Inside the Gates: Winter/Spring 2026

5 questions for Blake Eldridge ’96 H’78 ’12 P’25, assistant head of school for student life and dean of students, who reveals whom he’d be most revved up to see sitting at the Harkness table.

What would Blake, the Lawrenceville student, have thought about Blake, the dean of students?

Finally … a worthy adversary.

If you could be part of a Harkness discussion with any three figures from history, whom would you choose?

Spartacus, Toni Morrison, and William Harley/Arthur Davidson [founders of Harley-Davidson motorcycles].

What would most surprise a current student about the Lawrenceville of the 1990s?

That “G” [head athletic trainer Mike Goldenberg H’94 ’96 ’97 P’05 ’10] was the bouncer at the Club Stanley dance back then, too.

What is your favorite book or movie?

The Empire Strikes Back, a training film for deans.

What never fails to make you laugh?

Everyone who worked in Woods Memorial Hall sometime between 1990 and 2004; Marty Doggett [H’76 ’79 ’82 ’86 ’87 ’88 ’92 ’98 P’00]’s “fashion faux pas” School meetings; Col. [David] Schorr [H’65 ’88 ’97 ’98 ’00 ’02 P’80 ’82 ’88 GP’97 ’09 ’12 ’17] working Hamill House football into a rabid froth before the “Crutch Game.”

Capstone: Art and Justice | IN588

“Throughout every major social change in history — whether it be rupture or healing — art has been critical to our democracy,” says Zaheer Ali, executive director of the Hutchins Center for Civics, which helped create and facilitate this year’s spring Fifth Form Capstone, themed “Art and Justice.”

The Capstone asks students to consider how creative expression functions within moments of social change. Art and Justice, with its accompanying Speaker Series, surveys how art not only reflects society, but helps shape it, building the civic capacity of students to “share information, strengthen connections, sharpen analysis, illuminate vision, and inspire action,” Ali says. Learning through direct engagement with practicing artists and cultural critics, students move beyond abstraction, encountering how creative work operates within real social and political contexts.

Ali hopes that student find their experience in the Capstone “more than anything else, sparked and nurtured […] a deep curiosity about themselves and others, and the world around them.”

The Passing of the Prodigious Hickey

The Prodigious Hickey of Owen Johnson fame is no more. On February 15, in Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, after a long illness, Colonel William Orville Hickok, 72, died. One of the several characters of the Johnson lore who were truly drawn from life, Colonel Hickok maintained a fresh memory of his schoolboy days, regarding them not as ill-fated and ending in defeat, but rather as a series of fairly fought contests with the faculty. From which he emerged “triumphant even in defeat.”

From “The Passing of the Prodigious Hickey” in the Spring 1946 Lawrentian.

Going the Distance
Blair Bartlett ’27

At Lawrenceville, the track and field and cross country teams have been the beneficiaries of some exceptionally talented girls. From distance to sprints, hurdles to high jump, the teams have accumulated an impressive collection of Mid-Atlantic Prep League and state titles, with plenty of personal school records falling along the way in recent years.

But what Blair is doing as a Fourth Former is different. In March, she recorded the No. 1 time in the United States this year in the Girls’ 5,000-meter championship at the Nike Indoor
Nationals in New York, finishing in 15:28.07. Think that’s good? It’s the fastest time ever posted by a high school junior. So, yeah. Not bad.

Although she’s attracted national attention, signing on with the Nike Elite program, Blair is quick to redirect the spotlight toward her teammates, such as her three partners on Big Red’s distance medley relay team — Rory Laubach ’27, Jael Gaines ’26, and Yasmin Willie ’28 — that recorded the third-fastest time in the United States this year, also at the Nike Indoor Nationals. Their shared time of 11:40.00 is also a School record.

In February at the M.A.P.L. Indoor Championship, Blair ran a jaw-dropping 9:42.38 to win the girls’ 3,200-meter, moving her to No. 2 all time in the event among high school girls in indoor competition. What is nearly as remarkable is Blair’s versatility; at the N.J.S.I.A.A. Championship, days after her M.A.P.L. exploits, she set a school record in the 800 meters, running a time of 2:09.05 — good for No. 4 in the nation.

Despite Blair’s national profile, her life as a student is decidedly typical. Among other things, she’s a member of the choir and the Sustainability Council and serves as a Ropes Course Instructor and Tour Guide. “Passions outside of sports help me to understand what matters to me and why,” Blair told VoiceInSport.com, “keeping me grounded and focused on what I love.”

The Periwig Club

There aren’t many clubs that have the history of Lawrenceville’s performing arts group founded in 1892, but Periwig annually remains a vibrant spectacle of sight and sound onstage and you might not realize what an eye-opening experience the club can be for students. “When I was a kid, I discovered I really liked acting; I liked acting and singing, but kind of separately. And then I came here and discovered musicals, because my home country, Serbia, does not have musicals whatsoever,” says Mihajlo Gajic ’26 of Belgrade, who starred as Jean Valjean in this past fall’s musical, Les Misérables. Periwig performers and crews also come through under duress: “Unlike any other school that puts on a music production, we do this in seven weeks. That is unheard of,” says Matt Campbell, director of theatre and chair of the Performing Arts department, who says most schools provide three months to do what Periwig does in half that time. “So, this is varsity performing arts. This is varsity theatre.”

Condensed from an L10 report by Kayla Yang ’26 and video from Seun Aladese

3 things we learned producing this issue of The Lawrentian

1. The School had planned to demolish Hamill House by the conclusion of the 1880s, but with enrollment swollen beyond the capacity of the new Circle Houses, Hamill was pressed back into service. The venerable stone structure is still going strong at 212 years old.
2. Head of School Steve Murray H’54 ’55 ’63 ’65 ’16 P’16 ’21 has worn his signature English mustache steadily for 42 years, shaving it only once, for a St. Baldrick’s fundraiser when he was the head of University School in Cleveland.
3. A wooden coffin rumored to be stored in a corner of the basement of McPherson House — built nearly a century ago as the School’s infirmary — is actually nothing more than a plywood replica casket constructed for a Periwig Club musical.

Street Treat

When McCormick & Co. named tamarind its spice of the year in 2024, Gary Giberson H’11 ’18 P’10, founder and president of Sustainable Fare, knew he had captured the moment — in a jar. “It was just by chance I was involved with developing a ‘clean’ BBQ sauce and was planning on rolling it out to our community,” he says of the sauce, which uses real-food, rather than refined, processed ingredients. The resulting concoction — Tamarind Heads — is now available in over 30 states and at Lawrenceville. “Our Street Cart Chicken is one of our most popular entrees that uses the sauce,” Giberson says.

Street Cart Chicken

Yields four 6-ounce portions

Ingredients

• 24 ounces/about 4 large chicken thighs, boneless, skinless, fat trimmed
• 1 lemon, juiced and zested
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 3 tablespoons Tamarind Heads BBQ sauce
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon oregano
• ½ teaspoon sweet paprika
• ½ teaspoon turmeric

Procedure

• In a stainless-steel mixing bowl large enough to hold the chicken, mix the lemon zest and juice, garlic, cumin, Tamarind Heads BBQ sauce, and spices. Add chicken and toss to coat. Set aside at least 20 minutes, or chill overnight for best flavor.
• When ready to cook, thighs can be pan-seared or grilled over high heat. Brown well, about 4 minutes per side. Reduce heat if pan-searing to low and cover, or on grill, move to indirect heat with lid closed and continue cooking until cooked through – about 10-12 minutes or until an internal temperature of 160 degrees.
• Once cooked, remove chicken to cutting board to rest, covered; about 5 minutes. Slice and serve over green salad, with pita or over steamed rice.

What’s a “Lawrenceville life hack” you swear by? Why?