GeorGianpublication of george scho ol, newtow n, pennsy lvania

InsIde

March 2013

01perspect ives The Universal Language of Math

a family trad itionThe Smiths’ Lasting Impact

22

Vol. 85 No. 01

18fitness and athletics centerConstruction Scheduled

alumni weekendTwo Alumnae Share Stories

24

Table of ConTenTs Vol. 85 | no. 01 | MarCh 2013

GeorGian

PhoTos: Inside Front Cover: Mary Dart reviews test answers with Chinue Ellis ’15 during her Geometry with Proofs class. Mary plans to retire at the end of this academic year after twenty years of stellar work and compassionate service to George School. (Photo by Jim Inverso) Front Cover: This drawing of our new Fitness and Athletics Center is a bird’s eye view of campus looking northwest. (Drawing by Bowie Gridley Architects)

01 perspectives The Universal Language of Math

02 David Fraser: Renaissance Man

04 Mars, Venus, and Math

06 Beyond Number Crunching

08 IB Math and Statistics Classes

11 eQuiz Highlights

15 features

15 On Learning Algebra and Geometry

18 Fitness and Athletics Center Construction Scheduled

22 A Family Tradition: The Smiths’ Lasting Impact

24 Alumni Weekend: Two Alumnae Share Stories

26 campus news & notes

28 alumni tell us

43 in memoriam

GeORGIAN | 1

perspecti v es

“When am I ever going to use this?” is a refrain

that math teachers have heard for generations.

In this edition of Perspectives, we hope to persuade

our readers that far from being an esoteric and

largely impractical discipline, math is a pervasive

presence in our lives and in the lives of our gradu-

ates. You will hear from many of the latter here—

a few of whom are mathematicians, others who are

computer programmers and engineers, some

doctors, some natural and social scientists, and

others who are artists. You will also hear from some

of the many, many graduates who look back to their

George School math teachers as major influences.

In one particular instance of coming full circle,

the issue includes stories about David Fraser ’61,

son of beloved math teacher Grant Fraser, and two

relatively new courses whose development was

made possible by a fund in Grant Fraser’s honor.

Albert einstein said “mathematics is, in its way,

the poetry of logical ideas.” At George School today,

the study of math not only provides a concrete

foundation for those interested in related careers,

but it also provides our students with a vital

exercise in logic, rational argument, and making

connections. It is a universal language in a school

bubbling with different tongues, asking fundamen-

tal questions about what we know about our world

and how we prove it. And it continues to be a

vehicle for superb teachers to ignite a passion for

learning in their students.

I hope these stories will capture some of the

“poetry of logical ideas” for you, as mathematics

has clearly captured our contributors.

perspecti V esb

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The Universal Language of Math

nanCy sTarMer talks with Cyrus Vakili ’13, Arielle Haug ’14, Jessica Malerman ’13, Dan Kim ’13, Tanzie Thomas ’13, and Susannah Perkins ’13.

Perspectives edited by susaN QuiNN

2 | GeORGIAN

March 2013

by aNdrea LehMaN

“I like to find order in chaos, discerning patterns

that allow me to extract meaning from what would

otherwise seem like noise.”

This is the closest David Fraser ’61 comes to

his own unified field theory, an explanation of

what links his disparate vocations and avocations,

including renowned epidemiologist, college presi-

dent, and basket artist. It also explains how a man

who has achieved so much in medicine, education,

and the arts is also part mathematician.

David comes by his mathematical bent hon-

estly. Son and student of Grant Fraser, a beloved

George School math teacher, David spent his ear-

liest years in Orton Dormitory and his sophomore

through senior years in his father’s classroom. In

those days, teachers often kept the same class from

year to year. David remembers both the thirteen

exceptional students in that AP math track—three

of whom, including David, would go to Harvard

Medical School—and his father’s superb teach-

ing. Grant had just written a book on a modern,

axiom-based approach to algebra. So despite hav-

ing had Algebra I the old way as freshmen, the

class relearned it the new way before moving to

geometry.

By the time he graduated from Haverford

College, however, David had tried and discarded

math, physics, and lab sciences as possible careers.

Instead he opted for medical school, “while I fig-

ured out what I wanted to do,” he says. In his sec-

ond year, “a class in epidemiology caught my

imagination.” He finished medical school, did

a residency in internal medicine, and joined the

epidemic Intelligence Service, a two-year train-

ing program at Atlanta’s Communicable Diseases

Center (now the Centers for Disease Control).

Training forty to fifty epidemiologists a year, the

program creates a cadre ready for national emer-

gencies. David describes it as an amazing and life-

changing experience.

Perspectives

David Fraser: Renaissance Man and Mathematician

DaViD fraser ’61 was first an epidemiologist for the Centers for Disease Control and then the president of Swarthmore College. He also ran the health, education, and housing programs of the Aga Khan and later a network of international medical schools. In 2002 he started making finger-woven baskets, an example of one is shown above.

GeORGIAN | 3

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David had definitely caught the epidemiology bug,

as it were. The field “threw problems at me that

were pressing, important, and unclear and that

could be approached in a systematic, mathemati-

cal way,” he explains. “Why do some people get sick

and some don’t? epidemiology is about rates. You

set up hypotheses and compare them.”

In his second year, David went to Sierra Leone

for a Lassa fever outbreak. He recalls f lipping pen-

nies to select a random sampling of the town’s

houses to map, as the team hadn’t brought a ran-

dom number table. They examined each house’s

living arrangements and infection rates, what the

occupants ate, and where they got water. Returning

to Atlanta, they analyzed blood tests and crunched

numbers and concluded that the disease was car-

ried by a species of mouse.

David became a CDC staff epidemiologist and

returned to Philadelphia in 1976 to lead the field

investigation into the infamous Legionnaires’

disease outbreak. It was a huge operation that took

years to resolve, and, to this day, it is what David is

best known for.

As much as he loves epidemiology, David is

not the type to keep doing the same thing. When

given an opportunity to reinvent himself, this

Renaissance man generally takes it. And so, after

a stint with the Office of Management and Budget

“doing numbers and learning about the federal

budgeting process,” he became president of

Swarthmore College.

His first task was to convince the faculty that

a physician could be a good college president. His

solution was to give a lecture, detailing his use of

inductive, deductive, and analogical reasoning—

precisely the skills taught in a liberal arts college—

in his research. As David puts it, “I have to use the

tools that I know to analyze the problems that I

face. Quantitative tools are the ones I feel com-

fortable with. In epidemiology, I was using not just

numbers but ways of thinking that resonated with

a range of disciplines.” It set the stage for nine suc-

cessful years at Swarthmore’s helm.

In the 1990s, David turned his attention inter-

nationally, first running the health, education, and

housing programs of the Aga Khan, the Muslim

religious leader, and later a network of interna-

tional medical schools using epidemiology to

improve health care. In 2000, however, he gave up

his impressive day jobs and delved into the world

of textiles.

“Most people don’t look closely at textiles,” David

explains. “They have an emotional reaction to

the appearance. I want to see how the yarn moves

through and understand the coherence of the

structure. From time to time, it veers to the mathe-

matical.” He and his wife Barbara Fraser wrote

a book about traditional textiles of the Chin

people, who live in the hills of western Burma,

northeastern India, and Bangladesh, and he

returned to making finger-woven baskets. “As

I’m working, I think of mathematically-related

issues, how I can extend a principle, but,” he adds,

“I come to basketry not solely mathematically.

I also like handwork.”

Among the beautiful baskets he’s made—

and exhibited in the Class of 1956 Gallery in the

Anderson Library—are those that represent

solutions to mathematical challenges he sets for

himself. One set comprises variations on the “eight

Queens” problem: If a “chessboard” of side length

“n” is folded into a cylinder, for which values of

“n” is it possible for “n” queens to be placed on

the board such that no two queens can take one

another? It’s a complicated problem from which

David derives elegant basket solutions.

Ultimately, there is coherence as well as con-

sequence to David’s life work. “As an epidemiolo-

gist, I use probability theory all the time and have

published papers on new statistical approaches.

As a textile enthusiast, I have written on the appli-

cation of diagnostic test mathematics to the analy-

sis of the structure of certain textiles as well as

basketry constructions that illustrate solutions to a

novel mathematical problem.” Newton’s apple does

not fall far from the Fraser tree.

“ I have to use the tools that I know to analyze the problems that I face. Quantitative tools are the ones I feel comfortable with.”

4 | GeORGIAN

March 2013

Kevin Lewis ’99 spends half his professional time

on Mars and the other half on Venus, while work-

ing all of his time on terra firma. As a postdoctoral

scholar in geosciences at Princeton University and

a member of the Curiosity rover team, NASA’s lat-

est Mars mission, he blends a prodigious under-

standing of science and math with a desire to learn

what scientists don’t understand about the evolu-

tion of earth’s neighbors.

Kevin came to see science and math as “two

sides of the same coin” during his senior year at

George School. “I had AP calculus with Sam Smith

and AP physics with ed Youtz ’57 and loved it.

Taking them at the same time, you understand how

calculus is inextricably linked with gravity and

time concepts. Together they elegantly reveal so

much about how the world works.” Kevin went on

to earn a bachelor’s in physics and math from Tufts

and a Ph.D. in planetary science from Caltech,

before pursuing his postdoc and exploring how

other worlds work.

In fall 2011 Kevin was one of about twenty

American researchers selected to join the Curiosity

team, operated from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory

in Pasadena, California. Then in August 2012

the rover landed in Mars’ Gale crater and began

its two-year (or longer, if its energy supply holds

and the project is extended) investigation of the

Martian climate, geology, and the likelihood of

habitable environments.

Kevin has been examining the crater’s sedi-

mentary rock layers, which repeat at regular

intervals (about every three meters), in order to

reconstruct the geologic record. To do so, he uses

geometry. “You measure the angle at which a layer

is tilted and project that under the surface to figure

out how layers are related,” he explains. In addition

to geometry, Kevin uses statistics and signal

processing to justify the results mathematically.

“Our best guess is that the layers are related

to the same kind of climate cycles we see on earth.

They’re governed by slight shifts in the tilt of Mars’

Perspectives

Mars,Venus, and Math: Rover Scientist Kevin Lewis

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KeVin lewis ’99 spends half his professional time on Mars and the other half on Venus, while working all of his time on terra firma.

GeORGIAN | 5

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axis, the shape of its orbit, and the angle of the

pole during its orbit. We know that a cycle is about

120,000 years. That’s pretty exciting, because often

on Mars we have no idea what time scales we’re

looking at.”

At time of writing, Curiosity was preparing

to make its first drill sample, the team’s first look

at the planet’s interior. They will analyze it using

the mass spectrometer and x-ray diffractometer on

board, looking for signs indicative of past life.

Kevin’s work on Venus is worlds different.

Here the question is: how strong or f lexible is the

planet’s crust and how large a load can it sup-

port? Without the kind of information that the

Mars rover makes possible, this research team is

correlating two sets of satellite data—topography

and gravity—to better understand the crust and,

by extension, Venus’ history. Applying a few new

mathematical techniques and a lot of statistics,

especially maximum-likelihood estimation, they

are hoping to help answer what happened on Venus

a half billion years ago, what created what’s there

today, and, as Kevin suggests, “what could have

happened on earth.”

As for those new mathematical techniques,

he says, “For the Venus project, we had to develop

mathematical algorithms and computer programs

to analyze data specifically for this problem.”

He sees it as an extension of what scientists like

Newton did—developing mathematical concepts

like calculus to help explain scientific phenomena.

For Kevin, science and math still spark an

enthusiasm which he got from his father and from

George School teachers, especially Kevin Moon, his

cross-country coach and advanced algebra teacher.

“Science is the natural application of many

branches of mathematics,” ref lects Kevin. “In sci-

ence it’s key to always be skeptical. Often science

cannot be proven without the use of mathematics,

and I certainly couldn’t do my job without a hefty

amount of math.”

The Mars sCienCe laboraTory CuriosiTy roVer examines a rock on Mars with a set of tools at the end of its arm, which extends about 2 meters (7 feet) in this 2011 artist’s rendering. The mobile robot is designed to investigate Mars’ past or present ability to sustain microbial life.

“ Science is the natural application of many branches of mathematics. In science it’s key to always be skeptical. Often science cannot be proven without the use of mathematics.”

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6 | GeORGIAN

by KareN doss bowMaN

For Loren Cobb ’66 mathematics is more than

number crunching. The research professor views

mathematics as not just something he does; but

rather, a way of thinking that defines who he is and

how he sees the world. Mathematics, he says, is the

“skeleton of reality.”

“My whole personal philosophy revolves

around the idea that everything we see, hear,

smell, taste is illusion, and the only true reality is

mathematics,” says Loren, a research professor in

the Department of Mathematical and Statistical

Sciences at the University of Colorado, Denver.

“You cannot sense it directly. It’s out there, it’s

inside and it informs everything, but it’s not part of

our sensory experience. Becoming a mathematician

is gaining access to that level of reality.”

After an early career in academia, Loren

worked twenty years as an applied mathematician,

developing sophisticated mathematical models.

His work provided analytical support for nations

attempting to overcome devastating socioeconomic

conditions, such as poverty, governmental corrup-

tion, civil war, starvation, and ethnic conflicts. He

has authored numerous simulations of war, con-

flict, and the evolution of peace in Third World

nations and has been instrumental in guiding

United Nations training of civilians and military

officers from all over the world in peacekeeping

operations.“A lot of people have no idea that math

can be applied to social problems,” says Loren,

who earned his bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral

degrees at Cornell University. “Mathematics often

shows you things that you were never aware of—

things that you have a mistaken idea about.”

Many past and current George School students

have found that one or two teachers sparked their

love of mathematics. For Loren, that teacher was

Grant Fraser, who was adept at teaching basic skills

through the window of concepts such as predicate

logic (better known as “new math,” which was pop-

ular in the 1960s), combinatorics, and probability

theory. Loren says Grant was enthusiastic and pre-

cise, teaching every day with “rigor and clarity.”

“I’m afraid an awful lot of people have no idea

how to be truly precise,” says Loren. “In mathemat-

ics, you can learn it, especially with teachers like

Grant.”

The opportunity to take advanced math

courses at George School was a springboard for

Phil eschallier ’83 who studied math and computer

science at Tulane University. Like Loren, Phil says

that mathematics colors his worldview.

“Pretty much everything I see in life is some

kind of pattern, and patterns are math,” says Phil,

who was inspired by George School math teacher

Sam Smith. Phil reads voraciously about the uni-

verse and theories of the eleven dimensions of

time and space. “It’s just amazing the way math

can be used to describe almost everything. It’s

like the glue that holds us all together, even if you

don’t realize it. If it were just a bunch of numbers

and equations and had no meaning or context, I’d

probably be bored with it. But since it’s inescapable,

I haven’t escaped it.”

A software engineer for 10Types Inc., in

Wilmington, Delaware, Phil has been focused most

recently on the support of pharmaceutical research

and development—primarily oncology initiatives

in genomics and next generation sequencing. He

builds high-performance engineering software for

processing data and works closely with research sci-

entists to help them design and implement meth-

ods for processing data.

“My world really is about how to take prob-

lems and either automate or streamline them,” says

Phil. “One of the things I like about solving prob-

lems is doing something different on a regular

basis. There’s always a new technology coming out,

so if you’re not on the leading edge—especially in

life sciences research—then you’re nowhere.”

An avid scuba diver, Molly Kramer ’05

enrolled at the University of Miami to major in

marine biology. She soon discovered that math

was calling her, so halfway into her first semester,

Perspectives

Beyond Number CrunchingGeorge School Alumni Thrive in Mathematics

GeORGIAN | 7

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Kramer switched to civil engineering with a con-

centration in structural engineering.

An engineer for WSP Mountain enterprises in

Sharpsburg, Maryland, Molly describes her work as

“building real-world LeGOS,” creating steel con-

nections for structures and preparing installation

instructions. Using 3D modeling, Molly designs

steel connections for joining beam to beam, beam

to column, and column to column—as well as the

bracing and truss connections—to ensure that the

various fasteners (bolts, plates, or welds, for exam-

ple) will be strong enough to carry a building’s

required load.

Her job also involves designing each attach-

ment and fastener so that construction workers

in the field are physically capable of putting the

pieces together while working some forty feet up in

the air. Molly has worked on a number of promi-

nent projects, including the Barclays Center, the

new home of the Brooklyn Nets; the International

Gem Tower in Manhattan’s “Diamond District;”

and Columbia University’s new Jerome L. Greene

Science Building.

“I’m a huge fan of math, and engineering is an

applicable way to use math in the real world,” says

Molly, who was inspired by the vivid stories George

School math teachers Bill enos and Kevin Moon

told to explain math concepts. “How I design every

connection is based on math-based formulas and

how math applies to physics, and how things move

in relation to mathematical equations.”

Artist eve Aschheim ’76 has been fascinated

with mathematics for years. When she began teach-

ing at Princeton University in 1991, she regularly

visited renowned mathematician John Conway,

learning about mathematical concepts (such as

hyperbolic space, Riemannian curved geometry

and N-dimensional geometry) and their visual rep-

resentations. eve has created several bodies of work

using these geometrical ideas as a starting point.

“Artists have thought about math and science for

a long time,” says eve, a Guggenheim fellow whose

interest in math was inspired by George School

math teacher Paul Machemer ’65.

eve sees mathematics as a pure thought. “In

painting, subject matter changes, style changes,

but the fundamental structure of pictorial space

and organization are the most important princi-

ples—and they have evolved slowly over time. The

crossover between math and art is vast territory,

as a concept like ‘infinity’ is something that artists

think about when they make a horizon look like it

is infinitely far away.”

“Mathematics is valuable in all of its forms,

in its applied manifestations and also as pure

research,” says eve, who earned a bachelor’s degree

from the University of California-Berkeley and

an MFA from the University of California-Davis.

“Mathematics is an aesthetic investigation based

on logic, which also has a strong imaginative

component.”

“The study of math does not have to lead any-

where or become something practical for one’s life

or society,” she adds. “It can be a purely philoso-

phical investigation, a way of thinking about the

world and about the nature of numbers, surfaces,

and space.”

eve encourages current George School stu-

dents to hone their knowledge of mathematics

and to consider the wide variety of careers avail-

able to those who pursue academic studies in

mathematics.

“If you study math, there are so many different

places you can fit in and it doesn’t necessarily have

to be in a field directly related to mathematics,”

says eve. “Mathematics could lead to new innova-

tions, including technological advances, in a vari-

ety of fields. Much of the exciting work being done

now is at the intersection of different disciplines.”

Gs aluMni Loren Cobb ’66, Phil Eschallier ’83, Molly Kramer ’05, and Eve Aschheim ’76 share their insights about mathematics.

8 | GeORGIAN

March 2013

8 | GeORGIAN

Perspectives

IB Math and Statistics Classes Challenge Students by aNdrea LehMaN

A decade ago, advanced math students had only a

few upper-level options. Since then International

Baccalaureate (IB) and Advanced Placement (AP)

courses have been added that challenge George

School’s best and brightest math students and pre-

pare them to excel in rigorous college programs.

When George School hired former

educational Testing Service (eTS) statistician

Valerie Folk in 2003, it was to reintroduce statis-

tics to the math lineup. With help from the Grant

Fraser Fund (and the Denoon family), she devel-

oped first Statistics and then AP Statistics.

“The courses expose students to applied math-

ematics as opposed to more traditional theoreti-

cal mathematics,” she explains, “and the AP course

is a challenging alternative to calculus. Statistics

provides a different way to look at math—show-

ing how sophisticated mathematical techniques are

used to address real-world problems.”

The courses’ current teacher, Julia Nickles ’03,

agrees. During the lead-up to the fall election, she

rearranged the topics covered in the Statistics class

to tackle the real-world topic of sampling and its

application to presidential polling. When assembly

speakers cite statistics, students often bring ques-

tions about their appropriateness to class.

“It’s exciting,” she says. “Students learn some-

thing in class and the next day see how it can be

applied to their lives. It makes them great informa-

tion consumers.”

Julia admits, however, that when students

start, “there is a tendency to be overly skeptical.

every graph is misleading. When they get more dis-

cerning, they come to see that some are good and

some not.”

AP Statistics covers not only the descriptive

statistics taught in the regular course—including

exploratory data analysis, sample and experimental

design, and probability—but also the more abstract

subject of inference (drawing conclusions). The

MaTh TeaCher KeVin Moon works with seniors Clement Bohr, Yuan Shen, Evan Clinton, Tony Chang, and Nick Gonzalez to find an elegant and efficient solution to a problem in IB Math HL 2.

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course moves quickly, and, not surprisingly, George

School students do well on the AP test. More sur-

prising is the variety of students and their reasons

for taking the course.

Some want an advanced math class but don’t

see calculus as part of their long-term plans, per-

haps medicine or the social or natural sciences.

Some may be stronger in reading and writing—a

plus for statistics—than traditional math. And still

others want to take as much math as possible, tak-

ing both AP statistics and calculus (AP or IB).

Seniors Clement Bohr, Tony Chang, and evan

Clinton, for example, took AP statistics as juniors

and are now among the students in Kevin Moon’s

IB Math Higher Level (HL) 2 Calculus course. This

second year of the higher level sequence was added

as part of the curriculum review goal of making IB

accessible to students of all interests.

According to IB program coordinator Ralph

Lelii, the IB HL math test is “the hardest exam any-

where in the world for any student in mathematics.

It’s very broad, and we have far fewer instructional

days to cover the material than most IB schools.

I’m so proud of what Kevin has done. Some schools

don’t even attempt to teach HL.”

Preparing students to take the Higher Level

test wasn’t simply a matter of adding a class,

though. The whole math curriculum had to be

retooled so that some HL topics, including statis-

tics, could be broached as early as the ninth and

tenth grades.

Like the five-hour HL test, the class is fast and

furious, and, as Ralph describes, “The students

who take it are math beasts. It’s a fabulous class,

and the students have great insights.”

Kevin concurs. “Usually they interrupt and

complete my sentences. We’re always looking for

the most efficient method of doing a problem

to save time, to be more elegant. They’ll start to

argue. They can be competitive, but they have a lot

of respect for one another. There’s real camaraderie

and support.”

“I knew I was going to take HL2 math from

the moment I discovered its existence,” Clement

Bohr says. “It has a legendary reputation as some-

thing out of the extraordinary, not just out of the

Student Profile: Tony Chang ’13

In a group of out-

standing math

students, Tony

Chang stands out

a little further. In

addition to the

Higher Level calculus-focused exam, he is

preparing for a second IB math test, called

Further Mathematics, for which he is work-

ing independently with four members of the

math department. Further, while 25 per-

cent of George School students take part in

the American Mathematics Contests (AMC)

every year, Tony’s results qualified him to com-

plete in the second level, American Invitational

Math exam (AIMe), and was one of the 215

students nationwide whose results on the AMC

and AIMe tests qualified him to compete in

the Mathematical Olympiad.

What have you liked about AP statistics and IB HL 2?AP Statistics and HL 2 are very different. AP

Statistics has easier content and is taught much

more according to the AP exam. Julia pre-

pared us really well. IB HL 2 targets the test

less directly, and we move through the material

at a very fast pace. Like other math courses, the

material is effectively taught to us, but because

IB HL 2 has only five very capable and passion-

ate math students, we have some interesting

discussions and tangents about the material.

What inspires you about math?There is the feeling of accomplishment when

I solve a long, difficult problem or proof. There

is also the awe at the clever tricks used here and

there in math and how the numbers, however

complicated, eventually work out. I have been

working with advanced material in math since

second grade.

Do you think you’re going to major in math or make it part of your future?Math is one of my major options, but currently

I’m leaning more toward computer science or

computer engineering. Regardless, math would

definitely be a useful tool in my future career.

10 | GeORGIAN

March 2013

ordinary. It is a difficult class for even the brightest

math student, not because of the concepts covered,

but because of the sheer pace. We are bombarded

with new information every day.”

“HL math with Kevin is indeed an adventure,”

Yuan Shen ’13 agrees. “The materials and tests are

hard, but Kevin gives us ample examples until we

understand, and the class is very fun.”

“HL2 has been perhaps my favorite class at

George School. If you stop thinking for even a

minute, you fall behind. It’s very exciting,” Nick

Gonzalez ’13 explains. “My favorite aspect is the

community feel. With only five students, we expe-

rience the math together and try and solve prob-

lems as a group, often seeing multiple ways to solve

them.”

In fact, each year the class sets a group goal for

everyone to score in a certain range. In 2012 they all

scored in the 4-6 range (out of 7, with 7s extremely

rare). But regardless of college credit, HL2 graduate

Nathan Small ’11 says that “IB HL math is a great

introduction to the rigor required for mathematical

proofs, something most students don’t see in high

school. Many students who placed into the Honors

Calculus class here at the University of Chicago had

never seen a proof before and had difficulty grasp-

ing how they worked. Considering that proofs, and

not computation, are the real basis of mathematics,

IB HL math certainly gave me a head start.”

As impressive as these courses are, Kevin is

quick to point out that the road leading to them

has grown more interesting, too. Drop-in help

sessions with faculty and advanced math students

are offered during study hall at George School.

More than 25 percent of the student body took the

AMC (American Mathematics Competitions) test

last year, showing a marked upswing in interest and

performance (see Student Profile of Tony Chang ’13

on page 9).

“What makes George School special,” Kevin

says proudly,” is that at all levels bright kids sit in

class next to other bright students, creating cohorts

of similarly talented, interested, and motivated stu-

dents. The math tide is rising.”

abby harrison ’14 completes her IB Precalculus worksheet during class with teacher Autumn Thayer.

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Our most recent eQuiz asked alumni to share

their experience with mathematics in their lives

now and when they were in the classroom at

George School. Some of their responses are high-

lighted here. Thanks to the 136 alumni who

participated.

Memories of Mathematics at George School

1953 | Gabriel Garber

James Tempest was my teacher. I was doing C work

and he told me he was going to fail me if I did not

work up to my capacity. I did not, and he gave me

an “F” for the fall term. Needless to say I improved

my performance for the rest of the year.

1958 | Carol T. Park DiJoseph

If it weren’t for Russ Weimar ’48, I would still be at

GS trying to get out of algebra.

1961 | Lee N. Price

Grant Fraser was illustrating the use of calculus

to determine the area of a four leaf clover made by

drawing semi-circles starting at each corner of a

square. I suddenly visualized f lopping the semi-

circles out the other direction and determined the

area without using calculus. Grant immediately

understood what I was saying and complimented

the insight. One gets few enough such compliments

that his has stayed with me.

1962 | Barbara L. H. Hires

Dottie Detwiler had a major influence on my con-

tinued interest in math. Math in some form is a

part of everyday and we need to understand and

appreciate the importance of its influence.

1965 | Frank A. Fetter

All hail Dottie Detwiler. She was able to make math

interesting and exciting for a typically uninterested

teenager (me).

1969 | Barbara A. Robbins Simanek

Walter evans was one of the best teachers. He

taught me that math could be learned and gave me

the confidence to take math in college.

1971 | Richard E. Johnson

I remember Dottie Detwiler telling me/us to keep

plugging away doing algebra proofs even though

we didn’t understand how, that one day doing them

would “click in” and we would understand them.

And that was what came to pass.

1977 | Beverly J. Bromberger Catchpole

I had Sam Smith and we did amazing things like

find the area of objects in 3D space. I had a real leg

up when I went to college by learning calculus as a

senior at George School.

1985 | Susan Wilson Baron

Jim Grumbach’s probability and statistics was one

of the best classes I ever took, including in college.

1989 | Osvaldo Oyola

Math was never even near my strongest subject, but

Bill enos made it interesting and fun, and kept us

engaged.

1992 | Susan C. Crosman Waterhouse

I remember when Brad Cook taught my geome-

try class about how to calculate Pi using polygons

inscribed in a circle. It was complicated and many

of my peers got lost, but I was fascinated.

1996 | Melicia Escobar

Mary Dart’s patience and way of breaking things

down, with exercises that helped us discover the

principles at hand (instead of having us simply

memorize equations), really helped this social sci-

ence girl enjoy math for a semester.

1996 | Ezra E.S. Rosser

It is hard to overstate the teaching skills of Paul

Machemer ’65. Classes ref lected a great mix of pro-

fessionalism, preparation, and high expectations.

But my favorite classes were when Paul told the

Odyssey-based story of taking care of the “I” first

and the Guy Fawkes based story of dealing with

radicals in the basement. Paul served as a great role

model, and I am still trying to live up to his exam-

ple of quiet strength.

2008 | Will N. Asheshov

Abstract Geometry taught by Kevin Moon showed

the kind of subjects and topics required to pursue

a more pure mathematics, and search for truth in

numbers, structure, and patterns.

eQuiz HighlightsPerspectives

12 | GeORGIAN

March 2013

How did George School math affect you and your future studies?Paul Machemer’s

freshman alge-

bra class was really

defining for me.

I was under-pre-

pared coming to

George School, so I struggled at first. By the end of

the year I had mastered the material, which showed

me that I could get math. Though George School

didn’t influence my career choice—I always knew I

wanted to be an engineer and build things—George

School mathematics made math the easy part of my

first two years of college engineering studies. I saw

a lot of friends drop out of engineering because they

weren’t prepared. I never had that problem and am

grateful for the preparation that George School math

provided. (ed. note: Saul received a B.S. in mechani-

cal engineering and computer science from Yale, an

M.S. in ocean engineering from M.I.T., commercial

diving certification, and an M.B.A. from the French

business school INSeAD.)

How does math play a role in your career?I am Operations Director for the National Oceanic

and Atmospheric Administration’s underwater hab-

itat Aquarius. Located in sixty feet of water off

Florida, it’s the world’s only undersea research sta-

tion. Previously I was an engineering team leader for

Divex in Scotland, building dive systems capable of

going to one thousand feet. Math is central to what I

do. It is logic, and the motivated application of logic

to our world is how we deliver amazing engineer-

ing marvels. As an engineer, it is my job to logically

organize mountains of information to come up with

a solution. Yes, a little creativity is required to design

and build new things, but the basis of all engineering

success is the relentless application of logic—and of

math. As I also manage a staff and budget of approx-

imately $2.5 million annually, the ability to handle

financial information and related math, even if it is

simple math, is critical to my job.

What advice would you offer current students interested in mathematics?There’s no magic to math. It’s pure logic. Learn at

your own pace. If you don’t get it, slow down and take

it step by step. I never was a good class learner and

always fell behind, especially in college. But curling

up with a math textbook and methodically walking

through it almost always brought it together for me,

and usually more quickly than I expected. My career

has been a wonderful of example of how math and

science can open some really exciting doors and of

how focusing on math and science in high school and

college can be a wonderful thing.

Was there a George School math class that you found particularly enlightening or inspiring?I can never for-

get algebra with

Dottie Detwiler.

By the time I had her in 1993, she had been on the job

for about forty years. Her mind was so sharp it was

incredible. I wonder if there is a correlation between

studying and teaching math for so long and keeping a

sharp mind into old age.

How did math—and George School math, in par-ticular—impact your choice of studies and career?I majored in mechanical engineering at Duke because

I loved math. Today I work in the fixed income divi-

sion at Morgan Stanley, trading credit derivatives.

Like those on the equity side, who use mathematical

modeling to help forecast the future performance of

companies as part of their investment decision pro-

cess, we on the fixed income side do a similar analy-

sis. I can’t imagine I would have made either choice if

I didn’t enjoy math at George School.

What advice would you offer current students interested in mathematics?At the very least, minor in math in college. After

reading and speaking, it has to be the most impor-

tant skill set. With the technology of today, one could

argue that it’s more important than writing. The con-

cept of logical problem solving is rooted in math.

Thus while math teaches you to solve problems with

numbers, it also teaches you a way of thinking that

can be applied to so many other things.

Alumni Profile: Kevin Edwards ’97

Alumni Profile: Saul Rosser ’97

GeORGIAN | 13

perspecti v es

2009 | Nefertiti N. Roy

Autumn Thayer’s Precalculus and AP Calculus

classes were some of my favorite classes at George

School. They set me up for math in college so well

that college math has been a breeze.

2010 | Kenishea Donaldson

Dorothy Lopez was by far the most inspiring

teacher whose lessons definitely prepared me for

my current college math courses.

2012 | Melissa J. Huester Lawrence

Valerie Folk’s IB Math Studies class was exception-

ally entertaining and easy to follow. She helped us

understand the relationships between calculus and

trigonometry as well as how to apply financial math

to the real world.

2012 | Bryce T. Miller

Travis Ortogero taught us the Gorilla Parable,

which in summary is: “Sometimes, the status quo is

pretty screwed up out there. Question it.”

Perusing Mathematics after George School

1954 | Art E. Cohen

Math has been useful in my field of public health,

where it is used extensively in epidemiology and

biostatistics. I think often in quantitative terms,

and have found this useful for the ever-present

need to be able to make estimates of all kinds.

1956 | Briant H. Lee, Sr.

I used math constantly for electronic and electrical

engineering with Kliegl Stage Lighting. My master’s

thesis was a study of and description of the elec-

tronic developments of high power lighting control

apparatus in the theater.

1958 | Geoff Baldwin

Mostly I work on the “enigma” puzzles in New

Scientist. This involves being clever in math and

logic, and also at programming.

1960 | Nils A. S. Pearson

I studied meteorology at post graduate school

which required a good foundation in mathemat-

ics as we used numerical models for weather pre-

diction. My master’s thesis was creating a workable

numerical model of a hurricane.

1962 | Thomas Duncan Nichols

I pursued a BA in chemistry and physics, although

I actually had enough hours for a major in math.

Quantum mechanics and X-Ray crystallogra-

phy require lots of advanced math. I still read the

articles.

1965 | Philip T. Lynes

As a computer programmer for most of my career I

was always looking for elegant heuristic algorithms

to solve the engineering challenges.

1970 | John B. Bennison

Math is a language for describing the subtle struc-

ture of physical reality and even abstract or imag-

ined realities. It continues to be the quintessential

tool for problem solving and it cultivates intuition

through successively finer glimpses of reality and

its alternatives.

1973 | Lucy W. Welsh DeFranco

I am a weaver and knitter, so I use math all the

time. If I want to dye something in a precise,

repeatable way, I need to pay attention to math.

1974 | Barbara S. McAnerney Kohout

We use math in applied behavioral analysis in

the field of psychology. We use empirically-based

methods for behavioral assessment and treatment

of individuals with intellectual disabilities and

Autism.

1977 | Kathryn Smith

I teach high school mathematics at a magnet school

in Philadelphia. I am also the coach of the high

school math team and the faculty sponsor of our

FIRST robotics team.

1978 | Robert D. Keever

I taught high school level math in Sierra Leone,

West Africa with the Peace Corps and now teach in

the math department at SUNY Plattsburgh.

2002 | Matt J. Groden

The rigor and “push your pencil” mantra of Paul

Machemer ’65 prepared me very well for under-

graduate studies and my current career. Math

allows me to problem solve in facets of life that do

not include mathematics. As a math teacher, it also

allows me to show my students how to learn.

Responses might be edited due to space limitation

and Georgian style guidelines.

14 | GeORGIAN

March 2013

14 | GeORGIAN

Alumni Profile: Cat McIntyre ’94

How does math play a role in your career?I have spent the past thirteen years working in

wetland systems, developing expertise in wetland

plant identification, soil taxonomy, wetland

condition assessments, amphibian ecology, and

geospatial analysis. Currently I’m working on

large-scale wetland restoration projects on several

Superfund sites in Montana. As a wetland ecolo-

gist, I use math on a daily basis whether it is

conducting statistical analyses on species data,

using differential equations to understand

community assemblages, calculating planting

densities and soil amendment volumes for resto-

ration projects, or establishing project budgets.

I consider math to be critical to my science.

Did George School classes affect your career choice?I attribute my interest in ecology and environ-

mental chemistry to classes that I took at George

School, including a chemistry class where the

teacher had students volunteer for the Delaware

Riverkeeper Network in Lambertville, New Jersey.

Math was not a topic I was particularly inter-

ested in during high school. I was probably more

concerned about whom I was going to sit next

to in class than what was being taught. In fact,

math has never come easy for me. It wasn’t until I

started applying it to subjects that I am passionate

about that it started to make more sense and the

purpose of math became more obvious.

What about mathematics motivates you?Math is the backbone to any science. I hated math

until I figured out how it could be applied in

real life. Math can be used to form hypotheses

and answer questions. Statistical math validates

scientific studies and helps us understand

patterns in the world.

Alumni Profile: Kenny Kao ’08

Did your George School years influence your university studies and career path?I was always pretty interested in mathemat-

ics and science. I really enjoyed Math Seminar

taught by Travis Ortogero. I found it challeng-

ing, and the homework problems required me

to think hard. I also took AP Physics as well as

Computer Programming and Robotics with

Chris Odom. And I spent the summer before my

senior year in Stony Brook University’s Simons

Summer Research Fellowship Program, conduct-

ing research on PeM fuel cells, an emerging tech-

nology with great potential as a clean, efficient

future energy source. For that work, I was named

one of forty finalists in the 67th Annual Intel

Science Talent Search, which certainly influenced

my future.

How has math been part of your life since graduating George School?I majored in electrical engineering at Stanford

and work in computer science. Computer

science is, in essence, applied math. In that sense,

all the algorithms and code I write are math-

based. During my summers, I interned at tech

companies, both in hardware and software

engineering. All of them required math.

What about mathematics motivates you?Push your limits. Math is the foundation to most

of the technology of the future. Understanding

the fundamentals of math will allow you to move

on to a wide range of advanced concepts.

GeORGIAN | 15

FEATURES

GeORGIAN | 15

by Laura tayLor KiNNeL

Andrew Hacker’s opinion piece in The New York

Times in July 2012 titled “Is Algebra Necessary?”

generated lots of conversation about why we teach

algebra (and other traditional high school math

courses) and whether we should continue to do so.

Hacker’s thesis, as I understand it, is that “making

mathematics mandatory prevents us from discover-

ing and developing young talent” because algebra is

so difficult that requiring it prevents large numbers

of students from finishing high school, enrolling in

college, or finishing college, and that requiring it is

unnecessary because only a very small percentage

of people actually use algebra after they are done

taking math courses.

“Certification programs for veterinary tech-

nicians require algebra, although none of the grad-

uates I’ve met have ever used it in diagnosing or

treating their patients,” he argues. “Medical schools

like Harvard and Johns Hopkins demand calcu-

lus of all their applicants, even if it doesn’t figure

in the clinical curriculum, let alone in subsequent

practice. Mathematics is used as a hoop, a badge,

a totem to impress outsiders and elevate a profes-

sion’s status.”

At George School, we require the math courses

to which Hacker objects. Though I disagree with

Hacker’s answer to his title question, I am grate-

ful to him for the challenge. We should be able to

answer these questions about anything that we

require of our students.

I teach math because I find the subject end-

lessly fascinating, but that is no justification for

why everyone should take it. Rather, people need

a high-quality education in algebra and geome-

try in order to develop habits of mind and frames

of reference that enable them to think more cre-

atively about issues they encounter on a daily basis,

to acquire tools and develop quantitative perspec-

tives that are useful in exploring and solving prob-

lems related to these issues, and—for the same rea-

son that they need an education in the arts—to

deepen the sense of what it is to be human and to

strengthen our sense of connection with that which

is greater than ourselves.

I suggest that Hacker’s rejection of the neces-

sity of algebra for all high school students is based

on a f lawed understanding of algebra. Judging from

the arguments he makes, my sense is that he sees

algebra as the manipulation of apparently mean-

ingless symbols according to seemingly arbitrary

rules for purposes which have no use except in pro-

fessions which require algebraic manipulation on a

regular basis. And, in Hacker’s defense, it is prob-

ably easy to come away from many algebra courses

with this perception.

I have been determined in recent years,

however, to find ways of teaching algebra (and

advanced math classes based in algebra) which help

On Learning Algebra and Geometry

laura Taylor Kinnel teaches mathematics and serves as George School’s registrar.

16 | GeORGIAN

March 2013

students to see algebra more as mathematician and

philosopher Bertrand Russell described it in his

1902 essay, “The Study of Mathematics.”

“The fact is, that in algebra the mind is first

taught to consider general truths, truths which are

not asserted to hold only of this or that particular

thing, but of any one of a whole group of things,”

he writes. “It is in the power of understanding and

discovering such truths that the mastery of the

intellect over the whole world of things actual and

possible resides; and ability to deal with the general

as such is one of the gifts that a mathematical edu-

cation should bestow.”

Advances in technology over the years have

been useful in my quest to help all students see

“the forest” of algebra as an ability to deal with

the general for “the trees” of symbolic manipula-

tion. It is clear to me that this evolution in technol-

ogy, incorporated thoughtfully into the classroom,

makes it possible for many more people to see fun-

damental concepts in mathematics; concepts that

were previously accessible only to those who either

became skilled at algebraic manipulation or had

been blessed with particularly good mathematical

insight. Now, however, students can use comput-

ers, calculators, smart phones, and iPads to move

easily among algebraic, numerical, and graphical

representations of mathematical situations, thus

enabling them to see—at an educated glance—

solutions that previously emerged only after many

lines of algebraic manipulation, or in some cases,

were simply too complicated to discover with “by

hand” algebra.

To get a sense of what I mean, try visiting

the website wolframalpha.com and typing

“x^3-5x^2=2x” into the search box. You will see a

graph, alternate forms of the equation, exact solu-

tions to the equation (with options to show all the

steps in the algebraic solution and to show decimal

approximations), and the locations of the solutions

on a number line. Most students who see this out-

put become curious about how the graph shown is

related to the equation.

Close observation yields some quick answers

and further exploration yields more. Students can

observe how the graph changes as they vary bits of

the equation and, even though the equation needn’t

represent any particular thing in the real world, all

of a sudden there’s something concrete, accessible,

and relevant about it. Students start to ask all kinds

of questions, such as how to get those exact solu-

tions, and this leads naturally into some well-moti-

vated traditional algebraic work and the concept

of proof. Further, in addition to making algebraic

ideas accessible to a wider audience, today’s tech-

nology gives a gift similar to that given in the early

seventeenth century by John Napier’s introduc-

tion of logarithms which, as Pierre-Simon Laplace

observed, “by shortening the labors, doubled the

life of the astronomer.”

While facility with algebraic manipulation is

less important now than it was in the past, alge-

braic ways of thinking are more important than

ever. I agree with Andrew Hacker that few peo-

ple encounter situations in which they are explic-

itly told to “solve for x” after they have left school.

If they understand algebra, however, they think to

ask how a certain problem they’re faced with might

be reframed as “solve for x” or “find the equation

of the line.” As an example most of today’s high

school graduates will either need to use or could be

helped by using a spreadsheet. Certainly, those who

understand some basic tenets of algebra are more

likely to think of a spreadsheet as a potentially use-

ful tool and will be able to do an awful lot more

with it than those who do not.

Still, not everyone will need to use spread-

sheets, and, at the same time, people will need to

use tools that haven’t even been imagined yet. In

this rapidly changing world where our graduates

do such a wide variety of work, it would be impos-

sible—even if we wanted math education to be

purely vocational—to teach all of the mathematical

topics, technological skills, or particular contexts

that each person or even most people will need.

Instead, we teach algebra as a way of thinking

and a way of doing. We teach students to ask ques-

tions, and we teach them that there are tools—in

their minds and all around them—that they can

use to help answer these questions. Then, when

they find themselves faced with finding marginal

cost, velocity, or the rate of population growth,

Can Yo u d o th e Math?

Travis Ortogero recently asked his class:

What is the remainder when

20122012 is divided by 11?

Email your answer togeorgian@georgeschool.org

GeORGIAN | 17

FEATURES

they remember the fundamental concept of rate

of change that they first met in algebra, they strip

away the context, and they solve the same math-

ematical problem, because they have harnessed

Russell’s power of understanding truths which hold

for a whole group of things.

Like algebra, geometry provides plenty of

opportunity for discovering general truths. Because

it is by nature so visually accessible, however, geom-

etry is even better suited to what Russell defines

as “one of the chief ends served by mathematics”

which “is to awaken the learner’s belief in reason,

his confidence in the truth of what has been dem-

onstrated, and in the value of demonstration.” This

may be the most compelling rationale for why we

require our students to study geometry, where the

exploration of shapes—something even small chil-

dren can do—leads naturally to the formation of

interesting questions which students discover that

they can answer definitively for themselves or by

collaborating with others.

The three geometry courses that we teach at

George School require different levels of abstrac-

tion and precision of discourse, but in each class

students explore spatial relationships, gener-

ate questions, figure out how to answer them, and

work to communicate their ideas in a way that

will compel others to agree, yes, you’ve proven

this. Through geometry, students come to under-

stand that which is at the heart of mathematics, the

proof, while also developing an appreciation for the

importance of clearly identifying assumptions and

developing and communicating a rational argu-

ment based on those assumptions.

Geometry is also a key area of mathematical

study because it helps students to develop a deeper

and more nuanced understanding of beauty. If, as

Hacker advocates, the only required study of math

were in concrete contexts (such as how to calculate

the consumer price index and how math was used

in early cultures) in an attempt to eliminate most

of the need for the difficult training in abstrac-

tion, students would be deprived not only of the

opportunities to consider general truths and to dis-

cover the power of demonstration, they would lose

the chance to experience “the true spirit of delight,

the exaltation, the sense of being more than man,

which is the touchstone of the highest excellence,”

and, according to Bertrand Russell, “is to be found

in mathematics as surely as in poetry.”

If they haven’t appreciated Russell’s sentiments in

earlier mathematical studies, students may begin

to get a sense of what he means when they do com-

pass and straight-edge constructions, or when they

realize how many wildly different ways there are

to prove the Pythagorean Theorem. And, if they

stick with math through a calculus course, they will

almost certainly agree with Russell when they find

that

and then use this, together with their knowledge of

trigonometry, to discover that the five fundamental

constants in mathematics combine with the three

most fundamental operations (addition, multipli-

cation, and exponentiation) into the astonishing

equation eiπ + 1 = 0 .

Indeed, “the true spirit of delight, the exaltation,

the sense of being more than man, which is the

touchstone of the highest excellence, is to be found

in mathematics as surely as in poetry.”

And, yes, algebra is necessary.

ex = 1 + x + x2 + x3 + x4 + …

2! 3! 4!

1 + x + x2 + x3 + x4

2! 3! 4!

1 + x + x2 + x3

2! 3!

1 + x + x2 2!

1 + x

ex

18 | GeORGIAN

March 2013

This spring George School will break ground on its

latest capital project, a state-of-the-art Fitness and

Athletics Center, to be located where the Worth

Sports Center currently resides on the south end

of campus. The new facility will be situated across

from the Mollie Dodd Anderson Library and diago-

nally to the George School Meetinghouse.

The unanimous decision to begin construc-

tion was made by the school’s governing board,

the George School Committee (GSC), based

on generous early gifts in the “quiet” phase of a

capital initiative for fitness and athletics. “We

are confident that the greater community will

commit the remainder of the funds necessary to

build this much needed facility,” says GSC Clerk

Richard Segel.

This project follows the successful opening

of three other major facilities in the past few years

including Anderson Library, a Gold LeeD-certified

green building, McFeely, a state-of-the-art class-

room building that originally housed the old

library, and Cougar Track and Cougar Field, a new

all-weather running track and synthetic turf field.

The new fitness and athletics facility was

designed by Bowie Gridley Architects of

Washington, D.C., the same firm that designed

the Anderson Library. The project construction

manager is R.S. Mowery & Sons, Inc. of

Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania.

“The world has undergone a revolution in its

approach to athletics and fitness in the past thirty

years, catching up to what we at George School

have always known—that physical fitness should

play a central role in the lives of all our students,”

says former GSC clerk David Bruton ’53 who

serves as clerk of the Fitness and Athletics Capital

Committee. “Providing the facilities to support this

is an integral part of our mission as a school. We

owe our students nothing less.”

Continued Leadership in Environmental Sustainability

The design, construction, and operation of the

new Fitness and Athletics Center are intended to

earn certification under the U.S. Green Building

Council’s Leadership in energy and environmental

Design (LeeD) Green Building Rating System, the

national standard for environmentally friendly

buildings.

One of the key green components of the

building design is a vegetative roof over a portion

of the Fitness and Athletics Center. Besides the

Fitness & Athletics Center Construction Scheduled

GeORGIAN | 19

FEATURES

GeorGe sChool will construct a spectacular 100,000 square-foot brick and glass Fitness and Athletics Center in time for the fall 2014 sports season. The new eight-lane, twenty-five-yard pool has an advanced filtration system. The 12,600 square-foot performance gymnasium, will host both boys’ and girls’ basketball and volleyball.

aesthetic and psychological advantages, green roofs

commonly offer ecological and economic benefits

including the recovery of green space, improved

storm water management, water and air purifica-

tion, and a reduction in energy consumption.

The green spaces surrounding the center will

creatively integrate storm-water management areas

with aesthetically pleasing native-plant gardens

and the enlarged parking lot will contain several

rain gardens to promote greater drainage.

The building is designed to maximize day-

lighting to reduce lighting electrical demands.

Solar hot water collectors will pre-heat water for

boilers. In addition, radiant f looring in the field

house and central corridors will provide an energy-

efficient heating system in areas of high use. The

new pool design will use an air dehumidification

system to heat the pool and the shallower depth

means less water to heat. It also means that there

are fewer chemicals needed for treatment.

“I am excited about the new pool design,”

says former George School varsity swimmer Tom

Hoopes ’83, who also is the head of the Religion

Department. “George School has been a leader in

environmental sustainability for a long time. I hope

our new pool will be a model for what swimming

pool construction can be and should be, both in

terms of visual aesthetics and in terms of the

sustainable features of how the water is filtered

and heated, and how the chemicals are managed.”

“Green buildings save energy and water,

produce fewer carbon emissions, cause less waste,

20 | GeORGIAN

March 2013

and create healthier environments for the

communities they serve,” says Head of School

Nancy Starmer. “This new project is another step

towards our goal of a leadership position in envi-

ronmental sustainability.”

“I am very excited about what this building

project will mean for the well-being of our stu-

dents, teachers, and coaches,” Nancy continues.

“Athletics and physical education—like science,

mathematics, the humanities, meeting for worship,

arts, and service—are integral parts of the com-

plete educational experience at George School.

Our curricular commitment is to provide all

George School students opportunities to discover

their talents, to deepen their understanding, and

to strive for excellence.”

“ The world has undergone a revolution in its approach to athletics and fitness in the past thirty years, catching up to what we at George School have always known—that physical fitness should play a central role in the lives of all our students.”

The CenTral CorriDors of the building, on both the first and second f loors, are ideal locations for gathering with friends, and give easy access to spectator seating.

The 4,000 square-fooT, glass-enclosed fitness center will be air conditioned and staffed to serve the needs of students, faculty, and community members.

GeORGIAN | 21

FEATURES

DN

FIRst FlooR

seCond FlooR

Fitness & Athletics Center Features

The new LeeD-certified

Fitness and Athletics Center

will be ready for occu-

pancy in fall 2014 and will

include a number of key

components:

• Performance gym with a

f loating, cushioned, maple-

plank f loor (A)

• State-of-the-art pool with

eight lanes, as well as room

for nearly two hundred

spectators (B)

• Field house with two

courts and seating for over

four hundred spectators

(C)

• Fully-equipped, 4,000

square-foot fitness

center (D)

• Wrestling room (E)

• Yoga studio and exercise

room (F)

• Training suite with wet and

dry treatment areas (G)

• Locker rooms for students,

faculty, staff, and visiting

teams, with more than 600

lockers (H)

• Classrooms, offices, and

a conference room for the

Athletics Department (I)

A B

I

I

HH

C

D

F

E

G

22 | GeORGIAN

March 2013

When June Corey Smith passed away in June, five

years after husband Richard O. (Dick) Smith ’36, it

ended a chapter in a lengthy and impressive story.

In the 1930s Dick was a George School boarding

student, earning money by cleaning fellow students’

ties and pressing their pants. In the ’50s and ’60s he

and June were enthusiastic parents, driving an hour

and a half to see their sons (Corey ’61 and Doug

’64) play sports. Over more than three-quarters of a

century, they were stalwart George School support-

ers, attending reunions eagerly and contributing

generously, repeatedly, and diversely—for the bene-

fit of students, faculty, and a school they loved.

Dick was born and raised a Quaker and had

several family members—siblings, sons, grand-

children, and even a grandnephew—follow in his

George School footsteps. From George School he

went on to Swarthmore College (another Quaker

institution) and an investment career that included

a stint as chairman of the Philadelphia-Baltimore-

Washington Stock exchange. Along the way he

married June, who became a Quaker and a George

School fan, too.

“Over the years my mother was exposed to his

feelings for the school and to many of his George

School friends,” Corey explains. “Together they

valued the school and its many aspects.” It was

this appreciation for the school’s many aspects—

spiritual and social, academic and athletic—that

led Dick and June to support a range of projects.

Having been a boarder and the father of

boarders, Dick understood the value of the resi-

dential experience. In 1992, early in the school’s

Second Century Campaign, the Smiths contributed

to the renovation of Drayton dormitory, which cre-

ated the first-f loor lounge and basement recreation

space that junior and senior boys still energetically

use today.

“Dad was very big on the social aspects,” says

Doug. “He felt that a place to relax and socialize

with your classmates was very important.”

Another aspect that mattered was the school’s

Quaker core. As Doug describes, “That George

School was a Friends school and that you went to

meeting for worship, was important to both of

them.”

In a 1997 interview Dick said, “Throughout

the years, the school has been able to impart a solid

sense of principles—the emphasis on simplicity,

respecting the opinions of others, encouraging

diversity and meeting for worship, along with a

very fine education.”

It was a large part of why the couple had

decided to endow the Richard O. ’36 and June

A Family Tradition:The Smiths’ Lasting Impact

The sMiTh faMily has made a lasting impression on George School through their care and generosity.

GeORGIAN | 23

FEATURES

Corey Smith Scholarship that year to help Quaker

students, a financial aid fund that has benefited

dozens of students since.

Though most Smith Scholars never met their

benefactors, seven got together with June in 2011,

a gathering she very much enjoyed, according to

Corey. Keith Irwin ’09 expresses the feelings of

many, “Going to George School is the greatest thing

to have ever happened to me. But it wouldn’t have

been possible without the generous aid I received, a

good deal of which came from the Smiths, whom I

sadly never met.”

“The first time I stepped on the George School

campus I was 13,” Annessa Graebener ’06 writes.

“Throughout my tour and interview I chewed

on the sleeves of my oversized black coat, quietly

answering questions, and rambling on about my

favorite boy band. Despite my overall shyness, I

really enjoyed my George School visit. The obsta-

cle preventing me from attending the school of my

dreams was the cost of tuition. The Smith schol-

arship made this possible. My four years at George

School allowed me to truly discover and become

comfortable with myself. From an educational

standpoint, I was much more prepared than many

students when I first attended college. Because of

the Smiths’ generous gift to someone they didn’t

even know, my life was changed for the better.”

In 1999, the Smiths decided to help fortify

George School’s “many aspects” once again, this

time by establishing a charitable lead trust support-

ing areas of highest need. As Corey, who served on

the George School Committee, remarks, “It was a

meeting of their interests and the school’s needs.

The best gifts are those that benefit the school in

perpetuity.” Though the areas of greatest need have

changed over the years, the Smiths’ impact has not.

Dick and June spent their last years at White

Horse Village in Newtown Square. Several George

School alumni lived there, including the man

across the street, who had lived across the hall

from Dick at George School.

After Dick passed away in 2007, June made a

gift in his memory for badly needed faculty hous-

ing, and she attended the 2009 dedication of the

duplex now called Smith House. Resident Pippa

Porter-Rex describes, “When we first moved to

George School we lived in the unrenovated base-

ment of Orton with our bedroom under the stairs.

Smith House is the first real home we have had in

twenty-two years. Its location close to three dorms

is great for a dean. My neighbor and best friend,

Kathleen O’Neal [who, with fellow teacher and

husband Chris Odom, lives in Smith House’s other

half], and I love to sit on the porch with our dogs

and watch the parade of kids stroll by. It is a great

place to live and to be! We are very grateful.”

The Smiths gave in ways that directly bene-

fited faculty and students and indirectly benefited

every segment of the community. “Dick and June

Smith made a lasting impression on George School

through their care and generosity,” says Nancy

Starmer, head of school. “Future residents of Smith

House, the students who receive Richard O. and

June Corey Smith Scholarships each year, and the

generations of students and teachers who will con-

tinue to benefit from a George School education

because of the strength of our endowment will have

this extraordinary couple to thank.”

“They did everything in moderation except

giving to George School, which is great,” says Doug

describing George School’s effect on his parents.

“It was near and dear to their hearts and to the

whole family’s—and still is.”

June sMiTh met with Smith Scholars Maggie Ellis ’13, Jeremy Tyson ’12, Ceinwen Klaphaak ’14, Campbell Alden ’13, Elise Riley ’12, and Rosie Wood ’13 at Sunnybanke in May 2012.

MIC

hE

ll

E r

uE

SS

24 | GeORGIAN

March 2013

Emma Rowan ’08 and Eileen Mattis O’Brien ’38

have much more in common than meets the eye.

Besides sharing a common birthday with the likes

of Jane Austen and Ludwig van Beethoven, these

two women have discovered that they share a sense

of George School sensibilities, treasured friendships,

and vibrant interests that resonate across the seven

decades between them. Recently Emma met Eileen to

share stories about George School and to talk about

their plans for Alumni Weekend, May 10-12, 2013.

We hope you will join Emma and Eileen this year too!

Eileen Mattis

O’Brien ’38, will

celebrate her sev-

enty-fifth reunion

this year. She was

born in Riverton,

New Jersey, and

has been, as she

describes it, a

“devout Quaker”

all her life. She

spent much of her childhood in Atlantic City, as

her grandparents owned a bathhouse on the board-

walk, and during the summers she attended Camp

Dark Water, a Quaker summer camp in Medford,

New Jersey. She attended Westfield Friends School

and later followed her brother, Walter Mattis ’36,

to George School. eileen attended Colby Junior

College for two years and then the New Jersey

College of Commerce.

After college, eileen worked at the DuPont

exhibit in Atlantic City giving lectures on new

products. “That’s where I met my husband,” she

says. “I took his job. When all the men went off to

fight in the war, DuPont had to hire women to take

their places. I got a job there, and when he came

back, there weren’t any positions left giving lec-

tures, so they gave him a job building displays in

the workshop. Then we met and started dating.”

What did you like about George School?I loved being there with my brother. He was a year

older than me, so the boys I dated were usually in

his class. They had to go to my brother to ask per-

mission to take me out. We would often go on dou-

ble dates and he would manage my allowance. At

that time, the school would tell your parents to give

you five dollars per month, and you would keep it

in the bank at school and take some out when you

wanted a new notebook or you were walking into

town to get a Buff and Brown, vanilla ice cream on

a brownie with chocolate syrup and crushed pea-

nuts. everyone was told to bring the same amount

of allowance and clothes. I liked that. You never

knew whether someone was a millionaire or there

on scholarship.

What is your favorite George School memory?I was always getting into trouble. I still remember

one report card that said, “eileen is a follower, but

she follows in the wrong direction.” Two or three

friends and I snuck down to the kitchen on Sunday

and stole some sticky buns. We got caught and all

got demerits. In those days, a demerit meant you

had to walk in a circle around campus. A teacher

would sit with a list and check your name off as you

went by. But people were walking in different direc-

tions, so you could write a note to your boyfriend,

fold it up, and quickly pass it to someone walking

in the opposite direction to give to him.

Do you plan to come back for your reunion?I hope so. I enjoyed going to many reunions in the

past, and I kept up with many friends from George

School in between reunions, too. My husband and I

went on vacation every year with about six couples,

mostly from George School, and invited them to

stay at our house as well. John (Johnny) Campbell

’41 had a house up at Skytop, and we would go ski-

ing together. We would also go boating with my

roommate from George School, Helen Powell

Brown ’38, and her husband, Millard (Brownie)

Brown ’37, near Annapolis every summer. And I

still write to my classmate Miquette Miller Cox,

who lives in Pennsylvania. I loved my four years on

fourth Central. I am very fortunate to have been

able to get together with my friends many times

over the years, and these joyous memories are those

I cherish most.

Looking Forward to Alumni Weekend

GeORGIAN | 25

FEATURES

Emma Rowan ’08,

is a Jersey girl

(from Trenton)

and a Quaker too,

though she did not

become a Friend

until she was at

George School.

Like eileen, she

also attended

Friends schools

and camps—Newtown Friends, George School,

Camp Onas, and Princeton Friends Camp, where

she worked for many summers, enjoying its cre-

ative atmosphere. A course in Mandarin Chinese

her senior year at George School sparked an interest

that became an east Asian studies major at Oberlin

College. After graduating in 2012, she returned to

George School to work in the Advancement Office.

What did you like about George School?I had some really wonderful teachers. They treated

us like adults, guiding us in class discussions, but

letting us share ideas and think for ourselves. And

they were available outside of class to help or to

just have a meaningful conversation. Now that I’m

back at George School, it’s great to continue the

relationships.

What is your favorite George School memory?I loved being in the musicals, especially being Lucy

in Snoopy my senior year. It was an ensemble show,

so even though some people had more lines, it was

more about the group than individuals. The cast

had a real camaraderie, and as an added bonus,

my sister, Willa, was in it. I really enjoyed sharing

a little bit of George School with her.

Do you plan to come back for your reunion?I’m very excited about our fifth reunion. I’ve kept

in touch with close friends and saw some when

I was home on college breaks, but there are plenty

of people I haven’t seen since graduation. Working

in the Advancement Office, I have connected

electronically with some classmates, but I’m

looking forward to seeing them in person and to

planning fun events for us with other members

of the reunion committee. And if I’m as lucky

as eileen, I hope to be back for our 75th reunion

in 2083.

Fr i day, May 10

10:00 a.m. All-School Assembly

11:30 a.m. Lunch

12:30 p.m. Campus Walking Tour

1:30 p.m. Master Class

Worth Sports Center,

Marshall Platt Pool

Celebration

3:30 p.m. Student Athletic

Contests

6:00 p.m. Nancy Bernardini

Celebration Dinner

saturday, May 11

8:00 a.m. Alumni/Faculty

Breakfast

9:00 a.m. Memorial Meeting

for Worship

10:00 a.m. Master Classes

Tennis Round Robin

11:00 a.m. All-Alumni Gathering

12:00 p.m. Lunch

1:30 p.m. Reunion Photos

2:00 p.m. Alumni Games

3:30 p.m. Cougar Tailgate

Evening Off-Campus Reunion

Class events

suNday, May 12

10:45 a.m. Meeting for Worship

12:00 p.m. Sunday Brunch

Note: We are in the planning stage

for Alumni Weekend 2013 and these

events and times may change between

now and May 10, 2013. Please visit

our website at georgeschool.org/

alumni for the most recent schedule

and to register online.

You also may call the Advancement

Office at 215.579.6564.

Students, alumni, faculty, and staff are busy making plans for a community-wide celebration

for Alumni Weekend. Online registration is open to all alumni, parents, students, and friends

and a full schedule of events is posted at georgeschool.org/alumniweekend.

March 2013

26 | GeORGIAN

Campus News & Notesby susaN QuiNN

National Merit Finalists and Commended Students AnnouncedGeorge School is proud to announce

that evan Clinton ’13 and Dan Simon

’13 were selected as finalists in the

2013 National Merit Scholarship

Program based on their performance

on the 2011 Preliminary SAT/National

Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test

(PSAT/NMSQT), outstanding schol-

arship and citizenship, and contin-

ued high performance on standard-

ized tests. In addition, Max Balka ’13,

ethan Carpene ’13, Linlin Chen ’13,

Alexi Kessler ’13, Susannah Perkins

’13, and emma Wells ’13 were high

scorers on the test and received letters

of commendation in recognition of

their outstanding academic promise.

Students Present Keeping the Dream AliveOn Monday, January 21, 2013, George

School students honored Dr. Martin

Luther King Jr. and his work through

a series of events which were planned

and led by the Martin Luther King Jr.

Day Student executive Committee.

George School and Westtown Sing TogetherGeorge School and longtime athletic

rival Westtown School joined together

to present “Harmonious Rivals” in

the George School Meetinghouse on

Sunday, January 20, 2013. The con-

cert featured “How Can I Keep from

Singing” and “Let your Light Shine.”

Forensic Science Class Studies DNA FingerprintingStudents in Becky Hutchins’ Forensic

Science class are doing more than just

reading about forensics in a textbook.

Throughout the course of the term

they study the science of DNA finger-

printing, handwriting analysis, foren-

sic entomology, how to estimate post-

mortem interval, the importance of

insects at the crime scene, blood typ-

ing, blood spatter analysis, and hair

and fiber analysis.

Students Attend Student Diversity Leadership ConferenceFatima Akbar ’14, Paolo Alighierei

’13, Qudsiyyah Collings ’15, Arne

Nelson ’13, Miranda Riccardi-

Coon ’15, and Maia Valdepenas-

Mellor ’15 attended “energizing Our

Future through Refining Our Shared

Sense of Community,” a conference

hosted by the National Association

of Independent Schools in Houston,

Texas on December 6-8, 2012. “This

conference is important because it

gives students from a wide variety

of backgrounds and experiences the

opportunity to come together for a

few days in a safe place to self-ref lect,

form allies, and build community,”

said Marion Wells, librarian and

international student co-sponsor.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream Delights AllA stellar cast of George School stu-

dents under the direction of Maureen

West, head of the Arts Department,

performed Shakespeare’s A Mid-

summer Night’s Dream on November

2 and 3 to a packed house. From the

sophisticated set design to the well-

delivered lines, every aspect of the

show delighted the audience. “That

was the best performance I have seen

recently…and the last one I saw was

on Broadway,” remarked one attendee.

Varsity Boys Soccer Captures FSL TitleGeorge School defeated Friends

Central and became the 2012 Friends

Schools League soccer champions on

Thursday, November 1, 2012. After

the two teams went 110 minutes with-

out a goal, the Cougars prevailed over

host Friends Central, 3-1, on penalty

kicks. Timofei Kharisov ’15, Kostas

Panagiotakis ’14, and Zack Kimelheim

’13 scored for George School. “Aidan

Greer ’14 dove to his right and

knocked the ball out of the air,”

reports Rick Woelfel of phillyBurbs.

com. “Aidan made thirteen saves

before stopping three more shots in

the shootout.”

Beekeepers Club Harvests First HoneyWhen George School’s Beekeepers

Club started in April 2011, they had

two hives and no honey to call their

own. The club now manages six active

hives and just collected its first two

batches of honey, concluding their

first successful season.

GeORGIAN | 27

Alumn i Te ll us

The Dedication of Weimar-Machemer Soccer FieldFive decades of alumni took part in

the soccer game preceding the dedi-

cation of Weimar-Machemer Soccer

Field on Saturday, October 20, 2012.

After an intense 3-2 game, the players

joined coach Paul Machemer ’65 and

former coach Russ Weimar ’48 for the

dedication of the field. Between them,

Russ and Paul have coached fifty six

years of soccer at George School, and

represent two of the five men who

have coached varsity soccer since

1923.

The Curious George Wins GoldThe Curious George, George School’s

student newspaper, received Gold

Medalist standing from the Columbia

Scholastic Press Association (CSPA).

Gold is the highest level awarded as

part of the association’s Scholastic

Print News Critique process. In addi-

tion, five students received awards for

their work. Maddy Sweitzer-Lamme

’13 won an award for outstanding edi-

tor, Ayushi Kokroo ’15 received recog-

nition for outstanding newswriting,

Mahek Singh ’15 and Ilya Timofeyev

’13 earned page design prizes, and

Keita erskine ’13 was celebrated for

having the “most thoughtful contri-

butions” in his page editing class.

Alumni Artwork Featured at School OpeningGeorge School held its first Alumni

Art Show of the academic year, fea-

turing artists Sara Rhodin ’02, a pho-

tographer, Liz Weiler ’07, a painter,

Todd Piker ’70, a sculptor, and Sam

Moyer ’93, a woodworker, from

September 4 to October 12 in Walton

Center. “These artists have an imme-

diate connection to our community

that enriches the experience for our

students and deepens their apprecia-

tion for the artwork itself,” said sculp-

ture teacher and gallery coordinator

Amedeo Salamoni.

George School Launches Expanded YouTube ChannelGeorge School launched its

expanded YouTube channel,

GeorgeSchoolVideo, in September

with the posting of Opening Days, a

short video about the beginning of

the new 2012-2013 school year. To

date, more than one thousand com-

munity members have watched the

channel. The most watched video was

the Holiday Greetings from George

School video in which members of the

community came together to express

their thanks in words and pictures at

the beginning of the holiday season.

Featured playlists include Athletics,

Performing Arts, Campus Life,

Robotics, and Student Videos.

Visit the channel at youtube.com/

georgeschoolvideo.

The Honor Thy Coaches series has celebrated six

legendary George School coaches since its launch in

winter 2012—Robert Geissinger, John Gleeson ’65,

Anne LeDuc, Paul Machemer ’65, David Satterwhwaite ’65,

and Russ Weimar ’48.

Join fans, friends, alumni, parents, and colleagues

to celebrate Nancy and her dedication to coaching and

George School.

Nancy Zurn Bernardini

Friday, May 10, 2013 at 7:00 p.m.

Sheraton Bucks County Hotel

Visit georgeschool.org/honorcoaches for more informa-

tion or to register now. If you are unable to attend but

would like to make a gift to honor your coaches or to

share team memories or photos, contact Colleen Hasson

by email at chasson@georgeschool.org or by phone at

215.579.6572.

Honor Thy Coaches 2012-2013Join us for the final event in the 2012-2013

Honor Thy Coaches series as we say thank

you and celebrate Nancy Zurn Bernardini

whose dedication has made athletics such an

important part of the history and life of our

community. Nancy has coached lacrosse,

field hockey, basketball, and served as girls’

athletic director, a resident in the dorm, an

advisor, and a physical education teacher.