Go Blackhawks!

As Head of School at Fairfield Country Day, John Munro travels to the places that his graduates attend - to bolster the chances for his current charges but also to check up on their preparation and success.  And sometimes he fondly remembers traditions of old like the IHL!  He said howdy to Chris Flagg's daughter (a soph) and met with top officials.  How are his kids doing at DA?  One is the current school President!!

Preparation and timing leads to big moment...

From a too modest Mark Beaubien on the record setting recent hurricane and equally record setting flight to collect data. "A story on our flights last week over/into Hurricane Patricia (a.k.a. Hurricane super-bad).  Many firsts, for example, we caught 188 MPH winds in a 60 MPH updraft, there was basically a tornado at her center!"

"Lining the plane up with the storm was “kind of like shooting a bullet with a bullet,” says Mark Beaubien, an engineer who was in the Houston control room during the flights. “It was extremely stressful.” That alignment was key because every 15 seconds, an automated system in the WB-57’s bomb bay dropped a state-of-the-art sensor called a dropsonde, specially designed by Beaubien for high-altitude hurricane flights.

http://www.wired.com/2015/11/a-flight-to-the-top-of-the-most-powerful-hurricane-ever/

See photos of:

1. Me with NASA WB-57 pilots after return from flight (who fly up in space suits while I sit on ground pushing buttons)
2. Our Dropsonde exiting at 450 MPH while cruising at 62,000' with light clouds 10 miles below us
3. Me loading dropsondes under WB-57 in 105F heat index day in Houston
... my remote "office" while we chase storms

Knight added to EC

Following in the footsteps of of previous member (and former President) PB Weymouth, John Knight is pleased to announce that he has been added to the Executive Committee of the Deerfield Alumni Association for a three year term.

The EC consists of up to 26 alumni distributed across the decades who work to engage their brethren with information about DA and excuses to congregate like Day of Service and Choate Day.  Seems like a natural for JK, right? He even sat next to his replacement in the Alumni/Development Office, the terrific current parent Noah Blake who had worked at Canterbury, in order to be as helpful as he could.

The EC has Committees for Regional Clubs, Communications, Young Alumni, Governance and Nominating.  JK currently serves on Nominating since he knows a lot of alumni and works on Communications as well.

Fun to be with other rabid DA supporters from across the years, especially Paula Griffith Edgar '95 and Dave Hagerman '64 (pictured), and Syd Williams '85.

One nice thing about the EC is that it also benefits from the Generative Discussions that the Board of Trustees now make routine as part of their meetings.

We heard from Marjorie Young, Director of Inclusion, about her role in helping all students and faculty create a positive learning atmosphere for everyone.  On the face of it it sounds a little contrived but as we know from the media the definitions of typical roles in society seem to be blurring.  At the end of the day one thing seems clear, if a student is feeling out of place at DA, its important for them to know there is support nearby, either on the corridor or at an office.  I'm pretty sure that was just as important back in our day.