RE Log - Fall 2022

54 Ransom Everglades LOG FALL 2022 Steve Sawitz ’75 , the fourth generation in his family to run Miami’s iconic Joe’s Stone Crab restaurant, received the Head of School’s Award during an April 23 lunch that served as a centerpiece of an exciting and jam-packed 2022 Alumni Weekend, the first on-campus reunion event in three years. Sawitz was lauded for his commitment to tradition and innovation at his 109-year-old restaurant, which has paralleled the approach at Ransom Everglades. “Steve constantly strived to become better … He took the family business and he launched it to a completely new level,” said Chris Moore ’76, who nominated Sawitz for the award and spoke during the luncheon. “It means so much to everyone in South Florida … You make us proud. Steve, we love you.” Sawitz, who received the award from Head of School Penny Townsend, thanked Moore and several friends, and shared particular appreciation for his mother, Jo Ann Bass; wife, Ross; and daughter, Julia, whom he credited with being “the spark that ignited my return to Ransom Everglades.” The weekend brought together the usual reunion classes and those that missed previous in-person celebrations because of the pandemic. It offered alumni a special open house for the Constance & Miguel Fernandez STEM Center, which many had not seen since it opened in August 2020. The weekend attracted hundreds of alumni from as far afield as London and as far back as the 1950s. “It would be impossible to capture all the good will, good cheer and just plain goodness that was spread around both campuses during Alumni Weekend,” Townsend said. “Regardless of the event or the venue, the themes of the weekend were consistent: lifelong friends, inclusion, character, resilience, hard work, determination, disappointment and recovery, relationships with teachers, healthy rivalries, educating the whole kid, bonds that last a lifetime, academic challenge, and deep connections.” Festivities began with the RE Athletic Hall of Fame inductions of L.B. Irigoyen ’12, Kevin Grossfeld ’95, Jonathan “Joner” Strauss ’00 and Carrie Walpole ’96 at the Pagoda on April 21. (See page 39.) The weekend continued with a celebration of RE’s 50 Year Club at Joe’s Stone Crab on April 22 along with the Alumni Spring Reception, an evening gathering in the Touzet Quad. The busiest day of the reunion weekend opened with a breakfast on the Everglades Campus followed by the Service of Remembrance for alumni, faculty, staff, trustees and special friends who had passed away since fall 2020. The April 23 event at the Posner Lecture Hall in the Fernandez STEM Center honored 36 departed community members, including faculty emeritus Mike Stokes – who was remembered by Mike Maisel ’68, Charles Seitz ’73, Peter DeMaria ’02 and Associate Head of School John A. King Jr. That solemn event was followed by the Head of School Luncheon, which featured an address by Townsend, who shared 2022 Alumni Weekend