President's Message August 2018

“…. Friends… The key is to keep them in your heart, and when the time is right, you can pick up the friendship right where you left off. Even lost friends find their way home when you leave the light on”

Amy Marie Walz

OK, the light is on!! Find your way back as the reunion is upon us! OCT 12 & 13 – mark the calendar! 

Legacy classes for this reunion -  43’, 48’, 53’, 58’, 63’, and 68’. However, as we know by now, we have all class years thunder back, along with Masters, family and friends for what has become THE EVENT in Lenox. 

 

Every year I reflect upon how fortunate we are to have Shakespeare and Company as owners and stewards of the property. Each year they warmly welcome us back as family; kindred members of a shared history regarding the grounds. They afford us use of the Tina Packer Playhouse (formerly our theater and gymnasium) and host us for campus tours. We can’t thank them enough.

Did I mention that this is the 50th legacy year for the class of ’68?

2018 has brought forth both the bitter and the sweet. 

The bitter: 

Recently, we sadly experienced the passing of one of our Masters, David Lowry. Ed Miller and I were able to attend the service in Williamstown and represent the LSAA. 

David’s obituary is in this edition. 

Geoff Greenshields, class of ’68, was planning on attending his first reunion this year since graduation. Sadly, “Goff” passed away suddenly and expectedly in FEB 2018. 

Time has a relentless impact on all of us; all the more reason to make the effort to attend this reunion. We’ll remember David, Goff and all the others during our missing persons ceremony at the Lenox Club dinner on Saturday. 

The sweet:

We were able to surprise two students at Miss Hall’s by providing two Mansfield Pickett scholarships. John Schneiter, Paul Denzel and Don Foster (along with Don’s wife Carole) represented the LSAA at a full school meeting where the scholarships were announced. Of all the things that the LSAA does, providing these scholarships to students of need is perhaps the closest we come to honoring our motto. 

We also had a meeting set up through the efforts of John Schneiter with the Lenox Historical Society to continue the work of John’s committee on the future disposition of the memorabilia. We remain grateful as well for Carole Foster’s expert advice and consultation regarding the challenges we face in this effort.

 Here is a distilled preview of what to expect at this year’s reunion:

Friday 12 OCT – 

The LSAA Charlie McGee Memorial Golf Tournament (see response form for more details)

Informal pay-on-your-own cocktails and dinner at the Cork and Hearth

Saturday 13 OCT -  

LSAA Business meeting  (9:30 -11:30)

Lenox School Flag Raising Ceremony (~11:45)

Luncheon in The Tina Packer Playhouse (~noon)

2:45 - 4:45 p.m. – Campus Tour courtesy of Shakespeare & Company

5:00  – 5:45 p.m. – Hymn Sing: Trinity Church.  

6:00 p.m. – Cocktail Reception at The Lenox Club (pay as you go).

6:30  – ~ 9:00 p.m. - Lenox School prayer, missing person ceremony, comments by Masters and Dinner at The Lenox Club ($35 each, payable in advance), recognition of legacy classes, LSAA Hall Of Fame ceremony. 

“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” – 

Winston Churchill

We are in the home stretch for our challenge grant fundraising campaign. We have a very generous $10,000 challenge grant from an anonymous LSAA member that was increased by a generous additional $5,000 challenge grant from another anonymous LSAA member; thus totaling $15,000 in challenge grants.

As of this writing, LSAA members already donated $5,000, thus allowing us to achieving the $5,000 challenge grant. We have received an additional $4,000 toward the $10,000 challenge grant, meaning we have to raise about $6,000 more to achieve this $10,000 challenge.

We are deeply grateful for the donations received to date from LSAA members as we are for the generosity of these two alumni benefactors. The deadline for us to raise the approximately $6,000 (and therefore meet and capture the $10,000 matching challenge grant) is the upcoming reunion. 

I would ask if you are in a position to help us achieve this final goal, to please do so by sending your donation (identified for the LSAA challenge grant) to the attention of either Ed Miller or Bob Sansone at the following addresses:

Ed Miller

147 Spring Hollow Lane

Montpelier, VT 05602-8445

Bob Sansone

69 Mount Sumner Drive

Bolton, CT 06043

“Music has always been a matter of Energy to me, a question of Fuel. Sentimental people call it Inspiration, but what they really mean is Fuel. I have always needed Fuel. I am a serious consumer. On some nights I still believe that a car with the gas needle on empty can run about fifty more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio.” 

Hunter S. Thompson

Wow, a Hunter Thompson quote in the P&S. Who’d have ever thought?!?!

Some believe songs are reflections of the mood and culture in the timeframe within which they were produced. Perhaps this is true. The following represent the opening lyric from the #1 song on Billboard Magazine just about the time that each of the legacy classes listed was walking between the masters for graduation in June.

I’ll let you be the judge (and we can ask the alums from these years at the reunion) as to whether these somehow reflected the contemporaneous mood and culture in place for them during their matriculation from Lenox:

1943 – “I’ve Heard That Song Before”; Harry James

“It seems to me I've heard that song before

It's from an old familiar score

I know it well, that melody

It's funny how a theme

Recalls a favorite dream”

1948 – “Nature Boy”; Nat King Cole

“There was a boy

A very strange, enchanted boy

They say he wandered very far

Very far, over land and sea

A little shy and sad of eye

But very wise was he”

1953 – The Song From Moulin Rouge” (Where is Your Heart?); Percy Faith

“When ever we kiss,

I worry and wonder.

Your lips may be near,

but where is your heart?”

1958 – “The Purple People Eater”; Sheb Wooley

“Well, I saw the thing comin' out of the sky

It had the one long horn, one big eye

I commenced to shakin' and I said "ooh-eee

It looks like a purple eater to me.

It was a one-eyed, one-horned, flyin' purple people eater”

1963 – “It’s My Party” Lesley Gore

“Nobody knows where my Johnny has gone

Judy left the same time

Why was he holding her hand

When he's supposed to be mine”

1968 – “Mrs. Robinson” Simon & Garfunkel

“And here's to you, Mrs. Robinson

Jesus loves you more than you will know 

Wo wo wo

God bless you, please, Mrs. Robinson

Heaven holds a place for those who pray 

Hey hey hey, hey hey hey”

No matter what song stirs memories of the time you experienced while at Lenox School, come join us again for the camaraderie of classmates and fellow alumni and friends and pay homage to the school, the Masters, staff and their families. These selfless, dedicated people helped launch us on our life journey; and we use the opportunity of the reunion to honor their service to the school and to us. 

Join with the Lenox School Band of Brothers as we meet again in thanks, remembrance, reunion and fellowship. 

October 12 and 13 - Be there!