Cool Class Notes: Tritschler,Kierstead,Day,Calman,Wood, Wester

These will likely appear in June 30 Deerfield Magazine - but don't you deserve the good news sooner?

March - Charlie Tritschler is working at Amazon on Kindle project.

March - Lt Col Bob Keirstead writes, "Hello all! I was at church here in Brentwood, Tennessee about 2 months ago and saw classmate Bill Wester in the parking lot, we actually now go to the same church, 1,071 miles from Deerfield! He is back from Africa and working at Vanderbilt. I am still in the Air Force and heading to US Army War College at Carlisle Barracks, PA in July. After that, probably back to the Pentagon or back to the Middle East!"

March - Chris Day writes, "I continue to run www.evergreenadvisors.us from Ridgefield, CT and am greatly enjoying it. It's a challenging economy, but, thankfully, we're able to deliver value and have a sustainable business. Clark turned 6 in January and Ella is on her way to 3 in July. There's a strong possibility that we may be relocating to the Tampa, FL area this year, and I'd be grateful to hear from alums in that part of the world. Though it's difficult to leave New England, it's not so difficult when it's overcast, gray and cold! Nonetheless, I'll sorely miss the grand colonial homes, wide tree-lined streets, community spirit and church bells (not to mention the firehouse alarm at 12:00PM every day). If any of our esteemed class are familiar with the West Coast of Florida – please feel free to call me – I would be grateful. Be Worthy."

March - Matt Calman writes, "I'm just back from my second two-week trip to China this year. My team from Bank of America is leading a project with one of the major banks in China to build a Product Innovation Lab in Beijing. It's quite an adventure, both culturally and professionally, and the cuisine is spectacular! I have three or four more trips over in 2009. If anyone is over there, drop me a note at matt.calman@bankofamerica.com"

March - Dexter Wood writes, "After more than eight very fulfilling and rewarding years with Host Hotels & Resorts, I have accepted an extraordinary opportunity to join Hilton Hotels as senior vice president and global head of business & investment analysis. In my new role, I will have global responsibility for financial and business analysis functions supporting Hilton's development and brand growth strategies. Hilton will be relocating their corporate headquarters to the Washington, DC area this summer. So no relocation of the family is required, which is nice! Until then I will be spending time in Beverly Hills and traveling to other areas of interest around the world."

RATS Redux

You may remember I asked Whit Sheppard to write about his recent visit to DA.

And now for those..."Reflections upon visiting the campus: it just seemed a much more upbeat, vibrant place than my memories of it. Deerfield seemed much more humane and student-centered than during our era. Might have had something to do with the beautiful spring sunshine, warm air and 50% of the student body being of the female persuasion. And certainly owing somewhat to seeing it through different, clear eyes, and not through the chemically-induced fog of much of my earlier experience as a student. Lots of smiling faces and friendly "hellos" from current students, and I had a nice chat with a few seniors before we went in for lunch. Good kids, lots of self-esteem, matriculating at great colleges. I drove away with a nice feeling, much different than the one I had when we graduated in 1983. I was more relieved then than anything else. I felt grateful to see today's students seeming to enjoy their Deerfield experience so much, based on my quick impressions.

Couple of more things: I joined the later-in-life-Daddy's-club in November, when Emily Vaughan was born. Her mom and I are thrilled and she's slept through the night since she was 8 weeks old! We are lucky!

And for those looking for a good Father's Day gift, you could do probably worse than picking up a copy of "Chicken Soup for the Soul: The Golf Book," which arrived in bookstores in late April and for which I wrote a piece about my father, also a Deerfield alum ('54) entitled "Dreamer." (page 158) Guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, after all...

Dinner with Nourse (aka Strawberry Man)

Fun times in Western MA. Nate and his wife Betsy invited us to dinner - their boys Nick and Colby were gracious hosts to our 3 yr old daughter and fun was had by all. Nothing like fresh asparagus (from Nate's field) and grilled salmon. Thanks Nate!

Techno Deerfield

Be sure to check out the Deerfield Academy page on Facebook and the new RSS Feed as well as the Flickr Feed. Things are starting to come together!

Nourse Farm leads the way

If you haven't checked out http://www.noursefarms.com/ lately - and you need to know anything about small fruit plants and their science - check out the page and especially the videos narrated by our own Nate Nourse. The You Tube direct link is http://www.youtube.com/NourseFarms. Talk about high tech farming - they clone plants fron a single cell!

Patton featured in Smithsonian Magazine

This you don't want to miss - Congratulations to Ben Patton for the article in June's Smithsonian Magazine : http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/Presence-of-Mind-Recovered-Ground.html entitled "For General Patton's Family, Recovered Ground"
Famed World War II Gen. George S. Patton's grandson finds his calling in the ashes of his fathers journals (By Benjamin W. Patton Smithsonian magazine, June 2009). A wonderful piece on personal history and it's value. The accompanying video is fantastic and can be found at http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1494875046?bclid=1213949676&bctid=23928239001

Maybe I should print my blog on paper and save it somewhere?

Nice Catch Jon!

Thanks to Jon Gottscho for alerting me to the Deerfield Alum (Matt Fox '85) who gave a "shout out" to DA on the The David Letterman show. DA has the clip on it's Facebook page and it's always cool to have the virtues of DA on the mass media. Matt was a PG and went to Columbia and is clearly smart - and yet acting is his passion and living in Hawaii shooting Lost can't be all bad.