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Sunday, May 28, 2006

BY SYDNEY SCHWARTZ

Copyright © 2006 Republican-American

WATERTOWN — The Taft School Class of 2006 was notorious for its laughter, loyalty, risk taking and spunk.

As sophomores, some members held a "reign of terror," scaring classmates at night with a flashlight, video camera and stuffed deer head.

As seniors, they hijacked a tour at rival Hotchkiss School, pretending to be Hotchkiss guides until the end.

Last week, they woke underclassmen boys at 5:30 a.m. and encouraged them to march up to the golf course in the pouring rain, said Head Monitor David Michael Shrubb of Bermuda, who will attend Dartmouth.

The class of 2006 cheered harder and produced more music, plays and paintings than other grades and completed an unprecedented number of senior projects, faculty members said.

On Saturday, the 166 students accomplished yet another feat — receiving their diplomas under the late-morning sun, despite several short-lived downpours during the ceremony.

"The class of '06 has some kind of magnetic quality," Headmaster William R. MacMullen said during the school's 115th commencement exercises. "It was clear that this class would be heard and we have heard them."

MacMullen said the class of 2006 stayed in motion during its entire time on campus and traveled farther than any he has known — on a journey of adversity, intellectual insight and self-knowledge.

Graduation speaker Debora M. Phipps agreed, mentioning her own journey as a parent of graduating senior Michael Davis and 2005 graduate Matthew Davis. It is a tradition for a parent to give the commencement address at Taft, a school founded in 1890 by President William Howard Taft's brother Horace Dutton Taft.

Phipps, who is also dean of students, said she is one of several faculty parents whose youngest child is in the class of 2006.

"There's a spirit of collective enterprise among you that bonds you," she said. "Your years have been characterized by a profusion of laughter."

One student speaker, Helena Anne Smith of Watertown, who will attend Davidson College, said comically that her classmates were bonded by a hatred for a common enemy, the school — earning them the laudable reputation of "scholar by day, savage by night."

As she spoke, the drizzles began. Dozens opened umbrellas, surrounding the blue and red-robed graduates in a sea of color. Others scampered into surrounding dormitories, under arches and up to dorm rooms to watch from windows. The rain stopped about 10 minutes later.

"We have survived and we have triumphed," said student speaker Chad Justin Thomas of Newark, N.J., who will attend Boston College.

fter receiving their diplomas, about a dozen graduates lit cigars — a tradition because students are not allowed to smoke — and the class started chanting "'06 '06 '06."

"I think my class is just more fun," Chun Ho Derek Chan of Hong Kong, one of the co-valedictorians, said after the ceremony. "They like to play a lot, but they like to study."

Chan and Laura Ruth McLaughlin of Oakville both earned identical 5.7 averages. Chan will attend Princeton next year and McLaughlin will attend the University of Virginia.

"They're magnetic and electric," MacMullen said of the class after the ceremony. "They make sparks when they touch."