Portrait Dedicated in Honor of Girls Hockey Pioneer Sanford R. Sistare |  | |
Painted by Alumna LHClark - article by Jana Brown
6/2/2009

With a dozen of his former hockey players gathered around, along with family and friends, a portrait of the late Sanford R. “Sandy” Sistare, the first SPS girls’ hockey coach, was unveiled in the Captains Room of the Hockey Center over Anniversary Weekend.
Hanging across the hearth from the painting of another coach, Malcolm Gordon (faculty 1889-1917), the portrait was painted by one of Mr. Sistare’s former players: artist Laura Clark ’89. The painting shows a bespectacled Mr. Sistare standing on the frozen Lower School Pond, wearing his trademark corduroys, holding a whistle, and gazing out at the ice – presumably at his players – with the Chapel at his back.
“It’s an amazing honor to be able to give back to someone who made such a huge impact on all of our lives here,” said Clark, who returned to the School to celebrate her 20th reunion as well as to attend the May 30 portrait dedication ceremony. “He was such a real presence – he took care of the girls. In the process of painting the portrait, it felt like he was in the room with me.”
Sandy Sistare served on the SPS faculty from 1968 until his retirement in 1990. He lost his battle with cancer on December 22, 2008, at the age of 80. With his encouragement, the School initiated the girls’ hockey program, which competed interscholastically for the first time in 1982. In 1986, his friend John O’Herron, a former SPS Trustee, established a girls’ hockey award in Mr. Sistare’s honor, which is presented annually to the player who has distinguished herself in individual and team play.
At the portrait dedication ceremony, the Reverend Richard Greenleaf opened the service with a prayer, adding, “I know he’d be pleased, but also saying, ‘What on earth are you all doing in here on such a nice day?’”
Art Sistare ’74, one of Mr. Sistare’s five children, spoke on behalf of his family, thanking the School and his father’s former players for “conceiving all of this and getting it done. If Sandy were here today, he’d be honored and humbled and proud – he’d say something like ‘this was all so fun.’”
Another former player, Johanna Neilson Boynton ’84, read a remembrance of Mr. Sistare, which she wrote for an April 18 memorial service in the Chapel for the coach and his wife, Mary, who passed away in February.
“There was something about him that instilled in us the certainty that he would want this day to be a celebration of who he was and what he offered to so many,” Boynton read, “as there is much sadness about his, and Mrs. Coach’s, passing. Today there will also be laughter and warmth in the memories we share – so rich, so vivid, so cherished.”
Clark said she spent a lot of time getting the view of the portrait right, taking the focus off of Mr. Sistare and placing it instead on his involvement in what was happening around him.
“I thought this should feel like an ice hockey painting and he would want it to be on the pond and to feel like it was about coaching – not a celebration of immortalizing him,” explained Clark. “It’s about what he and the girls were doing together. To me, the gaze where he’s looking is about the idea of watching the game and being involved and engaged rather than a moment of him being observed externally. And having it on the pond where ice hockey had its start was important, too. It is nice to have the rare opportunity to honor somebody who gave so much to others.
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