Commencement & Alumni Reunion 2017 Celebrated June 2-4

Commencement for the Class of 2017 will take place on Sunday, June 4. 120 seniors will be awarded diplomas by Head of School Dr. Rodney V. De Jarnett, Upper School Principal Joseph Algrant, and Board of Trustees President Matthew Golub. The ceremony begins at 10:00 a.m. on Leggett Field adjacent to the Hajjar STEM Center.

Commencement ceremony keynote remarks will be given by Allison Davis. A television and non-profit executive with more than 40 years of experience who is often referred to as a “pioneer of cyber-journalism,” Davis graduated from Boston University with her B.S. degree in journalism in 1975. She went to work as a writer, producer, and on-air reporter for television stations including WBZ-TV (Boston, MA) and KDKA-TV (Pittsburgh, PA), then joined NBC News in 1981. Davis worked as a writer/executive producer for the popular morning broadcast The Today Show, as well as a producer for NBC News’ broadcasts Monitor, First Camera, and NBC Nightly News.  While at NBC Davis also developed and created the first-ever team of “cyber-journalists” -- a dedicated reporting team responsible for overseeing the first original news content on the Internet -- helping to launch MSNBC and, from 1994 through 1997, serving as the first executive producer of MSNBC.com.  

After leaving NBC and working for both CBS and Dunbar Productions, a company founded by Davis’ NBC colleague Bryant Gumbel, Davis went on to work as vice president and chief operating officer at the Jackie Robinson Foundation. In 2008, she founded Coopty Productions, which provides organizations with video production services. Davis was then appointed director of communications and media at New York’s Riverside Church in 2009, and, in 2011, she returned to the Jackie Robinson Foundation as director of communications, including working on promotions for the movie 42. During this time Davis also served as adjunct professor at CUNY’s Graduate School of Journalism, Howard University’s School of Communications and the City College of New York.

Davis was a founding member of the National Association of Black Journalists, an organization in which she is still active, including being inducted into their Hall of Fame in 2015. She participated in an African American oral history project that is now housed at the Library of Congress, and has received numerous awards and honors, including two Women in Communications Awards and several Emmy nominations. She also received Boston University’s Distinguished Alumni Award in 2009, and has been a National News Emmys judge since 2009. Currently Davis is serving as Executive Director for Arts Horizons NJ, a non-profit arts organization serving schools, senior centers, and hospitals in the New Jersey and New York metro area. She has been officially recognized by the national fraternal organization Alpha Kappa Alpha (AKA) as a "Hidden Figure" in broadcasting. Davis has served on the Board of Trustees for Dwight-Englewood School, and is the parent of Cooper Wright, an alumnus of the D-E Class of 2010.

During Commencement, the D-E Upper School Orchestra and Stage Band ensembles will perform, special readings and speeches will be made by D-E School administrators and several members of the Class of 2017, and three seniors will be announced and recognized with the School’s most prestigious awards: The Bailey Award; The Trustees’ Award; and The Senior Citizenship Prize. The Class of 2017 Matriculation List has also been released (click here to view). Congratulations to all our Class of 2017 graduates!

The evening of Friday, June 2 will kick-off numerous special events for alumni of Dwight, ESB, and D-E, who are celebrating their 50th and other milestone reunion years.

On Saturday, June 3, the 2013 D-E Distinguished Alumni Award, honoring exemplary professional and/or volunteer accomplishments, will be presented to Richard “Dick” Totten Button ESB ’47 and Susan Law Dake D ’67.

The Distinguished Alumni Award was established in 1997 to pay special tribute to alumni of the Dwight School, the Englewood School for Boys (ESB), and D-E. The award is presented for exemplary professional and/or volunteer accomplishments. It honors alumni whose achievements deserve special recognition by the school and by fellow graduates.

 

Dick Button ESB '47 is widely considered one of the premiere male figure skaters of all time. He dominated the world of figure skating for a seven-year period, winning two Olympic Gold medals (1948 and 1952), five consecutive World Championships, seven US National titles, and four North American and European Championships. He is also the only skater ever to make a Grand Slam sweep of all the major titles: United States, North America, European, World and Olympic Championships. Button invented the flying camel spin, which was originally known as the “Button Camel.”  He was the first skater ever to land a double-axel and a triple jump in competition.  In 1976 he was inducted into the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame. Button has also had a long and illustrious sports broadcasting and production career. He was the lead commentator on figure skating for four Winter Olympics:  Squaw Valley (1960); Salt Lake (2002); Torino (2006); and Vancouver (2010). He also served as a figure skating commentator on all three major television networks—ABC, CBS, and NBC—for more than 50 years.

In 1959 Button founded Candid Productions, a television production company that later created and presented many professional skating competitions such as the World Professional Figure Skating Championships and what is considered the first “reality TV” program, The Superstars, followed by The Junior Superstars, The Woman Superstars, The Team Superstars and The Battle of the Network Superstars. He earned an Emmy Award for Outstanding Sports Personality in 1981, and in 2015 he was the first honoree inducted in the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame in the Sports Analyst Category.  

Button continues today to be a skating analyst for United States Figure Skating Association (USFSA) and International Skating Union (ISU) events. He is also a national spokesperson for the Brain Injury Association of America and has built a diverse and distinguished collection of paintings, prints, posters, sculptures, costumes, and folk art that honors the long history, evolving artistry, and cultural impact of skating. Button is also the author of several books including most recently Push Dick’s Button: A Conversation on Skating from a Good Part of the Century—and a Little Tomfoolery.

Following his graduation from ESB in 1947, Button graduated from Harvard University with his B.A. (1952) and then went on to earn a Bachelor of Laws degree from Harvard Law School in 1955. No stranger to honors from the School, Button was inducted into the D-E Athletic Hall of Fame in 1996, the year that the Hall of Fame was created.

Susan Law Dake D '67 serves as president of the Stewart’s Foundation, a position she has held since 2002. In this role she oversees the allocation of approximately $2.5 million in funds to hundreds of non-profit organizations in the communities where Stewart’s Shops are located. The Foundation is committed to making the maximum positive impact in the following areas: education, health, arts, recreation/kids, social services and civic groups.

Prior to being named president of the Stewart’s Foundation, Dake was a teacher with the Saratoga Springs School System and then served as public affairs director for Stewart’s Shops for more than 20 years. Today she also serves on myriad non-profit boards, including Siena College, Empire State College Foundation, the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, the Saratoga Foundation, the Arnold Cogswell Foundation and the Dake Family Foundations.  Dake has been instrumental in raising funds for the YMCA of Saratoga, Skidmore College, the Community Hospice, Saratoga Hospital, Emma Willard School, Wildwood Programs, the National Museum of Dance, St Peter’s Health Partners, Home Made Theater, the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, and Siena College. For these and her other outstanding charitable activities, in 2013 Susan was presented by SUNY Empire State College with The Presidential Medal, the highest honor awarded by that institution. She also received the Volunteer Award from Hospice and Palliative Care Association New York in 2006 and has been recognized with an Outstanding Volunteer Fundraiser Award from the National Society of Fund-Raising Executives (NSFRE).

Following her graduation from the Dwight School in 1967, Dake earned her B.A. from Skidmore College and her Master’s of Reading from the State University of Albany.

The annual Induction Ceremony for the D-E Athletic Hall of Fame (AHF) will also take place on Saturday, June 3.  The D-E AHF was established in 1996 to honor those individuals who have achieved a high level of success during their careers as student athletes and coaches, or through significant contributions to the School’s athletic program.  Its purpose is to perpetuate the memory of those who have brought distinction and excellence to the Dwight School, the Englewood School for Boys, and the Dwight-Englewood School.   

 

Those being inducted into the AHF include Anne Meserole Cookman D ’32 (posthumous), Mike Vessa ’77, and the 1965 and 1966 ESB Varsity Soccer Teams. 

 

While at Dwight School, Anne Meserole Cookman D '32 played on the Varsity Basketball and Field Hockey teams as well as the intramural Baseball, Volleyball and Tennis teams.  She was President of the Student Government her senior year and a member of The Dwightonia Board.  Anne wrote the Dwight School prayer.  After graduation from Dwight School Anne played on the Varsity Field Hockey and Basketball teams at Vassar College. Anne later served as a Dwight School trustee in the late 1940s.   She was the female golf champion for 15 years at the Knickerbocker Country Club in Tenafly, NJ as well as the Bergen Country Golf Champion in 1964.  Anne is a part of a three-generation legacy family and is related to more than 14 alumni who attended Dwight, ESB, and D-E over the past 80 years.

 

Michael “Mike” Vessa '77 earned a total of 9 varsity letters in baseball, football, wrestling and lacrosse from 1974 to 1977, and he captained three teams at various points during his time at D-E. He was a member of the 1975 MAAPS Football Champion team. In wrestling, Mike garnered many achievements including First place in the Fairfield Invitational Wrestling Tournament in 1976, First Place in the Locust Valley Invitational Wrestling Tournament in 1977, and Fourth Place in the NJ State Prep School tournament in 1976.  Mike received a 1976 All-State Honorable Mention in the B Division and then in 1977 he was All-State 1st Team in the same division. Mike was awarded the Umps & Dux Award, the Luke Ward Award and the Balakian Sportade Award while attending the school. Mike went on to play varsity lacrosse for Skidmore College from 1977 to 1981 and was named Most Valuable Player in his senior year. Mike is currently is a Senior Vice-President for Lakeland Bank in Bernardsville, NJ.

 

Under the leadership of Co-Captains John Keating ESB ’66 and Jonathan Granoff ESB ’66 and the coaching of the late Karel “Charlie” Lender, the ESB 1965 Varsity Soccer Team was the school’s first undefeated soccer team in the seven season that there was a team.  The final record showed seven victories, no losses, and one tie. In nine games, the team allowed only 2 goals due to stellar goaltending by Phil Marchbank ESB ’66 and a very strong defense.

 

The 1966 ESB Varsity Soccer Team went undefeated for all nine games in regular season bringing the string of regular season games without a defeat to twenty-four for the school’s soccer program. Captain and center-forward John Pisani ’67 broke the Bulldog scoring record for one season with twelve goals earning him an Honorable Mention on the All-County team. The zenith of the season was the team’s being named State Champion for the Class B Independent Schools in New Jersey.

 

For more information about the 2017 Dwight-Englewood School Commencement and Reunion 2017 celebratory weekend, students and alumni being honored, and the Class of 2017 Matriculation List, please contact D-E Director of Communications and Publications Liz Tausner at tausne@d-e.org or 201-245-2897.