Reunions often provide an opportunity to reflect on experiences in a way one often does not in the moment. Reunion Weekend, June 5–7, was one of those opportunities as 750 Loomis, Chaffee, and Loomis Chaffee alumni and their guests came to campus. There were speakers and class photos, dinner and dancing, food trucks and face-painting, student-led walking tours of campus and trips up to the cupola atop Founders Hall and, of course, trips down memory lane. 

David Rogan ’76, a member of the Loomis Chaffee Board of Trustees who was celebrating his 50th reunion, spoke to a capacity audience in the Norris Ely Orchard Theater (NEO) on Saturday morning, where he offered some reflections before introducing Head of School Jody Reilly Soja and her “state of the school” address.  

“Over the years,” David said, “I have grown to appreciate just how much the Loomis Chaffee education meant to me and changed my life. Perhaps, many of you feel the same way.” That sentiment was evident throughout the weekend. 

David mentioned that many had traveled long distances to attend Reunion Weekend. New Zealand, Brazil, Germany, Hong Kong, Beijng were represented, he said. There were two dozen from California, including David, and reunion-goers came from Washington, Texas, Florida, and Maine, “every corner of the country,” he said.  

David encouraged everyone to take advantage of the programming on campus during the weekend. He had found himself at 8:15 a.m. trying a pilates class led by trustee Ariel Williams ’06 — “not very successfully but it was a lot of fun,” he said. 

The parade of classes followed Jody’s state of the school talk. The annual walk starts outside the Nichols Center for Theater and Dance and ends in Grubbs Quadrangle, and at the head of the parade was Eva Stevens Clark of the Chaffee Class of 1954, the earliest class year represented in the parade this year. Eva had started her day at 8 a.m. for a breakfast of Chaffee graduates at Sill House in the dining room in which the Chaffee girls ate when they were students. Chaffee is celebrating its 100th anniversary during the 2026–27 school year. On Saturday afternoon, Evie Smith, who died in January, was remembered. Evie ’50 spent 34 years as a teacher and administrator at Chaffee and Loomis Chaffee. 

Toward the end of the parade of classes were Class of 2016 and 2021 members, here for their 10th and fifth reunions. 

“So much … changed,” said Samantha Hasenblag ’16, a special education teacher in Connecticut, “but when I walked in I instantly felt that Pelican pride, remembering everything I loved about Loomis Chaffee. I was actually talking about this last night — I attribute my success in college and in my work to Loomis. I learned such amazing study skills, met some great people. ... There was lot of laughter and lot of great discussions.” 

Simone Moales ’21 took a step out of the parade line to talk to a former teacher. Simone was the president of the class and works as a staff assistant with the Congressional Black Caucus in Washington, D.C. 

“It feels amazing to be back,” Simone said. “I think the four years here always represents a home environment, and so to return to family is extremely comforting. ... I am really excited to be back with 76 of my classmates for a time of catching up, reuniting, and sharing the Loomis joy.” 

Director of Educational and Administrative AI Initiatives Matt Johnson spoke at a Saturday afternoon session about the school’s approach to artificial intelligence, which he said is potentially “one of the most transformative technologies of our lifetimes. ... Living and working in the Loomis Chaffee community are fundamentally human endeavors. Given the increasing presence of artificial intelligence in the world, we must respond with our humanity at the center.” 

That humanity was on display in an email from a student that Jody showed during her address. In the email, the student said how fortunate he was to be part of this community. The student reflected on an all-school meeting in May in which employees were celebrated for five-year milestones in their time on the Island. The student was struck by the reactions for those in roles that might go unnoticed. “It’s way too often that jobs like maintenance and cleaning get overlooked as do the people working [those jobs]. That is not the case at Loomis,” the student wrote. “All the time I hear students across the board remark about how much they love the person who helps tidy the dorm, or a campus security officer ... ”  

In another Saturday session, Joan Beard ’81, a visual artist; Lynn d’Angona ’81, a director and producer; and Craig Frederick ’81, a sculptor and professor, reflected on how their visual arts teachers at Loomis Chaffee shaped and inspired their careers.  

Also on Saturday, Steve Strogatz ’76, celebrating his 50th reunion, gave a presentation in the NEO called “The Joy of Math.” Steve is a professor at Cornell University, a bestselling author, a New York Times columnist, and someone who sees math everywhere.  

“I want to talk to you about something beautiful in math today,” Steve began, “but I feel I have to say something about teaching and what Loomis Chaffee gave me ... so pivotal, for many of us, getting us on our course of life.” 

One was math teacher Don Joffray, the subject of Steve’s 2009 book, The Calculus of Friendship: What a Teacher and a Student Learned about Life while Corresponding about Math. The book is about their shared love of calculus and more than 30 years of letters between them. Don also was remembered on Saturday with the dedication, in Don’s honor, of the Class of 1961 Scoreboard for Pratt Field. 

Another teacher Steve recalled was English teacher Jane Archibald. “I took a poetry class with her,” Steve said. “My level of understanding at the time was that ee cummings didn’t use the right punctuation or the lines looked funny on a page. She told me. ‘You’re supposed to listen to how it sounds. Don’t worry what it looks like, think about how it sounds.’ That was a big reveal for me. Poetry came alive.” 

Steve also took course taught by Jane about Southern women writers. “I didn’t know I was interested in that,” he said, “but I was because Jane taught it.” 

He did get back to “Math, Revealed,” getting a huge laugh when he gave yet another nod to Jane. Steve said he insisted on the comma between the words math and revealed in the title. 

Think about how it sounds, as Jane once said. 

“Math revealed is one thing,” he said. But math with a pause and emphasizing revealed is yet another. As he said, “Math — ba ba boom — revealed. It’s like a magical thing, but also this is reality revealed, the math that is hidden from your eye otherwise.” 

Scenes from Reunion 

“Changed My Life:” On a walk to the Meadows on afternoon where alumni soccer and lacrosse games were about to start, two people were chatting. One was telling a story. He said his parents had the choice to send him to the dentist for orthodontic work or to send him to school here. They couldn’t afford both.  

“They chose Loomis Chaffee,” he said, “and that changed my life.”   

He started talking about what Jim “Grim” Wilson, whom he called a legendary coach and builder of people, had done for him. Loomis Chaffee had recently bestowed its highest honor — The Henry R. Kravis ’63 Distinguished Service Award — on Grim, the longtime teacher, dorm head, and coach who spent 49 years on the Island. And on Friday, Grim had lunch off campus with some members of the Class of 1976 who were in town to celebrate their 50th reunion and who had taken Grim’s Wilderness and the Self course, an interdisciplinary study of the wilderness and human experiences therein.  

Football Glory: At one point school archivist Karen Parsons was in front of the library with John Smith ’61, who had scrapbooks and items from the 1960 Loomis football team, the first unbeaten, untied team since 1946. John’s father, John “Clipper” Smith, chronicled the season for his son, a lineman on the team. Ralph Erickson was the head coach of that team, but a familiar name that popped up all weekend was an assistant, Don Joffray. Clipper Smith played for the legendary Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne and later would coach him. Clipper is in the College Football Hall of Fame and went on to have a long career at Pratt & Whitney in Connecticut. 

Please check back for photos to be posted on the Reunion page.