He Ain't Heavy, He's Our Bro

Plan B when James Bissett '12 was unable to co-captain an Extra-Day Trip* along the Kern River this fall? Easy answer, for the thoughtful and creative Pete Fagan (Mathematics Department): First, rely more heavily on James Paxton, the other co-captain. Beyond that, this invention: “When I found out that, for medical reasons, James wasn't going to be with us, I thought, well he has to come anyhow. I used the model of Wilson in Cast Away [a volleyball that starts as flotsam, becomes a friend to the Robinson Crusoe-esque Noland, and then gains a frightening foothold in the castaway’s increasingly febrile imagination]—only in our case, it was ‘Bissett.’” In short, before departure for the southern Sierra Nevada, they (along with Mr. Fagan and James, Director of Development Brandon Doyle, juniors Emma Patterson, Lauren Butler, Emily Jordan, Sarah Hancock, and senior Kyle Montes) blew up a photo of James, taped it to a dowel, and packed him up as part of the group gear.

Post-trek, Emma checked in: “It was great having James there! Maybe the funniest thing was that Mr. Doyle [new Director of Development] had never even met James—but he was still the most loyal with Bissett, never forgetting him for any pictures or activities. Bissett persevered through the whole trip and never complained once. He also watched over us as we slept. [Now that we’re back home], we all miss him!”

The other James agreed about how much fun it was to have the avatar along, confessing, however, to having “accidentally dropped him in a river when trying to rescue him from a precarious position on a rock. As Bissett was floating downstream, I desperately jumped back in after him and luckily was able to swim with him to shore. He was pretty waterlogged after that one.”

Paxton’s saving Bissett, which Mr. Fagan called a matter of “cowboying up, despite the frigid water”—was proof positive that one good (if absent) James deserves another—and, along with that, a loyal, imaginative cadre of classmates and teachers.

*Extra-Day Trip is a term coined in Thacher's early years, even before longer camping trips expanded, during the mid-1960s, from four to five days (now six days, five nights), and from long weekends (Thursday through Sunday—hence the “extra day” on the front end) to Monday-Saturday adventures.