Friday, June 10, 2011
Back to Class: Batter Up! A Conversation About America’s Pastime
4 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. at Salisbury School
Centennial Building, Class of 1998 Room
GUEST PANELISTS
Peter Clark
Salisbury Class of 1961
Collections Curator, National Baseball Hall of Fame
Clark is the curator of collections for the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY. In his role, he is responsible for knowing everything about the collections—what they have, where the artifacts are located, what their condition is as well as what is on loan or in permanent exhibits. He estimates insurance values on all objects, makes up loan agreements with other museums and institutions and sometimes even travels with valuable and “one of a kind” items. In addition, he works with those wishing to make donations and loans to the museum, and monitors the environments of exhibits and storage areas. He is also charged with the conservation functions of the museum—seeing that artifacts in need of restoration or repair receive treatment on a timely basis. And he is the museum’s longest-tenured employee at 38 years of service!
Clark is the curator of collections for the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY. In his role, he is responsible for knowing everything about the collections—what they have, where the artifacts are located, what their condition is as well as what is on loan or in permanent exhibits. He estimates insurance values on all objects, makes up loan agreements with other museums and institutions and sometimes even travels with valuable and “one of a kind” items. In addition, he works with those wishing to make donations and loans to the museum, and monitors the environments of exhibits and storage areas. He is also charged with the conservation functions of the museum—seeing that artifacts in need of restoration or repair receive treatment on a timely basis. And he is the museum’s longest-tenured employee at 38 years of service!
When asked why he is so passionate about baseball, Peter Clark ’61 enthusiastically replies, “It’s the American game and national pastime! There is no other game like it. I love the pastoral quality of baseball. It is played outdoors, on grass, and there is no time limit to the game, as in football or basketball. There is a ‘laid-back’ feeling to the game—no hitting or fighting with your opponent—that gets under one’s skin. I love the atmosphere at the ballpark, too—the smells, feelings of the crowd, and the sunlight or night air. All combine to make attending a ballgame a really fun and relaxing experience.”
Robert Gardner
Former Salisbury Faculty (1952-1989)
Author
Gardner joined the Salisbury faculty on May 1, 1952 and retired in June of 1989. During those 37 years he taught, at various times, Biology, Advanced Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Introductory Science, IPS, PS II, Energy and Physics for Poets and Astronomy. Gardner also coached football, baseball and basketball. While on the Hilltop, Gardner also was a dormitory parent, served on various committees, attending evening and summer courses and obtained two advanced degrees.
In 1989, Gardner decided to devote full time to writing, a vocation he had pursued on a part time basis for a number of years. Since that time, he has written over 100 books which are predominantly science related—co-authored encyclopedias on forensic science and communications as well as sever science textbooks including the 8th edition of PSSC Physics. He has also written books on sports.
Gardner has also co-authored three books with current faculty member Dennis Shortelle, who is also a panelist on Batter Up! Titles include: The Future and the Past, An Encyclopedia of Forensic Science (with his daughter as the third author), From Talking Drums o the Internet: An Encyclopedia of Communications Technology and more recently, Slam Dunk: Science Projects with Basketball. Gardner has also just completed a six-book science series for Enslow Publishers and he looks forward to continuing his work as an author.
Robert S. Reigeluth Jr.
Class of 1961
Sportswriter
Reigeluth is a graduate of Salisbury School and Hobart and Willam Smith Colleges. Reigeluth was a sportswriter for the News-Times, a daily paper published in Danbury, CT which covers western Connecticut and part of Putnam County in New York State for 31 years. In fact, the paper is close enough to New York to have made a commitment to cover the pro teams there; and for 25 years Reigeluth covered the Mets, Yankees, Jets, Giants and Rangers as well as covering briefly the Hartford Whalers while Howard Baldwin ’61 was the managing general partner of the franchise. He often traveled with these teams and with the University of Connecticut woman’s basketball team, which he covered for nine years before he retired. Reigeluth was also the paper’s golf writer. Reigeluth was the recipient of many writing awards sponsored by the Associated Press and the Connecticut Sportswriters Alliance.
Dennis Shortelle
Current Faculty Member
History Department
After completion of his master’s degree in Modern European History at Niagara University, Dennis came to Salisbury to teach U.S. History, as well as coach and serve as a dorm parent with his wife Kathy. They have one son, Matthew.
Early in Dennis’ teaching experience, he began to experiment with methods and objectives that led him to introduce a more "process-based" style of learning. In an effort to change student perceptions that history consists of mere memorization of facts, Dennis places less importance on the retention of a massive body of information, and stresses the importance of reasoning analysis, synthesis and evaluation of material.
Dennis completed the certificate of advanced study program at Wesleyan University in 1985 with a thesis on Negro League baseball. This work led to his book Forgotten Heroes: The Negro Baseball Leagues. Other publications include The Future and The Past, An Encyclopedia of Communication and the Encyclopedia of Forensic Science which Dennis coauthored with former faculty member Bob Gardner.
According to Dennis, writing, membership in various educational organizations, and work with both the New Jersey and Connecticut Councils on Humanities, "not only consistently reshape my curricular offerings at Salisbury, but also serve to renew my own interest in history and improve my teaching skills."
Dennis and his family live in Trustees House.
Sam Simmons
Assistant Headmaster
Current Faculty Member
English Department
Sam grew up in Minnesota, and began his English teaching and hockey coaching career at Bellows Free Academy in St. Albans, Vermont. In 1978 he accepted a job at South Kent and spent the next twenty years there. In addition to teaching and coaching, Sam was also - at one time or another - the assistant headmaster, the director of admissions, the director of athletics, the editor of the alumni magazine, and an ex-officio member of the Board of Trustees. With his departmental colleagues at South Kent, Sam twice revised the English curriculum. He and Matt Corkery, Salisbury’s alumni secretary and assistant director of admissions, have played a major role in the expansion of the New England Prep School Ice Hockey Association, especially the annual post-season tournament and seniors' game; the week-long tournament has become one of the premier New England scholastic athletic events.
"For ages, I have taught sections of English, and lately I have been working with those students in the Third Form course. This has allowed me an opportunity to work closely with not only the youngest students at Salisbury, but also with their families. Oftentimes these are families who are involved with an independent boarding school for the first time. Teaching means I get a first-hand look at the true nature and mission of Salisbury School. My administrative responsibilities make it possible for me to work with the coordination of the lives of the boys, their families, and the faculty and staff on the Hilltop."
Sam believes that raising four children on a school campus has been a healthy, invigorating, and exciting challenge. The Simmons family lives in Meadowview House.