud that my school under-stood the importance of this.

2) If you want something done, then do it. When I was in middle school working on creative writing, I struggled with using my “passive voice” too much (e.g. “This sentence was written by me,” rather than “ I wrote this sen-tence.”) My teachers encouraged me to think and write more actively. So came forth many essays packed with active verbs along with a worn-out thesaurus. But this lesson of being active rather than passive carried through to others parts of my life as well.

3) You are not alone. One day after school, I was sitting by myself on the top step of the outdoor stairwell that led to the Auditorium lobby, now known as Ryan’s Deck. I was moody, tired, and not feeling particularly collegial. Along came Mrs. Holmes who was leaving for the day. As she passed by, she said goodbye, but then read my face and stopped. She asked me if I was okay. I brushed it off and said I was fine. She said “okay” and walked away, but I clearly remember that her simply noticing that something was wrong made me feel better. There were dozens of times when the strong sense of community and the benefits of working with others manifested in life as a student at Friends, and they all supported the notion that relying on community rather than struggling with something alone makes for a better outcome.

Friends is like an organism, with so many different but impor-tant parts that function in unison to keep it thriving.

Laura Jersild Pardo ’90 returned to Friends first in 1994, and again in 2007 when she began teaching full-time—middle school Spanish and French. She summed up her current view of Friends in one sentence: “I love the students, and I love my colleagues.”

What is the same, and what has changed since your time as a student here? I think Friends is still a unique place where students are encour-aged to form opinions and say what they think…I think we were encouraged early on—say what you think and stand for your beliefs. I feel like I became a very creative thinker at Friends, as well. There was not necessarily “one right answer.”

What part of your student experience at Friends influenced your career path?Seeing teachers who were passionate about teaching and truly loved what they did no doubt influenced my decision to become a teacher.

Laura Jersild Pardo talking with eighth grade students, September 2011.

In addition to (once again) attaining 100% participation in the Annual Fund, members of the Class of 1952 established a named endowment fund this year as they look forward to their 60th Reunion. The fund will increase the school’s overall endowment (approximately $20 million) by more than $50,000. Some classmates made outright gifts; some pledged over a period of three years; and others estab-lished planned gifts—all wonderful ways to contribute to WFS. When a few members of the class got together in the fall, they discussed how they could make a difference—in a last-ing way—at Friends School. The natural answer was to create a named endow-ment fund. The Class of 1952 joins the classes of 1946, 1955, 1956, 1957, and 1960, which have also established endowment funds.

1952 Endowment Gift

The Class of 1952 remains particularly close, and a number of its members get together for a “Florida mini-reunion” each winter. Pictured, in their 1748 hats, are Fred Pardee, Jack Porter, Bill Quillen, Rufus Jones, and Lew Doughton. Attend-ing but not pictured: Bob Hodge.

Five percent of the 1952 Endowment Fund will be paid out each year—forever, making a difference for the school every year. The class decided to designate its fund for financial aid and facilities. As Jack Porter ’52 explained, financial aid allows future students to come to Friends, while supporting facilities recognizes the importance of the environment in which students learn. Jack said, “Children inter-act with the environment around them. Elevating and respecting the space around them is important.”

To establish a named endowment fund in the model of the Class of 1952, the mini-mum required is $50,000, which can be contributed over a five-year period and by multiple individuals. For more informa-tion, please contact Judy Aliquo, Direc-tor of Development, at 302.576.2980 or [email protected].

8 Summer 2012 • Friends magazine



Tracey Quillen Carney ’80 returned in the fall of 2002 as the Director of Communications. In look-ing broadly at the field of education now compared to when she was a student, Tracey wrote: “I think K-12 education in general has changed a lot—for the better in some ways, like the sophistication of brain research and integration of disciplines; and in some ways for the worse, as with the sometimes exclusive emphasis on standardized testing. I think Friends has done a wonderful job building on the positive changes in education and resisting the less con-structive trends. Of course, the thing that stays the same—and that helps with resisting less constructive trends—is the school’s Quaker philosophy. Friends provides an education for life, not just for a test.”

From your time as a student at Friends, what stuck with you throughout your career?The “Quaker thing” at Friends really got into my blood. I think the perspective that there is “that of God in every one,” whether you think of it in religious terms or not, just changes the way you look at the world. I think Friends teaches students that you’re not better than anyone else and no one else is better than you, and that dual lesson is a great way to approach life—with your head high and your heart and mind open. Same with the idea that truth is not set in stone, but instead is something you pursue and keep re-evaluating—the idea that there very rarely is one right answer or one right way, and that we come closest to honest living and thinking when we consider a variety of points of view and learn from experience. I think in my two careers (so far)—public service and education—I’ve tried to apply those life lessons and to live up to the example of Friends School, where values permeate everything and are truly a driv-ing force in decisions and policies.

What do you want other alumni to know about the school today?I’m impressed every day by the students at Friends. I think their generation, to generalize a bit, has a broader perspective than many of us did: they appreciate a wide range of talents and strengths among their peers; their perspective on service is

global; they seek out challenges. I think there was a time when small schools tended to ask a lot of a few students; now, a lot is asked of every student at Friends, and they rise to the occasion very admirably.

Favorite day of the school year?I love hearing the senior class speakers, who are chosen by their classmates, at the end of the year. I’ve heard a lot of speeches in my life, and some of the very best have been given by Friends seniors in Final Assembly. I always learn something.

Lesley Dennis Tryon ’71, who joined the staff in 1994, is the Director of Accounting and Benefits in the Business Office. On starting to work here, she noted, “It was like coming back home. I immediately felt comfortable and connected…”

What remains the same today at Friends from your time as a student here?The core values of respect for every living thing, honesty, integ-rity, and always doing one’s best have not changed. What else has stayed the same? Coach T and his wife, Dianne, for whom I used to babysit when I was a student. Also Meeting for Wor-ship, which was always a wonderful opportunity to center and reflect (a fact I may not have fully appreciated as a student). And we were always taught to speak our minds and to take responsibility for our own learning.

What do you hope alumni know about Friends today?That we are always moving forward and improving, while keeping the best of the past and our traditions. Our students are given more than a good education. They are given the ability to think independently, while learning to work collaboratively. They learn that they may be just one person, but that one person can do important things in both large and small ways that can improve the quality of life for others.

Friends gathered on June 13 at the National Constitution Center in Phila-delphia to hear Head of School Bryan Garman give a talk about Bruce Spring-steen and an American musical, literary, and social tradition traced back to Walt Whitman. The talk drew on Bryan’s research for his book, A Race of Singers: Whitman’s Working-Class Hero from Guthrie to Springsteen.

In other Boss-related publishing, Bryan contributed to the books Racing in the Street: The Bruce Springsteen Reader and Music in the Post-9/11 World; wrote a Springsteen album review in the magazine Backstreets; and was recently cited in an article in The Nation about Springsteen’s “political voice.”

Among the guests for the talk was John Flynn, a singer-songwriter Bryan placed

Springsteen Exhibit Event

in the same tradi-tion as Guthrie, Dylan, and Spring-steen. Flynn, along with Sarah Lee Guthrie (Woody’s granddaughter) have been among recent guests at Friends who have led musical pro-grams for students with messages related to social justice.

After Bryan’s talk, the group enjoyed a private tour of the Constitution Center exhibit, “From Asbury Park to the Prom-ised Land: The Life and Music of Bruce Springsteen.”

Some of the 100 alumni, Friends parents and students, parents of alumni, and guests who joined us in Philadelphia on June 13.

Thank you to everyone who joined us for this wonderful event.

The “Quaker thing” at Friends really got into my blood. I think the perspective that there is “that of God in every one”.... just changes the way you look at the world.




This year marks the mid-point in the school’s seven-year accredita-tion cycle, working with the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools (MSA).

As a reminder from last year’s report, Wilmington Friends has chosen to participate in the Accreditation for Growth (AFG) process, which goes beyond prescribed standards for accreditation and allows the school to set goals for improvement in a small number of programmatic areas. We chose two objectives—the development of stronger foreign language skills and an increased appreciation for community service—that are reflections of the school’s 21st century Quaker mission.

The AFG process requirements include both a mid-term report to MSA and an annual report to the school’s constituencies—thank you for your interest.

Following a review of our progress, MSA has indicated that the mid-term report (in its words, using standard language for evaluation):

“shows evidence the school continues to meet the Middle States Stan-dards for Accreditation;

“provides evidence and data that indicate excellent progress has been made in the implementation of the school’s action plans and toward achieving the approved accreditation objectives;

“presents documentation of formal reviews of your school’s action plans that were conducted at least annually and improvements and modifica-tions that were made to the action plans in order to keep them meaning-ful and effective; and

“there are no monitoring or other issues noted in the mid-term report that require an onsite visit.”

In our efforts to improve our students’ appreciation for community ser-vice and foreign language skills, we have implemented detailed action plans and methods for assessment. Annual reviews of those plans and the results of the assessments indicate that we are well on our way to achiev-ing our goals—and in many cases have already exceeded them—as we move toward the end of this accreditation cycle in 2016.

Accreditation Annual Report2011-2012

Contact Information

Peter WenigmannAssistant Head of School for [email protected]



3The Class Of 3 2012 4

Front row: Sara Woodward, Rachel Abrams, Leah Handwerk, Kaci Brooks, Olivia Latney, Nigeria Ponzo, Josette Graves, Kristine Ianelli, Hannah Smith, Emily Dougherty, Elizabeth (Chessie) Aleman, Flavia Lopes.Second row: Madelyn Moberg, Rachel Paul, Elizabeth Hill, Ranger Ruffins, Erica Brown, Gwen Baraniecki-Zwil, Lauren Kelley, Laurel Brown, Christa Chappell, Katlyn Barrett.Third row: Caroline Connolly, Kendall Flanagan, Caroline Provine, Sarah Newbold, Alethea (Keiko) Endo, Chelsea Terrell, Danielle Radacosky-Pentoney, Courtney Lang, Porter Ergon, Taylor Purcell, Selene Viallard, Virginia DeWees, Jennie Lowe, Lauren Tamar, Emily Romano, Caroline McDonough.Fourth/fifth rows: Richard Monari, Benjamin Horstmann, Derek Bednarski, Nicholas Culver, John Miraglia, Duncan Hobbs, Michael Armstrong, Southworth Hamilton, Sumner Crosby, Patrick Schlecker, Douglas Read, Julian DeOliveira, Matthew Lankiewicz, Nicholas Napoletano.Back row: Daniel Potter, Jamie Irwin, Matthew Alexander, Christopher Getty, Joshua Schwartz, Alexander Balis, Graham Grochowski, Chazz Higginbotham, Benjamin Chen, Eric Comeger, Christopher Whitney, Logan Joyce, Brett McCone, Jason Magness.

11Summer 2012 • Friends magazine


3312 Spring 2012 • Friends magazine12 Summer 2011 • Friends magazine

Judah Dadone graduated from Friends School in 2003 and then went to The George Washington University, where he studied English and creative writing. He now leads the critically acclaimed band Freelance Whales, which was founded in 2008. The band spent the better part of 2009 perform-ing on New York subway platforms and street corners, as well as on the city’s more traditional stages, before self-releasing its first album, Weathervanes. Just a few months later, the album was re-released on two record labels. The album and the band have earned plenty of good press, including being named as “a band to watch” by NPR’s “All Songs Considered”; and as one of Spin magazine’s 50 “must hear bands” at the South by Southwest music festival. Freelance Whales’ music also has been introduced to wider audiences as the background for a Twitter video about its service, on TV shows and Chevy and Starbucks commercials, and in a campaign for teenagers about the dangers of skin cancer. The Whales have done several tours through the U.S. and Canada, and toured and released their first international single in the U.K. in 2010. Judah found time this past November to visit with Friends students for a QUEST Lunch & Learn program. Another album is expected to be released this summer.

(Excerpts from Judah’s remarks)

I can imagine that part of the reason I was asked to be here today, besides my being an alumnus, is that I chose a creative, less traditional path. And while I hope that the bulk of you don’t necessarily do that sort of thing (seri-ously, day and night, I would worry), I know very well that amongst you there are budding photographers, and cooks, and short fiction writ-ers, and pianists and songwrit-ers. And regardless of whether

“FAIL BETTER”

or not it’s our trade, all of us, I imagine, have some longing or desire to create within us. With that in mind, I’d like to share an idea with you; it’s one that I’ve suspected was true for a long time, but took an entire decade to properly settle into my bones.

The idea is: You don’t have to be a creative person to be a creative person.…At first, it doesn’t make any sense, which usually means there’s something good in there….Fiona Apple, asked her about her creative process and how she wrote her songs, said something to the effect of, “Cows make milk, and I make music,” as if being creative were passive and—glandu-lar, as if you might need an entirely different organ system in your body to pen a pop song.

As you can imagine, I was heartbroken in the moment I heard her say that. I was heartbroken because it was pretty clear that I didn’t have that special organ system. But after a little while, that heartbreak sort of morphed into a different feeling, a sort of disbelief or even disdain, and a strong desire to prove that pretty young lady wrong. I then became entranced by this idea that it was supposed to be difficult.

Maybe certain things are sup-posed to be hard. Are we sup-posed to struggle? And if so, Why? Why would we do that


2012 Commencement SpeakerJudah Dadone ’03

The Class Of 3 2012 4


33

to ourselves? There are two main reasons that I can think of. The first has to do with the way we relate to our work. Sometimes the more we strug-gle for something, the more strongly bonded we are with what comes out of it. And conversely, when things come especially easy to us, we don’t always fully appreciate them. The second reason that we should struggle has to do with the way we relate to ourselves, and our own identities—that none of us should ever feel predestined to be anything or do anything because of what we’re naturally good at.

Let’s say that you did happen to be a cow. What if you decided not to make milk? Wouldn’t that be something? If instead you pumped out Kool-Aid, or maybe something healthier, let’s say kombucha? My point is, you might have to struggle to do that, and some uptight folks might even say

that you’re fighting nature, but at least you’d be proactively struggling for your right to make cow kombucha.

….One of my favorite writers and abstract thinkers of all time, the Irish playwright Sam Beckett, once said famously, “fail again, fail better.” You are all here today because you didn’t fail. Good job. Not only did you not fail, but I imag-ine you excelled greatly, and I commend you for that. But still, failure is an important sensation; and so Beckett said, “fail again, fail better.” Unlike Ms. Apple, he was clued into the notion that not only was failing ok, or “part of the process,” so to speak, but also that maybe there was a proper

way to do it. And so even if your work was mediocre, or you were still figuring it out, there was an efficient, or grace-ful, or smart, or dignified way of failing. With that in mind, I would like to steal his idea, and modify it a little bit. Fail fast; keep failing; fail so much that the little bundle of nerves that produces emotions like fear and shame withers like an old dead tree. ….And if you cannot fail, then succeed, I suppose. Success is the eventual goal, but only after a lot of failing. Satisfac-tion is kind of tricky, too. Only let it come over you in brief, hazy moments, like a dizzy spell that you have to shake away. Take five minutes, tops; beyond that, you might start to drift into complacency. Once that feeling is gone, let it stay gone until you’ve made something that warrants that sensational craving. If you have the stomach for it, try to

fall in love a bunch. Certainly with people, but beyond that, try to fall in love with as many inanimate objects as possible—abstract thoughts, and shapes of words, and plates of food, and lilts of accents, and shades of color, and textures of cloth-ing, and species of flower, and the honey that comes from them and bees, and fall in love with the veins in leaves.

….Lastly, I want to thank this school itself and the people within for giving me my earli-est understanding of commu-nity and family outside of my own home….The further I’ve gone out into the world, the more I realize how incredible and invaluable this community is. I’m so thankful to you all

for bringing me back into it.

I’m so thankful to a teacher named Jan Jones, who convinced me to stay here, when I was struggling (and nearly flunk-ing) in the eighth grade. I considered going to a public high school, where I could be more anonymous, and aloof, and Ms. Jones heard about this. She pulled me aside, and said, “Listen, J. J. I know you’re having a tough time, but actually, you can’t leave. When you go to the upper school, that’s when you can finally give some of yourself to the community, and you haven’t done that yet, so you can’t leave.” I don’t know what vested interest she had in my staying here, but I need to thank her for verbally smack-ing some sense into me.

I’m not entirely certain that I would be anything without this place, and we’re all lucky to have walked through these halls as much as we have. In that spirit, I wanted to do something musical to honor the school, and to honor our graduates, so if it’s ok, I want to ask the graduating class to sing with me a modified ver-sion of our alma mater. A Variation On Our Alma Mater, for the Graduating Class of 2012[adding the following verse]

Our cups are running over;Our hearts are beating hard.And though we’ll soon be leaving,We won’t be gone for long.Burst out into the starscape,And radiate your beam.The gravity between usWill pull us back someday.

Thank you so much for having me. I wish you the best of luck in all your struggles.

Sometimes the more we struggle for some-thing, the more strongly bonded we are with what comes out of it. And conversely, when things come especially easy to us, we don’t always fully appreciate them.




Rachel AbramsSwarthmore CollegeService: Sojourner’s PlaceExploration: Friends Committee on National Legislation

Elizabeth AlemanUniversity of South CarolinaService: Camp PossibilitiesExploration: Martial arts

Matthew AlexanderMoravian CollegeService: Habitat for HumanityExploration: Business/golf

Michael ArmstrongLoyola University MarylandService: Camp SunnybrookExploration: Cooking

Alexander BalisDrexel UniversityService: Troy Wallstax/Chazz Witherspoon Youth AcademyExploration: Business/entrepreneurship

Gwen Baraniecki-ZwilNew York UniversityService: Barn Studio of ArtExploration: Career in law

Katlyn BarrettUniversity of MichiganService: People to People South AfricaExploration: Career in public service

Derek BednarskiTulane UniversityService: Habitat for HumanityExploration: Detailing business

Kaci BrooksThe Ohio State UniversityService: Meadowood Summer SchoolExploration: Martial arts

Erica BrownDickinson CollegeService: Special Olympics DelawareExploration: Scuba diving

Laurel BrownUniversity of RochesterService: Delaware Theatre CompanyExploration: Cultural immersion, Ireland

Christa ChappellClemson UniversityService: Faithful FriendsExploration: Event planning

Benjamin ChenUniversity of DelawareService: Police Athletic LeagueExploration: Swimming

Eric ComegerRosemont CollegeService: Metropolitan Wilmington Urban LeagueExploration: Event planning/promotion

Caroline ConnollyThe George Washington UniversityService: People to People South AfricaExploration: Photography

Sumner CrosbyColorado CollegeService: Habitat for HumanityExploration: Music theory/songwriting

Nicholas CulverCornell UniversityService: Community Soup Kitchen, Salem NJExploration: Commercial crabbing/fishing

Julian DeOliveiraLehigh UniversityService: Food Bank of DelawareExploration: Piano

Virginia DeWeesHobart and William Smith CollegesService: Rodney Street Tennis ClubExploration: Organic farming

Emily DoughertyTemple UniversityService: Ministry of CaringExploration: Working with wildlife

Alethea EndoYale UniversityService: People to People South AfricaExploration: Pottery

Porter ErgonPennsylvania State University, University ParkService: Christ Church Youth Trip,Dominican RepublicExploration: Week in the wilderness

Kendall FlanaganUniversity of DelawareService: Faithful FriendsExploration: Career in physical therapy

Christopher GettyBoston UniversityService: Food Bank of DelawareExploration: Game design, d20 system

Josette GravesBryn Mawr CollegeService: Teaching karateExploration: Stock market/investing

Graham GrochowskiThe University of TampaService: Bald Head Island, NC, ConservancyExploration: Archery

Southworth HamiltonUniversity of Massachusetts, AmherstService: Ronald McDonald HouseExploration: Photography

Leah HandwerkLycoming CollegeService: March of DimesExploration: Yoga

Chazz HigginbothamConnecticut CollegeService: Habitat for HumanityExploration: DJ’ing

Elizabeth HillDeSales UniversityService: Physical therapyExploration: Guitar

Duncan HobbsGeorgetown UniversityService: Mary Campbell CenterExploration: Microeconomics

Benjamin HorstmannUniversity of DelawareService: Guardian Angel Child CareExploration: Car repair/restoration

Kristine IannelliUniversity of DelawareService: Hagley MuseumExploration: Yoga/business

Jamie IrwinSwarthmore CollegeService: Bellevue State ParkExploration: Photography/visual arts

Logan JoyceLoyola University MarylandService: Kennett Area Parks & Recreation BoardExploration: Restaurant management

Lauren KelleyClaremont McKenna CollegeService: People to People South AfricaExploration: Cooking

Courtney LangFranklin and Marshall CollegeService: Camp SunnybrookExploration: Working with big animals

Listed by college choice, service project agency, and senior exploration topic.

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The Class Of 3 2012 4


Matthew LankiewiczJohns Hopkins UniversityService: Basin KeepersExploration: Career in medicine

Olivia LatneyNew York UniversityService: Delaware Theatre CompanyExploration: Water aerobics

Flavia LopesJames Madison UniversityService: St. John of God Community Services (health care)Exploration: Camping

Jennie LoweUniversity of DelawareService: Guardian Angel Child CareExploration: School counseling

Jason MagnessUniversity of Colorado at Colorado SpringsService: Habitat for HumanityExploration: Restoring cars

Brett McConeUniversity of South CarolinaService: Christiana Care PTExploration: Cooking

Caroline McDonoughLoyola University MarylandService: Camp SunnybrookExploration: Cultural immersion, Ireland

John MiragliaHaverford CollegeService: Race to ReadExploration: Yoga

Madelyn MobergBennington CollegeService: Red Bird MissionExploration: Living healthy

Richard MonariSwarthmore CollegeService: Habitat for HumanityExploration: Driving, car maintenance/repair

Nicholas NapoletanoUniversity of DelawareService: Counselor, YMCAExploration: Hiking

Sarah NewboldFurman UniversityService: Tri-State Bird RescueExploration: Living healthy

Rachel PaulLafayette CollegeService: Goodwill IndustriesExploration: Living healthy

Nigeria PonzoDeSales UniversityService: Ministry of CaringExploration: Swimming

Daniel PotterWilliams CollegeService: Bellevue State ParkExploration: Game design, d20 system

Caroline ProvineSchool of Visual ArtsService: People to People South AfricaExploration: Photography

Taylor PurcellUniversity of DelawareService: Montessori Learning CentreExploration: Yoga

Danielle Radacosky-PentoneyBennington CollegeService: Faithful FriendsExploration: Rock climbing

Douglas ReadThe University of TampaService: Food Bank of DelawareExploration: Piano

Emily RomanoUniversity of VirginiaService: Kentmere Nursing HomeExploration: Week in the wilderness

Ranger RuffinsThe University of North Carolina at Chapel HillService: Meadowood SchoolExploration: Wilderness adventure

Patrick SchleckerDickinson CollegeService: Parismina Sea Turtle Commission, Costa RicaExploration: Cooking

Joshua SchwartzThe George Washington UniversityService: Bellevue State ParkExploration: Career in law enforcement

Hannah SmithBard CollegeService: School volunteer in SpainExploration: Massage therapy

Lauren TamarUniversity of DelawareService: Habitat for HumanityExploration: Short-story fiction

Chelsea TerrellMount Holyoke CollegeService: Delaware HospiceExploration: Hospice care

Selene ViallardWarren Wilson CollegeService: Compassionate Care HospiceExploration: Outdoor leadership program

Christopher WhitneyLynchburg CollegeService: Ashland Nature CenterExploration: Glass blowing

Sara WoodwardRandolph CollegeService: Habitat for HumanityExploration: Sewing


Summer 2012 • Friends magazine16 Summer 2012 • Friends magazine

1 Patrick Schlecker and Hannah Smith were chosen by their classmates to speak at Final Assembly.

2 The John Marshall Mendinall II, Class of 1939, Memorial Award is given to the graduating senior considered to have done the most for Friends School. This year’s recipient, Virginia DeWees, is pictured with Head of School Bryan Garman.

3 The Charles W. Bush, Class of 1900, Award, honoring juniors who “most clearly demonstrate the school’s ideals of character, scholarship, and service,” was presented by Head of Upper School Rebecca Zug to Bowman Benge and Dunia Tonob.

4 Howard W. Starkweather, Jr. ’44 was on hand to present the Community Service Award named in his honor to graduating seniors Virginia DeWees and Erica Brown.

5 Meg Gehret Erskine ’83, Friends parent and trustee, presented the award named for her mother. The Amanda Spack-man Gehret, Class of 1951, Memorial Mathematics Award is given to the upper school student “who manifests outstand-ing mathematical achievement through development of ability and commitment to the experience of the whole class.” Pictured with Meg is 2012 Gehret Award recipient Laurel Brown.

6 Jane Hukill and Acting Science Depart-ment Chair Mark Schmittle presented The Robert P. Hukill, Class of 1939, Science Award, recognizing “the spirit of innova-tion and creativity, particularly in the applied sciences.” The award is given to a junior who “develops practical solutions to common problems, has the potential for leadership, and has demonstrated knowledge, skills, and excellence in the sciences.” Pictured with Jane and Mark is this year’s recipient, Lucy Yeatman.

7 American Field Service (AFS) students Gustav Hagman and Anna Haugland, pictured with Assistant Head for Academics Peter Wenigmann, were recognized at Final Assembly, along with their host families—the Martelli-Rabens and the Kullers.

8 Newly minted class agents for the Class of 2012 Patrick Schlecker, Nick Napole-tano, Taylor Purcell, Kendall Flanagan, and Chessie Aleman.

In addition to the named awards, students were recognized with “distinctive service awards” for service and leadership that had a positive and lasting impact and reflected the ideals and mission of Friends School.

Final Assembly 2012 4

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As of July 1, 2012, Bill Neff and Marilyn Maguire are retired, after a combined 68 years of service to Wilmington Friends School. And the years don’t come close to measuring the meaning of their steward-ship of and contributions to the school’s mission and community. Words of tribute are not likely to come close either, but below are a few of the many expressions of thanks and good wishes sent to school following the announcement of Bill’s and Marilyn’s retirements. With the exception of the two photos from an earlier era, the pictures are from a June 2nd celebration in their honor.

Marilyn Maguire served Friends School for 27 years, 18 of those in the Head of School’s office and as a member of the senior administrative team.

“As Lisa Darling told me when I took this position, I should prepare myself for meetings in which Marilyn had not only identified a problem, but had already drafted a memo announcing a new policy to address it….Her institutional memory and commitment are inspiring, her work ethic unparalleled, her wisdom uncanny, her intelligence and problem-solving skills unmatched. Each day, I am amazed at the countless tasks she completes, large and small, to make the school run efficiently, effectively, and with a compassion that meets the mission of Quaker education. Few people bring such breadth and depth to their work, and it is difficult to imagine my office—or the school—without her. Thank you, Marilyn.”

—Bryan Garman, Head of School

“On the ceiling of the front hall is set forth the George Fox quote regarding finding the blessings in others. When I first entered Friends, feeling as a stranger, Marilyn, through her warm welcome, both showed me the blessings in Friends, and in Marilyn, and I am forever grateful for that.”

—Russ Endo, Parent, Parent of Alumna, and Trustee

The Careers/Callings of Bill Neff and Marilyn Maguire

Labors of Love:

“Marilyn is the most professional and patient person I know. With work to keep her busy from 6:00am to 8:00pm, everyone who enters her office is met with a greeting as though they were the most important thing on her agenda that day. Marilyn’s warm smile and graciousness are the two things I will remember most about her. And not only is she the gra-cious gatekeeper, she is undoubtedly the heartbeat of the school.”

—Nancy Mahoney, Former Faculty and Trustee, Parent of Alumni

“Mrs. Maguire had this remarkable abil-ity to let us know that everything was fine. Everything was going to be fine. In some of the most tense situations we faced, that reassurance was the absolute most we could ask for.”

—John Fairchild ’11

“Marilyn is smart, funny, profoundly committed to the things that matter, and could organize major world events. She has made so much work at WFS....Just this week, she sent me a news story about a young woman whom she and I knew as a kindergartner in the early 90’s. She knows us all; she connects us all; she has made our lives and our school work; and WFS is going to miss her.”

—Lisa Darling, Former Head of School

Bill Neff served Friends School for 41 years, arriving in 1971 as a middle school social science teacher and upper school coach. He also was appointed as the school’s first director of admissions (while also teaching three classes and coaching two sports), and then found a calling as the Head of Middle School for the past two decades. In recent years,

Bill’s second-in-command role also was formalized with his appointment as Associate Head of School.

“Bill’s tremendous sense of integrity, clarity of thought, commitment to faculty and students, and loyalty to Friends School are qualities that have defined his extraordinary tenure. Anyone who knows Bill knows that his work has been a labor of love, and there are generations of alumni who have expressed great love for Bill in return. I am especially appreciative of his wisdom and

Marilyn and Bill, classic editions.

Bryan Garman, Marilyn, Bill, Lisa Darling, and former Interim Head of School Leo Dres-sel. Former Head of School Bill Goulding and former Acting Heads of School Bill Bickley and Harry Hammond also attended the June 2nd celebration.

Wilmington Friends Board of Trustees past chairs at the June 2nd party: Darcy Rademaker, recently retired (in fact, he had one June Board meeting to go) David Singleton, and Mike Hendricks.

“Marilyn is smart, funny, pro-foundly committed to the things that matter, and could organize major world events....”


friendship, and know I speak for the entire staff when I say that he will be deeply missed. It has been an honor and privi-lege to work with and learn from Bill Neff.”


“I was a student of Bill Neff’s in the early 1980’s. He taught the most wonderful class on evolution….The material is inherently interesting, but it took a teacher like Bill Neff to make it magical and unforget-table. He was a marvelous, remarkable teacher, and an incredible role model to this teacher.”

—Rebecca Gritz Kurson ’88

“What has Bill Neff not done at Friends? Teacher. Coach. Administrator. Friend. Mentor. Father. He has impacted thou-sands of students and has left a legacy for generations to come.”

—Brian Mand ’90

George LascnyAlso retired as of July 1 is upper school science teacher George Lascny. A teacher and coach, George has worked in Delaware schools for more than 40 years, starting at St. Mark’s, spending the bulk of his career at A.I. du Pont High School, and spending the last nine years at Wilmington Friends. His impact as a teacher at Friends is perhaps best measured by the students’ choice to dedicate the 2012 WFS yearbook in his honor.

George was a standout football player at the University of Delaware and, among other honors, received the National Wrestling Coaches Association’s Excellence in Coach-ing Award, and is a member of the Delaware Wrestling Hall of Fame and the A.I. du Pont High School Hall of Fame. George’s dedication to Friends School has been inspiring, notably his assuming extra teaching duties in his last year, when he had planned to cut back moving toward retirement, and his postponement of hip surgery so that he could keep teaching into June (missing his own retirement party, the day after his surgery).

“Thanks, George, for your humor, your great teaching, and your dedication. You have made a tremen-dous impact on the profession. We have been fortunate to have you at Friends.”


Marilyn and former Head of School Lisa Darling; and Bill with Andy ‘81 and Marci Aerenson.

“Anyone who knows Bill knows that his work has been a labor of love, and there are generations of alumni who have expressed great love for Bill in return.”

The Neff and Maguire families at the June 2nd celebration in honor of Bill and Marilyn.

“Just as we were becoming self-obsessed teenagers, Mr. Neff taught us that in fact, we were not these singular units, but rather part of a big and interconnected web.”

—Louisa Terrell ’87

“Mr. Neff is and always will be as ageless as the school itself.”

—Nick Napoletano ’12

“A bundle of adolescent energy, contained in an extraordinary, committed

professional. Bill Neff cares about kids as much as any person I have ever known... he’s also more likely to have fun with them! I still quote him regularly at United World College where I work now.”

—Lisa Darling, Former Head of School


Students, parents, faculty/staff, and folks from Salesianum School’s theater program all helped to rebuild the set for the upper school spring play, Arsenic and Old Lace, in the Salesianum auditorium.

MMemories

The May 1961 issue of the Friends School Alumni Bulletin reported the exciting news of that, “Ground was broken at noon on May 1 for the first major construction at Friends School in its more than 25 years in Alapocas.” The entire student body gath-ered to witness “the happy event.” The new “activities building,” housing an auditorium and gym, was “the first step in a compre-hensive program to improve the school’s facilities and to make room for about 100 new students in the Upper School.”

The Development Program steering committee that worked to fund that comprehensive construction included many family names that remained familiar in leadership on behalf of Friends School: Thomas W. Stephenson ’31, Irving J. Cox, Jr. ’32, Robert G. Hackett, Nicholas J. Letang, Alva E. Lindley, William Poole, Walter O. Simon, and Richard R. Wier.

The building served Friends students for the next 50 years, until the fire on April 17, 2012. Since the fire, alumni, parents, students, faculty and staff, and friends of the school have shared generous expressions of support. Several have also shared memo-ries, including:

“I spent many hours at the piano in the Friends auditorium. Violet Richman was my music teacher in kindergarten, and as I moved up each year, she seemed to move up, too. Although I was never happy to have singing solos on that stage, I did love play-ing the piano for such high school productions as Leonard Bern-stein’s Mass (I invited him, and although he couldn’t come, he did send a good luck telegram to the entire cast), How to Succeed in Business (when the lead skipped several measures of music and sent me scrambling to keep up), our senior project production of Tommy; and who can forget the holiday ‘Hallelujah Chorus’ when the lights went out, and we kept going. The lights came back on for the final note, to a standing ovation—it was some-thing I will never forget.” Karen Wilderman Keenan ’75

“Violet Richman was the upper school music/choral director when I first started teaching here. In those days she was in the habit of recruiting faculty for the spring musical. I had a small part in Lil’ Abner (I had to wear a fishnet tanktop) in my first year here, and a couple of years later a bunch of teachers were on stage for the final number in A Chorus Line. For three consecu-tive nights a small crew of us were in the auditorium until one or two in the morning building sets for A Thurber Carnival, one of the best high school performances I’ve ever seen. Its quality was most likely due to the absence of faculty in the cast….There was a math teacher here named Kathy Holmes. She was an outstand-ing teacher with a very messy desk. There was always a mountain of papers on her desk and her students used to kid her about it. She took it in stride. One day, it may have been April Fools Day, we all gathered for collection. The curtain opened and there sat Kathy’s desk, hundreds of papers perfectly and precariously perched before a senior, who was reclining in her chair, his feet resting on the only available space left on the desktop.”Brian Fahey, fifth grade teacher and varsity boys’ basketball coach

The Auditorium and South (or Boys’) Gym:Memories, Gratitude & The Future

An architect’s drawing of the planned “activities building,” reprinted in the Alumni Bulletin of May 1961.

Right: Progress on the demolition phase, the first step in reconstruction, as of mid-June.

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Before Meeting for Worship on Monday, April 23.


G

“I have two fond memories of the ‘Boys’ Gym,’ with the warped floor that provide a real ‘home court advantage’ as the ball would bounce out of bounds if you dribbled on the wrong floor boards. The first memory, of course, is of being jam packed into the stands every Friday night during the winter season. The kids all sat in the bleachers behind the basket, a ‘no parents’ section, as the whole building reverberated with cheering. As the youngest of three, those were nights of freedom for me. The whole family would attend, but I was allowed to sit behind the basket, away from direct parental supervision, or so I thought. My second memory was of the first ‘weight room.’ I have to laugh, thinking back, now that Friends has such a large, well equipped fitness room. The original was one of the closets in the Boys’ Gym. It consisted of a total of one universal gym. To work your legs, you had to leave the closet (and the gym) and enter the stairwell, where beneath the stairs was another single bench for leg work. It was a privilege not only to be able to sign out of study hall to use the weights, but a special privilege to do so as a girl. Girls in those days didn’t ‘work out,’ but Lee Bush was way ahead of her time.”Priscilla Altmaier ’82

“My sophomore year, in the last game of the season against Tower Hill. Our team had an up-and-down season, and we were looking to end on a high note. We had lost to Tower in overtime earlier in the season, despite thinking we were the better team. I happened to hit the first shot of the game, a three-pointer in the corner (which Coach Brian Fahey did not think was a good shot at the time, until it went in), and we actually controlled the game from there. The best moment was at the final buzzer. Even though we were up by a good bit, Brian Parker, a senior, hoisted a shot from beyond half court and hit nothing but net. The student section from under the basket cleared out onto the court knowing that would be the last time we would play there. I still have a piece of the court (Brian col-lected pieces when part of the floor had to be replaced), which is one of my favorite WFS mementos.”Chris Loeffler ’00, third grade teacher and assistant football coach

Gratitude

Middle and upper school resumed classes on Monday, April 23—school was closed for just three days after the fire, and upper school athletics were able to resume after just one day. On April 24, Head of School Bryan Garman wrote to the Friends community:

“When we returned to school yesterday, middle and upper school students, faculty, and staff gathered for Meeting for Worship, the foundation of the special sense of community that defines Friends School and that pervaded the streets of Alapocas last week. In our messages and shared silence, we reflected on the fire and expressed gratitude to the many people and agencies that have helped us over the past week. When Meeting ended, students shook hands, exchanged hugs, and left the room talk-ing and laughing on the way to their first period classes. There was a reassuring sense of normalcy to the day, and we were exceedingly grateful that all is, and will be, well.”

Bryan extended thanks to the first responders who served at school, including two Friends parents and a coach, to the Fire Marshal’s office, to Alapocas neighbors who “opened their

Left: Athletic Trainer Devon Fegley relocated to the garage and helped upper school athletes to get right back into action on April 18 (pictured with Devon is All State lacrosse player Brett Tracy ’13 who helped lead the Quakers to victory over Tower Hill that day).

From the Bulletin of December 1961.

21

April 17, 2012.


F

homes and hearts,” and noted that, “The outpouring of support from the educational community has been overwhelming.” He praised the faculty and staff for implementing emergency procedures and accounting for all students so efficiently and for getting the recovery effort underway almost immediately. He thanked parents, alumni, and trustees for their many expres-sions of support and offers to help.

Bryan also praised the students themselves for their thoughtful-ness in response to the situation. He wrote, “Tuesday evening, representatives of the senior class returned to the School to give cookies, drinks, and thank you notes to firefighters and staff members. On Wednesday, the boys lacrosse players dedicated their win to assistant coach [and Director of Facilities] Ray Car-bone and the staff of Wilmington Friends, a profound statement about the strength of community and the meaningful relation-ships that our faculty and students form with one another. And when, at the end of the day on Thursday, many of us began to grow weary from the week, second grade students Arden and Millie lifted our spirits by setting up a lemonade stand at the corner of Alapocas Drive and School Road (classmate Margo joined Arden on Friday). You guessed it: proceeds to benefit the rebuilding of the WFS auditorium.”

Bryan concluded, “Thank you for meeting the challenge and for all that you have done and continue to do to make Friends the extraordinary place it is. There is work yet to be done. But a week after the fire, our students have filled our classrooms and a profound gratitude has filled our hearts. And we are stronger and more unified than ever. It is an honor to be part of Friends School.”

The Future

The first phase in the reconstruction of the auditorium-gym wing is the ongoing demolition and clearing of debris, each step of which determines the next step. The projection was for that process to be finished by mid-July. The next phase is the construction of a temporary roof to protect the building until the real reconstruction begins in early 2013.

While the physical work continues, there is a two-leveled effort behind the scenes: with the insurance company, which is expected to cover “replacement costs,” what would be needed to restore the facilities to what they had been; and work with an architect and theatre and athletic program consultants, who are helping school faculty and administrators to re-imagine what the facilities can be.

The final plans will depend on a number of variables, especially fundraising. It’s hard to imagine a more inspiring start to that effort than Arden, Millie, and Margo’s lemonade stand, or the lower school student who donated all the money in her piggy bank “to help fix the school.” When ground was broken on the activities building in 1961, the Bulletin reported that many “old friends and classmates engaged in the same worthwhile pursuit—giving of their time and substance to Friends School.” With that same commitment, we look forward to another “happy event” during the 2013-2014 school year, when the building will re-open, better than ever.

Thanks to all who continue to support Friends School in look-ing, as always, to the future.

To share your memories of the Auditorium and South/Boys’ Gym, please email: [email protected].

For information about supporting the reconstruction, please contact: Judy Aliquo, Director of Development; [email protected].

Independence School (where Austin Kirk ’09, top row third from left, is an after-school program assistant) was among the many schools to offer support.

22

Arden and Millie’s lemonade stand.

Architects’ preliminary visions for the new theatre-gym wing, with the final plans to be determined in the coming months.


On With the Shows....

A headline of the spring performing arts season was the resilient (and very funny) production of the upper school spring play, Arsenic and Old Lace. Following the auditorium fire, the play had to be relocated, its set completely rebuilt, and new costumes and props gathered. The curtain went up just a week later than planned, thanks to a lot of help from a lot of people—special thanks to Salesianum School, which hosted the play, rehearsals, and the opening night reception honor-ing representatives of the fire service. The show not only went on; it was a triumph in every way.

The IB and spring concerts were also great successes. The middle and upper school choral concert took the show on the road to The Grand Opera House in downtown Wilmington. In addition to school events, the Jazz Band participated in the regional Independent School Jazz Festi-val; three middle school students performed in the Independent School Honors Band; and the middle school choirs and bands once again participated in Music in the Parks festival program. Sophomore David Gobris also completed a mastery project in music—composing, recording, and editing an album.

A sampling of events & good news from

Spring ƒ 2012

Directors Don Morton ’94 (left) and Todd Tyler (right) with Salesianum’s Nick Vavala, who provided invaluable assistance in stag-ing the relocated upper school play.

Bryan Garman with fire service representa-tives at the reception before the opening night performance of Arsenic and Old Lace at Salesianum.

Richard Monari ’12 as Mor-timer Brewster and Daniel Potter ’12 as Teddy.

Chris Palmer ’13 as Mr. Gibbs, the potential next gentleman-victim of Abby (Olivia Latney ’12) and Martha (Eliza Durham ’14) Brewster.

The trumpet section fronting the Jazz Band at the upper school instrumental concert.

Middle and upper school choirs filled the stage at The Grand Opera House.The percussion section at the middle school instru-mental concert.

Below: The upper school “pops” collection closed the spring concert season.

Andrew Jaworski (7th grade, sax), Joslyn Gardner (8th grade, bass clarinet), and Jack Bulk (8th grade, trumpet) performed with the Independent School Honors Band.

Members of the band at the third, fourth, and fifth grade concert.



Spring ƒ 2012On With the Shows....

A very talented group of IB music students, all Class of 2012, takes a bow: Gwen Baraniecki-Zwil, Danielle Radacosky-Pentoney, Daniel Potter, Chris Getty, and Richard Monari.

The K/pre-first, first, and second grade concert. It was hard not to smile at the Early Learning Center/pre-k concert.

Visual Arts

Visual arts teacher Cynthia Stan Mellow with student-artists, all Class of 2012, Lauren Kelley, Keiko Endo, and Rachel Paul at the IB Exhibition opening reception in April.

A self-portrait by Porter Ergon ’12 from the IB Art Exhibition; each seventh grader re-used a cardboard box in art class to create a model of “a place to listen”; kindergartners learned about Van Gogh and then mixed yellow, brown, and red paint to create their own sunflowers.

Caroline Provine ’12 with her take on the IB art Mona Lisa-themed mid-term project.

Among the sixth grade art projects this spring was a collage work, tied to the sixth grade history course, called “the ancient world revisited.”

K students studied the architect Antoni Gaudí, and then followed his use of interesting shapes, colors, and materials (including re-used materials) to make their own “fabulous creations.”

An example of an eighth grade digital art project in innovative housing design

Right: Among the other lower school art projects on display this spring were patterned linoleum block prints, “bas relief” works related to students’ study of states and state symbols, and watercolor landscapes.



Seven middle school students participated in the Junior High Science Olympiad competition, and 16 students brought home a total of 12 medals in the Elementary Sci-ence Olympiad. A total of 38 Friends students participated in statewide Science Olympiad competitions this year.

Emily Freilich ’14 was chosen as the first-place state winner from Delaware in the National Peace Essay Con-test. Emily’s essay was called, “M-Banking for Peace,” and focused on Kenya and Tanzania. (M-bank is bank-ing via cell phone, which has great implications for people in remote areas.) Emily was invited to Washington for a five-day program that pro-motes international peacemak-ing through understanding a region or theme related to the nationwide essay contest.

Eighth grader Jack Bulk finished fifth in Delaware’s Geography Bee competition. Jack was the only student in his group to score perfectly in the preliminary rounds.

Five members of the Class of 2013 have qualified for the next National Merit Scholar Program: Catherine Curran, Jack Hollingsworth, Ryan Kielhorn, Sophie Mester, and Dunia Tonob.

Congratulations to Annie McDonough ’13, co-editor-in-chief of the Whittier Miscel-lany, for being selected as Delaware’s representative for the 2012 Al Neuharth Free Spirit and Journalism Con-ference in Washington, DC. Annie will attend the confer-ence in July at the Newseum and receive a $1,000 schol-arship to the college of her choice.

On April 25, the Claymont Lions Club recognized Josette Graves ’12 and Christa Chappell ’12 with the 2012 Outstanding Student Award. The award is given to students showing exemplary dedication to academics, extracurricular activities, and community involvement. Winners received $1500 and a plaque.

On April 30, Dunia Tonob, Aryn Lazarus, and Leah O’Brien—all Class of 2013—attended the inaugu-ral event of the University of Delaware Center for Science, Ethics and Public Policy (SEPP). The daylong sympo-sium featured well-known experts on applied ethics, and covered topics includ-ing globalization, corporate social responsibility, robotics, the environment, and public administration.

The Global Peace and Justice class hosted its annual Middle East colloquium, with guests representing different perspec-tives and experiences related to Israel and the Palestinians, and a discussion about vari-ous approaches to achieve a lasting peace.

Five then-juniors were selected to attend the Congressional Delegation Youth Conference on May 14: Catherine Curran, Katie Halpern, Fiona Nagas-wami, Kim Shelton, and Rory Smith. The conference was held at Wesley College and hosted by Senators Carper and Coons, and Representa-tive Carney. Topics covered included cyber warfare, “the changing look of news,” and leadership through service.

Leadership in Academics....

Ready for a rocket event at the Junior High Science Olympiad competition.

Julia Rhodes ’14 was selected to be a Delaware Youth Leadership Network Scholar for the program’s inaugural year in 2012-2013. The DYLN announce-ment noted, “The nominees that we interviewed this first year were outstanding and the selection process was very competi-tive.”

Matt Lankiewicz ’12 and Jamie Irwin ’12 were recog-nized with AAPT (American Association of Physics Teach-ers) Outstanding Physics Student Awards. Students are nominated by their physics teachers for the recognition.

The Class of 2012 earned acceptance to 125 distinct colleges (counting once for schools to which more than one student was admitted). In addition to this year’s college academic scholarship awards and athletic recruitments, Nicholas Culver, Virginia DeWees, and Leah Handwerk were selected by the colleges they will attend specifically for community service leader-ship recognition. Nick was selected as a Cornell Tradition Fellow, Virginia for the Presi-dent’s Leadership Scholarship at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, and Leah for a Community Service Scholar-ship at Lycoming College.

Students introduced guest panelists at the “Colloquium on Seeking Peace and Recon-ciliation in Israel and Palestine” on May 4.

Second graders portrayed famous people in their “wax museum” (visitors would push the red “button” to hear about each person).

Spanish V students, mostly IB HL Spanish, visited New York in April; they are pictured with teacher Leslie Koenig Knight at El Museo del Barrio, having seen El Quijote at the Repertorio Español earlier in the day.

Students guided guests through displays at the Lower School Science Expo on Grand-parents and Special Friends Day in May.

Chief Quiet-Thunder’s visit was a highlight of the third grade interdisciplinary unit on American Indian history and culture.

Seventh graders gathered at the Brandywine on Saturday, June 2, to release shad fry they had raised and monitored in their classroom.



Among the service projects initiated by lower school students this year: Action for Africa, a fourth grade project that raised more than $1000 for an orphanage; a research-service project in third grade to support the World Wildlife Fund; a pre-k project to buy water filters for people in Nicaragua; and a post-fire, fifth grade bake sale to help build the new theatre and gym.

As part of the middle school service program, organized by class and advisory, eighth graders participated in four commu-nity service mornings through the year, three off-campus and one at school.

Seventh graders complete individual stewardship service proj-ects (a minimum of three hours) as part of their curriculum. In one example of several projects that far exceeded the require-ment, Ryann Schutt decided to clean and re-paint a graffiti-covered bridge near her home. She determined the owner of the bridge, eventually speaking to the CEO of a railroad company who agreed to give Ryann access to the bridge and $400 toward the cost of supplies. She also consulted with a professional painter about what supplies would be needed and how the bridge should be painted. Ryann then created a flyer and asked for donations from other bridge neighbors to cover the rest of the costs, and recruited volunteers in her neighborhood (and among her classmates) to scrape, prime, and paint the bridge over one weekend. She then got Del DOT to agree to close the road while the volunteers worked. The bridge looks great and is still graffiti-free.

On April 10, Friends hosted two special guests. With assistance from nieces Caroline McDonough ’12 and Annie McDonough ’13, Joe McDonough from the B+ Foundation led a collection about the Foundation and its work to support cancer care and research. Later that day, U.S. Senator Chris Coons led a Lunch and Learn, part of Friends’ Amnesty Inter-national club’s series of events this year about Joseph Kony and the Lord’s Resistance Army.

The first Wilmington Friends Green Fair was held on Saturday, May 5, in conjunction with the Home & School Association’s Used Book Sale. Friends also became the first Delaware school to join the Green Schools Alliance, which reflects both poli-cies and practices already in place and a commitment to do more. Recent environmental initiatives include a new, stream-lined recycling service, so that a greater variety of items can be recycled, and the Food Service department is composting all biodegradable kitchen waste.

Friends students were featured prominently in a news story about the Brandywine Sprouts, a group of students trying to persuade people to use fewer plastic shopping bags. The Sprouts are part of the Jane Goodall Institute’s Roots & Shoots pro-gram. WFS parent and alumna Dee Durham ’79 is one of the founders of the Sprouts, whose campaign has been part of the Delaware Museum of Natural History’s “Conservation Quest” exhibit this spring. The Sprouts are also working with state legislators to help draft a bill to ban plastic shopping bags in Delaware.

After the May 5th Used Book Sale, the WFS baseball team vol-unteered to pack up and load the unsold books into trucks for delivery to local-non profits—Read Aloud Delaware, Boys and Girls Clubs of Delaware, West End Neighborhood House, and Dare to Care. Thanks, boys!

And many thanks, as always, to all of the parent volunteers.

Spring ƒ 2012Service & Such....Fourth

graders sold home-made crafts and food at the Action for Africa service fundraiser.

One of the off-campus eighth grade service project mornings.

Ryann Schutt’s seventh grade service project involved cleaning and re-painting a (formerly) graffiti-covered bridge: the before picture, and the celebration when the work was done: Alicia Thompson (WFS 7th grade), Ryann’s friend Anna, and Ryann.

U.S. Senator (and Friends parent) Chris Coons with Selene Viallard ’12, Caroline Provine ’12, and Emily Romano ’12.

Members of the baseball team loaded books for delivery to local non-profits, following the Used Book Sale on May 5.

Scenes from the first Wilmington Friends School Green Fair, held on May 5; the “bag monster” was especially popular.



Spring Sports....

* indicates students who were chosen as captains in three sports during 2011-12.

Track & FieldTwenty-three Friends runners, seven in individual events plus relays, qualified for the state track meet this year—and then some. Cav Salvadori finished 2nd in the 1600m, under the Divi-sion II record at that time and lowering his own school record; Thomas Connelly finished 7th in the 1600m. Cav finished third in the 3200m, with Chazz Higginbotham in 6th, and Thomas in 7th. The girls 4x800m relay finished 7th. All of those WFS runners qualified for the Meet of Champions, where DI and DII compete together. In the boys’ 1600m, Cav was 2nd, and Thomas was 8th; the girls’ relay finished 9th; and Chazz was 10th in the 3200m. Among the school records to fall this spring was the oldest on the books, held by Shokie Bragg ’79 for 34 years, the record in the boys’ 3200m—now held by Cav Salva-dori ’13.Captains: Chazz Higginbotham*, Joelle Napoletano*, Cav Salvadori.

TennisThe WFS girls’ tennis team fin-ished third in the state, follow-ing a great team performance in the state tournament (and a great 10-3 regular season). Freshman Annie Jaskulski played all the way to the finals at first singles; Caroline Connolly-Julia Rhodes at first doubles and Kim Shelton at third singles advanced to the semis; and Caroline Provine at second singles and Lexi Fields-Caroline Grover at second doubles advanced to the quarter-finals. The guys’ team finished 4-8 in the regular season, but also made a little noise in the tournament. Jamie Martelli-Raben advanced to the quarters at third singles after an epic three-set win in the second round. Jack Kempner, second singles, and Ben Fischer-Myles McDevitt, first doubles, posted first round wins.Captains: Caroline Connolly, Caroline Provine, Bobby Broderick.

Girls’ SoccerConference champs! Incredible regular season of 13-2, nine shutouts, undefeated in the conference—overall regular season, WFS 65 goals, opposition 13. Among the big non-conference wins were Caravel, Cape Henlopen, Middletown, Archmere, Brandywine, and St. Elizabeth. The closest of the conference games was a 2-0 win vs. Tatnall early in the season (it was 4-0 the second time around). On April 28, Lindsay Aleman, just halfway through her junior season, scored the 50th goal of her career. The team lost in a heart-breaker, 0-1 with a goal called back, in the first round of the state tournament, but as for rea-sons to celebrate…well, there were at least 65 goals-worth, plus all the intangibles.Captains: Elizabeth Aleman, Erica Brown*, Leah Handwerk.

Track teammates Derek Bednarski, Chazz Hig-ginbotham, and Ben Chen, all Class of 2012.

Girls’ tennis co-captain Caroline Connolly ’12.

Boys’ tennis captain Bobby Broderick ’13.

Girls’ track captain Joelle Napoletano ’13.

(continued) Girls’ soccer players celebrate after one of the team’s 65 goals during their conference champi-onship season.



All State Starting XI: Junior Lindsay Aleman.First Team All State Rep: Juniors Lindsay Aleman and Erin Skibicki.Second Team All State Rep: Freshman Shannon Skibicki.Third Team All State Rep: Senior Erica Brown and junior Lauren Kerrigan.First team All Conference: Seniors Erica Brown and Leah Handwerk; juniors Lind-say Aleman, Lauren Kerrigan, and Erin Skibicki; and freshman Shannon Skibicki.Second team All Conference: Senior Chessie Aleman, sophomore Danielle Kuller, and freshman Izzy Martelli-Raben.Scott Clothier: Delaware State Coach of the Year; Independent Conference Coach of the YearGirls’ Lacrosse Girls’ lacrosse finished the season 6-9, and gave rival Tower Hill a run for its money in a great second meeting (11-15, and it was closer until the very end). Other season highlights included wins over tra-ditional rivals Westtown and Sanford, and bigger schools Dover and Red Lion, and an epic, not soon to be forgotten, 22-19 win over Tatnall. The team had great leadership from seven seniors, along with the emergence of some great young talent (seven freshmen got varsity playing time) for Coach Pigeon Pollard Graham ’93.Captains: Courtney Lang, Flavia Lopes, Ranger Ruffins.First team All Conference: Senior Ranger Ruffins and junior Sophie Mester.Second team All Conference: Seniors Flavia Lopes and Sarah Newbold, and freshman Meryl Gatti.

Boys’ LacrosseIn a season in which coaches Jake Rashkind and Ray Carbone picked up their 100th win, the guys went 11-6, despite losing key seniors to injury halfway through the regular season. The team posted a 13-4 win over Dover in the first round of the state tournament, before losing to the eventual state champ in the quarters. Regular season highlights included five conference wins (six if you count West-town), and wins over six teams that ended up in the state tournament, including Cape Henlopen and

Spring Sports....

Spring ƒ 2012

Tower Hill. The Tower Hill win came the day after the April fire in the Friends Auditorium, and Head of School Bryan Garman said, “It felt like they were play-ing for all of us.” Captains: Michael Armstrong, Brett McCone, Patrick Schlecker*.All American and First team All State: Junior Brett Tracy.Second team All State: Juniors Sam Carney, Max Davis, and Sean Kirkpat-rick.Honorable mention All State: Junior Ben Hanson.First team All Conference: Juniors Sam Carney, Max Davis, Ben Hanson, Sean Kirkpatrick, and Brett Tracy.Second team All Conference: Seniors Sumner Crosby, Brett McCone, and Pat-rick Schlecker.

BaseballBaseball finished the season 8-10, with plenty of highlights. The team posted five conference wins (again, six if you count Westtown), including a 9-7 gem against tournament-bound Tatnall. Senior John Miraglia earned headlines (on ESPN.com as well as locally) with his 19-strikeout effort in a 1-0 win against St. Andrew’s, which he followed with a 10-strikeout performance in a 4-3 win over Arch-mere at Frawley Stadium. In another big non-conference game, John struck out 12 in an 8-4 win over Brandywine. Again, along with veteran leadership, some good young talent was on display; four fresh-men saw varsity time, and had some of the season’s biggest hits.(No designated captains.)First team All Conference: Senior John Miraglia, utility.Second team All Conference: Senior John Miraglia, first base; freshman Jake Erskine, second base; senior Matt Lankie-wicz, outfield; junior Will Maguire, out-field; and freshman Scott Davis, outfield.

Gatorade Player of the YearJunior Lauren Kerrigan was selected as Delaware’s Gatorade Player of the Year for volleyball, and received her banner at the spring Athletic Banquet. Lauren was the first Wilmington Friends student-athlete, and the first junior from any school, to receive the award. The Gato-rade Player of the Year selection process considers scholarship and community involvement, as well as achievement and team contribution in volleyball. Friends head coach Barb Trinsey, Delaware’s Coach of the Year, made the presentation to Lauren.

Girls’ Soccer (continued)

Boys’ lacrosse co-captain Michael Arm- strong ’12.

Tri-captain Courtney Lang ’12 and Meredith Erskine ’13 in action for girls’ lacrosse.

John Miraglia ’12 on the mound for Quaker baseball.

Lauren Kerrigan ’13, Delaware’s Gatorade Player of the Year in volleyball.



Jonathan Huxtable became Head of the Middle School effective July 1, 2012. The appoint-ment followed an extensive national search with more than 60 appli-cants, including two sitting heads of school, an associate head of school, experienced division heads, and several middle school deans. Eleven semi-finalists were interviewed by the search commit-tee, and four finalists were invited to spend two days on the Friends campus. During those visits, the finalists were inter-viewed by more than 40 members of the school community, including faculty, staff, parents, students, and trustees.

Jon Huxtable holds a B.A. from Haverford College and an Ed.M. from the Graduate School of Education at Harvard University; he also completed a study of European economic and political integration, 1945-1992, at Katholieke Univeri-teit of Leuven in Belgium. Most recently, Jon served for eight years as Head of School at Harford Friends School in Street, Maryland, where he has been a member of the nearby (and somewhat ironically named) Gunpowder Friends Meeting. He previously worked at Wilmington Friends for 10 years, 1993-2002, first as an associate teacher in lower school, and then as a middle school teacher and coach, as varsity baseball coach, and as middle school Dean for Students.

Upon leaving Wilmington Friends, Jon worked for two years as Director of Development for the Genesee Valley Outdoor Learning Center. He then became the founding Head of Harford Friends, where he has been instrumental in expand-ing the school from a single grade to a vibrant K-8 program. In his letter to the Harford Friends School (HFS) community about his departure, Jon wrote of Wilmington Friends and of his predecessor Bill Neff, “I started my teaching career at Wilmington Friends and it is the only school that could have inspired me to move on from HFS. While other opportunities have arisen in the past eight years, none were as compelling or as meaningful as Harford Friends School until now. At Wilmington Friends I will be succeeding my mentor, a man who saw in me the makings of a good teacher and adminis-trator and made possible all that I have done at HFS.”

Thank you to the members of the faculty and staff search committee—Carlos Charriez, Dick Kittle, Laura Jersild Pardo ’90, Helen Thompson, Peter Wenigmann, and Rebecca Zug; and to the parent advisory committee—Tara Agne, Adam Cutler, Jacqueline Nix, Debbie Pittenger, LeeAnn Trudel, and Steven Wilson.

We extend a warm welcome (home) to Jon and his family.

The Huxtable family: Jonathan, Annabelle (entering pre-k), Nathaniel (entering third grade), Rufus the dog, and Christine (former WFS lower school faculty).

The slippery slide down the hill on Lower School Field Day, June 5—an early welcome to summer.

And just for fun....

Correction to Our Spring Issue

With apologies to alumnus-author Bob Donaghy ’45, we inad-vertently reversed the photo captions in his article, “150 Years Ago —Two Quaker Brothers in the Civil War” during produc-tion of our spring 2012 magazine. The photos and corrected captions are below. Thanks again to Bob for his many contribu-tions to Friends.

Linton Smith S. Rodman Smith


New Head of Middle SchoolJonathan Huxtable


mile trip between his home in Massachusetts and his office in Philadelphia.

1984When we checked in on our alumni in Texas after the devastating tornados in early April, we were very pleased to hear from Kurt Sermas that he was just fine.

1985Kathy Stevens was named the new Executive Director for the Montgomery Coalition for Adult English Literacy in Maryland. From the organization’s press release: “Incorporated in 2006, with the support of county lead-ers, MCAEL works with 60 literacy service providers, who make instruction available at low cost or free to the over 132,000 limited English proficient and native English speaking residents in the county. Stevens has devoted her career and volunteer work to higher education and nonprofits. Since 2007, she has worked at Montgomery College, where she currently serves as Annual Fund Director. Also, she has worked as a senior executive of an international, non-profit membership organization and as an employment lawyer. An active community member, Stevens chairs the Silver Spring Citizens Advisory Board, and serves on the boards of Montgomery Women and Impact Silver Spring. She also is a gradu-ate of Leadership Montgomery and Impact Silver Spring’s Community Empowerment Program.”

1990In late May, Matt Meyer’s Ecosandals factory and headquarters in Nairobi was toured by Senator Chris Coons (chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on African Affairs, and parent of three Friends students). “As we shift the U.S. mentality toward Africa from aid to trade, local businesses like

Ecosandals are the perfect example of how to create good, quality jobs, and I’m so proud a Delawarean helped to found this company,” Senator Coons said. “It was a pleasure to visit Ecosandals today, and to talk with Matt and some of the sandal-makers who are deeply invested in the success of this innovative com-pany. This is a sustainable, replicable model of how to create jobs, improve lives, and spur economic growth in Kenya and beyond.”

Senator Coons’ press release went on to describe the company: “Ecosandals creates footwear from the rubber of used car tires and other scrap materials collected from the streets of East Africa. The company, owned and operated by the sandal-makers in collabora-tion with outside investors, provides dozens of quality jobs to local residents. Delaware native Matt Meyer, who currently serves as Ecosan-dals’ CEO, was inspired to start the company in 1995 after studying abroad as a college stu-dent in Kenya. The company now sells sandals around the world and employs 40 residents of Korogocho, a poor neighborhood of Nairobi with high rates of crime and disease.”

We checked in on our Texas alumni after the tornados in early April, and were very pleased to hear that Keven Richardson was safe and well.

1991Relishing the life in Tampa, FL, Geoff Parker recently joined SwiftWater Inc., a team of engineering and design profes-sionals focusing primarily on offshore and coastwise heavy commercial projects.

Sean Snyder and wife Michelle welcomed daughter Lander Bridie-Anne in May.

1994Molly Mahoney Reese sent a pretty adorable photo of Finley Kate, who was born December 14, 2011. Nice onesie, Finley!

1949We were saddened to hear that Mason Marston Daley’s husband passed away on April 11, 2012, in Pawleys Island, SC after a short illness. Mason and John were married for 60 years.

1951It was such a pleasure to visit with Wendy and Art Littman in their Florida home, where they continue to enjoy sunshine and warmth year-round.

1952The Nemours Fund for Children’s Health honored Jack Porter with The Inspira-tion Award for the Delaware Valley in 2011, for his decades of committed service on the boards of Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children and the Alfred I. duPont Testamentary Trust.

1953Marjorie Wesp Montgomery let us know that she was okay, though the April tornados in Texas hit on both sides of her town, within 20 miles.

1955In April, we caught up with Devy Rose Bruch in Georgia and couldn’t resist taking a photo with her newly adopted puppy.

1962Tim Bayard (See “Faculty, Trustees & Friends of Friends.”)

1963Bill Tracy visited campus in May, and shared this update with us: “After 30 years with various design firms in Philadelphia, Houston and Denver, I left the practice of architecture to have my own firm doing consulting and training in an aspect of commercial real estate that I define as Metrology. I currently serve as Vice-Chair of the Floor Measurement Stan-dards Committee of the Building Owners and Managers Association, International. My wife Susan and I have been living in Denver for 35 years and have raised three daughters who have all finished college and are living in Colo-rado. We now also have two granddaughters, ages three and nine months, who live seven blocks away from us, so we see them fre-quently. Susan works part-time in a children’s bookstore, and we both serve on the boards of non-profit organizations that keep us busy.

“I was impressed by the solar PV arrays on the buildings at Friends. We also have PV panels on our home in Denver, which provide almost all the electricity we use in our house, includ-ing my home office. With no daily commute, I have traded my car for a scooter and feel pretty good about having reduced our environ-mental footprint.”

1972Kirk McKusick and partner Eric Allman, reside and work in Berkeley, CA—and collect wine.

1973Karl Sparre was featured in a Febru-ary Bloomberg Businessweek article, “Rise of the Super Commuter,” which described the 300-

C L A S S N O T E S

Susan and Bill Tracy ’63 visited campus in May.

Art Littman ’51 and wife Wendy at home in Florida.

Devy Rose Bruch

Kirk McKusick ’72 in his climate-controlled wine cellar in Berkeley.

From Senator Coons’ Flickr site: Wycliffe Ouko, shareholder, Ecosandals; Matt Meyer ’90, co-founder, Ecosandals; William Mburugu, shareholder, Ecosandals; and U.S. Senator Chris Coons.

Geoff Parker at home in Florida.

Finley Kate Reese

30


C L A S S N O T E S

1997Beth Werkstell married Christian Brucculeri in New York City on January 7, 2012. Beth is a Unit Head for the Parks Unit at the NYC Mayor’s Office of Management and Budget. Christian is an early stage investor at K2 Media Labs, a venture capital firm. Friends alumni in attendance at the wedding included classmated Jason Sears, Seth Rosenberg and Paul DeCarli. The wedding day was like a spring day—70 degrees and sunny in January!

1998Josh Klein (See 2000.)

1999Allison Baumann Adams, Adrienne Neff, and Liz Thomas (See 2000.)

2000Meredith Jones and Andrew Joppa were married at Greenville Country Club in Wilmington on June 25, 2011. Meredith and Andy met in Denver, CO, where Meredith was work-ing on her Ph.D. in Clinical Child Psychology at the University of Denver and Andy worked as a labor and employ-ment attorney. Mem-bers of the Friends community were well represented at the wedding, including Mother of the Bride and former Friends teacher Janet Jones, and Maid of Honor Lizzie Goodfriend ’00. Also in

attendance were Josh Klein ’98, Allison Baumann Adams ’99, Adrienne Neff ’99, Liz Thomas ’99, Maksym Pazuniak ’00, David Scofield ’00, Becky Klein Smith ’00, Brendan Byrnes ’01, Sophia Erensel ’01, and Ben Klein ’05.

Since their wedding, Meredith and Andy have moved to Providence, RI, where Meredith is completing her internship in HIV-Focused Pediatric Psychology at the Alpert Medical School of Brown University. Meredith will stay on at Brown for a postdoctoral fellowship in the same subject after (she wrote, “finally!”) completing the requirements for her Ph.D. this summer. Andy is working as the Director of Labor Relations/Labor Counsel for the Eastern Region of First Group America. The couple is very much enjoying being back on the East Coast, and they are always delighted to have visitors in Providence. Meredith can be reached at [email protected].

Julie and Braden Neff welcomed son Will on May 12 of this year. Grandpa Bill Neff (retiring Head of WFS Middle School) was clearly thrilled by the most recent addition to the family.

2001Brendan Byrnes (See 2000.)

Sophia Erensel (See 2000.)

Kristin Iacobucci and Win Heckert had a baby girl in August 2010. Madeline Brad-ford Heckert already has WFS connec-tions: she is named for her aunt Maddie Iacobucci ’07, and her godparents are Mary von Ogtrop ’01 and Francis Iacobucci ’04. Kristin is a photographer; she, Win, and baby Maddie live in Chadds Ford.

2004Abby Hughes-Strange announced her engagement to Thomas Herpel. The wedding is set for August 2013. Abby is a nurse in the Neuro-logical Intensive Care Unit at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis.

WFS alumni were in full force to celebrate Francis Iacobucci’s marriage to Prianka Sharma on May 27, 2012 at the Adler Plan-etarium in Chicago. In addition to those pic-tured below, other WFS alums in attendance included Jeff Monhait ’05, Nick Derke ’05, Molly Ketcham ’05, Alyssa Serra ’05, Natalie Rosenberg ’05, Steve Galinat ’05, Andy McKenty ’07, and, of course, Kristin Iacobucci ’01 and Maddie Iacobucci ’07.

Second Lt. Jeff Palmer is currently based at The Basic School for officer training in the Marine Corps, in Quantico, VA. He is scheduled to finish in Septem-ber 2012 and hopes to be stationed as a Marine Corps lawyer at Camp Pendleton, California.

2005Nick Derke, Molly Ketcham, Jeff Monhait, Alyssa Serra, Natalie Rosenberg, Steve Galinat (See 2004.)

Jim Geoghegan, Cal Habayeb, and James Hopkins trav-eled together in Asia earlier this year.

When we checked in with Ellen Johnston after the tor-nados in Texas in early April,

Christian Brucculeri and Beth Werkstell ’97 were married in January of this year.

The bride with fellow WFS alumni Jason Sears, Seth Rosen-berg and Paul DeCarli, all Class of 1997.

Meredith Jones Joppa ’00 and her mother (and former WFS teacher) Janet Jones, preparing for Meredith’s wedding.

Back row, left to right: Ben Klein ’05, Liz Thomas ’99, Adrienne Neff ’99, Sophia Erensel ’01, Brendan Byrnes ’01, David Scofield ’00, Maksym Pazuniak ’00, Becky Klein Smith ’00, Allison Baumann Adams ’99, and Josh Klein ’98; front row: Lizzie Goodfriend ’00, Meredith Jones Joppa ’00; kneeling: Andy Joppa.

Will Neff.

Madeline Heckert, daughter of Kristin Iacobucci ’01.

Thomas Herpel and Abby Hughes-Strange ’04.

2004 alumni and football teammates at the wedding of Francis Iacobucci: Andy McEnroe, Francis, Jon Kittle, Michael D’Amico, and Hunter McMillan.

Jeff and his brother Chris Palmer ’13 played in the alumni lacrosse game this year as part of the Alumni Spring Fling 2012 (see pages 32-33 for more).

James Hopkins ’05, Cal Habayeb ’05, and Jim Geoghegan ’05 in China.

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2008Paris Barkan is attending medical school.

Morgan Dorsey sent word that she had accepted a job with HealthCorps as an educator and mentor to high school students, “giving them the information and tools they need to lead a healthy lifestyle.” Morgan takes pride in having turned to more healthy living herself two years ago.

2010Whitewall magazine has published articles by Mia Reynolds, includ-ing one about artist Jeremy Kost’s exhibit in New York and a review of a new book of Mark Lyon’s photography.

Faculty, Trustees & Friends of FriendsCongratulations to upper school history/social science teacher Donald Morton ’94, who was chosen to participate in a seminar called “Jim Crow and the Fight for American Citizenship” at Yale University this summer. Selection for the seminar, which is a program of the Gilder Lehrman Institute, was very competitive; the program is designed for teachers of American history. The Gilder Lehrman Institute funds

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she wrote of the experience, “I was actually stuck in a four-hour lockdown with 60 sixth grade students in my classroom. There were 12 tornados that hit down right by us. Some of my students lost pets.” June 4, 2012 was Ellen’s last day teaching before leaving Dallas to attend law school at Washington & Lee University, starting in August.

Ben Klein (See 2000.)

2007Maddie Iacobucci graduated from Cabrini College in 2011 with President’s Honors. While at Cabrini, Maddie appeared in nine theater productions, served as an officer in Alpha Psi Omega, the national theater honor society, and was inducted into the Society for Collegiate Journalists, a national honors organization. She is currently a candidate for the MA in Theater at Villanova University, and is planning a June 2013 wedding to Sergeant Joe Farrant.

Katie Laux is with Teach for America in inner city Chicago, working with children with special needs.

Andy McKenty (See 2004.)

Amara Nwannunu is attending law school.

Through Americorps, Shira Tiffany is teaching in a bilingual school in California.

participants’ room and board, conference registration fees, materials, and a portion of travel expenses.

Belated congratulations to former trustee, parent of alumna, and motorcycle mama Mona Bayard, who on her last day of work with the Wilmington Police Department’s Victim Services Unit, was given a police escort home. Mona’s husband, Tim Bayard ’62, joined the motorcade (motorbike-cade?) as well. Congratulations to Mona on her retire-ment and on her distinguished career.

Mona Bayard (red bike, white helmet and jacket) with husband Tim ’62 and their official escort following Mona’s last day of work at the Wilmington Police Department.

Alumni Spring Fling Saturday, June 2, 2012Mother Nature provided a perfect, sunny, 70-degree day for the 2012 Alumni Spring Fling. (Maybe out of guilt for the snowfall on Home-coming 2011.) Last year’s first-ever alumni lacrosse games were such a success, we expanded the festivities to include a tennis round robin, which was a big hit, with alumni spanning the years from 1948 to 2011 competing on the newly resurfaced Friends courts.

All told, we welcomed back 15 tennis players, 35 women’s lacrosse players, 28 men’s lacrosse players, plus plenty of family and friends who cheered them all on. The after-game picnic included food by Johnnie’s Dog House, owned by Mark Raphaelson ’80, Rita’s Water Ice, and homemade cupcakes by alumna lacrosse manager Sofie Gallic-chio ’10. Thank you to everyone who made the day so enjoyable!

Please save the date for next year’s Spring Fling: Saturday, June 1, 2013. Tennis, Lacrosse, and…let us know if you’d like to help organize a baseball home run derby or a soccer shoot out. We simply need a few great alumni to take the ball (ahem) and run with it. We can help, just email [email protected].

From left to right: Jill Holmes, Dorothy Connolly Mraz ’74, Nancy Mahoney, Kim Massih Dolan ’89, Meg Gehret Erskine ’83, Katherine Osbun Maki ’92, Marta Gannon, Alice Mearns Ivy ’48, Loretta Mearns Setter ‘49, Anna Melnick ’11, Niki Wenigmann ’11, Ryan McGeehan ’10, Richie Monsaert ’10, Jeff Monhait ’05. Not pictured: Will Mangan ’10.

Our youngest cheerleader for the women’s alumni lacrosse game was Abby Smith, pictured with proud grandfather Dan Klein and dad Harrison; they all cheered on alumna player Becky Klein Smith ’00.

We had a great turnout from the Class of 2010, standing, left to right: Will Mangan, Eric Kelley, Sofie Gallicchio, Ernest Higginbotham; seated: Ryan McGeehan, Hunter Witmer, Kristin Lang, and Richie Monsaert.

Far right: Alice Mearns Ivy ’48 enjoyed playing in the tennis round robin and was cheered on by her sister, Loretta Mearns Setter ’49.



Having finished his first year at Hamilton College, Kevin Anglim is currently working on a Delaware congressional campaign. He will also be continuing a food drive across the state this summer. Kevin shared a few “one-year-out” thoughts about Friends: “The History Department at Friends is what really sparked my passion for learning. I’ve also always enjoyed having political conversations with Mr. Woods and Mr. Ergueta. Lastly, MOAS is the best hidden secret there is at WFS.”

Jordan Lea Beard, a double major in Creative Writing and Psychology at Susquehanna, vol-unteers at the Ronald McDonald House with her sorority sisters. She shared her thoughts on how Friends has helped her grow: “It ignited a drive to really push myself past what I thought was my limit. I learned about the support systems and opportunities that are available. It has definitely prepared me for college. Thanks to the experiences that I had at WFS, I entered college on a more academic and mentally pre-pared level and am even planning to graduate a year early!”

In addition to being a Psychology major at Wesleyan, Rebecca Caspar-Johnson has been involved in many community service projects such as “Let’s Get Ready” (SAT tutoring/col-

lege advising for underprivileged high school students); Get Out the Vote voter registration on campus; and MINDS foundation (raising awareness and working to end the stigma associated with mental and neurological disor-ders in India).

Erin Conces has successfully finished her first year at The George Washington University, majoring in Fine Arts.

Louise Connelly completed her first year at Princeton University. She shared how much her Friends education has had an influence on her life: “Only a year out, I can already sense how much my Quaker education has shaped me. Not only have Friends School classes prepared me for the academic challenges I face in college, the values and sense of community instilled in us through sports,

The Class of 2011: Where Are They Now? extra-curriculars, and the IB program, have made the transition to a new place with new people so much easier. I now realize the value of my time spent at Friends, and I would be the first to recommend a Quaker education to anyone.” Louise has been very active in writing for various Princeton publications, including an article about Occupy Princeton that was quoted and referenced in The New

York Times, The Atlantic, and The Village Voice.

Sara Coughlin is concentrating in Creative Writing and American Studies at Hampshire College. During her first year at college, she participated in “A Day At Hampshire,” which is intended to encourage young people from low-income backgrounds to con-sider the value of a college educa-tion. Additionally, this summer will be Sara’s fourth year vol-unteering with the Shining Stars Adapted Dance Camp in West Chester, PA, where Sara works one-on-one with children with mental and/or physical disabilities and assists them in learning dance

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Sitting: Margo Tschantz’15, Molly Harper’15, Brooke Winfield’15, Martha O’Brien’15, Meryl Gatti’15; kneel-ing: Kate Mraz’16, Demetria Ruhl’16, Katy Barrett’12, Sara Woodward’12, Sarah Newbold’12, Flavia Lopes’12, Courtney Lang’12, Porter Ergon’12, Ranger Ruffins’12, Ellie Kelsey’09, Katie Hunt ’06, Perrin Downing’09, Carrie Hopkins’08, Kristin Lang’10; standing: Cassidy Martin’15, Libby Muir’16, Grayton Downing’14, Michelle Burke Kelly ’90, Martha Poorman Tschantz ’85, Nicola Shand’ 08, Megan Venetianer ’09, Pigeon Pollard Graham ’93, Catherine Wiedwald Stenta ’96, Kirsten Detwiler ’07, Anne Kelsey ’07, Julie Ly ’11, Nina Porter Winfield ’79, Carolyn Gates Connors’81, Becky Klein Smith ’00, Marion Newbold ’78.

Standing: Bobby DeWees ’08, Matt Lang ’08, Jeff Palmer ’04, Sam Davis ’11, Gabe Aliquo ’07, Ernest Higginbotham ’10, Eric Kelley ’10, Patrick Pearce ’15, Hunter Witmer ’10, Logan Joyce ’12, Bill Goswell ’09, Rick Serra ’11, Dan Carbone ’11, coach Ray Carbone, Summy Crosby ’12, Sean Kirkpatrick ’13, coach Lou Salvadori (can’t really see Lou, sorry), Doug Read ’12, Chris Palmer ’13, Brett Tracy ’13, Jimmy Carney ’15, Conner Armstrong ’14, Mike Wilbur ’74. Seated: Sam Carney ’13, Michael Armstrong ’12, coach Jake Rashkind, Patrick Schlecker ’12, Myles Wilson ’15, coach Lee Powers.Not pictured: Bryan Radacosky-Pentoney ’09 and Cory Tieste ’05.

Seated: Assistant boys’ lacrosse coach (and Director of Facilities) Ray Carbone, Bobby DeWees ’08, Jeff Palmer ’04, Cory Tieste ’05. Standing: Bill Goswell ’09, Bryan Radacosky-Pentoney ’09, assistant boys’ lacrosse coach Lee Powers.

Louise Connelly.



The Class of 2011: Where Are They Now?

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technique and choreography. She will also be working as an orientation leader for incoming students to Hampshire in the fall. She shared some thoughts about the transition from high school: “Hampshire College welcomes people from all backgrounds and with all sorts of perspectives and ideals about how the world should function—which can lead to a difficult intellectual landscape for an incoming first year to navigate. I like to think that WFS pre-pared me not only to accept other, potentially extreme points of view, but even to understand them to an extent. Classes at Friends never take on one exact perspective. Rather, they ask their students to consider all possible facets of an issue, which I think benefits our strength and flexibility as students and learners.”

Studying at Goucher College, Sam Davis reflected on what he valued most at Friends and how it has helped his transition: “The thing I loved the most is the relationships you develop with your teachers and coaches. It has certainly helped me to develop much closer relationships with my professors at Goucher.”

From Princeton University, John Fairchild wrote about how Friends has an impact beyond the classroom: “Friends provided me with an incredible amount of opportunities to explore the world beyond the limits of Wilmington. As a result of the 2009 WFS trip to India, I am learning Hindi, perhaps return-ing to India to study abroad, and picking up a South Asian Studies minor. I would not have had such inspiration or motivation to study Indian and Pakistani culture and history had it not been for Friends’ wealth of opportunities and its continuous support in pursuing them.”

Studying Political Science at University of Delaware, Brett Fallon Jr. “volunteers as much as possible for local political events.” He also participates in various service events with his fraternity Sigma Pi. “Community service was always a prevalent theme throughout my aca-demic career at WFS,” Brett wrote. “I remem-ber learning about poverty in Peace class and the various trips my class took to perform service activities (including senior bonding day). At the time it was difficult for me to understand the purpose behind each of those trips. However, after studying abroad and

performing various acts of community service, I am aware of what a profound effect service initiatives can have on communities where it is desperately needed.” When asked how Friends has helped him the most, Brett said, “My WFS education prepared me to go into college, meet challenges head-on, and gave me the ability to apply knowledge to real-life situations. I have learned that hard work does pay off.”

Mara Freilich is studying Applied Math and Biology at Brown University. During her spring semester, she started volunteering with “English for Auction” and is very involved in the Rhode Island Student Climate Coali-tion. Mara wrote that she felt, “...extremely prepared for college, not only in the skills that I got from the classroom, but also the attitude towards learning and being responsible for my own education that I got from WFS. It has been very easy for me to get involved in activi-ties at Brown and to take advantage of all of the great opportunities here. I also think that WFS gave me a unique education in the way that it made me aware of my responsibilities as a citizen.”

This summer, Becky Hodge will be traveling abroad to Haiti for two weeks to work in a medical clinic with the Haiti Family Initative, an organization in which a number of Friends families have been involved. Becky is studying Biology at the University of Delaware.

Javier Horstmann, also at U.D., has been keeping busy with a double major in Politi-cal Science and Public Policy, with a Minor in Spanish. Javi was among the classmates to reflect on the service-orientated nature of Friends: “WFS has ingrained into my life the idea that it is always good to give back to the community that gives so much to you.” Javi found that the two biggest skills that WFS helped him develop were writing and public speaking, and noted that he has received a lot of good reviews for those abilities. He wrote, “I strongly believe that WFS could not have prepared me any better for the college experi-ence.”

Keya Joshi attends Johns Hopkins University, with a double major in Public Health and Business. She is a member of Engineering Without Borders, a club that raises money to help get clean, safe drinking water to a village in Guatemala.

Blaine Kebede returned from four months in Ethiopia, where she did service projects working with children, teaching English so that when families relocate, the children will be able to communicate. Blaine is now at The George Washington University to study inter-national relations.

Matt Kempner is a Television Radio Commu-nications major at Ithaca College, volunteers with Autism Delaware, and goes on mission trips with his church. “WFS prepared me very well for college academically,” Matt wrote. “My writing and critical thinking skills had been practiced in high school much more so than other kids.”

At Lafayette College, Michael Leff is study-ing Neuroscience. He has excelled in writing essays, receiving top marks on his papers—

and, like many classmates, he credits Friends. He also added, “Outside of the classroom, I would say growing up in a Quaker school has taught me to seek out as many different viewpoints on a subject as possible, which is a quality I really value.”

Julie Ly is studying Art Conservation and Chemistry at the University of Delaware.

Anna Melnick is studying Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Boston University. She is a student volunteer, helps with various events in Boston, and spends time with people with special needs. On her time at Friends, Anna reflected, “The sense of community and respect towards others really, really made a huge impact on me.”

An English Writing and Communication major at Pitt, Parthena Moisiadis is an Intern at Town Square Delaware and volunteers at the Ministry of Caring Child Care Center. As part of her internship, Parthena covered the aftermath of the April fire at Friends, and attended the opening night of the spring play, Arsenic and Old Lace, at Salesianum. Parthena wrote in her story, “I attended the reception with a former classmate, and although we were in an unfamiliar place, we were overcome with friendly and welcoming faces. The aura of Friends School pervaded the [Salesianum] library, spreading through the halls and down to the auditorium. The show began with recognition of the play’s direc-tors, Don Morton and Todd Tyler. That was followed by a moment of silence to recognize the firefighters who had risked their lives and successfully contained the fire that Tuesday. ‘I’ve missed this,’ my friend whispered to me. I had missed it too. Not just the Quaker practice of a moment of silence, but the feeling of warm energy that surrounded us in the spa-cious auditorium. Despite the devastating fire, the talent survived and the spirit prevailed. Arsenic and Old Lace drew the largest house in Friends School history, proving to all that the show will go on.” Parthena also attended the seventh grade release of shad fry into the Brandywine River (see photo, page 25)—part of a program called Shad in Schools that Parthena and Louise Connelly designed as middle school students at Friends. The Shad in Schools program is now regional, and is administered by the Brandywine Conservancy.

Alexa Pierce-Matlack is studying Medical Technology Pre-Med at the University of

(continued)

John Fairchild with friends at “formals weekend” at Princeton.

Anna Melnick with Sophie Gallucchio ’10 and Niki Wenig-mann ’11 at the Alumni Spring Fling this year.



T R U S T E E N E W SDelaware. She is the Sports Copy Editor at The Review (UD’s student newspaper) and serves on the Relay for Life committee. Alexa wrote about Friends, “The advanced classes helped me succeed in math and biology specifically. I believe that I was further ahead than most kids with respect to my preparation for col-lege and my indepen-dence.”

At Washington and Lee University, Lind-say Reese has par-ticipated in a “pi-k” (almost-5K) and a few other events such as a dodge ball tournament and a “powder puff foot-ball” and cook-off event—all benefiting charity. “Wilmington Friends taught me that community service is more than a requirement or moral obligation: it’s an opportunity to have a great time with friends while learning a lot from others!”

Austin Schoenkopf started his college career at Northeastern, and is planning to continue at Connecticut College, with a double major in Philosophy and History and a minor in English. He wrote, “I realized the great dedication that Friends teachers have for their students, and am proud to have been a part of that environ-ment.” Austin wrote to us from Venice, Italy, where he was studying photography. He was looking forward to working with Habitat for Humanity upon his return.

Katrina Sotiropoulos wrote to us from Syracuse University, where she said she has felt well prepared for college because of her hard work at WFS. Her strong relationships with teachers at Friends taught her how valuable those con-nections were, and she said that experience has benefited her “in many ways” in building rela-tionships with her college professors. Katrina volunteers at Camp Possibilities, a weeklong diabetes camp in Maryland for kids 15 and younger. She described the camp this way: “It educates them on healthy and smart ways to care for themselves as well as how to be like any other kid their age. They also get to hang and meet with other diabetics, especially since many are the only ones in their community at home with that illness.”

Olivia Veale is studying at Davidson College, and is a member of Stop Hunger Now.

Niki Wenigmann has had a “phenomenal” year at Hamilton College and is looking forward to next year.

Josh Zimmerman is a Computer Science major at Carnegie Mellon University. This summer, he will be working at Khan Academy, the acclaimed on-line learning not-for-profit “with the goal of changing education for the better by providing a free world-class education to anyone anywhere.” Josh wrote, “Friends ignited a love of math and computer science in me. Steve [Jennings] and Mrs. Miller helped me to appreciate the beauty math could have when you move beyond mindless computation.”

Lindsay Reese in the quad at Washington and Lee Uni-versity during Homecoming Weekend.

Board of Trustees

David Singleton is retiring from the Board after 28 years of service, including six years as chair. David and his wife Elaine, who has also been a leader on behalf of the Friends School com-munity, are the parents of two graduates and are current Friends grandparents.

On behalf of the school community, Head of School Bryan Garman wrote:

“David Singleton is one of the few people I know who has the wisdom, intelligence, and stature to have earned the title, in Quaker parlance, of weighty Friend. His deep experi-ence in both the public and private sectors have served the school extremely well, as he has been able to balance the ideals of our mission with fiscal responsibility. At every decision point, he never failed to offer a care-fully reasoned perspective, to frame questions wisely, to inspire us to continue to grow as a learning institution, to do what was best for our students and faculty, to serve as both the historical memory and moral conscience of the school. With more than 25 years of service to the Board and six years as chair, David has had a profound and wholly positive impact on the institution. He is a wonderful leader and a gifted teacher. Over the past six years, I have learned important lessons from David about leadership and life, and will always be grateful for the mentorship and support he has given to me and for the kindness he has extended to my family. Simply put, he is an extraordinary person and true Friend who will be deeply missed by all. Thank you, David, for all you have done for Wilmington Friends School.”

Curtis Clapham is leaving the Board after four years, having previously served on a strategic planning committee. He and his wife Carol are current Friends grand-parents. Before his retirement, Curtis’s professional leadership included service as Executive Director of Family Service of Chester County and as Senior Program Offi-cer of The Philadelphia Foundation. A member of Wilmington Monthly Meeting, Curtis contributed to the Board not only a deep value of mission, but also a broad perspective, much appreciated intelligence and humor, and an undeniably genuine commitment to service and community. Curtis seemed to take particular pleasure and pride when Friends graduates headed to Tulane University, his alma mater.

David Tennent joins the Board of Trustees starting with the 2012-13 school year. Dave graduated from the University of Delaware with a degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1978. He has worked for the Norfolk and Western Railway (later the Norfolk Southern Railroad), in various small business and entrepreneurial initia-tives in the railroad industry, and is currently an equity partner of a Washington, DC-based engineering and government-relations firm specializing in railroad equip-ment and issues. Dave lives in the Unionville, PA, area, and has two grown children, including David ’03, and a younger daughter, Nina, who is a current student at Friends. Dave was widowed in 2009 following his wife’s battle with breast cancer, and credits the Wilmington Friends community, and his older children (“and their significant others,” he notes) with providing essential support.

Dave was introduced to Quakerism at age four, when his parents joined Kennett Monthly Meeting. He was raised Quaker and upon returning to Pennsylvania again became an active member of Kennett Meeting. Dave has served on the Board of Trustees of the Meeting, has served on and clerked the House and Property commit-tee, and is currently on the Care and Council committee.

David and Elaine Singleton.

With more than 25 years of service to the Board and six years as chair, David has had a profound and wholly posi-tive impact on the institu-tion. He is a wonderful leader and a gifted teacher.



her Parish, St. Jude the Apostle, where she served many years as a lector at Sunday Mass, she was also a spiritual guide to many who looked to her for strength and counsel in times of distress. Generous, caring and loyal, Jean could be depended on to lend her wisdom and creativity whenever it was needed. Jean is survived by her three daughters, six grandchil-dren, and one great-granddaughter.

1948Reginald B. “Rocky” Rockwell died at the Wellmont Hospice House (TN) on May 11, 2012, after a long illness. He is survived by his wife, son, grandchildren, step-children, and brother.

1952Carol Staats Truax ’52 passed away on April 5, 2012 in Naples, FL. She is survived by her husband, Davis, her son, and a grandson. Carol is also survived by her sister, Marcia Staats Lusardi ’49. Carol was a graduate Lasell Junior College, Auburndale, MA. She studied art at Parsons School of Design in NYC and prior to her marriage in 1963 pur-sued a career in graphic design.

1962Rhoda B. Russell, 66, of St. Helena Island, SC, and wife of Gary Russell passed away on July 24, 2011, at Bayview Manor in Beaufort. Services were private.

Friends of FriendsRuth Winterstein Hollingsworth, 86, of Wilmington, died at her home on June 3, 2012. She was a 1943 graduate of West Chester High School, a 1947 Penn State graduate, and a 1952 graduate of Goldey Beacom. Ruth began her career in 1947 as a correspondent with Curtis Publishing in Philadelphia, then from 1948 to 1952 she was a case worker for the Department of Public Assistance in West Chester. From 1953 to 1956 Ruth was a secretary at Hercules, Inc. in Wilmington, where she met her husband, David ’45. Ruth enjoyed boating, reading and knitting; however, the greatest joy of her life was as wife, mother, and grandmother; her happiest moments were those spent with her family. Among their many contributions to Friends School, Ruth and David, along with David’s brother John ’44, funded the Meet-ing Room on the upper campus, which is named for Janice Hollingsworth ’18, David and John’s mother. In addition to David, Ruth is survived by sons Andrew ’76 and Peter ’77 and daughters-in-law, Carol and Jane, who is the Home & School Association representative on the school’s Board of Trustees. Ruth is also survived by four grandchildren, including Jack ’13 and Jeff ’15 Hollingsworth.

I N M E M O R Y

1939Herbert Hamilton Ward III passed away on March 17, 2012 after a brief illness. Herb is survived by his wife Kathryn (Kitty), his sister Stella Ward Sterner ’42, his brother John Ward ’49, and by his children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.

1941Katharine McKnight Wood, a longtime resi-dent of Cokesbury Village in Hockessin, died there at the age of 88. Born in Peoria, IL, Kay had been a resident of Delaware, off and on, since 1930. She graduated from Mount Holy-oke College. Because of World War II time pressures, Kay accelerated her college career, graduated in 1944, and was commissioned an Ensign in the US Navy. On completion of her military service, Kay took a position with Boston University Medical School as Registrar. It was in Boston that she met and married her husband of 64 years, Edwin T. Wood. As a wife and mother, Kay followed Ed’s career moves from New York City to Wilmington to Santa Ana, CA back to Wilmington to Westfield, NJ to Milwaukee, WI to Madison, WI to Newark, DE and finally to retirement at Cokesbury Village. While in Madison, Kay earned an MA degree in Library Science at the University of Wisconsin. Upon returning to Delaware in 1970, Kay took a position as the University’s College of Agriculture Librar-ian. Subsequently she became the head of the Reference Department at the University’s Morris Library. Kay retired in 1985. Kay is survived by her husband, daughter, two sons, and four granddaughters. She was predeceased by her brother, Edmund McKnight ’42, her sister Barbara McKnight Peoples ’45, and her brother-in-law, Robert J. Peoples ’43.

1946Frank W. Diver, Jr., 83, died at his home in Wilmington on May 5, 2012, surrounded by his loving family. Frank was President of the WFS Class of 1946 and captain of the bas-ketball team. A member of one of Delaware’s best-known business families, Mr. Diver was the son of Carolyn Prickett and Frank W. Diver, Sr., who founded the Wilmington automobile agency that bears his name. Frank Jr. graduated from Amherst College in 1950, where he captained the golf team and was a member of the Chi Psi Fraternity. He enlisted in the U.S. Air Force in 1951, and was in training in Texas when he contracted polio. He told friends that the paralyzing disease ended his military career but probably saved his life. As he lay critically ill, the plane on which he was to serve as navigator left Texas without him and was lost with all of its crew in the Pacific. After retiring as a second lieutenant, Frank returned to Wilmington and went to work in the family business, leav-ing it in 1986 to purchase Overhead Door of Greater Wilmington, which he operated until his retirement in 2011. He was proud of his community service as a long-time member of the board of The Pilot School. Frank and his wife Jean Martwick observed their 60th wed-ding anniversary last year. A scratch golfer for many years, Frank set a course record at the DuPont Country Club while still in his teens. He was a member of Wilmington Country Club for many years and a member of the Ozone Club, a 111-year-old Quaker golf orga-nization. He excelled in other sports, including baseball and football while at Friends School. He was also an avid fan, and inherited from his parents a special interest in horse racing, spending many happy Sundays at Delaware Park. Frank is survived by his wife, five children, nine grandchildren, and by his sisters, Frances Diver Burt ’40 of Morristown, NJ, and Edith Lennox of Wilmington, and three brothers, Clifford, Arthur ’45 and Richard ’47, all of Wilmington.

1947Jean Dawson Savoy, 83, of Lewes, passed away peacefully on April 22, 2012 at Beebe Medical Center, surrounded by her adoring family. Jean received an associate’s degree from Centenary College in Hackettstown, N.J. She went on to become an executive secretary in the office of the secretary of the DuPont Company. A devoted wife to her husband, the late Prew Savoy, she was his enthusiastic supporter in all of his artistic endeavors. After moving to St. Jean, Quebec, Canada, in 1959 with their three daughters, Jean became the proprietor of two Savoy ski shops. It was with great joy that she returned to her beloved Delaware around 1980 with Prew, finally settling in Lewes and enjoying the companion-ship of lifelong friends. She resumed her acting career in community theatre at age 65. Jean was the guiding star of her family and always deeply involved in the life of her community. A Girl Scout leader, active with the Catholic Youth Organization, a devoted member of

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I N C L O S I N G

Before retiring, Bill Neff gave middle school students one more chance to take aim at him—in the “dunk tank” at this year’s Middle School Fair—and they did.

Middle school students and teachers then gathered, in formation, for a special tribute to Bill’s 41 years of service to Friends School. The middle school faculty presented the photo to Bill at an end-of-year luncheon in June.

Mr. Neff


101 School Road Wilmington, DE 19803www.wilmingtonfriends.org

Non-Profit Org.

U.S. Postage

PAID

Permit No. 1249

Wilmington, DE

ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED

Homecoming2012CELEBRATE WITH FRIENDS

Thursday, October 18-Saturday, October 20

Please note our QUEST Home-coming Service Project, now in its fourth year, and bring an item to help us fill a truck with donations for The Ministry of Caring.

For more information about Homecoming events, please contact Stacy Gatti,302.576.2975, [email protected].

For more information about class reunions, please contact Paige Winburn,302.576.2981, [email protected].

Sumner Crosby ’12 and Bonnie Wilson Crosby ’79.

Documents

WFS Summer 2012 Magazine