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Miss Hall's School Graduates 62 Students in Class of 2015

Miss Hall's School graduated 62 students on Sunday at its 117th commencement ceremonies. Photos were taken Brian Majewski, Jim Marby and Paul Clermont.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Sixty-two students, including 16 local girls, graduated on Sunday during Miss Hall's School's 117th commencement.

Ceremonies took place in the Thatcher Family Gymnasium of the Anne Meyer Cross '37 Athletic Center on the school's Holmes Road campus. Matthew R. Ward, director of athletics, delivered this year's address.

Among the class of 2015 graduates were the following local students:

Sarah Aillon, Claudia Bertrand, Margaret Meisberger and Ashley Todd, all of Pittsfield; Julia Bianchi of Cheshire; Emma Bullock of North Bennington, Vt.; Ginger Ciaburri of Hinsdale; Sophia Gebara, Hannah Merrill and Emma Whittum, all of Williamstown; Elizaveta Kravchenko of Hinsdale; Emma Lohbauer and Savannah Romeo, both of Lee; Hanila Novak and Cecilia Reynolds, both of Richmond; and Kathryn Pasquariello of Cummington.

Additionally, seven students were recognized for their induction earlier this year into the Cum Laude Society, the national organization honoring scholastic achievement at secondary schools.

This year's inductees are seniors Sangyu "Sunny" Jiang, of Chongqing, China; Minsoo Kim of Seoul, South Korea; Savannah Romeo; Zara Williams-Nicholas of St. Andrew, Jamaica; and Jiahong "Jaycee" Yao, of Shenzhen, China, and juniors Kim Huynh of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and Xin "Lois" Yuan of Shenzhen.

They joined seniors Julia Bianchi; Emma Bullock; Anna Durning of Newburyport; Elizaveta Kravchenko; and Yizhou "Zoe" Zhang, of Beijing, who were inducted in 2014.

The following awards were also bestowed during commencement and related recognition ceremonies (students are seniors unless otherwise noted):

Joseph F. Buerger Memorial School Spirit Cup: Hannah Merrill

Margaret Witherspoon Award: Hanila Novak

Christine Fuller Holland '33 Service Prize: Elizaveta Kravchenko

Sylvia "Rusty" Shethar Everdell '38 Prize: Ifunanya-Chukwu Okeke of Hillside, N.J.

Faculty Commendation Prize: Margaret Darin of Peterborough, N.H.

Meus Honor Stat Keys: Presented to seniors Mutsuko Amiya of Tokyo; Julia Bianchi; Emma Bullock; Zeerie Chhodoen of Thimphu, Bhutan; Margaret Darin; Anna Durning; Sunny Jiang; Elizaveta Kravchenko; Hannah Merrill; Zara Williams-Nicholas; and Chenchen "Rosie" Zhao of Shenzhen, and Hanila Novak of Richmond.

Doris E. Pitman English Prize: Julia Bianchi

Virginia Breene Wickwire '67 Reading Prize: Fiona Keane, of Newburyport and Emma Lohbauer

Paul C. Cabot, Jr. History Prize: Elexis Hipp of Washington, D.C., and Margaret Meisberger

James K. Ervin Mathematics Prize: Mutsuko Amiya and Emma Bullock

Iive Rouse Science Award: Emma Bullock

• Athletics: Indiana Ravenhill of Napa, Calif.
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• English: Michelle Karman of Singapore
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• Expressive Arts: Natalia Soborski of Dalton
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• History: Changyue Yin of Guangolong, China
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• Horizons: Elizabeth Barnes, of West Palm Beach, Fla.; and Ritu Pandya of Lenox
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• Language: Indiana Ravenhill
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• Mathematics: Jianning "Jessica" Yang, of Harbin, China
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• Science: Hanwen Zhang of Jiangyin Jiangsu, China

Pittsfield Celebrates Robert 'Bob' Presutti on Arbor Day

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
05:33PM / Friday, April 26, 2024

Bob Presutti, right, is presented the Hebert Award in 2017 for his volunteer efforts at Springside Park. He died in 2023 at age 88.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — A tree has been planted next to the Berkshire Athenaeum in honor of local "giant" Robert Presutti.

Officials celebrated Arbor Day on Friday by installing a commemorative plaque next to the American elm sapling. This is a tree that James McGrath, the city's park program manager, said Presutti would have been particularly proud of.

"Today is a day where we yes, celebrate trees, but today is also a day where here in the city we intentionally try to acknowledge the good work of folks in our community who spend their time and their efforts and their talents to make Pittsfield a more beautiful place," he said to a crowd of about 20 people.

"Today we are honoring a longtime community volunteer named Bob Presutti. I'm sure a lot of you here know Bob and know his contributions to the city, not only when it comes to trees and parks but also to the Retired Senior Volunteer Program."

The longtime volunteer passed away last year at the age of 88. He contributed more than 10,600 hours to RSVP and had great impacts on the Parks Department over the years from sharing his knowledge and talents to ensuring that workers were safe when working on trees.

"This morning I went through my emails to see how many emails Bob Presutti sent me since the year 2001 when I started with the city. Bob Presutti sent me 14,000 emails and nearly every single one of those was about trees," McGrath said, prompting laughter and smiles from attendees.

One thread struck him as particularly important because it showed Presutti's empathy when it comes to the safety of city workers while caring for trees.

"There were multiple emails from Bob about the need to get the Parks Department maintenance guys into a program learning about chainsaw safety and learning about ladder safety. He was really into making certain that our city workers were well cared for and had all of the instruction that they needed and in fact, he even offered his own time and services after he became certified to teach our city workers," McGrath said.