Newton people in the news…

Phil Schwartz turns 105 years old on Wednesday, February 11. A large crowd gathered with him the day before to celebrate at Coleman House — the 2Life Communities residential facility where he is very active and known as the “unofficial mayor.” There he received greetings in-person from State Senator Cynthia Creem and Mayor Marc Laredo, by video from Rep. Jake Auchincloss, and by citation sent by Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey. Phil lived the first 86 years of his life in New Jersey and served in World War II for four years, fighting in North Africa and Italy. He and Miriam “Mim” Persley married when they were 21 and moved to Coleman House 65 years later, in 2007. She passed away in 2012. They had two sons and a large, close extended family. When asked at the celebration his secret for achieving a long life, Phil said immediately, “A good wife.”

Benjamin Outar, NNHS 2023 and currently a junior majoring in Economics at University of Toronto, had his article, AI and Writing in the Straddle Generation, published in the Harvard Data Sciences Review. 

Pamela Annas is the poet behind Origami Night, a new choreopoem that will be presented at Arrow Street Arts in Cambridge on March 5-8. The work traces a woman’s life from working class navy brat to radical feminist to mother, and explores issues of aging, love, loneliness, and growing up queer in 1950s Boston. 

Simon Frankel is the F.A . Day 7th grader who is one of the 12 statewide winners of the MassDOT Name the Snowplow contest. On February 10, MassDOT brought the snowplow he named — Jon Bon Snowvi — to F.A. Day Middle School for a celebration. Principal Jacki Mann thanked MassDOT for “this wonderful opportunity to connect our students with the community around them.” She said, “It’s a meaningful opportunity for our students to understand that they have a voice and agency as citizens of the Commonwealth—something we work hard to instill in our middle schoolers. What a memorable and joyful connection for our students to the state government. I am also grateful to their teacher, Hannah Alegbeleye, for encouraging her student to participate in this contest.”

Dean’s Lists: The following students were named to these Dean’s Lists for the Fall 2025 semester:

• College of William & Mary: Luke Andrews, Ian Brenner, Sawyer Cohen, Leon Huang, Marisa MacDonald, Sarah O’Reilly, Erik Shin, Cooper Tarlie, and Hannah Tarmy
  
• George Fox University: Nate Hamilton
  
• Fairfield University: Ava Bistoff, Julia Conn, Elizabeth Cosgrove, Anna DiSciullo, Sienna Flotta, Taylor Frohn, David Grusby, Grace Morrison, Ioanna Tembelopoulos, and Leah Teleshevsky