Old Boys

Featured Old Boys

List of 1 news stories.

  • Ambassador Anthony Gardner ’77

    Tony Gardner, former U.S. Ambassador to the European Union, has devoted several decades of his distinguished career to U.S.-European affairs as a government official and lawyer.  During his service as U.S. Ambassador until 2017, he played a pivotal role in some of the most challenging issues in the U.S.-EU relationship, including the negotiations to conclude a Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership Agreement (TTIP), the Privacy Shield Agreement facilitating the transatlantic transfer of personal data by companies based in Europe and the Umbrella Agreement facilitating the transatlantic transfer of data between law enforcement authorities.  He was also closely involved in aspects of the EU Digital Single Market and in U.S.-EU coordination of sanctions against Russia following its annexation of Crimea.

    Ambassador Gardner is Senior Counsel at Sidley & Austin, a Senior Adviser to the Brunswick Group, and a board member of the Spanish utility Iberdrola and Brookfield Business Partners.

    Prior to his role as U.S. Ambassador to the EU, Tony served as managing director of a London-based private equity firm and as an Executive Director at GE Capital.  He also served as Director for European Affairs on the U.S. National Security Council, where he was responsible for U.S. relations with the EU.
    Ambassador Gardner splits his time between London and Brussels and focuses on EU data and digital policy as well as in transatlantic trade.
     
    When asked about St. Bernard’s Ambassador Gardner shared the following:

    I have many fond memories of St. Bernard's. As for many Old Boys, one of them is my role as Julius Caesar in which I excelled at playing dead for much of the play. It also provided me with useful experience with being stabbed in the back in my future professional career (just kidding).  Another memory is the stinging reproach of Mr. Westgate after I misbehaved during class: "noblesse oblige."  It may be easy to dismiss that phrase today as somewhat affected, but his point that one born into privilege has the responsibility to behave well is both timeless and important.  I have always considered St. Bernard's a place where students are not only taught at a very high level, but where they are also trained to be decent human beings who will contribute to society.
My favorite class was English because it taught me how to write.  At Exeter several years later, my English teacher asked me after class whether I had attended St. Bernard's.  I replied that I had and asked her how she knew.  "It shows in your writing style."  St. Bernard's not only taught me how to write; it taught me how to speak and even how to think; it taught me how to learn.  And above all, it imbued in me a curiosity about the world.  Everything that I subsequently learned at Exeter, Harvard, Oxford, Columbia Law School and London Business School (my mother despaired that I would never get a job) was simply material laid on that firm foundation.
While I loved nearly all of my teachers at St. Bernard's, Denis Caslon stands out for accomplishing the impossible task of making Latin fun. Who can forget his "executive red" folders handed out to those who did well in class tests? Or his use of South African Krugerrands for coin tosses to select which team would tackle a particularly difficult translation? He made learning a pleasure, never a chore.
 
I am hardly well placed to give any advice to St. Bernard's boys. But here are a few observations. Treasure the friendships you make during these precious years as they may well be among the most long-lasting ones. My best friend in first grade, Greg Daniels, was subsequently my inseparable friend during Exeter and my room-mate at Harvard for three years. Thousands of miles lie between Los Angeles and London, where he and I live. His career and mine, in entertainment and in law/politics couldn't be more different. But when we see each other the last 50 years just melt away and we laugh like St. Bernard's boys. I couldn't be prouder of his amazing accomplishments and of the family he has built.
 
The only other observation I have to offer is: be true to yourself, try to hold fast to your values, and try to be passionate about something. Like many others, I have been in long and difficult periods of my career when I was simply feeling trapped and unengaged. No career offers perfect satisfaction, but it sure helps to survive intense and long hours if you actually feel you are in the right place doing what you believe in.

More Featured Old Boys

List of 1 items.

  • John Rubinstein '60

    There were two fortuitous elements in my early days which inspired me, filled my mind with stories and history, and showed me the path that I would choose to follow for my entire life.  One was simply the fact of living in New York City in the 1950s and 1960s, combined with having parents who loved going to the theater, and took me with them as often as possible.  The other was simultaneously attending St. Bernard’s, a school which not only offered an astoundingly broad and deep overall education, but which also took very seriously its teaching of public speaking, poetry memorization and recitation, singing, whistling . . . and acting, in operettas, skits, and revues; and in plays -- most notably, but not exclusively, those by William Shakespeare.
    Read More >

List of 1 items.

  • Andrew S. Gilmour '75

    Andrew Gilmour is a senior visiting fellow at the Center for the Study of Statesmanship at the Catholic University of America.  He previously served as a senior intelligence expert on the Near East, South Asia, and Islam over a 32-year career at the Central Intelligence Agency in a range of positions including Deputy National Intelligence Officer for the Near East and South Asia, Deputy Chief of CIA’s Middle East Task Force, and Deputy Chief of Station for Analysis in a war zone.
    Read More >

List of 1 items.

  • Antonio Weiss ’80

    Antonio Weiss ’80 is a senior fellow at the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government at the Harvard Kennedy School.  Previously, he served as Counselor to the Secretary at the United States Department of the Treasury, where he worked on issues related to financial markets, regulatory reform, financial stability, and consumer and housing finance.  He led the Treasury response to the debt crisis in Puerto Rico, working closely with Congress to pass legislation to allow an orderly restructuring of Puerto Rico’s debt.  In recognition of his achievements at the Treasury, he was presented the Alexander Hamilton Award, the department’s highest honor.
    Read More >

List of 1 items.

  • AJ Houston ’03

    AJ Houston ’03 works in Global Equity Trading for the Royal Bank of Canada Capital Markets.  In his role, he services the liquidity/trading needs of US-based mutual fund and hedge fund clients for Canadian Equity product.  Prior to joining RBC CM, he served as an investment analyst for the J.P. Morgan Endowments & Foundations Group within the J.P. Morgan Private Bank, where he helped not-for-profits and charitable organizations achieve their investment objectives. Before entering the workforce, AJ attended the Taft School and then Dartmouth College, where he played football and majored in Classical Studies with a focus on Latin.
    Read More >

List of 1 items.

  • Justin Brown ’96

    A wooden alligator, a climbing pirate, a truck with rolling wheels and an operable hatch still adorn my shelves almost thirty years after their creation.  They remind me of the incremental progress made by doing and the discovery embedded in the process of making that I first learned in my carpentry class in the first, second, and third grade.  It was many years before I discovered how unique this foundational experience was to this school, and I could fully appreciate the deep privilege of a St. Bernard’s education.
    Read More >

List of 1 items.

  • IJAH MONDESIRE-CRUMP, M.D. ’98

    Ijah Mondesire-Crump, M.D. ’98 is a physician and researcher, with a passion to advance healthcare with innovative technologies.  He currently works as the vice president of Clinical Affairs at nQ Medical, a medical device company that develops AI assisted software for the remote management of neurodegenerative disease.  In his role he is responsible for spearheading clinical projects and operations work to realize novel care delivery models.

    Read More >

List of 1 items.

  • Luke Robert Young ’16

    Written in 2021

    I am currently a freshman at Georgetown University.  The study habits I learned at St. Bernard’s helped me adjust well to the academic rigors and busy schedule during high school at Lawrenceville and even now in college.  St. Bernard’s opened my world to much more than scholarly information.  Because of my exposure at St. B’s, I have been heavily involved in the creation of music for others, and hope to continue doing so throughout the rest of my life.
    Read More >

List of 1 items.

  • Anthony Abeson ’58

    For over thirty years, Anthony has been an acting teacher and acting coach in New York City.  His work has been documented in the Emmy award-winning episode of the Bill Moyers PBS series Creativity, the Ace award-winning Manhattan Cable Television documentary Chasing Dreams, and the BBC's documentary Bus and Truck.  He has been interviewed on E! Entertainment and Shine Television of England.

    Read More >

Related Pages