Aiglon - 50s and 60s alumni

Harold Summers' old school photos (1963-1966)

2009-07-25T02:07:00.001+12:00

Harold asked me some time back to upload 23 photos he sent me, to this alumni site. I have today belatedly added them to the alumni album in the right-hand column. Thanks Harold!

Aiglon College website

2009-07-06T03:32:00.011+12:00

The changes to the Aiglon College website seem to have made for a nicely designed and presented website, though if you are impatient (like me) you might find the site rather slow due to its overly intensive use of graphics and Flash.

For interest, I have inserted two features from the website's structure, below - one is a dynamically changing webcam shot from the roof of Alpina (I do not know the frequency of change), and the other is the location of the webcam on Google maps.

Here is the webcam shot from the roof of Alpina:

Here is the Google maps view showing the webcam's location:

Click here on the Aiglon webcam's location to see it in a larger Google map.

URLs relevant to Aiglon - please add any more you may know of

2009-05-02T01:08:00.007+12:00

Here is a list of URLs relevant to Aiglon - please add any more you may know of, to the comments, from where I shall incorporate them into this post.

1. Aiglon college web site: http://www.aiglon.ch/
2. Wikipedia - Aiglon College: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aiglon_College
3. Wikipedia - John Corlette: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_C._Corlette
4. Web site - John Corlette: http://sites.google.com/site/johncorlette/
5. Google Knol - Aiglon College: http://knol.google.com/k/slartibartfarst-anon/aiglon-college/
6. Google Knol - John Corlette: http://knol.google.com/k/slartibartfarst-anon/aiglon-college/
7. Aiglon 50s + 60s Alumni (blog): http://aiglon5060.blogspot.com/
8. LinkedIn - Aiglon College alumni (group): http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=119543

Information about Aiglon in the public domain

2008-08-03T01:49:00.010+12:00

I had previously put in quite a bit of effort to the Aiglon Wikipedia site. However, the ad hoc nature of the input and changes being made to that site by anybody/everybody meant that my effort was sometimes wasted due to deteriorating site content quality, consistency, vandalism and "spamming".

Because of this and because Wikipedia is a bit "clunky" to use, I decided to provide something more consistent and user-friendly - so I have set up a Google knol on Aiglon College (click on the link to check it out).

You will see that I have included in the knol some photos and also details of Norman Perryman (pictured above), who was the Head of Art, Aiglon, 1966-73. He says that his lovely watercolour (it's in one of the photo albums on this blog) of Aiglon is intended to be used to generate funds for the school, and act as advertising. There is a picture of Norman in the Knol too. Thanks Norman!

Do you know where these alumni are now? #3

2008-08-03T01:40:00.000+12:00

Would like to contact these alumni (updated list): (who would you like to be added to the list?)

Charles Ainley: no current whereabouts.
Derek Moreton: Noel Thompson gave me a link to him in Facebook, and I sent him a message there, asking for his email address.
Duncan Maxwell: Michael Karakashian (1986) provided a current email address for him. (No response yet.)
Edwin Pollard: no current whereabouts; rumoured to "Not do email".
John Freeman: no current whereabouts.
Leo Slezak: no current whereabouts.
Randy Tucker: no current whereabouts.
Robin Pennefather: (apparently can be contacted through William Sturges).

Do you have contact details for any of them? Post a comment if so, please.

"Social networking" sites and online chat media

2008-06-30T14:23:00.004+12:00

I had been trying to track down one of my best friends from grammar school in Llanrwst, North Wales, and had made contact in Facebook with a school alumnus who recalled him. This alumnus asked me if I had tried FriendsReunited.
This was my reply (I thought it could be generally useful):

No, I have not joined FriendReunited - and I shall try to avoid doing so. Being relatively computer-literate (I have depended on and developed my IT skills and knowledge to make a living for years), I am acutely conscious of the risks of so-called "social networking" sites. The risks include:
Risk of loss of ID (from "identity theft") - so I am thus wary of most of the these sites.
Risk of unwittingly contributing to spamming sites, or sites that sell your email address to spammers.
Risk of invasion of privacy.
Risk of the sites starting to make one feel compelled to provide increasinly large slices of one's cognitive surplus and time.
Risk of being bombarded with unsolicited advertising.
Notwithstanding, I have for several years been a member of RealContacts and later LinkedIn, for professional association. Against my better judgement - after avoiding them like the plague - more recently I joined the social networking site Facebook and very recently Plaxo- because several of my friends encouraged me to join.

There have since been some gaffs, issues and concerns relating to the potential for loss of ID/privacy on Facebook - these seem to have been mostly addressed for the moment - but I feel that Plaxo is still pretty dubious (based on the dodgy-looking manner in which it was originally started up), so I have put very few details into my profile on that. I am becoming somewhat desensitised to these social networking sites clamouring for my profile details. Why do they want those details so badly? It's all about advertising revenue, and there is often no clear benefit to me as a user.

It is similar to the evolution of "chat" media - e.g., ICQ, AIM, MSN Messenger, Yahoo!, irc, etc. Initially, users were obliged to have a separate proprietary application running for each chat medium being used. I was an early (about 1997) adopter of ICQ, and started to use the other media because my friends used them. However, I then started to use Trillian instead, which caters for all five media, and I was thus not able to be held captive by the chat media providers and thus could not be subjected to their otherwise compulsory manipulation and advertising.

When Trillian was establishing itself, it was a case study in the exercise of corporate control and fascism - amazing to see how the big four of these media providers (ICQ, AIM, MSN Messenger, Yahoo!) kept changing their proprietary program code or data formats on an almost daily basis to frustrate Trillian from interoperating with them. This, of course, seriously pissed off the Trillian users who (like me) wanted to use Trillian instead of the separate proprietary chat media applications. The Trillian user forum made interesting reading on these points, at the time. Eventually, perhaps after seeing how pissed off their users were getting and what asses they must have been making of themselves by trying to overtly manipulate and control their users, the big four seemed to get a grip on themselves and arrive at some form of agreement whereby Trillian has now become an accepted (or at least tolerated) fact of life.

Do you know where these alumni are now? #2

2008-04-22T15:29:00.005+12:00

Would like to contact these alumni:

Charles Ainley - no current whereabouts.
Duncan Maxwell - 2008/03/15 - Michael Karakashian (1986) has provided a current email address for him. No response yet.
Ed Pollard - no current whereabouts; rumoured to "Not do email".
John Freeman - no current whereabouts.
Randy Tucker - no current whereabouts.
Derek Moreton - Noel Thompson has given a link to him in Facebook and I have sent him a message there, asking for his email address

Do you have contact details for any of them? Post a comment if so, please.
Have made contact with:

William Sturges - 2008/03/26.

Provisional dates for forthcoming Aiglon-related functions

2008-04-07T19:18:00.003+12:00

These are from a recent email ex Rebecca Leam:

2008/05/01: London Reunion, at The Hempel, London, 6.45pm.
2008/05/28: Miami Meet & Greet, Private residence.
2008/05/29: Bogota Reception, Private residence.
2008/06/25: Aiglon Golf Open, Villars Golf Club, Noon.
2008/07/10: Los Angeles Reception, Private VIP residence.
2008/10/10: Vancouver Reception, Place TBC.
2008/10/25: New York Reunion, Swiss Art Institute.
2009/07/02-04: 60th Anniversary Reunion, Aiglon College.

Dates still to be confirmed for Toronto, Moscow, Dubai, Saudi Arabia.
For more information on any of these, please email: events@aiglon.ch

News from William (Bill) Sturges

2008-03-26T12:20:00.006+13:00

I have made contact with William (I used to know him as Bill), and he has this news to report: (He might have blogged this himself, but feels that he is not sufficiently PC literate. Give it a go, William!).

Alumni:

Nick Lamb: Bill recently (Feb. 2008) met up with Nick - at a mate's funeral in London. (Note that Nick has also recently signed up as an author to this blog.)
Charles Ainley: no current whereabouts, but 20 years ago he was in the music business, and was married to a friend of Bill's. They moved to Devon.
Edwin Pollard: no current whereabouts; was living in London, Gloucester Rd., from memory.
Robin Pennefather: he and Bill keep in close touch. They are each other's God parents for their children. Recently divorced, Robin has moved to Toulouse. France. His oldest son is in the Paras., and the next son is a successful ballet dancer with the Royal Ballet Co. ( gets into the papers quite a bit), and his daughter is a photographer.
Leo Slezak: no current whereabouts; maybe N. California. His sister is apparently a successful soap star in the States.

Bill's news:

He runs a building/construction Co in Bath, having sold out 45% in 2006 to enable it tio grow. Life is good - he works hard, plays a lot of tennis, and wishes he had snow outside his back door.
His son is hooked on skiing and has lived in Verbier for the last 5 years, where he runs an Internet Cafe in the center of town and skis every day when the snow is worth it. He then skis the European summer in Argentina. (Sheesh!)

Roland Karakashian - deceased (2000)

2008-03-16T01:26:00.007+13:00

Quite coincidentally, I was contacted yesterday via email by Michael Karakashian - Roland's younger brother. Michael - an Aiglon alumni (1986) - had obtained my email address from the school.
I had previously been told that Roland was deceased, but had no further information about the circumstances. I had come up with a reference that looked like it related to Roland's estate (but I could not be sure).
The reference was in the web site e-Family. The entry was here:

ROLAND KRIKOR (GREGORY). ESTATE NO: 5771/01. * 26 DECEMBER 1947. ID: 471226 5093 100. LAST ADDRESS: 36 HOUGHTON DRIVE, HOUGHTON ESTATE, JOHANNESBURG. + 14 OCTOBER 2000. (THE STAR - 25/01/2002).

Anyway, Michael K confirmed that the entry was indeed about Roland. Apparently, Roland had been killed in his house when he had confronted a burglar or burglars. The killer(s) was/were not found.
I remembered Roland as a friend. We were classmates, we were both in the football team, and we shared an interest in music. Roland was into pop music and was pretty hot on the electric guitar and had formed a rock band - of sorts - at school.

Bill Sturges - news of

2008-03-16T00:51:00.003+13:00

Nicholas Lamb has just written to me - in response to my earlier post asking for information about alumni - that Bill Sturges is now very much "William Sturges", that he works as part owner of a building contracting company, and that he lives on his farm near to Bath (UK).

Milla Joy Boodnikoff - but not an Aiglon alumni?

2008-02-26T23:38:00.009+13:00

To the right is a picture of Milla Joy Boodnikoff, born 18th Feb. 2008 - not even two weeks old by the date of this blog post. She is not an Aiglon alumni.
Why then, is her picture here? Well, it's because her grandfather, my old Alpina room-mate, Chris Simmons, seems to be over the moon about her. As he wrote to me on Feb. 25th.:

"We became grandparents during the week. Our eldest daughter Emily produced a beautiful baby girl, Milla Joy, last Monday. She is a treasure!! Everyone is fit and well. WOW what a week!!"

Summary details are:

Milla Joy Boodnikoff, born Cairns Private Hospital 18th Feb. 2008, 3630 grams (8lbs) and 53 cms in length.
Milla's mother is Chris Simmons' daughter, Emily (24 yrs) and her father is Gary Boodnikoff (29 yrs). (Gary is a professional basketballer with the NBL franchise Cairns Taipans.)
Mother and baby are doing very well.

Since this beautiful child is the first alumni grandchild birth to be announced on this blog, I would suggest we could consider marking the occasion in some way. Any ideas? (Click on "Comments" below to make suggestions or discuss this.)

Posted on behalf of Chris Simmons ('67).

John Corlette and Round Square

2008-02-21T03:17:00.003+13:00

"John Corlette of Aiglon...
"...was our most powerful personality and he was the only one to own his own school. He was urging expansion and development long before I felt we were ready for it. He insisted that there must be an association journal but it was not until 1982 that the enthusiasm and driving energy of Margaret Sittler got “Echo” going. John was an original and this showed itself in his creation Aiglon and its most characteristic custom: the morning Meditation. He collected art and had a weakness for Jaguars (petrol driven). He was a master of publicity and used this much to the benefit of his school. During the first American conference at Athenian in 1972, Aiglon gave a reception in San Francisco and a very fine film of the school was shown with a commentary by the best of the B.B.C. announcers. It began with the camera swinging through the arc of mountains between Aiguille Verte and the Dent du Midi. Then it swept down into the Rhone valley and one saw the distant road zigzagging up towards Villars. A small object driving up the road grew into a familiar streamline shape and the voice of the B.B.C. chimed in: “John Corlette had a dream”. There was a chortle of joy from the assembled Heads, which John took in good part."

Extract from THE MUSCLES OF FRIENDSHIP
Valedictory Speech by Jocelin Winthrop Young, Founding Director of Round Square
On the occasion of his retirement
October 1992
At Bishop’s College School, Lennoxville, Quebec, Canada.

What made Aiglon so special for you ?

2008-02-19T15:46:00.007+13:00

Iain is right about the students making Aiglon such an extraordinary school. I count several Aiglonians to be among my closest friends. We are all in different parts of the world and in different professions and yet we have this extraordinary bond which was formed in Villars. I also think there were some incredibly talented teachers who challenged us both in and out of the classroom. Derek Berry's economics "A" level course taught from DB's marxist perspective was a great learning experience for me. I suppose the teachers were all handpicked by JC ?
Noel Thompson.

Do you know where these alumni are now? #1

2008-02-19T11:34:00.008+13:00

I am trying to track down these alumni:

Bill Sturges - [2008/03/26 - now made contact].
Charles Ainley - no current whereabouts.
Duncan Maxwell - [2008/03/15 - Michael Karakashian has provided a current email address for him. I shall try to contact him there].
Ed Pollard - no current whereabouts; rumoured to "Not do email".
John Freeman - no current whereabouts.
Randy Tucker - no current whereabouts.

Do you have contact details for any of them?

Aiglon, alumni and related photos

2008-02-19T07:12:00.006+13:00

Your photos + my photos = our photos. From New Zealand to you. I have collected together a general collection of "Aiglon" photos, and put it onto this blog (see the RHS column). It includes:

some beautiful pix taken in 2004 of Aiglon, Villars and environs (and the mountains) - courtesy of Louis Snyder.
some pix of alumni and staff from past and present - e.g., the Aiglon 1966(?) Tennis Team, Jonathan Harrison on a speedboat, Noel Thompson's mugshot from his Facebook entry, Bibi and Philip Parsons, some John Corlette pix, and Todd Barbey at his 25th wedding anniversary.

If you would like to include any more pix in this album, please send them to me and I shall update it. Alternatively, there is nothing stopping you - as a blog author - from putting your own album up, if you would prefer.
The album is here, and you can also see the album thumbnail pictures in the RHS column of this page.

The Aiglon 1966 1st football team

2008-02-19T01:36:00.007+13:00

(Photo courtesy of Patrick Roberts.)

A fine body of men, as I'm sure you would agree.
From L to R:
Back row:.......................Front row:
1. Alex Maclachlan...............1. Charles Calvert
2. Howard Hodgson.............2. Colin MacVeagh
3. Martin Yates....................3. Reid Schoenfeld
4. Jeff Nelson.......................4. Charles Ainley
5. Peter Wordsworth............5. Roland Karakashian (deceased)
6. Iain Barraclough
7. Harold Summers
8. Chris Powell

Sarah's wedding (Nov. 2007)

2008-02-18T07:51:00.004+13:00

After George v Winternitz had done us proud with a couple of his photos of his son's wedding, I thought you might be interested in some shots of my daughter's wedding (November 2007).
I have put them up in a Picasa photo album here. They are also shown in the RHS column on this blog page.

My mate Harold Summers and I

2008-02-18T02:23:00.013+13:00

Harold was a mate at school and a good friend when I later lived in London. He and I had a long chat on Skype a few weeks back.
He subsequently emailed me his "before and after" (shaving) photos - the top two pictures on the right.

Below those, for comparison, there's a picture of me (Iain B) with Harold S, clipped from a 1966 school football team photo (Harold is on the RHS), and a more recent pic of me smiling.

Stephen Beck - deceased (1997)

2008-01-28T14:56:00.005+13:00

(Son of Baron Rolph Beck, the inventor of Molyslip)
Some years ago, on 2004/01/19 I got an email from the Molyslip company, in response to an enquiry from me. I had been trying to find the whereabouts of Stephen Beck The email said, "I am sorry to report that Stephen died a few years ago. We are still in touch with his partner, Jackie Phillips: please let me know if you would like her telephone number/address."
The email was from a Peter Haig at Molyslip UK. He later said that Stephen died in 1997, from Cancer.
Stephen was one of my best friends at Aiglon. He and I shared a common interest in science, and in making explosives. We used to sneak out after lights-out - I think it might have been at the time when we were resident in the "Pension" (or whatever it was called) in Chesiéres - with small pieces of sodium or potassium taken from where they had been safely stored in oil in the chemistry lab, and drop them in rainwater puddles in the street. (Na and K react very violently with H20.) We had sufficient time to sprint off, giggling hysterically, and make ourselves scarce before the inevitable noisy, small explosion ensued, waking up nearby residents. If anyone has one, it would be nice if I could post a photo of Stephen together with this blog item. (I lost all my pix of Aiglon in a fire.)

Local Paper posts Villars Snowbiking

2008-01-23T08:22:00.002+13:00

Hi,
You just never know what will get through to your local newspaper. Our Durango Herald newpaper recently included a 5x7 inch color photo of Snowbikers charging down the ski slopes in Villars during the annual New Year's Eve mountain bike snow race...We are a major mountain and roadbiking enthusiast's town here in remote Southwest Colorado.

Happy new year!
Todd Barbey (Class of 1967)

Todd Barbey + Reid Schoenfeld - plus Kneissl Red Stars?

2008-01-22T17:56:00.004+13:00

Todd Barbey emailed me on 31st Dec. 2007 with some news and asked me to post the email and this picture.

Todd's news:

That he will "try to become a member of the site" - if he can navigate it (he's a "...very basic Mac computer owner").
That he plans to ski with Reid in Feb. 2008, now that he has recovered from the below shoulder surgery and two back surgeries in late Oct. and early Nov. 2007.
That he has also enjoyed a number of visits with Richard Treadway, through the 90's, including two Aiglonesque Ironhorse bike races in a snowstorm in May of 96 and again in 97.
That he he lives in in the mountains of Durango, Colorado with his wife, Bonnie, on their ranch and with 9 horses, three cats and three dogs.

From: Todd Barbey

To: Rebecca Leam

Subject: Micro Reunion

Dear Rebecca,

I thought you might wish to make note of a fun time Reid Schoenfeld and I had at our home in Durango in March of this year. Due to my shoulder surgery I was unable to join him on the slopes, but we did enjoy recalling many adventures during and after Aiglon. Reid graduated in 1966 and I did in 1967. In between us are my 1965 Red Star skis that I bought in accordance with Reid's recommendation then at Aiglon. After all the expeditions I used them on I find a need to keep them as a remembrance of the many character building adventures we had.

Together with our wives we had a lot of fun.

Best Regards,

Todd Barbey

Introducing ClustrMaps from clustrmaps.com

2007-12-21T08:06:00.004+13:00

I have just installed a nifty free graphics tool on this site called "ClustrMaps" from clustrmaps.com. It shows a small map of the world and indicates - by means of clusters of red dots - where "hits" on the blog site are emanating from, around the world.

I came across it being used on another blog and was so impressed that I put it into all the blogs that I maintain.

Introducing Snap Shots from Snap.com

2007-12-19T15:12:00.004+13:00

I have just installed an incredibly useful and free little tool on this site called "Snap Shots" from snap.com. It makes for a more informative blog, and it makes reading the blog more efficient for the reader. I came across it being used on another blog and was very impressed. I initially tried it out on one blog, and have since put it into the other blogs that I maintain. What it does is this:

When you hover your mouse over a link in the blog (see the little icon to the right of the link?), it gives you more information about the link - maybe even a miniature display of it. i.e., it enhances some links by providing visual previews.
The further information allows the reader to choose whether they want to follow that particular link to find out more. This would seem to be a better alternative to following the link and only then finding that actually it is not very interesting/useful to you.

Sometimes Snap Shots bring you the information you need, without your having to leave the site, while at other times it lets you "look ahead," before deciding if you want to follow a link or not.

Should you decide this is not for you, just click the Options icon in the upper right corner of the Snap Shot and opt-out.

There's a good discussion about Snap Shots on the blog here. It's all about "drilling" links.

Take a look and post a comment!

2007-12-10T19:09:00.003+13:00

Take a look and post a comment - if you would like to become a member and contributor (make posts) to this blog.

I already made a comment (see below). Just click on "Comments", below, to make your own comment.

Look - I just posted Tony Jhangiani's email about the reunion!

2007-12-10T18:59:00.004+13:00

It's really easy. I did this by importing the document to Google Docs, and then publishing it to this site from there. (I added Tony's photo on 2008 0218.)

April 2, 2007
Dear Alumni from the good old '50s and '60s (Graduation years 1950 - 1969)
As you might know through the Aiglon Alumni office, a reunion for the Alumni '50s and '60s is being organised in Villars from 19th-22nd September this year.
Over the years Aiglon has seen the visit of many Alumni who often talk and ask about friends from their years at Aiglon.
This will be a great opportunity to get together with some of them and to revive memories and re-acquaint with old friends in the ideallic environment we enjoyed during our Swiss school days.
A suggested programme would include :

Welcome meal on campus
Meditation every morning (first one by the Headmaster, second one by an alumnus)
Fondue at the Golf Club restaurant - Take the BVB train up and down
Campus tour by students
Coffee and croissants with the NEW Headmaster and older staff
Gentle walk / expedition up to Solalex or somewhere... With lunch in restaurant or picnic
A round of gold at the 18 hole Villars Golf Club - certainly one of the best vistas in the world.
A day trip to the valley including a boat trip to EVIAN and a wine tour around Lausanne.
An evening with some of the local residents of Villars who remember many of us from our days at school.

We have secured a discount for guests staying at the Golf Hotel (Formerly the Marie Louise, opposite Villars train station).
Please send us your email address and that of any other alumni whose contacts you might have.
Please also let Ms. Rebecca Leam of Alumni Relations, (Fax:+41-24-496-6162, E-mail : RSL at aiglon dot ch) know of your fax numbers or e-mail addresses for the school records.
Looking forward to hearing from you "Yah or Nay" or and/any comments that you might have.
On behalf of the Organising Group

Tony Jhangiani Jashanmal ('65)

Initial post to see what it could look like

2007-12-10T18:21:00.002+13:00

This is an initial post to the blog, just to provide an example of what it could look like. If you wanted to be a blog member with the ability to make posts, then this post is the sort of thing you could do.

The site as a whole is variable, and is controlled by the "Administrator" - i.e., me. The Administrator can change all of the "settings" for this blog site. That means changes can be made to such things as, for example:

background colour
text colour
colour of borders
the placement and content of "panels" of text or links, photo albums, advertising, etc.
the addition/removal of panels

- all are variable to suit our needs.

You can insert clickable URLs (links) to other websites
- e.g., the Aiglon College website (hover your mouse over this link)

As well as making bullet point lists like the one above, you could make numbered lists:

First point
Second point
Third point

You can insert pictures as well.