The Winchendon School

The Winchendon School
File:The Winchendon School Crest.jpg Achieve Academic Success
Location
Winchendon, MA USA
Information
Type	Private, boarding
Established	1926
Head of School	John A. Kerney
Enrollment	250
Campus	236 acres (960,000 m2)
Color(s)	Dark Green and White
Endowment	$26.8 million (as of August, 2014)
Tuition	(boarding) $56,200, (day) $31,900
Website	www.winchendon.org

The Winchendon School is a private day and boarding school located in Winchendon, Massachusetts, United States. Winchendon was founded in 1926 and is a college preparatory day and boarding school for boys and girls in grades 9 through post-graduate.

History

Williams College alumnus Robert Marr's seasoned prep school experience at Deerfield and earlier at Vermont Academy provided the perfect combination of skill and energy to take the school into its permanent home. As new Headmaster in Newport during the 1959-60 and 1960-61 academic years, Marr maintained the Hatch tutorial model while introducing his own leadership brand. Finding a new campus location emerged as an increasing focus for the new Head. His odyssey criss-crossed New England, visiting a fabulous farm-estate near Williamstown, potential farm compound setting in the Berkshires, properties in Royalston...while, finally, serendipitously coming across Winchendon’s present 220 acre campus-the former legendary Toy Town Tavern. Marr persuasively took his case to Simplex Time Recorder President Curtis J. Watkins, civic-minded owner of the resort. A lease- purchase option deal was struck. The school moved in summer 1961 to the setting-with its views of Mount Monadnock, Lake Watatic, as well as its own Donald Ross 18 hole golf course. Thanks to a major donation in 1963 by Winchendon's 1962 graduate Walter Buhl Ford, III (1943–2010) great-grandson of Ford Motor Company founder Henry Ford, the school purchased the property and began at this location (1961–2011).

The Winchendon campus' history is also the stuff of local lore—the first farmhouse (the front portion of Ford Hall today) was built in 1786 by Simeon Stearns. The property subsequently became the Wyman Farm before its 1899 acquisition by the town of Winchendon’s world-renowned wooden toy magnate and philanthropist Morton E. Converse, who converted the farmhouse in 1912 into an expanded children-friendly resort, which gained fame throughout the East and attracted such guests as President William Howard Taft, Thomas A. Edison, Joseph P. Kennedy and family from Brookline, MA, and artist Norman Rockwell and wife.

The opening of the freshly relocated and newly renamed Winchendon School in the fall of 1961 seemed seamlessly managed. Teachers like the late Charles Dillaway (Bowdoin graduate and Maine campus hold-over) and English teacher Clifford Eriksen provided colorful teaching in the traditional Hatch mold. The seasoned leadership of Bob Marr and his able Assistant Head (and former Vermont Academy colleague) Frederick L. Zins enabled newly arrived students to sense the great traditions of Wassookeag School and Hatch-Newport – while also experiencing the exuberance of a revitalized school and its own setting.

Marr's tenure (1959–1973), was followed by Lewis V. Posich (1973–1982), Stephen V.A. Samborski (1982–1988), J. William LaBelle (1988–2008), and current Head John A. Kerney.

The Do Innovation and Transformation Academy

One of the newest programs at The Winchendon School is a "school within a school," the DoI&T (Do Innovation and Transformation) Academy. DoI&T is a perfect example of Winchendon's innovative approach to education - the School is committed to empowering its students to direct and own their education by creating an environment with endless opportunities to learn both inside and outside the classroom and in the real world. The Winchendon School believes that students learn best when their education has meaning, relevance, and value - and when they see that value. Through internships, field studies, and collaborative interdisciplinary projects that students design, execute, and publish, DoI&T Academy empowers scholars to apply their education to their lives and their futures. They learn by doing, and how to do - whatever, wherever, whenever that may be.

DoI&T's project-based curriculum is complemented by developing foundations in key skill and content areas in the sciences, math, the humanities, languages, and the arts. Plus, the School's small classes, constant feedback, and the powerful relationships developed between students, teachers, and advisors all work together to provide the structure, support, perspective, and advice that help students grow into successful and independent young leaders.

Initiative, empathy, resourcefulness, grit, creativity, and teamwork are the most important lessons learned and traits developed, for they help drive Winchendon students toward successful futures. DoI&T Academy lives and breathes a can-DO attitude, embodied by students and teachers alike.

Notable alumni

• Francisco Garcia, professional basketball player
• Malcolm Grant, professional basketball player
• Marshall Strickland, professional basketball player
• Bruno Šundov, professional basketball player

External links

• Official website