Page 4 - Alumni Horae: Vol. 93, No. 4 Summer 2013

“We were all
On May 31, seven members of the Form of 1959 sat
together on a brick wall on the Chapel terrace, with the
Lower School Pond at their backs. Some have maintained
lifelong friendships, others have timed their returns with
the pattern of St. Paul’s reunions, and others were at the
School over Anniversary Weekend for the first time in
decades. But they all communicated easily with one
another in a breezy, comfortable manner.
“The camaraderie in this form is pretty
outstanding,” said Bill Eldridge ’59, a 55th-
reunion-goer who only five years ago
received his official SPS diploma.
Sitting with Speedy Mettler ’59, his SPS
roommate (and weekend roommate at Con-
cord’s Holiday Inn), Coley Burke ’59 spoke of
his SPS friendships as “simple fellowship.”
“We were all in it together,” said Burke. “We
went from one bell to the next, and we all
did it together.”
Community is the pervasive feeling over
Anniversary Weekend, as alumni reconnect
with one another and with the physical setting
of St. Paul’s – as much a character in the weekend
as any returning graduate. But it is the ease with which
alumni gather and reconnect that is most striking each
year. Alex Kim ’13, a Trinity College sophomore, spoke of
how much he misses the community of St. Paul’s after
his one-year hiatus.
I miss living in a community where people help each
other,” said Kim, standing by the Blass Clubhouse on
Anniversary Saturday, following the 8 a.m. Fun Run. “I
think a few moments with your formmates make you
feel like you are back at home. I feel happy here.”
Paul Spivey ’79 brought his 10-year-old son,
Alejandro, to help him celebrate his 35th reunion.
Spivey spoke of building friendships in Foster
House and of the distinct smell of the wrestl-
ing room, where he spent four years pushing
himself to mental and physical limits. He called
St. Paul’s a “rigorous but nurturing” place, where
he still appreciates a “great, warm feeling of family.”
“This weekend is as much a reunion with the people as
the place itself,” said Will Ferraro ’09, who has spent the
last year as a City Year national service volunteer. “I miss
Hundreds of alumni visit the
site of their formative years
by Jana F. Brown
the community of St. Paul’s. I didn’t think I would miss
having Chapel every morning, or everyone saying hello
on the path. But you don’t get that everywhere.”
Community was also evident in the playful
banter between Ferraro’s 2009 formmates,
Danny Freeman and Victoria Hetz, who are
both pursuing careers in journalism – she at
Smithsonian Magazine and he as a newspa-
per scribe in Colombia.
“St. Paul’s was our home for four years,” said
Freeman, “and being here feels like returning home.”
Community could also be seen in the enthusiasm of
Lydia Hennessey ’14, who said the gathered alumni
appeared to her like a timeline of life that “turned a
sadness at leaving into a excitement about how
my life will progress.” That spirit also resided
in the camaraderie of 50th-reunion celebrants
Tony Parker ’64, Rick Sperry ’64, and Mike
Howard ’64, a trio who participated in the Boat
Races on Turkey Pond.
“We all grew up here,” said Parker. “These were the
formative years of our lives. It makes for a close com-
munity. Rick has worked tirelessly to bring us all together.”
Kareem Roberts ’99 described his return to the School as
“coming back to see the people who made you who you are.”
“I know I will love these people for the rest of my life,”
Roberts said.
St. Paul’s, explained recent graduate Isabel Bingham ’14,
is “good at teaching people to be a good community mem-
ber.” Bingham recalled for many years viewing the School
through the eyes of her father, Arthur Bingham ’78, in-
cluding walking in the Alumni Parade as a child. Bingham’s
friend, Lucy Prout ’14, said she will miss “that all of us
were here at the same time and on the same page.”
Standing with classmate Evie Gurney ’79, who
served as Student Council VP as a Sixth Former,
Laura Iglehart ’79 called time a “great equal-
izer.” Meanwhile, Gurney not only was pleased
to be surrounded by old friends, but also was
struck by her reconnection with one person
in particular.
“Reunions,” she said, “are about revisiting your-
self and checking in with what that person was like
all those years ago, and how you related to others.” 4