An Andrew Lapidus Gallery

by Rick Teller '70
Andy Lapidus with his dog Radnik.
Andy Lapidus with his dog, Radnik. (Click on images to enlarge.)

Andy Lapidus – Andrew Stone Lapidus – wasn’t at Williston Academy for very long.  Having spent three years at Avon Old Farms, he was tempted north to Williston’s greener French Department and pastures in 1964.  Away from the classroom and the soccer field, he was rarely without a camera, and at a time when Williston didn’t offer a photography class, organized a camera club.

He left Williston in 1966 for the Cate School in Carpinteria, California, met his future bride Roxanne, and eventually shifted his professional attentions from French to counseling and advocacy for youth.  They raised three sons, Peter, Alex, and Paul. Sadly, he left us, aged 72, in 2010.  A few months ago Roxanne sent the Archives a cache of photographs he’d taken at Williston.  We exchanged a couple of letters – she was initially surprised that anyone remembered him.  Roxie visited the campus at Reunion last May and met others who had fond recollections as well.

The gang from upstairs in Manchester House, 1964-65. From the top, John Robinson, Larry Shapiro, Bill Buckley, Andy Wernick, and Charlie Wilder, all class of ’68. Thanks, Larry, for the IDs.

But of course I remembered him.  Andy was unforgettable.  Perhaps I should qualify that memory.  In 1964 I was 12, a somewhat nerdish, classically-trained Williston faculty brat.  Brats of my ilk found Andy fascinating.  Here was an adult who didn’t take adult-ness too seriously, who would break off a grownup conversation to deliver a wicked aside meant only for juvenile ears, or deliver a straight-faced pun so horrible that even Horace Thorner would shudder.  He was subversively funny.  I think we understood that deep down, he was one of us.

And his camera was an essential accessory.  Some of Andy’s native whimsy comes through in his photographs, especially in certain portraits, which often capture something unspoken about their subjects.

Here is a sampling.  Where images are uncaptioned, it is because we don’t know who the people are.  Readers are invited to help us with that; please email archives@williston.com; if you can fill in a blank, or if anyone is mis-identified, we’d like to know!

Chief cook Alphonse Barry
Chief cook Alphonse Barry
Richard Gregory applying stage makeup to Rogelio Novey
Richard Gregory applying stage makeup to Rogelio Novey

Rogelio Novey
Rogelio Novey
Bob St. George
Bob St. George
T-Bar
T-Bar
Faculty kid and co-conspirator Mary Randall
Faculty kid and co-conspirator Mary Randall
guitar
Rogelio Novey
Richard Gregory's comic opera "Artemis Undone," with Helen Richmond, Jack Cody, Stephen Randall
Richard Gregory’s comic opera “Artemis Undone,” with Shirley Mullally, Janet Couch, Rogelio Novey, Stephen Randall
Jack Cody
Jack Cody
Tom Gilbert
Tom Gilbert
John Carroll
John Carroll
Barrett Benton
Barrett Benton

snake

Another fellow campus kid, Paul Henchey
Another fellow campus kid, Paul Henchey

Finis.  Coming soon: the Absolutely True History of the Campus Lion.  Subscribe to “From the Archives” and never miss a post!

6 thoughts on “An Andrew Lapidus Gallery”

  1. Thanks for the wonderful Lapidus scrapbook! I have other photos of that conspiratorial look, but none quite so well defined as this one! It’s a look I use often, apparently!

  2. I think I was chosen for the picture because I had managed to purchase from a local antique store about three dozen old fashioned (and disgustingly ugly) wide ties from the 1920’s for just a few bucks, and I wore them quite regularly to display my displeasure at having to dress up daily with compulsory ties.

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