New memorial wall at Flintridge Prep honors four who ‘really made a difference’
At its homecoming football game Friday, Flintridge Preparatory School paid tribute to four individuals whose lives and contributions helped shape not only Prep’s athletic program, but the wider school community.
In a special dedication ceremony at the school’s Memorial Field, officials marked the addition of a new memorial wall and reflecting pond area recently built on the school’s lower campus as a place where current students, faculty and staff could sit and reflect on the connection between past, present and future generations, according to Headmaster Peter Bachmann.
Bachmann said the honorees memorialized by the structure — former Athletic Director Jim Wood, teacher and coach Tom Fry and alumni J.P. Blecksmith and Scott Studenmund, the latter two having died while serving their country — were all deeply committed to Flintridge Prep’s athletic program and embodied the values still being imparted today.
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“They all display the values of courage and generosity, hard work and determination that people associate with this field,” he said. “They embody (its) entire history.”
A defensive coordinator for the Prep football team known for his keen wit and generosity of spirit, Fry was a key figure in the development of the school’s athletic program from 1990 to 2009, when he died from a malignant brain tumor. He was 52.
“He would literally drive to Arizona to see a kid in college play. And not only football, he would go to girls’ seventh-grade games, he’d go to plays and concerts — he was a complete piece of this community, but his real home was that field,” Bachmann recalled.
Blecksmith was an All-CIF quarterback and a premier 400-meter sprinter before graduating in 1999. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy and was killed on Veteran’s Day in 2004 while leading his platoon in Iraq.
Studenmund, well-known on the Prep campus for his love of athletics, enthusiasm and strong sense of fairness, graduated in 2008 and achieved many benchmark accomplishments in his career with the U.S. Army before being killed in action in 2014 while serving in Afghanistan.
The three campus legends succeeded by decades Wood, remembered by many as the backbone of Prep’s athletic department during his tenure on campus from 1945 to 1978. Wood played a key role in bringing football not only to Prep, but to other independent schools in the area.
“We were reeling from these losses and thinking of ways to honor these people,” the headmaster explained. “The common denominator of all four of these people who died prematurely was their selfless acts of devotion on that field. That’s what tied them together.”
Finance Director Kim Kinder played a key role in coordinating the construction and placement of the new memorial. In her 27 years on campus, she’d come to personally know Fry, Blecksmith and Studenmund, who graduated in the same class as her daughter.
“These people were identified as people who’d really made a difference,” said Kinder, who attended Friday’s reception alongside family members of the honorees. “I think the permanence of the memorial may bring them, especially Scott’s mom, some peace in that his story will be available in a place where he grew up.”
La Cañada resident and Gold Star mother Jaynie Studenmund said in an email interview both she and husband Woody, who attended Friday’s dedication ceremony, were struck by the stunning visual impact of the memorial on campus.
“Woody and I are incredibly uplifted by Prep’s permanent tribute to our Scott, together with JP, Scott’s fellow warrior who inspired Scott, Tom Fry, who was his mentor and coach, and the legendary Coach Wood,” Jaynie Studenmund said. “Peter Bachmann and the entire Prep community continue to help mend our family’s and Scott’s many friends’ broken hearts.”
Bachmann said he hoped the memorial would be a powerful reminder to those who knew the honorees as well as future generations.
“We want it to be a reflective place on campus that reminds us all of lives well lived,” he said. “Sometimes, you can come home again.”
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Sara Cardine, sara.cardine@latimes.com
Twitter: @SaraCardine
