On Campus
Fall 2003

Nekton and Matlack Honored With New Teaching Titles

Left, Nekton is the new Vira I. Heinz Professor. Right, Matlack has been awarded the first Bradley Teaching Chair.

Kathy Nekton and Christopher Matlack, both longtime members of the Exeter faculty, have been honored with new teaching titles.

Nekton is the new Vira I. Heinz Professor, succeeding math instructor Spruill Kilgore, who retired in 2002. A graduate of Pennsylvania State University who also holds an M.S. from Smith College, Nekton joined the Exeter faculty in 1973 as a physical education instructor and coach, and went on to become the Academy's first female director of athletics. In addition to her teaching and coaching work, since 2001 she has served as a member of the Curriculum Review Committee.

Matlack, who joined the science department as an instructor of biology in 1984 and served as the department's chair during the construction Phelps Science Center, has been been awarded the Lee C. Bradley III '43 Teaching Chair. The Bradley Teaching Chair is the inaugural chair of the Faculty Endowment Initiative, and was created by Bradley's family to honor a senior member of the faculty who has contributed significantly to teaching and learning at Exeter. Matlack earned his B.S. from the University of Vermont and his M.S. from Acadia University.

Alan R. Jones '72 Named Trustee

Alan R. Jones '72

Alan R. Jones '72 of Novato, CA, who served as a trustee of the Academy during his tenure as president of the General Alumni/ae Association (GAA), has joined the board as a regular trustee. He was named a director of the GAA in 1996, and was elected the association's president in 2000.

He is a founding and managing member of Rampant Venture Group, LLC, a venture capital/financial services company he started in January 2000 with two Exeter classmates. He is also associated with New Harbor Capital Inc., the broker-dealer arm of New Harbor Inc., which is owned and managed by two Exonians.

Jones had previously been with Morgan Stanley Dean Witter for 15 years, as a vice president in institutional fixed-income sales, and earlier with Salomon Brothers, Inc., as an associate in institutional fixed-income sales.

During his first term on the board, he served on the Alumni/ae Affairs and Development Committee, the Buildings and Grounds Committee and the Technology Committee. He also sits on the board of directors of the Student Conservation Association.

Jones received his bachelor's degree in government from Dartmouth College in 1976 and an M.B.A. in finance from Wharton Graduate School of Business in 1981.

Faculty and Staff Prizes

Brown Family    Faculty Fund    Patricia Babecki,      Mathematics    James DiCarlo,      Science    Harvard Knowles,      English    Michael Milligan,      History    Nita Pettigrew,      English	Radford Faculty Fellowship Edouard Desrochers,   Academy Archivist Donald Foster,   Anthropology Jamie Hamilton,   Religion Stephen Smith,   History
George S. Heyer Jr. '48    Teaching Fund    Andrew Hertig '57; '69 (Hon.),      History	Charles E. Ryberg Teaching Fund Fermin Perez-Andreu,   Modern Languages
Blair Brown Achievement Award    Heidi Burwell,      Building Services    Patty Hall,      Dean of Student's Office    Paul LaMotte,      Building Services    Betty Parrish,      Children's Center    Cindy Wines,      Health Services	Class of 1964 Award Karen Belton   Management Information   Services Marilyn Chew   Dean of Faculty's Office Jan Gosselin   Annual Giving Cathy Gregory   Accounting Diane Knight   Dining Services Al Olson   Information Technology

Lamont Gallery Welcomes New Director

Lamont Gallery Director Karen Burgess Smith

"To me, the art gallery is just an extension of the classroom," says Karen Burgess Smith, who became the new director of the Lamont Gallery this past July. After 11 years at St. Paul's School, where she taught studio art and art history, chaired the fine arts department and curated over 40 exhibitions in the school's gallery, Smith knows a little something about the nexus of art and education on a boarding school campus and what gets people excited.

"When I first started doing gallery work," says Smith, "I realized that most of what was being presented at galleries and museums wasn't very accessible or inviting. It was a club that wasn't open to everyone." Such was the case at St. Paul's when she first started, where exhibitions were generally not well attended and enthusiasm for the arts was low. A combination of bold programming, cross-disciplinary themes and the occasional promotional gimmick (she once staged a popular "Sketch-A-Rector" contest for students) helped transform the space into a hub of ideas and activity.

At Exeter, Smith is looking forward to taking an already well-respected art space and "bringing it to the next level." "One of my loves is doing interdisciplinary programming," says Smith. "I look forward to working with my art colleagues on campus and occasionally involving other departments when putting together shows. I'd also like to see the gallery have a national presence and work more closely with alumni/ae."

The 2003-2004 exhibition schedule was largely organized by faculty member Steve Lewis, who served as acting director of the Lamont Gallery last year, before beginning a one-year leave this fall. Smith will serve as the hands-on curator for most of these shows. For next year, she will organize a thematic series of exhibitions based on the concept of "pairing." "These exhibitions will feature a variety of interpretations of that idea," she says. "Artists who work together; artists who live and work together; artists who marry different materials; artists whose work should be shown together, but never has."

A graduate of the University of New Hampshire with a master's from Dartmouth and a certificate in museum studies and administration from Tufts, Smith was most recently the vice president for academic affairs at the New Hampshire Institute of Art. She has also taught at St. Anselm College, Manchester, NH, and Concord High School and Rundlett Junior High School, both in Concord, NH.

In addition to directing the Lamont Gallery, Smith will also teach art history and have dorm responsibilities. She and her husband, who have three grown children, will reside in Kennedy House.

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2003-2004 Schedule

Aliens in America: Others in the USA, curated by Barbara Rita Jenny '84. Through October 22, 2003.

Interior/Exterior: Five Perspectives on Landscape Photography, curated by Karen Burgess Smith. November 3 to December 10, 2003. Opening reception Saturday, November 1, 5-7 p.m.

Double Features: Portraits by Tara Misenheimer and Robert Preston, curated by Karen Burgess Smith. January 5 to February 4, 2004. Opening reception Friday, January 9, 7-8 p.m.

Artists of the American West, curated by Exhibits USA. February 14 to March 10, 2004. Opening reception Friday, February 13, 7-8 p.m.

To be announced. April 3 to May 7, 2004

Student Art Show May 15 to June 6, 2004. Opening reception Friday, May 14, 7-8 p.m.

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A major facelift for the Academy Building's Assembly Hall was one of an astounding 180 projects that were overseen by the facilities management department on campus over the summer. Included in the Assembly Hall work were a full interior renovation, refurbished benches, new carpeting, a stage lift, an updated paint scheme, improved lighting and a new sound system-improvements made possible by a fund for ongoing maintenance by the class of 1959. A new interior sign system has also been installed throughout the building.

Other interior renovations to the Academy Building included painting and new flooring on the second floor. Similar work was completed last summer on the basement and first floor levels.

Also completed this summer was a full renovation of Peabody Hall, an ambitious project that was completed in just 87 days. As with previous renovations in Amen (2002) and Cilley halls (2000), the work included new common rooms, new faculty apartments, full renovation of student rooms, and the installation of a student laundry room and an elevator. Upon completion, the dorm was outfitted with new student and common room furniture.

Phase III of the landscape master plan is now in progress and with the planting of trees this fall will be complete. The main focus of this phase has been the Dunbar Hall sidewalk area, parking lot improvements in the Dunbar-Bissell House vicinity, restoration of the tree canopy on campus and improving the Wetherell Dining Hall quad with new sidewalks and plantings.

Lamont Health and Wellness Center also received a full renovation over the summer. The work involved office and clinic rearrangements, new flooring, interior painting, classroom improvements, as well as new furniture and medical equipment.

Less visible but quite significant has been the installation of a new main electrical-feed transformer and switch gear. This project upgrades the capacity of the Academy's electrical distribution system to support technological development and further renovations.

Smaller projects included the renovations of numerous faculty apartments and of the hockey rink perimeter boards and locker rooms; installation of dormitory card-access systems; and fire alarm improvements. Also accomplished were utility system repairs, extensive carpet replacements, installation of a campus exterior-sound system, installation of an exterior campus-wide sign system, campus-wide handicap-access improvements, energy reduction improvements and renovations to the dance studio.

If the Exeter campus looks a little greener this fall, it's not just the result of heavy summer rains. After several years of study, the Academy is rolling out two new initiatives to educate the school community about its impact on the environment and to improve institutional practices.

"Environmental issues have long had individual champions on the Exeter campus," notes Assistant Principal Tom Hassan '66 (Hon.), but several years ago some of those champions-including faculty members Mark Trafton, Peter Greer '58; '81 (Hon.) and David Weber '71, '74 (Hon.), facilities management director Don Briselden and former director of financial planning Mary Gorman-began working to make these issues a higher institutional priority. The result was the creation of the Environmental Task Force (ETF), a group of faculty, staff and students charged with examining and improving the Academy's environmental practices.

Taking part in last spring's Earth Day celebration are (front row, left to right) Piedra Lightfoot '05, Sarah Ettlinger '04, Kalia Lydgate '03, Isabella Bennett '06, Vijay Viswanathan '03, Soo Hyun Roh '06, Kinsley Makielski '06; (back row) faculty members Amy Schwartz, Tom Hassan, David Weber, Peter Greer and Mark Trafton.

After discussing issues ranging from recycling in the dorms to organic food in the dining halls, says Hassan, the ETF "decided to start small" last year with a number of simple but significant conservation measures. Energy-efficient lightbulbs were installed in all dorms; on-campus faculty received rebates for choosing more energy-efficient major appliances; and a new policy was established requiring idling buses to turn off their engines while waiting to collect students traveling to athletic games and other off-campus events. School assemblies were regularly devoted to environmental themes, including Principal Ty Tingley's opening address and talks by guest speakers such as wildlife biologist Doug Smith, project leader and biologist for the Yellowstone Gray Wolf Restoration Project, and ecologist Tom Wessels, author of Reading the Forested Landscape: A Natural History of New England.

The start of the 2003-2004 school year brings with it two more ambitious efforts: the revitalization of the Environmental Proctors program (or E Proctors for short), and the hiring of the Academy's first environmental education teaching fellow. Appointed last spring, the 80 E Proctors will be responsible for overseeing the Academy's enhanced recycling program, which consists not only of color-coded recycling bins in all dorms, but also separate recycling receptacles for mixed paper and bottles and cans in every dorm room. E Proctors will also coordinate the recycling of cardboard, ink cartridges and batteries. As history instructor and ETF member Amy Schwartz (who coordinated a training program for the E Proctors) told the Exonian,"Our ultimate goal is an increased awareness of environmental impact as part of an Exonian's experience."

Raising awareness is at the heart of Patrick Leslie's job description as the environmental education teaching fellow. Leslie, who graduated from the Academy in 1997 and majored in environmental biology at Dartmouth, has worked as a research assistant with the Lakes Environmental Association in Bridgton, ME, and with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Jackson, WY. He will work closely with Hassan and the ETF to provide the school community with greater exposure to environmental issues and to help the Academy assess the environmental impact of its decisions.

Some of the Academy's conservation efforts will be supported by a new fund created by Elias Kulukundis '55 in honor of the late English instructor Dick Niebling, and his wife, Libby, both committed environmentalists. The Niebling Fund for Environmental Action will support not only the ETF's work, but also that of the Environmental Action Committee, a student organization, as well as Academy planning groups that deal with energy, forest and field management. Students, explains Kulukundis, will not only determine how the fund's resources are allocated, but will also be "empowered to take new initiatives and start new programs," thus further increasing the educational value of the Niebling Fund.

Finally, the Academy trustees have formed their own environmental task force, chaired by Paul Goldenheim '68, to study the school's environmental efforts to date and explore future opportunities. In their report last spring, the trustee task force pointed out that this new effort has some very old roots: the pursuit of knowledge and goodness, after all, surely includes environmental awareness.

Yes, there is a doctor in the house, and her name is Myra Citrin. A board-certified pediatrician, Dr. Citrin has served as medical director of the Lamont Health and Wellness Center for the past 10 years. Together with her able 25-person staff, she tends to the many and varied physical and emotional needs of the Academy's student population-this to the tune of some 11,000 visits to the center per year, with cases ranging from the mundane to the more serious. For teenagers living away from home, Citrin and her staff are often the next best thing to family when they're feeling under-the-weather or just need sound advice from an adult. In the words of her colleague, head counselor Jeanne Stern, "Myra is a phenomenal physician, and she's also very approachable and down-to-earth."

"I love working with high school-age kids because so much happens developmentally in the four years between 14 and 18," says Citrin. "They're just beginning to have the maturity to make their own decisions, but they aren't quite there yet. It's very rewarding to help them work through health and wellness issues independently or with their parents and primary-care physician back home, and to see them learn to use the medical system in an effective way."

Open 24 hours a day, seven days per week when school is in session, the Lamont Health and Wellness Center operates much like a full-service walk-in clinic, but with a more homey atmosphere. In addition to treating a wide gamut of illnesses and injuries, the center also provides psychological and nutritional counseling services, athletic trainers, health education classes and a variety of wellness offerings. Just about every student will cross the center's threshhold at some point during their time at Exeter.

"Obviously, the Health and Wellness Center is the place to go when you are sick and need penicillin for your strep throat, decongestant for your bad cold, antibiotics for your cellulitis," says Citrin. "But it's also a place to go to get some TLC from the nurses and counselors, or just catch a break from the hectic pace of campus life."

On a typical, non-flu-season day, about 50 students make their way to the Health and Wellness Center. "Of these, most see the nurses, who effectively manage the majority of uncomplicated visits," Citrin explains. "Many of the visits are for minor illnesses, such as headaches, stomach bugs or colds; fatigue is also very common. If the nurses encounter something that may be more serious, they refer the student to me or Jane Savage, the nurse practitioner." If something falls outside their purview, students are referred to a specialist in the immediate area or Boston.

During the height of flu season, usually in the dark depths of February, all 14 beds in the health center fill up and cots are set up to deal with the overflow. Citrin recalls one particularly bad winter when upwards of 120 kids were sick at the same time.

In addition to overseeing all aspects of the Health and Wellness Center, Citrin also helps set health policy on campus and acts as the liaison between the Academy and state and national health agencies when necessary. This aspect of her job was heightened last spring during the international SARS epidemic, which had implications for students traveling abroad over spring break. "We worked diligently to ensure the safety of our community by closely monitoring the health of students who had returned from SARS-affected areas," says Citrin. "Then, together with our sister schools, we crafted a joint policy for the future based on the Centers for Disease Control travel advisories. We did heave a collective sigh of relief at the end of the incubation period, when all our students remained healthy."

A resident of nearby Stratham, NH, where she lives with her husband, Dr. Robert Millstein, and four children (the oldest, Daniel, is an upper at the Academy), Citrin earned her B.A. in biology from Brown and her M.D. from the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine; she completed her pediatric residency at the University of Rochester. Prior to coming to the Academy, she had a pediatric and adolescent medicine practice in Hampton, NH. "Working at Exeter is much more interesting to me than primary care pediatrics because of the breadth of medical problems I encounter in the adolescent population," she says. "I also have more time to spend with each patient, allowing me to better understand their symptoms in the context of their life at Exeter. There is also all the ongoing school policy work and the issues that are unique to a boarding school community. Every day is different."

Jeremy Faro '92, a doctoral candidate at Cambridge University, is on his way to Slovenia this academic year on a Fulbright scholarship.

Jeremy Faro '92 at Cambridge

Faro will be based in Ljubljana while conducting field work on borderland integration between Slovenia-a small, Central European state which declared its independence from Yugoslavia in 1991 and whose remarkable politico-economic transition in the decade since has led to it being offered membership the European Union-and its neighbors. "Being present amidst these developments as Slovenia enters the EU," Faro says, "will offer a student of European border studies such as myself the true opportunity of a lifetime."

A Harvard graduate, Faro recently completed a master's degree in European studies at Cambridge University, where he expects to receive his Ph.D. in international studies in late 2004. His doctoral research examines the impact of the EU's investment in socioeconomic integration in ethno-linguistically mixed borderlands where voters exhibit support for extreme-nationalist politicians; his case studies are the borders between Italy, Austria and Slovenia.

Faro, who grew up in Massachusetts and spent four years at Exeter in Cilley Hall, credits his grandmother for his interest in geopolitics. "She's had a lifelong case of wanderlust," he says, "and every time she returned from abroad, she'd assemble our family in her living room and narrate dozens of slides. It wasn't until I asked her why there weren't any from Kenya that I found out I'd been the only willing participant on these evenings."

Of the grant, he says, "The Fulbright year will contribute immensely in allowing me to fulfill the sense of personal duty I feel towards the betterment of relations between peoples, regions, and nations, through seeking ways to preserve and celebrate identities that transcend-and often contradict-the borders that confine or divide them."

There's a new Exeter publication on the newsstand. Now going into its second issue, The Exeter Review features a variety of work by students, faculty and alumni/ae, and is slated to come out at the end of every term. Harvey Lederman '04 and David Nee '04, the Review's co-founders and editors, say their goal is "to create an interdisciplinary, intergenerational Harkness table" and to link minds from all corners of the extended Exeter community. They are seeking written work, both nonfiction and fiction, as well as artwork and musical compositions. In future issues, they hope to include scientific and mathematical papers as well.

Published last spring, the first issue of The Exeter Review included articles by alumnus Stanford N. Phelps '52, English instructor Mercy Carbonell and classics instructors Paul Langford and Allan Wooley. Essays, short fiction and poetry all figured into the mix, as did a composition for soprano voice by piano teacher Jon Sakata. Also featured were photographs of ceramics by Curtis Fontaine '04.

The editors are both residents of Main Street House. Lederman, who is from New York City, is a student of Greek and Latin, and has received a number of classics prizes. This winter, he will play his fourth season with the boys squash team. He is a proctor in Main Street, and has worked closely with the Adult Education program in Exeter, teaching English as a Second Language at Exeter High School.

David Nee has taken three years of German at Exeter, and will travel to Göttingen this winter for a term abroad. An avid musician, he has played piano for close to 14 years and sings in both the Concert Choir and Symphonic Choir. Nee will play the title role of Othello in this fall's production of the Shakespearean play. He is from Ithaca, NY. For more information about writing for The Exeter Review, contact the editors at hlederman@exeter.edu or dnee@exeter.edu.

Members of the 2002 varsity eight and their families returned to campus last June to christen the newest shell: the Crew of '02, which was donated by the team members' families to honor their superb 2002 season, which included winning the New England Interschols and placing fourth in the U.S. Junior National Rowing Championships. Last spring saw an impressive string of successes for alumni/ae rowers, including Mike Blomquist '99 and Aaron Holzapfel '01, both members of the Harvard heavyweight varsity eight, which won the Intercollegiate Rowing Championships. Meanwhile, Courtney Brown '99, captain of Radcliffe's varsity eight, helped lead her boat to the Division I NCAA Championships, while Gillian Almy '02, competing for Brown, won a gold medal in the Division I varsity four event. And finally, Megan Loosigian '01 was a member of Colby College's varsity eight, which won the women's Division III title.

Helping Dave Jung '90 (front row, right) celebrate his victory at the Air Guitar National Championships last June in Los Angeles were a group of his Exeter classmates, including his wife, Kim Shapiro (front row, left), and friends (back row, left to right) Marian Bell, David Kurtz, Pi Ware and John Hermansen.


On a Saturday night last June, Dave Jung '90 performed before a sold-out crowd at the Roxy, the most prestigious club on Los Angeles' famed Sunset Strip. As he stepped onto that historic stage, Dave was walking in the footsteps of rock and roll royalty. Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix had all stood where Dave was standing, and like these rock and roll greats, Dave put on a show that shook the club's foundations, turned the audience into a frenzied mob and delighted the national media. But unlike Jim, Janis and Jimi, Dave has no musical talent! He can't sing, he can't play, he doesn't even own a musical instrument. But as everyone at the Roxy found out that night, Dave Jung will rock you.

The Exeter Class of '90 is a spicy jambalaya of multitalented people. Some are captains of industry, others are bigwig politicos, true artistes, legal eagles; we even have a jet-setting yogini amongst our ranks. But never have I felt prouder to be an Exonian than I did that fateful night, standing with a group of my classmates and cheering as Dave Jung won the U.S. Air Guitar National Championship.

Dressed in a red silk kimono and tight red Chinese print pants and sporting a Hello Kitty! breastplate, Dave unleashed a masterful mock-performance of Extreme's "Play With Me," a soul-searching rendition of the Motorhead anthem "Ace of Spades" and a fun-loving encore of Neil Young's "Keep on Rockin' in the Free World." After the ballots were counted, David Jung-aka "C-Diddy"-stood alone as the U.S. Air Guitar National Champion. A performance filled with enthusiasm, showmanship and Dave's trademark tongue-in-cheek delivery left the crowd chanting "C-DIDDY!" and Exeter with yet another alumni/ae achievement of which to boast.

But what Dave describes as his quest for "ultimate air supremacy" did not end there. In late August he traveled to Finland, where he captured the Air Guitar World Championship title, besting air guitarists from Europe, Australia and Scandinavia.

Just how did an Exonian end up ruling the world of air guitar? Dave got his start on the gritty streets of Lake George, NY. The legend goes that Dave, inspired by Twisted Sister's rock anthem "We're Not Going to Take It," begged his parents for an electric guitar. The Jungs, preferring that their son pursue something more in the classic vein, denied his request. Eleven-year-old Dave is reported to have stood up from the dining room table with great dignity and declared, "I don't need a guitar to rock!"

Once at Exeter and ensconced in Wentworth Hall, his hobby quickly blossomed into a great skill. Whether it was a tennis racket, a squash racket or a lacrosse stick, Dave rocked it. In the late-1980s' heyday of hair-metal rock, if you cranked Def Leppard south of the Academy Library, Dave would pick up the nearest piece of athletic equipment and "pour some sugar on you." He later took his dream to Cornell, where he studied acting and broadened his repertoire to include air cello and harmonica. After graduating from Cornell, Dave went on to earn an MFA in invisible instruments from UNC and finally started touring. His extreme performance art has been featured on Jimmy Kimmel, Howard Stern, NPR and every major "news" outlet. (In his spare time, Dave also maintains a successful second career as an actor, appearing on such shows as "Law and Order" and the Tom Clancy miniseries "Net Force.")

With cameras clicking away on that June Saturday night, Dave stood on the stage of the Roxy and accepted his trophy and prize-a brand-new Fender Stratocaster guitar. But the U.S. National Air Guitar Championships is not about guitars, so Dave gave the Stratocaster one Pete Townsend-like windmill and smashed it on the stage. The crowd erupted, the judges lit their lighters and a rock legend was born.

In addition to serving as the Bulletin's senior air guitar correspondent, David Kurtz '90 is CEO of Kufala Recordings.

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Exoniana: Do You Remember?

Can you identify the location of this mystery photo from the archives? Memories from any era are most welcome. Answers and/or reminiscences will be published in the next issue. Mail to Exoniana, c/o The Exeter Bulletin, Phillips Exeter Academy, Communications Office, 20 Main Street, Exeter, NH 03833. Answer to the Last Issue: Exonians served up some mouth-watering answers to identify the Grill. All of you remembered the delicious "specials" and some of you identified Charlie Gillen in this photo taken in 1941. Others shared pleasant memories of Robert F. "Bucky" Bruce '45 (Hon.), P'59, P'66, P'72, who was a member of the Academy staff for over 40 years. One reader, William "Bill" Dietel '45, even identified himself: He is seated on the stool next to the student whose back is towards the camera. And the Winner is: Alanson T. Enos IV '59 of Bedminster, NJ, who received an engraved Phillips Exeter Academy stainless steel travel mug. "The memories of 1955 to 1959 are flooding back. The photo of the Grill, located in the basement of Alumni Hall under the Lamont Gallery, recalls the days when the rules changed at the Academy and uppers and seniors were permitted to gather in the Grill in the evenings until check-in time. Previously the Grill had been closed after dinner. "In my most recent visit to PEA, I visited the Grill and found things very changed. Even the fare was different; gone were the old favorites, the peanut between, the Frasier, the Sawyer and many others. I visited the campus many times between 1992 and 1995, when my daughter, Laura'95, was a student there, and was also present with my late father, a member of the class of '36, for an alumni/ae weekend in May 1995. Visits before and since have been infrequent and widely spaced. However, I read The Exeter Bulletin from cover to cover when it arrives because Exeter is in my blood. Laura is a seventh-generation graduate of PEA." It's just not the same Bucky Bruce used to serve up delicious "plain withs." It's hard to tell who is seated in front of the counter, but I bet that's Bucky on the right behind the counter. I still make "plain withs" for myself, but they're never as good as Bucky's. Stan Gary '43 Severna Park, MD Nonstick You gave too broad a hint. Our favorite was a "plain with," a piece of white bread spread with peanut butter and topped with mayonnaise. Whether there was such a thing as a "plain without," I don't know, but I do know that the mayonnaise kept the peanut butter from sticking to the roof of your mouth. I still eat them with relish. When I was there for my 50th, I looked over the Grill and decided that the "plain with" has probably slipped from the Exeter lexicon, for I saw no one eating one. Russell Hunter, Ph.D. '43 Beverly Hills, CA In the True Spirit of Non Sibi I woke up in the middle of the night and remembered that the head of the Grill, the man standing behind the counter is Charlie Gillen! Around 1945 to 1947, Charlie became the head of the Academy food services and Bucky Bruce, who was his lieutenant, succeeded him in the Grill. I am the little boy sitting on the stool next to the big student with his back to the camera. Although I cannot be sure, I suspect the picture was taken in either my prep or lower middle year. The big fellow beside me may have been Win Lovejoy, an habitué of the Grill, or Wilcomb Washburn, who graduated in 1943. There was a gang of us who, like my brother and me, spent most of our allowances in that room. All that snacking didn't have much of an impact on my weight; I was a skinny kid all through Exeter. One of the big deals, as I recall it, was eating Saturday night dinner in the Grill before going to the Thompson Gym to see the movie and watch D'Arcy Curwen perform as Man in Charge. I have keen memories of the French fries-I can almost smell them-and several hot dogs. The milk shakes were also great and I loved the peanut butter with mayonnaise grilled to perfection. If you waited too long to order them and the grilled cheese sandwiches, then you got black bread! How Bucky loved to give us the needle about being so smart that we could attend the Academy but did not have enough sense to rescue our food from being overcooked. I was there for the four war years and at least once a year my father and mother would drive from Churchville, NY, west of Rochester to stay at the Exeter Inn. Father, a physician, loved to spend the mornings in the Grill talking to the faculty over endless cups of coffee. In the afternoon, after a lunch and short nap, he would come out to watch us and our friends on the playing fields. He came to campus exhausted and those few days in Exeter were marvelously restorative. The pressure was off, the decisions of life and death were put aside and he luxuriated in the company of the faculty. He and my mother became fast friends with the Galleons and the Curwens, as well as Paule Gropp and Dean Kerr. I never appreciated the fact that by the time we graduated he was in bad health and may have been seeking another style of practice. Several years later he remarked casually that he often wondered what it would have been like to be the school doctor. Father died in 1957 from the Asian flu. He had been given two inoculations, one for himself and one for his nurse, and he gave his to an elderly patient who came to the office mortally afraid she was going to die. My parents were absolutely and wholly dedicated to the importance of education, and they were thrilled with the Academy. In many ways our presence there was the high point of my father's life. He had had an athletic scholarship to Williston, where he heard about Exeter and when he visited for the first time he was full of reminiscences of people he had known who had told him about the Academy. I recently started a Dietel Family Fund in honor of my parents and my brother, Jack '46, to support the professional development of the science faculty at the Academy. I can't imagine anything that would have pleased my parents more, and the same applies to my beloved younger and only brother, who tragically died of leukemia in 1965. Bill Dietel '45 Flint Hill, VA "Plain withs" The Grill was located in the basement of the building to the left of the Academy Building, as you faced the front door of the latter. The man shown at the right in the photo is "Bucky" Bruce, the manager of the Grill. During my time at Exeter he served me with a number of "plain withs." W. Averell Brown '46 Hardwick, VT President Roosevelt I remember sitting on a stool in 1945 when senior Michael Forrestal, whose father was in Roosevelt's cabinet, came in and announced that the President had just died. Joe Vera '46 Cambridge, MA A Warm and Inviting Place As a first-year student in a cold, impersonal institution, and probably one of the smallest kids to ever matriculate, I found the Grill a warm refuge because of the man (or perhaps one of his co-workers) in the picture. I cannot remember his name; what matters is that his demeanor meant the world to me. He always remembered my name, greeted me with a smile, asked me what I wanted to order and how my day had been thus far- a far cry from instructors asking me to please them in no uncertain terms. I was a terrible student, therefore my almost daily encounters in the Grill were most uplifting, and I considered the man in the picture a good friend, especially after failing a test or an assignment. Thanks to him, the Grill was one of my positive memories of the Academy. Richard H. "Dick" Mandel Jr. '47 Denver, CO No test at all It is hardly a test to identify the Academy Grill on page 9, a picture taken about the same time as the picture inside the front cover page, but not quite-note the different array of menu boards, which listed the available offerings. The page 9 picture includes Charlie Gillen on the right, the manager in the late 1940s. Bucky Bruce, who succeeded Charlie, was probably behind the counter somewhere. As for the seated students, they were probably ordering "thin-and-peanut," a "peanut between" or an "in-and-outer." To translate, see the Dictionary of the Exeter Language. Norm Carpenter '49 Minnetonka, MN Editor's note: Congratulations to Norm Carpenter '49 for winning the second prize. All names except for the first one received were placed into an envelope and Norm's name was drawn. Enjoy your engraved PEA travel mug! Mouth, Mind and Spirit The Grill saved me from withering away and perhaps disappearing at a time when I felt it was important to stay on the earth and accomplish great things, at a time when sinister purveyors of school food seemed determined to thwart me before I could start the life well-lived. At Exeter I was saved by the P&J and coffee served to me with grace each school morning, September 10, 1945 through June 10, 1949, by the quiet, kindly workers at the Grill: "Hey! Don't touch that! That's not yours! You're next! Jeez! Can't you boys stay in line? What's the matter with all of you, anyway? OK, one P&J and one black. Hey, wake up! This is yours!" But a person does not live by bread alone. Whilst devouring the nutritionally balanced P&J, a combination of gummy soft English muffin (never encountered since), smooth peanut butter and raspberry jam, I would partake of the mental and spiritual benefits invariably present in the Grill's atmosphere. But for the Grill, the premier center of communications, the place of places for gossip to exist and thrive, one would have been left with a dying school, populated by robotic students dependent on mere formal announcements made in chapel each morning. Jere Turner '49 Dallas, TX Famous Specials That looks like manager Bucky Bruce behind the counter-a true friend to all Exonians. The Grill was famous for "peanut betweens" (with mayo), "cheese in/cheese out," "frappes," "black on white" or "white on black." Larry Clark '53 Wilsonville, AL The occasional splurge How could anyone forget Bucky? As a scholarship student with a very limited budget, I would only occasionally visit to splurge on an order of cinnamon toast. J. Scott Finn '73 Montgomery, AL Two contest winners every time! There will be two prizes awarded for the correct answer to the Exoniana contest. One prize will be for the first correct answer received via delivery by the U.S. Postal Service. The rest of the correct answers will be placed into a drawing and one winner will be chosen at random.

Letters to the Editor
More on the War

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I commend you for the recent article on Exeter grads who served in Iraq. It was especially moving to read the account by Amy Rindfleisch Gavril '89 of her medical experiences there. We have a son-in-law Navy surgeon who was also a "devil doc" with a mobile hospital unit in Iraq, and he must have shared many of the same experiences.

I would also like to corroborate the observation of correspondent David Lamb '58 that the American media served up a sanitized version of the war. As the spouse of a foreign service officer in Europe, I could watch war reportage from many European TV stations as well as by CNN. The contrast was stark. Whereas the European stations showed the human carnage of both military and civilian casualties, I saw none of this in the daily CNN reports, which basically gave us a war with no visible bloodshed. I am sure that the devil docs in the field hospitals would be the first to tell us that that is not the way it is.
Stuart Hibben '44
Luxembourg

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It is good to hear Dan Cook '53, a "personal friend" of President Bush, acknowledge that "He's not a rocket scientist." That will settle an argument some of us have been having. Still, it's easier to agree that "he's very, very tough" than that "he's a very bright guy." His adventures with the English language rival Dan Quayle's, his disregard for truth and accuracy is a matter of record, and he has reportedly told foreign leaders that God told him to attack terrorism.

The whole section of "War Stories" from Iraq is slanted in favor of the war-not surprisingly, since most of the people you asked for comments belonged to the establishments that brought us the war. Ambassador John Negroponte '56, who evidently declined an interview, gives more of the cloudy nonsense that characterized his speeches at the U.N.; only a Darcy Curwen could unpack his evasions and euphemisms (I can see the blackboard covered with shovels). Then there are the military and the reporters. Preston Mendenhall '88, who works for MSNBC, thinks that "we" provided a complete and balanced picture, and that "Objectivity is every reporter's goal." Has he watched his own network's coverage, and CNN's and Fox's, and compared them with Al Jazeera?

Only David Lamb '58 really seems to understand the region, and shows what is missing elsewhere in the piece. Where are the numerous critics who marched and wrote against the war? There must be among Exeter alumni/ae some Democrats (I use the word in its old and perhaps outmoded sense of someone who espouses alternatives to Republican policy) or Greens, and other opponents of the Bushmen. You owe us a balancing piece next time. I'd nominate Gore Vidal '43, whose omission from this issue is surprising. He's written a book on the underlying situation; he can tell you some "war stories."
Richard Bevis '55
Vancouver, British Columbia

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Both as a former newspaperman and, previous to that, a World War II veteran, I found the "War Stories" article fascinating. After I read it, I pulled down a book by Eric Sevareid, Not So Wild a Dream, that he wrote in 1946 recounting his own experiences as a radio newscaster during World War II, chiefly in Europe and North Africa.

Writing as he did after he came home, he was able to put things into a perspective not possible when he was on the ground. I was especially interested in the similarities and differences between World War II reporting, as described by Sevareid, and Gulf II reporting. I had watched the "embedded" reporters with great interest. Despite the fact that the equipment was different, the terrain was different and the field problems were different, I kept seeing little slices of combat life in the background that paralleled my own experience. It made me wonder if the student editors of The Exonian would be interested in comparing the handling of news in previous wars with that of the current war.
Russell Hunter '43
Beverly Hills, CA

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