Roxbury Latin School
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| The Roxbury Latin School | |
| Location | |
|---|---|
| West Roxbury, MA, USA | |
| Information | |
| Religion | None |
| Headmaster | Kerry P. Brennan |
| Enrollment |
270 |
| Faculty | 47 |
| Student:teacher ratio | 6:1 |
| Average SAT scores | 2230 |
| Average ACT scores | n/a |
| Type | Private |
| Campus | Suburban, 65 acres |
| Athletics | 10 sports 35 teams |
| Athletics conference | Independent School League (ISL) |
| Motto | Mortui Vivos Docent (The Dead Teach the Living) |
| Rivals | Noble and Greenough School and Belmont Hill School
homepage = www.roxburylatin.org |
| Mascot | Fox |
| Color(s) | Cardinal red, black, and white |
| Established | 1645 |
Roxbury Latin School is the oldest school in North America in continuous existence. [1] The school was originally founded in Roxbury, Massachusetts by the Rev. John Eliot under a charter received from King Charles I of England. Since its founding in 1645, it has educated boys on a continuous basis, never closing its doors, a fact that distinguishes it from a number of schools with earlier founding dates. Located since 1927 at 101 St. Theresa Avenue in the West Roxbury neighborhood of Boston, the school now serves close to 300 boys in grades seven through twelve. Eliot founded the school "to fit [students] for public service both in church and in commonwealth in succeeding ages" and the school continues to consider instilling a desire to perform public service its principle mission. The school's endowment is estimated at $143.8 million,[2] the largest of any boys' school in the U.S. The school maintains a need-blind admissions policy, admitting boys without consideration of the ability of their families to pay the full tuition.
Other significant claims to fame are its students' high SAT scores. According to Peterson's "Private Secondary Schools 2007-2008", RL students scored a median of 2230 on the 2400 scale, believed to be the highest score of any school in the country.[3] A 2004 piece in the Wall Street Journal noted Roxbury Latin for its acceptance rates at the most competitive universities, despite maintaining a low tuition relative to its peers (about $17,000 in 2008).[4] In 2003, Worth magazine ranked Roxbury Latin as the #1 "feeder school" for elite universities, with a larger portion of its graduating class attending Princeton, Harvard, or Yale than any other school.[5]
Its previous headmaster, F. Washington Jarvis, who retired in the summer of 2004 after a 30-year tenure, published two books about Roxbury Latin, a history of the school and a collection of his speeches to boys at Roxbury Latin (With Love and Prayers). The title of the former, Schola Illustris, was the phrase Cotton Mather used to describe the school in 1690, following John Eliot's death. In addition to those books, Richard Walden Hale published Tercentenary History of the Roxbury Latin School in 1946. Roxbury Latin continues to hold a unique place in the history of American education.
Roxbury Latin School is a member of the Independent School League and NEPSAC. It has an "unofficial" sister school relationship with The Winsor School in Boston.
Contents |
[edit] Notable alumni
- John Bowles (1667) – Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives
- John Wise (1669) – clergyman credited with revolutionary phrase, "no taxation without representation"
- James Pierpont (1677) – principal founder of Yale University
- Paul Dudley (1686) – Chief Justice of Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (1745-1751) and Attorney General of Massachusetts (1702-1718)
- Joseph Warren (1755) – Continental Army General who was killed at the Battle of Bunker Hill, surgeon
- Increase Sumner (1763) – governor of Massachusetts (1797-1799), Justice of Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (1782-1797)
- John Warren (1767) – founder of Harvard Medical School, renowned surgeon
- Francis Cabot Lowell (1789) – businessman, member of Boston Lowell family, founder of Lowell, Massachusetts
- Charles Russell Lowell, Sr. (1796) – Royal Society and Harvard University fellow
- Edmund M. Wheelwright (1872) – architect, designed Boston and Cambridge landmarks such as Longfellow Bridge, Horticultural Hall, and Jordan Hall
- George Lyman Kittredge (1875) – influential literary scholar and professor at Harvard University
- Edwin Upton Curtis (1878) - 34th and youngest ever Mayor of Boston
- Hermon Bumpus (1884) – fifth president of Tufts University
- Arthur Vining Davis (1884) – president of Aluminum Company of America (1910-1949), major educational benefactor in United States
- Robert W. Wood (1887) – American physicist, professor at Johns Hopkins University
- Frederick Winsor (1888) – founder of The Middlesex School
- Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. (1890) - landscape architect
- Edward Lee Thorndike (1891) – famed psychologist, former professor at Columbia, member of National Academy of Sciences
- William Welles Hoyt (1894) – gold-medal winner in the pole vault at the 1896 Olympic Games in Athens
- James Dole (1895) – founder of the Hawaiian Pineapple Company in Honolulu, Hawaii currently known as Dole Food Company
- Malcolm Whitman (1895) – tennis star, U.S. open champion in 1898, 1899, and 1900, member of original Davis Cup team, member of Tennis Hall of Fame
- Charles W. Tobey (1897) – Governor, US Representative, and Senator of New Hampshire (did not graduate)
- Remsen B. Ogilby (1898) – president of Trinity College (1920-1943)
- Curtis Wolsley Cate (1903) – founder of The Cate School
- Paul Dudley White (1903) – "Father of Modern Cardiology," noted cardiologist, founder of American Heart Association
- James B. Sumner (1906) – noted chemist, recipient of 1946 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
- James Bryant Conant (1910) – president of Harvard University, ambassador to Germany
- Marland P. Billings (1919) – noted geologist, Penrose Medal winner, Harvard University professor
- Albert Hamilton Gordon (1919) – School Trustee since 1940, Wall Street businessman, philanthropist
- Geoffrey W. Lewis (1928) – U.S. Ambassador to Mauritania and Central African Republic
- Charles T. Bauer (1938) – business leader, founder of AIM Investments
- Richard W. Murphy (1947) – former U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Syria, Mauritania, Philippines, television commentator
- Richard Barnet (1948) – activist, scholar, co-founder of the Institute for Policy Studies
- Jared Diamond (1954) – noted biologist, author and Pulitzer Prize-winner for Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
- Paul G. Kirk, Jr. (1956) - former chairman of the Democratic Party
- Christopher Lydon (1958) – radio broadcaster and former host of NPR's "The Connection"
- David R. Godine (1960?) - independent publisher
- Peter Rodman (1961) - former assistant Secretary of Defense
- Peter Derow (1961) - renowned historian, scholar; lecturer at Oxford University
- Roger Altman (1963) - investment banker and former U.S. Deputy Treasury Secretary
- Michael J. Astrue (1974) - current Commissioner of Social Security Administration
- Will Kussell (1976) - current CEO of Dunkin' Brands, parent company of Dunkin' Donuts
- John Connolly (1991) - at-large member of the Boston City Council.
[edit] Athletics
The school has varsity, junior varsity and lower-level teams in football, cross country, soccer (fall), basketball, ice hockey, wrestling (winter), baseball, tennis, and lacrosse (spring).
[edit] References
- ^ See school history: "Schola Illustris: The Roxbury Latin School 1645-1995;" David R. Godine, publisher.
- ^ Charity Navigator Rating - Roxbury Latin School
- ^ Peterson's Private Secondary Schools 2007-2008.
- ^ "The Price of Admission." The Wall Street Journal. April 2, 2004.
- ^ PrepSchoolUSA: 2003 PrepSchool/High School Rankings.
| Members of the Independent School League, New England |
| Belmont Hill School | Buckingham Browne & Nichols | Brooks School | The Governor's Academy | Groton School | Lawrence Academy at Groton | Middlesex School | Milton Academy | Noble and Greenough School | Rivers School | Roxbury Latin School | St. George's School | St. Mark's School | St. Paul's School | St. Sebastian's School | Thayer Academy |

