Alumni Newsletter Spring 2006 - Ecolint Alumni Office

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Ecole Internationale de Genève
International School of Geneva
La Grande Boissière • La Châtaigneraie • Campus des Nations
Spring/Printemps 2006
Photos : 1970 LGB Yearbook
LGB Football field 1970...
and in 2006........
Remember the cross country ? We used the field for all sports in all weathers,
but even so we had a great time! But look what we all have now …… !
Jack Garstang (Head of Sports until 1992)
Ecolint Alumni - 2nd North American Reunion
July 27th – July 31st / Colorado Rockies
Dear Ecolinters,
Reunion in the Rockies: July 27 – 31, 2006
2nd Ecolint Alumni Reunion in North America
It is important to make reservations now !
We have negotiated rates but they are only in effect
until May 27th, 2006. To register go to our new alumni web community at http://alumni.ecolint.ch
or use the booking form in this ‘Newsletter’
The Rocky Mountain Ecolint Alumni Chapter is
pleased to invite Alumni from around the world to
the 2006 Ecolint Reunion . It will be the weekend
of July 27-31 in the Colorado Rockies at Copper
Mountain Resort. Copper is a small mountain resort 90 minutes west of Denver off I-70. Through
local Ecolint contacts, we were able to get excellent room/condo rates which will be available
from July 24 to August 6 for those interested in
pairing the reunion with a family vacation.
Included in the room / condo prices are free
•
Photo : Blaise Demierre
Much to the delight of LGB students, teachers and parents, the new LGB
football field was inaugurated on 30 November 2005. It includes a multi
sport hard surface, a four lane sprint track and a ‘parcours vita’.
parking, spa, pool, and work-out room. Copper
offers a multitude of activities; hiking, horseback riding, white water rafting, golf, tennis, and
shopping. A free shuttle is available to towns in
Summit County most notably the historic town of
Breckenridge perfect for an afternoon of quaint
shops and restaurants and the factory outlet
at Silverthorn, an excellent bargain for those
powerful Euros.
We encourage Ecolinters around the world to
mark their calendars and make plans for a memorable reunion with old friends in the Colorado
Rockies. For those interested in a virtual tour of
Copper please go to: www.coppercolorado.com.
If you know of Ecolinters not online or who do not
read their emails, please share this information
with them.
Warmest regards to all,
Pennie Aldrich/65 LGB
[email protected]
DATES DES KERMESSES
La Grande Boissière : 20 mai 2006
La Châtaigneraie : 10 juin 2006
Campus des Nations : 17 juin 2006
ASSEMBLÉE GÉNÉRALE DE
L’ASSOCIATION DES ANCIENS
Venez nombreux nous rejoindre !
La prochaine Assemblée générale de l’Association
des Anciens de l’Ecole Internationale de Genève
aura lieu à La Grande Boissière le
samedi 20 mai 2006 à 11 heures
– jour de la Kermesse –
dans l’ancienne bibliothèque devenue l’actuel
Salon des Professeurs dans l’Orangerie.
A l’issue de cette réunion, vous êtes tous attendus
au stand des Anciens pour le traditionnel ‘verre de
l’amitié’ offert par le Comité central.
Room & Condo Rates available at Copper Mountain Resort
Copper Mountain Resort is just that - a resort. There is no real town of Copper. It is very popular
especially in the summertime, which is what makes it such a special destination reunion. However,
it is imperative if you are considering coming to the reunion that you make reservations as soon as
possible so that you have the option to attend. Not only is summer a popular time but our weekend
is the weekend of a Guitar Music Festival making it an even more desirable destination. It will be
great fun for those of us who are there because there will be guitar music everywhere. But again,
it is important to make reservations now. We have negotiated rates but they are only in effect until
May 27th, 2006. There is a real variety of accommodation at Copper and it is best to call, and explain
what you want and ask them to explore all the options with you.
Website: www.coppercolorado.com
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• Spring 2006
Nouveau site web des anciens:
http://alumni.ecolint.ch -> (voir p.2)
New alumni website:
http://alumni.ecolint.ch -> (see p.3)
• Message from the President
GOVERNING BOARD
For the latest Governing Board news please
visit the school web site : www.ecolint.ch
CONSEIL DE FONDATION
Pour les dernières nouvelles du Conseil de
Fondation, veuillez consulter le site web de
l’école : www.ecolint.ch
• Elections au Conseil de Fondation – 2006
Les membres souhaitant voter par la poste
pour les élections 2006 du Conseil de Fondation doivent remplir et renvoyer un formulaire
d’inscription au Bureau des Anciens. Le matériel de vote vous sera envoyé afin que vous
puissiez le remplir.
L’Assemblée générale consultative du Conseil
de Fondation aura lieu le mardi 30 mai 2006 à
20h00 au Campus des Nations, 11 route des
Morillons, 1218 Grand-Saconnex.
• Elections to the Governing Board – 2006
Members wishing to vote by post in the 2006
Elections to the Governing Board should
complete and return the registration form to the
Alumni Office.
The voting documentation will then be forwarded to you for your completion.
The Governing Board Consultative General
Assembly will be held on Tuesday, 30 May 2006
at 20h00 at the Campus des Nations, 11 route
des Morillons, 1218 Grand-Saconnex.
The wait is over and our new improved website is now online at http://alumni.ecolint.ch.
Despite the success of our previous site, there
were certain limitations in our initial design.
The new site is far more flexible and will allow
us to give web space to those alumni groups
who are interested in communicating their activities to a wider audience. That we can make
this powerful communications tool available to
alumni everywhere is thanks to the new spirit
of collaboration between the Alumni Association and the Alumni & Development Office of
the School.
Please register on the new site and explore the
site. Have a look at the 1958-64 group notes
to see what can be done. I would urge any of
you who are web savvy or want to organize an
event or post information about alumni activities anywhere in the world to get in touch with
[email protected] who will be only
too glad to help.
In the two and a half years that I have been
President of the Alumni Association I have
been constantly amazed by the geographical
spread of alumni activities. Aside from the
world reunion in Geneva there have been
Escalade celebrations in Denver, Geneva,
London, Midwest USA, New York, Toronto &
Washington DC, “premier août” celebrations in
Sydney, a class reunion in Southampton and a
whole new chapter formed in Detroit.
This year the Rocky Mountain Ecolint Alumni
Chapter is organising the second North American World get together at the Copper Mountain
Resort in Colorado. The reunion will take place
over the weekend of July 27th-31st. Pennie Al-
Nouveau Site Web des Anciens
http://alumni.ecolint.ch
Une bonne nouvelle ! Le nouveau site web des
anciens a été ouvert le 10 mars 2006! Allez lui
rendre une petite visite! Faites connaissance avec
ses éléments plus dynamiques et interactifs !
Très important: afin de pouvoir apprécier et utiliser
l’ensemble des possibilités offertes, vous devez
vous enregistrer sur le nouveau site web des
anciens, que vous l’ayez fait ou non sur le site
précédent. Suivez les instructions fournies en ligne.
Une fois enregistré, reçu la confirmation et entré
(sign in) dans le site, vous pouvez vous inscrire
à un groupe, à savoir un groupe régional Chapter - ou un groupe spécial - Specialty
Group (voir barre rouge-orange supérieure
et cliquez sur l’indication ‘Join a Group’; vous
accéderez à une nouvelle page intitulée ‘My
Group Manager’ avec différentes possibilités
d’inscription).
Ainsi, vous pourrez directement et en une
seule opération entrer en contact, d’une
part, avec tous les membres enregistrés de
votre volée (class year) et, d’autre part, avec
ceux de votre groupe régional ou encore de
votre groupe spécial. Les gestionnaires des
pages web des volées, groupes régionaux ou
groupes spéciaux ainsi que les organisateurs
de manifestations diverses apprécieront aussi
ces outils de communication rapides et aisés.
Alors, chers anciens, profitez des nouvelles
possibilités d’information et des nouveaux outils
de communication que vous offre ce nouveau
site web! Jouez le jeu, même s’il n’a pas été
possible pour l’heure de mettre sur pied un site
entièrement bilingue, faute de moyens financiers
et de ressources humaines. Soyons à la
hauteur de notre réputation: la communauté
des anciens la plus interconnectée et la plus
vivante au plan international !
Donate Dobbernack / 62
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drich and her team have negotiated excellent
rates with the resort so why not take the opportunity to make it a real family vacation as
well. The class of 65/66 are particularly urged
to attend as Rami Khouri is helping to organize
a special 40th anniversary get-together.
Boulder is not the only reunion planned this
summer – the La Grande Boissière Class of
75 / 6 are planning a reunion on June 17th
here in Geneva. La Châtaigneraie Alumni are
holding a reunion buffet dinner after the La
Chât Kermesse on June 10th. The La Chât
class of 1996 are particularly urged to attend;
Tory Curtain and Emma Smith will be organising their own special event to commemorate
their 10th anniversary. Please contact Tory at
[email protected] for details.
Information on all these events can be found
on the web site and these are only the ones
we know about. If you know of any others
please let us know – why not take the plunge
and organize an event yourself, we will be glad
to help.
Finally it is with some sadness that I realize
this is the last newsletter that Sue Anthony will
be editing for us as she is retiring this year to
Burgundy in France. While no doubt we will
be hearing from her for many years to come I
would like to take this opportunity to thank her
for all the magnificent work she has done for
the Association over many years. Thank you
Sue!
Sam Jarrell,
President Ecolint Alumni Association
Campus des Nations tour
EVENTS & ACTIVITIES
Photo : Thomas Jantscher
La Châtaigneraie reunion
To all La Chât Alumni,
You are invited to a buffet supper after the Kermesse
Saturday 10th of June 2006, from 6.00 p.m.
at La Châtaigneraie
in the Salle Polyvalente and terrasse.
Buffet with some drinks provided,
supplementary drinks can be bought.
RSVP to the Alumni Office by 15th May 2006
at [email protected] or ++41 (0)79.449.50.43
At the Alumni Escalade dinner in December
2005, Dr Nicholas Tate, the Director General of
the School, suggested a guided visit of the newly
opened Campus des Nations. A date was set
and a group of former teachers and alumni members met in the reception/entrance hall of the new
School on Tuesday, January 31st 2006. The reception area was full of large plastic bags! No,
not rubbish waiting to be collected, but a typical
International School effort, a collection of clothes,
ready to be sent to Pakistan. A good first impression, the brand new part of the School carrying on
our old School traditions!
There was a lot of chat, reminiscing and greeting
of old friends and colleagues. We were curious
and interested to see this latest addition of the
Foundation and to meet some of the staff and students. Dr. Tate introduced us to Eva Noorduijn,
then they both took us on a tour of the school.
Eva spoke passionately about the excitement and
challenge of opening a new school and of the joy
and satisfaction they all felt. It was clear that a
lot of effort and careful planning had gone into
making the school a great place of learning. The
scene was set, the school waited for its students
and they arrived in September 2005.
The award-winning, five-story design of the Campus des Nations provides many delights. Views of
the Alps and the Jura abound, and every classroom
is flooded with natural light thanks to the building’s
glass walls. Each floor is identified with one of the
world’s principal alphabets. State of the art labs
and recreational facilities complement a fully computerized library and a spacious cafeteria.
The atmosphere was calm but busy and the staff
and students welcomed us warmly. In conversation
with them as we visited the classrooms they spoke
positively about their exciting projects and plans for
the future. We felt proud, the school was impressive
and well equipped, exactly how one would expect a
school to be as it moves into the 21st century.
When the tour was over we were invited by Rev.
Theodore Gill/68 to lunch at the Ecumenical Centre. We were well looked after and especially enjoyed Theo’s informative and moving stories as
he guided us around the chapel. It was a perfect
end to our time together.
Thank you Dr Tate for suggesting this tour which
we all thoroughly enjoyed.
For those of you arriving on Friday 9th, a dinner
has been arranged at the Relais de Chavannes. The menu will be about CHF 49 per person, payable
on the evening – Aperitifs 7.30p.m. To register for
the dinner please go to the website at
http://alumni.ecolint.ch
A tous les Anciens de La Chât,
Vous êtes cordialement invités à un buffet froid
après la Kermesse le
samedi 10 juin 2006 à partir de 18h00
à la Châtaigneraie, dans la
Salle Polyvalente et terrasse.
Le buffet et quelques boissons seront offerts,
plus de boissons pourront être achetées sur place.
RSVP au bureau des Anciens avant le 15 mai 2006
au [email protected] ou ++41 (0)79.449.5043
Pour tous ceux qui arriveront le vendredi 9, un
dîner est organisé au Relais de Chavannes.
Le prix par personne sera environ CHF 49 à payer
le soir même. Pour plus d’informations et pour
vous inscrire, merci d’aller sur le site web
http://alumni.ecolint.ch
Hazel Kukorelly - former LGB primary teacher
New Alumni Website
http://alumni.ecolint.ch
Good news! The new Alumni website has
gone live on 10 March 2006! Have a look at it!
Get to know its more dynamic and interactive
features!
Most important: To be able to appreciate and
make use of all its features, you need to register
on this new alumni website, whether you have
or have not registered on the previous site. Just
follow the instructions provided online.
Once you have registered, received the
confirmation and then signed in, you can join
a group, i.e. a Chapter or a Specialty Group
(see top red-orange field and click on ‘Join a
Group’; you will then reach a new page called
‘My Group Manager’ with several registration
possibilities).
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You will thus be able to network directly and at
once not only with all registered members of your
class year, but also with those of your chapter
or specialty group. Administrators of class year,
chapter and specialty group pages as well as
organizers of events will also greatly appreciate
these quick and easy communication tools.
So, dear fellow alumni, take advantage of the
new information possibilities and communication
tools on this new website ! Let’s be up to our
reputation: The most interconnected and
lively alumni community at the international
level !
Donate Dobbernack / 62
EVENTS & ACTIVITIES
Escalade 2005
Alumni from 1965 & 1966
Denver
– come and join in the 40-year
Alumni celebrations in Copper
Mountain, Colorado
The Rocky Mountain Ecolint Alumni held their
6th Escalade dinner on December 10th 2005 at
the Kent Village Clubhouse. The Barta brothers
did a great job with the raclette dinner, and with
16 alumni, family and friends of Ecolint we had a
total of 29. The food, conversation and company
was as usual great.
Rami Khouri / 66 will be attending the Copper
Mountain, Colorado, Alumni Reunion from Beirut
and encourages other 1965/66 graduates to come
along and celebrate a special 40-year get-together. ‘We hope to rock and roll as we did in the
60s... the Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan are still
producing good music and we’re still buying, dancing and having a good time .... part of the Ecolint
heritage of enjoying life while you study....’
Judy Ackerman / 70
Thirty years on
calling all 1975 and 1976 Alumni to
Geneva
A reunion is planned for
Photos :
Tony Fernandez / 70
Saturday, 17 June 2006.
Aperitifs in the Greek Theatre, La Grande Boissière, dinner at a restaurant or perhaps on a boat.
Details to be confirmed, but save the date!
Come and renew old friendships, catch up and
remember those old times!
Please pass this message on to others with whom
you are in contact !
Contact:
Meera Pathmarajah-Laurijssen meera
[email protected]
or
Nicola Croome-Manby
[email protected]
Geneva
Approximately 80 former and present administration and teaching staff joined the Alumni for
the traditional Escalade dinner held on 1st December 2005.
Dr Nicholas Tate presented the honorary diplomas to those members of staff who had retired in
2005 after over 20 years of service. Sam Jarrell
welcomed all those present and Max Brandt / 44
gave a wonderful historical account of the events
leading up to the 1602 Escalade. Thanks to Jo
Jennings and Carole Sharpe we were able to keep
in tune while singing the rousing Escalade songs.
NEW YORK :
- Spring brunch
Retired members of staff : Alan Sharpe, Ghislaine
Ehinger and Jacques Mandallaz.
Photo : Eric Anthony
Date : Sunday, April 30, 2006
Time : 12:30 p.m.
Place : La Mangeoire, 1008 Second Avenue
(between 53rd & 54th Streets), New York, NY,
(212) 759-708
Cost : $25 including tax and tip BRING CASH.
Dessert is extra. Additional cash bar available
RSVP : P. Troupin (212) 308-5510 or
[email protected] by April 26th.
London
- Alumni Art Trip - Russia!
On 30 November (rather before 12 December,
but who’s counting) a number of Ecolint alumni
– and a number of their children and husbands,
wives or partners – gathered at the St. Moritz
Restaurant in Wardour Street in London’s Soho
(it is London’s oldest, and for all I know only,
Swiss restaurant) for an authentic Swiss dinner
to celebrate Escalade. Once again we thank
Agnes de Guzman for organising the event.
No we did not get it together to go to Russia, but
in January Jane Sharp, Professor of Russian Art
History at Rutgers, was kind enough to take a
group of alumni on an informal tour of the Russian
art exhibit at the Guggenheim--Russia! The exhibit
took up the whole museum and went from icons to
contemporary art, a dizzying visual feast. Jane’s
explanations were fantastic and gave us some
idea of what we were looking at, since much of it
was unfamiliar. Joining Jane on an early sunny
but cold Sunday morning were: Erik Beukenkamp
and his wife, Charles Potter, Ellen Schwartz, and
Peggy Troupin, along with some friends of Jane’s.
Those present were: Agnes de Guzman / 90
and her husband Antonio Borges, and then by
year of graduation Mohsen Dajani / 99, Bob
Ekblom / 82, Caroline Brown Straessle / 79 and
Tobias, Alexandra and Christopher Straessle,
Tracy Reed Hain / 79 and Robert Hain, Nadine Kveim-Huttman / 78, Joseph Rochlitz / 74
(who happened to be in London on the day: he
lives in Rome), Elisabeth Tschyrkow / 71, Chris
Pauling / 70, Robin Dormer / 69, Kim Perry / 68,
Hormoz / 67 and Golnaz Naficy, and from Paris,
Steven North / 60.
Much Swiss wine was drunk, and at the end the
oldest and youngest present namely Steven
North and Christopher Straessle, in accordance
with time-honoured tradition, smashed the Marmite supplied by Sue Anthony on behalf of the
Central Committee. “Qu’ainsi périssent les ennemis de la République”! What the husbands,
wives, partners and children thought of it all we
cannot say: it must all have been very mysterious
(as it clearly also was to some of the other diners
in the St. Moritz restaurant, who looked upon our
proceedings with quizzical interest). But those
of us who had been inducted into the Escalade
tradition at an early age understood, and we all
had a very good time.
For those who are interested, the official Geneva
website has a short account of the Mère Royaume and her Marmite:
http://www.geneve.ch/fao/2002/20020911.asp
Robin Dormer/69 LGB
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Ecolint Midwest USA
Twelve of us gathered at Sergio Mazza’s house
for drinks and to become better acquainted with
each other. The oldest was from the class of
1962 and the youngest from the class of 1976.
We then headed off to the Grosse Pointe Yacht
Club, MI, for a long dinner of great food and even
better conversation. Pio brought his year book
and we all had fun remembering teachers, good
times and the travails of adolescence, ours and
those of our children. We ended our meal with
the breaking of the marmite and a reminder that
‘ainsi périssent les ennemis de la République.’
Bob Brown offered to host next year’s dinner at
his home in Kalamazoo, MI, where he will cook
up a cheese fondue to rival that of Les Armures
in Geneva. Sergio will find us some Fendant and
Dôle to compliment the meal with wines from
Vaud. We also hope the location, closer to Chica-
Photos : Sergio Mazza/76
go, will encourage the many Alumni there to join
the group.
The larger group picture included spouses and
guests. The people in the picture are (*=Ecolint
alumni), standing from left to right: Sergio Mazza*, Willis Lillard, Christy Nelson*, Enzo Zeppa,
Pio Valenzuela*, Jill Carroll, Vince (aka Marc, aka
Cooch) Scanio*, Kathy Scanio, Bob Brown*, and
Anne Brown, Sitting in front, from left to right are
June (Booker) Zeppa*, and Lora Mazza. The second picture includes only the Ecolint alumni in
the group.
Ecolint Northeast USA
About twenty alumni, family, and friends got together on December 10th to celebrate Escalade
2005 at our favorite venue, the Tout Va Bien
restaurant, in Manhattan. They included Rock
Brynner, Karl, Lorena, and Gabriela Cerni, Don
and Maggie Cook, Sven Dietrich, Riva Freifeld,
Madeleine Howenstine, Mary James, Sandy
Jarp, Philip Lapides and friend, Charlie and
Helene Potter, Ellen Schwartz, Jane Sharp, Judy
Thomas, Steve Tobias, Peggy Troupin. Everyone
felt the event had a cozy, family feeling about it.
We each stood up and shared something illogical
about ourselves. We sang off-key and the marmite was appropriately demolished and consumed.
The hit of the evening was Karl and Lorena Cerni’s beautiful new baby, Gabriela, who was quite
happy to be passed around and made much of.
Although many pictures were taken, we do not
have any as we go to press.
Galloway. Quite a spread over the years with two
who had been in the Internat: Jorgen Hansen
and Gulam Juma. There was much reminiscing
and a good time was had by all.
I will have you on the mailing list. You can reach
me by email, telephone or snail mail.
Peggy Troupin / 60
Toronto
The Escalade dinner held last year in Toronto
was our third and the best-attended so far. We
had a Swiss meal in a Swiss restaurant. A flag
of the Canton of Geneva and a large marmite
decorated the table.
We were eleven: Laura Jarvis, Diana Pitour
and her daughter Tuija, Gordon Albright, Jorgen
Hansen, Ravi Kumar, Sarojini Kaul Israni, Jane
Burns, Gulam and Azizeh Juma and Jock
I hope this successful evening will encourage
more to attend this year - no date has yet been
set but it will be in late November or very early
December, 2006. Please let me know of your
interest as soon as possible, even now, so that
Jock Galloway / 58
[email protected]
Tel.: ++1 416 767 9297
Address : 50 Quebec Ave. – Apt. 1908
Toronto M6P 4B4, Canada
Washington DC
The Ecolint Alumni in the Washington DC area
got together on the 16th of December for a great
meal at the Melting Pot. We had a wonderful time
and swapped a lot of stories about ‘the old days’.
We then crushed a marmite (thanks Sue!) and
shared out the marzipan vegetables. Hope to
see everyone there again next year!
Phil Scruggs/84
Photos : Mike Richmond
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Harvard - the Ecolint Connection
The feedback that we receive here in the Alumni Office leads us to believe that our Alumni frequently achieve distinction and success in their future careers in a very wide range of areas. In this edition we take a look at three such
alumni who are making their mark in science at that prestigious institution - Harvard University.
We should of course be delighted to focus in future editions of this ‘Newsletter’ who are working together in other
functions - not necessarily universities.
Daniel A. Haber / 73, M.D., Ph.D. is the director of the
Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center and the
Laurel W. Schwartz Professor of Oncology at Harvard Medical School. He is a member of the American Society for
Clinical Investigation (ASCI), the American Association of
Physicians (AAP) and recipient of the American Association for Cancer Research-National Foundation for Cancer Research (AACR-NFCR) Chair in Cancer Research
(2000-2002) and the Doris Duke Distinguished Clinical
Scientist Award (2002-2007). Dr. Haber serves on the Editorial Board of the journal Cell, and is Genetics Editor for
the New England Journal of Medicine. His laboratory work
is focused on human cancer genetics, with primary em-
phasis on the genetics of Wilms tumor and breast cancer,
and the identification of molecular markers of response to
targeted therapies in lung cancer.
I graduated from Ecolint in 1996, after spending 9 years
there in both the French and the English sections. Having
lived most of my life in Switzerland, I decided it was time
to live in a new country and discover a different culture,
so I applied to universities in the UK. I did my undergraduate course in Cambridge University, St John’s College.
I very much enjoyed my Natural Sciences course and in
my final year specialized in Biochemistry. I stayed on for
another year in the Biochemistry Department to do a MSci.
By then, I knew I wanted to pursue an academic career in
molecular biology so did a PhD at the Ludwig Institute for
Cancer Research (part of Imperial College) in London. During the course of my PhD I married Terry Heymann, who
was at Cambridge University with me. In 2004, after completing my PhD, Terry and I moved to Boston, US where
I am currently doing a post-doc at the Cancer Center of
Massachusetts General Hospital, part of Harvard Medical
School (for those of you not in academia, a “post-doc” is a
job between studying for a PhD and running your own lab).
My current research is based on studying drug resistance
in lung cancer. Coincidentally, my boss is Daniel Haber,
also an Ecolint alumnus from Geneva. Terry and I were
very lucky to be able to coordinate our careers as he is currently doing an MBA at Harvard University. I have very fond
memories of l’Ecolint, and in particular remember affectionately my teachers in the middle school Max Frebourg,
Maurice Laurent, Allen Rozelle and George Grandjean, as
well as in the secondary school Mr Nussbaumer,
Mr Anthony, Mme Bailly and Mme Vigneau-Ribal.
Born in Paris, France, Dr. Haber received his B.S. and
M.S. degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.) and his M.D. and Ph.D. from Stanford University School of Medicine. He completed a residency in internal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital (M.G.H.),
medical oncology fellowship at Dana Farber Cancer Institute, and postdoctoral research at M.I.T., before joining the
faculty at M.G.H. in 1991. He was appointed director of the
M.G.H. Cancer Center in 2003.
Daniel A. Haber
Nadia Godin
Ivan Stamenkovic
Nadia Godin / 96
After leaving Ecolint, I attended medical school at the University of Geneva. During my residency training in Internal
Medicine and Pathology, I became interested in understanding the mechanisms that underlie diseases as a means to
develop more targeted and effective treatment. I therefore
left Geneva to join a research laboratory in the Department
of Genetics at Harvard Medical School, for what I believed
would be a two to three year training period. However, it
rapidly became clear to me that research was what I really
wanted to do, and I joined the Faculty in the Department
of Pathology at Harvard Medical School where I pursued
my research activities for 16 years. My research focuses
on the molecular mechanisms of cancer development and
dissemination and I maintain an active collaboration with
another Ecolint alum, Dan Haber, having had the privilege
of being a member of the Massachusetts General Hospital
Cancer Center Faculty that he now directs. I have recently
returned to Switzerland for family reasons and am currently a professor of Experimental Pathology with a joint
appointment at the University of Lausanne and the Swiss
Institute for Experimental Cancer Research.
To me, Harvard was in many ways an extension of Ecolint, where interactions between faculty and students were
almost entirely devoid of barriers imposed by hierarchy.
Moreover, the faculty and student body alike were flavoured by an abundance of international, fun-loving, easygoing yet intellectually aggressive individuals, many of
whom could well have been my Ecolint classmates. This
was precisely the kind of environment that Ecolint prepared its students for - a place where seriousness and competitiveness did not render academic life less enjoyable
and where the prevailing open mindedness could make
an old Ecolintian deeply influenced by Ecolint values feel
at home.
Looking back, there is no doubt that the Ecolint experience played a very significant role in shaping my career
path. Academic standards were high during the years I
attended Ecolint and the overall quality of the teaching
staff was outstanding. I have fond memories of Richard
Vyvyan’s mathematics class, Roger Bray’s and Eric
Anthony’s chemistry classes, Alan Sharpe’s physics lectures
and Reginald Unitt’s lectures on the structure of DNA and
the genetic code. These teachers, along with many of
their colleagues, had a seemingly innate ability to make
their subject exciting and fun. Although I chose to pursue
a scientific career many years after leaving Ecolint, the
seeds of my interest in biomedical research were planted
in their classes.
Ivan Stamenkovic / 72
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ALUMNI NEWS
Analytical Alumna
Kerry Kelly Novick / 60 LGB
[email protected]
Upon hearing about their new book, we requested Kerry and her husband, Jack, to give us more
background information :
Kerry and Jack Novick have recently published
‘Good Goodbyes - Knowing How to End in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis’ published by
Aronson / Rowan Littlefield, Maryland. This third
book follows their earlier publications ‘Fearful
Symmetry - The Development and Treatment of
Sadomasochism’ (1996) and ‘Working With Parents Makes Therapy Work’ (2005).
Jack and Kerry Novick met while they were both
students of Anna Freud’s at the Hampstead Clinic in London. After completing psychoanalytic
training and living in London for 15 years, they
made a big move with the first two of their three
children to Ann Arbor, Michigan, where Jack
had been offered a post as Chief Psychologist
at the University of Michigan Medical School
and Kerry became Lecturer in Psychoanalysis
in the Department of Psychiatry. Their children
are now grownup, Rebecca with her husband
Jeff in San Francisco, where she has directed an
experimental theater troupe for ten years, Ben
with his wife Charity and toddler William finishing
Yale Law School before taking up a position at
Herbert Smith in London, and Anna in New York,
working as a grip on major movies and television
shows.
In the meantime Kerry and Jack have been teaching, writing and developing a non-profit psychoanalytic preschool in Ann Arbor -- Allen Creek
Preschool. They travel often to give lectures and
courses and enjoy being on the faculties of numerous psychoanalytic institutes around the US.
They each have full-time private practices for
children, adolescents and adults.
La Chât alumna into La Chât teacher
My friends at school always said I’d become a
primary teacher. I didn’t believe them, despite
the CAS hours spent in the primary school and
time spent with children in general. Who wanted
to work mostly with women for mediocre pay?
But with a BA degree, a PGCSE and a year in
marketing under my belt, I ended up teaching all
the same. Now I’m completing my first year of
teaching at La Chât – in my old school, my old
primary school. No one is more surprised than
me about that!
I love teaching here and rarely a day goes by
when a fleeting memory of my own time at
La Chât doesn’t pass me by when I’m teaching,
marking, doing playground duty, when working
with my CAS student, walking the children to the
caff, listening to late homework excuses and the
like. It gives teaching a rather unique edge. I suppose it had always been my aim to come to teach
here, once I’d chosen my career. And though I
had mixed expectations about how it would be,
I can safely say that so far, it has been everything I hoped it would be and more. I feel I can
appreciate all the changes and developments
from both a student and staff point of view. So
the pool has fallen into ruin, but if all goes to plan,
we’ll have a new sports centre soon! Needless
to say, I won’t be going anywhere in a hurry just
yet. There’s too much to see and enjoy!
Sarah Osterbery / 94
Tracy Strong / 33 LGB – Lacey, WA, USA
[email protected]
Tracy Strong, who attended Ecolint in the 1920’s is a
great tennis player. He writes of his chosen retirement
hobby : ‘In April 2005, I was invited to take part in an
international tournament in Palm Springs, CA, for
90-year-olds. There were ten of us from the U.S.,
Germany, Israel and Australia. I took part in the hard
court championship and won the doubles and my first
gold ball. Then in May, I played the indoor national
championship and won both the singles and doubles
and two more gold balls. It helps to be the youngest in
the 90’s group ! ’
Remembering his youth spent in Geneva, Tracy will
play for Switzerland at the next 90-year-olds international tournament in Palm Springs on April 1st and 2nd
followed by the national hard court tournament from
April 2nd to 9th also in Palm Springs. We wish him
every success.
Tracy belongs to the ‘select’ group of Ecolint old timers
who competed in international tennis championships :
Takamasa Yoshisaka, Bep Mikeli and others.
Michèle Claudel / 58 LGB – Geneva
[email protected]
‘I remember being at Ecolint 1956 / 7 while we were
building the Greek amphitheatre with my sister, Marie,
2 years older. My teachers were Melle Darolle and
Melle Traveletti and of course Chef Schaller ! I have
the best memories of my 2 short years at Ecolint since
I went to many schools before and after and never
enjoyed them so much. I remember the Bashi sisters
all 5 of them, Francisco and Rosa Alvim, Beatrice
Crespo and the Ardjomande sisters of whom one died
very sadly not long ago. I married at 20 and went to live
in Sao Paulo, Brazil for 3 years where my son Lionel
was born. I loved that country very much. Then back
to Geneva and a daughter was born, Geraldine now
34 and married to a Turkish American husband. Their
eldest daughter Alexia (4 in May) will be joining Ecolint
this coming September, the circle is now closed.’
Jock Galloway / 58 LGB – Toronto, Canada
has now retired from the University of Toronto. He can
be reached at [email protected]
Riva Freifeld / 61 LGB – New York, USA
[email protected]
Riva recently produced and directed a one hour
documentary about Annie Oakley, for the US public
television series ‘American Experience’. The film will
air on the evening of May 8, 2006, wherever ‘PBS’ is
carried. Major funding for this film was provided by a
grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
The website for the film is at
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/oakley.
A Home Video version on VHS and DVD will be
available shortly after the broadcast date.
Nathalie Albrow / 91 La Chât – Washington DC, USA
[email protected]
Nathalie and her husband Jonathan Kavalier, gave
birth to their first little girl, Laelia Emily. Nathalie and
family are currently living in Washington, D.C. and
would be delighted to hear from any former La Chât
classmates (especially if in the area).
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• Spring 2006
Remembering the unforgettable:
an encomium to Ecolint
ALUMNI NEWS
Alphonso Crespo / 62 – Lausanne, Switzerland
[email protected]
Alphonso’s new book of short stories, ‘Une Sieste
à la Havane & autres récits obituaires’ (which he
signed with a pseudo-pseudonym : Luis Crespo) was
published by Thélès in Paris a few months ago. He
writes, ‘One of the stories (Iberique) is partly set at
La Grande Boissière and might be of some interest
to old Ecolinters. This is my second book, though
my first fiction’. My first piece ‘Esculape Foudroyé’
was published by Les Belles Lettres (Paris) in 1991’.
Alphonso est directeur de recherches à l’Institut
Constant de Rebecque à Lausanne.
Tim Culbert / 69 LGB
Tim will be the architect of a new Musée du Louvre in
Lens, North of France. You can find more information
on his website : http://www.imreyculbert.com
Bob Ackerman / 72 LGB
[email protected]
Remember Bob and Sally’s country music performance at the 2004 worldwide Reunion in Geneva?
They will be on tour in Europe this summer and will
be playing at the Fête de Genève on Thursday, 10
August 2006. Find out more from their website :
http://teddyackermansinfo.blogspot.com
Reto Egger / 74 and former student teacher
Chris Haslam / 74 visited LGB in February to
‘reconnect’. Reto is currently operating McDonalds
restaurants in Geneva. Chris is living in Cheltenham,
UK, and has just published his first novel ‘In The Lost
Boyhood of Judas’ set in Australia and England. He
is currently Senior Tutor at Dean Close, UK – and
still teaching English, having learned the rudiments
at Ecolint.
Chris and Reto are keen to contact James Walker
III, who left Geneva for the US in 1974. He had a
brother, Robert, and a sister, Wendy.
Sue Silberman Resnick / 78 LGB - New York, USA
[email protected]
‘Well it’s been many years since my brief stay in the
1960’s at the Ecole Internationale at the age of 5 and
6. I returned to California where I later graduated as
a French major from the University of California at
Santa Barbara. I now live in New York where I spent
several years in marketing/advertising before starting
a family. I am married with three children, ages 13, 10
and 5, and volunteer in the area of helping children
with communication difficulties.’
Vladimir Douhovnikoff / 86 – Boston, MA, USA
[email protected]
Vlad has started a tenure track Assistant Professor
job (Biology) at Simmons College in Boston. Anyone
wishing to know more about Simmons College and
what it has to offer should contact Vlad by e-mail or
write to him at the Biology Department, Simmons
College, 300 The Fenway, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
On a recent visit to Geneva I took my sevenyear-old son to the armor room in the Art and
History Museum, my favorite when I was just
about his age at Ecolint, and told him the story
of the Escalade and the marzipan vegetables in
chocolate marmites with which we used to celebrate the freedom of the Genevois from the Dukes of Savoy. It was a poignant moment. I haven’t been back to Geneva much since leaving a
lifetime ago, in 1961. I used to dream about the
long walk from Ecolint down the route de Malagnou crossing over to the museum and the Old
Town. I could never quite remember the middle
part but now I find there is no missing middle part
because it was not a long walk at all.
Perhaps inevitably for those of us who feel old
now, the memories carry an aura of the neiges
d’antan. Our friends from elementary school, most
of whom are lost. Our friends re-found but for one
reason or another, with sadness, friendships not
rekindled. The teachers we loved, now mostly
departed. Our lives in between, the middle part,
which we remember very well because it has
been a long walk indeed and that walk has taken
us far from the route de Malagnou.
I can only speak for myself, but it seems that
somehow in those middle years, I forgot. I was
passionately caught up in my times and they
were passionate times. First came the late ’60s
in America. And then there was the long journey
crawling out of the late ’60s that consumed so
many of my friends in one way or another. There
were lost years. And finally there was finding
belated happiness in my work and family life. I
have lived in Cairo for a long time now. I teach
philosophy, which mostly means critical thinking
in a part of the world that especially suffers from
its lack. Would I have landed here without Ecolint? Doubtful. What did Ecolint provide? Well,
there’s the cosmopolitan environment, which
was not inconsequential (one did not come out
of Ecolint a xenophobe or racist). There was the
So what was it that I forgot? This is not an encomium to my old school for a life of fantastic accomplishment. I think of myself more as a survivor. But
I do wish to thank Ecolint for my survival.
There is no more challenging environment than
the Middle East today, just as there was nothing
more challenging than beating Le Rosey for the
cup (was there a cup?) in Form Three. That’s
what I forgot, in the intensity of my engagement
in the world: the intensity of my engagement with
my school. The intensity not only of the football
experience, but of the classroom experience and
not only of the classroom experience, but of the
friendships and of what we now call the “little” successes and failures. I don’t know if there was a
cup, but I remember that final game. It was a big
success for our team. The successes and failures
were only “little” from our “big” perspective, from
the outside, because we have forgotten how they
felt. Ecolint was an intense school environment.
We can forget the cup, but a way of being is not a
matter of memory so cannot be forgotten. Ecolint
had a genuine, if unarticulated, way of being, an
ethos. For that ethos I am eternally grateful.
A special thank-you to Sue Anthony for helping
me to remember.
Walter Lammi / 62
As I grow older
As I grow older, I find myself contacting more
people from the past. This was sparked off by
the last alumni reunion in Geneva, which certainly gave me a great high. At the end of that fabulous weekend, I wanted to also contact some of
those who couldn’t make it.
I have been in touch with Rami Khouri, who has
come to Geneva a few times. One day, we met at
the airport, and sat upstairs on the rainy terrace
with a makeshift lunch, watching the planes land
and take off, the way he would when the airport
and jets were young and fresh. Now I regularly
receive Rami’s insightful weekly column on the
Middle East, essential reading these days.
Another day, I got on the internet, and found
Chantaka Puranananda, alive and well in
Thailand, doing amazing interior design, if the
stuff on the internet is anything to go by.
academic education itself, which for many of us
was excellent. (And for some, who will not be
telling us themselves, disastrous because they
did not fit well; I have a particular old friend for
whose sake this should be admitted.) There was
the beauty and tasteful wealth of our surroundings, which had a positive effect on the soul
that draws me back and, paradoxically, makes it
easier now to live amidst pollution, overpopulation, grinding poverty and hugely evident human
suffering. Perhaps philosophy helps with that
balance, but Ecolint certainly helped with the
disposition for philosophy.
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He said he planned to come through here, and
would like to get together with Manuel Araoz and
I for a «crack-up» as he put it. Anyone else want
to join us - whenever Chan comes through?
I also managed to contact the Winets - David and
Jonathon - and hope to see the latter this summer when he comes to Europe. I then managed
to telephone their mother Muriel, a lady who treated me as an adult back in the mid-1960s, and
introduced me to Barbara, Brassens and Brel.
I would love to go to the USA reunion in Copper
Mountain, to see all you 1960s crowd and others,
but have other engagements. In this connection,
it is great to see the paintings of Richard Bruland
on the internet. What a super group of people
who went to that School ....
Zafar Shaheed / 67
ALUMNI NEWS
• Ecolint Artists
At some point in the lives of most Ecolint Alumni we have discussed with each other the impact of our
experience at Ecolint on who or what we do today. Several reunion organizers have invited prominent
Alumni to speak at the reunions to expound upon this topic. The Ecolint Rocky Mountain chapter has
invited artist Richard Bruland LGB 64 to show and talk about his work at the 2006 North American
Reunion weekend, July 27-31 in the Colorado Rockies at Copper Mountain Resort. We are also very
pleased that other artists have offered to provide us with images of their work for the PowerPoint presentation. that will be shown at the opening reception. At this time Aya Tanimura, La Chât 99; Marina
Chaves Preston, LGB 68; Billie Wayne Willsie, LGB 72; Donna Callighan, Laurie Noebels Munn, LGB
65 and Susan Sweetser Clifford, LGB 39 have arranged to be included. We look forward to hearing
from other Ecolint artists who would like to share their work with the Ecolint community.
Patricia Hillis / 70 LGB
Le cinéma international à l’Ecolint
de 1956 à 2006
C’est en 1956 que cette nouvelle activité a
semble-t-il fait ses débuts sur l’initiative de
M. Meyer et M. Scheurer. A l’époque l’approvisionnement en films était limité en Suisse mais
de nombreux films muets, noir / blanc d’Alain
Renais à Cocteau, à Sacha Guitry ont été présentés. Le flambeau a été repris à différentes époques et c’est en 2005 qu’a été fondé, par Marshall
Sapherson et moi-même, l’Ecolint International
Film Club.
L’année 2006, notre première saison, nous a
permis de présenter divers films (sous-titrés) de
neuf différents pays et d’époques très différentes,
chacune à leur façon témoignant de l’histoire du
cinéma. Du superbe film de propagande Bronenostes Potyomkin réalisé en URSS en 1925 par
Eisenstein, au très anglais A Room with a View
réalisé par l’américain James Ivory et produit
par l’indien Ismail Merchant. De l’excellent Good
Morning, Babylon produit par les frères italiens
Taviani à Hollywood en passant par l’authentiquement indien, mais pas très bollywoodien,
Monsoon Wedding, au très sombre Los Olvidados réalisé en 1950 par l’espagnol Luis Buñuel,
exilé au Mexique, à Central do Brasil du brésilien
Walter Salles, formé à l’école de cinéma USC,
l’antre du cinéma hollywoodien. Chacun de ces
films d’une culture différente sont, dans certains
cas, eux-mêmes déjà des exemples de la diversité culturelle que permet la création cinématographique. Il nous reste encore à voir le très poétique Sayat Nova réalisé en Arménie sous l’ère
soviétique, Once Were Warriors réalisé en 1994
en Nouvelle-Zélande sur le sujet encore très actuel de la détresse des Maori, et enfin l’une des
pierres de fondation de la nouvelle-vague qu’est
Les Quatre Cent Coups de François Truffaut.
tration. Le nombre moyen de spectateurs a oscillé autour de la vingtaine par séance, avec une
séance qui n’a réuni pas moins d’une quarantaine de spectateurs ! Nous nous réjouissons, de
par l’affirmation de ce ciné-club international, de
voir l’audience augmenter l’an prochain !
Merci et bravo à notre professeur Marshall
Sapherson et à toute l’équipe d’animateurs pour
toute la préparation et un programme riche en
couleurs !
Venez nombreux l’année prochaine, afin que
ce ciné-club si représentatif de l’esprit de notre
école s’inscrive dans les habitudes !
Julien Domercq / present C13 student at LGB
– graduating in June 2006
Zakiyah Kadry / 78 LGB – PA, USA
[email protected]
‘I am presently Chief of the Division of Transplant
Surgery at the Penn State Milton S Hershey Medical
Center. I completed a degree in Medicine at the
Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin, Ireland in
1983, followed this by a residency training in general
surgery in the United States at the Penn State Milton
S Hershey Medical Center. This was followed by a
multiorgan abdominal transplant surgery fellowship
specialization at the University of Pittsburgh. I then
returned to Switzerland where I worked for approximately 10 years, my last post being at the University of Zurich where I was responsible for the liver
transplant program from May 2000 until end June
2003. I was then recruited back to the University of
Pittsburgh Thomas E Starzl Institute and while I was
there was approached to join the Penn State Milton
S Hershey Medical Center. I have been at the latter
institution since 1 June 2005.
My sister May Kadry is also a medical doctor who
has her own practice in Switzerland. I will bring the
website to her attention and ask her to contact you
with her news.’
Farah Fawaz / 98 LGB – Beirut, Lebanon
[email protected]
‘I got the alumni address from the Ecolint website.
I attended La Grande Boissière from 1986-1993 (from
2nd grade to 8th grade) when we left right before
high school and moved back to Beirut, Lebanon.
I’ve lost touch with many of my classmates and
was wondering how to get their contact info. I know
it’s been ages since Ecolint, but when I think back,
I have great memories, and would love to see the
faces of my childhood again.’
Tony Girolo / 00 – Philadelphia, USA
[email protected]
‘I am living in Philadelphia and I am graduating with
my masters degree from The Pennsylvania Academy
of the Fine Arts in May 2006. The time I spent in Geneva was one of the happiest times of my life. I hope
things are going well with the school. Sabah Salman
and Janis Pozzi-Johnson were important people to
my development as an artist.’
Daniel Krass / 00 LGB – Los Altos Hills, USA
[email protected]
‘I am visiting LGB for the first time in 10 years and it
is a wonderful stroll down memory lane. I graduated
from Williams College in Massachussetts in June
2005 with a BA in Math. I’m still trying to figure out
what to do next with my life as I am currently employed part-time as a tutor and musician and I am still
taking some classes at Community College. I would
love to reconnect with any member of the 8th grade,
class of 1996, namely ; Jay, Annic, Doron, etc. ’
Chaque séance donne l’occasion d’une présentation par un professeur, un élève ou un membre
de l’administration et d’un débat. C’est aussi l’opportunité de créer un lien utile entre les élèves
de toutes les filières, et quand le film est approprié de tous les âges, l’école moyenne étant la
bienvenue aux projections. Le déroulement, tous
les lundis et l’horaire de fin de journée, nous a
également permis d’accueillir des parents, des
professeurs et des collaborateurs de l’adminis-
Dmitri Zinkine/96 - Moscow, Russia
[email protected]
‘10 years have passed by and I’m now back in Geneva on a visit to Ecolint. Many things have changed
- I’ve changed too. I would like to find my classmates
- please reply via e-mail.’
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• Spring 2006
Retired members of staff
• Irene Echard
La Grande Boissière
Irene Echard has been associated with the Châtaîgneraie campus of the
Foundation for over thirty years, the first ten as a parent, the next twenty
as a teacher. My first memory of her is as a parent standing outside Michel
Chinal’s office , smiling. In fact, she always seemed to be smiling whenever
I saw her. That’s one of the reasons why we hired her to teach Spanish all
those years ago!
• Ghislaine Ehinger
J’ai rencontré Ghislaine il y a 20 ans à la réception de La Grande Boissière. Elle n’a cessé d’accueillir les nombreux visiteurs avec le sourire et sa
manière calme d’affronter des situations parfois stressantes m’a toujours
impressionnée. Ghislaine a beaucoup donné à l’école. Elle a toujours géré
les affaires quotidiennes du bureau d’accueil avec beaucoup de discrétion,
apportant son soutien aux nombreux élèves, membres du personnel et parents sollicitant son aide par téléphone ou en personne.
Irene was a vital member of team Spanish, not only because she could teach
all levels from Beginners 7th grade to IB A1 Grade 13 with equal success, but
also because of the role she played in the team itself: discussing, planning,
innovating etc. She invested an immense amount of time and energy in her
work, far more than what could normally be expected of a part-time teacher.
Outside the Modern Languages Department she was a tireless supporter and
planner of Fieldweek, to the extent that she actually organized and led the
10th Grade F-W trip to Barcelona in September 2005, after her retirement.
J’ai beaucoup aimé nos conversations sur ses voyages en Afrique du Sud et
sur ses nombreux centres d’intérêt extra-scolaires: la sophrologie, le tai chi,
les randonnées, ses concerts de chorale, son ouverture d’esprit à tant d’activités diverses.Ghislaine a maintenant pris sa retraite et elle pourra ainsi rendre visite à ses enfants et petits-enfants en Afrique du Sud et au Mexique.
J’en suis heureuse pour elle. Elle me manquera beaucoup et je lui souhaite
tout le bonheur possible pour cette nouvelle étape de sa vie. J’adresse un
grand merci à Ghislaine pour sa gentillesse et sa compréhension.
Equally, she was a key player in the pleasantly lunatic atmosphere that prevails down the Spanish end of our office on frequent occasions. When she
and I had not collapsed on the floor in helpless mirth when Rosie SmithGillespie was making one of her legendary phone calls to order dental braces
from her plumber or spare parts for her car from her hairdresser – Rosie has
a bit of a problem at times…… – Irene was herself gyrating round the office
with Isa Perez-Danis and Rosie to the rhythm of a samba being played at full
volume, with the office door open and goggle-eyed students staring in.
Martine Terrell
La Châtaigneraie
• Mme Piera Bonada
One of the things I really regretted was that Irene left before our new language laboratory was fully functional, because one way and another she put
a lot of time and effort into promoting computer assisted language learning in
the department. We have made a serious attempt to hoist ourselves into the
technological world of the 21st. C. in the Modern Languages Department. We
are perhaps not absolutely convinced that computers offer all the answers to
our problems, but few of us have so little faith in them as Irene who has been
known to tipex out a typing error on the screen.
Certaines personnes en marquent d’autres...
A l’heure où nous entamons la rédaction de ces quelques lignes, nous
avouons nous sentir honorés quoiqu’un peu démunis. En effet, il s’agit pour
nous de saluer par un hommage une personnalité de l’Ecole Internationale
qui a dorénavant décidé de s’engager sur le chemin d’une retraite amplement méritée, et force est de constater que nous ne disposons pas des
renseignements biographiques généralement divulgués à cette occasion,
comme, par exemple, le cursus académique du personnage, le nombre
d’années passées à enseigner ou encore les noms et lieux des différents
établissements scolaires qui ont pu bénéficier de ses connaissances et
méthodes à haute valeur ajoutée. Mais, après tout, est-ce là ce qui est
à retenir en premier lieu ? Certainement pas quand on considère que la
Signora en question porte le nom de Bonada.
One of Irene’s major contributions over the years was the subtle role she
played as a cohesive force between the two language sections in the school.
She always taught students out of both sections. Her friendly, conciliatory and
very positive nature allied to her language skills – she is trilingual in French,
Spanish and English - made it possible for her to get along with everybody.
To my knowledge she never once had a difference of a personal nature with
anyone.
Irene has not really left the school at all. She is still in regular contact with
the Modern Languages Department, still does the occasional stint of replacement teaching, still makes empanadas for her former colleagues’ classes.
She was, is, fun to have around, fun to work with. To my mind, there are few
more important things that one can ask from one’s colleagues.
Pas de curriculum vitae, donc…mais il y a bien mieux à raconter. En effet, Madame Bonada représente pour nous et pour celles et ceux qui la
connaissent l’irremplaçable Première Ambassadrice du pays dont elle nous
a enseigné la langue et la culture avec tant d’enthousiasme et de passion.
Car c’est à travers son amour pour sa langue maternelle et la culture de
son pays que la connaissance nous a été transmise. Personnalité hors du
commun, elle nous a emmenés bien au-delà du simple apprentissage de
la grammaire et des principaux textes et auteurs. Madame Bonada nous
a offert et fait partager son addiction à la culture italienne au travers d’un
enseignement atypique et subtil, teinté de travail sérieux, de manières
irrésistibles, d’une maîtrise absolue du sujet, de Commedia dell’Arte et
de grandes colères…toujours à buts pédagogiques !
John Monks
• Peter Giroux
Peter Giroux who taught Geography at La Châtaigneraie from 1978, retired in 2005 in order to travel and to pursue one of his great passions –
carpentry.
Former students of Peter will fondly remember him as a teacher who, without the aid of modern gadgets, could hold his classes spellbound with
his knowledge, his infectious enthusiasm and his love of both Geography
and current affairs. Apart from the superlative quality of his teaching, Peter
led many La Chât field weeks (including expeditions to Morocco), showed
endless patience as a ski instructor and displayed quiet good humour to all
colleagues who had the pleasure of working with him.
The La Chât community wishes Peter a well-deserved and busy retirement.
Nous sommes certains qu’elle a marqué beaucoup d’entre nous et qu’elle
continuera à marquer d’autres élèves de tous âges. Car cette retraite ne
sonne sans doute pas la fin de son enseignement, ne serais-ce qu’au travers du rôle qu’elle continue à jouer au sein de l’institution de la Società
Dante Alighieri, sise rue du Perron, à Genève. Toujours au service de la
culture italienne.
Camillo Gonseth et Filippo Christen
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• Yvonne Pottinger - from Glen’s perspective
• Helen Inman
When I answered the knock at the door in the summer of 1974, I saw a
young woman with long blond hair and a happy smile that started at her
lips and reached right up to her eyes. This was my first glimpse of Yvonne
Pottinger. Somehow, I knew that we would become friends and I was right.
Here we are more than 30 years later, still enjoying a good glass of wine
and a lot of shared laughter together. She speaks three languages fluently,
“my loves” everyone, is adored by all her ex students and is one of that rare
breed of teachers who parents can find no apparent fault with!
When Yvonne moved to the Lycee des Nations, we all lived in Nyon in a
small apartment block with an uninterrupted view of the Jura. No commercial centres, no Monday morning opening, Saturday ski outings and very
few members of staff over the age of 30. She was determined to learn to
drive and so bought a Mini. My poor husband, Mike, was the designated
sacrificial lamb who accompanied her to school every morning. Yvonne
changed gear because the manual told her to, not because she was at one
with the car. “Watch out for that tractor”, he warned. “What tractor?” she
says. ”The one right in front of the car.” He shouts!! And so it continued…..
until her parents visited and proudly told all and sundry that she was doing
well, really much better than in England where she had already failed her
test, BUT, she had only had 100 lessons!! Her Swiss instructor gave her a
hug and champagne when she took off the “L” plates. Everyone in the local
community took her into their hearts and homes, she has friends all over the
world and she still says “my love” to all and sundry. Is it any wonder that we
all remember her with great fondness and wish her the most exciting and
active retirement possible. (I know how old you are and you’ll always be a
month older than me!!).
Helen and David Inman came to Geneva in 1979. Helen’s early days here
were spent looking after her three children, Jennie, Kirsty and Alan, who
enjoyed a local education including their secondary years at La Châtaigneraie.
Helen returned to teaching when she joined the Science department in
1996; she taught Science for two years before transferring to the Mathematics department where she was a valued and conscientious colleague until
June 2005. At that point she took early retirement, among other reasons to
fully enjoy being a young grandmother.
Helen was a quiet, stabling influence in the department and was always
willing to share her ideas and expertise. She was always a dedicated and
caring teacher with a most professional attitude towards all aspects of her
work. She was greatly appreciated by all her students and always found
extra time to help them individually. Her organizational skills were the envy
of most of us in the department and she is already being greatly missed.
She will now have more time to follow her favourite pursuits of walking and
travelling and everyone in the Maths department wishes her a most enjoyable and rewarding retirement.
Alison Ryan
Tributes to other retired members of staff will be published in the next
edition of the Alumni ‘Newsletter’.
- from Michael’s perspective
NAISSANCES
I am reminded of Yvonne every time I see the well-trodden path between
the fish tank in her class, and the toilets. Flush flush.
“Another one, Yvonne?”
“He had a good life, my love,”
Yvonne Pottinger was not very good at keeping goldfish. I was fortunate
enough to teach class 5 with Yvonne for the last four years and, like everyone else, was struck by the depth of her popularity with children, parents
and colleagues- in fact, anyone who wasn’t a fish. Working with Yvonne
was fantastic because she is always such fun. She can drive quite well,
now. Glen takes over her class 5 and the one surviving fish.
Toutes nos félicitations à :
Ken / 86 and Anne Gulick would like to announce the safe arrival of their daughter,
Juliette Josephine Gulick, born on 28 February 2006 in Boston, Massachusetts,
USA.
Andrew / 87 and Yasmine Hunt, are pleased to announce the birth of their daughter, Inès, born on 29 December 2005 in Nyon, Vaud.
Ian / 88 and Hélène McClellan, are pleased to announce the birth of their son,
Simon, born on 30 November 2005 in Geneva.
- from Michelle’s perspective
Daniel / 89 and Lucinda O’Hanlon, are happy to announce the birth of their son,
Morrison, born in Geneva on 17 December 2005.
Yvonne a été, dans notre école, un exemple parfait de bilinguisme mais, fait
beaucoup plus rare, elle était aussi biculturelle.
Et c’est lors de nos déjeuners ensemble à la cafétéria, là où l’on essayait
de parler d’autre chose que de travail, que nous avons tissé des liens qui
se sont révélés très bénéfiques à l’ambiance de notre équipe de travail en
classe 5. Nous n’étions pas toujours d’accord sur tout, mais nous avions
beaucoup de points communs et surtout, il y avait entre nous une estime
mutuelle qui a été le ciment de notre coopération. Coopération qui s’est
toujours passée dans la bonne humeur, clins d’œil, sourires et fous rires
rendant certaines tâches fastidieuses beaucoup plus supportables. Je retiendrai avec tendresse le souvenir de son sens de l’humour très développé
et de sa générosité.
Agnes de Guzman Borges / 90 and Antonio Borges are pleased to announce the
birth of their son, Alexandre Bayani, born on 19 January 2006 in London, UK.
Nathalie Albrow Kavalier / 91 and Jonathan Kavalier gave birth to Laelia Emily
on 28 September 2005 in Washington DC.
Alma de Guzman Hiatt / 00 and Tom Hiatt are happy to announce the birth of
their baby girl, Asia Malaya, on 7 October 2005 in Provo, Utah, USA.
MARIAGES
By Glen Pasternak, Michael Noonan and Michelle Dagault
Toutes nos félicitations à :
Sujata Kelkar / 93 and Nitest Shetty who married on 24 March 2006 in Mumbai, India.
Robert Douglas / 95 and Karoline Klingspor who were married in Heidelberg,
Germany, on 4 June 2005.
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IN MEMORIAM
• Léonard Cuénoud / 94
– le 3 août 2005
• Jacqueline Darolle / 82
– le 21 décembre 2005
• Isabelle Frances Eastman McNeill / 41
– 3 November 2005
Léonard Cuénoud …. Qu’il est difficile d’écrire un
article pour le journal des anciens en commençant par ‘Léonard Cuénoud’ quand on sait qu’il
va falloir parler au passé, et finir par dire ce qu’on
n’a pas envie de dire mais que le lecteur devine
puisque les lignes sont dans cette rubrique, à
cela destinée, celle des mauvaises nouvelles :
‘Léonard Cuénoud nous a quittés’. Euphémisme
traditionnel et pusillanime, frôlant la vérité, mais
frileusement, de loin, bien incapable de traduire
le vide et la douleur qui désormais habitent ses
proches et ceux qui l’ont connu, apprécié, aimé,
dans son cas le premier verbe provoquant d’emblée l’apparition des deux suivants. ‘Il a mis un
terme à sa vie’, m’a dit son père, à sa belle vie
si élégante, si lumineuse, si industrieuse, facétieuse, créative, intelligente et aimante…
Nous avons eu la chance de l’abriter dans nos
murs pendant deux ans, de 1992 à 1994, avec
son chapeau noir, son manteau noir, son stylo
Mont-Blanc noir à encre noire, et ses yeux si
clairs, si clairvoyants, si souriants et bienveillants, si ouverts sur le monde et surtout le
monde de l’Art… C’est dans cette voie qu’il a
continué, à Londres, au Sotheby’s Institute,
puis à Manchester, couronnant tout cela d’un
diplôme de gestion culturelle à Bâle. Dès lors, il
a travaillé pour la Collection Hess d’Art contemporain à Bâle, jusqu’à son décès, le 3 août 2005,
à l’âge de 32 ans.
Jacky Darolle s’en est allée le 21 décembre 2005,
à l’âge de 82 ans, après une lente et douloureuse
agonie de 4 mois, atteinte de l’inexorable maladie d’Alzheimer. Elle n’avait plus de goût à rien,
malgré les excellents soins qu’elle recevait dans
l’hôpital de Nouvelle-Zélande où elle était traitée.
Isabelle sadly passed away on 3 November
2005 at her home in Palo Alto, USA. She received her BA and MA from the university of Toronto
and her PhD from Stanford university in French
Literature. She then taught French literature and
language at Stanford from 1972 to the mid-80s.
Isabelle had a deep appreciation for and understanding of European and world history. She was
delighted when her dear husband, Ian, retired
from Palo Alto Medical Foundation in 1987 because it gave them more time to travel together
throughout Europe, play tennis and walk through
Foothills Park. She was the daughter of Canadian diplomat and university professor of history,
S.M. Eastman, who served in the League of Nations, and of accomplished French painter, Antonia Larribe Eastman. Isabelle is survived by her
husband, their three sons and their daughter.
Et voilà… A peine commencés, cette vie et l’article sont déjà finis, si peu de place pour tant de
merveilles et de grâces raffinées, pour un spécialiste du land-art infini qui avait tant à dire et
tant à faire…
Marie-Claire Vigneau
• Charles John Tottenham / 31
– 31 January 2006
Charles John Tottenham / 31, Eighth Marquess
of Ely, died in hospital in Port Hope, Ontario, on
31 January 2006 at the age of 92. His son, John
also attended the International School. Charles
Tottenham was a teacher and then principal of
the Trinity College School in Port Hope, Ontario,
for more than 40 years. Our heartfelt condolences to his family.
Elle avait passé 34 années à Ecolint, de 1948 à
1982. Jusque-là elle résidait en France où elle
avait connu en particulier la dureté des années
de la 2è guerre mondiale. Après la guerre, elle
enseigna dans une école Montessori et dans un
orphelinat juif à Paris. Venue à Genève en 1948
pour rendre visite à un ami qui enseignait à l’Ecole
Internationale - qui était encore à l’époque une
école italienne dont le Château a toujours gardé
les armoiries - elle eut l’occasion de rencontrer
Manguère dont la personnalité l’avait immédiatement conquise. Comme elle semblait très attirée
par un éventuel emploi à l’école, Manguère l’avait
présentée à la directrice, Mme Maurette, autre forte personnalité, qui confia à Jacky pour la rentrée
scolaire suivante, à la fois un enseignement dans
la section primaire et des charges à l’internat.
The Eastman Family
• Georges-André Fiechter / 48
– le 28 février 2006
En 1952, elle s’était liée d’amitié avec Betty Bown
qui enseignait dans la section anglaise. Aussi,
quand elle abandonna ses fonctions à l’internat
pour devenir externe, Betty et elle cherchèrent
un appartement dont elles pourraient partager
les frais. Elles y demeurèrent durant tout le reste
de leur séjour à Genève. Comme Betty était néozélandaise, toutes deux partagèrent dès lors leur
temps entre l’Europe et la Nouvelle-Zélande, en
effectuant de nombreux voyages.
Nous avons la grande tristesse de vous informer
du décès de Georges-André Fiechter survenu
brusquement le 28 février 2006 à la suite d’une
longue maladie supportée avec courage. Nos
sincères condoléances vont à la famille et à ses
amis. Un texte de souvenir sera publié dans le
prochain bulletin des Anciens.
J’avais rencontré Jacky lorsque je suis arrivé à
Ecolint en 1957. Bien que nos enseignements
n’étaient pas dans les mêmes tranches d’âges,
les circonstances ont fait que nous nous sommes rencontrés, en découvrant de nombreux
points d’affinité. Nous avions plaisir à nous rencontrer et à bavarder, notamment au cours des
repas qui étaient encore servis dans la grande
salle à manger de Mme Paroisse.
• Jane Bell Davis / 68
– 31 December 2005
La disparition de Jacky dans des conditions particulièrement pénibles m’affecte profondément,
comme elle doit affecter tous ceux et celles qui
l’ont connue à l’époque. Elle a été une figure de
l’Ecole qui a envers elle une dette de reconnaissance pour les générations d’élèves qu’elle a
remarquablement formés.
Gérard Renaud / 67
Bureau des Anciens
Jane Bell Davis died suddenly on December
31, 2005. A 1966 graduate of Ecolint, she attended Bennington College. After graduation
she had been professionally active as an editor
and reviewer for Art in America Magazine, as a
freelance editor, and as a licensed professional
social worker in New York City. She was also
an active member of the congregation of Trinity
Episcopal Church in Manhattan. She is survived
by her husband, Douglas Davis and daughter,
Charlotte Victoria Davis, both of New York City,
by her father, Harry Bell, of Thonon-les-Bains,
France, and by a circle of loving friends. She
is remembered for her keen intellect, her ready
wit, and her generous heart.
Heidi Koring
INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL ALUMNI ASSOCIATION
ASSOCIATION DES ANCIENS DE L’ECOLE INTERNATIONALE
62, route de Chêne | CH - 1208 Genève
Tel : +41 22 787 25 55 | Fax: +41 22 787 26 35 | Portable : +41 79 449 50 43
[email protected] | http://alumni.ecolint.ch
A web edition of this ‘Newsletter’ is posted on the new Alumni website at http://alumni.ecolint.ch
Une version internet de cette ‘Newsletter’ peut être consultée sur le site des anciens : http://alumni.ecolint.ch
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