Exoniana: See Ya!

I took early graduation but then stayed on as a PG to learn and to cox the varsity crew. This was absolutely one of the best decisions of my life (picking the correct wife was pretty smart also...).I audited classes and was able to just listen and read. That allowed me to just soak up material and not have to worry about exams. I learned more in that one semester than in all of college and medical school. Most importantly, I took English 42x with Mr. Kane and I learned how to write.
I credit him and PEA with my 80 or so publications
to date.

Neil S. Kaye ’76

I graduated early and went home and worked and studied for a bunch of APs. Did well enough on the exams to get credit for 3 college classes, saved a semester of PEA tuition money, and made some money. And I graduated college a semester early
as well. Not bad!

Eleanor Silverman ’82

From February through June, I was in Kenya along with a dozen or so other high schoolers. Living in tents, we thatched roofs, built schoolhouses in remote areas, monitored wildlife… We visited coffee plantations, mosques, climbed Mount Kenya. Not without its risks, I did disappear for 10 days or so into a malaria-like haze of chills & fever. Got stung in the ass by a scorpion while pulling on my pants in the desert dawn. Army ants invaded our tents, a chigger egg sac was extracted from my foot. On tentless nights, don’t wander away from the fire (into predators). Some areas we explored were remote enough to be tagged as “lawless” (preyed upon by Ethiopian separatists). Lots of flat tires to repair. All part of the fun! Were the ’70s less anxious times?We were obviously well looked after.

Al Houghton’75

I graduated early in January 1974. I spent a semester at the University
of Grenoble in France.
I loved it. It was a terrific experience and I got a full semester of college credit. I improved my French and made lifelong friends.

Jane Feldman ’74

I graduated early.
I stayed on as a PG to collect AP credits knowing the instruction would be better than what I would experience in college and hoping to graduate early from there as well. The best part was that PGs were exempt from morning assembly.

Stephen R. Robinson ’73

Cornell gave me early acceptance into the arch-itecture school, so by early spring of 1972, I was all set to graduate early. But I decided to stay at Exeter. I took an architecture thesis project and joined the Outdoor Challenge program, which introduced me to the love
of the great outdoors.

To truly enjoy the cam-pus, I would also walk around the grounds and did a few ink drawings in order to capture the feel of the place. So, in a sense, I did
not graduate early physically from Exeter. But I took full advantage of the system and was able to stay and truly enjoy the school. To this day, that spring of 1972 remains the most important part of my life and I am forever indebted to the Academy.

Tom Sze ’72

I graduated early in January 1983. I went home to California and worked to save my family some money. I frankly never felt comfortable at Exeter and wanted to get back to a more familiar culture and environment as soon as I could. I attended college in California and aside from my time at Exeter, have never lived anywhere else. Exeter gave me the gift of seeing my home with fresh eyes, like Dorothy and Oz!

Valerie Wagner ’83

I graduated early class of 1973 and returned to Montana and joined my local high school peers I had not seen since 8th grade in the high school choir. I learned the string bass too for orchestra. I also became an active leader in my old Boy Scout Explorer troop and camped the next 9 months regularly before going to Claremont McKenna College. I mainly remember sleeping a lot the first two months after 3-1/2 yrs of Exeter.

Kevin C Halvorson ’73

Rather than graduate early, since I qualified for early graduation, I took the first half off from my senior year to travel through West Africa. Several fellow Exonians, plus some Dartmouth students, a couple faculty from both institutions and some other folks, 21 of us, chipped in together to buy 4 Land Rovers from the factory in England. We drove them across the Sahara and through all of West Africa, camping out along the way and taking part in assorted efforts at “cultural exchange.” It was way more eye-opening than anything I learned at Exeter.

I came back in January having grown up a lot in just a few months in good ways as well as in some less healthy ways, and then I managed, barely, to stay out of trouble long enough tograduate in June.

Banner Moffat ’74

I graduated early, stayed on as a PG and had a really fun semester (not having
to attend assembly was a perk). Did a lot of music and gave a piano/voice recital
in May. I recently unearthed my Exeter diploma and noticed that it was dated January 1982.

Pimkaeo Sundaravej ’82

That's how I got in. I was waitlisted for September and a spot opened up in January.

Cheryl Taylor ’79

Loved PEA so remained to swim and play lacrosse.
The highlight was working on a senior project with Jack Herney on the history of the Democratic Party in the town of Exeter, a fascinating insight into the political machine!

Gene Shen ’72

When I graduated early in January of 1972, I thought I was ready for the working world. I took a job in the mailroom of the NYC headquarters of Sperry & Hutchinson, on Madison Avenue and 42nd Street. ... It was a long way from the Harkness Table. The mailroom boss at S&H was an out-of-control screamer, and some staffers in the mailroom were on methadone to endure working there. To feed their habits, they even took packages of Green Stamps customers had mailed in. It felt Dickensian. I learned everything not to do for the remainder of my career, in which I prized team building, mentorship, empowerment, empathy and continuous improvement. That pre-university bath-of-fire inoculated me against bad workplace practices and gave me a head start in the corporate world. Harkness plus mailroom worked!

Dalton Delan ’72

I joined the Washington Intern Program that spring and worked for the National Committee Against Repressive Legislation (NCARL). Our mission was to advocate for the abolition of the House Un-American Activities Committee, that McCarthy-Era congressional body that later changed its name but remained a constant threat to individual freedom. We succeeded three years later when HUAC’s functions were transferred to the House Judiciary Committee.

Frank Dixon McPhillips ’72

I graduated early in ’82 — went to Greece to study and work for a semester. Amazing experience that changed my life.

Sarah Mayper ’82

I graduated in Jan. 1972. Did an internship with two Exeter alums (Mark Hutchins and Josh Butler — famed in Exeter history for founding WPEA). It was an odd-job unpaid internship but with room and board. Learned lots of construction skills, TV repair, newspaper photog, etc., etc. At the time it didn't seem like a very good internship but in retrospect a lot of hands-on skills were learned.

Dennis Wang ’72

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From the Editor

In 1968, Robert M. Galt, Exeter’s Dean of Faculty, posed a question to his colleagues: “When a boy is ready to go to college, should we insist that he stay any longer at Exeter?”

The answer came a year-and-a-half later, when on Jan. 28, 1970, 54 students were awarded diplomas in special graduation exercises. Thus began a mid-winter ritual, when seniors — boys and girls — who had fulfilled their diploma requirements chose to graduate early.

Hundreds of Exonians availed themselves of the opportunity “to engage in an undertaking of their own design,” as an editorial in The Exonian described it. The return of the trimester system and other curricular changes in 1986 effectively ended the program and, as The Exonian editors said, its “great promise for enlightening Exeter graduates of the many diverse ways of life in our society.”