Happy New Year to the class from Lulu and Ben Stewart, carving some ice in Los Angeles, and barely making time to stand for dad's (Andrew) pic!

Go * Green!

The calendar year is drawing nigh and you may be considering philanthropic support for your esteemed list of charitable organizations. Class Captains Schmidt and Knight continue to softly encourage classmates to support Deerfield, to predictably mediocre results. Our New Year's resolution might be to encourage a little harder!

If now is your time to give*, please keep Deerfield on your list. Many of us have already done so and we welcome all "joiners"! So Go Green if you can, whether you go * (Big) or not is your call.

Happy New Year!

Use the online giving link (www.deerfield.edu/give) or mail to PO Box 306, Deerfield, MA 01342 (hey!)

Practicing What I Preach

Took the annual picture with Chris Davey at the Christmas Eve Service at the "Brick Church" in Deerfield. (Taken by a Deerfield alumnus Class of 2005!)

Special

As the parent of an only daughter, who was born on December 25th...five years ago, you can imagine how "special" this time of year can be. You would also correctly surmise that our daughter has an out of perspective sense of her own specialness. She has been waking about 15 minutes earlier each day all week, so santa better get out of the house quickly lest he be discovered!

All that aside, the Class of 1983 is special too. I wish you only the best as the new year approaches with the hope of continued friendships and rekindled old ones. If the blog can help, send photos, comments and news, and tell your classmates to subscribe because its a painless digest email only on those days with a post.

Best for 2011 and beyond.

Wedding Classic

It's those impromptu moments that make life so enjoyable, especially when you're otherwise occupied.

Congrats Brian!

It's official! Brian Steward married Hannah Williams on November 19 in San Antonio. Jim Wareck was on hand to convey the congratulations of the class and Corbin Snow '81 did likewise for his class. I'd say our man in San Antonio has come a long way. Welcome to the Deerfield family Hannah!

















Age 12

Who's your Douggy?

Thanks to Cruikshank and Schmidt for attending the first Flash Buck! They hadn't seen each in a while - always happy to connect classmates!

Flash Buck! Thursday 8 am

The Class of 1983 is invited to a version of a "flash mob", but its a coordinated meet and greet at a Starbucks somewhere in the world, announced only on the blog.

The first one is Thursday, Dec. 9 at 8 am, 425 Madison Avenue. (49th and Madison Avenue). See you there...I'm buying!

Wareck in Washington Post

When working in politics, being mentioned in the Washington Post isnt always a good thing. But Jim Wareck will probably take this press about his new movie and how it reflects the lexcion of DC representations. Sorry that co-writer Brad Weir gets short shrift in this one...(image is a scene from the movie)

Schmidt-ileaks

Its great to have a man in the inside. Doug Schmidt is that for our class. He paces the streets of New York City, cell phone to ear, looking for Deerfield connections, opportunities...and classmates.

He says he "just bumped into" his latest find, Charlie Grace.

Congrats to Charlie on his new job (of about a year) working for FOX, that's Family Office Exchange based in Chicago. See his CEO on SquawkBox in the video below.

Now if we could just get Schmidt (or anyone else in the class) to take a picture when they "bump into" classmates!

Adam Feiges sends family photo...

With thanks to Adam for this lovely family photo. He is with his wife Alyssa and kids Duncan (12) and Isobel (8) and they currently reside in Hinton, Iowa.

Proof positive that the blog is more fun when you send news to me or to DA!

Table 67 today

Roast Beef with mashed potatoes, carrots and gravy, cookies

Thankful

I hope your Thanksgiving holiday exceeded all of your expectations. I'm thankful for the burgeoning interest in the class by the class as evidenced by an uptick in subscribers. Please take a moment to email two classmates that you keep in close touch with and ask them to subscribe if they have not. The more the merrier... Feel free to post a comment if there are topics or people you would like to know more about and the investigative team will swing into action!

Patton envelope pushing

Fred* film workshops co-founders Scott Kinnamon and Ben Patton '83 visited Deerfield on November 16th, to encourage the use of filmmaking for student storytelling and narrative across the curriculum.

Great to see them and to get a better sense of what they are up to. Their work with teens is also leading to interesting opportunities for storytelling films by recent war veterans and other constituencies.

RIP Flip

Philip E Charron Jr., Deerfield Language teacher 1951-1990 just passed away on November 17. Fell free to leave thoughts as comments.

Belcher Wins New Englands, Leads Quartet to All Star Meet

Pictured left to right are Deerfield's top four finishers at New England Championships (held at DA this past weekend). Belcher '11 in sunglasses was the winner, Moreau '11 was 15th, Wood '13 was 8th and Quesada '12 was tenth.

Water Polo NE CHAMPS - 8 min video

thanks to a Deerfield dad for posting this - nice finish to the weekend after tough day at Choate!

Hardie Jackson and Dean Singewald

Hardie and his boys at Choate!

It begins with JV football

#85 surfaces

This online class note just arrived from Hardie Jackson (who wore #85 for the Big Green football team that went 7-1 in our senior year). Great to hear from him - now trying to get an email address and subscribe him to the blog!

"Hello all. I feel bad that I have been out of touch with the DA community for so long. My re-entry has been helped by having two nephews now attending DA: Mac '11 and John '14. My family and I are still in Atlanta. Left the agent world two years ago as my quality of life travelling 200 days a year was not quite what I wanted it to be! Still love the business though and have my hands on a dozen or so MLB players. Presently splitting my time between players, a real estate development company I started (good timing) and a company called Evoshield where I am part owner. Hopefully I will be more involved with DA moving forward. Glad to be back!"

Festival Genius Audience Award: vote for BTB!

Jim and Brad's movie, "Below the Beltway" now being considered for national fan award. With the elections over, you have more time to VOTE!

Festival Genius Audience Award

Chicken and chips

Table 67 today at lunch!

Two dimensional Fridge

Current faculty member Peter Nilsson ran to the rock the other day and mapped his run on "The Fridge Trail". Hard to imagine it will bring back many "fond" memories for those of you who have done it, but runs to the rock are still all the rage!

:: DAnet News :: Debate

The "debate team" is alive and well at DA and once again sending a participant to the World Championships! Here they are in their "indie rock band" photo.

:: DAnet News ::

Read the magazine yet?

Meet the new Vice President

Greenberg promoted to vice president of Government Relations

Josh Greenberg has been promoted to vice president of Government Relations for Children's Hospital Boston. As the hospital accelerates its efforts to build a local and national reputation for delivering cost effective, innovative care, particularly on Beacon Hill and in Washington, the role of Government Relations has become increasingly important. Greenberg has been tasked with leading Children's response to the constantly evolving external environment of health reform and cost containment, as well as continuing to set the hospital's public policy and legislative advocacy agenda that is central to our ability to provide the best care to children in need.Greenberg has been with Children's for eight years, most recently serving as director of Government Relations. In that role, he's led hospital efforts and provided strategy for city, state and federal fiscal and public policy issues, including helping to advance the hospital's agenda on Medicaid/CHIP, pediatric quality, child/public health concerns, research and medical education.Prior to joining Children's, Greenberg served as manager of the Children's Division at Health Care For All, where he was the Massachusetts director for the national Covering Kids Program. His dedication to child advocacy has led him to involvement in numerous projects on health quality, teen health and mental health, including the founding of an innovative legal aid program, now known as the Medical-Legal Partnership, at Boston City Hospital's Department of Pediatrics. Greenberg is a graduate of Dartmouth College and Northeastern University's School of Law.

Congratulations Josh! The formatting isn't great but I wanted to include the pic with his wife Kate since we haven't had much news from Josh. Spread the word to '83 (only about a third of us subscribed to the blog) that this is the place to keep up with DA '83!

Pride not Prejudice

Eric Peterson has to make important decisions as Head of St. George's School. One of his most recent made it into Frank Deford Commentary on NPR.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130511940&sc=emaf

Morley

David Morley was on campus today with a daughter who is on the Bahamian National Swim Team (shocker...not)!

Sully

That's Lowery Sullivan '85 and his son in my office. Lowery was the third of the four Sullivan brothers at DA in the 80s. They could all fall downhill with great speed!

Cheeseburger?

You might remember the face of the man who ran the "school store" in our day - just saw this notice that he passed away.

October 11, 2010: Turners Falls - Roger Joseph "Rujay" Parenteau Sr., 79, of 9 James Ave., died Thursday, Oct. 7, 2010, at Baystate Franklin Medical Center in Greenfield following a period of declining health.

I have many memories of waiting in line for a cheesebuger after study hall and i still have a check dated 3/3/83 from Mark Rockefeller '85 who needed a little extra cash one night. RIP "Rog".

And Geoff Bennett too!

Hey handsome!

Chris Flagg caught at the Deerfield dinner. He's so happy to be sitting next to JK!

DA dinner in NYC

Big (annual) dinner for Deerfield tonight at Broad Street Ballroom. I'll have one for each of you!

Heritage

William K Zinsser Jr '40 accepting the Heritage Award at Deerfield today with a speech on "Leading an interesting life". (author of On Writing Well)

Good morning!

Trustee PB Weymouth at breakfast for Volunteers Weekend in the refurbished Greer Store.

Bonus!

DA beat Taft 18-15 and then I bumped into Kevin Kenny '85 and his wife Lauren.

Quintessential

DA vs Taft on the Lower Level on a beautiful fall day. Wish you were here!

Welcome back Ed!

Ed Goodson returned to DA with kids in tow doing the admission thing!

Picture of today

12:15 pm between Main School Building and Arms, looking at JW and Barton

Random Visitor

Only at Deerfield does a visitor to the town choose to tour this way! Literally a random pic on way to a meeting.

Turkey divan and sugar cookies

I had the chance to cover table 67 in the dining hall for lunch today and the students were kind enough to stay for a picture. Three of the four classes were represented. You may remember the young man in the middle as the recipient of the Cost Award last May and discussed then on this blog.

What's a freshman to do?

In the recent past Deerfield freshmen were assigned to defend the seal on Choate Day. The arrangement pictured may only be temporary but it made me think a little. Cheers to '83 at the end if the first week of classes!

Educational Film

Ben Patton recently hosted educators at his South Hamilton, MA film camp called FRED. Two Deerfield faculty members (flanked in this photo by Ben and his staff) were able to join him. Started in 2006 as a student summer film camp, FRED is clearly expanding.

Congrats to Ben on the impact he is having with students and faculty alike!

One interesting project that he is exploring with Pingree School is a student-produced film about the school described from their point of view. Last summer several Pingree students attended Fred and collaborated on a film about a Pingree-run tutoring/adventure program for boston inner-city teens. It was produced in less than two weeks.

You can check out that film on our youtube channel "bestoffred" below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_udrb-TFmVw

Eric Suher wins praise at home

Front page article in the Springfield Sunday Republican today on Eric Suher's revival of the Holyoke property known as Mountain Park. Another example of the talent in '83.

http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2010/09/mountain_park_successful_conce.html#comments

Jim Wilmott '82 visit

Jim is on vacation in Vermont from London (and only working 8-10 hrs a day apparently) and took the afternoon to bring his niece Joanna to see campus. He sends his best to '83.

New fitness equipment

Just arrived at work to see fitness equipment loading in to the new fitness center. School store also being renovated. Dining hall has expanded south bubble. Lots going on at DA. Come see it sometime!

DA Cross Country Homecoming Sept 18

Come back to DA for the first Cross Country Homecoming on Sept 18. Alumni fun run then the Brush Invitational after lunch.
Read more and Sign up at http://deerfield.edu/news/stories/1814/Cross_Country_Homecoming_Saturday_September_18_2010

- sent from my mobile device

The new CPR

Editor's Choice:

Good video about the new CPR - http://tinyurl.com/2fx8r59

He's back!

DA dining hall...August 9th. That's Mr. Michael Cary, former DA history/philosophy teacher (former head of school at Lawrenceville among other things) back at DA in the English Department to "finish up strong" his career in education. He remembers the class of 1983 as from the "less than zero" years...Sounds like he might need some visits from us to remind him of our value!

ACK hijinks

Nantucket hijinks from the fearsome foursome of Knight, Wareck, Clark and Suher in late July. Jim had the house, Nelse cooked the food, JK brought the booze and Eric...well, Eric was the entertainment!

Thanks to Van for posting more wedding photos. Congrats again!

Congrats to Van Sullivan on his nuptials on July 3, 2010 in Northampton, MA! Thanks especially to Henri Cattier '86 for attending and posting the pic for me to steal. Van is on the right. hopefully we will get an authorized shot of the couple soon.

Just One Day...and relatively "no" money!

Deerfield has officially raised enough money for the fiscal year that ends tomorrow midnight. You may ask: "Why even bring it up then?"

The class has only 53 donors this year, that's why. We've been as high as 82 not so long ago.

As the school strives to reach 50% alumni participation as a sign of alumni support far and wide, our class stands at 38%. 67 donors would be 50% particpation for our class.

If you have made a gift already, THANK YOU! You are the reason why so many other schools call me to learn "how we do it". (Hard to believe they call _me_ right?)

If you have not yet made a gift, you are free to go as low as you want at www.deerfield.edu/give! Seriously, it is absolutely NOT about the money. DA would appreciate your vote of confidence however. (or you could mail a check tomorrow only to PO Box 306, Deerfield, MA 01342 (hey!))

It was really fun to be with the Class of 1985 at their 25th reunion two weeks ago - so many great guys returned: Van Riper, Sullivan, Wilson (2x), Ullyot, Wasserberger, Hollensteiner and the list goes on for 55 names...They bonded much as we did two years back. Let's revive that spirit, have more impromptu get-togethers and share a few laughs (and photos!). And take a minute to say thanks to DA with a gift if you haven't yet at www.deerfield.edu/give

and that's the one day only salespitch on the DA 1983 Blog.

Recent '83 votes...

In order to keep some information flowing about the class you may have noticed I have recently been posting happy birthday messages. No more. I noticed two classmates unsubscribed soon after birthday postings. This is not meant to be a waste of your time, but a soft engagement with your classmates, so the only feedback I've had in months will win the day.

That said, Paul Magee has emailed from Mexico City about watching the World Cup and even the NBA Finals. He promises to send a family photo soon.

Mark LaFlamme and his wife moved to Hong Kong from NYC last week - he's still with Ziff Brothers Investments as far as I know. We quickly got him invited to the annual Friends of Deerfield-HK dinner scheduled for this Friday! Nothing like meeting all DA alums and parents in HK within a week of your arrival.

Tried out a new blog template today as well. Would love to know what you think or any news you want to share.

Happy Birthday Al!

Al Kerr has one today, Monday, June 7. Hope it was great!

Student Cleanup

After a big wind storm wednesday night the week of graduation - DA students and faculty helped rake up the remnants to get campus ready for parent arrival on Friday. And they looked good doing it! DA Flickr feed

Cost Award makes library possible

At the last school meeting on May 28th, this year's recipient of the "Charles Piper Cost '83 Award for Community Service" went to Muheb '12 who will be a junior this fall. His project this summer will focus on rebuilding a school library in his home country of Afghanistan.

From his funding proposal:
Qarabagh high school is located outside of the city (Kabul). It has 5000 students from first grade up to twelfth. Most of the students in this school have never read a novel or referred to anything else other than their textbooks and that is because of two reasons: first, most of the families can not afford to buy books for their children, and second the library of the school is non-existent. I have heard that Qarabagh used to have a library, but it was destroyed during the civil war. The only thing that remains is an empty room.

With this award I want to build a library for this school, I will spend two or three weeks of my summer vacation to work on this project. I will build book shelves, desks, chairs. Additionally, I will start a book-drive to collect books for the school, both from NGOs, but also from individuals including the families that send their children to this school.

Thanks to the Cost family for funding the annual stipend for community service. Charlie's legacy lives on.

Two more bite the dust...

Happy Birthday...
Kevin McKelvey - May 22
Brad Weir - May 23
Thanks again Facebook.

Sounds like it might be time for a survey about TURNING 45! What's true? What's not? Are you where you expected? Why? Why not? Should you have a house policy on X-Box to guide your kids?

Send ideas for questions to jgknight83@gmail.com!

Belated HBD Pete!

Turns out the iPad and Blogger don't get along seamlessly yet - hence the belated birthday wish to Peter Crow for his big day yesterday, May 18...

Send news please. I can only distract myself from the debacle that is the Red Sox season (so far?) with so many episodes of the "real housewives of new jersey"!

jk

HBD

Happy Birthday, May 12...Andrew Stewart!

That's called finishing up strong!

The photo is from the training run the day before, but congratulations to Rob McGill (far left) for his conquest of The North Face Endurance Challenge 1/2 Marathon at Bear Mountain.

"Runners can expect technical terrain and rocky footing that cuts to the chase, with some trails heading steeply uphill rather than zig-zagging at a gentler grade. Descents end in wooded hollows before the next rapid climb ending with a breathtaking view. Make no mistake: this will be a tough test of off-road endurance."

Elevation Change: 4 stars, Technical Terrain: 5 stars, Overall Difficulty: 5 stars, Scenery: 5 stars

It's "BTB" now...

Continuing congrats to Jim and Brad on their movie "Below The Beltway". Stealing from Jim's FB posts:
"Apologies for the Belated Update: Beltway premiered to extremely favorable audience reaction last Friday at Newport Beach. Sustained laughter throughout and appreciation for movie in its whole. Great showing both by BTB family and people off street. Minor tech tweaks this week and then onto the market. Complete appreci...ation to all who made it down and congrats to a fantasdtic, talented dedicated team.
then
BELOW THE BELTWAY WINS AUDIENCE AWARD @ NEWPORT BEACH FILM FEST

DA Boys Lax Update...

Top-ranked Deerfield Academy boys lacrosse team runs record to 9-0 with 12-0 win over Andover (MassLive.com)