Title
Report of the Headmaster to the Board of Trustees / 1953 - 1954
Date
November
5
1954
Author/Photographer
Walden Pell II
Decade
1950s
Notes
Excerpts from the Report of the Headmaster to the Board of Trustees, 1953-54.

Rev. Pell opens his report with noting the deaths of charter trustee Allan J. Henry, teacher James Craik Morris Jr., and school friend Florence Bayard Hilles. Faculty resolutions for Mr. Henry and Mr. Morris are included, as is a biography of Mrs. Hilles.

Plant & Equipment details include: pipe organ installed; tennis courts added; trees suffering from consecutive summer droughts as well as from heavy snow and Hurricane Hazel; slate roofs repaired; electric scoreboard for basketball court; plastic ware tried but proved unacceptable in the dining hall. Financial notes include: tuition details; tuition insurance requirements; scholarship aid; a Wage and Salary study underway.

Personnel notes include: Rev. James Oren Reynolds retires as Chaplain and replaced by Rev. William David Leech; Jack Vrooman replaces Mr. Morris; Art and Choir taught by visiting teachers; summer classes for faculty supplemented by $150 grants; death of Joseph Comegy who sold the School property to the Foundation.

Alumni and Fathers' Club notes include: publication of Alumni Newsletter; George Culleney '34 first alumni father; college matriculations; new commencement awards - Norris S. Haselton Scholarship, J. Thompson Brown Award, Sherman Webb Prize for History.

Enrollment and Curriculum details include: student demographics; "Exchange of Faculty Children" plan; college orientation and guidance initiatives; experimenting with new class schedule, 8th period added; remedial reading; in-service training for faculty.

Library is reported on. Discipline, Jobs and Health notes include: new disciplinary system encouraging; enthusiasm for open hearings; boys no longer wash dishes; health unusually good.

Athletics notes include: no varsity football wins; Special Squad emphasized soccer over volleyball; three days of skating, first in three years; softball, golf played in the spring.

Activities and School Gov't report details include: "Mister Roberts" performed; Rifle Club headed by Mr. Lushington, constructs indoor range, competes in matches; Model Club formed; summer grounds use; Pepsi-Cola vending machine V Form venture.

Chapel report details include: dedication and specifications of Holtkamp organ; needlepoint cushions added to; donated hymnboards installed; sump pumps added; 25th Anniversary of Rev. Pell's ordination December 13.

Gifts acknowledged and catalogued, notably: portrait of Allan J. Henry and $10,000 scholarship fund from Mrs. Allan J. Henry; Elsie Louise Patterson Scholarship fund; 100 choir-sized hymnals in memory of James Craik Morris Jr.

In conclusion, Rev. Pell pleads with the Board to fund the New Wing to alleviate space constraints, which he enumerates here. The final note of his report: "Construction of the new wing was authorized at the meeting at which this report was submitted!"