The Storm King School Sesquicentennial is underway. The 150th anniversary of our school, founded in 1867, was kicked off at Reunion 2017 and continues to build momentum as the year progresses. In this Part II of a three-part historical narrative, we take you on a journey through the School’s middle years from 1917 to 1967 where you will see its progress during two world wars, the Great Depression, and the growth it experienced in the 1950s and early ‘60s. 

THE WORLD AT WAR As the Stone School entered its second 50 years of history, the institution that Louis Ledoux, Oren Cobb, and Carlos Stone had established was about to be tested. America was divided by the Great War, and the sense of obligation for young boys was unquestionable. New York State law required three hours of drill a week for boys ages 16 through 19, and the School formed two companies into a battalion as part of the preparation. In 1918, four seniors left to join the war effort before they could earn their diplomas.

 

 

In an impassioned Sunday chapel speech, Headmaster Alvan E. Duerr spoke of the death of John Tyler, brother of Dave Tyler ’17. “As a pilot with the U.S. Aviation Corps, John was killed in combat, a life cut tragically short but offering much inspiration,” he told his students, who were all facing the prospect of war. “That boy lived only a third of his allotted life, and yet he has left an impression in the world far above that left by a great proportion of men who have lived to a much older age.” Despite difficult times, Headmaster Duerr continued to push ahead with the legacy and progress of the School. In September of 1921, the Stone School was accepted into the Cum Laude Society, further cementing its reputation as a college preparatory school.

 

Headmaster Alvan E. Duerr

 

THE STORM KING SCHOOL The war soon came to an end and, at last, life returned to normal. In 1923, during this period of peace and economic recovery, Headmaster Duerr changed the name of the Stone School to The Storm King School, after the majestic mountain on which it lies. This was one of his final accomplishments that had lasting implications for the School before Raphael J. Shortlidge succeeded Duerr as Headmaster in 1927. That same year, Elting H. Breed, Storm King’s first president of the Board, moved to incorporate the School as a stock company under nine trustees – a structure of governance that still stands today. 1927 also saw the construction of Stone Hall which has served over the years as a dormitory, infirmary, and classroom building, and is one of the oldest buildings on campus.

The following year, in April 1928, the Board of Regents of the University of the State of New York issued a provisional charter that made SKS a tax-exempt educational institution. An absolute charter was issued April 26, 1935. It was the next step for the School in becoming fully acknowledged as an elite American boarding school for boys. It was also the year that The Storm King School became a four-year secondary institution, discontinuing the lower school.

During this time, the School also began to witness growing attention from overseas fostered by the first Institute of International Education Summit held on the campus in 1930. Seventy-five students from 15 European and South American countries gathered there before dispersing to attend colleges all over the country, from Harvard and Columbia to Georgetown, Johns Hopkins, Mount Holyoke, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

 

 

THE GREAT DEPRESSION The 1930s, the years of the Great Depression, was a period when The Storm King School experienced its coming of age. Although the decade commenced with fires that changed the face of the campus, they also cleared the way for future new construction. In April 1931, while students battled a brush fire near Spy Rock House, there was a sudden breakout of fire on first floor of Senior Hall. Senior Hall was one of a group of frame buildings that comprised The Storm King School. Situated near the football field, the two-story building housed a swimming pool, 18 sleeping rooms for boys, an assembly room, and a chapel. Flames engulfed Senior Hall in its entirety, and then moved in the direction of the neighboring Main Building. Firemen were able to save Main. Senior Hall, on the other hand, was burned to the ground. That week, several forest fires had also occurred in surrounding areas, and SKS students and faculty aided the firemen in putting them out. The cause of the fires remains a mystery to this day.

 

Headmaster Anson Barker

In 1932, Shortlidge was succeeded by Headmaster Anson Barker, who would serve as headmaster for the next 19 years. It was the start of the Great Depression, “the austere years,” and the period when the School benefited greatly from the patronage of several prominent families who lived on the Mountain—the Abbotts, Ledouxes, Matthiessens, Partridges, Smidts, and Stillmans among them.

In partnership with Dr. Ernest Stillman, who was Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Headmaster Barker succeeded in guiding the School through the difficult years of the Depression and WWII. Barker, a teacher, a coach, as well as an administrator, was known for retaining a strong faculty and his personal regard for every boy.

As Headmaster, Barker brought the School many firsts. For example, he instituted the first Mountain Day, beginning a beloved SKS tradition that continues today. According to the November 3, 1932 edition of The Quarry, “the whole school turned out for a hike through Black Rock Forest and a picnic lunch on a recent Friday, when classes were called off after the third period – an innovation of Mr. Barker’s.”

 

A stamp of the school crest designed by Margaret Clark

 

Other important events in SKS history occurred during this period. 1934 was the year SKS adopted Margaret Clark’s original emblem as the official school crest. Clark, the School’s first female faculty member, retired from Storm King in 1938 after 44 remarkable years of service. Her legacy is honored annually with the presentation of the Miss Margaret Clark Faculty Excellence Award to deserving, former Storm King School teachers.

The 1930s, despite the difficult times, was also a period of expansion for the School’s athletics program. The importance of participation in sports as part of the curriculum grew, and the sport of fencing was added to the School’s sports roster in the winter of 1938. The first fencing match took place February 19, 1938 against Riverdale. This was only the beginning of the up-and-coming “age of athletics” at The Storm King School.

 

 

 

THE RISE OF SPORT Following Headmaster Barker’s 19-year term that laid the foundations that would see the School through the 1940s and 1950s, Harrison M. Davis served a brief stint as headmaster from 1951 to 1952. He was succeeded by Headmaster Burke Boyce in late 1952.

Boyce, both an administrator and an athlete, had been on the U.S. Olympic fencing team in the 1928 summer games, and advanced the sport of fencing at SKS throughout the 1950s. Tom Delaney ’58 remembers traveling to practice with the cadets at West Point. While the sport of fencing has come and gone through the years, male and female fencers compete at the School today in a newly refurbished fencing room.

In 1941, another athlete by the name of John George Grill came to Storm King, and over the next five years Grill was a standout on the gridiron, captaining the football team to a winning season as a running back, on the hockey rink, and as a pitcher and hitter in baseball. An article in The Quarry recognizing his prowess also noted that he put his speed and agility to use on the basketball court for the first time at the end of the season, after hockey was complete, and he also played a year of varsity tennis. For his efforts, Grill earned the Best All-Around Athlete Award for an unprecedented two consecutive years, and continued his athletic career at Trinity College after his graduation from Storm King in 1946. Grill was inducted into the SKS Sports Hall of Fame in 1994.

 

The 1954-55 undefeated varsity football team

 

THE WINDS OF CHANGE The 1950s were years that The Storm King School witnessed great physical changes. These changes were perhaps foretold in a moment in 1954 with the revision of the school crest by alumnus Clifford Stubbs ’32. Stubbs, who had become an accomplished advertising professional since his graduation 20 years before, sensed the need for modernization and offered Headmaster Boyce an updated version of the original seal designed by Margaret Clark, as his legacy and gift to the School. It was not only a signal of the connection boys felt to their School, even decades after leaving, but a premonition of the sweeping changes that would shape the future of The Storm King School for the next 50 years, thanks to new leadership on the Board of Trustees.

Stephen P. Duggan already resided on the Mountain with his wife Beatrice Abbott “Smokey” Duggan, granddaughter of Dr. Lyman Abbott. It wasn’t until 1954 that he became directly involved with The Storm King School. Prior to his retirement, Headmaster Anson Barker had asked Duggan to join the Board of Trustees, knowing that Duggan, a graduate and former board member of Exeter, Columbia and Harvard, and Beatrice, a Vassar graduate, were interested in education matters.

 

 

Duggan’s first moves were to bring on retired Wall Street broker and friend Jim Sleen as treasurer and search for a new headmaster. The Duggans toured a number of New England Schools in search of the right candidate, and they found him at the Putney School. Warren Leonard was a teacher of mathematics there, and had been strongly considered for headmaster but was passed over for another with better connections. When he arrived on the Mountain with his family in the summer of 1956, Leonard set about reorganizing the School’s faculty, while Duggan continued his work on the board.

The next year was 1957, a decade away from the School’s centennial. It was the year when Duggan announced an ambitious 10-year campaign to completely rebuild Storm King’s campus. He had a knack for fundraising, and soon funds were coming in. Old buildings on campus came down, making room for the new: the Ogden Library, Dyar Hall, a classroom building, and the Highmount Dormitory were all constructed in 1958; the Dempsey Dormitory in 1959; the Stillman Science Building in 1961; a new gymnasium in 1963. This was the single largest campaign in the School’s history to date.

 

 

THE BATTLE FOR STORM KING MOUNTAIN With the centennial only two years away, The Storm King School was faced with an unexpected hurdle. In 1964, Consolidated Edison announced plans to build the world’s largest pumped-storage hydroelectric power plant at the base of Storm King Mountain, with the intent to blast into the Mountain’s face and summit. This endeavor threatened the natural environment of Storm King Mountain, and thus the very fabric of the School.

Duggan, a senior partner and litigator at the prominent law firm Simpson, Thatcher and Bartlett, along with his wife Beatrice, immediately took up the cause. They succeeded in establishing the Scenic Hudson Preservation Conference, and gained standing in a precedent-setting Supreme Court case to fight the project on behalf of the public. That victory gave birth to the American grassroots environmental movement. After a 17-year battle, it helped preserve the 3,785-acre Black Rock Forest through the establishment of a management consortium, of which The Storm King School is a founding member. It also led to the formation of the Natural Resources Defense Council in 1970, with Duggan as founding chairman. That organization continues to have an impact on environmental issues across the continent today.

 

Headmaster Frank Brogan

THE CENTENNIAL The 1960s were exciting times for The Storm King School. The graduation of the Class of 1965 saw students matriculating to 37 institutions, from Georgetown and NYU to the University of Miami, and as distant as Denver, South Carolina, New Mexico State, and the University of Virginia. New faculty were being recruited and philosophies embraced, including four international teachers and a new music program for freshmen that highlighted the importance of notes, rhythm, and melodies to the understanding of history and life. A 1967 cover of The Quarry depicted an Asian student eating snow. SKS was a thriving, globally connected community, with students enrolled from Europe, the Far East and South America.

1966 marked another important moment in Storm King’s near-100-year history – the selection of Frank Brogan as headmaster. In the coming years, Brogan would discover that the emerging times of cultural change had influenced the School heading into the ’70s. What he may not have fully realized is the impact he was having on students’ lives. “In a period when the School was most sorely tried, it knew one of its finest hours was in its determination to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield,” Brogan wrote years after his retirement.