- Pine Cobble School

 

What are you currently doing?  

As a retired insurance executive, having been retired by a series of strokes, I am watching my retirement money grow smaller, my waist grow larger, my faith grow deeper, my kids move farther away, and my wife grow more tolerant. All in all it’s not an atypical state of affairs. I am working as a church administrator. Being a $1/year employee assures incredible job security. I golf poorly, fish often and read extensively. I am a lobbyist for the American Heart/Stroke Association and I am looking forward to our annual pilgrimage to Washington D.C. this year to take in the “new” Washington. Sharing tasteless e-mails with fellow Pine Cobble alum is my major vice.

 

Where did you go after Pine Cobble? 

As my fellow classmates, I entered prep school after Pine Cobble (Northfield/Mount Hermon). From Mt. Hermon I entered Grinnell College in Iowa and quickly learned that Iowa and I were ill-suited for each other. Transferring to Lake Forest College, I joined Hunters and Hewats in a more metropolitan and preppy college experience which prepared me well for my four year stint in the U.S.Army and Vietnam.  After roughly three tours in Southeast Asia as a linguist, I returned to civilian life, got married, and started an insurance career. Two kids (boy/girl) later and thirty years brings us up-to-date.

 

How did you Pine Cobble School affect the choices you have made since graduation? 

Why are these questions so easy? The quick easy answer is “not at all” and “in every possible way”. The very intimate colony of Pine Cobble of the 50’s was both way too insulating and taught all the best inter/intra personal skills needed to survive everything from exclusive prep school life and a not-so-exclusive third world war. Pine Cobble is where I started learning languages (French & Latin), as well as the language of a community. I learned about responsibilities and obligations as well as dealing with disappointment through wins and losses in sport, music and life. Pine Cobble guided me through those critical life baby-steps. They seemed small at the time, but they may have made all the difference.

 

Sputnik, Hunter’s basement, mathematics and Mrs. Pierce, History and Dr. Newell, soccer team with 5+ girls beating Deerfield, watching Chuckie and Gnome ski, Walt Lehman’s music/band, Bonnie Little’s humming, Dutch Hill, and Williams College.