Lubin Twins Headline Staples Graduation

When the Staples High School Class of 2011 graduates today, it will leave behind one especially indelible double legacy.

They are the remarkable Lubin twins graduating as valedictorian (Eric) and salutatorian (Todd). Todd is going on to Harvard and Eric turned down Harvard to accept a place at MIT.

It’s impossible to speak with the teachers who got to know them best without hearing the far extreme of laudation, both as to their academic brilliance and as to their personality traits.

As an example, in an interview with Patch, AP chemistry teacher William Jones, who had Eric (though not Todd) in class, had this to say:

“Eric is a true genius. He has an insanely accurate level of chemistry and math knowledge. He can not only nail the little details, but he can also see the big picture and make inferences and connections beyond what others can do and at a level I haven’t seen before,” he said.

“Kids who go to Harvard and MIT and Dartmouth have 95 averages in the AP class because they mess up once in a while. Eric’s average was 100 and I don’t curve anything,” Jones continued.

 He’s the best science student I’ve ever had in six years of teaching AP Chemistry at Staples, which is really saying something because that class is full of some of Westport’s best and brightest,” concluded Jones.

Lucky for the Lubins, because Todd did not take AP Chemistry with Jones, Jones did not have to mind his words when extolling Eric’s academic feats for fear of slighting Todd.

Todd graciously assumes the runner-up position to top class academic and only after much prodding modestly explains that he and Eric have virtually identical grade-point averages (sole determinant of valedictorian status) and that his A+ in Latin held him back because of the weighted-average mathematical calculation used to pick the number one. (It seems had he not taken extra A-level courses he would have matched Eric's 4.5843 GPA.)

But a healthy rivalry between the siblings presents itself every now and then.

Both boys made varsity track, competing in the hurdles event.

“One year Eric was ahead of Todd and the next year Todd reversed their standings,” recalled Laddie Lawrence, who teaches physical education and health and coaches cross country and track.

At the high level of the event, 39-inch hurdles are set along a 111-meter course, requiring exquisite technical athleticism.

The challenge for Lawrence was to decide whether to anoint Eric or Todd as the class’s scholar-athlete of the year in the hurdles department, since both met the eligibility requirements.

“After much discussion, we decided to award it to Todd in light of how Eric was valedictorian,” said Lawrence of the Solomonic decision.

Lawrence especially noted that Todd rigorously applied principles of aerodynamics to become a successful hurdle-jumper and also javelin thrower.

“Track is all about physics and physiology,” Lawrence said. “Todd applied scientific principles to excel at both.”

Eric and Todd are progeny of Michael and Rhonda Lubin (whose third son Miles just completed two degrees at once at the University of Chicago). (During an interview with the twins and their parents, their cat, Caramel, stole the show by demonstrating her superior aerodynamic sense by maintaining balance on the living mantel without disturbing ornaments.)

If anything, the parents’ modesty exceeds that of their quiet, polite sons. Eric and Todd taught themselves chess and intricate block-building from an early age, and they never had to be prodded to get their homework done, but that's as far as they'll going in boasting about their twins' precocity. Neither parent takes credit for the boys’ gifts.

At Staples, the Lubins were well known for their easy generosity, readily coaching classmates and, in Eric’s case, setting up computer programs for Staples to facilitate class scheduling.

“I’d like to see them successful at whatever they choose to do,” said Lawrence.

“And I hope they continue track and field,” he added. “They can both compete at the college level.”

“I only wish for Eric’s future that he doesn’t enslave me once he realizes his dream of world dominion,” Jones said jokingly, referring to Eric’s winning robotics exploits while at Staples. “Don’t come back and kill old Mr. Jones!”