corbie chronicle THe - St. Anselm's Abbey School

1 4501 South Dakota Avenue, NEWashington, DC 20017-2753address service PostagePAIDM errifield, VAPermit No. 1337 THeST. ANSELM S Abbey School WASHINGTON, SPRING 2015 VOL. 23 NO. 2corbie chronicleThe Beach Ball 33rd Annual Fall Scholarship GalaSaturday, October 24, 2015 SaveDate!theST. ANSELM S Abbey SCHOOL4501 South Dakota Avenue, NEWashington, DC corbie chronicle is published two times a year by the Communications Office of St. Anselm s Abbey welcome correspondence and submissions from the St. Anselm s Abbey School community. Please direct letters, class notes and other communication to Kristin Hurd at the School or via email at in this publication has been provided by the St.

2 Anselm s Abbey School faculty and staff, by David W. Powell, Yakntoro Udoumoh, 13, parent Tom Connelly, and Constantin Miranda, apologize in advance for any errors and/or and Layout: Kristin HurdProduction and Printing: Executive Press corbie ChronicleSpring 2015 Volume 23, Number 2A Message from the President 3 Fr. Peter Weigand, OSBR eflections from the Headmaster 5 Mr. Bill CrittenbergerCampus News 6 From the Monastery 10 Panther Sports 12 All-Alumni Reunion 14 Class Notes/Alumni News 15In Memoriam 18 Above: Over Spring Break, Ms.

3 Hajnalka Enzel and Fr. Javier Castro accompanied a group of 14 students to Spain. Here, the group stops for a picture on a hill overlooking the city of Toledo. Trip highlights included the Prado Museum and Easter Sunday can you support the St. Anselm s Experience? Overall School Budget Faculty Compensation and Development Care for the Abbey and Aging Monks Support for Current Year ScholarshipsDonations must be received by June 30. Use the enclosed envelope or donate securely online at Capital Area Agency Code: 90387 United Way Code: 2014-2015 ANNUAL FUNDH elping Bright Boys Become Exceptional MenLast Chance!

4 Use the enclosed envelope to make your contribution chronicle 3from the President: The Abbey RoadWhen man gives himself to various disciplines of philosophy, history, and of mathematical and natural science, and when he cultivates the arts, he can do very much to elevate the human family to a more sublime understanding of truth, goodness, and beauty, and to the formation of considered opinions which have universal et Spes, Pope Paul VIDear Alumni, Students, Members of the Board of Trustees, Faculty and Staff, Past and Present Parents, Benefactors, and Friends of St. Anselm s Abbey School ,to me over and over again how formative their days at St.

5 Anselm s had been. Several stated that they would not be in the positions they hold today without the education they received at the Abbey School . Not only were they prepared for college, but they continue to have an everlasting commitment to academic excellence and are instilled with a lifelong thirst for attending the Model United Nations conference in Boston with seven of our students and Assistant Headmaster Kirk Otterson, I was able to have an evening with three younger alumni, Conor Hearn, 13, Tom Zorc, 09, and Christian Schorn, 09. Conor is studying music, Tom is preparing to study medicine, and Christian has a fellowship at The Harvard Herbaria.

6 I was able to spend a morning with Christian looking at different species of cacti in the Harvard collection. This was an exceptional opportunity for me to visit my imprisoned Cactonian relatives. While in Philadelphia, I met up with Dr. Mark Smith, 73, who is a professor of Near Eastern Languages and Scripture at NYU. We ended up taking Amtrak to New York. Mark has written over 15 books, and he and his wife, Liz Bloch-Smith (an archaeologist), and their three children, Shula, Ben, and Rachael, live in Philadelphia. Both Liz and Mark spend time in New York and in Israel, where they both Richard Stafford, 53, hosted 15 alumni at the River Club in NYC, with Headmaster Bill Crittenberger and yours truly.

7 Each alumnus spoke about where they went to college and what they are now doing CEO positions, bankers, law professors, mechanical engineers, managing directors, art designers, When I started teaching in the Abbey School 46 years ago, before the present Metro subway system was in place, over 60% of our students arrived by DC Transit bus. Most of our students took either the uptown Brookland bus leaving from Union Station and letting them off at the corner of Michigan Avenue and 14th Street, or they took the crosstown Ivy City bus leaving from Friendship Heights and eventually arriving at the corner of 14th Street and South Dakota Avenue.

8 Once at our gate, these bushy-tailed, bright-eyed, eager young men began their trudge up our hill, laden with heavy backpacks stuffed with books and brown paper lunch bags. Little did they know that continuing their daily journey up The Abbey Road would eventually prepare them for a far greater journey, and more importantly, they would also be nourished with imperishable The Abbey Road to our monastic School is ultimately a road to understanding the nature of reality both in divine and in human matters; it is a road to distinguishing on the ethical plane those things that are good and those that are bad, and it is a peaceful road to learning any rule of reasoning appropriate for reaching truth and understanding.

9 This is concretely what is encompassed by saint Anselm s dictum, PAX IN assuredly, what you have just read is what our graduates articulate during my many Alumni Gatherings around the world each summer, as well as just a few months ago. At the end of January in Boston, and during the first week of February while in Philadelphia and in New York City, our alumni stressed In February, Fr. Peter Weigand, OSB, traveled to Boston and to New York City to visit alumni. Left: Christian Schorn, 09, shows Fr. Peter a cactus specimen from the Harvard Herbarium. Center: At the River Club in NYC, 15 alumni gather with Headmaster Bill Crittenberger.

10 Right: Fr. Peter met up with members of the St. Anselm s Model United Nations team, who competed in the 61st Session of the Harvard National Model corbie chronicleconsultant analysts, clothing executives, database engineers, and current college students. Each had a vibrant story of their own with fond memories of their days at St. Anselm s; all were enthusiastic about their time at the Abbey School and were grateful for their education an example: Benjamin Oh, 14, who as you will read on page 17 was selected to represent the at the Winter Universiade in Granada, Spain, wrote a thank-you note to me for our School s financial support in this effort.