SKS Alumni Authors
Alumni writers span various genres and types of writing, covering
a wide range of topics and experiences. Some of our alumni
writers are listed below.
JUSTIN ABELSON ’74
grew up in
a family where becoming a writer
seemed natural. His father was a
writer and top editor for
Barron’s
magazine, his mother worked in
publishing and was a crossword
puzzle creator, and his sister is
currently a business reporter for
The New York Times
.
Abelson said
that SKS propelled him to Hobart
College, which propelled him to the
University of Kansas for a master’s
degree in Journalism. Abelson has
been in the trade for 30 years, the
last 16 years as editorial page editor
and Sunday night editor of
The
Recorder
of Greenfield, MA. “It’s an
interesting and changing profession
now in the Internet age,” Abelson
commented. “But newspapers remain
the best source for getting news and
information in your community.”
PETER BOYCE, PhD ’54
,
the son of the late Headmaster Burke Boyce, earned a PhD
in astronomy and worked at Lowell Observatory for a decade. He was a program
officer at the National Science Foundation and received a congressional fellowship to
serve as a science advisor to Congressman Mo Udall, and subsequently became the
executive officer for the American Astronomical Society (AAS); He was the editor of
the
Bullet
of the American Astronomical Society for 17 years, and the editor and pub-
lisher of the newsletter for the AAS. He wrote a number of scholarly papers, including
an article in
Science
magazine on an astronomical detector. Boyce is now “retired” in
Nantucket and is leading the Scallop Research Program of the Maria Mitchell Associa-
tion. “A lot of this comes from my grounding at SKS, particularly my science and math
training. I have told my teachers how much their teaching had meant to me.”
BRAD BRONK ’72
,
published, wrote for and
edited a free monthly newspaper,
The Wisconsin
Sports Journal
,
for five years. Brad covered Tiger
Woods’ first professional round on the PGA at the
Greater Milwaukee Open and was the first person
to interview him as a pro. Bronk wrote theatre
and music previews and reviews for several
weekly newspapers and for the local daily in Santa
Barbara, California for 10 years, as well as doing
publicity for several theatre groups and working
as a travel writer. Bronk has also been a radio
broadcaster since 1983.
FRANCIS BROADWAY, PhD ’72
is a professor of education in the Department of Curricular
and Instructional Studies at the University of Akron (Ohio). His research interests are curriculum
studies, children’s literature, urban education and African American students and teachers in
science. He has published numerous academic articles, including a recent article with
Sheri L. Leafgren in the Journal of Cultural Studies of Science Education entitled “Unmasking: on
violence, masculinity, and superheroes in science education.”
JOSIAH (SI) CANTWELL ’74
,
has
been in the newspaper business since
1979.
He is a local news columnist
and community editor at
StarNews
inWilmington, North Carolina. “I love
newspaper work and feel fortunate
to have been able to make my living
helping people. It is fun being at
the epicenter of stuff. I think what
is the most fun about working for a
newspaper is all the stuff you know.
You know more than gets printed
because there is stuff you can’t verify,
so you don’t print it. There are rumors
and there’s stuff behind the scenes.”
RICHARD DEROSA ‘61
,
was in large part inspired to become an English teacher by
his SKS English teacher, Bill Carhart. He also considers Burke Boyce andWarren Leon-
ard significant influences. He has a doctorate in English from SUNY Albany, taught
high school and college English. He published his first book,
Hawthorn Hill Journal:
Selected Essays
,
two years ago and he is now working on a second collection, which
he expects to complete in a year or so. He continues to write bi-monthly essays for
The Freeman’s Journal
,
a weekly newspaper. Many of the essays in the first book origi-
nally appeared in
The Freeman’s Journal
.
The second book will include a mix of both
previously published, but reworked, essays, and those written just for the collection.
TERRENCE DOPP ’92
,
has been writing
about politics and public finance for
Bloomberg News
since 2006 and has been
a reporter since 1999. On Twitter, he is
described as: “Trenton-based reporter for
Bloomberg News covering Chris Christie,
public finance and state politics.”
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| on the mountain winter 2013-2014
