Lectures from Yale professors, a cappella concerts from Yale groups, drama at Boscobel, honors for Westchester athletes and book awards for top Westchester high school students. In 2019, YWAA finished another year filled with favorite and popular activities and old traditions.
The calendar of events appears familiar, but each year brings something unique and memorable. That might include Yale professor Laurie Santos' spellbinding talk on the secrets of happiness to a large Chappaqua audience or Yale singing groups filling the concert hall with thrilling a cappella sounds, also in Chappaqua.
YWAA highlights of 2019 are summarized below. (Click Past Highlights to review the same from 2013-18).
A CAPPELLA IN CHAPPAQUA
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| The New Blue and Spizzwinks performed in Chappaqua in February (YWAA photos) |
A cappella singing is as much a Yale tradition as witnessing Yale-Harvard football games in the Bowl, making treks up Science Hill or sneaking for dessert treats at Durfee Sweet Shoppe. A cappella concerts are also popular in Westchester among Yale alumni and community guests. As part of an ongoing program, YWAA invites Yale groups to Westchester to celebrate the music and to pay tribute to Westchester students in current groups.
In 2019, the Spizzwinks and New Blue performed in Chappaqua in February before a Sunday afternoon crowd of Yale alumni and Westchester music fans. Two groups from Chappaqua's Horace Greeley High School preceded the Yale collegians. The Spizzwinks returned to the area for the third time since 2013. They sang favorite renditions of "Once in My Life," "No Regrets," and the Yale football medley. Having turned 50 years old this year, the 2018-19 New Blue included four students from Westchester.
Also in 2019, the Whiffenpoofs, featuring a female singer in its troop for the second straight year, sang at a concert at Grace Episcopal Church in White Plains in November. The same Whiffs are headed to Singapore and Taiwan for concerts in Asia for the 2020 spring break.
THE ROAD TO HAPPINESS
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| YWAA director Rich Fabbro introduces Yale "Happiness" Professor Laurie Santos, who delivered a one-hour version of her popular course in Chappaqua in March (YWAA photos) |
Laurie Santos, Yale professor of psychology and Head of Silliman College, has garnered much attention the past year because of the popularity of her "Happiness" course in New Haven, which has attracted over a thousand students. Students have crashed through lecture-hall doors to get a seat in a course that is supposed to guide them through a hectic college life and help them seek contentment as they approach adulthood. Students and the media may call the course "Happiness," but it has an official Yale course-listing name: "Psychology and the Good Life."
YWAA brought the course to Chappaqua in 2019, inviting Santos to speak to a Westchester audience (and an older crowd) about the pursuit of happiness at a later stage in life. The session (one hour, not for a semester) proved to be one of the most well-attended YWAA-sponsored lectures ever.
Santos, who after her talk departed Chappaqua for a national spring-break tour on the topic, provided her Westchester "students" ten pointers. Tip No. 2? "Our life circumstances don't matter as much as you think." Tip No. 3? "You can become happier, but it takes work and daily effort."
CYRANO AT BOSCOBEL
YWAA annually hosts a Shakespeare outing at Boscobel in Garrison, associated with productions of the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival. The annual YWAA event includes a thought-provoking lecture from Yale Shakespeare expert Murray Biggs.
Biggs returned to Boscobel this year in August, and his pre-performance lecture once again stirred up emotions and sparked enthusiasm about the play Yale guests would see that evening. This year, Shakespeare wasn't the featured show. Cyrano seized that honor. The Hudson Valley performers presented a loose, colorfully interpreted drama of the life of the French novelist Cyrano de Bergerac.
As usual, the Sunday affair was enhanced by green, scenic views of a late-summer Hudson River in the background and by an opportunity for Yale guests to relax on the Boscobel grounds with a picnic with friends.
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| Yale's Murray Biggs, always a favorite among YWAA guests at Boscobel, returned to speak about Cyrano in August (YWAA photos) |
AMERICAN CUISINE EXPLAINED
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| Yale Professor Paul Freedman, now a national expert on American cuisine and restaurants, talked about his new book in Scarsdale in November (YWAA photos) |
At the Scarsdale Library, Freedman explained to his Yale and community guests how eggplant parmesan was created in the U.S., not in Italy, how American cuisine developed from Americans' objectives to adapt food habits to hectic lifestyles, and how generations of Americans grew up with dry cereals for breakfast and TV dinners in the evening. But he praised recent developments in Americans' efforts to improve the cuisine and make it more healthy--and more tasty.
WESTCHESTER B-BALLERS HONORED
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| Yale's John L. Lee and Barbara Liebowitz Bettigole were honored as legends during halftime of the Yale-Princeton men's game in the Ivy League basketball tournament in New Haven in March |
In March, Yale hosted the third annual Ivy League basketball tournament in New Haven and emerged as the Ivy champion with a berth in the men's NCAA tournament. During the Ivy tournament, the League, as it does each spring, honored a few of its legends. This year the team of legends included past Westchester resident John J. Lee '58, '59 Eng. and Westchester alumna Barbara Leibowitz Bettigole '78, two of the most outstanding basketball players in Yale history. Their stories were told during an intermission at the tournament, and they will join the list of previously honored legends.
Lee, for whom the Yale basketball amphitheater is named, departed Yale after three varsity seasons with a 20.3 ppg average and after leading the Elis to a spot in the 1957 NCAA tournament. (While at Yale, Sports Illustrated put him on its cover to tell a national audience about his Ivy feats.
Leibowitz Bettigole (widely known as "Liebo" while at Yale) was a pioneer in women's basketball and women's sports at Yale, when women were beginning to make a strong mark in athletics on campus. She scored 1,046 points while at Yale, leading the team in scoring three years. In Westchester, she set similar records while playing three sports for Byram Hills High School in Armonk.
At the 2018 tournament at Penn's Palestra, Scarsdale native Earl "Butch" Graves '84 was honored as an Ivy legend.
THE IVY LEAGUE'S BEST GOLFER
James Nicholas '19 excelled in many sports while at Scarsdale High School--football, golf, and hockey. By the time he was a sophomore at Yale, he had decisions to make. He decided to concentrate on golf.
By the time he was a senior, he had been named the Ivy League's golfer of the year twice after winning Ivy individual championships. He also served as golf-team captain as a senior in 2019.
THE MAJOR LEAGUE CALLS
Kumar Nambiar '19 and Griffin Dey '19, two baseball standouts when they played in high school in Westchester, helped Yale to two Ivy titles during their years in New Haven.
Shortly after they graduated, they were both drafted by major league teams. Nambiar, a left-handed pitcher from Mamaroneck, struck out 162 batters in his Yale career and was drafted in June by the Oakland A's. Dey, drafted by the Detroit Tigers, is from Pound Ridge and was best known for his power hitting while at Yale. He hit 26 home runs in his career, second on the all-time Yale list.
REMEMBERING BILL
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| Bill Nightingale, doing what he enjoys and doing it for decades, helped lead the YWAA debate program (YWAA photos) |
YWAA lost one of its most devoted and beloved leaders in 2019. William "Bill" Nightingale, who for decades helped lead the YWAA debate program and who arguably attended or led more alumni events than anybody can count. He died suddenly in October after attending an event at the Yale Club of New York.
Until his death and for decades, Bill often planned his days and calendars around Yale, Yale alumni activities, his Class of 1953, and Yale Westchester.
Bill served all possible roles while leading YWAA debate--organizer, planner, emcee, dinner host, and liaison with high school and college teams. For YWAA, he invited a cappella groups to the area, hosting them and celebrating what makes a cappella special. Bill, a devout fan of the American song book, hosted other YWAA music events, too.
Bill was an eager champion for the Yale Alumni Schools Committee, where he helped organize alumni interviews for decades. Like no other alumnus, he pushed for significant Westchester representation in each first-year class at Yale. He interviewed applicants and marshalled their candidacies through the process. He unabashedly rooted for Westchester students to find places on the Old Campus.
Bill was involved beyond Westchester, too, accumulating awards, positions, and committee memberships for anything that would push the Yale agenda ahead of, say, Harvard and Princeton, as he would say. He nudged presidents and admissions officers. He made calls to New Haven and bugged alumni to come join his administrative efforts. He wore a navy Yale cap when he ventured outside or attended a Yale event in and out of New Haven.
Bill wrote checks and contributed funds to any reasonable, Yale-oriented, fund-raising campaign. Even up to the week of his passing, Bill always showed up, made an appearance, voiced his opinion and offered a joke to lighten a too-formal setting. At events, Bill emceed and made sure to cite all who contributed or helped in some way. He always found a way or an excuse to communicate with New Haven to advise presidents, AYA executive directors and heads of admissions.
Bill best exhibited "...and for Yale."
Until his death and for decades, Bill often planned his days and calendars around Yale, Yale alumni activities, his Class of 1953, and Yale Westchester.
Bill served all possible roles while leading YWAA debate--organizer, planner, emcee, dinner host, and liaison with high school and college teams. For YWAA, he invited a cappella groups to the area, hosting them and celebrating what makes a cappella special. Bill, a devout fan of the American song book, hosted other YWAA music events, too.
Bill was an eager champion for the Yale Alumni Schools Committee, where he helped organize alumni interviews for decades. Like no other alumnus, he pushed for significant Westchester representation in each first-year class at Yale. He interviewed applicants and marshalled their candidacies through the process. He unabashedly rooted for Westchester students to find places on the Old Campus.
Bill was involved beyond Westchester, too, accumulating awards, positions, and committee memberships for anything that would push the Yale agenda ahead of, say, Harvard and Princeton, as he would say. He nudged presidents and admissions officers. He made calls to New Haven and bugged alumni to come join his administrative efforts. He wore a navy Yale cap when he ventured outside or attended a Yale event in and out of New Haven.
Bill wrote checks and contributed funds to any reasonable, Yale-oriented, fund-raising campaign. Even up to the week of his passing, Bill always showed up, made an appearance, voiced his opinion and offered a joke to lighten a too-formal setting. At events, Bill emceed and made sure to cite all who contributed or helped in some way. He always found a way or an excuse to communicate with New Haven to advise presidents, AYA executive directors and heads of admissions.
Bill best exhibited "...and for Yale."
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